I didn’t speak any English until I was around six. I was brought up in Welsh. Once, on holiday with my parents in Ifracombe as a five year old, I got lost and was rescued by an old chap who kindly led me back to my relieved parents. He apparently said something like “He’s a very talkative young chap, although to be honest I couldn’t understand a single word he said.” Of course, at five, I though the whole world spoke Welsh. Ah, English. TV and pop music taught me the basics. Then school and Philip Larkin did the rest. Now, thoroughly (and somewhat smugly) bi-lingual, I’ve become greedy and want a third. I’ve been learning Japanese for about a year. I get one-to-one zoom lessons every week with Sensei Masato and, my God, I never realized how difficult picking up a language could be. Maybe, as kids, we find it a lot easier because our brains are more of an empty page. Anyway, I’m finding Japanese fascinating as I’ve always been interested in the culture and so I wondered if any amongst our number here were similarly currently engaged in learning a foreign language and, if so, what prompted » Continue Reading.

I didn’t go to this as I generally avoid gigs but I was intrigued to check it out via BBC Sounds and I must admit that it all sounded rather awful. I adore Peter Hammill and it’s wonderful to hear him do his thing (even if it is the rather predictable ‘Refugees’) but, sadly, to the uninitiated it’s hardly likely to win many converts as his delivery was rather weak and shouty. Gruff Rhys, who I also admire greatly and is a thoroughly decent sort, was also way off-key on his rather ‘phone it in’ version of Tull’s ‘Living In the Past’ (another unimaginative choice from their huge repertoire- and are they/were they really ever ‘prog’ anyway??). I’d be interested to know if, among the prog fans here, anybody listened in and had a more positive opinion of it. I mean, it’s obviously nice to see prog being recognized and celebrated but my gripe was with the rather obvious choice of material and the weaknesses of the vocal performances. The orchestra was great throughout however. Apparently it’s televised on the 24th.

I totally get it. Everyone wants the meister’s album to be a ‘meisterwerk’ because (in the UK at least) we love artists who are old and still around doing things. Like Hockney. Or Alan Bennett. We are kind in reviews of recent doodling and scribbles because we appreciate how good they once were, the pleasure they all brought us and- crucially perhaps- the awareness that they will die soon and no one wants hem to go out on a bummer two star review. So everyone is loving the new Paul album and that’s really nice. But, after a few listens, surely someone has to own up to the fact that there’s nothing on it that could possibly have made it past an A&R person if it hadn’t been by…you know…(whisper it) the Chief Beatle. He used to be able to toss off mini masterpieces like Step Inside Love or Come and Get It without a moment’s apparent effort. Those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end. But, sadly, they have. It’ll probably go to number one.

For me they’re just about the only new band that float HMS Eddie

https://youtu.be/T1sHIzZYxfY?si=YSXEg1yTMYhYI95U

Has anyone here seen it yet? I was curious- not being a huge fan but I loved them in my early teens (didn’t everyone?). I read a rather lukewarm review in the Times today saying that it’s a ‘sanitized’ version leaving out Peter Grant’s gangsterish tendencies, black magic and all the groupies. (Which is all we want really isn’t it?) Oh, and apparently we have to sit through the full half-hour violin-bow-bollockness of ‘Dazed and Confused’ with no recourse to a fast forward button. On top of all that one has to leave the comfort of one’s own home and go to one of those nasty cinemas where people text, talk and crunch popcorn all the time… please tell me it’s worth it.

The Stones have just reached number one in the album charts with ‘Hackney Diamonds’. I bought it and I have to say that, after my initial scepticism when I read about yet another ‘return to form’, it’s a rather damn fine set. It didn’t surprise me that it reached number one in the album charts- not after such a determined promotional push- but what did surprise me is when the BBC and various other news outlets announced that it had outsold the remainder of the Top Five by shifting…72,000 copies. Now, I know that’s a lot. But it’s not huge is it? It made me wonder how many copies your average, say, number 96 sold. Any chart experts here? I’d be very interested to know.

Sometimes I just want to listen to my hi-fi. Not the music. Just the hi-fi. And for that to happen I need to put on certain records. They may not always be my favourite records as ‘records’ but, when I want to reassure myself that I did the right thing in buying that expensive turntable and amp, only those particular platters have the palliative power. For me, the record of choice for this specific purpose is almost always Donald Fagen’s ‘The Nightfly’.

Anybody else have a favourite ‘just listen to the hi-fi’ disc?

Went to Nashville recently and, whilst there, I got involved in a conversation about gun laws in America with an ex-GI. I know. Borderline crazy. But he was ok about it actually. Anyway, once home, I wrote and recorded this tune with the help of Al Steele from the Korgis. He does all the cool rockabilly geetar bits. I’m strictly rhythm and vocals. It was recorded last Friday and I’m very happy with it. Be interesting to know what you reckon…

With considerable help from James Warren and Al Steele from the above bands I recorded one of my tunes last week at Caerphilly’s Shabbey Road studios. Hope you like it.

You pile out of a gig exhilarated and buoyant only to discover yourself spilt via a back entrance into a dark and intimidating alleyway. Suddenly all your mates scarper and you’re by yourself. Steam rises from underground vents. Indistinct shouts emerge from impenetrable Chinese laundries. Yellow taxi’s flit by enticingly the entrance of the alley promising a return to the familiar and safe world. But your passage is blocked by four leather-jacketed blokes who morph out of the smoke and steam like monsters. Their leader is a tattooed barrel tapping a baseball bat into his palm and leering revealing gaps in his teeth, no doubt from previous battles. He cackles like Tom Waits.

“FANCY IT DO YOU MATE? FEEL LIKE MAKING A RUN FOR IT YEAH? RECKON YOU CAN MAKE IT PAST ME BEFORE I BASH YOUR UGLY F**** FACE IN DO YA?”

(I apologise but the mimetic chime of this monologue has caused me to wet myself momentarily. Excuse me…)

There, that’s better.

Anyway. Out of the blue a Ford Transit appears and out piles a band. They say they’ve come to rescue you. They’ll fight the gang while you make a getaway. Only trouble is, they’re the » Continue Reading.

Just walked past John Cale in the centre of Cardiff. He was wearing a Stones t-shirt. Anyone else see a rock star at close quarters today?

I was listening to ‘Heartattack and Vine’ over the weekend. Hadn’t heard it for a while and what a fine album it is. But I was suddenly struck by the thought that Tom Waits doesn’t half sound like Popeye would if he’d ever got round to making an album. Similarly, I bought the ‘Utopian Ashes’ CD and came to the conclusion that if Mowgli from Disney’s Jungle Book ever grew up and got into music in a big way, he would definitely sound like Bobby Gillespie. Maybe some other singers remind you of cartoon figures?

I hardly ever buy records or CDs by new (or newish) artists. My overwhelming fear is that I won’t hear any banging tunes for my twelve quid. Tunes of the kind people like Ronnie Lane or Bolan or any of the other seventies heroes whom I loved used to boot out with seeming ease. So I was intrigued at the weekend to read a five star review of a band called King Lizard (or some such) saying that they couldn’t avoid a tune if they tried. Wow. The last ‘new’ band I liked was Jellyfish. They wrote proper tunes. Tunes you could hum. So I took a deep breath and braved a tenner on this King Gizzard (or some such) CD in Cardiff’s HMV today. On arriving home I loaded it in my CD tray with no small sense of expectation and sat back to be engulfed by melodious wonders.

Yeah right. It was shit. So shit in fact that I did something I’ve never done before with a disappointing CD purchase. I chucked it in the recycling bin.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe the world is actually tuneful and I’m actually not. But maybe not. Whatever, I’d be » Continue Reading.

Crikey, that was arse-cringingly awful wasn’t it?

Idling through Twitter (as I sometimes do) I recently discovered that current pop stars are not as famous as they appear to think they are. Ellie Goulding was featured this week on a BBC online news post saying how ‘unprepared’ she was for fame but, interestingly, most of the comments were along the lines of ‘sorry, who is she?’ This despite rather significant chart success. Something similar happened with The 1975 recently when they proclaimed that they would only play gender-balanced festivals. Despite a couple of number one albums and Brit awards hardly anyone appeared to have heard of them. When I was a kid even my Dad (who cared not a jot about music of any sort) had heard of T.Rex and Slade. Now it seems that pop stars are fairly niche. What caused this? Was it the internet? Personally I think it eroded the mystique. But then it could also be the fact that ‘Top of the Pops’ is no longer viewed by different generations and that the prime medium for music now is the intensely private (and ubiquitous) headphone.

Most rock stars spout rubbish about politics or drugs or spiritual enlightenment at some point in their careers and most of them are ultimately forgiven and awarded knighthoods. Except for Morrissey of course. We forgave Bowie and Clapton for their naive right-wing dalliances this guy is still out in the wilderness. This tune though is probably one of the best things we’re likely to hear in the early part of 2020. Hell, maybe for most of it. It’s bonkers. The man’s a borderline genius and still easily and effortlessly the finest pop lyricist since Dylan.

I quite like his new direction…

https://www.facebook.com/theulsterfry/videos/549908585583799/

It’s the Beatles obviously.

But the Double Deckers come a close second…

Cripes. It seems that all my heroes are landing themselves in hot water due to their big mouths striking again.

https://www.clashmusic.com/news/xtcs-andy-partridge-accused-of-anti-semitic-tweets

Loads of people my age (i.e. around thirteen at the time of ‘Metal Guru’) love to bore the current crop of spotty Spotify slaves that guitar-based pop and rock music was somehow *better* twenty or thirty years ago but you know what? We’re right. Certainly in terms of the traditional template of drums, bass, guitar and vocal (with occasional embellishment by keyboard and/or sax) it would surely seem pretty obvious to even the most casual observer that everything that could possibly be written and/or sung about has been done already during a period when it was being done for the first time and when a distorted electric guitar was almost as astounding as an alien landing and an unsmiling band photo seemed as dangerous as the French Revolution.

Nothing much lasts forever though and guitar-based rock, just like trad jazz or bebop, had a life-span (quite a good innings actually compared to some others). Nobody is saying ‘don’t bother’. None of us are thinking that new guitar bands are wasting their time if they’re having a good time and bringing good times to others. It’s just that the same old shapes and chords and haircuts and clothes have become, » Continue Reading.

It’s that time of year when the BBC and others issue their ‘acts to watch out for in 2019’ but I was just wondering what does that *mean* anymore?

I suppose it used to be relatively simple. One hit and an appearance on TOTP or Ed Sullivan propelled a band or artist into the stratosphere. Now it’s changed. No one bothers with the charts. There is no pop telly to speak of (and ‘der kids’ probably wouldn’t be watching anyway). There are still successful acts out there but music is more fragmented than ever and bands or singers that many of us have never heard of can easily fill the Albert Hall without ever getting ‘a hit’ or registering with the broad sweep of the public in the same way as, say, T. Rex or Bowie once did. I keep thinking of Hepworth’s phrase- ‘it’s never been easier to play the game, but it’s never been more difficult to win’. By that I’m guessing he means that it’s never been easier for young artists to get airplay and exposure on places like the BBC but it’s never been harder to get beyond that box-ticking corporate support thingy and be » Continue Reading.

I’ve become a big fan. I’ve always been aware of it of course. It was there between the gaps of albums. Or in the library at school. Or during the awkward trips in the car with my dad. But it was almost always something to be obliterated and shattered- usually by music. At any opportunity I would fill this offending silence with whatever music came to hand- be it The Ramones or Laura Nyro. And that’s the way it was for years.

But now I have discovered that I actually prefer the gaps. I used to be on conversational terms with the noted historian Dr John Davies and, at times, I would enthuse about a new band or artist I’d recently discovered for myself and I would attempt to persuade him to investigate. I still remember his words- “ah, but is it better than silence?”

These days, in a house stocked to the brim with records and CDs, I find myself often staring at the mute hi-fi thinking “I actually like what I’m hearing now. The sound of the room. The creaks. The occasional rush of a breeze outside. A car whooshing by.”

When I walk into town through the » Continue Reading.

rock music as anything other than mere ‘entertainment’ is dead isn’t it?

Ever been slow to appreciate a ‘classic’ band? I always liked ‘Prove It’ but hadn’t really been swayed by anything else from Television until I bought ‘Marquee Moon’ on impulse this weekend in an effort to re-evaluate. And guess what? I was wrong. They were marvellous. Makes me wonder why I hadn’t spotted their sheer structural and musical genius in the first place. So yes, it made me wonder whether anyone else here had ‘discovered’ a ‘classic’ band or artist about thirty years or so after everyone else had?

Oh yes, friends sneer when I tell them how much I enjoy nothing (much) more than watching those directors’ commentaries on DVD and Blu-Ray. But sometimes you learn fascinating facts. Take yesterday for instance. I was listening to John Boorman talking about how he set up the famous duelling banjo’s scene in ‘Deliverance’ when he explained that the kid who ‘plays’ the banjo was chosen for his, ahem, *interesting* face rather than his musical abilities. In fact the lad couldn’t play at all and another boy (who could) was hidden behind him to do all the fretboard fingering. Has anyone else here learnt anything interesting from a commentary I wonder? Or is it just me?

Probably is…

https://youtu.be/gsC4kf6x_Q0