AlanAllport.Com

Archive for the ‘My Music’ Category

As I’m not exactly an avid follower of the news I’ve only just found out that Amy Winehouse was found dead yesterday. What a tragedy. I guess it’s hard to say it’s a shock given the ‘car crash’ reporting that followed her around, but even so, you don’t really expect people to die aged just 27.

I genuinely believe that she was one of the greatest vocalists of all time. She was really a jazz singer at heart who could effortlessly bring that jazz sensibility, timing and phrasing to the soulful pop music that she was famous for. Truly a fantastic natural talent.

We’ve been left a legacy of only two official albums but I guess we can expect a slew of previously unreleased material to hit the market now – I just hope that this output is carefully selected to do justice to her memory as the genius vocalist that she was.

I also hope that those people who are inclined to judge harshly and let all and sundry know that they believe it was all her own fault reflect and respect the fact that a lot of people are hurting right now and that these kinds of comments don’t help matters.

I feel that we should all look at these things with a lot more humility and accept that addiction is a terrible affliction and ‘there but for the grace of God go I’. Sadly some people never manage to break free from their demons.

My thoughts go out to Amy’s family and friends who are no doubt hurting terribly right now and beating themselves up because they feel they failed her. I’m sure that you all did all that you could. Sadly sometimes all that any of us can do is never enough.

RIP Amy – that great band in the sky is way better than anything we can muster on this Earth, and you’re a very worthy addition to it.

Got my ticket to see the iconic band Blondie with their even more iconic lead vocalist Debbie Harry – or maybe she’ll be in Deborah Harry mode, we’ll have to wait and see.

Really looking forward to this – it’ll be the first live concert I’ve been to in quite a while. In all honesty, I was never really a huge Blondie fan. Here in the UK the late Alan Freeman had a Saturday radio show that really played an eclectic range of music and he played some of their early stuff in the mid Seventies. I have this clear memory of him playing the track ‘Youth Nabbed As Sniper’ – and I hadn’t really got much of a clue how to spell it or what it meant, but I like the track because it had a harder edge than the more poppy tracks that formed the hit singles. I also remember Alan Freeman saying that he didn’t know whether the needle in the groove would successfully negotiate the whole track because the record was rather warped – ah, the joys of vinyl! And isn’t it weird the kind of things you remember?

I heard a live concert on the radio – would of been New Year’s Eve 80 or 81 broadcast on the BBC and thought that was wonderful, bought a DVD of the their farewell concert I think at CBGBs in New York, got the live album Livid and subsequent live DVD from this comeback album/tour in 1999/2000. So, almost without realising it, I guess I’ve found out that I quite like this particular band!

I’ve been going back through the back catalogue as a sort of concert preparation – like doing my homework! Ms Harry is going to be 65 on July 1st so I guess if I hadn’t bought a ticket this time, I might not get another chance. Sure the atmosphere will be great so something to really anticipate over the next couple of months,

Went to Music Live yesterday. Enjoyed it like I always do, but did find it a little disappointing. It had a distinct air of ‘recessionary times’ about it this year. Some regular, big name attendees just didn’t turn up – most noticeable among the absentees were Marshall and Fender.

Still, I saw some interesting kit and some great bands were playing on the Live Stage so I enjoyed that part of it.

For the most part my experimentation with blogging from the show and some Tweeting (or is that Twittering?) also went ok with some minor glitches here and there with some posts and Tweets disappearing into the ether never to be seen again. It was mainly a day of good connections and I enjoyed doing it.

To see more of my, mainly guitar-related, stuff from Music Live go here:

Electric Guitar Notes

Now back to building some new Christmas-related Websites!

I’m really starting to look forward to my annual pilgrimage to Music Live at the NEC in Birmingham, England. It’s on from Friday to Sunday 6 – 8 November and I’m going along on Friday.

I don’t think I’ll be buying anything major but I’ll look for the Line 6 Workbench software for my Line 6 Variax 600 that I bought from this very same show two years ago in 2007. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get the software which will enable me to to program my guitar with some custom pickup combinations, body and neck woods etc. This will make an already excellent electric guitar more personalised to me – hope I can find this kit at the show.

What else am I looking forward to at the show? I’ll be having a look around to see what new equipment takes my fancy as being new and innovative.

I’ve been experimenting with some mobile Internet kit just lately, so I intend to try to do some blogging live from the show during the day – ok, ok, that may not be too amazing for some of you, but it’ll be a first for me. I’m still waiting for a mobile simm and usb modem to arrive – and we’ve got postal strikes in the UK at the moment, so I’m not too confident that the kit is going to arrive in time – but I do have a plan b, so we’ll see.

Anyway, I’ll have to contain my excitement for a few more days!

Catch you later.

Went to see a band I first saw 30 years ago, last night. Boy, does that make me feel old!

Anyway, the band in question are Hawkwind and what a night it was. This tour has been billed as ‘Space Days’ and it was basically a trawl through the extensive almost 40 year back catalogue of the band.

Given that I don’t have particularly good knowledge of their recorded output post the mid eighties, I thought it was very good that there were only about a couple of tracks that I didn’t recognise – I even managed to sing along to most of them!

It was a good, memorable Hawkwind show with plenty of strobing lights and kaleidoscopic back projections along with a couple of dancers.

Highlight of the show for me was Robot, with the two dancers doing a two-part routine that culminated in being dressed in robot suits and doing the jerky movements I remember with affection from the Bob Calvert days.

Given that this is my last concert before Christmas, it was a great one to end the year on.

Supporting Beverley Knight at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, England on 29/11/07 were a London band called Cherry Blackstone playing their brand of music which they’ve labelled phunk rock. It’s sort of funk- and soul-based with a rock edge to it – and pretty good it is too.

They’ve got a very beautiful female lead singer who has more energy than just about anyone else I’ve seen, who goes by the name of ReDD. She has a wonderful stage presence and really knows how to work an audience.

If you get a chance, I recommend that you try to see them – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. After all, we’re talking about the entertainment business and they definitely entertain.

They haven’t got a record deal yet and probably won’t have their debut album out until late next year, but I snagged a copy at the gig and got them to sign it and had a little chat.

I wish them all the best in what is a very difficult business (ReDD stated that in April this year she had been on the verge of giving up but then the Beverley Knight tour was offered to them – she has even written a song about not giving up based on this experience – called Come Too Far).

Anyway, check out their Website – Cherry Blackstone.

If that’s not accessible when you try it (it’s a Flash site), check out a couple of MySpace pages below:

Cherry Blackstone

ReDD

If you want entertainment I can highly recommend going to a Beverley Knight concert – she’s surely a soul diva of the finest kind – fantastic voice, wonderful mover and absolutely gorgeous legs – what more could a man want when he goes to a concert?

The energy levels were certainly high and the rapport with the audience was amazing. Well, I guess that’s not too surprising given that Wolverhampton is her home city. The atmosphere in the concert hall was top draw.

Her rendition of Sista Sista was worth the entry fee all on its own.

Have to say she did get some boos though… She came on for the encores dressed in a Wolves football kit – guess there were some Albion fans in the house! (It’s a football – or should I say soccer – thing here in the UK West Midlands).

So, you could say last night’s concert was a very special experience, one that I’ll remember for a long time.

And I’ll have something to say about the support act in my next post – they were something else too.

For the first time in about 25 years I was down at the front, in a melee, at a concert last night. And you know what?…It was great!

If you’re into progressive metal, I can highly recommend going to see Dream Theater if you get a chance – they were magnificent last night at Wolverhampton Civic Hall in England. They only played about 5 or 6 dates in the UK on this tour so I was pretty lucky to get to see them.

Supporting them were Symphony X and they were excellent too. They have their own following and were pretty well supported here, a fact that they obviously enjoyed and enabled them to develop a great rapport with the audience.

It really was a night to remember and although I’m a little sore today, at least I survived!

I’m getting quite excited. I’m going to see Dream Theater tonight at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton.

If you don’t know they’re a progressive metal band (although I don’t really like putting musical labels around people’s necks). They’re being supported by Symphony X so I’ve been checking out some of their stuff over the past week too – and quite like what I hear, so I think I’m in for a good time – I’m determined I’ll enjoy it anyway.