Here’s life at the bottom for a recording group in 1970. The group is Affinity, managed by Ronnie Scott, a full diary, and an LP on Vertigo that year. You’d think they were going somewhere. This section of a documentary fronted by Anne Nightingale from that year gives a glimpse of the lifestyle for an act at this level.
It’s Mardl Boehm! A Stray reunion in November 2016!
How did we miss this? A reunion of the original Stray (or something like it) on November 16 at a venue in London! Did nobody bother to tell @JohnnyConcheroo ? Or @Twang ?
Let’s rock!
The Quest For Roger Burridge: 50 Years of Fairport Convention
Colin H on Fairport Convention
The Quest For Roger Burridge: 50 Years of Fairport Convention
Welcome to an Afterword exclusive: an interview with Dave Pegg (bass) and Chris Leslie (vocals, song writing, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, etc.) from Fairport Convention, recorded on Saturday 27 January at the Black Box in Belfast, in between a sound check and the first of two shows in the venue – the second having been added the following afternoon by popular demand.
And speaking of popular demand, Roger Burridge: if you’re out there, get in touch with Dave Pegg – he’s easy to find! (For everyone else wondering what this is all about, read on. Or better still, make a cup of coffee, set aside half an hour, and then read on.)
It’s Fairport Convention’s 50th anniversary this year. I followed the band in the 80s and early 90s, not having been of an age to experience them ‘back in the day’ (the band is older than I am, just). Although I reviewed them several times in newspapers or magazines in the 90s it occurred to me that 2017 is the 30th anniversary of the one time I interviewed them. It would be nice, I thought, » Continue Reading.
Duke Special & The Ulaid: The Belfast Suite
Venue:
Analogue Catalogue Vintage Recording Studio
Date: 20/01/2017
Some people do things, some people don’t do anything, and some people seem to have a knack for getting people in the first two categories to do things – for making things happen – while hiding their influence under a bushel somewhere in the Castlewellan area of County Down. Mrs O’Donnell – that’s who to blame: the sorcerer with the cauldron, stirring up cunning plans and cultural adventures while seeming on the surface to be a well-meaning, slightly disorganised lady in a coffee shop. It’s a devastatingly effective disguise, let me tell you. One is set on a path to writing books, doing tours, making albums on the basis of what seem to have been, in retrospect, throwaway remarks over a cappuccino (or a telephone).
Last Friday night, at a remarkable analogue studio that apparently nobody had heard of (set up as a venue for a select audience) down a dark lane a mile or so outside a one-horse town, coincidentally or otherwise not far from Castlewellan, Irish trad/trad-esque trio Ulaid (John McSherry on uilleann pipes/low whistle, Dónal O’Connor on fiddle, Sean Graham on guitar) and Duke Special (piano/vocals) performed their » Continue Reading.
The Swinging Sixties
I’ve just come across a reference in a 1962 ‘Jazz Monthly’ to a CBS compilation LP, ‘Who’s Who In The Swinging Sixties’ – with ‘swinging’ in this case clearly a play on the idea of ‘swing’ as a jazz term and ‘swinging’ as an adjective denoting ebullience. I wondered if this may have been, in fact, the debut appearance of the phrase, albeit in a slightly different context to the one we’re all familiar with (Carnaby Street, London, 1965, etc.). Certainly, the first appearance of the term ‘Swinging London’ in print – from which I think the wider notion of the ‘swinging sixties’ derived – was in a famous ‘Time’ magazine cover story of April 1966.
In the book ‘Days In The Life: Voices From The English Underground 1961-1971’ (Heinemann, 1988), by Jonathon Green, Time magazine’s cultural commentator of the time, Andrea Adam, recalled the origin of that phrase:
‘As I remember it, the expression ‘Swinging London’ just came out of the blue. One of the editors on Time used it jokingly. Somebody said, ‘Oh hey… what about that?’ We never tried to push it as a concept, but it became the working title for the cover. And it caught » Continue Reading.
Sometimes, one forgets how great the Mahavishnu Orchestra were…
This may surprise some around here, but I don’t listen to music that often and, within that modicum of time, there has been very little during the last couple of years which has included the Mahavishnu Orchestra (I KNOW it’s all great, and I can hear it in my heard any time…). But sometimes a solid burst of vintage Mahavishnu is a delight.
Having just reminded myself of the first 40-odd minutes of this show from the Birds Of Fire tour in 1973, here it is for others to enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laaa_aSY6Uc
Happy birthday to (Mahavish)nu…
Just realised it’s John McLaughlin’s birthday. Let’s remind ourselves of the great man with this flash from the archives of oblivion (in this case, an obscure Seattle TV station) from 1973. 20 incomparable minutes of the Mk1 MO on the spring 1973 ‘Birds of Fire’ tour, with extracts from Dawn, One Word, Open Country Joy and Vital Transformation.
Introducing The Hardchargers: the sound of 2017 (well, one of them anyway…)
Regular Afterworders might have noticed I’ve posted a couple of clips featuring the Hardchargers recently. The ‘Chargers feature ‘Lonesome’ Chris Todd (electric guitar/resonator/vocal), Richard ‘Hodge’ Hodgen (dr/washboard) and Dave ‘Laughing Boy’ Thompson (bass/ukulele bass).
They are the missing link between Charley Patton and the Who – well, I think so. Blistering, telepathic, intense rock with howling field hollers and skiffle technology. After seven years playing up and down Ireland in a status somewhere between semi-pro and pro, up to 80 gigs a year (which in Ireland, trust me, is some going – it has nowhere near the live infrastructure or opportunities of Britain or Northern Europe), the first five months of 2017 will see a short sabbatical in above-ground ‘Charger activity.
A devut album, however, is being recorded right now with engineer ‘Late-Night Tony’ Furnell in Belfast, provisionally entitled ‘Scarecrow’, to be released nationally in May, at which point the chaps will tour Ireland. Hopefully, by then, cunning plans having been (a) thought of and (b) come to fruition, opportunities to play further afield, including Britain, will have solidified.
The vinyl-length album will feature 8 tracks – 6 cherry-picked originals and 2 blues classics in ‘Chargerified form – » Continue Reading.
One for Twang, JC, and the Guitary guys: John McLaughlin debuts a new guitar
Here’s John McL live in 2016 with Santana, guesting on three numbers with an exotic looking axe, which – I feel sure – Johnny C can tell us all about. The tracks he appears on are:
A Place With No Name Creation Awade
From around 37:00 – 53.00, with splrendid soloing therein.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moBTcDb0_po
Christmas Eve: happy birthday Jan Akkerman
The great man is 70 on Saturday. A glass is raised…
Shakespeasre’s Christmas song – who knew? And it’s great…
I stumbled on this newly uploaded vid for Hilary James’ wonderful setting of Will’s ‘Winter’. Good Will to all men (and women)!
Miles Beyond – McLaughlin revisits a Mahavishnu tune for the first time since 1973
This seems to be from Chick Corea’s birthday do in New York a few days ago. Hurrah!
Jagger on BBC Breakfast
I just thought I’d add to the trend of starting threads on this topic. I see Twang has chipped in with two already. In a nutshell: I understand that Jagger was on BBC Breakfast.
Wishbone Ash: Holmfirth and Clitheroe
Venue:
Holmfirth Picturedrome and The Grand, Clitheroe
Date: 19/11/2016
A trip to snowy Yorkshire and two Wishbone Ash shows: Holmfirth Picturedrome on Friday, AshCon (the Wishbone annual convention, which is conventionally the last date in their annual UK Oct/Nov tour) at The Grand, Clitheroe on Saturday.
Mrs H and I had crammed in a few socio-cultural events the previous couple of days and had lunched with troubadour sensation Sarah McQuaid and her svengali Martin Sainsbury the afternoon of the Holmfirth show, catching up with news and bonhomie in a terrific country pub.
Would bonhomie be the order of the day when we met AW’s AttackDog that evening in Holmfirth? Well, we found our B&B (eventually – up a hill out of Holmbridge, turn right at the oncoming blizzard, and a few hundred yards to the warmth and comfort of Coddy’s Farm – highly recommended!) and then headed straight out again to Holmfirth, the metropolis four miles up the road. Almost everyone else in our farmhouse B&B was going there. The Picturedrome clearly has a great effect on local hospitality businesses.
Arriving at the venue, I left my spare ticket (Carol From Luton being indisposed) at the door for ‘AttackDog’). » Continue Reading.
Big Pete Deuchar: 1958-60
Colin H on Big Pete Deuchar and John McLaughlin
In 2014, when my book on John McLaughlin was published, there was a lot of material that, for reasons of space, had been either edited out of or deliberately set aside from the main text for inclusion as bonus material in the ebook edition – mostly stand-alone chapters and appendices. One such was a short chapter on the enigmatic Big Pete Deuchar, a trad jazz bulldozer who has the perhaps unlikely distinction of being John McLaughlin’s first bandleader/employer.
During the period of working on the book I was stretched in several directions, trying to cover john’s various adventures in Britain, mainland Europe and eventually America between 1958-75, slipping with often minimal trace between the jazz, R&B, soul, pop sessions, free jazz and rock worlds of the time. The one area of research that was squeezed the most was the Big Pete era. When you live in Belfast, trips to London to access period print resources have to start with your highest priorities – it’s all time and money. I can recall a last, rather frantic day at the British Library during my last research trip scanning at speed through 1958-59 editions » Continue Reading.
Free Wishbone Ash ticket – Holmfirth Picturedrome, this Friday
My pal Carol From Luton can’t make a planned trip up north this Friday, which means I have a spare ticket – if anyone wants it, speak now!
Moanin’ the Blog Blues: Part 2 – The Blues Boom
At the Twangmeister’s request, and for everyone’s convenience, here is Part 2 of the Afterword discussion on the blues – with a particular focus, once and for all, on that pesky ‘blues boom’ that never seems to go away. There may be men downunder who can shed some light on this matter.
Let us clear out that ‘blues boom’ cupboard here. Indeed, let us wake up this morning and dust out blues boom. And let us start with Steamhammer. I feel certain that Johnny C will be able to tell us of their London performances back in the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoCkb8W0Ymo
Music inspired by sub-Antarctic islands
Okay, this could turn out to be a short thread… I’ve just watched the first episode of Planet Earth II. Really stunning photography – much more so than in previous nature series, in my opinion – making up for some fairly familiar sights (lemurs bouncing around, crabs on Christmas Island, etc). What surprised me most was the trip to Zavodovski Island, of which I had never heard – and I’m an islands buff, with a penchant for polar history books.
Off I went to Wikipedia. It’s in the South Sandwich group (below South Georgia), with an active volcano (Mount Asphyxia) its raison d’etre, and the names of its headlands suggests what was on the minds of its discoverers – Fume Point, Noxious Bluff, Pungent Point, Reek Point, Acrid Point and Stench Point.
But more curious still, it has inspired this piece of music by the Portico Quartet: ‘(Something’s Going Down On) Zavodovski Island’.
Ironically, unless you’re a chinstrap penguin, almost nothing is going down on Zavodovski Island.
I’m guilty myself of creating instrumental music with titles namechecking Arctic islands. Are there any other great sub-Antarctic tunes I need to hear?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSDaWl-Fmg
Short-ish run perfect-bound book printing: any printer recommendations?
I’m musing on making an updated version of the bonus chapters and appendices (roughly 100,000 words of content, which would be roughly 290-300 A5 typeset pages) to my John McLaughlin biography available next year in hard copy form. I’d like to find a way to do this as a fairly short run thing, so not a print-on-demand model but say 200 copies. Can any of the Massive recommend, from experience, any printing services that would be good to go with?
Googling such services is easy enough, but a recommendation about reliability and quality would go a long way!
Shouting and pointing: the case for Nick Cash as one of the great frontmen of our time
Here he is at Rebellion 2016, playing to his piers at Blackpool. The question is this: is Nick one of the greats?
Rick Parfitt just wants to rock…
…and apparently there’s not enough of that happening in the Quo these days.
The story was on BBC News 9 hours ago. I can’t say I’m bothered one way or the other, but somebody’s going to mention it around here sooner or later so I thought I’d just save us all time and get it out of the way.
Move along, nothing to see etc…
Caledonian Blues’n’Soul Sensation! A new album from Greig Taylor, Johnny Boos and the boys
Great news – a new (second) album from Stirling’s finest, GT’s Boos Band. The lads have a few high quality new vids online too. Here’s an electric one. Barn-storming Lindisfarne-esque acoustic one to follow…
Celtic Delta Blues: yes, it’s the Hardchargers!
I’m off to Newcastle, County Down, tonight (and no, I’m not doing the accent…) to see the Hardchargers – Christopher, Hodge and Dave – blow those blues away with, er, a load of blues. Serious, no-nonsense, none-of-your-namby-pamby-airbrushed-Albert-Hall-residency-pap-here-matey blues. They’re the most exciting live act I’ve seen in ages, with a set that begins with resonator, washboard and ukulele bass and ends two and half hours later with edge-of-seat power trio workouts worthy of the late ’60s (including Alvin Lee’s thing with detuning E strings over the course of a solo that appears to last for days).
The track attached is a muddy Waters number, ‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’.
The chaps play roughly two thirds originals, a third covers. They record a debut album next month. I’ve every reason to believe it will be great.
Autumnal Dutch jazz-funk-blues
Here’s a fantastic funky-bluesy instrumental performance from a one-off Thijs van Leer Group, featuring Pierre van der Linden on drums and Eef Albers – possibly the least-known (outside of Holland) of the original-era Focus guitarists (he appeared on their ‘final’ album ‘Focus Con Proby’ in 1977). I’ve never heard of him since, but this performance, at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, in May 2016 suggests I’ve been missing out.
I have a feeling Twang, Johnny C and other old-school guitar buffs will enjoy this too.
Bert Jansch in Australia – a puzzle needing a sleuth
I’ve been searching out my original note to the BJ album ‘Downunder: Live In Australia’, for Earth Vinyl to use (with a few tweaks) on a forthcoming reissue, and I’ve found a longer draft of it with a few extra bits of info. It includes a note to self that BJ had, while in Australia in Feb-March 1998, recorded a guest appearance on a record by a female artist that I never got around to identifying at the time – Bert didn’t recall the name (his Oz bassist Pete Howell’s arranged the session), but it was Australia’s equivalent, to Bert’s mind, of Big Mama Thornton.
Johnny C, Junior, others down there – any ideas?
