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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.

”I’m gonna put on an iron shirt, and chase Satan out of earth”

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Many of you will recognise the lyrics of Chase the Devil by Max Romeo. Such a wonderfully powerful opening line. But how any singers could deliver it with conviction?

Max Bygraves, Ken Dodd, Val Doonican? Not a chance! And when it comes to hairstyles, Max is the hands down winner.

Inspired by our recent homage to U Roy, here’s a thread in which I would like to hear a little more about your favourite reggae songs, particularly those which you feel have the most interesting, moving, bizarre, soulful lyrics. The Great Reggae Songbook covers so many areas of activity and has so many memorable gems.

Race horses – The Pioneers

What a weepin’ and wailin’ dung a Caymanas park Long Shot, him kick de bucket Long Shot kick de bucket

Flying preachers – Prince Far I

Some come from the east Like a big leggo beast, Fi guh dip inna di healing stream.

A night out on the razzle – Anthea and Donna

See me in me ‘alter back Sey me gi’ you ‘eart attack Gimme little bass, make m’wine up m’waist

NHS staff – Gregory Isaacs

I don’t want to see no doc I need attendance from my nurse » Continue Reading.

I’m leaving… On the midnight train for Sapporo. And other sizzling, snowy Enka hits!

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This evening SVT broadcast the grand finale of the Swedish STV quiz show På Spåret (On the right track). This will be of no interest to any of you except for AW’s hardcore PS fans in Spånga and Bagarmossen. Both DuCool and I will be glued to the box along with our wives.

The one thing that might interest the rest of you is that the house band this evening is First Aid Kit who have been in fine form for the past two weeks. The Söderberg sisters are big fans of the show. The quiz consists of a series of rounds, each of which is a based on a city. The first question is to guess which city we are heading for. This is based on some very cryptic clues, and a film clip from the view from the train driver’s cab (or driver’s seat) which is travelling towards the destination. I enjoy it because it’s all done with such sense of fun. Losing gracefully gets as much respect from me as winning.

I wonder; have SVT have ever used a train journey from or to Tokyo?

I ask this because this morning I was listening to a » Continue Reading.

Come on ye wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beasties!

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It’s Burns Night this evening and Scots all over the world will be celebrating the birthday of Robbie Burns, The only Burns Supper I have ever been to was in the rather posh Stockholm suburb of Lidingö. I do wonder if home-sick ex-pats take it even more seriously than those who live in Scotland. I did learn that evening that Burns is rather popular in Russia.

Do any of you normally attend an event or watch a special Burns Night TV programme? Or attend a gig at Celtic Connections?

Are young people interested or is it just something for the oldies?

This year will be a very Zoomy, YouTubby Burns bash.

I have not a drop of Scots blood in my body (but rather too many drops of Famous Grouse), but I would greatly enjoy a little celebration of Scottish music, poetry, fiction, cinema, cooking…

Please post a track or two of your favourite Scottish artists. Or give us a few tips on books or movies. I am going to kick off with a clip that MikeH recommended recently. Iona Foyle singing a song by Michael Marra. Perfect!

I just found out that Iona has been receiving a lot of » Continue Reading.

Keyharp solo in the Toledo snow: Danza de los Carámbanos

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We all know abut the rain in Spain.

However, when Storm Filomena swept through the Iberian Peninsular earlier in the month, it was a great surprise for the citizens of the ancient city of Toledo to find themselves deep in snow. Keyharp virtuoso, Ana Alcaide, made the most of the white stuff and filmed herself playing with her snowy home city providing a magnificent backdrop.

An exquisite combination of music and landscape. A real pick-me-up.

Just in case you don’t know it, the nyckelharpa is one of the most popular instruments in Swedish folk music. It is fairly rare sight in Spain. Ana discovered it while studying in Sweden,

During these very peculiar times, morsels like this are an enormous tonic.

Here is a thread to celebrate stuff (YTclips, news stories, weather, anecdotes, cartoons, books etc) that has brightened your month.

A few of mine:

A Danish TV concert programme featuring Muddy Waters in concert in Copenhagen in 1968 on YT.

Two weeks of deep snow here in Stockholm. Suddenly the whole forest became glittery, white and amorphous. It was like being transported off to Narnia for a fortnight.

Scottish folk-singer, Iona Foyle singing a wee song about Trump to » Continue Reading.

A Sunday of song, sea and sperm… Wales and whales are both welcome!

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Thanks to Cap’n Salwarpe and his crew, yesterday we enjoyed a splendid Shanty Saturday,

A cavalcade of nautical songs from favourite artists, old and new, including the singing postie Nathan Evans, the Longest Johns, the Pogues, the Wellington Sea Shanty Society, Cyril Tawney, the Wilsons, Triakel, Ewan Macoll, Coope, Boyes and Simpson, Seán Dagher, Alestorm, La Nef, The Sheringham Shantymen, The Watersons and the Storm Weather Shanty Choir.

Such was my nautical enthusiasm that I had to dash down to Systembolaget and buy a large bottle of rum. (I was hoping to get myself a bird to sit on my shoulder too, being a great fan of that shantyastic movie, Parrots of the Caribbean, but even Norwegian Blues were out of stock.)

Leading the singing was the AW’s very own Shantyman, The Cheshire Cat and he offered the following explanation of the genre:

”The purpose of a shanty is to give co-ordination to heavy team work; that can be on dry land, but is most remembered for being at sea. But some wipsy ballad about missing one’s sweetheart back in port, don’t count as a shanty just ’cause it’s being sung at sea.”

Twang posted Nic Jones’s The Humpback Whale, » Continue Reading.

Prequels, sequels and reboots: from Higher Fidelity to Prim Suspect

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One of the finest novels I’ve read in the past few years was Irish writer, Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End. It is a gay love story set in the American Civil War. Beautifully written and an exciting, epic tale which is hard to put down.

I was extremely surprised however to discover that Barry has now written a sequel: A Thousand Moons. No spoilers please, but that avid bibliophile, Locust of the Afterword, assures us that the new book will not disappoint.

The ingenuity of the entertainment industries when it comes to devising sequels and prequels is legendary and right now there seem to be a lot of them about.

Yesterday we watched the first episode of Prime Suspect 1973 which stars Stefanie Martini as a 22 year old Jane Tennison in her early years as a cop. Gritty, unsentimental and unglamorous: her fellow officers are a sty-full of MCPs who expect the women officer to do all the dirty job and speak when spoken to. Not easy to step into Helen Mirren’s shoes, but Stef is doing rather well. Endeavour, another show following the younger days of a famous sleuth has shown this is fruitful territory.

Nick Hornby is » Continue Reading.

One vote wonders and no vote blunders – let’s have some love for the ones that almost got away!

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Call me perverse, but when I read through Lodestone’s Labour of Love, The List of 2020, the albums that attract my interest most are those that got the fewest votes. Or perhaps no votes at all.

Here is a chance to give them an extra mention.

I’ll kick off with Americana, a gorgeous ACT album by harmonica player, Gregoire Maret, together with ever reliable Bill Frisell on guitar and Romain Collin on piano. It was mentioned by DuCool in his 45 best albums of the year.

What a gem! Three superb musicians at the top of their game playing some modern standards.

Some of you may comment it’s a little MOR. What’s the German term? Mitt zum Autobahnen?

Frankly, I don’t give a damn,

Who else deserves an extra mention?

It is a joy reading through all your lists…

The Unthanks, the Sixteen, Claire Martin, reen Seagull, Wire, the Lemon Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Eels, Pere Ubu, ???

Saturday Night Live, Panto at Blackpool Grand Theatre, Footlights, National Lampoon, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, YouTube, The Comedy Store, Brighton Pier …..or??

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Here is a thread what is the bastard offspring of the Comedy Films and Comedy TV shows threads.

Back in ye goode olde dayes, if you were looking for a career in comedy, you grabbed your bells, put on a funny hat and headed for the nearest castle.

But what about recent times?

Looking through all the things we’ve mentioned, it reminded me of how some shows, festivals, TV channels etc have provided very fertile soil for young comedians, scriptwriters and comic actors at the start of their career.

Beyond the Fringe – all four of them!

The Goon Show – likewise

Crackerjack

Private Eye, Punch, Mad or other humorous magazines?

Do not adjust your set

Carry on Films

Green Wing – Olivia Coleman, Mark Heap, Tamsin Greig

The Fast Show

SNL – Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig etc

I would be very happy if you could add to my list.

Do feel free to post some examples too.

In 2020, does the road to comedy fame begin on YouTube?

Do you find tubers amusing?

Personally I’ve always thought that swedes were far more amusing than potatoes…

I’ll get my wheelbarrow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0qOD9rtOEE

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy.

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When the news of Biden’s victory hit Bagarmossen late this afternoon, our whole street exploded into a colourful, spontaneous, joyful street party. Strangers passionately embraced each other. Young and old jumped into the fountain and frolicked. The Systembolaget threw open its door and ann0unced that all booze was on the house so that we all could drink Joe’s health.

And how we danced!

The first tune out was Martha and the Vandellas – Dancing in the street, followed rapidly by Aretha ‘s Oh Happy Day, Pharell Williams’ Happy and then the Edgar Broughton Band’s Out Demons Out.

What tracks have you all been dancing to??

Tae sup wi’ a Fifer… he maun hae a lang spoon!

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Anything that Scottish singer-songwriter, James Yorkston, is involved in, is worth taking a look at in my book.

This project, which presents a variety of different musicians and poets from north of Hadrian’s Wall, is a fine example of that: Tae sup wi’ a Fifer.

Landlord, mine’s a pint of heavy! Bottoms Up!

https://www.taesup.co.uk/

Another diamond day on Bondi Beach …. with Robert Forster and Vashti Bunyan

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Vashi Bunyan, Robert Forster, Sybille Baier and “Connie” Converse…

Mousey asked me to pay special attention to the music when I went to see Babyteeth, as it was composed by a friend of his in Sydney. The film was so engrossing that I completely forgot about his request. But then came a scene where Milla and Moses sat happily by the poolside to the soundtrack of a song I know rather well, Diamond Day by Vashti Bunyan. And it worked perfectly.

Vashti sent off in 1968 in a horse-drawn carriage to join Donovan’s commune on the Isle of Skye. Who would have suspected that a song from her long-forgotten cult album from 1970 would re-appear in an Aussie indie film in 2020?

Robert Forster of the Go-Betweens, that’s who!

Trying to make a connection between Australia and Vashti, I just stumbled across an excellent piece he wrote in 2009 about three “lost women” of popular music..

Vashi, Sybille Baier and “Connie” Converse…

What an excellent writer he is!

Go and see the film. Read the article. And listen to the artists that Forster writes about.

But first, answer this question.

Have you had any moments recently, while watching the » Continue Reading.

Babyteeth vs titanic tentpoles. Silver-screen endgame or fleapit renaissance?

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Babyteeth is screening this weekend at Biograf Reflexen, the community cinema where I work as a volunteer, and after several rave reviews, not least from DuCool, I am really looking forward to it. A drama comedy about a teenage cancer patient who, to her parents’ horror, falls in love with a drug dealer, it’s the first feature film from Australian director and actress, Shannon Murphy. Have any of you seen it?

The salon seats 200 but the Covid 19 regulations mean that we can only sell 50 tickets. Slowly, cinemas here in Sweden are starting to reopen, with appropriate adjustment to enable social distancing. Babyteeth is sold out so we will make a small profit. But the important thing is to be up and running (hobbling?) again. The looks of joy and expectation on the faces of the munchkins, clutching their cuddlies who turned up for our Sunday lunchtime matinee last week were a joy to see.

“We are going to the ciiiiiiiiinema!!!” shouted one enthusiastic cinephile, as his buggy came hurtling into the foyer. You should hear his howls of pleasure when we have had a Bergmn retrospective or shown The Turin Horse.

We are cautiously optimistic that our » Continue Reading.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi live. Can a concert get any better? Or any Metter?

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It is not everyday that the AW visits The Met. I imagine it’s all a bit posh somehow.

Tattoed youth in Mötorhead T shirts, deadheads in home-knitted sweaters, metal fiends dripping in chainsand leathe….. all are probably in short supply.

Or am I completely wrong?

If they host gigs like this one, it is definitely time to me to give them a little more kudos.

I suspect I am not the only here who will enjoy this.

Elizabeth Shepherd as Emma Peel, Jason Robards as Fitzcarraldo, Ken Dodd as Dr Who……

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The trials and tribulations of Tinseltown!

Reading yesterday about the sad passing of Diana Rigg, I was fascinated to discover that the first choice for Emma Peel had been horror film veteran, Elizabeth Shepherd. Two episodes were actually filmed (they were later re-filmed with DR) before the producers realised they had got it wrong.

An expensive but bold decision.

Read more on the very extensive Avengers Forever website. Steed and Co are gone but most certainly not forgotten, Talk about a labour of love!

Likewise, I recently discovered that Jason Robards was cast in Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and filmed half the movie until he got ill in the Amazon jungle and had to pull out. Klaus Kinski was called in, despite his rather stormy working relationship with Herzog.

Finally did I dream that Ken Dodd was originally cast as Dr Who?

Perhaps, even the Swinging 60s were not ready for an eccentric Liverpudlian Time Lord who vanquished alien invasions with this Tickling Stick.

Shame! Diddy Men vs the Daleks. would have been interesting.

So do you have any favourite tales of cultural developments that almost happened. Or that you wish had happened?

What a shame that Tim Burton never » Continue Reading.

Lone Piper on Lord Lovat’s Landing Craft. Frantic Thespians at the Ford Theatre. Norwegian fishergeezers charm Danish moshpit maniacs…

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“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” And being a musician, actor, acrobat, make-up artist, busker, ghost writer, stuntman, extra, or belonging to many other professions within the creative industries can lead to the most surreal of experiences.

“Weird scenes inside the gold mine.” There’s no business quite like show business.

This whole line of thought was inspired by reading about William Millins aka Piper Bill aka Mad Bill. I am not a military man but I was fascinated to discover that Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat and commander of the Special Services Brigade at D Day, had a personal piper. What is more, said piper followed him into battle on the landing craft, armed with nothing but a set of bagpipes. The poor sap probably thought that learning the pipes would result in playing a few ceilidhs or military tattoos.But instead of the Gay Gordons and Strip the Willows, he got to face the military might of the Third Reich. What is more. Lovat chastised him, if he played a bum note as they dodged the bullets on that Normandy beach. One rumour is that the German snipers were so astonished that they didn’t target him.

Let’s now give » Continue Reading.

Look sharp Lukashenko! Make way for the Belligerent Bagpipes of Belarus!

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A couple of days ago, a friend sent me a clip of a large crowd in Belarus marching against that tyrant, Lukashenko. They are a brave bunch and I am really keeping my fingers crossed for them.

The reason he sent it was that the most conspicuous instrument being played by the youth, amidst all the guitars, dreadlocks and tattoos , was the bagpipes!

Well I never!! I knew nothing about the national instrument of Belarus: the duda, the Belarusian bagpipes.

(Back in the 1960s, a band from Minsk had a big international hit with I’m the Urban Cosmonaut , Comrade. Who remembers the Bonskoo Dog Duda Band?)

Anyway, as you all know, in the 1940s Woody Guthrie’s axe carried the war cry: “This machine kills fascists. Let’s hope that the same applies today: “These bagpipes topple tyrants!”

If these mighty pipers have anything to do with it, Lukashenko and his wee bampot pals will soon be history! But then again, I know all too well that when a merciless dictator faces a crowd of idealistic young people with their heart in the right place, the bad guys tend to win. Anyroads, every protest movement has its troubadours and » Continue Reading.

Goat herding for beginners

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This is a thread about seductive, skinny-dipping Provencal goatherds. And Faulkner, Rowling, Brecht, Stoppard and Hornby and the art the art of scriptwriting. I am hoping for some rigorous intellectual ejaculations!

I do hope that, like me, you have all been carefully studying the results of Dai’s AW Survey of Best Ever films.

If you have, you will know that Claude Berri’s magnificent, two-movie Provencal epic from 1984, comprising Jean de Florette/ Manon des Sources, picked up 8 points.

Until this week, I had no idea that, Berri’s masterpiece was a remake of sorts of Marcel Pagnol’s four-hour epic, Manon des Sources, from 1952 which starred his wife, the gorgeous Jacqueline Pagnol as the voluptuous goatherd.

I say “of sorts” because Berri’s two films, are based on a two-volume novel that Pagnol published in 1966, which he had written as a result of making the film back in the 1950s.

Writing the novel after making the movie? That must be a first, Or am I wrong?

I stumbled across Pagnol by accident this week . Novelist, playwright, and film director, he was the first movie-maker to be elected to the Academie Francaíse.

Basically, I was listening to the music » Continue Reading.

Quince Jam Songs – Crumhorn is icumen in

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Continuing the current AW trend of Spreadthreads, I would like to hear your favourite songs which capture the bitter-sweet flavours of Quince Jam. This vintage delicacy has been with us for many centuries and was reputedly a great favourite of Mr Shakespeare when he fancied a sarnie.

Who better to conjure up its delights than Hildegard Von Blingin’?

This talented Canadian has had a major Bardcore hit with her reboot of Jolene. Verily! Tis a cracker!

The Hilliard Ensemble, Quincy Jones, Vashti Bunyan, Van the Jam, ….Your Quince Jam favourites please

Oops! That was an anachronism there. The Bard could not have enjoyed a sandwich, as such a treat did not exist until 1762 when the eponymous Earl ordered roast beef with two slices of bread while playing cards.

Dai Hard – With a vengeance!

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One film I do hope made it onto on our Afterword list is Dai Hard.

“Rugged, resourceful Welshman persuades a rag-taggle bunch of curmudgeonly misfits to get their act together and submit a list of their favourite films.” (IMDB)

One thing I have enjoyed about the last few weeks was remembering directors and actors I used to enjoy back in the day and also thinking about new talents. And now that we have IMDB, it is so much easier to join the dots together. Many of my favourites excel in versatility.

Here are a few names that cropped as I worked on my shortlist…

Alfonso Cuaron – Roma deserved all that praise and made me want to revisit Gravity, Y tu mama tambien, Children of men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Don Siegel – Charley Varrick , Dirty Harry, The Killers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Alan J. Pakula- Klute, The Parallax View, All the Presidents’ Men

Louis Malle – Au Revoir Les Enfants, Lacombe Lucien, Atlantic City

Lasse Halström – My life as a dog, What’s eating Gilbert Grape? A shitload of ABBA videos

Michael Ritchie:- Smile, Prime Cut, Bad News Bears, The Golden Child. That’s versatility » Continue Reading.

If I have any time over after Tigger-testing Taylor, I may dip into these vintage beat groups.

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Honestly! I do try to live in 2020. But that bounder Beelzebub keeps waving juicy vintage morsels in front of me. Yesterday it was the original Soft Machine (Wyatt, Ayers and Ratledge) live in 1968.

Today it is this.

Vintage 1960s live performances from German telly of sundry beat groups.

Troggs, Small Faces, Kinks, Yardbords feat J. Page, Hollies….

A lot to enjoy!

All I really want to do is listen to the LP that Taylor Swift has just dropped. ‘ What is actually going to happen is that I will spend the morning exploring seaside hits from the Weimar Republic

Echo, Rockaway, Ipanema, Brighton or Bondi? Beachcomber or Beach coma? Fish and chips, pizza, gelato or ceviche?

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It’s time to plug in the Afterword jukebox. Beach party time, so grab your towel and your bikini. I’d like to know your favourite songs about beaches and visits to the seaside.

I’m also keen to hear about all those beaches which have made an impression on you. Were they in Skegness, Goa, Benidorm, Clacton or Ibiza?

I visited Homrev here on Öland a few days ago which is probably my favourite beach at the moment. Very long, sandy, often windy (which results in splendid waves) and usually pretty deserted. The only people you are likely to meet here are German nudists or the Grim Reaper having a quiet game of chess with a knight or two. It has probably appeared on the cover of Health and Efficiency magazine.

We often have to share some of the nicest Öland beaches with cows. They are adjacent to farms and the local bovines pop down for a dip.

My brother lives in New York and he’s off to the Rockaways most weekends. A total contrast. Lots of people, cafes and restaurants, Manhattan hipsters…

”Chewing out a rhythm on my chewing gum..” I love the Ramones but have great difficulty in imagining » Continue Reading.