Apr 30: Music Murals

Some cities are known for their street art. This can sometimes be based on local musical icons, including those who have passed away - acting as a memorial perhaps, or a reminder of their influence.

Image: Alan Parkinson - just off Brick Lane, shared on Flickr under CC license

There are several sites which post these, including on Instagram.

Birmingham has its fair share of murals linked with Black Sabbath.

Sheffield has Jarvis Cocker.

Please share any musical murals from your own home area.

Add them to the Google Form here.

Apr 30: The 'Clockwork Orange' Record Shop

A cross posting from my Geography in/on Film blog. Check it out... there are some overlaps with the music one.

Record shops used to be a much bigger part of the fabric of towns and cities. Some cities still have some decent record shops. Norwich does fairly well for vinyl emporiums...

Perhaps the most stylised and 'perfect' of these on screen is the one in Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange'.

The filming location for the record shop scene was the basement of the Chelsea Drugstore on London's Kings Road which was designed by architect Antony Cloughley and designer Colin Golding. It was inspired by Le Drugstore on Boulevard St Germain in Paris, Chelsea Drugstore opened in 1968 and included bars, a chemist, newsstands, record stores and food outlets, and was open up to 16 hours a day.

The store closed down in 1985 and was a McDonalds for a while. Located on the corner of Royal Avenue and King’s Road in Chelsea, several high profile bands and artists met each other for the first time within its walls.

This article goes into more details on the value of record shops.

A record store condenses all forms of culture and counter-culture into one perfect space. You generally encounter interesting people in these places and conversations can be struck up quite easily.

It was also frequented by The Rolling Stones and is mentioned in their lyrics for You Can’t Always Get What You Want as well as in The Kinks’ Did Ya (“Now the Chelsea Drugstore needs a fix…”).

The music playing in the scene is by Wendy Carlos.

This blog explores the real-life records which are featured. I noticed the 2001 soundtrack album by the desk where he asks about his order.

Apr 30: The Last Flight and Amelia

This is an album which includes a lot of maps and the story of a journey which was due to span the globe but ended in tragedy.

The album concerns the final voyage of America’s pioneering female “aviatrix” Amelia Earhart.

In 1922, aged just 25, Earhart flew higher than any woman before her, and in the years that followed she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, setting multiple speed and distance records. In 1937 she announced that she would circumnavigate the globe in her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra aircraft. She crossed the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. 

She left Papua New Guinea to fly to Howland Island in the Central Pacific but never made it, instead ascending to the level of myth reserved for the bravest adventurers.

In the same year, Laurie Anderson also released an album about Amelia.

Apr 30: Your place connections #1

As part of the Google Form to collect ideas for the blog, I asked about pieces of music that people connected with a particular place memory from their past. There were some really interesting responses including music playing as children were born and others going back to student days.

Sandra offered two songs:

Aerosmith, 'Angel'. 

I was on my way home from seeing Aerosmith at Vegas with my husband. We had a fabulous weekend away and were looking forward to seeing the kids when we got home. I was listening to the band on my earphones and just remember looking out of the window seeing the curve of the world out the window as we flew over the Atlantic and just being so happy. 

Iron Maiden's 'Run to the Hills'. 

When we checked into hotel in the Maldives on Honeymoon we put music on and relaxed. My husband fell asleep sun bathing and I was watching a turtle from the balcony listening to music. It was just a beautiful, peaceful moment that I remember every time I hear that song. 

Jade:

The Arctic Monkeys album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is something that brings back fond memories of studying in Sheffield. There was a night at the Leadmill every Friday that played Indie music with many tracks from this album. It would just go off with everyone belting out their tunes, it was special. 

David told me:

In September 2024, I was on a felucca on the Nile in Aswan, when we were given a live song performance by a Nubian man on the felucca. We tourists joined in with the singing and the clapping, and it was marvelous to be part of.

Ian 

I have two

'Twenty four hour garage people' - a Half Man Half Biscuit classic. 

A drive across Denmark late one summer afternoon when the kids were little. This on a playlist, the sun perfect, summer just on the way out and the expectation of a night on the ferry. Time and place

The entire 'Rumours' album by Fleetwood Mac

3am. A field somewhere in East Sussex. 

We’d spent a day walking the coast near Beachy Head and were camping for some unknown reason. Cost probably. And someone on the other side of the campsite was having a party. 

All night. 

Playing 'Rumours' on repeat. Loudly. Whenever I hear the album it brings back memories. 

I never particularly liked it as an album; now I hate it with a passion...

Brendan to finish this post:

‘Caroline’ and ‘Black Dog’ by Arlo Parks are two of the best songs of the last ten years. I will forever associate them my remote lessons taught from home during the Covid lockdowns. In the midst of that global crisis, these songs seemed to capture the pathos of it all, but with just a tinge of a smile – a light at the end of the tunnel. I particularly associate them with the inspirational way that I could see my students on Microsoft Teams waiting for the first lesson of the day to begin. I got the impression that we were providing them with much-needed structure amid the scary chaos of it all...

Apr 29: 'Goodnight America'

A superb song by Mary Chapin Carpenter...

More on Mary's music elsewhere on the blog.

And I'm driving into Houston on a rain-slicked Texas road
Land so flat and sky so dark, I say a prayer to float
Should all at once the San Jacinto surge beyond its banks
Like Noah reaching higher ground I'd offer up my thanks

'Cause I'm a stranger here, no one you would know
I'm just passing through, I am therefore I go
The moon rose in the east, but now it's right above
As I say aloud, goodnight America

Apr 29: Football - walk out music

The floodlights are on, the pitch is a bright green and the anticipation is building - and out come the team...

And football teams very often walk out to a particular piece of music. 

In 2023-24, the 20 Premier League teams of that season chose these pieces of music.

Source: https://sportplaylists.com/every-premier-league-clubs-walkout-music/

AFC Bournemouth – ‘Seven Nation Army’: The White Stripes’ stadium juggernaut is the song choice for the Cherries to welcome the teams to the pitch at the Vitality Stadium.

Arsenal – ‘The Angel – North London Forever’: While ‘Lux Aeterna’ and tracks by Fatboy Slim and Eminem have been associated with pre-match build-up at the Emirates in recent years, Louis Dunford’s ode to the Gunners has become the anthem of choice since its release in February 2022.

Aston Villa – ‘Escape’: Composer Craig Armstrong’s rousing track from the soundtrack of the 1999 film Plunkett & Macleane sets the tone as the teams take to the field at Villa Park.

Brentford – ‘Hey Jude’: The Fab Four’s terrace favourite was adopted by Bees fans in the 1970s and is still used to greet the teams as they walk out at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Brighton & Hove Albion – ‘Sussex by the Sea’: William Ward-Higgs 1907 song is the unofficial anthem of the counties of East & West Sussex and has long been the walkout song for the Seagulls, with fans belting out the first verse and chorus at the Amex Stadium before kick off.

Burnley – ‘Wake Up’: While the club currently use a track made in-house for their walkout, Arcade Fire’s track from their 2004 album Funeral had previously been a long time fan favourite at Turf Moor.

Chelsea – ‘Liquidator’: While many teams across English football use the instrumental single from Jamaican band Harry J Allstars for their team walkouts, the Blues lay claim to be the first to have done so at Stamford Bridge since 1969.

Crystal Palace – ‘Glad All Over’: The 1963 single from The Dave Clark Five has rung out before games at Selhurst Park since the 1960s, with the 89/90 squad recording a cover of the track on their run to the FA Cup Final that season.

Everton – ‘Theme from Z Cars’: The long running BBC police television series’ theme tune was adopted by the blue half of Merseyside at Goodison Park in the early 60s, as the programme was set in a fictional town based on the Liverpool suburb of Kirby.

Fulham – ‘Palladio’: Escala’s spine-tingling orchestral track released in 2009 has been the walkout song of choice at Craven Cottage for over a decade.

Liverpool – ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’: One of the most iconic walkout tracks in football, Gerry and the Peacemakers’ cover of the song was adopted by the Reds at Anfield in the 1960s. The song’s title was added to the club’s coat of arms as their official motto in 1992.

Luton Town – ‘Strings For Yasmin’: While the Premier League’s newest club have used tracks from Tom Grennan and The Jam to get the Kenilworth Road crowd ramped up before kick-off, Tin Tin Out’s late 90s dance anthem is the Hatters’ current walkout anthem.

Manchester City – ‘Blue Moon’: The 1961 version of the track by doo-wop group The Marcels has been the club anthem and one of the walkout tracks for the Cityzens since it was adopted on the terraces by fans in the late 1980s at former home Maine Road, and is still belted out across the Etihad Stadium as the teams head to the pitch.

Manchester United – ‘This Is The One’: The Madchester band’s track from their iconic debut album has been associated with and played at Old Trafford since the early noughties, with the rumour being that United legend Gary Neville requested it be played as it was one of his favourite songs.

Newcastle United – ‘Going Home: Theme Of The Local Hero’: The instrumental rock track by Tyneside-raised musician Mark Knopfler from his 1983 album ‘Music From Local Hero’ has long been the walkout track at St James’ Park.

As mentioned a few days ago.

Nottingham Forest – ‘Mull of Kintyre’: Paul McCartney & Wings’ chart topping track has been an anthem for Forest since winning the 1977/78 English First Division title and is sung with alternate lyrics by supporters as the teams walk out at the City Ground.

Sheffield United – ‘Joker And The Thief’: A popular track at sporting venues across the world – from American Football to Aussie Rules and Rugby Union – Wolfmother’s riff-tastic 2006 single greets the players as they walk onto the pitch at Bramall Lane.

Tottenham Hotspur – ‘Duel of the Fates’: John Williams dramatic orchestral piece from the “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” soundtrack being used as the walkout song for Spurs dates back to the 2004 North London derby at White Hart Lane.

West Ham United – ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’: Released in 1919 by American musician Ben Selvin, the track was adopted by Hammers fans sometime between the 1920s and ’40s and is one of the most memorable anthems in English football. When played at the London Stadium as the teams walk out, the song is accompanied by bubbles blowing across the ground.

Wolverhampton Wanderers – ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’: A track popular with fans of multiple teams, when played at Molineux Stadium it’s greeted with the alternate lyrics of “Hi Ho Wolverhampton” from the Wolves faithful.

Of course, there's only one team that matters,

What music does your local football team walk out to?

What music is used by teams in the lower leagues??

Let me know in the comments below....

Apr 28: Sue Webster - Birth of an Icon

I visited Colchester over the half term holiday and at the FirstSite gallery there was an exhibition by Sue Webster. 

The exhibition closes today.

Sue Webster was connected with an artist called Tim Noble.

There was an exhibition of her connections to Siouxsie and the Banshees. 

One of the parts of the exhibition which worked particularly well was a group of leather jackets which had been painted with details of concerts that she had attended and other bands that were contemporaries.

Siouxsie and the Banshees were a rock band founded in 1976.

Their drummer was called Budgie, and they released some decent albums of their own. Budgie also worked with other musicians, including the late Hector Zazou.

Budgie married Siouxsie in May 1991. 

In 2007, the pair publicly announced their divorce.

Here's a few of my images showing the leather jackets hanging from the roof of the gallery.

To finish, here's one of Siouxsie's famous songs: 'Spellbound'.

Apr 28: The Great British Music Map

A series of thematic maps have been produced by Strumpshaw, Tincleton and Giggleswick, some of which feature wonderful inkings from Tom Morgan Jones.

I have them all in my collection, and one of them has a musical focus. It costs £16.99 from the website.




From the publisher's details:

- Take a tour through Britain’s Top 50 music locations with a specially-designed road trip and playlist
- Find out how the places, spaces and people of the British Isles have inspired composers, songwriters and musicians from classical to pop and beyond
- Visit over 700 live music venues and over 350 festivals including those in the most stunning locations

Features of the Great British Music Map:

- Fold-out map and reference guide showing all of Britain’s musical locations and must-visits on a single sheet
- Features Britain’s top 50 music locations as well as a unique road trip that connects them all (with accompanying playlist)
- Full-colour, two-sided map printed on FCS-certified professional mapping paper
- Map reverse features space for notes and even a place to rest your mug
- Other Great British maps include the Great British Adventure Map and the Great British Food & Drink Map

More details on the maps here.

Apr 27: 'Local Hero' and 'Going Home'

One of my favourite films is Bill Forsyth's 'Local Hero'.

The image here is the cover of the Criterion Collection 

Riffing on popular representations of Scottish life and folklore, Local Hero follows the Texas oil executive Mac (Peter Riegert), who is dispatched by his crackpot boss (Burt Lancaster) to a remote seaside village in Scotland with orders to buy out the town and develop the region for an oil refinery. But as business mixes with pleasure, Mac finds himself enchanted by both the picturesque community and its oddball denizens—and Texas starts to feel awfully far away.

The film was released in 1983, but I didn't see it for a few years. I caught it one Christmas Eve or Christmas Day from memory and it made an immediate impact.

The soundtrack was by Mark Knopfler.

The end credits of the film feature the track 'Going Home'.  "Going Home", is played before every home game of Newcastle United F.C.

See my separate post on music played by football teams as they walk out.

Here it is being played live:

 

One of the stars of the film is the location: the houses which are tucked along a coast road. The actual village is called Pennan. The famous phone box has a preservation order on it.

There are so many memorable moments in this film. Why not give it a watch?

Apr 26 Guest Blogger Carl Lee #13: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised... but it may be live-streamed

The 13th in a series of posts from Carl Lee.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - but it may be live-streamed

Back in 1970 a 21-year-old Gil Scott Heron recorded his first album and named it after the address of the nightclub where the live recording was made, the ‘Small Talk at 125th and Lenox’. This was right in the heart of Harlem and in 1970 it was, and remains today, the heart of the social and political heart of African-American New York. 

The first track on the album is a spoken word monologue called ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’. It was a cri-de-coeur: an impassioned social critique and in time it became a part of the canon of Black American music.

I was reminded of this, and also the time in the early 1980s in Sheffield when I finally caught up with Gil Scott Heron and his sublime band lea by his musical partner in melody Brian Jackson.

There was also the time I stumbled into Brian Jackson’s re-imaginings of this heady classic courtesy of BBC Radio 6 DJ Craig Charles.

“You will not be able to stay home, brother

You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.”

Gil Scott Heron died in his beloved New York in 2011; he had been in poor health for years after decades of drug use and being HIV positive. 

Brian Jackson though is still with us, and how. 

At the age of 73 he is still delivering some of the funkiest, sharpest drops around as he plunders his and Scott Heron’s artistic legacy and re-imagines it with a cast of new collaborators, most notably "Masters at Work’, the moniker of legendary re-mix team of ‘Little’ Louie Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez. 

Readers: I bought the new Brian Jackson offering straight from the label the day after it was released and that is something I haven’t done in oh, well since last century at least. 

This revival of Brian Jackson’s career has not been spawned by a hip New York label but by the longstanding British label Barely Breaking Even (BBE), who since 1996 have been a magnet for alternative talent orbiting around the outer reaches of funk, soul, jazz, house and whatever moves the dance floor in their East London world. 

If you think what might rock DJ Gilles Peterson’s boat and you’ll get the idea: from Roy Ayers to Hugh Masakela. 

The hard hitting social commentary of Gil Scott Heron somehow feels apposite today as Trump's  government in the USA unleashes ICE on predominantly African-American and Hispanic urban neighbourhoods, and a deluge of racism, AI slop and outrage grifting being pumped out globally from US platforms owned by the USA’s richest elites. 

Maybe Gil had a premonition, as back in 1992 he bizarrely accepted the paid gig as being a voice-over on Tango’s first ‘Orange Man’ advert. 

“You know when you’ve been tangoed”. 

I remember this spawning a craze in school for people to slap other students' faces. A fore-runner of loom bands, bottle flips, fidget spinners, dabs and the rest... and the current 6-7... (Alan)

I sort of feel the USA has been rather more than tangoed by the more contemporary orange man. 

As the track ‘Winter in America’ that Jackson has revived sets out:

“ And ain’t nobody fighting

Cause nobody knows what to save

Save your soul, Lord knows

From winter in America”

Listen to it here:

Clearly Gil Scott Heron is the poet in his and Jackson’s relationship, but it is Jackson who brings the soul, the jazz flute and shimmering Fender Rhodes piano, and in this hot-off-the-press revival of their oeuvre it is the Latin New York groove from Masters At Work that drives the sound. 

I think Craig Charles referred to it as ‘banging’, I’ll not demur and it sure has brightened up a grey and wet winter in Yorkshire. 

Yet it is the biting political satire of ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ that Jackson and The Roots rapper ‘Black Thought’ up date with contemporary lyrics that demonstrates Gil Scott Heron’s enduring relevance 65 years after he read his poetry in a Harlem club on the junction of 125th and Lennox. 

“You will not be able to block, unfollow, mute or swipe left to disengage with the revolution.”

Carl Lee is retired but was a lecturer at The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, taught A level Geography for 20 years at Sheffield College, is the author of five books about geography and has a PhD in economic geography. He has been nuts about music since buying his first single in 1973: 10cc’s 'Rubber Bullets' if you were wondering.

Apr 25: Important recording locations #1: Rockfield Studios

Rockfield Studios in Wales began its commercial recording life in 1961 and in 1965 was acknowledged to be the first residential recording studio in the world.

This post mentions some of the famous ones.

Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was partially recorded at The Quadrangle. The list of acts who recorded at Rockfield is long and includes Coldplay, The Manic Street Preachers, Oasis, Sepultura, Simple Minds, Opeth, Black Sabbath, Joan Armatrading and Judas Priest. Mike Oldfield, The Cult, Robert Plant, Iggy Pop, Annie Lennox, Julian Lennon and George Michael, also recorded at Rockfield.

The now famous studios have played host to many of the world’s biggest artists – Rush, Oasis, Iggy Pop, Nigel Kennedy, Simple Minds, Coldplay, Black Sabbath, Robert Plant and in 1975 was the primary studios used by Queen for the recording of the greatest pop record of all time ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

A few bands who have recorded there mentioned on the video below including Clannad's 'Sirius' album which featured Bruce Hornsby on several tracks.

Rush are amongst the bands mentioned, and they recorded their 'Farewell to Kings' album at Rockfield where they got some special sounds of birdsong at the start of Xanadu.

I've also heard a story about the Peter Gabriel recordings there as well.

As it says at the start of the post, this is perhaps the most famous song that was recorded there:

The Studios is still in operation.

Apr 25: Music Books #6: 'The Lark Ascending' by Richard King

This book from 2019 is subtitled:
People, Music and Landscape in Twentieth-Century Britain.

Over the course of the twentieth century, The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams is the piece of music that has come to define the mythical concept of the English countryside, with its babbling brooks and skylarks. 

Yet, the landscape is not really an unaffected utopia, but a living, working and occasionally rancorous environment that has forged a nation’s musical personality. On a journey that takes us from post-war poets and artists to the free party scene embraced by the acid house and travelling communities, 

Richard King explores how Britain’s history and identity have been shaped by the mysterious relationship between music and nature.

This is a really interesting book on how landscape and nature have influenced composers over the decades.

I am preparing a longer piece on the book for publication later in the year.

It starts with an exploration of the story of the composition of one of the most popular pieces of English music.

Here's a performance specially filmed in... er, Queensland, Australia....

Apr 24: Ticket Stub #6: Oregon

Another band with a geographical name: an American state. Oregon were on a tour of the UK, which is rare. St. Andrews Hall is an intimate venue - it's been closed for some time for renovations which have just about finished. This was Oregon's 20th anniversary.

I've seen Jan Garbarek play there from the front row, which was epic, and here I was down the front again for this one as the seats were unreserved and not many were sold - as you can see I was ticket #53.

On the left of the stage was the epically talented guitarist and pianist Ralph Towner. He recorded for ECM for years and produced some classic albums - it was a privilege to have seen him play live, and he sadly passed away at the start of the year.

Paul McCandless released a few wonderful albums, one of which I have on CD - he was on reeds. Glen Moore played bass and on percussion was a young(ish) Trilok Gurtu. 

More on him elsewhere on the blog. He was replacing Colin Walcott - one of the co-founders.

So it was over 35 years ago, and only £6 - what a bargain. The audience was quite small.

Three days earlier they'd played the much larger Queen Elizabeth Hall,  in London and the setlist was as follows:

Junebug
Opening
Pepe Linque
Hand In Hand
Zephyr
Ecotopia
Waterwheel
Janet
Yet To Be

I remember them playing Wichi-Tai-To (a track later recorded by Jan too) and Silence of a Candle which was also recorded by the Paul Winter Consort. I also remember a Ralph Towner solo piece on guitar.

Here's 'Silence of a Candle':

And here's the Paul McCandless track that stands out for me.

Apr 23: Iceland

Another post where I explore some of the musicians from a particular country.

Today it's a place which actually has another of my blogs devoted to it: Iceland.

There are quite a few Icelandic bands I could mention in this post.

I've heard some of them playing live, and others have been regular fixtures in my listening for some years.

Sigur Rós should come first - it goes without saying.

Other bands I like listening to:

Arstiðir

The first album is perhaps the favourite.

Kaleo is another Icelandic musician who is known internationally.

Here's a RUV story about a planned concert that will take place at Thingvellir.

They are playing Þingvellir later this year if permission can be granted.

Here's one of Kaleo's most streamed songs on Spotify...

I've already blogged about Björk's connection with Rosalia at the Brits this year.

What are your favourite Icelandic bands?

Apr 23: Grace under Pressure

The Rush album 'Grace under Pressure', which was released in 1984 has been given a major update and made available in some chunky box sets which go up to over $250 in price!

One of the tracks features a guitar solo by Alex Lifeson which apparently took days to get right.

Alex has also said of the solo on 'Kid Gloves':

That song is from our Grace Under Pressure album. What I like about the solo is, it's the opposite of Limelight: it's got a hip, kind of slinky attitude, a little goofy humor. When I play it, I feel a certain confidence, also like a prankster, which is not the way I am in real life at all. What's funny about it, too, is that it has a plot to it, and I only realized that after I recorded it for the first time - I never have a plot in mind when I'm recording solos; I always just kind of wing them. The Kid Gloves solo guided me; it's like it knew what it wanted to be and I just had to allow myself to follow.

The entire concert from 1984 has now been made available by Rush on YouTube.

It's an era when synthesisers were becoming more dominant in their music, and reducing the amount of guitar that Alex Lifeson was able to contribute to their sound.

Rush are also appearing in 2 music magazines this month, with interviews relating to their new tour. I bought one of them which comes with a free poster and large sticker.

Annika Nilles

Apr 23: Isles of Wonder - capturing the soul of a country

Perhaps the biggest 'gig' of all is the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Isle of Wonder was the name of the ceremony that was developed by film-director Danny Boyle along with author Frank Cottrell Boyce for the 2012 Olympics in London.

The Wikipedia entry describes the music that was chosen to represent Great Britain.

As has already been blogged, the big moment for me was the appearance of Mike Oldfield.

An extended dance sequence followed, with songs including "My Generation" by The Who, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, "My Boy Lollipop" sung by Millie Small, "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks, "She Loves You" by the Beatles (with footage of the band performing the song), "Trampled Under Foot" by Led Zeppelin, "Starman" by David Bowie, "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen (during which the sound of the TARDIS from Doctor Who could be heard), "Pretty Vacant" by the Sex Pistols (during which dancers on power jumpers wearing large heads with Mohawk hairstyles performed a pogo dance, and the lyrics to the song were spelt out in LED lights around the stadium), "Blue Monday" by New Order, "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (during which Frankie, asked by June for his name, replied by revealing one of the band's "Frankie say..." T-shirts), "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)" by Soul II Soul, "Step On" by Happy Mondays, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics, "Firestarter" by The Prodigy, and "Born Slippy .NUXX" by Underworld, ending with the cast singing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" as Frankie and June walked towards each other. 

A sequence from the film Four Weddings and a Funeral was projected behind them; when they kissed, a montage of memorable kisses from film, TV and real life was shown (including one of the first interracial kisses on British television in Emergency Ward 10 and the first lesbian kiss from Brookside, which in some countries, including Saudi Arabia, then became the first lesbian kiss ever shown on pre-watershed television),while "Song 2" by Blur was played. 

A live performance of "Bonkers" by Dizzee Rascal (who grew up in the host borough of Tower Hamlets)followed, along with a further sequence in which all the cast (and Britain's Got Talent dancing duo Signature) attend a party at June's house while, Amy Winehouse's "Valerie", Muse's "Uprising", and Tinie Tempah's "Pass Out" played.

At the close, while "Heaven" by Emeli Sandé was played, the larger house was raised to reveal Tim Berners-Lee working at a NeXT Computer, like the one on which he invented the World Wide Web. He tweeted "This is for everyone", instantly spelt out in LED lights around the stadium.

The programme explained 

"Music connects us with each other and with the most important moments in our lives. One of the things that makes those connections possible is the World Wide Web". 

Boyle wanted to honour Berners-Lee for having made the World Wide Web free and available to everyone (hence the tweet), rather than seeking a commercial profit from it.

What are your memories of that evening?

Apr 22: Glastonbury

Glastonbury is a sensory experience... and one that everyone should have sometime in their life, although it's pot luck if you try to get a ticket when they go on general sale. Having said that 2026 is a rest year. Tickets for 2027 will come out towards the end of the year, and will be quite pricy.

However, I went as one of the many people who are given a ticket each year in return for working part of the time in some way - whether as part of the preparation, the festival itself, or the clean-up afterwards (which is a story in itself). 

This was back in 2010. It was the 40th anniversary year, and a 'dry year' with no rain, and plenty of sunshine. Apparently it was 2019 before that happened again.

In previous years, the site had flooded as it occupies a huge area, some of which is fairly low-lying, although it is surrounded by higher land, such as where the big GLASTONBURY letters are located above the Park Stage area.

I used to teach a unit on Music Festivals and Glastonbury as a temporary place, partly using material from the RGS, and others from Vicki Woolven themed around the Latitude festival.

Mission:Explore had a summer of festivals in 2010, including Latitude that year as well as the Secret Garden Party. I travelled down to the Glastonbury festival with Tom Morgan Jones, and we eventually found the correct entrance gate and car park, and then had to walk down through the main festival gates to find our accommodation location. This required a special wristband to access as it was not in the main Festival area.

I've also had another brush with the festival. I was travelling back from Cornwall some years later, and our train made an unscheduled stop at Castle Cary to load up the train with people who had been at the Festival, so that the train station could be a little less busy.

As I was working there, we had better access to all the stages as we were in the centre of things, but that meant it was never quiet. My tent was a couple of hundred yards from the Glade Stage - I could see it from my tent... and that went on until the early hours. As a result, and also because of the heat, I didn't even try to sleep.

This meant that I came across the spectacle of Arcadia at night with its giant spider stage and giant Van de Graaf generators, Shangri La in the early hours, and the other far corners of the site.

I shared a photo album with some of the images that I took during the five days I was there. 

There is plenty of opportunity to engage with environmental groups while at the festival, with a presence from Greenpeace and others. I worked as part of the Green Kids field, and we offered activities with a geographical theme. 

This was our set up, in the Green Kids field. It was a hot one... We took part in a whole range of activities.

I'd love to hear your other memories of Glastonbury: the bands you saw there, food, memorable encounters, terrible mud and toilets... whatever...

Please fill in the Google Form below and let me know about your Glastonbury experiences.

Images of Glastonbury 2010: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license.

Apr 22: Earth Day

April the 22nd is Earth Day.

Here's a John Denver track from the album 'Earth Songs'.

Celebrate morning, the cry of a loon on a lake in the night.
The dreams that are born in the dawn’s early light, celebrate morning.

Celebrate living, the laughter that sings in the heart of a child.
The freedom that flies at the call of the wild, celebrate living.

Celebrate evening, the stars that appear in the loss of the sun,
whispering winds, we are one, we are one

Apr 21: Nordan

One of the most striking album covers that ECM produced is Nordan by Ale Möller and Lena Willemark.

It's published by ECM.

A lovely review here:

Medieval Swedish folklore and balladry rise again in Nordan, the first ECM collaboration between songstress Lena Willemark and multitalented instrumentalist Ale Möller. While the latter brings out gorgeous sounds from mandola (i.e., alto mandolin), kantele (plucked zither), hammered dulcimer, and folk-harp, among others, the former lends the session’s most powerful instrument—her earthly voice—to an ensemble of bass (courtesy of regular sessioner Palle Danielsson), drone-fiddle, Swedish bagpipes, saxophones, and percussion. That voice is the central figure of nearly every painting in this gallery, tending to crisp plains in search of traditions and lives buried. It spurs the calls of “Trilo,” an incantation unto the wispy barbs of sentiment that abound therefrom, and calls from more distant pastures in “Gullharpan” and through the watery harp strains of “Mannelig”—these but a few of the many songs one might single out here for their remarkable sense of space and atmosphere. Willemark also proves her prowess on the fiddle for two Polskas, the rustic metalwork of “Hornlåt,” and the jig-like “Jemsken.” Möller has the last word with “Drömspår,” an epilogue for accordion that leads us into less turbulent waters than those depicted on the album’s cover.

The follow up was called Agram.

These were played regularly on journeys after release.

Ale Möller is a multi-instrumentalist who has played with many other musicians in different formats, including a band called Frifot.

Check out this track from the Nordan Suite... a recent reimagining of the album:

Apr 20: Mari Boine

Back in the 1990s when Real World records was originally founded by Peter Gabriel almost every album they released was a banger.

Gula Gula was an album which introduced many, including me, to the voice of Mari Boine (Persen).

The album cover was particularly striking. I bought it from Virgin Records in Sheffield - which was excellent...

Mari Boine is a Sami.

The Sami or Sapmi are people who live in territories which are crossed by the borders between Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. 

Also check out her vocals on a fantastic piece of music by Jan Garbarek, who will appear quite a lot on this blog across the year.

This is called Aftenlandet ('Evening Land') and is the final track on the album 'Visible World' which came out in 199

This video was apparently made for the Winter Olympics.

 

AFTENLANDET (the Evening Land) by Erik Poppe. (1994) Music by Jan Garbarek and Mari Boine. from Erik Poppe on Vimeo.
Made by comission for NRK and the Winter Olympics in 1994. Scripted and directed by Erik Poppe. 

Music written and performed by Jan Garbarek and Mari Boine.

A particular powerful song is Duinne.

The song Duinne by Mari Boine is sung in Sami, the language spoken by the Sami people, the indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The lyrics are about the connection between the land and the people who live on it. It describes the deep connection that the singer has with the land, and how it has shaped her identity. 

She sings about the mountains, the rivers, and the sky, and how they have influenced her life in many ways.

The meaning is explained here.

Apr 20: Film Soundtracks #5: 'The Killing Fields'

This album was a bold departure from his usual style by Mike Oldfield.

The album was produced for a film made by Roland Joffé in 1984 called "The Killing Fields".

The context for the film was the story of an American reporter who was forced to leave his translator behind during the Khmer Rouge rule over Cambodia and the 'killing fields' of the name.

It was very well received and won a number of awards.

Here's the trailer for the film:

The first time I heard this first track to be released I didn't know what to think... as it turns out, this was one of the most 'listenable' tracks on the soundtrack in its own way as there was a lot of music which needed the imagery to make sense... a sense of urgency and danger and sharp discord.

Engineer, Associated Performer, Studio Personnel, Work Arranger, Arranger, Producer: Mike Oldfield Associated Performer: Morris Pert 

Studio Personnel, Mastering Engineer: Paschal Byrne 

Composer Lyricist: Francisco Tárrega

The score was nominated for a Golden Globe but did not win.

Apr 19: Bandcamp

For those who want a closer connection with an artist, why not listen (and purchase) from their Bandcamp site. This is used by some of the 'smaller' acts.

You can find high quality downloads and physical media and merchandise from the site.

It's a way of getting more money to the bands.

Watch out for discounts on Bandcamp Fridays.

Apr 18: Guest blogger Carl Lee #12: Brian Eno's ambient cover art

The 12th in a series of posts from Carl Lee.

The musical landscapes of Brian Eno’s cover art

A close friend used to have all four-album covers of Brian Eno’s ambient music series framed reverentially in smooth beech and hung as art in his living room. 

Music for Airports (1979), The Plateaux of Mirror (with Harold Budd 1980), Day of Radiance (with Laraaji 1980), and On Land (1982) all share a cover art theme of partial map representations with a topographically knowing nod to pop art. 

Hung in sequence on a wall the album covers were as striking and as artistic as the music they represent.

It is probably not possible for a single recording to be acknowledged as the starting point for a whole musical genre but ‘Ambient 1 Music For Airports’ comes some way to achieving that feat. Although it certainly was not the first ‘ambient music’, it was the first record to specifically adopt the label ‘ambient music’.

Brian Eno had started exploring abstract electronica in his 1975 album ‘Discreet Music’ before moving onto work with Talking Heads and producing their ground breaking albums ‘More Songs about Buildings and Food (1978), ‘Fear of Music (1979) and ‘Remain in Light’ (1980)’’, a trilogy that sound-tracked my late teenage years. 

As a teenager, ambient music was as unfathomable as penguins trying to grasp jazz, it simply was not on my radar until I got an ‘in’ with the Brian Eno/David Byrne genre busting, or is that genre defining, I’m not quite sure which even now, ‘My Life in The Bush of Ghosts’ (1981). 

Here's the track 'Regiment':

Producer, Associated Performer, Composer: Brian Eno 

Producer, Associated Performer, Composer: David Byrne 

Drums, Associated Performer: Chris Frantz 

Bass Guitar, Associated Performer: Busta Cherry Jones 

Associated Performer, Drums: David van Tieghem 

Associated Performer, Voice: Dunya Yusin

This was an album that employed samples of radio shows, sermons, an exorcism, chanting of the Qu’ran, cawing rooks and the voice of Lebanese singer Samira Tewfik. Few albums have had to fend off so many lawsuits, offending as it did both some Christians and some Muslims. Its initial critical reception was mixed but not from me - now I had to explore everything that Eno had made, and that included his ambient work.

It was whilst in Berlin producing David Bowie’s Low album in 1977 that Eno started work on ‘Music for Airports’ and he added parts that were looped from Robert Wyatt on piano and the avant-garde jazz guitarist Fred Frith, who I once saw in the 1980s in an upstairs room of a pub in Sheffield with three men and a dog. 

Wyatt and Frith were both involved with Mike Oldfield early in his career too... more on Oldfield throughout the blog.

Although musicians contributed, Eno stated that machines predominantly made the album. In this it was a precursor for a whole direction for the creation of music to go in and this found further expression in the manic chop and paste rhythmic assemblage that ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ became.

Music for Airports is a wandering, rather aimless piece of music whose tone is set by piano motifs that are arrhythmic and with melody barely hinted at. 

Eno describes his ambient music as something that “is intended to induce calm and a space to think”, he has also referred to it as “music to resign you to the possibility of death” which doesn’t appear to be the ideal music to listen to in an airport waiting room.

 


What ‘Music for Airports’ does not do is demand active attention and in that it has a lineage back to ‘Musique d’ameublement’ (Furniture Music), the phrase given by French composer and pianist Erik Satie (1866-1925) to his sparse piano motif led minimalist compositions. 

Satie’s work, instantly recognizable, a century after his death, were an influence on the young Brian Eno and that is both acknowledged by Eno himself and is straight-forward to recognize when listened to side by side. Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 is perhaps the most widely known of his short works.

 


Which brings us back to the cover-art of Eno’s quartet of ambient albums. 

A representation of the abstract landscapes that the music inside conjures with. 

A melancholic air of beauty is all round, a grey day of scudding clouds and intermittent drizzle is evoked, a beauty that is sometimes so under-stated that it is hard to see, something that the cartographic suggestions give possibility to. 

Or maybe that’s just the geographer in me. 

And quite striking on a living room wall.

Carl Lee is retired but was a lecturer at The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, taught A level Geography for 20 years at Sheffield College, is the author of five books about geography and has a PhD in economic geography. He has been nuts about music since buying his first single in 1973: 10cc’s 'Rubber Bullets' if you were wondering.

Apr 18: Record Store Day

Today is Record Store Day, which is credited by some shops as helping save them when it looked like people had forsaken vinyl for digital formats.

This map was created and shared by the map guru Kenneth Field, who is sharing a map a day this year. Follow him on Bluesky.

There was a feature on BBC News.

What did you pick up?

Apr 17: Morecambe Bay

Morecambe Bay is the name of a piece of music by Alex Gifford that was included on a compilation album released by Real World records in 1993 called 'Plus from Us'.

Morecambe Bay itself is a large tidal area of sand in the NW of England. 

The area came to prominence in the news for a very sad reason in 2004.

A group of Chinese migrants who were being employed picking cockles on the sand were caught out by the speed of the rising tide. 22 people were drowned in total by the rapid incoming tide.

It's a place I've visited a few times over the years.

It was also the location selected for the AQA GCSE Pre-release material in 2025. Here's an aerial video made by Mr. B.

Apr 17: Nordic Light

A surprise new release today from Jan Garbarek... not new material - there's been none of that for a long time now sadly... but a lengthy compilation album called Nordic Light. 

The track selection is actually really good on this one, and gives you a good sense of the variety of styles that he has been involved with over the years.

Apr 16: Aubrey Powell and Hipgnosis

I teach at King's Ely in Cambridgeshire. I've been there for 13 years now. Lots of trips to and from my home in Breckland across the Fens to Ely in all weathers.

A former pupil (Old Elean) is Aubrey 'Po' Powell: a graphic designer.

He attended the school for a while. Later in his career he founded the design agency Hippgnosis with Storm Thorgerson.

He has his own website.

Some years ago, in the Sixth Form centre of the school, which is housed in the old Bishop's Palace opposite the west door of Ely Cathedral, there was an exhibition of photographs that he had taken, with some original prints of classic album covers. It was wonderful to see these close up, just sitting in the corridor with students walking past them - often paying them no notice at all.

Amongst the album covers he worked on were covers for Peter Gabriel and Led Zeppelin.

I have an excellent book which I bought from the shop at the Pink Floyd exhibition at the V&A. This features album covers they designed as well as details of their creation.

He has also directed music videos, and been the creative director of music tours for artists such as Paul McCartney.

He directed a video of Yes's Magnification concert - complete with an orchestra. 

One of the other links with Hipgnosis and Ely is the album cover for 'The Division Bell' by Pink Floyd. I'll post more about that in a separate post...

Further Reading

Aubrey Powell website.

Apr 15: Maps on Vinyl

This is a chunky book and a great endeavour from the cartographer Damien Saunder. 

It is clothed in black cloth and with an embossed LP with cartographic meridians.

It features a wealth of album covers, quite a few of which are familiar but many of which are new to me. 

I have been discovering some new bands from this book, which is always a good sign.

Publishers' description:

Presenting 415 album covers – beautifully reproduced, expertly laid out and accompanied by deeply researched text – Maps on Vinyl will especially appeal to map enthusiasts, vinyl junkies, music fans, graphic designers and artists.

The book is the brainchild of renowned Australian cartographer Damien Saunder, whose expertise has been utilised by Apple, National Geographic, Earth (the world’s largest atlas) and even Roger Federer. A keen crate-digger, he has amassed possibly the world’s most extensive private collection of records featuring maps on their covers, resulting in this one-of-a-kind book. 


Records by artists including Madonna, Oasis, Coldplay, Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, XTC, MC5, Queen, New Order, James Brown, Brian Eno and Weezer are featured, with cover art created by many giants of the design world, including Peter Saville, Curtis McNair, Richard Gray, Alton Kelly, Stanley Mouse, Neville Garrick, Roger Dean and Pedro Bell.

The records headlined span music from 1939 to today, and the book is divided into eight chapters highlighting different aspects of the collection – ‘C(art)ography’, ‘We Built This City’, ‘On the Road’, ‘African Beats’, ‘Astroworlds’, ‘Ocean Whispers’, ‘Maps with Attitude’ and ‘Music from Here’.

Maps on Vinyl is a beautiful artefact, but it’s also an important historical and cultural document, revealing how maps have been used in album cover design to reinforce a lyrical story, share a political view, express concern for the state of the world or creatively identify the origins of the music and the people who make it.

My copy was was purchased from Stanford's in London and is a signed first edition, and was also purchased with my RGS discount.

It's definitely a coffee table kind of book. One to browse and point out - "oh yes, I had that on vinyl" or "one of my favourites"...

Apr 15: Molde Canticle

Molde is a town in Norway. It is one of the stopping-off points on the Hurtigruten coastal route - a trip I've always wanted to take.

The Jan Garbarek Group's 1990 album 'I took up the Runes' is one of my favourites. The cover is an ECM classic of minimalism.

It includes a five-part piece of music called 'Molde Canticle'.

My first time seeing the Jan Garbarek Group live was in 1990 and they opened with this song, with the late Nana Vasconcelos on percussion.

Here's a live version from 1991, with the late Marilyn Mazur (more on her elsewhere on the blog to come) from Hamburg.

A variation on this music was used at the closing Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in 1994 when Albertville handed over to Norway.

I remember watching and thinking "I know this music..."

The Olympic Hymn was sung by Sissel Kirkjebø, and there was plenty of actual SNOW.... Modern Winter Olympics are struggling to find enough of the real stuff...