Not much doing.
Been spending time with The Missus. Getting drunk and generally being naughty.
Decided to retire my bass of 12 years and buy a new one. Went to the Guitar Centre in E1 and bought a lovely red Fender Precision Bass Special Deluxe. When I got it home, I took the router and hammer drill to it and made loads of holes in the body to accommodate an internal MIDI pickup. Now I have a wonderfully playable MIDI bass…yum.
To pay for such doings, my old bass, an acoustic guitar and some other crap I no longer need will be going up on eBay. It is good to binge and purge, binge and purge…
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Phil Manzanera is, most undoubtably, the most underrated modern guitarist of his age. For those of you who aren’t aware of him, he is most famous for being the plank spanker in Roxy Music. He is also famous for producing Brian Eno’s “Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)” album and being the brains behind the 801 Live band/album.
His solo career has been patchy…and that’s coming from me, a fan who cites this guitarist as one of his main influences. His first solo “Diamond Head” is an essential purchase and is a who’s who of rock at the time. His subsequent works have veered from OK (K-Scope, Listen Now) to brilliantly futuristic (Primitive Guitars) to mediocre (Southern Cross).
Luckily, 6PM owes more to “Diamond Head” than to any other of his albums and features many of the performers that appeared on that original 1975 release. Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Paul Thompson, Andy McKay and Bill McCormick all appear and are augmented by performances from Chrissie Hynde and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. To quote PM himself, this is an album he has waited 26 years to make.
The opening track “Broken Dreams” is a paean to his dead father and his a direct nod to the acid-rock of the late sixties. It sounds like Floyd amongst others. “Green Spikey Cactus” is far more left-field and features some incendiary harmonica from Chrissie Hynde. With a superbly catchy chorus, this track is a real summery song. Come on, let’s come together right now!
This upbeat feeling continues with “Love Devotion”, song about love obviously, but trust me, it isn’t mawkish. It’s a love song for boys, OK? Again, it is up (with a bit of down) and has another sing along chorus. “Wish You Well” is a much more sombre affair and is a tribute to Ian McDonald (not that one – the one who played on 801 & Diamond Head) who committed suicide last year and features a bass solo from his brother, Bill MacCormick. With a few dodgy couplets, this is prolly my least favourite track on the record.
The title track is guitar-led instrumental, which features some signature playing from PM and when you hear this, you will hear the precise tone and playing that inspires my own noodlings on the electric banjo. Then it is back to the songs again with “Waiting for the Sun to Shine” which is most apt in this wash-out of a British summer we are experiencing and is my “Song of the Summer”. Again, it is catchy, upbeat and if it was fronted by some blond 20-year-old lad, it would be a massive success on the hit parade.
Towards the end of the record is a series of songs that are linked together…yup we are talking prog, my friends. The Cissbury Ring – as that’s what the collection is called – is a musical journey around the South Downs. Starting with “Cissbury Ring”, another upbeat track that sounds like it has been nicked from my old pals Supergrass. “Porlock” is an instrumental that features the ethereal trumpet of Robert Wyatt (I forgot to mention that RW plays his share of the drums on this record too, yahoo!). The collection ends with the trilogy of songs “Shoreline/Always You/Sacred Days” which veer from bleak to introspection to optimism. The last two tracks feature some strong guitar playing from David Gilmour…in fact the last track features some guitar sparring from DG & PM.
I must admit that I didn’t have any expectations when I heard about this. Luckily, the album didn’t disappoint and it is a very strong collection of songs. They aren’t going to be to everyone’s tastes – some might dismiss them as being a little light or a little fey, but I think that this is the strongest collection of songs PM has put out since Diamond Head. I was also surprised by PM’s vocals. His influences are worn on his sleeve from Pink Floyd to Robert Wyatt to Kevin Ayers. It’s all here if you know what you are looking for. It’s a very English record.
I am thoroughly enjoying this record and recommend it. And the packaging is pretty snazzy too (if you like digipaks, that is).
This concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall marked the end of the 10th Rhythm Sticks festival, which celebrates all manner of percussion and drum music.
I’m not a big jazz fan, so I don’t know if I am sufficiently educated to give a critical view of the concert, so I’ll just fluff my way through with some general thoughts.
The opening band “Polar Bear” are a four-piece band augmented by a female singer and a guy who makes terrible noises on an Apple Mac laptop. The band itself started off well and I was very impressed with the interaction between the drummer/band leader Sebastien Rochford and double bass player Tom Herbert. In fact, I enjoyed Herbert’s contribution the most as he was a good solid player and provided a good foundation for some of the free-form stuff going on. The two saxophonists, Peter Wareham and Mark Lockheart, blew very well and they took it in turns to solo and react with each other. It was a 45 minute set and the band started off very well, flagged in the middle, and caught our interest again with the final stomper of a song “King of Aberdeen”. Interesting and if I see their CD around, I might even give it a go.
The main attraction was this expanded Earthworks band, featuring members of Tim Garland’s Dean Street Underground Orchestra. I’d never seen Earthworks before and I knew with this configuration I was flying into uncharted waters. Tim Garland was the band leader for the night, leading the group through a combination of material from the Earthworks and Dean Street Underground Orchestra. A lot of the Earthworks material was almost unrecognisable because it had been re-tooled for a 9-piece band. There was lots of great soloing and it was all good fun. I had a few issues with the mix – I couldn’t hear the drums and bass clearly enough – but I think this was down to the sheer amount of sound coming from the stage. There was even a namecheck to KC from Tim Garland during the show.
It was a really interesting and engaging evening of music I had never heard before. The Missus pointed out that this was the first gig where NO GUITARS were present. That was refreshing, indeed. Now I really want to hear Earthworks as a four-piece!
It’s cold, it’s dark, it’s raining and I want SUMMER. I want SUMMER right now. I know worldwide the gag is that we live in a constant shroud of cloud and rain, but usually, at this time of year, even us poor, pale, pasty-faced Brits have a little bit of sun and warmth. Not this year, it seems.
At the moment, I am without work. The situation is one step away from being critical and with one opportunity closing, I need to find some more work. Unfortunately, I am the worst freelance writer…ever! No, it is true. Trust me on this. I’ve done my darndest to network, to make contacts, but I am just not breaking through anymore. It is a concern. Take the following reply I received from an editor this very morning:
An editor with an arse for a head wrote:
Unfortunately you seem to be writing for our competition. I’m afraid we can’t use the same writers that they do.
Thanks,
Graham
Well, excuse me. I didn’t realise that I was working in such an exclusive industry. This has happened to me before and if an editor sees that you write for another competitor, they won’t hire you. This means that even if you haven’t written for that magazine for a couple of years (like in my case) you are stonewalled out. Does this happen in other professions?
Imagine the scene. A young fellow goes for an interview at Burger King.
Employer: I see that you’ve worked for McDonalds, Mr Smith?
Potentential Employee: Yes, I can explain. It was a Saturday job when I was at school.
Employer: Sorry. We can’t hire you. You’ve worked for our competitor.
Potential Employee: Nooooooooooo!
And so my patience is wearing thin with the whole media industry. It is so facile and shallow and nasty that even a little underacheiving sprout like me finds it hard to continue.
Adopting David Brent demeanour:
Today’s weather is the worst for 150 years…FACT! In fact, the last time the summer weather was this bad they cancelled the D-Day landings…FACT!
So I am snuggled here in my wooly jumper with the central heating on. Me and Alex are fed-up because it is far too wet and windy
Recent eBay madness has secured me with enough funds to purchase some musical goodies for my next project. The Missus should just wrestle me to the ground and remove my credit card from me before I do anymore damage. But she is a sucker for me when I do the big blue eye routine and stick out my bottom lip…
“But all the other boys have internal MIDI pickups in their bass…PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE”
Pester power works!
Thinking of getting more stuff up on eBay but I spent TWO HOURS inputting stuff the other afternoon just for only half of the stuff to sell. Here’s a word of advice: books do not sell. Some do, mainly rock books and popular classics, but the more obscure stuff doesn’t and so those books will be heading to the local charity shop. Yes, I do my bit being a left-wing goodie, goodie socialist scum-bag.
Ooooh drum solo…
Now I am REALLY bored… I have a pile of work lined up but I am waiting for confirmation from all the editors, so I am stuck in Limbo.
So…
ROO-NEY! ROO-NEY!
Yes, last night’s football match was most invigorating. I am a closet fan, only coming out when International matches are played. As a child, my local team was Leyton Orient and so this didn’t endear me much to the sport of football. There’s only so much degradation a boy can face.
More TV was watched and I saw a programme that actually made me feel bilious. I normally have a strong stomach for things and I have watched all manner of TV shows depicting the unseemly side of life, such as all manner of operations and a live autopsy, which was very educational. But last night, I watched a show that threatened to make me upchuck the guffstuff.
It was called Animal Passions and dealt with the subject of Zoophilia. Now you might think that this was about people who enjoy visiting the zoo, but it isn’t. It’s about those folks who get their kicks from being intimate with our furry friends. So the usual suspects are brought out: white American, bloated trailer-trash, sub-Springer scum, extoling their love for horses, ponies and dogs. It was the description from one young woman of how her virginity was taken by the neighbour’s dog at the age of 12 that caused my mouth to go moist in that pre-vomit stage and start to heave.
I’m still not sure what the message was. I think it was something about tolerance. Or maybe it was that the animals really like it. Or maybe it was that bestiality is legal in the state of Missourri. One expert said something like: “People don’t get upset when we kill animals for food, so why should we get upset when people have sex with animals?” Oh well, it takes all sorts I guess.
Again, I’m just boring. Sometimes I think I should actively develop some kind of sexual deviance just to fill out my character somewhat.
Recently:
Been plugging away, trying to finish a piece of work from the Editor-From-Hell. Nearly there. But his phone-calls are the writing equivalent of standing at a urinal in a public toilet, trying to pee, when a stranger walks up and occupies the urinal directly next door to you. Yup – I can’t pee with an audience and I can’t write when the editor is yapping at my heels for no good reason. Ho hum.
On Friday, my old recording chum Andrew O sent me an email after almost a year of silence. He has a new job. Well done, I congratulate. He wants to hear the music I am currently working on. I oblige and send him some stuff. He returns the favour. His ideas are roughly recorded and, as usual, I suggest that he should really invest in some guitar effect units to smooth his guitar sound out instead of just recording his guitar directly into his PC. He says he isn’t interested in the final product, only the ideas that are recorded. He ripostes saying he likes some of the new stuff but prefers my “less-guitary” material. This leaves me non-plussed as I use the guitar primarily. He ends the statement with a non-committal “no offence”. Well that makes it OK, I guess.
At the weekend, patchy sunshine, booze, Internet poker and more booze.
I also received a vinyl copy of Islands courtesy of my good friends at eBay. This was the first time I had heard this LP in its natural format. It was very interesting to hear. It sounded a lot more closed that Lizard and seemed quite claustrophobic. On occasions I could hear some weird strange bass frequencies that whooshed around like the wind. I can’t imagine what KC fans must have made of it this after hearing Lizard and ITWOP.