The big reveal! Try not to get too excited! Ha ha! Imagine you’ve turned on your TV to watch a brand new futuristic time-travel detective series. //The cop can spin a dial on his watch to flit through the decades… or some such nonsense. Anyway, this is the theme tune:
The first post via my phone!
So, I sit here watching Question Time… mobile phone in hand… and I can post to my site! From the comfort of my sofa… Rather than the comfort of the chair upstairs. Different chairs different comforts. To be fair a phone isn’t a huge leap of faith from a computer… although I find typing on this touch screen a complete pain in the arse! Therefore please forgive any grammatical errors when I’m posting from this phone. There is likely going to be a lack of paragraphs.
No, it’s okay… I found the ‘enter’ key. Hmmm. In the time it’s taken me to type this I could have not only run upstairs and typed it on the computer… I could have eaten the computer and a whole pack of Cream Crackers… Dry! Yes… Dry!
Anyway, the purpose of this post? I have nearly finished the latest Confession of the Whole School song. And I think it’s a belter! Be prepared though… It is a little off the beaten track!!! I hope to post it tomorrow. Night night.
A splendid time is guaranteed for all
So, I was dressing up to go to a heavy metal gig. I thought… you know, what should I wear? So I went with a t-shirt with a skull on it and my favourite leather jacket. A leather jacket that is extremely rock! It has a skull with a snake slithering through it on the back, and snakes down the arms. (on a side note… the only problem with this jacket is that the skull and snakes are actually made up of a series of holes. Which means that when it rains the skull and snakes perform the function of making you (…me) get wet… not an entirely useful ‘app’ for a jacket! But… in any case, it looks good… and in today’s society what else could be as important as ‘looking good’???).
I come down the stairs wearing the t-shirt and the jacket. The girls are clustered in the hallway around the mirror getting ready. You can picture the scene – all glasses of champagne and hair straighteners. One of the ladies says “What’s with the pirate get-up?”… and this flummoxes me for a moment. But then I realise it’s the whole ‘skull and crossbones’ thing. “Hmmm” I say… “I see what you mean”. And that sets me thinking. Is heavy metal particularly ‘pirate-y’? “Why do you have to dress as a pirate to go to a heavy metal gig?” she asks. “Hmmmm…” /again. I just say that I don’t think metal is particularly pirate-y and that it’s more to do with the ‘death’ and the ‘danger’. But it was certainly food for thought.
So… I go to the gig. It was at a kind of underground basement place – the kind of venue where the sweat drips from the ceiling. Funnily enough the place is called “The Underground”… spooky that! I walk down the stairs into the darkness to be met by my friend. Fine. Good stuff. So I turn to go to the bar and what do I see? A life-size pirate. A life-size model pirate. Not only that… but this is a life-size model skeleton pirate. “Hmmmm…” I think /again/again. Hmmm… you know what… perhaps metal is actually a little too pirate-y?
The band plays. A band called Meansteed. They play a pretty good approximation of ACDC. In fact… the whole evening had a feel of NWOBHM. The singer has something of the Bruce Dickinson about him and the guitarist a little of the Joan Jett. I bought the CD and they all signed it. I have now placed the CD in a secure vault just in case any one of them goes on to be the next Bruno Mars or Ed Sheeran (unlikely). But a good night was had by all. Jolly good in fact. Jolly Roger. Hmmmm… /again/again/again.
Radiohead – The Bends… a swift listen
Over the last couple of years I have been listening to a lot of music online. Streaming the 010100101010000111111s. But recently I have taken a step back from the new, the fresh, the vital and I’ve been basking in the dusty, spinning black circles of music history. I actually think it’s having a positive influence on my own recorded output as I’ve been putting a nostalgic bent on the new Eleventh Hour tracks – but more on that another day!
I so enjoyed listening and commenting on Abbey Road as it played I thought I’d do something similar with the next record in the rack. And that accolade goes to…. /spins chair around and grabs next album in line… hmmmm. Interesting. The Bends by Radiohead. Ha ha! Discussions of Radiohead can be more than your life’s worth!
So… needle dropped. Planet Telex. I remember buying the single. I think it was a double A-side. Planet Telex and High and Dry. I remember reading an article in a student magazine at the time where Thom Yorke was saying that High and Dry was “for the masses” and Planet Telex was the song the band really wanted people to take notice of. I recall being somewhat offended by the comment. And I still do to a certain degree. Look… I think Planet Telex is a great song, a great influential song. But I also happen to think High and Dry is pretty perfect. Now, in hindsight, was Thom really slating High and Dry or was he just doing that thing that people do where they put down their own song as if it was soooooo easy to write? So everyone else thinks… ‘wow, he must be amazing if he can write songs that good that he actually hates but we all love’. Ha ha! Or was he just a very contrary character. Well… you know what… knowing what we know now it was probably a little of all of them. But I think High and Dry is a high point and it was annoying to hear it being slagged off by its writer before I’d even heard it!
Radiohead meant a lot to the kids of my generation. Especially the kids in bands at the time that this album came out. It was a rosy time for the British music industry and epoch defining albums were being spewed out at a phenomenal rate. But Radiohead always seemed that little bit more interesting than the others. They were already a very contrary band. A band that was so dismissive of its biggest hit to date, Creep. A band that was always on the clever side of intellectual. And Radiohead seemed so close to home. Thom Yorke had gone to Uni just up the road from me. I knew one of his ex-girlfriends. They just seemed touchable… you know… within a whiskers grasp. Then. Not now!
I managed to type right through a couple of songs there! Ha ha! Anyway… High and Dry is playing now. And I still think it’s one of the best songs Radiohead have ever pulled out of the hat. Thom would probably smack me in the face for even suggesting it. I kind of understand his position. He genuinely wants to push boundaries. He wants to be cutting edge. Perhaps he felt a little embarrassed about the direction the band had taken in those early years. All bleached hair and U2-isms. Big songs. Big ballads. Acoustic guitars. Quiet-loud-quiet dynamics. Well… Thom it’s all here in spades. Fake Plastic Trees is playing now. This is the song that got all the plaudits. For me it’s not quite up there with High and Dry but I notice that over the years the band haven’t been so coy about this track. They seem prepared to admit it’s their song. So sometimes a big acoustic song is alright then? Ha ha! Got you.
I know Thom used to DJ at Uni and was very much into the acid house scene. I think Kid A probably gave him a much greater sense of achievement than this album. But Kid A couldn’t have happened without The Bends. For it is this album that created Radiohead. Without it they would have been the band that wrote Creep. They would have been an EMF or a Charlatans. The Bends changed the story. Or it at least turned the page. I suppose OK Computer not only furthered the story but actually relocated the whole damn library.
Listening to this album now it sounds relatively straightforward. I have always held it in supremely high regard and it does still sound fighting fit… but I’m not too keen on the song currently playing. Perhaps it says something for the album that I’m going to have to reach over for the sleeve to see what this song’s called. Bones. Hmmmm. Not really feeling this song. I suppose on a CD I might skip it but I’m sitting here enjoying the fact that the record is playing under the record player cover and it would be far too much of a task to ‘skip a track’. And anyway… an album is an album. You stick with it through the good and the bad. And so far this album has been pretty good.
It’s actually hard for me to be objective about The Bends. As I’ve already said, it hit me at the ‘correct’ moment in my life. I needed this album. And unlike the rest of the world I never needed the follow-up. I think the typical ‘reviewer’ defines Radiohead as pre-OK Computer and post-OK Computer. But OK Computer is always the fixed point in time. The perfect album created by their perfect head-music band. OK Computer didn’t have the same relevance for me. I think I’m happier thinking of Radiohead as a cascading series of ever more eclectic waves. We are the shore.
I was getting into some A-level style creative writing there! Ha ha. But I notice de duh shhhe de duh shhhe de duh shhhe de duh shhhe the needle is going round and round. Time to turn the record over.
Hey this is more like it. Just. This brings back memories. Remember MTV2? I used to watch that channel all the bloody time. And this video was on all the time. Great video. Intriguing video. Anyone who hasn’t seen it – stop reading and YouTube it now! Great quiet LOUD quiet song this. Kind of defines the moment. We were in the aftermath of grunge and this style of music was very much in vogue. But Radiohead brought another slant to the style. The guitarist playing those fast repetitive guitar stabs whilst wearing that plastic brace thing on his arm. Honestly his guitar style was so influential. You hear it everywhere. You hear it in my music. You hear it in Muse. You hear it everywhere.
My Iron Lung. I’m sure this was on an EP released before The Bends? In any case, I’m not going to stray and Wikipedia anything. I am writing this as the album plays and when it finishes I finish. The ultimate time constraint.
So far I’ve got to say that Side 2 is kicking arse. Big stylee! Such great guitar work in this song. And what a frenetic break in the middle. Just an obelisk of a song. This track has monkeys gathering around it aimlessly clanking bones about. But one of those monkeys is gonna throw that bone in the air. . .
What I notice now with the space of 17 years is the varied ‘textures’ of this album. I can hear the electronica that was to come. I think The Bends is more of a defining moment for Radiohead than the historians would have you believe.
I like Thom’s vocals on this album. He still had to sing at this point. I mean sing in the traditional sense. The band still had to achieve success. Pablo Honey (the début album) was not a great album. Radiohead were not destined for greatness. Not then. They had to work up to that point. You can only truly experiment once you have reached a level where people WANT to hear the results of your laboratory workouts. Mix those chemicals too soon and no one will be interested in the contents of the test tube. In fact they will just insist that you clean up your mess. Bands have to do this. They have to reach a level of success and instil a certain confidence in their fans. The Beatles couldn’t have just started out with the White Album. And Radiohead couldn’t have just started out with Kid A. And in any case, whether they like it now or not, Radiohead made a good stadium rock style band. They could have been the Killers or Coldplay of their day. Luckily for us Radiohead were much more than that. Radiohead were a band that paved the way for anyone who wanted to experiment. When someone asked you who you sounded like you could just say ‘Radiohead‘ with confidence – and that still holds to this day. For while I am not their biggest fan I do appreciate that they are still the band to live up to. A band who have touched greatness and seemingly been driven mad by it. Radiohead almost seem to mirror the artists of the ’60s who took too much LSD. It’s like Radiohead were Pink Floyd. They had their Bends, Dark Sides, OK Computers and Wish You Were Heres. But then Radiohead became Syd Barrett and Peter Green. Radiohead took off … destination – another galaxy. They became the Lennon that wanted tape loops involving the number 9. But whole albums of it. There was no McCartney to reign Radiohead in. And in many ways they are all the better for it. We NEED bands like this.
Okay… the last song. Street Spirit. I don’t have long left. I’m typing like a banshee!!! This is no average final track. This is a classic. This is a defining moment. And again… I hear what they were to become here. This is monumental song writing. And this is an important album. I haven’t played The Bends too much over the years. But it did change me. Those initial listens changed me. And I’m sure they worked their similar magic on Matt Bellamy. And others. For The Bends is nothing if not influential. And for every reviewer who holds aloft OK Computer as the greatest thing since sliced bread I will open those slices of bread and point at the filling. For it is The Bends. (don’t bite into it! An OK Computer, Bends, OK Computer sandwich has got to be bad for the teeth! And I’m not sure anyone could survive the emotional, heartfelt, Jeff Buckley inspired indie onslaught!).
The record has ended. Apologies if I have written a load of bollocks. I had to type quickly. And I was a little spoiled by the last record, Abbey Road.
I enjoyed listening to The Bends again. A band at its peak of being “A Band”. They were never ‘quite’ the same again.
Abbey Road – An Impromptu Review
Still a lovin’ the vinyl. I’ve just stuck on Abbey Road. Thought I’d type while I listen. I do love Come Together. For me an example of why Ringo Starr is one of the greatest drummers of all time. A very much underrated musician and the butt of almost all Beatles-related gags. But anyone who’s anyone appreciates Ringo’s contribution. Understated and sublime. I’ve always been a fan of the drums… I think my own music is dominated by the drum kit and the ‘sound’ of the drum kit. I don’t think songwriters pay enough attention to drum patterns. They are often happy enough to just put some chords over a drum loop. That may work just fine for dance music… but if you’re trying to capture the attention of a headmusickid you have to give them something that excites! I remember first hearing the Buzzcocks… specifically the Peel Sessions album. Fantastic drumming. Likewise when Caught by the Fuzz by Supergrass first slapped me square in the jaw. The drums can not only ‘make’ a song but they can define a band.
On a side-note… what the hell was McCartney thinking when he followed the monumental Something with Maxwell’s Silver Hammer?!? Honestly… sometimes I despair. I will often be heard sticking up for Macca… but I can think of nothing positive to say about this bloody song. Abbey Road is such a HUGE album… there is no place for Maxwell’s Silver Bloody Hammer. Even if the sodding hammer was made out of solid gold I still wouldn’t allow it to occupy the same air-space as the rest of Abbey Road. Ha ha! Conversely by the way, I don’t feel the same way about Octopus’s Garden. Caught you by surprise there? Anyway… Macca kind of makes up for it immediately with his magnificent vocals on Oh! Darling straight afterwards.
So… the drums are important. As I was saying.. they can define the band. I think Ringo’s drumming was the perfect accompaniment to the twin colossus of Lennon & McCartney. It wouldn’t have worked with John Bonham bashing away behind them.
I Want You. What a song. This song is so heavy (very much reflected in the lyrics which proclaim how heavy she indeed is!). So… we know she’s heavy! Ha ha! I love how far the Beatles took music in their short time as an entity. They redefined music in the space of seven years. They wrote the rule book on rock and roll and then created the concept album. They were a band poles apart with itself. Then on Abbey Road, their final album, they looked back at everything they had ever been and took it to a new level. With a song like I Want You the Beatles are almost heavy metal. They had achieved a similar (if not heavier) sound before with Helter Skelter… but I Want You repeats like a heavy rock mantra. Such a simple song. Repeated ad infinitum. Amazing vocals. Creative bass. Smashing drums. A band at the top of its game and yet at the end of its game. A band that wrote Revolver and Sgt Pepper and yet ended with the relative straight line of Abbey Road. Awwww…. just listen to that distorted ending… something I have actually (unknowingly, but now I recognise the theft!) incorporated into the latest Eleventh Hour Initiative song. Oh well…. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and other such clichéd jargon! Ha ha!
The needle spins in the centre groove. I have to turn the record over! Oh come on… even that is nostalgic and sugar-coated sweetness! 🙂
George’s second song on the album. Here Comes the Sun is another sure-fire hit. I’ll tell you something – people will decry George’s involvement with the Beatles’ songwriting. George himself liked to joke about it. When Paul suggested they write together in later years George stated “He ignored me for years and now he wants to write with me?”. Well, honestly, don’t believe a word of it. Count the number of Harrison’s songs on albums like Revolver and Abbey Road. I think he fared pretty well. In terms of talent he was certainly up there with Lennon and McCartney. He made the Beatles the band they were. I have the utmost respect for George’s contributions. It’s funny that Sinatra introduced his version of Something with the line “This is one of the best Lennon and McCartney songs”. Ha ha! I bet George had to eat a couple of extra portions of Ready Brek that morning!!!
Hmmmm… typed right through Because. And to think I could have waxed lyrical about the vocals on that track!
So… we’re now into the medley on side 2 of Abbey Road. The opportunity for all the songs that had never been completed to be tossed into the salad bowl and hand mixed with some expensive olive oil. I think the medley works a treat. In fact there are moments that blow my mind. The beautiful vocal harmonies. The intricate Albatross-esque guitar work. The in-turns eloquent and silly lyrics. And the overriding feeling that everyone involved knows that this is the end. The last notes they will ever record as the Beatles. The fab four’s intentions have already been spelt out. They are gone. They have left the building (without Elvis’ blessing contrary to the reports!). And yet Paul, John, George and Ringo were friends for one last time to create this album. That is how it sounds. The work of friends. That is why I think Abbey Road occupies a certain position in fans’ hearts. This is the album as we want to remember the fab 4. For so soon after the final note is played there is acrimony at play.
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window. Another silly McCartney song… but this one feels ‘right’. This is class… and we sense we are on the wind down. Into Golden Slumbers. I love Paul McCartney. Just listen to that melody. Just listen to that voice. Honestly, some of his best singing. Some of the best ever singing. Lennon gets the plaudits, but McCartney was up there. Lennon may get voted “Best Singer of All Time”… but I won’t forget Paul.
And now I’m just waiting for The End. The most fitting final song of any band ever? In my opinion this song is the perfect full stop. The most fitting termination.
A drum solo!!! I can forgive Ringo’s “Peace and Love” bullshit for this one perfectly played solo. His only solo. Okay, perhaps it’ll take a little more to completely forgive his recent antics… the bloated old rock whore that he is! 😉 And… then… a guitar solo battle!!! This is the Beatles soloing like things possessed.
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
I love the Beatles. I think I’ve just written a pretty little love letter to my favourite band. And it took the exact length of Abbey Road to write because Her Majesty finishes… … now. Even the sound of the needle spinning endlessly in the groove sounds musical to me. I could have written more if I had more time… but I think I got my point across. Perhaps I should do this more often. Write whilst listening to a record? It would mean all my articles would have to be written in the space of approximately 30 minutes. Ha ha!
*Apologies for any factual inaccuracies. I have written this whole article in the time it took Abbey Road to spin… and I didn’t refer to the likes of Wikipedia once! This is all my inherent knowledge on display. I am showing you just how much of a Beatles fan I am… (and how quickly I can type!). And relax.
A New Romance
Sitting here drinking a beer listening to Exile on Main Street on my record player. Loving it. Down and dirty… I just love the pure, raw ‘atmosphere’ of these old albums. This is something that I think we pulled off relatively well with the Eleventh Hour Initiative album that Bill and I recorded. There’s an element of falsehood involved in that it’s hard to truly recreate a hot , cramped, groupie-filled, heroin swimming studio session. But authenticity is still achievable if you record what’s in your heart. We weren’t trying to produce a ‘club banger’. We weren’t trying to blow the roof off the music world with sheer innovation. Others are far better at leading the world by the hand with new techniques. We simply wrote a collection of songs that MEANT something. A collection of songs that ended up being just that. A collection. A collective that became more than the sum of its parts. A cliché, but a cliché I can live with. If you haven’t yet experienced the Eleventh Hour Initiative album I suggest you go and carry out that action before reading any further. (You’ll find it at iTunes or Amazon… or even at the right side of this very page) … I suppose you didn’t read that anyway because I told you to read no further. Stop taking me so literally!!!
I watched a few documentaries on the Beatles last night. I’ve seen them all before… well, I’ve seen everything Beatles related before. But these documentaries always inspire me. The most interesting one last night was the footage from the Beatles’ first trip to the US. Kind of hand-held camera stuff. Behind the scenes. You just see the four of them ‘hanging out’ together… and you get a feel for the absolute mayhem that followed them everywhere. It basically centres on the Ed Sullivan appearances. It’s hard to imagine now that 70 million people could watch a single TV show. In fact that will probably never happen again. For everything the Beatles did was a first. In the current era of a million TV channels and a trillion bands it’s difficult to imagine how different things were back then. The Beatles were the greatest band of all time… but they also existed in the right decade. It is now impossible for anyone to have anywhere near the same impact. Never. Ever. Again. Will. It. Happen.
Really enjoying this album! Ha ha! What was also interesting about that era (I’m talking about the British invasion of America in the ’60s) was the number of truly ugly bands! (and I’m excluding the Beatles there!). Honestly… I was shocked by the looks of some of these guys. Wow… The Animals, The Stones, Peter and Gordon. The list goes on and on. These bands should thank their lucky stars that they were around in an era where people listened first and looked second. Ha ha! Oh well… they made their money and changed the world. And I’m not exactly a stunner myself! Ha ha!
Just had to flip the record there. The downside of vinyl… /but I actually quite like it! 🙂 Beautiful song too. Record 1, side 2, track 1. It’s amazing how fulfilling listening to a classic album and having a beer is. It should be a ‘waste of time’. But sod that. It’s my choice and I like it.
With regard to new product from Confession of the Whole School I gotta say that I am on hold. I’ve put myself on hold. I am basking in music again, something I have not done for a long, long time. And you know what? I am enjoying it. I’m remembering why I fell in love with music in the first place – because don’t let anyone kid you, music can become a chore. It can become a habit. And before you know it you’re lost. You’ve forgotten where you are and how you ever got there. I was a little burned out. I created music, and I enjoyed the creative process… but I was a little tired of ‘music’. I am relaxing now and I am happy to accept that sometimes you need to be revitalised. I’m just sitting back and enjoying the ride. I’m listening to some great music and having a few drinks. And I shall do this until I feel the urge to write another song. I can’t say how long that will be. But in the meantime I am working on my project with Bill Ryan again. I know it’s still ‘song writing’… but it feels separate. It’s not all about me. I don’t write the lyrics so I don’t need to have anything to say. That’s not to say I don’t speak through the instrumentation… but right now it’s real nice to just be able to make sound. I’m listening to great music and I think I’m being inspired again like I was when I was 16. I’m on the road to recovery. One day I will listen to my albums in a row. I’m sure they will tell a story. Alexi in Winter, All Monsters and Dust, Escapism, The Galton Detail. A diary of who I am today. The most important reinvention now is to create an album that does not ride a bandwagon. To record an album that tells a story I want to tell in a way only I can tell it. Perhaps the next Eleventh Hour Initiative project will be this album. Or perhaps I will have to wait until I feel the time is right to press record on a new Confession album. Either way… I am enjoying this new romance with music. Bring it on!
… nothing happens
Feels like a long time since I last visited these hallowed halls of verbal dexterity, but here I am. I’ve taken a break from producing music for a few weeks and it was probably just what I needed. I sit here now listening to Appetite for Destruction on my brand new ‘Rega’ turntable. I know I’ve said it a few times recently, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record (see what I did there?), but there is something comforting about listening to vinyl. It’s real. For all the other reasons people will spout, and there are many reasons… I think the “it’s real” argument will always win the day. I can hold the artwork. I can watch the black disk spinning. I can see the music physically being extracted from the ether like a caveman bashing a rock to carve a wheel. (A pretty crap wheel – made of rock.)
And the slightly alarming fact is that I am updating a site that is intent on persuading you to download CONFESSION OF THE WHOLE SCHOOLtm albums. Download. Ones and Zeros. Or rather ones and noughts. 10000110101100101100101010010110101010100101010100000100111111010100110101010110110111001010… soulless? Well… maybe. Luckily I’m not so wholeheartedly down on the idea. Ha ha! Good job hey!?! Ha ha! No… music is music, and ones and noughts can still touch the soul. If you close your eyes you can’t really notice the difference (bar the odd crackle here and there). Ones and noughts give the world access to all music. You can type any band into google and find somewhere to download or stream it. The pirates have won. Type ‘confession of the whole school’ into a search engine and you’ll find a rip of my albums. Do it if you like. We as musicians just have to hope that there are enough people out there who are touched by what we create so as to feel they are one with us. We want you to feel as though you are on board our ship, headed in the same direction as us… enjoying the facilities (there’s a rather nice swimming pool sunk into the back of my head!). And don’t worry… should we have a rocky ride you can rest assured I won’t be ‘tripping’ into any life boats. I will be on board till the end. I’ll go down with the ship, hand held at the temple in a salute.
Appetite has finished. Hmmmm…. what to play next? Oh well… a cliché maybe but I’ve just stuck Dark Side of the Moon on. Come on! Give me a break! There are certain albums that record players were invented for! Wow… it sounds superb. I’m a pretty recent convert to the Dark Side actually. For years I have been more of a Wish You Were Here fan. But Dark Side just holds so well together. The ALBUM that I’m always banging on about! Confession of the Whole School… the repetition of topics. I will drill it into you. Ha ha! Well… you know I’m a fan of repetition… I’ve said before that repetition is one of the fundamentals of comedy and music. Just don’t stick a wet finger in my ear too many times!!!
So… this post is just to say “hello”… I am still here… I haven’t forgotten my purpose in life. In fact… you should probably nip over to my sister site http://www.eleventhhourinitiative.com for I am (/was) working on a new song. To be honest I had to load it up today to recall whether it was any good or not! Ha ha! But… thankfully, yes, I thought it sounded quite fantastic. Better than I remembered. One of those songs that I’m already forgetting I wrote. Like it’s taking on an identity. Becoming something bigger than its creator. That happens every once in a while. You write a song that takes on a life of its own. You hear it and think “What a fantastic song”. And then you think “… hang on… I wrote that didn’t I?”. Followed by “Bloody hell! That’s really good! … How did I write that?”.
Hmmm… off topic. Topic? Subject? Hmmmm. Would it surprise you to know that I’m coffee’d off my head? Ha ha! Probably not! Till the next time. And I promise next time I’ll have something significant to say. Or…
confessionofthewholeschool.com 