Beth Orton: Cheese & Grain, Frome, 14/3/2019

I went to see Beth Orton at the Cheese & Grain in Frome on Thursday. The concert wasn’t part of a tour, it was a one-off concert by Beth to celebrate International Women’s Day although it wasn’t actually on that day. The support act She Makes War had been taken ill so a young singer from Devizes called Tamsin Quin stepped in at short notice. She did very well with a very enjoyable set which included songs from her album Gypsy Blood. I was quite taken with one song in particular called Jennifer. During the interval I had a little chat with Tamsin and bought her album. I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but I might write a review when I have time.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Beth Orton because I hadn’t seen her before and I’m not an expert on her career by any means. I had heard her music described as Folktronica so I was kind of expecting guitars and electronic instruments. I think she must have moved on from being the ‘chill out queen’ because as it turned out it was just Beth and her guitar and her husband, guitarist and backing singer Sam Amidon. I also had a quick few words with Sam after the gig and he told me that he comes from Vermont in the USA and he has his own solo career as well as playing with Beth. He is also a great violin player as he demonstrated on one song.

Gypsy Blood by Tamsin Quin.

 When Beth came on stage, she said most of the songs would be from her album Central Reservation as it is 20 years since that album was released. That was unfortunate for me because I only have one Beth Orton album which is Trailer Park. I think I would have enjoyed the concert a lot more if I had been more familiar with her work. I did enjoy it though, even if I couldn’t make out all the lyrics. She has a very nice personality, very humorous and self-deprecating. When she sings though, the songs are very emotional, and heart felt. I made a few notes of some of the songs but because I don’t know the songs I expect I have made lots of mistakes. I recognised Someone’s Daughter because it is on Trailer Park. It is a great song. I also enjoyed Blood Red River, a very soulful song.

Sam Amidon.

Pass In Time is another very moving song. The lyrics mention, ‘My mother told me before she died’ so it may be a very personal song for Beth. Central Reservation is much more upbeat, as is Call Me The Breeze which is a simple very catchy song. “ This is a fuckin’ classic”, said Beth when she introduced Shopping Trolley from the Comfort Of Strangers album of 2005. Wave is from a recent album called Kidsticks. Concrete Sky is a great song which Beth informed us was on the Daybreaker album. The only other song I noted down was She Cries Your Name which was part of the encore and is my favourite song from Trailer Park.

While writing this so-called review I have been listening to the songs on YouTube and I must say it has made a rainy windy Saturday afternoon very enjoyable. I like Beth Orton more all the time and I’m very pleased that I made the effort to go and see her in Frome. Thank you very much to the Cheese & Grain for organising the concert. We are very lucky to have such a great venue in this area.

Beth Orton - Call me the Breeze

Hal Blaine.

Brian Wilson & Hal Blaine.

I was very sorry to hear last night that Hal Blaine has passed away aged 90. Many people haven’t heard of Hal Blaine but he was one of the great unsung heroes of popular music. He was probably the greatest session drummer of all time. I got to hear of him through the work he did with my favourite band the Beach Boys. Hal played the drums on the Pet Sounds album which is arguably the best album ever made by a group. He played on Good Vibrations which is my favourite pop song of all time. He played on lots of other Beach Boys classic recordings. The Beach Boys regular drummer Dennis Wilson didn’t mind at all about this, in fact he was pleased because it gave Dennis more time for his hobbies of chasing girls, driving cars, surfing and getting stoned. Dennis admired Hal so much that he even asked him to play drums on his solo album Pacific Ocean Blue.

It was Phil Spector who first noticed how great Hal was when he played on the Ronettes song He’s A Rebel. He became a member of Spector’s house band who became known as The Wrecking Crew. Other notable members of this outfit were bass player Carole Kaye, guitar player Glen Campbell and keyboards player Leon Russell. Hal is thought to have played on 6,000 songs including some of the most famous pop records of all time such as Mr Tambourine Man by The Byrds, Strangers In The Night by Frank Sinatra, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel, Eve Of Destruction by Barry McGuire, Dizzy by Tommy Roe, Cracklin’ Rose by Neil Diamond to name but a few. Hal played on 40 number one hit singles in the USA.

Brian Wilson played tribute to his good friend last night when he said, “I’m so sad, I don’t know what to say, Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words. Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success – he was the greatest drummer ever. We also laughed an awful lot. Love, Brian.”

You can see a fabulous video below of Hal and Brian recording Good Vibrations together.

Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown.

Monday afternoon: It was sunny this morning but the forecast for the rest of the week is quite grim, so I thought I’d take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts. I caught the 11.25 bus over to Warminster. When I got off the bus, I had a book to post and then I looked in the British Heart Foundation charity shop. I often don’t find anything worth buying but today I hit pay dirt, I found some really nice books. Firstly, a nice hardback copy in a slipcase of Confessions Of An English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincy. This edition was published by the Folio Society in 1948 and in very good condition. Illustrated with some very nice wood engravings as well. Also published by the Folio Society I found a nice copy of The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty, a first edition thus from 1961, again with splendid lithographs as illustrations. Also, I found a hardback first edition of Memories, Dreams & Reflections by the wonderful Marianne Faithfull. There are some fabulous photographs in this book. I looked in the index to see if there were any titbits of information about Van Morrison because I know they are old friends, and sure enough there was. I scanned that when I got home (See picture, click on it if you can’t read it)

Extract from Marianne Faithfull book.

In the paperbacks section, lo and behold, I was really chuffed to find a copy of Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown by Alan Watts. It was published by Abacus in 1977. This copy is quite worn but I don’t care about that, the joy is in the reading. Then I found a copy of Life Ahead by J. Krishnamurti. It almost seemed fated that this book was here because I’ve been reading and writing a lot about Krishnamurti recently. Inside the book an admirer had left some newspaper cuttings including his obituary which was an interesting added bonus.

Feeling very pleased with my finds I crossed the road to Wetherspoons. I ordered a bottle of chardonnay and two glasses and sat at a table in the corner. I had arranged to meet S but she was late as usual. I passed the time reading my Alan Watts. Only five lines into the book the words on the page leaped out at me, ‘foghorns in the night’ (See scan) Van Morrison took the title of the book for lyrics in his song Alan Watts Blues and I’m sure he must have taken the imagery of foghorns in the night from this book for his songs as well. That had never occurred to me before. That book must have made quite an impression on him. Van mentions foghorns in Song Of Home on the Keep It Simple album, So Quiet In Here on Enlightenment and of course on Into The Mystic, one of the best songs ever recorded.

Foghorns in the night.

Anyway, S turned up and we spent a pleasant hour drinking wine and chatting until it was time for my bus and that was the end of that.

The Waiting Game.

Sunday morning: I have just been listening to The Healing Game album by Van Morrison. It came out in 1997 and I don’t think Van has made a better album in the 22 years since then. There is a new 3cd version coming out soon with previously unreleased material on it which I’m looking forward to. This morning when it got to track 4 The Waiting Game the words of the song suddenly made me sit up and pay attention.

 There must be reason for all this inaction, does it mean that everything must change? Sometimes I'm looking for perfection,

When I'm waiting on the waiting game, 

I am the observer who is observing, 

I am the brother of the snake, 

I am the serpent filled with venom, 

A god of love and a god of hate, 

There is a presence deep within you, Sometimes they call it higher flame,

When the leaves come tumbling down, remember,

I'll be waiting on the waiting game.

It was the line ‘I am the observer who is observing’ in particular that made me take notice because it seemed like synchronicity. I have been reading a page of my Krishnamurti book every morning and trying to understand it. Today’s topic for March 10th was ‘observing’. I scanned a little bit of it, I hope you can read it. We know that Van has been influenced by Krishnamurti , so I wonder if he got that line from him. It doesn’t matter where he got it from though because The Healing Game is a great album and Krishnamurti was a great person. It all makes for a very inspiring Sunday morning.

Van visiting the Krishnamurti centre in California.

Allen Ginsberg - Sunflower Sutra

The Healing Power Of Music.

Isn’t modern technology amazing. It is Friday afternoon and I am writing this on my laptop and at the same time listening to music pouring out of the same machine. The music I am listening to is a recording of two concerts by Van Morrison at Loughborough University in 1987. Van isn’t the only one on the recording, Robin Williamson of the Incredible String Band is there as well. Robin and Van were good friends back in the day. The concerts were part of a weekend course that Van organised in collaboration with The Wrekin Trust. The course was called The Secret Heart Of Music, (An Exploration Into The Power Of Music To Change Consciousness) As well as the concerts there were talks and discussions. During the 1980’s Van was interested in music being more than just entertainment. He knew that music had healing properties and could benefit the health and well-being of the listener. He is one of the greatest vocalists but in the 80's his albums contained long instrumentals which weren't there as fillers but as aids to meditation and contemplation. I would have loved to have gone to this conference, not just for the music but also for the talks. One of the talks was called The Effect Of Music On Hormonal Secretions In The Endocrine Glands. I find that fascinating because I have often wondered why music induces a feeling of well-being and makes you feel better.

Van Morrison & Robin Williamson.

Somebody recently put the recording of the music on youtube and I have shared it below if you want to hear it. There has been a lot of chat about it on a Van Morrison fan page and apparently there is another version which includes a recording of one of the discussions. A fan called Christian produced a photo of the art work for this. I was particularly pleased to see that among the people taking part in the discussion was Pir Vilayat Khan. He was a great Sufi teacher. The Sufi’s are a peace-loving Islamic sect who have suffered a lot of persecution in some countries in recent years. They believe in the universality of all beliefs. They say that all religions are rays from the same sun. 

When I first moved to Bradford On Avon in 1977 I had a friend who lived with some Sufi’s at Barton Farm. Through him I read some books by Pir Vilayat Khan and also by his father Hazrat Khan who founded the Sufi Order In The West. I found those books very interesting, especially because music plays an important role in the Sufi tradition. I just looked on Wikipedia and found this. ‘His message of divine unity focused on the themes of love, harmony, and beauty. He taught that blind adherence to any book rendered religion devoid of spirit.  In his various written works, such as The Music of Life and The Mysticism of Sound and Music, Inayat Khan interlocks his passion for music with his Sufi ideologies making a compelling argument for music as the harmonious thread of the Universe’.

Pir Vilayat Khan

Once a classical musician, Hazrat Inayat Khan let go of his greatest attachment-his musical career- to become a Sufi Master, as is the tradition in Sufism. Immersing himself in the Sufi ideology, he found a link between his former life as a musician and his new journey along the spiritual path. Khan saw harmony as the "music of the spheres" which linked all mankind and had the ability to transcend one's spiritual awareness. His most influential and well-known book, The Music of Life, is the definitive collection of Hazrat Inayat Khan's teachings on sound, presenting his vision of the harmony which encompasses every aspect of our lives. He explores the science of breath, the law of rhythm, the creative process, and both the healing power and psychological influence of music and sound.

"What makes us feel drawn to music is that our whoIe being is music; our mind and our body, the nature in which we live, the nature that has made us, all that is beneath and around us, it is all music. We are close to all this music, and live and move and have our being in music. The mystery of sound is mysticism; the harmony of life is religion. The knowledge of vibrations is metaphysics, the analysis of atoms is science, and their harmonious grouping is art. The rhythm of form is poetry, and the rhythm of sound is music. This shows that music is the art of arts and the science of all sciences; and it contains the fountain of all knowledge within itself." "Music should be healing; music should uplift the soul; music should inspire. There is no better way of getting closer to God, of rising higher towards the spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection than music, if only it is rightly understood." – Quote from The Music of Life.

That will do for today, but I hope any music fans will listen to the Loughborough recording because it is great.