Who likes crisps, then? I love ‘em, but try to dial that down these days, for reasons of health, girth and, increasingly, wealth: those big “share” bags are getting very pricy. In truth, it is probably all the powdery artificiality of flavours I love. I can’t be doing with the continentals and their salted or paprika, dull, dull, dull, I need weird and/or spicy. All said, mind, cheese and onion remains the lodestone. If I see a new make, I feel required to test drive the savour. IMHO, 1970’s Golden Wonder were the peak provider, not unconnected with a large lump of solid “cheese and onion” I once found in a bag. Probably full of now banned toxic e numbers, I can remember that playtime treat, my teeth watering as I type. Anyhoo, I chanced upon a new provider yesterday, a brand in association with English Heritage, the flavour purportedly Baron Bigod cheese and onion. I know Baron Bigod cheese, it a Suffolk Brie that, like most bries is broadly bland until you can and have to chase it round the room. These crisps taste nothing like that cheese, nor onion. But they impart a hefty kick of umami, salt » Continue Reading.

Rarely, these days, do I chance upon a new name to fill my heart with such glee, with most new music seeming always to be revisioned reworkings of old. Sure, I love some old, but get, sometimes, a little bored. Plus, I like to pretend I have pretty eclectic taste, and scour the blogs and mags for what I might like. The old warhorses, Unshod and Mopo, devoured each month, produce, in their new releases, little much more than a couple of pointers each, and I have usually already been sent those, for review purposes. This month I came across a brand new favourite, in Adrian Crowley. He is 8 albums into a career, seemingly bypassing my attention, despite even making a duet album with Lal, sister of Norma, Watersons, which ought to caught my attention. But it didn’t, that coming through an unusual release, The Grief of the Sea, re-released today, first out a year or so back. A various artists selection of songs from and about the Irish diaspora, particularly the transatlantic hulk ships that transported those fleeing the famine, seeking greener grass in the new world. It’s a grand album, with the likes of Cathal Coughlan to » Continue Reading.

I’ve not watched this for donkeys, but circumstances had me looking for TV sustenance, after the wife has headed Bedfordshire, a rarity, I normally first. So it was last weeks Later I latched on. Not good. Skunk Anansie up first, with some embarrassing guff about not being taken seriously come the menopause. I like old bands celebrating their longevity but this was shit. CMAT I was aware of, knowing her to be of dubious charm, and she didn’t disappoint, and was enormously annoying. I don’t know Cynthia Erico(?) before. First she performed a dire God Only Knows with the never more unctuously salivating host of the show. To be fair, her own song later was OK, if generic femmotragic. Sam Amidon next, I confess the only name to grab me from the credits, he being Mr Beth Orton, and whose recent album I had been tasked with reviewing, for where I review stuff. Perhaps obviously, it was the Lou Reed cover from that album that was featured. I had tried to be kind for my review, but this performance challenged any of those kind words. As in it was fascinatingly naive, ahead a ghastly fiddle woedown. (Yes, woedown.) The third » Continue Reading.

Not a typo, but my feeling after a, so far, near miss scam. I hate bloody car parking via app. Add in a car park that, pre-app, has always been out to annoy, namely the one in central Keswick, and I’m angrier still. Trying to park yesterday, I saw they now use a “ MiPermit” system, necessitating downloading the app. In so trying to do, I later encountered numerous websites claiming to be, which should have been warning sufficient. But, first time in, mindful of not wasting time, I dove in the first. It seemed kosher, my bad, going as far as details etc. Then it “crashed”. Trying again, I did then get the app up and running, but my bank declined the fee. I gave up and went to the Booths car park, where they have a far simpler system. On return to our holiday let, I checked my account, as I always do, lest any jiggery pokers had ensued. Nil and phew. However, an e Mail soon announced my 3 day trial in some travel webpage was now running, to be followed by £60 subs per month. I unsubscribed stat and received acknowledgement. Today I have a 1 » Continue Reading.

In an adjunct to the recent @freddy-steady post, who are the bands or artists you have secret dislike of?These may be artists you have records by, possibly even proud to walk through the playground/campus with, smugly tucked under your arm. You try to like ‘em, even, but just can’t quite get there… Here’s mine:

Frank Zappa: atonal and/or puerile. Doesn’t count Hot Rats, except for the track with the singer next in line.

Captain Beefheart. Vile din, surpassed only by

Tom Waits. Writes nice songs, mind, or used to, before he got married.

Joni Mitchell. Also writes nice songs. But also chooses to sing them.

Earth, Wind and Fire. No, that’s a lie, it is no secret. A waste of satin and too many trumpets. And I like trumpets.

Cold ones, that is, and not counting water or zero-alcohol beers, gins etc etc. As much a quest to find something palatable when alcohol is unavailable, inappropriate, ill-advised or just plain unwanted. Me, I struggle to find something I return to, but the San Pellegrino Melograno e Arancia (pomegranate/orange pop) is a one I quite like at the moment, as is any not overly sweet ginger beer: I quite like Bundaberg. Ideas and suggestions, please.

Are back back back! You didn’t know? Maybe subsumed within the Oasis reformation news has been that Mark E Nevin and Eddi Reader have buried any ongoing hatchets, after 36 years, along with the other two members. This came about through the beseeching of their still active Japanese fan base. And no doubt a whole wedge of dosh to finance a tour over there. And, as they say, one thing led to another, and studio time was booked. A mix of new and some recycled Nevin solo songs, and Bobs your Mums brother. Its actually not at all bad, with the cream on the cake being the other two touring musicians from 1986-8 also getting to play, Graham Henderson, accordion, and Roger Beaujolais, mallets (aka vibraphone, glockenspiel etc) In fact, it’s quite a bit better than, IMHO, that First Of A Million Kisses, that made them huuuuuuge at the tail end of the 80s. And last night I went to see them, all six, and it was generally a good show. Playing perhaps every song from their 2 records, they went down very well with a very older couples at Waitrose audience. As someone who likes a fair bit of » Continue Reading.

Eh? My AW is today riddled with requirements to type in odd words, due to “unusual use”. I sense we have been hacked, AW, not me. Anyone else?

Recently there was some to and fro around whether life is long enough to allow re-appraisal of music deemed earlier of being below par. The overriding was that it wasn’t, and that, once dissed, never should the chance to reconsider be worth the energy and effort. strangely, I am in the position of owning the first two albums by Django Django, the Scots/Irish/Anglo combo, who actually have notched up 5 albums since 2021. At the time I recall I thought the debut lacked some lustre, smacking of a Moody Blues with access to a modern studio and al the tricks therein. I had been buoyed in by the reviews. I can’t explain why I then bought the second, especially as I thought the same. I don’t even like the Moody Blues. I am on a re-burning project, after the great crash of 2022 (my great crash of 2022, as my MacBook died, ingloriously), taking also the time to get rid of superfluous. Fully intending to get rid, I listened again. Both records are quite good. Better even, I rather like both. So there!

OK, we, mostly, “know” each other, back to front and side to side, a 20 year shared history, our peccadilloes and our prejudices all well aired.. But, we pretend, sure, we pretend, still to be cutting at that harsh edge of modernity, be it popular, populist or preposterous. Or not, many still chowing down on heritage gruel, Merseyside or Mekong adjacent, but, here’s a thing. Who would be the single artist, band or conceptual consequence you could not live without? I’m going to say R.E.M. You. (Don’t all say Beatles band.)

Summer really is icumen in, so time to get the tent out the garage, air the sleeping bag and review your set of heritage Ts, it’s festival season!! I’m kicking off with Bearded Theory, in a fortnight, ahead of New Forest, Sidmouth and, fingers crossed Beautifyl Days? Anyone coming! Or what and where are your tips and favourites? And, for the naysayers, is there any single performer you would sleep in a field to see, eating noodles off a cardboard plate, supping ale from a recyclable glass(deposit included in first purchase)?

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I don’t know how the fb bots do it, but they sent me this. And it’s fandabodozi!!!!!

…. Is what the wife calls the pedal steel guitar, that evocative mix of soaring beauty and lazy cliche, unfairly lumped always in with country. To be fair, it can be a wondrous centrepiece to country, and I love it therein, but offers so much more. Good old BJ Cole is as responsible as any for the genre diversity it can be applied to, adding his mellifluous tones to classical, jazz, electronica and ambient, but suddenly there are players popping up all over the place, in all sorts of settings. Here is a new favourite, David Murphy. If you have seen the Delines, or Richmond Fontaine, before that, this side of the pond, chances are he will have been the fella on steel, depping for the non-travelling Tucker Jackson. He’s Irish, and has decided steel is just what trad and Irish classical needs. See below.

Just this. (See below)

That RT certainly knows how to bring back lapsing penitents. I was of the view to sit out the forthcoming tour, in part down to the conflated ticket prices, telling myself I’ve seen him a zillion times, or thereabouts. And the he announces his UK band. Michael Jerome has his own project now, but Taras Unpronounceable remains on bass. Mrs T3, Zara, remains 2nd vocals. So @niallb ‘s would be alter ego, Dave Mattacks is back, and instead of his guitar roadie sidling on and sitting in the shadows for 2nd gutsr, it’s only Zak Hobbs taking that role. He is the son of RTs only non musical child with Linda, and has clearly learnt at the feet of Gramps. I saw him play with his Auntie Kami in her band, The Rails, back in 2016 at Cambridge, and he is a right chip off the old block, giving his Uncle James Walbourne a good run for his money. Now I wanna go!! (There are loads of sons playing with their Dads in bands these days; is this a first grandson?)

A sideline discussion piece, really, triggered by @kaisfatdad and his big band thread. String quartets got a mention and set me thinking about the role of string sections in pop, rock, folk, jazz, even blues.(See the vid!) Done well it is glorious, with that glory more often exception than the rule. Think back to just about all pop music of the 60s, where a full orchestra was the norm, bolted on about as subtly and melodically as a fish nailed to a bicycle. So bad I still have a mortal fear of ranked violins in most settings. Yet, when done well, with nuance and care, not just replicating the main theme but louder, it is wonderful. The Walkabouts album with the Warsaw Symphony Orch, as mentioned by @fentonsteve , is one, anything orchestrated by Robert Kirby another. (Nick Drake) There is a Scottish violinist, Senaid Aitken, who I also rate highly for the string arrangements she can lavish upon music, adding way more than just volume. Look out for her name; I think she was responsible for the strings for AW favourite Gretchen Peters. Anothe name always guaranteeing great arrangements is Fiachra » Continue Reading.

Desperately seeking etc…… Does anyone own this very rare album, by late 20th century duo, Occasionally David, a complete cover album of Love’s Forever Changes. Only 300 copies were ever produced, on vinyl. There seem no eel market accessible files, mp3 presence on Spotify and that ilk, YouTube links or indeed much trace at all. (Yes, I can pay north of £30 for a record to be sent from Germany, by Discogs, but don’t really need or want that amount of physical.) I am doing a pice about cover versions of the songs on Forever Changes, and it is the last piece in my jigsaw. Maybe the good Baron, aka @andyourbirdcansing ? I am looking for, cough, a review copy in MP3 format if possible. (And yes, I have contacted, or tried to contact, Both the record company concerned and each of the two individuals who made up the band, Clive Whitelock and Ray Bate, neither of whom have any recent online/social media presence.)

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