WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
24 May 2007
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with a little help from my friends And here the arrogance of record companies…expecting the rubber stamp. Becoming threatening when they dont get it… |
Thursday, May 24, 2007
JOHN LENNON’S FAVE MCCARTNEY TRACK WAS THINGS WE SAID TODAY
Sarah Pearson
Hi Gavin,
Have you had time to listen to the Scouting For Girls EP ‘Its Not About You’?
They have just gone on the Radio 1 C list (and upfront XFM)…they look set to be the band of the Summer…
With a different take on life and certainly not taking themselves too seriously, they are packing out gigs with their fan club members called ‘wolf cubs’ (they receive a hand made SFG booklet and secret code when they join)…
I’d love to know what you think…
x
Sarah Pearson
Wasted Youth PR
4th Floor
21-22 Great Castle Street
London
W1G 0HY
Tel: +44 (0) 207 493 5873
Fax: +44 (0) 207 493 8416
Mob: +44 (0) 7973 518025
Representing:
Keane, Magnet, The Answering Machine, Scouting For Girls, Lou Rhodes, Wheat, Bent, Real Ones, Cyann and Ben, The Lionheart Brothers, Peter and the Wolf, Mint Royale, LDN Is A Victim, Touriste, Jont, Punk Rock Baby
|
to Gavin
|
More options 2:35 pm (12 minutes ago)
Hi Gavin,
Have you had time to listen to the Scouting For Girls EP ‘Its Not About You’?
They have just gone on the Radio 1 C list (and upfront XFM)…they look set to be the band of the Summer…
With a different take on life and certainly not taking themselves too seriously, they are packing out gigs with their fan club members called ‘wolf cubs’ (they receive a hand made SFG booklet and secret code when they join)…
I’d love to know what you think…
x
Sarah Pearson
Wasted Youth PR
4th Floor
21-22 Great Castle Street
London
W1G 0HY
Tel: +44 (0) 207 493 5873
Fax: +44 (0) 207 493 8416
Mob: +44 (0) 7973 518025
Representing:
Keane, Magnet, The Answering Machine, Scouting For Girls, Lou Rhodes, Wheat, Bent, Real Ones, Cyann and Ben, The Lionheart Brothers, Peter and the Wolf, Mint Royale, LDN Is A Victim, Touriste, Jont, Punk Rock Baby
 Gavin Martin |
|
More options | 2:46 pm (0 minutes ago) | ||
JOHN LENNON’S FAVE MCCARTNEY TRACK WAS THINGS WE SAID TODAY
Sarah Pearson
Hi Gavin,
Have you had time to listen to the Scouting For Girls EP ‘Its Not About You’?
They have just gone on the Radio 1 C list (and upfront XFM)…they look set to be the band of the Summer…
With a different take on life and certainly not taking themselves too seriously, they are packing out gigs with their fan club members called ‘wolf cubs’ (they receive a hand made SFG booklet and secret code when they join)…
I’d love to know what you think…
x
Sarah Pearson
Wasted Youth PR
4th Floor
21-22 Great Castle Street
London
W1G 0HY
Tel: +44 (0) 207 493 5873
Fax: +44 (0) 207 493 8416
Mob: +44 (0) 7973 518025
Representing:
Keane, Magnet, The Answering Machine, Scouting For Girls, Lou Rhodes, Wheat, Bent, Real Ones, Cyann and Ben, The Lionheart Brothers, Peter and the Wolf, Mint Royale, LDN Is A Victim, Touriste, Jont, Punk Rock Baby
|
to Gavin
|
More options 2:35 pm (12 minutes ago)
Hi Gavin,
Have you had time to listen to the Scouting For Girls EP ‘Its Not About You’?
They have just gone on the Radio 1 C list (and upfront XFM)…they look set to be the band of the Summer…
With a different take on life and certainly not taking themselves too seriously, they are packing out gigs with their fan club members called ‘wolf cubs’ (they receive a hand made SFG booklet and secret code when they join)…
I’d love to know what you think…
x
Sarah Pearson
Wasted Youth PR
4th Floor
21-22 Great Castle Street
London
W1G 0HY
Tel: +44 (0) 207 493 5873
Fax: +44 (0) 207 493 8416
Mob: +44 (0) 7973 518025
Representing:
Keane, Magnet, The Answering Machine, Scouting For Girls, Lou Rhodes, Wheat, Bent, Real Ones, Cyann and Ben, The Lionheart Brothers, Peter and the Wolf, Mint Royale, LDN Is A Victim, Touriste, Jont, Punk Rock Baby
| Gavin Martin |
|
More options | 2:46 pm (0 minutes ago) | ||
No I barely have toime to listen to the A List at R!.
Let alone the C-List!
g
Let alone the C-List!
g
ELVIS COSTELLO DOESNT GET HAPPY
Below an email sent by Elvis Costello to journalist Robert Sandall after a recent Telegraph piece on Costello’s composition Shipbuilding.
It seems to be a common thread among certain musicians (Pete Townshend and Elton John come to mind) namely - they expect praise as a matter of course, its taken for granted. There’s no notes of thanks, champagne or chocs forthcoming for glowing reviews - but if something incurs their wrath then they fire off pompous faxes and emails.
As if some “entitlement” had been denied them!
I have loved Elvis in my time but I couldn’t help think, on reading this, of the shocked/are you having a laugh? expression on the face of the hapless punter who arrived at the bar , just as the show was about to start, on the last show of EC’s Country Darkness tour at Hammersmith Appollo/Labatts to be told that the bar was now shut.
Artists orders, apparently.
Welll, excuuuuuuuse me, I think that folks who pay out good money for tickets, brave the public transport system or road networks and car parking malarkey of Ole Londiminium are deserving of a quick livener before the Maestro does his thing.
One thing was for sure that trick wasn’t one even Elvis thought of playing at the much more raucous and lively show that began the tour, in Glasgows Barrowlands, a month previously…
Dear Mr. Sandall
>> I read your “Shipbuilding” article with some
>> bemusement. Are you really so vain as to think that my failure
>> provide a
>> quote for in
>> your nostalgic little article really denotes some embarrassment or
>> lack of
>> conviction on my part?
>>
>> You might regard this note as churlish given the praise that you
>> heaped upon
>> the song but let’s not let the facts get in the way of coming to a
>> smug
>> conclusion, never forgetting the opportunity to make a passing
>> slight to
>> unrelated
>> musical endeavours. What exactly IS an “uber-muso”? Why don’t you
>> talk
>> proper?
>>
>> I’m sure that, with you superior musical knowledge and grasp of the
>> English
>> language and German, unless I am mistaken, you could easily dismiss
>> any of
>> the
>> songs I’ve written out of the news headlines during the last twenty-
>> five
>> years
>> and detail the reasons why they remain obscure to you. Or perhaps
>> you simply
>> don’t listen very hard.
>>
>> If I sing “Bedlam” or “The Scarlet Tide” or “The River In Reverse”
>> - to
>> mention three - in a theatre or in a cellar, at the Grand Ole Opry
>> or with
>> the
>> Chicago Symphony, then I have to accept that some people may
>> disagree with
>> me
>> quite violently, even as others applaud. That is part of my job.
>> You may not
>> care
>> for these songs or regard them as effective but to deny their
>> existence is
>> both lazy and dishonest.
>>
>> This is what I would have said, had a serious family crisis not
>> made it
>> impossible for me to satisfy your interview request:
>>
>> Songs do not change things, people change things. Songs may make
>> people feel
>> a little less lonely in their convictions but do nothing to change
>> the heart
>> or mind of, say, a Dick Cheney. Singers delude themselves if they
>> think they
>> inevitably and directly sway world events.
>>
>> Then again, you are the critic who decided to deliver a C.S.E.-level
>> sociopolitical essay and leave the more hopeful aspects of
>> “Shipbuilding”
>> - the
>> refrain, “Diving for dear life…” - without remark.
>> Congratulations! You
>> missed
>> the point once again.
>>
>> It seems that it isn’t the songwriters who believe themselves
>> central to the
>> universe of their own argument. Ah well, as a greater man that
>> either you or
>> I
>> once sang, “It makes no difference now”…
>>
>> See you in another twenty-five years, you old dunce. Elvis Costello
>>
>> P.S. Just so you know, none of the songs that I have written
>> required me to
>> be a card-carrying member of any political party or organization.
>> While it
>> is
>> quaint to think that readers of an Old Tory newspaper like “The Daily
>> Telegraph” care about such things, my contempt for Thatcherism and
>> its
>> Blarite little
>> sister, did not and does not automatically make me a “staunch
>> supporter of
>> Old
>> Labour.
>> I read your “Shipbuilding” article with some
>> bemusement. Are you really so vain as to think that my failure
>> provide a
>> quote for in
>> your nostalgic little article really denotes some embarrassment or
>> lack of
>> conviction on my part?
>>
>> You might regard this note as churlish given the praise that you
>> heaped upon
>> the song but let’s not let the facts get in the way of coming to a
>> smug
>> conclusion, never forgetting the opportunity to make a passing
>> slight to
>> unrelated
>> musical endeavours. What exactly IS an “uber-muso”? Why don’t you
>> talk
>> proper?
>>
>> I’m sure that, with you superior musical knowledge and grasp of the
>> English
>> language and German, unless I am mistaken, you could easily dismiss
>> any of
>> the
>> songs I’ve written out of the news headlines during the last twenty-
>> five
>> years
>> and detail the reasons why they remain obscure to you. Or perhaps
>> you simply
>> don’t listen very hard.
>>
>> If I sing “Bedlam” or “The Scarlet Tide” or “The River In Reverse”
>> - to
>> mention three - in a theatre or in a cellar, at the Grand Ole Opry
>> or with
>> the
>> Chicago Symphony, then I have to accept that some people may
>> disagree with
>> me
>> quite violently, even as others applaud. That is part of my job.
>> You may not
>> care
>> for these songs or regard them as effective but to deny their
>> existence is
>> both lazy and dishonest.
>>
>> This is what I would have said, had a serious family crisis not
>> made it
>> impossible for me to satisfy your interview request:
>>
>> Songs do not change things, people change things. Songs may make
>> people feel
>> a little less lonely in their convictions but do nothing to change
>> the heart
>> or mind of, say, a Dick Cheney. Singers delude themselves if they
>> think they
>> inevitably and directly sway world events.
>>
>> Then again, you are the critic who decided to deliver a C.S.E.-level
>> sociopolitical essay and leave the more hopeful aspects of
>> “Shipbuilding”
>> - the
>> refrain, “Diving for dear life…” - without remark.
>> Congratulations! You
>> missed
>> the point once again.
>>
>> It seems that it isn’t the songwriters who believe themselves
>> central to the
>> universe of their own argument. Ah well, as a greater man that
>> either you or
>> I
>> once sang, “It makes no difference now”…
>>
>> See you in another twenty-five years, you old dunce. Elvis Costello
>>
>> P.S. Just so you know, none of the songs that I have written
>> required me to
>> be a card-carrying member of any political party or organization.
>> While it
>> is
>> quaint to think that readers of an Old Tory newspaper like “The Daily
>> Telegraph” care about such things, my contempt for Thatcherism and
>> its
>> Blarite little
>> sister, did not and does not automatically make me a “staunch
>> supporter of
>> Old
>> Labour.
ENDS
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
HENDRIX AND THE RACE SCHISM AT THE BBC
Wha da fuck is up with tha BBC?
Is the same organization that has, over the years, lost so many gems in “our” cultural heritage still trampling on dreams?
Distorting tha facts ?
Giving the ole cultural whitewash to the rainbow in our soul?
Item The Hendrix inaugural 7 Ages of Rock Thing.
God, however much I love em, and I might even on acassion be one myself, preserve us from pontificating WHITE rock journalists.
Sure, graverobbing the visual record of Jimi - and with the Joe Boyd documentary footage post Jimi visual record - gives swell visual and sonic treats.
But context is everything in these things.
So there was Eric Clapton from Boyd thing, a whole buncha guys who knew Hendrix as some guy onstage, some phantasm, seer, Godfucker, on the cultural mass.
But it may be multiciulturally inappropriate to say it but following the LA Rock doc based on barney Hoskyns book where they managed to include, I think accidentally, one black face in the footage.
White people knew Jimi sure.
But look in case you aint noticed the guy was a little tan.
Didnt balck people know him better, or at least in a way that white people couldn’t.
Because of the times.
Becuase of the mind.
JUst…because…
Even in the dim and distant 70s Joe Boyd relaised that
Where for instance was Umbra Poet and definitive Hendrix biographer David ‘Scuse Me While I Touch The Sky Henderson ?
Had he been asked to take part? David alive and well and living in New York KNEW Jimi too.
Good perceptive men like Keuth Altman, yes , but wasnt there a need for some black critics here.
Is this a cultural gettho I see before me, Herman.
The post Peel landscape where everything is transmitted but not permitted to cross breed.
Like culture is some sort of bacteria that needs to be isolated, confined, expalined, extolled but kept docile in its cage.
Beloved Auntie?
Has it bcome - pace the Curb Your Enthusuiasm classic - Beloved Cuntie?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
TONY BENNETT’S LIVING TRIUMPH
I wasn’t even going to go out and , as it happens I end up sat next to a legend, in full flow.
This was when Tony Bennett came onstage St Luke’s Church May 2007, LONDON at 82 a stocky enough but sure-ified easy walking man.
This Godlike venue has recentlyish been the setting for many BBC-staged legends – Springsteen, Brown James RIP, Elton John, Paul Simon, Bryan “Pre Nazi Gaffe” Ferry – but none inhabited the space with as easy unaffected grace, as simply acoutremented and aug – a mented, as Bennett.
I kept thinking of American Archetypes he represents. Something Speilbergian in the gentle awe and wonder. And the laughing languor recalled the open charm of Merle Haggard a close call on the most natural other performer I have ever seen.
Being that close to Tony there was something casual but extraordinary about him.
Like aa unassuming giant from another world.
In a pussycat purr, lion roar, tiger scream snake coil way .
Calling his way through the jazz of American song.
Bennett’s reach, you must understand, goes deep – from the early century jazzatronic talking soul sections of Mezz Mezzrow’s Really The Blues through all the way up and round and through Ellington, Astaire, Sinatra, Bel canto/Latino swing.
Tony’s jazzsong …
Breath control breath control…the whole thing on one level an exercise in breath control.
There was rawness, humanness realness there too.
This was the set up - a guy playing stand up bass , a guy playing guitar, masterful chill yer spine pianistics and lovely kick n brush drummer Art Jones.
And how Tony enjoys that too, you can just tell.
Real music by real people in the living now.
It aint such a big PRIORITY these days.
Tony loves to take you inside the heart of his blissfully democratising, easy flowing worldview.
What he says, between songs, is immense too.
The story of meeting Ron Miller Motown songwriter unlucky enough to come after the first main wave of writers.
But Tony made the song For Once In My Life a hit and THEN it got brought back to Motown and got played (“with a disco beat,” he says) and it became a hit for Stevie Wonder.
He told the old Sinatra story as well. And he harrumphs and loses the line sometime almostcompletely.
But what he understands through thousands and, well, MILLIONS, of moments, just opening his mouth and trying to make the sound of a song at any given moment ring true, is this.
At the end it comes down the overall feeling that you put across.
Staying true to that beauty in the music’s soul….
The rest follows, naturally…
Thursday, May 10, 2007
TONYS TEN YEARS IN TEN WORDS
Doublespeak became a national sport, Orwell’s 1984 became a documentary.
