Here’s a video of Steve Earle playing Guitar Town live in Barbican last night. More to come!
Guitar Town – Live In Barbican, London
Published November 5, 2009 Videos: Music Leave a CommentTags: american folk, folk singer, guitar town, steve earle, townes van zandt
Steve Earle Gig Review – Barbican London 2009
Published November 5, 2009 Music Reviews 1 CommentTags: Folk, graham parker, guitar repairs london, heroin folk, luthier, martin guitars, steve earle, townes, townes van zandt
Steve Earle is touring his album of Van Zandt songs entitled Townes. Last night he played the Barbican to a sell out crowd. Steve had a bit of a crisis on his hands with his main Martin and my buddy Graham Parker fixed it for him. In fact Graham fixed it twice. Yesterday he got a call saying that his temporary fix didn’t last too long – Steve changes his strings after every gig. So Graham replaced the nut. Whilst doing so he noticed that the strings were too close to the neck. This caused the strings to slip off the neck every so often so whilst replacing the nut he made amends to the where the strings sat on the neck. I’m getting technical here, I’ll stop.
As a result of Graham’s help Steve’s guitar tech Russ Garett gave Steve two complimentary passes. We met up with Steve and Russ before the gig and had a brief chat. Steve was in pretty good form chatting away about his signature guitar. Graham explained that Les Paul used to get $50 for every guitar made. Steve explained that he got more than that, about $150. “Wow!” Graham and I said. “Yeah but I just give it to charity,” Steve replied. “When you make a load of money doing what I do as a Marxist what else can you do with it?” What a guy!
The gig was awesome. Steve was on great form chatting away talking at length about his relationship with Townes. How Townes heckled him in 1972 when Steve was just 17, how they became friends, how Townes visited Steve’s house and saw Steve looking bad and his arms looking worse. Steve also said how appreciative he was of the audience’s reception of the album and how his only regret was that Townes wasn’t around to enjoy it with him.
Steve got two standing ovations and seemed really humbled. Graham and I made our way onto the stage and made some movies of Russ striking the stage where Russ explained a bit about Steve’s set up – I will post those videos later.
Backstage Steve told Graham that the guitar felt great, “Plays like a fucking Martin should!”
Was a great evening out. Great to see Steve play on such fine form and meet the man. A true gent.
Graham Parker and Steve Earle
Dating Is Like Gambling – You’ve Got To Know When To Cash In Your Chips
Published November 1, 2009 Relationships 2 CommentsTags: Addiction, gambling, casino, dating
I’ve never been a gambling man. Thank God! My Aunt Teresa (God rest her soul) told me that gambling is the worst ever disease. “For every addiction, whether it’s drink, drugs, or whatever, your body will tell you when you have had enough – except for gambling. You can lose all your money, your house and even your family but it’s up to you to learn when you’ve had enough. Your body won’t tell you”
Dating is like a night at the casino. You go out in some nice clothes after having had a shower so you don’t smell too bad. You awkwardly make your way in and stumble up to a few spots where you think you might get lucky. You win some, you lose some. You win big, you lose big. It’s just a series of ups and downs. Eventually you have to decide when you are not going to get any better and cash in your chips.
Where dating is different of course is that it takes two people to decide whether or not your time to cash in your chips is the right time or not. I have in the past decided “OK this is fine for me, I’ll just cash in my chips now. I’ve had a wonderful time but I think that’s me for the evening.” Then you go to the cashier and get mugged. Then it’s back to withdrawing more money.
To be honest I haven’t properly thought this through. What are your thoughts? Have you got a better metaphor? Tell me: Dating is like…. what?
Things To Get Your Head Around When Involved With A Chinese
Published November 1, 2009 Uncategorized 2 CommentsTags: ceremonies, China, chinese, chinese girlfriend, chinese wedding, dating chinese, horse, superstition, wedding
So I am getting married to a Chinese girl. (Never saw that one coming.) God has got funny dice…
There are some things to get your head around when you get involved with a Chinese person.
They don’t all smoke because “it’s cool”.- They don’t all smoke.
- They are really superstitious.
- They may not talk about their superstitions but that doesn’t mean that that they aren’t superstitious.
- They are incredibly polite individuals – generally.
- The land that they come from, China, is actually huge – 1.3 billion people live there (out of the planet’s 6 billion).
- They all believe that they are equal and know that some are more equal than others.
- They know that the difference in the east and the west is not a lot – except the east is better of course.
- Up until recently all the Chinese people were issued a home by the state.
- They seem to all like Disney.
I find the last point particularly strange considering Disney’s anti-communist stance. There are loads of other things I have learnt about the Chinese but I’ll save them for the years to come. I have never been to China. Am going at end of November… to meet my parents-in-law. Met them before on Skype of course you understand. How the world has changed…
So I am getting married to a Chinese girl. (Really never saw that one coming. Not in a million years.) The Chinese, being the superstitious people that they are believe that they can only marry on certain days. Actually they believe that some days are ok for getting married on, others are lucky days and there’s the definite days not to get married on. As a sign of confidence we are getting hitched on one of the regular days.
Then there is the fact that we are having two ceremonies: one in England and one in China. Lín had to check that it’s ok for us to have two ceremonies and it’s is – it could very easily have been bad luck to have two ceremonies so it’s best to check.
So I am getting married to a Chinese girl, in England and then in China. As I say, you can’t plan these things. You can only go along with what life throws at you. I’m enjoying the journey. Speaking of journeys, the Chinese involves me dressing up in a red robe and riding a horse and Lín tucked away in a carriage being carried by some locals. I hear there’ll be 500 guests at our wedding in China. Cool!
Time To Get Honest, Time To Grow Up
Published November 1, 2009 Relationships 3 CommentsTags: Blogging, China, chinese wife, engagement, growing up, Relationships
I met a Chinese girl at the start of October 2008. She was very cute and very sweet. I had no plans to settle down in England so I never thought it’d turn into anything serious, but as with everything in my life I just went along with it.
With that defeatist thinking it took a lot of growing up for me to realise that this very cute and very sweet girl was also very adorable. I really had a lot of growing up to do to realise that this girl was worth holding onto. I had a lot lot to get my head around though: she’s Chinese for a start.
What does that mean? It means that she is an only child and her parents live on the other side of the planet. It also means that I’ll probably not be able to have a deep and meaningful conversation with them within the next five years at least anyway. So yeah, a hell of a lot to get my head around.
I am sure there are quotes out there that someone can help me with but the one that springs to my mind now is that love knows no bounds. I just got sucked up into the whole thing. I was so reluctant at the start. I was actually dismissive, but the more honest and true she kept being, the more adorable she became. And the more precious.
A year ago my life was a horribly selfish affair. I had been living in London for a long time and the whole London thing had turned me into a man who’d become so jaded with wasting time he’d be selfish with every second of his day. I didn’t care too much about what people thought of me: as long as I was getting the most out of any given situation. I know I was not always like that. I stepped up the gears to adapt to London life. Now, after spending time with a girl who can only be described as pure, I dissolved back into my old self. My old self of the Irish countryside and all the time in the world to spend in the happy moment. How could I possibly not hold onto this girl?
Yeah, yeah, like it’s all my decision. Like it’s my choice that we end up together. Absolute nonsense. Love is a two way street, and often there are roadworks going on. I nearly lost her. Loads of times. In fact she even dumped me once (or twice) (or maybe even three times) but there is a very strange belief in China. If you are to be together then it has been decided before you were born. So somehow, on this path that shouldn’t hold any traffic, with these two people who’s worlds are the furthest apart – both in terms of geography and in terms of culture – love was flowing; the traffic was continuing.
I’ve been blogging for a long time but have never blogged about my love life. Now that changes. Lín and I are getting married and I want to track this time. I want to capture it and share it, as well as making my blog a bit more wholesome. It’s a leap of faith, but isn’t that what marriage is all about?
Image by Walt Jabsco
When I first started blogging in 2001 I put up a recording I made with a friend who was acting as someone else. I was playing the part of a mock-interviewer. In a way that first foray into exposing myself online I used a mask. Since that time I have slowly been revealing more and more of the real me: real opinions and thoughts. Up until about recently I kept two things secret: who I worked for and who I dated. In 2007 I then came out of the employer’s closet and told people who I worked for. Now I am taking that final step into the online world and I have decided to blog about my love life.
I was so inspired by The Cult’s gig at Royal Albert Hall the other day I learnt She Sells Sanctuary and played it in New Cross Inn on Tuesday night. The crowd seemed to like it. Thanks to Seb for the camera work 
Thanks to Katie Grayson for sending this to me. I wonder if it is good collaboration or some crazed dictitatorial director. Either way it is amazing.
The Cult – Original Line Up Perform At Royal Albert Hall: Review
Published October 11, 2009 Uncategorized 6 CommentsThe Cult performed their entire Love album as part of their “Love” Live Tour and then some of their later stuff. The band consisting of Billy Duffy (guit) and Ian Astbury (voc) with John Tempesta (drums), Mike Dimkich (rhy guitar) and Chris Wyse (bass) played a blinding set and a rocking encore. The sound was awesome even in the nosebleeds. Duffy played on two White Falcons, one of which is the original he used for the Love album which he claims never comes out of the cupboard. For the first encore he played a selection of Les Pauls.
Astbury and Duffy then came back out and introduced the additional members from original line up Jamie Stewart (bass) and Mark Brzezicki (drums). Was nice to be there for that. I managed to capture some of She Sells Santuary before I ran out of memory for my camera.
- “Nirvana”
- “Big Neon Glitter”
- “Love”
- “Brother Wolf, Sister Moon”
- “Rain”
- “The Phoenix”
- “Hollow Man”
- “Revolution”
- “Sanctuary”
- “Black Angel”
Encore 1:
- “Electric Ocean”
- “Wildflower”
- “Sun King”
- “Rise”
- “Dirty Little Rockstar”
- “Fire Woman”
- “Love Removal Machine”
Encore 2: With Jamie Stewart and Mark Brzezicki
- “The Phoenix”
- “Sanctuary”
Longplayer Live – Review Of The First Performance
Published September 15, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: douglas benford, Jem Finer, laura williams, longplayer, longplayer live, tibetan bowls
It has been said that no artist completes his work he merely abandons it. What about scientists doing artistic projects then? Jem Finer, banjo player of the Pogues and graduate of computer science has come up with a piece of music that is due to run for 1000 years (without looping) called Longplayer. Yesterday was the first live performance of a piece of the music.
The performance lasted 1000 minutes running from 08:20 on Sat 12 Sept 2009 until 01:00 Sun 13 Sep 2009 BST. Using 234 bowls and six players Longplayer Live was performed in the Roundhouse in Camden.
I had been to Longplayer’s flagship location at the Lighthouse in Trinity Buoy Wharf, London before but it gave me no preparation in terms of what to expect for the live show. The Roundhouse was transformed into a temple.
Bowls sitting on six wooden circles differing in size spanning the Roundhouse. People sitting around, mostly meditating. The space was delicately lit. The sound PA was arranged in a circular fashion which meant that the sound was bouncing off the walls in the best fashion. In fact if there were any space made for this piece of music this was it.
I got talking with Douglas Benford who was about to go perform. He explained that the performers had a visual score and rotated every 10 minutes. He also explained that he was on in about one minute so I let him go.
I took some pictures and then chilled out.
When I was leaving I noticed that I had slowed down. I wasn’t feeling rushed. I was in the now.I got talking with Laura Williams who had been performing. She elaborated on the arrangement of the music explaining that the visual score had got to do with pegs and pieces of wood. She said that musically it was very interesting to play as you could hear all the harmonics shift along. After some talking it turned out that Laura was the lady behind the Aluna project. She then explained to me that the earth, moon and the sun were in the same place every 19 years. For fear of my head exploding due to all the mathematics I left.
I turned to my friend and asked her what she thought she said “It was like a temple.” I have to agree.
This project is truly staggering and mindblowing project. Every time I look into it again I am left astounded.
Handy links
Interview with Jem Finer – Made during the piece by Documentally
Kurt Cobain As Bon Jovi On Guitar Hero
Published September 10, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: bon jovi, daniel johnston, dave grohl, guitar hero, hi how are you, kurt cobain, nirvana, you give love a bad name
Please tell me on how many levels the wrongness of which this is, thanks.
(Note that he is wearing a Daniel Johnston Hi How Are You tshirt as he wore towards the end.)
I recorded this song a couple of years back. It’s a great song by Daniel Johnston. I have always meant to record it “properly” but hey Daniel has yet to do that also. I stuck the song on my iPhone and walked about the London Eye with my Canon G9 on video mode. I would have liked there to have been more of my legs but I also would have liked to have had a tambourine from the second verse onwards. I am pleased with the outcome. It’s difficult walking at that pace in amongst all those people. I might get back into recording again. It’s been over a year since I recorded something properly.
All Bosses Should Ban Facebook Says Theo Paphitis
Published September 4, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Picture by spentrails
“The explosion in online activity has resulted in an orgy of self-indulgence and exhibitionism” says TV Dragon Theo Paphitis and all bosses should copy him and “ban Facebook from the workplace.”
Time-wasters will time-waste and they don’t need Facebook to do it.
Social sites do offer great opportunities for people to collaborate. Now even McKinsey are writing about ‘How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0′. With these guys championing it you can bet that the big companies of this world will be listening to some well invested research rather than the rants of a man who sells stationary and whose wife (Mrs. P) plays online bingo every night – by his own admission.
Hackpact #3
Published September 3, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: hackpact, Honda, no parking, toplap
Here’s the setlist from the Cult’s gig in Prince’s pad First Avenue in Minneapolis:
- Nirvana
- Big Neon Glitter
- Love
- Brother Wolf, Sister Moon
- Rain
- The Phoenix
- Hollow Man
- Revolution
- Sanctuary
- Black Angel
Encore:
- Electric Ocean
- Wildflower
- Illuminated
- Rise
- Fire Woman
- Dirty Little Rockstar
- Love Removal Machine
Basically it’s the Love album with some of their rockier stuff at the end. I’m going to check them out in Royal Albert Hall in London next month. Should be great. Have you seen them on this tour? What did you think?
My coding friend alex (aka yaxu) has instigated a month long event called Hackpact. For fear of mixing his message I quote:
In the tradition of daily live coding practice a few people have formed a hack pact to make something new every day in September. I’ve got a London Haskell User Group talk coming up on September 17th and a livecoding gig at the planetarium in Plymouth on 21st September, so my daily hack will be focussed on getting my Haskell stuff in order and practicing with it. I’ll document my progress on this blog.
In other news, a couple of film crews attended the last pubcode, and the bbc feature has appeared on their website. Features excellent livecoded algorithmic dancing from Yee-King and Click Nilson.
I wanted to get involved but this month I will struggle with time. I requested if I could post images. alex encouraged my input saying “The point isn’t to dedicate loads of time, but to have discipline to practice creating something every day.”
So get involved if you want to! Here is the link to my Hackpact activity.
The Moon Is On Fire
Published September 1, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Best Rough Pub, London, Michael Hutchence, Montague Arms, Punk, ska, Stooges, The Fall, The Moon, Zombie Met Girl
Photo by FatMandy
Saw The Moon in Montague Arms a couple of Fridays ago. In fact it was the night before I went to see U2 in Wembley. The Moon have been going through a number of line-up changes lately but now they seem to have hit on a great line up.
Big Jim is still on guitar and Seb is on Drums. Now Phil has moved from other guitar over to bass and Joe Moon is still providing the vocals.
The Montague Arms is a great venue. Recently been voted the best rough pub in Britain. It’s a cavern of unpredictability and the perfect scene to see The Moon perform. Joe Moon was on fire that night. Bucklepping like a wild eejit on crystal meth he lit the place up with his energy. The band were sitting the grooves down as solid as anything.
I was there with my mate Dave who was in total awe of the Montague. (If you haven’t been there, go!) Dave then turned round to me during The Moon’s set and said, “These guys are great. Every song is completely different to the next one.” We then talked about the overall sound: Stooges; The Fall; Punk; Ska; Michael Hutchence!
Between The Moon and Zombie Met Girl, there is a musical greatness happening in South East London. Unfortunately I missed ZMG who were supporting that night – though I have seen them and they are awesome.
The Moon are on fire. If you haven’t seen them, do. If you get an opportunity to see them in the Montague, go. If Zombie Met Girl are on the same bill, be there.
At Notting Hill Carnival
Published August 30, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: carnival, London, notting hill, notting hill carnival
Bad Disco on Radio 3 tonight
Published August 29, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: bad disco, Ed Bennett, electro-acoustic, instrumental, radio3
My mate Ed Bennett’s ‘Bad Disco’ is being played on Radio3 tonight at 10:45. Check it out on the Radio3 website.
Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces an intriguing selection of instrumental and electro-acoustic music recorded by the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast.
Michael Alcorn: Mambo (1998) 9:03
Ed Bennett: Bad Disco (2008) 6:43
Piers Hellawell: Degrees of Separation (2004) 10:52
Ulster Orchestra
Fergus Shiel (conductor)
Michael Alcorn: Synapse (2003) 6:59
Andriessen: Dances (1991) 24:07
Marije van Stralen (soprano)
Ulster Orchestra
Gavin Maloney (conductor)
Recorded Sept 2008 in Montague Arms, New Cross, London
U2 Live In Wembley
Published August 15, 2009 Music Reviews Leave a CommentTags: Concert, Review, Root Note, Stadium, U2, Wembley
Saw U2 perform at Wembley, London tonight as part of their 360 tour. The band were on fine form and played all the classics:
- Breathe
- No Line On The Horizon
- Get On Your Boots
- Magnificent
- Beautiful Day / London Bridge Is Falling Down (snippet)
- Until The End Of The World / Break On Through (snippet)
- New Year’s Day
- I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)
- Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
- Unknown Caller
- The Unforgettable Fire
- City Of Blinding Lights
- Vertigo
- I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
- Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet)
- Pride (In The Name Of Love) – Larry made a mess of this at the end. Was quite funny.
- MLK
- Walk On
- Where The Streets Have No Name
Encores I
- One
- Bad / Fool To Cry (snippet) / 40 (snippet)
Encores II
- Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
- With Or Without You
- Moment of Surrender
Man of the match has to go to Adam for his general root note activity. He is so cool he doesn’t even have to bother with backing vocals. Just stand there and pump out that root note.
Was on the heathrow express listening to When Doves Cry on my iPhone. The woman ticket inspector just came by looking for tickets. (She was kinda hot. Very hot for a ticket inspector.)
I showed her the Purple Rain artwork on my iPhone and explained that I won’t be needing a ticket. “Oh!” she said,”….have you any documentation?” I showed her the picture of Prince on the motorbike again and told her again that I didn’t need any as I was listening to the Purple (on the) One.
She laughed and then asked me for my ticket which I showed to her and on she went.
Why Twitter Rocks!
Published August 13, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Gibson, graham parker, guns'n'roses, Les Paul, luthier, slash, slashhudson
Twitter is great for generating business but it’s main attraction is for you to connect with the people who inspire you. I found out from @SlashHudson (lead guitarist of Guns’n'Roses) that Les Paul (the man who invented the guitar Slash plays) died today. This was Slash the man who brought the Gibson Les Paul sound to a whole new global audience with his intro of Sweet Child O’ Mine telling me that the man who was responsible for his guitar sound was dead. That rocks! And obviously I found from him before it broke on the rest of the news. Awesome.
Here’s Les Paul with my mate Graham Parker Luthier:
Playing The Building – Roundhouse, Camden, London
Published August 9, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Art, Art Installation, Camden, David Byrne, Flutes, Gin, Horses, Installation, London, Motors, Pillars, Pipes, Playing The Building, Roundhouse, Sound Installation., Talking Heads
I went to check out David Byrne’s Playing The Building art installation today in the Roundhouse in Camden. The Roundhouse was built in the late 19th century as place to turn around trains. There are tunnels that stretch from the basement to the stables market. This was used to ferry horses up to turn the trains around. Then after there was no need to do this the building was turned into a factory for producing gin. Now it’s an art piece.
There was a bit of a queue to get in but it didn’t take long, maybe 15 minutes. We were warned that it’d take about 40 mins to get to actually play the thing. The thing being an organ which when played triggers off three different types of sounds: motors; pipes and pillars. The keyboard of the organ is in fact a control panel which switches different valves sending compressed air through a bunch of pipes. At the end of each pipe is a different “machine” which manufactures the sounds. The bass keys control motors, the mid range sends air through pipes which make a flute noise and the trebels trigger hammers which hit the pillars.There were no speakers being used in the space.
Seeing the queue was so long I lay down beside a pillar. It was strangely relaxing to feel the pillar being banged every so often. I noticed that the pipes (flute sounds) were mostly coming from the other side of the room so I moved over there and lay down again.
The different members of the public playing the thing created different feels but mostly it just sounded like a strange racket. It wasn’t as loud as I was expecting but it was good. My friend who came with me found it so soothing she fell asleep. But she loved it.
Towards the close of the day – about an hour later maybe – I noticed that the queue was quite small. I joined it. The lady informed us – the last people in the queue – that she was supposed to turn it off at 6 but she’d wait til we got a go. Very nice of her. We jumped on and played away. I found the motors to be the best sounds, they were properly placed in the bass keys. I noticed that the pipes were seemingly in tune but after some tinkering they weren’t at all. The pillars in the treble were just a bit too much – I had heard enough of them over the previous hour.
I found the whole thing as I say strangely relaxing. Probably more art than music. But hey, what the hell is music? Just a bunch of sounds at the end of the day.
Did you play it? What did you think?
WordPress vs. Squarespace
Published August 8, 2009 Uncategorized 1 CommentTags: Bright Beehive, squarespace, templates, Wordpress
I have found the limitations of WordPress.com too much and have decided to move http://brightbeehive.com to http://www.squarespace.com. Even as I move over to Squarespace I am finding limitations there also which is a bit frustrating. Still, I think Squarespace offers templates that are more malleable than WordPress.
What do you think? What have you thought? Would be interested to learn from you all.
U2 Review Dublin – Croke Park
Published July 28, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: 360, setlist, tour, U2
U2 came onto the stage today at about 20:50 and played til 23:00. They were in great form and paid a big tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi and a special message from Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu. The 360 set is cool. Here’s the set. Post me your thoughts
setlist
- Breathe
- No Line On The Horizon
- Get On Your Boots
- Magnificent
- Beautiful Day
- New Year’s Day
- I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Movin’ On Up (snippet)
- Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
- Unknown Caller
- The Unforgettable Fire
- City Of Blinding Lights
- Vertigo
- I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Relax (snippet) / Two Tribes (snippet)
- Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
- Pride (In The Name Of Love)
- MLK, Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
- Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet
- One
- 40 (snippet) / Bad / Fool To Cry (snippet)
encores:
- Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
- With Or Without You / Shine Like Stars (snippet)
- Moment of Surrender
Teresa Cahill RIP
Published July 9, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Irish Kidney Association
It is with both sadness and yet relief that I can report that my aunt Teresa passed away shortly before 8pm this evening. She was 73 and on her third kidney. May she rest in peace.
Please go here if you would like to make a difference to the people in desperate need of a kidney.
Recent Comments