Warkworth Revisited

A couple of weeks ago I reported on a trip I made to historic Warkworth village in Northumberland with it's impressive 12th century castle. On that occasion, the sun refused to shine and I noticed that many of the daffodils were not quite in bloom. So, I decided to return on a sunnier day and capture the castle and the daffodils in all their splendour.

What a difference two weeks can make.

Here are some of my photos.

Box Sets #6: Hidden Masters - The Jess Roden Anthology

I wrote last year about a forthcoming box set representing the career of Jess Roden who I believe in his peak had the greatest soul/blues voice in the UK. The set has been lovingly compiled by Neil Storey in collaboration with Jess himself, and the work has involved much trawling through hundreds of tapes of studio and live recordings. These have been restored and remastered and among them are some previously unreleased gems.

 

 



 

 

After literally months of waiting, the hard work of mastering, manufacturing and hand numbering and signing the sets has been completed and this week I received my copy (number 120 if you must know). And a very fine set it is too. Well worth the wait.

 

The six discs are set into the front and back covers of a 12" square hardback book. There are complete recording details of all of the songs, numerous photographs and notes from Jess Roden regarding the various stages of his career. Of course the music represents this full career and consequently spans work with Alan Bown, Bronco, The Butts Band, The Rivits, Paul Kossoff, Seven Windows, The Jess Roden Band, Jess Roden & The Humans and of course his solo work.

 

While the package itself is great, the quality of the music is phenomenal. The boys have certainly done a wonderful job of remastering this material and I am hard pushed to find any fault with this set at all.

 

I suspect that this box set is going to occupy most of my music listening time over the forthcoming weeks and months.

 

Deep joy!

 

 

 

Pere Ubu at The Sage, Gateshead

It appears that we have all been existing in a dream world in which we believed, among other things, that The Beatles were the greatest band in history. This is not the case for in the real world, Pere Ubu released their first record which immediately shot to the top of the charts in most countries around the globe. They were bigger than the aforementioned Beatles and yes, even bigger than Foreigner!!

Or so claimed David Thomas as Pere Ubu came onto the stage at The Sage, Gateshead on Monday 15 April.

From then on we were transported into the strange world of Pere Ubu as they took us on a surreal journey through some of their 'songs' both old and new. These were interspersed with wry humorous comments from Thomas delivered in a way that suggested that this was all just a bit too much of an effort for him. Why, he even had to sit down occasionally to rest his weary body and at one point removed his boot to adjust a sock, something I can't recall seeing before at a rock gig. Of course it's all part of the Thomas persona and there was nothing indolent about the musical performances of Thomas or the band. The singer was flanked by Gagarin and Robert Wheeler on synthesizers and keyboards. Wheeler was particularly energetic as he waved around a plastic electric ray-gun or teased strange sounds from his theramin. Just behind the two keyboards, guitarist Keith Moline and bassist Michele Temple faced each other rather than the audience. Temple rocked back and forth as she pounded out the thumping bass rhythms putting me in mind somewhat of Tina Weymouth, though that may be simply because I know few other female bass players. At the back of the stage, drummer Steve Mehlman shook his long blonde hair in time to the beat as he hit the snares with such ferocity that they sounded like gun shots.

Thomas had a clipboard holding together pages of lyrics, which he referred to particularly for the newer songs such as 'Mandy', 'Musicians Are Scum', 'The Road Trip Of Bipasha Ahmed' and the encore, 'Thanks'.

After an hour and twenty minutes Thomas realised that he had given us twenty minutes more than he intended. Without thanks, band introductions or final bows, Thomas left the stage to wander through the audience and out of the auditorium through the rear doors, leaving the band to finish the final song and leave the stage at the rear. Thomas could then be found shaking hands and signing merchandise for us faithful fans. But, as he made clear, it was not because he liked us.

We eventually left the venue and found ourselves back in the dream world in which we had previously existed.

Michael Chapman live at Porters, Tynemouth

Without running the risk of being sued, I believe it is safe to say that Led Zeppelin liberally nicked songs and arrangements from a range of other artists and called them their own. A prime example is 'Whole Lotta Love' which almost certainly began life as 'You Need Love' written by Willie Dixon and recorded in 1962 by Muddy Waters. Then there is the instrumental 'Black Mountain Side' which pretty much copies the Bert Jansch arrangement of the traditional 'Blackwaterside'.

But what has all this to do with Michael Chapman who played last night at Porters Cafe/Bar in Tynemouth Metro Station? Well it would appear that the Zep boys 'borrowed' the chord sequence from his own 'Kodak Ghosts' for their classic 'Stairway to Heaven'. Or so Chapman now believes. Give them both a listen and I'll leave you to be the judge(s).

This was just one of the many anecdotes related by Chapman in between songs from various stages of his career. In case you are unaware of it, his career spans the 1960's to date and in that time he has made over 30 albums. His songs have also been covered by people like Lucinda Williams ('That Time Of Night') and more recently, Kurt Vile ('Just Another Story'). Last night's set was broadly split between songs delivered in that distinctive husky growl and some superbly performed guitar instrumentals.

The venue is a very small cafe that originally served as the waiting room for the Victorian railway station in the coastal resort of Tynemouth. It is now tucked away in a corner of what has become Tynemouth Metro Station, and serves as a cafe during the day, with occasional small gigs such as this one on certain evenings. This is the third time I have seen Chapman play at this venue in as many years and he never fails to deliver a fine performance. The only down side last night was that only 16 of us turned out to see him play. Could this possibly be due to the lack of advertising I wonder?

The small turnout put me in mind of one of Chapman's comments last time he played there. He asked what was the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist. The answer - a rock guitarist plays three chords to hundreds of people and a jazz guitarist.......
Well, I'm sure you know the rest.

Steve Earle - The Low Highway

Like Neil Young, it seems that Steve Earle can't sit still and rest on his laurels. When not touring, acting or writing books, he is writing the kind of fine songs that appear on this album. Billed as Steve Earle & The Dukes (& Duchesses), the album covers a range of musical styles and influences.

In the opening title track, to a gentle acoustic beat with accompanying country slide guitar, Earle reflects on the disagreeable things he sees in his country while on his travels. The line, 'I saw empty houses on a dead end street' is soon followed by 'The ghosts of America watching me, through the broken windows of the factories'. He clearly is not happy with the way his country is headed.

'Calico County' is musically more upbeat and would not be out of place on 'Exile On Main Street'. Lyrically however, Earle voices the hopelessness of a drug addled bum driven to crime because that's the only way out of the place of the title. The theme of despondency continues into the third track, 'Burnin' it Down' in which the hapless protagonist is thinking about burning his local Walmart down.

'That All You Got' is a duet with his wife Allison Moorer, lent a zydeco flavour by the addition of bouncy accordion. Then the swinging 'Love's Gonna Blow My Way' evolves into something that could have been played by The Quintette du Hot Club de France as violinist Eleanor Whitmore (of The Mastersons) provides some very Grappelli-like licks. On 'After Mardi Gras', Earle looks at himself and doesn't like what he sees. He intends to change but only when the fun of mardi gras is over. Incidentally, these two songs were written in collaboration with Earle's 'Treme' co-star, Lucia Micarelli.

The variety of songs on the album continues with 'Pocket Full Of Rain', a piano driven blues in which Earle looks at the mistakes he's made but acknowledges that he has emerged if not unscathed, at least a little wiser for the experiences. The very short 'Warren Hellman's Banjo' name checks a number of banjo standards such as 'Shady Grove', 'Boil Them Cabbage Down' and 'Soldier's Joy'.

Overall this is about as diverse an album as Earle has ever produced and in my view it ranks up there with his very best work. Great songwriting and performances from Earle and his male (and female) backing musicians. What more could you ask for?

Hopefully I'll be able to catch him live when he visits the UK in May.

Arne Dahl: The Blinded Man

I have made reference in earlier posts to my love of the Scandinavian crime dramas that have been shown on BBC4 and that appear to put our own, home produced dramas to shame. I refer of course to the likes of 'The Killing' and 'The Bridge'. It now seems that the place to be on a Saturday evening is on the sofa in front of BBC4.

This Saturday, we were treated to the latest offering from Sweden, 'Arne Dahl: The Blinded Man' which followed the tradition of it's predecessors. The premise is that a rather dysfunctional team of detectives, each with their own baggage, is brought together to investigate the murder of a group of financier businessmen. It may not yet live up to the brilliance of 'The Killing' but we are only at episode one of ten so I feel we must reserve judgement. However, it made a promising start and the three dimensional characters still tend to leave our own looking rather flat and well frankly, two dimensional.



Incidentally, Arne Dahl is actually the pen name of the Swedish crime writer Jan Arnald and he has written almost a dozen books under that name as well as several under his own name. I feel I must begin to download some of his stuff onto my Kindle.

Northumberland Walks - Warkworth

When I returned from my Easter break it appeared that Spring might actually have arrived. The sun shone, there were blue skies and the fields were full of new-born lambs that didn't stray too far from their mothers. It seemed that some weekend walking was in order though sadly by then the blue skies had mainly disappeared and were replaced by grey clouds. There was also a biting cold wind. Nevertheless I donned the walking boots and on Friday headed up to the Scottish borders for a 12 mile walk from the historic town of Jedburgh and onto the St Cuthbert's Way to end up in the village of Morebattle.

Not having got the walking bug out of my system, I then spent part of the weekend walking from the Northumbrian fishing village of Amble to nearby Warkworth with it's historic 12th century castle overlooking the River Coquet. Being a sucker for walking and history, I feel very fortunate to have such wonderful areas just a short ride from where I live.

I thought in this post I'd just share with you some of the sights of Warkworth.

Should you be interested, you can find out more about Warkworth Castle here:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warkworth_Castle
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/warkworth-castle-and-hermitage/

Iain Banks

I was never meant to become the messenger of doom and gloom in this blog, but I write on subjects I care about and it is unfortunate that in recent weeks I have felt compelled to comment on the deaths of Kevin Ayers, Jason Molina and Paul Williams. In their own ways they have all meant something to me.

Now I have learned the news that the Scottish author Iain Banks has revealed he has 'late stage cancer' and is unlikely to live more than a year.

I first became aware of his work with the publication of his first novel, 'The Wasp Factory' back in 1984. A strange, macabre but compelling read, it had me yearning for more and thankfully Banks is a very prolific writer. Born in Dunfermline and brought up in North Queensferry, much of his work was clearly influenced by what he experienced and saw around him. Consequently in 1986 with the publication of 'The Bridge'. I could identify with the content as by then I was myself living just a little further along the northern shore of the River Forth, under the shadow of the iconic Forth Railway Bridge.

I subsequently devoured 'Espedair Street' (1987) and 'The Crow Road' (1992) before my personal favourite, 'Complicity' was published in 1993. By then I had left Scotland but the book reminded me of my former home ending as it does on Inchcolm Island in the middle of the Forth.

Banks alternated between his 'mainstream' books published as Iain Banks, and books in the science fiction genre which were published under the name Iain M Banks.

According to fellow Scottish writer, Ian Rankin, Banks recently proposed to his partner with the words 'Will you do me the honour of becoming my widow?' Clearly the dark humour evident in his books is still there.

It is a tragedy that another great talent will be lost to us, possibly before his 60th birthday. I am shocked and saddened by the news but my thoughts are very much with Iain, his family and loved ones.

RIP Paul Williams creator of Crawdaddy and author of Bob Dylan: Performing Artist

Upon my return to the UK after an Easter break in the sunshine, I learned of the death of Paul Williams at the age of 64.

Probably best known as the founder of 'Crawdaddy' magazine in the mid 1960's, Williams provided an outlet for promising young music writers such as Jon Landau and Pete Guralnick. As it was a US publication, it was something that passed me by, living as I did in the UK. Consequently I first became aware of the work of Paul Williams the writer when I picked up a book entitled 'Bob Dylan - Performing Artist'. The book in question covered the period 1960 to 1973 and became the first of a trilogy of books about Dylan as, well yes you guessed it, a performing artist. This meant that the book was not a biography of Dylan but focused on his performances of songs whether in the studio (released and unreleased) or live (mainly officially unreleased).

What struck me about the book and particularly about Williams' style of writing, was that he wrote about the way the music made him feel. This was not something I had encountered before and I found the style unique and totally compelling. He wrote with such enthusiasm that the reader (me) was driven to seek out that performance. If it was a well known version of a song I had heard many times, I found myself listening to it in a different way and consequently finding new, undiscovered pleasures. In most instances however, his description would be of a live performance that I had never previously heard (those being the days when bootleg recordings were much harder to acquire) and I found myself compelled to obtain a copy of the recording that Williams referred to. It was a quest that was worth the effort as I discovered some absolute gems, thanks entirely to Paul Williams.

In 1995, Williams suffered a serious brain injury when he was involved in a cycling accident. This led to the early onset of Alzheimer's disease and his health had steadily declined until his death.

His creation of a 'serious' rock magazine revealed him as a visionary and his unique approach to his writing showed that he had a real talent and enormous enthusiasm that was infectious. His work will be missed.