Author: Steve

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Religion…

The problem of religion.

Jyoti’s ever marvellous and provocative blog has a huge rant on it about the place of religion in politics. His contention is that religion is irrational and bad things are done in the name of God, and has no place being used to define political life…

The weird thing is that, as a believer, I at least partly agree. Not that all spiritual belief is irrational (clearly, that would be a weird thought for someone who aligns them self with the christian faith), but that the use of one’s faith to solely define one’s view of the world can end up in a very totalitarian view of the world.

This paragraph of Jyoti’s is interesting –

I’m an atheist. More than that, I’m a radical, materialist, proselytising atheist. That means that not only am I opposed to Christianity as an irrational pile of poop, I’m also against Hinduism, Buddhism, paganism, Judaism, Scientology, spiritualism, astrology and, of course, Islam. (I’m obviously not anti-religious people. Some of my best friends are believers, honest guv! Love the believer, abhor the belief, I say.)

Now, the last sentence is clearly an irony, but the strength of opinion expressed in the first half is very close to what I hear from devout thinking people of faith. It’s clearly not raving madness, but it is dogmatic to a slightly scary level.

One of the wonders of post-modernity is that we are now wrestling with the definitions of truth can something be ‘factual’ by untrue, or vice versa? Can two seemingly contradictory accounts of The Way Things Are both be true. We’re now able to wrestle with the concept of abstracting truth from its linguistic strictures, from it’s cultural contexts and examine things for what they point to as much as what they state. We can embrace the concepts of ‘finite’ and ‘infinite’ truth, with infinite truth being essentially unknowable but anything that points to or describes in any way the infinite truth is ‘finite’ truth.

The deconstructionists told us that all language is a metaphor, that words resonate with other words, and within the context of the semantic buildings in which we bring them to life – so the word ‘dad’, on the surface means ‘the guy who impregnated your mother to cause you to be born’ but is on a deeper level going to mean so many different things to different people based on their experiences of father-figures.

However, we still have the tools of history, or literary criticism, of science and biology that can act as boundaries and sign-posts for our discussions, as bridges between our experience and the posited notions of the various religious traditions. So, when Jyoti says,

I don’t believe the stories about Jesus, Thor, Isis, Satan, Apollo, Vishnu, Allah, Buddha, Spiderman or The Great Pumpkin. They’re all lovely stories, and I appreciate the wit and wisdom of the writers but are they true? No. They’re mostly stories written by men to help shape their societies and keep the majority of ordinary people, especially women, oppressed. Apart from Spiderman, of course, that’s very egalitarian.

there’s some pulling apart that needs to take place – which of those stories collapse under scrutiny, and how? What is being brought to bear to cause them to collapse, and is what’s driving that motivation itself substantial

Would you want to live in a country under Scientological Law? Or Odin’s Law? Does either proposition sound like a reasonable way to frame a civilised country’s legal and social system? No? So why does it make sense to run a country according to Christian or Muslim myths? They’re no less ridiculous, random and invented.

Let’s me spell this out: the problem isn’t with fundamentalist Islam or right-wing US Christians or huge churches run by ex-Hitler Youth members.

It’s with religion itself

Enshrining irrationality at the heart of our societies, validating myths and letting them define our human rights is an act of supreme idiocy. We all have the right to live, to love and pursue our dreams and no-one should be able to deprive us of those rights by waving a crumbling sheaf of lies in our faces.

He then goes on to present two stories of people be tortured and killed in the name of religion, and comments –

That news story is from June 2005. That’s what happens when people believe 2000-year-old superstitions to be literal truth.

Look at the Muslim terrorist attacks on Britain and America. Look at the God-steered response by Bush. That’s what happens when old men hear their God’s whispering in their ears.

If religion had its way, we’d all still be cowering in caves, blinking fearfully at the ghosts and goblins in the darkness.

We need to step forward into the light of reason, to embrace the hard truths of our mortality and unimportance rather than the comforting bedtime stories about gods and everlasting life.

That means we must oppose the irrational whoever promotes it and whatever colour their skin happens to be.

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All is well with the world

OK, so the labour party is run by fascists, public transport is a disaster, London’s getting set to be ruined by the Olympics… But Danny Baker is back on Radio London so all is well with the world.

Oh yes, for the last few months, the radio dial has been Bakerless – in his place the broadcasting car-crash that is Joanne Goode, and now the antipodean waste of oxygen that called himself Jono Coleman. But now Danny is back, in the afternoons, and the BBC London 94.9 running order is looking a lot better. Vanessa Feltz is on from 9-12 – she was dreadful in the afternoons, but seems to handle topical serious phone-in better than celeb gossip nonsense. Robert Elms still has the lunch time slot, which he does so well, and now Danny in the afternoons. What’s more, he has Amy Lame back on as well.

All is indeed well with the world.

Soundtrack – David Bowie, ‘Reality’ (marvellous stuff – it’s been a while since Bowie last did two really good albums in a row. Let’s hope he keeps this up); The Pixies, ‘Bossanova’ (one of the Pixies albums I never got round to buying first time out – genius is parts, but it’s no Doolittle).

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gigblog

Ok, last night was the gig at Darbucka – big thankyous to all you blogsters who made it along to the gig.

Before we get to the gig, back a few hours – 11am and we were back rehearsing. Wednesday night’s rehearsal with Orphy was messed up by Rise disappearing, saying he’d be back by 8 and not turning up til gone 11. Helpful. Doug, Orphy and I ran through the songs, and it was clear that Orphy was going to do a fantastic job on this stuff, though like me it was a real test of his stamina having to play this stuff consistently for that amount of time!

Thursday morning’s rehearsal was better, in that Rise was there, so we got to go through all the songs. It was interesting for me in that each time we’d play a song, Rise would notice another bit that I’d missed out from the CD, so the parts were getting more and more complex, which made it even more of an enjoyable challenge. Orphy again acquitted himself fantastically.

In the afternoon, Rise and Doug headed off into town, planning to be back in time to run through the songs with Jez before we packed up to go to the gig. Jez arrives, but no sight of D and R. We give up on the idea of practicing and instead start to load the cars up with all my toys, Orphy’s kit, jez’s piano etc. Cars loaded, still no D and R. I write a note, so we can leave, and just as we’re getting into the cars, they show up. The tube system is screwed, so big delay getting back. Quick turn around and we head to the gig. Soundchecks go fine, with Simon Jaquet from Duncan Senyatso’s band sitting in on drums (Orphy was performing the two-gig-dash, playing at a jazz fest before heading down to get to us for the last set).

Right, jumping forward to the gig itself, it was a marvellous night ,and felt like a suitably eclectic tribute to John Peel. Calamateur gets better every time I hear him. An excellent set that kicked things off really well. We did two songs together at the end of the set, which were lovely (and we’re recording together all this weekend, building on the stuff we’ve already done, so expect an album some time in the next couple of years!)

next up was me – not having had much of a chance for practicing, I didn’t launch any new songs at this one, though I’d intended to do at least one. Instead, the only non-album tune was the one for Eric. Set went well, people were entertained, lots of good comments afterwards.

And then Rise’s set – started by two tunes just Rise Doug and Orphy which sounded lovely, Jez and I then joined in for 6 songs. Despite a couple of wobbles (largely due to Orphy’s kit moving on the stage, and me having to hold it in place with my foot!!), we sounded pretty good, by all accounts, and people really enjoyed it. Doug and Rise were thrown by people not getting up and dancing – which, not surprisingly is not something that Orphy Jez or I have ever really thought about, not ever playing dance music as such. I guess it’s a london thing, and also just a Darbucka thing – it’s a pretty chilled venue, and people were blissed out enjoying the sounds…

So all in, a good night – it would have been nice to get a load more people there (the numbers were OK, but for Rise’s set in particular, it would work really well it the place was packed and dancing), but as a first outing for a particular lineup it was a great way to play without pressure, and to just enjoy the music. I had a great time, remembered the lines, played well, and much fun was had.

There are some photos of the gig, posted by the lovely RichardH off the forum, here

eagle-eyed bloglings will notice that I’m actually standing up to play there… don’t expect this to become a regular occurrence.

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Handy things online

I love it when websites hand you resources that you’d otherwise have to take ages to make.

maps.google.co.uk is a one such resource – you can link direct to a map of a place, at whatever scale you want, and if the place itself is in their directory, it’ll even do the directions and stuff for you –

Click here for a Google Map to Darbucka, with directions – Darbucka is the place marked ‘B’ on the map – click on the B, and it’ll give you the option to get directions. Nearest tube is Farringdon.

We’ve got a bit more rehearsing to do today, then the logistical fun of getting everyone and all the gear down to Darbucka, and then the proper fun of the gig!

See you there!

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Rehearsal fun

So Rise Kagona and Doug Veitch are here, and we’ve had two rehearsals – last night was just the three of us, two guitars and bass, running through the songs for tomorrow night, and then today Jez joined us to put the keyboard parts in place. Playing this stuff is just so much fun – it’s a challenge to get the African feel right, and to try and ‘think African’, feeling the songs rather than analysing what’s going on, but I’m definitely feeling more inside these songs that I did with Duncan’s stuff at Greenbelt – I think it’s just having spent the last couple of months listening to African stuff more than anything else has got me into the right head-space.

There are a few of the lines that I’d got slightly wrong from the CDs, so we’ve been correcting the parts, and I’m pleased with how quickly I’ve got a hang of that stuff. It’s been a lot of work and it appears to have paid off. You’ll have to come tomorrow night to see if it worked!

Gig details again, in case you’ve missed them up until now –

Venue – Darbucka World Music Bar, 182 St John’s Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1 – nearest tube, Farringdon.
Date – Thursday Oct 13th
Time – doors 7.30, first band on 8pm.
Bill – Rise Kagona and band, Steve Lawson and Calamateur

Be there!

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The Future of the music biz…

I’ve gone on about this enough times that you don’t need me to say it all again… however, it’s really nice when other people say it in a slightly different way with better graphics – step forward, Jyoti Mishra – surely you’ve read things on Jyoti’s lovely blog before? If not, you’ve not been following the links from here very carefully – his is a fab blog. Anyway, his is also the only blog I read by someone who recorded a number one single in his bedroom. He’s in a good position to offer an analysis of the industry.

As a spoiler, he comes to the same conclusions as me – that artist to end user is the model of the future, with no intermediaries. You buying music direct from us (or us buying direct from you if you’re musicians as well!), us charging less but making more, you feeling some level of investment in the process and ongoing loveliness of the music, and us being vocally grateful for your patronage.

Have a read of his post – it’s pretty succinct (then go and have a listen to his last album ‘Peek and Poke’ – a marvellous slice of low-fi tune-heavy electro-pop. Retro in all the right ways.)

Right, now I’ve got a million and one jobs to do, so less blogging, more hoovering…

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6 songs down…

Right, that’s the first 6 songs on the Rise Cd learnt… and my hands are exhausted. Time for a break and a cup of mint tea.

I’m just glad that I’m playing my solo set before Rise’s set, or my hands would be too tired to play! This is like the bass equivalent of circuit training. The masterful thing about it is how he’s managed to write such fantastically busy bass lines without them ever getting in the way of the tunes. If you did this kind of playing in a pop/rock band, it’d sound ridiculous.

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A very fine Big Idea

never let it be said that Britain doesn’t have a vibrant and burgeoning jazz scene.

Mark Lockheart is one of the busiest and most respected sax players in the country, and for his current tour he’s assembled a fantastic group featuring four marvellous saxophonists with a killer rhythm section. It’s pretty rare to see four sax players in a contemporary jazz setting in the UK – it’s not often that anyone can afford to take that kind of project on the road, but Mark has managed it.

Due to my having a gig on the same night, I won’t be able to make it to the London gig next thursday, so last night, Orphy and I headed out to Oxford to see ‘Mark Lockheart’s Big Idea’ play at The Spin, a weekly jazz gig at The Wheatsheaf in Oxford. I’d heard a lot about the gig from friends who’d played there, so was looking forward to checking out the venue too.

The gig was fantastic – playing mainly music from Mark’s latest album Moving Air, with Mark, Julian Siegel , Steve Buckley and Rob Townsend on saxes and bass clarinets, Martin France on drums John Parricelli on guitar and Dudley Phillips on bass.

Mark has a very distinctive writing style, that can be traced all the way back to the tunes he wrote for seminal british jazz outfit, Loose Tubes in the mid 80s. The horn arrangements are stunningly beautiful, and he made full use of the dynamic possibilities of having four horns on stage. Parricelli was on rare form, playing beautifully and blending with the sound of the horns magnificently.

Fortunately, the room was packed, and the audience were hugely appreciative. It’d be mad to suggest that Britain was in any way deficient in the jazz world – I guess the problem, as it is in most parts of the world, is a lack of places to play anything other than standards. The main jazz gigs in London are restaurant gigs, with venues like The New Vortex and Ronnie Scott’s doing their bit to promote interesting vibrant music. It’s still tough to find a gig, moreso now that the foyer gigs are the Festival Hall are on hold while the renovate the building.

So, in the spirit of last night’s gig, I’m going to offer you a beginner’s guide to the British Jazz scene – a handful of essential CDs that prove our place alongside the Americans and Scandinavians, while still all sounding uniquely British…

– The obvious place to start is with Theo Travis – his last two quartet CDs, Heart Of The Sun and Earth To Ether are both outstanding.
– Next up would be Ben Castle – his last album Blah Street is marvellous – clever, funny and intelligent in all the right ways.
– Of course Mark Lockheart who inspired this list in the first place – his latest, Moving Air is fabulous.
– And then there’s Mo Foster – any of his records are worth getting, but particularly Time To Think is gorgeous.
– Another one featuring Mark Lockheart, the Works is Patrick Wood’s amazing quartet – what Weather Report would have sounded like if they’d grown up in London. Beware Of The Dog is one of my favourite instrumental albums from any part of the world, not just the UK.

If you were to buy that lot (and I think you should), you’d have a pretty decent representation of why I’m excited about the future of British music, rather than wallowing in the despair that would ensue from burying yourself in the world of X-Factor, Pop Idol and the lame faecal mountain that is the pop charts.

Soundtrack – some tracks that I’ve been recording over the last three days with american fretless guitarist, Ned Evett – some really really cool stuff (to add to the stockpiles of other really really cool stuff that are sitting here waiting to be released!) – hopefully I’ll have an MP3 taster or two for you soon from this lot…

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Edinburgh Fringe Stats…

just had a ‘fringe bulletin’ email through, with some facts and figures about this year’s Fringe Festival –

Fringe 2005 presented 26,995 performances of 1800 shows in 247 venues, and hosted 16,190 performers.
As the 59th Edinburgh Festival Fringe drew to a close, the Fringe Society announced a record 1,335,000 ticket sales.

That’s nuts! And only the 335,000 were my gigs! Who were the other million, and why weren’t they at my show?

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