23 - Tales of Don V (just a rented room in Whalley Range)

22/02/2019 - Jam Street Café, Whalley Range

Ruth and I have been invited to a 40th birthday party which is taking place in a bar called Jam Street just on the Whalley Range/Chorlton border.  The birthday girl is Caz who is an old friend of Ruth's from when she lived in London and also a colleague of mine these days.  The party was semi-secretly organised by her partner Karl aka Tales of Don V.  Karl is very creative and industrious as evidenced by the fact years ago he made a digeridoo from a tree branch and learnt to play it.

Jam Street Café has an open mic night on a Saturday with artists displaying their talents backed by the house band Rough Trade.  We were upstairs in the rented room gorging ourselves on the amazing Indian tapas food when I commented that this band playing downstairs seem to play any type of music.  Much to Ruth's amusement she explained that it was an open mic night: Doh!  Karl eventually got his turn and stole the show.  I'm no expert on digeridoo playing but Karl has a great sound that seems to incorporate a beat and a techno rumble.  He didn't get very long and I reckon that's because the backing band didn't like the competition.  We will definitely be going to Jam Street again, with or without Tales of Don V.

Nils Frahm - All Melody - Manchester Albert Hall - 17/02/2019

22 - Nils Frahm

17/02/2019 - Albert Hall Manchester

All Photos by Woulfie

Ruth's Christmas present for me (thanks darling).  My present came in a card Ruth had designed with a drawing of Nils Frahm saying: can't wait to see you Glenn.  Ruth got to share the present as well but not sure if Nils was particularly pleased on the night to see anyone as he was more engaged with flipping between his stage full of equipment and complaining about the  noisy air conditioning.  He compared it to playing in a construction site at one point.  I have to say that when I saw Dinosaur Jr play at the Albert Hall last year and they were blasting a hole through my ear drums I failed to notice the air conditioning: different vibe tonight though.

I aim too make the challenge as diverse as possible so including a German artist who combines classical and electronic music should help.  The audience feels too cool for school and there are flat caps aplenty and enough facial hair to give the CEO of Gillette PTSD.  Nils is an incredibly talented musician and some of the piano pieces are so delicate and beautiful and incredibly quiet.  Every time someone opens the door to go to the toilet it's cringeworthy as the door banging shut is louder than the music.  Not sure that Neneh Cherry was too worried about doors shutting last Wednesday when she was belting out Buffalo Stance with the help of the whole audience.  Some of the more delicate pieces drag on a bit, but the electronic pieces  are pulsating and would sound amazing headlining an outdoor festival on a balmy Sunday night.  Ruth looks on another plane and it does have a mindfulness vibe to it at times.  Another good night and tickets are booked for the Blue Dot festival in July with Kraftwerk and New Order headlining: beat that!!

Tried to work out why the festival at Jodrell Bank is called Blue Dot and think I have found out:

“We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there — on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light . . .

To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

— Carl Sagan, speech at Cornell University, October 13, 1994 (Pale Blue Dot)

Neneh Cherry - Øya Festival 2018 (full concert)

20 & 21 - Neneh Cherry supported by Peng

Albert Hall Manchester 13/02/2019

Pre-Valentine night out with Ruth.  All a bit of a rush getting there as was late finishing work as I tried to complete a seeming interminable report before getting home and taking the mutt out.  Met Ruth in St Peter's Square as she'd been at her university course in Preston and we had a nice  pre-gig Korean meal.  No alcohol tonight as been overdoing it lately and putting on weight.  I hate winter so much that I tend to hibernate with beers, M&Ms and films.  First signs we are seeing the back of winter and the first teetering steps of spring so I'm waking up from my slumber (like lions) and the bicycle has been oiled.

Peng is a female artist with a DJ providing the music which gives it a karaoke feel(a process of osmosis is occurring after spending time with Frank I fear).  She has an amazing gravelly voice that is reminiscent of Macy Gray but the songs are a bit uninspiring and indistinguishable.  The venue is filling up and she gets a good reception, especially when she tells everyone how much she loves the Manchester bees (look it up if you don't know).

I wasn't sure what to expect with Neneh Cherry as  I remember watching her live on TV at Glastonbury sometime in the 90s and it sounding a bit weak but I've always admired her sassy, empowered approach.  She has made some amazing records and I love her recent album Broken Politics which Four Tet produced and you can hear his influence all over the music.  She has also contributed to some cool stuff like Massive Attack's Blue Lines and I only just found out she was in The Slits at some point which looks good on the CV.  The Albert Hall is one of the best venues in Manchester and is an old Methodist church and is sold out tonight.  I've seen Warpaint, Beck and Dinosaur Jr there previously and always had a great night: this might top them all though.

Photo taken from Twitter feed of @sarahmann365

Ruth asked me to put this in the blog: when she was a kid growing up in leafy Surrey she got  poster from the kids music magazine Smash Hits which had Jason Donovan on one side and Neneh Cherry on the other and she's proud to say she put Neneh on her wall.  No-brainer I'd say and I can imagine Ruthie strutting around her bedroom singing along to Buffalo Stance.  Most of the songs Neneh plays are rightly so from Broken Politics and she forgets the lyrics for the first song and apologies profusely with one of the band having to sing it for her.  No apologies required though: this is Manchester and we've been brought up on Barney from New Order who surprises everyone when he does remember his lyrics.

Photo taken from Twitter feed of @jwoodfilm 

The songs from Broken Politics sound even better live and Neneh has a great stage presence.  She tells a story at one point of being in Manchester some years ago and meeting Shaun Ryder, which gets an almighty cheer, and sitting on Ike Turner's lap, which gets a lot of boos from the ladies: Neneh reminds them that she sat on his lap not the other way round.  We get Manchild, Seven Seconds (Neneh's husband Cameron bravely sings Youssou N'dour's part) before finishing with a rousing Buffalo Stance with the crowd singing back the chorus.  The applause and foot stamping was that loud I was worried the balcony might come down.  She has a great band who seem to be loving the night as much as all in the crowd and they're really talented, swapping instruments at times.  A great night and I'm really enjoying this challenge.  Back to the Albert Hall on Sunday for Nils Frahm.

Photos taken from Albert Hall Facebook page