Elbow At Glasto

Isn't this just great?


Roll on the picnic, lift me out of this malaise for a few days at least.

Up Next - Neil Young

Although I'm no huge fan, The Coff and I will next be outdoors at Neil Young's show in Malahide Castle on the 29th of June. Don't get me wrong, I certainly like a lot of what he's done but I would be far from the obsessive that some people seem to be. For me albums like Ragged Glory, Freedom and Tonight's the Night will always get a spin along with the ones everyone likes such as Harvest, After The Goldrush and Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere. Anyhow in my continuing position as the nation's favourite public servent you can go here to get your hands on pretty much everything old Shaky has released. I've heard that The Frames are down for support which means the first half of the day will be spent at the bar.

Stripped, Muddy, Crowded House

A lot of serious Stones fans reckon that Stripped, their live and studio acoustic reworkings of some of their strongest songs is the last decent album with their names on it. I've loved it since I got it but only the other day did I discover the shady existence of disk 2 of the set. This is made up of b-sides and outtakes, some of which I already had but check out the first five tracks on disk 2 which were all recorded in Tokyo in March of 1995. It's enough to restore your faith. You can get your hands on the whole lot here at the ever interesting Never Get Out Of The Boat.
While you're there, check out the great Muddy Waters, live in Paris in 1964. A blinding show.

Talking of good shows, The Coff and I took in Crowded House at the Olympia on Monday night. Fine show it was too with all the hits you'd expect but it was news to me how handy Neil Finn was on the guitar. Almost made up for Prince, almost.
Good show is not the phrase that will be applied to my second show with the Black Pits at about 11.30 the same night in Thomas Reed's. It's a lesson I learnt a long time ago that some other people still need to pick up. No matter how cool you think you are, you cannot play when you're completely wasted, nobody can. Do the gig first, after which I'll be the first man at the bar.

A Royal Let Down

Gutted


If you had planned to see Prince and are at a loss for what to do on your night in Dublin then you can still get in to see Iggy & The Stooges so it's not a complete loss but, more importantly, come to the after Ig celebration in Thomas Reed's/The Oak. I'm playing with the Black Pits downstairs around midnight.


Talking of putting on a show, here, as promised is my "dancing" from the recent Bruce Springsteen gig. Kenny "Nureyev" White joins me in the second half.

Postscript: if this is true then MCD, yet agin, have a lot to answer for.

Get To Know Bo

Bo, Bo, Bo! Go to the ace Mojo Repair Shop, get your hands on the Chess Years box set and rock n' roll your fucking head off! A lot to get through but not to worry, you've got the rest of your life. Check out "Bo Diddley Is Loose" off disk 3, "Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut" off disk 6 and "Hey Red Riding Hood" off disk 7. His place in heaven is assured by the titles alone.

Bruce Springsteeen (...Slight Return)

Never spoke of the fantastic, none more rocking, return of Bruce Springsteen to Dublin a week and a half ago. Bruce had booked three nights in the open air environs of the Royal Dublin Showgrounds. On the first night, I was busy at a charity quiz for my cousin but as luck would have it, the boozer was near the venue so every time I went out for a cigarette, I got to hear Bruce in the distance. At the quiz itself I won tickets to Crowded House on the 16th of June which are useless to me as I'm already going to Prince the same night, typical. After the quiz, I took a bus into town which was full of people back from the gig. I spoke to a couple of old dears from the North who said he was, without doubt, the best thing they'd ever seen. Appetite well and truly whetted.

Work was, as always, an obstacle to be surmounted on the Friday before I could hit the boozer with the boy Kenny at about 4.30 and eventually Willie and The Coff made it in and off we went to the RDS.Took us a while to get in the door and when we did, it appeared that the bar was closed! Getting over the shock we squeezed in a side door and could see F. all so back outside the main arena, bar open, loaded up on pissy beer, decided at the behest of Kenny to "Do One" outside and then headed in the back. Got a great spot where we could see and hear everything and proceeded to enjoy one of the finest gigs I've seen. The whole thing was a highlight but let me pick out "Murder Incorporated", "Devil's Arcade" and "Glory Days" as being especially good. There is video footage on Willie's phone of me throwing shapes which I'll post when I get it. Suffice to say the famed "Carty Kick" is much in evidence.

Took us a while to get back into town where the night descended into drunken mayhem involving Martinis (!) and Bloody Marys.

Bruce took a break on the Saturday but I didn't. A day full of concoctions of various hues, one highlight was running into E-Street Band member, and ex Stray Gator for Neil Young fans, Nils Lofgren and he was decent enough to say hello and chat. Watched Munster win the Rugby with little interest, saw a bit of the Eurovision which, in this weekend of all weekends, proves finally that there are just two types of Music - Good and Bad, and saw Hatton fight. Ate some Chinese and collapsed into bed.

Sunday, drinking a beer by 11.30, joined the lads, enjoyed a pint or three with Mark Collender, took a very long taxi drive during which I nearly burst for want of urination, more booze, Jason Quinn joined us and back to the same spot in the RDS. Bruce was just as good again but it was marred slightly by the wind which interfered with the sound. That said, any gig where he plays "Badlands", "Because The Night", "The Ties That Bind" and "Glory Days" has to get pretty high marks. More booze, home, bed.

Monday - bad, bad shape.

Bo No Mo'

Sad, sad news that Bo Diddley has finally gone down that dark road. After all these years, his records are still absolute dynamite. Don't believe me?, check this out, from fifty three, that's 53, years ago.

Gives me a reasonable excuse to post this picture again, it's Bo, Me and The Hayes at a rock n' roll festival a few years back. While I'm at it, here's some more Bo, Let's try "Ooh Baby", and hear Bo rock the violin.


More Bo you say? Check this out;

She Has Her Knockers But I'm A Fan

Just because I'm in a good mood today
(in a couple of hours I'm hitting the boozer
before heading off to see Bruce Springsteen),
here's some top class-bluegrass (nice) from Dolly Parton.
Admirable decolletage madam!

Letsagetabitarockin! Weller returns!

Work is giving me a pain in the arse, and not in a sexy way, we're all just pushing dust around. This is what I'm talking about, the title track from Paul Weller's new album "22 Dreams"

Look Busy, The Boss Is Coming!

Bruce Springsteen is playing three times in Dublin over the next weekend and most of the crew are going twice. There will be a biblical amount of boozing. We're as excited as a gang of young ones. Here's the boss from Vancouver in March doing Jimmy Cliff's "Trapped". Pure class.

Nick Cave & Other Animals

Complaints have been received about the fact that I was present at the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds show in Dublin castle a week or two back and that no report had been forthcoming. Let me put this to rights. First off, Mr. Cave is always good value for money but things were taken to a bit of an extreme here, my two companions for the night had paid €140 a piece for tickets with a cover price of €50, and just when I thought things were settling down a bit what with everything not selling out in seconds this summer, in Dublin at least. Not to worry, two stout fellows they were and are in the form of Neil Doherty and Jim Roche. We met out the back of Brogan's which has easily the worst beer "Garden" in Dublin but I didn't storm Leinster House when they passed the smoking laws so I only have myself to blame. At about 7.30, Jim proposed we head over to the Castle to see the support band. This prompted a raised eyebrow from myself as I'm more in the habit of loading up on grog first but away we went and benefited greatly by being on the receiving end of magic armbands that allowed us into the front section, it seems the rest of Dublin was getting tanked first. There was good reason for this, pints of Heineken (I say Heineken but they had the consistency of fairy liquid (the washing up liquid not some sort of alternative lifestyle soft drink)) at €6 a go. I muttered several curses under my breath as I took delivery of three.

The Bad Seeds are a fantastic rock n' roll band and it was a great show, despite the fact that the new record is not the greatest thing I've ever heard. Highlights for me were "Into My Arms" and "Red Right Hand" and, without doubt, Mr. Cave's fantastic trousers, blue pin stripe flairs over black Chelsea boots - top marks, great 'tache as well. I heard that Shane McGowan came on as a guest but I missed this as I was outside having a drink, something I'm sure the wasted genius of McGowan would appreciate if he still had the faculty for linear thought. The night finished well in The Mezz, a good old school rock n' roll bar although it must be said that my friends and I are now very old and some people just can't drink for shit no more.

Here's some rareish Nick, from the soundtrack of "Until The End Of The World"

Willie Nelson Is Seventy Five Years Old

No Music fan should let this occasion go by without raising at least several glasses. Celebrate with one his finest records courtesy of JR Heat Warp

Here he is essaying "Dead Flowers" with Keith Richards, Hank Williams III and some other bollocks.


Here's the beautiful "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground" from the "Honeysuckle Rose" movie, which you really have to see if only for the scene where Willy drives the tour bus while being at least eight sheets to the wind.

Lethal, Lethal Weed (The Coff knows what I'm talking about)
Do yourself a big favour and buy this.

Rumours and Downright Lies

Rumour of the week: It's likely that velvet-throated crooner Tom Waits will be in Dublin this summer. I'll be the one down the front with the bull horn and the jack hammer.

From the complete bollocks department comes the whisper that Bowie will be at the Electric Picnic. I would put this suggestion up there with the notion of me being made president -both good ideas that would bring pleasure to a lot of people but highly, highly unlikely.

Another hero who won't be knocking around Ireland this summer, at least not to my knowledge, is Elvis Costello, and more's the pity. Console yourself by checking out an awful lot of his music here. The highlights are too many to mention but do check out the underrated "Brutal Youth" as well as "King Of America".

Talking of Tom Waits and David Bowie (clever link this), Scarlett "Horn On a Concrete Elephant" Johansson has an album of Tom Waits covers coming out next month, with Bowie providing backing vocals on a couple of tracks. How nice it is to see these two old men help out a young women in this manner, with absolutely nothing in it for them. Anyhow, the first single's knocking around the web, I don't think much of it (you can't be blessed with everything young lady!) but have a listen here.

Winwood

I like this

Close To The Edge

Miss the interview with The edge on The View last week? Watch it here.

In other '2 news, Rolling Stone reports that the first three albums are getting the double disc release treatment. Only a matter of time so before the mighty "Unforgettable Fire" finally gets a fresh coat of paint.

By the way, I went to see U2-3D and it really is something else. The effect of the extra D is such that if I had been half cut and it had been raining in the cinema, it would have been just like the real thing.

Who's Next

Some truths we hold to be self evident, one of those being that the Who are the greatest. Another fact that you should be aware of is that "Raising Sand", the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss album produced by T-Bone Burnett, was one of the albums of last year.

Burnett was also the brains behind the glorious "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack so it's pretty fantastic news to hear that he's going to be working on the new Who record. This is unlikely to be a pig's ear.

If you're not in the know, you can listen to "Raising Sand" here. And then go out and buy it, you fool!

More T-Bone news: He's only gone and done an album with B.B. King and all! Does the man ever sleep? There's a solo album in the works too, go here for a free mp3.

Hey Carty, What's The Story With The Electric Picnic?

Tickets came out last Friday and, not being one to wait, The Coff and I bought one each, at a very tasty €246 each! I expected a sell out but that certainly hasn't been the case. Have the Irish public finally started to get sick of shelling out more and more money for these things, an opinion voiced in the Irish Times' Ticket, or is it the fact the line-up leaves a bit to be desired thus far? Bit of both I think.
In my opinion the line up is okay so far, I'm sure there's more to come but it'll be interesting to spend a weekend knocking around listening to the likes of Grinderman, the Sex Pistols, Tinariwen, George Clinton, Candi Staton, The Waterboys, Duffy (who put on a great show in the Academy recently), Goldfrapp, Kila and, yes!, Hayseed Dixie. Anyway, the music is only part of it, excuse me for going a bit brown rice here, but it's all about the VIBE MMMAAAAANNNN! Don't miss it.

Sad to say, the other great festival weekend I had last year is not going to be repeated, as it seems the Midlands Music Festival is not to be this time, which is a real shame as the Sunday of it was possibly the greatest fest experience I ever enjoyed. It's hardly surprising though, there wasn't many people there and every second person you met had got in for free (not us of bloody course).

Legend

Christ, check this out

He's the new Marvin Gaye, says I. His first album's great but Once Again is an absolute corker. Forget about his association with the detestable Kanye "Aren't I great?" West and go get his records, they're that good.