Blog: wordsandmusic

Filling up pretty quickly, there was an expectant buzz in the room – whatever the reason(s), Keith Tippett rarely plays in town so this was a special occasion. For myself, I'd made the haul from God's Little Acre to City Road Travelodge (grab the bus over the road to Dalston and back at last knockings, an easy move) and was looking forward to seeing one of my alltime favourite musicians up close in a sympatico joint like the Cafe Oto. Especially one equipped with a good piano. (My favourite club in the UK, anyway, puts [...]

They say that blogs have a natural lifespan... certainly I have neglected mine, due to being involved with other stuff, excuses, excuses. But reluctant to nix it yet - So: I was in London a few days ago for Keith Tippett's gig at the Cafe Oto and have more or less finished a review. Based on the Wordsworthian definition of poetry, except at a lower aesthetic level (!) - 'emotion recollected in tranquility' - as took no notes and just scribbled down some reactions/observations the following day on the reasonably tranquil train back to [...]

It's been a slog, for a variety of reasons, but finally it's here. Happy to announce that Pat Keene's photobook 'Buskers - from the streets to the Royal Albert Hall 1968-9' has been published. An A4 glossy remix of the black and white photos Pat took years ago of old and young buskers on the streets of London's West End and at Don Partridge's Albert Hall Buskers' Concert in early 1969. New material included: colour photos from the Albert Hall gig that Pat only found recently! A couple of which I will preview soon... More info: [...]

I could offer excuses... but it has been too long since I blogged here... busy with a book/music/ and ping-ponging off illness/fatigue (there go the excuses). But it's 2013, I have a new music label to promote very soon, plus a book - the sequel, as it were to 'Don Partridge And Company,' 'Buskers' - a glossy photobook featuring Pat Keene's material from the aforesaid tome plus some added colour photos that he only found recently (!) - and I have to decide what to do with this blog. I think I'll keep [...]

You get older and by the nature of the game, people fall around you, go before. It doesn't mitigate the shock and the loss, of course. Given my rackety health (no doubt mainly a consequence of: 'Drinking and gambling, night-sporting and rambling,' to quote the words of one of my favourite songs, 'The Banks of the Bann,'), it is an ongoing source of amazement that I have out-lived so many friends, bloodbrothers and sisters. But it still hits hard when another close one goes, very close, almost the same age and as far as I knew [...]

Started playing around with the template and knackered all the links so these may take a day or so to re-up...

Blimey - this blog has really been neglected. Part of the problem being that I have been buried working on a new book plus not been going out much hence nothing to review. This might be rectified tomorrow when I will be in London. Hoping to catch the evening sesh of the annual Freedom of the Festival eisteddfod at Cecil Sharp House if I can get across town in time... more later... maybe...

Minus five here when Igot back... but warmed by the musics that I almost avoided throughinertia and the onset of a cold. And a surprisingly good turnout forthe TappedButSettling gig at the Swan in the Rushes, Loughborough(God's Little Acre), given the weather. But PeteMorton will usually pull a crowd and withsupport from Gren Bartley it was alwaysgoing to be never less than a good night. I knew I would haveregretted it if I had stayed at home – because both these musiciansare always moving relentlessly forwards and it would be a shame [...]

It's been a while... but I have been buried away working on a new project in between the usual annoying illness/fatigue. I have not been to any gigs recently either - but that changes on Friday incoming - 3d February - when I'll be down at the Swan in the Rushes, in God's Little Acre, for a gig headlined by one of my favourite musicians/writers etc. Pete Morton . Who will be supported by Gren Bartley , in what should prove to be a fascinating mix of acoustic styles. Couple of vids on the [...]

Woke up after not much sleep with an appalling hangover but realised that staggering into the hotel breakfast was going to be a good idea... Somewhat refreshed - we talk in relative terms - I scanned the program for the day – and went back to bed. But come 1 pm I was down at the Sallis Benney, determined to bear witness to as much as my knackered-up body could stand. Cat Hawed were first off the blocks – three musicians from Helhesten and Towering Breaker – and played a stunning set, I thought. Starting in chamber [...]

Saturday: strolled somewhatpainfully from the hotel to the Sallis Benney (where the wholefestival used to be held) for the afternoon sesh of film and sonics. Too much walking over the previous couple of days had left mesomewhat hors de combat. I didn't stay for the whole event butcaught Blue Yodel (Fiona Kennedy's solo gig) which cleansed mysynapses suitably. Slew of good films: one that impressed me by itsunsettling weirdness was 'Trypps#6 Malobil' by American Ben Russell. Catch a glimpse here... http://vimeo.com/6975261 A group of presumably white people in strange costumes come out of abuilding in [...]

Lots of distractions this week but the remaining two reviews will go up by the weekend (honest). But just stumbled over this via Anthony Donovan out of Dylan Nyoukis. A reminder not so much of all the great stuff I caught but all the good shit I missed...

Igot down to this new main venue for the first evening of 'Colour out of Space,' The Old Market , picked up my ticket andwristband, checked the schedules, had a drink in the bar and realisedthat: a) I don't really like Peroni and b) I would probably spendmore time between acts in the Conqueror just round the corner, a great old-schoolboozer with a friendly welcome, which I had scoped out onpsychogeographic reconnaissance the previous evening. (Butcombebitter, yum. Double Jack D – cheap. More yum). [...]

Back home in God's Little Acre... oh joy. Had a stroll round the Artist's Quarter and a slow pint in the Unicorn where I had a look at the usual mess of notes I make at festivals. This year's Colour out of Space has prompted even more bizarre scrawls/signs/smears in the old moleskine - given that there was a large theme of sound poetry etc perhaps the ghost of Bob Cobbing crept into my hotel when I was akip and vented his inscribed pleasures on those pages from beyond the beyond... (Stranger things have [...]

Jeez, am I hungover...i But a great afternoon of film and music at the sallis binney venue.

Colour out of space off to great start... limited comments as on phone ... reviews will follow...

Hopefully I am off to Brighton to Colour out of Space tomorrow. Best fest in the UK, for me... No doubt reviews will follow...

A couple of new posts on the book blog - including a review by John Bentham for the Tiger Folk newsletter.

Bert Jansch is dead andthat is both a very sad loss and a great shock as it had seemed that hewas up and about again, recovered from his initial problem with lungcancer. There you go... Bert was a big fixture in my younger life,helping me, (after Bob Dylan) convert to an interest in folk/acousticmusic and an engagement with the Brit folk scene of the sixties whichfor a brief few years was actually a cool place to inhabit, mainlybecause of Bert and his sidekick John Renbourn and a couple of otherfaces from the Soho scene, centred round Les Cousins [...]

Can't really afford it - but now the book has been published, I feel that I should treat myself. And my favourite festival over the last few years has been the Brighton bash: 'Colour out of Space.' Last year it did not happen due to various reasons and there was deep sadness in my autumn. The previous couple of years - see reviews for 2008 here, here and here /2009 here , here and here - I'd gone down to Brighton for stimulating, exciting, weekends [...]