https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZYpCZ46FTE

In 1979, I was the bass player and singer in a new wave band called ‘Impulse’. (40 years ago. Yikes!!)

I got back in touch with the guys recently and the guitarist Richard sent me some songs digitised from the original tape masters as well as a load of photos.

Overcome by a warm feeling of nostalgia, I wrote a song about it. I started with a four bar drum loop lifted from one of the tracks. You can hear the loop right at the beginning. It’s very grainy and there is audible tape hiss :).

I put together a video which contains a montage of some of the photos as well as some FCP trickery.

The guy with the bass that looks like Lurch from the Munsters. Yeah that’s me 🙂

Three of my friends from the local folk club agreed to appear in it doing “backing vocals” (all shot pre-Covid)

I won’t say much about this (because Sarah says lots within), save that I’m a huge admirer of Sarah McQuaid as an artist and as a person. Like a lot of cottage industry musical artists, she’s suffering at the present time, as is her manager/sound engineer / driver / loyal lieutenant Martin Stansbury. Months of touring cancelled, and at a time when a corner (in terms of career/income/debt) was being turned after literally years worth of hard graft.

The online busking thing isn’t for Sarah, for a number of reasons, but she’s come up with an elegant alternative – a project she’s been thinking of doing for a while, and that is eminently doable within the current circumstances. I commend the project to anyone with even £15 to spare who would like to (a) help a decimated musician; (b) contribute to a lovely community project in a small Cornish village. Details in Sarah’s post below.

https://sarahmcquaid.com/news/blog/thinking-about-plans-and-asking-for-help?fbclid=IwAR37Q5iFye8yF09NMJ1D-_Q8KcsBFJhLt_Raa0HJB9H5bzHe3ACXbDjH-oM

13/04/2020

https://youtu.be/mZP75BKsrPM

This may be of interest to those of a folky bent. The excellent Folk on Foot podcast is streaming a virtual festival on Easter Monday with artist like Bella Hardy, Julie Fowlis, Jon Boden, Martin Simpson and Karine Polwart all performing thirty minute sets form their front rooms. It’s a great line up. They are fundraising as well, and splitting the proceeds equally between the artists and the charity Help Musicians UK.

These performers have all been on the podcast and have been uniformly excellent, so it should be a good one

https://youtu.be/c1Yo7sXdyok

BILLY CONWAY

If you’ve come out to a show or bought a record of mine in the last decade, there’s a good chance you’ve heard Billy Conway Music on the drums: broad, magic smile on his face, the rare balance of delicacy and power framing every note. Sometimes on the full kit, but often enough just a snare, ride, lowboy, and a suitcase with Mardi Gras beads hanging off of the handle. Simplicity itself.

Maybe you know something about Billy’s life. That he was a Minnesota hockey savant, went to Yale on a scholarship, captain of the team. Maybe you know he took his Ivy League degree and taught at-risk kids in inner-city Boston; that he toured the world with Treat Her Right, and rose to fame with Morphine, becoming one of the best known and most respected drummers in American Music. Maybe you know that he’s met everyone from Johnny Cash to Roy Orbison, backed up Bo Diddley, opened for Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos. Maybe you know that after Mark Sandman died on » Continue Reading.

While away an hour with the latest albumtoalbum episode – Stuart Maconie and I ramble at length about Diamond Dogs, taking in 1970s Wigan, glam rock, the welfare state, The Beatles, the Stones, playing the ‘exactly!’ game with Alan McGee, McCartney and the avant-garde, Bowie’s guitar playing and how the nominal successor to Aladdin Sane, Hallowe’en Jack arrives and leaves in just one line. By one hour in, we’ve barely got past ‘Sweet Thing’, so this is the first in God knows how many episodes. But, this can be an ideal accompaniment for your daily allocated time in the exercise yard.

Whyaye, canny lads, whyaye – thon Geeoooordie boys a’ gan oot on thaaa reeeud…

Meet Me On The Corner, Lady Eleanor, Run For Home, Fog On The Tyne: songs that continue to resonate down the years and in the process slip into the very fabric of British culture.

Just fire up the opening lines in any saloon bar, and you’ll soon have a crowd singing along.

The opportunity returns this year with a 34-day tour of the UK and Ireland by Lindisfarne.

The very timelessness of the acoustic rock legends’ songs renders it almost incredible that 2020 marks the band’s 50th anniversary.

But here they are still, entertaining the crowds with an extensive repertoire of great songs delivered in an inimitably engaging way that’s trademarked their stage act right back to 1970.

That’s when band writers Alan Hull and Rod Clements emerged from Tyneside to quickly carve out a unique place for themselves fronting one of British rock’s most original bands.

Their pioneering sound, combining acoustic instruments like mandolin and fiddle with their electric blues roots, proved the perfect medium for their catchy, memorable songs.

The Clements-penned hit Meet Me On The Corner paved the way for » Continue Reading.

12/03/2020

Come All Ye presents The Folk Cabaret. Every second Thursday of the month at The Blue Moon, Norfolk Street, Cambridge. A folk-roots night with a house band, guest artists (this month: Polly Paulusma and Annie Dressner; Kelly and Woolley) and a quiz. Live music 8pm-10pm. + weird’n’wonderful folk / world records until 11pm Free entry!

29/02/2020

I’m having a gig on Saturday, in a small Cambridge club, to celebrate/commiserate turning 50 on Monday. Three bands: Pink Lemonade (all-girl pop-punk trio), The Pony Collaboration (indie pop) and Violet Woods (Nuggets-style garage-psyche). Following a few drop-outs, there are a handful of spaces. If any AfterWorders in the Cambridge area fancy coming along, PM me for details.

29/03/2020

Abbey Read, Let It Bleed and Bridge Over Troubled Water played from remastered vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

I’m posting this PR mail-out in the Noticeboard section, and as a long-time Sarah McQuaid fan I commend her live show to one and all – a blanket of musical warmth and ruminative fodder for the mind on cold nights and dark days. However, her thoughts on the future of touring in Europe – and thus livelihoods – for musicians based in the UK are perhaps worth discussing. On paper, Sarah at least has the option of moving back to Ireland (having joint UK/Irish citizenship), and touring Europe FROM there, but her life and her family’s life has been in Cornwall for many years, so that’s not likely to happen. I don’t envy her. Perhaps, @Twang featuring Sarah on a podcast might give valuable ‘airtime’ to the coming plight of touring musicians… plus, she’s great! 😀

********

Spain-born, American-raised and Cornwall-based singer/songwriter Sarah McQuaid is heading out on the road again for a 48-show tour beginning in the Netherlands on 27 February and finishing at the Acoustic Festival of Britain the last weekend in May. The tour takes her through five different countries – something that may become considerably more difficult for Sarah and her » Continue Reading.

23/02/2020

Hounds of Love, So and Graceland played from remastered vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

13/02/2020

Every second Thursday of the month at The Blue Moon, Cambridge. A folk-roots night with a house band, guest artists and a quiz. Live music 8pm-10pm. + weird’n’wonderful folk / world records until late. Free entry!

I’m working the desk, so it’ll at least sound good.

26/01/2020

Parklife, Definitely Maybe and His ‘n’ Hers played from 25th anniversary vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

29/12/2019

Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?, A Secret Wish, Slave to the Rhythm and Welcome to the Pleasuredome played from first pressing vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

27/12/2019

The Primevals are playing in Glasgow at SG3 – 5 bands on the bill, £5 on the door, raising money for the Beatson

20/12/2019

Solo set from from the excellent Paul Goodwin. Hammered-dulcimer driven dream pop from Tape Runs Out. Prog-folk from Ember Rev. Me on sound. Free entry. Man in the Moon, Norfolk Street, Cambridge

Rejoice , the many fans of Frazey that hang around here, she’s coming to the UK in 2020.

First there is a date in January, appearing in Glasgow at Celtic Connections (the 23rd) then more dates later on in June.

She’s at the following venues:

Monday 1st, London Union Chapel Thursday 4th Nottingham, Glee Club Friday 5th, Newcastle, Gosforth Civic Sunday 7th, Leeds Brudenell Club Wednesday 10th, Bristol, Hen & Chicken

I guess there could be more as there are gaps in the schedule. London tickets are already on sale. I can’t wait.

A kind person on Twitter @HollieAnneB is arranging gifts for those attending a Chrustmas lunch for those in need st her l8cal food bank

So if you want to make someone Christmas a little brighter rather than buying Auntie Jean some soaps in the hope she’ll take the bloody hint and use them for once -then there is an Azn wishlist

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1TZUEHUS28LHL?ref_=wl_share

So forget smelly Auntie Jean – most items are no more than a fiver and you’ll feel better about yourself, ya filthy animals.

Oh and read about Hollies experiences with rail companies as a wheelchair user and make your piss boil. You’ll be hoping they get nothing but lumps of coal this year

Delayed, because I didn’t see episodes 11 and 12 until Tuesday, here’s the bumper four episode edition. It’s quite long, so settle down with a decent glass of red and read on