Oct 12: Smallcreep's Day

In 1980, Mike Rutherford of Genesis released his first solo album: 'Smallcreep's Day'.

It included a full side dedicated to one track which is based on a book of the same name.

Earlier in the year, I was reminded of this excellent progressive album which features several excellent musicians. The people who played on the album included:

Mike Rutherford - Guitar, Bass 

Anthony Phillips - Keyboards 

Noel McCalla - Vocals 

Simon Phillips - Drums 

Morris Pert - Percussion

I've seen all of these play live... other than Anthony Phillips himself...

Enjoy...

Oct 11: Exploring the American Dream

GA members who have a subscription to the 'Geography' journal can find this article in the most recent issue of the journal (Autumn 2026).

Gonzalez, T. L., & Phua, V. C. (2026). Designing a lyrical analysis class exercise: exploring the American Dream narratives in rap lyrics. Geography, 111(3), 128–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/00167487.2026.2724690

Abstract

Videos, social media and photography are all valuable informational sources for research and teaching. 

In this article, we recommend song lyrics as another information source that can be instrumental for understanding place and culture. We posit that song lyrics are not only easily accessible online but can also offer an entertaining and educational experience. To illustrate this approach, we show how one can learn about the American Dream through rap lyrics. Specifically, we provide a sampling approach and an analytic frame for consideration. In conclusion, we discuss how an analysis of song lyrics can be used to teach different topics.

Oct 11: Sounds of the Earth

A lovely interactive from David G Haskell on the sounds made when the Earth sings.

Description

This sonic journey written and narrated by David G. Haskell brings us to the beginning of sound and song on planet Earth. The experience is made entirely of tiny trembling waves in air, the fugitive, ephemeral energy that we call sound. Spoken words combined with terrestrial sounds invite our senses and imaginations to go outward into an experience of the living Earth and its history. How did the vast and varied chorus of modern sounds—from forest to oceans to human music—emerge from life’s community? When did the living Earth first start to sing? We invite you on a journey into deep time and deep sound that will open your ears and your imagination.

Oct 10: Richard Hawley's Sheffield

I've been exploring Sheffield quite a bit for the blog, as has Carl Lee in his numerous guest posts.

Many of Richard Hawley's songs reference Sheffield.

Image: Alan Parkinson

Richard's music has been turned into a stage show. It is set in the Park Hill flats which when they were built promised 'streets in the sky'.

I've spoken about them before at a GA Teachmeet.

Here's 'Coming Home'..

Oct 10: Album cover history

Russel Tarr has shared an excellent new resource for free on his Active History website.

An album cover can tell a story before you have even heard a single note. 

For this project, each member of the class will be given a different album to investigate. Your challenge is to look closely at its cover, discover the history behind the image, and then explore the connection between that history and the music.

Once you've uncovered its story, you'll decide which track from the album you would recommend to your classmates, and why.

The finished investigations will then come together as a classroom display, creating a collection of album covers that brings together music, art and history from different times and places.

So, what can an album cover teach us about history?

Here's some of the covers that Russel has curated for this activity.

Oct 10: Wildwood

My son is going to the World Premiere of Wildwood later, as part of the London Film Festival.

It's a LAIKA animation, based on the book by Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. The band has released a song from the soundtrack.

Here's the trailer:

Update

My son went along to the red carpet and attended the World Premiere.

Here's the red carpet, and an image of Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis too.

Images: Sam Parkinson

Oct 9: Trivia Quiz Question #7

In April 2019 I had the experience of heading for New York. We were going to go for my daughter's 21st but decided to go a year earlier - and it was just as well that we did.

It's just as well that we did, as if we had waited for the following year, COVID would have cancelled our trip, and the USA is temporarily out of bounds.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art had an exhibition called 'Play it Loud'.

Who played this guitar?

Oct 8: When is a World Tour not a World Tour?

What do you imagine is meant by the term "world tour" when a band decides to undertake one...

Some only visit a couple of continents. Few cover more than three, and some only visit one...

Some people are on permanent tour, such as Bob Dylan's Never Ending tour.

Who has played the most concerts? Here's a REDDIT list... I wonder what the real answer is...

Oct 7: Important recording locations: Bron yr Aur

This was a location where Led Zeppelin gathered.

Bron Yr Aur is a privately owned 18th-century cottage in Gwynedd, Wales, known for its association with the rock band Led Zeppelin. The cottage is located on the outskirts of Machynlleth. It's particularly famous for being the place where Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote many of the songs for Led Zeppelin's third and fourth studio albums.

I've been to th bottom of the lane leading up to it.

The track of the same name is on the album Physical Graffiti. I have previously posted about this album cover.

Oct 6: Los Santos City Map

Los Santos is the name of the city where the action happens in Grand Theft Auto V. 

Grand Theft Auto V is a huge game... but version VI is out in November.

Tangerine Dream produced some music for the game. 

On their album 'Recurring Dreams' they added a new version of the music from the game in a track called 'Los Santos City Map'.

Oct 5: Music Map

I have a lot of books on a map theme...

Here's the publishers' description of one of them.

Explore the world as you never knew it with Vargic's Astonishing Miscellany of Curious Maps.

Vargic's Miscellany is a collection of 64 maps and infographics. See the world mapped out by stereotypes; discover the Internet in cartographical form; marvel at the maps of global technology and culture; and explore the world through infographics and statistics.

This wonderful and strange atlas is a treasure trove of interesting, unexpected and bizarre facts - a glorious celebration of our big beautiful diverse world.

Martin Vargic is an amateur graphic designer from Slovakia who rose to international fame in late January 2014, when his work 'Map of the Internet 1.0' went viral, generating hundreds of thousands of hits and Facebook shares. 

Here is his website.

One of the maps is of music genres.

Oct 5: GTA6 Soundtrack

GTA6 is coming out in November.

It is the most eagerly anticipated game perhaps, and also has a huge budget.

Those who are familiar with the game will know that as you play and drive around you can tune into the radio and there is plenty of music to accompany the game. Tangerine Dream have previously provided some of the music for earlier versions of the game - and I have heard some of that performed live.

The first six tracks on the soundtrack album have been released.

Oct 4: Pigs might Fly

Pink Floyd have a strong association with Cambridge. 

Founding members went to local schools.

This website unpicks some of the locations they are connected with as a sort of walking tour of the city.

Band members Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and David Gilmour were raised in Cambridge, and many of their Cambridge friends, including girlfriends, roadies and album cover designers Storm Thorgerson and ‘Po’ Powell, became part of the Pink Floyd extended creative family. In London they met up with Nick Mason and Rick Wright. But while students, here in Cambridge—they forged the unique Pink Floyd sound against the backdrop of the late ‘60’s counter-culture and succeeding decades.

There are connections with particular places in the city and songs:

King’s College Chapel, which has a lawn in back where Roger Waters said inspired “the lunatic is on the grass“, (from the song Brain Damage) and Pink Floyd played a May Ball gig—Which “... went down quite well. Everyone was pissed,”

David Gilmour went to the Perse School on Hills Road, and back in June 2022, Chris Kington led a tour for the local GA Cambridge Branch where he pointed out Syd Barrett's home - also on Hills Road.

One of the places where they are linked with is a pub called The Flying Pig - just further down the road.

Back in 2022, there were fears that the pub would be demolished.

Images: Alan Parkinson

For a long time there was a plan to try to save the pub. It is now in an incongruous position, dwarfed by the huge redevelopment behind it.

Image: Daily Mail

The final link of course is with the album 'Animals'. More to come on that in December...

Oct 4: NWOBHM & Saracen

Quite an acronym... and one which was important for the promotion of a series of bands.

The new wave of British heavy metal (often abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that began in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Editor Alan Lewis coined the term for an article by Geoff Barton in a May 1979 issue of the British music newspaper Sounds to describe the emergence of heavy metal bands in the mid-to-late 1970s, as punk rock declined amid the dominance of new wave music.

From Wikipedia.

One band I liked at the time was Saracen, from Matlock in Derbyshire.

They were formed in 1980, but I started hearing them in 1982-3 during my time at Huddersfield Polytechnic when, as I've said before I developed a taste for many of the bands I still listen to a lot today.

The album I listened to was 'Heroes, Saints and Fools'.

They released a number of other albums, both of which had some very good moments... including others I have mentioned including one based on the Knights Templar.

What are your memories of bands from this NWOBHM era?

Oct 3: o/i release date

 A release date has been set for Peter Gabriel's new album. It's a very small gap between albums and also the longest album.

The songs are a mix of thoughts and feelings.

I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it. We are sliding into a period of transition like no other, most likely triggered in three waves; AI, quantum computing and the brain computer interface. Artists have a role to look into the mists and, when they catch sight of something, to hold up a mirror.

These are my lumpy bits – i/o: the inside has a new way out and o\i: the outside has a new way in.

We are not, and have never been, the exclusively self-determining, independent beings that have been given the run of the world. We are something else, a part of nature, a part of everything and feeling a connection, shaking our booty and giving and receiving some love can help us find our place – and put a big smile on our faces.

Some of these songs are going to form part of the brain project that I’ve been exploring for a number of years, and some just make me feel happy. I hope you like them.

Long standing band members, guitarist David Rhodes, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Manu Katché feature on many of the songs, supplemented by other members of the i/o touring band Richard Evans, 

Josh Shpak and Don E and Real World staffers Faye Dolle and Katie May. The New Blood Orchestra, led by John Metcalfe are also heard, as are the Soweto Gospel Choir and Swedish all-male choir Oprhei Drängar. 

Other notable contributions come in the shape of Mike Elizondo (who co-produced A Hard Lesson), Brian Eno, guitarists Leo Nocentelli and Tony Berg, drummer and percussionist Abe Rounds, pianist Tom Cawley, trumpeter Paolo Fresu, cellist Linnea Olsson and multi-instrumentalist Evan Smith. 

Once again Peter’s daughter Melanie provides vocal support.

Oct 3: Times like These

A reminder of better times and worse times.

A reminder of the COVID era...

And a reminder of Taylor Hawkins.

Foo Fighters - Times like These - dedicated to teachers... 

This is my favourite version of the song.

Oct 2: 44 years ago today...

It was a wet one...

Oct 2: Bloom

Bloom is an endless music machine, a music box for the 21st Century.

You can play it, or you can watch it play itself.

Brian Eno

Bloom is a generative music app created by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers.

I had it on my iPhone some years ago when it first came out and also on an iPad.

The app costs £3.99 and can be purchased on the app store.

A newer version of the app is also now available. This allows background play, which means it will carry on generating music when not opened. There is also the option to stream the music via Airplay to a device.