Baby Metal – not actual babies, but proper pop metal. I am now a big fan of this lot.
Fidlar – no fiddles, they’re not needed, these guys are superb.
Marmozets – even better than last year. Super awesome!
Slaves – the true spirit of late 70s punk lives on in these blokes, although maybe with a sprinkle of Jilted John. A great band though.
Spector – not Phil obviously, but they have got even better than the last time that I saw them.
Circa Waves – confetti waves at the end, this will be a hard band to follow. Brilliant!
Wolf Alice – not big and bad, but not bad. But a bit of a comedown after Circa Waves. We left their set a little early to see Royal Blood.
Royal Blood – a really well deserved Main Stage for this powerful band. The singer did try a little too hard on being cool though.
Bring Me The Horizon – can you actually bring anyone the horizon? I think not, however that really doesn’t matter. This band deserves to be immense. I reckon that they will headline the Main Stage here very soon. Probably on of the UK’s finest rock bands at the moment. I should add that the band’s public service announcement was hilarious.
Metallica – wow what a masterpiece of a show! It worked for the Metallica family and the more casual fans. The music and visuals were supremely good.
the people that we met today made it like a mini United Nations of rock. Two Metallica fans from Belgium and thanks for the band recommendation of Black Box Revelation. Then to the Metallica super fan from Spain who stood in the same spot for twelve hours. Dude we are not worthy. He also pointed out the band’s producer and manager along with members of Slayer in the mixing tower behind us. We also bumped into the Cheltenham crew again and there was not a hangover present in any of them.
two down and one to go, let’s see what day 3 brings! Hopefully no burrying!
Hello dear readers. It’s that Reading Festival time of year again. A time when I give you my humble opinion on all the acts that I get to see. I have maintained a very short review style for this year. I would love to hear who you liked best. My good friend Nick, myself and Richard an honorary Zimmer Twin probably all agreed that Limp Bizkit were superb.
Incidentally I took no pictures or video, because as a fan I prefer to watch the action in real-time and not through a tiny phone screen!
Return To Rome – no don’t go to the Italian Capital, stay here please
Drenge – good band and we didn’t get drenged!
Palma Violets – not from Palma and not very violet but these bastard sons of the Libertines and the Clash are pretty good.
Panic At The Disco – no panic, no disco just a stunning set from an awesome band including a brilliant cover of Bohemian Rhapsody!
All Time Low – not low, quite a high for us. A great band
Bastille – storming (geddit?) a good “afternoon on the Main stage” band. Brilliant covers of “No Scrubs” and “Rhythm Of The Night”. (TLC and Corona)
Peace – not too peaceful thankfully, rather good in fact.
Run The Jewels – well they’re not Run DMC are they?
Limp Bizkit – neither limp nor biscuit, but a band who for me have become top class. Hats off to Mr Durst and co.
New Found Glory – no longer new, no longer lost, but still glorious.
Django Django – I’m not sure which one is Django or indeed which one is Django, but either way they are an excellent band.
Another mission was accomplished in that I don’t see Mumford and Sons. Largely because I no longer see the point of Mumford and Sons anymore.
I should add that given some of the people we met there was definitely something strong in the Happy Meals! Kirsty from Cardiff and Anya from Cheltenham via Ireland, I hope your hangovers/ come downs aren’t too bad! Gary from Cheltenham via Scotland, you’re a top bloke! Finally I haven’t seen many people as excited as Mark the postie from Swindon, he is a big Limp Bizkit fan.
Day 1 was a good’un though. Let’s see what day 2 brings.
The AC/DC fans among you will be familiar with the firing of cannons during “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” when they play live. But did you know this 21-gun salute came from the fact that the band were recording around the same time as the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981?
Yet another gig recommended by my good friend Simon Pattinson and yet another one that he has got absolutely spot on. I am sure that he might get it wrong one day, but he certainly didn’t this time. It was also good to catch up with Mike Harrison as well. Once again it was a bargain, no more than five quid for four bands. How good is that?
First up were the magnificent Asio’s Eyes. Imagine Pink Floyd with a lot more punk and funk, perhaps joined by members of the original Parliament/ Funkadelic troupe, a couple of the Damned, add into this the Beatles at their most experimental, are you still with me? Good! Now all you need to do is add a massive dose of psychedelia. Stick all that in the blender, mix it with a few narcotics of some kind and you might well get Asio’s Eyes. Either way I have to say that this band is truly brilliant. It would be fair to say that I have never seen a more psychedelic band (perhaps until later into this gig at least!). I you have never seen them I suggest that you get off your arse and seek them out.
Next up were a band that regular readers of this blog will be very familiar with, the majestic Avalanche Party. One day I will watch them play and walk away thinking that they were far better the last time I saw them. Today was most definitely not that day! How the fuck does a band manage to get so much better every time I see them? I don’t know the answer to that, you’d better ask the boys in Avalanche Party. They were ably assisted tonight by a very talented guitarist from tonight’s head-liners Le Petit Mort. The old classics like “Mountains” were there along with new classics like “Money”. They played a great new song (apologies guys but I didn’t catch the title) and Jordan made another of his excellent incursions into the audience. If you still haven’t seen the amazing Avalanche Party then you haven’t been listening to me. Listen now and get out and bloody see them. That is an order!
Bull were on stage next and their membership includes two members of Worm, whose EP launch I saw at the Inkwell in Gillygate a few weeks back. Simon said that he thought that they sounded a little like the Strokes. He might be right but I saw much more than that. I think there are definitely elements of Frank Black and Bob Mould and even the more experimental R.E.M. tracks. A really exciting and punky band. I would definitely pay to see them again and I urge you to do the same. They are very tight with a really crisp sound and their musicianship is exemplary. Check them out now people!
OK so up until this point Asio’s Eyes were probably the most psychedelic band that I had ever seen. But then came the amazingly bizarre La Petite Mort. When people describe a band or someone as being “out there” I don’t think that they truly grasp what they are saying. But trust me, if there is an “out there” thermometer then La Petite Mort would blow the mercury right out of the top of it. Even if I wanted to say something negative about this band (and I don’t) then I would have to lie. Their playing and their stage presence is something to behold. This is a band that would be perfect for closing the Festival Republic stage at Reading/ Leeds. Are you listening festival organisers. La Petite Mort pull out everything in putting on a show. Guitars, bass and drums obviously. But also saxophone and sitar. On top of that they were joined by members of Asio’s Eyes for a proper bonkers final couple of songs. They finally left the stage after the drums were kicked over and a guitar was hung from one of the lights. If you like your music psychedelic and your bands somewhat mad then La Petite Mort are right up your street. They are definitely on my street and frankly I would go and see them again tomorrow if the opportunity arose. Can I compare them to any other acts or can I slot them into a genre? Nope I don’t think I can. But I can say that they are easily among one of the best bands that I have ever seen!
Finally it’s the public service announcements. None of the videos were filmed by me (all were available on YouTube) and all of the pictures were taken by me on my Nokia Lumia (can I have a new phone for the shout out please Nokia?). Also I had a chat with Tom, the bass player off of Asio’s Eyes and he is a top bloke. To the boys in Avalanche Party, sorry I didn’t get to spend a bit more time with you and where is my physical copy of the EP? 🙂
In my teenage years I would never listen to country music of any kind. Largely because my Mum And Dad loved it so in my youthful mind it became uncool. However as I have got older I have grown to love much country music; Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash among many others. But my favourite country artist right now, although it’s fair to say that her songs transcend the genre, is Roseanne Cash. Actually forget the genre comment she is simply one of my favourite singers. I fell in love with her music after hearing the ‘Black Cadillac’ album in 2006. She is an incredibly talented songwriter and she also has an amazing voice.
The show at the Brudenell on Tuesday night was a purely acoustic set which she performed with her supremely talented husband John Leventhal. They both had a great rapport with the audience many of whom have seen Roseanne Cash play live countless times. She mainly sang songs from her wonderfully story filled current album ‘The River And The Thread’. That LP won three Grammys earlier this year. She also had a great story to tell about the origins of the songs from that album too. Notably how the beautiful and melancholy “When The Master Calls The Roll” came to be written. Her son had done a school project on the American Civil War. On the Civil War database they found photographs of two of the Cash family. There are not many pictures on that database and the Cash family had ancestors on both sides of the conflict.
She sang a really moving version of “The Sunken Lands” which is my favourite song from that album. Along with “A Feather’s Not A Bird” and “The Long Way Home”. She played a few older songs, including a couple from ‘Black Cadillac’. There were also a selection of tunes from her album of covers of songs that her father Johnny kept on a list of 100 songs that where in his opinion pretty much all the songs you’d ever need to know. In my opinion that album, ‘The List’, is perhaps one of the finest covers albums ever recorded. She played “Girl From The North Country“, “Heartaches By The Number” and “Sea Of Heartbreak”. John Leventhal took over the vocal support role provided by Bruce Springsteen on the album.
Roseanne and John are clearly very happy together and their understanding of each other is clear. They both come across as very real, very humble and very human. They were also clearly having fun on stage. I will definitely go and see another Roseanne Cash show in the future. Catwoman and I enjoyed this show immensely. I should also mention the marvellous support act Ags Connolly. He comes from near Oxford and his album was recorded in Scotland but it really does have a brilliantly authentic country sound.
Here comes the usual public service announcement. None of the pictures or clips in this post were taken or filmed by me.
It’s great news that David Cameron and his dreadful Conservative government have at least postponed the vote on the repeal of the fox-hunting band. Having been out foxed Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP he is now a little like a fox on the run himself. Some UK newspapers are even referring to this as a humiliation for him. I’d like to think that he does feel humiliated but somehow I doubt that he does.
Well if you won’t let us posh arseholes hunt and kill foxes we’ll bloody well hunt vicious lambs instead!
For me the idea of chasing after a fox with a baying group of red jacketed toffs on horseback and a pack of dogs is not vermin control. It’s sadism. Anyway we and the foxes, live to fight another day. But don’t let the subject drop! This is but a small victory.
As I have said before this is a music blog so let’s celebrate with some fox related songs.
Cameron as the fox in a fox hunt? I’d pay to see that!
The delectable Catwoman and I took ourselves off to see the supremely talented Gregory Porter in Harrogate on Saturday night. Without a doubt he is an incredibly talented singer. If you see him as ‘just’ a jazz singer then you need to think again, yes he is very much in the jazz field but this guy also oozes soul and he can sing gospel and blues. His band is incredible and could easily work as an instrumental band in their own right. But when you add Mr Porter’s voice to the magical sounds the band produce you have a perfect mix.
Until tonight I had only really heard the songs from his ‘Liquid Spirit’ album. I hadn’t appreciated that this was his third album! Gregory is also a very talented songwriter. My particular favourites are “Liquid Spirit”, “Water Under Bridges”, “Hey Laura”, “Free” and “Wolfcry”. The pianist Chip Crawford is an incredible pianist and his playing reminded me at times of Mike Garson. In the extended intro to “Wolfcry” Chip slotted in a piece from ‘Peter And The Wolf’ and the ‘Star Wars Theme‘. Ithink my favourite song of the whole show was “1960 What?” from his first album ‘Water’
Listening to Gregory and his band I was reminded of my days of being a soul boy and heavily into jazz funk in the late 70s. His vocals have a hint of Marvin Gaye about them and the overall sound of Mr Porter and his band was for me reminiscent of Roy Ayers, Norman Connors, the Blackbyrds and especially Gil Scott Heron. I will definitely see Gregory Porter again if the opportunity arises. On top of his immense talent he comes across as a very gracious and humble man. He clearly has great respect for his band; Chip Crawford (piano), Aaron James (double bass), Emanuel Harrold (drums) and Yosuke Sato (Sax). I think the feel-good-factor injected from this gig will stay with me for quite a while.
As often happens I will end this post with a public service announcement. It is probably obvious, but none of the pictures or videos in this post were taken or filmed by me!
I recently had the misfortune to come across a FaceBook page for the Chilton Patriots. They refer to themselves as a white patriotic community in County Durham. Their pages are filled with hate posts and ironically I was accused of sending hate mail from York when I commented on their page suggesting that they are arrogant, uneducated twats. Clearly I don’t know that for certain and my judgement was based on the largely thoughtless and hate filled posts on their pages. So I have had a good long think and I have decided to send them an apology for calling them arrogant, uneducated twats. That apology is included in my open letter below. Incidentally the number of likes on their FaceBook page equates to around half the population of Chilton and more than twice as many as subscribe to this blog. So clearly there are a lot of similarly minded people around. To be fair their FaceBook page states (IN CAPITALS) WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOUR LEFT WING MULTICULTURALIST BULLSHIT ON HERE, SO IF THOSE ARE YOUR VIEWS… PLEASE DON’T BOTHER EXPRESSING THEM. WE DON’T CARE !!! So I suppose they won’t be particularly bothered by anything I say. Including, and I am being a bit pedantic here, it should read LEFT WING MULTICULTURAL BULLSHIT
I think I know what the response of the Chilton Patriots to this letter will be. But in order to have some balanced views I would appreciate comments from all parts of the world, whatever your sexuality, ethnicity or religion. Regular readers will know that I am not a bigot, as for these patriots, well I’ll let you form your own opinion on them.
An Open Letter to the Chilton Patriots Group
Dear Representative(s) of the Chilton Patriots FaceBook group,
I realise that my nasty comment on one of your posts must have struck a nerve so I wholeheartedly apologise for referring to you as arrogant, uneducated twats. Clearly that is not the case entirely as you did reply and suggested that you had received hate mail from York. Hate mail? Really? Just three words is hate mail? Wow. I also find it quite ironic that a group based upon hatred of anyone who may be different to them can see my phrase arrogant, uneducated twats as hate mail. So I believe that I should reword my comment on you and précis it down to perhaps one word; racists.
You also said that you saw no condemnation of the murders committed by ISIS on my FaceBook pages. This is probably true. However getting anyone to read any kind of political post is difficult on a social networking site such as FaceBook given that people seem to spend most of their time talking about Katie Hopkins, X-Factor, sharing Britain First posts (more on that later) and watching cute kitten videos. Anyway for your information I do condemn any terrorist atrocities under whichever flag they are committed. The people who carry out these murders are not religious they are evil, murdering scum. The same goes for those who shot holiday makers in Tunisia and the man who shot and killed many people in the church in America recently and those that are currently burning black community churches in the USA. Indeed the same can be said of the IRA murders in the 70s and 80s. You need to move away from the ridiculous idea that all Muslims are terrorists in the same way that all Irish Catholics were not terrorists.
Am I a patriot? Well that depends on your definition of the word my friend. I am proud to be English, proud to be British, proud to be European, proud to be an Earthling and proud to be a human being. I am proud to live in a country that enables free speech, even if it does give the likes of you a platform to espouse vitriolic hatred of groups that do not fit your definition of normal. I am a white, straight male and I have friends who are the same. I also have friends who are gay, and friends whose skin is a different colour to mine. I have friends that are religious and that includes Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews. I also have friends that are atheists. Personally I don’t believe in god. Just in case you might think that I am sexist I also have a number of friends that are women.
I also love all kinds of music; rock, soul, reggae, punk, rap and most other things apart from perhaps opera. Doesn’t it annoy you that they don’t do operas in English? I’m sure it must do
I also note with interest that your Facebook group makes liberal use of the English flag, the flag of Saint George. That is a flag that I am also very proud of. Although an American comedian once said that pledging allegiance to a flag is about as useful as reciting a love poem to a sock. I tend to agree with him. I assume you know that Saint George was not English and that he is from Greek and Palestinian descent? Some histories have him as Lebanese. Not only that he is also the patron saint for a number of foreign countries; Georgia, Malta, Bulgaria among others. Among all the saints he is also a bit of an exception in that he is often venerated by Muslims. He also slayed a dragon, well ok perhaps the last part isn’t true, but I suppose one never knows.
I also note with interest the phrase ‘true English blood’ that appears on your page. Can you explain what you mean by this? Clearly Saint George never had true English Blood. Are you suggesting that there are indigenous English people here in our green and pleasant land? Somehow that is very unlikely given that this island has been invaded raped and pillaged over thousands of years by the Romans, the Vikings, the Angles, the Saxons and perhaps more. Many of us are probably 40th generation Roman or 30th generation Viking. Let’s not forget the Scots either, they once held York. I assume that being English means that you also hate the Scots? If so that is a shame as I am half Scots and very proud that my Scottish father served in the Royal Navy for 12 years.
During the Second World War this country might well have been overrun by those evil, scumbags the Nazis. I believe that they too hated anyone who was different to their definition of normal. They killed millions of people; Jews, blacks, gays, gypsies, disabled people and probably others. It seems to me that knowingly or perhaps inadvertently you seem to share some of their ideology. But I am very pleased to see that you haven’t stooped to using the swastika yet, well not as far as I can tell anyway.
You are free to hate me and you probably will, but I don’t hate you I pity you. I assume that someone so full of hatred must surely have some serious issues. Maybe if you stopped reading (and believing) the tabloid newspapers and supporting UKIP, BNP and the like it might help with those issues.
Incidentally if like Britain First you are in fact a brilliant satirical joke put together by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker then I salute you for putting one over on me. Click here to read that story!
Also my sentiment and opinions regarding hate groups or communities built on hatred are the same whatever their flavour; from right wing English thugs to ISIS
Peace and Love and proud to be full of left wing multicultural bullshit
William xx
P.S. This is largely a music blog so please enjoy the following tunes which are largely related to the subject matter above
I had looked forward to seeing the Amy Winehouse documentary and I really hoped that it would be good. Well in my opinion it was a marvellous documentary of a modern tragedy. It portrayed what I would imagine was the real Amy Winehouse; a very talented and very vulnerable girl. I was moved to tears on a couple of occasions. The recording of the song “Back To Black” was one and hearing her take on fame was another. It was an emotional roller coaster because I also felt great anger at the way the scummy, tabloid paparazzi hounded this poor troubled woman when she was possibly at her lowest ebb.
Tabloid journalists (is that an oxymoron?) and the paparazzi ought to be ashamed of themselves, although I doubt that they are. It felt to me that apart from her two friends since childhood, her first manager and her bodyguard she had no ‘real’ friends. Plenty of people who wanted a piece of her but not many who truly loved her. I may be doing them a disservice, but her parents seemed at best misguided about how to handle her. As for her final gigs, which she clearly didn’t want to do, who the hell made the decision to bundle her on a private jet to do the gig in Serbia? She was wasted and lost and clearly in no fit state to perform. Amy also had a lifelong issue with bulimia. A former girlfriend of mine died as a result of that horrible disease many, many years ago and I can still recall how awful that was.
Amy Winehouse had what seemed to be a natural talent. Tony Bennett said that she was one of the best jazz singers that he had ever worked with. Her death is a tragic end to such a talented life and it has stolen a massive and enduring talent from the music world. Amy was not only a talented singer and interpreter of songs she was also an exceptionally talented songwriter. If you haven’t seen this film yet then I would urge you to do so.
We are all familiar with the Andy Warhol designed cover for the Rolling Stones 1971 album ‘Sticky Fingers‘ I presume? If you bought the album in Spain when it originally came out then you might not be too familiar with the good old zipper cover. The original cover was censored by the Franco regime, presumably as it depicted the groin area. The track listing was also deemed inappropriate on the Spanish release of the album on which “Sister Morphine” was replaced by a live version of Chuck Berry’s “Let It Rock”. That was originally available on the B-Side of the classic Stones single “Brown Sugar“.
The zipper cover for which Andy Warhol was allegedly paid £15,000 was replaced in Spain by the one above which shows some sticky fingers rising from a tin of Fowlers West India Treacle. Is it just me or is that likely to just as offensive to anyone offended by the original album cover?
