I'm writing this with the echoes of not just one, but TWO live gigs I saw this week still ringing in my ears. I am so rock and roll.
On Tuesday it was Elbow at the 02 - a proper stadium gig with tens of thousands of other people. Then on Friday I went to Koko in Camden, to see Paul Heaton (ex-Belle and Sebastian). I hadn't been to Koko before, but it might just be my new favourite music venue. Both nights were ace - no time to do either one of them justice at the moment - and made me think what I always think when I see live music, which is "I really ought to get out and see more live music."
I've played Elbow on a Sunday night before, but these are Villagers, who were the support act:
And here's some Paul Heaton (there's an interview first, but he does eventually sing):
I genuinely thought, until about two minutes ago, that this song was called "life of a cow", which is what I was singing along to all of the choruses on Friday night. See? I'm TOTALLY rock and roll.
Showing posts with label Sunday night music club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunday night music club. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Monday, 21 March 2011
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Sunday Night Music Club
I went out and bought an album on the day it was released last week. The last time I did that, I was sixteen and it was a cassette tape.*
This one, which was on a boring old CD, was Build a Rocket Boys! - the new Elbow album. I can't stop listening to it and when I'm not literally listening to it there are bits of it going round and round my head. It's properly, properly good.
This is one of the tracks:
And this is another one, with a few words from lead singer Guy Garvey at the start.
As if having THAT voice wasn't enough, Guy Garvey writes the most beautiful lyrics; his songs are full of lines and fragments which are perfect in their simplicity and stop me in my tracks every single time I hear them. I know it's a terrible cliche to describe song lyrics as poetry, but....well, this really is poetry. Pure and simple.
*The Other Side by a group called 1927,since you ask. They're a band you're likely to never have heard of unless you are female, you fall into a very specific (and quite narrow) age group and you spent your teenage years in Australia. This was their difficult second album, released after their debut.....Ish which sold by the bucketload. ; My friends and I were obsessed with 1927, or more to the point with lead singer Eric Weideman. He's on the comeback trail, apparently; but is now Erik-with-a-k not Eric-with-a-c and a completely different band, who are still called 1927. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
This one, which was on a boring old CD, was Build a Rocket Boys! - the new Elbow album. I can't stop listening to it and when I'm not literally listening to it there are bits of it going round and round my head. It's properly, properly good.
This is one of the tracks:
And this is another one, with a few words from lead singer Guy Garvey at the start.
As if having THAT voice wasn't enough, Guy Garvey writes the most beautiful lyrics; his songs are full of lines and fragments which are perfect in their simplicity and stop me in my tracks every single time I hear them. I know it's a terrible cliche to describe song lyrics as poetry, but....well, this really is poetry. Pure and simple.
*The Other Side by a group called 1927,since you ask. They're a band you're likely to never have heard of unless you are female, you fall into a very specific (and quite narrow) age group and you spent your teenage years in Australia. This was their difficult second album, released after their debut.....Ish which sold by the bucketload. ; My friends and I were obsessed with 1927, or more to the point with lead singer Eric Weideman. He's on the comeback trail, apparently; but is now Erik-with-a-k not Eric-with-a-c and a completely different band, who are still called 1927. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Sunday Night Music Club
You know those times when you really, really really want Wikipedia to be true? This is one of those times.
John Phillip Sousa is best known for composing marches and if you've ever heard a marching band, or seen practically any film ever set in an American high school or watched the opening credits of Monty Python's Flying Circus then you've heard a Sousa march.
(You might think if you've watched Bridge on the River Kwai then you've heard a Sousa march, but the march you are thinking of, which is called the Colonel Bogey March (or occasionally, 'that one about Hitler's balls') isn't actually one of his. That was written by a different King of Marches, Kenneth J. Alford (real name Kenneth J. Rickets; it doesn't take a genius to work out why he changed it). Since we're talking about the Colonel Bogey March I may as well mention it's the only march I know of which was a) composed during a golf game and b) named after an imaginary person.
But both of those things are by the by, because Sousa looks like this
which is exactly what I expected to him to look like. The moustache, particularly.
His father sent him off to the marines at thirteen to stop him from joining the circus, then he left the marines and joined the pit orchestra at a theatre (definitely the most fun kind of orchestra to play in), where he learned to conduct, and then he went back to the Marines to lead their band.
After that he started his own marching band which ran for forty years and marched in a total of eight parades. One of the parades was in Paris and the band also toured Australia. (This was a much better story until I realised that, while reading about the band I missed the line about them playing 15,632 sitting down concerts also. For a while I genuinely thought they'd performed once every five years, and managed to turn two of those performances into overseas jollies.)
He wrote a ton of marches (what's a better collective noun - a stampede maybe?) and also a bunch of operettas, most of which had propera opera sounding names like El Capitan or The Smugglers, and one which was called Chris and the Wonderful Lamp, which sounds more like a children's story. Also several novels, and a memoir called (rather pleasingly) Marching Along.
He was around when commercial sound recording was starting to develop, and wasn't a fan of the newfangled technology. "These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country" he said, and I suppose there are a few people around today who'd agree with him about the state of the recording industry. Fewer, I imagine, who'd agree with his prediciton that recorded music would lead to the eventual elimination of vocal chords via the process of evolution. Although maybe that's all part of Simon Cowell's grand plan.
He was also a keen trap-shooter. A line from his Trapshooting Hall of Fame biography:
John Phillip Sousa is best known for composing marches and if you've ever heard a marching band, or seen practically any film ever set in an American high school or watched the opening credits of Monty Python's Flying Circus then you've heard a Sousa march.
(You might think if you've watched Bridge on the River Kwai then you've heard a Sousa march, but the march you are thinking of, which is called the Colonel Bogey March (or occasionally, 'that one about Hitler's balls') isn't actually one of his. That was written by a different King of Marches, Kenneth J. Alford (real name Kenneth J. Rickets; it doesn't take a genius to work out why he changed it). Since we're talking about the Colonel Bogey March I may as well mention it's the only march I know of which was a) composed during a golf game and b) named after an imaginary person.
But both of those things are by the by, because Sousa looks like this
which is exactly what I expected to him to look like. The moustache, particularly.
His father sent him off to the marines at thirteen to stop him from joining the circus, then he left the marines and joined the pit orchestra at a theatre (definitely the most fun kind of orchestra to play in), where he learned to conduct, and then he went back to the Marines to lead their band.
After that he started his own marching band which ran for forty years and marched in a total of eight parades. One of the parades was in Paris and the band also toured Australia. (This was a much better story until I realised that, while reading about the band I missed the line about them playing 15,632 sitting down concerts also. For a while I genuinely thought they'd performed once every five years, and managed to turn two of those performances into overseas jollies.)
He wrote a ton of marches (what's a better collective noun - a stampede maybe?) and also a bunch of operettas, most of which had propera opera sounding names like El Capitan or The Smugglers, and one which was called Chris and the Wonderful Lamp, which sounds more like a children's story. Also several novels, and a memoir called (rather pleasingly) Marching Along.
He was around when commercial sound recording was starting to develop, and wasn't a fan of the newfangled technology. "These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country" he said, and I suppose there are a few people around today who'd agree with him about the state of the recording industry. Fewer, I imagine, who'd agree with his prediciton that recorded music would lead to the eventual elimination of vocal chords via the process of evolution. Although maybe that's all part of Simon Cowell's grand plan.
He was also a keen trap-shooter. A line from his Trapshooting Hall of Fame biography:
"Let me say that just about the sweetest music to me is when I call, ‘pull,’ the old gun barks, and the referee in perfect key announces, ‘dead’."This clip is The Liberty Bell, one of his most well-known marches, but performed in a way you've probably not heard it played before: on an accoustic guitar. It's Sunday night, after all. Let's not go too crazy.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Sunday Night Music Club - an experiment.....
In an exciting development, I've worked out how to set up automated blog-posts. So even though I'm writing this post on Sunday morning, you won't get to read it until later on tonight, which is when it would make more sense to read it but is also when I'm much more likely to forget to publish it.
Isn't technology marvellous?
(Oh yes, the song. It's a cover version. It's great, and I say that as someone who loved the orginal.)
Isn't technology marvellous?
(Oh yes, the song. It's a cover version. It's great, and I say that as someone who loved the orginal.)
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Sunday Night Music Club
I was spoiled for choice tonight. So spoiled for choice, I very nearly picked something else. But like the jackdaws, that something else will just have to wait.
This band are, in my opinion, criminally underrated. Yes, they are "modern". Yes, they are slightly mass-produced and yes, they are (or at least they were when they recorded this) barely post-adolescent, testosterone fuelled, pimply faced boys; making them - let's face it - just about the most undesirable creatures on the planet. * But you know what? They sing a darn good pop-song. I'm not afraid to admit it - I love them. Even though I'm probably not supposed to, what with being old enough to be their mother and all.
If jangly guitars, catchy vocals and sunny, innocent lyrics are your thing, then you will love this. If not, then more fool you.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present for your enjoyment: McFly.
If you ever wanted to woo me with music (I know you've been wondering), this song would probably do it. They also do an excellent cover version, as per here (Town Called Malice) and here (Queen's "Don't stop Me Now") and here (beatles)
* Unless of course you're a barely post-adolescent, testosterone loving pimply faced (or otherwise) girl.
This band are, in my opinion, criminally underrated. Yes, they are "modern". Yes, they are slightly mass-produced and yes, they are (or at least they were when they recorded this) barely post-adolescent, testosterone fuelled, pimply faced boys; making them - let's face it - just about the most undesirable creatures on the planet. * But you know what? They sing a darn good pop-song. I'm not afraid to admit it - I love them. Even though I'm probably not supposed to, what with being old enough to be their mother and all.
If jangly guitars, catchy vocals and sunny, innocent lyrics are your thing, then you will love this. If not, then more fool you.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present for your enjoyment: McFly.
If you ever wanted to woo me with music (I know you've been wondering), this song would probably do it. They also do an excellent cover version, as per here (Town Called Malice) and here (Queen's "Don't stop Me Now") and here (beatles)
* Unless of course you're a barely post-adolescent, testosterone loving pimply faced (or otherwise) girl.
Sunday, 13 February 2011
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Sunday Night Music Club
In the summer of 2002 I spent a month driving from New York to Los Angeles, through the (mainly) southern states of the USA
It's a trip I'd highly recommend. We saw, among other things, the Blue Ridge mountains (which made this John Denver fan-girl particularly happy) and cowboys and the White House and cave paintings and Graceland and sea-lions and deserts and beaches and the Mississippi river, and no bears. (Plenty of warning signs about bears, though.) We line danced in Nashville and sang karaoke in New Orleans and sky dived in Las Vegas, and almost drowned in a place I can't remember when our tents got blown away in a massive thunderstorm. Oh, and our van broke down in Death Valley. Twice.
From Nashville to Memphis to New Orleans, to others, this song was playing EVERYWHERE. Irritatingly, it was never released on an album which means it's virtually impossible to get hold of. Which is a shame, because I think it's pretty ace. And after two seconds of listening to it, I'm back in that white van, trundling along an American highway, wondering what adventure will come next.
It's a trip I'd highly recommend. We saw, among other things, the Blue Ridge mountains (which made this John Denver fan-girl particularly happy) and cowboys and the White House and cave paintings and Graceland and sea-lions and deserts and beaches and the Mississippi river, and no bears. (Plenty of warning signs about bears, though.) We line danced in Nashville and sang karaoke in New Orleans and sky dived in Las Vegas, and almost drowned in a place I can't remember when our tents got blown away in a massive thunderstorm. Oh, and our van broke down in Death Valley. Twice.
From Nashville to Memphis to New Orleans, to others, this song was playing EVERYWHERE. Irritatingly, it was never released on an album which means it's virtually impossible to get hold of. Which is a shame, because I think it's pretty ace. And after two seconds of listening to it, I'm back in that white van, trundling along an American highway, wondering what adventure will come next.
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Sunday Night Music Club
I am excited about this. Properly properly excited.
I turned on the telly when I got in this evening, and guess what I found? Flight of the Conchords. Some of the Glee cast. In THE SAME EPISODE of The Simpsons. I am pretty sure that I have died and gone to TV heaven.
For the un-initiated, Flight of the Conchords are a musical comedy double act who come from New Zealand, make a TV show set in New York and are just about the best thing sinced sliced bananas. In fact, I'm astounded that I haven't done a FOTC themed SNMC club before now. *
In The Simpsons they play two camp counsellors who work at a Performing Arts summer camp attended by Lisa. You know what the weird thing is? I spent today with a friend who I first met when we were both working as counsellors in an American summer camp. And you know what's even weirder? I was wearing (and am still wearing*) my favourite t-shirt, which looks like this:
Do you know who those people are? Do you? DO YOU? Only FLIGHT OF THE BLIMMING CONCHORDS, that's who!!!
Any-hoo, here they are:
Also exciting: according to the credits, that is Stephen actual Hawking singing. I really really hope the credits aren't lying.
* So astounded, in fact, that I'm almost starting to think that perhaps I have, and I've just forgotten that I did it. If anyone has a better memory for these things than me, or just more of an inclination to trawl through old posts and check, then knock yourself out. And please let me know.)
**Possibly not any more, by the time you are reading this. I do take it off to wash it, sometimes.
I turned on the telly when I got in this evening, and guess what I found? Flight of the Conchords. Some of the Glee cast. In THE SAME EPISODE of The Simpsons. I am pretty sure that I have died and gone to TV heaven.
For the un-initiated, Flight of the Conchords are a musical comedy double act who come from New Zealand, make a TV show set in New York and are just about the best thing sinced sliced bananas. In fact, I'm astounded that I haven't done a FOTC themed SNMC club before now. *
In The Simpsons they play two camp counsellors who work at a Performing Arts summer camp attended by Lisa. You know what the weird thing is? I spent today with a friend who I first met when we were both working as counsellors in an American summer camp. And you know what's even weirder? I was wearing (and am still wearing*) my favourite t-shirt, which looks like this:
Any-hoo, here they are:
Also exciting: according to the credits, that is Stephen actual Hawking singing. I really really hope the credits aren't lying.
* So astounded, in fact, that I'm almost starting to think that perhaps I have, and I've just forgotten that I did it. If anyone has a better memory for these things than me, or just more of an inclination to trawl through old posts and check, then knock yourself out. And please let me know.)
**Possibly not any more, by the time you are reading this. I do take it off to wash it, sometimes.
Monday, 24 January 2011
No Longer Sunday Night but Let's Just Listen To Some Nice Music Anyway Music Club
So here's the thing.
Yesterday was my friend's birthday. His birthday lunch was in Soho and on the way to the restaurant I vaguely thought about songs I might use for Sunday night Music Club when I got home.
Three courses, several bottles of wine, one pub, two gay bars , one and a half cigarettes (I don't even smoke) and a failed attempt at signing up for karaoke later, I realised two things: 1) I couldn't remember which songs I'd thought of and 2) it didn't really matter anyway because it was was already half past midnight.
If I'd been able to karaoke, what I almost definitely would have sung is this
Yesterday was my friend's birthday. His birthday lunch was in Soho and on the way to the restaurant I vaguely thought about songs I might use for Sunday night Music Club when I got home.
Three courses, several bottles of wine, one pub, two gay bars , one and a half cigarettes (I don't even smoke) and a failed attempt at signing up for karaoke later, I realised two things: 1) I couldn't remember which songs I'd thought of and 2) it didn't really matter anyway because it was was already half past midnight.
If I'd been able to karaoke, what I almost definitely would have sung is this
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Sunday Night Music Club
This is one of those sunny, cheery songs which it's impossible to listen to without smiling a bit. Just try it and see:
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Sunday Night Music Club
The good news is, after writing 9400 words this weekend my NanoWriMo project is back on track. The bad news is, after writing 9400 words this weekend, I am wrecked. Absolutely wrecked.
Just replace the word "September" in this song with the word "November", and you'll have a clue as to my mental state at the moment.
Don't get me wrong: after falling so far behind, I'm really glad to have caught up, and after this weekend there's no way in the world I'm not going to finish this thing, but PLEASE COULD SOMEBODY MAKE IT STOP?
Just replace the word "September" in this song with the word "November", and you'll have a clue as to my mental state at the moment.
Don't get me wrong: after falling so far behind, I'm really glad to have caught up, and after this weekend there's no way in the world I'm not going to finish this thing, but PLEASE COULD SOMEBODY MAKE IT STOP?
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Sunday Night Music Club
The link is tenuous, but bear with me.
I've just come home from a lovely long lunch at Artisan and Vine, one of my favourite places,in the world. It's my birthday tomorrow, and lunch was the culmination of an excellent weekend of birthday celebrations with various friends, most (all) of which involved quite a lot of wine and all of which were a lot of fun.
A friend gave me some cheese as a birthday present. Not just any cheese; it's the cheese made by Alex James from out of Blur. One reason I like Artisan and Vine so much is it's the kind of place where, when my friend said "it's her birthday and she's just been given some special cheese; would you mind if we had some bread so we can all try it?" the waiter didn't even bat an eyelid.
The cheese was ace, lunch was ace, my other presents were all ace, the whole weekend has been ace. It's been the best birthday I've had in years, and IT'S STILL NOT EVEN MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY YET. I have some seriously excellent friends.
All this means that picking a song tonight was tricky, becuase I wanted to mark the occasion in some way. I nearly picked a "getting older" song, and then I nearly picked a Blur song and then I nearly picked an "all my friends are absolutely ACE" song and then I looked up Alex James on Wikipedia and discovered he has a son called Gallileo and then I remembered this:
I've just come home from a lovely long lunch at Artisan and Vine, one of my favourite places,in the world. It's my birthday tomorrow, and lunch was the culmination of an excellent weekend of birthday celebrations with various friends, most (all) of which involved quite a lot of wine and all of which were a lot of fun.
A friend gave me some cheese as a birthday present. Not just any cheese; it's the cheese made by Alex James from out of Blur. One reason I like Artisan and Vine so much is it's the kind of place where, when my friend said "it's her birthday and she's just been given some special cheese; would you mind if we had some bread so we can all try it?" the waiter didn't even bat an eyelid.
The cheese was ace, lunch was ace, my other presents were all ace, the whole weekend has been ace. It's been the best birthday I've had in years, and IT'S STILL NOT EVEN MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY YET. I have some seriously excellent friends.
All this means that picking a song tonight was tricky, becuase I wanted to mark the occasion in some way. I nearly picked a "getting older" song, and then I nearly picked a Blur song and then I nearly picked an "all my friends are absolutely ACE" song and then I looked up Alex James on Wikipedia and discovered he has a son called Gallileo and then I remembered this:
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Sunday Night Music Club -the early edition
I'm going out for dinner later, so thought I'd slip this one in early.
Why this song now? Well, I'm listening almost exclusively to music which would have been around in Autumn 2002 at the moment, because that's when the story I'm writing is set. Basically it came down to a choice between this, Westlife and Liberty X.
You're welcome. Besides, it has that sort of melancholy Sunday night feel to it, don't you think?
Hard-core Stereophonics fans will tell you that this song was actually relased earlier than 2002 and they'd be quite right. But then I did say I'm listening to music which was *around* in Autumn 2002, and since that's when the second series of The Office was broadcast, and that series used a version (not this one) of Handbags and Gladrags as its theme-song, it was EVERYWHERE in Autumn 2002. Remember?
Why this song now? Well, I'm listening almost exclusively to music which would have been around in Autumn 2002 at the moment, because that's when the story I'm writing is set. Basically it came down to a choice between this, Westlife and Liberty X.
You're welcome. Besides, it has that sort of melancholy Sunday night feel to it, don't you think?
Hard-core Stereophonics fans will tell you that this song was actually relased earlier than 2002 and they'd be quite right. But then I did say I'm listening to music which was *around* in Autumn 2002, and since that's when the second series of The Office was broadcast, and that series used a version (not this one) of Handbags and Gladrags as its theme-song, it was EVERYWHERE in Autumn 2002. Remember?
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Sunday Night Music Club
Dark, isn't it?*
I thought tonight might be a good time for this; it's not the version I was originally planning to use, but I was so blown away by the fact that Bon Jovi have covered this particular song, I couldn't resist. Besides: it's not half bad.
*You will probably be more inclined to agree if you live in England (our clocks went back last night.) Or, anywhere else which is dark. Like in a cave or something.
I thought tonight might be a good time for this; it's not the version I was originally planning to use, but I was so blown away by the fact that Bon Jovi have covered this particular song, I couldn't resist. Besides: it's not half bad.
*You will probably be more inclined to agree if you live in England (our clocks went back last night.) Or, anywhere else which is dark. Like in a cave or something.
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