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John and Alice Coltrane on the Radio Claxon.

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If you can access it from wherever you are in the world, and you have an interest in their music, BBC Radio 3’s 5 days weekly series “Composer Of The Week” is featuring John and Alice Coltrane every day this week at midday. As is usual the shows, which are presented by Kate Molleson & Kevin Le Gendre, will be available on the BBC Sounds player for a month after broadcast. Presumably they have been selected because this is London Jazz Festival week, here in the c(r)apital. Link to the first of the five shows included (if it works).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001s64k

http://bbc.co.uk/sounds

ULEZ Whingers.

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Whilst it’s true that the intention to expand the zone could have been publicised more widely and earlier, it’s a fact that the air quality in our major cities is bad and getting worse as traffic increases. It’s a major health hazard. The petrolheads obviously don’t much care about that and, of course, the fact that London’s mayor is not only a brown-skinned Muslim but also from the Labour Party has the right-wing press and their readers foaming at the mouth and calling for his head on a spike. The Tories are hoping for a boost to their poor support (on all other matters they are behind) in London constituencies. The ULEZ Whingers are the same sort of people who whinged when speed limits were first introduced, whinged when MOT tests were made mandatory, whinged when wearing seat belts became mandatory. In an article I’ve just read from Auto Express the writer said disgruntled drivers like him would be boycotting London’s roads, rather than paying the £12.50-a-day charge. Surely that’s exactly what the purpose of expanding the zone is, you muppet! Less traffic, compliant or non-compliant, is something to be looked forward to, I think. Bet your boots the leaders » Continue Reading.

BBC 6 Music. Loss of Confidence?

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Chanced upon this Grauniad article today. I’ve never been a fan of this, or indeed of any other music radio station, but that’s just me.

Apparently they want to broaden the station’s appeal to the 25-45y.o. demographic. Too white-indie-50s blokey. You know how this sort of thing has generally worked out when Auntie tried it before..

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/08/bbc-6-music-radio-station

Cancel My Subscription To The Revolution..

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About a year ago I switched from Spotify to Tidal for the better bitrate/sound quality. The choice of music on Tidal has never been as good as that from Spotify but their algorithm for finding things you might like, based on what you tell them you like on signup added to what you listen to is better than the way Spotify works, I think. I got increasingly annoyed with Tidal though, about the non-mainstream albums I wanted to listen to that just weren’t there to stream. I’m already an Amazon Prime customer and Amazon Music is a little cheaper than Tidal or Spotify (for Prime customers) with a vast amount more music available to stream and mostly at either HD (CD quality) or Master (24-bit) quality. I tried it out for 30 days free and now I’ve cancelled my Tidal subscription in favour of Amazon Music.

Musicians! Don’t play your instruments at home in Lewisham.

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If I’d seen this on April 1st I would have assumed it was a prank. It’s not.

Served with a noise abatement notice for playing acoustic guitar and low whistle in her flat for 3 hours at most in the middle of the day, because one of her neighbours (a music teacher!) complained. Other neighbours have said they are not bothered. The complaining neighbour has stated she’d like if the girl didn’t play at all. Seemingly anything audible that a complainant considers to be noise IS noise if they say so. Playing an instrument is NOT considered in law to be Living Noise, which is acceptable at reasonable levels, whereas playing a radio or a TV is.

If she doesn’t comply with the order she’s liable to a hefty fine and confiscation of her instruments. Orders can be appealed but it’s a slow and costly process and meanwhile you must comply with the terms of the order.

Outrageous!

https://www.change.org/p/defend-the-right-to-play-musical-instruments-twitter-com-fionafeymusic-status-1655140847870935040?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_36172402_en-GB%3A9&recruited_by_id=65818540-f0b4-11ed-9879-9f69b2fd6867&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&share_bandit_exp=initial-36172402-en-GB

A Live Celebration of Joni Mitchell’s Music. June 17th, Hampstead.

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17/06/2023

A seriously good 7 piece band “Hejira” featuring singer/guitarist Hattie Whitehead will be performing in St Jude’s church, Hampstead Garden Suburb at 7:30pm on Saturday June 17th. Video clips accessible from the linked page. They are very good.

Bandleader for the project, Pete Oxley, writes: ”I have long been a massive fan of Joni Mitchell’s music, ranging from the sparse, folky early albums (such as Blue) to the late, gorgeously lush albums arranged by the brilliant Vince Mendoza (Both Sides Now and Travelogue). Somewhere in the middle of her career was what some people describe as her ‘jazz period’ – and it is from this era that we will be creating the programme for this gig. Many of you will be aware of the album called Shadows And Light. This is a ‘Desert Island Disc’ for me – not just because her band comprises a whole load of my favourite musicians, but because as a live album, it fizzes with an incredible, electric atmosphere from the off! The songs on the album are beautiful, exciting and, as always with » Continue Reading.

Barrett Strong, Songwriting Genius

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Obituary

Cross-reference to forum thread. With his writing partner Norman Whitfield he wrote many of Motown’s greatest songs. Particularly for The Temptations. Sang and played piano on Motown’s first ever big hit, Money, covered very lucratively (for Berry Gordy) by The Beatles. Originally he was co-credited as writer of the song but his name was removed later, much to his annoyance. Gordy claimed Barrett’s name as co-writer only appeared on early copies “due to a clerical error”.

Fine adult comedy from 2014, on the BBC iPlayer. “Uncle”.

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All three short series of this, 17 episodes in all, are currently available.

Failed pop star Andy is persuaded to help his rehab-ing sister look after his nerdy nephew Errol, while precariously navigating his and their complicated lives. With lots of sweary stuff and musical pastiche set-pieces.

Enjoying it immensely, second time around.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03q474x/uncle-series-1-episode-1?seriesId=b03q46jm

Possibly a New Concept in Recorded Music Presentation – “Look-Scan-Listen”

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The concept is the brainchild of Pete Oxley and Stuart Miller of The Spin Jazz Club in Oxford and the first example “Turnaround Volume 1” is now available. A collection of 12 well-recorded live tracks from this year’s performances at the club’s various venues. About a double album’s worth of music plus a Mystery Track that is subject to change from time to time. Streamed via access from a QR code. Priced at £20 (reduced to £15 at club gigs currently) It comes in the form of a sturdy A5-size hardback book with notes and explanation of the concept in the first few pages. There’s a two-page spread for each track of the album with pictures and artist details, dates, location etc. just like on an album sleeve, plus a QR code to scan, enabling streaming of the track in question. After the 12 sets of pages and codes, on an additional page is the code to a “hidden” bonus track which, it is planned, will be changed from time to time. There’s also an invitation to join the club’s mailing list so you know when a new Bonus Track is available (using the same QR code) and what club » Continue Reading.

ATM – Live audio correction, post-recording.

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I thought I’d experiment with recording live audio on my phone, using the free Dolby On app. I was at a friend’s pub jazz gig last night and recorded the entire second of their two sets, just to see how well the app worked, really. The result was pretty good except, because I was seated right at the front about 6ft from the drum kit, the bass drum has come out slightly too loud and occasionally a little distorted on the recording. Any tips about correcting/mitigating this, from those in the know/sound engineering types, without losing too much of the other bass frequencies? Audacity is the sound app I use on my Windows laptop, but so far I’ve only ever used it’s basic functions.

I Think This One’s For Us: Remixing – Where Do You Draw The Line?

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Eamonn Forde and some other pundits have opinions on the constant remixing/remastering of classic albums. I think it’s something in danger of getting completely out of hand. What do The Massive think?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/02/make-it-pop-do-we-really-need-the-beatles-to-sound-new?fbclid=IwAR1CxaiOfFmST6wNku8IFOvxWnsK0k8pYeQYHH7bnXl9N6fd25IF8pyQO2c

ATM: UK Fibre Broadband. 50MBs and over providers.

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My current provider, Virgin Media have just today informed me that the price of my package (Hurr!) will increase from £26.oo to £54.25 on September 3rd. I don’t want to pay that much and, truth be told, I don’t really need my current 100MBs speed. Therefore I’m looking for a new reliable but inexpensive provider in the 50MBs-and-over range. I’ll be ditching my landline, most probably, as I never seem to use it. No TV service packages required, just fibre broadband will do.

So far, Vodafone Superfast 2 looks good. Broadband only, at 67MBs download / 19MBs upload on a 24 month contract for £22.00.

Any other recommendations from the UK Massive?

The YouTube link is completely gratuitous.

Time is now tightening as I shall be giving Virgin my notice tomorrow. Nice of them to remind me 25 days from the end of my contract that 30 days notice to cancel is required.

ATM – Mystery Objects.

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I recently bought two sets of screwdrivers[*] for a couple of projects. Along with the screwdrivers, these objects were included but I have no idea of their purpose or function. Picture of the second (similar) object in comment #1

Anyone here know what they’re for?

[*] In case Steve is reading, they were a set of Torx drivers, sizes T5, T6, T7, T8 & T10 and a set of Triangle head drivers, sizes TA1.4, TA1.8, TA2.0, TA2.3, TA2.7 and TA3.0.

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Quotations

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Songs that quote other songs. Either in the lyrics or (my favourite) at some point in the tune. Joni Mitchell’s “River” is a well-known seasonal one. Greg Lake’s “I Believe In Father Christmas” is another. Also seasonal. A personal favourite is Thad Jones’s “April In Paris” with it’s quote of “Pop Goes The Weasel” as he starts his trumpet solo. Let’s see if the Mighty Memories of the Massive can furnish us with some more..