Currently Browsing: Blog
Jun 19, 2013
Dead at 26, Nick Drake is forever young in the hearts and minds of those who know and love his music.
So it’s a rather sobering thought that today would have been his 65th birthday.
Being a senior citizen in the UK (presuming he still lived in these islands), he would have qualified as an old age pensioner (or OAP) for a free bus pass and various other benefits.
19th June is a significant day in the...
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nick drake OAP
May 21, 2013
In the summer of 2007, I was lucky enough to spend an invigorating few hours in the company of the Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek.
Elektra had just remastered many of the band’s recordings and Manzarek was in the UK playing a few gigs and doing promotion.
I’d heard Ray in an earlier interview and just thought his wonderful speaking voice and a bag of records would make for a engaging programme...
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ray manzarek RIP
May 11, 2013
It’s finally here – an album I wrote about way back in September last year is launched today with a special gig in their native Yorkshire.
And the wait’s been well worthwhile.
‘Respectable Rebellion’ from Union Jill is a record I’ve been lucky to enjoy listening to since the turn of the year, thanks to a pre-release copy from my good friend John Wood.
John engineered the...
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respectable rebellion
May 4, 2013
The recent death of the conductor Sir Colin Davis at the age of 85 was a sad moment for anyone who enjoys classical music.
So it was pleasing to see his life and career marked so promptly in a special programme on BBC Four.
What became clear while watching ‘Sir Colin Davis With Love: In His Own Words’ was that it had been commissioned and recorded shortly before Sir Colin’s recent...
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in his own words
Apr 22, 2013
Anyone who’s spent time living on an island or near a coastline will have a lighthouse story.
I was brought up on a peninsula – surrounded on three sides by water – so daily life was punctuated by these magnificent structures.
As their original use has been superseded by satellite navigation and automated ways of alerting shipping to coastal dangers ahead, lighthouses have found new...
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lighthouse world
