Songbirds

It's great that vocal harmonies seem to be making a big comeback, with people like Laura Mvula whose single 'Green Garden' is from the album 'Sing to the Moon' out in March 2013. Flash mobs are breaking out all over the place and choirs are sprouting up all over the country.

Doo-wop, or barbershop harmony with beat, is making a 'guest appearance' on Beyonce's new album; Aaron Neville's solo album, 'My True Story', celebrates doo-wop and the music of The Drifters and the Flamingos. Meanwhile in Britain the Overtones (a 5-part harmony group from England, Ireland and Australia) and the Magnets are enjoying success. The Swingle Singers were started in Paris by Ward Swingle in the 60s, moved to London in the 70s and continue to rejuvenate year in year out.

Doo-wop developed in African American communities in the 40s, and was widely popular by the 50s; it had a high tenor lead and a talking bass, simple rhythm  and lyrics, with nonsensical syllables. Acapella groups on street corners imitated instruments with onomatopeia ; brass was mimicked with doo wop wop. Early exponents were Bill Kenny and the Inkspots (My Prayer) closely followed by the Mills Brothers (You Always Hurt the One You Love).



In the late 40s and early 50s were the 'bird groups', The Penguins, The Swallows, The Ravens, The Crows, The Larks, The Orioles, who developed the doo-wop sound. In the 50s doo-wop groups helped usher in the rock and roll era,  when 'Gee' by the Crows and 'Sh-Boom' by the Chords, two big rhythm and blues numbers by vocal harmony groups, crossed over into the  pop music charts. In 1955 'The Great Pretender' by the Platters reached number one.

 Mark Crawshaw from the Overtones reckons doo-wop and acapella are going to be around for some time - let's hope so!

Atomic Sunrise and Spiders

'Atomic Sunrise', will be screened at the Roundhouse in London on 11th and 12th March, and later a book and dvd may be released. Directed and produced by Adrian Everett, this is footage of a festival held at the Roundhouse in 1970, which includes the earliest known footage of Genesis, debuting songs that would appear on 'Trespass', their second album, just weeks before they signed with Charisma; Hawkwind before Lemmy; and 'The Hype', the band which saw the forming of a partnership between Bowie and Mick Ronson, leading up to the Spiders from Mars. Bowie's 'Space Oddity' had been his first big hit in 1969, released to coincide with the first moon landing, five days ahead of the Apollo 11 launch. As 'Hype', together with Tony Visconti (on Bass), Ronson and Bowie created characters and wore elaborate costumes that prefigured glam style and the Spiders;the recording was just weeks before the recording of 'The Man Who Sold the World'.

No-one knows who was responsible for the original filming, but Everett first heard of it in the late 70s: it was being held against a film processing bill of thousands of pounds. In 1990 it was apparently to be destroyed unless someone footed the bill. Everett salvaged it and spent three days going through 33 hours of rushes; a chance encounter put him in touch with the original sound man at the festival, who helped him to add the music. Everett's financial backer dropped out and the project was stalled for another 20 years.

Following Mick Ronson's death in 1993 and John Mayhew's  in 2010 (the original drummer of Genesis), Everett was determined to get a cut of the film out as a tribute.

It seems good timing, since Bowie has just released 'Where are we now?', his first single for ten years, produced by Tony Visconti; the album 'The Next Day' is due to be released 11th March in the UK and 12th March in thew States; and there's an exhibition of his costumes coming up at the V and A.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/

Family and other Albums

With so many fifty year anniversaries tumbling in on us at the moment, it's good to remember one of the longest chart-topping albums, now half a century old: 'Please, Please Me' was number one for 30 weeks, only knocked from the top by the second Beatles' album, 'With the Beatles'. Recorded in only 12 hours at the Abbey Road studio, this event has been 'recreated' by a selection of artists recording the tracks on 11 February (broadcast on BBC4). My personal favourites were The Stereophonics' 'I saw her standing there' and Joss Stone's 'Taste of Honey'.

Adele's 21 has recently become not only the longest UK chart-topping album for a solo artist, but the longest at the UK top for forty years since Simon and Garfunkel's 'Bridge over Troubled Water'. Other Long Sellers were 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts, Hard Days Night, Presley's 'GI Blues', and music from Saturday Night Fever, Sound of Music and South Pacific(115 weeks!!)

People such as Guy Garvey maintain that the album with its specific order of play is still a crucial part of today's music, of the best I would often say it has an entity of its own with its own particular atmosphere, though not many artists go as far as Bowie in changing his persona for different albums. His latest offering, 'The Next Day',coming out in March after a ten year gap, recalls his years living in Berlin.  

Led Zeppelin

As a teenager I loved browsing through racks of album covers, large enough to be works of art, and becoming increasingly flamboyant as the single covers developed into doubles, with more ornate almost 3D designs, especially those of Led Zeppelin, Curved Air, and later Family. Minute tape boxes offered little opportunity for creativity, small cds seemed limited at first but were gradually developed into minature works of art particularly by the likes of Radiohead - 'Amnesiac' had some editions disguised as a library book (don't forget to take your library books back??). And there have been many other gimmicks, secret bonus tracks at the end and even occasionally preceding the start of cds, and the like. 

Vinyl is enjoyed a vintage-fuelled comeback, and hopefully the album will be with us for some time yet, alongside downloads, so that bands don't have to rely on T-shirt sales and other concert paraphernalia to make a living.                                                                                                                                                                                

Southwold in the winter, or roll on Summer...

Last weekend was the annual winter fair in St Edmunds Hall, Southwold, in aid of Greenpeace. This event began several years ago when the Summer one, which no longer happens, was cancelled because of bad weather. The winter fair was such a success it has carried on every year, with stalls in the day time and good local music all day and evening.

In the summer St Edmunds Hall is home to Southwold Summer Theatre, founded by Jill Freud in 1984. This year's offerings begin with J B Priestly's An Inspector Calls on Wednesday 10th July running til 20th July. 

http://www.edp24.co.uk/what-s-on/southwold_summer_theatre_line_up_revealed_1_1934345



Last year the Electric Picture Palace was revamped, and reopened (again) by Michael Palin, who has had links with the town since his mother used to live there - his family holidayed there when he was a child, and his parents retired there in 1966.


Then there's the famous Pier, with Tim Hunkin's arcade of unusual delights,http://www.timhunkin.com/,
 and his water clock further along the Pier's elegant promenade.

Southwold Beach huts

And of course there's always the beach and sea........

Round the world in various guises from Boorman to Wylson

In the Middle Ages they may or may not have believed the known world was flat, with dragons inhabiting the far flung edges. Later, expeditions to find short cuts to the spice rich Asian continent led to unexpected landings in the West Indies.

In the 1590s, Shakespeare has Puck saying he'll put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes to fetch the magical flower for Oberon. Pretty nifty even by modern supersonic standards.

Jules Verne's adventure story, Around the World in Eighty Days, written in 1873, told of the voyage of Phileas Fogg with his French valet Passepartout. Michael Palin took up the challenge by the BBC in 1989 to try to emulate it in reality, with his camera crew as his modern version of the French valet, after three people had turned the chance down, thus starting a whole string of his filmed travel adventures.

Yuri Gagarin on 12th April 1961 was the first person to journey into outer space and complete an orbit of the earth, describing its beauty. But it took til 1968 for a manned spaceship, Apollo 8, to leave earth's orbit, reach the moon and look back at the earth; in 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong held up a thumb and covered up the 'tiny pea, pretty and blue' as he described it.

Back on earth in the summer of 1999, David and Kate Grant, and their three children, set off from Scotland's Orkney Isles to travel around the world in a gypsy caravan; the story of this journey is retold by David in his book 'The Seven Year Hitch' - the journey took them seven years in all.http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gypsy-life-on-the-high-road-1102678.html

In 2004, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's fantasy  bike trip to Spain grew into a round the world trip on sturdy BMWs, their idea to film their adventures stretching into a crew that included a couple of support vehicles and another cameraman on wheels. After extensive training, including first aid, they decided that, neither having faith in the other's ability to treat them if injured, they'd best take professional medical back-up. One of the many people they encountered on their travels was a solitary cyclist going it alone in total contrast to their ultra-planned, funded, supported trip. Other escapades have followed, mainly without Ewan as film schedules intrude, and many other celebrities have joined in the round the world flurry in various directions and on multiple forms of transport.

Also in 2004, but on a much humbler scale, two young lads, Ben and Jamie, set off from England to cycle round the world, without all the trappings of a film crew,etc.:check out Free Wheels East website for their adventures!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKry69GI7c4     http://www.familyonabike.org/stories/books.htm

From Donnie Darko to Source Code

At last watched Source Code on tv last night - have sort of been meaning to watch it since it came out in 2011, though couldn't quite work out if I'd like it. After all, the plot sort of goes nowhere, a blacker version of Groundhog Day where the main character - played by Jake Gyllenhaal - relives several times the final eight minutes of a passenger on a bombed train. He seems most horrified when he looks in the mirror and doesn't recognise himself - the reflection isn't that of any famous actor in fact! Still, it's not any where near as scary as that mirror reflection of the mysterious silver grey rabbit in Donnie Darko(2001).
Donnie Darko was the first film I saw Gyllenhaal in, which I enjoyed though never totally fathomed the story out. Like Source Code it can give you qualms about travelling at speed - no-one would want to catch a train straight after watching the more recent film, but in the older film a jet engine crashes in Donnie's bedroom. Frank, the mysterious rabbit, tells him the world is to end in 28days, 6hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds, so at least Gyllenhaal has more time to play with there, though it's odd that both films end with him reliving the action to save the girl.

 Donnie Darko was filmed over the course of 28 days and missed breaking even, grossing only $4.1 million worldwide, though it has since amassed a large cult following. Source Code grossed  $147 million, with highly positive reviews, a lot of spectacular special effects and plenty of pixellation. It's directed by Duncan Jones (once Zowie Bowie, son of Major Tom himself), who had previously directed Moon, where the main characters turn out to be clones, no reliving of events there, just face to face encounters of the different versions of your personality. I enjoyed Moon, and it seems the critics agreed- it won the BAFTA award for an Outstanding Debut by a British Director, Writer or Producer.  After seeing Moon, Gyllenhaal had lobbied for Jones to be the director of Source Code.

But at the end of the day I definitely prefer Donnie Darko; apart from the fact it's one of the few films I've seen at the cinema twice, I will no doubt watch it again some time, whereas it's unlikely I'll view Source Code again.So no reliving of events planned there.

And what of Richard Kelly, who hasn't managed to repeat the success, albeit limited, of Donnie Darko. It seems his film, Corpus Christi, about the friendship of an unstable Iraq war vet and his wealthy  supermarket boss, has been shelved due to lack of funding, and he is working on a real life story for Amicus, about a record producer planning to kill his family. No happy endings as yet then.