After a discussion last week with Aba, Maki and leaveitallbehind about ways of welcoming new members to the RR community, I put together this EOTWQ as an icebreaker, so to speak. So everyone, from the most regular of regulars to the newest of newcomers, please join in and take the quiz! Usual rules apply, 6 questions, my answers are at the bottom of this post and feel free not to answer one if you don’t want to!
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
4. Do you play music?
5. What’s your current favourite album?
6. The Guardian Music Blog started a thing called “6 songs of me” a few months ago, where you pick the six songs that most define you. Whether or not you did it on the Guardian, what six songs would you choose?
…and my answers:
1. I was born in Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK. I live in Limerick, RoI.
2. Yes. I started a Youtube account specifically to reply to a comment on the video for ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ by Hearts Under Fire that called vocalist/bassist Mary-Claire O’Reagan a “fat, ugly bitch”. I’m Irish, I like punk, I was angry, so it made sense. When I was making my Guardian online account (actually originally for the Books Blog) it was the first thing that came to mind. It actually works for RR, in that I’m perpetually angry at the lack of Irish punk in existence!
3. Punk, proper emo, basically pretty much anything under the umbrella of ‘post-hardcore’. I also like folk-rock. Favourite artists include Rise Against, Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Make Do And Mend, The Wonder Years, The Gaslight Anthem, Frank Turner, Brand New, Hearts Under Fire, Evarose, Straylight Run, Touché Amoré, paramore, the Dropkick Murphys, the King Blues… I’ll shut up now…
4. Yes, I play the guitar and the bass and can just about play the piano and various percussion instruments. I also sing.
5. Oooooh! Toughie! Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy and The ’59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem, closely followed by Long Live the Struggle by The King Blues.
6. Brand New – OK, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t
Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks
Taking Back Sunday – Great Romances of the 20th Century (and the original demo with the cool intro is here)
Fall Out Boy – Bang the Doldrums
The Gaslight Anthem – Old White Lincoln
The Dropkick Murphys – Going Out In Style
OK, your turn!
UPDATE: As EOTWQs tend to have just 5 questions and consensus is the 6th question deserves a post of its own, feel free to ignore it! I’ll do a post on it next week when RR is done but before the results are out to enliven things!
The 'Spill 
1. I am from Canada and live in Wirral, UK
2. My RR (and everywhere else) username is from living in an AirStream trailer at the time I started going online alot.
3. I like most genres, although asI have gotten older (53 now) I find myself less tolerant ot noisy and discordant music. My fave artist list is too lengthy to share! (You can find some of them on my hobby music blog, http://tincanland.wordpress.com/
4. I don’t play music. Wish I did. I have tried and have no aptitude for it.
5. My current favourite album is….see above re ‘too lengthy to share’. 59 Sound that you chose as artwork is damn hard to beat though!
6. I couldn’t possibly pick six songs that most define me without months and months of thought and listening. Will get back to you around Labour Day 🙂
Thanks for doing this Punky
Thanks tinny! Glad you appreciate a bit of Gaslight 🙂
A bit?
LMAO, I have everything (Fallon solo too)
@tinny – I’m missing ‘American Slang’, alas
I’m with you on 4 Tinny, having musically talented men in my family makes my lack of skills extra annoying.
Hi punky, good idea to do this, it’s always interesting to read people’s answers. I was thinking abut Hearts Under Fire this week as a friend from work is going to be touring with them soon.
1)I was born in London, spiritual home is Cornwall but I don’t live there now.
2) I was trying to think of a pseudonym when I was writing poetry and short stories and the play on the french expression appealed.
3) Folky, hippy goth with rock chick leanings, but have become more accepting as time has gone on. Allergic to country.
4) No.
5) The Bleach Room by Ulterior
6) Today it would probably include Elemental Child by T Rex, Twilight Home by Justin Sullivan, Sister Speed by Ulterior, Moonlight Mile by the Stones, Submission by the Fields of the Nephilim and Echoes by Pink Floyd, but it varies.
Are you in a band?
No, I’m not in a band, although I used to be and hope to be again soon. I also dabble in producing 🙂
Might I ask who the friend is? Also, HUF drummer Lexi Clarke’s other band, Try Me/Love Me, are going on tour next week!
A Tale of Two Cities is the band, I know the drummer, lovely chap he is. Here’s their song
Juliette
Oh yeah they’re a great band!
good luck with getting a band together again, having sung live in a band a total of once, I learned that I’m more of a back stage kind of person.
At least you gave it a go though. (I’d say props, but for a guy my age it it the equivalent of wearing a thong to the beach)
1) Born in bir-ming-HAM, not BIR-ming-um. That is, the British industrial city’s fatter, uglier kid-sister. Sure the other one’s got all that history, but when you just gotta have some barbecue with a side of chow chow, which one’s gonna come through for you?
2) I grabbed my Guardian user name back in 2007 or so on a whim after considering various corny puns (“Victorious Egret”, “Dick Libido”, and other childishness) and was pleasantly surprised to see no one had yet claimed it.
3) I’m a fan of (in no particular order) novelty records, glam, schlager, indie-pop and country, girl groups, Europop, retro-futurism. I prefer harmonies to multi-tracking, and traditional instruments to electronics.
4) Can’t play, write, or sing a note – much to mum’s chagrin
5) I’m more of a singles person myself. Hurry Up We’re Dreaming by M83 is a very good double CD that I didn’t expect to like. True it could probably be edited down to one killer disc, but I admire the ambition.
6) Lemme think on that one. In the meantime, the Conrad Poohs avatar comes from the fact that – as a child – that sketch cracked me up to no end: vivid colours, non sequiters, off kilter music (a Sousa march played on a calliope at double speed) and rude noises. Terry Gilliam’s animation still amazes me. In an era of cheaply done Saturday morning cartoons, his work was so technologically simple – though painstakingly laborious to produce with scissors and paper – but so influential.
I think I like retro-futurism too, it’s a great name anyway.
It’s like the jumbo shrimp of musical styles!
I often wonder if prog-metal and trad-goth are rather contradictory too, love examples of both, however.
OK, I’ll join in.
1. I was born in St Pancras, raised in Sheffield, lived in Liverpool and now after 20 odd years of living in LA I’m in beautiful Sonoma County, the wine growing region of northern California; life is good.
2. My user name came about because when I initially tried to sign up for RR many years ago every name I input was rejected or taken. Out of nowhere a Jamaican phrase popped into my head, ‘GoneForeign’, it was a response to a question re. the whereabouts of a musician I’d once asked when I was looking for him in Kingston, Answer: ‘ Him GoneForeign, he’s not here, he’s on tour somewhere. Since I’d left UK in 1958 it seemed a perfect fit, I’d gone foreign.
3. Easier to say what I don’t like, hip hop, punk, hillbilly and most noisy, raucous stuff of any genre.
I do like Jazz, reggae, blues, women singers, pianists, Dylan, much 60’s, much African, north, west coast and Zairian. Plus French, Spanish and Portuguese. And I specifically like Bach, Mahler, Wagner and Beethoven. Plus Steve Reich. and there’s others also.
4. Only on my iPod, my Mac and my turntable.
5. I no longer think in terms of favorite albums, I prefer to put my iPod on ‘shuffle’ and to listen to the greatest playlist in the world, iTunes tells me it would play continuously for 27 days.
6. Six songs, almost impossible. Instead here’s the last six of my ipods ‘shuffle.
1. Erika by Sam Mangwaner,
2, Mississippi half step by the Grateful Dead,
3. The way you look tonight by Cannonball Adderley.
4. Blue turning grey over you by Louis Armstrong,
5, A child’s claim to fame by Buffalo Springfield.
6. Jah Music by Gregory Isaacs.
I’ve often thought that since probably all Spillers have iPods an interesting question to pose to the group would be to do what I just did, post your last half dozen from Shuffle.
Good idea. We did that once and it was quite fun. (And a bit embarassing because I had a lot of the kids’ music on mine.)
Yeah, do you want me to add it to the EOTWQ or shall we do it next week?
Nah, it’ll make a fun post all on its own. Plus I haven’t taken the kids’ stuff off mine yet. Flo Rida? Man
Did you ever hear Sonic Boom Six’s brilliantly parodic cover of ‘Whistle’? Almost compensates for Flo Rida’s existence 😀
No, or at least I don’t think so. But I don’t pay a whole lot of attention. When it;s the kids’ listening time I take requests and tune as much out as I can while strategizing ways to sneak in something I want them to like 🙂
That’s what I do with my dad 😀
“probably all Spillers have iPods”
I’ve got one of the old iPods that you put a cassette in.
I still have one of those… and my MP3 player is a Sony Walkman too, not an iPod haha. To be honest I prefer physical, be it CD, cassette or vinyl.
Yeah, I’m another one on a Walkman (1400 songs two-thirds filling a 16GB machine). I’m deffo up for a game of iPod roulette sometime.
The fast-forward button on mine has been broken for two years 😀
Love the idea, but I don’t have an iPod – I like to have physical music, and still miss the proper sleeve notes you got with vinyl (which, interestingly, has well outlasted any cassettes I bought). Maybe my phone can shuffle…will check it out.
Having an iPod is such fun though…I’ve just bought myself a 160 gig one and the thought of all that space is so thrilling. What will I be filling it up with, I wonder?
I don’t have an iPod. I have MP3 players (including one that impersonates an audio cassette so that I can use it in the car*), but none of them have pretensions to cleverness.
*Yes, my car has a tape player. No, I haven’t changed it. I think it may be one of the last cars to have had a tape player installed as (bog-)standard (the trim level on my car is so low that there is no carpet and the windows have handles to wind them down).
Hi Punky!
1. Born & raised in East Didsbury, Manchester. Now living in West Didsbury, Manchester. I may perhaps be bounded in a nutshell, yet I still count myself a king of infinite space.
2. First name plus (UK format) date of the Grateful Dead’s appearance at the Bickershaw festival: 7/5/72.
3. Apart from the obvious, mainly indie-type stuff (from VU to Peej, via Talking Heads and Stephen Malkmus), folk and some jazz. Not a fan of big production values or talking in rhyme over a repetitive beat.
4. Been playing guitar for most of the last 50 years. Occasionally quite well.
5. Paris, 3rd May, 1972.
6. I don’t know which songs define me. That’s not the same question as my favourites, is it?
Well I went for the songs that I feel sum me up at the moment – it might be different next week and, for example, while I picked a song by FOB, it isn’t my favourite FOB song 🙂
Some songs I love that may contribute to my definition:
1. The GeeDees’ Dark Star. Apart from it’s lyrical invitation to explore, it’s a piece of music that invites experiment in the hope of producing magic. That’s what I yearn to experience in music and in life.
2. Ry Cooder’s Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All. Beautiful playing with lyrics that are still, unfortunately, horribly apt. Money and the decreasing number of people/companies that have it rule the world.
3. Kirsty MacColl’s What Do Pretty Girls Do? says something about western society’s wonky view of women that chimes with me. Is being pretty a valuable attribute that helps women get on in life, or does it just fuck up their expectations and ambitions?
4. I found some inspiration to write a poem/song for my great-nephew’s birth last year (the only song I’ve ever finished!) in which I expressed my hopes for his future, particularly in relation to other people, science and religion (his mother is a Baptist). The last verse is:
May you bring joy and laughter to life’s wayward trails
But, whatever the part that you act,
May I urge you remember that people tell tales
So proceed down the path laid on fact
I’m very keen indeed on that last line.
I think that’s a lovely last verse – incredibly wrong advice – who in there right mind would want to follow a route down the road to facts?
….. tall tales are what you want,
“let imagination take power’
heehee.
Ta for the compliment, shane, but – and I know you’re teasing – I deliberately placed fact as a means, not an end.
There’s an earlier line: May your eyes ever widen at stories of old
Stories is good; building lives on them is a bit problematic. Building office blocks with them is OK, if you can’t spel wel.
Hmm, I wrote a poem once that had May at the beginning of each line. (And before John Martyn, since you ask.) I’ll have a look for it.
1. From Woking, Surrey now residing in darkest Gloucestershire and very happy about escaping.
2. Big fan of Alfred Jarry ( I’ve got all his records). The avatar is one of Jarry’s woodcuts of Ubu himself. I try to live up to Ubuesque behaviour and standards at all times.
3. I’m happy to embrace anything I like, I don’t really care what genre. Have a soft spot for really stupid stuff ( you may have noticed). Firmly believe music is supposed to be “fun”.
4. Absolutely fantastic guitar and ukulele player, developed my own “no hands” style of playing over the years. Sound like cats being doctored.
5. Love’s Forever Changes or whatever I got hold of most recently
( currently Tsuji Ayano – Oh!SHIGOTO Special, a Japanese thing).
6. Is there a song called fat, bald and stupid ? There should be.
Going by i-pod my 6 faves ( and I’m extrapolating from there) are
1. Twinkle- Golden lights
2.Final Solution- Pere Ubu
3. Ursula finally has tits- The Queers
4. Cindy’s on Methadrone – Sceeching Weasel
5.You can cry if you want – The Muffs ( Troggs cover)
6. Owaranai Uta- The Blue Hearts
So, basically, unreconstructed punk pervert with taste for the Japanese.
Not reading properly there, I thought you’d gone with the Graun’s categories for question 6 and thought what an appropriate, ‘Ubu-ish title “You can cry if you want” was for Song to be Played at Your Funeral.
I’m technically in South Gloucestershire, we could have a mini social sometime 😉
yay for Ursula
that’s all I have to say, really.
Pleased you arranged this AIP. As one of those who agreed that it would be a good idea and as a newcomer here’s my background:
1 Born in Louth Lincolnshire, moved to Singapore at 3-months old, spent two years there and then moved around as I was a ‘Forces’ child. Spent 5 years in Canterbury between 11 and 16 (and would like to end up there). Currently living near Southampton.
2. “Leaveitallbehind” is emblazoned on a sweat shirt I have in large orange letters and was asked at a Pearl Jam concert where it could be bought as someone thought it was a Tour Shirt. Deep down I would like to leave it all behind and travel with my wife of 26 years.
3. My formative years were spent listening to prog rock – Genesis, Floyd, Barclay James Harvest, Alan Parsons Project, Led Zep; migrated to the Friday Night Rock Show with Tommy Vance and then, when pocket money allowed went mad on ‘heavy metal’. Since then I have IMHO cultivated an eclectic taste enjoying everything from Alter Bridge to The Zutons; with a bit of country, blues, classical and even a bit of Slipknot in there.
Cannot stand hip hop or the X-factor massed produced vocalist / boy / girl band commercial auto-tuned pop!
Love Springsteen and definitely a big fan of Gaslight Anthem.
4. Don’t play music and am officially tone deaf. When i was at junior school I wasn’t allowed to sing in assembly I was that bad.
5. Can I have two: Wrecking Ball (Springsteen) and El Camino The Black Keys.
6. Need to give some thought to “6 songs of me”. Perhaps we could have a separate post on this.
It would have been nice to have elicited a response like everyone else’s post did. Nothing like being made to feel welcome!
Did we not welcome you to RR, leaveitallbehind? So sorry – we usually do! Welcome to the Mothership (RR) and to the ‘Spill too!
hi LIAB9-
welcome along to the ‘spill – have you joined in this weeks RR yet?
RR Blood
There will be peaks and troughs in responses on here – timing, between those frantically trying to think of their own answers – finishing work – getting children to bed. mixing margaritas(!) .. etc etc … responses tend to be instant or slightly more relaxed in their speed… but give it time and everyone joins in.
I’ll be reading this lot when the I can finally sit down and crack open a beer later – my best friend moved to Market Rasen for a few years so we ended up in Louth a bit – I spent every Friday evening in Canterbury between 86-88 meeting friends – and went out in Southampton to see bands (Joiners) when I went to collage in Bournemouth.
back later….
No margaritas today unless you bring your own lime.
Apologies but didn’t log on so those Anonymous comments were actually from me. Thanks everyone for your posts. Much appreciated.
Hiya, LIAB9. Sounds like me an’ thee are gonna get on just fine! 😉
I was a Tommy Vance listener too. When I lived in London one of the guys living in the flat below used to work for him at his studio. Most of the work seemed to consit of Tommy doing voice-overs for ads, but what a voice!
I like Wrecking Ball, it is a bit patchy but the tracks on which he is spitting bile are terrific listening.
Consist, even.
Llamalpaca – appreciate your comments. Whilst i’m not musical in anyway my son inherited some musical skill from my wife and has played the Joiners.
Well, LIAB9… there seems to be a consensus forming that we should do a seperate ‘six songs of me’ post, so it looks like you’ll get more time to think 🙂
It would be good to have space to explain why you’d picked them, if you don’t go for categories (please don’t go for categories).
That’s good news. Also like the suggestion of the last six songs on i-pod shuffle. Though I am currently listening through them from A to Z!
Nice to meet you leaveitall. Or Mr Behind if we must be formal.
There’s a young NYC band called The Dead Exs you might like if El Camino appeals. They’re kind of a rougher Black Keys, with a fair bit of Zep in them at times. Dirty blues rock, like it was meant to be played.
I’m interested in the Fallon side project you mentioned on RR so will take a look at that. Thanks for the reply (everyone) much appreciated. Was feeling a little left out.
Had a look at some YouTube videos of Horrible Crowes but the sound quality wasn’t that good on some of the live gigs. Like it so will have to listen some more.
tinncanman – love the Dead Exs. Great suggestion. So like the Black Keys.
@leaveitabllbehind – ‘Behold the Hurricane’ was released as a single, and I believe there’s a video out there somewhere for it. Ian Perkins, the other half of the band, used to be Gaslight’s guitar tech and is now credited as ‘touring guitarist’ – he’s effectively a full member of the band, and played on all the songs on their most recent album, but he’s English and they’re waiting for his visa to be approved…
yw leaveit
hi leaveitallbehind9, I spent some formative years listening to similar bands, never really grew out of them.
me neither bethnoir hence the recent noms for Barclay James Harvest, which i’ve sort of rediscovered
Hallo there angryirishpunk. Just a note: an EOTWQ traditionally has five questions, not six; and none of them are about music. I’m just sayin’.
1 I was born in Watford, Herts and now live in Milton Keynes, but I’ve lived in a whole lot of other places in between. MK is the only place I’ve lived in twice though.
2 I’ve been a fan of frogs since I was a small child; discovered treefrogs later on and liked them too. The idea of a treefrog demon just struck me as amusing one day – perhaps when I’d just been to see David Mach’s vampire teddies. I always use a frog as my avatar, and on Facebook it has to match the colours of my current cover photo. My RR avatar is good because the green food-colouring makes it easy to spot when scrolling. I’ve just celebrated my fifth anniversary on RR.
3 Folk, blues, country, rock’n’roll, rock and any permutation thereof. My favourite band is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
4 I sing a lot better than I play the guitar, but I do do both. I have a ukulele but I never got very far with it.
5 Tom Petty’s solo album Wildflowers.
6 You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry
Learning The Game by Buddy Holly
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) by Bob Dylan
Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen
First In Line by the Gourds
Southern Accents by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Yes, well, I had to bend the rules a little to allow for the whole thing of introducing ourselves as members of the RR community 🙂
Tee hee
Yes, I think “bend the rules a little” may be in the running for Understatement of the Year 😀 and isn’t it funny? Little Punky’s all grown up and welcoming new members!
You’re grown up? Bloody hell, I feel old.
I can legally vote and drink (since 4 years ago), drive and get married (since 6 years ago) and pay taxes (since 12 years ago). I’m afraid I must be grown up 😀
Pay taxes when you’re 10? On what?
No I’m just stupid. I meant 8 years ago. Yep, if you’re working in a summer job at age 14 the Irish government will tax you. Of course, they won’t fucking tax Bono…
He makes sure of that.
True!
1. From: Well, was born in St Helens but can’t remotely claim to be from there. Dad from Devon, mum from Cambridge, grew up in Nigeria and Essex. Now live in Brixton.
2. Only in that it’s fairly closely related to my real-life surname.
3. 80s electro, Bollywood, pure pop, indie… I’m not very good at sticking within one particular genre – too restless. And there’s so much great stuff out there. Why limit your horizons? Admittedly, this means I know a little about a lot. (That applies to life in general as well as music.)
4. I learnt piano and flute at school. I never became very good as I lacked discipline/talent and didn’t really like either instrument. So no.
5. Ooh crikey, I dunno. Um. Nothing terribly recent, I don’t think. I might have to say “Beyond the Sun” by Billy Mackenzie. Which has been a favourite for years.
6. I did do it. They were something like this…
a) Fatboy Slim: The Rockafeller Skank
b) Tom Paxton: The Last Thing On My Mind
c) Depeche Mode: Somebody
d) The Triffids: Save What You Can
e) Tracey Ullman: They Don’t Know
Oops, that’s only five – I accidentally started with Song that always gets me dancing. First song I ever bought. Hm. Well, it was probably something from The Kids From Fame album – let’s go with “Starmaker”. (I’m not proud. Or indeed ashamed.) The other categories above are – song that makes you dance, song that takes you back to childhood, perfect love song, song to be played at funeral, and song that makes you you (me me!).
I didn’t bother with those categories. I played the game in the Graun but the songs that came out were a highly peculiar lot.
There are no crossovers between my Graun answers and my answers for this…
Because my brain is made up of 93% song lyrics – every Friday I’ve had the lines….
“friday nights gonna be alright,
gonna be right,
gonna be alright – now – baby”
…tattooed in my brain – an earworm since 198?:
Fame “Friday Night”
@shane: sheesh! it was that italian dude who played piano singing that, wasn’t he? michael whatsisface…
I’m forever grateful to The Cure for Friday I’m in love, because the song you mention was messin’ with my mind the very same way…
Now, can somebody kill that bloody Cure’s tune with something else, please? I mean, really…
there is a Friday song that is even more annoying – but that’s for people who take any notice of internet rubbish:
I use this as a distraction:
Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo
obviously that’s too damn cheerful – my true personality and thoughts – sigh along to this:
malcolm middleton friday night
Love that Depeche Mode song, have done for a long time. Who was your favourite kids from Fame character then? I always liked Bruno for his big blue eyes.
It’s a beaut, isn’t it, beth? And I love the honesty of the lyrics:
Though my views may be wrong
They may even be perverted
She’ll hear me out
And won’t easily be converted
To my way of thinking
In fact she’ll often disagree
But at the end of it all
She will understand me…
I had a bit of a crush on Danny Amatullo. Even though he was clearly an idiot.
Cut-and-pasted those lyrics, but reading them back, I’m sure it’s “Though my IDEAS…” Not that it matters!
the honesty is what makes it not come across as mawkish, I think. I had totally forgotten about that character until you mentioned him, I wonder how bad the series would be if one re-watched it?
1. Born in Manchester, raised on the north east coast (just north of Whitby) and after a spell in Devon ended up in Madrid. Been here for more than twenty years now.
2. When I first came to live here my Spanish was good but very bookish and formal. Through reading a comic called El Jueves I learned a lot of the colloquial expressions and slang that helped me feel more fluent. Makinavaja was the main character in the strip I enjoyed most. I took the name as a sort of tribute to the writer Ivà, who was killed in a car crash.
3. Flamenco, punk, Grateful Dead – just about anything really.
4. No. Tone deaf and no sense of rhythm. Very jealous of those who can, obviously.
5. Still relishing Estrella Morente’s latest offering. The Dead’s Europe 72 is also getting a lot of plays on the car stereo.
6. This changes on a daily basis but there’d have to be something by the Stranglers, something by Estrella, something by the Clash and three floating choices.
I’ve never read El Jueves… always loved Mafalda though, my dad was in Barcelona recently and brought back the complete Mafalda: I absolutely devoured it!
Quino is brilliant. we have the complete Mafalda. My nieces in Valencia are the personification of Mafalda and Susanita.
Must be fun to go and visit, although I pity their parents 😀
I love the whole sequence about Mafalda wanting her parents to buy a TV, and then when she answers the door to the delivery men she faints. Miguelito’s my favourite, make of that what you will! It always reminded me of Peanuts as a child, and now that I’m older I’m beginning to see that – despite the many political undercurrents in Schultz’s work – Mafalda is a lot more politically-sophisticated.
Mafalda’s political sophistication is born of necessity. A lot of the points Quino was making couldn’t be made openly but were clearly understood. Part of the guy’s genius.
Yay! Let’s have a discussion about whether censorship breeds great art!
*OFF TOPIC ALERT*
Good idea, punky!
1. Born? Yes.
In Drogheda, County Louth.
Living in Edinburgh.
2. I had been “trading” under my own name and decided that a bit of anonymity might be safer in case chinhealer started stalking me. I took a photo of a baby llama in Guisborough (not far from where Maki once lived) – it was the inspiration for the moniker.
3. The ones I’ve liked for longest are the rockers – Thin Lizzy, Led Zep, Rush, The Stones, all informed by older brother and my school friends. Since then I have developed a penchant for anything by Eels, Kraftwerk (although The Mix was poo), DJ Shadow, anything to do with Nile Rodgers, Aimee Mann, Pierce Turner, Springsteen, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry – that sort of thing.
4. I don’t play anything. I used to laugh at my brother and sister for taking piano lessons, now I know that it was me who was the idiot.
5. Mind Warp – Patrick Cowley. The album is over 30 years old and sounds as fresh as a daisy. Cowley died tragically young of AIDS, a great talent.
6. The Rip – Portishead
Upside Down – Diana Ross
I Feel Love – Donna Summer (Patrick Cowley Remix)
So Long You Pretty Thing – Spiritualized
The Model – Kraftwerk
I Believe In You – Talk Talk (some overlap with DsD there)
Ask me this evening and you’d probably get a completely different six!
Ooh… just down the road from Evanna Lynch 😀
Is that the same DJ Shadow who did ‘Outsider Intro’? Great tune!
…I really wish I knew where chinny got his username!
Sorry AIP, meant to say that while I was born in Drogheda, I lived in Monaghan Town.
That DJ Shadow is one and the same, although that album IMHO was not his finest moment!
This may take some time; after all, when have you ever known me fail to use a paragraph when a sentence would do, and a 1500-word essay when a couple of sentences would be perfectly adequate? Also, having spent two hours clearing snow from 300 yards of pavement for benefit of elderly neighbours (i.e. roughly 85% of neighbours), I desperately need a shower before a couple of friends come round for a drink – we were supposed to be going to Sussex for a [probably ghastly] family get-together, the snow has put paid to that and so we need to eat all the nibbles that we’d made for it. Anyway…
1. Hell. Also known as Horley, Surrey, a thoroughly ghastly place just by Gatwick Airport. My parents still live there, and visiting can still send me into flashbacks of adolescent depression. Now living in Castle Cary, Somerset, the sort of little town where neighbours spend two hours clearing snow from pavements.
2. Abahachi is a character in one of my favourite films, the German western parody Der Schuh des Manitu. Just came to mind when I was looking for a Grauniad identity, as my previous online persona (Friedrich) was taken.
3. Hmm. Possibly easier to list ones I don’t like, as I’ve travelled through an awful lot of genres in my time. Up to age 10 or so, classical (and still have a great love for Shostakovich, Wagner, Schoenberg, Messiaen); then discovered the whole early 80s electro-pop scene (esp. Ultravox) and worked back to discover Krautrock and Bowie, plus the Jam and other New Wavey people; then got into hard rock and worked back to blues. Played bass in various bands at college and got very bored with plodding four root notes to the bar, so started getting into soul, disco, r’n’b, trip-hop etc. Briefly dallied with bits of Britpop (esp. the Manics) as a way of bonding with my newly-acquired stepchildren, but then veered off into jazz for ten years (albeit not necessarily the same stuff that GF would consider jazz; a lot of avant-garde and European artists). Finally, under the influence of RR, went back to listening to a bit more popular music, and discovered a whole new world of post-rock and electronica. Currently, I guess the main things I listen to are jazz (key artists: Tomasz Stanko, Bojan Z, Esbjorn Svensson, Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Zentralquartett), post-rock (Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and assorted electronica (Brandt Bauer Frick, Blanck Mass), but always willing to be seduced by something that reminds me of the glorious pop of my youth (Brockdorff Klang Labor, Susanna Hoffs).
RR has made me listen to a lot of newer bands too, cool isn’t it? I hope your neighbours appreciated your snow shovelling efforts, I had to clear the driveway here (16cm of snow) last night, very tiring.
To continue…
4. Yes, guitar and bass. Played in all sorts of bands while at college – mostly bass, because bass players are always in short supply – and pursued a one-man-band recording career in parallel. Currently trying to make time to practice jazz, and occasionally strumming along with local folk group as the only playing opportunity in town.
5. Brockdorff Klang labor, Die Faelschung der Welt: wonderful mixture of Krautrock, early 80s electro-pop and later dance music, with added pretentious quotes from literature and philosophy, mostly in German. The sort of group I’d create myself…
6. Six songs that define me? This is harder than the imaginary Desert Island Discs thing, where you get eight…
Bojan Z, Multi Don Kulti
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Dead Flag Blues
Richard Wagner, last scene of Die Walkuere
Tomasz Stanko, Morning Heavy Song
Ultravox, Vienna
Kate Bush, Experiment IV
Will probably have a completely different list in half an hour or so…
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
I was born in Edinburgh but after many peripatetic years (my Dad was in the RAF) we settled in Watford when I was a teenager and I’ve lived there ever since.
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
A bit boring really – I’m a male Everton fan…
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
The easiest tag to put on it would be ‘Indie’ but as I collect genres like a magpie and I’ve been on this earth for many a decade, I’ve developed a fairly broad taste over the years. Anything from Motown to early-mid 70s prog rock; from new wave to C86. Throw in a bit of be-bop-style Jazz, a lot of doo-wop, a smidgeon of northern soul and even the occasional rock anthem and I’m there! As I’ve written elsewhere, the most important thing for me is that it’s got to have a good tune…
4. Do you play music?
Yes. Piano/keyboard fairly well; guitar if pushed and I can pick out a tune on my daughter’s ukulele.
5. What’s your current favourite album?
Martin Rossiter’s, The Defenestration of St Martin. I used to play football with Martin many years ago and I’m so pleased that he’s managed to get himself back into the semi-limelight after so many years of musical silence. A great singer and a fantastic live performer.
6. Six Songs Of Me
1. Derek & The Dominoes – Layla
2. Night Boat To Cairo – Madness
3. Two Little Boys – Rolf Harris
4. Without You – Nilsson
5. It Didn’t Matter Anyway – Hatfield & The North
6. Talking Scarlet – Prefab Sprout
Good to hear about you ToffeeBoy like you my father was in the RAF so we moved around quite a bit. Probably why I still have a desire to travel!
My experience as an RAF child left me feeling exactly the opposite. Until I was about 12 I didn’t have anywhere I could call home and now I just want to put down roots and stay where I am…
Of course, my entry for First Song Bought is Layla by Derek & The Dominoes, not the other way round…
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
I’m from London, just where east London is turning into the suburbs, between Manor Park and Wanstead. I live in Leeds.
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
Yes. I got into talking bollocks online because I had small children. As a dad I discovered the hit show Peppa Pig, which is quite silly and funny,and I was already starting to be called Daddy Pig at home.
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
It corresponds to the original Rock Against Racism slogan – “reggae, soul, rock’n’roll, jazz, funk and punk”. Though even in 1977, when I was 15, it was more the spirit of punk and the music that came after, rather than punk itself.
4. Do you play music?
Yes, I learned violin at school, self-taught on piano and accordion. Not much technique, and I read from the melody line and chords rather than full piano score. When I played every day I could do 2-3 hours of showtunes and stuff without having any music, and at one point had a regular foyer music gig at The West Yorkshire Playhouse.
5. What’s your current favourite album ?
Dr John – Locked Down is from 2012, got it for Christmas.
6. The Guardian Music Blog started a thing called “6 songs of me” a few months ago, where you pick the six songs that most define you. Whether or not you did it on the Guardian, what six songs would you choose?
First single was Maggie May by Rod Stewart, which from 1971 was the most recent song from my six – just the way the questions were asked !
The final choice was Jerry Lee Lewis – Great Balls Of Fire, because I can play it, sort of, on the piano, especially after beer. Curtis Mayfield – I’m So Proud was in there, for MummyP; Millie – My Boy Lollipop gets me dancing. Childhood song was Chris Barber and Monty Sunshine – Petit Fleur, from my dad’s jazz vinyl. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – They Can’t Take That Away From Me, is the funeral jazz, written by George and Ira Gershwin.
But music is a sociable thing, so I didn’t really go along with the idea that those tunes “define” me.
Music isn’t always sociable though. I’ve been on my own here all day and I’ve listened to loads – didn’t think I needed another person!
Yes, that’s true… I didn’t feel quite right with how “Me-ish” it all was, but not sure why. I don’t get that with Desert Island Discs. When I was on my own – Most of my adult life to age 41 – I was listening to or playing music or listening to speech radio nearly all my free time…
that is the ‘six songs of me’ that is most ME Daddy P ! Who knew !
Very happy to know that magicman. I heartily approve of yours too, always glad to see Hoagy and the Gershwins, likewise Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart or Hammerstein….. The Radiohead was a bit daringly up-to-date compared to my list though.
Ahh and Brian Wilson’s vocal harmony version of Rhapsody In Blue ahhh
…aaaahh !
It must be my turn:
1) I was born in Merton Park (South West London) where the Merton Parkas come from. I live in Morden (South West London) where Good Shoes come from. I have travelled though. I lived in Shepherds Bush (West London) for a while.
2) Er……… I like Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Velvet Underground and I used to use the same online name on another site that wasn’t related to music. That’s all I’m saying.
3) Well I like punk, reggae and folk, but then again I like some electro and disco and some r&b/jump blues, a bit of swing era stuff and a fair amount of mass produced commercial pop (if it’s done right). Oh and Japanese blokes playing recorders and Norwegian gals who swap instruments between each and every song. That’s my favourite.
4) I can play Oh Susannah on the harmonica. That’s it. Like many people I own a ukelele but can do nothing with it.
I am a terrible singer but sing in public for half an hour every week as I do the library story and rhyme time.
As kids, my brother and sister had piano lessons but my parents made the mistake of asking me if I wanted them too and I said no because it sounded like hard work.
They did buy me a drum with a picture of Ringo on it. I still fancy myself as a drummer even though I have arms like twiglets.
5) I but very little new music these days.
Revenge of the Folksingers is one I’m listening to quite a lot at the moment. It’s a collaboration between Concerto Caledonia and four folkie vocalists.
6) I did the Grauniad “six songs of me” thing but I can’t remember all my answers.
First single was definitely Children of the Revolution by T-Rex,
No song always gets me dancing but the nearest is Dat by Pluto Shervington,
There’s a Hole in my Bucket by Harry Belafonte and Odetta takes me back to my childhood,
my perfect love song is Somebody who Loves You by Joan Armatradaing,
I’d want Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks at my funeral.
The song that makes me me is These Foolish Things and my favourite version is by Etta James.
That may not be what I said at the time.
I’ll have to listen to that version of These Foolish Things, I love the song too, found it via Bryan Ferry whose covers of old songs are often good. I’m sure the toddlers in the library appreciate your singing, my little ones used to enjoy storytime in our local one.
I’m just checking out Revenge of the Folksingers – I see it has Bonnie Susie Clelland, and Alasdair Roberts is singing – a great track of his was nommed [by treefrog? ]this week. Sounds promising – thanks for the tip!
Not me – I just replied that it was the same song as Lord Randal.(Only there’s no blood in that.)
Ok, here we go
1. From Liverpool, live in Manchester
2. When the Graun forced us to pick a username, I was a bit stuck for inspiration – I was listening to Zappa’s Jazz from Hell at the time, specifically the track The Beltway Bandits – so I just picked that and went with it. I didn’t quite get the links to American politics and privateers, so it sits uncomfortably with my Europhillic, lefty liberal ways, but hey ho, I’m stuck with it. Have tried to embrace it by running with the motif of my avatar being a musician wearing a sombrero. Current encumbant is the great Edgar “Jones” Jones, from the cover of the Stairs album Mexican R’n’B, which I maintain is one of the best British albums of all time.
3. I work on the principle that there is good music and bad music and try not to get too hung up on genre definitions, and listen far and wide, from 12th Century Choral music through to honking avant-garde jazz and everything in.between – it’s probably easier to say what I really hate: modern manufactured pop, mindless unintelligent techno/dance, Gilbert and Sullivan, twee cover versions of 80s hits sung in a whispery way by a young lady with an acoustic guitar and a glockenspiel. And generally anything that is clearly done purely as a commercial product with no feeling or conviction-music is to important to be treated like that.
4. Learnt the violin properly as a youngster (haven’t touched it in a good few years now though), taught myself to play the guitar reasonably well and the piano a bit – can do rudimentary bass and recently figured out how to squeeze a tune out of an accordion. Experimenting with the uke at the moment too.
5. Changes pretty much every other day, right at this moment am seriously digging the eponymous album by The Radha-
Krishna Temple (great George Harrison production) and Mirage by Klaus Schulze. Putting serious effort into Scott Walker’s Bisch Bosh, but not getting far.
6. Have to come back to you on that! It would have to include Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles, it defines my home town (my school was just opposite the red gates) and was the first Beatles song I was ever aware of hearing, and to me is still a landmark of songwriting and creative production that I will measure other songs by.
1. From Essex to Hamburg (Germany), do not pass GO!, do not collect €100…
2. No.
3. I do not like the soprano voice or the cembalo, don’t really appreciate free jazz, apart from that: bring it on. As long as it’s not whatever was at the top of the Grauniad spotify list yesterday – that actually hurt my ears. I do particularly like folk, folk rock, Fence Collective type stuff.
4. Define ‘play music’… Sing off-key?: tick. Three chords on the guitar?: tick
5. My current favourite album has yet to be recorded.
6. Here’s 6 to be starting with…
Clap Your Hands – the Revd. Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Heart Like A Wheel – Kate & Anna McGarrigle
The Werewolf – Barry Dransfield
Blue Bleezin’ Blind Drunk – the Unthanks
Different For Gils – Joe Jackson
Nelly the Elephant – Toy Dolls
Hmmm. Wrote an answer to this which is apparently still ‘waiting moderation’. I know I was AWOL for a while…..have the rules been changed?
Hi debby
If there are more than 5 links in there it gets bumped into pre-mod ’cause WP thinks it’s spam. AIP can “authorise” it by going into the manage comments section of the dashboard.
Just approved it…
There was some of that recently at RR too debby. But that was because someone sent the moderators a list of people he didn’t like and they got put on pre-mod. I don’t think that sort of stuff goes on here, so it most likely is just a technical trigger.
Or it could have been the threat to sing off-key for us 🙂
*gasp* It’s a conspiracy!
I got put on pre-mod a few months ago: in my one foray onto CiF, I politely ticked off a couple of pro-Israeli nutjobs for saying that the photos of Rachael Corrie in front of a bulldozer had been photoshopped. I was argumentative, but not rude, and for my trouble I got called a terrorist scumbag who was probably in the IRA. Guess which one of us got modded? That’s right, me! Ah well, I guess I was less likely to sue the Graun for publishing defamatory comments than Friends of Israel, so they had their priorities right from a financial sense 😀
A few of my noms ended up going in after the deadline that week because it took them TWO FUCKING DAYS to get through the pre-mod process…
AIP, well said anyway. I expect if they’d been turned in, they would have got modded though. To be fair to The Guardian, it’s not afraid to go out on a limb: recently ticked off by some newspaper standards organisation for going along with the UN on Jerusalem being an international city rather than recognised capital of Israel.
I turned ’em in, and by the time the comments were deleted I was off pre-mod.
1. Born in Coventry, lived there for a whole week (ie in Walsgrave Hospital) lived in Rugby for a whole year, moved to Leicester and still live there, although I have had the odd couple of years living in other places.
2.Many years ago I read an article in The Guardian about how to choose your name for various professions. In order to choose your name as a US Senator it recommended picking your street name followed by your grandad’s occupation. The result at the time was Wyngate Carpenter. I had a ridiculous pseudonym, now I just needed the opportunity to use it…
3. I like punk…this won’t be a surprise to most on here. However these days “punk” is a loose term. I like UK82, oi , anarcho, late 70s punk, post-punk, and also a fair bit of early 80s goth. I like a few bands that don’t really fit into these categories particularly Dexys. I like other things but I don’t really investigate other genres – it would be too time consuming and expensive with my obsessive streak.
4. Despite the best efforts of Mrs Crick (guitar teacher ) I never really got the hang of anything musical. A mate invited me to join his garage band to play bass which he was going to teach me to a sufficient (ie very basic) standard in order to play a 6th form gig – a week later he told me I would be playing “psychadelic tambourine” (that’s just tambourine to me or you). I told him what he could do. It was probably for the best though….so in answer to your question, and despite the punk rule that anyone can do it – No
5. Is that “current favourite album” or “favourite curret album”? My favourite album of 2012 is Paranoid Visions – Escape From The Austerity Complex – ambitious but flawed (they are definitely an Irish punk band, although perhaps a bit old school for a fresh-faced young whippersnapper like yourself AIP); also like Dexys – One Day I’m Going To Soar a lot more than I feared ; and The Warriors – Never Forgive Never Forget – solid , no-nonsense oi.
I have just got last year’s Killing Joke album, but haven’t got round to playing it yet, not sure it will mix well with wyngate jnr’s sleep pattern.
6. Don’t think I could pick a list that “defines” me but here’s 6 that seem relevant for various reasons (not necessarily all time favourites, though some are)
Adam Ant – Goody Two Shoes – the first 7″ I bought back in 82, Adam Ant got me into music back then, I finally saw him live last year fot the first time which was nice. By a strange coincidence the song contains a cryptic reference to Kevin Rowland
Dexys Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen – because a few months later I was obsessed with this song, and soon after that the album Too-Rye-Ay. It was the first time for me an album felt like it was more than just a collection of catchy tunes, although it had a few of those. It was intense, very much like me back then.
The Clash – Complete Control – the p -word, and my favourite ever record.
Crass – How Does It Feel? – not because I particularly enjoy listening to it, it’s a bit harsh on the ears even for me, but because it expresses one of the things that makes me angrier than anything else – ie people in power sending other people off to kill and be killed with some hidden agenda, while most of the country cheers and uses words like “heroic”.
Peter & The Test Tube Babies – Blown Out Again – sounds a lot like me aged about 14 to 30. Set to Del’s most epic sounding guitar!
The Cravats – Rub Me Out – like me Cravats frontman The Shend seems to be an amiable, cynical yet jovial sort of character. But like me he also seems to live in a nightmarish world of paranoia about the authorities. Sensible man.
My US Senator name appears to be Morden Cobbler.
Whichford Piper
I think I can safely say there’s never been a US senator by the name of Shibden Footballer!
Oswald Pimp
Hillside Postman – sounds more like a horse.
Camarena Milkman!
Hann Turner!! Not sure that”s worked!
Treforest Lighthouse Keeper, has potential for a president maybe? I remember the video of Adam Ant’s Goody Two Shoes, he looked very cute in it, my first album was Adam and the Ants, but I let myself down with Shakin Stevens for the single.
That is a brilliant way to choose a username if I may say so, Nene Draughtsman has a certain ring to it wouldn’t you say ??
Depending on which grandfather, that would be Elm Chemist or Elm Gardener. I prefer the latter…
Abbey Batman
Hanging Stone Draper …
Good luck representing the Native American people in the Senate, Ali! I’m going up to the Hill as Lynas Physicist. Actually, that should be Lynas Um-I think-Physicist-Something-Like-That-Anyway. He was one of the Philadelphia Anyways.
Peeps Dealer…..oo-er Senator
(Don’t all rush at once…. it was strictly antiques)
Perhaps Peeps Porter would have stood a better chance of election?
I love Goody Two Shoes – it’s on a mobile phone advert on Japanese TV at the moment. I can’t help but jump up and pull some dandified shapes every time it comes on!
Marshal Birjuzova Teacher.
Yours has a rank! He’ll be a shoo-in for senator.
Naturally, I’d support the gun lobby and embrace the NRA – “More guns everywhere – a universal panacea” would make a nice sound bite.
is it your Mom’s Dad or your Dad’s Dad? gives me two possibilities. Wabash Preacher or Wabash Wrangler.
Those are both excellent! My other choice was Accountant, but it didn’t sound quite right.
Goo question that I never stopped to consider. In my case it was my dad’s dad. I never met my mum’s dad, he died the week I was born and in any case had walked out on the family many years before.
If I based my username on y gran’s answer when I asked what he did for a living I would have been Wyngate Layabout!
Woodlands Lieutenant.
I may have to change my username.
1 saneshane was made from handpicked apples in Boxford, Suffolk (where Copella apple juice is made). Live in Norfolk now, but spent childhood in 13 different towns/villages/houses throughout Kent, age 18 to 30 in loads of flats and houses in and around Bournemouth and many, many other places.
2 saneshane shane is my name – ‘sane’ was black humour when I started using my own computer – I’d borrowed other people’s computers while I was between homes for a few years when RR started – I like the fact that when I learned how to search for things – the name came up as a German fetish fanatic. not me, but ace.
arTEEsane is my artwork name.
RANTaGHOST is because I pissed off —— …………. that someone didn’t agree with, and ——- took offence at me trying to say they had ————————– the “……………………..” .. both these exchanges (and serious ones on the Guardian) have made me dislike interaction on the internet and how easily it is to be taken the wrong way.
RANTaGHOST was invented to not give a shit anymore …. still can’t change my inbuilt personality, so it’s not really working, and I’m still feeling slightly sensitive about typing.
There’s others that I’ve forgotten – but I do try to keep the Guardian and other sites in business by being ‘as many people as I possible can be’ – “look advertisers we have SO many unique names” (just don’t check the IP addresses) – or, I find it odd that people want a ‘real’ fake name to be stuck to.
But I don’t hide the changes or try and manipulate people – this is me – but I have many different tags.
3) genres?:
ska /2tone/ new wave/ goth/ electronic/ dance/ indie / blues / world (whatever that is?)/ Scandie pop/ twizzle freak/ greebie dance/ blip tones/ trip hop/ hip hop /bunny hop/ bmx-file/ dark core, dark wave, dark ripple, dark plop/ UK skank / UK weed garage/ UK regal death/ dot.co.uk – who know?
I like enthusiasm and incompetence more than perfection.
After sifting through demo after demo for a record label and chucking people’s efforts in 30 seconds, I NOW find anyone who gets anything recorded is fantastic.
No one MAKES me listen to anything I don’t want to – so why piss on their bonfires? – (an interesting debate about differences in taste is good – slagging is a waste of time) for me anyway.
4. Do I play music?
no way – I’ve had two ‘cassette only’ albums released and an EP recorded – but I wouldn’t know a note if you slipped it in my wallet and you told me it was a tenor.
Thumb pianos are very soothing when have a breakdown though.
5. What’s your current favourite album?
I’ve only spent money on funding artists to record albums so far this year – apart from that
KOGNITIF – MY SPACE WORLD was sent to me by spottedrich – so been immersing myself in that…
but blood songs is the biggie – I like mixtapes – never did do albums very well.
that’s the story of my life
All In A Day’s Work Eels
Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy! The Wedding Present
Dance Little Rude Boy Ian Dury & The Blockheads
Hey PIXIES
Bob’s Yer Uncle Happy Mondays
No Children The Mountain Goats
Everybody Knows Leonard Cohen
The Drinks We Drank Last Night Azure Ray
The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane Jeffrey Lewis
Basement Band Song The Organ
No Return Brakes
Slap Dash for No Cash Art Brut
Cut the Tree The Wolfgang Press
Travelling On Beber & Tamra
My Struggle Withered Hand
The Day Before You Came The Real Tuesday Weld
I Saw Her In The Anti War Demonstration Jens Lekman
Such Great Heights The Postal Service
The Kiss The Cure
Bruises Chairlift
Hit Sugarcubes
Wayward Song The Earlies
Walk And Skank Jah Screechy
King of the Village Fete Lazarus and the Plane Crash
Nobody’s Perfect Jimi Tenor
Forward The Revolution Spiral Tribe
Destroy The Evidence Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
The New Kid Revival Her Space Holiday
Let The Spirit (Hot Chip Remix) Roots Manuva
Freak Scene Dinosaur Jr
Punk as Fuck American Analog Set
Sweeping The Nation Spearmint
I’ve Got Pictures Of You In Your Underwear Ballboy
Crowds Bauhaus
Pendeke Bhundu Boys
is that more than six?
Sweeping The Nation is a top tune. (I’m sure they all are – the others I know from your list are great too – but Sweeping The Nation is just so lovely and big-hearted and joyous. Should have been massive – doubtless like the bands it celebrates.)
I love Crowds, once we did a radio station at our sixth form with a strict no swearing policy and I remember racing for the DJ box to prevent my goth friend Peter from playing the end of it and getting us banned.
Oh you’re Rantaghost? Cool! King Blues for the win 🙂
1. Born and raised (like a good pork pie) in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire; currently settled in a village betwixt Newbury and Basingstoke in North Hampshire.
2. It’s a slight variation on my first name. I needed a name for a Yahoo account, so I had to go a bit odd. My surname was due to change and there seemed to be a lot of spurious z’s around among friends and aquaintances at the time. I was just following the crowd.
3. Everybody knows I like All About Eve (don’t they?). There are a few other constants, mainly from the same era, ‘cos that’s when my musical tastes grew up. I like to bounce around the genres, from rock to electronica (as long as the vocal is interesting), but there’s a disproportionate amount of folk influence.
4. No. I tried. I wasn’t terribly good. I theorise that I may be tone deaf. Fortunately, I am not colour blind.
5. It has long been the debut All About Eve album. But other candidates include Laki Mera’s debut, Hundreds’ debut, INXS’ “Kick”, Tracey Thorn’s “Out of the Woods”, Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love”.
6. Didn’t do on the Guardian, so these are fresh(ish):
All About Eve, “She Moves Through the Fair”
Jim Moray, “Lucy Wan”
Hundreds, “Happy Virus”
The Men They Couldn’t Hang, “The Colours”
Aerosmith, “Walk This Way”
Pretenders, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”
Ask me again tomorrow, and only the first will be the same. Although sometimes that could be “Wild Hearted Woman”.
Ooh I listened to The Colours on Thurs night to see if the “red is the colour” bit could be construed as being about blood. (Answer: Not really, no.)
Really? You like All About Eve? I never would have guessed! 😉
I have a very soft spot for Aerosmith too.
‘Hounds of Love’ is a brilliant album. I love Kate Bush, such an astonishing vocalist and songwriter.
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
Peripatetic childhood mostly in & around Merseyside. Left school in Liverpool to go to Bradford Uni; apart from a couple of workaway stints, been here ever since.
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
Yeah, but a boring one. We thought DsSis would be our only child, so disposed of most of her baby & toddler stuff. Then when Darcey came along, we realised we’d have to buy it all again. I’m too tight to fork out for new stuff twice (been in Yorkshire too long, obv!), so went on eBay. Needed a user name, DsD seemed appropriate. Then when I signed on the Graun I couldn’t have my first choices, so just used my eBay sign-on.
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
* Heavy/classic rock (but not much metal, funnily enough).
* Americana (though not that keen on many of the “source” artists that gave rise to the tag).
* Romantic minimalism (Dakota Suite, Goldmund, slowly getting into subdued piano-led jazz trios, etc.)
* And conversely/perversely to that last one, anything that chucks the kitchen sink into the mix (Alabama 3 being a good example).
4. Do you play music?
Not a note! Had piano and guitar lessons at primary school age; couldn’t be bothered to practice any of it. Regretted it ever since.
5. What’s your current favourite album?
“Current” would have to be Richard Hawley’s Standing At The Sky’s Edge, after December’s Festive Spill & Spill Awards finally put me and it in the same room.
But Talk Talk’s Spirit Of Eden, UFO’s Strangers In The Night, Phil Campbell’s Fresh New Life, Soulsavers’ Broken and Drive-By Truckers’ The Dirty South still always figure in any discussion of this subject long-term.
6. “6 songs of me”
I did that, but can’t seem to access it now to check what it was I picked. From memory, I think it was:
First ever bought: we’ll ignore session-singer Top Of The Pops LPs and Rolf Harris / Barron Knights comedy singles, shall we? In which case, it was possibly Julie Covington’s version of Only Women Bleed, coincidentally!
Gets me dancing: The Cult’s Resurrection Joe normally works, as do Billy Idol’s White Wedding, The Pogues’ Sally MacLannan, New Order’s Blue Monday; you get the era, right?
Childhood memory song: Lily The Pink, definitely.
Perfect Love Song: Guillemots’ Redwings takes some beating.
Funeral: This Mortal Coil’s version of Song To The Siren
One to ‘nail’ why I’m me: DBT’s Let There Be Rock. Swap Alabama for Cheshire, and that song PERFECTLY describes my teenage years (yes I did see Ozzy with Randy Rhoads – 3 times – and AC/DC with Bon Scott)
What six songs would I choose now, ignoring those specific questions?
Hmmm, I need a pointer of some kind … I know, I’m due at the gym in the morning if the snow allows, so here’s six that’ll get me pumping:
Willard Grant Conspiracy – Let It Roll
Creed – Faceless Man
Motorhead – Overkill
Shack – Natalie’s Party
Micah P. Hinson – You’re Only Lonely
The Go! Team – Bottle Rocket
Many happy welcomes to AIP and LIAB9, and thanks for the quiz.
1. From Bristol and now in fairly rural west Yorkshire, verging towards the edge of the Peak District, give or take 15 miles or so.
2. Yeah. It’s my married name. Life is too short to explain all that. It’s such a daft name I didn’t bother thinking up something else and as I don’t insult people or tell any deep dark secrets about myself I don’t mind using my real name. Next time I’ll choose (Wo)manFriday.
3. Folk, rock, blues, some African music, some Classical, some Metal, some bluegrass, some pop. Fairly wide ranging really, but not mad about punk, jazz or country. But that doesn’t mean I dislike all of it, I’ll give anything a listen and try to have an open mind.
4. I learned violin, flute and recorder at school. Of these I can still play recorder but have forgotten how to play violin or flute. Should have stuck at it.
5. Current favourite album – difficult really, I’ll go for Isles Ne’er Forgotten by Ivan Drever, simply because it was the last album I downloaded. It’s not new, I remember it from years ago and it is nice to hear it again.
6. Well, it varies according to how I feel on the day.
I’ll go for – The Cuckoo (Rory Gallagher); Now Westlin’ Winds (Dick Gaughan); Going to India (Boy Hits Car); Father Father (Flanagan); Love Me Like A Man (Bonnie Raitt) and Razor (Foo Fighters).
But it might be different if you re-run this as a separate thread.
Hi Alimunday. Thanks for the welcome.
Has anyone posted a link to this thread back over on the motheRRship?
And @ LIAB9 et al: there’s a Community page on The Marconium that covers some of this ground too, and could always do with more entries.
http://www.rrindex.com/rrcommunity.htm
Hi DsD, AIP posted the link in one of his comments yesterday afternoon. Might be worth re-posting it. Wil try, but not sure my IT skills will be sufficient.
BTW thanks for the welcome.
Second BTW saw Black Sabbath at the Hammersmith Odeon when it was the venue in London.
Just read through this and as usual am in awe of you all…despite only having a chance to comment occasionally, I love this site and reading what you all think and listening to the music, much of which is new to me–#sodamncool
As for this…
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, college (mostly) in Austin, Texas, a job in in Washington DC, Madrid, back to DC, more college in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and for the last 21 years Austin, during which there’ve been summer long stints in Grenada, Ithaca, New York, Chihuahua, Mexico, and three wonderful summers in Umea,Sweden.
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
I’m boring; my apologies
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
Almost anything…really; it’s kinda of embarrassing…
4. Do you play music?
Define “play”…or, I suppose, “music.” In college I played on the street, in a garage band, in a “punk” (well, Austin, Texas McPunk, as a loverly fellow from London informed us none too kindly) band, and on the streets again in Madrid. I remain amazed at what I can get away with with roughly three chords.
5. What’s your current favourite album?
Impossible…I’ve got some stuff collected from Dylan’s radio hour, CDs from both daughters, and am in the throes (as seems to happen every 6-7 months) mini-obsession with ol’LX Chilton..whatta guy…
6. The Guardian Music Blog started a thing called “6 songs of me” a few months ago, where you pick the six songs that most define you. Whether or not you did it on the Guardian, what six songs would you choose?
More impossible? But for tonight, howzabout:
1. Ella Fitzgerald & Louie Armstrong: “I Can’t Dance”
2. Little Richard: “Good Golly Miss Molly”
3. Jerry Lewis: “Great Balls o’Fire”
4. Chuck Berry: “Almost Grown” (or “C’est La Vie”)
5. Velvet Underground: “White Light/White Heat” (or “Sister Ray”…or “Rock’n’Roll”? This is hard…)
6. Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers: “Roadrunner”
7. Because we’re already breaking the rules such as I understand them so far which is almost not at all and 7 is my favorite number (3 is good too):
Chicks On Speed Featuring. Peaches: “We Don´t Play Guitars”
Some how Johnny Thunders (his version of “Pipeline” is an aspiration) and the Dolls (their version of “Pills” is an inspiration) should be here too…
I have a secret hankering to go on a massive US roadtrip one day (I might have to learn how to drive first), visiting all those places with evocative names referenced in classic American country/pop/rock/folk songs: Baton Rouge, Wichita, Galveston, Boulder to Birmingham, Mendocino, Tulsa… It might take some time (and I’d probably be disappointed by the reality of them)! Anyway, I’d love to be able to say, “I was born in Baton Rouge” – St Helens doesn’t have the same ring to it!
Did you see Glen Campbell last night? I was a bit disappointed to find that the songs I already liked – Wichita Lineman, Galveston – were the only ones I liked. (It was the same when I saw Eric Bogle in concert a couple of years ago.)
Yeah, I did. And yes, the Jimmy Webb songs really are his finest – and of those, the trio of “Wichita”, “Galveston” and “Phoenix” are far and away the best. I quite like “Where’s the Playground, Susie?” too though. And some of the “Reunion” songs, which he didn’t play last night (You Might As Well Smile, About The Ocean), are lovely-bordering-on-mawkish.
I do rather love “Rhinestone Cowboy”, cheesy though it is. And “Gentle On My Mind”. I didn’t particularly warm to him as a person though. And the Stepford-cum-televangelist wife, while doubtless having been a good thing for him, terrified me.
I spent 3 months doing that one spring bish. ’twas truly amazing and I shot a shitload pf picks that mean nothing to anyone but me (when I can remember what and where and why).
I set up a GPS hooked to a laptop in my car and just went in a big loop, taking detours whenever a signpost or something on the laptop map caught me etc. (Such as a 50-mile sidetrack to Tinnie, New Mexico.)
Well jel, tin. That sounds incredible.
Funnily enough, I’m online to procrastinate from drafting a chapter of my thesis (incoherent, but you know what I mean!). Before I started work, I listened to The ’59 Sound to try and make myself feel better about having to work. When it came to the last track, ‘The Backseat’, which is about a road trip across the US, I started thinking how cool it would be to do one. Of course, I don’t even have an Irish driving license, let alone an American one!
Maybe we should organise a US RRoad trip: someone with a licence can drive, and you, me and whoever else can fight over whose iPod playlist sountracks the view out the window…
You can drive in the US on a British licence if you’re a tourist.
I’ll drive!
There are myriad pluses and minuses to the US, but long, somewhat, semi-aimless roadtrips are one of the upsides…you can the lost in the most delightful ways, see some incredible things, and meet some nice people. You’re all invited, drive safe, and try to avoid the chain restaurants.
Speaking of the last, Tincanman can probably tell you of the delights of Tinnie’s Silver Dollar Steak House–true fact (best kind)
third times the charm: if I’d figured out the posting thing here yet, Hank Snow’s “I’ve Been Everywhere Man” would seem appropriate…I assume other countries must have versions or variations of this song too…
I certainly know of Jackie Leven’s German version. My kids had me post it as an Earworm one week, I seem to remember.
It has a joke punch line of –
I thought Glen Campbell was rather like Cliff Richards but with better songs
@magicman: and four more wives…
Re road trip, Matt’s promised that we’re going to West Texas this year. Which will mean I’ve still never been out of Texas (not counting airports); but then it’s a big state.
An RR roadtrip would be fun but probably quite insane 🙂
I WANT JAZZ!!! WELL I WANT PUNK!!! Who’s in charge of the playlist this week? Oh? Sakura? Right… *everyone fights with each other as they compete to be nice to Sakura* …and so on… Who’d snap and start trolling first? 😀
Nonsense. We’re all nice, polite people. Look how we’ve all conformed to Mnemonic’s request!
OTOH, before traipsing around the US of A, consider William Carlos Williams apt line that “the pure products of America go crazy” (which I suppose brings Elvis to mind as well? Maybe Glen Campbell too)
@tfd – *looks around to see if he can spot tinny*
*sound of crickets chirping*
I wonder whether my penguin will work on here? <(")
Bother
*looks around to see if he can spot tinny*
Yeah, it can be like a father and son version if Thelma & Louise.
Tinnie’s Silver Dollar Steak House
Alas, I did not have that pleasure.
I wonder whether my penguin will work on here
Intercourse the penguin
@tinny *gasps* although I believe such an action would be legal in Washington state, so if our road trip makes it that far and you still have the urge… 😛
Washington State has legalized marijuana, too. I don’t partake normally, but a few puffs would seem a necessity before driving off a cliff. And crisps. Definately crisps.
Come to think of it, pot might make the whole notion of marrying a guy more palatable to me.
On second thought, nah. Too much effort. Wanna watch Simpsons reruns again?
OK! 😀
You can indeed get Zapp’s in Texas–they’re great.
@tincanman Tinnie’s Silver Dollar Steak House
Alas, I did not have that pleasure.
Probably why you will live to a ripe old age…
“Washington State has legalized marijuana, too. I don’t partake normally, but a few puffs would seem a necessity before driving off a cliff. And crisps. Definately crisps.”
It’s funny until when?
Friends don’t let friends eat crisps, at least not in the Pacific Northwest
I never eat crisps in the Pacific Norrthwest because YOU CAN’T BLOODY GET ANY DECENT ONES. They’re all namby-pamby, kettle cooked, dripped with real sea salt, made from organic potatos ffs. Like I want a healthy potato chip.
Fair. In La Louisiane there is a brand called Zapp’s I bet you’d like…
Oh man! Zapp’s Jalapeño flavour crisps are absolutely the best. Though I haven’t had a packet this millennium, sadly.
If anyone’s headed my way shortly after a visit to Louisiana, bring me a boxful, would you?!?!?!
I’ll see whether they have them in Texas, DsD. But I’m not bringing a whole box.
Donds for Chucks on Speed – love that track and played it on one of my Spill podcasts many moons ago.
I meant CHICKS on speed of course…the other could be some kind of Aussie sitcom!
I like “Chucks on Speed”–I played high school basketball when “Chucks” (Converse’s canvas high tops) were the shoe of choice and fortunately for me the were the “punk shoe” for many of us as well…why I am still wearing them 30 years later as a professor I have no idea.
Then of course there is the issue of how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood (as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood).
I think this suggests it’s nearing the end of my broadcasting day
But Chicks on Speed are great fun and that track with Peaches incredible.
tincanman. Don’t think ther is anything wrong with Lays. especially the BBQ flavour!
I go so long between lays it’s hard to remember
Gosh there are so many comments I had to cut and paste the questions it was taking too long to go to the top each time ! ! !
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
I am from Miyakojima which is an island between Okinawa and Taiwan and is the largest Island in the Miyako Islands group and the second most populated and important Island in Okinawa prefecture after Okinawa Island.
I live in Tokyo these days.
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
It is my real name
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
J-pop, indie, punk, ska, oi, Visual Kei, I have a very wide taste and like most things actually My favourite Artist is Japanese singer songwriter YUI
4. Do you play music?
I play the guitar a little
5. What’s your current favourite album?
Orange Garden Pop – Yui
6. The Guardian Music Blog started a thing called “6 songs of me” a few months ago, where you pick the six songs that most define you. Whether or not you did it on the Guardian, what six songs would you choose?
It is too hard to think of six just now, but the forst two would be:
YUI – Tokyo
Chatmonchy – Renai Spirits
Do I get a point for guessing that Tokyo would be one of your faves ?
You have two points ! ! ! !
But I lose a pont because you did not have any Shonen Knife ! ! !
Lose a pont ?
Vous parlez Francois ?
Thanks for throwing this party, punky – I’ll just see what’s left to drink…ooh! not had cherry brandy in a while…and gets some answers down:
1. I was born in Paddington, same hospital where Jimi Hendrix died, to parents who hailed from Ceylon, as it was, Sri Lanka as it is, but had met in London when she was a student and he was a civil engineer, and whose marriage crossed the suddenly inflamed Tamil-Sinhalese divide so they found settling back home wasn’t viable and returned to London. I grew up in Upper Norwood, where Croydon meets Lambeth in a Mexican stand-off, but left to study in Liverpool and that’s where I still live.
2. Older regulars will know this – when I signed up to quarrel on the Guardian sports blogs, I wanted to represent my team – Tottenham (I know, geography in Q1 doesn’t match up) – in a fairly oblique way. I chose to refer to Henry Percy aka Harry Hotspur, the general immortalised by Shakespeare in whose spirit the football club’s student founders took its original name of Hotspur FC. He was born in May 1366, and that’s the name I had when I arrived, barefoot and pregnant, on the charitable doorstep of Readers Recommend during Dorian Lynskey’s last week as guru.
3. I was immersed in jazz and soul for many years, and while my listening is utterly defined by the shuffle function these days so the more eclectic the better, there’s nothing that makes me feel like it was recorded in order to stimulate my particular nerve endings and blood flow than the likes of Sonny Criss, Monk, Mingus, Curtis Mayfield, Jackie Wilson, Martha and the Vandellas, Gil Scott-Heron…
4. Not a musician. I did a lot of performance poetry, very often with musicians, during the 90s in particular, and the only percussion instrument I could be trusted with was a rainmaker.
5. Favourite (relatively) current is Bobby Womack’s Bravest Man In The Universe but current favourite, given the rarity of en bloc album listening these days so judging by its appearances on my earworm radar this week is an old favourite: Something Else by The Kinks
6. Charles Mingus – Scenes In The City (narrative by Langston Hughes, defined and actually described my life in certain impoverished moments)
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas – Heatwave (greatest piece of recorded music ever and the song for when I’m dropped into the crematorium incinerator)
Terry Callier – Sail Away (formed a deep relationship with this and lent my CD with it on to the BBC to use as intro and outro music for a story of mine that was used on Radio 4)
Curtis Mayfield – Back To The World (favourite artist; favourite track by him, the title track of my favourite album by anyone)
Slim Gaillard – Slim’s Jam (not wishing to be morbid by any means, but I often think that if this is playing in my dying moments, the sense of well-being would be enough to convince me that the whole shift had been worthwhile)
Elvis Presley – If I Can Dream (two reasons: it’d probably my karaoke record of choice, alongside Judy Garland’s Trolley Song, were I ever to do karaoke, but I’ve never been given a Judy-related nickname, whereas there was a time when I used to walk around Liverpool with immense sideburns and a quiff slicked with enough oil to finance a bijou emirate, and I was known in certain quarters as Elvis Patelsley, the Maharishi of Rock’n’Roll.
Now that’s what I call music ! Lovely mental image of you as Elvis, complete with Gujerati-based nickname, somehow appropriate in its cultural mangling.
Thank you.
Thankyaverymuch.
How odd – when I checked my itunes I have all six of these songs : except the Curtis Mayfield. I have one called Back To Living Again, which was recommended by ?Daddypig? when I was guru for Songs About Bravery, it narrowly failed to make the top twelve. Could it be a different song ?
different song here. It was indeed I with Back To Living Again. If only he’d owned up to being afraid at some initial stage, it would’ve been a (racing) certainty for the A-list…
Yep, Back To Living Again was from the New World Order album, the only one recorded after the injury that left him paraplegic, and the stand-out track from a lovely set – Aretha on backing vocals, calling out “Go ‘head, Mayfield” over the fade.
Back To The World is a 1973 album and said track features a soldier returning home from ‘Nam, struggling to acclimatise and hardly given the most heartwarming reception, even from his mother –
I’ve nominated “Back To Living Again” for a few topics, and I think you have May, for at least one…. Aretha coming in feels like a parting of the clouds.
What a set of songs….Gaillard’s “Laughing in Rhythm” is pretty great too.
Thanks eric – oh, they’re all magnificent – Cement Mixer, Dunkin Doughnuts, Jumping At The Record Shack….impossibly cool yet impossible to listen to and maintain a ‘cool’ demeanour.
Those 6 songs – as with the old B lists on RR, some of the stuff that says even more interesting things about a person might be among the ones that just missed the cut – for instance, in my case, Public Enemy’s By The Time I Get To Arizona, because of the special bond you have with any high-octane rap you can almost get word-for-word all the way through; Jenny by Flight Of The Conchords because I have a deep love of comedy in songs and this one is a perfectly tuned short story in itself plus my kids are currently obsessed with it; Do What You Gotta Do by The Four Tops because it’s devastated me at different times in my life, many years apart, but has been a trusted friend the rest of the time – the stuff that goes in the tucked-away crevices of your life…
one of the great memories of my youth is seeing the Four Tops on the Ed Sullivan show, looking like a million bucks and when they shot their cuffs I thought it was pretty dame cool, almost as cool as the Rolling Stones…
Yep, that’s another one right there. Three minutes participating in Slim’s Jam would do it, but I’d also swap it all for three minutes as a Top – imagine having the knowledge that you’re capable and, yes, cool enough to do all that. Any of them, to be honest. I went to this Motown legends concert a couple of years back – Commodores, Martha and the Vandellas, Mary Wilson, Junior Walker – and when The Miracles were on, just one original member, no Smokey of course, not even Billy Griffin…didn’t matter because the moment they went into the slide, that was me gone, spent the rest of the night dancing to keep from blubbing like Armstrong on Oprah.
That would be me, lest it wasn’t obvious from the camber of the road I was going down.
That’s six wonderful songs May, and although I confess to unfamiliarity with some of them I feel I will love them upon their reaching my ear. Good luck this afternoon – I married into a Tottenham clan
Thanks magic, and great to ‘see’ you here again. Yes, I commend the songs to you, very much residing in your quartier, I’d say.
Pretty happy with the football tonight. I think we were well overdue a last-minute equaliser. My regards to your lovely lilywhite in-laws.
Well I’ve supported Utd since I was 3, and I’ve never been to the north-west of England, although I have been to Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Durham. And my Dad supports Spurs despite being a Dub through-and-through, but at least he’s been to London!
Must’ve been strange to be an Irish Spurs fan in the late 70s, when Arsenal had O’Leary, Stapleton, Brady…. Either he was already a Spurs fan, or had a contrary nature, or bit of both ?
Both, I suspect! His dad’s an Arsenal fan, which may go some way towards explaining it 😀
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
I was born in Cambridge but raised in East Sussex, schooled in Lewes. HAving lived in London and Los Angeles I now reside in Brighton
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
I was doing a rare piece of stage work when I signed up for CIF and the character I was playing came onstage every night and announced “Wanna see a magic trick?”. simples!
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
Pop music
Soul Music
Hip hop Music
Dubstep Music
Punk Music
Country Music
Soukous Music
Reggae Music
House Music
Classical Music
I’m not overly keen on rock guitar music, but some of it is great.
All music has value
4. Do you play music?
I play saxaphone and keyboards and sing in a Beach Boys tribute band called er…The Brighton Beach Boys. All the other folk are musicians (I’m an actor). This May we are playing Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, The 1969 Show and the Life Of Brian at Brighton Festival.
5. What’s your current favourite album?
Arc – Everything Everything
Favourite LP of all time is Electric Ladyland
6. The Guardian Music Blog started a thing called “6 songs of me” a few months ago, where you pick the six songs that most define you. Whether or not you did it on the Guardian, what six songs would you choose?
Impossible question but :
How To Disappear Completely – Radiohead
Mood Indigo – Charles Mingus
Too Far Gone – Bobby Bland
Stardust – Nat King Cole
Waltz Op 64 #2 – Frederick Chopin, played by Artur Rubinstein
Song For Sharon – Joni Mitchell
Ooh! Not too far from the land of me birth 😀 I used to love going on the train to Brighton, there’s a toy and model museum there that was heaven for a 4-year-old boy… Loads of model trains!
Eastbourne part of my childhood, Cuckmere Haven, the Downs, The Albion…
Alfreston!
that’s my stomping ground too. I was born in Brighton, lived in Newhaven (aghhhhh!) for a few years and grew up in Seaford, where the family still live. Have just booked my ticket back for Easter…can’t wait!
how long are you back for panthersan – and do we start trying to organise an RR social?
@Shane -only about a week, and it looks like a busy one already! Would love to do a social, but think it might have to wait until the little one gets a bit bigger and the enthusiasm of the grandparents has worn off a bit!
I’m getting kind of homesick now! I read ‘Dream Country’, one of the volumes of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, about 2 months ago, and there was a half-page panel that was a picture of the Long Man of Wilmington… the next thing I knew I was going through old photo albums saying things like “There’s the Wishtower Slopes! And that’s Lauren, she was my best friend!” etc… and then I found a video on Youtube where someone recorded a trip on a tourbus around Eastbourne, starting on Seaside Road, going up into the Downs and back in a big loop down to Seaside and then sped it up so that it only too like 30 minutes to watch… god I miss Sussex…
Alfriston – but good memory Punky, what’s the link to that bus ride? I’ve taken to cycling around the Downs recently, it’s breathtaking, literally and figuratively. I feel very lucky to have returned to the countryside of my childhood, as Chris Rea would say “put me feet on holy ground” I’m thankful every day. Love the cliffs of chalk, the country pubs, the butterflies and birds and Brighton suits me down to the ground.
@Eric Access to “the magic box” is via rr@tincanland.com. There’s no secret clique, but it’s not open to the public. It’s to faciliate discussions such as the above.
Dear Mr. Troll Guarding the Gate to the Magic Box,
Thanks; with apologies for being dense, I assume I email that address?
@magicman – haven’t found it yet, but here’s one on the Eastbourne – Seven Sisters route : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7i_nmv0hmU
Got it! 14 minutes long… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MCh8lZ4-QY
@eric
Si
I thought Stardust was a perfect choice for Songs with no chorus week, forgot to mention that back then. The list should have been Stardust and 11 more, if you ask me, but there you go…
I’d love to see it A-listed sometime, somehow… Though Stardust, like nearly all the great American songbook tunes, has the Verse – Refrain – Refrain – Middle 8 – Refrain structure. A Refrain is a chorus really, even though the words change, and I think they were ruled out of that topic. in this case it’s the bit that starts Sometimes I wonder why I spend the lonely nights, dreaming of a song….. In fact, Stardust is one of the few songs where the introductory verse is always sung – And now the purple dusk of twilight time….
It sounds pretty linear to me… I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m musically illiterate… but can you really call it a chorus when there’s no lyrical repetition? it’s just two verses that share the same melody, as far as I can hear…
It’s just definitions and interpretations isn’t it ? On the sheet music I have for all those great songwriters, those sections are generally labelled “Refrain”. But as you say, lyrics different each time.
Did I nominate Stardust that week >? Can’t remember. It’s my favourite song of all time and I’m colecting covers of which I understand there are at least 1500. Most covered song of the 20th century until Macca dreamed Yesterday (3000 covers). It has no chorus. If it has – would someone please sing it ? Louis Armstrong did a genius scat jazz cover, Willie Nelson’s version is sublime, Hoagy’s is ace too. But many people leave off the intro Daddypig, and some people (Sinatra) ONLY sing the intro. But he was a weirdo – only sang the middle eight (1st one) of MacArthur Park, which on second thoughts would be in my top six too along with 1983 ( A Merman…)
Magicman and Lambre, you’re both right, and I’m especially wrong for imagining a Middle 8 in the song ! The only reason I demurred is because either the rubric or guru ruled out “Refrains”, and nearly all those great songs have the main tune labelled “Refrain”. I nominated and withdrew Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, on reflection a perfectly good call, especially because there’s no Middle 8 and the second time around has the slight lyrical / rhythmic variation around “….major to minor”.
Anyway, I stuck with Begin The Beguine which has a genuinely unique (lack of) structure and got on the B-list.
Magicman, do you know the Georgie Fame / Annie Ross album “In Hoagland 1981” ? I have a soft spot for the album, and it includes a little cameo from the man himself, on Old Rockin’ Chair I think. Stardusthopefully here
Have you got the Hot Club Of Cowtown version, magicman?
How come some of these comments have a Reply option, and some don’t ? Anyway, ploughing on… DaddyPig, thanks for that link it’s amazing. Who is on the saxaphone? And TFD, no I don’t have that version either. I know I said I’m collecting them, but it’s a recent obsession and I’ve got fourteen so far 😉 I’ll check that one out! Who are they ?? They sound cool !
Wiki describes them as a ‘hot jazz/western swing’ trio, magicman. Their Stardust is an instrumental. Have you got box access?
Stardust by the Hot Club Of Cowtown
I think it’s only new comments and the first reply to each that get a ‘Reply’ button.
Hot Club of Cowtown! Now that’s fun–if you get a chance to see them in an old Texas dance hall it is sublime…just too much fun, especially when the creaky old folks started spinning and whirling and twirling…too much fun
I’m still unclear on how one gains access to “the magic box”–assume this remains an insiders only deal? I wrote someone about it at some point…
tfd, Texas thinks it is its whole own country and I know many folks–including my students–who never leave and never have any intention of doing so..it’s a somewhat odd notion, but I suppose when you consider some 30 million folks, 5 of the US 20 biggest cities, and all the space…you can drive and drive and never get close to getting out of Texas…Beaumont on the Louisiana border to El Paso on the New Mexico border is roughly 750 miles.
It is an odd and interesting place and I am deeply grateful I live in what other folks here sometimes refer to as the People’s Republic of Austin; whew.
yes I have got box access…thank you
Magicman, my vinyl copy is playing now. I like rediscovering on RR at least as much as discovering ! The album credits are Peter King on alto and Dick Morrisey on tenor, old British jazz muckers of Georgie I think. It sounds like alto on Stardust ?
It’s there, magicman – please delete when you’ve copied it.
eric: I really hope I can get to West Texas this year, but I’m not going to count on it till I hear from my daughter-in-law that we’re going…
TFD – you’re a special one, thanks a million.. Done and done. Daddypig – yes that’ll be Peter King on alto : beautiful, clean, melodic playing… Angryirishpunk – brilliant youtube work ! Birling Gap ahhhh
@TFD If you get to West Texas, the Davis Mountains (well, the women to whom I am married who is from Colorado doesn’t think they qualify as mountains) are beautiful, Marfa a surprisingly interesting arts (and increasingly food) community and home to the fabled Marfa Lights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights) and there is a truly lovely little swimming hole/spring in the desert out there at Balmorhea State Park (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/balmorhea). It’ll be a tad warm out there but the spring will cool you right down…
@TFD And of course there is the legendary Gruene Hall in New Braunfels (home to Ray Wylie)
Actually, Gruene Hall is in Gruene…I’ve been there quite a few times so I know!
Gruene Hall is fabulous and, to loop back to any earlier discussion about the Hot Club of Cowtown, a perfect place to see them in action. Central Texas is awash in such great places. There’s a great near us called Dessau.
Thanks for your tips for West Texas, eric – I’ll make a note in case we do go! I’ve heard of the Marfa lights, and there’s a ghost town near there somewhere that my son wants to visit. The trouble with Matt is that his enthusiasms sometimes get the better of him – well, it’s not a trouble really, he’s a lovely boy and I wouldn’t want him any different! But when he’s making plans, sometimes a pinch of salt is needed.
tincanman: so Ray Wylie Hubbard’s from New Braunfels? I’ve been there too!
Great idea Punky – I think anything that helps folks to de-lurk is a great thing.
Here’s my answers –
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
I’m from South-East London, and now live in North East Fife.
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
My full RR name is Blimpy McFlah, which I think was a variation on a long running but now forgotten in-joke that I had going with the missus.
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
I do like a wide spectrum, but you’ll mainly find me listening to obtuse noisy guitar music, scottish alt. folk, 90s shoegaze & bebop.
4. Do you play music?
I strum my ukulele in a jolly fashion but am hopeless at music really.
5. What’s your current favourite album?
The new Pictish Trail LP.
6. As the Q in EOTWQ stands for ‘quintet’, I’m not answering this question (and I haven’t figured out my answers, it could take months…months!).
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
just south of bham and that’s where i’m at
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
half name, half football. i use other usernames elsewhere so not sure why here, but no real story
3. What genres/artists do you like the most?
alternative, indie, punk, post-punk, some hardcore*, some math rock*. *i don’t actually know what these genres mean. if i like it i won’t care. i don’t like much pop or soft rock
4. Do you play music?
disappointingly no, and though i doubt i’d have been very good i think i’d have enjoyed being crap
5. What’s your current favourite album?
not really got a favourite current – still listening to Metz and Toy from 2012 but i’ve bought stuff since and tend to move on quickly. i’ll always return to wire, chameleons, pixies and some velvet underground eventually
6. The Guardian Music Blog started a thing called “6 songs of me” a few months ago, where you pick the six songs that most define you. Whether or not you did it on the Guardian, what six songs would you choose?
i’m not sure how to choose songs that reflect me, so I’ll choose some that I listen to a lot
felt – primitive painters
wire – used to
chameleons – swamp thing
hope of the states – 66 sleepers to summer
the triffids – tender is the night
disco inferno – the last dance
Chameleons, yay! I suspected there might be an overlap in our taste in music, I often seem to end up seconding your suggestions on RR.
i got to see burgess last year on his tour. v good i thought, though it helps when you already love all the songs. thanks for the seconding. i’m a bit lazy about doing that i’m afraid. I noticed the play dead noms in “blood” – i have a fair amount of their stuff on vinyl too. not sure i recognised the song you posted and meant to check it out. ’til later!
I really wanted to see Chameleons Vox with Adoration last year, but it was the wrong time for me to get there, London isn’t far away, but it’s other things that take organising.
I have put the Play Dead song on the Spotify list if you go there or it is in the dropbox.
Two of us choosing Triffids songs – what are the chances?!
4,832 to 1.
I thought it was about that.
i love born sandy devotional and calenture and listen to tracks of these pretty regularly so there’s a few i could have selected. great choice by the way.
Morning all. Typing this from Mrs. Fintan’s balky new computer while the family recovers from too much sun, skiing & wine. Great set of questions AIP.
1. I live in Sparks, Nv. USA & while I was conceived in this valley circumstance contrived to have me born in Tracy, Ca.
2.Fintan was a name appealed to my somewhat Irish nature & I used it for my business. The 28 came because Fintan 1 & 2 were taken & I jumped to 28 & it worked.
3. Soul, rock, garage, punk, surf, big band, indie, – oh hell whatever strikes my fancy.
4. I struggled mightily for years to become competently mediocre on guitar.
5.The Thundering herds – Woody Herman
6. a.Northwest Passage – Woody Herman
b. Hello Stranger – Barbara Lewis
c. Rainy Night In Georgia – Brook Benton
d. Windy & Warm – The Ventures
e. I had too Much To Dream Last Night – Electric Prunes
f. Danger Bird – Neil Young
the above list is subject to frequent change.
1. Where are you from and where are you now?
I was born in Edinburgh, moved to London and then to East Sussex, where I’ve lived for most of my life
2. Is there a story behind your RR username?
Yes, I’m having memory problem and this is on mind because it’s so frustrating. It also explains the absent-minded errors in my postings to the casual reader.
3. What genres/artists do you like the most
I was weaned on folk music during the 50s revival, and this has remained a lifetime love, from unaccompanied traditional song and traditional dance music, through american blues, the protest songs and early folk rock, to contemporary music with folk origins. Alongside this, I grew up with, and loved, rock and roll, the Stones and the Beatles, Tamla Motown, prog rock, Hendrix, singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, and Nick Drake, and punk rock, and these have all had their influences. I do also enjoy classical music. I would say I’m quite open-minded and I enjoy most genres, with the common thread being my need to be able to grasp a melody. This means that I can struggle to get into modern jazz, opera, techno and some of the more rappy or esoteric contemporary music
4. Do you play music?
Only for my own amusement! I’ve spent a lot of time playing English concertina over many years, occasionally with like minded friends. And I’ve had a go at quite a few other instruments including an old Hammond organ ( till it started producing smoke from one of the valves). I’ve pretty well given these up recently because of arthritis.
5. What’s your current favourite album?
Right at this moment I’m into a revival of Runrig’s Gaelic Collection, next week who knows?
6. “6 songs of me”
This is really difficult – I’ve enjoyed too much music to be able to name 6 pieces that are in representative or my favourites, so I’m going for some formative musical ‘aha’ moments,:
* The Banks of Red Roses – a traditional song that I first heard at the home of Belle and Alex Stewart in Blairgowrie in 1955. There were others of their friends and family there, singing and playing the fiddle, and this was the first time I consciously realised the joy that music can bring.
* Handel’s Water Music – because it grabbed me the first time I heard it at age eight – classical music can be great too!
* Elvis Presley – Don’t be Cruel – my (older) brother brought home the 78 and we played it and played it over again.
* The Watersons – Hal-An-Tow in concert – ooh, I can hear something coming? Yes! It’s folk rock!
* Bless the Weather – John Martyn – on finding a great place to browse and listen to new albums – the old Virgin Records shop at Brighton Clock Tower
* Sufjan Stevens – Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland Illinoise – a topical reminder that you’re never too old enjoy something new!
otherwise known as amnesiacsanon (deletive expleted!
ok, a big thank you to anyone who can explain why, every time I comment on here, my name appears at the top of my first post, and my username on the second.
Can’t answer that but donds for the John Martyn …
Hi there
it looks like you are signed in to Facebook and WordPress uses that identity as default. below the comment box, when you start writing you’ll see a message saying “You are commenting using your xxxxxx account” Below that there are normally a couple of options (Log out/change). Click on “change” and type the identity you want to use here.
Or open a wordpress account, stay signed in and it shouldn’t be a problem from then on. Although WP does seem to sign me out from time to time.
Maki,
Thanks, will try that.
Yours hoping to feel less of a twit,
amnesiac
1. From Salisbury, Wiltshire; live in Vienna, Austria.
2. No.
3. Avant rock, free jazz and improv, folk rock, noise, art rock. My blog (http://viennesewaltz.wordpress.com) is a fair reflection of my tastes.
4. No.
5. This is a toss-up between ‘Past, Present & Future’ by Al Stewart and ‘In My Tribe’ by 10,000 Maniacs.
6. I did this at the time, I think my answers were:
– Rod Stewart, Sailing
– New Order, True Faith
– Tubeway Army, Are ‘Friends’ Electric?
– Peter Hammill, ‘Vision’
– Van der Graaf Generator, ‘Childlike Faith in Childhood’s End’
– Bruce Springsteen, ‘Thunder Road’
In My Tribe is practically perfect. Slightly unnecessary Cat Stevens cover and I’ve never really liked City Of Angels but otherwise a genius album. Dond. As it were.
Agree 100% with everything you said.
(Above, I mean. In the post to which I am replying. Not with everything you have ever said)
Ah, that’s you and me for Thunder Road!
VienneseWaltz and TFD, have you read Nick Hornby’s little essay about Thunder Road in his 31 Songs. Lovely explanation of how the song speaks to him, even though on the surface, nothing about the song is anything like his life. it’s online here, from page 7 or 8.
Thanks, DP…(po-faced? Po-faced?) Of course, I don’t see the song that way at all – well, I do a bit. But Hornby, not surprisingly, sees it from the man’s point of view while I, not surprisingly, see it from the woman’s. I like the hall-of-mirrors idea in the postscript.
By the way, I have the bootleg album War And Roses that he mentions if anyone wants it boxed. Or just the Thunder Road from it. Well, in fact, here it is:
Thunder Road acoustic version
The way Hornby sees the song, I think he acknowledges, is personal for him. The universal thing is the example of how a song can say something to us beneath its surface… It seems obvious put that way, but I like how he writes about it. I like too the descriptions of the bootleg and live versions bringing out the meanings of the song, and the beauty of that introduction on harmonica and piano.
The “po-faced” is interesting, I guess he’s anticipating other people’s criticisms, whilst saying that the singer definitely isn’t, even if the song seems to be ?
I looked up the acoustic version after re-reading the piece last year. It didn’t do the same for me, but that sort of makes the point just as well… Good that you posted it though.
I’ve read that he has more women readers than most male writers who write about being a bloke… But he is unashamedly writing from a certain perpective, and his attempt to write in the first person as a woman in How To Be Good didn’t quite work for me.
There are two more versions on that album by the way – one has lovely piano.
greetings fellow Hammill fan, of course if I had another six choices I would be forced to include Still Life or Undercover Man
1. I’m from La Coruña, Galicia, Spain (the rainy bit). That’s where I am now, too
2. Not really. It’s a footie term, something I saw once, back when we didn’t suck. I liked the way it sounds, that’s all
3. I don’t think in terms of genres, never did. Either it resonates with me or it doesn’t. I’m fairly eclectic. Not sure that’s a good thing, though.
4. No, not a single instrument. A big regret I have, most definitely. I used to sing as a kid at school, but I’m crap at that too.
5. I understand you don’t expect a serious answer. Let’s say In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, then… is as good an answer as any. I haven’t thought much about records as fully formed music artifacts, aimed to be seen as a cohesive unit, since last century. Again, not sure that’s a good thing.
6. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me. You would seem to know my stops. You would pluck out the heart of my mystery. You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak? ‘Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.
Yes, probably not the most popular senator in history!
That was meant to be a reply to May.
I meant to say “Alas, poor Lambretinha” here.
I have to say, the songs everyone has listed here would make the most amazing 2-3 CD set…though the sequencing would be a bear, no?
OK, here goes:
1. Born in Brighton, grew up along the coast in Seaford. Lived in Bristol and Brighton for quite a while before moving to Tokyo in 2002. Lived slap bang in the middle of the mighty metropolis for 8 years and moved to a small, quiet fishing town by the sea with a nice view of Mt. Fuji 2 years ago.
2. Well, I wanted to show the Japan connection and NYC art-punks Japanther were (and still are) one of my favourite bands, so it made sense. I didn’t really know about blogging and ‘handles’ at that time and didn’t realise that I shouldn’t really appropriate someone else’s name, so when the Spill changed to WordPress I asked for ideas for a new name and some clever Spiller came up with Panthersan – and so it was, and is, and forever will be…hurrah!
3. My collection mainly consists of indie, noise, drone, metal (especially black and grind), post-rock, punk, hardcore, garage rock,electronica, breakcore, dub reggae, jazz, but Anything At All (no really!) as long as it is crafted with integrity. If it comes in a limited edition of 500 on clear yellow vinyl with a handmade silkscreened sleeve, then all the better, but it doesn’t have to.
4. Oh no. Can’t play a note and pretty much tone deaf. I dread being dragged to karaoke in case I’m forced to sing.
5. Hmm…..probably Liars “WIXIW”
6. I did that Guardian thing and thought it was complete bollocks, it just weeded out a series of anomalies in my collection and didn’t represent anything at all about me….or maybe I’m in denial!
I thought that about the Guardian thing too, none of the tracks I wanted to represent me appeared in their categories! Ah so you lived near me in Bristol for a while then? It’s not such a bad place, not as exciting as Tokyo though, I’m sure.
1. Born in Newcastle on Tyne. Left UK in 1980. Following stints in Sudan, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Poland, Italy, Kosovo (again), Kuwait ended up in the UAE . Lived here for the last 17 years.
2. I’m getting on a bit and so it seemed to fit. It was originally conceived to open the Guardian crossword page, but somehow ended up on RR. Have tried to change it ‘cos it’s totally naff, but have always failed.
3. All nature of stuff. Generally like guitars in bands – any style will do – and something melodic and not too repetitive, apart from The Fall. World music has been a big favourite from way, back long before I started travelling. Don’t like much modern pop, the stuff that calls itself R&B today or Hip Hop/Rap. Lots of Electronica passes me by, too.
4. Haven’t done anything since a brief but triumphant appearance as a peer in Iolanthe when I was 17.
5. Today it’s Balla et ses Balladines (early 1960’s Guinean band) which is currently in my car stereo and Mendelsohn’s Piano Trios playing as wind-down music in the bedroom. Last week it was Down and Out: The Sad Soul of the Deep South and Iris Dement early albums.
6. 6 songs of me will take some time and thought. Later.
Is there a connection to the Crossword page…?
There was a while when you had to pay 25 quid a year to access the cryptic crossword. There were probably cheaper ways, but as crosswording is a big time relaxation mechanism for me, it was worth it.
Aha, I see ! A good crossword can indeed make the tempus fugit. It’s a good name, but then I might not be a good judge…
It is indeed sad news about Araucaria. I only read about the way he broke the news, but it seems perfect to put it in his clues.
I found out about Araucaria by doing that crossword. A perfectly fitting – and very brave – way to reveal his situation but it gave me a sickening feeling as I solved the clues. The worst bit was solving ‘palliative care’ and realising that that is all the treatment he’s going to get.
Hi Tempus, I used to subscribe to the crossword page too – and jolly good value it was! I was so sad to hear that my favourite setter, Araucaria, is ill.
He has terminal cancer in fact.
I’m excited about this, inspired by this thread and <a href="http://outoftheordinaryfood.com/2013/01/20/fennel-walnut-croquettes/"Steenbeck's musings elsewhere on her old piano teacher.
My violin teacher was a lovely woman called Mabel Willis-Browne, who never gave up seeking the smallest improvements in my clumsy sawing action and futile attempts at delicate “spicatto” (bouncy) bowing. The borough music teachers used to get together and play concerts at Ilford Town Hall, and I remember her at the front of the viola section, tears pouring down her face as they played something gorgeous by Manuel de Falla.
The internet has just told me that she was in Ivy Benson’s all-female dance band during World War Two. There are a couple of albums on Spotify, and – to complete the circle with this post, especially for MAGICMAN and LAMBRE, here they are with Stardust ! Lovely stuff. Lovely, musical, patient teacher.
How many comments? OK, here goes:
1. I might have mentioned this before, but I was conceived in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and born in Canberra, Australia. After that it gets less interesting. Brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire (hello viennesewaltz – do I know you?!). Now living on the West Sussex coast near Littlehampton.
2. Not interesting – it’s an amalgamation of my first and middle names. I’m quite attached to it though, and get irrationally irritated when people capitalise the first letter.
3. I grew up as an indie kid, but have become more eclectic. But most likely to be listening to alt-country, twee pop and female singer-songwriters.
4. Yes. I used to play classical violin and folk fiddle to a pretty high standard, though don’t get it out nearly often enough these days. I play the guitar and used to have high hopes for my career as a singer-songwriter. I play rudimentary piano, and own a bouzouki, though to say I play it would be stretching a point.
5. iTunes says my most-played album in the last year is Frida Hyvonen’s “To The Soul”.
6. I may come back to this…
get irrationally irritated
Phew, glad it’s not just me. People, treefrogdemon is all lower case. I have no Mehitabel to help me with the shift key. And the short form is tfd.
OK, you two, duly noted. I’m actually just the same the other way round: get slightly peeved at darceysdad, dsd, darcey’sdad, d’sd, and particularly with anyone who misses the ‘e’ out of my daughter’s name. Use the caps, folks, I ain’t ee cummings!
But apart from correcting misspellings of Darcey, I’m too polite to mention it normally.
DarceysDad – is DsD acceptable? D’sD?
DaddyPig – BARBRYN is OK if you want to shout at me (!), but Barbryn just looks wrong, like Itunes or Easyjet.
And why would you want to shout at me? If, say, you want to tell me that the new TP&TH album is out, I’m already going to know that.
DsD [or DarceysDad, obv.] is perfect, barbryn. Although I am Darcey’s dad, tech-syntax etiquette means I’m not Darcey’sDad, if you see what I mean.
… and whilst I’m at it, a note to Siri on my own bloomin’ iPhone:
That’s “Deezzdee”, you illiterate techno-gimp, not “DeeEssDee”!
I wouldn’t “shout at” anyone, but, you know, “shout out to”…
Well I’m angryirishpunk all lowercase. But I’m happy with all caps, AIP, Punky, Mr. Angry, angryirishguru (only when I was guru, duh! And props to DP for it!) gentleirishpunk (Pretty sure that was RTJ…). Basically, I’m a remarkably tolerant person!
Duly noted everyone. If I’m donding or responding, I often use all capitals to make sure the person notices when it’s crowded on the blog – HELLO ! sort of thing. That’s when I’d write BARBRYN or TFD. Is that OK ? I accept that barbryn or tfd is maybe a nicer way.
Apols for usual tardiness:
1. Then: worryingly close to Pairubu, it seems; Now: worryingly close to Mickey Mouse – but it’s warmer.
2. Represents a period of music that mostly passed me by due to inconveniences of geography, family & work. These online names are weird: Shane’s recent metamorph from the familiar handle is jarring (may just be a scheme to get 3 sets of picks in next years Festive ‘Spill).
3. Usually any original POV, style, mood or attitude wins over technical ability.
4. Inept bass (but had my moments)
5. One that never wins the ‘Spill album of the year award.
i. Worcestershire, Vale of Evesham – Now London/Oxford/Surrey Hills
ii. This very same framed poster of Tatanka Yotanka was staring down at me when I was sat at my kitchen table signing up for a GU account.
iii. Songwriters with authentic voices
iv. Serial abuser of instruments, never do more than amuse myself as I never really practice enough. Currently not practicing the guitar enough and have given the same treatment to violin, accordion, saxophone in my time.
v. Checks player – Lady from Shanghai – the new Pere Ubu.
vi. I’ll wait for part two.
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