Seaside Man

Delia’s Gone by Johnny Cash was one of the first songs I recorded on youtube, over a year ago. That first performance was pretty poor, so I thought I’d do it again. Here it is:

Cheers, Tom.

The other day, Garden Girl commented that when visiting Aberystwyth, she and her husband had noticed seagulls apparently nesting on the roofs of houses and asked me if I'd seen this. I replied in the affirmative and then realised that I didn't have a picture, so the above is that. I couldn't actually see the nest, but presumably the chicks were close to it.

Wild Nature really does seem to be adapting to humanity. Rats were one of the first to adapt. When I lived in High Wycombe it was common to see rats in the streets in daylight, trotting down the pavement. At least they obeyed the Green Cross Code. Now, we get moles, foxes, all manner of birds and other creatures all happily subsisting off human detritus.

Seagulls are frequently found a long way inland now, feeding off discarded take-aways and chips (which are of course their natural seaside food). I used to see them in High Wycombe all the time, and that's quite a long way inland.

Give it another 100 years and we'll be fighting them for food.

Cheers, Tom.

...That's my dream. That's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor, and surviving" - words spoken by Marlon Brando in "Apocalypse Now"

The horror, the horror...

Because of their thick slime, snails really can do that.

Cheers, Tom.

P.S. Click the picture to see the snails larger...

"Everyone is the Ploughman, Everyone is the Seed
Everyone is the harvest and everyone yields
In the garden of many fields there is no me no you
There is no up or down no right nor wrong
no black or white, everyone is the ploughman

Everyone is one with one love and one love is one with everyone

Stand and deliver!

We fight one another with borrowed philosophy
we fight one another with cultural change
we fight one another with god and country
we kill one another for someone else's pleasure and gain

Stand and Deliver!" -- Trans-Global Underground

Turn up LOUD!

Cheers, Tom.

On one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that I was hoping to find a single image to sum up the festival. I couldn't find one, but this one says quite a lot:

As with the previous days there was lots of wandering round, but luckily the ground had dried up so no wellies were needed. Fairly early on we saw a lot of Tom Jones' set on the Pyramid stage and he was really very good. I expect that will do his CD sales the world of good. Beth Rowley in the acoustic tent was also excellent, although she wasn't exactly acoustic. We also saw Roots Manuva who was great. It's nice to see some truly excellent British hip-hop. Bo Peep didn’t lose any of her sheep:

But I want to focus on the evening. There are many stages at Glastonbury and at about 10PM we had to choose between these acts who were all on at the same time:

The Prodigy, Black Eyed Peas, Blur, Echo & The Bunnymen, Gong, Peaches

I'd happily have watched any of them, but really I had to go see The Prodigy as I'd never seen them before and their live shows are legendary. Interestingly though, we did catch the last song by Steve Hillage and the 1st by Gong on the way to see The Prodigy, and both were excellent. I confess I didn't realise that Daevid Allen was still alive!

So, The Prodigy: they were good. Maxim and Keith were all over the stage with incredible energy whilst the music banged and boomed away in grand and epic style. They had the second deepest and heaviest bass I have ever heard, beaten only by Leftfield (and maybe Motorhead now I think about it). But there is a but. They were only on for 65 minutes - I timed them. For a Sunday night Glastonbury headline slot, that's outrageously short (Neil Young did 2 hours, Bruce Springsteen 2 hours 40 mins). They played their last song and then just abruptly disappeared, with no encore. Their were loud boos from all over the crowd. They have upset a lot of fans by doing this. Perhaps there was a valid reason for it, but we weren't told - they just left and that was it. Most disappointing. This is them on-stage, and I apologise for it being a bit blurred:

Straight after this we wandered up to the Stone Circle and I snapped this on the way:

I think that gives a pretty good feel for wandering round at night. About an hour later the heavens opened and the rain absolutely tipped down so we made our way slowly back to our tent. All in all, a great Glastonbury and we’ll most likely try to go again next year, if the great ticket god in the sky is willing!

Cheers, Tom.

 

Saturday was very hot and humid all day. Also, because the ground was still quite muddy in places wellies were required, so increasing the heat further. But, this didn't stop us from buzzing round the large site trying to take in as much as we could. Before anything though came tea:

Just what you need after crawling out of a steamy hot tent! And I don't mean "hot and steamy" in a good way - take a small tent with 2 people in it and blast the early morning sun onto it. After an hour or so of that you can't take any more, and it's probably only 8AM and you didn't go to bed until 5AM. Yes folks, lack of sleep is something to get used to if you go to this sort of festival! Official music finishes at midnight, but the official "quiet time" is 6AM until 11AM.

This was the scene in one of the more subdued dance tents at about mid-day. Not much going on yet, but I like the contrast between inside and outside:

I mentioned yesterday some of the strange, random things you see and this is one of them:

This was in the Jazz World field. The 2 blokes just appeared, boss with clipboard and worker and gradually erected the fence you can see before the worker stopped for a tea break. Last time I went, there was a bloke moving through the crowd throwing rubbish into a bin bag that had no bottom. He had "Shiteaway" written on the back of his jacket.

Later in the day the sun briefly slipped behind a cloud to reveal this serene scene:

... and then came out again to reveal this busy scene:

We saw lots of music today, including a lovely mellow techno set in the late afternoon and a folk ensemble who played the music from the film The Wicker Man. Consecutively in the Park field, we had the "Easy Star All Stars" playing the whole of Radiohead's OK Computer album in a reggae style, followed by a set from the great reggae singer Horace Andy, which included 2 Massive Attack songs. (which he sang on the records of).

Somewhere in the middle of the day, we saw an old hero of mine in the Cabaret tent - John Otway. He is still just as mad and brilliant as he always has been, and is still playing the same set and doing a brilliant job of it. If John Otway ever plays a gig near you, Go See Him and enjoy yourself!

When it was headliner time, it was a choice between Jarvis Cocker, Bruce Springsteen, Franz Ferdinand and Stereo MCs. Going to see Jarvis was an easy decision, far easier than Sunday's decision (which I will relate tomorrow). Jarvis was great and so was his band. The songs are all strong and he didn't play a single Pulp song. Very good performance, and he really knows how to get a crowd going.

One last picture. I took this one in the Stone Circle field just before the sun came up:

I like this one as it conveys the look and feel of the place at that time quite well. Lots of tired but happy people sitting and standing around just chilling out and chatting. Most pleasant.

Cheers, Tom.

(All the pictures get larger if you click on them; it can be hard to see details on the smaller ones)

One of the great pleasures of a truly large festival like Glastonbury is that you can just wander round and see new things everywhere you go: people, art, sculptures, cabaret, juggling, campaigning, clowning and all manner of general roving silliness. This applies just as much at night-time as during the day-time. There is music of every type everywhere. These two men in dresses seemed very happy:

You can just see in the background some graffiti that says "Mudwig is a Twazz". This was in many places on site and I have no idea what it means.

This is a fairly new area called the park:

It really felt like a park too, with families sat around picnicking and light music playing. On Saturday, we sat in more or less the same spot and heard the music from the film The Wicker Man played. It rained heavily for a while on Friday afternoon, making the area round our tents look like this:

This is the aftermath of the rain at the Jazz World stage:

Fairly early on we went in a tent playing some rather loud techno, and it looked like this:

All the music tents in addition to the larger stages are great places to go to to get out of either sun or rain, and each one has a different atmosphere, ambience and music.

Because the site is so large, it can take a long time to get from one stage to another, especially after a major artist has just finished, so if possible it makes sense to try and see pairs of things. So, on Friday afternoon we went to see Lamb followed by Steel Pulse in the Jazz World field. Both were excellent. Lamb were excellent as always with, as you might expect, a beautiful version of their best-known song Gorecki. Steel Pulse have an unusually proficient lead guitarist for a reggae band and they were immensely funky and entertaining.

The news of Michael Jackson's death swept the festival like wildfire on Friday evening. Lots of people were talking about it, and this makeshift shrine very quickly appeared as did endless sick jokes and lots of DJs mixing his songs in with other things all weekend:

After the sojourn in the Jazz World field, it was straight over to the Pyramid (main) stage for The Specials and Neil Young. We missed the start of The Specials, but they were great. Full of energy, and everyone in the crowd seemed to know all the words. They did particularly good versions of Too Much Too Young and Ghost Town. This is the sun setting behind them as they played:

And finally on Friday night, Neil Young. I’d been waiting for 30 years to see him and I was in no way at all let down. He was amazing, stupendous, brilliant. He came on with a totally raw and powerful version of My My Hey Hey, played a good selection of songs from throughout his career and ended with a barnstorming version of “Rocking in the Free World” that you could hear people singing round the site for the next few hours. His usual current encore of the Beatles song “A Day In The Life” was far better than I was expecting and put the Beatles insipid original quite to shame. He was on for a solid 2 hours.

You can just make him out in that picture (if you squint!), and the moon is just visible to the left of the stage too. My feet were absolutely killing me by this point and I was having to keep jiggling my weight from foot to foot as if I was desperate for a wee!

I’ll make a post about Saturday tomorrow.

Cheers, Tom.

When I looked through my Glastonbury pictures, I was hoping to find one single image that best represented the festival. I couldn't find just one, so I'll make 2 or 3 posts that give different snapshots of what you can see as you wander around the 2 square Mile site. This is the first such snapshot:

This is the inside of the Hare Krishna tent. I'll cover lots more such snapshots tomorrow.

Cheers, Tom.

Kodachrome film is being "retired" because of "declining demand". It's the end of an era, and digital is now unstoppable, at least for colour. Now that modern printers can do blacks properly, the end is probably in sight for B&W too. This is Kodachrome by Paul Simon:

 

This is a slideshow made by Kodak to show some of the things done with their film. I strongly recommend you have a look through the images as they are amazing:

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=15398&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=8135

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I'm off to Glastonbury in a few minutes so I won't be around in blogland for a while. Have fun everyone. I'll provide a full report and some photos on my return.

Cheers, Tom.

P.S. Thanks to Charlotte for suggesting the title and Paul Simon

I was at this one as well - Primal Scream:

It's basically a Rolling Stones song, but they are just excellent live!

The crowd went mental!

(For Stu)

This was the last song of their astonishing set...

Beth Ditto of The Gossip is an absolutely inspiring singer and frontwoman and has absolute LUNGS OF STEEL!!

This one from the Dance Tent:

1998

You can see how muddy it was in this clip...

All the subtle flavours of my life
are become bitter seeds
and poisoned leaves
without you
You represent what's true
I drain the colour from the sky
And turn blue
without you
These arms lack a purpose
Flapping like a humming-bird
I'm nervous 'cause
I'm the left eye
you're the right
Would it not be madness to fight
We come one
In you the song which rights my wrongs
In you the fullness of living
The power to begin again
From right now, in you
We come one
I'm not afraid
never never scared
Worries washed
pressed air
I am the left eye
you're the right
Would it not be madness to fight
We come one

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Another great Glastonbury performance by Faithless, and another one that I was at. This is an edited version - the song went on for about 15 minutes and I have never seen a crowd so into it, 100,000 people all going bonkers at the same time. At about the 4 1/2 minute point where it comes back, the crowd just turned into a roaring, seething mass of humanity all focussed on Maxi Jazz who, like Jarvis Cocker is one of the great lyricists and front-men of our time.

Virgin had a poll of the top 10 Glastonbury performances ever, and this one by Pulp came in at Number 6. Common People by Pulp:

Jarvis Cocker is a devastatingly good lyricist - one of the best of this age - and he is an excellent front man.

--------

She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge,
she studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College,
that's where I,
caught her eye.
She told me that her Dad was loaded,
I said "In that case I'll have a rum and coca-cola."
She said "Fine."
and in thirty seconds time she said,

"I want to live like common people,
I want to do whatever common people do,
I want to sleep with common people,
I want to sleep with common people,
like you."

Well what else could I do -
I said "I'll see what I can do."
I took her to a supermarket,
I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere,
so it started there.
I said pretend you've got no money,
she just laughed and said,
"Oh you're so funny."
I said "yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here.
Are you sure you want to live like common people,
you want to see whatever common people see,
you want to sleep with common people,
you want to sleep with common people,
like me."
But she didn't understand,
she just smiled and held my hand.
Rent a flat above a shop,
cut your hair and get a job.
Smoke some fags and play some pool,
pretend you never went to school.
But still you'll never get it right,
cos when you're laid in bed at night,
watching roaches climb the wall,
if you call your Dad he could stop it all.

You'll never live like common people,
you'll never do what common people do,
you'll never fail like common people,
you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.

Sing along with the common people,
sing along and it might just get you through,
laugh along with the common people,
laugh along even though they're laughing at you,
and the stupid things that you do.
Because you think that poor is cool.

(click the picture to enlarge it)

I've mentioned this before, but Borth Bog is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Cors Fochno (in the Welsh) is the only UNESCO biosphere reserve in Wales. It is a lowland raised peat bog (or mire) and is home to rare species of mosses, plants and birds. There are even three types of carnivorous plants. There are otters, Welsh Mountain Ponies, Peregrine Falcons, Red Kites, Marsh Harriers, ducks, geese, and many other types of bird. It’s no surprise that there is an RSPB observation hut - currently closed because birds are nesting in it!

In 2004, an archaeological dig was carried out to uncover an ancient timber track that had been covered for at least 1000 years. The results of the dig are on display in Aberystwyth museum.

It's also absolutely lovely. All the different coloured grasses and reeds glow in the late afternoon sun and there are enough different intriguing bird cries to thrill a Twitcher. Nice place to walk the dogs too, as long as they stay on the track.

Cheers, Tom.

Thirsty yet?

I've been checking to see what the weather looks like for Glastonbury this weekend and the reports are conflicting. One prediction says it'll be dry apart from a bit of rain overnight on Saturday, another predicts heavy rain for most of Friday afternoon and night. That latter option is a bad one as it means that the place will turn into a quagmire. We'll see...

But either way I'll need wellies and coats as well as shorts and hat. And also either way, the music will be excellent. I'm looking forward very much to both Neil Young and The Prodigy as well as to lots of lesser known artistes and some general weirdness too. It's gonna be good!

Cheers, Tom.

Just stick a pea inside each bee cosy and it keeps each one snug and warm.

Isn't nature wonderful!

Tom.

The term "genius" is thrown around far too easily these days for my liking. This is it's first definition at dictionary.com:

"an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work in science, art, music, etc"

The words "creative" and "original" are key there, I think. As far as music is concerned, I would say that there have been less than 100 true musical geniuses, and possibly even fewer than that. I would certainly put Brian Eno amongst them.

Eno has been very influential on music in a wide variety of genres in roles including writing, playing, producing, composing, singing, directing, and inventing. Ambient music probably would not have become so prominent without Eno (and he coined the term), and his thinking on "The use of the recording studio as a compositional tool" was groundbreaking.

Below is a track from his great album "Before and After Science". I was going to pick "Spider and I" because of the picture above, but I changed my mind and below you will find "Julie With". I played this song endlessly when I first got the album. I find it utterly calming and I would describe it as profoundly simple.

I Am On An Open Sea
Just Drifting As the Hours Go Slowly By
Julie With Her Open Blouse
Is Gazing Up Into the Empty Sky.

Now It Seems to Be So Strange Here
Now It's So Blue
The Still Sea Is Darker Than Before...

No Wind Disturbs Our Coloured Sail
The Radio Is Silent, So Are We
Julie's Head Is On Her Arm
Her Fingers Brush the Surface of the Sea.

Now I Wonder If We'll Be Seen Here
Or If Time Has Left Us All Alone
The Still Sea Is Darker Than Before..

Cheers, Tom.

I asked our very own brokendownangel Tracey to suggest a song for me to have a go at, and she suggested...Broken Down Angel by Nazareth. This is a classic pop/rock song from 1973 that was produced by Roger Glover of Deep Purple. I remember it well, and fondly, from when it was originally a hit (it got to number 9 in the UK singles chart). Here it is:

I skipped both the instrumental break towards the end and the repeat of the intro after the 1st chorus, and I bring it to a stop rather than fade it out. It is also slower and in a completely different style!

Cheers, Tom.

...I've got Sunshine in a Bag.

Good morning!

Tom.

A strong candidate for best performance of all time here, from Howling Wolf on the legendary 1964 Blues tour of England.

Cheers, Tom.

Let's hope for a good one!

Cheers, Tom.

I want a holiday with a scene
Of green, green and green

A summer of green trees
A landscape of green grass
A view full of green vegetables

The colour green
Is a beauty that must be seen!
From a moving vehicles screen

And while we hold onto those machines
That deprives us of the colour green
Remember they provide us vaccines
As well as help the air to be clean

So for green, green and green
I will travel continents across and in-between
And also to any place that I have never been
I will make it routine
Just to see green, green and green

-- Sylvia Chidi, 2006

This song by The Cocteau Twins from the album Treasure was one I couldn't stop playing. As a result, my vinyl copy of it got worse and worse in quality. Eventually, enough was enough and I just thought "this is silly - I need a non-destructive playback medium" (Yes, that was exactly how I thought).

This song contains both raw power and great beauty. Liz Fraser really has the voice of an angel, and when it's combined with melodies to die for, crashing guitar and powerful rhythms, then I couldn't want for more. This song still makes me shiver 25 years on.

I still don't have the faintest idea what she is singing about and I still don't care.

I should probably mention that I bought my CD player in 1986 and that was quite unusual at the time - none of my friends had one. I remember I had £300 to spend and I spent £200 on the player and the remaining £100 bought me just 9 CDs.

Tom.

I was overdue to record a blues song, so here it is. I start off quietly and get more raucous as it goes along. It's a bit rough and ready but improved by Shep by the side of me wondering what was going on, especially when I do the strangled cat impression!

Cheers, Tom.

The sun comes up but it is still quite dark. Mist hangs in the valley. A foal nuzzles it's mummy while a young horse runs round for the sheer joy of living. The cattle's feet sound heavy on the ground and their breath steams as they eat their grassy breakfast. The dew dampens your shoes and a crow caws in the distance. The grass smells green and fresh for it is late spring.

Behind a dark cloud, the sun lights up the sky.

Cheers, Tom.

A staple plot-line in detective/crime films used to be someone getting photographed doing something naughty and then bribed. They’d get sent an 8” * 10” photograph and be promised the negative in exchange for a large sum of money. The fact that the baddies might have used several cameras and/or several rolls of film never seemed to come up, but that’s not what I want to talk about.

Now that digital photography exists and is so ubiquitous, this entire plot idea is history. You can take a picture now with a camera-phone and within a couple of seconds have it uploaded onto a webpage where anyone in the world can see it. Anyone can then download it and modify it and then re-upload it. Within a short while, you can have your mate’s face on a donkey.

So imagine, for example, a politician digitally photographed snogging someone who isn’t their spouse. S/he could just deny it and say that the photograph has been photoshopped. The burden of proof now rests with the people taking the photograph (innocent until proven guilty and all that), whereas in the past the photograph itself actually was the proof. Passport photographs used to have to be B&W and done on film too.

A (digital) photograph now proves nothing. When I was at college this year, I overheard one of the students saying to another “Do you have a youtube clip to prove that”? It was tongue in cheek, but there is a basic truth in there that video is now required for evidence rather than a photograph.

But digital video is now no more reliable than a digital photograph. With time and effort you could change every pixel to show things that simply weren’t there and didn’t happen. So what comes next, what will replace video? Are we headed for a future where the only reliable evidence is that lots of people said you did it? How reliable is that?

Tom.