Oh no, I just bought Queen’s Greatest Hits! Oh yes, they’re really good!

Posted on February 3, 2012 by John S

And the platinum version at that. Three CDs’ worth.

I’ve been resisting that purchase for years.  I’ve got a bit of history with Queen though.  It’s one of those guilty pleasures.

The immediate cause of the purchase was the 50th birthday party I did the music for last Saturday (see the blog I wrote in anticipation). One of the birthday people wanted “Don’t Stop Me Now” to be on the playlist.  I didn’t have it.  Download the track or just go for the whole album?  I twitched,  quivered, contemplated owning “Fat Bottomed Girls”, shut my eyes, gritted my teeth and just pressed that BUY button.  What the hell!

I’ve got history.  I loved Queen’s early albums. The first four, especially numbers three and four. That would be “Sheer Heart Attack” and “Night At The Opera”.

In the mid seventies, when they came out, I was a metal and rock fan first and foremost. Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Bad Company, Free, Thin Lizzy, Nazareth, Budgie, Purple, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, etc, etc. And Queen. They rocked, sometimes.  They flounced too, and they knew how to write a pop song (“Killer Queen”, anyone?) but they did rock.  “Seven Seas of Rhye” off “Queen II” was the hit that introduced them to a lot of people, me included. That rocked.  “Now I’m Here”, “Brighton Rock” and “Stone Cold Crazy” were three of the greatest rockers in my book.  Still are today. “Brighton Rock” is Brian May’s finest moment.  He does a Hendrix and takes his guitar to places where no man has gone before. “Stone Cold Crazy” was covered by Metallica on “Garage Inc”. That’s metal.

“Night At the Opera” is Queen’s finest album.  Of course it is. It’s got “Bohemian Rhapsody” on it.  I still remember how excited I was by that song when it came out, in 1975. There had never been anything like it.  All those different phases, building to the metal wig-out.  Of course that was my favourite bit.  At the time it seemed like perfection. I wanted that riff to go on forever.

The whole album was amazing, with such variety. The “Prophet’s Song” was as adventurous musically as “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and “Death On Two Legs” and “I’m In Love With My Car” gave me my metal fix.  For a short while it was the best album in the world, ever.

Then punk happened and Queen slipped right off the agenda.  Overblown, effete, increasingly self indulgent – that was my take.  I rejected them – though not my old favourites.  They were a guilty secret before we talked about guilty secrets.

And really, from then on, though I absorbed all the hits, I just wasn’t a Queen fan.  And some of the songs were just awful.  I mean, “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “Bicycle Race”. How could the band that made “Brighton Rock” descend to such embarrassing depths, I asked myself. And that video for “I Want To Break Free”. The band that made ‘Bohemian Rhapsody”? Ho, hum.  I did like the bass line to “Under Pressure” and couldn’t resist the hard funk of “Another One Bites The Dust”, but that was about it.

Leave Queen to the masses…

So what changed?

Did I just grow old and get ever more nostalgic?  Well, I grew back into metal when iTunes allowed me to assemble old favourites with a click and a drag. And that included the Queen classics. But not all the other stuff.

Then some other things happened.

1. My kids, when they were a bit younger, really liked “We Will Rock You”.  I grew to appreciate it, especially the riffing at the end.

2. Last year in our summer holiday on the Costa Brava, Spain, we saw a Queen tribute band at our holiday camp, Cala Gogo. The band played mostly the eighties pop classics, rather than my metal favourites. The audience went mad for them, especially a large Dutch contingent.  Never mind that the singer looked like Harry Enfield (British comedian) rather than Freddie Mercury, it was a huge amount of fun.

3. The BBC made a two part documentary about the band and Freddie Mercury’s battle with AIDS. It was superb.  Brilliant about the music and incredibly sensitive and moving about Freddie.  You had to love him at the end of it. I went straight back to the music after watching it. Listened to the albums that I had… and hovered over that greatest hits, the music I’d rejected. I just managed to resist the purchase.

4. And then the party just now.  Suddenly, I thought, what the hell, just get the lot, rather than download a couple of tracks.  I know there’s some good stuff there as well as some complete twaddle. So I did the deed. Pressed BUY.  And “Don’t Stop Me Now” went down so well at the party.  Late on. Amongst young and old. It rocked! As it had when Harry Enfield belted it out on a warm Spanish evening in front of some crazy Dutch people. I accepted the reality.  Queen are a truly great pop band. As well as the brilliant metal band I loved in the seventies.

So, on the tube this morning, as I went into work, I put the Platinum Collection on, on shuffle.  While reading the Guardian on my iPad. I loved it, especially the remix of “Another One Bites The Dust”, featuring Wyclif Jean and Pras Michel from the Fugees. That was really cool.

So there you go.  I’ve succumbed. My resistance is over.  I will maintain that the first four albums were the best.  But I will agree that Queen are actually one of the greatest pop bands ever. And that they still appeal to all the generations.  Not many can do that.

I still draw the line at “Fat Bottomed Girls” though…

God save ’em!

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Westminster Cathedral – a trapped treasure

Posted on January 30, 2012 by John S

I work in a tower block at one end of Victoria Street, London SW1, the station end.  It’s fine- in fact it’s good.  The surrounding shops are excellent, there are plenty of restaurants and bars, and the transport links are as good as you can get. Victoria station is hateful in the rush hour, but that’s part of London life.

But something that bugs me just about every day as I walk out to get a sandwich, or a bit of Japanese nosh, is WHY did THEY, whoever THEY were, consent to build office blocks so close to Westminster Cathedral that they have largely destroyed the view of that magnificent building, the home of the English Catholic church?

This is what I mean.

Actually, simply by asking the question you answer it. The English establishment, back in the late 50s and the 60s, probably didn’t give a damn. Booming London – private and public – needed office space. Victoria Street was ripe for redevelopment.  It happened.  Obviously didn’t extend quite extend to the other end of the street, home of Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. Understandable. The true heart of the British, not just English establishment. Don’t worry about the Catholics though.

I’ll declare an interest.  I am not a Catholic, but I am married into a Catholic family.  But this piece is not about religion: it’s about the assault on the beauty and dignity of a special building. But it is also about how it survives and prospers, and how some of the new architecture in the area brings new perspectives.  So an optimistic story in the end.

A tiny bit of history. The Cathedral opened in 1903, construction having started in 1895. The Archbishop at the time was Cardinal Vaughan, the architect John Francis Bentley.  The design was “Neo-Byzantine”.  (I’m nicking all of this off Wikipedia, of course). The site, centuries before, was part of the Westminster marshes. The Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey had reclaimed the area, and it was used as a market and a fairground.  Later it was  a space for a maze and a pleasure garden (whatever that is) and a ring for bull-baiting (that doesn’t sound good).  Between the 17th and 19th centuries it seems to have been the site of various prisons, before the Catholic church acquired the site in 1884.  So not the holiest of backgrounds. But ready for redemption.

Anyway, back to the present and some photos to illustrate my theme.

The earlier photos showed how hemmed in the Cathedral is. This one shows how hidden.

(You can enlarge any of the photos by clicking on them)

The sixties blocks are rather ugly, but the juxtaposition with the Cathedral can be interesting.

And once you get beyond the office frontage of Victoria Street, things relax, and there is some beauty. Or maybe grandeur rather than beauty. Here’s some detail:

And there is also harmony with the surroundings when you get away from the hideousness of Victoria Street itself.  The buildings nearby are constructed in a similar style, in red brick. And, as ever, the presence of trees adds to the spectacle.

It’s very stripey. Must be those neo-byzantines!

What I do like is the view from the other side of Victoria Street once you step back a bit. The whole area was redeveloped a few years ago, creating what is now known as Cardinal Place – respect for the Cathedral in that name.  It was clearly designed so that there is a vista of sorts. The old and the new, jarring, but also complementing.

And glimpses through the architecture.

Just for context, here is Victoria Street, shot from the same area as the Cathedral lurks. Nondescript is the best description.  Ugly, maybe.  But not to forget that it does the job.

 

 

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Fiftypartydisconightmareorheavendownload!

Posted on January 27, 2012 by John S

I’m doing the music this Saturday night for three very special people who have turned fifty in recent times. One’s my wife; the other two are her close friends all the way back to school days. It will be great.

I have about 22,000 songs on my iPod.  I can cover most situations and have done the odd disco in recent times.  Including my own 50th three years ago.  At that we got pretty nostalgic and I think “Jean Genie” by David Bowie went down better than just about anything. But only just better than “Up Town Top Ranking” by Althia and Donna and “Little L” by Jamiroquai, which are two of my absolute top dance favourites.  And of course we finished the evening with a few anthems: “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Wonderwall” by Oasis and “Angel” by Robbie Williams.

Aaah, memories…..

So, more of the same? Well, not quite.

I’m taking requests, and have found a disconcerting number of tracks on the lists which (a) I don’t have and (b) would never download in normal circumstances.  I cringed as I downloaded the following from the iTunes store tonight:

Cyndi Lauper – Girls just Wanna Have Fun

The Weather Girls – It’s Raining Men

Kenny Loggins – Footloose

Lou Bega – Mambo No 5

Ricky Martin – Livin’ la Vida Loca

Katrina – Walking On Sunshine

Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen

Dancing Queen – Abba

But, hey, they’re all good songs really.  It’s just that I’ll be quite happy to be up on the stage just playing the tunes as they come on.  So I won’t have to dance to them.

Mind you, there were a few others that made me think, why haven’t I got this on my iPod already?  Got on vinyl, but never made the translation. The wonderful soca classic from the early eighties, “Hot, Hot, Hot” by Arrow, for example. Belgian pop techno artists Technotronic, with “Pump Up The Jam”. Soft Cell with their sleazy take on the Northern Soul Classic “Tainted Love”.  I’ll dance to any of them!

And we’re having a metal interlude.  How will this go down? Well, if we do it after everyone’s had a few drinks it will probably be a great laugh.  There will be inflatable guitars at the ready.  “Enter Sandman” by Metallica may feature. The best ever metal riff?  “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead! Runs it close. And , er… “We Will Rock You” by Queen. Now if it was entirely up to me, I’d be putting on “Brighton Rock” if we had to have a Queen song.  The one when Brian May went all Hendrix. Loved it the day it came out on “Sheer Heart Attack” in the mid-seventies, still love it today. But I digress…

We might have a bit more 70s rock – classics like “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, or “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy.  But it will be mostly 70s and 80s dance, plus a few new ones, I suspect.  And there is nothing wrong with that. Anyone who can’t or won’t dance to Michael Jackson’s classics – my favourite is “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” – or to “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees, isn’t gonna dance.

Some of the younger folk at the party will grimace as they watch their parents re-live their youth, but hey, if you can’t do it when you turn fifty, when can you?

Let’s dance!

(Yeah, we’ll have that one too – if I get my way)

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Sportsthoughts (9) – a big weekend

Posted on January 23, 2012 by John S

It was a big weekend for the football and the rugby, this weekend.  In the rugger it was the last round of group games in the Heineken Cup – who would qualify for the quarter finals? In the footie, Sky had lined up two big Manchester v North London games, four of the top five.

Things started with Quins away to Connacht in the west of Ireland.  Galway, a wonderful part of the world. But Quins needed to win, if only to qualify for the quarter finals as a best placed runner up.  Toulouse were in pole position in the group. Away to Gloucester in the last game. We assumed Quins and Toulouse would win and it would then be down to how the other second placed teams would do. Wrong! Toulouse lost and there were still five minutes of the Quins game to go, in which they were losing 8-9.  To Connacht, the weakest team in the group. I didn’t see see the game.  I had to work late, had it recorded to enjoy the victory.  Wrong! Not sure what went wrong.  Wet and windy wouldn’t have helped the running game, but the Quins should still have been strong enough. Didn’t happen, and that was that.  Just one of those days. I didn’t bother watching it.

So we came second and drop into the Amlin Cup.  That at least keeps some interest going. And we are the holders, so we can say we now need to defend the cup.  That’s something.  Quarter final away to Toulon in the south of France.  April. Very tempting….

I watched one game live over the weekend.  Northampton vs Munster. What a game! The intensity was something else.  The collisions frightening.  The running play exhilarating.  The kicking by both fly halves – Ronan O’Gara (Munster) and Ryan Lamb (Northants)  outstanding. For the first two thirds of the game it was evenly matched.  Northampton’s forwards were dominant at the scrum and won two penalty tries. But everywhere else Munster were calling the shots. It worked and in the end they pulled away, scored some great tries and won 51-36. Just one of the best games.

The Irish – Leinster, Munster, Ulster – look supreme at the moment. The best players in Ireland are concentrated in a few teams and are leavened by a few southern hemisphere stars.  The club game in England doesn’t allow the same concentration, and in the Heineken, we are beginning to suffer. Saracens are the only team through to the quarters, though Quins should have made it two.  That wasn’t structural, it was just a cock-up.

Today was a “Super Sunday” in the football.  First up, Man City vs Tottenham, then Arsenal vs Man Utd.

I got a few chores out of the way and settled down for the second half of the City game. 0-0, so I hadn’t missed too much. Perfect timing, because it all went crazy in the second half. City went 2-0 up, then Spurs got it back to 2-2. Silva was brilliant, as ever, for City, slicing the ball through the Spurs defence to set Nasri up for the first City goal.  One to stick in the Tottenham craw, with Nasri being ex-Arsenal. But even better than Silva was Gareth Bale, for Tottenham. Not only did he score a with a superb, instinctive strike from  just outside the box, but he terrorised Micah Richards down the left flank, and put over a series of crosses which were just asking to be tapped in. Right at the end Defoe, just failed to get on the end of one of them.  A sitter, really. Can’t feel too sorry for Defoe – to me the traitor Defoe, the man who once put in a transfer request the day West Ham got relegated. Bitter, bitter!

And as happens in football, Tottenham having failed to get the winner, City went up the other end and got a penalty.  Balotelli, brought down by Ledley King. Fair enough, definitely a pen. But Balotelli shouldn’t have been on the pitch, having stamped on Scott Parker’s head, after a collision. He was lucky it wasn’t some fancy dan who would have done a roll across the pitch, holding his head in agony. Scotty P would never do that – hard man, team player, the man who single-handedly almost kept West Ham up last season. And won the journalists’ player of the year award. Lucky Balotelli. He took the penalty, casual, precise, scored.  3-2 City.  Injustice.

And then Arsenal, nervous, fraught Arsenal.  Fifth and looking like they might miss the Champions League next year. Doing well in the CL this year, though.  Maybe best to concentrate on the here and now? Not possible in today’s media/ social networking world. Everything is hyped, and so Arsenal are in crisis mode. Can they continue with the existing model, bringing through youth, only to find now that other clubs will snap up the very best players – Fabregas, Nasri, and whoever is next?

Today they had their moments, but Utd exposed their frailties and sneaked it 2-1.  As ever, it was the defence, and the midfield guard in front of them, that was most defective.   But nothing really worked well.  The short passing was there, but it was too slow, never really putting Utd under pressure. Oh Cesc, where are you?!

The best player on the Arsenal team was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 18 years old, built like a brick wall, and skilful and fast with it. He was involved in all of Arsenal’s best moves. Wenger took him off with 15 minutes to go and put on Arshevin.  The boos from the crowd were extraordinary. The TV pictures showed Robin van Persie shouting “No!”. Has there ever been such an insurrection in Wenger’s time? Whatever happened to Arsene knows? And Utd’s second goal came from Valencia striding past Arshavin, just to make matters worse.

So I think there is now an existential crisis at Arsenal.  (In football terms – it’s not life and death). The whole footballing and business model is under stress.  The fans are turning against Wenger. It’s like a Shakespearean tragedy – Othello, King Lear, Hamlet. You know it’s going to go belly up.  The protagonist is resisting fate, but you know it is futile.  There is dark comedy in the meantime – Arsenal’s defence, anyone? – and you just wait for the denouement.

It is going to happen.  Arsene will leave. One of the greatest managers. Creator of the best football ever seen in this country. Entirely a force for good.  Hounded out by the impatient and the ignorant – and the nostalgic. I’d have him as England manager any day. Working with top class players. Playing the game as it should be played. We could win something.

And as a postscript, we are Top League! West Ham scratched another victory, 2-1 against struggling Nottingham Forest, and went top of the Championship as Southampton aren’t playing until Monday. They are playing Leicester – a tough game.  If they draw or lose, we stay top. Looking at all the tweets on Twitter, the hard core fans aren’t happy with the style.  But we are top. Same as Quins.  Stay there boys!

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Histories of…..

Posted on January 21, 2012 by John S

I’ve just started reading an epic book, “The History Of Christianity”, by Diarmaid (Dermott?) MacCulloch. It’s going to take me a long time. It’s 1016 pages long and the print is very small! Now that I am both short sighted AND long sighted (I used to think this wasn’t possible, that somehow they’d cancel each other out) this means that I can read it best without my glasses, but as my main reading opportunity is on the tube home from work, I’m not keen to be oblivious to my surroundings – especially when the iPod makes me half-oblivious already.  But I digress… I’m already engrossed and I’m only on page 97.  We’ve done Greek philosophy, Alexander the Great, the Egyptians, Babylon, the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people, the Romans, and Jesus has just been crucified and resurrected. Wow! And only page 97. Paul of Tarsus is next.

I love these big histories.  You only get a superficial insight into any particular moment, but, especially if you know a bit about some of the subjects already (which I do, sometimes) you can just luxuriate in the narrative, see how events, looking back, flow into each other, hang together. The big picture. And there are always so many things you just didn’t know before. New knowledge, new connections – this is the sort of thing that gets my brain tingling. Learning. Inspiration.

Diarmaid MacCulloch writes beautifully and wittily. Already, only on page 97, I would say to anyone, buy this book! And read it. (Buying is the easy bit, I know from past experience).   Anyone who is curious about how the stories, the history, of the Old Testament as well as the New, were written, and how this small Jewish sect came to dominate Western culture and philosophy from such unpromising beginnings, will love it.

Well, on the basis of the first 97 pages I say that. I hope the next 919 bear me out!

I’ve read a few other histories like this in the past.  One, by the historian J.M.Thomas, had the grandest title possible: “The History Of The World”. It covered some of the same ground as MacCulloch’s book of course, as the West has dominated history over the last few centuries (though for how much longer?).  It was an amazing story. The sense of a journey jumps out, excites, depresses at times (there is so much brutality, so much evil as well as good). It provides clues, no, more than that, it explains how we got to where we are today. We are the products of our past and if we ignore that, we blunder into the future without vision or strategy, making all the same horrible mistakes again.

Another that led me into pastures new was “The History Of Western Philosphy” by the great scholar, writer, polemicist, and lots of other things, Bertrand Russell. Now, I studied philosophy at university for a year, along with politics and economics.  It was so limited. This was at Oxford in the late seventies.  We worked on two papers for first year exams.  One had to be logic.  I hated it.  It was like maths.  I didn’t want to do maths! It had right and wrong answers.  I preferred ambiguity, the acceptance that there is more than one answer to most problems. We then had a choice between Utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill) and David Hume. Only one of the two.  I chose the former, but at a time when I had no idea about either. I scraped through the exam at the end of the year and dropped the subject as we were allowed to focus on only two subjects from the P, P and E  for the last two years. What a shame, I now think, because as I explored what the study of philosophy had to offer, after I learned about a wider range of philosphers, I knew that I would never have given it up.

Russell’s book gave me that superficial knowledge of so many of history’s great thinkers. Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Spinoza, Hegel, Schopenhauer. And all the others.  And like all the other histories I’d read, it gave me the opportunity to make connections, understand the flows from one to another, link the thoughts to wider history and politics… and science.  Soon after, I read a wonderful autobiography by the philospher Bryan Magee.  It was a combination of his life and an explanation of philosophical thought.  The two, in his life, were inextricably linked. But the insight was at the start, when he described how as a child he’d look up at the stars and wonder how they all got there.  How, when he shut his eyes, and all was black, how could he be sure that anything was still there. And many more such questions. The questions that all children ask are the questions that philosophers seek to illuminate.  I say illuminate, because I’m not sure anyone has actually answered them. They’ve tried, but for every theory, there is a counter-argument.  Religion seeks to nail down the debate, but only by delegating the really difficult stuff to God.  The human mind, or enough human minds, find that unsatisfactory.  So we continue to challenge, explore, and slowly but surely advance our understanding of the world we live in.

Phew! That’s what happens to me when I read these books.  From time to time it sends me scurrying for more information, deeper knowledge.  But there is so little time, when you play your part as a father, husband, friend, colleague, signed up member of the human race. And they are the things that matter most, that provide meaning to life.  But the big questions are worth a ponder from time to time, and histories give me a vehicle.

Wish me luck on the next 919 pages. I’ll be solving the meaning of life as I go along. Especially if there is a glass of Chardonnay by my side!

Just one more waffeur Monsieur!….

Posted in Art, books, theatre, cinema, Random stuff | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Have You Heard? – (8) “This City Never Sleeps” by the Eurythmics

Posted on January 20, 2012 by John S

“You can hear the sound of the underground train, though it feels like distant thunder…”

I made a playlist and put it on CD for a couple of people close to me at Christmas which I called “Night”. It was a selection that was mellow but not bland. Music that could move you in the early hours, relax you but also intrigue you. Music that lives with you.

First track on the playlist was “This City Never Sleeps” by the Eurythmics. I’d kind of forgotten the Eurythmics until recently, when I was writing about electronic music in the early eighties. So I dug out my vinyl, and they were all there, loads, six or seven Eurythmics albums. Must have liked them.  Somehow, with the passage of time, they faded from my memory. But as soon as I put on the records, it came flooding back.  The first album, “Sweet Dreams (Are made Of This)” was an electronic masterpiece and the title track was a big hit. I recalled that with each album – except “1984”- they became even more popular as they mastered the mainstream, teamed up with greats like Aretha Franklin, became part of the rock establishment. Of course as this ascent continued I became less interested. The early stuff was the best for me.

And “This City Never Sleeps” was the track I was drawn to.  One to file in atmospheric. It conjures up so many images of London at night. The dark rainy streets, the lonely underground platform as you wait for the last train, the rumble of the tube beneath your house, which I remember from days living in Pimlico, the silent streets as you walk home after a late night, with no transport to get you back.

London life.

Even today, as a family man, there are times, rare times, when I have a choice about how I get home and if it’s not too far away, I like nothing better than donning the iPod, putting on some favourite tunes and walking the streets of this wonderful city. It’s fair to say that when I decide to do such a thing, I have usually had a bit to drink. It inspires! I love to listen to Pink Floyd at such a time: “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, “Wish You Were Here”. And “This City Never Sleeps” by the Eurythmics,  because it is a perfect accompaniment on such a journey. It is London.

There is especially something about the bass line that entrances me.  It is simple but deep, and I find myself imagining how this song, driven by that bass line, could have a brilliant dub reggae remix.  I think to myself, one day, one day…

This was a fairly obscure track on that first album, although I’ve just realised, looking for a version on Youtube, that it featured in the classic eighties film, “9 1/2 Weeks”. I was a bit disappointed to be reminded of that, because it disturbed my own pristine memories. But only briefly. It is London’s song. Not some yuppie US soft porn thing. But then again, it shows how a song with so much atmosphere can work for so many different purposes.

Of course I must include a Youtube link so you can hear what I am  writing about. But it is a song that is all in the head.  The sound of late night London, whatever that means to you, if you live in London. And if you don’t, then whatever those bass lines and swooping guitars and Annie Lennox’s voice mean to you. This video sums that up perfectly – it’s not the band, but it’s what it conjures up for the person who made the effort to post this.

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Have You Heard? – (7) She’s Lost Control” by Joy Division

Posted on January 18, 2012 by John S

Writing about Joy Division tonight for my book on music, I found this video during what passes for research! Two great tracks, “Transmission” first, but at 3.13 is the one I wanted to write about: “She’s Lost Control”. An extraordinary, rather disturbing performance. The bass lines that lead the melody are brilliant, the studied guitar riff as chorus I love. The snappy drum beat. But above all, Ian Curtis the singer is gripping in his glazed intensity. Anyone who has seen the film “Control” will know the context – tragic.

And if you haven’t seen the film, I recommend it highly.  Incredibly moving – and inspiring. You don’t have to be a Joy Division fan to get it.

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St James’s Park, a sunny autumn day

Posted on January 15, 2012 by John S

On 21 November last year, 2011, I was walking back from a meeting along Birdcage Walk, which edges St James’s Park in the centre of London.  At one end of the park lies Buckingham Palace, at the other the corridors of power: 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, the Treasury and the Foreign Office. It is said to be the park where spies meet, and we know that recently it was where a minister dumped his unwanted correspondence. It is most definitely a place where tourists love to stroll and office workers come to eat their lunchtime sandwiches and ready meals, away from the confines of their open plan offices, the tyranny of their computers. In the summer they will also come to sunbathe, as they also do in nearby Green Park. Me, I avoid that at lunch time as you get back to the office too relaxed, a bit hot, lethargic.   Need to stay sharp.

But the park is also very beautiful, an absolute jewel in London’s crown.  I never tire of the place – so serene amid the bustle, the lake and its bridge the centre piece, with wonderful views of the buildings in the distance, including the London Eye, which peeks out above the government buildings to one end. The grey geese which live there give the place a certain dignity as well. When I watch them I can’t help but think of the dinosaurs from whom they may have been descended. The pelicans attract the tourists, but I think it is the geese that give the park its avian identity.

Anyway, I was walking back on 21 November, with the sun blazing, a beautiful autumn day.  I looked around and was entranced by the colours, the colours of autumn. Here, right in the middle of our great city. So I took out the iPhone and took a few shots.  Not all of the best resolution, but I hope it gives the impression of the beauty of that day, the autumnal London basking in unseasonal sunshine.

(Double click on any photo and you get full size).

Starting with Birdcage Walk itself, some autumn flowers, a statue and the obligatory squirrel shot.

Take it to the bridge!

Into the sun.

The colours, the colours!

The two ends. Mirror images.

Whomping willow? (I’m not even sure if this is a willow, but it should be).

The Palace.

More extraordinary hues.

And those descendants of the dinosaurs…

I’ve been working in or around Westminster for the past twenty years (frightening!). I’ve been in love with St James’s Park from the very first day. It is an affair which will never end…

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Have You Heard? – (6) The Worldwide sound of Gilles Peterson

Posted on January 13, 2012 by John S

I like a lot of different kinds of music. It can confuse people – how can you possibly like Metallica and, I dunno, Joni Mitchell?  How can you reconcile  Bruce Springsteen with Underworld? The Clash with Alicia Keys? Kate Bush with The Pixies? Burning Spear with Budgie? Ed Sheeran with Far East Movement (two of my 2011 favourites – see my list). Oasis with Blur (90s battle reference!). Random choices for illustration.  The answer is, very easily, I just love music, all kinds of music.

And one of the types of music I love most is hard to categorise. It’s a whole potpourri of sounds: jazz-dance-soul-world-funk-reggae-rap-electronica, all mixed up, feeding off each other, but all distinguished by having the groove.

The DJ Gilles Peterson, for me, captures this music on the radio better than anyone else.  He has been doing so for many, many years. I admire his passion, his knowledge, his joy in sharing what he knows with all of us. At the moment he has a show on BBC Radio 1 in midweek at 2am. Not exactly mainstream.  But with the i-player you can listen to it when you want. Every time I listen I hear so many songs which cry out, download me! And often I do.

I think all these sounds really began to come together in the eighties and nineties.  That was the era when barriers truly began to break down, when technology allowed artists to borrow from wherever they wanted, when listeners were exposed to more sounds than ever before.  The nineties in particular saw new fusions.  Jazz and rap made perfect partners – the likes of Guru, from Gang Starr, Stetasonic and Dream Warriors to the fore.  The accelerated beats of rave and jungle collided with reggae and jazz.  The compilation series “Rebirth of Cool”, which continued for eight volumes, I think, encapsulated this fusion better than anything for me.  I’d buy each new volume eagerly anticipating the discoveries I would make. They would always lead me on to new sounds, new fusions.  There were many other examples, and you could guarantee that Gilles Peterson was in there somewhere. As well as his radio shows, he has brought out so many brilliant CD compilations over the years: the “Worldwide” series, ventures into Brazil, journeys back to sixties jazz in London, the “Brownswood Bubblers” in recent times. An amazing mix of sounds, full of soul, sometimes spaced out, always on the beat.

So I’ve come to think of the genre – if it isn’t too varied to be a genre – as the Worldwide sound, the Gilles Peterson sound. Here are just a few of the tracks I’ve loved in recent times, which I’ve discovered in one way or another through the good offices of Gilles Peterson.

(A warning: a friend at work a few years ago who was mostly into country rock described this kind of music as “jazz w – – k”. The average metallist might think so too.  But I love it all, and the worldwide groove has probably been on my stereo, and now the iMac and iPod, more than anything).

The first here is a jazzy rap tune called “PJ’s” featuring Raekwon.  I love that mid tempo rap groove, and that Morricone sound effect that breaks out from time to time.

This next one is  a Brazilian groove called “Meninho” by Patricia Marx, which is just made for dancing. I’ve got it on a “Gilles Peterson in Brazil” compilation.

I first came across Joy Orbison on an NME Radar on-line selection, but this track, called “Wet Look”, is very much a Gilles Peterson thing too. Avant-electro.

Roots Manuva is maybe the greatest British rapper.  Here, on “Again and Again”, he mixes up the sound with a serious reggae beat.  This one actually has a proper video.  Is it cricket?

This one is space music, pure ambience. “Space Hammock” by Carlos y Gaby. That is all I know. But it infiltrates and engulfs you.

And just to show the roots of this worldwide groove, here’s a jazz-funky thing from Roy Ayers, seventies style.  “We Live In Brooklyn Baby”.  How cool is that title? Worldwide music is also, in many ways, New York music.

Just the tip of the coolest iceberg.  Check out Gilles on the i-player for more every week.

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Sportsthoughts (8) – festive football madness

Posted on January 9, 2012 by John S

Back to work, finally, tomorrow. Dumped the Christmas tree today.  The festive season is truly over. As ever, the footie went a bit bonkers over the festive season. Is it the sprouts or a heavy-lying Christmas pud that turns some of our top Premier League stars into plonkers and conversely inspires the journeymen to greater deeds?

My festive viewing started just before Christmas with Tottenham v Chelsea.  A great game, end to end stuff, Tottenham the more incisive first half, but Chelsea very solid second half and could have won it. Bale’s pace and cross for Spurs’ goal was superb. On Chelsea’s left Ashley Cole played a blinder – up and down the wing – and deservedly got man of the match.  Chelsea were almost playing a 3-4-3 as Cole bombed forward. I feel sympathetic to Chelsea as I like AVB and think he could eventually turn them into an excellent attacking team, if he gets the chance.  Mind you, the wobbles then hit them over Christmas.  1-1 v Fulham and losing at home 3-1 to Villa. There’s a fragility there at the moment which it’s hard to see the fans, or Abramovich, tolerating for too long.  Non-qualification for the Champions League? Maybe they’ll just have to win it this season.

Both the Manchesters had their dodgy moments too.  City suddenly looked vulnerable, having lost to 2-1 Chelsea on 12 December. 0-0 v West Brom and a 1-0 defeat against Sunderland.  The latter revived and inspired by Martin O’Neill, but even so, not what you’d expect of the petro-elite. I watched the home game against Liverpool, which City won 3-0.  Another enjoyable game with plenty of goalmouth incident. Liverpool must be kicking themselves because they were the better team in the first half, but without Suarez, lacked that final touch in front of goal.  And both City goals slipped by the usually reliable Pepe Reina. In the second half they ran out of steam and couldn’t even capitalise on the Gareth Barry red card. City regrouped and Yaya Toure continued to maraude, winning the penalty for 3-0. He is an immense player, the beating heart of City, and it will be very interesting to see how they cope without him during the African Nations Cup.

Utd don’t look great, but the stats say this is one of their best ever starts. Have standards fallen?  Or even risen, so it is harder to dominate? What Man U have done for much of this season is slaughter the lesser teams – Wigan, Fulham, Wolves and QPR have all been tonked in the last month, the first two by five. But even they hit the skids over Christmas.  First, losing at home to Blackburn – Blackburn! –  3-2.  Then given a 3-0 going over by Newcastle at what must now be called the SportsDirect Arena. The highpoint for ABMU fans was the Phil Jones own goal to make it 3-0.  Hope it doesn’t set him back because he is a very fine prospect for Utd and England.

I had mixed feelings about seeing Demba Ba in such fine form. Good to see him thriving in the Premier League, but wishing West Ham could have kept him. We could do with him now.  I’m pleased to see Alan Pardew doing well.  I thought he was a good manager at West Ham – came undone through some domestic issues and an inability to integrate Tevez and Mascherano in those wild days when we briefly thought the Icelandic biscuit magnates were going to take us to the top. I still can’t believe that Hayden Mullins was keeping Mascherano out of the team! No disrespect to Hayden – he was a solid player – but Mascherano was/is one of the world’s best defensive midfielders.

So we’ve had all the Man Utd crisis stories – a grand tradition around this time of year, after which they usually put the foot on the accelerator and more likely than not win the league.  Why should this season be any different?  The emergence of City as contenders?  Maybe, but I have a feeling that City will crack under the pressure. Just a feeling.  They are City, after all.

And then my own Premier favourites, the Ars-en-al. Their usual dotty selves. A couple of routine 1-0 wins and then blowing it: 1-1 at home to Wolves, 1-2 at Fulham. As ever, dominating games, failing to take chances. Four points thrown away. Refs blamed, luck bemoaned.  Just something missing.  It’s fingers crossed for a top four place, expectations lowered. The return of Thierry Henry for a couple of months is a nice story, but can he make a difference?  How much pace has he got left?  We shall see.

Tottenham move serenely on, a couple of draws, but generally in good shape.  Hard to imagine them winning the league, but it’s not out of the question if the key players – Bale, Parker, Modric, van der Vaart – stay fit. Would be great to see ‘Arry take the title before moving on to the England job – as long as his tax affairs don’t wind him up with a criminal record.

And Liverpool?  Solid, but not ready yet.  The Suarez affair will hurt them, and they haven’t helped themselves.  Misguided loyalty or a principled stand?  I’m sticking to the football.  The most striking image in the game versus City was Andy Carroll lumbering around, disconnected from the rest of the team, who were playing short, sharp football. He should have stayed at Newcastle and learned his trade. It’s hard to see him adapting to the fluid style that Liverpool now favour. He’ll get his chance while Suarez is out, but has he got what it takes?  I must admit that a year ago I really thought he was the future for England’s forward line, Rooney feeding off his knock downs; but he seems to have gone backwards.  Maybe there’s a fitness issue we don’t know about. But we read that he’s always going back to Newcastle, to see family and friends. Bears out the suspicion that it was a move too soon.  Fingers crossed for the lad – he can’t half head the ball when on song.

And talking of big men up front, pleased to see Peter Crouch thriving at Stoke.  He scored two quite outstanding goals in the 2-1 victory away to Blackburn – subtle technique, powerful finishing. Ball skills that Carroll hasn’t acquired yet. Still worth a place in the England squad?

Down in the Championship, everyone played badly at times, West Ham as poor as anyone.  But we scraped a couple of 1-0 victories and find ourselves second to Southampton with the same points. Huge Twitter speculation about all the players we are going to buy – Jordan Rhodes of Huddersfield the people’s choice having knocked in five the other day –  but where will the money come from?  And a few underachievers, especially in the strike force (only in name, not in deed) must be sold. The worry is that good young players may be tempted away.  It worried me that James Tomkins, our centre back, stayed on the bench today, in the lamentable 1-0 FA Cup defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, who are currently in League One. Was this to prevent him being cup-tied?

And talking of the “magical” FA Cup, what a game today between Man City and Utd.  The latter running out 3-2 winners after Vincent Kompany was sent of for what initially looked like a two footed lunge, but was actually a perfectly good one-footed challenge which got the ball.  Easy to say after seeing the replays.  Does make you wonder why the ref can’t refer quickly to a video ref if he’s not sure, as in rugby.  Radio Five Live’s 606 programme tonight was almost exclusively about the refereeing decision. Mostly lambasting Chris Foy the ref.  Some discussion of whether contact is necessary for there to be a foul. Great things, rules.  No-one really has a clue, even when they are there in black and white. For the conspiracy theorists, I thought it was interesting that Fergie gave Foy a little pat on the back at the end of the game.  Thanks for that mate.  Won us the game and maybe the league too, if Kompany is suspended for four games (after a second straight red this season). Especially while Yaya is away. But then again, wouldn’t anyone do the same?

Funniest moment of the festive period, if not Phil Jones’s clanger, must be Everton keeper, Tim Howard’s  goal for Everton against Bolton.  One bounce before the ball, heavily wind-assisted, sailed over Adam Bogdan, the Bolton keeper’s head. Howard didn’t want to celebrate: doing that to a fellow goalie hurts. Bolton had the last laugh anyway, winning 2-1.

So the wacky goings-on over the frantic festive season keep things nice and open for the next five months. Who needs a winter break?

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