piccadilly (with igor outkine)

Piccadilly

The monthly silent film showing by Filmphonics at Hackney Attic (the top floor of the fantastic Hackney Picturehouse) was British film Piccadilly from 1929.

You may remember that we went to see The Cabinet of Dr Caligari last month, with live score by Minima.  I had never heard of Piccadilly before, and was looking forward to seeing a late 1920′s London!  This time, the live score was performed by Igor Outkine, a Russian accordianist.

Piccadilly is a slightly odd film really – it follows the story of Valentine Wilmot, owner of the successful Piccadilly club in Piccadilly Circus.  A lot of their success is said to be down to dancers Mabel and Vic.

On the night that we join them, a disgruntled customer causes a disruptive fuss about a dirty plate which sends Wilmot scurrying off to the kitchen and scullery in turn to find out how this happened.  Whilst there, he sees a Chinese dishwasher (Shosho) dancing on the table.  He fires her immediately.

Meanwhile, the disruption to his dance has vexed Vic so much, that he plans to leave Piccadilly for Hollywood, and tries to get Mabel to go with him, declaring his love.  Mabel however is already in love with Wilmot, and tells him no. Vic then goes to quit, but Wilmot fires him first.

The film then follows the story of how Wilmot encourages Shosho to dance at the club, the conditions she enforces and increasing Mabel’s jealousy.

The film includes scandal, racism, dancing and eventually murder.

There are lots of close-up shots of eyebrow-raising (mainly from Valentine), sly looks (mainly from Shosho)  and shock and horror (mainly from Mabel).

The whole film felt quite long, and there were parts that just seemed really random, with long shots of not very much, giving no progression to the story – in fact seeming to get in the way of it at times.  I often found that I was busy giggling at some random thing that someone had done in a rather bizzarre manner.

Igor Outkine played an accordian the like I had never ssen before, and he told us right at the start that he was improvising. His accordian was an electric one (I assume), and sounded of many, many different instruments, from drums to piano to trumpet – which was very effective.

However, I am not sure that Piccadilly is a particularly easy film to improvise a soundtrack to, as it flicks through emotions and moods rather quickly and has a LOT of scene cut-aways (you will see what I mean in the clip below).  It was also almost TWO HOURS long and he played admirably without a single break.  Pretty amazing really.

Anyway – for £20 including a rather bloody good homemade burger, chips and coleslaw and a nice glass of wine / £9 without food & drink (or £18 / £7 for members like me!) it was a really good evening out, and we will probably be going along to the next one.  The Great White Silence on Sunday 24th June.

I will leave you with this. Charles Laughton played ‘the disgruntled diner’ in the film.  And if I hadn’t seen this, I never would have known that Monty Python’s Mr Creosote was actually BASED on someone already dreamed up.  He was, wasn’t he?

party on the pitch, leyton orient fc

The Girl’s verdict of Party On The Pitch

As part of the ‘Olympics celebrations’ (don’t get me started), Waltham Forest are holding The Big 6 – six free events put on for residents of the borough.  There has already been Winter Wonderland and fireworks for New Year, neither of which were of mch interest to us.

Party On The Pitch was a pop concert, free to all residents, with tickets allocated by lottery.  I thought The Girl might like it (being 12 and all that), so applied for tickets early on.  I have to admit, as the acts were annonced, my internal raver kept dying a little inside – Alexandra Burke, The Saturday, Scouting for Girls and finally Cover Drive.

I didn’t get tickets originally, but a friend did and ‘donated’ his to us (as he was off to watch West Ham) which gained us entry to the Gallery and free drinks and nibbles — which certainly cheered my mood up (It was nice to jump the long queues afetr we got off the bus too!)

I have to say, from our vantage point, the crowd seemed a little sparse, which was disappointing, as people shouldn’t really apply for these tickets if they have no intention of showing up – a good, solid crowd certainly adds to any artist’s performance!

I missed who the ‘compere’ for the day was, but I have to say, he was actually really good for the family-friendly audience.  Just the right amount of cheese and forced jollity without being too over the top.

First on stage was local girl, Mizz Camara – at just 15 she can play 6 instruments apparently, and although she only sang two songs (and played the trumpet too!) she had a very strong voice and is certainly someone to watch for the future – yay for homgrown talent

Next up were Bajan group Cover Drive, who I had never heard of, but The Girl seemed to know most of their songs and hapily sang along and danced.  They weren’t too bad at all – easy listening, a bit souly, but what impressed me most was the amazing midriff of the lead singer – my God she was totally ripped! Anyway, The Girl would now like their album, and I have no issues with that at all.

The Saturdays

We were then entertained by Kaleidisco, a rather odd five-piece act from Ibiza.  They consisted of a guy on bongos/drums, a girl on saxophone, a couple of neon-clad dancers, seemingly improvising to the backdrop of dance tracks spun by their DJ.  A rather odd choice for the venue, I must say.  However, I can imagine that they are qite effective in-situ in a proper club.

The slightly strange Kaleidisco

Then came what I was dreading most, and unfortunately my fears were completely with reason.  The Saturdays were down to four (apparently they’re usually five) as one of them has just had a baby.  They looked very good – all jewelled corsets, hot pants or short skirts and high high heels, perfectly made-up and coiffed.

I didn’t know any of their songs, but that hadn’t really made a difference with the first two acts.  They really weren’t my kind of thing obviously, but personally, I don’t really think that they ‘brought it’.  They seemed very much to be going through the motions, with no real stage presence, chemistry or character.  I guess all I have in my mind to compare them to is Girls Aloud or The Spice Girls, and although I’ve not seen either of them live, I have seen clips of shows etc, and The Saturdays were nowhere near the same league.

In fact, well before the end of their set, The Girl said she should probably go to the loo as we knew Unity UK were going to be on at some stage, and she was worried they would be straight after The Saturdays and we’d miss them!

Unity UK’s short performance was brilliant!

She was right too – even though they only did a short piece, local dance group Unity UK were definitely the highlight for me.  The Girl had wanted them to win Got To Dance – but they got pretty close!  Do check out their audition if you haven’t seen them before.

Alexandra Burke and hot dancer #2

Alexandra Burke was up next – and I at least recognised a couple of her songs, and The Girl was happily singing along, and dancing – as were a few of her friends that we bumped into…they had dance routines and everything (oh to be that age again!).  She certainly seemed to have a LOT more stage presence than The Saturdays, and a pretty impressive voice too, which I wasn’t really expecting.  She also had two VERY hot dancers, that got a whoop out of The Girl when they took their tops off.  A whoops off of lots of women and girls actually (and a fair number of men).

Then was the longest wait of the day (which to be completely honest wasn’t that long a wait at all!) and then Scouting For Girls came on stage.  At this point, I had managed to convince the steward that seeing as many people had just left (probably to get younger kids home and miss the rush), that there should be no problem with letting us onto the pitch where we managed to join one of my friends.

he’s so luverlee, he’s so luverlee…

I have to say, I always thought Roy was quite cute, and the songs were always proper pop sing-a-longy type creations.  Good for what they were meant to be, and as it was the end of a pretty nice day with The Girl behaving herself, and the band were obviously well up for it, it was quite easy to give into the pop-pressure and sing along to songs which I didn’t realise I knew the words to!

They were a good finale to a very nice free day.

Happy scouted girls!

I have just asked The Girl for a quick review:  The highlight for her was also Scouting For Girls as it really made her want to dance around, low point was not being allowed onto the pitch until right near the end.  She also loved singing along to Halleluljah and other songs with Alexandra Burke.

Now, I am especially looking forward to Urban Classic which I have managed to get tickets for.  Far more my kind of thing!

Just for balance, I bumped into the infamous Walthamstow Scene whilst there, and you should read his writeup too, as I think he has very different opinions to my own

the cabinet of dr caligari (with minima)

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

A couple of weeks ago, me and three friends went along to Hackney Attic (top floor of the wonderful Hackney Picturehouse – where I happened to take The Girl to see the brilliant Avengers Assemble yesterday) to see a one-off showing of 1920 silent film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

This featured a live score by 4 man band Minima.

The film itself is often thought of as one of the most influential horror movies.  It is a lesson in German expressionism – the sets are all highly stylized, with a lot of sharp, jagged buildings and furniture, disproportionate sets and backdrops that were painted on canvas.

The actors also often played their roles in a rather odd and jerky manner (think the Smirnoff Judderman advert) and I read that it is believed to have introduced the twist ending in film.

Obviously these days, watching such an old film, a lot of the melodrama and horror and over-acting seems rather amusing in places, but it doesn’t detract from a solid tale, and some truly iconic scenes and memorable moments.

This was completely enhanced by Minima’s score.  i had never heard of Minima before, but I will certainly be looking out for them in the future – they were amazing.  This definitely wasn’t your usual silent film score.  They’re funky, and definitely more of a rock band, but the atmosphere they injected into the film was truly outstanding.

Minima consist of an electric guitar, drums, bass, and the necessary spooky cello – and you wouldn’t believe such a wide-range of moods and sounds could be emitted from such a tiny number of instruments…they were fantastic.

The film for this month is Piccadilly (which I had never heard of, let alone seen!) again at Hackney Attic on the 20th and will have a live score by Igor Outkine on the accordian.  I will probably be going!

I will leave you with a clip.

orpheus goes to the movies, cadogan hall

Ghost orchestra...but this is how close we were!

I am so behind on my blog – I have been suffering from VERY bad insomnia and other various run-downness lately that I just haven’t had my head together to formulate my posts!

Anyway – just under two weeks ago (ahem), I went along with a friend to see a youth orchestra playing at Cadogan Hall (where I recently saw Maz Jobrani).

The Orpheus Foundation offers a platform for young musicians to be part of a real performing orchestra, and play both free rehearsal and paid / fundraising concerts.  The performance that we went along to was one of the more fun ones as they were playing themes from TV and music – kind of the ‘entry level orchestral experience’

The first half were classical pieces that happened to have been used in film:

• Camille Saint-Saens – Danse Macabre (Jonathan Creek) – I’ve awlays loved this one
• Giacomo Puccini – O mio babbino caro (A Room With A View)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto #20 (Brief Encounter)

I loved Danse Macabre as ever, but unfortunately although i’m sure the other two peices were played very well, it just reiterated my previous feelings that piano concertos just aren’t really my ‘thing’.  I love the piano – especially jazz etc – but personally pianos don’t tend to work for me as a focus in an orchestra as they detract so much from the gorgeous sound of the collective instruments.

Anyway, the second half was all scores composed for film – a real John Williams extravaganza.  In fact, they actually began by playing the 20th Century Fox theme tune, which was amusing.

• Jurassic Park
• Schindler’s List
• Harry Potter
• ET
• Star Wars
• Indiana Jones

This half was the crowd-pleaser.  We all knew and loved the tunes, and Indiana Jones in particular is hornily fantastic! (As in I love the horns, not anything else!).

I have never seen Schindler’s List, nor heard the theme.  A violin soloist (Leonard Schreiber) came on to play it and it was SO haunting, and he was so amazing that I felt completely moved.  Although some of the faces that he pulled during his performance did in fact make me feel that I’d just done the dity with him!

All in all, it was a fantastic night, and I would definitely like to see the orchestra perform again.  especially as we started giving some of them nicknames.  Not very imaginative nicknames admittedly – Spikey Heels, Giggles, Grumpy…

womad 2011

The Gis in the 'O'

I am not a massive festival junkie – I have been to Lovebox every year for the past seven, and I have been to a few others over the years, but they have always been day festivals in London.  However, I do love my music!  And I have VERY eclectic tastes.

This came to light a few weeks ago when one of the Awesomestow Twitterati asked for a Saturday morning music suggestion, and @martingreaves suggested Afro Celt Sound System who I have LOVED for years.  I tweeted this fact, as did @mr_omneo and as these things happen, within a couple of days, the three of us had bought tickets to go to this year’s WOMAD festival in Wiltshire, along with The Girl!

The Girl has NEVER been to a festival – of any type at all…and *I* have never been to an overnight one.  in fact, considering me & my family went camping about 6 times a year when I was a kid, it may come as some (or no) surprise that I haven’t even been camping since I was about 14.  However, I know The Man went to WOMAD with a large group of friends every year for about 10 years – but not for the past 6!  He didn’t want to come as he thought it might be a bitweird for him.

So, we packed our bags – luckily Martin had all manner of camping equipment – and off we went.

The Girl does her best Jamiroquai impression

I could go on an on for ages about how brilliant it was, but I will try to keep it to a minimum

Epitome of festival hippy chick (loads of people took pics of her during this time watching the MoRoccan Rollers)

Things I learned at WOMAD

• Festival food has come a LONG way
• £8 for the weekend for me & The Girl to use the La-Di-Dah loos was the best £8 I spent! (Ceramic flushign loos, running wtaer in the sinks, hand-driers, uniformed attendants, people with scrubbing brushes, mirrors, toiletries…)
• Bubbles make EVERYONE smile
• Kids will sleep through anything
• Some people (in other tents) snore VERY loudly
• Many women do the 5am ‘I-can’t-wait-for-the-loo-any-longer’ dash from their tents
• My daughter really IS totally adorable
• Festival-goers are a bloody lovely crowd
• Drums are fab
• It’s amusing to see a lot of very respectable-looking white-haired couples in their 60s smoking spliffs and giggling to themselves
• It’s amazing how many times you can bump into exactly the same people over and over again in a crowd of 35,000
• I just loved the eclectic mix of music – but it was amazing how many acts I already knew!
• My daughter wasn’t to be a beatboxer

While watching Faiz Ali Faiz

And this was MY WOMAD

• The Boxettes (workshop – where The Girl actually got up on stage with them)
• Pacific Curls
• The Boxettes
• Afrocubism
• Alabama 3
• Taiko Meantime (Japanese drumming workshop)
• 

  Her 'night time' outfit - the ears flash!

  Alejandro Toledo & The Magic Tombolinos

• Hassan Erraji’s MoRoccan Rollers
• 9Bach
• Faiz Ali Faiz
• Brassroots
• Oi Va Voi
• Rodrigo y Gabriella
• Baaba Maal
• Procession practice
• Amparo Sanchex (Spanish singing workshop)
• Breaking the Guiness World Record for Mass Participation Air-Guitar (oh yes we did, we smashed the Aussies – 2,227 of us rocking out to Purple Haze beating the previous record of 1,883)
• The Dhols of Jaipur (Indian drummers workshop)
• Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
• I Am Kloot
• Creole Choir of Cuba
• Booker T Jones (and yes, he did Green Onions!)
• Gogol Bordello

Gorgeous weather too!

It was a fabulous experience.  The Girl loved every second of it.  She loved the singing, dancing, drum-playing, tambourine-flashing (yes,  I have had a flashing tambourine for years that I took along with me) moment of it – oh, and the eating.  She loved the eating.

Festivals aren’t what they used to be.  No burger/hot-dog stalls to be seen anywhere – everything was fresh, lodas of it was healthy, and a hell of a lot of it was organic and/or vegan.  Apart from the churros and chocolate which were a massive hit with her too!

So – next year, we will be going again.  This time, The Man is coming with us (I bumped into HIS friends who had gone for the first time again since having their 2 kids – so now he thinks it may be OK after all!) , and another friend who was totally gutted that I had gone without him this year.

I feel surprisingly stress-free, chilled out, happy and warm (that will be the slight sunburn!).

Can anyone think of a fitting caption?

La-Di-Dah Loos

jools holland and his r&b orchestra, bbc radio theatre

The end song, with Paul O'Grady brought onto the stage too!

You probably by now realise that I’m a bit of a sucker for a big band or orchestra, so it will come as no surprise that I have always wanted to see Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra live – but have just never got around to it.  Mainly because tickets to events that they have been at have been rather expensive, and because I have never managed to ‘win’a ticket to the Hootenanny, and have had to make do with just watching it on the TV every New Year!

So, you can imagine how excited I was when I spotted that he was doing a show for Radio 2 and quickly applied for (the obviously free) tickets.  And I got them, just when I’d forgotten I’d applied!

I have a bad recent track record for not managing to get into show recordings (as they always oversubscribe to make sure they get a full audience), and so was taking no chances.  I got ‘let out’ of work an hour early and made my way to the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House (where we had the very civilised protests for 6Music).  As I went past on the bus, I was pretty dismayed to see how long the queue was already at 4.20, and even more upset that there was a burst water main and we sat in traffic for 15 minutes!  But I got in.  The process of actually getting in is rather long-winded and boring, but we were all seated in the gorgeous theatre about 10minutes before the live broadcast started at 6.

It really is a fantastic place to see live music as the sound is brilliant, and yet the audience isn’t very large – probably about 250 I reckon.

I was celeb-spotting as I walked in as I saw Tony Blackburn and Ken Bruce, but then I spotted Paul O’Grady – which was weird as this is the second time in six weeks that I’ve been in an audience with him.  People will start talking

So, the band took their place, and Terry Wogan introduced Jools Holland – and he came out and did exactly what he does best – played the piano with such an effortless grace, awe-inspiring style and unbelievable speed that makes you think it can’t possibly be just one person playing it.

We were also treated to others (mainly Radio 2 presenters) ‘doing a turn’ with the orchestra – highlights were Clare Teal, who I had never heard of who had an absolutely amazing voice, the beautifully chocolate-voiced Huey Morgan who did his best Frank Sinatra bit, the amazing Ruby Turner, the (now very elderly) ska-legend (and one time Special) Rico Rodriguez and also Jamie Cullum, who have never really liked but who didn’t sound too bad with such a brilliant band.  I reckon he could be the Jools Holland of the future when Jools Holland is too old to be Jools Holland – but he is nowhere near it now – watching the two of them play at the same time, you could see that Jools is all effortless and loose-handed and feels the music, whereas Jamie’s playing looks a little to measured and practiced.  I guess time and experience may change that – and his voice has definitely changed a bit, it didn’t grate on me as much as it used to

You can hear the whole show on iPlayer for 7 days – and I strongly advise you do as it was fantastic!

It was the best hour I have had for free in ages!  **UPDATE – They now have the whole show televised on the site for 29 days**

Playlist

• Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra — Bumble Boogie (absolutely amazing piano-work)
• Clare Teal — I Just Wanna Make Love To You (featuring Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra)
• Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra — Love (lead vocals by Rico Rodriguez)
• Paul Jones — Remember Me (featuring Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra) (guy from Manfred Mann)
• Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra — Endless Love  (there was an AMAZING trumpet solo on this one!)
• Huey Morgan — Fly Me To The Moon (featuring Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra)
• Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra — I Went By (lead vocals by Louise Marshall)
• Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra — Father Time
• Nigel Ogden and Frank Renton — Honeysuckle Rose (featuring Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra)
• Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra — Roll Out Of This Hole
• Jamie Cullum — Hallelujah I Love Her So (featuring Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra)
• Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra — Get Away Jordan
• The Radio 2 All Star Band — Enjoy Yourself (featuring Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra) Lead vocals by Rico Rodriguez

roger mcgough (& friends!), southbank centre

(l-r) one of Real Fur, the gorgeous baritone Ralph McTell, flambouyant Willy Russell, fabulous Roger McGough, tiny Mike Harding, posh Kit Wright!

When I was about 12, we had a poetry competition at my school, and two kids from each year with the best poems were given the prize of spending a day in the library doing a  ‘Poetry Workshop’ with Roger McGough.  I was lucky (or should I say ‘talented’) enough to be a winner, and got to meet the great man.

I was so moved by the experience that I even nicked one of his books from the school library – which I still have!  I have also often enjoyed his shows on Radio 4 over the years, as meeting him so young has obviously given me  abit of a soft spot for him.

Anyway, so when I happened to spot that he was appearing at the Southbank Centre, I booked myself a ticket.

When I got there, I must have drastically reduced the average age of the audience – although to be fair, I wasn’t the only ‘young person’ there, and probably wasn’t the youngest.

So, Roger came out and did a few poems.  I love his poems, some of them are extremely short, and hilariously funny – and yet you only suddenly get it when you realise that he’s stopped.  Very clever man.  Some of his poems I can almost  see as little sketches.

Anyway, he then said that he had some ‘friends’ who would be coming on and reading poems and singing songs.  I hadn’t even thought that there would be other people.  It actually was a pretty amazing line-up – especially if you’re silver-haired…which I’m not, but I was still dead impressed!

First on was ‘The Rochdale Cowboy’, Mike Harding – who read a couple of poems that were really good, and then sand a song that was basically about sheep-shagging.

Next was Kit Wright, who I had never heard of, but has apparently written a load of books, and he did An Ode To Didcot Power Station amongst others, which was pretty amusing.

Then we were treated to a quick three song set from trio Real Fur, who have apparently just done a tour in launderettes across the country of all things.  They were actually really, really good, although not what I would have expected to have appeared amongst the others on the night.  They were obviously pretty young, but I was having very inappropriately lusty thoughts about the lead singer who was pretty damn cute.  Watch out for them (check out what’s going to be their first single (and also some pics of them) although I actually prefer ‘Pride’, if you click here you can listen to it.  There’s actually a really good review of them here.

So, then we had an interval (the oldies needed to go to the loo – well, actually, I did too) and then Roger came out and told a few more poems, before introducing the next ‘guest’ who was Ralph McTell.  “Who?”, I thought – until he started singing with that gorgeous deep voice…and I realised that he’s the one who sang “The Streets Of London”, which I know all the words to the first verse and chorus from the very few guitar lessons I had when I was about 10!  So that was nice!

Next was someone I definitely had heard of – Willy Russell – he who wrote Educating Rita and Blood Brothers.  He was excellent – told an old poem (“I hate poems!”) which has the immortal line “They don’t serve spam at the Barb-a-can!”  he then read a passage from his book ‘The Wrong Boy’, which was brilliant and has made me want to read the book now! (As if I don’t have enough on my ‘To Read’ list!

And then it was back to Roger to tell us some more – my favourite of which was ‘Deadpan Delivery’.

Then everyone returned to the stage for ‘All In Time To The Music’ collectively.  I’ve definitely heard Roger do this one on some radio show – and I’m not sure it was the right end for what had been quite a bouncy bouyant evening (aside from a couple of Roger’s poems earlier that had been about Alzheimers / ageing but were pretty touching – especially as that’s how my gran died).

The silvery audience were surprisingly raucous really – cheering happily to everything, even to the adorable Real Fur (although I don’t think they appreciated the lead singer’s bum quite as much as I did 6ft away from him), and laughing outrageously at even the hint of rude bits, let alone when some of it got pretty blue!

I loved it, I had a fantastic time – even on my own, in an older audience.  I iz cultured!

east london brass band – trinity united reform church, e17

East London Brass Band

I had been sent a link on Twitter about the East London Brass Band playing a free concert in the Trinity United Reform Church in Walthamstow Village on Thursday.

I have a weak spot for all sorts of live music, including classical, orchestral and yes, indeed a good old brass band!

The concert was free, but it was a fundraising evening, so they had a ‘retiring collection’.  (Yes…I DID have to ask The Man what that meant.)  I was going to take The Girl, and she was very excited, but she then was unforgiveably naughty, so The Man sent me off without her.  However, I don’t seem to be able to go anywhere in Walthamstow these days without bumping into someone I know – and this was no exception as I bumped into The Man’s best mate’s mum and sister!  There were actually more than a hundred in the audience – which was more than I was expecting to see!

They were fantastic! .  There’s something very rousing about a brass band – even though I had been rather cross when I got there because of The Girl playing up, I felt my spirits raised as I internally went ‘trump trump trump’ along with the tubas.

Jayne Murrill, the Musical Director was brilliant – very engaging, chatting to the audience while the band were getting their music ready – and telling us how the band were doing as they ARE a competition band.  Apparently they have won at the Butlins National Mineworkers Contest and regional Area Contest two years in succession – and their awards were on display.  They obviously fully deserved them!

Running order

They started with a couple of pieces that I knew and then a couple that I didn’t, before ending the first half on Mambo from West Side Story.

Then there was an interval with refreshments. And there was cake.  Oh, was there cake!  The daughter of one of the band members had made cakes to seell to help raise more funds.  I had the most gorgeous moist slice of deliciousness that was apparently chocolate and guiness.  Much yum!

The second half was just as good, including a rather good arrangement of Lord Of The Dance, and a fantastic solo from one of the cornets which was from the soundtrack of La Califfa.  You’ll have to excuse my dodgy recordings from my camera – but trust me, they were brilliant!

There were a couple of encores, and I was very happy when they actually finished on The Floral Dance.  No Terry Wogan, but I think it’s one of my favourite brass band pieces – very bouncy to walk home on.  I put quite a bit in the collection   I can see why they had it at the end – the audience couldn’t help but be moved!

They have another concert at the same place on 18th August, and although I have something else booked in, I am actually very tempted to go along again – and take The Girl this time!

the one where i finally solve an old mystery

Twenty years of annoyance with a ‘family mystery’’ came to an end a couple of weeks ago – and I finally laid it to rest this week.

When I was very young – probably about 7 or 8, my mum was very into electronic music – think Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield and the like.  That wasn’t ALL she was into of course, I was also brought up at that time on a pretty varied vinyl diet of Boney M (love), Beatles (hate), Rolling Stones (ambivalent), Simon & Garfunkel (love), The Carpenters (secretly love), Abba (indifferent) and The Soundtrack To Hair (hate!).

Anyway, there was one particular album that I remembered my mum playing quite frequently, that to my juvenile ear had a track that sounded just like aliens singing.  I used to love it at the time, and used to sing along in my bestest alien voice.

When I ‘left home’ at 17, CDs were just coming out and I gradually built up my collection, but there were a few CDs that I admit I bought simply because I used to put them on and think of my mum and childhood – I got War of the Worlds which was always a favourite, but I also got Oxygene and Tubular Bells simply for the memories.

So, at about 18/19, I asked my mum “What was that album you used to have with the aliens singing on it?” and she looked at me like I’d just murdered a family pet “Aliens?  Aliens singing?  Why on earth would I have an album of aliens singing?!”.  So, I tried to sing it…difficult to sing an electronic song that you last heard half your lifetime ago that doesn’t actually have any lyrics.

This obviously meant absolutely nothing to my mum, and she dismissed it with a well-rehearsed glare.

Over the years, I have heard this particular track in my head many many times, but never heard it anywhere else.  And even with the fantastic invention of the internet, how do you find a track that has no words?

There have been occasions when I have thought I am on the verge of remembering it, or finding it, and none more so than a couple of weeks ago when I was watching Dog Soldiers with The Man.

As we were watching, a piece of classical music started (just a piano) that was vaguely familiar.  I realised I’d heard it a few times – but then suddenly realised that in my head, I was hearing it electronically.  I sat up suddenly and reached for my laptop.

This wasn’t the aliens singing track of my memories, but…it was the track before it on the album!!!

I crossed my fingers and typed “Dog Soldiers Soundtrack” into Google.  Result!  I found a listing that included Debussy’s Clair de Lune.  Hmm, that sounded familiar.

I typed “Clair de Lune” into YouTube and found the exact piece of music that had been in the film.

So, from there I typed in “Electronic Debussy Lune” into Google and started sifting through the results.

I got a link to my favourite Last.FM of all things!  Isao Tomita meant nothing to me, but when I clicked on the sample, that was it!  That was the album!!

It was only a couple more clicks that helped me get to this video.  Listen to the whole thing for a taste of my childhood, but especially listen from 1:20 to hear what I believed were the singing aliens.

Obviously, the first thing I did was go onto Play.com and find the exact album that my mum had owned (I checked the track listing) and a couple of days later it was in my grubby little hands!

So, I took it away with me, and when my parents turned up for a couple of days, I sat them down and went through with my mum again “What was the album you used to play that had the singing aliens on it?”.  And then I tried the electronic music angle.  “Jean Michel Jarre?” she said, “Vangelis? Mike Oldfield?”

Nope.

So I put it on – and she happily joined in with all the various sounds, and remembered it all, but couldn’t for the life of her remember the name of the album, or who it was by.

"Mr Spock, bring on the singing aliens!"

Snowflakes are Dancing by Isao Tomita, you have caused me endless frustration, but you have been so worth it – even just to see the enormous smile on my mum’s face when we sat and listened to it together again yesterday – the first time in 30 years.   (and not only are there aliens singing on it, but the picture of him on the cover looks like Mr Spock!)

Mystery solved.  Case closed.

josé gonzález, barbican theatre

José @ Barbican

A couple of months ago, I saw that José González was playing at the Barbican.  I’m a member, so I’m always keeping my eye out for interesting stuff – especially as my mate moved there last summer!

I love José González’ voice, so, I thought I’d check the tickets out and see if my mate fancied going…but when I checked there were like 5 seats left and they were all single seats, so I thought ‘Bugger it!’ and just got a seat for myself (selfish bitch, I know!).

It turned out that my mate had looked too, but they were all sold out by that point, and so he felt hard done by.  And I felt rather guilty.  But oh my god, I am SO glad that I was selfish and did get myself a ticket as it was fantastic!

Usually it’s just him with his guitar, but this tour is with a special arrangement with a 16 piece orchestra – The Gothenburg String Theory (because he’s Swedish….you could tell by the name, couldn’t you?)  His voice is amazing – I’ve always thought that it’s beautiful…really ‘pure’ is the only way I’ve ever been able to describe it.

You might recognise this

There were a couple of points during the concert that I realised I was leaking – I was actually moved to tears by the music!  And I haven’t actually been to a concert where there has been a standing ovation during the concert – but it was the best rendition of Teardrops I have ever heard (and I have seen Massive Attack live – and they were shit).  But this was so gorgeous and haunting that it moved the audience to their feet and a 5 minute applause during the main gig!

Oh yes, and there was an empty seat directly in front of me all the way through – how bloody annoying?

I have been looking for a good video of him with the orchestra, but they’re all done from the live concerts and you really lose the sense of drama when you’re not watching it live.  This one at least has brilliant sound, but is with a reduced orchestra.  I still love it though.