Live Review: The Unthanks. St George’s, Bristol 1 May 2019

Gigs on consecutive nights! I think I’ve only done that once before, when I saw The Strypes at the Thekla on the night before a classical concert at St George’s – not the greatest of scheduling given how loud The Strypes were! The contrast between Tuesday’s Tubular Bells for Two and Wednesday’s Unthanks show couldn’t be greater – something like 20 instruments on stage for TB, no instruments for The Unthanks. I think they had Continue Reading

An Evening’s Listening

And we’re back – I’ve been digging through my dad’s vinyl today and cataloguing, so we’re listening to some of it to see if we want to keep it. First up this evening, Peter Paul and Mary. Yeah, not great. Anything with a song called “I dig rock and roll music” is trying too hard to be down with the trendy hepcats. We’re hanging on for Puff the Magic Dragon… Not a keeper. Average of Continue Reading

Sarah Brightman – The Trees They Grow So High, Britten Folksong Arrangements (1988, EMI EL7495101)

Ah, and so we get to the point where we find something we really don’t like. And it’s not just because it’s Sarah Brightman. Twee shrill sopranos accompanied by just a piano don’t do it for me, even if they are singing Benjamin Britten – albeit only traditional folk songs arranged by him. This one lasted about 30 seconds, sampling a couple of tracks, before it was whipped off. Astonishingly it appears to have sold Continue Reading