A Christmas Carol 1971 ~ Animated

 Probably my all time favorite version of A Christmas Carol. Remember watching this scoffing crisps and peanuts on Christmas Eve morning whilst my mum was in the kitchen getting everything ready for the looming family onslaught that evening. Directed by Richard Williams. Featuring the voices of Alistair Sim Michael Redgrave, Michael Hordern, Diana Quick and Joan Sims. Animation by Ken Harris, Abe Levitow. Produced by Chuck Jones. Music by Tristram Cary

January 2023. A: Burial at Bevill's Leam (Extended) 12inch Single CiS 137

 
January 2023
A: Burial at Bevill's Leam (Extended)
B: Burial at Bevill's Leam (Instrumental)
12inch Single Castles in Space CiS 137

Original version of Burial at Bevill’s Leam can be heard on
Keith Seatman’s album Sad Old Tatty Bunting
Castles in Space CiS 093
https://keithseatman-cis.bandcamp.com/

Test Transmission Archive Reel 51 presents Kev Oyston/Soulless Party. A Chidhood

 

Welcome to Archive Reel 51, and this time round our guest mix is by the wonderful Kev Oyston of The Soulless Party. Mr Oyston's mix starts at about 24 mins in. Up to then you will just have to put up with me. So what have we both got for you this time??? We have Funkadelic, Andrew Oldham Orchestra, Kayla Painter, Vernon Elliott, Viv Albertine, Wilfred Pickles, Ken Barrie, Bryan Daly, Bernard Cribbins, Duncan Lamont, Johnny Morris, Denise Gagne and so much much more. Its been great fun doing all of these mixes but really not sure when the next Test Transmission will be? So until then keep safe and look after yourselves. And now after months of planning and tech probs (from my end) I am happy to present Test Transmission Archive Reel 51, Kev Oyston/Soulless Party. A Chidhood. Why not listen and follow along.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 50 with Mr Douglas E Powell

 

So here we are.....Test Transmission Archive Reel 50. When I started doing these a very long time ago (about 11 years) really did not expect to get this far. So to celebrate hitting 50 my guest mix this time round is from my friend singer song writer and occasional musical collaborator, contributor to my clunky old music...the mighty Mr Douglas E Powell who also records as Bellprover https://bellprover.bandcamp.com/.
Doug has supplied a wonderful mix which starts around 24 mins in. So this time round from myself and Mr Powell we have music from The Steve Miller Band, The Residents, Beak, Kool & The Gang, Ladyhawke, The Pop Group, Lalo Schifrin, Roberto Delgado & His Orchestra, Alessanda and the Atomic Crocus, Goldbug and a whole lot more. So until Archive reel 51 and maybe another guest, keep safe wrap up warm its gonna be a long winter.

Oddness and Tinkerings from My Very Distant Past

A very very long time ago (Spring 1979 I think) my friend Craig Wilson who was very much into The Residents put it to me that we should do a cassette only release.

We would call ourselves The Marilyn Monroes. The music was to be very heavily influenced by The Residents Red Crayola Swell Maps and Vibing up the Senile Man era ATV. Craig would be Billy Artaud and I would be Pete Shoes. Now you might notice in the Fanzine interview we are now Pete Shoes, Landing Craft and Byrd??? There was never a 3rd person and as you can see the names got changed, if I remember rightly the changing of names was a brief but ongoing thing. The music for the cassette was to be recorded in my bedroom over the course of 2 evenings but in fact we did it over one evening, and like The Residents no one would ever know who The Marilyn Monroes really were. Of course as time went by we did tell people it was us. Strangely when we did the interview with the Fanzine it said we were practising in Petes Garage???? Never had a Garage it was my bedroom, perhaps we thought garage sounded better than bedroom...or maybe not. The Toy organ I used was a 1960s Sunrise Sunreed. With 25 coloured keys.

I lost my copy of the cassette many years ago. But a chance meeting one evening with Brian (who I had not seen for decades) from legendary bods Renaldo and The Loaf  proved to be very fruitful. Brian informed me that our release had inspired Renaldo and the Loaf to do a cassette release themselves. Brian also revealed that he still had a copy and would burn it to disc for me. So after many many years I finally got to see our mad old Cassette creation again.  I last saw Craig in 2007/08 (I think) He turned up round my house with some mutual friends. We chatted about old and daft times. Sadly Craig Passed away in 2018. Some more thoughts and words on all this here with Bob Fischer.

A Sunrise Sunreed organ. Mine disappeared many years ago.
Image taken from here

 

Mr Lambert’s Music Project, Crossing the Field and Discarded Bottles (Rinse and Return) Dead Wasps.

Keith Seatman · Crossing The Field (By Mr Lamberts Music Project and Keith Seatman)

Keith Seatman · Discarded Bottles (Rinse and Return)(By Mr Lamberts Music Project and Keith Seatman)

Keith Seatman · Dead Wasps (By Mr Lamberts Music Project and Keith Seatman)

 Mr Lambert’s Music Project is a lunchtime club that is run fortnightly in E10 at Theale GreenSchool.
The soul aim of the club is to create new music together to record and share to help raise money
for the school.

 

Crossing the Field is the first musical recording by Mr Lambert’s Music Project in collaboration with
Keith Seatman. The piece was written by one of the school students and recorded at the lunchtime
club. It captures the joyous memories of play and friendship in a local park in a village somewhere.

 

Crossing the Field is part of a collection of new music that explores the ideas and feelings of being in
a village. This collection of music is called Under the Village. Using brainstorming and pictures we focus on a different
aspect of the village and create titles, tunes, lyrics, sounds and field recordings based around them.
Currently we are focussing on the village green.
Various titles we are working on include: Dead Wasps, Disappointing Picnic, Discarded Bottles,
Between The Blades Of Grass, The Lovers Tried To Hide, There Was A Farm Here, Park Ranger and
Mislaid Fielder.

 

Crossing the Filed
Lyrics: T.J. Denman
Music: C. Lambert
Synths, Keyboards Production: Keith Seatman
Vocals: A. Britton
Field Recording: E. Lomath
Other sounds and vocals: E. Vallance, M. Lockley, R. Wilson, M. Hutt 

 

Discarded Bottles (Rinse and Return)
Lyrics: C. Lambert
Bottles: Mr Lambert’s Music Project
Vocals: A. Cox
Synths, Keyboards Production: Keith Seatman

 

Dead Wasps
Music: A. Hopcroft, G. Lockley, C. Lambert
Guitar: A. Hopcroft
Vocals: R. Wilson, E. Vallance, M. Hutt
Percussion: G. Lockley
Noise and Screams: T. Dasgupta, M. Lockley, A. Wilkes, A. Hopcroft,
G. Lockley, C. Lambert, R. Wilson, E. Vallance, M. Hutt
Synths and Keyboards Keith Seatman
Produced By Keith Seatman

The GPO Tower. "It belongs to them and always will"

 "Excuse me I oversaw the opening of this building. It was built using British Labour and skills with the money of the British People who paid for it with their taxes. It belongs to them and always will. Margeret Thatcher took it from them and gave it to you when it was not hers to give"
From the Nanny State Made Me. Stuart Maconie. Ebury Press 2020

Tony Benn said this to a besuited PR man who interupted an interview between Stuart Maconie and Tony Benn. The PR man tried in vain to tell Tony Benn that it was not the GPO Tower, but the BT Tower. I love the Post Office Tower, I have never said "look there is the BT Tower" or "Oh look there is The British Telecom Tower. To me it will always be the Post Office Tower. I saw it once in the 1970s (A School Trip) and looking up at it was mind blowing. It looked like the future...and still does (just not in a BT way)
Operational opening by Harold Wilson in 1965 and then opened to the public in 1966 by Tony Benn and Billy Butlin. The Tower was designed by the Architects at the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (I love that term) Eric Bedford and G. R. Yeats. The location of the Tower was designated an official secret due to the the fact it transmitted secret military and govenment data to other transmitters round the country.
The rotating restaurant was eventually closed to the public for security reasons in 1980 and public access to the building ceased in 1981. The Tower has appeared in many Films and TV programs a couple of personal favs is towards the end of the film Smashing Time, set in the GPO Tower revolving restaurant and of course the mighty Kitten Kong from the Goodies.

Postcard from the Tower

 Some great promo films for the GPO Tower
https://youtu.be/aGuouabkzv0

https://youtu.be/3bi2_3gljm4 

https://youtu.be/_77Fz0VfNDs 

https://youtu.be/AOKHIUqzTTg 

https://youtu.be/G_IEBxZnuVQ

 

Here we are at Test Transmission 49 and this is the 1st Test Transmission featuring a Guest Mix. This time round it is from Mr Simon Heartfield. I have known Simon for decades. I have had the pleasure of working with him musically on many projects (Psylons, Seatman Separator and all sorts of other collaborations) always great company, a gentleman a scholer and probably is an acrobat. The 1st 21 minutes are my musical ramblings, from then on its Mr Heartfield. Until next time.....tata.
Tracklist
The Sound of Science - Everything’s made of Atoms
Billy Currie - Theremin
Large Plants - La Isla Bonita
PJ Harvey - The Crowded Cell
ToiToiToi - Never A Dull Moment
The Inigo Kilborn Group - A Tune For Lucy
Mike Sammes SIngers - Telephone Song
Mr Heartfield Guest Mix
PIKSEL - Walk In
THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION - Are You Hung Up?
SPACEMEN 3 - Just to See You Smile
BRIAN ENO - Late Evening to Jersey
FIELD LINES CARTOGRAPHER - Inside a Star
MOGWAI - Autorock (Live)
CLPPNG - Dream
HARA ALONSO - The Centre of the Sun is Empty
VANGELIS - Albedo 0.39
ROMEO RUCHA - Your Brain
THESE NEW PURITANS - Organ Eternal (Live)
HILDUR GUONADOTTIR - 12 Hours Before
LONELADY - Cries and Whispers
65 DAYS OF STATIC - d|| tl | | |
PERE UBU - Non-Alignment Pact
ASHER LEVITAS - Vapours
KARL O CONNOR & ANN MARGARET HOGAN - Temporary Thing

Full Electronic Sound Interview Haunted Generation

TRIP ADVISOR

There is nobody quite like Keith Seatman. His new album Sad Old Tatty Bunting is a psychedelic joyride through a parallel universe England, a dreamlike realm of alchemists, scarecrows and gnome-filled gated communities. Passports out, everyone, for a one-way journey to Seatmanworld. Words: Bob Fischer

Full interview Electronic Sound interview here 

Test Transmission Archive Reel 48

After quite a long break, here is Archive Reel 48. Spring is here so I have a right old foot tapping collection to keep you going through the season. For your audio enjoyment we have Cate le Bon, Can, British Stereo Collective, Basil Kirchen, France Gall, Stavely Makepiece, Vince Guaraldi, Third Ear Band, Vic Mars, Billy Nomates, Unthanks, Pneumatic Tubes, Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals and loads more. Do I know when there will be another Archive Reel.....have not got a clue???? might be a few changes to all this soon. So until then TATA

The Committee

The Committee is a 1968 film Directed by Peter Sykes and staring Paul (Manfred Mann) Jones. The film features a superb score by Pink Floyd, and even The Crazy World of Arther Brown make an appearance.  In the film Paul Jones who is unnamed is picked up and given a lift in a car. The driver of the car pulls over because he does not like the sound of the engine. When the driver is checking the engine Paul Jones slams the bonnet of the car down on him decapitating his head. After a while Paul Jones sews the drivers head back on. The driver wakes up and Paul Jones informs the driver he does not want to drive with him anymore and he should leave. A couple of years later Paul Jones is invited to join a committee. These committee groups seem to exist to keep the system??? up and running, but really seem to not do anything. Later Paul Jones encounters the driver who gave him a lift a few years before. The driver does not seem to recognise Jones or remember having his head cut of. Jones then asks the man "are your teeth ok?" Jones then spends the rest of the film talking with The Committee Director (Robert Lloyd) about his earlier actions involving the car driver.

The film is in black and white and is quite compelling. Take the sequence early on in the film, when a number of suit and tie gentlemen are walking through a building, accompanied by a 1st class Pink Floyd score. The camera follows these men going to a meeting, intercut with other images of old reel to reel computers and card index machines. The musical score by Pink Floyd at this moment is a must and would not sound out of place on Piper at the Gates of Dawn. After a very successful run in The West End in 68,  screenings of The Committee were almost non existant.  I won't pretend that I fully understood what was going on in The Committee, but that is what makes the film interesting and as a slice of 60s weirdness The Committee is definitely there.
The Committee YouTube

Racton Ruin and Demis Roussos

 

Welcome to Racton Ruin also known as Racton Monument and Racton Tower. Racton is not the most easiest place to find. Tucked away in the back waters of West Sussex just of the B2147 and then up a tiny lane/horse track. You can see Racton from the B2147 but I still managed to drive past it. Racton was built around 1772, designed by Theodosius Keene for The Earl of Halifax. There are mixed views as to the purpose of Racton. Some say it was built as a summer house as part of The Stansted Estate. Another is that it was a view point for the Earl to observe ships in the Solent. The Totally Haunted Bods say they found a reference to Racton being used as a brothel, but do not include any info about this reference.

Racton is a popular place for the Ghost Hunters, and is supposed to have had links to The Occult and Devil worship. Another local rumour is that it was used by smugglers. In the late 80s and early 90s Racton was the scene of many raves and parties. I personally remember driving with a car load of people from one end of Sussex to the other in search of a party at Racton, which we never found and maybe never even really happened. Perhaps the strangest story concerning Racton Ruin is the rumour that the singer Demis Roussos was interested in buying the Folly once. Strange indeed.

Found Objects: Haunted England and Folk Customs, Christina Hole

Found Objects: Haunted England and Folk Customs, Christina Hole:  A Friend picked this lovely Christina Hole book up for me as a Christmas present. What is particularly interesting about Haunted England i...

March 2022 Electronic Sound 87

In Jan 2022 I was interviewed by the wonderfull Mr Bob Fischer for Electronic Sound.
Bob and I chatted about Alchemists, Gnomes, Out of bounds Grandparents rooms, Franny Lee, odd Parades, Strange Solicitors, half baked ideas, Devo Cardiacs The Cramps old Cassette Recordings and other daft ramblings? This interview has surfaced and was in the March 2022 edition of Electronic Sound. Sad Old Tatty Bunting Out Now on Castles in Space

Sad Old Tatty Bunting released Today

 Sad Old tatty Bunting has been released and is available from
Castles in Space and Rough Trade/Norman Records and many others.
Artwork by Nick Taylor

 

Castles in Space is thrilled to present a timely new album from Keith Seatman - his first “extraordinary adventure” since 2020’s “Time To Dream But Never Seen”. “Sad Old Tatty Bunting” is another multi layered, deeply psychedelic construction which contains collaborations with Jim Jupp (Ghost Box, Belbury Poly) and Douglas E. Powell (Broken Folk).

Keith provides the vision and background to the album:

“The inspiration for Sad Old Tatty Bunting came about very early one morning in April 2020, during the first UK lockdown. I had taken to going for long walks between six and seven o’clock in the morning. I would stroll aimlessly and directionless up and down terraced streets, along the beach and on the prom.
On these early morning walks, places that were once very familiar to me seemed to have changed and taken on an unfamiliar feel. With this change I noticed new things, things which I had not seen before or maybe had no memory of ever seeing.

“One morning I passed an old pub. Hanging in the beer garden was some very old and quite shabby looking bunting. As I stared at the faded old colours I started to wonder why the bunting was there? Was it put up to mark a long forgotten occasion? Or had it been placed there to just brighten up the garden? As the weeks went by, I started to wander further and every now and then would notice more random old tatty bunting hanging from trees, lamp posts or in windows. On theses walks an idea started to take root. I came up with and really liked the phrase Sad Old Tatty Bunting. I mentioned this to my friend Douglas E Powell who said it sounded like the name of an old scarecrow (Tatty Bunting) it was then that I realised that Sad Old Tatty Bunting could refer to many different concepts/ideas/places/books and things. What, who or even where was Sad Old Tatty Bunting? I honestly had no idea…but it was definitely an idea I was going to pursue…”  

 

All instruments Keith Seatman, with
Jim Jupp - Synths on Jumpy's Playroom
Douglas E Powell - Voice on Burial at Bevill's Leam

All Tracks Written by Keith Seatman, except
Seatman and Jupp - Jumpy's Playroom
Seatman and Powell - Burial at Bevill's Leam

All tracks produced by Keith Seatman and Jack Packer, except
Jumpy's Playroom - Produced by Jim Jupp  

Some Vids by Mr Stevens

 Some wonderful short Promo Videos made for the new album
Sad Old Tatty Bunting.
All videos By Jez Stevens

 

23rd Century Giants. Renaldo and the Loaf.

 

Out on March 8th 2022
23rd Century Giants (on Blu Ray and Digi)
More info Here

Found Objects: Haunted England and Folk Customs, Christina Hole

Found Objects: Haunted England and Folk Customs, Christina Hole:  A Friend picked this lovely Christina Hole book up for me as a Christmas present. What is particularly interesting about this book (Haunte...

Sad Old Tatty Bunting (Norman Records Pre-Order)

A darkly unique new transmission from the
incomparable Keith Seatman.

Sad Old Tatty Bunting
Format: 12” Coloured Vinyl LP / Download
Released: 18th February, 2022
Catalogue Number CiS093
Distributor: Forte Music
Genre: Electronic, Leftfield, Abstract, Psychedelic, Folk
Pre-Order Norman Records
Castles in Space is thrilled to present a timely new album from Keith Seatman - his first “extraordinary adventure” since 2020’s “Time To Dream But Never Seen”. “Sad Old Tatty Bunting” is another multi layered, deeply psychedelic construction which contains collaborations with Jim Jupp (Ghost Box, Belbury Poly) and Douglas E. Powell (Broken Folk).

Keith provides the vision and background to the album:

“The inspiration for Sad Old Tatty Bunting came about very early one morning in April 2020, during the first UK lockdown. I had taken to going for long walks between six and seven o’clock in the morning. I would stroll aimlessly and directionless up and down terraced streets, along the beach and on the prom.
On these early morning walks, places that were once very familiar to me seemed to have changed and taken on an unfamiliar feel. With this change I noticed new things, things which I had not seen before or maybe had no memory of ever seeing.

“One morning I passed an old pub. Hanging in the beer garden was some very old and quite shabby looking bunting. As I stared at the faded old colours I started to wonder why the bunting was there? Was it put up to mark a long forgotten occasion? Or had it been placed there to just brighten up the garden? As the weeks went by, I started to wander further and every now and then would notice more random old tatty bunting hanging from trees, lamp posts or in windows. On theses walks an idea started to take root. I came up with and really liked the phrase Sad Old Tatty Bunting. I mentioned this to my friend Douglas E Powell who said it sounded like the name of an old scarecrow (Tatty Bunting) it was then that I realised that Sad Old Tatty Bunting could refer to many different concepts/ideas/places/books and things. What, who or even where was Sad Old Tatty Bunting? I honestly had no idea…but it was definitely an idea I was going to pursue…”