An occasional music spot - remembering places around the World

This week 45 years ago I was driving around Los Angeles. Following a 3-man four week cross-country American Road Trip, destination California and with some new found (and now life-long) friends already back home in New York and others still in San Francisco. I took time out to visit the City of Angels, staying with family of the boss my mother worked for in Wimbledon. With a car at my disposal I was Freeway Flying on Santa Monica boulevard, Sunset blvd, Mulholland Drive, San Bernadino Freeway and Hollywood Fwy. Lots of places I remember all connected by the automobile.  

FM radio playing there was one classic rock track that kept blasting over the airwaves. 

In 2003, as a 25th Anniversary of 'On The Road in 78', I produced a CD (see cover above). 16 road music songs from that summer. 

Because it was more of a personal experience this classic rock track from LA didn't make the final CD cut, despite me sneaking Bruce Springsteen and Boston on at the end.

Recently this same rock track came on while I was driving and immediately I'm back on the Freeway, flying as UFO's 'Only You Can Rock Me' rocked me !

  

Getting back to Music Festivals - more specifically Reading (on this weekend) - which since 1999 has been known as Reading & Leeds Festival, taking place simultaneously over the Bank Holiday weekend. 

The Reading Festival, the older of the two, is the world's oldest popular music festival still in existence, having gone through various musical phases over the years. Originally The National Jazz and Blues Festival it began in Richmond in 1961. The venue moved location throughout the sixties and by 1969 Jazz had all but disappeared from the line-up of artists playing. 1971 saw it move permanently to Reading and become The National Jazz, Blues, Folk & Rock Festival. I did a feature last year when I attended in 1972: (link reminder). 

Looking at this year's festival reveals the degree of change, from a single stage in the 70s to today's: Main Stage East, Main Stage West, Radio One Dance Stage, Festival Republic Stage, Radio 1xtra Stage and finally BBC Music introducing Stage !

The scale and number of artists involved covers a change in genres that saw Heavy Metal, Punk and New Wave in the 80s, Brit Pop and Indie in the 90s, Hip Hop and Rap in the 00s and Grime artists added to the predominately Rock line-ups. Recent years have seen less Rock acts which results in me not knowing many of the bands playing this year's festival. The headliners I know but then it becomes a mystery. But I found one band I knew and a video from their performance at Reading in the sunshine in 2019. They are on again this afternoon at 3pm on the Main Stage West: You Me At Six with ‘Take On The World’ - join the audience and sing along !

You Me At Six are from down the road in Weybridge, Surrey - there's another live video from Ally Pally > check out the wild ending here. 

I also unearthed some old footage of the National Jazz & Blues festival from 1964 (no sound though) - short but sweet (click) and 1969 with a classic voice over and artists performing (mostly the Bonzo Dogs) and some idiot dancing to take you back.

   

From a recently seen guitar post about great players of the Fender Stratocaster to a previous list by Joe Bonamassa of his Top 10 Blues-Rock Guitar solos of all time - Bonnie Raitt stood out amongst mostly male players. 

"Thing Called Love" from 1989 was the solo selected (by Joe) with "Three Time Loser" mentioned in the post for Bonnie Raitt's "supernatural slide work infusing the song with deep blues feeling as her 'strat' tones burn." 

On television this evening (BBC4 at 21:55) in "Sessions" you may well hear and see all of the above (from a 2013 concert). 

I'm going with "Thing Called Love". Written by John Hiatt in 1987 and covered on her breakthrough 'Nick of Time' album by Bonnie Raitt. The video is a live performance at the Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium, Oakland at the end of 1989 > 

Encore:

Try "Three Time Loser" from 'Later with Jools Holland' in 1994 (link here): Jimmie Vaughan and Jools are playing along with this comment noted: "after Jimmie's solo, Bonnie slinks up to the Mic in time! She is a great musician and gets my vote as the coolest chick ever to strap on a guitar."

This track was also performed at the excellent Oakland concert. (Link2 fyi). 

 

   

The English summer (or more accurately May, June, July, August and sometimes September) is a time for music festivals. There are events every weekend* and often there's a wide choice not just the one !

And boy have they grown in scale over the years. I shall be looking at this in the coming weeks, starting today at this weekends Cropredy Festival. Regular viewers will know my love of all things Fairport Convention and their Cropredy Convention has been attended in the past and provided Star Tracks on various Fridays:  

This year's proceedings kicked off with Merry Hell - Rewind One. While Morganway take to the stage this Saturday afternoon - Rewind Two.  

Sandwiched in between and headlining tonight are 10cc. Strictly speaking it's Graham Gouldman's 10cc as he's the only original member involved. The new line up have been going since 1999 and this UK No.1 from the late 70s has been played often. The video is a 2008 performance from a German Proms night with a full orchestra. 'Dreadlock Holiday' - 'I don't like reggae, no no, I love it !' >

* For example if you travel north of Oxfordshire to Derbyshire this weekend you'll find heavy metal fans attending 'Bloodstock' !

  R e m e m b e r i n g  

 -   R O D R I G U E Z   - 

Sixto Rodriguez (Sugar Man)

In 2012, the Oscar-winning documentary 'Searching for Sugar Man' saw two South African fans track Rodriguez down to see what had become of him.

Rodriguez launched his career in 1967 but initially struggled to find success in his native US and was ultimately dropped by his record label.
However, his music gradually developed a cult following overseas, and his records enjoyed significant sales and airplay in South Africa and Australia.
Little was known about Rodriguez in the country despite his music being so popular, and false rumours had circulated that the singer had killed himself on stage in the 1970s.

If you haven't seen the film, track it down, it's excellent. Rodriguez sadly did die earlier this week. 

I could have picked any number of his songs - here's 'Crucify Your Mind' - RIP 

Actually Video of the week - taken in our garden. Click on the white ▶ in the centre, then click again. 

Hummingbird hawk-moth

The hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is a species of hawk moth found across temperate regions of Eurasia. And last week on our buddleia. 

  

Having recently mentioned the local music scene in the Hastings area was lively, I thought today we'd have some music from one of those local bands. 

Friends from school days in Robertsbridge Tom Chaplin (born in Hastings) and Tim Rice-Oxley met other band members, including guitarist Dominic Scott at Tonbridge college. Scott left in 2001 and Keane became known as 'the band with no guitars', thanks to their heavily piano-based sound. 

This is actually a song, written by Tim, about Scott leaving the band and is a favourite track of mine. From their 'Hopes and Fears' 2004 debut album 'This is the Last Time' >

For more local nostalgia check out 'Sovereign Light Cafe' from the 2012 record 'Strangeland' - the song is about the seaside resort of Bexhill-on-Sea. The café itself is on the west end of the town's seafront, opposite the offshore Sovereign Lighthouse, where it gets its name. Link 2