Went to Chris Rea's Farewell Tour last night at Birmingham Symphony Hall. He held me spellbound for 2 hours. Just loved the fact that there was no announcment, he just walked on stage and in fact apart from mentioning some of the band names and a few 'thank you's' he didn't speak at all. But it wasn't out of an arrogance, it was kinda well 'this is what I do so I am just going to get on with it'

Highlights of course were The Road To Hell and Long Gone. I am not sure I like the soft, sentimental stuff as it's in too much a contrast with the raw stuff .. and can he belt out the raw stuff. Goes without saying that his guitar playing is phenomenal, he seems to tease the strings, pulling the most amazing sounds from them. And he had a vast array of guitars and a banjo.

This has been a long tour, he's been on the road since early Feb and has 3 more gigs till it's done and then that's it. He says it's because of his health and he did look thin.

3 encores and we still wanted more. Great concert.

Made me think that he's never on a radio station's playlist unless it's the safe 'Fool If You Think It's Over'. Musn't start on my radio soapbox again but this country does not play real music on most major radio stations.

Here's a somewhat fuzzy picture from last night.

God, have I lost my mojo this week. Seems the Easter holiday is carrying on till the weekend in my brain. Motivation - NIL. Am going to try and get down to it in the next hour or so .... I rate the Mojo mag so highly thought I would try the Mojo radio site and it's OK. Just heard God Only Knows by Beach Boys and then Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears [weren't they just great?].

Then I saw and Archive button and click and am now listening to 2 a 2 hour profile of Dave Gilmour and his new release [already blogged by yours truly].

....maybe the mojo's coming back.

On Easter Monday I did a show on hospital radio. It's the 6th show in a series which will probably take the rest of the millenium to complete, called Single Spin.
The format is very typical hospital radio stuff, simple but great fun. In the studio we have 12 filing cabinets stuffed to the gills with over 4,000 vinyl singles and I have taken on the gargantuan task of playing every single one in chronological order!

As you can imagine, you never know what's coming plus it keeps me on my toes as I have to cue these [far tricker than cueing a CD] then I look up the one which is playing in the Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles so that I can chat about the tracks success or other wise.

The show brings back a lot of memories and has the most mixed playlist. This is what came out of the cabinet on Monday:-

Remember This London Welsh Male Choir
Pandora's Box O.M.D.
Distant Drums Jim Reeves
Secret Love Kathy Kirby
Tell Me Again And Again Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson
Funkin' For Jamaica Tom Browne
Memories Are Made Of This Val Doonican
You're My World Cilla Black
Dedicated To the One I Love Mama's & Papas
Things To Make You Go Hmmmm C+C Music Factory
Touch Me Touch Me Dave Dee Dozy … & Tich
Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home Teresa Brewer
British Hustle Hi Tension
Hold Me Close David Essex
Loneliness Des O'Connor
White Christmas Nina & Frederik
On The Sunny Side Of The Street Tommy Bruce & The Bruisers
Georgy Girl The Seekers
Goodness Gracious Me Peter Selles & Sophia Loren
Darlin' The Beach Boys
Never Smile At A Crocodile Billy Cotton and his Band
Roses Are Red Ronnie Carrol
Sucu Sucu The Polka Dots
Scarlet Ribbons Harry Belafonte
A Hole In the Ground Bernard Cribbins
Highland Fling Karl Denver
Little Donkey Nina & Frederik
Deck Of Cards Wink Martindale
Right Said Fred Bernard Cribbins

Was fab to hear the Mama's & Papas and beach Boys tracks again and pure torture to listen to Deck of Cards, just hate this song. And if you haven't heard Tommy Bruce and the Bruisers, well - you haven't lived.

I have quickly learned that the best thing about working for yourself is that you don't have that 'dread' after a break. Both at Christmas and this Easter each day has just run into one another. Love being at home so much as well and get twice as much done, fewer interuptions plus I can percolate my own coffee!

Anyway Easter didn't bring much music but did watch DVD Flightplan which was pretty good and had a very brooding score by James Horner plus he featured on one of the Special Features, talking about how he scored it.

Did a spot of broadcasting on Easter Monday, makes me realise how much I miss it when I finally do get to the studio and sit in front of a mic. Will blog programme details a little later.

Am listening to The Kingdom Of Swing on 365live radio which is making the afternoon zip along. Lunch time walk did not happen as it's pouring here in middle earth.

Easter Eggs I partook of:-
Roses
Shared some Milk Bar Egg
Milk Buttons

....If it were not for the calories, Easter Eggs would be a on my staple daily diet!

Great weekend. Got some serious gardening done, weather dry and warm. Got new rose bed sorted and planted 4 new rose trees. Yesterday sorted out all our digital photo's over 1500 of them, just lying there in the ether. So they were filed, burned to CD and printed. Clearing the way now to deal with the 800 we took in Africa. Last night caught up with some taped TV, Fabulosa which I though was excellent but bleak as in fact Kenneth Williams was and then an episode of ER starring James Wood who was also excellent.

Not much of a music weekend though I did tape the Dusty Springfield South Bank show last night and will look forward to that. And have started reading the John Peel biog which is a trip.

Just checking up on my travelog and made some notes regarding the new David Gilmour CD ON AN ISLAND. First track was vert atmospheric, in fact the whole album is very textured with the distinctive Gilmour guitar. His solo sax debut track RED SKY AT NIGHT is very Jan Garbarek. Have to say that the last track is truly awful but apart from that it's a welcome addition to the collection and is very reflective. His lyrics give a state of reflection and isolation which I guess reflects his middle-age state.

So break the bread and pour the wine
I need no blessings but I'm counting mine
This Heaven

Here's a cool photo I found inside my Best Of Gene Pitney CD cover.
It's wonderfully informal and it's with Simon Dee, I remember his show well. I remember he interviewed Paul newman once.

Way too much to do today and so for ease [if I start trawling through the internet for a radio station I can easily loose an hour] and grudgingly flicked on Radio 2.]
Heard something good and something bad.
Re-heard a really cool track 'Waiting For The Train' by Flash In the Pan.

Then just heard that Gene Pitney has died at 65. He was in the UK on tour, did Cardiff last night and then died in his hotel bed. He looked super fit and didn't show any signs of illness. What a way to go but he's gone too early.

I loved him, he had a different voice to anyone else and bought such an emotional urgency to his songs. My fave being Town Without Pity. I am going to get his CD's down from the shelf and have a little play in memory to him.

Hey,

In a few weeks I'm off to the Weymouth Kite Festival [yeah, yeah, it's my nerd zone, I luv kites flying] and want to do a CD mix for the drive down. Any ideas?

So far I have the obvious:
Kites/Simon Dupree and the Big Sound
Up Up and Away
Come Fly With Me
.....now I'm stuck!

Back in the swing as it were after my African adventure. Seemed to wipe me out for the first week I got back. Just wrestling with 4 hours of video tape and 500 photo's we took.

My only dissapointment was that I didn't get to hear a lot of local music. We went on a cultural tour the first day we arrived which was basically a small, poverty stricken township. The people were welcoming but the music playing was from the biggest pair of speakers I have ever seen standing outside the town's 'bar' and it was playing rock and hip hop.
Our ranger and guide spoilt the whole ambience of the Serengeti by blasting out African hip hop on his jeep radio, small argument followed and he didn't switch it on again.
Our hotel in Zanzibar seemed to be bent on piping through classical music during breakfast and in the evening provided different cabarets; soft jazz, steel drums and a lone saxophonist.

The real treat was a visit to a Masai village where they danced [jumped actually] and sang [more of a beautiful chant] which was mind blowing.

It was one of those holidays where you look back at your film and pictures and you can't imagine that you have really been.

Back at work now and trying to find time to finalise my wedding plans, organise a Quiz Night in May for the hospital radio and start work on my garden as it comes to life after the winter.

Of course there is also the sorting out of ones music which is what this blog is all about and I guess that will happen in a couple of months if I stay focused. Work day at home today and I'm surfing the net to find a different radio station to kep me company. Today it's Resonance FM, a bizarre but truly imdividual radio staion which says of itself:

Featuring all things blip-core, spaz-tek, storm-breakz, splatter-metal and a plethora of live and pre-recorded mentalism.

....so there you go!

Spring is on it's way isn't it? Do you feel it?