“Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life.” Jean Paul Friedrich Richter

Hello all

First, of just want to give a little update on my mother in law, she is still in hospital but is doing well, and the whole family has been helping out with the caring of my Parkinson suffering father in law. He has even had the pleasure of me twice this week, waking him up to give him his 7 am tablets. He still hasn’t lost that sense of humour where he told me I shit the life out of him with that ugly head of mine at that time of the morning. Oh well, you can’t please them all.

Yet again my music listening has been affected by my personal life and football, but I did get to listen to some, and some time to write about it. I shared my views on Tears For Fears ‎– The Hurting, which is an album from my schooldays, very dark in some parts, a young 15 old me didn’t get it when I first got the album. A better album for an older me.
I have now been blogging about music for about 8 months, and one of the things I have enjoyed in that time period is reading other music blogs and learning about other music, so this week I wrote about Errol Linton ‎– Mama Said, Errol is mostly a Harmonica Blues player, but sometimes he throws in a bit reggae into the mix, and calls in Brixton blues. One of the Facebook groups I shared my point of view on Mama Said with, was Loving the Music group, Andrew Knapp the group Admin, and owner of the blog Loving the Music, really enjoy the Brixton blues. “Listening to Howlin’ for my Darlin’ at the moment while doing some design work. Great background music or crank it up and throw some moves around the lounge.”


When I read Andrews blog about a group that is mixing Bluegrass and Rap, I did think to myself it’s not going to work, as I thought Harmonica Blues and reggae wasn’t going to work I was wrong, and I thank Andrew for pointing this out to me with his post about the group Gangstagrass.

Another album I have been enjoying the week is Yazmin Lacey ‎– Morning Matters, I have been very impressed with this lady’s output.
On my Friday night visit to Sounds of the Suburbs, I picked up a copy of Black ‎– Wonderful Life, while Tony was getting the shop ready for Saturday instore event, Seeds of 77 instore Album launch.


After paying a visit to my father in law, and trying not to shit the life out of him again, I checked on his meds were sorted for the day and reminded him England were playing tonight, in his Irish accent he told that he knew because I had told him about six times, maybe I was getting a little excited.
When back home I caught up on my reading, so I read Loving the music and his post about Gangstagrass – Fully Justified and St Vincent – Annie Clark Strikes Again!. Another blog I follow is Steve for the Deaf, I enjoyed his post Too Tied (Feat Albert Collins) – Gary Moore, my introduction to Gary Moore was via a couple of Irish lads I was working with, and one day they were raving on about the new Gary Moore album, “After Hours”, at the time I did not know who Gary Moore was. I ended up buying “After Hours”, the slower tracks on that album, “Story Of The Blues”, “Separate Ways” “Jumpin’ At Shadows” “The Hurt Inside” just BLUE me away. Have been a fan since.

Once my reading was complete, I had a few hours to kill before the Seeds of 77 event, so after a shower and shave, black coffee was made, and I started listening to Suzanne Vega self-titled debut, this album has been in the to post about pile for a while, when I listen to it I sort of go blank on what to write about it and maybe a bit of a weird choice to listen to before you are going to see a punk band.

Going to the event, I know very little about Seeds of 77, I didn’t look them up at all, I like to be surprised, I am not a massive punk fan, but when it is done well I enjoy it. I also trust in Tony Smith vast knowledge in working with Seeds of 77, as the vinyl has come out on Sounds of the Suburbs record label. I have also been to a few of these events and have always enjoyed them. A bit about Seeds of 77 that I have read this morning from their Bandcamp page.

Seeds of 77 have one goal. Making hard-edged music heavily influenced by punk rock and its early 80s aftershocks. The starting point is the songs and here there is a wealth of talent. Lockdown Breakout is their debut album. Full Line-up:
Vince Mahon: Vocals
Michi Sinn: Vocals
Richard Sheldrake: Guitar/Vocals
Finn Panton: Bass/Vocals
Simon Daniels: Keyboards
Neil Harris: Drums

I really enjoyed the event, it being the first live music I have been able to attend in what seems an age, and the expected rain held off, so Tony’s wife has gained two rather nice umbrellas for the back garden. I really enjoyed the music as well, and the banter of the band, with the vocalist Vince Mahon not knowing where the next gig was and bassist Finn Panton showing off his tan. I tip my hat off to Seed of 77, I was told they had not played a lot live, but I thought they sounded great. They played 9 songs from the album Lockdown Breakout, this is the first time I have heard these songs, I enjoyed all of them, but a couple have really stuck out for me, “Thief of Love”, with its almost psychedelic feel to it, and the slower number “Lost and Found” where Michi Sinn took on the lead vocals.
Afterwards, the bands signed some album covers, I ended up buying a limited edition red vinyl ( there are only 75 copies of this), the CD, and a tee-shirt and had a chat with some of the band.
Mentioning tee-shirts, I had a Selecter tee-shirt on, the only reason for this is it was the one on the top of the pile that morning, drummer Neil Harris spotted the tee-shirt, and he is a fan, we had a little chat about, my visit to the Two-tone Exhibition in Coventry, The Specials, he had seen them 2 years ago, and I am going to see them in September, and there new drummer Kenrick Rowe, and a bit about reggae and Bob Marley.
Thanks, Tony and Seeds of 77 for an enjoyable Saturday afternoon, and once I get to know the album a bit more will share my thoughts.

Sounds of the Suburbs is only a 5-minute walk from my house on a bad day, so had to leave there to go and drop my wife off to see to my father in law, so she could make his dinner, the in-car music was Robert Miles ‎– Dreamland, I asked my wife opinion on this, and her words were ” Its a lot more upbeat compared to what you were listening to this morning, I thought you were going to hang yourself listening to that”, oh I don’t think my wife is a Suzanne Vega fan.

Got back to watch Denmark beat the Czech Republic 2-1, drove back up to pick the wife up, still blarring out Robert Miles. Had to stop at some lights and there was this group of young lads in their England tops on, looking over at me, they must of thought, look at the old man playing a bit of Dream Trance, what a wanker, oh well.
Back home and the nerves set in, it’s not been easy being an England fan, but I was not ready for England to score within the first 4 minutes v Ukranie, I was still not settled until the 3 goal went in. Great result 4-0, are we starting to belive in Garth, with a Semi final again Denmark on Wednesday.

COME ON ENGLAND!

Stay safe all, and have a good week.

Oh, I also listened to the below, on my way to work.

I have always been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share them with you, as we did in the old days with tapes

The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify, so above is some of what I have been listening to this week.

(Visited 53 times, 1 visits today)