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Re-Play Papworth – the Jimi Hendrix Experience

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28/04/2019

Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland and Jimi Plays Monterey played from vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard. Guest speaker (and Hendrix expert) Chris the Brewer.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

2:30-4:30pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

Re-Play Papworth – David Bowie

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31/03/2019

Two hours of 1972-era David Bowie and related – Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Lou Reed’s Transformer, Mott The Hoople’ All The Young Dudes, Lulu, possibly the Stooges’ Raw Power if there’s time. Played from vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

2:30-4:30pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

Another Planet

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Author:Tracey Thorn

Subtitled “A Teenager in Suburbia”, this latest memoir covers the years from her birth to when she left home at the age of 18 for university in Hull (and a life spent with her EBTG bandmate Ben Watt).

In it Tracey describes the stupifying boredom of being raised during the 1970s in an insular green-belt suburben village, where everything of interest is a commute away, and the artistic itch she began to scratch as a schoolgirl.

Extracts from her diaries reveal lists of things she didn’t do, didn’t buy, parties she didn’t attend, and an absence of events which did happen and caused lasting anxiety (she was convinced her mum was reading her journals). And lists of music she heard, which will appeal to the AW.

Along with thoughts on aging, creativity, and reflections on being menopausal with teenage daughters. All told in her own voice.

At just about 200 pages, I ripped through it in a long afternoon.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Bedsit Disco Queen, musicians memoirs, parenting guides, reflections on middle age.

One thing you’ve learned

You can’t change where you’re from, but you can change where you go. Having » Continue Reading.

B&W Society of Sound to end

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Real World’s hi-res lossless download deal with B&W speakers is to end next month. Bum.

“Important Announcement about Society of Sound program

It has been ten years since the formation of Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound – a monthly destination to listen to, discover and discuss music delivered in beautiful high-resolution quality. We’re proud to have shared over 120 releases with subscribers who appreciate great sound.

From the beginning, John Bowers dreamed of bringing the experience and emotion of a live symphony to homes. To this day, we deliver products and services that bring people closer to the original musical performance. While our ambition will never change, the methods and means to access and enjoy music have changed greatly over the last decade. It is with this in mind and after much consideration that we have decided to end the Society of Sound program, effective March 31, 2019. The February edition will arrive tomorrow, followed by a final edition in March. Please download all albums included in your subscription by March 31 as they will no longer be available past that date.

For those with subscriptions that continue past March 31, we will include details in the March delivery » Continue Reading.

Re-Play Papworth

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24/02/2019

Two hours of classic Fleetwood Mac on vinyl – Polydor Greatest Hits, Rumours and Tango In The Night. Played on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

Guest presenter @Twang will explain the history behind the music.

2:30-4:30pm, free entry.

BIG GOLD DREAMS: A Story Of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

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What does it sound like?:

CD1 kicks off with The Rezillos (including future Human League Jo Callis) and features mainly late-70s three-chord one-off singles from short-lived punk bands. Of historical note are P.V.C. 2 (featuring Midge Ure); Johnny & The Self Abusers, who split into Cuban Heels and (whatever happened to them?) Simple Minds; the first Skids single; Mike Scott’s debut as Another Pretty Face. Things really get going with Simple Minds’ Chelsea Girl, which is the first song to actually have some structure, a keyboard, and production beyond “get it down on tape as quickly as possible” and the excellent The Shape Of Things To Come by The Headboys, a lost power-pop twin of Skids’ Into The Valley, featuring future The Blue Nile producer Calum Malcolm on keys. The last track on CD1, Stay With Me Tonight by Alex Fergusson (no, not that one) sounds like a helium-voiced rip-off of early Depeche Mode, until you discover producer Larry Least was actually Mute’s own Daniel Miller.

CD2 goes post-punk from the first track – Altered Images’ Dead Pop Stars (produced by, and sounding like, a Banshee). The Delmontes sound like a cross between Stereolab and The B-52’s. Cuban Heels » Continue Reading.

PeeJay on BBC R4

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I haven’t heard it yet, but I’ll be repainting my bathroom this half term, so lots of podcast listening time…

Behind the Scenes: PJ Harvey

John Wilson follows PJ Harvey as she creates the score for a new West End theatre production of All About Eve.

Singer songwriter Polly Jean Harvey is the only artist to have twice won the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year – for Stories from the City, Stories From the Sea in 2001 and Let England Shake a decade later. After 12 critically acclaimed albums and more than 25 years as an international touring artist, she is now focussing on her work as a soundtrack composer, having written scores for theatre and television for more than a decade.

Starring Gillian Anderson (making her first return to the stage since her acclaimed 2014 performance in A Streetcar Named Desire) and Lily James (star of Downton Abbey and Mama Mia), All About Eve is one of the most anticipated theatrical events of 2019. Adapted from the 1950 film, which was nominated for 14 Oscars and won six including Best Actress for Bette Davis, it’s a story of an ageing Broadway star and a young fan who » Continue Reading.

The Wave Pictures

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I’m not by any means the world’s biggest The Wave Pictures fan, but I went to see them play the Portland Arms in Cambridge last night as my pals The Pony Collaboration were the support act.

It was bloody wonderful, a sort of mashup of Britpop, Modern Lovers and the blues. Guitarist Davey broke a string in the first song, simply tuned up and played the rest of the set with only five, and still sounded wonderful.

They’re touring for the next couple of weeks, go see if you get a chance.

http://www.thewavepictures.com/webpages/gigs.htm

ATM: Fleetwood Mac

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Next month’s café vinyl session is Rumours and Tango in the Night, both audience requests.

I’ll have about half an hour left to fill before those two, I was planning on pre-Rumours material. I’m no expert on T’ Mac. Is there a great (and short) Green-era album? Solo stuff (e.g. Buckingham/Nicks)? Playlist?

Any suggestions welcome.

Re-Play Papworth

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27/01/2019

Two hours of classic Aretha Franklin on vinyl with Otis and Dusty providing support. Played on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, microbrewery ales, artisan gins.

Watch as I attempt to bluff my way through a history of Southern Soul music.

2:30-4:30pm, free entry.

Pride in Engineering

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I’m an engineer by trade. A professional nerd, in other words.

Back in the Victorian age, Brunel and the like were revered for their engineering prowess. Nowadays, there’s all sorts around you designed by engineers, including the device you’re reading this on.

Take a look at this, though. A replacement heart, which looks like a lunchbox and fits in a backpack, to keep someone alive and living a normal life until a donor can be found. Whoever designed it: I salute you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-46876437

Song title updates for post-Brexit Britain

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My mind was wandering as I delivered the parish mag down our street this afternoon. It occurred to me that song titles will have to change to a more island-centric view of the world, come March 30th. Let the AW hive mind at it. Here’s my contribution for starters:

Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule Cotswolds Kraftwerk – Trans-Pennine Express Sylvia – ‘Is Viva Vauxhall-ie-er