Once upon a time...

With this blog fast approaching its eighth birthday, which is old for such things and solo-written ones in particular, it has set me thinking.
I started to attend festivals because of it. I needed stuff to write about. At that point I realised that I needed pictures too, and I wasn't going to rely on promotional ones, so I therefore I needed to take my own. I bought a Fuji F20 compact - I still have it and I still use it - and off we both went to Latitude Festival 2007.  To be quite honest, while the camping and stuff was well in hand, I hadn't quite thought out the music side of things properly. I didn't keep track of what I had seen and it proved very difficult to piece it together afterwards. OK - you learn from mistakes like that. You also learn a lot more from just being there, trying to do what you want to do, and talking to people. The best thing about going to a festival alone is that it forces you to talk to strangers; they are the only friends you have. On the other hand you have no obligation to pander their particular agenda or they to yours for that matter.

By 2008 I had basic control of most of that and, in 2009, made my first foray to End Of The Road Festival in Dorset. This became a favourite and not just because it is only 35 miles drive from home. It was love at first sight. By this time I had started to do advance planning, almost military style, of what I wanted to see and how to go about it. As usual there are plenty of last-minute changes and even SNAFU events.
The result of one of them turned out like this. I got to see an act I had never heard of and hadn't planned to see. Afterwards I said they could be big. My interlocutor said that that they would be forgotten within a year.

Klara (R) and Johanna Söderberg, First Aid Kit, on the Tipi Stage, End of The Road 2009. Five years (and three albums) later this is the first time I have used this photograph. There were perhaps 150 people watching them play then. Here they are last Sunday - playing to ten thousand, maybe even more than that, at Green Man Festival 2014.

Any which way it was comfortably the biggest crowd of the festival. Tickets for the UK dates of the forthcoming autumn headline tour are all but gone too. Less than fifty remain for the gig at The Royal Albert Hall, London, on 24 September. By the time you read this they will probably all be gone.
That applies to End Of The Road Festival 2014 too - the final tickets went this afternoon.

Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)

This is a post that I couldn't resist. I love snow, and there is plenty of it here right now, but there is however a certain ambivalence to that comment; it actually makes me want to be at home, warm and with good food. I could do the whole snowed in thing - at least for a week, I guess.
This song sums it up far better than I ever could.

You were so smart then
in your jacket and coat.
My softest red scarf was warming your throat.
Winter was on us,
at the end of my nose,
but I never love England more than when covered in snow.

And a friend of mine says it's good to hear you believe in love even if set in fear
well I'll hold you there brother and set you straight
I won't make believe that love is frail and willing to break.

I will come back here,
bring me back when I'm old.
I want to lay here forever in the cold.
I might be cold but I'm just skin and bones
and I never love England more than when covered in snow.

I wrote my name in your book,
only god knows why,
and I bet you that he cracked a smile,
and I'm clearing all the stuff out of my room,
trying desperately to figure out what it is that makes me blue,
and I wrote an epic letter to you,
but it's 22 pages front and back and it's too good to be used
and I tried to be a girl who likes to be used
I'm too good for that.
There's a mind under this hat,
and I called them all and told them i've got to move.

Feel like running
Feel like running,
running off.
And we will keep you
we will keep you little one,
safe from harm,
like an extra arm you are part of us.

You were so smart then
in your jacket and coat
and my softest red scarf was warming your throat.
Winter will leave us,
left the end of my nose,
so goodbye old England 'till next year's snow.

End of the Road Festival 2012

Before I comment further on my trip to North Yorkshire for Deer Shed Festival 3 last weekend here is a little shout-out for the next festival that I shall be attending (unless that is I add another in the intervening five weeks). I mention it because tickets are fast running out, indeed those in some categories already have done so.

I'll comment on my desires, and the possible conflicts between them, soon.

  

This does not even mention the unmentionable - the secret performances for which EOTR is rightly famous and those of you who were at NDH 2012 might also have discovered.

Latitude Festival 2012

I have been to five Latitude Festivals, 2007 - 2011, and loved them all in various ways.

This time you really need to persuade me that I should do so again in 2012.  I feel a change is as good as a rest and, to this effect, I have several alternatives in mind.  I could still be persuaded but I'm certainly not buying a pre-sale ticket this year.

Lyrics again - Arlington Way (English version)

Again just because someone asked and I really like doing this when I can...


Arlington Way
Arlington Way whose idea was it anyway to stay the night out of sight out of mind?
Once in a lifetime a dream must come true I'd be heading there with you
with a spring in the step and a lightness of being and we'd be walking in the door
Arlington way go down to the place do it if you want to - I don't need to know your business
no plan of attack no turning back nobody did it quite as good as you
  
A coin falls to the dance floor it shines in the bright light
uncertain what I wish for heads, you know that tails, I want you back

Once in a lifetime a dream must come true I'd be standing there with you
with a beat in the heart and a mind on the good times and you'd be holding out for more

Nobody said it would be easy nobody said it couldn't come true
nobody said it could feel so natural I don't need to know your business
no plan of attack no turning back nobody did it quite as good as you

You came, you saw you offered me more than I could take  oh I've changed
I won't make the same mistake again but this ain't time for the heavy..


For the Welsh lyric to this song, and the rest of the album, see here:
Paid Edrych Y Lawr

Every Third Sunday - 6 Day Riot Have A Plan

To whosoever asked for the lyric to this song just now, here it is:


Every Third Sunday:

If you take this wrong then time will stop, wasted spaces move back
up; many days have rolled into one. Daily meals to calm your eyes,
wisdom seldom realised I could try to reason one more time.
But by the by, by the by, how fear has multiplied wild and lost within
your state of mind. My oh my, my oh my, how tears have multiplied
drowned and lost within your state of mind. To the edge and round the
bend, stubborn till the bitter end hold on tight before this whole
town blows. Get up get up and face the day don't let those hours slip away,
chasing time and talking hate again. I'm drowned and lost within your
state of mind.

The almost (!?) complete lyrics to the album 'Have A Plan' are now here:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2010/02/higher-powers-6-day-riot-album-lyrics.html

A great band and an excellent album, but then so is Folie à Deux (2007) and for that matter From Home To Home - Tamara Schlesinger (2004).

My 2009 In Music - albums

It has, as I mentioned last week, taken a long time and a lot of soul-searching to come up with any reasonable list of my least-dispensable albums of 2009 and on reflection the way I divided it in 2008 suddenly appeared false, or at least redundant, as it changes from day to day depending on 'things'.

In 2009 I've decided to do it in one hit, although I will feel free to add things, but again I am certainly not intending to rate it in order because that is quite simply impossible for reasons more immediate than those involved in choosing what should be in the list anyway. That's enough of preamble and self-justification so here it is in the raw; my most-cherished albums of 2009 listed alphabetically by artist:

Amy Millan - Masters Of The Burial [link]
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns [link]
Blue Roses - Blue Roses [link 1] [link2]
Caroline Weeks - Songs For Edna [link]
Chairlift - Does You Inspire You? [link]
Dear Reader - Replace Why With Funny [link]
Eilen Jewell - Sea of Tears [link]
Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo - Despite The Snow [link]
Florence and The Machine - Lungs
Frida Hyvönen - Silence Is Wild [Link]
Kendel Carson - Alright Dynamite [link]
Lau - Arc Light [link]
Lightning Dust - Infinite Light [link]
Lily Allen - It's Not Me It's You [link]
Little Boots - Hands
Marissa Nadler - Little Hells [link]
Mummers - Tale To Tell [link]
Ohbijou - Beacons [link]
Paramore - Brand New Eyes
Po'Girl - Deer In The Night [link]
Polly Scattergood - Polly Scattergood [link1] [link2]
Stricken City - Songs About People I Know
The Joy Formidable - A Balloon Called Moaning [link]
The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

Please feel free to comment, argue and suggest additions/deletions by comment or e-mail. I will add links and further comments as and when I get the time through December. Albums released in December 2009 are clearly eligible for addition too, as are a few that I have recently acquired but have not, as yet, listened to sufficiently to form a stable opinion.

There are no images in this post because I don't want to prejudice anything. On the other hand I have already mentioned many of these artists in 2009... if you want to see what I wrote then please use the search facility in the side-bar.

Artists highlighted in green are those that I have seen live in 2009 or, if in orange, those from before but also mentioned in 2009. Items/artists highlighted in red are those on which I have commented in 2009.

Now over to you!

My 2009 in music: EPs and mini-albums

It is that time of year again; the season for making lists. This is not however my Christmas wish list but rather the first part of the music that I have heard in 2009 that I particularly liked.
It, like all the other parts to follow, is obviously a personal selection so if you agree with some and disagree with others then it is well worth doing; should you discover anything from it that had either not caught your attention or merely forgotten then all the better and, as usual, all comments, positive or negative, are welcome.
As I did last year I started with one of the categories that I find it easier to get my head around. It is better this year even though 'EPs and mini-albums' has become a whole lot more complicated than it was in 2008. As usual I'm not going to attempt to rank them, not least because that depends on my mood at the time. These have however proved enduring favourites and so here they are, in alphabetical order and by arist:

• Amy LaVere - Died of Love
• Beth Jeans Houghton - Hot Toast Volume 1
• First Aid Kit - Drunken Trees
• Le B - Good Fortune Sounds
• Marina and the Diamonds - The Crown Jewels EP
• Smoke Fairies - Frozen Heart
• Stars of Sunday League - The Boy's Got Prospects

A major departure from the selection I made last year is that as well as owning said items I have actually seen five of the seven acts live in 2009. The exceptions being Amy LaVere and Le B because I didn't get the opportunity to do so. Of these seven acts/artists only one has released a full album to date and that is Amy LaVere, who has released two, and the second of them, 'Anchors and Anvils', was in my list of 2008 albums.

There are also a few EPs that overlap with 2009 artists and albums that I think worthy of note, but probably need no introduction, simply for the remixes:

• Florence and The Machine - A Lot Of Love, A Lot Of Blood
• Little Boots - Arecibo

The nine items above are, at least in my collection, represented equally on CD, 7" vinyl and 12" vinyl --- so not even dead on physical format! The artwork of many of these items has already appeared in my posts in 2009 but not all of it so here is some more...

There is more (including links from this post) to follow soon...

I Don't Like Mondays.

Autumn isn't so bad, even though it is Monday and one that marks the point at which for the next six months it will be dark more than it is light. It is however, with the exception of the six weeks from the start of December to early January a very good time for new music.
I did note, with minor dismay, that Sir Cliff Richard was at #40 in the BBC singles chart yesterday and please don't even consider an attempt at UK Christmas #1 .
That quibble aside, and if I have enough new music, I'm pretty contented. Last Saturday somebody asked me about my favourite albums of 2009 and, while slightly informative, I hinted that it was my hope that at least a quarter of them haven't even been released yet as it is still only September. I am still finding ones that in truth should have been worthy of inclusion in my lists for 2007 and 2008 and the long-list for 2009 is looking like a challenge to come in a couple of months time.
The sheer diversity is perhaps what intrigues me most but then again that is the target I set myself back in 2000. Pop is most certainly still not a dirty word but the fact is that, almost a decade later, not only am I sticking to the original concept it has also evolved into something far beyond what I envisaged and that surprises and pleases me in equal measure.

Three very different 2009 releases - all excellent in their own genre and all on vinyl.

The Eutectic Point...

The MTV and Mercury Music awards are now both shortlisted, so it is that time of year again. I imagine that many in the major labels are wringing their hands although it is likely that they will score some successes in 2009 even if the personal cost might have been high for music industry executives in terms of bonuses.

Hiya!

'real world' --- aka 'the rest of us' --- because we've known exactly that for ages and were not paid a penny for our wisdom.

I'm happy living with my thought that that the industry is, finally, undergoing some kind of corporate cognitive therapy, resulting in a very slow transformation in terms of both self-awareness and of the changing situation. The issue is that depite (maybe even because of) the riches the-gravy-train that recorded-music history granted them for almost fifty years the magic has finally worn so thin as to have as-wide-an-appeal as a dried-out-tea-bag, awaiting its second-coming, in a student house.
It took, however, the better part of a decade for the industry to wake-up to, let alone make attempts at full engagement with, the new reality. My experience is that students learn such things much faster and probably because they simply have to.

The four major labels are certainly not out of the woods yet but at least they are trying. The real issue is that the decades of sycophantic hegemony are over; it is now a long-established industry under attack from more directions than merely those posed by the rise of illegal downloading alone. That is, however, a phenomenon that both they and the High Street music stores handled catastrophically: a case of corporate self-denial, in the face of a blindingly-obvious rapid change in circumstances, if ever there were one.
Many of the new threats are, and have every reason to remain, valid as they are quite legal and that too is largely a massive failure on the part of the existing players in the market. It is hard to say for sure but, had things been done differently and I'm not talking Draconian measures here, I can't help but think that the 'big-four' might not be in the situation in which they now find themselves.

Good luck independent labels - you are amongst the forces of the future!