Colin H on imaginary meetings in songs
‘I saw the Mississippi Sheiks…’ – time-travelling and dreams in music
Wizz Jones retires – last of the 60s British folk-blues greats
Word on the highway, the National Seven, the road to Newquay, the road less travelled and the paths of glory is that British folk-blues pioneer and total original Wizz Jones has finally called it quits at 85 and played his last show – at the Acorn Theatre, Penzance, on Saturday 3rd August. It’s the county in which he was filmed busking on the beach by Alan Whicker for a BBC magazine show in 1960, gently protesting about local antagonism to beatniks like himself. People protesting against others who are slightly different to themselves – wouldn’t happen in Britain today, would it…?
To Brit folk connoisseurs, Wizz is one of the all-time greats – a contemporary of Davy Graham, an influence on Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Ralph McTell and the rest. He swung like no one else, with a plaintive voice that captured something of the poverty and fragility of British youth growing up after the Second World War, looking, hoping for a better way to live. He was still brilliant to the end – not advertising his last show, as far as I’m aware – just quietly telling people on the night that he was stopping because ‘I just can’t » Continue Reading.
‘Sounding the Century: Time Immoral 1959-69’ by Mike Butler
I’m delighted to say that the crowdfunder / purchasing opportunity for Mike Butler’s latest volume in his eight-book series ‘Sounding the Century’ – on 1950s-70s British/Irish folk music producer Bill Leader and his circle of characterful associates – is now ‘live’.
As Mike has been abroad, with most of his sales in Britain/Europe, I’ve taken on the responsibility of organising the printing of the book and the mailing out to purchasers, and Norman Boyd – newly freelance designer, highly recommended – has very kindly handled the typesetting etc.
We’ve added two extra ‘rewards’ for those wishing to help Mike towards a fifth volume (I am taking zero monies from the enterprise – after costs, it all goes to Mike): a limited edition revised-packaging repress (50 units) of 70s folk-rockers Hunter Muskett’s 2014 comeback album ‘That Was Then…’ (the last album Bill produced); and a totally exclusive 68-page book by me (50 units), being an enhanced ‘lost chapter’ of my book on uilleann piping, focused on Bill’s adventures in that area.
More info, and a video message from Mike, in the link in the comments. 🙂
The best song Hank didn’t get around to writing…
My old pal Brian Houston has a new album out, ‘Belfast Troubadour’ – very much in the Americana vein influence-wise, but a fairly big production rather than a campfire vibe on most of it. It’s not streaming anywhere, so I can only post a live version of the lead track – my favourite on it, the best song Hank forgot to write (in my view) 🙂
If anyone (in the UK) fancies reviewing the album, PM me and I’ll have a copy posted to you. It’s tough out there for sole trader artists to get heard. I’ve written a couple of times before here about Brian – someone else’s turn. One interesting thing about the release is that the vinyl version is a different mix to the CD. I can have both posted out if one person with time on their hands and a bit of interest wants to hear both. 🙂
One night in London, 9 May 1970, round the back of the Albert Hall…
Colin H on future legends and future nonentities
Shock Treatment – live at the American Bar, Belfast
Venue:
The American Bar, Belfast
Date: 06/07/2024
There may be those who thought that Dave McLarnon was pushing a fridge up a mountain in pursuing the goal, with quiet determination, of re-establishing Shock Treatment – his 1978-82 Ulster punk band – as an active, inspiring, celebratory band of then and now… But if those people exist, they weren’t there yesterday afternoon at the American Bar. Metaphorically, Shock Treatment blew the bl**dy doors off – and if they’d done so literally, it would been very welcome indeed, because the place was rammed, the heat was hot and outside the sun had got its hat on. But no one left because Dave and the boys were on fire!
Covid/lockdown took a lot of wind out of the sails of the local gig scene in NI – people’s attending habits, opportunities to play, etc. – and it’s perhaps only now that things are looking a bit healthier on that front. Chris Roddy runs the American Bar’s ‘Saturday Afternoon Club’. Chris is a legend who deserves to be celebrated widely. Unlike some in the NI music world, he doesn’t go around talking about himself so it’s up to others to do that for » Continue Reading.
Rory Gallagher 2024 TV documentary
I haven’t seen this mentioned here yet – a recent documentary from the Gallagher family broadcast on RTÉ and BBC NI (but presumably not BBC nationally). It’s extremely well made – a human interest doc, not one for guitar bores alone.
I’ll put the iPlayer link in the comments.
Meet the new Rejects
A decent video clip from Punk on the Peninsula recently, with Stinky Turner introducing the new Cockney Rejects (albeit with a stand in for the permanent new fellow on drums).
(video in comments)
Katie Spencer – live in London (video EP)
Fairport Convention – It All Came Round Again: Onstage and on air 1982-90
Limited Edition 11CD+DVD Set. For the first time ever, fans can experience the timeless magic of Fairport Convention’s ‘second golden age’ all in one place with this meticulously crafted and comprehensive 11CD and DVD deluxe boxset ‘It All Came Round Again: Onstage and On Air 1982-90’. The set includes over 160 tracks, 57 of which are previously unreleased recordings.
Also included in this limited edition set is a replica festival programme signed by Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks and Richard Thompson. This bespoke Madfish offering, curated by Bert Jansch/John McLaughlin biographer Colin Harper, is the definitive tribute to the legendary British folk-rock band’s enduring legacy.
The Fairport Convention legend was forged between 1967 and 1979 – 12 years, 16 albums, umpteen line-ups and four exhausted people at the end of it. In August 1980, the last line-up – Simon Nicol, Dave Swarbrick, Dave Pegg and Bruce Rowland – reunited for a day in a farmer’s field in Cropredy, Oxfordshire, establishing the iconic ‘Fairport’s Cropredy Convention’ festival in the process. Five relatively quiet years passed by before, in 1985 and by popular demand, a new recording and touring Fairport Convention assembled around Peggy and Simon. Everything moved up » Continue Reading.
Are we Focused?
One should always be focused… on the finest of Dutch progressive rock. The tunes entitled ‘Focus’ and numbered 1-5 can be found across that mighty ensemble’s ‘original era’ albums of 1970-76. ‘Focus 6’ is fairly obscure, having appeared originally on a 1981 Thijs Van Leer (organ/flute in Focus) solo album. When Focus rebooted as a recording/touring sensation in 2002, the first album was called ‘Focus 8’ (featuring, of course, a tune of that name). The album ‘Focus 12’ is due in July… featuring not a tune of that title but one called ‘Focus 13’. (See below for the answer to ‘where’s ‘Focus 12′?’)
But what of ‘Focus 7’? Well, it seems to have first appeared on a little-known live album (sold on the band’s merchandise stall rather than being a ‘proper’ release called ‘Live in America’ in 2003 and then on an even more obscure semi-release called ‘Live in South America’ the following year. A studio version of ‘Focus 7’ belatedly appeared on the 2006 album ‘Focus 9’ (along with, obviously, ‘Focus 9’). Luckily, for those of us who were blinking and missed things, the well-marketed ‘Focus 50’ (referring to their 50th anniversary – not that they’d jumped several dozen » Continue Reading.
Live music at troubadour level – end times?
A couple of weeks ago I hosted a pal, let’s call her ‘Sally McDaid’, and her driver / soundman / manager ‘Morton Tesco’, for three nights during an Irish tour. Sal – a critically well-regarded singer/songwriter/guitarist living in ‘Devon’ – has been touring Ireland more or less annually for 15 or more years, along with extensive touring in the US, GB and northern Europe. Indeed, her first (pre-professional) album was released in the mid 90s in Ireland, where she lived for many years, about 10 years before her full-time music career proper began. I’ve seen her play to audiences of 6 to 200 at various places in Ireland over those years. Before Covid, it had been slowly but surely building. But Covid now seems like a merciless line in the sand. For various reasons – cost of living for punters, people getting out of the gig-going habit, Brexit costs for touring artists from the UK (Sally travelled in to Dublin), etc. – the always fragile pub-level touring game seems done for.
This time around, with 8 gigs booked, 4 were cancelled at the 11th hour while Sally and Morton were on the island, having invested time and money getting there » Continue Reading.
Adventures in British Jazz Philanthropy: The John Thurlow ‘Jazz In Britain’ interview
Cock Sparrer – time for a reappraisal?
Someone from this crew has recently joined the reformed Cockney Rejects. This is their new single. Do any of us have ‘previous’ with the ‘Sparrer?
Henry Cluney (SLF) podcast interview
My pal Kyle ‘The Kylemeister’ Leitch – 70s record retailer and Belfast’s other ‘Godfather of Punk’ – started a podcast recently. Episode 4, out yesterday, is the best so far – only available on Spotify (link below).
It’s a good-natured, upbeat ramble through Henry’s time in Stiff Little Fingers and Highway Star before that – Henry being one of Kyle’s best customers in Caroline Music, Belfast at the time. Henry published a memoir recently, which sold out – a reprint is in the offing.
The interview / chat proper starts at 8:50, after some introductory byways about Kyle’s recent AirBnB / Booking.com adventures.
Pirate Radio, Mods & Rockers, British Soul: 1964
Colin H on Pirate radio, mods & rockers
Radio Caroline began 60 years ago last week (28 March 1964). Three days later, there was a bit of scene on Brighton beach involving something called mods & rockers. Here is part of a chapter from the draft version of my John McLaughlin book ‘Bathed in Lightning’ (2014). I enjoyed going off an a tangent and lifting a few stones to peer underneath them when writing a chapter concerning McLaughlin-related goings on in 1964, but it was a tangent that was excised when the book mushroomed. I later included it as a standalone piece in ‘Echoes From Then’ (2017) – a companion volume to BIL. Given the anniversary, here it is – with the front page of the Coventry Telegraph the day after Brighton.
*
Pirate Radio, London Mods, British Soul (1964)
‘There were a certain number of coloured Americans around who should have been all right, but there weren’t any James Browns among them… ‘Soul’ in British pop was a non-starter.’ George Melly, Revolt Into Style, 1970 [1]
In a way, Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames were responsible for changing the world, or so the Scene Club’s co-owner/manager, 24-year-old » Continue Reading.
Another Cockney Rejects announcement!
Eight months back Jeff ‘Pungent’ Turner from the Rejects put out an important announcement – quashing misunderstandings about the Rejects’ farewell tour being, well, a farewell. They would do the odd festival, he explained, but no more big tours.
But now, it seems, Jeff can’t quite live with that – he wants to carry on, so the rest of the boys have said farewell to Jeff… and Jeff’s forming a new Rejects – with someone from the Business/Cock Sparrer, someone from the Toy Dolls and someone else.
Announcement in the comments.
How do we feel about this? Do any Cockney Rejects get the feeling they’ve been cheated or is Jeff riding in with the cavalry?
Legends of Harper
18/02/2024
There is no way of doing this that doesn’t seem ridiculous, but here it is… my friends Barry Devlin and Cormac O’Kane have made a documentary about me and my ‘world’. In a way, it has spun off (out of any normal sense of reason) out of the 35-disc Horslips box set that I curated for Madfish, released early last year.
Barry (Horslips alumnus, later an adventurer in the world of TV and film – scriptwriting, U2 promos, documentaries etc.) didn’t know me before that process. He didn’t know Cormac either – Cormac, an old friend of mine who has tolerated/aided/abetted my adventures in music recording for nearly 30 years, had mastered the Horslips box set.
Barry seemed to find our circle to be fun… and around June last year he decided that the world needed this documentary and set about creating it. Somehow, he convinced BBC NI to acquire it – and then convinced technological wizard and can-do man Cormac O’Kane to direct it, with Cormac’s mild-mannered studio sidekick Richard Brown roped in as editor. The whole thing has been made on wings, prayers and enormous goodwill. My contribution was organising a couple of interviews/performance things » Continue Reading.
Spear of Destiny – Tontine
What does it sound like?:
If the Who had recorded this, we’d all be saying it was the best thing they’d done since ‘Who’s Next’ (1971). We’d be saying ‘It’s a masterpiece!’ – and it is, but it’s Kirk Brandon’s masterpiece, and as both the singer and writer in Spear of Destiny, he manages to be Daltry and Townshend in one person, albeit Adrian Portas does the (concise) guitar hero stuff when it’s required.
Stretching the metaphor, fishing in a neighbouring lake, Kirk manages to compress the whole essence of ‘Quadrophenia’ into one song, opening number ‘Brighton’. Beginning with a woozy snatch of post-war end-of-the-pier kingpin Max Miller doing his thing and ending with vintage seaside verité, what happens in between is colossal, portentous, epic – scattershot reportage and impressionism of mods and rockers, gangsters and chancers back in the day. Very little rhymes but it doesn’t need to – and the town’s name gets stretched to a barnstorming howl of (literally) 20 syllables. These are recurring, distinguishing traits in Brandon’s songwriting – having the chutzpah to be liberated from Moon/June shackles to say what he wants to say in amazingly direct, real language and compensating for those conventional » Continue Reading.
Kirk Brandon – time for a reappraisal?
I went to see Dead Men Walking at the weekend – a campfire quartet of punk veterans: Jake Burns (SLF), John & Dave (The Ruts), Kirk Brandon (Spear of Destiny etc.). I was a ‘casual punter’, but I was knocked out – it was a fabulous show – a great spirit onstage and in the room, funny stories and spirited performances too, of material that really came alive in the stripped back format (percussion, acoustics, the odd effects pedal, occasional electric bass). The band name (first used by Kirk with a different supergroup of collaborators in 2001, and revived with the current team in 2016) seems perhaps worryingly accurate: Dave Ruffy hobbling on with a walking stick (osteoporosis) and Kirk moving with a certain stiffness (recovering from a heart operation last year).
I bought their recent album ‘Freedom – It Ain’t On The Rise’ – heartily recommended. It’s also got me exploring Kirk’s extraordinarily prolific and (it seems to me) extraordinarily high-quality output since 2000: no fewer than 19 studio albums in the past 24 years, and even that’s discounting a couple of 35th anniversary re-recordings of 80s Spear of Destiny albums. Much of his output isn’t available on general » Continue Reading.
Jimmy Pursey – is he value for money?
Jimmy Pursey seems to spend most of time on stage these days (with one of the versions of Sham 69) inviting fans to sing his songs. When he does occasionally sing, it doesn’t seem to be very good. Do we finally have to face the truth – that Jimmy’s not that great?
Shock Treatment – ‘Exclusive Photos’
What does it sound like?:
There’s a school of thought that Dave McLarnon is underrated – a modest, soft-spoken yet quietly Tiggerish man in a raffish beard (and very often a hat) who was musically intoxicated as a teenager and who has never lost that excitement for it, working within and eventually leading a series of Belfast bands from the mid-70s to the present. Let me be the first in the queue to say that the time is most definitely now for a resetting of the Dave McLarnon appreciation dial – and that this sensational new album by his 1979–82 band of Ulster punk ‘nearly men’ is all the evidence we need.
First, some history… Dave began his musical adventures with a school band in the 70s, Sunset – and their revival in recent years has been entirely down to his own effervescent ringmastering role. Sunset gig two or three times a year and rehearse the odd time in between (often with me sitting in on bass – if Brendan Ten-Bands or Petesy Burns aren’t available) at the sumptuous premises of drummer Chris Loughridge AKA Johnny Dental. They are a fascinating amalgam of almost Dickensian characters bedevilled by » Continue Reading.
Cockney Rejects – the prog years
Rigid Digit was pining for the Rejects around here earlier. I thought I’d see what they were up to – in case it was time for a reappraisal… Well, it seems that it might be! There’s a distinct progressive rock feel to the cadenza on this recent number. I was (really) listening to live 1978 Jethro Tull earlier and this sounds uncannily close to those Martin Barre instrumentals that used to happen on those tours…
Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960-75 – by Richard Morton Jack
01/12/2023
‘This utterly engrossing feast focuses on the ‘golden period’ of British jazz, when boundary-breaking and experimentation first broke through. Featuring large sleeve reproductions (both front and back), period reviews, historical overviews and vintage music press adverts, Labyrinth finally puts this music on the pedestal it rightly deserves’ – Jon Newey (editor, Jazzwise)
LIMITED EDITION BOOK NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!
BEAUTIFUL, EXCLUSIVE MICHAEL GARRICK COLD MOUNTAIN POSTER (REPRODUCING A LONG-LOST 1972 DESIGN) WITH THE FIRST 100 ORDERS!
Labyrinth is a massive hardback book, 375pp in length, printed on high-quality art paper, with an embossed cover and cloth quarter-binding, written by Richard Morton Jack (Galactic Ramble, Psychedelia, Nick Drake: The Life).
It celebrates over three hundred albums, offering detailed background info about each, alongside excerpts from original reviews and masses of high-quality images that reproduce their fabulous artwork and labels at near-full size. It also features a fascinating introduction by Tony Reeves (Mike Taylor Quartet, New Jazz Orchestra, Colosseum etc).
Covering abstract jazz, avant-garde jazz, serial jazz, free jazz, Indo-jazz, jazz-rock and more, it tells a story Britain should be proud of: open-minded and creative musicians pushing the boundaries of their art in the face of penury and indifference, and » Continue Reading.
The ‘Pete Best’ of Abba
Was there a ‘Pete Best’ in ABBA? Indeed there was – well, actually, more of a ‘Jimmie Nicol’.* Inger Brundin is her name – she replaced Agnetha for a tour of Austria and Germany in 1973 and did a few TV shows with the gang. Here’s one, with a happy message.
* I’m sure you all know this, but just in case: Jimmie Nicol replaced Ringo for eight shows in a world tour in 1964 and too years to recover from the experience. I wonder what Inger did next? Maybe our friends in the frosty north, Locust and Fatz, will know…
