The Afterword

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Stockholm – 2018 update?

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Morning all I’m off to Stockholm for the weekend a week on Friday, with my mate Phil, seeing our beloved Hooters on the Saturday night in Uppsala. (Well, it makes a change from Germany.) We had some great tips for activities and bars/restaurants from a thread in 2018, I was wondering if anything has changed much since? We’ll almost certianly go to the Vasa museum, possibly Sunday, but any hot tips for eats/drinks for the 2 nights (Friday/Sunday) we’ll have there? (Return flight is a sobering 07.15 from ARN on Monday) Any top bars to recommend (in either place)? We’re both ageing rockers and beer drinkers, does Stockholm have any good “rock” and/or “craft beer” type bars? (We went to HopDog in Munich last year before the gig, which ticked both boxes at once!) Are any of the “free” guided walking tours especially good/worthwhile? (I’m not a great fan of aimless wandering…) Etc etc. Thanks in advance.

Sports people who are also musicians

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I’ve been a big ice hockey fan in Nottingham for a few years now, and this year, we have had the pleasure of watching Mitch Fossier play all season. As it turns out, objectively, one of the best players in the league. The rumour though, is that he’s contemplating given up playing pro sport to “concentrate on his music” (if you’ll forgive the Friends analogy). There’s not much about his music online, it seems, but his 2023 album is on Spotify and that fruit based one. Think wistful Americana, and you’ll not be far wrong. In the later 90s, Kraig Nienhuis also played hockey in Nottingham, at the tail end of a long career including games played for the Boston Bruins, and also had a sideline in strumming and humming etc, I even went to see him play a gig in town that season, with a young lady I totally failed to get off with.

Any other pro-sports playing/part-time musician based crossovers anyone knows of, or has any experience of, oh Massive?

To my eternal shame, I did not know that. What else don’t I know?

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Watching TOTP2 (I think) the other day, I happened across early 90s banger Naked in the Rain, by Blue Pearl. Choon, as it happens. Turns out, little did I know, that Blue Pearl were not a contrived early 90s house cash-in studio act, but were in fact (mainly) Youth out of Killing Joke and vocalist Durga McBroom, who is known to me not in this guise, but as the long time backing vocalist for late era Pink Floyd, along with her equally fantastically christian-named sister Lorelei (and Sam Brown).

So, Massive, what else don’t I know that I really ought to?

ATM – Apple Car Play cables

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I expect this has a certain poster here firmly in mind, but I’m at my wit’s end (or wits’ end?) with this particular first world problem.

I have a 2022 Kia Sportage (newest shape). It has wired Apple Car Play, which works very nicely, but…

The only cable I can find that reliably works all the time is an actual Apple OEM cable. All others (from Poundshop to Amazon quite expensive) either don’t work at all, or result in Car Play working for any time between 2 minutes and 1 hour plus, then suddenly just switching off, and it reverts to the Bluetooth connection. Re-plug it in and it reverts to working, but for shorter periods… The issue is of course, that Apple cables in that environment last about a a month before the plastic coating frays and it starts to fall apart. At Apple Shop prices, that’s expensive.

So, my questions are…

Can I trust the “Genuine Apple cables” on ebay for a fiver or better? What makes the cables so blinking special? Is there a recommended and reasonable priced third party alternative cable?

I have been told there are such things as “Wireless Car Play converters” (plug into » Continue Reading.

Queensryche – the 30 ish th anniversary box sets

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80s metal gets a look in on here now and again, but rarely the US version. My self isolation has enabled me to finish what I started a while back. Here goes…

It’s 1988. I’m 20 years old, in the middle of my degree at Leeds University, pre middle aged spread, a full head of somewhat wild dark ginger hair, the best mates in the world, and, most unbelievably, a gorgeous girlfriend, who seems to enjoy my company as much as I do hers. I’d heard of this band called Queensryche (wish I knew how to put an umlaut over the Y like there’s supposed to be) having bought their first 2 albums and noted that if you could forgive the fairly bonkers name, they made a great noise to my ears. Smarter than your average metal band. Little was I prepared, like most people it seems, for the third album. I bought it as soon as it came out, as the press reviews promised a treat, at (as I recall) Jumbo in Leeds, got it home to my “digs” at Harold Terrace, put it on the gramophone, turned it up and my life changed. For the next few » Continue Reading.

Racism and rugby – the Paul Irons story

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In this world of unmitigated crap at the moment, it’s important, I think, to be reminded that some “normal” people have a story that is worth telling, and, dare I say it, a little inspiring. It’s not music related at all, but hey… I present this Sky Sports feature, telling the story, in his own words of Paul Irons, who was the games teacher at my school, as featured in the video, while I attended from 1979 to 1984. During that time, whilst his reputation was fierce, he proved himself to be everything that a teacher should be, helping countless children to make the most of what they have, to look for the positives in all they see and above all, be good people. His father was a West Indian immigrant, who overcame his own problems to become the first black magistrate/JP in the UK, and be an amazing man in his own right, being awarded an OBE. Paul received an MBE in December 2018, for services to education (he is now Chair of Governors at Fernwood, having taught there from the early 70s, I think) and the reaction to the announcement on social media from literally dozens if not » Continue Reading.

ATM # a lot. How do I make my Zeppelin wireless compatible?

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Help a poor near technophobe out, folks?

I have a B&W Zeppelin speaker, lovely looking and sounding thing it is, but it’s fairly old, and the main dock is an old style 30 pin Apple thing, the kind that fits an ipod Classic. I’ve managed to get an attachment that means I can connect my iphone 11 to it physically, and I know I can also play things through it via an Aux cable, but is there a way I can make this speaker wireless/bluetooth compatible? Has anyone done the same thing and can thus recommend a gizmo?

I did have a brief look at this a while back and it seems that B&W speakers aren’t as universally converted as most others. So I ran away. But now I’m enthused again.

All help very gratefully accepted.

ATM about Apple products and their weird ways #whatever.

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Oh Massive, I know this is a trivial and very definitely first world problem, but it’s driving me nuts. I have an iphone for work, on which I keep some music, via itunes, and the iphone and PC it runs off are synced most days. With, to be fair, very little in the way of problems up to now. I have recently got a new iphone 11 (upgrade from an 8) and what’s happened to my music library on the phone is somewhat perplexing. The album covers for my various albums seem to have been randomly allocated , mostly to the wrong albums, but with some kind of pattern occasionally, and some are still correct. For example, Office Politics by the Divine Comedy shows the Foreverland cover. I Need a New War by Craig Finn, and We All Want the Same Things for that matter, show the Clear Heart Full Eyes cover. Clear Heart Full Eyes itself has the cover of Underwater Sunshine by the Counting Crows. Commontime by Field Music still has the right cover on the phone, but Open Here shows the Eliza Carthy Big Machine artwork. The Big Machine album shows the correct artwork. All the artwork » Continue Reading.

Top of the Pops re-runs lately…

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The saga continues on BBC4, we’re now in mid-1988, where following a run of shows in which T’Pau performed the singles you never knew that they had, the very un ToTP Magnum appeared (Start Talking Love, to be exact, or Sweet Talking Love, as it was introduced as) live, Hazell Dean made her comeback with Who’s Leaving Who?, and Danny Wilson and Fairground Attraction gave us 2 nailed on 80s classics, the latest episode surely had the greatest disparity between sheer brilliance and total dross that there has ever been in ToTP history. It was the (mercifully brief) era of the “parody song”, so while on the one hand, the Adventures made their ToTP debut live in the studio performing the utterly magnificent Broken Land (oft quoted as the most played song on Radio 1 in 1988), they were sandwiched in between Harry Enfield’s “Loadsamoney” (which was bad enough) and the truly awful Start Turn on 45 (Pints)’ “Pump up the Bitter” (“Howay, turn, give us some of your housey housey music, bonny lad…”).

How did this happen? Does anyone on here actually own that Pump up the Bitter single? I hope not…

C L A S S I C

B L U E C O L L L A R J A N E

Songs that mention cetaceans…

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I’ve just returned from Baja California, Mexico, on what I would probably say is the world’s best whale watching trip, all 12 days of it. We were taking on the boat one night, and music came up… So, oh Massive, what songs do we know that mention our whale and dolphin friends (specific species or just generally) in the lyrics and/or title? If I may start with Yorkshire scamps Terrorvision, and one of their finest. https://youtu.be/An59zXVEFFE

ATM # lost count – Oslo, New Year break

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Ladies and gents I’ll be in central Oslo over New Year for 3 days, with the FPO and our (female) mate. Any things I/we should definitely see or do? Are there any public NY celebrations in squares or parks? Is alcohol as ruinously expensive as I’m led to believe? Do I need cash or are Norwegians as card mad as Swedes? Any other general tips? (Apart from “Wrap up warm/Get your vest on” etc…) Can you get Jools’ Hootenanny on TV? (OK, don’t worry about that one…)

Any thoughts gratefully accepted.

The Hooters, Hamburg, 5 July 2017

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Venue:

Markthalle, Hamburg

Date: 05/07/2017

OK Afterworders, we all know that the first band on at Live Aid was ‘ver Quo, yes? Bonus points if anyone knows who was first on at Philadelphia? Yes, it was the Hooters, a band so ignored in the UK and long forgotten that they’re a bit like Iceland. 99% of people have never been, and 99% of the people who have, have only been to Reykjavik. As a test, see if you can name any other City in Iceland? As a further test, even if you’ve heard of them, how many of you own a Hooters album? The defence rests, your Honour. Philadelphia’s finest, The Hooters are in fact, still going, especially popular in Germany, and, here’s the thing, I utterly absolutely and fantastically love them. Ostensibly, they’re the band who harbour the uber hit song writers Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman (One of US, Time after Time, Private Emotion, Old Before I Die, Gimme a Stone and a fair few others) and they play a kind of music that is somewhere between roots, rock, folk, reggae and ska, with mighty tunes, the kind of choruses you can’t stop humming and a joy » Continue Reading.

Hi-fi house clearance

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A friend of mine’s brother has just died in sad circumstances. On looking at his house, it appears that is is, to quote my mate (who isn’t overly technically musical) “Full of old hi-fi type things. And I mean, full. There’s dozens of things in there, I don’t even know what some of them do.” From the brief description I have, it looks like there are a fair few fairly serious hi-fi separates. Clearly, this is a house clearance job for a specialist, to ensure that my mate gets fair value for the said bits of kit, but neither he nor I know where to start, who to trust etc.

Do any of you splendid chaps and chap-esses know of such a reputable person or firm that we could have a word with regarding all this?

(Location is Notts, BTW)

Craig Finn – live in a suburban Nottingham living room

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Venue:

Graham’s living room

Date: 20/04/2017

My first experience of a “living room” gig, fortunately one of my favourite front men, on his own, with a great new album to plug, only about ¾ of a mile down the road, near where we used to live. Enough to call a halt this week on my usual Thursday evening “world to rights” session with Smudger of this parish. Craig was tuning up when I arrived, but the natives appeared friendly so I repaired onto the back yard/lawn, where a succession of very friendly, interesting and likeable people (from reasonably far and wide (and West Bridgford)) came, mingled and went. Showtime, and everyone siphoned in through the French doors, to exhortations to “come closer”, so, cushion in hand, I did. Immediate stage left, leaning on (while sat down) some kind of flight case, a sofa and a CD rack. I got comfy about 3 songs in… Craig called us to order and began a guitar only (as he was all night) “God In Chicago”, during which you could’ve heard mice farting next door. Wonderful in all respects. Preludes, Jester and June, Tangletown and Be Honest followed from the new album, with » Continue Reading.

Ooops. Any worse examples than this?

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At work today, one of my early emails was from our esteemed national trade association, who send a daily email which is basically a digest of the day’s mainstream news stories covering our industry.

There’s a bit of a preamble every day, which among other things normally covers celebrity birthdays.

I quote from today’s email…

“Finally, happy birthday to Tippi Hedren, Dolly Parton, Michael Crawford CBE, Janis Joplin, Richard Lester, and Katey Sagal. “

I wonder if the author even knew who Janis Joplin was, or if he did, wondered why she’d been a bit quiet lately…

I’m sure the Massive will have other stories to tell.

Today’s the 4th of July….

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A few years back, I went to see Aimee on the 4th July, at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Fabulously, she opened with this, a beautiful ballad featuring some excellent grammar in the chorus, and the lyric “and when they light up our town I just think what a waste of gunpowder and sky”.

Any other date specific songs/lyrics?