I thought I had better drag myself out of my sick bed to do one final post to round off the year - I hope my bed feels better soon.
This year I seem to have been getting more and more into listing things. This may be something to do with my age, or maybe it's just something that has been built into the very core of my personality since I first had one, but is only now beginning to manifest itself in an outward kind of manner. A bit like when someone suddenly starts making lists of various stuff.
In fact, I think I have always wanted to make lists of things, but its only now that I have discovered the tools that can enable me to do so easily. I remember once getting a free application for my Amiga that would allow me to create a database of the videos I owned. I spent quite a bit of time adding details of my video collection and then I replaced the Amiga with my first Apple Macintosh computer (a colour classic with 80Mb hard drive) and so that was the last I saw of that program. There is probably a dusty and cobweb ridden floppy disk in some dank, dark corner of an attic, in a house I once lived in, that still contains my video catalogue in some obscure proprietary format.
So, I made a major listing breakthrough a few months ago when I discovered last.fm, which enabled me to list the gigs I have been to and allow other people who were there to mark their presence and also add any pictures they may have taken. I first started trying to catalogue the gigs I had been to about 2 or 3 years ago and since I discovered last.fm I have managed to add quite a few I hadn't been able to track down as well as correct a few errors. The other good thing about last.fm is that you can also add events you will be going to in the future.
Next I bought myself a new scanner so I could start scanning things, thus creating a sort of list of images. I started off with some of the oldest photos I have, which for some reason is nowhere near as big a collection as it ought to be. I used to have an old Pentax SLR camera which had a separate light meter and I used to take loads of photos back in the first 2 or 3 years of the 1980s. I managed to locate a small number of these but I have no idea how the rest came to leave my possession, for, just as Mr Lewis is never knowingly undersold, I would never knowingly have got rid of them. So, I started off scanning old photos and then decided to scan everything I could find that had been signed. I discovered a few things I had forgotten about, but I also found that I had mysteriously lost a few things also.
In my garage I have 2 boxes full of cassettes. I raided this box some years ago when I was rediscovering all the music I had previously recorded in my old home studio, and I raided them again when I was looking for autographs. Once I had finished scanning the things that had been autographed I started scanning some of the more obscure cassette covers I have. I now intend to scan all of the cassette covers I have, though this is going to take me some time to complete (and don't worry I won't be publishing them all here).
Looking up some of these cassettes on the internet led me to the main feature that this rambling passage has been winding its slow and deviating way towards, and that is that I have discovered yet another site that lets you list things and that is www.discogs.com. Google searches had brought me upon it a few times before, but I just thought it was a database of albums, but it is much more than just that. After creating an account you can look up albums (CD, cassette and vinyl etc) and mark off the ones you own. In fact, its a bit like those old I Spy books only better because it's about music. If you don't find something you own in the database you can add it and upload a scan of it (so scanning all those cassette cover is not going to be quite the fruitless task it may have first appeared to be - in fact I have already added my first submission, complete with scan.
The ones you have marked can then be viewed as a list in your home area and also downloaded to a spreadsheet, should you so desire. As well as all this you can also rate items and even add things to a wish list so you can keep track of albums you would like to buy at some point. It also has a marketplace where people can sell albums and each time you view an album it has links to any that are currently for sale in the marketplace. The whole site is perfect for music collectors and if you aren't already one it will definitely make you start having dark thoughts about becoming one. I have already been toying with the idea of buying up all the records I regret selling in the past and I don't even own a record player (yet!).
I currently have 104 items in my discogs collection, but that is probably less than a quarter of my actual collection so it may be a while before I get up to date with it, but while I'm doing so I'm going to be in some sort of list heaven or something.
That only leaves me to add that just before Christmas I met up with Mr Cloudhand and partner along with the incorrigible Mr Tweedy for an evening of drinking, eating and reminiscing. I arrived thinking I was just getting over a cold, but little was I to know that rather than it being on its way out it was in fact still in the early stages of building itself up inside me ready to unleash its full force. We followed the same format as our previous night out and had a few drinks in the Hotel Du Vin. There was quite a large wedding reception going on so there was no chance to have a game of pool his time and no chance for photo oportunity as I had forgotten my camera. After a couple os absolute vodkas with lemonade I had forgotten all about my cold, and after a few more I forgot pretty much what we were talking about too, but we had a very enjoyable meal at the Drum and Monkey. The fact I had mentioned that I had lost many of my old photos had not gone unnoticed in the Cloudhands office and Adrian had kindly brought some of the photos from his collection up with him so I could scan them. I have included one here as it is the only photo I know about that features my favourite Inductrial Records t-shit.
My thought for the year is "Isn't it amazing how things can disappear from your life without your knowledge".
måndag, december 31, 2007
Dag 1428: Mellan God Jul och Gott Nytt År
lördag, december 08, 2007
Dag 1405: Alive and kicking at the country club
It's great when things happen by chance.
Last night was just such an occasion.
Some months ago Mr Cloudhand and I decided it was about time we had another trip out to a concert together. We each had a list of groups we wanted to see and The Cure was pretty high up on each or our lists. So every now and again I had a look on ticketmaster to see if there are any good gigs on the horizon. At some point I noticed that The Human League were going to be touring. I used to really like them and hadn't seen them live since 1980 so I had a look to see if they were playing in Leeds on a weekday night, thinking I could have gone after work. They weren't so I forgot about it and carried on looking for a suitable gig for the Grand Critical Mass/Cloudhand Royal International Gig of the Year Show Award Big Night OUt.
One friday after this I noticed somewhere that The Cure were postponing some gigs in America. This made me think that they may be going to play some gigs in Europe at some point so I set up an alert for them on the ticketmaster website.
When I went to bed that evening I checked my email and there was an email from ticketmaster saying The Cure would be playing a single UK date in 2008 and tickets would be on sale at 09:00 the next morning. So I was on the website at 09:00 the next morning and by 09:10 I had secured a pair of 'standing room only' tickets. If I hadn't put that alert in the day before I would not have known about it and it would have been sold out before I was even aware of it.
Although that was something that happened by chance, it wasn't what I was intending to write about, so lets get back to the core subject without further beating about the bush and going off at tangents, which is something I do sometimes do, but not on this occasion.
So, I had my Cure tickets safely stored away and was thinking that I may have only managed to get to 2 gigs in 2007, but I had a great one coming up in 2008 to look forward to when I got an email from Denmark (the land of the normally behaving sun). I briefly mentioned this email as a post scrip to this post.
The email was asking about for some info about some Human League tracks I had played live in 1982. I provided the info and we got chatting a bit and Niels asked if I was going the see The Human League on their up and coming tour as they were playing the whole of Dare and it was generally anticipated that it would be a really god show.
I replied saying I couldn't make it, but that got me thinking that I would actually really like to see it. I checked the dates again and the closest one was in Sheffield but I was meant to be going to a barn dance that evening that had been arranged months before. I tentatively mentioned that I would quite like to go, but was firmly told that I couldn't as I already had arrangements for that evening. The next day I mentioned again that I wanted to go and was told "Ok we won't go to the barn dance so you can go".
I went straight onto the ticketmaster website and saw that tickets were still available. I requested 2 and came back saying my request could not be fulfilled. I tried putting in 1 and it came back with ticket A27 on the balcony. So there was only 1 ticket left. I could have bought that, but I would rather have gone with someone than on my own so I had a look on eBay.
I could tell a story of about 3 or 4 paragraphs about how I ended up getting the tickets, but I don't want this to be 2 long so we'll just skip to the fact that I managed to win 2 tickets in row F of the front stalls and my Dad had said he would like to come along so I also had someone to go with. Looking at he plan it looked like row F was on an angle at the side of the stalls, so I guessed we would be near the front, but with a side on view so we may not be able to see the whole stage.
As mentioned before, a few times, I have been compiling a list of all the gigs I have been to and have been creating events for them on last.fm. I found that someone had already created an event for this gig, but I didn't add my attendance until I had the tickets in hand, so as not to tempt fate (apparently fate doesn't like being tempted or something). Anyway, while surfing around I discovered that the support group was to be a band called Onetwo featuring Paul Humphreys, from OMD, and Claudia Brücken, from Propaganda.
I have to admit that I was never a big OMD fan. The only thing I ever bought of theirs was the cassette of Dazzle Ships and I only liked some of the songs on it. I should still have this cassette, as my cassette collection seems to be one of the few things I have from my youth that has survived.
However, I was a very big fan of Propaganda. I bought their first 2 albums (also on cassette, so I still have these) and used to play them a huge amount in the 1980s. I even went as far as tracking down a live recording of them, though I never got chance to see them live (and always regretted it). So the prospect of seeing Claudia Brücken play live got me really excited - I was going to be seeing 2 great bands on the same night.
The last time I saw the Human League was the last night of the Travelogue Tour. Shortly after that Martin Ware and Ian Craig marsh left and they were replaced by a couple of girls Phil Oakey had spotted in a nightclub. I carried on buying their singles until I heard Don't You Want Me. It seemed to me thay had suddenly become a pop band and I was no longer interested. I didn't buy Dare or anything they released since (although I haveto admit I did like some of the songs I heard them do on Top of the Pops over the following years).
So last week I bought a copy of Dare and loaded it into my iPod. The 2 songs I was dreading hearing were at the end of the album so I listened to it all apart from those 2 songs and was amazed at how good I thought it was. It wasn't really poopy at all and most of the songs were definatley in the same vein as the original Human League. So now I was even more excited about going.
So at last we get to the concert itself.
Our seats ended up not being at the side, but bang in the middle of the ninth row in the front stalls, so they couldn't really have been much better. The view was great.
There weren't many people in as we sat down, but just as we had got comfortable some people walked onto the stage and Onetwo started their set. I felt it was a bit of a shame that so few people were in, but as they played more and more people started arriving at their seats so the applause was getting more as their set went on. I was expecting the highlight of their set to be the Propaganda song Duel, but fantastic though that was it was their version of the Associates song Club Country that got the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. 
It was simply amazing, just as good as if the Associates themselves were performing it. I had been lucky enough to see them in the 1980s and never thought I would hear any of their songs live again so it was really special to hear Onetwo perform such a great version of it. Duel was a close second though and was a great close to their set. I really hope I can see them live again. I bought their CD the gig and have been enjoying listening to it as I have been writing this.
After the interval the hall was bursting with people and suddenly some lights came on behind the Dare banner (shown above) and we could see the bands outlines as they went straight into The Things That Dreams Are Made Of. It was a fantastic opening to a gig and it never fell below that level for the whole evening. All the songs form Dare sounded better than the recorded versions and, dare I say it, even Don't You Want Me, sounded good last night. I took loads of photos, but most of them have come out blurred. The best of them can be seen here.
I have to say that the stage set with its moving screens showing video images was one of the best I have seen to date and I even spotted a couple of Korg MS2000BR modules in the racks in the middle of the stage, which was good as I have one of those.
Some of the images on the screens were from the late 70s early 80s era and went really well with the songs. When Dare finished there was an instrumental song while Phil and the girls went off for a costume change and then they came back and performed loads more great songs. I really enjoyed them all but the one I was waiting for was Being Boiled and it was saved for one of the encores. When it came it was, for me, the highlight of the evening. The visuals were great and reminded me of the visuals they used to use when I saw them back in 1979 and 1980. The final song was Together in Electric Dreams and it was a great end to one of the best gigs I have ever been to.
If it hadn't been for that email from Denmark I would never have gone - so thanks Niels and I hope you enjoy the Copenhagen show as much as I enjoyed the Sheffield one.
lördag, december 01, 2007
Dag 1398: Sign the picture, and throw it away.
Finding my old Siouxsie autograph recently motivated me to have a hunt round looking for all my other autographs.
This is what I found:
I was driving accross Leeds from the Gelderd Road Offcie to the Seacroft office thinking of the Peter Hammill concert I would be going to that evening. I drove past the Irish Centre and noticed that the carpark had a van parked in it with the Peter Hammill logo/symbol on the side of it. Without further ado I turned off and drove into the carpark.
I noticed that a set of double doors were open and I could hear music coming out. I very gingery walked in through the doors into a darkened room with a stage to one side. Peter Hammill was just walking off the stage and he turned round and saw me walking in. I appologised for disturbing him and mumbled that I had just been passing and had seen his van and would it be possible to get an autograph? In a very welcoming voice he said of course but much more important is to shake hands. We did so and I produced the Enter K cd I had in my suit pocket and he kindly signed it.
I spotted a rack next to the mixing desk containing 3 ADAT recorders (pressumably to record the gig with) and felt like I wanted to start up a conversation about them, but I also felt like I had intruded and taken up enough of his time so I just thanked him and left.
It is the only time I have met him, but the main impression that he left was what a thoroughly nice and friendly person he is.
As I left the room Nic Potter began playing the bass line to Empress's Clothes - they didn't play the song during that evening as far as I recall.
Around about the time following the release of Toyah's second album (The Blue Meaning) I remember going into a pub with my uncle. I cannot remember where the pub was, but I remember we sat in wicker chairs in some kind of conservatory.
There were two elderly ladies at the table next to us and one of them was telling the other all about her grand daughter who was called Toyah. She was telling her friend that although she looked very punky on the TV she was really a very nice quiet respectable girl and all the hair dye she used was just water based and she would wash it all out when she got home.
Toyah was my absolute fave rave in those days and my bedrom wall was covered in Toyah pictures and press cuttings.
When I used to go to concerts in the early 80s I would always try and go backstage afterwards to get autographs. I managed to do this many times and usually had a chat with the bands. After this gig in 2000 I was walking towards the exit when I spotted one of the band waling past me. I asked him if he could sign the CD I had bought that night and he said yes and asked if I wanted to go backstage to get the autographs of the other members. This was the first time I had done this for ages. I suddenly felt that I was a bit too old to be going backstage asking for autographs.
As I walked towards the dressing room Karen was just coming out of an ajoing room so I asked her to sign my cd cover first. I mentioned I had seen her sing at the Celtic Connections Gaelic concert and just loved the song Mi Le M' Uilinn that she sang there. I made a complete balls up of pronouncing the name. Then I went into the dressing room and suddenly I felt very old and out of place. The rest of the band signed my cd and cracked quite a few jokes and tried to make me feel at home, but I singularly failed to think of anything to say to them other than thankyou and felt very self conscious.
I had gone to the gig with a friend from work, but he had declined to go backstage so I said my thankyous again and left.
We arrived pretty early for this so went to the bar for a drink or two. I noticed Eirik Glambek Bøe walk into the room and go up to the bar so I went and asked for his autograph. All I had for him to sign was one of our tickets so that is what he signed. I told him I could speak a bit of Swedish for some reason (he is Norwegian) and then was hit by a sudden wave of self conciousness similar to the Capercailie gig. I felt very old again so I mumbled "Tack" and went back to my seat. As one of my work colleugues failed to turn up this ticket didn't end up getting used.
After the gig I bought one of the King's of Convenience/Call and Responce T-shirt's that had been made by members of Call and Responce and also bought teh aboce CD. The band members that were on the stall were kind enough to sign it for me.
Paolo fancied a night out in Edinburgh so we had a good look online to see if there were any gigs worth going to see.
I spotted this one and looked them up in t'internet. When I saw they were on the Bella Union record label (set up by ex Cobteau Twins members) and heard the clip of Sister Sneaker Sister Soul on their website I knew this was going to be good.
I rang the box office number, but by this time I had forgotten their name so I asked if they had any tickets left for My New Book, they said "who?" but soon realised what I meant.
This was the first time I had been to see a band I didn't already now alot about for ages. The venue was really small, but alsi realy cool looking. There were 2 support groups and we managed to get right to the very front. Paolo particularly liked St Jude's Infirmary and bought a copy of their cd. I thought My Latest Novel were fantastic and bought a copy of their single, even though I didn't (and still don't) own a record player.
I noticed that the singer was wearing Nudie jeans, which is the only brand I have worn since 2000. I wondered if he had bought then in Sweden (where I have bought all mine).
As we were leaving I spotted a few scatered members of the band and asked them to sign my single. The violinist was with her parents when I asked her to sign and I could see she felt very embarrassed as she signed. I am sure she is fully used to doing that sort of thing by now.
It is a shame that most of my autograph collection has been sold, given away or lost.
It used to include:
Magazine from Leeds University - Secondhand Daylight tour.
Human League from Wakefield Unity Hall - the last date of their Travelogue Tour.
Donovon from a gig in Manchester - can't remember location or even the year.
Hawkwind - Tour programme for Choose your masques tour - I should have this somewhere. I had it when I worked in Scotland a few years ago, but I seem to have mislayed it since then.
Steve Hackett - from Sheffield City Hall and also Bradford St Georges hall.
John Martyn from Leeds University.
TG - I used to have loads of stuff signed by them - goodness knows were it all is now, apart from the autograph on my arm from the Rafters gig (I know where that one is).
Robin williamson from Square Chapel - Halifax. I should still have this somewhere so I will report back if I find it.
I was also lucky enough to get to spend a whole evening with the Buzzcocks and get an "access all areas" sticker for the gig at Sheffield City Hall, bit for some reason I didn't ask for any autographs.
fredag, november 23, 2007
Dag 1390: Party fears two
So, as this years party season draws to a close (ending with the Drunken Two Fat Ladies Birthday Bash sponsored by cloudhands - bringing you quality reviews of obscure films and singularly failing to report on the unifying theory of everything, whatever the weather), I have found myself revisiting the concert list I had been compiling and last reported on here.
I joined last.fm a bit ago but have only just discovered that you can add events to it along with reviews and photos. I had been wanting to set up a website to do exactly this for some time, so now I don't need to bother.
My results to date can be seen here.
So, I have been adding the gigs I have attended and uploading any photos I took onto flickr so they can be displayed on the page for that event. While I was doing this I was able to correct a few errors in my original listing and more importantly add details of quite a few gigs that I previously hadn't been able to pin down.
The most recent one was the Associates gig at the Hacienda in Manchester. I went to this one with Simon Walsh. We had both been huge Associates fans for ages and this was teh first chance we actually got to see them (and unfortunately also our last). I have been trying to find out when this gig was for years without luck until earlier this week I managed to find this site.
After clicking on most of the links on the site I finally found a very well hidden gigs page and that meant I now had found details of 63 of the gigs I have been to.
The ones I am still to find out details of are:
Gordon Giltrap, Sheffield City Hall - this was probably in 1976, it was my first ever gig (I think)
Magna Carta, Hampswaite Village Hall - this was when I was in Cloud 9 and I went with the other members
Everything But the Girl, Harrogate International Centre
10CC, Harrogate International Centre
Clannad, Harrogate International Centre
Donavan, Somewhere in Manchester - not much of hope tracking this one down
Penetration and John Cooper-Clarke, Leeds Polytechnic
Here and Now, Leeds Polytechnic
ABC, Leeds Warehouse
Buzzcocks, Sheffield City Hall
999, Leeds Fan Club
The Revillos (or Rezillos), Leeds Fan Club
God Squad, Harrogate Cairn Hotel - used to have a tape of this, but it was lost some time ago
God Squad, Harrogate Royal Baths
Neural Circus, Annabellas nightclub, Harrogate - I think it was called Anabellas, it was above the station, they borrowed my Korg MS-10 for this one
Neural Circus, Adelphi Hotel, Harrogate
So that is all the ones I can remember, but it is quite possible there are others that I don't even remember going to.
So that would make a grand total of 79 gigs, and The Cure next year will make it an even 80. This, of course, doesn't include all the gigs I have played and, so far, I only know the date of one of those.
STOP PRESS: Just after posting this I got an email from someone who runs a really comprehensive Human League website and this has led me to find the date I saw them at the Top Rank nightclub in Sheffield in 1980. I have updated the above numbers to take this into account.
tisdag, november 20, 2007
Dag 1387: lost+found
I have been getting more and more obsessed with that period of my life that encompasses a couple of years either side of 1980 (though I'm sure no one would have realised from anything I have written here recently).
I found myself thinking about some of the things I used to own. I knew that I had disposed and/or lost some of them over the last 25 years, but I decided to have a search and destroy mission (but without the destroy bit) on Sunday to see what I could recover of the things I thought I should still own from that period.
I used to buy a lot of records, mainly albums, but also bought quite a few singles around that time and some of those are pretty valuable now. Unfortunatley, I can remember taking them to a record fair some time ago and selling up my complete singles collection for the princly sum of £100, without me doing any haggling. That was a pretty large sum when I sold them, though now I suspect some of those singles may well be worth that amount on their own. I seem to recall I spent the money in Sheffield on a sony recordable walkman (£96) with clip on microphone, with the intention of using it to record concerts. Unfortunately I never actually used it for recording anything and just used it as a standard walkman. If only I had kept the records instead.
This bunch of singles included:
Siouxsie and the banshees - Hong Kong garden with gatefold sleeve
Soft Cell - Mutant moments ep
I'm so hollow, Clock DVA, Vice Versa - 1980 the first 15 minutes e.p. (this was always one of my favourite singles and I have no idea why I ever decided to part with it).
Destroy all monsters - destroy all monsters
Genesis - Twilight Alehouse
David Bowie - Ashes to ashes complete with stamp set
The prefects - Going through the motions
Television - Marquee moon 12"
Various TG singles
Plus plenty of others I can't remember
I also had the Neural Circus exit e.p. but I am pretty sure I would not have sold that as a) I bought it from Liam when they first brought it out and b) as it was a self financed e.p. I wouldn't have thought many people would have heard of it so I wouldn't have thought it was worth selling.
So I climbed up through the attic trapdoor and hacked my way through the cobwebs to see what I could find.
The answer was not a lot. I found my collection of LP records and had a look through those. They consisted mainly of Peter Hammill and VDGG records, but I also found a couple of bootlegs in there that I didn't remember owning, which was a nice surprise. I couldn't find any sign of my Neural Circus single or any other singles. I did find a forgotten collection of photo albums that dated back to my wedding, but there were none from before that. I used to have a photo album containing photos I took at some of my early concerts and it also contained a number of autographs. The most precious of these was an autograph of Siouxsie and the Banshees. I seemed to remember taking that one out and putting it in a photo frame, but I could find no sign of this photo album or the frame containing the Siouxsie autograph.
I eventually gave up and moved onto the garage. After much rummaging around I still couldn't find that photo album, but I did find an old green photo frame with 3 signatures on a bit of fading/yellowing creased paper. I can't remember when I had last seen this, but it left me with a great feeling of relief, as I had been beginning to think that I had lost all my old treasured possessions.
The three signatures are Siouxsie, Steven Severin (who plays bass) and John. At first I assumed the John to be, the late, John McGeoch (who had previously been guitarist with Magazine). He was in Siouxsie and the Banshees from 1980 until 1982 so I guessed this must have been signed within that period.
However, once I looked at the front of the flyer I was able to get a bit closer to the truth.
The flyer gives dates of a few gigs and, unfortunately, no year, but it did tell me that October 29th was a thursday and a quick go with the old unix cal command showed me that October 29th fell on a thursday in 1972, 1978 and 1989. I knew it couldn't be 1972 or 1989 so it must have been 1978 and therefore the John must have been John McKay (who was guitarist until the 1979 tour).
A quick look here showed me that they played in Leeds on the following occassions around this time:
10th November 1977 - Leeds Polytechnic
6th December 1977 - Leeds Fan Club
12th April 1978 - Leeds Fan Club
21st October 1978 - Leeds University
So from the other gigs listed on the flyer I would guess this was probably signed at the Leeds University gig, though I guess I can't be 100% sure.
The other gigs shown on the flyer (in case you can't make them out) are as follows:
Thusday 16th October - Wayne County and the Electric chairs + Agony Column
9th November - The Skids + Sheeny and the Goys
16th November - Penetration + Xpelaires
Dec 2nd (at Hofbrauhause) - Wilco Johnson’s Solid Senders
torsdag, november 15, 2007
Dag 1382: my room waiting for wonderland
This is the view from the room in which I spent most of my formulative years (which included the rather crutial 1982).
This what I remember it containing:
- 1 bed in the corner with its legs removed
- 1 piano which I had stripped and painted yellow
- The walls and radiator were also painted yellow (and maybe the skirting board too?)
- 1 pedal harmonium which I found in a junk room at school and they said I could keep it
- 1 Korg ms-10 synthesizer
- 1 Carlsbro valve amp head
- 1 cabinet containing a 15inch speaker
- 1 upside down old television painted in various bright colours
- 1 bedside light that hung from the ceiling and was shaped like a giant light bulb
- 1 full length mirror with dark wood frame
- 3 parrots on the wall
- 2 candles on the window ledge
- 1 small desk with:
- 1 sinclair spectrum/later replaced with 1 atari st/later replaced with an amiga
- 1 hifi system (seperates) consisting of record deck, cassette deck, amp and warfdale speakers (I later added a cd player -much later)
- 1 shergold meteor guitar (was swapped out for the above sinclair spectrum)
- 1 Soundmaster cr-88 drum machine
- 1 old 35 mm pentax SLR camera with seperate light meter and 2 extra lenses which was used to take the above photo, which was not an intentional double exposure, if I remember correctly
- a couple of my photos framed on the wall above the harmonium
- 1 open brick fireplace with no fire in it
- 1 wooden box containing all my tapes (painted yellow)
- 1 yellow wooden slatted wooden blind in the window (rolled up and out of site in this photo)
- 1 cat called Dinah
- my blue book that I used to write down song lyrics and such stuff (that I still use to this day)
Things I remember doing in this room include:
- Taking quite a lot of photos in this room (which I still have)
- Recording the backing track for the Strange Devotion gig at the 1982 Folk and Blues
- Recording some tracks with Liam from Neural Circus and John Robson. The tape survived, but at some point I had taped over the first couple of tracks and so our version of Silver Machine (including lyrics sung by Liam which included the line "I've got a pink pussycat called Simon, you can take him home if you want to") was lost forever
- Learning to play Pictures at an Exhibition on my yellow piano (I should add I learned some of it not all of it)
- Playing Dungeon Master, and many other computer games whose names are long forgotten
- Having loads of friends back to listen to music and hang out
There are obviously other things that we don't need to go into here.
All in all this was a good room to live in and I would recommend it to all potential occupants.
onsdag, november 14, 2007
Dag 1381: The post that's burnt the most
I normally like mine pretty well done, but not even I would fancy eating this one.
tisdag, november 13, 2007
måndag, november 12, 2007
lördag, november 10, 2007
Dag 1377: Tickets please!
Steve Hackett - june 1979
onsdag, november 07, 2007
Dag 1374: Snowblind and Pepsiburst
Once when I was in a bar in France I ordered a Coca Cola. What I actually received was a Cacolac, which is a milky chocolatey drink. I am not particularly fond of milky drinks, especially chocolate ones, but I didn't dare ask for another Coca Cola incase I got the same again.
Mr Dent: "Is that a can of coke you have there, Butler?"
Mr Butler: "No it's Pepsi, Dent."
tisdag, november 06, 2007
Dag 1373: The Blue Meanies
Once upon a time on the evening of 2nd December 1979 I watched an episode of Shoestring. Hapless Eddie Shoestring was a DJ with Radio West and in this particular episode, entitled Find the Lady, he is asked, by the singer of a new wave band, to investigate the disappearence of an ex band member who was convinced the band's manager had murdered his girlfriend. The singer happened to be Toyah Willcox and during the show we saw her playing some songs live.
I thought these songs were fantastic and wanted to find out more. I fired up my Macbook Pro, but the internet hadn't been invented yet so it was some time before I was able to find out who she was and that it was actually her real band playing some of her real song in the episode. I remember buying her first album, Sheep farming in Barnet as soon as it cam out and it was my favourite record for ages. I even put newspaper clipping and picturtes of her up on my bedroom wall.
When her second LP came out (The Blue Meaning) I bought it on cassette and I still have that copy in my old cassette collection. Although I mostly liked it, I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as the first album and, unfotunatley, by the time the next studio album was released (Anthem) I felt she had sold out to the world of pop and my musical tastes had honed themselves in other directions, though I still liked her early stuff and always have done since.
This is the title track from her second album.
Later on I discovered she had recorded an album with members of King Crimson called Ophelia's Shadow. I bought it on the strength of the cover and musicians and thought it was great - not a myschtery in sight. I later found a cassette by Sunday all over the world and found that very similar and equally as good.
I have never seen Toyah live, which is a shame, but she has an album called "In the court of the Crimson Queen" due out next year, so there may still be a chance yet.
Let's heal ourselves.
onsdag, oktober 31, 2007
Dag 1367: A rainy day in England
As I have the near dubious honour of being chief music correspondant on the Critical Mass staff rosta, I find my morning postbag absolutely inundated with letters asking me if Joan as Policewoman wears a police uniform for her shows.
Although I always appreciate the letters, I am afraid that in this instance, I am just not at liberty to divulge the answer to that question.
fredag, september 28, 2007
Dag 1334: The Black hit of Space
After posting my first video onto YouTube the other day I spent some time last night having a look at some of the music videos they have on there. I was amazed at how much of the stuff I like was there.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have recently discovered this site (which has loads of great info about minimal synth and similar music from the late 70s and early 80s) and from this I discovered that the owner of this site also runs a weekly radio show on East Village Radio called Minimal-Electronik Plus. This is available as a podcast so I have subscribed to it and its been great listening to it each week on the train and the gym. One of the tracks I recently heard in this show was Alone by Colin Newman of Wire. I first heard this song when it was covered by This Mortal Coil on their album Filigree and Shadow. The original version was also used in the film The Silence of the Lambs. This is a great song but the only version of it I could find on YouTube was a clip from Silence of the Lambs. I did find some other interesting Wire clips too though, and also this fantastic video.
Apart from Minimal-Electronik Plus I have also been playing pr0nography by The Cure to death in recent weeks and particularly the track Siamese Twins. I had a look to see if I could find this track on YouTube and came accross this version with some modern dance going on to it (I bet DJ will like this). I realised that I had seen this on TV when it it was originally done all those years ago. I am hoping for a joint Critcal Mass/Cloudhands outing to see The Cure at the first possible oportunity.
Anyway, I then started looking for some of the bands I used to like back in those days and tried searching for I'm so hollow, who used to be one of my fave raves (I even used to have an I'm so hollow badge which was black with I'm so hollow..... written inside a cloud - wish I still had it).
Then I had a look for the Human League and found some pretty interesting early stuff. I bought Reproduction from iTunes a couple of years back (I had originally had it on vinyll, but haven't had a record player for about 15 years - in fact my kids don't even know what records or record players are), but I no longer had a copy of Travalogue, which I really used to like) so I did a search for Black Hit of Space (one of my alltime favourite Human League tracks of all time) and instead of coming up with a Human League version of it, it came up with this - which I think is great and I'm glad I found it.
This got me wanting a copy of Travelogue again so, as is ones want when its late at night and one has had a few drinks, I logged straight onto iTunes and bought it. I then tried to find something else to go with it and nearly bought A-Z by Colin Newman and spent quite some time deliberating on one of Twilight Ritual's albums, but in the end I managed to get away with just the Human League album.
I listened to it for the first time (since I had the LP) on the train this morning and here are my thoughts:
1. Black Hit of Space.
This track is, in my opinion, one of the best Human League songs ever and was definately an inspiration for the Strange Devotion track Danger Line. I remember when travelogue came out one of its criticisms was that it had been over produced. I agreed to some exstend and always thought this one was of the tracks that suffered from this. I always thought the live version sounded better, but it is still a great song full stop.
2. Only After Dark.
I always thought this was one of the weakest tracks on the album - it's ok but not as good as the rest.
3. Life Kills.
This is another great track and very much in that early Human League style. The only thing that lets it down is those analogue brass sounds. I have never liked brass sounds from analogue synths. In fact I haven't liked them from digital synths either. If you listen to any of my stuff you will notice that I never use brass sounds on anhy tracks. Anyway, apart from the brass sounds this is a great track.
4. Dreams of Leaving.
This is an absolute classic and up there with the best Human League tracks ever. It is even quite a moving song in many ways. The opening verse makes one think of people trying to escape from an opressive regime (and or country). We then get a fantastic analogue instrumantal section and move into the last verse which is very similar to the first but the location has moved to a modern day office environment - very clever lyrics indeed.
5. Toyota City.
This is the first instrumental on the album and, as could be guessed from the title, it has a bit of a japanese feel to it. Maybe not an outstanding track, but good nonetheless.
6. Crow and a baby.
I hadn't heard this album for such a long time that I had forgotten most of the tracks. This was one of the few that I didn't forgot and I can even remember them playing it live. This is classic Human League - great stuff.
7. The touchables.
When I read through the track listing before playing this I felt I had no idea what this track was - I couldn't remember a thing about it, but when it statred playing and I heard the line "Speaking of which, what is your choice" and realised that I had been singing this line to myself regularly for years without even realising what it was. I have no idea why and as the song went on I realised I had no memory of the chorus at all - it just seemed to be that first line that I had kept on my mind for all those years. In fact, listening to it now I have to say all in all it is one of the weaker tracks on the album. I wonder why that first line had stuck in my mind for so long?
8. Gordon's Gin.
This is the second instrumental on the album and I remember this being one of my favourites back then, when I was about 16 years old. It still sounds great.
9. Being Boiled.
Being boiled was the first Human league single and tghis is a souped up re-recording of it. I remember being absolutely stunned when I first heard the original - I don't think I had ever heard anything like it before. This is one of the 2 Human league tracks that Strange Devotion played live. This version is still really good, but it does suffer a bit from over production and it has those brass sounds in it.
10. W.X.J.L Tonight.
This is the last song from the original album, though the iTunes version has 7 extra tracks. This is another really great Human League track. It is about the death of radio shows with DJs and is somewhat moving in some strange way - you really feel sorry for the guy who is singing it (I mean the radio DJ guy, not Phil Oakey).
11. Marianne.
This was originally a single and I remember buying it and I can remember them playing this track live. It still sounds good after all these years.
12. Dancevision (instrumantal)
I reckognised this track so I must have had it on some format first time around but I can't remember what it is from - maybe it was the b-side to Marianne? I know I could quite easily find out using the interconnected world wide internet and a computer but I'm just not going to do it.
Great instrumental with a great ending
13. Rock 'N' Roll/Night Clubbing
This is a couple of cover tracks that blend together. I love the way the drums/handclaps slow down as the first song becomes the second. I remember having this back then, but again can't remember if it was an A side, a B side or something else ebtirely. I also remember these tracks from seeing them live. The other cover they used to do live was Perfect Day. I can remember that after seeing them at Wakefiled Unity Hall on the last date of the travelogue tour (which would also be the last gig they played before Ian Marsh and Martin Ware left to be replaced by 2 girls Phil oakey met in a night club) I managed to get back stage and asked one of them what that track was and they gave me a look that said "how on earth could you possibly not know" as they told me it was a Lou Reed track.
14. Tom Baker
I can remember having this track and I think it was the B side to Boys and Girls. I'm pretty sure I liked it at the time, but now I'm not so keen on it. I think the proper Doctor Who theme is better.
15. Boys and Girls
As just mentioned I bought this single when it came out - I have a feeling it was the first release of the new Human league lineup. Again, I thought it was good at the time, but it doesn't sound quite so good now.
16. I don't depend on you.
I have never heard this track before and it sounds like a rather average sounding funky type of disco track and not like a Human League track at all.
17. Cruel.
This is another instrumental and, again, I had never heard of it before. It is just nowhere near up to the standard of the original Travelogue album tracks. These last 2 tracks might just as well have been left of as far as I'm concerned. They sound like a completely different genre of music.
18. The Weekly Woss Weport.
That's strange, I thought there were only meant to be 18 tracks on this release? Its like some sort of strange black hit of space style occurence where no matter what I press on my iPod it just comes up with Weekly Woss Weport and which ever way I turn I see that cheeky grin in font of me so without further ado her we go:
Before we get the first guest we have tghe obligatory joke and this one was about a water butt that is shaped like a bottom - I prssume you have to be American to appreciate this one properly. Personaly, I didn't think that this was a genuine product.
The first guest is Jamie Foxx (who I have never heard of before) and I must say his rendition of YMCA just doesn't fit in with the style of Travelogue at all. He then tries to make ammends by singing some other song but it still has no synths and simply does not fit on this album.
Next up is someone whose name sounds like Beth Ditto, but as I have an ear infection I may not have heard it correctly. I haven't heard of her either. A quick search on t'intenet reveals that I did hear the name correctly and she is a singer who has appeared on the cover of NME. It seems she is from Arkensaw (which is pronounced Arkansas).
Now it is Michael Ball's turn to talk to the hersuit Mr Woss. This is not the best line-up I have seen on this show so far (although I'm sure there are plenty of people who would disagree with me). So, we are now a bit into Mr Balls slot and I have to admit he has come accross much better than the previous guests did.
To round the show off we have yet another band from Sweden. Last week it was The Hives and this week it is Peter, Björn and John. They are not too bad at all.
So, all in all, despite Mt Ball being able to raise a few laughs, this episode of the Jonathan Woss Show made a very disappointing end to a fantastic Human League album which doesn't sound half as over produced now as was reported at the time.
Now I am going to watch an episode of Futurama before going to sleep.
Next week we hope to get James Burke on the case, or at least involved in some capacity or other.
onsdag, september 26, 2007
Dag 1332: Is it always like this?
Here we have a rather rare example from the Björkbjiggler school of ham acting.
fredag, september 21, 2007
Dag 1327: Going crazy on The New Sound
So, it seems that there is this group in America called The Capricorns, which is made up of 2 girls and they have this song called The New Sound which is really catchy and literally hundreds of people are making videos of themselves dancing and/or generally going crazy to this song and posting them onto youtube.
Here are the links to all of these err um literally hundreds of videos on youtube:
number 1
number 2
number 3
number 4
number 5
number 6
I think the first 2 are the best.
But I must admit that I didn't find these on youtube by myself, I found them on this really good website that I just discovered last week.
I had never heard of The Capricorns before, but I think it would be really great if everyone who reads this makes there own video to go with The New Sound and then posts it onto youtube and then you can post the link into the comments area of this post. If enought people I know do this, then I will do one of me miming and going crazy on it and post that. Now thats an offer you can't refuse.
I might just add that, as I am typing this while watching the Jonathan Woss Show, this could almost be classed as a Weekly Woss Weport. In fact if I tell you what I have seen so far on the Jonathan Woss Show that would actually make it a Weekly Woss Weport (albeit in a cut down form) so:
First off Mr Woss comes through the doors with some sort of beard style thing attached to his face. The bit below his lip looks a bit like it is not quite in the middle. He tells some joke or other, but I can't remember what it is. Then he gets Richard Hammond on, who has written a book and forgotton some of the things that happened since his accident. Then he gets his digital wireless skipping rope out and hsows how you can lose weight while eating a donut. Then he gets an actor on and I don't pay much attention as I am watching people going crazy on The New Sound and then he gets Dame Helen Mirram on. Then the HIves come on. They are from Sweden.
So as the final Jonathan Woss credits draw to their inevitable close here is a video of the real Capricorns going crazy on The New Sound.
See if you can spot the fan in the audience.
lördag, september 15, 2007
Dag 1321: Världen är allt
My Dad collected me from work at 17:00 and we set off for the M62 for the journey to Manchester. The traffic wasn’t too bad although an accident on the opposite carriageway had caused many miles of tailbacks.
We soon found the G-Mex carpark where the Bridgewater Hall website had recommended we should park. It stated that we should take the tunnel out of the carpark where we would find a lift that would take us up to just outside the Hall. We did this and saw that just outside the lift door were some stairs leading down to an area of water with a fountain in the middle and a nice looking bar called the pitcher and Piano next to the water. SO we went down the stairs and saw that if we hadn’t taken the lift that is were we would have come out anyway.
After some very nice food and a couple of drinks we headed back up the stairs and into the foyer. The building looked very new and I had heard it had fantastic acoustics. I soon spotted the t-shirt stall and spent a bit of time deliberating whether to get a white or a green t-shirt. I ended up choosing the green one even though I knew I would be told it was horrible when I got home (which is exactly what happened). They also had black t-shirts, but I already knew I was banned from buying black ones. I also bought a tour programme (which has a hard cover and a cd on the back cover). And they were both given to me in a tour plastic bag – very nice.
So, £40 lighter, we saw we still had plenty of time before the show was due to start so we went up to the circle bar for a swift half and sat by the window looking out over Manchester. There was a Hilton hotel near the hall that looked amazing.
Just before 20:00 went to our seats. They were in the left hand side circle and I had bought them from someone on eBay as when I tried to book them from either ticketmaster or the Bridgewater hall website only gallery tickets were available. So I was a bit surprised to see that the whole of the row in front of me was empty along with half of the row in front of that. Some of the people around me moved forward once they saw that no one was about to turn up for these seats but we stayed put as we had a good enough view where we were.
The layout of the hall was very impressive and it looked like it had been designed primarily for the acoustics. Behind the stage I could see a collection of massive shiny new organ pipes.
After 5 minutes or so the lights came down, the band walked onto the stage and started playing Wonderful World from the Nine Horse album Snow Bourne Sorrow.
The set list was the same as at the Stockholm concert and was as follows:
Wonderful World
It'll Never Happen Again
World Citizen
The Day the Earth Stole Heaven
Ride
Playground Martyrs/Transit
Fire in the Forest/Ghosts
Snow Borne Sorrow
Mother & Child
Waterfront
Atom & Cell
Sugar Fuel
Brilliant Trees/Fight the Bullfight/Nostalgia/Fight the Bullfight
The Librarian
(1st encore)
Every Colour You Are/River Man
(2nd encore)
Wanderlust
The stage was very large, open and roomy and the lack of a speaker stack at either side gave it a very different appearance from most concerts I’ve been too. Behind the stage was a backdrop with graphics projected onto it that changed subtly as the show went on. It was a great effect and must have taken someone ages to put together.
The sound quality was absolutely excellent, as expected, and, for me, the highlights of the show were Ride, Mother and Child, Waterfront (which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end) and Fight the Bullfight. The only disappointment (and it was only a slight disappointment) was that the arrangement of Every Colour You Are had been changed and had a more minimal drum part. I always thought that the strong drum pattern made this song, but the drums on Fight The Bullfight, however, were fantastic and more than made up for this.
The band consisted of:
David Sylvian – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars
Steve Jansen – drums and occasional keyboards
Keith Lowe – Bass
Takuma Watanebe – grand piano and keyboards
There was a flute and (possibly) oboe player for about half of the songs, but I didn’t catch his name.
David Sylvian sat on a stool throughout and didn’t have a strap on either of his guitars. His voice was just as good as on his recordings and he had white shoes.
Steve Jansen has a rather strange looking drum kit with an electric bass pedal instead of an actual bass drum. Despite what I mentioned above, the drumming was excellent and varied from fairly loose swing styles through to very tight minimal drumming and the rock drumming style of Fight The Bullfight (if that is what style that was).
Keith Lowe sported a leather kilt and had 2 electric basses (one of which looked like a Danelectro Longhorn) and 1 electric double bass.
Takuma Watanebe played what must have been a concert grand piano (it looked huge) and had a short keyboard and an Apple MacBook Pro next to him and a larger keyboard on top of the piano (unfortunately I was too far away to spot what these keyboards were. His piano playing was excellent throughout and incredible of Mother and Child.
The lighting was pretty dark throughout so I wasn’t able to get any decent pictures, even after I had managed to work out how to disable the flash.
Of the songs I didn’t already know; It'll Never Happen Again is a cover of a Tim Hardin song, Playground Martyrs is a track from Steve Jensen’s new album Slope and Transit is a song from Christian Fennesz. I think that Sugar Fuel is a track by a group called Ready Made, though I haven’t been able to find out much about this track at all.
There was a standing ovation at the end and after both encores.
So overall it was a great evening. There was no support and the concert lasted from 20:00 to 22:00 with no breaks. We thought we would be able to get home in good time, but unfortunately the queue for the carpark ticket machine was massive and it took half an hour to finally get to the front. As the queue was so big when we got there I felt sure there must not have been any more machines especially as more and more people tuned up and joined the queue behind us. As we drove round the carpark I saw another machine at the other end of the carpark with no one anywhere near it, so I guess they could do with better signposting to the locations of the pay stations.
fredag, september 14, 2007
Dag 1320: World Citizen
Tonight I will be mostly watching David Sylvian in concert.
I'm sure this song will be included in the set list.
söndag, augusti 12, 2007
Dag 1287: An extract from the blue book
Like a sea of gold
over the mountain
pours the sun
with outstretched arms
Lead me
back onto the path again
for I am lost
lördag, augusti 11, 2007
Dag 1285: Big in Japan
Since seeing John Cale in Sheffield last January, I have been looking for more decent concerts to go to, without having much luck. None of the groups I like seem to have any tours planned but at some point it occured to me that David Sylvian wasn't on my list of 'groups I would really rather quite like to see if at all possible, please' so I added him to it.
I had never been a fan of Japan and so had never bothered listening to David Sylvians solo work after they split up until I heard the album "Gone To Earth" at a Yogilates teaching friends house (he didn't teach Yogalatis at the time as I think we were still in the 6th form at school and Yogalatis hadn't been invented then). I immediately reckognised the guitar playing of Robert Fripp and so picked up the album sleeve to see what it was. I was surprised to see it was by David Sylvian, but I bought it soon after and it has remained one of the best albums in my collection.
I had never heard of David Sylvian playing any concerts until I spotted the live CD Damage (also featuring Robert Fripp) in a record shop. Of course, by then the tour was over, but I would certainly have gone to see him if I had known about it at the time (but then that is true of most of the bands I like).
I recently found his website and saw that I could register to recieve news, so I filled in my email address and thought "great, now all I need to do is sit back and wait for an email - I don't need to keep visiting the site in the off chance of finding out he is about to tour."
As his last tour was around 4 years ago I thought I may have a bit of a wait on, so I got a bit of a surprise when about a month later I got an email telling me about the up and coming David Sylvian 'The world is everything tour'.
7th Sept: Stockholm, China Theatre
8th Sept: Oslo, Sentrum Scene
9th Sept: Copenhagen, Royal Theatre
12th Sept: Dublin, Vicar Street
14th Sept: Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
15th Sept: Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall
17th Sept London, Royal Festival Hall
18th Sept: Birmingham, Symphony Hall
20th Sept: Brussels, AB
21st Sept: Paris, La Cigale
23rd Sept: Milan, Conservatorio Sala Verdi
24th Sept: Reggio, Emilia Teatro Valli
26th Sept: Conegliano Veneto, Teatro Accademia
27th Sept: Rome, Auditorium Della Conciliasione
29th Sept: Torino, Teatro Colosseo
1st Oct: Eindhoven, Music Centre Frits Phillips
2nd Oct: Amsterdam, Rai
4th Oct: Groningen, Oosterpoort
6th Oct: Berlin, Schiller Theatre
7th Oct: Offenbach, Capitol Theatre
8th Oct: Cologne, Theatre Am Tanzbrunnen
19th Oct: San Sebastian, Teatro Victoria Eugenia
21st Oct: Lisbon, Centro Cultural Belem
23rd Oct: Braga, Teatro Circo
24th Oct: Madrid, Teatro Albeniz
27th Oct: Hong Kong, HITEC Hall B
29th Oct: Osaka, Geijutsu Hall
30th Oct: Tokyo, Orchard Hall
I looked through the dates and, although I very much liked the look of the first date, I saw that the nearest one to me was Manchester. It could have been better, but it wasn't too far away so I logged straight onto ticketmaster expecting to be one of the first people in there as I had got that special email telling me all about it.
I then had to think whether I would be able to find somone to go with me or would I need to go on my own? Feeling optimistic I put in a request for 2 of the best available tickets and wondered if I would be able to get some in the first couple of rows. After a minute or so I was offered 2 tickets in the gallery. How could this be? I tried the search again this time asking for just 1 ticket and it came back with one of the 2 seats I had just been offered.
I then noticed that tickets had actually gone on sale on 25th May and my email had arrived on 15th June. So it looked like I did need to have kept visitting the web site in the off chance of finding out he was about to do a tour after all. That'll teach me.
I felt a bit peeved that Mr Sylvian hadn't emailed me a bit earlier and thought that I wasn't that bothered about going all the way to Manchester if I could only get a seat in the gallery.
So I left it at that for a few weeks until I listened to some David Sylvian on my iPod by chance on one of my trips to the gym and realised:
a) just how brilliant his music is (his trees aren't bad either) and
b) if I don't go and see him on this tour:
ba) I may not get chance to see him play live again and
bb) he may not actually do another tour
So I now realised that I really did want to go and as I had lunch with my Dad last weekend I thought I'd ask if he wanted to go to it with me. He said yes, so I had a look on eBay on Monday and found that someone was selling 2 tickets in the circle as he could no longer make the concert. The best bit was that they had a buy it now price of £60 including postage (the face value was £29.50 per ticket) so getting these would work out quite a bit cheaper than getting them from ticketmaster when you add on the £4.25 per ticket service charge and the £2.75 postal charge.
So I bought them now and got an email that evening saying they were in the post. They didn't arrive the next day, but I didn't really think they would. But when they still hadn't arrived the next day I started to get the first tinges of IboughtsomethingoneBayandnowIthinkImayhavebeenrippedoffitus. I seem to get this everytime I buy something off eBay yet I have never yet not receievd what I bought. I don't know if anyone else has ever suffered this but it started off as a slightly nervous feeling but by the end of the day I wished I had never heard of David Sylvian and was chastising myself for not getting the gallery tickets from ticketmaster.
Of course they arrived the next day which meant my IboughtsomethingoneBayandnowIthinkImayhavebeenrippedoffitus had now developed into ImustbuyeverythingthatdavidsylvianmightpossiblyplayattheconcerthatIdontalreadyhaveitus. The only cure for this is to buy music, and lots of it, so I bought and downloaded Blemish (which he played in its entirety on his previous tour) the Nine Horses Wonderful World EP and the World Citizen EP by David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
I also pre-ordered his latest solo album 'When loud weather buffeted Naoshima'. I must admit this is the first time I have pre-ordered somthing that has already passed its release date.
After realising that this hadn't quite cured the symptoms of this strickening debilitation, I went out at lunchtime and bought Snow Bourne Sorrow by Nine Horses.
Note: If you didn't already know, you have probably guessed by now that, the band Nine Horses does infact include David Sylvian and, according to his website, he will be playing some Nine Horses material on his up and coming tour.
At this point I could give a full review of my latest purchases, but I think I'd better leave that for another time.
All I will say for now is that Blemish is fairly hard going, though good nonetheless, and Nine Horses contains songs that are equal to the best of his work to date. I felt particularly that the first track 'Wonderful World' (with Stina Nordenstam providing an elegant Scandinavian touch to the chorus) would go down very well in the Cloudhands office, and the second track 'Darkest Birds' is one of the best songs I have ever heard.
onsdag, juli 25, 2007
Dag 1268: Global Swarming
It is indeed ironic that the recent high levels of rainfall experience across the UK are being caused, not by global warming, but by the very people who believe it is caused by global warming.
Now this is a bit complicated so you might need to read it more than once.
The low pressure that is producing the current rainfall has a system of high pressure to the south of it producing some very nice warm weather. This weather system isnít new, it is always around at this time of year and it always has a high pressure system to the south of it. The difference is that this low pressure system is normally located to the north of the UK so the rain misses us and the high pressure weather system to the south of it will be right over the top of us giving us our usually nice warm(ish) summer. The thing that causes this low pressure system is something known to scientists and other intellectuals as the Jet Stream.
In the jungle where the foliage is very dense animals tend to use the same routes between places and this creates a path through the foliage.
Exactly the same thing happens in the sky when jet planes use the same route to fly between Europe and America and this path in the sky is called the jet stream.
Before global warming became the watchword on every bodies lips, the jet stream used to be created to the North of the UK and all was well with the UK weather. Now that pressure is being put on everybody to try and produce less CO2 the airlines have been changing the routes between Europe and America so that the planes fly further south, thus emitting less CO2, and cause the jet stream to go straight across the UK. So now we have low pressure causing us to get all this rain and to the south of the UK is all the good weather that we should be getting.
So I say "Lets get the airlines to stop all these namby pamby CO2 reducing initiatives and move the jet stream back to where it should be so we can get some nice warm summer weather again."
