The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Blogger Takeover LXXIX

Comments

  1. As ever, I’ve been busy with Quarantunes – they are all available on Bandcamp, pay what you like or just listen

    https://tomrafferty1.bandcamp.com/

    I have been enjoying Guy Pratt’s collected tales (My Bass and Other Animals) – plenty of daftness in that book. I also enjoyed his contributions to Barney Hoskyns’ book on Zeppelin (Trampled Underfoot). He was working with Jimmy Page and David Coverdale (post Zep), and Coverdale was “so unashamedly who he is. He said to me ‘Guy, you either catch some dreadful disease or they slap a lawsuit on you. Dark days indeed for a cocksman ….”

    And I have mostly been listening to Volumes 1 and 4 of Shaolin Soul – cool compilations of 60s/70s soul music.

    • I’m near the end of the Guy Pratt book, which is entertaining but I have to take in small doses. I get the impression that much though I enjoy his writing, and the Rockonteurs podcast, he would be exhausting company.

    • I watched a few of his lockdown videos last year, the ones where he gives you the background to a famous bass part he played on. He’s witty, and informative on the bass/tech front, but my goodness he can be a bit much. I don’t think he really “gets” social media…if you put things up for consumption then people are likely to ask you about them, and he very quickly gets exasperated with the general public I find. He does seem to find a lot of his own jokes completely hilarious. As some have suggested, good in small doses.

  2. This has been the first time in a very long while when I have had a few events to report on, and there would have been more but two comedy festivals we had planned to attend were postponed. The first has been put off till 2022 because the organisers and the council blame each other for not getting the H+S paperwork sorted out in time, and the second due to an adverse weather forecast. The second in particular seems to be causing bad feeling, with people reporting difficulty getting refunds. As ‘early bird’ tickets were still being sold until the week before there are suspicions that the event was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

    I did get a refund by asking early, and it almost covered the cost of seeing to two headliners we missed at indoor shows. The first of these was Bill Bailey at the Royal Opera House, and I wrote about him and the musical Heathers which we saw the same day in the Nights Out section. The second was Frankie Boyle, whom we saw on Sunday at the Leicester Square Theatre. This was a short work-in-progress of 40 minutes or so, but the abbreviated set was pretty much all punchline and painfully funny. One of the more repeatable lines: ‘When Boris Johnson got Covid, I didn’t want him to die. The last thing we needed at that point was street parties.’

    In between those two days we went to a free festival at Parsloes Park at Becontree. It was great fun, a day out in a chilly Dagenham to see a bunch of bands I wouldn’t have bothered with if we hadn’t been starved of live music (and it wasn’t free). We passed on the classic cars, dray-horses and Blondie tribute band which filled the afternoon and set up our chairs just as John Coghlan’s Quo were playing their last few songs, so that’s basically the drummer from the classic Status Quo line-up and his band bashing out Quo hits finishing with Rocking All Over the World.

    We timed our arrival for what passes these days for Doctor Feelgood, who were to stand in for The Blockheads. In the event Feelgood didn’t show either and we got UK Legends in their slot instead. ‘Legends’ might be overselling a band whose connections with top-flight stardom are tenuous (‘the voice of Smokie’, a Tyger of Pan Tang, a member of Thin Lizzy – no, not that Thin Lizzy, ‘Eric Bell’s Thin Lizzy’, and ‘played with acts such as AC/DC’ turned out to mean that the drummer was in the band that Brian Johnson left to join AC/DC, 40 years ago) but they played and sang well and bashed their way through a selection of rock classics. I noticed that the drummer was using Coghlan’s kit, so assume they were very much a last minute booking.

    Next up was Neville Staple, of The Specials and Fun Boy Three. He started with Gangsters, finished with Ghost Town and spent the rest of the set skanking his way through a selection of ska standards – Pressure Drop, Message to You Rudy, Skinhead Moonstomp, you get the picture; basically, a ska version of the set the UK Legends played. All they needed was Long Shot Kick De Bucket for anyone playing ska bingo to complete a line and shout ‘House!’ Terrific band though, and got the feet moving on what was proving to be a chilly afternoon.

    I’d never seen The Boomtown Rats before, which was a surprise to realise even though I wouldn’t call myself a fan beyond the greatest hits. Predictably enough for a festival set this was the greatest hits, starting with Rat Trap and moving on through I Don’t Like Mondays and all the ones you had forgotten you knew (Eva Braun, Someone’s Looking at You, Mary of the 4th Form which included a bluesy breakdown in which Bob Geldof told us that his dad used to be the chef at Ford Motor Works in Dagenham). 10,000 people went through the gates and I’m guessing more than half were still around for the Rats, making it the biggest crowd I’ve been in for a very long time. There’s nothing that can replace standing in a park amidst the sensory assault of the bass and the lights, surrounded by thousands of dad-dancing randoms losing it to some vintage rock.

    Incidentally, the festival was busy, central London was rammed on both visits and other trips this month to Manchester and Rye confirm that most people have pretty much decided that Covid is as good as it’s going to get. Face coverings are largely absent and signs about distancing and hand-sanitiser are already starting to look like historical artifacts. It’s an odd thing; people are still dying at the rate of well over 100 a day but to look around towns and venues you wouldn’t realise anything was amiss.

  3. Seen:
    I’m spending longer on Netflix and Amazon searching for stuff to watch than actually watching something.
    So I’ve been re-watching a stack of old DVDs – pick of the month being The Long Good Friday, Withnail And I, and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.

    Professor T filled a gap on Sunday evening, now replaced by Vigil on BBC1.
    And Annika on UKTV is worth a watch

    Read:
    Rick Buckler – That’s Entertainment.
    Rick was the best drummer for The Jam – nothing fancy, solid, and just right for the image and beat. So it’s no surprise that he seems still upset by the loss of the band (which is why he went out and did The Gift/From The Jam), and I think would jump at the chance if Paul Weller ever decided to revisit his past. Rick’s story is, to be honest, a bit ho-hum, and one feels he’s got a little bitterness going on.
    Francis Rossi – I Talk Too Much
    He’s honest about his failings and his relationships. I just felt he was holding a bit back (specifically about his relationship with Rick Parfitt – which he did state he wasn’t going deeply into at the start). He does seem to be more excited about the post-In The Army Now Quo than the Frantic Four years.
    He just comes across as a good bloke, one you’d quite like a pint with

    Heard:
    Decorated the dining room to a sound track of Dire Straits (in order) – finished at Brothers In Arms though. It’s a better album than many believe it to be.
    An observation: Doctor Feelgood makes you paint quicker
    Still convinced that John Grant has released his best album since Queen Of Denmark with Bot Form Michigan getting more spins than his previous outings.
    New Iron Maiden just dropped through the door – weekend listening sorted

    September will also see new stuff from Manic Street Preachers and Public Service Broadcasting

    AOB:
    Got my first 2 Gigs lined up since March last year.
    Stiff Little Fingers – 30th September
    Jon Lydon (Q&A) – 4 October

  4. I’ve reread all Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers Of London novels/novellas. They are all enjoyable, but I think Foxglove Summer is the best, and the recent one a bit meh, though a talking fox that knew its tradecraft would be pretty cool. The ‘October Man’ really got me the first time at its mention of ‘Special Circumstances’ as the equivalent of Caffrey’s ex-Para firemen.

  6. Read: We were on holiday for a couple of weeks, so I got into Diarmuid McCulloch’s biography of Thomas Cromwell. He does a great job of taking what could be very very dry, and makes it human, humorous, and with an understanding of people.

    Heard: I deciuded to work my way through the collection alphanbetically by album. Standout thus far has been Amanda Ann Platt.

    Watched: Sport. A lot of sport. And two French cop shows, courtesy of Acron streaming: Balthazar, which is a little like House as a Forensic doctor with an interesting backstory, and Candice Renoir. Neither are what I would call outstanding, but noth are what I would call really watchable telly.

  7. This summer’s been a bit of one-trick pony… the wonderful Test series against India notwithstanding (think how great England, or India for that matter, would be if they could bat!) … Summer of Soul.

    I declared last month as a statement of fact that it is the greatest pop music concert film/documentary ever made – and now, five viewings in… and I’m embarrassed to say that I have only seen it five times – what could I have been doing (in crappy 2021) that was more important?… I have it as the greatest film of all time.

    The music I’ve been listening to has been almost totally informed by it… Sly & the Family Stone (gender parity, black and white, nothing has ever been cooler), Peruvian soul (where did I get that?!), Marva Whitney (now my favourite album), The Meters, Magic Sam… and I have to seriously check out a whole host of performers in “the Park” that Summer… Ray Barretto (unbelievable), Max Roach, Fifth Dimension, Nina Simone, the Chambers Brothers, all the various Gospel groups etc.

    Tony Lawrence what a hero! Love the guy. And who knew that the white Mayor of New York of the time (a Republican, no less) was so revered in the black community? Another hero. And the black man’s take in 69 on the subject of whitey on the moon is exactly my take on the subject of whitey on the moon! Who gives a f***? This is my film!
    And you want strong role-models who aren’t male? They’re queuing up in “Summer of Soul” – Gladys Knight, Nina Simone, Rose Stone, Cynthia Robinson (wow!)… it should be on the school curriculum, not the tedious history of armed combat that Fat Boy J. and the tabloids wish to ram down our throats every single day of the year.

    I reckon you could get 25 people in a room and each one of them could legitimately claim their favourite bit of it to be different from everyone else’s!

    The Chamber Brothers probably do the coolest soul song I have ever seen performed (Uptown) and B.B. King DEFINITELY does the coolest blues performance I have ever seen performed… and that’s the first 10 minutes! Every time I’ve seen it I’ve felt as if I’ve done a ten-mile run afterwards. The pace never lets up. David Ruffin… unbelievable.

    Golden Age, taut, and a virtually unknown story… it’s the benchmark. Good luck, Let It Be.

  8. Spent most of August on holiday (=four weeks of “staycation”), getting rested and catching up with family and friends and avoiding doing most of my planned home improvement projects…

    Read:

    Began the month with a proper pageturner by Tim Powers: Three Days To Never. This is in the style of the Last Call trilogy and Medusa’s Web, a style I like to describe as “if Elmore Leonard had written SciFi/Fantasy”. This one is all about time traveling through a method invented (and hidden) by Einstein who realised what a powerful weapon it could become – especially since there’s a way to completely erase a person from time as well. His ancestors get involved in the battle between Mossad and an old French cult to get the last existing time travel device for their own means, and a very entertaining rollercoaster plot ensues. A greedy brother-in-law, a blind woman who can see through other’s eyes, Einstein and Chaplin, plenty of babbling ghosts, a cut off head that functions as a compass/ghost radio, a version from another time of one of the characters are other components, and the ending is very satisfactory. Recommended for a fun ride!

    She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh is not a biography of Dolly’s life and career (although it quotes plenty from biographies and interviews) but a sort of essay about her impact, seen through a feminist, historical, class and gender perspective and through the author’s own family’s experiences of poverty in the American South. A short but quite interesting book which, apart from letting me see many things from a perspective I didn’t have, also gave me even more respect for Dolly than I already had.

    After loving The Rain Heron in July, I picked up an earlier novel by Robbie Arnott: Flames. This novel is again layered with myths of his own invention: women who returns to life after death for a short while before burning up, fishermen hunting together with a seal partner, a man of fire starting a family with an ordinary woman and their daughter being able to start fires with her body when getting emotional, a river god in animal form and the impact his fur has after he’s been trapped and killed, a wombat farmer turning mad and ending up as a strange evil bird creature… This novel begins with a brother and sister losing their mother and the sister running away after finding out that her brother is making her a coffin, but takes a lot of what first seems like detours on the way to the end, where all of the many strands of the previous chapters are connected. Different chapters are told by different voices, and in very different ways. It can seem fragmented and confusing at first, but every part finds it way into the puzzle, and it’s very imaginative and quite wonderful (if not quite as brilliant as The Rain Heron, but not surprising as this one is an earlier novel).

    Then I raced through the latest by Stephen King – Billy Summers. It’s a thriller about a hitman who is going to do one last job through his mafia contacts before retiring, and we all know how well that tends to go of course… Alongside preparing for the hit he’s writing his memoirs, which we get to read. King also does a clever thing at the end (which I won’t spoil) which makes it a much better ending than you expect. However, this novel lacks the magical, supernatural elements (bar a small wink to the events at the Overlook Hotel, but that doesn’t actually enter into the story of this novel) and as well written and entertaining as this is, I still prefer his horror stories.

    Because I enjoyed the writing style of Jenni Fagan (although I didn’t fully get on with the stories in Luckenbooth) I decided to go back and try one of her earlier novels, The Sunlight Pilgrims. And I did like this one better, in many ways. It takes place in 2020 – when Earth is going through a disasterous winter that is the start of a new ice age – the novel was written in 2016, and although the climat crisis hasn’t gone full ice age on us yet, she certainly got the 2020 disaster prediction right! We follow Dylan who moves to a trailer park in Scotland when his gran and mother dies and the cinema they ran and lived above goes bust. He falls in love with his neighbour Constance and becomes friends with her trans daughter Stella, and we follow them and their joys and fears as the temperature drops and more and more snow falls under the eerie phenomena of seeing three suns in the sky. Old family secrets are revealed and complicates Dylan’s budding relationship, a huge iceberg drifts from the Arctic, the catastrophy is deadly but beautiful and the ending is left open during a black-out in a snow storm, but I didn’t mind that.

    I’ve also read most of The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories, but I can’t say that any of them gave me any traces of goose bumps, but as they are printed in order of publishing date I expect they will get better (= scarier) towards the end.

    A novel started in August but still in early days of reading, is the next entry in my “Read all of the books written by Carol Shields” project: Happenstance. It’s sort of two novels in one – a marriage story told first by the wife and then by the husband, so it’s quite long, but the writing is brilliant as always, so far.

    Heard:

    I bought a big haul of albums for my birthday, and received a few as well, but I haven’t had as much time to listen yet as I would have liked. The one I’ve listened to the most is the new Laura Mvula album Pink Noise, which I adore. This is both very 2021 and very late-80s-production memories of a lot of great RnB/soul of that time, plus some great songwriting and her gorgeous voice. Smooth and groovy, suited my holiday mood perfectly.

    Some melodic and smooth jazz-tinged instrumental music that I’ve been listening to when in need of relaxation is the Cloudland album by Lars Danielsson Liberetto, playing with some great musicians. When I say relaxing, I don’t mean only slow and tasteful/quiet, this also has some groovy and dramatic stuff. However, I’ve only used it as background music while writing, so can’t vouch for it as far as listening to it straight up goes…it may be duller than it seems to me when my brain is mostly occupied with other stuff! 😉

    David Crosby’s For Free album is quite good, not as good as his previous, but I haven’t listened to it the required six times yet, so who knows? The Steely Dan:ness of some tracks is a slight turn-off for me, but they’re not as bad as actual Steely Dan at least! 😀

    I’m somewhat optimistic about the latest John Grant album: Boy From Michigan. Only had time to listen 1½ times so far, and not loving everything at first listen, but quite a few tracks to get excited by already. And it did take me a good while to love QOD as well…

    Finally got to enjoy Martha Marlow’s Medicine Man and it’s gorgeous. Again – only a couple of listens in, so can’t say much about it yet, but her voice is stunning and her songwriting is really good, any fool can hear that even at first listen!

    Private Space, the new album by Durand Jones & The Indications is very groovy and retro. It’s smoother/not as raw as their previous album, and I’m unsure of how I feel about that – in some ways I think this one is a better album, but at times I miss the rawness of the other…but as a disco chick at heart I suspect this will win me over pretty fast!

    Kings Of Convenience – Peace Or Love is very much like their other albums…some killer tracks and lots of fairly bland fillers, IMO. And they always sound exactly the same, I have a bunch of their stuff but I wouldn’t be able to tell their albums (or songs) apart if my life depended on it! It’s not bad, but it’s a bit dull actually, especially if you listen to more than three tracks in one go.

    I’ve been listening to the new All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary edition, but not enough to give a solid verdict of it yet. Some tracks are better un-Spectored, some aren’t as good, and not always the ones I thought in advance… However, let me tell everyone who said on Tiggers ATMP review-thread that George’s voice is “weak” and “bad” that you’re all nuts! 🙂 His voice is always nothing short of brilliant, so beautiful and comforting, and it actually gives me goose bumps. Easily the best voice in The Beatles and in my personal Top Ten of favourite voices of all times. And if I could only choose ten albums to listen to for the rest of my life (compilations not allowed) he’d get two albums on my list (ATMP and George Harrison [1979]) – it’s absolutely impossible to get tired of listening to either, and they make me feel so much joy every time I hear them. Pure bliss!

    Yola has a new album out as well, Stand For Myself, it has more country soul sung in her lovely voice, some great tracks but others a bit bland. I’m hoping it will grow on me with time and repeat listening.

    I’ve only skimmed through Prince – Welcome 2 America so far, seemed like the usual mix of funky works of genius and absolute stinkers that many of his later albums contained, and I’m more than willing to skip a few duds to get to the funky goodness of Prince at his best, so looking forward to making a deep dive this month!

    Seen:

    The usual mix of serious documentaries and light YouTube entertainment. Some sports (paralympics, AFL, PBR, football recaps). Not a single film, again. I’ve developed some kind of allergy towards watching any one thing for more than 60 – 70 minutes… (and not keen on committing to a series)!

    AOB:

    Visited a restaurant for the first time in 17 months or so to enjoy a three course meal indoors. Unfortunately it was a slightly disappointing experience…I could have cooked everything better at home! Still, nice to not have to cook! 😀

          • Mmm… cheese…

            I’m kinda of unified and as one with Locust on this. McCartney has a very versatile voice which adapts well to the mood of the song, be it mellifluous or raw or cutesy. But the latter can be a tad too cutesy. Lennon’s voice has never appealed to me at all. I don’t particularly dislike it, but it has a sharp, nasal quality to it that I don’t find appealing. Whereas George’s has a nice, pleasant softness to it.
            I’m also agree with Locust about George Harrison the album, my favourite Beatles solo. I’m not as keen on ATMP though.
            So, there you go.

            • That’s roughly where I am, though I’m more sympathetic to the Lennoni snarl. McCartney is, or at least was, a very fine crooner but an entirely unconvincing rocker. As so often with The Beatles it’s the combination which makes Lennon/McCartney so great.

              • McCartney indeed convinces as a rocker (check out I’m Down, Long Tall Sally, Helter Skelter etc), so does Lennon who convinces in many other ways too.

                Harrison convinces only when he can sing in a very limited range and lots of production helps his weedy timbre. He’s ok, but the other two are two of the greatest British singers of all time in my opinion so pretty tough to be in that category.

                • Helter Skelter was exactly the unconvincing example I was thinking of. He’s a man of huge and varied talents, but a rock roar is not one of them.

                • Ah well; I don’t look for singers to convince me of anything (least of all that they can sing), I look for them to give me a warm, happy emotional response. I don’t need vocal gymnastics for that. But I genuinely think that George’s voice was the most beautiful voice in the band; if you can’t hear it, that’s your loss, it doesn’t upset me! 😀

  9. A busy month yet again.

    READ: The Ratline by Philippe Sands – I had intended to read this a couple of months ago but opted for something lighter at the time. Have to say this is an intriguing history of a Nazi monster told through a series of letters between him and his wife from the early thirties to his death in 1949 and beyond and the author’s meetings with his son up to the current date. It is very well written and extensively researched and reads as a page turning novel. The author has relatives who perished under Nazi tyranny but the book is balanced and it is easy to buy into the love between Otto Wachter and his wife Charlotte. Fascinating and gripping.

    SEEN: Kris Drever, John McCusker and Roddy Woomble at the Kitchen Garden Cafe with @retropath2. Not overly familiar with Drever and Woomble, John McCusker I knew from his Celtic Connections and Mar Knopfler appearances. The show was an anniversary gig of their album Before the Ruin and I left the show converted.
    My wife and I went to the south Bank in London to catch Tubular Bells reimagined which we enjoyed very much – acrobats very nearly stole the show but the band reinterpretation of this classic album was excellent. Wonder where Richard Branson would be if it were not for Mike Oldfield.
    Went to Moseley Folk Festival specifically for the Waterboys who were superb and finished their show with Dead Flowers as a tribute to Charlie Watts. Also on the bill were the Wonderstuff who were a good nostalgic throw back to that time when Size of a Cow was everywhere on the radio. Oh a shout out to Peat and Diesel an updated Pogues from the Isle of Lewes.
    I think I saw some ok TV but buggered if I can remember.

    HEARD:
    An odd mix this month:
    Fire Over Babylon a fine Studio One compilation.
    Nitin Sawhnney – Immigrants – I really like this album very much.
    Other You – Steve Gunn – different to previous releases – more chilled think desert Rose Band or War on Drugs with better riffs.
    Lee Scratch Perry – The Full experience and Super Ape bought after posts on here and before his death. Now listening and mourning the death of a unique character who played a big part in the development of Reggae music – will be missed.
    Willie Nile – The day the earth stood still – has become more prolific in recent years – this is better than his last couple that were okay but not as good as we knew he could be.
    The Electric Muse revisited compilation was listened to last month and has grown on my particularly this delightful piece of music:

    AOB: Went to see my son in Iceland – haven’t seen him for 2 years. The whole travel process was fine and anyone wanting to travel abroad but deterred by the negative news should make the effort. It really is no big deal.
    On the return flight as we approached Heathrow the pilot almost gleefully announced that he had been asked to go into a holding pattern and first time he had been asked to do this in two years.
    Looks like we are getting back to some normality and moving from a Pandemic to an Endemic.
    Fingers crossed.

    • 1. I’d really like to see Kris Drever live, but sadly those Scottish folk types rarely tour in Sweden, for some reason. I can certainly recommend Drever’s “If Wishes were Horses”album, plus, of course, all the brilliant stuff he’s done with the band Lau.

      2. I’ve now heard Steve Gunn’s “Other You” a couple of times. Yes, as you say, it definitely signals a change in style: softer, lusher, more relaxed, the vocals more audible …. I like it, but I liked the old, more abrasive Steve Gunn too…

      3. Given that the Waterboys are such a KILLER live band, and that they’ve been going for 38 years now, you’d think they would’ve released lots of nice live albums. But not a bit of it. There was “The Live Adventures of the Waterboys” back in 1999, but that has now been withdrawn and disowned by the band, because they weren’t receiving any royalties from it. So where are all the live albums? If the Waterboys were to put out a nice 3CD set of live classics from down the years, I’d buy it in a flash….

  10. Seen: almost nothing. It has been Love Island season, Offspring The Elder is a fan, I lasted about 10 minutes before announcing “I can’t take any more of this shit” and leaving the room.

    Read: Debbie Harry’s autobiog. I felt like she was holding things back, and I learned more about Blondie from Kris Needs’ Parallel Lives. And, a bit niche even for me, Brian Scaddan’s Electric Wiring for Domestic Installers (18th edition IET Wiring Regs) in preparation for wiring up my garage starting late Oct.

    Heard: summertime is reggae time: the recent 3LP Trojan comp, first two UB40 albums, Handsworth Revolution, Marcus Garvey, Super Ape, Blackheart Man, etc. For something more upbeat, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. And, to soundtrack the mammoth database mangling, the Charity Shop Classics archive and @Biggles ever-expanding array of shows. Tickets for the Maytalls, postponed and now without Toots, were refunded after cancellation “due to unforseen circumstances”. And the semi-unplanned purchase of the debut album by Gemma Cullingford (of Sink Ya Teeth) in the Holt Vinyl Vault.

    Other: a stressful few weeks. The global silicon chip shortage has made work one months-long barely-controlled choas. A week away on the north Norfolk coast had to be curtailed a day early as Offspring The Younger didn’t get his predicted grades and going through the sixth-form clearing process on mobile data was hopeless. It still took 10 days before a solid offer. Offspring The Elder, during checks for either FND (no fits for a year, thankfully) or EDS, had a hearing test. It turns out she’s completely deaf in one (inner) ear, having lost it (probably due to a virus – she did have Scarlet Fever as a toddler). Cue frantic last-minute hospital clinics to get a Bluetooth-mic-and-earbud hearing aid, under-pillow buzzing alarm clock, etc, before she goes off for Fresher’s Week at the end of this month. And a trip to the dreaded (by me) Ikea to buy assorted crap to fill up her halls room.

      • She did, and we didn’t really believe her. We just put each time she didn’t reply, or walked off, down to another of her ‘being a moody sod’ episodes. We’d feel slightly more guilty if she wasn’t such a moody sod.

        • It’s never a bad thing to ignore your childrens’ illnesses. Shows them who’s boss and prepares them for the inevitable dicreptiude when they reach their nineties. Win win.

    • Poor kid. I really sympathise with the deafness. A bad ear infection triggered sudden onset deafness in my right ear back in 2003 and it has affected me in more ways than might be imagined…yes, it’s obviously harder to hear stuff, but it throws your confidence too and you spend your life stage managing everything to be on your good side. It does become second nature though.

      • I honestly haven’t found it that much of a problem. I might have done had it occurred during the more debauched daze of my youth, but nowadays there’s not much I’m bothered about hearing. I quite enjoy telling people that there’s no point in talking to me. Though I do have the probably annoying habit, when walking along with someone, of grabbing them by the shoulders and shoving them round to my “good side”.
        Recently I was in a crowded hospital with people all around talking while wearing facemasks and I needed to hear what the receptionist was trying to tell me. In that situation I found the app Live Transcribe, which converts speech to text, very useful.

      • My grandfather was deaf in his left (outer) ear most of his adult life, having blown it repairing one of Monty’s tanks in Egypt, when the not-properly-unloaded gun went off. It blew a big hole in the shed door, too.

        Anyway, he went through life driving on the right and not being able to hear my grandmother’s constant “Look out for that pedestrian!” So it’s possibly not all bad.

        She’s had a bad run in the last couple of years: fits (leading to FND diagnosis), spontaneous lung collapse (leading to surgery and EDS diagnosis – inherited from me), now partial deafness. All she needs now is to start having symptoms of inherited Crohn’s disease.

        • I feel bad now for immediately harping on about me, me, me in response to Nick. And for my lighthearted comment about illnesses. I do hope she gets some lucky breaks.

          • Don’t feel bad on my part @Gary , if I’m being completely honest I do the grabbing people and moving them thing too, and I might actually use your comment of “no point talking to me” when I’m with people I don’t care much for!

  11. Talking of Paxman…apparently his planet-sized brain does not include rock ‘n’ roll knowledge – I’m watching University Challenge and he’s just suggested that “Chantilly Lace” was by Elvis.
    At a pinch, we might have accepted Jerry Lee Lewis; but surely the correct answer is The Big Bopper? Or a meringue?

  12. SEEN

    Music wise, we went to Southsea’s Victorious Festival but I’ve already reviewed that elsewhere on here. TV was a bit thin on the ground but we continued with The Handmaid’s Tale, even though it’s grim viewing, as we both feel we need to see it through to its conclusion now, and there will surely be another series. We struggled with choosing something at one point in August, so a real surprise was Clarkson’s Farm on Prime. Yes, I’m sure that’ll annoy many. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been able to stand the man…can’t tolerate anything that he stands for or represents, but to my amazement this series was fun, quite informative and entertaining from start to finish. Clarkson, as you might expect, is nothing but a completely hopeless gentleman farmer, ie he has enough cash to buy hundreds of acres in the Cotswolds and employ people to run it for him. However, he seems happy enough to be sent up and his young Farmhand, who turns out to be completely indispensable, is a total hoot.

    HEARD

    Not a lot of new really…Paul Weller’s Fat Pop album has been a grower after my initial reaction, and Joe Strummer’s recent Assembly compilation is still getting a lot of play. However, plenty of old has been listened to as I’ve binged on some 2-Tone and both Gary Crowley’s Lost 80’s sets.

    READ

    Rob Young’s book, The Magic Box, is a deep dive into British TV, mainly of the sixties and seventies, but it’s the more cult, folk horror and unusual drama type stuff that he covers here. I enjoyed this but he tries to cover so much…whilst this might sound a bit churlish, a little more context might have been a good thing at times perhaps.

    Chaise Longue by Baxter Dury (son of Ian) is a pretty vivid portrayal of being raised by a very difficult father and his assorted minders and hangers on. I felt sorry for the young Baxter, but I bet he doesn’t want the reader to do so. This book has had a lot of praise…although in parts it was terrific I didn’t think that standard was consistent throughout and he has a tendency to make light of some bits that could do with further explanation. Towards the end it just seemed to run out of steam a bit. A shame as it could have been a wholly fascinating glimpse into a very difficult childhood.

    AOB

    The youngest got his grades for university, and so he’s off to Portsmouth towards the end of this month. God I’m going to miss him. Like others above we’ve been doing the rounds of buying all the myriad stuff he needs. I gave him a framed photo of a collage of football selfies we’ve taken over the last few years at various grounds in the National League South. He visibly welled up at this and I do too every time I think about it… my goodness doesn’t time go so quickly.

  13. WATCHING: ‘Vigil’ – submarine crime drama. Enjoying it.

    READING: Sophie Hannah’s latest Hercule Poirot novel – it’s no good: annoying characters, ridiculous plot (but not in a good way), takes ages to get going, not worth the bother when it does.

    LISTENING: Horslips, Ten Years After 1967-74 box set, the new Brooks Williams/Aaron Catlow instrumental album ‘Ghost Owl’ – which is fabulous, redolent of Bert Jansch’s ‘Avocet’ album. Liking folk-rock revivalist Henry Parker’s new album taster ‘Lammas Fair’ (video below) – sent my tenner his way for the forthcoming album. Saw the Rob Strong Band in Monaghan last Saturday – 60 years on the road / 50 years recording for Rob. Amazing. An Irish blues-rock / soul trio.

    AOB: Filming scenes for a secret project on Tuesday past at Lissan House, an old mansion in Co. Tyrone, with several extras and musicians. More filming at Collins Barracks in Dublin later this month… Preparing various vintage rock / folk / jazz box sets for various labels… Rehearsing this weekend with singer Breige Devlin, pianist Scott Flanigan and drummer Cardiff Lou for my December album recording (the bass player is busy…) – exciting! Three days to run on our crowdfunder for it (see elsewhere on the AW).

Leave a Reply