I love...

If only...

RATM's 'Killing In The Name' to beat off another SyCo Christmas number 1?

I love that thought...

Where there's rain, there's brass

Sunday July 19

My daughter Sal worships at the shrine of My Chemical Romance, Green Day, McFly and The Used. She's got me very familiar with the MCR 'Black Parade' album in particular. And I think I get it. Just as I understand her fondness for Gerard Way and all the other pale, tatooed and interesting poster boys that festoon her bedroom walls. And how she is labeled an 'Emo' by the chav kids at school. That'll be nothing to do with her predilection for black eyeliner and skinny jeans and black nail polish, then. At 15 she is well into her music and I love that she is. Just as I love that she's reached grade 5 piano, plays drums a bit, along with the Cornet. In short, my Sal rocks. And so does her band, Poynton Youth Brass Band, for whom she plays her main instrument, Tenor Horn.

It's been a journey, through the beginners' band (think strenuous focus on melodies like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star') via the intermediate band (onto more complex material like the theme to 'Pirates of the Caribbean') and now the 'senior' band which is 'proper' brass band stuff. With all those stirring sonic layers and full on volume.

As it happens, their outdoor gigs tend to be plagued by inclement weather. But none of us proud parents care much about that.

I 'threaten' her that she's going to be appearing on YouTube. But, sparing her 15 year old blushes, I don't focus on her. Her contribution to the music is enough. My Sal is adding to the mid-range textures here and I'm proud as f**k.

Moorland music

Saturday July 11

The perfect 'rehearsal and songwriting studio'. Warm breeze, babbling brook, a mile from the A635 at the foot of Black Hill.

'Black Hill Song', for acoustic guitar and female voice, took little more than an hour to write.

There was a lot to say. And the melody came easily.

Something about these moors speaks freedom from normal worldly constraints.

It always pays to listen in these spaces.

3 D's and a breakdown

Saturday June 13

D is for Delamere Forest. It's a lovely venue, packing 5,000 and good stage views wherever you are. The weather was perfect.

D is for Delphic. They rocked. Using a mix of guitar, bass, drums and various electronic boxes and keyboards. Hard, driving and danceable, they played a seamless non-stop half hour that won me over completely. I loved them. People danced...and not just because they were pissed.

D is for Doves. A moody band at the best of times, you're never quite sure what they'll be like. Typically uncommunicative and serious (albeit with the big tunes to justify being as moody and uncommunicative as they like), but not tonight.

They were having more fun than I've seen them having for several years. And the whole set was powerful, soaring and deliciously uplifting. A beautiful set delivered with passion and pizazz. And this time they played The Cedar Room. It was the first encore and gave me wet eyes, just like the time in 2006 at Manchester Apollo. How I missed that tune, last month in Leeds.

The breakdown came later, when my clutch died during the melee to escape the car park. Never mind. Rescue came, gear changing was restored. Then the M62 was closed between junctions 22 and 24, forcing a long moonlit Pennine moorland detour. A bit worrying with a potentially dodgy clutch. But I made it to bed for 3am. And I'd seen Doves at their absolute incandescent best.

 

Doves at Leeds Academy

Friday May 8

Any camera with a detachable lens is classed as 'professional' by the O2 Academy suits, so again mine was confiscated. So just for the sake of bloody mindedness I'm posting my phone pics and looking for a fixed lens camera that shoots video and gives semi-pro results. I don't love corporate rules in rock. I love Doves. I'll be seeing them at Delamere this summer too.

 

I shelter here some days

Elbow - 'Scattered Black And Whites'

From a live show recorded by a fan on May 8 2008 at Bimbo’s 365 Club, San Francisco, CA

A song, a scene, insightful and achingly resonant.

The whole show can be found on Waves And Wires here.

Been climbing trees I've skinned my knees
My hands are black the sun is going down
She scruffs my hair in the kitchen steam
She's listening to the dream I weaved today
Crosswords through the bathroom door
While someone sings the theme tune to the news
And my sister buzzes through the room leaving perfume in the air
And that's what triggered this.
I come back here from time to time
I shelter here some days.

A high-back chair. He sits and stares
A thousand yards and whistles
Marching-band (Boom-ching)
Kneeling by and speaking up
He reaches out and I take a
massive hand. Disjointed tales
That flit between short trousers
And a full dress uniform
And he talks of people ten years
Gone like I've known them all my life
Like scattered black 'n' whites…

John Martyn - Small Hours (1978)...in memory

It hit me like a dull blow to the chest. An alert from YouTube that someone had posted a comment on my John Martyn video from his Leeds gig last June. It read simply...

RIP John.

It didn't register. Then it did. And my eyes filled up. So glad I got to see and hear him again last year. Now it's just music and video. Those of us who loved him will never get to feel him in performance again. Those of us who loved him know a deep loss. But we'll never stop listening.

From the BBC Scotland website

Songwriter Martyn dies, aged 60

Martyn won a lifetime achievement prize at last year's Radio 2 Folk Awards

Singer-songwriter John Martyn has died at the age of 60.

The folk, blues and funk artist was widely regarded as one of the most soulful and innovative singer-songwriters of his generation.

He was born in Surrey but grew up in Glasgow. He was appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours.

A statement on his website on Thursday said: "With heavy heart and an unbearable sense of loss we must announce that John died this morning."

The musican, who passed away in hospital in Ireland, has been cited as an influence by artists as varied as U2, Portishead and Eric Clapton.

He was regarded as a maverick within the music industry and battled with drugs and alcohol throughout his life.

Born Ian David McGreachy in Surrey in 1948, he spent his much of his formative years at his father's home in Glasgow following the divorce of his parents.

Folk scene

He moved to London in his late teens and became a fixture at Les Cousins - the Soho club at the centre of the city's folk scene, which also spawned the likes of Ralph McTell, Bert Jansch and Al Stewart.

He was the first white act to be signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records, and recorded his debut album, London Conversation, for £158 in 1968.

He collaborated with many musicians throughout his life, including Phil Collins, and his song May You Never was covered by many artists - including Clapton.

Many of his albums - especially Solid Air, released in 1973 - are regarded as classics.

In 2003, he had to have his right leg amputated below the knee after a cyst burst, and in his latter years he performed from a wheelchair.

He regularly performed in Scotland - a place he considered home - and appeared in concert at last year's Celtic Connections festival.

Living a little rock n roll dream

We formed a band at work to play the Xmas party company talent show in Leeds. We won and therefore Black CAP'th, as we called ourselves, ended up playing to an audience of 1500 at the former Camden Palace (now Koko) in London the following night, courtesy of our parent company, Emap Insight. The buzz as we ran out there, in the footsteps of legends like The Clash, Bowie and just about everyone you can think of from the last 30 years was deep and lasting. The bond you feel when you're locked in to a great song with other musicians is something else I love. We played well...Colin (voice), Dan (lead guitar), Ajay (rhythm guitar), John (drums) and me (bass guitar)...well enough for some in the crowd to suggest later that we'd mimed and others to recommend we stick together as a regular gigging outfit. They loved it. But not as much as we did.

 

It rocks where I work. We also made this video.

Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!

Makes the hairs stand up all over me...

It's the 'Grass ... bite me!

Tuesday December 9, Plug, Sheffield - Supergrass

They are the 'Grass, the Diamond Hoo Ha men, 3 schoolmates who formed a band that gradually crept into my record collection over time rather than arriving with the sudden shock of discovery. A true rock n roll band in the traditional sense who make great albums, don't want to change the world (though they do openly support great causes like War Child) and always leave your ears ringing. Oh yes, they are loud in the way bands were loud in the 70s and 80s. This does, sadly, mean the video I shot is actually unlistenable.

It's a low-key date in Sheffield at the end of a world tour, the only other UK date being London. So it feels like a real bonus. Christmas trees on stage, amps festooned with fairy lights and the appearance of 'bad Santa' (presumably a costumed roadie) causing mayhem among the band and throwing treats into the crowd it's a proper festive gig. And the rebel in me totally loves the way they return to encore an ear-bleeding Once In Royal David's City with ... shock, horror ... Mick Quinn and Charly Coombes smoking cigarettes. Damn those fags smelled good and for just a moment it really was 'the good old days' of rock n roll.

Another good reason to maintain my (and my Supergrass-superfan friend Annie's) track record of never missing The 'Grass.

Awww...we love em.