The Musings of an MA Mamma

Because the world is such an interesting place.

Mark Kozelek – a Desert island Album, “Ocean Beach”

April7

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I don’t think it’s any secret to say that I love sound – all sorts of noise, from laughing children, bleating lambs, indie music; Moonlight Sonata to Seize the Day and everything in between. If it evokes a feeling, a memory, a picture in my mind, then I’ll listen to it.

Every so often though, there is a piece of music – and artist – that makes me stop, drop everything and stand listening in awe and wonder –  it connects with me on a level I cannot explain, and a week on, I’m still there, absolutely paralysed.

Last Monday, I had the fortune to go for coffee with a friend of mine, and we spoke about the things one does over coffee – friends, family, recent events, and those yet to come. We also spoke about music, since that is a passion for both of us and we seem to like comparing notes on various genres.  In our conversation, my friend mentioned a fellow they had seen in concert and someone I had recently read about, Mark Kozelek – an American artist from San Francisco. According to the first article I ever read about him in Uncut Magazine (via Twitter) “ He has produced  17 albums, mostly using the band names Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon…..Kozelek has forensically documented his life: a compelling patchwork of family anecdotes, love stories, tragedies, tour grouches, bereavements and small talk about cats and boxing.”

I liked what I read – he sounded intriguing, so I resolved to chat about Mark the next time my friend and I met, which we did. For various reasons, I hadn’t had the opportunity to look Mark up on YouTube and listen to his work, so my friend kindly sent me links to some of Marks’ work. What happened next utterly shook me to the core, and was so powerful I’ve felt compelled to write about it.

The first song I heard, taken from Kozelek’s 4th album released in 1995 by the Red House Painters, “Ocean Beach”, was “Drop”. A week later, I still struggle for words to describe this song. So moved was I by the experience, I went out and bought the album not long after.

“Drop” is like no song I have ever heard before. It feels like someone has taken to me with a baseball bat – hauntingly beautiful; so beautiful it physically hurts to listen to it; it is one of those songs which you simply can’t stop listening to (despite my best efforts) and speaks to your soul. It is almost like Mark takes the listener gently, loving by the hand, and guides them slowly and tenderly into the pit of his despair – to the listener’s own darkest recesses. If you have ever been in a dark place, afraid to show your true emotions, or engage with your real feelings, be prepared with Kleenex at the ready. It’s like someone’s read your mind – and it’s unnerving and wonderfully relieving at the same time.

The acoustic guitar reminds me of the beginning of Oasis and “Champagne Supernova”, and joined by the simplicity of the jazzy piano undercurrent, hits to the centre of your heart as the drums join in the melee, bringing in the bass.  The lyrics – Kozelek’s real tour de force – tell of hope; of loss, of pain indescribable: “So much that I can say to you, my voice shakes from the hurt that I hide….ashamed of my existence and of my petty often wounded pride”

The album itself is just as powerful. I particularly like “Summer Dress”, which has the most wonderful lyrics, and “Cabezon” which are markedly upbeat from “Drop”, with a swift rhythm and light-hearted style. According to a recent Q&A by Celeste Moure on the “Like Vancouver” website, Mark recently released a new track from his forthcoming Sun Kil Moon album, Universal Themes, out June 2 on Caldo Verde which I shall be eagerly awaiting with interest.

Having stumbled upon Mark and his work quite by accident, I consider him to be one of the best kept secrets in music. If you have never listened to his work I implore you – grab a long drink, darken the room, put the candles on and turn the TV off. Put some of his music on and drift away…you will not regret it.

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Revenge of the Synth – the electric music generation

January30

Wandering around the corridors of the Media, Humanities and Technology building at the University of Lincoln, I come across some fascinating and hugely talented people lurking in offices and studying hard. One such individual I came across this week was Craig Bratley, – by day, he supports students and staff in the School of Media. By night, Craig runs the music label Magic Feet and is world renowned for his underground house music remixes and live DJ gigs.

Being a child growing up in the eighties (and during my time as a nightclub manager in the noughties), I became interested in electric music. I recently rediscovered a haul of old cassettes and CD’s from the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, The Prodigy and Faithless I had completely forgotten about. Reliving and immersing myself in the synth-pop sound and the electric beats, I was truly excited by the prospect of talking to someone who works in the same building who shares a passion for the underground, unconventional music genre.

Despite holding down his job at the University, Craig, who comes from Manchester originally, has attained an industry wide reputation as a DJ, producer and remixer who gigs all over the world. He has a clutch of releases published (from labels such as Foto, Is It Balearics and Instruments of Rapture) and last year played on the Beats Hotel stage at Glastonbury in front of 2000 people – an experience he described to me as “terrifying”. This year, he has gigs planned around the UK and Ireland.

I asked Craig how he got into electric music and subsequent DJing and he told me it all started by reading Future Music magazine as a boy and dreaming of making music. Once he got into the nightclub scene in his teenage years, his interest developed and he started making music. In 2012, he started his now industry renowned label, Magic Feet, and also remixes for Heavenly Records and Above Machine (to name two of the many labels he works with).

Producing and remixing music from his home studio, Craig has recently released his own debut LP called Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride on TuBa Records.

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Kingsman The Secret Service Preview

January29

Kingsman – The Secret Service

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Music composed by: Henry Jackman, Matthew Margeson

Cast: Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Taron Egerton, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Hamill, Jack Davenport, Paulina Boneva, Sofia Boutella, Tom Prior, Neve Gachev

The screenplay, based upon the Mark Millar ‘Kingsman’ comic books, was reworked for the cinema by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn. Matthew, acclaimed director of X-Men First Class (2011) who has collaborated with Millar before on the film Kick Ass (2010), also directs what promises to be a fast paced spy epic, filled with special effects and Bond style gadgets guaranteed to intrigue and entertain.

Kingsman The Secret Service sees Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’ Diary, Pride and Prejudice) return to the public eye to play another typecast, suave English gentleman (Harry Hart) who recruits a street-child, Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton – TV series “The Smoke”), into the uber secret spy organisation, housed in a Saville Row tailors and mandated to save the world from the tyrannical Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) who plans to launch a cunning plan to solve the problem of climate change by invoking a worldwide killing spree.

The World Premiere was held in Leicester Square on Wednesday 14th January and was met with huge excitement by fans of the cast and the infamous GBArmy, who assembled in their thousands to watch Take That perform the title song to the film, Get Ready For It. Those who could not make the event didn’t need to miss out, however as Yahoo joined forces with Twentieth Century Fox to exclusively live stream the event.

The film goes out on general release on Thursday 29th January 2015.

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“If the road ahead becomes too hard to climb…..”

January11

Today sees me 10 days into training for the Lincoln 10k in March and getting down to my goal weight. On a cold, bright winter day like today, it’s not too arduous now. Yesterday, in the wind and howling rain, I can tell you that you start to question your sanity. It maybe doesn’t qualify as a big thing for most, but for me it’s a huge challenge.

I started running in January 2014, after receiving a wedding invite – I simply couldn’t face turning up to this wedding – the bride a fitness instructor, the groom a Royal Marine – topping the scales at the heaviest I had ever been, mixing with the young and beautiful. Somehow, at sometime, I had lost my way – got buried in being all things to all people – Mamma, wife, volunteer, housekeeper and the general comings and goings of everyday life. 14 years previously, I had climbed to the Base Camp of Mount Everest and raised £5000 for a cancer charity specialising in cancer research for young people – and now I felt I had nothing to offer anyone, least of all myself.

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The thought had come to me that I needed to do something about this when I made a New Year’s resolution in January 2012 to see more live music, after my sister and I had reclaimed the youth we never had and started going to live music events in 2011 – they were amazing. First we started with Take That and the Progress tour of 2011 – my first ever stadium concert and standing under that ticky tape machine listening to Gary, Mark, Howard, Jason and Robbie belt out “Today this could be the Greatest Day of our lives” was rather an understatement. Next was Gary Barlow Live in December 2013, held at Newcastle City Hall .

Music is a very powerful thing – speaking to the renowned Rock Photographer Nick Elliott (whose portfolio includes the likes of Thin Lizzy and Marmalade) during a series of interviews broadcast on Siren FM, he is a first hand believer that music really DOES change the world – lyrics and sound that speak out, capture a moment, a feeling, a longing – expressing, for some, the inexpressible. I walked out of the auditorium that December night in 2013 a changed person – with a determination, a motivation, a focus – something I have come to nickname “the power of the Barlow”. Now, people do tend to ridicule and poke fun at this, but I absolutely believe in fate; in being in the right place at the right time, meeting the people you need to meet, and that night I needed to witness that performance – if only to underline the fact that I wasn’t dead yet; there was a whole lot of life left to live, and I really WAS worth it, even if I didn’t believe it.

So, armed with my music and my fitness apps loaded into my phone, I set about dropping 6 stone. I can tell you the first couple of months were hell, because frankly I hate running – but it was cheap, flexible in terms of time, and I knew it would be the right intensity to get results. I would never have made it without the expertise and help of the NHS 0-5k podcasts or my music. Once I had built up my stamina and accepted that my diet really was going to have to change (mainly how much I was eating, not necessarily the sort of foods I was eating) I’m loathed to admit that I really started to enjoy it!! By July 2014 I had ditched 3 stone and attended my friends wonderful wedding, but there’s still a long way to go………..

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Determined to keep up the resolution, Helen and I booked the next lot of performances to see – April 2014 saw us attend the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena to see Gary Barlow’s sell out “Since I Saw You Last Tour” which, although not like the intimate gig at the Newcastle City Hall, was well worth the 400 mile round trip. Michael Buble followed in December 2014 (and I’ve written a separate review about that concert). Because going to large concerts, however nice, tends to involve quite a bit of time, travel and expense, I also started going to more events on my own as the need to attend more local arts events for my MA became increasingly apparent. One of those gigs later in December 2014 was by Dan Hadfield – a local Lincolnshire lad (and as it turned out the UK’s No1 Gary Barlow Tribute Act) I’d been told about by one of the Porters at University who’d seen me sporting my Gary Barlow “Since I saw You Last” T-shirt and had informed me that Dan had worked here. So earlier in the year I had set about tracking him down, and Dan very kindly met me to talk about how he’d got into performing and tribute acting, what it was like to look like Gary Barlow, and what impact that had on his life.

Here’s the interview article from that chat:

 

“Our Man Dan”

Nervous with anticipation, the door opens and my heart jumps – it’s him. Wearing faded jeans, a black jacket, his trademark haircut and with eyes that light up the room, you’d be forgiven for thinking Gary Barlow OBE, 6 times Novello Award winner and lead singer of Take That, has arrived. But it’s not green eyed Gary, who’s sold over 50 million records worldwide with 12 number one hit singles and seven number one albums. It’s one of the best Gary Barlow tribute acts in the business, brown eyed Dan Hadfield – and boy does he look like Barlow.

 Dan, like Gary, has impeccable charm. He laughs as I struggle to contain my shock (he even sounds like him) and tells me he’s driven to meet me from Melton. He’s been learning the new number one hit song These Days, which has nearly had him in tears trying to get the vocals down. “I won’t be singing it in my Lincoln gig tonight” he chuckles. He’s also keen to impress how seriously he takes it. “Whenever I’m learning a Take That song, it has to be right. You get out of it what you put into it.”

I start by asking how his tribute acting started – by his own admission he never planned it this way. “I remember an old school friend of mine told me to put MTV on. He said there was a new group called Take That and I looked just like the lead singer.”

It was purely coincidence that Dan, who’s originally from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, became a tribute act. “For 20 years people have told me I look like him.” He repeats it as if he still doesn’t believe he looks almost identical to 43 year old Gary, who’s 4 years Dan’s senior.

 

“Gary went on X Factor as a judge. I could see there was something but I wasn’t sure,” revealing more of the mannerisms associated with Gary. Encouraged, he went to the local barbers and privately asked: “Give me the Barlow haircut.” although he adds “I was embarrassed to ask – I’d never had much of a hairstyle before!”

 

However, Dan got an unexpected part of Gary’s life. “It turned into hell” he admits. “I walked from my office into town and I had people say things, including a bunch of girls that wouldn’t let me into a shop. It made me feel hideous.”  It didn’t put him off though. “I got back to the office and a friend said I should send my photo into a tribute agency –a month later I was on the Xtra Factor with Gary. It was mind blowing.”  Gary’s co-judges were amazed by the likeness.

 

Dan was still working at the University of Lincoln as a schools’ manager then. I ask how he managed it all and he laughs “I didn’t manage it – I was in my Lincoln job, driving to gigs at weekends, getting back on Sunday and back at work on Monday. I didn’t get time for a life.”

 

I ask what his friends and colleagues thought of leaving his job and he admits: “I told them I was bored to tears with my working life. They thought I was mad” He’s now in demand giving solo concerts as Gary Barlow throughout the UK and Europe and occasionally performs as part of the tribute act, Totally Take That. He’s recently done TV continuity work and has other projects coming up as Take That’s popularity increases with the recent chart success of the new album TTIII.

“It’s fantastic – I enjoy the singing but I enjoy the lookalike stuff too. It’s not been without its negatives, but what is?” Dan adds proudly “Gary’s been great about it. He’s said some really nice things and he’s advertised my shows before. There are many tributes out there but he’s been so nice about my act. Our paths keep intertwining”

“To see Gary sit down and play – he can really play a tune. I don’t get music till I listen to it through my headphones. I have to listen to it on my own terms.”  Dan, who’s performed from intimate restaurant gigs to as many as 5000 people at Butlins and is starting to learn the piano, is determined he wants to do things his own way though. “I’m not suddenly going to stop singing – I might do it as myself, but it just so happens that at this time in my life I’m doing what I’m doing now.”

Gary Barlow has clearly had a profound effect on Dan’s life. “He has an amazing impact on people” notes Dan. Talking about his act, which is popular with the public as well as Barlow fans, he’s no hesitation in naming his favourite song: “Since I Saw You Last is my favourite – I decided to start my set with it.”

Talking about his own interests which include jazz, literature, David Lynch films and Star Wars, his future hopes include opening his own swing and jazz agency. “My heart beats as a swing singer” he beams. “I love jazz, swing, big band. My idols are Sinatra, Bobby Darin, and Bennett – the greats.” T this point, I’m suddenly aware that Dan’s started to be a little less like Gary, and a bit more like himself.

Where does he see his tribute going in the future? “Take That’s back catalogue is amazing. Who knows what the shelf life of this is, but if you ever found out exactly what it is you want to do in life, I think that’s a scary place. Things happen when they’re supposed to happen.”

Dan at his Gig at Number 9 in Lincoln 17th December 2014 singing the Gary Barlow hit “A Million Love Songs”

 

 

Having met him and seen him perform, and so impressed was I having seen the real deal (I even got a rendition of “A Million Love Songs”), Dan starts his 2015 tour season on February 6th in Portsmouth, and arrives at the DoubleTree Hilton, Lincoln, for a sell out gig on 28th February which I (and about 25 of my friends) have most certainly booked a date to see – yet another reason to stick to the New Year’s Resolution and keep running!

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Artificial Landscape Preview 6th January 2015 – Zhang Tao

January6

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Brushstroke detailing taken from “Artificial Landscape II” 2014 (Acrylic on Canvas)

Following on from the collaborative Exhibition in July 2014 entitled “Accidents need not happen” (a project inspired by The Media Archive for Central England (MACE), based at the University of Lincoln) Zhang Tao is again bring his unique look at Western culture to the Project Space Plus at the Lincoln School of Art and Design.

“Artificial landscapes” is the culmination of a one year visit for the artist as an Associate Professor of Fine Art in the College of Arts at the University of Lincoln. Having attended the preview, he commented to the assembled guests that the modern age, being full of visual information and imagery “seemed by some to be moving it’s focus of the contemporary art form away from painting with a brush”.  Coming from the Eastern tradition, however, Zhang Tao continues to have a great fascination with the traditional form of brush painting.

His works on display clearly reflect this – he has attempted, through this long studied subject, to engage people in reflecting on  modern civilisation in a different perspective. His use of colour and brush strokes transform paintings of modern rubbish – disgarded motorbikes, scrap metal and old cars, into almost illusionary natural landscapes. It was a pleasure – one I have not had the opportunity for quite some time – to stand, look, engage and ponder on his works, which include watercolour and acrylic media.

The exhibition runs from 6th January – 16th January 2015.

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