Sky Saxon died today

I find it quite hard to compehend. I'm the administrator for a Facebook group for the California 66 revue tour due to happen in August - Sky was going to be a huge part of that. Another 6os survivor bites the dust



RIP Sky

I've got a new tent!

I don't blog any more

I mean to - but I don't.

But I am running a fantastic Facebook group.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86265642408

I'd love it if you joined.

And I am working on setting myself up in a new post-redundancy career as a viral / virtual marketeer for 60s rock bands. Its going OK so far.

Swiss Toni's Shuffleathon

My CD has finally been reviewed!!

http://coornelius.blogspot.com/2009/03/shuffleathon-2009.html

I've been waiting for this before posting my letter to Charlie, so here is is.

Dear Charlie

My name is Tina, and I’m pleased to be your Shuffler for 2008!

You can find me at http://yourmindandwe.blogspot.com/ virtually, and at the address above in reality.

Anyway, without further ado, here is your Shuffleathon CD and a bit of explanation. I’ve decided to call my CD

Distinctive voices from Northern UK and North America

16 tracks – 8 from each continent. Exactly an hour long, more by accident than by design. About 40 years between the earliest and the latest (somewhat longer than you’ve been alive I see from your blog) – I’ve decided that I’m not actually going to put when each track is from because I don’t think it’s relevant. I’ve seen a number of these artists perform live but when I count up I’ve actually seen more of the American ones than the UK ones - strange. I am something of a US West Coast fan and have had a couple of visits over there. So here goes:

1) All Of My Heart - ABC. From Sheffield. I love the voice of Martin Fry, the lead singer.

2) I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys. From Sheffield again. I don’t have any particular connection with Sheffield , but the place has produced some good bands.

3) Grounds For Divorce – Elbow. From Bury, Lancashire.

4) Tonight - Richard Hawley. From Sheffield once more.

5) Weeds – Pulp. Yeah, Sheffield. I’ve seen Pulp perform live, in the middle of Sherwood Forest (yes, where Robin Hood lived), and also Jarvis Cocker as part of a Sgt Pepper concert in Milan.

6) Regret - New Order. North West England this time.

7) Being Boring - Pet Shop Boys. The lead singer, Neil Tennant, comes from South Shields in the North East of England, near to where I was born and bred. Have seen them, in Nottingham, fairly recently.

8) Sunworshipper – Mylo. Mylo comes from the Island of Skye, off the north of Scotland – he produced the album “Destroy Rock and Roll” that this track comes from in his bedroom. It provides the link between the UK and North American sections of the CD.

9) See How Good It Feels - The Quarter After. From Los Angeles. I saw these guys in a tiny venue in Nottingham recently. Two brothers, Rob and Dom Campanella – Rob is also a member of and producer for Brian Jonestown Massacre, another Californian band that I’m very partial to.

10) My First Night Without You - Maria McKee. From Los Angeles. Sister of the late Bryan Macleanof the La band Love, my alltime favourite band – I had to be physically restrained from putting any of their stuff on this CD. Best known for “Show me Heaven”. Another artist seen at a pretty small venue in Nottingham

11) I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen. From Montreal, Canada. I’ve had the great good fortune to see Leonard Cohen perform twice during 2008, the man was truly born with the gift of a golden voice. He’s somewhat past the tiny club stage.

12) The Needle And The Damage Done - Neil Young. Another Canadian. Never seen him perform live unfortunately, but I’m definitely a long time fan.

13) La Valse De Balfa - Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. From Calgary in Canada. Another great band that I’ve seen performing in a tiny club in Nottingham, very distinctive sound.

14) Abba Zaba - Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band. From California again. The Captain is a genius as far as I am concerned. I‘ve seen the Captain plus Band perform twice, and the Band minus Captain once - all amazingly memorable performances.

15) How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? - Al Green. The Reverend Al. Hails from Michigan according to Wikipedia. Gospel tinged soul. I saw him recently performing in Birmingham.

16) I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin. In November 2008, Franklin was named by The Rolling Stone magazine. as the #1 all time best singer of the rock era. She came in ahead of Ray Charles at No. 2, Elvis Presley at No. 3, Sam Cooke at No. 4 and John Lennon at No. 5, according to the magazine's survey of 179 musicians, producers, Rolling Stone editors, and other music-industry insiders. (So says Wikipedia). And I thin k she’s pretty good too.

So there you are. Hope you like it.

P.S. Since thay letter was written in December, I've booked to see one of my long time musical heroes, Neil Young, in June. I'm also off to see Kraftwerk in July - another band I've wanted to see for ever - with my brother , in Manchester. Now he's a real fan and has travelled to Poland and Norway to see them perform - I've never travelled further than Aberdeen for a gig, although Lizzy and I did go to Sweden to see a film. But it was about Love so that's quite understandable.

Introducing the beach boys to the Beach Boys, and other cultural phenomena

Keith and I are just back from a fantastic trip to Goa. I promise I'll put up a decent post when the photos are downloaded. It is to some extent"India lite" there but its an incredibly vibrant place and the people there are amazing, just so relaxed and carefree. There were a lot of highlights, among the the musical ones were:

- having the guys who sorted out our sunbeds on Candolim beach listen to Good Vibrations on my MP3 player and them really getting into it, and me realising what brilliant ocean-side music Brian Wilson wrote all those years ago.

- sitting outside a bar listening to a Reggae band made up of locals, three young guys doing a very decent job on lead rhythm and bass guitars and an older guy playing terrific tabla drums.

Don't worry bout a thing, cos every little things gonna be all right.

Too right!

My cultural life in 2008

I was just sitting thinking to myself that I hadn't done a lot of arty stuff in 2008 when I compared my outings to other peoples gig listings etc. No Baby Lemonade tour immediately cut out about 10 gigs - but when I got my head together and consulted my diary etc it seems that I didn't actually do too badly at all.


2nd January Control Broadway Cinema, Nottingham Film
27th January Robin Hitchcock Rescue Rooms, Nottingham Gig
30th January 39 Steps Theatre Royal, Nottingham Play
9th February The Selkie The Sage, Gateshead Play with Music
28th February Menomena Rescue Rooms, Nottingham Gig
21st April Eric Burdon & War Royal Albert Hall, London Gig
14th June Julie Felix The Sage, Gateshead Gig
26th June Lou Reed Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham Gig
12th July Kylie Minogue MEN Arena, Manchester Gig
2nd – 4th Aug Big Chill Festival Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire Festival
13th August Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir Bodega, Nottingham Gig
18th – 23rd Aug Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh Festival
23rd Sept The Quarter After Chameleon Arts Cafe, Nottingham Gig
19th Oct Glen Campbell Royal Festival Hall, London Gig
22nd Oct Mercy & Grand The Sage, Gateshead Musical event
27th Oct Feeder Rock City, Nottingham Gig
28th Oct Al Green / Gabrielle NIA, Birmingham Gig
3rd Nov Martha Wainwright Rock City, Nottingham Gig
22d Nov Leonard Cohen NEC, Birmingham Gig

Big Chill: various acts including: Rachel Unthank & the Winterset; Portico Quartet; Jilted John; Beth Orton; Lykke Li;Martha Wainwright; Norman Jay; Camille; The Imagined Village; African Head Charge; Orchestra Baobab;Leonard Cohen

Edinburgh Festival lots of shows including: Dan Antopolski (very funny comedian); Capoeira Knights:Warriors of Brazil (brilliant Brazilian dance); Hemingway’s Havana – starring Papa Oviedo from “The Buena Vista Social Club” (excellent Cuban musicians); Holdin’ Fast (Czech Physical theatre – “A dreamy ballad of sexual dependency, inspired by Milan Kundera and challenging the human body's physical and emotional borders.”) and various comedy shows / plays that I can’t even remember.

Highlights:

"The Selkie" - a play written by Valerie Laws, an old school friend of mine - really evocative stuff which made me think about all sorts of things to do with my life.

Julie Felix - her 70th birthday concert - she is an amazing guitar player and a great singer - she ran through a 60s songbook of some real old favourites by herself and other people.

Kylie - a brilliant big arena show, I loved it.

The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir - thanks very much Mike of Troubled Diva fame for introducing me to these folks.

The great dance / world music / physical theatre stuff we saw in Edinburgh - we widened the net from our usual comedy and theatre and were repaid a thousand fold.

The Quarter After - a great Californian psychedelic band playing in a tiny venue in Nottingham.

Al Green - that man can certainly sing.

And my man of the year:-

Leonard Cohen - I'm not a religious person but I feel truly blessed to have seen him perform twice this year. Perhaps I'm more spiritual than I own up to being. The gig at the NEC was so magnificent that I haven't wanted to talk about it since, or to go and see another artist perform until the memory has faded.

Roll on 2009!

P.S. And thank you to Keith, Lizzy B, Chris, Barbara, Liz S, Emma, Pam, Mike and K for accompanying me - I've done a couple on my own but its not so much fun!

Swiss Toni's Shuffleathon 2008

First a bit of context. I am 55 years old, I was born in 1953 and musically I’m a child of the 60s. My favoured genres are Psychedelic, Soul and (dare I admit it) Country. I am still a big music fan and have 40 odd years of fandom and listening to music to look back on. I like melody, it’s much more important to me than lyrics, and I’m moved by music that touches me emotionally. I was brought up in the industrial North East of England and now live in Nottingham in the English Midlands. I’ve been in full time paid employment for 30 odd years and am married with a 23 year old son.

Michael is 32 years old. He describes himself as a student and Gen X slacker extraordinaire He likes Rock and Country (hurrah), and would appear to favour lyrics over melody. He lives in NW Indiana, USA.

Not a lot in common then except a sneaking respect for the good ole boys of country music. Let’s see what his Shuffleathon CD holds in store.


1) Stop, I’m already dead – Deadboy & the Elephantmen (Dax Riggs) – shouty rock music with unsubtle drumming. Guy’s voice (Deadboy?) sounds a bit flat to me. Not for me.*

2) Fort Hood – Mike Doughty. Samples “Let the Sun Shine in” from the 60s musical “Hair”. Quite melodic, decent lyrics, don’t mind this one at all. Again voice somewhat on the flat side. ***

3) Easy Money – Todd Snider. Quite like it but unmemorable. Flat again although I like the overall tone of the guy’s voice. **

4) Not a crime – Gogol Bordello. Very recognisably Eastern European in origin. I know this band and I like them a lot. Gypsy Punk is a good description, lots of manic fiddle playing. Eugene Hutz the lead singer tends to almost shout over the backing track but it works for me. Best track so far by a country mile.****

5) Good Riddance (Time of your life) – Glen Campbell. Now you’re talking! You will see from previous posts that I saw Glen Campbell at the Royal Festival Hall recently; his is a voice that affects me on an emotional level. Listen to his golden clear voice and he’s bang on the note! Vocalists from tracks 1, 2 and 3 please take note!*****

6) Lonesome Blues – Shooter Jennings. Lovely, great pedal steel guitar, again voice bang on the note. I’ve always been a sucker for decent country music. ****

7) Snuff – Slipknot. Not what I was expecting from the tracklisting! My son was a big fan when he was a teenager (he’s now 23) so I heard a bit of their stuff around the house when he still lived here, as Mike describes them a loud metal band. This could almost be described as a power ballad – good guitar playing and very clear vocals, with a power chorus. ***

8) Heart of Matters – Ben Harper. Familiar territory again, I own some Ben Harper stuff. Seems like he’s trying to do Soul on the track, doesn’t do a bad job either, though he’s no Al Green.***

9) Best Damn Fool – Buddy Guy. He could indeed have been bigger than Hendrix. This is great, the man is a legend. He’s a great guitar player and I love those horns. *****

10) Coma – Buckethead with Azam Ali and Serj Tankian. Start reminds me of “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield. I’m going to damn this with faint praise – quite nice. Music to eat Middle Eastern food by. ***

11) Nowhere to go – Mushroomhead. What’s with all this head business? (See previous artist). No No No. Please just go.*

12) The Outsider – A Perfect Circle. Sorry Mike not my scene. *

13) Doesn’t remind me – Audioslave. Better, but I doubt I’ll be rushing out to buy the album. **

14) Heaven’s a lie – Lacuna Coil. Italian Gothic Metal! Has some style about it, like Milan where the band hails from. As you’ve probably guessed rock is not my favoured musical genre but I headbanged along to this , the female lead singer has a good tuneful voice.***

15) Would ?– Alice in Chains. I like the sound of the harmonies in this. Drumming too prominent IMHO but that’s a rock thang. ***

16) Zzyxx Road – Stone Sour. Another power ballad from a Slipknot side project. The guy has a decent voice. I also like the piano but again spoiled by me by over prominent drumming.***

17) 10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2) – Tool. Mike says that he thinks this is one of the best songs ever written, and he wrote quite a long explanation putting the song in context and also forwarded me the lyrics. I’m really glad he did because otherwise I would have just listened and not “got” it – with the explanation I do get it. I’m not going to go into the full details but I’d just say that as the mother of a (sometimes troubled) young man, this to me is a moving piece of music. ****

Thanks very much Michael, I’ve enjoyed listening to and reviewing your CD even if quite a lot of it left me cold. It made me think about why I like particular types of music and how my brain processes what it hears - I also realised that it almost physically hurts my brain when people sing flat. But I’m not going to become a rock aficionado overnight, that’s for sure.