Meme day IX

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

Blyth Power are one of those bands I never seem to get tired of. Their songs are interesting, well written and you can dance to them (except for the dirges - and who doesn’t  love a good dirge now and then?)

Meme Day VIII

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

It took some time to remember the name of this song - I’m nowhere near the Cure fan I used to be. But when I saw this question, for some reason, this song started playing in my head. Odd, because I havn’t thought about or listened to this song in years…

Meme day VII

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

Bit of an easy one! And also a candidate for “Songs I can’t dance to”. Following an incident at Laughtons in Whitby (the 80’s night…) where I attempted to head to the dancefloor in order to get my groove on and promptly tumbled off my 7-inch platform shoes. What a numpty! I’d consumed too much caffiene and found the whole thing hi-larious.

Meme day VI

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

The first time I saw Blyth Power live I was really hoping to hear this song. It was seriously cold and I had to kick the snow off my clogs before I went into the pub. There was *nobody* there - I think the audience totalled about seven people at it’s busiest! It was at the Vic in Derby in the dead of winter and I’d just been dumped. I’d only started listening to Blyth a short while before this gig (and only because someone told me not to…) and I got addicted to their music so quickly it’s ridiculous. I went to this gig slightly grumpy and left feeling like I’d learned something. It’s one that still sticks with me.

Hawktastic…

Krankschaft

I’m going to review two gigs at once here, because I like to do everything wrong and it’s my website! It was an interesting weekend - two lots of Hawkwind plus quite a few other fantastic bands.

Kicking off both nights were Krankschaft. There is only one thing I don’t like about Krankschaft and that is they get to play all of Robert Calvert’s finest songs and do so very well. This makes me jealous because that’s really what I’d like to do, but the rest of my band get uppity when I suggest it. They seem to be the best people for the job though - they give those songs the big, impressive sound they deserve. I can’t recommend their version of “Test-tube conceived” enough (on record or live). In Leeds they had to keep their set short (10pm curfew! Silly, silly venue!) which meant missing my favorite “All the Machines Are Quiet” - but they had time for it in Leamington and it was worth waiting for!

In Leeds, they were they only support, but Leamington Spa was an all-day thing. Next up at

Hawkwind

Leamington was Tarantism, who I’ve heard a bit of, but never seen live. Heard a lot of people saying they were worth watching though - so I stuck around. They’re a lot of fun to watch! Very upbeat, but they have that sound that conjures up thoughts of big outdoor festivals with too much sunshine - in the rather posh Assembly Rooms, they seemed a bit captive. Not that it seemed to bother them or distract from the fantastic dancey sound!

I think next up was Banco Di Gaia. By this point I’d been out all day with my bandmates, been to a hawkwind gig, come home, watched Doctor Who, gotten three hours sleep, woken up, walked to the station, discovered there was no train, walked back home again, woken up my sister for a lift into town, been to Derby, been to look at a train in a field (don’t ask) and learned the correct etiquette for what to do when your knickers fall down (no really, don’t ask!) So I had to have a little sit down. It all sounded very nice. The version of “Spirit of the Age” baffled me a little bit though!

After going out for some fresh air, I went to watch Man. Again, I’ve heard a little of their stuff, but not a whole lot. They were pretty good! Watched most of the gig sat on the floor, but it was still a nice set they played - seemed very short though.

Lloyd Langton Group were pretty good as well. Didn’t make it through the whole set before I needed more fresh air and caffeine (I’m getting a bit pathetic really!) but Huw played another short solo set just before Hawkwind took to the stage, which was very nice.

Now, Hawkwind. What a band! Two fantastic sets over the weekend - a nice mixture of older and newer stuff as well. “Fahrenheit 451″ and “Magnu” were real highlights of the older stuff and I’m really enjoying “Prometheus” and “Setinal” from the new material (especially after Mr. Dibs’s explanations of the songs - I liked that!). “Silver Machine” got played at Leeds, but not Leamington - which I thought was a little odd. But both gigs had “Hassan I Sahba” in the encore which seemed to make everyone happy!  And they had the fantastic dancing girls as well - onstage in Leeds and stilt-walking through the crowd in their “Sentinal” costumes at Leamington - very effective!

Leeds Photos:

Leamington Photos:

Leeds video (No Hawks because they were telling people off for videoing…)

Leamington videos:

Meme day V

(took a few days off to go and watch Hawkwind!)

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

Bit of a funny one this… I tried to associate songs with places and for some reason it only brought up bad memories and would have been an excuse to complain a lot. I’m not going to do that.
After that, I narrowed it down to two songs - the other was “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga because that song seemed to follow me around when I was in Bristol.

This song (the one I actually posted the video for…) reminds me of holidays in Germany when I was an obnoxious teenager. I used to buy music magazines (despite not being able to read them…) because they really got goth in a way that magazines back home didn’t. Sure there was Kerrang! and the like, but they were always too into metal or nu-metal or things that I just wasn’t that into. German music magazines seemed to always be full of Wayne Hussey and HIM. That sort of thing impressed me back then…
They also came with free CDs (hence why I bought them…) so I could check out  any bands I hadn’t heard of and would probably be able to pick up a few albums while I was over there. I forget which magazine I’d bought that had this song on it’s free CD of the month (Zillo, Sonic Seducer - one of those sorts) but I do remember it being the first track and thinking it was utterly wonderful. The rest of the CD was ok, but the lasting memory of that holiday is sitting in the back of a car listening to that song on repeat and watching Germany sort of happen around me. It was a stupidly hot summer and I didn’t really want to do anything more than buy CDs or sit around listening to them - occasionally the family dragged me out to look at things… Oh the joys of being a sulky teenage goth!

Meme day IV

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

I can’t believe how hard it was to find a version of this that wasn’t a cover band. Shoe Suede Blues are close enough. I love the Monkees  not in a hip, ironic way - I actually enjoy their music and no amount of ill-informed bleating about how they never wrote their own songs or played their own instruments (sure, they had some stuff written for them - but to say *none* of their songs were their own is just wrong)   has changed that so far.

This one always reminds me of Neva, and something she said to me about this song that means I can never listen to it with a straight face again! It’s not something that’s really suitable to mention on here because… well, that’s the nature of the Neva! It’s very silly, quite rude and utterly hilarious and because of it, I only have one mental image that comes to mind when listening to this song.

Meme day III

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

I’ve been banging on a lot about Show of Hands recently - but this really fits. “Dark Fields” seems to one of their saddest songs and the first time I heard it, (cliché as it sounds…) the words seemed to describe exactly what was going on in my life at the time. As I said the other day, Show of Hands have a knack for really getting inside those very human emotions in a brave way - they go for the emotions that we deny, the ones that hurt more than anything and the ones we never like to let people know that we have. It does remind me of some of the most unhappy times in my life, but at the same time it’s such a wonderful song. It’s an inspiration - something beautiful from the darkest emotion.

Meme day II

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

I had to think about this one. There’s a lot of songs that have made me happy, but this one still seems to stick out.
This is one of the videos I took (as you can tell from the quality - or lack of!) and that helps answer this question even more. When I set off to this gig I was deeply unhappy about a lot of things. Watching this again reminds me of fantastic music, in a wonderful venue (Sawyers in Kettering is an amazing place. Go there at least once if you can - you’ll see what I mean!) and being around some of the nicest people I know. It reminds me of who my real friends are and of a lot of good times I’ve had with them - even in the face of things going wrong elsewhere.

I love this cover. I almost feel bad for not posting one of their original compositions (also well worth a listen if you can get your hands on a copy of their album) but I love how this cover sounds.  I liked the origial, but I was never a big fan of the Psychedelic Furs and much perfer the way The Charlies play it.

If you like this video (and why wouldn’t you? Apart from the dodgy quality…) check out Steven Cooper and the Charlies on Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/stevencooperandthecharlies or go and see them live if you can.

Meme time…

I don’t post much on here, and I’d like to change that.

One of my LiveJournal friends posted this meme and I thought it’d go well on here, so here we go! It’s an 18-day music meme that goes like this:

Day 01 - Your favourite song
Day 02 - A song that makes you happy
Day 03 - A song that makes you sad
Day 04 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 05 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 06 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 07 - A song that you can dance to
Day 08 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 09 - A song from your favorite band
Day 10 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 11 - A song that describes you
Day 12 - A song from your favorite album
Day 13 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 14 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 15 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 16 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 17 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 18 - A song that makes you laugh

Day one it is then…

I still think this is probably my all-time favourite song. Or at least it has been for a good few years now.  It’s just beautiful. There’s something about Rev Hammer that makes me lose the power to make sense, the man is a genius. I still remember the first time I heard this song because one line stood out from all the others and still does…

“Swing through the stars and you’ll run through the trees
Like Venus in April with mud on your knees”

I’m not sure what it is about this line, but it gets me every time. Between that and Rev’s amazing voice it’s very hard to find anything that feels quite as perfect as this.