My email feeds are full of shows for next year and I confess to be on the cusp of thinking about a time when gigs return to normal. So I clicked on the Damned, with the original Vanian/James/Sensible/Scabies line up reforming for shows next summer. Now I know the biz is in a right old state at the mo, as income has all but dried up, bands, venues, promoters, roadies, crew etc etc, but 75 quid to stand in the shitty O2 Academy? Think I’ll pass. Is this indicative of pricing for the future, or is it based on distancing still being a thing? Which, without fixed seating might be, um, optimistic.

Intrigued by the list of festivals given a bung by the exchequer. By and large it seems to include those I go to: Cambridge, Shrewsbury, Cropredy and even Bearded Theory have all had some assistance, with only , of those recently frequented, Towersey missing out. Could it be that Sunak compiled his list from this site. “If retropath2 has done more than a single nights out review, kerching!”

A week ago, both Jed and Ward, on Ireland’s Late Late Show. Coulda been worse. (Coulda been better, but, hey….)

Alerted by @beany ‘s post on FB, I learn that C.P.Lee, esteemed Dylanogist and front man of Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias has left us. I was lucky enough to be in London when Snuff was at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, getting a ticket as a gift for a chum using my room for a spell. I also caught the Albertos a number of times as a support act and at Reading 75.

Jings, I just can’t stop listening to this. Yes, that nice Ross Wilson, aka BRC, has just released his latest, ‘With Healings of the Deepest Kind’, and it is a cracker. Thanks again to @Tiggerlion for introducing me to this fella, a couple of years back. Once more it is his lilting merge of Van M and J Martyn that underwrites the vocals, with, now, if anything even more added Van via the exquisite playing of his band, culled from the pool of Scotland’s all-genre finest, playing like an even better Caledonia Soul Orchestra. Senaid Aitken, at home in folk, classical and jazz, is, effectively bandleader, her violin an exquisite frame for the music, both as a sole instrument or, more often, leading the string quartet. None of yer mantovani massed strings, the separate players weave in and out of the whole, giving a tapestry of beauty. And Scotlands finest trumpet player, Colin Steele, plays like a giant: his solo on this track is up there with Miles’s in Scritti’s O Patti for inducing a goosebumpy shiver. The whole album is good, give or take a couple of up tempos for tracks 2 and 3, which are » Continue Reading.

I know there are fans of the Penistone Piaf here, and I discover she has been gainfully occupied during lockdown, making the now time honoured folkie covers ye olde charts album. Dusty in here, innit….

Great little video.

https://pitchfork.com/tv/15-docs/how-apple-created-musics-best-device-and-then-ruined-it/

Well, yesterdays big announcement from the “it is the governments prerogative to make a political decision”(SAGE) government, will there/won’t there be any tents fluttering and flags flying before next year? I have tickets for Wickham, bought aeons ago, and, so far, it seems almost the only one not to have already postponed. It runs over the first w/e in August. Does a marquee count as outdoors or will they just put the stages outside without? All seating (bring your own)? Masks? It’s a largely folk and heritage act line-up so little overt need for a mosh-pit. Announcement comes on 1/7/20. Bet the artists are gagging for it, I am, if the wife lets me.

Part of my lockdown joy has been immersing myself in the joy of Bandcamp. For those unfamiliar, this is a site for individuals to upload their music (and more), like a virtual marketplace, for direct contact with their audience, selling their wares without having to have a manager, label, contract and the rest of it. But this is a whole lot more than bedroom gurners with dodgy files, many an AW favourite artist can be found peddling their wares, with material often unavailable elsewhere, or only available 2nd hand at crazy prices. (And not a few AW members are also putting music out there as well.) On the first friday of these past few months and, hopefully for a few more, whilst C-19 scourges our world, the fees are waived to stall holders, meaning greater amount goes direct to the artist, should even they charge anything. (To be fair, all prices are negotiable beyond the minimum suggestion; it seems decent to chuck a few shekels in the hats of those who who ask for nothing) Preamble over, I discovered the Grief Brothers a week or so ago. Confusingly, there are two such bands, there being an american using the same » Continue Reading.

Surprised this fella yet to have a mention since his death at the w/e of “untreated illness”(!?). Maybe not as influential a figure as some of his african cohorts, this song alone will have me celebrating its writer and bemoaning his demise.

Just a thought….. Anyone in that there London up for a pint or two over lunchtime on saturday 22/5/20? Having an intense w/e of gigs and, given the seasonal close-down of Daytime Music, I’m up for a natter over a jar, a mini mingle even. (Tindersticks, Camille O’Sullivan and Massive Attack/Nils Frahm since you ask.)

Christ on a bike, just caught this debacle. I no longer watch the Brits, feeling out of the demographic, but gawd help us, this is embarrassing…….. Like a drunk uncle at a disco. I can imagine all the people watching, thinking that’s what us old guys like: “quick, catch a cop of this, dad’s (grandads?) music” The shame, the shame…

We like Frazey here, don’t we, and it’s been a while. Thankfully ‘U kin B the Sun’, her belated follow-up to 2015’s ‘Indian Ocean’ is out now, if a UK release date now put back from 24/3 to 21/4/20. Boo, but it sounds good on spotty

I gather Jarvis has been persuaded to put up a new version of this song, all proceeds to Shelter, in a bid for the seasonal number 1. Let’s give this an Afterward number on with a bullet! (Me, I prefer the original version…..)

Arriving to me too late for my AW Top 20 album choices, nonetheless I felt some may appreciate the track that led to my purchase of the album. (‘Uptown Fank’, pop-pickers!) Perfect for those moments when the Sawdoctors are just too downright smooth and sophisticated. And, given my mother came from the island, as did Trump’s, as, actually, so did @IainS , this is, indeed, how they do it in the Western Isles….

Well, I like covers, even drippy slow ones. Might be of interest to some. (Declaration of interest: join Patreon and I will be paid perhaps £12 a month rather than the current £11)

http://www.covermesongs.com/2019/12/best-cover-songs-2019.html

Someone mentioned AOR over on another thread, and it set me thinking. Adult oriented rock, eh? Polite 70s rock music designed not to frighten the horses. And it’s practitioners? If adult then, given many still stagger on, surely it needs a revamp? So, (quiet) drum roll, all hail EOR, elderly oriented rock. (Yes, that means us, or many of us!) So post us up yer besties. (I feel somehow that @niallb may have an investment here………)

https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/AOR/

Forgive the slightly shaky start, let her build up a full head of steam. Glorious.