New Year's Eve 2009

Another fun year with lot's done and more not done. Preparing to wind down for the last day of work , get some Fizz for the Party, and have a good time. Amazingly the bin men came this morning so they must have been putting in double shifts this week , good on them. Anyway here's a short vid of some of the snow, soundtracked by some of my white noise guitar:

Blair Dunlop - A Real Christmas Treat

We've just returned from watching the Albion Christmas Band finish up their 2009 tour at the Sage in Gateshead , and the concert was , as usual , a resounding success with Ashley Hutchings leading proceeding in between selling and signing CDs outside the hall and engaging with the audience ably supported by the rest of the band , Simon Nicol on guitar , Kellie While on gorgeous vocals somewhere between Sandy Denny and Joni Mitchell , and Simon Care on various squeezeboxes and Morris dancing. An excellent run up to Christmas while promoting their new CD "Snow on Snow".

As if this wasnt enough they had brought on support , the 17 year old Blair Dunlop , and prodigious guitar talent who played 4 pieces and held the audience spellbound throughout. There were two songs the ominously titled "Road Beneath My Wheels" (I was thinking "Wind Beneath My Wings" , mercifully Mr Dunlop was in a different universe) and "Why Georgia" a John Mayor composition.

These were complemented bu the percussive instrumental tour de force "Drifting" and finishing with the Trace Bundy arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon which can be seen here:




Blair Dunlop's website is here. As yet there are no official releases. Just like General Fiasco when I first saw them , and in his field just as impressive.

Winter Solstice 2009

The Winter Solstice was yesterday, Dec. 21, 2009, the day when the Earth tilts farthest away from the sun.

The solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the official start of winter. The word "solstice" comes from the Latin "sun stands still" and celebrations of the solstice pre-date Christmas, though you wouldnt think so the way some Christian Fundamentalist go on. Anyway the days get longer from here and I've put together some winter images backed by Jethro Tull's "Ring Out Solstice Bells" which can be downloaded here:

The Snow Has Arrived

The snow has arrived managing to curtail all my weekend travel including parties and visits to friends. Friday I managed not to slip on all the snow and and ice , though vertical continuation was curtailed by a combination of marble floor and spilt coffee on Newcastle's Central station. This capped a bad end to a really good day which started to go bad when I caught a bus to Darligton Station which went for a one hour journey round a dodgy concil estate before dumping me back where I started. At the beginning of the journey I asked the driver if the bus went to the station , he replied in the affirmative. Hmmmm....

Darlington seems to be the only place where busses with the same numbers going in the same directions can have completely different destinations!!! This happens with the 11 and 14 in Darlington . They also have timetables with huge important chunks missing . This one opposite the station has no information between 0718 and 1301 !!


Anyway to on a more cheerful note here's some of the snow that kept us housebound this weekend soundtracked by the excellent "Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland" by Grandaddy , which you can get here:

Killing In The Name Of ... The X-Factor??

I must say I tittered more than once when I saw the Facebook Group "Rage Against The Machine For Christmas Number One" , which wants "Killing In The Name" as Christmas Number One to ensure that this years's X-Factor winner , Joe McElderry, doesnt hit number one. There are quite a few flaws in this, which are in no particular order:

• While I have every respect for Rage Against The Machine , they're not exactly the embodiment of Christmas Spirit.
• RATM are the current number one (at this point in time 16th December 2009) but Joe McElderry's single The Climb is not released til next week and is only 30p on Amazon!!. The Facebook group membership is about 750,000 worldwide while the X-Factor audience is 15 million in Britain alone . Thats a quarter of the population.
• If you're a RATM fan why don't you have all their albums , especially their eponymous debut?
• RATM are on Epic . Joe McElderry is on Syco (appropriate contraction for Simon Cowell's Label) . Both these are part of the Sony empire so whichever you buy , Sony profit!!!

If you want a proper Christams number one go for Holly Golightly's "Christmas Tree On Fire" or The Muppets' "Bohemian Rhapsody"

 

Is It Christmas?

Every other record on the radio is a "Christmas" record. Some are good , some are absolutely atrocious. It's obviously Christmas, it's still dark and rainy outside.

Sadly it's Terry Wogan's final week before retirement and they reckon the listership for Friday's show will top 14 million!!. Thank god they got young Chris Evans to take the reins rather than that Jonathan Ross. They reckon that after Brian Matthew's Sounds of the Sixties on a Saturday a third of listeners turn off when Mr Ross makes an appearance. Here's Terry doing his "hit" , hilarious!!









Anyway I saw Moonpigwere doing some excellent cards like this Mr T spoof!!!

I Smell Winter

It's dark and rainy, all we need is snow and then winter will truly be here. I was hoping there'd be a video of the Housemartins' "I Smell Winter" but it wasn't to be so I've put in "Build" instead. A truly wonderful band.