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?
I booked my tickets for this cinema show as soon as I saw them advertised. It would be unfair to say that I am a massive fan of the Grateful Dead but I have always had a kind of respect for what they have achieved and who they are. In my opinion the Dead are very much a genre defying band, it is very difficult to put them into a box. They take elements of west coast rock, jazz, psychedelia, soft rock, AOR and even prog. But ultimately they are the Grateful Dead and there is no band quite like them. Are they as good since the death of Jerry Garcia nearly 20 years ago in August 1995? They remain a great band but I believe they have evolved into a slightly different band without Jerry.
The remaining original members all form part of the band for the Fare Thee Well shows; Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann, all of whom were in the Dead since 1965. Percussionist Mickey Hart joined in 1965. Trey Anastasio off of Phish is part of the Fare Thee Well band on guitar and vocals (he takes some of the Garcia vocals) The band is further augmented with Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti. The last show was the last of three dates at the Soldier Field American Football Stadium in Chicago. It was filmed for a pay per view audience and it was a slightly edited version of that which the cinema simulcast contained.
The filming and cinematography was brilliant and at times stunning. The band was really on form and it is easy to see that the so-called ‘core four’ have been playing together for a life time. The band were on stage for more than three hours. When they played “I Know You Rider” it sounded like all 80,000 audience members were singing along to the somewhat appropriate lyrical refrain ‘I know you rider, gonna miss me when I’m gone’. My favourite songs from the show were “Throwing Stones” and “Mountains Of The Moon”. But you can’t ignore “Truckin'” which includes the line which for many Deadheads sums um the band. That line is; ‘What a long, strange trip it’s been’. Trey Anastsatio’s playing was phenomenal, for me particularly so on “Terrapin Station”. The last song before they returned for a two song encore was an audience rousing version of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”. The encore consisted of “Touch Of Grey” and “Attics Of My Life”. At least I think that was the title of the final song, if I am wrong please let me know.
Not being a full on Deadhead myself I have never seen the Dead play live. I have seen lots of footage of them playing live though. This film is a great testament to a great band and you should go and see it if you get the chance.Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan there is no denying that this is a classic concert movie. Is this really an epitaph for the Grateful Dead? Time will tell, but personally I believe that it is. Remember what Don Henley said in the song “The Boys Of Summer”? ‘Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. A little voice inside my head said, “Don’t look back. You can never look back”. If you have seen the film I would love to know what you thought of it.
I would like to use this post to send my congratulations to the people of Greece for voting Oxi or No to more austerity and humiliation at the hands of their so-called European partners. Whatever the outcome over the coming days, weeks and months I believe that this was the right way to vote. I am sure that it took courage those who voted and belief and passion from Greek ministers. If only UK politicians had that level of passion! Have Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis played a better game than Angela Merkel and her cronies? Only time will tell I suppose
Anyway this is a music post so celebrate the Oxi vote by listening to the Eagles with “The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks” (or Merkels, or more austerity!)
Former mop top and wings man Sir Paul McCartney was given a special gift when he played in Amsterdam recently. A Tulip that has been developed and grown in his honour. It took twenty years to create the red and white bloom. It’s botanical name is Tulipa Paul McCartney. I wonder if they tried to grow one in ebony and ivory colours?
Bjork finds that it helps to hold her breath when trying to stay oh so quiet!
Many of you probably knew that Bjork‘s “It’s Oh So Quiet” was originally recorded by American actressBetty Hutton in 1951. I certainly did. However I didn’t know another little musical trivia nugget about Betty until now. She was also the inspiration for the Throwing Muses song “Elizabeth Jane”. Sadly I have been unable to find a link to that song online. If you have one then let me know
Betty makes her best Ninja pose while trying to remain oh so quiet!
Sadly I missed the first Apollo Festival back in 2013 and then last year I had to leave early so I missed the headliner. However this year I was there for the day and what a bloody good day it was! With something like 50 acts across 5 stages I was never going to be able to see everyone but I did see a fair few acts. I was there with my wonderful wife Catherine ak.a. Catwoman and our great friends John and Caron who brought their daughter and our Odd Daughter (that’s another story) Amelia with them. Amelia proved beyond doubt that she is indeed a 5-year-old dancing dynamo of perpetual motion. Anyway enough of us, who did I see?
First up it was 4 Pint Milk in the Rick Witter tent. They are from Huntington School and seemed all of 16 (apologies if you’re older than that lads!). But they rock like they’re much older. The part of their set that John and I saw was cover versions, but damned good cover versions. Jake Bugg’s “Green Man”, the Smiths’ “This Charming Man”, Stone Roses “I Am The Resurrection” and my particular favourite, “Brianstorm” originally done by the Arctic Monkeys. I hope these boys succeed, they play really well and they have an excellent dour and dry northern wit.
Back at the main stage I only caught Fat Spatula’s last song. On the evidence of that I thought they sounded pretty good and I wished I could have heard more of them. I should add that Catwoman didn’t like them at all. Next on the main stage was the winner of this years Ainsty’s Got Talent contest, Beth Bryers. She undoubtedly has a great operatic style voice which she used over a number of dancey beats including Bastille. I get the appeal to some, however for me Beth is an acquired taste that I unfortunately didn’t acquire.
Rime Suspex though were something else, absolutely brilliant in my opinion. A relatively simple set up of a guitarist, singer and rapper. They were also accompanied by a number of samples I think. Imagine if South Africa’s Die Antwoord came from Blackburn and had better rhymes, well that is Rime Suspex in my view.My particular favourites from their set were “Money” and “Sick And Tired”. Given the lyrical content I almost certainly support their sentiments and politics. They didn’t hit the spot for my friend John, but he has never been a fan of white rappers. But I’ll work on him! Anyway I would definitely pay to see Rime Suspex again.
Our first visit to the Access Music stage brought us Matt Philpot. For me he was a pretty average singer songwriter singing 70s with a mostly laid back 70s vibe. The highlight of his set was a reggaefied arrangement of Aha’s “Take On Me” which I enjoyed. Next we saw the Rusty Pegs who are a bit alt. country and come across like a slightly more Nashville version of Fairground Attraction. I quite liked them.
On our return to the main stage the Happy Daggers were on. I missed the first part of their set but what I did see showed me that these fellows are funkin’ good and I want more! Rupert Stroud was on next, he and his band were very tight and well rehearsed. He is a rock influenced singer songwriter and he is bloody good. Imagine James Blunt with bigger balls, well that is Rupert Stroud.
After that it was a quick hop across to the Access Music stage for the magnificent Barcode Zebra. I saw them play at last year’s Apollo Festival and they were very good then. This year they were even better. Soul, funk, rock, jazz all in a musical blender supported by a really skilful band and an immensely powerful vocalist. I certainly hope to see more of them.
Now it was time for the wonderful Crybabycry on the main stage. They had been caught in traffic on their way, but believe me it was worth the wait. I saw them earlier this year in a tiny venue during Live In Leeds. On their performance then and at the Apollo Festival I will stick my neck out and say that I believe that they are one of the finest bands in the UK at the moment. Along with my other favourite UK bands; Avalanche Party, Colour Me Wednesday and the Tuts. Powerful three-piece Crybabycry deserve to be on bigger stages and if you don’t like them then I suggest that you pop out and get your hearing examined. Can we have them at Reading and Leeds please?
Awesome covers band the Mothers followed Crybabycry onto the main stage and they rocked their socks off. I danced near the stage for their whole set which included storming versions of songs by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, songs from the Stax back catalogue among many others. They were fucking brilliant and I might try to book them for my 60th birthday party, although that isn’t until January 2019. After that I paid a final visit to the Access Music Stage where Catwoman and I saw Armonia. They played some really chilled and laid back acoustic songs including a wonderful cover of Lordes’ “Royals”
Classic 90s scouse indie pop band Space were next on the main stage and they were blooming amazing. I had forgotten how many great songs they have recorded. Favourites like “Neighbourhood” and “Female Of The Species” were there along with some new songs and stuff that I have never heard before. There wasn’t a duff song in their set. My favourite is one that I hadn’t heard before, the rather fabulous “Boy In A Body Bag” which is a bloody fantastic tune.
Finally it was time for the head-liners the supremely talented Inspiral Carpets. I had seen them many years ago and they were always a band whose new release I would always check out. No other band of their generation rocks the Farsifa like these blokes do. The have some excellent songs in their canon including “Dragging Me Down”, “This Is How It Feels”, “Spitfire” and one of my all time favourite songs from any band or singer “Saturn Five”. Quite an appropriate song for the Apollo Festival don’t you think? The Inspiral Carpets used to refer to themselves as ‘cool as fuck’ and in my opinion they remain so. If you get a chance to see them you would be foolish not to.
Finally let me say a big, big thank you to the organisers of the Apollo Festival especially Mr Apollo himself Stuart Kelly. Also a big shout out to my good friend Simon Pattinson who is on the organising team. Everything was brilliant folks, including the weather. If you change anything for next year then I suggest that you increase the food outlets and vary them a bit. Can I also offer to volunteer to help with organising Apollo 2016?
This really is the final finally! If you haven’t done so already please click here to vote for the Apollo Festival in the Yorkshire Gig Guide Grass Roots Awards. I have!
Well given the weather it seemed somewhat appropriate 🙂
Public service announcement – none of the media contained in this post was filmed or photographed by me.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 