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Welsh Wizards Wow Wiltshire With Witty, Wildly Wonderful Work

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Venue:

Wilshire Music Centre, Bradford Upon Avon

Date: 08/11/2024

Last year I was lucky enough to join Sam Lee one evening in the woods of Gloucestershire, where we traipsed at midnight to a remote part of an RSPB reserve in search of singing Nightingales. Despite the drizzle and the reluctant avian peformers, it was a magical night. Sam always invites a visiting musician along to these sessions, and on the night I was there we had the company of Patrick Rimes from the band Calan. Around the campfire and in the woods, both solo and with Sam, he sang songs in Welsh in a fine baritone voice, and gave us rousing reels on his fiddle to drive away the cold and damp. I was very impressed, and vowed to try and see his band play live when the opportunity presented itself.

Last Friday that opportunity finally arose, and the Foxymobile took us in fine style to the the rather splendid little venue that is the Wiltshire Music Centre, half an hour from home, manned by volunteers for evening gigs, and a beacon of culture in an increasingly shadowy land.

Beth from Calan introduced the evening – and their » Continue Reading.

Six hundred, three score and six.

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What does it sound like?:

It’s a dull weekend afternoon in early summer, 1972. I’m in the living room at my parent’s home in Plymouth, with the transistor radio on, likely listening to Rosko or Freeman. I’m not really paying any attention to the chat between tracks when on comes this dreamy little single driven by electric piano chords and a subtle bass part. Then there’s a breathy, slightly treated vocal from someone whose accent sounds as if maybe English is not their first language. It builds nicely and then the chords part and there is an utterly wonderful guitar solo break that unfolds magically and leads into another vocal verse. This verse then leads directly to the close, where the whole thing fades to a silence that just leaves me wanting to hear it again, immediately. 2 minutes 55 seconds of perfect. What. The. Heck. Was. That?

I fail to gather any information except the name of the track: ‘Break’ and that of the artist: a bunch called Aphrodite’s Child, apparently. Dimly I recall a couple of singles a few years past, poppy and fun, but not anything I’d longed to own at the time. I store » Continue Reading.

Aaaaa-eeeyaaa-eeeeeeyaaaaaa-eeeeeyaaaaeeeyaaaa! Ron Ely has passed away.

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For me and my post-Weissmuller generation, anyone who was a jungle and bush adventure enthusiast saw the great Ron Ely as THE Tarzan of our youth.

The 1966–1968 NBC series was broadcast in the UK by the BBC, and was required viewing to take us all out of the dull grey UK and onto the sunny climes of Africa. We had no idea at the time that it was filmed in Brazil and Mexico, and frankly, we didn’t care anyway. Fab escapist fun for eleven year old boys and girls.

Thanks for all those brilliant episodes Ron. RIP

Where are you today? Tell us where you are and what you can see in front of you.

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I’m out on the western edge this morning, more or less at the closest point you can get to North America and still be in Europe. It’s blowing a hoolie outside, but I’m going for a walk nonetheless. Yesterday afternoon, when I got here, it looked like this:

View post on imgur.com

No doubt, in an hour or two, the wind and rain will have blown over and the sands will shine again.

I hope you’re also in as beautiful a place.

Live in London? For once at least, you’re very lucky…

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Hattie Whitehead, about whom I have raved before on these pages, has just put out her debut album, and it is an absolute peach.

What’s more, she’s just embarked upon on her first solo tour (having already been the front person for the mightily successful tour under the name of Hejira, Pete Oxley’s jazzer powerhouse band doing Joni’s music from ‘Shadows And Light’).

I had tickets for the second gig in Hattie’s tour at Bristol’s St. Georges, but was unable to attend due to an unfortunately timed monster lurgy attack, but if you live in that London, you still have a chance to see and hear her play tomorrow night in Islington.

As I write, there are still a few tickets left for her gig at The Grace, London N5, and possibly a few more on the door.

Don’t miss this opportunity to amaze your offspring by regaling them of the tale that you were there before she broke through and became a superstar.

https://dice.fm/event/7ddo86-hattie-whitehead-10th-oct-the-grace-london-tickets?lng=en

This just in: World Ends Tonight!

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Finding it hard to sleep? Nailing those tranqs to get some zeds? Whatever you do, don’t watch tonight’s re-broadcast of Threads, the BBC’s dramadoc from 1984 about what happens when the big one drops; if you do, you won’t sleep properly for months. Either that or you’ll overdo the meds in your desperation and slip off the coil ahead of any anticipated mushroom clouds.

If, like me, you’re just curious to see what horrified folk when it first went out, it’s on BBC Four at 22:20.

Mary Spender gig at St Georges in Bristol, TOMORROW Sept 25th – 2 tickets available

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I’m laid up with a stinking cold, and not in a fit state to attend tomorrow’s gig by Mary Spender at St. Georges in central Bristol. It’s a bitter blow, as I’ve been looking forward to this gig for a long time – I bought the pair of tickets early last December. I bagged our favourite pair of row-end seats 4 rows from the front.

The gig’s nearly sold-out now, and I’d anticipate that it will be a great event, very early in her tour schedule. She has a lovely voice, great guitar chops, and a healthy non-conformist attitude to a lot of things.

The tickets are e-tickets, received via email, so I can pass them on to someone else easily. If you can use them, please drop me a line by a DM and I ‘ll send them across.

All I ask in return is that you promise to review the gig on here – no money needs to change hands. On that basis, the first to message me gets the pair of tickets gratis.

The lure of the wild Atlantic west.

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We’re thinking we would like to sell up and move to the west of Ireland, and we are just starting to idly look at estate agents ads covering the areas to the west of Galway, with which we’re most familiar.

We haven’t really got a clue yet about what the practical obstacles or hindrances might turn out to be, but on the simple basis of the property prices we’ve seen quoted, it looks at least feasible.

Ideally, I’d probably want to look for a part-time job once over there, at least for a year or three, though that’s not a complete necessity, and to be honest, other than that the biggest hurdle might be moving all the CDs and vinyl.

Does anyone here have experience of making the move from the UK to the Irish republic, or can anyone point me at some reliable, sensible advice about how to go about it?

Joni Archives volume 4 set is now available for pre-order

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This morning I’ve been alerted by email to the availability by pre-order of Joni Mitchell’s long awaited Archives Volume 4 – The Asylum Years (1976-1980).

This set (4 LP selection of tracks, 6 CD full set of tracks) covers the Hejira, Don Juan and subsequent period, and I’ve been looking forward to getting this since Volume 3 came out.

Here’s the marketing bumf:

Features Unreleased Studio Sessions, Alternate Versions, Live Recordings, Rarities, And 36-Page Book With New Photos & An Extensive Conversation Between Joni & Cameron Crowe

Sourced From Original Stereo Reels, Nagra Film Recordings, Multi-track Tapes, Radio Airchecks & Cassette Tapes

Throughout the latter half of the seventies, Joni continued to creatively break ground with her fearless and fluid exploration of jazz. Rather than tread the same path, she challenged and reinvented her style with a folk fusion like no other. Ascending to an unrivaled sonic peak, this innovative sound took shape across the gold-certified HEJIRA [1976], the gold-certified double-LP DON JUAN’S RECKLESS DAUGHTER [1977], her collaboration with Charles Mingus entitled MINGUS [1979], and live album SHADOWS AND LIGHT [1980]. Channeling the thrill and excitement of these records, she delves even further into this season on JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES, » Continue Reading.

Katie Spencer at the edge of the land

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Venue:

Patchwork Studios & Garrison Gallery, Maker, Torpoint, Cornwall PL10 1LA

Date: 11/07/2024

This review is, unavoidably, rather late in arriving on these pages. Preceded by being clobbered by Covid, and succeeded by a monstrous bout of post-Covid issues, it’s been brewing since the gig took place almost a month ago now.

Enough about your correspondent’s excuses. I wanted to report to you that a Katie Spencer gig is something you really do need to attend; she’s a fine talent and a lovely person. If you can find a gig of hers that’s close enough for you to reach, for goodness’ sake GO.

Nonetheless, happily Katie is still touring (when is she NOT touring!?) so a reminder here of her outstanding music is well worth writing up.

This was a gig that replaced her original south Devon booking at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth. I’d bought tickets to that as soon as they went on sale. About a fortnight ahead of the gig I looked things up on the theatre website for a last minute check of performance times. Good job I did, as the gig was no longer listed! A phone call revealed that they’d cancelled » Continue Reading.

Syd The Controls For An Evening Of Fun

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Venue:

Bristol Beacon (“venue with a less problematic name” – N. Mason)

Date: 17/06/2024

Well, who’da thunk it? Here I was, perched at the very back of the newly revamped ‘Bristol Beacon’ main hall, so high up in The Gods that Mme Foxy claimed incipient vertigo symptoms as we took our seats, staring out over a sea of gathering pates belonging to chaps who, like myself, had most likely paid £1.99 for a Starline copy (with no hideous pink imposed upon the artwork) of the mighty ‘Relics’ sampler.

A mere 53 years after handing over my pocket money and retreating into the Floydian soundscape with my dad’s big headphones clamped on, I was watching a band put together by the original drummer, a sprightly, jolly, humble and generous octogenarian, having an obvious ball belting out a terrific selection of songs from the early albums – we got a splendid scattering of tracks from LPs right up until Obscured By Clouds.

If you’ve read this far you’ll almost certainly already know about the existence of this time-travelling show, and all I can do here is to report the fact that their Bristol gig this Monday was a complete » Continue Reading.

Back to the middle ages or earlier – drink beer!

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Despite sluicing the taxpayer to the tune of many billions in dividends, our* magnificent water and sewerage companies now want to increase their bills next year by between 24% and 91%, depending upon how well practised they are in keeping a straight face while they take the piss.

In recent months I have been off the sauce almost entirely, guzzling water by the gallon instead. I’ve lost 10 Kgs in weight, and if I look downwards past my stomach I can confirm that I am no longer in the early stages of obesity. All of this progress is however now in jeopardy, as it looks like the most sensible option from 2025 onwards is going to be to exclusively drink beer.

Should this result in inadvertent intoxication, I fear that I might rashly take to the streets with a few half bricks and head to the nearest water company’s offices to wreak revenge on the greedy thieving bastards.

* I say ‘our’ but a lot of them are owned by overseas interests these days. Market rules innit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce55vp78n40o

Nucleus – Live at the BBC

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What does it sound like?:

I’ve a confession to make.

Our esteemed contributor Colin-h asked me to consider reviewing this beast about two years ago, and this is how long it’s taken me to finish off these notes. Sorry about that Colin!

So here we are at last, these are my copious notes, written a little at a time over the last two years, and finally edited now into a hopefully coherent overview of what is after all a gargantuan collection of wonderful material.

This little (13 CDs!) boxed set of BBC recordings features Ian Carr’s celebrated Nucleus ensemble. I’m not going to wade in with a humungous retrospective of the man’s jazz pedigree with various well known serious alumni, I’m going to react only to the contents of these discs.

For many music fans the music they contain might be expected to be what we might term jazz-rock. But don’t let the Vertigo label connections fool you. This is first and foremost jazz. Repertoire, with Colin’s guiding hand, have assembled 13 CDs worth of BBC sessions from the band – in various constellations – across the years from 1970 to 1991; it’s an ocean » Continue Reading.

Hattie Whitehead’s imminent debut album – here’s the chance to help it get here

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Dear Afterworders, may I commend to you this artist, whose singing and playing is of the very highest quality; Hattie Whitehead.

I know there are several amongst us who have already seen her play either her own material – she’s done 3 EPs to date – or the Joni Mitchell material that she currently performs on tours with Pete Oxley’s group that calls itself Hejira.

The great news is that her first full album is on its way to us at last, and she has a crowdfunding effort afoot to take the project over the line. If you have a mind to secure yourself a copy on vinyl or CD, accompanied by a T-shirt perhaps, or even a personalised video performance or maybe a sourdough loaf (I kid you not), then hasten across to the following place and shake your wallet at an artist who should be encouraged to flourish:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hattie-whitehead-s-debut-album/x/37385807#/

New Statesman: Staggering incompetence in the subs department. Anyone else?

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I used to look forward to my weekly dose of The Staggers. My print copy of The New Stateman would drop into the mailbox each week, bringing me a mixture of hope, despair and thoughtful distraction. Along with the daily delights from this place, and the music monthlies, my time available for ploughing into my huge inbound paperback stack was heftily reduced, but happily so.

When the Staggers ceased to arrive here at the tail-end of ’23 (despite no emailed or posted reminder) on Jan 5th ’24 I paid to renew my recently lapsed print sub for another full year. But no New Statesman copies subsequently arrived. Braving their dire telephone ‘customer support’ service, I queried this, but they palmed me off by saying I’d subscribed via a 3rd party – I’d renewed via magazines.co.uk the big subcriptions accumulator site, and suggested I raise the issue there instead.

At first I assumed that things were just taking a long time and waited a couple more weeks, yet still no New Statesman copies arrived. So I queried things with the magazines.co.uk people – the third party.

They were super helpful – confirming with detailed evidence that my subscription renewal had » Continue Reading.

Exquisite, simple, beautiful, honest, mesmerising Ninebarrow.

by 17 Comments

Venue:

St Leonard’s Church, Sheepstor, Dartmoor

Date: 07/03/2024

For the second time in a year I made the pilgrimage to St. Leonard’s Church in the little village of Sheepstor, perched up on the south-west corner of Dartmoor.

The point of the expedition was to catch a live performance from the folk duo called Ninebarrow. They are only touring a few more gigs this year before they embark upon a project that will keep them from our stages for the next year or so. So, a brief window in which to hear for myself their pristine harmonies and their gorgeously crafted songs.

It’s a small fortune for a return ticket on the train from home, and the trip was rendered affordable only by the fact that my younger vulpine brother lives only a few miles away from the venue and put me up for the night. Happily, he was entranced and delighted by the gig too, so it was a successful adventure all round.

The church was packed – a sell-out – but its small size means that even when full the atmosphere is intimate and cosy. Minimal amplification is needed here, which means that the guy’s voices carry » Continue Reading.

Great music? Small venue? Trendy dive in that Lahndahn? Ticks all boxes

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Fellow Afterworders who live within reach of hipster joints in that Lahndahn, despite my provincial location and my disdain for the alleged delights of our capital city, I feel it is my duty, nay privilege, to give you good news.

The attached link will take you to a place where you can book some tickets for what I reckon will be one of the most intimately satisfying musical events of your year.

I’ve seen Hattie sing and play. She is a part – the essential front-of-stage part – of the occasional band that calls itself Hejira. They tour a set built entirely from the Joni repertoire as represented within the double-LP called Shadows And Light. Their performances, and Hattie’s sensitive and confident delivery of Joni’s lines and chords, are a wonderful thing. In this gig she will be singing her own material and you will hear why she was invited to sing and play with Hejira.

I can’t recommend the opportunity to see this gig highly enough. I’d be there myself if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ll unavoidably be 125 miles away at the time.

Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

https://dice.fm/event/qdrp9-hattie-whitehead-22nd-may-servant-jazz-quarters-london-tickets

Your favourite mischievous LP title?

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Browsing the spines of my LPs this morning it occurred to me that when choosing an album title, artists can decide to serve a wide range of purposes. The artist’s previous experiences and level of success may play a part, they may choose a title designed to intrigue the casual buyer or to simply signal their artistic or political intent. They may be confident – or lazy – enough just to take the piss with a throwaway title a la Ship Arriving, or they may make a little more effort.

My favourite is in the comments – what’s yours?