Yesterday's Men have enough fuel for today

I was in Dublin on Sunday night to see Madness play at The Point Depot. I've been to loads of gigs at The Point and always make it my point to check the back of the hall to see if it's as bouncing there as it is at the front. Normally it isn't, on account of the fans occupying the front rows and the back being populated with those just out for the night. This was not the case for Madness. All 8,000 people were on their feet from the very moment the band started their set with a rousing 'One Step Beyond'. All the hits were there - 'Baggy Trousers', 'Our House', 'Embarrasment', 'House of Fun', 'My Girl', 'Night Boat to Cairo' and loads more. A few dodgy covers aside, the night was stomping and Suggs has not aged a day since his '80s heyday. Unfortunately they didn't play two of my favourites - 'Michael Caine' and 'One Better Day'. So to make up for it here's the video for the latter:

It Was 20 Years Ago Today

On December 12 1986 The Smiths played their final live concert at Brixton Academy in London. Although no-one could've predicted the future, few would've believed that 9 months after this show the band would officially split up. It was the end of arguably the most influencial British band of the period. The Ins and Outs of the split have been done to death ever since. The band would eventually re-unite but only in a courtroom over a well documented financial dispute.

Books have been written, pockets lined and wicked whispers echoed down the corridors for the 20 years since it all ended. Despite this, the band's intrigue has endured and shows no sign of faltering. Morrissey and Johnny Marr have moved on. Whatever they have done or continue to do as artists, the short 5 years they spent as Smiths has followed them, setting a standard they have understandably struggled with for 20 years.

The further away December 12 1986 gets, the more The Smiths legend grows. Like all legends, there is a possibilty of over-indulging, letting the myth dominate the reality. Perhaps in reality the achievements of The Smiths are as over-observed as the achievements of post-Smiths Morrissey and Marr are under-observed.

It's easy and lazy to say they never again touched the standard they set as Smiths. It could well be the case but I think such an opinion colours how one engages with what they presently do. This is not just the case for Morrissey and Marr but for anyone who was once part of something special but who has since moved on. Regardless of where they are now, it's worth remembering The Smiths today for how they were. Here's a wicked medley from that final show 20 years ago today:

Kill 'Auntie'

The BBC are currently getting very excited about their Greatest Living British Icon poll. After a top ten that included the likes of Vivienne Westwood, David Bowie, Alan Bennett, Kate Moss and Stephen Fry, the voting public has now voted their top three. They now have to vote between David Attenborough, Paul McCartney and Morrissey as to who is number one British living icon.

Personally as a Morrissey fan since my early teens, and given the fact that I probably couldn’t put a sentence together without the influence of his music, I know where my loyalties lie. Yet therein lies the problem. Debates are now raging up and down the country as to who should get the number one spot. Ultimately what you’ll find is someone (myself included) airing opinions as to why ‘so and so’ should be number one. Yet we do this with a minimal or non-existent knowledge of the other two candidates. What’s even more absurd is that all three cannot be compared. It’s basically about comparing the impact of popular music to that of television. It cannot be that simple.

Morrissey, for instance, has never and will never compete with the broadcasting and wildlife expertise of David Attenborough, whose programming for over 40 years has been an inspiration. Yet Attenborough has never and could never write ‘The Queen Is Dead’, ‘I Know It’s Over’, ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, ‘How Soon Is Now’, ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’ or ‘November Spawned A Monster’ or devise a lyrical style of universal impact which combines cinema, literature and wet Friday nights outside a chip shop in Stretford.

Morrissey’s early appearances on Top of The Pops in 1983/84 were a revelation for many young viewers – a life changing moment. So perhaps it can be argued that Morrissey has used the medium of television to inspire. Many of his biggest fans who are now in the public eye such as writer Mark Simpson and Noel Gallagher will cite those early TV appearances as a revelation. But only a fool would argue that Morrissey has used the medium successfully to the same degree as Attenborough. Attenborough still broadcasts stunning documentaries. Morrissey pulls out of Jonathon Ross’s show at the last minute. Attenborough gets close to the blue whale. Morrissey sinks behind the cushion during another awkward interview – hard to believe at times that this was the same young man who was so inspiringly articulate on TV in the 1980s.

But never mind the bollocks. TV is not what Morrissey is about. Yet it is what Attenborough is about. So can they be compared? No they can’t. So why does this poll even exist? I haven’t a clue. It’s like saying which is better – gum or Fridays. It makes as little sense as that. Morrissey’s impact as a lyricist and as a striking multi-faceted persona in an industry that thrives on vacuity cannot be measured against 40 years of innovative documenting of wildlife. Both deserve addressing. Both deserve celebrating. But both exist in separate columns making them impossible to compare.

Ultimately it doesn’t really matter anyway because Paul McCartney will probably win. Why does the prospect bore me?

Since it’s a stupid concept to start with I think we should have some fun with it. Vote for Morrissey. Not because I’m a fan and would like to see it. In fact I think the prospect of topping the poll would horrify Morrissey. Vote for him because it will shock the Sunday roast out of middle England. Attenborough and McCartney are establishment figures. Morrissey is still despised in establishment circles for being an anti-Thatcherite anti-Royal sexually ambiguous Northerner. He won’t whistle to the preferred tune. So the prospect of him topping this silly poll would be a nice little ‘up yours’ to the incestuous horse-faced bed wetting etonians that still block up the corridors and the phone-lines of the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/livingicons/vote/

Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel

I spent last night watching Grand Theft Parsons again as it was on late on RTE. If you’re not familiar with the film, it is based on the true events that followed the death of country-rock icon Gram Parsons in 1973.

Prior to his death Parsons made a pact with his road manager and best friend Phil Kaufman (played by Strabane Lidl shopper Johnny Knoxville). They both agreed that if one of them was to die, the other was to take the body to Joshua Tree and cremate it and then spread the ashes over Cap Rock. After Parson’s death at the age of 26, that’s just what Kaufman did. He managed to burn most of Parson’s remains. What was left when police got there was then buried in New Orleans in keeping with the initial wishes of Parson’s step-father.

Parsons remains a mysterious figure in rock mythology. Yet away from the exteriors addressed in Grand Theft Parsons, he was also a great musical talent cut down in his prime by the self-inflicted excessive living that has claimed so many. The film does not focus on the talent of the man; a BBC documentary called Fallen Angel does that brilliantly, and it's worth keeping an eye out for as it tends to be repeated now and then on BBC4.

In the meantime, here’s Gram with The Flying Burrito Brothers with a track about the pleasures and perils of life in the west coast – ‘Sin City’.

Sites to see, places to go

A few quality Strabane bands and webpages that are worth checking out:

Runningforcover - http://www.myspace.com/runningforcover

God Talking Soul - http://www.myspace.com/godtalkingsoulband

King Coma - http://www.myspace.com/kingcoma

The Avari - http://www.myspace.com/theavarimusic

Kharma 45 - http://www.myspace.com/kharma45

Then of course there is the Strabane venue where it's all been happening musically for the last ten years...Dicey Rileys and its upstairs venue The Waiting Room ...long may you run!

http://www.myspace.com/thewaitingroomvenue Look out for Musky D and Stic Vibes and their Alternative Disco on December 2 kicking off the mad festivities for the rest of the month.

Something that I am personally involved in is Strabane Unplugged. We've been running for two years now, taking place on the first Monday of the month at the All Stars Bar on Main Street. We basically do what it says on the tin! Each night about an average of 6 or so acts play a short acoustic set and a great night is had by all. It's £2 admission and all money goes to a charity highlighted each night.

On Monday December 4 we celebrate our 2nd anniversary and are planning an 'open mic' session. If anybody feels the need they can grace the stage and bellow out a diamond or a turd, it makes no difference - it's a night of fun.

http://www.myspace.com/strabaneunplugged

Another blog really worth taking a look at is Daithi Ramsay's. You'll find Daithi pretty much where anything of note is happening in and around Letterkenny and beyond, except when he goes to Finn Park (only joking D! haha). With Donegal buzzing like never before, Daithi is there to document it all at http://andparts.blogspot.com

A Jack of all Trades, Daithi also DJ's on a Friday and Saturday night at Fubar downstairs in the Orchard in Letterkenny. It's the coolest room in Donegal at the weekend, with the best in funk, rock, soul, ska, hip-hop, old skool, new skool and loads more. If soul and spirit sapping weekend clubbing is not for you, find redemption at Fubar!

Tom Waits : Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards

I’ve noticed that a number of music magazines have recently compiled their top albums of the year. This is understandable given the time of the year. Normally the only new releases we get around this time are the tedious ‘best of’ collections devised to exploit the Christmas market and the loathsome ‘one album a year’ brigade who have given Robbie Williams a career.

But there has been one beacon of light in the past week. In fact, it’s more of a primal growl from the wilderness as we reach the twilight hours of 2006. That’s right – Tom Waits has returned with his new record Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. It’s a three-hour collection of rare and never-before-heard material, thirty tracks of which are new recordings.

Orphans finds Waits display all his colours from folk balladeer to offbeat storyteller to nightcap crooner to the Ringmaster of the darkest circus you’ve ever attended. I think some of those magazines were a bit premature with their compilations. I’ve been living with these albums for a week and they certainly deserve to feature in many a top ten list. Perhaps it’s being saved for December 2007.

Here’s a great track from the Brawlers cd called ‘Lie To Me’.



Waits remains one very entertaining guest also. Here are just two of his recent television appearances on US TV; one with an obviously star-struck Jon Stewart and the other with Dave Letterman where he talks of a new definition of the term 'Dead Ringer', and a very unsettling definition it is too. You'll laugh and shudder at the same time.





And I couldn't really not put this one up. From the Jim Jarmusch 2003 movie Coffee and Cigarettes - Tom and Iggy disuss coffee, cigarettes, drummers, what to call each other, doctors and the jukebox. A tense 10 minutes!!

Endless Art 2006

You may remember the A-House track ‘Endless Art’ from their 1991 album I Am The Greatest. It was one of the many ‘talkie’ tracks that the band did and opened with frontman Dave Couse saying, “All art is quite useless according to Oscar Wilde.” He then proceeded to list a series of names that contradicted such a theory - Jackson Pollock, Hemmingway, Orwell, Hendrix etc. The one thing that linked them all was that they were “all dead yet still alive in endless time, endless art.”

After realising that the list consisted of men only, they duly recorded a version consisting of a list of women - Anne Frank, Mary Shelley, Sylvia Plath etc.

Now almost 15 years since the first version, Dave Couse has recorded a new version taking into account a list of legends (both male and female) that have departed from us since the first version was recorded. It takes in the likes of Brando, Strummer, Cobain, Buckley, Tupac, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Kirsty MacColl and loads more.

Here’s a live take of the new version. It just cuts before the end. If you want to hear the new studio version it is on Dave Couse's myspace page www.myspace.com/davecouse. I really love what they've done with it - totally different from the original recording.

So who will be added to a forth version in 15 years time? Well there’s one that I know of already – Robert Altman 1925 to 2006 RIP! Hopefully it’ll not be you or me…..yet!

John Martyn for Sandinos, Derry November 23

I’m getting very excited about John Martyn’s visit to Derry on Thursday 23 November. Despite being a fan of the guy for while now, I have still never had the opportunity of seeing him live. But he’s been to Belfast, Derry, Culdaff and Letterkenny on a few occasions I hear you say. Yes this I know, but for some reason the shows have always fallen at a bad time for me when circumstances, cash or both prohibited me from being there. This time I have no excuse, and I’ll be in the downstairs bar hours in advance!

The guy has been through the mill over the past few years but it hasn’t affected his consistency. Even becoming an amputee after crashing into a cow didn’t stop him recording. He eventually began to perform live a few months after the operation to remove the lower part of his leg. He has remained busy ever since. It’s going to be a big night and I expect Sandinos to be crammed.

Here’s a track from the late ’70s by the man himself. I was going to put up something shorter and better known, say the gorgeous ‘May You Never’. But just say for instance you may be reading this and it’s after midnight, you’ve had a few glasses of wine or a few…oh I don’t know (!), well this is the track for you. It’s called ‘Small Hours’.

I remember one summer night; we were coming back from a gig in Donegal Town. It was one of those summer nights where the sky doesn’t really get dark. We were driving through the valley of Barnesmore Gap and decided to put this track on. It was as if it was written for that place and that time. Perfect!

Now don’t say I’ve never done my bit for Donegal tourism!

A Sort of Homecoming - The Divine Comedy live in Derry

It has been ten years since I last saw The Divine Comedy perform in Derry. It was on a cold winter night in early 1996 upstairs in a packed Gweedore Bar supporting the now defunct English indie band Gene. Despite the packed-in-like-sardines induced heat, Neil Hannon still sported a trademark tailored suit and exuded the persona of a star on the rise. With his breakthrough Casanova album set to be released a few months later, no-one can dispute in hindsight that such self-belief was totally warranted.


Ten years, a succession of highly acclaimed albums, hit singles and band line-up changes later and Hannon has returned to the City of his birth for a show in a venue that was only just at the planning stage when he treaded the boards of the Gweedore all those years earlier.


The support act tonight was yet another Irish rising star. Duke Special, also known as Belfast-born Peter Wilson, is a dreadlocked piano-driven pop aficionado in the vain of Rufus Wainwright with elements of Randy Newman thrown in for good measure.

His set featured tracks from his acclaimed latest album Songs from the Deep Forest, such as ‘Brixton Leaves’, ‘Portrait’ and the instantly infectious and dreamlike ‘Freewheel’. Backed by percussionist Chip Bailey, who introduced some bizarre Tom Waits-like implements to assist in keeping rhythm, Duke Special’s set was tailor-made for a venue such as The Forum. A stark rendition of Ralph McTell’s ‘It’s a Long Way from Clare to Here’ echoed around the room capturing the audience’s full attention with such a sweet sound. Duke Special returns to the City for his own headline gig in March next year. He made a few new friends tonight and is certain to pack wherever he plays.

With a large red ‘V’ sign leering behind and above the drum kit, it seemed evident that we would hear a number of tracks from The Divine Comedy’s most recent album Victory for the Comic Muse. Surprisingly the new tracks did not dominate as some had expected.

The set opened with the new lively and upbeat ‘Mother Dear’. Without a seconds pause it was followed by a revisit to 1996’s Casanova with ‘Becoming More like Alfie.’ The set scanned the entire back catalogue, taking in tracks from Promenade, Liberation and the post-Casanova output.

The choppy pop rhythms of tracks such as ‘Diva Lady’ and ‘Generation Sex’ stood in sharp contrast with the seated environment of the Forum. Those brave few who could not ignore the impulse to stand up and shimmy were duly ‘torched and seated’ by the staff. Their endeavours did not go unnoticed by Mr Hannon who said, “it’s much more fun when standing up. Not I would condone a breaking of the rules or anything.”

Before going into ‘Something for the Weekend’ he announced the track as, “controversial in that it may make you wish to stand up and dance again.” As one of the anthems of the nineties, there was nothing the staff could do. The opening chimes followed by Hannon’s declaration of ‘YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO’, saw every bum off the seat with hands in the air partying like it was 1996. Staying on the topic of Prince, the crowd were kept on their feet with a surprise cover of the Purple One’s classic ‘Raspberry Beret’, which saw Hannon having some fun with a pretty accurate Prince impersonation.

“It’s great to be back in the City of my birth,” announced Hannon to rapturous applause. “I thought you were from Enniskillen”, a female voice from the crowd shouted back. “Well, you are mistaken Madame,” replied Hannon with a witty old fashioned virtue that has held him in good stead down through the years in an industry where such personality is an endangered species.

Old favourite ‘Songs of Love’, a track embedded in the hearts of all who watch classic sitcom Father Ted, had the hands swaying again. Regular show closer ‘Tonight We Fly’ got everyone back on their feet with its stomping march ‘over the mountains, the beach and the sea.’

The crowd remained on their feet demanding an encore and there was no better song to end the night with than ‘National Express’ with its music hall leanings and its hilarious take on fashion faux-pas – “Mini-skirts were in style when she danced down the aisle back in '63. But it's hard to get by when your arse is the size of a small country.”

Everybody sang. Everybody danced. The floor staff earned their crust. That night in the Gweedore was a long time ago by this stage. After tonight in the Forum, it’s pleasing to see that one of Ireland’s finest songsmiths still has so much to offer ten years on.

Here's a little taste of the kind of thing we saw:

Cat Power - Two Fists of Solid Rock

I was first drawn to Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) late one night in the winter of 1999. Irish channel TV3's short-lived and much missed music programme The Green Room, hosted by Darragh Purcell, featured an interview with a very emotional young American lady called Chan, as she sipped on Jack Daniels and got tearful about life, poetry and the Velvet Underground.

She was discussing her new record at the time called The Covers Record. It featured stark reinventions of tracks by the aforementioned Velvet Underground and also the likes of The Rolling Stones, Nina Simone and Bob Dylan. I was drawn instantly to her voice - a haunting fragile southern whisper.

She vanished off my radar for a number of years after that. Then, one day in 2003 I just happened to be in a music store the very day her new record You Are Free was released. Unlike the beautiful Covers Record this was an album of mostly original material. I was fascinated to find out more about this peculiar young woman I had seen on TV four years earlier.

You Are Free didn't invite me into the world of Chan Marshall as such, but rather kidnapped me by gunpoint and blind folded me. It was a world, part of which I was glad not be an inhabitant of, part of which I felt I was born into and never really left. I was at home but treadng new soil all at once. I thought such feelings when listening to a record were past me. You Are Free was the kick up the ass I needed to remind me that those days are not behind me and never will be.

On the track Names Chan reflects on a number of childhood friends whose destinies range from the tragic to the unknown. Good Woman is, for me, one of the songs of the decade - a sad tale of a couple going their separate ways, as being together is destructive despite their love. It's lyrically simple but all the more biting and honest because of it - I want to be a good woman and I want for you to be a good man. This is why Im leaving and this is why I cant see you no more.

I Dont Blame You is a sympathetic tale of a reluctant hero, a victim of rock mythology. It is quite possibly an ode of Kurt Cobain but there is a view that Chan could well have been singing about herself - Just because they knew your name doesn't mean they know from where you came. What a sad trick you thought that you had to play.

Notoriously unpredictable as a live performer, Chan has for years been prone to stage fright. This was all the more tragic given her unique ability as a songwriter and a singer. Yet in early 2006 Chan released her latest record The Greatest. It is a major musical departure from anything she has done previously. Outside of the stark and hollow Hate, the album is a southern soulful rebirth. Former Al Green Band guitarist and Memphis soul innovator Tennie Hodges is at the backbone of the record, taking charge and leading the band and backing singers, re-igniting the soul of Memphis and reinventing Chan all at once.

The impact of this new lease of life can be seen currently as Chan finally steps up to the mic in a manner that has painfully eluded her previously. At last she seems to be finding her comfort zone on the stage. It's only right that she should. She is a woman with a gift that should be fully realised. The young woman I saw on TV in 1999 is still fighting. But for now she's winning. No wind nor waterfall can stall her. I hope it remains so.

May her voice go with you.

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