Live and Unleashed: the tracks are all either live or recorded in a single take
- Smoke Rings - Laurie Anderson
At first I thought this was going to be really soporific and a bit pedestrian. But before I realised it, it had reached out tentacles and started to draw me in. Strange, beautiful and captivating. I'd like to hear more. (I gather Laurie married Lou Reed recently, which seems a bit odd as I didn't think Lou was into that kind of thing. But what do I know? - Clocks - Ed Alleyne-Johnson
Ah, the Chester busker! I don't much care for Coldplay so it won't be a surprise that I like this version better than the original. All the same, a little goes a long way and I suspect that this works best on a sunny Saturday under the Rows. - Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
I can take all the Talking Heads I can get. The only thing I regret about this live performance is not being there. Tight and funky and exhilarating as ever. - News Rave - Bill Bailey
Witty electronic funk built around the Greenwich Time Signal, with a manic rant from the Billy Connolly of the West Country himself. Fun, and blessedly short so it doesn't outstay its welcome. - Rez/Cowgirl - Underworld
This kind of synthetic electronical really isn't my kind of thing I'm afraid. It lacks wit and subtlety and it gives me a headache. At one point the robotic voice seems to be saying, over and over again, "I'm invisible". I found myself wishing it was inaudible. Sorry. - Tour de France 2003 - Kraftwerk
More of the same. This, however, does have a bit of subtlety about it at least. Still not my kind of thing but I could wish this was the almost 12-minute track and not the previous one. - Not So Manic Now - Client B (Sarah Blackwood)
I don't know who Sarah Blackwood is but she says this was originally a Dubstar song and I think I've heard of them so presumably she was associated with them. This, however, is treated in a folky way and in a voice that milks its Yorkshireness for all its worth, as if she's trying to be a second Kate Rusby. Or maybe it's the other way round, I don't know. Nice voice though, I'd loke to hear more. Nelly McKay's Ding Dong was a favourite from my last mix and this is another neurosis-as-song, but without quite having Nelly's charm. - Across the Alley from the Alamo - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
What a contrast! If I cared about such things I'd worry that this was desperately uncool, but I don't, and I really enjoyed this bit of period cowboy jazz. Very infectious. Good call. - Kung Fu Internationale - John Cooper Clarke
Not a song, but a piece of performance poetry. As such it's not something you really want to be listening to at home, but as a taster of what was undoubtedly a very enjoyable evening in the back room of a pub somewhere it's a mouthwatering tease. You really had to be there - John Otway - Cheryl's Going Home
Oh hello there Neil, it was you all along, wasn't it! John Otway trades on being awful, which he isn't at all. Over a good, if not spectacular, driving beat he weaves his idiosycratic vocal line into something immensely enjoyable. - My Generation - The Who
A live set, with not just the title song but See Me Feel Me and a lot of rollicking good Who type rock which nevre gets tedious and is over a lot sooner than the track indicator says it ought to. A terrific finish to the mix
This is from the concert movie and album 'Home of the Brave' and it is a good introduction to Laurie Anderson's first couple of albums. One of the strangest instruments she uses on it is a tape bow, which is a violin bow with a piece of magnetic tape mounted on it, played across a tape head on a violin.
The double cd that this comes from is effectively one single performance with different cover versions of songs strung together. It makes me want to go the Chester on the off chance of seeing him live.
'Stop Making Sense' is probably the definitive concert movie. I love the way that the instruments are introduced one by one, starting with the empty stage and David Byrne in his big suit with an acoustic guitar.
Bill Bailey is a very accomplished musician and makes switching between a huge array of different weird and wonderful instruments look effortless.
I suspected that this one perhaps wouldn't be to your tastes. It doesn't really work listening to it on a cd at home - you need to be in a crowd of like minded people and dancing to the layered rhythms as they get built up on top of each other.
The original 12" version of this is one of my favourite dance records. This live version is quite different in feel, but still very effective I think. Incidentally Bill Bailey does a wonderful parody of Kraftwerk singing the Hokey Cokey in one of his concerts.
Sarah Blackwood was the lead vocalist in the band Dubstar and is now part of the group Client. She's originally from Halifax, and I love her accent as a contrast to the bland transatlantic warblings that you usually hear.
Bob Wills was a true musical pioneer of the genre known as Western Swing pulling together diverse influences of blues and folk music and eventually developing into Country and Western. He travelled around the mid west and south with a large and varied band of 'playboys' acting as a sort of musical MC to their fantastic musicianship.
This is a piece I recommend to people who don't get the idea of rhythm in poetry, and the links with song writing.
This is a staple of his live set, and comes from the cd 'The Set Remains the Same'. He managed at one point to get a whole rock opera out of the song in conjunction with the poet Atilla the Stockbroker.
Probably the definitive record of a live concert. The recent digital remaster of the whole concert is the one to get.
Thank you Neil, most enjoyable.
Glad you enjoyed it!
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