The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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My favourite thing(s)

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I am here in Lefkos, Karpathos with my wife. It is our wedding anniversary on Wednesday (11 years), together 18 years. We were just now sat in a bar overlooking the beach drinking a Capiriniha cocktail whilst listening to the waves breaking and John Coltrane Quartet’s My Favourite Things, which quite frankly makes most pop music sound pretty stupid. Anybody else been here or have recommendations about Greek islands. This is one of the best we’ve been to. Quite wild and dramatic, but a quiet, small resort.

https://youtu.be/1kPXw6YaCEY

Bring It Back

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Those Corporate behmoths of Walkers (the Crisp people) are running a campaign to find out what ex-flavour of Crisps the great unwashed want to bring back into circulation. This seems to be a bit of a pointless escapade, as there can only be ONE winner.

The answer is Beef and Onion

The greatest flavour of thinly cut fried potato ever All was well in the world, and then Walkers started to get all aspirational and posh, and replaced them with STEAK & Onion (the fools).

Oh, and there is £100k up for grab in the Prize Draw that goes with it

Note: I don’t work for Walkers (but Mrs D does)

(What do you mean this stuff is not important?)

https://www.walkers.co.uk/bringitback

Van news

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In case you’re not aware, the Van Morrison Cyprus Avenue gig this Friday is going out on Radio Ulster, with a TV screening on BBC NI – all should be easily available on the iPlayer. Here’s a bit from the Radio Ulster website:

Van Morrison Live On Cyprus Avenue: On Monday 31 August, the day of Van’s birthday – BBC Radio Ulster will exclusively broadcast Van Morrison’s full 70th birthday concert live from Cyprus Avenue – the street which famously inspired the Astral Weeks track of the same name. Broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle from 2.45pm, this is a unique opportunity for Van Morrison lovers to hear the artist in all his live glory as he performs his sold-out matinee concert as part of the Eastside Arts Festival. Prior to the concert starting, Ralph McLean will be setting the scene for listeners as he takes in his surroundings at the Cyprus Avenue concert and chatting to fans lucky enough to get tickets for the event.

BBC Northern Ireland viewers will also have the chance to witness Van Morrison in action and relive the concert when it receives its exclusive television broadcast on BBC One NI on » Continue Reading.

End of the Road

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No, not another navel-gazing meta-thread, but the festival. I’m heading southwards next week for fun and frolics in the company of Tame Impala, Sufjan Stevens and The War on Drugs, amongst other troubadours. And really looking forward to it as well. My first time at EotR, although I’ve done Larmer Tree on the same site (and very pretty it is).

So who’s been before? Who else is going this year? Want a beer?

(Yes, I came back. I never flounced in the first place. Just ran out of things to say.)

Où sont les neiges d’antan?

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Not looked in for a while but did yesterday and noticed a post by DougieJ about the Afterword being a busted flush. Well, since I’m hardly here these days, it’s not down to me to comment – but it did occur to post a thing about why I’m not around anymore (it’s not you, it’s me babes). At the end of September last year I moved to London, to live with my girlfriend and her two kids. I was also insanely lucky on the work front, walking into six months of freelancing that eventually turned into ten months – that engagement only drew to a close a fortnight last Friday. Since October last year therefore, I have been living what we would popularly define as ‘a normal life’: up at 7am, Northern line into central London, slaving away at a hot flatscreen all day, tube home by 7pm-ish, commitments with my girlfriend’s family at weekends and holidays, schlepping most of the length of this island every second month to see my 80-year-old dad who lives in small town on the Moray Firth (while I live south of the Thames). In the four years before that, summer 2010 to summer 2014, » Continue Reading.

Posting Problems

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Hi

We’ve had a handful of users reporting that the site’s not letting them publish blogs. Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to report the error, and apologies for the inconvenience.

We’re not sure what’s causing the problem – if this has happened to you, please post below and let us know whether you’re on Mac or PC, what browser you’re using, whether you were posting a long article or a short one (if short, approximately how many lines long it was) and whether you tried to include any links in any of the boxes.

In the meantime, if you’re composing a blog, be sure to write it in Word (or similar) first, and copy it into the blog when you’re ready to hit submit, so you don’t lose your work if the bug bites.

Thanks Hannah x

ATM – More cowbell

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The newsreader here on NZ TV has just commented about the music that accompanied the weather that it needs “more cowbell”. I have only ever heard that here. What’s going on? I know it spoils the magic of comedy but I’ve never quite understood what this means…

Rock and Roll in-jokes in your household

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Some of my kids like porridge in the morning and my youngest daughter (6) likes to have a teaspoon of brown sugar on it. Every single time I will say (and I know you’re ahead of me here) “just like a young girl should?” and she will nod. She has no idea why.

What other leathery old worn-out rock phrases do you inflict on your hapless children?

Matters arising

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I’ve always wondered about something in the lyrics to the wonderful “Teardrops” by Womack and Womack. How could Linda hear footsteps on the dancefloor? Was she there outside of the normal club opening hours? In which case, was she reminded of another specific occasion on which Cecil came with her to a closed nightclub? Or did he habitually wear tap shoes on a night out, and did they only frequent clubs where the music is unusually quiet?

I must know.

What unanswered questions have always bothered you from the hits of your favourite popular beat combos?

Purple Baez: V.S. is no Tarantino

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Sometimes when it comes to the use of music in a film or book, less is more. I know nothing about V.S. Naipaul’s record collection, but I suspect that his writings are not constantly peppered with references to his favourite tracks. Quite a contrast to modern writers like those Titans of Tartan Noir, Rankin and Brookmyre, whose record collection features prominently and very entertainingly in their books. Or indeed Quentin Tarantino.

However, in his novel, A bend in the river, Naipaul makes wonderful use of a Joan Baez song: Barbara Allen. The story is set in a Central African country (Zaire or Congo probably) during the early 60s. The narrator, Salim, is from the East Coast and leaves the Indian community there to start a new life as a storekeeper (some kind of ironmonger) in the unnamed town on the river. He lives a very humdrum, rather dull life. However one evening a friend takes him to a party at the new university and he finds himself among the sophisticated, glamorous, cosmopolitan ex-pat crowd. Someone puts on a Joan Baez record.

“That voice! It needed no music; it hardly needed words. By itself it created the line of the melody; » Continue Reading.

Radio On The TV

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I watched a bit of the red button on the BBC last week, and it was quite interesting to watch the Simon Mayo radio show on the TV from Edinburgh. It’s always interesting putting faces to voices and watching as the show progressed. Always had the upmost respect for Mayo as a broadcaster, enjoy his film show on five with Kermode and remember on 9/11 when he held together his afternoon show so admirably as the terrible news unfolded. Always seems calm and unflustered and a total professional. I think radio on the TV for a week is okay, but there seems little point in doing this all the time, do you agree? I’ve never watched the live streaming of their film show, maybe I should.

The Afterword does Room Lovely

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When the lovely Stephen Fry was on Room 101 he attempted to put the concept of Room 101 into itself. Among the things he chose for ‘Room Lovely’ were libraries, the Apple Mac and Kathy Burke

So let’s see if we can be as creative about things we like as those we hate.

People: as Bo Diddley once asked ‘Who Do You Love?’ LIfe (modern or not) – what things make you smile and glad to be alive Wild Card: anything that fills you with joy

Yeah grab your sick buckets and try and keep it above the waist, gents. It’s enough of a boy’s club as it is.

Bob Mortimer – Bob comes across as one of the most naturally funny men ever invented. A supremely rich surreal sense of humour, able to thro out phrases that amuse and baffle, many have tried but few can match the worlds that he and Vic create. His appearances on ‘Would I Lie To You’ always have me howling with laffs. When I finally get to see them on a stage next year it will be a life ambition fulfilled. I once saw him at a Neil Young concert.