Great Mistakes……….. (1)

Posted on May 25th, 2010
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I loved this girl (as much as any 17 year old ‘loves’). I took her to a bar with a DJ. I got the DJ to play this song for her. She was not my girl friend afterwards………..

What did I do wrong?

I still love this.

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Vamika – The Best band You’ve Never Heard (2)

Posted on April 28th, 2010
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Well, you would not have as they have only played one gig so far with another lined up for 7th May at 9.00pm at The Pleasant Retreat in Lostock hall, Lancashire, UK.

However, they have previous. Until part way through 2009 they were Crimzon, a gigging band with a dedicated local following in this part of the country, and bloody good they were too.

My knowledge of them started a number of years ago. At that time I had a programme on a community radio station. One day a friend (Dave Sharples) sidled up and says ‘Phil, me and a couple of friends have recorded a few songs, what do you think?’

Now, the trouble with being given a home recorded CD is that they are usually crap, and you have to think of how to be polite when asked what you thought of it.

On this occasion I should have had no fears. They were good. In particular Dave had found a singer with a great voice, Amy Murrell.

Over a period of time I saw them often and had them in the studio a couple of times. During that time I saw their progress and witnessed Amy’s development and the growth of her confidence.

Then they went the way of all flesh……

Enter Vamika.

Vamika refers to the Hindu goddess Durga. Durga is a form of Devi (Hindu dieties and the relationship between them can seem quite complicated when you first investigate them). Devi is a supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having ten arms, riding a lion or a tiger, carrying weapons and a lotus flower, maintaining a meditative smile, and practicing mudras. Durga herself is said to be able to “redeem in situations of utmost distress”

Anyway, enough of the name the important thing is the music.

The band is;

AMY MURRELL Vocalist & Belly Dancer
DAVE SHARPLES Lead Guitarist
DAMIEN WELLMAN Bass Guitarist
JIM LEWIS Drummer

check them out at www.myspace.com/vamikarockband

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So What is it About Wreckless Eric?

Posted on April 16th, 2010
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Why does Wreckless Eric deserve a Facebook appreciation society any more than any musical artist?

Is it because he has a great voice, hardly. Is it because he is a great guitarist that wrings all the emotions of your soul from six metal strings? Nope. Is it simply that he is still alive, some sort of national treasure like Johnny Rotten? No, although I am very glad he is still alive, obviously.

Wreckless deserves all the recognition and plaudits available (and more) for one simple reason. He has produced a body of work worthy of recognition as one of the greatest living songwriters to come to prominence in the late 70s. He marries his words to sparse arrangements that have the energy and directness that real rock evoked, and continues to evoke, emotional and conscious responses from his audience. He writes about real life about the pain and joy, the beauty and ugliness of the human condition.

In other words he is an artist working in music and song.

Ex art student (he thought he would meet lots of girls), rejected as a Butlins‘
Redcoat (he thought that would be a way of meeting lots of girls), some time banana quality checker and packer (no girls there) he knows the human condition.

Problems with alcohol, drugs, girls, handling fame and fortune (or no fortune and more notoriety than fame) has shaped his music. From the stunning first song that demanded our attention (Whole Wide World) to Same and the magnificent 33s & 45s via Reconnez Cherie his songs have always touched and moved.

Yet, somehow, he is not an aging rock star lauded for their past with no future like so many of the heroes of that time. He remains an artist of today, still writing singing and performing.

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It’s Official (sort of) Whitney is Crap!

Posted on April 14th, 2010
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So the long wait is over.  11 years since her last concerts in the UK and The Big Houston is back.

Trouble is that the H was rubbish.  I was not there (of course) but from the reports;

15 minute costume changes

Microphone and technical problems

Out of Key

The backing singers had to sing songs

Her brother sang a song

She talked too much sang too little (but if she was out of key…)

She started sentences that trailed away into………..

Although sad, it is nice to have my prejudices reinforced.

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On This Day – Ravi is 90!

Posted on April 7th, 2010
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Ravi Shankar celebrates his 90th birthday today.

Best known by the wider western world for his connection with George Harrison and the Beatles Ravi is a master of the sitar. He has received 3 Grammys, played with Yehudi Menuhin. He is a great performer, he is also a noted composer, teacher and writer. Certainly he has done more for Indian music than any other musician.

He began as a dancer touring Europe in his brother’s dance troop and did not start to study the sitar until he was 18. Apart from his music (as if that was enough) he was awarded India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, as well as serving in the upper house of the Indian Parliament.

I have been lucky enough to visit India a few times and have witnessed various types and stiles of music and performances from formal religious ceremonies to scratch bands playing together for the joy of music which we all share. The music is complex but accessable formalised but improvised, it has a religious basis but is secular in its appeal.

If you ever get the opportunity I urge you to listen to Ravi and to Indian music in general. You will love it!

Also check out tabla music….

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Wreckless Sunk by Starship

Posted on March 25th, 2010
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I was re-reading Wreckless Eric’s great book ‘A Dysfunctional Success’. He tells of how Stiff Records decided that he could not write tunes (I beg your pardon?) and so they brought in Martin Page and Brian Fairweather to help him out. This must be for Big Smash. It was a thoroughly dispirating experience for Wreckless and the result not what he wanted……….

Anyway the Page Fairweather duo (they had matching baseball jackets with ‘Fairweather Page’ on the back – OMG) wer later responsible for “We Built This City On Rock ‘n’ Roll”.

‘Nuff Said (as Stan the Man says) they should be burnt at a stake!

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Selling My Albums!

Posted on March 23rd, 2010
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So, I still have 1,000 (ish) vinyl albums left. The other 6,000 were sold some years ago owing to a financial crisis (not on the scale of the recent monetary melt down, but not far short on a personal level). The man who bought them was very nice about it, very sympathetic, but at the price he paid he could afford to be. He almost broke his trousers trying getting to get the cash out of his pocket quickly so that I would not change my mind.

Anyway, I have not played them since we moved 7 years ago. Apparently, there wasn’t any ‘room’ for the deck as well as my CDs, amp, tuner, CD player (women have no idea about the importance of men’s stuff). I decided to sell them on Amazon (much better prices than eBay). I ordered the LP mailers began sorting them, looking at the Record Collector price guide, so much good news (I had no idea how much some crap LPs are worth!)

It seemed only fair that I should play them one last time before I listed them so that I could judge the quality, you understand. Also, Jane was going to be out for a few hours……

Out came the deck, with a new cartridge. I hooked it up to my trusy NAD amp and played the first disc from the box.

It was amazing.

I had forgotten how warm vinyl sounds. The depth, the brightness. When CDs were new we marvelled at the technology. So much music on such a little thing. 70 odd minutes on a CD only 45 on an LP, and easier to store, they had to be good. But, we forgot (at least most people did, of whom I was one) that vinyl sounds better. The record companies were only too delighted to sell their back catalogue again. Reissued first as ‘the first time on CD’, then as ‘re-mastered’ then as ‘the original mix’. And we were all seduced.

So, the deck now stays (well, Jane and I will have discussions but over my dead body….) and the albums stay.

Anyone want to buy 200 LP mailers?

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The Worst Best Albums – 1 Rumours (Fleetwood Mac)

Posted on March 10th, 2010
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One in a short series covering well known and popular albums that I can not stand……..

    What is wrong with Rumours ?

The first thing is that it is not Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood was and always will be the band with Peter Green, not a band without the man with the golden guitar. Yes, he was off somewhere on planet Green but to continue the band without him was like the Stones without Brian Jones (OK, like the Stones without Keef).

Something else I really, I mean really, disliked about this version of Mac was that they were so smug. Smugger than the smuggiest thing in the world. smugger than a cat that had all the cream and then found even more cream. I thought that they were a bit full of themselves……

As you will remember, Green was in Mayall’s Blues Breakers having replace Clapton. Mayall gave Green some time in a recording studio as a gift and with Fleetwood and McVie (who were also in the Blues Breakers) he recorded 5 songs and Fleetwood Mac were formed. They were a blues rock band. They were supberb.

With Rumours Mac placed themselves firmly at the forefront of soft rock. Soft rock, rock with a pretty face, tea and cumpet rock, rock without attitude. That is their main crime against rock.

Those, very personal objections aside what else is wrong with an album that contained so many hummable tunes?

The production is too slick, the harmonies too, well harmonic, the songs steeped in honey (with no lemon). Rock should be relevant and scratchy. It should make you think, not sleep. It should not be suitable to use a s lift (elevator) music. It should be music not musac.

I know that I am in a minority of 1. I know that Rolling Stone, Q, Mojo, and the rest of the universe all believe this to be one of the best records ever produced.

They are wrong.

Fleetwood Mac’s line-up consisted of guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham, drummer Mick Fleetwood, keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie, bassist John McVie, and vocalist Stevie Nicks

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On This Day – Bobby Darin Sings Rock Island Line

Posted on March 10th, 2010
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On this day in 1956 Bobby Darin made his first appearance on TV when he sings “Rock Island Line” on ‘The Stage Show’.

‘The Stage Show’ was a variety programme on CBS US TV. One of the interesting things about the show (this blog was going to be about Bobby Darin, then it was going to be about ‘Rock Island Line’, now it looks like it is going to be about some defunct US TV show. Go figure) was that it had alternate hosts. One week it was Tommy Dorsey the next it was his brother Jimmy. Both were noted jazz musicians and band leaders.

At that time Jimmy had stopped leading his own band and was working with Tommy’s which was billed as ‘The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Featuring Jimmy Dorsey’. A bit of a mouthful but it seems to have worked.

Apart from Bobby Darin’s first TV appearance the show also gave Elvis a spot on 28 Jan 1956. The response was so overwhelming they booked him for another 5 appearances in the next 8 weeks!

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On This day – B A Baracus Grooving to Boy George!

Posted on February 11th, 2010
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On this day in 1986 Boy George guested on The A Team and B A Baracus is shown groovin’, if not movin’, to Karma Chameleon.

For those of tender years The A Team was a TV programme built around a group of ex marines (or something), who had been banged up in the stockade (or somewhere), after being falsley accused of something, or other.

There were 4 members of the A Team George Peppard played the colonel, the leader. Mr T was B A Baracus, the token big hard black man. (Before you dissagree and say that it was not tokenism. Do you think that any black actor would have been given the role of colonel back then?). The ladies’ man was played by Dirk Benedict (ex Battlestar Galatica star). Last but defo not least was mad, not bad, Murdock played by Dwight Shultz (who also played the slightly mad Reginald Barclay in Star Trek The next Generation).

In this episode Boy George played himself, not such a hard gig then. The plot is that Face has signed this band (Cowboy George) to play this dance hall to make a few bucks. However, his contract allows artists to be substituted and Boy George turns up to play in red-neck-mid-west-shoot-em-first country. (You know where that is it is next to the bobbies-with-pointy-hat-red-double-decker-buses-going-past-Big-Ben land on the LA film lot). There is also the usual crooked sheriff and something about a bank heist……

This was part of the 4th series of The A team during which the audience plummeted (not Boy Georges’ fault) and the improbable let’s-make-a-tank-out-of-2-oil-drums-and-a-Beetle scenes became more ludicrous.. The explosions became louder and more, well, explosive and still no one was ever killed!

The two good bits of the episode are Murdock revealing his taste in music when he plays The Lennon Sisters* singing “Too Marvellous for Words” and Boy George playing to a redneck audience, and them loving him….

The A Team was always fantasy.

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pixel On This day B A Baracus Grooving to Boy George!

* Remind me to do a bit about the Lennon Sisters at some time, retiring an old one to replace her with a younger sibling and all that. There is a lot of interesting stuff about siblings in bands. the rivalries, the relationships etc.

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