The Afterword

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Split Ends

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This short weekly series began yesterday afternoon. I didn’t hear episode one (Dr Feelgood) due to a work meeting… and I forgot.

“With the help of music professionals, singer-songwriter Kitty Perrin looks at the reasons why some bands split while others continue.”

Ep. 1: Dr Feelgood Ep. 2: Liberty X Ep. 3: The Fall

Which makes me wonder: which Fall lineup is she going to cover, or is she going to squeeze quotes from all 987 ex-Fall members into 30 minutes?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001yqd9/episodes/guide

Are The Smile the new Oasis?

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I’ve seen two posts on FB this morning complaining about audience chatter at two different gigs by The Smile.

“Team outing to see The Smile tonight at Alexander Palace, what a night, so good. Question: why do people go to gigs to talk all the way through them? I just don’t get it. Still brilliant though.”

And, from the linked Birmingham Mail article “I saw The Smile at O2 Academy – they were amazing but one group of fans nearly ruined the night. Despite annoying gig-goers who couldn’t shut up, The Smile delivered a superb 90 minute set”. Set your ad-blockers to stun if you really want to read more.

Are all big gigs like this now, or do The Smile just attract the kind of beer-swilling gobshites who used to attend Oasis gigs in my youth?

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/saw-smile-o2-academy-were-28871048

The Specials on Sky Arts

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“The Specials emerged in the late 1970s during a time of great social, political, and economic upheaval in England. These deep subjects have heavily influenced their music right up to the present day.

The band’s songs Ghost Town, Gangsters, Too Much Too Young have bravely tackled issues of racism, unemployment, and social inequality, unafraid to reflect England’s shadow back onto itself.

With the passing of Terry Hall this film reflects on The Specials’ cultural impact. The Specials were not just a musical phenomenon but a cultural one that influenced fashion, style, popular culture, trends and even the mood of the entire nation.

This film explores how their legacy lives on in contemporary culture and how their influence can still be seen in modern art, fashion, and media. Their messages are universal. They soundtrack moments in history.”

I missed November’s episodes on Paul Weller and New Order*, the Specials ep airs next Tuesday (19th) evening on Sky Arts.

(*) can anyone help?

https://www.white-light.tv/all/record-on-the-specials-a-message-to-you

Do-du-du-du-doo

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Mrs F works for a well-known supllier of Bluetooth gubbins.

Jean-Michel Jarre came to visit yesterday. He’s keeping well for 75.

The 5-note riff from Oxygène IV (released in 1976!) has served him well.

Oxygène, Équinoxe, Les Chants Magnétiques, Les Concerts en Chine, Zoolook. Zoolook, the most recent of his work I own, was 1984 – 40 years ago.

Everyone’s Getting Involved

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Due to well, no public demand whatsoever, the Stop Making Sense soundtrack is getting a young persons makeover. “Coming soon”, whenever that might be.

Featuring 16 tracks by 16 artists. I have heard of some of them

@paramore @mileycyrus @lorde @girlinred @thenational @teezotouchdown @kevinabstract @badbadnotgood @toroymoi @blondshell @dj_tunez @jeandawsn @chicanobatman @the_linda_lindas @elmatoaunpoliciamotorizado @the.cavemen

https://hypebeast.com/2024/1/a24-talking-heads-everyones-getting-involved-tribute-album-tracklist-paramore-teezo-touchdown

My night out with the British Empire

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I have a collegue from India, who is currently visiting the Cambridge office.

I was going to take him to the Portland Arms to see Tape Runs Out, but the gig was postponed to October. So we went to West Road concert hall instead, to see a student production of Iolanthe.

During the interval, the bar served only alcoholic beer & wine, or fizzy pop, so I ordered a cup of tea. Most of which I spilled over myself, to avoid tipping it over the fragrant lady who had been waiting at my side at the bar. Who, it turned out, was Anna Lapwood MBE.

She had on a lovely sky-blue suit jacket, whereas I had a scruffy black t-shirt with a picture of a Technics SL-1210 turntable on it.

Have any other AWers nearly spilled a drink over someone with a gong?

Terrible band names

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Digitising my off-air cassette of 10,000 Maniacs at Sadler’s Wells* (31st July 1988) for a post-punk chum got me thinking**.

“10,000 Maniacs” – what were they thinking?

What other terrible names can the AW hive mind think of?

(*) PM me for ‘help’

(**) Surely it can’t be nearly 36 years ago, can it? Anyhow, well done to BASF for bucking the trend of their Chrome tapes either shedding magnetic material inside my deck, or sandpapering the heads off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEUVotBxmsU

Never Mind the Ballocks

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I listened to this radio drama adaptation thingy in the car on the drive back from Ikea. The operator of the Radio 4 bleep button certainly had a busy shift.

“When Nottingham Virgin Records displays the Sex Pistols album Never Mind The Bollocks in the window, the local police take offence. The local shop manager looks like he might take the rap when Virgin boss Richard Branson manufactures a row and the case goes to court.

The stage is set for a showdown between Sir John Mortimer QC and the local guardians of morality. And it’s more than just strong language that’s on trial.

Michael Eaton’s drama evokes England of the late 1970s – a time of strikes, poverty and power cuts. Against this background, the country’s attitude to the Sex Pistols, punk and the angry youth they represented is tested.

Regina v Searle was heard at Court Three at Nottingham’s Guildhall on the chill morning of November 27, 1977. Witnesses included artist Caroline Coon, and the stern Scottish Professor James Kinsley of Nottingham University, an expert in Medieval Linguistics. “

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ts47

Bob Dylan: Verbatim

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Bob Dylan, in his own words, currently on BBC Radio 4.

“The many variations of Bob Dylan’s life and music told in his own words, combining rare interviews, studio outtakes, archive and musings, all set to his music. Part of Radio 4’s celebrations of Dylan’s 80th birthday.

From his very first interviews when he arrived in New York in 1961 in search of Woody Guthrie and a path to musical eminence, Dylan created mystique and drama by offering obfuscate descriptions of his early life, as he set about creating a bohemian troubadour myth that transcended the real suburban Zimmerman upbringing.

He enjoyed these early fabrications and, realising they gave him power over journalists, he continued to use contradiction, dissension and confutation in interviews to avoid being labelled and typecast.

As his reputation grew, his patience withered and, before long, the media began describing him as tense, belligerent, taciturn, grim and irascible. All these iterations of one of the most acclaimed and admired singer songwriters in modern music are incorporated in to this unique soundscape.

A Zinc Media production for BBC Radio 4″

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wbyw