The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Blogger Takeover CXXV

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Gather round, come all ye, help yourself to a refreshment from the tables by the firepit, have a snack – meat ones on the table with the red table cloths, vegetarian ones with the orange table cloth, vegan and gluten free on the table with the green table cloth – and please tell us all what you have been reading, watching, listening and generally getting up to in the last month

Blogger Takeover CXXIII

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Apologies for the late arrival – yesterday was a day out this wonderful event, Guitar Dreams

https://www.guitarmadeeasybytony.com/guitar-dreams

so I was distracted

Anyway, please gather round and do the needful!

You know you’re at a Prog gig ….

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Prog is some way away from my home turf, but I went to see Stephen Wilson tonight at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, with a couple of regular gig buddies.

The opening part was very crisp, and the whole gig was very well executed. I do wonder about gigs where there is a video backdrop, which is in sync with the music – how much is really really live ? The drummer was great, and Nick Beggs (yes, from Kajagoogoo) was fab on bass.

One style note – it is a long time since I was at a gig where people were wearing Paiste or Zildjan t-shirts. That made it feel very prog, as did the couple in front of me – they spent most of the first half snogging as if they were in the back row of a movie theatre! Back to 1978, everyone!

Blogger Takeover CXXII

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Roll up, roll up! It’s May! Here in Glasgow in recent weeks we have had false spring, summer, November again, and can-you-really-trust-that-this-is-spring-this-time. Rain is currently battering down.

So I am staying indoors listening to records and reading books – the garden can wait.

What have you all been listening to, reading, watching, or otherwise using to divert yourselves from THE STATE OF IT ALL ?

Blogger Takeover CXXI

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Come all ye, gather round the picnic table, have some food (vegetarian options in the orange cooler, vegan ones in the green cooler), have a drink, (non-alcoholic options are clearly segregated over there in the blue cooler) and tell us all what you have been listening to, watching, reading, or otherwise using to help you pass the time since we last met.

Primevals / Stewart Lee

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I’M THE MAN-WULF Stewart Lee has commissioned Glasgow’s garage punk veterans The Primevals to write a suitably haunting song for his new touring stand-up show Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, which opened in London this week.

The music is available RIGHT NOW on Bandcamp, and will be available on 7″ single early in 2025

https://primevals.bandcamp.com/album/im-the-man-wulf-ep

Time, time, time

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The Distractions told us that Time Goes By So Slow, and I cannot argue with their perspective.

However, here’s a thing. This photo is The Primevals, just off-stage at Level 8, Strathclyde Uni, Glasgow, supporting The Gun Club, on 20th October 1984. Everyone in the photo is still in some level of contact, and 3 of us are still in The Primevals.

That gig was forty years ago. Forty years before that, on 20th October 1944, the Second World War was still in full flow. General MacArthur returned to the Philippines, and Soviet and Yugoslav troops freed Belgrade from the German Occupation that had lasted 1287 days.

In some ways, that gig feels like last week – I can still picture the shenanigans of getting in – “of course a five piece garage band requires an eleven man road crew”, as we blagged our friends in, setting up my ACTUAL SPARE GUITAR alongside a fur-covered monster that our bassist wanted to have represented at the gig, and two other pretty guitars that were not actually gig-ready but looked nice in front of my Fender Twin Reverb, and, of course, the frenzy of the gig. We plated our » Continue Reading.

Blogger Takeover CXV

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Come all ye! I’ve got a blazing bonfire in the back, there, potatoes baking underneath, mind your hands if you try to pull one out. There’s hot drinks in the flasks over by, cold beers and assorted soft drinks in the cooler under the table, wine on the table itself. Please, dig in, make yourselves at home, grab a stick to roast some marshmallows and then tell us all – what have you been up to this last month ? and is there anything coming up we should know about ?

1001 Albums You Need To Hear Before You Die

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I love music. I love spending time listening to dear old favourites – Hendrix, Otis, Monk, Miles, The Ramones – and I also love hearing new music – “new” meaning “new to me”, so that covers Furry Lewis and Chappell Roan and Thundercat and and and ….

Sometimes the new music is a bit “Meh”, other times it is a brand new joyful thing – Fiona Apple!! Mulatu Astatke!! Emahoy Tsegue Mariam Guebru!!!!

During lockdown, as I was working from home I had time to listen to a new album every day, and this site popped up as a recommendation (most likely from here) – https://1001albumsgenerator.com/elhombremalo/history

I am now 25% of the way through my journey, and it has been entertaining, albeit with some pish on the way. If anyone is wondering how to get a feed for music that they have missed out on, this is worth doing. It’s free, and it will recommend one album a day from the book. It’s up to you if you make time every day to do it. I have enjoyed most, been challenged by some and been contemptuous of others.

Blogger Takeover CXIV

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First Friday of a new month, you all know the drill – HUT! HUT!!

(Bilko reference because I remembered describing my organisation of work travel across Southern England so that I could go to see Wilko Johnson at a Word event at the Lexington as “Bilko-ing my way to see Wilko)

What have you been listening to, watching, reading, or otherwise indulging in this past month ?

Blogger Takeover CXII

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Come away in, please leave your wet boots on the newspapers there, take off your oilskins and hang them on the drying rack, then help yourself to a cup of soup and sit by the fire to tell us – where the hell has summer gone ? And, what have you been listening to, watching, reading, or otherwise distracting yourself with since we last caught up?

A Sobering Question : what music do you want to be played at your funeral?

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This is a hard post. My dearest friend passed away last week, suddenly. Like me, he was slowly approaching requirement.

It is a traumatic time for his family, most of all, but also for all of his friends who, like me, had pictured years of retirement where we could go for a leisurely lunch which descended into an afternoon on the lash, followed by a phone call home to get one of our children to collect us.

One particular mountain to climb, which his partner has asked for my advice on is – what music to have at the funeral? (I will post the most likely outcome below).

So, I beseech all of my music-daft friends here to take action, to document the very specific details of what music you want- “Kashmir, Page & Plant at the SECC Glasgow as the intro” – lest you end up with ‘Angels – Robbie Williams’ – “well, it seems pretty popular for cremations these days.” ‘

Primevals go WAY DOWN SOUTH

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The Primevals have been making their own kind of din since 1983, and we have organised a short tour to promote our new EP.

Gigs are : Thursday June 20th – Leith Depot Saturday June 29th – Afternoon – Preston Goes Pop Evening – The Talleyrand, Manchester Sunday June 30th – The Black Prince, Nottingham Monday July 1st – The Lexington, London – Stewart Lee Event