Cracking little track (link in the first comment).
Can’t see it getting any airplay at the moment. Far too wickedly seditious.
Musings on the byways of popular culture
Cracking little track (link in the first comment).
Can’t see it getting any airplay at the moment. Far too wickedly seditious.
There I was, in the sixth form, having the time of my life. Living in a nice house in a pleasant city, gorgeous girlfriend, lovely parents, cracking bunch of mates. But constantly brassic. Browsing in record shops every weekend and sometimes at lunchtimes. Rarely buying anything, always wanting to.
I had a dog-eared copy of that little ‘Island Book Of Records’ thing you could pick up in decent record shops (remember them?) with personal notes recording which ones I desperately wanted to buy, eventually. They included albums by Nick Drake, Traffic, Stomu Yamashta, Amazing Blondel, Quiet Sun and many others. All ephemeral hopeless hopes. All acquired many years later in CD form, but unavailable to me at that time.
Anyway, there I was, still skint, wandering once more into the Virgin Records emporium by the entrance to the covered market at the bottom end of the city centre shops. At the time, Virgin were doing a roaring trade in cheap imports from the states and cut-out remainders from God knows where. And right there, on the counter, was a scruffy brown cardboard box stuffed with LPs. Scrawled on the side of the box in blue wax crayon it said, » Continue Reading.
Very sad to hear of his death. The last time I saw him alive he was corpsing. Not surprisingly it was because he was sharing a stage with the rump of the Bonzos, on a rusty boat harboured in the docks at Bristol. Such a gleefully talented boy. See you on the other side mate; look out for me, I won’t be that long you know, not in the greater scheme of things. I hope there’s a good pub up there. See you in the snug.
Does anyone have an unwanted, music related Christmas present.
I have a new CD of Beth Gibbons 2024 album ‘Lives Outgrown’ to swap with any Afterworder.
Just bumped into this on that Youtube thingamajig. Licensed from ITV apparently. Well worth a look.
See link in first comment.
@colin-h I’m sure you must be aware of this material? Apologies if you’ve posted this before!
For me and my post-Weissmuller generation, anyone who was a jungle and bush adventure enthusiast saw the great Ron Ely as THE Tarzan of our youth.
The 1966–1968 NBC series was broadcast in the UK by the BBC, and was required viewing to take us all out of the dull grey UK and onto the sunny climes of Africa. We had no idea at the time that it was filmed in Brazil and Mexico, and frankly, we didn’t care anyway. Fab escapist fun for eleven year old boys and girls.
Thanks for all those brilliant episodes Ron. RIP
I’m out on the western edge this morning, more or less at the closest point you can get to North America and still be in Europe. It’s blowing a hoolie outside, but I’m going for a walk nonetheless. Yesterday afternoon, when I got here, it looked like this:
No doubt, in an hour or two, the wind and rain will have blown over and the sands will shine again.
I hope you’re also in as beautiful a place.
Hattie Whitehead, about whom I have raved before on these pages, has just put out her debut album, and it is an absolute peach.
What’s more, she’s just embarked upon on her first solo tour (having already been the front person for the mightily successful tour under the name of Hejira, Pete Oxley’s jazzer powerhouse band doing Joni’s music from ‘Shadows And Light’).
I had tickets for the second gig in Hattie’s tour at Bristol’s St. Georges, but was unable to attend due to an unfortunately timed monster lurgy attack, but if you live in that London, you still have a chance to see and hear her play tomorrow night in Islington.
As I write, there are still a few tickets left for her gig at The Grace, London N5, and possibly a few more on the door.
Don’t miss this opportunity to amaze your offspring by regaling them of the tale that you were there before she broke through and became a superstar.
https://dice.fm/event/7ddo86-hattie-whitehead-10th-oct-the-grace-london-tickets?lng=en
Finding it hard to sleep? Nailing those tranqs to get some zeds? Whatever you do, don’t watch tonight’s re-broadcast of Threads, the BBC’s dramadoc from 1984 about what happens when the big one drops; if you do, you won’t sleep properly for months. Either that or you’ll overdo the meds in your desperation and slip off the coil ahead of any anticipated mushroom clouds.
If, like me, you’re just curious to see what horrified folk when it first went out, it’s on BBC Four at 22:20.
Nearly two glorious hours of Ms MacColl on the Beeb tonight (Sat 5th Oct) from 8:40pm until 10:30pm.
Stand by your VHS machines. Fire up the get_iplayer.
That is all.
I’m laid up with a stinking cold, and not in a fit state to attend tomorrow’s gig by Mary Spender at St. Georges in central Bristol. It’s a bitter blow, as I’ve been looking forward to this gig for a long time – I bought the pair of tickets early last December. I bagged our favourite pair of row-end seats 4 rows from the front.
The gig’s nearly sold-out now, and I’d anticipate that it will be a great event, very early in her tour schedule. She has a lovely voice, great guitar chops, and a healthy non-conformist attitude to a lot of things.
The tickets are e-tickets, received via email, so I can pass them on to someone else easily. If you can use them, please drop me a line by a DM and I ‘ll send them across.
All I ask in return is that you promise to review the gig on here – no money needs to change hands. On that basis, the first to message me gets the pair of tickets gratis.
We’re thinking we would like to sell up and move to the west of Ireland, and we are just starting to idly look at estate agents ads covering the areas to the west of Galway, with which we’re most familiar.
We haven’t really got a clue yet about what the practical obstacles or hindrances might turn out to be, but on the simple basis of the property prices we’ve seen quoted, it looks at least feasible.
Ideally, I’d probably want to look for a part-time job once over there, at least for a year or three, though that’s not a complete necessity, and to be honest, other than that the biggest hurdle might be moving all the CDs and vinyl.
Does anyone here have experience of making the move from the UK to the Irish republic, or can anyone point me at some reliable, sensible advice about how to go about it?
This morning I’ve been alerted by email to the availability by pre-order of Joni Mitchell’s long awaited Archives Volume 4 – The Asylum Years (1976-1980).
This set (4 LP selection of tracks, 6 CD full set of tracks) covers the Hejira, Don Juan and subsequent period, and I’ve been looking forward to getting this since Volume 3 came out.
Here’s the marketing bumf:
Features Unreleased Studio Sessions, Alternate Versions, Live Recordings, Rarities, And 36-Page Book With New Photos & An Extensive Conversation Between Joni & Cameron Crowe
Sourced From Original Stereo Reels, Nagra Film Recordings, Multi-track Tapes, Radio Airchecks & Cassette Tapes
Throughout the latter half of the seventies, Joni continued to creatively break ground with her fearless and fluid exploration of jazz. Rather than tread the same path, she challenged and reinvented her style with a folk fusion like no other. Ascending to an unrivaled sonic peak, this innovative sound took shape across the gold-certified HEJIRA [1976], the gold-certified double-LP DON JUAN’S RECKLESS DAUGHTER [1977], her collaboration with Charles Mingus entitled MINGUS [1979], and live album SHADOWS AND LIGHT [1980]. Channeling the thrill and excitement of these records, she delves even further into this season on JONI MITCHELL ARCHIVES, » Continue Reading.
About time too! I’ve watched this game from a bar in Ballyconneelly, which was brilliant, but failing that this’ll do nicely watching from my own sofa instead.
What a game so far. Extra time about to start. More of this Auntie, please.
Any Euro inspired vids you’d care to post?
Despite sluicing the taxpayer to the tune of many billions in dividends, our* magnificent water and sewerage companies now want to increase their bills next year by between 24% and 91%, depending upon how well practised they are in keeping a straight face while they take the piss.
In recent months I have been off the sauce almost entirely, guzzling water by the gallon instead. I’ve lost 10 Kgs in weight, and if I look downwards past my stomach I can confirm that I am no longer in the early stages of obesity. All of this progress is however now in jeopardy, as it looks like the most sensible option from 2025 onwards is going to be to exclusively drink beer.
Should this result in inadvertent intoxication, I fear that I might rashly take to the streets with a few half bricks and head to the nearest water company’s offices to wreak revenge on the greedy thieving bastards.
* I say ‘our’ but a lot of them are owned by overseas interests these days. Market rules innit.
In case you haven’t stumbled upon this page in the labyrinthine mess that the BBC’s web presence has (again) become, here’s a 3 hour playlist of songs used in the THIS TOWN series, and a fine list it is too.
/as you were
Dear Afterworders, may I commend to you this artist, whose singing and playing is of the very highest quality; Hattie Whitehead.
I know there are several amongst us who have already seen her play either her own material – she’s done 3 EPs to date – or the Joni Mitchell material that she currently performs on tours with Pete Oxley’s group that calls itself Hejira.
The great news is that her first full album is on its way to us at last, and she has a crowdfunding effort afoot to take the project over the line. If you have a mind to secure yourself a copy on vinyl or CD, accompanied by a T-shirt perhaps, or even a personalised video performance or maybe a sourdough loaf (I kid you not), then hasten across to the following place and shake your wallet at an artist who should be encouraged to flourish:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hattie-whitehead-s-debut-album/x/37385807#/
I used to look forward to my weekly dose of The Staggers. My print copy of The New Stateman would drop into the mailbox each week, bringing me a mixture of hope, despair and thoughtful distraction. Along with the daily delights from this place, and the music monthlies, my time available for ploughing into my huge inbound paperback stack was heftily reduced, but happily so.
When the Staggers ceased to arrive here at the tail-end of ’23 (despite no emailed or posted reminder) on Jan 5th ’24 I paid to renew my recently lapsed print sub for another full year. But no New Statesman copies subsequently arrived. Braving their dire telephone ‘customer support’ service, I queried this, but they palmed me off by saying I’d subscribed via a 3rd party – I’d renewed via magazines.co.uk the big subcriptions accumulator site, and suggested I raise the issue there instead.
At first I assumed that things were just taking a long time and waited a couple more weeks, yet still no New Statesman copies arrived. So I queried things with the magazines.co.uk people – the third party.
They were super helpful – confirming with detailed evidence that my subscription renewal had » Continue Reading.
Fellow Afterworders who live within reach of hipster joints in that Lahndahn, despite my provincial location and my disdain for the alleged delights of our capital city, I feel it is my duty, nay privilege, to give you good news.
The attached link will take you to a place where you can book some tickets for what I reckon will be one of the most intimately satisfying musical events of your year.
I’ve seen Hattie sing and play. She is a part – the essential front-of-stage part – of the occasional band that calls itself Hejira. They tour a set built entirely from the Joni repertoire as represented within the double-LP called Shadows And Light. Their performances, and Hattie’s sensitive and confident delivery of Joni’s lines and chords, are a wonderful thing. In this gig she will be singing her own material and you will hear why she was invited to sing and play with Hejira.
I can’t recommend the opportunity to see this gig highly enough. I’d be there myself if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ll unavoidably be 125 miles away at the time.
Don’t say I didn’t tell you.
https://dice.fm/event/qdrp9-hattie-whitehead-22nd-may-servant-jazz-quarters-london-tickets
Browsing the spines of my LPs this morning it occurred to me that when choosing an album title, artists can decide to serve a wide range of purposes. The artist’s previous experiences and level of success may play a part, they may choose a title designed to intrigue the casual buyer or to simply signal their artistic or political intent. They may be confident – or lazy – enough just to take the piss with a throwaway title a la Ship Arriving, or they may make a little more effort.
My favourite is in the comments – what’s yours?
Have we got any posters here who live in Iowa? Do they stick to bottled mineral water? If not, surely they must be negotiating a bulk-buy option from their local mart by now, as their fellow Iowans seem to have lost their marbles entirely.
OK then, enough of all these lists. Enough arty-farty boasting or reminiscence. Let’s ROCK.
Gimme your under-four-minute-distillation-of-excessive-excitement.
This is mine.
…how come, when they cover the huge public turnout for Shane McGowan’s funeral procession through the streets of Dublin, they focus on a bunch of street musicians playing a song about Salford written by a Scot – Ewan MacColl – and not a Shane original?
Have they no soul? Are they that slack at their reporting that they didn’t know who the song they featured had been written by? Couldn’t they be bothered to find some guys playing one of his own, rather than a song the Pogues could only be said to have perhaps latterly made their own for casual listeners? Where’s the Reithian rigour when you need it? Sloppy sods.
Harrumph
I know there are a lot of musicians here, most of them far more accomplished than my clumsy C,F and G strumming. Oh, and D as well. And A minor. I wonder if any of them have previously invested in any of Rick Beato’s training materials, or have any insight into its suitability for an old fart who wishes he knew more than that he just has a good pair of ears and pretty good pitch.
I ask because Rick is currently, at the time of writing, offering a humungous bundle of his interactive material for $99, which on the face of it is a huge discount.
Any observations are welcome: I’m tempted, really I’m tempted, but even heavily discounted, it’s still a chunk of moolah that I could otherwise spaff on a Dylan boxed set…
…so what’s the verdict?