Gigs of 2025 # 8 The Tubs at Xerox

 

'You've been reading some old letters. You smile and think how much you've changed. All the money in the world, wouldn't buy back those days.'

Live in the now. That's never the worst idea.  Doff your cap to the past. Luxuriate in it occasionally. But don't let yourself get dragged down a rabbit hole. There's danger in the past. Meanwhile plan for the future. Keep feathering your nest, But live .... in the now. 'Gee thanks Grandad! Why don't you stick to the music and skip the philosophy. ,'

I'm not a grandad. Nor a father. I've no regrets on either front.Yesterday  I'm awake at six.I  lie in bed looking at social media. There's a post from a friend that takes my fancy. About a band advertising themselve a Neurodivergent Post Folk. This confuses me in any number of ways. 

Why would anyone want to be Post Folk, even if they could be. I won't go into the  'and how can this process be Neurodivergent bit. When exactly do we get to the 'Post' Folk Label stage and how can this be a desirable thing. Perhaps I should just keep out of this altogether. Everyone else seems to enjoy this state of affairs.

When I was growing up om the Eighties Folk was something you recoiled from in horror or gazed on in uncomprehending stupefecation. Why would you want to grow a beard that appeared to have living matter in it. Go to a bar and sing hey nonny noe when you were still in your twenties. Times changes and things come back. Best to go with the times, the flow of history if you can. There's a time for every purpose under heaven .

I get up and put Lankum's Livelong Day on my headphones as I plan my lessons and prepare for the coming day. Prepare my powerpoints. Send them to my students in advance of my lessons. I'm settled in a nice routine now, a year into doing this.I'm in flow motion, Know how I need to prepare. Cut and paste, make sure the date and the company logo are correct and I'll be ready when the time comes and I need to click on Google Calendar, adjust my backdrop and prepare myself to be admitted into a virtual classroom in Dussledorf, Hamburg or Wuppertal. 

I'm relaxed now. I smile and think how much I've changed. My day is becoming more natural to me with every passing week. Unwittingly I get involved in a Social Media conversation with a good friend from my university  days which drags me momentarily back to the most traumatic days of my entire lifetime. My university days,.Boy, those were experiences.  I cry a bit but this isn't a problem anymore. I've learned to cope with it, been helped to cope with it by a very good friend who I'll always be grateful to. Anyway, time for that bath. 

While I'm in the bath I think of what record to play. This is important. I have a cover class at 10 this morning but regardless of the time I like to listen to an album in its entirety before I start my working day. When I was very young I had a bedtime story. Now I'm, err 'old', I'm at least entering that vicinity, (60 later this year) I have a morning album.Nothing stands between me and it.

I try not to repeat myself but I look for something to set the tone for the day. I generally attempt to settle on something in the bath but its open to late change if I flick through my albums and something takes my fancy at the last moment. I don't like to conform to a script. Least of all my own. This morning it's Cat Stevens Mona Bone Jakone I put it on. Lady D'Arbanville, that dented dustbin on the sleeve. Good old Cat. He's one with more than nine lives.

I'm dressed and breakfasted. My blog posts are posted and I'm bright and bushy eyed when I go to my cover class at ten. There's always a moment of suspense when I click on Google Translate and am sent to the virtual waiting room and then I wait for admittance. I love this moment. Of indesicision and anticipation. Who will let me in. If it's one of my regular groups will it be Rainer, Or Patrick. Barbara. Or Axel. 

If it's a new group who will I teach. I wonder what will they be like. It's much better than teaching a class in the flesh I've come to realise. There's enornous potential, possibility just in the distance, Those teachers who cling onto the face to face teaching are often struggling with control issues I suspect.This is the Post Lockdown world. Get with the beat baggies !

Suddenly I find myself in a room wuth R*****. She works for Deichmann, the German shoe guys. She works in Dussledorf and is in her fifties I'd say and it is immediately obvious we have ninety minutes together as no one else in the group seems likely to show. Get in.! She's a charming, lovely lady with big glasses, great English and a big smile.She trained as a Fashion Journalist. It's immediately clear that I will learn more than I need to teach. I just need to tweak the paperwork to keep the surveillance middle managers happy.

How should I put this, surveillance middle managers are never happy and you can never keep them satisfied. They hate their jobs and often hate their lives. Their emails often come across as cries for help. Distress signals. They will blame you for things whenever they can. Never mind, I have the best of the deal right now. I have 90 minutes with R****.

We talk about Sicily. We talk about the differences between the Italian and German mindset.We talk about fashion. We talk about the Zeitgeist. We talk about Vladimir Nabokov.  She's been reading Lolita. I recommend Pale Fire. I recommend Mad Men. 

She tells me that Influencers she suspects are on the way out.You heard it here first. In return I talk about the Unreliable Narrator. Vladimir Nabokov, Gunter Grass. The Catcher in the Rye. We end with Breakfast In Tiffany's. Marilyn Monroe was originally cast for this role but then she died and Audrey Hepburn made it hers. 

Good thing all round we decide given what Holly Golightly did for a living. Something that is artfully glossed over. Both with the book and the film. With Marilyn it would have been difficult to gloss over so artfully. And frankly might have made for a much darker cinematic. experience too.

The ninety minutes speed by like the intercity from Dussledorf to Cologne. We say , 'see you next week.'  I put Scary Monsters on and make myself a cup of tea wondering at how I get paid for this and hope that this turn in the road can continue on straight open highway until I retire and beyond. 

My next class, some lovely regulars is more smooth driving. We talk about driving accidents. I realise I need a business twist in the lesson for the pen pushing surveillance prison warders who check my work records for crossed 't's and spotted 'i's. With this in mind I get the students to describe work processes so I have something that will make them think I'm doing what they have told me I need to do. They don't realise that I'm half way through the tunnel and on my way to the beach, Good luck to them on their own tunnels. I can't help them with those I'm afraid.

My teaching is done and once my paperwork is too I'm off to the pool. Every day if I can. Sam is there at the desk. He's not happy because Newcastle United have won their first domestic trophy for 70 years and he's from the Sunderland area.A Mackem. Mackem's are not happy. They haven't been for a while now. And I suspect never will be again really. I can't do anything about that either..

I do my lengths. Have some time in the jacuzzi and sauna and make my way home. I still have a couple of hours to kill.  So I put on Michael Clayton and heat up a pizza. There's something really satisfying about watching a film you love for the umpteenth time. And they don't get better for me than Michael Clayton. George Clooney fighting for truth and the little man. Tom Wilkinson running naked through a parking lot and buying lots of French bread. Tilda Swinton being a psychotic corporate witch and getting her comeuppance. Those horses. Sorry for the spoiler. Why haven't you seen it?

Once it's done. I'm off. Downtown. The twenty minute walk down the hill to The Quayside and The Crown Posada, the most atmospheric pub in Newcastle. There are plenty of wondrous pubs in Newcastle but The Crown Posada is the most atmospheric. No need for further discussion.

To take a liberty with Television's Venus, one of the songs for me, 'Newcastle looks so Medieval. It seems to flap, like little pages.' Newcastle is some gorgeous city. There's no other description of it. Especially in the early evening as the days lengthen and Spring approaches on a daily basis The way the light falls on the gorgeous Georgian fronts as I make my way down Grey Street. You can have that London Put it in your pipe Stick it.... Let's leave it at that. 

I get myself a non alcoholic Erdinger and take a place in the front bar, under the paintings. An elderly couple come and take a seat next to me and chat together in happily married communion. I text nonsense to friends and enjoy my beer. As they get it up to go he elderly man gives me a glassy look, leans across to me and confers. 'They'll all be wanting to sit next to you before too long you know.' I nod back and smile. In a short moment this encapsulates exactly what I love so much about this city, 

My beer is sunk and after a brief trip to the gutter I'm off round the corner to Zerox. Mt.Misery will be due soon. Zerox is pretty in pink but crouched in scaffolding. :Like a pretty teenage lass in intensive braces. It's better in the long run.. I head inside, head up to the Shooting Gallery.

Walter is there at the door of course. Walter is pretty much always there. He's a fixture of cool events. He checks my name on the list, waves me in. It's early doors. There's plenty of room. And plenty of appreciation for Mt. Misery. Hartlepool's finest. Hartlepool may have many greats band but Mt Misery will always be its finest in my book.

I've seen them a few times. They're nice lads. A tight quartet with jobs to maintain but who just love doing this. They're between albums one and two. They're tight as newlyweds , they jangle like it's 1981 and Postcard Records are still putting out singles. They sing about love and they have a lovely sound. Shame the sound desk at Zerox is so poor and the distortion approaches dangerous levels.I need some earplugs.

I leave before they're done. I enjoy the set but hey my ears! My health. I need a break. A cool Scouser comes past my table downstairs. He's come down from Edinburgh where he works just to see them though he's staying from the rest. He's in the process of rolling a tab. I ask him if he'd mind. Hey, I know I'm a bad person. Don't worry, plenty have told me. He obliges and we go out. Not really for fresh air but to attend to a bad habit. A taste for poison. 

I don't get the guy's name but he's a lovely bloke. We talk about Glasgow V Edinburgh. Everton V Liverpool. He's an Everton fan. I sympathise with him.  This is blokes talk. I'm sure women's conversations rarely follow this pattern. We chat a bit to the Mt Misery guys who are out for the same reason as we are. R.E.M. Vs The Smiths. I tell them that I saw R.E.M. Several times. Very early on. Not only am I a bad person. I'm a dull one. Hey! Sue me. 

Back upstairs Stannington the main support are on. Their reputation proceeds them. At least to my ears.They're a local five piece and they're sloppy in the way that support bands were back in the day and I think always should be. The lead singer is wearing a ragged, lived in blue pullover that seems in danger of untangling and wraps the microphone so frequently arounnd himself you wonder whether it might be prudent to call 999.

 Yes folks! He loves Morrissey. The rest of the band don't seem to mind The Smiths either. They're not quite the finishhed article. But I expect they'll blossom and bloom in the coming seasons. They're ones to watch.

Two bands down and one to go. I'm starting to wane. Hey. I've had a long day. I go and plonk myself in the dentist's chair opposite Walter as the Shooting Gallery fills up. Word is out about The Tubs. This can still happen, even in 2025. Their's is a wave building and they're clearly preparing to ride it.

I hear shrieks and scowls and twangs from iside the darkened Shooting Gallery. The Tubs are doing their soundcheck but I also suspect they are highly inebrietad. Stannington's vocalist was swigging from the bottle when not attempring to aspyhxiate himself with his microphone cord. It's so confusng being young. Anyway, more drinking onstage I say. Putting on a a show is something more bands should aappreciate and take responsibility for. These are tough times lets face it. 

As soon as I get into the Shooting Gallery I realise I will not be here for the whole set. The Tubs are clerly a formidible proposition. Muscled, boisterous and extremely exhuberant and committed. Richard Thompson fronting the Smiths with Mission of Burma and yes early R.E.M. to boot. 

But the room is close, the sound is problematic and I'm tired. The Scottish drummer is absolutely shitfaced. Although he keeps time and is very funny, his diatribes between songs trying to encourage us to buy merch get repetitive as drunks always do and he starts to embarrass his bandmates increasingly. Anyway I've seen enough to wonder whether The Tubs might indeed be the future of Rock & Roll. If such a thing is possible in 2025. Some things were simpler in Bruce Springsteen's youth. I head home. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,253 First Rodeo

 

Rode Hard and Put Away Wet  the latest frim First Rodeo leaves not a dry eye in the house. Like the scene in Blues Brothers where the band in desperation play Rawhide and follow it up with Stand By Your Man. This is alternatively lachrymose and upbeat Vampire Weekend for the stetson set.

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Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,494 Al Green - Call Me

 

I have a few Al Green albums. I should really have them  all. There is an album called The Essential Al Green. Because that's the record label he was on. How do you measure and rank this stuff. Is there really a point. Epiphany is its middle name. 

 

Gigs of 2025 # 9 Wingbeats at Cobalt Studios

 

My life goes from day to day. That's a great way to live. I recommend it. An Existential approach. . I woke up on Thursday and took the stairs down from my bed to my living room in darkness in  preparation for my working day. At my desk on my laptop to my surprise and delight there was a message from a fundamental and central friend of mine waiting for me..An important person. There aren't many such people in anybody's life. I hadn't really heard from her for many years. 

She told me she had got a divorce a couple of years back and she would be in London in April with one of her beautiful daughters. That she was happy. Should we meet? I hadn't really known she was unhappy but the news didn't really surprise me. I met the man she married. Was at their wedding. I'd been surprised at the time. Puzzled. I replied that I would love to see them both. Suggested tea at The Dorchester. Mentioned Budapest where we had spent the best Christmas together. Possibly of my whole life.  Twenty years ago.

That has been the emotional backdrop for my last couple of days. This seems to be the world we live in now.Living in the present. Dwelling on the past. Thinking of the future. Outside there's a climate of fear. Every time you look at the news. Turn on the TV or the radio. Look at the front pages. Read the headlines. . A plane has just crashed into water near Washington DC. An American president is eager to blame others rather than taking charge and clearing matters up so we can all sleep in peace. Life is and remains stranger than fiction.

Never mind all that. I have lessons to plan and teach. It's a great way to spend my days. Teaching German business students online. People who are probably waking like me. Glancing at the news.Putting it to the back of their minds and thinking of the day ahead and the task at hand. Children off to school. A pecked kiss for a partner. No time to worry about a German parliamentary election. An important one surely. Just a matter of weeks away.

Meanwhile the music plays. I like to make my own soundtrack. My life has been great in that respect since I left a stale and hostile corporate office space a year ago and became self employed.  In my flat as I bathe and dress, The Goon Sax's debut album Up To  Anything spins. Insouciante, irrepressible youth, First love, first friendship, first heartbreak. We may not realise it at the time  But the heart is a remarkable organ. Resilient. Durable. It heals. We go on towards the coming day

I check my emails from work. Text to friends. No more time to delve further into the news. It cares not for me. It would do no one any good for me to weep at my desk. I take off  Up To  Anything. Put on Lou Reed's New York. A lament for his home town. From 1989. Lou is gone. But New York goes on. We must go on. 'Fly, fly away. From the Dirty Boulevard.'

I've got a sub to teach first. I love sub classes. Melissa, the group's regular teacher needs to take a week off. So I've been parachuted in with a basic roadmap. I click on the Teams link and am admitted into a virtual classroom where four IT businesspeople await me and we sail into the lesson.

I always feel like teaching is a breeze. An opportunity to immerse myself in the now. Sub classes generally demand that you meet people, find out the basics keep them entertained and hopefully help them in some way. Teaching is a noble pursuit. At least that's the way I look at it.

This class is fun. The students are funny. They know each other well and I warm to them increasingly as the ninety minutes proceed. We talk about different kinds of humour. They have good senses and feelings for it. We laugh and I hope learn something together. Time doesn't lag. They give ad hoc presentations, demonstrating their ability to describe their working processes in English. Switching between active and passive voice when required. Like professional footballers with two good feet.

Half an hour later and I'm into one of my regular classes. I play this one by ear, I have a powerpoint but subject matter comes up from the group and I pursue it. We talk about the property market. Compare what goes on there and what goes on here. As with pretty much everything I've learned about Germany since I started this a year back it strikes me that they have a saner approach and that we might do well to learn from them. An astonishing idea. 'Learn from Johnny Foreigner.' Perish the thought.

I'm done by 1.15. Do my paperwork, tidy up a bit and the day is fine. I've decided I'm going to a bash in the Cobalt Studios in Ousburn tonight. I've hardly been out since I got back to Newcastle a couple of weeks ago and it's time I did so. I don't wish to become a hermit.

I stop off at Beatbox Records across the road for a chat with Sam of No Teeth. They're probably a syndicalist commune or something of the sort but franky Sam is in charge whatever anyone tells you. We chat for a while. Sam is good and rolls me a tab for good measure and I'm on my way.

I pop in at The Telegraph to see if Amy's in. She isn't so I chat to the young barmaid who has a Nirvana T Shirt on. We chat about Nirvana and I say I was in Dortmund at the time of Grunge when Cobain died. I witnessed events unfold one Friday afternoon. A highly memorable event for me. It was genuinely upsetting. Cobain and Nirvana seemed to matter to a lot of people.

The barmaid is amiable but I get the impression that she isn't particularly interested. In what I have to say or actually in Nirvana really. It's just a t shirt she chose from her drawer. Nothing wrong with that. I go to the jukebox put on some songs that remind me of those days. Drink my cider and I'm on my way. 

I like the idea of choice these days. It gives my life rhythm, The Bridge? Nah not this time. Down the winding steps to The Quayside and the Crown Posada. One of the ultimate pub destinations in Newcastle. Or anywhere else for that matter.

I buy my non alcoholic beer. Sorry I'm a dull man these days. It was time to show the alternative to  non alcoholic beer the door. A young group of people come and sit next to me. They seem perfectly OK but get engrossed in a never ending chat about a sad psychotic who murdered some poor young children recently. 

I'm sorry but I avoid discussion of things like these because I find it can lead to string 'em up conclusions. Or general unhappiness and confusion.I want and need to be happy. I make my way as inconspicuously as I can past them and back to the bar. I read an article about the fine new Dylan film instead. Then I'm off into the night.. 

The Quayside is glossy and still. Ink black. Bible Black. As somebody with more poetry in his soul would have it. This acts as my exercise for today as I'm giving the Fitness Centre a break for a while. 

I'm into the Ouseburn Valley and I spot Alan at the doors of The Cluny. One of the best baman of my lifetime. An avuncular, friendly Viking of a man whose hobby is beng a viking. Staged battles and talks for the kids. I'm pleased because I've had a solitary day and it's great to catch up with someone I haven't seen for a while. Newcastle's wonderful for that.

I invite him to my 60th Birthday Party. We chat about common acquaintances. Then I'm off into the Ouseburn night . It's one of the best parts of Newcastle. Up the hill towards The Tanners. Turn right under the bridge to Shieldfield. Past Ernests, a community art space and I'm at the doors of the Cobalt Studios. One of the clutch of venues in Newcastle that offer cheap, affordable artistic nourishment in difficult times.

There's a young man at the counter. He's got one of those inadvisable half hearted attempts at a moustache which seem quite current. He seems angry but friendly. For some reason I think of Dexys Midnight Runners Kevin Archer. 

He asks if  I've bought a ticket. I say no, I'd like to buy one now. He says 'You'll have to wait for food' A nourishing meal in with the price, usually curry, rice or salad is one of the best things about Cobalt Studios Thursday nights.I'm not bothered about the food tonight.

I'm just glad to be back in the Cobalt Studios again. It's just a nice space to be in. Rows of chairs. Tables. People of all ages chatting together. Likeminded people. It's all quite idyllic actually. Artistic. the word has got out about this place. It's pretty much full. People smile at each other. 

Not taking the food option doesn't bother me. I don't bother with it tonight. I'm just happy to be here and have already promised myself that I'll come back in company soon. This is an interesting project. A project for troubled times,

A band come onstage. Four or five players. Wingbeats. Nu Jazz according to the flyer. It immediately ticks all boxes. Not corporate ones perhaps but emotional and spiritual ones. They play a graceful, languid set. The mood is mellow and positive.

I have a chat with the young guy next to me. We agree that places like these are important in times like these. Inclusive ones. He's a medical student and he talks about where his course of study is lacking. It's all about the money. Isn't that what's wrong with the word now. Isn't that what needs to be critiqued and challenged. 

Places and spaces like the Cobalt Studio might be a part of the solution. An alternative. I like the place very much.I don't need to stay for the headliners. I've got three classes tomorrow. I thank the young medical student and head for the doors.I say goodbye to Kevin Archer and thank him too. I'll be back. 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 306 Hem - Eveningland

 

'If Sepia were a sound it wouldn't be too far from the second Hem album. A Laurel Canyon yard sale by Mazzy Star or The Sundays.'  Please leave the light on.

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 10 Mulatu Astake - Mulatu plays Mulatu

 

Swept away. I came in last night rather than staying at my local at half time in the frozen wastes of a wintry Newcastle evening rather staying out for the Champions League second half. Newcastle were one up to Marseille and playing well despite a lack of possession and put on  Mulatu plays Mulatu instead. It was the right thing to do.

Being carried across arid plans with a nomadic troupe of players. Echoes of Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, Sun Ra, the train of slaves of deperadoes in Gladiator, Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar. The English Patient. .

I'm essentially mopping up now. We're drawing to December and the It Starts With a Birthstone album countdown is dipping into its thirties. It's always an arbitrary rundown. Never attempted to be definitive in any way because these days that's a ludicrous endeavour if it hasn't always been. This though is one of the best things I've heard all year and I'll shoehorn it in someone in the top twenty when I get back from Newcastle to my parents house in Canterbury. .Newcastle meanwhile lost 2-1.Wharever 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,252 Fluung

 

My father's radio is blaring in the neighbouring room.  I am grateful to be in Canterbury for Christmas and grateful to hear his raduo but the walls are thin and I need a soundtrack of my own while the bath water warms and I prepare for the day, my breakfast and the coming Dienstag.

Fluung by Fluung  will more than do. Wanton feebback and scratched slightly earnest melody. My Bloody Valentine meet Crazy Horse in Seattle . And the consequence was. A discordant thrall . And a thoroughly enjoyable one at that ! 

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,495 Supergrass - In It For the Money

 

The second Supergrass album  In It For The Money. A lovely bunch of boys and this is a lovely set of well crafted and well played Pop Songs. Brit Pop was dying and they were making their own way..And it was nice to see. 

The record was a throwback to an imaginary Sixties that probably never existed. Like so many of the records of the period. Supergrass were one of the few bands who made it seem like not an altogether bad idea.

Listening to this today felt rather like bumping into someone you hadn't met for twenty five years and didn't expect to see again. An acquaintance rather than a friend. And realise how much you got on with them and enjoyed their company. This is exuberant, excellent fun. A set of quite wonderful, old school songs.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 307 Beck - Guero

 

Beck changed radically with every album as the great artists should and must. It's their responsibility to themselves, to their audience. To life. Generally Beck cam u with the goods. here certainly. He's firing from the hip. Somewhere in Mehico.

Gigs of 2025 # 10 Hamish Hawk & Amelia Coburn at Digital

 

We can't help but be dictated to by the times, the age we are living through. It would be naive of us to think otherwise. Specks of dust in a vast and bewildering universe. We need to orient ourselves to things to help us make sense of what we're going through. I love my partner. I need a lover. I'll focus on my work. I'll listen to that record. Watch that fim. Read that book. Get drunk . Often the alternative is too genuinely bewildering. 'And you may ask yourself. Well how did I get here.'  .

The times we are living through are particularly bewidering. Look at our leaders. Look at our media. Music for me remains a still, comforting centre to anchor my day around. I'm up with the larks ready to start my day. Looking for a new record for my Song of the Day on here. A record for me to play while my bath runs. To prepare me for what lies ahead..

I'm teaching online these days. German businesspeople in Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin.That's my primary focus. Don't get me wrong. I care about Gaza. Human Tragedy as a Real Estate opportunity for the one percent. Bundle them off into another space so we can tear it all down and build holiday homes and resorts for elites. 'Now I want a holiday in the sun...'  Nothing ever changes. Power just shifts it shape and finds a new way to fleece the masses. You've got to laugh. Or else you'd cry.

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah. My bath. My lessons. I spin Stereolab's Emperor Tomato Ketchup while I prepare for my day. I try to avoid comparisons generally when thinking about and trying to write about music. But in this case screw that! Oasis ?!? You must be joking. Why would anyone listen to Oasis when they coud listen to Stereolab. Or Kraftwerk for that matter 

Why would anyone listen to a pair of self obsessed bowl headed coke fiends from Burnage who care not one whit for anything but themselves. Then and now. I know I'm not kind when I talk about that band but they started it folks. They decided to go for a career in music rather than just carrying on signing on or roadying for the Inspiral Carpets for the rest of their lives. I know it's worked out well for you lads but what about the universe? Wanton cruelty pure and simple. 

Anyway. My students. I've got a sub today for South African Jessica.  I don't know exactly what Jessica is up to right now but I've been parachuted in and asked to prepare a lesson on Business Meetings. It's a fun one. One of the best things about my job is meeting new people / students and trying to keep them happy . Make them feel They're getting something out of the experience. 

Anyway I like Elena and Sandra and I think they like me. We find out about each other and then I try to help them with their Business Engish and their grammar and vcobulary. That's all there is to it. Plenty of people might try to overcomplicate matters but after 35 years of doing this I'd be fairly insistent. 

That's all you need to do. You need to have a certain amount of researching and planning and then you need to teach. Entertain and educate and be educated and informed. Ask questions and encourage them to ask questions to each other. Listen and react. Then do the paperwork to keep the middle managers happy.

That's what I do with my reguar 11.30s too.The conversation goes a different direction to talk a bit about the world outside and what Germany should do about it given that there's a General Election coming up in a few weeks now which I imagine the whole world will be watching with intent concentration. Me and my 11.30s don't come to any great conclusions and bid each other farewell.

I've got a few hours to kill. So I call mum and text friends and play records. KC & The Sunshine Band, Associates and Blondie if you're keeping notes. Which I imagine you are. Darkness falls and it's time to head out to Digital for Amelia Coburn and Hamish Hawk. 

When it comes time to go I don't feel like going really. It's cold out and the sky looks forbidding. The thought of staying in and watching The Magnificent Seven yet again is tempting. But I put my coat and hat on and I'm off out into the night . It has to be done. This is why we're alive. 

The Digital night club is five minutes from my flat. Across Times Square. Just before the Discovery Museum. Digital has changed since I first went there. To see Sunflower Bean and Big Thief years ago now. It used to be a small venue with a bar and a small stage. Now it's expanded and transformed into a dark and sleek club. Soaking up the audience and the bands and events which used to feature at the Riverside. On erm Newcastle Riverside.

I'm not sure I like Digital as much as I used to, The staff are friendly, the sound system. is great. The crowd are affable too. Slightly older than previously. It's all a bit more corporate. Yeah like so much. Sleek and smooth and slightly faceless. If you want the alternative in Newcastle go to the newer Cooperative ventures. The Cobalt Studios. The Lubber Field. There you'll get value for money. Somewhere to sit. There aren't actual seats here. Just bars and  booths where you can check your phones or chat to company.

Stil, I'm here to have fun. New York Dolls and Eurythmics are playing on the sound system and Amelia Coburn is shuffling onstage with her band. Amelia is really the reason I'm here, I don't know headliner Hamish Hawk very well.BBC 6 Music is the key here. I've stopped listening to BBC 6 Music recently. It used to fill my musical horizons. But something changed and now my Record Player and Spotify do that for me. 

If asked to narrow things down further I'd mention Wet Leg. A few years ago when I tuned in I found they were invariably playing Wet Leg. I mean I like quirkiness as much as the next person. I have a Lene Lovich record. Plastic Bertrande. But I don't listen to them non stop. I got tired of Wet Leg after 3 listens to each song  rued 6 Musics decision to make the best djs at the station Marc Riley and Gideon Coe do a show together to give more radio time to John Peel's son. No John Peel. Let's put it that way.

Anyway Amelia is plucking away at what looks like a mandolin and her band are tucking into choice cuts from her rather wonderful debut album Between The Moon & The Milkman,. And I'm happy. Edging into a space a couple of rows away from the stage and texting to an old school friend. I don't care what my mother says. I can multitask as well as the next person.

 Amelia Coburn exemplified for me exactly the kind of artist I'm most interested in. She's articulate and ambitious.Draws on a set of influences that are interesting and broadly inspiried and bode well for a long and productive career. I recognise Jacques Brel, Jake Thakeray and she speaks in interviews of literary inspirations Graham Greene, Romanticism. The Brontes. Victorian Fiction,She's made for my tastes frankly

Between songs she mentions minging lovers she's discarded. Well she is from Middlesborough, Valentine's Day is a couple of days away. She talks about Vinegar Valentines .and suggests it might be an idea to bring them back. In Far From The Madding Crowd Bathsheba Everdene sent a mischievious Valentine Card to William Boldwood and it led him inadvertently to the gallows. Don't do it kids. Be nice !

But the half hour with Amelia is as good as I could have hoped for, Her songs are twisting and nuanced. Fascinating. She's one to watch. I retreat to the bar taking care not to actually walk into a pillar or fall over anybody. It's too dark in here for my liking. I don't care if this place gets an award.  It might also attract ambulances.   

 Hamish Hawk I don't really know though Amelia says he's fab and a friend whose taste I trust has said he's good. He must be on a 6 Music Playlist. Hamish. Not my friend. I'm not quite sure what to expect. When he and his band head onstage I make my way through the crowd and get a decent view of the Hawk experience. I take a couple of close ups of Hawk and his band on my Smartphone to send to others and to record the moment. I wouldn't have dreamed of doing this when I first started going to gigs in the Eighties. But hey, I can go with the times.

I'm not sure about Hamish and his band initially but I'm drawn in. The key to this seems to be persona. Persona used to be a great guiding principle of Art inclined British music. Bowie, Roxy, John Lydon, Edwyn Collins, Bily McKenzie, Morrissey, Brett Anderson. I imagine you can keep the list going if you're that way inclined.

The key reference to Hawk's persona seems to be to be Howard Devoto. He's a suaver and less alien and angular Howard Devoto. An incredibly confident and outgoing performer. Throwing shapes and namedropping to demonstrate his broad reading and education. His cool. It's never annoying and frankly quite impressive. I'll get to know his records better because he's good.

But I've got my money's worth and this is a school night so I'm on my way. Keep an eye on Amelia and Hamish because they'll do well. To  BBC 6 Music Playlists and beyond !  

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 11 Big Thief - Double Infinity

 

Big Thief move at a different speed and exist in a different time and space to most other bands. New album Double Infinity accompanies me to my half seven vortual lesson in the Ruhr Gebeit. Then the day is mine. I'll run my bath. Fix some breakfast.Double Infinity will take me there.

It's a brief record by Big Thief's terms. Just North of forty minutes. Trimmed down to a three piece now; they spiral, form and reform like geometric patterns.Like the kaleidocope that thrilled you so and kept you in thrall for hours as a child This feels like one to get to know better. To sit down and relax with..

There's a gnomic authoruty to this band now. Formed in Brooklyn ten years back; they've spread their wings, left the nest, communed with the universe. The record assembles during third track Los Angeles and gathers from there. They're a band that speak to the music of the past but they seem very current, Heading into the future. They have what it takes.

I watched The Triffids documentary Love In Bright Landscapes yesterday. I'll watch it again today and try to write about it on It Starts later in the day. I met Peter Buck briefly this time last week. I thanked him He thanked me. R.E.M., The Band, The Byrds Creedence, The Triffids. Big Thief belong in this august company.Spinning in space. 

I teach. I teach to learn. I write a blog about music. I listen to music to learn.. Double Infinity  This will do me. Like a novel or a poem. Or a prayer..Or a lesson. Mystic dimensions It contains multutudes. My bath is run. Time to depart. The ropes are dumped free of their morroings on the wharf. The Peqod surges inyo open waters. Into the day.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,251 Craig Finn

 

Woke up it was a Canterbury Morning and the first thing that I saw, Was the latest Craig Finn album Always Been.  So I listened to that. Plus Ca Change, Plus le Meme Chose. 'Pissing off a petty vengeful god.'

Finn is pictured on the cover of the album. It doesn't seem like san image that would make the impartial feel like coughing up hard earned. No frills. Shades. White top. Baseball cap. American everyman. There's a sadness about the songs here. The clock of life ticking downwards towards the grave but Finn is as caring about the words he uses to describe the realities of existence and how we do all we can to squeeze the last juice out of existence.

 These are finely wrought pen portraits The man can write. And what  he writes about is life. He's outgrown the obvious reference points Bruce Springsteen and The Replacements and deserves to be seen on his own terms. He's a craftsman. A storyteller in the Great American Tradition of Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, John Cheever and Raymond Carver

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,496 Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life

 

Mark Linxuos as it turned out didn't think it was a particularly wonderful life. Here he sounds a bit like Mercury Rev on a bad day if that's your cup of tea. ..

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 308 Anais Mitchell - Hymns for the Exiled

 

A thing of bookish beauty. Sumptuous and  rich. You can feast on the literary.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,250 The Go Betweens

 

'When a woman learns to walk she's not dependent anymore. A line from her letter. May 24. And out on the bay the current is string. A boat can get lost'

Yesterday was a good day. I'm back with my ninety year old parents after  what has felt like a long time away. A prodigal son though I've tried to be good. My sixtieth year on the planet which has felt phenomenally momentous. In countless ways. At least to me. I've done a lot. Reunited with important friends. One in particular. Been to Denmark, Dublin. Said goodbye to others. Needs must. Had some interesting adventures in York. Glasgow. Taken measures with others to protect myself when I felt I needed to . Tried to maintain forward momentum.

The Go Betweens are very important to me. We have history. I bought Spring Hill Fair when I was 17. It spoke to me.  Saw them with friends when I was/20 and a couple of important university people came to stay at my parents house in Teddington. We went and saw the band at Kingston Polytechnic. I suspect for a pound. Best pound I ever spent, 

 I started going out with one of the great transformative loves of my life about a month later. I made her a C 90 cassette. R.E.M.on one side. The Go Betweens on the other. They were kindred spirits. She protested that she preferred The Go Betweens. Because I played her R.E.M. relentlessly throughout our relationship.Then told me R.E.M. had sold out when we went our separate ways and she was with someone else. Such is life. It's important to be a player if you can. And to learn from the narrative tat life paves for us.

Now I write a blog on a daily basis. I've written daily since 2014. It's named after a Go Betweens line. From Five Words which .  It Starts With a Birthstone. And ends with a Tombsstone. As all our narratives must. But of course they don't actually end there either. The story goes on. There are sequels. It's been difficult keeping this up the blog this year frankly. Bit I'm still at the helm. Scanning the horizon. Looking for a fresh catch. Interesting quarry. Stories to tell. Records to play.

My parents are downstairs. They're going to church. I will finish my tea, Go downstairs. Onward. Ever onward !

Gigs of 2025 - # 11 Mattiel at the Cluny

 

It's an interesting moment to be alive. You can't ask for anything else . Look at the news. Have a conversation with someone. Put a record on. Have a cup of tea ! Do some paperwork. Go out. Do Something. Anything, There's never a dull moment . You may not always be exactly happy. But in the words of Big Country, and I'll come back to them, 'Stay Alive !' It's all we can do. It's good to be alive, We shouldn't forget.

I rise early. Between five and six yesterday. Still dark but it gets light earlier. It's almost March. Weekdays are great. As soon as I'm up, I'm off.  I have an early start to my online teaching with Germans and I like that . In some ways it's weekends I struggle a bit more with these days. Which is an odd turn of events as I make my way towards sixty. But I really like my job now. I didn't for fifteen years. But I've quit the office and the arseholes for the environs of my flat and with it embraced an uneasy new freedom. 

Freedom isn't always easy. Ask Sartre or Camus. Life is not supposed to be easy. Ask those guys again. I think of life increasingly as a test and there's always another hurdle approaching. But I'm enjoying the challenge. I sometimes say to myself recently that I couldn't be doing anything more interesting at this moment in history. Talking to German people and giving them a chance to discuss their lives and jobs as the world spins and the world changes. On a seemingly daily basis in 2025.

Macron has just been in Washington. Starmer might be going tomorrow. Zelensky it appears is due there on Friday to talk about rare minerals in exchange for an enormous loan,. Says who ? Says Donald Trump. Who frankly is the last person you would trust. He doesn't even seem to trust himself so why should anyone else. Millions did and do it seems. Yes, Search me too..

Still. 'They say life's a gamble. Hard to win easy lose.  And while sun shines you'd better make hay. So if life is your table and fate is the wheel. Then let the chips fall where they may. In modern times, the modern way.' Cheers Bryan. Thanks lads! Time for my bath. 

Writing is a great routine. This thing. It Starts, This blog. It gives me a compass. To orient myself by. To keep this vessel heading for the open seas. This morning before I bathe I listen to local band Parastatic who've just returned from a long hiatus with a blistering new album Concrete Reborn. It reminds me of Kraftwerk Of Simple Minds. Of Pylon. I listen to it, reading an interview with the band that says they're playing in Saturday at the Star & Shadow Co-operative two miles from me. The icing on the cake. It's only a tenner.

Persuaded I buy a ticket. Check it's on my phone.' In modern times, the modern way.' I put on Gabriel III on my record player.When I get to Side B it's Games Without Frontiers.. A song about It's a Knockout .A popular BBC TV series in the Seventies,  an European venture based on ideals and idealism.  Replacing warfare between European nations with foolish games with contestants dolled up in comedy costumes. Dressed up as budgies or penguins. Sliding along or up or down slippery poles. With comedic rather than murderous intent. 'If looks could kill they probably will. '

I have some breakfast and I'm ready for half eight. Click on my Google Calendar and I'm transported to an office in Dussedorf. Noch einmal ..' In modern times, the modern way.' I never know who's going to be in most of my classes until I turn up except if it's a one to one. My students are busy people They don't always have time to send apologies.

This morning it's just A. I know P and C aren't going to be here. Neither it seems are Ay and J. So it looks like I've got a one to one with A whose English frankly is so good that I wonder if she needs lessons at all. She reassures me that she feels she does because her English was much, much better when she was at university in Bonn. Studying Literature. Shakespeare. Now she's really into David Mitchell. The author not the comic British celebrity.  We have a great chat about his books.

The lessons go fast. I'm an experienced teacher but I relish the challenge of doing this. I plan my lessons. I plan a powerpoint. But sometimes, on the spur off the moment you have to scrub the plan and teach to the students needs and priorities, Exciting. Challenging. 

This is an excellent class. All of my classes at the moment are excellent. My criteria for a good lesson? I learn more than I teach but I teach when I need to and what I need to. A and I talk about the German Election. You have to mention it if you have 90 minutes directly  after it's taken place. .A.says she's not going to hold back when she hears things that she thinks are unacceptable. And she's hearing them all the time. Good for her. 

The subject of complicity comes up . Kazuo Ishiguro who studied Creative Writing at the university I went to and went on to win the Nobel Prize. Deservedly. It's a highly pertinent subject matter. We're all compicit in the crimes of  our times. I won't expand but I really think that. I don't mean to depress you. 

Anyhow. The lesson is done. I put on Cockney Rebel. Cut myself a slice of madeira cake, Call mum. 

This is not a blow by blow account of everything that happened to me on 26th February 2025 you'll be relieved to hear. If that's what you're after I refer you to Ulysees or AI. Have you heard of it. It's the latest thing.

 Anyhow I'll spare you my texts exchange with my sister about the Go Betweens Robert Forster who's playing in London in May. Relax. I'm reading today. It's Sold Out already. 

Also my thoughts about Mattiel who I'm seeing tonight. So obviously they're somewhere in my mind all day. Alison thinks I'll like them..My thoughts on the Gene Pitney Greatest Hits I manage to shoehorn in. Trust me. You don't need to know. Snippets of the books I manage to read and write about on here. A quick phone call to mum. Trust me I don't think my every waking thought warrants documenting on here. Besides there are far too many typos for my liking.

Anyway There's time for Big Country's The Crossing before my 13.00 with S &M. Those are their initials I promise you but Germans are keen on their data protection. So that's all you're getting.Anyway they're invariably great company. The only lesson during the week that I don't plan. Not because I'm lazy but because that's the best thing to do with these guys.

M as it turns out is sick and not here. S. meanwhile has a meeting in an hour. So we curtail the lesson after an hour of discussion about Crisis Management, Carnival, where S's daughter is playing the princess, German Electoral Results where the former East Germans have decided they don't like immigrants. Or indeed anything. Ingrates.

 Having lived in Czechoslovakia in 1990 I wonder how anybody can be nostalgic for flats full of cockroaches and without fridges or telephones. S. counters with memories of a holiday in Havana where a whole  hotel patio had plastic glasses dancing because each one trapped the biggest cockroach you had ever seen.I struggle with the jacket potato I've just had for lunch for a moment. The lessons with these guys are always fantastic. 

Anyway S. seems to think things in Germany will be alright. A bit of unemployment is not a bad thing. I trust S.'s judgement and look forward to telling mum. At two we're done. I've noted during the day that there's an interesting looking film playing at the Tyneside at three which I can see for free as I get three complementary tickets when I renewed my pass in January. So I dot 'i's and cross 't' 's for an hour. Then I'm off into Newcastle. It's Spring. 

At the Tyneside I get my ticket and take the lift to the fourth floor to the  Electra Cinema. I get myself a bottle of coke and a tub of salt and sugared popcorn. Is there a demand for salt and sugared popcorn? Not from me. I make my way to my seat.

 Sometimes I get reminders that I'm getting older. The Electra Cinema is in pitch darkness. The film is about to start, I'm not going to respect my seat booking which is a few rows from the back. I can't evern see which row is which in the utter blackness. I go straight to the back row and plant myself in the middle of the row as the fim credits start. 

I like the film I've chosen immediately. I'm Still Here a Brazilian movie directed by Walter Salles. Anyone who has  City Station and The Motorcycle Diaries in his portfolio is worth following and investing in popcorn and coke for.  So it proves with I'm Still Here, A drama about how a happy family have their lives upended by military dictatirship in Brazil in the 1970's.

It's full of bright sunlight and parties. Dancing on beaches. Wonderful music and attention to detail. Sinister lorries full of armed soldiers speeding past the Copacabana. Darkened prison corridors. A man who disappears. Is tortured and murdered. But not on camera. How after thirty years and committed pressure from family and friends evidence comes to the light and memories are laid to rest. I'd give it an Oscar. But it's not up to me.   

It's a long film. Afterwards I mention its length to the usher outside. He says the art of the 90 minute movie has been lost. But sometimes a film needs to be long to tell a story properly. Anyway I'm out. Just in time to catch the last of the daylight and head down Newcastle's glorious Grey Street to The Crown Posada.

Lance is sat at the bar nursing a pint. Lance as it turns out is my only point of contact with someone I know face to face today. I don't mind. A and S will more than do. Anyway , I like the solitary life. Listening to music. Reading. Writing on here.

I don't need to talk to Lance. He's in his cups. He comments that I've bought a non alcoholic beer. It's true. I don't touch alcohol much. I was warned off it a couple of years ago. Coincidentally by a friend I used to come down to The Crown Posada with down the years. I'm grateful to him for his advice,

My phone is running down. I'm not happy. It's one of my quirks these days. I want my phone at 100 % charged if possible. At all times. It's not a criminal offence. I prefer things that way. I ask the burly, bearded barman and he plugs it in for me behind the bar. Which leaves me with a dilemma. I haven't got my phone and the light is too dim in the Crown Posada for me to read Breakfast At Tiffany's. So I have to go old school. Listen to the records on The Crown Posada's Sound system. Fleetwood Mac's The Chain. George Harrison's My Sweet Lord. . Phone retrieved and call of nature satisfied. I'm off. Out into the night.

The Quayside is dark and glossy. It's generally great from this point of the year on. A treat to walk down on the way to The Royal Free and then back to the Ouseburn Valley and on from there to The Cobalt Studios or The Black Tanners. My favourite circuit these days as Spring comes to Toon.

I have a non alcoholic cider and the chance to recharge my smartphone again in The Free Trade. This time by plugging in at the wall by my table. Yipee ! That will keep me happy for the rest of the evening. It's bright enough for  couple of pages with Holly Golightly here. And now I'm at The Cluny. I won't trouble you with the walk. It's pretty much the same as my walk every time I come here. Good for my heart. Good for my morale. 

I get myslf a plate of chips and a glass of tapwater to line my stomach in The Cluny and eat up the time until support Cosmic Crooner are due. I turn into the venue, make my was down the stairs and park myself at the lip of the stage. The Cluny is only half full but that's still a reasonable turn out and those who have turned out are respectful and intent on having a cool school night out

Cosmic Crooner is just the warm up man required. A Post Modern cabaret smoothy from Amsterdam in a ridiculous, flashy white suit and shades. Old school reel to reel recording as the backdrop.. 'A retro inspired act but a thoroughly modern sound'. according to the blurb.  My eye. This is pure old school ham. Within a song Cosmic Crooner has spotted me because I'm the only person actually anywhere adjacent to the stage. So he's come up to me and is staring at me through his shades holdimg my hand. I'm waiting for him ro ask me what I'm doing after the show. But hey we've all seen this act before..

When he finishes his song he's at me again. He knows a straight man when he sees one 'Who are you texting man...' like some peevish lover. 'My family' I reply. I don't wish to spoil his patter. 'Ah family ....' Family are important' he says.' He takes off his shades for the next song. It's a relief for one and all that he's not Russell Grant as I'd been beginning to wonder..

Now he's broken into Jacques Brel's Jackie. Pretty much the Scott Walker version but with his own clever clever touches, It's great entertainment. At the end I think OK, I'll give him  a response.' Call out for Amsterdam. A Brel reference and he's from Amsterdam. 'I don't know that one' he fires back. Straight as a die. You've got to hand it to the guy. . 

I'm back at the bar for a bottle of non alcoholic beer and a plastic glass, mercifully free of massive cockroaches for Mattiel. I get my place at the side of the stage. As I say this isn't as busy as it should be. Don't the masses know and appreciate Mattiel ?.

They should do. They're on shortly. A taller than average frontwoman Mattiel Brown, a cool guitarist. They do a suave and sophisticated set. Mattiel inhabits the songs, cool Post Modern. That word again. Everything is Post Post Modern nowadays. We're all just a bit too smart. Or think we are.Too sharp for our own good. And everyone elses.

Byt Mattiel are so good at this. Post Modern C& W . Post Modern Country Soul. Joe Tex meets Bobbie Gentry, At the crossroads. But she inhabits these songs. The delivery is ironic but the emotion is real. Immaculately done.I;m tired though, My energy levels are dropping. Much as I'm enjoying the show, I've had my moneys worth and a great night out. Hey Wednesday's a school day too.  

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 11 Baxter Dury - Albarone

 

I 've had a great day's sailing on It Starts With a Birthstone. Happy ventures on a choppy sea. Three lessons down one to come at 16.00. One to go. Enough time to listen to Baxter Dury's Allbarone and tell you what I think about it here. .

Baxter is a great artist. Surely great enough by now to be considered in his own space. Allbarone. is a joy from the start Literate, witty. Conflicted masculinity. Danceable beats. Wit, wry humour and  lots of fun. All the fun of the fair indeed.

 Allbarone is a platter that matters. Great titles. Slabs of melody. Broad historical scope. This will get posted again when we get to December and It Starts With a Birthstone countdown for the year gets down to the serious stuff and we close in on the top twenty I'll warrant. .

Gigs of 2025 - # 12 - Lael Neale at the Cumberland Arms

 

'Feel it closing in. The fear of whom I call..Day in day out..Day in day out..Day in day out..Day in day out..Day in day out....'.Joy Divison Digital

'When the day is done. Down to earth then sets the sun.' Nick Drake Day is Done 

There are differnt ways of dealing with days. The Joy Division intensity thing. The Nick Drake way  resignation, bucolic poetry and Stoic acceptance. Neither story ended happily. But the music. The essence, the lessons in life remain .

I  had a decidedly weird day yesterday. Morning was technology purgatory. I lost my phone. It's somewhere in my flat still. It drove me slightly crackers for a few hours. I'll spare you the grisly details of my moodshifts.

 We're all so beholden to technology these days. Let's face it it's our master. I grew up in a world where people talked and there was no expectation of instant gratification and the subsequent emotional rollercoaster we're expected to ride. Of rage, distress, lust, error,  elation and occasionally, very occasionally love and harmony., Peace.  We're masters of technology it's there to serve us. Frankly you wouldn't know it. The way things are heading.

'Put down your phone, relax and float downstream...'

I taught two good classes. That was the best thing about my day. First with D**** . A fabulous, wise and articulate woman who should be running the company she works for but would prefer to focus her governing energies on motherhood and partnership. On being a decent person. I fed in some language when I could. A few sentences to tweak her automation in terms of her register. 

I appreciate these one to one sessions with D****. I learn more than I teach. The best lessons. Consider that your CELTA Certificate. Your PGCE. Go armed with that knowledge and you might make a decent fist of teaching. It's a great thing to do. It's not about the teacher is the fitst thing you need to process and activate. 

My second class was early in the afternoon with young students from various disciplines at The University of Cologne. German, Turkish, Spanish, Polish. All bright and bushy tailed. Keen as mustard. Just lacking the rigour sometimes to bash their ideas into sentences, paragraphs and on from there to PHDs and such like. I do my best to arm them for these endeavours. I always like teaching this group

In between classes I go to the Vodaphone outlet in the mall. I dislike these rituals. I just want a phone that works . I hate the bother But I have an interesting encounter this morning with the guy behind the desk . With an affable thirty something with a fine mane of hair and an engaging manner. He's working his way from the inside out it turns out. I suspect his heart is not in what he does for a living. We chat about the modern condition. The need for instant gratification. 

It's clear to me that the modern smartphone is the greatest enemy to calm and stress free living. I could og on and on and on We all live with the contradictions. This guy is selling a new one to me and I am struggling to follow the stream of tech related information he is speedily rolling out to me so I can get my new phone up and running when I get home.

To cut a long story I didn't lose my mind. I assembled my phone, fed in the updates, charged it up and checked out Alma Thomas, who the affable musician Vodaphone guy had suggested as the antidote to all modern evils.. He's also a musician. So we'd talked about Jazz. Miles, Ella and Nina. Television and The Cars. Bono. Hmm. We agreed on Bono. I don't mean Sonny Bono.

I forget what else .we talked about. But it was one of  those conversations that you wish you'd recorded to dismantle, disect and reassemble later. In return for Alma Thomas I gave him Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers. He'd never heard of either. The gap in younger people's knowledge confuses me sometimes..

Anyway my day like Nick's is almost done. A slight moment of dreadful  chill and horror seizes me when I spot a circular email from a middle manager which starts 'I''m reaching out' sent out to all the teachers at the school I work with.  No thanks I don't really want you to 'reach out to me' thanks. I have enough on my plate. I imagine plenty of others do too. 

Do people have no idea. Do they actually think they are good at their jobs. That this is what middle managers imagine they should do to justify their positions . To denigrate, insult, patronise and demotivate hard working professionals who possibly have more experience and qualifications than they have, There are no words sometimes..

Anyway I'm off . It's early evening. Ir's sunny. Sllghtly balmy . Like many older people I'm beginning to overdress. The Quayside 'looks so medieval. It seems to flap like little pages.' I'm sorry I always go back to those lines. That idea that life can seem so realised that you almost feel like you're participating in a comic strip. You feel so alive. A lot of people are already drunk and reeling. It happens a lot in Newcastle. Particularly on Friday nights coming to the end of May. 

I'm quickly through Ousebourn find myself mounting the grassy stone stairwell towards The Cumberland Arms. I always get a great sense of anticipation as I do this. Invariably I have great nights at The Cumberland Arms. Lael Neale the elfin Californian is playing tonight. It's another of Walter's Wandering Oak bills. Walter never fails.

The front garden of The Arms is heaving with happy youths and happy adults. The queue to the bar stretches out of the front door. I get served in time. I really shouldn't have worn this jacket. I spot Walter in the back bar where the fiddlers are warming up for their evening session. I try to chat to him but he's busy. Eventually I get his attention.

Should I get a ticket Walter? He's sold out! Oh well . I turn to go. But not before saying how good Lael Neale is and what a treat of an evening everyone is in for . There is a debonair, immaculately turned iout man in framed in the doorway behind Walter. Like a character out of an episode of Mr Benn.

I get to the doorway of the Cumberland Arms. Walter calls my name and I turn back. The debonair man steps firward and speaks. He's an American. Polite tones. Gentle manner. A gentleman frankly. He says, 'Well would you like to attend as our guest.' I'm taken aback for a moment. Then thank him profusely and pump his hand. Walter says he'll make a note of it. I turn back into the garden with my cider. The evening's working out.

I'm feeling good. It's a bit close. It's closer upstairs in a sold out venue. I skip the first act. They're not to my liking. Slighfly boastful and the music not really to my taste. When I go up again the debonair American is sorting out his stage. I spot Chris from Prancy Dog in the opposite side of the stage. I go across to chat to him.

Chris, like Walter is fundamental to the Newcastle Independent scene. They both put on and have put on great shows at venues like The Cluny, The Cumberland Arms, The Lubber Fiend and anywhere else that will have.them.

Chris in short is an enthusiast and music lover and a very friendly man. We chat about his forthcoming trip to Japan. Gigs that are coming up. Gigs we have seen. This is the bond that people develop before these gigs ignite. You know you're with 'your people'

The debonair young man is warmed up and kicks off and immediately sets the night on fire. Thanks Jim. It's a good comparison. Both with Entrance who the young man is and with Lael Neale who he supports on stage later.

He starts to howl and weep into the night. The passion and intensity is immediate. This is the Story of the Blues and we're not taking Liverpool Pete Wylie. Chris and I agree it's something else. He says 'has anyone been to Baltimore' and there are a few muttered assents,

Baltimore must be some city. Randy Newman, Nina Simone, Diner, John Walters, The Wire, The Colts. Now you can add Entrance to that list. I'm going to look into his work .. He's played with the greats. Well Sonic Youth and Pavement anyhow. Check out his Wikipedia page for more details. Then check out his back catalogue for the finest American underbelly thrill imaginable.

Twenty mnutes more and Lael will headline. Chris and I chat some more. I'm getting tired. I wish I had a chair. What with the Tech rollercoaster this mirning I'm fading fast. It's very close in here. But actually that's the perfect atmospheric condition for what's coming next.

Lael is a slim small woman but she has presence. She's California. Slightly spooky and poised. My mind starts reeling when she and the debonair man kick off. He on keyboards, she on keyboards of her own..Occasional guitar. Like a Grand Canyon Suicide, Space Lady, Nancy and Lee, Mazzy Star, The Doors. Lael Neale and Guy Blakeslee, (for the debonair man is he). California Indie's King and Queen.

Chris and I both are standing there with our jaws dropped like dumbstruck types who possibly wanna be sedated.. Or do peyote ! I think of Lost in Music because this is how I feel .True enchantment and bliss. I don't see out the set but I make a point of shaking Guys hand before I make my way to the exit. Some gig. Some day !  

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 12 Snocaps - Snocaps

 

I almost get the sense sometimes that artists curate their own records these days. Frame their albums in the terms the want them to be perceived in a classic sense among the records they loved and they first clasped to their chests as they were coming of age , with half an eye on eternity

Snocaps eponymous record is one such album  . The Crutchfield sisters regroup and they're shooting at will from the hip and the get go, jangling instant bullseyse to garland. Songs to learn and sing. Slot them in your collection in between you Big Star, Emmylou Harris, Pavement, Byrds and Lemonheads records, Have a jingle jamgle morning. Or afternoon if you prefer.

It's a delight to wake up to and listen through to this  before my bath and a drawn out breakfast. 'As if the Paisley Underground were founded in the Deep South.' .This feels the new coming of age, We are all, always coming of age. In the act of becoming. 

This record is raining pleasure. Lines jump out you and make you reach for a pen. Because they strike you as worthy of Harper Lee. Carson McCullers. The melodies match. A wonderful record to greet Mid November and make it feel like the coming of Spring..   

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,497 Mac Miller - Swimming

 

                                                       A man gazing at his belly button

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's -# 309 Drive By Truckers -The Dirty South

 

A band revered by Uncut Magazine. What this generally means is illustrated here. A love of all American Lore. The gloey, the mythic dreaming and a guitar soloing into the dark night,

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 13 Parastatic - Concrete Reborn

 

 Kraftwerk still sounds fresh. State of the Art. A sleek Intercity..Speeding across countryside and into urban spaces.  Station to Station. Listening to the new Parastatic album Concrete Reborn it's an exciting experience. Like listening to Kraftwerk or Neu ! in 1975. They're a local band. They're playing The Star & Shadow co-operative a couple of mles from me on Saturday. I'll look into going to see them. More excitement.

This is a return. Their first record for ten years. It's worked around a basic concept. A paean to Brutalism. And there's plenty of that around Newcastle. Function and form. Utiitarian beauty.Inspired by Brasilia and Berlin. Ideas. Discourse.

It's a fabulous concept and a wonderful record.Parastatic are working with vocalist Laura also of Late Girl.. Concrete Reborn  is quite stunning frankly. Accessible leftfield. Layered melodic guitars and vocals that offer up reminders of Pylon and Life Without Buildings. It's an album that feels like a Golden Dawn. Magnificent. 

Song(s) of the Day # 4,259 Lily Seabird

 

I'm waking up in fresh sheets. In a beautifully prepared room and a tightly made bed in adjoining rooms to my dear parents. At the end of a ling year when I've turned 60 and everything has changed and nothing has.

And I'm cherry picking another selection from Rosy Overdrive's Top 100 Countdown for 2025. Lily Seabird's Trash Mountain. Singer songwriting  Americana fare .A beautiful voice .Burlington Vermont, Homespun beauty and pearls of wisdom,  growing pains and care. 'Giving yourself a black eye' Trying to make her way. Like us all.. Wondrous stuff !

Best Ever Albums - 2,000 - 1,001 - 1,498 Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties

 

An interesting band that walked their own road. Spawned by the New York hamlet of Sioney Brook Psychedelia and a taste for the occult and long sprawling solos and twisting narratives.. I enjoyed this greatly.

 

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 312 Melchior Productions - The Meaning

Ambient Dance.

 

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 67 The Feelies - The Good Earth

 

The Feelies second album. The Good Earth indeed. Midway through the Eighties and fast forwarding into their twenties. The ultimate suburban band . Their lives saved by Rock & Roll. Drawing on the well of Modern Lovers, Television, Talking Heads and most of all the second incarnation of The Velvet Underground. When Yule replaced Cale.

This is less urgent than The Boy Who. Relaxed and composed. Fluent. and R.E.M. The Chills, The Go Betweens, The Clean their fellow travellers.  Peter Buck was at the production desk and knew exactly where they'd come from and wanted to go. Into the open pains and prairies of America. It's a beautifully fluid and fluent album. A realised vision..  ^ 

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 14 Dean Wareham

 

It's a Friday morning. My lesson is planned, my bath is run, and I have a Dean Wareham album to enjoy, Life could be worse. He's a treasurable artist Wareham. One who notice the motes in the sunlight and sings their praises.. He's learned the lessons that need learning from mentors like Lou Reed, Lee Hazlewood and Tom Verlaine, picked up the torch and carried it onward. 

That's The Price of Loving Me is ten songs of boho vision. Spaced and crafted  songs.. In my case they took me from quarter to six to half past as the sun rose in Newcastle heavens. The best way to spend time.Wistful mastery of a form. A description of love. An awreness of mortality. A calm acceptance of it. An album of xonsummate grace. Choose your time but make the space. The fabric of life is made of such small, intricate joys.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,258 Anna Tivel

 

Onward ever onward. Up the hill and down the slope. Friday morning and a couple of classes. Then a train back to parents in Canterbury. Christmas of my 60th year. What better than One Chord to Another. a marvellous Finnish blog I dip in and out of for selections here. Their Album of the Year. Anna Tivel's Animal Poem.

It's a breathy thoughtful album. Wordy. Reflective on the happy and the sad and how we strive to make the best of it and look up to the sky. It's all rather lovely and I thank the author of One Chord to Another. for spreading the word. The day awaits....

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 15 Slow Motion Cowboys - Wolf of St Elmo

 

Ways of establishing equilibrium Part .... Throw your windows open to the afternoon. Sit yourself down in front of your desk. Get yourself a glass of water to drink. Put your TV set on. Your musics on the TV set these days haven't you heard. Listen to something that Mojo or Uncut Magazine are recommending. They know what they're talking about. Today Wolf of St Elmo by Slow Motion Cowboys.

First of all - poetry. This is a record informed by poetry in terms of it rhythms and intentions. Slow Motion Cowboys is an evocative band name. It's up there. Cowboy Junkies, Neon milk Hitel Silver Jews.  Grandaddy. That's the tradition Wolf of St Elmo slots into. Cleawater Swimmers from last year comes to mind too.

Anyway it's a fluid, beautiful record. The second of my weekend after Stereolab's Instant Holograms on Metal Film. The pace is easy, the times are gentle. Gram is somehwere tapping a toe. It's a record about passing through the delta, keeping the breaks off and s,iing at straingers. All in all an excellent album.

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 313 The Witches - Universal Mall

 

Detroit Garage Pearl.

Song(s) of the Day # 4,257 Silo's Choice

 

A good album should provide a full world. A three course meal., A house to walk around in. A novel to unwind with on a Sunday afternoon, Silo's Choice Liberals does just this. It's a comfy slipper of an album. Literary and assured, 

Essentially.the plaything of Chicagoan Joe Massey this borrows from Steely Dan, Belle & Sebastian and Left Banke. to cool effect and weaves pure silk from them . Excuse my mixed metaphors. But this is fine stuff.

250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 68 The Beatles - Rubber Soul

 

Decluttering. A trip down to Canterbury to spend Christmas with aged parents. An early start with Compliance people in Dussledorf talking about the concepts of time, interviewing suspects for dubious working practices and sifting evidence, weighing the evidence. What better moment to listen to Rubber Soul.

There's so much in every song. There always was with The Beatles. Affairs of the human heart and how we deceive ourselves and each other but love is always the best and most treacherous road. But the ones we need to adhere to whenever we can. . The ultimate scales to measure yourself against and on.

Baby you can drive my car. 'Working for peanuts is all very fine. But I can show you a better time.' Norwegian Wood. About Lennon having an extra marital affair and justifying it with accompanying sitar. Did he sleep in the bath? I suspect not .

Nowhere Man,, It's all here. The title. A gag But the Soul is genuine if rubber. Another gag in the age of The Pill. The word is Love . 'Michelle ma belle. Words that go together well.' Time to turn the rubber over,

A song for Ringo. He's a criminal singer but with The Beatles you always get Quality Streets. A song for everyone. The spread of songs and array of influences here is frankly staggering. I'm Looking Through You, judging people and moving on to the next. 

Then In My Life. A song that stands out even in The Beatles songbook. 'Of all these friends and lovers. There is no one that compares to you.' A harpsichord, the human heart. Then a couple of songs later the other side of the coin Run For Your Life. Lennon at his most callous.. But a side of love. A vengeful, murderous nature which we must always keep in mind and keep in check. And stick to the true road. Beatles still remain the greatest of guides.   

  

500 Greatest Albums of the 2000's # 314 Gruff Rhys - Yr Aral Gennhedlaeth

 

It's a Gruff Rhys album innit.

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 16 Car Seat Headrest

 

Car Seat Headrest's latest album The Scholars is a bold new Rock Opera apparently inspired by an apocryphal poem by Archbishop Guillermo Guadelupe Del Toledo. You certainly can't fault them for their ambition.

The bnd have become more adept musically since they made their initial splash.This is an intense, driven and multilayered album that is Indie in essence and Prog in scope and range.

It Starts With a Birthstone 200 Albums For 2025 # 17 Alan Sparhawk - Trampled With Turtles

 

Alan Sparhawk soldiers on. Like a man heading up a steep mountain slope.. Low behund him. The mountain plateaus and peaks ahead. I had a bath and listened to Trampled With Turtles on a bright Saturday morning at the end if May as I approach 60. 

He's an inspirational bloke. The music he's associated with has generally been sparse and flinty. minimal. Determined. Spawn of the Velvet Underground stable.

Trampled With Turtles sounds like a new begininng rather than a full stop. An end of career footnote. He rarely fails.

Fifteen years ago I saw him wuth a good friend. With Low. With his life partner. At an All Tommorrow's Parties festival. The musical friend of my lifetime.  He was talking about Syria. Shaking his head.

Now Syria is everywhere. Everywhere you look. So perhaps it's best not to look. Better to listen. Trampled With Turtles is a briliant sunrise