Iron-clad feather-feet pounding the dust An October's day, towards evening Sweat embossed veins standing proud to the plough Salt on a deep chest seasoning Last of the line at an honest day's toil Turning the deep sod under Flint at the fetlock, chasing the bone Flies at the nostrils plunder.
The Suffolk, the Clydesdale, the Percheron vie with the Shire on his feathers floating Hauling soft timber into the dusk to bed on a warm straw coating.
Heavy Horses, move the land under me Behind the plough gliding --- slipping and sliding free Now you're down to the few And there's no work to do The tractor's on its way.
Bristol is a city which has a lot of musical connections. It's also connected with Aardman animations of course.
It's a city that I've been visiting each year for some time as we break the journey on the way down to Devon. We stay in the same hotel and always have a good time there. I've also been to the University quite a few times over the years to lead sessions for PGCE colleagues and others.
There is a Rough Trade records shop in the city which is a focal point for many.
Just outside of the city is Portishead, where I have also stayed. It's a nice marina area, and there is a band which took their name from it.
Music is also represented in the street art which can be found in certain districts of the city.
Here's one of Portishead's more famous tracks: Glory Box.
Gary Numan shared a picture on his social media of him sat on some steps, one of which had his name on them, along with lots of other musicians and bands' names on the other steps.
I was intrigued at where this might be, and discovered that it is at the fairly newly redeveloped venue called
I visited this summer and took my own pictures of some of the groups featured.
Images: Street Art and Portishead Marina Alan Parkinson - shared on Flickr under CC license.
As we approach the three-quarter mark on the blog, here's a diagram that was shared by Geomorphology Rules on Facebook of a soil pyramid complete with punning soil types....
Source unclear...
If you recognise where this is from please let me know...
I particularly like 'We silt this City'....
Also let me know of your own ideas for further soil related song puns.
I've been following Public Service Broadcasting for a while now. They usually have interesting merchandise and for their recent 'Race for Space' 10+1 anniversary they teamed up with the Marloe watch company to make a limited edition run of watches costing £400.
Peter Gabriel has been sharing videos all year - each new moon - as a new song is released from his O/i project... following his 2013 project to do the same for i/O.
When I was initially developing the idea of the blog, I did some searches for academic papers on a musical / geographical theme. I came across a paper on the music of Joy Division (the precursor to New Order - who have also featured on the blog).
This is perhaps their most famous song.
It is from an album called 'Unknown Pleasures'. This has a very well known album cover.
The front cover is also used by Manchester Universtiy's Geography Department for their t-shirts.
One of them was worn by Paul Whitehouse in an episode of 'Gone Fishing'.
Quite a few of the bands that feature in this blog are ones that I was inspired to try having read about them in this magazine.
Remember that in the days before the internet, you discovered what was happening by reading NME, or Sounds, or other music magazines. Your choice of magazine said something about you.
They were involved with another magazine, and I have already posted a musical memory from Brendan Conway, which is worth repeating here:
In early 1985, I was invited to help make some ‘youth’ programmes for County Sound, a Surrey radio station. An arrangement was made for me to interview Mark Ellen who at the time was editor of Smash Hits and a regular presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Later that year he was a co-presented for the Live Aid TV broadcast. I went up to the Smash Hits head office in Carnaby Street where Mark was kind enough to spend an hour of his day talking to me and answering my esoteric questions, all recorded for one of the programmes we made later. While in his office another of the journalists brought me a cup of tea and joined the interview for a few minutes. It was Neil Tennant. Unbeknown to me at the time, he was just about to leave Smash Hits because he had just secured a recording contract with Chris Lowe as The Pet Shop Boys.
I had lot of issues of this magazine, and it was thanks to Q that I discovered 'Til Tuesday and Aimee Mann, for example.
At the time, taking a gamble on a new band could be a costly mistake.
Any other memories of Q magazine and bands you discovered through its pages?
“Being able to come back to Alexandra Palace – where we first launched the album in 2014 – and play our biggest ever headline show, in support of The Race For Space, is very special. That record means a great deal to us as a band, and we know it’s similarly important for a lot of our fans; we’re hoping to create a truly memorable, celebratory experience that will live long in the memory.”
J. Willgoose Esq.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of heading for London with my friend Simon, who I've known for over 40 years to see Public Service Broadcasting's biggest ever gig, and to celebrate the 10+1 anniversary of their Race for Space album.
I met J Willgoose Esq. at the start of the summer at the PTI Geography Symposium.
Unfortunately when I said I was going along he didn't add me to the guest list...
I hadn't been to Alexandra Palace before. There's a great view of London from the top and there were lots of people with cameras waiting for the sunset. There's a big food and drink court and the large main hall.
There were lots of added features for this gig. One of them was to bring on the original vocalists: Andreya Casablanca for 2 tracks from 'Bright Magic' - their 'Berlin' album and the Smoke Fairies' for Valentina from the Race for Space commemorating the first woman in space. There were extra screens, pyro and squishy moon balloons.
There were also three roller skaters doing the 'People lets Dance' moves from the video.
The gig ended with 'Everest' of course.
And it was followed by a cover version of The Waterboys' 'The Whole of the Moon'....
Heavy Metal music in its finest flower had one central, obvious message: There is no hope. Whatever you do, you can’t win. The world is run by war pigs who have turned you into human dogs and you must accept your fate as ignominiously as you possibly can.
Lester Bangs (1978)
I've mentioned the link between Black Sabbath, Birmingham and heavy industry before.
Deena Weinstein is amongst the academic researchers whose work has been featured in various academic papers which have helped add a little bit of nuance and gravitas... In this piece, she explores the origins of the term 'heavy metal' when applied to music.
Source:
Weinstein, D. (2013). Just So Stories: How Heavy Metal Got Its Name—A Cautionary Tale. Rock Music Studies, 1(1), 36–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/19401159.2013.846655
In 1978, Mike Oldfield released his fourth album: 'Incantations'.
Incantations was a double album with four pieces spread across the 4 sides of the vinyl.
It was mostly instrumental.
I remember hearing a fragment of this for the first time while in the car with my family coming back from a trip out to a village pub in Firbeck, South Yorkshire. The radio programme played part of Side 1 as a trail for the album - not sure what channel or show that would have been, but I instantly knew I would need to get this album and that I would love it. At this point, the idea of seeing him was not something that seemed possible. I was yet to see my first live gig and I didn't know how one would go about seeing someone so famous anyway.
The album remains one of my favourites, particularly Side 3 which is basically an extended guitar solo for most of it.
The front cover features Mike on a beach with a distinctively shaped rock behind him.
This is a place called Cap Pregonda on the Spanish island of Menorca.
It is one of those places that I've always wanted to try to get to... I'll get there one day.
Are there any places that you have always particularly wanted to go to which were inspired by an album cover or a piece of music.
I have recently been exploring the work of Chris Watson.
He is a sound recordist, who heads out and captures natural sounds and releases them using a range of additional sounds to produce something powerful.
Check out WEATHER REPORT. This has 3, 18 minute tracks
Ol-Olool-O: Kenyan savannah...
The Laipach: a Scottish glen in all weathers
Vatnajokull: a glacier sailing in Arctic waters
Chris says of this album:
The weather has created and shaped all our habitats. Clearly it also has a profound and dynamic effect upon our lives and that of other animals. The three locations featured here all have moods and characters which are made tangible by the elements, and these periodic events are represented within by a form of time compression. This is Chris's first foray into composition using his location recordings of wildlife and habitats -- previously he has been concerned with describing and revealing the special atmosphere of a place by site specific, untreated location recordings. For the first time here he constructs collages of sounds, which evolve from a series of recordings made at the specific locations over varying periods of time : namely Kenya's Masai Mara, Scottish highland glens and ancient ice formations lurking deep within the Norwegian sea.
Also check out "Outside the Circle of Fire" for more sounds...
His latest album is called 'Planet Ocean'.
Chris also worked on natural sounds with a range of musicians as well.
Jon Anderson has been touring with the Band Geeks for quite a while within the USA, but this is their first tour of the UK.
Last night they reached London and the Palladium: a wonderful old theatre with great acoustics and sight lines. I was up in the Royal Circle.
The evening was excellent.
The band were great, and Jon's voice was as True as ever... timbre, range, accuracy and emotion. They started with 'Close to the Edge' and added 'And You and I' and 'Awaken' and the twists and turns of 'Perpetual Change'.
I'd heard of "10 standing ovations"... which was a little performative from some people....
I'd previously seen Yes (with all the classic members), the Union shows at Wembley when various versions got together, Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe several times, 'Drama' era Yes and various other solo shows....
Here's a review from someone else who was there...
And here's an official live video of 'And You and I'...
I also appreciated the staff who were stopping people from videoing... just watch the show with your eyes... Public Service Broadcasting definitely have this right... I hope they go back to showing this.
Bruce Dickinson has had a life well lived, with plenty of lows as well as highs. He has beaten throat cancer - a gruelling treatment, and fences internationally.
He is also a trained/qualified airline pilot
On some Iron Maiden tours, the band used a jumbo jet which was piloted by Dickinson, called 'Ed Force One'.
In this song from 2010 he describes the experience of piloting his plane and looking down at the Earth below:
Credited songwriters: Stephen Percy Harris / Bruce Dickinson / Adrian Frederick Smith
Curving on the edge of daylight 'Til it slips into the void Waited in the long night dreaming 'Til the Sun is born again Stretch the fingers of my hand Cover countries with my span Just a lonely satellite A speck of dust in cosmic sand
ZTT Records was a label that was particularly active during the 1980s, having been founded in 1983.
Their first signing was Frankie goes to Hollywood.
It was founded by Trevor Horn, Jill Sinclair and Paul Morley.
ZTT is an initialism of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's sound poem Zang Tumb Tumb, which described "zang tumb tumb" as the sound of a machine gun.
One of their best releases was Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish'.
I used to have a Citroen with a sun roof and on a sunny day I played this loud as I drove around Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
Another classic which got played in the 1980s was Grace Jones' 'Slave to the Rhythm' which has wonderful instrumentation and groove... there are also endless remixes of their tracks, which was a particular feature of ZTT's work.
This is the 12" edition and the production on this track is incredible...
Quite a few musicians are very open about their political views of course. A Roger Waters live show is very political in nature, and not without controversy...
This track from the Jethro Tull album J-Tull Dot Com (bad title - based on their website at the time) is relevant to the atmospheric phenomenon which threatened to lead to record temperatures in some parts of the world when it was seen to be developing earlier this year, and the predictions about its impacts are quite dire. Certainly sea surface temperatures in the Pacific are off the charts...
It unbalances the climate of Australia and South America.
Lyrics by Ian Anderson reference some of the major aspects of an El Niño....
It's 41 years today since this album was released in 1985.
That makes me feel old. I had a copy on cassette and remember the original release and TV appearances to promote 'Running up that Hill'.
This was brought to the attention of a whole new audience when the music was featured on 'Stranger Things' and it went back to the top of the charts again.
There are some classic tracks on the album, and the whole of the second side of the album works beautifully together. More on this album and Kate herself in a separate post...
The Manor was owned by Richard Branson for a while in the 1970s.
It was used by a wide range of recording artists who recorded some classic albums there, including Tangerine Dream and XTC, and It Bites (who have appeared on the blog)
It was at the Manor that Mike Oldfield was given some time to work on a solo project with some support from Tom Newman.
Here's a short film made by Robert Reed about that.
The Manor was located in North Oxfordshire.
When it went up for sale in 2010, there was a booklet produced by the estate agent handling the sale:
The Manor, high altar of 1970s rock and birthplace of the legendary album Tubular Bells, has been put up for sale. The eventual buyer will snap up not only a grand 16th-century, Grade II-listed house in Oxfordshire, but also a large slice of music history.
Converted by a 21-year-old Richard Branson, the Manor was Britain's first residential recording studio. Opened for business in 1971, the Manor, at Shipton-on-Cherwell, lifted album-making out of cramped city studios and placed it in the countryside.
Among those who recorded there in the early 1970s were Sandy Denny, John Cale, Gong, Vivian Stanshall and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Faust and Tangerine Dream. Later came XTC, Black Sabbath, INXS, Rush, Radiohead and Cast.
This album features one of the finest vocal performances of any album, from Peter Gabriel.
It is a concept album which was released 51 years ago this year, but still sounds as fresh as ever. It was Gabriel's final album with the band and he left following the tour of the album which featured even more costumes than usual.
I have played this regularly for well over 40 years and have various versions of the album in different formats.
Geographically, it starts in New York and features a Puerto Rican character called 'Rael': an anagram of Real. He is a former gang member and a graffiti artist.
He has a series of bizarre encounters during the narrative of the album.
This New Yorker piece refers to it as 'the Ulysses of concept albums' - referring to James Joyce's impenetrable novel, and "representing a culmination of the excesses of the progressive-rock era and also, in some ways, a fracturing of them".
The album begins with Rael stepping out of the Times Square subway station where he has just tagged his name.
The singer has said that “The Lamb” is “like a ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ on the streets of New York,” a reference to John Bunyan’s allegory of religious salvation, composed in a jail and published in 1678. Both works are the products of vibrant imaginations populated by monsters. They share an overriding sense of life-or-death desperation.
Gabriel apparently also worked with the film director Jodorowsky to work out a possible film linked with the concept - that would have been quite something. The same director worked out a 9 hour version of 'Dune' which was never made. Check out 'The Holy Mountain' to see his style...
Someone has put together a video which explores this collaboration and where it may have led...
Spoiler alert / advisory: some imagery and language NSFW.
Belfast has had a troubled history, and music is an important part of the city's history. There are several pieces of street art commemorating some key local bands.
The Undertones were formed in the city. Here's one of their classics:
Sandra said that:
"The music scent in Belfast and unique history has created a stunning sound. Stiff Little Fingers are a specific example. Barbed wire love is about love across the peace line. Alternative Ulster is an anthem for hope in the City.
Every August they play Custom House Square in the city and it is unmissable for any Punk fan."
She also shared an album cover.
Greenday - "Saviors".
"The photo at front is taken in Belfast. It shows a young boy with a stone. The album cover is an altered version of the photo as the boy is smiling, he was not in the original.
The photo was taken in 1978, before I was born. It makes me think about just how bad it was here and how important it is that young people are integrated today. "
U2 were also linked with the city.
The lead singer of the Undertones: Feargal Sharkey now has a very geographical campaign going to try to clean up the UK's rivers which have been polluted by water companies.
I've mentioned Karl Whitney's 'Hit Factories' before and in the chapter on Belfast he references several bands who were linked with the city.
I have mentioned The Imagined Village a few times this year I think, as their music is definitely infused with place.
This is their version of a song which is an English folk song which has been recorded by numerous musicians and musical groups over the years and is a classic of the genre.
Steeleye Span are one of the other groups who have recorded a version of this song.
Another classic album released today.. and one of the very best... dense, emotional, complex and thrilling.It was the band's 5th album.
Here's the title track...
I saw some coverage of Jon Anderson and the Band Geek's first UK gig in Brighton a few years ago and apparently they opened with 'Close to the Edge'... I can't wait to see them at the London Palladium in a weeks' time...
The line-up included Pierre Moerlen, Steve Hillage and Mireille Bauer, plus Didier Malherbe and Mike Howlett as well as Patrice Lemoine. Some fine musicians there.
Image of Park Hill Flats above Sheffield Midland Train Station in the 1960s, taken by Flickr user sparkgap's dad.
Here's This Picture...
Let's play word association...
"Tower blocks..."
Try to avoid the following images: lifts smelling of urine, fear of crime, Ronan Point, concrete, demolition, windows, nowhere to play...
Why has this image developed ? Is this the image you had ?
The development company URBAN SPLASH has some intriguing web resources on their work to rethink our cities. Their website starts with an image of Park Hill Flats.
Several of their developments would be a useful counterpoint to the more negative images that people might have...
I used to live in Huddersfield, and just up from the road in Newsome where I lived was an old mutli-floored textile mill with a huge chimney which was sat empty, but would perhaps now have been redeveloped into luxury apartments.
Park Hill flats are an image I have seen regularly for the whole of my life: squatting on the hills on the approach to Sheffield from Rotherham - appearing as I sat on the 69 bus from Rotherham. I have spent some time wandering and driving through them at intervals over the past few decades as well - including when I worked in Sheffield at the Geographical Association's HQ. I've also been up to take photographs of them several times.
"Streets in the sky..." was the original plan for this block. They were built to replace slum housing which was of a desperately poor quality, with few facilities.
This is also the name of a musical created by Richard Hawley.
Each apartment had a front door which looked out onto a twelve-feet wide access deck ('street'), which ran from one side of the scheme to the other. Bridges carried the street through the entire scheme, allowing milk floats to trundle from door to door.
Jack Lynn was worried that the lobby space in other Modernist estates tended to become a no-man's land, serving neither public needs nor offering privacy to residents, and it was hoped that the 'streets' would solve this problem. He remarked enthusiastically on the different colours of linoleum at each doorstep as proof that residents' individuality was not being smothered by gargantuan surroundings.
But Park Hill's problems quickly became apparent. The streets allowed some of the worst aspects of urban life to remain (muggers found they made convenient getaway routes), whilst failing to preserve the better aspects.
They were never really streets in the real sense. Although the architects had included shops, a school, and a pub in order to create a distinctive community within the estate, the access decks were really just long walkways with none of the vibrancy, diversity, and organic feel of a city street which has grown and changed over decades or even centuries.
Read the text in the Urban Splash brochure to get a nice feeling for the importance of Park Hill flats.
Sheffield didn't just have Park Hill. There was also the Kelvin Flats and Hyde Park Flats.
Check out the WIKIPEDIA page, which suggests that Park Hill Flats are Europe's largest listed building...
LISTER MILLS, Bradford
Also don't forget the classic Geography Programme about Glasgow which features Basil Spence's designs, and the couple who live in them, and Kitty Murphy.
Here's 'This Picture'.... and a track called 'Blacker than...'
There were maps and illustrations created by Ursula, with some of them printed onto fabric hangings through which you walked. They included the settlements of the Kesh: the imaginary people whose history and archaeology was brought to life in 'Always Coming Home' - one of my favourite books by Ursula. A book was created to go with the exhibition.
A description of the book:
Midway through her career, Le Guin embarked on one of her most detailed, impressive literary projects, a novel that took more than five years to complete. Blending story and fable, poetry, artwork, and song, Always Coming Home is this legendary writer’s fictional ethnography of the Kesh, a people of the far future living in a post-apocalyptic Napa Valley.
Having survived ecological catastrophe brought on by relentless industrialization, the Kesh are a peaceful people who reject governance and the constriction of genders, limit population growth to prevent overcrowding and preserve resources, and maintain a healthy community in which everyone works to contribute to its well-being. This richly imagined story unfolds through a series of narrated “translations” that illuminate individual lives, including a woman named Stone Telling, who travels beyond the Valley and comes to reside with another tribe, the patriarchal Condor people. With sharp poignancy, Le Guin explores the complexities of the Kesh’s unified society and presents to us—in exquisite detail—their lives, histories, adventures, customs, language, and art.
In addition to poems and folk tales, Le Guin created verse dramas, records of oral performances, recipes, and even an alphabet and glossary of the Kesh language. The novel is illustrated throughout with drawings by artist Margaret Chodos and includes a musical component—original recordings of Kesh songs that Le Guin collaborated on with composer Todd Barton—bringing this utterly original and compelling world to life.
There are a few locations where the labours of people from prehistory can still be seen.
The idea of following the story of human impact on natural history is part of the draft specification and one would assume it might follow through into the next iteration of the specification as one of the particular aspects of the new qualification.
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is apparently considering charging to access some of the more well known locations they manage, including the stones of Callanish / Callanais on the Isle of Harris/Lewis. I visited many years ago.
One programme which is behind the increased interest in the area is a time-travel fantasy called 'Outlander'. This has proved very popular.
Cruise ships can arrive at some of these fragile locations in large numbers, which adds additional pressures onto fragile environments.
This album was recorded by the New Zealand musician Jon Mark in 1988 and is named after the ring at Callanish.
And here's a slightly different stone-circle related song...
Sanctuary is a music project by the multi-instrumentalist Robert Reed. In it, he explores similar themes, instrumental combinations and progressions that are influenced by the music of Mike Oldfield.
It's a pastiche of Mike Oldfield's music, but isn't Mike's music. It's played by one person, with the addition of vocals from singers including
The most recent edition was released in 2025.
For me, the 2nd album is perhaps the most successful in tone and themes.
Listen to this section of one of the Sanctuary albums, and if you are a fan of Mike Oldfield then check them out. Sanctuary no. 1 is on Spotify, but the other albums aren't currently.
Steven Wilson is a progressive rock musician, composer and also master remixer of other people's music - working with Jethro Tull for example to remix all their classic albums.
He has teased a new album using a video with a real sense of place... and unease.
Accompanying the video is a really creative website made to look like an old fashioned village bulletin board style website from the 1990s complete with some icons for earlier browsers etc. I remember adding banners and buttons like that to some of my early websites.
