Fastest and loudest of the Summer 2009

A Wilhelm Scream

Favourite new act of the Summer 2009

Lucky Elephant

Surprise of the Summer 2009

Orkestra del Sol

Soundtrack for the Summer 2009

Florence and the Machine - Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)

Bestival 2009

Stuck in your musical ways? Need a relaxing weekend away? Well Bestival on the Isle of Wight is the place to be. Relax in the sun and listen to bands you've never heard of and wonder at the talent. Experience new genres. Wander through the woods and stumble upon bands playing in a gazebo. And definitely visit Solace for a cup of handmade chai; a work of genius!

Lucky Elephant

Favourites

Alkaline Trio
The Ataris
Bayside
The Beach Boys
The Beatles
Belle and Sebastian
Billy Bragg
Billy Talent
The Bouncing Souls
Brand New
Bruce Springsteen
Counting Crows
Dashboard Confessional
Fairport Convention
Feeder
Foo Fighters
Frank Turner
Iggy Pop
Jimi Hendrix
King Creosote
Led Zeppelin
Less Than Jake
Levellers
Mayday Parade
Millencolin
Neil Young
New Found Glory
Nils Lofgren
Pearl Jam
Snow Patrol
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes
Suzanne Vega
Thunder
The Used
The Who
Yellowcard

To name but a few!
Guilty pleasure: Abba

I am listening to...

04/09/09 Belle and Sebastian
06/09/09 Brand New
19/09/09 Florence and the Machine, Lucky Elephant, Doves, Fleet Foxes and V V Brown.

Here in this diary...

That's an Ataris lyric and one of my favourite songs of all time. I thought I'd make a blog about my music, not that I can play a thing but because music is the soundtrack to life. How ever did I arrive at A Wilhelm Scream next week and Bestival the week after when I should be listening to Max Bygraves in my slippers and cardy? Where did it all start?

The first single I ever owned was a Christmas present, She Loves You by The Beatles. It was wonderful. For years I thought that the only good bands had lead, rhythm and bass guitars and a drummer.What a bit of luck they took the hippy route just as it became terribly uncool to buy singles!

Then festivals happened. The first Isle of Wight one passed me by but I walked around outside the second at Wootton with friends, unable to afford a ticket, and could just hear snatches of Dylan from my garden.

But the third in 1970... I saw Hendrix! To be honest the sound wasn't great but I saw him! I remember watching Family from the hill because the view was better than inside. My friend's cousin wouldn't leave until they played The Weaver's Answer which they did at the end of the set. It was late at night and freezing and he had only a t-shirt and was sitting on his corduroy bomber jacket to keep the damp out. On the Saturday, I think, Taste played, not to universal acclaim to be followed by an American band with a brass section called Chicago. They were later to find fame as an appallingly soppy pop band beloved of mothers and daughters but at the time were sooooo cool and the first band I ever heard with a cause, Listen to the track Mother. It's about the environment, pretty groundbreaking in 1970. I was hooked and bought everything they realeased until they became insipid. It was the start of my jazz rock phase. What my sons call dad rock came later! 

And then Hendrix. I can't for the life of me remember the setlist (due to age rather than substance abuse) but I shall always love The Wind Cried Mary.
For the rest of the decade it was The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Small Faces and an embryonic Pink Floyd with the only album of theirs I really liked, Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The Yardbirds morphed into Led Zeppelin and The Small Faces into The Faces and thence to Rod Stewart whose Every Picture Tells a Story made a real impression. I was never really a fan of Bowie despite having the haircut.
At the turn of the decade for the teenager trying to impress girls the recipe   was The Moody Blues and a splash of Brut, not a recipe, looking back, that was terribly successful. The rest of the time was spent listening to Radio Luxembourg and being a rather domesticated hippy.
Getting a sense of identity with so much music about isn't easy and so it was I went from phase to phase briefly with things metal like Black Sabbath and, later, Thunder and also folk rock where I've long been a big fan of Fairport Convention. Where's the link? Well Fairport singer Sandy Denny did appear on a Led Zeppelin album and a beautiful voice she had too.
Luckily for me as I had no money there was no music during the 80s. Apart from The Police's Outlandos d'Amour and Elvis Costello's The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes which caused a long drive to find it there was nothing.
I think being a penniless parent unable to buy music is what causes us to lose touch so I was lucky that when I returned home one day in the 90s to hear one of my sons playing Bush, Pearl Jam and Nirvana I realised nothing had changed and I picked up where I left off. I've just realised that I've seen a lot of these bands live and my first gig on having money again was to take my elder son and his friend to see Deep Purple. This was to spark a rush of gigging that continues to this day.

The renewed Isle of Wight Festival has allowed me to see The Who, an excellent performanance, and the wonderful Neil Young but it is Bestival that gets me out of my musical rut. I was lucky enough to see Billy Bragg and there is always someone I've never heard of like King Creosote last year.
Most of the time, though, it's pop punk, for want of a better phrase, and emo. My favourite band The Ataris I've seen many times and there have also been great performances from Billy Talent, Bayside, The Bouncing Souls, Mayday Parade, Brand New at Brixton Academy and many many more. Check out my blip.fm link on this page for a far more comprehensive list.


To be continued with some of the less mainstream moments.