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.
