Jul 28: Sam Neill RIP

This extract from the late Sam Neill's autobiography has been shared a few times over the last few days...

Here's 'Yours is no disgrace' from The Yes Album (1971)

Jul 27: 1999

A classic album appeared this year from the Icelandic band Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun

Here's the track: Viðrar vel til loftárása.

This was when I first came across the band.

Also in 1999, we had another Yes album from an ever-changing line-up. I didn't see this tour, but one a few years earlier. There was one good track on this album.

Everyone was worried about the Y2K Millennium bug.

And Prince was asking us to party...

What are your musical memories from 1999?

Jul 26: 1998

1998 saw more excellent albums appearing in people's collections.

REM released 'Up' - not quite to the same standards as their earlier golden period.

Pulp released 'This is Hardcore'. Dark in tone.

Madonna's Ray of Light was given some William Orbit treatment...

1998 was the year I got married. 

We had our wedding in the church in Swithland, Leicestershire, and the reception was at a large stately home like venue called Beaumanor Hall.

I made a mix tape to be played at the wedding reception as guests were arriving, and before the jazz band started later that evening. 

This was the first song on the tape. I remember having some of our wedding photos taken with this music playing...

What were your favourite albums from this year?

Jul 25: 1997

This was one of the stand out songs of this year. 

Via Wikipedia:

The Verve developed "Bitter Sweet Symphony" from a sample from a 1965 version of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time" by the Andrew Oldham Orchestra, adding vocals, strings, guitar and percussion. 

After a lawsuit by the Rolling Stones' former manager, Allen Klein, the Verve relinquished all royalties to the Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who were also added to the songwriting credits. In 2019, ten years after Klein's death, Jagger, Richards, and Klein's son ceded the rights to the Verve songwriter, Richard Ashcroft.

I later heard the song being performed by Richard Ashcroft when he supported 'The Who' on the Sandringham Estate.

Pat Metheny Group released 'Imaginary Day'. This album has an intriguing cover where icons replaced letters and the CD provided the 'key' to working out what the symbols meant.

One track 'The Roots of Coincidence' was unlike most other Pat Metheny Group music and I played it to a friend on the way to a gig at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

Here it is being played live on the 'Speaking of Now' tour, which I also saw...

Via Wikipedia

The album won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. The song "The Roots of Coincidence" won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance; critic Richard Ginnell of AllMusic described the song as a dramatic departure for the group: "[an] out-and-out rock piece with thrash metal and techno-pop episodes joined by abrupt jump cuts."

Yes released 'Open your Eyes' and I saw this tour.

What were your favourite pieces of music from 1997

Jul 24: Music websites: The Vinyl Historian

This is an excellent website from Jamie.

Pages include:

- A look at the AIR studios on Montserrat that I blogged about earlier

- A look at the evolution of Genesis

They also visit some classic musical venues.

Source: https://thevinylhistorian.com/places

Jul 24: Pat Metheny at the Barbican

I think Pat Metheny may be getting close to being the artist I've seen play live the most. At one point it was probably It Bites, or Whippersnapper or Jethro Tull... all of whom were in double digits. I first saw Pat play live on the First Circle tour which was on May 4th 1985 at the Manchester Apollo - one of only 2 dates that year.

I've seen Pat play live in various different circumstances:

- with the Pat Metheny Group - including the late Lyle Mays and Steve Rodby, along with varying combinations of musicians

- as a Trio, with various musicians, including Antonio Sanchez

- Solo (including a superb concert at the Barbican 

- with the Orchestrion: an automated 

On Sunday, I headed down to the Barbican to see the latest tour with Side Eye 3+

Set List

Opening drum intro - in 'First Circle style'... although that involved a wider range of instruments...

In On It

Bright Size Life

Don’t Look Down

Better Days Ahead

Make a New World

The First Circle

Band introduction

Urban and Western

The Red One - (a John Scofield & Pat Metheny song)

Más allá (Beyond)

Phase Dance

Round Trip / Round Trip / Broadway Blues

Zenith Blue

America The Beautiful / The People United Will Never Be Defeated / Last Train Home

Are You Going With Me?

Minuano (Six Eight), Antonia, James, September Fifteenth, This Is Not America

Song for Bilbao

Here's a live performance from a Paris concert...

Jul 24: 1996

1996 was thirty years ago now...

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released 'Murder Ballads'.

Rush released 'Test for Echo'.

This has an inunnguaq (ᐃᓄᙳᐊᖅ, 'imitation of a person', plural inunnguat) on the front cover.

Three figures are scaling the inukshuk. Hugh Syme, the graphic designed, always dealt in threes for Rush.

Here's 'Half the World' from that album:

Half the world lives
Half the world makes
Half the world gives
While the other half takes

Half the world cries
Half the world laughs
Half the world tries
To be the other half

Jan Garbarek released 'Visible World', perhaps his last great album as he hasn't released new music for many years now - although he remains a superb live act and I will always go to see him when he tours in the UK.

The Blue Nile released 'Peace at Last', seven years after their previous album. This didn't have the same power as 'Hats'.

Jul 23: 1995

Pat Metheny Group released 'We Live Here'.

This is one of their best albums. The inner sleeve featured photographs and maps and other material describing the places where the band members grew up and live. There are lots of maps on the front cover too.

It won a Grammy.

I saw the band on their tour to support this album.

A good analysis of the album here from Sputnik Music.

Jethro Tull released 'Roots to Branches'. This album has some very nice pieces. Here's 'Beside Myself'.

What are your favourite albums from 1995?

Jul 22: 1994

Moving further into the 1990s today. 

Britpop was the thing, with Blur's 'Parklife' up against Oasis' 'Definitely Maybe'.

Neither of those were for me. Not my cup of tea...

Tori Amos released 'Under the Pink'.

Kurt Cobain's body was found on April the 8th that year.

In the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest that year, held in Ireland, was a dance performance called 'Riverdance'.

The music for this was by Bill Whelan and featured the top Irish musicians of the day.

I was fortunate to see a live performance of the stage show up at the Sheffield Arena.

Yes released 'Talk' - I remember playing this while heading for a holiday in North Wales.

REM released 'Monster' - a change of mood following a run of massively successful albums - I've already posted the ticket stub from the concert I saw on the Monster tour.

Pink Floyd released 'The Division Bell'. This has a link with my current place of work as the large metal heads on the cover

Back to 1994 and to an early album release from Francis Dunnery. The album was bookended by two songs I'm fond of...

A CD single which I have also featured some alternative versions.

What are your favourite musical moments from 1994?

Jul 21: 1993

One lunchtime in 1993 I came home from work at lunchtime to check the post and have some lunch. I was living in a flat in King's Lynn which was cheap and a bit of a dive truth be told... but it was cheap and only three minutes walk from school - in fact I could see it out of one of the windows... 

Waiting for me was the new Rush album. I couldn't resist putting it into my CD player - I had a nice separates system with vinyls, but with the odd new CD appearing. It started really quietly and then '1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2....' then the drums pounded out of the speakers.

Here's the 2004 remaster of that opening track from the album 'Counterparts': 'Animate' - it remains one of my favourite openings of any Rush album.

Also that year, Bjork made her 'Debut', 

And Big Country were no longer in Kansas.

Sarah McLachlan released 'Fumbling towards Ecstasy'. I have a separate post about this album which will be appearing in a few days' time as it was one that I listened to a great deal.... 

What are your favourite albums from 1993?

Jul 21: Strict Machine

Via the Albumism BlueSky account.

Goldfrapp are the unofficial band of the geography department where I teach. When my colleague Claire Kyndt and I co-presented our work at the GA Conference some years ago, this was our walk-in music.

Strict Machine was released on this day back in 2003. 

The person in the bunny mask is Gwendoline Christie, star of Game of Thrones.

Here's the official video:

Jul 21: Hu are you?

“Our music is a blend of east and west, old and new. We’re building on a history and a sound that has been around for thousands of years.”

Galbadrakh Tsendbaatar, AKA Gala

Iron Maiden organised an event called Eddfest last weekend and a band called 'The Hu' were playing. This is not a misspelling of Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend's band....

The band say they didn’t choose their name as a play on the Who’s, but because “hu” is the root word for human being in Mongolian. “We took the name because of the inclusive nature,” Temka said. “It’s not about being Mongolian. It’s about being human.”

The Hu were profiled in a piece in The Guardian some years ago... with a classic punning title.

There's plenty of classic geography scenery in this video: Black Thunder Part 1

The band’s video for Yuve Yuve Yu likewise stresses the connection between modernity and tradition. It opens with various band members in contemporary settings – an upscale coffee shop in Ulaanbaatar, or at home playing a video game – before Gala opens the door of his urban apartment to enter a vast expanse of mountains and lakes in Mongolia’s remote western region. The images that occupy the rest of the video are so stunning, they could double as a travelogue for the Mongolian tourist board. The band’s second video, for Wolf Totem, unites traditional Mongolian horse riders with leather-clad men on Harleys, suggesting an eastern take on Easy Rider. That connection underscores a bad-ass image that has made the band a natural for metal heads.

Jul 20: The Prog Prom

The 2nd night of the Proms saw one with orchestral arrangements of progressive rock classics, with some guest appearances.

The orchestra is conducted by Robert Ames. He conducted the orchestra that accompanied Sigur Rós on recent live tours.

Here's the programme for the evening:

Aaron Copeland, arr. ELP, orch. Robert Ames Fanfare for the Common Man 6’
Ian Anderson, orch. Sam Gale Living in the Past 4’
Mike Ratledge, orch. Sam Gale Out-Bloody-Rageous Pt 1 4’
Genesis, orch. Sam Gale I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) 4'
Michael Dunford, orch. Christian Balvig Northern Lights 5’
Justin Hayward, orch. Fiona Brice Nights in White Satin 5’
Peter Hammill, orch. Adam Dennis Refugees 7’
Yes, orch. Peter Riley And You And I 8’
Mike Oldfield, orch. Adam Dennis Tubular Bells Pt 1 – excerpts 5’

Keith Emerson, orch. Chester Tribley/Bronte Tucker Karn Evil 9: First Impression, Part 2 2’
Thjis van Leer, orch. Christian Balvig Sylvia 4’
Osibisa, orch. Christian Balvig Komfo 4'
Frank Zappa, orch. Christian Balvig Peaches en Regalia 3'
Focus, arr. Christian Balvig Sylvia 4’
King Crimson, orch. Fiona Brice 21st Century Schizoid Man - I Talk To The Wind - Court of the Crimson King 10’
Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, orch. Fiona Brice Entangled 7’
Kerry Minnear, Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman, orch. Sam Gale On Reflection 4’
Mike Heron, orch. Christian Balvig Maker of Islands 6’
Richard Wright, orch. Fiona Brice Great Gig In the Sky 5’
Rick Davies, orch. Christian Balvig Crime of the Century 6’
Modest Mussorgsky, arr. Keith Emerson, orch. Robert Ames The Great Gate of Kiev 5'

Other performers:

Guy Garvey vocals
Jane Weaver vocals
Gruff Rhys vocals
Carl Palmer drums
Peter Hammill vocals - I saw Peter Hammill live supporting Marillion back in around 1983....
Vanessa Hayes vocals

Stuart Maconie presenter
BBC Concert Orchestra
Robert Ames conductor

Listen again on BBC Sounds - and it's on BBC itself at the weekend.

Jul 20: What was that?

Football lost out here...

Imagine being in the stadium and watching it on a screen... and muppets... and two blokes in track suits... and lip-synching...

Jul 20: 1992

1992 was another year of fine albums.

Tori Amos released her album 'Little Earthquakes'.

This was a great album, and I saw the tour in support of the album. There was a lot of buzz around it.

The cover was also inspired by an image featuring another singer songwriter: Kate Bush.

The album of the year, according to the NME (New Musical Express - I fondly remember the years when I used to buy it), was Copper Blue by Sugar.

It was fantastic to finally get to see Sugar earlier this year playing live on the first UK date of their 'Love you even still' tour.

Pat Metheny Group released a double album called 'Secret Story'.

I loved this album for its interesting instrumentation and arrangements. This track was one I played during a tremendous thunderstorm in a holiday cottage outside Broadford on the Isle of Skye.

Roger Waters released 'Amused to Death' as a solo album. This is possibly the best of his solo albums, although Radio K.A.O.S has its moments.

The title is taken from a Neil Postman quote on TV and the media.

Peter Gabriel released 'Us', which has some classic powerful moments. Mike Oldfield worked with Trevor Horn on 'Tubular Bells II' and John McLaughlin released another powerful trio album called 'Qué Alegria' which sounded great...

What were your favourite pieces of music and memories from 1992?

Jul 19: Chris Obehi

“We are not fish, we are humans…”

I came across Chris Obehi's music from his appearance in the film 'The Welcome Table'.

He lives in Palermo, Italy.

In the film, he describes his experience of crossing the Mediterranean Sea as a migrant from Nigeria.

He was on a raft with 70 other migrants and was adrift at night. He befriended a boy who was travelling alone and said he would help him. When the raft encountered another boat who tried to take the passengers on board, he and the boy were taken on board before the raft then sank and many on board drowned. He feels that the boy saved him as much as he saved the boy.

While in Palermo, he became a musician and came to the attention of people and now makes his living from it.

The name of this song translates as "We are not fish". It is a powerful Afro-pop song and album by Nigerian musician and activist Chris Obehi, who wrote the track in Italian. The song shares the emotional story of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, asserting their humanity.

Jul 19: 1991

In 1991, I saw a band called 'This Picture' at the Sheffield University Union. They were supporting the band 'Runrig'. I was impressed with them, and ended up collecting a lot of their CD and 12" singles. This is one of my favourite tracks of theirs from an EP.

1991 was a busy year work wise and I remember trying my best to go to concert as often as possible.

Rush released 'Roll the Bones' and I saw the 'Roll the Bones' tour at the Sheffield Arena. I wore the t-shirt for climbing - which I did quite a bit back then - and it didn't fare very well.

The track from the album 'Bravado' is being used while a montage of Neil Peart plays during their R50 tour which is currently playing to great acclaim across the USA.

It Bites were a big part of this year for live music, as they had been through much of the late 1980s.

What were your favourite albums from 1991?

Jul 18: 1990

1990 saw the release of Gabriel Yacoub's 'Bel'. 

It's a wonderful album.

I have another few posts about Gabriel, who sadly passed away last year, elsewhere on the blog.

Here he is performing a rather fine song....

One of my favourite tracks from this year was a single from the Propaganda album '1234'.

It's a track called 'Heaven give me Words' and was remixed by William Orbit. The album was not as good as 'A Secret Wish' (it would have been hard to be better).

What other memories do you have of music from 1990?