Showing posts with label Solomon Burke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Solomon Burke. Show all posts

Friday 3 February 2023

Two Thousand Five Hundred Posts On Seven Days In


This is post number 2500 whichis a milestone. The visits are now picking up going from single figures to three figures on a daily basis. This does not make me money but hopelly the links to my Vocal page may be able to tap into these visit.

This week I have listened to the complete Pink Floyd back catalogue on CD plus obviously a lot more. I also found a post about my start on being part of a Gospel choir with Sharon Durant and supporting Solomon Burke at the Sage in Gateshead which I may turn into a Vocal story.




The first gig of the year will be The Musical Box final tour of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" at the Tyne Theatre tomorrow.

Still reading World of Tiers by Philip Jose Farmer and it is a little formulaic but I will persist with it as he is a good writer.

I recently found out that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

The music is "In The Cage" by Genesis from "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"


Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

  1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
  2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
  3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
  4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
  5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
  6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
  7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Saturday 20 June 2020

The Insidious Evil of Contact Lenses


This morning I lost a contact lens trying to put it in my left eye. Usually if I drop them I eventually find it but to today absolutely no sign. Looked round the sink , on the bathroom cabinet and floor, it does amaze me that when you drop something it can go absolutely anywhere.

Given that my right and left are out of sync I decided to ditch the right one as well well and open new ones but was worried that maybe the left one was actually in my eye but had slipped behind it.

That has happened to me once before and I didn't realise until it reappeared on a hospital visit. I tried inserting the left one but it felt that there was already something there, although this was probably psychosomatic  caused by by attempts to take out a contact lens that wasn't there..

Decided to go with my glasses then checked my phone and noticed an odd reflection. It turned out the lost contact lens was stuck above my palm at the bottom of my index finger, and there is apparently no name for that bit of the hand, like as Vivian Stanshall said in "Sir Henry At Rawlinson End" - "There ids no name for the back of the knees".

So that's my start to this beautiful Saturday morning when the 2019/20 football season restarts in empty stadia , but it is a good sight to see even if it's just on TV.

Chris Hawkins on 6Music is playing a Rolling Stones cover of Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" . I was one of the backing singers and in the Gospel Choir support when Solomon Burke played The Sage ten years ago, see here .

This weekend will see lawn mowing , Roman Temple visiting and football watching and we need a song to go with that don't we. For some reason Johnny Clarke's "Rockers Time Now" was in my head yesterday,  it's an absolutely great song , perfect for today, so we'll go with that.

Friday 25 July 2014

Hot Cross and Bare on Byker Hill




Well you know I don't do cross or anger , and thought it's time for another post. At the moment it's still very hot and stuffy so really you don't want to see me at the moment as I'm taking the practical way out to keep cool. I know 26 degrees Centigrade is cold for some folk but it isn't for me. I don't think I'd do too well in equatorial conditions.

Martin Carthy
Anyway I do appreciate the good weather, but think a cold bath may be in order to keep cool, but maybe that's just going a bit over the top. Today I got ticket's for Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, absolute folk legends who are playing the Tyneside Irish Centre. I know Midge Ure played there once, but I've played there several times. Then again the last time I saw Martin Carthy was at The Sage, and I've been on the same stage as part of the choir backing the late great Solomon Burke , so we have some experiences in common.

The cover of the album to the right is just one of those images that always suck with me. It made me notice him before I'd ever heard of him> If you haven't heard him then rectify that immediately.

The album contains his arrangement of Scarborough Fair that Paul Simon acknowledgingly lifted for Simon and Garfunkel's version which is more widely played.

I hope they play Byker Hill when they're on Tyneside, I'm sure they will.

So really , it's end of the week, the weather is great, and I have another great night to look forward to , so all in all things are very good. I really hope they are for you and you have an absolutely fabulous weekend.

This is them from a few years back



Saturday 24 July 2010

Finally On Stage at The Sage

This saga would be ideal for an episode of Sesame Street , dominated by the letter "S" , Summertyne , Solomon Burke , Sharon Durant the choir leader, The Sage, and the lovely Sally Kat who organised and also sang in the choir as well as letting me tag along.

The final rehearsal was on Thursday , and again Sharon tooks us through the warm up , and the songs , cueing the four or five parts for each song and getting everyone to sing and sound absolutely heavenly . The members of the choir were extremely professional and able , and unfortunately I didnt get anyones name , but who knows . Luckily I was fairly close to a pleasant bearded chap called Gary who really could sing , so tried to follow what he did.

In the last rehearsal the choirs had organised a presentation of some beautiful flowers for Sharon and Sally for all the amazing effort that had gone into this venture.

Finally we made the stage , no dressing rooms for us , just waiting in the corridor waiting to come on. As always with these events , you practice and work for weeks and as you step out , even as a group of 80-90 strong the nerves still get you , and then suddenly it's over - half an hour goes by in a second. Sharon metaphorically held our hands and guided us through the set from "Daddy Sang Bass" to the closer "Great Day" , each bringing amazing applause from a packed Hall One at the Sage. Here's a tour of Hall One if you've never been there.

Afetr that it was sit back and enjoy the superb "Phantom Limb" and country . soul , blues band with a stunnig lead singer more that ably backed by a bunch of superb musicians. Below is a video from them on Balcony TV.






Then finally , the headliner , Solomon Burke with a band featuring his youngest daughter Candy as band leader - who got here own spot when she sang Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", and his 37th grand daughter (forgot her name) who stunned us with a cracking rendition of Dorothey Moore's "Misty Blue".

Solomon held the crowd in the palm of his hand from start to finish , resplendent in his sparkly suit on his majestic throne , still the true king of "Rock and Soul" . Stand outs for me were "Nashville" and the Atlantic medley , but the growd were jumping , clapping , dancing , problem being after clapping through a number your hands are too sore to applaud!!

Finally the choir were invited on stage to back Solomon on "None of us are Free"and we stayed on to back him on a rock and roll medley includin "Proud Mary" , Lucille" , Tutti Frutti" and a few others.

The concert closed with "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" which ran in to "The Saints".

Some other nice touches to the night is that Solomon gave Sharon the microphone during "None of Us Are Free" and all the girls I went with got a rose from Solomon. One of the greatest nights for a long long time and I wont be forgetting it. If you get the chance go and see this man.

Friday 9 July 2010

If One Of Us Is Chained....

Last night was my second rehearsal with the Summer Gospel Choir in preparation for the gig supporting Solomon Burke at the Sage as part of the Summertyne Festival. Agin Sharon Durant showed incredible , leadership , patience and creativity in getting the best out of the choir based around the Customs House singers. The standards vary from my own inept attempts (though not so bad that they want rid .... yet), to the absolutely heavenly probably peaking with Sharon's almost angelic tones which pave the way for everyone else !!!

Last night we ran through the complex arrangement of "Daddy Sang Bass / Will The Circle Not Be Broken" , which still confuses me as I keep thinking of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", but that's just me.

Then we tackled Solomon's "Not Of Us Are Free" , and I got slightly worried when I thought I might be singled out as a potential expert on the song !! But got through without a hitch.

We finished up with "I'll Fly Away" which our lot ended up with the percussive vocal part which is very difficult to execute .

There's three more rehearsals before the big night . sofingers crossed I'll make through to the final concert.

Friday 2 July 2010

None of Us Are Free....

But I come quite cheaply.....

Yesterday I signed up for The Gospel Choir , who will be on the same stage as the King of Rock and Soul , Solomon Burke. While I knew of Solomon Burke he only burst into my musical sphere when he released the album "Don't Give Up On Me" which contains the excellent "None of Us Are Free". This was sceduled in for the Gospel Choir to perform , But Mr Burke wishes to sing the song himself with the Gospel Choir, this is beyond my wildest expectations. Here's him in 2003 on Top of The Pops with Steve Wright getting the description correct for once:



Heres a link to Emusic that will allow you to download the 2002 album with a free trial.

Anyway I 've joined up with the Gospel Choir half way through rehearsal , and choir consists of outsiders like me, a core of the Custom House house choir , and various memebers of other choirs including a student called Lauren who guessed I was going there as she noticed me dropping my sheet music as I dozed on the Metro !! I was gonna get a taxi but she guided me straight there and told me where to sit , with the half a dozen men , among the multitude of ladies!!

The Choir is led by Sharon Durant , who's voice is the purest I've heard since Joan Baez and that's saying saying something . Her choir website is here , which gives details of what's happening as well as link to "Mouthful" , the accapella group that she is a member of.

Sharon's voice alone deserve's a page article , but she is leading this thing, arranging all the parts for all the different parts of the choir , singing those parts out for the groups to sing , and then getting everyone to sing their parts and bring them together to make a harmonious whole. The work , skill , talent , and enthusiasm of this lady is a wonder to behold .

Last night we worked though "Down To The River To Pray" and "Daddy Sang Bass / Will The Circle" . I started with sheet music and lyric sheets , but Sharon is so good that she had me ditching the paper and following her, and I'm not that hot on the old remembering front!! The music Sharon has lined up consists of a wide ranging spread of Old Time Americana featuring arrangements of traditional material as as Leadbelly and Carl Perkins songs.

Anyway this is Day One from me , working towards the night on the 23rd of July which we join the bill with Mr Burke. When I left I needed to get to North Shields and missed the ferry by two minutes resulting in a half hour wait in a deserted Ferry Terminal , but saw some amazing cloud formations , so maybe even that was worth it...


If you fancy the concert , there's a link to a two for one ticket offer here.

Sunday 27 June 2010

Festivals , Guitars, Opportunities and Sun






This has been quite an amazing week for me, while there's no major live upheavals , lots of things seem to be going well and opportunities popping up in the most unexpected areas. One of these is the opportunity to perform on the same bill as Solomon Burke at the Summertyne Festival in the Sage Gateshead as part of a country gospel choir . At first the fifty pound price tag put me off, being a total cheapskate , but I assume you'll get to watch the great man as well which ids worth the price on its own. Added to that you'll be learning to sing as part of a choir and this begins to look a bit of a bargain . Theres full information here.

KING SOLOMON





Also I'm still pondering the purchase of a pink acoustic guitar from Windows in Newcastle. While that may not be the one I get , I will buy one this week despite the fact I have an adequate collection of electrics and keyboards!! One can never have too many things to make noise with






THREE LIONS




As well as that , we have the Mouth of Tyne Free Festival on Sunday 11th of June. The same day as the World Cup Final . The headliners are the Lightning Seeds !! . Imagine , and I will allow myself a little hope , if England make the final . Broudie and fininsh with "Three Lions" , tey show the Final on Big Screens in the Priory , England Win , and the broudie comes back on for another round of "Three Lions" to finish the night !! I don't think it will happen but we can all dream ... and if you put in the effort dreams can come true!!!