dtiefling

The recent piece of distraction over the 'Xmas Number One' is one that has largely, praise "Bob", passed me by. I gather the broad details involve a Cowell puppet and a web-reaction under the banner of "Rage Against The Consensus" - or something.

Let's face it, this is a redundant cause, a dead letter, a non-event, a self-service brothel, two bald men fighting over a comb. "Everyone knows" that the number one single - as ordained by ghod herself - was truly incarnated as a 7 inch disc of 45 rpm, or in the earlier days as a 10 inch shellac disc.

This is no longer a meaningful mass market, in the sense of hoardes of people grabbing their copies in the local branch of Woolworths or Our Price Records, I reckon it is really time to move on.

What we need is something to answer the need for some real entertainment in the long winter nights that do hedge around Yuletide, album length I think, something to lance the boil of the easily manipulated sales charts? So, I propose as a winter/xmas/solstice musical Event, the most Amazing or most Imaginative album as voted by an electorate chosen by me...

Using advanced restoration techniques, I propose the following for the top contenders in the Album of the Imagination Chart.

1. Pol Pot sings Puccini.

Based on the premise that even the most murderous villains in history would not have done their deeds *if* they had been artistically fulfilled.

This is the result of PP singing in 'Cambodia's Got Talent', wherein he sang so loudly that None Could Sleep. The massive album sales that resulted gave him Tabloid prestige, such that he was to go on to an International Sing-Off against Paul Potts. The red-tops being able to come up with LARGE HEADLINES such as 'Potts Potted in Top Pop Spot by Pol Pot' or 'Pol Pot Tops Potts in the Top Pop Spot' (that's enough Pot - ed.)

2. Roll Away the Scone: Aleister Crowley chants his Favourite Psychoactive Receipts.

By the miracle of laser technology, a body of Edison cylinders previously thought too damaged to be playable, have been restored and issued on CD. In this body of work, (recorded acoustically in the early 1920s), The Great Beast intones the method for making Hash Brownies (and other confections) in Luciferian Chant backed by a chorus of Scarlet Women. Remastering by Ian Hunter - a bargain at only £11.99p - plus your Immortal Soul.


3. Jussi Bjorling sings Gilbert & Sullivan.

This answers a real need in the market, Sullivan's Savoy Opera tenor arias done by a truly world-class tenor.

Bjorling himself was well known to have had an heroic capacity for booze; even so, he was able to perform all the major operas in the International repertoire whilst to all intents and purposes drunk. The only problem came when he was tackling less-familiar material. It was as a result of this, that the G & S material he recorded for Swedish EMI featured some interesting pronunciation, despite the wondrous tone and technique. As a result it was not released at the time (late 1950s), but now, with permission of the Bjorling estate, the arias are available for us all to hear.

"Eh Wjandeerg Mjinstral Oi" (En Vandrande Minstrel Jag)

"Eh Meijden Feer tow Sjee" (En mö någorlunda se)

"Tak a Pjair ov Sparkleeng ois" (Ta en para samman av gnistra öga)

And many, many more.

I donlt do solid cards but usually dip into my photos from the old days when i made movies with Carmen Miranda. I have selected this one. HAPPY Christmas and NEW YEAR one and all.!! 
To see past years cards go here http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclechristo/sets/1478992/


Carmen & Christo in one of our later pictures together, "Carmen Get It" in 1942.
This is the big number - "Lets Face The Bananas and Dance". We had a lot of laughs making that picture - when we were waiting for lighting we did a take where Carmen and I had swapped hats. She stilled looked better than me :-)

Had the good luck to see a repeat of Howard Goodall's television programme on Carol history and traditions the other night. I reckon the only reason I did not see the original transmission, (Christmas Day last year), was my being too heavily engaged in conversation and feasting at the Family gathering.

Anyways, Howard's one-hour presentation was a most welcome precis on the subject - taking in many choice performers and scholars, and, I'm glad to say, the Traditional Carol singing that goes on in certain Yorkshire Pubs. It set me to thinking on how the musics offered up in public around Yuletide can compass such a gaping chasm of quality, in particular, supermarkets.

Oh yes, I could not help but reflect on the positive response our (CESP) efforts had (as in my last entry), and my observations the next day in my local branch of Tesco...

I think the total inadequacy of the sound equipment was at the heart of it; a PA system that can just about produce sightly distorted announcements for staff and customers was *not* up to relaying music. Now, this was compounded by the material put through the sound system, a seasonal melange of startling banality that had its thinness made more evident by the tinny Tannoy. The 'vocals' came across as anonymously annoying, probably an ex-winner of the double Y-chromosome Factor - in the Hicksian rhetoric: ball-less, soul-less, gutless, a veritable sucker of Cowell's Cake.

The thing that puzzles me is how such seasonal medleys inevitably feature descending scales on the tubular bells, sounding nothing like the chimes from the parish bell-tower, I can only imagine they are there to elicit some sort of sub-Pavlovian response in the punters? At the sound of the bells supermarket customers will salivate and feel *compelled* to grab several more raspberry Pavlovas from the shelf. I don't think so. As I looked around at my fellow customers, there seemed to be a universal indifference to the retail sound-track; they might as well have been playing Death Metal over the PA or, preferably, nothing at all.

All this occured to me as I stood before the bottles of Spirits, wondering which reduced offer to use my Tesco tokens on. Reckon it was the cheapo remix anthology that got to me, hearing Slade's "Merry Christmas Everybody" redone in an anonymous Schlock/Waterhouse/Aching mashup being the last straw. After all, the original Slade single was designed to still sound good when played over the little hand-held trannies of yesteryear. Having the cheerful vulgarity of the original taken away was a bit like drinking Amaretto with the alcohol taken out.

As it was, I bought a bottle of Grand Marnier.

Dear brain,

If we're going to have nice fluffy dreams (my tiny baby was chattering away to me enthusiastically at a few days old, I think), could they please not end by dreaming the sound of my Extremely Loud Doorbell at 4am? It's really cold downstairs at the moment...

Thanks ever so,
Deborah

In other news BT's whelk stall is still inexplicably on fire. I think the title "07:41 pm - [open] 21CN-BRAS-RED1-PE buggered again" on my ISP's status post suggests they're getting a bit bored by it as well.

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Have been doing my own small part in keeping the traditions of the season, that is, the annual Carol sing by Chapel End Savoy Players in certain local retail outlets.

Saturday saw us do turns at Sainsburys by the Billet Roundabout and Waitrose in Woodford - and we had a most gratifying reception at both venues. Of course, Carol singing is begging licensed by the Ancient Custom and Practice, and we were able to raise a goodly amount against the cost of our next production...

Not that we were doing a take-the-money-and-run; CESP gave a full hoursworth of programme in four/five-part harmony, including some choice items carried over from our concert a few weeks back. Sainsburys wasn't so good acoustically, we stood in front of a wall of beer crates barely able to hear each other. However, our projection was such that we were heard the length of the (rather large) store - even being mistaken for music over the PA at first. Certainly the Manager liked us, and we were invited up to the staff room for coffee and mince pies, an unprecedented (as far as I know) gesture in our retail-vocal appearances.

Waitrose was better for us acoustically. Being able to properly hear each other, we could concentrate more on the acapella blend, something that really paid divdends on the items that looked to harmonic effect, such as Arthur Sullivan's 4-part setting of 'While Shepherds Watched.' Certainly I had to spend less time with my eyes glued to the copy by the second session, able to register the encouraging number of happy expressions worn by customers as they passed by; indeed, one or two stood by the checkout and joined (or at least mouthed) along with our efforts. Reckon this must have scored with the Manager too, since he wrote out a not-small cheque to join the coins in our collection bucket.

I believe we did ourselves a lot of good by way of 'visiblity' in the local community too, MarkF (our publicity officer) had put up a big-lettered sign showing our name, together with a pile of A5 handouts at the base of the stand. One can only hope for more more recruits and ticket sales?

To celebrate the solstice I have made my song "Solstice Circle" a free download today. Get it here... http://chrisconway.bandcamp.com/track/solstice-circle

In a nearby village, our friend A, maestro of the local orchestra, annualy musters his musical friends and neighbours for a carolsinging session in the local pub. It's a lovely event, and the 'village band' changes according to who turns up.

This year I was part of it... on the bouzouki! It was huge fun, and we pushed the longest night round with music and goodwill and cheer.

And wakened this morning to snow.

A bright and merry Midwinter to you all.

Sunday & Monday I got stuck into remastering an old album released on cassette in 1992 - Leaf Storm - Dwellers in the Mirage - self, Dave Everitt & Dan Britton (before we became The Storm Thieves) gathered at Daves house and recorded an instrumental album ina  day - almost all improvised, but melodically so. Kindof a mellow folk/jazz/ambient album. Actually Dave & I started and Dan came round from track 3 and this recording marks the moment we met. It was a little gem. Sorted out the artwork and re-released it and put it up on Bandcamp - its a free download so enjoy...http://leafstorm.bandcamp.com/ Retrieval of my digitally recorded pre-CD albums almost complete.

Tuesday Website work by day - Quadelectronic 19 by night - we had 12 players in the end - as we had quite a few vocalists we rana  track as an electronic choir (just voices and effects. vid here All other vids from QE19 are here  - it was a good one tho i was a litle tired to appreciate it as such at the time, plus I had a few technical issues with megadelay. Nice to see Ola back again to sing for the first time since having her baby.

Wednesday I got the live multitrack recordings from my 20th anniversary gig - I set to mixing - a little fiddly but it;s sounding good. Nice to be able to fix the more annoying goofs. In the evening I had a solo jazz gig at Pontefinos Restaurant in Gunthorpe, Notts  - enjoyed jazzing and crooning again - Sang I;ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm for first tiem in years - pretty busy there and got nice comments from several folks. On long way home had a real Al Bowlly fest on the car hi-fi - delighted to find moving images of him singing on youtube - not seen these before. Melancholy Baby  Touch of your Lips - not my fave Al songs but great to see him move and do his thing.

Thurs Carried on with the mixing eventually finishing the 2nd set - one to go - (the long one)  -  tho i found at the end of the day one file was missing - luckily recording man has the file and will post it. ....phew... All sounding good tho - will be hard to pick what tracks should go on the DVD, and live album... In evenign watched another James Cagney - Blood on the Sun - 1945 - a 1920s antifascist Japanese story - a little stodgy really.  Watched some of the Alice Cooper Welcome to my Nightmare DVD again too.

Friday
After a couple of poor nights sleep before the 20th Anniversary gig and a buzzy night after it, I was pretty exhausted on Friday. Uploaded photos (see gig photos HERE, ) , did some chores, posted some stuff, wrapped up the Raising Kayn CD. Dan informs me I missed a verse out at the 20th gig from Alien Jellyfish Song! Told you I was tired...

In the evening I finally got time to watch a DVD I;d been saving - Love Aaj Kal (from the same director of Jab We Met which I loved) . I loved this too - comparisons are inevitable. He makes popular complex ramances bt with arty cinematic touches.
Things I especially liked were.
1. Dooriyan - the song - still can;t stop playing this song
2. the underscore - really lush and lots of it
3. Deepika Padukone...
4. the slow motion arty touches
5. the script - nicely quick and Cary Grant type clever.

Not quiiiite as good as Jab We Met because
1. not as many good songs
2. Saif Kahn was fine and likable but I could occasionally see thru his acting - unlike Shahid Kapur in JWM
thats all really. Must watch it again right thru next time.

This time I interrupted the movie with a trip to see some chums (Fandango, Tiny, & Dwyatt, & Dave the Drums) play in a coers band The Buccaneers in a pub roun the corner which has recently changed landlords and is now full of folks I know again. They were great. Only pro was I decided to try alcohol again - 2 halves of weak lager and a vodka - end result? Headache all the next day...

Saturday
Headache and tireness meant I ddlittle in the day - uploaded my Lost Tracks EP to bandcamp and put the widgets on the site - this is a free download. In evening went to play Govannen gig with chums fro When Cousins Marry at the Carington Arms, Ashby Folville - as is always the case here the crowd is numerous, jolly and go totally bats once te music starts. A hard and fast Irish set of 90mins (mostly Dan's dept, the gobshoite songs - i tend to come to front when arty and background dining music or jazz is required) . All went well and home by 1am again...