tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51398892758760339752024-03-05T08:21:32.679-08:00samsonsdinerKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-14212943462544749252014-01-15T11:08:00.003-08:002014-01-17T07:22:56.572-08:00Bob Dylan in Blackpool 2013Blackpool. Not necessarily a town associated with great art or never ending rock tours. But we got a bit of both last month when Bob Dylan’s latest tour-leg trundled in to the seaside Lancashire town. And more about the geographical significance later – keep reading, John Lennon fans!<br />
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I used to do a lot of Dylan shows. I do less now for one reason or another - but managed to make it over from Dublin for the final night of three shows in the gorgeous opera house at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. A great venue, and seemingly a great tour, with the biggest surprise of all being that, well, there haven’t really been any surprises! Other than a bizarre blip when he completely changed the set-list in Rome earlier in the tour, Bob has played pretty much the exact same set for this entire tour, which as Dylan watchers will know is very unusual. We are used to him mixing up the medicine night after night, but now? No. Bob has a plan, a grand design.<br />
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So, what is this plan? Well, he has designed a very specific new show, centred on Tempest, his most recent album. It is an introspective show, the band is much quieter, gone are the half dozen or so rocking blues-rock-rockabilly numbers you could count on in a Dylan set. It’s almost minimalist, very few solos by any band members, and very suited to the small theatre residencies he’s been doing on this tour. The audience is forced to listen (and they do) and Bob’s voice sits nicely on top of the band’s sympathetic backing. He doesn’t need to strain so much and thus seems to be taking great care with his vocal performance - as if he really cares that he makes the most of what’s left of his vocal chords, and what’s left of his touring years.<br />
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Plus - the band have really come in to their own. Despite the ‘ban’ (we presume?) on showiness, we get some really lovely playing - from the acoustic guitar foundations of Stu Kimball, to discreet subtle lines from Charlie Sexton on various old-fashioned electric guitars (often interplaying gently with Bob’s crude but effective piano), quiet brush drumming from George Recile (and slightly louder when required), to a more prominent than before Donnie Herron (fiddle and pedal steel), plus Tony Garnier playing some gorgeous stand-up bass on so many of tonight’s songs, it’s a real treat. And, well mixed, too.<br />
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But why though? Why this static quiet set-list all of a sudden? Is it to ‘put off’ the multiple-show fans? Is it to put off the hit-seekers? Is he aiming at a live album? My theory is that he has constructed it as a deliberate piece of work, a tale he wants to tell, with each song playing its part. And he’s happy to come out to the front of stage, sans guitar, to declaim his intent, on about a third of these songs. For the rest of the show, he stands behind his latest instrument, a Steinway baby grand piano, tinkling, dancing, noodling and wheezing away, informing us of his worldview via this strange cross-section of songs from his back pages.<br />
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He opens with ‘Things Have Changed’ a statement of intent if ever there was one. Spare, sprightly and one of the nights more up-tempo numbers, Bob’s Oscar-winning song gets everyone’s attention from the get-go. Then he’s quickly in to ‘She Belongs to Me’ a new staccato bass-drum oriented arrangement of the famous 1965 song complete with confident piercing harmonica solos which would remind you of the mid ‘90s, or even the mid ‘60s. There’s not much harmonica tonight, but when it’s there, it’s good, very good. Also there are not many ‘60s songs tonight at all, so if you want well-known songs on this current tour, grab ‘em when you can.<br />
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The show is excellently paced, and is still as much an exercise in genres as any previous legs of the never ending tour. We have rock, we have folk, we have country, we have blues, we even have jazz. Mostly centred around Bob’s piano, there are no long epic songs anymore and everything is to the point, nothing out of place.<br />
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After the opening brace, and a swampy ‘Beyond Here Lies Nothing’, we get a major show highlight with the stunning ‘What Good Am I? from 1989’s ‘Oh Mercy’ album. With this song, he seems to be setting up the story of the show, he is literally asking the audience ‘What Good Am I?’, laying out his stall, and then proceeding to answer his own question over the following couple of hours, telling us just how good he actually is, and what he has to say. This performance is one of the best of the night, and it’s great to see him singing it on piano, just like he wrote it. You could hear a pin drop in the room, sheer perfection.<br />
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The show is utterly authentic with themes of anger and sadness (just listen to the lyrics of songs like ‘Pay in Blood’, ‘Long & Wasted Years’) and after a modestly rocking ‘Duquesne Whistle’ he changes theme and plays ‘Waiting for You’. In a show full of new songs (seven from the recent album), this is an unusual one to throw in, a rare, even obscure, soundtrack song from about ten years ago, but in a funny way it fits in to the show. Maybe he felt the show needed a country-waltz with some lighter lyrics and this seemed to fit the bill. Then it’s time for a subdued ‘Pay In Blood’ which on the album rocked like angry late 70s Stones, but here is recast as a more brooding bitter piece.<br />
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‘Tangled Up in Blue’ is next, receiving its latest re-write, but is a bit of a mumble-fest tonight unfortunately. It’s interesting that this most perfect of songs has received so much tinkering from Bob over the years (usually pretty successful tinkering), while other songs he hardly touches. Another Blood on the Tracks classic ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ also gets a work-out tonight and is much more successful, with Bob giving it a very tender and expressive vocal, a lovely culmination of where he’s been going with this particular song in recent years.<br />
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Subsequently, in another new departure, Bob himself makes a departure (!) after closing the somewhat brief 45 minute opening set with a powerful ‘Lovesick’. Hardly the lengthy stuff of Grateful Dead or Springsteen or Leonard Cohen shows. And Bob is not known for having intermissions. But, he’s getting older, and as we know, he has a plan. <br />
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And when he comes back after the break, he proceeds with his plan in an even stronger vein. First we get a double dose of blues with the banjo-laden High Water and the Muddy Waters re-write that is Early Roman Kings, both very well done and played either side of that beautiful ‘Simple Twist of Fate’. These are followed by a heart stopping ‘Forgetful Heart’, from the perhaps somewhat forgetful 2009 album ‘Together Through Life’. This song is currently cast as a very slow very quiet violin driven ruminative performance that fully fits in to the night’s proceedings. <br />
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We’re now building towards the finish, as he bravely closes off the main set with several slow-ish songs from the new album. Not many artists would do this. The folky ‘Scarlet Town’ is followed by ‘Soon After Midnight’ - Bob’s gorgeous new 50s-esque country-pop ballad, and then, the stunner, the set closer, the finale that is ‘Long & Wasted Years’. It’s many people’s favourite song from the album, and surely most people’s favourite song in the show - he’s out front, declamatory style, almost Chaplinesque (Chaplin himself played in this historic venue almost exactly 100 years earlier, according to a roll of honour in the lobby), giving this bizarre and majestic little song the vocal performance it deserves, to a huge climactic sea of applause and ovation from the crowd. It’s an amazing finish, with terrific lighting - big bright white lighting (most of the set prior to that having been in subdued blues and reds). Bob and band take their now traditional stock-still long quiet bow, staring out in to the audience, seemingly soaking up the adulation. And then, without a word or a gesture, they’re gone. <br />
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Back they come then for the traditional two song encore. Due to the new static setlist, we know (or think we know) that it will be ‘All Along the Watchtower’ and ‘Blowin in the Wind’, a concession to the hit-seekers. And sure enough, we get a very pleasing new 2013 arrangement of ‘Watchtower’, this rock-standard which with its 3 chords has stood up to countless covers and arrangements since 1968. <br />
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Then, Bob spends what seems like an age before the next song, plinking and plonking on his piano, the band all looking anxious and conferring. <br />
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And, before we know it we realise he’s dropped ‘Blowin in the Wind’, wow, can it be? Yes, he’s playing ‘Roll on John’, a world premiere of his song about John Lennon, in a venue just 30 miles up the coast from Liverpool! Very piano-driven, and taking huge care with the vocals, it’s a lovely rendition, and sends the crowds in to paroxysms of pleasure, not just box-ticking (another rarity collected!) but a lovely emotional moment, and making a nice conclusion to this highly unusual rock concert – the final song being a local nod by Bob to a Beatle who has left us, and a man who I imagine still means a lot to everyone in the room.<br />
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One more bow, and he’s gone. This time for good. On, then, he goes, to London, and a return visit to the Royal Albert Hall for the first time since he was booed there fifty years ago. Blackpool was but a moment, a fleeting moment amongst many thousands of such Dylan concerts. But, for this audience member, one to treasure.<br />
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By Ken Cowley 2013<br />
cowleyken72@gmail.com<br />
Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-64455140270974961092014-01-15T11:07:00.000-08:002014-01-15T11:07:03.383-08:00David Suchet’s Hercule Poirot – an ‘’obituary’’So, the little grey cells have finally wound down. RIP David Suchet’s Hercule Poirot. ITV’s quarter century love affair with Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective has finally come to an end, and the massive audience who probably took their occasional ‘Sundays with Hercule’ for granted will have to look elsewhere for their cosy kicks.<br />
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But was it just cosy drama, or does it mean a bit more to us than that? Christie’s detractors say that she lacks depth and that her characters are perfunctory, and yes, no-one would accuse ITV’s Poirot of mining the depths or darkness of modern Scandinavian style crime-lit. And it’s certainly not Love/Hate! Yet at its best, as per last Sunday night, Agatha Christies Poirot is the type of old fashioned drama which combines perfect period escapism with the classic detective story. Christie may not be recognised as the best crime fiction writer of all time, or even of that early 20th century golden era of crime fiction, but she had the best plots, a light yet engaging style and a peculiarly compelling way of writing about families and human nature. So, while never revered by literary critics, she remains beloved by millions and is the 2nd highest selling fiction author of all time after Shakespeare, with over two billion books sold. <br />
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The ITV adaptations have not always been perfect, for example one of the problems of adapting every single book is that some of the short stories are somewhat slight, but they have still been very consistent over the years and never really veered towards the slightly jokey silly style that the same channel has been guilty of recently with Miss Marple. And twenty five years ago, a new period drama on Sunday nights was still ‘event television’, and a shared experience for the viewing public.<br />
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But, we’re here to memorialise Poirot, not Marple, and specifically David Suchet’s Poirot. Suchet and Poirot don’t seem to have aged much over the last 25 years, but for this last film, ‘Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case’, the detective is seen as an elderly wheelchair-bound man. And this was the beauty of Suchet’s final unshowy performance, he played it with well-judged pathos, and as the story line is revealed, we see his rage at his own decline and at his inability to prove the guilt of the murderer, a particularly insidious villain in this case. We also see him cling to religion as he grapples with these issues, and the massive moral dilemma that arises for him. Christie had always given us Poirot as a Catholic, but not usually as overtly as in this final case.<br />
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Suchet was the latest in a long line of TV and film Poirots, including, most notably, Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney. For a generation though, Suchet is ‘our Poirot’ and with good cause. A combination of the accent, the twinkly eyes and of course the peculiar walk, all made him a very specific Poirot, more likeable than Finney and less hammy than Ustinov. And now that ITV have adapted every single Poirot novel and short story we can trace Suchet’s progress, not to mention his moustaches(!), through the entire oeuvre. It helps of course that Suchet is a genuinely talented actor, particularly on stage as well as the small screen, while Ustinov was a charming but limited character actor and Finney more notable for his big screen work.<br />
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The short story adaptations were usually one hour, and the novels two. The earlier novels tended to be the strongest and the most suited to adaptation, for example ‘The ABC Murders’ and ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’, which have incredibly tight plotting and twists. The final Poirot book, which we saw on ITV last week, and which is one of her strongest, ‘Curtain’, was actually written in 1940 but Christie deliberately held it back from publication until close to her own death in the mid-1970s. So, even though she initially created Poirot as a retired policeman in the first book (‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ from 1920), she keeps Poirot at around the same age right up until the later 1960s Poirot novels. ITV however, seemed to set all their adaptations in the 1930s. But these inconsistencies don’t really matter. Production values were invariably very good, with many of the films having a strong art deco look, along with excellent scripts by the likes of Kevin Elyot and Anthony Horowitz.<br />
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Suchet’s Poirot was not only notable for the lead performance by Suchet. Throughout the decades we saw nicely judged performances from the actors playing Inspector Japp, Miss Lemon and especially Hugh Fraser as Hastings. And of course, ‘Curtain’ is also Hastings’ swansong as much as it is Poirot’s and the warmth, even bromance (?!) and occasional tetchiness between the two old comrades was played out very nicely in the final episode. <br />
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So, what then of this man, this detective who has died at the age of (we presume) 80-something? What has he given us? And how will he be remembered? Well, although some may prefer other detectives such as Holmes or Dalgliesh, Poirot gave us the best of Agatha Christie (more or less), he gave us a sense of the importance of both justice and compassion, a belief in the superiority of brain over brawn, and a sense that it’s ok to be slightly ridiculous, eccentric, even pompous.<br />
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An obituary usually finishes up with who the person is survived by, but part of the pathos of Poirot is that behind the exciting detective’s life and massive brain power lay a lonely batcherhood existence, so he died as he lived his life - alone. And as his screen life faded away on our televisions last week in this most sympathetic of adaptations, we felt that loneliness. But, on the page, he lives on. <br />
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By Ken Cowley November 2013<br />
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-37445631759669953572013-11-03T11:28:00.001-08:002013-11-16T11:11:03.767-08:00Ken's Mountain-Run Around Ireland, quick reportThis is just a quick report, I'll do a longer post/article in a while. I'll also put up more photos on Facebook. Mainly, now, I want to thank some people, especially everyone who came along to any of the legs of my 9 Day Mountain Run, or helped in some other way, and everyone who has donated so far (I'll put the links to the charity pages at the bottom). <br />
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So, here goes (and in no particular order);<br />
Martin, Pat, Ana, Tony, John C, John K, PJ & Crew, Peter, James, Niamh, Des, Zoe, Michael, Justin, Jamie, Carol, Dorothy, Jenny, Steve, Dee, Michael plus his Dundalk Samaritans Crew, Dave, Michele, JuJu Jay, Conor, Noel, Gary, John, Carmel, Dave, Vanessa, Brian C, Helen, Gerry, Brianne, Barbara, Paul Brian W, Donal, Frank, John B, Niall, Eleanor, Rachel (apologies if I've forgotten anyone!)<br />
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I truly had an amazing week. Not at all what I expected, in lots of ways. Great support, especially in Leinster. For weather/navigation reasons I switched some of the more remote mountains to Leinster peaks (this was the same week in which a hiker tragically died in Mweelrea mountain in Co Mayo, after going missing for several days), but maintained or exceeded my distance/ascent targets. <br />
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In my longer report I'll detail all the peaks I did, but for now here's some quick (approximate) stats;<br />
Total days running = 8 (over 9 days, I took 1 day off)<br />
Total ascent = about 5000 metres<br />
Total km = about 145<br />
Total hours running = 25<br />
Total number of mountain peaks = 21<br />
Weather = mixed!<br />
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I'd do a few things differently next time. For example what was I thinking running a full marathon on Day One?? That was a tough day, into the wind all the way too, 6 hours, the final 3 of which were somewhat attritional, a big thanks to everyone who came out and got me through that one (getting soaked to the skin themselves, in to the bargain!) Highlights? The scenery,, the company, some of the best downhills in the business (Galtees, Lug, etc), the time to think, the funny moments - eg whilst temporarily mislocated on the Blackstairs we were offered a lift in a tractor by a sympathetic farmer who plainly thought we were nuts.. But it was all good really, and I'd love to attempt similar feats in the future, and would recommend likewise.<br />
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Anyway, I'm delighted at the money raised so far, delighted to have raised a little bit of further noise around the mortgage-crisis and (mortgage-related) mental health issues, not to mention delighted I didn't sustain any injuries, nor even any proper falls really (bit disappointed about that last one!). As well as the support from family, friends, fellow-runners (including some whom I'd never met before), I also appreciate the media support I got, and everyone who 'liked' or 'shared' my Facebook content. But, for now, I'm hanging up my runners. Well, for a week or two anyway..<br />
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Finally, the four charities were;<br />
Samaritans <br />
St Vincent de Paul<br />
A Little Lifetime<br />
Tabor Children's Trust<br />
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We're getting up towards a thousand euros now, which is fantastic.<br />
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You can donate at the following websites, big or small all donations very welcome;<br />
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/ken_cowleys_event/<br />
http://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/13085_ken-s-mountain-run-around-ireland.html<br />
and here is the event page on Facebook for more info;<br />
https://www.facebook.com/events/377434905693462/<br />
see also<br />
www.kencowley.comKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-72548737133175883672013-08-08T11:52:00.002-07:002013-08-08T11:55:16.366-07:00'Major Barbara' Abbey Theatre play review, August 2013First up, well done to the Abbey on all their recent innovative Twitter marketing, including their generous giveaways, of which yours truly was a recipient, getting a nice pair of free 4th row seats for one of the previews.<br />
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So, off we trundled to Abbey Street last Friday, myself and herself, with no particular expectations. I'm an admirer of George Bernard Shaw's life, wit, writings and much of his philosophy, but I think I've only ever seen one of his plays before (Pygmalion). I know the Gate theatre did Mrs Warren's Profession earlier this year, but generally his plays haven't really been performed that much here in Shaw's home country over the years. Is that because his worldview didn't chime with that of independent Ireland, or because his work had an Anglo hue to it? I don't really know. What I do know though, is that some of the themes of Major Barbara are still very relevant today, and this was an entertaining thought provoking play from start to finish, expertly produced by the national theatre.<br />
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Where to start? There is so much in it! It's a long, complicated play, in 3 Acts (almost 4). A huge amount of dialogue for the cast, and for a preview there were surprisingly few slip-ups, just a few words here and there. And not only is there a lot of dialogue, but the sentences are long and the language ornate, beautiful and slightly old-fashioned, with the wit of Oscar Wilde yet the seriousness of the deeper thinker that was Shaw. So, an impressive performance from the cast. Strongest was probably Eleanor Methven as Lady Britomart, closely followed by impressive newcomer (at this level) Clare Dunne in the title role and bringing a bit of TV and big screen glamour to the Dublin stage, Paul McGann as Mr Undershaft. He's technically very good, but like most of the cast, we could see he was possibly still finding his way in to the role at preview stage, not surprising for what is a fairly difficult play.<br />
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The cast, direction and production cleverly brought out both the humour and the themes of the play. What came through most was the theme of charity and how it can be corrupted by big money, particularly big money of dubious origin. We saw the title character wrestle with this time and time again, and the contrasting attitude of her father. I won't spoil the plot of the play, but suffice to say this wrestling for Barbara becomes more and more pronounced as Shaw explores the complicated nature of family, money, inheritance, guilt and the various moralities of war and charity. Much of the humour came from the Lady Britomart character, and the actresses' perfect delivery had a lot to do with this. <br />
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Final word goes to the really excellent production. The three different stage set-ups all worked prefectly, especially the classic drawing room set-up and the nice device they use when it switches to the factory.<br />
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So, kudos to the Abbey for reviving this thought-provoking play, and even bigger kudos for giving away so many free tickets to the previews. They were much appreciated!<br />
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-19264227541782646302013-07-02T11:24:00.002-07:002013-07-02T11:24:17.058-07:00Glastonbury 2013 - brief TV reviewSeeing as Glastonbury on the Beeb is as close as I seem to be getting to any live music action this summer, here’s a few thoughts on this year’s return to action, after Michael Eavis giving the field a break in 2012.<br />
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The coverage was the usual matey affair, with the same main 3 presenters doing pieces-to-camera, introducing the acts, interviews and a selection of pre-recorded pieces about artists, the event, the site etc.<br />
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Basically I just dipped in and out of the main BBC2 coverage catching bits and pieces of the acts I wanted to see, plus the occasional longer set on BBCs 3 and 4, and caught a few extra songs on YouTube.<br />
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Obvious highlight? Well, I do quite like the Rolling Stones so like most people I was eager to see would they deliver.<br />
And they did! I have one or two quibbles with the modern-day Stones, but I can put these quibbles all aside as far as this performance went. It was a very well judged setlist and effort by the whole band. Firstly I like the fact that this tour has slightly less backing musicians than previous tours, it has 2 actually quite decent new songs in the set, AND they didn’t bother with any bells/whistles/fireworks at the Glastonbury show – just focusing on the music, plus of course with Mick Taylor guesting on 2 or 3 songs, as he has done on the whole tour. And he really shows his chops! He’s certainly a somewhat more naturally gifted player than Ronnie Wood or Keith Richards, notwithstanding Wood/Richards on a good night do gel well together themselves. Anyway, really great to finally see him back in the band and at his best playing on 2 or 3 very strong songs (would be good to see more of him tho) in a proper televised setting (rather than the audience YouTubes from the US tour)<br />
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And ok, so the Stones are maybe not as dangerous, relevant or cutting edge as 40 years ago, but really these days, who is?<br />
This was entertainment, but entertainment of the highest quality. Jagger in particular, owned the stage and had a superb night. Set highlight for me (out of the televised part) was ‘Midnight Rambler’ but it was all good really.<br />
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The first night’s headliners Arctic Monkeys were quite good. I’ve seen them live before myself, but that was back in the earlier days, they seem to have turned in to a different band altogether now, but still very good. Alex Turner still has the arrogance and presence to command a big crowd and they went down pretty well.<br />
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Mumford and Sons on the final night were also ok. Perhaps these days people expect a big ‘Rock’ type headliner, but Glastonbury does have folk-rock roots and these guys definitely have their particular (big) audience. I saw them at Hop Farm a few years ago, and thousands of people were singing along to every word. Personally I find their songs a bit repetitive, but each to their own, and hey, it was a passable Beatles sing-a-long at the end!<br />
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Some other artists I enjoyed – Elvis Costello is as good as ever, Chic and Nile Rogers gave us some pop/funk/r’n'b, The Strypes showed us why they’re the future (or possibly the past?!) with a classic twist on the sound and look of all those London bands from 50 years ago, and Kenny Rogers sounding (if not looking?!) just like he always has, ie very mainstream country music but with a good stage presence for the traditional Sunday oldies-slot, and who can deny he has some catchy and familiar songs for a cheery sunny Glastonbury afternoon!<br />
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Anyway, a good festival it seems again, and well done to the BBC on their competent and exhaustive coverage – but I’ll end with a short rant – how about showing more of the Download Festival next year guys?! Metal is almost as popular as any other genre, and Download draws huge crowds, but BBC4 only showed a measly 2 songs of Iron Maiden’s storming headlining slot. Ah well..<br />
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-69859953497439188572013-05-11T10:39:00.003-07:002013-05-11T10:44:47.424-07:00Eric Clapton review, 02 Arena, Dublin 9 May 2013I was delighted to receive a complimentary ticket to Eric Clapton's Dublin show (a big thanks to the person who gave it to me!), and perched in excellent seats just behind the short flat part of the floor,settled in to watch Eric and his band stroll on to stage promptly at 8.30pm on this, the opening night of their European tour.<br />
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I'm not an out-and-out Clapton fanatic, but have always liked his fluid perfect blues style as well as his songs, voice and bands, so was really looking forward to this gig, which was pretty much the first major concert I've been to in nearly a year.<br />
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For the first two songs Eric was on acoustic and allowing the band to kick out and find it's feet, starting with a gentle 'Hello Old Friend' sweetened by some country pedal-steel guitar from Greg Leisz. Next up was 'My Father's Eyes' not a great song, but given a nice reggae tinge in this arrangement and a catchy number for Eric to build up the concert a little before finally strapping on his electric guitar (a black Strat) for 3rd song 'Tell the Truth'. Even now, Eric seemed content to let his 2nd guitar player Doyle Bramhell take the early leads, but in the latter part of the song he finally peeled off a classic solo of his own. Now we really knew we were at an Eric Clapton concert!<br />
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I should say that the sound in the room was absolutely perfect, incredibly well mixed, and Eric's band really deserve all their plaudits, including the 2 female backing vocalists who added a lot but were never intrusive. Eric seems in excellent shape as he approaches 70, and his voice is as good as his guitar chops (I've always felt Clapton's voice is very underrated, as is the case with two other guitar heroes of his era, Hendrix and Rory Gallagher).<br />
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The 4th song I wasn't familiar with, 'Gotta Get Over' according to the EC fan sites, and had some lovely complicated riffing going on in it. Then we had 'Black Cat Bone' a snappy blues with wonderful playing from the pedal-steel guy, now switched to lap-steel. 'Got to Get Better' was a great funky work-out with Eric and Steve Jordan on drums both very prominent. 'Come Rain or Come Shine' was the closest we'd had yet to a mid tempo tune, gorgeous song, with Eric and Paul Carrack (piano and vocals, and a good singer he is too, a bit like Dr John) trading verses.<br />
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Then we had the biggest 'hit' played so far, 'Badge' getting a big roar of recognition from the capacity crowd, and very well played it was too. This closed the first electric set, a quick change of set up, and Eric sets to a few songs seated, and with a stripped down band, playing what looked like a gorgeous enormous red Grelsch. The first song was 'Drifting' with nice fingerpicking from the main man and organ solo from Carrack, followed by a song from the new album I think, preceding a gentle 'Layla', done a la the Unplugged album but with a bit more swing. Chris Stainton got to play a nice keyboard solo on it. <br />
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Next up was the first of a few Robert Johnson related songs which Eric has been featuring in recent legs of his tour. And perhaps there was some extra significance to the Johnson songs, as yesterday would have been his 102nd birthday! 'Stones in my Passway' has a Crossroads-esque riff, with some stunning tempo-switches, something I always like in a blues song. Then Paul Carrack got to sing one, prior to Eric taking up the mic again with a somewhat throwaway shuffle-tpye arrangement of 'Lay Down Sally'. The stripped-down set then draws to a close with one of Eric's biggest hits, a faithful rendition of 'Wonderful Tonight' nicely done, and with Doyle Bramhall playing the famous guitar solo.<br />
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Back to electric, kicking off with a song called 'Blues Power', a kind of old fashioned R'n'B song, prior to 'Love in Vain' bringing the ghost of Robert Johnson nicely to life again on this chilly Dublin summer's evening. Excellently done, in a more brisk arrangement than the famous Rolling Stones version, and then kicking straight in to 'Crossroads' a major highlight of the night, finishing up as it does these days with Clapton and Bramhall tossing solos at each other almost casually, but always solos of stunning quality. <br />
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Coming close now to the end of the show, they played 'Queen of Spades' probably the most long slow traditional blues of the night, and again of the highest quality. Truly wonderful band playing. I think I've mentioned most of them by now, but a quick mention of the rhythm section wouldn't go astray, with Willie Weeks on bass and Steve Jordan on drums having a huge impact on how this 'big-ish but tight' band gels, rocks and moves, providing the ultimate platform for Mr Clapton to do his thing. Last but not least then, the closing song of the night was a superb 'Cocaine', bringing the crowd to it's feet and a big ovation for all the musicians as they leave the stage after two hours of classic blues based music.<br />
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Eric wasn't done though, and back out they came for a 2 song 15-minute encore, first a true-to-life rendition of the Cream classic 'Sunshine of your Love' again with Paul Carrack getting to share vocal verses, before closing with 'High Time we Went', not a song I know well, but a decent closing number.<br />
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So, off we went in to the night, truly sated with a show that had virtually everything that music can offer, exemplary musicianship/songs/singing, great sound in what is a very good venue for such a big room, and of course for anyone who likes guitar, it has never ever gotten much better than this, Eric Clapton himself - still very close to the top of his game after 50 years on the road. If he's playing your town, go! 9/10.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-87873372123837763392013-01-01T07:24:00.001-08:002013-01-04T06:46:41.741-08:00Review of 20122012 was a ropey old year really in many ways! So let’s get the negatives out of the way quickly, in a couple of sentences! Ireland is still in bad shape. But it’s still not Haiti. I still have mortgage issues, financial issues and negative equity, but I’m still eating well! I’ve covered Ireland’s economic woes and some of my suggestions re same (plus content re my mortgage campaign) in my e-book, (www.notrunningaway.com) and in a recent blog about the Budget (http://www.notrunningaway.com/the-budget-and-beyond-a-view/ ), so I won’t rehash any of that here. However suffice to say that in this bankrupt little country (where we pay our leader considerably more than Barack Obama) we have not in any significant way challenged the inequalities, injustices and mounting poverty issues which face the country. We have a long way to to, green shoots or no..<br />
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But it IS great to see any green shoots (of recovery), and I am genuinely feeling positive for myself and for others about 2013. We’ll have to do most of it ourselves though. I’ve given up on governments (or banks, or any other branches of Official Ireland) to show much wit or innovation, or even any basic human consideration.<br />
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So, moving on from that, instead of my usual list-based review of the year (films, concerts, albums) I’m going to do it a little differently this year, and just touch (briefly!) on things I enjoyed and some (!) of the things I got up to during the year. The main reason being, in 2012 I went to very few films, plays and concerts, and bought very few albums. <br />
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But, there was lots of good stuff..<br />
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Firstly, I did quite a bit of running. Lots of regular IMRA mountain races and some longer distance races such as the Art O’Neill Challenge and the Mournes 7-7s, both of which went quite well, arm injury in the Mournes notwithstanding. The Art O’Neill is an incredible event (I reviewed it thoroughly on my blog at the time) and I must have forgotten all about the pain of the closing 10-20km last year (it’s a 55km overnight winter-time mountain ultra-marathon), as I seem to have entered it again! It’s on next week (11&12 Jan) and hopefully I’ve done enough training to get through it again. Aiming to beat last year’s 9.5 hours!<br />
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One other activity I’ve been trying recently is Bikram Yoga down at the Harold’s Cross studio (http://bikramyoga.ie/Welcome.html ), I’ve just done one month of it (introductory offer) and am already finding the benefits to be quite significant. It’s early days though, so I won’t go in to too much detail yet, but here’s a sample of benefits I’m feeling already – quicker recovery from long training runs, legs and knees considerably less creaky, better flexibility, better sleep, lower blood pressure, a little bit of weight loss and improved muscle tone, improved headaches and some quite remarkable overall post-class relaxation and general well-being! I’ll report back further on this in future blog entries.<br />
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Career wise, it’s been an interesting year. I won’t go in to much detail on this, but things are going in a good direction and I have some plans already in place for 2013 which I can’t wait to get stuck in to. Like many people in Ireland I’m working on making my way out of the mess of the economic collapse and my bad (!) timing in buying my first home (2006), but even more importantly, I’ve made a lot of progress at coping with the stress. Solutions have included – the support of friends and family, meditation/yoga, running, talking to people, and of course the support of one person in particular. She wouldn’t want me to name her, but 2012 would have meant very little without her!<br />
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Anyway, to the nuts and bolts of some of the things I enjoyed this year.<br />
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Sports wise, I very much enjoyed the Olympics – the sport, the tv coverage, and also the excellent opening ceremony. Nice to see our neighbours put on a good event, and lets not begrudge them all their medals (!), plus it was nice to see a few Irish medals as well. Earlier in the year Leinster won another big one in rugby and later Andy Murray got the major monkey off his back, Fionnuala Britton (who did an IMRA race this year!) winning cross country titles was great to see, but most of all I enjoyed seeing Rory McIlroy step up to the plate and become the greatest golfer in the world. <br />
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Of my few concerts this year, they were all contenders for my favourite. Topping the bill as joint winners though would be Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen, both in Dublin. I chose well, going to just one night of each artist’s run, getting a particularly excellent setlist at Bruce’s show on the Wednesday. (I have already reviewed these shows in detail earlier in the year, if you want to delve back). Leonard’s shows are as special as ever - there’ll come a day when we’ll look back very fondly at this short golden on-stage period for the aging bard, but for now we should just savour it. Bruce tours all the time of course and 2012 was just about the best form I’ve ever seen him in, him and the expanded E-Street Band. With more to come in 2013! I saw one excellent Dylan show in 2013 in the summer (thanks Jim!), but it was a pity he ignored his new album so much in the Fall. But news of a band shake-up may lead to more sprightly setlists (we hope!) in 2013. I also saw at least one very good Waterboys show and a solid Wilco set (both outdoors). Oh, and Tom Petty was great too, in the o2. Hidden gem of the year was a great little blues gig in JJs pub in Dublin just last Saturday night with unbelievably good quality musicianship by a band called the Gerry Hendrick Band featuring PJ Salmon. And only a tenner in! Surreal moment of the year was standing halfway back at the Waterboys (was too bloody loud up the front) and realising none other than Bruce Springsteen was standing a little bit to my right, in the middle of the crowd!<br />
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I saw hardly anything in the cinema, and most of what I did see was mainstream. I’m not a big one for New Year’s resolutions, but I’m definitely going to see more films in 2013, LESS blockbusters, plus catch up on the good 'uns I missed last year, both on dvd AND on my ever-overflowing digital tv box! The Hobbit was much better than the reviews suggested – it was lovely to be plunged back in to Middle Earth again, with nice leisurely story-telling, excellent casting and special effects which are a notch-up from the Lord of the Rings. But, forget about this 54 frame rate lark (it made it look like a documentary) and forget 3D, this film looks WAY better in regular old 2D. Skyfall was the best Bond movie since, well the one before the last one, but Batman and Marvel’s Avengers were both a bit disappointing. John Carter was quite good, underrated. Shame was grim, The Help was excellent and A Dangerous Method was an interesting piece which didn't quite work. I saw one film in the French film festival, a great little nugget called Fermatt’s Room, which I think was not a 2012 release, though. I can only remember one other film this year, Woody Allen's To Rome With Love, which continues his slight return to form. So, a bad year for going to the cinema (I urgently want to catch up with highly recommended films like Amour and The Master), so I’m going to cheat slightly and name The Artist as my film of the year, given that in Ireland it was released in 2012 and I saw it sometime that January. Best film I saw all year, by a mile.<br />
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I only saw, jeez, one play?! Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance at the Gate theatre. Good fun. But not enough – next year I’d like to see more.<br />
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I didn’t buy a lot of albums either, but dipped in to many. And it was quite a good year. Not surprisingly, Bob Dylan’s Tempest tops my list. One of his best latter-day albums, and a delight for the ears if you like pre-Rock American music played by experts and sung by what is still one of the most expressive voices (despite the ever increasing rasp) in the business. Other artists/albums I’ve enjoyed listening to this year included (and this is NOT a definitive list); Wrecking Ball (a career highlight from The Boss), Old Ideas (a grower of a late-addition to the Leonard canon), Neil Young (Americana was a dud, but the Crazy Horse album was a stormer), Natalie Duncan (it’s a good era for female singers, she’s the one who springs to mind the most, great voice and piano!), The Strypes, Alt-J, Hudson Taylor, Jack White, Dexys, Black Keys and Bill Fay. Paul McCartney had quite a good year, with some good live shows apparently, a great re-issue of his ‘Ram’ album, a surprisingly good and understated standards album, then veering dangerously in to ‘over-exposure territory’ at all those ‘big-moment’ summer concerts in London, but rescuing things in fine style with his ‘Nirvana-moment’ last month – check out the YouTube of him and Dave and Krist doing their new song, Cut me Some Slack, at the Concert for Sandy event. And speaking of the Fabs (weren’t we?!), I’m still reeling from (and enjoying) the mono and stereo CD box-sets of the entire Beatles catalogue back in 2009, plus funds were tight so I didn’t shell out 300 quid for the deluxe box of re-issued 2012 LP editions. I would be interested to hear them though, and see how they compare to my original Beatles vinyls and the remastered CDs.<br />
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It was a disappointing year for Art in Dublin, with nothing really happening in the National Gallery (half of it is still closed) other than a mindless attack by a lunatic on one of our Monets! And because I travelled so little, I saw very few exhibitions.<br />
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Some books I read included Keith Richard’s Life, The Mitfords – a Biography, more of PD James’ back catalogue and other crime/period novels, re-reads, plus other books about music, running, motivation etc. I’m working on curbing my addiction to newspapers and running/music magazine (!), AND I got a nice present of an e-reader for Christmas, so way more reading to come in 2013!<br />
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The art-form (?!) I partook of the most this year however was probably, ahem, TV. BUT, if you took the time to look, there was lots of quality and/or entertaining programmes to check out. I saw season one of Game of Thrones (incredible standard of TV fantasy drama), season two of Homeland (disappointing), season three of Downton Abbey (a slight improvement on season two, it’s still fun but not to be taken very seriously), lots of good music docs (and history docs etc) on the likes of Sky Arts and BBC4, Parades End (a bit ponderous, but overall a thought-provoking and enjoyable adaptation), Bletchley Circle, the Late Late Show (well, the episode I was on, that is..!) and Gran Hotel (lush, melodramatic but enjoyable Spanish period drama). Comedy wise, I’ve been checking out things like The Big Bang Theory (quite good), Modern Family, Happy Endings, and the preponderance of stand-up comedy now on TV. But, for my programme of the year, here it is - in the nick of time (note - given that I’ve not seen the 2012 season two of Game of Thrones yet, THAT programme doesn’t qualify) I’m plumping for a Victorian London cop drama which only started two days ago (first of 8 episodes) called Ripper Street. It's very good so far (be warned, it’s quite violent), and given that it was shot in Ireland, over here we have the extra pleasure of trying to spot the locations! I’ve also watched quite a bit of current affairs and news this year, and given the scandals at the BBC and even RTE, am taking what I see/hear with a bigger pinch of salt than usual – it’s been a tough year for people in Ireland, UK, US and Europe, and even worse elsewhere, so now more than ever we need good journalists, good reporting and good analysis. Let’s hope we get it in 2013.<br />
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My own main priorities for 2013 are career, health and making time to relax a bit more. Sports wise I need to firstly get through the Art O’Neill ultra, and then consider other challenges, perhaps the Wicklow Way Ultra in the Spring, with an adventure race or two (and/or a triathlon) in the summer, and more running, golf and yoga.<br />
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I’d like to thank everyone for their support this year, especially anyone who bought the book (!) and wish everyone the best for a better year to come. My sympathies to those who lost people last year, or who have bad health, traumas or recession-related problems, and congratulations to lots of people close to me who had happy events – it was a great year for weddings etc! Feel free to keep an eye on my websites and blogs for new developments and writing in 2013, and keep in touch.<br />
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Happy New Year!<br />
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www.notrunningaway.com (my book)<br />
www.kencowley.com<br />
www.heartdiseasemiracle.com<br />
www.irishmortgagedebtforgiveness.blogspot.com<br />
www.samsonsdiner.blogspot.com<br />
email cowleyken@gmail.com<br />
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copyright Ken Cowley 2012<br />
Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-4768543102663887632012-09-09T08:22:00.001-07:002012-09-09T08:26:06.989-07:00Review of Bob Dylan 2012 studio album 'Tempest'The big question mulling around the heads of Dylan fans for the last few months was - would ‘Tempest’ live up to the hype? Well, now that the album has been released, does it?<br />
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For me, yes of course it does (did you expect anything else?!) I’ve listened to it maybe 5 or 6 times in the last 3 days, in many locations and on many devices – vinyl, headphones, in the car, iPod etc, and the album works amazingly well in all of those settings. <br />
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Firstly, it’s just a great listen and is a surprisingly complex and luxurious album, sound wise making 2009’s ‘Together Through Life’ seem a bit rushed and insubstantial by comparison. For me, it’s at least as good as ‘Modern Times’ (2006), Love & Theft (2001) and even ‘Time out of Mind’ (1997) – his three critically acclaimed albums since his so called ‘beginning in the late ‘90s’ comeback.<br />
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One critic ‘complained’ about how rootsy the album is and how far he has strayed from his ‘60s template – the period where he played a major part in creating modern rock music. My thought’s would be that pretty much ALL his albums since 1992’s ‘Good as I Been To You’ have been rootsy in one way or another, and that’s been 20 years, hence -nearly half his career. It’s just what he does now. And he’s never stopped very long in one exact genre now has he? - as soon as he’s done with something or mastered something (be it folk, rock, singer-songwriter, country, gospel etc) he’s done with it, keeps it in his arsenal and moves on. Albeit his best work is usually informed by his past experiences as a musician, as well as being informed by the artists who influenced him originally, many of whom are from the decades BEFORE the 60s. As he said himself, he is much more of a 1950s creature than a 1960s creature, and he’s got to play what he’s feeling, and this is what he’s been feeling in recent years.<br />
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And this album has the pre-rock era written all over it. Like Love & Theft (and Modern Times to a lesser extent) it is an exercise in pre’60s genres. But with (arguably) stronger songs than those albums (‘Mississippi’, ‘Workingman’s Blues’ and ‘Nettie Moore’ excepted). Also, the album is beautifully recorded and is very subtle for a Dylan album, superb musicianship - including exquisite guitar, organ, piano, accordion, fiddles, pedal-steel – all nicely sitting around the ever-versatile drumming of George Recile.<br />
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Plus, they really sound like a band, despite the studio setting. This is something Dylan (or Jack Frost, as he calls himself as Producer) and his band first really mastered on Modern Times. Since then the only changes have been swapping Denny Freeman for Charlie Sexton and adding in David Hidalgo (studio only) for some accordion sweetening. Plus, I really think these songs and these arrangements are very much informed by the NET (Never Ending Tour). You can almost picture Bob going in to the studio with these songs and all 7 men working on the arrangements much like they would when rehearsing for tours. I can already see how several of these songs will be just killer live songs.<br />
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And, even more importantly, Bob has taken considerable care with his vocals. We all know his voice has not gotten any stronger since the NET heyday (which in my opinion was approximately 1995-2001), but he still makes good use of what is now effectively a ‘growl’ in concert, and on this album it sounds just perfect for the music and songs he has created. You can tell he’s comfortable with this voice now, proof of which is evident in how up-front the vocals are in the mix.<br />
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Some other first impressions – no harmonica, no guitar solos really (just lovely ‘fills’ all over the place, and very few choruses (if any?). <br />
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As to the lyrics, in my opinion he has written some of his strongest in years for this album, and much less the ‘Dylan-by-rote’ lyrics which have appeared from time to time on his albums since the 80s. He seems to be engaging with the English language in a more innovative (and playful) way than he has in a long time. Themes of death, religion, anger (lots of the songs are very angry sounding!), loss and love abound – but all are interweaved with devilish couplets and black humour, lots of black humour. There are stories that wouldn’t be out of place in Westerns, gangster movies, even horror movies - alongside ballads and love-songs. I don’t know what his overall aim/theme (if any) was with the album, all that springs to mind is perhaps his bemusement/anger at the mess us humans have always made of things along with the general chaos and violence of life and nature. At the end of the review I will list a selection of the lines that stood out to me most on my first listenings.<br />
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But before I go in to a song-by –song analysis, can I urge neutral (or nay-sayer) readers to give this album a chance? It is a real ‘full-meal’ of an album and can be enjoyed on many levels, eg just allowing it to wash over you as a gorgeous exercise in pre-rock music, with great production, enjoyable lyrics, classic rasping Dylan vocals, danceable uptempo numbers, pleasant ballads and a few epics thrown in as well. It really sounds like Bob and band were having fun recording it, and it is definitely fun to listen to. Is it a masterpiece, on the level of, say, ‘Blonde on Blonde’ (1966)? No, of course not, but it’s an album I will personally enjoy just as much as any of those earlier masterpieces, and if I was forced to rate it as a piece of work, well let’s just say it’s knocking on the door of my Top 10 Dylan albums.<br />
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‘Duquesne Whistle’. Excellent little opening train number. Should work well live. As with quite a few songs on the album there are all sorts of types of music in here – country, jazz, western swing, rockabilly. Interestingly Bob is playing organ on it (not piano, like he mainly plays on stage now, since this summer). Very reminiscent of the ‘Love and Theft’ album.<br />
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‘Soon After Midnight’. Gorgeous old-fashioned 1950s country-pop ballad with nice Sun records style guitar licks over a loping rhythm. It’s this album’s ‘When the Deal Goes Down’ and that’s no bad thing.<br />
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‘Narrow Way’. Along with ‘Duquesne Whistle’ it is this album’s ‘Summer Days/Thunder on Mountain/Levee Gonna Break’ etc. This is a classic blues-rock or jump-blues number with a great slicing riff which really really swings and should be a highly energetic live number. <br />
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‘Long & Wasted Years’. A lovely talk/sing number. Reminds me slightly of ‘Brownsville Girl’ even though it’s a highly original number in its own right. It’s short too, but makes its point. Great vocal on this one.<br />
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‘Pay In Blood’. Bob doing the Rolling Stones and doing it very well. Excellent rock song, excellent vocals. Possibly could have done with a chorus, but I can see him playing nice harmonica fills in between the verses if he does it live.<br />
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‘Scarlet Town’. The most folky song on the album. Reminiscent of ‘Ain’t Talkin’ and as with that number is a song I admire more than enjoy. Gillian Welch comes to mind.<br />
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‘Early Roman Kings’. Well, it wouldn’t be a Dylan album without at least one electric blues song, this time a Muddy Waters inspired 12 bar romp through some strong lyrics about gangsters (possibly!). Interesting to see the accordion so prominent and effective in a song like this.<br />
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‘Tin Angel’. Maybe my 2nd favourite song on the album. Very strong mid-paced declamatory story-style son. Musically it is perhaps influenced by his recent live arrangements for ‘Blind Willie McTell’ and ‘Man in the Long Black Coat’. Very good lyrics, which you can just see him spitting out in a live context, centre stage. It’s a fabulous old-timey yarn, all sorts of things going on and a very nasty ending! Other songs it reminds me of are ‘Isis’ and ‘Arthur McBride’. One review I read also mentioned ‘Black Jack Davey’ – which supports my vague (!) theory that all this really began with ‘Good as I Been to You’<br />
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‘Tempest’. Well, what can I say about this number. A 14 minute 45-verse sea-shanty song about the Titanic?! Played in a slightly sentimental and over-the-top style! Is it original? Is it any good? Do I like it? Well, yes, actually – it’s probably my favourite song on the album. There is something extremely charming, warm and likeable about this song. It’s stately, but very catchy, his phrasing is exquisite – over the backing of guitars, piano, fiddle and pedal steel. Based apparently to some extent on a Carter Family song, it’s a bit like the old fashioned (pre TV news) method of writing a song about a recent event, almost like journalism – albeit in this case from an exact 100 year distance! The melody and phrasing remind me of ‘Cross the Green Mountain’ an overlooked masterpiece from a few years ago which wasn’t on any official album until it got a release on the ‘Tell Tale Signs’ collection. 3 days in, and I can’t stop playing it. Would love to see it live!<br />
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‘Roll on John’. Well, this was a song I badly wanted to like. I mean, Bob writing a tribute song to my first musical hero (John Lennon) and also it’s the closing song on one of his strongest albums for years. Well, I do like it, but just not quite as much as I expected to. But like so much about this album - it’s heartfelt and enjoyable and is quite a nice way to close the album, albeit I think ‘Tempest’ would have been a better closing song.<br />
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Final thoughts – the album is a wonderful addition to the canon and what better way to mark Bob’s (un-hyped) 50th anniversary year (it’s 50 years since his first album) than with a fine new studio album (and more endless touring – good shows this year, so far), as compared to the over-hyped way the Rolling Stones are celebrating theirs (with a flabby cash-in greatest hits album and rumoured 4-show high-ticket priced tour). Ok, so the album doesn’t quite have a ‘Visions of Johanna’ or even a ‘Not Dark Yet’, but it’s highly accomplished, extremely consistent and will stand up to years of repeated listening. No weak tracks at all. So, and not wishing to end with any sort of negativity - my advice is - listen to your old Rolling Stones albums, listen to all the old roots music which influenced Bob and led to this extraordinary career and to ‘Tempest’ (and check out his radio shows for a fascinating glimpse in to those influences), but most of all – buy ‘Tempest’ and listen the hell out of it! I’m giving it 9/10 and most likely it will be my album of the year.<br />
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As promised, and because I’m impressed with the lyrics so far, I’m going to finish with some of my favourite lines.<br />
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‘Two-timing Slim<br />
Who’s ever heard of him?’<br />
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‘I wear dark glasses to cover my eyes<br />
There are secrets in them I can’t disguise’<br />
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‘Man can’t live by bread alone<br />
I pay in blood, but not my own’<br />
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‘If love is a sin, then beauty’s a crime<br />
All things are beautiful in their time,<br />
The black and white, the yellow and brown<br />
It’s all right in front of you in Scarlet town’<br />
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‘All the early Roman Kings in their shark-skin suits<br />
Bow-ties and buttons, high-top boots<br />
Driving the spikes in, blazing the rails<br />
Nailed in their coffins in top-hats and tails’<br />
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‘Ding-dong Daddy, you’re coming up short<br />
Gonna put you on trial in a Sicilian court’<br />
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‘I’ll have no more of this insulting chat<br />
The devil can have you, I’ll see to that<br />
Look sharp or step aside<br />
Or in the cradle you’ll wish you had died’<br />
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By Ken Cowley (2012) <br />
Please visit my website www.notrunningaway.com and consider buying my autobiographical e-book on my experience of the Irish financial crisis, and my response to it, with plenty of coverage of things I am passionate about, such as music and running.<br />
Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-57588599561012790272012-08-23T06:00:00.001-07:002012-08-23T06:00:27.789-07:00There's a feature/interview with me about my e-book on P.93 of the new issue of Hot Press magazine. Please consider buying my book (only 7 euros) and/or supporting my campaign, more info at www.notrunningaway.com Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-51860158120824236952012-07-19T06:39:00.002-07:002012-07-19T06:39:49.382-07:00Bruce Springsteen review Dublin 2012What a show!
I know I’m always saying how good Bruce is live, but seriously, this was the goods. He may not be in my top few artists (album/songs/voice wise), but not many put on anywhere as near as good a live show.
Faced with an austerity-led choice between the Tuesday and Wednesday shows, I opted for Tuesday, but was then forced to switch to Wednesday (for work reasons), and boy was I glad. Even though the reviews of Tuesday were excellent, it seems Wednesday just topped the first show for those who went to both, PLUS I definitely preferred Wednesday’s setlist – he played SO many of my favourite songs (switching 16 of the previous night’s 32 song setlist!), and really just a killer show, and maybe the best Springsteen show I’ve seen (having seen him about 15 times).
From the off, things looked good, we only got there at 5.30 and amazingly got a pit-wristband (the area in front of the stage limited to the first 3,000 of 30,000 fans, and settled on a nice spot about 20m from the stage in front of the right stack.
Bruce came on 45 minutes late with a nice low-key acoustic ‘This Hard Land’. The only negative tone I will strike in this review relates to all this hyperbole/moaning from Bruce/band/fans/press about curfews (further to having the plug literally pulled at the London Hyde Park festival show) – my attitude is if artists were so concerned about curfews they wouldn’t come on stage 45 minutes late! That said, I take the point that it wasn’t Bruce’s fault at the London show that earlier artists ran late, and his stunt at the 1st Dublin show with the power-switch was genuinely funny. ‘Nuff said.
Tonight’s show really kicked off though when the band trundled on for the 2nd song – a storming ‘No Surrender’. Right from the off it was clear this would be an excellent concert, as the sound was absolutely perfect – the typical big E-Street sound, now augmented with sparkling horns – quite incredible how tight and effortless and perfect (but not overly rehearsed or sterile) this band is - every instrument finds it’s space, with a never-better-sounding Bruce voice nicely riding on top of the music.
From there it was in to some early poppier numbers, a catchy one-two of ‘Two Heart’s and ‘Ties that Bind’ before playing his latest hit ‘We Take Care of Our Own’, the first of many well received songs from ‘Wrecking Ball’, then doing ‘Badlands’ and seguing from there in to a beautiful ‘Something in the Night’, a song which nicely shows off how Bruce’s voice has matured and got more expressive over the decades.
I’ll try not to mention EVERY song played – tricky due to there being absolutely NO clunkers on the night – so I’ll skip quickly by a solid bluesy ‘Adam Raised a Cain’ and on in to one of many really powerful performances of the new songs, the strong crowd reaction to this strong rendition of the title track of ‘Wrecking Ball’ quickly followed by ‘Death to My Hometown’ showing that his new album must have shifted a lot of copies in Ireland. It goes without saying that some of the themes of the album (recession, solidarity) speak loudly to an Irish audience in 2012, and the whole show struck a lovely balance between good-time rock’n’roll and a feeling of hope for better times to come for all of us.
One of several big highlights for me was ‘My City of Ruins’ with Bruce’s eloquent introduction of it as being a song that has come to have several meanings, plus it’s a song that benefits incredibly from the new horn section, with a lovely New Orleans feel to it. One of my favourite latter-day Springsteen songs and a highlight of this tour.
Next up was a swaggering ‘Spirit in the Night’, a fan-sign-inspired (rare) ‘Jackson Cage’, then ‘She’s the One’ (not a song I’m wild about), then ‘Jack of All Trades’ – again a very topical song for these times, followed by two huge crowd pleasers, ‘Atlantic City’ and ‘Because the Night’. Bruce has really re-taken this song back in recent years (not that there’s anything wrong with Patti Smith’s version!), and a lot of it has to do with the show-stopping Nils Lofgren guitar solo, which never fails to get a crowd to erupt.
The next few songs were nothing extraordinary, but fulfilled their various objectives (‘Darlington County’, ‘Easy Money’ and ‘Waitin’ on a Sunny Day’), before the band strolled off and Bruce gave us one of the top moments of the show – a gorgeous solo piano rendition of the ultra-rare (well, prior to this tour!) ‘The Promise’. Another good reason to have chosen the Wednesday show! Just beautiful.
Finally for the main set, Bruce and band gave us 3 big crowd pleasers in ‘The River’ a visceral ‘Backstreets’ (yippee, he played this instead of the over-played ‘The Rising’) and set-closing ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ – again, a song that was just crying out for some horns, and I was glad to see that the live version harkens back more to the version he debuted back in 1999 (I think?) than the slightly experimental studio version which appears on ‘Wrecking Ball’.
Anyway, the night was of course, far from over, as Bruce slammed straight in to a rocking 8-song encore, kicking off with the two ‘Borns’ (..in the USA, and ..to Run), ‘Glory Days’,’ 7 Nights to Rock’, ‘Dancing in the Dark’,’ 10th Avenue Freeze Out’ (complete with lovely Clarence Clemons tribute), and then taking a slight gamble by slowing things down to play a gorgeous ‘Rocky Ground’ the ground-breaking gospel/rap/rock hybrid duet song from the recent album (I love the lyrics on this one), before cranking things up again to box off the show with Bruce’s ‘Irish-ised’ version of the Seeger penned ‘American Land’.
In conclusion, life might be a bit rubbish right now for many people in the countries Bruce has visited on this tour, but for 3 hours 20 minutes last night, it was anything but. Slightly expensive tickets? Maybe, but if you look at it, it really was great value for money. After all, what a performance we got from this most energetic of 62 year olds! And in my opinion, we now have the perfect E-Street Band, a full horn section (plus the extra backing singers) really makes a difference – in some ways it’s like a composite E-Street/Seeger Sessions Band, never tighter, never more in tune with each other, and with its loyal audience.
I haven’t seen that many gigs this year, and many of those I have seen were excellent, but I don’t think many 2012 shows will come close to Wed 18 July in the RDS!Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-9155768217155172672012-07-03T13:32:00.001-07:002012-07-03T13:35:14.569-07:00Bob Dylan Berlin review 2 July 2012Due to the generosity of a recent 40th birthday present, yesterday saw me make a whistle-stop trip from Dublin to Berlin for the 2nd show of this latest chapter of Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour.
Most legs of the N.E.T. come and go these days without much fanfare, due to the sheer number of shows he has played in the last few decades, but this one is already making a splash.
Mainly for one reason! As reported yesterday on many of the world's leading music websites (Rolling Stone, Uncut etc) - Bob has decided to bring a grand piano along on this trip - and very welcome it is too, meaning he is now playing 4 instruments (5 if you include what he does with his voice!) on stage, guitar, organ, keyboard, harmonica. And in general, playing them pretty well(Dylan's musical eccentricity notwithstanding).
However, the grand piano isn't the only development of note. Also of note is the sheer number of new arrangements. They were obviously busy during the 3 days rehearsals in Poughkeepsie! Ok, no major setlist surprises, other than the reintroduction of 'She Belongs To Me' after a 4 year hiatus, but some of these new arrangements are almost like new songs. Which is a good thing as far as most of us are concerned, although possibly not for the casual concert goer, nor indeed the casual concert reviewer.
I go to a lot less shows than I used to, but regular (?!) readers will know I've been enthusiastic about Bob's return to the front of the stage (which he does these days for about half the show) and his renewed animation and engagement with the audience, since circa 2010. I'm glad to report all of this has been notched up yet another gear thus far on this tour. And with the prospect of the new album out in September, all really does seem to be rosy in the garden. Hell, he even had a costume change of sorts in Berlin, wearing shades and NO HAT (when was the last time he wore no hat?) for the first 4 songs, before whipping off the shades and popping on a hat for the remainder..
Last night, the animation didn't kick in properly until the 3rd song ('Leopardskin Pillbox Hat' had been the usual lively opener, and 'It Ain't Me Babe' with Bob on guitar, had been perhaps a little hesitant. But for a spell of about 6 or 7 songs from 'Things Have Changed' on, Bob was as animated as I've seen him for years. Older fans will remember that when he was in his 50s he moved like a man in his 70s, now that he's in his 70s he moves like a man in his 50s! Albeit not like any man in his 50s I've ever come across. His stage movements and expressions range from bizarre to limber, and really have to be seen to be appreciated. For anyone who's never seen him live, I strongly recommend that now is the time to do it - and get down relatively close to the front when you do. Just be prepared for eccentric arrangements and, of course, eccentric singing.
But, back to the piano. He first sat down at it for 'Lovesick', and stayed at it for most of the rest of the show. It has a couple of affects on the show. Firstly, it's a welcome change from the 'circus-sound' of the Korg organ he usually plays, and has a lovely classic piano sound. Ok, so he's no Oscar Peterson, nor even Elton John, but he has a nice style all of his own, and seems to be playing in a much less percussive style than the keyboard (pre-organ) style he gave us from 2002-2006.
Visually, it works too, as he doesn't just sit there, but fidgets a lot, and swivels around to engage with the audience, and band, at will.
Now, let me get to some of the song highlights of the Berlin show. Vocally, he seems to have staved off the decline of the latter years of the 2000s, and has worked out a way of expressing himself in a (mostly) musically interesting way with what's left of his voice, only rarely lapsing in to ridiculous OTT phrasing.
The first major rearrangement was 'Cry Awhile', Bob out-front with just harmonica and voice, a really excellent Chicago-blues type arrangement in what is now almost a trademark 'Bob-and-band' stop-start style. Anyway, it was very powerful and a reminder that Bob is just as likely to recast his recent work as his more famous older work.
Next up was the biggest surprise of the night - a lovely country-ish version of 'She Belongs To Me' with a nice descending riff on the 2nd half of each line and a surprisingly prominent Donny Herron pedal steel sound. As we know Bob's N.E.T. band is always evolving it's sound slightly from tour to tour, but this arrangement took a nice step back in that it strongly reminded me of the Larry Campbell years.
Maybe the best and most impactful song of the night was 'Lovesick'. As this was only the 2nd show with the grand piano, it was our turn in Berlin to hear it for the first time. A really powerful new version of this song, reminding me a little of the great 1920s sounding 'Blind Willie McTell' Bob played at the Scorsese tribute earlier this year. Old-timey in a good way.
'Levee's Gonna Break' on piano was maybe less successful, but towards the end of the song, Bob found a little riff he seemed to like and the band soon adapted and kicked in around that, and finished the song off well.
'High Water', the 2nd song ('Cry Awhile' being the other) from 2001's 'Love and Theft' album, has also been given another makeover. I really loved this one. Less overtly powerful than earlier arrangements of the song, they've given it a lighter touch - kind of bluegrassy/country-blues on it, and it really swings.
'Highway 61 Revisited' is a bit like a bus not coming, it gets the same old arrangement for years, and then we get 2 in 2 years - and this one is not bad. For me I've heard this song so many times, I can only enjoy it if they make it 'danceable' in some way, and I can focus on whatever groove the band is getting in to. And this one was certainly that, and as ever is a song the casual rock fan attendee will always want to hear.
The rest of the show perhaps didn't quite reach the levels of that middle run, with a pleasant stab at 'Simple Twist of Fate', a novel (for now!) chance to see Bob play some boogie-ish piano on the likes of 'Thunder on the Mountain', the usual show-stopping 'Ballad of a Thin Man' - and by the way - any music fan who has not seen Bob do this song post 2009 or so is missing a big tick on his/her 'Rock to-do list'.
'Like a Rolling Stone' was performed much as usual, but I must say it was nice to see him play his most famous song on the instrument he wrote it on. People think of Bob as a guitar playing singer songwriter, but don't forget he also writes/wrote a large number of his songs on piano.
The show closer, 'All Along the Watchtower' is yet another song to have received a re-jig, and is now much improved in my opinion - it's a faster, more urgent reading of this old warhorse, prior to a nice encore of 'Blowing in the Wind' capped with it's usual closing 'out-front' harmonica flourish.
In conclusion, a really enjoyable show in the German capital with a nice atmosphere in a lovely Castle setting. Final point of note - Bob was 40 minutes late on stage (unheard of for an artist who despite a reputation for contrariness, is in many ways actually a very old-school music pro, and normally on-stage within 10 minutes of the designated time), and ironically the heavens opened and it rained pretty hard for the final 40 minutes of the show!
But, who cared. A really good show in what is quite a decent period for the N.E.T.
Go see one!
Finally - a quick plug - please consider buying (and telling your friends about!) my short autobiographical e-book, in which I write not only about my years of going to Bob Dylan shows, but my experiences of Ireland's financial collapse, a few health battles and other cheerful topics! It's called 'Not Running Away', and is only 7 euros, available on my website www.notrunningaway.com
Thanks.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-69555518640414931472012-05-23T03:51:00.001-07:002012-05-23T03:57:53.622-07:00Have just published my 1st book - 'Not Running Away'Just to update this blog to say I have just published a short autobiographical book - covering personal and financial crises, the Irish property/economic collapse, music, running & more.
I've tried to make it not TOO depressing!
Aim of the book was to be candid, therapeutic, informative, part of my mortgage campaign and to help me out of a financial hole!
Would really appreciate people buying the book (you can buy it as an e-book or ask me for a PDF) for only 9 euro and MOST IMPORTANTLY 'sharing' this post, or the link on my website (see below) on Facebook, your websites or blogs. Thanks.
Ken
http://www.notrunningaway.com/Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-65787904141637749282012-01-16T00:08:00.001-08:002012-01-16T00:09:09.467-08:00Art O'Neill ultra marathon reportKen’s Art O’Neill Challenge<br />Blog Entry 1.<br /><br />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.<br />However, I haven’t got through it yet! <br />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.<br />Next, a few comments on my preparation.<br />Ok, so it hasn’t gone perfectly! But, when does training ever go perfectly?!<br />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.<br />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.<br />However, I slept well last night and will try for another nap around teatime before making my way in to the city centre.<br />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).<br />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.<br />Anyway, back to tonight’s event.<br />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.<br />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.<br />Good luck to all the other participants and let’s hope we all have a safe night on the mountains!<br />Ken<br /><br /><br />Blog Entry 2. 9 Hours 25 minutes later!<br /><br />Well it's over and I'm glad to say the race went well!<br /><br />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. <br />This year, just for good measure, the organisers chose Friday 13th as the date!<br /><br />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..<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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).<br /><br />So, to the race!<br />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.<br />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!<br />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!)<br />Anyway, nothing untoward happened, and we made it to the first transition stop in Kilbride (20K) in just over 2 hours.<br /><br />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!<br />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.<br />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!<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!).<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />See everyone on the hills again soon..<br /><br />My sites/blogs;<br />www.heartdiseasemiracle.com <br />www.irishmortgagedebtforgiveness.blogspot.com<br />www.samsonsdiner.blogspot.com <br />www.kencowley.com (content coming soon)<br />email: kencowley@ireland.com or ken@heartdiseasemiracle.com<br />Tel: 00 353 (0)85 7129060Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-83660551168343103152012-01-04T08:26:00.000-08:002012-01-05T00:16:52.459-08:002011 Review of the YearIndicative 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!<br /><br />Gigs<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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<br />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. <br />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..<br />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.<br />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. <br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />Live artists of the year<br /><br />Bob Dylan<br />Gillian Welch (with David Rawlings)<br />Mahler’s 5th Symphony by the RTE concert orchestra<br />The Waterboys<br />Paul Brady<br />Mark Knopfler<br />Richard Thompson<br />Imelda May<br /><br /><br /><br />Films<br /><br />I had a somewhat more prolific year for films than gigs, and there were plenty of good 'uns.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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!<br />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..<br />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..<br />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.<br />The latest Pirates of the Caribbean was a (very)slight improvement on recent installments, especially the London scenes.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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).<br />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)<br /><br />My top few films<br /><br />Living in the Material World – George Harrison documentary<br />The King’s Speech<br />Hugo<br />The Adjustment Bureau<br />The Maids on the 7th Floor<br />Midnight in Paris<br />The Skin that I Live In<br /><br /><br />Plays/Shows<br /><br />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!<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />Best Play<br /><br />Pygmalion<br /><br /><br />Art<br /><br />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!<br />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.<br /><br />Exhibition of the Year<br /><br />Leonardo – National Gallery London<br /><br /><br /><br />Albums<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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. <br /><br />Albums of the year<br /><br />Tom Waits Bad as Me<br />Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest<br />Wilco – The Whole Love<br />PJ Harvey - Shake England Shake<br />The Black Keys – El Camino<br />Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds<br /><br /><br /><br />Books/Web/Apps/Blogs<br /><br />Again – mainly re-reading old books, and stuck in magazines and newspapers as well as stuff about music or running.<br />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!<br />I also really enjoyed a great book about mountain running called ‘Mud Sweat and Tears’ by Moire O’Sullivan.<br />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;<br />www.expectingrain.com<br />www.imra.ie<br />www.mountain-runner.com<br />www.adriandenning.co.uk<br /><br /><br />TV<br /><br />Ok, anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for period dramas, especially if set between, say, the 1880s and the 1940s.<br />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!<br />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.<br />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..<br />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.<br />Which leads me to ask – barring Sherlock, did I see ANY CONTEMPORARY drama in 2011?!<br />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).<br />In 2012 I resolve to watch The Killing and The Wire (yes I still haven't seen The Wire)!<br />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.<br /><br />Top few TV progs<br /><br />Sherlock<br />Downton Abbey<br />South Riding<br />Frozen Planet<br />Blue Bloods<br /><br /><br />Misc <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br />Personal stuff<br /><br />A tough year, but a really good one for the reasons that matter..<br /><br /><br /><br />Final word<br /><br />This blog is mainly about culture, and sometimes about running, but please see my short list of websites (below) which are about other matters.<br />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!<br /><br /><br />See you all down the road in 2012..<br /><br /><br /><br />Ken Cowley<br />www.heartdiseasemiracle.com <br />www.irishmortgagedebtforgiveness.blogspot.com<br />www.samsonsdiner.blogspot.com <br />email: kencowley@ireland.com or ken@heartdiseasemiracle.com<br />Tel: 00 353 (0)85 7129060Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-909541181524520812011-11-24T04:26:00.000-08:002011-11-24T04:46:35.861-08:00Review of Dylan at Hammersmith November 2011I 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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;<br />Mississippi – very enjoyable new bouncy arrangement, making this the best live version certainly since 2001<br />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<br />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<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-8407315867999731232011-11-18T01:38:00.001-08:002011-11-18T01:45:58.196-08:00Review of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Grand Canal Theatre Dublin 17 November 2011I 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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’.<br /><br />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!Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-55257094719094891412011-08-18T08:01:00.000-07:002011-08-18T08:03:30.214-07:00Review of 'Justice for Believers' album by Dublin band The Roj LightJustice 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.
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<br />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.
<br />I even fancy I caught a strain of the crisp guitar lines of early Cult albums, but I could be wrong..
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<br />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
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<br />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.
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<br />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!
<br />Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-44964016633993197252011-07-04T02:12:00.000-07:002011-07-04T02:16:49.797-07:00Dylan in Cork and London, June 2010I 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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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?<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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’!)<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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!Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-12574807252318794042011-05-14T11:35:00.000-07:002011-05-14T11:39:07.438-07:00Review of Circuit of Avonbeg mountain race May 2011This 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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).<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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.<br />But, hey, at least 30 mins of that was spent going the wrong way!<br />The entire race is approx 1100 metres of ascent, and is approx 26 kilometres in length, although I reckon I ran closer to 30.<br />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.<br /><br />Highlights – the great descent from Lugnaquilla and the descent/flat parts from Conavalla through to the saddle between Lugduff and Mullacor.<br />Lowlights – I don’t mind the sore muscles in my legs, but I could do without the 2 big blisters (one on each toe!).<br /><br />Most of all though, I’d like to say thanks to the volunteers, especially the race director and the summit marshalls.<br /><br />Looking forward to cracking 4 hours next year.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-9129048738430202352011-04-02T03:09:00.001-07:002011-04-02T03:09:49.819-07:00Paul Brady concert review - Vicar Street 1 April 2011Having won a pair of Paul Brady tickets (thanks Radio Nova!), and really only being a middling PB fan, I went along to Vicar Street last night with minimal expectations.<br />First a quick pint in a great local pub, The Thomas House, and in we went, grabbed our seats, and about a minute later out came the unassuming singer from Strabane, Co Tyrone.<br /><br />The night was nicely split between solo and band performances, with seemingly every genre from Brady’s past represented, rock, pop, some lovely trad songs and a jig/reel or two, along with several from his current album (Hooba Dooba), one of which was a gorgeous solo piano song – something to do with a mother and son, will have to check that one out further. Plus, he played at least 8 or 10 very well known songs, so really everyone should have gone home happy, and I reckon they did.<br /><br />I don’t know if he generally tours with a band, but tonight he had two good players with him, a chap I didn’t know on keyboards, and Bill Shanley on guitar, who I’ve seen several times before as his main job is in the Ray Davies band, lovely guitar player.<br /><br />Writing this on the hoof, so, to some highlights;<br />• A truly gorgeous rendition of The Island, PB just stood at the centre for this one holding (but not playing) his guitar, letting the keyboard player play the big piano in the corner, and play it really well, plus some nice fills on acoustic from Bill. <br />• There were lots of special moments like that, Brady’s lyrics which often spoke to previous hard times, now seeming sadly relevant again<br />• He only mentioned the country’s current woes a few times, and his demeanor throughout was very relaxed and good humoured - I’ve been to lots of concerts, but there really was a great rapport last night between artist and audience – the whole night was just full of good music, some reflective moments and everybody seemed to feel we were acknowledging hard times, but realising that nights like this, and music in general, don’t just comment on the times we’re in, but also serve to help us escape them for an hour or two<br />• A rocking version of ‘Nothing but the same old Story’ brought back to us the sheer power of that song, a visceral indictment of past experiences of Irish people abroad. And, ok, we’re not seen as murderers any more, but pariahs of a financial hue now perhaps?<br />• Absolutely amazing rendition of Arthur McBride, just solo on acoustic guitar, I have rarely seen a major artist ‘live’ a song as Brady did this one last night, especially as he must have played this one a thousand times before<br />• The Homes of Donegal was an anthemic rendition in the 2nd last song slot<br />• Many more highlights, which without a setlist I’m struggling to remember, but even the poppier songs, not necessarily my favourites, were very well done, and boy can he write a decent pop song?!<br /><br />So, to wrap up, it was just a nice unexpectedly good night of music. With all the talk of U2, Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, Horslips, Phil Lynott, The Frames (oh yeah, forgot to say Glen Hansard guested with PB for one song last night) it’s easy to let Paul Brady slip under the radar. A pity, because as last night showed, he’s one of our most talented artists of the last 4 decades – in voice, musicianship, songwriting – all of which he showcased gracefully and with good humour last night for 2 hours in Vicar Street. 9 out of 10.<br /><br />KenKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-3181829412300496272011-03-30T07:49:00.000-07:002011-03-30T07:57:48.394-07:00Review of Wicklow Way mountain race March 2011This is my first race report, have only been doing IMRA races for a year, but finally thought I should put pen to paper.<br />It’s hard to explain how much I get out of mountain running as it seems to have overtaken many of my previous pastimes (obsessions?!) such as golf, concerts, road running etc. I find running much simpler than golf, you just have to KFR (keep f***ing running!), and mountain running, while not simpler than road running, is a million times more satisfying, and (arguably) easier on the body. It’s the perfect sport really – <br />Competitive? – Certainly, but not overly so..<br />A mental challenge? – you’d better believe it, as you face your 4th or 5th summit on a long race and your lungs and legs all but giving out..<br />An escape? - it’s simply the best escape you can have from the real world - charging up and down mountains requires at least 100% concentration, every step is different, the terrain and scenery changing by the minute – definitely the most magical way to run, and one of the best ways to enjoy the breath-taking Wicklow mountains, or any other mountains for that matter.. and the weather doesn’t matter a whit, just adds to the challenge..<br />And of course, it’s one of the most sociable forms of athletics or sport, definitely some of the most unpretentious and likeable sportspeople you’ll meet..<br /><br />So, as you’ve gathered I LIKE mountain running.<br />Which brings me to last Saturday, and the Wicklow Way Trail. Preparations weren’t perfect (are they ever?), had overdone it completely at a Crusaders AC session on Tues, was stiff for days after that, gym Wed, gentle jog Thurs, forced myself to do nothing Fri, didn’t sleep great – about the only thing I did right was 500g of pasta on Fri night, and off to the start with me and Tony on Sat morning. <br />What was perfect though, was the organisation – a very difficult race to manage, with a shuttle bus system taking everyone out to Ballinastoe and TWO races to manage (about 30 hard core runners were doing double the distance of our race ie 50K!), and a long trail to be manned, watered and photographed. So, well done to Dermot, Mick and all the other volunteers.<br /><br />Our race (the Trail), was a 15.5 mile (25k) affair along the Wicklow Way from Ballinastoe to Johnny Foxes, and a few minutes after midday, off we went - a cool foggy morning and about 170 of us taking to the hills.<br />However just to make us feel ever so slightly inadequate, at about the same time the Ultra runners came through – they were doing the exact double of our race, ie 50km out and back! Some of these guys looked remarkably fresh, despite being halfway through a race much longer than a marathon and over about 6 mountains!<br /><br />Anyway, we set off up the trail, and towards Djouce. I kept it quite easy at the start, knowing my legs would need every ounce of energy as the hours wore on. It was a fairly steady incline and soon enough we hit the boardwalk near the JB Malone memorial. Not knowing whether to ‘pose’ for the nearby photographer, or take in the Lough Tay view, I stumbled a bit here, but no damage done and proceeded on at a reasonable pace to Djouce. Luckily we didn’t quite have to do the summit, as the Wicklow Way veers right around the shoulder of the mountain, at which point I had a bit of a stitch and lost some ground, recovering enough to enjoy the great heathery/boggy descent from Djouce down to the turnstile. This sort of descent is my favourite element of mountain running, when you can really feel at one with the world and lash down a mountain knowing the terrain is relatively safe (ever since twisting my ankle last year I’ve lost my nerve somewhat and for now am taking it easy on dangerous or rocky terrain).<br /><br />From there, we went on down to the river, and up the nasty first bit of the ‘mountain that becomes Maulin’ – this is my term, maybe it has another name (!), and then turning right and down on the nice trail that soon gives us the great view (to our right and below) of the Powerscourt Waterfall.<br />At this stage I was running pretty well, a bit (but not too much) behind some of the people I usually aim to keep some sort of pace with (hello Justin, Tommy, Tony, Vanessa, Zoe etc), probably in my usual mid-field position.<br />Decided to up the pace a bit on the zig-zagging fire road and on down to Crone car park. Probably overdoing it a bit, and then (2nd mistake) drinking just a bit too much water at the first water station. Other than that, I got the food and drink about right throughout the day.<br /><br />I should mention by the way, that there was a good bit of banter and chat throughout the race, especially the earlier part – towards the end everybody seemed to be dying on their feet, and things were much quieter!<br />And, this is where I was also starting to struggle – realising I had over-done things a bit down to Crone, had very little energy for the big climbs up Curtlestown and Prince Williams Seat.<br />Especially the nasty ride from the road near the hostel – boy is that steep!<br />And then the seemingly endless trail up Prince Williams..<br />After that, at least things were mainly downhill or flat, but I was running on empty by now.<br />Have never particularly thought I had great mental strength – although found out in 2009 that I do have a little bit, when managing to polish off a sub-4 hour marathon in difficult circumstances (by my standards that was a good time), so trying to draw on this, I soldiered on, legs and lungs feeling like they were at a marathon-esque wall.<br />I wanted to come in comfortably under 3 hours, and just managed it, at 2.42, shuffling over the line, legs almost gone, but a great feeling of satisfaction and camaraderie all round!<br /><br />After that a nice few drinks in Johnny Foxes and a meal in another runners’ house - thanks Zoe - (a sociable and hospitable bunch, as I was saying, mountain runners..!), and all in a gruelling but enjoyable day completed.<br />This is 4 days later. It took 3 of those for my legs to recover, but already looking forward to the next mountain race (albeit hopefully a shorter one!).<br /><br />KenKenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-44687426111808361532011-01-03T10:28:00.000-08:002011-01-07T09:25:52.152-08:00Review of 2010So, 2010 eh? - a year many people are glad to see the back of, especially in Ireland.<br />But economic meltdown notwithstanding, life goes on, especially music, films etc, and thank God (or whoever) for that.<br />So, here’s a rundown of some of the things I enjoyed most this year.<br /><br />Concerts<br /><br />Bob Dylan x 4<br />Paul McCartney – RDS Arena Dublin<br />Leonard Cohen – Lissadell House Sligo<br />Waterboys x 2 – Abbey Theatre & Wexford Opera House<br />Wilco – Open House Festival Belfast<br />Ray Davies – Grand Canal Theatre<br />David Rawlings / Gillian Welch & Old Crow Medicine Show - Belfast<br />Crosby Stills & Nash – o2 Arena Dublin<br />Iron Maiden – o2 Arena Dublin<br />Redneck Manifesto – Roisin Dubh Galway<br /><br />Not a vintage year, but not bad. I went to less gigs than usual, but seemed to choose well.. Saw 4 Dylan shows and all were all very enjoyable, especially Ljubliana (a boiling hot little gym hall) and Thomond Park Limerick (a drizzly breezy afternoon in a partially full big rugby stadium). It was a poor year for Dylan setlists, but great to see him more engaged and out at the front of the stage again.<br />Budgets only permitted one of the (ferociously expensive) Leonard concerts, but every word you read about how good and special these nights were in the grounds of Lissadell House (Sligo) was true. Never to be forgotten. Artist and band at the peak of their powers, oh, and some new songs too!<br />I’ve already reviewed the two Waterboys concerts I saw of Yeats poems put to music on this blog, so I won’t go over old ground, except to say it’s a much better idea than it sounds! Some of the best tunes Mike Scott has ever written, and really an amazing show both in concept and execution.<br />McCartney in the summer in the RDS was very good (he’s always good) but not quite as special as the smaller o2 arena show 6 months earlier. And he needs to change his banter.<br />Wilco in Belfast gave a suitably raucous and textured performance for their first ever appearance in Northern Ireland. They are still easily my favourite current band.<br />The gig the next night, David Rawlings/Gillian Welch and Old Crow Medicine Show was also enjoyable, but left one looking forward to the next proper Gillian album and tour.<br />Other enjoyable gigs included Crosby Stills and Nash (harmonically nice but not earth shattering) and Iron Maiden (call me old fashioned but it was marginally too loud and they played too many new songs!).<br />Redneck Manifesto in Galway (as part of a stag night!) was the pleasant surprise of the year.<br /><br /><br />Albums<br /><br />Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town box set<br />Dylan in Mono and the Witmark Demos<br />John Lennon - Double Fantasy Stripped<br />Beatles Red & Blue albums<br />Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street remastered<br />Richard Thompson – Dream Attic<br />Blizten Trapper – Destroyer of the Void<br />Neil Young – Le Noise<br />Arcade Fire - Suburbs<br /><br />A really bad year for albums I thought. I concede that 90% of what I listen to is old music, but given that I listen to a LOT of music, that still left me disappointed with this year’s 10%.<br />There are quite a few contemporary bands I keep an eye on – the likes of Arcade Fire, Blitzen Trapper, Grandaddy, Wilco, REM, Bon Ivor, Band of Horses, Megafaun, Artic Monkeys, Foals, to name a few– but only the first two of these released any decent new material it seems, in 2010.<br />Neil’s new album Le Noise was ok, still haven’t got my head around it to be honest, and I was never a fan of solo electric guitar albums!<br />Richard Thompson’s Dream Attic was good, and there’s ALWAYS 2 or 3 amazing songs on any RT album. Plus it was an interesting way to present an album with a live disc (only) of the main songs and an outtake disc.<br />John Lennon's Double Fantasy received the stripped (plus the regular album remastered) treatment, and in the main, was an improvement. Great to hear the vocals even more up-front.<br />Otherwise the two big releases of the year for me were Dylan in Mono (his 1st eight albums) and Springsteen’s Darkness re-release.<br />Our appetites for the Dylan set was whetted by the Beatles’ mono (and stereo) releases the year before, and while this was not as radical (or arguably as necessary), you can never have enough versions of Blonde on Blonde (!), and many of the songs on many of these seminal albums have benefited from the new mastering and the mono presentation. That said, I haven’t got overly excited about it – I probably need to listen to it more (on headphones). The Witmark Demos set was ok, nothing new or startling, but if you never had any of this material before, it would be worth picking up to hear how Dylan evolved from 1962 into 1964 or so.<br />However, my album of the year (if you can call it an album) is the Springsteen set.<br />Essentially it is a re-mastered Darkness on the Edge of Town (from 1978), which has always been my own favourite Bruce album and has never sounded good on CD before. Well, now it does!<br />Plus we have all the bonus material – starting with a 2 disc set of outtakes from Bruce’s entire period between Born to Run and Darkness. Don’t forget this was a 3 year period when he was legally prevented from releasing anything, and he wasn’t only writing dark anthems such as would appear on Darkness – he was also writing glorious pop songs, many of which appear on these discs. There are too many gems to mention amongst the poppier songs - but suffice to say we can now see how he got from Born to Run to The River. Oh, and there are a couple of anthemic songs too – a bigger band version of Racing in the Street and the unreleased The Promise – both incredible finds.<br />Finally, there are also 3 dvds in the set, with some great archive and contemporary material relating to this period.<br />The Beatles Red & Blue albums were nice to have, and of course, using last year's remastered versions, now sound amazing (mainly taking the stereo options I think), but are probably not essential, except to Beatles completists, or people like me who first fell in love with the band through the 1970s vinyl version of these albums, or perhaps of course to Beatles newbies?<br />Final album to mention positively is another remastered job - this time my favourite Rolling Stones album - Exile on Main Street, which like the Bruce album, always sounded a bit nasty and tinny on CD, so here it is in pristine nick, along with some great bonus material.<br /><br /><br />Films<br /><br />Une Prophet<br />Let the Right One in / Let Me In<br />The Way Back<br />White Ribbon<br />The Road<br />Nowhere Boy<br />Robin Hood<br />Whatever Works<br />Alice<br /><br />Not a bad year for films, but I feel like a bit of a fraud here because I missed quite a few of the year’s big films.<br />Out of what I DID see, some of my favourites were;<br />A Prophet – film of the year this one – a truly incendiary French prison drama, with some really good acting and storytelling.<br />White Ribbon – possibly from 2009, but I saw it early in the new year, a poetic take on village life in early 20th century Germany.<br />I saw BOTH of those child vampire films – Let the Right One in (in Swedish) and the American remake. Both were chilling, hard to say which was better really.<br />The Way Back was an underrated epic road journey film, which admittedly did lose it’s pacing a bit in the 2nd half. Catch it in the cinema though – a great LOOKING film.<br />Avatar was ok. Very nice to look at, so probably only worth seeing on a big screen, and just about the only film I’ve seen that really merits the 3D thing.<br />The new Narnia film (Voyage of the Dawntreader) really didn’t need to be in 3D, and like all of the Narnia films was a bit of a disappointment.<br />Robin Hood was pretty good. Hope they make another one.<br />Alice was a bit ho-hum. Helena Bonham Carter was the best thing about it.<br />Nowhere Boy was a decent biopic of the young John Lennon despite the lead actor not being very good.<br />The Road was a bit flat. Very depressing, so much so it made the Irish situation not seem so bad!<br />Whatever Works was a surprisingly enjoyable old style New York Woody Allen film – I think it was written ages ago, and I don’t think it even got properly released over here – I saw it in the Dublin film festival.<br /><br /><br />Books<br /><br />The Road<br />The Lovely Bones<br />Born to Run<br />Just a Little Run Around the World – Rosie Swale Pope<br />Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks<br /><br />This year I seem to have been reading more books about running and mountains (!), so again I didn’t get much fiction read (apart from a bit of old stuff)<br />The Road was pretty good, as was The Lovely Bones, in both cases apparently much better than their respective films (I haven’t seen the Lovely Bones)<br />I also read a few music books, but none were outstanding.<br />Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks was a good insight in to how the Queen of Crime worked and put her plots together.<br />To pick 2 highlights of books I read about running – Born to Run was inspirational, but not as much as Just a Little Run Around the World, by a woman who did just that. It took her 5 years!<br /><br /><br />Plays<br /><br />After the Dance<br />Chopin in Paris<br />Les Liasons Dangereux<br />Arcadia<br /><br />I went to fewer plays than normal this year.<br />Chopin in Paris was a very enjoyable piece about, well, Chopin in Paris. Written by Miriam Gallagher, it featured a very good acting performance in the title role and some sensational piano playing!<br />Les Liasons Dangereux was a reasonable Gate adaptation of the famous French play.<br />Arcadia was awful I thought. Probably not a bad production, but maybe Tom Stoppard is just not for me.<br />However, one of the very best things I saw/did all year was After the Dance by Terence Rattigan. I’ve already reviewed it on my blog, but would like to say that ever since then the play has ‘grown on me’ a lot, so I’d like to ‘upgrade’ that review from ‘fairly positive’ to ‘exceedingly positive’. That’s the bloody problem with blogs, I guess!<br />Anyway, it has resonated with me a lot this play; the strength of the acting in particular (amazing cast), and a top notch production and writing. It’s set in the 30s (written in the 40s?), and I’d strongly recommend it if a good version comes back.<br /><br /><br />TV<br /><br />Downton Abbey<br />Sherlock<br />Any Human Heart<br />Upstairs Downstairs<br /><br />The first three of the aforementioned were worth the price of my Sky subscription alone.<br />Downton Abbey has got a lot of column inches already but suffice to say it was worth all its good reviews, just a good old fashioned lush period drama with really good writing and production values. And don’t forget it was not a period adaptation, but a brand new story.<br />Any Human Heart was very different, but no less gripping. I was unsure about this one at the start, but it just seemed to get better and better (only until the last episode, which flagged slightly) as we sank further and further in to the life of this man traversing his way through the 20th century. It was funny, insightful, dark and gritty.<br />Sherlock was the best contemporary drama I saw this year, and yet was also somehow rooted in the late Victorian / Edwardian world of the original Conan Doyle books. However, if you don’t like period stuff, don’t let that put you off. This was a modern series in every sense, with some staggering acting and scripts. Perhaps it looked a little low budget, but I’m sure that’ll change in season 2, after the first season was such a hit.<br />The new Upstairs Downstairs was enjoyable, but suffered a bit in comparison with Downton Abbey. It was a bit claustrophic and one or two of the storylines didn’t seem to work. There was some good acting though, especially from the ever reliable Eileen Atkins.<br />Most other TV seemed to me to be rubbish, the occasional documentary notwithstanding. I seemed to tune in to radio more than TV in 2010. Although both radio and TV could be very depressing if you listened to too much Irish economic reportage (best to stick to Lyric and Nova!).. Hoping for better news coverage (and for better news) in 2011!<br />PS – I usually have a section on Art, but didn’t get to many exhibitions this year. I’d highly recommend the Metsu exhibition in Dublin though – finishes sometime in January I think.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-22382648239734706632010-11-07T04:27:00.001-08:002010-11-07T09:29:08.066-08:00The Waterboys Yeats show, Wexford Opera House November 2010Having seen the opening night of this show (''The Waterboys present An Appointment with Mr Yeats'') earlier in the year in the Abbey Theatre, I thought I'd try and kill two birds with one stone by seeing the show again and also getting to see something in the newly refurbished Wexford Opera House.<br />Both elements turned out to be worth the 4 hour round trip.<br /><br />The show was not sold out and it was a fairly quiet audience, but yet again I was blown away by this new Waterboys project. For anyone not familiar with it, Mike Scott has put about 20 Yeats poems to music and has been intermittently touring it as a concert since earlier in the year. Apparently there is a dvd on the way, and hopefully a cd too.<br /><br />Put simply, these are some of the best songs he's ever written. Obviously he's 'working' with a somewhat noted lyrics writer (!) but full credit to Scott and band for the strength of the tunes and the arrangements. I think it must be something to do with the meter or the rhyming (I'm no expert on these things) or the fact that Yeats was musical himself that makes them so good. I heard Scott say in an interview recently that he heard Yeats could be seen tapping his finger in ryhthm while he wrote his poems, so maybe it's not a leap to say that if he was writing today, he'd possibly be a singer-songwriter rather than a written poet?<br /><br />And, even beyond the lyrics, some of the songs go off in to extended musical areas that thrill an audience, using classic Waterboys dynamics and incorporating the skills and sounds of this ten piece version of the band.<br />The lyrics also sit in very nicely of course, and it's a selection of Yeats poems that range in topic from love to politics to mysticism, some of them very obscure. Indeed the only truly household name choices are Lake Isle of Inisfree and September 1913.<br />Both of these work very well, with Lake Isle given a straight blues treatment and September 1913 a suitable mid paced epic style.<br /><br />Some of my other favourites were;<br />The Song of Wandering Aenghus - a nice slow piano led opening, building up to add more instruments, with some nice solos from the horn section, especially flute.<br />Down by the Salley Gardens is cleverly done to what seems to be the tune of The Lakes of Pontchartrain and works very well, nice trombone solo on this one.<br />Sweet Dancer is one of my favourites, faster than some of the other songs and very catchy.<br />White Birds - truly epic song, another builder, and nice bird like flourishes at the end from Steve Wickham's fiddle.<br />Mountain Tomb is a powerful short song (changed arrangement from last time?)<br />Let the Earth Bear Witness, nicely done to the backdrop of Iranian protests on a screen, which apparently influenced him when writing the music, and destined to become a Waterboys anthem - it would be great if they played some of these songs at their 'regular' shows.<br />Mad as the Mist and Snow - this one done in a very theatrical way, a fiddle led epic<br />Politics - another really good blending of Yeats and Waterboys, not a poem I'd ever heard of, but one of the highlights of this great concert.<br /><br />As before, they finish with some more familiar encores, Stolen Child (their first Yeats experiment, a one-off song from the Fisherman's Blues era), a very rocking Don't Bang The Drum, and a crowd pleasing Whole of the Moon, sending everyone home happy.<br /><br />Don't miss the chance to see this show, playing in Dublin tonight, and then touring again soon in the UK, I think.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-52221509413412579732010-08-03T01:30:00.001-07:002010-08-03T06:52:10.847-07:00Leonard Cohen at Lissadell, Sligo 31 July 2010<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaC7-XgqEtgpZtGdsGmhXLyNIQscAuuEpvRNDImyInF0ffF5NwQo1NB3xaNEtz1f3QRJ-b44BVh18vC62Ul4aLNg6OWhl8-kg1baW7ijBoaLo7D0WAj0HKuyGQRQBuK3jQ4FFYGMmkQes/s1600/Leonard+Sligo+31+July+2010.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501168153985282962" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 235px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaC7-XgqEtgpZtGdsGmhXLyNIQscAuuEpvRNDImyInF0ffF5NwQo1NB3xaNEtz1f3QRJ-b44BVh18vC62Ul4aLNg6OWhl8-kg1baW7ijBoaLo7D0WAj0HKuyGQRQBuK3jQ4FFYGMmkQes/s320/Leonard+Sligo+31+July+2010.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>The press and fan reviews have all been so superlative that I feel I am just weighing in with nothing new to offer - but I just couldn't pass up offering a few thoughts on this amazing night, so here goes;<br />It was yet another extraordinary show. Leonard has now played ten shows in Ireland since his resurgence in 2008. I've been to five of them, and despite the relative sameness of the setlists, have enjoyed each one more than the last. Well, almost!<br />Certainly, Saturday night in Sligo was my favourite. AND, I got 5 new songs, 3 of which are brand new songs apparently from the forthcoming new album. Good to see him shaking up the setlists.<br />The best of the new songs is Born in Chains, a wonderful epic with gorgeous melody and lyrics. A song Leonard and his current band were born to sing. And, indeed, he generously gives each of the girls a verse each to sing. Here's a youtube of it from Saturday night;<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f37lh9LqRs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" __untrusted="true">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f37lh9LqRs</a><br />All the other new songs were excellent too. And, the 'regular' numbers still sound as fresh as they did in 2008. Hallelujah, I'm Your Man, If it be your Will, Marianne, Anthem all were highlights for me. This is such a tasteful and good humoured band - and the sound always seems amazing at Leonard concerts, relatively low volume, well mixed, Leonard's voice sitting nicely on top..<br />Finally, a word on the venue - a really gorgeous place for a concert, complete with great atmosphere. Benbulben mountain, Sligo bay, the Lissadell house itself, what's not to like (logistical transport problems notwithstanding), no wonder Leonard was moved to quote Mr Yeats! </div><div>Oh, and did I mention - the show was 3 hours and 45 minutes! <br />Hoping it wasn't my last Leonard show..</div><div>For good measure, here's another youtube, this one of 'Hallelujah', many thanks to the taper;</div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRT2i8QJBG0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRT2i8QJBG0</a></div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5139889275876033975.post-16566705865860000842010-07-07T01:49:00.000-07:002010-07-07T02:04:25.770-07:00After the Dance, play reviewAfter the Dance, by Terence Rattigan is a thoroughly enjoyable play set in the inter-war years, extremely well staged and acted in the Lyttleton auditorium of the National Theatre in London. <br />It's set amongs a dissolute crowd of people mainly in their late 30s who were too young to fight in WW1 and are going to be too old to fight in WW2. <br />The only thing of note that they did in their lives was to party their way through the 1920s, and now even they are starting to think how shallow it all might have been.<br />As one of the play's great lines says, 'they used to be the bright young things, but maybe they weren't so bright, and now they're not even young'<br />The plot mainly concerns two relationships, one a marraige (supposedly) of convenience, and the other of a younger couple, one of whom loves the alcoholic male party of the other relationship. There are several other characters, the most important of whom is a supposedly apathetic friend sponging on the rich alcoholic, but who turns out to be more perceptive than all the others put together.<br />Anyway, suffice to say, that it is a very well written play, with some excellent social insights into life in the 1930s, and very well developed characters. All the actors were good, but especially the leading 4; Benedict Cumberbatch, Nancy Carroll, Adrian Scarborough and Faye Castelow.<br />I tend to love anything set in this era, so perhaps I am biased, and therefore really loved the play, but I would maybe concede that some of his other plays, such as the Deep Blue Sea, perhaps have a bit more to them.<br />Highly recommended though.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10778913274900817626noreply@blogger.com0