Springsteen 2009

One of the most revered and hated figures of the twentieth century was Che Guevara, In any assessment of the man, rather than the myth, it is important to dive his life into four phases: His childhood, education and first travels throughout South America; His participation in the Cuban revolution; His period in the Cuban Government and then what became his last campaign to spread the revolution to the rest of South America and his execution with the help of the U.S.A assassination

He was born ten years before me as was killed in 1967 aged 39, I like what his father said of him The first thing to note is that in my son’s veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels, the Spanish conquistadors and the Argentinean patriots. Evidently Che inherited. There was something in his nature which drew him to distant wanderings, dangerous adventures and new ideas. I know nothing of the father except that Jesuit expression give me a child for seven years and I give you the adult,

Che as be became known through the world had grown up in a left wing and revolutionary household as his father supported Juan Peron and socialism and Spanish republicans visited their home. He learned to play chess at he age of 12, I taught myself about that time with a small pocket board with press in figures, playing lunch times at school with a class mate. And later through a correspondence league and playing for Croydon Local Authority against teams form other local authorities across London for one season until I was dropped after a losing run. We shared some of the authors who interested him, although in my instance most were after I left school including William Faulkner, Andree Gide, Walt Whitman, John Keats,, Jules Verne, Franz Kafka, John Paul Sartre, H G Wells, Robert Frost, Jack London and Bertrand Russell and Sigmund Freud. The fundamental difference between us was his father’s influence and my Catholic fundamentalist childhood brought up by aunts.

We both became missionaries.

Three years after entering University to Study medicine he undertook a year off from studies to embark on a motorcycle trip throughout South America with a friend and witnessed the poverty and oppression of ordinary people throughout the continent, also spending short time at a Leper Colony in Peru. His diary of the trip was made into a film, The Motor Cycle Diaries in 2004 which was one of the film highlights of the year.

With me the defining moments were the decision to read two reports of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, the six month prison experience and the decision to switching to child care after working among exceptionally poor an derived families in Salford Manchester during the summer of 1962 with the Family Service Unit. I was an emotional missionary while he became an intellectual one, never appearing to question or change his belief in revolution through violence and that a Marxist dictatorship was the only alternative to rampant capitalist imperialism

He completed his studies and qualified as a doctor in 1953, He then decided to travel again visiting Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador After six months on the road he reached Guatemala. Here is was introduced to leading members of the left government and also had contacts with Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro’s and his attack on a Baptista military barracks on 26 July 1953, Che tried to gain medical work but was advised to leave the country after the CIA sponsored coup following the arrival of Soviet arms into the country. The overthrow of thee government effectively by the USA confirmed his belief in the adverse effects on ordinary people of USA capitalist imperialism in the Southern continent. After taking refuge in the Mexican Embassy he made his way to Mexico. There he met Raul Castro and then Fidel who was plotting to overthrow the corrupt USA crime based regime. As a result of this meeting he decided this was the cause for which he had been looking, Eighty seven Cubans plus Chet set off from Mexico to Cuba in a leaky boat and only 22 survived the landing and of these only twelve were to enter Havana as the revolutionary victors.

As the film Che Part one- The Argentinean accurately portrays he was a ruthless fighting leader as well as caring doctor. Fidel described him as intelligent, daring and an exemplary leader but that he also took too many personal risks. There is nothing in the film to explain his dedication as a doctor and emotionally detached fighter and military leader, except that he and Fidel possessed am earth planet vision and recognised they were only temporary influences. The great part of the film deals with the military role of Che during the revolution, his ongoing work as a doctor, the emphasis providing the poor and illiterate with an education and his initial loyalty to his wife and child in Mexico, and then his growing attachment to a Cuban who offered her services divorcing his wife and marrying her after they entered Havana.

The film ends with his successful battle to take Santa Clara on New Years Eve 1958 and Baptista fleeing on learning that his generals were negotiating a separate peace with the rebel leaders. The ending is distinctly odd, except to indicate that it was only the first part of his life as a revolutionary and that he attempted to maintain his code of appropriate behaviour even in the moment of triumph.

It is noteworthy that President Obama who is attempting the third way revolution has accept the resignation of two of his government nominees following the disclosure that they were federal tax avoiders. The non payment of federal taxes appears to be a long standard activity among government official in the USA. I still remember my sense of shock and horror on being told by a USA government visiting party of top officials and representatives looking at the new British system of Social service local authorities in 1971 how they avoided paying taxes by renting out slums to the poor and others devices. They appeared to have no moral or ethical basis for their work in social welfare.

The film in which Che played by Benicio Del Torro has a documentary feel as the writers and producers attempt to recreate his Memoir Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War. The chronological account of the progress made after meeting with the Castro brothers to making the journey into Havana is intercut from time to time with a black and white recreation of his 1964 interview a Journalist in New York after addressing the UN. The five demands he made to the UN have echo’s of President’s Obama views in 2008.

I continued with my Bruce Springsteen fest throughout the day enjoying two live performance records, Barcelona and then New York.

Atlantic City 7.10 (Everything dies that is a fact perhaps everything that dies comes back); Because the night, The Rising 7.20;7.30 Dancing in the Dark; Youngstown .35; The Ghost of Tom Joad 8.40; Always a Friend 8.50;eth July Asbury Park Sandy 10.25 Turn Turn Turn; Long Walk Home 10.30 Radio nowhere; You will be coming down; Living in the future; Your own worst enemy.... Come to town; Girls in their summer clothes...pass me by; Gypsy Biker11.00; I’ll work for love; Magic; Last to Die; Devil’s Arcade and Terry’s song. Barcelona Live: Empty Sky; Waiting on a Summer’s day. Badlands, Darkness on the edge of Town. Mary’s Place, proving all night, She’s the one; Lonesome Day, The Rising; Worlds Apart and Dancing the Dark listened to again 12-1.130 the Disk 2. Incident on 57th Street; Born in The USA; Land of Hope and Dreams; Counting on a miracle; Thunder Road; Night; Ramrod; and Born to Run;

Thunder Road; Adam Raised Caine; Spirit of the nights; 4th July Ashbury Park; Paradise by the C; I’m on Fire; Growing Up; It’s hard to be a saint in the city; the Backstreets; Rosalita; Raise your Hand; Hungary Heart; Two Hearts, Cadillac Ranch; You can look; Independence Day; Badland’s, Because the Night; Candy’s Room; Darkness at the Edge of Town; Racing in the Street; This land is your land; Nebraska; Johnny 99; Reason to Believe; Born in the USA; Seeds, The River; War; Darlington County; Working on the Highway; The Promised Land; Cover me; I’m on Fire; Bobby Jean, My Hometown; Born to Run; No surrender; Tenth Avenue Freeze; Jersey Girl.

Duffy Joan Byaz Amy McDonald Nina Simone Billy Holliday

The last day of January experienced in several dimensions of time, sound and mind

Sometimes I am very slow in working out the best way to do something or the best use of my time. Sometimes I am very very slow. For several years I have gone to bed or got up in the early hours an played music or watched TV with the sound turned low anxious that would disturb the adjacent neighbours, despite thick walls which deadens the sounds of my neighbours activities, unless there is work or contact directly on the partitioning wall. Yesterday wanting to listen to music loud so that it dominated my sense I decided to try the super headphones I use for my keyboard located in the upstairs work room adjacent to a neighbour’s bedroom. This has a volume control on the connecting lead and on the desk top a link is available at the front for both input microphone and output, and so for the greater part of the day while writing I was able to be overwhelmed with sound.

However I did not make a note of tracks which I am doing now listing to some of the tracks again. I commenced with Duffy whose work and persona has became my new artist for 2008 with her Rockferry Album, Warwick Avenue, Serious, Stepping Stones, Distant Dreams and of course Mercy were all numbers I was looking forward to hearing again after watching her performances on TV over Christmas, other tracks were Syrup and Honey, Hanging on too Long, Delayed Devotion, I’m scared, Rain on our parade, Fool for You Stop, Oh Boy, Please stay, Breaking my own Heart and Enough love.

She replaces my girl of 2007 Amy Winehouse where there is nothing but sadness for what is happening to her. I listened to the Back to Back Album Rehab, You know I ‘m no good, Me and Mr Jones, Just friends, Back to Back, Love is a losing game, Tears dry on their own, Wake up alone, Some unholy war, He can only hold her, and Addicted. Hopefully she will not become a one year phenomenon .

I was then in the mood for Billie Holiday selecting from a compilation These foolish things, I’ve got my love to keep me warm, I must have that man, He’s funny that way, You go to my head. The very thought of you, More than you know, Strange fruit,, Night and day, The man I love, Body and Soul, Time on my hands, Solitude,| Lover come back to me, Don’t Explain, Good morning Heartache, and my Man

I also listened to a little Nina Simone from her Tribute to Billie Holiday Album, including Strange love Fine and Mellow, Tell me More, It don’t mean a thing, I love you Porgy and I love to love

A recent discovery has been Amy McDonald and her album This is the life with Mr Rock and Roll, This is the Life, Poison Prince, Youth of Today, Run, Let’s start a band, Barrowland Ballroom. LA, A wish for something more, Footballers Wives which should be played at start of every game at every Premiership game. During

While I wrote, thought and listened I also kept one eye on the soundless telly where first Stoke beat the bottomless bank of moneybags Man City 1.0. And then Boro was held to a draw by Blackburn and stay in the relegation zone while in the evening Man United not only won 1.0 but their goal keeper has not allowed the opposition to score once in the past 12 games, a British Record. Later to day Sunderland visit St James’s Park.

As I wrote I reflected further on Valkyrie, impressed by the extent to which the film followed the actual events and which perhaps some critics felt it was not Hollywood thrilling enough. In my judgement it is not a subject for cheap thrills or entertainment just entertainment. It achieved an excellent balance of chronological unfolding and emotional interest although the outcome was known over sixty years ago.

It was not all the ladies with James Morrison’s Broken Strings and from the Bob Dylan collection Woody, Blowing in the Wind, Masters of War, A hard rains A-gonna fall, The Times they are a Changing, It A’nt me Babe, Like a Rolling Stone, Just Like a woman, It’s all over now Baby Blue. I have never experienced hearing Bob live and also Joan Baez missing both when they came to Newcastle in 2006.

Farewell Angelina is still one of my great album possessions from when it was first released. The album also has Its all over now Baby Blue as the opening number, sung in German Where has all the flowers gone Sagt Mir Wo DieBlumen Sind, Daddy you have been on my mind and Satisfied Mind and A Hard’s Rain’s A-gonna Falling. I left to another day the title song, Colours, Rangers Command, The Wild Mountain thyme and Puavre Ruteboeuf

During the day I listened to a French group Pep’s and their Album Utopies Dans La decors with Melodie, Poterie Des Dieux, Liberta, Dans Ma Tete, J’Te Serre, Utopies Dans le Decors, Fakir, No Indentifie, Ca Va, De Le air, A L’Insouciance, Me Contente De Rein, .... Ca Vient, Liberta live at Lyon with the audience joining in the English chorus, Tristan, J’Te Serre. Liberta - Just want to be free in this way just want to be free in my world Liberta is a top ten song. I also found catchy Dans Ma Tete. I love the sound of the French language even if I only understand a few individual words and wish I could speak although there was a period when with visits and watching French films I was able understand a little more and get by on visits.

I also worked hard to achieve the 3 new sets a day target having settle for this over the greater part of the past year, finishing the task around 7pm and also doing the preparatory work for new volumes of My Space Blogs as I come close to two thirds of the target 101 x10 thus matching what I achieved for AOL now no longer available online, My Space Friends volumes have increased as I come close to matching the number of Blogs with over 600 registered. The speed of the increase over the past three months means that I have not been able to give the attention I would like to the additions but will focus on this later in the year when I am only adding one a day or so. I photographed a completed My Friends volume with 304 photos. I was not in the mood for taking more photographs or scanning slides.

I had a pork chop with apple sauce and baked beans as he main meal and a salad with olives and sardines in tomato sauce. There was the weekend treat of a small pot of caramel mouse and cherries for afters. I had soup and a roll for breakfast and a tea time snack of four crackers topped with pickle

Abba Gold

Music has always played an important role in my life, although always second to the film on the subject of imagination and influence. Music has been by means of emotional expression thus the greater sense of failure that I have been unable to become a musician, from traditional jazz blues in my adolescence to Beethoven wile in prison and the power of Verdi’s Requiem Mass on an early visit to the Royal Albert Hall. I was never into the Beatles and Elvis Presley when they first hit the headlines, but one Group who were and remain a visual delights and who music express great joy, whose lyrics always tell a story and towards their final performing years included some of the realities love, relationships, and its failures, was ABBA.

It has been an odd choice of music to enjoy over the past few days dominated by news of a devastating tragedy in my extended family but it was a way of holding things together in a way which other more serious and sad music will have been more difficulty.

The DVD, Super Trouper, marking the 5th year of the London Show Mama Mia had come in the New Year, along with In Bruges, and therefore had not been a first choice, but as soon as I commenced watching it touched so many memories that as with In Bruges I held it back to watch again, and did so.

The DVD also marked the occasion when three of the four member of the group appeared together on stage, not to perform, but to mark thirty years since they first became internationally recognised entertainers wining the European Song Contest with Waterloo. The four did come together in their homeland Sweden for the opening of the musical production there and then more recently this year for the opening of the film, both called Mama Mia.

On stage in London they were presented by Pete Waterman with a Los Vegas style elongated plaque with all their Platinum triumphs and not a gold in sight.

(The record industry categorises its awards in each country differently and in the UK a gold record is issued for 100000 albums sales and platinum for 300000 while in the USA the award is for half a million and 1 million and Diamond for 10 million while in some countries an award can be for significantly fewer sales in quantities of for sales in only thousands and tens of thousands. For the traditional single, which these days are often an EP, the awards are for 400000 and 600000 and in the USA half and a million again with no Diamond award. In the USA where digital downloading has become common the same standard is in operation. It also appears that sometimes the industry announces and award based on initial sales and forecast rather than actual sales. Even lists of popular and successful record sales is open to significant manipulation within the industry and should be treated with great caution. It is not as bad though as the scandal of Boxing.)

Abba is general regarded as having sold Albums in their millions and the plaque presented on the London stage mentions some 360 million albums although Wikipedia gives the total of 400 million an increase of over 10% in five years for a group that has not performed together for over twenty five years.

The DVD is structured in a confusing way with film of their career as a group especially the amazing tour of Australia when tens of thousands lines the streets all the way from the airport into the city and the hysteria was such that they became hotel prisoners for whole tour, an experience which happened elsewhere, but to less extent, and which resulted in affecting Agnetha, especially who found the crush overpowering and threatening

The DVD includes individual interviews about their early music lives and contains rare footage as well as of music performances. Is there anyone who does not know that Abba stands for Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid, who is known as Frida? Or that they shot to fame by winning the European Song Contest with Waterloo and were the first Continental group to sells records by the millions in the USA, as well Australia, Germany and South Africa as well as in the UK.

Benny was part of a popular Swedish Beatles style Rock group that had hits in Sweden who was mainly a keyboard instrumentalist who started to write for the band. Bjorn was a singer guitarist who was part of a group, the Hootenanny Singers and when both groups found themselves performing at a Folk festival one attended the party of the other and Bjorn and Benny decided to write song together while continuing with their groups.

It was during the Swedish contest of an earlier European Song Competition that Benny Anderson met Anni-Frid and they decided to date and within a month they became a couple. Benny and Bjorn then did an album of work together so the three became linked..

Agnetha the natural blonde, had a separate career where she had a hit record when she was only 17. She met Anna at a TV show and Bjorn at a concert shortly afterwards. Bjorn and Agnetha met again commenced a relationship and married and also got involved with each other’s recordings and then Benny and Anni provided backing vocal for an Agnetha album so the four worked together for the first time. Anni Frid: Freda, was in fact the youngest early performer of the four, starting at the age of 13 with bands playing a jazz cabaret style. She had her group at one point and made records. Thus ABBA was not a music management creation of people with little proven talent and no previous experience of performing and recording. They were individually established and experienced performers where Waterloo could have proven their first and only lasting international success. One f the remarkable aspects of their longevity is that their first language, and their performing language was Swedish.

The four commenced to work together and to perform regularly in 1971. It was not until a couple of years later that they decided recording and performing as individuals was unwieldy and their manager Stig Anderson, who had privately referred to them as ABBA, the name of a Swedish fish canning company, that they needed a group name, and they became known as ABBA .

Their Euro contest winning song Waterloo was an instant chart success reaching first spot in the UK, Germany and Australia and significantly 6th in the Billboard 100 in the USA. There second Honey Honey, featured in the film, (I have not seen the stage show and assume all the songs are the same in both, was not an instant success and it was likely that they and the international music world thought they would they were what so many others have been, a one song or one album success story, never be defeated or surpassed.

Their first tour to West Germany, Austria and Denmark in 1974 was not a great success but their tour of Sweden and Finland in 1975 attracted huge crowds and their further records topped charts in Australia and South Africa. Their third Album included S,O.S and Mama Mia and while they had international success including the USA, they were not regarded as International Superstars until Dancing Queen and their Australian Tour and its film. Fernando written originally in Swedish for Frida and became a hit in 12 countries and remained top in Australia for 14 weeks. Money Money Money followed and Knowing Me, Knowing You But then they produced Dancing Queen in 1977 which became number One in the USA and the rest they ay is history. They then commenced their European tour and 3.5 million mail order requests were received for their two concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, 580 times its capacity. Part of the London Concert was filmed for use as part of the film ABBA the movies based on the tour of Australia.

In 1979 their recording Chiquitita was created for the Unicef Year of the Child with royalties to the charity and became a number 1 in ten countries.

As many people continue to point out ABBA song tell stories of human experience and are complex and difficult to sing. The two girls would be required to spend hours learning and recording them, bearing in mind these were also in English and not their thinking and speaking language this only underlines their professionalism. Benny and Bjorn also used their studio time creatively making stronger and deeper sounds by double tracking voice and instrumentalists and this created problems with some in the live audiences audience who found that the stage performances sounded different from the records. This was so with their first and only tour of the USA and Canada although every concert was sold out. Then they played in 23 sold out concerts in Europe including six nights at Wembley Arena. By 1980 they had produced Super Trouper and more significantly perhaps The Winner Take All and this raises a major issue which has affected all my writing and other work past and resent,

The lyrics of their songs at this time reflected some of the emotions experienced as their young marriages turned into divorce. As I have previously written there is a sorrowful spiritual aspect to the Swedish soul hence their high suicide rates. There is also a frank adult openness which the traditional middle class English have felt uncomfortable about, and the films of Ingmar Bergman reflect this creating a succession of masterpieces and clinically perfect relationship studies of marriage and between parents and children.

I have always found writing the truth about myself, especially my emotional self, difficult to impossible and have always questioned the use by the artist of specific experiences relating to their personal relationships with others. It is not just a question of respecting the rights and interests of others but the using of personal experience in this, for me, takes away something from the actual experience, in music the same way that I often do not take or use my camera with people I know and care about and for my mother’s 100th birthday, I have relied mainly on the photographs taken by others,

What is a different issue and something which applies to ABBA is that personal participation in tragedy and relationship traumas, or involvement in major events such a War or natural disaster does effect the quality of artistic work as well as lives in general. Some artist true genius when their work reflects the deeper emotions, passions and psychological insights without the individual having had direct experience

My reservations and inhibitions mean that my daily writings can be unbalanced because they do not affect the personal emotions experienced in my life which I believe should remain private to those directly concerned. Hopefully something of the full rainbow of emotional experiences during my day is communicated.

The public break up of the second couple within ABBA resulted in the official breaking up the group as stage performers and recording artists in the early 1980’s, that is two and half decades ago and yet in some respects the public love of their music has become stronger, affecting generation after generation.

While they all continues to perform and record or to be involved with writing and music production, some with success, nothing has come close to their collective work as ABBA and is derivatives, the stage musical and now the film.

There was involvement with the production of Chess and the musical Abbacadababra produced in France for TV and for children. Individually they have sometimes included ABBA song in their performances with Benny and Bjorn performing together. However 25 years was to pass before the four met together for the Swedish openings of their work. While attention has focussed on Benny and Bjorn because of their work with the musical and the film, Agnetha and Frida continued with their careers. In 1995 Frida issued a box set of her solo records and a three and half hour DVD of her professional life in which she guides the viewer,

In the 1990 Abba Gold was released, I have a copy of their greatest hits, one of the 26 million sold. This was followed in 1994 by the Thank you for the Music compilation, a four disk set. The opening of the Musical Mama Mia in 1999 ignited international interest and it is true that they were offered 1 million Swedish Kroner £140 million US dollars for a world tour in 2000, although the precise amount is something of legend. There is no sign of public interest in the musical fading and other language versions have been created and opened in different parts of the world. The film Mama Mia is likely to become another chart topping success as has the DVD. While there is a nostalgia aspect the those who took to the group in the 70’s and 80’s new generations have joined in. Their music lives on.

1833 Music of many colours before the serious and the tragic

I had intended only to write about musical matters, a film about the life of Celine Dion and the 1950’s Hollywood production of the Jazz Singer sandwiched between the original Al Jolson version and that of Neil Diamond half a century later. There is also the Rock Concert for children and the X Factor. Then there is I Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana.

There has also been an excellent England 50 over win against South Africa and Sunderland beat Arsenal at home and one Monday Newcastle had long drawn out and hard fought win over Preston away from home. I have eaten well but wasted nearly an hour trying to find the renewal form for car tax as well as attending to other financial matters. It was Wednesday before I got round to ringing the renewal office in Wales and discovered that there has now been further improvement. Last year I spoke to a human being who while taking details checked electronically that I was insured to drive the vehicle which had a Ministry of Transport Test Certificate regarding road worthiness. This year I was relayed to a different number where everything was done electronically in a matter of minutes as fast as automated instruction options were given and I could key in the information. What brains who designed the system folks, this marks a step in the evolution of humanity.

The main development which overshadowed music is the extensive flooding and damage to property in neighbouring Cumbria and which in turn is overshadowed by the death of a service policeman, married with four children. Last night regional TV was holding a competition arranged by the national lottery in which the general public can vote for one of pairs of good projects to allocated the funds for a needy addition to their voluntary work.

One was a Mental Health Charity based on a town in Northumberland, Blythe which I passed through earlier in the year in search of Wilkinson’s and folders for holding display sets. The Other was the North East Rescue service in which volunteers are prepared to go out in all conditions, locations and times in search of missing persons. They use four wheeled land rover but need a command vehicle in which they store their equipment, house electronic communication and information and hold meetings to organise a search undercover, all of which has to be done in the vehicle cabs or outsider at present. Sadly the Blythe project will miss out because of coincidence however unfortunate and tragic. One of the additional problems this time is the destruction of bridges such has been the force of water, cutting the town of Workington into so those living on the North side have a journey of over 40 miles and up to two hours because of traffic jams to reach the town centre for which some could walk across the bridge. Fortunately the Train line is working and that mains services which were carried under the bridge have been re-laid or relayed. I was not sure which applies.

I also want to note the most interesting of the four episodes of Garrow’s Law which appeared on Sunday night Sir William Garrow PC that Privy Councillor of State not Personal or public computer! The programme deals with his first years as a barrister appearing for defendants in criminal proceedings where the common outcome was death and the second transportation. Barristers could ask questions of a witness against the accused but could not address the jury directly. Prosecuting barristers and judges frequently dined socially at which the political and social approach to the law was discussed. This was the era of the rotten borough when a community with a handful of voters could send one or two Members of Parliament to Westminster while the new cities such as Birmingham with sixty thousand males eligible to vote sent no one. The franchise was restricted to male property owners. There were jury trials who were hand picked and were expected to reach decisions quickly while sitting in the open court.

On real life Sir William did set out to change the system into a fairer one and through his rise to power and standing was able to do so, He lived for eighty years from 1760. After his success in winning many hopeless causes at the Old Bailey he became a Member of Parliament, the Solicitor General and the Attorney General and then a Judge and when he retired at the age of seventy two he was appointed to the Privy Council. He was responsible for the development of the Adversarial system here in the UK and which also developed in the USA where elsewhere, notably in France there is the Inquisitorial system which I believe is a better approach.


The BBC attempted to convey something of the era in which he first worked as a barrister with four hour long dramas. How far he was involved. if all in the actual cases used in the programme and drawn from Old Bailey records was not stated but the last was the most engaging and I suggest important because it concerned one of the leaders of the London Corresponding society, prosecuted for High Treason and where if found guilty he would have been hung drawn and quartered. In fact two of the leaders were found guilty in one instance and transported for 14 years. The purpose of the society, largely formed of trades people with tailors, watchmakers, shoemakers and weavers forming about a third of its recorded membership of 347 was to widen the Franchise, although many were also against organised religion hold the view that reason and nature were the way to experience God and the issue which provoked the government most into action was their opposition to the wars with France. There was concern about the spread of branches to Manchester, Sheffield Stockport and Norwich and in particular plans to hold a UK national convention when meetings began to attract thousands of interested people
In the fourth drama the emphasis was an unscrupulous juridical system heavily influence by the state for political reasons and where the best friend of the accused was a government spies. In fact the government then used planted informed widely as it has done ever since and which all governments always do. The extent of monitoring and intelligence gathering is extensive and today the state has extensively greater powers to do so in relative secret through the development of electronic communications and monitoring systems as well as national and international databases.

An the end of the trial Garrow makes an impassioned speech about the ideals of democracy, justice and freedom to as well as freedom from and on what should be the limits of the power state which was intended to have relevance to day as it did then. The programme was timed with the opening of the independent commission into the causes of British involvement in the Iraq War. The BBC News channel Red button and the Internet are providing live coverage of the open sessions and there is to be a site where some background papers are to be made available.

So to the music with first the film, an unauthorised biography of the Canadian singer Celine Dion. A singer whose name I knew well but knew nothing of her life or that she had won the European Song Contest or remembered she was the voice behind the song in Titanic. My impression is that the film set to be an honest and frank account of her early life as a singer life. She was brought up in French speaking Canada as part of a huge Catholic family where she was the youngest of fourteen children who were all brought up musically minded and both parents sang popular music and encouraged their children to perform with them at was has been described as a local piano bar. They also composed songs and with the help of her mother and a brother, Dion created a tape of her first song in French- It was only a dream when she was twelve years of age. The brother discovered that the manager/agent for someone whose record album they had purchased was called Rene Angelil and sent him the recording. He was so impressed with the voice of the girl and that he decided to devote himself to making her a star, mortgaging his family home to finance her first record.

At first in Quebec and then throughout Canada and then the rest of the world her work as an adolescent singer became known and appreciated and as she was the first Canadian artist to achieve a Gold record sale in France. At eighteen after seeing a Michael Jackson concert she told Angelil she wanted to be an International Star like him. He realised that there had to be changes so she he arranged for her to become internationally English speaking, she had surgery to improve her features and she concentrated on creating a new adult image from that of the child star. While her status progressed it was not until the late 1990’s and in her mid twenties that she achieved the international stardom which was her ambition and which has continued to this day.

The film appears to have dealt with her relationship with Angelil in an honest way in that when it became evident that the relationship between the two was becoming close her mother is alleged to have stepped in to ensure that the relationship remained professional given the difference in ages. The film suggests that the relationship developed later but was kept secret from the public until Rene had a heart attack. The factual aspect is that Rene had married twice before wedding Celine, the first in the year that the singer was born and that he had a child by each of his wives. He is well known to have become a successful high stakes gambler and poker player. Celine gave up her worldwide engagements when her husband developed throat caner from which he recovered. I liked the film and will look out for her records.
I have now seen three versions of the Jazz Singer. The first was the Al Jolson 1927 version and the second the 1980 Neil Diamond. I was disappointed by the Neil Diamond when I saw it in theatre film because I had forgotten that it was a remake of the Jolson and thought it was about a Jazz singer which it is not. I have now seen the 1952 version which has Peggy Lee playing the famous singer who became his wife. There is a fourth version made in 1959 as part of a TV series and with Jerry Lewis in the title role, although there are no copies now of the production.

The story should be known to most people of my generation as it follows closely that of the early of Al Jolson himself. The story is of a good Jewish singer who is expected to follow in the footsteps of his father the Cantor at their synagogue. The young man has other ideas and wants to go into show business variety and leaves home to do so, with his father effectively disinheriting him as his son as a consequence. The young man retains contact with his mother. He establishes a relationship with a established singer who is not Jewish with adds further to the alienation with his father. Just when he is about to open in a big show his father becomes dangerously ill and the return home for a conciliation, taking his place temporarily in the Synagogue for one of the most important religious dates in the Jewish Calendar. Father recovers sufficiently to accept his son’s vocation and to hear him sing in public. In terms of choice of music and singing voice this is the weakest of the three films although Peggy Lee was one of the great Jazz singers of my generation who died at the age of 80 in 2002. The Jolson and Neil Diamond films are worth seeing several times in any lifetime.

As gala charity raising rock and pop concerts go that for Children in Need last week was pretty good with Robbie Williams taking the stage immediately after Take That, and Cheryl Cole doing a raunchy version of her recent hit, Kathryn Jenkins proving what singings is really about and Annie Lennox continuing to show what a class act she is as well as good soul. I tend to feel Paul McCartney is overrated although I enjoyed his Hey Jude led finale. I also saw Sunday‘s Antique Road show on the i player and which came from Bletchley were the first computer was built and sued as part of British intelligence. Why all the records and evidence was destroyed remains a mystery but enthusiasts have rebuilt the computer and some of those who worked there and who are still alive have been able to admit that they did. During the programme two women who had met the Beatles when children were interviewed. Paul had been at a pub when asked about food in the days before this became the main function of Inns and he had been taken back to their home by his parents and he had entertained them afterwards with the guitar the girl was learning to play and had sung Hey Jude before it had been recorded and released to the public. The other girl had attended a meal provided the Beatles after they had done a gig at Stow school for which the quartet had been paid £100. The two women had photos, letters and signatures which were said to be worth between £1000 and £1500 but the memories were priceless.

What astounded me about the Children in Need concert is that it is usually difficult to hear the singers because the audience screams and shouts most of the time and for which the X factor is to blame. Last, and this, week the programme continues to show that the audience likes to ignore the advice of the judges, except Simon, and that it is a singing competition for those who can make a successful popular music record and album. The programme is timed to that the winner of the contest has the the most popular release at Christmas Time and more recently the charity song which includes the top ten performers also becomes the best seller for at least one week.

For the past six weeks we have been entertained by two Irish sixteen year old twin boys who have distinctive hair styles and are full of energy and have learnt to dance but cannot hold a tune. Originally they were also obnoxious but with the right team behind them and Louis Walsh doing his best to avoid being without anyone to mentor after first couple of weeks they survived to knock out a good singer from Wales but who lacked the charisma which is needed to break into the pop world these days and stay there. This week the boys got their comeuppance as the judges found that the public had also voted down what many regarded as the best make signer left although he again lacks charisma. Danny, the sister of you know who, mentors the very likeable single mother Jewish singer Stacey Solomon who has a voice on a par with Leone and last year’s winner. As the public clearly have not taken to Leon, the male challenge comes from Joe from South Shields who I agree with Louis is likely to be a good musical show lead performer and Simon’s school teacher who has plenty of attitude which did not work with the public which they interpreted as conceit. The dark horse is a pretty sixteen seventeen year old without a strong voice who despite attacks by the judges especially Louis the public has not placed in the bottom two. Louis hoped last week was that the choice between the lad and his duo the judges would keep John and Edward in because they were better entertainers that the pretty boy and in truth it is entertainment and commercial potential that Simon and the judges are looking for.

Most people know the aria from I Pagliacci although I suspect most are unaware that the composer was Ruggero Leoncavallo whose greatest known work is La Boheme. The one Act opera usually is usually performed with Cavallerria Rusticana, another one act opera by Pietro Masacani and which I experienced this week with the Met Opera Player and where both roles are performed by Placido Domino. The sound quality was not good which defeats the purpose and I will look to see if there is another video on the site. The Met Player site promised that last year’s finals of the National Auditions would eb broadcast from November 17th but so far no joy and similar the live Royal Opera House performance of Don Carlos where I caught only the first act is promised to be coming soon on the BBC i player for Channel 4. Both male lead tenor roles were performed by Placido Domingo

Turiddu is young villager returning from military service to find that his fiancée has married someone else who is wealthy and seduces another village girl in revenge. Equally jealous by this development Lola starts an adulterous affair with her former fiancée. The truth of the situation emerges and it is the young girl who is excommunicated from her church because of the affair. Lola goes into the church mocking the girl left outside and who then advises Lola’s husband of his wife’s infidelity. Turiddu comes out of the church and invites everyone to his mother’s wine shop. Lola’s husband arrives and the women leave. The husband issues a Sicilian challenge of a fight to the death. The opera ends with news of the death of Triddu. Among those who have made audio recordings of the opera are Beniamino Gili, Maria Callas, Victoria del las Angeles, Renata Tebaldi, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. Franco Zeffirelli made a film in 1982 with Placido Domingo and the symphonic Intermezzo was used in the film Raging Bull and the Godfather Part III.

Pagliacci is a play within a play. It features a troupe of touring players where the wife of the head of the troupe is having an affair with a member. The troupe perform a play in which the wife of Pagliacci played by the head of the troupe is also having an affair but with a different member of the troupe. In the opening Prologue Pagliacci reminds the audience that actors have feelings too and that the show is about real life. The players arrive in a village where they are invited to the local Inn for a drink before the evening performance. Observing the interaction between the wife of the troupe head, Canio and a member villages draw this to the attention of the Cano. He laughs this away saying that what happen in the performance is one thing but in real life he will not tolerate anyone making advances to his wife. Another member of the cast says he is in love the wife while the husband is away drinking in the tavern. She scorns him but is afraid of what her husband will do if he finds out that she is having an affair. Her lover comes and asks her to run away with him. The husband returns hoping to catch the adulterous couple together but the lover escapes with the wife saying. I will always be yours. Canio threatens his wife with a knife but his friend disarms and says the man will give himself away in the play. It is at this point that Cano sings Venti la grubba-Put on the costume.

The play follows closely what has been happening off stage and at crucial point Canio cannot go and demands to know who his wife’s lover is. She asks Pagliacci to remember that they have an audience and he sings the famous No! Pagliaccio non son! and explains that he is pale because of the shame she has brought him. The crowd believing this is still the play cheer his emotional performance in the play. He is still distraught demanding to know her lover and he grabs a knife and stabs her and then as her lover comes to her aid Canio stabs him and says- The play is over.

The most famous recordings have been by Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Pavarotti and Domingo, Gigli, Victoria de los Angeles and Montserrat Caballe. The opera has had major impact on popular culture from music to film and TV

1827 World's Great voices?

My Friday 13th of November 13th ended with an orgy of great singing which continued until the early hours of the 14th. The cause of my ecstasy was the arrival of the Readers Digest album- The World’s Greatest Voices. There are five programmes each on a separate audio disk and an extensive booklet with info on each track.

Programme one is entitled Enchanting arias with an emphasis on tenderness and subtlety rather than in popular context power ballads. It begins with Charlotte Church, (01) Tell me what is from Mozart’s the Marriage of Figaro and which describes the pleasure and pain of first love and sung in English. This is followed by a duet which I have heard several times before but would not have been able to identify, Dame Joan Sutherland sings with Jane Berbie the Flower duet (02) from Lakme by Delibes.

Teresa Boganza and the Ambrosian singers then perform one of the most famous female arias in opera L’amour Est Un Osseau Rebelle from Bizet’s Carmen(03) which I first saw in Croydon as a schoolboy with my birth and care mothers and their eldest sisters, I even liked the Hollywood version of Carmen Jones buying the Long Play record now some 50 years of age. I have various version on video tapes and a CD with Regina Resnik as Carmen and Joan Sutherland as Micaela. In the morning I was able to buy tickets for Met Opera Relay in January. My only disappointment with the opera is that it is written and sung in French rather than Spanish.

Another familiar Aria of previously unknown origin is M Appari Tutt Amor from Martha (Flotow) sung in Italian by Roberto Alagna (04)

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa then sings Oh My Beloved Father in Italian, one of Puccini’s most loves arias from the rarely performed Gianni Schicchi. (05) She then sings the Dream of Doretta from Puccini’s La Rondine (06) Again it is an aria I have heard before although the opera is rarely performed.

Placido Domingo gives his first performance with O Paradis from another opera long since excluded from the Grand Opera scene, Materbeer’s L’Africaine (07). British Lesley Garrett then sings Casta Diva from Bellini’s Norma (08) which is beautiful and followed by the similarly romantic sounding duet from Bizet’s the Pearl Fishermen with Placido Domingo and Thomas Hampson.(08).

Power and range is trademark of Luciano Pavarotti who commences with On with the Motley from I Pagliacci (09) and likely to bring the house down who ever sings but Pavarotti is extraordinary. This is followed by what the booklet describes as the daftest plot in opera and therefore appropriately named La Wally, Ebben? Ne Andro Latino is performed by Leslie Garret, a piece I believe I have heard before and matches the emotional intensity of Pavarotti. (10). There is more magic to follow with Jose Carreras and Bellini’s Fenesta Che Lucive (11) and Pavarotti with the first of two arias from Puccini’s Tosca, Recondita Armonia is one of the best known (12) and Placido Domingo, The Stars were brightly shining (16) closing the first programme. In between the French tenor Marcello Alvarez performs Pourquoi Me Reveiller from Massenet’s Werther and is a revelation(13), and Robert Alagna then follows with another of the best known loved of all male arias Che Gelida Manina (14) followed by Jose Carreras with the Flower song from Carmen(15). By this time goose pimples were electrifying and I abandoned everything else to concentrate on listening and making notes until close on 4am.

The second programme is headed voices of Tranquillity which would have better titled Sacred or Spiritual Music and begins again with Charlotte Church and I vow to thee , my country by Holst (17). Lesley Garrett follows with Bless This House the onetime regular favourite for radio broadcasting.(18). Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sings Let the Bright Seraphim from Handel’s Samson Oratio (19), a well known aria and Emma Kirby, But who may Abide The Day is Coming from his sung by everyone, the Messiah (20).

Robert Alagna then has two performances with first Sanctus from the Berlioz Requiem with an ethereal back choir (21) and then Agnus Dei from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne. (22) Dame Kiri then contributes Laudate Dominunum from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers (23), new music to me although I have a collection of his Masses.

Anthony Way sings the well known O for the Wings of a Dove Mendelssohn (24) and Angela Gheorghiu the more familiar to day Pie Jesu from Faure’s Requiem (25) followed by Crucifix with Roberto Alagna (26) and Dame Kiri O Divine Redeemer (27)

Sir Harry Seacombe was originally known as a Comedian who could sing, as a member of the cast of the Goon Show but in his later years he became a much loved presenter and contributor to the Sunday evening’s religious programme. His contribution is his most well known Bach’s Ave Maria arranged by Gounod (28) He is followed by one of the best known school boy singers of recent generations Aled Jones and All Through the Night (29) and Franck’s Panis Angelicus with Russell Watson (30). Sir Harry then gives his well known rendering of the Lord is my Shepherd(31) and the sessions ends oddly with Nan Mouskouri Plasir D’Amour, perhaps as a bridge to the third programme which covers Classics from the Stage and the Screen (32). A feature of this programme is the contribution of the choirs

(33) I did not see the stage production of West Side Story, and as with many my introduction to show was through the Film and it was only when looking up Stockyard Channing from the West Wing that I realised she played a key part. Tonight is sung by Jose Carreras.

I also loved the 1960 film Can Can with Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine and Maurice Chevalier. Dame Kiri Kanawa sings (34) I love Paris. I also enjoyed Love Story with Ali Mcgraw and Ryan 0’Neil. Placido Domingo sings (35) Where do I begin. I am confused by the programme notes which appears to indicate that Placido Domingo sings The Second Time although the heading says is Tito Beltrain(36) and is in my view one the great surprises of the whole collection as a passionate show stopping tour de force.

Stranger in Paradise from Kismet, here sung by the Opera Babes was my introduction to Borodin and is sung by the Opera Babes (37). I saw the film when it was released.

A long time favourite of mine is Yesterdays from Roberta with Dame Kiri (38) and Lover come back to me became a jazz standard I think, here with Leslie Garrett and the Romberg and Hammerstein number from New Moon (39). Three Coins in a Fountain is a film from childhood with Love is many Splendid sing played for years on the radio and now sung by Jose Carreras (40), in contrast to the sophisticated Smoke Gets in Your Eyes from Roberto with Dame Kiri (41) Smiling Through has Lesley Garret (42)

Because Your mine is on my Mario Lanza recording and comes from the film of the same title, here sung by Joseph Carreras (43). Lesley Garrett follows with My Blue Heaven from follow the Boys a star studded film for the USA and Britain at War(44). I have not been a great fan of Gilbert and Sullivan although I was taken to performances of the Doyle Carte Opera company on tour as a child and have seen a few stage productions since then. Three Little Maids from School one fo the well known pieces from the Mikado is performed by Leslie Garrett, Joan Rigby and Susan Bullock(45).

Similarly the music of Franz Lehar and his Merry Widow has not been my cup of tea. Lesley Garrett sings Vilja (46). This contrasts with. Climb Every Mountain with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. I saw The Sound of Music with a bevy of Child Care officers when working for Oxfordshire at the city centre cinema and then took my birth and care mothers with their eldest sister to see the film at first opportunity. I acquired the video tape edition as part of some deal I cannot now remember but still watch the film every time it comes on TV, usually at Christmas. I particularly enjoyed the programme made on the lives and reunion of the seven children when they went together in Heidelberg(47).

The Disk ends with I could have Danced all night from My Fair Lady sung by Angela Gheorghiu, I had to book tickets for the central London Cinema performance of the show taking the three aunts. I have seen the film several times since and always enjoy (48).

Programme four is a collection of sentimental songs beginning with of my favourites marking the passing of time, September Song by Kurt Weil and sung by Lesley Garrett.(49)

Irving Berlin’s Always is performed by Kiri Te Kanawa was part of childhood (50)

Noel Coward songs are for the mature of experience and I know him more from his films. Ian Bostridge who is unknown to me performs one of 300 songs written and composed by the master of communicating the life experience of the upper classes(51).

Renée Fleming with Daniel Barenboim shows a side of her work which perhaps explains her popularity in the USA with Ellington’s Do nothing Till you hear from me(52).

In contrast I am familiar with Tenderly, the evening breeze, here sung by Jose Carreras, although the version which I and most people know was that of Nat King Cole, frequently heard on Family Favourites which overtook Forces Favourites at the end of World War II (53).

This is followed by another of my great songs of all time, Cole Porter’s Every Time We Say Goodbye I die a Little, here with Kiri Te Kanawa (54).

You Belong to my hear was sung by Bing Crosby among others from 1945 and is performed by Jose Carreras and the arrangements maintains the original Latin feel(55).

Lesley Garret performs Someone to Watch over me which I believe comes from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess but I may be wrong, the composer who came to international fame through is Rhapsody in Blue in 1924(56).

Another of my top songs is I’ve Got you Under my Skins with Kara Te Kanawa undertaking one of Cole Porters much performed standards and which won an Oscar as the title song of the James Stewart 1936 production (57).

Renée Fleming gives another Ellington Song, Prelude to a Kiss, her special treatment (58)while Ian Bostridge takes on the second Noel Coward song, The Dream is over (59).

Because is another great standard which I know from the Mario Lanza version here sung by Jose Carreras (60) while Lesley Garrett gives her treatment to With a song in my heart from Spring is here (61) Love is guiding star is the creation of opera tenor Richard Tauber and is sung by Placido Domingo (62) Be my Love is another Marion Lanza adopted number which is the work of Sammy Cahn’s and sung by Tito Beltrain (63)

Any Williams made Moon River is own and this version with closes the programme is by Luciano Pavarotti (64). Could the contrast be greater!

The final programme is the most exciting for its range of choices as indicated by its title Grand Moments and begins with O solo Mio, the most well known Italian song and of course sung here by non one else than Pavarotti (65). It was Saturday lunchtime before I was ready to complete the five programmes with a lunch of Chinese style chicken thighs and baked beans followed by dates, grapes and coffee, Asda gas its own brand of firm and juicy dates for £1 tucked away towards the end of an aisle at the end of which there is a display of more well known branded ones in the same size box for £1.50.

Jose Carreras performs the well known La Danza from Siorees Musicales by Rossini (66) and this is followed by Joan Sutherland singing the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor and others at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden(67) and then Dame Joan Baker performs Che Faro Senza Euridice from the opera Orfeo and Euridice by Gluck(68).

Marilyn Horne who was regularly heard on the radio contributes Softly awakes my heart with the Vienna Opera Orchestra from Saint Saens Samson and Delilah (69). Dame Joan Baker then sings Dido’s Lament When I am laid to earth from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (70).

Marcelo Alvarez sings Seul Ser La Terra from Don Sebastien Donizetti (71) and then a song described as exquisite, I am a poor Wayfaring Stranger with Andreas Scholl (72). This leads to Bryn Terfel in Handel’s Where’er You Walk from Semele (73).

Angela Gheorghiu provides Depuis Le Jour from Louis by Carpentier(74) and onto the Choir of New College Oxford with The Blue Bird( 75) and back to Bryn Terfel for the Welsh folk anthem We’ll keep a welcome (76) Another ensemble work is the D’Orly Carte with My Gallant Crew from HMS Pinafore (77) and then Jose Carreras in his final contribution Mattinata the Neapolitan song by Leoncavallo (78) and the final two are La Donna E Mobile with Sir Harry (79) from Verdi’s Rigolett0 and the much loved Kathleen Ferrier Blow the Wind Southerly which was one the great musical memories of my childhood and youth And is thought to have originated in Northumbria (80) WOW indeed and more WOW. Music for concentrated enjoyment.

1790 Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music

Having sorted out and got myself organised I had a good relaxed day on Thursday and this carried over to Friday as having gone to bed around midnight it was after 9 when I rose and 10.30 before I was ready to engage in activity. My inclination is to concentrate on catch up writing activity while paying some attention to Bryan Ferry on the Arts channel with a Roxy Music concert now, the 1982 Frejus concert with numbers such as Drug, Avalon and Dance away. This was Brian 27 years ago, followed just before with Dylanesque. I have seen the Frejus concert before but the Dylanesque I am not sure.

I have seen Bryan perform live twice and the Newcastle City Hall. A local man with aristocratic bearing and quirky mannerisms he hit the social big time and I enjoy a couple of his Long Play Records. I have not seen Dylanesque in which Bryan explains that when he heard Dylan on acoustic guitar while attending art school in Newcastle he decided it was not his kind of music and it was several years before he listened to Dylan on the electric guitar and went back to his original music and included Hard Rain on his first LP as a non political music experience. He then assembled a band and backing singers to create an album of Dylan music from a list of records made after listening to the Dylan catalogue. There was no plan about the order of the recordings on the nature of each recording except to cast the character of the song to suit his voice and musical approach. The third number, I forgot to note the opening to the programmes was Highway 61 revisited, not one of my favourites. Next is All I want to do and my reaction is that this is interesting Ferry, but does not work as Dylanesque, self indulgent and meriting greater thought and preparation. I change my mind a little with Times they are achanging. Gates of Eden followed. Missed the title of another. Watch Tower covered by Hendrix was next, I am not a Hendrix fan. Knocking on Heaven’s Door where I enjoyed the original and his take. As well as Simple Twist of Fate. I then got caught up with payments and accounts and did not note the finale songs before the programme ended.

The music will took priority over the Scotland Australian game which is being shown on BBC 2 in Scotland but which can also be watched on the Internet BBC sports site. I need coffee and then I must pay the credit card and assess finances for the coming months, a task which now means that I will have to say more no than yes or knew purchases do I do not want to do this.

1754 Carmen , Vieux Jazzmen, Cat Balou and the Black Swan

Saturday did not begin well for me with a series of long bad dreams as I woke again early and seemed to be in a cycle of restlessness on return, the long dream and waking almost as soon as I had settled. In fact having gone to bed before 11pm it was a good sleep overall of eight hours but did not seem so at the time. It si the first occasion that I can recall a series of bad dreams whose subjects I have unintentionally suppressed which serves to underline that I should have made notes on waking as I cannot now work out the cause. There was also no indication on rising of the weather for the day although the forecast was of clouds, some sun and the possibility of heavy showers.

In the afternoon I put the smaller folding chair over my shoulder and made my way through North Marine to South Marine and new bandstand where the Vieux Carre Jazzmen were playing two sets between 2 and 4. The band named after a quarter of New Orleans was formed in the 1950’s and is based in Newcastle and North Tyneside playing regularly at the Corner House Hotel Newcastle and the Cullercoats Crescent club. I saw them last perform at the Mouth of the Tyne Festival last year Rock of Gibraltar area Jazz stage area. They play a British style of Traditional Jazz with an emphasis on individual solos within a number a la Christ Barber and Mick Mulligan rather than Ken Colyer and Cy Laurie. They are used to performing to people of all ages and situations although these days the audience tends to be my age than students. This was so as the 100 odd crowd spread out over the wide area of grass and concrete steps was of my generation. Some families did stop for a while but one granddad and day who topped were met with a constant when we going tot he park granddad, to which granddad saying we are in the park and will go to the beach in a while met with continued resistance.

The performance which comprised only four of the six listed players covered standards such as Alexander’s Rag Time Band, I can’t give you Anything but love, Baby and Georgia on my Mind. It was good solid professional music but lacked originality and passion. I stayed for the first set and decided to make my way back around 3. Earlier in the day there was the opening parade of the summer festival in which school children in costumes and marching bands went from eh Town Hall through the town centre along Ocean Road to the Bents park where an afternoon of activities was arranged for those who wished to participate. As Bents park is just across the road from the Bandstand, the loudspeaker announcements and music sometimes clashed and drowned out the Jazzman which was not good planning on the part of the local authority organisers.

During the day I watched chunks of two films. The Black Swan is a great piece of nonsense which I saw as a child, released in 1942 it was standard fare at either the mid week Odeon Wallington showings ire the Saturday morning club between 1945 and 1950 when I was a regular attender. It featured the pre and post war Heart throb Tyrone Power and the real man’s woman Maureen O’Hara. George Sanders and Anthony Quinn played miscreants of the upper and lower classes as usual. For some reason I remembered the film as the Black Pearl and got caught up with the information on the Pirates of Caribbean series until checking the Tyrone Power filmography. The film has its background the life of Henry Morgan the Welsh privateer who plundered Spanish ships in the Caribbean and who was knighted and made acting Governor of Jamaica and came under attack from the former Governor who had the support of the semi autonomous local Council. In the film power becomes the assistant to Morgan and sets out to prove that there is dirty work afoot to discredit his hero and who takes with him the she protests too much daughter of the rival governor.

On return from the Jazz in he Park I watched the main part of Cat Balou, a film I have not seen for several years although I have enjoyed more than once before. The film brought an academy award for Lee Marvin as an old drunk gunslinger hired by Jane Fonda to protect her father and his ranch from a development corporation who have hired another gun fighter to harass and eventually kill the obstinate owner. Jane who has been away to a convent school and trained as a teacher encounter two young petty criminals on the train home who she subsequently invites to help her thinking that they are gunfighters or at least will defend her is sadly mistaken although a romance develops with one of them.

When her father is killed Cat determines on revenge and robs a train carrying the payroll of the development company. . Lee Marvin then sobers up and kills the hitman murderer and Cat poses as a prostitute to gain the attention of the Development company boss who is killed in a struggle. Cat is caught and sentenced to by hung but escapes at the last moment. Among those also in the film are Nat King Cole as the Sunrise Kid and Stubby Kaye as Professor Sam the shade. There is also the appearance of Butch Cassidy!

In the evening I watched a remarkable passionate and moving performance of Carmen. The performance lasted three hours and excluded the intervals which meant it was the full original score and libretto and which I have known reduced to one and half hours. The German State Opera production was conducted by Daniel Barenboim and features to singers who for once looked and acted their parts with extraordinary levels of passion and sensitivity. Marina Domashenko was unknown to me but appears to have made her name through Carmen while Rolando Villazon was very convincing with a voice which is powerful and sensitive. The news that he has had to cancel some appearances this year earlier than anticipated prior to an operation is disturbing although both artists have recordings which provide posterity with the best of their work to-date. As with the Met Performance of Madam Butterfly I would pay real money if I had it attend performance of these two singers. I was in bed by 11pm once more.

1750 Bruce Springsteen at Glastonbury

The weekend and Monday has been dominated by the Boss at the Glastonbury. This is first time Bruce Springsteen has participated in the Festival and to mark the event the BBC is showing for 24 hours non stop an hour long special of part of his two hours and a half show which went to the close on 1 am on Sunday morning at the Pyramid Stage. It is just as well that the BBC has now given priority to showing this special because having waited and waited to witness something of the live performance Saturday evening only the last half an hour was shown because of priority given to the other act on the other stage. Bruce is nearly sixty and shows more energy and enthusiasm for live performance than many a third of his age. I only wish I could remember the lyrics and had the ability to carry tunes to join in in the way that the majority of the tens of thousands attending the concert.

I have been to three live concerts, at Newcastle Football stadium in the 1970’s, at Sheffield in the 1980’s and in 2003 at Crystal Palace. I have many of his records on LP album, music and video tape and CD

The best is the 40 box set of 5 albums of live show recordings 1975-1985.I no one no one who performs with such vigour and enthusiasm creating an extraordinary atmosphere of joy, delight and wonder. You are excited, moved and drained to the point of exhaustion long before he finishes although I must admit most the audience usually end the evening wanting more.

From his first album Greetings from Asbury Park which I have on tape I enjoy Blinded by the Light Spirit in the Night and It is hard to be a saint in the City with the latter on the live albums

From his second release The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Band my favourite is Sandy, 4th July Asbury Park. Rosalita is also on the live records. I have the LP and a tape.

It is from next four albums that most of his established anthems were created. The third Born to Run includes Thunder Road and Born to Run (both on the Glastonbury BBC set) which together with Backstreets are on the album. I also like Meeting across the river and Jungleland.I have the record ans the tape.

I especially enjoy the River 2 LP set and on record and a tape with Independence Day, Two Hearts, Hungry Heart, Cadillac Ranch as well as The River on the live album and where Out in the Street was in the BBC set, I also like Sherry Darling and the Price you Pay.

I have the Nebraska Album on CD and Tape where Atlantic City is one of my favourites of all his songs, and with Reason to Believe is on the live albums. My Father’s House memorable.

I also have the Born in the USA Album which was his peak in terms of lasting hits with Cover me, I’m on Fire, No Surrender, Bobby Jean. Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark and My home town, all on he live albums.

I also have his next five albums some on CD which come after the live set and which I do feel match his earlier work. From The Luck Town Album I like If I should fall behind and Souls of the Departed. Again he does not play much from the Human Touch where my favourites are 57 Channels and nothing on, With Every Wish and Roll of the Dice From Tunnel of Love Album I enjoy When You’re alone, All that Heaven will allow and Walk Like a Man. From The Rising CD I like into the Fire, Lonesome Day, and Waiting on a Sunny Day together with the title song. I also have the CD Ghost Town of Tom Joad with My Best was never good enough and Galveston Bay and Youngstown.

Some of the later numbers are included in his unplugged album which includes Better Days and Darkness at the Edge of Town.

I have not acquired his more recent albums Devils and Dust, We Shall overcome the Seeger sessions, Magic and Working a dream but I was able to listen all of Seeger on the Springsteen site at one point.

Glastonbury of course is Glastonbury, the institution, festival of all festivals in Europe with four main stages and a several dozen others including circus acts, the Jazz stage, Dance with DJ’s for new groups, mild erotica groups, films, environmental and the weird and the wonderful.

I have not been a Lily Allen fan but I enjoyed her set as third end of bill on the Pyramid stage on the first night, but the night was stolen by the extraordinary Lady Gaga with the most outrageous costumes and sounded OK. I am not a Neil Young fan or of the Specials. I listened to Kasabian and Blur, Enjoyed Status Quo Rocking all over the world which opened I was there Live Aid and also the Madness set. Tom Jones was very wicked which sixty year olds can be. Tony Christy at Glastonbury, shows how the event has changed but everyone appeared to know the word of his recently revived number. I’m on my ay to Amarillo

Lady Gaga’s appearance was on the Other Stage on Friday Night appearing before the Tings Tings who three years ago were watched by under 100 people on the introduction stage and last year had several thousand because of the hit know my name or whatever it is called, She is a talented lass who can play instruments as well as shriek out numbers. There were several shriekers this year. I have the first Franz Ferdinand Album and enjoyed their set on Saturday, I must listen to Maximo Park on the I player. I also caught most of Jarvis Cocker on the John Peel Stage. However the great hit this year on this stage is Florence who has admitted the group did not have more to play after doing all their first album. She will be moved to the Pyramid next year such was the enthusiasm of the audience. I caught the Black Eyes Peas on the Jazz stage but not Rolf Harris!. They did not show Ray Davies or Georgie Fame from the Acoustics stage and I will need to check if they are on I player. Will Young and the Blockheads made one of the Dance stages. The big disappointment was the Basement Jacks of Jazz because of the loss of the loss the lead singer and where was Reverend and the Makers whose performance last year was great?