First, more than anything else, through my own mental association(s), Aled Jones' 'Walking in the Air' from 'The Snowman' just aesthetically reminds me of how beautiful Britain and its culture once were (e.g. Shakespeare; Blake; Coleridge; Wordsworth; Thomas Hardy; DH Lawrence; Anglican evensong; the Old Latin Mass in Catholic Lancashire; Larkin; English folk music etc.) before the politically-'correct' anti-Christian totalitarian ideology took control of the country.
Second, Mark Lanegan does my favourite version of the incredibly beautiful 'Cherry Tree Carol':
Love the image of a fetal Jesus ordering the cherry tree to lower its branches for His Mother.
Here's another Father Christmas in Warsaw, this one with a more ornate-looking beard and coat. Just four more days to Christmas, and the poor guy must be tired out.
Over the last few days, I've been reflecting on my favourite gigs from 2014, and a few immediately spring to mind. First, it was incredible seeing Within Temptation for the first time, at Warsaw Torwar back in March or so:
Also got to see Gary Numan for the first time, which was also fantastic, at the Warsaw Palladium in February or so:
Yeah, this took me back to my old school years (1977-1982) in Bury, Lancashire.
In June, I went up to see Rich Robinson more out of curiosity than anything else, and, despite a small crowd at the Klub Progresja, this turned out to be one of my gigs of the year:
Have come to love Rich Robinson's 'The Ceaseless Sight' as one of the best albums I've heard in a long, long time.
Moreover, in July, as a kind of miracle out of nowhere, one of my favourite bands over the years, Kansas, visited the Klub Progresja and my good friend Dave Dealy came over from Ireland for this gig:
Yeah, this was always going to be a gig of the year.
Finally, I must also say that I really enjoyed Alcest supporting Opeth at the Klub Progresja in late October; Esben and the Witch supporting Solstafir at the Proxima in November, and the biggest surprise of all, Skid Row supporting Saxon at the Klub Progresja in November:
Never really liked Skid Row before, but they were pumped up for this and definitely won me over.
Finally, the biggest farce of 2014, well that would have to go to Morrissey for his 25-30 minute set at Warsaw Stodoła in November. Still he did manage to do a rousing version of 'Speedway':
Of course, well done to all the fantastic people who've put these great videos on Youtube.
Came across these 'bird' murals in an alleyway near the Solidarność-Jan Paweł II junction in Warsaw yesterday.
Would really love to know what they possibly signify or symbolise.
But even my Polish wife couldn't decode the inscription below, although she tentatively interpreted the pictures as possibly representing the solidarity of some local residents:
Still, whatever the murals signify or represent, I just found them eye-catching and worthy of attention:
Yeah, in general, they just add some colour to an alleyway that would be otherwise dull and non-descript.
Saw Submotion Orchestra at Warsaw Basen in late November, and a good gig it was. Was walking down near metro Politechnika the other day and came across this poster advertising the gig.
Here's a few shots from Warsaw on a frosty Wednesday morning. For some reason, this frosty morning got me thinking about the great DH Lawrence novels: 'The Rainbow'; 'Women In Love'; and 'Sons and Lovers':
Really liked the frost on the Christmas tree below:
A few shots from the Lamb gig at Warsaw Basen here, where vocalist Lou Rhodes looked almost celestial:
A lot of the tunes from last night's set were, as expected, from the recently released 'Backspace Unwind' album, my favoure being 'In Binary' which the band came on with. Also really liked the title track 'Backspace Unwind' as it was kind of surreal live.
Seen Lamb three times now, and what I also really like about them live is their appreciation of the audience, as they have a really nice humanistic touch about them.
Of course, interwoven with the new tunes were the older classics like 'Gabriel' and 'Little Things'.
And, as we neared the end of a really enjoyable 2-hour set, we got both 'What Sound' and 'Gorecki'.
And thus ended my three visits to the Basen in three weeks: Submotion Orchestra in late November; Swans last week; and Lamb last night, a nice way of finishing off my 2014 concert year.
At last, after much trying, I've managed to get a half decent mobile shot of the Orbis globe about 200 metres down Jerosolimskie from the Jersolimskie-Marszałkowska junction in Warsaw city centre.
Remember going to Lvov/Lviv in the Western Ukraine with Orbis about 7-8 years ago before the travel agency went bust. Ended up going on my own on a coach trip, because my wife never realised that her passport had run out and needed renewing.
This was always going to be hypnotic and mesmeric, and so it proved.
But it also had the unexpected, a touch of comedy, with Michael Gira's microphone not working early on, and a mortified-looking roadie being brought on stage to rectify things:
But of course, for Swans, this was no problem, just a contingency that nicely fitted into their full-on style.
And, of course, as ever, Michael Gira marshalled the proceedings:
As expected, my favourite tune of the night was the rip-roaring 'Frankie M'.
However, with the band coming on at 9.45, I only got to see about 70% of the set, as I had to get the last metro home before midnight.
Saw my good friend Captain Jaciek at Eric the Scientologist's today, who told me that the gig ended at ten past midnight with one hell of a crescendo.
As for me, today, I've had the mesmeric beat of 'Frankie M' running through my head all day.
