Listening to.......

[Nick Reg]

Dan Webster -Diamond Land
Hummingbird - Tougher Than Love. Would love them to make another but Amy Wadge must be on to her second or third million by now!

[PaulT]

Manu Dibango - Electric Africa - the opening track Pita Piya appeared on an NME cassette many moons ago...

[GubGub (Al)]

Dan Webster -Diamond Land
Hummingbird - Tougher Than Love. Would love them to make another but Amy Wadge must be on to her second or third million by now!

I love that Hummingbird album. They got sort of overlooked at Cropredy but I thought they were great.

Today I shall mostly be listening to the new album by The Long Ryder's, September November and an old album by Colin MacIntyre, Island.

[davidmjs]

VdGG - The Bath Forum Concert

I don't really understand why (I suppose it's Peter's vocals though?) but people are never so-so about Van der Graaf are they?  Anyway the new live album from last year's Bath concert is now out and it is....utterly brilliant of course.  The visual (a DVD and Blu-Ray are included) does actually add to the audio for once.  Watching Hugh is mesmerising (but then you could say the same about Peter and Guy).

I'll be honest and say it's badly overpriced though.  One disc  (either DVD or Blu-Ray) is superfluous for absolutely everybody so making one pay £40 for 4 discs when one only wants 3 is annoying to say the least, but hey the recent box sets have been cheap as chips so...  It's also streaming, so give yourself an hour and three quarters, sit down and make yourself a nice hot drink and join in the fun.

[PaulT]

I was tempted, having been at that gig, but I feel its overpriced... Maybe if I see it reduced sometime...

[Will S]

Dan Webster -Diamond Land
Hummingbird - Tougher Than Love. Would love them to make another but Amy Wadge must be on to her second or third million by now!

I love that Hummingbird album. They got sort of overlooked at Cropredy but I thought they were great.

Today I shall mostly be listening to the new album by The Long Ryders, September November and an old album by Colin MacIntyre, Island.

I didn't know there was a new album.  How is it? Psychedelic Country Soul was a nice surprise for me - I doubted they could come up with anything as good as they had produced back in the 80s, but I was happy to be proved wrong!

[Col D]

VdGG - The Bath Forum Concert

I don't really understand why (I suppose it's Peter's vocals though?) but people are never so-so about Van der Graaf are they?  Anyway the new live album from last year's Bath concert is now out and it is....utterly brilliant of course.  The visual (a DVD and Blu-Ray are included) does actually add to the audio for once.  Watching Hugh is mesmerising (but then you could say the same about Peter and Guy).

I'll be honest and say it's badly overpriced though.  One disc  (either DVD or Blu-Ray) is superfluous for absolutely everybody so making one pay £40 for 4 discs when one only wants 3 is annoying to say the least, but hey the recent box sets have been cheap as chips so...  It's also streaming, so give yourself an hour and three quarters, sit down and make yourself a nice hot drink and join in the fun.

I'm just about to pop the blu-ray into the player. We were front row for this and they did a lot of camera sweeps of the audince so I expect I might appear in this occasionally, but don't let that put you off!

According to Stephen Tayler the band have put some of their own money into this, so I don't really begrudge paying a bit over the odds, but I do agree about this habit of duplicating content on different formats. The upcoming Wishone Ash Argus box set is even worse, the album on both vinyl and CD, a couple of live shows on CD and then a selection of tracks from the two on vinyl. Just looks like an excuse to bloat the price up to an eye-watering £125. As much as I'd like the live material and the demos I don't think I'll be investing.

[Col D]

I didn't know there was a new album.  How is it? Psychedelic Country Soul was a nice surprise for me - I doubted they could come up with anything as good as they had produced back in the 80s, but I was happy to be proved wrong!

I've only played it a couple of times so far and it's fine. Initial impression is that it may not be quite as consistent as PCS but it's a close run thing. First without Tom Stevens since his death two years ago, big boots to fill but they've done well to cover his absence. Looking forward to the tour in May.

[Will S]

Something reminded me of it this morning, and so I have been listening to a recording of the 2009 Barbican Fairport extravaganza, and reminding myself of what a wonderful evening that was.  I even went back to the old threads about it on here, and all that was being said in the run-up, and afterwards too.

[Dan O.]

Something reminded me of it this morning, and so I have been listening to a recording of the 2009 Barbican Fairport extravaganza, and reminding myself of what a wonderful evening that was.  I even went back to the old threads about it on here, and all that was being said in the run-up, and afterwards too.

Now that was a wonderful night ; I'm sure the participants on stage thought so too !

[GubGub (Al)]

I didn't know there was a new album.  How is it? Psychedelic Country Soul was a nice surprise for me - I doubted they could come up with anything as good as they had produced back in the 80s, but I was happy to be proved wrong!

I've only played it a couple of times so far and it's fine. Initial impression is that it may not be quite as consistent as PCS but it's a close run thing. First without Tom Stevens since his death two years ago, big boots to fill but they've done well to cover his absence. Looking forward to the tour in May.

Yes, I agree with that though I need to give it a few more listens. There are some songs that were instantly appealing. It rocks less hard than the Ryders of old. Perhaps that is inevitable but still entirely pleasurable.

[davidmjs]

Something reminded me of it this morning, and so I have been listening to a recording of the 2009 Barbican Fairport extravaganza, and reminding myself of what a wonderful evening that was.  I even went back to the old threads about it on here, and all that was being said in the run-up, and afterwards too.

Now that was a wonderful night ; I'm sure the participants on stage thought so too !

One of my favourite ever gigs.  Although it was disappointing that Swarb had a hissy fit, it was almost certainly better because Chris was deputising.  My very favourite moment of it was Jude jumping out of her skin when Tyger plugged in.  I swear she leapt 2 feet into the air!  Love it.

[Alan2]

Various albums from Melissa Etheridge's  catalogue.

[PaulT]

Nudged by the recent release of a 4CD set of Haircut 100's "Pelican West" album, but not wishing to invest £35 or more, I ordered the 2016 2CD deluxe edition for about 1/3 of the price.  

The original (LP) album + 4 bonus tracks on CD1, and 13 remixes and extended versions on CD2.  Great (original) production by Bob (the Beat) Sergeant, and apparently remastered for this release - but no credits I can find - it sounds superb.  The non-singles tracks are much jazzier than I'd expected, too - which is a pleasant surprise.  Uplifting pop music - and nowt wrong with that!

[Peter Allen]

I really enjoyed the original Pelican West CD in the car in summer months , fewer arguments with the family than with say Nico and her harmonium


I used to struggle with Van the man , but once he did that single with Cliff , well , if he's a mate of Cliff's , load up the auto changer

Now if Nico and Cliff had got together ..

[dog-nap (Ian)]

Iris DeMent’s latest – ‘Workin’ On a World.  Superb stuff.
 

[Alan2]

Roy Harper  Man and Myth  (Bella Union 2LP,  2013).

I bought this when it came out and gosh, has it really been 10 years?   Have I played it 10 times?  No more than that anyway.
But I think it's  a very fine album,  one of his best, up there with Stormcock.

[Will S]

Nudged by the recent release of a 4CD set of Haircut 100's "Pelican West" album, but not wishing to invest £35 or more, I ordered the 2016 2CD deluxe edition for about 1/3 of the price. 

The original (LP) album + 4 bonus tracks on CD1, and 13 remixes and extended versions on CD2.  Great (original) production by Bob (the Beat) Sergeant, and apparently remastered for this release - but no credits I can find - it sounds superb.  The non-singles tracks are much jazzier than I'd expected, too - which is a pleasant surprise.  Uplifting pop music - and nowt wrong with that!

Now I never expected Haircut 100 to appear in this thread!  I think I only know a couple of their songs (Fantastic Day, and Love Plus One), which are fun summery pop. Nick Heyward for Cropredy next year?!

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

Nudged by the recent release of a 4CD set of Haircut 100's "Pelican West" album, but not wishing to invest £35 or more, I ordered the 2016 2CD deluxe edition for about 1/3 of the price. 

The original (LP) album + 4 bonus tracks on CD1, and 13 remixes and extended versions on CD2.  Great (original) production by Bob (the Beat) Sergeant, and apparently remastered for this release - but no credits I can find - it sounds superb.  The non-singles tracks are much jazzier than I'd expected, too - which is a pleasant surprise.  Uplifting pop music - and nowt wrong with that!

Now I never expected Haircut 100 to appear in this thread!  I think I only know a couple of their songs (Fantastic Day, and Love Plus One), which are fun summery pop. Nick Heyward for Cropredy next year?!

I had one of his albums back in the 80's and it was more jazz-funk than pop. Definitely summery music!  

[bassline (Mike)]

Nudged by the recent release of a 4CD set of Haircut 100's "Pelican West" album, but not wishing to invest £35 or more, I ordered the 2016 2CD deluxe edition for about 1/3 of the price. 

The original (LP) album + 4 bonus tracks on CD1, and 13 remixes and extended versions on CD2.  Great (original) production by Bob (the Beat) Sergeant, and apparently remastered for this release - but no credits I can find - it sounds superb.  The non-singles tracks are much jazzier than I'd expected, too - which is a pleasant surprise.  Uplifting pop music - and nowt wrong with that!

Now I never expected Haircut 100 to appear in this thread!  I think I only know a couple of their songs (Fantastic Day, and Love Plus One), which are fun summery pop. Nick Heyward for Cropredy next year?!

He would be good in a Nick Kershaw sort of way.
I can't imagine needing a box set, but I did pick up a 'free with the Daily Mule' copy of Pelican West a couple of years ago, and was reminded of a time when listening to Radio One was an enjoyable experience.