A Musical Interlude

The marking mountain isn't getting much lower, so obviously I'm looking for distraction and procrastination activities. One of those is looking up the hidden pasts of my musician friends The Nightingales (you've just missed their UK and Ireland tour, but there's a European one planned for later in the year).

Browsing for dodgy BBC live session bootlegs, I came across Robert Lloyd and the Four Seasons: the 'Gales lead singer's attempt at pop stardom in the halcyon pre-Britpop days of indie. One of the guitarists on the album is Craig Gannon, the 'Fifth Smith'. The purists reckon RL+TNFS were a bit poppy and the album was over-produced, but I like it. The lyrics still have the bike-chain viciousness of the Nightingales, but coated in sugary hooks.







By way of comparison, here's the Nightingales' Dumb and Drummer - after thirty years, they've made a video!



Last night rather than carry on marking, I went to the local arts centre for an Non-English open music night. Everyone got 10 minutes on the decks (some losers had MP3s, ugh) to play whatever we wanted. This suited me perfectly: I have over 20,000 LPs, 10"s and 7" in my flat, two minutes walk from the venue. My friends brought along some Dutch riot girl, German pop and various other delights, but I went for an all-Welsh lineup:

First: some Y Cyrff, a couple of whom became Catatonia later on.



Then some electro by a recent discovery, Dau Cefn:



(better recording here). After that, some krautrock-psychedelia by my old friends Ectogram. The track I played isn't available online, but here's a representative sample:



and finally some symphonic pop by Rheinallt H Rowlands, whom I never saw live sadly:



I shall definitely be going back. Obviously such a night is designed for obscurantist one-upmanship. I'll be bringing along Ectogram's 'Spitsbergen' single, which was indeed No. 1 in Spitzbergen, some Georgian folk music and some Chechen rebel songs. That'll show them. It's just a shame that the Angry Samoans aren't actually, well, Samoans.

Finally, for giggles, here's Rocking With Rita, the Fuzzbox/Robert Lloyd/Ted Chippington non-hit single.

Busy busy busy

Morning everybody. Busy day today - our pre-term staff conference. The morning is management telling us what's been going on (hopefully) and the afternoon is a series of training sessions, including one Plashing Vole's Guide to Academic Tweeting. Lots of linking to my erudite colleagues, I think.

I've also got a Negotiating Committee meeting during lunch time, and lots of other things too… Then tomorrow starts with a really serious meeting on behalf of a colleague I'm representing and another one to do with car parks (and stuff). When I'm going to work out my timetable, write some lectures and do some research is as yet unclear.

On the up side, my old friend Alan (of Ectogram and many other bands) has sent me this link to a previously unreleased set of Rheinallt H Rowlands songs, including three Joy Division tracks sung in Welsh. I've always loved Rheinnallt's music and I collect Joy Division and New Order covers.

Here's his 'Bukowski':



and 'Llanw'

Dydd Llun Glas

I don't normally do advertising, but I was impressed by the Festival No 6 line-up and location - in Portmeirion, the bonkers architectural fantasy used as the set of The Prisoner. I particularly love their stunningly powerful Welsh male voice choir's cover of New Order's 'Blue Monday', by Cor y Brythoniaid



Welsh male voice choirs are great, but the material is often awful. Not this time. And if you like Welsh translations of Joy Division/New Order, try Rheinallt H Rowland's cover of 'New Dawn Fades', 'Gwawr Newydd yn Cilio', which is ravishing:

Gwawr newydd yn cilio