May 31: 30 Day Song Challenge - starting tomorrow

I had to wait for quite a while to get to this month, when I'm going to do the 30-day song challenge.

Feel free to think about and share your own contributions to this feature during the month of June. As always there'll be a few extra posts unrelated to the challenge as well.

May 31: J. Willgoose - a geographer's sensibility

A cross posting from my LivingGeography blog.

 

"Yeah, just walk about and try and get a feel for a place rather than have some arbitrary tick list of, you know, things I’ve got to do or my life isn’t complete because…oh well, that doesn’t really work for me. Like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve done New York’. Who’s “done” New York? Nobody’s bloody done New York, don’t be ridiculous."

J Willgoose Esq. on his plans when visiting New York

J Willgoose Esq is the songwriter and guitarist/keyboard player for the band 'Public Service Broadcasting'.

This excellent post outlines the recording of the band's album 'Every Valley' in South Wales - the location for the album's concept and narrative about the growth and decline of the coal industry and its impact on the local communities and the people who make them.

Here's one of the standout songs from the album, which is all excellent.

I was intrigued to see his name appearing on the speaker list for the PTI Geography Symposium which takes place in July.

Music can be seen as an example of "imaginative geographies" in that piece of music.

I am looking forward to the session that will take place on the first day of the Symposium.

Tickets and full details are available here. You also get to hear me speak as well.

Source: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8502b52a-5929-41bd-ae20-9225de4858ff/files/dcz30ps97t

May 30: Willie O' Winsbury

Some songs have many different interpretations.

Willie O'Winsbury is one such song.

Here's a version by Offa Rex / Olivia Chaney.

Here's Pentangle's version from the 1970s.

 

This website has a comprehensive list of versions.

May 30: Ticket Stub #9 Frank Dunnery

Francis Dunnery was the guitarist and vocalist with the band It Bites, who have appeared on the blog a few times so far - and were the previous ticket stub. I saw them about 15 times in the 1990s and they were always so tight and crisp in their playing.

I met him and saw him play at a special show down in London at the Hard Rock Cafe's music space when it was in Covent Garden. He'd brought his tapboard with him and shared some stories.

This particular ticket was a solo concert after his departure from It Bites.

As you can see this was ticket #218 and there were probably about 250 people which was all that could fit in the room. It was the same venue where I had earlier seen Aimee Mann play.

A recording of a Glasgow concert from this short tour was later released as the album: "One Night in Sauchiehall Street".

At one point, before the 'Calling all Stations' album was released, he also auditioned for Genesis.

He also sang vocals on a recent reimagining of 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' and also provided a guitar solo for an updated version of the Big Big Train track 'The Underfall Yard'.

It also included a contribution from Jem Godfrey of FROST* who will appear on the blog later in the year.

May 29: a different view

Back in 2009, I was working for the Geographical Association. 

The GA's HQ is in Sheffield and for 2 or 3 days a week I would head up to the office, staying overnight at a colleague's house in the city.

During that time, helped with funding from the Action Plan for Geography, we produced a "manifesto" for geography...

The GA’s 2009 manifesto for geography, A Different View, described geography as ‘one of humanity’s big ideas’ and made a compelling case for geography’s place in the curriculum. It was produced and funded by the GA, as part of its charitable role to advocate for geography education. 

The aims of the GA’s manifesto for geography were to:

• support the professional activity of geography educators
• engage teachers and senior leaders in professional dialogue about the key role of geography in a modern curriculum
• engage young people with the wider world, helping them explore the issues that are important to them locally and globally

I helped put together a video to help with the launch of the manifesto. This was created using a website called 'Animoto'.

There were some images that we identified from the publication itself and added in some text of the main themes.

I then had to source some music and make sure that the music matched the images. 

The first thing was to identify some music that matched the original vibe. I went for an instrumental version of a track called 'Release'. This was created by the band 'Afro Celt Sound System'.

This meant changing a few settings and also contacting the music publisher and paying for the rights to use the music along with the video....

Here's the final version which had its premiere in a packed room at the GA Conference in 2009.

May 29: Folded Landscapes

“I hope in this new work, a listener will be rewarded for their patience from a cold, glacial ascent by a slowly thawing, burning hope.”

An album by the pianist Erland Cooper, made with the Scottish Ensemble with a contribution from the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.

This has a number of different versions on Spotify and can also be ordered on physical media.

There is a piano and an instrumental version as well.

Hailed for work that celebrates themes of nature, people, place and time, Cooper continues to merge music with evocative storytelling and conceptional art in Folded Landscapes. The album, recorded in sub-zero temperatures that slowly increased across its seven movements and with an audio master sun-burnt in the 40.9C heat of the hottest day in UK history, figuratively and literally thaws over the duration of a pertinent new album.

Movement 5 in particular is about the impact of climate change on the landscape and features some spoken word contributions from Simon Armitage and also a section of Greta Thunberg's speech at a COP conference.

There were 4 performances at the Barbican involving melting ice and with contributions from Simon Armitage.

May 28: Cities and Music #3: Liverpool

Think Liverpool and of course you think of The Beatles and the Cavern Club.

Image: Alan Parkinson

There are many other musicians who are linked with the city too, whether by birth or because of their career. Gerry and the Pacemakers of course, whose song plays out as you take the eponymous ferry... and then take it again to come back as there's not a lot on the other side.... (no offence).

Frankie goes to Hollywood (who appear separately on the blog) were based there. They were helped by Trevor Horn to achieve huge success in the early 1980s.

The Beatles are the main people here of course.

In 'The Pie at Night', Stuart Maconie explores the psychogeography connected with songs like 'Penny Lane' (something explored by Brendan Conway in his Storymaps which I have blogged about previously.

Who have I missed out?

May 28: Other music and geography blogs

This is a fairly niche area, but there are some other existing blogs which have been around a while.

I've already mentioned the blog of John Medd, who has kindly got involved with the blog since it started adding comments and thoughts.

Next up is the excellent Musical Geography Project blog.

This has a variety of posts linked to music...

May 28: Music from beyond the Earth's orbit

The Artemis II mission made history recently.

NASA revealed the wake-up playlist that the crew had. 

Not sure that Neil and Buzz would have woken up to this banger...

May 28: Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman's music has been undergoing a little renaissance of late.

She performed as an unexpected late addition to the Nelson Mandela tribute concert.

Her key album is her self-titled debut from 1988. This included the classic track 'Fast Car'.

Here's a performance from the 2025 Grammy's where she sang 'Fast Car' with Luke Combs.

One of her most powerful tracks is 'Talking 'bout a revolution'

May 27: Anarchy in the Favela

I recently added two guest posts: one on the music of the favelas in Brazil, and one on the influence of Punk music in Belfast.

The Guardian has published a piece which combines both of those.

May 27: Some suggested reading

Thanks to Emma Espley for sending me this link to some book suggestions from the author Sathnam Sanghera.

He's best known for writing about the legacy of the British Empire in the UK. but he is also the author of a book about George Michael.

He wrote one of the biggest hits of our age in 'about an hour' in his childhood bedroom.

He would go on to collaborate with some of the greatest musicians of all time, from Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder.

He was a pop star who bleached his hair blonde, wore tiny shorts and, at the same time, critiqued his own image mercilessly.

He lived through the AIDS crisis and one of the most homophobic periods of British history and yet when he finally came out, he did so boldly and unapologetically.

Wham! were the first Western pop group to play in Communist China and he repeatedly broke boundaries in music too.

Ten years after his death, George Michael is still everywhere: the annual success of 'Last Christmas', new covers of his songs, and endless memes on social media.

Tonight the Music Seems So Loud is at once a kaleidoscopic portrait of one of Britain’s most beloved musicians and an account of a strange and turbulent period of British history. In his unconventional and enthralling book, bestselling author Sathnam Sanghera explores the connection between music and politics, exposes what secrecy does to the soul, and reveals how fame rots the sense of self. Throughout, Sanghera captures, joyfully and poignantly, one of Britain’s greatest artists in all his musical glory.

May 27: Going the 'Full Monty'

'The Full Monty' was filmed in Sheffield, and as a local boy I recognised most of them, or had walked past them in person. The opening historic film showing the steel industry was explored in detail here.

It included the famous 'Hole in t' road' which no longer exists but which I have talked about before in geography sessions on the city's cultural heritage. Sheffield is also the home of the GA, and was my place of work for three years from 2008-2011. Here's a film from the start...

There's this memorable scene later in the film when the Full Monty gang go to sign on (I did that myself during the mid 80s - as a student we signed on during the summer holidays - with no intention of getting a job of course).

May 27: "With These Hands"

Another song by The Young 'Uns.

They have produced some excellent music.

This song tells of Sybil Phoenix who came to Britain from British Guiana in 1956. She overcame racism and personal tragedy to become the first black woman to be awarded the MBE for her work fostering hundreds of children in Lewisham. 

Now 89 she is still active with the charity she founded in memory of her daughter – the Marsha Phoenix Memorial Trust.

May 26: Be Quiet

That's the title of the latest album from Nils Petter Molvaer. Listen to it on Bandcamp.

Each track is produced in association with another musician.

One is with the late Marilyn Mazur

All of the tracks are named after places.

1 - Bangkok (Chang Jing)
Chang Jing - Guzheng
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

2 - Rome (Martux_m)
Martux_m - Electronics/Synthesizers
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

3 - Düsseldorf (Miki Yui)
Miki Yui - Field Recordings/Electronics
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

4 - London-Finsbury Park (John Paul Jones)
John Paul Jones - Piano
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

5 - Copenhagen (Marilyn Mazur)
Marilyn Mazur - Percussion
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

6 - London-Hackney (Imogen Heap)
Imogen Heap - Voice / Electronics
Jan Bang - Keyboard / Sampling
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

7 - Amsterdam (Soheil Shayesteh)
Soheil Shayesteh - Kamancheh / Electronics
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

8 - Berlin-orbit 4 (Alva Noto)
Alva Noto - Electronics
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

9 - München (Anja Lechner)
Anja Lechner - Cello
Nils Petter Molvær - Trumpet

Another (much earlier) classic track by Nils Petter Molvaer is called On Stream.

It's taken from his album 'Khmer'.

May 26: Miles Davis - centenary of his birth

Miles Davis was born on the 26th of May 1926.

This was the first album I heard him playing on.

There were also some classic albums featuring other jazz musicians, and also Tutu (1986) where he reinvented himself with Marcus Miller in a tribute to Desmond Tutu.

Which era of Miles is your favourite?

May 26: Shush... changing cities

‘What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value.’ 

Yi-Fu Tuan

‘When humans invest meaning in a portion of space and then become attached to it in some way (naming is one such way) it becomes a place.’ 

Tim Cresswell

One issue that has been appearing in a number of locations is an increase in the amount of noise.

Developers move in to an area and there are some changes which temporarily cause building noise, but also the removal of vegetation which can dampen the noise.

Recently on the local news magazine programmes there were several features on the loss of small music venues in cities.

Source:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aestheticsofcrisis/50419747013

May 25: Totally Tubular

Sometime in the mid 1970s, my long-haired Uncle Steve played an album while I was at my nana's house in Rotherham. It was unlike anything I'd heard before and I was immediately fascinated by it. It turned out to be an album that was quite new, and was selling thousands of copies. 

The album came out on the 25th of May 1973.

This has been in my life for over 50 years, and I could probably imagine and 'play' the whole album perfectly to myself in my head I have heard it so many times, and the various sequels and variations which have emerged since.

I went to a special orchestral performance at the Royal Albert Hall to mark the 50th anniversary, with Brian Blessed.

It had been recorded by one person, who had spent weeks multi-tracking himself playing a whole range of instruments - particularly guitars - a young man called Michael Gordon Oldfield. It was the first issue on a new record label called Virgin records. Friends also liked it very much.

I bought a copy when I was in my record-buying phases and also had a copy on cassette tape. I consequently bought every release from Mike Oldfield in at least one format. He was still my most-listened-to artist according to my end of 2022 Spotify statistics.

The album cover is particularly distinctive with imagery from Trevor Key. It features some waves too of course. Are they constructive or destructive waves?

Here's the first tour that he did.

Here's the use of the track in the film 'The Exorcist'.

The album's name inspired a map of Wainwrights in the Lake District: Tubular Fells.

For me, Oldfield's masterpiece isn't Tubular Bells but his album 'Ommadawn', released two years later.

I was fortunate to see Oldfield play live four times. This included three times when he had the wonderful French drummer Pierre Moerlen in his band. 

In 1983, Oldfield played live at Glastonbury to a crowd of 45 000 people.

It was turned into a film, and shown at a cinema in Rotherham in 1984ish. The only way I could see it though was a second feature paired with a slightly soft-porny film... awkward...

And here's a Nottingham performance featuring a version of the band that I also saw, with the excellent Morris Pert on percussion instead of Pierre Moerlen.

I will share the story in another post of my visit to Horse Guards Parade to see the premiere of Tubular Bells III.

The last piece of music that Oldfield released before he retired (and never completed it) was the opening few minutes of 'Tubular Bells 4'.... 

Further reading.

A Conversation piece on how Tubular Bells changed music, and how it came about.

May 25: Guest Blogger Carl Lee #16: Cuba: The music never stops.

The latest in a series of guest posts from Carl Lee.

Carl wrote this post several weeks ago, and the situation in the country is now deteriorating due to a lack of energy reaching the country due to US sanctions yet again interfering with another country.

Cuba: The music never stops.

Watching the strangling of Cuba by the United States of America and the subsequent disintegration of key elements of the country: assailed by nationwide power outrages, food shortages, crumbling infrastructure and patients dying in hospitals starved of drugs and power is heart breaking. This is a nation that attempted to forge its own unique developmental path and found itself in the political and economic cross hairs of its global super power neighbour who already had ‘1898’ form in regime change on the Caribbean island. 

It still startles me that once, from 1762-63, Cuba was part of the British Empire, until it swapped back to it’s original colonial oppressor, Spain, in exchange for Florida. 

Don’t anybody tell Donald Trump.

It is over two decades since I visited Cuba and I still reflect on the depth and diversity of music that I encountered there from the cool piano jazz of tourist hotels, driving rhythms in an Havana bar where folk swapped instruments in a joyful celebration of talent and soul, and the incomparable Le Casa de la Trova in the heart of Trinidad where the band and dancing were like something out of a film set: think ‘Sinners’, but under a Caribbean blanket of stars and no vampires. 

You want an idea of that Cuba; down at heel but joyous, inter-generational, spontaneous, cultural and cool, very cool, then Daymé Arocena, the young Afro-Cuban jazz singer from Havana pretty much captures it for me.

 

So much music of such variety has sprung out of Cuba over the years that it is hard to know where to begin but colonialism is as good a place to start as any, because it was the combination of predominantly Spanish colonialists and the rhythms of the African slaves that are the two key elements that remain even today. 

The guitar, violins, piano and melody that were bought by the Spanish colliding with polyrhythmic percussion of Africa are at the core of the multitude of musical styles that Cuba has forged. 

The early fusions of this hybridity are still kept alive by groups such as Santiago de Cuba’s Chagui de la Maya with the call and response vocals reminiscent of songs sung by slaves as they toiled in sugar cane plantations.

 


Yet for all of Cuba’s deep historical musical roots it is also something the Cuban government invests a lot of resource and time in. It has invested in developing music education in schools - with music given equal standing to academic subjects and starting at a young age. This can involve up to eight hours a week over the full twelve years of formal education .

This education focuses on classical music as well traditional Cuba music. 

More gifted students are directed towards specialist schools as the video below shows.

Check out the gifted Gavilan twins:

Classical music is the starting point on the Cuban school music curriculum but then the multitude of Cuban musical styles starts to be explored: bolero, songo, guarancha, danzon, mambo, bata, son, guajira, rumba, pilon and tova. And that is just a selection. 

A personal favourite style of mine is Afro-Cuban jazz and currently one of the hottest acts are teenage young brothers Fabio and Diego Abreu whose talent is breath-taking and covers everything from mambo to old school jazz classics such as Duke Ellington’s ‘Take the A Train’ of which this superlative version is thoroughly ‘Cubanified’.

Of course Cuban musicians don’t just stay in Cuba. 

They break out periodically into the wider global musical consciousness. 

Perhaps most notable has been the Bueno Vista Social Club and their global hit ‘Chan Chan’, which has now become a standard in every tourist hotel in Havana as well as remixed and repackage across the World. And then there is even Cuban hip hop which I first discovered in 1998 when stumbling upon a car parked up on the beach in Trinidad with hip hop blasting out of the CD player whilst a crowd gathered around cracking beers and throwing down moves as the sea shimmered against the white sand and the sun beat down. 

A dictatorial communist regime it most certainly did not feel like in that moment, and to be fair it rarely did anywhere. Poor, yes, virtually no advertising and certainly ‘down at heel’ but surprisingly upbeat and super friendly. This was in the time of Fidel Castro: El Presidente. Orishas were perhaps the only hip hop act that translated outside of Cuba and they relocated to France where there sound seemed to resonate more than in the UK.

Yet as observed at the start, these are very troubled times for Cuba. The romance of Castro’s revolution and an alternative path to development, once under-pinned by education, health, art and music is unravelling. Investment is non-existent and a diaspora focused in Florida is circling ready to pick at the bones of the revolutionary dream as every institution of the state appears to be reeling. 

Yet even under these disintegrating conditions music survives. 

As the Irish percussionist and musicologist Ruaairi Glasheen observed in a recent visit to Cuba in February 2026 the drum “meant power, it meant resistance, the drum meant revolution and despite the hardship many in Cuba continue to face today these rhythms persist against all odds”. 

The music never stops.

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.

Let's hope the music never stops.

May 24: Sugar - back to the 1990s

Sugar were one of the best bands of the 90s. 

Last night. I went to see them play live for the first time as a three-piece. I've seen Bob Mould perform several times: solo and in a trio, but Sugar didn't play very often in the UK. This was the first time they'd played in the UK for over 30 years and they got a great reception from a packed crowd - many of them a similar age to me. This was my first time at the O2 Forum, a converted cinema, and it was flipping hot! I had a seat upstairs which was preferable to standing up for four hours.

I first heard these songs when I was in my 20s and now I'm in my 60s....

Here's a few shots from a very hot and sweaty gig at the O2 Forum, Kentish Town last night. 24 songs in 90 minutes... and lots of distortion.

Images: Alan Parkinson

I had all their albums - there weren't many - and many CD singles too with extra tracks.

Copper Blue is the classic. 

Released in 1992, and featuring songs such as 'Hoover Dam'.

They released 'FUEL', and 'B-Sides' and then a short EP album called 'Beaster', which was particularly ferocious. 

I loved the fact they played 'Gee Angel' last night too, from FUEL.

And from Beaster they played 'J C Auto'.

I'd actually bought some ear protection for this gig - the first time I've ever worn any, but I already have a bit of tinnitus and could do without it getting a lot worse. 

I bought some Loop hearing protection, and after the first three songs (from Copper Blue) I needed to put them in and I have to say that they made a real difference. The sound was sharpened (and the volume reduced 10-15 dB) and they certainly improved the experience. They are recommended.

There were some excellent limited edition posters for sale as well.

Here's Tilted from 'Beaster'.

The setlist is here.

I shall add some reviews once I find some.

Jay Cox posted some awesome videos - thanks for sharing on Facebook!

And here's a review in 'The Guardian'

Mould, arguably, is the man who brought melody to American hardcore punk, and Sugar continued his desire for big tunes and searing guitars. When he plays alone, it can be hard sometimes to pick out the melodies behind the trebly sheets of guitar, but the ballast of the rhythm section holds the tunes in place, and the pop smarts of If I Can’t Change Your Mind and Gee Angel burst out of the PA.

May 24: Hether Blether

An interesting album from Erland Cooper and collaborators which came out in 2020. The tracks on the album are mostly the names of places in the Orkneys, such as Noup Head.

May 23: The Lake

Just remembered today that Lac Leman in Geneva, pictured below was the Lake referred to in the title of one of my favourite pieces of music: Mike Oldfield's 1984 classic.

Image: Alan Parkinson

I remember this being an important piece of music when I was in my final year of undergraduate studies, when you had to chase down music...

Listen to it now, turn the speakers up loud...

May 23: Rush Fantoons

People are gearing up for the Rush tour in the USA (over 250 000 tickets sold) in 2026 and then the UK and elsewhere in 2027.

Fantoons has brought Hugh Syme's memories of designing the cover for their 'Moving Pictures' album, which many feel is their finest album.

A nice animation with some details on the design of the album cover.

May 22: 'Ouses 'Ouses 'Ouses

I love the mood of this piece from the first album by 'The Imagined Village'.

It's the opening track from their album 'The Imagined Village', and starts up above the Chalk Downs of the South Downs.

The band is a fusion mix of traditional musicians, with world music and electronic beats...

It's worth searching YouTube for other clips of their music, which include interpretations of other classic songs. They will appear elsewhere on the blog.

They deserve a place here if only for this CD cover...

It's an EP I have a copy of:

The first track is excellent for considering the multicultural nature of'English' people - one for Reform perhaps.

Released on Real World Records on 23 July 2007.

1. England Half English Meets John Barleycorn - Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy
2. Acres of Ground (Beats Mix) - Eliza Carthy
3. Welcome Sailor - Sheila Chandra and Chris Wood
4. Cold Hailey, Rainy Night (It’s Turned Out Nice Mix) - Transglobal Underground

May 22: Antarctica

Several musicians have tried to capture the atmosphere of Antarctica. Have they succeeded? Conjure up an image in your mind of the icy wilderness around the South Pole. How can that be captured in musical form?

Vangelis had a go with his early album of the same name.

Ralph Vaugham Williams composed the music for the classic Ealing film 'Scott of the Antarctic' featuring John Mills.

This is used to great effect in the film, which I used to show in instalments along with some accompanying work when I first started teaching.

Suns of the Tundra, who have geography Chief Examiner Simon Oakes on guitar and vocals (as well as referencing a Polar ecosystem in their name), released an album exploring the story of Shackleton's 'Endurance' exhibition.

Their album was called 'Bones of Brave Ships'. It is well worth seeking out.

The album is intended as a soundtrack for the 1919 film 'South' and they performed it with the film. An extract can be seen below:

Suns of the Tundra (ex-Peach GB) perform their soundtrack for the 1919 film SOUTH (from 2016 concept album Bones of Brave Ships), joined onstage by Ben Moor (narrator) and Al Murray (additional drums) Venue: Bedford Theatre, Balham, South London, 2016

Also check out a few others here...

What other Antarctic-themed musical tracks should I add to this list?

May 21: Ticket Stub #8: It Bites

Well, what a band they were! They were so tight!

This was an excellent gig - one of about fifteen at least that I saw in various venues, both headlining and also supporting others, such as Robert Plant.

This was for a standing gig at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

The band was formed in the Lake District in 1982.

The line-up was Francis Dunnery, Bob Dalton and Dick Nolan who were joined by John Beck on keyboards (and red lipstick and top hat).

Here's Francis Dunnery talking about how the band came about:

In 1986, they had a Top 10 single with 'Calling all the Heroes' - you may remember this one. They were even on 'Top of the Pops'.

They were featured on an episode of the Channel 4 show Equinox, which showed the recording sessions for their album "Once around the World".

Here's another stub from March 1990 - second row seated this time, at Sheffield City Hall.

And here's one of my original T-Shirts from that time.... this is a classic logo, which was designed by Roger Dean - who also designed the Yes logo.

It Bites - tour t-shirt - image by Alan Parkinson

Here they were in the 80's...

They were all set to tour the US with Jethro Tull, when Francis Dunnery announced that he was leaving....

May 20: Ewen and the Gold - a story song...

Ewen Gillies was a resident of Hirta: an island in the archipelago of St. Kilda - somewhere I have always wanted to go.

It's a remarkable place and also a World Heritage Site.

Three times he left the island in search of gold.

Dick Gaughan's performance of the song is a reminder of the theme of the song: chasing your dreams.

I wrote about it some time ago as a curriculum artefact.

The lyrics are by Bryan McNeill

Read about Ewen's story here.

May 20: Tour T-shirts

I own some classic vintage t-shirts from bands who I saw in the 1980s and beyond... a few of my favourites are here.

What are your best tour t-shirts? Tell me some memories you have of the concerts where you bought them.

May 19: The anniversary of 'So'

  It's the anniversary of the release of this - I believe the phrase is 'absolute banger'....

I saw the tour that accompanied this album when it was first released - I saw a couple of the concerts, with the swooping lights and amazing musicians that Peter took on the road with this album. A powerful experience, ending with arm raised for 'Biko'.

Twenty five years later, I was in Glasgow at the Hydro to see the return of the album played in full with the same musicians. I wonder whether the music of today will have the same longevity with students of today. Will they have the same lengthy connections with music as we had, with reduced access and different formats to access it.

Second image copyright: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

What's your favourite track from the album? Let me know in the comments.

Here's one of mine:

May 19: So

Another post for today about 'So' as I seem to have written two without realising.

Today, in 1986, Peter Gabriel released his fifth album, and the first with a title.

It was also the start of his new phase of music.

I was privileged to see his live tour in support of this album in 1987, complete with its amazing staging, and the moment when he fell backwards into the audience and they supported him and carried him around as he sang. I also attended the concerts that were held 25 years later... heading up to the Hydro in Scotland to see that one.

And the final song remains a live performance closer... before the encore of Biko.

And here's a DNA video created in 2013:

May 18: Robbie Cumming

Robbie Cumming is the film maker behind 'Canal Boat Diaries'.

This returns to TV today and can be streamed on 'U' - series 7.

A lot of the music used in the series is composed by Robbie himself. He has a Soundcloud page.

Here's one of his pieces of music:

Robbie Cumming · Under Cut

May 18: Popol Vuh and Herzog

The next pair of soundtracks is by the same band, and were made to accompany wonderful films by Werner Herzog.

The first is the soundtrack to 'Aguirre: Wrath of God'.

This is a rather remarkable film which follows a fortune hunter in South America who heads into the jungle. He is played by Klaus Kinski. It has one of the most striking opening scenes of any film, as the adventurers pick their way long a narrow path through the Andes - the Huayna Picchu trail.

Here's Roger Ebert's review of the film.

It tells the story of the doomed expedition of the conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro, who in 1560 and 1561 led a body of men into the Peruvian rain forest, lured by stories of the lost city.

The second soundtrack is for the film 'Fitzcarraldo'.

Set once again in South America, this one follows the obsessive attempt by Fitzcarraldo to build an opera house in the Amazon in which the great opera singers will perform. He buys a ship which he sails to a point where on a map he can see the chance to drag it over land and cut off a notorious set of rapids.

Herzog took a real boat and tried to do the same.

The amazing documentary 'Burden of Dreams' follows the story of the making of the film.

I will blog separately about the films of Werner Herzog, and his method of film making and huge variety of projects. I once worked on some resources for a film by Werner Herzog and was invited to a special screening.

Roger Ebert writes about his work here as being a form of madness.

And here's the trailer for Fitzcarraldo:

Both soundtracks were by the enigmatic band Popol Vuh and Florian Fricke in particular.

Check out the band and their other music

May 17: 'Groovy, Laid back and Nasty'

The new book by journalist and writer Daniel Dylan Wray explores the history of independent music in Sheffield.

In today's 'Sunday Times' he shared a tour of some key locations in the city of Sheffield.

There are some familiar stories here. I watched a lot of bands play at the Grapes - not the Arctic Monkeys though. 

Here's a feature on BBC Radio Sheffield.

Details of the book can be found here from the publisher.: White Rabbit Books.

Daniel Dylan Wray traces nearly seven decades of Sheffield’s independent music in Groovy, Laidback and Nasty, a sweeping account of a city whose creativity has always thrived on the margins. From electronic futurism and post-punk to pop, metal, bassline and bleep techno, Sheffield has consistently produced era-defining sounds shaped by isolation, economic struggle and a fierce DIY ethos.

The book explores how this understated city became home to visionaries who reshaped British music. Drawing on more than 150 interviews with figures including Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Self Esteem and Richard Hawley, Wray builds a rich portrait of scenes that evolved through determination rather than civic swagger.

Positioning Sheffield alongside – and often ahead of – more documented UK music hubs, Wray offers both cultural history and a heartfelt tribute to the people who forged the city’s singular sound. As a writer embedded in Sheffield’s creative community for over two decades, he brings rare insight to a story that has long deserved this depth of attention.

Groovy, Laidback and Nasty stands as the definitive celebration of Sheffield’s independent musical legacy.

A podcast interview here.

May 17: Met - Musical memorabilia

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 it.

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

I have some excellent pictures from this exhibition.

Here are details of the galleries and a good list of the items.

Who played this guitar and for a bonus point, what was it called?

There was a Spotify playlist for the exhibition:

May 17: Potty and spotty

Angine de Poitrine are described as a experimental or math-rock band, who produce compositions featuring micro-tonal changes and progressions in their music.

They wear papier-mache masks with large noses and are covered in spots and perform anonymously under pseudonyms.

When you search for them in Google, see what happens... it's fun.

It translates from the term for 'angina pectoris' or 'chest pains'.

They have released two albums.

The group describes itself as a "mantra-rock Dada Pythago-Cubist orchestra" composed of "space-time voyagers", reflecting their fusion of technical complexity, hypnotic repetition, and absurdist aesthetics.

Here's a live performance at KEXP:

Songs: Sarniezz 00:32 Mata Zyklek 06:10 Fabienk 13:09 Sherpa 20:33 

Khn de Poitrine - Microtonal Guitars 

Klek de Poitrine - Drums