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A small diversion from music at the moment. Let me first wish all my blog readers a happy new year. I thought it would be a good idea to bring the new year in with some humour. I was recently looking through old videos of my daughter, and one of those was the first tape I ever made of her. There were a number of clips on the vid that still make me laugh out loud, so I thought I'd put those moments on youtube for all to see, and hopefully to be as amused as I was.

She was enjoying her solids now, so we were experimenting with different foods to see whether she liked the different flavours. At the festive end of her first year, I fed her some Nectarine, with hilarious results. Each mouthful gave her a kick, but she loved every bit. Having that on camera is a blessing. I laugh every time I watch it.

Here's a summary video on my Jeffhasspoken channel:

NECTARINES!!

Now for more about my dad.

My Dad part 11

I said previously that my father was an alcoholic. That was to be the key component in dismantling his relationship with Sheila. The two children adored him, but Sheila was getting fed up with the other alcoholics that he brought into the house. One of those was a guy affectionately called Bernie. Another was called Adam. Bernie died from alcohol related things a few years ago. He was a staunch Manchester city football supporter. He even managed to persuade Sheila's son Kashif into his sporting passion. My father wasn't the biggest of men. I'd say he was 5 foot 5 inches tall and very slim. I recall a chat with Bernie during one of his many drunken moments. Where the conversation started evades me, but he started talking about how he could easily take me down at any time (in a violent sense). The likelihood of that was so remote, considering he was so drunk and could hardly even walk, and I was the sober one. His suggestion amused me, but my father was less than impressed having overheard the conversation. Dad rushed in the living room in rage and put one hand around Bernie's throat and physically lifted him off the ground with one hand telling him "Never, ever threaten my son". I was quite surprised because Bernie probably weighed more that 12 stone, and my dad was only about 9 stone. It's amazing what strength adrenaline conjours up. The other alcoholic friend of my father's that I got to know was Adam. He was a guy that could handle his drink. A Scotsman that totally enjoyed a good debate. Especially with me. It didn't matter what your opinion was about anything, he would always find another way to look at it. Talking with him was entertaining. The last I heard, he was still alive. I also heard that he had given up the drink. That's fortunate for him. When I knew Adam he had a partner, who was also a lover of alcohol. I got a call from the police one morning, telling me that they were holding my father and Adam for an alleged rape of Adam's partner. Knowing my father, that was highly unlikely, and it later transpired that Adam's partner had a habit of accusing people of rape. Those are the people that make life more difficult for the genuine rape victims. That's just another one of those gifts from alcohol. It can make you do the strangest things.

To be continued.....

Here's the regular Youtube statistics digest.

I now have 1,109 subscribers.

The Jeffstunes channel has now been viewed 25,766 times.

My overall video views is fast approaching half million at 470,388.

The next of my video uploads is another funny clip from my daughter's first year. That's about it for the moment.

On to video 89.

The title of this one is "Beautiful freak" and it comes off the album of the same name which was put out in 1996 by the band "The Eels". It is an album that I've always loved. I think their lyrics are brilliant and the style of the music at the time was pretty current. I've got my eye on covering another one of the songs off the album. I've kept the basic melody the same. I've just used different instruments. This is the result of my efforts:

Jeff Edwards singing Beautiful Freak

Now for the continuation of my dad's story.

My dad part 10.

When I finally caught up with my dad, he was involved in a relationship with a lady called Sheila, who was the mother of two children called Sima and Kashif. All I know is that she originated from Tiger bay in Wales, although she was certainly had an Asian heritage. Sima and Kashif had great affection for my father. I thought the relationship between him and Sheila was a little odd, although that may just have been how I was looking at it at the time. There was some criticism of the relationship from family, but as far as I was concerned, if it made him happy then everything was ok. I have always believed that people have a right to live their life the way they want to, and make friends with people that they like themselves. Sheila and her children lived in a Town called Southall on the outskirts of london with their scatty dog Ruffles. For those who don't already know. The population in southall is mostly Asian. I experienced a number of negative comments toward those Asians in southall from my father. You could be fooled into thinking he was bigoted. Yet he was having a relationship with one. One possibility was that this was something that was drummed into him by those around him in his life, but it didn't seem likely, knowing his personality. He was proud to walk in the street with Sheila and her children, as was I.

It is more likely that his disdain for the Asians in Southall was more to do with the walks he took with the family he lived with, because he told me on several occasions about the dirty looks and insults he received from Asians in the street because he was with an Asian woman. That is something I experienced too. Just from walking with them. So if any racism existed in this vicious arena then it wasn't coming from my father's side. It was actually coming from the Asians who were horrified to see a white person walking with Asians as a family. How narrow minded. My father was human just like them. Only they were blessed with a good natural tan. :)

To be continued......

I got out the feather duster and started to do something with my Myspace page. Seeing as it's been sitting there for a few years now. I thought I'd let people know it's there :) So here it is if you want to add me:

Jeff Edwards Myspace page

I've been sitting in the corner on Facebook for a few years as well. When I first joined up, it was a very quiet place. Not like now :) I'll broadcast that too. Here it is:

Jeff Edwards Facebook page

Now some more Youtube numbers.

My Subscribers have raced forward to 1,061.

The channel views are up at 24,867 and the total viewings for all my videos are 442,298.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing for my next video yet. I would like to do the other Eels track I wanted to do, but who knows.

Now to the 88th video. This time I'm singing Lost by Coldplay. More than 10 subscribers have rquested this song of me so I thought it would be a good time to do it.

Check it out:

Jeff Edwards singing Lost by Coldplay

I'm going to continue my father's story in the next post, because I remembered something quite interesting and topical that I wanted to get out now. If you are in the UK then you may know about a TV programme called "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here". One of the celebrities in the show is a man called "David Van Day". I first noticed he was in it when I was visiting a friend. My friend enquired who he was. I told him that he used to be in a group called Dollar, who had some success in the eighties, and that I didn't think too highly of him.

My opinion was based on one of my experiences as a teenager. When I was about 17 I worked in a shop called CRS (Co-operative Retail Services) in Uxbridge. During my lunch I popped into WH Smith to buy a few records. One of them being a song called Videotheque by Dollar. It was just pure chance that David Van Day and Therese Bazaar walked in whilst I was buying. Both halves of Dollar. They happened to be there to sign copies of their new release, Videotheque. David was vertically challenged, and Therese was even shorter than him. She moved up the counter to me and picked up the records I was buying, complimenting me on my musical taste. Then we had a little chat. David was getting increasingly bothered by the lack of attention for him, and asked her to hurry up. So she asked me for my name and signed it with love, and then shoved the record in front of David, saying "Sign it".

I paid for my discs, said my goodbye's and went back to work. Therese smiled and bid me goodbye, and David said nothing. My impression of him was that he was quite selfish.

I've seen him on "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here" and it looks like he hasn't changed much at all. Therese made time for people. I think she enjoyed the conversation, and that made me feel happy.

It's time for some more Youtube information.

I've cracked it. The 1k sub mark has been passed, and I'm now at 1020.

There are 24,010 channel views and my total video viewings are 414,193.

I haven't yet planned my next vid, but it's probably going to be another cover. There's also another duet with Kareneng coming up soon :)

Here is the second of two collaborations with "Ulf Pettersson". That excellent Swedish composer. It's entitiled "I wanna see". I wasn't being serious when I wrote this song. It was a bit of a subtle parody, but then Ulf heard it and loved it. He asked me if he could do his own arrangement of the music. I was fascinated to see what he would come up with and this is the result. I think it beats my original music hands down.

As with the previous 4 songs. This one does not feature on my album "Sight Or Sound".

I look forward to possibly getting involved in a few more collabs with ulf. He is a musician I have a lot of respect for. Ulf also likes a lot of what i do, but we are both currently bogged down with other things to do. I'm beavering away with my own music, and Ulf is involved in composing for TV and Film. It's likely that you might have heard something by him without even knowing it :)

Check out "I wanna see":

I wanna see - Jeff Edwards and Ulf Pettersson

Now for the next episode of events from my fathers life.

My Dad. Part 9.

I think I pointed out previously that my father knew some less than upstanding individuals. I made a good number of friends myself before he came into my life, and before I even knew he existed. It transpired that there was a possibility that some of the friends I made might not have been purely by chance. I always treat people as I find them. If they are civil to me, then I will be civil to them. Some of my friends advised me more than once that I should avoid mixing with some of the people I met. Though whilst I went around with them, there was never any trouble. Not in my company. I came to realise that a number of people showed fear towards certain friends of mine. That's something I never felt. They never gave me any reason to fear, and to be honest with you. I wasn't afraid of much at all. I was of the mind that if something bad came along, you dealt with it. There's no point worrying about the prospect. It turned out that my father knew all of those questionable individuals. Even some of those I'd worked with when I left school.

For legal reasons, this next bit is officially alleged. It's a tale from Cowgate road. This is something that my father recounted. He can't be sued because he is now dead. He wanted me to tell this. You may well have heard of the welsh singing star "Tom Jones". Well it involves him. I think most of you know who he is. I was told that he had sexual intercourse with a girl that was only 14 years old in the field next to Cowgate Road. She became pregnant. The child was lost and the girl died from leukemia not long after. Whether she was willing or not, that kind of act was illegal by English law. I don't know if this story is known at all. It's quite astonishing in my eyes. Maybe not unusual for the 60's. He was most definitely an adult at the time. It may not come as any surprise that certain members of my family are not very keen on Tom Jones.

To be continued.......

There's been a good deal of interest in my album release. It's still being rolled out to internet shops, and wont be available in all of them for a couple of months. Though it's already on CDBaby, Amazon and Itunes. You can check out some of the songs on my website at:

Jeff Edwards official website

There's a link to Ulf's site and you'll also find some free song downloads there too!!

The youtube statistics section now.

The subs are almost there. Tantalisingly close to the 1k mark at 992.

The visitors to my channel now count 23,296, and the total overall video views are 397,648. They've increased their daily rate over the last few days.

And finally....

That's the batch of originals out of the way. Now for a few cover songs. The first of the cover songs will be "Lost" by "Coldplay". Quite a few people have asked me to do that one.

This is number four out of five original songs on the bounce. This was originally an instrumental written by the extremely talented Swedish musician "Ulf Pettersson". The first time i heard it, I imagined vocals blending into it. I told Ulf about this, and suggested that I try my ideas out. He was curious to see the results. Ulf wasn't a stranger to my own compositions. In fact he liked quite a few of them. The song in the next post is one of mine that Ulf worked on. For now though, this one is called "Swings and roundabouts". There are some good points about being involved in a relationship. There are also some good points to being single. Some of those don't mix, and this is the view of someone facing that dilemma in a relationship.

This is what we came up with.

Jeff Edwards and Ulf Pettersson - Swings and roundabouts

You can find a link to Ulf's website on my own website at:

Jeff Edwards Official website

Back to the next part of my father's story.

My Dad. Part 8.

I wasn't aware of my dad's dependancy on alcohol when i first came across him. I should have really recognised it by the nickname that everybody had for him, "Woodsy". At the time I didn't even think about what it meant. Eventually I discovered that it was after the drink "Woods Navy Rum". Rum was his favourite tipple, though I think anything with a decent amount of alcohol in it would have done. So that's how I finally found him. Before the knowledge of his exploits. A lot of people might frown upon his life, and yes, he did some bad things. The one thing that cannot be denied is that he was biologically my father. I will never be ashamed to call him that. He was one of the two that made it possible for me to live.

During the sixties, drink was flowing freely, and so were drugs. Drugs were not my Dad's choice of vice. Drink won that hands down. He did however try a few things out, and did take part in sessions of drug taking, mainly in an effort to be in with the crowd. Most drugs on offer were only ever tried once by my father, but smoking pot was something he did more than a few times. There was a time when we were watching a movie where there was a pot smoking session in a private room. My father had a wry smile at that scene. He recounted the times when the rolling stones were doing exactly the same thing in his mothers bedroom. With the Rolling Stones. Somehow that story is believable :) In a small twist. One of those members lives only a few miles from where I live.

My nan would have been horrified. She knew absolutely nothing about those events. She adored her son, and would refuse to beleive such a thing. The rest of the family knew what he was like, but she just wouldn't have it.

In the next post I reveal something my dad told me about a certain celeb. It was a tale that shocked me. Tom Jones fans look away. That's all I am going to say right now.

To be continued.......

Here's how it's all going on Youtube.

Only 25 subscribers to get to 1k now. The current figure is 975.

There has been 22,848 visits to my channel.

The sum total of my video views is 387,663.

One more bonus stat. 5,952 comments on all of my videos, and that doesn't include any of my own comments.

The last of the chain of 5 originals is another collaboration with Ulf Pettersson. Plus some facts about Ulf's place in the music industry.