Sicily Photos

Sicily is a green, beautiful and very large island covered in vineyards. Pink and orange houses were dotted amid the lush green olive groves and a translucent sea evaporated into the turquoise glow of the Mediterranean sky in warm whispers. Travel and holidays for me are a chance for free creative thought and writing. 

Some photos of the Greek Temple and amphitheatre on Sicily.   

The last evening the waves took up, leaving a brilliant turquoise wash and soft luminous light as we walked the long shorelines.

Rome Photos

I have had my first trip to Rome and Sicily. Hot! We arrived at the villa overlooking the romantic Roman hills. The sun was low and warmly welcoming. (all roads lead to Rome, when in Rome)  We walked over the impressive centuries old steps of the Coliseum and along past the Roman forum, where there are so many old stories. 

We visited the Papal Vatican museum, the holy city and the vastly decorated walls of St Peters. We viewed the craftsmanship of the paintings by Raphael and Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel, that stared down over us as if both warning and inspiring on man’s heavenly aspirations, and we stared in awe. The Vatican is one of those places bestowed with so much colourful and turbulent history that it felt both strange and familiar to walk on those revered and well worn marble and mosaic floors. 

We entered the dimmed and hushed Sistine chapel adorned with Michelangelo’s majestic glories to God. I am not sure what I expected; the lower half was painted as curtains and the chapel is a much taller and darker room than I foresaw. These glories to God were painted with divine hopes and as the crowds follow behind us, they seem to mirror the soaring images painted on the walls in an all too real way, and that is the memory I take away with me – the shared hopes of people for a better way. 

I ask my son if he was impressed. He is not into iconic religious images and his view was that the images captured now by the Hubble spaceship are much more incredible and inspirational. Perhaps he missed the incredible feat of how the Sistine chapel was painted at that time and at such a great height. I am not religious but this is sure inspiring. 

Later we loitered at the packed fairylit Trevi fountain and we ate at the Peroni restaurant where there was that fun spirit and energy we encountered once before in Paris. A small man in a red T shirt, known as Mr Chef, popped out at times to salute his guests – when there was much clapping and laughter as he produced his famous frankfurter cakes!  

I have been adding my ITALY photos of the past 5 years, from Barga, Lake Garda, Florence, Venice, Abrusso and Rome, you might enjoy - 
http://pkimage.co.uk/romeitaly

Music Styles 2013

Willy Moon

Music Styles 2013

There is so much fun retro style these days!

From the crisply suited smooth operators (Willy Moon, Hurts) to the rough edged wanderers (Tom Waits, Jake Bugg), the soul divas (Adele, Emeli Sande), the pop icons (Rhianna, Elton, Kylie), the club music players (Calvin Harris) the casual indie kids (Radiohead, The National), the guitar singer songwriters (Paul Simon, Jake Bugg), to the fantasy icons (Madonna, Lady Gaga), the glorious emo kids, the glum rockers, the earthy folk blues singers…... more!

I was flicking through music reviews and I notice today in music (as in fashion) so many individual styles. This is a good thing! Back in the 50s,70s and 80s there was often one main look – the mop top mods, the rock n rollers, the spiky haired punks. 

‘Style’ today is more all encompassing, freer, diverse and more expressive.

Hurts

Hurts cool 80s style

New Music 2013

New Albums – Biffy Clyro (Opposites), NOAH & THE Whale (Heart of Nowhere),

Laura Marling (Once I Was an Eagle), James Blake (Overgrown), Bonny Rait (Slipstream), Foals (Holy Fire),

Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse rocked the SECC

His father was a writer and he told Neil – ‘Write every day, you never know what will come out.’
Young is a kicks ass, no holes barred, tells it like it is singer songwriter. He has travelled along many long highways, sometimes in vintage cars, and he remembers which car he was driving to record each of his albums. Neil left Canada in his early twenties to find that LA sound. He had already met Steven Stills.   

The opening salvo for the SECC concert was full of colour and drama and set a scene that forecast a quality concert; when men in white coats assembled the stage with very large speakers and a solo microphone and finished with pipers playing Flower of Scotland. Young enjoys staging and film and for each of his tours chooses a theatrical scene.
From the start Young, guitarist Frank ‘Poncho’ Sampedro and bassist Billy Talbot were hunched together in a communal heavy guitar rock. The Crazy Horse players sound is strongly guitar based and they performed some overly long tracks on this Alchemy Tour. 

Young performed new material such as ‘Walk Like a Giant’ from his latest album Psychedelic Pill - which was 20 minutes long and was played like a storm cloud full of charged disturbed energy, along with the added drama of special effects and the song finished with a releasing rain. .
Well received songs were Cinnamon Girl (1969) and long time favourite Heart of Gold, when Young took to the stage with only an acoustic guitar. This went down particularly well with the large SECC audience but was really the first opportunity to sing along or to relive memories. Then he sang a sensitive version of Dylan’s Blowin in the Wind. Young enjoys older instruments of character and he took to a honky tonk piano to sing his lovely new song Singer Without A Song. After this too short interlude it was back to the Crazy Horse rock. The band closed the set with the thunderous guitars of ‘Hey Hey My My’. 

There was a lot of synergy and energy in the bands playing. I read that when Neil was playing guitar with his band Buffalo Springfield, a reviewer noted his guitar playing had a special charge and flow to it. He took this to heart with his future music and live playing. 

American icon Young has a distinctive tenor voice and his back catalogue of songs includes some of the most memorable songs from the early 70s. I was disappointed not to hear After the Gold Rush and Helpless. For me it is always about the song. When Young has an array of songs to choose from, I’m not sure I understand the one token classic. I guess it depends what we expect of our musicals heroes.
Set List: Love and Only Love, Powderfinger, Walk Like a Giant, Ramada Inn, Hole in the Sky, Heart of Gold, Blowin In the Wind, Singer Without a Song, Mr Soul, Cinnamon Girl, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Fuckin Up, Hey Hey my My.

It is good he is still rocking in the free world, and I understand Neil wants to keep things fresh and moving on, but concerts by other living legend veterans of the 70s have their back catalogue of songs as the back bone of the gig, with newer material interspersed over them. Some of the band’s material was limited and repetitive. Sorry Neil!

Young on his band Crazy Horse – “We want to show our audience who we are. It is a very special thing we have, the way we play off of one another, the real deal. But it all comes from the songs, the images in our minds and hearts, the lyrics and the way they resonate. That is the fuel in the band. That is what will make the music relevant.”  

Some of his best loved songs – Heart of Gold, Helpless, After the Goldrush, Living in the Free World, Old Man.

I have recently been reading Neil Young’s autobiography Waging Heavy Peace which is a great read and he is an engaging and colourful character. 
Some Quotes – ‘In my life I've had various health threats, polio, seizures, a brain aneurism. None of these things has really changed me much, although it is hard to say for sure. These are vents that are part of my life, they make me who I am. I am thankful for them. They are scary.’ 

‘It is lonely job out there performing. I like it when the sound is right and the audience is into it and the music is relevant. If one of those elements is missing you are screwed. You are killing yourself slowly.  You need all three elements.’

 

Young is known for his clawhammer acoustic guitar playing and for music that is sometimes ragged and sometimes melodic.  Best known for folk and country rock and electric hard rock with his band Crazy Horse.  Young is an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and the welfare of small farmers, having co-founded Farm Aid in 1985.

*I was excited for taking photos at the gig – but these days many American artists are severely limiting access for the photographers. The concert was being filmed also but not with cameras on a moving track. We were limited to the side of the pit behind a red line. On top of this Neil’s face was half shaded with his hat and surprisingly the light was poor quality too. A concern for photography is that filming is taking over and stills are being used yet how creative is the filming. If I look at the best quality photography they far outshine grab stills.