In my haste to finish in time to see the Paul Morley programme the other night (and very good it was too, especially the hilarious interview with Noddy Holder, and Ian Anderson describing the joys of wearing a codpiece; it was a lot better than it looks written here, honest!) I completely forgot to mention 'Something Else'. Notable for including the last TV footage of Joy Division it also featured The Clash, The Jam, The Specials and Dexy's Midnight Runners among others, all playing live. How on Earth could I have forgotten that one?!? The Joy Division footage gets shown here and there from time to time; ever second of it reinforces the almost-mythical status of the band in general and of doomed singer Ian Curtis in particular. The Jam played 'The Eton Rifles' before it was released and their then-current single 'When You're Young', and The Clash gave blistering performances of 'Clash City Rockers' and 'Tommy Gun'. Like I say, how could I have forgotten that one?
And then there's 'The South Bank Show' which has featured the likes of Pete Townshend, The Smiths and John Lee Hooker among it's lofty subjects. Yes it all gets a bit over-serious sometimes (it's art dah-ling!) but it often gets unparalleled access to it's subjects and normally does a pretty good job of getting under the surface of things- the programme on Rockpile featured the a band argument that any self-respecting record company publicist wouldn't allow to be broadcast these days and the Elvis Costello show made for rather uncomfortable viewing as the band and 'Almost Blue' album producer Billy Sherrill clearly didn't always see eye to eye over things.
There are of course many other music programmes but I think I've just about covered all the ones from my formative years now; I did do a few other things as well as watch TV in those days (honest!) but I realise now how, as a cash-strapped teenager unable to attend as many gigs as I would have liked, many of the performances on the shows I've recalled here directly inspired me as a guitarist. And many of them still do...
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
TV times
Looking back at my last posting I completely failed to say that The Prisoner is among my very favourite television shows ever, and that Patrick McGoohan was one of the best actors of them all- so I thought I'd better start by saying that here! I think I got a bit bogged down in my own particular version of The Village... but it's got me thinking about how music was presented on television before the days of set top boxes and subscription channels.
Like most people of my age who liked 'pop' music I used to watch 'Top Of The Pops' on BBC1 every week. (I was a bit young for 'Ready Steady Go!') When I first started watching it regularly in the early 1970's it was a rather odd mixture of grinning chart-orientated acts and incongruous heavy metal bands begrudgingly promoting their 'not-on-the-album single', all introduced by a BBC Radio 1 DJ. By the time of it's demise in 2006 it had gone through several re-vamps but never really deviated too far from it's original concept of featuring the music and performers from that week's singles chart. Personally I really liked it during the glam rock times of '71-'74 when the likes of T.Rex, Slade, The Sweet and David Bowie drove my Dad to previously unimagined (by me at least) heights of righteous indignation- which of course made me like it and indeed them even more. As I was too young to go to gigs this was my only way of seeing any of the bands that I liked- except of course they were miming rather than actually performing live. Still none of this bothered me too much at the time, especially during the punk rock days of '77-'79 when the likes of The Buzzcocks, The Ruts and The Damned made regular appearances. I lost touch with the show sometime in the early '80's when the ratio of grinning chart-orientated acts to heavy metal bands finally got too much for me although it was interesting to tune in again a few years later when bands like The Senseless Things and Carter USM appeared as often we'd been supporting them only a few weeks before! (Many if not all of the above bands can often be seen on the retrospective show TOTP2 - one of my earliest and clearest memories from the early '70's shows is of seeing The Faces playing football during 'Maggie May' which just might be the most repeated clip of them all? And if you think they look drunk wait until you see Stiff Little Fingers!) For what my opinion's worth I think it's all too easy to mock 'Top Of The Pops'- after all it did what it set out to do didn't it? And I've managed to get this far without mentioning Pan's People...
Meanwhile a rather different TV experience was taking place on BBC2- 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' was album-orientated and therefore a bit too 'serious' for my teenage tastes. I'd love to be able to say that I saw the infamous appearance by The New York Dolls and went out the next day and bought an electric guitar- but I didn't; put simply it was before my time, or at the very least it was on too late for me to stay up to watch and still be able to get up in time for school the next morning. That said I'd started watching it by the time the punk bands had invaded, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the likes of Public Image Ltd, The Skids and XTC actually playing live on television, as well as being astounded by Gary Moore playing 2 songs with Phil Lynott, Cozy Powell, Scott Gorham and Don Airey. The 3 retrospective DVD's devoted to the programme go a long way towards showing why it's still fondly remembered by many, and maligned by quite a few.
'Rock Goes To College' ran from 1978-81 and featured a band or artist gigging at (you've guessed it!) a college or university; I remember the Rory Gallagher and Joe Jackson shows very well, and AC/DC gave a typically boisterous performance 'though maybe the most well-known show featured The Police at Hatfield Polytechnic. Before that the seemingly all-but-forgotten 'Sight and Sound In Concert' extended the idea of the long-running Radio 1 'In Concert' show to present one or two bands playing live and being simultaneously broadcast on both TV and radio- the one that always sticks in my mind was the 'dream gig' (for me at any rate) pairing of Ian Dury and The Blockheads with Dr. Feelgood, and The Tom Robinson Band show gave me chance to see guitarist Danny Kustow in all his chaotic glory for the first time. Some if not all of these shows must be in the archives somewhere- time for a rebroadcast or, even better, an official release or two methinks!
Over on ITV I remember seeing 'Supersonic' which was OK (The Damned gave a blistering performance of 'Neat Neat Neat') but 'Revolver' was much more like it; 'presented' (I use the term very loosely!) by Peter Cook and featuring a bewildering line-up of then-contemporary punk and new wave bands it was at best rough around the edges and at worst shambolic, but somehow managed to present the bands in a sympathetic setting- and let's face it, any show that features The Lurkers must be a classic mustn't it?!? Special mention must also be given to 'Marc' which featured the glam rock god himself presenting a 6-episode series, the last show of which went out shortly after his untimely death in September 1977, and the Saturday morning programme 'Tiswas' which saw the likes of Motorhead falling for the fatal charms of Sally James and ending up covered in custard pies as a result. Great stuff.
Channel 4 gave us 'The Tube' which I always found to be a bit of a mess (not least due to the sound of the live bands always being a little, shall we say, 'odd') although it did feature the last TV performance by The Jam as well as tremendous sets by The Redskins and The Smiths among others. For me it was all a bit too 'Eighties' if you know what I mean; oh and Jools Holland caused a furore by swearing during a live trailer for the show 'though it didn't seem to hamper his T.V. career unduly...
These days BBC3 and BBC4 feature all manner of music-based documentaries on everything from prog rock to classical music and beyond (I particularly enjoyed the Les Paul retrospective 'Chasing Sound') as well as concert performances (the footage of Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's was priceless) and all points in between. Which reminds me- I can't sit here typing this for too much longer or I'll miss 'All The Young Dudes: Pop and Fashion' in which, and I quote, 'Paul Morley revisits his adventures in fashion and meets the pop stars who influenced him'. Sounds good doesn't it? Imagine that- going back over the musical sights and sounds that you saw and heard as you were growing up... I could do that... actually I just have!
Like most people of my age who liked 'pop' music I used to watch 'Top Of The Pops' on BBC1 every week. (I was a bit young for 'Ready Steady Go!') When I first started watching it regularly in the early 1970's it was a rather odd mixture of grinning chart-orientated acts and incongruous heavy metal bands begrudgingly promoting their 'not-on-the-album single', all introduced by a BBC Radio 1 DJ. By the time of it's demise in 2006 it had gone through several re-vamps but never really deviated too far from it's original concept of featuring the music and performers from that week's singles chart. Personally I really liked it during the glam rock times of '71-'74 when the likes of T.Rex, Slade, The Sweet and David Bowie drove my Dad to previously unimagined (by me at least) heights of righteous indignation- which of course made me like it and indeed them even more. As I was too young to go to gigs this was my only way of seeing any of the bands that I liked- except of course they were miming rather than actually performing live. Still none of this bothered me too much at the time, especially during the punk rock days of '77-'79 when the likes of The Buzzcocks, The Ruts and The Damned made regular appearances. I lost touch with the show sometime in the early '80's when the ratio of grinning chart-orientated acts to heavy metal bands finally got too much for me although it was interesting to tune in again a few years later when bands like The Senseless Things and Carter USM appeared as often we'd been supporting them only a few weeks before! (Many if not all of the above bands can often be seen on the retrospective show TOTP2 - one of my earliest and clearest memories from the early '70's shows is of seeing The Faces playing football during 'Maggie May' which just might be the most repeated clip of them all? And if you think they look drunk wait until you see Stiff Little Fingers!) For what my opinion's worth I think it's all too easy to mock 'Top Of The Pops'- after all it did what it set out to do didn't it? And I've managed to get this far without mentioning Pan's People...
Meanwhile a rather different TV experience was taking place on BBC2- 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' was album-orientated and therefore a bit too 'serious' for my teenage tastes. I'd love to be able to say that I saw the infamous appearance by The New York Dolls and went out the next day and bought an electric guitar- but I didn't; put simply it was before my time, or at the very least it was on too late for me to stay up to watch and still be able to get up in time for school the next morning. That said I'd started watching it by the time the punk bands had invaded, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the likes of Public Image Ltd, The Skids and XTC actually playing live on television, as well as being astounded by Gary Moore playing 2 songs with Phil Lynott, Cozy Powell, Scott Gorham and Don Airey. The 3 retrospective DVD's devoted to the programme go a long way towards showing why it's still fondly remembered by many, and maligned by quite a few.
'Rock Goes To College' ran from 1978-81 and featured a band or artist gigging at (you've guessed it!) a college or university; I remember the Rory Gallagher and Joe Jackson shows very well, and AC/DC gave a typically boisterous performance 'though maybe the most well-known show featured The Police at Hatfield Polytechnic. Before that the seemingly all-but-forgotten 'Sight and Sound In Concert' extended the idea of the long-running Radio 1 'In Concert' show to present one or two bands playing live and being simultaneously broadcast on both TV and radio- the one that always sticks in my mind was the 'dream gig' (for me at any rate) pairing of Ian Dury and The Blockheads with Dr. Feelgood, and The Tom Robinson Band show gave me chance to see guitarist Danny Kustow in all his chaotic glory for the first time. Some if not all of these shows must be in the archives somewhere- time for a rebroadcast or, even better, an official release or two methinks!
Over on ITV I remember seeing 'Supersonic' which was OK (The Damned gave a blistering performance of 'Neat Neat Neat') but 'Revolver' was much more like it; 'presented' (I use the term very loosely!) by Peter Cook and featuring a bewildering line-up of then-contemporary punk and new wave bands it was at best rough around the edges and at worst shambolic, but somehow managed to present the bands in a sympathetic setting- and let's face it, any show that features The Lurkers must be a classic mustn't it?!? Special mention must also be given to 'Marc' which featured the glam rock god himself presenting a 6-episode series, the last show of which went out shortly after his untimely death in September 1977, and the Saturday morning programme 'Tiswas' which saw the likes of Motorhead falling for the fatal charms of Sally James and ending up covered in custard pies as a result. Great stuff.
Channel 4 gave us 'The Tube' which I always found to be a bit of a mess (not least due to the sound of the live bands always being a little, shall we say, 'odd') although it did feature the last TV performance by The Jam as well as tremendous sets by The Redskins and The Smiths among others. For me it was all a bit too 'Eighties' if you know what I mean; oh and Jools Holland caused a furore by swearing during a live trailer for the show 'though it didn't seem to hamper his T.V. career unduly...
These days BBC3 and BBC4 feature all manner of music-based documentaries on everything from prog rock to classical music and beyond (I particularly enjoyed the Les Paul retrospective 'Chasing Sound') as well as concert performances (the footage of Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's was priceless) and all points in between. Which reminds me- I can't sit here typing this for too much longer or I'll miss 'All The Young Dudes: Pop and Fashion' in which, and I quote, 'Paul Morley revisits his adventures in fashion and meets the pop stars who influenced him'. Sounds good doesn't it? Imagine that- going back over the musical sights and sounds that you saw and heard as you were growing up... I could do that... actually I just have!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Fall out
At the risk of turning this into an obituary column...
I've just received a text message from Price drummer Paul; it reads-
'Number 6 has escaped the village R.I.P. Be seeing you'
This can only mean one thing- Patrick McGoohan has died.
Back in the bad old days of the early 1980's your humble narrator was not a happy bunny. If you think I'm miserable now you should have seen me then! Part of the reason for my unfortunate condition was that I was working at the E.M.I. factory in Ruislip and hating pretty much every second of it. One of the very few people there that I had any sort of meaningful conversation with was an engineer called Barry Byford; he wasn't over-popular among his peers for what was seen as a rebellious attitude, so I of course liked him immensely. During the course of our many ranting sessions he mentioned that a T.V. show called 'The Prisoner' was about to be repeated on the then-new Channel 4 and that I should tune in. When I asked him why I'd like it he just smiled and said 'you'll see...'
So I did- and I did. For the next 4-and-a-bit months there didn't seem to be a better way to spend an hour a week of T.V. time. Highlights were many and varied but the overall effect was (and remains) devastating- I loved the fact that people said that it was 'weird', that they 'couldn't understand it', and, best of all, that they 'hated it then and hate it now'... this was just what I was looking for! As I stomped around the corridors of power mumbling 'be seeing you' under my breath and screaming 'WHY?' in my mind I had finally found a metaphor that helped me explain to those around me (and indeed to myself) how I felt about being forced to spend my daylight hours in the godforsaken hell on Earth that was, and no doubt still is, the E.M.I. factory in Ruislip. The human chess game from 'Checkmate' was going on all around me and I was one of the pawns. I had to escape...
Those days seem a long way behind me now but, incredibly, they still come back to haunt me from time to time- there are events and circumstances that I've tried to wipe from my mind but that I still find upsetting over 25 years later. 'The Prisoner' was part of my escape from that particular prison- but if I really did 'escape' why have I just written the last couple of lines? Is this blog really just a journal of my time in a different village?
In the meantime I'm listening to Dr. Feelgood's fifth album and smiling at the thought of Rover looking for me somewhere in a rundown factory. Don't knock yourself out young man, best of luck with the exams- and a half a dozen of the other to you all. Be seeing you...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_McGoohan
http://www.sixofone.org.uk/
I've just received a text message from Price drummer Paul; it reads-
'Number 6 has escaped the village R.I.P. Be seeing you'
This can only mean one thing- Patrick McGoohan has died.
Back in the bad old days of the early 1980's your humble narrator was not a happy bunny. If you think I'm miserable now you should have seen me then! Part of the reason for my unfortunate condition was that I was working at the E.M.I. factory in Ruislip and hating pretty much every second of it. One of the very few people there that I had any sort of meaningful conversation with was an engineer called Barry Byford; he wasn't over-popular among his peers for what was seen as a rebellious attitude, so I of course liked him immensely. During the course of our many ranting sessions he mentioned that a T.V. show called 'The Prisoner' was about to be repeated on the then-new Channel 4 and that I should tune in. When I asked him why I'd like it he just smiled and said 'you'll see...'
So I did- and I did. For the next 4-and-a-bit months there didn't seem to be a better way to spend an hour a week of T.V. time. Highlights were many and varied but the overall effect was (and remains) devastating- I loved the fact that people said that it was 'weird', that they 'couldn't understand it', and, best of all, that they 'hated it then and hate it now'... this was just what I was looking for! As I stomped around the corridors of power mumbling 'be seeing you' under my breath and screaming 'WHY?' in my mind I had finally found a metaphor that helped me explain to those around me (and indeed to myself) how I felt about being forced to spend my daylight hours in the godforsaken hell on Earth that was, and no doubt still is, the E.M.I. factory in Ruislip. The human chess game from 'Checkmate' was going on all around me and I was one of the pawns. I had to escape...
Those days seem a long way behind me now but, incredibly, they still come back to haunt me from time to time- there are events and circumstances that I've tried to wipe from my mind but that I still find upsetting over 25 years later. 'The Prisoner' was part of my escape from that particular prison- but if I really did 'escape' why have I just written the last couple of lines? Is this blog really just a journal of my time in a different village?
In the meantime I'm listening to Dr. Feelgood's fifth album and smiling at the thought of Rover looking for me somewhere in a rundown factory. Don't knock yourself out young man, best of luck with the exams- and a half a dozen of the other to you all. Be seeing you...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_McGoohan
http://www.sixofone.org.uk/
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Death Trip
More sad news- after the recent death of the great Davy Graham I've just heard that Ron Asheton has been found dead at his home in Michigan, probably as a result of a heart attack. He was 60 years old. As guitarist for The Stooges on their first two albums 'The Stooges' and 'Fun House' he virtually invented punk rock guitar; he played bass on 'Raw Power' then returned to the guitar for their 2007 album 'The Weirdness'. I saw them play twice- in 2005 at The Hammersmith Apollo and at The Royal Festival Hall in 2007 which I can honestly say were two of the best rock performances that I've ever seen. Without the Stooges there wouldn't, indeed couldn't have been punk rock- The Sex Pistols covered 'No Fun', The Damned covered '1970' and Joe Strummer is said to have 'kissed the floor' of C.B.S. Studios in London when he discovered that The Clash were recording their first album in the same studio that The Stooges had used for 'Raw Power'. His playing on tracks like 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' sounds as radical today as it did when it was recorded 40-odd years ago; odd as it may seem there's a parallel here between him and Davy Graham as many people caught up with them in the end whilst claiming to have liked them all along. Maybe that's the price you pay for being ahead of your time?
“When I was a young guy coming up, going to the Grande Ballroom every weekend, I got to see my heroes play. Jeff Beck, the Who, everyone. I didn’t want to be a fanboy, but I’d stand there and wait — ‘I just want to say hi, this was great.’ I saw them walk by me with blank stares like they were zombies. I said to myself, you know, if I ever make it, I’ve got at least one minute for everybody who wants to say something. So I talk to people, and that’s what’s exciting now.”
Ron Asheton was in my opinion a great guitarist and, judging by the above quote from a 2003 interview, a pretty decent bloke. It's another sad loss to the guitar-playing world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Asheton
“When I was a young guy coming up, going to the Grande Ballroom every weekend, I got to see my heroes play. Jeff Beck, the Who, everyone. I didn’t want to be a fanboy, but I’d stand there and wait — ‘I just want to say hi, this was great.’ I saw them walk by me with blank stares like they were zombies. I said to myself, you know, if I ever make it, I’ve got at least one minute for everybody who wants to say something. So I talk to people, and that’s what’s exciting now.”
Ron Asheton was in my opinion a great guitarist and, judging by the above quote from a 2003 interview, a pretty decent bloke. It's another sad loss to the guitar-playing world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Asheton
Thursday, January 01, 2009
'Sorry lads, I've come straight from work and haven't had chance to change... yeah, that's more than enough...'
22nd March 2016 - sadly I've had to remove the picture of Richard Pardy 'relaxing backstage'. Here's why, as texted to me by Richard yesterday afternoon -
Could l ask a favour pls? Your blogs are legendary & l don't know how you managed to get hold of it, but can you remove a picture of me with 'nipple tassles' pls?! As funny as it is, I've had dozens of people getting in touch, including my mum, & now my kids, (who told me it was on your blog). It was their school friends that found it at school on the school computers?!!! ...but also people that l work for have been taking the piss etc. I've now had a Head of school that l teach at call me in, saying that it's inappropriate as the kids have been passing the photo round at school. I've said I'll deal with it, and as it is also a bit embarrassing, (unless you were there & knew the circumstances), it's a bit weird, & is a top hit on google images now!!! If you could help remove all traces of it pls, l would much appreciate it. No sweat, l think it's very funny, but it has to go pls! Sorry about that & thanks for your help mate:-)
Never one to wish to cause offence, I have of course removed said image. It was very funny though!!
What better way to start 2009 than with a caption competition? Something a bit different this time- can you think of a way to link this photograph of saxophone maestro Richard Pardy* relaxing backstage at last October's Chicago Blues Brothers gig in Tewkesbury with a £2 voucher issued at last night's CBB show at, of all places, The Beacon Bingo Hall in Northampton? No, I can't either- but I couldn't resist putting the two pictures next to each other; no wonder I haven't got any friends...
As I'm in what passes for a good mood in my odd little world I'm not going to say too much about the show- we played quite well under the circumstances if you know what I mean- 'though I did make a comment to Sam the sound man as we watched our support act (2 ladies singing over backing tracks- I think they were halfway through 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B' at the time, and sounding about as much like The Andrews Sisters as I sound like Pavarotti) which went something like 'all those years ago when I saw The Clash and thought ''I'd like to play the guitar like that''- and now look what's happened...' I guess that makes me a snob? Or miserable? Or both? And I really shouldn't moan- a lot of people didn't have a New Year's Eve gig this year, and it's always better to be working than not working isn't it? Isn't it?? Do I sound convinced?!?
Happy new year everybody!
*sorry Rich- that's another drink I owe you...
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2008- or was it?
This being my last posting of 2008 it's time for a look back over the past 12 months of life in mad-guitar-land, much of which sounds oddly familiar...
The Chicago Blues Brothers have gone from strength to strength, winning friends and influencing people left right and centre and playing some great gigs in the process. Particularly memorable for me was the run of shows at The Theatre Royal in Windsor at the end of March, with April's weekend in Norwich and the Jools Holland support show in Southend at the end of June not far behind. Next year's looking good for us with plenty of shows already in the diary and some very interesting things being talked about- I'll keep you posted, as they say. In dep-land I played a couple of shows for local heroes The Cane Toads back in the summer and a highly enjoyable gig with The Ali Mac Band at London's Southbank Centre in November 'though my favourite stand-in shows have to be the two I played with The Sex Pistols Experience- is there anything better for an old punk like me? And I have to say that playing in the window of Horsepower Hairdressing in Uxbridge with my old mate Andy just about beats the CBB show in a Swiss shopping centre for the 'oddest gig location' award- but not by much!
As far as other people's music goes it's been a bit of a barren year on the 'new music' front- I'm sure it's out there, I just haven't been able to find it! The only current (as opposed to re-issue) album that I bought this year was 'Dig Out Your Soul' by Oasis which, although a good album in my opinion, is hardly the work of up and coming young guns. There's a new album out by Graham Day and The Gaolers called 'Triple Distilled' that I haven't got around to getting yet, and I must find out more about The Gene Drayton Unit who I heard on the way home from our Kettering gig a couple of weeks ago; at the other end of the commercial spectrum John Mayer has finally made more sense to me, especially his concert DVD 'Where The Light Is' which presents his music in 3 different ways (acoustic, trio and full band) and contains some absolutely superb playing throughout. Re-issue wise 'Boy' by U2 sounds every bit as extraordinary to me now as it did when I first bought the album all those years ago- whatever happened to them eh?
Talking of DVD's the long-awaited (by me anyway) release of 'At Kilburn:1977' by The Who didn't disappoint- what's often reported as being a sub-standard show originally filmed for inclusion in the bio-pic 'The Kids Are Alright' turned out to be alright after all even if it did fall below their standards at the time (actually it is a bit shaky in places- 'Daltrey forgets the words to 'Dreaming From The Waist', 'I'm Free' is all over the place and the bit in 'My Wife' where Townshend throws a amplifier at guitar tech Alan Rogan has to be seen to be believed!) while the bonus footage of them at London's Coliseum Opera House in 1969 shows them in fine 'we're about to conquer the world' form, albeit in rather low visual quality. 'Shine A Light', the Martin Scorsese-directed film of the 2007 New York theatre concerts by The Rolling Stones contains some fabulous moments (and, it must be said, quite a few rather odd ones!) whilst 'There'll Always Be An England' is a remarkable document of last year's Brixton Academy concerts by The Sex Pistols; directed by long-time associate Julian Temple it features the audience almost as much as it features the band!
And I've seen some great live shows this year- The Who (of course!) in London a couple of weeks ago, The Sex Pistols (of course!!) at both Birmingham and London, Wilko Johnson in Watford, The Godfathers in London, The Blockheads with Wilko in Camden- but I think my 2 favourite shows from this year have been 2 very different blues gigs. Buddy Guy gave an astonishing performance at The Shepherds Bush Empire back in June whilst in August Kris Dollimore played a solo show in a pub outside Chesham, both of which had me mumbling 'back home to practise then' throughout. Great stuff.
This year's 'Did That Really Happen?' moment has to be meeting Steve Cropper. Playing in Dave Finnegan's Commitments and The Chicago Blues Brothers have meant that I've played Cropper's guitar riffs more than I've played anybody else's over the last few years and I can honestly say that I've never found them to be anything less than inspirational. When I shook his hand I felt like I was shaking hands with soul music itself- and it doesn't get much better than that does it?
Far too many great musicians left the building in 2008, among them Richard Wright, Mitch Mitchell, Isaac Hayes and, earlier this month, Davey Graham. When I worked at the E.M.I. factory in Ruislip all those years ago I met a chap called Ken who, incredibly, had shared a flat with Davey Graham back in the day. He told me all manner of stories about those times, but the one that came to mind today concerns the day that he came home to find Davey hunched over his guitar, deep in thought. When he saw Ken he said words to the effect of 'Do you think this is any good?' then played Ken an instrumental piece that he'd just written- making Ken the first person ever to hear 'Anji'. Words like 'genius', 'virtuoso' and 'legend' are in my opinion rather overused these days- but Davey Graham was all those things and more.
Plenty to look forward to in 2009 gigging with The CBB's as well as continuing to work at Pro Music in Ickenham and 'We Will Rock You' in London with Stuart the guitar repair man; I'm also putting on some acoustic gigs at The Load of Hay in Uxbridge as well as getting the R'n'B band (tentatively named The Retrobates) with Andy, Dave and Mike off the ground and, if I can finally banish my memories of our appalling performance last December from my mind, I might see if the rest of The Price fancy getting back together again... keeping busy as they say. And I've finally managed to work out how Voltarol puts links to websites in his blog! I'll be putting YouTube clips in next...
Cheers and thanks for reading- see you in 2009!
In case you're wondering about the title of this posting go back to my last posting of 2007-
I haven't come very far in the last 12 months have I?!?
The Chicago Blues Brothers have gone from strength to strength, winning friends and influencing people left right and centre and playing some great gigs in the process. Particularly memorable for me was the run of shows at The Theatre Royal in Windsor at the end of March, with April's weekend in Norwich and the Jools Holland support show in Southend at the end of June not far behind. Next year's looking good for us with plenty of shows already in the diary and some very interesting things being talked about- I'll keep you posted, as they say. In dep-land I played a couple of shows for local heroes The Cane Toads back in the summer and a highly enjoyable gig with The Ali Mac Band at London's Southbank Centre in November 'though my favourite stand-in shows have to be the two I played with The Sex Pistols Experience- is there anything better for an old punk like me? And I have to say that playing in the window of Horsepower Hairdressing in Uxbridge with my old mate Andy just about beats the CBB show in a Swiss shopping centre for the 'oddest gig location' award- but not by much!
As far as other people's music goes it's been a bit of a barren year on the 'new music' front- I'm sure it's out there, I just haven't been able to find it! The only current (as opposed to re-issue) album that I bought this year was 'Dig Out Your Soul' by Oasis which, although a good album in my opinion, is hardly the work of up and coming young guns. There's a new album out by Graham Day and The Gaolers called 'Triple Distilled' that I haven't got around to getting yet, and I must find out more about The Gene Drayton Unit who I heard on the way home from our Kettering gig a couple of weeks ago; at the other end of the commercial spectrum John Mayer has finally made more sense to me, especially his concert DVD 'Where The Light Is' which presents his music in 3 different ways (acoustic, trio and full band) and contains some absolutely superb playing throughout. Re-issue wise 'Boy' by U2 sounds every bit as extraordinary to me now as it did when I first bought the album all those years ago- whatever happened to them eh?
Talking of DVD's the long-awaited (by me anyway) release of 'At Kilburn:1977' by The Who didn't disappoint- what's often reported as being a sub-standard show originally filmed for inclusion in the bio-pic 'The Kids Are Alright' turned out to be alright after all even if it did fall below their standards at the time (actually it is a bit shaky in places- 'Daltrey forgets the words to 'Dreaming From The Waist', 'I'm Free' is all over the place and the bit in 'My Wife' where Townshend throws a amplifier at guitar tech Alan Rogan has to be seen to be believed!) while the bonus footage of them at London's Coliseum Opera House in 1969 shows them in fine 'we're about to conquer the world' form, albeit in rather low visual quality. 'Shine A Light', the Martin Scorsese-directed film of the 2007 New York theatre concerts by The Rolling Stones contains some fabulous moments (and, it must be said, quite a few rather odd ones!) whilst 'There'll Always Be An England' is a remarkable document of last year's Brixton Academy concerts by The Sex Pistols; directed by long-time associate Julian Temple it features the audience almost as much as it features the band!
And I've seen some great live shows this year- The Who (of course!) in London a couple of weeks ago, The Sex Pistols (of course!!) at both Birmingham and London, Wilko Johnson in Watford, The Godfathers in London, The Blockheads with Wilko in Camden- but I think my 2 favourite shows from this year have been 2 very different blues gigs. Buddy Guy gave an astonishing performance at The Shepherds Bush Empire back in June whilst in August Kris Dollimore played a solo show in a pub outside Chesham, both of which had me mumbling 'back home to practise then' throughout. Great stuff.
This year's 'Did That Really Happen?' moment has to be meeting Steve Cropper. Playing in Dave Finnegan's Commitments and The Chicago Blues Brothers have meant that I've played Cropper's guitar riffs more than I've played anybody else's over the last few years and I can honestly say that I've never found them to be anything less than inspirational. When I shook his hand I felt like I was shaking hands with soul music itself- and it doesn't get much better than that does it?
Far too many great musicians left the building in 2008, among them Richard Wright, Mitch Mitchell, Isaac Hayes and, earlier this month, Davey Graham. When I worked at the E.M.I. factory in Ruislip all those years ago I met a chap called Ken who, incredibly, had shared a flat with Davey Graham back in the day. He told me all manner of stories about those times, but the one that came to mind today concerns the day that he came home to find Davey hunched over his guitar, deep in thought. When he saw Ken he said words to the effect of 'Do you think this is any good?' then played Ken an instrumental piece that he'd just written- making Ken the first person ever to hear 'Anji'. Words like 'genius', 'virtuoso' and 'legend' are in my opinion rather overused these days- but Davey Graham was all those things and more.
Plenty to look forward to in 2009 gigging with The CBB's as well as continuing to work at Pro Music in Ickenham and 'We Will Rock You' in London with Stuart the guitar repair man; I'm also putting on some acoustic gigs at The Load of Hay in Uxbridge as well as getting the R'n'B band (tentatively named The Retrobates) with Andy, Dave and Mike off the ground and, if I can finally banish my memories of our appalling performance last December from my mind, I might see if the rest of The Price fancy getting back together again... keeping busy as they say. And I've finally managed to work out how Voltarol puts links to websites in his blog! I'll be putting YouTube clips in next...
Cheers and thanks for reading- see you in 2009!
In case you're wondering about the title of this posting go back to my last posting of 2007-
I haven't come very far in the last 12 months have I?!?
Monday, December 29, 2008
Folk, blues, and all points in between
2008 ends with the sad news of the death of Davy Graham. As a guitarist he crossed virtually every musical barrier, mixing folk with blues, jazz with pop and, ultimately, East with West. In doing so he re-wrote the rulebook on what you could and couldn't do with the instrument and influenced everybody from acoustic players like Bert Jansch through to rockers like Jimmy Page in the process. He popularised DADGAD tuning (whether he actually 'invented' it or not is open to dispute) which was used to such great effect on everything from 'Kashmir' by Led Zeppelin to Rory Gallagher's version of Leadbelly's 'Out On The Western Plain'- see what I mean about crossing barriers?- and is often cited as the man who showed that the guitar could be a credible solo instrument in folk music. To describe his much-covered instrumental piece 'Anji' as a classic is a bit like saying that Muhammad Ali is quite a well-known boxer. Hell, even I've tried to play it!
If what counts in this life is what you leave behind when you're gone, then Davy Graham has left behind more than most. It's very sad to see him go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Graham
If what counts in this life is what you leave behind when you're gone, then Davy Graham has left behind more than most. It's very sad to see him go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Graham
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