Morning Campers!
Imagine the scene . . .you've been invited to a party. You hand over your coat to your hosts and they also offer to get you a drink. What do you do to keep yourself occupied while you wait?
If this was yours truly, I'd be having a nose at their CD collection. Back in the day it'd be their record collection - remember them? Nowadays, we all download tracks or albums from Itunes.
I don't know about you, but checking out someone's CD collection is a great way of learning about someone. Noticing someone has an album that you have is a great way of learning more about someone, enhancing your appreciaion of them or maybe re-evaluating your relationship with him or her!
I bring this up because none other than Jon Bon Jovi has lamented the demise of the CD and the record thanks to the rise and rise of the download and the Ipod courtesy of Steve Jobs, your man at Apple.
Jon Bon Jovi reckons that generations will miss out on the excitement of the purchase of the album from the store and the feeling of being alive with nervous anticipation as you put the album on, listen to it with your headphones on turning the sound right upto almost Spinal Tap like levels to truly appreciate the new CD from that particular band or singer.
Now, modern technology is wonderful. Let's face it I would not have met my wife if it wasn't for the miracles of the aforementioned modern technology! However, there's something comforting about buying a CD and looking at the album cover, reading the lyrics of the CD and listening to that album. To me, the download, although wonderful, is cold and clinical. Just click and it's done.
I suppose we'll all get used to it eventually. We got used to saying "2011" after "19. . ." and I suppose we'll get used to this. I'm beginning to feel a tad middle aged at the moment because the beyond meteoric rise of tablet computers has left me thinking "wow . . " and leaving me a tad bemused!
I remember the excitement of buying singles from Martins The Newsagents in the Shopping Precinct back home in West Heath, Congleton back in the 1970's and 1980's. 69p they cost! Then as I got older I graduated to albums - that's after embracing the joys of 12" singles! Now, here's one final thought. We've just put our whole CD collection onto the computer. It was a bloody big job believe you me! It dawned on us that we'll never buy a CD again . . . how strange is that?
Eddie
'The Nightclub Featuring The Late English Breakfast" video memory.
As this blog celebrates our show, which is now two years off-air ( hard to imagine I think ) I thought it only appropriate to feature a video of a song that celebrated our show, which featured the best of our non-British and British collection of songs. We featured classic tracks, new artists that caught our imagination. Every once in a while we'd play a fun British comedy tune.
To start this feature, the British selection is a British punk classic from 1978. It's a song of lost love . . . "Jilted John" by Jilted John. It's a song that got to #4 in August 1978.
It is a video from Top of The Pops from 1978. Hmmm . . . Top of The Pops . . . an idea for a feature has just occurred to me for a future blog!
The non-British selection is something from our catch phrase . . . "We play everything from Sinatra to The Stones" - Frank himself! Here he is singing "That's Life" a classy piece of music.
Adios amigos
Eddie
Friday, March 25, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Our Fave!
Hello All!
In our spare room we have a poster signed by James Hunter. James Hunter is someone we've featured here and on our radio show in days gone by on numerous occasions.
We first heard him when we were visiting Barnes and Noble what seems like ages ago! When we heard that Van Morrison said he was a big fan well we knew he mustn't be too bad!
We were not wrong! We've seen him three times, once at The Calvin Theatre in Northampton, when he supported Los Lobos, and twice at two sell-out shows at The Ironhorse in Northampton (http://www.iheg.com/ )
Here's the great man in action from our trip to The Ironhorse last year. As you can tell, his music is sublime. It transports you to the lost years of nightclubs, blues bars of Chicago.
Here's what his recordd label has to say about him:
"James Hunter was born October 2, 1962 into a working-class family in Colchester, Essex. ―It wasn‘t quite like growing up with the blues in Alabama but in my part of England, anywhere south of Watford would be considered Alabama!‖ he notes with a hearty laugh. ―In the States, you‘ve got the Mason-Dixon Line and in England, we‘ve got the Watford Gap.‖
Among James‘ earliest musical influences were a collection of 78 r.p.m. discs of Fifties rock & roll and rhythm & blues given to him by his grandmother; and his older brother Perry, ―the one responsible for me learning how to play a G chord.‖ (Perry Hunter later became an accomplished acoustic guitarist; he performs regularly on the Midlands folk club circuit, playing in a traditional finger-picking style.)
James‘ passion for the music of the Fifties and Sixties never waned as he toiled for seven years as a railway lock fitter in Colchester, tending to a Victorian-era safety feature found in signal boxes. He put together his first band to play at the Colchester Labor Club; his first original song, the Muddy Waters-style ―Evil Eye,‖ was composed in 1984 for a mostly-rockabilly compilation entitled Dance To It. Later in the decade, he released three albums as Howlin‘ Wilf & the Vee-Jays before Ace Records issued James Hunter‘s solo debut, Believe What I Say, featuring guest appearances by Van Morrison and the late Doris Troy. James‘ second solo album, Kick It Around, was produced by Morrissey guitarist Boz Boorer and released on Ruf Records of Germany in 2001.
In the early Nineties, Van Morrison was stopped at a London newsstand when a fan approached and began regaling him about this great unknown rhythm & blues singer he‘d heard. Van went to hear James at a gig in Wales and subsequently hired him as a backup singer for several years of touring and recording. James appeared on Morrison‘s live album, A Night in San Francisco (1994), and on the studio set, Days Like This (1995). But by 2003, James Hunter was 41 years old and without a record deal or a gig. His dreams of a career in music were rapidly fading.
―I went through a particularly skint time,‖ he later told an interviewer. ―I was forced to do laboring jobs through an agency. It was terrible. I discovered that busking [playing for tips on the streets of London] was better. The hours were more sociable; the pay was better, and the crack addicts were far better company.‖
Steve Erdman had been a James Hunter fan for nearly 20 years, ever since the first time he‘d seen James playing on the street in Camden. In late 2003, Erdman and his partner, Kimberly Guise, created GO Records to release a new James Hunter album. ―The sole purpose of the company was getting me recorded,‖ says the singer. ―It was extraordinarily nice of them.‖ Then came People Gonna Talk, and in its wake the reviews, the airplay, the award nominations, and loads of gigs.
With the release of The Hard Way, James Hunter takes a giant step toward staking his place in the pop-soul pan¬theon alongside Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, Charlie Rich and Van Morrison. In his typically straight¬forward and self-effacing way, the singer told The Boston Globe: ―The history [of rhythm & blues] is so rich with great singers and performers. I‘m just trying to tap into that vein and try to make music that is about love and romance and heartbreak—all those great things that will fuel songs long after we‘re here.‖
At home, on the road, or in the studio, James Hunter is rarely without his 16mm Bolex movie camera.
―I really love making these home movies, and I also collect 16mm films including other people‘s long-forgotten home movies. I‘ve always got the camera with me—I want to document all this because I‘ll be back in Colchester one day and I want someone to believe me when I tell them what happened!‖"
We eagerly await his new album.
""House" Of Blues"
I see that Hugh Laurie, that oh so talented actor and fellow Brit, has released a blues album! Is there no end to this man's talents? Did you know that this very educated man was a rower of note, having once taken part in the famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race?
His album is out in May . . . here's a sneak preview of his musical talent . . .enjoy!
In our spare room we have a poster signed by James Hunter. James Hunter is someone we've featured here and on our radio show in days gone by on numerous occasions.
We first heard him when we were visiting Barnes and Noble what seems like ages ago! When we heard that Van Morrison said he was a big fan well we knew he mustn't be too bad!
We were not wrong! We've seen him three times, once at The Calvin Theatre in Northampton, when he supported Los Lobos, and twice at two sell-out shows at The Ironhorse in Northampton (http://www.iheg.com/ )
Here's the great man in action from our trip to The Ironhorse last year. As you can tell, his music is sublime. It transports you to the lost years of nightclubs, blues bars of Chicago.
Here's what his recordd label has to say about him:
"James Hunter was born October 2, 1962 into a working-class family in Colchester, Essex. ―It wasn‘t quite like growing up with the blues in Alabama but in my part of England, anywhere south of Watford would be considered Alabama!‖ he notes with a hearty laugh. ―In the States, you‘ve got the Mason-Dixon Line and in England, we‘ve got the Watford Gap.‖
Among James‘ earliest musical influences were a collection of 78 r.p.m. discs of Fifties rock & roll and rhythm & blues given to him by his grandmother; and his older brother Perry, ―the one responsible for me learning how to play a G chord.‖ (Perry Hunter later became an accomplished acoustic guitarist; he performs regularly on the Midlands folk club circuit, playing in a traditional finger-picking style.)
James‘ passion for the music of the Fifties and Sixties never waned as he toiled for seven years as a railway lock fitter in Colchester, tending to a Victorian-era safety feature found in signal boxes. He put together his first band to play at the Colchester Labor Club; his first original song, the Muddy Waters-style ―Evil Eye,‖ was composed in 1984 for a mostly-rockabilly compilation entitled Dance To It. Later in the decade, he released three albums as Howlin‘ Wilf & the Vee-Jays before Ace Records issued James Hunter‘s solo debut, Believe What I Say, featuring guest appearances by Van Morrison and the late Doris Troy. James‘ second solo album, Kick It Around, was produced by Morrissey guitarist Boz Boorer and released on Ruf Records of Germany in 2001.
In the early Nineties, Van Morrison was stopped at a London newsstand when a fan approached and began regaling him about this great unknown rhythm & blues singer he‘d heard. Van went to hear James at a gig in Wales and subsequently hired him as a backup singer for several years of touring and recording. James appeared on Morrison‘s live album, A Night in San Francisco (1994), and on the studio set, Days Like This (1995). But by 2003, James Hunter was 41 years old and without a record deal or a gig. His dreams of a career in music were rapidly fading.
―I went through a particularly skint time,‖ he later told an interviewer. ―I was forced to do laboring jobs through an agency. It was terrible. I discovered that busking [playing for tips on the streets of London] was better. The hours were more sociable; the pay was better, and the crack addicts were far better company.‖
Steve Erdman had been a James Hunter fan for nearly 20 years, ever since the first time he‘d seen James playing on the street in Camden. In late 2003, Erdman and his partner, Kimberly Guise, created GO Records to release a new James Hunter album. ―The sole purpose of the company was getting me recorded,‖ says the singer. ―It was extraordinarily nice of them.‖ Then came People Gonna Talk, and in its wake the reviews, the airplay, the award nominations, and loads of gigs.
With the release of The Hard Way, James Hunter takes a giant step toward staking his place in the pop-soul pan¬theon alongside Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, Charlie Rich and Van Morrison. In his typically straight¬forward and self-effacing way, the singer told The Boston Globe: ―The history [of rhythm & blues] is so rich with great singers and performers. I‘m just trying to tap into that vein and try to make music that is about love and romance and heartbreak—all those great things that will fuel songs long after we‘re here.‖
At home, on the road, or in the studio, James Hunter is rarely without his 16mm Bolex movie camera.
―I really love making these home movies, and I also collect 16mm films including other people‘s long-forgotten home movies. I‘ve always got the camera with me—I want to document all this because I‘ll be back in Colchester one day and I want someone to believe me when I tell them what happened!‖"
We eagerly await his new album.
""House" Of Blues"
I see that Hugh Laurie, that oh so talented actor and fellow Brit, has released a blues album! Is there no end to this man's talents? Did you know that this very educated man was a rower of note, having once taken part in the famous Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race?
His album is out in May . . . here's a sneak preview of his musical talent . . .enjoy!
See you next time - Eddie
Words Don't Come Easy!
Hey Up!
Continuing, in a manner of speaking, from my last post about words . . . just found this interesting little clip from The Ellen DeGeneres Show when Hugh Laurie was on . . . comparing different slang phrases from our two countries - was fun to watch!
Eddie
Continuing, in a manner of speaking, from my last post about words . . . just found this interesting little clip from The Ellen DeGeneres Show when Hugh Laurie was on . . . comparing different slang phrases from our two countries - was fun to watch!
It's fascinating to compare . . . what was it Oscar Wilde said - two countries separated by a language??!!Eddie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)