Showing posts with label Sting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sting. Show all posts

Monday 1 April 2019

#AprilSongs #1 - Stormy Monday Blues


This morning I woke, opened the curtains and was surprised to see icy rooves on cars and houses, it really doesn't feel that cold although I am in a centrally heated house. The #AprilSongs sequence needs me to share 30 day related songs over the month (5 Mondays and Tuesdays, and 4 for the other days) as well as actually posting everyday, because it doesn't seem right posting a Tuesday song on Wednesday or Thursday.

It's April Fools Day and I am starting my #AprilSongs project with "Stormy Monday" by T-Bone Walker. While I was thinking of using "Blue Monday" by |New Order toi kick this off, this came to mind remembering the Tyneside based film of the same name.

"Stormy Monday" is variously titles as "Call It Stormy Monday" and "Stormy Monday Blues" and has been covered by so many people is the blues, rhythm and blues , rock and jazz genres from Albert King through Linda Hopkins to The Allman Brothers and a myriad others.

The film is a violent gangster movie featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Sting and Sean Bean and is worth watching to get some idea of Newcastle in the late eighties when I came up here. It is entirely coincidental that this film was made then.

So this is a bit of classic blues to kick off the week, the month and the 'AprilSongs sequence

Tuesday 25 December 2018

Christmas Day Too


Well it has been quiet and relaxing. Have exchanged messages and phone calls with friends ad family and done not very much at all, but it is Christmas Day. I've managed to avoid the cheesy Christmas Songs but heard an awful insipid instrumental take on The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" on Classic FM. Classical music does not need to be insipid and soulless but Classic FM like local radio seem to usually go for the blandest fare (or should that be "fayre") they can find.

Look at the take on Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" in the last post, how good it that? And lets face it the list of Classical Music both from the past and contemporary is vast. I remember my secondary school music teacher managed to put me off Classical music because he would just stick an LP on and we had to listen to it for forty minutes. It wasn't built up, or explained, it was just there, and to a teenager, it was not cool.

So I leave you with "Troika" by Prokofiev from his "Lt Kije" suite which provided the motif for Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas". The suite also provide the motif for Sting's "Russians" too ("Romance"), so there is a lot og great music out there to listen to without resorting to sanitised blandness.

I hope you Christmas Day is progressing wonderfully.


Friday 16 September 2016

Surprises , Thunderstorms, Sting, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen


I was well impressed by Johnny Cash's American series, and "I Hung My Head" always struck me as a perfect archetypal Johnny Cash song, that would fit in with "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" or "The Wall", then my friend Paul said

"Do You Know Who Wrote It?"

I said "Isn't It A JC song?"

He said "No, you want to know who wrote it?"

I said "Yes"

He said "Sting!"

That was a huge surprise to me, though when Sting writes good songs they are good. So I thought I'd include the Sting version, then I found a Springsteen version as well, so in this post you you are getting three versions of a great song, two American Icons and one Geordie.

And when you hear Springsteen sing it, you could be excused thinking it's a Springsteen original.


Then last night we had thunderstorms and rain, and I really didn't want to leave my bed. Anyway it's time for work now and I will leave you with the Sting version, all these are excellent, but I like the Johnny Cash one best , but they are all good.

Sunday 27 July 2014

Coincidentally ....Two Johns




Am I Going To Hell?
Today has been a day of coincidences. I always have a chuckle when people say "things happen for a reason" yet can't give an actual reason for what happened. That's just coincidence, and often you can use it to link together totally disparate places people and events, so I'll tell you about today, although part of these linked coincidences started nearly forty years ago in 1977. But there's a lot of disparate threads that really have no connection but just happened to coincide.







Punk 45
Anyway yesterday I bought an excellent book of punk single covers called Punk 45. It's enlightening to see how many of the artists looked on the sleeve of the early singles, Sting, Iggy Pop and Gary Numan look recognisable but young. It's also a fairly hefty tome but great to browse through and big enough to read without the aid of a magnifying glass.Today I needed to go into town to pick up some train tickets and some bits to update my sound system.






When I got to the bus stop it was sunny and there was a young lady there sort of singing , I assume to what was on her phone. She turned round and said what a nice day it was and then saw the caption on my T-Shirt and seemed to take it quite seriously, telling me that god had a place for me in heaven and hell was for the evil angels. We chatted on and she was happy and pleasant but a bit forceful, and then the bus didn't turn up, so I spent nearly thirty minutes in some verbal jousting. I didn't want to upset as she was going to a christening, but just said everyone should live morally and look out for others and stay happy, so we left on good terms. The christening was in Byker, home of part of the next thread of coincidence.


Suspended Sentence - Check The Line Up - John Scott!

A couple of years ago I went to see John Cooper Clarke at the O2 Academy in Newcastle and was very impressed by the MC on the night , Mr John Scott. I was so impresses with Mr Scott that he was the second best thing I saw that night,  but then sought out further gigs, and am really pleased he's on regularly at venues such as The Stand.

John is from Byker, so that's the thread I mentioned before, but was looking at the line up for John Cooper Clarke's first single.....

......and the guitaris is John Scott. Now the John Scott I know would have been about 10 at the time so was either a child prodigy on the Manc scene or it's a different guy.







Now certainly people could tie all these facts together to mean something , but I know it's all coincidence.


So basically I've had a great weekend and I hope you have too. If you can get a copy of the book do so. I've included so youtube footage of the two Johns for you to enjoy.

Thursday 1 May 2014

May Day, Sting, Wallsend and The Buzzcocks




Well the next bank holiday is fast approaching and hopefully I'll be going to see the Buzzcocks and various other bands this weekend. This gives me an excuse to attach (again) my favourite Buzzcocks song which is probably not what you would expect, well actually I have two favourite Buzzcocks songs , one very short and one very long, Love You More under two minutes and Why Can't I Touch It over six minutes both on the Singles Going Steady album.




Sting on Spoons - and looks like Jess McD behind him but it's actually Jo Lawry
This week I watched When The Last Ship Sails by Sting , based on where he grew up (Wallsend), and was very impressed by many bits of it, especially the songs "Underground River (Language of Birds)" and "Shipyard", and Sting also displayed a sense of humour and played spoons on a number of songs!






I'm certainly looking forward to the play when it comes out, but Underground River gets better every time I hear it.




As it's May Day , Labour Day and the like , we should keep the Red Flag flying, and hopefully this current government will be kicked out on their arses, but anyway have a great day , enjoy yourself , put a smile on your face and keep on being happy.

Monday 14 October 2013

On The Bright Side


Stormy Monday
Well I've woken up , it's dark, it's raining , it's Monday and I have to go to work. The thing is , it's October so winter is coming on , and the rain means that gardens are watered , in fact the world is behaving as expected, which is always a great thing. Credit Nature or credit Your God but enjoy the fact that everything is happening as it should do.

Yes I don't like going to work in the cold and the wet, but the 100 mile round trip from Newcastle to Darlington gives me ample time to read and enjoy myself, although I need to make sure I don't miss my stop because I'm too engrossed in a book.

I've included a video of BB King's Stormy Monday, because today is a Stormy Monday,  which was also the name of a film featuring Sting set in Newcastle!.

Anyway loads of great things will happen this week, try and make one of them happen or be part of it.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Art For Tantricity's Sake

"Northern City Renaissance: Newcastle, England (Mass MoCA #79-E)" by Stephen Hannock
I just got a letter from the Laing in Newcastle asking me for a donation of £30 to stage their latest exhibibition and was suprised to find that the well known tantric sex practicioner and part time jungle dweller (South America not Sunderland) , Gordon Sumner had commissioned a huge landscape of Newcastle by the artist Steven Hannock , and had been dispayed over the winter .

I wish I had seen this as the painting is well impressive and after seeing the John Martin Exhibition at the Laing , I am always impressed with the sheer audacity of painting of this size. Even just on the computer screen it looks impressive, and it is about time I got to the Laing.

Anyway if you click on the various links they'll take you to the various appropriate sites to gain more information. Below is a video of John Martin pictures:

Well impressed