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Let Me Please Introduce Myself

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Follower of this site since The Word days, and I’ve been meaning to start participating for ages, but have finally got round to becoming a contributor – thus fulfilling my New Year’s resolution (of 2020!)
I’m sure you’ll all be kind, patient and considerate with me.
A quick introduction – my musical tastes seem to follow the usual Afterword suspects, so there won’t be too much rocking the boat. But a few names maybe not mentioned quite so much include Lloyd Cole, The Jayhawks, Steve Earle, Marianne Faithfull, The Handsome Family, Graham Parker and Jackie Leven.
The first single that I bought with my own money was the England World Cup Squad ‘Back Home’, though I used to listen to my big sister’s collection before that. First album was Mott the Hoople ‘All the Young Dudes’ – still a great favourite.
I’ve noticed that there are a number of Afterworders in and around Cambridge, which is my home town, though I now live in Southampton, where I’ve been for many years. I’ve even noticed at least one fellow Cambridge United supporter, which is heartening to see, as there aren’t that many of us!
Even though I’ve never contributed before, I do feel almost like part of the Afterword community, so I look forward to becoming even more so. Thanks!

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Comments

  1. Can I be first to say Hi!
    I like the look of those names – back in the day, there was more Americana discussed – and Lloyd Cole and Marianne always good!
    Now you’ve taken the plunge, don’t be a stranger!

    • Thanks – you’ve been missing out! SInce retiring, I’ve been getting to know a bit more about Southampton’s history, and it’s very interesting – though it tends to be hidden away, and not made as much of as it could be.

  3. Hello!

    Like you, I am a long-time follower. Sometimes I think that I spend too much time on this site, but rarely a day goes by when I don’t find something of interest.

    I tend not to comment too much (except when it comes.to puns) and I think that I have only ever started one or two conversations despite intending to do more.

    Anyway, as you will know, this place is very convivial and the more people that post and comment, the better.

  8. It was 20 years ago today, or nearly as long, since a first tentative step into this Hotel California. I can remember when it were all fields around here, or so the Word went.

  9. Pull up a chair, and note that your introductions will result in a Sunday morning breakfast being made to the sounds of GP’s Squeezing Out Sparks

    (With their usual wordplay album titles, I’m still hoping one day Sparks release an album entitled Compressing Graham Parker)

  11. Hi Tim!

    Wishing you a very warm welcome. Greetings from slushy Stockholm!

    There are at least three AWers who live here in the Swedish capital.

    Along with myself, there’s @DuCo01, who I have actually met and who likes ambient jazz, World Music, Grateful Dead, dub reggae, Early Music and a shitload of other stuff.

    And then there’s that mysterious femme fatale, @Locust, who I have never met.

    One thing that the two of them have in common is extraordinary enthusiasm and encyclopaedic knowledge of all kinds of arcane stuff.

    They both constantly surprise and delight me. Something I can say about many of the people on this site.

    I’m a volunteer at our local community cinema here in Kärrtorp. So I want to know: Which films have you enjoyed in the past 12 months or so?

    The last movie I saw was at our film club. A slow-burning, atmospheric, dream-like movie from Indonesia:

    Pretentious bastard? Moi??

    If anyone else here has seen this film, I will eat my Grateful Dead T shirts!

    • @kaisfatdad keep an eye out for this new Italian film, C’è Ancora Domani (There’s Still Tomorrow). I haven’t seen it myself, so as per usual don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m hearing very good things from both reviews and my friends who have seen it. “Italian cinema at its best – it got a standing ovation at the cinema!” I was told. (I’m very keen to see it, but need to wait for a subtitled version due to my having deranged ears.)

      • Gosh! Thanks a lot for that one, @Gary! I will definitely keep my eyes open for it.

        I checked IMDB but there is no Swedish release date planned as yet.

        As it’s only just been release in Italy that is not so surprising. I see that the premiere was at the Rome Film Festival.

        The photography is wonderful.

    • Thanks – Stockholm is on my (very long) list of places that I need to visit. Though having read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, it does sound quite dangerous!
      For some reason, I’ve not managed to get back into going to the cinema quite as much post lockdown, but streaming is a godsend – if I had to pick two from the last 12 months, I would probably go for The Banshees of Inishereen and Living – both had a nice balance of humour and pathos, and some wonderful acting.

      • Don’t get me started on how dangerous Stockholm is! The number of gang shootings in Sweden, (usually carried out by teenagers of school age), is preposterous.

        The sight of police helicopters flying over Bagarmossen where we live, in search of the latest gunman is a very common one.

        I feel fairly safe myself as I am not a major crime kingpin of the suburbs. But if I was a young man, I would feel nervous. Our son, who is 20, is currently studying in Arvika, a small town in Värmland. And he is very glad to be away from Stockholm.

        Not seen Living yet @JustTim, but I’d like to. Banshees was one of my favourite films from last year.

        • Tim, I’d like to point out that after comments like this it is hilarious fun to say to Kaisfatdad “I didn’t know you had a son. What’s his name?”. Never gets boring.

  12. Welcome, Tim.

    I moved to (the outskirts of) Cambridge from the home counties when I was 17, and I’m still here. If you’re ever on home turf and fancy a cuppa/pint/gig, I know a some lovely cafe/pub/venue.

    Warning: I am very dull.

    • Thanks – I don’t get up there so much lately since my mum died and the house was sold, but I’m hoping to get there before the end of the football season. Going ‘up the Abbey’ is still a special occasion – a proper football ground. Though when I went last season, they were rubbish!
      On my last visit we had a drink at The Pint Shop behind the Guildhall which was very good – any other recommendations?

  14. Hello Tim.

    There is a “search” box top right. I think you’ll find many of the acts you love have been mentioned on The Afterword. We are a very broad church.

    You’ve obviously got to grips with how to win a hamper. Good luck!

  15. I’ve got a £5 bet you really are Bri. I suspect you’ll take us all in what with your appreciation of Graham Parker, Handsome Family etc and all round decent-blokeishness. Then one night when we’re all asleep…..

  17. Hi Tim.

    Just a reminder that the initiation ceremony is set for Thursday night, so be sure to have your uniform finished in time, and to be fully up to speed on the line up changes in the Mahavishnu Orchestra for the tests. I can’t divulge what the actual initiation involves but you’d be wise to have some Vick’s Vapour Rub and wet wipes to hand.

    Welcome!

  20. Evening! I mostly try and persuade this lot to listen to more music that sounds like banging and shouting. It’s not working so far. (Also a Jayhawks fan, although I largely got off the bus after Rainy Day Music)

  22. Welcome to someone from my university degree town – (Southampton, not Cambridge). Now you’ve broken the ice and started posting, you may realise the water is lovely and you can get away with losing the most rambling bobbins and nobody will notice or comment (#tumbleweed). With luck or judgement, however, you may tickle the tummy of AWers and pull in a whole hamper of trout.

      • I first heard Rattlesnakes on my mate’s Walkman in Ibiza. I’d been through a crap period and we had a boys’ week away (very quiet boys, these, mind). I was lying by to pool on a sunbed, soaking up the sun, sipping on a cold one, sea in the distance, and “2CV” came on. Half way through I reflected that life doesn’t get much better than this.

        • I bought the Perfect Skin 7″ in the WH Smiths ex-chart bargain bin, and my (first) copy of Rattlesnakes is a terrible Austrian pressing, so thin it wobbles and has no bass.

          My stepsister had been on a school skiing holiday and had some Schilling left at the end of the week, so bought at the airport After the Goldrush for her, a Luther Vandross album for my stepbrother, and Rattlesnakes for me.

          When she went CD, I got her Neil Young album, so I ended up doing quite well out of the deal.

          Why do I remember all this rubbish?

  24. Ey up Tim, welcome to the nicest corner of the internet.
    Where people respectfully disagree, then break bread, on the same day, often in the same post and where suggestions are never in short supply.
    Good to see Mr Earle get a mention, he’s a fave of mine.

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