Ageing & Growing Old

[filcee]

Also, my eldest nephew turns 25 this week. He has two lads of his own, and still calls me 'Uncle Phil'. That makes me feel old...

Presumably his lads call you great uncle Phil?

You know, I can go off people, Mr. Younger... :sceptic:

 

[rynner2]

TKU?

Abbreviation - Thank You.

(We were using text-style abbreviations before SMS was thought of! )

 

[rynner2]

"It was twenty years ago today,
Sergeant Pepper taught his band to play.."

How that resonated with me in 1987, on the 20th anniversary of the Beatles "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album!
(Somehow, I'd never thought I'd live that long!)

I well remember listening to the radio, on a sunny Sunday afternoon in 1967, for the first broadcast of the whole album.


But now, it seems, another two decades have slipped by,
and it was forty years ago today....

Sgt Pepper celebrates 40
April 8, 2007

OASIS, the Killers and Kaiser Chiefs are to record their own versions of tracks from the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to mark the album's 40th anniversary.

The rock bands, alongside the Fratellis, Travis, Razorlight and James Morrison, are making cover versions for a special two-hour BBC radio program.

The famous album by the fab four includes songs A Day In The Life, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, When I'm Sixty-Four and With A Little Help From My Friends.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/sgt-pe ... 31833.html

 

[Pete Younger]

Oasis! good grief, John must be spinning.

 

[Gemaki]

No shit, buddy, no shit.

 

[rynner2]

More detail:

With a little help from Geldof and friends
Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent

For millions of music lovers, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band remains rock’s landmark achievement. But can Kaiser Chiefs and the Killers improve on the orginal when they lead an all-star remake?

Some of the biggest names in the business have signed up for a unique challenge: to record tracks from the Beatles’ classic album using the original analogue equipment rescued from Abbey Road.

Bob Geldof dreamt up the idea of producing a 21st-cent-ury Sgt Pepper to mark the 40th anniversary of the album’s release in June. After a little arm-twisting by the persuasive charity campaigner, the acts agreed to take part and the results will be broadcast in a BBC Radio 2 special.

The lineup will equal Geldof’s all-star Band Aid record. The Times has learnt that Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight will take a song, as well as Oasis and the Killers. Oasis, avowed admirers of the Beatles, were one of the first on board, along with Travis. The Brit Award winners James Morrison and the Fratellis will also give it their best shot.

The organisers hope that U2, who performed the title track at Live8 with Paul McCartney, will join the party and have not ruled out a special appearance from Sir Paul.

Today’s stars, however, must contend with the analogue equipment that the Beatles pushed to the limit in 1967, rather than the computer-controlled digital recording studios that they are used to. They will record their songs with Geoff Emerick, the Beatles’ engineer who won a Grammy for his groundbreaking work on Sgt Pepper.

Mr Emerick said: “We are going to use the original 1in four-track equipment. We had a mixing desk with eight inputs and the drums were recorded in mono. We have borrowed the original mixing desk from Mark Knopfler’s studio and we will complete the recordings at Abbey Road.”

With so many musical egos involved, the question of who gets to perform which classic composition is still a matter of delicate negotiation.

“ A Day in the Life is a plum track,” Mr Emerick said, adding that Within You Without You, George Harrison’s East-ern-tinged contribution, was also a key influence on many modern rock acts.

With a Little Help from My Friends, written for Ringo Starr, has since proved a chart-topper for Joe Cocker, Wet Wet Wet and Sam and Mark.

Mr Emerick said that the aim would not be to replicate the originals but to produce a worthy tribute fusing the attitude of today’s stars with the much-loved songs.

Noel Gallagher, of Oasis, and other participants will discuss their interpretation of the songs before a two-hour Radio 2 special on June 2 that will examine the continued impact of Sgt Pepper.

Although the programme will be given a global website broadcast, record company politics mean that the 12-track “album” might not gain a commercial release. It is hoped that tracks will be made available to download for charity.

Lesley Douglas, the Radio 2 controller, said: “This will be not only a unique radio event but a very special musical moment. The range and quality of artists involved ensure that this will be a fitting tribute to one of the great albums of all time.” Additional reporting: Claire Daly ]

IMusic news, reviews and previews timesonline.co.uk/music

It was 40 years ago, but it’s still a big favourite

The tracks

1 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

2 With a Little Help from My Friends

3 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

4 Getting Better

5 Fixing a Hole

6 She’s Leaving Home

7 Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite

8 Within You Without You

9 When I’m Sixty-Four

10 Lovely Rita

11 Good Morning Good Morning

12 Day in the Life.

The facts

— Recorded between December 6, 1966, and April 21, 1967, at Abbey Road Studios in St John’s Wood, London. Released on June 1, 1967

— Hailed by the critic Kenneth Tynan as “a decisive moment in the history of Western civilisation”

— The composite cover was designed by Peter Blake

— No 1 in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time poll in 2003. Voted the nation’s favourite No 1 album in BBC poll last year and Album of the Millennium in HMV/Channel 4 poll

— The 1978 Sgt Pepper feature film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton was a critical flop and described as one of worst films ever made

‘It’s a sort of pop music masterclass’

Extracts from the review by William Mann, music critic, published in The Times on May 29, 1967

Psychedelia can be diagnosed in the fanciful lyric and intriguing asymetrical music of Lucy in the Sky. . .

A Day in the Life . . . has been banned by the BBC for its ambivalent references to drug-taking — though if anything on the record is going to encourage dope it is surely the “tangerine trees and marmalade skies” and the “girl with kaleidoscope eyes” in Lucy in the Sky. . .

Any of these songs is more genuinely creative than anything currently to be heard on pop radio stations, but in relationship to what other groups have been doing lately Sergeant Pepper is chiefly significant as constructive criticism, a sort of pop music masterclass examining trends and correcting or tidying up inconsistencies and undisciplined work. The one new exploration is the showband manner of the title-song, its reprise, and its interval song, Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite.

These give a certain shape and integrity to the two sides, and if the unity is slightly specious the idea is, I think, new to pop song LPs, which are usually unconnected anthologies, and it is worth pursuing. Sooner or later some group will take the next logical step and produce an LP which is a pop song cycle, a Tin Pan Alley Dichterliebe. Whether or not the remains of Schumann and Heine turn in their graves at this description depends on the artistry of the compiler.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 620498.ece

 

[James_H]

I'm afraid that the miserable old trapped in this young body is going 'what is this shit?' at the very names of kasabian, oasis, razorlight, etc.

 

[rynner2]

I'm afraid that the miserable old trapped in this young body is going 'what is this shit?' at the very names of kasabian, oasis, razorlight, etc.

Ha ha! Me too! (Apart from the young body bit... )

But I have heard of that Geldoff chappie. Something to to with sticking plaster, wasn't it...

 

[techybloke666]

I find this very interesting its entitled Why Death

 

[rynner2]

I heard this Harry Lauder song on the radio the other day - hadn't heard it for many years, though it was frequently played in my childhood. Then I probably thought of it as a rather jolly marching song, but hearing it now it is rather appropriate to this thread:

Keep Right on to the End of the Road

Ev'ry road thro' life is a long, long road,
Fill'd with joys and sorrows too,
As you journey on how your heart will yearn
For the things most dear to you.
With wealth and love 'tis so,
But onward we must go.

Chorus:

Keep right on to the end of the road,
Keep right on to the end,
Tho' the way be long, let your heart be strong,
Keep right on round the bend.
Tho' you're tired and weary still journey on,
Till you come to your happy abode,
Where all the love you've been dreaming of
Will be there at the end of the road.

With a big stout heart to a long steep hill,
We may get there with a smile,
With a good kind thought and an end in view,
We may cut short many a mile.
So let courage ev'ry day
Be your guiding star alway.

Chorus:

Sir Harry Lauder wrote this song after his son was killed in action in World War I....

 

[rynner2]

Good news for oldies (and youngsters who want to know what all the fuss was about, back in the 60s):

Beatles join the iPod revolution
By Christopher Hope
Last Updated: 2:15am BST 13/04/2007

The Beatles have settled a £30 million row over royalty payments with record company EMI, clearing the final obstacle to the release of the band's entire back catalogue over the internet, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Executives at the group's company Apple Corps Ltd and EMI can now sit down and work out a new royalties deal to cover music downloads of their hit singles and albums by websites like iTunes.

The highly anticipated internet release is likely to net millions for surviving members of the band and their relatives and propel former Beatles' hits to the top of the download charts.

The band issued legal proceedings against EMI in December 2005 in the High Court in London and the Supreme Court in New York to recover the alleged missing cash.

Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and relatives of John Lennon and George Harrison had alleged that EMI underpaid £30 million in record royalties on sales of Beatles' records between 1994 and 1999.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that EMI and Apple agreed to settle at the end of last month. The details of the settlement are confidential. However, it is thought that surviving Beatles and relatives of Harrison and Lennon will now receive a multi-million pound sum as part of the settlement.

The band members were entitled to a percentage of the wholesale price of every record supplied by EMI to record outlets. But an alleged deficit was uncovered during an audit of Apple's accounts.

The claim related to every album recorded by The Beatles as a group and later as solo performers between 1963 and 1976, including Help!, Rubber Soul, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, as well as John Lennon's Imagine.

The royalty settlement means that EMI and Apple can agree new royalty terms for the sale of The Beatles' songs over the internet via download sites such as the popular iTunes music service.

That prospect was first raised when The Beatles ended another high profile legal wrangle in February by ceding ownership of the famous apple logo to computer company Apple Inc.

Apple Inc, the company behind the iPod, will now own all the trademarks related to "Apple'', licensing some back to the Beatles' company for continued use.

Separately it emerged that Neil Aspinall, the chief executive of Apple and a former school friend of Sir Paul McCartney, is quitting the company after 40 years as keeper of The Beatles' flame.

http://tinyurl.com/36jljg
[rynner starts counting the groats to see if he can afford one of the new-fangled i-pod thingies, whatever they are...]

 

[rynner2]

Gardener downs his tools at 104

A gardener has decided to down tools on his working life at the age of 104.
Jim Webber has been working the land in Dorset for 93 years, without taking holidays, but arthritis has forced him to retire.

Mr Webber told BBC news: "I'd do about 10 minutes and have to sit down - I couldn't carry on. That wasn't fair for the people I was working for."

The keen gardener, from Stoke Abbott, said he now planned to focus on his own garden and sell some of his produce.

Mr Webber said: "I haven't got a big wage now coming in, do you see - I've only got old age pension, so I'll try and sell a bit."

Born on Christmas Eve 1902, Mr Webber began his career as a farm labourer in Dorset, and won prizes for ploughing.

In gardening, he worked with his brother Jack, until he died at the age of 95 in July last year.

His daughter, Kathleen, 68, now helps him with his home garden.

Bit of medicine

Mr Webber carried out hedging, mowed lawns and other gardening jobs for residents of Stoke Abbott, as well as mowing the lawn of the local pub, the New Inn.

Richard Ward, landlord at the New Inn, said: "The only reason he's retired is he can't get up on his tractor to bring the lawnmower down.

"He's amazing, a really amazing character."

Mr Ward's partner, Mary Shiels, added: "We inherited him [Mr Webber] with the pub, he'd come around and do whatever he felt needed to be done.

"He was disappointed to let us down, but it was time enough really - a well deserved rest."

Mr Webber said he had never taken a break: "I've never fancied a holiday, never fancied one.

"I'd rather stay and knock about at home or whatever than go on holiday."

He puts his longevity down to having "plenty to do and being interested in it" - as well as a bit of his "medicine" - whisky.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/6567365.stm

Whisky, the Water of Life!

 

[rynner2]

Now here's food for thought: Discuss!

'Jail life better for pensioners'

Murderer and kidnapper Michael Sams has said he is better off in prison than he would be living as a free pensioner.
Sams, 66, was jailed for life in 1993 for murdering Leeds teenager Julie Dart and kidnapping Birmingham estate agent Stephanie Slater.

Sams, from Nottinghamshire, wrote to prisoners' magazine Inside Time to oppose a call for convicts' pensions.

He said he had better living conditions inside Whitemoor jail, Cambridgeshire, than many people on the basic pension.

In his letter, Sams wrote: "Have you ever seen an OAP inmate in tatty clothes or scruffy trainers? Not a hope!

"Materially, we OAPs in prison are far better off than those in the community.

"How many pensioners in the community, who are totally dependent on the basic state pension and live in rented accommodation, are able to spend around £20 on luxuries?

"Most struggle to keep warm in winter, afraid to put the heating on, barely eating, let alone getting three square, ready-made, meals per day. And three or four choices at that!"

Sams added that prisoners over the retirement age also had free gym access and no bills to pay except a £1 a week TV rental charge.

Ranson demand

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, said: "It is not a surprise that a prisoner feels materially better off than an ordinary pensioner.

"It costs somewhere in the region of £40,000 a year to pay for a prisoner, whereas the credits pensioners get amount to something like £6,000.

"However, most elderly people value their independence and I think it's unlikely that anyone would start committing crimes to get the benefits he outlines."

Sams, from Sutton-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, admitted kidnapping Miss Slater in January 1992, falsely imprisoning her and demanding a £175,000 ransom for he safe return.

He was caught after an appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch programme when his wife recognised a recording of his voice.

Sams was found guilty of the 1991 murder of teenage prostitute Miss Dart following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west ... 568737.stm

 

[Timble2]

Retirement plan: commit a spectacular crime, bank robbery probably the best option since you've got money if you get away with it, and if you don't you get a nice comfortable cell with regular meals...

 

[rynner2]

But what a bitterly ironic comment on 21st century standards, when a convicted criminal has fewer worries and and a more comfortable life-style than an honest and law-abiding pensioner.

"However, most elderly people value their independence and I think it's unlikely that anyone would start committing crimes to get the benefits he outlines."

But what kind of independence is it, if you have no money for luxuries like travel or entertainment? (This is quite apart from the extra problems of personal mobilility that tend to accompany old age, and limit your activities? Are you better off in a poorly run nursing home or in a prison?)

Well, in case I have to kill a few people to end up in prison, I'm drawing up a short-list...!

 

[lupinwick]

Tag 'em all!

Elderly people should be "tagged" to enable the authorities to keep tabs on them, a government minister suggested today.

Science minister Malcolm Wicks said satellite technology could be used to allow families to monitor frail or elderly relatives, it was reported today.


According to the Mirror newspaper, Mr Wicks said many families worried about elderly relatives or "what's happening about an 80 or 90-year-old who may have Alzheimer's", and using the technology could let them know their loved one was safe.


Mr Wicks said: "Satellites currently monitor the planet in a variety of different ways. I'm raising this as an issue for discussion. Are there other uses of technology that could benefit society?

Source

I can sort of see what the point is, but treating like criminals?

 

[escargot]

On the subject of the elderly in prison:
I am peculiarly well-placed to comment on this, as one of my former criminology tutes has done extensive research on this very subject and teaches about it.

If you do a google on 'crawley elderly prisoners' you'll learn all you need to know.

To sum up: it ain't worth it. Elderly prisoners' needs are not generally well catered for. You'd be better off spending your bingo-and-mintball years in sheltered housing. Perhaps with a nice budgie.

 

[Yithian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Esc! Any of your big mouthful of stuff online for us to look at and read? You must have a tonne of stuff worth a gander. Or do we have to pay?

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

Ace. Younger people performing 'the hits'! That's actually really good.

 

[escargot]

:lol: My Masters dissertation is cutting-edge criminology. If I showed you, I'd have to kill you.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I've had a good innings. Post away!

 

[rynner2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

Brilliant! Thanks for that!

Good one for the Irony thread, too -
"Hope I die before I get old..." 8)


Did I ever mention I actually saw The Who live..?

Oh, I did. Several times? Oh well....

[dribbles into cocoa....]

 

[escargot]

I can't post my diss, or extracts thereof, as it was done with participants to whom I had to promise strict confidentiality. If it is published, aspects of it will have to be heavily disguised.

So much as I'd love to wow you all with my shrewd criminological insights, you'll have to wait for the book. :lol:

 

[rynner2]

Now here's an idea...!

Centenarian celebrates with £25k

A man who bet £100 a decade ago that he would live to be 100 is celebrating his birthday with a cheque for £25,000.
Alec Holden, from Epsom in Surrey, is picking up his winnings from bookmaker William Hill, which gave him odds of 250/1 that he would reach his century.

The retired engineer, born on 24 April 1907, joked he had been "very careful" about what he had been doing recently.

Mr Holden, who also used to work as a teacher and a carpenter, plans to take some friends to a hotel to celebrate.

He placed the bet on 10 December 1997, when he was aged 90, with the thought that he "would live forever".

Mr Holden, who has two sons aged 70 and 60, puts his longevity down to porridge for breakfast and "remembering to keep breathing".

He said it was also important not to worry about anything, do as little work as possible, and go on lots of holidays.

He also plays chess every day, running a local club.

He said in recent months he had been keeping watch for "any hooded groups from William Hill standing in the street", so that he could avoid them.

He also said he had already received his birthday card from the Queen.

'Mythical landmark'

"In fact, I think I saw her delivering it on her bicycle," he joked.

Bookmakers William Hill said they had now raised the target age for bets from 100 to 110. [Boo! ]

Spokesman Rupert Adams explained: "When we started taking these bets, 100 years old seemed to be an almost mythical landmark and we were prepared to offer massive odds.

"But these age wagers are starting to cost us a fortune and from now on we are going to push out the age to 110."

However, he added: "I am sure that Alec will get more pleasure from our letter than he will from the Queen's."

The bookmaker has now paid out three times on the same type of bet.

The two others were Rosalyn Strover, from Suffolk, in November 2004, and Arthur Best, from Cheltenham, in January 2005.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/6586637.stm

 

[Peripart]

Bookmakers William Hill said they had now raised the target age for bets from 100 to 110. [Boo!]

I'm sure you could still get decent odds on reaching 100, as long as you put the bet on soon enough. If you feel you'll make a century, don't wait until you're 90 to put your money where your mouth is, do it now!

I reckon I could still get odds of 250-1, if I placed the wager today! Maybe William Hill should market a new kind of pension plan for the over-100s? A £10 bet every month, with slowly-shortening odds, that you'll make it to that ripe old age. Strangely though, I don't feel all that confident myself...

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmmm. *thinks*

Where, exactly, do you live Peripart, and by that I mean physically,on this vast dust bowl of a planet - and not on that imaginary existential plain your little head whistles (if you blow up both nostrils) on? Only I've got a tenner in my pocket just waiting for an easy bet. And a gun.

 

[rynner2]

Why 50somethings live like 20somethings
Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent

As teenagers they fought for their right to grow their hair, wear what they wanted and explore the possibilities of the contraceptive pill. Now a new study that compares the lifestyle of the over-50s today with that of half a century ago has found that baby-boomers are doing battle with age with equal vigour.

Travelling, playing golf and going out with their friends, they are living the lives that 25-year-olds were in 1957, the Future Foundation think-tank concludes in its report Forever Young.

In 1957 men could look forward to just 7.6 years of retirement, and women just under 14 years. But with general health improving significantly and life expectancy soaring, men aged 60 now have 15 years and women over 22 years to fill after leaving work.

“Today 50 is closer to the middle of our life than to its end, with many economic and psychological factors bringing this change,” Martin Lloyd-Elliott, a psychologist who was consulted for the report, said. “Psychologically, there has been a shift from a ‘closing-down’ expectation for the second half of life towards a much more optimistic ‘opening-up-of-new-doors’ spirit of good times ahead.”

The most significant lifestyle difference uncovered by the study was travel. It found that the older generation was taking full advantage of cheap air fares and that the over-50s take an average of eight or nine holidays each year compared with just one or two in 1957.

The average spend on holidays has risen from £128 to £845, adjusted for inflation. The number of trips taken beyond Europe and North America by 55-64 year olds has doubled to 1.23 million over the last 10 years. Over-65s are more cautious, but they have doubled their visits to continental Europe over the same period to 4.8 million. Pensioners are now worth £3.1 billion to the travel industry, three times the amount they spent in 1995.

The report, commissioned by intune, a financial services subsidiary of Help the Aged, shows the over-50s taking personal fitness just as seriously as younger generations did 50 years ago. They take part in the same amount of sport as 25-year olds did in 1957, at an hour a week. When time spent on hobbies is added on, they spend almost three hours a week more on all leisure activities than their counterparts 50 years ago.

Britain’s consumer bug has also bitten the older generation who are energetic shoppers. They also spend twice as much time shopping as their counterparts in the 1950s. Those over retirement age actually spend more time shopping than 16-24 year-olds today, at an average of three hours 40 minutes a week compared with one hour 48 minutes.

But to accommodate all the holidaying , shopping and time on the golf course, housework has taken a hit. The over-50s spent six hours 39 minutes cleaning their home in 1957. Today’s older generation makes do with three hours and five minutes.

Brenda Dixon, 72, is embarking on another packed week of keep fit, cycling and socialising. Yesterday she had Aqua-fit and a full-body massage. Today she has a craft class. Tomorrow and Friday it is bowling and catching up with friends.

She admits Thursdays are the only day she has time to do any housework. “My life is wonderful. I don’t feel like I’m 72 at all,” she told The Times. “When I look back to when my parents were in the sixties they seemed much older. They had their own business and were both quite exhausted by the time they retired. They did not live much beyond that point to enjoy their retirement.”

She and her husband Ron, a retired engineer, keen golfer and bridge player, moved to Bourne in Lincolnshire from Weymouth when they retired and have never regretted it. The couple have just returned from a week on a canal long boat, and have visited Cracow earlier this year. They plan a trip to Paris next month before holidays to Portugal and Germany in September.

They hope to devote the summer months to catching up with their four children and four grandchildren, dotted around the country.

“We saved for this all the years we were working and are now enjoying every minute,” she said.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life ... 728924.ece

 

[ElishevaBarsabe]

That's interesting, rynner. Thank you for the article.

At the knitting meetup on Saturday, I was telling the younger women that one of the weirdest things about getting older is having a mind that both seems stuck at the age of 28 and is now realizing its mortality simultaneously.

Errrrrrr.

 

[rynner2]

...one of the weirdest things about getting older is having a mind that both seems stuck at the age of 28 and is now realizing its mortality simultaneously.

Yep! You've got to live it to believe it, though.

No-one looking at me now would think I was still 28 on the inside!