Last weekend featured one of our occasional forays into the world of culture – classical music, no less. Our friend Rachel plays viola in the Devon Philharmonic Orchestra (the orchestra formerly known as Exeter Music Group), who give performances in Exeter Cathedral each spring and autumn – we’ve been going down to stay with Rachel and her partner in Exmouth and going to the concerts for over a decade now.My dad would have been amazed Continue Reading
Is this thing still plugged in? Tap tap, 1-2, 1-2
<wipes away the cobwebs, blows dust off the server> Goodness, how long has it been since I posted anything to this blog? April 2020, during lockdown, it would seem. Which is long enough ago that my Google Analytics reports generally show zero hits… But there’s good reason for that – the last rock gig I went to was Rival Sons in November 2019, four and a half years ago! Yes, OK we had COVID shortly after Continue Reading
Some Saturday Night Listening
After listening to Crowded House’s Woodface earlier, we got through a bit of vinyl on Saturday night, so here’s brief rundown of what we played. I think this came from an Amazon.fr purchase a year or two back, and I assume we’ve listened to it before but can’t say for sure. Nice early 60s jazz from a pretty impressive trio. Not a great fan of some of the bass, but overall very nice. I picked Continue Reading
Crowded House: Woodface (1991)
I ordered this from HMV last weekend as they were having a sale – I couldn’t turn down this classic album (on vinyl) for the bargain price of £8.99.I also picked up another favourite, which will be along later. Side 1 is jam-packed with favourites – Chocolate Cake, Fall At Your Feet, Weather With You and Four Seasons On One Day. Side 2 has There Goes God and How Will You Go.But the others are Continue Reading
Live Review: Rival Sons, O2 Academy, Bristol – 7th November 2019
This one was a bit of a punt – I’d never (knowingly) heard any of their music, but a good friend of mine rates them so when I saw that they were doing a small handful of shows in the UK, but including Bristol, I thought I’d give it a go.This hasn’t always worked out well – Gaslight Anthem being the worst (the nearest I’ve ever come to leaving a gig early).But it has worked Continue Reading
Gigs That Didn’t Happen
Given that we’re all on lockdown, we’ve already had 3 concerts cancelled or postponed. We were due to see Darius Brubeck (son of Dave, of “Take 5” fame) at St George’s in mid-March (no idea whether that’s going to be re-arranged or not) The Devon Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Exeter Cathedral on the 28th April has been cancelled – a friend of ours plays viola in the orchestra, and is therefore partly responsible for the Continue Reading
Easter Saturday Night Listening
After quite a gap, we went back to playing a couple of records while we had dinner on Saturday – and I picked out a couple from the various charity shop purchases earlier the year, which we’d not listened to yet. First up was this one – picked out at the charity shop’s jazz section. I think it must have been £1, especially given the torn sleeve, but the disc was in good condition. Jackie Continue Reading
Ravel: Bolero; Mussorgsky-Ravel: Pictures at an Exhbition
Deutsche Grammophon 139010Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan This a keeper – two pieces of music that I know, one of which I really like (Bolero).And yes, I probably know Pictures at an Exhibition more from Emerson Lake & Palmer that I do from classical versions. If you haven’t seen the ballet of Bolero, look it up. I recommend the Sylvie Guillem version.
The Best of Aaron Copland
CBS Classics 614311970 This is a little unexpected – you don’t see many “Best Of” albums in the classical world. It opens, of course, with Fanfare For The Common Man. I can’t hear the start of it without expecting it to burst into the bass-driven Emerson Lake and Palmer version. Which is probably heresy, but that’s my rock background for you. The rest of it (El Salon Mexico, Celebration from “Billy The Kid”, Hoe Down Continue Reading
Cantate Domino
Oscars Moteekor; Torsten Nilsson; Alf Linder; Marianne MellnasPROP 77621980 Next random selection and it’s organ music, which was unexpected. There was a specific section in my dad’s collection for organ music, and all of that has (rightfully) been stashed away in the garage while work out what on earth to do with it. Because the one thing we don’t want to do with it is listen to it.But the rules say that if you pick Continue Reading