Song for Sunday

Daughter – Still

Band/artist of the week: All India Radio
Song of the week: The National – Demons

Song for Sunday

London Grammar – Wasting My Young Years

Band/artist of the week: All India Radio
Song of the week: Suede – It Starts and Ends With You

Song for Sunday

Low – Just Make it Stop

Band/artist of the week: U2
Song of the week: The National – Demons

Song for Sunday

The National – Demons

Easy choice this week. Fantastic albums already this year from My Bloody Valentine, David Bowie, Frightened Rabbit, British Sea Power, Low, Delay Trees, Deptford Goth and Phosphorescent, and now news of a new National album coming in May and Suede in the next couple of weeks. Could be difficult choosing my favourite ten this year. Which reminds me ...

Band/artist of the week: Phosphorescent
Song of the week: The National – Demons

Song for Sunday

Lykke Li – I Follow Rivers

Band/artist of the week: Phosphorescent
Song of the week: Deptford Goth – Union

Song for Sunday

Delay Trees – HML

Band/artist of the week: Phosporescent
Song of the week: Phosporescent – Ride On / Right On

Miracles do happen (or how we ended up in the middle of row A at the Bruce Springsteen concert ...)

Well perhaps not a real, bona-fide miracle, but amazing how a really bad situation can turn into something wonderful with a large helping of luck.

The first time I went to see Bruce Springsteen was back in 1988 when I was 18 and a first year student at Edinburgh University. I had been a big fan for a few years, ever since I had seen him singing Born in the USA on The Old Grey Whistle Test, and even though he wasn't playing anywhere further north than Birmingham on that tour I knew that I was going if I could get a ticket. No-one wanted to come with me so I ended up getting the overnight bus down the day before, arriving in plenty of time to  get a great spot near the front before travelling back on another overnight bus.

I've mentioned it before on this blog, but it was worth every minute on the bus and hanging around Birmingham as the show was amazing. I couldn't believe how incredible the band was and Bruce was everything I had heard or read and more. Full of energy, it seemed he wanted to connect with everyone in the audience and they played and played, until after four hours everyone was exhausted. There were serious moments, anger and sadness, but mostly just joy and exuberance. The excitement of the audience and the reflection of this in the Bruce and the band was incredible.

Needless to say that evening has stayed with me every since and Bruce's music has been a constant throughout the many years that followed. I managed to see him live once more in London in 1999, but since moving to Australia in 2002 there haven't been a lot of opportunities to see him play live ...

And then early last year I heard some rumours that he might be touring Australia late in 2012. Nothing seemed to come of them, but then in November last year there were low-key adverts in the paper announcing dates in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Hanging Rock. At the time only one date had been announced in Melbourne, so I knew the demand for tickets was going to be sky-high. I signed up to get into the advance sale and we tried to book as soon as they went on sale. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get any. We tried again when general tickets went on sale, when the next night was announced and then when the third and final night went on sale. Still didn't manage to get any tickets.

Getting pretty desperate, a friend who had also been trying to get tickets put us on to a guy who had two tickets for sale. They were mobile phone tickets and not in the best seats, but he was selling them at face value and seemed pretty genuine. My wife wanted to get them as birthday present, so she drove over to his house, paid the cash and he texted her the tickets. Whew, sorted we thought.

Over the last few weeks excitement was rising and we decided that since K was just getting back from a training course in Brisbane on the Sunday afternoon that son number one would come with me. Sure it would be a late night and might mean a day off school, but if you are going to go to your first rock concert at eight years old, you might as well make it a good one.

So, Sunday evening we set off full of excitement and anticipation. I am not sure what son number one was expecting, but I guess he was probably thinking how could it possibly live up to my build-up. He was impressed by the number of people, but not by the queuing and then imagine my disappointment and shock when the tickets didn't work. Someone had already used them and was inside sitting in the seats we thought were ours.

More queueing at the ticket office and they confirmed that yes, the tickets had already been used – someone entered using them just after the doors opened. As we hadn't bought them ourselves there was nothing we could do.

By now it was about 7.29 pm and Bruce and the band were due on stage at 7.30 pm, so staying calm (but inside feeling like I wanted to drive round to someone's house and break all his legs) we checked at the ticket sales window just in case there were some tickets behind the stage left. Then the miracle.

'Yes, we do have a couple of tickets for sale in the seating just behind the general admission area.'

'Okay, we'll take them. What row did you say they were in?'

'Row A, in the middle.'

Not wanting to get too excited, but thinking there must be some mistake. I scribbled my signature on the credit card slip, grabbed the tickets and we tried not to run too fast to get inside. One quick toilet stop to empty an eight year old bladder and buy drinks and we were inside. The seats were incredible – probably the best in the arena. Straight in front of Bruce's microphone, slightly raised so that we had a great view over all the standing general admission crowd and right next the walkway he would use when he came out into the crowd.

Wow, it doesn't get any better than this I thought. A few minutes later the house lights went down and the band kicks into Out in the Street. A couple of minutes in and Bruce makes his way down into the crowd and round onto the walkway. He spots son number one smiles, shakes his hand and gives him the guitar plectrum he was using. Unbelievable.

Ten minutes ago we had no tickets and were looking at a pretty dismal walk back to the train station and home, and now we are sitting (well standing mostly) in the best seats at Rod Laver and Bruce has just shaken my son's hand ...

The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur, but you can see the set-list here. Bruce came past a few more times, including giving number one son another plectrum, crowd-surfing his way from just in front of us up to the stage during Hungry Heart, standing right next to us during the emotional tribute to Clarence and Danny during the encore and getting number one son to sing a line of Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.

So, Mr Eddie Black, you may be a con man and a miserable person, but if you weren't a dishonest fraud we wouldn't have been in those seats and had the most incredible night. Only problem is that I now have to somehow explain to number one son that when he goes to concerts in future he may not get to shake hands and sing with band!

Eddie, if you have a change of heart and decide to do the right thing, leave a comment below. If not, I hope the Police catch up with you and that you haven't conned too many other people out of their dream of going to see Bruce Springsteen. I guess they may not all turn out quite as happily as our experience ...

Song for Sunday

Beach House – Wishes

Band/artist of the week: Bruce Springsteen
Song of the week: Deptford Goth – Union

Song for Sunday

Deptford Goth – Union

Band/artist of the week: Low
Song of the week: Low – Just Make it Stop

Song for Sunday

Poliça – Wandering Star

Band/artist of the week: David Bowie
Song of the week: Massive Attack vs. Burial – Paradise Circus

Song for Sunday

Belle and Sebastian – Lazy Line Painter Jane

Still love this after all these years. I have been watching an excellent documentary about the early years of Belle and Sebastian, which has prompted a bit of nostalgia for 1990s Glasgow. Also finally got a copy of their 2010 album Write About Love which is actually really good. Live version here is also worth a listen.

Band/artist of the week: Low
Song of the week: Little Green Cars – The John Wayne

Song for Sunday

Little Green Cars – The John Wayne

Band/artist of the week: My Bloody Valentine
Song of the week: British Sea Power – Machineries of Joy

Song for Sunday

Low – Nothing But Heart

And now new albums announced by Low and British Sea Power. Colour me very excited already ...

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: British Sea Power – Machineries of Joy

Song for Sunday

My Bloody Valentine – Soon

Band/artist of the week: My Bloody Valentine
Song of the week: My Bloody Valentine – Who Sees You

Song for Sunday

Frightened Rabbit – Backyard Skulls

Band/artist of the week: R.E.M.
Song of the week: Radiohead – Anyone Can Play Guitar

Really enjoying the new Frightened Rabbit album that came out this week. Unfortunately it is bound to be totally overshadowed by the new My Bloody Valentine one which was released without any build-up overnight.

The news earlier in the week that Kevin Shields had claimed it might be 'out in two or three days' at their Electric Brixton gig last Sunday was exciting, but given the 22 year wait so far I wasn't going to get my hopes up too much. However, there it was on twitter this morning: new album released, available immediately from their new website. Except it wasn't. The website had promptly collapsed under the weight of all that built-up expectation and all that most people could find was an opaque 403 error message. Could it all be an elaborate practical joke? Fortunately, no. About five hours later – once everyone in the UK had got bored waiting and gone to bed – the website casually appeared and a few minutes later a download of the complete album was sitting on my hard drive.

It is never going to have the shock and impact of Loveless, and no-one could expect it to, but even so it sounds pretty good. A handful of stunning tracks and a few that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Loveless, may not sound like much progress for 22 years work, but there are still very few contemporary bands that could make an album this exciting and interesting. Me? At the moment I am just happy to have another nine My Bloody Valentine songs in the world.

(Oh, and I haven't forgotten about the best albums of 2012. It is just taking a bit longer than planned to get it all finished. I thought being unemployed would give me more time for stuff like writing blog posts, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case. Soon, I promise.)

Song for Sunday

Still Corners – Endless Summer

Band/artist of the week: Tindersticks
Song of the week: Lucinda Williams – Awakenings

Songs for Sunday

Suede – Barriers


David Bowie – Where Are We Now?

Two songs this week, to make up for missing last Sunday. Both tasters for forthcoming albums that sound like they could be pretty interesting. But will they be a match for the highly-rumoured new My Bloody Valentine album?

Band/artist of the week: Low
Song of the week: Adam and the Amethysts – Drinking in LA

Best albums of 2012: 10 to 6

10 Lana Del Rey – Born to Die

Mannered, manufactured(?), but soaring, glorious pop melodies. I don't read enough about music anymore to know where Lana came from or how this album came into existence. I watched Video Games on YouTube and as I went to buy it as a single thought I should have a listen to the album just in case there was anything else even close to its sublime, irresistible pure pop hit. Of course the whole album isn't quite that good, but there are another three or four tracks that are close and the rest is pretty wonderful too. Perfectly modern but beautifully timeless, this is the sort of album that burrows deep into your brain with melodies that are all but impossible to dislodge.

9 Human Don't Be Angry – Human Don't Be Angry

Malcolm Middleton's side project may not have the emotional impact of his usual work, but it sounds like he is having a lot of fun here. And if anyone deserves a bit of fun you would hope that Malcolm would be near the top of the list. The last track, Getting Better (At Feeling Like Shit), is the only clue that this record is from the man whose attempt at a Christmas number one was called We're All Going to Die. Highlighting his hitherto unknown love of 80s pop, synthesisers and drum machines it is a wonderful showcase of another side of his amazing talents. 

8 Ghost Society – The Back of His Hands, Then the Palms


If you were going to put together a band designed to cater purely for my tastes you would probably come up with something pretty close to Ghost Society – dreamy female/male vocals, distorted My Bloody Valentine-esque washes of guitar, left field melodies from Scandinavia. The shoegaze inspirations can be picked out if you are looking hard, but the sublime vocals are more Cocteau Twins than Ride. Sparkling and shimmering this is a beautiful collection of songs to lose yourself in.

7 Mystery Jets – Radlands


Earnest indie-boys and their guitars make up surprisingly little of my current listening, but I have made an exception for Radlands. There are one or two cheesy moments, try Greatest Hits for a prime example, but overall this is a good selection of well-written, intelligent and mostly jangly songs that stand up to repeated listening. There is a bit of variety, with the rather lovely ballad Take Me Where the Roses Grow and the lo-fi Luminescence rounding things out and providing a counterpoint to the simpler pleasures.

6 Best Coast – The Only Place
Low slung guitars, songs three minutes or less. Like an Elastica for 2012, only better.

Song for Sunday

Best Coast – Angsty

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Young Galaxy – Youth is Wasted on the Young

Best albums of 2012: the near misses

Very late, almost embarrasingly so, and slightly less detailed than usual, but for the record here are the Geography of Hope albums of 2012. Starting with the near misses, the top 10 will follow as quickly as I can manage.

Saint Etienne – Words and Music

It doesn't have the subtlety or the charm of earlier albums, but there are still some flashes of brilliance to remind me of the glory days. Lots of shiny big pop numbers, chiming piano chords and pumping drum beats, but Sarah Cracknell's vocals always seem to have an edge of melancholy and Words and Music seems especially nostalgic for those teenage/early adult years of mix-tapes, a music press that mattered and when music was an essential part of defining who you are.

Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky's Edge

His vocal delivery and guitar histrionics remind me a bit of Eric Clapton and that would normally be enough to have me running screaming from the room, but somehow he turns it into something resembling a mythical lost Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood album. Full of swirling, menacing harmonies, the languid vocals are mostly undecipherable and when you can hear them you realise that is probably a good thing. Even so this is a gloriously uplifting and out of time album that sounds immediately recognisable and also like nothing else you have ever heard before.

Song for Sunday

Tindersticks – Travelling Light

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Adam and the Amethysts – Drinking in LA

Song for Sunday

Efterklang (with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra) – Ghosts

Band/artist of the week: Burial
Song of the week: Best Coast – Angsty

Bit late this week, apologies. Losing track of the days of the week. Anyway, a bit of culture to make up for the delay ...

Song for Sunday

Michael Kiwanuka – I'm Getting Ready

Band/artist of the week: Best Coast
Song of the week: The xx – Unfold

Song for Sunday

M83 – Wait

Band/artist of the week: The Swell Season
Song of the week: Beach House – Myth

Song for Sunday

Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks

Especially for Finn this week ...

Band/artist of the week: Beach House
Song of the week: Beach House – Myth