Meli Fluence

It's wonderful how one unrelated thing can lead to another giving causality to discovering things that you didn't know were there and generally enhancing your quality of life. On Staurday I visited Kazbat's Den where someone told me about Stay Free Records which I hadn't heard of, and when I got there I saw signs for Meli Cafe on the third floor, which I hadn't heard of, but is where Whistler's Cafe used to be.

I had a quick nip in and spoke with the manager who was very welcoming and told me what they were up to with lots of vegetarian and vegan options, as well as great views over Northumberland Street, This is an excellent selling point of the place which has a lovely light and airy feel to the place and is worth visiting for the views alone.

On Sunday I returned and this time tried a cafe latte and some lemon / coconut came which was lovely, and I manged to scam the best seat in the place after a couple cvacated it. The guy said people always try and gram that seat. My instagram images of my visit can be viewed here and their cups don't have handles but still look cool.

Look Mum No Handles

So definitley get yourself down there to enjoy this wonderful place, It's above the antique centre in the Alley opposite Haymarket Metro next to boots and near Sergeant Pepper's.

In other news I finished "Fermat's Last Theorem" by Simon Singh and while I had been reading it ten or twenty pages at a time, at the end I couldn't put the the thing down so that last fifty pages done in one sitting. This is a book about a mathematical theorem that is actually exciting, not the theorem , the book.

Next up is Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" which should keep me occupied for a while thanks to my friend Lyndsey and that has started very well, although I have seen the TV series so I have some idea of what might be coming.

I was trying to think of some Greek Music and basically was stumped , I suppose I could have gone for Aphrodite's Child, Vangelis, Yanni, Demis Rousos or Nana Miskouri but decided on the fictional Greek island of Navarone immortalised by The Skatalites.

Stay Free

I thought Iknew Newcastle, well the record shops in Newcastle. Today I was in Kazbat's Den talking Donna Summer, Giorhio Moroder, Human League , Black Sabbath and the las who was in tere said his favourite record shop in Newcastle was Stay Free. I'd just been to Beyond Vinyla and this week I discovered 586.

"Where's Stay Free"?" Quoth I
"Opposite Haymarket Metro, down the alley next to Boots, in The Antique Centre" Quoth He (Roughly)

So I wandered off across down before it got swamped with Blaydon Racers and Ed Sheeran fans. (I love Ed Sheeran as a person but find his music leaves me unmoved)

Anyway I tracked down Stay Free and wandered upstairs , also seeing signs for Meli Cafe which I visited briefly, and was well impressed with the warm welcome, interesting Greek Menu and incredible vies of Northumberland Street. I will be revisiting soon.

Then I wandered into the Antiques Centre and straight into Stay Free which has a great selection of Vinyl , so great wall displays and is most reasonably priced. A record shop is good if you walk in and can immediately find somthing to buy, I managed to get two items . A 12" single of "Boops" by Sly and Robbie and "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash backed by "Rush" by Big Audio Dynamite II.

Tony the owner is great to talk to, and knows his stuff and is very helpful and the couple of customers who dropped in liked it too. This is another gem of a record shop I have found so below is my up to date list of record shops in Newcastle:

• RPM
• Reflex
• Beatdown
• Long Play Cafe / Empire Records
• Beyond Vinyl
• Vinyl Guru
• 586
• Stay Free

plus spectial mention to Oxfam at Jesmond ( I used to work there briefly and the manager Katie knows her stuff , Pop Recs in Sunderlan and there are record shops in Durham, Hexham and Gosforth,  and if you are pushed HMV is not bad for a high street shop.

Please comment with any I've missed.

So really there's only one song isn't there?

I Feel Love

There is a flying ant on the outside of my window pane, and the sky is a uniform grey. It is a Friday morning and 6Music is celebrating women in music with "Hear Her Day" with female-dominated playlists and female  DJs. However due to one thing and another I had to leave this unfinished, but I can now write about what I wanted to write about.

I keep thinking that my vinyl collection is close to complete and then there's always just one more thing, these one more things have included Cat Stevens' "Numbers" for the overal package and book as well as being a decent album, "True Colours" by Split Enz which I didn't know was actually laser etched, I have the single "History Never Repeats" that looks amazing when it's playing and I am looking forward to seeing the album, you don't get that with a CD or MP3 do you?

The third was going to be the Patrick Cowley Megamix of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" all 15 minutes of it on 45rpm vinyl but even I shy away from paying twenty notes for a single. The thing is you can download Donna Summer's Greatest Hits (26 songs) for four pounds so that's what I did, and then ordered a double promo remix vinyl set for fifteen pounds so hopefully, that will satisfy me.

When "I Feel Love" came out in the mid-seventies for the rock and rock and roll cognoscenti, Disco was a dirty word, but me and friends were into German psychedelia and Giorgi Moroder's metallic rhythms on this single made a lot of people listen, who would have normally dissed Disco.

It turns out that the sound was stumbled on accidentally with the note on the synthesiser being played twice with the slightest delay resulting in an amazing sound. This was perfectly complemented by Donna Summer's voice and is perfect for remixing as it's both skeletal but more than powerful enough to stand on it's own. It's similar to the guitar delay favoured buy Pink Floyd and U2, and also the accident in the drum machine pattern that resulted in New Order's "Blue Monday".

So I managed to find the Patrick Cowley Mix on Youtube so I will leave that with you to enjoy.

Enjoy your Friday.

Clock Mathematics

I was completely unaware of (or had forgotten about) the concept of clock mathematics. We all use it every day and when used in applied mathematics it can apparently be very useful. Basically its working with a  limited series of numbers which rill over when you get to the end. So an example that we may use every day is that if you say that you will see someone in four hours at eleven o' clock you both know you will meet at three o' clock. Therefore 11 + 4 = 3 not 15 because after 12 we roll back to 1. Apparently it's useful in Elliptical Theory. This is another concept that I have been (re) introduced to in Simon Singh's brilliant "Fermat's Last Theorem" ,and another reason why I love reading books.

As I'm writing this the sun has really come out and it's looking like a definite walk into work today.

Yesterday I put Half Man Half Biscuit's "Trouble over Bridgewater" and it has some great titles that maybe the songs don't quite live up to such as "Uffington Wassail" ,  but "Irk The Purists" is good and then I got hit with the absolut classic "Gubba Lookalikes" which is followed by the excellent "Mathematically Say" but then we are hit with the totally brilliantly funny "With Goth On Our Side" plagiarising Bob Dylan's "With God On Our Side".

The opening line is:

"Oh my name it is Dai Young"

And that is a brilliant play on words when the song is based in Wales and it's subject matter.

But I will share "Gubba Lookalikes" with you before I set out for work.

586

On the third floor of Commercial Union House on Northumberland Street among a lot of wall art is 586 Records. It's been there four years and I didn't even know it existed. A record shop in Newcasle that I knew nohing about.

586 is the Area code for Macomb County, Michigam and a song from the New Order album "Power, Corruption and Lies". I spoke with Tony the owner who was extremely friendly and pointed out the Dub and Reggae section when I said that was what I was looking for, nothing in particular but Dub does lend itself to vinyl I also looked through the Disco 12" singles but while there were a few that piqued my interest I was looking for Giorgio Moroder or Motorik based music and couldn't see anything obvious.

I then cam across "From The Makers Of" a three LP Status Quo best of in a Blue Metal Box. It turns out it's not particularly rare (yet, although it seems to have been reissued in a box so my metal tin may be a collectors item) but it is a very impressive pack with a decent selection of excellent early Quo songs tracing their progression from psychedelic pop through their excellent three chord rock and roll phase up to "Rockin' All Over The World". I still love "In My Chair", "Down The Dustpipe" and "Gerdundula" so well impressed with picking that up.

The shop is light and airy and you walk past a lot of wall art as you move up to it.

This is yet another record shop in Newcastle, so now I'm aware of these in the town centre:

• RPM
• Reflex
• Beatdown
• Long Play Cafe / Empire Records
• Beyond Vinyl
• Vinyl Guru
• 586

plus spectial mention to Oxfam at Jesmond ( I used to work there briefly and the manager Katie knows her stuff , Pop Recs in Sunderlan and there are record shops in Durham, Hexham and Gosforth,  and if you are pushed HMV is not bad for a high street shop.

Please comment with any I've missed.

So do we go for something by Status Quo or 586 by New Order? Quo win this time.

Frontier Man

I was going to call this post "Manic Depression" but I thought that it might lead people in who might think it might provide insight into the condition, but of course it wont be, but then Chris Hawkins played "Frontier Man" by Gruff Rhys from the new album "Babelsberg" and that has already provided "The Nightmare of Existence" title a couple of posts ago, and therefor has to be the featured song today. It is a definite grower with gorgeous lyrics and a wonderful video. The album has been ordered.

"On The Frontier of Delusion,

  I'm Your Foremost Frontier Man"

What I was going to say is often the way I tend to do things is either I do lots of things at once or else just fall into a lethargy. Maybe this is just a way of recharging batteries for the next burst of creativity. LIke this weekend two gigs, a Steampunk Fair, three blog posts on Sunday but I still didn't mow the lawn.

It  doesn't mean I'm depressed but I remember Spike Milligan talking about the condition saying it was either the black dog or 100 mph creativity. This sounds similar to Bipolar where you are high / low (I think). I'm sorry if I seem to be trivialising this, I'm definitely not.

Manic Depression is also a great Jimi Hendrix song from is debut album "Are You Experienced" , which is another reason why the title came into my head, so that is one to cue up for a relisten. Anyway it still looks cloudy out there and a little cold, but it is time to set off for work, and hope you have a great Tuesday.

I'm still confused as to why generally MP3 downloas are more expensive than the CD (which comes with a free download) although "Set Fire To The Stars" is a tiny £1.79 for twenty three songs as opposed to a tenner for the CD. Whatever music is still incredibly good value for money.

When Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" was released it cost £3.25. I was on the dole at the time and my JSA was £3.25 a week. So if albums had kept pace with JSA you would be paying £80 for the ne Gorillaz album.

Think on that.

The First of June

On the one hand I've been lazy with blogging this weekend, but have seen five bands attended two gigs, seen a few friends, been to a Steampunk Fair seen a demonstration cum lecture on dueling and  now written two posts on Spoongig.

Some of the costumes I've seen have been amazing, and I was quite surprised to come out of the Sick'n'Beautiful gig on Friday with no apparent detriment to my hearing. The bands, especially Bad Pollyanna were very loud and heavy.

Then I enjoyed some dark folk at the new Star and Shadow on Saturday, and have made a good start to walking for the month of June.

I was listening to "The Yes Album" and it still sounds wonderful although the actual lyrics make very litlesense in their attempt to be confusingly meaningful , beut that album is still one of my favourites with some great keyboard power chords from Tony Kaye. The opener "Yours Is No Disgrace" just hits me with that massive guitar sound , and that "starship Trooper" and "Perpetual Change" make the album. The only duffer on the album is "A Venture" but you are fine listening to it because you know what is coming next.

Steve Howe's "The Clap" is and impressive live guitar instrumental, and "Your Move"  contains some of the only sensible lyrics on the album when the band appropriate John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance". I've include "Yours Is No Disgrace" from "Yessongs", it's all about the music, some good images but sometimes their lyrics can be almost painful.

Anyway time for bed now, hope you had a good one too.