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Big Big Train A Flare on the Lens

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What does it sound like?:

A new live album and blu-ray release from Britain’s premier prog band, Big Big Train, ‘hits the shelves’ just in time for their Autumn tour of the U.K and Europe.

The recordings are from the two triumphant nights at London’s Cadogan Hall at the end of their 17-date, The Journey Continues Tour, of last year.

I was able to take in seven dates of the tour, travelling to Basel, through Zurich to Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Edinburgh, Birmingham and London. After every show various band-members looked out for me, making sure that I had travelled well, eaten properly, etc; it’s that kind of band.

The one thing you know with any Big Big Train release is that the sound will be immaculate. Their producer, Rob Aubrey, is also their live sound-engineer and he’ll have mixed these recordings to within an inch of their lives. So, yes, it is as good a sounding live album as you are ever likely to hear; no mean feat when there are up to eleven musicians on stage at any one time.

The band had varied the set-list on most dates and the idea for the two nights in London » Continue Reading.

An old friend says ‘Hi.’

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I was at the launch of David Hepworth’s new book at Waterstones Piccadilly tonight. It was a live Word in Your Ear podcast; a terrific chat between David and Mark Ellen.

Once I got my book signed afterwards I managed to spend ten minutes with Mark and mentioned our site. He was chuffed to find we were still going and sends his best to everyone who remembers him, (as if.)

We swapped Wishbone Ash stories and he remembered fondly that night when we all met up on the day The Word died. I reminded him that he and I ended up singing the crescendo to the mighty Phoenix by Wishbone in the very late hours. I left him chuckling away and humming the riff to himself.

So, a lovely old friend says hi.

No Easy Road

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Author:Wishbone Ash

Here’s a great idea for a book about a band:

1.Take the golden days of a 50+ year live career. 2.Interview the musicians involved, (and their sound guy.) 3.Pepper the pages with photos and clippings from the time. 4.Wrap it all up as a 216-page coffee-table tome, limited to a thousand copies, and chuck in a CD of 10 live tracks from those golden days, plus a photo signed by the classic MkII line-up.

If you were in your early-to-mid teens as the 1960’s turned into the ‘70’s; if Ian Hunter’s Diary of a Rock ‘n Roll Star was your favourite book of ‘74; if you were an original member of the Wishbone Ash fan club and if you had the double-page spread from Disc of Andy Powell and Ted Turner on your bedroom wall, for years, then you are, (a) me, or (b) the target audience for this book.

Wishbone were ‘my band,’ the 2nd band I ever saw. Andy Powell, with his long, blonde locks and that Flying V, was like catnip to this spotty fifteen year-old when I first saw Wishbone Ash at Guildford Civic Hall, 9th February 1972. I loved his aggressive guitar » Continue Reading.

The War on Drugs

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Venue:

Royal Albert Hall

Date: 11/07/2024

Some gigs give you what you expect. Others disappoint. Very occasionally, a gig leaps out at you, puts its arm around you and says, ‘Come with me, I’ve got something to show you.’

This was my third attempt to see The War on Drugs; Covid and a busted leg prevented the previous two; and it was at one of my favourite venues, The RAH.

Parked up at Imperial College, as usual; fed and watered upstairs at Verdi, as usual; I took my excellent seat well in time for support act, The Clientele.

Pleasant chord changes and a lovely-sounding cello but that was it for the positives. Ramshackle, out of tune, fey vocals, zero engagement and looking like they’d rather be anywhere else; if you start a song singing over your own guitar, with the capo on the wrong fret, sorry but you look way out of your depth. In a year’s time, if I read their name somewhere, I guarantee I’ll have forgotten that I’ve seen them.

The main act, the seven-piece from Philly, arrive on stage in the middle of Donna Summer’s State of Independence, spot on the advertised time. It » Continue Reading.

Yes

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Venue:

Royal Albert Hall

Date: 04/06/2024

My biennial trip to see Yes perform in London, this time for the final night of their The Classic Tales of Yes Tour 2024.

The band loves the RAH; Steve Howe calls it ‘the greatest venue in the world’ during the set,) and the RAH loves Yes. The restaurants and bars are buzzing with chatter and laughter pre-show although the band have to cope with several late-arrivals as the start-time of 7.30pm seems to have been usurped by some rogue social media post declaring the start to be at 8. Steve apologises for any confusion, even though it was nothing to do with them, apparently.

Anyhow, they kick off with the rarely-played Machine Messiah from the Drama album, (that’s the one when Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn joined the band, in 1980,) which is appropriate because Geoff is still onstage and Trevor Horn is in the audience, (apparently.) The track sounds fantastic; much chunkier and heavier than I remember, and is greeted with a huge roar as it ends. It is followed by another ‘deep cut’, It Will Be A Good Day (The River) from the 1999 album The Ladder. Singer Jon » Continue Reading.

Van Morrison

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Venue:

Royal Albert Hall

Date: 03/06/2024

The bloke next to me started twiddling his thumbs as the band struck up the intro to the third song; The Everly’s When Will I Be Loved; he began fidgeting and looking around as if for valediction; for reassurance; for help. By song eight when Chris Farlowe had joined Van for a brilliant medley of Stormy Monday & Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket, the poor bloke’s body language was screaming, “When will he sing something I’ve heard of?”

Well I’m sorry my friend, if you’ve come to a Van Morrison show expecting to hear Moondance, Domino or Full Force Gale then you’re going to be sitting there a long, long time. These days, it’s all about what Van wants to sing, and showcasing some of the wonderful songs from the ‘40’s and 50’s that he grew up hearing.

In fact it is song fourteen before Van sings a song wot he wrote as we get a great version of Crazy Jane on God from A Sense of Wonder and to be very picky, he didn’t really write that either, just arranged William Matthieu’S music to a WB Yeats poem. Matey didn’t » Continue Reading.

The Black Crowes

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Venue:

Hammy Odeon

Date: 15/05/2024

The Black Crowes tore the roof off of the old Hammy Odeon on Wednesday night and I couldn’t be happier; but let’s back the old flat-bed truck up a bit for some context.

The Black Crowes should be my band; they just should. I have always thought of them as the bastard sons of some salacious, illicit communion between The Stones and The Faces, in 1971, in the Riot House Hotel on Sunset, West Hollywood. Both bands were at the peak of their powers and they both had that one thing which so many pretenders to the rock ‘n roll throne don’t have; I call it Swing ‘n Swagger. The best rock ‘n roll bands have swing; Charlie had it and Kenney had it. It’s where the drummer sits in ‘the pocket’, that mysterious area of the beat which no one can explain but every musician knows. Swagger is so rare in a band. The Stones had it and The Faces had it; it’s an attitude, a walk, a confidence; a ‘fuck-you, you may think you’re better than us but wait until we plug-in and kick-off. We’ll blow you away.’ And those bastard sons » Continue Reading.

Starry Eyed & Laughing

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Venue:

Ramblin’ Roots Revue, High Wycombe

Date: 06/04/2024

A hot Saturday afternoon, 6th July 1974. I was seventeen and all ‘blue and white checked cheesecloth shirt, flared Levi’s, stack-heeled platforms and a bottle of cider,’ sitting on the grass with assorted brothers, band-members and girlfriends, waiting for the next band to come on.

We were at the fourth Free Festival at Surrey Uni, hosted by The Global Trucking Company. Previous years had featured Genesis, local heroes Camel, Keith Christmas, Strider and Byzantium, amongst many others. The headliners in ‘74 were String Driven Thing, Narnia and Gryphon but I was waiting for the afternoon act, Starry Eyed & Laughing. I had heard one track of theirs on the Bob Harris Show on Radio One and had been intrigued by the harmonies and the jangling guitars.

At this point my musical world revolved around the band I was in along with Led Zeppelin, Free, Deep Purple, Yes and King Crimson. We were going to gigs every week without having to leave Guildford; the advantages of living in a University town which also had a Civic Hall, a Technical College and a thriving pub circuit.

The next band shuffled onto the stage » Continue Reading.

Big Big Train The Likes of Us

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What does it sound like?:

There are plenty of new items on the Departures Board on this, the fifteenth album from Big Big Train:

It marks the first with Italian singer, Alberto Bravin, (ex-PFM,) who replaces the much-loved David Longdon following his tragic death in late 2021.

It is the band’s first album on Inside Out, Sony’s premier prog label, (their previous recordings being self-released on English Electric.)

It is also a first in the modern history of the band in that the tracks were recorded with the musicians all playing together, in one room, with songs being changed, extended and polished as they were captured by the engineers.

It is a departure from previous BBT albums in that there are less storytelling-songs than usual. This time, with the passing of Longdon, family bereavement and individual upheaval, the songs are more personal and more introspective than before. Greg Spawton’s strap-line for the album, ‘this time it’s personal,’ rings so true as you immerse yourself into it.

Long-time fans of the band need have no concerns though. This is most definitely a Big Big Train album; and one of their very best.

I will also say that it is the » Continue Reading.

Big Big Train Dolby Atmos Event

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Venue:

The Gallery at Tileyard

Date: 21/02/2024

A Dolby Atmos listening-event for the upcoming album, The Likes of Us, by Big Big Train? Yes, please.

The limited tickets were drawn from the people who had pre-ordered the album and I was lucky enough to receive an e-mail from Burning Shed to say I had won a pair.

The event was at The Gallery at Tileyard, a small event-space north of Kings Cross Station in London. Several of our friends had also got tickets so it was great to catch up with people who we hadn’t seen since last September’s European/U.K tour.

The stage was set up with a huge central speaker, several satellite-units either side, and then speakers on the walls and in the ceiling. Chairs were set out in rows for the fifty or so guests and at 6.30pm, Alberto Bravin, the band’s Italian singer got up on stage to tell us what we were going to hear.

As the ‘resident Big Big Train reviewer’ on The Afterword, I’d had my review-copy for four weeks and already knew it well. However, nothing had prepared me for the sheer scale of the Atmos mix. I’ll keep my powder » Continue Reading.

ABC with Anne Dudley and The Southbank Sinfonia

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Venue:

The London Palladium

Date: 17/02/2024

A Saturday night out at a packed London Palladium with a crowd of guys and gals dressed up to the nines in glittery suits, spangly dresses and heels, all there to see ABC and an orchestra conducted by Anne Dudley, playing the album, Lexicon of Love? What could be better?

Well, nothing, actually.

The Southbank Sinfonia take their seats and Anne is introduced to wild applause; she is pretty much ‘80’s pop royalty, after all. The orchestra strike up an overture of the themes and melodies from the album, and the seven musicians who make up the ABC live band take their places on the packed stage.

As the overture comes to an end, Martin Fry walks on, immaculate in a white jacket, black trousers, white shirt, black tie and black, patent leather shoes. The band hit the opening chords of When Smokey Sings and we’re off to the races.

Fry looks and sounds exactly like he did in 1982, the missing link between Jarvis Cocker and Bryan Ferry. The band are well-drilled, (several of them have been with Martin for 25 years,) and the orchestra lifts the sound from the exciting to » Continue Reading.

Charming behaviour from the artist onstage – slight return.

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Following @Fatima-Xberg’s terrific thread I wanted to add my own experience before the post disappeared into the ether:

16th June 1974, Guildford Civic Hall.

I wish I could find who the support act was as I assume it was them I went to see.

This was Silverhead’s first, (and last,) headline tour and their record company, Purple Records, had splashed a few quid on posters and interviews in the music-press. Lead singer, (and legend in his own lunchbox,) Michael Des Barres had given an interview to the NME where he had bad-mouthed anyone and everyone, taking pot-shots at many of my favourite bands. I took agin him, big time.

Let’s just say, the hype was on.

I remember going back into the hall from the bar, post support act, and wondering where everyone was. I swear there were less people in their seats than had been earlier.

We’d been called back in from the bar by the ten-minute and then the five-minute bells. Yet, fifteen minutes later, the lights were still up. There was no music playing over the p.a so we sat there in a mumbled silence. After twenty minutes, someone started a slow handclap. » Continue Reading.

RIP Willy Finlayson

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Sad news came through yesterday that the singer and songwriter, Willy Finlayson had died. You may know him best for his solo single On The Air Tonight, from 1984, which made it onto the soundtrack of the film Nightmare On Elm Street 2. 

However, I knew him from several years before that – 1977 to be precise – when Willy was the lead singer in a band called Meal Ticket. They had grown out of the pub-rock circuit and had several weapons in their armoury. Apart from Willy’s wonderful, gravelly voice, they had guitarist and singer, Steve Simpson, guitarist Ray Flacke and keyboard player, writer and singer, Rick Jones. Simpson worked with everyone, and has continued to be a valued session player and band member with Ronnie Lane, Roger Chapman and Joe Brown – many of the members of Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance are back out touring Ronnie’s songs, with Steve Simpson on vocals and guitar.

Ray Flacke went to Nashville after Meal Ticket and became one of the most sought-after Country session-players around; an incredible honour for an Englishman.

Rick Jones was already a well known TV ‘star’ when he started Meal Ticket; yes, Rick was the Canadian guy » Continue Reading.

ATM – What’s the point of a PC these days?

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From a self confessed luddite techno-phobe:

Our home PC is getting old ‘n slow, (I know the feeling,) and I’ve been doing some research about replacing it.

There is only me and Mrs.B at home, we don’t ‘game’ and the PC is used for storing my music files via iTunes, photos and documents, all of which I also have backed up on separate drives. We both have laptops and Mrs.B also has a work laptop, (she works from home,) and will use the PC screen as a second work-screen.

I guess my question is, do I need to replace the PC or should I just invest in a decent screen and a ‘docking station,’ (I remember such things from my time in an office but do domestic ones exist?) which we can plug our laptops into when needed?

Question: Would I need to install iTunes onto my laptop and then plug the separate drive in whenever I want to manage my music-files, and will that just be a massive faff?

The thought of getting rid of the huge box from under the desk, plus the yards of spaghetti, is a big attraction I must say. Plus, the laptops run so » Continue Reading.