Musical and geographical offerings from GeoBlogs: a 365 blog project for 2026.
The 80s saw some interesting releases which bridged rock and classical music to an extent.
One rock-classical crossover album was 'Variations' by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
I loved this album at the time and played it a lot. There was a disco element to some of it, but also a lot of musicians who played other styles of music including rock and blues
Julian Lloyd Webber – celloAnother crossover between rock and orchestral music came out in 1978. This is still going strong almost 50 years on.
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
The album was a huge success, and later spawned a long running stage show. I had the double album with gatefold sleeve and booklet.
It does have some wonderful moments.
Forever Autumn has a wonderful feel to it, along with Thunderchild.
I went to see a live performance of the album at the O2 - it was in 2014 and billed as 'the final Arena tour'.
Here's an image of mine from when I saw the show, with some well known musicians.
They were accompanied by the Ulla Strings, conducted by Jeff himself - he has now stepped back from conducting duties.
Image: Alan Parkinson
All together now.... ulla!!
And here's an extract from Variations...
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...
Before the days when you have your ticket as a QR code or bar code on your phone - even animated for particular gigs.
I'm going to share some of my old ticket stubs which I took some pictures of.
This concert was one of many that I saw Roy Harper perform - sometimes alone and sometimes with his son Nick. I saw him all over the country from the east coast to the west.
Roy is remembered of course on two classic albums.
First there's Led Zeppelin's 'Hats off to Roy (Harper) from Led Zeppelin III. He also sang backing vocals on 'Have a Cigar' by Pink Floyd.
And also on David Gilmour's self-titled first solo album from 1978, he recorded a version of Roy's song 'Short and Sweet'. Roy recently did a farewell tour, and still sounds good. There are some classic tracks that he has recorded over the years. One of them is 'Commune', which always reminds me of a friend Caroline.
And of course he has to finish with 'Same old Rock' - which featured Jimmy Page on guitar.
The latest of Carl Lee's guest blog posts describes his decision to walk to see the biggest rock band in the world - and just as well that he did...
Walking to Knebworth
In August 1979, Led Zeppelin, who at that time were arguably the largest rock band in the world, played two huge outdoor shows in the parkland of Knebworth House just south of the Hertfordshire new town of Stevenage. It was the first outdoor ‘festival’ gig that I had attended and I walked there.
Back in the sixth-form in the late 70s and early 80s, musical tribes vied with each other for perceived gradations of ‘cool’ but strangely Zeppelin were able to cross these clearly demarcated boundaries. I was more likely to be listening to the Clash or Ian Dury at the time, and Zeppelin’s last album, ‘In Through The Out Door’ was clearly their most ‘meh’ album to date.
Yet Zeppelin had not played live in Britain for four years and there was clearly a sense of ‘event’.
If we didn’t go because my musical tastes were evolving from Radio Caroline classic rock to something more edgy and contemporary that really would not be smart. Saturday jobs were enabling of the seemingly affordable £7.50 ticket price: an absolute snip by today’s stratospheric standards of festival tickets. The question was how to get there.
I’m not sure whose idea it was but being early August and with no school the summer holidays stretching out ahead of us and it was decided that we’d walk there from Leighton Buzzard, where we lived, a distance of some 28 miles.
So on 2nd August we set off trudging the roads, crossing the A5 and M1 before alighting at Sharpenhoe Clappers, a chalk escarpment a few miles north of suburban Luton. We set up camp just as the sun was setting to avoid detection from outraged locals and did foolish teenage things.
Drone footage of the Sharpenhoe Clappers
In the morning we set off to complete the 12 miles to Knebworth. This was a more rural route taking us through the villages of Lilley, Kings Walden and St Paul’s Walden before attempting to find the entrance onto the site. To say we were excited would be a huge under-statement although the chaos of the camping area was a shock. Drop latrines, rubbish everywhere, menacing rockers chuntering ‘acid, acid, acid’, hardly any food and already the real hardcore staking out their pitch close to the stage. And this was just Friday night.
Saturday broke and to be honest I don’t have many clear recollections of the rest of the day apart from the fact we were a long way back behind folk much taller than us and with the wind swirling the sound around.
The only support act that stuck in my mind was Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and that was possibly because of the impossibly tight spandex trousers he was wearing.
Check out the track 'Singring and the Glass Guitar'....
When night fell and Zeppelin came on stage the excitement was electric.
I have had to go back and watch a film of the gig to reconfirm my impression at the time:that this was a rather uncertain show, rambling and lacking sharpness.
And also, because of the distance from the stage and the wind taking the sound away, it was not exactly the greatest aural experience - but hey it was Led Zeppelin playing live!
It was almost like touching a holy relic, a band of mythical proportions whose music along with Pink Floyd were my first teenage crush. That was probably enough. I bought a sweatshirt from the gig. Somebody’s parents picked us up the next day, bedraggled, in need of a bath, hung-over but with a cracking yarn for the sixth form common room.
Interestingly, looking back over Wikipedia some comments from the music journalist Chris Welch caught my eye. Attending the show he observed that
“Audience reaction at Knebworth had not been overwhelming and many seemed content to stand and stare like mesmerised spectators at an alien ritual.”
Having now been to outdoor shows where the audience has been in raptures and the act or band has been absolutely flying I can completely concur with Welch’s observations. It may have been Led Zeppelins biggest gig but it certainly was not their finest. Yet at the time it was a magical adventure, and it was made much better by walking there.
It was a sort of pilgrimage.
Here's another review as well:
And a recording of one of the concerts.
Led Zeppelin: 4th August 1979
An A-Z of bands from Spotify, based on the algorithm which suggests the best match to each letter of the alphabet.
I've listened to U2's music since 1983-ish. This goes back to their live album at Red Rocks.
There are a few favourite songs of mine, including a live version of 'City of Blinding Lights'.
I saw U2 play in Sheffield on their 360 degrees tour in August 2010. I was in the city for another reason.
This was an outdoor concert, and their first in the city.
U2 started out in the city of Dublin in 1976.
Brendan shared a U2 story
Best concert:
What 'U' bands does your algorithm throw up?
What are your favourite U2 memories or tracks?
Update
Since I scheduled this post, U2 received a new EP - their first music for a long time, called 'Days of Ash' with a song called 'American Obituary'.
An A-Z of bands through February suggested by Spotify when I type in each letter of the alphabet into the search...
So Spotify suggested Queen for 'Q'.
I've not really played a lot of Queen on Spotify, but it's one of the Q bands that will pop up when people search.
I certainly played a lot of it when I was younger, and I remember buying Queen 'Live Killers' album from Woolworths - a double LP, which I played a lot...
I also remember this song coming out when I was at Primary school.
Some years ago, when I still did a lot of climbing, I was able to climb the Cioch on the Isle of Skye.
This is a dramatic spot: half way up a cliff which is hundreds of metres high.
It features in the film 'Highlander', the soundtrack to which had several songs by Queen.
Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future.
An alphabet of bands and artists as a series for the next 26 days. These were selected by the Spotify algorithm.
This is also the 100th post on this new blog.
Again, not surprising that Public Service Broadcasting appeared in the algorithm as I've been listening to them for a long time and have seen them play live numerous times over the year, each time getting a little bigger and better with more ambitious productions.
The band started out small, and their early stages featured TVs with visuals on them. Their shows are always visually interesting.
J Willgoose performed solo before teaming up with Wrigglesworth on drums in 2010. I first saw them around 2012 I think.
He came up with the name, as he said in the interview linked to above...
"....that was me. Just me, as at first it was just me in the band; it really was just a solo entity and the first gigs that I played was just me in a pub without any visual accompaniment or anything. It really was a solo, semi-live, semi-electronic performance. The name just seemed to fit what it was that I was doing. The only bad thing about it was that it meant that we would end up with the same initials as the Pet Shop Boys and obviously they got there first and they are a lot better (laughter)."Here's a picture of mine from a gig back in 2015....
The musicality is excellent and even my daughter was converted when she went to see them at Latitude in 2025.
The band uses music linked with vintage audio of speech, including early news reels, and audio from organisations such as NASA and early newsreels. Their first album featured classics like 'Spitfire' and 'Everest' which are still part of their live set today.
Here's 'Spitfire'...
You could argue that all of their albums are concept albums in that they are themed around a particular idea.
The band have also performed at the Proms including a specially composed one on the history of the BBC called 'This New Noise', which was later released as an album.
When the band tours, they now also add vocalist Eera to do the vocals.
For many years, any interaction with the audience was through pre-recorded voice samples.
The most recent concert I atteneded was at the Barbican in November 2025.
Here's their excellent poster. They often have a screen-printed poster for sale at their gigs, similar to other bands such as 'The Decemberists'.
Their albums are varied and exciting as well as the EPs that they have released on some eclectic topics, including a Dutch speed skating race called the 'Eleven Cities Tour'.
As this YouTube clip says:
In April 2013 we were approached by the organisers of the Explore the North festival in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. They asked if we would use some footage of the Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tour), the world's biggest ice skating race, and write some songs around it. So we did.
More on that in another post as well...
Every Valley explores the decline of the coal mining industry in South Wales. I will return to that separately in a later blog post as it is definitely connected to a place and a community that has been changed by circumstances.
The Race for Space chronicled the space race, with tracks about Sputnik, Korolev and the moon landings with 'Go', as well as the first Apollo missions. What I particularly liked about this was the detail that a different drum kit was used for the Russian songs than the American songs... again more on that in a later post.
And here's a live performance of 'The Other Side' - a classic song played live....
Bright Magic is their Berlin album with more synthesisers and again J. Willgoose moved to Berlin while they were recording the album.
The Last Flight tells the story of Amelia Earhart and her attempt to circumnagivate the globe which came to a tragic end. This album has its own entry on the blog, as the design involves several maps of the proposed route. Her flight came to an end
After a series of concerts to support 'The Last Flight', the band is now preparing to record their next album. I can't wait to find out what the theme is....
Discography
I bought Marillion's first album: "Script for a Jester's Tear" on the day of release in March 1983 from a record shop in Huddersfield whose name escapes me, and saw the band play live quite a few times in those early years, including some gigs with Fish... facepaint, Grendel and all.
The playing was not as polished as it was on later albums, but the tone and atmosphere it portrayed went right to my sensibilities. I saw the band play live three or four times in the early years, with Fish in his make-up prowling the stage. I will post about 'Grendel' later in the blog. There were comments about the time about the derivation of their name, the use of face paint, progressive time signatures etc.
I'm also a fan of the longer version of 'Assassing' and other songs from their 2nd album 'Fugazi'.
In 1985, they released 'Misplaced Childhood' - this tour was the last time I saw the band play live, so that's over 40 years ago!
They had several singles at the time, most notably 'Kayleigh', which is probably their most played song on the radio.
They have released many albums since, and changed after Fish's departure and the arrival of Steve Hogarth as vocalist and lyricist.
One of my favourite later albums of theirs was F.E.A.R. - from 2016.
On the title, Steve Hogarth said:
”This title is adopted not in anger or with any intention to shock. It is adopted and sung (in the song "New Kings”) tenderly, in sadness and resignation inspired by an England, and a world, which increasingly functions on an “Every man for himself” philosophy. I won’t bore you with examples, they’re all over the newspapers every day. There’s a sense of foreboding that permeates much of this record. I have a feeling that we’re approaching some kind of sea-change in the world – an irreversible political, financial, humanitarian and environmental storm. I hope that I’m wrong. I hope that my FEAR of what “seems” to be approaching is just that, and not FEAR of what “is” actually about to happen.”In 2022, they released an album which has references to climate change, COVID, Greta Thunberg, blood diamonds in Sierra Leone and a whole range of other issues of the modern day, with a reminder that as well as being kind to ourselves it might be better to be hard on ourselves...
Interestingly, I saw Tangerine Dream recently at the Roundhouse and the special guest guitarist for the final improvisation session of the concert was Steve Rothery: the Marillion guitarist. He was also in the audience for the final gig of Clannad - something I mentioned earlier this month, sitting in the row in front of me.
Here's the video for the opening track from that album: 'Be Hard on Yourself'.
An alphabet of bands and artists as a series for the next 26 days. These were selected by the Spotify algorithm.
G had to be Genesis really.
They may well be the band I have listened to the most over the last 50-ish years...
Genesis were very nearly the first band I saw live. They came to Sheffield City Hall in one of their first tours since becoming a four piece band with the departure of Peter Gabriel, but I had just been to see Mike Oldfield.
The single that brought them to the attention to many was also a big hit in 1978.
Follow You, Follow Me.
