Ken’s Art O’Neill Challenge
Blog Entry 1.
This will be a short blog, 2 or 3 entries. Partly to track my experience of the Art O’Neill Challenge (which takes place tonight) and partly to show how my intake of Pro-Argi 9 helped me get through it.
However, I haven’t got through it yet!
Two bits of background – firstly the event itself – it’s a 55km overnight ultra-marathon (you can run, hike, or a combination) from Dublin Castle down and over the Wicklow mountains to the Glenmalure Valley, thus replicating the famous flight of Art O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell in the 16th Century. For more info on the event they have a great website www.artoneillchallenge.ie and the event also raises some crucial funds for Dublin/Wicklow Mountain Rescue.
Next, a few comments on my preparation.
Ok, so it hasn’t gone perfectly! But, when does training ever go perfectly?!
It’s been a mild winter, but since December I’ve had a lingering cold/cough. This is very unusual for me, ever since I started taking Pro-Argi 9 my immune system has been excellent and I think it’s been at least 18 months since I had a cold. I also woke up with a bad neck strain 4 days ago, but thankfully that has diminished.
Basically, my training has been quite unscientific – just runs at the weekend, athletics sessions on Tuesdays (Crusaders AC) and other miscellaneous bits of running/walking/stretching/gymwork etc.
However, I slept well last night and will try for another nap around teatime before making my way in to the city centre.
Nutrition wise, I’ve been trying to eat sensibly since Christmas (battling a bit of weight gain!) and obviously am carb-loading since yesterday. I’ve also upped my intake of Pro-Argi 9 in the last few days, to 3 scoops a day. For anyone who hasn’t heard of it, it is the best arginine supplement on the market. I sell it myself (with my business partner Paul) and can also get you involved in selling it (if you’re interested in a nice simple 2nd income).
A brief word on the product – arginine is a Nobel winning food supplement which creates nitric oxide in the body and has been having revolutionary impact on many health issues, especially anything cardio related. It’s also amazing for energy and for athletes. But there’s way more information on our website www.heartdiseasemiracle.com and please contact me at ken@heartdiseasemiracle.com or by phone or Facebook if you want more info.
Anyway, back to tonight’s event.
I am officially listed as an ultra-runner, thus setting off at 2pm, whereas the walkers set off at midnight. Realistically though, I won’t run it all, just the road parts, and on the mountains I aim to run the flats, and the safe downhills. Otherwise we’ll have to see. One thing for sure, I’ll be running very slowly! I’ve never attempted anything like this before, and my previous longest mountain race I’ve done was 22 miles/38km (nearly 5 hours), plus I’ve done a couple of road marathons.
Ok, if I don’t report back before the race – watch out for my blog posting to say how it went! All going well, I’ll complete the race in less than 12 hours, thus finishing by 2pm on Saturday afternoon, and should be back to my laptop in Dublin by evening.
Good luck to all the other participants and let’s hope we all have a safe night on the mountains!
Ken
Blog Entry 2. 9 Hours 25 minutes later!
Well it's over and I'm glad to say the race went well!
For anyone who didn't read my first blog entry, I was doing the Art O'Neill Challenge - a 55km overnight ultra marathon (you can run, hike, or a combination of both) from Dublin Castle over the Wicklow mountains to Glenmalure, in tribute to the legendary prison escape/run by Art O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell in the 16th century.
This year, just for good measure, the organisers chose Friday 13th as the date!
Arrived at Dublin Castle just before midnight to see the hikers off - and then in to register, and finally, off we went running through the Castle gates at 2am out to a bemused Dublin - 80 runners in hi-vis jackets no doubt being a strange sight to bleary-eyed pub-goers staggering out of the chippers..
I'll try not to make this blog too long, but just to back-track a bit and talk a bit more about my pre-race preparation. I said I would mention nutrition. It's such an important part of long distance running, and I usually get it fairly right. This event though I, not quite – and my stomach wasn’t in great shape throughout the race. Even though, for about 36 hours before the race I was keeping it simple, plenty of carbs, litres upon litres of water, vitamins and things like dark chocolate to store fat (no jokes please!) Plus, of course my 3 Synergy products, Mistify, Phytolife and Pro-Argi 9. Some readers may not be interested, so I won't go in to more detail here, but please feel free to read more about them on www.heartdiseasemiracle.com, or to contact me for more info. Final word on it - Pro-Argi 9 is amazing for energy, and definitely helped me through my first ultra-marathon!
The only other things to mention about preparation are Kit (which I mostly got right), Sleep (I got a crucial 2 hrs sleep at Friday teatime as well as a fairly good night's sleep on Thurs) and Training (it went as well as could be expected - given a lingering cough and a sore neck).
So, to the race!
I was running with Justin and Jacqui, and we stuck together all the way to the mountains (30K of road), and were also in touch with Aidan, who had set off at 1.15.
Our plan was to run all the road parts, all the trails/fireroads and any safe mountain downhills and to walk the extreme uphills and the parts with very bad terrain. We mostly stuck to this plan!
The road part was (as expected) long and boring, enlivened only by the excitement of the event and camaraderie of the other runners, plus the knowledge that runners got attacked last year by locals in the countryside just beyond Tallaght (and no, not by animals!)
Anyway, nothing untoward happened, and we made it to the first transition stop in Kilbride (20K) in just over 2 hours.
By this point I had already made 2 mistakes. Firstly, I think we ran the first part too fast. For me, anyway. This was to lead to problems later!
Plus, I was wearing too much and my core body temperature was probably too high. It was a perfect night mind you - great visibilty and quite mild for the time of year. Temperatures I think ranged from about zero to 5 degrees.
Also, we spent a little too long in transition - it's amazing how long it can take to change top/runners, rearrange kit (for the mountain section to come), and have a bit of soup. Lessons learned here about Kit logistics!
And, oh yes, mentioning soup, that reminds me – as I said before my stomach was NOT in good shape for most of the run. Whether it was nerves (probably not, maybe it had a small impact), something I ate (not sure), or just the overall shock an event like this does to your body (most likely), I really couldn't take in much sustenance throughout the race. My total food intake was - one energy bar, one banana, one cup of soup, one bowl of porridge and one coffee - which is NOT enough food for an event this physical and this long. And I just couldn't stomach any of the electrolite drinks or Lucozade I had brought with me, and thus realised I was going to be very short on liquids, as I only had 2 bottles of regular water. Despite filling these bottles up at every transition station, I got quite badly dehydrated over the 9 hours.
Anyway, after the first break, off we went on the final 10k of roads, passing Dave and Don (from my job) walking, who seemed to be performing great and still in good spirits, until we hit the mountains proper at Black Hill. At this point Jacqui went off on her own, which looking back, she probably should/could have done earlier, as she is an amazing runner and was being held back. Likewise later in the race I was holding Justin back, but on the other hand, the company of another runner helps in other ways - eg keeping morale up. I should also mention that Justin did a great job of navigating us over the mountains - despite excellent moonlit conditions and 450 other people on the hills it's no easy task, and we made great progress - always taking the quickest lines.
At the top of Black Hill and on to the gap beside Mullaughlaveen (Billy Byrne’s Gap?) it was quite cold and windy, and (now nearly 4 hours in) our feet were completely soaking wet. Having said that I was happy with my decision not to wear waterproof socks, I just wore thin merino lining socks (thanks for the tip, Aidan!) underneath regular long-distance running socks and mountain runners. Once you keep moving, your feet don't get cold.
Terrain at this point was tricky, but manageable. My head torch wasn't really good enough (it wouldn't take a genius to realise a good head-torch is rather important for running over the Wicklow mountains at night!).
And this is the thing I'm most relieved about, sitting at my computer the day after - that I didn't get a single injury the whole night! Despite copious opportunities to twist an ankle in a rabbit hole, or fall off a peat hag, or slip down the Art's Cross climb(!), the worst thing that happened was about 6 or 7 falls - mostly in the latter stages by which time my brain wasn't really working but thankfully none of these falls did any damage.
From the gap, we made it down (a couple of hours later) to the start of a forest, and on to a trail. But, for the last half hour of that open mountain stretch - the most magical part of the event happened - you've probably guessed it - daybreak! Just a lovely transition from moonlight to daylight as the vista of the rest of southwest Wicklow towards Table track opened up, just amazing - as had been looking backwards at the trail of head torches back towards Black Hill, and earlier again - looking back to Dublin city and the sea from high up in the Dublin mountains.
After this, magical moments started to become thin on the ground (!), as the race was really taking a toll. I was dehydrated, under-nourished, and my legs were starting to get very sore, and my back/neck a bit sore too. I'm sure sleep deprivation was a factor too, but because we were running, or at least walking fast (on open mountain) we HAD to concentrate - I imagine sleep deprivation was a bigger problem for the walkers.
From here we had about 30 minutes of trail, until we arrived at the 2nd transition station. This time we kept it quick - just swiped in and out again (with our timing chips), a quick bowl of porridge, a coffee and a water refill, and off we went on to Leg 3.
This was to prove the most ferocious. For me, at least. Buoyed a bit by being finally in daylight (it was a lovely morning) and the porridge, this soon faded as we hit the open mountain route up to Art's Cross. We hadn't 'recce'd' this part, but Justin continued to do a great Nav job, and we did it in good time. But, the terrain was difficult and the final part up to the Cross itself was 'hands and knees' stuff. This had a couple of impacts - incredibly draining on energy and legs (which were by now not functioning at all well) plus my gloves/hands got soaked for the first time, leaving me with cold hands for the remainder.
From Art's Cross, it was a long flat-ish slog in a newly emerged fog (ironically visiblity had been better at dead of night) across sloshy peat-hags and finally downwards to a trail and on to what even my tired eyes could see was finally the Glenmalure Valley, and thus, not far from home!
From there it was a long (for me anyway) 4km or so, on trail (with the river on left) to the finish. By now, I was running like a very elderly person, but at least I was still running, and 9 hours and 25 minutes after I left the city centre, I crossed the finish line. They had a proper finish line with banners, and everybody got a bit of a clap when they finished. The event organiser was there as I crossed the line, a chap called Gearoid I think, and I was glad to shake his hand and congratulate him on an amazing event. The toughest thing I've ever done? God, yes! Would I do it again? Possibly not. But -I learned a lot - about preparation, logistics, nutrition, pacing, and how to deal with a long race mentally. My plan now is to continue to be sensible about my running (my knees are doing ok, but I need to be careful) and continue to measure the impact of the products I take to help with my running (and my health in general) especially the Pro-Argi 9.
Post race, I caught up with friends in the Glenmalure Lodge for a bit, prior to the bus back to Dublin. Next morning now, and I feel ok actually, had a long nights sleep, plenty of food and a hot bath, with a massage to follow in 2 days time.
A big thanks to my fellow runners - there was so much camaraderie out there, even though it was getting like a zombie movie towards the end, as people staggered towards the finish - and a huge thanks to the organisers and to Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue who were out in big numbers and made us all feel safe on this endeavour which some of my friends have variously described as mad, nuts, bonkers, you name it!
The last thing I'll say is, I hope everyone made it safely through the night, and congratulations to Eoin Keith for winning the event, shattering the record (previously held by, um, Eoin Keith!) by 90 (count 'em) minutes - with a winning time of 5 hrs 26 mins.
See everyone on the hills again soon..
My sites/blogs;
www.heartdiseasemiracle.com
www.irishmortgagedebtforgiveness.blogspot.com
www.samsonsdiner.blogspot.com
www.kencowley.com (content coming soon)
email: kencowley@ireland.com or ken@heartdiseasemiracle.com
Tel: 00 353 (0)85 7129060
Monday, January 16, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
2011 Review of the Year
Indicative of the times we live in, this was a bad year for me for attending concerts/plays and albums purchased etc, but that doesn’t mean I don't have plenty to say about it!
Gigs
So, let me start with gigs. I can’t remember when I last saw so few concerts in a calendar year, and it wasn’t just recession related – there really weren't that many I was bothered about. I only saw a few Dylan shows, and have reviewed them independently on the blog, so just to reiterate it was a pretty good year for the now septegenarian performer.
The setlists have improved (marginally) but it’s the quality of the performances that really hit home this year. And it’s mainly visual. Audio wise, he continues to do (mainly) interesting things with what’s left of his vocal chords, but visually he is out front of stage now for over half the show, mainly without guitar, and is moving around and throwing shapes as only a 70 year old Bob Dylan could (or would) do. It’s hard to explain how this works and how it so dramatically improves the show, sorry but it really is a case of ‘you had to be there’(barring, that is, the somewhat lacklustre October Dublin show). It's not all visual though, the music is good too, and the shows are well worth downloading.
Dylan’s support act on the winter tour was Mark Knopfler and it was interesting to see a few of the Knopfler sets, even if every night is identical. It may seem obvious - but the most interesting thing about his show is his guitar playing, especially as he plays very few Dire Straits songs and mumbles the lyrics. Charisma wise he trails a long way behind his tour-buddy Bob, but he made up for this with his nice guitar contributions to Dylan’s sets (usually on the first 3 or 4 Dylan songs of the night) and in his perfectly timed hand-gesture during a moving tour-closing ‘Forever Young’. Again, there’s an element of you had to be there, but here’s a link to a decent youtube of that moment (it happens in the final verse) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja8rJ-0H7kc&feature=related
The Dylan shows were the only ‘big’ shows I saw, and were my favourites of the year. Runner-up was definitely Gillian Welch in the Grand Canal Theatre, also reviewed on this blog at the time.
Probably my 3rd favourite show of the year was a very enjoyable performance of Mahler’s 5th Symphony in the National Concert Hall. I’m not particularly expert on classical music, but his symphonies just have so much going on, and in a live setting you can get completely lost in them. Oh, and classical music is great value! In Dublin anyway..
Earlier in the year, before she became an 'arena-artist' I saw Imelda May in Vicar Street and it was great to see her strong rockabilly show in this small, and local (she was born and raised a few streets away) setting.
Another artist I saw in Vicar Street was Richard Thompson, only the 2nd time I’ve seen him, and as expected - the show was funny, literate and choc-full of great music. All from one man and a guitar, which is not usually my favourite format. Mind you, having said how good this show was, I would still love to see Richard sometime with his band, knowing that he is as good electric as he is acoustic.
Oh yes, and Paul Brady also played a really good show in the same Dublin venue back in April, showcasing the variety in his back catalogue with no little style and vigour.
The other band I enjoyed a lot this year was the Waterboys who I saw twice, once supporting Dylan in London, and then on their own at the atmospheric Tall Ships festival in Waterford. Both shows were very good and I must say I’m torn between their Yeats show and their ‘standard’ show. 2012 bodes well in that the band plan to do a compromise show, doing a set of Yeats songs, followed by a set of Waterboys songs.
Finally, just to mention some of the other acts at that Dylan festival show in London – the Waterboys shone brightest, but also of interest were sets from Christy Moore (not as good as normal due to a poor sound mix) and the Cranberries (ditto) and the Gaslight Anthem – who were kind of ‘Bruce meets The Clash’ with a fanatical young following.
Live artists of the year
Bob Dylan
Gillian Welch (with David Rawlings)
Mahler’s 5th Symphony by the RTE concert orchestra
The Waterboys
Paul Brady
Mark Knopfler
Richard Thompson
Imelda May
Films
I had a somewhat more prolific year for films than gigs, and there were plenty of good 'uns.
Top of the pile was the amazing Martin Scorsese documentary on George Harrison, which I was lucky enough to see on the big screen. Choc-full of great footage, much of which was new to me, and no little insight in to the story of one of my favourite artists. The best contributions were from McCartney, Ringo and Olivia.
The King’s Speech came out around New Year last year I think, and deserved all its awards. A classic period biopic/drama, it had great acting, writing and directing – which is about all you need in a film.
Hugo was a magical film about childhood and early Cinema and was a rarity in that it actually merited being in 3D – it also had a great storyline and was an unusual genre for Scorsese to tackle. Having said all that, it wasn’t really a children’s film – too long and too slow probably, but for this adult(!?) it was just fine!
Midnight in Paris was another solid Woody Allen film,as were his previous few, not that that stopped all the critics slavishly calling it a ‘return to form’. The same thing happens all the time with R.E.M. albums! Well, not anymore, now that they’ve retired..
Anyway, back to films - the 2nd Sherlock Holmes film was fairly entertaining, yes of course it was ridiculously over-the-top, but that was the intention I imagine..
The Adjustment Bureau was a witty and enjoyable adaptation of a Philip K Dick story, which as with all his stories, left you pondering longer than most writers.
The latest Pirates of the Caribbean was a (very)slight improvement on recent installments, especially the London scenes.
The Maids on the 7th Floor was a hilarious French 60s-set comedy, hard to see anyone in Hollywood ever coming up with something like this. It also had something to say, about French and Spanish culture and immigration etc.
The only other non-English-language film I remember seeing in 2011 was The Skin that I Live In - a creepy Almodovar film about possession, revenge and other themes, which almost worked. A bold effort though, and very enjoyable.
Other films I saw that had their moments but didn’t set my world on fire were things like The Guard (over-rated) and Rum Diary (a bit rambling).
Early 2012 looks like being a good period for films – I’ll try and review some of them on the blog, (eg The Artist), plus some others I missed in 2011 (eg True Grit)
My top few films
Living in the Material World – George Harrison documentary
The King’s Speech
Hugo
The Adjustment Bureau
The Maids on the 7th Floor
Midnight in Paris
The Skin that I Live In
Plays/Shows
As with concerts, it was a quiet year, I think I only saw three. And one of them was a musical, so really it was only two!
Both were enjoyable though, especially Pygmalion in the Abbey. It’s such a strong play, full of lines that you’d recognise from THAT musical (ie My Fair Lady, for which Pygmalion was the source), and very well acted by the ensemble cast, especially Risteard Cooper as Higgins. I’ve said it before (I think!), but Cooper is very underrated as an actor.
Hay Fever was ok as the Gate’s summer play, but it’s not my favourite Noel Coward play and would only give it 7/10.
The musical I saw was Spamalot, a silly but enjoyable Monty Python romp. It had some good singers – and the script is not bad, with some nice local Dublin ‘tailoring’ – however a mark deducted for Phil Jupitus who seemed to be sleepwalking through his part.
Best Play
Pygmalion
Art
It was a quiet year for art in Dublin as the National Gallery is partially closed for renovations. And I never got around to seeing the Frida Kahlo exhibition in IMMA. I did get to see the highly lauded Leonardo exhibition in London though, thanks to 3 hours of early morning queuing! It was very enjoyable, and seemed to have nearly everything that survives of the great man, barring the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper!
I also got to spend a few hours in the Prado in Madrid, which is one of those museums overflowing with old Masters on a scale that takes the breath away. On a lesser scale, but full of similar quality art is the neighbouring Thyssien Museum which I also visited during a very enjoyable weekend in the Spanish capital.
Exhibition of the Year
Leonardo – National Gallery London
Albums
Not a vintage year, but not too bad either. I don’t know if it’s creeping old-age – but there just aren’t so many albums I’m interested in being released these days. It was great however to finally see a new Gillian Welch album, and it certainly ranks close in quality to her first 4 albums which were a hard act to follow to say the least. The songs seemed to work better live though.
And, conversely, the reverse seemed to be the case for the new Wilco album! But, I haven’t had it long, and it needs a few more listens before I can really rate it.
For now though, my album of 2011 is Tom Wait’s new one ‘Bad as Me’. Full of roaring rockers and gorgeous ballads, the songs are snappier and somewhat more effective than on Real Gone. Great arrangements and singing (yes, singing!) too – and boy would be great to see this album in a live setting.
Other good new albums include PJ Harvey’s ‘Shake England Shake’ albeit it's slightly overrated - and The Black Key’s boisterous El Camino. And there were lots of good songs on the Noel Gallagher debut.
Albums of the year
Tom Waits Bad as Me
Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest
Wilco – The Whole Love
PJ Harvey - Shake England Shake
The Black Keys – El Camino
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Books/Web/Apps/Blogs
Again – mainly re-reading old books, and stuck in magazines and newspapers as well as stuff about music or running.
So, really, the only one outstanding new novel I read this year was the ‘new’ Sherlock Holmes book ‘The House of Silk’ by Anthony Horowitz. It was the first time the Conan-Doyle estate has sanctioned a new novel and Horowitz seems to have really captured the feel and style of the original books, not to mention that it is as ‘un-putdown-able’ as Doyle’s best!
I also really enjoyed a great book about mountain running called ‘Mud Sweat and Tears’ by Moire O’Sullivan.
Online and via Apps, I enjoyed content from the Irish Times, New York Times, Evening Standard, thejournal.ie and more. Plus lots of great websites and blogs. Some more examples;
www.expectingrain.com
www.imra.ie
www.mountain-runner.com
www.adriandenning.co.uk
TV
Ok, anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for period dramas, especially if set between, say, the 1880s and the 1940s.
So, I was always going to like Downton Abbey. It may have the occasional unintentionally funny line, and the 2nd series had a slightly rushed feel about it, but it’s still a cleverly constructed piece of television and it isn’t topping the ratings for nothing. That said, the X Factor also tops the ratings so what do I know!
Plus, I was always going to like South Riding. Nowhere near as popular as Downton Abbey, but this small 3-part 1930s drama (adapted from a novel) was top notch, most notably for the performance of the amazing Anna Maxwell Martin.
If I had to choose one programme though as the best on TV at the moment I’d have to go for Sherlock – the contemporary re-imagining of the Conan-Doyle stories. However the first season was 2010 and the 2nd season started on New Years Day 2012, so I guess I’ll leave my actual review for the moment..
Other period dramas I saw were the BBC’s Great Expectations (it was ok), the Young James Herriot (a bit disappointing really) and Sky Atlantic's Boardwalk Empire (it started off ok, but got quite boring after a while, frankly), oh and while I’m not wild about Dr Who, the Christmas Day special was quite good.
Which leads me to ask – barring Sherlock, did I see ANY CONTEMPORARY drama in 2011?!
Phew - Blue Bloods to the rescue! A fairly bog-standard NYC cop drama – some people didn’t like it – but I thought it was pretty solid, not the greatest writing of all time, but good acting and nicely directed (it kept you wanting to know what’s coming next).
In 2012 I resolve to watch The Killing and The Wire (yes I still haven't seen The Wire)!
And leaving drama aside, I watched a fair bit of news, music programmes and documentaries – none of which really stood out, maybe other than the BBCs Frozen Planet.
Top few TV progs
Sherlock
Downton Abbey
South Riding
Frozen Planet
Blue Bloods
Misc
Culture Night - always one of the highlights of the year in Dublin. And it’s completely free. Amazed more people don’t go to it.
Personal stuff
A tough year, but a really good one for the reasons that matter..
Final word
This blog is mainly about culture, and sometimes about running, but please see my short list of websites (below) which are about other matters.
And keep an eye on www.kencowley.com where I'll be launching other writing and expanding on other projects in the coming months. There's nothing on that site yet, but please feel free to bookmark it!
See you all down the road in 2012..
Ken Cowley
www.heartdiseasemiracle.com
www.irishmortgagedebtforgiveness.blogspot.com
www.samsonsdiner.blogspot.com
email: kencowley@ireland.com or ken@heartdiseasemiracle.com
Tel: 00 353 (0)85 7129060
Gigs
So, let me start with gigs. I can’t remember when I last saw so few concerts in a calendar year, and it wasn’t just recession related – there really weren't that many I was bothered about. I only saw a few Dylan shows, and have reviewed them independently on the blog, so just to reiterate it was a pretty good year for the now septegenarian performer.
The setlists have improved (marginally) but it’s the quality of the performances that really hit home this year. And it’s mainly visual. Audio wise, he continues to do (mainly) interesting things with what’s left of his vocal chords, but visually he is out front of stage now for over half the show, mainly without guitar, and is moving around and throwing shapes as only a 70 year old Bob Dylan could (or would) do. It’s hard to explain how this works and how it so dramatically improves the show, sorry but it really is a case of ‘you had to be there’(barring, that is, the somewhat lacklustre October Dublin show). It's not all visual though, the music is good too, and the shows are well worth downloading.
Dylan’s support act on the winter tour was Mark Knopfler and it was interesting to see a few of the Knopfler sets, even if every night is identical. It may seem obvious - but the most interesting thing about his show is his guitar playing, especially as he plays very few Dire Straits songs and mumbles the lyrics. Charisma wise he trails a long way behind his tour-buddy Bob, but he made up for this with his nice guitar contributions to Dylan’s sets (usually on the first 3 or 4 Dylan songs of the night) and in his perfectly timed hand-gesture during a moving tour-closing ‘Forever Young’. Again, there’s an element of you had to be there, but here’s a link to a decent youtube of that moment (it happens in the final verse) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja8rJ-0H7kc&feature=related
The Dylan shows were the only ‘big’ shows I saw, and were my favourites of the year. Runner-up was definitely Gillian Welch in the Grand Canal Theatre, also reviewed on this blog at the time.
Probably my 3rd favourite show of the year was a very enjoyable performance of Mahler’s 5th Symphony in the National Concert Hall. I’m not particularly expert on classical music, but his symphonies just have so much going on, and in a live setting you can get completely lost in them. Oh, and classical music is great value! In Dublin anyway..
Earlier in the year, before she became an 'arena-artist' I saw Imelda May in Vicar Street and it was great to see her strong rockabilly show in this small, and local (she was born and raised a few streets away) setting.
Another artist I saw in Vicar Street was Richard Thompson, only the 2nd time I’ve seen him, and as expected - the show was funny, literate and choc-full of great music. All from one man and a guitar, which is not usually my favourite format. Mind you, having said how good this show was, I would still love to see Richard sometime with his band, knowing that he is as good electric as he is acoustic.
Oh yes, and Paul Brady also played a really good show in the same Dublin venue back in April, showcasing the variety in his back catalogue with no little style and vigour.
The other band I enjoyed a lot this year was the Waterboys who I saw twice, once supporting Dylan in London, and then on their own at the atmospheric Tall Ships festival in Waterford. Both shows were very good and I must say I’m torn between their Yeats show and their ‘standard’ show. 2012 bodes well in that the band plan to do a compromise show, doing a set of Yeats songs, followed by a set of Waterboys songs.
Finally, just to mention some of the other acts at that Dylan festival show in London – the Waterboys shone brightest, but also of interest were sets from Christy Moore (not as good as normal due to a poor sound mix) and the Cranberries (ditto) and the Gaslight Anthem – who were kind of ‘Bruce meets The Clash’ with a fanatical young following.
Live artists of the year
Bob Dylan
Gillian Welch (with David Rawlings)
Mahler’s 5th Symphony by the RTE concert orchestra
The Waterboys
Paul Brady
Mark Knopfler
Richard Thompson
Imelda May
Films
I had a somewhat more prolific year for films than gigs, and there were plenty of good 'uns.
Top of the pile was the amazing Martin Scorsese documentary on George Harrison, which I was lucky enough to see on the big screen. Choc-full of great footage, much of which was new to me, and no little insight in to the story of one of my favourite artists. The best contributions were from McCartney, Ringo and Olivia.
The King’s Speech came out around New Year last year I think, and deserved all its awards. A classic period biopic/drama, it had great acting, writing and directing – which is about all you need in a film.
Hugo was a magical film about childhood and early Cinema and was a rarity in that it actually merited being in 3D – it also had a great storyline and was an unusual genre for Scorsese to tackle. Having said all that, it wasn’t really a children’s film – too long and too slow probably, but for this adult(!?) it was just fine!
Midnight in Paris was another solid Woody Allen film,as were his previous few, not that that stopped all the critics slavishly calling it a ‘return to form’. The same thing happens all the time with R.E.M. albums! Well, not anymore, now that they’ve retired..
Anyway, back to films - the 2nd Sherlock Holmes film was fairly entertaining, yes of course it was ridiculously over-the-top, but that was the intention I imagine..
The Adjustment Bureau was a witty and enjoyable adaptation of a Philip K Dick story, which as with all his stories, left you pondering longer than most writers.
The latest Pirates of the Caribbean was a (very)slight improvement on recent installments, especially the London scenes.
The Maids on the 7th Floor was a hilarious French 60s-set comedy, hard to see anyone in Hollywood ever coming up with something like this. It also had something to say, about French and Spanish culture and immigration etc.
The only other non-English-language film I remember seeing in 2011 was The Skin that I Live In - a creepy Almodovar film about possession, revenge and other themes, which almost worked. A bold effort though, and very enjoyable.
Other films I saw that had their moments but didn’t set my world on fire were things like The Guard (over-rated) and Rum Diary (a bit rambling).
Early 2012 looks like being a good period for films – I’ll try and review some of them on the blog, (eg The Artist), plus some others I missed in 2011 (eg True Grit)
My top few films
Living in the Material World – George Harrison documentary
The King’s Speech
Hugo
The Adjustment Bureau
The Maids on the 7th Floor
Midnight in Paris
The Skin that I Live In
Plays/Shows
As with concerts, it was a quiet year, I think I only saw three. And one of them was a musical, so really it was only two!
Both were enjoyable though, especially Pygmalion in the Abbey. It’s such a strong play, full of lines that you’d recognise from THAT musical (ie My Fair Lady, for which Pygmalion was the source), and very well acted by the ensemble cast, especially Risteard Cooper as Higgins. I’ve said it before (I think!), but Cooper is very underrated as an actor.
Hay Fever was ok as the Gate’s summer play, but it’s not my favourite Noel Coward play and would only give it 7/10.
The musical I saw was Spamalot, a silly but enjoyable Monty Python romp. It had some good singers – and the script is not bad, with some nice local Dublin ‘tailoring’ – however a mark deducted for Phil Jupitus who seemed to be sleepwalking through his part.
Best Play
Pygmalion
Art
It was a quiet year for art in Dublin as the National Gallery is partially closed for renovations. And I never got around to seeing the Frida Kahlo exhibition in IMMA. I did get to see the highly lauded Leonardo exhibition in London though, thanks to 3 hours of early morning queuing! It was very enjoyable, and seemed to have nearly everything that survives of the great man, barring the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper!
I also got to spend a few hours in the Prado in Madrid, which is one of those museums overflowing with old Masters on a scale that takes the breath away. On a lesser scale, but full of similar quality art is the neighbouring Thyssien Museum which I also visited during a very enjoyable weekend in the Spanish capital.
Exhibition of the Year
Leonardo – National Gallery London
Albums
Not a vintage year, but not too bad either. I don’t know if it’s creeping old-age – but there just aren’t so many albums I’m interested in being released these days. It was great however to finally see a new Gillian Welch album, and it certainly ranks close in quality to her first 4 albums which were a hard act to follow to say the least. The songs seemed to work better live though.
And, conversely, the reverse seemed to be the case for the new Wilco album! But, I haven’t had it long, and it needs a few more listens before I can really rate it.
For now though, my album of 2011 is Tom Wait’s new one ‘Bad as Me’. Full of roaring rockers and gorgeous ballads, the songs are snappier and somewhat more effective than on Real Gone. Great arrangements and singing (yes, singing!) too – and boy would be great to see this album in a live setting.
Other good new albums include PJ Harvey’s ‘Shake England Shake’ albeit it's slightly overrated - and The Black Key’s boisterous El Camino. And there were lots of good songs on the Noel Gallagher debut.
Albums of the year
Tom Waits Bad as Me
Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest
Wilco – The Whole Love
PJ Harvey - Shake England Shake
The Black Keys – El Camino
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Books/Web/Apps/Blogs
Again – mainly re-reading old books, and stuck in magazines and newspapers as well as stuff about music or running.
So, really, the only one outstanding new novel I read this year was the ‘new’ Sherlock Holmes book ‘The House of Silk’ by Anthony Horowitz. It was the first time the Conan-Doyle estate has sanctioned a new novel and Horowitz seems to have really captured the feel and style of the original books, not to mention that it is as ‘un-putdown-able’ as Doyle’s best!
I also really enjoyed a great book about mountain running called ‘Mud Sweat and Tears’ by Moire O’Sullivan.
Online and via Apps, I enjoyed content from the Irish Times, New York Times, Evening Standard, thejournal.ie and more. Plus lots of great websites and blogs. Some more examples;
www.expectingrain.com
www.imra.ie
www.mountain-runner.com
www.adriandenning.co.uk
TV
Ok, anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for period dramas, especially if set between, say, the 1880s and the 1940s.
So, I was always going to like Downton Abbey. It may have the occasional unintentionally funny line, and the 2nd series had a slightly rushed feel about it, but it’s still a cleverly constructed piece of television and it isn’t topping the ratings for nothing. That said, the X Factor also tops the ratings so what do I know!
Plus, I was always going to like South Riding. Nowhere near as popular as Downton Abbey, but this small 3-part 1930s drama (adapted from a novel) was top notch, most notably for the performance of the amazing Anna Maxwell Martin.
If I had to choose one programme though as the best on TV at the moment I’d have to go for Sherlock – the contemporary re-imagining of the Conan-Doyle stories. However the first season was 2010 and the 2nd season started on New Years Day 2012, so I guess I’ll leave my actual review for the moment..
Other period dramas I saw were the BBC’s Great Expectations (it was ok), the Young James Herriot (a bit disappointing really) and Sky Atlantic's Boardwalk Empire (it started off ok, but got quite boring after a while, frankly), oh and while I’m not wild about Dr Who, the Christmas Day special was quite good.
Which leads me to ask – barring Sherlock, did I see ANY CONTEMPORARY drama in 2011?!
Phew - Blue Bloods to the rescue! A fairly bog-standard NYC cop drama – some people didn’t like it – but I thought it was pretty solid, not the greatest writing of all time, but good acting and nicely directed (it kept you wanting to know what’s coming next).
In 2012 I resolve to watch The Killing and The Wire (yes I still haven't seen The Wire)!
And leaving drama aside, I watched a fair bit of news, music programmes and documentaries – none of which really stood out, maybe other than the BBCs Frozen Planet.
Top few TV progs
Sherlock
Downton Abbey
South Riding
Frozen Planet
Blue Bloods
Misc
Culture Night - always one of the highlights of the year in Dublin. And it’s completely free. Amazed more people don’t go to it.
Personal stuff
A tough year, but a really good one for the reasons that matter..
Final word
This blog is mainly about culture, and sometimes about running, but please see my short list of websites (below) which are about other matters.
And keep an eye on www.kencowley.com where I'll be launching other writing and expanding on other projects in the coming months. There's nothing on that site yet, but please feel free to bookmark it!
See you all down the road in 2012..
Ken Cowley
www.heartdiseasemiracle.com
www.irishmortgagedebtforgiveness.blogspot.com
www.samsonsdiner.blogspot.com
email: kencowley@ireland.com or ken@heartdiseasemiracle.com
Tel: 00 353 (0)85 7129060
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Review of Dylan at Hammersmith November 2011
I thought I’d write a wrap-up review of the last few shows on the Dylan/Knopfler tour, focusing especially on the last show, but also touching on the entire tour, and where the Never Ending Tour is at (for me) as 2011 draws to a close.
Essentially this has been a good tour. By any standards. But especially by the standard of Dylan’s last few half-decade or so of touring. My opinion is that there has been a steady improvement since 2009, following a steady decline since 2001. That decline was very gradual though, and there were great periods within it, eg Fall 2002, Fall 2003, the likes of Bonnaroo, Barrowlands 2004, Fall 2005 with the altered band line-up, Fall 2006 which had the fillip of the Modern Times songs, etc etc. But 2007, 2008 were not so great really, so it’s been good to see a steady improvement since then.
However that does not mean his voice has improved. Far from it! The Dylan we see on stage today does not have anywhere near the vocal range of the late 90s/early ‘00s, nor even that of 2005. Coupled with this problem was that he seemed to get so fed up of singing some songs that he began to phrase them in ever more bizarre ways. In the heyday of the N.E.T. this was one of the ‘selling points’ for regular attendees, the fact that not only did he regularly change the song arrangements, but he also changed the phrasing, often from night to night. But, at that time, the ever changing phrasing seemed to have some point to it, and he usually found some way to make the phrasing fit the song, or whatever emotion he was trying to convey on the particular night. In recent years, while he can still achieve this when he wants to, there have been occasions when the bizarre phrasing didn’t seem to make any sense at all. Some songs seem to be guiltier of this than others, eg Hattie Carroll and Hard Rain. So good to see things improve on this front and that he continues to do 'interesting' things with what are left of his vocal chords.
All of which brings us to a mild November day in Hammersmith last Monday. The tour had been notable for several reasons. Firstly, of course, having Mark Knopfler as an opening act. Having seen the opening night of the tour in Dublin 6 weeks ago, I had been disappointed he played not one Dire Straits song, so it’s been good that he’s added Brothers in Arms and So Far Away to his set. The rest of his set is pleasant rather than inspirational, the most interesting thing for me being his guitar playing. He has definitely added something to Dylan’s sets too, as from mid-tour on he joined Dylan every night for the first 3 or 4 numbers, just playing guitar, and making a nice contribution to the band’s sound.
The other notable thing about the tour is Dylan’s increased engagement with the audience. From Glasgow onwards he had been out in the middle of the stage much more than usual (up to half the numbers) – and in a much more energetic way, moving around almost like a boxer just holding the microphone in one hand and his harmonica/harmonica mike in the other hand and/or using the mike stand as a prop of sorts. This has made the shows considerably more enjoyable visually, and haven’t hurt the musical performance at all, quite the opposite actually.
By the London shows, the level of energy from earlier in the tour had perhaps ebbed a little, but was still very evident on some songs. So, what were the highlights of the London run? Here are a few examples;
Mississippi – very enjoyable new bouncy arrangement, making this the best live version certainly since 2001
Blind Willie McTell – amazingly this is (arguably) even better than the great arrangement he had been using since 1997, now cast in a genre that’s hard to define – part country, part stomping 1920s dixieland jazz (if that makes any sense!), punctuated (and finished) with some of the best hand-held harmonica you’ll ever see
Man in the Long Black Coat – this great song from 1989 has been transformed from a slow atmospheric number to a powerful up-tempo opportunity for Bob to stalk the stage barking out the verses in his best 2011 growl, again with fine harmonica
Forgetful Heart – I’ve seen some amazing versions of this since the song came out on Dylan's last studio album in 2009, but the one on Sunday at Hammersmith probably tops them all. This is 2011 Dylan at his best, and by far the quietest song he performs these days (Dylan concerts are now very loud rock affairs, with very little acoustic or quiet songs). Anyway, he gave this song an incredible vocal in London and performed it very theatrically too, like some kind of torch-song, really communicating with the audience like he used to in 1995 or 1999 or earlier in his career. At times during this performance I felt he was incorporating the spirit of older performers, not the blues/country guys he normally reminds us of but people like Sinatra, Fred Astaire, even Charlie Chaplin.
These are just a few highlights – lots of other songs were also very well performed over these 3 nights, and my only complaints are that he plays slightly too many ‘by-number’ rock/rock’n’roll/blues numbers, and obviously we’d like a bit more set-list variation - his set-lists having become a bit more static (by his own high standards of variety that is) in the last couple of years, but this tour saw a small but significant improvement in variety. So overall just a good solid run of shows, ending a very good tour.
The final thing I want to talk about before I sign off is the last song of that last show. Up til then it had been a pretty good show, of a similar standard to the previous night, and definitely better than the first Hammersmith show, but now we were to get a performance/moment to take the show to another level.
I had been wondering would he ask Knopfler out for one final song, and sure enough there he was, strapping on his red Strat(?) and, adjusting the microphone in the middle of the stage. So, wow – we were to get a vocal duet – something that had not happened thus far on the tour (he had only played guitar with Bob to this point), and indeed, I can’t remember the last time Bob performed an actual proper vocal duet with someone – maybe Norah Jones in 2005?
Anyway, it really was the special moment that people have been talking about. Ok, perhaps nothing extraordinary musically, but just a very genuine and (presumably) relatively unscripted moment and it led to a lovely communal feeling of warmth spreading across this great old London venue. The song of course was Forever Young –Bob taking the 1st verse, Mark the 2nd and sharing the 3rd. As people will know, not just from other reviews but from the youtube vids(!), Knopfler sang the lyric ‘May your heart always be joyful, may your song always be sung, and may you stay forever young’ right TO Bob, and gestured with his arm to Bob on the line ‘may your song always be sung’ to which the place erupted. You’d have had to have a heart of stone not to have enjoyed it, and if Knopfler was ever to win over the Dylan audience, he did it right there.
The song finished up with a solid harmonica solo from Bob (this tour having seen a very high standard of harmonica playing by the way), and the artists exchanged hugs with Bob giving Mark plenty of acknowledgement, showing friendship and respect between these two artists (and collaborators of old) in equal measure.
It was a fitting end to a decent year’s touring. With no rumours or news yet, who knows what 2012 will hold, but let’s hope, as he approaches 71, that he keeps it fresh, enjoys himself and is not done yet.
Essentially this has been a good tour. By any standards. But especially by the standard of Dylan’s last few half-decade or so of touring. My opinion is that there has been a steady improvement since 2009, following a steady decline since 2001. That decline was very gradual though, and there were great periods within it, eg Fall 2002, Fall 2003, the likes of Bonnaroo, Barrowlands 2004, Fall 2005 with the altered band line-up, Fall 2006 which had the fillip of the Modern Times songs, etc etc. But 2007, 2008 were not so great really, so it’s been good to see a steady improvement since then.
However that does not mean his voice has improved. Far from it! The Dylan we see on stage today does not have anywhere near the vocal range of the late 90s/early ‘00s, nor even that of 2005. Coupled with this problem was that he seemed to get so fed up of singing some songs that he began to phrase them in ever more bizarre ways. In the heyday of the N.E.T. this was one of the ‘selling points’ for regular attendees, the fact that not only did he regularly change the song arrangements, but he also changed the phrasing, often from night to night. But, at that time, the ever changing phrasing seemed to have some point to it, and he usually found some way to make the phrasing fit the song, or whatever emotion he was trying to convey on the particular night. In recent years, while he can still achieve this when he wants to, there have been occasions when the bizarre phrasing didn’t seem to make any sense at all. Some songs seem to be guiltier of this than others, eg Hattie Carroll and Hard Rain. So good to see things improve on this front and that he continues to do 'interesting' things with what are left of his vocal chords.
All of which brings us to a mild November day in Hammersmith last Monday. The tour had been notable for several reasons. Firstly, of course, having Mark Knopfler as an opening act. Having seen the opening night of the tour in Dublin 6 weeks ago, I had been disappointed he played not one Dire Straits song, so it’s been good that he’s added Brothers in Arms and So Far Away to his set. The rest of his set is pleasant rather than inspirational, the most interesting thing for me being his guitar playing. He has definitely added something to Dylan’s sets too, as from mid-tour on he joined Dylan every night for the first 3 or 4 numbers, just playing guitar, and making a nice contribution to the band’s sound.
The other notable thing about the tour is Dylan’s increased engagement with the audience. From Glasgow onwards he had been out in the middle of the stage much more than usual (up to half the numbers) – and in a much more energetic way, moving around almost like a boxer just holding the microphone in one hand and his harmonica/harmonica mike in the other hand and/or using the mike stand as a prop of sorts. This has made the shows considerably more enjoyable visually, and haven’t hurt the musical performance at all, quite the opposite actually.
By the London shows, the level of energy from earlier in the tour had perhaps ebbed a little, but was still very evident on some songs. So, what were the highlights of the London run? Here are a few examples;
Mississippi – very enjoyable new bouncy arrangement, making this the best live version certainly since 2001
Blind Willie McTell – amazingly this is (arguably) even better than the great arrangement he had been using since 1997, now cast in a genre that’s hard to define – part country, part stomping 1920s dixieland jazz (if that makes any sense!), punctuated (and finished) with some of the best hand-held harmonica you’ll ever see
Man in the Long Black Coat – this great song from 1989 has been transformed from a slow atmospheric number to a powerful up-tempo opportunity for Bob to stalk the stage barking out the verses in his best 2011 growl, again with fine harmonica
Forgetful Heart – I’ve seen some amazing versions of this since the song came out on Dylan's last studio album in 2009, but the one on Sunday at Hammersmith probably tops them all. This is 2011 Dylan at his best, and by far the quietest song he performs these days (Dylan concerts are now very loud rock affairs, with very little acoustic or quiet songs). Anyway, he gave this song an incredible vocal in London and performed it very theatrically too, like some kind of torch-song, really communicating with the audience like he used to in 1995 or 1999 or earlier in his career. At times during this performance I felt he was incorporating the spirit of older performers, not the blues/country guys he normally reminds us of but people like Sinatra, Fred Astaire, even Charlie Chaplin.
These are just a few highlights – lots of other songs were also very well performed over these 3 nights, and my only complaints are that he plays slightly too many ‘by-number’ rock/rock’n’roll/blues numbers, and obviously we’d like a bit more set-list variation - his set-lists having become a bit more static (by his own high standards of variety that is) in the last couple of years, but this tour saw a small but significant improvement in variety. So overall just a good solid run of shows, ending a very good tour.
The final thing I want to talk about before I sign off is the last song of that last show. Up til then it had been a pretty good show, of a similar standard to the previous night, and definitely better than the first Hammersmith show, but now we were to get a performance/moment to take the show to another level.
I had been wondering would he ask Knopfler out for one final song, and sure enough there he was, strapping on his red Strat(?) and, adjusting the microphone in the middle of the stage. So, wow – we were to get a vocal duet – something that had not happened thus far on the tour (he had only played guitar with Bob to this point), and indeed, I can’t remember the last time Bob performed an actual proper vocal duet with someone – maybe Norah Jones in 2005?
Anyway, it really was the special moment that people have been talking about. Ok, perhaps nothing extraordinary musically, but just a very genuine and (presumably) relatively unscripted moment and it led to a lovely communal feeling of warmth spreading across this great old London venue. The song of course was Forever Young –Bob taking the 1st verse, Mark the 2nd and sharing the 3rd. As people will know, not just from other reviews but from the youtube vids(!), Knopfler sang the lyric ‘May your heart always be joyful, may your song always be sung, and may you stay forever young’ right TO Bob, and gestured with his arm to Bob on the line ‘may your song always be sung’ to which the place erupted. You’d have had to have a heart of stone not to have enjoyed it, and if Knopfler was ever to win over the Dylan audience, he did it right there.
The song finished up with a solid harmonica solo from Bob (this tour having seen a very high standard of harmonica playing by the way), and the artists exchanged hugs with Bob giving Mark plenty of acknowledgement, showing friendship and respect between these two artists (and collaborators of old) in equal measure.
It was a fitting end to a decent year’s touring. With no rumours or news yet, who knows what 2012 will hold, but let’s hope, as he approaches 71, that he keeps it fresh, enjoys himself and is not done yet.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Review of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Grand Canal Theatre Dublin 17 November 2011
I haven’t written a concert review in a while, but it would be reprehensible to let an appearance in Dublin by Gillian Welch go without mention.
As usual it was one of the concert highlights of the year, and a very successful return to Dublin on the back of her new album ‘The Harrow and the Harvest’. She usually plays Vicar Street but this time sold out the (larger) Grand Canal Theatre, a good achievement indeed in recession riddled Ireland.
Anyway, on to the show. At around 8.15 herself and Dave came on to a loud welcome and kicked straight into a powerful opening ‘Tear My Stillhouse Down’ before giving us a nice ‘Scarlet Town’ the evening’s first song from the new album. The audience was a bit quiet for the opening few songs, a fact noted humorously by Gillian, after which things livened up considerably. And of course, humour always being a big part of a Gill/Dave show, tonight was no exception, their songs often being so grim (in theme at least), it’s nice that the two of them are so hilarious in person. The only other artists I’ve seen who come close to being so funny are probably John Prine and Tom Waits.
They’ve also added in a nice little theatrical element – on the song 'Six White Horses' Gillian does some tap dancing (clog dancing?) and some percussion on her legs – doesn’t sound so good on paper (!) but very affecting and amusing on the night.
Anyway, leaving theatricality aside the main reason a packed house had turned up on this mild November night was to see and hear great music. And the show was jam-packed with great music. If I had to pick my top two performances of the night I’d opt for 'Wayside/Back in Time', a strong tune from the underrated Soul Journey album, and one I’d never seen them do before. Song of the night though had to be 'Revelator' – it really is their masterpiece and while it’s always a tour-de-force live, tonight seemed to take it to a new level – containing some of the most spine-chilling guitar I’ve heard in a concert for a long time. Dave got a thunderous and well deserved ovation at the end of it.
It really is amazing the power of this music – normally I’m not a huge fan of acoustic concerts, but what is generated by these two, just with guitar’s, voices (and occasional harmonica and banjo) beggars belief. Dave is not a strong solo singer but (ala Mike Mills) is a terrific backing singer and one of my favourite guitar players of all time, and likewise Gillian is one of my favourite singers ever.
Other highlights were; the 2 covers – Neil Young’s 'Pocohantas' and Jefferson Airplane’s 'White Rabbit', typically powerful versions of 'Look at Miss Ohio' and 'Caleb Mayer', plus some of the strongest songs from the new album - my favourite of which were 2 gorgeous performances - ‘Dark Turn of Mind’ and ‘That’s the Way that the Whole Thing Ends’, 2 quiet songs cleverly placed in the encores but mixed up with some of the livelier more throwaway (albeit entertaining) songs like ‘I’ll Fly Away’ and ‘Jackson’.
So, much as I enjoyed the Dave Rawlings concert in Belfast last year (where he and Gillian kind-of swapped roles) and his own album was quite good too, it’s been amazing to have a proper new Gillian album and tour. Let’s hope we see them again soon!
As usual it was one of the concert highlights of the year, and a very successful return to Dublin on the back of her new album ‘The Harrow and the Harvest’. She usually plays Vicar Street but this time sold out the (larger) Grand Canal Theatre, a good achievement indeed in recession riddled Ireland.
Anyway, on to the show. At around 8.15 herself and Dave came on to a loud welcome and kicked straight into a powerful opening ‘Tear My Stillhouse Down’ before giving us a nice ‘Scarlet Town’ the evening’s first song from the new album. The audience was a bit quiet for the opening few songs, a fact noted humorously by Gillian, after which things livened up considerably. And of course, humour always being a big part of a Gill/Dave show, tonight was no exception, their songs often being so grim (in theme at least), it’s nice that the two of them are so hilarious in person. The only other artists I’ve seen who come close to being so funny are probably John Prine and Tom Waits.
They’ve also added in a nice little theatrical element – on the song 'Six White Horses' Gillian does some tap dancing (clog dancing?) and some percussion on her legs – doesn’t sound so good on paper (!) but very affecting and amusing on the night.
Anyway, leaving theatricality aside the main reason a packed house had turned up on this mild November night was to see and hear great music. And the show was jam-packed with great music. If I had to pick my top two performances of the night I’d opt for 'Wayside/Back in Time', a strong tune from the underrated Soul Journey album, and one I’d never seen them do before. Song of the night though had to be 'Revelator' – it really is their masterpiece and while it’s always a tour-de-force live, tonight seemed to take it to a new level – containing some of the most spine-chilling guitar I’ve heard in a concert for a long time. Dave got a thunderous and well deserved ovation at the end of it.
It really is amazing the power of this music – normally I’m not a huge fan of acoustic concerts, but what is generated by these two, just with guitar’s, voices (and occasional harmonica and banjo) beggars belief. Dave is not a strong solo singer but (ala Mike Mills) is a terrific backing singer and one of my favourite guitar players of all time, and likewise Gillian is one of my favourite singers ever.
Other highlights were; the 2 covers – Neil Young’s 'Pocohantas' and Jefferson Airplane’s 'White Rabbit', typically powerful versions of 'Look at Miss Ohio' and 'Caleb Mayer', plus some of the strongest songs from the new album - my favourite of which were 2 gorgeous performances - ‘Dark Turn of Mind’ and ‘That’s the Way that the Whole Thing Ends’, 2 quiet songs cleverly placed in the encores but mixed up with some of the livelier more throwaway (albeit entertaining) songs like ‘I’ll Fly Away’ and ‘Jackson’.
So, much as I enjoyed the Dave Rawlings concert in Belfast last year (where he and Gillian kind-of swapped roles) and his own album was quite good too, it’s been amazing to have a proper new Gillian album and tour. Let’s hope we see them again soon!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Review of 'Justice for Believers' album by Dublin band The Roj Light
Justice for Believers is the first proper album by The Roj Light, a Dublin band fronted by Roger Whelan. It’s not just me that thinks they are a promising band, there have already been some good reviews and talk about the band, indeed Roger himself retired from a career in international cricket to pursue his musical vision, and I’m pretty sure he’ll get there.
This album is a good start. Right from the off it grabs you with opening up-temp number Laura. This song was also on a single and you can see why. Very catchy, and it shows off the Roj Light’s sound at its best, ie a bright indie-rock sound, reminiscent of Oasis or the Smiths but with a more interesting twist (I like Oasis but they could be a bit leaden at times), in that there is a touch of Stone Roses in there too – a band with more diverse influences than Oasis. It’s interesting to see influences pass down the decades like this, whereby we can see the Beatles being filtered through Oasis to bands like the Roj Light via the more psychedelic musings of the Stone Roses and other 1990s bands.
I even fancy I caught a strain of the crisp guitar lines of early Cult albums, but I could be wrong..
Anyway, enough of influences – there’s nothing wrong with being influenced, but the Roj Light are original enough to stand out. Lyrically the songs are quite diverse, and are not afraid to tackle the major malaises facing Ireland today, taking stances many of us might agree with now where we wouldn’t have in the past. The main example of this is a song called ‘The 2016 Rising’, which has a very innovative video on the band’s website www.therojlight.com
Other songs I liked were a solid ballad called ‘The Scars Upon Our Heart’ with some nice dreamy guitar work noodling away behind the vocals, followed up on the album by a strong rocker ‘Death To All Cynics’. Musically, this song is typical of the band, with really good rhythm guitar played over some fine drum/bass interplay, with ‘ragged but right’ guitar solos which don’t overstay their welcome.
But I won’t focus too much on individual songs - this is an album to let wash over you, and indeed there are several promising new songs from the band on their website now, suggesting album no 2 is in the pipeline. So, go check them out! Highly recommended!
This album is a good start. Right from the off it grabs you with opening up-temp number Laura. This song was also on a single and you can see why. Very catchy, and it shows off the Roj Light’s sound at its best, ie a bright indie-rock sound, reminiscent of Oasis or the Smiths but with a more interesting twist (I like Oasis but they could be a bit leaden at times), in that there is a touch of Stone Roses in there too – a band with more diverse influences than Oasis. It’s interesting to see influences pass down the decades like this, whereby we can see the Beatles being filtered through Oasis to bands like the Roj Light via the more psychedelic musings of the Stone Roses and other 1990s bands.
I even fancy I caught a strain of the crisp guitar lines of early Cult albums, but I could be wrong..
Anyway, enough of influences – there’s nothing wrong with being influenced, but the Roj Light are original enough to stand out. Lyrically the songs are quite diverse, and are not afraid to tackle the major malaises facing Ireland today, taking stances many of us might agree with now where we wouldn’t have in the past. The main example of this is a song called ‘The 2016 Rising’, which has a very innovative video on the band’s website www.therojlight.com
Other songs I liked were a solid ballad called ‘The Scars Upon Our Heart’ with some nice dreamy guitar work noodling away behind the vocals, followed up on the album by a strong rocker ‘Death To All Cynics’. Musically, this song is typical of the band, with really good rhythm guitar played over some fine drum/bass interplay, with ‘ragged but right’ guitar solos which don’t overstay their welcome.
But I won’t focus too much on individual songs - this is an album to let wash over you, and indeed there are several promising new songs from the band on their website now, suggesting album no 2 is in the pipeline. So, go check them out! Highly recommended!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Dylan in Cork and London, June 2010
I usually write gig reviews hot off the press with the sound of the music still ringing through my head - however I’ve been very busy since the 2 Dylan shows I saw last month, so am only getting around to it now and therefore my recollections may be a bit hazy!
Firstly, I went to the Cork show. Dublin’s southwestern capital was looking well on a mainly sunny day as a carload of us (myself, Jim, Mike, and John H) made it down around lunchtime. Dropping one of our party (regular readers might guess which one!) off at the queue at the venue (a big marquee in the Docklands area), the rest of us spent the afternoon having lunch, strolling around the city centre, and catching up with some other friends at a specifically organised live music event in a pub.
After that it was down to the gig, and we all did surprisingly well in getting positions at or near the front of the stage, and then the hour’s wait for the lights to go down for this tour opening night. Sure enough, all was as usual, lights down, spoken introduction by Al (no intro music), no band changes, Bob looking fighting fit in black hat and suit, and straight in to an absolutely barnstorming ‘Gonna Change My Way of Thinking’. As good an opener as he’s had for many years, this one is just perfect for his current vocal range and immediately we were aware everything was good - artist and band in good form, with a great sound system in the tent and the vocals blaringly up front, just as I like it.
From there, it was straight in to a nice ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’, Bob out front with no guitar, the familiar current fast-ish country arrangement, with a defiant but not annoying emphasis on the 2nd line in every verse, as is his wont these days on some songs. Plus some amazing harmonica!
Next up was a re-arranged ‘Things Have Changed’, with a bit of spiky stop-start action going on, worked really well, but at subsequent shows it was more a case of ‘The Arrangement Has Changed’ with this song and not always for the better in my opinion.
From there it was on to ‘Tangled up in Blue’. I’ve grown to like (if not love) it’s latest arrangement, by my count the 4th radically changed version of this song in the last 8 or 9 years alone, with Bob out front and almost dancing – it was a real crowd pleaser once they figured out what the hell song it was!
And I really must say the best thing about these shows is how animated Dylan is, and has been pretty much since late 2009. By my count, at the Cork show he was out front for about 8 of the songs, played guitar on 2, and was only stuck in behind the keyboard on about 5. What a change from 3 or 4 years ago! It’s great to see him engaging with the audience much more, and all the ducking and diving and expressiveness with mic and harmonica etc. This engagement/animation was of course to be taken to new heights at the infamous Milan club show the following week!
Also he’s putting much more effort in to his vocals. The condition of his voice is certainly no worse than it was in 07/08, and although he doesn’t have the range or the flexibility of the late 90s/early ‘00s golden age(!) of the Never Ending Tour, he’s still finding it in him to be damn expressive when he wants to be.
Anyway, back to the show - ‘Levee’s Gonna Break’ had a bit of a re-arrangement, more of a jump blues now than a rockabilly/blues number, as did ‘Highway 61’, now recast as a kind of swing number, or at least more country than what we’ve come to expect from this blues-rock warhorse. ‘All Along the Watchtower’ is also quite dramatically rearranged, and despite cutting out the song’s famous descending chord sequence I have to say I now quite like it, it’s forced Bob to sing it better for one thing, and the band do interesting things in the murk of what is now nearly a ‘song without chords’. I should mention Stu gets to play a lot of lead in this song as he usually doesn’t get to play much despite being more talented than he gets credit for. Charlie Sexton, a player who in my humble opinion is slightly less talented than he gets credit for doesn’t get to play much these days either. In general I like the way the current band is playing and the current song arrangements, but Bob letting his guitar players off the leash a bit more wouldn’t do any harm.
I won’t go through every other song played, so just to mention that ‘Simple Twist of Fate’, ‘High Water’ and a massive ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ were other examples of show stopping songs on the night. But yes of course I’ve left the best to last – as ever Ireland seems to always get a little setlist surprise from Bob, as well as (arguably) getting some of the best show(s) of his recent European tours, so tonight in slot 7 we got an absolutely gorgeous rendition of one of his best ever songs, ‘I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine’, complete with lovely new arrangement and a killer vocal.
So, that was Cork, and after some end of gig chat with all our friends, it was back to Dublin and thence to London in time for the Feis two days later. This is a new version of the old Fleadh festival in Finsbury Park, and as before it is a muddy and drunken (but fairly good natured) affair. It is supposed to be a celebration of Irish music, and given that Bob is all but an honorary Irishman these days, who better to headline on day one!
I won’t discuss all the support acts, especially as many of them (Christy Moore and the Cranberries especially) seemed to suffer from a bad sound mix, and only one of the support acts is worthy of a superlative review anyhow - this being the cracking performance by the Waterboys. As ever, the Scottish/Irish outfit put on a killer show, judging their audience nicely, by mixing in big hits, with less well known songs but nothing too demanding for a drunken, rain-sodden crowd wedged together in a big field waiting for Dylan to come on. Mike Scott has added a pedal steel player to the band, and this guy certainly adds something, especially on a gorgeous pedal steel soaked version of ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’ with Mike quipping that Dylan is unlikely to play it himself later on but that if he does, we’ll be getting TWO versions of a great song in one night’. This was one of two covers on the night, the other being a northern soul encore, with Mike and band showing us they can do funky as well as any other music style. The opening song was done in a funky arrangement too, maybe alluding to future directions?
Anyway, to finish up, I’ll just mention one more setlist highlight, a version of ‘September 1913’, a poem by W.B. Yeats which Mike has put to music (along with a dozen others, which the band have toured as a bigger show in its own right, with album to following in September), and it was great to see it done in the context of the regular (smaller) Waterboys touring band.
So, with the Waterboys having laid down a marker, and perhaps the other most popular band on the day (certainly with the younger people in the audience) having been Gaslight Anthem (must check ‘em out..), Bob came on for his 90 minute headlining set, just as the crowd had got even more wedged in, drunks everywhere, several people taken over the barrier from fainting, too much booze etc. But it was another solid performance from our man, with several setlist changes from the Cork show, including set highlight - a remarkably quiet ‘Forgetful Heart’ which was a brave choice for such a boisterous audience, and one that worked in no small measure. Otherwise, most of my Cork comments stand at least for the repeat songs played, with my 2nd favourite song of the night being ‘A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall’. Never my favourite Dylan song, and one that has suffered from ever more bizarre vocalising in recent years, tonight his sing-song/talking staccato type-thing actually worked, and by the closing verse he had the audience totally reeled in. I think it works if it seems he is actually trying to emphasise particular lines or words with some sort of purpose, rather than just re-styling a song because he’s sick of singing it.
Anyway, another very solid performance all round, with excellent sound (the recordings from this tour thus far are very good too, although some of the Feis discs have unintended comedy in them from the noisy crowd – my favourite overheard comment being ‘oh-oh look out, we’ve got a puker here’!)
Final mention must go to the closing song, a version of ‘Blowing in the Wind’ which some people didn’t like. I thought it was very good, and instead of the normal closing harmonica solo, he soloed the hell out of the song on guitar, showing that as we know, he can play some decent almost technical guitar, when he wants to!
From there, off we went in to the night, my short Dylan jaunt over for this tour. Dylan wise, we continue to live in interesting times!
Firstly, I went to the Cork show. Dublin’s southwestern capital was looking well on a mainly sunny day as a carload of us (myself, Jim, Mike, and John H) made it down around lunchtime. Dropping one of our party (regular readers might guess which one!) off at the queue at the venue (a big marquee in the Docklands area), the rest of us spent the afternoon having lunch, strolling around the city centre, and catching up with some other friends at a specifically organised live music event in a pub.
After that it was down to the gig, and we all did surprisingly well in getting positions at or near the front of the stage, and then the hour’s wait for the lights to go down for this tour opening night. Sure enough, all was as usual, lights down, spoken introduction by Al (no intro music), no band changes, Bob looking fighting fit in black hat and suit, and straight in to an absolutely barnstorming ‘Gonna Change My Way of Thinking’. As good an opener as he’s had for many years, this one is just perfect for his current vocal range and immediately we were aware everything was good - artist and band in good form, with a great sound system in the tent and the vocals blaringly up front, just as I like it.
From there, it was straight in to a nice ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’, Bob out front with no guitar, the familiar current fast-ish country arrangement, with a defiant but not annoying emphasis on the 2nd line in every verse, as is his wont these days on some songs. Plus some amazing harmonica!
Next up was a re-arranged ‘Things Have Changed’, with a bit of spiky stop-start action going on, worked really well, but at subsequent shows it was more a case of ‘The Arrangement Has Changed’ with this song and not always for the better in my opinion.
From there it was on to ‘Tangled up in Blue’. I’ve grown to like (if not love) it’s latest arrangement, by my count the 4th radically changed version of this song in the last 8 or 9 years alone, with Bob out front and almost dancing – it was a real crowd pleaser once they figured out what the hell song it was!
And I really must say the best thing about these shows is how animated Dylan is, and has been pretty much since late 2009. By my count, at the Cork show he was out front for about 8 of the songs, played guitar on 2, and was only stuck in behind the keyboard on about 5. What a change from 3 or 4 years ago! It’s great to see him engaging with the audience much more, and all the ducking and diving and expressiveness with mic and harmonica etc. This engagement/animation was of course to be taken to new heights at the infamous Milan club show the following week!
Also he’s putting much more effort in to his vocals. The condition of his voice is certainly no worse than it was in 07/08, and although he doesn’t have the range or the flexibility of the late 90s/early ‘00s golden age(!) of the Never Ending Tour, he’s still finding it in him to be damn expressive when he wants to be.
Anyway, back to the show - ‘Levee’s Gonna Break’ had a bit of a re-arrangement, more of a jump blues now than a rockabilly/blues number, as did ‘Highway 61’, now recast as a kind of swing number, or at least more country than what we’ve come to expect from this blues-rock warhorse. ‘All Along the Watchtower’ is also quite dramatically rearranged, and despite cutting out the song’s famous descending chord sequence I have to say I now quite like it, it’s forced Bob to sing it better for one thing, and the band do interesting things in the murk of what is now nearly a ‘song without chords’. I should mention Stu gets to play a lot of lead in this song as he usually doesn’t get to play much despite being more talented than he gets credit for. Charlie Sexton, a player who in my humble opinion is slightly less talented than he gets credit for doesn’t get to play much these days either. In general I like the way the current band is playing and the current song arrangements, but Bob letting his guitar players off the leash a bit more wouldn’t do any harm.
I won’t go through every other song played, so just to mention that ‘Simple Twist of Fate’, ‘High Water’ and a massive ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ were other examples of show stopping songs on the night. But yes of course I’ve left the best to last – as ever Ireland seems to always get a little setlist surprise from Bob, as well as (arguably) getting some of the best show(s) of his recent European tours, so tonight in slot 7 we got an absolutely gorgeous rendition of one of his best ever songs, ‘I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine’, complete with lovely new arrangement and a killer vocal.
So, that was Cork, and after some end of gig chat with all our friends, it was back to Dublin and thence to London in time for the Feis two days later. This is a new version of the old Fleadh festival in Finsbury Park, and as before it is a muddy and drunken (but fairly good natured) affair. It is supposed to be a celebration of Irish music, and given that Bob is all but an honorary Irishman these days, who better to headline on day one!
I won’t discuss all the support acts, especially as many of them (Christy Moore and the Cranberries especially) seemed to suffer from a bad sound mix, and only one of the support acts is worthy of a superlative review anyhow - this being the cracking performance by the Waterboys. As ever, the Scottish/Irish outfit put on a killer show, judging their audience nicely, by mixing in big hits, with less well known songs but nothing too demanding for a drunken, rain-sodden crowd wedged together in a big field waiting for Dylan to come on. Mike Scott has added a pedal steel player to the band, and this guy certainly adds something, especially on a gorgeous pedal steel soaked version of ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’ with Mike quipping that Dylan is unlikely to play it himself later on but that if he does, we’ll be getting TWO versions of a great song in one night’. This was one of two covers on the night, the other being a northern soul encore, with Mike and band showing us they can do funky as well as any other music style. The opening song was done in a funky arrangement too, maybe alluding to future directions?
Anyway, to finish up, I’ll just mention one more setlist highlight, a version of ‘September 1913’, a poem by W.B. Yeats which Mike has put to music (along with a dozen others, which the band have toured as a bigger show in its own right, with album to following in September), and it was great to see it done in the context of the regular (smaller) Waterboys touring band.
So, with the Waterboys having laid down a marker, and perhaps the other most popular band on the day (certainly with the younger people in the audience) having been Gaslight Anthem (must check ‘em out..), Bob came on for his 90 minute headlining set, just as the crowd had got even more wedged in, drunks everywhere, several people taken over the barrier from fainting, too much booze etc. But it was another solid performance from our man, with several setlist changes from the Cork show, including set highlight - a remarkably quiet ‘Forgetful Heart’ which was a brave choice for such a boisterous audience, and one that worked in no small measure. Otherwise, most of my Cork comments stand at least for the repeat songs played, with my 2nd favourite song of the night being ‘A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall’. Never my favourite Dylan song, and one that has suffered from ever more bizarre vocalising in recent years, tonight his sing-song/talking staccato type-thing actually worked, and by the closing verse he had the audience totally reeled in. I think it works if it seems he is actually trying to emphasise particular lines or words with some sort of purpose, rather than just re-styling a song because he’s sick of singing it.
Anyway, another very solid performance all round, with excellent sound (the recordings from this tour thus far are very good too, although some of the Feis discs have unintended comedy in them from the noisy crowd – my favourite overheard comment being ‘oh-oh look out, we’ve got a puker here’!)
Final mention must go to the closing song, a version of ‘Blowing in the Wind’ which some people didn’t like. I thought it was very good, and instead of the normal closing harmonica solo, he soloed the hell out of the song on guitar, showing that as we know, he can play some decent almost technical guitar, when he wants to!
From there, off we went in to the night, my short Dylan jaunt over for this tour. Dylan wise, we continue to live in interesting times!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Review of Circuit of Avonbeg mountain race May 2011
This is a short report about the Circuit of Avonbeg mountain race, which I took part in today. It's a race on the calendar of IMRA (Irish Mountain Running Association), and is one of the longest, toughest ones of the year. Check out www.imra.ie for more info on this great sport - much of which, in this country, takes place in the Wicklow mountains.
It was a truly spectacular race today. Relatively lucky with the weather, at the start I didn’t think visibility was going to be good, but it picked up, and from the top of Lugnaquilla we could even see the sea! Otherwise it was chilly, windy, sunny at times, and about 3 big showers, but could have been worse.
Anyway, thanks to Aidan for all his navigational help around the course – we kept apace with each other for most of the race, and when we separated, I did get a bit lost I must confess, and wasted quite a bit of time scrambling around in miscellaneous forests near Conavalla, including falling on my ear more than once!
But, to start at the beginning – we took our time going up Lug (the first of about 6 peaks we were to climb), making it in a comfortable 90 minutes.
From there, we had the most enjoyable part of the race - must have been quite a few miles of the most blissful downhill mountain running you’re likely to come across.
From there it was up to Camenabologue, the first manned checkpoint, and then down to the bottom of the valley, from where my aforementioned adventures happened.
But, no harm done (apart from getting soaked and a lot of minor scrapes on my leg), and managed to catch up with Aidan somewhere between Lugduff and Mullacor (the final manned checkpoint).
By that stage the whole field (35 runners) had got very spread out, and indeed I hardly saw anybody throughout the 2nd half of the race – of course by the time I got to Mullacor, the winners – and well done to Colm Hill on a sensational winning time of 2.30 ish (I think) would have long been in the clubhouse (so to speak).
Anyway, from Mullacor, it was basically down to the Wicklow Way, and a slow trudge back to the finish line, which I crossed in a not so impressive 4 hrs 35 mins.
But, hey, at least 30 mins of that was spent going the wrong way!
The entire race is approx 1100 metres of ascent, and is approx 26 kilometres in length, although I reckon I ran closer to 30.
So, lessons learned for next year (brush up on my navigational skills), and a great day out in the Glenmalure Valley (the most scenic part of Wicklow), albeit maybe the toughest single sporting event I've ever taken part in.
Highlights – the great descent from Lugnaquilla and the descent/flat parts from Conavalla through to the saddle between Lugduff and Mullacor.
Lowlights – I don’t mind the sore muscles in my legs, but I could do without the 2 big blisters (one on each toe!).
Most of all though, I’d like to say thanks to the volunteers, especially the race director and the summit marshalls.
Looking forward to cracking 4 hours next year.
It was a truly spectacular race today. Relatively lucky with the weather, at the start I didn’t think visibility was going to be good, but it picked up, and from the top of Lugnaquilla we could even see the sea! Otherwise it was chilly, windy, sunny at times, and about 3 big showers, but could have been worse.
Anyway, thanks to Aidan for all his navigational help around the course – we kept apace with each other for most of the race, and when we separated, I did get a bit lost I must confess, and wasted quite a bit of time scrambling around in miscellaneous forests near Conavalla, including falling on my ear more than once!
But, to start at the beginning – we took our time going up Lug (the first of about 6 peaks we were to climb), making it in a comfortable 90 minutes.
From there, we had the most enjoyable part of the race - must have been quite a few miles of the most blissful downhill mountain running you’re likely to come across.
From there it was up to Camenabologue, the first manned checkpoint, and then down to the bottom of the valley, from where my aforementioned adventures happened.
But, no harm done (apart from getting soaked and a lot of minor scrapes on my leg), and managed to catch up with Aidan somewhere between Lugduff and Mullacor (the final manned checkpoint).
By that stage the whole field (35 runners) had got very spread out, and indeed I hardly saw anybody throughout the 2nd half of the race – of course by the time I got to Mullacor, the winners – and well done to Colm Hill on a sensational winning time of 2.30 ish (I think) would have long been in the clubhouse (so to speak).
Anyway, from Mullacor, it was basically down to the Wicklow Way, and a slow trudge back to the finish line, which I crossed in a not so impressive 4 hrs 35 mins.
But, hey, at least 30 mins of that was spent going the wrong way!
The entire race is approx 1100 metres of ascent, and is approx 26 kilometres in length, although I reckon I ran closer to 30.
So, lessons learned for next year (brush up on my navigational skills), and a great day out in the Glenmalure Valley (the most scenic part of Wicklow), albeit maybe the toughest single sporting event I've ever taken part in.
Highlights – the great descent from Lugnaquilla and the descent/flat parts from Conavalla through to the saddle between Lugduff and Mullacor.
Lowlights – I don’t mind the sore muscles in my legs, but I could do without the 2 big blisters (one on each toe!).
Most of all though, I’d like to say thanks to the volunteers, especially the race director and the summit marshalls.
Looking forward to cracking 4 hours next year.
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