Musical and geographical offerings from GeoBlogs: a 365 blog project for 2026.
Today is World Music Day.
World music day or ‘Fête de la Musique’, as it was first known, has its origins in France.Lots of potential songs to choose from here....
A few that spring to mind are 'Valerie' from Steve Winwood, 'Rosanna' from Toto etc.
I'll probably go for a track from Goldfrapp's album 'Tales of Us'
And I'd choose the opening track 'Jo':
One of the best guitar riffs, from Randy Rhoads.
This was Ozzy Osbourne's first solo single.
The lyrics deal with the subject of the Cold War and the fear of annihilation that existed during that periodWhat are your favourite guitar riffs?
Tell me below and I'll do a separate post in the future...
If you are after images of invasive species, the SISI Flickr page has plenty for you to use.
They cover a few plant species, and also some work to control mink and other animals as well.
It is likely that the impact of invasive species on a range of environments will form part of the investigative work of the new specification as it is an example of where humans and nature overlap.
Invasive species can often cause problems for ecosystems, competing with local species or even damaging properties in the case of Japanese knotweed or out competing the natural residents e.g. red squirrels.
Here's perhaps one of the most famous pieces of music about invasive species.
A classic from early Genesis, with Peter Gabriel on vocals.
Another hard one...
This requires some thought about the different meanings a song can have.
It has to provoke some emotions of course, and perhaps be a song that I keep returning to it at different stages in my life... and view differently.
In the end, I went for the Moving Hearts song Tribute to Peadar O' Donnell.
I bought this CD from a record shop in Durham back in 2001. I was up there for a meeting with Professor Tim Burt who had agreed to help me with some research that I was doing at the time.
The album was commissioned by Music North and premiered at the opening of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in September 2001.
It's a limited edition CD and I'm not sure how many of them were made.
Another strange category and similar to some of the others.
I suppose one way to interpret it would be a song that is really old, although you can remember it being released, and therefore that makes you feel old.
My choice is by multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson. He has played with a number of progressive rock bands including Curved Air, Roxy Music, Frank Zappa and U:K. More on most of those elsewhere on the blog.
He also 'joined' Yes for a few days then realised it was a mistake and had to be edited out of the video for 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'.
This video amusingly captures the moments when he remains in the video.
His debut solo album from 1983 is a concept album called 'The Green Album'.
So that needs to be a song from 1963.
I had a good look to find one that may have been both geographical and one that I remembered listening to when I was young.
In January of 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary released 'Puff, the Magic Dragon' and I remember hearing it as a child. There were some suggestions that the song was linked with drugs, but the musicians themselves frequently said that it never had.
Another one that was actually number 1 in January 1963 was 'Telstar' by The Tornados (a suitably geographical name.)
The distinctive sound is produced by an instrument called a clavioline.
The song is named after a pair of satellites: Telstar1 and 2.
These were early, low-orbit communications satellites launched in 1962 and 1963, respectively, by the USThe song was produced by Joe Meek.
The song went to number one.
"Telstar" won an Ivor Novello Award and is estimated to have sold at least five million copies worldwide.I was watching Peter Gabriel's i/O tour at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham... and the nearly 40 year old tour t-shirt I wore is also pictured....
I'm thinking of when I have previously sung at karaoke... and that's mostly Finnish songs on a ferry which was sailing through the Baltic between Helsinki and Stockholm. I'd had some shots of liquorice vodka before I started and was singing with a fellow geographer called Jukka.
I suppose I could choose a duet song that I know all the words to...
But here's one that most people will not have heard of instead. I'd do the male part and someone would have to sing the female part. Preferably somebody Welsh...
The track is called 'You + Me' and is taken from Public Service Broadcasting's 'Every Valley' album...
It's the first track that features vocals from J Willgoose Esq.
He is joined by Lisa Jên Brown from the Welsh group 9Bach.
Listen to it here:
This was the last concert I attended by Rush.... I thought for ever... and certainly the last one with Neil Peart.
It was the Time Machine tour. They played the whole of 'Moving Pictures' including the Camera Eye, which they had rarely played live. They repeated that in one of their shows at the Kia Forum with Annika Nilles on drums.
Half way through the concert I decided to relocate to a new place at the back of the arena which had spare seats as my view was affected by other people. I saw several other people then having the same ideas as the concert progressed.
This was one of the final concerts that I also parked at a pub in the Sheffield area of Attercliffe called the Cocked Hat. This was a super pub in an area which had quite a few dodgy ones. It no longer exists...
To the left of the entrance was a bar billiards table - you don't see those in pubs very often... I loved having a few games of this with a nice pint of Landlord. Through the back were lots of small boothed seating areas - a great place to sit. From there, you would walk past the stadium built for the World Student Games, where I saw U2, and which was visited by bands such as the Rolling Stones.
Similarly, it no longer exists. Using Street View you can go back to 2008 when it was still there...
After that it was past hotels and restaurants to get to the Arena and the Don Valley Bowl, where cricket was played.
Across the car park from the arena - now called the Utilita Arena - is a pub called the Noose and Gibbet Inn, with an interesting pub sign.
If you've not been following the story of Matt Podbury's connections with Queen, go back and read part 1 and part 2 of this series first.
This post finishes off the story of Matt's love of the band and their solo recordings, which form an archive he is collecting.
Previously we heard about photos taken by a friend of Matt's uncle called Paul.
In the subsequent years, I have seen a few reincarnations of Queen with both Paul Rodgers, and more lately Adam Lambert.
In fact, my wife and I feature briefly on the live Queen Return of the Champions DVD filmed at the Sheffield Arena in 2005. Watch out for Matt holding up a camera at 2'10" and 2'30" (the days before smartphones when you could enjoy the gig more).
I have seen Roger and Brian perform smaller solo gigs around the UK but was born too late to ever witness Freddie and the boys do their stuff.
More recently the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' movie took the band to even greater heights and interest in everything Freddie Mercury and Queen related has reached levels never seen before.
Here's Remi Malik and the others recreating that classic Live Aid set that Matt mentioned in Part 1 in the film 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
Thanks very much to Matt for these memories.
Thanks to Carl Lee, Brendan Conway and Sandra Patterson who have also shared guest posts. Please think about a contribution of your own memories of a particular place and time linked to music.
Matt Podbury is a Geography teacher with nearly a quarter of a century of classroom experience, and he has been teaching at the International School of Toulouse for the last 17 years. Matt authors www.geographypods.com and www.ibgeographypods.org and also works for the IBO. He can be found on Discogs with the user name podders79 and adds a few extra vinyl records to his collection every month.
I'm going to go for a song that I've heard a thousand times and that I would always be happy to hear again. It's also featured on the blog before.
Here's 'Subdivisions' from 1982 from the album 'Signals'.
There are quite a few songs where the cover version is better than the original version.
Jude Roger's book (mentioned all the way back on January the 2nd) mentions several of these.
My choice is from Peter Gabriel's album 'Scratch my Back' (2010)
It's a cover of a Lou Reed song.
It was also featured earlier in the month... so here we are again...
This is one of my favourite albums although it is also one of the most frustrating as it never settles for long into a particular theme... and is interrupted by some annoying diversions along the way including the moment when Janet Brown appears...
It is now rather old too, with a special edition on vinyl coming out last year.
The album cover features a number of riddles.
I am told that when men hear its voice, it stays in their ears, they cannot be rid of it. It has many different voices: some happy, but others sad. It roars like a baboon, murmurs like a child, drums like the blazing arms of one thousand drummers, rustles like water in a glass, sings like a lover and laments like a priest...
This is the second of three guest posts by Matt Podbury on his love for Queen.
If you've just come across this one, please go back and read part 1 before you read on.
The first part of the post explored Matt's love of Queen, which started early, and his discovery that his uncle had a connection with someone called Paul who knew Freddie Mercury before he changed his name from Bulsara.
Image courtesy of Matt Podbury - Paul and Freddie
Matt's favourite magazine 'Record Collector' jumped on the photos too, and included them in their March 1996 edition! Good to see Ian Anderson in standard pose on the front cover as well.
Matt takes up the story:
All went quiet for a few months and then one evening I received an excited phone call from Dave. “Matthew” he said, “how would you like to go down to London with Paul and Chris for the opening night of the Freddie Mercury Photographic Exhibition at the Albert Hall?"
"Paul’s photos have been chosen to be displayed, and he has a spare ticket and thinks you should go, given that you started all this off”.
I didn’t take any convincing at all, although it was on a Friday night, and I had to be back by the next morning for my 8am shift at the butchers in Conwy!
I left Aberconwy School early on 22 November 1996 and took the train down to London's Euston station, then made my way close to the Royal Albert Hall where Paul and Chris had said they would meet me.
Ten minutes went by and they hadn’t arrived. I could see a queue of fans outside the Hall waiting for the rest of the band and other dignitaries to arrive. I found a payphone and phoned Dave – he didn’t know where they were and just as I was giving up any hope of getting in, they both appeared after an obvious extended session down the pub and were well ‘oiled up’ in true rock ‘n roll fashion!
I remember walking down a red carpet and flashing the visitor passes to the security guards.
When we got into the venue, the first person I spotted was Brian May – he is huge and obviously stands out. I couldn’t believe it!
A bit further on was Freddie’s good friend Dave Clark (from the Dave Clark 5), and his onetime girlfriend, Mary Austin!
Paul & Chris headed off to the free bar and so I went off for a wander to have a look at the photos. I had brought a Queen record with me and had purchased a silver marker pen just in case I summoned up the courage to ask anyone for their autograph.
As I was walking up the stairs admiring the photos, Roger Taylor was coming down with his wife. Without thinking, I reached out my hand to shake his hand and said how much I had loved his recent solo album. He grinned, said thanks and then signed my record. His hands were massive – that’s all I remember.
A few moments later, a girl about the same age as me came up and asked which school I went to in London. I was still wearing my Aberconwy uniform and told her that I had come down from Wales because I was with Paul Humberstone who had taken some old photos displayed. She followed me round for a while and was talking about some of the photos and how much she liked them. I told her that I had just met Roger and showed her my signed record. She didn’t seem too impressed and said that we should go and meet her dad as he would be wondering where she was. We walked into the main reception area and she walked me straight up to her dad - Brian May - and introduced me as the kid who had come all the way from Wales.
He said something nice to me; I can’t remember what as I was far too star-struck (and he’s massive) and then he duly signed my record. Two down. Before we interrupted him, he had been speaking to Chris and had apparently remembered him straight away from their Smile days.
At that point, I thought my life was pretty much complete.
I had to keep an eye on the time as I had to get the last train back to Holyhead and that meant that I only had another 30 minutes or so before I had to leave. There were some free food and drinks on offer and so I wandered over to the table to fill up before the journey back.
As I stood there on my own with my plate, a lovely elderly lady beckoned me over and asked if I wanted to sit down with them. She was a bit worried that I was on my own and had spotted the school uniform.
“Come and have a cup of tea with us” she said kindly and took me over to her husband and daughter. “I’m Jer and this is my husband Bomi” she said. And this is our daughter Kash”. I looked at Kash and pretty much realised who she was before being told “We’re Freddie’s mum and dad, and Kash is his sister”.
You can see them in the video at the top of the post, with one of Paul's photos on the wall.
I hope I said something suitable – but I can’t really recall. I remember shaking their hands and talking about Conwy as they had been there on holiday, as well as how much I loved their son’s music (how strange to be saying that). The moment was almost too weird to contemplate: here I was at the Albert Hall in London having tea and sandwiches with Freddie Mercury’s mum, dad and sister. I remember that his dad had very soft hands, and his mum reminded me of my grandma. His sister was the spitting image of her brother.
Soon, the party was over and I was heading back on the train ready for my morning shift at Edwards of Conwy, probably making burgers or washing dishes.
I didn’t talk much to the lads in the butchers the next day about it as they weren’t really Queen fans but I remember being on cloud nine for many days after.
My signed record stayed with me for a few years until I sold it to Piccadilly Records in Manchester in 2002 when I had no money after finishing my degree. I sold it for about £100. I should have sold a kidney instead!
Some obvious ones...
Vienna - Ultravox
Budapest - Jethro Tull
I've mentioned this song before...
One of the purposes of this blog is to broaden your musical horizons and introduce you to some new music, and aim to make some geographical connections along the way.
Moon Safari are a Swedish group. It's a fairly large one and they certainly fill the stage when they play live.
They are from Skeleffteå in Sweden and were founded in 2003.
The musical style of Moon Safari is characterised by a symphonic rock sound with five-part vocal harmonies, and plenty of changes in time signature and tone and mood within the same songOne of their long songs is named after the place where they were founded.
