The world’s most unassuming supergroup are back with a new album Murmurs in March. Apparently it’s going to be made up of reinterpretations of songs from their individual repertoires. However, this lead track, Lonely Night, from Norman Blake doesn’t appear to be a Teenage Fanclub, New Mendicants or Johnny song. Maybe it’s something he found down the back of the sofa. Either way, it’s a lovely thing.

The release of Neil Young’s latest Archives collection, which includes some of his eccentric live work of the late 70s and early 80s (Devo collaboration, shortlived bar band the Ducks etc), got me thinking: could I piece together a best-of playlist from his many, many live recordings, a bit like I did with Van Morrison two days ago? I won’t deny it took a while, and it’s topped out at more than eight hours long (and that was only Big Time – arf!). I tried to pick songs from the era in which they were written, although I couldn’t help leaning on some of the Weld versions as that’s my favourite period of live Neil. It will also not be acoustic enough for many people’s tastes. But here from the Cellar Door to the Cow Palace, via Barking Town Hall, are some of my favourites. Be sure to tell me yours.

I don’t know about you, but I think Van Morrison’s 1980 show at Montreux is the high watermark of his live performances. Possibly of everyone’s live performances. Unfortunately, it’s not on Spotify, but seek it out on YouTube. You won’t be disappointed.

But it got me thinking: what are the best Van live tracks that have been legitimately released? This little comp is a bit heavy on the upbeat stompers, and I’ve left off the covers, because I don’t really like them. But is there anything else that you’d add?

What surprises me is how consistently good he is. The 1984 and 1994 live albums are arguably as top notch as the more celebrated It’s Too Late to Stop Now, just different. So let’s get involved with some live Van this afternoon. It’s incredibly good stuff.

One thing I noticed at the IMAX screening of Pink Floyd’s Live At Pompeii was the intro music, now helpfully called Pompeii Intro on Spotify. What I’m curious of is that with the heartbeat and synthesiser, it’s very close to work in progress for the Dark Side of the Moon, and, if that’s the case, it seems to have snuck out without fanfare. NB/ The audio for the album is quite something

OK, in fairness, I quite enjoyed Glastonbury on the TV this year (Squid, Remi Wolf, Confidence Man, Dexys, Last Dinner Party, the Streets, Heilung, Orbital, Blondshell and especially Fat White Family), but what if I wanted unlimited live music on tap for the rest of the year?

That’s why I created Horsefest, a ridiculous Spotify playlist, currently standing at 19 hours, comprised of five songs at a time, Live Aid style, by great live acts, large and small, living and dead. There’s a notional running order to the whole thing, but I don’t expect even one of you to agree with it. Plus there’s probably another 19 hours of live music that I’ve not got around to adding (to be honest I don’t even remember if I added James Brown or Ray Charles, for instance).

But if you like great live acts, and have tiptop taste in music you might like this. Otherwise, you stick to Guilfest. (Nothing wrong with Gulifest; I saw Pulp and the Wurzels at Guilfest once.)

“Our principal weapons are introspection, a curmudgeonly demeanour, and an almost fanatical devotion to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee!”

What do you do when you’ve exhausted all the Van Morrison in the world? All the albums, obviously. And then all the deep cuts, bootlegs, collaborations and live sets on YouTube. Well, if you’re like me you embark on the fool’s errand of compiling a playlist of songs that sound a bit like Van the Man.

Bear with me. My attempts to do the same for Pink Floyd, Neil Young and most recently Fleetwood Mac turned out OK. However, most acts have a psychedelic wigout or a Young-like grungy thrash in their locker. And the Heroes Are Hard to Find hitmakers have been ridiculously influential on the musicians of today, making an erstaz Mac comp not much of a challenge at all.

But Van the Man? In spite of the fact that his Caledonia Soul Orchestra period is, to my mind, the pinnacle of western artistic endeavour, very few artists actually sound like him. Bob Dylan has albums with similar orchestration; Jackie DeShannon covered some of his tunes and sounded like she used some of the same musicians; and the » Continue Reading.

OK, last post on this for now. When I first notified you I was uploading my old embarrassing pop journalism to Medium, there were five articles to view. Well, now I’ve got to the end of phase one (the writing for free or next to nothing years), and we’re up to 44. It’s not quite everything from the period. If anyone’s got my interviews with Pulp. the Charlatans, Teenage Fanclub (again), the Wildhearts, Tori Amos, OP8, Gene, Juliana Hatfield, Utah Saints or Jellyfish, in their lofts I’d love to see them again.

But in the meantime, if you want to know why Tim Booth from James was so reluctant to answer his phone, why Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman always carried an asthma puffer, and why Brett Anderson walked out of my interview with him after only three minutes, fill your boots.

https://medium.com/@martinhorsfield

Anyone who knows me will recall that I’ve been banging the drum for 1969-71 era Pink Floyd since before Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets was a thing. Indeed one of their number once scoffed at the very idea. Well, today has been a red letter day, as – while trying to piece together what was recorded for Zabriskie Point – I’ve come across two shows I’d never heard before, both remarkable in their way.

The first is from the refectory of Southampton University in May 1969. It’s the same tour that brought us the live tracks on Ummagumma but its version of Astronomy Domine is vastly different and Interstellar Overdrive is almost unrecognisable. But what makes this show interesting is that, having already played Careful With That Axe Eugene, the band launch into Beset By Creatures of the Deep, considered by most to be essentially Careful again. Mindful of this, instead of Roger Waters’s whisper-to-a scream crescendo, Dave gives us some slide guitar parts and Nick Mason drums at double speed. It’s unique and was almost certainly never played the same way again.

Then we come to Birmingham Town Hall, February 1970, when, for no apparent reason Pink Floyd decided » Continue Reading.

So, John Grant tickets go on sale tomorrow, but I thought I’d steal a march on the general public by registering for Live Nation’s presale. At the allotted time of 10am this morning, I logged on, only to find out that all the presale tickets were immediately gone. So, how many, if any, go on presale? How can you get them if you’re not successful even when you log on at the precise moment they go on sale? And could gig ticketing be any more of a lottery/rip-off?

Okay, so this is really one of those threads that exists to show off a bulging Spotify playlist and encourage you to point out anything I’ve missed. But in truth I’m staggered that the Runaround Sue hitmaker doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. We’re talking someone who started in street corner doowop, who narrowly avoided being on the plane that killed Buddy Holly, was a junkie at 14, reputedly encouraged Dylan to go electric (and made some amazing similar-sounding records with Tom Wilson a few weeks earlier), and has collaborated with Phil Spector, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison and Paul Simon. Even his four albums in the “contemporary Christian” genre aren’t wholly shit. So, is anyone else here a fan? And can anyone match Dion’s quality control over 66 years of making music?

OK, so it’s not really the done thing to review things when they’re still in previews, and I am mindful of not wanting to piss on the strawberries of anyone with a ticket, but I’m wondering whether anyone else has had the dubious pleasure of seeing Opening Night? It’s a West End musical, based on the Cassavetes film, adapted by Ivo van Howe, with songs by Rufus Wainwright, and Sheridan Smith playing the troubled lead. With such a dream team, it must be too big to fail, right? Well, perhaps they’ll give it some tweaks prior to press night, but I suspect that it’s going to get the mother of all butcherings, and not altogether unfairly. I’m no theatre critic, but I know an unfocused mess when I see one, with actors standing around unintroduced, or offering searching glances in place of actual acting. At one point, a cast member – we don’t get her name or relationship to the others – appears crosslegged playing the acoustic guitar in someone’s living room for literally no discernible reason. I have never ever seen people walk out in the interval, or offer such a muted ripple of applause in place of the » Continue Reading.

I don’t know if you recall, but in years gone by, you the massive have helped me put together playlists of Songs That Sound a Bit Like Pink Floyd, and Songs That Sound a Bit Like Neil Young (handy, given that he’s no longer on Spotify). So I wondered whether you might like to help suggest some soft-rock gems to augment this one: Songs That Sound a Bit Like Fleetwood Mac (imperial phase).

Surprised that no one has posted an appreciation of the great Tony Clarkin of Magnum, who died yesterday after a short illness. Obviously they were very much nearly men of British rock, but their enormous back catalogue – wholly written by Clarkin – reveals a band who very much succeeded on their own terms. Keeping a loyal following from 1976 to the present day, through a succession of bad deals, is no mean feat, and there was the odd hit single along the way, too. About five years ago, myself and two friends decided to go and see them at Islington Assembly Rooms, partly to satisfy my youthful curosity (I genuinely loved hm as a kid), but admittedly also for the LOLs. What we got was a bunch of stout fellas in their 70s emerging from the dry ice and rocking the town hall like it was Wembley stadium. They were wholly admirable and massively entertaining. Good work, Tony Clarkin: an under-appreciated pop-rock craftsman.

I don’t know if this is the content you were looking for at the start of 2024, but I’ve just uploaded five more pieces of iffy pop journalism from … 1994. Relive again that heady time when Credit to the Nation were a teenage sensation, Ride were the sound of sex (apparently), Thrum were Scotland’s latest great guitar hope, Eternal were very much sent by God, and I got to compare trainers with Kylie Minogue. There are now 24 of these online, with hopefully amusing footnotes, but it’s still only scratching the surface.

https://medium.com/@martinhorsfield

Morning all. It’s that time of the year again when I surreptitiously “drop” my 100-odd songs of the year then walk away whistling. As I give this list one final nip and tuck, I’m given to reflect that it’s been another grand year for pop music. Perhaps not a 1982, 1973, 1976, 1984 or 1989, but definitely up there with 2008. I’m hearing artists again whom I want to hear every release by (the Goa Express, the Last Dinner Party, L Devine); I’m hearing turns whom I know will be really good live.(Margo Price, Special Interest, Bixiga 70); and I’m seeing genuine new stars get minted, at least in my world (CMAT, Romy, Hannah Diamond). Plus the Stones made a good song, and it’s not the one you might think (too much GaGa). So, the usual rules apply. Don’t bother telling me that such and such a tune was released in 2922, *actually*, but do enthuse over these artists and anything else that you’ve been listening that I might have missed. Some years this Spotify playlist reaches as many as 20 likes. Everybody’s busy, so let’s aim for 10 and see how we get on. It’s Christmas songs all the » Continue Reading.

With yesterday’s news that some mid-period Lilac Time albums were back on streaming, I went back over my beloved Duffy/Lilac Time playlist. It was there that I hit upon this early BBC Session song, Take Time, and its infuriating twinkly keyboard part, which is definitely borrowed from some Radio 2 70s playlist staple, but I can’t for the life of me think which.

Even Duffy himself on Twitter couldn’t help (though he did say he hates the part), so can you?! It’s literally just the bit at 1:20, although it is repeated. Songs that I thought it may be, but it’s not: The Air That I Breathe, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, It Never Rains in Southern California, When I Need You, Rock Your Baby. But the answer is in that ballpark, I’m sure.