Blue Sky Day and Data Usage

Today started grey and rainy but things took a major turn for the better and by the time I left work it was actually very hot . I don't know if feeling good in myself affects the weather or it's the other way round , but a very difficult day  was dealt with and things just improved and got better throughout the day. So this is one of those blog posts which actually about nothing , there will probably be no tags unless it's about the terrible phone signal I had on my journey from Darlington to Newcastle, quite often dropping out making things unusable. It was a Cross-Country Train and some people hve said that they scramble the mobile signal so you have to use their extortionate and flakey wifi , though I'm sure that is just some kind of urban legend.

On thing though is that a signal along a main railway line should be reasonably strong , although ironically it does disappear as you approach London's Kings Cross station. These days Mobile Phone companies are heavy on the data sell , but if are going to use data you need a signal. My first desk top PC had a hard drive capacity of 10 Mb , that would store a pop song these days. My phone , a Samsung Note 2 has 48 Gb of memory and you will use 20Mb of data browsing Facebook for 15 minutes. You're gobbling and you don't realise it.

Anywa I am home now and probably have about a thousand time more processing power than what they used to  put a man on the moon. We live in privileged times and it's only going to get better. The music is appropriate and Nazareth cover of a Yardbirds song. Ended up rambling on and managing to fit one or two tags in.

Chestwigs in the Night

This morning was the first time for months where when I got up it was still dark . Admittedly it was 5am and had not slept well due to a very mild tummy upset , but it's still a bit disconcerting to think that the days are drawing in once again . Not that it stops you doing anything and it does mean you get to see the sun rise.

Also it means I get to write this blog post and have a look see what's happening in the world today before I make my way to work.

I am looking forward to this weekend with a great gig on Sunday with The Star Spangled Chestwigs supporting Big Ray and The Hipthrusters at The Schooner and lots of other secret Bank Holiday fun. Enjoy their version of By The Rivers of Babylon (s Burning)

Anyway time to do what I need to do before another day doing what I do.

Blue for You

This morning one of my favourite albums came into my mind , and I fancied posting a music video on Facebook. I thought a quick youtube search would return one of the songs I wanted , but no , no sign. Maybe it was because it was ten to seven and my bus was at seven. Then I got to thinking how much in life gets taken for granted. We expect the sunto rise and set , that's a given. We expect the light to come on when we press a light switch , we expect water to flow when we turn on the tap, we expect our buses and trains to turn up and deliver us safely to our destinations , when we get in our cars we expect it to fire up and go in whatever direction we point it. Anyway that the sort of deep stuff.

In relation to the internet we are used to searches returning us what we want , or at least something relevant (unless it's Bing or Ask,com). Then I remembered certain bands such as "A" and "!!!" (pronounced chk chk chk apparently) who are unsearchable on most search engines so you need to know exactly where you are going. The song I was thinking of was "Another Night Time Flight" from the eponymous album by Blue . You can sample it here. I was listening to the album on the way to work and posted a couple of comments asking iof people could get what I was listening to. Despite a few clues and one fairly close guess no one got it so I will be making a donation to St Catherine's Hospice unless someone has worked it out while I am writing this post. Their Wikipedia entry is here fronted by ex Marmalade guitarist Hugh Nicholson , so the answer is out . One of mine and the late John Peel's favourites. Well worth a listen.

No one guessed so , St Catherine's Hospice will get the donation.

About The Weather .. And Newcastle

I seem to have been posting a lot about the weather recently, mainly to report biblical deluges. It's funny how the bad things usually get people's attention, while the good stuff is taken for granted and not remarked upon. We've had an excellent summer, plenty of sunbathing opportunities and I haven't needed a jacket to go into work. When you point this out the good summer seems to have passed people by. It's the best we've had for years .

I've been to several music festivals and all have had great weather . Not only that we've had overnight rain which has meant that the hosepipe has not come out for the garden. This morning the sun is shining again boding well for another great day.

Last night Newcastle started their season with a 4-0 defeat at Manchester City. The result was not unexpected , but Newcastle fans see it as a disaster. They were playing a team who are tipped to win the Premiership , on their own home ground and due the Stephen Taylor's red card played half the match with ten men. I didn't watch it , but don't see it as a disaster either . Write that off and start with the next match at St James' Park against West Ham.

Don't Give Me Space(s)

There is one thing , well there are a lot of things , that so called data suppliers and system designers seem unable to grasp. The one I'm on about is the processing of leading and trailing spaces in data strings. While this may be required for data formatting in say a Word document or on a web page , it should never be treated as an integral part of the data. At this point to have to remember that computers are essentially dumb and just do what they are told ...... perfectly  ..... too perfectly at times.

So at work I find that on certain systems , searches and comparisons are unable to take into consideration spurious leading and trailing spaces , when the simple application of the trim function (preferably on data entry , but also in the actual search / comparison)  would save a lot of messing about. To me FIVE = FIVE  . Doesn't it? Oh no the second on has an extra trailing space! The n there's also case sensitivity which should be i the control of the user but often isn't.

Anyway the thing that got me going on this was the changing of my iTunes id. Fairly simple I though, until verification of the new email. Then I kept getting password doesn't match error. Tried the old . the new and my nick name. Nothing worked. Then thought , no , it can't be , there was a space at the front of the email field but because of kerning it was hardly noticeable. Removed it , and it worked. Why couldn't Apple trim the input ? Or are leading and trailing spaces allowable in a name?

Thought this gave me an excuse to post Space Is Deep by Hawkwind , featuring one of my favourite saxophone solos of all time, starting with some brilliant drone guitar about 3:20 , though listening to this it sounds more like a synthesiser , but who cares it is brilliant.

Early Morning Rain

Well a trip to Penrith today , and hope the weather turns out better that it is looking now. Yesterday was like that a deluge during the night followed by early morning rain and then by home time blue skies. Check out my Instagram feed here . Hope the light will be good enough to take some photographs and I'm takeing both my cameras and my iPad just in case I get the opportunity for some good shots.

I will be traveling along the route of the River Tyne from Newcastle parallel to Hadrians Wall , which I helped light up in 2010. Check the link above and you will find some video . One thing about taking photographs and videos is that you never actually appear in them , although then again I could not afford to keep replacing the broken lenses, I think I've only seen a handful of acceptable photographs of me and the current profile pic is over five years old , so need to replace that soon .

Anyway , I know today will brighten up , there are lots of good things happening , and I will see some wonderful scenery, but will leave you with the excellent Gordon Lightfoot song eponymous with this post:

More Rain

Last night at 2am I was woken up by a huge downpour. The upside is that I don't have to water the garden , but as my contact lenses settled in my eyes , focusing slowly on a magazine ensuring the right lens in the right eye, I could still hear the rain coming down , admittedly not as bad during the night. I had been tempted to video it as deep rivulets streamed down the road outside, but decided not to (it was 2am).
Hopefully the trains will still be running on time and the tracks haven't been washed away. We shall see. Not sure if the song is appropriate as it's now after the deluge, but there's still a lot of rain in the sky , so who knows I may be boating home and it's and excuse to play the wonderful Jackson Browne. 

Oh I managed to export a picture from Artrage, amazing how an unconnected event can stimulate the mind into working out how to do things. It's definitely not intuitive , but that's down to Apple's super intuitive interface. Thing is generally iPads are mostly for looking not doing , but I can actually start working on pictures in Artrage. It's very primitive but this is the first one I've done , mainly to test that I can actually get stuff out  of it!

Tara

Blank Canvas and Saltires

It's funny when you want to really do something but every time you try , it just doesn't work out. I'm working with a program called Artrage and am amazed how counter intuitive the software is. Basically I what to draw a picture , and it gets part of the way the screws up my picture. I'm having similar problems with Garageband. Have my first completed piece but it won't export to iTunes, I've just removed all the music and it still seems to hang.

 Having said that the pict, is getting better each time so, who knows it may turn out OK in the end.

The thing this calls to mind Robert The Bruce and the spider which  I thought was immortalised in a poem by Robert Burns . I must have been imagining it . So we'll just go for this Eddi Reader singing "Ae Fond Kiss" , and why not:

Three fingers , Left Hand and a real Bass Guitarist

The little finger is slowly improving , I think , but still waiting to see a neurologist. The muscle wastage is visible , and not sure what that will mean in the future, I've been playing about with Garageband on the iPad and still trying to extricate my first (very basic) composition out of it. Each time it just stops working but it's great to play with . Anyway, I'm still having difficulty with guitar , though I've taught myself a rudimentary "Smokestack Lightnin'" m but still trying .

So I thought I'd maybe try the Tanglewood . I still can only use three fingers, but thought I'd try a bit of bass improvisation . Just recorded this too iPad so not trying to impress anybody , but it's ages since I even held a bass and so just did a little two minute improvisation , on quiet so not to annoy the neighbours too much. Stanley Clarke it is not!

I'm happy with the first try as nothing was planned and only just decided to do it now. So it's just a progress report and the hand is doing OK!!

Here's some real bass playing !!

Impatience and Doctor Who

Why is it that people can't wait for anything these days. I'm made up that we have Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor , but couldn't they have kept it under wraps until the next generation. I've loved Peter Capaldi  from his role in the funnily atrocious Lair Of The White Worm , a Ken Russel excess fest full of single entendres , then Local Hero , and his probably crowning character as the swearily inventive spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It.
So we now know robbing Matt Smith's exit of a huge chuck of suspense. If I were to choose some music to play it could be the Theme from Local Hero but instead I'm going to post Brian Eno#s "This" where the word this is repeated as the rhythm to the song. Has no bearing to what I'm talking about but I dont really care,

Heat and Silence

This is going to be a very short post, but it's August now and trying to think of something to say. The weather is still hot , and there was a bit of rain today. That's about it. Somewhere down this blog there is an exercise that I carried out in Craster to write two thousand words with no planning whatsoever and it turned into an essay on the difficulties of trying to write two thousand words.

Anyway was talking with someone yesterday about how you can integrate silence into talking to enable things to sink in to a potential audience. almost all of us have filler words because we are uncomfortable with silence. Once these are pointed out you can eradicate them , because we tend to take our own behavior as the norm. So when we repetitively reuse a phrase it dilutes the meaning.

So that's

Fighting With My Left Hand III

Cm Successfully Held down for first time in about four months

I've just managed to play a Cm chord . It used to be easy but using my little finger on my left hand has been awkward since the incident. This is a huge step forward . I'm managing with the other three fingers , but losing that later use of all the fingers of your hand makes certain tasks a little difficult.

I'm waiting for an appointment with a neurologist , and two doctors have remarked that there is obvious muscle wastage , usually attributed to results of a trapped nerve , which is better that the initial potential diagnosis. Obviously there's still a long way to go and I keep trying to do other things with my left hand and think "Did I ever do that with my left hand?".

Anyway despite the downpour last night wondering whether to attempt to mow the lawn and make some more newspaper logs.

4.45 ... The Deluge Is Here

An Exception at The Tynemouth Volkswagen Rally

Just been woken up by a noise that was actually the promised rain coming down. Plans for mowing the lawn , making newspaper logs and maybe even going out for the papers and into town could be out the window. Well the first two are anyway. After a great day yesterday meeting friends and seeing lots of Volkswagens in Tynemouth, and the Red Arrows doing their stuff at the Sunderland Airshow south of the Tyne , finished by a barbeque and taxi journey home , I'm sat here in the middle of the deciding what I'm going to do today.

Coincidentally yesterday I watched this excellent TED talk about the car as art , though I'm certainly not a petrol head myself.:


Well actually things and ideas are formulating in my mind now , which include tracking down a Southern Comfort advert favoured by my friends Dawn and Colin which should appear here. Actually it's the first one on this list featuring Odetta singing the elusive Hit Or Miss

It's slowly coming light and dawn is breaking , wondering whether to go to bed or to stay up messing around , I'm sure I can find things to do but then I may be tired later , but my mind is racing with a million things.

Is this the end of last week and the start of the sew work . One thing is certain it's been a extraordinary week in many ways including lots of sunshine and a little rain. You need the rain though ore else everything dies off , but I do enjoy the sunshine .

Coincidentally Opencast

New OpenCast  Office

Often things happen and because of some other event we notice stuff that we maybe wouldnt have noticed . This week a number of things happened that are sort of tenuously connected and are sticking in my mind because  of the way things happened. It started with an instagram post by a great friend of mine CEO of Opencast Software referring to the Happy Mondays song . This came about when they were asked to do a cover for Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary album. They loved John Kongos' He's Gonna Step On You Again , and covered that , Shaun Ryder lifting the "Twistin' My Melon Man" from a quote from a Paul Newman film.

 Anyway apparently (and this has been verified by the Guinness Book of Records) , He's Gonna Step On You Again by John Kongos is the first commercial single to use a sample (the Africa Drum Loop). So here is its to listen to:

Tokolshe Stalking a Mad Dog

The band liked their cover , re-titled "Step On" so much they released it as a single and covered another John Kongos song Tokoloshe Man. Now listening to Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie they were talking to a guy about the top record covers , and that included the Happy Mondays "Step On" which most people don't realise is actually a cover. Aparently when Kongos was stuck for inspiration he would ring his mum and one of her suggestion was Tokoloshe Man, and the Tokoloshe appeared as a voodoo dwarf in the last series of Mad Dogs.

So if you want a copy of the Happy Mondays Tokoloshe Man you will have to hunt down the album or get Loaded.

There were many other coincidences that happened this week but that's all they were  , but it is sometimes amazing how many things coincide when you dont expect them to 

Heatwave

Despite the rain during the night the temperature tells me it's still hot. T-Shirt for work today I think , though not a Star Spangled Chestwigs or Half Man Half Biscuit one, which will confuse or offend the more genteel among the people I will run into today. Hopefully trains will be stopping at Darlington.

I need to get off extra early to get my train tickets for the next three work days, which is unfortunately always a trial. The number of times you pass a piece of paper with your exact requirements and they still come back with an super saver instead of a normal ticket. Though in my time in my current job cost of travel has increased by 50% and wages not. We're continually told to practice austerity while governments , banks and corporation are profligate in what they take out of the economy.

Anyway it's nearly 6:30 am so time to publish , pack up and get out.

Sun and Soak, The Beatles and John Niven

Just a short post. After all the fantastic weather we have had for the music Festivals such as Mouth Of Tyne and Summertyne , today we had a downpour of Biblical proportions in Darlington . It was very very wet. We are now back to hot and sweaty and obviously very summery, not great weather for work.

There's not much else to report without actually going into a diatribe about petty annoyances, although I always like to maintain positivity and starting from last Saturday it's actually been a great week for me, I just wish it could be as good for everyone else.

I've managed to watch a lot of films , about to finish a book that's going straight to the charity shop although it's full of surprisingly pertinent coincidences involving names and ice cubes, but it's continual name checking of eighties bands is very trying , but I won't let it beat me.

Oh yes I'm looking forward to August 15th when John Niven's new book Single White Male is released. His whole canon is to be recommended though I didn't really like Music From Big Pink , boringly serious for me. He's worth following on Twitter (@NivenJ1) but be warned not for the easily or even difficultly offended.

Anyway I think I will post a music video as well , which I've done before , one of my favourite two Beatles' songs "Rain" . Apparently the bass on the original single was so heavy it had to be damped down when remastered for CD. I don't remember having taht problem with my seven incher , but that's another story .........

Don't Keep Calm - Go Wild!

A short ranty post this . I sick of all these idiotitic KEEP CALM posters that say KEEP CALM KILL A ZOMBIE or KEEP CALM PAY YOUR TAXES or KEEP CALM DRIVE A SPORTS CAR. All of those scenarios cause people to go wild and annoy me intensely. The original KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON motif was sensible and fine , but it doesn't mean you can add anything to KEEP CALM , it should make sense.

Incidentally the first time I saw this was at the magnificent Barter Books in the old Alnwick Railway Station.





So
I've added my poster. Feel free to copy and distribute

Problems, Solutions,Good Things, Art and Valhalla

We all have have them , sometimes they seem insurmountable. Sometimes you feel as though you are up against a brick wall and there's no way forward. Sometimes you find an alternative and it might be wrong , but sometimes you find an alternative and it's right. This breakthroughs are often inspired by totally unrelated happening within your life or experience such as a piece of good news or something great happening with a friend. For weeks I've been trying to work out how to do something with misfuctioning software. I had the option of trying to roll back the software (as yet the company haven't found a solution but they normally do) , or hand coding , both pf which I loathe and to lazy to do.

Then lots of little good things including Katie Pukrik's song selection on 6Music this morning (Springsteen's "Thunder Road" , Sparks "Number One Song In Heaven" among others) , good friends I've spoken to in years reappearing on the scene, and amazing film "Valhalla Rising" (who needs a plot and dialogue if it looks brilliant , and has Mads Mikkelsen  <Hannibal>as a one eyed mute) and today I shall wander over to Summertyne , and the weather is still excellent.

Anyway all this set a light bulb of it my head and though ah - that might work, and it did , so the site is now finished for another year. You can check out Bob Armstrong's wonderful paintings here.

Also got some news last week that the loss of control over my left hand is likely to be a trapped nerve not a TIA as first proposed.

Try Everything - Fireships, Blondie , The Police and Stateside Diner Shakes

It's one of those things. I have lots of albums I've not listened to, Today for te first time I decided to play "Fireships" by Peter Hamill and was stunned by the first song "I Will Find You" , an amazing alien splicing of Blondie's "Presence Dear" and The Police's "Every Breath You Take" . You haven't a clue whether the protagonist is a love struck, caring  admirer or an evil , devious stalker with the latter being the favoured outcome. I've included the song just because it really is a case of you don't know what you're missing.

Stateside Diner Ice Cream Pancake

Then coming back I finally decided to visit the amazing Stateside Diner and treated myself to a luxury mint milkshake absolutely lush. The have a free rock and roll CD based juke box , serve alcohol in the form or wine , spirits and bottled beers and of course lots food. So glad I've finally gone in there and intend to visit a lot more often. Their Facebook page is here so if you are ever near Central Station in Newcastle , check them out.




So as I say , never be afraid to try anything , and even try anything and if you have music make sure you listen to it. Don't download buy and forget you have it , as I have a habit of doing.

Snake Oils

Well actually Hemp Oil and Omega 3. I get my Hemp Oil from Holland & Barrett and my Omega 3 from Boots , and I can recommended that they both seem to work from me. Hemp is a very versatile product and the way Omega 3 works was brilliantly analogised for me by a diabetic nurse which I documented here.  It is , of course , possible that effect is a placebo effect and I just think I feel better, but if something causes that then you tend to perform better and just generally be better.

Last night one of my friends Chris Ball told me a story about someone who was taking loads of vitamin supplements , which "must be working because they make my wee smell funny". Chris is responsible for the excellent but brief "Ape of Wrath" blog.

Also he mentioned that the government were going to push aspirin as  a "Vitamin S" cure all , unless you are advised not to by your doctor, which then becomes a bit of an iffy policy to say the least. I personally think you should generally try and get your vitamins by eating the correct (fresh) foods (fruit and vegetables),  but people will still swear by their little rattling plastic containers.

All The Sevens

After last months daily song , the blogs taken a rest but today is 7th of the 7th ad the name of the blog is 7 Days In ! I'm surprised we've not been bombarded by chain mails quoting ancient Chinese legends that will bring you untold wealth if you pass it on to 7 people. Did they have email in ancient China , I think not.

Today Andy Murray plays Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final with the press and various idiots sharpening their blades to say how he can't cut it when it really batters , and he's a miserable Scot and he has no personality.

My thoughts on Murray . I love because he annoys the fuck out of the media , is totally focused on the job in hand , and delivers !! Though if Scotland becomes independent he'll be just another foreigner who's won Wimbledon. We're still waiting for an English man or woman. Murray is brilliant , and I must I used to hate John McEnroe as a player , again he did the job, but he is absolutely brilliant as a pundit , going to have to get his autobiography , that WILL be worth a read.

Also another gripe is English pronunciation , names like Cholmondely and Waldegrave are pronounce Chumley and Walgrave. The Scots can be as bad Menzies in Mingies ? It's E N Z not I N G !! But the worst is Feng Shui. This is an english representation of the oriental ideagram, there it's say what you see FENG SHOOEE , NOT FUNG SHWAY . It's an E not a U andas for the second word I wont even go there.

Oh and I'm English so its Zed Zed Top not Zee Zee Top and it's Jay Zed not Jay Zee. And on that not I'll finish the video that so upset Jay Zed and Alisha Keys!!:

This Is The End ... Beautiful Friend

Today is Slacktonbury at The Schooner with Strange Bruise and Slack Babbath , so looking forward to that and the sun is shining too.


Well it's the last day of June and the final day of my June's Tunes blog project . The obvious song to finish with would be "The End" by The Doors , a great song , but then Chuck Berry's "30 Days" popped into my head so decided to go with that. I've put together a Grooveshark playlist so you can listen to all the songs in one place if you are that way inclined , but it will clock in at around two hours. Maybe I should have been a DJ! Anyway here's the playlist:

And here's Chuck Berry's 30 Days:

Iberian Penultimate

Sarah's Cake

Well this weekend has had a vaguely Iberian feel. First of all a good friends surprise birthday with lots of champagne , cake , wine and lots of to die for tapas started the weekend off. Then today I wandered into town to see the Vamos takeover of the  High Bridge Quarter. There was some great music , notably Brassy B with the salsa ska skewed crossover and amazing food.

Vamos

 

However despite there being an amazing array of food available there were still people with McDonald's bags down there. The Vamos festival goes on for a month and there are some amazing events , and I am so pleased to have been there today.








The music music chose itself for June's Tunes , Mink DeVille's "Spanish Stroll:

Fast Connection

This weekend is one of those where you realise you actually have no time to yourself , and it starts here so at 6:30 switched on the PC and ..... no internet connection. Went through all diagnostics to no avail , so resorted to the Virgin helpline , finally got through the torturous IVR to a technical person , at which point the thing magically connected. Wonderful. So an appropriate June's Tune , "Rings Around The World" by the totally fabulous Super Furry Animals:

Time Signatures and The Classical Popular Crossover

Well there's a mouthful , and it's sort of as a result of a chat today that for some reason wandered on to time signatures in music , originating from the fact that all formalised dance is done in 8 bars. I said that nearly every pop song is in 4/4 time , notable exceptions being Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit in Waltz time which is 3/4 , Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill which is in 9/8 time , Dave Brubeck's Take 5 which is in 5/4 time and Unsquare Dance which in god knows what time.

Anyway that got me on to Malcolm McLaren who had some mad ideas such as his Opera / Hip Hop album Fans and the mad collaboration with Bootsy Collins and Jeff Beck taking on Strauss Waltzes resulting in the impossibly awesome House of The Blue Danube , which should not possibly work but it does:



Oh and here's the whole of the Fans album - pure brilliance:

2AM

Waking up at 2AM is not good when you have a 5AM start. Last night I had a bad (for me) 2.6 Hypo and felt awful but went to sleep listening to the Oysterband and Billy Bragg. Anyway today I will be going down down to London and for the June's tunes I'm choosing The Oysterband covering New Order's Love Vigilantes and favourite of mine by two of my favourite bands!:

Woke Up This Mornin'

I'm really tired , but have been posted songs relating to the day or what happened on that day . A friend of mine had lost her Alabama 3 CD which she wanted on her iPod , and I'm still in shock from the death of Jame's Gandolfini , so there can only be one song to day , and it is :

Joe Strummer and Vamos in High Bridge

Just a quick post , as well as the events at The Schooner this coming weekend Vamos is taking over High Bridge. This will mean lot's of street food , salsa music and fun . So this weekend is going to be packed with events Friday , Saturday and Sunday. I suggest to get into Newcastle for the Vamos stuff and so I need to think of something salsa flavoured for today's June's Tune . Then I realised that it's post number 101 so , instead I'll go for "Keys To Your Heart" by the 101ers , what else could I have.

I remember getting the original Chiswick single , the Joe Strummer left and joined the Clash !!

Glastonbury .... It's Just a Tesco and Wal-Mart of Music ... but we have The Mighty Slack Babbath To Save Us

Before I start my rant about this , I first must congratulate Michael Eavis on his vision , borrowing £5000 in 1972 to fund the initial festival I believe opened by Marc Bolan doing an acoustic set. These are the sort of people we need and I am so glad that he has been successful probably beyond his wildest dreams as Glastonbury. I read somewhere that there are 2,000 acts on over the five day festival this year , I thought I'd check and looking at the line up page here that could be right. I'm not counting. Tickets this year are around £205 , not sure if that includes a spot for your tent but say you see five acts each day then that's less that £10 a concert (remember what The Rolling Stones charged at the O2). There's a download of the original festival here which gives a feel for what it was once like.

So back to the rant, Glastonbury has just become like a supermarket, lots of products to satisfy every taste , but make sure you keep to the designated areas , have your clubcard on hand , make sure to you conform to the requirements of the supermarket. Their marketing is so good that people happily give up lots of personal information just to enter the lottery to get a ticket. Even twenty years ago people went to Glastonbury to see a particular group of acts , now people go to Glastonbury because it's Glastonbury. While this is not my scene (I actually like music) , it is a huge number of people's idea of heaven. Michael Eavis could have sold another half a million tickets for this year's festival. That's £100 million pounds more he could have made , more than the GDP of some countries.

So if you are going enjoy the music , enjoy your time there , I'll be frequent some much smaller events sch as "Slacktonbury" featuring Strange Bruise and the mighty Slack Babbath and their lead singer Ozzy Ouseburn at The Schooner on the 29th June.

Anyway the June's Tunes choice is possibly my favourite Glastonbury song "Glastonbury Revisited" by The Cosmic Rough Riders  from their brilliant album "Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine":

"Where have all the angels gone,

Now that all the acid's done .....

We made love under the sun....... "

Those days are long gone

Oh and just realised this was my 100th post this year , a friend had to point this out !!

Music For Glaciers

I've been trying to maintain a post a day in June by posting a piece of music vaguely relevant to the day or something that's happened . There's obvious ones about June and the number of the day and what happened on this day , but I've tried to keep the music eclectic and maybe end it with a full Grooveshark playlist of all the June's Tunes.

Glad to see the weather is keeping up , raining at night and sunny during the day , so managed to mow my lawn today and fill the brown bin with lots of garden detritus.

Anyway was talking with a friend who had never heard of Sigur Ros , they were interested when I described it as Music for Glaciers . They are Icelandic , and make up their words so it doesn't sound like an auspicious start , but they are one of the most amazing bands you will ever here. So because of that conversation today's June's Tune is Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros with images from BBCs Planet Earth:

Summer Solstice

Well the longest day is here and light is fading , celebrations are taking place and I was struck by a pause for thought I heard today on BBC Radio 2. The guy said that rather than celebrating the longest day and  midsummer and the light , lots of people see it as the return of darkness and it's all downhill from here.

There are many ways to view things and when the weather is good certain people seem to focus on the fact it will soon be raining. Celebrate the moment , and remember when it rains you don't have to water your gardens. Usually the positives to take from every situation but it's not always clear what the positives are. Anyway the guy talked about shining the light and I'm going to choose this video I did of "Illuminating Hadrian's Wall" soundtracked by my daughter Juliet's favourite band Ash playing "Shining Light":

Almost Midsummer .... Next

There's be druids about , and celebrations at Stonehenge, and it's still hot but looking like rain. My cough is still here so off to docs tomorrow in the home they can suggest something. Just listening to some very old Alex Harvey stuff and very impressive it is , apparently he won a competition to be Scotland's very own Tommy Steele .... a very mixed blessing though Rock With The Caveman was all right.

Anyway there isnt that much footage of Alex live despite being one of the greatest live acts of their time. This is the band that opened at Donington with a cover of The Osmond's Crazy Horses , very daring at the time. Anyway this seems an appropriate song for the June's Tunes as I keep looking for the next song.

Lord Rochester Gets His Skates on

Nineteen days in and I had a great idea for todays post because of something that happened and now it's gone. I'm not going to have anything from Adele's "19" or Paul Hardcastle's "19" though. The summer is still here despite doom mongers forecasting rain , but it still looks extremely sunny to me.

Tonight I was waiting for a train at Darlington and was just shocked how people would rather cram themselves into a hot , airless carriage on an effectively four carriage train than wait ten minutes and travel in comfort. You find the same with drivers who have to overtake the car in front to save a few seconds on their journey. Impatience is not a virtue and just makes your life experience worse.

Sometimes a little waiting and chilling makes life so much more palatable. Well I'm going to The Schooner tonight where I saw the excellent Lord Rochester and as Rochester has just gone superfase the EE's 4G I think we'll have "Hey Bo Diddley" which is taken at speed:

18

More than halfway through June (it's already the 18th), and the Summer Solstice draws near . Than immediately makes me think of "Ring Out Solstice Bells" by Jethro Tull , which is essentially a winter song so I will stick with my original June's Tune, which is just based on the day and is going to be "18" by Alice Cooper. Although Alice Cooper surpassed this many times , it's still a great song , the American equivalent of The Who's My Generation:


Oh and it's still far, far too hot

Classical Gas

Back to work today and still coughing like hell. Tonight we had a lovely sunset though and the weather is still great , though most of the public will forget about it when it next rains.

Anyway I put on an album of obscureish seventies rock instrumental and the first song on is Joy by Apollo 100, a modern take on one of my favourite Bach pieces "Jesu Joy of Man's Desire". I'm not particularly God fearing or religious but sometimes enjoy classical massacres (see Emerson Lake and Palmer) and this is not too bad barring the "tasteful" guitar bits. Anyway today's June's Tune is here:

Dr Feelgood and First Woman In Space

Well it's that last day before I go back to work and I still sound like a consumptive despite the drugs and medicines  and rest that I've taken this week. Sometimes things like this are just awkward. It's Father's Day and I'm listening to excellent Dr Feelgood compilation All Through The City. One of my favourite Wilko Johnson compositions is "Paradise" which I thought was premiered on the first Solid Senders album. It's out it actually appeared on Wilko's last Feelgood's album Sneakin' Suspicion. I never knew that , god knows how I missed it. Anyway that has to be the June's Tune for today.

Also on this day in 1963,Lieutenant Valentina Tereshkova, 26, was the fifth Russian cosmonaut to go into the Earth's orbit when her spaceship Vostok VI was launched at 12:30 Moscow time. Full details here. I was going to have some space themed piece but I'm afraid it just has to be Paradise which could be classed as vaguely stellar :

Magna Carta

On this day in 1215 King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta , to in theory create a fairer society for the people and not subject to the whims of a despotic ruler. Well actually it was more about maintaining the barons' interests than actually being for the good or the people as a whole. Much like every government since up to the present day. Here's an audio of the event.

So obviously that should have influenced my June's Tunes choice for today. Problem being that the first band that come to my mind are the seventie's beardy folkies Magna Carta who never really set my world alight. There was a song called "Lord Of The Ages" that went on a bit with portentious spoken bits , which is  available on Youtube here and is just as toe curlingly awful as I remember. Anyway was trying to think of a related song , maybe "Sign Your Name" Terence Trent D'Arby or "Signed, Sealed , Delivered I'm Yours" by Stevie Wonder or "King" by UB40. Decided to go with Stevie Wonder:

Still Awake Listening To The Rain

Was going to mow the lawn , looked out and it was very wet. It's been raining all night so no lawn mowing tomorrow. Still will have the finales to Da Vinci's Demons and The Fall to look forward to. Of course if I tag The Fall now , it will fall in with Mark E Smith's Mancunian Juggernaut of band rather the  tale of murder , psychology featuring the excellent Gillian Anderson. C'est La Vie.

Anyway it looks like another Pink Floyd tune has found it's way into June's Tunes as my friend John posted about the album More the soundtrack to the 1969 film by Barbet Schroeder. The track is the main theme is which is one of my favourite uses of stereo panning along with Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love" the opening track from the second side  of "Are You Experienced" . Anyway if you have headphones I suggest you stick them on now , turn up and drift away:

Back Home

After a great week , relaxing wise , back home from Ampleforthwith a garden to mow. The journey back was uneventful and easy . There's a few photos from last week here .

My friend Julie posted a Springsteen Spotify playlist which included Rosalita , the first song I heard by Bruce Springsteen when he was the "future of rock'n'roll". This is today's June's Tune. Can't find the orignal Whistle Test broadcast but this is close enough. Enjoy, I just love it:

Black Sabbath on Holiday

Today was the last day in Ampleforth , tomorrow it's time to go home. Certainly needed time away from work to recover from the cough and cold which I'm still not fully over, but am majorly impressed with Hardwick cottage and Ampleforth. Quiet , relaxing but with all you actually need.

Anyway need to post my Tune for June , and todays the 13th which should give me some inspiration. The lot's of numerically related songs which is how I started this sequence. Then I remembered Black Sabbath have just released "13" , not heard it but I'll use it as a springboard and choose "Hard Road" as it's one of my favourite Sabbath tracks and I'm driving back to Newcastle tomorrow! Oh and just found out that , to my knowledge , no Black Sabbath track has been used in a TV advert!

Thing about Yorkshire ...It's Big

Today I've driven about bit's of Yorkshire , visiting Rievaulx Terrace and Abbey before scurrying off to visit The Durham Ox at Crayke.

Rievaulx is a brilliant walk which includes woodland , sculptures , two impressive Temples at either end of the terrace, a wire horse in the middle and fighting wire hares at the end. Plus impressive views of the Abbey ruins all of which will eventually appear on my Picassa pages when I get home.. Here are some from a few years back.

Anyway was trying to think of a tune for today and it will be "Adventures in A Yorkshire Landscape" by Be Bop Deluxe featuring the genius of Bill Nelson. You can download it here. Enjoy:

Back In The Night

One AM this time and for some reason can't sleep. Yesterday was a relapse and today intend to stop and maybe just have a bath and do some catch up TV. The title comes from the opening song on the Wilko Johnson interview which should still be on 6 music here til next Sunday and I would recommend to go a listen to it , failing that get a copy of Oil City Confidential the brilliant Julien Temple

Anyway this a short one and an excuse to include Dr Feelgood's Back In The Night in my June's Tunes series. Ofviously my back in the night and the songs subject are quite different said he with a chuckle:

Hardwick Cottage, Ampleforth

These days I seldom do specific posts about cottages we've stayed in, but this one is exceptional. The owner Rose is very welcoming and the cottage was her father's house. The renovations are documented in one of the welcome books you see as you walk into the large airy dining room and kitchen.

The front room features a book filled tall boy which belonged to Ros's grandmother as well as a modern TV and DVD , player and dedicated wifi , plus an incoming land line. Some cottages are provisioned with cast offs , but in this case whatever is best for the cottage has been provided. Even the selection of films , in my opinion is faultless : Amelie , The Motorcycle Diaries , Withnail & I and Tea With Mussolini and more (including the very disturbing In The Night Garden - CBeebies have a lot to answer for)

There's no need for any photographs as you can look round it here.

I can highly recommend this cottage.

Oh by the way the spiders seem to have vacated the premises!!

Anyway I also need to post an approprate song of the day for June's Tunes, and you think of Our House by Madness or CSNY or Country House by Blur but thinking a bit further on it and decided on the idyllic "Village Green Preservation Society" by the Kinks , then I saw this Kate Rusby version and decided to go with that one which sort of goes with the feeling of the place:

Billy Bragg and Bob Dylan

Was just thinking of the similarities between Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg.

• Both have voices that manage to alienate many potential listeners.
• Both have had their songs covered by others resulting in major success for the coverer - Dylan with The Byrds and Billy Bragg with Kirsty MacColl
• Both have recently released albums that rate with the best of their careers Dylan's Tempest and Bragg's Tooth and Nail , both in my collection

I love the promo for Bragg's new single , directed by Johnny Vegas I belive , who has a degree in Ceramics nicely referenced in the video:




Quarter of an hour of Bob singing "Tempest" about the Titanic's maiden voyage

And an iteresting funny take on Bob's idea by Tim Heidecker

Ampleforth, Spiders and Evolution

Still feeling the after effects of whatever I've had , but well impressed with the cotage which sensibly has it's own wifi , though I feel this will be a growing trend. Ironic that I cant get a phone signal so cant recieve calls or texts but can use my phone to surf the net and listen to online radio stations. You can see the cottage here.

Anyway this was up during the night and noticed a spider in the bath (there are lots of arachnid vistors to this cottage but what can you expect is such a rural area). This morning it was still there and it got me wondering. Spiders are essentially intelligent creatures and ceramic baths have been around for 150 years or so , so why have they not learned to climb out of a bath yet. More pertinently a spider arriving in a bath from the plug hole is like a driver arriving in a cul-de-sac . Eventually you realise that you've made a mistake (unless the place you want to go is in the cul-de-sac) and then you leave the way you came, This is one area where spider show a distinct lack of intelligence.

Lot's of people can't be doing with spiders and it's basically humans cannot deal with creatures with more legs than them that move faster than them. I'm generally ok with spiders as they cull the insect population , but would prefer it if they keep out of my way.

Given the amount of arachnid action today there can only be one one song for the June's Tunes:

It's Four In The Morning .. And I Feel Awful

Well it isn't it's actually 1:48 , but while trying to sleep since 8 pm last night have kept being woken up by coughing fits and an extremely sore throat coughing up some not very nice stuff. It's times like these when I get scared the ITP may come back, but last couple of times I thought it was happening I've recovered sufficiantly. Just found this ITP support site which includes an article on a (nearly) nude St Andrews Calendar , information here.

Just glad this has occurred at the beginning of my holiday at a weekend , which means , as I can't sleep, I can write this post. The fact I can write this means that I must be on the mend , last night I was only fit to drop into bed. Symptoms 'flu like aching , very sore thoat as soon as you lay down tickly cough kicks in , but you are actuallly too tired and weak to get up , but you have to to spit out the horrible phlegm to get it out of your system (swallowing is not an option).

Anyway for some reason the phrase "Four In The Morning" popped into my mind which I've just realised was a syruppy counry and western confection by Faron Young , but the one that I was thinking of was the song by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme from their triple album Consequences that they put out after splitting from 10CC (who have already featured in my June's Tunes). So here is the wonderful song , the kettle is on and I'm going to make myself a cup of tea!!

Now I've found the video , the song is actually called Five O'Clock In The Morning , memory not fully populated , it's still a fantastic song , have a listen. Just checked the albums on Amazon and they will now leave a serious dent in your pocket and there is not much available on download.