Musical Highlights 2023 (Part 2)

Musical Highlights 2023 (Part 2)

Wednesday December 27th 2023

Hope you're all having a good Christmas!

Last week I shared some of my musical highlights from the first half of the year. Whether or not that was a good idea for a blog or not is irrelevant, because I’m now legally obliged to follow up with part 2. 

Before I do though, I kind of feel some additional, honorable mentions are due, but I’m scared of leaving people out, so I’m going to bottle it. If you’re reading this, consider that fact alone enough to get you on the list, fair enough?

August 2023

Victorious Festival, Southsea

Locally this is the big one. This year’s headliners were Jamiroquai, Pete Tong, Kasabian and Alt-J. On a stage somewhat smaller, in a somewhat quieter corner of the common, on the quietest day, just before lunch, Andy and I played some original songs we’d been working on, and some R.E.M. covers. It was awesome.

September 2023

I Hear That Train A Comin’

It’s open day on the historic Watercress Line in Hampshire and 75% of The Alabama Stills are sweating it out playing to a small collection of bemused, beer loving bystanders in the engine repair shed. It is the hottest day of the year, and we’re spending the afternoon in a giant tin box. My favourite gigs are often  the unusual one offs though, they're the ones you remember the best. All the gear had to go on bin liners because the floor was covered in oil and engine soot.

October 2023

The Tony Tour Concludes

A few years back, a member of my guitar club sadly passed away as a result of Motor Neurone Disease. We had been taking the club to venues closer to his home as his ability to travel slowly diminished…. We called it The Tony Tour. In October we held a memorial concert for him in aid of MacMillan, featuring past and present members of our guitar and ukulele group, his widow’s acapella group, and his guitar tutor’s covers band. I can’t express how much I’d like to thank everybody

who helped that day.

November 2023

Double Header Tribute Nights

Our band REMbrandt plays double header tribute nights with our friends U2 Tribe. The real R.E.M. and U2 have a fair bit of shared history, both arguably reaching their commercial and artistic peaks in the late 80’s / early 90’s. Whilst R.E.M disbanded in 2011, U2 still record today, and if you haven’t seen any videos on youtube of their current residency in the Sphere in Las Vegas, you probably should.

Our shows are very much “greatest hits” affairs, played in theatres and clubs. It’s brilliant to connect with so many like minded musical fans and share something a bit special. Next up, Dover Booking Hall in February!

www.remgb.com

www.u2tributeband.co.uk

A personal note to anybody who knows me : December 9th in Oving was very special too, but it’s pretty recent history! A heartfelt thanks to everybody who made that happen. Like I said in last week’s blog….I appreciate everything you do, we all need to be told that a bit more often. No maybes about it.

Wishing you all the best for 2024!

Musical Highlights 2023 (Part 1)

Musical Highlights 2023 (Part 1)

Sunday December 24th 2023

Two thousand and twenty three. Has it been a good year? Well…. no pandemics so, that’s something. Musically, I’ve had one of my most interesting and productive years ever. That’s the positive spin, but in truth the highs have been higher, and the lows have been lower. I know somebody who would attribute that to ‘cosmic balance’ but it’s probably just life proceeding as normal. Some people in my life are having it a bit tough at the moment…. I appreciate everything they do, but maybe we all need to be told that a bit more often.

In the spirit of positivity and celebrating the good stuff though, I thought I’d dedicate a blog or two to some of my musical highlights this year. If you’re a part of anything I do musically, you’re already a highlight! but for the sake of not boring your novelty Christmas socks off before Santa has even arrived, I’m going to try and limit my ramblings to a few specific examples.

January 2023

Grant Lee Phillips, live at The Railway Inn, Winchester.

I always list Grant Lee Phillips as one of my favourite songwriters of all time. His songs are poetic, emotional, and often richly descriptive. He also appears to be such a thoroughly good natured bloke, with an amazing voice and a knack for storytelling, it’s very hard not to like him. This video I filmed is of “Fuzzy” the title track of his band, Grant Lee Buffalo’s first album, which Michael Stipe of R.E.M. described as the best album of 1993, hands down. This was a great gig to see, and it certainly shows that no matter what level you perform at, stuff’s going to happen, and you need to laugh it off.

Find out more...

www.railwayinn.pub

www.grantleephillips.com

March 2023

In The Stables

I haven’t really talked about the bands that I play in, but this was a special, acoustic lineup for The Alabama Stills we pulled together for our friend’s birthday. Mr & Mrs K. are really well connected musically, and loads of people performed, so it was an honour to be asked to perform as the de facto headline act in their half constructed stable block. The unfinished, silver insulated walls gave our Americana & Country set a vaguely 70’s disco feel - never to be repeated! The amount of cake laid on that day is also,

probably, never to be repeated.

June 2023

Different Band, Different Farm

REMbrandt R.E.M. Tribute at The Hanger Farm Arts Centre, north of Southampton. It’s a beautiful venue operated by The Minstead Trust, who do great work with people with learning disabilities. It’s always a special night, a far better than average gig, but next year the band is 10 years old and we’re playing  a special anniversary gig there. It’s on Sunday June 23rd. Hit me up for tickets ;-)

Find out more...

www.minsteadtrust.org.uk/hanger-farm

www.remgb.com

July 2023

Hotham Park Country Music Afternoon

Back to The Stills again - this time with the full and proper lineup on the bandstand in Hotham Park courtesy of the Rotary Club of Bognor Regis. It’s a glorious two hours of sitting in the sunshine beneath the trees on a summer Sunday afternoon. This year we were supported by UK country radio star Helena Mace, which is somewhat ironic as she has a far bigger following than we do.

Find out more...

www.helenamace.com

Record Time

...probably isn’t necessary is it? I’ve given you some great artists to check out, some live venues worthy of your hard earned ticket money… get out there in the new year and support some live music! More 2023 highlights next week…… and obviously, Merry Christmas for tomorrow!

The Open Mic Experience (Seen it all? Apparently not...)

The Open Mic Experience

Monday December 18th 2023

I’ve been to a few open mics nights. In fact I’d guess somewhere in the region of at least 1200, because a friend and I have been jointly hosting them in local venues for almost 15 years now. You could assume then therefore, that playing at any open mic night for me was no big deal. Au contraire.

Hosting, and playing in a duo, can be very different from performing by one’s self at somebody else’s event. It can take guts. People’s comfort zones can be pretty narrow, whatever level they perform at. The sweaty palms, sausage fingers and fluffed lyrics, been there, done that. Still do that actually. So if you’re ever watching somebody perform, be attentive, kind and supportive, particularly if you’re hoping they’ll do the same for you. And anyway, if you really don’t appreciate what they’re doing, they’re probably only going to do it for about 15 minutes. Go buy a drink.

Another assumption you might reasonably make is that, in those 15 years I’d have seen it all. Drunken sea shanties, laments about the origin of boiled eggs, dogs who recite poetry, vacuum cleaners and inflatable parrots, all have rubbed shoulders with award winning singers and international jazz musos. One time, we met Charlie Dimmock from Ground Force. On another occasion we were told to expect the guy who played the saxophone on Gerry Rafferty’s hit “Baker Street”, but he took too long eating his dinner at Pizza Express to arrive in time to play. Encounters like these are all totally normal in an evening’s work.

Last week I attended an open mic in a 19th century chapel, which was recently converted into a community arts space. It’s a spectacular place, and a far, far cry from the public houses many open mics reside in. There’s the usual selection of guitarists, (including me) performing a mixture of originals and covers, (also me) and quite a few spoken word artists, because their recital night got rained off. Potentially transgender performer with overdriven, phaser toned bass, performing “All I Want For Christmas is You” with a distorted vocal tone…..very, very good, far less common, but not actually the first time that’s happened….

The last performer however, when called to the stage, proceeds to take her clothes off, revealing a simple but beautiful ballerina outfit. She changes into ballet shoes, explains that the piece is dedicated to her mother, and dances. Poetry is recited over a sweeping orchestral backing track for 10 minutes. There is a standing ovation. 15 years, 1200 shows, and something can still be new and amazing.

All open mic performers are amazing in my book. “Amazing” however does take on different forms, Ability does not necessarily equal entertainment value. Originality does not equal acceptance. Confidence does not equal success. Variety and diversity are the only things that truly matter on such nights, and I cannot encourage you enough to support them.

Record Time

This week’s record time goes out in memory of Raphael Ravenscroft, the “Baker Street” saxophonist we would have met if he hadn’t been forced to wait for his quattro stagioni…. Gerry Rafferty’s ‘City To City’.

Did I Actually Write This? Originality, Plagiarism & Influence

Did I Actually Write This? Originality, Plagiarism & Influence

Thursday December 7th 2023

Even before I began to write music, I realised there was going to be a problem. We’re all individuals, the sum of our experiences, whatever….so at what point does any artistic work become yours, and not a rip off of something you’ve seen or heard before?

It’s a rabbit hole. Red pill / blue pill. In May this year, Ed Sheeran defended a copyright claim that “Thinking Out Loud” was not a musical derivation of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”, but rather a piece of work that shared “the letters of the alphabet of music”. Just a few years previously, beneficiaries also sued Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over similarities between their song “Blurred Lines”, and the Marvin Gaye track, “Got To Give It Up”. Spoiler alert if you hadn’t heard, Ed won, Robin and Pharrell didn’t, but many industry insiders argue both decisions were actually wrong.

I could encourage you to listen to all the songs in question and draw your own conclusions, but for the sake of keeping the ship on course, I suggest you watch this comparison video by music producer and youtuber, Rick Beato.

There are two, additional related videos on his channel. In the first he offers an opinion that potentially, a portion of the royalties might be due as the tempo, instrumentation and execution are obviously influenced by Gaye’s track, but the lyrics, melody, and chorus are completely different. In the last he explains some of the music theory behind the analysis.

His “take home” overall was that songwriters need to be honest, and should always attempt to be original. If you hear somebody else’s voice in your work too clearly, turn away, or at least from an educational perspective, try to build upon it. After all, every song you write that misses the mark in some way is just fuel for the machine that eventually churns out the better stuff. No artist has a body of equally successful work.

My interest in covering this as a blog topic was sparked by a song I’m working on, with the working title of “Good Heart”, which to me is in part clearly inspired by “Tighten Up” by The Black Keys. Clearly this is only a practical problem if I’d sold 150 million records like Ed Sheeran and had plans to release it. Neither of these are true.

Although I was initially happy at the time to accept the similarity, I now feel I ought to push a bit harder to make it my own, if I can, which is maybe what Ed should have done, but there you go……

Record Time

No record time this time around, although like I said, feel free to check out the records mentioned within. I would recommend Rick Beato’s content on all manner of musical subjects. You might not agree, but he does have an informed and professional opinion.

No-One's There : My First Blog About Songwriting

No-One’s There

Thursday November 30th 2023

That’s a pretty bleak title, isn’t it? Nether-the-less it’s the working title of a song I wrote this morning. I’m not generally a writer of happy songs. It’s not that I’m an unhappy person, it’s just the way it is. 

Lots of songs, even if they sound happy, have at the very least, unhappy beginnings. I tried to explain that to a reporter from The Independent, who was questioning me about the R.E.M. song “Shiny Happy People” for an online article a few years ago. The song is happiness itself, (I believe Michael Stipe used the word “bubblegum”), but the title is taken from Chinese propaganda posters that appeared following the 1989 Tianamen Square Protests. I digress.

Blog writing for me has a few purposes. Some parts, some people might find useful (great), some parts people might find interesting (also great), and some parts people might find pointless (I’ll refund your subscription fee)....but I’d also like to use it to try and record my progress with songwriting. I will write about what I’ve found out about songwriting in the three years since I started trying to take it a bit more seriously, but today I’m going to talk about today, and today I wrote this….

No-One’s There

Verse

So much, for so little, but it just won’t die

The emptiness, loneliness, behind those little lies

That you wove, with your own hands, defend you from all sides

And the heat, from the fire, that’s burns behind your eyes

Pre-Chorus

You hope that hope is coming, but it comes as no surprise,

No-one’s there

Verse

You tire, of the pulling, all those tiny strings

That connect, a reflection, of all this life can bring

And you grip, at the table, til the splinters start to sting

And they stab, at the heart of, the man who would be king.

Pre-Chorus

You hope that hope is coming, but it’s really not your thing

Chorus

No-one’s there, to protect you, and keep the wolves at bay,

No-one’s there, to respect you, or hear the words you say,

No-one’s there, to remind you, how you even got this way,

If it hurts, remember not to care

Cause no-one’s there

Half-Verse

Never have I ever, is not a game you’ve played

Or surveyed, the wreckage, to see how far you’ve strayed

Pre-Chorus

You hope that hope is coming, but you feel you’ve been betrayed

Chorus

No-one’s there, to protect you, and keep the wolves at bay,

No-one’s there, to respect you, or hear the words you say,

No-one’s there, to remind you, how you even got this way,

If it hurts, remember not to care

Bridge

You made yourself an island, exuberance and flair

All alone too castaway to care

No-one’s there

No-one’s there

No-one’s there

No-one’s there

Outro Verse

So much, for so little, but it just won’t die

The emptiness, loneliness, comes as no surprise

No-one’s there

Hhhmmmm. Needs work. Or maybe it doesn’t. I tend to write quickly, without thinking too much about what I’m writing about. I scribble into a book, and then usually, hopefully….when I actually type it up after a few days, a meaning becomes clearer  and I can start to refine the idea. I don’t consciously set out to write about specific things, and definitely not specific people. Superficially, this song appears to be about someone who seems to be in control but secretly wants help, despite pushing people away. Sometimes the mist doesn’t clear and stray chord progressions and ideas get recycled, but this as an overall piece has more promise than others.

There are certain things about this song which kind of tick my boxes. I understand that musically, you’re going to have to take my word for that today, but lyrically it’s got a pretty classic structure. It’s not overly verbose, it doesn’t contain a selection of stock, throwaway song phrases and the song title is pretty clear. It can go in the “definitely maybe” pile.

Record Time

Based on all this, today’s musical share should probably be “Shiny Happy People”, but I’m going to expand that to the R.E.M. album it appeared on, 1991’s “Out Of Time”. I think, even more than its more popular successor “Automatic For The People”, it’s a rich, diverse selection of songs that show a band finally unhindered by the expectation of any particular kind of record. The title apparently was only agreed upon at the eleventh hour when the band was forced to make a decision upon it ….”Huh, I guess we’re out of time…..” but it’s also a beautiful analogy for a record that was unlike any other released that year. Perfection.