Sunday, February 05, 2006

Lancaster Telecaster

aerodyne A 520 mile round trip to Lancaster today, starting early this morning with only minor traffic holdups. We listened to the iPod on shuffle and only skipped about four or five tracks. Then the unveiling of John's new Aerodyne Telecaster, which is shiny black and looks great. Telecaster but with a slightly revamped look and some different electronics. tele2 It sounds terrific with a ringing sustain and an amazing tonal range. We plugged amp, mixer and Pod together and tried out a few effects. Fantastic.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

KT Tunstall

KTpack I have been listening to KT Tunstall in my car for several months - pretty much since the CD was released. KT is Kate with attitude. A singer-songwriter with good lyrics and listenability. Mysteriously, I get a lot of KT Tunstall hits on this blog, so I thought I'd write a little more. With Chinese blood, and growing up in Scotland's St Andrews, KT Tunstall always knew she had been adopted at birth. "I grew up knowing I could have had a million different lives. It makes your life mysterious and your imagination go wild." KT spent her childhood up hills and under canvas with her outward-bound parents. Musically, she started with piano, then flute, then by mid-teens on to guitar and writing her own songs. Hungry for experience and independence, she gained a scholarship to Kent School in Connecticutt, New England. Concert KT Tunstall KT returned to St Andrews then Royal Holloway College. Whilst in London her writing lead to the creation of over a hundred songs. Eye to the Telescope was recorded in a little studio in Wiltshire. KT didn't want to use too much equipment, preferring to be inventive to get interesting music. The lo-fi, visceral, boot-wielding approach was inspired by KT's recent conversion to the hiss and crackle of early blues. "On the whole, I'm a positive, skippity-la-la person but I love the dark side of music and I will always want to explore that. It's a positive-sounding album but there's stuff underneath for sure." kt2 I saw KT's performance in the Glastonbury TV studio, when all the electronics and backup things went wrong. Unabashed she flipped into a full acoustic and untreated version of Black Horse and the Cherry Tree. A great performance, bettered by its almost impromptu edge. b737
And here's a Promo video from the BBC
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Saturday, July 02, 2005

Make Poverty History

great-generation
The G8 brings together the leaders of the worlds most powerful countries - the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. This year they meet from 6th - 9th July in Gleneagles with Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair hosting the summit.

Tony Blair has put the challenges faced in Africa on the top of the agenda but the leaders need to know when they sit down that the world is watching them and waiting for them to deliver.

Friday, July 01, 2005

An eye for an eye




An eye for an eye - you said,
Soon we'll all be blind,
scratching at negatives,
piercing chroma, into black, and into white.

Clinging nails ram, slam, dig each other,
Clawing at faded memories,
Capturing tableaus, freezeframed flashes, marked fake truths,
No - one takes pictures at funerals,
Only the bicycles and candles appear in these exposures,
The untold life exists between these negatives,
these are the fragments we clutch,
bleeding smeared fingerprints, torn and crumpled
we try to remember, the once, the truth.

An eye for an eye - you said,
now we're both blind.
inseparable and visionless, groping the dark.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Poetry and Words Glasto 2005


The Eye
Phaze
Poetry and Words Tent, Glastonbury 2005.

After a chaotic and fantastic experience, amongst the mud and rain, I reflect on the events of my 'glastonbury experience'. Although drenched in rain and soaked in mud, this years Glastonbury was truly beautiful. The rain seems to have a truly magical effect on people ; it created an extraordinary environment. Caked in mud, people loose their inhibitions (if they had any!) and loose all superficiality, all are one, moving as one mass body. It was an incredible sight to behold, swarms of people sticking to the ground, drenched but surprisingly happy. One of my most treasured experiences, perhaps, was my visit to the poetry and words tent, which is in the midst of the Greenfield (one of my favorite places in Glastonbury). For me, one of the best parts of Glastonbury has to be these 'secret' catacoms hidden in the heart of Glastonbury, where people express themselves through poetry and where spontaneous performing runs rife. The Bayan Tree Cafe and the Manic Organic cafe harbour open mics and provide people with an area to create chaotic music. this for me, is stymbolic of Glastonbury; a place where people of diverse cultures and backgrounds freely create, creativity.

I was fortunate enough to witness the sonic and cosmic vibes of the wild women poets in the poetry and words tent in Glastonbury. A group whose poetry is incredibly inspiring, poignant and observant. The Wild Women's latest visionary project (started at Glastonbury) is their love poem. The love poem is a poem where anyone, and everyone, can write a line of poetry about love. This poem was started and read out at Glastonbury and was truly emotional; if you would like to add your own lines of love visit their web site and you can email them your line of love. The poems objective is to be encapsulate a message of love with the intention of sedning the poem to the he 'powers that be' and to get them to remember 'love'. As Vik Bennett, one of the members of the wild women noted 'inside every person there is a heart and inside every politician there is a heart' so lets get them to feel love again. You must visit http://www.wildwomenpress.com/

Another inspiration and poetic wizard, was an up and coming poet and graphic designer called Phaze. His words still ring rescently in my ears, his poetry was liquid gold that gushed and pour ed into, not only my ears, but everyone's ears who were fortunate enough to fall upon the Poetry and Words tent that day. He is not only a tremendous poet but a beautiful artist and graphic designer, the above image is one of his art illistrations which you may find on his web site www.pahze05.com . Phaze is a great poet and perhaps even more so a great orator. His charisma and beauty was tremendous with his one over riding poetic theme being; 'seize the day'. Which is a message I hold incredibly tightly too; clasp onto today for 'yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift; that's why its called the present'.

stay beautiful

Melanie

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Glastonbury Pyramid

stage

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Dylan Moran for Dr Who

quizzical
Dylan Moran is the logical choice for the Series 11 Dr Who. Check our website!