Not a blog post. A day.
We were up early and down to Simonstown for a group hike up the mountain. It turned out to be quite a big mountain, and we ended up doing a somewhat hectic (and occasionally sketchy) 650m up in 3.1km “along”.
Steep.
So here’s me harking back to a previous post, since I’m going along to a concert this week.
It’s a properly quiet band, as well.
Let’s hope it doesn’t get completely ruined by twats.
No, not this blog (more on that tomorrow, by the way).
No: This BBC Press Release:
That sounds great. What’s not to like?
Well, that would be the small matter of the small print halfway through the thing:
As part of this launch, the BBC will also be making BBC Sounds available exclusively to UK audiences and ending access to the service for international users beginning Spring 2025.
u wot m8?
Yep. They’re taking 6Music (and everything else) away from anyone not in the UK.
This is sad, because I’ve been a loyal listener there and here since the very beginning of the channel, and I listen for literally hours every day. Of course, there might be ways around the geofencing, which I am obviously completely unaware of, but even if I had an inkling of how to get round it, that surely just means an extra step, extra expense and more not to work.
A quick note here that the BBC makes it quite difficult to access their visual stuff via a VPN.
Or so I am told.
And sure, I get it. I don’t pay my BBC Licence Fee, I know (not that there is a Licence Fee for radio), but this isn’t really costing the BBC anything to share. The programme is made and broadcast anyway, I just pick it up somewhere else via the internet (a reminder here that 6Music is a digital only station anyway).
Except of course, it does, because music rights or something or other. No-one (including this radio expert) really seems to understand how these work, but the upshot of their messy implementation is that the BBC aren’t going to let people overseas access their content any more.
Although I’m not quite sure why, given that that side of their business is doing rather well:
The main commercial arm of BBC Commercial Ltd, BBC Studios generated revenues in the last year of £1.8 billion and a third consecutive year of profits of over £200 million.
It’s weird, because I would imagine that there’s a good percentage of 6Music listeners who aren’t in the UK. Calls and messages to shows come from expats all over the world, and the presenters read them out almost as a badge of honour. It’s going to hurt all the stations, but 6Music might notice the biggest drop, given that it has one of the smallest audiences (although it’s not clear what the UK/non-UK split is here).
Either way, I have to make a plan, because the other day, having left my phone at home, I listened to a local radio station on a short journey. It was more horrific than I had remembered.
I cannot do that again.
Let alone every day.
I know, I know. Most of you have stopped reading already. My eclectic musical tastes often mean that no-one is satisfied and everyone goes away metaphorically empty-handed (and usually quite quickly, too).
Mind you, given the state of the world (as documented here and here), who would deny me a bit of delicious escapism? Surely not you, dear reader.
But let’s run through what has happened recently, and what is going to happen presently, because I feel that last year was a bit sparse as far as good releases went. That’s not to say that there weren’t some very good releases – I mean, of course there were – but the quality far outweighed the quantity, and I’d actually like a bit of both, please.
Great news. 2025 has started well (IMHO).
First of all, the stuff that’s already out:
January began with a confusingly really laid back, electronic bang. Magne Furuholmen (you may remember him as the keyboard player from a-ha, and also from Apparatjik) gave us another solo offering: living with ourselves.
Here’s a live version of white horses from the album:
To be fair, I’m actually not sure that this is a good representation of the overall feel of the album. I’d say that time is on your side gives a better idea of the rest of the tracks. I still quite like it, though.
And then: Ludovico Einaudi’s The Summer Portraits is a very welcome return to basics from the Italian neoclassical composer and Pianist. Sure, a few edgy strings to keep your guard up, but alongside some beautiful smooth, relaxing piano. It calms me in the traffic, and that’s a good thing for everyone except my cardiologist.
Sequence would be – and indeed, is – my track of choice.
And from the sublime to the… also sublime(?) – Mogwai’s new album – The Bad Fire – is also out now. I’ve yet to really work my way through it, but already, it’s typically dark, grumpy and rumbling. However, somehow there’s a bit of an electronic element to it which has got me more interested than usual. Give their current single Fanzine Made of Flesh (great name) a go.
And then, can I mention (again) my excitement at the upcoming albums from three of my top 10 bands:
Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking is out next Friday (14th February).
Doves – Constellations For The Lonely is released on the 28th February. You may remember this from them at the end of last year. And their latest single Cold Dreaming has really whetted my appetite. (OMG – 0:58 in… SOOO Doves!!!)
Following those… The Lathums. Matter Does Not Define comes out on 7th March. And the first three from that album (including this) have sounded very promising.
What have I done to deserve this? Because honestly, it does feel a bit like I am being spoiled.
Or maybe, somehow musically “fattened up” for slaughter.
I’m not actually sure how that would work.
And I don’t really fancy finding out.
But what a three week spell this promises to be. Hardly enough time to gorge oneself on one album before the next banger arrives. And even when all is said and done for this lot, we’re not even a quarter of the way into the year.
Treats galore.
It’s the video we’ve all been waiting for. Two recorders at once. In the nose. Two blowholes (I think that the technical name is nostrii – 1 nostril, 2 nostrii), so two recorders. A descant and a treble.
It’s beautifully done. And I love the t-shirt.
Little known fact about me: I’m actually pretty good on the recorder. I know we all did it for a year at school when we were 6 or 7, but I kept going for many years afterwards, playing for the leading youth recorder group in Sheffield. We toured widely, as far as Manchester, Holmfirth and London (amongst other places), winning several (or more) competitions, and I still have my recorders to this day.
Could I do this, though?
Well, almost. The whole nostril thing wouldn’t be an issue at all: in fact, I do a great rendition of Jingle Bells like this.
But… the balancing the descant on the half loaf or white bread? No.
I only eat brown, seeded stuff now* – doctor’s orders, see? – and that’s simply not spongy enough to allow for adequate movement. In fact, trying to do this with a loaf of this heavier stuff might even result in some sort of bizarre injury. Hopefully only to your nose, but you never really know, do you?
So I’ll leave this sort of thing to the expert in our video above.
Safety first.
* Apparently, there’s some in the freezer.
Incoming from Lucy May Walker, this:
OK. Let’s begin with a couple of disclaimers here.
Firstly, LMW isn’t my favourite artist. No real problem with her, just that her music isn’t really my sort of thing. I’m just mentioning that so you don’t think that my opinion on the above has anything to do with any sort of connection or fondness for her or her work.
And secondly, because she is a mainly acoustic folk music artist, and her stuff is very much thoughtful, thought-provoking, gentle, peaceful music, then any iffy behaviour from the audience is likely to have more of an effect than if someone was to chat through, say Mutter by Rammstein.
But still…
I’m so tired of going to concerts and having to endure people talking through the whole performance. And I recognise that the experience of watching a concert is a very personal thing; different for every person, but honestly – for that exact reason – your behaviour shouldn’t impinge or affect any one else’s experience.
And I have mentioned this so many times before, but it’s symptomatic of the way that people behave everywhere these days: like they are the only ones that matter. I just don’t get it when you have paid A LOT of money (and likely gone to a lot of trouble) to enjoy the music of a band or artist, and then you do something that you could – and should – maybe do literally anywhere else.
Don’t spend five hundred and forty five fecking Rands each to sit on a dark grassy slope and ruin things for people who – really weirdly – have actually turned up at a concert to hear the band playing and not you shouting to your mate about taking junior to the fecking Constantia Uitsig fecking bike park in the morning.
Stay at home.
I just saved you R1090. That’s, like, two overpriced coffees while he’s on the pisspoor dirt track tomorrow. Boom.
Or if you really did pay your Rands to come along to hear the band, then couldn’t your utterly mundane shouty conversation just have waited for an hour and a half?
You bunch of self-absorbed, stereotypical, Southern Suburbs twats.
No wonder everyone hates you.
Yeah. That was from me back in November 2018. And it wasn’t even all of my rant. Click through for the whole thing. I was clearly rather upset after seeing James at Kirstenbosch.
But I’m not alone.
So yes, I’m all for Lucy May Walker’s helpful guide above. Of course, we shouldn’t really need to be telling grown adults how to behave with respect for other people, but hey ho, here we are.