The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Blogger Takeover LXXXV

Blogger Takeover LXXXV

by 56 Comments

SPRINGTIME! Following the timeworn traditions of the aftwerword, please gather round and tell us what you have been listening to / reading / watching / enjoying / using to pass the time and ignore the shitstorm going on all around us (delete as applicable)

0

Comments

  1. Heard:
    Yard Act – The Overload
    It seems every new band must adopt “spiky Post-Punk” to some exctent. Yard Act continue the theme but add social comment and a dollop of humour. Somewhere between The Fall, Sleaford Mods, and Half Man Half Biscuit. My first new album of 2002, and the year is looking promising.
    Bryan Ferry – Dylan-esque.
    In which Bryan extends the theory that he is the foremost Dylan interpreter of a generation.
    Does the world need another cover of Knocking On Heaves Door? On this showing, yes.
    Just found the 3 Strypes albums sitting unlistened to for a while – now rectified. A fine debut, lost their way a bit on the second album. Tried very hard to get it back on the third.

    Seen:
    Channel 4’s The Curse was a laugh, if a bit short and unresolved. The affected voice of Tom Davis makes it definitely worth a watch.

    Read:
    Paolo Hewitt’s Paul Weller biog The Changingman.
    It start with the line “Paul Weller and I were friends for 30 years. Now we’re not”.
    After that line I was expecting a bitter character assassination. Fair play to Paolo Hewitt it wasn’t but I’m guessing most of it was written before the falling out). There is a certain bitterness and envy, and I do think he overplays his importance in the story of Paul Weller’s career.

  2. You know, I only started contributing to this thread at the start of this year and already I love it. It’s a nice chance to reflect on what has been special over the last month.

    Read
    ——
    – Finished volume 2 of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. I like this guy. He over analyses things and ponders the big picture a lot. I can relate.

    Watched
    ———-
    – The Beatles rooftop concert: a limited cinema release, on a BIG imax screen and gut-rumbling sound. Absolutely magical. Felt like I was on that rooftop with them, and re-ignited my love for this band all over again.
    – Spielberg mini season: watched both Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. Haven’t seen either in years, and re-watching them now solidified my admiration for Spielberg. Saving Private Ryan in particular pretty much rewrote the rulebook on war/action cinema, and looks strikingly modern even 24 years later.

    Listened
    ———-
    Well now. It’s been a good month for me, music-wise, and I’ve made a couple of pleasant discoveries:
    – Anthony Phillips: I had never heard of this guy, and now I’ve fallen in love with his 1977 debut album The Geese and the Ghost. Proggy, mellow instrumentals (with a couple of vocal tunes for good measure), just as you would expect from an ex-Genesis guitarist. The 5.1 surround remix is beautiful, and really suits the record’s sparse, stately mood.
    – Jon Anderson: Olias of Sunhillow: I was vaguely aware the members of Yes all released individual solo albums in 1975, but I had no idea Jon Anderson’s was so good. Like a true control freak he plays all the instruments himself and sings total multi-choral arrangements on his own. It’s all played out within a concept-album hell vision of sci-fi gubbins… and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I always assumed Jon, while having a strong voice, was the weak link in Yes: on the evidence of this, his vision and knack for a good melody was one of the pillars of the band. Brilliant stuff. Like the Anthony Phillips album above, there is a terrific 5.1 version (for those who care, it’s an “upmix” not a true “remix”, as the original multi-track tapes are lost).

    Bonus
    ——-
    On a Yes-binge, I found something I never knew existed. Going For The One is (push comes to shove) my favourite Yes album, and I had no idea there was about three hours of footage of them recording the album. Why has this never been properly edited into an official release? It’s their version of Get Back: the last ditch attempt by the classic lineup to make one last great, energetic album: a group of guys on the cusp of their thirties on the best musical form of their lives… jamming and goofing around, with plenty of seventies studio porn gold (especially Rick Wakeman’s bank of keyboards). Here’s the youtube link to part 1: if you haven’t seen this, please watch now if you are a Yes fan! https://youtu.be/v1qJ0bkHlHo

  3. I am still working through the fabulous Bear Family Box Set – https://www.bear-family.com/various-sun-records-sun-blues-box-1950-1958-10-cd-deluxe-box-set.html

    I have started but not finished a mindblowingly deep book on fungi by Merlin Sheldrake – https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life

    not much TV to report, but Senora Malo and I are slowly stepping through the Marvel Comic Universe- some darker and less entertaining than others

    • The Sheldrake book is great, isn’t it? On that tip, Michael Pollan’s How To Change Your Mind is excellent, chronicling the history/culture of psychedelic plants and their current (increasingly promising) place in psychotherapy.

  4. I haven’t heard or read much new this month, and feeling embattled by world events (god knows how awfully the poor innocents actually caught us in must be suffering) have retreated into cosy crime dramas and travelogues. I enjoyed Stanley Tucci In Search of Italy, in which the celebrated actor remains remarkably trim despite carb-loading the length of Italy. I’m catching up the Cormoran Strike TV adaptations, and re-reading some Colin Bateman Mystery Man Books (it’s long enough since I first read them that they genuinely will be mysteries to me). I enjoyed revisiting Joe Boyd’s White Bicycles after picking up a signed copy from a supermarket charity bookstall. The Witchseason catalogue remains at the heart of what I most enjoy in music, and as well as being there Boyd can write.

    The big night out of the month was Ross Noble’s Humornoid tour at the London Palladium, a show which had been almost 3 years coming due to Covid delays. God he was funny, gasping for air, clutch your sides, feel almost ill through breathlessness funny. Most of it was non verbal, bar repeated call backs to his impersonations of Royal reporters (‘wonderful scenes, wonderful scenes …’) and Greta Thunberg (‘How dare you!’) but ‘man/dolphin complaining on the internet’, ‘clown car meets donkey sex worker’ and ‘monkey tits in sign language to the rhythm of the William Tell Overture’ were funnier than any human ought to be.

    A.o.b – I went back to the town where I spent my teens for the first time since about 1990. The high street looked ravaged, but the alleyways off it were attractive. On a Monday evening the only pubs open were 2 ‘Spoons and a deserted karaoke bar, but there was none of the air of menace which used to hang over the place when I knew it. The town was hanging out its arse but there was no visible sign of homelessness, and with property there a third of the price of where I live now I found my self thinking that with investment and jobs it could be a very attractive place to live. But then would it become so expensive that people wouldn’t be able to afford to live there any more?

  5. I’ve reacquainted myself with Terry Riley’s In C. What a wonder that is.

    Prime’s Reacher is violent, totally ridiculous and non-sexy (especially the ‘love’ scenes). Nevertheless, I completed the whole series.

    Philipp Dettmer’s Immune is a great book, explaining a complex system in an easily digested manner. Heartedly recommended.

  6. Read:

    The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa is a brilliant dystopian novel, poetic and beautiful in all its cruelty. The main character is an author on an island where one thing after another gets removed from people’s conciousness and burned as physical objects, and the few people who are unable to forget must hide from the Memory Police. The author’s mother was taken by them, and now she’s hiding her editor in a secret room in the house she lives in. The story she is writing is woven together with the novel’s story and mirrors it brilliantly, reminding us that we need to protest in time, while we still have our voices.

    I started reading Damon Galgut‘s novel The Promise right after it won the Booker Prize, but quit just as quickly because I had too many books going at the same time then. Now I picked it up again, starting from the beginning, and I’m very glad that I did. A wonderful reading experience, told in an irresistible flow of changing voices. In the same paragraph, or even the same sentence, we can go from the voice of an all-seeing author to the thoughts of one character, to dialogue between other characters and land in the thoughts of yet another; seemlessly and without the clutter of indicators such as “he said”, “she thought”, etc. And it’s perfectly clear who is talking or thinking and it brings a forward motion that makes the novel near impossible to put down. We follow a white family in South Africa from apartheid to modern days, meeting them at the funerals of the main members, one after another as the years go by. In the background is a broken promise to a black servant, in a “Howards End” kind of way. But it’s the writing that is the big draw, playing with the conventions of a novel and reinventing the point of view. Loved it.

    Then I read the next installment of the diaries of the Swedish artist and author Marianne Lindberg De Geer, written last year. Not as entertaining as the first part was, but still quite charming and very honest and funny.

    Being a fan of George Orwell I was happy to find a novel of his that I hadn’t read; Coming Up For Air, although it turned out to be a mixed bag. His writing is impeccable as always, it’s often very funny, but as a whole it didn’t quite work for me. Large chunks of it are very interesting and foreshadowing later works, but it’s a bit inconsistent in its tone.

    Next up was a new Swedish novel by Nina Wähä, called Babetta. I’m in two minds about this one. It’s cleverly constructed and uses film references in an interesting way throughout the story of a film star on her way down and her best friend from drama school who never caught a break. But I don’t care about any of the characters, it’s too detached and I dislike some of the tropes used. An interesting fail, for me.

    Next I turned to the always reliable Swedish author Kerstin Ekman and her short novel Löpa Varg from last year. This is a gem, a story about an old man who, after hunting his whole life, starts to revaluate everything after an encounter with a wolf in the wild (also helped by a later heart attack). This leads to conflict with his community and to him going through his memories and looking at his life with honesty for the first time. A wonderful novel about nature, animals, ageing, love and taking stock. He’s a classic grumpy old man, but an aquaintance I’m very happy I’ve made.

    Having loved Circe by Madeline Miller, I naturally turned to The Song Of Achilles next, with too high expectations of course. It’s good, but it’s nowhere near as great as Circe was – but it’s unfair to expect a debut novel to be as good as the follow-up. Still a fun read, and the love between Achilles and Patroclus is very well depicted, the ending is moving, but neither of the characters appealed to me enough below the surface of the story (which has survived this long for a reason). Parts of the novel were slightly dull as well. But had I read this one first, I probably would have liked it at least a little better than I now did.

    Finally, I read a novel by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah; Paradise. About a young boy sent to live with his “uncle”, except he soon finds out that the rich merchant isn’t related to him at all, and his father had to turn him over to the merchant as a slave for a debt he couldn’t pay. He grows up working in the merchant’s store with an older boy of the same fate, then is taken along on a trading expedition that turns more and more unlucky. The boy Yusuf is watching and listening to everything around him with a wide-eyed innocence that takes a long time and many harsh lessons to break. It ends a bit abruptly, and Yusuf felt strangely anonymous and detached next to the rest of the cast of characters, but the writing and descriptions are wonderful, and I enjoyed the many dialogues we take part of, the storytelling, the teasing quarrels, the philosophical arguments. That’s the novel’s strength, IMO. Not a new favourite novel, but I look forward to reading more of his works.

    Seen:

    Watched a few episodes of the Janet Jackson documentary series – haven’t finished yet because it’s too long and I haven’t had the time. Did the same with a couple of other docu series, can’t remember which now. Just give me two hours, please, and put the padding on a Director’s Cut DVD for the insatiable (or retired with time to fill 😀 ).

    Heard:

    Too many new albums, not enough time to listen. I’ve only been able to listen once or twice to: Imarhan – Aboogi, the standout so far alongside Anaïs Mitchell‘s new album. Also Punch Brothers, Aoife O’Donovan, Jana Horn, Jake Xerxes Fussell, with a few others so new I haven’t yet gotten through them once. Plan to immerse myself this weekend, not having to work for once.

    AOB:

    The “post-covid” euphoria has given way to sombre flashbacks to the Cold War atmosphere that I remember from my childhood and youth. Just as you thought the worst was over…Putin had other plans. A damp blanket of depression hangs over Stockholm in the evenings, streets empty while everyone sit at home watching the news (and planning for worst case scenarios – some slight hoarding of canned goods etc has begun among the nervous and pessimistic…)
    I’m not the worrying kind, but there’s an absurd sense of unreality at the moment that can’t be ignored. Although I try my best to, hoarding books in the big annual sale and ordering more albums…comforts in dark times.

    • I share your gloom, Locust, and Northern Ireland is about as far away from the madman as anywhere in Europe. If he comes here, he will have already been everywhere in between. One hopes for someone in his circle to understand the bigger picture and kill him. It’s the only way this ends.

    • I love Coming Up for Air, while it is not his greatest novel, I like the lightness of touch and comedy of an attempt at writing that, prisoner escaping suburban boredom, book. It always reminds me of “The Spring Madness of Mr. Sermon” a 1963 novel by R. F. Delderfield. (which gave Bill Forsyth the germ of the idea for the film “Local Hero”, a search for Nirvana, if you like) I think English writers do this escaping the stifling numbness British society, very well without resorting to the angst and anger of their American compatriots attempts at a similar theme. Sorry, I rambled on a bit there!

    • Nice to hear that you like “The Promise”, Locust. I’ve just bought the book myself.

      Have you heard the new Big Thief album yet?
      Rather an unwieldy title (“Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You”) … and real double album length (nearly 80½ minutes on one CD), but on the first few hearings it sounds very promising indeed.

      Has any other Afterworder purchased/heard Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You?

          • I got two of their albums (Big Thief), about twelve months back can’t remember the titles but I think both were released in the same year. They seemed the type of band that was made for my musical tastes but disappointingly they failed to hit the spot.

          • Six listens haven’t been completed yet. She has a wonderful, entrancing voice. At first, the ramshackle rhythm section was annoying, but it has grown on me and now I find it endearing. I like the overall feel of a bunch of flawed, vulnerable human beings in a collective endeavour, making the best of the skills and talent they’ve got. I’m enjoying its scope and breadth. As you point out, it’s a proper double album. It demands my time and attention to get to know it well. I already like it a lot and my guess is I’m going to like it better as the year goes by. It won’t be long before I’m in love with it.

      • No, not yet. Was waiting for a couple of other albums to be released so I could order them all at the same time. Not a fan of Spotify, so haven’t had a sneak stream either.
        I’ve yet to dislike anything by them, so not worried about this one either – and really looking forward to the gig in June (as long as WW3 doesn’t become “a thing”… 🙁 )

  7. Like @Gatz I find my enthusiasm completely sapped by the awfulness of world events, so have retreated somewhat into the comfort of the familiar. Despite the steep asking price I shelled out for the 2CD version of the 25th anniversary edition of REM’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi, arguably their last truly great album, which was sorely underrated at the time of its original release. I’m not sure that the bonus CD adds much to appreciation of the album, despite some decent extra tracks and alternative versions, but I’ve bought all the other 25th anniversary editions, so……oh well, you know the rest.

    I read Paul Rees’s new biography of John Mellencamp this month. It’s a fairly short and pretty straightforward ‘official’ bio, but Rees doesn’t shy away from detailing some of Mellencamp’s legendary arse-like behaviour, presumably with Mellencamp’s blessing, which only makes you wonder how much worse the unauthorised stories would have been.

    BBC iPlayer has a wealth of hidden gems these days, and I’ve caught up with the new series of Winter Walks and Yorkshire Walks. If you haven’t seen them, the basic premise is that a celeb undertakes a short walk captured on a 360 degree handheld camera with the addition of overhead drone shots. What I particularly like is that the programme is devoid of any incidental music, and allows the sounds of nature to provide their own accompaniment. The celeb is allowed to waffle without a script as the walk progresses. Best, and most revealing was Alastair Campbell, who despite a predictable ‘as I once said to Tony’ moment when chatting to a complete stranger, was unexpectedly honest about his own mental health issues. The programme has a simple premise, bathing in the wonders of nature as a sedative to the bloody terrifying times in which we find ourselves.

    • Postscript –

      I forgot to say that I am around two thirds through reading The Gorse Trilogy by Patrick Hamilton. I seem to recall from previous threads that Hamilton has a few fans on here. He’s truly one of the best but most neglected English novelists, often badly served by his books being out of print. The Gorse Trilogy is a sublime read. I read Hangover Square and Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky years ago, and it’s always a pleasure to return to Patrick Hamilton’s work. At the moment, all of his novels are in print (published by Abacus) and some of the lesser known ones like Monday Morning and Craven House are worth discovering. Witty, engaging and great fun to read, Hamilton is another worthy antidote to the times.

  8. Heard: A lot of Horslips, a lot of Martin Carthy, Robert Fripp’s ‘Music for Quiet Moments’… Also, an advance listen through elfin Yorkshire folkster Katie Spencer’s new album, her second, released in May. It’s beautiful. The trailer song on YouTube is among its lesser lights, in my view, but captures well the album’s feel and mood. I’ve also heard my pal Dave McLarnon’s new album as one third of the Auld Gods, in collaboration with two ex-pat cronies from 70s Belfast. One of these cronies was something to do with the Psychedelic Furs and that’s a fair indicator of the album’s patina – though not the only one. At times, Dave (vocals) channels Bryan Ferry, at times the music doffs a hat at New Order… It’s diverse and interesting – a cohesive, somewhat dark body of (lockdown) work that deserves a wider hearing. Ordinarily, I’d write a full review on the AW but I feel so crushed by the evil going on at the moment that I can’t. Sorry Dave. But here’s the Bandcamp page: https://auldgods.bandcamp.com/

    Read: Parts of two vintage blue Penguin paperbacks I bought in Wigtown when passing through in October last year – ‘The Ancient Explorers’, a ‘popular’ book by two academics written in the 20s, and Rex Harris’ 1952 book ‘Jazz’. Much knowledge and erudition in both, though some of the former now superseded (e.g. Buddy Bolden, the ‘founder’ of jazz, never ran a gossip magazine in New Orleans nor was he a barber). Also, a style of writing that is of its time but somewhat like a warm bath. Also read one and a bit more British Library (British) Crime Classics – by Anthony Berkeley this time. Not grabbing me as much as the BL’s ongoing reprints of obscure novels by the wonderful ECR Lorac / Carol Carnac, for instance. I think I’ll switch to one of two recent Jim Eldridge books in the pile – effortlessly written Victorian crime pastiches set in museums and hotels. I think it’s time to acquire Stephen Fry’s Sherlock readings from Audible. I need complete escape.

    Watched: Can’t recall anything standing out. Maybe ‘Hidden Assets’, all 6 episodes recorded from RTE a while back. I think it’s currently showing on BBC4. Currently watching a few episodes of NCIS – easy viewing, moral certainties, quirky characters.

    AOB: I’m the ‘event organiser’ of a media gathering to launch a product at a swish place in Dublin on March 16. I found myself ordering large quantities of wine and canapes a couple of days ago while Ukraine is destroyed on TV by a mass murdering bastard. It felt tragic/comic. But one clings to the thought that conducting this sort of activity – a free media gathering, artistic product, bonhomie, art itself – is the kind of thing the bastard would want to stop. So the principle is profound, if the actuality – the actuality of almost anything one does at present – seems pointless. I co-run a jazz club in East Belfast every Friday. Last night it felt that we had reached a new high – a nearly full room of people who truly wanted to hear the music, didn’t want to talk and cheered wildly at the right places. Last night’s guest was Dublin’s Ciaran Wilde with his ‘Quiet Quintet’ – a guitar, bass, drums, trumpet + Ciaran (alto, baritone and clarinet). It’s a rehearsal band – this was its first gig – that has built up a repertoire of 1930s-50s small-group mainstream/modern music – its straight-ahead purity was bliss. The band itself was blown away by the reception for this, its first gig. I don’t have any clips, but the pro video below of Ciaran with different accompanists captures a similar vibe. Exquisite, gentle, no-nonsense mid-century jazz.

    In other news, my album project with Breige Devlin is going well. Only getting access to the two studios involved is holding us up. But soon. I feel it’s my last venture of this kind and I’m excited about how its sounding – though under no illusions that it will mean anything to anybody beyond me, Breige a few dozen people. Art for art’s sake, really.

    I’m thrilled to be in the foothills of preparing a ‘Martin Carthy at the BBC’ box set, with the great man provisionally on board. A giant of music.

  9. Listened

    Every so often I like to binge on a particular artist, going back and re listening to their collected works. This month I have been mostly listening to Lucinda Williams. She isn”tthe most prolific of artists – just 13 albums of original material in 40 years, but, I suspect not entirely unrelatedly, her quality control is astonishing. She is never less than good, and often magnificent. The revelation for me was ‘Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone’ which I found underwhelming on its 2014 release, but now sounds fantastic across its whole double album length.

    My other pleasure this month has been classical/jazz pianist Frank Dupree’s new album of piano pieces by Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin, arranged for jazz trio; terrifically enjoyable stuff.

    Read

    Having watched the TV series on Chernobyl, I read two of the books that were key source material for it. Serhii Plokhy’s ‘Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe’ is an excellent account of the sequence of events that caused the disaster, and the subsequent consequences. Interestingly in the light of the awful current events, he sees the disaster and the Soviet Union’s incompetence and cover up around it as key in the development of Ukraine’s strong independence movement.

    Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Literature prize a few years ago for her books which use painstakingly gathered oral history accounts to tell the stories of, for example, Soviet women’s contribution to the front line in the Second World War. Her book ‘Chernobyl Prayer’ doesn’t deal with the actual incident itself but focuses on the aftermath; those who had to clear it up, those who had to leave their homes never to return; those few people who have returned. It’s incredibly powerful stuff.

    Seen

    Our current box set is ‘Ozark’ on Netflix. It deals with a couple in over their heads in helping a Mexican drug cartel launder its money; so firmly in the tradition of shows dealing with all American families who just happen to deal in crime and carnage – shows like The Sopranos, The Americans, and Breaking Bad. It’s excellent, if a bit of a slow burn. There are some wonderful moments, not least the end of season one in which the events unwind with the whole second movement of Beethoven’s second piano concerto playing in the background. Its one of the most stunning uses of a music soundtrack I’ve seen in an age.

    Also enjoyed my first visit to the cinema in two years. ‘Belfast’ was fabulous; it was worth the wait.

    AOB

    It’s difficult to know what to do in the face of Putin’s atrocities.a bunch of orchestras playing the Ukraine national anthem certainly isnt going to stop him. But its a gesture..

    https://fb.watch/bznzT790lm/

  10. Sport –
    Just checked. I haven’t seen my local football or rugby team fail to win a League match since August Bank Holiday Monday. That’s about 18 straight wins. Tottenham Hotspur plc it ain’t. Nice.

    Music/TV
    I overheard someone on Five Live say that they’ve been listening a lot to John Martyn and Nick Drake recently, and that rather fits my mood.
    Tim Buckley – “Blue Afternoon” and “Lorca.” “The Tumbler.” The Doors – “Strange Days.” “Another Monday” – John Renbourn. And Pentangle have made me want to watch “Take Three Girls” again, if I can locate the 10 episodes (of 24) that still exist.
    Saw “Only Murders in the Building” – a 10-part detective/murder-type series with Steve Martin. Really rather good. Reminded me in tone of “French Dispatch.”
    Oh, and I’ve started watching “Shakespeare and Hathaway.” A lightness of touch is what is needed at the moment and that fits the bill perfectly. I don’t want heavy. I never want heavy. If I wanted heavy, I’d buy a Led Zeppelin record.

    Cinema
    “Parallel Mothers” – yep, pretty good, felt a bit like one film tacked onto another – VERY topical in it’s reference to a war grave from the Spanish Civil War.

    The big one? “Get Back,” of course. Seen it three times. Should have gone more. Absolutely fantastic and I am so pleased that a short, sharp, focused cinema release came out (just like I asked for). Wonderful as the 8 hour series is, how many times is anyone going to see it? Thinking about it, I reckon this is the only example of a Beatles’ project (single/album/film whatever) achieving its ultimate version AFTER the 60s.

    Everyone comes out well, but the star of the show is 1969. And the policemen… figures of fun? Incorrect, they policed this incident with calmness and understanding. Wouldn’t fancy that 2022’s music equivalent (there is no equivalent to the Beatles, obviously) would fare so well.

    Favourite bit – Paul almost collapsing at the end of shouting that mad bit in the first version of “I Got A Feeling.”

    I didn’t think four years ago, that three of the greatest music films ever would have come out between 2018 and 2022… “Amazing Grace, “Summer of Soul,” and now “Get Back.”
    I’ve got the latter two at 1 and 2, respectively, and “Summer of Soul” as the greatest film ever, period.

  11. WATCHED: Binged the first half of the last series of Ozark. First class, as ever, especially the part of Ruth (Julia Garner), who also popped up as the lead in Inventing Anna, another addictive romp. Nice to see Peaky B’s back, and Killing Eve. The former has certainly hit the ground running and, for all the “not as good as it was”, Eve is still solid fare, if increasingly reliant on the playing of Jodie Comer and Fiona Shaw.
    SEEN: Just the Coral, reviewed elsewhere, to save you the bother of bothering. Making plans fro summer festivalling, which shows a huge array of options, if class acts spread thin amongst the morass of “are they still going” appearances.
    LISTENED: A huge shout for the return of Oysterband, at least wrt new songs, with the very excellent Read the Sky. Al Scott and Adrian Oxaal have slotted into and expanded the soundscape massively, and the core trio of Jones/Prosser/Telfer have lost not a jot of their muse. Read the Sky, it is called.
    My fanboi bromance continues apace with Dean Owens, with Sinners Shrine, the eventual culmination of his work with Calexico, as previewed across the Desert Trilogy EPs last year, with less than 50% the songs reprised from that trio of (also) great releases.
    READ: I knew I’d forgotten to do something. Again.
    OTHER BUSINESS: Worrying about and for Ukraine, as the Pukon runs amok. I am feeling this isn’t going well and won’t.

  12. Heard
    Finally the new releases for 2022 are kicking in. The Sea Power album is surely their strongest album yet and an early shoe-in for my top 20 of the year. Though not for everyone the Foxes album is for everyone who mourns the noughties Little Boots, La Roux et al. I like it a lot. The 1001 albums generator has thrown up no undiscovered gems, but have now listened to Laura Nyro and chazza fave White Ladder.

    Seen
    We are nearly at the end of Money Heist story 1 – the episode list is super-confusing as netflix recut the original Spanish episodes, but I think it all finishes on episode 15. Trashy but enjoyable. On an iplayer roll – Chloe, This Is Going To Hurt all good.

    Read
    I am the last here surely to read Broken Greek but bow down before Paphides’s brilliance. Like any memoir you can think ‘Did he really remember all this’ but its so pitch-perfect it doesn’t matter. Ms Moles will get a paper copy for her birthday, as will a friend. Joins that small list of literary evocations of Birmingham.

    Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan I can also thoroughly recommend, and also steeped in the post-punk 80s, a coming-of-age novel from the point of view of a group of friends travelling to Manchester for the Festival of the Tenth Summer. That’s the first half, the second is a much darker trip into middle age, illness and regret. Not really sold it there have I?

    And went to the theatre in London. The Chairs at the Almeida. You won’t get a ticket, it may have already finished, but it reminded me just how brilliant live theatre is when it’s done right.

    • One of the best things about lockdown (quite apart from it helping to combat a global pandemic) was the amount of free live theatre that was being shown. Including from The Almedia. It’s something I miss from London and seeing it, even on screen, is a very different experience to tv or cinema.

  13. Seen:
    Surprised to find that I am the first to mention the Transatlantic Sessions. They are becoming less and less a true session, but more a showcase for the guests, all of whom were top notch this year. That said, the Paul Brady songs got lost in the mix, especially his voice, which was a shame, with altogether too many instruments on the go. Layla McCalla, on the other hand, had space to breathe with more sparse arrangements; Dirk Powell was new to me, and outside my usual tastes, but was excellent. But note my use of ‘arrangements’, for that is what they are – polite, considered, beautiful, but not really the jam of a session; the high points for me will always be the tunes where Bain, Cunningham, McGoldrick, Doyle and McCusker let fly.

    Read:
    Christmas present-driven, both linked to travels. It is beyond me, how this was my first read of Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, given that I have cycled those parts on several occasions. This was armchair travel at its most wistful and longing for me, drifting memories back to simpler, freer, less threatening times, evoking chestnut landscapes.
    I am 60% of the way round the South West Coast Path, so award winning The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, should have been a shoo-in, but I didn’t connect with the personal story of struggle and redemption. Something just didn’t click, though I did find humour in the repeated misplaced recognition for Simon Armitage, but it was his take on The Path which I found far more enjoyable.

  14. Seen
    Two gigs Jah Wobble and the next day an intimate gig with Iain Matthews and B J Baartmans..
    The immersive Van Gogh exhibition at Spitalfields.
    Watched old b and w films on Talking Pictures. Stanley Tucci Italian food trip (shall try a few of the recipes)
    Read: the two latest Bryant and May detective stories (a new one on the way) and the Judy Dyble Deadly Dining book (which I helped fund). Vesper flights by Helen Mcdonald and John Cooper Clarks autobiography both most enjoyable.
    Found: that my son had moved to Manchester, it had been on the cards but delayed for sometime, it suddenly happened.
    AOB: back to the gym and sauna. My weakened leg has been working much better recently HURRAH.

  15. MUSIC
    David Bowie – Never Let Me Down/Black Tie White Noise – For reviewing purposes. Hearing the first track on BTWN I felt massive relief after the slog of NLMD.

    Can Future Days, Talk Talk Spirit of Eden
    Both for £1 each in a chazza. I like Can but have to be in the mood. For me it has the same purpose as Miles Davis, Bill Evans etc. I can play it continuously in the background aand not get bored. Spirit of Eden, which I was not familiar with, I found a bit slow, rambling and pretentious at first but now it’s growing on me, play by play. However I’m rationing it out as I don’t want to overdo it.

    BOOKS
    Matt Haig – The Humans. Light uplifting sci fi allegory of the human condition. Like a home counties Kurt Vonnegut.

    Wynn Raynor – The Wild Silence. A birthday present. I haven’t read the Salt Path. This book reminded me of second album syndrome. A bit of a rag bag follow up lacking an overall theme but instead three disparate stories/themes. I didn’t really identify with her. However, I will probably read the Salt Path at some point, although without any great expectations, just to satisfy my curiosity.

    David Hepworth- Overpaid, Oversexed and Over Here
    Really enjoyed the first few chapters. The Beatles in America etc. I felt him to be somewhat condescending and salacious writing about the likes of Eric Burdon and Graham Nash but then the chapters on the 1970s and the likes of Elton John and Rod Stewart brought me back. I realised that he has done the donkey work, a lifetime of dedication to all the hoary rock’n’roll stories. Even me, an avid consumer of rock biography couldn’t face, for instance, reading the whole of an Eric Burdon or Graham Nash biography.

    My theory is that the rock n roll era is our generations equivalent of religion/the Bible back in old times. We know all the stories – Jagger and Watts in an Amsterdam hotel, Phil Spector locking people in his mansion, etc ad nauseum … and Hepworth manages to find new angles and shine light in neglected corners

    GIGS

    Katy J Pearson – Part of Bristol Exchange Go Gentle series – low priced afternoon gigs for the disabled, families, neurodiverse community. I thought I would like the idea of an afternoon gig but actually felt a bit weird on a grey drizzly afternoon to be going into a windowless venue at 2pm. I love her voice on record – kind of an indie Stevie Nicks but was left underwhelmed by her stripped down acoustic 40 minute set.

    Fantasy Orchestra – Big Bowie Party, The Mount Without, Bristol
    80 piece rock orchestra play to a sold out (300 punters) new venue. A church converted to an arts centre. Concentrating on the 70s classics with a smattering of Berlin Period and one or two deep cuts – The Gospel According to Tony Day. A different vocalist on each song. The whole audience singing along. A night of community, nostalgia and love. For 2 hours I (almost) forgot the war and realised the things that make life worth living . Audience mostly 45 years upwards orchestra younger and knew all the words. Apart from two songs where the majority of the audience becalmed.people and the smattering of under 40 women in the audience made themselves obvious by going mental. Labyrinth tunes of course.

    TV AND FILM
    Not watched much TV. I like to have British Talking Pictures films from the 1950s and 60 50 60s playing silently with subtitles on and take in the atmosphere.

    Some Sky Arts music and film documentaries. – Jack Nicholson, Coen Brothers, REM. These are cheaply made, mostly talking heads hacking away telling you what you (ie your average Afterword person) already know but good for the basics and feature some good footage. Watching Discovering REM I realised how catchy latter day single Imitation of Life is. It sounds like they have compressed their best songs from their 1983 – 1986 era into one fourminute single. This has inspired me to spend £2 plus £2 postage and packing on a second hand CD of Live in Dublin, recorded 2007 but featuring mostly 80s cuts. My tape recording of their BBBC recorded concert in Nottingham in 1984 was probably my one most listened to music in 1984 and 1985. Oh the harmonies.

    • Rather confusingly, there are two R.E.M. official live albums that were recorded in Dublin.
      – First there’s “R.E.M. Live” (2007) – the one with the red cover.
      – Then there’s “R.E.M. Live at the Olympia” (2009), which was also recorded in Dublin.

      They’re both superb, of course.

    • Future Days for a quid! Bargain.

      There’s something I love about that album. I know what you mean about it being background music though. Probably my favourite Can album: definitely the most cohesive one.

      • Yes, this and Ege Bamyasi are my faves. Like Tom Waits and I suspect the Talk Talk Spirt of Eden, I can listen to them on repeat thinking this is brilliant and then suddenly it turns to “That’s it. No more” and I have to have a break. Other artists I seem to take in smaller, healthier doses.

  16. Reading
    Carmilla by J S Le Fanu is a vampire novel which predates Dracula by about 25 years. It lacks both the powerful, charismatic central character (Carmilla is a bit drippy) and, thus far, the very modern race-against-time suspenseful narrative of Stoker’s great work .
    Interesting, though, that I came to it while rummaging around in digital bargains and, of all the books I’ve “sampled” down the years before buying, it has the most compelling opening pages, as though its first chapter was expressly written with future digi-dabblers in mind.
    Still reading Paul Morley’s Tony Wilson book. One line:
    “All great groups have their extra members” made me think PM could be starting threads on here.

    Seen:

    The news. It doesn’t help, but it’s impossible to look away.
    The Regrettes have a new single out. There are videos on YouTube for two of the songs.
    Reader, I had to look away.
    Being an old man enjoying music made by young women is – I am certain – a good thing, but I may have to stick with the audio in future.

    Heard:

    Last month I wondered at the latest Beach House album Once Twice Melody expanding from 8 to 12 tracks since before Christmas. Well, now it’s 16 tracks long! Never mind The Climate Emergency, fresh pandemics and the threat of nuclear war, if the Beach House album keeps expanding at this rate it will consume the entire universe in no time.
    The Chart Music podcast remains a glimmer of light on a gloomy mindscape, although this month’s revelation that Sandie Shaw – that old granny from the 60s who appeared on TOTP with The Smiths – was 37 at the time, almost twenty years younger than I am now, was quite a sobering thought.

    AOB:

    I know I keep saying it, but can someone sort out David Mitchell’s sore eyes. WILTY is becoming a more difficult watch than those Regrettes videos.
    What’s holding up the Spiritualized album? It’s been trailed for a couple of months now..
    Delighted to see the Glastonbury lineup is chokka with female talent – as it should be, given how much the ladies are dominating things these years. Although I was amused that the article I read (Guardian? Not sure..) having confirmed this year’s three headliners, wondered whether Taylor Swift might still appear…

  17. Abridged through no fault of mine:

    Heard:
    The Delines album Sea Drift and Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Life on Earth are both vying for my most played records this month. I think the latter just edges it but both excellent.
    So too the Big Thief album with the ridiculous title that I cant remember and cant be arsed to look up. It has lots of feedback drenched snarling guitars, lots of quiet bits and even a Jews harp so what’s not to like?
    The Cherry Red mod release I like to see her strut is also very good with a fair dollop of psych
    thrown in too.

    SEEN:
    Don’t get me started.I had 3 cancelled gigs – Jah Wobble, The Eels and Randy Newman. First two blaming the Covid situation at least Randy had a real excuse with a broken neck. I did get to see Kanda Bongo Man at Jazz Cafe which was a fab night out.
    March is pretty bleak for gigs but I have Danny Wilson and Nick Lowe in April.
    On TV nothing that really wowed me. There is a quirky Netflix series Fishbowl Wives loosely based on the Manga comics of Karasawa – was ok but would have preferred subtitles to dubbbed. Everything else just seems formulaic at present.
    The return of Peaky Blinders at least sparked some interest and Tommy Shelby in the first episode of the final series was as cool as fuck.
    Refue to watch the news because it unnerves me with its sensationalism. Instead I get a daily fix on my phone from BBC, Al Jazeera and RT. If you take a little bit from each of them you might get an element of truth. I also listen to BBC World Service which is far more insightful than the TV.

    read:
    Nothing except music magazines. The World situation doesnt put me in mind of reading at the moment.

Leave a Reply