Monday, July 19, 2010

The Coral

Live at the Lowry Salford, Saturday 17th July 2010

Set list: More Than a Lover, Roving Jewel, Walking in the Winter, Jacqueline, In the Rain, Simon Diamond, Two Faces, Green Is the Colour, 1000 Years, Spanish Main / Who's Gonna Find Me, Pass It On, Butterfly House, Falling All Around You, She's Coming Around, Wildfire, Calendars and Clocks, Goodbye, Dreaming of You, North Parade.

After a time out of the spotlight and with a well-received new album to promote the Coral return to the live arena in the plush surroundings of the Lowry, not necessarily the typical venue for the band but with a more sedate sound this may be a newfound natural habitat.
Added to the many plaudits that band have received for their new album, tonight they can add the testimonial of Mancunian royalty Mani to that ever expanding list, who introduced the band and heralded ‘Butterfly House’ as the best since the his old band the Stone Roses’ eponymous debut.

Tonight that new album formed the basis of the set ‘More Than a Lover’, ‘Roving Jewel’ and ‘Walking in the Winter’ three new songs that opened the set. These new songs were appreciated by the audience with some restraint in the comfortable seats, it was when songs form the band’s back catalogue were rolled out that the trouble started for the security guards tonight. A number of fans were ushered to sit down when ‘Jacqueline’ and ‘In the Rain’ were played, then the venue’s no standing, no moving to front policy was thrown asunder when ‘Spanish Main / Who's Gonna Find Me’ was rolled out amongst the equally-well received recent singles ‘1000 Years’ and ‘Butterfly House’.

A number of fans took to the stage and prompted lead-singer James Skelly to mouth an unambiguous message to a stage invader , which left him in no doubt as to what he wanted him to do. Skelly commented that he was possibly the politest invader he had ever encountered.

With the rockier numbers the band upped the volume a little louder when encoring ‘Dreaming of You’ and album closer ‘North Parade’ this saw the front of the stage almost submerged with diehards.

The thing that strikes you about tonight’s performance is that the new and older material sits well together and that the Greatest Hits collection that came out a couple of years ago can now be seen as a point in time, as opposed to a full stop in the career of the band.

Their live credentials have never been in question but the new album highlights with the omissions from the set list tonight that the band has an impressively expanding back catalogue. On tonight’s evidence, and that of the new album, the band goes from strength to strength.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Writing

I read a number of writing blogs and subscribe to Writers' News. So I'm well versed in the mantra that to be a writer you have to write every day. That it is a given, but the problem tends to be when it comes to describing yourself as a writer. As yet I have not been published for my creative works - despite numerous resolutions that I will start sending this work off, that still sits on a hard drive or when I’m feeling really proactive in a folder.

Most of the advice tends to be the obvious, but the one about writing everyday alas that has not been possible of late given my commitments in work and somehow I’m no further down the road to achieving my goals.

This year I didn't bother writing down my resolutions for the year - though somewhere at the back of my mind I have a number of unwritten goals that I would like to achieve.

If I had resolution it would have been to send out more of my writing, which I have not really done – though I did send out a final draft of play that I had written. This was rejected though I’m not despondent about this, as I know why it was not suitable. This will give me pointers for the next one that I write.
So the summer months, where I will hopefully get a long break from work. I hope to devote a bit of time to a number of writing projects as well as getting this blog sorted, as it has been somewhat neglected of late.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

June

Like April and May, this month was spent with the less than edifying task of wading through a mountain of marking. I managed to get to the bottom of that pile towards the end of the month and not before time. The weather was also rather kind to me too – it was constantly raining while I attended this stack of work.

June was also the start of the World Cup, with the constant drone of vuvuzelas and pundits alike, being the constant talking point so far. That along with the inevitable England capitulation; in all their games they just didn’t get going at all and they finally went out to a vibrant Germany side. Roll on the Premiership a nation was heard to utter in unison. The World Cup so far has not got going hopefully, now that England are out it will do. The only positives you could really draw after England’s displays was that at least John Terry would not be getting a knighthood for winning the World Cup.

Given that work is easing up slightly, I picked up my guitar for the first time in months and somwhow picked up a shoulder injury that nearly forced me out of a football match. I have no idea how that happened as I was only sitting with an acoustic guitar gently strumming - I was hardly throwing rock shapes with a Gibson Les Paul.

Musically, I have dragged myself away from the marking to check out The Maccabees, ‘Wall of Arms’ album. It was one of those 2 for £10 punts in HMV. I had seen them on a recent NME front cover, which these days see me preceding with some trepidation of a band’s output. I had not heard much of their stuff before to be honest, though I did get a download of ‘Can You Give’, which was given a brass band makeover with support from the Dodworth Colliery Band. I have to say that ‘Wall of Arms’ is a great album, one that I had missed last year when it came it out.

The version of the album I have has the original 11 tracks plus 4 additions, which includes a version of Roy Orbison’s ‘I Drove All Night’. This laid back tune quietly plays out the album. It is a great album from start to finish with the eponymous song ‘Wall of Arms’, ‘No Kind Words’ and the Roots Manuva inspired makeover ‘Empty Vessells’ are all particular favourites.

The thoughts of the World Cup had me running back to songs from summers of old hence the appearance of Primal Scream, China Crisis, New Order and Prefab Sprout on the month’s soundtrack. I don’t know what it is about World Cups, but my mind always strays to Italia 1990, that in my mind is perceived to be a great tournament, though something the statistics do not back up. I even downloaded Nessun Dorma a song which takes me back twenty years to that World Cup.


Not much in the way of gigs this month but I was blessed with great weather when I visited the Africa Oye festival in Sefton Park. I always try and attend this festival but in the years that I have been coming the weather has let them down. Thankfully this year, the weather was more in keeping with what an African Festival should be I met up with a few colleagues from work which added to the event. Overall I had great time. There was a brilliant atmosphere, with great food and music.