I guess many of us are either working from home or self isolating. I work in an essential industry but work from home alternate days. Its a novelty and gives me chance to play discs that haven’t been aired for a while and catch up on new. Yesterday my Jukebox was:

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbotts – Manchester calling (delivered that morning – first listen fab) Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn – long time since I played, really enjoyed hearing again. Fela Kuit – Everything scatter Elbow – The take off and landing of everything – a greatly underrated Elbow album Hurray for the Riffraff – Small Town Hero David Bowie – Is it any wonder ep Danny and the Champions of the World – Brilliant Light Goat – Requiem

No doubt this current predicament the World faces is a pile of shit. As a born optimist I have to look to the World post Coronavirus. In view of the fact that pubs and restaurants are taking a right kicking I believe we have a duty to spend a lot of time in them when normality returns. Let’s make sure we have a great fuck off party.

Reading Eltons Autobiography at present and really enjoying it. It inspired me to give Goodbye Yellow Brick road a spin – you don’t get many better opening tracks than this one.

Yesterday we were in London to see the stage performance of Pretty Woman, a Christmas present for my daughter. We were enjoying the show despite two older women behind us grunting and talking throughout the first half of the show and trying to sing the words of the songs that no-one knew. As the first half drew to a close one of the old bats put her hand on my daughters boyfriends shoulder and asked if he could move seats because she couldn’t see. Firstly he is not tall- about 5’10” and secondly it was a sold out show – where exactly was he going to move to? She continued putting her hand on his shoulder and saying she had asked nicely. He asked her not to put her hand on his shoulder. They then proceed to talk loudly between each other that they had upset him. It became quite heated and he walked out of the show because he felt uncomfortable. The discussion carried on a the trouble maker of the two bats said something about our accent. I then lost it: ‘what exactly is the problem with our accent?’ ‘Well its not from London is it?’. ‘So lets » Continue Reading.

Sunday, the weather is miserable – the missus is in Scotland with her brothers visiting her mum and dads grave. I am spending the afternoon tidying up my piles of cd’s and making space on the shelves. As is custom on Sundays I play stuff I haven’t heard for a while. Today I gave Donald Fagen’s Sunken Condos a whirl. I know The Nightfly off by heart but this one less so. What was I thinking ?- this is absolutely superb. I won’t leave it so long next time.

There have been various comments from many of us on here about annoying dickheads at gigs and how to deal with them. Before Christmas I went to see the wonderful My Darling Clementine at the Kitchen Garden Café in Birmingham. This is a lovely venue and not known for a raucous or unruly audience, in fact, far from it. In the second part of the set they had a segment of Elvis Costello referenced songs. Lou was at the keyboard for a beautiful version of A good year for the Roses. Midway through she stopped singing and to a couple no more than 5 yards from her who were apparently in a disagree en t with each other: ‘ I am respecting a serious musician here. At the risk of embarrassing myself will you please shut the fuck up’. Not sure if the please was actually there but it did the trick. The male of the couple abruptly left. Fair play to Lou and the rest of the gig was great.

The end of year charts talks of an Afterword list but nothing seems to be happening so I am taking the bull by the horns and posting mine here. You can either read and disregard or join in, feel free to entertain us all with your own choices:-

(Top 20 only)

1) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen 2) Angel Olsen – All Mirrots 3) Santana – Africa Speaks 4)Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka 5)Buddy and Julie Miller – Breakdown on 20th Ave. South 6)Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real – Turn off the news (Build a Garden) 7)Delines – The Imperial 8) Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains 9)Edwyn Collins – Badbea 10) Jesse Malin – Sunset Kids 11) Bonnie Prince Billy I made a place 12)Allison Moorer – Blood 13) Ebba Forsberg – Take my Waltz 14) Fat White family – Serfs Up 15) Chris Forsyth – All Time present 16) Felice Brothers – Undress 17) The Comet is coming – Trust in the life-force of the deep mystery 18) Yola – Walk through Fire 19) KoKoKo – Fongola 20) Oh Sees – Face Stabber

I had to leave out Bruce and Leonard – both good » Continue Reading.

We reached empty nest status in our house last September when our daughter toddled off to University. She came home last Christmas however so having a tree was a prerequisite. This year is different – we are visiting her in London for Xmas eve, Xmas day and Boxing day. We are in early discussion about whether we should actually bother getting a tree – we are leaning towards not bothering as the post xmas Christmas disposing of is a faff. I do however like the ambience and the smell of the pine needles.

Another thing that has surprised me is that the environmentalists have not yet launched a campaign to get ride of real xmas trees. Is that to come or are they not environmentally unfriendly?

It has been announced that HMV are planning to open a new concept ‘experiential’ store in Birmingham under the brand HMV Vault. It will sell physical product but will have a permanent stage with regular bands playing, band signings etc and will apparently be the biggest of its kind in Europe. Its brave move and I applaud their approach to trying something different. Proud also that it is in my home city – I hope it works out for them.

As part of the Proms season there was an excellent show on BBC4 last night – a homage to Nina Simone with some extraordinary performances from The Metropole Orkest and Lisa Fischer amongst others. A really great version of Baltimore and Mississippi Godamn. Check it out on BBC iplayer.

The opening track of Oh Sees excellent latest album features an opening riff on a squeaky toy. Is this a first? What other unusual instruments feature on some of your favourite songs. By the way check out the video – its pretty good.

I heard a song from this hit musical on 6Music at the weekend. Loved the song but didn’t know about Hadestown until I googled it. Now I am desperate to see it. Its run in London finished earlier this year. It is showing whilst I am in New York next June but the ticket prices are eye watering. Has anyone seen it and if so your thoughts? Worth a second mortgage or forget about it?

Just an alert that the new Wilco album is £7.99 for pre-order with the Tax dodgers.

For some reason this song has been played on 6Music twice that I have heard in the last week. It is an old song I wasn’t aware of and it has wormed its way into my brain to the extent that I need to buy the compilation album that it appears on. No idea why it has something of a resurgence but I am glad I heard it:

Have never been to Glastonbury and confess that the sheer size of it would deter me anyway. However have just seen this years line up – Janet Jackson, Stormzy and Miley Cyrus?? They are either aiming to be wilfully perverse, targeting a different audience or scraping the barrel. Either way it seems to be a shadow of its former self.

The new Felice Brothers album Undress arrived on my doorstep yesterday. There is a song on there called Days of the Years which is just brilliant. Sadly not on Youtube yet but do yourselves a great favour and take a listen. The art of songwriting is alive and well and thriving in the Catskills.