#maker uk

Richard Sharp, played by Sean Bean in the TV series, based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell.

Sharp is depicted with the French Imperial Eagle. The original design of the Eagle was by Antoine Denis Chaudet. They featured the regimental number, in this instance that of the Imperial Guard. With the restoration of the French monarchy all Imperial Eagles were ordered to be destroyed and only a few survived. Ironically, the best chance of survival for the Eagles was by being captured ! An Imperial Eagle can be viewed in the National Army museum, which was captured at Waterloo in 1815 by Captain A.K. Clark of the Royal Dragoons.

Some models of Union soldiers, from Alexander’s Toy Soldiers.

Stunning set #826 by Tradition of London depicting the moments event that took place in the Forest of Compiegne on the 11th November 1918. The set includes all six signatories that ushered in the ceasefire of WW1.

Three new releases by the traditional toy maker, Little Legion, in the older gloss finish style.

24th Foot

13th Indian Lancers

Set number #2009, from the Premier range of Charles Biggs. A set of 2 coloured infantrymen with machine gun.

Who’d like an online Album Of The Year poll…?

Certainly not Plunger, as you can’t trust people to vote the right way in any thing these days.

So while others will be all over the web asking for your opinion (and more importantly bumping up their site traffic) we’ve saved you all the effort of thinking (and the pain of being flat-out wrong) and picked the four* top albums released this year: no quibbles, no debate.

And (strictly in order of their release) here they are, with a bit of what we said about them at the time:

Dead Ends & Avenues - Maker

“… alright, it’s a fair cop… Plunger have stretched the Sweeney gags to breaking point over Maker in the past but their debut album Dead Ends & Avenues is a serious piece of work that deserves a more serious, mature approach. So here goes… Fuck, this is brilliant! Buy it now! What? You want more? With a down-and-dirty-dozen tracks Dead Ends & Avenues firmly establish Maker’s credentials as one of the most accomplished and exciting bands around today: no hype, no hyperbole. Topping and tailing the album are the choppy riffing and complex rhythms of opener Soul, building to a Who-style epic progression with very Moonish, always busy, drumming and a headlong rush to a dead stop, and to finish a sophisticated southern reworking/reprise of the same in (A Little Bit Of) Soul, a final chance to marvel at ‘one of the best voices on any scene’ (©Plunger) topped with more sweet slide and slick harmonies, and an enigmatic hanging chord close. They may have taken their time getting here (with a couple of false starts) but it’s been worth the wait. 2018 may only be a third of the way through but Plunger guarantee you won’t hear a better British album released this year.. and we’re equally sure there’ll be very few that equal it.”

Thrust - DeWolff

“More than Plunger could have hoped for comes in three more laid-back tracks: Once In A Blue Moon conjures a mellow late-Beatles-meets-Atlanta-Rhythm-Section vibe, smooth soulful vocal and lush harmonies spiced with flaring organ and Harrisonesque bittersweet guitar, and an impassioned vox, piano and mellotron coda; Outta Step & Ill At Ease mines a plangent Parsons-meets-The-Eagles country seam with piano and sublime vintage twin-guitar harmony lines as well as lovely a cappella harmonies; and the exquisite Freeway Flight sees fragile vulnerable vox backed with more thrilling harmonies and twangsome baritone guitar in a reds-haze Gram-style waltz, before blossoming into slick jazzy ABB swing, complete with unison organ and guitar phrases à la Les Brers, and a brief psychedelic wig out to close. So luckily we haven’t covered our keyboard in drool in vain. Although DeWolff are still only in their twenties, playing together for eleven years means they’re synchromesh tight. And they’ve acquired the maturity to combine their disparate influences into a cohesive whole: for all the references above they take those elements and make them their own (apart from Tragedy? Not Today which really is pure Joe Walsh…) Hats off to Mascot for signing a band that probably doesn’t have the immediate mass market appeal, tattoos or ironic trilbies of some others: it’s almost like the good old days of labels taking a punt on quality!”

High Water I - The Magpie Salute

“Although the original touring line-up has been pared down to a six-piece (Rich Robinson, Marc Ford, Sven Pipien. vocalist John Hogg, keyboardist Matt Slocum and drummer Joe Magistro) they still produce a wide ranging sonic palette: the varied styles linked thematically by an idealistic outlook and musically by an immediacy and vitality that’s refreshing. Another link is an underlying trippiness, most evident in Plunger’s favourite two tracks: a spare acoustic line and bare-bones drum beat introduce Open Up, intensifying as bass and piano join the unison riff to propel the smooth but intense hallucinatory vocals, then blossoming into an ecstatic Crosby/Nash harmony exhortation to “open up” climaxing in acidic (in both senses) guitar. The expansive title track reeks of San Fran swirling trippiness, with eastern-flavoured open string acoustic drone, dreamy phased lead vox and piano accents heightening the 60s Haight Ashbury vibe, leading to a marvellous stinging Stills/Crosbyesque electric and acoustic guitar cross-noodling finale. The Magpie Salute have produced a shoo-in for one of the top five albums of 2018, and probably have a lock on 2019 too with High Water II scheduled for release next year.”

Jawbone - Jawbone

“Listening to the disc what is remarkable is the fidelity to the live performance: a splash of added horn here, an overdub guitar texture there, but what you hear is pretty much what you get on stage, a testament to how polished the band are in the flesh (with the vocal harmonies particularly impressive). Repeat listens highlight how well-crafted the songs are: deceptively simple tunes are highly memorable ear worms, with pleasingly intricate arrangements and intelligent lyrics that are now witty, now wistful, from the tube station pun-laden Rolling On The Underground and the ironic hymn to London in Big Old Smoke, to the warm camaraderie of Sit Round The Table and the nostalgic glow of The Years Used To Mean So Much. Plunger are always banging on about 70s polish, and there’s bags of it here: enough to make the whole album a soundtrack for a Vanishing Point-style road movie (replacing the deserts of Nevada and Colorado with those of Neasden and Cricklewood). A nailed-on candidate for top ten albums of the year, there’s nothing flash or brash here, but with a band of this consummate quality and ability there’s no need for shouting or posturing.”

Discussion over, you can thank us later.