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The Boring Thread

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At work yesterday I needed to order some diodes. I should have ordered SK56CHV6G but I copied the line above in a spreadsheet and got a pack of LL4148 instead. What* am I like, eh?

This morning, gathered round the office kettle, I had a long discussion with two colleagues about the relative merits of Precision, Jazz and Musicman bass guitars.

This evening, I’m meeting our new cat-sitter.

What tedium have you been involved in recently?

(*) Dull, that’s what.

∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) New Order + Liam Gillick: So it goes..

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What does it sound like?:

“In June 2017, New Order returned to the stage at Manchester’s Old Granada Studios where Joy Division made their television debut on Tony Wilson’s So It Goes programme in 1978… For the celebrated show, New Order “deconstructed, rethought and rebuilt” a wealth of material from throughout their career: familiar and obscure, old and new… The show and performance was created in collaboration with visual artist Liam Gillick and orchestrated by composer-arranger Joe Duddell, the live show was performed by the band with a 12-strong synthesiser ensemble from the Royal Northern College of Music.”

So, let’s get that title out of the way first:

No = New Order 12k = 12 keyboards (from Royal Northern College of Music, on stage with the group) Lg = Liam Gillick (put together the visuals and stage concept) 17Mif = Manchester International Festival 2017

Obvious, really, innit? So, what do we get?

A live album of little-performed album tracks and b-sides to complement the NOMC15 live ‘hits’ album from the Music Complete tour.

Kicking off with “Times Change”, a little-loved track from the original lineup’s least-loved album, Republic, performed as an instrumental. This is perhaps wise as Barney’s attempt » Continue Reading.

Tape Runs Out – prog folk?

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I tried to post this in the Blogger Takeover but the YT link didn’t work (it’s a YT playlist).

Have a listen. I think they’re great but quite unusual.

I spent a day at Easter engineering a live-in-the-round session for local prog-folk act Tape Runs Out. I can’t think of any other act with a hammered dulcimer. They’ve put GoPro camera footage over the music and posted it online for your listening and viewing pleasure. Blink and you’ll miss me drinking tea and listening (footage of me plugging in mics is too dull).

{Update: the playlist didn’t work, so here’s track #1, I’ll post the others in comments.}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hol31cblyP4&list=PLjZN_n5TZFczR58QPhleAUcak4HHGhb5m&index=2&t=0s

Beach Sessions presents An Evening with Steve Kilbey (The Church) & Amanda Kramer (Psychedelic Furs)

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14/09/2019

An Evening with Steve Kilbey & Amanda Kramer will enchant you with old songs, new songs, borrowed songs, blue songs. The show will feature Church and solo songs by Kilbey as well as eclectic interpretations of other songwriters, plus storytelling from their combined 70 years of touring the world.

Steve Kilbey is the lead singer, bass guitarist and principal songwriter of Australian band The Church, who have been together 38 years, released 26 albums and sold 2 million records worldwide. Their 1988 album Starfish went Gold in the US and featured the hit Under the Milky Way which featured in Donnie Darko. Steve has released numerous solo albums and collaborations including Isidore, Speed of the Stars, Jack Frost (with Grant McLennan), Kilbey Kennedy and more. He has written and published over 1,000 songs. Steve is also the subject of a recent art house film ‘Something Quite Peculiar’.

Keyboardist Amanda Kramer’s first band Information Society, also had a Gold record in 1988, with their debut album. She has been the keyboardist in the Psychedelic Furs for the last 15 years and also played with The Golden Palominos, 10,000 Maniacs, Siouxsie Sioux and more.

Kilbey and Kramer met when The Church » Continue Reading.

Fonda 500

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Venue:

Portland Arms, Cambridge

Date: 14/06/2019

Fonda 500 had a few years off recording before last year’s ‘I Heart Fonda 500’ album and hadn’t visited Cambridge for ten years. Anyhow, here we were on a Friday night for a run through their 20 years of metronomic hits. Lead keyboard mangler Simon still wears his woolly hat (“it smells like a horse”) pulled down to his eyes to attack his Casiotone MT-65, ladybassist Bod still makes grown men swoon, guitarist Nicholas and Jonee flank either side of the stage, and drummer Ian hides behind his kit except for his brief lead vocal during ‘I.a.m.a.d.r.u.m.m.e.r.’ A set drawn mostly from the last two albums kicked off with I Love Stereo ‘Cos Stereo’s Good For Me, The Sounds Sound Warmer when the Sound is Shared With You, Je m’appelle Stereo got the audience dancing, Jenny #1, both Golden Digits of Devilry and Mathematiques from last year’s album, early single Computer Freaks of the Galaxy, and we all threw caution to the wind during set finisher Electronique Bee 101. Between songs, Simon cracked jokes, threw sequins into the crowd, blew up and let off balloons, and sent up the serious muso stereotype.

The » Continue Reading.

D-Day 75

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I work 10 miles from Duxford IWM. On Monday, as I left the office, a squadron of C-47 Dakotas in formation flew overhead at 500 feet. It was awe-inspiring.

They were practising for yesterday’s flight to Normandy when two veterans – Harry Read, 95, and John Hutton, 94, – parachuted back into Normandy, 75 years after their first landing.

My father-in-law and brother-in-law both spent their careers with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. B-I-L is involved in building the new memorial at Gold Beach where the names of the 22,442 members of the British armed forces who died will be listed.

Be thankful we can sit in safety and type rubbish at strangers.

I appear to have something in my eye.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48536906

Re-Play Papworth – Queen

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30/06/2019

Queen’s Greatest Hits (the UK’s best-selling album) played from half-speed mastered 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.

ATM: BlueTooth earphones

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I know we’ve had similar threads, but not for a while and technology moves quickly.

Daughter has a birthday in a couple of weeks. She listens to music on a Sandisk sports player, her Moto phone, an Android tablet, a Windows laptop, probably soon a Fiio X1. She has an ability to trash wired earbuds, we’re lucky if a pair lasts more than 3 or 4 weeks.

What’s the verdict on Bluetooth in-ears, and what do you suggest? Budget up to about £100.