Musings on the byways of popular culture
27 CDs!
Despite the surprisingly affordable £91 price tag on AUK, I can’t see myself playing all 27 of these even once never mind giving them the AW-mandated minimum six spins
Anyone in?
https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/bob-dylan-and-the-band-the-1974-live-recordings/
Halfway through the year seems to be as good a time as any to do a what’s worth watching list of the best TV shows (loads and loads) and movies (not very many) from the first six months of 2024.
Here – in no particular order – are my faves:
ENG LANG DRAMAS
Boy Swallows Universe (NF)
Ripley (NF)
Baby Reindeer (NF)
Responder S2 (BBC)
Blue Lights S2 (BBC)
Sympathizer (Sky)
Inside No 9 (BBC)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE DRAMAS
The 8 Show (Korean – NF)
Who Killed Him? (Mexican Am P)
Prisoner (Danish BBC)
Totems (Am Prime – an oldie but well worth watching)
DOCUMENTARIES
The Miners Strike (C4 and BBC)
Rise and Fall of Boris J (C4)
COMEDIES
None I can think of. Suggestions/recommendations are welcome
Obituary
88.
So many great movies
RIP Mr. S
Arguably the most consistently inventive show on TV this last decade – especially given the fact that, unlike apparent “competitors” like Black Mirror, it has a rigid approx 27 minute time limit and nugatory budgets from the BBC
While there are inevitably going to be peaks and troughs, they’ve knocked it out of the park many, many times – the 12 Days of Christine, the Live Halloween Special being two oft-quoted examples.
Ninth and final series has been uniformly excellent, imho.
In true RS and SP style, the contents of tonight’s final episode are tightly under wraps
So what do you reckon they’ll leave us with:
Something about hares?
The rumored but apparently impossible to do On The Buses episode they flagged up only to run the 3 x 3 quiz show (the only ep in which RS and SP do not appear)?
A showcase for Sir Ian McKellen – the one actor they famously tried but could never get onboard?
Might make sense to have him as Orangey’s roomy to save on the security costs
Anyone see that weird footage of his Dad freezing at some ceremony or other?
They really need to get shot of him and Kamala if we are to stand any chance of keeping Trump away from the nuclear football
McGuire, Maddison and Grealish fail to make the plane.
Kane and Shaw remain fitness worries.Given his scoring record and the facts that Toney’s form is poor and Watkins looks out of his depth at international level, they really need Kane to stay ffit
So how far do you think they will go?
Top their group and they should have an easy run to the semis where they’ll probably go out vs France.
Finish second and they will probably faced a resurgent Germany in the last 16.
Third place and who knows if they’ll go through or who they’ll get if they do.
Obituary
RIP the most famous Brenda lookalike of the all.
Oddly, like QEII, she was 96 when she died
For me, currently Morten Moreland of the Times followed by the same paper’s Peter Brookes.
Richard Hawley In This City They Call You Love (BMG) Out Fri 31 May, 2024
Live at the Dublin Olympia Friday 24 May, 2024
Few onstage utterings strike more fear into the heart of the seasoned gig-goer than the words “And this is off the new one that comes out next week…”.
But then this is Richard Hawley, a man whose nine previous impeccably written, arranged, played and sung studio albums are the dictionary definition of consistency and exemplary taste. On the evidence of the bulk of the 12 new cuts on his first new release for five years, In This City They Call You Love is destined to make it ten out of ten. Given the instant accessibility of most of the 50s and 60s infused sonic soundscapes contained therein, it’s also likely to be a shoe-in for my and I suspect several other AWers end-of-year Top 10s.
THE ALBUM
The big question for those who’ll have to wait a few more days to immerse themselves in ITCTCYL’s 12 tracks was had Our Richard lost his mojo in the lengthy gap since 2019’s Further? They needn’t have worried. Far from taking his foot off the pedal, music’s Greatest Living » Continue Reading.
A gorgeous late Spring morning.
Barely has the beautiful Irish scenery appeared in the compartment window of the packed 0735 Saturday train from Dublin to Roscommon than the plucked faced student opposite me pulled out a mobile phone and started y’kno like telling everyone on the carriage about her amazing course, social life and romantic entanglements at ear -splitting volume.
My much needed invention would be some kind of personal mobile phone jammer that allowed texts but no talking.
How about you?
Been thinking about doing this for ages and just noticed a guy doing a neighbours house to give us a quote. Apparently about E5K after the E2K Irish govt grant.
Anyone had them installed or got any advice pro or anti doing so
All of Sunak’s cabinet have been ordered to abandon their travel plans and head back to London for a meeting at 4.15pm
Alternatively, is Rishi going to try and mitigate the worst effects of what looks sure to be a disastrous election for his party by making way for Paula Vennells.
Well yesterday to be exact that The Who took to the stage at The Valley. Pretty sure the full concert (highlights of which were shown on BBC a few weeks later) was on YT at some point
In addition to Pete, Rog, Keith and John, the bill included some pretty top notch support acts
Humble Pie
Maggie Bell
Lou Reed
Bad Company
Lindisfarne
and
Montrose (who I nearly forgot)
Dave Mason was listed on the poster but didn’t appear
All for – IIRC – £2.50
You try telling that to young people today, etc
Any other AWers there? Sure I can’t have been the only one
Venue:
HANDSOME FAMILY, Liberty Theatre, Eden Quay, Dublin
Date: 03/05/2024
With nosebleed seats for Stevie Nicks upcoming 3 Arena show priced at a haemorrhage-inducing E151, Irish fans have plenty of reasons to whinge long and hard about obscenely high ticket prices. Yet search around and it’s still possible to catch a great gig without having to surrender your arm and leg when logging on to ticketmaster.ie.
With tickets costing just E30, tonight’s Handsome Family European tour opener at Dublin’s wonderfully intimate Liberty Theatre is a classic example. Probably best known for Far From Any Road (the theme tune for the first – and best – season of True Detective), Brett (vocals and acoustic guitars) and Rennie Sparks (bass, banjo, harmonies) have built up a small but fanatically loyal audience during their 29-year, 11-album career. Some 400 of that fanbase’s diehard Dublin chapter are out in force to see them and sidemen Alex McManus (guitar) and Jason Toth (drums) make a welcome return to the Fair City.
After some good natured joshing about the wisdom of seeing acts on the opening nights of their tours, Brett, Rennie and their sidemen start their 17-song set with Joseph, the opener from » Continue Reading.
Obituary
Bernard Hill at 79.
Best known for Boys from the Blackstuff, Wolf Hall and Titanic
Back on screens at 9pm in The Responder on BBC 1
Obituary
As none of the AW’s more literary cohort of members marked his death of a couple of days ago, guess it falls to semi-literate me.
Wonderful early work – New York Trilogy, Music of Chance and Book of Illusions – fell away a bit in the middle but came back strongly at the end with 4321
If you need a place to start, the three novellas that make up New York Trilogy are well worth digging out
Obituary
Showed us the way by inventing the Talk Box so beloved by Peter Frampton and his fans and pioneering the now ubiquitous guinormous onstage sound systems
No posts about them on search.
While I know very little about them – the odd song on Ucunt and Mojo cover CDs – they’re playing at Dublin’s 400-seat Linerty Theatre in two weeks so I thought what the heck, I’ll go.
Got their most recent album and will give it a listen over the next couple of weeks
So any HF aficionados in these here parts?
A tribute its subject would surely have loved
Leaving aside This Town which came out a couple of weeks ago and is covered elswwhere) there have been absolutely four top notch programs out in the last week
Ripley (NF) covered elsewhere
Reenagade Nell (Disney)
Baby Reindeer (NF)
Fallout (AP)
RN is Sally Wainwright’s new show and very bingeable it is, too. More Gentleman Jack than Happy Valley, it’s also hugely good fun.
Based on a true story, BR is a bit of a leftfielder – a hybrid of an unsettling drama and black comedy about stalking by a UK stand up I’d never heard of before, Only watched its first (of eight) 30-minute episodes, but it is very, very gripping
After that. it’ll be Fallout which is also picking up great reviews
Best show I watched earlier in the year was 2022’s Aussie drama, Boy Swallows Universe – if you’ve not seen it, give it a go
Apparently this year marks 50 years since the publication of Carrie kickstarted Mr K’s career. Not bad for a book that, like several of Richard Thompson’s finest songs – his wife dug out of the waste paper bin. Not bad for a writer who once self-effacingly referred to his ouevre as being the “literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries”.
While it’s true that I’ve ever re-read one of his books, it’s equally true that I’ve never struggled to finish one either.
Given the vast number of best sellers he’s written, it’s almost impossible to pick out a favorite. From his early years, I’d probably go for the expanded version of The Stand while from his more recent work, it would probably be Billy Summers
Wow!
Three episodes in and the best show of the year so far.
Stunning story. Stunning cast. Stunning B/W cinematography. Wha’s not to like?
Give it a go, you won ‘t be disappointed
As some AWers will hopefully remember, I’ve spent the last three-odd years struggling to stop the eco vandals who own the land next to my late uncle’s farm from destroying it with huge unnecessary structures.
Earlier this month, they were taken to court and fined. As they are Z list celebs, I got a leading paper interested in taking up the case. For them to do so, what I need to establish is: :
* Roughly when an illegal jetty was erected on a stretch of EU-habitats protected riverfront that belonged to me rather than the developers.
* Just how big the jetty is (it looks fucking enormous from the pix I’ve found on Instagram)
PM me with your email address if you can help and I’ll send you over relevant references
Thanks in advance
Just back from a quick three-day break in London during which I saw
One gig (the Who at the RAH @ £140)
Two films (Zone of Interest and Monster for a total of £23)
One exhibition (Romans in Britain for £24)
and
Three theatre shows (two evening and one matinee) for a total of £164 (£24 for A Mirror, £38 for The Motive and the Cue, and Picture of Dorian Gray for £100).
Anyone else here a theatre fan?
It’s getting to the point where grabbing a last-minute ticket to a play is a whole lot cheaper than shelling out for a gig sometimes a year in advance.
While the PODG ticket was pricey, the whole shebang – Sarah Snook playing 26 different roles unbind interacting with numerous screens and camera operators – was way more spectacular than some gigs I’ve recently seen for the same kind of money.
Obituary
100 years old.
Wonder what song he would have sung along to via the infernal machine he invented
RIP, Negishi-san
