Showing posts with label June's Tunes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label June's Tunes. Show all posts

Sunday 30 June 2013

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:

June's Tunes 2014 by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark
And here's Chuck Berry's 30 Days:



Saturday 29 June 2013

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:


Friday 28 June 2013

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:



Thursday 27 June 2013

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:



Wednesday 26 June 2013

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!:

Tuesday 25 June 2013

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 :


Monday 24 June 2013

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 !!





Sunday 23 June 2013

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 !!

Saturday 22 June 2013

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:




Friday 21 June 2013

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":



Thursday 20 June 2013

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.


Wednesday 19 June 2013

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:


Tuesday 18 June 2013

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

Monday 17 June 2013

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:

Sunday 16 June 2013

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 :


Saturday 15 June 2013

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:

Friday 14 June 2013

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:


Thursday 13 June 2013

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!


Wednesday 12 June 2013

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:

video