Well I was only 16. I used to yearn for the stuff that I'd missed because I was too young - the Beatles, Pink Floyd at the UFO, I watched the Woodstock movie about a dozen times. I saw some great stuff nonetheless. I'm sure you did, too.
Yeah. I could have seen the Rezillos (ok not quite the same league as the Who) in Brum tonight, last saw them in 1980 I think, which was a riot. Had a look at what they are like now and YouTube and it was just sad. Some of the old bands can still deliver - I’ve seen great gigs by the Damned, Squeeze and Wilko RIP in recent years - but not all of them.
Steelsy will be on here soon to tell us that we're just sad old ****ers and that there are dozens of great new bands that we ought to be seeking out. He'd be right of course (well, in my case anyway), but there's also a lot to be said for the old bands that are still performing to a high standard. When you've been doing something for 50 years you tend to become rather good at it. There's a place for both old and new.
You're right on both counts! I've seen The Who twice, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Blondie, Ramones, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Damned, Hawkwind, ACDC and many others. Also had tickets for Floyd when they played Earls Court but duty called and had to miss it (I'm still angry about that and it was over 30 years ago).
Van Morrison hid at the back of the stage when I saw him Not 100% sure he was actually there but his band were
I won free tickets to see The Who last month at the Sandrigham estate, through Sky VIP. Didn’t realise how far away it was at the time so turned them down.
I love catching up on old(er) artists who I missed first time around or who I now appreciate more than I did back then. That said it’s great to see some of the new acts (even if it does mean standing with plenty of others who could be your kids ). I’m really enjoying the new age of real talented musicians now turning up in bands of all types - very refreshing. Last one to catch the eye was Joe Armon-Jones playing his style of keyboard for Ezra Collective. Live music is most often such a pleasure and treat in life.
There's a lot of folk who are anti-BBC, but when they commission works of art like this performance by Public Service Broadcasting they need a bit of credit IMO Written as a celebration of 100 years of the BBC and performed at last years Proms along with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, it's just been released on streaming services and the full performance released on HD video on YouTube for free. Do yourselves a favour, find a spare hour and give it a watch/listen. Some here will particularly like The Microphone...
Excellent album. Strong work as usual from Mr Willgoose Esq. and the team. As you’d expect from PSB. Decent commission by the BBC and superb choice.
It's another outstanding piece of work by the band, the addition of the orchestra adds another element to their musical abilities. I listened to this most of the weekend, and have watched the video all the way through a couple of times. I hope they tour it with the orchestra, although I appreciate that wouldn't be easy. I've listened to their music since their really early stuff (you need to dig around to catch these bands early Stroller ), but only managed to catch them live for the first time last year...was at a festival in Liverpool when they got cancelled back in 2017 and then had a gig cancelled because of Covid. Their gigs are also a visual masterpiece, old footage matching the music perfectly on large screens - particularly stunning in a setting like Barrowlands where we saw them. If you get the chance, snap up tickets and see them.
Just finished the first two ‘Summerhouse’ series. Really enjoyed it. Decent soundtrack too. Noticed that Brian Eno wrote the incidental music for the series too (only released recently). Be interesting to see how series 1-3/3-5 produced by Drake changes compared to the gritty London vibe of the first two ‘Summerhouse’ episodes. Cheers Fam.
OK, culture vultures, this is what you’ve been waiting for, the latest review of a Shakespeare play from the RSC! Yay! This time it was in the newly remodelled Swan Theatre which is really nice. Odd one this time, The Merchant of Venice 1936, with Tracy Ann Oberman (Friday Night Dinners, Mrs Ray Purchase in Toast of London and apparently, Eastenders) as Shylock as an immigrant East End pawnbroker in the midst of the rise of Moseley’s blackshirts. The Merchant of Venice is a ‘difficult’ play in that it reflects the antisemitism of the time it was written. Like hugely. This version was explicitly a reworking, but it hadn’t been reworked anything like as much as I expected, the setting in 1936 was only really referenced in some rather unsubtle projections of newspaper headlines about the blackshirts and dressing some of the cast, and notably Antonio (the merchant who’s pound of flesh is at risk) in blackshirt uniforms and armbands, and a tacked on simulation of the battle of Cable Street with pleas to ‘stand together’ at the finale. Everything else was as in the original ( though lots had been cut so the emphasis was squarely on anti semitism) down to Italian names, the debt still being 3,000 ducats, the traditional Shakespearean cross dressing etc. I’d forgotten how total Shylock’s humiliation is at the end of the play, down to her forced conversion to Christianity after being conned out of having her debt paid. This was Shakespeare’s ‘happy ending’, but was presented with a fine sense of irony in this version. The play has had some very good reviews, most nights are sold out and Oberman is superb. But I found it a bit incoherent, it wasn’t really reworked enough to justify the addition of 1936 to the title. It was certainly uncomfortable in places which I think was the purpose. One thing I appreciated is that the cuts meant the play was a tight two hours including a 20 minute interval. I’m quite fearful about the next one - Macbeth, a play I hate because I was made to ‘study’ it at ‘O’ Level (that’s GCSE for the youngsters) getting a D - which has had poor reviews and they have somehow extended what is normally a 2 hour play to over 3…….the £10 locals tickets make it just about worth the potential pain……
