Head Space Daily Words...

When I wrote these words I was sitting on the P4 bus, on my way to see the movie High Rise at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton. Gilles Peterson’s show from the previous Saturday was in my ears, dedicated to Prince, following his recent passing. 2016 is already denoted by high profile celebrity deaths. Musically speaking, it doesn’t get much bigger than Bowie and Prince – imagine if they had worked together. Purple space funk form Mars!! Applying this unfortunate phenomena to our own lives, it makes you realise that you have to live for the now, because there may not be a later. We also have to appreciate, remember and immerse ourselves in these artists’ music, which we may have taken for granted, as it is often embedded in our collective psyches, rather than gracing our record collections. Posthumous purchasing aplenty shall be taking place.

The Stevie Wonder concert that I have a ticket for at Hyde Park in July takes on a deeper significance for me. Like Prince, Stevie is a life defining, global superstar and one of my idols. I own more Stevie Wonder records on album and 7” than any other artist. His voice, his music, his positivity, his aura and his vision, transcend everyday existence. Time though, does not stand still and Stevie is getting older. Who knows how many more opportunities there will be to see him play live and the way this year is panning out...lets not go there!!

I have been fortunate enough to see both Stevie and Prince perform in very different circumstances. In 2006 I saw Prince play at the Brits. As we know, the Brits is a plastic, corporate jolly up of an event, which must be packaged for TV. Prince played for just over ten minutes – a medley of tracks, given the time limit – but for that brief moment, the plastic was transcended by silk and I knew that I was in the presence of greatness. I could not believe his guitar playing, the falsetto voice from another planet and after a rendition of Purple Rain, followed by Lets Go Crazy, he was gone, like a tornado of taste. There is a link below to his Brits performance.

My Stevie moment came when I was working at ITV and I sneaked onto the gantry of the main studio with a colleague to see him rehearsing for an appearance on the Parkinson chat show. He played Superstition twice and no one knew we were there. We slipped back out into the corridor and went for lunch. It had been our own private performance.

The next time I see Stevie, I will be sharing the experience with 65,000 other people. I have never been to a music event with such a massive audience and I’m not sure what to expect. Will I be able to see anything? What will the sound be like? Can you have a great atmosphere with such a vast crowd? I am hoping it will be a fantastic event and as Stevie is playing the entire Songs In The Key of Life album, musically you cannot go wrong. I guess I’ve just got to give myself to it and let the music lead me. After all, there won’t be many chances left to see one of our remaining musical geniuses.

Prince Live at The Brits, 2006 

Head Space Daily Image...

The sun shines on Regent Street...

Soho Dry Cleaners looks respelendent from the window of Duck & Rice on Berwick Street...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Taken from Purple Rain...

Prince - I Would Die For You


The opening track from Songs in The Key Of Life...

Stevie Wonder - Love's In Need Of Love Today

Head Space Daily Words...

The theme tune to the kids T.V show Why Don’t You instructed its viewers to “Go out and do something less boring instead,” which is exactly what I have been doing since finishing a long run of work. This is the advantage of working freelance – when things are relatively good and financially stable – I can get out and about, although the aim is to get more work asap, as the onset of freelance paranoia is never pleasant and I certainly do not want to be without work for a lengthy period of time. Thus, the moment must be grasped, the opportunity seized and I must get up off my arse and make it happen. It is like coming in for a mental and physical M.O.T.

I started writing this post yesterday, sitting at a table in the Archie Parker café in Forest Hill, South East London, close to where I live (see HSD Image.) A homely, slightly kitsch, bright, yet stylish gaff, housing tables and chairs direct from the 1970s and wallpaper straight from your gran’s front room. Splendid. The Archie Parker is located just down the road from Forest Hill Pools, where I go for my weekly swim, when I'm waiting for work to happen. I was awaiting delivery of a toasted Rubenesque sandwich, which comprised of pastrami, emmenthal, pickles and mustard mayo. I had never heard of a Rubenesque but the only information I can find on line is that it refers to a painter called Peter Paul Rubens who died in 1640 and who used to paint large, shapely, voluptuous ladies. The dictionary definition is "plump and attractive." It is not the most flattering of descriptions for a sandwich - and I don’t know if there is any truth in the artistic connection - but I can certainly see how too many of them would leave you prone to putting on some extra flesh.

Today is my seventh work free day and I am continuing to write this post in the Members Room at Tate Britain, after seeing the Frank Auerbach exhibition and being immersed in the sounds of Susan Philipsz’s wonderful audio installation. So far, in the time I have been off, I have gone swimming twice and had my haircut at a local barber’s in Brockley. The barber’s is an establishment run by an animated young Cypriot guy who sports a glorious beard - which is de rigueur for many young men who live in the Brockley area - and where a good chat, live football and a very decent haircut are the order of the day.

I have journeyed into Soho to meet a mate for lunch and for a visit to the impressive Saul Leiter exhibition at The Photographers Gallery – a vivid illustration of early colour photography – where the colours come alive and the images are stand alone art works in their own right. Leiter’s work was apparently a major influence on the look of the film Carol.

Music wise, I picked up the three vinyl set of Kamasi Washington’s album The Epic - modern jazz music at its finest - and an incredible body of work, which demands you to invest the time, to listen from start to finish. There are not enough hours in the day!! Ezra Furman’s latest album, Perpetual Motion People is also inhabiting my headspace to a great extent at the moment and both Kamasi and Ezra are on the bill for this year’s Green Man Festival, which is already very much on our radar.

Last Friday, I made it to Greenwich Picture House to see A Bigger Splash, which I enjoyed very much. Ralph Fiennes plays a truly loathsome, self-obsessed and egotistical record producer with brilliance and hilarity. It is a stylish film, with a very good score and tension built by sound design. Go see.

With my hair already smartened up, I saw the osteopath yesterday, so the matters of physical well being and outward appearance have been taken care of.

Back to Tate Britain and Frank Auerbach. The exhibition showed off his work from the 1950s to present day and although it varies throughout, his overall style of painting feels extremely original to me. I can’t remember having ever seen so much more in a series of paintings by standing further away to view them, or looking from a different angle. I actually couldn’t see some of the paintings close up but from a few steps back or across the other side of the room, they revealed themselves to me, which was really bizarre and very rewarding. He also has great use of colour.

Susan Philipsz’s sound installation is thoroughly absorbing. I was alone in the main hall when I first arrived at the museum and fixed above my head, like something out of an old tyrannical sci-fi movie, were numerous big grey speakers, out of which came the sound of horns, bugles and trumpets. The brassy blasts of old wartime instruments, rescued from long lost battlefields and now part of museum collections. Single notes, sometimes coming off the back of another note, sometimes just hanging there, all melancholy, yet strangely uplifting but totally alone, drifting away. The instruments themselves are so battered that the notes drawn from them sound cracked, battered and imperfect themselves. The combined sound of all these notes which were taken from a rendition of The Last Post – the tune nowadays played at military funerals - was intriguing and captivating and seeped faintly into other rooms of the museum. The effect was one of eerie optimism.

I finished writing these words with a cup of coffee in the Members Room, upstairs at Tate Britain, before walking back to Westminster tube and heading back home to be there for my youngest son’s arrival home from school. I have now been provisionally booked to work from next Monday, so potentially have three more days to “go out and do something less boring instead.”

Head Space Daily Image...

This is my table at the Archie Parker cafe, where I began to write this blog post whilst waiting for my 'Rubenesque' sandwich. Oh, the anticipation...

And here are the speakers projecting Susan Philpsz's audio installation of wartime wind instruments at Tate Britain... 

Head Space Daily Tune...

The Epic by Kamasi Washington is an astounding piece of work. This tune will put a smile on your face...

Kamasi Washington - Cherokee

Perpetual Motion People by Ezra Furman has been a much played album over the past couple of months. I like his style...

Ezra Furman - Restless Year 

Head Space Daily Words...

Every now and then we need a little lift in life, whether that be a night down the pub, a meal out, a trip to the cinema - whatever your choice may be. Last Thursday night's pick me up was seeing the joyfully discordant, yet utterly harmonious guitar band Hinds play KOKO in Camden Town. A Madrid based band, Hinds is a four piece made up of three Spaniards and one Dutch member and these girls know how to perform and put on a show.

This was their biggest gig to date, played in front of a packed out venue and a fully receptive audience willing them to be fantastic. There were a couple of moments early in their set when the band seemed quite humbled and slightly taken aback by the fervour and bouncing sea of bodies that was in front of them.

The joy that radiated from the band though was tangible. They are living their dream and this was a night when the realisation truly hit home. How mind blowing to see 1500 people all on your side, wanting to hear your music, willing it to be great - and they did not disappoint.

Their album Leave Me Alone, (which I own on trainspotters yellow vinyl,) is excellent with very lo-fi production values, which is not a criticism but the sound they were trying to create. At times this can seem a touch chaotic but just as it feels like the album is about to go musically off the rails, it pulls itself together to stay on course. Live however, Hinds take it to another level. Whilst the album can have a slightly random feel, playing live they are  as tight as a pair of Usain Bolt's shorts.

The two founder members, Carlota Cosials and Ana Garcia Perrote are the guitarists/vocalists providing the ebullient and occasionally discordant harmonies, whilst the bass, calmly plucked by Ade Martin  and drums joyously smacked by Amber Grimbergen give the balance and steer the Hinds sound perfectly on course. Amber must have face ache as she simply did not stop smiling, whilst Ade, like many of the bassists that I see, took a more low key role in the performance, growing into the show as it went on. What is it about bassists and their karma? The unknown Mortal Orchestra bass player is another prime example, serenely propelling the sound forwards.

These girls have some tasty hooks and infectious tunes and if they carry on the way they are going, they may really go places. I wish they were playing at Green Man this August. You never know, it may still happen!!  

Their set was an uplifting pleasure and it kept on building.  A communal surge of musical enjoyment grew in intensity as the band cranked it up, culminating in the brilliant Castigadas En El Granero (see HSD Tune.) The band returned for an encore, to play what is already one of my favourite intrumentals, Solar Gap and I don't know what the final track was, other than it was a joyful on stage invasion of their mates who were over from Madrid. Hinds finished their set and invited everyone to the after show party at The Lexington. If only I wasn't old enough to be their father and in need of my beauty sleep.

What a joyful gig it had been. I hope Hinds are able to give me another one of life's little pick me ups in the near future...

Head Space Daily Image...

Hinds do their thing at Koko last Thursday...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Castigadas En El Granero - Hinds


Hinds rounded off their set on Thursday night at KOKO with this track. The place was a frenzy...

 
Garden - Hinds

The opening track on Hnds album Leave Me Alone perfectly sums up what they are about...