I have probably posted this before - but great version and I think people should enjoy their work, the lady cello player on this is certainly having a good day at work.
Matt Monro , the singing bus driver was one of my mums favourites, the smell of the Sunday roast and mum singing along to " on days like these and Walk away " between a good slug of Gin and bitter lemons bring back such happy memories
Maybe it's a generational thing but he's always talking about how his Mum loved Matt Monro. In fact, he regularly plays him on his show. Apparently his Mum used to work on the buses so maybe there's a connection there?
I listened most days when he was on weekdays, love most of the music and the characters he has on , the Matt Monro would have been a generation thing as his parents were about the same age as mine
RIP Ray Shulman (73) Best known for forming Gentle Giant with his brothers, before becoming one of the most successful Engineers / Producers. GG were too 'prog' even for me! But their musicianship was just off the scale. Their last album, the more commercial, new wave influenced 'Missing Piece' was the only one that really gelled with me. However, the Shulman brothers originally started out as Simon Dupree & the Big Sound - very early Moody Blues / Procol Harem-ish, (featuring a very young Reg Dwight on piano) with one big hit most people remember! 'Kites'
I brought this album sometime around 1973 for the cover alone, saw them 4 or 5 times over the years, not always my taste but never failed to entertain and leave you in awe with the musicianship
Very difficult band to tie down to a genre. They were definitely 'progressive' but not in a traditional '70's prog rock form. Possibly like Crimson in some ways. The music and particularly vocal arrangements were strangely complex and almost came across as improvised at times. Only ever saw them 'live' on OGWT or similar, but that was more to do with the fact they were almost entirely in the US from '75. They toured the US with Yes and Peter Frampton in '76 but somehow missed out on the gig at the JFK Philadelphia which at the time was the largest single venue (not festival) concert of all time - 130k! Anyway, as I said, the last album was much more commercial and they had a pop at the critics who had said that Punk would finish them off!
A coupla gigs down since I posted last. The Damned in Southend was interesting. The entirety of the middle of the set was from the new album. Mrs B snagged the prize of Mr Vanian's set list... please log in to view this image The album's going to be very good...but that big a slice of previously unheard material doesn't meet with universal approval. Despite it being 1st April, no White Rabbit on show... We spent the rest of the night chatting to Leigh Heggarty, who was in the room down the hall at the pub. Thursday night was the Vive Le Rock Awards...where we walked into the pub next door and straight into...Leigh Hegarty. He was quite severely miffed not to have been invited to play with the house band for the night, especially as Norman Watt Roy played in the second half. The main event of the evening was The Lords of The New Church. Unfortunately they got as much time as Neville Staples and his daughter......and the Cockney rejects . Michael Monroe was excellent on the few Lords' numbers, less so on the cover of New Rose (with Rat on drums) and Pills (which made the set on The Damned reunion gigs). Lords fans would have preferred more...and more original material, but that it happened at all will have to be enough. Now I've got to lose the bright pink hair for work on Tuesday. Next stop Brighton, for more of The Damned.
I keep seeing bits of this on Youtube and the ending is probably worth it: Does freestyle mean something different now, though?
Rob Baker put this picture up on Twitter , May 74 I'm on the Vally terrace somewhere , The Who,Lou Reed, Humble Pie , Bad Company , Lindisfarne and Maggie Bell
