The Afterword

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Ryley Walker and Danny Thompson

by 44 Comments

Venue:

St Georges Bristol

Date: 17/02/2016

I bought the album last year, and having fallen under its spell, I bought two prime tickets for the gig on the day the tour was announced. My companion for the evening had never heard the album, or anything from it. It was my treat this time; he was the innocent victim, with no preconceived ideas at all about what he was about to see and hear.

The album in question is Primrose Green, and the artists we were about to experience are Ryley Walker and Danny Thompson. That’s Danny F*cking Thompson, as Ryley puts it.

I’d listened to the album again yesterday in the car, and hoped that what I would hear that evening would be more than a recreation of the work, fine though it is as it stands. For listeners of a certain age and persuasion, it inevitably evokes echoes of influence as Ryley channels Jansch, Martyn and Buckley in his own unique style. What I had hoped to hear in the evening was a development from that, a blooming, an exploration, a progression if you will; something new yet rooted in the exciting possibilities revealed by the album. » Continue Reading.

ATM: Dawn French in metal gear playing guitar on the top of Brent Tor?

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Here’s a conundrum that Google doesn’t seem to be able to solve for me. Perhaps the famous hive-mind of the Afterword Massive can come to my rescue.

At the top of Bingo’s post about Friday night listening choices is a Guns’n’Roses video. There’s a bit in there where the ludicrous and apparently unselfconscious Slash (bless) strolls fag-dangling and shirt-open from a tiny little wooden prairie church (which is apparently blessed with Tardis “bigger on the inside” magic) only to pause outside the picket fence and launch into a screaming hip-slung guitar solo.

This is obviously the inspiration for the moment when Dawn French, dressed in leather and extravagant hair, emerges from the little granite church of St. Michael de Rupe atop Brent Tor on the western edge of Dartmoor, and is filmed in a circling helicopter zoom shot pouting out an 8-gauge string bending solo coaxed from, if memory serves, a Les Paul exactly a la Slash.

Now I loved that moment the first time I saw it, and hooted with delight. Brent Tor was a favourite place of mine as a child, and seeing Dawn dressed as Slash standing legs akimbo on the top belting out a metal » Continue Reading.

ATM: Zervas & Pepper – Abstract Heart

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First world worry: I’ve just taken delivery of the fine “Abstract Heart” from Zervas & Pepper, which is as fine an album as I’ve heard all year. My question is this: my copy comes in a cardboard digipack – both sides of which are open ended. The right hand side has the CD tucked inside in a neat little inner sleeve, while the left hand side is completely empty. It feels like there should be a lyric booklet in there, which would be a really great thing to have, particularly for this album.

Pray tell; who else’s got a copy, and does yours have a booklet insert of any kind?

Saskia

by 1 Comment

In these days of painted-by-numbers, gormo-drome songs sung by over-emoting, autotuned, drearily melismatic hopefuls with more self-belief than Sir Alan’s drongos and meagre, humdrum levels of talent, isn’t it great to discover a singer-songwriter who does exactly what it says on the tin?

I saw this young woman perform on an open stage at the Didmarton Bluegrass Festival in September, and have been keeping a watching eye on her progress ever since.

She writes lovely songs, has a gorgeous and perfectly English voice, and sings with wonderful clarity and precision. Here’s a home demo of a song from the album she’s working on at the moment. I hope you will enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/gQ9D1xVda9k?list=PL6MHO07WU8YEMuH9G22alSibRZ-zBm2G6

Lau – St Georges, Bristol, Thursday night this week – 2 really good tickets going begging.

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I have two tickets for Lau this Thursday at St Georges in Bristol. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. I bought the tickets early on (£18 quid each – sob!) and they are in good seats (middle of the third row from the front).

For a number of last minute reasons I can’t make it, and neither can my buddy with whom I was planning to attend.

The pair of tickets are therefore looking for a deserving home. If you can pick them up from me in Bath tomorrow or Thursday during the working day, they are yours for free. Alternatively you can come to the house (near Junction 18 of the M4) in the evening tonight or tomorrow.

Give me a shout if anyone’s interested.

Growing up? Taking responsibility? You can get an app for that.

by 20 Comments

“New home broadband from xxxxxxxx. It’s broadband you control with an app. You can set a timer, so when you say it’s bedtime, it really is bedtime.“

You couldn’t make it up. Why not get an app to handle all those other difficult parenting challenges that you didn’t buy into when you had the brat in the first place? It’s really not fair is it, that you have to make a bloody effort?

Bridget St. John and Michael Chapman

by 13 Comments

Venue:

St. George’s in Bristol

Date: 10/06/2015

I didn’t really know what I’d make of this before I went. Ostensibly this is Bridget’s tour, and she’s asked Michael to come along too. Back in the day I was a mild Bridget fan; I had a couple of the Dandelion albums, and I bought the boxed-set of them that came out on CD a while back, but I confess I was there to see Mr. Chapman first and foremost. Ever since a girlfriend’s older brother, one of the nicest, coolest dudes I’ve ever known, played me Fully Qualified Survivor one long Sunday afternoon, I’ve been a massive fan of his really unique talent. To my mind no one else can take a single acoustic guitar and conjure up relatively long instrumental pieces of such detail and constantly unfolding interest in what is essentially ‘just’ the finger-picking mode and yet make soundscapes that create mental pictures as if an entire orchestra was at work. And no one else has the same so-laid-back-he’s-horizontal Yorkshire mumble or such intriguing songs, not to mention his world class wry, dry, laconic wit. I needn’t have worried. In the event Michael delivered a shortish set of » Continue Reading.

Bristol, next Wednesday night, 8:30pm June 10th at St. George’s off Park Street.

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The GLW is unfortunately unable to accompany me to the Bridget St. John & Michael Chapman gig on Wednesday night, which has the makings of a cracker if you like their sorts of things. Hence I now have a ticket going spare.

If any local Afterworder wants to come along in her place the ticket’s yours; you’ll have to sit next to me I’m afraid, so I’ll expect you to have washed at some point during June, though I won’t expect you to share your Maltesers.

Just drop me a line and we can arrange to meet before things kick off. I’ll be getting to the venue about 8 at the latest – gig starts at 8:30 – and I may grab a pint somewhere close by beforehand.

ISIS “love death as you love life”, they boast. So what to do? Time to set about killing ’em all?

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Not a day goes by that I don’t hear further cause to despair from the behaviours of the morons who call themselves ISIS, or another of its variants. Assuming that no-one is content to leave them to get on with it, whatever it is supposed to be, until four or five centuries hence their adherent’s descendants undergo some sort of enlightenment and think to themselves, “Oh dear, what *have* we been doing all these years?”, what options are open to the rest of the world, if any?

Does anyone have any really practical ideas? “Hearts & Minds” is a non-starter, as far as I can tell, so is it time to hand out the guns and ammo yet? How long do we wait? How much cultural capital do we allow them to destroy before we fight back? Where are the hawks when you think you might usefully call them to action? Why does it seem there’s no concerted and seriously robust international response? Does anyone in the west, outside academia, even give a shit?