The First Gig on the Emirates Air-Line
I know it was a stunt by The Sun newspaper, but surely Newton Faulkner‘s gig set new heights in music.
Next thing someone might perform a few magic tricks or perhaps take a flea circus for a ride.
The Clockwork Orange
The bus advertising Ed Sheeran was also around.
The Clockwork Orange on Route 38
I’ve heard it referred to as The Clockwork Orange.
Ed Sheeran incidentally, was praised for his performance in the recent BBC Radio 1’s Weekend at Hackney.
A Bus in an Brighter Shade of Red
This bus had been painted in a rather odd shade of red or more likely orange.
An Orange Bus
It is being use to advertise Ed Sheeran
Now We Know Why Waitrose Took Over Duchy Originals
The Times today publishes a picture of Mark Price, the MD of Waitrose in the Royal Box for the Diamond Jubilee Concert.
It’s alright for some!
You Get a Better Class of Busker in St. Paul’s Tube Station
I took this picture tonight, on the mezzanine floor between the escalators at St.Paul’s Tube Station.
A Busker with a Celtic Harp
I would have thought that usually those playing a harp, were well above the cathedral, rather than underneath it!
I hope I got the type of harp right!
The BBC’s Obsession With Manchester Music of the 1970s
They keep banging on about this and it bores me stiff. I suppose in the 1970s, C and I were bringing up children and our musical tastes were still in Liverpool in the 1960s and with Dory Previn.
When I hear the rubbish from Manchester in the 1970s, I reach for the off button.
Also if the Hacienda was so great, why doesn’t anybody remember Tommy Ducks?
It all goes to prove that the move to Salford of the BBC is a disaster for the rest of the country.
They’ll Have to Saw It Into Logs
I had to laugh at this story from the BBC web site, about how they are running out of toilet paper in New Jersey.
There’s an old ribald schoolboy or rugby club rhyme called In Mobile. One phrase is something like.
There’s a shortage of loo paper in Mobile.
So they’ll wait until it clogs,
Then they’ll saw it into logs in Mobile.
I can’t find the complete lyrics on the Internet.
Interestingly, the story was the second most read one on the BBC this morning.
Instant Sunshine
Instant Sunshine is not an easyJet flight to Spain or a new breakfast cereal, but a four-piece music and comedy group in the British tradition of Flanders and Swan. Read their own views on what they are on their web site.
C and I used to listen to them on the radio forty or so years ago.
I went to see them last night at the Rosemary Branch theatre just down the road. The show was worth at least three times the £10 it cost to get in.
If you can catch their stage show then do.
One thought they left me with, was that there is no rhyme for Islington.
Rocks and Climate Change: How We Can Stop Pulling the Carbon Trigger
Today, I went to another lecture at the Geological Society of London, the title of which is the title of this post.
The entertaining lecture was given by Bryan Lovell, who is Senior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences at Cambridge University. He talked about how 55 million years ago a rapid global warming effect called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum changed the world forever and led to the creation of the first apes. Some of the proof of this is believed to be the unusual puddingstone found in places like Hertfordshire, which was created at the time. As he said the rocks tell us what happens if you don’t control global warming and that the earth can cope with it, but animals can’t.
One point he then said was that the oil industry can store safely underground the carbon dioxide captured from a coal-fired power station at a reasonable price.
He then said that although the scientific case has been established beyond doubt and even Shell accepts there is man made global warning, but we haven’t convinced ourselves of the need to act. He said that now is the time to tell the story written in the rocks – in verse, in film and in song. He was at Harvard in the 1960s and no-one got anywhere about convincing the Americans about the wrongness of the Vietnam War, until Joan Baez got involved. We need another Joan. And unfortunately someone, who could have written and performed something eloquent; Dory Previn, died on Tuesday.
How do We get Drugs out of the Music Business?
Yesterday we had the tragic death of Whitney Houston. Not necessarily from drugs, as we don’t know yet. But it does seem that every star in the music business seems to have fought addiction at some time. And in many cases, it’s killed them or assisted them on their way!
They set a very bad example to young people! And to everyone in fact!
But last night at the Grammys did anybody speak up against drugs? Not that I have seen in any report! They gave Whitney Houston a tribute, but didn’t say how stupid she was to get involved in drugs and alcohol.
The Anonymous Widower 