Postcards from the Past

I'm indebted to my son-in-law for bringing the singer-songwriter and ace guitarist Michael Chapman to my attention. Somehow, despite the fact that he made several highly-praised albums, was a fixture of the late Sixties folk scene and moved on into prog rock, I never saw or heard him (well, I might have done - those were hazy times - but I have no memory of it). Unlike so many from that era, he's still going strong (at 75) and still exploring new musical territory. There's lots of impressive footage of him on YouTube, but it was Postcards of Scarborough, a track from way back, that caught my attention. It's a good, slightly poppy song, and I love those postcards - I remember Scarborough when it looked like that; in fact I remember those postcards. Many a happy boyhood holiday was spent there, with my brother and grandmother, who left us boys to our own amusements, playing the arcades, going to the cricket, wandering around town in our sports jackets and flannels, climbing up to the church and castle. How long ago it seems... Well, it was.