1970s!

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Yesterday was our wedding anniversary - 39 years!  So, appropriately as we were married in the 1970s we went to see a concert with 1970s popstars!  'Legends Live 2017' at the Brighton Centre was fantastic. 

First was Hot Chocolate - it is surprising how many hits they had!  Their 'new' lead singer was very good and sounded like Errol Brown. The whole audience got on their feet when they sang 'You Sexy Thing'! 

Then the Osmonds - just Merrill, Jay and Jimmy. Pleased to see Jimmy as he is very well known over here. They came on blasting out 'Crazy Horses', brilliant! Their performance was perhaps a little clinical, they might slightly overdo the professionalism, but still very enjoyable.  I must admit that the Osmonds were not really my cup of tea back in the 1970s, so I was surprised to find myself seeing them play live!

After an interval David Essex came on. He is 70 now but can still sing! (A lot of the ladies were there for him, when he sang 'Do you want to be my wife?' all the ladies in the audience shouted YES!) His best song was 'Oh What A Circus' from Evita. He is a brilliant musical singer! 

The finale was Suzi Quatro. She wore her tight fitting leather suit, and belted out her songs for all she was worth! She did have to work hard to get audience participation, maybe a lot of people were there for the Osmonds and David Essex really.

We have spent the year going to live music events from as many different genres as we can find, more on this in a later blog post.  This event was a lot of fun, but maybe not the best musically speaking!

10 photos of Proms in the Park

This time of year is the end of the Prom season, one of the world’s finest music festivals, which takes place in the Royal Albert Hall in London. There is always a traditional end to the Last Night of the Proms, with the audience (called promenaders because they are free to stroll about) joining in with a rousing chorus of our patriotic songs: Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory.  Lots of flag waving too!

This year, after our gloriously patriotic Jubilympics Maurice and I decided to go to the Proms in the Park, an outdoor concert in Hyde Park, London, to coincide with the Last Night of the Proms at the Albert Hall.  Here’s 10 photos of Saturday evening:

There were 40,000 people there this year, much more than usual, possibly down to Kylie Minogue or Jubilympics or a bit of both

Hosted by one of our national treasures, Sir Terry Wogan

Featuring tenor Alfie Boe

and operatic boy band Il Divo (Carlos is my favourite!)

It was a really gorgeous sunny warm evening!  How lucky after all the rain we’ve had this summer.

The London Community Gospel Choir were really ‘groovin’ their thing’!

Kylie looked and sounded stunning!

But the highlight of the evening for me was when we joined by video link up to the Albert Hall and sang Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia and Jerusalem.  Here’s what 40,000 union jacks looked like from our perspective down at the front!

What a great evening! Magic!

Music, love and disappointment

What music are you currently loving?

I thought I would ask this question as Maurice bought me a CD for my birthday (it was on Sunday). I absolutely LOVE this single by Gotye, featuring Kimbra:

I 
He's an Aussie I think, She has a terrific voice!  This song has been no 1 in the UK charts for weeks! I hear it several times a day on BBC Radio2 – my favourite radio station, and I still don't tire of it But the whole CD is really disappointing. In my opinion, this is the only good song!

This got me thinking- so I dug out the last 3 CDs I bought (I did buy quite a few CDs, if I heard a good song on the radio I'd buy the CD, but I've stopped lately with the economising!)

Lonely are the Brave by Maverick Sabre
Love this track:
I just love the line:

When I kiss you on your cheating lips, all I ever picture is you with him (but it does sound like he sings ’cheesy lips’ YUK!)

Born to Die by Lana Del Rey
My favourite track:

Are those lips for real?  She does look very cool though.

Seasons of My Soul by Rumer
So cool:

This is an album I love!  Every track is Great.  I love the track ‘Slow’ too, not sure which one is my favourite.

 

Can't you tell I like slow and moody! I love a distinctive voice too!
What are the last 3 albums you bought/downloaded? And have you been disappointed in a the album after loving the single?

Maurice also bought me a laminator() and some solar lights for the garden!  I had a fabulpous day, made all the better by the gorgeous unseasonal warm sunshine we’re having.

Stormy Weather

Here’s what it looks like today here on the South Coast of England:

The remains of Hurricane Katia have hit our shores.  It’s not too bad here on the South Coast, worse up north and in Scotland!  But thank goodness it waited until this morning and didn’t disrupt the fantastic concert we went to on Hyde Park yesterday afternoon and evening!  It was organised by BBC Radio 2, a ‘Festival in a Day’.  WOW!  What an amazing experience! 

We arrived in Hyde Park about 4.45pm, and sadly  missed the first 2 acts but managed to see most of  Beverly Knight's set (UK's greatest soul singer) Wow!

 

Next up was Caro Emerald who had never played to such a big audience but did really well.

Will Young had a bit of a sore throat so did a shorter set, but still wowed us! He is such a nice bloke!

Jonathan Jeramiah played over our side of the stage, and he looks so cool with long floppy hair! Love his laid back almost surf dude style.

Next up was Lenny Kravitz, and boy! Did he blow us away!!! I am ashamed to admit that I didn't really know who he was before, but of course knew his big hits. He was fantastic, and really got the audience going.

Imelda May was brilliant, full of energy!

James Blunt was awesome! I don't really like his voice, bit squeaky for me, but his show was absolutely brilliant, very impressive live act.

I love the Pierces! They are from Alabama, USA, and a bit hippy, country, and very beautiful. I already have their CD. They too had not performed to such a big audience (about 40,00).

 

The headline act was due to be Lionel Ritchie, and to be honest it was because of him that I booked the tickets.  So imagine my disappointment when he pulled out due to ill health!  So instead we were treated to Chic, who absolutely blew us away with 'Everybody Dance', 'Le Freak', 'We are Family' and 'Good Times', such great dance numbers! They were on the other side of the stage, so no pics from me I am afraid.  But DH took some fabulous photos with his much longer zoom, so I’ll post some more later.

Finally Gary Barlow wowed us with singing Lionel Ritchie's 'Hello' plus lots of Take That songs.
So although I still feel disappointed that we didn't see Lionel Ritchie, we had a fabulous time!

Each act was introduced by a different DJ from my favourite radio station (I listen throughout the day).  So it was great to see them too!  As you can tell from these pictures, we were pretty close to the stage, only about 6 people back, but over to one side.  Nevertheless it was a good position and as DH said, it was nice to actually ‘see’ the real people! 

Mostly people were having a great time, the atmosphere was brilliant!  But 2 small things that irritated: The number of really drunk people!  This was a Radio 2 concert not Glastonbury!  And the amount of litter people left behind!

The concert finished on the dot at 10pm, with an encore from Gary Barlow.  Unfortunately our train wasn’t leaving until 11.17pm, so we had a bit of a wait, and we didn’t get home until 1.30am!!  EEK!  That’s very late for us!  This morning my legs and feet ache from 7 hours dancing, and my voice is croaky from singing!  Woohoo!

Move like Jagger

Is a song I’m listening to at the moment by Maroon 5 feat Christine Alguilera, but here’s the real thing:

Radcliffe and Maconie

As you know I am an avid Radio 2 fan.  I listen on and off all day, but my particular favourite time has been the mid evening slot, which was taken by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie for 4 years. 

 

www.guardian.co.uk

I loved their intellectual blokish style.  I loved the music they played and their northern accents!  They are both incredibly knowledgeable about music, so I loved all their anecdotes.  I used to listen to them between 8 and 9pm while in my craft room, usually scrapbooking. Sadly they have relocated to an afternoon slot at BBC 6 Music, which is a digital station and not so easy for me to listen to as I only have a cheap old digital radio and I can’t seem to tune it in.  I tried to listen to their programme on the iplayer on my computer, but they have gone a little less mainstream and I don’t know any of the music they play now.

Anyway, I heard an interview with Stuart Maconie recently about a book he had written called ‘Hope and Glory’.  It sounded really good so I ordered it straight away.  And I can confirm that it is a really good read.  Stuart takes each decade of the last century and picks a UK event to base that chapter on.  He then writes around the subject, the history behind the event, the culture of the time, and he visits the place where the event took place, and the book becomes a travelogue.  In his own words: “ it’s a travel book with a historical dimension, or maybe a history book with a travel element. Or maybe something different, a social and cultural wander through a century of British history and its town and cities. “ 

I loved his travel writing.  Often his thoughts and opinions would ring true!  At one point he visits a small village (one of the thankful villages – so called after WW1 because all their soldiers came home, not one was killed) and picks up the village newsletter.  That’s just what I like to do!

I found it a really interesting read, with some great insights into British culture and history.  His writing is brilliant, oh how I wish I could write like that!  I have one of his other books in my pile to read next.

During the interview it was mentioned that his radio partner, Mark Radcliffe had written a  similar book called ‘Reelin’ in the years’.  Well of course I had to read this one too!  Mark chooses a song for each year of his life and writes a chapter – sometimes about the music, sometimes more about what he was doing in that year, sometimes what was happening generally.  So another book about culture, autobiography and music all rolled into one.  I recognised many of the early songs, but the more recent ones not so much.  I’m not really into all the different genres of popular music, like indie rock, garage etc.  I love the northern-ness of Mark Radcliffe.  I love his chatty style, and how much he knows about the music he writes about.

2 great reads that I highly recommend.

One thing I have realised – partly through reading these books, partly through listening to their radio shows is that the music I like is pretty mainstream!  I always liked to think that I preferred something with a bit more to it than mainstream.  OK so I’m not really into Kylie, Rhianna and boy bands particularly.  But I don’t know much about the different genres.  Maybe it’s time to experiment a bit more!

Transported back…..

Listening to radio 2 this morning through headphones as I walked the dog, I was transported right back to 1976 with this song:

 

I met Maurice in 1976, it was a really hot summer and we really did ‘put our blue jeans on’ and ‘go motorbike riding’!

 

Not much has changed, except the bike!: