Thursday 30 June 2011

i didn't mean to lie

i said that i may knock out a blog for you all, i was considering doing a faux glastonbury review, based on the 2 and a bit acts that i actually caught on the bbc coverage at the insistence of my girlfriend whilst i would have rather ignored the fact that the festival was still going ahead without me

but i didn't

i thought i may also update my generic mp3 player, re-pot the pepper seeds that i've been growing, pull up a few weeds, maybe make a Las Vegas party playlist, but none of these things happened

nor have i really updated any of my contributions to byford365 at all

i still have the odd few things to pack and timer switches to set and then hope that the excitement that kept me awake last night and today will give way and allow me to crash and get a few hours sleep

so, expect blog silence for a good week or so

thank you

Tuesday 28 June 2011

too soon for another Green Lantern blog post?

in fact, is it too soon to just lazily knock up another video embed as a blog post?

aaaah, maybe i'll write something tomorrow...


Saturday 25 June 2011

it's not easy being green

argh

that was disapointing

not only was Green Lantern disapointing, it was also rather frustrating as a result of it being rather boring and rather convoluted

i shall not bother attempting to critique and review the film too much, i just want to express how frustrating it is that DC had a chance to make a popular character just as recognisable and accepted amongst movie audiences and popular culture as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman already are



to be quite honest, it was a rather sloppy and uneven attempt at film-making, let alone setting up of a decent superhero origin story... it plunged straight into a rather baffling intergalactic speil that is supposedly the premise of the film, and it is mostly down-hill all the way from there

i was forgiving of the slow-ish start, i realise you gotta set these things up slow and build up the excitement, but sadly the pacing was off horrendously, with a smattering of action scenes dispersed amongst a lot of mostly boring filler that seemed to be of very little consequence

i personally thought the inclusion of the Green Lantern Corps would be a step too far for the film, but they were in fact drastically under-used and it seems that perhaps we had been mis-sold exactly what this film was gonna be.





as the film unfolded before me i wondered what it was that i was getting into, and it seemed to almost hark back to nostalgic sense of superhero film, keeping it simple with the set-up, the training and then the pay-off, but it stretches itself too far, then doesn't try hard enough, getting it wrong and slipping up again and again

and it suffers hugely for its complete lacking of virtually any humour - there is nothing to keep you interested as the story meanders along and considering that Ryan Reynolds should have been having a real romp as Hal Jordan, i am sad to report that he falls flat on his face, displaying no charisma at all

the rather obvious setting up of a sequel is checked off as we go, something that is pretty much a given in most comic-to-screen situations, but when you consider that they were likely drafting up a plan of a trilogy, i just don't understand how they could have dropped the ball on this one whilst Marvel are making merry at the box office and doing a pretty bloody good job of it

c'mon DC, i keep sticking up for you, but give me a little more to put my faith in than CGI characters and concepts that are barely explained and Van Wilder in a rubbish looking suit.

Friday 24 June 2011

in brightest day.....

ooooh, i actually get to see Green Lantern tonight

my girlfriend is still moaning that it looks shit, and to be honest i don't hold much hope for it either

but i'm more than willing to give it a chance and pray that they haven't done anything too terrible to it

so i thought i'd post up a couple of the Green Lantern vids that have been knocking around



first up is a congratulatory video, where a whole bunch of other superheroes are celebrating Hal Jordan's silver screen debut, but the atmosphere changes when Hawkman tries push his own movie script





and the next, i guess, must echo some of the sentiments of non-comic book readers and non-geeks around the world as DC choose to attempt launching a franchise with a hero other than Superman and Batman





and i may even consider blessing you with my own opinions, if i can really be bothered....

Wednesday 22 June 2011

today

today i should have been woken by a rather stupidly early alarm after holding down discussions as to when Sel would be round to pick me up

it wouldn't have really mattered as the build up of excitement would have kept me awake and the momentum of the day would have kept me going until i finally retired to our tent in a field in Sommerset amidst the familiar smells of camp fires and bbqs



but not today

sadly, this is the first year that we have taken the decision not to go to Glastonbury



it wasn't a decision any of us took lightly, but after failing to actually get hold of tickets at the very first hurdle we were distraught, but slowly came to accept that perhaps 2011 just wasn't gonna be our year

it all seemed perhaps for the best, me and my girlfriend had bought a house and, useful as the deposit scheme is, it would all come at the wrong time, and as the ticket price has increased eash year, we would have struggled slightly with it leaving our now-joint account

and Sel was planning on doing some travelling this year and would be paying out a lot for that

we then took into account that, since they had split up, a couple of friends that we usually camp with would not be going this year, neither would their friend, and another couple that have joined us the past few years didn't manage to get tickets either

last year's Glastonbury, bathed in glorious sunshine for the whole time was a perfect way to leave it, we'd witnessed floods in our times going and we have had one particular wet and miserable weekend that nearly drove us to the edge of sanity (and led me and my girlfriend to give Benicassim a go)

but it felt like those years that we had stuck with the festival had really paid off, as 2010 saw us camped with more friends than we ever have before, we didn't have to suffer a single drop of rain, and the intense sunshine changed the whole dynamic of the usually soggy Sommerset bash

the temperature was up, high spirits were soaring and every single person battled dehydration as we rejoiced, caught up in the giddy throes of a laid back, serotonin enriched festival that England so rarely witnesses

so we bowed out on a high!


i know coverage shall be hard to avoid, and i've cringed everytime there is even so much of a mention of this year's glasto, completelly racked with jealousy and sentimentality for the good ol' days

i've tried to ignore the innevitable stage line-up reveals, and tried telling myself that Beyonce, Coldplay and U2 won't be much of a line-up anyway

but Glastonbury is so much more than just the headliners, and it is so much more than just the music.


my memories of times, good and the bad, at Glasto are innumerable, but i shall have to leave it to all of this years ticket holders to create their own unique take on Glastonbury 2011 as i sit at a desk typing out this blog, considering putting the tent up in our garden, instead of being sat in a car filled to bursting with all our kit, eagerly awaiting the sight of Stone Henge and the requisite stop-off at Countess Services

Monday 20 June 2011

when we were young

the aesthetic of our house has taken a change for the better

after only owning our own home for 10 months, we now have our first clock on the wall!


my girlfriend moans that she never knows what the time is in our house, having to check our phones is obviously too much of an inconvenience and the clock on the oven is barely ever right, due to having the buttons to change all manner of things, including the clock, at a rather convenient height so that people are forever leaning on it (we are currently an hour fast i think)


the clock was in fact a birthday present from my mum before we had even bought the house and is part of a rather fetching layered effect set of photo frames, which we picked up afew extra additional frames to match it so as it didn't look quite so lonely on the wall



all the photos are of me and my girlfriend, and i despaired as we went through a crowded harddrive of five years of pictures that of all the ones picked, none of them showed me with a decent amount of facial hair

gifted with rather young looks, and still being ID'ed at the age of 27, i made a significant life choice to remain bearded, or at least quite stubbly, this decision is also beneficial to my rather lazy attitude to shaving

i relented and went with the pictures we had chosen, there was nothing wrong with them at all except i felt that they didn't reflect me, as i am right now


which got me thinking on how long these photos are gonna be on display, and how we and our lives may change

of course we could always update the photos, but then again we could also be in the same house in our 40's or our 50's, perhaps with kids that are growing (or grown) up, and i wonder what they will think of the photos, and considering that i already cringe looking at my bald, non-fuzzy youthful face i wonder how we will look back on them ourselves in the years to come

every photo that is now proudly framed up carries certain memories with it, of the time and the place and what we were up to, on the beach in felixstowe after my cousins wedding, chilling with a beer at the balloon fiesta in Bristol, both in fancy dress at a friends birthday party, out for a sunny day in hyde park, a dry day at Glastonbury and just messing about with the camera when she bought it for me in 2006, times worth remembering that don't deserve to be languishing on a 100gb hard drive

Friday 17 June 2011

as told by me

ok, after that lil moan i guess i should actually bless you with the newspaper article that will hopefully see the light of day sometime soon, i don't know why i didn't just get on with it and post it up sooner but never mind

i do know that a second group of Orange Rockcorp volunteers were at Forty Hall Vineyard this week, so it is still a timely piece (just about)




Why would you want to read about me digging up weeds, pushing around wheelbarrows and spreading manure, and why is it relevant at all to my music column?


The reason me and around 50 others were putting in hard work at London's only commercial scale vineyard was all down to the return of Orange's Rockcorps initiative for 2011.






Launched in the UK in 2008, Rockcorps has been inspiring music fans to help communities and charitable organisations, with 4 hours volunteering being rewarded with a ticket to an exclusive gig with an all-star line-up.


This was my second year involved, having helped rejuvenate the Selby Centre in Tottenham last year and seeing a gig headlined by Pendulum, also featuring N-Dubz and Mark Ronson, I was more than up for mucking in all over again, especially knowing that a local organisation would benefit from it


Because tucked out of sight behind the stately Forty Hall, and unknown to many residents, fifteen acres of land is home to a community led and community driven vineyard.


The maintenance of the plants is essential throughout the year and whilst it was Rockcorps volunteers handling it this time around to keep the weeds under control and give the vines the best chance at growth, the vineyard also accepts volunteers from all walks of life, working with a wide range of local residents including adults and young people with learning disabilities, people suffering mental distress and young people at risk.


The graft and the goals seem to unify so many of the people involved, and it is uplifting to see everyone brought together and working alongside each other.






Although by the end of it i had a couple of blisters on my hands and my back ached, it had been worth it to join like-minded people for a few hours where everyone feels equal and comfortable in a situation so far removed from our usual social circles.


Primal Scream will top this years bill, but regardless of the exclusive gig, and despite the hard work necessary, I genuinely feel that you get out so much more than you put into it.









Wednesday 15 June 2011

heard it through the grape vine...

how bittersweet today's news is

if you've followed my blog at all, you may be aware of the recent ups and downs surrounding The Enfield Advertiser and it's fluctuating entertainment section, The Weekender

despite my contributions to the paper, i am never aware of when (or even if) my articles will actually make an appearance

every wednesday i take a flick through to see if one of my pieces made it to print

after an absense of 2 months from the paper, last week featured my piece on Daniel Haaksman and i had kinda hoped that my next article would appear before i produce a huge back-log that would result in either inane irrelevance by the time it surface or simply being scrapped entirely


i'll admit that it has only been a couple of weeks since submitting an article relating to the volunteering i did for Orange Rockcorps, and i have had to wait a lot longer for my colums to see the light of day

it was entirely relevant, shedding light on the good work being done to promote volunteering amongst young people, and also of local interest, since a group of us had been working hard on the Forty Hall vineyard, that until the volunteering opportunity came up i wasn't even aware that it existed, as it is tucked well away out of sight

while their i got to speaking to one of the people running the vineyard, as she was showing us how it should be doen and getting her hands dirty with the rest of us, and far from being an opportunistic wine venture she was telling me how they have worked with people from MIND in Enfield with mental health problems, giving them time out in the fields and helping in exactly the same way we were, but with the added benefit of giving them a little bit of much needed therapy through the work they are doing

in an off-handed comment when i submitted my finished article i mentioned that it would be great to give the vineyard a bit of well deserved exposure

low and behold, do i find that my article has been usurped by the annual give-away of Latitude festival tickets and after another flick through i then find that there is actually a large feature on Forty Hall vineyard and it's work with mental health charities!!

i'd like to think that my music column mat have been a push in the right direction to securing people's attention (it could after all, be coincidence) but i'm hoping that the piece i put time into writing won't just do a disapearing act now because of it

Monday 13 June 2011

sleeping with the NME

i finally take my seat in the NME offices and relax at the desk.

sadly, this is not the first day of a new job plying my wares for the UK's premier weekly music magazine.

instead, i have been summoned to their HQ in Southwark as part of a focus group.

much less rock n roll than i'd anticipated, it seems obtuse that these sterile offices were home to a music juggernaut that makes and break careers and has been key in hyping and tastemaking bands and scenes.

but it was early evening and perhaps every hint of excitement and joyous musical rebellion had clocked off at half 5 - regardless, the small group i was joining soon settled in the bland surroundings and were further relaxed by the offer of beers and pizza.




i for one had it clear in my mind as son as i'd had the call-up that i was keen to let NME know where they had been going wrong.

i admitted to have given up on NME many years ago, around the time Arctic Monkey's debut album was released and the front cover heralded another feature on them for the third time in a month, the bands assualt on the mainstream was well and truly underway and the over-saturation left me jaded.

they had once been the most exciting and heralded new band around, but as the magazine churned out another article i wondered if there was possibly anything more that i needed to know about Arctic Monkeys, and thus i turned my back on the gospel according to NME



finally given the appropriate platform to make my feeling known i did not shy away from voicing my dissenting opinion on a frustratingly overwhelming reliance on lists

on the occasions that an interesting cover feature has lured me back over the years, i've often found that good quality articles have now made way for a ridiculous array of lists on almost every conceivable nuance and sub-category of music.

i fully expect end of year polls and speculative new year/ new bands runthroughs, yet is seems all too often that so-called journalists have taken an easy option of compiling a handful of brief opinions and assigning each banal blurb a numerological value.


even of the 3 issues sent to each of us for research purposes, we were subjected to 3 lists.

top ten buzz bands of the great escape.

top 25 band logos.

and 16 pages of NME's top 70 cult heroes.





apart from my moan about this brazen lazy journalism,Other topics breached included our feelings towards a number of regular features and a discussion on whether Lady Gaga and other 'pop' acts deserve to be on the cover of NME, or deserve to be featured at all (I believe they do), a general consensus that the 'funny' cartoon is possibly the most hated part of the magazine and a lively debate for and against Popjustice's 'Peter Robinson Vs' interviews (for which i was firmly and vocally for).

As well as existing features, we were given a sneak peak at possible contributions, of which the most offensive was a sloppily thrown together piece on how to achieve Alex Turner's 'look', shouted down and derided by everyone in the room for turning what should be a respected music magazine into the indie Heat.



as a newspaper columnist perhaps i should not draw attention to the plight of print media, but it is obvious to all that the sheer quantity and variety of information, opinions and recomendations available online has seen publishers suffering, and those conducting the session were equally interested in how we recieve and percieve new music and recommendations in this modern world where the internet is usurping a former great's all-powerful hold.


Even though I hadn't been called upon to shape the future of NME with my own journalistic talents, it was still a unique opportunity to witness the market research and pitches that everyone involved hopes will keep NME vital and interesting in the 21st century.

Having read the magazine religiously for around 5 or so years from the age of 17, and having NME itself shape me in some of my formative years, it felt right that I could try to return the favour.


Sunday 12 June 2011

toys

for those that felt drawn to looking at my geeky toys on display and felt pleasant waves of nostalgia waving through them, i've got another site that you may wanna take a brief look at

i recently stumpled upon Jason Vorhees' exhaustive toy blog via branded in the 80s



and boy, was that an eye-opening experience, as Jason recounts obtaining practically every retro toy that he has had the good fortune to lay his eyes upon, and takes the whole act of collecting very seriously, whether it is items he has won on ebay, found in toy store bargain basements or at yard and garage sales.



now, i would like to firmly stress to my girlfriend, if she is still reading, that i have not got the intention or the disposable income to go scouring the planet for every single toy ever created

my focus is primarily to rebuild my childhood memories of overactive imaginations by picking up action figures from the 80s and 90s that me and my brother would have played with, and then as we have both aged chosen to discard, if we'd have just hung onto them instead of foolishly growing out of them then this nostalgia-trip would be much simpler, but as it stands, it now means that any car boot sale or charity shop could be holding an articulated holy grail of mine

of course i could just max out a credit card on ebay, but where would be the sheer joy in a few clicks, a bulging 'my ebay' summary and somewhere in the region of £2 postage for every figure, nah, i'm kicking it old skool and gonna wait for these prized figures to find me


but Jason's blog has stirred up some vivid memories of old figures that had been lost in my densely populated cranium, anyone else remember army ants, supernaturals and troll warriors?

Friday 10 June 2011

acceptable in the 90s

whilst i was quite tempted to post up another superhero offering, i decided against it since i was afraid of offending those less inclined towards comic books

but i can't promise a break at all from general geekiness

and for that, we head to my attic, which has been designated as the geek pad in my house and which i finally got round to starting decorating while my girlfriend was away in india, yep, it was back to colour swatches and once again looking at a whole bundle of similar colours, trying to figure out which particular tone would be best

on monday, it took a step closer to completion as i got rather creative with a couple of shades of red, a paintbrush, and my right hand

(i am sworn to secrecy as to the complete look, but their is a sneak peak right here)

on tuesday, once the (splattered) paint was dry, i took up the plastic sheets, took down the protective wrapping and put the exceptionally priced ikea glass cabinet in its rightful place, stood back and felt proud


my brother had already been round to help put the cabinet together as i was far too excited to leave it boxed, and a fortunate trip to a charity shop resulted in the purchase of quite a few retro action figures, perfect to kickstart my little nostalgic collection, but having the wall painted, the cabinet in place, and the figures standing to attention made all the difference

(before)


(and after)


and sat proudly on the very top shelf of the cabinet is the beautiful animated style Princess Leia statuette that my girlfriend bought me as a present a couple of years ago, it had spent too long in it's box, and since moving into our house i have been super-keen to get it on display so that it can be fully appreciated


there is still plenty of work to be done before the geek pad is complete, but this week it has definitely taken a huge step in the right direction, and i have spent this very night not just blogging, and updating my contributions to byford365, but also scouring ebay for some film posters to grace the walls of my (ahem) penthouse surely my effort redecorating must have upgraded it from being 'just' an attic

Tuesday 7 June 2011

facing another crisis?

ok

so what exactly is going on with the DC universe then?

i'll have to admit one thing, for the amount of people that the 'reboot' has got riled up, i dare say that all of them, plus a few more, will be curious to see exactly what's going on with september's relaunches

like i said yesterday, i'm hardly up-to-date on current events in the DCU, i'm aware that the latest mass-crossover-type-thing is called Flashpoint, and that it involves The Flash



and word is he's been dipping his toe into the timestream and sodding things up considerably

the fact that Flashpoint concludes just before these massive changes get underway is unlikely to be a coincidence



and news has already leaked that Superman and Lois's marriage will no longer have happened as a result of Flashpoint

which raises a couple of bigger questions

how much will we see undone? and are DC establishing a new status-quo for their universe?

personally, i can't imagine that they would.  whenever comic book stories hit a massive turning point it is usually assumed that a year down the line practically everything will be as it was before, unless you're a second string superhero, in which case the usual guarantees don't apply and you'll likely be usurped by a younger hero taking the same name, i'm sorry, but those are the breaks

but the big hitters?

Superman?

Batman?

yes, we've seen massive shifts (better known as cross-overs or money makers) in their lives before, but if you just go re-setting their careers by a number of years, what would that mean?

would Superman never have faced off against Doomsday and died?



i'm more of a Batman fan myself, so perhaps Knightfall would have been erased from history, but would we go further back?  would Tim Drake ever have become Robin, would Jason Todd? is Dick Grayson still the Boy Wonder?!

no matter how DC plays this, and it could prove very interesting, i can't imagine that we'll see a complete striking of the DCU's complicated continuity from the books, not only would it be insulting to long-term readers, but it would be a complete about-turn from a company that have always seemed to embrace it's rich history (even if it does shrug off or ret-con portions of it on a whim)

people that have complained that the books have become too complicated to follow, and this is mostly down to the fact that massive cross-overs of late seem to have been drawing the world closer together, with knock-on effects that occur through-out an entire universe and run through multiple books, instead of allowing character their own threads that only occasionally tangle together, which may seem a great idea to get people interested in other books they don't usually shell out for, but isn't particularly easy on the wallet or on more casual or first-time readers

i for one, had always been fascinated by DC's past that i had missed out on, and enjoyed reading stories that referred back to them and would treat myself to back-issues or collected trade paperbacks as and when i could, it made the history richer when i could witness it all for myself firsthand

i don't view it as a messy continuity, i prefer to see it as legacy, and believe that there are writers out their such as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison and James Robinson that will draw upon DC's rich tapestry of past goings on and almost forgotten characters

and even rebooted, how long could a 'simple' universe last before someone starts to complicate things, comics will continue to be published monthly and stories need to be told

perhaps we do need new comics that welcome new readers, but lets do it without alienating readers that have already dedicated their own time to following the lives of superheroes

Monday 6 June 2011

green lantern's gatling crotch

so, DC comics caused quite a hubbub last week didn't they?

now, i can hardly admit to being over-qualified and up-to-date on everything comics, heck, i'm still stuck languishing somewhere in post-Final Crisis and pre-Blackest Night 2009, but this thing right here is the god-damn internet, so why shouldn't i channel the news via my own blog and spout out my own opinion??!


for anyone that may have had this news bypass them, DC comics are re-setting themselves, apparently pretty much re-setting everything (although the confirmed facts are almost non-existent), what we do know is that there will be 52 comic book titles that will be relaunched (and renumbered, starting with 50 #1s) and rebooted in september.

and it seems that there will be changes, with a lot of talk about how these comics will take us back into the earlier years of the superheroes careers, with an emphasis being on foregoing decades of convoluted continuity in favour for easier 'jump-on' stories that are much friendlier to newcomers

which, doesn't seem a bad idea, by any means, the general consensus is that DC fear they are not capitalising on movie adaptions and big screen heriocs by having such muddled histories that the casual reader can't or won't get to grips with



recieving the most attention so far is the re-booted Justice League America, which has already had an artwork reveal that sheds only a little light and raises more questions.

the talk of the town is that character costumes and origins may be tweaked and redeveloped if neccesary, and indeed, in the JLA we appear to have a much (much much) younger looking Superman and a re-jigged costume causing quite a stir, infact the whole team do certainly appear younger than they have in comics of late, it seems nobody is still really sure what's goin on with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern is overcompensating with his (ahem) thought-made-form armoury.



i've got a lot more i want to say on this subject, more opinion and speculation basically, but i shall return tomorrow to do that rather than leave you with a hugely lengthy blog

but before you hear what i have to say, let me give you Hitler's take on the whole debacle.


Friday 3 June 2011

meeting a hero.

perhaps it is slightly old fashioned to pass on a demo CD to someone.

i like to think of it as nostalgic instead.


and this is the story of how, with clammy palms, i handed over my CD to Eddy Temple Morris yesterday:




so perhaps my own self-promotion has been a little bit lax of late, perhaps my own musical work ethic has been a little lax of late, i have become accustomed to the truth of the mater that these things will happen when moving into a home, my own home, with the other half (well, half hers too actually)

the spare bedroom has one blue wall and one white wall that i have taken it upon myself to paint, the remaining wall is still that nasty possible-magnolia-really? colour that it has been since we moved in, i would have painted it except she has talked about stripping the textured wall paper from the walls and i don't want to have painted it all for nothing

and yes, the room does actually have four walls, but one is entirely taken up by fitted wardrobes, although i did once consider painting them

but this isn't a case of decoration, this is more a matter that i fully intend to move all my kit into that room and it become my little haven to hide in and create whilst she watches television downstairs, but for now the computer still sits around downstairs, leaving my creativity rather stunted when she turns the tv on

plus, once you consider all the time i actually end up watering the garden, cleaning this, washing that, cooking something, and a whole bunch of other household chores that i hadn't really anticipated yet feel duty bound to complete so i don't end up living in a complete shit hole, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to fire up the machine and start manipulating sounds

and with all this repeatedly happening since last september, why should i waste an opportunity to burn a number of tracks i am proudest of and pass them along to one of my all-time musical heroes?!



Eddy TM would be DJing as part of Akira The Don's album launch party, and Eddy TM is a DJ that i have huge love and huge respect for, and i am extremely proud that he has played one of my remixes on his long running Xfm show, aptly named The Remix

so i pondered the structure of the CD, settling on an equal mix of original material and remixes, including The Enemy remix that he had already aired, and a rejigged Akira The Don track, since it only seemed appropriate

now, i have been training myself to not act like a complete fanboy when meeting famous people, but those that i hold in the highest esteem still cause an outbreak of hysterics in me, and it was no different when Eddy walked past me, i wasn't even facing him, and yet i felt his prescence (or perhaps caught him in the corner of my eye) and my heart skipped a beat

the plan was to grab a little chat with him and try and retain a sense of composure, but the gig moved swiftly and i would have felt that i was disrespecting the performer and Eddy himself if i tried to catch his attention and hold a conversation during a gig

and so there was nothing left to do but approach him whilst he DJed, seriously, the guy is a consummate professional, graciously accepting the CD from me and even holding a slightly disjointed rhetoric as he cued up and mixed tracks whilst observing that i wasn't going anywhere just yet

i introduced myself, told him how much i thought of him, allowed him to do what he had to do, and then continued to tell him that he had played a track of mine before, at which point Eddy took a little more notice, looking over the almost unreadable tracklisting in the poor lighting and acknowledging that, yeah, he remembered it

he then remarked that he thought we had met before, blimey! either he is an extremely gracious person making a lucky guess, but i believe that i saw recognition in his eyes, i didn't expect for him to remember at all,  it must have been a good couple of years ago at least, but i'll quite happily live with the belief that Eddy TM not only is a great DJ, but also a great human being with superhuman skills of recollection

we briefly discussed the artwork of the promo, that he loved, and that i admitted to half-inching and not really being able to claim as my own, and then i said i would leave him to it, he had a job to do after all, and i left beaming...

i hope that he will give it a listen and i hope that he will enjoy it, i would be bloody ecstatic if he saw fit to air anything from it but that is regardless, the most important thing is that he is something of a hero of mine and that in the two brief moments that i have been able to converse with him, Eddy has been nothing less than a complete gentleman and an all-round nice guy

and i couldn't ask for anything more than that when meeting a personal hero

Akira The Don - Music of the Spheres ft. Mary Turner (Hunchbakk's dirty elbows mix) by Hunchbakk

Wednesday 1 June 2011

a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron



i can't remember exactly how long ago it was that i first heard Gil Scott-Heron's music or all the circumstances around it

i do remember that i was crossing the A10 on my bike, at the lights just outside the tyre place

i do remember that it was being played on my minidisc player (immediately dating my memories somewhat) and would have probably been part of a radio show that i had recorded so that i would have something worthwhile to listen to on my way to and from work, most likely either Xfm's Remix or Steve Lamaqc's monday night show on Radio 1

i do remember being so taken in by the track that i skipped the minidisc back to listen to it again, and used my clever little player's editing function to seperate the track and mark it as something of note and something i would want to revisit

i do remember being momentarily amazed by 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', simply in awe of, and fascinated by, everything about it

that ever so simple, almost tribal drum beat that sounds throughout

the spoken words, passionate poetry that was underpinned by the evocative percussion that built the sparse track into something oh so powerful and unbelievably unique

it was bold and daring and spoke to me in ways that no other music had done before


i didn't know that it was some 30 years old or so

i didn't know of Gil Scott-Heron until that point


i didn't rush out to instantly explore his back catalogue, but i looked into his past and his music and found something that i felt a real connection to

i couldn't name you all of his albums or recite you all of his lyrics, in all honesty, i have only probably heard just a handful of his tracks, but what i have heard was enough to inspire me


i do think the world is a little emptier without Gil Scott-Heron in it, but at least we still have his music and his influence that will long outlive him


with that in mind i decided to create my own music tribute to the late great Gil Scott-Heron, based upon the classic The Revelution Will Not Be Televised

i did try something else first, trying to create a looped up and sampled backing to sit under the vocals, but it didn't feel true enough to his spirit

it is quite simple in form, as perhaps it should be, and i hope that Gil Scott-Heron will never be forgotten

Giles Babel - go crazy (a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron)