The Afterword

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Kathryn Willams joins James Yorkston and Willy Vlautin on our bookshelves

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I was googling around at the weekend to scrupulously check eligibility of varius songs for the Afterword 90s playlist when I discovered to my delight that Kathryn Williams has written her first novel: The Ormering Tide(Wrecking Ball Press). It’s going on my Must Read list.

“Kathryn Williams’ haunting first novel blends memory and island landscape, community, family and dark secrets, to explore how we emerge from the maze of childhood and adolescence into ourselves, able to name the shadows. A darkly brilliant debut which stays in the mind.” – Carol Ann Duffy

She is in good company. James Yorkston has a novel Three Craws. And Willie Vlautin (Richmond Fontain, The Delines) has published six novels. I’ve read one, Don’t Skip out on me (2018) and it was excellent. A young man endeavours to fulfil his dreams of becoming a professional boxer.

Are there any other musicians who’ve written novels, short stories or memoirs that we ought to know about? For the publisher, a novel by someone who is already a celebrity is often a gift. But not always. How about examples of works of fiction which were shameless vanity projects? I just discovered that Mozza has written a novel The » Continue Reading.

”I’m new here…” The fiendish allure of the femme fatale. The charismatic mystique of the cad.

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On my way back from the tvättstuga (communal laundry room) early this morning, I got to thinking about femme fatales. As one does! You wouldn’t believe the number of doe-eyed, slinky, seductive sirens with a strong foreign accent that I have had to fend off while doing the family washing.

My fellow washers, who this morning were a gaggle of shy, rather taciturn Swedish chaps, were surprised to walk in and find me listening to Nico and the Velvet Underground. What a contrast between the sturdy Scandinavian functionality of the row of Electrolux washing machines and the smoky, late night NY decadence of that remarkable song.

”She builds you up to just put you down What a clown.”

And all that got me to thinking: is there a male equivalent? There are some who use the term “homme fatale” but it sounds very stilted to me. I far prefer cad, bounder or rotter. The sort of rakish ne’er-do-well that Terry Thomas played so well.

My question to you today is: who are your favourite femmes fatales and charismatic cads?

From fiction, the movies, TV, comic books, pop music….Feel free to think outside the box. Children’s culture, for example, is full » Continue Reading.

What do a Belgian choreographer, a Siberian pianist, a member of ABBA and a Mohicaned organ maestro have in common?

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Some of may have you read Erica Jeal’s excellent article in the Guardian last week about how pianist Pavel Kolesnikov is working together with choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker on a performance of the Goldberg Variations. In which case you will guess that the answer is: an enthusiasm for Johann Sebastian Bach.

Benny Andersson has spoken on several occasions about how he listens to Bach every day. And flamboyant, punky American organ wunderkind, Cameron Carpenter, hold the genius from Leipzig in great esteem.

The article describes how Kolesnikov developed a new perspective on the Goldbergs when invited to work together by the Belgian choreographer who already has an impressive track record of working with Bach’s music. Unexpected! Bach and dance is not an automatic connection for me.

After reading the piece, I was very keen to watch them a clip of them working together. Fascinating.

Bach continues to be a source of inspiration for many musicians. In the 1960s, jazz pianist Jacques Loussier and his trio became very popular with their Play Bach LPs.

And then there is the equally unexpected Lambarena – Bach to Africa (from 1995). African musicians provide their reaction to JSB’s music.

I’d be keen to » Continue Reading.

Die bitteren Tränen der Edna von Everage

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The one I feel sorry for is Dame Edna. Oh! The bitter memories the last few days must have awoken….

What a peculiar week in showbusiness.

First, Andrew Cotter tweeted rather laconically:

”Not a sentence I would have imagined writing: Olive and Mabel’s theatre tour begins this Sunday night in Bury St Edmunds. Some tickets still available. Don’t expect great things.”

The UK’s two most popular pooches, Olive and Mabel, and Mr Cotter are starting a theatre tour! More popular than the Pet Shop Boys now. What a very bizarre phenomenon this is. How are they going to do to entertain the public? The two dogs seem to be very good at eating and taking a nap. I dread to think what the atmosphere will be like at the stage door.

And then we’ve got the news from Sweden. Things could be worse. Björn and Benny might have done a Branson and bought a spaceship with their millions. It’s great that they’ve written some fine new ABBA songs. But holograms? A preposterous vanity project to my mind. But the concerts will make a lot of people very happy, so I am not going to be churlish about it.

But that » Continue Reading.

It’s Friday! It’s five o’ clock! It’s …..The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio

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My apologies to any of you hoping for Peter “Golden Years” Glaze, Leslie Crowther or Cathy McGowan even.

Ready Steady GO!!

I think we all deserve something a little special to kick off our frantic weekend of clubbing, pubbing and lurving…

Who better than Seattle’s organ maestro?

YouTube slipped this wonderful funky, jazzy trio into my mix yesterday and I fell for it at once. Organ, guitar and drums. three excellent musicians having a ball.

Listen to their cover of Move on up and enjoy!

Retro as hell and all the better for it.

Seattle’s public service radio station, KEXP, are posting wonderful sessions on YT and giving the Tiny Desk over in Washington a run for its money.

Is there anyone in the UK, Eire or Australia who can compete with the Yanks in this respect?

So, what are you going to choose from the jukebox to brighten our afternoon??

P.S. Clubbing? Chance would be a fine thing. I’ll be scrubbing, rubbing and blubbing.

Duncan Chisholm: A magnificent talent, far too good to keep to myself ..

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As you all know, recently Retro went to a magnificently muddy music festival at Wickham.

Nothing for me, I thought until I started reading about and listening to YT clips of some of the artists who were playing: Gadarene, Manran, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, Old Blind Dogs, Will Pound, Tide Lines, Tankus the Henge, Lindisfarne, Fairport Convention, Peatbog Fairies, Van Morrison….Rather a decent line up. And a lot of new names to me.

Watching some YT clips however, there was one musician who really hit the spot for me from the first note: Scottish fiddler, Duncan Chisholm. I was deeply impressed. The beauty of the melodies. The authority and lyricism in his playing. His superb technique which is not just flashy pyrotechnics. The tune is always the thing.

The Cheshire Cat says it far better than I can. ”I first saw Duncan Chisholm at Folk at the Hall in 2014, just as his straths trilogy was coming out. I’m pretty sure he had Jarlath (Henderson) with him then as well. I was awestruck. It had the quality of a classical chamber performance, yet with roots authenticity.”

As for me, I sat entranced. The fiddle is a potent instrument. Now » Continue Reading.

Öland Graffiti – Cruising for kroppkakor with Major Lazer and Ruben and the Jets

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Here’s a thread about the joys of listening to music in a car.

I’m keen to hear about the soundtrack of your drives, both past and present. Alone. With your family. With your friends on the way to a gig, festival or Pensioners’ Bingo.

One of the great pleasures of our summer holiday visits here on the island of Öland is hiring a car. We have no need of one in the Stockholm suburbs, but in the countryside, with the nearest shop an hour’s walk from home, it is a must. And we need some chunky playlists for the seven-hour drive to get here.

But when we reach the Öland Bridge (which, as all you pontophiles will know, is one of the longest in Europe), I feel a sense of elation. Farewell for a while to the latte drinking, hipster ebikers of Bagarmossen. Hello to a garden full of butterflies, ants and other creepy crawlies, John Deeres holding up the traffic and a street almost devoid of lampposts. A night sky where you can clearly see the stars. That’s a luxury for a Pinner boy.

No disrespect to the solitary pleasures of earphones, but music in the » Continue Reading.

Dastardly Dress Code Deviants versus the Zealot Warlords of Immaculate Sartorial Conformity

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Here’s a thread about popular culture and dress codes…

I grew up in a society where dress codes were the norm. Now I live in one where they are almost non-existent. School tie, school blazer, white shirt…. In my day, if your skirt was half an inch was too short, you were sent home. That happened to me more times than I care to remember…

Now I live in one where …anything goes!

Stop Press! New Flash! Hats off to the Norwegian women’s beach handball team for refusing to kowtow to the European Handball Federation’s outdated, dress code about bikini bottoms. This should not even be an issue in 2021.

The EHF fined the players for wearing shorts. Talk about an own goal. Every tabloid journo in Europe must have been delighted.

Back to matters sartorial…. Anyway, oddly enough, I was thinking about dress codes in the arts this morning. Both for the performers and the artists. Have venues or artists the right to impose a dress code on those attending a gig, concert, opera, play, or film screening?

I was amused to read about the Hawera Cinema in New Zealand who turn away cinema goers who turn up » Continue Reading.

Astatke, Hampton, Ayers, Underwood, Tjader, Canelario.. Marimba, balafon xylophone….. Time for some good vibes!

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I have a considerable soft spot for that family of percussion instruments which are played with mallets. So, last week I was delighted to discover what a prominent role the marimba plays in the music of Latin America.

There have been several vibes virtuosi in jazz such as Lionel Hampton, Roy Ayers and Milt Jackson. But these versatile instruments appear in many different styles of music. Let’s not forget how much multi-instrumentalist Ruth Underwood contributed to the quirky sound of the Mothers of Invention. Or how the balafon playing of Malian Keletigui Diabate complemented Toumani Diabate’s kora so well. Without the stupendous Mulatku Astatke, the Ethiopian Jazz would never have happened.

My new discovery is Colombian marimbero, Hugo Canelario from the Pacific Coastal town of Guapi, who with his band , Grupo Bahia, has done much to spread the popularity of the “marimba de chonto.” I should also mention a tip from @Alias. From Ecuador, a vintage salsa album. Andarele by Carmen Gonzalez and Koral Y Esmeralda, which makes very effective use of marimba.

And these new discoveries are due the fact that @Salwarpe is currently on a new road trip in Darkest Colombia, » Continue Reading.

Vulnerable

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It’s scary how vulnerable we are in our modern, linked-up society.

As everybody in Sweden knows, last weekend the Coop supermarket chain had to temporarily close 500 or so supermarkets due to a cyber-attack which meant that it was impossible to use the tills.

Customers could not even pay with cash. Even bartering with a piglet or a chicken or two was out. A nightmarish weekend for shoppers and the staff of the stores. It’s been three days now and they are still not open properly.

Personally I have nothing to whinge about. We just went to ICA instead. But for those living in the countryside where Coop is the only supermarket for miles, it must have been a big inconvenience.

As a layman, I can’t understand the need to create a system where all the tills are linked in this way.

And what it there is a cyber-attack on pharmacies, hospitals, the blue light services, public transport, air traffic control..?

Heaven help us if the Systembolaget, the state liquor monopoly, gets hit, Swedes will be manning the longboats to sail offf and find the culprits.

I was told that this kind of ransomware attack happen far more often » Continue Reading.

Tardis 2021? I nominate Jarvis Cocker, Lady Gaga, John Cooper Clarke and Lizzo as prime choices for the new Doctor!

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The twittersphere is in a tizzy of speculation as to who might be taking over as the Tenant of the Tardis, the Wielder of the Sonic Scredriver.

Along with the four mentioned in the OP, my candidates are Phoebe Waller Bridge, Bill Bailey or DJ Lance Rock from Yo! Gabba Gabba (with the other cast members as his companions).

Or to really the boat out, why not Bagpuss as Dr Who!

The very first “saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams” to play the roll.

Anyway, amidst all the rumours, I was fascinated and excited to read that David Tenant and Catherine Tate are continuing to travel time and space together in Adventures of the 10th Doctor a series of audio dramas for UK company Big Finish Productions.

It must be like listening on the BBC Light Programme. Radio is quite wrongly seen as a poor relative in 2021. A medium which allows our imaginations to flourish so healthily deserves our greater respect.

The standard career arc for many shows is radio show to TV show to feature film to stadium extravaganza to theme park to breakfast cereal to Free toy with your Happy Meal.

» Continue Reading.

Sorry IKEA! The only piece of furniture I need is my Tiny Desk!

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The pandemic may mean that Bob Boilen and his team from NPR are working from home, leaving the world-famous Tiny Desk to gather dust. But the Tiny Desk (At Home) concerts are continuing to deliver a magnificent musical smorgasbord form all over the world.

In the past week I’ve greatly enjoyed:

Men I Trust – gorgeous, suggestive, melancholy dreampop from Quebec, recorded in a cabin on the Saint Lawrence river.

Tom Jones -a powerful, very moving set in celebration of his 81st birthday including a cover of Dylan’s One more cup of coffee.

Mdou Moctar – perfoming in a tent in Niamey,Niger. This extraordinary desert blues maestro is my discovery of the week.

From the archives:

The magnificent Lizzo. “How we feeling at this tiny ass desk??”

Taimane – Bouncy, joyous ukulele virtuoso from Hawaii

It must be a real letter day when an artist gets invited to do a TD gig for NPR. Rather like doing a session for the Venerable Peel back in the day.

Anyway, the location may have changed but the Tiny Desk spirit is alive and well.

It’s impressive how they’ve been able to adapt and continue to deliver their short, intense, joyful unplugged » Continue Reading.

Adieu les cons! Farväl fåtöljerna!! Arriverderci Cinema Paradiso???

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Last week was a turning point for live events here in Sweden. After 6 months during which the largest audience for any kind of cultural or sporting event was eight people, the restrictions have now been eased and 50 socially distanced people are now permitted. Not enough to generate much income, but definitely a step in the right direction for those in the culture sector.

Time for a cinema thread! here’s a place for some meanderings on cinema present, cinema past, cinema future.

Adieu les cons! (Bye bye morons!) is a wickedly funny, 2020 French road movie by Albert Dupontel which I saw as a preview at the weekend. I‘ll tell you more later.

Hiveminders! What are the new films that you are looking forward to seeing at the cinema? Which movies should we all be looking out for?

Farväl fåtöljerna!!(Swedish for Goodbye cinema seats). Last week, some geezers came to Biograf Reflexen in Kärrtorp where I am a volunteer and removed almost all the seating. After 40 years of noble service to the bottoms of Stockholm, they are off to that great multiplex in the sky. I got a little sentimental and cinematic memories came thick and fast. (The » Continue Reading.

Introducing DJ Cummerbund: A Mash-up Maestro with a fondness for bangers

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It’s bucketing down with rain here today. Everything is gloomy, dreich, dreary and wretched.

Like me, I’m sure you are all missing all your glittering, glamorous, bubbly, effervescent ESC pals: Efendi, Daði & Gagnamagnið, TIX, Tornike Kipiani, Gjon’s Tears, Tusse, Destiny Chukunyere, James Newman, Natalia Gordienko, Jendrik, Hooverphonic and Mariana Trench.

But fear not, pop pickers I have found a crazy cove who will bring a smile to your face..

It’s time to follow Alice down the rabbithole and visit the wacky, phantasmagorical, hilarious, funky musical Twilight Zone of N.Y. Mash Up Meister, DJ Cummerbund.

We’ve all had those bizarre dreams where people and places suddenly transform before your eyes. You are sitting in the Ritz talking to your primary school teacher (who you now realise you had a bit of a crush on) talking about Brian Eno, when suddenly you find yourself in the Grand le Opry, she has morphed into Chaka Khan and is handing you a mike to sing. It’s a Ken Dodd tribute gig and you are on next with the Diddymen singing Tubthumping. For some reason, the entire venue is full of Norwegian ninjas and Icelandic geisha girls.

Know the feeling?

That’s how I feel » Continue Reading.

17th May! Syttende mai!!

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Today is the Norwegian National Day. A perfect opportunity to post a few musical favourites from that most magnificent of countries.

I once spent May 17th in Oslo. Not an experience I am likely to forget! An explosion of joyous patriotic fervour.

I am now a Swede and am a tad envious of their flag-waving enthusiasm,

But they do make some fine music.

Grieg, Jan Garbarek, Odd Nordstuga, A Ha, Kari Bremnes, Jaga Jazzist, Valkyrien Allstars, Katzenjammer, Radka Toneff, Kings of Convenience, Terje Rypdal, Sissel, Tord Gustavsen, Majorstuen, Sigrid, Mari Boine…..Your Norwegian favourites please!

Hey Ho! Let’s go! Hey ho! Let’s Nonny No!

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Here is thread about springtime. I have two questions for you:

What are the signs that you notice in your local area that indicate that spring has arrived?

Have you any favourite pieces of music about spring?

For me, one primary sign of the oncome of spring in Stockholm is the arrival of the fieldfares. This will be odd to those of you in the UK, for whom the fieldfare is an uncommon winter bird Suddenly in late March, they are everywhere.

I knew nothing about these feisty little thrushes until I watched David Attenborough’s magnificent TV series The Life of Birds. There is a sequence, shot in Sweden, in which a group of fieldfares work together to chase away a hungry raven which is after eggs and chicks.

They are the avine equivalent of the Neighbourhood Watch.

The Swedish name is björktrast (birch thrush). Linnaeus’s Latin name was the unappealing Turdus pilaris.

And now for some springy songs.

Jazz, folk music, madrigals, musicals, Americana.. every musical genre has great song or two about the joys of spring. The birds are singing vigorously and it’s almost as though we humans are inspired to do likewise.

How about It » Continue Reading.

“Danser encore”! Zut alors! Time for titillating terpsichoreans, magnificent moshers, rambunctious rugcutters and flashy flashmobbers.

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Here’s a thread about wild sensual abandon, sweaty bodies, and refusing to conform to bourgeois norms. Yes: the joy of dance.

Looking through my YouTube recommendations yesterday, I found myself watching a splendid flashmob from the Netherlands. What a joy! A 12-year-old had filmed it all and he had done a wonderful job.

But what was the tune they were dancing to?

A quick Google revealed it to be Danser encore, by HK et les Saltimbanks, which has been inspiring dancing flashmobs all over France and beyond. Just search for “Danser encore” on YerTube and you’ll see what I mean. There are some wonderful clips.

Preposterously catchy, it reminds me a little of my old favourites Les Negresses Vertes.

I know! All these frisky French bohemians in the clips should be socially distancing or queuing up in an orderly fashion to get vaccinated. But even so, I feel invigorated by watching them.

What do I want from you?

Please post your favourite flashmob or other dance clips. Stuff that will make us smile or even wiggle a bit.

Soul Train, Moscow moshpits, rugcutting penguins, TOTP, majestic morrismen, tango dancers in Buenos Aires, Austenesque soirees at the Pump Rooms in Bath, » Continue Reading.

From the northern forests of Sweden and the meandering moose of Umeå to the transient beauty of cherry blossom on the Setouchi Islands in Japan’s Inland Sea …

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Tomorrow evening we will be lighting bonfires all other Sweden to celebrate the arrival of spring. Fair maidens will be singing in joyous anticipation. And over in the UK you will be greasing your maypoles and giving them a hearty rub to ensure they are ready for the rollicking revels that await.

So here’s a curate’s egg of a thread about a whole bunch of this sort of stuff. Go with the global flow of Spring.

In 1998, during Stockholm’s year as a European City of Culture, an elegant avenue of cherry trees was planted in Kungsträdgården in central Stockholm. It soon became a spring tradition for Stockholmers to gather and enjoy the blossoms in April. You can’t hang around. Once you hear that the trees are in bloom, it’s time to plan a visit.

My daughter and I popped down on Saturday afternoon. One thing that struck me immediately was that watching the people was as much a part of the fun as the beauty of the trees. A lot of laughter and joy at meeting up with family and old friends. And lots of selfies. It’s a lovely spontaneous event. Nobody selling anything. No organised activities. No compere » Continue Reading.

“Let them eat wallpaper” #CarrieAntoinette

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I do love a good nickname.

Tricky Dicky. Fab Macca Whacky Thumbs Aloft. Thatcher Thatcher – Milk Snatcher.

Especially when it is one that sticks and annoys the hell out of the person it refers to. Or in this case their partner.

So I was delighted this evening to hear that the First Fiancée has landed herself the nickname CarrieAntoinette due to her elaborate plans for the makeover of their Downing Street flat.

In Sweden a politician would win votes by mentioning that they can assemble a piece of IKEA furniture.

Boris, by contrast, doesn’t know his Allen Key from his elbow. And is ordering wallpaper that costs 840 quid a roll!

This is, of course, all very trivial compared to comments he has allegedly made. And many things he has done

But that nickname is a doozy!

Wife during wartime.. or New Brides for the Hebrides!

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Getting to know me, getting to know all about me….

I find it almost spooky how the YouTube algorithm seems to know me better than my own family.

Have any of you had any pleasant suggestions while watching clips on Yer Tube?

Or conversely unpleasant suggestions?

This morning before breakfast, for example, YT gently suggested that I might enjoy a 1941 clip of Hebridean housewives whacking their wool and singing while doing so. An offer I could not refuse. The girls are shown “waulking” (a.k.a. felting) the wool for Harris Tweed and singing together in Scottish Gaelic as they do so. A tradition that goes back many generations in their community.

This is true folk music. How wonderful that someone had recorded it for posterity.

It gets better. Who was the cameraman? Jack Cardiff, famed for his work with Powell and Pressburger. Look at IMDB, His career was amazing.

Cinematography for everything from the African Queen, A Question of Life and Death and Black Narcissus. And director of …..Girl on a Motorcycle. Oh dear! A film I saw at a very impressionable age. Marianne Faithful looking stupendous in leather and getting undressed rather frequently.

I got so excited that » Continue Reading.

Play an instrumental so we can all go mental!

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One of the great AW treats of the last week has been Guiri’s Instrumental Comfort thread. Some gorgeous pieces of music got posted.

Some common features of the instrumental tracks chosen were that they were often atmospheric, introspective, delicate, cinematic, sparse…. All rather like the artists on the ECM label. A big compliment in my book.

Not only did we get perennial AW faves like Ry Cooder, Toumani Diabate, Virginia Astley, Eno, J.J. Cale, Boards of Canada, but also new names ( to me) like Sarah Devaci, Martti Pokela, Susumu Yakota, William Johnson and Chuck Tylor.

Visit the thread. Enjoy. And add a few favourites of your own.

But that got me thinking about another kind of instrumental.

More extrovert, flamboyant, catchy, floorfilling, rowdy, attention seeking…

Back in the day, instrumentals could be enormous hits. And there were some absolute crackers.

The kind of…. tune that would get crinolines a fluttering and fill the dancefloor at the tearooms in Bath.

groove that would tempt the hipsters at Studio 54 to strut their stuff.

monumental , shuddering bassline that made everyone at the Carnaval feel thoroughly irie

sizzling riff that would fill the Roskilde moshpit in seconds

» Continue Reading.

BTS, Metallica, Beatles, Blue Peter, Mr Blobby: Fans ain’t what they used to be!

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What is it like to be a fan in 2021? Or to be an artist with a fan club?

Listening to 1960s international Beatles covers last week got me thinking about how mop-top fever spread across the world. And how Brian Epstein recruited Liverpudlian uberfan, 17 year-old Freda Kelly, to be the secretary for the band’s new fanclub home in Liverpool. A bit of a cottage industry: neither of them could have suspected how that job would grow.

Freda had a wide variety of tasks. For example, one fan sent her a pillowcase, asked her to get Ringo to use it for one night and then post it back.

Fast forward to the present. I don’t think BTS get sent my pillowcases.

In April 2020, K Pop boyband SuperM sold over 75,000 tickets to 109 countries for a live-streamed arena concert. A new Korean company, Beyond Live, are developing this new product. When performing live BTS speak in five different languages. The Beatles did rather well in German and French.

Here’s @deramdaze commenting on the difference between Xmas 1963 and April 2021:

”I think we can all agree that fame has changed. It seems mighty strange that » Continue Reading.

Mi’kmaq Emma meets Macca in Vancouver and talks about blackbirds

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Here’s the second half of a sunshine story which @mikethep mentioned yesterday.

Back in 2019, Emma Stevens, a 16 year old school girl at the Allison Bernard Memorial School on Cap Breton, was encouraged by her teacher, Carter Chiasson, to do a version of Blackbird in the indigenous language, Mi’kmaq to post on YouTube. The goal was to spread awareness of Mi’kmaq and other endangered languages.

She has a gorgeous voice and the clip, quite rightly, went viral.

A few months later, Paul McCartney was on tour and was due to visit Vancouver.

The enclosed CBC article tells the second art of the story. Carter says that his brother “emailed the right person and said the right things and all of a sudden we had an invitation.”

“It was pretty surreal,” said Chiasson, still sounding a little shell-shocked by the experience. “I probably wouldn’t be who I am if it wasn’t for the music of the Beatles. It’s a big part of why I’m a musician and a music teacher and a producer. It’s just surreal. It feels like it didn’t happen. But I’m so grateful that it did.”

Emma commented in a text: “Meeting Paul was » Continue Reading.

High tech Todd Rundgren on live-streaming tour is the bees’ knees

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As you will have noticed, I have, thanks to some fantastic suggestions from you lot, been bingeing on music from Manchester all week.

I didn’t feel quite right to leave that great northern city without paying a visit to the Twitter account of one of the AW’s most eminent Mancunians, Beany. I am rather glad I did as he had posted a swinging piece of modern pop music: Busy Bee by Buddy Merrill from 1965.

Weird eh? How can one explain to modern kids that a guitarist could have a hit record? When was the last time a guitar instrumental was in the charts? The glory days of Link, Django, Hank, Carlos et al are long gone.

And then again, how can we explain that in 1949, a man playing zither instrumentals, Anton Zaras, was not only a world renowned hitmaker, but also an A list celebrity and best mate of all the beautiful people?

Back to the future. Is there any way we could ( without being locked away) convince the musicians and fans of 1965, not least that gangly teenager, Todd Rundgren, (born 1948) that he would in 2021 be doing a major US “tour” without even leaving » Continue Reading.

Manchester June 1986. The Festival of the Tenth Summer Revisited in Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies.

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I suspect several of you know the Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan.

He was a new name to me but our book circle have just been reading his excellent novel Mayflies, a very funny and moving portrait of male friendships. And once I finished that I’ve been browsing sundry short pieces about his Glasgow childhood and his family. The more I read, the more I like him.

Fireflies is such an Afterword novel. The first half of the book describes a visit to Manchester in 1986 by a group of five Scottish lads from Ayrshire to attend the Festival of the Tenth Summer. This was a ten-event, week-long extravaganza held to celebrate 10 years of punk, culminating in concert headlined by New Order and The Smiths at the GMex Centre. A gig and a half! Was this Manchester’s finest musical hour?

O’Hagan captures the excitement of a group of devoted Peelite teens visiting what must have been one of the most exciting cities in the world for music. He has a great ear for the banter of nerdy 80s music fans.

I never got to Manchester in the heyday of the Hacienda or go for a haircut at the Factory » Continue Reading.