music

here are kezia and esther entertaining you with their drumming. i haven’t included an audio file for obvious reasons.

perhaps this isn’t an advert for the future, but a reminder of a fantastic karaoke disco back in december 2000 ?

jane and i went to a male voice choir concert this evening. there was a local choir (containing a chap from our church band) and a welsh choir (contain welsh men). they all sang together for the final few songs which was most impressive.
it wasn’t my usual thing but was very enjoyable.
here is a picture of everyone going home.

charity shos have to be careful what they sell. they don’t want to sell anythng dangerous, but equally they don’t want to sell anything which is rubbish.
so that’s why Pat the Pianist comes round and plays all the pianos and organs before they are put up for sale. if she doesn’t like the timbre of the auto-backing beats or is put off by the vibrato on the inbuilt lesley she’ll not let them sell it.
so until she comes a-visiting, it’ll sit, looking good, but minus the price ticket

from here the craziest moon tunes doth come.

update: view the manufacturers label here. It was made by the famous Peter Cornish

i went to see Julian Cope last night. he’s probably one of my favourite musicians. completey bonkers.
it was an ‘acoustic set’ which meant he didn’t have any other musicians (most of the time). but he still played every song loaded with distortion and wahs.
he had three guitars – a lime green acoustic number, a Gibson flying V and a two necked job which was tuned to a chord.
If you ever get a chance to see him live, then do !

when in stockholm jane and i stumbled upon the swedish national symphonia orchestra practising in Skansen.

We didn’t know they were practising at the time and it looked like a live broadcast with people doing proper ‘links’ between items. here is our host:

our camera man (excellent cigarette work):

big fat brass instrument (with and without mute):

potty signing ladies:

when we got back to our hotel room that evening we switched on the telly, and there was the orchestra playing introduced by the same lady. it was the actual performance being broadcast live !

we didn’t get a very good view this year as we were over the other side and further back. still, managed to get some shots with my camera (whilst avoiding flying cider).
you can read reviews on the nme.com site
the white stripes:

morrisey:

the libertines (viewed by a young kid with a libertine’s jacket on his father’s shoulders watching them on stage):

franz ferdinand:

the roots:

new york dolls:

har mar superstar (before i worked out my shutter settings – but it’s best he’s blurred):

it’s a day of music today. this morning i’ve been trying to take a photo of a ‘song title’ for a county show tomorrow and this afternoon Jane and I are going to the Reading Festival.
here’s my attempt at the song title – i’m forever blowing bubbles:

i went in to the virgin megastore at lunch to buy a guitar stand, but it was full of urchins listening to thrash metal or something. here are the band as viewed from upstairs.
i wasn’t able to hold my camera very steady due to jiggling urchins. And the guitar section was closed so i couldn’t get the stand.
expect lots of nice shots like this after we go to the Carling Festival on Saturday.

i’ve been listening to this album all day whilst doing some particularly tedious excel work. belle and sebastian are great. Totally mellow yet kinda upbeat and poppy too. and great lyrics. a true indie band in the olden sense of the foppish word.
if you don’t know them you should make it your business to find out.

by the way, Dan spotted a bollard on the site, which has now been confirmed

here is a ceilidh band in a box (well on a trolley). how organised is that !

ooh. remember the Pure Reason Revolution – I mentioned their single a few weeks back. well, they’ve just signed to Sony for a 5 album deal. they signed on the roof of the sony building and everything.
i think that’s a ‘good thing’

another day, another church, another (very loud) band practice.

my bass guitar has been very poorly for the last few years. i’ve had it mended a couple of times, but there’s some very bad things wrong with the electrics/pickup.
today was (hopefully) it’s last outing as i’m going to get a new bass this week (hopefully) as i’m are playing lots at the moment (hopelessly).
i made the mistake of telling my guitar it was it’s last performance and to make it a good one. i even had a rare bass solo in a most lively tune. Just as I approached the solo chorus it decided to stop working. Suddenly there was no me. luckily jane spotted it and carried on playing so i don’t think anyone noticed (unless they spotted me hitting my volume control trying to get it working again).
oh well.

by the way, there is a difference between an Epiphone Viola and an Epiphone Violin Bass. I wasted nearly 3 hours today only to discover this fact (unfortunately)