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.