Tue 2 Went to Abertillery yeesterday and went up the lakes but there were no frogs up there as the kids had hoped. I’ve nearly finished recording the song about the gite, La Glaciere but phoned up Catherine Handley today to get some flute on it as a finishing touch. She hasn’t got a bass flute or a low whistle although she can borrow an alto flute if necessary. We agreed to get together next week and see what can be done with ordinary flute. Catherine (Atkins) has redone the singing and it’s the best sounding song we’ve done so far. By the way Catherine Handley was telling me that they performed Wit in Water the other night and a couple of people came up and commented on it, singling it out from all the rest of the things they do. Encouraging! The Cd comes out this week so I’ll get a copy when Catherine comes over next week.
I’ve been working on a new song about the Swedish painter Carl Larsson with Matthew. Larsson was a great inspiration to several of us in the church in Toulouse with his portrayal of harmonious family life in an environmentally friendly homespun setting. Anyway, we got a meolody and a couple of verses sorted out.
Thu 4 We had our final practice for the Send a Cow ball and everything is in very good order. We have two very chunky 45 minute sets, the first slightly lighter in feel than the second. I think the idea is that we play over conversation in the first half and then play to be heard in the second. Charlie played well and the only hiccup was an attempt at Crazy by Gnarls Barclay that turned out to be slightly too high for Jonny. On the other hand, we were able to do I’m a Believer by the Monkees first go with everything in place including vocal harmonies. Everyone is looking forward to Friday evening. We decided to bring CDs along for the obligatory foxtrot, quickstep and waltz: the world isn’t ready yet for Doug and me as a Hammond and drums duo.
This morning the fraternal was held in Raglan. There were half a dozen ministers and the two regional guys and the speaker. I’d thought it was the Orphan who was at Woodgrange Forest Gate during the time we used to go there but that was Simon Orphan and this was his brother Pete, chaplain at Swansea RFC. He had a good approach – a fairly close reading of the gospel coming to Samaria with illustrative material drawn from the world of sport. It was great to be able to drink our coffee on the back lawn at the start of the session.
My last session with the people at Cardiff university today.
Sat 6 Send a Cow charity Ball last night. We got there in good time at five but unfortunately there was quite a lot of toing and froing to Raglan to get missing equipment so we weren’t really able to have an adequate soundcheck as Frost at Midnight. We got going with a word of prayer at about eight and the meal was pretty good, and promptly served – soup, chicken in white wine sauce and a chocolate mousse confection. I sat next to Dai Gower and we had a good conversation about one or two spiritual questions. Catherine and I then did our set. The sound was a bit sketchy with not quite enough volume and a bit of feedback but OK regardless. There was plenty of encouragement from our fans. We didn’t manage to include the new song, Bell Book and Candle by Boo Hewerdine but Jonny came up and sang Writ in Water and All Shall be Well and comments afterwards showed that Writ in Water really is a stand out song for most people. Good news! The auction came next and then the first set by the Jonny Quick Band. Everybody had a good time as we went through quite a light melodic set including Dirty Old Town, Half the World away, I’m a Believer, Pretty Woman etc.. Then there was some more auction and we came on for a much heavier rock set including I Predict a Riot, I Drove all Night, Brown Sugar, Otherside etc. Jonny was stupendous as was Matthew particularly on a version of Dancing in the Moonlight that was appreciably faster than normal, Charles played well and Doug was on top form. At the end of the evening Leigh was telling me she things they raised about three thousand pounds. Not bad, eh?
Mon 8 Adam Walton played ‘All Shall Be Well’ on his Musical Mystery Tour last night. You can hear it by going to http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/shows/adamwalton.shtml and clicking on ‘listen to the latest edition’. It’s about 2 hours and 10 minutes into the show. This is such an eclectic programme (he plays a big variety of music, too) and bears witness to a great groundswell of music in Wales at the moment. Adam will play half and hour of trance and then some emo from the valleys and follow that up with some folk. He’s a real afficionado. Here’s his statement on the show – I identify with this very much:
"Don't believe a single word that
'they' tell you. 'They' would have you believe that music is in a parlous state
- that the corrosive effects of the internet, peer to peer file-sharing,
dumbed-down genre fascism, increased competition for our attention span, overt
commercialisation, T.V. reality shows, monopolistic pricing schemes, a Top 40
in its death throes that doesn't mean anything to anyone anymore, the ever
reductive cycle of creativity [just how much more can be squeezed from twelve,
tired notes?], shocking for shock's sake, unimaginative and stale radio and
T.V. programming and irresponsibly extravagant record companies have killed
music rolling stone dead.
'They' are the same
people who will mutter, 'They don't write them like that anymore!' when they
hear the Nashville Teens rip through Tobacco Rd. on Gold Nostalgia F.M., music
served up by a computer tirelessly cycling through some vintage collections of
CD's that are recycled and repackaged by record labels who can't be bothered
dealing with new bands anymore.
Well, 'they' couldn't be
more wrong, and I've got a music-shaped firework to stick up their behinds
every Sunday night, between nine and midnight, on BBC Radio Wales to prove it
incontrovertibly.
My show doesn't have any
stylistic boundaries. You will hear old and new knocking their guitar necks
together, and jostling for sockets on the 4-way for their samplers and synths,
because hearing Mclusky slam-bang next to the Pixies, or N.W.A., or Photek, or
Marvin Gaye, or Lee 'Scratch' Perry, or the Raspberries, or Madonna, will make
it as transparent as other radio station's playlists are dull, asinine and
unadventurous, that the music of now, is as vital, essential, and durable as
any served up since the dawn of rock 'n' roll.
You'll hear the best
examples of the new and cutting edge in the exclusive sessions that I have most
weeks from bristling, up and coming Welsh bands. Whether they come from the
electronic experimentalism of Cardiff's Culprit One, the 'Gram Parsons is alive
and well and runs a chippy in Connah's Quay' stylings of The Loving Cup, the
shear hardcore onslaught of Panel or the bewitching folktronic psychedelia of
the Soft-Hearted Scientists. If you thought Wales was full of subscribers to
the Stereophonic's conservative chord association, I'm here to prove otherwise.
However, much as I get a
fire in my ears, my mouth, my heart and my belly from the pleasure of
supporting new Welsh artists, frequently before anyone else has had a chance to
play them, you won't hear any self-serving, jingoistic tokenism on Sunday
nights. If they're crap and Welsh, they're still just crap. They won't get
airplay on our programme. Your attention, and time, is too precious for that.
Maybe this spiel sounds a
little pompous and self-righteous... well, writing about music isn't ever
[Lester Bangs, Nick Kent, Paul Morley and Swells excepted] as invigorating as
that emotional rush that surges through you, indelibly making a mark in your
life story, when you fall in love with a piece of music. So, yes, I hold my
hand up to feeling righteous about music and my responsibility ... but Sunday
nights are only there to inspire you, annoy you and invigorate you.
So, come on ... jump
aboard! There's room enough for everyone on the musical, mystery tour bus...
just keep your muddy feet off the seats ... that's drives the editor
incandescent with rage!"
It was a great Sunday all round. Mel spoke to the children and made it clear that they are involved in whatever happens to the church re the buildings. We had a great time in the second half of Romans 4 on the nature of Abraham’s faith. Then in the evening we had a good attendance in the high teens for our monthly communion service. We learned a couple of new songs chosen by John Macmillan and Daphne Scott.
Just come back from the early morning meeting and a busy day in prospect.
Wed 10 Geoff Downes and John Wetton are confirmed for the Festival at the Baptist Chapel so we have a very impressive line up for that Sunday afternoon –
11 Songs of Praise
12.45 Geoff and John
13.30 Barbecue probably with Saxology
18 BBC recording
Anne Brown phoned me also to play the guitar at St David’s Praise so that’s good too.
Thu 11 We set up the video projector to show the Da Vinci code DVD yesterday evening. Boy, was it spectacular! At one point they were sitting by the sea of Galilee having breakfast and it made your mouth water to look at it. Can’t wait to show some more films or something. There weren’t many there. On TV at the same time last night: Pearl Harbor, the final of The Apprentice, the final of the Uefa cup and a da Vinci code evening. As it happens there was a spectacular thunderstorm so perhaps it was just as well that most people stayed in.
Since we had that song on the Adam Walton show, no end of people have visited out My Space page.
Janet Reynolds have asked for baptism for this Sunday so I’m busy adapting the service to include that.
Fri 12 The new song La Glaciere is now available at www.myspace.com/frostatmidnight We had Catherine Handley over yesterday to put the flute on it. Professional musicians! I asked her for a motif in the introduction and outro and then to play ‘the hallucination of a flute’ in the instrumental passage. Two takes and finished! I know I’m biased but I think this is the best thing we’ve done so far. It’s about the house not far from Montpellier we used to visit in the winter when we needed a break from the work with the homeless people. Surrounded by vines and pine woods with white horses in the meadow. It’s all there in the song but even more important, so is the feel of those times – tension released; energy renewed.
Mon 15 Had a marvellous baptismal service yesterday – Janet Reynolds had asked for baptismal the previous Monday and we’d been happy to set that up. There were lots of people away but many visitors so once again the building was comfortably full. What Janet had to say was convincing and the service joyful with some great singing lots of people commented on. In the evening we had Faith in the Community. Unfortunately, the computer set up didn’t materialise so Joan had to miss out a large part of what she’d wanted to include but once again the band played well, particularly on, ‘Great in the Darkness: Come, Lord Jesus’. Catherine and I sang Writ in Water. Which reminds me: Frank Hennesy played two songs from Huw and Catherine’s album but not Writ in Water on Saturday night. I don’t know if I’ve written about it yet but their version of the song is a lot slower than ours and Huw’s singing a lot gentler near the beginning than Jonny’s. It’s a convincing version, though and gives the authentic frisson.
Did the food hygiene course today. I’m still shocked and surprised to hear trainers say ‘You was’ and ‘We seen’ etc and ‘interpretate’. You’d think I’d have got over it by now ever since someone we knew became a university lecturer in spite of defining one of the courses he taught as Haitch Enn Dee. I imagine that sort of thing would have disqualified you from being even a primary school teacher in the not too distant past.
Sun 21 It’s been a busy time so I haven’t updated this for a while. One of the highlights of last week was the seniors’ luncheon on Thursday. There’s a good atmosphere there and it was good to see quite a few people I’ve got to know in other contexts all together. Somebody thought the soup was chicken but it was a delicious broccoli and Stilton. The main course was a sausage cobbler and we had rhubarb and ice cream for afters. I gave a little talk plugging the Raglan Festival as well as a little booklet about the Da Vinci code.
On Friday I went down to Canton for the St David’s Praise rehearsal. It was a good section with a pleasant gent called Allan on principal and Anne Davies next to me on third. The person who was supposed to be playing principal, a Canadian called Joni couldn’t make the rehearsal so she played second in the end. Not many people remember that people who play first normally play third as well and that second and fourth go together. The Cambrensis concert is always quite a gruelling couple of days if you don’t do all that much playing. I normally play every day for a couple of weeks and just about make it through. The problem is that there’s a lot of Hollywood style horn writing. I think that Jeff hears that we can do it and then writes more. At Christmas there are two shows in a row as well as the rehearsal but at Easter only the one. This year he’d done a version of a hymn – I forget which with really quite a difficult line for all four horns in unison. Kelvin was worried about it but it turned out fine. The big challenge this time was the Shostakovitch Festival overture – fast and in one virtually throughout. We spent a long time on that on Friday and in the rehearsal on Saturday. They asked me to play guitar as well so I had to borrow an instrument because the Ovation needs an overhaul we can’t afford. Anne brought along her new Yamaha – a very nice black number with a sparkling tone. In the concert, they put it into the PA with a DI box and it sounded glorious. The charts were quite hard and I had to dust off hard chords like D flat and all the E flat chords. It turned out well, though. Another highlight was three numbers from Karl Jenkins’s Armed Man. I think we were in France when there was a lot of hype about this but say what you like, it’s very effective. Karl Jenkins was getting an honorary Fellowship frmo Cardiff University when I got my doctorate. I thought they were supposed to make speeches on these occasions but he just sat there except for one more exciting moment when he just stood there.
There’s one song called ‘Ancient Words’ that contains the words, ‘O may the ancient words impart,’ with no object to the words impart. The writer doesn’t seem to know that ‘impart’ is a transitive verb. Is that possible? There’s one Lutheran in America who picked that up, too: http://brandywinebooks.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_brandywinebooks_archive.html Good for you, Sir.
Good service this morning – we received Simone into membership and there were some visitors. We didn’t sing ‘Ancient Words’ – that was another good thing about the service.
Fri 26 We’ve been rehearsing the new Frost at Midnight band. It’s going to be keyboard based this time and with Doug on drums so we should be able to play for the first time at a BBQ at the chapel next Monday evening and then at Jonathan Grant’s birthday party.
I had a nice surprise on Sunday night. There’s a big festival taking place in Pontypridd this weekend and I was listening to Adam Walton as usual late on Sunday and he announced a competition for some tickets for what they’re calling The Full Ponty. All you had to do was email the title of Funeral for a Friend’s first album. Of course, I knew it was ‘Casually dressed and deep in conversation’ because of Rachel. So . . . I won the tickets! Eighty pounds worth. We took Rachel to Bristol to see the rearranged FFAF gig this week. Catherine told me not to wear a coat because she had an umbrella. Of course, we spent ages trudging up and down Park Street in teeming rain looking for somewhere to eat. We settled on the Café Rouge but unfortunately the waitresses were Spanish and Polish respectively so we didn’t manage to speak any French that evening. It was great to be back in that part of Bristol though – I have very happy memories fro the time Catherine was studying there and living in Cotham. We spent many a happy Saturday afternoon on Park Street and lots of it is still the same.
I’ve been working hard on the scripts for the BBC recordings from the chapel on 11th June. I spent well over an houor on the phone yesterday with Karen Walker and now I need to finalise readers and make a few changes to the Dramatic sketch before emailing it back to Karen. We decided that the songs Catherine sings can be accompanied by Catherine Handley on the flute too so that means some more time to rehearse those after the house party next weekend.
I’m listening to the music of the Delays – one of the bands at the Full Ponty. Very melodic, pop music really. I’m quite surprised that Rachel likes this but I suppose you’re bound to come back to this type of thing eventually. And as if on cue, ‘Valentine’ comes on!
In that song, ‘Ancient Words’ perhaps they use the verb ‘to impart’ like the verb ‘to deliver’ which is increasingly used intransitively. ‘Are you going to deliver?’ ‘Let the ancient words impart’
Sat 27 Here’s a copy of an email I wrote to Adam Walton about the first evening of the Full Ponty Festival.
Hi there,
Being a dutiful chap I thought I'd better give you an interim report on what
use I've made of the Full Ponty tickets I won on your show last week. My hip
daughter came with me and that was fitting because she could only afford a
ticket to the second day even though she's spent every waking hour (and many
sleeping hours) trying to get me into the Delays over the last few weeks. She's
succeeded. I was looking forward to the Delays more than any of the other bands
on the first day as we waded through the streets of Pontypridd and into what
looked to me like a mini National Eisteddfod field dominated by that
cavernous marquee.
The first couple of
bands were infectiously enthusiastic although the guitarist of the
Poppies really shouldn't have used a capo on an electric guitar in my
opinion. Not very macho, that. A perfectly butch black Rickenbacker, too. Also
singing one, two, three, four songs in a row with an irritating 'OO OO'
backing vocal figure didn't endear them to me. The highlight was
'Sock it to Me' with a rhythmic pattern similar to that of 'Nothin to Say'
by Jethro Tull from centuries ago. The Heights were fine, too but the lead
singer kept making me think of Tabby from 'Fame Academy'. They premiered
a song about Swansea that featured the backwards drumming of 'Message in a
Bottle' that I keep on trying to explain to the drummer of our band. I can't
understand why he keeps on grinding his teeth at me.
The Automatics were
next and I realised my daughter has subliminally programmed
me with a couple of songs by this band too. The first difference between
these bands in the first part of the evening quickly became clear: BETTER
SONGS. Plus a keyboard player and co-lead vocalist insanely dedicated
to crowd pleasing antics. Now, I'd have put him in the centre of the stage
and given him free rein. Analogue synths rule, by the way, and this guy had
some fat Juno sounds going throughout.
BETTER
SONGS are not everything, though. The Delays in my opinion had probably
the best songs of the evening. But they don' tappear as happy as their music
sounds and a nukber of times songs stopped just when you
thought they might blast off. No key changes. Not many cracking codas
except for 'Valentine' and 'You and Me' which admittedly were great singalong
numbers. 'Tis as I feared though and the very distinctive vocals of this
fron man are not easy to capture live. The fragility of the records
doesn't translate well to the main stage. Wrong guitar, too: the 335 gave
a ful-throated roar but I think they needed something a bit lighter than that.
But more of the wrong/right guitar thesis in a
moment.
Goldie Looking
Chain. Sorry I don't understand this at all. I was in France all the time this
was happening and I didn't understand it from afar and now even less close up.
Is it because I'm from Abertillery - the town without irony?
Feeder. Another
casualty of our time in France. I wasn't expecting much from this band but was
actually very favourably impressed. The light show was sometimes overpoweringly
effective in underlining some of the stadium gestures. RIGHT GUITARS too. My
brother in law had a russet Fender Jaguar as well - what a fool he was to strip
it down and sell it for parts! The Fender Jazzmaster is even better, especially
in that powder blue. And the Agave Blue Telecaster is the one I had on order
from the dodgy man in the pub and it never came. Now, I haven't really been
aware of Feeder (France, you see) so if everybody else has said this then
you'll need to forgive me but these are just the guitars David Beckham would
play if he was the frontman of a band. And that Grant Nicholas is pretty
effortless in his command of the crowd, isn't he? So, even though I didn't know
any of the songs, I was a contented man and it looks as if I'll still be in bed
by half past midnight.
All the best,
Rob Atkins www.myspace.com/frostatmidnight
Wed 31 Busy time preparing for the away weekend. I
was up at the chapel at seven this morning planning the worship sessions but it
was a beautiful sunny morning so I was able to sit on the grass and do that.
Yesterday was a
good day for the music. It was my day off so I spent the afternoon recording a
new instrumental that I’ve called ‘The Egg Timer’. It’s an old guitar piece I’ve
had since we were in London but I used it to see if it’s possible to record
things in short sections and stick them together. Up to you to judge whether it
is possible at www.myspace.com/frostatmidnight
I recorded with a metronome in the headphones and built up the basic guitar
instrumental and then put 2 mandolins on it in bits and pieces and bass guitar
and this morning a bit of percussion. It was all relatively easy except for the
minor section: I ended up having to write that out in manuscript to be able to
play it.
Also Frank Hennessy
emailed me to say that he loves ‘La Glaciere’ and will be playing it in his
show on Saturday.
Rachel and I are
both enjoying ‘Valentine’ by Delays and ‘Monster’ by the Automatic – we play
them all day long either on the computer or on the guitar . . . great songs
both. Here’s the email I wrote to Adam Walton and that he read out on Sunday
night’s programme:
|
Hi again,
We've just arrived back in Raglan so I thought I'd complete my email but at
less length. This time I went with my hip daughter's friends and they wanted
nothing to do with me so I had the solitude to cope with too. You mentioning
my email as soon as we got in the car did give me some kudos, however.
Fortunately I ended the day watching Funeral for a Friend with Darren Smith's
dad next to me so that was a nice warm feeling as the boys came home to a
hero's welcome. I was in my daughter's bad books when I said that I thought
Biffy Clyro were the best thing up today and they looked nearer my age too.
What a guitarist - he reminded me of Wilko Johnson of Doctor Feelgood. Thanks to your programme
I knew to look out for the Panel and the Blackout - these bands just
keep getting tighter and as soon as they communicate a bit more they'll be
massive. Top three songs of the
weekend? 1. Escape artists never
die - a true classic fit for the largest venues on the globe 2. Valentine by the Delays
- Classic Pop with a soaring chorus 3 Monsters by the
Automatic - even better live than the single but you're right it'll be huge Best guitar - a tie
between Biffy Clyros Salmon Strat and Feeder's Fender Jazzmaster So, thanks for the
tickets. By the way, don't leave yourself open to the charge of never coming
to Monmouthshire. The invitation is there to come to Raglan for the festival
on the 9th to 11th June. Friday night, Jonny Quick Band (I play bass in
that), Soapbox and Zephyr; Saturday the Bitchpups, and Geoff Downes (Buggles,
Yes) and John Wetton (KingCrimson, Roxy Music etc); Sunday night Mighty
Pledge. All the best, Rob Atkins www.myspace.com/frostatmidnight |
|
|
