Marianne Faithful – Madame George. Live!

The Fleadh at Finsbury Park 1999.

One of the best days of music I ever had was at The Fleadh in Finsbury Park, London in 1999. It was a  hot day, almost too hot. Me and Kim left our Paddington hotel and caught the tube to Finsbury. The first band we saw were called Lunasa who played some great Irish music. Then we watched a singer-songwriter from Wales who I was really impressed with whose name was David Gray. Little did we realise that he would shortly become world famous with his album White Ladder. Then we raced to the second stage to catch John Martyn whose performance was warmly received. There was just time to run to the main stage to catch a bit of  fine Irish music by Altan. Then back to stage two to see Luka Bloom who as you know is the brother of Christy Moore. Luka said what a pleasure it was to listen to John Martyn earlier. Then we faced an awkward choice, either Eddi Reader or Afro Celt Sound System. We opted for the latter because I had bought their album quite recently. The music of the day was getting better and better. Canadian band Barenaked Ladies were next. They were good fun and I especially like their song Lying In Bed Like Brian Wilson. 

There was no rest as we chased back to stage two to catch Brian Kennedy who I had got to know through his work with Van. I think my favourite song of his set was the Dusty Springfield classic Goin' Back. Following this, we were back at the main stage for one of my favourite Irish bands The Saw Doctors.They were great, playing such classics as The Green And Red Of Mayo and Joyce Country Ceili Band. Then it was all the way to stage three to see the late great  Ronnie Drew, a legend whose band The Dubliners started the whole popularity of Irish music. It was a pleasure to see him. We were getting tired now, so we took a rest and a bite to eat on the grass. Who should come strolling along carrying his guitar but Ronnie. We had a little chat and I said said how much i enjoyed his work with Jah Wobble on the Celtic Poets album.

"Oh you liked that one did ya?" said Ronnie, and we shook hands and off he went. A great moment.

Saw Doctors.

 After our meeting with Ronnie we headed for stage 2 to catch most of Lonnie Donegan's set. He was good but he didn't do My Old Man's A Dustman which I hoped he would. This was the second time we had seen Lonnie that summer. Previously we had seen him at Glastonbury. This was followed by Elvis Costello on the main stage. I lay on the ground for this I'm afraid as I was getting tired by now. Pop star Ronan Keating of Boyzone fame did a short 15 minute set next which the youngsters in the audience loved. Sadly we missed John Prine on another stage.

Then it was time for the act that I'd waited all day for, Van Morrison. This was the first time I had seen Van in two years since Glastonbury 97. We managed to make our way right to the front. Van didn't disappoint. His performance began with Baby Please Don't Go, Here Comes The Night and Brown Eyed Girl all in a medley, followed by Its All Over Now Baby Blue.What a great start. I can't remember a lot about the performance now. My main memories are of Lonnie Donegan joining him onstage for Muleskinner Blues and Elvis Costello coming on to sing Jackie Wilson Says. Elvis stayed for a rousing Gloria to finish the show. I think Van only did an hour, but it was great. After Van there was still The Pretenders and Shane MacGowan, but we were exhausted by now, so we headed back to Paddington on the tube before the rush. Sitting in a pub near our hotel I reflected that this was one of the busiest and best days of music I had ever had. 

Van Morrison at The Fleadh, Finsbury Park 1999.

Van Morrison at Glastonbury Abbey 2004.

Glastonbury Tor

As well as playing at Glastonbury Festival seven times Van Morrison has also played in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey four times. The first time was in 2004 and when I heard he was there I knew we had to go. We loaded up the Fiat Cinquento with chairs and picnic stuff  and headed down the Ancient Highway towards Glastonbury. Kim drove and I wondered what lay ahead. Would the concert be something special as Avalon had been such an influence on Van's work?. When we reached Pilton there was no sight of the 5 mile 12 ft fence that surrounded the site of The Glastonbury Festival. We had been here at the world's biggest Pop Festival only five weeks before. Soon the famous Tor came into view. As we got nearer, tiny figures could be seen walking about on the summit. They weren't the Elfin Folk from the Underworld, they were ordinary people, they just looked tiny because they were a long way away.

The George & Pilgrim.

We arrived at our hotel, The George And Pilgrim, which is about 600 years old and supposed to be haunted. In the bar there was a good crowd of Van fans including Simon from Wavelength magazine who organised the pre-show gatherings in those days. We had a merry little gang assembled and it was great to meet The Dude from North Carolina who is a legend in his own lunchtime. Finally, we walked across the road to the Abbey grounds for the concert.

Abbey Ruins.

The support act Chris Farlowe who I don't like very much was on when we arrived. We had a picnic and then it was time for Van, so we walked down to the front of the stage where we were just a few feet away from Van who was wearing his summertime straw hat..All Work And No Play was the first song which I didn't like much, followed by  Fame, which I wasn't keen on either. Jackie Wilson Says was a lot better. Then Van started singing Sometimes We Cry which is a great song, but Chris Farlowe came back on stage and ruined it. Then the pair of them sang Walking My Baby Back Home which was dire in my opinion. Whining Boy Moan was next and I was disappointed, to put it mildly. I said to The Dude,
"This is crap Dude". 

"Relax man, its the summertime!"

"Oh, Alright"

King Arthur's Grave.

Things got better after that. Baby Please Don't Go was followed by Here Comes The Night. Then a Van classic And It Stoned Me. Everything was forgiven. Back On Top was nice, Then another classic song Tore Down A La Rimbaud followed by Wonderful Remark and In The Afternoon. We walked back to where we were camped and listened to Precious Time which was followed by It's All Over Now Baby Blue, then Brown Eyed Girl and finally Gloria. The crowd loved it. It had been a great night with Van in Glastonbury. We did see Van once more in 2004 on November 26th at the Brighton Dome, but it was one of the most uninspired shows I have seen and I can't remember anything worth reporting about it, but the following year 2005 we went to eight Van shows and some of them were really memorable.

Van Morrison at Glastonbury Abbey 2004.

Give Me Take You by Duncan Browne.

Another dark and rainy afternoon. Storm Dudley (Silly name for a storm) is set to slam into Britain tomorrow, followed by Storm Eunice on Friday, so I don’t think I will be venturing out for a few days. Not to worry, Spring will be here before you know it. In the meantime, I’m quite content to stay in, read, and listen to my music. I just thought I would tell you about a CD which arrived yesterday. It is called Give Me Take You by Duncan Browne. The album was originally released in 1968 and I think this is the first CD version from 2000 with five bonus tracks. Previous to buying this album I ever only knew one Duncan Browne song which was called Journey, and reached number 23 in the UK charts in 1972. I liked that song when it came out but had forgotten all about it until last week when it was played on BBC6 Music by Ezra Furman. I have shared Journey below if you want to hear it. It made me wonder what ever happened to Duncan Browne, so I did a bit of internet research.

Duncan was born in 1947 and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Art,. In 1967 he met Andrew Loog Oldham who was the manager of The Rolling Stones and after Duncan provided the choral arrangements for Hang On To A Dream by The Nice he signed Duncan Browne to his ill-fated label Immediate Records. Duncan wrote the music for his first album with a friend David Bretton who worked on the lyrics. The album was called Give Me Take You and I read that it was a lost cult classic and a minor masterpiece of the psychedelic era. One critic described it as Pre-Raphaelite rock. Other words used to describe it were baroque and neo-classical. I knew I had to see if I could find a copy, and there was one in an auction on eBay. I put in a bid for £3.50 and it was mine.

I must say after two listens that I think it is a most enjoyable album. The title track Give Me Take You opens the album with a choral introduction and harp and woodwind accompanying Duncan’s acoustic guitar and vocal. Duncan had quite a posh educated singing voice which suits the literate poetic lyrics. Ninepence Worth Of Walking gets it’s title from walking home rather than pay the bus fare. I can recognise doing that because when we were kids my mum used to give us the bus fare to school, and we used to walk instead, and spend the bus money on sweets. The Ghost Walks is a very elegiac song about a great actor. I think Duncan and David Bretton both had ambitions to become actors. Duncan Browne has been compared to Nick Drake. Nearly every singer with a folk-rock sound gets compared to Nick Drake, but I think with the song Gabilan you can definitely hear a similarity. 

Alfred Bell is a great song about the lonely life of an ageing schoolteacher. To bring the song to life Andrew Oldham despatched them to a local school to record the kids singing disparaging songs about Alfred Bell. On The Bombsite is on a similar theme and is a nostalgic memory of the games kids played on London’s bomb sites after the war. It was released as a single without success. Some of the songs remind me of an album by The Zombies that I wrote about a few months ago. In fact, I did discover that Duncan shared a flat with Colin Blunstone of The Zombies at one time, so maybe they did influence each other.

Due to Andrew Loog Oldham’s lack of business sense Immediate Records went bankrupt and Duncan Browne was presented with a bill of £2,000 recording costs. That was an enormous amount of money in those days. The album flopped because it got no promotion. Duncan later signed with RAK Records where he had his solitary hit record. He later formed a group called Metro without success. One of his songs called Criminal World was recorded by David Bowie on his Let’s Dance album. Duncan also provided the theme music to a popular UK TV series called Travelling Man which you may remember. Sadly, Duncan was diagnosed with cancer in 1990 and died in 1993 aged only 46. He never achieved the success that his talent deserved, but hopefully interest in his music will continue to grow. If you want to hear this album in full you can find it on Youtube. Cheers.

Journey by Duncan Browne

Words of Love.

When I woke up this morning I had So Long Marianne by Leonard Cohen in my head. That is because the last thing I watched on the telly last night was a film by Nick Broomfield called Leonard & Marianne, Words Of Love. I have seen it before, but it is well worth watching again. After it finished, I was wondering what became of Marianne’s son Axel. I found out that he has been living in a psychiatric institution in Norway for many years, which is a very sad postscript to the film and shows the dark side of the counterculture of the 1960s. I was pleased to see contributions by Judy Collins who first popularised Leonard’s songs, and the late Julie Felix who I had the pleasure of meeting briefly at Glastonbury on two occasions.

The best way to get a song out of your head is to play it, so I put on Leonard Cohen, Greatest Hits in my kitchen and sat there with a cup of tea listening to the songs. Watching the clouds drifting by through the kitchen window seemed to perfectly compliment the music, every few minutes the wintery sky would change from blue to slate grey. The starlings were on guard duty on top of their tree and further away a solitary wood pigeon reminded me of Bird On A Wire. There is a line in that song which says, Like a drunk in a midnight choir. That reminds me of going to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in our local Catholic church. Some of the congregation had obviously been in the pub beforehand! I think the song that I have grown to like the most over the years is Chelsea Hotel which is about Leonard’s relationship with Janis Joplin. In my view, more than any other singer-songwriter his songs are really poetry set to music.

That reminds me, I said I would tell you about the books I found recently. I went over to Warminster on Friday for the first time in ages to see Sian. I left her in Wetherspoons while I had a quick scoot around the charity shops. In the Red Cross shop, I found a nice hardback first edition novel by Naomi Ishiguro called Common Ground. She is the daughter of Kazuo Ishiguro who wrote The Remains Of The Day and other great books, so I’m looking forward to reading that. In the Dorothy House shop, I found a whole heap of nice poetry books. A Snail In My Prime by Paul Durcan. I discovered his work when he co-wrote The Days Before Rock And Roll with Van Morrison. I got even more interested when I found out that he was brought up in County Mayo which is where my family came from. I found a book about D.H. Lawrence by Anais Nin who I like because of her association with Henry Miller. 

A book by Sinead Morrissey who I know nothing about, but like her name. Also, books by Charles Simic and Linda Lamus who I also don’t know, but I liked the covers. All these books were in beautiful condition and only £1.00 each, so I was well chuffed to find them. There is a danger of my house being full of books and music, but that is no bad thing is it. Anyway, after Leonard had stopped singing this morning, I decided to go back to bed where it is nice and warm. I was just re-entering the land of Nod when there was a knock on my front door. “Hang on”, I shouted, running downstairs. It was the postman with a package for me. I’ll tell you all about what was in it tomorrow.

Inside the Taj Mahal by Paul Horn.

I have acquired a few new CDs and books recently, so as it is another cold and rainy Sunday afternoon, I thought I would start telling you about them. The CD I want to talk about today is called Inside The Taj Mahal by Paul Horn. I first heard this album about 50 years ago in my old college days. I knew this couple called Dave & Sylvie and one night they played this album which I thought was amazing. It perfectly suited the state of temporary artificial heightened awareness that we were in that evening, if you know what I mean. I don’t think I heard the album again until I was reminded of it recently when I was looking for music suitable for mindfulness and meditation. When I looked on eBay I couldn’t find a copy for sale in Britain, so I ordered it from Germany where a CD was available coupled with a follow-up album Inside 11.

Paul Horn & George Harrison.

Paul Horn (1930- 2014) was an American flautist, saxophonist, composer and producer. He was also a pioneer of New Age and World music. During the 1950s & early 60s he was a jazz musician working with the likes of Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett. His music began to change in the mid-1960s when he began practicing Transcendental Meditation. In 1968 he travelled to India with The Beatles to the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was after this trip that he came to play the flute in the dome of the Taj Mahal. While he was a visit to the dome he saw a guard on duty who would emit a ‘Call’ every few minutes to demonstrate the remarkable echo inside the marble dome. The echo would last for 28 seconds. He asked for permission to play his flute and was told to return at 8.30 that evening when there wouldn't be many tourists around. 

He returned that evening with his guide Sankar, a sound recordist John Archer and a photographer Earl Barton. Paul Horn played one note on his alto flute and thought it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. When he played more chords, it sounded like a chorus of angels. The guard on duty was impressed and joined in by singing his call. When the guard cleared out the last few tourists and closed the dome, he allowed them to stay until 11.00. The guard even brought a friend to join in who he said was a good singer. Although the friend didn’t speak English, he and Paul Horn produced a perfect improvised duet. Neither the guard or his friend are identified in the album notes. I hope Paul Horn paid them well for their contribution. If you listen carefully to the recording, you can hear the buzzing of a solitary mosquito on one track. The recording was never meant to be an album, but when Paul Horn played it to friends it was picked up by Epic Records. By 2001 it had sold 1,000,000 copies.

The other recording Inside 11 is also enjoyable. It was released in 1972. The first track has the sounds of nature, such as Niagara Falls, rain; river, streams, and waves accompanied by a simple flute, there is a track called Haida which is the name of a killer whale who lived at Sea World in Victoria, Canada. Paul Horn recorded this intelligent creature and its mate Chimo and improvised his flute along with their sounds. There is also a track of four Bach Chorales, some soundtrack music for a film called Centaur and a 15^th century work by a composer called Palestrina. In total there is 73 minutes of wonderful peaceful music that I have enjoyed hearing again on this rainy February Sunday afternoon.