Al “Jazzbo” Collins: Tells Fairy Tales for Hip Kids (1952-1953/2008)
Al “Jazzbo” Collins, who was also known as “Jazzbeaux”, was a long time radio disc jockey who worked in Logan, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Salt Lake City and New York.
He appeared with Steve Allen on the Tonight Show and even took his place when Allen left the show, briefly bridging the gap between the eras of Allen and Jack Paar.
From 1952-54 or so he recorded a series of “bop-talk” records for Brunswick that were gathered into a CD compilation in 2008.
He also appeared as himself on NBC’s radio science fiction series X Minus One in 1957.
Jazzbo’s hipsterspeak tale telling is still a hoot.
While Shirley Manson and company’s third album, 2001’s Beautiful Garbage, may have lacked a smash hit such as “Stupid Girl” from their debut or “Special” from Version 2.0 it may be their best record overall.
Though deep cut “Drive You Home” hasn’t been chosen for even multidisc “best-of” compilations, it says here the brooding, achingly melodic track deserves more love.
Between the release of Wings at the Speed of Sound in 1976 and 1978’s London Town, the strangest of all McCartney’s solo work was released under the pseudonym of Percy “Thrills” Thrillington.
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The Thrillington album, as the cover slyly suggests, was an orchestral instrumental version of Paul and Linda’s Ram LP, recorded in 1971 and shelved for six years as attention shifted to Wings band projects.
There are more recent analogues: James Mercer’s “flipped” version of the Shins’ 2017 Heartworms LP (titled The Worm’s Heart) reinterpreted the album and reversed its running order. Pretty cool.
But Thrillington, which has never officially been credited to Paul McCartney, is truly outside the box.
With arrangements scored by Richard Anthony Hewson and recorded over three days of sessions in June of ’71, the record is truly a fresh, fun spin on a legendary album.
On its release it had some critics mystified as to whether McCartney himself was involved or not, making for some interesting album reviews.
As for the hoax, McCartney publicized the album’s release by taking out enigmatic ads in UK music papers–mentioning the character of Percy Thrillington but never associating himself in any way.
He and Linda even found an obscure Irish farmer–a guy they knew couldn’t be traced for verification–to model as Percy for photo ads perpetuating the deception.
Because Thrillington was believed by most to be a McCartney work, it became a collector’s item, but remains the least-heard of his albums.
Paul finally officially came clean in a 1989 interview, saying, “It was me and Linda–and we kept it secret for a long time”.
The portrait of Lily Allen from the cover of her recent hit album West End Girl has gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The painting, by Spanish artist Nieves Gonzalez and owned by Allen, was unveiled on Thursday and will be on show for the next year.
It shows the singer sitting on a stool wearing a polka dot puffer jacket and boots revealing a tattoo on her left leg.
Allen, who also begins her three-night run of gigs at the London Palladium theatre on Friday, said: “I’m so pleased to make this special painting available for everyone to see.”
Kenia Os with Carla Morrison: “Dias Tristes” (2026)
As the title of her latest album K de Karma (K for Karma) suggests, Kenia Os has come a long way from social media influencer dogged by body shaming and controversy to Mexican pop princess, and a reckoning is due.
Editors of the Wikipedia page of the actress/singer/superstar would be well served at this point to update its rather snarky introductory paragraph, which reads:
“Kenia Guadalupe Flores Osuna (born 15 July 1999), known professionally as Kenia Os, is a Mexican social media personality. She rose to “fame” as a content creator on YouTube…“
That “fame” now encompasses three and a half billion Spotify streams, over 26 million fans on TikTok, 18 million on Instagram, dozens of awards and nominations (including a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Long Form Video) and a record-breaking live streaming concert.
I think we can remove the quotation marks around the word.
Influencer-to-pop singer is a tough route to the top credibility-wise, more so in Mexico than the US. Kenia faced the additional challenge of dealing with weight fluctuations due to PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and endometriosis. Some “fans” were cruel in their comments.
She says she has been able to “heal from within”, and that her struggles have only made her stronger.
Perhaps her experience has informed her videos, which regularly feature performers of a variety of body types:
“Didn’t know it was possible to fall even more in love with an album”
Pitchblack Playback offers dark room deep listening events in cities around the world.
Bucking the trend of low-quality audio consumed through cheap earbuds, they invite serious listeners to experience classic albums and pre-release premiers at ticked events in dedicated spaces on the best equipment possible.
Because unless you’re very lucky, we’re guessing you don’t own a massive cinema sound system. And if you do, we imagine your neighbours probably don’t like you much.
Why ever go to the cinema if you can just download or stream the film to watch at home? Why go to a pub if you can drink at home? Besides, how often do you really put aside the time to just listen without any distractions?
There’s something incredibly special about feeling the bass moving through your body, hearing the sound fill the space around you, and experiencing your favourite music in comfort, silently sharing the experience alongside other people. The combination of volume, the physicality of the low end and the darkness brings about a sort of meditative state.
Basically, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
Are your events really held in complete darkness?
We’ve allowed ourselves a tiny bit of poetic license here (we love alliteration). We turn out all the house lights at our events to get the room as dark as possible, but fire safety regulations mean we have to keep fire exit lights on. So, at most of our events, you’ll also receive a Pitchblack Playback eye mask in case you want to completely immerse yourself.
What happens at your events?
You grab a drink if you want one (although a few of our venues do not have bars), take your seat, kick back and relax. Before we start, we ask everyone to turn their phones to silent, to keep their phones in their pockets at all times, and to refrain from talking, whispering or singing.
We turn the lights out, play the album loud, in full, in the dark. And that’s it. Food is available at some of our venues before and after the playback.
How do you play your music?
We play 16-bit or 24-bit uncompressed files. We NEVER play compressed lossy formats or streams (basically, we play the highest definition files we can find which give the most detailed and full sound). We use 24-bit files wherever possible at the highest available sample rate.
Aside from events where the album is available in a Dolby Atmos or 5.1 version (which we advertise as such), we ‘upmix’ stereo files to surround sound to make full use of the venue’s sound system and to create an immersive sound field. We love the effect that this creates as it means the music is coming from all around you rather than just from the front. It’s a different way to listen to music.
Every Moment Has A Song 