It is the first Friday of a new month (right now this is true in Melbourne if not literally true here in autumnal Glasgow. Nonetheless, please come in, gather round the firepit, help yourself to a bite to eat and a glass of whatever suits, and tell us all – what have you been listening to, watching, reading, or otherwise using to pass the time ?
And is there anything coming up that we should know about ?
I have mostly been listening to a Soul Jazz compilation – Space, Energy & Light, Experimental Electronic & Acoustic Soundscapes 1961-88, which is deep, with a great range of sonic experimentation, and also to John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy – Evenings at the Village Gate, which is absolutely ferocious. The other Old School Listening Experience was all six sides of Kamasi Washington’s Heaven and Earth, on vinyl, while lazing on the sofa.
I have enjoyed watching the first couple of episodes of City Primeval – Raylan Givens is back!
I read Richard Condon’s Winter Kills – Dizzying plot, weaving the many threads and theories around the assassination of JFK into a tense, fast moving thriller – and El Mohtar & Gladstone’s This Is How You Lost The Time War – A charming, beautifully written book , part science fiction, part romance novel, vibrant with hints of colour and foreshadowing.
The Primevals got in the van to play in London, and we had a blast. Stewart Lee popped in to say hello, Mike H of this parish did too, and there were a couple of old pals there who last saw the band around 1987.
I’ve been getting a lot of joy out of Lloyd Cole – On Pain and the Lilac Time – Dance til all the stars come down. Both are slight outliers in their ‘oeuvre’ -Lilac Time is entirely acoustic with no bass or drums, while Lloyd Cole is largely electronic. But both are amongst the best sets of songs either has ever done.
Read
David Cavanagh – Creation Records Story. Delighted that this has been reissued and now I finally own it. Its a slightly absurd book, 700 pages, Oasis appear around page 500, and Pete Astor of the Weather Prophets of all people is a key figure for the first 250 or so. Did Alan Mcgee honestly think the Weather Prophets were bound for glory? But it’s a fascinating story, very well told. For 80s indie fans of all ages.
Jon Savage – This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else. Been sitting on the kindle for ages but I’m glad I got round to it. Superbly put together oral history of Joy Division. Fairly grim as to be expected but Sumner, Hook and especially Morris can also be very funny. 4 ordinary blokes produce something extraordinary without really understanding how or why, and then it all ends in tears – without understanding how or why.
Seen, a rare Netflix gem
The Endless Trench. Loosely based on a true story (the book In Hiding by Ronald Fraser brilliantly tells the true story) about a man who hid for 30 years behind a false wall in his house during the Franco regime. Its a smidge melodramatic at times but it’s a fine portrait of a very unusual marriage and uses horror and thriller tropes really well to ratchet up the tension. Nail-biting stuff, superbly acted. Recommended.
Thanks G. I’ve added The Endless Trench to my Netfiix list…
Forgot to say, I’m very much enjoying the Lloyd Cole album as well – ñu⁶
Watched The Endless Trench last night. Good adjective to describe it. Sadly, the version we saw lacked any tension and the only nail biting was of boredom. And the director certainly managed well to convey that.
Horses for courses! 🙂
Thanks Guiri, I have that Jon Savage book on my shelf & never got to it, but I shall remedy that based on your review.
@Guiri The Lilac Time album is lovely and will feature somewhere in my end of year list.
Oh go on then.
Heard.
As I mentioned elsewhere the latest from Rhiannon Giddens is a peach. Well not so much a peach as a perfectly sugared beignet. The soul of New Orleans percolates through it with a delicate unforced joy. This is a very fine album.
Prior to this being released I got a bit entangled in The Path by Belbury Poly but as a time served Ghost Box aficionado that came as no surprise to me. Again as I mentioned elsewhere much of the month has been given over to a thoroughly enjoyable revisit to the Sparklehorse catalogue in anticipation of Bird Machine getting a release on streaming platforms on the 8th September. So looking forward to this. I adore Sparklehorse.
Read.
Apart from a couple of Maigrets which are so short in duration they are one sitting reads and a few other enjoyable paper and ink distractions the two books from this month that have easily been the most memorable really couldn’t have less in common with one another. Foster by Claire Keegan is a brisk eighty eight wonderful pages in length while Wolf Hall by the late Hilary Mantel a more robust six hundred and seventy two. Wolf Hall was a re-read as I realised I had neglected to read the following two novels in the trilogy so a revisit was in order before embarking upon Bring Up The Bodies which I started in on today. Wolf Hall is of course a very fine novel which I found far more pleasurable the second time around I must admit. Claire Keegan is a writer who is new to me and I found Foster seriously impressive. Ms Keegan writes beautifully and manages in a very few pages to convey a story of the love and the deep human compassion shown to a young girl who is very briefly given over to the care of a bereaved couple. I loved it and I fully intend devouring everything by Ms Keegan I can get my hands on. I adore finding new authors with a back catalogue I can get stuck into.
Seen.
Some kind soul on here recommended The Morning Show on Apple + to me. Thank you. I finished watching the second series yesterday evening and I’ve loved every last soapy minute of it. Steve Carell is a quietly superb actor isn’t he? Although the whole cast are pretty much faultless including Jennifer Aniston which I must admit surprised me.
Along with that I decided to re-watch every episode of Spiral. I’m currently almost at the end of series three. It is of course just a bit good.
A.O.B.
I have finally received an appointment for another x-ray on my right hip so that’s a day out to look forward towards, coincidentally it’s on the same day I have an appointment for this year’s flu jab so as you can imagine the excited anticipation is intense. Talking about excited anticipation I get to start diving into Starfield first thing tomorrow morning. So that will be much the best part of the rest of the decade taken care of.
I love the retro cover of that Rhiannon Giddens album. Quite a variety to it, too considering they are all her own songs..
I love the cover too. It’s very reminiscent of some Esther Phillips album sleeves like From A Whisper To A Scream and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. It’s very well considered especially when attached to the music within. It’s definitely got that kind of a vibe about it. I find Mavis Staples springs readily to mind too in parts which of course is no bad thing.
The CD is on my shelf waiting to be ripped on to my ipod. Glad to hear you guys are enjoying it. Looking forward to hearing it.
@pencilsqueezer – did you know that Foster is the book that last year’s An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) film was based upon? Good movie if you haven’t seen it yet…
No I didn’t know that and no I haven’t had the opportunity to watch it yet but I shall look forward to doing so all the more so now. Thank you for the information. Much appreciated.
Are you booked in for your Covid jab too?
Nope. I phoned my doctor’s practice earlier today to enquire about it but they haven’t got a clue what is happening. However it’s only because I spoke to them that I was made aware that an appointment had been arranged for the x-ray. Nobody had seen fit to inform me either via a letter, an sms or an email that I had an appointment and it was only my taking the opportunity to enquire whilst I had the chance that I found out that I had an appointment booked, it’s been in place since August 4th! I’d like to find an excuse for such incompetence but sadly I can’t. If I hadn’t asked I wouldn’t had known but hey I shouldn’t grumble because living in constant pain and being to all intents and purposes housebound because of it is obviously of little importance. I am as you can probably tell distinctly annoyed but sadly unsurprised. Don’t grow old, don’t get sick or you’re fuc*ed.
I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully, things are beginning to move for you.
Diolch Tigg. I’m not holding my breath that any concrete assistance is likely to be forthcoming any time soon. I’ve lost all faith that anyone gives a toss.
I’ve not seen The Morning Show yet (I don’t have Apple), but I never thought of Jennifer Aniston as a particularly great actor (not that I thought ill of her) until I saw her in the film Cake. In this I thought she was exceptional, It is well worth a watch.
I really haven’t seen any of her performances apart from the obvious one and I didn’t see many episodes of that mainly because it got right on my proverbials, so my take on her is based on that and The Morning Show tbh. The Morning Show is about the ensemble more than star turns although the focus is a little more towards the Aniston and the Witherspoon but not obsessively so. Other cast members all get the chance to shine. It’s a very soapy but that doesn’t mean it lacks bite or if not bite exactly then a little light nibbling is in evidence. I recommend Apple + unreservedly. I’ve tried quite a lot of the streaming offerings and I’ve found more to enjoy on Apple + than many of the others. I cancelled Netfix because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find anything amongst their offerings I wanted to watch. I’ve cancelled Disney + for the same reasons although I may resubscribe to that if they offer up another series of The Bear. I have seen all of the Star Wars and MCU stuff I can stand and the recent stuff is decidedly meh so I won’t miss it.
Thanks for the heads up on the film you mention. I shall see if I can find it and give it a watch.
Claire Keegan’s novella “Small Things Like These” is absolutely superb.
And another thumbs-up for Colm Bairéad’s film An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl).
It’s on my TBR along with everything else I’ve found from her. I shall get to them all in the fullness of time. I’m busy with Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin at the moment, both of which I’m enjoying very much.
Heard:
* PiL – End Of The World. The band has been settled for 14 years now, and it’s showing with a very strong album (all the more remarkable when you consider the loss of Nora and how it would’ve affected John)
* I’ve reached the age where I’m properly listening to Mike Oldfield albums – Tubular Bells is a given, still not convinced by Hergest Ridge, but Ommadown may be his best. Incantations is not bad, bit too long though
* I’m noticing a lot of small DIY bands are giving away copies of albums (“giving away” = free album, but you pay for postage). Buster Shuffle is the latest – a sort of Madness with slight overtones of The Streets/Plan B overtones.
* Only one listen so far but Wreckless Eric – Leisureland is sounding like its a keeper. Eric’s voice may not appeal to everyone, but the WWWH knows a thing or to about songcraft, lo-fi techniques and lyrical picture painting.
Seen:
* Wolf on BBC1 started slowly and then gradually got more mad. At it’s root was a fairly standard cold-case investigation, but there were also seemingly inept kidnappers holding a family hostage. The 2 threads gently bumped into each other before resolving themselves at the end.
* New series of Annika on UKTV Drama – as easy-going as the first series. Eminently watchable without trying too hard.
* Woman In The Wall (BBC) started strongly, and hoping it continues
* Netflix is not the only one with production values. Berlin (found hidden away on UKTV Play) is an espionage thriller from a similar stable
Read:
* My inner nerd enjoys books (and websites) about anything vehicle related (mainly cars, roads, and motorways). So Tom Fort’s tome in celebration of the A303 is proving enjoyable
(I also found on Youtube the BBC4 doc he did some years ago where he drove the length of the road in a Morris Traveller)
The Woman In The Wall is a strange one. Quite cliched and stage Oirish in places but the story is compelling and the second episode quite unsettling. Ruth Wilson and Darryl McCormack are excellent leads though.
I’ve been enjoying PiL’s End Of World which is in my Top 10 of ‘23 up to now Rigid.
I also agree re: Ommadawn, it’s long been my favourite M.O. album.
There’s an interview with Lydon on the Stereo Underground site. Highlights were on last Saturday’s show. I thought Lydon sounded quite a lot like Ade Edmundson in The Young Ones.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0g8mk9r
Read your mention of Berlin and espionage and thought wonder if this was Berlin Station, and it is!
More 4 showed the first two seasons of this ages ago but didn’t, so far as I ever realised, show the final season.
Added this to my to watch list.
In a similar vein, I still hope that one day Rubicon will appear again somewhere.
BBC4 showed it many years ago and I had it recorded but my box died when I’d only seen the first couple of episodes. This was a time when the window to watch on iPlayer was very short too.
Rubicon was superb. I’d love to watch it again.
Another vote for Rubicon. It was fantastic and I still search for it on a regular basis.
Heard:
Janice Burns & Jon Doran were our Folk Club guests in July and stayed over at our house. They were delightful company but I never got round to purchasing their album No More the Green Hills until August Bandcamp Friday. It’s absolutely gorgeous amd I commend it to the Massive. I also bought City of Gold by Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway. and am enjoying it very much. Features good songwriting and brilliant playing.
Saw:
2 days ago I went on a last minute whim to see Dustbowl Revival at Manchester Stoller Hall. They are a 7-piece Americana band from LA featuring a trumpet & trombone brass section. The main man and his female co-lead singer sang beautifully together. She sang a nice cover of Oh Darlin’ by the Beatles and their encore was a splendid version of The Weight with all 5 singers taking a verse each.
Seen: Caught up with The Night Agent (Netflix), fairly routine White House is-somebody-going-to-kill-POTUS hokum, but totally bingeworthy. We’re ploughing through The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Prime). I say ploughing through because while it’s brilliantly shot (makes northern NSW look even more beautiful than it actually is) and brilliantly acted, domestic violence and long-buried family secrets are never going to be a comfortable watch. Sigourney Weaver is appallingly impressive as the controlling matriarch.
Read: my first book by Tessa Hadley – and her first, as it turned out – Accidents in the Home. What a brilliant writer – was seriously impressed. Just your everyday story of adultery and family fuckups, but so beautifully written – she gets right under the skin of her characters, and she’s particularly good on children. Definitely going to read more.
Entered the grim world of Jordan Harper – Love and Other Wounds (hilariously vuilent short stories about losers and grifters) and Everybody Knows (a noirish LA novel revolving around the damage limitation industry when bigshots screw up). If he’d turned up on my desk when I was a hotshot publisher, I’d have snapped him up in a heartbeat.
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett. Twisty, highly entertaining mystery, supposedly narrated by a near-illiterate, about whether an Enid Blyton lookalike is involved in a massive crime. Hard to describe, easy to enjoy.
Heard: usual mess o’ blues. Lots of chanson (see other thread). I’m having one of my regular love binges on Francis Poulenc, puckish French composer. This is a particular favourite.
Poulenc! I’ve been listening to his piano concerto recently – also a disc of all his chamber music for woodwind. Parfait!
Hello. I don’t think I’ve done this before but fancy giving it a go.
However, I will limit it to what I’ve done today as a month’s worth would test my memory and your patience.
Listening: apart from a stroll up to the chemist with my wife to collect our pills and potions I’ve been at home all day with time on my hands. So, very much a day of listening, to
Vinyl LP
The Matthews Baartmans Conspiracy – (distant chatter)
Blood Sweat & Tears – The Child is Father . . .
Yosef Gutman Levitt – Soul Song
Jimmy McGriff – I’ve Got a Woman (terrible pressing)
Daphne’s Flight – Knows Time, Knows Change
Songs of Our Native Daughters
Monks Road Social – Rise Up Singing
Vinyl EP
Cliff Richard – Expresso Bongo
Errol Garner – Concert by the Sea
CD
The Duckworth Lewis Method
Jamie Brownfield – Heart Strings
Bobby Charles – Last Train to Memphis
Djivan Gasparyan – I will not be sad . . .
Spotify
Mari Wilson – Cover Stories
False Lights – Harmonograph
Reading
Whilst listening to music – a bit of Private Eye and a lot of Mojo & Songlines.
Whilst not listening to music – finished Ray Bradbury . . . Fahrenheit 451; started Philip Watson . . . Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer.
Watched
A week ago, Iain Matthews at Melbourne Assembly Rooms. Brilliant.
A squirrel in our garden proving conclusively that our squirrel-proof bird feeder is not.
Some of the Mrs Mills programme recommended elsewhere.
A few Jackson Browne vids on You Tube.
AOB
I have only yesterday learned that Jeff Young has died. So sad. Here he is with Jackson Browne:
welcome aboard!
Expresso Bongo! Chapeau…
B, S &T – I love them. Don’t get a lot of traction here but I think the run of albums up to B, S & T 4 is superb
@ainsley-2 @mikethep Both of the EPs and the BS&T LP were Oxfam charity shop purchases last week, all in good condition and surprisingly well priced. The Shads’ Bongo Blues is a real blast from my past! I absolutely love ’60s EPs and still have loads from my early teenage days. I tracked down an old Dansette to play them on for that authentic / nostalgic listening experience!
And I’d forgotten that the main man on the 1st BS&T album is Al Kooper. Enjoyed listening to it again after a few decades of neglect.
Meanwhile, here’s Mari Wilson:
Last train to Memphis is one of my top ten favourite albums and was my introduction to Bobby Charles. Died way too soon.
Lots of recorded music listened to, as usual.
George Duke – A Brazilian Love Affair (1979), Don’t Let Go (1978)
Blue Mitchell – A Sure Thing (1962), Blue’s Moods (1960), Smooth As The Wind (1961), Step Lightly (1963), The Cup Bearers (1962)
Artie Zaitz& Mark Kavuma – Back To Back (feat. Will Cleasby) (2022)
Emma Rawicz – Chroma (2023)
Archipelago – Echoes To The Sky (2021)
Empirical – Empirical (2016)
Booker Ervin – Exultation (1963), The Blues Book (1965), The Freedom Book (1964), The Song Book (1964), The Space Book (1965)
Benny Golson – Gone With Golson (1960), Take A Number From 1 To 10 (1961), The Modern Touch (1957), Triple Play Pop + Jazz = Swing (1962)
Lem Winchester, Benny Golson – Winchester Special (1959)
The Durutti Column – Idiot Savants (2007), Vini Reilly (1989)
Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Adrian Younge – Jazz Is Dead 07 (feat João Donato), Jazz Is Dead 08 (feat Brian Jackson), Jazz Is Dead 09 (Instrumentals), Jazz Is Dead 10 (Remixes), Jazz Is Dead 11, Jazz Is Dead 12 (feat. Jean Carn) (all 2022)
Bill Orcutt – Jump On It (2023)
James Booker – Junco Partner (1976)
Toumani Diabaté – Kaira (1988)
Wynton Kelly – Kelly At Midnite (1960), Kelly Great (1959), New Faces New Sounds: Piano Interpretations (1951), Wynton Kelly! (1960)
Renee Rosnes – Kinds Of Love (2021)
Paul Motian Electric Bebop Band – Lausanne 1997-11-14 (unofficial recording)
Kinetika Bloco – Legacy (2021)
The Orb, David Gilmour – Metallic Spheres (2010)
Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia – Never Say Goodbye (2007)
Various – OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music 1948-1980 (2000)
Noam Wiesenberg – Roads Diverge (2018)
Joni Mitchell – Shadows And Light (1980)
Various – Soul Jazz Records Presents Space, Energy & Light: Experimental Electronic And Acoustic Soundscapes 1961-88 (2017)
The Don Grolnick Group – The Complete London Concert (1995)
Joel Ross – The Parable Of The Poet (2022)
Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete – Vince & Bola (2000)
Zoe Rahman, Idris Rahman – Where Rivers Meet (2008)
Headphone Commute – Mike Lazarev-Soundwave Mix, Gorreliann Plasebant [Part 1 of 6] (podcasts which are actually mixtapes) (2023)
Plus odds & sods and a few Proms concerts on Radio 3.
Live music. Not so much this month.
The Tabernacle Jazz Project at The Elephant Inn, North Finchley on August 6th.
Kinetika Bloco Senior Summer School Finale 2023, Clore Ballroom Southbank Centre on August 18th.
Keith Fairbairn’s Groove Collective at The Elephant Inn, North Finchley on August 20th.
The Rockabyes, Los Coyote Men, The Primevals – Rockaway Beach at The Hope & Anchor, Upper Street on August 26th.
Books. Nothing heavyweight.
Alan Parks – Bloody January
Jo Nesbo – Knife
John Grisham – The Summons
Jesse Kellerman – Trouble (barely started)
John Grisham – The Broker (about 1/2 way through)
TV
Good Omens Season 2
Henpocalypse (only the first episode so far)
Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity (first part, so far)
A.O.B.
My nice Cambridge Audio DAC has decided to turn it’s (digital) toes up so I’ve been obliged to downgrade to a cheaper alternative, as I don’t have £500-odd to spare right now.
My 21-year-old car is surprisingly ULEZ-Compliant, so I can continue to drive to the jazz gigs in North Finchley and to drive down the motorway and park near Brent Cross tube station when I venture into the capital in search of excitement.
Re: DAC replacement – what did you get, Mike?
Cash-strapped at present so i bought an ultra-cheapo compact Chinese-made thing using a CM6206 chip. 16-bit 48K max resolution.
USB, SPDIF, Mic and Line inputs.
5.1/Stereo or SPDIF outputs.
Drivers etc. (not very recent*) on a mini-cd.
From Amazon for £16.99.
* Last updated in 2017. Win 10 drivers and software seem fine on Win 11.
@Mike_H what’s the ORB/Gilmour album like. Have been tempted by it.
The original album is a little bit typical of the ambient synths+guitar type. OK but not particularly exciting. The new revamped “In Colour” version sounds a lot more promising. More “alive”. But I’ve only heard an excerpt from that so far.
Read
have had another very poor month on the reading front & only managed 2. However, I enjoyed each of these so it’s a win:
Lost In Music by Giles Smith
This is a long overdue reprint of a book that was originally released in 1995 & has been very hard to track down over the last few years. It has aged well & is a very funny telling of a life lived through music & the obsessive quirks that go hand in hand with this choice. The descriptions of his meticulous labelling & the care taken of his records seemed very familiar….
The book has lots of great anecdotes and as a member of the band The Cleaners From Venus, he went further than most geeky bedroom pop fans & got to tour Germany. His tales of this time are brilliantly written & this book is a must for music fans who have spent an enormous amount of time rifling through the racks of CDs/Records/Tapes in various establishments
Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying To Me by Rob Burley.
I loved this book & it is by far the one i’ve enjoyed most this year. Quick disclaimer, I am a bit(!) of a loser & have a keen interest in politics. As such I love to watch PMQs/Question Time etc. which helped with the enjoyment of this book enormously.
Rob Burley has worked with most of the heavyweight political intervewers of the UK over the last 30 or so years (Paxman, Neil, Marr, Maitlis and now Rigby), so this book is full of behind the scenes stories & anecdotes. Hearing first hand about interviews with Prime Ministers Johnson, May and Cameron is fascinating & has lots of insight into both their on-screen and off-screen personas.
Reading how some (I’m looking your way Johnson!) have sought to undermine the importance of the political interview is quite infuriating, but how both interviewer and producer seek to overcome such obfuscation does give some hope & is very interesting.
Overall this is a fascinating read & is very very funny in parts
Heard
Hannah Georgas – I’d Be Lying If I Said I Didn’t Care was only released last week but it’s hooked me straight away. I am a fan of The National (particularly the earlier stuff) & I think Hannah Georgas is releasing material that brings this to mind, exciting with a great catchy melody. Well worth a listen.
The new Chemical Brothers single which features Beck is cracking. The song they did together a few years ago (Wide Open) is one of their standouts IMHO & this is another stunning track.
I have been really enjoying the podcast by Kathy Burke – Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake. The episode with her close friend Perry Fenwick (Billy from Eastenders) is one of the best hours of a podcast I’ve listened too. Genuine laugh out louds (including on the train, which was a first and very embarrassing)
Seen
Only Connect is the only ‘live’ TV we consume & this series has been fantastic. Despite being a huge Nick Cave fan & owning the DVD for years, I only got round to watching 20,000 Days On Earth which I thought was a great Documentary & very well pitched. I have not yet got to Once More With Feeling, but that it’s been removed from the shelf & is currently sat next to the DVD payer so it is imminent.
Loved Lost in Music when I first read it. Must re-read. Onto the pile it goes.
I’ve ordered the Rob Burley book @seanioio based on your description.
Excellent stuff, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 🙂
Read
All That Man Is by David Szalay.
Really enjoyed this journey through the male lifespan across nine different stories, each set in a European city. An entertaining tale of desperation at various stages of life.
Seen
Fired my way through the first season of The Bear on Disney +. Great stuff, despite the slightly preposterous ending. Looking forward to starting out on season two this weekend.
Heard
Luke Una Presents E Soul Cultura Vol 2. Really nice collection of soul, funk and dance from around the world.
Read
I’m afraid I’ve hit another wall with the reading. And that’s despite having James Ellroy’s American Tabloid locked and loaded, having picked it up for peanuts following a tip on this here site.
Heard
Yay! Jamila Woods is backbbackback.
I was a big fan of her first two albums, one more floaty and poppy and the other more muggy and a bit jazzy, but both fine slices of contemporary soul. The new songs suggest her imminent third album will be breezy of sound, although her words can often sting quite a bit, even on the sweetest tunes. This is my morning song of choice at the mo:
(Tiny Garden)
I’m also rather taken by the new Black Pumas single More Than A Love Song and the old-school style bangers on the album Born Again by Danger Mouse and Jemini, The Gifted One.
I was initially unimpressed by Olivia Rodrigo’s new single Bad Idea, Right? but now I think it’s BLOODY BRILLIANT.
A LOT of football podcasts.
Seen
I finally got around to Oldboy, a film I bought a long time ago and people I respect are constantly telling me is one of the all-time* greats. I found it terrific in parts, not so much in others – certainly not what I was expecting. It wasn’t the strangeness I was unprepared for – I’ve written here before about how much I liked the odd but extremely charming I’m A Cyborg, But That’s O.K. – I think I was unpersuaded by the motives of the main characters. But I’ll be watching it again, just to be sure I wasn’t having a day.
Caught up on Colin From Accounts, as recommended by the massive – an absolute delight which leaves one torn between wanting to applaud it as a perfect little self-contained gem and wanting more goddammit..
* the increasingly daft use of that “all-time” phrase is doing my nut of late
“The greatest Premier League player of all time”
“The greatest YouTube video of all time”
“The greatest Quantum Computer of all time”
“The greatest shark movie starring Jason Statham and directed by Ben Wheatley OF ALL TIME!”
AOB
There are ads on all the buses here for an upcoming New Order concert. There’s a neat little star at the end of “Order”, but the first time I saw it I thought it was an asterisk à la New Order* to indicate the absence of P Hook. Then I started to think about how many acts would have to incorporate such an asterisk when they toured..
I love Oldboy, but maybe your viewing suffered a bit from the weight of expectations. I felt the same about Parasite (is THIS the masterpiece everyone has been raving about?). I saw Oldboy in the cinema when it first came out, without knowing anything about it or what to expect, which I think was the best way!
Read:
Robin by David Itzkoff – Functional but underwhelming biography of Robin Williams. Not sure it ever truly got under the skin of the man, but it was fun to be reminded of some of his highlights and made for reasonable beach reading.
The White Album by Joan Didion – Returning to this after several years, found it as strong as ever. Some of the subjects are of greater interest than others, but predictably contains a number of passages to make you put the book down and take a moment to drink it in. Particularly enjoyed the following, on receiving a troubling diagnosis in middle age; “I had, at this time, a sharp apprehension not of what it was like to be old, but of what it was like to open the door to the stranger and find that the stranger did indeed have the knife”. I’d forgotten that the book also contains a fairly excoriating essay on “the Women’s movement”, which made for interesting reading in 2023 – so much has changed, and yet some things have not.
New & Shiny by Dylan Jones – Jones takes a skip through the 80s, courtesy of 10 classic pop songs. Some of his writing can be very good, but I found this relatively lightweight, although I did enjoy the essay on Madonna. Someone really should write a good book on Madonna (would be interested to know if the one that just came out fits that bill, though have my doubts).
Visiting Mrs Nabokov by Martin Amis – Collected essays from the late 70s and 80s. Also contains an essay on Madonna, funnily enough. Some highs, some lows. A lot of it very of its time, but somehow all the more enjoyable for it; you can sense in his words a little of a world now vanished. Contained the single most enjoyable piece of writing I encountered all month in Amis’ description of his preparations for a game of snooker: “I practice alone: to get the spasms out of my cueing arm, to neutralise the excitement (i.e. panic) of one’s induction into the verdant six-bagged oblong”. I do hope he took the rest of the afternoon off after getting that down, because it rather made my day. Verdant six-bagged oblong.
Empire of The Sun by J G Ballard – One of those books you (or at least: I) never get round to because the film is sufficiently compelling in isolation. Well worth the read, although obviously difficult to wrap your head around this being the same individual who gave us such gems as The Drowned World. Has made me realise I need to read The Kindness of Women at some stage.
Now in hot anticipation of two books due to be released next week; The Maniac, Benjamin Labatute’s follow up to the wonderful When We Cease To Understand The World, and the new John Gray (The New Leviathans).
Seen:
Mainly older movies due to the holidays.
Highlight of the month was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Very, very funny, and if you enjoyed Into The Spider-verse (which, of course, you should have done if you’re in possession of a soul), you will almost certainly enjoy this. Another movie where the creators appear to have asked themselves the important question: what if instead of making this absolutely bloody awful we were instead to make it…. good?
Revisited last year’s Aftersun, which remains an outstanding movie, and even better the second time round.
Pleasantly surprised by the campy schlock of both The Pope’s Exorcist and Renfield. Each more fun that I’d been lead to expect. Perhaps benefited from low expectations.
Have to confess that, having loved season 1, I did not enjoy season 2 of The Bear. Felt too much of a victory lap with all the celeb cameos, the impulse to really dig into every character’s backstory, and most of all the determination that everyone should get a second chance/happy ending (even if it means completely reversing their previous personality). All a bit Ted Lasso, and not in a good way. I demand a full return for the tension.
Very much looking forward to the imminent release of Past Lives. Hearing wonderful things.
Heard:
Two new singles from Olivia Rodrigo, both predictably ace, although if forced to choose I’m a Vampire guy (it didn’t come out in August but I’ve not done one of these in a bit, and I’m still listening to it lots).
Spent a good deal of the month listening to Hearts & Bones by Paul Simon, and particularly the title track, which became something of a soundtrack to the Summer. Had never heard it until recently, but it’s so of a piece with that period of his work that I wonder how I ever missed it. Truly lovely song.
Also spent a lot of the month listening to Disintegration by The Cure, which finally properly clicked for me, and Jennifer’s Body by Hole.
Oh, and I Love LA by Randy Newman. That song absolutely slaps, and so does the video.
In terms of newer music, developed an unhealthy obsession with Kill For Your Love by Labrinth. The backing vocals are so damn good.
Got my retro early 90s kicks from Hot Rotten Grass Smell by Wednesday.
But the absolute tune of the month, which has been on constantly and of which I am currently unable to tire, is Freedom 2 by Kwengface. What. A. Banger.
AOB:
A month largely spent on holiday. Lots of family time, lots of sunshine, lots of surfing. Included a truly delightful few days doing fun things abroad with dear old friends and their families, and some memories I expect to hold dear into old age. People are awesome.
Back to Earth with a bump this week, but lots of fun things planned for the month ahead. Have also discovered an excellent climbing gym near home, so am giving that a whirl and enjoying it greatly.
The end of Summer means I’m also finally going to allow myself to play the new Advanced Wars Nintendo released for the Switch a few months back. Historically these games are the crack cocaine of my console life, to the extent that I wanted to avoid contact until the holiday season was over. I am now delightfully free to blight my existence and sit still for hours at a time moving tiny tanks and planes around a digital map, utterly insensate to the world around me. Can’t wait.
There was a Robin Williams doc on Sky Documentaries recently (guessing it’ll be be available somewhere on streaming or catchup platforms). Showed the madness (comic inventiveness), humility, and vulnerability of the man. A great watch
Will check it out. He was such an interesting person, with so many different dimensions to him.
I didn’t like The Bear Season 2 either.
Really glad you had a great holiday, Bingo. You deserved it.
Cheers, Tigger – appreciate it. Hope all is well at your end.
You two are fools – season 2 of The Bear was television at its best
I didn’t like The Bear Season 1, well the one episode I watched. Does it get better?
Me neither, though I lasted 3 episodes I think. All that kitchen shouting just stressed me out – like being stuck inside Gordon Ramsay’s head.
You two are fools.
Me too! Don’t leave me out of your fool count.
I started watching the first series, it was ok and I meant to go back and finish it, but I keep putting it off cos it was a bit boring really. Plus I watched Boiling Point and that was better, with less commitment required.
I agree re the Ninja Turtles movie. It’s a rare pleasure to take your child to a film expecting it to be the usual animated nonsense, and find it’s decent after all. Not a masterpiece, but certainly fun with some great animation and quite a bangin’ retro soundtrack. It took me right back to the old old days when I was a fan of the Turtles comics in the 80s (before that stupid cartoon came along).
I was a massive fan of the Eastman and Laird books when I was a kid, and the advent of the original Turtlemania was a signal event in my childhood. Just the knowledge that this weird little thing I was into could suddenly and unexpectedly cross into the mainstream (even in diluted form) seemed mind-blowing at the time.
I wondered if the new movie might capture some of the gritty, noirish vibes of the early comics, but it went a different way by putting the accent on the “teenage” aspect of the IP.
The interplay between the guys who voiced the four lead (ahem) turtles was at the absolute heart of the movie; apparently they recorded in the same room, which is unusual for these things, and which probably accounts for some of the collective joy they were able to generate. They’re also all actual teenagers, which made a difference and certainly connected the audience to my kids more than if they’d gone the usual route of bringing in big names to better adorn the poster.
I thought the soundtrack was a little on the nose, certainly compared to Spider-verse, but I did enjoy hearing Ante Up in a kids’ film.
Did you abandon the turtles when the cartoon came out? I have to say I felt more possessive than elated, because I could see instantly the cartoon was a tacky cash-in rather than having any value. So I dropped them like a hot potato!
I agree about the mindblowingness of nerdy little obsessions hitting the mainstream. I still can’t quite believe I’m living in a world where Batman and Spiderman are huge mainstream concerns with millions of dollars behind them, not to mention Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings and stuff like that.
Nah, I stuck with it. Through the cartoon, the movie, the novelty rap record (per the other thread, the first single I ever bought), the various video games (and thank god I did – Turtles In Time, what a classic). I also did the various copycats; Pre-Teen Dirty Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos and the superior Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters.
I was about 11 at the time. I liked what I liked, and if other people caught onto it too then all the better. It was only as a teenager that I started reading the music press and learned that I wasn’t supposed to do that, and then I unlearned that lesson somewhere in my 20s.
I’m very glad I didn’t give up on the Turtles too soon, as the whole thing was the path that eventually lead me to Cerebus the Aardvark, and many excellent conversations with Kid Dynamite on said topic.
Hope you’re seen the Dungeon & Dragons movie, it’s ace.
Mainly listening to Tull’s epic Broadsword set and the Beck Bogert & Appice live box – some fine music.
A heavy month of reading – new novels by Stephen King, John Connolly, Richard Osman and – pick of the bunch – Mick Herron. (Reviews to follow in due course.)
OK, deep breath! Apologies in advance for the length of my wafflings this month!
Read:
I started the month with Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry, brilliantly written, as always, and deeply moving at times – and very, very funny too occasionally. The inner monologue of the main character, widower Tom Kettle (a retired policeman), is so well written; a perfect blend of poetry and raw reality, and the novel becomes a sort of poetic autopsy of an unreliable memory. Memories, ghosts, imaginings, wishful thinking, trauma – all exist in the same dimension and time zone for Tom and is equally true. Puzzle pieces are added occasionally to the picture, which suddenly drastically changes what we see. A murder from his professional past comes back to haunt him and shake him out of his grieving slumber. Highly recommend!
A very pleasant surprise was Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg. I’ve read some of her works before and liked them, but the description of this novel felt underwhelming – however it turned out to be so entertaining and insightful, a brilliant observation of human behaviour and the watchful eyes of small town communities, I was absolutely charmed by it. Also very funny, and written in an original style ofull of monologue-style dialogues, making me giggle my way through it until the sad ending. Lovely!
I collect books about Stockholm, if I find any in second hand shops, but rarely have time to actually read them…I remedied this by going through two of my recent finds quickly, both interesting and very much of their time of publishing, adding to the entertainment.
Then I turned to a short story collection (another category that I collect…) by Maggie Shipstead: You Have A Friend In 10A. Turns out she is a master of this art form – which a surprising amount of otherwise brilliant writers fail to understand how to perfect. I haven’t read Shipstead’s novels (yet) so I don’t know if she’s equally great in longer form, but I wholehartedly recommend her in short form! These ten short stories are just brilliant, all of them. Some of the finest writing in short form I’ve read in a while (not since Olga Tokarczuk, I think – another master of the short format).
My latest finished book is an autobiographical novel by a Swedish journalist, about growing up with his mother and siblings, moving on from one bad father figure to the next, seven of them in fact. A very good mix of uncomfortable and humorous situations, well observed and written.
I’m also half-way through another Gurnah novel, but it’s my commute book, and I’ve been on vacation for these past two weeks so I’ve put it on hold (until Monday, when the toil begin again…)
Seen:
When on holiday I tend to make plans for a film festival of DVDs at home, but usually only find time to watch one or two before the holiday is over…didn’t manage any films on my first vacation run in June, because the weather was too nice and I had too much to do.
But this time around, thanks to injuries and rainy weather, I’m half-way through the festival program I put together of early film history classics – some I’ve seen before, but mostly new to me.
So far these are the ones I’ve watched:
A Trip to the Moon 1902 (Méliès). Seen parts of before, but now watched it from start to finish, twice (b/w and handcoloured versions) plus a very interesting documentary about his career and the quest to find and restore the coloured version, using modern techniques. Also some extra material that included a blatant scen-for-scene rip-off of the film by another film company (which happened to him a LOT). Charming film, but the documentary was the real highlight.
Erotikon 1920 (Mauritz Stiller). One I’d never seen before, part of a box of restored Swedish silent classics that I’ve watched all but two from earlier, now took this opportunity to watch the other two (second one next). This is a comedy about love, lust and misunderstandings, which was unexpectedly funny after a slightly slow start. Everybody changes partners for the happy end.
I liked it a lot, but not as much as the more (melo-)dramatic films in this DVD box.
Häxan 2022 (Benjamin Christensen). English title: The Witches. The second film from the silent film box that I hadn’t watched before, a Swedish/Danish production. Very odd mix of faux-documentary and dramatized scenes from history’s belief in witchcraft and persecution of women thought to be witches. The scenes that are supposed to be frightening ends up mostly comical (lots of images of the Devil flicking his tounge while churning butter…OK, we get it…!) and the filmmaker seems to want to have his cake and eat it too, but it was interesting to watch and had some powerful scenes that sticks in the mind.
The Gold Rush 1925 (Chaplin). Seen many times before, but now watched the original silent version for (I think) the first time, instead of the later version he made with narration and an orchestra score. Brilliant, as always. The chicken scene was my absolute favourite film scene as a child, and it still makes me laugh today.
Metropolis 1927 (Lang). This was a revelation! Never seen before, and although I’d seen clips in documentaries and heard about it, I didn’t expect to be so moved by the story and to love the visuals so much. This was a knock-out and not even the Moroder soundtrack could mar it. In fact, the instrumental score was quite good, and most of the songs worked fine as well – just a few of them annoyed me, as their lyrics were so on the nose and told the same story as the visuals in a very clumsy way that would have been comical if it hadn’t been so annoying, as it was a blemish on an otherwise perfect gem!
I know it’s a shorter version than the original and that they’ve managed to piece together almost all of it since, but this was the version I had available on DVD (don’t know if the latest restauration has made it to DVD yet). I think it’s a masterpiece regardless, and if you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend you to do so as soon as possible!
M 1931 (Lang). Another Lang – but with sound this time, the first in this chronological festival program. Hadn’t seen it before, and this one is also powerful, but not as gripping as the previous film. And not as visually beautiful. But it is very exciting and suspenseful to follow this hunt for a child murderer, by the police and the criminals who wants to be rid of the raids and police presence that is destroying their business opportunities. The tense moments and the comical ones intermingle, and many an effective cross-cut between the two camps etc are well made. The criminals court agains the murderer before the end is gripping and full of philosophical dilemmas to ponder. The open ending is not as frustrating as I’d expect it to be. Very good.
And that’s as far as I’ve made it – the list for the next days to get through reads like this:
The Mummy 1932 (Freund) – seen before and love.
The Testament of Dr Mabuse 1933 (Lang) – never seen, another Lang!
King Kong 1933 (Cooper/Schoedsack) – seen of course, but fits into the themes well.
Bringing Up Baby 1938 (Hawkes) – seen many times, a favourite. Time for a comedy classic!
Citizen Kane 1941 (Welles) – never seen, despite owning the DVD forever…I figured if I’m ever going to make myself watch this film, it’s now!
Banketten 1948 (Ekman) English title: The Banquet. If you’ve seen the late 80s Danish film The Celebration, then this is a more elegant version of that plot, brilliantly acted by the cast, including director Ekman (a personal favourite). Love this film, as dark as it is!
Sunset Boulevard 1950 (Wilder) – seen before, but fits too well in this program to leave out! A call-back to the silent movies of the beginning of the program, a dark melodrama; it has to be a part of it.
Godzilla 1954 (Honda) – seen, a long time ago. Time to rewatch, and fits in as a classic monster movie with early special effects and with its nuclear holocaust subtext.
And that’s where I’ll end – perhaps next year I’ll continue with 60s onward classics, or choose another theme entirely. I’m just happy that my ill health had a positive side effect as it facilitated one of very few film festivals I’ve planned to actually cross the finish line (soon)!
I usually visit the Stockholm Culture Festival at the end of August, but this year I wasn’t allowed to start my vacation until the week after the festival, meaning that I missed all opportunities to see free gigs…typically the program offered way more artists that I wanted to see than in most years lately! So still no gig seen yet in 2023!
Heard:
A small batch of new CDs arrived in the last week of the month, so I haven’t formed a final opinion of any of them yet, but these are my first impressions:
Sofie Livebrant – Weep The Time Away: This album of songs to poetry by Emily Brontë is quite brilliant – as Sofie’s albums tend to be! Came out in 2021, but I didn’t know it existed until recently. But this is timeless folk (despite the genre being named “contemporary folk”).
The latest by The Tallest Man On Earth is a covers album, unfortunately, called Too Late For Edelweiss. I love his original songs, but I wouldn’t say that his voice or his arrangements are the parts of the equation that draws me to his albums… Some of the song choices are IMO quite dull, and others are not necessarily improved by his versions. There are of course some better tracks, but as a first impression it’s a “meh” for me.
Better luck with Ahnoni & the Johnsons – My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross – I didn’t enjoy their voice in the early days of their career, too much vibrato or something put me off. But now it’s much improved and these songs are mostly great on first listen. Looking forward to diving deeper into the album.
Swedish-Finn band Vasas Flora Och Fauna has a new whimsical album out called Man Blåser Bort. The mundane life storytelling of their lyrics are half of the appeal of this band, so unless you understand Swedish, I doubt this is for the average Afterworder! But I really like it.
Bought the new comeback album from The Hives, called The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons, more out of nostalgia than any other reason. I’ve only rushed through a first listen, which revealed that they sound very much like they always did, that the hooks aren’t quite as hook:y anymore, and that I probably have lost some of my interest in this kind of rock at the moment – as proved by my recent lacklustre reactions to the latest by QOTSA and Foo Fighters as well. But, unlike them (I’ve tried to like the QOTSA but it shrinks with every listen) I have a feeling that this album could be a grower – not least because they have a sense of humour about the raawk’n’raawl of it all.
AOB:
Tennis elbow still reigning supreme, but in the days leading up to my vacation it was accompanied by the return of my neck-induced vertigo. My own fault – I used to do exercises every day to stretch and strengthen my neck muscles, did that for years and the vertigo disappeared. But when I bought a special pillow for my neck a year ago or so, and it made me sleep much better and wake up pain-free in my neck, then I sort of forgot the importance of my exercises and gradually stopped doing them. Which now brought back the vertigo – and my daily exercise regime…now extra long to get my neck in shape ASAP. It’s working, but slowly.
Then my washing machine died for good, after a while of washing badly. So that took a large chunk of my money…just what you need during the height of inflation! 🙁
I also discovered a computer problem that I’ve furiously tried to find a solution to. No luck so far, if it doesn’t get solved soon you can expect an ATM plea for help soon!
And as the cherry on top of this vacation; yesterday I tripped on a paving stone while walking at high speed, causing me to fly uncontrollably forward and land painfully on my knee, scraping off a layer of skin from a large area and causing painful bruises. Blood was slowly trickling down my leg as I was hobbling home (with a stop at the supermarket first to stock up on food so I wouldn’t have to leave my home until Monday when I go back to work – I’m not taking any more chances to get injured or lose money! 😀 )
All in all I can’t say that it was a bad holiday – I would have felt much worse if all of this had been going on while also going to work every day – but it didn’t turn out as I had planned exactly. My plans to resume my home renovations are paused until further notice…health dictates when I can resume my plans again. Hasn’t stopped me from making even more plans…ever the optimist!
Not looking forward to work, all vacation days taken and only Christmas to look forward to. But I’ve had a nice time these two weeks, visiting family and friends, watching films, reading, cooking, sleeping in with the sound of rain coming in through the balcony door…life could be worse!
Sorry to hear about your injuries and issues – I hope your leg and neck improve in a timely fashion…
However, that is a superb list of classic movies! What an excellent idea – curate your own film festival! It’s been many years since I watched M – I must seek it out. Also, I have a dvd somewhere of Ladislaw Starewicz stop-frame animations which I haven’t seen for years! If you enjoyed A Trip to the Moon, you might find them interesting.
Ladislaw Starewicz stop-frame animations, highly recommended.
Didn’t know that name, looking it up on Wiki and it sounds interesting.
If I see it somewhere, I might buy – but the film festival is a way for me to actually watch some of the many DVDs I already own, not buy more of them!
(Having said that, I spent part of my restful vacation on making a list of films I don’t own on DVD and want to – many of them films I used to own on VHS – but I mostly did it to stop me from buying multiple copies of films I’ve already bought…it’ll be easier to look at the list of films-to-buy than to go through the enormous list of films I already own – but don’t know I do – when I trawl the net for ways to spend my money…)
Thanks for the recommendation anyway!
A taster…
Locust – have you seen that Vasas flora och fauna are playing Göta Lejon on Söder on 25 October?
That could be your first gig of the year!
Hmmm…I have a hard time picturing them performing live – their music is so soft and harmless! No, I’m afraid that doesn’t tempt me at all, but thanks for the tip anyway, keep them coming! I always miss these announcements, despite receiving emails from a couple of ticket services (no, wait – just one now, the other one stopped sending me emails…perhaps they automatically kick you off the mailing list if you don’t purchase any tickets for a long while?)
Is Göta Lejon any good for gigs? I’m not keen on sitting down, but is the acoustics any good? I’ve only seen a Hasseåtage-revy there, ages ago!
I’d say that Göta Lejon is perfectly acceptable for gigs. We saw Agnes Obel there, and the acoustics seemed to be reasonable. I’d say that if you got a decent seat for the Vasas Flora och Fauna gig, you’d probably enjoy it.
I agree with the Duke, @Locust. Vasas Flora and Fauna would be excellent at Göta Leon.
But I suspect it will sell out. They are very popular among the hipsters of Södermalm.
Their lyrics are wonderful;
https://vasasfloraochfauna.com/leevi-and-the-leavings/
I have Old God’s Time waiting in the wings for my attention and thanks to you Lo it’s now edged it’s way a little closer to actually getting read. So many books… I have The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff and The Glutton from A.K. Blakemore on pre-order so those will be dropping through my post hole later this month. I may have to give up sleeping just to fit everything in. Sorry you had an “interesting” vacation maybe try taking up cage fighting as a bit of a safer option going forward.
I was thinking stunt actor in action films, but cage fighting could be relaxing as well I guess!
Watched
Still – A Michael J Fox Movie. A really well made documentary that effectively combines footage from Fox’s on-screen career with the narration of his life story. Left me feeling deep liking and admiration for the guy.
I’ve started watching Scorsese’s The Irishman again. I remember liking and praising it first time round but can’t remember much about it, which usually happens when I find a film dull, so I’m intrigued to see which way it goes. I’m only 30 mins into it, but I don’t recall finding the “faces CGI-ed to young bodies” so disturbing/comical as I am. De Niro and Pesci look like weird puppet type creatures. Also, it starts off with a tracking shot. Yes, Goodfellas had a fantastic looking tracking shot and we all rightly loved it, but they’re everywhere now and often just look unnecessary, like here. Reading about Scorsese’s upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon I only just discovered that he made a short film called The Audition in 2015, starring himself, De Niro, DiCaprio and Pitt. It’s on YouTube. It’s only 15 mins long, but I didn’t finish watching it. Boring, unnecessarily show-offy and smug.
Before starting The Irishman I also rewatched a couple of classic westerns this month. Unforgiven and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Both every bit as brilliant as I remembered them. Oscar winner Unforgiven rightly gets mentioned in every Best Western discussion, but I rate The Assassination Of Jesse James as simply one of the best films of all time.
AOB
Beach
Read:
I finally got round to reading Tim Blanchard’s Like Magic In The Streets. Full of interesting stuff about the Postcard bands (and The Smiths and The Blue Nile) but I found the prose dry and the print tiny (I had to wear my VDU specs to read it).
Andrew Cartmel’s Death in Fine Condition. I’ve read all of his Vinyl Detective series, and this was not as bad as I had feared. Damning with faint praise.
Nige Tassell’s C86 was great fun. No theorising. We Indie Kids have turned out to be alright, I reckon.
Rob Jovanic’s Michael Stipe: The Biography. Picked up for a quid in a chazza on holiday. Published in 2006, so before the final two albums, Stipe’s life to that point was pretty much R.E.M. The author admits they’ve had their creative peak already. No interviews new, all collated from previously published articles, it weaves a good tale.
Seen:
Watching Glastonbury on the iplayer has set me on a bit of a live in concert Blu-Ray binge. Jane’s Addiction really were flipping ace. Stop Making Sense really is fantastic.
And the usual iPlayer blue lights dramas with Mrs F. They all blur into one a bit, tbh.
Heard:
Not much new, I bought 3 albums for £2 each, and 39 12″ singles for a quid each (mainly late-70s disco to early 90s Indie) on my last trip to Cromer. And then the stylus of my 9-year-old cartridge wore out, so the LP12 is in for repairs. I’m ‘reduced’ to playing CDs – fine but lacks the involvement of an LP, somehow.
AOB:
Work has been bonkers this year (IT infrastructure project) and I really needed my two-week holiday. Sadly, on day two, I went for a paddle in the sea and my legs had an allergic reaction (side-effect of my Crohn’s meds makes me UV hypersensitive). I couldn’t bear trousers against my skin, so stayed indoors during the day and read books, and went for evening strolls in my shorts after the sun had set. Anyhow, our second week up in Norfolk in my mum’s static caravan was fine, so it could be worse.
When I returned to work I found my IT project colleague was off for a month with stress, and I’d been given his work to do as well as my already bonkers workload. I lasted a week before I resigned. My boss refused my resignation and handed the poisoned chalice to someone else.
Offspring the Younger has had two visits to A&E in the last few weeks. He eats something disagreeable then spends a day welded to the bog, then gets dehydrated and passes out. It all seems very familiar to me. Not a great way to turn 18 (we did manage a Chinese takeaway to celebrate). I contacted my (our – OTY had an Endoscopy last year) Consultant for advice to find he has retired, so we’re off to see a new one in 3 weeks. Round and round it goes. What an inheritence.
And we’ve lost three elderly family (aunts and uncles in their 70s and 80s, but we were close).
It’s all been a bit shit, really.
Sorry to hear @fentonsteve
Not good on any front, Steve – sorry you’ve been having a rubbish time.
Damn it. Sorry to read that life is being a bastard Steve. My best regards to you and Clan Fenton.
Thanks all, I have it much easier than some, including some of the Massive, so I can’t really complain much. Things like immune system overload get marked down to the SNAFU of having Crohn’s, and at least Offspring the Elder was there to keep Mrs F company. Bloody typical of Crohn’s to bugger up our first proper holiday since 2019, though.
They say crap comes in threes, and I reckon I counted six last month, so it can effing well stop now.
Despite our differences Steve I wish you and your family well. There’s nothing worse than having your children being I’ll.
Crap and crohns seem an unfortunately appropriate juxtaposition. Hope all get the attention warranted and promptly.
Thanks. That’s definitely the worst aspect of it all, with the added ‘and he inherited it from me’ weighing particularly heavily.
I had done everything I wanted to do before I was formally diagnosed, and my lifestyle became so restricted. He hasn’t even left school yet. Here’s hoping the next ‘oscopy finds nothing of concern.
That’s rough, I hope karma brings you and your family a big pot of luck soon.
I can definitely empathise about the much needed holiday gone mostly wrong…(and the work overload as well, unfortunately!)
Likewise. What a pair we are!
Watched: French episodes of Maigret on Talking Pictures. Jacques Tati s Hulot. On the same channel. The local independent cinema was showing Disney’s Cinderella thought I’d go as I hadn’t seen it on a large screen since the 60s I remember the colours as very lush.
Holiday: Narrowboat for a week from Northampton down to the Oxford canal, recommended if you need to catch up on sleep. Darkness at nine come 9:15 bed was calling.
Cropredy visit on the Monday after the festival, everything shut but I’d arranged to meet Sandy Denny’s daughter and Clara Fuchs who has brought out an album using some of Sandy’s unused lyrics from her notebooks. Due to problems I’ve not been able to play it yet. The reviews of it have been excellent. Alas I missed the Sandy exhibition though.
Read: lots but nothing too strenuous. Lots of puzzles, crosswords etc.
Saw: Iain Matthews in Ilkley had to relocate further back as the theatre PA was terrible. I’ve see larger speakers in friend’s houses.
Probably stuff I’ve forgotten
Forgotten stuff
Northern Soul prom
Northern Soul film.
Tried to watch The Gallows Pole but gave up.
Shirley Collins on DID.
That episode of Desert Island Discs was excellent.
It certainly was.
HEARD:
Quite a lot of stuff this month.
Really like the new Bonnie Prince Billy -Keeping secrets will destroy you.
Strong albums too from Brigid Mae Power and Hannah Aldridge although the latter’s cover of Psycho Killer doesnt add much to the original.
I got the Flaming Lips Yoshimi battles the pink robots box set a few weeks ago now and only just got round to playing it. This was my favourite period of theirs and this box is superb – the cover of I Can’t get you out of my head is fabulous.
The endless coloured ways is a very nice tribute to Nick Drake – I am addicted to the John Parish/Hannah Aldridge version of Three Hours.
OSees Intercepted Message is a welcome return to form. I really didnt like their last album a foul form – this new one is a different direction and features a gentler approach with ballads which is odd for John Dwyer. No sooner is this released then another new album will be appearing in Octoberwhich apparently is experimental.
Been listening to a lot of JJ Cale’s back catalogue – he was exceptional.
READ: Still reading Barbara Kingsolvers Demon Copperhead which is fantastic – wish I had more time to read quicker. This will come in April when I finally retire.
SEEN:
Absolutely mesmerised by Yellowstone which is some of the best TV I have seen in a very long time. The characterisation is exceptional and the star Kevin Costner who most likely reeled most people in is completely overshadowed by the other characters. Beth Dutton is just a force of nature.
To think we thought JR was nasty all those years ago.
We are planning a trip to Yellowstone next year – It was actually planned before we started watching this series. Looking at the scenery I cant wait.
AOB: We joined A Nordic pole walking group at the start of the month. Extremely enjoyable and we have met some nice people. 12 walks in August – safe to say we have got the bug.
I really dig the Brigit Mae Power too. Delighted you’re enjoying Demon Copperhead it may well end up my favorite read this year. It will take something even more exceptional to convince me otherwise when push comes to shove. I’ve just subscribed to Paramount + and I’ve put Yellowstone on my watch list but I’ve yet to start in on it. I’ve started in on Yellowjackets which has slowly begun to capture my attention.
There are some very compelling episodes and the evocation of modern day cowboy life has gripped me.
With this and Demon Copperhead figuring in my life simultaneously it seems everything is Americana at the moment. Trying to find a definitive soundtrack for Yellowstone as there are some cracking songs that appear in it.
I’ve just taken a look on Tidal and each season of Yellowstone has a soundtrack album credited to Brian Tyler who I assume scores them. Not sure if this helps. Have you tried using Shazam to identify a particular song and then see if there is a trail of breadcrumbs you can follow?
Addendum.
I’ve just googled it which I’m sure you must have done. I found a site called Country Living that has a breakdown of songs for each season. If only you used a streaming site you could assemble a playlist…😉
Read: We are a week back from a two week holiday – 8 days on holiday and 4.5 days traveling. Unusually for us it was a sea/sand/cocktails holiday. I devoted myself to Lee Child and Nelson DeMille for the whole holiday. They aren’t Great Literature, but at some point you have to admire the craftmanship. Apart from, that, Richard Rhode’s excellent book on the development of the A bomb. If you’re interested in that as a subject, this is the unmissable book.
Heard: nothing newnew. Got some Average White Band, but apart from that it was all random playlist stuff.
Watched: Started Justified: City Primeval, and will finish it shortly.
AOB: Went to a Proper concussion clinic right at the end of July. Utterly depressing. I mean, they’re nice people, and I have restorative exercises to do. But to have it made very obvious that I can’t walk in a straight line, or struggle to stay upright on one foot…a good time was not had. Did get to go to the MCG, though, which chalked one thing off my list. I think the only good thing out of the visit was being pointed to a podcast by Robbie Frawley. If you, or someone you know, has a head issue or is the SO of someone with a head issue, I thoroughly recommend it.
I’ve had a busy month of watching/listening/reading but I’ll try and just focus on a few key ones:
READING
(1) More Tolkien again: After loving The Silmarillion last month I finished it and got tore into Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth. It was great, but I think I’ve found my current bout of Tolkien-fetishism to be truly satisfied now and I’m going to stop there before I sicken myself. I feel like I’ve had a great insight into his motivation and his view of the world (and especially death and faith), and I know my Valar from my Istari, and my Numenoreans from my Noldorians, so I think I’m done for the moment. Too much knowledge can maybe be a bad thing after a while, and some characters like Gandalf and Galadriel are better with a bit of mystery about them (as pleasurable as it was to dig into their back stories a bit more).
(2) The Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis – First re-read of these for quite a few years. I think I was just looking for something close to Tolkien to jump to next. They definitely held up, and the strength of Lewis is in the immediacy and vibrancy of his stories and fantastical creations. Best book was Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, which is just an exhilarating romp through a series of adventures and japes. A joy to read after the more heavy-handed Tolkien.
Much respect as well to the illustrator Pauline Baynes. Probably my favourite fantasy illustrator, just for the simplicity and efficiency of her work. She totally defines the Narnia books, and it’s easy to see why Tolkien then poached her for his own books after this.
(3) Crow by Ted Hughes – A bit of a tangent from the above, but I suppose there’s a connection in that, like Narnia and Middle Earth, Ted Hughes was also trying in this poetry collection to re-tell the Genesis story. It’s an altogether weird and horrific journey, though, full of death, morbidity and body horror. I can’t pretend to understand it all, and I don’t even think that’s the point, but it fairly sings from the page and embeds itself in your brain with some of the surrealist imagery. I saw someone online compare it to Captain Beefheart lyrics and it is a bit like that.
I couldn’t quite get my head around it at first, but what helped unlock it for me was to listen to Ted Hughes reciting some of the poems himself on Youtube: once you hear them in his voice it’s easy to read them in the same voice in your head.
It’s a book that horrified me and left me with an unpleasant feeling, but one I think I’ll keep going back and dipping into. It’s like sipping a strong whiskey, best to be savoured in small doses.
WATCHING
(1) The Office (US) – I was always quite dismissive of this, as I’m such a fan of the UK one and I felt an American remake was a bit redundant. But we are on series three now and I’m quite enjoying it. It’s definitely found its own identity. I would say it’s probably a little bit broader in it’s comedy: for example the Dwight character pushes credibility to its limits rather than the far more subtle and sad portrayal of Gareth in the original one. And it’s also simultaneously a bit more syrupy: you didn’t really get any sense of sympathy for the Ricky Gervais character until the closing episodes in the original, whereas in this they play that card for Steve Carell far too early I think, and start bringing in a sentimental edge after just a few episodes.
(2) Last Night in Soho – I’m a big fan of Edgar Wright, but just hadn’t got round to watching this yet. I’m pleased to report he pulled it out of the bag again. It’s not spoiling things too much to say it’s a story about a shy first year fashion student finding it hard to adjust to life in London, who ends up going on a kind of time-travel adventure to swinging London at the height of the 60s. But it develops into so much more than that, and also satisfies on a genre level too by being at heart a simple little story with a juicy twist and a satisfying conclusion.
My favourite Wright film is Baby Driver, and this has some fabulous little Baby Driver touches: at one point our heroine is listening to The Kinks’ Starstruck on headphones while walking about a student party, and the four-to-the-floor party music playing washes in and out and syncs wonderfully to the Kinks song. I love those little touches, and all through this Wright shows a real flair for choreographed movement and a love of music (here mainly the softer, kitschier side of 60s pop like Cilla Black, Peter and Gordon, and Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch).
(3) The Bear – Finally got round to this. Fabulous, compelling watch, as many have already reported. And that penultimate episode was a total masterclass: then again, I’m a real sucker for single-shot performances with no cuts. I actually had to watch that episode twice in a row, it was so good.
I do have some reservations though. I could maybe have done with a touch more traditional exposition and character-building: I felt like I was thrown into it from the start and constantly trying to catch up with who was who and what was actually going on, but I suppose that was the point. I also don’t know if I liked the ending of the last episode (I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it): maybe I missed it, but I don’t think there was any build up to it or foreshadowing in the previous episodes, so it seemed to me like it just came out of nowhere. In other words, the ending raised more questions than answers, at a point where I was looking for a full stop on the thing, and has actually put me off watching the second series a bit.
(I will watch the second series, but just going to take a break from it a bit first I think).
I love Crow. My favourite collection of poems by a single poet.
In the beginning was Scream
Who begat Blood
Who begat Eye
Who begat Fear
Who begat Wing
Who begat Bone
Who begat Granite
Who begat Violet
Who begat Guitar
Who begat Sweat
Who begat Adam
Who begat Mary
Who begat God
Who begat Nothing
Who begat Never
Never Never Never
Who begat Crow
Screaming for Blood
Grubs, crusts
Anything
Trembling featherless elbows in the nest’s filth
@Arthur-Cowslip I heard some of this this afternoon it may be of some interest, discussions between Tolkien and Lewis.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b03hxjrl?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
Oh that’s interesting. Do you know, I’ve searched for Tolkien stuff on BBC Sounds before and that’s never come up. Their search function is pretty poor.
Possibly it’s come up as it has just been repeated.
Re: Crow; I’ve heard great things about a novel by Maddie Mortimer called Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies which as I understand it is – at least in parts – narrated by a shapeshifting cancer in a human body, and also apparently is supposed to be somehow connected to Crow, at least according to the review that made me want to read it (another book connected to Crow is of course the absolutely brilliant Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, which I can recommend more strongly, since I’ve read that one…)
@arthur-cowslip Cilla Black the softer side of 60s pop? You’re joking, of course. If she hadn’t already shot through we could have hired her as the Afterword klaxon.
August then? It meant my 3rd festival in as many months, much to the disgust of my knees, who continued to shout at the unprecedented number of steps I was putting them through. Shrewsbury is one I know well, but this was my first one “working” (ha!), meaning I felt a greater sense of responsibility to catch as much as I could. And, whilst the numbers of acts were sparse compared to Cambridge, it was still busty enough to deny my early morning riverside walks into town, for a full English at the cafe at the foot of Wyle Cop. I guess I should be grateful, as the bars significantly bucked the trend of the ever more expensive pint at festivals. Non of yer 6 quid jobs, the excellent Moongazing Hare operation had their prices around the £4.40 to £5 mark, for decent ale as well.
The music? Broadly more a faithfully folk festival, there were still some outliers to that brand, notably Hanging Stars and Elles Bailey, alongside staple fare like Oysterband, Steve Knightley, Billy Bragg etc. Here’s a more detailed review, if interested:
https://atthebarrier.com/2023/08/31/shrewsbury-folk-festival-2023-live-review/
Mid month, and so ahead of Shrewsbo, I caught The Magpie Arc at Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton, a new venue to me and quite a decent size (Small!!) The Maggies, as nobody calls them, are the new supergroup on the folk-rock front, with Martin Simpson, ace acoustic guitar player, picking up on electric and enjoying it no end, with fiddle player Nancy Kerr to spar with him, both instrumentally and vocally. I enjoyed it and enjoy their albums, if nothing new or fancy in their oeuvre.
On disc the big hitters were the new Peatbog Faeries, ‘I See a World’, as they go ever deeper into the murky world of folktronica, picking up on the success of their onetime Skye protégées, Niteworks. A new Jah Wobble sees him running with the tropes of his Metal Box (PiL) reprise, if now with ex-Banshee, Jon Klein, abetting him on guitar, Keith Levene having inconveniently died. Quite dense in sound and structure, it’s good, but maybe not one to play for Auntie Vi. ‘A Brief History of Time” it is called. Anyone like William the Conqueror, the onetime Ruarri Joseph, folkie turned power trio and lots of sturm und drang electric folk songs. I do and ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, he/their 4th is the best yet. Finally, amongst new, I got early dibs on Cloud horizon, the latest Kathryn Tickell offering, a second with her band, the Darkening. She too is realising the crossover appeal of electronica and beats, but maintains enough wood, reed and bellows to keep her head above water, with her wonderful Northumbrian small pipes.
Still haven’t read owt but music comics and social meedja, to my eternal, but time’s old jet plane has gone the full supersonic.
Loads of bad telly, due films and box sets that peter out after only an episode or two. An honourable exception was the new “dramaptation” of the Sacker opioid story, ‘Painkiller’, which explored the case against the Purdue Pharma case more as a procedural than 2021’s ‘Dopesick’, which explored more the human tragedy. We also saw ‘Whale’, if initially put off by some of the hype. Profoundly moving, it is an astonishing construction, and richly deserved the accolades and baubles. Not a smidgeon of fatsploitation came across, the only feelings for Brendan Fraser’s grotesque being of empathy and pity. Wonderful film, immaculately acted.
You mentioned Peatbog Faeries somewhere else around here Retro, anyhow I got that new album and it’s really good. Caused me to buy two more of their albums.
They seem to have a kick for a degree of re-invention, whilst always retaining the core of dancey bagpipe and fiddle music, without ever being ye olde folk rock. Elements filter in from all sides, depending who is currently in the band, the pipe and the bassist the only constants, with the guitarist, a long time essential, who brings loads of afro township hit jive to the party. Great live.
😎⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️😎
August was a month of binge listening to a new podcast – Crazy Town. Not about the Butterfly Hitmakers, but rather about the 4 E crisis (energy, ecology, economics, equity) – they use science and black humour to debust myths on all sides about the climate collapse that’s coming our way. There’s something good about hearing people my age (Gen X) talking about things – I get far more of the cultural references and the concerns connect in a meaningful way. I really recommend this.
I also subscribed to a few music podcasts – Song Exploder is a good one, where an artist talks about how they put together one song in their repertoire. There was a good one with Dua Lipa, which broke down how she and her team put together the song ‘Levitating’ which captured her joy in creation, and another with Arooj Aftab dicing into the cultural sources of her song Mohabbat. I’ve got tracks by New Order, Yo La Tengo, 100 gecs, Maggie Rogers and Rick Astley to look forward to. Should be good! Also to explore – A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Soul Music from the BBC and Sound Opinions. So so much!
Other than that, I listened to the first two Band albums a lot in early August. A lot more enjoyable than I had previously thought, and I can now identify who the musicians are, as well as their characters and dynamics within the band, which makes listening to them far more rewarding.
I’m down to the last 80 of the 1000+ Arabic tracks I started listening to at the beginning of the year. Several stand out artists, and some who I am happy to let seep into my random playlists over the years. This is a cover that some of you might recognize:
Mashrou’ Leila was a Lebanese rock band – unfortunately they disbanded last year,
Another up for Song Exploder here. It is a great series & some episodes are genuinely superb. The Big Thief – Cattails one is excellent & I have listened to it about 5 times. Well worth having a look through the list to see what songs are covered for those who have yet to discover it
Song Explorer is the Hrishikesh Hirway one?
If you like the Song one, he also does Book Explorer. And for West Wing fans, the really very excellent West Wing Weekly.
Went to the USA
One disaster after another.
A couple of days after touching down I was in Las Vegas and I tripped over my own feet on the footpath and landed on my knee. At first I didn’t feel unduly hurt, just a bit shocked. I remember thinking, “Gee, I hope no one saw that.” I looked around, was relieved to see no witnesses and hobbled off. I take various pills for my heart condition and one of them has the side effect of making you bruise more easily. By the time I reached my hotel room some 500m away my knee had started to swell. By nightfall it was purple and I could hardly move, for some reason the bruise extended way up my upper thigh. I spent the next two days laying on my bed, icing my leg for twenty minutes every hour on the hour. It was that bad I wanted to come home but not knowing when or if the swelling would ever go down made me decide to stay the course.
I made my scheduled flight to Reno but was still limping enough that three or four people pointed at my leg and wanted to know, “What happened to you?”
It was in Reno that the trip really started to go downhill. I went there for the sole reason of catching the train through the Rockies to Chicago on the USA’s most scenic route, the California Zephyr. Well, I arrived at the Amtrak station and was told there going to be a delay but they didn’t know how long. It seemed someone had climbed onto a bridge and refused to come down so the train was stuck and so was I. The delay was seven hours, just long enough to throw the carefully crafted sightseeing timetable into chaos. We went through the Rockies at night and crossed the prairies in daylight for hours and hours and hours.
Instead of the scheduled cosy afteroon arrival we arrived in Chicago at 2.00am. I grabbed the only cab in sight and we took off. It was an unremarkable trip until we reached sight of my hotel on State St where one gang of teenagers were chasing another gang of teenagers across the road with me and my cabbie in the midst of them. He yelled out, “Shit!” and we zig-zagged through them and he drove the wrong way up the main street of Chicago and pulled up with a screech in front of the hotel and hurried me in.
A couple of days later I was catching the train to new York. When I checked in at the Amtrak station they told me there had been a derailment that afternoon and the route ahead of me was blocked indefinitely. They could only take us as far as Cleveland where they would put us up in a hotel until the line was cleared but they didn’t know when that would be. When we got there the next morning it was still dark and there was no one to assist us with any queries. I mean no one. There was the bloke who emptied out the baggage and the bus driver and no one else that wasn’t a very confused passenger. Of course neither of them had the slightest idea what was going on. It’s probably fitting that I hopped onto that bus with not the slightest idea if I were doing the right thing.
I checked into the perfectly good hotel in the middle of nowhere, had a shower. Hopped onto the internet bought a $400.00 plane ticket to new York (normally $100.00 if purchased in advance) where my very expensive non refundable night’s accommodation was already paid for and waiting for me.
I got talking with someone else in the same boat as me and he said, “Wait until you try to get a refund from Amtrak! You’ll find your troubles have just begun. They are utterly hopeless”
About two hours after I checked in I checked out and caught a cab to the airport, I shared the ride with the sweetest little old lady in the world (I don’t know how old she was but I am 60yo and she was considerably older than I am) She was going to rent a car to drive for six hours despite not having driven further than the local supermarket in decades.
That was pretty much the end of my troubles. I got home about four weeks after I fell over in LV and my leg was still swollen. I’m sure I had some good experiences but I can’t remember any! I’d go back to the US but no more train travel there for me.
Bloody hell! How’s the knee now?
It’s finally okay. I was actually disappointed when the coloring returned to normal. I wanted to show it off to people.
That was a vivid story. I feel drained just getting to the end of that! At least you got back home in (relatively) one piece.
Bloody hell @Cookieboy, it seems you had a stupendous time, obviously I’m jesting.
Murphy’s Law was in overdrive going off your experiences. Hopefully you’ve recovered, maybe a week in Rhyl next year?
No report back last month, as already ensconced on the next festival campsite. I often fit Warwick in on my way to Sidmouth. I first started going for its legendary after hours massed singing, but truth be told, this has faded. Where have all the singers gone? So it was mainly dancing, with just a special mention for Will Pound & Tim Edey, whom I had missed at Chester due to clashes. Virtuoso – certainly. Indulgent? Nah, that would be a bit precious. Exhilerating – definitely.
On to Sidmouth. Too much to report. On just the first Friday, Topette delivered a stonking dance set for the many Europhiles. Part way through, I had to hightail it up the hill on my bike for Kathryn Tickell, then a ceilidh from a regrouped Bismarcks. And this all before the festival had properly opened. That said, Saturday and Storm Antoni delivered a curveball. After just one tune set, McGoldrick, McCusker and Doyle had to abandon the main marquee, due to safety concerns, which also put paid to the subsequent Leveret gig. This was a gutter. Who to blame? Well, later that evening, Le Vent du Nord had certainly brought the weather with them, though their set is never other than polished and adored.
For the rest of the week, there was only one place to be when the Paul Sartin tribute came to the Ham Marquee. Members of Faustus, Belshazzar’s Feast and Bellowhead, Paul’s sons and many others did their duty, with the perfect compere in Matthew Crampton. Not a dry eye, etc.
In a whole week and more, I owe it to somethingorother to make time for the obscure and the risky in the schedule, usually to be found in the Cellar Bar at Kennaways. So, what to make of the Shovel Dance Collective? (Why do people have to be in ‘collectives’, rather than just ‘bands’.) From the off, they were not for taking prisoners, opening with a long and austere ballad, accompanied by frenzied harmonium and cello, while 60% of the band looked on as if this was the most normal thing in the world. The ‘Dance’ in their moniker, I assume was tongue-in-cheek. I have no doubt that they could all play their instruments, and the vocals were good technically. But, and this is a ‘but’ that I keep butting up against, so many folk musicians now are using their considerable skills to play drones or long-repeated figures, which does create great texture, but couldn’t we also have some melodies please, with grace, phrasing, beauty? They mentioned that this was their first folk festival booking, and I couldn’t help wondering what or where on earth was their target audience, and just how many phone boxes would it require to contain it.
Rest day pattern from work permitted me to decompress by continuing to the much lower key Dartmoor Festival, held in the too-perfect village of South Zeal. Time to have no deadlines, sit under the gazebo, read and sing to myself. I only wanted to see one act on stage – Jack Rutter. Apart from that, it was all about the singing, including the annual shout/scrum that takes place in the back of the Kings Arms, at which it is a pleasure to be a welcomed guest.
And then I met Retro at Shrewsbury, so more of that later.
AOB:
All my latter day festivalling has squeezed out what used to be a summer of cycling, so it was good to find time for three forays over long weekends to Herefordshire, the East Riding and the Kingdom of Fife. Usual script – read up on my Pevsners and swag rides round fine churches, follies and estate villages. Good for the mind and the soul.