Strange karma exists having just posted a cover of "Something" I pick up the new edition of Uncut and there is George Harrison staring at me from the cover.
The magazine comes with a great CD which has more covers of key George songs and songs which were an inspiration to him.
“I sat with him for a few hours when he was in treatment just outside New York,” said McCartney. “He was about 10 days away from his death, as I recall. We joked about things – just amusing, nutty stuff. It was good. It was like we were dreaming. He was my little baby brother, almost, because I’d known him that long.”
“We held hands. It’s funny, even at the height of our friendship – as guys – you would never hold hands. It just wasn’t a Liverpool thing. But it was lovely.”
McCartney also speaks about their early days as students and how Harrison came to be in The Beatles.
“He pulled out his guitar and played ‘Raunchy’, and that was it – he was in the band. He was a bit too young, almost out of the age range for us, a little too baby-faced, but he was just a great player.”
The interview appears in the new August issue of Uncut magazine in an 11-page feature on ‘The Lonely Beatle’ alongside comments from Pattie Boyd, Michael Palin and Ravi Shankar.
Three tracks from the CD.
First up is the late great Rainer Ptacek and his hypnotic take on "Within You Without You"
An inspiration now and who else other than "The Big O", this song was the b-side to his debut Sun single back in 1956 (Ooby Dooby) and was one of George's biggest influences, they of course became great friends and made some good music together in The Travelling Wilburys
Finally a cover of perhaps his best known Beatles song which includes the extra verse only previously found on the Anthology set.
The Beatles songs are among the most covered popular music outwith the "Great American Songbook" as you would expect most of the covers are of Lennon & McCartney compositions however here is an indulgent cover by Isaak Hayes of George Harrison's "Something" which Frank Sinatra infamously described as the best song Lennon & McCartney ever wrote!!
The 4th July is here again and I am another year older, in excess of 40 years beyond the picture above.
I was going to make you suffer via Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" but won't.
Instead Hopeless Dancer (the wife) bought me "Guitar Hero" for the Wii and anyone who has tried it will know how annoying the following song is.
Finally Happy Independance Day to all family, friends and readers from across the pond.
Live music is a passion of mine so I thought I would kick off this occassional series of live postings ironically with someone who isn't often caught live with a full band Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Big Rab is a fan so hopefully he will enjoy this track taken from the Australia only release "Wilding In The West"
| About Stevie Agnew | |
|
I came across Stevie Agnew via Ali Ferguson who is the guitarist with Ray Wilson both in Stiltskin and Ray's solo outings, Ali is currently working on his own solo album which is eagerly awaited but he has taken some time out to co-write and contribute guitar to Stevie's "Walking Into Walls" which you listen to below.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=39831081
Here are Jim Fallon's Clydebank Veterans playing in a pre-season friendly against a Scottish Juvenile Select.
Thanks to Lucozade Sport
CONGREGATION ARE
Haillng from the New Cross bedsit scene looking like a couple of gangsters from the depression era, Congregation have lately been injecting the Blues and R&B genre with a heavy dose of class and soul.
Benjamin Prosser (Slide Guitar, Bass drum) and Victoria Yeulet (vocals, leg bells) play the kind of raw, slinky and seductive blues that have the power to restore one's faith in the genre. I know because they did it for me.
On record and on stage Prosser is a dark presence, wavering in the background, playing slide riffs and thumping a bass drum with his foot. Victoria wails away with a voice that never fails to chill. This is a voice that manages to conjure up all of her fallen sisters in arms back from the dead (or used record bins), yet it's still very much her own. The overall effect of these two's music is moving in a way that is both remorseful and joyful at the same time. They are so deep that it would hurt if you could stop smiling at the beauty of it all. English White Boy R&B has a lot to answer for and these two are going a long way to re-dressing the issue. My new favorite band.
(Ben Swank)
To my ears they have the mojo of Robert Johnson, the spirit of Jim Morrison and the minimalism of the Cowboy Junkies..........music from the Delta to Deptford.
After yet another needless British death surely the time has come for the troops to be brought out.
Originally writen and recorded by Bily Connolly it is too close to the truth to be seen simply as a piece of comedy and is in fact a great folk song.
This bands debut single "The Trumpton Riots" from 1986 remains an all time favourite, whilst they never really went away they are once again somewhat back in the limelight with their new album with the great title "CSI:Ambleside"
History
The band's first single, "The Trumpton Riots", topped the British Independent Chart in 1986, and they went on to perform a set at the Glastonbury Festival, rapidly becoming tipped as the 'next big thing'. Their sound at the time was very much in the post-punk tradition, with similarities to Josef K or The Fall. After the first record, someone in the band learnt to tune a guitar, which some feel removed something of the particular character of the music. So, as their second single "Dickie Davies Eyes" entered the national top 40, lead singer Nigel Blackwell announced his retirement claiming that rock and roll success had led to him missing too much daytime television. 1986 saw the release of a compilation album and Nigel's return to the dole.
The band reformed in 1990, beginning to tour and give interviews. Their third album, McIntyre, Treadmore And Davitt, showed a move forwards in terms of musical technique, and a wider musical palette. Since then, the band have produced a new album every two or three years, and remain a much loved fixture on the British music scene.
Half Man Half Biscuit were long championed by DJ John Peel, for whom they recorded twelve sessions before Peel's death in 2004, and it was on his programme in 1990 that the band announced their return.
The band played live more and more infrequently, preferring one-off gigs to tours, driving home each night to sleep in their own beds and arranging concerts to coincide with Tranmere Rovers' away fixtures, a football team supported by all the members of the band. Half Man Half Biscuit famously turned down the chance to appear on seminal 80s rock show The Tube, as Tranmere were playing that night, even though Channel Four offered to fly them by helicopter to the game following their take in the studio.
The band's musical styles often parody popular genres, while their lyrics are dense with cultural allusions, usually to UK popular culture and geography (Blackwell often refers to North Wales, often in the context of hillwalking in Snowdonia; he also appears fond of Shropshire, East Anglia and Oxfordshire) or to the more obscure backwaters of the lower divisions of British or international football. Blackwell's enthusiasm does not only encompass popular culture; to give just a few examples, explicit references to Sylvia Plath, the works of Thomas Hardy, and the Bible are all to be found in his lyrics. In the context of HMHB's enthusiasm for football, Blackwell's close resemblance to footballer Jaap Stam has been frequently commented upon.
As the nineties progressed Nigel's love of blues and folk became more and more apparent both in musical style and lyrical references, as befits a group who perhaps more than any other record the minutae of everyday life and culture. In 2002 Andy Kershaw dubbed them "the most authentic English folk group since the Clash". Bassist Crossley's musical tastes include many late-70s/early-80s new wave or post-punk bands, and at gigs HMHB have been heard to perform covers of tracks by acts as diverse as Joy Division, Tim Buckley, The Beach Boys and Tiffany.
Blackwell has also started making references to various fictional bands who appear not only on the sleeves of HMHB releases (for example "Joe Public And The General Consensus") but also in the songs -- a long essay on "Evil Gazebo" (and that band's relationship to "Pankhurst") appears on the liner notes of Trouble Over Bridgwater and both bands are mentioned in the songs. Assorted fake cover version acts have also been mentioned in HMHB songs such as "I Can't Believe It's Not Focus". In interviews Nigel has alluded to the possibility of there being an HMHB tribute band called "It Ain't Half Man, Mum", most recently in a BBC Radio 3 interview with Andy Kershaw prior to last summer's appearance at the Brampton Live folk festival, where they headlined on Saturday night. However as yet no one has come forward with any evidence to support the existence of said tribute act, and the likelihood is that the whole thing is one of Nigel's own creations to amuse or confuse journalists and fans. The tribute band Half Arsed Half Biscuit do exist.
In 2001, Nigel Blackwell provided the voice over for a BP television advert.[1]
The band's first release since 2005's album Achtung Bono is titled CSI:Ambleside, and was released on April 28, 2008.
Lyrics
Blackwell's personal mythology covers a wide range of topics which are often juxtaposed in counter-intuitive ways. A full understanding of HMHB lyrics is perhaps predicated on being born on Merseyside in the 1950s or 1960s, being unemployed (or at least not working, to permit exposure to daytime television) in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, and being an obsessive hoarder of books, records, football trivia, and memories of obscure television programmes. Occasionally Nigel turns his attention to the absurdities of everyday life.
Discography
|
|
- Misc.
- "David Wainwright's Feet"; on the charity album Colours Are Brighter (2006)
External links
- Half Man Half Biscuit's official website
- Half Man Half Biscuit at the BBC
- Spike Magazine's review of 2005 album Achtung Bono
- 2001 Guardian interview with Nigel Blackwell
- Exclusive Cult Cargo Interview with Nigel about Birkenhead
- The Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project
Stags Head quiz question "who sang "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" david Carson answer "Half Man Half Brisket"
Say no more!!
I had intended to post about this new Glasgow group later in the week however fate intervened and gave me a one off chance to use both a track and a video, first a track from their debut album "God"
The fate angle relates to the resignation of Wendy Alexander as the leader of the Scottish Labour Party
"Wendy It's Over" being the forthcoming new single!!!
My Groups
-
A & R Updated: 53 minutes ago
-
UK UNSIGNED Updated: 53 minutes ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.