* We have been inundated with NY tribute bands and have 3 to choose from!
Every year Michael Eavis says of Glastonbury “This years festival will be the biggest and best yet” so I can confidently predict that this years SoL will be the same size as last year and be every bit as good!
Summer of Love Party is a private party and entry is for members only – so pop along to our website for details on how to become a member! Full membership is just £50 and if you join before 7th February you’ll get a 10% discount.
I uploaded 30 images taken on our Easter holiday to Northumberland last year. With one thing and another I didn’t get round to sorting them out until recently. The above image is of Lindisfarne Castle shot using the basic camera setting on my HTC Desire HD. The one below is of the RNLI building in Newbiggin and was shot using the Vignette app,
Back to Lindisfarne for the picture above – it’s a statue of St. Aiden – taken once again using my HTC Desire HD but this time using the Camera 360 App. Below is one of the boats on the seashore at Newbiggin in Northumberland.
We went to Whitstable one day during the Christmas period, just to get out of the house and to let the sea air blow away the cobwebs! I took some pictures using my HTC Desire HD and the Vignette app. The one above is an update of a picture I took in 2007.
We saw these lovely old Fisherman’s Cottages on the Seafront which have been converted into little apartments. They are right on the seafront and most of them have sea views. They looked like the perfect place for a weekend getaway but when we checked them out on line they were steamingly expensive!
This is one of the more unusual pictures I took – I saw them hanging outside a deli as we walked down the main street. You can see the rest of the pictures I took by visiting my flickr site. We went for Fish & Chips at a restaurant a few doors down from the Deli.
Have you ever noticed how much nicer Fish & Chips taste at the Seaside!
It was sad to hear recently about the death at the age of 61 from cancer of singer songwriter Jackie Leven. It has to be said that Jackie deserved more success than he achieved in life as he was a very talented man. In that respect I like many others was probably guilty of not buying enough of his albums or going to see him often enough but I’m glad of those times I did.
The first times I saw him were in the late 70′s as a member of the new wave band Doll by Doll. I saw them on the Friday afternoon at Reading in 1979 just below an up and coming band called the Cure. The next year found them on the bill at the Rock on the Tyne festival at Gateshead Stadium again just below an up and coming new band who went by the name of U2.
He next appeared on my radar in around 1994 when he released his Mystery of Love is greater than the mystery of death album. I heard the above song Clay Jug on the Johnny Walker show on Radio 1 and was knocked out by it. I bought the album and it has been one of my favourites ever since. I went to see him solo a couple of time. The first time was at the 12 bar club in London where I found to my delight that Chuck Prophet was also on the bill. However there was also a third act on which pushed the time that Jackie came on till quite late. I had to leave about 2/3rds of the way through the set and as I walked past him on the way out he made a sarcastic comment to which I replied “yeah well some of us have to get up in the morning!”
The last time I saw him was at the Tron in Glasgow in 2003 as part of the Celtic Connections festival. He was on top form and I really enjoyed it despite being somewhat inebriated by the time I got there do to a chance meeting with 3 strangers, all of whom seemed to be called Jim, in the Scotia Bar where I had popped in for a quick preshow pint of Heavy! They all insisted on buying me drinks and I was lucky to get away in time to see the gig.
It was a shock to find he had died as I didn’t know he was ill and in fact had only just suggested him as a possible act for this year’s SoL party a few days earlier. Another great talent that has been lost this year and will be sadly missed.
I went to see You are Wolf on Friday night at of all places the National Portrait Gallery in London. It was part of their Late Shift series where the gallery stays open till 9pm on Thursdays and Fridays and there are a series of talks, workshops, and gigs taking place. Alternatively you can just look at the pictures or relax with an (expensive) drink in the Foyer bar!
Curiously it’s not the first time I’ve been to a gig in an art gallery, many years ago I went to see a female jazz group called (if I recall correctly) Jazzawaki at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle. I don’t think an art gallery is a great venue for a gig, it’s quite a sterile environment, you can’t lean against the walls and there are lots of concerned looking attendants keeping an eye on you in case you look like you might be about to damage (or steal) one of the pictures.
I had been, however, wanting to see You are Wolf for quite a while, ever since I heard Sednastory and Shamansong from the 6 track ep Hunting Little Songs on Late Junction on Radio 3. It’s hard to describe the music but it probably fits somewhere around the folk genre. Having said that the night did include songs by Dolly Parton, Cole Porter and Hank Williams alongside traditional folk and self penned songs.
You are Wolf is ostensibly Kerry Andrew although she was joined at the NPG on two songs by her husband Andrew Furlow who played bass – although I thought the instrument was way too loud in the mix. As you entered the room you would have noticed a small collection of items around a chair – a microphone, a melodica, a glockenspiel, assorted cutlery and a wine glass! These are all used by Kerry to build up the instrumental backing for her songs alongside the two other vital ingredients - her voice and a loop station.
I found the whole thing quite mesmerizing to watch as she built up layer upon layer of sound to create these wonderful soundscapes that backed her vocals, although the vocals would also get looped into the mix as well and she harmonised with herself (the stand out example being Down to the River to Pray).
The audience seemed to enjoy it, there were people of all ages and the room was quite full. The venue had put out a load of stools and they were all taken so people either stood at the back or sat on the floor at the front. It was quite an eclectic crowd too including apparently Kerry’s Dad, who was seeing her perform as You are Wolf for the first time, and one girl in the front row sat drawing throughout the show. Sadly though it was all too soon over (the NPG obviously has a strange understanding of the word late as it was all done and dusted by 7:30pm)
I would highly recommend checking out You are Wolf – you can hear the Hunting Little Songs Ep by visiting her Soundcloud page and you can buy it from her website. I was pleased to see that part of the show at the NPG was filmed and you can watch her singing the Cole Porter Song Miss Otis Regrets below:
I thought I’d post this today for two people who died in the past few days:
The first is composer David Bedford who arranged the song and in particular the brass section played by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. He also worked with artists such as Mike Oldfield, Billy Bragg, Madness and even Frankie goes to Holywood!
The other person who sadly passed away was England Cricketer Dilly who died aged just 52. He played for England, Kent, and Worcestershire during his long career and I think I may have seen him play at the latter club but I can’t be sure!
Guitarist Bert Jansch passed away last night after a battle with Cancer. I saw him in 1979 supporting Fairport Convention at Sunderland Poly. Sadly of the photographs I took that night I only took 2 or Bert and both ended up out of focus!
