How to win a bet - Dirty Old Town

If you fancy a tip on how to win yourself a bet in an Irish bar, stick around & I'll explain.

Ask someone where the classic folk song 'Dirty Old Town' is set & you will generally receive the following responses, Dublin?, Belfast? At which point, you can correct them & pick up your winnings as I've done in Irish bars previously, by advising that it  was written about Salford, Greater Manchester, where its composer was from.
The association with Ireland one suspects, is in the fact that it has been covered successfully by both
 The Pogues & The Dubliners,  it has actually been covered many many times by a very diverse set of artists, from Rod Stewart to The Specials.
The song was written by legendary folk singer songwriter Ewan MacColl, father of the late, great Kirsty MacColl, and also wrote, among others, the Grammy award winning 'The first time ever I saw your face'.
Bearing in mind that I've always loved the song, it was a very nice experience to be at The Matchstick Man pub in Salford Quays last December, when an old guy by the name of Jim, got up to sing, mercifully curtailing the tired old karaoke songs which were being ritually put to death in the bar & belted out a beautiful rendition of the the old song in homage to his hometown. Whilst the days of a good old singalong in North West pubs are largely long gone, as they are elsewhere in the UK,  it was especially unexpected as it was pleasing, to hear this authentic slice of northern gold served up in Salford on a cold December night.




Refreshments in Salford Dec 12

We were in the pub following the Squeeze gig at the Apollo, it is incredibly difficult to give a balanced view of this gig as I've been a fan for such a long time but in the interests of a objective critique, here goes!  Musically they were amazing, Glenn Tilbrook has lost nothing of his excellent vocals and remains a very underrated guitarist, some of his solos on the night were pure joy. When they played the hits and much loved songs we had all come to hear, it was awesome. However, they spent way too long self indulging in both new & obscure tracks which quite frankly, in parts had us yawning. Seriously guys, you know what everyone was hoping for, its not all about you, its about the audience you are entertaining, unfortunately it didn't quite come off & ended up a little bit disappointing. I suppose when you have been around as long as this band has, they have the right to a little self indulgence but come on, Squeeze, you can do better! Highlight for me, outside of the obvious 'Up the junction' and singalonga-labelled-with love, was Black Coffee in Bed, this track really works surprisingly well in a live environment.
One person who certainly didn't disappoint was support act  Paul Heaton, the ex Housemartins and Beautiful South singer/songwriter treated us to tracks from all phases of his brilliant career, with the emphasis particularly on the early Housemartins stuff, he was expertly assisted by his own three piece band, an acapello rendition of 'Caravan of Love' as a finale brought the house down. Without doubt, the best opening act I've seen for some time. I'm sure the crowd at the Apollo would not have complained at all if he'd have played on for another hour, outstanding!

The night was introduced  by comedian Peter Kay, another lifelong Squeeze fan, very random opening, but very funny! Fans of Corrie will be interested to hear we got a taxi to the gig from Streetcars! Alas neither Steve nor Lloyd was driving!
Gigs a plenty coming up this year, February will see us at both the Train & The Killers gigs in Manchester, The Fratellis are up next in Camden Town in April & Springsteen and the E Street band in Cardiff in July! Not bad for starters, hopefully going to be a great year for concerts!

Sad news about the demise of HMV but is anyone really surprised? The idea of a record store has been out-dated for years, surpassed with the no-nonsense, stock everything black holes that are Amazon and iTunes and generally the world wide interweb!. I loved mooching around record stores back in the day just as much as anyone else, but the music industry and how we peruse and purchase our music has changed dramatically, and for the better in this bloggers humble opinion. Instead of thumbing album or CD covers I now sift through the mountain of music at my fingertips on Youtube, if I like, I buy, there and then. I intend to cover more on the changing face of music making and purchasing in a future blog, but for now, HMV like the rest of the high street has failed to move with the times and is now paying the ultimate price. The high street has to reinvent itself, there are still, believe it or not, suburbs in a number of the UK's major cities and towns, where the High street is flourishing, they are doing so becaused they have evolved to adapt to the needs of their consumers and are vibrant places to visit, spend your hard earned pennies and simply enjoy being out in town. Unfortunately they are in a minority, more need to follow suit if we aren't to be completely taken over by the relentless march of betting shops, takeaways and hairdressers!

On a brighter note, a brand new Summats single will be released shortly, stangely enough via the aforementioned iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc, with a new EP hot on its heels before the summer. Its been a long time coming, our unerring ability to procrastinate never fails us! However, the tracks are largely ready to go with a little more effort put in, studio time coming up to finalise vocals, then its down to our friend and producer Danny Wyatt aka Fractured Calm to deliver the finished tracks, no pressure Danny! :) https://soundcloud.com/fracturedcalm

Until next time, take care and keep smiling.

Baggers 

In the studio

So we're back in the studio, working a new single, which may become the first track of an EP, or the first track of an album! Who knows, whatever way it turns out, its good to be finally producing some music again. The primary holdup has been my move from Australia back to the UK last year, takes longer than you would imagine to get yourself settled, with all your stuff around you and in the frame of mind to create!

We have a heap of tunes in demo state, finishing them is the problem! The track we are currently working on is called 'Second Hand Store', originally written about two years ago, as you can tell, we dont work quickly! In fact, since we wrote this track, Libya has had a revolution, Qatar have been awarded a soccer World Cup and I moved back to the Northern hemsphere! Almost at final mix stage, will let you know when its out there.

Very sad news to hear of the death of Robin Gibb. For anyone who may think that the Bee Gees were all teeth and big hair, should check out what brilliant songwriters the brothers were, producing hits for both themselves & countless other artists across five decades. One of the finest musical talents Britain has ever produced, he will be sadly missed.

Logged into our band account this morning & lo and behold, some new royalties had arrived... this is from a new source called iTunes match, apparently a royalty payment is due when our tracks are played through someones itunes match account. Although a small payment, this was unexpected and much appreciated, also another example of how Tunecore & iTunes are helping independant musicians to get their music heard and ensure royalties are forthcoming when they do. Well done guys, now if only PRSformusic was so efficient!

I have a particular guitar melody, written about 15 years ago, which refuses to leave my brain! Its one of those tracks that I always play whenever I pickup the guitar. I'm finally going to get around to writing a lyric for it, it's amazing how a tune can just stay in your head, hanging around like it owns the place until you get around to finishing it! Its a lovely melody  and really does deserve a good lyric, like a little orphan, its just waiting for someone to love it, will let you know when I've finally finished it.

In December this year we'll be paying a visit to Manchester Apollo, along with our significant others, to see Squeeze, one of our all time favourite bands, and if that wasnt enough, they will be supported by Paul Heaton, ex of The Housemartins & The Beautiful South, more recently solo star and landlord of the Kings Arms pub in Salford!. Saw The Beautiful South at GMex in Manchester during the heady days of their success in the 1990's, never seen Squeeze though and excited doesnt even begin to cover it! They delivered a huge chunk of the soundtrack to our youth! So big night at the Apollo followed by a some appropriate refreshments in the city coming up, good times!

Check out the new video on Youtube which was filmed in Kent during winter 2011, the song was originally written in 2009 and was actually the first track we worked on after getting back together to write some new stuff after a gap of twenty years!. It was released as part of the 'May Street Bridge' EP in March 2011, still one of my favourite songs of ours, hope you like it. Until next time, take care & keep smiling :)

Baggers