Head Space Daily Words...

At Christmas dinner 20012, my youngest son set a new World Record by eating THIRTEEN roast potatoes in one sitting, along with all the usual Christmas dinner additions - although he is not keen on sprouts. Having been unable to match this incredible feat in 2013, this year he went one better, consuming a magnificent, grand total of FOURTEEN roast potatoes. Sensational stuff from the little man. If only Norris McWhirter was still around to officially endorse this spectacular achievement and confirm his legendary status in the Guinness Book Of World Records. My son, having entered Christmas dinner folklore, has now gone into roast potato record eating retirement, declaring "it's just too much." I can't see anyone ever coming close to this legendary landmark. Well done son, you know how to make your old man proud...

Head Space Daily Image...

A couple of Christmas photos for you. . .

Immediately below is a picture of the 'star of wonder' that hangs in our front room; and beneath that is a shot of the Christmas lights that go outside a house located on a nearby street. This years new addition is a machine that you can see in the bottom left, which blows out fake snow when you contribute money to the charity box. Nice touch. . . 

Head Space Daily Tune. . .

Velvet Hammer - Happy


Here is my latest slice of Northern vinyl and as the title suggests, it should make you happy. . .

Head Space Daily Words...

These past few weeks I have been working in Docklands. Every morning I visit a café at Shadwell station and after drinking my coffee I catch the DLR to Crossharbour. I always try and grab a seat in the end carriage closest to the window and watch the train track and its backdrop panorama reveal itself in front of me. When the train stops at Limehouse station, the image framed before my eyes really hits home. In the foreground, poking up amongst the local housing is a typical church spire, from a typical British church, common to every British town or village. To the left of this church, prominently set back in the distance, overseeing the skyline, is a spire of a very different nature, all gleaming glass and metal – The Shard. A sinister, all seeing eye and a symbol of our times.

Religion has diminished. I am not a religious person but appreciate that a church denotes community, a sign of local togetherness. Society has dictated that we all now worship at the temple of wealth and decadence, inequality and disappointment, with the masses living their lives vicariously through X-Factor mockery, overpaid footballers, the brutal escapism of computer games, and the desperation of Black Friday. It seems to me that the important factors, which make society vital, are being lost and that we have no power to reassert it. This is why the victory of the New Era Estate residents over Westbrook Partners, an American Investment firm who were attempting to buy the estate and force out the tenants by raising the rent to extortionate levels, to let the properties at market value, is an absolute victory. Venture capitalism has no morals. It doesn’t care if it makes families homeless and forces them to move away from where their family has lived for generations. There is no humanity in finance and capitalism, which is why New Era defeating Westbrook is so important, showing what can be achieved when people pull together. The corporations and economic bully boys can’t always get their own way by flexing their financial muscles. An indomitable human spirit can gather momentum when people fight for a common cause. As the New Era leaders said after saving their homes, “if you don’t fight, you won’t win.”

If the London property market keeps moving at its current pace, no one will be able to afford to live in the city. It will become a ghost town of empty properties owned by filthy rich foreign investors.

The area in which I have been working is called Cubitt Town, right next to Milwall dock, with a long and extremely proud working class history. The DLR – an elevated rail line – cuts along East Ferry Road, bisecting the old from the new. It is literally a dividing line. On the one side you have low rise council housing, local shops and a communal square but cross the tracks and you have modern shiny high rise blocks of accommodation and office space. This side appears to be constantly under construction. It reminds me of the scene in the animated film Up, where an old couple indignantly dig their heels in and refuse to give up their home as gigantic blocks are built around their property, dwarfing their house. I have used the post office in Cubbit Town many times and people say hello to you. There is a strong sense of generations having lived there through thick and thin. Looking skywards from the old side of Cubbit Town it seems that if the building work continues on the new side, the sun will be permanently blocked out.

The shiny new high-rise side of Cubbit Town and the gleaming towers of the Docklands area in general, have a soulless, plastic feel. You walk past these blocks and peer into ground floor gyms as the residents blankly stare out from treadmills, arms pumping, sweat dripping. I sincerely hope that the relentless construction and change doesn’t sweep across the tracks and take away the old town. It is very hard to prevent change but as New Era has shown, if you stick together, fight your corner and don’t give up, the tiny spire of community can still overcome the huge temple of capitalism.


In case you haven't seen it yet, check out my top ten albums of 2014 from my post of December 5th...

Head Space Daily Image...

The tower blocks loom large over the residential area of Cubitt Town in Docklands, as the relentless construction work never ends...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Timmy Thomas - Why can't We Live Together?

Timmy asks the all important question in the most soulful and beautiful way. A question we all need to stop and ask ourselves from time to time…


In case you haven't seen it yet, check out my top ten albums of 2014 from my post of December 5th...

Head Space Daily Top Ten Albums 2014...

Here it is, the post you've spent all year looking forward to - the HSD top ten albums of the year. Woohoo!! All based solely on the long players that I have had the pleasure of spending some quality time listening to, so of course by no means exhaustive. An interesting feature of the list is that the top 5 are all female artists:


1 KATE TEMPEST - EVERYBODY DOWN:

How this album did not win the Mercury Music Award – an accolade that is supposed to award innovation – god only knows, because innovation doesn’t come much better than this. Tempest is a playwright and a poet, who performs her work with unrelenting passion. She was raised to a backdrop of sound systems and club culture and has woven her writing within a musical web on her first LP, Everbody Down. The lives of the three main characters are vividly conjured up by Tempest’s urgent delivery and driven forward by a captivating drum and bass soundtrack. She has produced something truly riveting. I love her rhyming and her word play, reflecting the comic tragic lives of the proud but desperate individuals of whom she speaks. She was fantastic at Village Underground in November (See HSD November 13th) and I cannot wait for the play and novel featuring the same characters. Kate Tempest wins my personal Mercury Music Award, for being brilliant...

Kate Tempest - The Beigeness

2 SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS - GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

Sharon Jones and her Dap Kings are an absolute joy to behold. What a storming, passionate and soulful voice, accompanied by one hell of a tight musical unit. The horns writhe around the drums, which skip away from the guitar, whilst the girl group backing chimes in beautifully, as every musical element orbits around Miss Jones herself. You have to stand back with a smile on your face and admire. Which is exactly what I did when the Daptone Soul Revue came to Shepherd’s Bush Empire in June (See HSD June 29th.) The next best thing to seeing her live is to listen to her latest album – an absolute winner in every respect...

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Stranger To My Happiness

3 SHARON VAN ETTEN - ARE WE THERE

From one Sharon to another, this time Van Etten, who has bared her soul with this beautiful, intimate and personal portrait of a broken relationship. Sound hard going? Well, the toughest part must have been writing it in the first place. From fragile and beautifully bleak, to defiant and headstrong, music like this is precious. It is intimate singer songwriting and Sharon puts herself on the line. The album is not hard to listen to – it is enthralling – but the toughest songs to write can indeed be the most rewarding. Miss VE’s performance at Shepherd’s Bush in April could well be on the cards…

Sharon Van Etten - Every Time The Sun Comes Up

4 NENEH CHERRY - BLANK PROJECT

With her first full-length release for seventeen years, the Four Tet production on Neneh Cherry’s Blank Project album knits together a musical tapestry. Binding deep, unnerving textures, to drums and percussion, which have a live and almost military urgency, a compelling album has been created. She has been touring the album with Rocket Number 9 and if there are tickets remaining, her gig in January at the Electric Ballroom could be my first of 2015...

Out Of The Black- Neneh Cherry feat Robyn

5 - WARPAINT - WARPAINT

I have heard Warpaint described as ‘painfully hip.’ Ouch. I’m too old for pointless labels. What the Warpaint girls do is paint hypnotic sonic and vocal textures of the highest order. The basslines of each song grab me every time, which makes me think that they would be incredible live. I do love a bit of bass rumble. They played at Field Day and Hammersmith this year, so I missed the boat on the live front, which means I will playing their fantastic record and transporting my mind to imaginary, darkened venues, swathed with strobe lighting and bathed in dry ice...

Disco_Very - Warpaint

6 - GREGORY PORTER - LIQUID SPIRIT

I have deemed that Gregory Porter’s Liquid Spirit album cannot be in the top five, as it was released in 2013 and so in fact shouldn’t really be here. It is in my top ten though and I make the rules. The fact that this album passed me by is shocking, the fact I have discovered it, a god send. I came across Mr. Porter earlier in the year at a friend’s party, when my mind was blown by the track 1960 What? which is up there as an instant classic, from his earlier LP Water. In September, I was privileged to see Gregory perform live as part of the i-tunes Festival at the Roundhouse in Camden. Seeing such an accomplished soul singer, with his exceptional band of jazz musicians is a memory to treasure. Liquid Spirit is an exquisite piece of work, in the pure soul mould of Donny Hathaway, which gets better with each spin. Quality guaranteed...

Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit

7 - METRONOMY - LOVE LETTERS

The Metronomy sound is unique, inventive and eccentric. Also, it is extremely British. I don’t think music like this could be made anywhere else. I loved The English Riviera, the band’s previous album and when you have taken a record to heart, you need a little time for the follow up to sink in – to accept it, without thinking of ‘the other one.’ Once the seed was planted, the roots entrenched and little sprouts of joy bloomed forth, there was no going back and Love Letters is just as great as its predecessor. From the dancefloor monster of the title track, with its Michel Ghondry directed video, to the chamber music intro of the melancholic Monstrous and the emotive Upsetter, Love Letters is another complete long player...

Metronomy - The Upsetter

8 - FLYING LOTUS - YOU'RE DEAD

This album is utterly bonkers, coming from the deep, dark recesses of FlyLo’s intensely vivid mind, with the spirit of Sun Ra, George Clinton and Carl Craig pulsing through its veins. David Lynch should get him to compose the soundtrack for the new Twin Peaks series. When I listen, I can picture it being performed in an intimate little jazz venue – somewhere seedy and dimly lit. In fact Flying Lotus is performing at Brixton Academy in May. I must be listening with different ears. Maybe it is about the light show, or perhaps it’s about the drugs you are on – something I am far too old for!! You’re Dead is a fantastic, experimental, future electro, jazz funk classic and worthy of your ears...

Flying Lotus - Never Catch Me feat Kendrick Lamar

9 - YOUNG FATHERS - DEAD

Youthful, raw, fresh and in your face. Winner of the Mercury Music Prize, this album shows a lot of promise and innovation. The energy and production reflects young people just getting up and doing it. If Young Fathers were a wine I’d say that certain tracks had an aromatic hint of Massive Attack about them – atmospheric and urgent, with languid spoken word. A band to most certainly keep an eye on...

Young Fathers - Just Another Bullet

10 - GLASS ANIMALS - ZABA

I’m surprised I’ve not heard more about Glass Animals this year because there are lots of good things happening here. The singer often reminds me of Alt J’s lead vocalist with his high pitch and slightly whimsical tone. I wish Zaba was named after Pablo Zabaleta, the Man City right back but it apparently comes from a children’s’ book called The Zabajaba Jungle by William Steig. Zaba has an atmospheric, laid back sensibility coupled with emotion, strength, and is a likeable, interesting album...

Glass Animals - Hazey