Another one of those bands I first discovered early on in their career via the old My Space (when it was relevant), when they hadn't been signed to a label yet, still gigging around and were just getting their act together.

And now, some four years later, they have become huge. It thrills me no end when good people make it, and I have always had this gut-level feeling Mumford & Sons were destined for big stuff. Clearly, they are in that direction.

I love hunches, especially when they pay off - which I can't say all the time.

This weekend it's Mumford Sons, live at the Haldern Pop Festival in Germany, recorded on August 13, 2010 and featuring an enthusiastic crowd going along for the ride.

Enjoy the weekend - it's just getting started.

A legendary Jazz Vocal group this week. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross virtually redefined the role singing took in the idiom of Jazz. Taking elements of Scat and Human Orchestra and coming up with a combination that was a flat-out hit from the start. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross rode the crest of a very popular wave all through the 1950's until late 1962 when Annie Ross left the group to pursue a solo career, leaving Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks to carry on with another singer before finally hanging it up in 1964.

This concert, recorded at The Park Hotel in Bremen, Germany and broadcast over Radio Bremen on April 23, 1962 most likely marks some of their last recorded live performances as the original lineup of the group and is probably one of their last broadcasts. They are backed by The Gildo Mahones Trio, another legendary outfit.

And for the next hour, you get to be there.

Realizing just how much the world changes in a period of fifteen years, the world of 1957 was considerably different than the world of 1942 on this day. In 1942 Russia was an ally against Germany and the Axis plague eager to dominate Europe. In 1957 a divided Germany was now our ally against the "evil empire" of Russia and the Soviet Union.

So in 1957, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer visited Washington in an effort of seek continued support from the Eisenhower administration and to bolster Adenauer's position with the West during the upcoming elections in West Germany. Facing a bitter election fight at home, Adenauer was keen on receiving assurances from Washington that support, economically as well as militarily would continue and increase. And also some sign, however small, that the possibility of reunification of the two Germany's would become a possibility.

Commenting on the meeting as well as an observation over the upcoming British Elections was Cedric Foster, a regular newscaster/commentator for the Mutual Broadcasting System on May 31st, 1957.

Over to Germany this week for a concert by the Wuppertal Symphony, conducted by Toshiyuki Kamioka and featuring legendary Hungarian pianist Dezso Ranki in music of Liszt and Bartok. The concert was broadcast live by WDR3 in Germany.

Here's what they play:

Montag, 23.04.12 um 20:05 Uhr
WDR 3 Städtekonzerte NRW
Live - Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal

Franz Liszt
Zwei Legenden

Béla Bartók
Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 Sz 95

Béla Bartók
Konzert für Orchester Sz 116

Dezsö Ránki, Klavier

Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal
Leitung: Toshiyuki Kamioka

Live aus der Historischen Stadthalle Wuppertal
Redaktion: Christoph Held

The concert is broken up between two players - the top player features the Liszt and the Bartok Piano Concerto and the bottom player features Concerto For Orchestra.

Announcements are in German, so drag out your translation books.

Otherwise, perfect Anti-Road Rage Wednesday music. No?

Update: With a flood of donations overnight, we've come within $1,000.00 of meeting Newstalgia's goal of staying online and saving the archive from extinction. Those of you who have donated, and re-donated, I cannot begin to express my gratitude and heartfelt thanks for your help, your kind words, your encouragement. You have made all the difference between disaster and hope. We're extremely close and this final push over the next day is crucial in averting what would have been a complete disaster. Because we're so close, your donations are still desperately needed. Any amount is deeply appreciated. You may not think giving $1.00 can make a difference, but it has and it's being proven over the past few days. It all makes a huge difference and has succeeded in turning this seemingly insurmountable obstacle into a speed-bump. If you haven't considered making a donation to help keep Newstalgia up and running yet, please consider it now. Any amount, any amount at all, is needed and appreciated beyond words. We're making it. We're close. We're getting there.

The news on this morning in April of 1945 was about the eventual collapse of Germany and the end of the War in Europe. With news reports coming in, and bulletins being reported one on top of the other, news of the Fall of Berlin was being reported. Soviet troops had succeeded in occupying the center of the city, while defacto head of the German government, Heinrich Himmler was busy hammering out surrender terms. The latest communique had Himmler attempting to reach a surrender with the Allies without including the Russians. Needless to say, it was rejected. And despite some rumors to the contrary, no Surrender had been arrived at. Allied forces were systematically taking over and occupying every other German city, with news that Munich had fallen while this broadcast was on the air. Also reported was news that the Allies had liberated the Dachau Conentration camp, and news of that discovery would be coming in time. During the course of the morning news broadcast, an address by Gen. Spaatz of the Allied Air Forces announced confirmation that the German Luftwaffe had been completely obliterated and subsequently, the Allied Air Force would changed its role over to tactical support of ground forces during these final hours/days.

Meanwhile, the War in the Pacific was still far from over. With news reports of a Kamikaze attack on an Allied Hospital ship near Okinawa brought outrage from the Allied High Command and fighting was still intense.

And that was the news for this April 30, 1945, as presented in two morning Newscasts over NBC. One, the Morning Roundup and the later Alka-Seltzer News Of The World.

Update: Looking grim. Donations have been slowing down the last 24 hours and that's not a good sign for keeping either Newstalgia online or saving the archive from destruction. There is still some time, and you can still make a difference. I need your help. Give what you can, but please try and give something. I'm not making any money off of this for myself, it's all for keeping Newstalgia going and keeping the Archives together. We're getting down to the wire and there's still time left to help. Please do what you can and my sincere thanks and gratitude to those who have donated so far. We can still do this. You can still make a difference.

News on this day in 1945 was entirely about the historic linkup of Soviet and Western-Allied forces at the Elbe River, effectively cutting Germany in half and sealing the fate of Hitler's "Thousand year Reich". It would be a matter of days, and with bulletins racing in, with reports cutting in and flying on top of each other, it was clear the war in Europe would be over soon. Still, there was caution, and it was stressed over and over in the course of the newscasts that this was not to be considered the end of the war in Europe. Fighting was still intense. With overwhelming numbers of displaced, refugees and former Nazi officials fleeing to safety managing to clog the roads leading to Berlin.

As the reports kept coming in, the later bulletins placed Russian troops, within blocks of the Chancery in Berlin, seizing the Deutches Bank building. So there were conflicting reports with some saying the allies were 75 miles away from the heart of Berlin, and later reports of fighting going on in the streets of Berlin. No one knew for sure and Allied censorship of news reports made it difficult to get an accurate picture of just far along everything was going.

And that's what the news sounded like from 11:00pm-12:00 midnight via NBC and WEAF in New York for April 27th, 1945.

One of the classic cases in point when assessments are made of bands in the 60's and the argument invariably comes around to "you really had to see them live in concert".

Spooky Tooth were one of those bands. Coming in at the fringes of Psychedelia and ushering in the era of Hard Rock, Spooky Tooth were one of those bands you really had to see live in order to appreciate. And the reason was simple - technology. You just couldn't get what they really sounded like live and put it in a studio environment; it just didn't work. Bands were getting heavy and their sound was getting dirty and dirt didn't translate well against state-of-the-art recording equipment. They weren't the only ones suffering that problem. Going back to the early Grateful Dead albums, the biggest complaint among fans (and the press) was; they just couldn't translate what they did live in a studio environment - you couldn't put it in the grooves. Which was probably why MC5's first album was live and not recorded as an "official studio project". Their popularity may have taken longer to acquire had they gone the other way around. The ability to faithfully capture ear-splitting heaviness and turbo-charged energy would take a few years to happen as recording techniques and equipment improved.

This is a very rare example of Spooky Tooth, just at their peak, performing live in Essen, Germany on October 9, 1969. Fortunately, it was broadcast over German Radio and luckily a tape survives.

The sound isn't great but it's also not terrible, and you get a very clear picture of just how great this underrated band were in the early days. And you also get an idea of how influential a guitarist like Luther (Ariel Bender) Grosvenor was for guitarists coming after him.

History is seldom dull - and that goes for old music too.

Over to Neuss, Germany this week via West German Radio (WDR) and a concert recital by Russian pianist Evgeni Koroliov, recorded live on October 16, 2001.

A single work - the complete Goldberg Variations Of Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 988).

Considering how the week's been going - this may be perfect music to unwind to.

Here are the notes via WDR:

15. November · 20:05

johann sebastian bach:
Goldberg-Variationen BWV 988

Evgeni Koroliov, Klavier

Aufnahme vom

16. Oktober 2011 aus
dem Zeughaus, Neuss

Announcements are in German and I've shortened them down so I could cram it all on one player.

Enjoy.

In the early morning hours of May 28, 1940, French Premier Paul Reynaud made a radio address to the people of France to tell them of the surrender of Belgium and Holland to advancing German armies with the situation as Reynaud put it, "dark" and "grave".

Reynaud urged the people of France to continue fighting, and tried to offer some hope that the tide could be turned in the Allies favor. Both Britain and France were harsh in their criticism of the Dutch and Belgians for surrendering so quickly (the German invasion of the Low Countries had taken place on May 10th). However, the criticism belied the fact that now both France and Britain were in line for invasion. Less than a month later France would surrender, leaving only Britain to continue the war.

Here is most of the Reynaud address, since it was broken up by bad atmosphere conditions in the Shortwave transmission. There is commentary by Robert Trout of CBS Radio and breaking news reports during the broadcast. A momentous day and one filled with uncertainty in 1940.

Over to Geneva this week for a concert recorded live by Radio Suisse Romande's Espace 2 station. The Manderling Quartet is a new name to me, but they strike me as a solid little unit who are getting good word of mouth (and, I understand touring the U.S. in 2011). Tonight they give a nicely varied program of music by Felix Mendelssohn, Bela Bartok and Antonin Dvorak. The opus 1 Number 2 by Mendelssohn, Bartok's 2nd Quartet and the popular "American" Quartet of Dvorak.

The concert runs just over an hour and a half and it's split over two plays (as usual). The top player features the Mendelssohn and Bartok while the bottom player features the Dvorak and an encore. Funny thing, I've noticed over the past couple of years and couple thousand of these concerts that encores are something of a given lately. Everyone seems to be getting them. Not that they aren't deserved. But, it's getting to be like the obligatory encore at a rock concert. Just noticing.

Announcements are in French and are edited down to conform to time (and also because the announcer was really chatty).

And as always:

Transmission directe du concert
donné à l’Octogone à Pully
dans le cadre des concerts organisés
par «Pour l’Art et le Lutrin»

Quatuor Mandelring:
Sébastien Schmidt (Violon)
Nanette Schmidt (Violon)
Roland Glassl (Alto)
Bernhard Schmidt (Violoncelle)

- F. Mendelssohn: Quatuor à cordes no 2, en la mineur, op. 13
- B. Bartok: Quatuor à cordes no 5
- A. Dvorak: Quatuor à cordes, no 12,