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.

The Typealyzer

http://www.typealyzer.com/index.php?lang=en

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.



Blimey! When I've done Myers-Briggs tests in the past I've come out as an ISTJ - could hardly be more different. I guess I'm definitely sensing then. It also shows that your writing style can be quite different from your basic personality. Hey ho.

I've been to a few gigs recently....

I have! I had a fortnight off work and did the "Not the Baby Lemonade Tour" for a start. I had non-cancellable hotel rooms in London and York, so I went anyway. My brother lives in London and my darling son Jim lives in York, so I caught up with them. I then got off the train that was going to take me to Edinburgh at Newcastle and spent a few days with the lovely Lizzy B and her family. Then home again for a few days and Lizzy came down from Newcastle to Nottingham for a couple of nights.

This is what I saw:

Glenn Campbell at the Royal Festival Hall - surprisingly moving, beautiful voice. I've always loved his version of "Wichita Lineman". He seemed to be getting a bit absent minded but he is in his seventies now, his daughter did backing vocals and a couple of duets with him. He had a great band including a cracking steel guitar player.

Mercy & Grand: the Tom Waits Project at the Sage, Gateshead - opera singer from Opera North and an eclectic band of musicians. Very different from stuff I usually see but really memorable.

Feeder at Rock City, Nottingham - a friend had two tickets at short notice so Lizzy and I went along - RC absolutely packed to the gunnels with young folks. A sticky floored physically uncomfortable rock gig - not as bad as it sounds.

Al Green / Gabrielle at NIA, Birmingham - the day that it decided to snow in the West Midlands. Fantastic evening - Gabrielle was an unexpected bonus. Al Green had a brilliant band, 14 people on stage in total including two young male loose-limbed dancers and a horn section to die for. The Rev Al was brilliant, he didn't seem to have lost any of his vocal range and he sure knows how to work a crowd. Not a full venue but a pretty good turn out.

Martha Wainwright at Rock City, Nottingham - another Monday evening, another friend ringing up to see if I wanted to go to a gig at short notice - the answer was a definite yes. Good gig - I haven't the reviewing skills of Mike or Swiss Toni, both of whom were also there, so I've handily provided links to their sites.

Coming up - Leonard Cohen on 22nd November - and Take That in June 2009!! Yes. I spent Friday morning on the internet after tickets came on sale and am off to Sunderland! Yey!!

The Quarter After

In my head, its 1968. For a couple of hours on Tuesday evening, it felt like the rest of me was there as well.

Mike Randle emailed me from Truetone Guitar shop in Santa Monica a week or so ago(verbatim):

1/4 after at Chameloen

BJM guitarist, Rob, is sat here with me at shop. Check his band put in Nhill if you can Mike

My email back to Mike:

Hi Mike

Sorry don't know what you mean.

My next email back to Mike:

http://www.thecommitteetokeepmusicevil.com/tour.asp

Found it! The Chameleon isn't a venue I'm familiar with, I'll look it up. It must be a new one

So I set off Tuesday evening for the Chameleon in Nottingham. Above Clinton Cards shop in the Old Market Square, next door to the Bell. A little cafe-bar on the first floor with a function room on the second floor. I paid my 6 quid for a ticket - buggar the credit crunch!

Now I'd figured out in the interval between the emails and Tuesday that I'd already met Rob Campanella, lead guitarist of the Quarter After, with Scottish Keith Stoddart and Lizzy in a pub in Newcastle before we went to a Brian Jonestown Massacre gig a couple of years back, that's his other band. So I recognised him. He was in the cafe-bar part on his mobile (cell phone for the benefit of my US readers). I went over and introduced myself as friend of the aforesaid Mike Randle and had a chat with him -nice guy.

Things seemed a tad anarchic and it seemed it was going to be a while before the bands were going to be on - my six quid actually bought me three bands - Dom Keller, a local outfit, Quarter After, from LA, and Asteroid 4, from Philadelphia. After a while I moved upstairs and that was when the time travelling experience really kicked off. The room was pretty small, the walls were covered in these wild surreal paintings, the windows were hung with sheets and it reminded me of student flats from back in the day when I was a young person of the hippy persuasion. Wow - far out!

Dom Keller were first on and they put on a creditable psychedelic performance. I've looked up their MySpace page and they are real 60s fans. I understand they put the gig on as well, great stuff. All this time the various member of the two US bands were hanging around, exotic creatures for a dull Nottingham Tuesday evening. I sat down on a sofa for a while and Victor, the QA bassist came and sat next to me and promptly fell asleep - jet lag I guess. The audience was small (it needed to be, its a small place) but very appreciative.

Then it was time for the Quarter After, following a long period of setting up / tuning up - they needed it, as Rob and his brother Dom play a range of different instruments - this was their first gig after flying over and those planes play havoc with your tuning.

They were outstanding. Two / three guitars (at times the keyboard player was on guitar as well as Dom and Rob), bass and drums. Close harmonies from Dom and Rob - you know that thing about siblings singing together - Everley Brothers etc - the sound was spine tingling. My best comparison would be to the Byrds - jingle-jangle Rickenbacker and sweet harmonies. I loved it, and it moved my head in the way only great music can. I b0ught the album from the merch stand for £7 (a bargain) and it sounds as good as the live performance.

I left before Asteroid 4 as it was pretty late by then., work the next day A quick word with Rob to express my appreciation, then forward 40 years and home. I think I'll be seeing these guys again.

Baby Lemonade tour cancelled

Boo hoo! I'm pretty gutted quite frankly, I was really looking forward to the guys being over here in the Autumn. Tickets not selling well presumably, couldn't afford to take the financial risk, which I can quite understand. Strange financial times these, as I know only too well from my day job.



Time to regroup.

The Big Read

Via Lisa Rullsenburg .

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated. (I see no reason to restrict ‘books I hated’ to school - there are only a couple of books on the list I really disliked, and neither of them was a school text.)
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - started and will never funish
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - will never read, read another of his and hated it!!
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks.
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

73 read in my case - quite a lot I guess, I am a pretty prolific reader. There's nothing unread on the list that I feel a burning need to read - my exposure to the classics is limited but through choice not omission. Couldn't figure out how to strike out so have put comments beside a couple of books that I have no intention of ever reading or finishing in one case. Birdsong - left me completely cold.

The Big Chill

I've just come back from a brilliant weekend at the Big Chill festival in Herefordshire with Lizzy and Chris (first two pics). It was a very family friendly festival (see third pic with lovely hula girls). The location was brilliant, see 4th and 5th pics. 6th pic is Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, just because I like him

We saw Leonard Cohen on Sunday evening, he made me cry his music was so beautiful. Also lots of other brilliant acts. It was a great experience all round. Even with camping. We'll do this sort of stuff again.

The clearest sea you ever did see

This is me floating in the sea off Marathia Beach in Zakynthos. A lovely island, beautiful weather and the sea as clear as clear can be. Bliss!

And Madonna reckons she can dance...

P.S.This is the weather forecast for where we're just about to go on holiday - scorchio!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=5107

Meet the family

Back row: Me and My siblings - Sarah, Bethy, Steve, Tina
Front row: Nephew Jake, Mum, Dad, Niece Amy

I think this was on the occasion of my Mum's 80th birthday a couple of years ago.
A nice day.

Eight go wild in Paris

Keith got told off for taking this picture!

Compare and contrast

Sergeant Pepperoni

Baby Lemonade

The guys are back in the UK in October - hurrah!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=45100164

I'll be picking up as many of the shows as I can, pity they're not doing the Rescue Rooms but never mind.

Kittens playing xylophones

http://www.rathergood.com/independent_woman/

I'd forgotten how much I loved this....

Where have I been??

Its been a while hasn't it?

One of the places I have been is Madeira - favourite of the more mature holiday maker. It was lovely, nice weather, lovely gardens, nice places to walk etc. Here's a pic or two.

Guitar lessons

I had my first guitar lesson this evening. It was good, I'm going to enjoy this. Must make sure I practice as I need to harden up my fingers as much as anything.

Black Mountain

I went to see Black Mountain perform at the Rescue Rooms last Thursday as the "plus one" of Mike of Troubled Diva fame - very much my sort of band. And I do recall saying to him at different points during the gig "This sounds like the Doors" and "He sounds like Neil Young now". Thanks very much Mike, a good band that I would have otherwise missed.

Also, I discovered from talking to Mike that sitting at a table in a restaurant in Milan with two members of the Residents not wearing their customary eyeball masks is a coup indeed - unknown to me previously, presumably they are an extremely secretive bunch never seen in public without said headgear. I never blogged about the aftermath of the Milan Sgt Pepper concert but it involved variously wandering the streets of Milan with Badly Drawn Boy and a Badly Drawn Map until said restaurant was found, as well as above mentioned Residents exclusive.

Baby Lemonade & London Sinfonietta are doing the Sgt Pepper gig in Paris next year involving a well known survivor of the 60s / 70s with a predilection for hard drugs, taking his top off and wearing see through PVC trousers ........ Can't wait!