A quick glance around the schedules

[johncorrigan]

Listening to 'Pick of the Week' this evening I hear that you can listen to a bunch of Sir Van related 70th birthday programmes on BBC Radio Ulster, including the whole of the Cypress Avenue concert.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0681pb7

[Lat-Literal]

Listening to 'Pick of the Week' this evening I hear that you can listen to a bunch of Sir Van related 70th birthday programmes on BBC Radio Ulster, including the whole of the Cypress Avenue concert.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0681pb7

Hi JC. I see you are online and you must post another one immediately so that you are at the top of the thread. But I just thought I'd say that I have the concert on now and it is fabulous. Van sounds on very good form and I would have really loved to have been there. Not sure how many times I have see him live. Four, I think, and all in the sunshine at festivals. Not nearly enough. It has been quite a while since I have been to live events. Seeing Van again is a priority. The BBC have produced an excellent package for his 70th birthday. Anything less would have been inappropriate. Musician, poet, healer........he is to my mind Britain's greatest ever solo artist. And he always makes the world feel right.

(That rendition of "Days Like This" is sublime.........that's where I am up to at the moment. )

[johncorrigan]

Hi JC. I see you are online and you must post another one immediately so that you are at the top of the thread. But I just thought I'd say that I have the concert on now and it is fabulous. Van sounds on very good form and I would have really loved to have been there. Not sure how many times I have see him live. Four, I think, and all in the sunshine at festivals. Not nearly enough. It has been quite a while since I have been to live events. Seeing Van again is a priority. The BBC have produced an excellent package for his 70th birthday. Anything less would have been inappropriate. Musician, poet, healer........he is to my mind Britain's greatest ever solo artist. And he always makes the world feel right.

(That rendition of "Days Like This" is sublime.........that's where I am up to at the moment. )

I watched an edited version of the concert on Beeb4 yesterday evening, Lat - great musicians as you'd expect and a fine, if kinda shy, lone backing singer. I really enjoyed 'Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child' - I hadn't expected him to sing it but loved it. Mrs C thought his hat was not so , mind you, and I have to agree I've seen better. I look forward to listening to the unedited version on BBC Radio Ulster - what'd we do without the Beeb?

[johncorrigan]

Further to the Van celebrations, the esteemed Mr Globaltruth sent me a link to Van's 'Duets' record and I have to say that I thought this with Taj a right topper. Two wonderful vocalists together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D9CuksR2iY

[Globaltruth]

Further to the Van celebrations, the esteemed Mr Globaltruth sent me a link to Van's 'Duets' record and I have to say that I thought this with Taj a right topper. Two wonderful vocalists together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D9CuksR2iY

Ah yes, JC, that's a good one, although some of Van's choice of duetting partners leave something to be desired (not just on that album btw). However....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdLz-Rr3Eho Milk/cream/alcohol. Indeed.
And, if you can stand the synch failure and the ill-advised comb over...here's a lovely version JLH with VtM , relaxed performance, 'BEAUTIFUL' says JLH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkP7-BS-lfg

[johncorrigan]

And, if you can stand the synch failure and the ill-advised comb over...]

Still better than the hat he was wearing on the box the other night, G. Great stuff from JLH.

[johncorrigan]

Tribalism and violence in pop on R4 this morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b068xrkt

[Lat-Literal]

Tribalism and violence in pop on R4 this morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b068xrkt

Dunno. I'm not sure that this was one of Paul Morley's finer moments. 2015 is the year in which I have had to become post-political. My senior school politics teacher who must be nearly 70 now is one of Tim Farron's personal assistants. We were like minded in the early 1980s but I have abandoned any notions of contributing to change or even knowing what is best policy. While Morley spoke of politics, the appeal of the tribes was in the music and the style but not originally for me in close proximity. As one who didn't have brothers or sisters - and whose parents got on well with their siblings - I never handled conflict easily and found reports of violence so off putting that I didn't venture far throughout the 1970s. That is to say I didn't set foot inside any football stadium between 1974 and 1982 and my gig going only really commenced with a return to what became regular football in 1982.

What I discovered - and a part of it involved my mindset - was that there was far more camaraderie among crowds/audiences in sport and music than I anticipated and the people who gathered were often surprisingly multi-generational. I can only think of one football match I attended where there were very serious problems and one gig in which there was a bit of a fight. The latter was on seeing the Redskins who were mentioned in the programme. It was in a hall at York University and we were informed that it was "townies" who had come looking for trouble. As we were so distant from it, I have no idea whether the "townies" were fighting students or among themselves. I brushed it off on account of my determination to cope with a natural timidity and a social sensibility which perhaps oddly felt more at ease among everyday folk than achievers. It all seemed trivial. A non-event.

The achievers who showed up for this not very Radio 4 broadcast are slipping further into cliche. Those who took part accentuated the aggression in the culture every bit as much as did the tabloids at the time. There was a frisson in their descriptions as to suggest it was all a bit of a thrill while they also emphasized as responsible parents and perhaps even grandparents that it is good that everything is much safer now. Hey, apparently, in most places these days there is a greater likelihood of finding women. There were always women at these events, although admittedly far fewer, just as there were in truth always many women before the 1970s who had to be employed to make ends meet. There were women at the Jesus and Mary Chain gig I attended in the mid 1980s not without concerns about getting out of there alive. Their audiences had something of a reputation not for being a tribe against any other tribe but for violence generally. As far as I can recall, there was no sign of trouble. Dear Paul may have been following John Surman that night.

Given that I walked into a lot of places in the 1980s with the scariest of ideas planted in my mind by the national newspapers, there was a sense of having to be brave in order to pursue enjoyable interests. By the end of that decade, I had learnt all about being among the robust but also that what a lot of media people said was essentially overly-romantic nonsense. Nonsense about the extent of overt aggression and indeed its merits where it occurred. Call me naive but to my mind there was clearly no capital gain to be had in one group of ordinary people fighting against another group of ordinary people. It was a wimping out from tackling economic inequalities head on. Not that I favoured a 1970s' style union revolution as I was by instinct essentially compliant. That instinct emanated from genuine older guard working class roots and a generation immediately above my own which had done pretty well out of the state. It was not without conservatism with a small c. It believed in self-reliance, community spirit and the ruling classes being more principled.

But here's the rub. While I believe I had fluffy dice in the first car I drove and moved on to casually wearing Sergio Tacchini shirts on the terraces at the Arsenal, that very slight buying in culturally to my fairly ordinary background was accompanied by a bit of intelligence. We were the people who believed with historical references to Joni Mitchell and Joe Strummer that we would be among those moving towards a modern political and economic system of greater equality. There was emotional investment in it even if it turned out to be unreal as we had seen how our grandparents had not necessarily always been treated well. They were still within our living memories. So there we were with Bragg and others not fighting but musing on the notion that what was going on was obviously temporary, giving little thought to the international dimension, and preparing when called up to help in an entirely systemic way in getting things back on track. Well, of course, it never happened. Everything went into reverse. It became a case of realizing that the people in our families who had informed our opinions had long gone and if we weren't careful we could end up in the same position as them. When redundancy occurred, it triggered a lengthy and complicated re-assessment of everything exceedingly unhelpful that had been done to me personally since 1962. What I saw was that every single act of violence had been perpetrated by the state and/or arms of the establishment. Meanwhile, Bill was on Any Questions again having travelled up from Burton Bradstock being more talk than walk.

I have all the time in the world for the teenagers who donned the gear when I was working towards qualifications and didn't merely dabble with it individually as I did. The most I can feel is a shrug of a shoulders when considering the various rucks which I didn't witness. A lot of the music was fantastic, the clothing was great and who wouldn't want to seek solace in a tribe if having to spend the vast majority of time in a local authority tower block flat when growing up? Having relatives in several such flats, I knew precisely what that experience entailed. However, while now being three quarters owner-occupied and looking out on a bit of woodland that remains, I am not and never will be comfortably middle class. I never really achieved and it is less and less of an issue for me just as any acute political emotion I had has long since waned. Consequently while I can fully sign up to the idea that youth culture is less interesting, innovative and even edgy in 2015, I don't think I am in such a privileged position to suddenly become ever so nostalgic about it all.

It may have been a climate in which men were men and although it was old fashioned that frequently meant a bit of turf war. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. And try younger people to get the gist of what we the achieving middle aged ex-hipsters mean. You all should have been there in the trenches on the front line but luckily you are far safer and only we had to learn how to survive in the toughest times. What it underestimates is the significance of community and often fraternity in that era which was not necessarily political but rather more solid for being simply routine. It is also almost certainly a blinkered view for there is little doubt in my mind that there is more extreme violence not only in today's culture but as it has impacts on real folk on the ground. And of course none of it holds a candle to the economic violence that is systemically authorised day on day now. All else is hype!

[Lat-Literal]

....I am still quite light in mood, though.

Thanks for the link.

Now it's rapidly back to Van the Man.

[johncorrigan]

....I am still quite light in mood, though.

Thanks for the link.

Now it's rapidly back to Van the Man.

You're response was a lot more interesting than the R4 programme, Lat. My abiding memory of this violent time was going to see the Undertones on Sauchiehall Street somewhere. It was a joyous and uproarious gig and everyone left in jubilant mood - that feeling of common joy that takes over a crowd sometimes. A couple of hundred yards up the road we passed a disco-ish establishment where a couple of bouncers were rather violently ejecting a customer, and having chucked him out, they proceeded to pick him up and chuck him back in again - only thing was that the door only opened outwards - it looked mighty sore, but we being, as you so beautifully put it, 'compliant', walked on by with merely a tssk, and let our jubilation evaporate like the proverbial snow that were once on the dyke.

Regarding the programme they should just have played 'Ghost Town' for 30 minutes...that would have suited me grand...I mean if your eye-witness is Clare Grogan...I mean, honestly!!!!!

[Lat-Literal]

You're response was a lot more interesting than the R4 programme, Lat. My abiding memory of this violent time was going to see the Undertones on Sauchiehall Street somewhere. It was a joyous and uproarious gig and everyone left in jubilant mood - that feeling of common joy that takes over a crowd sometimes. A couple of hundred yards up the road we passed a disco-ish establishment where a couple of bouncers were rather violently ejecting a customer, and having chucked him out, they proceeded to pick him up and chuck him back in again - only thing was that the door only opened outwards - it looked mighty sore, but we being, as you so beautifully put it, 'compliant', walked on by with merely a tssk, and let our jubilation evaporate like the proverbial snow that were once on the dyke.

Regarding the programme they should just have played 'Ghost Town' for 30 minutes...that would have suited me grand...I mean if your eye-witness is Clare Grogan...I mean, honestly!!!!!

John, I like your story very much. Sauciehall Street eh? I won't say the year when I learnt how to pronounce it correctly but it was much later than it should have been. At least it happened. Thank goodness for the BBC. I know exactly what you mean about the feeling in a crowd as people leave a great concert. My mind goes immediately to the Academy in Brixton. There is a feeling of insulation as well as jubilation not that it was generally needed. The Undertones say late 1970s or early 1980s to me. The NME related indie scene which emanated from that period - as you will know, it could often be more mainstream than independent, albeit "fringy" - did often have an all clubbing together air about it. In contrast, a d-i-s-c and o may imply an "are you looking at my bird?" and other relationship matters. Not too many people in one would have needed to find the motivation to stop reading up on record labels so as temporarily to join the outside world. As for Clare Grogan, she is the one female celebrity who ever literally stood behind me. Hence it was the people I was with who were the eyewitnesses to it and advising me not to refer to her in person. That, implausibly, was in The Mall. She had moved on from Altered Images to Universal Love School and while I'd love to be able to say that we were all in Buck House we were, in truth, at the ICA given the absence of a decent disco in the immediate area.

[johncorrigan]

John, I like your story very much. Sauciehall Street eh? I won't say the year when I learnt how to pronounce it correctly.

We used to call it Sausage Roll Street, Lat. For me, Clare Grogan was never really better than as Gregory's Girl.

[johncorrigan]

I notice that one of my favourites, the wonderful Rickie Lee Jones, is on the first show of a new Later tomorrow evening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cktf0

[Lat-Literal]

I notice that one of my favourites, the wonderful Rickie Lee Jones, is on the first show of a new Later tomorrow evening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cktf0

Oh yes. I remember working in the same office as a rather unusual and deliberately awkward young gentleman. My approach was to talk music for harmony. He subsequently recorded a few of his favourites on a cassette for me. I was staggered that he had responded in that way and thanked him but afterwards he became more difficult still. Anyhow, that was my strange introduction to Leo Ferre who became a favourite. I believe he included "Blood on the Rooftops" by Genesis and some classical music. And there was "The Magazine" by Rickie Lee Jones. Smashing and it at least helped me to place him. Slightly ethereal and with an individual, not uninteresting taste in what matters. I see Jools has My Morning Jacket too. Now there is an odd band. My prediction is that they will be disappointing, not least as the vocals are hardly what could be called strong. But when I heard that "Thank You Too" song on "Evil Urges", it also surprised me. It is one of the most solid soul songs - admittedly very commercial - that has been recorded in the last 20 years and I like the sensitive production. What I really want to hear is someone like Smokey Robinson on it or, for grit, Lee Fields. The latter was just so great on the Stones's "Moonlight Mile":

Rickie Lee Jones - The Magazine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD1wBDgT63c

My Morning Jacket - Thank You Too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OctDVly5SCc

Lee Fields - Moonlight Mile - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF0nUnF4w0Q

[johncorrigan]

Thanks for them Lat - very fine version of Moonlight Mile there.
My great, but sadly deceased pal Framey bought a 10 inch LP/EP of Rickie Lee Jones - 'Girl at her Volcano'. We used to sit up listening to this wonderful live record full of fabulous jazz standards and other covers. After he died his girlfriend invited me to take a few of his LPs as a memento. This was one of them and every time I hear these I think of that great guy. Here she is doing Tom Waits' 'Rainbow Sleeves' - 'a heart that has been broken will be stronger when it mends'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKMGH1Xhtc0

...and topping the Four Tops on 'Walk Away Renee' - I find it almost sacrilegious to say it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNo3U5G1Vx8

A neglected gem is 'Girl at her Volcano' I would say.