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FEATURE MUSIC

There's just a few weeks until your dear little demons go back to school – so now's your opportunity to squish in some of that wholesome fam connection time, via the magic of vinyl! Words Zoë Radas WITH THE KIDS

FLEETWOOD MAC Rumours (1977) On the inside gatefold of the album, you can spy two gentlemen penguins having a chat. Penguins are the favourite animal of Fleetwood Mac band member John McVie; can you see any evidence of this in any of the album art's photographs? If you have any other Fleetwood Mac albums in your collection, take a look inside their gatefolds. Can you find any more penguins?

I f you haven’t already, start with the basics: Show your kids how to carefully remove a record from its sleeve, and place it on the player without grubbying its surfaces. If they‘re old

enough, get your young'uns comfortable with handling the stylus of your record player; challenge them to lift and place the needle based on a clue about a song they love: “Play the track which has the lyrics:

‘Thunder only happens when it's raining‘!“ Here are some other activity ideas for kids and teens, with records you'll all love ranging from a couple of classics to some more recent belters.

OLIVIA RODRIGO GUTS (2023) Once you listen to the lyrics of GUTS track get him back! , you realise that the song title has two meanings. When you first saw the song title, which meaning did you initially see? Why do you think you understood it that way? Rodrigo chose a purple theme colour for this album, which is a similar shade to her debut SOUR (2021), but a little darker. What do you think the colour signifies to the artist? Which songs do you think illustrate Rodrigo's 'darker' lyrical ideas (in comparison to others on GUTS , or if you know them, the tracks on her debut)?

THE BEATLES 1962-1966 (The Red Album) and

1967- 970 (The Blue Album), reissued 2023 These two albums have unofficial 'coloured' names: Red and Blue. The Beatles have another unofficially-named album which follows this trend, released in 1968. Can you name it? Can you think of any other albums (by any artist) which have unofficially 'coloured' names?

TAYLOR SWIFT folklore (2020) Taylor Swift co-wrote and co-produced many of folklore 's songs with her long time collaborator Jack Antonoff, and also several songs with a musician with whom she'd never worked in The National's Aaron Dessner. But there's only one song on folklore which was produced by both Antonoff and Dessner. Can you find which one it is? The track Exile is a co-written duet between Swift and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). Vernon is also credited as contributing “pulse” to one other song – which is it? Listen to the track – do you think it is Vernon's actual pulse (or heartbeat), or do you think 'pulse' refers to another element within the track?

The Beatles split up 54 years ago, but they maintain a popularity unlike any other band in history. Why do you think that is?

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