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My pleasure, CAS, happy to share! I don’t tend to include excerpts from the blog on here at the same time as sharing links to it, but I was particularly satisfied with how the write-up for Kite came out, and thought there might be a few more fans of Kirsty on here than of some of the other stuff I write about.
I share your thoughts on what might have been creativity-wise had the fates allowed Kirsty to live the long life she ought to have. Final album Tropical Brainstorm had been an unqualified success, and the extraordinary political times we’ve lived through since would surely have proven fertile soil for further robust, wry, perfectly observed material. Such a loss.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #259 includes music from Belle and Sebastian, Saint Etienne, The Shangri-Las, Peaches, Wishy, Souad Massi, Rowena Wise, The Freed Unit, Man/Woman/Chainsaw, Pierce Turner, Owen Pallett, Pere Ubu, Rainbirds, Shrag and more.
Already a week old, so references to the Scottish World Cup campaign have been superseded by subsequent events somewhat. Oops.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #260 includes music from The Durutti Column, Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, The Linda Lindas, Grace Ives, Mike D, My Lo-Fi Heart, Otoboke Beaver, Fox, Airstream, Lynks, To My Boy, Topper, Those Dancing Days, The Raspberries and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Ahead of the valedictory renewal of the Pop At The Lock festival this Saturday just gone, edition #261 of That Music List featured almost every act ever to have played it, including 2026 guests The Darling Buds, The Cords, BMX Bandits, The School, Quad 90, The Sunbathers, Jetstream Pony, etc.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Edition #262 of That Music List is a 2018 collection, including The Sunbathers, The Chills, Gwenno, Linda Guilala, Grace Petrie, Daphne & Celeste, Janelle Monae, The Third Eye Foundation, Haiku Salut, Hollow Threats, Wargirl, Lake Ruth, Steve Reich and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #263 includes music from PJ Harvey, Special Friend, Les Big Byrd, Slippers, Penelope Isles, L’Rain, The Field Mice, Huggy Bear, Wolfsheim, Rheingold, Goblin, Baby Bird, The Lonesome Organist, John Foxx, Humanoid and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #264 includes music from Alewya, Barbara Morgenstern, Leao, Tocotronic, Keeley, La Sécurité, Flora Hibberd, Fancy, Leenalchi, Bradford, Deep Lust, Party Dozen, Orange Cake Mix, Eux Autres, The Fairways, Calexico and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #265 includes music from Sibille Attar, Pink Turns Blue, Mysterious Art, Opal Mag, Schwermut Forest, J, The Luxembourg Signal, Stage, Cat Power, Mouse On Mars, Pink Kross, Nation of Language, Way Dynamic, The Cure and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
On my music blog last weekend, I was observing how two acts with new product out at the moment are also two acts I each saw for the first time on the very same day, some 29 years ago.
The Slampt Underground Organisation 540-Minute Festival in Newcastle, August 23rd, 1997. Thirteen bands or performers from acoustic to hardcore via DIY punk-pop. Buttons to get in. Excellent beer and scran available downstairs. No knobheads.
I can’t remember the precise running order of the acts, but as far as anyone was designated the headliner that day, it was probably recondite, arty post-punks The Yummy Fur.
Their new material, and first album this century, sounds exactly as you’d hope it would in the same way the Prolapse one last year did – revisiting familiar fertile ground, but without ultimately offering only a pale facsimile of previous glories.
Many hours prior to The Yummy Fur’s set that evening, however, the Cumberland Arms venue had been hushed into enraptured silence by the achingly beautiful, lovely, sad, funny, poignant tales of one Nev Clay, at the time operating under his alias of Brenda System (a reference to the psychosocial intervention framework he may have used to treat substance and alcohol abusers during his time as a mental health nurse).
Nev’s captivating solo gig in York last summer, put on by Jo and (as per the 540 festy all those years ago) Pete Dale, was the first time I’d seen him since, so rare are his live forays outside of the north east.
It helped light the touchpaper under my return to seeing, writing about and generally falling hard in love with music again. Whether he realises it or not, I’ve a lot for which to thank him.
Hence the inclusion of Nev’s track Leaving Do in the first selection when I reactivated my blog in January. Hence also the flagging up of two things this week.
First, a new Riley and Coe session by Nev TONIGHT (August 12th). Second, a new mini-LP, Until I Forget, limited to 200 vinyl copies and featuring the previous BBC session from autumn 2024 plus three revisited tracks and a new one.
That newie, a track evidently conceived and realised almost in its entirety at 4.30am one day last year, I find just as heart-rending and affecting as I did the likes of Demons and IDST in that initial live encounter all those years ago.
A gifted, humble, lovely man, a fine storyteller and a gregarious stage presence, Nev is a national treasure hidden from view more than many, which is a pity.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Bit of a catch-up required.
Edition #266 of That Music List includes music from The Yummy Fur, Nev Clay, Phoebe Bridgers, Test Card, This Is Lorelei, Argonaut, Railcard, Vanishing Twin, Stealing Sheep, Bilge Pump, L7, Black Uhuru, B Troop, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Britta and more.
Edition #267 includes music from Lael Neale, Arun Sood & Angeline Morrison, Kavus Torabi, Kwamé Bâ, Castle Rat, Surface of the Earth, Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains, Liechtenstein, Justin Warfield, The Grifters, Bill Oddie and more.
Edition #268 includes music from Teenage Fanclub, Fujiya & Miyagi, Hollow Hand, Tony Bontana, Robber Robber, Helen and the Horns, Wolfgang Voigt, The Offs Meet WrongTom, Consolidated & the Yeastie Girlz, Mark Hollis, Airiel and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
For those who followed the old Glastonbury thread(s). It’s funny how the mind works: I was listening to the late Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and this came into my head; the common thread is exasperation and futility. It’s almost as though those involved gave themselves up for a pointless cause.
I’ve just remembered that The Unthanks were on last nights prom along with English Teacher. The news about Dolly pushed it out of my mind; I’d been looking forward to it. Heilung played at Download the other year and my daughter really regretted that they watched another band instead.
A bit more Heilung, although it’s probably a bit too foreign for some of this forum’s members:
I was sorry to read last week that The Hollies have reached the end of the road. Tony Hicks is in poor health and has had to step away from touring and Bobby Elliott has understandably called it a day as well.
I saw them about three years ago in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Maybe it was stretching the definition of “The Hollies” without its founders Allan Clarke and Graham Nash but they were still a great live act.
I can’t help feeling they became a little bit overlooked and underappreciated in recent years but they had a good run at it. All good things come to an end, I suppose.
There’s a good programme about them on Sky Arts which pops up every so often. I’m not one that obsessively listens to the music of my youth (other than early Pink Floyd and The Yardbirds) But I never tire of hearing Bus Stop. Mind you I’m pretty fond of Herman’s Hermits No Milk Today too. Can’t beat a song with a change of chord. I think Peter Noone is still going strong over in America.
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