I'll be back... soon!

Normal service should be resumed within the next three weeks.
Thanks to everyone who has donated so far (you know who you are!) and thanks in advance to those who plan on donating - it has been a big help and I'm very grateful and touched by your support, understanding and generosity.
Many thanks! :)

All the best,
Cosmo!

Paypal donations... (aka SAVE THE COSMOBELLS!)

Got a load of financial problems and computer problems at the moment and so I've decided to follow a few other bloggers' lead and put a Paypal donations button on the site. It's purely a do-it-if-you-feel-like-it thing and nobody is forced to donate. I've had people leave comments over the last few years offering such donations but, until now, I've always gone against it. Now, though, I'm having tough times and so felt the need to accept donations in the hope of getting out of some of the financial mess I'm currently in and a few generous contributions should hopefully help, all being well, and go some way to getting the pc problems fixed and being able to use it properly again and continue with the site.

Thanks, in advance, for your understanding and hopefully CosmoBells will continue as normal in the near future!

Cheers,
Cosmo!

Computer problems

Tomorrow is CosmoBells' 2nd anniversary! Hoorah! :)
Unfortunately, my pc has practically died for the time being and so you won't be hearing from me until things are well and truly fixed. I'm doing this in safe mode at the moment!
Anyway, hopefully everything will be sorted within the next few days.
Until then...

All the best,
Cosmo!

Update:
Thanks for all the congrats, mates - very much appreciated! :)

Unfortunately, the pc has completely had it and am now waiting to get a new one. Hopefully this will happen within the next couple of weeks, all being well. Until then, there won't be any further updates on CosmoBells but please keep checking as I hope to be back soon.

Injection X feat. Jimmy Tarbuck - Tuckbar Fantasy

Continuing a theme started with Samplesonic, here's two superb slices of 80s influenced dance-electronica from Injection X featuring legendary new romantic Jimmy Tarbuck.

Injection X featuring Jimmy Tarbuck
Tuckbar Fantasy
Wokka Chokka Chum! Records
2009

1. Tuckbar Fantasy (5:13)
2. Tuckbar Dream (6:28)

25 mb
Encoded @ 320 kbps.

Samplesonic - Tarby's One-Joke Rave

Take my mother in law - I wish someone would! Ho ho! I wouldn't say it was a small town - but the speed limits are back to back! Ho ho! And errr.... Here we have the rather amusing Samplesonic classic "Tarby's One-Joke Rave" which features Scouse comedy legend Jimmy Tarbuck - or as Leslie Nielsen once called him - Mister Tuckbar raved up to the max. In this classic bit of frantic techno rave dance club gubbins, Tuckbar repeatedly tells the same joke over and over again to an easily pleased celebrity audience. You may see an allegory then, perhaps, that this particular track is saying that Tarby and his old school stand-up-comedy-a-likes lived off telling the same jokes over and over again. You may think that - but I couldn't possibly comment. Not that it matters - I never get sick of hearing the one about the great big fella at the airport who took his cases. Note that the original joke was not a "great big fella" but a "black fella" but by the mid-90s when Tarby told it again, he put a politically correct spin on things. And errrr...

There's actually a sort-of plot to this track. A bizarre plot - but a plot nonetheless. If you listen to "Tarby's One-Joke Rave", you'll notice that midway through the track (this applies to both 7" and 12" versions), there's a lot of strange, quite sinister and monstrous sounds. That is supposed to be Satan and his army of minions way down in the pits of Hell where Tarby has been sent! You see, that is what happens according to the script/plot: Tarby is happily telling the same joke over and over again to his easily pleased celebrity audience and then suddenly vanishes, being sent to hell for his crimes against light entertainment - only to be sent back to Earth to tell the same joke again and again because Satan can't bare hearing him any longer, preferring instead to punish viewers of An Audience With Jimmy Tarbuck instead. You might think that whole scenario I just mentioned are the utterings of a mad horse but I'm lead to believe it did actually happen.

I'll leave the last words to Tarby himself:
"I went to the duty free to buy the latest Des O'Connor album. I was served by a lady, it was highly embarassing - so I bought a packet of condoms instead!"

And errrr....

Samplesonic
Tarby's One-Joke Rave
Wokka Chokka Chum! Records
1995/2009

1. Tarby's One-Joke Rave (7" Version) (4:19)
2. Tarby's One-Joke Rave (12" Extended Version) (5:59)
3. Tarby's Last Joke (2:43)
4. Took My Cases (Steve Haw Remix) (10:31)
5. Ekoj Tsal S'ybrat (Injection X Remix) (7:56)

65 mb
Encoded @ 320 kbps.

Norrie Paramor - BBC Radio & TV Themes

Here's a classic previously ripped and uploaded on 55 Bells and ye olde Cosmoblog - an absolute must-own for tv/radio/library theme collectors. This incredibly rare and relatively obscure release from 1998 is a superb collection of light and easy music from one of the masters of the genre - Norrie Paramor. Norrie and his orchestra perform some great covers of classic BBC radio and tv themes (as the title obviosuly suggests). Personal fave tracks are Last Of The Summer Wine and the medley of classic BBC themes which consists of Pebble Mill At One, Dad's Army, Tomorrow's World and Match Of The Day.

For those wanting more of Norrie's easy listening pleasures, be sure to check out Norrie's brilliant Big Ben Banjo Band LP over at Slothy's Pigeon Shit.

Norrie Parimor
BBC Radio & TV Themes
Music Collection International
1998

1. The Archers (Barwick Green)
2. Ciccolino ("Call MY Bluff")
3. An Ordinary Copper ("Dixon Of Dock Green")
4. Softly Softly
5. The Onedin Line
6. Come Dancing
7. Marching Strings ("Top Of The Form")
8. Medley: Pebble Mill At One (As You Please), Dad's Army (Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?), Tomorrow's World, Match Of The Day
9. Music from the movies (Gaumont British News)
10. Today's Tonight ("Tonight")
11. March From A Little Suite ("Doctor Finlay's Case Book")
12. Film '74 (I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free))
13. Sleepy Shores (Theme From "Owen MD")
14. The Last Of The Summer Wine

80 mb
Ripped & encoded by X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut @ 320 kbps.

You Are Awful Vol.2 - Good Sport!

Here we have the second volume in the collectible You Are Awful novelty/comedy music compilation series. This one, as you can probably guess, focuses on sports records and/or records that had something at the very least to do with sports (often desperately so as you'll notice when hearing some of the tracks). A small number of tracks on here seem to be barrel scraping in terms of relevance to this particular compilation's "sports" subject or, indeed, to the You Are Awful series in general - but we don't let small nitpicks like that put us off now, do we? I mean, we have Carl Douglas' famous disco classic "Kung Fu Fighting" on here! Why?! Surely it doesn't really belong on a compilation of this nature. But then having said that, we also have his desperate cash-in follow-up "Dance The Kung Fu" - so I guess it makes sense!

Anyway, this is a worthy follow-up to the brilliant first volume and a lot more decent than the decidedly dodgy third volume and, as you can see from the tracklist, there's an absolute mixed bag of anything and everything on here - from tv/radio/library theme classics such as "Sportsnight", "Match Of The Day" and "Sports Line London", tributes to sporting heroes from the likes of Cy Grant, Chris Renshaw and Johnny Wakelin, novelty records from actual sportstars such as various football teams, cricket teams and old British wrestling stars, comedy records from the genius likes of Stanley Unwin, Spike Milligan and Dick Emery. Emery's "The Reddest Sports Car" barely qualifies as a sports record at all but is lovingly sublime all the same, performed as it is in the character of his famous "Oh You Are Awful!" character Mandy.

Plenty of footie songs on here including Orient FC's lovingly cliched "Football! Football!", Arsenal's even more lovingly cliched "Good Old Arsenal", the Kopites' "Liverpool We Love You" and Special mention must go to Everton's 1984 Cup Squad "Boys In Blue" with it's serious attempt at being less novelty and more "street cred" with it's danced up beat (can't remember it being a hit but it at least sounds like something which might have been at that time) and West Ham's gloriously reggaefied "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" (also covered here by the light and fluffy Anita Harris). We've also got a cover of the theme from Chariots of Fire from none other than Acker Bilk! Yeah, every sport seems to be covered - football, boxing, golf, tennis, running, horseracing, skateboarding and, of course, tulip tiptoeing. And, anyway, you can't knock anything that includes the splendid "Football Crazy" by The Spinners, the anthemic "Back Home" by the 1970 England World Cup Squad and the almost-anthemic-but-not-quite "Red Rose" by the Lancashire County Cricket Club! Enjoy!

Slightly interesting footnote: A fourth You Are Awful volume, entitled "Bizarre!" was to be released in 2003 but was cancelled. I have no idea what was going to feature on it but, judging from the title, it was possibly going to get more bizarre (just a wild guess)...

V/A
You Are Awful Vol.2 - Good Sport!
Sequel/Castle
2000
1 2 3 Download all 3 parts to unrar

CD1: "First Half"
1. Sportsnight - Hatch, Tony Orchestra
2. Sportsline London - London Brass
3. Red Rose - Lancashire County Cricket Team
4. King Cricket - Grant, C.Y.
5. Victory Test Match - Frank Holder's Calypso Time
6. Boxing Match - Black County Three
7. In Zaire - Wakelin, Johnny
8. Black Superman (Muhammed Ali) - Wakelin, Johnny & The Kinshasa Band
9. Rollerball Theme - Ainsworth, Alyn Orchestra
10. Tiptoe Through The Tulips - Gladiators
11. Dance The Kung Fu - Douglas, Carl
12. Best In Football - Hatch, Tony Orchestra
13. Football Crazy - Spinners
14. I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles - Harris, Anita
15. Liverpool We Love You - Kopites
16. World Cup Willie - Donegan, Lonnie
17. Back Home - England 1970 World Cup Squad
18. Puppet On A String - England 1970 World Cup Squad
19. Boys In Blue - Everton Cup Squad '84
20. Football Football - Orient FC
21. Chariots Of Fire - Bilk, Acker & Strings
22. Red Rums Song - Robin, Christopher & Alice & Ted
23. Night At The Races - Horsepower
24. Olympics Song (1936) - Various Artists
25. Golfers Guide - Lotis, Dennis

CD2: "Second Half"
1. Olympicold BC - Unwin, Stanley
2. Olympic team - Milligan, Spike & John Bluthall
3. Match of the day - Offside
4. Top score - Melody Maker All Stars
5. Ballad of David Hughes - Twelfth Man
6. Constantine calypso - Grant, C.Y.
7. Kung fu fighting - Douglas, Carl
8. When we go in the ring - Gladiators
9. Sugar sugar - England 1970 World Cup Squad
10. Ob la di ob la da - England 1970 World Cup Squad
11. I'm forever blowing bubbles - West Ham United FC
12. Football mad - Boleyn Boys
13. Good old Arsenal - Arsenal 1st Team Squad
14. My Liverpool - Kop Unlimited Orchestra
15. My world is a football - Thompson, Bruce
16. Banksie - Renshaw, Chris & The Keepers
17. Reddest sports car - Emery, Dick
18. Skate city - Daffy Duck
19. Skateboard honeymoon - Daffy Duck
20. Argentina heroes (we're on our way) - Daffy Duck
21. Eton boating song - Sylvester, Victor Orchestra
22. Camptown races - Donegan, Lonnie
23. Tennis player - Rugolo, Pete
24. Sports special - Military Blues & Royal
25. Mexico (underneath the Sun In) - Long John Baldry

203 mb
Ripped & encoded by X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut @ 192 kbps.

By the way: Apologies for all the spelling mistakes in the mp3 tags - that's what I get when I do a quick autotag and rush out a post! I only just noticed them. Sorry, mates! ;)

Samplesonic/Injection X - Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?

Here we have the original Samplesonic 1994 remix of Highly Likely's theme song to the classic 70s sitcom Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? that starred James Bolam and Rodney Bewes, backed with a totally storming, brand new 2009 Injection X ultra high injection remix.

Samplesonic/Injection X
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?
Wokka Chokka Chum! Records
1994/2009

1. The Bolam Side:
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?
"Highly Likely Mix" (3:01) by Samplesonic
2. The Bewes Side:
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?
"Highly Unlikely Mix" (15:25) by Injection X

37 mb
Encoded @ 320 kbps.

Injection X - Carpet City EP

New York City?
Mexico City?
London City?
Nooooo! It's Carpet City!
Injection X is back with the Carpet City EP!

Injection X
Carpet City EP
Wokka Chokka Chum! Records
2009

1. Carpet City (3:17)
2. East Midlands Regional Examination Board Mode 1 CSE German 1980 Oral Test (5:30)
3. You're Moving Out Today (Electrovolts Mix) (3:59)
4. Postman Pat loop (1:18)
5. Beat Of Your Heart (Heartless Remix) - featuring Rod, Jane & Freddy (3:30)
6. Beyond Carpet City (5:50)

50 mb
Encoded @ 320 kbps.