A Disney fairytale week! First the 'beautiful princess' Kate Middleton in a dress of ivory lace married her 'handsome prince' (Prince William) who wore an Irish Guard uniform with a scarlet jacket and blue sash.
On Monday the 'baddie' - one of the most evil men of our times - was killed in a raid on his hide-out.
I saw a post about his death on a YouTube clip and I thought at first it was simply a joke! On checking the BBC Breaking news, I found this was actually real! In fact the American security team had watched the raid in real time in the White House Situation Room.
I highly recommend watching this program on BBC iPlayer.
Martin had 36 no 1's with the Beatles in the 60s..
(In my other life I am a record producer!) He says that The Beatles didn't sound so great at first either... :
A very well made docmentary and such an interesting character! I especially liked his comment that when the Beatles first arrived in the studio! 'Their music was rubbish - but importantly they made you feel good and they had charisma.'
Also his reference to Degas' quote about his art "It's not what you see, it's about what we make others see", in comparing this with what he hoped to achieve in sound. He hoped to 'paint' in the studio rather than to simply make a copy.
The program was followed by The Beatles 'A Hard Days Night', so many memories......! P Keightley
George Martin is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he owes to his work as producer of all but one of 'The Beatles' original albums. He is considered one of the greatest record producers of all time, with 23 number one hits, an unmatched achievement. George Martin, recognised as one of music's most versatile and imaginative talents, entered the music industry in 1950 after studying at the Guildhall School of Music and playing the oboe professionally in London. He began recording classical music specialising in the Baroque period. His later experience with jazz and pop led to his appointment as Head of the Parlophone in the EMI Group in 1955.
As a producer he has been responsible for bringing a host of artists into recording studios particularly in the humorous field with brilliant performers such as Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Flanders and Swann and the 'Beyond the Fringe' team - Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. He has also worked with jazz artists Cleo Laine, John Dankworth, Humphrey Lyttelton and Stan Getz.
I first saw the Low Anthem perform at the Old Fruitmarket during Celtic Connection Festival Glasgow 2010 - where they played their many instruments, performed their melodic songs, and sang their finely-tuned harmonies with a contemporary American country feel. Their sound ranged from subtle soft lows to a big crashing wall of sound, and lead singer Ben Miller took his voice from sweet to harsh. So tonight I expected another great concert and I was not disappointed.
The concert was held in the OranMorChurch auditorium with it's coloured stain glass and high ceiling gallery. American band 'Head an Heart' were the support and they had fun as they performed their strong harmonies and quality songs.
The Low Anthem set their stage for intimacy and arranged their instruments in a circle with an open area in the middle. I noticed that they had set a vase with 2 daffodils and a glass of Rose wine on top of a small wooden organ which gave relaxed ambience to the stage. The band began their set in a close circle around an old radio-style microphone, and with only their soothing voices and guitar they brought a hush to the crowded hall.
'Head and Heart' supported the Low Anthem at the Oran Mor Glasgow 7th April. They had fun on stage and performed strong harmonies and quality songs. More Photos on my website - http://pkimage.co.uk/
The Fraser centre offered a cosy packed setting for intimate songstress Karine.
She started her set with the lullaby 'Beoww- Beoww' (I hope this is the correct spelling, and I forgot to ask Karine for a set list) when she sat and played her small pump organ. She sang some of her better known songs 'Daisy Darling' and 'Rivers Run' and also a song set to an Edwin Morgan's poem called 'The Good Year'.
Between songs she chatted about her song-writing collaborations, including her involvement with the Shropshire 'Darwin Project'. After which she sang a poignant song entitled 'We're Already Leaving' which was about the loss of Darwin's daughter Emma. Other songs included 'Tinsel Show' (The Eyes of the Ages), 'Resolution Row', and 'Sorry Won't Wish It All Away'.
Karine has a warm, sincere personality and a huge smile! Inge Thomson provided perfect backing on accordion and vocals, along with Karine's brother Steven Polwart on guitar and backing vocals. Her songs provided many moving thoughtful moments that offered both comfort and hopes. Karine has a philosophy degree and she spent six years working for the 'Scottish Women's Aid' movement on issues such as domestic and child abuse and young people's rights and these experiences have influenced her songwriting
Paul Malcolm provided good support.
Karine Polwart is a Scottish singer song writer. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel. She has been recognised for her solo career, winning three awards at the BBC Folk Awards in 2005, and was previously a member of Malinky and Battlefield Band.
I have heard Marra twice at the Mugdock theatre, which with the grand piano off to the left is simply the perfect venue for him, and I list his concerts there as some of my favourite ever small venue gigs. The first thing that I noticed at his gigs was how frail he looked, but then when he performed he surprised me with this deep gravelly voice.
With endearing heart and ironic dry wit Marra led us through his medley of songs which were brim full of unforgettable characters and carefully crafted images of places and time. Oddly he props his keyboards on top of a small ironing board. He has a strong character for photos with his humour and expressive eyes.
In March the Milngavie Fraser centre was packed for his gig for the Milngavie Folk Club.
Marra played piano and guitar during his set here and he sang songs with grand titles such as - 'If Dundee was Africa', 'Bob Dylan's Visit to Embra', 'Grace Kelly's Visit to Dundee,' 'Muggie Shaw', 'Freda Kohl's Visit to the Tay Bridge Bar', and 'Lonesome Death of Francis Clarke'. In 'Schenectady Calling', Marra paid tribute to Peerie Willie Johnson, a noted folk musician from Shetland. He finished his set with a Burns song ' Green Grow the Rashes O' and an encore song 'Mary Skeffington' by the late Gerry Rafferty of Paisley.
Marra's songs often mix Scottish places with a fantasy of American celebrity. He writes songs about such diverse topics as football, ladies choirs, and American idols! At times his stories and songs are highly amusing, while other songs are thoughtful and touching. He derives his musical influences from the likes of Tom Waits, Randy Newman and Bob Dylan. His music has grown out of both his Dundee Scottish roots and his American musical tastes, and he calls his sound 'groovy traditional music.'
Although predominantly known as a songwriter, Marra has worked extensively in theatre, radio and television. Marra's children, Alice Marra Clark and Matthew Marra, are are members of The Hazy Janes. Marra was in a band called Skeets Boliver in the late seventies.
'There's Love in this world for everyone, Every precious smile you make, Be sure love is out there looking for you.' Michael Marra
Respected Scottish crime writer Christopher introduced an evening of song with his long time friend - Londoner Billy Franks, from Fulham. Christopher Brookmyre is a Scottish novelist whose novels mix comedy, politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan Noir author. He was at the 2010 Edinburgh Book festival to discuss his new book 'Pand aemonium' which mixed science fiction and horror.
Billy introduced Christopher as his most 'generous and supportive fan' for over the past twenty years.
I've been following music many years - and very closely the past few. It never ceases to amaze me...! Puzzling over why some artists may receive 'huge critical acclaim' yet not the publics endorsement - while others the reverse! I attend many big event festivals here in Scotland - as well as live gigs by both major artists and up-and-coming artists in Glasgow mostly. .I recently attended Celtic Connections Glasgow, which attracts people worldwide. I try to make the Danny Kyle open mic stage for new artists and the festival club. I've been to many rock, folk and pop gigs here the past years.
I watched X Factor a bit last season.. and what is there to say! It seems a very limited here-today-gone- tomorrow- route' into the industry. I am just listening to Adele's soul voice singing Dylan's 'To Make You Feel My Love'- who says his songs are depressing (!) they need to listen.... I love Adele's new song 'Someone Like You' and her new album is full of co-writers on both lyrics and music. Yet other young artists I follow can get criticised if they haven't written their entire album? Adele came through the BritSchool of music in Guildford - and I've seen her perform on Jools Holland several times - and it occurred to me there is a ton load of 'politics' in music.
*There are several main routes into the industry.
I Popstar. Firstly the reality route via X Factor, Idol or other tv shows. Leona Lewis, Britney, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson. All hghly Americanised rather artificial shows, where the performers are tightly controlled and artists are signed to major labels and it all feels highly superficial. Artists who come top on these shows are marketed usually to a clear niche market - 10 year old girls often - or the mature granny. It's the gran and granddaughter audience! (the boys are too busy playing video games!)
IIPop Label Route: Justin Beiber, Clare Maguire, Ellie Goulding. Labels pick up young artists via A & R men and online networks. They are then 'groomed' over several years for hit 'stardom' via music magazines and by working with LA writing teams. Sometimes for the huge Tweenie' market - the 10 to 12 year old girls. Image is also carefully developed.
IIIMusicCollege. Amy Whinehouse, Adele, Keane, Newton Faulkner. Through the Jools Holland route and via music college. In particular the Brit School at Guildford and a lot of networking goes on between these colleges and the music industry itself. While of course music colleges get invited to the reality shows too. Clearly a lot of coaching does on here also, but in a more sophisticated and expensive way.
V Folk Festivals. Julie Fowlis, Cara Dillon, Kris Drever, Karine Polwart, Thirdly the folk music scene, where young artists can perform 'Open Mic' stages and the many low key festivals. The folk artists tend to use smaller labels. With the live gigs bringing more revenues in music these days, this must be good news for the folk scene- although there is still less money in folk as it is often older tunes compare to the royalties in pop/rock music.
VII Publishing. Many iconic artists have broken in this way - Elton, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, more. Oddly I was thinking many are piano players and the piano is possibly the best instrument for songwriting on. Keys can also be awkward for a band onstage though, when the keyboards can't moved be around in confined spaces and also be often a block between artist and their audience - compared to the favourite guitar. Publishing deals give artists the much needed time to develop their writing and also performing skills.
V Online. New route. Some artists build a following online through one of the networking sites - simply by putting up a few songs.
VII Rock band. Radiohead, U2, Coldplay, more. Lastly the Rock band route via NME or Q tours etc. Things start through small venue gigging - the 'Breaking' stages at festivals, where the A & R men hang about eyeing up the new talent for the next big thing. Most indie bands prefer to sign to indie labels where they are allowed more creative freedoms. In today's music world there is now no longer room for mistakes in the public eye the way there used to be, even back in the 90s. Once you are 'online' on Youtube or myspace etc. it is make or break - and things have to be exactly right with image and sound.
And who are the reviewers (myself included) and judges of music? My impression is that some follow what is considered 'cool' 'sophisticated' or 'hip' regardless. I try to ignore the 'hype' - and certainly there are many artists out there who are 'pushed' at us. I've studied and listened to music all my life (and I'm not so young, I have lived through the decades of pop) and I play and write myself. I try to follow my heart in the first instance and I'm a big fan of what works live.
As the genres are blurring more and more - I often wonder as I watch rocky folk bands at Celtic or pop singer songwriters what is the 'real' difference between these routes into the music business. Often it is one of perceptions - and the Jools Holland and rock band routes appear to lead to a wider ranging and longer-term audience.
PS Sometimes in art the slate need to be swept clean, in order to make way for the new. Towards the end of the seventies we had 'over-stylized glam-rock' - and along came punk in the early eighties to strip things back to basics and renew things.
It's hard to explain in mere words the feelings this wide and encapsulating music generates - that reverberates and expands and contracts and ebbs, send shivers or vibrates you soul.
Yorke has a voice that grabs your attention as it surrounds the bass, drums, guitar, and piano. It's a fluid instrument that can be scary at times, exhilarating, escapist, mesmerising, unpredictable... In fact the opposite of your average MOR sounds! So beware! Their music is not for the weak of heart - but rather those who wish the journey to challenge, surprise and inform their senses.. If I feel full of unresolved conflicts or confusions - their music heals. I'll never forget how I felt at their gig in Edinburgh 2006 - and to appreciate this band you need to hear them live. It was a warm summer August night during the festival and it felt as if their music floated us upwards into the air, the way the wind might surge and groan... Well maybe it was simply the crowds all singing along to their songs - and jumping and waving their arms in the air or was it rather Colin Greenwood's bass thudding upwards through the grass under our feet.
In February they surprised us all, yet again, with a new album- with none of the usual pre-album build up or single releases (how wonderful!) - yet everyone wants to listen. It all reminded me of the Beatles in their day- when everyone simply couldn't wait to get their hands on their next album.
On watching the new 'Lotus flower' video - I was struck how closely photography, dance and music can be as one. One of the joys of Radiohead is knowing you'll discover more and enjoy the album more over time. Radiohead released their eighth album, The King of Limbs (2011) in a variety of formats.
I have been taking photos of 'Pearl and the Puppets' (aka Katie Sutherland from Kirkintolloch) the past 2 years at Glasgow venues King Tuts, Oran Mor, Classic Grande etc. She has such expressive eyes, that are full of mischief. I noticed immediately her soft engrossing vocals and catchy acoustic pop tunes. She is signed to the Universal Republic and her song 'Because I Do' was featured in a Vodafone ad in Australia, and 'Make Me Smile' in a ad in the USA.
And a PS - PLAN B! I heard this song on the radio today that sounded like 'Tamala Motown', and I wondered was it 'Smokey Robinson' - cool voice, those funky bass lines etc. - then I hear it is 'Plan B's' new single 'Writings on the Wall' - isn't it odd how sometimes straight imitating works!
Also ELBOW. I was just reading about 'Elbow''s new album 'Build a Rocket Boys'. I saw them supporting Snowpatrol in Edinburgh in 2006 - and thought it was hard for any band to follow them! After 20 years in the business Elbow won the Mercury Prize in 2008 for their album 'The Seldom Seen Kid' (ahead of Radiohead's In Rainbows)... 'Build a Rocket Boys' is released 7th March 2011.
Feelin' Nostalgic....
Many moons ago in my school days in Edinburgh - Mr Rod Stewart was played constantly - the one song that was great to sing was 'Reason to Believe' written by folk singer Tim Hardin (along with B side 'Maggie May' of course) . Ah lovin' the joys of Youtube...! Even if I've never seen the old crooner live I can watch him live there. He's not one of my favourites to listen to his albums - but he sure did record some singable songs.
Reason To Believe - sung by Rod Stewart :
This was written by Folk singer Tim Hardin, who originally recorded it in 1965. Hardin wrote some popular songs and was a very influential musician, but he had severe drug problems and died in December, 1980 at age 39. His death came shortly after John Lennon's. Stewart released this again in 1993 as a live, acoustic version for MTV Unplugged. Appearing on the album Unplugged... and Seated, this is the version that charted. Stewart's original version was released as a single with "Maggie May" as the B-side. Disc Jockeys liked the flip side better and played "Maggie May" instead, which became the hit. The 1993 Unplugged version was recorded at an MTV special with Ron Wood, who played with Stewart in The Faces. It was the first time they performed it together in 22 years. Stewart commented that his wife at the time, Rachel Hunter, was 1 year-old when it was first released.
T IN PARK- tickets on sale Friday 25th February 2011. Headliners, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Artic Monkeys, (plus Tom Jones, White Lies, Noah and the Whale, Hurts, Bright Eyes, more )
Late February - and Awards ceremonies time yet again began with the Baftas and the lavish Brits this week. Often I have to admit to complete boredom with the samey brash American dancing girls, and wonder is this awards ceremony really about music at all.. On the other hand perhaps awards help us to reflect on the past year. My year always starts with Celtic in January. Then I enjoyed Mumford and Laura Marling in March 2010. I noted that Mumford had a terrific gig response at the summer festivals - and the packed audience at the ABC was certainly bouncing through their set.
BRITS 2011: Mumford won - British Album, Laura Marling - British Female Solo Artist, Plan B - British Male Solo Artist, Take That - British Group. Arcade Fire - International Album. The lovely Adele sang her 'Someone Like You' - I am sort of impressed this year. The Brits
I even wrote up a little poem (!) last April to - Mumford and Marling in Mombai
Along with
Winston, Ben and Ted Twane,
Our English countrymen,
We find India.
A place of exhilarating colours, confusions and contradictions..
We perform at Bandra Fort
Where the seats are grass steps.
We crossed those lines, sought
Refuge in high stars and strange crowded pathways.
I saw Adele sing this on Jools Holland last year - it gave me the chills. Give me beautiful simple piano and voice any day. Her new album '21' is predicted to be massive this year.
Also you can now pre-order RADIOHEAD's new album 'King of limbs'direct from their website! Looks like 2011 is another good year for music. http://www.thekingoflimbs.com/
QUOTE Radiohead: What have twitter and facebook ever done for us? Obviously, keeping in touch with everyone but I have to say I have become increasingly excited over the last 3 months about the possibilities of this form of communication. Yes I am very slow out of the blocks. It's in the arena of public protest that it seems twitter and facebook are increasingly the means by which popular movements throughout the world are able to come together and mobilise.
I have been so moved by the peaceful Jasmine revolution in Tunisia; The anti-Government demonstrations centred on Tahrir Square in Cairo.. Social networking has helped facilitate the freedom to assemble peacefully and express oneself. Equally in Britain it seems to be having a similar effect in helping essential protests being organised by students and groups such as UK Uncut against the Government's ill thought out cuts ... Well done those people!
I first heard Gaughan play
in the 70s in Edinburgh
when I was dating a folk guitarist who raved about how incredible and very
distinctive his playing was. Many years later (after being in America for
nearly ten years and having three children) I heard Dick again at Milngavie
Folk club in 2007, and this was an intimate gig where his chat between songs
was worth going for alone.
In his own
so distinctive style, Gaughan hammers and speaks with his acoustic guitar. He
performs traditional folk tunes, songs by Robert Burns and Brian McNeill,
favourite cover songs and his own songs. Some very few artists have the ability
to transport and transcend the moment, and Dick does so with forceful guitar
playing and classic traditional songs with a strong message and with a deep
expressive, growling voice.
He doesn't
play the predictable smoothed-over sugar box 'tartan shortbread' songs - and he
may not be to every ones taste. Gaughan is plain spoken and holds firmly held
beliefs on the rights of everyman. At one time he took past folk stories and
songs from the library archives and put new melodies to them. You come away
from his gigs questioning but ultimately renewed in the faith of our shared
humanity. Dick Gaughan is a Scottish living legend, and he usually performs
every January at 'Celtic Connections' Glasgow.
Recommended
Songs - Both Sides the Tweed. Handful of
Earth, Parcel of Rogues.
