An off-the-cuff thought on music and festivals.

I'm not going to Glastonbury. Indeed I never sought to do so. Were I there you would, without any doubt, find me at one of the smaller stages.
As it turns out of the three main stage headline acts, following Dave Grohl's unfortunate and unforeseeable accident just recently resulting in the withdrawal of Foo Fighters and a band that I would very much like to see live, I have seen two of the now Glastonbury 2015 headline acts before and both when playing their first ever significant festival headline set. As for Kanye West, the other headline artist/act, let's just say that I'm not sad about missing that. It's quite simply not my thing.
I seem to have no usable pictures of Florence and The Machine playing Latitude Festival 2010, although I remember that the performance was excellent. As for Arcade Fire, well that was the final impetus that prompted me into festival-going - and that was Latitude Festival 2007. I shall not be at Latitude 2015 either but I'll be out and about at other festivals over the coming summer.
Whatever festivals you may be headed to have a great time and remember the things that become memorable are often the acts on the small stages and including the ones that you have almost no, or indeed any, prior knowledge of. My personal view is that festival line-ups, although usually announced from the head-liners down, are best assessed from the bottom up; that is by examining those artists playing on small stages and also the opening acts on any stage. I don't see any reason to change my view - it is a issue of sustainability - in the light of what I saw and heard last year. Some will cut the grade and others won't - but at the very least you will know it for real.

To reinforce that idea - and just in case you arrive five days early for some reason - check this out. I pretty much guarantee that you won't regret doing so.

The Midnight Novel (2014) is a wonderful LP.

I do hope that the weather is kind, that everyone stays safe and has a wonderful time at any and all festivals.

What really matters... It was good, yeah?

Well, although I'm open to discussion, it was. The three Obelisk stage head-liners were everything I could have imagined and more.  I never really expected Florence and The Machine to disappoint, and she certainly didn't on what was her first ever festival headline slot. Vampire Weekend was not likely to let the team effort down either and on the Sunday evening it certainly didn't.  The one that evoked trepidation was the Saturday choice. I was totally wrong and now I admit it unreservedly - Belle and Sebastian was perfection for the Saturday evening slot at Latitude. I once had the impression that Stuart Murdoch was something of a curmudgeon; if that was so then no longer is it true.

When all said and done, however, it was still the new and/or relatively obscure acts that bent my ear and this is where I will resume very shortly.  What I will say is this; taking the music as a whole it was the fourth and best Latitude Festival I have attended.  To add to the Obelisk stage comments, and not wishing to leave this post unillustrated, here is another artist that appeared there, and I was lucky enough to see, over the weekend.

This is the performance of her first single 'Like A Star' and it only served to confirm that she is.  She then left to perform the whole set again at Somerset House in London that evening.

Corinne Bailey Rae, on the main stage on Saturday afternoon, was quite infallible. 

Yuck... Festival thoughts and other bands

More often than not I write my thoughts ‘live to blog’, or at least something pretty close to that given that the images have to be found and or adapted. Just at the moment I can’t seem to get started, although I know things about which I want to write. I hope you don’t mind that I’m thus minded to invite your comment here. I am cheekily using you as a sounding board – knowing that we share at least a proportion of our music in common – but the truth is I’m really not sure where my boundaries in new music lie.


Wednesday 23 June:
Glastonbury is 40 and, while I’m not going in person, I’m minded to catch as much as I can via the various media sources. Therein lies another problem: like many of you I guess I like much older music and I’m not even sure where that lies for me either. In the last few days I’ve been working my way through more vinyl: those that have particularly caught my attention are ‘LIVE – In Europe – Rory Gallagher’ (1972) and, just this evening, ‘Bruce Hornsby and The Range – On The Southside’ (1988). Two totally different albums but I like them both, a lot. In fact after some cleaning they both appear to be as essentially faultless as any vinyl that you might be prepared to risk playing.
The underlying problem is, and this has become more so over the last few years, that I like more and more new music and also a wider range of music in general. I had long believed that it wasn’t like this! The point here is that I’ve been trying to prioritize those bands appearing at Latitude 2010 that I would most like to see. That there will be unavoidable clashes is inevitable and that is just the way of things. The scarier thing is just how many, not just how many clashes, but just how many acts including the perhaps lesser known ones that I am already aware of. Previous years have been notable for my seeing ones that I was completely unaware of – that is a joy of live music – and some of them are now rather better known.
Of course I want to see ‘Florence And The Machine’, headlining the main stage on Friday, but also many others less well known. Acts as diverse as ‘Laura Marling’ and ‘Crystal Castles’, both on the (main) ‘Obelisk Stage’, are almost certain to clash with other acts, on lesser stages, that I also want to see. There will indubitably have to be some tough decisions made…
I have a long list… the problem is that I know it cannot be fully realistic, not least as I do not have the set times, but even then certainly not fulfilled.
I want to see 'Yuck’, a good band name if ever there were one and it has a blog too, ‘Esben and The Witch’ and plenty of others. What is perhaps more interesting, at least to me, are the as yet less widely known bands that are well and truly on my 'must-see' list and those as yet unknown to me.


Thursday 24 June:

The first bands are just taking to the small stages at Glastonbury as I write from a location that is just twelve miles away as the crow flies. The thoughts always come round to weather - and the mud that comes with it - when Glastonbury is mentioned.
Let me tell you this: It is 9pm and I've just been outside to take a look at a Wedgwood Blue sky with hardly a white cloud as appliqué decoration. It is warm, about 20ºC/68ºF, virtually calm and if that is not perfectly wonderful festival weather then I can't imagine what is. It is predicted to remain thus for the duration too, with just the possibility of a thundery shower on Sunday afternoon, and by then it might well be welcome relief.
I've plenty more to add, and I intend to watch as much Glastonbury coverage as I can this weekend, but this will have to do just for now.

'Brits 2010' - Some first thoughts

Well, a few days later, I have to say that the 'Brits 2010' was in my opinion much better than for some time. I say that for two reasons: firstly it was well presented and an all-round good production but more importantly, and even if I don't like them, the winners were the deserving ones.

I'm not really of the JLS generation but they deserved a 'Brit'. Lady GaGa got what she got, not just to remind the UK that it isn't the centre of the world and music is no exception, simply on merit. In the same category of merit were Florence and The Machine and Dizzee Rascal so it is not that Britain lacks talent, far from it, and their duet was quite something. That brings me on to N'Dubz - who could have imagined this of UK hip-hop just a couple of years ago?

Summary: brilliant.

It all reminded me of this album from 2001 in some ways...

New York, white, female, hip-hop and, like Madonna and GaGa of Italian heritage, Concetta Kirschner is recognisable as an icon of the genre and she is still busy, with a new album soon. In the meantime 'Life Is But A Dream' is available on 7" now...

Forecast: expect more surprises in 2010. The nominees for the 2011 'Brits' could be very interesting indeed.

Best 'textbite' of 2009?

You are doubtless well aware of all those award ceremonies and the gushing, often excruciatingly long, acceptance speeches that they entail so here is a refreshing antidote.
Ellie Goulding has been named the chosen one, following Adele (Adkins) in 2008 and Florence and The Machine in 2009, as the recipient of the Critics' Choice Brit Award 2010 .

Her initial response, posted on Twitter, was this:
"Er, I won a bloody Brit Award."

After some reflection she was more expansive:
"When I found out, I had a little squeal, I had a little cry and I had a little fall down."

Understatement becomes her, something that is not entirely true of the acts that came second and third in this list: second was Manchester electro-indie band Delphic and third was an act that, since seeing it play live in July, I have tipped for great things - Marina and The Diamonds.

The choice is an interesting threesome in any case: Marina Diamandis does not do shy-wallflower singer-songwriter or anything even remotely approaching it. She does however do both singing, songwriting and also sensational live performance with her band (she also plays keys on some tracks), and the effect is quite remarkable.

From The Outside Looking In - Glastonbury 2009

There has been some fuss in the press today. It is said that the BBC spent as much at £5 million on their coverage of Glastonbury across TV, radio and on-line. How many millions do they spend annually on soaps and sport, none of which I watch? I don't watch much TV as a rule, but I certainly still pay the same licence fee. This weekend I watched enough to almost make it worth it alone. I'm not saying that everyone should feel the same way but I'd like to thank the BBC - this is precisely the never-ending dilemma faced by a public-service broadcaster. Please stick to your guns...

This must be also true of choosing acts for a festival but from all accounts it was quite some festival, even by it's own standards. There was rain, and the concomitant mud, but only in reasonable proportions and would it be the same without it?

Starting as it didn't go on... Friday dawns over one of the many camp sites.

The festival atmosphere should electrify but someone left the charger on too long. By lunch time on Friday the sun had appeared and so it remained for all three days! Thanks to all the aforementioned BBC coverage I soon came to one conclusion - I should have tried to get a ticket!

I thought all three headline acts were excellent and enjoyed every moment of each. What however impressed more was just how much the newer acts were gathering coverage and large crowds. The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - though not very new as they recently released their third LP, It's Blitz, were show-stopping. Three genuinely new artists in 2009 were:

La Roux, whose début album would have been a run-away at the top of the UK charts on Sunday were it not for the demise of Michael Jackson. As it was it made #2, which was an incredible result for the duo of Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid and single 'In For The Kill' has already become one of the signature sounds of 2009.

Little Boots was another obvious winner and also deservedly so I think.

The third artist that I put in this category will be no surprise either, even though that first album, 'Lungs', is not physically released until this coming Monday (in the UK). Florence and The Machine were simply on another planet.

It would be hard to persuade anyone who had come across them for the first time, that fifteen months ago they were almost unknown outside South London. As well as the main set, which was on TV, they also recorded an acoustic BBC6 Music Hub Session on Friday:

BBC6 Music DJ was Cerys Matthews and she joined them for a duet with Florence Welch.

Black Is The New Black

Note added 18 May 2009:
***Nancy Black live in Frome - 5 June 2009 as part of Acoustic Plus at the Cheese and Grain***

Yesterday I mentioned the part that traditional music shops still have to play in the current music environment. One aspect that has changed immeasurably in the digital age is one that is as new and as revolutionary as downloading and yet less often mentioned in wider circles. What is that?
Well, for better or for worse, you are reading one of many manifestations of it!
User created digital content has just made the sharing of music easy and global, it has done the same for the sharing of information about it. Barely a decade ago the truism was that 'everyone is local to somewhere' now, thanks to the internet, it might better be summed up as 'anyone is local everywhere', or at least have we have the means to exploit that potential if that is what we want to attempt.
If you hear a band or album that surprises you can review it for an audience of millions - almost instantly and for next to no cost except your time and effort. The obvious question I think is this: "Isn't that too good to be true?"
"Yes and no" is my unhelpful but considered answer. If I can have my opinion I have to accept that you can have yours too, that you can let me know it, and that we might not agree. That is part of the bargain and why I will publish comments to this blog even if I don't actually agree with them. One outcome that critics levelled at this explosion of content, be it MySpace or customer reviews on Amazon or blogs, was that it would create homogeneity based on the lowest common-denominator. It might not be thus if I were a music critic by profession, but from my point of view it has been anything but that way. Everyone is still local to somewhere, just now I know about artists that in the earlier situation I would almost certainly never knew existed.

Add to that is the fact that there is plenty of local live music worth hearing. I have mentioned Bristol-based Phantom Limb before and their gigs at the Griffin Inn are already local legend and they play there again on 2 April 2009.
The previous evening, and just a couple of minutes stroll away, is the opportunity to see another local act that is gathering good reviews from further afield:

www.myspace.com/nancyblackmusic

Is the hype justified? I'd say that it is.

On the subject of hyped artists or acts one that most certainly has been so in recent months is London's Florence and the Machine, so you might think that new releases are easily available in the UK. Well that is not quite so, and another example of the fact that it has not become a case of one-size-fits-all globalisation. I have the A Lot Of Love, A Lot Of Blood 12" EP on pre-order...

...and while it is from Puregroove in London, is a US import item only!

Happy New Year 2009

What is happy about 2009, you might ask? Well you have three options:

• I'm an optimist
• I'm resorting to escapism
• I'm doing both

Well, in my first post of last year I didn't include 'happy' and look what happened in the world in 2008. Not all of it was bad of course but I'd rather be one looking forward in anticipation than that dwelling on what happened (or didn't) and fortunately music lends itself to this approach.

This is thus my thoughts on 'New Music - Part 1' What to look forward to in 2009. I have just pre-ordered my first 2009 release and it is the curiously titled début album by a band I mentioned last summer, having seen them live at Latitude 2008, and that is The Joy Formidable.

A Balloon Called Moaning - The Joy Formidable
UK release: 9th February 2009

This is the first 2009 album that I have ordered so far and I rather hope that it will be just the first of many. That looks likely because 'Two Suns', Bat For Lashes' second album, is set for an early April 2009 release, which will then be followed by a short UK tour. Music in 2009 will provide endless surprises and even the main reviewers know that, sometimes.
Pop, and curious fantasy, will be prominent again - Victoria Hesketh who (after many band-related trials and tribulations) seems to be the main stream reviewers' favourite in her true-self incarnation 'Little Boots'; likewise I've already mentioned Florence Welch (and The Machine) and that could be pretty scary until you add the apparently cute, but often lyrically shocking, SoKo (newly a singer and songwriter but long an all-round performance-artist, Stephanie Sokolinski) to the list whereupon 2009 starts to look decidedly special and that is that is just for starters! [See here for a recent review of her performing live and here for my review of her set at Latitude 2008.]
I will mention Phantom Limb again. I want to remind you about the album and point out that they are performing live at The Griffin in Frome, where they are already something of a phenomenon, on Friday 16th January 2008. If things go the way they should then in six months time that will no longer be possible! Then again it is a little luxury to live within walking distance of a pub that brews its own beers and has its own MySpace page!

Where next? Thoughts for 2009.

I've been reflecting on what I wrote here at the end of 2007 and two things immediately strike me.
The first is that, if I say so myself, my predictions for music in 2008 were rather closer to what actually happened than I ever dared hope they might be.
What I did not foretell is the economic and political circumstances that would prevail come the end of 2008. It seems that not many others in positions of power did so, which however makes me feel no better at all.
I'm by inclination a stoic optimist and in 2009 that seems to me to be a good place to start. It's all something of a lottery but the worse the place it starts then surely the better the odds that it will soon improve? Political change is a little like few days sunshine after endless rain, or a few good songs that either capture the new reality or engender optimism - any of them can suddenly change the prevailing mood out of all apparent proportion. On all fronts 2009 is likely to test this hypothesis to the highest degree but I don't think for one moment that music is likely to let the side down!
I've been thinking about how I see music (especially in the UK) in 2009 and think that it is going to be harder to call than it was in 2007 or 2008, which are the only years that I have previously written about in this way. Over the New Year Holiday I'm going to have the opportunity to talk to some friends about this and, while I already have some ideas as to what I think might happen, I'll be back at the very start of 2009 with some hopefully more focussed thoughts.

Two artists already widely tipped for success in 2009 are 'Florence and The Machine' and, having already seen them live in 2008, I'm certainly down with that. Florence Welch is well... quite exquisitely indefinable.

Live at the 2008 iTunes Festival in London.

Imagine a new version of Alien, in which Kate Nash has become the unwitting host to a chimera that is part Björk, and you are getting slightly close to what this is all about.

On a totally different theme here is another Londoner, Emma Deigman, whose début album is due out in April.

It was mostly recorded live, with full horn and string sections, and often in a single take. It is produced by Eliot Kennedy (previous credits include Bryan Adams, Take That, Spice Girls and Celine Dion) but that is not to say that she sounds like any of the aforementioned. She does write her own material however - watch out Sasha Fierce!

That is just for starters.
Happy New Year!

Richard