Music STaGediVe

There are always people you meet in life that however fleeting the association, leave a huge mark on you.. I remember meeting Wiz for the first time at the Take Two Club in Sheffield when I had just started Uni in 1988.

I introduced myself as they had just released their first single on Vinyl Solution and my first band had the fortune to be on the same label. Ever since that first meeting, the countless gigs I met him and Danny at over the coming years, the couple of times I interviewed him for my fanzine, he always had a massive joy for life, remembered me with a smile and took time out to chat and catch up ..

I can t picture a scenario of anyone having a bad thing to say about the guy .. he did the same for other people, 1000s of times over never changed even when Mega City Four hit the relative big time.

He was/is someone that people aspired to be, not just for musical reasons, but just by being an articulate, witty  fantastic human being.
Earlier today Dylan was searching for a song on the Internet and got frustrated when his search couldn t find it. I offered to help out .

.
Where can I get Greece Hagget?
Greece Hagget, the song .

.?
Can you write it down for me?

erm .. am I out of touch?

.. can you sing it?

Yeah .. go Greece Hagget, go Greece Hagget
No really mate, it is called Grease Lightning
Hmm .

. don t like it then, what about Monkey s gone to Heaven?
It was a good day .

. I wanted to type in Olive Cecile the well known Fun Boy Three tune that mascaraded as Our Lips are Sealed , or perhaps the Can of Meat Song by Mission of Burma, stupidly credited as Academy Fight Song , but then I would owning up to too much ..

I know I am not alone ..
I have been in a daze of late, an Indian summer of the cerebral vertex .

. it s still an upbeat daze, but I do feel a little bit detached from my own reality ..

I think it is seasonal so I ll blame it on the weather, it wouldn t be British to blame it on anything else.
Spent a very nice evening with family in Orford at . Orford is one of those quaint English Coastal villages that you could run round in 5 minutes, but has an appeal that makes return trips near essential.

The restaurant I hadn t been to before, but they have a really cool Smoked Fish shop (well, cool if you are not a fish about to be smoked) behind it that fills the air with culinary whiffs. My Sister was home from Poland and it was really nice to get almost all the family together.
I got a new/replacement Soundcard for my PC - the other one got frazzled by lightning.

I am no technophobe, but the whole home recording lark is designed for people that read techie magazines. Plug and play, my arse. I savour my small triumphs and leap around the room when one piece of technology talks to another - quite rewarding in a frustrating kinda way.

The helpline guy was very .. err .

. helpful ..

but sounded like he was sitting in his bedroom surfing the web and breaking open a beer. I was referred to as mate and dude ..

I guess i am quite dude like in a certain light - low light with the sound turned down! I don t have a problem with that, but would like to have his job.
We celebrated Michaela s Birthday.

She insists she is still early Thirties, but 33 is creeping up to mid 30 s in my book. She looks early Twenties though, so it doesn t make for a great line of sarcasm. I think she liked her present.

A weekend in Paris - she has never been either, so looking forward to that one. I also managed breakfast in bed, birthday cake,  and flowers ..

I know, I know, you don t have to all tell me how lovely I am.
I took my eldest Son to start acting lessons ..

he has wanted to go for a while. He really enjoyed it was pleased to have been asked to take on the role of a female bear ..

nice one .. I also got in trouble for saying that the teacher looked foxy .

. well she did, it was only an observation.
My  that was a four piece, is now a three piece .

. James (RIP - not literally) has given way to apathy and recreational substances and decided he could do no more for the cause. It is a pity to lose such a fine fellow - a very rare find when you get four people in a band that all get along without ego s taking over  that said, he was pretty crap at guitar and so flaky .

. We are going to start a search for a new guitarist though, or maybe even a keyboard player ..

applications accepted for minor to major talents everywhere.
I just got some more films back and am starting to scan through them and will post on to Flickr.
Whilst perusing the latest issue of , I stumbled upon an article of stars that died whilst in their prime .

. it had a picture of Hank Williams looking stylish and charismatic. It was one of those 1940 s smouldering b w shots that could have come from the same lens as the Billy the Kid portraits or Bonnie and Clyde .

. if the decades didn t all fold into one.
My surprise came when I saw that he was only 27 when he died (although 29 according to ).

How can that be? How can someone in a cowboy hat be under 35? The ageing charm and wise grin in all the pics suggest a man far more progressed in his years .

. how could Your Cheatin Heart not have been written by someone in their 50 s.
Maybe it is just me?

! The perception I had was based on those old pics and the way I came to discover him. The fact that he was long dead in the water before I even picked up any link .

. probably via Dylan, who himself was in his 50 s before I cottoned on to him too. I had an image that he was a drugged up middle aged man, twisted by the success of the new kids on the block.

 Some career and legacy for someone that died still in their 20 s .. respect to the man.

. 
“sex”, how many songs come up?: 15
death , how many songs come up?

: 99
love , how many songs come up? : 525
Whenever the heat gets like this, I just want to run for shade and air conditioning. Air Con must be in the Top 10 of lazy unethical inventions this century, but I am a big fan on days like these .

. thank you Mr Air Con inventor ..

The weekend was damn fine. Yesterday we headed on out to the ..

well maybe not, but as Glastonbury isn t happening this year and it s only a few hundred yards down the road it would be rude not to. Also Latitude is promoted by the  as Glastonbury and the line up looked a little more intriguing than V or any of the other bland-o-matic Travis/Coldplay only UK show this year strapline ..

I went to my first festival 20 years ago this year .. sigh .

. that year I left school went to both Reading Rock Festival, as it was known then Glastonbury ..

but we didn t make it much further than the main gate at the later as the nasty police folk were towing everyones cars away and wouldn t let us on the site .. I digress .

.
The last festival I went to was probably pretty close to 10 years plus, so was looking forward to this with the keen excitement of a reformed grumpy old 30 something with a habit of complaining about crap bands ..

The location was perfect, set deep in the Suffolk Countryside, the organisation at the car park was less perfect but initial stumbles out of the way, we made our way to the site. The 1st port of call was the loos ..

you wouldn t want to spend more time than you need to in a festival loo, but as this was day 3 of 3, I was impressed how clean they were .. I ve witnessed far worse in London pubs!

The site was really well laid out. Kids areas, Cabaret, Poetry, a really good Comedy Tent that seemed to be the most popular draw of the day, Hattie Hayridge was very funny ..

although eldest son, aged 10, thought she ran out of ideas half way through in a keen eyed Observer Journalist manner .. Four or Five music stages in tents to minimise the bleed .

. the sound in the Uncut sponsored arena was amazing and too good for a festival ..

Top marks from us lot went to Captain (whimsy pop tunes with a smile and a wink), (a Domino signing I wasn t aware of before, but a great voice and perfect for a thoughtful Sunday .. will check out some records), Archie Bronson Outfit (Noisy gritted teeth with some great beats to leap around to), The Longcut (stupid name, but Indie Pop Rock weardness with some great tunes and electronic noises) then on the main stage, the kids loved Jose Gonzalez which proved the power of advertising .

. can t think of many people with 6 nylon strings (Thunderbirds aside) that would appeal to 7 10 year olds we finished up with Mercury Rev ..

I love them so they could have just turned up and I would have been happy.
Observations and conversations ..

It was a festival that had a very middle class feel to it, there was no litter for one thing, very few queues - even for food or the toilets, everyone was really polite, even the stewards and security, there was also no dance tent/arena, which meant the audience was .. err .

. well ..

older err .. middle class I guess .

. there were very few teenagers or drink/pill casualties it was really just a very pleasant experience ..

I spent a very nice Saturday home alone ..which I guess is a little harder to write reams about .

. Michaela was out playing with her friends and the kids are now at the age where they want to go play with their friends but still need Dad to be at home for them to trickle back at unearthly hours ..

 I did a few chores and then sat on the deck drinking beer, reading lots and playing loud music all afternoon .. I really am great company even though I say so myself .

. When the rabble returned we watched Nanny McPhee on DVD and I ate Pizza - everyone else got cooked for by their friends, but I m not bitter ..

 a very nice weekend ..