Over the last couple of weeks I have been two stonkingly good gigs. Both by the same duo Akoustic Soul.

Now, I know them, but that does not mean that I am biased. I know some of the other local bands but they will not feature in this series. Akoustic Soul Are; Andrew Wilson (guitars) and Kimberly Hill (vocals).

I have known Andrew since he was about 12, he’s 22 now. When I first met him his father said that he was learning the guitar. Even then I was reluctant to show him a few licks – mainly ‘cos I did not have have any good ones (still don’t). He was gratifyingly impressed by my guitars however, a ‘76 Strat and ’80s Les Paul DeLux (Starburst, of course). I can’t play them but they look good……

I did not think anything more about this aspiring guitar hero until about 3 years later. It was his dad’s 40th birthday party. Andrew and his friends were to provide the music for the party. They played in the garage that had been turned into a makeshift bar.

I was prepared to make insincere “Oh, aren’t they good?” type comments. No need after 3 years of playing and learning it was obvious that Andrew was talented. I was really relieved that I had not shown him my handful of banal guitar licks.

A couple of years later, after his exams, Andrew went to Spain to find a bar to play in and to teach flamenco guitar. Quite a bold plan for an 18 year old.

That worked out well and Andrew stayed there fo a couple of years. When he returned he said that he was going to give music a go and that he had a singer who was going to come over to join him.

Kimberly is has a voice that is mature betyond her years. It is a great jazz voice that is perfectly suited for songs like “Summertim” as well as being able to interpret and deliver great versions of rockers like “Sweet Chil’ O’ Mine”.

How are they getting on? Put it this way, they were booked to play one night in a bar a few miles away where they are not known. At the end of the night the owner paid them MORE than was agreed and booked them there and then for several more dates! That shows how good they are live.

The scary thing? When I first heard them play they were pretty good, after a couple of months they released their self produced CD and were better. A couple of months later still I saw them live again and they were even better, tighter, better PA, more confident. Just how much better can they be? I have no idea, but I am looking forward to it.

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On this day in 1984 the person that used to like to be known as an artist who once had a name before going a bit strange released a successful album.  Purple Rain was the first album that acknowledged the band and called them the Revolution and supported the film.

Why the band was acknowledged on the album as prince played the vast majority of the parts on the album and the band was only ever a touring band I do not know, and could hardly care less to be truthful. Oddly this album was voted number 72 in the Rolling Stone list of top 100 albums.  The album supporteed the film of the same name and both made suiddilians of dollars, so someone liked it…… but not me.

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The Small Faces will reunite to play the Vintage Festival (Goodwood August 13th). There are likely to be more dates and a tour announced in the near future.

Trouble is, it isn’t really The faces. It’s Some of them. Rod Stewart will not be there (too busy) he is going to be replaced by Mick ‘I am the best singer in the world’ Hucknall. Obviously, Ronnie Lanes will not be there (dead) he will be replaced by Glenn Matlock (ex-Sex Pistols). However, 3 out of 5 ain’t bad and Matlock is a proper musician (just ‘cos he was in the Pistols and a punk does not mean he could not play, quite the opposite).

My problem with the line up is the inclusion of the Haddock hounded Hucknall ( see previous about Hucknall for explanation). Rod Stewart may have been a cocky, jumped up jack-the-lad, raspy voiced, tit, but he was a

good

cocky, jumped up jack-the-lad, raspy voiced, tit.

Hucknall, does not rock, he does not have the voice to front a really rocking band. Would I go and see them? You betcha, then I could write about how crap they (he) were (was).

One really good part of this story is that Ronnie Wood has stopped drinking, a prerequisite for this booking and proposed tour. There had been fears for his health, and the health of the Stones. Perhaps Jagger’s talk did Ronnie some good, (see here). Although, if Ronnie is now sober why has the Faces gig and tour come before the Stones’ ? What else is hampering them from getting onto stage? Mick wants it Ronnies was up for it Charlie loves to play, with anyone anytime. What is left that could be getting in the way?

What is Keef up to at the moment?

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On this day in 1970 Max Yasgur who owned the farm where Woodstock was sued by neighbours for damages caused by the rampaging hippies. The suits either totaled $25,000 0r $35,000. Eventually, they were settled. The finances of ‘Woodstock Ventures’ are a bit murky but it seems that although it was planned as a profit making venture (it only became a free concert after so many people turned up) but the some 80 lawsuits filed against them were paid from the profits of the film. The film also helped to settle their $1.4m debts.

The people who didn’t play Woodstock?

The Beatles, some say because the organisers would not also book
the Yoko Ono Band, some because Lennon could not get into the states because of visa difficulties.

The Doors because they thought it would not be worthy of them ‘a second class Monteray’.

Led Zepp ‘cos they did not want to be just another band on the bill.

Dylan was negotiating but his son became ill.

The Moody Blues decided to play a gig in Paris instead. That was either a really bad decision or an inspired one. Bad because of the loss of exposure good because more than most they relied on a good sound system when playing live and the sound at Woodstock was bad, very bad.

Missed opportunity?

Keef Hartley played Woodstock but did not make the film because their manager refused to give the rights away. Shame ‘cos KH was ‘my’ band in the 60’s and they deserved much better recognition.

Best way to experience Woodstock? Watch the film turn up the volume, sit in a tub of mud, and smoke your little smoke, drink your little drink, while I dance the night away…….(No FZ wasn’t there either)

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classic rock music

The kicker though was in Montreal on 17th July 1972. A bomb went off under the equipment van. No injuries but the equipment inside the van was badly damaged. The show went on, after a riot by the 3,000 fans who had bought forged tickets. As far as I am aware, no one ever claimed responsibility for planting the bomb.

I think that this was the tour that Keef came up with his famous quotation “Heroin isn’t a problem, policemen are.”

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Real Blues, Champion Jack Dupree

All things are connected, sort of. Yesterday I wrote about Keef Hartley because I had lost a post about him due to a problem with wordpress (too boring to explain fully, just stay with this). So last night I picked up Keef Hartley’s book Halfbreed opened it at random and started reading about Keef recording with Champion Jack Dupree.  That was at the same time as Champion Jack was on the stereo, spooky!

Champion Jack Dupree was a great blues singer who had the archetypal blues man. Orphaned when he was 2 he was raised in a home for ‘coloured waifs’. He was a self taught pianist who took to the road in the blues tradition. He dug ditches, worked as a cook, took all sorts of jobs as he moved round the country playing his blues.

After meeting Joe Louis he became a boxer winning several titles, hence the nickname Champion Jack. He was subjected to many racist incidents and like a lot of blues men left the States and moved to Europe. He eventually settled in Halifax, Yorkshire, UK where he spent much of the ,60s and ’70s before moving to Germany.

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This is not as stupid a question as it first appears. At least, not if you think that music is important. I believe that music is one of the foundations of society. It predated written communication and probably the spoken word. Rhythm and melody is with us before we are born. Babies in the womb respond to music. They respond to the rhythms of the heartbeat of their mothers. We assimilate basic rhythms as we grow up, music becomes part of us.

Our lives are dominated by sounds and music almost as much as they are by light and images. We pay musiciansand singers a fortune to use their skills and talents to reflect and sometimes change our lives. Well, some of them get paid a fortune. In history balladeers were feted and valued, and this is how it should be. Music has developed from the streets be it Blues, rock and roll, Punk, Folk etc. In the modern world there is a disease. It is that growing and spreading scourge of all thinking human beings, disposable, irrelevant, musical pap.

Bubblegum for the ears has always been around. One of the main culprits responsible for the growth of this rubbish has been the MOR commercial radio stations. These radio stations use music is the filler between inane quizzes and adverts. These stations provide a diet of extended jingles and tell us that it is music. They demand shorter tracks to play, they ignore any music that may make us think (they do not want us to do that). They ignore any music that may make us upset. Their prime requirement is to have a safe platform for their adverts.

Music, real music, must challenge and excite. The purpose of music, of all art, is to reflect, challenge and change. The growth and development of civilisation goes hand in hand with questioning. One of the prime sources of that questioning is music. Real music exists but it is under threat from the dumbing down of the broadcast media. That way lies the end of civilisation as we know it.

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