Love, Poetry and Revolution - Wednesday 4th September 2024

A while ago, probably longer than I thought, I wanted to create a separate music blog. I started it, or at least the outline for it, but that's as far as I got.

My love of and, interest in, music has not waned.  I don't have as much 'spare' time as I used to, even though I was working back then.  There is so much more to do now. Variety is the spice of life.

This blog has always had a musical dimension, and it started out purely as a blog about music. 

Although music has always, or at least since early childhood been a core part of my life, for a long period of E's illness it's also been a form of escape.  Not purely escape, in the sense that many song lyrics helped me to navigate, understand and work out how to respond to what was going on in our lives.

Pure music writing is something I still feel the need to do, but as my life expands and grows I have to decide what are the most important things, as we all do, at some point.

Prompted by the Oasis reunion - you may have heard about it - I've been thinking about come-back tours and nostalgia. I'm not a big fan of nostalgia and feel that the past was never as good as we think it was.  We often focus on things we enjoyed at the time, forgetting about the really awful things surrounding them.

I'll put my cards on the table. I'm not interested in seeing Oasis, back then or now.  I've never really understood their appeal. I don't find them in any way original or exploring any new musical dimensions. Lyrically, well, I'm saying nothing.  I guess I don't really like sing-a-long massive chorus things particularly.   There was some stuff Noel recorded with The Amorphous Androgynous several years back, which Noel has refused to release.  It could have been the best stuff they'd done, but we'll probably never find out.

The reason I wanted to explore this nostalgia/reunion thing is because I'd recently seen Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets at the Albert Hall and thoroughly enjoyed it.  On the surface, what's the difference?

I used to have this rule that I'd not see a band that had reformed unless they were releasing new material. An ongoing creative act.

I've broken that rule, with Stereolab, at least and maybe the other odd band or artist.  Stereolab have a huge back catalogue and are still releasing previously unreleased music, recorded a while ago.  I saw them live the first time around before Tim and Laetitia's relationship broke down, and I've seen them since. The great thing is they didn't just play a greatest hits set (what hits?) though they did cover a range of albums, fan favourites and more obscure tracks, like 'John Cage Bubblegum'.  The other key fact is they are better now than they were before.

Back to Nick Mason's SoS. As I'm sure you know Nick Mason was the original drummer with Pink Floyd.  You probably also know Pink Floyd's songs can be divided into those recorded when Syd Barrett was the main songwriter and those since. Almost like two different bands.  Syd is considered by many to be a cult hero, but I'm not going to delve into that.  Post-Syd, Pink Floyd's output can also be divided into the albums before 'Dark Side of The Moon', and since. (There's a further grouping of music after Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters fell out, but that's irrelevant to SoS). When Nick Mason and his band got together, I was aghast: on guitar and vocals was one Gary Kemp.  The bloke from Spandau Ballet. How can this be?  New romantic to Prog?  FFS? Is nothing sacred?

Of course, I was wrong. After I heard some of the 'Live at the Roundhouse' album and DVD, I realised he was perfect, though he's not Syd or David G.

The intriguing things about SoS are various. There's the presence of Nick, a co-founder of the band.  They only play songs from the Syd Barrett era up to the album 'Meddle', the predecessor of 'DSOTM'.  They pay homage to Syd.  Some of the band members have Pink Floyd connections.  They clearly enjoy what they are playing but don't just recreate, they play around with songs depending on how they feel on the night.  More than that they play songs that either haven't been played live or haven't been played live since the Syd incarnation, but most of all I've never heard live. The breadth and variety of the music made the gig all the better. Perhaps the best thing is, Nick has a gong. Maybe even THE gong as seen on 'Live at Pompeii' (the original). (Roger Waters bangs it in 'Live at Pompeii' and Nick does a comic riff on the fact that Roger has lost it and wonders if Nick knows where it is)

SoS is not nostalgia for me since I'd not seen/heard any of it live before. Ultimately SoS were a fun live experience, Gary Kemp is a good guy and, of course, the gong.

Lone /  'Airglow Fires'  / (Single) (Probably, as far as I can tell)

[[]]