PBS: Museum of grot/Masterpiece

The only eateries to be found in Preston are "Fish restaurants", which is a shame as it's widely known that eating fish is bad for you. Eventually I found a Chinese that did a less than exceptional Business [hem hem] Lunch for £7.

But I got to inspect Preston Bus Station and its associated car park at length. Much has been written about this fabulous and threatened building:

• the dedicated website records ... the Brutalist architectural style ... a capacity of 80 double-decker buses ... the second largest bus station in Western Europe ... space for 1,100 cars ...
• A letter to the Guardian is not positive: If eyesores like Preston bus station are all that pass to make a town unique, it is a sad day indeed ... bold and uncompromising are the stenches of urine and skunk cannabis that fill its many nooks and crannies ... only permanent access is via intimidating, low-lit subways ... a monument to social and economic decay, an asbo magnet ... St Pancras it ain't ... an architectural dinosaur ... a museum of grot
• A showcase of the architects’ work records Preston Bus Station is part of one of those classically 1960s attempts to redevelop a town through the remaking of its circulation into walkways, underpasses and towers, with people separated from cars ... the Bus Station is the masterpiece ... its glorious sweep is so simple, so confident, so right, that only a churlish antimodernist could fail to be seduced by it ... the Bus Station is held in encouraging public esteem
• The 20th Century Society are understandably leading a campaign in its defence.
• et seq.

There are more pictures of this thing on the web than anyone needs, so I won't add unnecessarily to the load. But for me, the highlight was the long deserted taxi rank at the end. Will you just look at those lovely curves?

Bus shelters of Aberystwyth

I suppose every settlement has a rich variety of bus shelters, but I do feel Aberyswyth is especially blessed. Let me not bore you: if you do happen to be interested then my growing collection is readable, and I'll be delighted to accept contributions.

Helianthus

Some sunflowers I planted are becoming famous.

Have your say!.

Coventry

I visit Coventry.

This place has quite a story to tell: some of it is more than a little sad and all too evident in walking the streets. Let's not dwell on that - it's all well known.

Two very high points: the Transport Museum (which leads very quickly to a sad story if you let it). Coventry was home to more motor and bicycle companies than even people who know what they are talking about could guess at.

This car was a recent acquisition. It had been sat in someone's garage for aeons - I especially liked the cat pawprints on the windshield.	I certainly hadn't known that.	These ladies had a lot to say in and around Coventry. Nearly all the industry was given over to war work in 14-18 and 39-45, and nearly all the workers were women.

The second really good thing was Taylor John's House. What a great bar. What terrific music.

VRR

Took a walk in the nice weather from Cwmrheidol up the steep hill to Pontarfynach.

As you cross the Vale of Rheidol Railway, there are some super spots to get pictures of the locos really labouring up the last few furlongs of ascent.

Catch 47 seconds of video of the recently coal re-equipped loco working past me.

45 minutes of Rapid Radio

Rapid Radio is described elsewhere.

Sometimes I just dropped 45 minutes of the broadcast onto one side of a C90. This one is from early evening, 18th October 1991: around 32.50 you can hear the DJ imploring his successor, due in 30m, to be punctual.

Track listing

The DJ's speed and accent, coupled with my incompete knowledge of the genre, make this a little incomplete and unreliable.
Italic indicates uncertainty - corrections welcomed.

Time	Title	Artist
0.24	Marksman	Shuggo Banton
1.43	Body workshop	General Pecos
3.51	Watch your speech	Dirtsman
7.18	???	???
10.15	Dirt Heart	Cocoa Tea and Ninjaman
12.04 (played twice)	Respect Due	Mighty Diamonds
16.20 (played twice)	See some breast	Little Meeky and Daddy Meeky
21.36	Prove	Reggie Stepper
23.56	Remember	Thriller U
26.27	Simia	Pinchers
29.14	Hypnotic Love	Phillip Leo and C.J.Lewis
32.50	Here I Come Again	Nerious Joseph
35.32	Fire Burning	Marcia Griffiths
37.23	Warning	Tony Rebel
39.47	Poor People	Courtney Melody
41.32	Which One Of Them She Love	Shabba Ranks
43.08	Call me	Ken Boothe
44.23	It's over	Thriller U

Thanks to TechnoSauce for technical support.

Rapid Radio

Before mobile phones were ubiquitous, there was a wave of pirate ragga and dancehall radio stations in Leeds (& probably elsewhere), centred principally on Chapeltown. In the late 80s and early 90s, you could scan the dial up from 100MHz and find lots of them, often with a life expectancy of days or weeks. Head and shoulders above them all on 105.3FM stood Rapid Radio.

RR lasted longer and had a reliability far in excess of the others. We suspect the transmission gear was moved from house to house around Leeds 7 to avoid apprehension, although John reckoned that the forces of Laura Norder were far happier with the boys running a radio station than being on the streets looking for something else to do. They got as far as jingles (Rapid Radio – broadcasting from the roof of Chapeltown Police Station) and a schedule of sorts, although listening to DJs wondering where the hell the next, very late, guy had got to was a regular laugh.

Usually they just played stuff they liked - you could tell when they liked something especially, as they just played it again. And again.

I owe my liking of Tinga Stewart, Shabba Ranks, Ninjaman and a host of others to RR. My greatest triumph was ringing in for a request for Bea, who was 7 at the time; one flaky conversation, believe me. After a considerable delay, we got “This song going out to a girlchild called Beatrice”, and they played something I had not asked for – but she I and thought it was well worth the wait.

Keenies will like to learn that I have some cassette tapes of RR from 1991 which I am digitising for publication hereabout. Big thanks to TechnoSauce for technical input in this complicated operation.