Let's Ballad

Last night I saw Richard Hawley at the Queen's Hall - a brilliant concert by one of my favourite musicians.

The night started well as we were walking past the Queen's Hall to go to the Dragon Way Chinese Restaurant for a meal, when I noticed that the centre doors to the Queen's Hall were open, and we could see Richard and the band carrying out their rehersal/soundcheck.

After a good meal in the Dragon Way, we headed back to the venue and were just about to enter when the fire alarms went off - we were prevented from entering whilst the building was evacuated - turned out that the dry ice/smoke stuff had set off the alarm - we waited patiently for the fire brigade to turn up and reset the alarms.

Got into the venue and headed for the bar - bought a couple of drinks then headed over to the merchandise stand, where I parted with my hard earned cash (no laughing there) to buy a T shirt. a limited edition print and a bookmark.

The support band were the Smoke Fairies - two young English girls who play a sort of folk/alt country/delta blues style music - they were joined for this concert by a guy playing the drums and another guy playing violin. Musically they were very good, but the girls seemed a bit nervous when talking to the audience. Once they finished their set, I popped out and bought a box set of three cd singles from them.

Richard Hawley and his band came on stage at 9pm. This tour was to promote his latest album "Trueloves Gutter", and Richard had previously announced that he would be performing the tracks from this new album with maybe a few old songs thrown in. Despite a few problems with the sound, and the monitors failing this was a great concert - the new songs sounded great live (mention must be made regarding David Coulter who amongst other things played the musical saw - I would not have believed that it was possible to get such noises out of a saw if I hadn't seen it being played in front of me), and the old songs were brilliant - especially the new version of Run For Me.

When Richard came out for the encore, he played a brilliant solo version of Troublesome Waters, before being joined on stage by the rest of the band.

All in all this was a great concert and hopefully it won't be too long before Richard Hawley returns to Edinburgh.

Catching Up No 5 - Phil and Aly

Saw Phil Cunnigham and Aly Bain at the Queen's Hall (looks as if I've got a season ticket for this venue).

The usual tunes from the duo, but with some new jokes from Phil.

Great concert as usual

Catching Up No 4 - Edinburgh Fringe

Managed to catch two more shows in the Fringe before it finished.

The first one was Camille O'Sullivan's latest show - while I enjoyed it, I didn't enjoy it as much as I have the previous times that I have seen her. Not sure why - it may have been the choice of the songs in this show, but more likely it was due to the size of the venue. Previously I have seen Camille perform at the Spiegletent, but this performance was in the Chuch of Scotland Assembly Hall - it is quite a large venue, and seemed to lack the intimacy that the Spiegletent has. Bought the latest cd and dvd after the show.

The second show was Dead Men Tell a Thousand Tales by Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen. This was a brilliant show - a group of Australians who pretend that they are cabaret artists from the Balkan states who perform songs about death, sex and love (sometimes all in the one song). The frontman (Mikelangelo - the Bull of the Baalkans, the Nightingale of the Adriatic) has a great stage presence. Bought two cd's at the gig.

Catching Up No 3 - Eric Bogle

On my return from Majorca, I saw Eric Bogle at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. For those who do not know who Eric Bogle is, he is a singer/song writer who comes from Peebles, but who moved to Australia in 1969. Eric is probably best known for the songs "No Man's Land" (also known as The Green Fields of France) and "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda".

This concert was part of a Farewell Tour by Eric and his touring partner John Munro (another Scot who emigrated to Australia) - Eric and John have decided that long distance touring is a young mans game, and that they are no longer going to do these tours - they will still produce music and carry out local tours but no more International tours.

As would be expected, the Queen's Hall was extremely busy (probably a sell out) for this concert. I had front row tickets so had a great view and managed to take a couple of photo's of Eric and John. The concert was the usual high standard of musicianship from the performers, with the usual mix of anti-war, social commentary and comedy that you expect from Eric Bogle's work.

As usual a great night from Eric Bogle and John Munro, just tinged with a hint of sadness that it is unlikely that I will see them performing alive again.

Catching Up No. 2 - What I read on my holiday's

Summer hoilday's this year was two weeks in Majorca. We spent two weeks at Porto Pollensa. As we have visited Porto Pollensa and Majorca a number of times, we spent the two weeks basically chilling out by the pool during the day, and eating and drinking at nights - especially at my faviourite restuarant in Porto Pollensa - "Nicos Bar and Grill". Great Tex-Mex food at this establishment and the quality of the food and the service etc is a credit to the owners David and Marco.

As I did practically nothing but lie by the pool each day (I did swim!), I spent a good part of the time listening to music on the mp3 player and reading. This year's holiday reading list is as follows:

The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman
The Bombmaker by Stephen Leather
Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs
Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
All That Remains by Patricia Cornwell
Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand by Fred Vargas
Isle of Dogs by Patricia Cornwell
Flesh and Blood by Jonathan Kellerman
Bare Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin
The Founding by Dan Abnett
The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Praying For Sleep by Jeffrey Deaver
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
The Ritual by Mo Hayder
The Final Days by Alex Chance
The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett
Dust to Dust by Tami Hoag
Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom

Catch Up No. 1 - Edinburgh Jazz Festival

Playing catch up with my blog entries.

The Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival was held at the end of July/beginning of August. Due to commitments (mainly goingon holiday), I was only able to go to three things in this years festival.

The first gig was Roy Hargrove at the Queen's Hall - enjoyed this gig - I wasn't sure what it was going to be like, as I hadn't heard a lot of Roy Hargrove's recordings. Really enjoyed it though - especially the piano playing of Jonathan Batiste. The support act was Brian Kellock. The only criticism of this gig was that there were no Roy Hargrove cd's for sale.

The second thing was a narrative play based on the life of Chet Baker. Mike Marran narrated the play, with Edinburgh's Colin Steele playing the trumpet through the show. Only criticism was the length of the performance - just under an hour - felt it was a bit short (especially when it was advertised as being in the region of 1 hour 15 minutes.

The last thing in this year's festival was Courtney Pine's Tradition in Transition. Again this concert was held in the Queen's Hall. This was the best performance by Courtney Pine that I have seen for a while - the last couple of times that I have seen him, he has seemed to be lacking in the on stage presence that he normally has. This performance was extremely lively, and Courtney and his band seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves - even my good friend Mr Hay was seen to be quietly grooving at one point (he would probably deny that). CD's were on sale at this gig, and I purchased Courtney's latest disc, and Cameron Pierre's latest - both artists signed the discs and were quite chatty when meeting the purchasers.

Cold in Hand

I finished reading "Cold In Hand" by John Harvey this morning. Cold In Hand is the latest Charlie Resnick novel, set 10 years after the rest of the series. John Harvey decided to stop writing about Resnick, as he had moved away from Nottinghma where the books are set, and also didin't want to be rehashing storylines etc. For some reason, however, he has decided to write this nover, although it looks as if it could be the last one featuring Charlie Resnick as the main character.

This novel finds Resnick looking towards the possibilty of retirement from the police as he is coming up for thirty years on the force. He is now in a relationship with Lynn Kellog, and appears to be in a happy domestic situation although he seems to be a bit disenchanted with his career.

At first while reading this, it didn't really feel like one of the Resnick books, but this could be down to the space between the previous Resnick stories and this one. However, theplot started to pick up and from there on, it was quite hard to put the book down. This was a very enjoyable book which I would recommend.

Friday's Purchases

Today's purchases were "The Girl Who Played With Fire" by Stieg Larrson, and the deluxe edition of the Housemartin's debut album "London 0, Hull 4".

The Stieg Larrson book is the second book of the Millenium Trilogy. I read the first part last summer, and have been waiting for the second book to come out in paperback. This series will definately only be a trilogy, as the author Stieg Larrson died shortly after completing the trilogy.

The Housemartin's cd is a double disc edition of their debut album from 1986. The first cd is the original album remastered, with the second disc being made up of unreleased tracks, live versions, single versions and demo tracks. Well worth it for anyone who was a fan of this band from the late 1980's.

The Lovers by John Connolly

Today's purchase was the hardback edition of "The Lovers" by John Connolly. This is the latest book in the Charlie Parker series. This series started out as an almost straight ahead crime/thriller with the private detective Charlie Parker, but has taken a sort of supernatural twist more recently.

Bought it hardback as I only really paid £2.99 for it - it retailed at £17.99, but Waterstones was selling it with a £5 reduction, and I had a £10.00 book token left over from my birthday in March.

It has been added to the ever increasing pile of books until I get round to reading it.

Springsteen

Saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Hampden last night - only one thing to say -FANTASTIC.

I have wanted to see Springsteen live for years but had never managed it, I have heard countless stories about how great he is live, and watched the BBC coverage of his set at Glastonbury this year, so I was slightly apprehensive about seeing him - would it be as good as I thought it would be or would it be a let down? Shouldn't have worried, as it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Bruce was in fine voice, playing for three hours, and the E Street Band were brilliant. A good selection of songs from the Springsteen catalogue was played. Even the heavy rain prior to the gig starting, and the slight showers during the concert could not ruin the atmosphere.

The only downside was the length of time it took me to get back home (concert finished at 11pm, got home to Penicuik about 1:40am).

Peter James

Finished the latest Peter James book today. The book "Dead Tomorrow" is the fifth in the Roy Grace series. The plot behind "Dead Tomorrow" is to do with human trafficking from Eastern urope (Romania) to provide organs for private transplant operations. A corpse is brought up by a dredging ship from the sea of the coast of Brighton. Roy Grace and his team are called into investigate and discover that the corpse along with others which are discovered have had their internal organs removed. The action takes place between England Germany and Romania. I enjoyed this book but due to the way it is written (the storyline is split between the police investigation, and the story of a mother whose daughter is suffering from liver failure and needs a transplant, with the threads tying up as the book progresses) it took me a while to get into it.

Now that I have finished this one, I am starting the book of Resnick short stories (Now's the Time) by John Harvey. Reading the introduction to this book by the author, it turns out that the titles of all the short stories are titles of Charlie Parker tracks.

Another Purchase

Bought the new Jack Kerley paperback yesterday. A snip at £2.99. The problem now is finding the time to read it. It has been consigned to the two crates of unread titles.

Today's purchases

After buying three cd's at last nights concert by the Wilders, I didn't pick up any discs today during my weekly trawl through the charity shops of Leith.

However, on arriving home today, there were a number of packages lying on the hall floor that had been delivered by the post. First of all there was a copy of "Nows The Time" by John Harvey bought through Amazon marketplace. This is a collection of short stories featuring John Harvey's detective Charlie Resnick. Resnick is a Nottingham Police Officer of Polish extraction, who listens to jazz (not that there is anything wrong with that). If you have not come across any of the Resnick books (or any of John Harvey's other works) then I would certainly recommend them to you.

There were also three other packages, which were a trilogy of Arthurian novels by a writer by the name of Simon Lister. The premise of these books is that some time in the future the Earth has suffered some sort of catastrophe which has stopped the Earth spinning on its axis, resulting in civilisation being destroyed. Humanity has got back to the level of the Dark Ages, and king Arthur has been reborn - that's about as far as I have gotten. This series of books has been published by the author (Simon Lister). The books are available from Mr Listers website, where he has a sample chapter available for download. The series of books are known as the Shadowlands trilogy. Don't know when I'll get round to reading them, but I will post some more thoughts on them when I start reading them. Check it out at www.simonlister.co.uk

The Wilders

Last night, I saw the Wilders at the Eastgate Theatre in Peebles. For those who have not heard of this band, the Wilders are a four piece band from Kansas City in Missouri in the USA. They play what they term "new time,old time", which is basically a bit of Bluegrass, a bit Honky tonk, a bit rockabilly and a bit country swing.

Last night's concert appeared to be a sell out, with the Eastgate theatre being alot busier than the previous time that I went there. The band seemed to enjoy performing, and the audience definately enjoyed the gig (although I am not so sure about the four ladies who ended up covering their ears during the bands noisy version of Johnny Cash's "Going to Memphis".

A great gig by a band who were extremely talented performers (and in the case of Phil Wade, a talented dancer/shuffler).

I enjoyed the band that much, I bought three of their cds.

Check out the band's website at www.wilderscountry.com

First Post

After talking about it for ages, I am finally starting my blog. To begin with this blog will be concerned with the music that I listen and go to see, and the books that I read.

If you are sitting comfortably, I will begin.......