A Thousand Gigs Ago

 

Everyone has regrets in their lifetime, some are pretty major ones I’m sure but for now I want to mention one of my more annoying regrets. As a big music fan I am also a collector of certain stuff (or in a posh sense some memorabilia if you will).

I used to have a collection of concert tickets going way back to my first proper gig in the mid-seventies, ‘Johnny Winter And – Live At The New Victoria Theatre, London’, I don’t think the place exists today but I know I was there and can still prove it. So I always kept my tickets, torn stubs, wrist bands etc from gigs and festivals but about a year before I moved away from London I stuck them all on a bedroom wall alongside my collection of gig posters and at the time I wasn’t too bothered but now about 15 years later I would like to have them in my possession again but alas I know they were painted over by the tenants who moved in after I left the premises so that's a no go on that one…

 BUT… I did manage to keep the Johnny Winter ticket stub and as you can see it’s now on display on the internet alongside a creased ticket of one of my favourite R&B bands from the eighties ‘The Inmates’ and also alongside these is the napkin I have kept when many years ago my parents spotted Paul Jones eating in the same Indian Restaurant as we all were in Paddington, London and asked him to autograph said napkin and it’s still here today!.

Plus I can’t believe it only cost £1.50 to see Johnny Winter, how times have changed.

RIP T-Model Ford

 

Enjoy

T-Model Ford - Chicken Headed Man

Oblivians - Call The Police

Johnny Winter - Still Alive And Well

The Inmates - Mr. Unreliable

Augie Meyers - You Ain't Rollin' Your Roll Rite

Your Revolution Is Over....The Bums Lost !!!

Certain events this week seem to have all come together for me to form this thought 'The Ignorant are Ignorant of their Ignorance' basically. I hope that makes sense in a week where a checkout assistant refused to serve a customer because she was on her mobile but the supermarket went and apologised to the customer and offered vouchers for her upset. Certain callers to a radio show felt that they had a right to speak on their mobile at a checkout because quote 'the staff work for me' apparently !!

I then found out that it was a more or less the norm these days for people to use their mobiles in libraries and of course we all know the abusers who still use their mobiles whilst driving their vehicles and those that have conversations out loud on public transport but this is not just about ignorance it is also about respect for an individual and the property of that individual.

In my case this week I have had to walk out of my parents house to 'have a go' at two youths who pulled up in a car in her road a leafy suburban cul-de-sac so that one of them could relieve himself against a lamppost in full view of their house and many of the neighbours if they happened to be watching, of course they thought they were not doing anything wrong but I was having none of it and gave them my personal point of view in no uncertain terms, then yesterday some neighbours that back onto our property were out in their yard and this morning my wife found an empty coke can lying in our garden obviously thrown over the wall into ours, I immediately returned the said item

this morning back to the home it came from. I will not be disrespected especially by the Ignorant so there !!!

Plus I would promote the checkout girl to manager and then still could put a ban on phones at the checkout in her store permanently so let the fightback against Ignorance begin.

 

 

On a more musical note I was sad to hear of the passing of Bobby 'Blue' Bland, he always had one of my favourite singing voices and should have been much better known in his lifetime, also this week I was privileged to see JJ Grey & Mofro live for the first time.. what a band and what a frontman JJ is, he is superb, so check them out for the best soul, blues, funk, rock, Florida Swamp sound around in fact it's really Mofro !!

 

 

"A BIG SIXER"

JJ Grey And Mofro - Hide And Seek

JJ Grey And Mofro - Country Ghetto

Bobby Blue Bland - Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City

Bobby Blue Bland - Road Of Brokenhearted Men

Estelline - Save Us From Our Ignorance

U.S Ape - Ignorance Is Bliss

Cold Facts

 

Gaps between posts seem to be getting longer and I have to find the time to come up with something new each time. So today is more of a personal news bulletin of sorts. My Dad has been ill again and has caused my mum a certain amount of worry and wasted time. I have been continually updating my digital music collection and to a large degree I have been helping my wife finish our Country Cottage garden project which has been an ongoing joint effort since I singlehandedly dug up about a ton of old broken tarmac about 3 years ago. I have then joined forces with my neighbours to fight the ‘Great Old Town Residents Parking Battle With Our Local Council’ and I am on the committee, so let battle commence !

I have also watched some great documentaries recently, a couple on BBC4 regarding the life and times of soul singers Charles Bradley and Bobby Womack. Then I finally caught up with ‘Searching For Sugarman’ the award winning film on the obscure Detroit singer-songwriter Rodriquez which deserved it’s critical acclaim and to finish off my cultural tour I saw the documentary on war photographer Don McCullin whose exhibition I saw a couple of years ago in Bradford, again I recommend this to anyone who is interested in politics, art and history.
 Then I have watched two films that left me slightly perturbed 'Kill List' and 'Valhalla Rising', I think I understood them but I've not quite convinced myself, following those I then watched the Coen Bros 'A Serious Man' a film I have been hoping to see for quite awhile and to be honest I thought it was piss-poor and I've still yet to see their version of 'The Ladykillers'.

Listen boys if your reading this then just film the Big Lebowski II and I'll be happy again. Plus a big thumbs up to Modern Toss, god you make me laugh, check them out, just Google it and make them even more money to not pay their taxes on (that's Google not Modern Toss !)

 

 

Enjoy

 

 

Charles Bradley - Hurricane

Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street

Rodriguez - Inner City Blues

Dolorean - Violence In The Snowy Fields

The Game Of Life

The sun continues to shine, work is still a chore and I stopped taking my medicine. So that's a summation of my last few days. I have been getting headaches like my brain is stuffed with cotton wool, I've felt nauseous and have gone off beer, so all in all I have been feeling a bit sorry for myself.

I have even lost the urge to hurl my wrath at an unfair and cruel world but I haven't lost the urge to find and download music across the "interweb". This past week I have been filling the gaps in my Van Morrison and Flamin Groovies mp3 discographies and now that I am satisfied I can move on to someone else. I am addicted to collecting music. always have been always will be (I'm typing this listening to Bobby Whitlock - 43 tracks).

I've collected LP's, cassettes, mini-discs, CD's, singles, books , tickets and magazines. Over time though I have let a lot of this go mostly for money not for free because I had found my modus operandi I found the computer music library a fascinating and useful tool. My preferred software is WINAMP I use this to select my play lists and monitor all my music libraries. I keep everything on external hard discs , I now have three in case anything terrible happens. I'm on nearly 75,000 tracks and rising I have so much I can't possibly ever hear it all but I keep collecting it's my drug. I just feel better knowing I have a track or album that I can refer to at any given moment, it comforts me, it is my passion. Yes, I often doubt myself, question whether it is all ultimately pointless but I won't stop because the next band, the next song could be the best music I have ever heard, so my road goes on forever.

By the way I still have about 1000 vinyl albums these are my own big red book, as Eamonn Andrews used to say The Man That Time Forgot (me that is !) ' This Is Your Life'........

Enjoy  

Bombino - Amindinine

The Nite Riders - Pretty Plaid Skirt (And Long Black Socks)

David Byne and St. Vincent - Road To Nowhere (Live)

The Nomads (Sweden) - Showdown

Music Was My First Love

The love of live music isn’t shared by everyone I know but the gig experience is still something I really enjoy and I always feel that I was glad I made the effort on the majority of occasions.

My next book to read at home is Simon Armitage’s ‘GIG’ published in 2008. It explores how music intertwined with his work and life in general. When I was a much younger man living in London I would go to gigs every week. The Half Moon in Putney, Dingwalls in Camden Town , the Town & Country Club, Kentish Town etc, etc, me and my mates would go all over to see and experience live the bands we liked. We never went to discos or nightclubs we liked live music, therefore we never met many women at that time ! but we learnt a hell of a lot about good and bad musicians and we knew the history of rock inside and out.

These days I go to gigs infrequently due to where I live now and the travel involved but this week I saw the Handsome Family and it reminded me of why live music is the best way to see a musician or group you really like. I had already tried to listen to their new album ‘Wilderness’ before the gig but I find my concentration to listen through from the beginning to the end of any new release very difficult as I admit I have become a bit of a ‘Shuffle Man’ by the way I listen to music so hearing the same new tracks live brought out the real meaning in the songs and the lyrics so when I went back to the album the day after I understood it  and could listen to it in a much more relaxed way. Next week I am off to see Charlie Parr, so let’s hope for another good ‘un.

Enjoy

 

Charlie Parr - God Moves On The Water

Charlie Parr - South Of Austin North Of Lyle

The Handsome Family - Owls

The Handsome Family - Glow Worm

Home Of The Blues

 

I’ve been very busy at work since I returned from my holidays and haven’t really found very much to moan about other than my work and that is hardly very interesting to anybody anyway,so I thought I might talk about football. This week my team Chelsea won another European trophy and it was a great night. I have now missed both wonderful occasions in Munich and Amsterdam but as I no longer want to travel to see my beloved Blues as much as I once did and have eventually given up my old season ticket I have to follow them mostly through the wonders of satellite television and the internet these days. I also became a victim of the high ticket prices you now pay to watch 90 minutes of football so I can only manage about three games a season now but I can still find myself jumping up and down on the living room floor and shouting myself hoarse in support of my team especially with situations like the drama of Wednesday night.

This has been a great week for the team, with next season’s Champions League qualification almost confirmed and last week Frank Lampard beating Bobby Tambling’s goalscoring record at Villa Park and then the good news Thursday of his extended contract, although I always despair when other club’s supporters have a go at ‘Fat’ Frank (jealousy, such petty jealousy lads).

The man is a legend and compared to that other weirdly tattooed male model who has just retired this week after playing about ten minutes football in France for Paris St Germain to win yet another medal for doing almost nothing well then compared to him our Captain Frank is a giant of the modern game (my opinion obviously and one not widely shared I understand)…..

Plus JT stop embarrassing yourself and keep your kit off once and for all as if you don’t manage to play the actual game then let the other players lift up the cup and you celebrate with them later at the end.

Anyway

 

Super - Super - Frank - Super - Frankie - Lampard – Come on you Blue Boys…………

 

Enjoy

Bobby Bare Jr - I'll Be Around

Gangstagrass - Dollar Boss

Kevin Coyne - Blame It On The Night

Wild Billy Childish And The Spartan Dreggs - Lemonade Stand

Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire

 

Finally the sun has come out and remained out for more than one day so Spring has arrived here with a hot Summer to follow (possibly who knows these day's).

What does this really mean you might ask, where are you going with this post you might say ?

Well if the sun is out in the UK then it can only mean one thing our sad obsession with the bar-b-q begins. Personally I just can’t see what all the fuss is about. Yes, enjoy the good weather, enjoy the sunshine and your gardens, backyards and municipal parks but please why spoil it all frying large pieces of fatty meat on a fire just because you feel it is the right thing to do or if you don’t have a bar-b-q  then somehow you are not British or not enjoying yourself properly.

So go on then and get pissed, make too much noise, annoy your neighbours and sacrifice your weekly food bill to the great outdoors god of Aus, because really that’s the place for it and that’s the place it should stay, it’s not British it’s ingrained in Australian and American culture where it is generally very hot and dry every year. As a nation we can’t do it properly but we are now indoctrinated to the point where most people can’t ignore the problem and head of straight to the nearest supermarket of DIY superstore as soon as we get one day of sunshine. So off you go and get too red sitting all day in the sun, talking too loud and filling up your arteries with half a cow. Where's the salad !!!

 I pity you all

Enjoy

 

ZZ Top - Bar-B-Q

Jon Dee Graham - A Place In The Shade

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires - Choctaw Summer

Kermit Ruffins & The Barbeque Swingers - Skokiaan