Brian Auger is gigging the UK in early November? Fans of the, er, sound of the swelling organ and post-mod positivity up for it? I’m intending to see them in that London at the Jazz Cafe.
King Crimson
by 13 Comments
Venue:
Brighton Dome
Date: 05/09/2015
The big one: King Crimson plus heavy friends in a sold-out Dome. Light-prog fans were at the conference centre grooving to the Australian Dave (excuse me, David) Gilmour Show hearing and watching what sounded like the same heritage Floyd show. Fripp had collated 3 drummers (one doubling on keyboards), Tony Levin, Mel Collins, and Jakko Jakszyk, and while there were plenty of old tracks (three from “The Court of the Crimson King”, “Larks Tongues in Aspic”, “Easy Money”, “Red”, etc.), some these had not been played sometimes for 40-plus years. Minimal lighting, minimal amplification (but astonishing sound), and advice to sit back and just go with the music meant this felt a more adult event, and not just a re-living of smoke-filled afternoons in late-adolescent bedrooms. Intense, complicated music the way King Crimson fans like it flowed over the crowd, somewhere between heavy metal, chamber music, and psychedelic -progressive music. Two hours passed in minutes though Fripp had minimal engagement with the audience.
The audience:
What do you think? Men of a certain age, blokes who looked like my accountant, many fathers and sons (saving long-suffering wives from a night of pain), and Tommy » Continue Reading.
The joys of ageing eyes
“I live my life by “The Ruts” – almost a truth for me for 6 months till Todd Rundgren took their place – is how my eyes, failing to adapt to bifocals, read the more prosaic AW thread “I live my life by this rule”. But it led me to this gem, so serendipity still works!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxHpn0xlgcc
Research into creativity
by 1 Comment
A pal of a pal has a student researching creativity, thinking style, etc. Please participate if you have the time. They will give you the results if you leave an email.
What did the NME know?
by 42 Comments
The NME provided good curatorship of music and popular culture for the first 10 years of my musical development (1972-1982). There was no YouTube, albums were expensive when you got 75p pocket money, and so the local music library helped me to discover, for example, old blues artists name-dropped in the mag. The ‘year zero tendencies’ of the punk years sometimes threw out the baby with the bathwater, but the year end charts and poll-winners generally showed the power of the group. Into the 80s, the tapes kept ears open, but the posturing, pushing, and politics led to some right bollocks, IMHO. “Birdland” as the future of rock n’roll? German metal bashing? (We had perfectly good British metal bashing in Test Dept).
Chris Squire seriously ill
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Chris Squire, has been diagnosed with Acute Erythroid Leukemia (AEL), an uncommon form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). He will be treated near his home in Phoenix. AML has an unattractive prognosis. Send progressive love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b94ndAHFHaY http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9hj67eDyR1qkd7h4o1_500.jpg
One for the ladies
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This was the centre pages of a the Hawkwind “Amazing Sounds, Astonishing Music” tour in 1976.
They were definitely NOT channelling what Frank Zappa described as “pouched-out succulence”.
Songs for Steely Dan to cover
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[This may the be most echt-AW thread yet.]
Steely Dan should re-record Donald Fagen’s “the Goodbye Look” with a middle-eastern vibe and schtick along with the Dan’s mu chords and much jazz swing plus rock. Jewish irony and guilt in a modestly revised lyric.
http://www.hakwright.co.uk/steelydan/mu-major.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-9I77afuOk
For the more broad-minded AWer.
by 3 Comments
I have a student examining attitudes of men to the various kinds of sex workers out there. So whether you have or haven’t engaged in this sort of thing, please contribute to this study. Please share the link on your own FaceBook pages and other networks; this will optimise the chance of our recruiting a representative sample of chaps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPcIR7zCPPM
https://nottingham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/attitudes-sex-workers-services
I don’t want hear about what the rich are doing
by 28 Comments
One of the most hateful aspects of modern life is the return to wealth and higher class being seen as virtues. Back when you could be skint but respected for being clever or creative, there was room for those without money or the fortune of birth to make their way and have an identity. I don’t see it now. Newspapers and the media have rather too much reportage on money and wealth, as if it makes you a better or more interesting person. It doesn’t. Eurotrash used to be a term of insult.
Mojo on the way out?
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I’ve just been sent a link inviting me to have a free copy of Mojo. Recalling that I signed up to “The Word” about 2 copies before it was closed, I fear the worst for our worthy but sometimes rather dull remaining music magazine for persons of a certain age. Maybe it’s all moved on-line now?
Disappointing style for a funeral
by 5 Comments
Mr Strange has finally passed on, and the ‘Ballet were worthy enough to carry the coffin. I hope the coffin went under in a sea of dry ice and folks singing “it means nothing to me”…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-31837532
Spandau Nickelback
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The last place pretty much shared the hate between two bands who evoked maximum insensitivity, Spandau Ballet and Nickelback. I have no pride in finding the former particularly crap with the exception of “Chant No 1” (good because it was probably driven by the funkateers behind the scenes, not ‘the ‘Ballet, Tony Hadley having all the musical wit and grace of David “Flashman” Cameron, and the band desperate wannabes).
But. But. Are there worse bands to compare and contrast?
Don’t hold back. See this as psychotherapy.
The NME goes free?
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This was posted on the Vice website: http://www.vice.com/read/the-nme-is-going-free-the-music-magazine-will-charge-a-cover-price-for-the-last-time-this-week-552
I stopped reading the NME almost 30 years ago, and I don’t know any youngsters who do, but if it was to become a music-fans “Metro”, it might have a function. The US has lots of advertising-funded freesheets acting as independent media guides for their cities, along with specialist music freesheets. So it may not be a disaster.
http://buzz.bournemouth.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/NME-1972-213×300.jpg
