Sad news last weekend of the passing of guitarist Peter Green. A founder member in 1967 of the British blues band Fleetwood Mac in London, after he'd left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
This track would seem a good one to remember him by: 'Man of the World' - one of his best songs.

An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary. Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like). 

And more Cover ups - "Covers: often better than original" - "the best cover band on the planet" - just a few of the comments made about this group called Foxes & Fossils. 

No denying the harmonies are beautiful and spot on. The girls Maggie Adams and Sammie Purcell along with Scott King, Johnny Pike, Tim Purcell & Toby Ruckert, cover a range of artists. So here's a selection for you to idle away your midweek day. 

Take your pick of >

'American Girl' > www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw6nALtV3ZU

'Hopeless Hoping' > www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaqTl1jLdkE   (Love this crazy location at The Twisted Taco in 2013 - parking lot background, as per the picture below)

A fantastic (and ambitious) version of 'Suite: Judy Blues Eyes' > www.youtube.com/watch?v=S23VK1v9dB8

And finally 'Runaway' > a cover of the Love and Theft original - www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP_ozkEPD-M
All good stuff 

Foxes & Fossils: Maggie, Tim and Sammie

Name check to my mate Bobby in California for introducing these guys. 

Cover versions: They've always been around, like it or not ? And it can go either way.
There's the straightforward recreation of the original and then there's the interpretation or re-worked version. It's a personal thing and can often depend on your love for the original as to whether a new rendition works for you.
So covers can be tricky to carry off or, lets say, get away with. I know I feel there are many that should never have seen the light of day, while others really add something extra. 
Enough preamble, 1991 saw the release of a tribute album called "Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin", it contained 16 songs, by various artists and it's widely considered that this is one of the best interpretations of Elton John's 1989 original release. 
Sinead O'Conner performs 'Sacrifice'

> More 'Covers' coming your way - midweek >>

Dion DiMucci > simply Dion to you and I, has had a career almost as long as that of rock 'n' roll itself. From doo-wop music with The Belmonts, to solo hits like 'The Wanderer' & 'Abraham, Martin and John', on to working with Phil Spector in the 70s, while more recently a number of blues records have been made with contemporary rock artists.
Last month he released an album called 'Blues with Friends' - the list of friends is impressive (see here). Tomorrow will be his 81st birthday.
The new album contains this track performed with Jeff Beck 'Can't Start Over Again' > very tasteful guitar, as you'd expect. Happy birthday Dion

Check out the 'Here in America' track too, with Paul Simon: www.youtube.com/watch?v=geiaNspk5rY

This week 65 years ago "Rock Around the Clock" became the very first rock 'n' roll recording to top the Billboard Pop charts.  

The 45 single release had reached No.17 on the UK Chart the previous January, some 4 months before it even entered the US pop charts. 
It would re-enter the UK chart in November 1955, this time making the No.1 spot. The picture here is of an EP from 1957 (another of my parent's purchases) and the sleeve notes make for some entertaining reading, that I have to share. Trust me this is the exact wording: 
"This isn't quite rhythm and blues, not quite hill-billy, not quite Tin Pan Alley, not quite anything for which there is a standard definition. It's a kind of shaking, rattling and rolling music that shakes a lot of people, rattles others and rolls along all the time. Whatever it is, it's happy and a guaranteed party livener, and it's rhythmical and danceable. Most of the things we require of popular music seem to lie somewhere within these qualifications."
But here's the thing most people didn't think it wouldn't last ! Even those making and playing rock 'n' roll music at the time. 
The video is taken from the 1956 film "Rock Around the Clock". Bill Haley and His Comets in full swing and featuring dancers Lisa Gaye and Earl Barton (Lisa and Jimmy Johns in the movie). 
Come on everybody, we're gonna rock around ...

A pretty short track. So here's another (also on the EP). We've had counting, now this offers some assistance in spelling. Track called R.O.C.K. !!! > www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssQndYysTH0
Check out Bill Haley looking even more like Buzz Lightyear 😆 

 

–    E N N I O   M O R R I C O N E    –

Oscar winning composer of over 500 film scores, from spaghetti westerns with Sergio Leone to gangster dramas, no doubt everyone will have their own favourite composition by him, here's mine. From the 1986 movie 'The Mission':- 'Gabriel's Oboe'. 
In memory of Ennio Morricone who past away yesterday. Grazie maestro

Normally I wouldn't do this, but I think my reasons will become more than apparent shortly.
Ever since last week I've been on quite a trip involving a certain Arthur Lee and his band Love. It all began with the re-run of their 'live' performance from Glastonbury 2003, broadcast last Friday evening on BBC2. Continued with the story of Arthur Lee's prison sentence, and his release just 18 months before that festival show. Then his death from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 61. It's quite a read and reveals some mysteries that were never fully publicised, even by a reluctant and humiliated Lee. Here's part of it, from a post prison interview in 2002 >click here. 
On to the music and here I should say I know we have had the band Love as recently as last January on the FMS, however while these shows were advertised as Love with Arthur Lee the backing band was in fact called Baby Lemonade*: Mike Randle (lead guitar), Rusty Squeezebox (not real name), David Green (drums) & bassist Dave Chapple. Along with The Forever Changes String & Horn Ensemble from Sweden, it would be right to say they were playing Love songs, but Arthur Lee was in fact the sole connection to LA's legendary 60s band**. 
Finally, there's one song I have been playing continuously all this week, so it has to be this Friday's Star Track. 
'You Set The Scene' Arthur Lee's magnificent opus, which provided the finale to the 1967 critically acclaimed LP 'Forever Changes', is actually three songs all run into one track.

So we are heading back to Glastonbury one more time for:

This is the time and life that I am living 

And I'll face each day with a smile

The only video I could find is a squashed widescreen version***, but it sounds great nonetheless. 

* Name taken from a Syd Barrett track on his 'Barrett' LP ©1970.

** One of the first racially-diverse American rock bands, their music drew on an eclectic range of sources including folk rock, hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco, mariachi and orchestral pop ! And influenced many famous bands that followed.
*** There is the entire show available (all 57 minutes worth) as a none squashed version. Click this link

If you followed the teaser from Midweek this will come as no surprise as my choice of Glastonbury Festival performance is, I admit, entirely bias !
As the teaser video explained it was their 2004 appearance in the John Peel tent (then simply called 'The New Tent') that broke the band, coming just weeks after the release of their debut album 'Hot Fuss'.  
They then surprised fans in 2017 with a special appearance on the same (small) stage at Glastonbury as the packed tent spilled out at the edges. 
I have found two ways to view this set closing track. One from within the audience (from that 2017 show) with a singalong to this epic song - all waving flags and hands in a sea of selfie-stick phones and GoPro cameras.  
But first here's the band headlining on the main stage in 2007 > "Mr Brightside"

Now join the packed crowd for this >
Quote "We've played Mr. Brightside probably fifteen hundred times live and I think that was the craziest it's ever been" – Brandon Flowers

*The Killers have been a Star track before, but would you believe that was nearly 3 years ago ?

> This BBC link will give you a full run down of The Glastonbury Experience on all platforms. This will require a certain amount of remote-control gymnastics as you channel-hop your way to your favourite memory. Or set your machine to 'record' if you're able. 

An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary. Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like). 

This isn't actually a music spot but an information post all about it. A veritable mountain (or pyramid) of music this weekend on the BBC > TV, iplayer & radio.

This year was meant to be the 50th anniversary of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. The festival, organised by Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily Eavis, at Worthy Farm in Somerset has been cancelled after selling 135,000 tickets in just 34 minutes. Which leaves a lot of disappointed fans out there... but from this Thursday evening the BBC are filling the void.

I have never actually been to Glastonbury, that appears to be more like a small town (10-12 different stages) and on a scale never imagined at the first festival in 1970. (More on that at a later date). While this year marked 50 years it would have actually only been the 37th festival in total, due to years missed, mainly during it's early evolution. However my feelings about festivals and large venues is rather mixed and a couple of quotes I've recently read struck a real musical chord with me:  

"But let's face it, you don't really go to Reading, to any festival, for the music. Not really. How many examples have there been in the longish history of rock festivals of bands turning in that blinding performance that defines them in your head for ever?"

"The problem with playing music in a stadium is that it can end up sounding like stadium music, booming and empty. The audience applauding their memories rather than the present performance."

I am no fan of the London O2 or similar arenas and feel if you are so far away from the artists on stage, so detached from their presence, that you're watching the screens all the time, you may just as well have been at home watching on the telly. 
That said the sound systems these days are fantastic and certain shows can require a massive stage to work their magic. But I still think the occasion is the attraction and not necessarily who's playing. Which maybe why the BBC are calling their weekend The Glastonbury Experience.
You can watch past performances in the comfort of your own home > www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/full-schedule-bbcs-glastonbury-festival-4242960
Click that link for the full schedule that begins Thursday 10pm on BBC4 tv with Julien Temple's documentary about the world-famous music festival. 

Ahead of this Friday's Music Spot, that will follow in a suitable fashion. 
Want a teaser... ? (click this)   See you there ♫

Something a bit different here, as one thing leads on to another.
Found this fun video full of crazy dancing to British indie band Cornershop and their No.1 hit 'Brimful of Asha' from 1998.
This is the remix by Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim, that brought the record, a fusion of indian, rock and electronic dance music, to the attention of the world, following a 1997 release that made less of a breakthrough. Though it was voted by listeners into the top spot on John Peel's legendary Festive 50.  
The song is a tribute to the Indian movie industry of Bollywood and in particular the lyric to playback singer Asha Bhosle. Who it is said has sung 'playback' in over 1,000 Bollywood movies. 
Time for a workout, to shake a tail feather, while singing and dancing... 

Cornershop's name originated from a stereotype reference to British Asians often owning corner shops.