Tag: Blog

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Eric Roche is on the mend

a few weeks ago I blogged about my friend, Eric Roche – a fantastic guitarist, who’d be diagnosed with cancer of the saliva gland, and was going in for an op.

Well the great news is the docs say it was a complete success (so far), and he’s back home! Thank God.

Anyway, you can send him messages via the guestbook on his website, and also find out how to order his CDs from there which are amazing – I’ve got all three, and love ’em.

Last night was the Grace Barbeque, followed by ‘grill the bishop’, where Pete Broadbent, the bishop of west london (not sure what his official patch is, but it covers Ealing), was there to answer some questions. And what a remarkably cool bloke he is too. Sadly didn’t wear any weird point hats, and to be honest, I can’t imagine Pete wearing one… Must see that at some point. Lots of questions about a new book that the Church Of England has publish about the nature of church, and its relationship with churches that meet in cafes or nightclubs are are mellow and ambient like Grace is… all good stuff – seems like the C of E is waking up to church not having to happen on a sunday morning with a hymn book and a dude in a dress preaching. Though I quite like that style as well… :o)

Having said I like it, I woke up too late today to go to St Luke’s, so will do some recording today instead.

Soundtrack – yesterday, I was listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel, ‘So’ and ‘Greatest Hits’. as well as Jaco Pastorius, ‘The Birthday Concert’.

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Two more great gigs and The Godfather Pt II

so, what’s been happening?

Last Friday night, Evil Harv and I went to see The Pixies at Brixton Academy. I’d really really been looking forward to this, having missed them when they were around last time (I lived in Berwick on Tweed, so didn’t get to go to many gigs!). Graham Coxon, the ex-Blur guitarist was the support, and was surprisingly good – I didn’t really have high expectations, but his blend of Blur’s noisier moments (it becaume clear what his part in their sound was) and the 80s american hardcore of bands like Husker Du and Black Flag was marvellous. Fine voice and some great guitar playing.

Then the Pixies came on, and played non-stop for over an hour. Not a word was said between songs, no breaks, no nothing, just out of one song into the next. It was marvellous. Loads of stuff from Doolittle and Surfer Rosa. All fantastic. A brilliant brilliant gig.

Saturday night, the small person and I went to see the new Harry Potter film – The Prisoner of Askerban. I enjoyed the other two, but this is the best of the three so far. Darker, faster moving, better acting from the three main kids, a great cameo by Gary Oldman as the Prisoner. Excellent stuff.

and Sunday was Godfather Pt II – regular blogsters will remember I was godfather to Angus a few months back, and on Sunday I was godfather to Charlie. Forgot to take any photos, but I’m sure there were plenty taken, so I’ll see if I can get hold of one for here. A ‘triffic day – Jonny and Rosie Didj are Charlie’s mum and dad, and live on a barge, so the party afterwards was marvellous. Much fun. And of course, I get to be Charlie’s godfather as he grows up, and with him and Angus being around the same age, I can take them both out to weird gigs as they get older! :o)

Monday morning Evil Harv MSN’s me offering a free ticket to see Peter Gabriel. I saw him last time round, and it was amazing, so a bit of diary juggling, and I was able to drive straight from a recording sesh at Jez’s in the afternoon in Oxford to Wembley for the gig.

Two support acts, the first one playing what sounded like Lloyd-Webber/Ben Elton compositions – crappy west end show tunes that did nothing for me at all. Second one was an african dude with a guitar who was much better.

Then Peter and band came on. Any chance to see Tony Levin play is a treat, the guy’s a bass legend and a genius. Another mindblowing gig. Lots of clever staging, lighting and of course Peter and his daughter zipping round the stage on Segway HTs – I SOOOOO want one, but they’re a bit pricey… if anyone should feel like buying me one, please get in touch… ;o)

the set was similar to the last gig, though I don’t remember there being a huge train wreck in the middle of Salisbury Hill – someone in the band lost their place completely, and I think Peter had to count them back in! After the show, it took me almost an hour to get from Wembley back to the North Circular!! grrrrr.

On the recording front, I’ve got a version of the album finished, which is nice as it gives me a strong reference point. Anything that I record now that’s better than what’s on there, I can swap into the album, or it can go towards it being a double… lots of fun.

Soundtrack – once again, me me me…

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two fine gigs and a stolen phone

So Sunday, the small person and I headed off to the west country and wales. Firstly to call in and see my sister and niece for a day out in Cheddar Gorge (very nice it was too), and then off to Cardiff Coal Exchange to a WarChild benefit gig. On the bill were Stuart Henderson, Ben Okafor, Martyn Joseph and Bruce Cockburn. How good is that lineup???? unbelieveable. believe me.

First up was Stewart, an incredibly gifted performance poet, whose work I’ve been reading for years, and who has written a lot of songs with Martyn Joseph through the years, including one of Martyn’s ‘hits’ from the early 90s, ‘Working Mother’.

He was followed by Ben, who I’ve played with in the past, and whose albums I’ve had since the late 80s. A fantastic performer, he was also a boy soldier in the Biafran war in Nigeria, so his connection to tonight’s cause added gravity to the evening.

Martyn’s a favourite of mine and the small person’s, both having been fans for many many years. He’s a hugely compelling performer, fantastic guitarist, great songwriter and very engaging between songs. Highly highly recommended on CD and live. Truly a ‘hidden gem’ of the UK music scene.

And Bruce – it’s the fourth time I’ve seen bruce in the last few months, and the second time in a week, and he was as magic as ever. A genius in the truest sense, one of the finest guitar playing singer/songwriters to ever grace the planet.

A remarkable evening.

So back home monday for more recording, more recording all day today (see next blog entry for studio tales…), and then this evening off to the Borderline to see Amy Wadge (pronounced Woj), with the added bonus of catching the majestic Brian Houston on the same bill.

However, my evening’s enjoyment was spoilt by the bastard on the train who stole my phone. His behaviour was a little shifty – changing seats, apparently to read the tube map. I’d covered my pockets to make sure I wasn’t being pickpocketed, but the phone had already fallen from my jacket, I found out afterwards, which he must’ve picked up and run off with, the shitbag.

So once I realised (after we were in the venue) I rang Orange and got the phone and the number blocked and ordered a new phone. Given that the phone is now basically useless to the piece of crap that stole it, it’s a pain in the arse that it’s cost me

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CD round-up…

Been listening to Cipher a fair bit recently – Cipher is Theo Travis’ other duo with a bassist, this time the bassist in question is Dave Sturt. Most of the gigs they do are providing soundtracks to silent movies, but their last CD, ‘One Who Whispers’ was conceived as such, as far as I know.

Anyway, however it came together, it’s fantastic – you really ought to get it. If you enjoyed ‘For The Love Of Open Spaces’ (which you really ought to have by now…), then you’re love the Cipher CD – lots of very fine bass playing, lovely ambient textural stuff, and Theo’s marvellous sax playing over the top. All available from the Cipher website.

I’ve also been listening to Ben Castle‘s new album, Blah Street, which is fantastic. Ben’s quartet features some of the finest musicians around – Tim Harries on bass, Mark Edwards on keys and Winston Clifford on drums, and the new record is stellar. Also worth of note is the ‘Bop Idol’ game that you can play on Ben’s website. very bizarre… Anyway, his CD is out now, and you can get it from usual places, like Amazon.

Another album I’ve listened to a bit recently is ‘Adventures in Hammered Dulcimer’ by Scott Brannon – one of the many many CDs I was given at NAMM this year (I’m about a third of the way through listening to them). To be honest, this almost didn’t get listened to, cos the artwork really doesn’t say ‘Play Me’ to me – it’s in the same ballpark artistically as the Ragatal sleeve was (which, you’ll know if you’ve seen it, is pretty dreadful). Anyway, I gave it a listen and really enjoyed it! Folky Jazzy instrumental stuff, with some proggy elements, and the rather refreshing sound of hammered dulcimer thoughout. Recommended, if you can stomach the artwork…

So there you go, a few things for you to buy this month!

And how about another webcam photo? here’s me about 40 seconds ago…

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200th blog post!!

So this is my 200th blog post! (in this version – there were a few more in the archive, but we’re not counting those…)

So to celebrate that, and the fact that I’ve just bought a web-cam, here’s a me-montage. What finer way to celebrate my excersise in benign narcisism, than by looking at me!

happy birthday my blog!

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Video Killed The Radio Star

Just got back from seeing Billy Bragg at The Barbican – what an amazing gig!!

For those that don’t know (can there really be people in the world who don’t know about Billy Bragg???), he’s a singer songwriter, but not in the fey acoustic guitar, wannabe James Taylor way. More Woody Guthrie meets Joe Strummer. Very political, very literate, very stauchly working class leftie stuff. Did benefit gigs for the miners (added extra gravity to the gig that we’ve just gone past the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the miner’s strike…) and for the labour party back in the 80s (can anyone imaging Red Wedge existing now? I think not…)

Anyway, he was brilliant. Inspiring, refreshing, funny, moving, challenging, entertaining. Simply marvellous. his latest album is a double best of, which is a pretty good place to start with his stuff.

The sad thing about it is thinking that there’s no way that a new Billy Bragg could get anywhere near the mainstream today. Back in the early 80s, bands with something to say were all over the place, whether it was UB40, Billy Bragg, The Clash, Steel Pulse, The Specials – there were loads of them, and political songs were topping the charts and changing the hearts and minds of the country. I’m trying to think of the last time a really political song got anywhere. Not ‘We Are The World’ style bollocks. I mean something that really meant something. These days you get a lot of nu metal bands ranting on about the evils of corporate music – the machine within which they dwell and who pays their bills – and there’s still a healthy protest music scene underground (Show Of Hands, the folky duo I blogged about a while ago are doing very political stuff, as is welsh songwriting genius Martyn Joseph and God’s favourite singer, Bruce Cockburn) but those that are doing anything have either been doing well for years (hence Billy selling out the Barbican) or are playing the folk circuit.

I guess it’s healthy that they are still there. It’s just a shame that they don’t get the exposure. I mean, even the early hip-hop stuff got exposure – the first couple of Public Enemy and NWA albums were all over the place back in the late 80s, and made some fairly big changes on the political scene (NWA arguably helped trigger the LA Riots… good thing or bad thing?) these days, very little seems to get past the blandness filter. The new idea of being ‘risky’ is wearing ever more revealing clothes, or swearing on your records… yeah, really dangerous…

Anyway, three cheers for Billy Bragg. The man’s a genius and an inspiration.

Oh, and I mustn’t forget Jill Sobule who was supporting him. We got there late and only caught the second half of her set, but she was marvellous, and I bought the CD – will report back, cos if it’s as good as her set, it’ll be excellent. She was an added treat (and she came out and did a duet with Billy on ‘All The Young Dudes’ as part of the encore!)

Soundtrack – Toupe, ‘Alopecia’; Peter Gabriel, ‘Hits’; Zakir Hussein, ‘Making Music’.

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ay up boys, we've got competition…

…looks like there’s another Steve Lawson getting in on the blog thang – this one’s a humanities librarian, but judging by his name, is bound to be the world’s coolest Humanities Librarian…

…can’t seem to find an RSS feed from his blog though, so can’t get daily updates in sharpreader… :o(

Still, support the steves, that’s what I say!

Soundtrack – I’m having a Seth-centric evening – firstly, more of Seth Lakeman , followed by Seth Horan – both very fine. I shall have to search for more Seths to listen to. Seth Armstrong maybe???

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the dark side of being away…

Remember a few weeks back I blogged about being Godfather to Angus? Angus, who had had a heart defect at birth, was rushed into hospital and operated on in his first few days of being alive, and then his mum and dad, Paul and Rachel, had a sort of dedication/service of thanksgiving thingie for him and his sister Jasmine? Well, while I was away, I got a text message on my phone saying that Paul was in ICU, on life support, and could I pray for him… at this point, as per all good film scripts my phone runs out, dead battery, and being as how it will only charge off a USB port on a computer (no wall-socket charger with me – won’t make that mistake again), I was unable to charge it. The next day I try phoning round friends, but all the numbers I need to call people are in my dead phone. So I have to wait til I get home.

This is the dark side – email, cell-phones, fax etc. all makes for an amazing web of communication, but we grow to expect it and when if fails, we don’t have contingency plans…

As it is, Paul is out of ICU, doing really well, all things considered. It turns out he was hit by a bus on his way home… not really what anyone needs. Please pray for him, and Rachel, and their tiny people.

Soundtrack – Luca Formentini, ‘Subterranea’, Cuong Vu, ‘Come Play With Me’.

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Drop your Debt

So, a few days ago I blogged about the increasing burden of debt facing so many brits, and then today on the bbc news page, I see ‘Archbishop Warns On Debt Dangers’. So clearly, the AB of C reads my blog, and forms his opinions based on it. Wise ole’ Bish that he is.

What’s also of interest is that I found this story via my new aggregator… see, it works!

Check out The AB of C Rowan Williams’ website to see more great ideas that he no-doubt stole from me.

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Syndication – the future of the net???

So, I’m a long way behind most techies, but it seems to me that Syndication/New Aggregation/RSS feed readers etc. are going to be future of how people gather info from the net…

In case, like I was until last week, you’re in the dark about this stuff, there’s a process called RSS that uses a language called XML, which is basically a way of tagging your web pages to make then easily interpretable by various bits of software, and that some of those bits of software are news aggregators, which allow to to subscribe to XML-written pages so that on one page, you get all the info from all your subscribed pages – so each morning, instead of surfing round loads of different sites to check if a) they’ve been updated and b) there’s anything of interest to you, you can use your news aggregator to collate the headlines from all of them together, so at a glace you can see what’s new on that day. At the moment, the main services seem to be news sites like the bbc, and blogs, like this one – you’ll see in the panel on the left, if you scan down, there’s a ‘syndicate this site (XML)’ link, or something like that, and if you copy the shortcut there and put it into your news aggregator page, it’ll add this to your collated page.

On mine at the moment, I get UK news and Entertainment news from the BBC, a web innovations feed that was already part of the package when I subbed, as well as updates on a lot of friends blogs.

The software I’m using is called Amphetadesk, and seems OK, though I’ll keep looking and see if I can find one with a groovier interface…

Anyway, I reckon this is going to be one of the next big waves of interest in the net, so I’m going to syndicate the news page on my website soon, and probably the gigs page too… Til then, you’ll just have to stick with my mailing list, or this ‘ere blog for your fascinating glimpse into a life less extraordinary… :o)

Soundtrack – right now, Matthew Garrison, ‘Matthew Garrison’ – Matt’s one of the most vital, interesting and innovative voices in the bass world right now – 2004 will hopefully be the year that he gets the huge success he deserves. Get this album now, and pretend you knew about him all along…

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