One of my favourite albums of 2009 that I’m still going back to was the Liberty of Norton Folgate by Madness. Yes, Madness, the nutty boys from way back, Baggy Trousers, House of Fun, all that. Well years after the initial success they’ve put out this album that seems to have circulated and built by word of mouth.
I won’t use the word concept album, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Remember I do like prog, but there is a theme running through this album. Norton Folgate isn’t a person as you might first think, it’s a place in the City of London. A liberty was an old administrative unit, like a parish. It comes from the same ancient system of division as phrases such as hundreds which was a subdivision of a shire or county. So this album is a tribute of sorts to an old London. It has glimpses of music hall and also a multicultural vibe about it. And it’s bloody good. Go listen, you’ll like it.
Went to see Gordon Giltrap tonight as part of the BMG (Banjo Mandolin Guitar) Rally. He did this one. Really impressive, the way he layers on the parts and textures with a Loop Station pedal. He’s flippin’ good. I’m booked onto his workshop tomorrow.
I don’t normally listen to music when working unless I’m working from home like I was today. Rather than having iTunes on shuffle I tried Spotify today. It’s a free music streaming application with quite an extensive catalogue. It works on a combination of streaming and Peer to Peer (P2P) technologies. You do need to install a client which has a built in cache. It’s that cache that’s used by the P2P network to distribute the content. It works well and isn’t glitchy. You can hear whole albums for free. The only catch is the occasional adverts which are used to fund it. There is a paid version too though, that des away with the adverts. It also scrobbles your listening to last.fm if you so choose. No iPhone client yet though so it’s only any good when in front of the PC. Hopefully there’s one on the cards.
Today’s link will open up the track to listen to in Spotify. Give it a go.
Death Valley ‘69 is one of the old tracks that came up on Spotify. Another great track I’d forgot about. It refers to the Manson Family murders of Sharon Tate that happened in LA in 1969.
Tonight I went to Shared at the Town Hall in Birmingham, an evening curated by Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff. It was a great night out.
On the bill were Katell Keineg, Roddy Frame (of Aztec Camera), Nick Heywood, Wayne Hussey (from The Mission) and Mile Hunt and Erica Nockalls. There were so many highlights and great songs played that’s it’s difficult to single any one out. Wayne Hussey came on like a rocker and opened his set with a stripped down acoustic version of Wasteland so I’ve chosed that. This clip is from last night, shot on my wife’s Flip. I was a little bit startstuck to meet him after the gig and get him to sign stuff.
It was a joy to see Roddy Frame performing live. Last time was my first ever gig at the Odeon in Birmingham in 1983, aged 13.
Nick Heyward was just a lovely bloke, a bit nervous and quite disorganised but we didn’t mind. I think the venue itself helped too. We met and chatted to him afterwards. He signed our tickets and was really friendly.
Miles and Erica were also joined on some songs by the Nemesis String Quartet, which Erica is part off. I like a string section, me. They only did one Stuffies track with most stuff being from the new album, Catching More Than We Miss. I bought a copy and got Miles and Erica to sign it. My wife has a chat to Erica about her fancy dress and shoes. Girls huh!
We went to see Richard Thompson’s 1000 Years of Popular Music show at the Town Hall this evening. It’s a great show.
This 16th Century Italian Renaisance secular music is one of the many hilights.
Watching the DVD version right now whilst blogging this on the phone so the links will have to follow.
update:
Here’s a clip. So Ben Mi Ca Bon Tempo starts around the 5 minute mark but the whole clip’s worth watching.
Has that reverb laden folky sound, a bit like Fleet Foxes.
A free download from RCRD LBL.
I’ll dig out a link when I’m posting from a fully featured computer rather than the slightly limited WordPress app on the iPhone.
