Woke up to the radio again and caught a bit of something by The Kinks, but forgot what it was by the time I came round enough to write anything down.
Listened to my Nano on the drive to work. I had Trembling Bells spinning around in my head and felt it was time I took a break from the random shuffle approach, so played "The Marble Downs" album again on the way in to work.
"I Made A Date (With An Open Vein)"
"I Can Tell You're Leaving"
"Ferrari In A Demolition Derby"
"Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing"
I didn't get another chance to play any music until gone five. I was working late though so once I had the office to myself I played part of Monday's Marc Riley show from 6Music via the BBC iPlayer. I love Marc's show but don't always have enough time to listen to the whole thing so often just check out the live session band.
"Love Is The Drug" Roxy Music
"I Can't Get Around You" Ty Segall & White Fence
"Devastating Bones" Shrag
"Death Wish" Bowerbirds (live session)
(skipped forward to next session track)
"Sea Ferring" Butthole Surfers
"Stitch The Hem" Bowerbirds (live session)
"Jesse James" Laurel Aitken (John Peel Session 28/04/1980)
"Heartbreaker" Metronomy
"Careful" Fiction
"Love Song Without Flute" Caravan
Work done and dusted I headed into town to catch Laura J. Martin play at The Chapel behind The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green. A bit of a trek on a wet Wednesday night but thoroughly worth it. The Chapel seats about 50 people so this was a truly intimate show. Support came from Napoleon IIIrd who was playing acoustically for the first time. I wasn't familiar with his work but he impressed with some intresting guitar picking and soaring vocals. James played 7 songs of which I only caught a couple of titles (The Down Stroke and One Of Those Days) but intrigued enough for me to investigate further.
Laura J Martin initially captured my interest thanks to some extensive play from the boy Riley. I saw her a few weeks ago at a sparsely populated 93 Feet East but couldn't resisit another chance to see her play. Laura combines flute, mandolin, keyboards and her vocals to sublime effect and using a loop pedal to build layers of sound as she plays. She deserves a much bigger audience so try and check her out if you get the chance.
Fire Horse
The Lesson
It’s Taken So Long (Cathy Smith cover)
Spy
Tom
Sour Grapes
Red Flag
At The Close Of The Day
Salamander
Encore: Doki Doki
.
Listened to my Nano on the drive to work. I had Trembling Bells spinning around in my head and felt it was time I took a break from the random shuffle approach, so played "The Marble Downs" album again on the way in to work.
"I Made A Date (With An Open Vein)"
"I Can Tell You're Leaving"
"Ferrari In A Demolition Derby"
"Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing"
I didn't get another chance to play any music until gone five. I was working late though so once I had the office to myself I played part of Monday's Marc Riley show from 6Music via the BBC iPlayer. I love Marc's show but don't always have enough time to listen to the whole thing so often just check out the live session band.
"Love Is The Drug" Roxy Music
"I Can't Get Around You" Ty Segall & White Fence
"Devastating Bones" Shrag
"Death Wish" Bowerbirds (live session)
(skipped forward to next session track)
"Sea Ferring" Butthole Surfers
"Stitch The Hem" Bowerbirds (live session)
"Jesse James" Laurel Aitken (John Peel Session 28/04/1980)
"Heartbreaker" Metronomy
"Careful" Fiction
"Love Song Without Flute" Caravan
Work done and dusted I headed into town to catch Laura J. Martin play at The Chapel behind The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green. A bit of a trek on a wet Wednesday night but thoroughly worth it. The Chapel seats about 50 people so this was a truly intimate show. Support came from Napoleon IIIrd who was playing acoustically for the first time. I wasn't familiar with his work but he impressed with some intresting guitar picking and soaring vocals. James played 7 songs of which I only caught a couple of titles (The Down Stroke and One Of Those Days) but intrigued enough for me to investigate further.
Laura J Martin initially captured my interest thanks to some extensive play from the boy Riley. I saw her a few weeks ago at a sparsely populated 93 Feet East but couldn't resisit another chance to see her play. Laura combines flute, mandolin, keyboards and her vocals to sublime effect and using a loop pedal to build layers of sound as she plays. She deserves a much bigger audience so try and check her out if you get the chance.
Fire Horse
The Lesson
It’s Taken So Long (Cathy Smith cover)
Spy
Tom
Sour Grapes
Red Flag
At The Close Of The Day
Salamander
Encore: Doki Doki
.
– Not actually a 2011 programme, but last year was the first time I’d seen this Danish thriller mixing political intrigue with police procedure. I was hooked by the characters from the off and the effort of reading subtitles soon paled into insignificance as I got caught up with the plot. By the end of the series I even began to believe I could understand Danish (to the point where I’d be Ironing, and forget to keep looking at screen. It could take several minutes before I realised I didn’t know what was going on). The second series was on just before Christmas and I'm looking forward to working my way through that as well. The success of The Killing seems to have opened the door for a number of other foreign language shows, Spiral & Borgen in particular, that are just as fascinating. 
– This had me gripped for 7 weeks. A sophisticated conspiracy thriller that reminded me of the sort of show the BBC made in the seventies, though filmed with a cinematic style that suggested a larger budget. Featuring a fabulous cast of British actors who portrayed a mixture of characters blurring the lines between good and evil. As I struggled to work out if I was supposed to be routing for the cops or the gangsters the plot took twist after unexpected twist. This was breathtaking drama that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The final episode was slightly disappointing, trying to clear up too many loose ends in too short a space of time, but still left me desperate for more. That seems unlikely given that most of them ended up dead.
– This didn’t start with the best of premises. Written by the creators of Peep Show & with a star from The Inbetweeners my hype radar was expecting the worst. Add the fact it also featured Jack Whitehall, a stand up comedian I really hadn't taken too, in a major role and it had expensive turkey written all over it. I gave it a go though and was pleasantly surprised by the first episode. By the time the first series ended I was completely won over and my opinion of Jake Whitehall has been dramatically changed. It was unusually long for a British sitcom but I found it properly funny with no sense of lag or loss of interest. I think it's been picked up for a second series which is great news.
, it really hadn't appealed at all, but caught the first episode of this series and found it a truly wonderful comedy. As with most of the other entries in this list, one of it's key strengths was the cast of characters. Olivia Colman is superb as Adam's put upon wife, Simon McBurney deliciously devious as Archdeacon Robert and Steve Evets fantastic as down and out Colin. It's Tom Hollander's show though and he pulls the whole thing together. I need to get a copy of the first series, it's classic british sitcom at it's very best.
– The second TV spin off from Shane Meadows excellent 2006 film "This Is England". Following on from the devastating finale of "This Is England '86" '88 is a more down beat affair. Vicky McClure puts in another stunning performance as Lol, even though she has to spend most of the time looking miserable and shouting at people. Meadows originally intended it as a film but I think it works just as well in three parts.
– The second year in a row Cormac has provided my favourite read of the year. This novel is a very different kettle of fish to “No Country For Old Men”. A tale of a father and son and their efforts to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The sub-heading on some paperback editions call it “beautifully harrowing”, a term I think sums up the story very well. The characters find themselves in a miserable situation, living in conditions that seem dreadful yet all too possible, but McCarthy manages to retain some sense of hope throughout their journey. It is emotionally draining and there are moments where I could imagine being on the journey with them, but despite the sadness I felt at their plight and the state of the world I ended the book with an overall feeling of positivity. That said I did also feel the need to stock up on canned produce, you know … just in case. It’s not a difficult book to read at all, the words flew by for me, and once I’d started reading I didn’t want to put it down.
– Whilst I enjoyed Peel’s unfinished biography it was a huge shame he did not live to complete it himself. His wife and children did a fabulous job and the book stands as a marvellous testament to Peel’s influence, but the parts written by himself are wonderfully witty and self-effacing and I felt a renewed sense of loss at the end of the self-written half. “The Olivetti Chronicles”, a collection of articles, columns and reviews for various newspapers and magazines, provided another opportunity to enjoy the man’s writing and his unique sense of humour. Short essays on everything from the strange joy of Eurovision to the horror of being sick in trains and musical comment on a diverse array of sounds from Tubular Bells to Berlin punk, interspersed throughout with references to Liverpool Football Club and his deep admiration of Sir Kenneth Dalgleish. There’s something to enjoy in every chapter and this is a must read for any Peel fan.
– A lucky find in my local library, this is the third Vonnegut book I’ve read and proved to be yet another intriguing read from the author. It starts out as a satirisation of the arms race but develops into a study of religion (albeit a completely fictional one). This is one of the books I struggled with in places but I think that was more my fault than Kurt’s. It's not a book to dip in and out of, once I focused on getting the book finished it was a joy. Vonnegut has a very different view of the world to almost any other author I could name. A book to re-read at some point I think.
– Lemmy’s a proper rock legend, an old fashioned Rocker who doesn’t care a great deal if you don’t like him very much. Maybe he’s not always done himself the best of favours with his choice of collectibles or public appearances but I’d always suspected that deep down he was a bit of a softy. “White Line Fever” tells his story pretty much from birth and is surprisingly open about his early life and the events that made him the man he is today. It flies through his move from local bands to touring Europe (with The Rockin’ Vicars) and from roadie (for the Jimi Hendrix Experience after flat sharing with Noel Redding) to Hawkwind. The first 5 or 6 Motorhead years take up a fair chunk of the book and provide some of the best stories. I was soon digging out the ‘Head albums I own and went out and bought a couple that I didn’t have. The last few chapters get a little repetitive as the pattern; Motorhead record an album/fall out with the producer/blame record label for poor sales/play blistering live tour to recover their money, is repeated several times. It’s a great read for anyone with fond memories of any of the bands Lemmy was in.
– The Man Booker Prize hit the headlines towards the end of 2011 with arguments over readability vs literary ability. I flunked A-Level English so am in no position to judge but considered reading them all to form my own opinion. I haven’t got very far yet, partly down to my dislike of hardbacks (which are, I think you’ll agree both too heavy and too expensive) but mainly down to my lack of effort. “Snowdrops” was the only contender I read. After hearing Germaine Greer slag it off on Newsnight (along with just about every other candidate on the list it seemed) I was all the more determined to like it. It's nothing hugely original but is an engaging and (appropriately enough) readable story. Something I read quite quickly and was just what I needed after two months of failing to get very far with “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.