Bob Dylan

Friday 1st May 2009 (Liverpool Echo Arena)

Set List: Watching The River Flow, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, Things Have Changed, Boots Of Spanish Leather, The Levee's Gonna Break, Sugar Baby, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, Po' Boy, It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Just Like A Woman, Highway 61 Revisited, Something, Thunder On The Mountain, Like A Rolling Stone, All Along The Watchtower, Spirit On The Water and Blowin' In The Wind.

Liverpool’s impressive new waterside arena has seen numerous big names come through its doors in the last year. It would take a convincing argument to say that there has been anyone more stellar than Bob Dylan taking to its stage.

As a veteran attendee of numerous gigs down the years, the folk troubadour’s name was the one that had escaped the list of bands and musicians that I had seen; this gig gladly rectified that glaring omission.

Despite this being my maiden Dylan gig, I was well versed in what to expect from his set list; as a prelude to the gig I spent the afternoon listening to a few of his older hits. The expectation that I would hear these songs in the form that I was familiar never crossed my mind.

In some instances you were unsure of a particular song until you heard snippets of familiar lyrical couplets, It’s Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) again was one song that differed to the original version so much, that I only realised what song it was when he sang, ‘He not busy being born, Is busy dying’; Even that was difficult to discern beneath Dylan’s rasping vocals.

When arguing with those who don’t appreciate the nature of his vocal abilities would probably have had a field day tonight. In truth the voice has never been a thing of greatness and given its limitations, it has mainly been a vehicle for his poetry and lyricism. Though that said there is something heartening in hearing the lived-in croak of his voice.

The song arrangements of today have no doubt been changed to enable the songs to work with aging Dylan vocal range, like a Rolling Stone is another example of song that on records lifts from the opening bars and swirls away into the stratosphere; today’s version is a lot more restrained but it still gets the crowd going.

Probably the only arrangement that sounded familiar all night was All Along the Watchtower and that was only because the impressively assembled band had opted to perform Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Dylan penned song.

Dylan barely spoke throughout the evening but this wasn’t to be construed as a display of surliness or contempt on his part. It was merely the consummate professionalism of the artists that got on with the job in hand as he rattled through 17 songs in just under two hours.

Any perceived aloofness could be countered with his gesture of playing to the crowd with a cover of the Beatles’ Something - no doubt in tribute to his friend George Harrison. As you can imagine that was well received by the Liverpool audience.

Unconventionally the gig stated early and saw the crowd depart into the balmy Liverpool night at a time when most gigs would usually be starting. Though most would have enjoyed what had gone before, hopefully I can make it to a second Dylan gig sometime soon.

Record Store Day

When it comes to shopping the tactic is usually in and out with a minimum of fuss; this is different when it comes to book stores and in particular record shops. The tendency usually is to linger as long as I possibly can, until I have parted with some cash.

This thrill is something of a dying art as local record stores disappear from our high streets - as the Internet and in particular stores like Amazon take away the serendipitous thrill of browsing through racks of compact discs and vinyl. There has been many a time where I have browsed the stock and muttered to myself ‘I can get that cheaper online’. The quick dispatch and relative cheapness has changed browsing habits with wish lists and suggestions based on previous purchases. Which is never good after you have bought your mum something at Christmas – ‘you’ve bought Mama Mia, you will probably like Michael Ball‘. I don’t think so!

There has many a documentary recently lamenting the loss of the humble record store, there has even been a book written by Graham Jones called Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened to Record Shops? – Which details the decline of the humble record store (Incidentally it is on my Amazon wish list waiting to be purchased). There is awareness that these are the last days of the record store – something that has been taken for granted for many a year.

There are many a store like this that I have visited down the years sadly too numerous to list here particular favourites such as Penny Lane Records Bold Street and one downstairs by Waterloo station, Crosby – whose name escapes me, that are no more. It says it all when even big firms such as Our Price, Musiczone and Zavvi can’t continue to trade.

That is why today has been designated as International Record Store Day, with countless numbers of stores around the world lining up events to entice those who had not frequented their local record store in a while. Rarely a week goes by without me visiting a record store, in fact I’m still wading through some of the treats picked up having visited my favourite haunts in Manchester of Vinyl Exchange, Piccadilly & Fopp in Manchester last week. My own personal contribution to the day was a visit and the purchase of a couple of cds at St Helens' only remaining independent record store Kaleidoscope Records. Sadly it never appears to be busy whenever I go there but it does have a good reputation as it is often featured in MOJO magazine. It has a good selection of vinyl and compact discs, as well as a selection of releases by local bands.

As I contemplate the replacement of my HIFI (as it increasingly shows wear and tear), the one thing that stops me in my tracks is the fact that new players seldom come with turntables. This is not a Luddite complaining about the changing world, I have embraced the download culture, but I still long to hold music in physical format, with its lyric sheet and cover art. Days like this highlight that these types of store are still there and serving the public.

Happy Record Store Day.

Hope I dry, before I get home

You buy your ticket in February, you look forward to hazy sunshine, quaffing cold beer in the sunshine and listening to your favourite bands.

Yesterday, some of those things came true. Having seen the Somme-like conditions from Glastonbury on the TV on the Friday night, I smugly thought than god Knowsley Hall wouldn't be as bad.

On Saturday, I attended day one of the inaugural Knowsley Hall festival - which is conveniently only 30 minutes from my home. The main attraction was certainly to see the Who again, 12 months after I last saw them. Also on the bill were personal favourites of mine the Coral, Pete Wylie and Shack.


Pete Wylie was in good form, as usual he treated the crowd to his stunning wit and repartee - as well as a number of bonafide classics, Story of the Blues and Better Scream still sound pretty good today. Next up was Shack, a band that I normally think are fantastic but last time I saw them I was less than enamoured.

This time though they didn't disappoint - despite being handicapped by a clearly inebriated front-man. I thought I would have a couple of pints of what Mick Head had obviously indulged in. Alas there was a seemingly never ending queue, (see picture below)that saw us wait for just under an hour to be served. This put paid to thoughts of catching up yer-man in getting pissed - eventually I managed to get two lukewarm pints of lager, that would have to suffice. I think the festival was obviously sponsored by the temperance society, given the level of service.

While I was in the queue for food and drink, the Thrills and The View came and went - they sounded OK, I don't mind the Thrills, but I could certainly could have done without the View - not my cup of tea at all, derivative shouty bollocks!

The final two acts, were the two I had set out to see when I bought my tickets back in February. The Coral were in good form and after a break to recharge the batteries, they are back with a soon to be released album, from which a number of tunes were given an airing.

One of which In The Rain - brought about the first spots of rain, that thankfully didn't last too long. The rain that is, as the song itself was pretty good.

It is amazing that a band so young have so many recognisable hits that the crowd were familiar with - a greatest hits in the future would be a worthwhile release.

It was too good to ask for I suppose given the weather of late, as the final band the Who took to the stage, the heavens finally opened. The Who played a set reminiscent of the last time I saw them, with only a couple of the songs in the middle changed. It was good to hear the classic songs live again, with my particular favourite Won't Get Fooled Again sounding brilliant as ever. Given the worsening conditions I decided to leave during the final songs of the encore of songs from Tommy.

It was a brilliant festival and certainly one I'll look to attending next year Apart from the lack of bar facilities and the rain, I can't complain, a good day was had by all.

Eclectica Festival St Helens

The is possibly the first instance that this phrase has been uttered but thank god I live in St Helens!

It's not often that you get the luxury of being a five minutes walk away from a Music Festival.The local council should be applauded for putting on the second Eclectica festival - performed in front of the town hall. Pity about the weather and the turn out though.

On the bill were local bands The Loungs and Tin Tin Lady as well as established artists such as Ian McNabb, The Oysterband and Michael Franti and Spearhead.

The main attraction for me was Ian McNabb - who was on splendid form playing his own material and a couple of cover versions - including a Bob Dylanesque take on the Grease hit - Your The One That I want.

It's the second time I have seen him this year and he just gets better and better. Here's to the gigs in October, when he takes the Icicle Works back out on the road.

The other bands were ok, but the McNabb eclipsed them all.

Keeping it Peel

I thought I would break my blog-block today given the fact that it is Peel Day.

It is hard to believe that it is two years since Peely died.

It is probably a JFK moment for me. I’ll always remember where I was when I heard he’d died

It was in the first semester teaching Multimedia Journalism at the same establishment I’m at now. I remember having the BBC website up on the overhead board talking about web design.

The main headline was about Mark Thatcher’s coup attempt. I was about to let the class go for a break just as the site updated itself with the news of Peel’s death.

Gutted was an understatement. I managed to hold myself together for the rest of the session, just about.

I took myself home to listen to the endless tributes in the hope of making sense of dreadful news and in the hope that it wasn’t true. Sadly it is true. I might be overstating this but music hasn’t been same since.

Rest in Peace Peely.

I could have been a contender

Recently I had the time to pick up my guitar, which is an all too rare occurence these days. When I do so it’s an equally pleasurable and frustrating experience.

I didn’t really start playing the guitar until my early twenties and the ambition was always to play in a band. My early entrance into rock n roll was made with the purchase of a bass guitar for £50 from a mate at work. After this abortive keyboard lessons came and went, before I graduated to the six-string guitar.

One of the main reasons for eventually going to University was partly to get a qualification, but to be honest I thought it would afford me the time to get a band together. The aim was to do a Coldplay who all met at University, and make my millions!!!!

Sadly this wasn’t the case, during my time at University, I was in a number of bands with a few mates, but these bands never made it out of the cold dank rehearsal room we performed at just down the way from our University building.

The main reason for the lack of success was usually the lack of drummer, the lack of songs or the usual cliché of musical differences.

I’m probably overstating this grandly, but after these abortive attempts I decided to go solo. This was certainly the easier option for me to continue my musical endeavours. The problem of a drummer and musical differences were alleviated in an instance.

When I say career. I should state my total career earnings for performing are; £5, a glass of Glenfiddich and all the Caffreys I could drink - when I regularly played at the Wednesday Songwriters’ night at Shenanigans, Bootle

Armed with a number of my own compositions and a couple of covers, I regularly performed in and around Liverpool.

Since 2002, my guitar has been a glorious ornament and has been picked up fleetingly to bash out a riff or two that I can barely remember from years gone by. Every year my list of things to do always includes the bit that says get back into my music and start gigging again.

This summer, I probably came as close as I have done since 2002. During my period off work and when I returned from my holidays, I revisited some of the songs that I had written and previously recorded onto my trusty four-track cassette recorder.

These recordings are ramshackle to say the least – though they do contain some reasonable lyrics that have something redeemable in them, some of the performances though leave a lot to be desired.

Now years later I have a computer with a basic music recording facility, I revisited these songs thinking that technology would help transform these snatches of music into something that I could be proud of. So far, not so good. I think only a handful of these songs are worthy of a wider audience.

It looks like it will be back to the drawing board and I will have to get writing a few more compositions, before I make my great comeback.

Watch this space – though I wouldn’t hold your breath.

It’s a Living Thing

Possibly the main realisation that time is creeping on is the fact that I now own a copy of ELO;s Greatest Hits. A band that was recently voted as a guilty pleasure – though they may never have been a credible band, they do have some virtue.

My younger self would have had recriminations about announcing that particular fact. In all likelihood my younger self would have consulted that arbiter of style - the NME and deemed the purchase un-cool for my collection and bought something they’d recommended, like Menswear.

Over the years I have put together a fairly substantial record collection of varying styles and genres, which by and large - I probably enjoyed at some point and there has been some raeson why they have come into my possession.

While I was off work recently, I have been sorting out the clutter that is my life and I have been having a clearance of stuff that I have accumulated over the years. There is still a lot of rubbish gathering dust in my house, but it’s a start.

The main theme I have noticed is the amount of records that have been put in the pile for removal; are bands that I have bought on the recommendation of the NME.

I used to be an avid reader and trusted their opinions by and large (Another realisation that I’m getting old is that I have now graduated onto reading Uncut - instead of the NME).

The records I have put to one side for removal all have the recurring theme of being the ‘next big thing’. That’s why I own records by Gay Dad, Tiger, Ultrasound and Andrew WK. All records I’d bought on the recommendation of the NME.

The process of chucking them out also gave me the chance to listen some the tunes again. I have to say fairly few survived the cull. A number were posted on ebay with mixed results saleswise.

I'm still stuck with a good number of the records and plan b which will see me deposit the majority of them at the local charity shop.

I'll still consult nme.com or buy the NME, but in this multimedia media age I hope I will be a little more selective - to avoid a similar cull next year.

The Mathew Street Festival

An all too rare trip into Liverpool city centre these days for me. I have not worked in the city centre for over three years now. Apart from the odd gig or pint,I never make it back into Liverpool as much as I would like. The excuse this weekend was for the annual August Bank Holiday Mathew Street Festival at the Pier Head.

I hadn’t attended the festival in a number of years with it having previously been a staple of the Clark calendar. It has certainly evolved into something more akin to a proper festival these days – instead of the usual cornucopia of Beatles cover-bands.

Don’t get me wrong I love the Beatles, but usually after a weekend in Mathew Street. I normally go into Beatles cold turkey in September - as I’m usually Beatled-out.

It was good to see the weather didn’t spoil the proceedings either - it was a glorious day to be on the waterfront.

What was also great was the fact that walking from Lime Street station to the venue, the amount of different foreign accents that I heard. It’s great that Liverpool can attract these visitors and augers well for the 2008 City of Culture celebrations. It made me proud to be a Scouser, albeit one exiled in St Helens. There were hardly any of the usual knobheads out in force that usually mar any occasion in Liverpool…which was a bonus.

I was primarily there to see The Wonder Stuff who were on top form as they usually are these days. The band weren't helped though by the sound which was a little muddy from my point mid-way back - the mix was a little too much lead guitar and the drums - with not much of anything else.

The set was the tried and trusted festival set and the hit Size of a Cow made it back into the set after a long absence. Size of a Cow is something of a millstone being as it is the bands biggest hit (Dizzy apart), the problem is that it’s not a true representation of the bands other material.

Front man Miles Hunt was strangely subdued today - hardly any between song banter, which is normally a feature of the proceedings - this may have been something to do with the previous night's excesses at a gig in Cumbria and the un-rock n roll Sunday afternoon start.

There performance may have even convinced a mate - a nonbeliever of The Wonder Stuff's talent that they are in fact pretty good. Though at some considerable cost to me - I'll have to stand through a James Morrison gig in the near future!!!

The other bands I managed to see included The Lightening Seeds and Shack, both local favourites. I had seen The Lightening Seeds the other week in Blackburn at another festival – but I wasn’t too impressed that day. I have to say they were much better here today and they played all the usual songs that you would come to expect and saved the obvious Three Lions to last. Ian Broudie even updated the lyrics to 40 years of hurt.

The last band I saw was Shack. They are a band that I love and I have most of their stuff that they have released down the years. I have even seen them live a few times too and they have usually been on the money.

They were a shambles today - they even had to be warned about the in between song profanities that didn’t go down too well with the family crowd. As beautiful and poetic as they are on record, they were the polar opposite today.


I slopped off before the end of the set to soak up some of the atmosphere amongst the tourist and locals alike in Mathew Street. It was good to be back at the Mathew Street festival and here’s to next year and my return to being a festival regular.