Monthly Archives: November 2010

Stop Calling Me Shirley!

An actor who has made me laugh more than most passed away on Sunday. Shirley Leslie Nielsen was born in Canada in 1926 and, after brief stints in the Canadian Air Force and as a radio DJ, he stumbled into acting in his early 20s. He got his first break doing television dramas and you may still catch him popping up on re-runs of Hawaii Five-O, Columbo or Murder She Wrote. He always played the straight guy in these shows and was just as likely to appear as either the villain or the good guy. He reprised these roles for cinema, though his only real successes up until the end of the seventies were in Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). I guess he was destined to be one of those guys you often recognise, but were unable to put a name to the face

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Too Much Apple Pie

On Saturday, my friend John and I braved the freezing weather conditions to go see The Wedding Present play Cyprus Avenue in Cork. The roads were dry on the way down and we arrived in plenty of time to buy a few books at Vibes & Scribes. Later, I bought a woolly hat to keep the cold out, though I was outdone by John who bought two. After some nice hot food and a cold beverage at the Bully restaurant we made it to Cyprus Avenue in plenty of time. It’s a small venue that’s divided into a main room and an adjacent one at the back that carries a live feed from the stage that can be viewed on a number of screens. We were surprised to see David Gedge standing at the merchandising stall with who I presumed was his partner and manager. While John bought a live CD of the band, I chatted with Dave about the gig. He told me they’d start with a few songs and then play their Bizarro album in full. John asked if they’d be playing the Camden Deluxe version of the album as it features their frenetic take on It’s Not Unusual. Dave said he wouldn’t be playing the deluxe version and politely turned down John’s request to play the Tom Jones number. We managed to drag ourselves away from Dave to watch the support act on the screen as they played in the next room, though we were also able to hear the band’s rudimentary musical skills and similar sounding songs. The band had the rather unusual moniker of So Cow and their musical style was a poor attempt at mimicking such bands as Green Day, Weezer and the like, but without the musicianship or the songs. Their punky version of Del Shannon’s Runaway was the highlight for me and I wouldn’t have minded if they had played more covers at the expense of their own material

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The Card Cheat

The departure of José Mourinho from the Premiership a few years ago deprived the English game of one of its best managers but also one of its few remaining characters. Fortunately, it hasn’t been too difficult to keep track of him, first at Inter Milan and now at Real Madrid. He was very much in the news again this week for allegedly urging two of his players to each pick up a second yellow card in the dying minutes of their Champions League rout of Ajax. In the 87th minute of the game, midfielder Xabi Alonso lined up to take a free kick from his own half. He took a long run-up, approached the ball, stopped, went back and then repeated these steps a few times. This action would have been understandable, if a little obvious, if his team had been only a goal up. But, Real were winning 4-0 and this made his deliberate time-wasting seem unusual. The Scottish referee had no option but to book him and, as it was his second yellow of the game, to then brandish a red card. Alonso accepted his sending off without protest and calmly walked off the field with evidence of a slight grin on his face

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You Spin Me Right Round

It’s been a bad week for the Irish government and the results of today’s by-election in Donegal South West would seem to have added to their woes. Its main party, Fianna Fáil, has been Ireland’s leading political party for over seventy years and has now been in power for all but three of the previous twenty-three. More or less, they have received 40% of first preference votes at each the last four general elections, but their abysmal performance over the last few years has seen them plummet to third place in the opinion polls behind traditional bridesmaids Fine Gael and the resurgent Labour Party. Their voting share in these polls has more than halved to 17%. As if this wasn’t bad enough for them, a government party hasn’t won a by-election in Ireland since 1982 when Noel Treacy took Galway East. Each of the twenty by-elections since then has gone to an opposition candidate. These factors would suggest that the party had little chance of winning today’s by-election

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It Might Get Loud

I like all kinds of music, but I’d have to say that rock ‘n’ roll is my favourite and particularly any kind that makes prominent use of the electric guitar. Earlier in the week, I watched a brilliant documentary that focuses on three different generations of guitar players from three different backgrounds. The three are Jimmy Page from England, Jack White from America and The Edge from Ireland. The film follows them as they tinker around in their own studios and each one takes us back to their humble beginnings, their first forays into music and the songs and musicians that influenced them. The film opens on Jack White as we watch him make his own guitar from bits of string, pieces of wood and a few nails. The Edge also reveals that he and his brother both built their own guitar in their early teen years in Dublin. Jimmy Page started playing in skiffle bands and went on to become a session musician before finding initial success with The Yardbirds and later with Led Zeppelin. Instead of focusing on one musician at a time, we move from Jack to Jimmy to the Edge and back again throughout. This approach highlights the differences between the three and also their similarities. White and Page found a lot of their inspiration in the blues, while the Edge was more influenced by punk rock and new wave. Nevertheless, they built on the simple sounds offered by blues and punk to create more interesting and complex soundscapes

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I Have Forgiven Henry

This weekend I’m going to London to see my favourite football team, Arsenal, take on their fierce rivals in the North London derby at the Emirates Stadium. I’m quite excited about visiting the Emirates for the first time as I’ve previously only ever seen the Gunners play at Highbury and Old Trafford. The above picture shows a detail from a mural on the outside of the new stadium that features many of the club’s best players. Liam Brady and Thierry Henry have more reason to be on the mural than most. They never played together, of course, but they were star players in their respective Arsenal sides and were also big favourites with Gooners everywhere. I would imagine that they know each other quite well as Liam Brady has been a most successful Head of Youth Development at the club during Arsene Wenger’s managerial reign, a period that coincided with Henry’s record-breaking stint in front of goal

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Keep the Car Running

The tenth and final episode of the current season of Later with Jools Holland goes out this week. Arcade Fire (pictured, bottom right) have produced three of my favourite records of the last decade and I’m really looking forward to seeing them play some tracks from their third album, The Suburbs. Their faithful rendition of the Talking Heads tune featured on the flip-side of their Neighborhood #3 (Power Out). Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand is another recent favourite of mine and the former Led Zeppelin vocalist (top right) will be joined on this week’s show by his latest musical project, Band of Joy, which is also the name of the current album. Unfortunately, Alison Krauss won’t be there, but his new band includes another American vocalist, Patty Griffin, as well as Buddy Miller. His take on the Tim Buckley song appears on his Dreamland album from 2002. Mavis Staples (top left) is another veteran of the music scene and has been performing since the 1950s when she was a part of The Staples Singers with other members of her family. She released her first solo albums in 1969 and 1970 and then a further six more from 1977 to 1993. The Jeff Tweedy-produced Your Are Not Alone was released this year and it is her fourth album from the last decade. Her interpretation of the Dusty song is from her second album, Only For the Lonely (1970). London-born Adele (bottom left) is only starting out in her musical career and has just one album under her belt so far. The title of that album is 19, her age when it was released. The follow-up is called 21 and it will be released early next year, when she will be 22! Her version of Black and Gold was recorded for a BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge session. The final two guests on this week’s final show are a four-piece rock and roll band from Nashville called Mona and a musician from India named Raghu Dixit, who is a founder of The Raghu Dixit Project. Here’s to the next season of Later which should appear next Spring

This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) (Talking Heads cover) – Arcade Fire

Song To The Siren (Tim Buckley cover) – Robert Plant

Son Of A Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield cover) – Mavis Staples

Black And Gold (Sam Sparro cover) – Adele

Long May You Run

One of my favourite singer/songwriters turned 65 yesterday and the man shows no sign of retiring. I’ve been fortunate enough to see him live on a couple of occasions and he was brilliant both times. Here are four fine versions of some of his best songs as well as his own take on a tune by Bob Dylan. A belated happy birthday, Neil

The Needle and The Damage Done (Neil Young cover) – Laura Marling

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young cover) – Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs

Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young cover) – Radiohead

Long May You Run (Neil Young cover) – Nils Lofgren

Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Bob Dylan cover) – Neil Young