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vb. written by people with too much time on their hands,
read by people with too much time on their hands.
A Presonal Trawl Through The Music Year
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Blogggg 2011
Random thoughts, Lies, Innuendoes, Super injunctions & Phone hacking...
January reports of HMV closing up to 40 stores after a bad 2010 & xmas period.
As I have commented before in these annual 'materpieces', I’m just a consumer/end user and don’t have any experience of retailing, apart from buying well above average quanties of albums, but from my observations, lines out the door of HMV before Christmas 2010 and that equates to a bad period…just maybe the practice of providing more space for books selling at £3.00 each than CD's that can sell for £5.00+ taking up less space might help! Then they wonder why CD’s are not selling…. But what do I know….then in April more profit warning for HMV…. I was in Singapore HMV at the end of 2011 and they had a better selection of CD’s than most of my local branches in the UK.
My observations seem to suggest that the supermarkets, that have played a major part in the closure of most of the high street record stores, have now begun to stop stocking the silver discs! My local supermarket now just stokes the latest pop fluff with a 'back story' that has virtually no musical merit, and that is it. Thanks boys...
On November 26th a blog appeared that suggested that the record companies were about to ditch CD's by the end of 2012. The record companies denied this - they would. However, many people in the know said the story was full of holes and seemed unlikely that the format will disappear that soon. My personal opinion is that the format will be around for many years to come, just like vinyl. (apparently making yet another comeback…hahah – see end of year Mojo). However I feel the price will start to increase slowly and independent labels will keep the format alive…for a bit longer - just like vinyl.
April 16th National eBay day…er sorry National Record Store Day saw hundreds of exclusive vinyl and CD’s issued for the event. Was planning to visit Banquet records in Kingston. I guessed there would probably be a bit of a queue so will leave it until about 11:00. Hahah got there and the line was still about 200 yards long. My guess is that most of the people in line never had the equipment to play their proposed purchases on. A quick look on eBay confirmed this. Roll on next years event… The good news it that the slight increase in the number of independent record stores over the last year. Hopefully this trend will continue..
Reasons why music sales are falling pt.666... Or D.O.A (Death Of Autotune 2011)
In the early 1960’s, I was give a children’s 7” vinyl story single called Sparky’s Magic Piano. A recording made in the late 1947. The hook was a dream sequence where the piano was talking to Sparky. How the sound was achieved back then is probably explained somewhere on the web. However, every time I hear some latest ‘pop’ single on the radio with this dreadful Auto Tune technique used, all I can think of is Sparky & his magic piano. It’s probably the same association Tom Waits now has when he hears great songs now used on commercials.
Auto Tune vocals…click this link…(just a 10 second MP3 clip) see if you agree. Another search on YouTube reveals just how talentless you can be to jump on a bandwagon – 100’s of examples there. OK Kraftwerk and Neil Young used it in the 1980’s but Sparky was there in the 1940’s… Talent less singers hiding behind technology, then just to cap it off the wonderful Kate Bush jumps on the bandwagon.. oh dear. In her defence the technique was to emphasise a talking computer. Oh yes and James Blake & Bon Iver who also used it in a wise way. I guess that in a few years time this gimmick will sound as dated as the Linn drum from the 80’s does now. The trend became even more irritating for me when on a visits to Barbados and Borneo, listening to the local radio stations seems every pop record uses this awful sound. On top of the real meaningful lyrics... "Oh oh make me move like a freak..." "I'm made of paper, like a sky scraper...." Who wrote this stuff, 4 year olds?
At the risk of sounding like my dad.... No I am sounding exactly like my dad... During their big time in the 80's I was not a big fan of Dire straights. They were there on the radio virtually non stop back then and people of a certain age at the time thought they were the best band since the Beatles. (I exclude myself from this section of society!) Over the years since, I've picked up most of their CD's second hand for about £3.00 each as I saw them – just for a historical archive situation you must understand…. BUT I do draw a line at Simply Red…The point being that when I happen to hear a lot of the chart pop from today it makes Dire Straights sound like a fresh sound to my ears. To me even the 'cool' bands like S.C.U.M, Gorillas, (especially their last album) Austra, Metronomy, Everything Everything, The Naked & Famous..... The list can go on...The absents of 'real' (Analogue) lead instruments can show up the limitations of computerised composed songs and combined with auto tune vocals, can make even Dire Straights sound like a breath of fresh air in a smelly toilet of cut and paste poo! Thats how bad things might have got!
Brennan on an on an on...
I'm not against new technology just it's over use. People will follow the trend to get a hit, every genre of music that has become popular for a while over the years has it's copycats. Radiohead generated loads of sound-a-likes.
Always on the lookout for new ways to store music. The cheaper CD's become, especially the second hand ones, the more I seem to acquire. So storage has become a big problem for me. Over the last few years I became aware of the Brennan JB7. I was waiting for a newer version with bigger a HD that would enable me to store a large amount of cd's with loss less compression. But took the plunge with the 500 Gb that would enable about 2000 with 320 kpbs compression. This would free up a large amount of storage in my main living area and move my selected albums to the loft space. Ok, so what albums should I put on the machine? Compilations, artists that I only have one album of, everything from before 1977, artists that begin with M and S (that seems to be my biggest section!). I finally settled on artists that I had most of their albums and had either died or band split up and therefore unlikely to issue any new material, oh, and box sets that don't often get an airing. So I took delivery. Worked out how to use the thing and started ripping. All the Beatles re mastered box sets especially the mono set. Yep sound pretty good... The Smiths...Talking Heads.. So far so good. Neil young Archive Vol one...
Now this is where things start to go wrong. How the machine works is that it rips the discs as a wav file. When you leave it for a while it compresses to your desired compression setting (320 kbps in this case). So I left the machine over night doing what it dose... Next morning turn on JB7 select random play (works similar to an iPod) .... What the fuck is that..... Could just about recognise the track... Sounded like someone had taken a radio to the end of a tunnel and I was listening to it from the other end... The previous evenings 'work' was wasted. After a few checks The machine was obviously faulty... Then began the process of sending the machine back for a replacement. Unfortunately they only retail direct by phone or Internet. To be fair to Brennan, there customer service was one of the best I had come across. Within two hours of phoning them the faulty machine had been collected and within 24 hours I had a replacement... However, on trying the replacement out it was also faulty.... It kept rejecting CD's. Again a replacement was with me within 24 hours. So the process of ripping my selected albums began again. With the cost of portable hard drives so low, I aquired one to back up the 'work' .
All went well for the next 5 weeks...then on 28 October had a couple of hours free and decided to add a few more CD's to it... Whatttt.... after the compression cycle a similar problem to the 1st unit surfaced. Added R2 D2 robot sounds and scratching noises... On the phone again. Now most people would have given up at this, but no I decided to go for another replacement... replacement arrived again within 24 hours, used the backup to replace my 'work'. So far as I type this everything seems OK...Hopefully, Not To Be Continued...
Cake And Eat It
Another curiosity that I came across this year was the PRS & PPL licensing stitch up that is required for every public building in the uk – not a new thing just that the authorities are now trying with a bit more vigour to enforce this tax....sorry.. Licence, private homes excluded – (Prices vary on size of premises & number of people that can hear). Premises that have a radio or cd player or iPod playing that people can hear (Voluntary or involuntary) must have a pair of these licences. Talk about cake and eating it. The radio stations have to pay to play the songs and every one else must pay to listen to them. The corporations trusted with collecting the cash have intensified their methods of perusing their money for the artists. Basically a Tax on listening. What other industry could get away with this funding. Every one else on earth that makes something gets paid for the product at the point of sale. That’s it! If every other business was conducted like the music and film industry, nothing would ever get done. Everyone would just make one thing in their life and sit on their bums waiting for the cash to roll in…. Wake up you lazy sods….OK this is an over simplified overview of the situation, but just think how rich the copyright owners of Sparkey’s magic piano would be now!
My personal picks of the year..in no particular order..
I have seem to have acquired less music this year than in the resent past. I put this down to a couple of things. First, in resent years I have had the disposable income to buy up a lot of the music that I would have bought in my formative years but did not have the cash. I seem to have reached a point where most of these albums have now been purchased. The oldies now that I acquire seem to be from artist that passed me by and have discovered through the pages of Q, Mojo and Uncut. Second, as I mentioned above, the closure of record stores means less opportunity for impulse buying.
Every year someone in the media moans that it's been a rubbish year for music. I don't listen. For me it's been as good a year as ever, If you can be bothered to look around. There are 100's of great new albums to get any serious music enthusiast excited. Their may not be the focus of a band or artist like The Libertines, Sex Pistols, Strokes or Arctic Monkeys to get people excited to start their own bands, but their is still a lot of great music out there.
Over the last decade Domino records have been one of the labels that seem to have led the indie way. This year was no exception. Anna Calvi, Austra, Arctic Monkeys, Real Estate, Alex Turner, Wild Beasts and King Creosote. These are just the artists that have appeared in the end of year lists.
Bon Iver – Bon Iver (that's eye-ver like the town near Heathrow NOT eve-er !!!)
PJ Harvey - let England shake - A popular mercury win for pj Harvey
These two seemed to appear at the top of a lot of end of year poll. The following I personally enjoyed and deserve further investigation if anybody needs a prod....
Panda Bear - Tom Boy
Foo Fighters - Waisting Light
Baxter Duty - Happy Soup
R.E.M - Collapse Into Now (I seem to be the only person in the world to like this album, and that includes most of the band!)
Battles - Gloss Drop
Fools Gold - Leave No Trace
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Rome
Jonathan Wilson - Gentle Sprit
Beirut - The Riptide
tUnE-yArDs - WHOKILL
Iron And Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
The Strokes - Angles
Foster The People - Torches
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys
Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo
Jonny – Jonny
Miles Kane - Colour Of The Trap
Friendly Fires - Pala
Peter Gabriel – New Blood
The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
The Joanna Newsome ‘don't drive while listening to this album’ award goes jointly this year to Josh T. Pearson for Last Of The Country Gentleman and Bjork for Biophilia. You've been warned! Zzzzzzzzzzz......
Tracks
Baxter Dury – Isobel
Gruff Rhys – Honey All Over/Whale Trail 2
Manic Street Preachers – This Is The Day
Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
Miles Kane - Rearranger
Noel Gallagher - AKA..What A Life
The Vaccines - Wetsuit
Bombay Bicycle Club - Lights Out, Words Gone
R.E.M. - ÜBerlin
Yuck - Get Away
Elbow - Dear Friends
Frank Turner - Peggy Sang The Blues
Live Music
Another big gripe that became bigger this year was the rise in the casual ticket tout. eBay has obviously been around for a while bit the Get Me In site takes touting to another level. Congratulations to ticket ba$tard for promoting this service. Tickets for highly desirable gigs (ie gigs I personally would have liked tickets for…Sufjan Steven's, Bon Iver, Noel Gallagher, Coldplay, Florence and the machine) - sell out in minutes and guess what, the 'Get Me In' service kicks in. Price up to £2011.00 within an hour of going on sale. This is where all those silly idiots buy tickets and all of a sudden realise "oh damn I can't make that date, never mind I'll just have to sell them at an obscene profit" instantly putting them up for sale at double the price+ what they paid for them. Ticket ba$tard rake their 20 percent on top of that (for VAT and the....SERVICE) what a good business. Of coarse it is supply and demand bla bla bla.. Everyone can become a ticket tout. No more standing outside venues on a cold evening shouting "buy sell tickets". How I'll miss that! And to think that the cheeky bastard record companies whinge about everyone and his dog illegally downloading music loosing money for them... So what is the difference?
When the Stone Roses announced a couple of gigs in Manchester for summer 2012, the touts had a field day. A few fans tried to scupper the touts by starting accounts with allies names and putting in bids of £1 million pounds on eBay. It might slow the bastard$ down a bit but sadly, I doubt if it will stop them.
It's not just ticket ba$tard, even the NME has decided to jump in with the devil. Just a quick browse I noticed that they have hooked up with Viagogo (a division of see tickets) ticket exchange. Some greedy sods were even trying to sell Kaiser chief tickets for over £100!
Had an interesting email from someone that will remain nameless for obvious reasons. He basically confirmed most of my suspicions concerning ticket sales. The person concerned is in the ticket selling industry and he is appalled by the behaviour of a lot of the industry. He told me about "Harvey's row" it's a row of seats that dose not appear on any seating plan, so tickets can be sold and no tax and presumably no money passes to the performer. This is a bigger scam at standing gigs. At Some of the bigger venues they can over print tickets for popular events to an unsafe number! The person that emailed me said the authorities have been informed about the scandal, but as yet has not acted. I wonder if they ever will?
Making money on top of the face value (which the promoter could have done) is ok by the record companies then. Withholding cash from the artist by selling on tickets is acceptable but downloading track for free is not. It must just be me, I must be missing the point.... Even I can spot ways to sort ticket touting out, (see previous bloggggs) but the industry don't want to or they would have done it by now, wouldn't they?
Another thought.. Why do ticket ba$tard and other agencys’ ask you to start an account, and to list all your favourite acts, then only seem notify you with loads of crap acts you have no interest in? Why do I just get advance notification for McFly The Wanted, Kate Perry, JLS, One Direction etc. and when I want advance notice for the likes of the bigger acts - Radiohead, Noel Gallagher or Coldplay, no such luck. Is it that they have trouble shifting those tickets?
It dose sound like I'm moaning a lot. I love the music.....but the industry ... They just give the impression that they should be excluded from the economic downturn while everyone else keeps them in a style they've become used to.
Not so many gigs this year mainly due to the reasons I outlined above plus a lack of desirable (i.e artists I'm interested in) bands gigging.
First gig NME big gig with Foo fighters. Best part of No Age set was the drummer flunking his exit from the drum riser at the end and ending up on his arse hahah. Ce lo Green did a concise set. The best of his Lady Killer album plus a couple of his Gnarls Barkley hits. Band of Horses also provided a solid set before Foo Fighters entertained us with a ‘Greatest Hits’ plus a few from the soon to be issued Wasting Light Album.
Next gig, Beady eye at the Troxy east London – the car unfriendly part of the city. Gallagher the Jr. insisted in keeping his parker on throughout resulting in a very sweaty boy! OK it was a lot better than I was expecting. Played for about an hour which included all the album plus a couple of B sides. Miles Kane was support. Did a good Beatles cover of Hey bulldog.
Elbow at the O2. Support by Villagers. Guy Garvey is not only becoming one of the UK’s best front men but a national treasure. With just the right amount of inter song banter, most of the songs performed were from the last two albums.
Loudon Wainwright III was the next gig. Still touring with his daughter Lucy who seems to have developed her fathers sense of humour since the last time I saw her. Vowing never to come back to Britain if she herd the word super injunction again before she left the country!
Seeing bands on their home turf outside London always seems to add an extra sense of occasion to the event. Elbow at the men arena a couple of years ago was special. The Manic street preachers in as near as damn it home gig in Cardiff was also a bit special.
Gruff Rhys's in reading was the next gig, sadly the venue was downgraded to the sub 89 club from the concert hall due probably to slow ticket sales. What's the matter with people. One of the true living greats and people just can't be arsed to go out on a Tuesday night! They missed a special gig. Playing songs from all of his solo albums plus his own brand of dry wit, what was not to like? Never mind Griff, it was Reading's loss.
The Arctic Monkeys at the O2 London supported by The Vaccines was the next gig. The Vaccines got things going with a run through of most of their debut album plus the new single tiger blood. Then the monkeys impressed with a selection of tracks taken from the four albums they have produced so far. This was the 3rd time I have seen the band, was also the biggest headline gig for the band under a roof. Alex even managed to orchestrate a bit of community singing! Biggest surprise was the omission of Cornerstone from the set. Miles Kane joined them for the final encore on guitar.
The delayed Friendly Fires gig in Southampton was a bit disappointing. The sound balance completely obliterated the vocals, which is a bit ironic as the gig was delayed because of throat illness! Just wish the sound was as polished as the visuals. Support from Chad Valley and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, demonstrates to me why live music from new bands is beginning to show signs of stress. Although the music sounds fine on CD/Record, who really gets excited watching someone sing into a laptop computer? Perhaps it’s me showing my age again….
No sound problems the following night for the Manic Street Preachers at the O2. James Dean Bradfield's voice is so powerful, probably doesn't need a PA. 38 songs in 2 3/4 hours. All the singles that reached the charts over the last 20 years. Biggest surprise was Gruff Rhys joining the band to sing 'Let Robson Sing'. A slightly less obvious surprise was Nina Persson's duet with James on 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough'. Nicky Wire even managed a wry joke about the continuing non appearance of Richie Edwards - He didn't make it again! A superb gig to end my year of gigs...
Reading Matter
Lowside Of The Road – Barney Hoskins – A Life Of Tom Waits. (2009)
With all the scare tactics that Tom & Kath piled on proposed contributors, it’s a miracle Barney didn’t just give up on the project. As it turns out, I didn’t read anything that the pair could get annoyed about. It is mainly a journey through Tom’s recording career detailing every recording he’s made to date. Offering no tittle tattle celebrity nonsense, just concentrating on the main subjects craft of song writing and his recording process along with the associated tours. After a few albums it may become a little laboured to a casual reader. But I found it a rewarding companion to re discovering many of his tracks that I had overlooked on some of his albums.
Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography - Will Birch (2010)
The book came out at about the same time as the Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll Film. The film is a very abridged version of the book. Birch acknowledges that because the subject matter was deceased, more people than not were willing to talk with him. A complete opposite that Hoskins had with the Tom Waits biog. The book, Dury comes across at best as a bit of a ‘difficult’ person to get along with. He used his disability to create confrontations and avoid being physically hit! – Especially when a tin of beer was opened in his vicinity! Lost count the times he and Chaz Jankel & Mickey Gallagher fell out – mainly over writing royalties. I personally didn’t realise just how many film rolls he did, including one with Tom Waits which is covered in this book and the Waits book. A good read even if you were not a big fan.
A Version Of Reason (in search of Richey Edwards) - Rob Jovanovic (2009)
Although no official interviews with the maniacs or the Edwards family contributed to the book, as far as I can tell it portrays an accurate just facts account of the life and final days of Richie Edwards life. Hopefully the troubled soul is still alive and living a normal life somewhere. The book dose not come with any conclusions but dose analyse most of the theories about his disappearance. Split into two books - his life and after he disappeared. I read the book while on holiday in Borneo and it got me thinking while seeing a European looking man about the right age with tattoos covering both arms plus long grayling beard pushing a shopping trolley with a young child in tow....hang on, would somebody obsessed with disappearing go to a country where he would stick out like a saw thumb! An interesting read for any maniacs fan or anybody interested in mysteries of disappearing people.
The complete chronicle of The Who - Anyway Anyhow Anywhere - 1958-1978
Any Neill & Matt Kent (2007 edition) orig. 2005.
Another HMV £3 buy. This is as a complete record of the band as you could wish for. Virtually a diary of every gig and recording session the group undertook. Tracks that completely passed me by were Dogs from 1968 and the rolling stones cover "The last time" from 1967. Had me rushing to amazon to order 30 years of r 'n' b box set. Any new bad should have a look at this book to see how much work they put in to make it. The number of gigs they did in the early years is mind boggling. All these bands ( coldplay, florance and the machine...etc..) that call 6 dates a uk tour - just give up... And all these people that feel a video on YouTube or an appearance on X Factor equates to a lifetime in Rock 'N' Roll .... you are d r e a m i n g
Touching From A Distance - Ian Curtis and Joy Division - Deborah Curtis - 1995
The tragic story of Ian Curtis from his be soon to have been divorced wife. Did his illness cause his erratic behaviour or was he just a bit of an ass hole? We will probably never know. Like Richie Edwards he ended it the day before he was due to tour America for the 1st time. Also like Edwards their were early elements of self harming and high academic achievement. At only 139 pages it covers concisely his short life, his controlling of his wife and her betrayal. The birth of Joy Division and their short lived career. The book is a more detailed account of the film Control. The book also contains his published and unpublished song lyrics.
Bob Dylan - Chronicles Volume one (2005)
Finally got around to reading this, another £3.00 er. The Mr Zimmerman - Elston Gunn - Robert Allen auto biography. Took a while for me to get into as he wanders through loads of his influences who were unknown to me in the first chapter. Also interesting to note that his early 70's albums were made for financial reasons. Not so much of a biography a snapshot of Half a dozen brief periods from his life including a section on how he come up with a vocal style in the '80's that managed to make every song he sings live sound the same! Find it difficult to believe the level of detail he recalled from fifty years on. Perhaps his talent for story telling in songs has transferred to 'novels'. There is a theory that someone embellishing stories with loads of detail is probably lying... Just a thought. I can probably wait for volume 2!
Michael Stipe - the biography by Rob Jovanovic. (2006)
Coincidentally I started reading this one the week it was announced in September that R.E.M were calling it a day. Ok nothing serious just another pop bad splitting up. One that has played a big part in my musical listening over the last 30 years. From their 1st album 'murmur' I was hooked. Only managed to see them the once, at Twickenham in 2008, must have been one of the last gigs they played in the UK on the Accelerate tour. After reading the book I was surprised just how few gigs the band did in the UK.
I am probably the only person - including most of the band - that really enjoyed their last album 'Collapse Into Now' that came out earlier this year. Always a tinge of excitement on the arrival of a new album from them, and for me they never disappointed. I always enjoyed the critically slated ones - maybe not as much as some of the critically acclaimed ones, but they always produced enough good material on each album to keep me coming back again and again. No doubt Stipe and co will carry on producing music individually in the coming years and I personally look forward to hearing it. Having said that, after reading the biography, the way Stipe works it's difficult to see any solo recordings from him any time soon. He seems more comfortable behind a camera or just jumping up on stage to help out friends or good causes.
So to 2012... Looking forward to new stuff hopefully from ... Franz Ferdinand, Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective, Paul Weller, and gigs from Elvis and the importers, Noel Gallagher, Kaiser Chiefs...
'till 2012....
Julian White ©2011
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Rocklistleaks… Just Too Hot For Wikileaks….
As the new year began the battle lines were being drawn up by the pro and anti legal downloading factions of the music industry. As Billy Bragg pointed out, the Music industry is in no trouble just, the record industry. Kids are going to start bands and make music without the record industry. They just upload it to mySpace or Youtube or facebook and if it catches people imagination, who needs record companies? Record companies will still be around but I guess they will be very selective as to what they will bring out on CD. All they will have to do is trawl the net for new talent – which is what they’ve probably been doing for a few years now anyway. – even more so now.
The best stocked CD stores I have visited this year have all been in Western Australia. But I guess it is only a question of time before they surrender to the Internet. While travailing around Oz love to tune into Triple J radio station – available all over oz on the FM network. It’s a sort of 6 music for Australia, with a big music input from Oz acts. As I seem to be there at a similar time of year most trips, the station announce their best Oz album of the year. This time Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker, worth checking out. Oz seem to have a vibrant new music scene. Every time I go there I can’t believe the amount of bands that are trying to make it big. A shame only a small amount of the music seems to filter through to the UK.
I seem to have become a refuge for unwanted CD’s this year. Whenever anyone known to me is throwing out the silver disks, it’s ‘give Whitey a call, he’ll give them a home’. So my collection has grown at a somewhat alarming rate. The discs are probably not the sort of thing I would seek out to buy, but I just can’t turn them away. A whole pile of Late Genesis and late sixties early seventies folk were added to my ever bulging racks.
I thought it might have been me but the November issue of Word Magazine confirmed feelings that I had harboured for many years. Yes there are albums that are hard to listen to and get to love. 2010 has thrown a few, up but my biggest ‘difficult’ album of the year is the Joanna Newsom ‘Masterpiece’.
WARNING – Do not try listening to “Have One On Me” album while driving. A couple of years ago all the reviews I read of her Ys Album had me rushing to the record stores – only to be completely underwhelmed. This year she treated us to a triple album. Again the reviewers invented new superlatives, I just couldn’t resist. How the hell did all these reviewers manage to review it? So far, after several attempts, I have failed to stay awake for more than 15 minutes of the 1st CD. Yes she has a fine voice, It is well produced, but to me it just sends me too sleep. Too many words with basically no tunes and no chorus to distinguish one track from another. It’s the vocal equivalent of Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”, Get the picture!. Just long (tuneless) song cycles. If you were thinking of purchasing this album because it appears in many of the end of year lists, (No1 in Uncut) don’t believe the hype. Go and buy the wonderful and over looked Kathryn Williams album instead. It has the added bonus of you still being alive at the end of your car journey!
1st gig of my year – Vampire weekend at the shit hole Brixton… oh sorry the wonderful Brixton Academy. The most overrated music venue in the UK. If I lived around the corner from the place I might view it differently. But having to get there from the leafy suburbs of Surrey, it’s a bastard to get too. When you get there, their is no where to park, and when you get in, the souls of your shoes are pulled off as you try to free your feet from the heavily soiled carpet. Just what you want after a days work. However, the wonderful Vampire Weekend soon made me forget the traumas of the journey to Brixton and the crap food of the local Subway. As when I saw them 18 months previous at the Forum they were accompanied by a string quartet and the balcony must have an extra 150mm sag in it now.
Next gig was Peter Gabriel at the O2 with the 50 piece New Blood Orchestra. This was the 1st time since 1975 that I had seen Gabriel. In the early ‘70’s must have seen him a good dozen times with Genesis. From the smallest Gin Mill club at the Angel Hotel in Godalming, Surrey through to their 1st appearance at the Reading Festival. The O2 gig was in support of his wonderful Scratch My Back project. The 1st half of the gig was the album in full. The Second half was a selection of his ‘greatest’ hits rearranged for the 50 piece orchestra at his disposal.
My next gig was meant to be Florence and the machine at the Hammersmith Apollo. However due to a bit of a cock up in me completely forgetting, I booked a flight to New York for the day before!!!
Teenage Fanclub – Sheppard’s bush empire – unfortunately the layout of the venue downstairs means that the bar is directly in front of the stage and the idiots for reasons only known only to them selves buy a ticket for some £30 and insist in standing at the bar drinking overpriced shit beer and TALKING LOUDER THAN THE BAND. Just go to the fucking pub next door and save yourself a shit load of cash dickheads – Apart from that another classic TFC gig.
Gig week – The Hold Steady – Bumping into the band Outside McDonalds following them up to the venue as they asked the touts the price of tickets! By end of the evening from the back of the theatre, Craig Finn looked worryingly like Alan Carr – shit camp UK ‘comic’ entertainer! With the departure of Franz Nicoly, keyboards are now relegated to a minor role and additional lead guitar at times reminded me of Wishbone ash. Craig Finn’s guitar now merely a prop.
Elvis Costello – Oxford solo – Previewing some of the tracks from his soon to be issued National Ransom. A couple of weeks after performing at the White House with P. McCartney, he told the story about forgetting to pick up a much liked guitar, reckoning that the Obama kids stole it while his back was turned. A few weeks later her retold the story to Jools Holland, BUT by then the guitar had been returned.
The next night, Nick Lowe – Basingstoke - Pre festival season warm up gig – 1200 theatre with only 150-200 people! One of Britons most under rated singer songwriters. What’s the matter with people? Make him the star he deserves to be, not this shit X-factor dross. Otherwise he may be forced to make another Bay City Roller style tribute song….for Wagner!
Final gig of the week was Paul McCartney/Manic street preachers/Joy Formidable – Cardiff. Anyone dismissing McCartney is a fool. OK, you probably don’t line up outside the record store anymore the day of his latest releases, (his last two I picked up for £3 a couple of months after release) But they still have a handful of good tunes on them. Thousands of bands a year are formed. And the reason can be traced right back to Paul and his three mates who invented the modern popular culture. When I first saw him 35 years ago at the Empire pool in Wembley, Band on the run had just been issued and he was still fighting for his own identity outside the Beatles so only a few Beatles tracks were included in that set – similar to Wings Over America. This time, no such problem. Probably 55% of the set consisted of Beatle tunes. It left me wondering, One of the reasons quoted for the Beatles stopping touring was the inability to perform many of the songs they recorded in the late ‘60’s live. I know the technology has been around for a couple of decades now, but his five piece band had no trouble reproducing A day in the life…. Live. The Joy Formidable seemed a bit lost on the stadium and the Manic’s were only allowed to do 10 songs - shame
Mumford and sons at a sweaty Hammersmith Apollo in October. The highlight was the band being joined on stage with Kinks legend Ray Davis to perform Days/This Time Tomorrow, the track recorded for Ray’s disappointing collaboration project.
Manic Street Preachers & British Sea Power at the Bournemouth (Don’t let the advertising fool you , it’s in Boscombe!) O2 Academy. Never failed to give a great performance over the years I’ve been seeing them live. Played tracks from most of their albums but a majority from their latest opus. It was after this gig that James had to take a break of a few gigs for his voice to recover.
Badly Drawn Boy – Bloomsbury Theatre London. Arrived at the venue to be greeted by the sight of Damon Gough standing outside the front door with a drink in one hand and a ciggie in the other happily chatting and posing for pics with his audience. Luckily my wife decided not to take one with me and him. The gig, although we both enjoyed it, seemed a little down beat. Can’t put my finger on why!
We Are Scientists – Southsea. The US duo promoting their latest album, Barbra. Only they can get away with pleading with the audience NOT to sing along with the songs as it puts them off…
Blondie & The Pretenders – Perth West Australia. A couple of bands that over the years I Have liked a lot. Saw Blondie a few years ago at Guilfest so there were few surprises. A lot of fun though. Just wonder if that is a real wig she wears! The Pretenders were a real surprise. A band that I seemed to have missed out on seeing over the years. Still producing good new albums – Check out last years Breaking up concrete. Chrissie has a great voice. She did a tremendous version of Hymn to her. Not a mention of Nick Kent! – See below. A mention to Little Red the support act. From Melbourne. At the time just seemed a good support act. However, as mentioned above while travelling around Oz I like to tune in to Triple J. They played Little Red a lot. By the end of the trip had to call into JB Hi-Fi to pick up their album.
A lot more gigs would have been attended but my travel plans seemed to get in the way. Still want to see Arcade Fire, Band Of Horses, Sufjan Stevens,
Reading Matter
Nick Kent – Apathy For The Devil. A sometimes harrowing tale of rock journalism through the 1970’s.
Not many laughs. From his 1st articles in 1972 for NME through his failed relationship with Chrissie Hynde into the dark drug years. His friendships with Iggy Pop, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones plus a brief stint with an early incarnation of The Sex Pistols. A no holds barred account of his life in that decade.
Keith Richard/James Fox – Life – Although I found some of his hero worship for his inspirations a little laboured, a great read into one of the most colourful rock stars that is still around to tell the story. The drugs, the girls, the fights with Mick and not a dry seat in the house! A lot of detail on 5 string open tuning that created some of the most famous riffs of the 20th century.
John Lennon The Life - Philip Norman. Picked this hefty read up from HMV for £6! First published in 2008 and coming in at over 800 pages this is a well researched warts and all account of the worlds most famous rhythm guitarist in The Beatles. If this was a work of fiction, you would probably put it down as being too far fetched, but I would have loved to have read the original 350,000 word manuscript that it was edited down from. As much as a history lesson about Northern Britain in the 50's and 60's. You can not believe that the entire touring party in the 60's consisted of only the 4 Beatles plus Mal Evens & Neil Aspinall (The Rodies) and sometimes Brian Epstein! I only wish it had a happier ending.
Albums of my year
The NME album of the year was a complete surprise to me. Although I had ‘These New Puritans – Hidden’ and played it a few times I must admit It never grabbed my attention. Normally you can get a rough idea of what direction the writers are heading towards by reading the magazine regularly. Perhaps I was asleep that week. But this year it was a ‘where did that come from!’ However listening back now it dose have a sound unique to this year. It’s also another triumph for Domino records who have a good track record of finding original acts over the last few years. (Wild beasts, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic monkeys)
Vampire weekend - Contra
Gayngs - Relayted
Delphic - Acolyte
Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back
Band Of Horses - Infinite Arms
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse – Dark Night Of The Soul
Manic Street Preachers – Postcards From A Young Man
Kathryn Williams – The Quickening
Tunng – And Then We Saw Land
Sufjan Stevens – The Age Of Adz/All Delighted People
Tame Impala – Innerspeaker
Fang Island – Fang Island
Teenage Fanclub – Shadows
The Hold Steady – Heaven Is Whenever
The Besnard Lakes – Are The Roaring Night
Field Music – Field Music (Measure)
Tracks
(It’s not war) Just The end of love – Manic street Preachers
Holiday – Vampire Weekend
Peter Gabriel – The Power Of The Heart
Blur – Fools Day
Doves – Andalucía
Band Of Horses – Factory
Little Red – Rock it
Gruff Rhys – Shark Infested Water
Looking forward to… The new Elbow album and tour.. the sound of Liam Gallagher falling on his arse…Arctic Monkeys return.. Plus new product from….Fleet Foxes.. Coldplay.. R.E.M… Kasabian.. Mumford and Sons.. Florence & The Machine.. Egyptian Hip Hop.. Gruff Rhys.. The Strokes.. Friendly Fires..
'till 2011......
Julian White ©2010
