Never heard of nor seen a blue Robin before. The full story is here.
Yesterday, I put up the Xmas tree and decorative lights in the window. When getting the box of decorations down from the cupboard, a chill went through me. Was it really a year ago since I did this? Where did the time go? It’s funny how the small things remind you of your mortality.
Korg released a BIOS update for my Triton LE keyboard and I made the update. Then spent some time just noodling around on the keys. Realised I was enjoying this more than I do when I noodle around on the guitar these days.
Latest Entries »
I received a copy of the new Lemon Jelly DVD single in the post on Saturday. Lemon Jelly are one of my favourite bands at the moment. They take samples from all over the shop to create hypnotic music that has a genuine innocence – something quite rare these days. They have a new album out in January and if you clink the following links, you can watch their new video “Stay With You” or have a quick preview of their ’64-’95 DVD release.
Who said that you can’t have humour in music? One of the best spoof bands around is Goldie Lookin’ Chain and I just think whoever is the brains behind this outfit is god. If you like Spinal Tap or The Rutles and understand what a chav is, then these guys are worth checking out. Here’s a link to their latest video (Americans need not to investigate futher because you WILL NOT understand any of the cultural references).
Visit their site at:
http://www.youknowsit.co.uk/
Welcome to this website and more confessional, self-obsessed bullshit chronicling the minutiae of my everyday life for you to read while you drink your Starbuck’s coffee and try to decide what pirated music to upload on to your customised iPod.
Cynical, moi? You betcha!
Wreckless Eric opened the proceedings and wasn’t too happy about the sound. Neither was I. The Bloomsbury gets my vote for worst concert sound…ever. Using an acoustic guitar, there were so many rogue frequencies bouncing around the place, I could barely follow his lyrics. And this is a great shame because Wreckless Eric is noted for his lyrical content. At 50 years old, this guy still tries to push the punk ethic and belted out numbers from this new album Bungalow Hi.
Despite the sound problems, Eric settled into his stride after about the third song and things began to come together nicely. While not being the most technically proficient guitarist around, he attacks his instrument with such honest, brutal, vim and vigour that you have to give a nod of respect. After one particularly brutal song, he was left with only two strings left on his guitar. Rock ‘n’ roll man!
I am not that familiar with his work, but I shall be investigating further. He also gets my award for “Use of Anglo-Saxon” by using the word cunt in an introduction.
After this belting opening 45 minutes, I already felt exhausted, so we feasted on strawberry ice-cream during the intermission (go on, crack you albatross gags now) – it was that kind of venue.
So then The Rutles appear on stage an immediately open with Goose Step Mama. The sound was still terrible and I could barely hear the vocals. Even the drums were buried in the mix of guitar and keyboards. Despite this, I got behind the music and we lent our vocal talents to the proceedings. Songs from both “The Rutles” and “Archeaology” albums were played. I’ve devised a songlist (in the wrong order, of course) to demonstrate just how much music was performed.
Goose Step Mama
Number One
Hold My Hand
I Must Be In Love
With a Girl Like You
Living in Hope
Ouch
It’s Looking Good
Doubleback Alley
Good Times Roll
Piggy in the Middle
Cheese & Onions
Get Up and Go
Let’s Be Natural
Major Happy’s Up-and-Coming Good Time Band
Rendezvous
Questionnaire
Lonely-Phobia
Hey Mister!
Easy Listening
Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Musik
Joe Public
Shangri-La
Back in 64
So this was 90 minutes of Beatle-inspired musical parody and I loved every minute of it. I especially wanted to see/hear the great Barry Wom/Jon Halsey banging the skins, but my view was slightly obscured by the keyboard player. Not to worry, The Admiral Jon Halsey came to the front of the stage to perform one of the greatest paper-tearing solos I had ever seen (in fact it was the only time I had ever seen someone tear a newspaper to music and make it a solo…it made me laugh a lot).
It was a great evening of music (despite the sound and the butt-achingly bad seating) and well worth it. It makes you appreciate the phenomenal talent of Neil Innes and his fellow musicians for pulling this all together. Even better than the Beatles, I say, and better than the Beatles parodies that bands like Oasis or even Adrian Belew commit to record.
Where did the year go? Was that the sound of the days whizzing past? Oh well, it’s Neil Innes and the Rutles tonight. Should be fun!
The Xmas lights are already springing up around my locale. It gets earlier every year (the same way that policemen are getting younger and fatter). Do I feel festive? Nope…not yet. Do you?
Remember to tune into http://www.radiofrontiers.com/ at 10pm Eastern Time.
It was a missed opportunity that the Winter TU US tour was postponed. To make up for this you can still purchase the “Official Bootleg” that was due to be sold on the aforementioned tour.
This CD weighs in at 36 minutes and 50 seconds (slightly longer than your average “new” improv on a KC re-re-re-packaged re-re-re-release) but despite its slight stature give you an insight into the live TU beast. The music is taken from the band’s second night at the Third Eye Gathering in August. I was at the first show and missed the second, but heck, I now hold a portion of that very show in my grubby little mitt.
The first two tracks finds the band finding their feet and I remember these being played at the show I saw. They are very muscular tracks and if you enjoy the ProjeKcts, you will get a big buzz from these songs.
The band are joined on stage by Eddie Haskell and his singing saw for the third track “Sumo” and it sounds as if someone is torturing a little puddy tat live on stage. Interesting in a LTiA/Jamie Muir kind-of-way.
By track four, Eddie has stopped stroking his saw and has moved over to the jew’s harp (boy, I bet the politically correct brigade are having a field day with that. “It’s not jew’s harp anymore, it’s a JAW’S HARP, I bet they are bleating!”. Anyhoo, it continues the vibe.
The last two pieces on the CD are my absolute favourite and re-inforce my idea for having a female vocalist in King Crimson. The band are joined by Azam Ali who provides some really ethereal vocalising. One way I describe “Bells” is to imagine “The Power to Believe, Part II” but take away the guitars and have a human voice providing the lead. That’s what this is like…
Despite it’s shortness, this is a really sweet collection. Shame that they didn’t compile tracks from both nights (with GGT + Tony Levin) because that would have been just peachy.
But heck, I can’t complain about this…except for the $8 it cost me to get it shipped to the UK. The CD is housed in a flimsy cardboard sleeve and DGM saw fit to use a standard padded envelope, so by the time it had been squeezed through my letterbox and gone through the Alex The Wonderdog patented letter mangling procedure, it could hardly be described as pristine. Oh well…c’est la vie, eh?
Great stuff…more please!