2010 Animal Calendar from Artwork

Beautiful ringbound 2010 Calendar featuring images of animals from original pencil drawings by
Sue Cotton
Reproduced on quality matt paper stock

* SOLD OUT *

Discovering Turner's Lakeland by Stanley Warburton

Stanley kindly gave me a name credit on the sleeve of this book (I assisted him with tech stuff during production..)
The edition is almost exhausted, and so, if you want a copy, contact the author immediately -

22 Coronation Road
Lytham St Annes
Lancashire
FY8 1BH
(tel: 01253 735563)

Stan, in his 93rd year, bases this on a lifetime’s admiration of Turner and the Lakes. An artist and former chairman of the Northern Branch of the Turner Society, he was the author of Turner and Revd. Dr. Whitaker (Towneley Hall Art Gallery, Burnley, 1982).

Fylde Gallery, Haven Road, Lytham

Thursday 16th February - Sunday 25th March 2012:

'An Art Refined'

A stunning exhibition by the Lancashire nonagenarian artist Stanley Warburton - a wonderful collection of oils and watercolours by this talented artist and one time friend of L.S.Lowry. A must for all Lancastrians who are interested in their heritage.

Witchwood badges...buy them here

Witchwood
is a Discussion and news about British Folk/Rock group
Strawbs

The Witchwood Badge pictured here
is now available worldwide through Paypal
You do not need a Paypal account to use this service

Prices including postage and packing are shown below and this depends on where you live. For single orders Please click on one of the three buttons according to your country of residence and then follow the steps, to order your badge

Additional badges (up to 5 ) with your order are charged at UK £2.00.each and no additional packing or postage from that detailed in the buttons

If you require between 2 and 6 badges,rather than use the buttons please contact via -
http://www.myspace.com/nigelthebadge
stating your requirements

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UK Purchaser
£2.50 including post and packaging
CLICK BELOW

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Euro zone purchaser
£3.50 including post and packaging
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Worldwide purchaser including USA and Canada
£4.50 including post and packaging
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Homecoming...the video

Homecoming from Les Cotton on Vimeo.

Bjorn says:
Here is a song i wrote earlier this summer.Most of the pictures from Hestøysund/Helgeland in Norway.

Who did what -
Bjorn:
Electric & acoustic guitars
Les:
Jamstix Drums, Luxonic Bass program, Pianoteq Piano, Cakewalk SI Strings, Les Paul Lead Guitar via Toneport UX2 Dual Amp patch..also Mixing / Mastering
Peter:
Mellotron keys, Organ

...hope you enjoy
Bjorn, Les and Pete

Strawbs...40th Anniversary Weekend

40th ANNIVERSARY

TWICKENHAM, 12/13 SEP 2009
THE LIVE ROOM, TWICKENHAM STADIUM
South Stand, Twickenham Stadium
Rugby Road, Twickenham TW1 1DZ

• Rick Wakeman & Dave Cousins
• Electric Strawbs – current line-up
• Electric Strawbs – Heartbreak Hill line-up (including Andy Richards and Tony Fernandez)
• Electric Strawbs – Blue Angel line-up (including Blue Weaver and Brian Willoughby)
• Acoustic Strawbs (with Sonia Kristina guesting)
• Blue Angel Orchestra
• Cathryn Craig & Brian Willoughby
• Cry No More
• Fire
• Zeus
• John Ford
• The Strawberry Fools

NUMBER ONE !! We made it.....

The band I play with, Strawberry Fools, home-recorded a cover version this weekend while in Newbury..its now in the Soundclick Top Ten, please give it a listen, we might make Number 1 yet :) see -

Song: Scarborough Fair
Page: Strawberry Fools

Strawberry Fools are: Dave Claridge, Les Cotton, Ralph Tonge, Dick Greener, Peter Rand


Instruments
Acoustic Guitar/Backing Vocals - Dave Claridge
Bass - Les Cotton
Keyboards - Peter Rand
Lead Vocals - Ralph Tonge/Dick Greener

Cheers,
Les

StoxDvds...get them here !

DVD 1 - Brisca F1 Stock Car DVD 1986/87/2004

To watch a FREE Video Preview,
CLICK PLAY

Filmed by me on full size VHS camcorder, almost complete Belle Vue meeting, May 1986...Bobby Ball appeared
Highlights also of a Sheffield 1987 meeting
..and some later 2004 footage of the Heritage cars from new Belle Vue

Classic Radio...The Shoebox Tapes

Dishpointer...line up your Sat dish

Just choose your Satellite from the dropdown list, then enter your Postcode or town in the box below that -

The lost Stereo LP...found !

My previous post A Journey into Stereophonic Sound tells of my first experience of Stereo heard via an old (mid '60s) Vinyl Demo LP. I'm pleased to say I now have that recording, you can hear it all in the Player below...click the Play button -

Sharing a Multitrack project using Reaper

There's been some confusion about how to share a project amongst us using Reaper. I've come up with the method below.

Huge improvement in Filesize, 50mb instead of 500mb for a Project, with no perceivable quality drop...amazing.

====================================================

0. NEW DEFAULT PROJECT SETTINGS

File > Project Settings > Audio Settings > Audio format for new recordings:

Set to OGG VORBIS, and go with its defaults.

Click bottom right to SAVE AS DEFAULT PROJECT SETTINGS

1. EXPORTING A PROJECT

File > Consolidate/Export Tracks:

Ensure ENTIRE PROJECT is checked top left, choose CONSOLIDATE TO, and in the dropdown box, OGG VORBIS,

Leave at defaults (192khz etc).

In Output consolidated files to directory, click the Browse button, and choose or make a new Directory, maybe c:\audio\songname ... this will convert all individual tracks to OGG format, and also Save a reaper.rpp file, plus some peak files (not strictly needed, but OK to include).

Click the Process button.

2. ZIPPING & UPLOADING

To send on for mixing, close Reaper, and Browse to your directory c:\audio\songname ... highlight all the files there (Left-click once on 1st file, then hold down Shift key, and Left-click the Mouse on last file, all will be highlighted). Whilst they are ALL highlighted, Right-click once anywhere on the highlight, and choose SEND TO then COMPRESSED (zipped) FOLDER ... you will see the files being added to a ZIP file named like your files.

Go to -

www.sendspace.com

Click BROWSE there, find the ZIP file, click on it .. it appears in the box ready for Upload ... enter Recipients Email, tick box bottom left to agree terms, and click UPLOAD .... once done, a link is sent to the Recipient ready for Download, and also appears onscreen.

3. DOWNLOADING & IMPORTING A PROJECT

When Recipient has the File, he UnZips the contents to a Folder in his working Audio directory, then a simple left doubleclick on the SONGNAME.RPP file will load all tracks locally into his Reaper prog, maintaining all PAN / VOLUME etc settings, as seperate tracks.

All of the above also applies if you use the excellent FLAC format...just substitute FLAC in the dropdown menu instead of OGG ....filesize is roughly double that of OGG, but totally lossless.

================================================================

Hope this all makes sense ! As a Proof of Concept, here's my cover version of "Driver's Seat" project, play about with it as you wish, its at -

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ckf9ju

Why the name....Rocles ??

I get asked a lot...why the name Rocles? It goes back a long way, mid 90's...I am a licensed Radio Amateur, and way before the Internet, used to have a Packet Radio system. This was a very crude version of data transmission, where text, images, programs etc could be sent (VERY slowly!) via the radio airwaves wirelessly around the world. It used a system of "Nodes" each of which relayed to another, and another, forming a remote Network. Each Node needed an Alias. As I lived near ROChdale at the time, and i'm called LES, I put the two together, and ROCLES emerged :)

I've stuck with it as it sounds a bit musical (Roc/Rock..), so fits well with Home Recording....

So there you have it.......

Under The Covers

Some of my Home Recorded and performed
versions of my fav songs....
Click the iPod controls to play

Boof Boof Night

The Strawberry Fools perform "The Boof Boof Song", written and recorded using lyrics entirely supplied by our Comic Relief sponsors, on the night of 13MAR09. Thanks to all, we raised over 800 pounds...well done !

A Songwriting Challenge for Red Nose Day

As some of you may know, I play in a Strawbs Covers band called the Strawberry Fools. We try not to take ourselves to seriously :)As part of Red Nose Day in the UK, we have set up a challenge.....you pay money and supply us with words/phrases which we turn into a song over the weekend of 13th March (our next get together and rehearsal). It's all for an exceptionally good cause, and we get to play :)

Full details (and a video clip with ME looking confused ... ; ) at
http://www.myrednoseday.com/fools
thanks,
Les Cotton
http://www.strawberryfools.co.uk