Tag Archives: music

Jul 19 2024
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Daily Post, Urban scene

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Thursday 18th July 2024, 9.35am (day 4,711)

Zappa ad, 18/7/24

This sits on my usual walking route to campus so I know it hasn’t been up for long. I wonder how many other artists who have been dead for 30 years might still receive such tribute. Or perhaps it is a political message. Perhaps the reference is to hidden subliminal messages in Bobby Brown. Perhaps all those 12 key changes in every track will assist in unlocking the secrets of the tellurian currents. But I’m probably not going to start listening to Zappa — I did try, a couple of times, but it really didn’t work out.

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Jun 03 2024
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Jane’s Addiction

Sunday 2nd June 2024, 9.15pm (day 4,665)

Jane's Addiction, 2/6/24

So that’s another one ticked off the list of ‘Bands I Have Liked for Thirty-Plus Years But Never Before Seen Live’. Then again, Jane’s Addiction did their first ‘farewell tour’ in 1991, have still only ever managed to scrape together four studio albums, and the original four members have only just decided they are still prepared to talk to each other and go on the road again before one or more of them dies. Which in singer Perry Farrell’s case, has always seemed likely to happen imminently. Therefore, I never really had the chance to break the duck before tonight. But I’m not complaining — they were worth the wait.

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Aug 27 2023
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Daily Post, Portrait

Johnny Marr does “How Soon is Now?”

Saturday 26th August 2023, 8.25pm (day 4,384)

Johnny Marr, 26/8/23

My 54th birthday. The title of this blog is now 12 years out of date, but never mind. A chance to celebrate this anniversary at the Piece Hall, Halifax, where The Charlatans were doing their own latest ‘Not Quite Dead Yet Tour’ (Tim Burgess is 56: we’ve both still got a couple of decades on Roger Daltrey, admittedly).

But they’ve been on here before, so let’s feature instead the Unexpectedly Decent Support Act, Johnny Marr — who dutifully did deign to perform the one and only Smiths song I really do give a toss about. Altogether now: “There’s a club if you’d like to go…. you might meet somebody who really loves you. So you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home, and you cry and you want to die.” Ah: How Soon Is Now? It does take me back.

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Jul 10 2023
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Roger Daltrey does his scream

Sunday 9th July 2023, 9.35pm (day 4,336)

Roger Daltrey, 9/7/23

The Who should have already appeared on this blog one way or another. I had tickets to see them in Manchester a few years ago and then couldn’t go for reasons I don’t even remember properly. In March 2020 we were one week, literally, away from seeing them in Leeds (Live in Leeds!) when Bojo The Clown decided that the rest of the country (but not him) had to cease all this entertainment rubbish — postponed a year, that gig was eventually cancelled too. BUT — here we are, finally, in Edinburgh Castle, watching Daltrey and Townshend do their thing. At 79 years old, Roger Daltrey understandably doesn’t leap about the stage as much as he used to but he can definitely still sing, and right at this point he is reproducing one of the best screams in rock history — the one near the end of Won’t Get Fooled Again, which is up there in my ‘top 5’ all-time great tracks.

So yes…. all in all it could be said that I had a good evening.

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Jul 03 2023
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Rockin’ Rupert sings in the rain

Sunday 2nd July 2023, 5.25pm (day 4,329)

Rockin' Rupert, 2/7/23

Where better to end a pleasant weekend than at the Railway’s Sunday afternoon karaoke? Well, OK, perhaps there are several places that are actually better, particularly when Rockin’ Rupert (that’s what he calls himself: it’s written on his hat) turns up, a man for whom the notions of melody, timing and key are just things other people worry about. But he brings props, one of which came out for this rendition of (it seemed to be) Singin’ in the Rain — get it?

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Jun 26 2023
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Daily Post, Interior

The Monday singer

Monday 26th June 2023, 5.10pm (day 4,323)

Monday Railway gig, 26/6/23

Lately every Monday in the Railway there has been a singer on in the afternoon, starting around 4pm. This seems an endearingly pointless activity, done just for the sake of having music on at a quiet time of the week — I sure don’t see how anyone in the pub makes a great deal of extra money from this. But who cares, the guy today picked up a small and select audience who seem interested enough. I like this shot because it’s one of those that turned out exactly as intended when I pressed the shutter, and we can’t ask for much more than that.

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May 22 2023
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

At the back of the Loop gig

Sunday 21st May 2023, 7.50pm (day 4,287)

At the Loop gig, 21/5/23

Attended a gig for the first time in ages. A sign of how it has become, as I have aged: gig behaviour now is to arrive early and grab the seats (or in the case of the Deaf Institute, ‘seats’) at the back, out of the way but with a good view. The guy on the left is reading a book for heaven’s sake. But like me, perhaps he has been waiting some 32 years to see Loop play live. This is a band that last year, released their first studio album in 31 years, so they attract a patient crowd.

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Oct 21 2022
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Daily Post, Urban scene

On stage, Southampton

Friday 21st October 2022, 8.15pm (day 4,075)

There aren’t many British cities where I’ve never set foot, but until tonight, Southampton was one of them. Boarding port of the Titanic and still one of the UK’s major ports, though still probably not as significant as Portsmouth nearby, which may rile Sotonians, but I am ignorant of the details of the local rivalries. This is the smallest picture, in kilomegabytes, to be uploaded for a couple of years.

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Sep 26 2022
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Portrait, Stranger, Urban scene

Drum Machine

Sunday 25th September 2022, 12.20pm (day 4,049)

Drum Machine, 25/9/22

Welcome back to the Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade, which graced this blog on an annual basis before being cancelled in 2020 and 2021: one might say, ‘understandably’, at least for 2020, although I would disagree. But let’s move on from that and enjoy the present incarnation: shifted to September, seemingly smaller, but still with plenty of percussion. I like the way this shot captures the drummers concentrating both on their instruments and on the ‘conductor’ walking in front of them — as any good orchestra should. ‘Drum Machine’ is the name of this troupe, by the way.

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Aug 14 2022
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Apprentice Boys’ parade

Saturday 13th August 2022, 9.55am (day 4,006)

Apprentice Boys' parade, 13/8/22

In 1689 there was civil war across Britain and Ireland as the Catholic King James II and the Protestant William of Orange vied for the throne. Derry was besieged for months before the forces of William finally prevailed, there and in the later Battle of the Boyne. And that victory has basically defined British politics ever since, and certainly Northern Irish politics.

The annual commemoration of the siege of Derry, the Apprentice Boys’ parade, is not as politically charged as once it was — in 1969 this event effectively set off the whole Troubles — but one might as well still see it as a political demonstration, conducted by a large number of middle-aged white men affecting a military style of dress. It made for good photo opportunities, but I document without sympathising.

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