Music Photography 2015

Idlewild

Van Morrison

I have attended some top gigs in 2015. Most memorably the legend voice that is 'Van Morrison' who takes both Irish and R & B soul to new levels. Just awesome!  Then Scottish indie rockers 'Idlewild' played their debut return gig at the O2 ABC Glasgow and played such an energized and fun gig. Top quality. Another memorable concert was the 'Punch Brothers' at the concert hall during Celtic Connections 2015 - their harmony singing and electrifying banjo playing was highly enjoyable. I also enjoyed wonderful singing at the Scottish A Cappella Championships St Andrews. Other quality concerts included the Alan Kelly band, the Dirty Beggars, and not forgetting the quality musicianship and singing at the  Transatlantic Sessions. I've been very fortunate and a big thanks to all these wonderful artists who entertain us so well!   

 Gallery - http://pkimage.co.uk/p156850829

Alan Kelly band

**MUSIC 2015

Hozier took my attention for his depth and subtle toned voice. I heard him sing a Van Morrison song - Domino - on the Jools Holland new year show.  His song Take Me to Church is truly a classic, no doubt of it for those who say its all been heard before and nothing decent in music is done these days. 

Hozier - Hozier -  http://hozier.com/

Here are a few other classics that were released in 2015/ 2014

Julia Hotler - Have You in My Wilderness -   http://www.juliashammasholter.com/

Father John Misty - I Have You Honey Bear  -  http://www.fatherjohnmisty.com/

The Shires -  Brave -  http://www.theshiresmusic.com/

John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure -  http://johngrantmusic.com/

Lucinda Williams - The Ghosts of Highway 20 -   http://lucindawilliams.com/

War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream -  http://www.thewarondrugs.net/

Scottish

Kathryn Joseph -   bones you have thrown me and blood i've spilled

 (SAy award) I met her briefly going into play at the Edinburgh book festival where her vintage piano was carefully being lifted over the stone steps via the backstage entrance into the Charlotte square gardens. -  http://www.kathrynjoseph.co.uk/

Idlewild - Everything Ever Written -   http://idlewild.co.uk/  

Rab Noakes - I'm Walkin Here -  http://rabnoakes.bandcamp.com/album/im-walkin-here

C Duncan - Architect -  http://c-duncan.co.uk/

Belle & Sebastian - Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance -  http://www.belleandsebastian.com/

Chvrches - Every Open Eye -   http://www.chvrch.es/

 Alan Kelly Band – The Last Bell -  http://alankellygang.com/band/

Those Borderlands.....Change and innovation does not occur in the large mainstream, but in the hinterlands edges and in smaller places. You need to explore the vast array of the different forms and find out where they meet. In the borderlands. 

PS I was sad to hear of the death of David Bowie - his greatest strength was being first and lastly an artist in the true sense of discovery, innovation and edge. He wished to create alternative worlds. Sadly missed. 

Scottish A Cappella 

Edinburgh Book Festival 2015 PHOTOS

Alan Cumming

A few of my favourite images from Edinburgh International book festival 2015, in Charlotte Square.  Full report separate blog.

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk

Gregs Proops

Helen Lederer

Kevin Mayer & Nell Zink

Edinburgh Arts Festival 2015: Jean Etienne Leotard

*EF ART 

I went to the exhibition by one of the most famous fashion photographers, David Bailey, at the National Galleries of Scotland. He knows how to capture the memorable portrait photography image.

I also went to the Jean Etienne Leotard exhibition there.

He used mainly pastels and managed to capture the most perfect, luminous portraits. Where has he been hiding?  If you look down from the faces you see the most minute detail on the lace and the intimate expressions are unmatched. His realism as astonishing too - photography perfect. 

There are two miniatures of Jacobites -  Prince Charles Edward Stewart, 1720 - 1788. Eldest son of Prince James Francis Edward Stewart.

Prince Henry Benedict Clement Stewart, 1725 - 1807. Cardinal York; younger brother of Prince Charles Edward

His portraits are highly memorable. They present soft delicacy and such careful subtle details.

He is a sensitive recorder of introspection. Oddly this is what interests me with portrait photography too - perhaps I am on the right paths after all!

Edinburgh 2015

On Rose street I pass the old hotels such as the Kenilworth. From my first Edinburgh festival images I decide to focus on the old and the new. – the way they sit so cleverly side to side in Edinburgh’s historic lanes, closes and stairways. A town built on hills always has its long range views. It is good to venture off the main pavements – where you can see the unexpected. Edinburgh is a good place for walking and cycling – and with the castle, gardens, dips and valleys – often easier to get around than by car. At Biblos restaurant I remember they play an original playlist – how nice.

There is now Blackwell’s where Thins bookshop used to be. Beside the Scott monument is a large Ferris wheel. There are now large maroon and white trams running along the centre of Princes street.

I walked up the steps from the galleries of the mound, which take you quit suddenly from the busy thoroughfare of Princes street to the Edinburgh old town. Instead of heading to George IV bridge I decide to take the old steps past the Lady stairs close and the tiny turret of the Scottish writers museum. There is a plaque which states that when Burns came to live in Edinburgh, shortly after his first book of poems was published, he lived here in the close. It is very near to the castle and these hidden places are very unexpected. Burns must have felt right at the heart of things. It must have felt like a bustling cosmopolitan place to the Ayrshire born lad. Here he became the toast of the Edinburgh intelligencia class.

I walked past the statue of William Pitt on George street - a seagull sat on his head. In 1783 Pitt, at 24, became prime minster. There was a great deal of corrupt government he claimed he’d reform, but on gaining office he put all these thoughts aside. Nothing ever changes....There is also a statue on Hanover street to King George who came to Scotland and even wore a kilt here. I also passed Martyr's monument Edinburgh I read of the radical Thomas Muir - an incredible Scot - who along with others, set up the Convention of the Societies of Friends of the People in 1792 and dared to march for democracy. For which he was sent by the then Scottish Secretary of state to Botany Bay. A true radical thinker.

Each year I travel over to Edinburgh for the August festival. It’s one of the highlights of my year.

 Edinburgh is known as Auld Reekie. I grew up here and walked its historic streets without realising all the stories around me. Perhaps I sensed then though along the winding closes; the tall narrow buildings; the elegant Georgian new town; and always the castle high street that led over to Arthur street and the distinctive historic skyline.