The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Robert Redford

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What an incredible career – mainstream heartthrob, accomplished director, and someone who put indie cinema on the map with the Sundance festival.

Polyglot Pops (Slight Return)

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The other threads now pretty much cause my browser to melt down instantly but this is so good I wanted to share it anyway…

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=J76S5q_ETfo&si=0vDQXmeQEOgiV6rD

And in other news

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In anticipation of my forthcoming house move, I bought an armchair today, which was going for a song on FB marketplace. I arranged to pick it from the seller’s place of work at the auction mart in Hexham. This is the local livestock market but I know they do other stuff on the site too so I assumed I’d be picking it up from an office or a warehouse or some such. Imagine my surprise when I turned up and he open up a gate and ushered me into the cattle pens and in front of an audience of curious cows, I exchanged a handful of fivers for a lightly used Parker Knoll wingback chair.

Tonight, Matthew, we’re going to be The Doors

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Did anyone else spot Field Music’s announcement of their side gig as a Doors tribute band? The stark reality is that there’s simply not enough money in being Field Music so they need a side hustle and what better way of doing than by playing music that they love to actual paying audiences? Has anyone else ever done anything like this before? I’m not sure they have. We’re definitely in an entirely new phase of the music biz now.

Gigs you don’t remember

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Bargepole’s review of A Playground of Broken Hearts reminded me that I’d seen a few of the neo-proggers at the time, most notably Marillion, who I saw supporting Girl at the Marquee and then headlining it themselves a few weeks later. I knew I’d also seen a few of the second division acts at Reading in 1983 but couldn’t remember which ones exactly. When I went to check who’d actually played that year, I realised that I remembered next to nothing of what I’d seen apart from Steel Pulse getting bottled off and a few dim recollections of the headline acts. For the most part though, the weekend is a total blank. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t drinking or hepped up on goofballs or anything like that, but still, to all intents and purposes it’s like I was never there. Were Stevie Ray Vaughan, Suzi Quatro, Big Country et al so unmemorable that I’ve managed to entirely excise them from my memory?

So who have you seen who you don’t remember?

King Creosote

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One of my favourite voices and has made some of my favourite records. I know that we need to keep the art and the artist separate and all that, but what a shame to see him go so off the deep end like this.

https://invernesstouristboard.com/2025/05/04/king-creoste-in-inverness/ https://archive.is/qt9lD

Kindle or Kobo?

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I’ve just about had it with my old Kindle Voyage – if I lose my place in a book it’s near impossible to find it again and the OS is confusing, with preferences scattered all over the place. It’s also not that comfortable to hold. I was quite surprised to see that it’s actually ten years old on Monday, so I think I’m probably due a new one by now.

Because fuck Jeff Bezos, I’m rather tempted by a Kobo. I’m not too fussed about a colour screen, or infinite battery life, just a better reading experience.

Any thoughts? Anyone got a Kobo and regretted it?

Frankie Beverly

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Obituary

RIP Frankie Beverly. Maze’s Joy and Pain was the sound of young Essex when I was growing up and their Live In New Orleans album is still an absolute classic. Even now, I still wish I had a Maze car sticker (and an XR3i to stick it on).

Welcome to the Land of Steely Dan

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Aja… A continent of the mind.

God alone knows who they thought this would appeal to.

I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen a TV ad for an album before, come to think of it, let alone one with a voiceover from Eartha Kitt.

Little Joe: New Willy Vlautin short story

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As I mentioned in the other post, this is the new Willy Vlautin short story that was filmed for the Durham Book Festival. The Little Joe of the title is a callback to the Little Joe mentioned in his Richmond Fontaine song Wake Up Ray and this piece is pretty much an expanded version of that song, complete with visuals and read by Willy himself.

Free: Steve Hackett ticket for Newcastle

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Due to a scheduling conflict, I am no longer able to go to the oft rescheduled Steve Hackett gig at Newcastle City Hall tomorrow (Saturday 16 October) so if anyone can make use of my ticket they’re more than welcome to it. It is a decent single stalls seat, about ten rows back from the stage.

It’s a digital ticket but looks easy enough to transfer if you’ve got the Ticketmaster app.

Heads up: Lou Reed’s Berlin concert film free stream

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Lou Reed’s Berlin album was performed live in its entirety for the first time in 2006 at St Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. Painter Julian Schnabel directed the show and made it into a concert documentary, splicing footage of the performance with dramatised B-roll depicting the couple at the centre of the album’s narrative.

The film, Lou Reed’s Berlin, will be available to stream free as the concluding event of the fall season at St Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn on the St Ann’s website starting this Friday night at 12.30am time through to 4.30am on 30 November. (If you were in New York that would be Friday at 12:30pm Eastern time through to midnight 29 November.)

View post on imgur.com

https://stannswarehouse.org

Lucinda Williams ticket: Holmfirth Picturedrome, 1 August

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Due to Mrs Y double-booking herself, I’m left with a spare ticket for this. It’s a Car Wheels anniversary show with the full band, in which, as I understand it, Lu will play the album in full for the first half and then do a greatest hits-type second act. And all in an intimate 650 capacity venue.

I’m currently at the barbers, sitting in line for a haircut, so don’t have the tickets with me but from memory they were pretty cheap, maybe twenty five quid, and definitely under thirty.

Anyone fancy it?

Who’s sitting behind me?

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I’m currently sitting in Pink Lane Coffee in Newcastle. The only other people on here are two men of even more advanced years than myself. Earwigging their conversation, it’s clearly someone being interviewed. From what I’ve heard over the radio and the clatter of the coffee cups, it’s pretty evidently a progger or quite possibly a difficult improv jazz artist. I’ve heard the word “cerebral” being used, as well as phrases such as “pre-jazz/pre-prog”, and “reaching out to an audience”, as well as their lack of appeal to young people.

He’s just confessed he’s resistant to describing some of his favourite gigs over the last few years but I couldn’t quite catch why that was.

There’s a distinct lack of HORAs but that might just be down to the interviewer.

Who the hell is it?

Big Big Train: ticket going cheap

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Big Big Train? Big big bargain more like!

Due to insurmountable financial and logistical challenges, I’m no longer able to attend this Friday’s Big Big Train show at Cadogan Hall this Friday that I bought a ticket for this time last year. It’s a very fine seat, H16, so somewhere in the middle of the stalls, eight rows back – and it will be empty unless someone steps forward and takes it off my hands.

The price on the ticket is £42 but it’s all yours for just £20 plus postage.

Anyone?

Going spare: Two Wilco tickets (Manchester)

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Anyone want a pair of general admission tickets for Wilco for the Manchester gig at the Albert Hall on 18 November? We were planning to make the trip down from the North East and make a weekend of it but to be perfectly honest, now that it comes down to it, Manchester’s such a pain to get to from here that we just can’t be bothered!

I bought the tickets through Songkick just over a year ago and the buggers still haven’t posted them out yet. The email receipt says they will be sent more than 14 days before the gig though, so they should be with me any day now.

The gig is sold out now but if you cover my costs at £78.75 they’re all yours.

Going spare: King Crimson ticket, Thursday 17 September, Edinburgh

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Can I interest anyone in a ticket for King Crimson at Usher Hall this Thursday 17 September? The seat is in the centre-ish of the stalls, row H (so nice and near the front but not so near as to give you a stiff neck). I’m asking for what I paid for it – £71.50. The only drawback really is that you’d be sitting next to me.