It is (in Australasia at least) the first Friday of the new month, so the time-honoured question rolls round again – what have you been listening to / reading / watching – and otherwise enjoying ? And is there anything else you would like to share?
(This is an open invitation to one and all, it is lovely to see the regular contributors pop in to this virtual pub, and it is always interesting to hear from new visitors)
Heard: Sufjan Stevens’ album “Carrie & Lowell” is a thing of beauty.
Read: Finally found time to finish “Dead Girl Walking” by Christopher Brookmyre. Excellent, up to his usual high standard.
Currently reading “Running Blind” by Lee Child.
Watched: “The Gift” (starring Jason Bateman and Joel Edgerton, who also directed) is a fantastic revenge thriller, highly recommended.
“Wild Tales” is a glorious Argentinian black-comedy, based on six short films on violence and vengeance. It was a random find on iTunes and well worth the searching.
I have been watching HBO Documentaries on my HBOGo account and have found some real gems. Montage of Heck (Kurt Cobain doc) was very good, as was “There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane” and “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”.
Finally caught up with Game of Thrones, roll on the next Season.
HEARD:
not a tremendous amount of new stuff. Thanks to something Blast posted in Poppy’s wonderful Industrial etc thread I went back to Loop‘s A Gilded Eternity, which is brilliant. Still getting to grips with Titus Andronicus‘ new one. It’s good, but I’m not hearing the classic the reviews promised.
READ:
American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett was the big holiday read. Proper B movie stuff, and I mean that most approvingly. Scientists meddling with things that Man Was Not Meant To Understand, small town America under threat from pandimensional aliens, a lone drifter who rolls into town to save the day…it’s all great fun. Robert Jackson Bennett is fast becoming one of my favourite genre writers, and this only reinforces that. The Moon King by Neil Williamson is a debut fantasy novel that has a terrific setting and some interesting characters but fell apart a bit at the end. Cathi Unsworth’s Without The Moon is a serial killer novel set in wartime London. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I did her previous novels – The Singer and Weirdo in particular are recommended to AWers of an alternative rock bent. Finally got around to Tigerman by Nick Harkaway, and loved it. It’s a (kind of) superhero novel with real heart, about a colonial policeman and the boy he wishes could be his son. If Grahame Greene had done masked avengers….
WATCHED
I loved the indie horror movie Spring that I Nights In’d elsewhere on the site. Apart from that, not a lot of film action – saw Mockingjay at last. The Hunger Games films are my teen movie franchise of choice, but this one was only okay. I suspect this and the soon come Part 2 would have been much better as a single movie, but we shall never know. Only made one gig – the Saturday of the Victorious Festival in Portsmouth, headlined by The Flaming Lips. Before them, I saw Peter Hook – better than the last time I saw him now that he has added some New Order to his set, but it still all feels faintly tacky. Primal Scream were okay, as good as I’ve seen them this century but still nowhere near the heights of the XTRMNTR shows. The Lips are, of course, the best night out you will ever have. It’s been a good few years and missed albums since I last saw them, but they are still an utterly sensational experience. A spectacular light show, cannons constantly firing confetti over the crowd, Wayne Coyne in a huge inflatable ball rolling round on top of the audience, nine foot tall dancing inflatables including, but not limited to, an alien, the sun, a catfish and Santa Claus, many many balloons and euphoric music. For an hour or so, Southsea Common was the best place to be on Earth, and I emerged a better human being.
Just listening to the new Richard Hawley album, ‘Hollow Meadows’ on a stream hosted by the Guardian. It is a return to a gentler sound following the psychedelia of ‘Standing at the Sky’s Edge’. On first listen I like it and will no doubt be hearing a lot more of it when the album is released next week.
Thanks to @pencilsqueezer I’ve come across some really special music recently. Top of the list for me is a couple of albums by Llasa de Sela. I know nothing about her, but I’m transfixed!
I’ve also been listening to Ryan Adams’ most recent eponymous album, which I really like – its crossover between alt rock and country is a good place to be.
Other highlights include: Depression Cherry by Beach House (although I need to give it a closer listen to before giving a final verdict); Carry The Ghost by Noah Gunderson; Live at the 12 Bar by Bert Jansch (brilliantly intimate); The Trackless Woods by Iris DeMent (jury is still out) and the Pete Wiggs soundtrack (St Etienne and featuring narration by Ian McShane!).
Everyone seems to be having a Van the Man love in and I have rediscovered Poetic Champions Compose – I had forgotten how great that album is. Next up is ‘No Guru…’
Watched – all of Breaking Bad except the last two episodes (no spoilers please!). Somehow, I don’t think things will end well for Walt.
Read – three novellas by George RR Martin (The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight). Set 100 years before the events told in Game of Thrones. A bit lightweight by comparison, but still pretty entertaining. I’ve decided to start on Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels from the beginning. Having read several of the more recent novels, it’s interesting to see how the characterisation has changed over the years.
Gigs – Saw a band called Never the Bride at the Greystones in Sheffield about 3 weeks ago. Hadn’t heard anything by them before and went with a mate who was staying for the weekend. Turned out to be more entertaining than I expected when they first walked on stage. The lead singer looks like she’s lived a bit! The first few bars suggested some derivative and plodding American Rawck, but the set proved to be very diverse and quite engaging. Not sure I’d go out of my way to see them again, mind. Hoping to see Martin Stephenson and the Daintees at the Greystones on 1st October (@SteveT are you still on for that one?).
AOB – Finally, we finally got to meet Pencilsqueezer and Donna. Two more lovely people you could not hope to meet and I am so pleased we have met them in the ‘real world’ (as opposed to cyberspace) at last. Some of you may know that Donna is very ill and I’m sure you’ll all join me in sending love, good vibes and in wishing them both the very best.
Enjoying the Beach House – nice guitar
I assume that one of the two Llasa records you have, Mike, is “The Living Road.”
In my view, that’s one of the greatest albums by anyone, ever.
For some reason, I never quite got into the album that preceded it (La Llorona) and the one that followed it (“Llasa”). Perhaps I should persevere.
Yes, the Living Road and La Llorona – both marvellous. I will probably check out her third album. Having looked her up on Wikipedia, I was shocked to find out she died in 2010.
Forgot to mention that we took delivery of a couple of Squeezer meisterwerks that now grace our walls.
Bargepole for reasons now lost in the mists of time started with what was planned at the time to be the final novel (Exit Music) and read them all in reverse order – can confidently state the later the novel is, the better it is and vice-versa. Had the first book been read first, wouldn’t have bothered with the second!
Of course, echo your thoughts for Pencil.
I’ve just read the first one – Knots and Crosses. You’re right, it’s an early attempt and seems a bit contrived and hammy compared to some of the later ones. His brother is a drug dealing stage hypnotist for chrissakes!
It’s a while since I’ve been on here. However, it’s the week after the Edinburgh Festival finished, so between work, sleeping and heating home-cooked food (I was also doing all the former during the festival: too much work, not enough sleep, too many meals out for both the weight and wallet) I thought I’d add some notes about the last month’s immersion in culture.
Read: Not much, in the circumstances, though I did manage to finish Gary Kamiya’s “Cool Grey City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco”, and start on Nick Mason’s “Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd”. If you’ve ever been, or are planning to go, to San Francisco then I’d really recommend the Kamiya, which digs into the history, odd corners and general cussedness of the place.
Seen: Well, it was a busy month. It started with Luna at CCA, Glasgow, who I never saw the first time round but always wanted to; then Lost Map’s “Howlin Fringe” at Penicuik Town Hall: we saw six bands over the course of the day: in order, Seamus Fogarty, Supermoon (used to be Meursault), The Pictish Trail, Rozi Plain, Randolph’s Leap.
Then, a few EIF things: (“Celtic Dialogues” at The Usher Hall, great folk music but frustrating as it over-ran and we had to leave before the end, “The Last Hotel” – a chamber opera about suicide, and “Antigone” at The King’s Theatre): after that we saw The Tubes (again) at the Liquid Rooms. They’re always good fun, and Fee Waybill was in a particularly chatty mood this time around.
More EIF: “Dragon”, a very clever piece of work aimed at all ages (I think 8+ was the recommendation), a play with no dialogue but a series of amazing puppets of the ever-growing dragon, then “887”, Robert Lepage’s latest piece, about growing up poor in Montréal, a one man show propelled by a magnificent set of a minaturised block of flats, his father’s taxi and his (current) kitchen. The show plays around with the concept of memory to great effect.
Daniel Kitson is a great favourite of ours – when we manage to get tickets – and this year we were lucky. If you get the chance, “Polyphony”, his current show, is very funny indeed, and also thought provoking. “Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner” was a delight, particularly as we hadn’t read about it in advance… Theatre Complicité’s “The Encounter” was another technology-heavy one man show, with all the sound supplied to the audience via headphones. We were transported to the Amazon jungle, and a first encounter with a tribe. It is at The Barbican sometime early next year.
Finally, the week of gigs: the International Festival has decided that there is room for a bit of Rock and Roll amongst the High Art, and added a couple of people we wanted to see to the programme: in between, there was a trio of outdoor gigs at the Ross Bandstand in Prince’s Street Gardens (even if you’ve never been, you’ll probably have seen it on TV on New Year’s Eve). So:
Monday: FFS at The Festival Theatre: meeting, then comfortably exceeding expectations.
Wednesday: James at the Ross Theatre, always a good night out, and this year included the outdoor semi-final of the Scottish Beer Throwing Championships, which was nice… not. That’s why we were up by the mixing desk, well out of range.
Thursday: The Flaming Lips at the Ross Theatre: one of the great live bands, though Wayne was not in the best of vocal health, the show was as spectacular as always.
Friday: The Waterboys at the Ross Theatre: probably the best of the three nights, though the smallest crowd, probably as it was added after two Glasgow shows were scheduled for later in the year. The big bonus is that they’ve decided to do “Purple Rain” as an encore, which I had always wanted to see them do. And, a bonus: not a drop of rain fell on any of the three nights.
Sunday: Sufjan Stevens at the Playhouse, with support from Madisen Ward and Mama Bear. Both were new to us, though I suspect will get a lot of listening in the weeks to come.
Finally, another couple of trips to the theatre: “Murmel Murmel” – slapstick using only one word, the German equivalent of “Rhubarb”, then by contrast “Lanark”, an epic production of Alasdair Gray’s novel that closed the Festival for us for another year. Again, this is going to tour and is well worth four hours of your time.
At this stage, I’m glad it over and that it only lasts three weeks, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world: it makes living here worth it!
Heard: My main listening has been via headphones at work in the office (I’m by a noisy meeting area), so unless I need to speak to people they stay on for much of the day. What I have listened to more than anything is the magnificent slab of rage that is Killing Joke’s “In Dub”, a three CD, 28 song set that does exactly what it said on the tin: Killing Joke remixed as heavy dub. It lasts about three hours and gets me through an awful lot of difficult programming! Also a shout out to Burt K., (whatever happened to him? etc. etc.) for his recommendation of Belles Will Ring’s “Crystal Theatre” a couple of years back – it’s getting a lot of play too, by way of contrast.
Listening
It’s been a lean old month for new music that’s caught my interest, so I’ve relied on old favourites and spent time with artists I’ve not bothered with for a while, including lots of classical from Elgar to Brahms and several points in between. I used to feel I had to listen to music even when I wasn’t inspired by it or in the right frame of mind, but these days I realise it’s better to take a break until the mood comes back.
Watching
Got round to watching The Imitation Game which is a pretty good film, although it takes some liberties with the facts of the code breaking activities that took place at Bletchley Park in the war years, implying that Alan Turing won the war against the Nazis single-handed. Also watched The Falling, a film centred on a mysterious fainting epidemic that takes place in a girls’ school sometime in the sixties. There are echoes of Picnic At Hanging Rock, one of my favourite films, but The Falling is nowhere near as good, partly because not only is there no coherent explanation of events, but the implications are too nebulous to bring any sense that you’ve just watched a great feat of the imagination. Watchable but disappointing.
Reading
Just finished Richard Vinen’s history of National Service. It’s an interesting read but is a little heavy on statistical information and light on the kind of anecdotes that would have brought it to life. Vinen is obviously striving to deliver a serious study of the subject rather than trotting out a series of amusing stories about life in the ranks, but loses the interest of the reader somewhere along the way. There are over 100 pages of stats, graphs and tables in the various appendices which makes you wonder who the hell kept all this kind of information in the first place, and moreover, why? I am now half way through The Ivington Diaries by Monty Don. It’s a journey through his gardening journal over a period of several years, and although is probably only of fairly arcane interest to those with a love of gardens and gardening, Don writes in a highly literate style and comes over as a sensitive, thoughtful and generally thoroughly nice bloke. For me he can do little wrong either in print or on the screen. I guess I’m a bit too old to have heroes, so let’s just say he’s the sort of bloke I really admire and would love to have a chinwag with over a pint or two.
PS – watched that Horizon documentary about which universe we are actually in. So let me get this straight. We are in a universe that is part of a multiverse that exists in an infinite number of places all at the same time, and there are an infinite number of multiverses, all of which contain different versions of reality according to an infinite number of alternative eventualities that happen everywhere. And not only that but we think we can show that there are traces of alternative universes within our own universe that could prove the theory. Oh, and we are on the verge of building quantum computers that can carry out massive numbers of calculations simultaneously, but in different quantum universes? Bloody hell, and I’m worried about what colour of paint to do the bathroom in.
August was a wonderful month: I had a three week holiday, went to two festivals, read a big stack of books, listened to a lot of great music, spent time with family and friends, got some unexpected extra money from my lovely dad AND a big reduction in the interest rates on both of my housing loans. And summer came, finally! So pretty much perfect all around, if not for sad news about a few friends (one of them Donna, as mentioned earlier in the thread).
That was the short version, settle down for the long one:
Read:
I finished Murakami’s “1Q84” trilogy, and loved every minute of it, one of my best reading experiences in a long while! I also finished “Underground” (about the Tokyo underground attacks) which I read in parallel, and it was interesting to see some of the subjects that he talks about in that book – the balance between good and evil, the allure and logic of sects – being used in the “1Q84” novels (written years later).
To finish off my summer Murakami binge I then read “Norwegian Wood” (well written as always, but didn’t grip me) and “What I talk about when I talk about running” (rather dull).
A charity shop visit gave me a chance to re-read a childhood favourite, “The Enchanted Castle” by E Nesbit, Stephen King’s “Dolores Claiborne” for the first time (entertaining, but not one of his best), and “Minnen” (“Memories”) by one of my favourite Swedish authors, Torgny Lindgren.
Not a memoir but a short collection of highly entertaining and fantastical anecdotes that could be true, sort of (the author isn’t totally convinced either). Made me giggle happily.
I’m now almost finished with “The Summer Without Men” by Siri Hustvedt, a nice enough bathroom read but slightly annoying. I can imagine it being made into a heartwarming feel-good movie with Julia Roberts in the lead…and that’s not a compliment.
I’m also reading a book about Queen Kristina of Sweden – the one that Greta Garbo played the Hollywood version of. The reality was much more interesting, so I’m quite enjoying it so far.
Mainly I’m reading The Afterword’s own Colin Harper’s (with a chapter by John McSherry) new book “The Wheels of the World – 300 years of uilleann pipers”, and it’s thoroughly entertaining and interesting – even if you (like me) have listened very little to said pipes. The best praise I can give to any book is that I have to stop reading to grab a pen so I can underline favourite passages, with this book I’m stopping a lot for that reason. Recommended to anyone with an interest in music of any kind! Well done (as always), @colin-h!
Seen:
No telly, no films, but two days of festival gigs last weekend at the Popaganda festival here in Stockholm.
The site is an outdoor public baths area in the inner city where the largest swimming pool is used for the Popaganda tradition of a men’s synchronised swimming performance, and the mid-sized pool is open for festival goers to use (the kids pool hosts the Popaganda symbol – a giant black rubber duck). As the festival is run as a non-profit organisation the tickets are cheap – a two day pass cost only 750 SEK (approx. £58) and as there are only two stages and the gigs don’t clash you can see all of the performances, making this year’s bill of 19 acts cost around 40 SEK each (£3) – a bargain!
Of course, normal people may need to stand in the occasional queue to a number of food stalls, bars and loos, but I eat and go to the loo before I leave home at lunchtime, only drink a little water during the day and eat and go to the bathroom again when I get back home at midnight…I’ve been told that I’m a freak, but I suspect that most people envy me this “skill”…
Anyway, great line-up this year, Friday being the better one and an almost non stop dancing day.
Swedish artists Beatrice Eli and Sabina Ddumba got the party started, Detroit rapper Angel Haze turned the heat up to boil with her fantastic gig of impossibly fast and hard rapping, vulnerable lyrics, romantic serenading to a girl brought up on stage, demanding (and getting) complete commitment from the audience and in the end walking out into the crowd, parting it like Moses with a nervous security guard trailing along.
Another dancetastic gig was the one by Robyn and La Bagatelle Magique, her latest one-off project having their first live gig there in front of a gigantic dancing crowd in the afternoon, making the baths seem like a 90s rave in a glade in the woods on a bright summer’s night.
Elliphant was a bit hit and miss for me (but by then we would have danced to anything, really), but James Blake did one of the best gigs of the festival, completely mesmerizing the audience into full submission – you could hear a pin drop during the most moving tracks, even the worst f*ckwits turned quiet – and dancing extatically during the clubbier tracks. The roar of approval from the huge crowd seemed to shock him a bit (in a good way), perhaps he’d heard the warnings about stiff Stockholm audiences – not this festival; I’ve seldom heard/seen a better crowd at any gig. Everyone there was determined to have a great time and make a party of it.
Jungle funked things up before the night ended with a great gig by Sweden’s biggest cult band…Bob Hund. I saw them play live once many years ago, but they’ve only gotten better with age. A great ending to a great day.
Saturday was a more uneven affair, but with strong highlights. My favourites Amason wasn’t quite as good as the last time I saw them, but even on an off-day they’re fantastic. Perennial indie Swedes Shout Out Louds turned out to be surprisingly fun to hear, creating quite the party atmosphere with sing-alongs galore.
And after a few years in hibernation while the solo career of front man Markus Krunegård took off, another indie pop/rock band, Laakso, reunited at Popaganda for a first gig before they release a new album. After a slow start they turned everything up to eleven and made the audience go bananas.
Ending the festival was everybody’s new favourite Swede: Seinabo Sey, knocking it out of the park with her killer voice, killer hits, sensational light show, and plenty of wonderful guest artists (Amanda Bergman from Amazon and Maja Francis, Oskar Linnros, Timbuktu, Sabina Ddumba, Mapei, Silvana Imam).
I can’t wait for her proper album to come out this autumn (which I forgot to mention on the “Things to look forward to…” thread – unforgivable!)
Everybody left happy after two days of great music, and sensational warm and sunny weather despite the meteorologists promising rain.
Heard:
(Luckily for you, I haven’t had time to listen to ALL of the new albums I bought a week or so ago. 🙂 But here’s a few I’ve had time to form some kind of opinion about)
Mbongwana Star – “From Kinshasa” is best described as African musical steampunk. If you like Staff Benda Belili and Konono No1, this is for you.
Serpent Power’s psychedelic self-titled album sounds like the concoction you’d get if you put the Beatles’ White Album, The Monkees’ song catalogue, the Rocky Horror Show soundtrack and a few bizarre novelty hits like “Monster Mash” into a blender and blitzed it for a few seconds – in fact, some of the tracks even sound like a few different tracks blitzed together. In a good way, this is a fun album, just don’t expect anything deep and meaningful (probably not likely with titles like “Dr. Lovecraft’s Asylum”, “Last Ape In Space”, “The Man Who Shrunk The World” and “Killer Cherry Pie”…)
Du Blonde (Beth Jeans Houghton) is steadily growing on me with each listen to “Welcome Back To Milk” (well, it’s better her last album title…) Full of lovely surprises.
Another strong grower is Iris DeMent’s “The Trackless Woods”, beautiful and moving.
Aziza Brahim’s “Soutak” has been on my list of things to buy since the beginning of the year, but I wasn’t quite convinced, so I didn’t get it until now. The lazy, short-hand way to describe it would be “desert blues”, but it isn’t quite, even though she writes that she wanted to incorporate the music of Mali into her own musical traditions of the Western Sahara, along with other influences. The result is a lovely album, full of sadness and longing, and political anger.
I saw Swedish artist Daniel Norgren at the other festival I went to in August and based on what I heard there and a couple of enthusiastic reviews I bought the album he released this year, “Alabursy”. In theory I find it silly when non-Americans play “Americana”, but this is wonderful. These self-penned songs sound like they’ve been around for ages, and are strangely moving. His voice is odd, but I like odd voices. The album sounds a bit like it was recorded in an old barn in places. H-P would no doubt hate it! 😉
I find that the Iron & Wine/Ben Bridwell covers album “Sing Into My Mouth” is much better than the luke-warm reviews have said. No, it won’t make the top ten of 2015-lists, but I really like their countrified versions – and Sam Beam’s voice can elevate most tracks…
Finally, Marc Almond’s “The Velvet Trail” is a lot better than I expected (I’m a big fan since the beginning, but he’s very uneven and I didn’t really like last year’s “Dancing Marquis”), in fact, it has lots of wonderful moments.
I’ll save the rest for next month!
(Among other things I’ve bought two EPs by Les Big Byrd – on vinyl, and I haven’t got my record player in working order yet, so time to get on that now!)
August was a bizarre month for me as I started and finished 2 – yes 2! – books and saw 3 plays and didn’t go to one gig
So I will ignore Listened to this month – apart from to mention Album of The year contender Eleventh Dream Day
Read
The Circle by Dave Eggers – written in 2013 but still relevant takedown of the Google/Apple/Social Media mob rule. Funny, exciting and a real ‘page-turner’ – unreservedly recommended.
A Fortnight in September by RC Sheriff – first published in 1931 this tells the story of a lower middle class english family’s annual holiday in Bognor. No-one dies, no sex, no twists – just a sweet uncynical look at family life. Published by Persphone Books – and hence loved by Mrs Tunes – it was so true to capturing thoughts that you thought no-one else felt – but with affection and without the cynicism of, say, The Corrections.
Watched
Gypsy with Imelda Staunton – shouty-broadway-tastic
Mack & Mabel with Michael Ball – even more broadway-tastic but with better tunes, good plot and super cheese from Mr Ball. Tap Your Troubles Away!
And finally….Bendecit Cumberbatch in Hamlet. Ignore the snobby theatre critics – it was spellbinding
Bit of a non entity month so looking to September to pick things up.
Seen: Nothing on the gig front although I have 3 this week. You wait for a bus then 3 come along at once!! On screen we have been hooked on the Orange is the new Black – just nearing the end of season one and some of the characters I find myself warming to even though they are obviously bad ins. Saw a Anthony Hopkins film The fastest little Indian which I really enjoyed. Also I’ll give it a year which was very funny but also well written although slightly spoiled by a contrived ending.
Read: Nowt new this month – got them lined up for next month. Laboured over the last half of Nick Hornby’s Funny Girl. Started off well but became a struggle – I think I am going off him as a writer.
Heard: Really like the new Yo La Tengo album Stuff like that there. It includes covers, a couple of rewordings and a couple of new songs – very mellow but very enjoyable – ione cover is the Cures Friday I’m in Love which rather wispy. Ian McNabb has a new album of reworks of his old songs played with a band. Its called Krugerands and available from his website. If you liked his Head like a rock album with Crazy Horse you will love this – lots of whigged out guitar sold and his voice is as fine as ever. Wilco Star Wars also v.good with some magical Nils Cline guitar work.
On the retor front I absolutely love The Faces box set of their albums including bonus stuff. First two albums are a joy – they were never polished but even less so on those two. Bunch of mates having a great time – the original boy band almost.
After reading the System 7 review on her I got the double remix album Out. It isn’t what I expected although after a couple of plays it has started to grow. I wanted blessed out Hillage guitar work but its not at all evident. If someone wants to point me in the right direction of where I should by looking please feel free. I had Steve Hillage Fish rising many years ago and that is the kind of thing I was looking for.
I have the Faces box set on its way to me from Amazon – really looking forward to it…
Quiet month.
Seen
Only concert was Kathryn Tickell’s current folk/classical quartet The Side at Dartington. all female band playing pipes/fiddle, accordion, cello and harp – terrific stuff.
Read
Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, already and justifiably applauded on this site. Am now tackling Vassily Grossman’s novel Life and Fate, 850 pages on Stalinist Russia during the Second World War. I know how to have a good time, me
Heard
Quite a lot of Van Morrison. He’s rather good, you know.
15 days of the month spent at festivals – Sidmouth, Cropredy, Shrewsbury.
On stage it’s mainly been the familiar : Show of Hands, Peatbog Faeries, Steve Tilston, Andy Irvine, Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar, Leveret (outstanding, both times the same day) Spiro, Simon Care Trio, Martin Carthy, The Wilsons, Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker, The Young ‘uns, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Richard Thompson, La Bottine Souriante. Even so, between them, not one dropped a catch, so that alone would be an embarrassment of riches for one month. But then there were the standing ovations with good reason for Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita and Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin.
Two new takes on folk rock. Nancy Kerr genuinely amazed me, convincingly leading from the front, centre stage. The False Lights album shows promise – we’ll wait to see how it beds in. Of the new acts to these eyes and feet, Prince Edward Island’s Ten Strings & A Goatskin were the find in Shropshire, while the French folk dance faithful delighted in an early showing from Topette at Sidmouth.
And I have danced to Blowzabella three times this month, so you know I’ve had a good time. Their Anchor Garden gig in Sidmouth left me euphoric, flying high for the rest of the day. You couldn’t understand.
Interspersed in all that, I fell in with the right pub session at Sidmouth and found myself singing in the very best of company, which raises the bar for my own performance. Sidmouth leans heavily to trad, while Shrewsbury is like the 60s did happen. By the end of last weekend, my voice was that overused, I sounded like I’d been to a Sid James convention.
So, all good, huh? Well, no.
Let’s be direct here. Cropredy was poor. They take a lot of money off the punters and then don’t spend said money on a decent artists’ roster. Given that I do so many festivals, it is all to easy to make comparisons and it just looks like Cropredy trouser the money and offer bilge. There were far too many D listers and washed up rock stars this year. I will focus on the positives. Band of Friends made for an enjoyable summer’s afternoon rock out; Dan ar Braz livened proceedings and contributed to a decent Fairport set. Skinny Lister and Skerryvore ably ticked the roots rock box. The best performance all weekend was from Paul Carrack. He united the crowd with song. His whole set was slick and showed he knew how to engage an audience. This was sadly lacking elsewhere. Cropredy is going to have to show a bit more respect to its paying audience or there will be more years like this, with isolated portaloos in fields that were meant to be filled with campers; the whole place was notably quieter.
Apropos your munch of the False Lights LP, did you not catch them at Shrewsbury (or were you caught out by the unannounced change in running order?) All pretend rockstar posing and pomp, it was fabulous, with even Nick Cooke, ace melodeon player in his 3rd band of the w/e (Mawkin, Kate Rusby) jumping up and down. And Barn Stradling depped on bass.
Funny we were at the same festival, and yet shared so few shows, tho’ the malt was good. My highlights were Dawes, Kate Rusby, Sharon Shannon, Oysterband and the dropped pin silence of Finch and Seckou, that last sending me home in astonished wonder.
Yes, caught out by the change to running order. I take solace from the fact that this meant I was not trying to dart out at the end of Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita. There’ll be other opportunities.
But your point about us stitching together different highlights from the same festival is relevant to Cropredy. There’s always something to please on a different stage at Shrewsbury (or Cambridge or Sidmouth or Green Man or …) . There was no alternative to bleedin’ Toyah!
Woah, Retro! We forgot Ross & Jarlath. Now that we did both see and a piping tour de force it was too.
Agree with your Cropredy comments there Cheshire.
I’ve been to every one since 2000 and me and my chums said we would always go who ever was on as the festival is much more than the acts.
However, this years line-up was so lame we didn’t go.
I think the final nail in the coffin for us was having Level 42 as Friday headliners.
The plus point is I suppose that next year has to be an improvement!
Read Rchard Flanagan Road to the north as reviewed on the site- brilliant albeit harrowing.
Reading Bio on Only Ones Hoome Fatale – pretty good . Perrett is a prick is the impression I’m getting
listening
A lot of jazz -Randy Weston, Davis On The Corner, the Vish aheead of Johnny Mac concerts.
Blues Colossus Otis Spann and Fleetwood Mac. Peter Green at his best though he does lapse into some rahter familiar motifs
Bear Family soul compilations 1974/ 75
a heap of Van inspired by BlueBoy’s thread
Jenny Lewis: the Voyager after she supported Ryan Adams
Still enjoying Charlie Wilson Forever Charlie
and the highlight is a Betty Davis compilation This Is It. Most of Sly Stone’s band in their prime, up front fuck me but dont fuck with me lyrics . Justs charges out of the speakers.
Good call on Betty Davis must dig that out
Heard:
August included 2 weeks in Menorca armed with wifi, Spotify and my music in the cloud (and a decent bluetooth speaker). This meant a lot of music got listened to in the evenings when the kids went to bed. Beck, Sufjan Stevens, Joy Division (on holiday – I know), Talk Talk, Jason Isbell all got an evening of listening.
Boo Hewerdine’s My Name In The Brackets compilation got lots of plays in the car as did Four Tet’s Morning/Evening and Sufjan Steven’s Carrie & Lowell, which is a masterpiece.
Podcasts included the welcome return of the Football Ramble, This American Life and one my son introduced me to – If I Were You, which was quite amusing.
Seen:
Not much really – caught up on Nashville when we got back from holiday and also finished series 3 of Justified which is excellent. Have become slightly addicted to Pound Shop Wars (which I watched a couple of on the iPlayer on holiday when I woke earlier than everyone else). It’s totally crap though.
Read:
Heavy focus on the easy to read this month – which meant books 2, 3 and 4 of the Spider Shephard series by Stephen Leather. Not sure if audiobooks should go here or in heard, but Bill Bryson’s At Home was very good – interesting, amusing and nice ramble through the history of private life.
Been sometime since i contributed. I’ll keep it short as I am off to Chatsworth Country Show (Glasto for the hunting, fishing, riding set) in 20 mins.
Heard: Not much. Girl and Robot with Flowers by the Greg Foat Group was released in 2012, but is new to me. Retrofuturist bachelor pad jazz – love it. Just beginning to listen to Everything Everything’s last release. More neoprog than ever.
Read On hols I read quite a bit here’s a few of the highlights. The Narrow Road to the Deep North (see my review for thoughts). Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a terrifically written insight into the cultural and psychological effects on a group of educated Africans trying to make their way in Modern Nigeria, and America and the UK. As an outsider Adichie offers some interesting and sharp opinions on black Americans and US society. It is not quite up to Half a Yellow Sun but it is a great read. Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe is an ideal light holiday read. An Ealing comedy pastiche as written by Kingsly Amis.
Seen Again not much. Slowly plowing through Fringe on Netflix. Getting madder and madder and more enjoyable as it progresses. World’s End was a very poor end to the Cornetto trilogy. Bake off is enjoyable as ever.
The Greg Foat Group are absolutely wonderful, and deserve to be household names. All three of their studio albums are superb, I think. The live album (“Live at the Playboy Club”!) doesn’t quite reach the same heights.
And well done to Jazzman Records – primarily a reissues label – for taking a chance on new material from an unknown band.
Saw: I had my own Cropredy experience, such as it was. Along with 2 mates I got an earlybird ticket at Christmas before they announced the final line-up. When they then announced Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell we were well chuffed as we are big fans. The other selling point was that one mate has a narrow boat moored at Cropredy Marina, thus no need to camp, the novelty of which ran out at my last Cropredy in 2002
Come the event my best mate is seriously ill and can’t go. The forecast is appalling. I really don’t fancy it. But I went, mostly as narrowboat owner insisted he’d go anyway. To cut a long story short we got absolutely drenched watching Emmy & Rodders. I might as well have jumped into a swimming pool fully clothed. There can only have been a few hundred there by the end. Following morning it was drizzling, forecast to rain all day, and we packed up and went home
The bands I saw were all good through. Fairport Acoustic sounded sprightly. TradARRR played their album which is very good and reminiscent of Fairport in their pomp. Dreadzone were splendid in a “bass lines to make your fillings drop out” sort of way. Emmy & Rodney were very good after a slightly shaky start, and the sound was very good, but blimey their set was an ordeal in that rain. The surprise package for me was Katzenjammer who must be festival organiser’s dream. Four multi-instrumentalist Norwegian ladies with bubbly personalities and catchy songs. A particular highlight was when one lady said she had performed a Fairport song at her music school audition. Well obviously its got to be Who Knows Where the Time Goes, right? No, it was Crazy Man Michael, and they performed it very well indeed. There is very good youtube of them playing at the recent Hurricane festival in Germany. Pretty much the same set as Cropredy except they do Genesis’ Land of Confusion instead of Crazy Man Michael https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb6mGeY1h5k
Heard: Got the TradARR and Della Mae albums. Like the first, not bowled sideways by the second which is a shame because they are one of my favourite live acts
AOB: a delightful couple of days in Northumbria based at a cottage in Embleton. Long deserted beaches. We went to Holy Island which was interesting, and also took a boat trip from Seahouses around the Farne Islands. Too late for Puffins but hundreds of seals
READ – The Windup Girl, someone recommended it on here and after a slow start I really got into it set in a future without oil in Thailand. If you like the kind of stuff this infers you’ ll enjoy this. Also enjoyed a Lee Childs novel – Personal, Childs character ‘Jack Reacher’ is a giant among men, armed with only his toothbrush he can take on an army! Great holiday reading.
HEARD – Lots, I’ve discovered Ben Folds, he’s a talented guy as a lot of you already know. I picked up close on 8-9 CDs and a couple of DVDs for less than 30 quid and there ain’t a dud amongst them. Big Big Train have been listened to a lot , anyone who like inventive, intelligent rock with a touch of folk and lots of prog, no come back! This band a re a very talented bunch. Where to start? The latest EP ‘Wassail’ and the the ‘English Electric’ double CD then work your way back. Van Morrison, has like many others around here figured a lot especially ‘Common One’.
SEEN – Not much live or TV in August.
LISTENED:
The ‘core 7’ albums by The Moody Blues. I’d previously dismissed them as prog-whimsy-lite, but a second-hand purchase of the double album compilation “This Is The Moody Blues” convinced me to shell out for the full set. Yes, the lyrical content is sometimes risible (“Blasting, Billowing, Bursting Forth with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes, Man with his flaming pyre has conquered the wayward breezes” indeed), but on the whole it’s great stuff.
‘Nude’ by Camel was one of my first albums (I bought it when I was 15), and I played it to death. After a hiatus of probably 15-20 years I pulled it off the shelf and played it again – I still love it.
In a rare foray into “new releases” I got Ozric Tentacles’ “Technicians Of The Sacred”. Like much of their later output there’s more reliance on programmed synths and keyboards, but Ed Wynne’s guitar remains a comforting constant. Whether it’s up there with albums like Strangitude, Erpland or Jurassic Shift is debateable, but I like it a lot.
I’m waiting for my next batch of deliveries from Amazon, which includes The Essential Van Morrison, plus Inarticulate Speech, Beautiful Vision, Into The Music and Astral Weeks (180g vinyl), Steven Wilson’s Insurgentes, Porcupine Tree’s Lightbulb Sun and Stupid Dream, Ryley Walker’s Primrose Green, the Faces CD box set, the Stones’ Some Girls and Rolling Stones Now!, David Sylvian’s Secrets of the Beehive and Alchemy, John Martyn’s Sunday’s Child, Solid Air, Live at Leeds, Inside Out and One World, Peter Gabriel’s 1, 2, 3 and 4, Tull’s Catfish Rising and Roots To Branches, Ian Anderson’s Homo Erraticus and Wishbone Ash’s Argus. So that’s me set for the rest of the year.
SEEN:
Not too much except for ‘The Last Place On Earth’, a seven part TV series made in the ’80s with Martin Shaw as Captain Scott, which I came across on Youtube. Based on the less-than-complimentary book by Roland Huntsford, it portrays Scott as a petty martinet and incompetent amateur, more obsessed with ‘beating’ Shackleton than getting to the Pole before Amundsen. Apart from Shaw it’s a terrific cast, with Stephen Moore, Bill Nighy, Hugh Grant, Michael Maloney, Tom Georgeson and Sylvester McCoy all playing supporting roles. In this version, Oates’ last words are not the stoic, stiff-upper-lipped “I am just going outside, I may be some time” as recorded by Scott in his journal (which was intended for public consumption) but “call of nature, Birdie”. I highly recommend it.
READ:
After watching the series on Scott, I felt I had to redress the balance somehow, so re-read David Crane’s biography ‘Scott Of The Antarctic’. Somewhere between the heroic Captain Scott that we read about in school and Huntsford’s incompetent buffoon lies Crane’s Scott – a man who made questionable decisions, certainly (not wishing to take dogs and then slaughter them for food as Amundsen did due to misplaced Victorian sentimentality, hamstringing his subordinates with orders that allowed for no flexibility, taking Birdie Bowers with the polar party at the last minute), but undoubtedly a man of great personal courage.
Also re-reading Biskind’s ‘Easy Riders, Raging Bulls’, prompted by HP’s Sorcerer thread. My overwhelming impression now, as it was when I first read it, was that the generation that came to dominate Hollywood in the late 60s and 70s were, almost without exception, the largest collection of punchable arseholes you could ever wish not to meet in this lifetime or the next.
‘kin’ hell ruff, apart from Porcupine Tree’s ‘Stupid Dream” I have or have ordered every album you mention.
I agree with you re: Moodies core seven albums, I have loved those for a long time.
The scales are being tipped. I have tiptoed round the edges of The Moodies for some time. Time to dive in.
John Martyn’s Sundays child has become my favourite of his albums yet didn’t much care for it when it first came out. Love his voice on that album – very jazzy.
Read:
Best read of the month for me was “Headscarf Revolutionaries” – the story of Hull’s “big Lil” Bilocca and the local women who campaigned back in the 1970s for improved safety on trawlers following a spate of sinkings in terrible weather around Iceland. Notoriously dangerous as an industry – and with awful feudal working practices – I covered its aftermath as a local reporter for a couple of years back in the late 80s, including Lil’s funeral after she went back to obscurity following her brief time in the national spotlight. At times, it’s a little stilted with the fashion for short, sharp sentences wearing after a while, but it’s a great and poignant story well told by former local hack Brian Lavery. Elsewhere, working my way through boxes of stuff, re-read Antoine de Saint Exupery’s classic “Wind, sand and stars” – epic adventures in the early days of interwar international flight.
Seen:
“45 Years” is this year’s middle class mid-life crisis classic film apparently. To be fair, Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling are very good as the couple re-evaluating their lives as something strange from the past turns up to disrupt their quiet life in deepest Norfolk. Not sure it’s worthy of the critical acclaim – my wife thought it was tosh – and the “bedroom scenes” are a hoot, but it suffers from standard “serious film” clichés – over amplified shots of wind blowing through the trees and intrusive background noise with even the dog having a head mike judging by the amount of noise he makes throughout the film. Elsewhere, depressing run of home matches at Cambridge United culminating in 3-1 home defeat by Luton who hadn’t won a game all season. Awful.
Heard:
One or two interesting new things. Picked up a copy of Jakob Bro’s “Gefion” – John Scofield-style mellow guitar noodling in subdued ECM style from earlier this year. Pleasant, if undemanding – not really had a huge amount of time to listen to it properly. Best thing I’ve heard this month is Cyrus Chestnut’s “A Million Colours in Your Mind” – just a great straight up and down jazz piano trio album. He’s a brilliant gospel-influenced player – his solo “religious” stuff is excellent – but here with a superb rhythm section he just mixes it up with a range of ballads and boppers. Elsewhere, there’s some reissues/remasters of the late 70s Ashford and Simpson albums – all excellent with some nice remixes by rising star Mike Maurro as bonus tracks – some of his other work here https://soundcloud.com/mikemaurromusic – all very reverential to the original source.
There’s been a surprising upswing in vaguely decent soul stuff recently. A mate recommended the new Jill Scott album – and there’s a particularly decent ballad in “You Don’t Know” – but as always with her stuff a bit patchy for me. Also another deep soul slowie on Lizz Wright’s new album – a duet with Gregory Porter “Right where you are” – amongst some other nice tunes in a decent return to form. And a new voice for me – Aaaron Parnell Brown – who does a nicely stripped back Bill Withers style on his album “The Tin Man.” Then there’s Terri Lynne Carrington’s latest in her series of Mosaic Project albums – featuring some great singers (Chaka Khan, Ledisi and Valerie Simpson) – possibly a little smooooth for folks here but sounds very good to me…possibly the best outright “soul” album of the year for me thus far. Just to lighten the mood, some Eastern European mystic misery – Elena Dumi’s “Dallendyshe” is an interesting vocal set and, as with her last set, features the excellent Collin Vallon on piano. Finally, a new name to me – Tigran Hamasyan – whose just issued – Luys I Luso – a new album of Armenian choral stuff that’s strangely compelling . It’s only just arrived so haven’t spent a huge amount of time with it. He’s touring here soon – live he looks an interesting night out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9256WFaXnU
I always look forward to yourSoul recommendations, Morrison. I’ll check a fair few of those out. Tell me, what do you think of Weeknd?
Just beginning to hear the Lizz Wright album – so far I like the Lizz Wright/ Gregory Porter very much too and also the Bee Gees cover To Love Someone which works surprising well too.
Where did that month go?
and why can’t I remember what happened?
Oh well, here goes:
Heard:
Frank Turner – Positive Songs For Negative People
Great listen – (more thoughts here https://theafterword.co.uk/frank-turner-positive-songs-for-negative-people/)
Completed the upgrade of the Dire Straits catalogue to CD (yes, including Brothers In Arms and On Every Street – haven’t re-listened to either of them, but at least I have them on CD now).
Re-listened to Blur – Leisure is still (just about) OK, and I still don’t “get” Think Tank.
Seen:
About The Young Idea (Jam Exhibition) at Somerset House. Fantastic time had by all.
DVD wise – nothing much
TV wise – not a lot
Read:
Nothing, except Take Away Menus and Train Timetables
Oooh, I lurve Think Tank. It gets bonus points because the vocals don’t sound like Albarn’s!
Heard
I’ve been enjoying the new Waterboys – lyrical joy, great new lineup – and the new Wilco – good mix of spiky noises and interesting tunes. I have also been enjoying a couple of reggae compilations, Frontline presents Reggae Discomixes, especially the Culture and Mighty Diamonds tracks, and Island presents Reggae Discomixes, in particular the Wailing Souls .
Read
The recent publication of the final Discworld book made me go back to the beginning. I had read a few of them, here and there, but decided to start at the beginning. I’ve read 4 so far, and I am thoroughly enjoying them. I will take a wee break before going back, but they are very good – smart, funny, adventurous, full of litle twists, both in plot and in language; playfully written, with lots of interesting ideas. The word-play reminds me of Douglas Adams – for example, the edge of Discworld is the Circumfence.
I also really enjoyed How to Speak Money by John Lanchester, which is an excellent explanation of the doublespeak, misdirection and obfuscation used to discuss money, markets, and banks.
Seen
Rick Stein’s From Venice To Istanbul is great, with lots of interesting ideas especially the lamb cooked over coals in Albania, and the many different quick fish dishes.
Only Connect – always entertaining. I did try the similar Hive Minds but just could not get into it.
AOB
Worst. Summer. Ever. (weather-wise). But on we go. I did manage to meet up with Paddy Hoey (of this Parish) when I was in Liverpool briefly, which was nice.
Read – The Goldfish (see my review) and the latest in the Richard Ford Frank Bascombe books, Let Me Be Frank. Surely the best authorial voice/alter ego in current fiction. May speak chiefly to middle age white men, but hey I am that. Ms Moles does differ in her estimation. as checked out with The Sportswriter never to return.
Seen – Mission Impossible (review also)
Heard – new albums from Royal Headache (excellent melodic guitar pop), Destroyer and Ezra Furman – both strong albums with 70s influences.