Probably wouldn't happen if it was left to our resident Generation Zers. Two of which, Sam and Laura, recently took part in a Glitter Ball finale - a Strictly Come Dancing charity do in aid of the Rosie May Foundation.
Friday 29 March 2024
"I've seen him miss these"
Tuesday 26 March 2024
Lean in closer
Steve Reich (1936-) |
LSO Percussion Ensemble - Quartet (Steve Reich)
Sunday 24 March 2024
Let Me Dream of You
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Saturday 23 March 2024
Dummies
Thursday 21 March 2024
No dummies
In common with most, if not all1, artistes, Roxy Music had a (very) small window when they couldn't put a foot wrong. I mean when the press, their fans, friends and peers all blew smoke up their arse and praised them to the hilt. Purists will say this window remained open for about three years: between 1972 & 1975 (though in all honesty this mythical window had already started to close as early as 1973 after their third album, Stranded.)
Odd then that, somewhat belatedly, I have fallen headlong in love with an album they brought out when the window had long since been removed by the builders and subsequently bricked up. Manifesto, from 1979, came out when I was still knee deep in the new wave. However, even new wave was becoming a somewhat oxymoronic label three years after New Rose and Anarchy. If Bryan Ferry and Co. had been listening to anything by the Damned or the Pistols it certainly didn't show2 - not when you hear the singles they culled from the album - Angel Eyes and Dance Away. Which, if I'm perfectly honest, was all I'd heard from this particular period of post-Eno Roxy. Both of which I felt were insipid and left me rather cold3.
That is until a couple of album tracks started to appear on those pesky Spotify playlists that get shared around, and this entered my psyche. It's the album opener which for its first two minutes you think is a blistering instrumental, and then at 2:30 Ferry limbers up and announces his arrival. How had I missed this?
Roxy Music - Manifesto (1979)
Ferry has intermittently got the band back together over the years for live reunions (their 40th & 50th anniversaries in particular) but there's been no new product, no new songs since 1982's Avalon. Tho' they did come close in 2010 when the old gang, including Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Eno, collaborated with Bryan with a 'y' and recorded some new material. However BF bagged them for himself and put out another solo effort; Olympia - the last Roxy album that never was.
1The Beatles would have to be excluded from any such list. Wouldn't they?
2However, the intro to Manifesto reminds me of Squeeze's Take Me I'm Yours.
3Not any more - when heard in context, and in order, they make perfect sense. Does that make sense?
Monday 18 March 2024
More cowbell
The latest series of Daryl's House (Darryl Hall's fantasy/vanity project where, going back to 2007, he's been curating some of the greatest songs and songwriters in his 'shed') is probably, in my humble opinion, the best yet; or if not the best, certainly the most varied and therefore the most rewarding. Hall's musical chops know no bounds and so scattergun in nature is his thirst for music, it matters not a jot who knocks on his door - he'll welcome any waif or stray carrying an instrument case.
I've chosen three from the clutch of episodes that were broadcast in November and December last year. Glenn Tilbrook (Ep. 85) is a natural for this sort of format. But even he says on camera that unlike the looseness of his regular band Squeeze, slotting into Daryl Hall's crack band of musical heavyweights made him tighten up considerably. Look at the way he glances over at Hall, as much for reassurance, seemingly, as an unspoken "I hope to fuck you're coming in with the second verse."
Glenn Tilbrook & Daryl Hall - Hourglass (2023)
Saturday 16 March 2024
We'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
Justin Currie has been diagnosed with Parkinsons's disease. He knows it will only get worse and he knows he'll have to stop performing, probably quite soon; calling the prospect of this 'quite grim' is an understatement to end all understatements. It is truly heartbreaking. In an interview Justin recently to the BBC he talks openly of his fears for the future. I can only pass on my love and best wishes to him.
I'm guessing this performance of Nothing Ever Happens was filmed during Lockdown. However, the starkness of the lyrics lend themselves perfectly to the isolation of each musician as they record their part in their own individual silo.
Del Amitri with the BBC Concert Orchestra - Nothing Ever Happens
Tuesday 12 March 2024
'Ullo John. Gotta New Motor?
Chris Spedding - Jump in My Car (1976)
Sunday 10 March 2024
I Spy
My Twitter account is littered with my photographic obsessions - the beech tree outside my house, the Humber Bridge, phone boxes (in fact all street furniture), roller shutter doors with random cars parked in front of them, the Home Ales building in Nottingham, ornate door knockers, the list goes on. Some of this flotsam and jetsam will eventually find its way onto my blog, some of it doesn't. One of my side hustles is photographing random launderettes and laundromats. I've even enrolled others into send me launderette pictures from where they live or when they tell me they're going on holiday. It's like the old I-Spy books we all had as kids. Riggsby has sent me scores and scores of them from California and the Swede has sent me quite a few from deepest Norfolk and the East End of London - his home and his spiritual home respectively. Thank you, again, both.
And now we have a new kid on the block. My good friend Matthew and his wife Samantha are currently on the high seas cruising around Africa and recently disembarked in Cape Town. Fair play to Matthew, he could, indeed should, have been been soaking up Table Mountain, Cape Point and Robben Island, but instead was tracking down laundromats! Thank you, Matthew. You will be mentioned in despatches.
Saturday 9 March 2024
The effects can last forever
Dodgy - In a Room (acoustic) - 1996
Wednesday 6 March 2024
No Sun in Venice
The photograph at the top of the page is by James Lucas. His aerial photographs depicting unique images of cities all over the world are simply stunning.
MJQ - Venice (1957)
Monday 4 March 2024
Lemon fresh?
I adore the sound the Lemon Twigs make. It's not startlingly original, but then again what is? The D'Addario brothers, Brian & Michael, are magpies. A riff here, a melody there; everything, seemingly, is up for grabs. And why not? Rock and roll is full of plagiarism and plunderers. (Chuck Berry has got a lot to answer for.) Plus, any band who hail from Hicksville are alright in my book. Here they are from a recent Jimmy Fallon show performing their latest nailed-on power pop belter.
The Lemon Twigs - Golden Years (2024)
Saturday 2 March 2024
Jesus, would you look at the time
As is customary, Rol gets to cut the cake first - "Here you go, John, the clocktower of Barnsley Town Hall, complete with a suitably ominous sky to represent the town that almost broke me. Clearly I was lying in the gutter when I took this photo."
"I did go up into the clock tower once, in happier times." I love this one, Rol. Behind the face.