People Power - Live Aid , Mandela and Human Rights Now!

My mother just messaged me to say she's watching the re-run of Live Aid on the BBC.

"I'm looking for you in the crowd."

"But Mum, I wasn't there!!"

I'm not sure why I wasn't at Live Aid, 40 years ago today. As a committed concert-goer back then, I certainly would have been up for it. I imagine the event must have sold out quickly before I could get hold of a ticket. 

On the day, I remember I was in my car with the radio on, and hearing the now famous announcement: "It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world it's time for Live Aid!"

I watched the day unfold on TV with friends, into the early hours of Sunday morning. I still have the audio tapes. On one of them, at the conclusion of Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven, you hear DJ Mike Smith saying "Well, if you won't give us at least a quid after hearing the most requested song of all time, well, there's no hope is there?"

My Live Aid cassettes

Live Aid showed what was possible when a whole community of artists work together to benefit those much less fortunate than themselves. It also engaged a generation of 20 and 30-somethings in a way that is perhaps hard to imagine now. 

The 1980s was a politically-charged time, with issues of civil and human rights, and the environment gaining prominence. The use of music to highlight these issues, although it was radical, it also seemed quite natural at the time. And after Live Aid, the torch was carried forward by some of these high profile rock stars in the fight for human rights, the fight against apartheid in South Africa and many others worthy causes.

So while much is rightly being made of the 40^th anniversary of Live Aid, the humanitarian and charity events that followed it are also an important part of the story. As such, the immediate legacy of Live Aid was the string of politically-charged concerts in the late 80s, beginning with another cracker of an event music-wise, the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at Wembley Stadium in June 1988. 

My ticket

The June 1988 concert that spurred the release from jail of Nelson Mandela, was a remarkable collection of global talent. More diverse than Live Aid and featuring many of the biggest artists of the day.

It was probably the most politically influential of any concert held in the UK. The BBC fended off resistance to the idea of giving a whole day's TV (again!), not for famine relief this time, but to support the release of a political prisoner. 

Mandela had at this point served 26 years in prison. After the 70th Birthday Tribute concert was shown around the world (except in South Africa, of course), growing domestic and international pressure forced President F. W. de Klerk to release Mandela in 1990 and negotiate an end to apartheid. In 1994 Mandela became president of South Africa. 

Here’s the list of artists who appeared at the June 1988 show:

Harry Belafonte, Sting, George Michael, Eurythmics, Al Green, Joe Cocker, Ashford & Simpson, Natalie Cole, Tracy Chapman, Midge Ure, Phil Collins, Joan Armatrading, Paul Young, Bryan Adams, The Bee Gees, Salif Keita, Youssou N’Dour, Sly & Robbie, Aswad, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, UB40 and Chrissie Hynde, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Courtney Pine, Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, Steve van Zandt, Jerry Dammers, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Dire Straits featuring Eric Clapton, Jessye Norman. With contributions from Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Gere, Jackson Browne, Michael Palin, Harry Enfield and a particularly emotional introduction to Dire Straits by Billy Connolly. 

Emotions ran high from the very start. Sting had been persuaded to appear even though he had a gig that night somewhere in Europe. Credit to him for going on early and getting the concert off on the right note, with his tribute to the Mothers of the Disappeared, ‘They Dance Alone’.

George Michael also went on early in the show and bravely chose to cover Stevie Wonder’s Village Ghetto Land.

Unfortunately for Stevie, and for us, the hard drive for his keyboards went missing just as he was about to take the stage. His scheduled performance was scrapped and Tracy Chapman stepped forward with her guitar and played Fast Car. Apparently, her record sales went stratospheric after this. 

Simple Minds came on and pumped up the audience with Waterfront and Alive and Kicking. 

The day would not have been complete without Jerry Dammers and an augmented Special AKA performing Free Nelson Mandela, with Ndonda Khuze on vocals. As the carnival vibes were ramped up, the crowd chanted The Whole World Is Watching!!

In the Royal Box, Neil and Glenys Kinnock were rocking and rolling. It was a birthday party, why not?

Whitney Houston won the audience over with the sheer power of her voice. Her appearance on the bill was perhaps seen as tame in the midst of the other edgier artists, but after a few of her trademark vocal somersaults, we all looked at each like, wow, this girl can sing. It was a phenomenal performance, in less than ideal conditions for her, in the open air with the temperature dropping.

Then Stevie Wonder appeared suddenly. No keyboards, just standing at the mike calling out the key changes to the band. He didn't stay long. It fell a bit flat, to be honest. 

Night fell and Billy Connolly come on to introduce Dire Straits. He told us that when the band's album went to number one in South Africa, rather than take the royalties, they said send the money to Amnesty International.

"It must break the hearts of those shits to sign the cheque every year and send it off. And as result, the boys are banned in South Africa, which is a compliment. Ladies and gentlemen, with a happy heart and a tear in either eye...Dire Straits". 

The band sounded immaculate and the emotional atmosphere was palpable as Dire Straits played Brothers In Arms. I've rarely witnessed such a charged atmosphere at a show. Maybe this clip gives some sense of what it was like. Mark Knopfler was clearly affected by it. 

The perfect end to a special day. Jessye Norman sang Amazing Grace at the finale. 

The second Nelson Mandela concert, in April 1990 also at Wembley, was notable less for the music (although it was another bumper list of artists) but most of all because Mandela was there in person.

That remains one of the most thrilling and inspiring moments of my life. After 27 years in prison, he walked out on the stage to a massive ovation. It seemed to last a long time - in fact it was only about 6 minutes - before he was able to speak. 

Nelson Mandela on stage at Wembley

The Anti-Apartheid movement had been galvanised by that first Wembley concert, to increase the pressure on the South African regime to release Mandela. And here we were, two years later, to welcome him back. It may seem crazy to believe a pop concert could really make that much difference. But here was the proof. 

The Human Rights Now! concerts in September 1988, held around the world and featuring Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Youssou N'Dour and Tracy Chapman, were another example of how rock musicians put themselves forward as advocates for political change and awareness. This time, they didn't just turn up to Wembley and plug in, they took it out on the road and worked it. South America, Africa, Asia and points in between. Again, it was inspiring and engaged a new generation in the fight for freedom and equal rights.

My ticket

Here's Bruce Springsteen getting the crowd jumping in Argentina.

As the decade came to a close, the fall of the iron curtain across Eastern Europe and the release of Mandela were the culmination of this new sense that people did have the power to force change. Oppression and inequality hasn't gone away, but events such as this gave us the belief that change can happen when people come together to show their opposition and resistance. 

 

2-Tone and possibly my best gig ever

If I had to pick the best concert I’ve ever been to, there are several candidates. I’ve written about seeing Pink Floyd play Dark Side Of The Moon in 1974, seeing the outrageous Tubes at Hammersmith in 1977, BobMarley at Madison Square Garden in 1978, or the sensuous and sublime Joni Mitchell in 1983. Steely Dan at Hammersmith in 2000 had probably the best sound.

But above all those, I think, in terms of sheer funky excitement was this genuine contender for best gig ever. It was 17th November 1979 at Loughborough University Students Union – The Specials, The Selecter and Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Three bands at the top of their game.

What a gig. Each band put on a funky soul-stirring show that would have been terrific if it had been just the one band alone. As a three-fer it was outstanding. I couldn’t say who was better, they were all fantastic.

I even kept the street poster - massive, like the ones you used to see posted on street corners. Kept it for years until I emigrated and it was just too big to pack into my memorabilia case. Wish I still had it, as a memento of a wild night. The one pictured here is from the same time, different venue.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners had already released their debut single, Dance Stance (changed to its original title, Burn It Down, on the album Searching for the Young Soul Rebels) and had been looking for a major label deal. Jerry Dammers, leader of The Specials and founder of the 2-Tone record label, wanted to sign Dexy's and offered them a support slot playing alongside The Specials and The Selecter. They replaced Madness who had left the 2-Tone tour after their initial success. Dexy's eventually signed for EMI, but for this brief moment, they were attached to 2-Tone. 

Dexy's Midnight Runners, 1979

This was Dexy’s Midnight Runners in their full soul-boy mode, all of them wearing black thigh-length coats and wooly hats. They must have been boiling on stage.

Their second single, Geno had yet to be released. For now, they had to be content with third billing. Six months on from this gig, Geno would get them to Number One.

Like the other bands on that night, Dexy’s were at their best in a live club situation, with exuberant horns and a front man, Kevin Rowland, consumed by a passion for the soul music of his youth. 

Rowland told The Guardian “The lyrics are all true. I saw Geno Washington in '68 at the Railway Hotel in Harrow. I was 15 years old and out with all the older kids – short-haired, cool-looking mods-turning-into-skinhead types. I didn’t have any intention to be a singer at that point. I just thought you go to school, go to work and that’s it. But when Geno came on swinging a towel, something clicked in me."

This studio staged video for the song 'There, There My Dear' gives you some idea of how Dexy's came across at the time.

Where Dexy's relied heavily on the soul bands of the 1960s for their style, the Specials and The Selecter combined reggae and ska with the energy of punk rock. 

Jerry Dammers said he saw punk as a piss-take of rock music: "it was great and it was really funny, but I couldn't believe people took it as a serious musical genre which they then had to copy. It seemed to be a bit more healthy to have an integrated kind of British music, rather than white people playing rock and black people playing their music. Ska was an integration of the two."

The Selecter, 1979

I was an early adopter of 2-Tone. I had already bought Gangsters by The Special AKA the week it was released, and when The Selecter released their first single, On My Radio, that became a firm favourite too. As a big fan of funk music, The Selecter’s brand of funky ska was actually my favourite sound at the time. 

'Three Minute Hero' captures that energy in this live clip. Their leader and chief songwriter, Neol Davies, put together a group of the funkiest players in Coventry, topped off with the charismatic Pauline Black as lead vocalist. 

They were terrific live, totally a match for their label-mates in musicality and sheer exuberance. And like The Specials, The Selecter were a deliberately mixed-race band. Pauline Black said 2-Tone was standing for multiculturalism before the word had even been invented. "It was an exciting time. We'd all come to it from different backgrounds, but we found a unity in the message we were saying."

The 2-Tone movement started out at the same time as Rock Against Racism. "For me, it was no good being anti-racist if you didn't involve black people, so what The Specials tried to do was create something that was more integrated," said Dammers.

Rock Against Racism was a reaction to the rise of the far-right National Front and the race riots that had become more frequent in the late 1970s, peaking in 1981, just as The Specials were getting to Number One on the charts with 'Ghost Town'. It was a time of violent confrontation on the streets, reflecting conflict not just between whites and blacks, but the police as well. A disproportionate number of black men died in custody in those years, and still do.

The Specials. Jerry Dammers (centre)

The country was falling apart, said Dammers. "You travelled from town to town and what was happening was terrible. In Liverpool, all the shops were shuttered up, everything was closing down. Margaret Thatcher was closing down all the industries, throwing millions of people on the dole.

"You could see the frustration and anger in the audience. In Glasgow, there were these little old ladies on the streets selling all their household goods, their cups and saucers. It was unbelievable. It was clear that something was very, very wrong."

Dammers wasn't afraid to use his platform to confront people on the issues of the day. He tapped into their frustration and lack of hope with songs that addressed them directly. Songs like Too Much Too Young, Rat Race, Stupid Marriage and Racist Friend.

You need stamina for a gig where all three bands are playing not just foot-tapping sounds but get-up, jump-about-go-crazy music. This was a student union, so not a massive gig, maybe a thousand people, and that lent an electric intimacy to the event. After Dexy's and The Selecter had done their thing, I remember thinking how can The Specials top that? 

Once they hit the stage, their connection with the audience was such that there was never any question this was their show. They really were, yes Special. They could get a song about contraception to number one while uniting a black and white audience. It was completely unprecedented. The Specials live shows were so full-on and the crowd so rowdy, it really was like a punk gig at times, without the bad vibes. Each gig would finish with the audience invited onto the stage, and despite the chaos, the band carried on playing. 

It's a shame that personality clashes brought an end to The Specials after just two albums. They were the conscience of a generation for a short period of time and it should have been longer. 

In fact, all three bands went through some tough times after the initial excitement of those first gigs, with infighting and wholesale personnel changes. 

Once Dexy's Midnight Runners broke through with Geno, they copped a lot of flak from the media for Rowland's confrontational stance: "We took the music press on by putting statements out in adverts instead of giving interviews, which infuriated them. We took everybody on, really. I take responsibility. I was far too controlling and aggressive."

Dammers was arguably just as controlling within The Specials. He had a right to be, but after a while the others didn't share his view that everything has to be political. "At first it was a great laugh, we're all in this together, there's no stars here," said Dammers. The level of intensity in The Specials music and their live shows would have been difficult to maintain, though. 

Once the original band had dispersed, Dammers ploughed on. Another hit single, Free Nelson Mandela, led to Dammers founding the British wing of Artists Against Apartheid, raising awareness of the jailed South African leader of the African National Congress, and providing the inspiration for the 70th birthday tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in 1988. Another of my all-time best gigs. 

BBC Documentary - 2 Tone The Sound of Coventry 

THE SPECIALS: Live in Concert (UK Television 1979)

The Specials - "Blank Expression" (Live 1979)

Guardian article - The year rock found the power to unite

Also on this blog:
Seeing Bob Marley - live in New York 1978

How my mid-1980s funk band was revived in 2019

New release from my 1980s funk band World Series

World Series live, 1984

My more devoted readers (bless you) may remember I wrote about my jazz funk band from the 1980s - World Series - and how our first single was re-released in 2019. 

The initial revival of World Series was remarkable enough, but it has gained momentum, and now another of our songs is featured on a new compilation album entitled 'The Voice of Love’. 

The Voice of Love is (it says here) “a collection of British sophisti-pop and jazz-funk from the 1980s” released by Henry Jones' California-based archival record label Smiling C. 

World Series, a feature of the Britfunk scene in London in the mid 80s, recorded this song, Take My Love, as their follow up single to the double A-side Try It Out / Head Over Heels, re-released in 2019.

Take My Love features Mark Ambler on piano and synthesiser, Mike Frankel on guitar and vocals, Keith Mawson on bass, Richard Newell (me) on drums and Pablo Cook on percussion.

Check it out on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIzq7VKgsIc

Test Pressing's review of The Voice of Love LP described it as "offering up a dreamy window into the smooth sounds of the UK underground at the time." World Series provided "the lush jazz-funk and R&B sounds of 52nd Street."

Smiling C have sold out of their initial run of the LP, but you can still get your copy here: https://boomkat.com/products/the-voice-of-love-ee688565-87e5-4ab2-a6cd-d0fd96e4b7ee You can buy the Digital Album here https://smilingc.bandcamp.com/album/the-voice-of-love And four World Series songs, including Take My Love, are on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7N3SSM1fpu0kkHQTBixHC6

If you have any trouble getting hold of a copy, let us know. Enjoy!

If you'd like to buy the vinyl version of Try It Out / Head Over Heels by World Series, click on the link below. 
https://chuwanaga.bandcamp.com/album/try-it-out-head-over-heels?fbclid=IwAR0FH8IF386eFKmUvJqejUMJtRiwysNcrb_OXTJD9JpOzyEv1YrEzx6sChY

Also on this blog: How My Mid-1980s Funk Band Was Revived in 2019 https://bangnzdrum.blogspot.com/2019/12/world-series-how-my-mid-1980s-funk-band.html?m=0

A Complete Unknown - the life and times of Bob and Joan

Bob Dylan fans are abuzz about the new biopic 'A Complete Unknown' starring Timothee Chalomet, depicting Dylan's emergence in the early 1960s. 

Much has been made of Chalomet's resemblance to the young Dylan and his insistence on doing his own singing and playing in the movie. I've linked to the movie trailers at the foot of this piece.

I'm interested to see how the film, which opens on Christmas Day,  portrays the relationship between Bob and Joan Baez. It's a love story with an enduring fascination. Although their romance ended in the mid-60s, they have performed together many times over the years.

Baez nurtured Dylan's career early on, allowing him to share her stage and introducing him to the wider folk music world outside of Greenwich Village. She became his muse and musical sidekick and he was more than happy to use her as his jumping off platform. 

In later life, Dylan acknowledged the debt he owed to Baez, but he did a poor job of repaying it at the time. For her part, Joan was guilty only of blind devotion. 

For anyone who wants to delve deeper into the Bob and Joan backstory, I'd recommend David Hadju's excellent book 'Positively 4th Street'. Hadju weaves Bob and Joan's lives in with Joan's sister Mimi and her partner Richard Fariña. Mimi and Richard had their own musical partnership and Fariña was also a budding novelist. What separates the book from the many other Dylan biographies is the insight to how their everyday lives were intertwined and how their careers developed in quite different ways. 

Early in the story, Baez takes great pride in showing off her boyfriend to the folk music community and to the civil rights and peace movement (Ban The Bomb!) of the early to mid 60s. Their duets at Newport and concert halls across America are rightly held as historic moments. 

As Hadju's book notes: "This gorgeous woman, who is an icon in her own right, latches onto you and says, I'll be your everything, including being your lover. She adopted him. She found this guy who gave voice to all that powerful stuff, and she nurtured him in that role. He made out on every level."

Baez and Dylan in 1963

The candid chat between Bob and Joan in Martin Scorsese's 'Rolling Thunder Revue' movie, where they discuss how their lives diverged, is poignant because it's clear even then (1975) that Joan still holds a candle for him. Joan’s love for Bob goes way beyond the music, but it's really not clear how far Bob's love for Joan extends, beyond fond memories of their time together.  

As we saw in D.A. Pennebaker's movie 'Don't Look Back' about his UK tour in 1965, when Joan accompanied him to the UK, it was fairly obvious he didn't want her there. On that tour he didn't - as she had expected - reciprocate by inviting her onstage to perform with him.

Bob would later say he was just trying to deal with the craziness of his life at that point. He had created this monster, the voice of a generation. Everyone looked to Bob for the answer and his response was to be increasingly cryptic and surreal. Contemporary reviewers referred to Dylan as a poet - how he "knew" and how he was "telling it like it is". But as NME writer Mick Farren noted in a retrospective mid-1970s assessment of Blonde On Blonde, "If Dylan was really telling it like it is, we'd all know exactly what he was talking about."

But Hadju's book is not a story about doomed love. It shows a relationship in full bloom, noting how Bob and Joan had a similar sense of the absurd, and at times it appeared as if they were having a private joke against the world. 

"A lovely thing was happening and I didn't want it to end," Joan said later.

Hadju's story does have a tragic ending, with the death of Richard Fariña in a motorcycle accident in 1966, just as he was launching his first novel. It was his partner Mimi Baez’s 21st birthday. 

Three months later, Dylan came off his bike near his home in Woodstock, New York. He knew he could have died on his motorcycle, as Fariña had. Ironically, the accident offered him the perfect excuse to go into hiding.

Dylan wrote, in his memoir, Chronicles, Vol 1: “I had been in a motorcycle accident and I’d been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race. Having children changed my life and segregated me from just about everybody and everything that was going on. Outside of my family, nothing held any real interest for me and I was seeing everything through different glasses.”

Hadju wrote: “For a year and a half after the accident, Dylan stayed in seclusion in Woodstock, while rock musicians absorbed and drew upon his ideas.

Of Bob's classic mid 1960s albums, Hadju concludes, “The trio of records uniting poetry with elements of folk and rock and roll – Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and the double Blonde On Blonde, came to be acknowledged as pop masterworks and charted a whole new style of music."

Today, it seems that Bob and Joan are no longer in contact, but she harbours no bitterness towards him, recognising that what they did together was unique and in many ways historically significant.

A Complete Unknown - movie trailer

A Complete Unknown featurette

Bob Dylan & Joan Baez - It Ain't Me Babe (Live 1964)

Joan performs Dylan's Percy's Song, 1965

Bob Dylan & Joan Baez - 2009 Documentary

Bob and Joan chat about their relationship, 1975

Joan Baez, Bob Dylan - I Shall Be Released - RollingThunder Revue, 1975

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan's artistic peak in the 1960s

Music while you work. Some recommendations

Working from home certainly has its advantages - it can actually make you more productive, as long as you keep the distractions to a minimum. Easier said than done, but I'm living proof that it's possible.

Distractions

My working life in the last 20 years has involved extended periods of travel, mostly around Asia, followed by several weeks of relative isolation in my workroom in Auckland, New Zealand.

One key component in balancing work and home life is music, so I've put together some suggestions for how music can make the WFH situation more enjoyable.

It's important to have structure to your day and to build any important  distractions formally into the day. So, for example, a 15 minute break, morning and afternoon, for some reading or guitar practice. 

In a home/work environment, some music sits better than others. If what I'm doing doesn't require too much creative concentration - data inputting, say - I'll go for something tuneful and engaging. In most cases, where I'm writing, I need music without a beat. As a drummer in another life, I find it hard not to zero in on the rhythm if I've got rock or funk music playing.

ECM Records

The answer is invariably the acoustic, analogue jazz and ambient music emanating from the German label ECM. Their remarkable catalogue has been described as 'the most beautiful sound next to silence'. What separates it from new age doodling is the quality of the composition, the playing and the recording.

The constant factor in the 'ECM sound' is Talent Studios in Oslo, Norway, where most of the classic albums were recorded by sound engineers Jan Erik Kongshaug and Martin Wieland. 

My collection of ECM records is mostly on vinyl and is largely from the label's classic period in the 1970s, when it still had people like Chick Corea and Pat Metheny on its roster. 

My favourite ECM artist is Ralph Towner - such a beautiful and uplifting guitarist, whatever mood you're in.

The catalogue is huge, but here are some recommendations based on my own collection:

ECM - the most beautiful sound next to silence

John Abercrombie/Ralph Towner - Sargasso Sea
Anouar Brahem - Thimar
Gary Burton/Steve Swallow - Hotel Hello
Gary Burton Quintet - Ring
Chick Corea/Gary Burton - Crystal Silence
Chick Corea - Return To Forever
Egberto Gismonti - Sol Do Meio Dia
Charlie Haden/Jan Garbarek - Magico
Zakir Hussain - Making Music
Keith Jarrett - My Song / Belonging
Keith Jarrett - Nude Ants
Pat Metheny Group / Offramp / First Circle
Enrico Rava - The Plot
Ralph Towner - Anthem
Ralph Towner - Diary / Solstice
Ralph Towner -  Solo Concert
Ralph Towner/Gary Burton -Matchbook
Eberhard Weber - Fluid Rustle
Kenny Wheeler - Gnu High

One of my all-time favourite atmospheric jazz records is the Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays album 'As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls'. It is a wonderfully sequenced LP that evokes various moods, largely uplifting. But it can also be contemplative, if listened to away from your desk.

Acoustic guitar music

There's a lot of really good acoustic guitar music around, but I'm definitely old school. I tend to listen to the folk players from the past, such as Davy Graham, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, John Fahey, Stefan Grossman and Leo Kottke, with more modern exceptions like James Elkington and kiwi (via Long Island) guitar genius Nigel Gavin.

Recommended while you work:
Bruce Cockburn - Circles In The Stream
James Elkington - Wintres Woma
John Fahey - Of Rivers & Religion
Nigel Gavin - Visitation
Gitbox Rebellion - Curveball
Stefan Grossman - Guitar Instrumentals (Memphis Jellyroll)
Michael Gulezian - Unspoken Intentions
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries
The Bert Jansch Sampler
Pat Metheny - One Quiet Night
Pentangle - Sweet Child
The John Renbourn Sampler
Alan Stivell - Reflections

Jazz

Some people take inspiration or motivation from their chosen background music. The Japanese author Huraki Murakami says he almost always works listening to music. Murakami used to own a jazz bar in Tokyo and has at least 10,000 vinyl records. He has a nice work life situation too, as you can see below.

Murakami's study room

Here's a list of jazz recordings I'll play while I work:
Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else
Ron Carter - All Blues
John Coltrane- Blue Train
Chick Corea - Piano Improvisations Vol 2
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
Miles Davis - My Funny Valentine
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Miles Davis - Jack Johnson
Kevin Eubanks - Spirit Talk 1 & 2
Bill Evans Trio - Portrait in Jazz
Stan Getz - Reflections
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage / Empyrean Isles
Charles Mingus - Tijuana Moods
Modern Jazz Quartet - Blues at Carnegie Hall
Wes Montgomery - So Much Guitar
Steps Ahead

Ambience

For music to take me off into another realm, I keep coming back to one consistent source of ambient quality - the San Francisco radio station Hearts of Space. Their soundscapes are designed mainly for those seeking transcendence - and stoners - but they are also suitable for the home worker seeking music to put them in the zone. Highly recommended. Here's a link that shows their various ambient music sub-genres: https://v4.hos.com/channels 

The Hearts Of Space website - slow music for fast times

Their slogan is Slow Music For Fast Times. The shows are all themed and typically last around 40 minutes to an hour. There are free programs once a week and a subscription streaming service. 

The quality of the music, to these ears, is always high.

This was the very first Hearts of Space show that I heard back in 1990s - Drifter, which gives you a good idea of what to expect:
https://v4.hos.com/programs/details/445

Alternatively, for a more varied ambient menu, you could try Flow State, a service that sends out two hours of ambient work-friendly music every weekday. Artists they’ve highlighted include Johann Johannsson, Khruangbin, David Borden, Steve Reich, and Ludovico Einaudi.

I hope you get some enjoyment from these lists. 
Keep calm and stay safe, wherever you are. Enjoy the music.

Queen’s famous 1976 free concert in Hyde Park

London's Hyde Park - 18th September 1976 – it's the sixth anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's death and I am attending a free concert by Queen, who had recently hit the big-time with their classic single Bohemian Rhapsody and the album ‘A Night At The Opera’.

This was Queen in their flamboyant pomp, with Freddie Mercury prancing round the stage in a white leotard, calling everyone darling.

The fact that it was a free concert brought this corner of the West End of London to a standstill for the day. I well remember the crowds at Marble Arch and all along Park Lane. Despite the crowds, there was not much trouble, save for a brief fight down at the front during the show that got Steve Hillage very angry, for a hippie.

Queen wanted to cement their fanbase after the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, so they hit upon the idea of a free concert. The Rolling Stones had done one in 1969 and there were a few others, notably Blind Faith's first show in the UK that same year. 

Queen playing '39 at Hyde Park

In 1976 Richard Branson was developing the Virgin Records roster. He saw this as a good opportunity to promote the brand so Virgin agreed to help organise the concert and into the bargain Branson got to feature some of his acts, namely Steve Hillage and Supercharge.

Kiki Dee was also on the bill, fresh from her number one hit duet with Elton John. Elton wasn't available though, so at Hyde Park Kiki duetted with a life-sized cardboard cut-out.

A review of the show

Albie Donnelly, the lead singer of Supercharge - a big fella with a beard - got one of the biggest cheers of the day when he bounced on stage wearing - you guessed it - a white leotard.

I’d seen Steve Hillage live as part of Gong at Hammersmith Palais the previous year, playing their Flying Teapot music. I had both of Steve’s solo albums up to that point, Fish Rising, which featured most of the classic Gong band minus Daevid Allen, and L, which featured Todd Rundgren’s Utopia. His live band at Hyde Park included ex-Jethro Tull drummer Clive Bunker and a bass player called, naturally, Colin Bass. They played a really good set, topped off with Hillage’s version of the Beatles’ song ‘It’s All Too Much’.

Steve Hillage at Hyde Park

There was a darkly comic moment during his set, when a fight broke out down at the front. We were sat close enough to the stage to have a decent view but without getting involved in the melee closer to the stage, where people were jostling for position.

Anyway, a fight broke out and Hillage actually stopped playing to remonstrate with the offenders: “Stop fucking fighting! I don't care if we don't play another note.” I was rather shocked to hear this long-haired hippie get so irate. 

The bad vibes at the front didn’t spoil the party for everyone else, but it was clearly still a bit volatile down there as Queen took the stage. Well into their set, with cans being thrown, (presumably not at the band!) Freddie was told by the Police to instruct the audience to stop throwing stuff.

The view from Roger Taylor's drumkit

They had come on stage at dusk in their white androgynous costumes and lacey sleeves, smoke bombs and dry ice going off. After the customary guitar fanfare, they opened with 'Ogre Battle' from Queen II. The music was loud and leaned on the progressive/fantasy stylings of the time.

In 1976, Queen’s set was a mixed bag of heavy rock, acoustic ballads, mini-opera and music hall pastiche. People who only know Queen for ‘We Will Rock You’ wouldn’t recognise this early version of the band. How different it all was.

Visually more engaging than anything else that day, there was a sense that this was a really big event for the band, getting this level of support from a British audience.

Brian May has said that Hyde Park was one of the most significant gigs of their career. “There was a great affection because we'd kind of made it in a lot of countries by that time, but England was still, you know, we weren't really sure if we were acceptable here. So it was a wonderful feeling to come back and see the huge crowd and get that response.”

Punk rock would soon put paid to all that.

Like many of the bands who came of age in the early to mid 1970s, Queen's image changed radically in the post-punk era. Ten years later, post Live Aid, Queen's career gained a second wind and they became belatedly - if not hip - then at least more credible than they were in the mid-70s. 

No, it wasn’t hip to like Queen back then. For the record, though, this is the only time in their career when I actually bought their albums – Queen II being a particular favourite. 

There is video footage of the Hyde Park concert. I bought a pirated DVD of it in Japan several years ago. The quality is poor and it transpires that the master recording has deteriorated to the extent that an official release is now highly unlikely. My DVD includes some silent footage of the band backstage and a clip of Steve Hillage’s set.

This is the best footage available of Queen's show, that marries the original video with a separate audio source.

Despite the poor visuals, the audio track is still largely intact, and as a snapshot of the time, it’s fascinating to revisit for anyone who was there. 

The concert ended abruptly owing to a strict curfew. Queen were prevented from playing their usual rock 'n' roll medley as a second encore. The show had over-run its allotted time and the police were adamant that the show must NOT go on. 

The police went so far as to threaten the band that if they went on again, they would be arrested. I imagine Freddie didn't fancy being locked up in a leotard. 

The stage was dark for ages before any announcement was made to the crowd. Finally, DJ Bob Harris had the thankless task of announcing to the crowd that Queen would not be coming on again. The main power was cut and plunged 150,000 people into darkness. Not a great way to end the day.

Queen’s Hyde Park Set List: Overture / Ogre Battle / Sweet Lady / White Queen / Flick of the Wrist / Medley: You’re My Best Friend, Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, March of the Black Queen / Bring Back That Leroy Brown / Brighton Rock / Son & Daughter / ’39 / You Take My Breath Away / The Prophet’s Song / Stone-cold Crazy / Keep Yourself Alive / Liar / In The Lap of the Gods.

A week later this advert appeared in the UK music papers

Also on this blog:

Five days of high drama at the Isle of Wight, 1970

Memories of the Reading Festival 1975

A Tribute to David Sanborn

Sanborn with David Bowie in 1975

Here was an artist who had been a feature of my life since I first heard him on record in the early 1970s. On his passing this week, I felt a tinge of regret that I might have taken him for granted of late. Time for a reappraisal of his career.

On Sunday nights as mid-teenagers a bunch of us would gather at a girlfriend's house in Pinner. We'd sit in her bedroom and listen to records. Actually only two records, but they were both excellent - Steely Dan's Katy Lied and David Bowie's Young Americans. 

The title track of the Bowie album had that instantly familiar intro sax line and solo by David Sanborn that everyone recognises, whether they know his name or not.  

Sanborn at Woodstock

Sanborn's first major exposure (to a mere 400,000 people) had come, aged 24, as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He appeared at the 1969 Woodstock festival with the Butterfield band, though not in the movie. 

Then in 1972, he got his first big exposure on record, featuring on Stevie Wonder's classic album Talking Book, on the gorgeous track Tuesday Heartbreak. 

It was a sound that became Sanborn's calling card, a signature style that would make him a first-call session player from then on. 

When Bowie decided to record in the US in 1975, it was an inspired move to have Sanborn provide the saxophone riff that would usher in his new sound. 

Young Americans was a bold change of style for Bowie, one that some found difficult to take. From Glam rocker to Soul crooner? Come off it mate! But our little gang loved the new album. Sanborn's sax was integral to the whole vibe, especially on tracks like Win and Fascination.

His solo career took off in the late 1970s and early 80s, with albums such as Hideaway, Voyeur and Change Of Heart. His collaboration with Bob James, Double Vision won them both a Grammy. In all, Sanborn won six.

He kept the best company in his choice of backing musicians and collaborators, not the least of whom was bassist Marcus Miller, who was just 19 when they first worked together. Tracks like Chicago Song and Run For Cover demonstrate how important Miller was to Sanborn's sound in that classic 1980s period. 

Sanborn capitalised on his popularity as one of New York's finest, leading the house band on Saturday Night Live and featuring on David Letterman's late-night chat shows. There are some legendary performances from those days on Youtube. 

Here's the cream of New York's session players, including Marcus, guitarist Hiram Bullock and drummer Omar Hakim playing the Weather Report track Teen Town. 

He also co-hosted Night Music, a late-night music show on television with Jools Holland, and curated a syndicated radio program, The Jazz Show with David Sanborn.

I first saw him live in London in the 1980s, as the support act for Al Jarreau. Sanborn's band included drummer Steve Gadd, so my mate Graham and I - both mad keen drummers - went along two nights running to check him out. 

Here's one of my favourite clips of Sanborn, Mike Mainieri, Robben Ford et al at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1981.

Here's Run For Cover with George Duke and Marcus Miller

And from Night music, here's the band backing Miles Davis on Tutu, introduced by Dave Sanborn.  

Of his more recent recordings, I picked up the album Time Again on a business trip in Singapore in about 2005. And I'm still playing it. Again, just the best musicians; Steve Gadd, Mike Mainieri, Randy Brecker, Christian McBride, playing a mix of old and new. Here's a live version of the first track on Time Again, Comin' Home Baby. 

Also on this blog:

Miles Davis and the track name mix-up on Kind Of Blue

 A tribute to jazz giant Chick Corea

Pat Metheny, Live in 2020 and Way Back

Jazz, Blues, Folk - Musical adventures in New York