Sept 25: No one's Disciple

I need to find a way to watch this new documentary on Neil Peart...

Any advice on how to watch it in the UK?

Sep 16: Subdivisions - Rush

OK, so it's Rush again, and this time it's a take on teenage life and not fitting in. The 'Subdivisions' are the suburbs of a city in Canada.

The album cover for 'Signals' was particularly memorable. I had the tour t-shirt and programme from this tour.

It was created by Hugh Syme, as were most of Rush's album covers.

The back of the album featured a well rendered vision of a fictional Canadian suburb, with hidden meanings to many of the street names.

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In-between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone

The song has featured on the blog before, but here it is again... it's from the R30 tour. I saw this one at the Birmingham NEC.

Sep 14: Important recording places: The Manor

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.

Sep 8: 39 years ago today

"Tough times demand tough talk

demand tough hearts,

demand tough songs."

'Hold your Fire' was released. I bought my copy from Jumbo Records in Leeds on vinyl...

'Time Stand Still' has become part of their live sets on their current tour - with Aimee Mann turning up at certain concerts very excitingly.

Here's 'Force Ten' - the album's opening track...

Sep 2: What I've Heard

I've just heard about this site.

It's an interesting visual variation on Setlist.FM - using its data / API. There's a few issues as the first act I tried: Mike Oldfield had some concerts without set lists on the site so the data is incomplete..

Pick a band, tick off the nights you were actually in the room, and get the record back: every song you’ve heard them play live, how many times you’ve heard each one, the tours you were part of, and a print-resolution poster of it all. 

It’s free, there’s nothing to install, and an account is optional - your nights are saved on your own device unless you ask them to follow you elsewhere.
How it works

Find the band. 

Search any artist, or start from the names in the ticket fan.
Tick the nights you were at. Their whole documented touring history is there, newest first - dates, venues, cities and tours. 

Already log your shows on setlist.fm? Paste your username on the home page and your “I was there” list arrives already ticked.
Read your record. 

Every song you’ve heard live and how often, your tours, your cities and countries, the rarities you happened to catch - and the nights that made them.
Print it. 

An A4, print-resolution poster styled for the artist, plus ticket stubs and a map of where you’ve been. Keep them in your collection and re-print any time.

It allows you to generate various graphics such as the ones below:

And here's one for Rush... again, it's not quite correct...

Aug 24: When is a band not a band?

In November 2024 I went down to the Barbican Hall to see Tangerine Dream perform their album 'Phaedra' live. 

Or did I?

The band was founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. 

The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann (who later formed the record label Private Music.) Froese has passed away, and the other two original members don't perform with the band.

I'm seeing them play in Norwich next year too.

How about Kraftwerk?

They have been touring all summer, but only Ralf Hütter is from the original band.

They were formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Wolfgang Flür joined in 1973 and Karl Bartos in 1975. Schneider passed away in 2020.

And Steve Howe's version of Yes is basically just him from the classic line-up from the 1970s - and they released a new album recently called Aurora - meanwhile, I have tickets to see Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks at the London Palladium - the closest you will get to seeing Yes today? I'm lucky to have seen the classic line up several times, plus the Union tour and various solo tours and other incarnations.

Here's Anderson and the Band Geeks playing "Counties and Countries".

How about Pink Floyd without Roger Waters? 

They reunited for Live 8 in 2005, but Richard Wright has since passed away.

00:00 Speak 01:05 Breath in the Air 04:56 Money 11:30 Wish You Were Here 16:21 Comfortably Numb

Genesis without Anthony Phillips or Hackett or Gabriel? Well, there's still a chance they might get together again I guess...

Rush without Neil?

Well, there's one that has plenty of fans talking... but the tour seems to be going very well with some epic shows, and they are heading for the O2 and Manchester next year.

Which other bands are still going despite having very few (or no) members from the original line-up?

Aug 22: My Desert Island Discs

A few months ago, I posted about Desert Island Discs and invited people to share their choices. One person has responded to the request so far - thanks!

I've been thinking of my music choices. These are subject to change of course, but at the time of posting, I reckon I would take the following:

Piece 1: Ommadawn Part One, Mike Oldfield - the GOAT 

Tubular Bells is the one that people always talk about when considering the work of Mike Oldfield, and his debut certainly had an impact, and launched the Virgin empire. This, his third album involved working with a wider range of musicians, and once again lots of overdubs and multi-instrumental virtuosity from Oldfield. There are also guests such as Paddy Moloney from the Chieftains who played the uillean pipes, and Les Penning.

There were some issues when recording. He faced a serious technical issue several months in: having almost finished recording side one, the recording tape started to shed its oxide layer, causing irreparable damage. Virgin delivered a machine so that copies of the master tape could be made and Oldfield could carry on working, but the same problem recurred, leaving him with no choice but to start again using a new brand of tape. Pierre Moerlen also played on this album.

Piece 2: Ará Batur - Sigur Rós

This is one of those pieces that builds and builds to a huge crescendo and I was fortunate to have been in the Royal Albert Hall when it was played live for only the 2nd time (the first time had been the night before...) There are several recordings of this moment online.

Piece 3: Headlights on the Parade - The Blue Nile

From the classic album 'Hats'. They remain one of my favourite live memories.

Piece 4: The Road not Taken - Bruce Hornsby

Unrequited love in the Appalachians, with a nod to Robert Frost's poem.

Piece 5: Close to Home - Lyle Mays

The final track from Lyle Mays' first solo album, released in 1986. 

Piece 6: Goodnight America - Mary Chapin Carpenter

An excellent version of this song from the 'Songs from the Movie' album which I first heard on the radio one evening driving back home. I saw Mary play this song live a few years after that.

Piece 7: The Lake - Mike Oldfield

No apologies for including a second long Mike Oldfield instrumental. This one was released in 1984, and later that year I made my first visit to Norway.

I had it on cassette on my Sony Walkman (remember those?), and listened to it while sat by a lake in the sun.

Piece 8: The Garden - Rush

The final track from their final album made with Neil Peart.

It's a perfect piece of music.

In terms of books, I am going to have to go with J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings'. I have a special Deluxe edition of the book which I was given for a birthday present over well over 40 years and is worth anything up to £2000 apparently.... it dates from 1979 and has gold leaf on the front cover and came in a special box.

And my luxury of course will be a stash of single malt whisky, specifically this one:

Please let me know your own Desert Island Discs.

I will share more contributions later in the year hopefully.

Aug 19: New World Man - Rush

I have a memory of purchasing this track when it came out in August 1982. This was the summer before I headed to start my undergraduate studies. The long summer when my future was ahead of me...

I brought it to 

He's got to make his own mistakes
And learn to mend the mess he makes
He's old enough to know what's right
And young enough not to choose it
He's noble enough to win the world
But weak enough to lose it

Aug 4: 2007

Rush released 'Snakes and Arrows'.

I saw the tour in support of this album at the Sheffield Arena.

There are fewer memorable songs on this album than most of the other Rush albums.

Lifeson had met guitarist David Gilmour during Gilmour's tour stop in Toronto who inspired him to write on an acoustic guitar as an indicator of how strong a tune is. 

Gilmour is thanked in the liner notes of Snakes & Arrows.

The track Hope was one result of this conversation.

Several instrumental tracks from this album feature in their live set.

Peart was inspired to write lyrics on various themes including faith, fear, the association of religion and war, hope and despair, and the religious billboards he saw on his motorcycle journey across the United States which he detailed in his fourth book Roadshow: Landscape with Drums – A Concert Tour by Motorcycle (2006), written during the R30 tour (which I also saw). He was also inspired by Robert Frost's epitaph: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world". The album's producer had previously worked with Foo Fighters.

Source: Wikipedia

Mike Oldfield ventured into classical music with his 'Music of the Spheres' album. The live world premiere of Mike Oldfield’s Music of the Spheres took place in the Atrium of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The Basque Orchestra was the formation chosen for the world launch of the British musician's first inroads to symphony music.

Arrangements for orchestra: Karl W. Jenkins
Conductor: Enrique Ugarte
Artists: Mike Oldfield, guitar; Hayley Westenra, soprano; Bilbao Choral Society.

I had visited the Guggenheim several years previously. It's an amazing building...

I was very keen to go along to this event and looked into the possibility of getting there, but it was difficult time wise to guarantee to fit around teaching... 

What were your favourite albums from the year 2007?

Let me know in the comments.

Jul 31: 2003

2003 was important for music as this was the year that Apple launched the 3rd edition iPod - in white with a click wheel for navigation.

I still have mine and it still works. I have the charger and it's still got music on it.

By this time, the internet was providing opportunities to download tracks and iTunes had been around for a while. Streaming was still a way off.

Some of the downloads were illegal in that they didn't involve paying for the music. One of the locations online was Pirate Bay. This opened in 2003 too. This was a Peer to Peer torrent service. At this time, there was a lot of coverage.

The founders were charged with several offences linking to copyright. And yet now AI just steals the world's music....

I was able to listen to music that I could not afford to risk buying in case I didn't appreciate it, so probably ended up buying more music on CD and vinyl as I knew that I liked it...

Mike Oldfield released a single remix of the introduction to his classic album 'Tubular Bells' for a 2003 remix.

This track from this era has a similar vibe:

Rush released a live album recorded in Rio de Janeiro and also played a SARS benefit concert in Canada. Called SARStock it had a huge audience:

What was your favourite music from 2003?

Jul 30: 2002 & 'Vapor Trails'

2002 saw the release of Vapor Trails by Rush. It was later re-released as a remastered album in 2013 which solved some of the album's muddy production first time round. It has some excellent tracks on it and I have the remastered version.

Ghost Rider was one of the stand out tracks for me. It is written about Neil Peart's own travels.

I did an assembly some years later about Mark Beaumont's first round the world cycle trip where he smashed the world record... but would later smash it again, circumnavigating the world in less than 80 days.

The band were not happy with the mixing and released a remixed version of the album in 2013.

Vapor Trails itself is an excellent track, along with Ceiling Unlimited - both refer to the sky and upper atmosphere... and the formation of Vapor Trails...

Earthshine - the opening track also refers to a geographical phenomenon which is outlined in the lyrics.

Bob Mould released the 'Modulate' album - a very different feel to previous albums, although he also worked with Richard Morel on a 'Blowout' album - I have all of them of course...

Here's 'Sound on Sound'...

What were your musical highlights of 2002?

Jul 24: 1996

1996 was thirty years ago now...

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

Rush released 'Test for Echo'.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jul 21: 1993

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

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

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

Also that year, Bjork made her 'Debut', 

And Big Country were no longer in Kansas.

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

What are your favourite albums from 1993?

Jul 19: 1991

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

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

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

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

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

What were your favourite albums from 1991?

Jul 15: 1987

1987 saw the release of more music that is still being played by me today.

Islands was a release by Mike Oldfield.

This was a time when Mike was trying to cater for two different audiences: those who liked his side-long instrumental pieces, and the shorter songs which could be released as singles, such as 'Moonlight Shadow'.

The Wind Chimes was the long piece... get ready for every 1980s video effect in the book being thrown at this one....

1987 was also the year that 'Hold your Fire' was released. This as featured earlier in the month - when Aimee Mann joined Rush on stage to sing 'Hold your Fire' - remains one of my favourite Rush albums.

The album is very 'glossy' in its production.

The tour for the album was excellent - I saw that several times, including once with my sister.

Meanwhile U2 released 'The Joshua Tree' which was also a very popular album at the time.

An album I have listened to a great many times is Jethro Tull's 'Crest of a Knave'. In the1989 entry, I will post another story about this album.

It included the excellent track 'Budapest'.  I have posted previously about this track and the time I met the band. There had been a gap of several years since their last album as a throat infection had affected Ian Anderson's voice, and over the years since it has declined further...

Here's 'The Waking Edge' from the album.

At this time, Anderson was living on the Isle of Skye as the Laird of Strathaird - in a large house near Dun Ringill and fish farming.

This documentary was shown around this time on Channel 4.

What are your favourite albums and pieces of music from this year?

July 15: The Pass

“The Pass” is simply a masterpiece and lyrically, one of Peart’s best ever efforts. Musically, the mood is captured with the pulse of simple, chorded bass notes that prove counterpart to the melody. There is a feeling of an emotional journey throughout as the second verse changes up the backing rhythm and Lifeson’s slow brewing guitar lead in the mid-section is backed by Peart’s drumming with expert efficiency and precision. Stated by the group on multiple occasions as one of their all-time favourites, the true highlight of “The Pass” is the potent lyric right from the top;


“Proud swagger out of the schoolyard, waiting for the world’s applause / rebel without a conscience, martyr without a cause / static on your frequency, electric storms in your veins / raging at unreachable glory, straining at invisible chains…”

Jul 14: Bastille Day

Jul 13: Power Windows (1985)

I've been revisiting the Rush album 'Power Windows', which was released in 1985. 

It was an album I played a lot when it first came out. It's a good driving album, and I did a lot of driving up and down the A17 between Yorkshire and Norfolk around this sort of time.

The album had a series of songs on the broad theme of POWER, and looking back at it just over 40 years on, this was a fine album.

I saw many of the songs from this album played live several times.

Recording began at The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, England, where the basic rhythm tracks and keyboards were recorded. I have a blog post about this studio.

In May 1985, the band had relocated to AIR Studios in the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean - another studios with a lot of history to it, and which is also connected to . They had discussed recording at the studio for several years and booked the facility for three weeks for Lifeson to record guitar overdubs.

Neil Peart shared some of the meanings of the songs, and others have speculated about them.

Here's a few of my favourites from the album.

Territories Live....

I bought a book which was written by Leonard Roberto. It's called 'A Simple Kind Mirror: the lyrical vision of Rush'.

It provides an analysis of the meaning of the lyrics.

We'll finish with the final track on the album.

Watch out for the drum kit rotating from an analogue to a synthesised drum kit which is what Neil had during the tours to support this album.

And also the dodgy mid-80s visual effects which every video seemed to have at this time...

'Mystic Rhythms'

Jul 13: 1985

Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' was perhaps THE album of this year. This was on cassette tape at the time, which was potentially an issue as you needed to rewind and wind the tape to get to a particular track when playing it in the car, although it was such a good album that there was no need really. This got a lot of plays in my friend Caroline's car which I spent a lot of time in that summer. This was the year I graduated from Huddersfield Polytechnic with a 2:1 in geography - close to a first but noone got a first in that particular year. I went to Huddersfield City Hall to collect my degree certificate.

The album included some classic Kate Bush tracks. The song 'Cloudbusting' was particularly interesting as it had a video with Donald Sutherland in it.

It was based on the experiments of Wilhelm Reich.

The track which most people remember from that album though is one that was popularised by the TV series 'Stranger Things'.

Another female musician released an album this year which was produced by ZTT.

'Slave to the Rhythm' starts with Grace explaining her family heritage. The final track on the album draws the themes together.

It was produced by Trevor Horn - who has worked with many bands and musicians including Frankie goes to Hollywood and Mike Oldfield, and was involved with the ZTT record label I have blogged about separately.

Rush released 'Power Windows'. This was an album I came back to year after year and is probably in my top ten most played. I have written a separate blog post about the album. This used to accompany me up and down the A17 when I first started teaching in Norfolk, but came back home to Yorkshire for most weekends.

A final album from this year was Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish. This was another ZTT album and the production was excellent. I've blogged about this album separately as well, and also the label. 

Here's the track 'P-Machinery'.

, 

Mike Oldfield also released a track called 'Pictures in the Dark'. This was not from a particular album.

Singers on this single includes his girlfriend at the time, Anita Hegerland, Barry Palmer and well-known Welsh choirboy Aled Jones.

I had the 12" version of this song on vinyl. It's really good with a strong vocal and a cracking guitar solo....

The B side 'Legend' also has some great melodies on it... this was a really creative time for Oldfield...

In September of that year, Jethro Tull did a concert to mark the 300th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.

What were your favourite pieces of music from 1985?

Jul 12: 1984

1984 was an important year for me as I started the final year of my undergraduate studies at Huddersfield Polytechnic. My LP collection was growing too.

In Huddersfield at the time we had the release of a song called 'Relax' which was banned from radio play.

This guaranteed that it went to number 1 of course.

'Welcome to the PleasureDome' was an album by ZTT, who also released the classic 'Propaganda' album which I will be blogging about separately as this was my driving album in the late 1980s. This was by Frankie goes to Hollywood, although much of the music was played by session musicians.

The album was rereleased in late 2025 with a new mix by Steven Wilson including a Dolby Atmos mix.

The music was arranged by Trevor Horn.

Session musicians including Steve Howe from Yes were included.

This was also the era of the 12" single... and endless variations on the original tracks were created.

The PleasureDome was in Xanadu, visited by Marco Polo. See separate post on Xanadu from Rush.

This is one of the more memorable tracks: 'Two Tribes'.

In the summer, we also had the new Rush album: 'Grace under Pressure'.

This included some stand out tracks. I have previously blogged about this album, which received an over the top deluxe re-release earlier in the year, clocking in at over £250 for the full package. Thankfully, a lot of it was straight onto Spotify.

Here's 'Between the Wheels' - the album's closer....

The other album released this year that is worth a mention is The Blue Nile's 'A Walk across the Rooftops'. The story of this album's released has been told elsewhere on the blog.

It would be 4 years before someone played me this album. It was actually in a bothy on the Isle of Rhum. The log burner was lit and whisky had been taken....

Sparkle in the Rain is my favourite album from Simple Minds, and was also released this year. This is a great album with no filler...

What are your musical memories from 1984?