Welcome to a very special Saint David’s Day Blogger Takeover. Please come in, help yourself to a cup of tea and some Bara Brith, or a glass of Brains if you’d rather, and tell us all – what have you been listening to, watching, reading, or otherwise using to divert yourself from grim reality ?
As today is a special day, an optional bonus question – what’s your favourite record made by people from the Principality ?
In February I was listening a lot to late period Miles Davis – I keep coming back to Time After Time. I saw him on his last tour, in Glasgow. He was, of course, amazing. The band was ferocious, and the set was mostly pulled from the most recent album with a few from the two previous ones. I’ve also been greatly enjoying Roger Eno – The Turning Year, a blissful, gentle collection.
With the passing of Wayne Kramer, I listened again to the 3 MC5 LPs, which I still love. It’s a great shame that he fell out with the team who made the wonderful MC5 documentary, Are You Ready to Testify and then blocked the release of the movie.
And I have been listening to this wonderful powerpop LP as spring starts to approach – Brian Charles – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY01FEnakcI
I have been reading (and in some cases re-reading) noir fiction. Galveston by Nic Pizzolato (who also wrote True Detective). I had read it about 10 years ago, and didn’t connect with it, but on a re-read in February, I found it much richer, with beautifully crafted paragraphs, like this :
Certain experiences you can’t survive, and afterward you don’t fully exist, even if you failed to die. Everything that happened in May of 1987 is still happening, only now it’s twenty years later, and what happened is just a story. In 2008, I’m walking my dog on the beach. Trying to. I can’t walk fast or well.
I have been enjoying the Six Nations, of course. I watched the first episode of the Hairy Bikers Go West – it was clear that Dave was on his last lap. They were a great TV couple, great cooks and characters, and the magic of the show came from the fact that they loved each other.
My favourite Welsh record is this (with a nod to Dave Edmunds’ and Terry Edwards’ contributions to the many great records that Rockpile made) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcqGRE_fGlQ
The Roger Eno is indeed a lovely listen.
@el hombre malo Point of order – Terry Williams was the Rockpile drummer and longtime Edmunds backer.
and also banged the tubs for Dire Straits
…and Man, in their imperial phase…
Indeed!
Indeed- he is responsible for the impressive drum intro to Money for nothing.
Almost vaguely relevant, but has anyone hete heard/repeated to story of when Pick Withers played for Van Morrison? …Let’s say there was a clash of personalities
I don’t many drummers worked long for Van. Bobby Irwin once told me he did 3 years with Van and held the record for longest serving drummer.
I tried to find what Moose was referring to but the best I found was an interview where Pick said that he had been invited to tour with Van but withdrew after rehearsals. One day of rehearsals to be precise.
Not even a day. About three minutes. It concluded with Pick addressing the rest of the band thus: “You’re working for a cunt”
There was also the famous bust up with a drummer near the end of a tour – they had played the first of several nights in Belfast, at the Ulster Hall, and there had been simmering tension between Van and the drummer for several days.
Backstage after the show, as they were enjoying drinks with friends, Van marched over to the drummer wagging his finger “You! You were shite tonight” to which the bold drummer replied “Sure it’s not my fault Van, I was just following you”.
New drummer found for the following night’s show.
My mistake! A wonderful drummer. That’s what comes of typing things too early in the morning
Terry Williams on Mickey Jupp’s Juppanese – Old Rock & Roller https://youtu.be/D-fMjfOZodc
Terry Edwards was a trumpet player I believe? Rip, Rig and Panic?
Still playing.
I have a couple of his CDs : one is live at the Southbank with the bonus tracks the tribute EPs he made – “Terry Edwards Salutes The Magic Of The Fall”, “Terry Edwards Plays The Music of Jim and William Reid” and “Terry Edwards Executes Miles Davis Numbers”, the last of which is similar to John Zorn’s covers of Ornette Coleman.
I think “Never Understand” is the pick of the bunch – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWkqfZGPEWc
I saw late period Miles and a while back listened to a tape of the concert recorded by local radio. I was horrified at how weak the few solos were and how many bum notes he hit. Certainly wasnt my recollection at the time.
As is my habit I’ll stick to …
Seen
After the traditional January hibernation we made it out to 3 shows this month.
First up was Show of Hands at Colchester Arts Centre, part of a back to the folk clubs, Phil Beer and Steve Knightley only, farewell tour. Given the nature of the tour, it wasn’t the valedictory greatest hits show that might have been expected. No Roots, Galway Farmer or Country Life and the album most heavily featured was Cold Frontier. Phil was in good form but Steve seemed a little subdued, perhaps because the last time he played the venue (a solo date which we attended, on my birthday as it happened) it was his last gig before the first Covid lockdown.
And then there was Wilko, a new play based on the life of Wilko Johnson at the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch. As Wilko says in a final argument with the ghost of Lee Brilleaux, ‘It’s not a jukebox musical, it’s a play with songs’. Fair enough, but the play elements consisted of the appropriately named Johnson Willis as John Wilkinson/Wilko Johnson breaking the fourth wall to explain the narrative and the songs added some necessary impetus. Willis himself is good. There must be a pretty shallow pool of actors who could attempt the look, voice and guitar playing of Wilko. That said, if you were asked to name what celeb he looked like you’re more likely to plump for Dominic Littlewood than Wilko Johnson. Whatever happened to Dominic Littlewood? He used to all over the schedules and then disappeared. Maybe he was absorbed into Gregggg Wallace.
The first stand-out gig of the year sneaked into to February on the hidden 29th as Lust for Life brought their all-star line up to Colchester Arts Centre to storm through Iggy Pop’s album and a selection from their back catalogues, When the back catalogues of Clem Burke, Glen Matlock and Kevin Armstrong include Iggy, Bowie, Blondie and The Sex Pistols it makes for a massive night out, and when Katie Puckrik is out from on sparkly dresses, throwing shapes and lead vocals the energy goes from huge to through the roof. It’s all performed at enormous volume too. I wore the ear protection I mentioned in @black-type ‘s post recently but even then the noise was only just the right side of bearable.
Actually, looking at my calendar I’ve missed out a 4th show – a comedy night early in February at Witham Public Hall with Maisie Adam, Glen Wool and some other guy. It was quite funny. I would expand on that but I can’t remember any of the material.
Back indoors, it’s been a good month for television. Following on from Mr Bates Vs the Post Office ITV continue their run of dramatisations of recent history with Breathless, the Covid pandemic seen through the life of one NHS consultant. Outside events, including the government response and that clapping, are only referred to in passing as it focusses her professional life (and home life when she manages to get one) while the hospital reels under unprecedented strain with inadequate resources. Tin-foil milliners nationwide rubbed their hands with glee at the thought of the ravings this predictably set off on Twitter. My other half worked frontline in a major hospital throughout, and assures me the drama is so accurate that it might as well be a fly on the wall documentary.
On a cheerier note, G’Wed takes the familiar posh-kid-goes-to-new-rough-school and gives it a hilarious, and utterly foul-mouthed twist. The new boy is Christopher, who is taken under the wing of Reece as the latter’s last ditch attempt to avoid suspension. There are elements of Derry Girls and The Inbetweeners tackling issues of diversity and teen sexuality and their intersection with social media with an honest eye, and what could be salacious or moralising comes across as heartfelt (and thankfully funny too).
New series Perfect Pub Walks with Bill Bailey is cosy viewing for when the evenings are still chilly and dark. Bill takes a celebrity guest on a hike, chatting and stopping for regular refreshment along the way. The template is very clearly Mortimer and Whitehouse’s Gone Fishing and the mission to get men to open up and talk about the important stuff is admitted up front. So far it shares that programme’s tendency to flag up ‘the serious bit’ pretty blatantly too, but I have hopes it will be the more enjoyable show for me as I find Bill simpatico, and walking and pubs are just better ways to spend your time than fishing and outdoor cooking.
Breathless. You start off being angry at NHs England, then the government, and then…. people.
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus.
Heard.
Predictably almost exclusively jazz, ambient, neo-classical and those places they intersect. I rarely spend any time listening to anything else anymore although Faye Webster has released some new stuff today so that will get listened to a bit over the weekend although it will be fighting for my attention due to new albums from Little North, Amaro Freitas, Julian Lage and Lynne Arriale also being released into the wild today. In Febuary it was John Surman, Joshua Redman and latterly Cornelia Nilsson that occupied my attention the most along with the usual bouts of Marconi Union, Anenon, Loscil and Biosphere amongst many others.
Read.
I re-read Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger his Booker winner from 1993 as I discovered he had written a sequel The Quality Of Mercy which had completely passed me by. I read that too along with Claire Keegan’s first collection of short stories Antarctica. The usual Maigrets filled in a few hours along with Epitaph For A Spy by Eric Ambler and Stasiland : Stories From Behind The Berlin Wall by Anna Funder which was very entertaining indeed.
Watched.
The second series of Kin which was tremendous. If you haven’t got onboard with these gangland/family series yet I highly recommend that you do.
I was casually scrolling through Prime one afternoon at a bit of a loss over what I felt in the mood to watch when I found a three hour plus documentary on Folk Horror called Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched, as I have a bit of a liking for such stuff I settled back and clicked play. It turned out to be very entertaining. It is the standard procedure of film clips and talking heads but very nicely done and not confined to just Anglo/American film. The unholy trinity of The Wicker Man, Blood On Satan’s Claw and Witchfinder General are of course present and correct but it roams world cinema to present a pretty comprehensive overview. Recommended to those with similar predilections.
A.O.B.
Lots of tedious health niggles which I won’t bore everyone with. The month was enlivened by a visit from a dear friend, you know who you are. It was lovely to see you and thank you once again.
I have returned to working one more. I’m having to exercise a lot of patience as it causes me some degree of discomfort if I over do it but it’s doing me good in other ways to hear the paint whispering to me once again.
Just wanted to say, I’m really glad that the paint is whispering.
Seconded by me.
Thirded. Well done. Looking forward to seeing the results!
Diolch Butts.
I’m sure it’ll be a lot better than that!
Good to hear, Mr Pencil.
Diolch Butty.
That is good news. Knowing who long you’ve been out of pencil-squeezing action, but also knowing how slow the wheels of show biz turn, I did wonder if you were behind the artwork for the new John Bramwell album, The Light Fantastic. But I looked it up on Discogs and it isn’t yours. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and all that.
Thanks Steve. I caught a glimpse of the cover you mention on Tidal. It looks like a rose window. The work I make nowadays is very different to that although I still love a circle or two.
Just binge watched Kin. I thought the plot had a few holes in it and was rather simplistic but overall it made me want to watch the second series. Great use of music.
One trick pony this month (and a Welsh song).
I don’t watch war films. I’m not remotely interested in war or them, especially if they are about the Second World War. Whenever the masses are queuing up in droves for their latest sentimental flag-waving fix at the cinema, I’m to be found with a crowd in single figures in Screen 2 watching documentaries about bee-keeping in Moldova.
However, there was something about the trailer for “The Zone of Interest” that made it stand head and shoulders above the other trailers recently shown.
It’s mercifully not really about war at all – thank God – but about the complete disconnect individuals and/or crowds of people can have about the obvious and close suffering (death in this case; no, thousands of deaths) of others. The woman tends her garden while over the garden wall we hear, as she surely can, the sounds of screaming, trains arriving, shouting, gun shots etc.
If I’d seen it thirty or forty years ago, I’d have solely linked it with the era itself. Now, I kept thinking about the current government.
Seen it twice, going again to see it in another town next week.
Fantastic film, almost certainly the best of the year. Asked the owner of the cinema if it had done well… answer: ‘no’. ‘Dad’s Army’ did brilliantly, they were turning people away. Welcome to Britain in the 21st Century.
Favourite Welsh song: High in the Sky – Amen Corner (1968).
Another month gone, 2024 needs to calm down a bit, it’s flying by!
Heard
A couple of albums I have enjoyed this month, but none I have been going back to time & time again. Idles – Tangk is their new offering & I am enjoying it after being distinctly unimpressed with their last one. It needs a few more listens yet, but first few have been positive. I am not sure how I heard of Lime Garden – One More Thing, but this is a lovely album. Only 30 mins long but not a duff track on it so will be getting more spins. Other than these I have been on a bit of an Everly Brothers fix this month & have been marvelling at those wonderful harmonies. Oh, the new Adrienne Lenker track called Fool is a another lovely one from her too.
Read
A better month from me on the reading front which I need to continue with. First up was The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis. Like a lot of other people, I was transfixed with the TV Drama ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ that aired earlier this year. It told the story of a huge miscarriage of justice where hundreds of Post Office workers were wrongly prosecuted for theft, false accounting or fraud due to a faulty computer system called Horizon.
This book is the basis for the series & goes into a lot more depth & shows that however shocking the dramatisation was, it barely scratched the surface of how deep this ran & the extraordinary abuse of power by the Post Office and its management and lawyers. It is very well written, but due to the subject matter was a tough one & it has taken me some time to get through it as I found it difficult to read too much of it in one sitting. Some parts of it (especially in regards to its depiction of the ruination to the lives of ordinary, hardworking people) will stay with me for some time.
Second for the month was Buzzin’ by Bez (aka Mark Berry). This is a follow up to his last autobiography (Freaky Dancin’) which was released back in 1998 & covers the intervening years. Some may know Bez as the Maraca shaking member of Happy Mondays/Black Grape or his stints on a never ending cycle of reality shows (Big Brother, Dancing On Ice, Masterchef, Gogglebox etc.).His bandmate (The somehow still alive Shaun Ryder), describes him within this book as such – ‘you could literally throw him out of a helicopter at 60,000 feet & he would land in somebodys extra deep swimming pool, get out and they would cook him Sunday dinner – and let him stay the night’
This book is a collection of anecdotes about his time in the above mentioned bands & his career outside of music (!), including his foray into bee keeping & an attempt at becoming an MP for Salford back in 2015. If I am honest it was a quick & easy read, but got tiresome pretty quickly. He does stray into quite a few conspiracy theories towards the end & contradicts himself throughout which was very annoying.
However, I did allow myself a chuckle when he was complaining about the additives in food & how they are pumped full of chemicals…..it must have been a look a like that I saw doing lines off the back of his hand at a New Order gig in 2002!
Under My Thumb (Songs That Hate Women & The Women Who Love Them) by Various. This is a selection of 29 essays written by women about the music they love, in spite of it’s un-feminist baggage & often shamelessly misogynistic lyrics. I purchased this as their is an essay in it by Word alumni Jude Rogers whose work I love. It covers a wide range of artists & genres, including some I love (Nick Cave, Pulp, Guns N Roses, Taylor Swift) & others I have never heard of (CombiChrist anyone??). As is often the case with a collection of essays, some are much better than others so it leads to quite an uneven read. I particularly enjoyed the pieces that made me think about just how problematic some of the content is (something I have to admit to being rather naive about in some cases) & how they personally resolve the misogynist lyrics, songs, or behavior whilst remaining fans, albeit with an awareness of this. The chapters on Tupac & AC/DC were particularly strong on this front & were enlightening in many ways.
Some of the essays are not great & either make a point badly, or not at all, whilst others are beautifully written, scathing, witty & full of insight into feminist theory and empathy with how women are portrayed in song. This book is at it’s strongest when discussing the problems with misogyny and the normalizing of it in any form of art
Lastly I read Numbers: 10 Things You Should Know by Colin Stuart. This is one of a great series of books, each of which contain ten essays covering a specific subject, which in this case is Numbers. I posted about one last year which had The Brain as a topic & I have since picked up a few of the others as they are beautiful books & really fascinating reads.
This one has some excellent essays in, all of which made sense when I read them, but as I am useless at retaining information will need to go back & reread numerous times before it sticks. My favourite ones were why hackers hate prime numbers (detailing how credit card encryption works), probability (explaining why in a group of 30 people there is a 71% chance that two of them will share a birthday – in a group of 70 people, there is a 99.9% chance!) & graph theory (& why companies use this to decide the route their delivery drivers take to be more efficient). Each essay is brilliantly written & this is a lovely collection, although the one on infinity really hurt my head & even thinking about it makes me need a lie down!
Watched
We have been slowly working our way through the American sitcom Superstore this year & it is a nice & easy watch. We have about 6 episodes to go now & it has been an enjoyable watch & not dipped at all.
I was transfixed with the first episode of the Micheal Sheen BBC Drama The Way, but felt it tailed off rather spectacularly to the point I have been careful not to recommend it to others. I thought it lost it’s way & the acting was very uneven, although Steffan Rhodri was very good I thought.
Seen
Three gigs this month, two of which came in this week s just made the cut. Firstly we had Bombay Bicycle Club @ Manchester Apollo which was a lot of fun. They definitely made an effort to entertain with balloons & flames aplenty, but it felt like a gig for people who don’t go to gigs. The crowd were infuriating & seemed to ignore what was a pretty good gig!
Last week I saw NewDad @ Band On The Wall and I have been really impressed with their album. Unfortunately I felt it did not translate well live & it felt a bit lacklustre. They were badly let down with the sound as the main PA cut out numerous times during the set, but I felt it wasn’t too great to start with.
Lastly it was an album launch show this Monday just gone for Everything Everything @ Stockport Plaza. This was a great show although the venue was very quiet which may be due to the fact it felt badly advertised & I only found out about it by accident. EE are an excellent live band though & the new material sounded very good indeed. I am looking forward to getting acquainted with the new album in March.
I neglected to add in my Welsh album.
Instinctive choice today (or at least the first that came to mind) is Songs Of Ignorance by Murry The Hump
Nothing to report on TV, Movies, Books.
Only new music is the Bill Ryder-Jones album – I like it and as it’s the only 2024 album I have, by default it currently sits in the no.1 position.
Gig-wise, two lovely outings in February. My policy of down-sizing and staying local is paying off.
Feb 9th – Tim O’Brien and his partner Jan Fabricius played Glór theatre in Ennis and were joined by Dermot Byrne of Altan on concertina and one-time Mr. Sinead O’Connor, Steve Cooney on guitar. A wonderful night with the players effortlessly switching from Bluegrass and Appalachia to Irish trad and folk and back again – often in the same song. We got a smattering of 17th century harp tunes covered by Steve and Dermot (Here’s another one fron 1690!)
Feb 24th – John Spillane in the back end of nowhere – The Community Centre in the small town of Crusheen. What an unexpected pleasure. I have known of John Spillane for many years but often avoided him – how wrong I was. I mistook his unique idiosyncratic style for novelty. Stupid me – he is a wonderful songwriter and performer. I found this out when I purchased his live album for my wife last year and realised how good he really is. In front of no more than 60 paying customers he delivered a great night of songs and story-telling. I won’t avoid him any more. For those who are unfamiliar, here’s a track from that live album with the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra…I would heartily reccommend this album as a primer for JS.
Quiet, rainy month. Roll on spring…
Read
Finally got round to Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi of Lush. I skimmed the stuff about her childhood as I find reading about abuse like that too grim. I was very taken with her take on the boorishness of Britpop and the fragile workings of the music business at the time. Racing through London Rules, the fifth Mick Herron Slow Horses book. Although it’s hit a formula by this stage, the asides and descriptions can still make me laugh out loud. Don’t Dream It’s Over: The Remarkable Life of Neil Finn by Jeff Apter is good on facts but almost a hagiography in its non-appraisal of his work and ruthless band decisions.
Watched
A couple of the Oscar hopefuls, Poor Things (brilliant) and American Fiction (OK, ran out of steam but a great central performance from Jeffery Wright). ITV’s Trigger Point is Line of Duty-lite but has a few good jumps in it. Thanks for the recommendation of Zone of Interest, Deramdaze – I might go and see it tomorrow.
Seen
Novelty Island at the Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell – a ear-to-ear-grin of an evening with a mad, hilarious video accompaniment. Low-fi electronica/psychedelic pop at its best. I bought my wife tickets for ABBA: Voyage and was impressed by the sound, innovative lighting, choice of setlist (starting with The Visitors is a bold but great choice) and start early/end early vibe. Less impressed by the non-‘band’ videos they trotted out for a few songs and the fact that, from the side, the Abbatars can’t help but appear squashed a bit thin. At no point did I manage to imagine it was a regular gig.
The best Welsh album is Paris 1919 by John Cale.
Fingers Crossed is great, and I found Miki Berenyi’s pre-fame life was a more interesting read than her time in the Lush band (much of which seemed to be spent bickering with Emma).
For some reason, I seem to have missed posting at the end of January completely, so will have to cover 2 months together.
SEEN
Sadly no concerts so far this year, but I did have a trip to the theatre at the end of January, We fancied a theatre trip on a cheap stayover in London, and found a play called ‘The Unfriend’ – didn’t know anything about it, but it starred Lee Mack and Frances Barber, was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Mark Gatiss, so I thought it was worth a go. Very broad farce, light on subtlety, but thoroughly enjoyed it – well staged and acted. And there is something about those old London theatres that gets me every time.
Also, two trips to the cinema. ‘Poor Things’ has been much discussed elsewhere, so I’ve not got too much to add, but I still can’t decide if it is a great film or not! Emma Stone is certainly a worthy winner of all the acting awards. Definitely a great film is ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, which came back into cinemas for a very brief run. French courtroom drama, with plenty of twists and turns, and stunning performances from the leading actress and the boy who plays her son. And beautiful Alpine scenery.
WATCHED
Although both were pretty far-fetched and stretched credulity, I did enjoy the second series of ‘Vigil’ and ‘The Tourist’ – well acted and constructed. I also found ‘The Traitors’ to be irresistible – I had wondered if it would be able to sustain a second series, after the surprise elements of the first, but it certainly did!
I’m working my way through ‘Happy Valley’, and wondering how the hell I managed to miss it first time around!
On streaming, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman were excellent in ‘May December’. And I enjoyed the Netflix drama ‘A Murder at the End of the World’, though ultimately it didn’t quite live up to its early promise.
‘Would I lie to You?’ continues to be the funniest thing on TV at the moment, and I’ve developed a strange craving for ‘The Great British Menu’!
HEARD
Nothing new lately – I seem to be regressing back to the sounds of my youth lately! Also, more Beatles than usual, having caught a few Reaction videos on YouTube – particularly the in depth analysis by Virgin Rock.
READ
I’ve been looking for a good history of the Fens, as I originally come from Cambridge and find it a fascinating area, but Frank Meeres’ ;The Story of the Fens’ didn’t quite hit the mark – not very well structured, but still interesting. If anyone can recommend anything better, please let me know!
Better by far was ‘The Interest’ by Michael Taylor, which covers the period in British history between the abolition of the slave trade and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire (1807-1834), and the efforts of parliament, the governing classes, land owners, plantation holders and others to resist all efforts to pass the legislation, and covers well the reasons behind the need to pay such huge sums to slave owners to compensate them for the loss of their slaves.
In keeping with my previous post about crime fiction; Elly Griffiths brought her superb Ruth Galloway series to a nice conclusion in ‘The Last Remains’, Robert Galbraith was, as ever, highly readable in ‘The Ink Black Heart (though it was a bit too long), and Robert Goddard’s ‘The Fine Art of Invisible Detection’ started off well, but not too convincing by the end.
AOB
Three really good art exhibitions.
First off was ‘Holbein at the Tudor Court’ showing at the Queen’s Gallery in London, the ‘Impressionists on Paper’ at the Royal Academy. Both superb, both in terms of the quality of the art on display, but also of the way they were exhibited and curated.
Closer to home was a new exhibition at the Southampton Art Gallery entitled ‘From the Renaissance to the Present Day’, showcasing some of the gems in the city’s collection, widely hailed as one of the best outside London. The problem it faces is that there is just not enough space and resources to be able to exhibit much of the artwork, most of which is held in storage. Well worth a visit, before the gallery closes for much needed roof and ceiling repairs at the end of the year.
Heard
The year seems, still, to be shaking the sleep out of its hair, so not overfond of anything new, this month’s highlight has been revisiting Mzansi Beat Code by Spoek Mathambo. It’s a thumping dance record, combining a Chemical Brothers type wallop with and a few scoops of his own South African influence.
Thing is, I have it at home, but a lot of my listening is via Spotify and mainly in the car and, for whatever reason, this album (and not the rest of his stuff, which I’m not quite so keen on) regularly drops off the menu, so when it reappears I’m always prompted to give it a spin.
I’m a little bit optimistic that the new Tierra Whack album might be good, now that she’s broken the two minute barrier (the last album was 15 songs in 15 minutes).
Seen
This time last year I was smitten by the trailer for a film called Renfield, in which Nicolas Cage plays Dracula, but then the reviews came in and were relentlessly negative so I gave it a swerve. Watching it on my tellybox a year later I thought it was tremendous fun, just what I had hoped for. It’s not a film I’d rush to recommend to anyone I didn’t know well, as I think it just happens to hit my sweet spot
I found myself watching series 2 of The White Lotus and became gripped as one of the actors seemed to have exactly the same voice as Shane “Sheffield Tuesday” Rimmer. Then I discovered that Theo James, the chap in question, is British (He stars in the none-more-geezer upcoming Netflix series of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen), which means there’s every chance that when someone asked him to “play American” he just copied Scott Tracy (there is a slight resemblance), which – if true – would be freakin’ awesome..
Read
I’m currently wearing a neck brace from all the whiplash sustained while reading Kid Dynamite’s best albums list – it’s like the Star Trek movies all over again
“This one’s great”
“Good God, No!”
“Oh, Wow! One of my favourites”
“You can’t be serious”
etc
Great project, though. Really glad you did it.
AOB
I though it was a nice touch that the ads on Talksport for their coverage of the Super Bowl called the channel “Talksports”.
Cringe is an adverb now. And not just among Americans or kids.
Oops! A Welsh song! Er.. Slow Life by Super Furry Animals..
thanks!
edit to add some Welsh music:
A quite astonishingly busy month. What with gigs, sessions, rehearsals and performances, at one point I had a run of eleven successive nights out, and there was more besides.
The Halle had a Steve Reich festival curated by renowned percussionist Colin Currie, ranging from The Desert Songs in the widescreen of the Bridgewater Hall, to the more intimate Halle St Peters. This was a new venue to me, a former church in regenerated Ancoats, and a gorgeous space for chamber music. Apart from Currie himself, most of the musicians were from the Royal Northern College of Music or Chetham’s School. Reich’s prosaic titles (Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ) give no clue to the shimmering, layered, intricate weaving of sounds to come. His subtle use of voices is always entrancing, while he masters that trick of mixing the textures of instruments to create a new sound altogether. For rock interest, the third piece that day was Radio Rewrite, which takes its roots from two Radiohead tracks; I must admit, I couldn’t hear much trace of Everything in its Right Place or Jigsaw Falling into Place, but that isn’t really necessary to appreciate the work.
An ever-passionate Martyn Joseph was exactly as I expected to find him at The Saltworks in Northwich. To be fair, I was left a tad flat seeing Gryphon at Bury Met. I do wish that there was more audience eye contact, rather than focus on their sheet music on ipads, and the latter material doesn’t flow as melodically as I’d like. That said, I like a bit of crumhorn/bassoon action as much as the next man, and the evening was made finer by the company of Mr & Mrs Rawlinson for a curry beforehand. Likewise, it was worth the trip to London to make The Transatlantic Sessions a social event with many friends.
In amongst all that, I may be the only Afterworder to have provided the support for a Flemish dance band this month, doing my ‘singing for dance’ thing. I was asked to sing at a funeral for a sudden departure from the folk club. Then last weekend, I was asked to MC at a local folk day in Chester. I still marvel at all this stuff that I do that was not even on my radar just twelve years ago. As for that February Folk Day, it was a pleasure to introduce Sykes Martin, that being Miranda from Show of Hands and Hannah from Edgelarks. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that their performance was polished, their harmonies spine-tingling; you felt in the presence of excellence.
So, after all those riches, was my palate a little jaded? Not a bit. Last Thursday, an occasional venue/community hub, again in Ancoats, hosted a young trio of students, Once a Fig. Let me declare that I have known the viola player all her life, but that alone couldn’t explain why I went into the night, and buzzing all the next day on the back of a truly individual and creative performance. Cori and Phoebe play with Swedish dance rhythms, but way out on a tangent, Rebecka sings jazz, scattering birdsong and vocal percussion into the mix. Her control is staggering, switching from song to spoken word, improvising, and always sounding like she means it. It is wonderful to still get excited by live music after all these years.
No, of course I haven’t had time to read anything this month.
Will have to ponder my favourite from The Principality, which I can almost see from the top of my lane.
Can you see me waving?
Is that you I can see on the horizon beyond Delamere Forest?
Favourite Welsh record? Barafundle by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
And who’d have a thunk? Here’s a review of Once a Fig.
https://londonjazznews.com/2024/02/29/once-a-fig-phoebe-harty-cori-smith-and-rebecka-edlund-at-bridge-5-mill-manchester/
A pleasure to see you too, have a splendid vacation.
Will 2024 please slow down, and will it also get less mental.
Start of the third month, and meteorological spring, and my cultural devourment * remains at a low level.
* is that a word?
Heard:
– The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy is still getting regular plays
– Liam Gallagher & Jon Squire landed on my doormat this morning (note: the album, not the people) so that will get some attention very soon.
– Just taken delivery of the first couple of boxes of inherited CDs (a work colleague has bequeathed her fathers collection to me). From the first couple of boxes I can see he was a man of relatively great taste – Tom Waits, Wings, Yes, Roger Waters, with more similar to come – but maybe a bit too much blues for my liking (what am I going to do with a near full set of The Blues Collection CDs (sans magazine)?)
Read:
Mojo – not perhaps as essential or substantial as it once was, but always worth a read (and a check of the reviews for the upkeep of the Wish List)
Seen:
– Kin (Series 2) on iPlayer. Just as good, if not better than the first run
– Death In Paradise. “Easy Listening” Sunday Night TV to ease into the start of a new week
– The Way (BBC1). Watched the first episode and wondered “just what the bloody hell is this on about it?”. Second episode started to give an understanding, but I’ll keep watching anyway (cos I’m intrigued now)
– Something on iPlayer about a bloke called Colin … enjoyed this, you may have heard about it too.
AOB:
Dad had a prostate cancer sorted a couple of years ago, my younger brother has just been diagnosed with bowel cancer, so at the age of 53 it’s time to be sensible and get a test/screening … coming soon
Welsh Song:
Stereophonics – More Life In A Tramp’s Vest
Scanning through the reviews in Mojo I couldn’t help but notice that current albums are quite remarkably consistent. A quick tot-up of the star ratings of new albums gives the following breakdown
* 0
** 0
*** 10
**** 45
***** 0
Good point (noticeable, although even clearer now with that analysis).
tend to ignore the score and interpret the text, or go “oh, they’ve got a new album – might get that”.
I’m too old and cynical to place steer in an arbitrary rating (which may be done to earn points with record companies, or just out of fear of upsetting anyone)
I’ve noticed that, but always assumed they don’t bother with stuff they’re not crazy about.
This is happening a lot now – same with classical reviewers who clearly feel they need to support the artists and organisations they are reviewing. In this month’s Songlines the editor muses on this and his increasing feeling that given how challenging for artists it is these days they shouldn’t print negative reviews. I understand the sentiment but if everything gets a positive review it all becomes meaningless doesn’t it? Probably the best thing they could do would be to get rid of the stars system.
Loads of albums, new and old, listened to in February. Buckle up for a long list.
A Night At The Village Vanguard – Sonny Rollins 1957
Astigmatic – Krzysztof Komeda 1966
S/T – Bersarin Quartett 2010
Black Codes (From The Underground) – Wynton Marsalis 1985
Blue Light ‘Til Dawn – Cassandra Wilson 1993
Breaking Point – Freddie Hubbard 1964
Dance With Death – Andrew Hill 1980
For Alto – Anthony Braxton 1971
S/T – Gerry Mulligan Quartet 1952
Held On The Tips Of Fingers – Polar Bear 2005
II – Bersarin Quartett 2012
III – Bersarin Quartett 2015
Jazz På Svenska – Jan Johansson 1964
Journey To The Urge Within – Courtney Pine 1986
S/T – Lester Young 1955
Let Freedom Ring – Jackie McLean 1963
Liberation Music Orchestra – Charlie Haden 1970
Love Scenes – Diana Krall 1997
Pharoah – Pharoah Sanders 1977
Recorded Live At The Monterey Jazz Festival – John Handy 1966
Retrospective 1934-53 – Django Reinhardt
Sonny Rollins And The Contemporary Leaders – Sonny Rollins 1959
S/T – Steps Ahead 1983
Surround – Hiroshi Yoshimura 1986
The Individualism Of Gil Evans – Gil Evans 1964
S/T – The Music Improvisation Company 1970
The Tao Of Mad Phat (Fringe Zones) – Steve Coleman And Five Elements 1993
These Are The Vistas – The Bad Plus 2003
In the queue but didn’t get played (yet):
Continuance – Joey Alexander 2023
The Cortege – Mike Westbrook 1982
La Vie Electronique 3, 4 & 5 – Klaus Schulze 2009-10
Live @ The Cockpit – Hejira 2024
Jazz Britannica Vol. 1, 2, 3 & 4 – Various 1955-62
Close Encounters Of The Third World – Creation Rebel 1978
Stormy Emotions – Sarah Moule 2021
Reflections: Oneness – Christoph Grab 2024
Find Me Finding You – Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble 2017
Foreverland – Keyon Harrold 2024
Terra Firma – Andrew McCormack 2022
3 – Abdullah Ibrahim 2024
Passacaglia – Adam Baldych, Leszek Mozdzer 2024
Technically Acceptable – Ethan Iverson 2024
Nublues – Joel Ross 2024
Ultrasound – Theo Erskine, Mark Kavuma 2023
Peacemaker – Vera Sola 2024
Philip Glass Solo – Philip Glass 2024
Compassion – Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey 2024
On Different Paths – Marlon Simon and the Nagual Spirits 2024
Ninety Degrees Gravity – Trish Clowes 2019
Duo – Michael Wollny, Joachim Kuhn 2024
Sugar, Blue Hour, Comin’ Your Way, Up At Minton’s Vol. 1 & 2, That’s Where It’s At and Z.T.’s Blues – Stanley Turrentine 1962-71
In Real Time – Artemis 2023
Quietude – Eliane Elias 2022
The Piano And Me – Mike Westbrook 2023
Nothing but entertaining trash on TV.
No movies.
Books.
A Heart Full Of Headstones by Ian Rankin. Rebus again, health failing and in lots of trouble.
Exiles – Jane Harrop. An unexplained disappearance mystery in wine country. Not her best but pretty good.
The Ink Black Heart – Robert Galbraith. Interesting and complex subject matter, hence the length of read. Some of the online chat transcript stuff could have been left out without spoiling anything. Good.
Metropolis – Philip Kerr. A re-read of this, the last Bernie Gunther tale published, after Kerr’s untimely death. Not the best of the series but a good scene-setter.
Gigs:
Peter Jones & Leon Greening at The Elephant in N. Finchley, Sunday 4th. It was OK but not great. Peter Jones isn’t as good a singer as he thinks he is. Leon Greening is a fine piano player.
Gary Crosby, Dennis Rollins, Mark Kavuma, Andrew McCormack and Rod Youngs at The Vortex in Dalston, Saturday 10th. A superbly-played programme of Wayne Shorter compositions. Particularly good interplay between McCormack (piano) and Youngs (drums). Crosby was solid and un-showy on bass, Kavuma was in fine Freddie Hubbard-channeling form. Rollins was a little below his best, IMO. A bit of a pain getting there as both of the Dalston Overground stations were closed due to bridge replacement works.
Sarah Moule & Simon Wallace at The Elephant on Sunday 18th. Sarah Moule is a fine jazz singer, specialising in the songs her husband Simon co-wrote with the late American lyricist Fran Landesman. Classy stuff. A good evening. Was feeling flush, monetarily, so I treated myself to some Pad Thai from the pub’s excellent kitchen, eaten at my table right at the front and washed down with a couple of pints of decent spring ale.
Back at The Elephant on Friday 23rd for Dex & Soul Mates in the pub’s main bar. Funk and soul with two good local singers, Dexter Moseley and Gill Hunte, plus guitar, keyboards bass & drums. Their usual sax player was unavailable that night. A good night.
Hejira playing Joni Mitchell’s jazzier ’70s material at the Jazz Café in Camden, Monday 26th. A sold-out night to start the 7-piece band’s 2024 tour. Also the launch of their live album, recorded at The Cockpit in Marylebone last November. The Jazz Café was packed and the punters unusually (for that place) quiet during the songs. Great night.
A.O.B.
Got a good deal on my broadband from Virgin Media, by threatening to leave.
Double the speed for 60% of the previous cost.
Cashed in my pension pot that had been lying dormant since I retired in 2016. Discovered it had been ever-so-slightly losing value month on month due to admin costs being greater than the interest earned, so out it came.
Thinking I may have to cash in my shareholding too, soon. The shares appear to have lost about 13% of their value so far this year.
I am defiantly old-school-hippie in my Welsh music taste.
“Spunk Rock” by Man, live at the Greasy Truckers Ball.
Mike-H, you can have all of my points for the Greasy Truckers’ Spunk Rock – what a track! Man at their best!
Ditto here. Even the intro is brilliant. That Man are the best Welsh band is so obvious it goes without saying.
Jazz på Svenska – the album said to be present in the most Swedish homes…don’t know how true that is (anymore) but it’s definitely true in the case of me and my friends and family.
Re: Jazz på svenska – Jan Johansson
Nice to see a non-Swede giving this album the thumbs-up!
Mike – if you fancy trying another Jan Johansson record, I can recommend the sprawling double album “Musik genom fyra sekler” (Music through four centuries).
Sadly, Johansson’s great double-bass player Georg Riedel departed this earth last week, a mere 56 years after Jan himself. I think I’m right in saying that Locus had some form of connection with Riedel … like … one member of Riedel’s family was Locust’s dentist, or something like that.
Greatest Welsh album ever: “Clychau Dibon” by Catrin Finch (and Seckou Keita).
Indeed; his mother was my paediatrician (and my brother’s). Not the most exciting connection, but there it is…
Oh, I don’t know: that’s quite exciting…
I’ll check that album out. Thanks.
Saw Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita live a few years back. Good concert.
It’s wonderful. Saw them live several times that year. Never failed to move their audience.
Christ.
Must have been an interesting month for you.
Was he on a bike?
Sorry, this was in reply to @mike_h
Busy month!
I haven’t watched much telly.
I have read a book! I’ll gathering my thoughts about it for a review.
I have embarked on a Listening Project. One hundred listens of one hundred songs. I have a playlist of songs I love on repeat shuffle. Currently, most song listens are into the twenties. By the end, I should know which loves are true.
https://tidal.com/playlist/650ed003-2919-4038-aa4f-29154b5ed6ad
I’m following you on that Tidal now you’ve foolishly given me the opportunity. BWAAAH!
You can follow people on Tidal???
Yep. If you know their handle you can follow them and listen to any playlist they make public.
I like a pretty tune, a female voice or a dance. Not much white guitar Rock in my list. I also believe a good cover can bring out the best in a song.
Super Furry Animals White Socks/Flip Flops almost made the list. In fact, I’ll correct that oversight now.
“White Socks/Flip Flops“: further insight into the Tiggerlion Spring Collection – or a tune?
Both. Sartorial elegance and a stonking tune.
Despite the extra day, Feb felt ever so short, time’s jet plane clearly supersonic. Seemed to watch a lot of crap TV to counter the rush of the days. That didn’t include One Day, which was charming, unless that was January. So much so that I loaded up some other David Nichols onto Kindle to read. Am 3/4 through Us, and it has nearly as much bittersweet perceptions on life. I gather the Beeb made a short adaptations so will have to search the satellite for that. True Detective ended with a fizzle of (my) exasperation, and a waste of talent, especially Jodie Foster. Fortitude for dummies might sum up the plot. For some good Foster, there is a film, Nyasaland, about a marathon swim attempt by a retired endurance swimmer, that part played by Annette Bening. Better than I have sold it, it is a good 2, largely, hander about stubbornness.
Still in Glasgow as the month turned from Jan, my live music was the tail end of Celtic Connections, catching the mighty Lankum at Barrowlands. A great setting for the monster the Dublin Great Wall of drone the band have become. With a lot of industrial noise coming from their nominally acoustic instrumentation, it was both exhausting and exhilarating. For me, the best moments came as Radie Peat fires up her remarkable voice, enveloping the auditorium in her pealing keen. Recommended, should you get the chance.
Good listening came home with me, with albums picked up in Scotland. Fans of Fergus McCreadie and Matt Carmichael, young Turks of Scots jazz, might like Skreel, a new band in which they feature, along with folk fiddler, Charlie Stewart, and Heisk accordion maven, Megan MacDonald. If you like pastoral jazz folk fusion, go for it. Talking of Heisk, they too have an album, their 2nd. Feisty folk-pop and, bar a couple of guests, all instrumental, the gift for bouncy melody these 5 women have is immense. And some of the liveliest drumming you’ll hear all year. I greatly enjoyed the new one from @fentonsteve ‘s tall friend, Boo Hewerdine, coupled as a duo with Jenny Sturgeon. Outliers, it’s called, and quite unlike his usual fare, touching on folktronica. Finally, a band from Michigan, Frontier Ruckus, who craft elegant and melancholic music from banjo, trumpet, saw and voice. Ok, some more orthodox rhythm section creeps in from time to time, but lovely wistful songs that will, I’m sure, linger into my year end favourites. On The Northline.
A bit of Welsh? It must surely be time for a second album from Swansea’ Grief Brothers, making do, until then, with this, from their last:
How could I forget, I also watched Breathtaking, the covid dramumentary based on Rachel Clarke’s writings. It was dauntingly and devastatingly good, if darkly accurate. Colleagues, on that hospital front line, have been unable to watch, it too soon, their PTSD still raw.
How could I forget, redux…. D’oh, and I fired up the old I player for some regional telly, the entirely enjoyable and entertaing programme about one C, Harper, not that one. Lovely stuff about and with “our” @colin-h . Apart from missing the opportunity to say how, without the blog, he’d still be a nobody, but all that Bono and Marr may have diverted his affections. Joking, Col, it were fab. And can you do that little jump with your guitar again, the videographer didn’t quite catch it !!!!
Yes, Lenny Law, late of this parish, said that his ICU nurse wife couldn’t bear to watch. My other half is a pharmacy tech and wants as many people as possible to watch and see how it was inside a hospital.
The tin-foil hatters are claiming that hospitals were deserted because standard operations were being cancelled, while overlooking the emergency admissions which were still happening. Patients were split into Covid and non-Covid wards, so the staff were effectively operating two hospitals in one building with complicated routes between them to avoid cross-contamination.
That’s before considering the woeful PPE in the early days. When she asked what the official advice was if a Covid patient coughed in her face The Light was helpfully told ‘close your eyes’.
I remember CPR training changed. We were no longer expected to do mouth to mouth. Helpfully, chest compressions propel the virus out of the mouth and nose into the air, hitting the person kneeling next to the patient in the side of the face. If we had a defib at hand, we were advised to apply that and not bother with anything else.
My practice was a ‘hot’ site. We saw people unwell with suspected Covid (there were no tests available at the time). Our building was divided into hot and cold, hot being at the back where the car park was. 2020 was an absolutely gorgeous spring and summer. We saw the patients outside.
The official PPE was a joke. Local builders, used to dealing with asbestos, gave us some fantastic kit. Schools made visors. Patients made us scrubs.
I won’t be watching Breathless any time soon.
Our “hot” was a consulting room by the back door. They rang a bell and the garbed up clinician came, opened the door, escorted in and examined, then sending them out the same way. The room was then disinfected for the next. I remember being terrified the first time I put on my mix of cheap plastic pinafores on top my Amazon sourced scrubs, gowns, goggles and visors, convinced I would die if I caught it. Most patients seen in “hot” didn’t have covid. Indeed, those most at risk were already dead, care home residents who were decimated in droves.
Heard
I’ve listened to precisely zero new music so far this year which has to be a first two months in. It’s been classical all the way so far this year. Radio 3’s Composer of the Week took me back to Sibelius and I’ve had Stravinsky’s Firebird on repeat. He was 28 and unknown when he wrote it. Utterly astonishing.
Read
I picked up on Anna Keay’s The Restless Republic via the Rest is History podcast. It’s a superb read about the years of Britains short lived republic told by telling the stories of 8 or 9 individual people. Cromwell is one of them but there are less known characters – a satirical journalist who switches easily from being a monarchist to a republican when he needs to; a couple of aristocrats, a woman who becomes famous as a visionary (or a witch), the lawyer who sentences Charles I to death and becomes a leading light in the first republican government, and so on. I knew pretty much nothing about this period and enjoyed finding out more.
Watched
Saw the Zone of Interest in the cinema – not an easy watch but a powerful one. Quite the year for Sandra Huller, with both that and the equally superb Anatomy of a Fall.
And in a world of uncertainty it’s good to see that Larry David and Curb can still be relied on. RIP Richard Lewis.
Read
Nothing. Too lazy.
Heard
Nothing. Too deaf.
Watched
Jury Duty. I loved it. I thought it took reality TV in a nicely original direction, combining Candid Camera and Truman Show-staged antics with hilarious, almost Spinal Tap-esque improvised comedy. Now I’m half way through One Day (half way through episode 4). I’ve heard so much praise for this series, but I can’t see the attraction so far. Like a lot of people, I really enjoyed the book and didn’t like the film. I’ll stick with this and see how it goes.
But reading’s what I do when I am being lazy.
February felt very long this year, and no, not thanks to the extra day at the end.
Another financially challenged month, but better than January and I was able to order my first few albums and buy seven books in the big annual sale towards the end of the month.
The albums are slowly making their way to me as we speak, and I’m too busy with my reading project to get to the sale finds (mostly bought them to lend to my mum), but will report next month if my high expectations were justified.
Read:
So, as I mentioned last month, my big reading project this year is to read/re-read all of P.C. Jersild’s books in chronological order (due to owning all but a couple of them, him being my favourite author, and not having the money to buy new books at the beginning of 2024).
In February I read nine more and this is definitely my favourite reading project I’ve ever done! I always knew that he’s brilliant, but reading them in order – and finally reading some of his novels that I’d saved for a rainy day, for the first time – is a true revelation. Some of his books I’ve read several times, but not for a few decades. Many I’ve only read once before. And a few masterpieces I’ve only now read and fallen in love with.
The chronological element of the project is an interesting part of it, not so much because of much developement of his talent – of course he sharpens his tools over the years, but bar the first short story collection he pretty much arrived fully formed as a masterful writer IMO.
But reading them in order reveals the seeds to later stories in earlier books, and that’s very exciting. Every novel so far has been an even better experience than I ever remember having with them before, and I still loved them before…I’m just falling in love again and again with this intelligent, funny, versatile and always surprising author. Having the best time and not in a hurry to read anything else to be honest!
But I did read one other book in February, the third and final short story collection in the Tove Jansson bind-up collection that I started last month. Better than the first, almost as good as the second.
On my commute I sometimes dip into Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, and when I wait for a bus late at night to go home, and it’s too dark to see the pages, I switch to my Kobo and read Dead Souls by Gogol.
The “reading prompt” that I drew for February was to read a biography, but I couldn’t be arsed.
The prompt for March is to “read a book that teaches you something about a subject you know nothing about”…sounds exhausting just to find a book that fits the prompt (alternatively you could claim that just about every book you read will probably fit the prompt in some way, right?)
My feeling right now is that my Jersild project is going so well that I don’t have a need for any other books, and since the prompts are there as an aid if I need something to read and have run out of ideas and inspiration, and want to narrow down the selection to make it easier to choose, I really don’t need to use them until I’ve read through all of PCJ’s books. Which shouldn’t take longer than May or June, if I keep reading around ten a month.
Seen:
I wanted to start a project for watching and rewatching films as well, inspired by my reading project, but so far I haven’t gotten around to it. So apart from the YouTube channels I follow and random clips (to avoid going to bed at all cost) I’ve only watched an annoying true crime documentary – I only started watching because I thought it was a stand-alone, then I thought it was a two-parter so I kept watching, but they kept coming so I got fed up. Don’t know how it all ended, don’t care.
Heard:
Because I hadn’t bought any new CDs yet, and was fed up with my most recent (=December) haul, I’ve been getting out my old cassette tapes from the 80s and giving them a listen on my old kitchen mini stereo. Been enjoying a few old favourite albums that I haven’t been able to get in physical form, and was inspired to look up one old favourite artist on Spotify because he’s very difficult to find older stuff from. Probably haven’t used Spotify in a couple of years before this!
Waiting for the new albums from Hurray For The Riff-Raff and El Perro Del Mar, and a new copy of an old album that got lost. No gigs on the horizon.
Spring is almost looking to be sprung, but so far it’s still mostly very dark and chilly.
I’m still getting all of my vitamins and minerals, but I’ve had to add my pollen meds to the mix! 🙂
Heard:
Like Retro, I’ve been enjoying the Outliers record. It’s more like a diary than an album, and not at all another worthy singer-songwriter record.
Lots of Two Tone and related (see below).
Read:
I finally finished Daniel Rachel’s excellent Two Tone book, which is a tome but an easy read. I’ve seen some snobbish criticism about grammar, but it’s supposed to be word of mouth and didn’t really trigger my inner grammar pedant.
Seen:
I finally watched LCD Soundsystem’s Shut Up And Play The Hits I picked up on Blu-ray in a chazza a couple of years ago. I do love a good concert film.
Plus all the usual rubbish Mrs F makes me sit through before bed, the best of which was probably Trigger Point. Having been introduced to Shane Meadows early on (my tall chum soundtracked an early film) Vicky McClure will always be Lol to me.
I took a visiting colleague to see a student production of Iolanthe at West Road concert hall (it was supposed to be Tape Runs Out at the Portland Arms, but that gig was postponed until October). Every time I go to West Road I say “that was great, I must come here again soon”. I wonder how many years until my next visit?
I spent a weekend in a Northants watermill recording Cambridge’s ensemble answer to Tindersticks/Lambchop, my chums The Pony Collaboration. The mill has had a corkscrew water electricity generator, water-sourced heatpump and central heating fitted, so is warm all year round from free power. All that technology didn’t prevent the river from flooding, though, so I had to drive through 150 yards of floodwater to get there, and most of the ground-floor floorboards were up. Boiling the electric kettle in the ground-floor kitchen was something best done in rubber boots.
AOB:
I went twice into the office, my first visit in 18 months. I didn’t like it. I sat in a sweaty meeting room with someone who, three days later, went down with Covid. I somehow (again) managed to avoid catching it.
I have a new Gastro consultant as my previous chap retired last year. The new one wants to give me a colonoscopy – fair enough – and to stop my Crohn’s meds and see what happens – you what? I am not keen.
AOB addendum:
Mrs F and I have started ballroom & Latin dancing again, after a break of 25 years, as a beginner’s class has started locally. It turns out doing the Foxtrot or Cha-cha-cha is a bit like riding the proverbial bike – I just had to be shown which foot to lead on.
P.S. Fave Welsh song: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Patio Song
from Barafundle, as above.
Clodagh Rodgers?
I did nothing of any interest in February
Neil looks pretty out of it there.
Read:
2120 by George Wylesol was the book club pick for the month. A hybrid of graphic novel, choose your own adventure, and puzzle book that gets really weird really fast. I loved it, had to sit down with a notepad next to me while reading, which I haven’t done since trying to decipher House Of Leaves. A big chunk of my other reading was taken up by Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage. It didn’t turn out to be my favourite of his, but still very readable. It’s very hard to top the Goodreads review that distilled the 700 pages down to “THIS BOOK IS ABOUT A GUY WITH A CLUBFOOT HIS GIRLFRIENDS A BITCH”.
Saw:
Mondays: See You This week! was a charming low budget Japanese film where the cast of characters get stuck in a time loop and have to resolve it. It was a lot of fun, but not quite as good as River, which was a charming low budget Japanese film where the cast of characters get stuck in a time loop and have to resolve it. I loved this, which is not that surprising as it’s from the same creative team that bought us Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes, which is a charming low budget Japanese film where the cast of characters don’t get stuck in a time loop, but instead find a way to see into the future only to be trapped by having to make sure what they’ve seen does actually happen. All great, please watch.
Listened:
a couple of gigs – one double header of Copse and Pijn. Local blackgaze act Copse were excellent. This was the second time I’ve seen them in six months or so, and they’ve come on loads. Really feel like they could break out of the local scene and do well. Lots of screaming and howling, some really heavy battery and lovely pretty bits on top. Pijn were also very good. Think of a more metal Godspeed and you won’t be far off the mark, long instrumental songs decorated with violin and cello. They had the stage lit by just two floor standing orange lights which was simple but really effective. I also particularly enjoyed that the singer didn’t speak at all between songs, and the set was entirely instrumental until the last seconds of the last song when he unleashed two or three death metal growls, and that was the entirety of the verbal communication from them all set, not even a thank you at the end. Two great bands for eleven quid, first one on at 7:30, all done by half nine, home and in bed by half ten. Living the dream.
Then just squeezing in on the 29th I saw Craig Finn supported by Scott Lavene. I’ve raved about Scott on here before, and he lived up to it again. Really great observational songs with some nice black humour. Reckon if you were to test him you’d find bits of Billy Bragg, Squeeze and Ian Dury in the DNA. Craig Finn also very entertaining, lots of lively upbeat chat and anecdotes between incredibly depressing songs.
I can’t thank you enough KD for suggesting I see Scott Lavene at EotR back in the summer. Looking forward to the new album.
Read:
The Sound of the Machine: My Life in Kraftwerk and Beyond by Karl Bartos. It’s a big fat book and it’s taking me a while to get through – tbh, I haven’t reached Kraftwerk yet.
Murder in the Falling Snow – ten classic crime stories (GK Chesterton, Conan-Doyle, etc) set in winter. Christmas present from my sister – effortless afternoon reading with a cup of tea.
A Scandinavian Christmas – Festive Tales for a Nordic Noel. Exactly as it sounds.
Seen:
Not much…apart from The Traitors! I was nagged into watching it (again, by my sister) – I had assumed that it wouldn’t be my thing at all – joined about ep. 4 and watched it to the end! Then went back and watched the episodes I’d missed! Then went back and watched series one! Fascinating!
Heard:
Well, it’s been wall-to-wall classical in February. Nielsen symphonies – excellent, but I’ve no idea (apart from geography) why his music gets bracketed with Sibelius: chalk and cheese – Nielsen has more in common with Beethoven than Sibelius, a feeling of wildness and forward propulsion. Also listening to even-numbered Beethoven symphonies and Shostakovich chamber music.
My turntable has been away for some time getting seriously rebuilt – got it back at the end of February, so it’s been out with the big spanner: it’s been reassembled and oiled; and the fettling has started. Huzzah!
AOB:
My dad was given a bowel cancer diagnosis in February. He’s remarkably fit for his age (mid 80s) and has been offered surgery – he’s just waiting for a date. He seems very calm about it all, certainly calmer than the rest of the family. And I am due to have my gallbladder out in about 10 days – the old-fashioned way, I’ve been told, none of yer laparotomies for me! It’s a nuisance – longer stay in hospital, longer recovery after, longer without driving. You just know it’ll overlap with my dad’s op, but having waited this long, I’m reluctant to postpone.
It’s a scunner.
I meant to add this – can’t get this tune out of my head.
I forgot the Welsh record!
I’ll go with Many Are Called but Few Get Up, by Man.
Bowel cancer outcomes seem to be a lot better these days, my gig buddy had it (and a section chopped out) over the lockdowns. Apart from the side-effects of chemo at the time, he’s back to being healthier than me and ran the Cambridge half marathon on Sunday.
Time for my usual reminder: over 50? Get yourself a Poo Sticks kit.
A well-serviced turntable is a lovely thing. Huzzah indeed.
Thanks for that, Steve. I’d like to be in Glasgow when he has his op – but I have this feeling that I’m still going to be unfit to travel. We’ll see…
Turntable went away as a PTTOO; it’s come back (more or less) as a PT Anniversary. Now seriously considering my first (only!) new tonearm purchase since the mid 1980s.