Rocking Back to the Past
Last night, I went to the theatre to see the stage version of the film, Backbeat, at the Duke of York’s theatre.
It was well-worth the ticket price and I haven’t enjoyed a musical play so much in years.
The only problem is it closes next Friday, so if you want to see it, you haven’t much time.
The play is mainly about how the Beatles formed into the four musicians we know so well and a fair proportion covers the story of their trips to Hamburg, where Stuart Suttcliffe left the band to continue his artistic career under Eduardo Paolozzi. Sadly, Sutcliffe died in April 1962 at just 21. I know little of art, but I have friends who do, and Sutcliffe’s early death may have been a bigger tragedy than we think.
The play catches the mood of Liverpool in the sixties well, although I arrived in the city, after the Beatles had left and they play a lot of the songs that have been handed down from that time.
I did see the Beatles once though, that was at the Hammersmith Odeon after Christmas in 1964. Sadly, I never saw them again. There’s more detsils of that here.
I often wonder what the world would be like, if the Beatles hadn’t happened. I’d probably lose at least a laugh a week, as somewhere I’ll hear strains of their music and it will bring a smile to my face.
I think the saddest thing is probably the death of John Lennon and what would the world be like if he hadn’t have been shot? He might have been the one figure who could have helped stop the disastrous interventions into Iraq and Afghanistan.
But to return to last night. As I walked home after dancing in the aisles of the theatre to the tunes of the Beatles, I almost wouldn’t have minded having a serious heart attack and going then. I’ve seen two of my nearest and dearest have long drawn out deaths, so something fast, when I’m in a happy mood might do for me. But it will have to be medical, as I’m going to reach the span that my body will set for me.
Newt Gingrich Faces His Biggest Fight
Newt Gingrich seems to have one of the biggest requirements for a Republican Presidential Candidate; stupidity.
According to this piece in the Guardian , he has now started to use Eye of the Tiger, the theme song from Rocky III as his campaign song. But Newt didn’t ask permission from the copyright holder.
I suppose Newt could fight Sylvester Stallone for the right to use it. Now that would be a fight worth seeing, but it would be rather pointless, as I think Sly doesn’t actually own the rights.
So helpful Guardian readers have provided some suitable alternatives for Newt.
D.I.V.O.R.C.E
Space Oddity
Frontier Psychiatrist
Tragedy
When Two Fools Collide
Stupid White Men
You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly
Etc. Etc.
But the two I like are Born to Lose by Ray Charles and Go Now by The Moody Blues.
The Infrastructure’s The Star
On the one hand I watching athletics on the BBC in the centre of Newcastle amongst all of the bridges and the iconic buildings. It’s called the Great North City Games.
On the other hand, I’ve just had an e-mail describing the Sound Tracks Festival in East London, which is taking place at three main venues and you get between them on the East London line. Someone has remarked that it’s quicker to get between stages, using the train, that walking through the mud at Glastonbury. And of course there’ll be acoustic acts, including bands and a harpist on the connecting trains. I wonder what the Brunels would have said, if they’d known that their Thames Tunnel, would be transporting mobile concert halls between the two sides of the river.
We now have some fantastic pieces of infrastructure, both new and old and we should be imaginative about how we use them.
Billy Fury
History has forgotten Billy Fury, who was one of the first real pop stars to come out of Liverpool.
It was good to see this statue at the Albert Dock, by the Tate Liverpool.
I Don’t Listen to Music Anymore
I suppose a lot of this is to do, that I don’t drive anymore, as that was where I used to listen most.
Do I miss it?
No! In a word!
I don’t record programs either, as if I want to catch up, I use iPlayer. Sport I always watch live, either there, in the pub or on my television.
Bagpipes: Love Them or Hate Them!
I am actually fairly ambivalent about bagpipes. Partly because I’m a bit deaf on the street where I might hear them, but mainly because in London, you might see all sorts of musical buskers, but I can’t remember seeing anyone, Scot or not, playing pipes in the last few years.
So I was surprised to see that Edinburgh is stopping shops playing loud bagpipe music.
On the other hand, in one of C’s offices in Ipswich, a piper decided that outside her window, was the ideal place to play the one tune he knew. The barristers were thinking about taking out an injunction, when the council imposed the standard Suffolk solution. He was run out of town on a rail.
Farewell Amy Winehouse
From my bedroom in Cockfosters, I could see Southgate School, which Amy Winehouse would attend many years later.
I can also remember my sister and the other girls at the school coming and going innocently in the road in front of the house.
Now, after a later life of abuse, the obviously talented Amy is gone. How many of the other boys and girls in her year have gone the same way? Probably only a handful, if my feelings are correct. This is based on the fact that most of my late son’s school friends are still here. And some have not been without drink and drug problems.
So when we remember Amy, let’s remember the good things, like her music and her success. And never ever think that her drink and drug problems are something to be admired.
Sadly, it seems that if you’re in the music industry, you attract those criminals, who want to sell you drugs, so they can have a large slice of your money.
Wilton’s Music Hall
Last night, I went to Wilton’s Music Hall in the East End of London. It is just round the corner from Cable Street, where in 1936, Mosley’s black shirts wanted to march and this resulted in the Battle of Cable Street. My father was there, although many would think that someone who always voted Tory wouldn’t have been. But he did have a lot of Jewish heritage and he had a very low opinion of fascists. Various groups always claimed they stopped Oswald Mosley and his odious followers, but my father always said that anybody who thought about it, was against Mosley.
The show was organised by The Times, and was essentially a comedy night with four comedy acts and a compere; Jarred Christmas. The acts were Colin Hoult, Imran Yusuf, Frisky and Mannish and one other, who I think might have been a late addition.
But it was three hours of good fun and all for a tenner.
The building is virtually a construction site, as they are struggling to get London’s last music hall on a secure footing, both financially and structurally. But the building had the right atmosphere and acoustics to make it a good venue.
The four comedians were good, but not as in your face as s0me. Colin Hoult relied a lot on word play, developing a new superhero called Grammar Man, who policed such evil powers as split infinitives, whilst Imran Yusuf showed how you don’t have to be Jewish to mock your religion constructively. Jarred Christmas was an amiable host, who did a good job to link it all together.
The show was round up, by Frisky and Mannish, who are best described as a comedy musical double act, with Frisky doing most of the singing to Mannish’s keyboard. There are some videos on their web site, which give a good flavour.
She introduced herself by saying that as it was a music hall, she was wearing a corset. And she was wearing it well over a split skirt and a halter top. Her shoes, hair and the corset laces were almost a matching red/orange colour. The corset wasn’t to a Victorian tightness, but it wasn’t loose either. She sang well too!
They are going to the Edinburgh Fringe and will certainly be worth catching.
The Times are putting on further comedy nights at Wilton’s. If they’re only a tenner a time, it won’t be the last time I go.
Thea Ford
This is a singer I know. For more info click here. Hopefully, I’m going to see her perform at the O2 Academy on August 5th.
Party Licences to be Scrapped
One of NuLabor’s most disastrous pieces of legislation was the need for a council licence where any music was played.
It is all described here in the Sunday Times. One classic ruling means that a carol concert in a church doesn’t need a licence, but one in the church hall next door does.
This is perhaps the best bit of the article.
In one notorious ruling, the Tate Britain gallery was told it had to obtain a licence for an exhibition by the Turner prize winner Susan Philipsz because it featured a recording of her singing a Scottish folk song.
Hopefully things will get better and create more and better music and other venues. Obviously, there is the noise and alcohol nuisance problem, but that should be handled with other unconnected legislation. You could argue that you get more of the latter, for a Cup Final shown live on a big screen in a pub, than say a folk concert in the same venue.
The Anonymous Widower 