We're soon to depart for a two week summer holiday in Dunkirk Redcar, so after a sudden splurge of activity, I'll be going quiet for a couple of weeks.



I will have internet access though, and will be checking in occasionally, and may even do the odd post. Those up North who'd like to see me can contact me on the email address in my profile.

Have a great summer!


We're going by car....

1. The Lego I ordered still hasn't arrived. To wait two weeks for an internet order seems pretty poor to me, don't you agree? "Great Customer Service is a top priority for the LEGO Company" apparently - a good start would be replying to emails I sent asking what's going on...Very disappointing that my favourite toy company should be so rubbish.

2. Two recent LPs I've bought seem to demonstrate the growing acceptability of prog rock. Squarepusher's new one goes the whole hog, being a concept album based on a dream he had, features lots of very fancy bass-work and vocoders, and is at times pure 1973 jazz-fusion (albeit of the more attractive wayward end- take note spoombung, and even comes with a free poster. Meanwhile Max Tundra's Parallax Error Beheads You tones down the glitching fast samples, adds complex arrangements and finishes with a track that sounds like Caravan, I kid you not. I suppose, being an old punk of sorts, I should be appalled - thing is both albums are great.

3. Just finished watching "The Wire - Season Three". It's becoming a cliché to say how brilliant this series is, but I suppose clichés become clichés for a reason, and if the rest of television wasn't so simplistic, unrealistic rubbish in comparison to "The Wire" then the cliché would never have started in the first place. Despite coming late to "The Wire" we've always felt ahead of the crowd, being long time fans of of "the Wire"'s predecessor "Homicide: Life on the Streets" despite the wayward scheduling it recieved in the UK. I'm pleased to report that HMV are doing the "Homicide" boxes for £20 each. Time to get the last three series, I think.

4. Reading a third book by Barbara Vine, "The House of Stairs" - It really is some of the best-written stuff I've read anywhere, let alone within the confines of genre fiction. Thing is, I've never read any Ruth Rendel mysteries, will I like them too?

5. Lost Robots are up and practicing again - with a new energy despite our increasing average age (42, we worked it out at the last practice). New material is sounding funkier and spacier - which can't be bad. The album comes back from the pressing plant in a few days...very exciting.

6. For my solo gig on the 28th November, I've elected to do a song set of some of my old songs - I'm practicing quietly after the kids have gone to bed. I seem to have developed a new singing voice.

7. I really, really want to see The Baader Meinhoff Complex, and not just because I share my birthday with Ulrike Meinhoff. Circumstances suggest I'm more likely to buy the DVD when it comes out though.

8. The local shopping arcade has got its xmas decs up, and I was surprised that I wasn't annoyed by the unseemly earliness of it, but in fact felt a smidgeon Christmassy. Of course this will be our first Christmas with our own family, and yes, we're really looking forward to it. Plus I'll have stopped work, hurrah!

Poll #1296557
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 34

Are you feeling Christmassy yet?

Do you ever feel Christmassy?

As an atheist, should I even be allowed to feel Christmassy?

Our little holiday in Devon served its purpose - I feel rejuvinated and relaxed and able to take on my work for this week (ensuring that every composer still in copyright at this year's Proms get's paid the correct amount, since you ask).

The cottage we stayed in was great - and astonishingly child friendly (ie it didn't have loads of nick-nacks lying around at kiddie hand height) and being a bungalow the kids enjoyed the fact they could explore the whole house without having to negotiate stair gates.


May celebrates our arrival

The main purpose of the visit was to visit my Sister in Law and her daughter (Jack and May's cousin) who's five. So we weren't that bothered about the weather, which was just as well as wasn't very good. I did however get to check out all 16 of Barnstaple's charity shops, and came away with one creepy gem which I'll post about later. No, the main reason why nobody was bothered about the rain was that we had access to our own indoor heated swimming pool. J and M were a bit trepidatious at first, but soon got used to it and loved splashing about or being dragged about by swimming adults...only problem is I doubt they'll experience such a nice (and warm) pool again...



We also took advantage of being in Devon to meet up with local resident and all-round excellent chap alfaguru, who took us to the rather lovely Instow Beach, where we looked across the inlet to the rather picturesque Appledore, watched some cryptic aquatic army manouvres, and flew our kite (retrieved from the boot of the car where it lies 24/7 waiting for a suitably windy day) and had the sort of conversations that you wish you had more time for...


alfaguru, our guide and explainer...

In the evenings we watched pretty much all of "The Wire" series two, (just fantastic), and drank some local(ish) bottled beers.

On the last day the children put on a "show" for us - it consisted of nursery rhymes sang by the oldest one (our two don't talk, let alone sing!) while the younger two wobbled about and laughed. It was charming and hilarious.

1. Went to a lovely party on Sunday at Laura's house - great to see spoombung, Adam, Sean et al. spoombung's son was looking after Jack, which was really touching, whilst May seemed determined to climb to the top of the house, not bad for somebody who wasn't walking three weeks ago. My only worry was that I found myself talking about kids to the exclusion of anything else. Must watch that.

2. The new Bellowhead LP (red vinyl -free CD) is stupendous. Less ballad heavy than it's predecessor, and with most of the band working on arrangements, it's a scintlating set. I'll probably write a long review when I have a moment, but if you buy one record of big-band arrangements of EngTrad gems....The related Bright Young Folk website is well worth bookmarking.

3. I'm having a right hoo-haa with Tiscali and my home broadband - I'm a computer ignoraumus but I still have a better idea of how it works than their helpdesk. I've now gone a week without broadband (although I have managed to get a possibly illicit dial-up connection) and I'm astonished and slightly depressed by how much I rely on it.

4. Date for your diaries - Blackheath Morris Men featuring my good self (sadly my bad self is otherwise engaged) will be performing at the book launch of The Folklore of London by Antony Clayton. It's at The George in Southwark, on Thursday 16th October, with a performance at 8.00pm. Thanks to the mysteriously disappeared skitster for getting us the gig.

5. Towards the end of October we're having a little holiday Here. We've bought floating vest things for the kids.

6. I watched V for Vendetta on my ipod over several snatched moments. I rather enjoyed it, even on a postage stamp sized screen. Obviously not as good, or as deep as the comic, but OK.

7. As I tend to read the Sunday Papers about three weeks after they've been published, I only just came across Simon Reynold's article on the BBC Radiophonic workshop. He correctly identifies the appeal of and the reason for the decline of this institution -
Yet while the 80s were in many ways triumphant years for the workshop, the music that Radiophonic cultists cherish tends to be from the early, makeshift days, when magical results were achieved by the most rudimentary means: tape, razor blades, found sounds. By the mid-80s, electronic music gear could be found in any Dixons.
I'd say it was specifically the Casio SK1. The SK1 was about the most exciting thing about 1985.

8. I've been really enjoying this recording of Leonard Cohen live in Tel Aviv in 1972. Worth it for an early version of "Chelsea Hotel" (#1) as well as a wierd improvisation about "Machines" (I think he may be referring to the security guards at the gig, as things get a hairy later). Astonishingly loony comment on that blog though-
Sorry, but I cant ignore the beasts that inhabit that country. An audience full of young and proud murderers. When he likes to entertain them, fine, but I must not download it.. Sheesh.

9. "Bits" was the title of a song on the first Prag VEC EP.

With pictures as promised-


The children see the sea for the first time (well actually Jack has wandered in already hence soaking trousers...)

( more scenes of Northern sunny beaches etc )

...but I wish I was still here-


Huntcliffe, Saltburn, viewed from the water-powered cliff lift

And does this house look familiar?

1. Haircut, Sir!!!
It's got to that time - too long to spike up, and regressing to the Peter Torke (when neat)/Paul Foot (when scruffy), it's time for a lunchtime visit to Mr Toppers. Where once again I will be appalled at how much of my hair is now snowy white.

2. Spent last night making an MP3 CD for my cousin brotherturold of all the recordings I have of our earliest musical exploits, from Solaris (1974) to The Silencers (1978) - the sounds of kids making a din with whatever they could get their hands on. The curious/foolhardy can hear some of this juvenilia at my Multiply page - although these days you need to sign in to listen...which is an enormous bloody drag.

3. I'm done with HP Lovecraft - Verdict? Neither as bad as I feared, or as interesting as I hoped. Some stuff is effectively creepy and sick, but some of the more sci-fi orientated stuff like "The Shadow Out of Time", allegedly his masterpiece, was almost laughably bad with glaring logical flaws. I quite enjoyed Lovecraft's Anglophilia though, at least he spells "colour" correctly.
"The Colour Out of Space" was the best one I read, and came close to raising goosebumps.

4. I'm enjoying "Red Mars" enormously, so thanks to the folks who recommended it. I'm starting to wonder if the title has a political angle too...

5. The family are all in rude health. The ability of kids to move from "ill" to "robustly well" in very short spaces of time is astonishing- I note with a little envy.

6. We're all off to Redcar tomorrow, where relatives can coo over the kids, and we can show the kids the sea, ooooh! It also brings up the intiguing prospect of Ruth and I having a night out together for the first time in nearly four months.

7. Teessiders! is there anything we should definitely see while we're up? Good exhibitions etc... I think we're planing to go to MIMA, which might provide some meet-up opertunities. I will have internet access, so I'll keep sporadically blogging where I can.

Brussels was dead good actually. Although very cold.

Did all the expected things - We went to the big art museum and saw some paintings I'd previously only experienced on classical record covers. Ruth and I had our usual micro-argument about Cy Twombly, I think he's interesting, that his work seems to me to be almost souvenirs from dreams, Ruth on the other hand thinks he gives modern art a bad name, and that literally a child could do it...thing is, I know what she means too, but I still find him interesting. We both thought the goth-surrealism of Paul Delvaux was horrible though.



On the way to the Musical Instrument Museum we bumped into AC Grayling (there for a performance of his play) which was a pleasing coincidence! The museum itself was great - with a fantastic collection of old accordeons, however the visit was rather marred by running, screaming and apparently unsupervised children. The infra-red headphones which played the sounds of the instruments was a nice idea - even if (as I suspect) many recordings were of "generic harpsichord" rather than the exact instrument you were looking at.

In the end I didn't really get to any bars to drink lots of Belgian beer as you suggested - although we did eat at the Art Nouveau "Falstaffs" where the food was good, and we had a few glasses of Kreik. needless to say "frits" and waffles were consumed too.

The highlight for me though was the visit to the Atomium, newly refurbished to celebrate its 50th birthday. We went early on a Monday morning, and it was pretty empty (and shining in an extraordinarily blue sky) the nearest I'll come to walking in a space-station or a moonbase - just beautiful. A reall reminder of the optimism about the future that we've lost...







The new Eurostar route is fantastically fast too...

One more thing to ask you-

Ruth and I have a weekend in Brussels ahead of us, leaving on Friday. We've got guidebooks and stuff, but if you've been and recommend anything to see, or anything to avoid, I'd be grateful...

Ta.

This is the business!
In a tiny pub in Delph, Saddleworth, the North British Sword Dancers do their stuff. I shot this on Saturday...

Look, I've been a bit busy alright.

I've only just listened to and watched the video for The Schema, y'know rhodri's instant pop hit thing. It's utterly marvellous. But you probably knew that as you've probably been paying more attention than me.

Speaking of great pop music, you may remember me raving about Chopper Harris a few days ago. Well, I've since been in touch with the chap responsible for it all, and guess what? He once went to see a friend of his play at "Baggage Reclaim", the club I used to run at the 12 Bar Club and he remembered me. Some new stuff on that myspace page too, a bit more rocky than the earlier stuff mind.

Anyway, I mainly logged in to say I'm off for a few days to go camping in Saddleworth, pull a rushcart around, dance the morris, drink real ale, do a bit of mummering and generally immerse myself in slightly blokey, folky activity - like this



Back Monday.

It's nearly a week since the Sidmouth Fold Week finished, and I still haven't written a review. Realistically I probably never will, but you may get occasional posts like this which allude to it...

I've become fascinated recently in the process of learning an instrument, and in particular the strange state you get into when trying to master a tricky bit. For example, I'm still very much a beginner on the melodeon, and I remember thinking that I would never master the essential technique of setting up bass-lines with the left hand that are independent of the melody played with the right hand - especially when you factor in the added complication of the melodeon being a diatonic instrument, where each button plays a different note depending on whether you are pushing or pulling the bellows.

I eventually found that the best way to get over this (along with rigorous practice) was to stop thinking about what I was doing. If I looked at where my fingers were, or concentrated in any way on what my left hand was doing, everything would immediately go to pot. I still remember staring blankly at a poster in my "music room" when I suddenly realised I was doing what I previously thought was beyond me - this continued until I started concentrating on the music, and it immediately fell apart.

This all came back to my while watching the master squeezebox player John Kirkpatrick* playing solo in the intimate surroundings of the Bedford Arms of Sidmouth last week. The gig was a celebration of the concertina, and Kirkpatrick was demonstrating the vast range of styles and techniques you could employ on the instrument. Throughout the festival he'd revealed himself to be an extremely witty bloke, as well as a breathtaking musician (a squeezebox player so advanced from from my fumblings that it's actually pointless to compare us)

He played a piece he'd originally learned on the piano - a fiendishly complicated fugue, by a baroque composer I didn't recognise. He explained that, for him to perform it, he had to take his head to a different place where he didn't have to think about what he was playing. He put his head back and announced "I'll be back in a few minutes" and started to play.

It was completely hypnotic, in its own way as mind-bending as a solo saxophone performance by John Butcher or Evan Parker, and interestingly, he did make a mistake- a few clashing notes at which point he opened his eyes before submerging himself again and completing the piece.

Amongst the many astonshing performances I saw at Sidmouth, this was the most gripping, moving and incredible. As punks we were discouraged from respecting virtuosity, it took a performance like this to remind me that sometimes this almost heroic attempt to push an instrument to its limits commands respect.

I thought I'd get the negative things of my holiday out of the way, so I can concentrate on all the great stuff.

Not much really-

1. The rain and mud on the second day
2. The stench in the marquee with the CD and musical instrument stalls
3. The Bulverton portaloos
4. The inevitable starlit "walk of shame" from tent to toilet block.
5. Grumpy "proper" ceilidh dancers
6. Walking in bare feet on the stony beach
7. ...er....
8. That's it.

The great things about Sidmouth list will be much, much longer.

sham9 has taken some great photos, some of which, with her permission, I will steal. I have some interesting shots too, plus some field recordings. All to come, dear readers, all to come.

I imagine that it's something of a Cliché to describe a holiday as "much needed", but in this case I think it's true. What with the frenetic activity of the adoption process, the recent death of a morris colleague and , well , just work generally, I am seriously in need of a break.

And so I will have one - Ruth and I, sham9 and tycho_b, skitster and Clare are all off for 8 days of camping at the Sidmouth Folk Week.

I've even bought a triangle.

As I'm in a tent, and I'm not wi-fied, this blog will also be taking a break for the duration.....unless I get really bored and phone in an entry.

Comments will remain open, and upon my return I thoroughly expect to find the following

-about 20 indecypherable posts of anonymous Japanese spam.

-a furious post from a musician who's googled himself, only to find I wrote something rude about them about six months ago.

-a post, probably about Iraq, in a discussion that ended weeks ago.

-some gnomic Hartlepudlian wisdom from braz1, who of course comes over to London in the exact week I'm Devon.

So, I'm very nearly demob happy, and certainly will be when Blackheath arrive in Greenwich for "Ash Thursday" tonight, (details below) and if anybody would care to join me for a pynte, they're more than welcome.

Ta ra!

Right - off dancing in Greenwich, then straight to Teesside. Logging out for the time being, enjoy your bank Holiday!

You should see our new tent!




We got it for Sidmouth, but after putting it up in the garden we realise it's absolutely huge.
It has two bedrooms, so skitster or tycho_b and sham9, if you want to share, you'd be most welcome!

Our summer holiday this year is Sidmouth Folk Week. We're getting a new tent and everything.

Eliza Carthy (w/Spiers and Boden), Tim Van Eyken (my CD of last year), John Kirkpatrick and Brass Monkey are my must-sees. Plus loads of nice pubs, morris dancers galore, squeezebox sessions, and the seaside. I can hardly wait!

This is the only photo I have from the last time I went, taken with my key-ring camera-
Spiers and Boden were leading a session in this pub...


I'll have a better camera this year!

Who else is coming, then?

I'm back from my holday in the North East, and will soon be back to full blogging velocity.
In the meantime there are some 124 photos to go through.

But in summary-
Newcastle-


Redcar-


Whitby-


Scarborough-



Obviously it was also lovely to see my folks, and Ruth's, again, and especially lovely to see markhammonds and his family.

But considering how bloody cold it was in Teesside these last few days, it's also rather lovely to be home again.

Hope to see some of you at the talk tycho_b and I are giving at the British Humanist Association" tomorrow. It's almost certainly going to be pretty informal and anecdotal, with much room for discussion. A pint will be had afterwards.

Righto, I head for the North tomorrow, and will be in the following locations on the following dates- (in August)

Newcastle- Tuesday 1st - Wed 2nd
Redcar- Thur 3rd
Whitby- Fri 4th- Sat 5th
Scarborough- 6th- 8th
Redcar- 9th - 13th
Back in London 14th

My mobile number is 07815 965 104.

Boro friends in particular, the second Redcar stay would be a good time to meet up.

I will of course provide photos and anecdotes on my return, but mainly I'll be walking, swimming in the sea, reading and taking it easy.

Sheesh, I really need a holiday.

I lurch back into action on the 15th with a talk (with Neil Denny) at the British Humanist Association in London.

Cheers!

If I believed in such things, I'd say this was a good omen- I wondered into the local charity shop and found all three volumes of Edward Upward's trilogy "The Spiral Ascent" ("In the Thirties", "The Rotten Elements" and "No Home But The Struggle") for 50p each.

Goodness knows when I'll actually get a chance to read them, let's hope I have a life as long as Upward himself. He should be celebrating his 103rd birthday in 6 weeks time.


__________

Some more reading time becomes available next week when my ***Holiday*** starts;

Two weeks in the North East- a few days in Newcastle, then Teesside to see the folks, then walking down the coast to spend a few days in Whitby and finishing off in Scarborough. Can't wait.
__________

Oh, and I dare say a few of you will be excited about this concert by Jean Claude Vannier at the Barbican. The latest example of the idea of "recreating" classic albums live. Personally I think it's an artistically dubious and somewhat pointless exercise, akin to putting on 2001: A Space Odyssey as a stage play;- do-able but expensive and probably not as good as the film.

...I'm still tempted though.

* thanks to bad_cb for the Vannier tip-off