December 24, 2008
I first saw the Levellers live at T in the park festival a mere month after their now legendary performance on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 1994. I’d been a fan of their music for a fair while beforehand and was never likely to be disappointed but the set, and in particular English Civil War
, is still one of my favourite memories from innumerable festival weekends over the years.
I’ve been at a fair number of Levellers gigs since and although the drink is dearer these days, my knees are never as keen on dancing all night as they were and, tonight, the ABC glitter ball is a poor substitute for the summer festival sun, there is still no fear of disappointment. With many bands who have as large a back catalogue of music as the Levellers there is often the concern whether they’ll play only to promote the new album, will they still keep the old singles & chart hits in the set list and will they play my own personal favourites.
The Levellers are masters at crowd pleasing though — one of the reasons they have the reputation as a great festival band — and they know exactly the balance to strike. The ABC gig leans heavily towards the current new album Letters from the Underground
which many have seen as more in touch with the band’s earlier albums such as Levelling The Land
& showing a drift away from more recent output — this is given proof as A Life Less Ordinary & Cholera Well lead into the manic paced Riverflow
before the encore break. Overall this bias means the band have played an almost non-stop fast & energetic set for this tour, throw in Carry Me
, Far From Home
and a little song called One Way
and they’ve also played my personal favourites. You just can’t get a better gig than that.
A regret? My intention had been to go watch the Levellers gig in Inverness the night before without camera with just the intention, and freedom, to enjoy every moment dancing and bouncing off the barrier in the front row. Maybe next tour I’ll organise both a photo gig and a dancing/drinking gig. I’m looking forward to it already …
[flickr tag=levellers]
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December 14, 2008
Ascension have taken the long way round from their beginnings in 2004 with only one original member remaining but they’ve never veered from the path of pure power metal. Having gigged extensively in previous years, 2008 has been a time of change with a whole new rhythm section being drafted in, David Wood playing bass since Spring and in September, Dick Gilchrist took over as the band’s pure metal drummer.
Power metal can be hit & miss if like myself you’re not a big listener of the genre, the good can be great but the bad can leave you wondering why anyone has the audacity to label it as music. Ascension instantly fall into the category of good power metal band as soon as Fraser Edwards and founding member Stuart Docherty plug in and stretch their fingers with almost faultless technical skill & speed. It’s the shredding guitars that drive Ascension into my head, each constantly playing off against the other. Any reckless tendencies are ably kept in check by the duality of the thrashing blur on drums and the calm-in-a-storm posturing of the solid bass. Vocalist Richard Carnie leads the band interaction with the crowd well – better than I had expected in fact – the straining to reach notes I had imagined on some of Ascension’s recorded material never apparent in the live show.
I’m not ready to change my favourite music genres on MySpace just yet but Ascension have rekindled my interest in metal bands, and I’d call that a successful metal gig.
With the 6 track Moongate EP currently in the works and a full UK tour with Broken Melody planned for April 2009 Ascension took a close fought second place at the Aberdeen regional final of The Red Battle.
[flickr tag=ascension]
November 2, 2008
I’ve always been fascinated by Fungi since I learned of their rebellion against the “plants & animals” view of living things & taxonomy. Since then I’ve learned to love the common supermarket chestnut mushroom as an almost vital ingredient when cooking. Pizza isn’t pizza without mushrooms, pasta dishes only ever lack them because I eat so many during preparation that the cost becomes prohibitive!
So it’s slightly unusual for me to think that this year is the first time I’ve taken time to try seriously photographing them – even now I have very few in my collection. Which is a shame as I think they look amazing when you get right down in the dirt to shoot them from a low angle rather than the easier “looking down at” viewpoint.
This evening then, I offer up two favourites of my mushroom photos so far – the first from a pine forest near Aberdeen & the second, much more earthy, from Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow.
[flickr ids=2821400483,2995710387]
July 23, 2008
This year saw the fifth annual River Festival in Glasgow, centered around the Science Centre and the SECC on opposite banks of the River Clyde. Taking place on the Glasgow Fair holiday weekend, 19th & 20th July, this was my first visit to the River Festival, and indeed the first I remember ever hearing of it happening! The weather was “sunny intervals” and really quite windy at times down at the River Clyde. After I made a quick sneak preview visit to the festival on the Saturday afternoon I made plans to stay down by the river for all of Sunday.
As well as Silk Screens and Beach Vollyball, the River Festival itself had many visiting ships and boats ranging from the tall ship Loth Lorien to fisheries ships. The Fleetwood trawler Jacinta & FPV Norna berthed next to the Science Centre while the NLB Pole Star and two Royal Navy Hunter class minesweepers, HMS Quorn & HMS Middleton, tied up next to the Finnieston Crane. Other smaller steam powered & pleasure boats including the famous Clyde Puffer, Spartan, lay along the quayside on both sides of the River Clyde. Adrenaline and speed fans were kept happy by jet ski racing and freestyle displays from Lee Stone & Dan Ashcroft throughout both days as well as the chance to take to the water for powerboat & zapcat rides.
The atmosphere was great all the way from the Science Centre tower, past the Millenium Bridge and BBC Scotland to Bell’s Bridge and across the river at the Crowne Plaza hotel. The only negative being the chill in the wind when the sun hid behind clouds and the events at the SECC carpark and even more so at the Tall Ship Glenlee feeling somewhat disassociated from the rest of the festival. The display of modern & vintage fire engines felt somewhat out of place at a river festival, although I guess the water theme justifies their welcome attendance! It was a great day out with loads of photo opportunities and I’ll definitely keep and eye out for the River Festival 2009.
[flickr tag=riverfestival]
