I've always found it amazing when singers battle through illness to put on an amazing performance.
It was such a night at The Globe where Lloyd Cole battles through a heavy cold to give a beautiful solo performance. Minus his band and guitar in hand, Lloyd shows us why he is still one of the best songwriters in the UK today.
Only one song in and we get the truly great Rattlesnakes.
And it was an evening of surprises as he picked from his now 18 album career.
Perhaps The Globe wasn't the perfect place to give the public the show that Lloyd wanted to give. Some of the songs were presented with such delicate beauty I think it should have been a seated occasion. Although several of the songs were accompanied by the vocal talents of the Cardiff crowd.
As seems to be the fashion these days, the set was broken into two halves.
The first set included such gems as Rattlesnakes, Cut Me Down, Why I Love Country Music & No More Love Songs.
The songs sound so much more intimate and fragile stripped of their studio clothing. I love the fact I'm hearing these songs more or less as they must have been written with just an acoustic guitar. And that you have even more reason to listen to the lyrics by one of our finest wordsmiths.
Part two kicks off with my favourite Lloyd Cole song - Are You Ready To Be Heatbroken? - pure gorgeousness.
Part Two included beauties such as Broken Record, Jennifer She Said, Hey Rusty & Butterfly
Indeed, the set list from Brighton a couple of nights before seems to be almost spot on as far as I can recollect.
Lloyd played quite a few songs from his excellent latest release Standards, which is his first 'band' album in quite a while.
As the evening went on, it was obvious Lloyd was finding the show tough going but the audience were on his side and every song was greeted with great applause of appreciation both for the songs and his performance.
Usually Lloyd likes a bit of between song banter but tonight he kept it to a minimum, trying to conserve his voice no doubt for singing the songs.
As the gig entered it's closing section, the biggest hits made an appearance.
The crowd sang along to Perfect Skin & Lost Weekend.
The last song Lloyd gave us tonight was a lovely version of Forest Fire.
The crowd enjoyed the show, even though later on social media Lloyd apologised for not being on top form.
But I hope the love in the room convinced Lloyd that the crowd left happy and that Wales does appreciate a great performer & songwriter when we see one.
I was listening to Renegade Radio Nashville a couple of weeks ago (a great station by the way) and I heard a great song called Harlem River Blues by a singer/songwriter called Justin Townes Earle.
Just goes to show you can always miss some great musicians & songwriters.
Now obviously I had heard the surname Earle - as in one Steve Earle and with a middle name like Townes, I guessed this must be the son of Steve. And I was right.
He released his debut EP the 6 track Yuma in 2007 and followed it up a year later with his second album, The Good Life a year later.
Yuma is just Justin and his guitar with a singer songwriter Americana feel whilst his first proper album The Good Life has more of a polished band feel about it with an emphasis on a more pure country feel.
Justin has built on this sound for his next album 2009's Midnight At The Movies. The album is more varied than his previous two outings but sticks to the Country template.
However, Justin broke the mold slightly for his next album 2010's Harlem River Blues. This is the album that caught my attention and I bought as soon as I heard the brilliant title track.
Harlem River Blues is another step forward both in songwriting and performance from Midnight.. The performances are more assured, the songwriting more honed and interesting and the variation in instruments gives it a wider screen soundscape.
It was two years later that a follow up was released. It came in the form of Nothing's Going To Change The Way You Feel About Me Now. It's another gem of an album. Totally different in tone from Harlem.. with more of a Muscle Shoals/Stax feel.
The album includes horns and has a looser more bluesy vibe. I detected Springsteen, Van Morrison & even the Beach Boys influences when I first played it.
The songwriting is even better than Harlem, which is saying something and the production compliments the songs perfectly.
How he's not huge is a mystery to me.
I love seeing an artist grow with every release and I look forward to seeing where Justin takes us next.
I've always liked a bit of Country ever since enjoying the Eagles, Poco, etc back in the 1970s.
I'm no way a connoisseur of Country music and I don't know a lot about it but I've come to appreciate what I like over the past 10 years or so.
One of the artists that has caught my ears has been one Keith Urban.
Keith was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia but I had no idea when I first heard him sing. He sounds like an American. He first came to live in Nashville in 1992 and his career has taken off to stratospheric heights.
I first picked up on Keith with his Golden Roads album in the mid 2000s and worked my way backwards through his albums.
By the time Defying Gravity came out in 2009, Keith had 9 number 1 singles but Defying Gravity was his first number 1 Billboard 200 album.
Lead off single was the very catchy Sweet Thing.
pic courtesy of Billboard
Keith's songs are very melodic and stick to their Country roots in terms of instrumentation and themes.
Defying Gravity certainly has that Nashville polish to the production but it soothes as well as rocks out.
Since 2001, Keith has won more than 30 CMT, ACM & Grammy Awards.
For me, Defying Gravity is his most consistent album in terms of songwriting and performance which has recently been matched by his 2013 release Fuse.
In 2011, Keith signed up as a mentor for the Australian version of The Voice.
And in 2012 he became a judge on American Idol which he resigned for the 2013 series.
2013s Fuse and has a template very similar to that of Defying Gravity and is well worth investigating.
Keith has yet to bring his Light The Fuse Tour to the UK - but I live in hope.
So, if you want to investigate a bit of Country Music, you could do a lot worse than starting with Defying Gravity to show what the latest Nashville Sound is all about.
The first 'REAL' LP I bought was in 1973. It was Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.
To say it changed my life was an understatement.
I first heard TB when a friend's brother had played it - he was several years older than us - and I was enchanted. Up until then I had been listening to my brother's records of Beatles & Beach Boys etc - brilliant but 1960s. I had then bought the pop singles by the likes of T Rex, Slade and all of the other early 70s hit makers.
I had managed to get a few albums on tape by recording other friends brothers/sisters lps such as Yes, Caravan & The Moody Blues (couldn't afford my own then) but Tubular Bells was my first proper LP.
It opened up so many possibilities of what music could be. Only later did I find out how it had been 'assembled' by Mike.
When the follow up album, Hergest Ridge was released in 1974 - I had saved enough to buy it. I wallowed in it's pastoral beauty and played it to death. Literally wore it out.
Although it had a real slating on it's release, I've always loved it.
Then came news that Mike Oldfield was working on his next album and this one was rumoured by some people who had heard working sections as being as good, if not better than Tubular Bells. By God I was SO excited.
Mike by now had a home and recording studio near Hergest Ridge and recorded the album there in this countryside hideaway.
Ommadawn had its official UK release on October 21st 1975 - I made my mother buy me the album for my birthday in early December, as soon as it was released. She wrapped it up and placed it in her wardrobe ready for my birthday. But the temptation became too much and I used to unwrap the album on regular occasions and play it on my headphones so she couldn't hear it. I'm sure she knew. But she never let on.
On his previous two albums, Mike had played most of the instruments himself but with Ommadawn, Mike had introduced quite a few additional musicians including his brother Terry on Flute, Paddy Maloney and the drummers Jabula to help him realise his vision.
Ommadawn is often described as being one of the first mainstream albums to introduce a version of what went on to become 'World Music'.
Whatever you call it, I call it sublime. It is by far my favourite Mike Oldfield album.
Unfortunately I cannot share it on here due to Youtube copyright agreements but I have tried to include some live versions and excerpts to show you what a majestic and moving piece of music it is.
It has a certain Celtic sound and the African drumming at the end of side one fits in perfectly with the Celtic sounds of woodwind and guitars.
There is even a single - On Horseback - a twee sounding affair that is tagged on to the end of side two with Mike on vocals - very odd but spookily kind of charming.
The album was re-released in 2010 and included an outstanding 5.1 remix of the album as well as various outtakes of material recorded in preparation of the album which gives a great insight into how the finished music appears from the bare bones of the demos.
Like a lot of Mike's music, Ommadawn has been remixed and reinterpreted by other musicians.
TO CELEBRATE THE 10,000TH VIEW OF THE BLOG - ( A BIG THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS TUNED IN ) - SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL TO ME - I THOUGHT I'D TREAT YOU ALL TO MY FAVOURITE ALBUM BY MY FAVOURITE BAND.
Picture if you will music lovers, an 11 year old boy attending his first day at Grammar School. It was like Tom Brown's Schooldays, with prefects that looked liked men and people nicking your cap and throwing it in the stream and cutting your tie with a scissors. The first day I sat down at my desk in my form room and saw those magical words hat had been carved on the desks -CSNY - ELP & YES. What were these? School Houses? Magical Passwords? Thus began my journey into the world of Prog and YES. My brother, 12 years older than myself, had been my route into music. The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Association etc. So I had no older siblings to pass on the magical musical knowledge that had been the way since cavemen first beat a bone on a rock.
I had to find my own path.
My introduction to YES was the Fragile album. Those complicated songs, those technically brilliant musical passages, that extremely high Accrington accented voice. Then, as I hit Grammar school, in 1972 came Close To The Edge. THE Prog Rock album of all time. My friend's brother had a copy (I couldn't afford albums then) so I taped it (remember that!!) and played it to death!!!
I was smitten, I was hooked, I fell in love. And it's been like a marriage ever since. We've had our ups and downs, we've had our extra marital musical affairs but YES and I have always gone back to each other.
I've ALWAYS bought every Yes album ever since - on the first day of release - without even hearing them.
Jon Anderson always said that YES music was bigger than the band. He's right. With personnel changes galore over the years, the band has changed both in personal and musical ways but the music will live on.
So, why have I chosen to highlight Going For The One.
Well, a few reasons really.
Following the overblown and fractured beauty that was 1973s Tales Of Topographic Oceans (aka the album that killed Prog) - keyboard maestro Rick Wakeman decided that enough was enough and jumped ship. This brought in Swiss keyboard player Patrick Moraz for the follow up album Relayer in 1974.
Relayer was a magnificent beast. Full of unrelenting rhythms and sometimes jazz oriented sounds and phrases, it as the polar opposite of Topographic Oceans. Perhaps that was what the band needed. But following the Relayer album and tour the YES boys decided it was time to follow their individual paths and each member produced a solo album.
Moraz then left the band.
I used to subscribe to the music magazine Melody Maker and I remember as if it were yesterday walking up to the papershop early on that December morning, sun shining, and looking in amazement at the headline when the newsagent handed over the copy. I almost burst out crying. "Wakeman Rejoins Yes". I rushed home and must have reread the article over and over again as it described how YES were in Mountain Studios in Montreux working on what was going to be their new album Going For The One.
So I waited months until the first notes of the title track were heard - I think on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
The release must be put into context. The album was released at the height of Punk in the UK in July 1977.
The band had been renergised by the new music happening in the UK.
When have you ever heard a YES album begin with, One Two Three Four??
The opening title track was a burst of energy with Steve Howe's wailing slide guitars and Jon Andesron's lyrics finally coming down to earth to sing about, of all things, sport.
The album went straight to number 1 in the UK. So much for Punk sweeping away the old guard.
With a new cover designer, Hipgnosis rather than the usual Roger Dean (and one which Wakeman entitled Going For The Bum) - it was a new chapter for the band.
The band even had a hit single with the delicate Wonderous Stories their first single release since 1971's Roundabout.
The reception by the fans was one of absolute joy. This was the classic YES line up, back on the top of their game and releasing what is often quoted as the album of their career.
Following the 3 song Relayer - Going For The One gives us 5 songs and includes the crown jewel of the entire YES catalogue - the mighty AWAKEN. This was the track that enticed Wakey to rejoin the band. It is a tour de force and includes everything a YES fan could ask for.
By the way, the church organ from Vevey cathedral which Rick Wakeman plays was recorded over the phone line - thought you'd like to know that.
I remember the review for the album. either in Sounds or Melody Maker and the journo pointed out that his girlfriend, who had never been a YES fan, even cried at the end of Awaken when she first heard it. Yes, it is that moving- especially live.
I've actually worn out two vinyl copies of the album and bought at least 3 copies of the CD.
The album is also part of the current 3 Albums tour which is coming to the UK in May, with new vocalist Jon Davison. And it's gong to be a gem of a tour and I'll be there.
So once again a big Thank You to everyone who has felt like reading a page or two of the blog. I never thought I'd get 100 views, let alone 10,000. I hope it's opened up some old music for you to investigate and shown you some new music to search out and some artists who are worthy of your time to see live.
Ah, the 80s - that big colourful, brash era of high gloss, high quality pop.
And out of the darkness of the Gary Numan influenced industrial techno pop came an unashamedly romantic, string laden beast of an album. 1982s Lexicon Of Love followed the two brilliant singles Tears Are Not Enough & Poison Arrow and launched a career for Martin Fry that continues to this day.
With a good dose of catchy choruses and witty one liners, The Lexicon Of Love shone out and raised the bar for a lot of 80s artists.
Besides the inimitable talents of Martin Fry, the album also had a couple of aces up its sleeve. The beautiful string arrangements of Anne Dudley and the sympathetic production of the one and only Trevor Horn before he set the tone for over the top 80s production values that spawned a million sound-a-likes that could never match the sonic palette of Mr Horn.
With a mixture of High Camp and killer songs - the album plays like a musical. With the now classic Gold Lame Suit, Martin Fry turns the camp up to 11 and gives the performance of his career.
It seemed like it was hit after hit as the tracks kept being released as singles. Even the non-singles sounded like singles.
But the problem with such a fantastic debut album is how the hell do you follow it? ABC followed it up with the patchy and ill received Beauty Stab. It did produce a couple of minor hit singles in That Was Then & SOS but could not compete with the magic that was Lexicon Of Love.
The band have tried bravely to recapture that magic ever since and have released numerous hit singles and had various image changes since those heady days. But at least the band did manage to produce ONE classic album. which is one more than most bands.
So, soothe yourself in the beauty that is The Lexicon Of Love and remember those early 80s days with affection, if you were there that is. And just imagine what it was like if you weren't. It WAS pretty special.
