The Residents at Warsaw Stodoła 2008

Saw what may well be the last snowman of winter near where I live in Warsaw today:

From here, I don't know what it was, but I suddenly went back to my Secondary school years in north-west England over 30 years ago, as I recalled the quirky American band, The Residents, often being on the front cover of music papers such as Sounds, Melody Maker and NME.  This was when The Residents generally dressed up in top hat and tails with eyeballs on their heads.

In November 2008, The Residents played Warsaw Stodoła and I went to this gig out of pure curiosity, spurred on by my visual memories of this band from many moons ago.  What I got was what I kind of expected:  some kind of great whacky stage performance (well done to the guy who put the two small excerpts of this concert on Youtube): 

Yeah, I really enjoyed this concert as it was 'something a bit different'.

Which are my favourite Residents' songs?  Well, by a massive mile, 'Gingerbread Man' would have to be my top favourite:

Yeah, for me, this track just seems to get to the heart of the matter:  the wheel of fate/life; the ageing process; there seemingly being no rhyme or reason to it all etc.  What about my second favourite Residents' track?  Well, being a bit of a Prog-type person, this would have to be another 10-minute epic:  'Bad Day on the Midway':

Yeah, these are very interesting and often thought-provoking videos that these guys put together.

Recently found out that The Residents will be playing Warsaw Basen on May 10th so this looks like another concert to look forward to in 2013.

REM at Liverpool Royal Court Theatre on May 21st 1989

This was the one and only time that I ever saw REM, but I absolutely loved the show.  Like any concert, there was a massive context to the event.  In terms of the band itself, REM had broken into widescale recognition through the 1987 'Document' album and, in particular, the single 'The One I Love' had made a lot more people stand up and take notice of the band:

Thus, the 1988 'Green' album was building on this success, and when REM announced their 1989 UK tour dates, still at relatively small venues, the tickets for the Manchester Apollo show sold out almost immediately.  Fortunately, me and a few mates, now affectionately known as the Gumbies, somehow managed to get tickets for the Liverpool Royal Court Theatre show on May 21st thanks to one of the Gumbies as it happens.  Of course, the show was dominated by the 'Green' material which was fine with me, as still today, 'Green' probably remains my favourite REM album.  My enduring image from the show is of Michael Stipe wearing a kind of almost fox hunting come straightjacket outfit, and singing quite a few of the tunes through a loudspeaker (the picture below is taken from a review of the REM Royal Court gig that I found on the Internet):

One of the tracks I remember Stipe singing through a loudspeaker to is 'Turn You Inside Out' from 'Green':

It was great that 'Tourfilm' (from the US leg of the 'Green' tour) was released, as it has obviously helped me to reminisce on the Royal Court gig over the years.  From 'Green', my favourite two tracks have always been 'World Leader Pretend' and 'Orange Crush':

The first video above is from REM's appearance at the 1989 Pink Pop Festival in Holland from the European leg of the 'Green' tour, while in the second one, the band are on Top of the Pops  (can only just remember this happening from the back of my now vague memory store).  Absolutely love the lyrics to 'World Leader Pretend', as they seem to deal with the complex landscape of being introverted/ introspective: 

                  "I sit at my table and wage war on myself /It seems like it's all, it's all for nothing". 

Yeah, these lyrics have been omnipresent near the front of my mental jukebox since the release of 'Green' in 1988 (I think that for anyone who is or has been painfully shy/self-conscious, these lyrics strike a deep chord).

Besides the above, there was a tragic context to the 1989 REM Royal  Court gig, as many Liverpool fans had lost their lives at the Hillsborough football disaster the month before.  At the REM concert itself, Michael Stipe seemed to be keenly aware of this, as in between songs, he was continually imploring the crowd to take a step back so that nobody got crushed there.  Furthermore, there was a more ideological/political dimension to the concert, as Stipe kept encouraging the crowd to take an interest in Greenpeace and Amnesty International (now well-known causes, but less so at that time).

Finally, REM are obviously much more than just their 'Document' and 'Green' material, and I love a lot of their pre-'Document' and post-'Green' material, but I just wanted to locate this post at a particular time when the band were breaking through into the mainstream and getting set to become something huge (it's great to have the value of hindsight here, of course).

Reading Festival 1987

This was my first out of three Reading Festivals (the others being 1989 and 1995) when I was 20 or 21 at the time.  It was a great eclectic line up roughly equally divided between Alternative-type and more Classical Rock-type bands. 

The Friday was definitely an Alternative/Gothic type of day as The Mission headlined with the Fall being second from the top of the bill as Spear of Destiny dropped out.  Other key names on the Friday were Fields of the Nephilim; The Icicle Works; and The Godfathers.  Quite liked The Mission; The Fall and The Icicle Works, while the others were okay (I've always been more of a Classic Rock man and used to love Tommy Vance's recordings of the Reading Festival from the late 1970s and early 1980s when it was mainly a genuine Rock Festival).  Still, there was one massive revelation on that Friday in 1987, the opening act, All About Eve. 

The pictures above are of Julianne Regan of All About Eve from the 1987 Reading Festival (I got them from a wonderful Reading nostalgia site, devoted to collecting pictures of the old Reading Festivals).  Me and my mates had just woken up and we just sat genuinely spellbound listening to Julianne Regan's angelic-type voice.  Went on to see All About Eve five times in the late 1980s including once at Glastonbury in 1989, and last saw them at the wonderful Canterbury Fayre in 2002.

Saturday was much more a day for Classic Rock at Reading 87 as I saw Magnum for the last time on this day.  However, the revelation of the day were The Georgia Satellites, second from the top of the bill on the night, and proving that Southern Boogie (-type) bands are always great for jiving up a Festival (remember Blackfoot doing this at Castle Donington in 1981).  Sadly, there doesn't seem to be many videos of the 1987 Reading Festival flying around.  In fact, the only things I've come across on Youtube are an interview of Alice Cooper the day before he headlined Sunday night; a few tracks of MGM (Bernie Marsden, Mel Galley and Neil Murray from Whitesnake) shot side on, on stage; and a kind of documentary on Vow Wow, a Japanese band who played on the Sunday in 1987. 

Just for the record, the Saturday headliners, Status Quo, were great on the day (not my cup of tea usually), although having 10 pints of fresh scrumpy and spinning round to well-known tunes may've had something to do with this.

So what about the Sunday?  Well, it was the first time I'd seen or heard The Bolshoi who had the unenviable task of following eccentric Reading favourites The Enid.  Yes, you may've already guessed it, The Bolshoi got lots of plastic bottles aimed in their direction.  Came to really like The Bolshoi, but, sadly, only ever saw them again once more, supporting All About Eve at Manchester Apollo in the late 1980s.  Still, it was amazing that a quirky Prog Rock band like The Enid could've drummed up a 'Last Night of the Proms' atmosphere on a late Sunday afternoon at Reading Festival back in 1987. 

My other memories of the Sunday?  Well, I remember The Stranglers being second from the top of the bill and coming on with 'No More Heroes', and if my memory serves me right, an ice cream van getting rocked over (or nearly rocked over).  The Stranglers played a great set, and thankfully this got played somewhere on Radio 1 a few weeks later, so I was able to record it.  As an introduction to 'Always The Sun', Hugh Cornwall announced something like: 

"I hear that over 30,000 condoms have been handed out this weekend  . . .  so some of you have been lucky, and some of you haven't been so lucky!  . . .  so there's 'Always The Sun'"

Yes, this was back in the day when bands had real character and humour.  As for Alice Cooper, he was okay, but it was the third time I'd seen his 'gory' stage show in the past 18 months or so, so it was somewhat predictable (best time, I ever saw Alice Cooper was on the 'Special Forces' tour at Manchester Apollo in 1982, when he was absolutely awesome).

So, there you have it, some of my memories of the 1987 Reading Festival.  Hope to get back with posts on the 1989 and 1995 Reading Festivals.

Clannad at Warsaw Stodoła (Evening Show) 10-02-13

Was honoured to see Clannad at Warsaw Stodoła for their Evening Show yesterday (many thanks to whoever put the above video on Youtube so quickly).  Earlier on, due to ticket demand and a huge fount of human kindness, the band had played an Afternoon Show for all the people who failed to get a ticket for the Evening Show.  Yes, Clannad are truly tremendous people.

First saw Clannad in the late1980s at Manchester Apollo, and caught them at the same place in the mid-1990s on the 'Lore' tour.  However, last night, they were possibly better than ever doing a perfect balance of their early Traditional Gaelic songs and later English tunes.

The highlights of the night for me last night were 'Dulaman' (the 'Seaweed' Song) and 'The Theme From Harry's Game'.  Really surprised to be saying this, as I have more favourite Clannad tunes than these two, but last night, the band just seemed to 'nail' these two songs perfectly.  Also really liked the 'Robin Hood' medley which is also not my favourite Clannad material. 

Another nice surprise was that I was about seven rows from the front in the audience (I had expected to be seven rows from the back) so I was able to have a crack at getting some (semi-) reasonable shots on my mobile.  Love doing this because you never know how the things are going to turn out until you get back home on the computer.  Was really happy with the shot below in particular:

Good to see that someone has put their video of Clannad doing 'Closer To Your Heart' from the Evening Show at Warsaw Stodoła on Youtube:

Despite doing two shows in one day, the band spent quite some time afterwards signing CDs; posters; programmes etc., and this wasn't just a case of selling their stuff, as they went out of their way to have a genuine good few words with everybody who came up to them.  Thus, finally, below, there is a side-on shot of Maire and Pol Brennan chatting with members of the audience afterwards.

Yes, being a bit of a sociologist, I was really happy to get this shot, less so the woman on the right whose job it seemed was to 'growl' at anybody trying to get a shot of the band members (guess that this was just part of the protocol).  She doesn't look 'best happy' though, does she?

Warsaw Powiększenie and The Old Town Castle

The picture above is taken in the upstairs bar area of Warsaw Powiększenie, the latter being down a little alleyway on the Nowy Swiat.  Downstairs, there is an interesting sweatbox of a basement, where I saw Thieves Like Us play live last month.  The Powiększenie seems a kind of 'in-place' for students (and the like) to watch bands in the basement.

From December onwards, there's been a lot of snow in Warsaw.  The pictures below are of the Christmas Tree in front of the Warsaw Old Town Castle.  Not bad for mobile shots, I think.

Yeah, the Christmas decorations, which stayed up for some considerable time after Christmas, were a credit to Warsaw.

The Old Latin Mass Rock: Near Bantry, West Cork

Was absolutely thrilled to find this place.  I'd read about the Society of St. Pius X doing the Old Latin Mass on a Mass Rock in county Cork, and think that this may well be the actual place.

Yeah, for me, all the Mass Rock adornings and small statues look like the work of the Society of St. Pius X.

It's great to see that such places can still exist, especially when it is often claimed that we're living in a 'post-religious age'.

Would've absolutely loved to have seen an Old Latin Mass here, but I guess that they're few and far between.

Found the Old Latin Mass when I was 17 in about 1983, and felt truly at home imagining it being said here, near Bantry in West Cork. 

Absolutely love this place:  it is a place set apart, a sacred place where Catholics once secretly said Mass during penal times, and a place of refuge now, in our God-less, politically 'correct' times.