Tuesday 20 December 2011
Tuesday 13 December 2011
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Tuesday 6 December 2011
Thursday 1 December 2011
Thursday 24 November 2011
Thursday 17 November 2011
Friday 28 October 2011
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Friday 14 October 2011
Thursday 13 October 2011
Monday 10 October 2011
Friday 7 October 2011
Poem: "Vujà dé"
Vujà dé
I led you down to a
Small pub that I know
By the sea,
But when we got there
It felt like my first stare, for
I was staring, with new gazes, all around
And though I am certain that here I have trodden
My feet felt these grounds like the touch of a virgin,
New routes were watered, and thus newly sodden
With new thoughts conceived within this new emerging,
I have absolutely no memory of this place!
Although I know that I have been here before.
© Jules Willocks
I led you down to a
Small pub that I know
By the sea,
But when we got there
It felt like my first stare, for
I was staring, with new gazes, all around
And though I am certain that here I have trodden
My feet felt these grounds like the touch of a virgin,
New routes were watered, and thus newly sodden
With new thoughts conceived within this new emerging,
I have absolutely no memory of this place!
Although I know that I have been here before.
© Jules Willocks
Poem: "One week and Eight days"
One week and Eight days
She taught me new sounds and new sighs
Heavy, with the alien of fear,
But she slew -
The God of anticipation
And his wife,
The Goddess, Taboo
For fifteen days we were,
On that bridge that was a pier -
Nervous, at the coming of the moon,
And we stood, if only for no reason,
But that reason
To keep serpents
From
Our
Room
She gave me brave signs, engraved skin
Catered, for new mazes of my mind,
And she shamed -
The angels of romance
And their kin,
The disciples of pain
Those fifteen nights we slept,
On grass that wasn’t fields -
Anxious for a stalling of the sun,
Although we were
There for but a season,
Well that season
And our two hearts
Were
As
One
© Jules Willocks
She taught me new sounds and new sighs
Heavy, with the alien of fear,
But she slew -
The God of anticipation
And his wife,
The Goddess, Taboo
For fifteen days we were,
On that bridge that was a pier -
Nervous, at the coming of the moon,
And we stood, if only for no reason,
But that reason
To keep serpents
From
Our
Room
She gave me brave signs, engraved skin
Catered, for new mazes of my mind,
And she shamed -
The angels of romance
And their kin,
The disciples of pain
Those fifteen nights we slept,
On grass that wasn’t fields -
Anxious for a stalling of the sun,
Although we were
There for but a season,
Well that season
And our two hearts
Were
As
One
© Jules Willocks
Saturday 1 October 2011
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Saturday 10 September 2011
Tuesday 23 August 2011
Monday 22 August 2011
Friday 12 August 2011
Wednesday 10 August 2011
Sunday 7 August 2011
Thursday 21 July 2011
Tuesday 19 July 2011
Tuesday 12 July 2011
Monday 11 July 2011
Monday 27 June 2011
Thursday 23 June 2011
Monday 20 June 2011
Clarence Clemons (11 January 1942 - 18 June 2011)
Adam Sweeting's Obituary - The Guardian.co.uk
Almost as much as the music, it was the sleeve image of Bruce Springsteen leaning nonchalantly on the back of the saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who has died aged 69 after a stroke, that defined Springsteen's 1975 album Born to Run. The photograph symbolised the intense fraternal bonding that helped fuel the rise of Springsteen and his E Street Band. Throughout the years of their greatest success, Clemons was a vital ingredient of Springsteen's sound and an invaluable onstage foil to "the Boss".
Clemons was born in Norfolk, Virginia, the oldest of the three children of Thelma Clemons and her husband Clarence, who owned a fish market. His parents worked long hours and were devoutly religious, and the young Clarence cut his musical teeth with the local church choir and in a gospel group. He used to help out with the family fish business after school, and shouldered some domestic responsibilities while his mother took a college course. "I didn't have much time for childhood innocence," he remarked later.
He began playing the saxophone after his father bought him an alto instrument one Christmas, and enrolled him in music lessons at a local college. He switched to the beefier-toned baritone sax, but then decided the tenor sax was the way to go after feeling inspired to imitate the scorching R&B playing of King Curtis. Meanwhile, Clemons was also a keen football player, and he won a football and music scholarship to Maryland State College. It looked as if he might be destined for a sporting career when he went for a try-out with the Cleveland Browns, but his footballing hopes were crushed when he was involved in a serious car accident.
Meanwhile he had been gaining musical experience by playing with an R&B covers band, the Vibratones, and also played on recording sessions with Tyrone Ashley's Funky Music Machine, a New Jersey outfit featuring future members of Parliament-Funkadelic. Clemons moved to Newark, where he took a job as a counsellor to emotionally disturbed children at the Jamesburg Training School for Boys, while playing music in the clubs along the Jersey shore by night.
He was moving among the same circle of local musicians as Springsteen, and first ran into him when they were both playing gigs in separate bars in the seaside resort of Asbury Park. Clemons went to check out Springsteen and asked if he could play sax with him. Springsteen invited him to join in on a version of Spirit in the Night. "I sat in with him that night," Clemons told People magazine. "It was phenomenal. We'd never even laid eyes on each other, but after that first song he looked at me, I looked at him, and we said 'This is it.'"
By now Clemons had married, and fathered two sons, Clarence III and Charles, by his first wife, but the union quickly became a casualty of his decision to quit his job and join the E Street Band. "I was making $15 a week with Bruce then," he recalled. "But I had faith. It was like following Jesus."
Clemons stayed the course for Springsteen's first couple of commercially unsuccessful albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, and The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (both released in 1973), before the band- leader exploded into stardom with Born to Run (the story of how Clemons joined the E Streeters was alluded to in the song Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out). Clemons's braying saxophone featured prominently on Thunder Road, Jungle-land and Born to Run itself, and his background in R&B and soul music lent an authentic earthiness to the soul-band feel of the E Street crew in their early days.
Clemons became a kind of E Street mascot during the ensuing years, his looming 6ft 4in bulk making an effective contrast with the small, hyperactive Boss onstage. His powerful sax playing lit up some of Springsteen's best-known pieces, including Badlands, The Ties That Bind, Independence Day and Bobby Jean. Springsteen liked to embellish the carnival-like E Street mythology in his onstage chats to the audience, characterising Clemons as the "Big Man", capable of exaggerated and heroic feats.
After the colossal success of the 1984 album Born in the USA and then touring with the follow-up, Tunnel of Love (1987), Springsteen decided he wanted a change of musical partners, and in 1989 informed the band members that they were no longer required. Clemons was shocked, though for some years he had been pursuing musical directions of his own. Indeed, when he received Springsteen's call, he was touring in Japan with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band, which included Joe Walsh, Billy Preston, Dr John and other luminaries, and he would also tour with the Grateful Dead.
Clemons had formed his own band, the Red Bank Rockers, in 1981, and released the album Rescue with them in 1983. His next album, Hero, included a duet with Jackson Browne, You're a Friend of Mine, which became a Top 20 hit. He also played the sax on Aretha Franklin's 1985 hit Freeway of Love. Clemons made three further solo albums during the 80s, and ran a New Jersey nightclub called Big Man's West.
In 1999, Springsteen saw the error of his ways and recalled the E Street Band to his side for a reunion tour. The Rising (2002) was the first album he had made with the full E Street squad since Born in the USA, and its release was followed by protracted and successful touring.
Springsteen and the band were prominent on the Vote for Change tour in 2004, which aimed (unsuccessfully) to put a Democrat in the White House, and the E Streeters were also united behind Springsteen for the albums Magic (2007) and Working On a Dream (2009). In between, Clemons found time to perform with the band Temple of Soul. "We have one life and that life is on that stage," he said. "Everything else doesn't matter because we don't know what's going to happen."
In 2009 Clemons published his anecdote-packed autobiography, Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales, which was hailed by the former US president and part-time saxophonist Bill Clinton as "an essential read for any music lover". Clemons played on several tracks from Lady Gaga's 2011 album Born This Way, and performed with her on the television show American Idol.
However, he had been experiencing health problems. He had two knee replacements in 2008, and also needed spinal surgery. He suffered a serious stroke earlier this month.
In a statement on his website, Springsteen wrote: "He was my great friend, my partner, and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."
Clemons is survived by his sons, Clarence, Charles, Christopher and Jarod, and his fifth wife, Victoria.
Sunday 29 May 2011
Sunday 22 May 2011
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Wednesday 11 May 2011
Monday 9 May 2011
Sunday 8 May 2011
Saturday 7 May 2011
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Tuesday 19 April 2011
Album Art: Ben Harper "Fight For Your Mind"
The Fight For Your Mind cover features Harper's face on fire, as the
artwork features the use of military roundels from African nations (plus Jamaica) to
represent each track on the album. The track corresponding to each roundel is:
Angola - Oppression
Cameroon - Ground on Down
Central African Republic - Another Lonely Day
Chad - Please Me Like You Want To
Uganda - Gold to Me
Jamaica - Burn One Down
Egypt - Excuse Me Mr
Niger - People Lead
Ghana/Guinea - Fight For Your Mind
Kenya - Give a Man a Home
Nigeria - By My Side
Somalia - Power of the Gospel
Ivory Coast - God Fearing Man
Ethiopia - One Road to Freedom
Monday 18 April 2011
Friday 15 April 2011
Thursday 14 April 2011
Tuesday 12 April 2011
Friday 8 April 2011
Sunday 3 April 2011
Thursday 31 March 2011
Thursday 24 March 2011
Wednesday 23 March 2011
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Monday 21 March 2011
John Legend - Humanity (Love The Way It Should Be)
(Live on Later with Jools Holland)...
Original version by Prince Lincoln Thompson & The Royal Rasses
Monday 7 March 2011
Ray Conniff - Frenesi
Well, after all these years of searching, I have finally found my Musical Guru, my Icon of Harmony, my Baron of Rhythm, my General of Sound...
Like a musical equivalent of Gandalf, white beard and couture, the resplendent Ray Conniff struts his wizardry, casting spells of delight upon one and all...
:-)
Sunday 6 March 2011
Thursday 3 March 2011
Tuesday 1 March 2011
Saturday 26 February 2011
Friday 25 February 2011
Album Art: Keane "Under The Iron Sea"
By the amazingly talented Sanna Aannukka
http://www.sanna-annukka.com/
Tuesday 22 February 2011
Monday 21 February 2011
Sunday 20 February 2011
Thursday 17 February 2011
Paul Weller - Heavy Soul (Live)
and also check this out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et1sBsJnJ_Q
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Kiddus i - Graduation in Zion
Taken from my favourite Jamaican Reggae film, "Rockers". Released in 1978, the film, (directed by Ted Bafaloukos), starred several popular reggae artists, including Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Burning Spear, Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth, Dillinger, and Jacob Miller. Kiddus i was a relative unknown, and although he didn't go on to future fame, this clip demonstrates that this was most certainly not due to an abscence of talent and charisma. Gwan Dread!
Friday 11 February 2011
Sunday 6 February 2011
Saturday 5 February 2011
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Monday 31 January 2011
Wednesday 26 January 2011
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Trish Keenan (September 28, 1968 - January 14, 2011)
Broadcast - Come On Let's Go
Trish Keenan obituary
Experimental singer and songwriter for the cult band Broadcast
Pat Long guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 January 2011 18.53
Trish Keenan, who has died from pneumonia aged 42, was best known as the singer and songwriter for Broadcast, the cult band that she and her partner James Cargill formed in the West Midlands in the mid-1990s. Parts of Broadcast's second album, Haha Sound (2003), were recorded in a church hall where Keenan had attended a jumble sale, and she applied a similar magpie-like approach to making music, searching the more obscure corners of pop culture to create something strange and evocative.
Although they occasionally wrote direct pop songs, Broadcast won critical acclaim by mixing together influences such as the primitive electronics of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, 1970s public information films, Czech surrealism, Moog organ, forgotten film soundtracks and kitsch ephemera. At the centre of this process was Keenan, whose vision drove the group and whose voice could be haunting, mannered or heart-rending.
Born in Winson Green, Birmingham, Keenan attended Archbishop Grimshaw Roman Catholic school. After school she worked in various catering jobs and at the age of 21 moved to the bohemian enclave of Moseley, forming a folk duo called Hayward Winters before she met Cargill at a 1960s psychedelic revival club in Birmingham. The pair bonded over shared interests and formed a band, Pan Am Flight Bag, who played two gigs before they regrouped as Broadcast. One early inspiration was the United States of America, the cult hippy-era California group who strove to add avant-garde electronic experimentation to pop music, and whose sole album Keenan once described as a "bible".
With the guitarist Tim Felton, the keyboard player Roj Stevens and the drummer Steve Perkins, Broadcast spurned major scales and rock cliches, instead pioneering what is now termed "hauntology" by attempting to create a retrospective notion of what musicians in the late 1960s thought that the future might sound like. This fetishisation of the space age led to their song The Book Lovers, from an early EP of the same name, being included on the soundtrack to Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997).
But Broadcast's relationship with the past was far more complex than that of some of their slavishly retro contemporaries. Instead they were part of a group of musicians centred on Birmingham's Custard Factory arts complex who made edgy and occasionally difficult music by fusing old-fashioned analogue textures with modern digital recording techniques. After releasing two singles, Accidentals and Living Room, on small indie labels, Broadcast were signed to Sheffield's Warp Records in 1997 by the label's founder, Rob Mitchell. This came as a surprise because Warp was then primarily known as a home for techno and electronica artists, but Mitchell recognised the singularity of the band's vision. Keenan's lyrics were inspired variously by Gertrude Stein, Edgar Allan Poe and, latterly, HG Wells, while in live performance the band updated the 1960s arts lab "happenings" by playing in front of projected short films, with Keenan's static stage presence, heavy black fringe and pallor giving her a slightly detached and icy demeanour totally at odds with her offstage manner.
Broadcast released three albums – The Noise Made By People (2000), Haha Sound and Tender Buttons (2005) – before Keenan and Cargill, partly motivated by financial considerations, reconfigured the band as a duo and moved to Hungerford in Berkshire. It was there that they embarked on the most compelling phase of their career. Collaborating with the graphic designer and film-maker Julian House, the trio released two EPs, Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age (2009) and Familiar Shapes and Noises (2010), combining white noise with music influenced by film soundtracks, psychedelic folk and the half-remembered children's television shows of their youth.
In a 2009 interview with Wire magazine, Keenan discussed a desire to make music that re-imagined primitive nature cults by replacing them with a kind of enlightened pagan science worship, "a Hammer horror dream collage where Broadcast play the role of the guest band at the mansion drug party by night and a science-worshipping Eloi possessed by 3/4 rhythms by day", the Eloi being one of the races in Wells's The Time Machine.
She was also beginning to explore cut-up lyric techniques, inspired partly by her interest in the occult, and furthering a talent for creative writing, which she studied at Birmingham University while working on her music career. Broadcast were gradually being recognised as, if not quite national treasures, then the kind of underground stalwarts for whom each release is regarded with anticipation, in their case by fans as varied as Paul Weller and the Simpsons creator Matt Groening. The latter invited the band to join the bill when he curated the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival, in Minehead, Somerset, in May 2010.
Keenan had one of the most distinctive voices in modern music and was a visionary thinker with a vast appetite for discovering new inspirations.
On her return from the band's first Australian tour in December last year, Keenan was diagnosed with pneumonia and went into hospital.
She is survived by Cargill, and by her mother, Zena, brothers Malcolm and John, and sisters Maxine and Barbara.
• Patricia Anne Keenan, musician, born 28 September 1968; died 14 January 2011
Monday 17 January 2011
Sunday 16 January 2011
Taken By Trees - East of Eden
Taken by Trees is the nom de plume of Victoria Bergsman, previously best known for her work with The Concretes and Peter Bjorn & John’s worldwide smash hit single "Young Folks". The album 'East Of Eden'(2009) followed Taken By Trees' debut album Open Field (2007), also recommended.
Victoria Bergsman wanted to travel to record in a mysterious, relatively uncharted area avoiding the usual clinical studio experience, which she has always disliked and found to be an uncreative environment. She chose Pakistan. The rhythm, drums and flutes of Pakistani music had long captivated Victoria and this, coupled with a deep admiration for her favorite singers Abida Parveen and the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, helped her choose Pakistan as the place to record her new album. Another attractive factor was her interest in Sufi musicians who play in order to enter a trance like state, using music to transport themselves to another time and place.
Taken By Trees - Watch the Waves
Taken By Trees - Anna (Live svt.se/psl)
Taken By Trees - Watch the Waves (Memory Tapes Remix)
Taken By Trees - Anna (Starring Anna Karina)
Video: National Geographic Mini-Documentary on Taken By Trees
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Sunday 9 January 2011
Friday 7 January 2011
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Saturday 1 January 2011
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