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.

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.

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.

April/May

A busier time of late than March and one that brought a much-needed break. I was glad to have a few days off at the start of the month to draw breath. The Easter holidays were pretty good, well apart from the fact that my boiler gave up the ghost. No doubt it had been slightly overworked given the winter we have just had. So far the quotes for a new one have done nothing but bring about a wince and a high pitched shriek from myself!

So away from home-based disasters, I went along to a gig at my favourite venue the Citadel to see Radio 2 DJ Mark Radcliffe's band the Big Figures. They have been playing in his local for a number of years and have this year ventured out on tour. They play a number of Dr Feelgood tunes and early classics. I’m sure there may have been one or two of their own songs in the set too. a band that before now had passed me by. It is quite timely given that Oil City Confidential the documentary about the band was released - it has even made it on to BBC4. I enjoyed the gig and Radcliffe is a fine front man. His humour and talent shine through. I’m looking forward to when he gets the Family Mahone back together for his now legendary Christmas gigs.

As a result of the gig I have checked out ‘Oil City Confidential’ the movie and the accompanying soundtrack. It includes a number of their songs plus a couple from Johnny Kid and the Pirates (a band that influenced the nascent Feelgood). There are some great tunes on the album (live and recorded). You can see why a number of punk bands have cited them as an influence.

Another album that I had been looking forward to being released finally materialised this month. Pavement is the American band who inspired Blur’s conversion from the Britpop style to a more American sound, have released a 23 track compilation album called ‘Quarantine the Past’. I was a late convert to the band and was looking to hearing something that encapsulated their whole career. I’m not sure this is it, the die-hard fan will probably say that there is a lot of stuff missing. ‘Stereo’ remains a favourite of mine, as well as ‘Spit on a Stranger’ that was covered by the folk singer Kathryn Williams to good effect on her ‘Relations ‘album. Its a good introduction to the band and is well worth checking out. Listening to it has got me inspired in checking out the other bits of back catalogue that have been remastered to coincide with this Greatest Hits and reformation of the band.

It was a good month for album releases, the Amazon wish list was served with a number of new additions. One that was instantly purchased was the new Paul Weller album ‘Wake Up The Nation’. Given my devotion of all things Weller, it was always an album that I would be purchasing. A number of publications have given it favourable reviews and compared it well with his previous release ‘22 Dreams’, which was quite eclectic in the number of styles on display over the course of the album. ‘Wake Up The Nation’ is a more stripped down approach and weighs in at less than 45 minutes long, but covers a similar range of styles. One song ‘Trees’ is like a mini-symphony at less then 5 minutes long. The title track rails at the Facebook-age and is quite an impassioned track. I have to say that the album has been seldom of my player since HMV sent it out to me two days before its release (thank you). To these ears I think it is possibly his best solo album and certainly not far off the Jam’s best album Sound Effects. It’s that good. Not bad for an artist who has passed the milestone of his 50th birthday and he is still going strong, where other contemporaries are churning pale imitations of their best work. I look forward to hearing these tunes performed live later on in the year.

The Arctic Monkeys album, I have to say it washes over me in some ways and the reviews that I had read about lacking a little lustre of the first two albums ring true. Lyrically it is still top notch, just lacking in tunes. There are probably two tracks that stand out, with first song ‘My Propeller’ being my favourite, as well as ‘Pretty Visitors’.

Another new band for me is Wild Beasts, who hail from the Lake District. Like the Arctic Monkeys, ‘Two Dancers’ is an album that was released last year, I have seen them mentioned in passing and have heard a few tunes on a number of Uncut free cds. I’m glad I bought the album, it is one of the best new albums I have heard in a long time. It’s very 80s in places and with a bit of Bunnymen thrown in too, which is no bad thing. The highlights for me is the opener ‘Fun Powder Plot’, reminds me of something that for now I’m sure what, and ‘Two Dancers (II)’. I look forward to checking out their previous album in due course.

The last day of the month a rare term time day off and off to Poland where a friend of Silvi was due to be married. We flew by Wizzair and thankfully the flight was less stressful than my previous flight with Ryanair in January. The weekend was busy to say the least we flew into Katowice and then had to get a bus from their to Krakow and then on to Tarnow, where the wedding was taking place on the Saturday. Sunday was spent Krakow were a short trip around the city was only possible.

It was good to finally see Krakow and would like to visit there again in future though with a longer time to sightsee and with less travelling. As is usually the case when flying for me these days, there was a delay to the flight of 5 hours. Which meant a 7 hour stay at Katowice Airport, a place not noted for its abundance of resources. Sadly it was Silvis birthday, so we had to spend the day celebrating it at an airport. When we finally made it back in the evening we only really had time for tea in a pub with my parents who had come to pick us up from the airport.

After that bit of excitement, May can be summed up by one activity. Marking, marking and more marking. Never mind, it will soon be the summer!

Scriptfrenzy 2010

Today is the first day of Scriptfrenzy a month long writing contest, one that I signed up to take part in last year. It is similar to Nanowrimo and all those other do-something-creative-in-a-month competitions that internet has helped popularise.
Last year, I signed up at the very last minute (as chronicled here) and enjoyed every moment of the experience. This year, I have another idea for a script that I was looking forward to getting stuck into but unfortunately I won't be at the starting line with all the other writers. The main reason I guess is that I have surveyed the month ahead and that from a work point of view (work of the paid kind) I just won’t have the time to give the attention that it deserves. Marking season will soon be upon me!

From a writing point of view I also feel like I have a number of half-finished ideas that I need to get out of the way first before I undertake another project such as this. Last summer, I started a novel, which at this moment stands half completed. I also lined up at the start of Nanowrimo in November - unfortunately work got in the way again so I’m left with another half finished novel. Added to this is the small matter of the last year’s script, which is still at the first draft stage and has been filed away and has not been read since its completion.

This last week while I have been off work I have been surveying a number of pieces of work that I had written for other workshops of late and some other bits that that I had forgotten I had written. So I think for now I should really be concentrating on clearing the decks and start getting some of my already completed/soon to be completed work out there.

That is why with great reluctance that I won't be lining up with other ScreenFrenzy participants. I wish them every success in what is an interesting, frustrating and ultimately enjoyable experience.

March

The year seems to be slipping away fairly quickly already, somehow it’s April tomorrow. On some level this month has been something of a write-off. Work has just got in the way of everything really and the month has been an exercise in bobbing along.

I suppose one highlight this month was catching up with a few mates for a birthday in Liverpool, I realised that it had been nearly two years since I had caught up with them. That’s just too long but that seems to be the case these days with too many of my friends.

Only one visit to the cinema this month after an almost prolific month last time and that was to see Crazy Heart, which has Jeff Bridges & Maggie Gyllenhaal in the main roles. The story is a well-travelled path, but it's worth a watch. The music is good too, if you like Americana that does not stray into that clichéd Rhinestone Cowboy sound.

I think I only watched one DVD and that was Cloverfield, which frankly annoyed the hell out of me. Instead of wanting the main cast members to survive, I was glad when they were killed off one-by-one. I liked the concept; just the actual execution of the film was not that great.

On the music front I checked a couple of albums that I had been meaning to check out for a few years. Wolfmother, was one album that I managed to listen to they are an Australian band that obviously own a few Led Zeppelin albums. It is fairly rocky stuff - but not too bad.

Another band that wear their influences on their sleeves is the Gaslight Anthem. Their album ‘59 Sound’ is a couple of years old and I have been meaning to check them out having read about them a fair bit in Uncut. The New Jersey band not only shares a state with Bruce Springsteen but also a sound - they have even shared a stage in the last few years. This is a great album if you like that impassioned American rock sound; ‘Great Expectations’ is the stand out track. They have a new album in the offing, which I hope to check out when it is released.

I also took the time to limp down memory lane with a blast through the Wonder Stuff, doing ‘Hup’ live. The release is an updated version to celebrate 21 years since it came out. It’s a DVD and cvd package of recent gig in Birmingham and the songs sound great after all these years. It was interesting to hear on the album that the lead singer Miles Hunt considers it to be his favourite Wonder Stuff album, something that I fully agree with. Though ‘Never Loved Elvis’ is a contender for my favourite too as it contains ‘Here Comes Everyone’ and was the album that really got me into the band.

That’s a bout it for March, hopefully next month can be a little more productive than the one that’s just gone.

A Quiet Pint in the Everyman

After my recent road to Damascus like conversion to real ale, in the middle of a week off from work, I picked up my copy of Around the Pubs in 80 days. I suppose if I was to start a drinking odyssey around Liverpool it would be difficult to know where to begin such a journey

For me, I suppose that journey would begin in the Everyman Bistro. If I were a permanent inhabitant of Liverpool city centre this would be my local. It is not typically a real-ale pub but on some levels adheres to the ethos of what a real-ale pub should be. I should hate this place on account of the low beams of the ceiling; this is on account of it being in the depths of the Everyman Theatre. I can’t help but feel a little self-conscious when the place is full.

Thankfully I have popped in on a quiet Thursday afternoon, it is just me, and a couple of members of staff. I have my usual a quick bottle of Cain's lager before I’m due to meet my friend later on. With French music station on in the background and a beer in my hand it is quite relaxing. It's quite good to have a pub to yourself to contemplate the world. The music is good too and has that French lounge-core feel. On second thoughts it sounds Spanish.

Sadly they are going to renovate this place soon - hopefully the new building will retain some of this place’s character. Though hopefully with a better ceiling space for the non-vertically challenged, like myself.