My Vinyl Revolution

06/09/2026

- loads to choose from today at Newtown Record Fair - upstairs Discopolis - downstairs with Dorian Dobrovic + Betty Page + Peter Pasqual

04/09/2026

Extreme heat can be dangerous for dogs long before many people realize it. On very hot days, a simple walk can become exhausting, and for stray animals, working dogs, or pets whose owners are far from home, finding clean water can be difficult.

That is why public water stations designed for animals can make such a meaningful difference. Placed in parks, along walking routes, near transit areas, or in neighborhoods with little shade, they could give thirsty dogs access to fresh water when temperatures become dangerously high.

The idea sounds simple because it is.

Dogs cannot tell us when they are becoming dehydrated. They cannot walk into a store and buy a bottle of water. They depend entirely on people to notice when the heat is becoming too much and to make sure they have somewhere safe to cool down.

Public water stations would not replace responsible ownership. People still need to carry water, avoid walking dogs during the hottest part of the day, protect their paws from hot pavement, and never leave animals in parked cars. But shared water access could provide an extra layer of protection, especially during heat waves.

It could also help more than just family pets. Stray dogs, community animals, service dogs, and dogs accompanying people experiencing homelessness may all benefit from having reliable places to drink.

Of course, any public system would need regular cleaning and maintenance so the water remained safe. But with sensible planning, something as basic as a bowl of fresh water could become part of how a city protects animals during extreme weather.

We often think animal welfare requires huge rescue operations or dramatic interventions.

Sometimes it is much simpler.

Sometimes it is shade.

Sometimes it is water.

And sometimes caring for animals means designing our communities with their needs in mind too.

04/09/2026

This week is Erasure’s 41st anniversary because it marks the international release and radio debut of their very first single, "Who Needs Love Like That," in early September 1985.

"Who Needs Love Like That" is the debut single of English synthpop duo Erasure. The song was released in the UK on Mute Records in 1985 as a prelude to their debut album, Wonderland (1986). The accompanying music video was directed by John Scarlett Davies and produced by Nick Verden for Aldabra.

While the original 1985 release enjoyed only minor success, the later "Hamburg Mix" version (issued in 1992 to promote the Pop! compilation) reached the top 10 in both the UK and Ireland.

"Who Needs Love Like That" is an uptempo pop song written by Vince Clarke. The lyrics are a cast-off to a destructive love relationship, in which the protagonist asks "who needs love like that?"

The music video takes place in a mock Western, with Clarke, Andy Bell and various extras dressed as cowboys. Both Bell and Clarke appear in dual roles, the others being woman's drags.

Upon its release, the song spent two weeks in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 55. In 1992, the song was remixed and tacked on to the end of Erasure's greatest hits collection Pop! The First 20 Hits (although in the US it only appears on the cassette release).

The "Hamburg Mix" (slightly retitled to put "Like That" in parentheses) was released as a single and became a Top 10 UK hit, peaking at number ten.

04/09/2026

Long before millions of grieving pet owners knew the words Rainbow Bridge, they belonged to one heartbroken 19-year-old girl and the dog she could not imagine living without.

His name was Major.

In 1959, Edna Clyne was living near Inverness, Scotland, when her beloved Labrador Retriever died. Major was the first dog who had truly been hers, and their bond was unusually close. When his life ended, Edna was holding him in her arms.

The next day, she was still overwhelmed with grief.

Her mother saw how badly she was hurting and suggested that she try putting those feelings onto paper.

So Edna sat down and began to write.

What emerged was a vision of a peaceful place where beloved animals wait until the people who loved them arrive, allowing them to eventually continue their journey together. She called it Rainbow Bridge.

Edna never planned to make it famous.

She eventually typed a few copies for friends who had been moved by her words. Crucially, she did not put her name on them. The copies were passed from person to person, slowly separating the poem from the young woman who had written it.

Then, in 1994, Rainbow Bridge appeared in Dear Abby.

The column reached an estimated 100 million readers, but there was a problem. Nobody seemed to know who had written the words that were making so many grieving pet owners cry. Dear Abby even asked readers to help identify the author.

Decades passed.

Then art historian and author Paul Koudounaris began investigating.

His search eventually led him back to Scotland and Edna Clyne-Rekhy. When he contacted her in 2023, she was 82 and still had something extraordinary in her possession.

The original handwritten page from 1959.

For more than six decades, countless grieving people had found comfort in words written by someone whose name they never knew.

And those words had begun not with fame, publishing or an audience.

They began with a 19-year-old girl missing her Labrador.

Sometimes something written for one dog becomes a way for millions of people to remember their own.

04/09/2026

04/09/2026

Opening night features $1 along with live performances from & .thorpe.music!

The historic Carlisle Castle Hotel was one of Newtown's classic, no-frills classic Aussie-style pubs, but it desperately needed a fresh coat of paint. Earlier this year it was announced that the pub would change hands for the first time in 60 years, being picked up by Universal Hotels.

They're the team behind , so they know how to make a pub operate without gimmicks. They're promising a focus on community, local beers, and quality pub-grub, which are all things they've done well at the Bat and Ball... and opening night is this Friday!

Find them at 17-19 Albermarle St in Newtown

04/09/2026

Months after suffering a terrifying stroke, his voice will be back on the radio.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9343081/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Post

04/09/2026

LOVE Candi Staton 💖

She survived five ab*sive marriages before a three-minute song changed her life forever. "It came from the bottom of my spirit," she said. "My soul."

Candi Staton was singing gospel by age eleven.

Touring with a trio. Big stages. No pay.

She married young. The first of five marriages.

Several of them turned violent. One husband threatened, if she ever left, to k*ll her and everyone else's along with it.

She stayed stuck for years in a controlling, restrictive world, long sleeves, no makeup, a household run entirely by fear.

By the '70s, she'd broken through commercially anyway. Hits recorded at Alabama's legendary FAME Studios.

Then, one afternoon, producer David Crawford handed her a piece of paper.

He'd told a friend earlier that morning he was writing her "a song that's gonna last forever."

She read the lyrics.

She realized immediately what she was holding.

"It was my life story in three minutes," she said.

They recorded it once.

A single take.

"You sung it the way it needs to be sung," Crawford told her.

"It came from the bottom of my spirit," she said. "My soul."

"Young Hearts Run Free" hit number one on the R&B chart in 1976.

Decades later, it's been used in film, television, even featured on "The Crown." The LGBTQ community adopted it as an anthem of its own, a song about walking away from love that costs you everything.

Staton kept surviving. She battled alcoh*lism alongside the ab*se. She eventually walked away from a fifth marriage, again citing both physical and emotional ab*se, in 2012.

She spent twenty years afterward singing gospel almost exclusively, stepping back from the secular world that had once made her famous, before eventually returning to both.

She's released 27 albums across six decades. She founded an organization, A Veil of Silence, specifically to help other victims of domestic violence find a way out.

Still recording new music into her eighties.

A song written about her pain, without her even realizing it at first.

A woman who turned three minutes of music into a lifeline for millions of people living the exact same story.

04/09/2026

04/09/2026

Digging to vinyl sound. There is nothing like it. Do it this Fathers Day at Newtown Record Fair - Sunday 6 September 2026 from 12. Newtown Record Fair