Shine A Light, the new Rolling Stones film & album: encore

The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band – and self-promo specialists - in the world. No doubt about that. Whenever new Stones product is about to hit the streets, boy do you know about it!

With a few weeks to the launch of Shine A Light, the new film/double live album, the Stones are everywhere once again – in the mag racks (on the covers of current issues of both major heritage rock monthlies, UNCUT and MOJO); on the radio; in newspaper and magazine website advertising; and, I’d bet my life on it, TV/radio programmes, ads and interviews will be lined up ready to roll nearer the release dates.

Some people disdain the Stones’s strong commercial impulse. I applaud it - great musicians, great self-promoters; rich men, satisfied customers.




Gerry Smith



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EARLIER RELATED ARTICLE:

Shine A Light, the new live Rolling Stones 2CD, recorded at the Beacon, New York City in late 2006, is set for UK release on Monday 7 April. (Tracklist below.)

It’s followed on Friday 11 April by the nationwide UK release of the film of the same name, directed by Martin Scorsese. And preceded on Wednesday 2 April by the film’s UK premiere – in London, but also to be shown in 100 cinemas nationwide: tickets cost £12.50.


Album tracks:

Jumping Jack Flash
Shattered
She Was Hot
All Down The Line
Loving Cup (with Jack White)
As Tears Go By
Some Girls
Just My Imagination
Faraway Eyes
Champagne And Reefer
Tumbling Dice
You Got The Silver
Connection
Sympathy For The Devil
Live With Me
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
Satisfaction
Paint It, Black
Little T and A
I’m Free
Shine A Light

I’ll be passing on the CD and the cinema show, but waiting to buy the DVD in about three months – unless it’s as ludicrously overpriced as the last two Stones concert DVDs - Forty Licks and The Biggest Bang – which, combined, cost a cool £100 – about £75 too much - when I last looked in HMV!



Gerry Smith

Sacred music – BBC Four’s promising new series

BBC Four, the TV channel for grown-ups, continues its exciting programming of high quality music with a promising new four-part series on sacred music, starting on Good Friday.

Sounds like Musical Heaven to me … not to be missed …

This is what they’re saying about it:

“Taking the viewer on a pilgrimage spanning six centuries … performed by the award-winning choir 'The Sixteen' conducted by Harry Christophers …

“In the opening programme 'The Gothic Revolution' begins at St Paul’s Cathedral … travels to Paris to discover how, at the close of the twelfth century, plainsong (chant) became polyphony (music of ‘many voices’) – the birth of harmony in the west.

“The next stop in the series is Italy. In 'Palestrina and the Popes' … links between the papal intrigues of Renaissance Rome and the music of the enigmatic Palestrina, 'The Prince of Music'. Palestrina’s work is considered by many to be unsurpassed in its spiritual perfection, but running underneath it is the turbulent story of the counter-reformation, which would have a dramatic impact on the composer’s life and music …

“ episode three 'Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors' … the effect of Henry VIII’s break with the Pope and the subsequent tumultuous history of the founding of the Protestant Church in England through the careers of two professional church musicians who were also superlative choral composers …

“ … Germany where Luther’s Protestant Reformation led to a musical revolution and ultimately to the glorious works of Johann Sebastian Bach …

“A 90-minute celebratory concert accompanies the documentaries with music from the series for Easter Sunday performed by Harry Christophers and 'The Sixteen', specially recorded at LSO St Luke’s in London.”




Gerry Smith

Leonard Cohen European tour

Have you booked yet? Better hurry up!

Booking for London O2 and Manchester Opera House opened this morning. The Manchester option on Ticketmaster didn’t let me buy, so I booked for London O2, very reluctantly – far too big, far too expensive … .

I wouldn’t have booked this venue at these prices for anyone else, not even St Bob … industrialised fun … blah … blah …, but I’ve never seen Lenny; I’ll just have to train myself to look forward to it.


Gerry Smith

Bob v Neil and 30th Anniversary Concert

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“Further to the recent discussion about Bob versus Neil, readers may be interested in following this link:

www.thrasherswheat.org/jammin/dylan.htm


“And further to comments about the Dylan audience booing Sinead O'Connor, I seem to remember from John Bauldie's coverage of the event at the time that the audience was made up of record company suits, showbiz types and corporate guests - I believe it likely there were very few ‘real’ Dylan fans present ... “

OPERA ROUND-UP: Strauss’s Salome, Natalie Dessay, and a Mozzafest

Recent opera highlights for grown-ups:

* David McVicar’s new London production of Strauss’s Salome (Royal Opera House) demanded respect, but it failed to engage fully. It had some compelling sub-Wagnerian sounds from the pit, but the principals didn’t really fire my imagination. Occasionally inspired, mostly disappointing.

* Natalie Dessay’s star continues to rise. Following her triumph in last year’s La Fille du Regiment in London – one of the most exciting performances I’ve seen, in any musical genre, in recent years - the French soprano has released some outstanding new product, including Bellini’s La Sonnambula and a must-have compilation, Airs d'Opéras Italiens


Airs d'Opéras Italiens - tracklist

Verdi La Traviata
E strano!... Ah, forse è lui - Follie! Follie... Sempre libera
Bellini I puritani
O rendetemi la speme - Qui la voce sua soave - Vien diletto
Donizetti Maria Stuarda
Allenta il piè, Regina - Oh nube che lieve - Nella pace del mesto riposo
Verdi Rigoletto
Gualtier Maldé... Caro nome
Bellini I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Eccomi in lieta vesta - Oh! quante volte
Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor
Eccola... Il dolce suono - Ardon gli incensi -
S’avanza Enrico - Spargi d’amaro pianto


* Mostly Mozart, the Barbican’s welcome annual mid-summer Mozzafest, bravely pitched against The Proms season on the other side of London, runs this year from 10 July to 2 August, and booking is now open.

Highlights include Cosi Fan Tutte, by Garsington Opera, La Clemenza di Tito, starring Alice Coote, and Mozart’s Requiem.

The programme is well worth a look:

www.barbican.org.uk





Gerry Smith

Keep It Simple - more on the new Van Morrison CD

Promoting Keep It Simple, the new Van the Man album released in England next Monday (17 March), Lost Highway Records are hosting “good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks - full versions of ‘That's Entrainment’ and ‘Behind The Ritual’”:

www.losthighwayrecords.com

And, for the next few days, you can hear Morrison’s interview with bluesman Paul Jones from his Monday BBC Radio 2 show:

www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio2_aod.shtml?radio2/paul_jones

After an unpromising, solipsistic start – “the album addresses the propaganda about myself” (oooh, noooooooh, I groaned - not that stuff again …), the interview found Morrison in jovial, generous mode.

Result? An unusually compelling listen, and an intro to what could well be Morrison’s best album since The Healing Game.



Gerry Smith

Yes - Neil Young IS upstaging Dylan

Thanks to Dave Dingle:

“Neil Young upstaging Bob? You better believe it!

“Having seen Bob over 100 times (an amateur compared to some, I know), I was struck last week by Neil doing a full one hour acoustic set, the like of which we haven’t seen from Bob since the 1960s, and a storming electric set ... active, prowling the stage, playing his own lead …

“I was left with the feeling that going to see Neil was an altogether more satisfying experience than Bob in recent years, stuck behind the piano, or even doing his few guitar songs.

“Sad to say, my conclusion is that Bob will never undergo the kind of renaissance that Neil obviously has!”


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EARLIER RELATED ARTICLE:

Neil Young upstaging Dylan?

Neil Young’s current London shows, with long setlists drawn from across his catalogue, have been getting rave reviews.

According to Martin Cowan:

“Interesting to compare Neil Young's 23/24 song sets from his current tour with the 17 that Dylan serves up these days.

“I have been pondering lately on Dylan set lists (further to my last email) and concluded that if he cut short some of the instrumental "noodling", he could play a few more songs and perhaps be a little more generous with that superlative song book. Just a thought.”


Here’s a sample of Young’s ever-changing setlist, from 8 March at Hammersmith Apollo, courtesy of Bad News Beat:

01. From Hank To Hendrix
02. Ambulance Blues
03. Sad Movies
04. A Man Needs A Maid
05. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong (grand piano)
06. On The Way Home (grand piano)
07. Harvest
08. Journey Through The Past (upright piano)
09. Love In Mind (upright piano)
10. Mellow My Mind
11. Love Art Blues
12. Love Is A Rose
13. Heart Of Gold
14. Old Man
---
15. Mr. Soul
16. Dirty Old Man
17. Spirit Road
18. Down By The River
19. Hey Hey, My My
20. Too Far Gone
21. Oh, Lonesome Me
22. Winterlong
23. Powderfinger
24. No Hidden Path
---
25. Roll Another Number



Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

Fri BBCR6 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Theme Time With Bob Dylan: Texas
Carter Family, Ernest Tubb and Jimmie Rodgers. And no show about Texas would be complete without one of my favourites ~ the late, great Doug Sahm and also Ry Cooder & Freddie Fender with Across The Borderline. Great stuff.

Fri BBCR3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Oscar Peterson
Tinkling the ivories.

Fri BBCR3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3
A broadcast for some un-broadcast stuff that wasn't deemed good enough for broadcast, so it wasn't. And now it is. Oscar, Ella and Django are featured in another listeners' pick.

Sat BBCR2 20.00 ~ 21.00
* Live And Exclusive: Van Morrison
Van da Man showcases his new album, 'Keep It Simple.'


TV For Grown-Ups
Fri BBC4 19.30 ~ 20.00
* Transatlantic Sessions
Repeat

Fri BBC4 20.00 ~ 21.00
* Tin Sandwich, anyone?
The history of the harmonica ~ Larry Adler, Sonny Terry, Stevie Wonder, Brendan Power and lots of others look at the story of the 'umble gob iron. Believe me, if you had to stand next to a harp player on stage blowing the bloody thing into your lugs ("waaaaahhhh") you wouldn't be amused and would certainly give this prog a miss, no matter how many good reviews it had (which it has).

Fri BBC4 21.00 ~ 22.00
* The Chieftains
Ooo look, it must be nearly Paddy's Day ~ they're wheelin' out the Irish stuff (see next prog also).

Fri BBC4 22.00 ~ 23.35
* Folk Hibernia
The revival of Irish folk.

Still, it's better than Sport Relief ~ I'll give them money if the guarantee they keep Patrick Keilty off my screen.

Leonard Cohen tour dates

The Leonard Cohen tour dates, announced this morning, are disappointing if you’re English: a choice of Manchester – I’d rather visit Baghdad – and London’s cavernous O2 Arena – ditto. Looks like Montreux or Nice for me!


http://www.leonardcohenforum.com


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EARLIER, RELATED ARTICLES:

Leonard Cohen European tour 2008 (You heard it here first #2)

In mid-2007, like a voice in the wilderness, Music for Grown-Ups was confidently speculating that Leonard Cohen would tour Europe this summer, after years without live shows.

Well, blow, me: Leonard’s 2008 European tour dates are set to be announced early next week!

Watch this space …

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Leonard Cohen live - looking a bit more likely

Earlier speculation about possible Leonard Cohen London shows (see below) looks a bit more accurate with the news that Lenny is appearing in a free pre-show “conversation” with Philip Glass at The Barbican at 6pm on Sat 20 0ctober.

The show itself is a performance of Glass’s treatment of Book Of Longing, Cohen’s new volume of poetry, set for voices and instruments (but not, note, Leonard himself).

Leonard Cohen? Free? What?

Well, there’s a snag – you need a ticket for the main gig to get in to the pre-show talk. And the main gig is, er, sold out. It was already sold out in the new Barbican programme - which arrived today. I wonder where it was first advertised?


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Leonard Cohen set to tour?

Leonard Cohen’s portrait on the cover of new issue of The Word, following loads and loads of recent UK press, makes me think that we’re about to see Leonard touring England - after such a long break.

He can’t surely be doing the press rounds in support of the slightly expanded reissues of the first three albums, or Anjani, his companion’s, new album of Leonard material. There simply has to be a bigger picture.

I’ve never seen Lenny live, but, then, who has? He hasn’t toured – anywhere - in 14 years…

If, like many grown-ups, you’re excited by the interface where pop culture (rock) meets high culture (literature), Lenny is certainly your man.

Watch this space…



Gerry Smith

Neil Young upstaging Dylan?

Neil Young’s current London shows, with long setlists drawn from across his catalogue, have been getting rave reviews.

And, according to Martin Cowan:

“Interesting to compare Neil Young's 23/24 song sets from his current tour with the 17 that Dylan serves up these days.

“I have been pondering lately on Dylan set lists (further to my last email) and concluded that if he cut short some of the instrumental "noodling", he could play a few more songs and perhaps be a little more generous with that superlative song book. Just a thought.”


Here’s a sample of Young’s ever-changing setlist, from 8 March at Hammersmith Apollo, courtesy of Bad News Beat:

01. From Hank To Hendrix
02. Ambulance Blues
03. Sad Movies
04. A Man Needs A Maid
05. Flying On The Ground Is Wrong (grand piano)
06. On The Way Home (grand piano)
07. Harvest
08. Journey Through The Past (upright piano)
09. Love In Mind (upright piano)
10. Mellow My Mind
11. Love Art Blues
12. Love Is A Rose
13. Heart Of Gold
14. Old Man
---
15. Mr. Soul
16. Dirty Old Man
17. Spirit Road
18. Down By The River
19. Hey Hey, My My
20. Too Far Gone
21. Oh, Lonesome Me
22. Winterlong
23. Powderfinger
24. No Hidden Path
---
25. Roll Another Number



Gerry Smith

Van Morrison on radio promoting Keep It Simple, the new album

In advance of next Monday’s (17 March) UK release of the new Van Morrison album, Keep It Simple, Van The Man is busy in promo mode.

You can catch him tonight on BBC Radio 2 at 1900-2000 on the Paul Jones blues show, with, we are told, five live songs and an interview.

Then, on Saturday (15 March), Radio 2’s Music Club (2000-2100) has a concert presenting the new album, recently recorded in London - Van Morrison Live & Exclusive.

Here’s hoping Morrison has re-ignited the spark which made him one of the top poprock writer/performers for grown-ups for almost 40 years from the early 1960s.


Gerry Smith

Shine A Light - new 2CD and concert film from the Rolling Stones

Shine A Light, the new live Rolling Stones 2CD, recorded at the Beacon, New York City in late 2006, is set for UK release on Monday 7 April. (Tracklist below.)

It’s followed on Friday 11 April by the nationwide UK release of the film of the same name, directed by Martin Scorsese. And preceded on Wednesday 2 April by the film’s UK premiere – in London, but also to be shown in 100 cinemas nationwide: tickets cost £12.50.


Album tracks:

Jumping Jack Flash
Shattered
She Was Hot
All Down The Line
Loving Cup (with Jack White)
As Tears Go By
Some Girls
Just My Imagination
Faraway Eyes
Champagne And Reefer
Tumbling Dice
You Got The Silver
Connection
Sympathy For The Devil
Live With Me
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
Satisfaction
Paint It, Black
Little T and A
I’m Free
Shine A Light

I’ll be passing on the CD and the cinema show, but waiting to buy the DVD in about three months – unless it’s as ludicrously overpriced as the last two Stones concert DVDs - Forty Licks and The Biggest Bang – which, combined, cost a cool £100 – about £75 too much - when I last looked in HMV!



Gerry Smith

Leonard Cohen European tour 2008 (You heard it here first #2)

In mid-2007, like a voice in the wilderness, Music for Grown-Ups was confidently speculating that Leonard Cohen would tour Europe this summer, after years without live shows.

Well, blow, me: Leonard’s 2008 European tour dates are set to be announced early next week!

Watch this space …



XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

EARLIER, RELATED ARTICLES:

Leonard Cohen live - looking a bit more likely

Earlier speculation about possible Leonard Cohen London shows (see below) looks a bit more accurate with the news that Lenny is appearing in a free pre-show “conversation” with Philip Glass at The Barbican at 6pm on Sat 20 0ctober.

The show itself is a performance of Glass’s treatment of Book Of Longing, Cohen’s new volume of poetry, set for voices and instruments (but not, note, Leonard himself).

Leonard Cohen? Free? What?

Well, there’s a snag – you need a ticket for the main gig to get in to the pre-show talk. And the main gig is, er, sold out. It was already sold out in the new Barbican programme - which arrived today. I wonder where it was first advertised?


XXXXXXXXX

Leonard Cohen set to tour?

Leonard Cohen’s portrait on the cover of new issue of The Word, following loads and loads of recent UK press, makes me think that we’re about to see Leonard touring England - after such a long break.

He can’t surely be doing the press rounds in support of the slightly expanded reissues of the first three albums, or Anjani, his companion’s, new album of Leonard material. There simply has to be a bigger picture.

I’ve never seen Lenny live, but, then, who has? He hasn’t toured – anywhere - in 14 years…

If, like many grown-ups, you’re excited by the interface where pop culture (rock) meets high culture (literature), Lenny is certainly your man.

Watch this space…



Gerry Smith

Rock gigs with unacceptable ticket prices

It’s a pleasure to see Music for Grown-Ups favourite Neil Young receiving plaudits for his current European tour promoting Chrome Dreams II.

Young’s setlists, a career-spanning trawl through one of rock’s premier songbooks, plus three or four tracks from the new album, and the show format, a solo acoustic half, followed by an electric set with a small band, made we wish I’d booked for this week’s London shows.

Until, that is, I remembered why I didn’t book in the first place – the ticket prices: £75 or £55, plus all the usual add-ons, plus transport, and you’re looking at £175 for two for a couple of hours of pleasure. No thanks: greedy consumerism gone bananas.

There’s a trend towards US-style prices, especially for American artists. Like Young, Springsteen’s upcoming shows are priced beyond what I think he’s worth. And they’re not alone.

You can still book for most vital home-based poprockers (except the Stones/Led Zep et al) – Morrissey to Van The Man - for about £35, but if you’re price-sensitive, forget American touring bands. They’ll charge what the market will bear – and good luck to them - but I won’t be booking.



Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

Fri BBCR6 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Theme Time With Bob Dylan: Colour
Charles Mingus, Ella Mae Morse, Joni Mitchell and Screamin Jay Hawkins

Fri BBCR3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Eric Dolphy
The man who matched Mingus and Coltrane is profiled

Fri BBCR3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3
The Gannets, the jazz offshoot from rock band The Guillemots

Sat BBCR2 20.00 ~ 21.00
* Mark Lamarr's Redneck Music (4/4)
Texas soul and Western Swing in the last of Mark's entertaining series.


TV For Grown-Ups
Fri BBC4 19.30 ~ 20.00
* Transatlantic Sessions
Repeat for the sessions recorded at Strathgarry House

Fri BBC4 21.00 ~ 22.00
* What's Going On?
The life and tragic death of Marvin Gaye

Fri BBC4 22.00 ~ 23.00
* Motor City's Burning
Detroit's impact on music ~ from John Lee Hooker to Tamla and on through to Iggy and The Stooges and lots of interesting points in between.

Fri BBC4 23.00 ~ 23.45
* John Lee Hooker and Friends

Fri/Sat BBC4 00.45 ~01.35
* Iggy Pop & the Stooges At Glastonbury
This year's incendiary live set which featured some great garage/punk rock and a stage invasion. Unmissable if you missed it first time round.

Sat BBC4 20.30 ~ 21.30
* Soul Deep ~ The Story of Black Popular Music
Looking at Motown and its legacy, a repeat of the acclaimed series, but the real prize is on at midnight…

Sat BBC4 00.00 ~ 01.45
* Standing In The Shadows of Motown
Absolutely superb doc looking at the work of the in-house band at Tamla, The Funk Brothers. They've played on a huge amount of records, able to play any style and, with James Jamerson, virtually inventing modern bass playing.

Songlines at 50

The 50th “Collector’s” edition of Songlines, the London-based world music bi-monthly, is currently gracing the news-stands, with several special features capturing my attention, including a couple of genre-defining short surveys – 50 Great Moments In World Music, and 50 Years of World Music – and the mag’s selection of the 50 top world albums.

Making this issue a must-buy is the high quality cover-mount sampler CD, with tracks by Music for Grown-Ups faves like Ali Farka Toure, Youssou N’Dour, Khaled, Fela Kuti and Nustrat Fateh Ali Khan.

I normally only look at Songlines after its leafing through its competitor fRoots, but this (recommended) issue will force me to take more interest in future.



www.songlines.co.uk



Gerry Smith

Neil Young and the Chrome Dreams II DVD

Having been a long-time Neil Young fan, I guess I’m in for the duration. After all, his back catalogue is one of the richest in rockpop.

But, though I’ve dutifully bought the last few studio albums, I’ve hardly listened to any of them. Greendale (2003), Prairie Wind (2005) and Living With War (2006) have disturbed my hi-fi a mere once or twice each. If I want to listen to shrill preaching, I can go to a nasty little church.

But the trio of heritage dadrock releases - Live At the Fillmore East (1971>2006), Live At Massey Hall (1971>2007) and Greatest Hits (2004) – have fared rather better. They remind me why I like Young.

Chrome Dreams II (2007) sounds as if it’ll get some play, too. But I’m bemused by the Chrome Dreams II de luxe release. Disc 2 has the album repeated in “DVD” format; the DVD pictures are stills of cars in Young’s garage.

What’s he up to? Should someone tell him that tape/slide presentations had become redundant 35 years ago?

Wakey, wakey, Shakey.



Gerry Smith

Mags go under: No Depression and Resonance follow Straight No Chaser

Music magazines, especially specialist niche titles, are feeling the pinch.

Hot on the heels of the demise of London-based urban mag Straight No Chaser comes news of two more casualties. No Depression, the alt-country/Americana bi-monthly, has announced it’s to close its doors following the May-June issue, after 13 years of playing a lead role in fostering the emergent genre.

And Resonance, the stylish NW coast-based champion of hip pop culture, is closing after 14 years of documenting cutting-edge indie rockpop, film, books and the visual arts.

But why are music mags going t*ts up like this?

Simple. Reduced CD sales because of free digital downloads means record labels reduce adverting spend. Competitive discounting by online retailers and supermarkets mean small music retailers close down, reducing distribution outlets. And web sites (like this) supply free news and views which people used to buy in magazines.

Serious fans of grown-up music will miss all three fine magazines.



Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:

Radio For Grown-Ups

Tues BBCR2 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan: Dance

Fri BBCR6 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan: Laughter - Big Joe Turner, The Maytals and Gene Chandler

Fri BBCR3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Rex Stewart - the essential recordings of the cornet player

Fri BBCR3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3 - Spindrift in concert

Sat BBCR2 20.00 ~ 21.00
* Mark Lamarr’s Redneck Music (3/4) - the relationship between country and rock ‘n’ roll.


TV For Grown-Ups

A Friday night repeatfest on BBC4, but they are good shows and if you haven’t seen ‘em, you should!

Fri BBC4 19.30 ~ 20.00
* Transatlantic Sessions - repeat for the sessions recorded at Strathgarry House

Fri BBC4 20.00 ~ 21.00
* Legends: Al Bowlly ~ The Very Thought Of You - more excellence in the Legends series with a repeated profile of the pre-war popular crooner.

Fri BBC4 22.00 ~ 23.00
* Emmylou Harris’ 10 Commandments Of Country - yet another repeat, but a worthy one as Emmy and her crack band take us through some superb country/bluegrass songs.

Fri BBC4 23.00 ~ 23.35
* Emmylou Harris at the BBC - a selection of appearances Emmy has made over the years

Fri BBC2 11.35 ~ 12.35
* Later With Jools Holland - Andy Fairweather-Low with Chris Barber and his band are the ones to tape and watch later this week… Ha - so that’s why it’s called ‘Later’!

Coffee bar chain to release new Dylan influences compilation

A well-known chain of foreign-owned coffee bars is to release Artist’s Choice - Bob Dylan, next week. The new CD assembles 16 tracks of the type Dylan has played on Theme Time Radio Hour, by musicians of the Stanley Brothers, Junior Wells and Billie Holiday vintage.

But, as with its Dylan Live At The Gaslight 1962 CD release, the “global” coffee bar company doesn’t supply online outside the US/Canada. How terribly quaint!

I assume the new CD won’t be available from local coffee bar outlets, either - I failed to find any evidence of the Gaslight CD in its central London branches last year.

I’d start to boycott the chain if I hadn’t been doing so for years. I never darken the doors of their coffee bars. Not for any ideological reasons, though – I just can’t bear to drink coffee from grossly oversized mugs, or to sit amongst serried ranks of shiny happy customers with too much time and money to waste. I choose to waste mine in Caffe Nero or Coffee Republic.


Gerry Smith

Billy Fury – Liverpool’s foremost poprocker for grown-ups

The Beatles: Liverpool’s foremost poprockers for grown-ups, yeah?

Naaaah: not even the foremost 1960s Scouse beat band (The Searchers, if you’re wondering).

No, Music for Grown-Ups’ favourite Scouse poprocker, by a country mile, is Billy Fury, best known for a slew of hit singles like Halfway To Paradise, which elevated the classic Goffin-King ditty into pop art.

Until recently, though, Fury’s rich legacy was hidden, thanks to a confusing multiplicity of sub-standard compilation albums. Whenever I’ve attempted to play The Collection, a disappointing album in my collection, I’ve quickly switched it off, wondering why I ever thought so highly of Billy Fury in the first place.

Pap like covers of Hippy Hippy Shake and Glad All Over are not where it’s at, pretty baby. Fury was a powerful singles artist, but what’s been available hitherto have been compilations juxtaposing a few singles with filler.

Thankfully, Fury’s catalogue has now been massively improved by His Wondrous Story: The Complete Collection, a high quality compilation which has been in the Anglo album charts for weeks. It’s a complete collection of Fury's singles, for the first time on a single CD.

Play.com is selling it for £8.95 delivered – bargain of the month, I’d say.



Track List

Halfway To Paradise
Maybe Tomorrow
Margo
Colette
That's Love
Wondrous Place
A Thousand Stars
Don't Worry
Jealousy
I'd Never Find Another You
Letter Full Of Tears
Last Night Was Made For Love
Once Upon A Dream
Because Of Love
Like I've Never Been Gone
When Will You Say I Love You
In Summer
Somebody Else's Girl
Do Really Love Me Too
I Will
It's Only Make Believe
I'm Lost Without You
In Thoughts Of You
Run To My Loving Arms
I'll Never Quite Get Over You
Give Me Your Word
Love Or Money
Devil Or Angel
Forget Him



Gerry Smith

Asda supermarket keeping me out of HMV

I used to be a habitual HMV customer – and a strong advocate of the retailer on this site - but I gradually kicked the habit. Because, while CD prices have been plummeting from online suppliers and supermarkets, HMV’s prices look stubbornly high.

I was reminded of the gap last weekend after leaving my local HMV branch empty-handed (again), after recently visiting Asda, Wal-Mart’s English subsidiary.

Sample price comparisons of product currently interesting me were startling:

* Morrissey Greatest Hits De Luxe: HMV £19, Asda £14

* Van Morrison Best Of v3: HMV £13, Asda £5

* Morrissey Who Put The M in Manchester DVD: HMV £18, (has been widely available elsewhere @ £5)

* Led Zep DVD: HMV £30, (has been widely available at Asda and elsewhere @ £13)

HMV might well manage to turn round its ailing chain, but until its prices are back in line with the marketplace, I won’t be contributing.



Gerry Smith

Stunning rock photography in Birmingham

Birmingham’s Snap Galleries has an exciting season of rock photography coming up:


1. Art Kane - Visionary Portraits 1958-68 now on show

2. Eric Meola - New Bruce Springsteen photographs

3. Elvis Presley from 1956 by Alfred Wertheimer

4. Lawrence Watson - Britpop icons and more

5. Art Fairs in London and Harrogate in March 2008

6. Bob Dylan from 1966 by Barry Feinstein - next exhibition

Snap Galleries Limited, Unit 7 - Ground Floor, Fort Dunlop, Fort Parkway, Birmingham B24 9FD. Tel: 0121 748 3408/from US: 011 44 121 748 3408.

www.snapgalleries.com




Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … a warm welcome back to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

Mon BBC R2 20.00 ~ 22.00
* Mark Radcliffe: shorn of fellow talking head Maconie, Radcliffe is a much more inspirational broadcaster, with some excellent guests this week. Tonight it's maverick Grammy winner Steve Earle and on Thursday Noddy Holder reviews the TV for the week. Bound to be more insightful and humorous than my attempts.

Mon BBC R2 22.00 ~ 22.30
* Big Band Special: Tribute to Joe Zawinul

Tues BBC R2 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan: Food

Thurs BBC R2 23.00 ~ 23.30
* The Music Club Presents: Patti Smith talks us through her career. In half an hour?

Fri BBC R6 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Theme Time With Bob Dylan: ??? Glad to see that the Beeb keeping on top of things in my absence. Oh, they haven't ... .

Fri BBC R3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Abdullah Ibrahim: choosing highlights from his own career, the South African pianist.

Fri BBC R3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3: Dave Liebmann and Evan Parker in concert from the Vortex, London

Sat BBC R2 20.00 ~ 21.00
* Mark Lamarr's Redneck Music (part 2): I've never liked him as a comedian, but he's becoming a fine radio presenter ~ his regular shows on RnR and reggae are a delight, as he reins in his ego and puts on his music fan hat. Probably a trilby. Here, he journeys to America's backwoods to find the birthplaces and inspiration of some of the forefathers of country music; tonight he features Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams



TV For Grown-Ups

A bonanza on ITV4 this week, though you'll need a recorder.

Weds/Thurs ITV4 22.00 ~ 00.20
* Quadrophenia: One of my favourite teaching aids; the brilliant Phil Daniels' Jimmy tears up Brighton to a marvellous soundtrack. Watch and see a litany of future TV/film stars in early roles. One of the best English films ever made, all about growing up and identity.

Weds/Thurs 00.50 ~ 02.00
* The Who ~ Live In Boston: Concert film from 2002

Thurs/Fri 00.20 ~02.40
* The Kids Are Alright: Who doc.

Fri ITV4 22.00 ~ 23.00
* Marc Bolan ~ 20th Century Boy: Tribute to the Elfin one

Fri/Sat & Sat evening ITV4 01.00 ~ 02.40
* This Is Spinal Tap: A rockumentary, if you will, of '80s HM group's disastrous US tour. 11 out of 10.

Fri/Sat ITV4 00.45 ~ 02.05
* The Clash: No other details, I'm afraid.

Fri BBC4 19.30 ~ 20.30
* Legends: Jacques Brel ~ Ne Me Quitte Pas: Repeated profile, but none the worse for it.

Fri BBC4 20.30 ~ 21.00
* Brecon Jazz Festival: Fusion

Fri BBC4 22.00 ~ 23.00
* Caledonia Dreamin': The emergence of Scotland's Postcard Records

Fri BBC4 23.00 ~ 23.35
* Edwyn Collins: Home Again: Profiling one of Postcard Records' brilliant singer/songwriters, this doc follows Ed's rehabilitation from a brain haemorrhage and his struggle to produce a new album.

Fri BBC2 11.35 ~ 00.35
* Later With Jools Holland: Here's hoping he doesn't play piano on Steve Earle's songs.

Massive Attack to curate Meltdown, the music festival for grown-ups

London’s South Bank Centre has just announced that Bristol band Massive Attack are to be Artistic Directors of its 15th Meltdown festival, to be held Saturday 14 - Sunday 22 June.

Massive Attack follow a run of directors from the top echelons of music for grown-ups, including John Peel, Scott Walker, David Bowie, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Morrissey and Patti Smith.

Emerging from the Bristol club scene in the late 1980s, Massive Attack are innovators; they’ve worked with collaborators as diverse as Tricky, Portishead, Liz Fraser, Sinead O’Connor, Mos Def and Damon Albarn.

Meltdown, the highlight of London’s summer music scene, is almost guaranteed to offer an outstanding programme of gigs for grown-ups, far more engaging than all the contemporaneous summer festivals in muddy fields catering for kiddy campers (of all ages).

Meltdown takes over all 21 acres of South Bank Centre - including the riverside, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall - for nine days of concerts, DJ sets, talks, films, and visual art.

Watch this space for the line-up for Meltdown 2008. You’ll have to book quickly, though - demand for Meltdown festival tickets is always high.




Gerry Smith

Free! Music for grown-ups on air in the next seven days

Over the next seven days, I hope to catch/record these tempting TV/radio broadcasts:

(Wed 13 Feb – nothing)

Thursday 14 Feb:
1400 Focus on Berlin, inc Bach’s B Minor Mass - BBC Radio 3

Friday 15 Feb:
2030 Brecon Jazz - BBC4
2100 Legends - Edith Piaf – BBC4
2230 Jazz Library – King Oliver - BBC Radio 3
(to Sunday): Smiths Weekend - MOJO Radio

Saturday 16 Feb:
1800 Live from the Met – Puccini’s Manon (Karita Mattila)- Radio 3
1910 The Culture Show – inc Moby – BBC2

(Sun 17 Feb – nada)

Monday 18 Feb:
(to Friday) 2045 Composer Of The Week – Verdi - BBC Radio 3
(to Thursday) 2230 Artist Focus – Susan Graham, mezzo - BBC Radio 3

Tuesday 19 Feb:
2230 Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour – Food - BBC Radio 2
2330 Jason and Iyare’s A-Z OF Street Music 1/6 - BBC Radio 2




Gerry Smith

You heard it here first: #1 Amy Winehouse

Congratulations to London chanteuse Amy Winehouse on her success in landing a fistful of Grammys on Sunday night.

The jazz-inflected pop vocalist has long been a favourite of Music for Grown-Ups.

Here’s what we said long before she became a global sensation:



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Amy Winehouse: music for grown-ups

If you’re reading this outside the UK, the name Amy Winehouse will probably be new you – the word is that she has yet to be promoted overseas.

If you’re in the UK, you can hardly have escaped Ms Winehouse. Back To Black, her chart-topping second album, her colourful lifetyle, and triumph at last week’s Brits awards, have made her the best-publicised English pop persona since, er, Oasis.

Back To Black, the new album, released before Xmas, has already stacked up 700,000 sales. Frank, her fine debut album, was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2003.

A fine, ballsy, songwriter, an authentic soul/jazz/r&b voice, and on-stage charisma, Winehouse is a massive new talent. Lovely tone. Fine range. Convincing actress. And – bonus – she swings.

But, because she was cross-promoted to the supermarket market with a bunch of less talented Brit “jazz” singers at launch, I’d dismissed her along with the rest of the wannabes. Mistake. Amy’s the first pop star to have made me pay serious attention for many years.

Music for grown-ups? From a boozy, potty-mouthed, loose-lipped 23 year old? You bet. Best check out Amy Winehouse - rapido!


Gerry Smith

Oh Vienna! Part 2 – Lieder at the Musikverein

Though generally willing to try any type of music, I’ve always resisted Lieder – classical German song. Far, far too grown-up for my taste.

But visiting Vienna last week, I was disappointed that the legendary Staatsoper was given over to the appalling middlebrow Opernball – the annual schmaltz waltz meets celebs’ night out. Opera had been banished from one of the world’s great houses, for the duration.

What to do? The next best choice was soprano Dorothea Roschmann’s Lieder recital at the Musikverein. I’d been mightily impressed by Ms Roschmann in several lovely Covent Garden performances. And I wanted to tick off the Musikverein, one of the classical world’s great venues.

But Lieder? Schubert? Schumann? Wolf? It could turn into a long night.

I needn’t have worried. Though struggling with a heavy cold, Roschmann, supported by pianist Graham Johnson, converted me instantly.

Great gig. I loved the show – two hours, entirely in German, with German programme notes. It was a belter.

It confirmed a central tenet of Music for Grown-Ups – music is music. Forget the packaging. Language is unimportant. Successfully evoking emotion is the aim and the sole criterion for judging performance.

Musikverein? A gas. Perfect acoustics. Though the small hall was only half full – 250 empty seats for a performance by one of the German repertoire’s greatest voices!

Weird. Perhaps the disparus were all cosied up at home, watching wall-to-wall Opernball on TV.



Gerry Smith

Morrissey mania for grown-ups

Following a very lucky break at the third, and what turned out to be the final, gig in Morrissey’s week-long London residency – Moz’s bad throat forced him to curtail then cancel the last three shows – I’ve been marvelling at the power of the Manc Miserablist’s PR machine.

With the new single released last Monday and the Greatest Hits album due next Monday, Morrissey’s everywhere: Russell Brand show on E4, Jools Holland and Culture Show on BBC2 …

The most visible press I’ve seen is the Smiths cover of the new (“March”) issue of MOJO. It advertises several articles about Mr Gloomy of Manchester. And MOJO’s sitting on the news-stand shelves right next to the Mozza cover on the front of the Feb issue of The Word.

The de luxe 2CD Greatest Hits and the new MOJO are must-buys for those who get it (and those wondering what all the fuss is about).



Gerry Smith

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EARLIER RELATED ARTICLES:

Coming very soon - Morrissey Week in London!

Morrissey, one of the most revered of rockpop artists in his native land, returns to London next week with a six night residency at the recently reopened Roundhouse. Watch this space for the exclusive Music for Grown-Ups concert review - I’m due at the Wednesday gig.

I expect the setlist to include a sizeable selection of the songs on Greatest Hits, Morrissey’s first compilation from his post-1997 releases (track list below), due on 11 February. Plus some earlier solo material and the odd Smiths classic.

Greatest Hits (de luxe version) tracklist:

1. First Of The Gang To Die
2. In The Future When All's Well
3. I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
4. Irish Blood English Heart
5. You Have Killed Me
6. That's How People Grow Up
7. Everyday Is Like Sunday
8. Redondo Beach
9. Suedehead
10. Youngest Wat The Most Loved
11. Last Of The Famous International Playboys
12. More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get
13. All You Need Is Me
14. Let Me Kiss You
15. I Have Forgiven Jesus
16. Alma Matters

Disc: 2 – Live at Hollywood Bowl
1. The Last of the Famous International Playboys
2. The National Front Disco
3. Let Me Kiss You
4. Irish Blood, English Heart
5. I Will See You in Far-off Places
6. First of the Gang to Die
7. I Just Want to See the Boy Happy
8. Life is a Pigsty

Whooppee! I can hardly wait. Rave on, Mozza!


Gerry Smith

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Morrissey in London – pop for grown-ups


Last night’s Morrissey gig at London’s Roundhouse – his third in a six night residency – was pure pop for grown-ups.

The setlist was a mixture of recent and new solo material, with Irish Blood/English Heart, First Of The Gang To Die and Last Of The Famous International Playboys the standouts. The forthcoming single, That’s How People Grow Up, will justify careful scrutiny.

Mozza’s unique talent is pungent, wittily original lyrics, allied to an unmissable on-stage charisma: very few performers give good gig better than he. His rapport with the faithful is wondrous to behold.

Last night’s music was nothing to get excited about, though. Trenchant lyrics apart, Morrissey’s solo work sounds pedestrian to my ears: too little variety in melody, tempo or dynamics. No variation. No improv.

So his musos are in a straitjacket to start with. But this crew sounded dull anyway. And the sound, from stage left, 20 metres from the front, was muddy, too bassy, and Il Mozzo was too low in the mix.

Morrissey was my first gig at the refurb’d Roundhouse. Very impressive – it easily reclaims its traditional status as London’s premier rockpop venue. Big enough for a 2,000 stand-up audience; small enough for intimate communion.

Pity about the audience, though. They’ve had to stop smoking (Hallelujah!), but most still yak incessantly, sing along as if they’re in the bath, and shuffle backwards and forwards to the bars all night long, spilling expensive beer from plastic mugs over innocent bystanders.

All music venues, from the Royal Opera House to Ronnie Scott’s, attract more than their fair share of stiffs. But rockpop gigs are notoriously bad: fully 50% of last night’s Roundhouse crowd were boneheads.




Gerry Smith

Oh Vienna! Part 1

On my first trip to Vienna last week – Heaven only knows why it’s taken so long - I spent three days marvelling at the handsome Habsburg capital’s rich musical heritage.

Never mind the magnificence of the built environment – Vienna is a world-class city - or the divine legacy of key visual artists such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Otto Wagner, the Austrian capital is a strong contender for Music for Grown-Ups global HQ.

Everywhere you go, you’re reminded of its stature. Major venues abound – Musikverein … Konzerthaus … Staatsoper … Volksoper … And, round every corner you keep running into statues, squares, streets, plaques, and pavement memorials commemorating the great classical composers with roots in Vienna – Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven, Mahler, Schoenberg … the list is almost endless. Only Bach is missing.

And that’s not to mention Music for Grown-Ups favourite, jazzer Joe Zawinul.

No city has more musical resonance: Oh Vienna, indeed.



Gerry Smith

(to be continued)

Yet another Doors compilation?

The Future Starts Here: The Essential Doors is just hitting the shops. Some readers might share my puzzlement at the appearance of yet another Doors compilation.

The Future Starts Here comes hot on the heels of last year’s slew of highly praised reissues, which included a choice of three compilations, all called The Very Best Of The Doors.

The explanation must be that last year’s wonderful compilations weren’t released in the USA, and are now being rolled out in North America under a different name.

It’s all very puzzling for this Doors fan.


Gerry Smith

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EARLIER RELATED ARTICLE:

The Doors – rock release of 2007

A very strong contender for rock release of 2007 has to be the 40th Anniversary compilation, The Very Best Of The Doors.

There are three versions: a single CD, in the supermarkets now; a better buy is the 2CD version; easily the best buy is the Limited Edition 2CD/DVD/book.

Both of the 2CD versions have virtually everything you need by the Doors:

Disc: 1
1. Break On Through
2. Strange Days
3. Alabama Song
4. Love Me Two Times
5. Light My Fire
6. Spanish Caravan
7. Crystal Ship
8. The Unknown Soldier
9. The End (full version)
10. People Are Strange
11. Back Door Man
12. Moonlight Drive
13. End Of The Night
14. Five To One
15. When The Music's Over


Disc: 2
1. Bird Of Prey
2. Love Her Madly
3. Riders On The Storm
4. Orange County Suite
5. Runnin' Blue
6. Hello I Love You
7. The W.A.S.P. (Texas Radio & The Big Beat)
8. Stoned Immaculate
9. Soul Kitchen
10. Peace Frog
11. L.A. Woman
12. Waiting For The Sun
13. Touch Me
14. The Changeling
15. Wishful, Sinful
16. Love Street
17. The Ghost Song
18. Whiskey, Mystics And Men
19. Roadhouse Blues

The packaging of The Very Best Of The Doors, with a naked torso shot of Mr Mojo Rising pointing at the camera, is stunning. If, like me, you already own all the audio tracks, the Limited Edition is worth buying for the booklet, DVD and the packaging alone. It’s available online for about £16, delivered. Bargain!



Gerry Smith

Ella profile on radio tonight – not to be missed

With tonight’s programme, the excellent Jazz Library series (BBC Radio 3, Fridays 2230 GMT, then for seven days afterwards on the web) reaches the mighty Ella Fitzgerald.

It promises to be one of the highlights of early 2008: not to be missed!

www.bbc.co.uk/radio3


Gerry Smith

Top quality Ella Fitzgerald – at a bargain price

Grown-Up CD buyers who love a bargain will want to check out Forever Ella, last year’s lovely compilation of Fitzgerald classics. It’s now dropping in price – amazon now have it for under £8 (plus del), and Tesco are even cheaper – they’re selling it in the bigger stores I frequent at £7.50.

If you don’t have any Ella recordings, Forever Ella (2007) is a great place to start. I envy you your voyage of discovery.



Gerry Smith

New low price for top Dylan and Cohen albums

The major supermarket chains have driven down CD/DVD/book prices just as much the online retailers and digital downloads. Pity the poor specialist music retailers (only joking!)

But I never thought I’d ever see prime Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen albums retailing at £2.50 each!

Tesco are selling a load of Sony 2-fers including boxed sets of Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind and “Love And Theft”, and Leonard Cohen’s Songs Of Leonard Cohen and Songs Of Love And Hate for £5 each – that’s just £2.50 per album. I paid £15 each for some of these albums - when £15 seemed like a lot of money!

Will top albums soon be available at £1 each? I wouldn’t bet against it.


Gerry Smith

Rock meets jazz: fusion for beginners

Regular readers might recall that In A Silent Way is near the top of Music for Grown-Ups’ favourite albums. Miles Davis’ 1969 masterpiece was the breakthrough work, successfully fusing jazz sensibilities with rock beats – and, most important, finding a huge market while alienating his heritage jazz following.

Fusion flourished for almost a decade, with memorable music from a core of Miles acolytes such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinul.

If you want to sample the best of fusion, this is a handy beginner’s guide (from an unexpected source):


www.classicrockmagazine.com/page/classicrock?entry=jazz_rock_buyers_guide


Gerry Smith

Morrissey in London – prime pop for grown-ups

Last night’s Morrissey gig at London’s Roundhouse – his third in a six night residency – was prime pop for grown-ups. A delightful show.

The setlist was a mixture of classic, recent and new material, with Irish Blood/English Heart, First Of The Gang To Die and Last Of The Famous International Playboys the standouts. The forthcoming single, That’s How People Grow Up, will justify careful scrutiny.

Mozza’s unique talent is pungent, wittily original lyrics, allied to an unmissable on-stage charisma: very few performers give good gig better than he. His rapport with the faithful is wondrous to behold.

Musically, last night was nothing to get excited about, though. Trenchant lyrics apart, Morrissey’s solo work sounds pedestrian to my ears: too little variety in melody, tempo or dynamics. No variation in delivery. No improv.

So his musos are in a straitjacket to start with. But this crew sounded dull anyway. And the sound, from stage left, 20 metres from the front, was muddy, bassy, and Il Mozzo was too low in the mix.

Morrissey was my first gig at the refurb’d Roundhouse. Very impressive – it easily reclaims its traditional status as London’s premier rockpop venue. Big enough for a 2,000 stand-up audience; small enough for intimate communion.

Pity about the audience. They’ve had to stop smoking (Hallelujah!), but most still yak incessantly, sing along as if they’re in the bath, and shuffle backwards and forwards to the bars all night long, spilling expensive, dubious-looking beer from plastic mugs over innocent bystanders.

All music venues, from the Royal Opera House to Ronnie Scott’s, attract more than their fair share of stiffs. But rockpop gigs are notorious: fully 50% of last night’s Roundhouse crowd were boneheads.




Gerry Smith

Van the Man – Ireland’s greatest creative artist?

I've just finished reading a challenging new polemic about Music for Grown-Ups fave Van the Man. In the course of celebrating the fortieth anniversary of his masterwork, Astral Weeks, writer Declan Lynch makes the case for Morrison as Ireland’s greatest ever creative artist.

Yes, that’s greater than James Joyce. And Yeats. And the creators of the Book Of Kells.

Convinced? See what you think:

www.vanmorrisonnews.blogspot.com


Morrison's back catalogue is being reissued in batches, from next Monday, and a new album, Keep It Simple, is due in March.



Gerry Smith

Top poprock record labels profiled

For all that they’re widely regarded as robber barons, record labels have been key gatekeepers in the dissemination of music, a filter helping the consumer cope with a manageable array of talent, and promoting/distributing product so that it’s easily available.

Friday’s Independent had an informative profile of most of the leading labels crucial in the development of post-WW2 poprock, including Music for Grown-Ups favourites like Chess, Sun and Rough Trade.

But why, oh why, did they see fit to ignore the greatest label of them all, CBS/Columbia/Sony, which made superstars of talents like Sinatra, Miles Davis and Bob Dylan?


http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/features



Gerry Smith

Coming very soon - Morrissey Week in London!

Morrissey, one of the most revered of rockpop artists in his native land, returns to London next week with a six night residency at the recently reopened Roundhouse. Watch this space for the exclusive Music for Grown-Ups concert review - I’m due at the Wednesday gig.

I expect the setlist to include a sizeable selection of the songs on Greatest Hits, Morrissey’s first compilation from his post-1997 releases (tracklist below), due on 11 February. Plus some earlier solo material and the odd Smiths classic.

Greatest Hits tracklist:

1. First Of The Gang To Die
2. In The Future When All's Well
3. I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
4. Irish Blood English Heart
5. You Have Killed Me
6. That's How People Grow Up
7. Everyday Is Like Sunday
8. Redondo Beach
9. Suedehead
10. Youngest Wat The Most Loved
11. Last Of The Famous International Playboys
12. More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get
13. All You Need Is Me
14. Let Me Kiss You
15. I Have Forgiven Jesus
16. Alma Matters

Whooppee! I can hardly wait. Rave on, Mozza!


Gerry Smith

New Stones, Morrissey, Morrison releases due soon

Tempting new rockpop releases already announced for 2008 include:

· Rolling Stones - Shine A Light, the soundtrack to the new Martin Scorsese film documenting the last tour, is due in March.

· Morrissey’s Greatest Hits, the first compilation from his post-1997 releases, comes out on 11 February. It will be followed by a new studio album in the autumn.

· Van Morrison’s new CD, Keep It Simple, is due in March. And a programme of (slightly) enhanced back catalogue re-releases starts with seven albums on 28 January.

All will be worth a careful grown-up listen, even if none promises to be exactly Earth-shattering.


Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

Thurs BBCR2 23.00 ~ 23.30
* My Country Jukebox: Nick Barraclough talks to Suzy Bogguss, soon to tour the UK, about her favourite records.

Fri BBCR6 2100 - 2200
* Theme Time With Bob Dylan: Divorce - Tammy Wynette, George Jones and Lefty Frizzell all feature. I'll never get this hour of my life back, but I don't care!

Fri BBCR3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3: Richard Galliano (accordion) and Michel Portal (clarinet) at the London Jazz Fest


TV For Grown-Ups

The Pop, What Is It Good For season continues on BBC4:

Weds BBC4 19.30 onwards
* Sounds Of The '60s
* Top Of The Pops ~ 1967 Xmas show
* Help ~ Beatles film with the Fab Four larking about on a much bigger budget. Fun
* Pop On Trial ~ Maconie is joined by Bonzo/Python stalwart, Neil Innes
* Chuck Berry In Concert ~ a gig from 1972
* Gimme Shelter ~ The Stones look on shocked at Altamont: a towering doc.

Thurs BBC4 19.30 onwards
* Top Of The Pops ~ 1978 Xmas edition. Warning, it contains Wings. On the brighter side it also has Father Abraham.
* Flame ~ the movie starring Slade … everyone expected a light and fluffy romp but what they got was a pitch black tale from the seamier side of the music industry. A great (hugely underrated) film with two of their greatest songs, Far Far Away and the superb How Does It Feel, on a decent soundtrack. The band sunk like a man in an overcoat with pockets full of house bricks after this, as they tried 'proper' music.
* Pop On Trial ~ more Maconie, the talk is crap but the clips are great.
* The Song Remains The Same ~ Led Zep's ill-judged movie, worth watching for the hilarious 'dream' sequences each of the band came up with. Who'd have thought it eh, Slade's movie better than Zep's?
* Rod The Mod ~ a doc from 1976 when he'd left behind the Faces and the decent solo career.

Fri BBC4 19.30 onwards
* Soweto Strings ~ world music doc from the townships.
* Marc Bolan ~ The Final Word. Again? Profile of the Boppin Elf but, apart from the clips, it's not much cop.
* Pop Britannia ~ 3rd of 3, it's the mid-'70s and it traces from then to now.
* Tommy ~ that deaf, dumb and blind kid plays pinball. Overblown.

HMV to roll out Fopp format?

Music for Grown-Ups was a supporter of the Fopp mini-chain of CD/DVD/bookshops and was saddened when it went belly up last year.

The Fopp format – quality back catalogue at heavy discounts, and a perception of the soundscape which recognised the yawning gulf between pre- and post-Punk poprock – was a refreshing counterpoint to the heavy hand of the music megastores.

Ironically, megastore-in-chief HMV, whose silly prices lost my custom years ago, rescued two of the Fopp branches I used to frequent most, in London and Cambridge, and restored them to exactly the same pre-failure format. And the Fopp shops seem to be doing good business whenever I’m in.

HMV is such a big company, facing multiple threats to its business – downloads, supermarkets, Amazon … blah … blah – that it can’t be interested in running a handful of small Fopp outlets - unless it has a firm idea of what it wants to do with them.

Prediction: before the end of 2008, HMV will roll out the Fopp chain to at least the size of the original network. That would be welcomed here and by all fans of music for grown-ups.



Gerry Smith

Hidden cost of buying Drawn Blank exhibition catalogue

Since posting the previous article, I’ve discovered that UK buyers of the Drawn Blank exhibition catalogue who order direct from the gallery, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, need to factor in the extra cost of making an international bank payment, which is about £20, to be added to the book’s price and delivery: total c£50.

Apologies to readers outside UK, I don’t know the extra bank cost in your country, but it’s worth finding out before you decide where to buy the book.

UK readers might be better advised to find a copy in the UK - if Amazon/Marketplace suppliers are out of stock, there are some copies in the bookshop system – I saw one in a branch of Waterstone's last weekend; and Foyles had it online recently.

Another option is to wait for further exhibitions (London, New York, LA?) - I can't believe Dylan would have done all that work just for a single show - and then expect the catalogue to become a very visible global best-seller.

Bottom line, though: Bob Dylan – The Drawn Blank Series is one helluva Dylan artefact, a must-have!



Gerry Smith

Hurry - Drawn Blank exhibition in Chemnitz closes soon

If you’re planning to catch The Drawn Blank Series, the outstanding exhibition of Dylan artwork at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, you’d better hurry, because the show closes on 3 February.

It’s a fine collection. Dylan’s artwork – interiors, urban landscapes, men, women - grabs your attention and demands careful scrutiny. The paintings, in the Expressionist style, would be arresting even if they didn’t carry Dylan’s signature. As you’d expect from its artist, the work is observant, witty and worldly-wise. The surprise is that it’s also technically accomplished – it never fails to evoke an emotional response.

Dylan fans worldwide are indebted to curator Ingrid Mossinger. It’s remarkable that the curator of a city art gallery in a regional centre like Chemnitz should have persuaded Dylan to complete such a substantial body of art, and then made it accessible to a global audience via the striking catalogue, Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series.

Danke schon Chemnitz! Danke schon Frau Mossinger!

The exhibition catalogue is a sumptuous stand-alone coffee table hardback book of 170 striking watercolour/gouache paintings that Dylan recently worked up from drawings originally sketched between 1989 and 1992.

It’s an unusual, beautiful, colourful artefact: aficionados need it - it’s one of the Dylan highlights of recent years, far more important than that new film that’s getting all the media attention.

Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series is available from UK suppliers, but the Chemnitz gallery itself is the prime supplier of the catalogue – they are selling the book at 28 euros (plus 17 euros packing/delivery) via their website – excellent value. Specify if you want the English-language version (the book includes several essays about the exhibition).



Details: Bob Dylan - The Drawn Blank Series, edited by Ingrid Mossinger. Munich, Prestel, large format hardback, 29 Nov 2007, 288pp.

www.chemnitz.de/de/tourismus/tourismus_kultur_17_2.htm




Gerry Smith

Anglo Pop for Grown-Ups

Hot on the heels of praise for Paul Morley as the BBC’s ubiquitous Manchester post-Punk music correspondent, it’s time to praise him again, in a different role, as the BBC’s English pop music correspondent.

Morley’s new one-hour documentary, Pop! What Is It Good For?, broadcast Tuesday on BBC Four, was a stylishly articulate, richly detailed manifesto for the peculiar genre that is Anglo Pop. Sections on The Smiths and Adam Faith were particularly challenging, though my attention wandered when it turned to inessentials such as Kylie, the Kinks and the Sugar Babes.

Morley’s programme was the grown-up highlight so far of BBC Four’s current Anglo Pop series. The other stuff has been re-runs of trashy, ultra-lite series - Juke Box Jury, Top Of The Pops, Old Grey Whistle Test and other such fluff - and weak movies starring actors with the gravitas of Cliff Richard. The first (pre-Beatles) programme in the three-part Pop Britannia series confirmed what we already knew: that ‘50s Britpop was third-rate, a desperate parochial cloning of the exciting US template.

Morley’s engaging doc confirmed, yet again, that music for grown-ups can come from any genre – the Smiths … Everlys … Roxy are as worthy of scrutiny as Puccini or Coleman Hawkins. And that most music, in all genres, especially pop, is unsuitable for grown-up consumption.

You can view Pop! What Is It Good For? online, on the wonderful new BBC iPlayer service.

Recommended (Morley’s programme and new iPlayer service).



Gerry Smith

Factory Records celebrated

If, like me, you celebrate the post-Punk musical creativity of Manchester, look out for a repeat of BBC Four’s fine 90-minute documentary, Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to the Happy Mondays, a tribute to the recently-deceased label founder/all-round Mancophile, Anthony J Wilson.

The film has welcome contributions from most of the major players, from Ian Curtis’ Joy Division band-mates to Happy Mondays’ Mr Ryder, and from Paul Morley, the BBC’s ubiquitous (but very welcome) Manc music correspondent, to, most notably, a visibly dying Wilson.

Factory ably documents the early success of the label, based on Joy Division then New Order’s popularity, the subsequent failure of the Hacienda nightclub and then the demise of the label itself.

But, much as I like the Manc music scenesters, I’m glad that this motley crew were only ever in charge of their own money. Ultimately, Factory was a failure: a very popular label and nightclub failed and it didn’t need to happen. Factory Records failed to fulfil its massive potential by not developing its roster – The Smiths, The Fall and The Stone Roses, arguably the finest local talents, were signed by other labels, from right under Factory’s nose.

But I’m surely not alone in tiring of the continual barrage of provincial, solipsistic “Manc is great” propaganda. The grim Northern city’s not-so-subtle attempt to ride on the coat-tails of a handful of great pop musicians is wearing a bit thin: Manchester was a dump before Joy Division; it’s just as big a dump today.



Gerry Smith

Dylan, Radiohead, Brian Jones brighten up the January news-stands

New Year issues of rockpop mags - fashionably slim after the ad-led excesses of the Xmas consumption frenzy - are creeping onto the news-stands.

· UNCUT gets top billing with a striking Dylan cover straight from the Nashville Skyline shoot. Bob Dylan: 1968, The Year He Came Back From the Dead, is the cover feature, with extended coverage of John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline. The cover-mounted CD, Drifter’s Escape, has JWH-inspired country rock covers. And UNCUT has a separate photo feature on Blackbushe. Hang on – wasn’t that 1978?

· MOJO has Radiohead on the cover, and a featured interview with Joni Mitchell. Oh dear. I love Mitchell’s music but I lost interest in anything she has to say - about anything - aeons ago. Life’s far too short.

· Record Collector’s cover story is Brian Jones – The Lost Stone.


Gerry Smith

Seriously good serious music on BBC Radio 3

While regular columnist Mike Ollier rightly bemoans the shortage of grown-up music on Brit TV and radio in recent weeks, he restricts his comments to the popular end of the spectrum.

By comparison, classical/serious/art music has rarely fared better. Recent radio highlights I’ve raved about include:

* Composer Of The Week – Puccini this week, Mozart two weeks ago, a Handel repeat next week. Intelligently written, expertly presented explorations of some of the greatest music for grown-ups, in week-long series of 5 x 1 hour programmes.

* Pavarotti’s career analysed in a five part series in Xmas week.

* Sonny Rollins interviewed and his work dissected in Jazz Library.

All on Radio 3 – the only BBC channel, apart from BBC Four TV, I’ll pay to receive once the anachronism of the hated annual viewing tax is finally denied to the robber barons of the bloated BBC.



Gerry Smith

Met Opera Live, in English cinemas: overpriced

News that the Met’s April production of Donizetti’s La Fille Du Regiment will be broadcast live from New York onto cinema screens across England caused a flicker of excitement, particularly as the star is the wonderful French soprano Natalie Dessay in her signature role.

But, checking out the detail of the London screening, at the Barbican, I felt my excitement dissipating rapidly. The Barbican, like the other dozen or so Brit cinemas, is selling tickets for the gig at £25 each.

I’m not tempted. Not in the slightest.

Why? Well, I paid less than half that to see the same production - live, in the flesh - at the Royal Opera House in January 2007. And I have the tape of the TV broadcast from BBC Four last week. And the Radio 3 broadcast from earlier in the year. And the Met’s version will probably be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, too.

I hope to be proved wrong, but I don’t see the Met Opera Live launch season creating queues round the block. Not at those prices.

All power to the Met, and the other world-class opera houses, rolling out great product to a global audience, but they’ll probably need to revise their pricing before they get it right.



Gerry Smith

Amazon’s music recommendations – spectacularly wrong

Amazon automatically suggests product you might wish to buy, based on previous transactions/searches. Sometimes it works, selling you stuff you hadn’t thought of buying.

But mostly, in my case, the predictions are risible – the clever software suggests stuff I wouldn’t have in the house even if it was free.

Amazon’s latest suggestions made me laugh out loud – it’s as if some darkly comic software has been programmed to suggest music guaranteed to make me contemplate suicide:



Hello, Mr Smith, Amazon.co.uk has new recommendations for you based on items you purchased or told us you own. We recommended the items because you purchased or rated:
› Van Morrison - Live At Montreux 1974/1980
› Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (65 Tour Deluxe Edition) [1965]

(Amazon suggestions)

· Chrome Dreams II: +DVD
· The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (Limited Edition) (3CD)
· In Concert November 1975 by Richard and Linda Thompson
· I'm Not There (OST)
· Just Roll Tape: 26 Apr 1968/Studio Demos by Stephen Stills
· Live At The BBC by Sandy Denny
· Under the Blacklight by Rilo Kiley

Crikey! A more laughable wants list would be difficult to compile for me.



Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

New Year's Day BBCR2 19.00 ~ 20.00
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan: Time

Thurs BBCR2 23.00 ~ 23.30
* My Country Jukebox
Nick Barraclough talks with some big-name stars about what they listen to. Barraclough's country tastes are often questionable, but his guest this week is Emmylou Harris so good taste is guaranteed.

Fri BBCR6 2100 - 2200
* Theme Time With Bob Dylan: ??

Fri BBCR3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Milt Jackson

Fri BBCR3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3
More highlights from the past year of programmes: Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman, Gwilym Simcock, Eddie Prevost and Jon Rose with Frances-Marie Uitti.


TV For Grown-Ups - Turgid (Part 2)

Fri BBC4 20.10 onwards
Nothing worth looking out for till Friday on BBC4 ~ a new series in the usually good 'Britannia' strand focusing on pop. The first programme is at least watchable as its focus is the start of the Rock 'n' Roll years with Cliff, Billy Fury and Val Parnell and the skiffle craze. The show is bookended by two of Cliff's worthier efforts, Espresso Bongo and The Young Ones.

Jools Holland's usually reliable Hootenanny on New Year's Eve takes a sharp nosedive with not one act worthy of screentime ~ Sir Thumbs-A-Loft, the annoying Mika, and Kylie (OBE for 'Services To Music'? As Tom Lerner said when told of Henry Kissinger's Nobel Peace Prize, "Satire is dead."). And I bet Russell Brand is in the audience just to complete the whole sorry mess.

Bah humbug.

DYLAN 3CD Limited Edition – time to reconsider

Until I received the DYLAN 3CD Limited Edition as a present on Xmas morning, I’d been, like many readers, unmoved by the release: a missed opportunity … nothing new … repetition of earlier releases … blah, blah, blah …

Sure, I’ve bought all this music before, many times over. Sure, I’d have preferred another Bootleg Series release, especially a proper Basement Tapes. And, sure, I may never play the 3CD collection end to end.

But I can now see why Columbia released DYLAN. Clearly, it’s intended primarily to promote the back catalogue to younger consumers. But, beyond that, it’s a fitting tribute to a lifetime of timeless recordings by the biggest name on the label: the Dylan songbook is showcased here as never before.

And the packaging is appropriately reverential. From the three beautiful CD mini sleeves to the lavish 40 page booklet, and the set of 10 collectable cigarette card-type reproductions of show posters to the cloth-finished box, with its velvet lining and clever magnetized closing flap, this is an artefact assembled with skill and care.

DYLAN Limited Edition celebrates one of the great creative forces of the modern world. If, like me, you rejected it on release, it might be time to reconsider, especially if you can pick it up at discount – it’s doing the rounds at half price (£17).



Gerry Smith

Top operas in Xmas TV schedules

Mike Ollier rightly bemoans the poor quality of poprock on TV over the holidays. But the classical coverage is far, far better. In particular, there’s some fabulous opera from the Royal Opera House. Here’s what they say about their offerings:

* Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias: BBC Two, 24 December, 4.30pm
This profile examines the musical career of Pavarotti through the arias with which he was most closely associated, including his debut in La Bohème and his huge success in Donizetti's La fille du régiment, which won him the title 'King of the High Cs'.

* The Magic of Carmen: BBC Two, Boxing Day, 1.15pm
Evocative, dramatic and colourful - the opera Carmen is a tale of passion, betrayal and revenge which features some of the most popular music ever written. Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera, introduces us to Francesca Zambello's celebrated production.

* Carmen: BBC Two: Boxing Day, 1.45pm
A screening of the recent acclaimed production from the Royal Opera House.

* La fille du regiment: BBC Four, 30 December, 7.30pm
A broadcast of the celebrated recent production from The Royal Opera introduced by Dawn French.

I endorse the recommendation for the great Pavarotti. But having seen both Carmen and La Fille Du Regiment productions at Covent Garden, my take is different. The Carmen was poor – but the problem is the opera itself, not the production.

La Fille du Regiment was sublime – one of my top gigs of all time, in any genre. Natalie Dessay was breathtaking – music for grown-ups doesn’t just doesn’t get any better. (Forget Dawn French, though - a bit part to appease the suburban amateur celeb-obsessed cultural tourists.)

If you watch nothing else on TV this holiday, try this spectacular production of La Fille du Regiment.


Gerry Smith

Van Morrison plays Providence, Rhode Island

Thanks to Mark Feldman:

Van returned to RI to the Providence Performing Arts Center where he last performed 35 years ago.

Despite my seasonal Grinchiness, I enjoyed the show but won't grade it better than a B (and that's grading on a curve!).

Van's voice and delivery remain wonderful and he is definitely "a workin' man in his prime". His gutteral grunts and animalistic chants remain the highlight of the shows for me as we scat into unexplored territories. Too bad he has to do all the heavy lifting and dump the jute on the burning ground by himself. I miss his having a backup band that can challenge him musically and take us all higher but I guess this is his current comfort zone and I'm OK with it as long as he keeps singing like he did last night.

When the band took the stage, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Ned was not there (thanks, Santa!). However, Ned's sluggish residue tainted the first several tunes.

"Domino" was surprisingly lethargic; "Magic Time" was swell; HITYL warrants a new "Disneyland" designation instead of Vegas now that it's even more Musak-y; "It Once Was My Life" was OK but the band was still having tempo problems; the band finally found its groove with "In The Midnight"; "Cleaning Windows" was OK; "Stranded" a treat as always; the plodding, sloppy tempo returned on "Talk is Cheap".

“In the Afternoon/Ancient Highway/Raincheck" was super with a great vocal; "Chopping Wood" brought us back down to earth; "Moondance" is always a treat even though the CB singers Muzak'd the swing out of it; Van's pentacostal vocals on St. James always please; Van sang hard on "I Can't Stop Loving You"; "Bright Side" then here we go into BEG/Gloria, right?

WRONG!; encores with "Help Me' - good version not great but the Old Man has big balls to deny 'classic hits' radio fans who fork over $175/ticket the chance to hear BEG or Gloria. Don't go gentle into the good night, Mr. M... You ARE my Snoidian role model!

Highlights/Observations:
1. No Ned - a plus
2. Nothing performed from "Pay The Devil" - hmmm....
3. No "Precious Time" - another plus
4. No BEG or Gloria! Encore of Help Me
5. At end of show, ushers handed out adverts promoting the release of the new album "Keep It Simple" on 11 March08 (and availability of "Pay The Devil"?)
6. Time for Crawford Bell singers to go join Ned on the dole and bring in some horns with punch and chicks who can REALLY sing backup and not Nashvillesque mundane harmonies (where's Katie K. and Candy D.?)
7. Quiet and courteous full house audience - a US rarity these days
8. Van played harp, sax, guitar & keyboards
9. Pre- & post-show gathering was delightful - thanks to all for being so much fun. Fine mix of newbies, grizzled vets and know-it-alls . Thanks also to Simon & Wavelength for posting meetingplace info.

I'll be happy to host the next Providence meeting in 35 more years ...

Led Zep reunion: c(r?)ockrock karaoke?

Last week’s Led Zep reunion gig in London generated strong, opposing reactions among music lovers.

In the classic rock corner, the nostalgics, grizzled hippies and heavy metal boneheads who considered themselves lucky to be able to shell out £125 to watch a
c(r)ockrock karaoke show, alongside 20,000 others (plus the reputed millions who’d liked to have taken their place), made me smile, if benignly. The fawning media hacks who fed the hysteria were not a pretty sight.

In the post-Punk/alt-modern rock corner, the scornful younger fans (and their rabble-rousing media accomplices) who resurrected the “kill all hippies” vibe which drove Led Zep off the album charts in the late 1970s, seemed just as objectionably intolerant as they did 30 years ago.

Led Zep deserve a more measured approach: great band … four or five great albums … landmark instrumentation … took classic rock as far as it could go … but mostly silly lyrics … Percy had a great ballad voice, but veered perilously close to a Chipmunks parody on faster rockers … laughable stage attire … thank God for punk … blah blah … .

If I didn’t already own all the Led Zep recordings, I’d be delighted to receive Mothership, the new compilation (2CD plus DVD version), for Xmas and would spend many happy hours with it. Their best music is timeless.

But you couldn’t pay me to attend a Led Zep reunion gig: heritage rock/nostalgia isn’t my bag, man; arenas are an insult to any listener who takes music seriously; and the prospect of being surrounded by 20,000 pairs of smelly trainers for three hours in an enclosed space is just too awful to contemplate.



Gerry Smith

Best music for grown-ups in 2007

Tis the season for list-making … Music for Grown-Ups is keen to carry your list of the best of 2007: please email your picks to gerry@musicforgrownups.co.uk

Thanks to valued regular contributor Mike Ollier for starting us off in such fine style:

“Can I be the first with my list of the year? Here goes:

CD Of The Year
* Steve Earle ~ Washington Square Serenade
Earle's move to New York and 7th marriage (yes, 7, to singer Allison Moorer) seems to have re-invigorated him. A cracking modern country folk album; make sure you get the edition with the DVD on which Earle eulogises about Dylan while walking around Greenwich (that's Village, not London suburb) and shamelessly telling a native about his home town.

* Robert Plant/Alison Krauss ~ Raising Sand
'Percy can sing' shock! Quite captivating collection of American folk roots which gave Plant a compelling reason to resist Jimmy Page's overtures of extra Zep dates (as I write I notice that gigs have been announced for a Plant/Krauss tour). Also, special mentions here for guitarist Marc Ribot and producer T-Bone Burnette.

* Levon Helm ~ Dirt Farmer
The best Band album since Robbie Robertson left. Helm's voice is fantastic, a miracle when you consider he's just beaten throat cancer. Produced by Dylan acolyte Larry Campbell who also plays some superb guitar and fiddle, the album also provides further proof (as if any was needed) of what a fantastic drummer Helm is.

* Danny & Dusty ~ Live In Frankfurt
A Green On Red and Dream Syndicate side project featuring Dan Stuart and Steve Wynn. A 2CD set with live DVD for 12quid; messy, loose and soulful and rocks like a rocking thing.

Honorable Mentions
John Fogerty ~ Revival
Bruce Springsteen ~ Magic
Arcade Fire ~ Neon Bible


Re-Issues Of The Year
* Tandy ~ For A Friend/Did You Think I Was Gone
Tandy are the best band you've never heard of; folk, blues and country rock-tinged, 7 albums into a 10-year career and leader Mike Ferrio is writing better than ever. These were two 500 limited edition own label releases that were picked up by Brooklyn indie 00.02.59 Records and re-released to reach a wider audience. A twofer for a tenner at today's exchange rate … go on, you won't regret it. I will personally buy the album back if you don't like it.


Compilations Of The Year
* Uncut's Neil Young CD
A real treat, a collection of some of Mr Grumpy Trousers' finest songs given a makeover by Cowboy Junkies, Jay Farrar, Dream Syndicate etc.

* "The Sandanista Project" Various Artists
Remember the Clash album? Yeah, it was terrible, right? So, this is gonna be worse, right? Wrong! It's 25 times greater (really) and even gets better as it goes on so you get to hear those tracks that were buried away on side 6 and never listened to. Biggest names here are Willie Nile and Amy Rigby, but John Langford trumps out with Junco Partner.

* Mick Jagger ~ Very Best Of…
Some bad uns on here, especially the early '80s synth and drum stuff which hasn't weathered well. But the second half of the album is terrific and shows that Mick was a viable option to the Stones and unfairly vilified by some sections of the press. Interesting videos, too.


Not Compilation Of The Year
* Van Morrison ~ Still On Top: The Greatest Hits
The music's fine (though no place for Summertime In England?), it's the packaging which is crap; the non-chronology of the selections (if I wanted that I'd press shuffle on my player), the awful cover painting with the dog from Veedon Fleece lolling about (oddly, no selection here), the terrible painting of Van as some sort of English dandy with a brolly, the dreadful sleeve notes which are basically a (bad) discography and in which the writer seemingly lost interest half-way through, and, finally, nothing from Astral Weeks. Pah! And just to compound my feelings, the re-releases in January 2008 have poor 'extra' tracks selections on them, too.


Gigs Of The Year
* Tandy/Mary Lee's Corvette ~ 13th Note, Glasgow
A great club, a great, appreciative knowledgeable audience, great beer, and two great bands all equal a great night. A special mention here for Konrad Meisner (drummer for The Silos in his day job), who almost stole the show when his drums were lost by the airline. He used a cardboard box, sat on a tea chest (kicking it as a bass drum) with a selection of shakers and brushes. All superbly mic'd up by the expert soundman in the venue. Mike Ferrio on top of his game and Mary Lee's warmly humorous personality and perfectly crafted songs made this a great gig.

* The Yayhoos ~ The Cluny, Newcastle Upon Tyne
A dose of straight-down-the-line, Faces/Stonesey style rock 'n' roll from Dan Baird and Keith Christopher (Georgia Satellites), Eric Ambel (Steve Earle's Dukes, Joan Jett's Blackhearts) and Terry Anderson. It was big and loud, it wasn't clever, but by God it was more fun than a night out with Scarlett Johannson. In a curry house. And Match Of The Day afterwards.

* Laura Cortese & Neil Cleary ~ The Morden Tower, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Promoted by the superb Jumpin' Hot Club, this small venue is situated up a back alley in Chinatown, built into the old city walls and is about 1,000 years old. Normally a poetry venue (Ginsberg played here), there is no bar, the toilet is outside and back down the narrow steps and you need a key, it's certainly not warm in there and if there's 30 people in it's a sell-out. A GREAT venue in which to see superb songsmith Neil Cleary and fiddler extraordinaire, Laura Cortese. She plucks, pulls, taps, scrapes and plays the violin whilst singing to create a fresh sound; her version of The Cure's Just Like Heaven is a great idea (and available on her MySpace page) and Josh Ritter's BlueJay is touching and heartfelt. She's my discovery of the year.


TV of The Year
* New York Doll (BBC4)
The tale of Arthur 'Killer' Kane, bass player from the NYDs. You don't have to be a fan of the band to enjoy this full-length rockumentary (and I'm certainly not) but you'd have to have a hard heart not to enjoy, and weep, at this incredible tale. The BEST programme on music I've ever seen.

* Iggy & the Stooges ~ Glastonbury
Rabble-rousing punk which caused a stage invasion and Iggy was loving it. As with the NYDs, I've never been a Stooges fan, but this was one of the freshest, most exhilarating sets of live music I've seen for years (and I didn't get wet).”

Why so little discussion of Van Morrison’s Still on Top?

Thanks to Jerry Crew:

“I’ve been waiting to see someone’s take on Van’s Still on Top compilation, but have seen precious little discussion of it, either here or on various Van-related lists.

“No doubt, this is due at least in some part to this having been the third compilation album of the year. However, I think it is worth noting, that, at least to this Van fan, this compilation holds together and flows start to finish better than any of the three Best-of compilations or the At the Movies compilation.

“Why? The total and complete absence of Van’s various and frequent dabbling in what I consider to be side projects. No blues or jazz covers, no country, no skiffle – just the ‘Celtic Soul’ that initially drew me to Van and has kept me a fan through thick (‘70s to early ‘90s) and thin (most everything since).

“The only tracks that really sound out of place alongside the larger body of work are the early Them numbers – Gloria, Baby Please Don’t Go, and Here Comes the Night. I don’t recall having read if Van had anything to do with the track selection on this album as he did on Best of Volumes 2 and 3, but it appears that with this collection, either Van or Polydor get what many, if not most, fans are about.”



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Original article:


Rockpop for grown-ups: a vintage year for best-of CDs

If you’re wondering about buying rockpop for grown-ups best-of CDs as Xmas presents, you’re spoilt for choice this year. A pile of exciting new releases has made 2007 a vintage year for this oft-derided but very popular form of release.

Stunning best-ofs praised here this year (you can find them via the Archive) include:
* Doors – Very Best Of The Doors (2CD/DVD/booklet version preferred)
* Dylan – DYLAN (3CD version preferred)
* Van Morrison – Still On Top (3CD version preferred)
* Mick Jagger – Very Best Of
* Rolling Stones – Rolled Gold+
* Led Zeppelin – Mothership (2CD/DVD version preferred)
* Ella – Forever Ella
* The Very Best Of Miles Davis: the Warner Bros Sessions 1985-1991.

Mamma mia! Any one of them would bring a broad smile to my face on Xmas morning. Supermarkets and online suppliers (eg play.com) generally undercut the music megastores on such product – so you can save lots by shopping around.



Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

Weds BBCR2 22.00 ~ 23.00
* Charles Hazlewood (6 of 6)

Fri BBCR6 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan: Friends and Neighbours
I'm reeling in shock as the BBC website actually updates … Bob plays Marilyn Monroe, Carole King and Howlin Wolf amongst others. You can't accuse the man of having narrow musical taste, can you?

Fri BBC3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Cab Calloway

Fri BBC3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3
Tyft, featuring Hilmar Jensson, Andrew D'Angelo and Jim Black.

Sat BBCR2 20.00 ~ 21.00
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan: Dogs
It's holiday time and so R2 roll out the Sideshow Bob theme time hours ~ result! Another 5 to follow this over Xmas … details next column.


TV For Grown-Ups

Mon C4 22.00 ~ 23.55
* Film: O Brother Where Art Thou?
The Coen Brothers very funny adaptation of Homer's Odyssey with one of the finest soundtracks assembled for a movie.


Otherwise, it's DVDs this week if you wanna see music, cos there's bog all on the telly. And it's not just music: the only thing I can muster up any enthusiasm for is my Man Of The Year, Charlie Brooker with a Screen Wipe review of the year’s TV on BBC4 on Wednesday evening. Expect to laugh.

Karlheinz Stockhausen RIP

Serious music lost one of its great innovators with the death this week of Karlheinz Stockhausen.

The German avant-gardiste was one of the most challenging musicians. But when your music is feted as the most important in the modernist canon and your name is freely associated with pioneers in other genres like Miles Davis (qv) and Brian Eno (qv), listeners seriously into music owe your work a fair hearing. And, for all its austere, egghead associations, Stockhausen's best work is reasonably approachable. His trademark sound incorporates Eastern religious influences and mysticism. His is the most successful employment of electronics in serious music. His best-known work is Young Boys’ Song, a landmark in electronica. Licht, a series of seven operas, has its supporters (and detractors).

Most popular in the hippie era of the 1960s, when he influenced West Coast rock bands like the Grateful Dead, Stockhausen was, for a time, very influential in the newly ambitious pop culture – his portrait is included on Peter Blake’s sleeve for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: hipper than that it was not possible to be.

If Miles Davis listened to Stockhausen, and if the fabled Montreux festival concert venue named one of its auditoria after him, you owe it to yourself to check out what all the fuss is about.

BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting a 90 minute tribute at 2230 tomorrow in its Hear & Now slot: a must-listen for grown-ups.



Gerry Smith

Rolling Stones – must-have photos book now deeply discounted

As soon as it was published, I knew that Bent Rej’s impressive book of exquisite photographs, The Rolling Stones In The Beginning (Mitchell Beazley), was a must–have. It’s a lovely large format collection of intimate pics following the band as they morphed from hopefuls to megastars in the early 1960s.

But I knew that I would eventually save most of the hefty £40 price tag, just by waiting for a reduction.

Lo and behold! Just in time for Santa, it’s now widely available, deeply discounted, all over the High Street. I’ve variously seen it at £10/£9 and as low as £8 (TK Maxx). For the Stones fan in your life, The Rolling Stones In The Beginning is perfect.



Gerry Smith

Music that stopped me in my tracks …

Music that’s stopped me in my tracks recently:

1. Maria Callas – the Casta Diva aria, from Act I of Bellini’s Norma, on Radio 3 on Sunday morning’s Private Passions. It was so powerful that I had to sit down and listen carefully, to catch every last syllable. Great music, great voice, great acting: it just doesn’t get any better than this.

2. Amy Winehouse – the Valerie single, while in a shop later the same day. The whole shopful of customers simply stopped shopping for the duration. What a soulful interpreter; what mastery of a lyric; what swing. Here’s hoping the gel deals with her demons and goes on to produce a lifetime of great work – both for her sake and for everybody else’s.



Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

Weds BBCR2 22.00 ~23.00
* Charles Hazlewood
Could be anything this week. BBC … blah blah … website … blah blah …

Fri BBCR6 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan: last week was Eyes.

Fri BBC3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Sonny Rollins (part 2 of 2)

Fri BBC3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3
Bassist Simon H Fell, live from Huddersfield.


TV For Grown-Ups

Mon C4 23.50 ~ 00.20
* Led Zeppelin: Live at Madison Square Garden 1973
Couldn't get a ticket for tonight's O2 gig? Then here's a (measly) half hour of Zep in their pomp ~ Black Dog and Since I've Been Loving You amongst the highlights: though by my reckoning that's 30mins gone, when you take into account the adverts. However, anyone who really likes Zep will have seen this stuff anyway.

Fri BBC4 19.30 ~ 21.00
* Gergiev Conducts Three 20th Century Greats (2 of 3)
Second of three concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Fri BBC4 21.00 ~ 22.30
* If It Ain't Stiff
A repeat of the watchable doc on Stiff records.


I take back what I said about last week's TV … and the radio is crap this week, too.

Leeds – epicentre of early ‘70s rock

The pre-eminence of the capital of Yorkshire as the epicentre of early 1970s rock is underlined by a feature article in the new issue of Leeds, The University of Leeds Alumni Magazine.

Living The Legend, a seven page feature, tells the story of how a handful of students made the Uni the hottest gig on planet Earth from several years from 1970. They booked some of the biggest rockers of all, at the peak of their powers, including:

24 Jan 1970 – Led Zeppelin

14 Feb 1970 – The Who

16 May 1970 – Leonard Cohen

13 March 1971 – Rolling Stones

At least two of the gigs produced legendary recordings – The Who Live At Leeds, and Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out, the highly regarded Stones bootleg.

The student unions of many Anglo unis organised world-class rockpop gigs, but none equalled the line-ups offered to Leeds students in the early 1970s.



Gerry Smith

The Word - most grown-up rockpopmag in 2007

The major Anglo rockpop mags – MOJO, UNCUT and The Word - are alluring artefacts. I can rarely resist picking up the new issue in the supermarket. Every 150-page issue has at least a few pages worth skimming – though usually not enough to persuade me to buy a copy.

The magazines occasionally feature musicians for grown-ups on the front cover, even if the articles they advertise normally lack allure.

If I had to guess which mag has most grown-up musicians on the cover, I’d rank them: 1 MOJO, 2 UNCUT, 3 The Word. This year, I’d have been hopelessly wrong – The Word
(9) had most covers featuring musicians likely to discussed here and MOJO (5) fewest; UNCUT was second, with 8.

Rockpop mag covers (2007):


Jan: MOJO Joy Division; UNCUT Radiohead; The Word Doors

Feb: MOJO Beatles; UNCUT Smiths; The Word Amy Winehouse

March: MOJO Who; UNCUT Iggy Pop; The Word Joni M

April: MOJO Arctic Monkeys; UNCUT Floyd; The Word Rufus Wainwright

May: MOJO 100 Songs; UNCUT Macca; The Word Nick Cave

June: MOJO Bob Marley; UNCUT Stones; The Word Leonard Cohen

July: MOJO Police; UNCUT Dylan; The Word Van M

Aug: MOJO Stones; UNCUT P Weller; The Word J Marr

September: MOJO Floyd; UNCUT Hendrix/50 gigs; The Word Floyd

October: MOJO Oasis; UNCUT Led Zep; The Word Bruce S

November: MOJO Led Zep; UNCUT Neil Young; The Word Led Zep

December: MOJO Amy; UNCUT Lennon; The Word Amy/07


This year saw a total of 22 (of 36) covers featuring musicians for grown-ups. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to work out which they were!



Gerry Smith

Springsteen 1 Arsenal 0

Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning for a couple of English gigs on Bruce Springsteen’s May 2008 Euro tour.

The London gig, at the Emirates stadium, new home of Arsenal, the Francophone African football franchise, was briefly tempting: I’ve a high regard for Bruce’s best work, notably Darkness and The Rising, and I’ve long wanted to catch him live.

Briefly? I was tempted for all of a minute – before reality kicked in.

Do I really want to spend a summer evening driving (very slowly) to the toilet known as inner North London to spend a couple of hours at a massed karaoke, surrounded by middle-aged beer-bellied drunks (and their boyfriends/partners/husbands), wearing dribble-stained black T-shirts, scruffy jeans and smelly trainers?

And pay well over £100 for two for the privilege?

Probably not: a stroll in the local blueball-carpeted beechwood seems infinitely more attractive.

Stadium rock – by anyone – just ain’t music for grown-ups.



Gerry Smith

This Week's Music for Grown-Ups on Radio/TV

Your exclusive listening/watching guide … thanks to compiler Mike Ollier:


Radio For Grown-Ups

Weds BBCR2 22.00 ~23.00
* Charles Hazlewood (4 of 6)
Musical humour this week. Surely an oxymoron (unless it's applied to Spinal Tap or The Leningrad Cowboys).

Weds BBCR2 23.00 ~ 23.30
* Hep To The Jive: The Cab Calloway Story (4 of 4)
Concluding part and Cab is appropriated by ad men and appears in The Blues Brothers. What a sorry end.

Thurs BBCR3 23.15 ~ 01.00pm
* Late Junction
Penguin Café Orchestra are featured tonight.

Fri BBCR6 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan:
Right, BBC can't get their arses in gear so, I'll tell you what it was last week ~ Cars.

Fri BBC3 22.30 ~ 23.30
* Jazz Library: Dave Brubeck
87th birthday celebration (did they do a 86th?) of the time signature definer.

Fri BBC3 23.30 ~ 01.00
* Jazz On 3
CDs Of The Year with Jez Nelson spinning them. Do you spin CDs? Is it all on mini disk, mp3s or whatever? Do you care?


TV For Grown-Ups

Fri BBC4 19.30 ~ 21.00
* Gergiev Conducts Three 20th Century Greats (1 of 3)
Firts of three concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra

Fri BBC4 21.00 ~ 22.00
* Brasil, Brasil
Last of three brings the story up to date, and politics still shapes the musical landscape and music still shaped politics. Gilberto Gil is Minister of Culture.


Yup, that's your lot. Quite possibly THE worst week (certainly for TV) that I've seen since I started doing this.