Author Archives: twilightdawning

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About twilightdawning

Amongst other things, I write professionally. I've been published everywhere from the small (Barnsley Chronicle), to the large (London Sunday Times colour supplement). I primarily write about music, theatre and sport. Most of the articles here have been previously published. No copyright infringement intended I also work in the music world. I've worked as a producer, promoter and general ideas man and conceptualizer. At the moment I'm working with Sad Cafe among others. I'm building a theatre. It's almost done after three years of planning and trying to be kind to my architect and my builders. We open in October 2012. I run a theatrical production company called "The Shakespearience". We perform an introduction to William Shakespeare for young people. Most of all I work in the charitable and faith sphere. I'm senior pastor of an unusual church in central London. I'm a busy man.

Death, the last enemy

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Hi

Death is a bastard. Because of the nature of my day job I seem to encounter it a lot more than the average man on the street but don’t let that fool you into thinking you ever get used to it. You never get used to it. Losing someone you’re caring for and helping others through is hard, but losing someone you cared for before they became ill is harder. I never want to get used to losing friends and loved ones and if I ever do I’ll know that I have become less of a human being than I want to be. People matter more than most everything else and friends are top of that list. Tell me if I stop caring…..

Larry Norman – 1947-2008

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Only Visiting this Planet
So Long Ago the Garden
In Another Land
Something New Under the Son
Stop this Flight
Stranded in Babylon
Tourniquet

Larry Norman probably released way too many cds. I pretty much own them all. But if I was new to his music I’d probably want to buy one (or more) of the seven I’ve listed above. There were others….. Bootleg, Upon this Rock, Home at Last…. which I could use to round out a ten but seven seems a good number when you’re thinking about Larry. I first heard his music in 1982. I first met him in 1984. I brought him to London to play a concert in 2001. He was an inspiration every step of the way and I don’t think my life would have worked out the way that it has without the soundtrack of his songs – which is tough when you think he’s not going to be recording anymore. I found Larry difficult in many ways but this was out-weighed massively by his contribution to my life in many, many ways.

Brighton by the sea

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So I made the journey from home in London to Brighton to catch Swarf last night. If anybody actually read these things you may remember I raved about them a couple of weeks ago as a neglected electronic band much deserving of acclaim and exposure.
The gig was at the Prince Albert where I’d previously journeyed to see them at the end of last year. I’d known that there were two bands on the bill but was disappointed to see that Swarf were the openers rather than the “headliners” but, hey, when it comes to good music, we’ll take what we can get.
Swarf were on great form once again although if I’d been on the desk I would have pushed Liz’s vocals a little higher in the mix. They did some new songs which I’m not familiar with which was brave in this kind of environment where some of those gathered had principally come to see the “The Last Cry” (the other band on the bill). These sounded great and I presume that this means that there is a new album at some point which is something to look forward to. If someone else was there and has a setlist I’d be very appreciative…..
Great complex keyboard arrangements with some unusual soundings show up the bands creativity whilst the mercurial vocals are better than anything else you’ll hear around at the moment. Highlights: Parlour Tricks, Supine, Not Enough and some of those newies I don’t know the names of. Great night out!!

Listen to my album from 20 years ago

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There’s a real trend at the moment for doing a show that is based around a complete performance of an old album. I’m not sure how this differs from a band that has lost its way creatively and is just doing “nostalgia” shows for the money but it seems that it does in the mind of the audience. It seems to work. I caught John Foxx last year doing a complete performance of Metamatic (from 1980), b-sides, outakes and all. It was a great night. In retrospect though I didn’t enjoy it as much as when he toured “From Trash” earlier in the year or when he did his art-house stuff like “Tiny Colour Movies” so I remain a little ambivalent.
One of the best tours I ever saw was All About Eve when they were performing with Toni Haimi on guitars doing a set that was almost entirely new material and which had never been committed to disc. All lot of that material still hasn’t. It was boundless energy and unpredictable. A little different from here’s the song that was side 1 track 4 on the original vinyl release.
Anyway, life is for living and I’ll take both. Just booked to see Gary Numan performing the whole of “Replicas” in the Spring….. Seems a whole lot more credible than Sweet whose remaining members are doing a Seventies show with the Rubettes and Showaddywaddy. Why is this that? I wish I understood the difference.

A Fantasy world?

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An old song by T-Bone Burnett. Lyrics bear reading:

Somewhere between Never Neverland and Wonderland
In a land called Never Wonderland
There lived a beautiful wealthy young divorcee
With a chequered past and a bad memory
Who should probably remain nameless
And men travelled from far and wide and try to win her hand
And she took in stragglers from all over the known world

Her newest guests were (as her mother called them)
“The latest Russians to defect”
One’s name was Hefner
The other’s name was Disney
Disney smoked a pipe and was very philosophical
He was constantly surrounded by go-go girls
And he used to take pictures of them without any clothes on
And sell them to the neighbourhood children

Hefner on the other hand was not so introspective
He loved a good story just like anybody else
In fact he loved the myths of Never Wonderland so much
That he made elaborate moulded plastic sculptures
Of the characters in the myths
Then … he would put them out in the garden
Until …. he had built a whole nother land in Never Wonderland
Which he called Hefnerland

And the neighbourhood children loved them
They had lots of fun playing in Hefnerland
And looking at all Disney’s go-go pictures
Because they didn’t know any better
And they didn’t know any worse
But the beautiful young wealthy divorcee thought
That they were only after her money
Sometimes she even wished they would go back to Russia

(But between you and me they were really dupes of the Wicked King
Who wanted to rob the children of their dreams)

Jazz snobs

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Jazz snobs irritate me. You know the kind of guy who claims it’s not jazz unless it is some kind of standard or follows some kind of bebop form. For a music that is all about improvisation, it sure seems to attract a lot of people who like pigeonhole things. For me, improvisation is the heart of jazz. On one extreme, I like Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck. In the middle ground, I’ll listen to a little Danilo Perez or Eliane Elias. Out on the other edge I love the music of Bob James. It should be obvious by now that piano is my favourite instrument when it comes to all kinds of jazz. But one thing all these piano players have in common is that they surrounded themselves with some great bands.

A guy who used to play with Bob James in the early eighties is Mark Colby, the tenor saxophonist. He’s been making some great straight-ahead jazz on Hallway Records. His latest is a tribute to the sax great Stan Getz. It’s one of the finest albums I’ve heard in the last two years. Here’s a guy who has made some great modern jazz but has also done the contemporary stuff too. Where there’s real talent there’s no room for jazz snobs and their pigeon holes. Just room for great music.