Tag Archives: Florence & the Machine

Who’s Next

Later with Jools Holland reaches episode seven of its nine-week run tonight and features the usual eclectic mix of musicians from around the globe. Most of the performers, however, will be very familiar with London. Florence Welch was born there and her band, Florence + the Machine, will be playing songs from their second album, Ceremonials. Former Suede frontman, Brett Anderson, will be promoting his fourth solo album, Black Rainbows. Pete Townshend is, of course, better known as guitarist and songwriter for The Who. Last month, Pink Floyd released a 38th anniversary edition of Dark Side of the Moon. It’s also 38 years since The Who released Quadrophenia and Townshend will be playing songs to celebrate its re-release. I wonder why they couldn’t have waited until 2013. Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, My Morning Jacket have been going for over a decade. Circuital is the title of their sixth studio release since 1999. Agadez is the name of the region in Niger where the singer and guitarist named Bombino grew up. It also gives its name to his first collection of songs that he released earlier this year. London-based Cold Specks sing about Holland on their debut single. The band is led by Canadian singer Al Spx and her voice and music are heavily influenced by the blues. Later goes out live every Tuesday on BBC Two and is followed by a recorded show every Friday

Oh Darling (The Beatles cover) – Florence + the Machine

Oceans Burning (The Horrors cover) – Brett Anderson

Girl From The North Country (Bob Dylan cover) – Pete Townshend

All The Best (John Prine cover) – My Morning Jacket

Tar Hani – Bombino

Holland – Cold Specks

Clockwise from top left: Brett Anderson, My Morning Jacket, Cold Specks, Bombino, Pete Townshend, Florence

Bavarian Hospitality

It’s taken me longer than I thought to follow up my earlier post about my recent trip to Germany. It’s been two weeks since I returned and I’ve been catching up on reading and watching films in that time. I also spent a few days babysitting my nephews and, even though I really enjoyed it, I needed a few days to recover from it. I had spent the earlier part of that German trip outside Bavaria, but the latter half of my visit was spent exclusively in the area that the locals refer to as Bayern. After leaving Micha’s birthday party in Siegen, he drove us both to his place in Nuremberg. Micha was working the next day and I had had a little too much to drink the previous night, so we took it easy and just had a beer or two as we watched a few episodes of the always hilarious Black Books. The next day I wandered around the city of Nuremberg, though I only made it to a few record stores on Jakobstrasse and to a lovely park called Woehrder Wiese. I had been here before and it’s quite large and clean with a nice beergarden. I ate a fine lunch there and was back again that night with Micha and another friend of mine named Christian and his wife Ria, both of whom also live in Nuremberg. We drank one or two beers and decided to call it a night around one in the morning as the lads had to work the next day

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Poguetry In Motion


I mentioned on Wednesday that I’d be spending Patrick’s Day immersing myself in Irish culture. I had planned to take it easy on St Patrick’s Eve, but shortly after writing the post I got an unexpected text from a good friend of mine. It didn’t take too much for Tom to persuade me to call over to his place for a few drinks and to watch Chelsea take on Inter Milan in the Champions League. Watching English football teams is one of the most popular pastimes amongst Irish males and the tie was nicely balanced at 2-1 to the Italian team. I brought along an 8-pack of Bulmers cider (the Irish one, not the English one). The game was quite close, but Inter scored near the end to ease their passage into the quarter-finals. As the number of cans got fewer and fewer, Thomas put on one of the best Irish films of recent years, In Bruges (it’s in Belgium). The next morning, Tom’s lovely lady Linda made an Irish breakfast for the three of us. Even though Linda was unable to offer any evidence as to the food’s heritage, I had no reason to believe that it wasn’t an Irish one. It was cooked and eaten in Ireland and it even tasted like an Irish breakfast. After that, Tom checked out Cheltenham and we watched the Irish trainers, horses and riders cleaning up. After Linda cleaned up, she dropped me home. My thanks to Thomas and Linda for a lovely Irish day

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The Importance of Music to Girls


Tomorrow is International Women’s Day 2010. It is, according to the event’s website, “a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future”. The day has been celebrated for over a hundred years and is actually a public holiday in many countries, including China, Russia, Bulgaria and Vietnam. It’s not a holiday in Ireland but there are a lot of events taking place to celebrate the day, which you can read about here. The University of Limerick is hosting an International Women’s Day Conference entitled “Women & Recession: Strategies for Survival”

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Happy Birthday, Bruce!

BruceSpringsteenTheOregonian

One of my favourite musicians, Bruce Springsteen, celebrates his 60th birthday today. I’ve been a big fan of his music ever since I bought Born in the USA on tape sometime in the late 1980s. I played it quite a lot (it didn’t have much competition back then) and it’s still one of my favourites of his. Soon after, I bought the rest of his albums on cassette, including the Live ’75-’85 box set. I’ve been to see him live in concert on two occasions and he was brilliant both times. You haven’t lived unless you’ve seen Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in action. They’re on stage a lot longer than most bands and they play with a lot of fun, energy, and skill. Not only is he an amazing performer, but he’s also a wonderful songwriter. However, he’s been criticised for singing lots of songs about cars and girls, but that’s only half the story. I love songs like Born to Run and Thunder Road in which he creates scenes and characters that could come straight out of a movie. I also like his story songs such as The River and Highway Patrolman and other songs on the Nebraska album. Nebraska along with Darkness on the Edge of Town are my favourite Springsteen albums, even though they don’t necessarily contain his best songs. I think that he released his best work in the first half of his career and that his albums from the last twenty years, even though they contain great songs, are not among his best work

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The Return of Later…with Jools Holland

Jools-Holland

Later…with Jools Holland returns to the BBC this week for its 35th season. The first episode will feature the usual diverse collection of talent that the show gives us every week. American folk singer Alela Diane has been one of the most-played artists on my last.fm account this year. Florence and the Machine make their first appearance following their Mercury Prize nomination for their debut album, Lungs. Gossip (formerly known as The Gossip) will be featuring songs from their fourth album, Music for Men. American singer-songwriter and part-time actor, Lyle Lovett, will most likely be showcasing tunes from his upcoming Natural Forces album. Muse will play a few songs from their fifth album, The Resistance, which is released this week. Jimmy Cobb played on Mile’s Davis’ Kind of Blue album fifty years ago and he turns up with his So What band. Finally, the former drummer from The Police, Stewart Copeland, makes an appearance to plug a book he has out. Here are a few songs by some of these bands, a cover of a Police record and a song about Miles Davis

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Covering the 2009 Mercury Prize

Mercury Prize Logo

The 18th Mercury Music Prize will be announced tomorrow night on BBC 2 TV at 10.00pm. Primal Scream won the inaugral competition in 1992 and subsequent winners have included the likes of Suede, Pulp, Badly Drawn Boy and the Arctic Monkeys. Only four of the seventeen winning acts have been fronted by female singers: M People (1994); Portishead (1995); PJ Harvey (2001); and Ms Dynamite (2002). Each prize is open to albums from British and Irish acts released from June of the previous year to June of the year in question. There have been seven previous Irish nominees: U2 (1992); Therapy? (1994); Van Morrison (1995); Gemma Hayes (2002); The Thrills (2003); Snow Patrol (2004); and Fionn Regan (2007). Lisa Hannigan is the only Irish nominee this year and is one of five female singers on this year’s list along with Bat For Lashes, Florence & the Machine, La Roux and Speech Debelle. This year’s list is dominated by debut albums and only Bat For Lashes has been at this stage before for Fur and Gold in 2007. She is one of the favourites this year along with Lisa Hannigan and Florence & the Machine. Florence’s album has some great songs on it, but there’s also a bit of filler on it. I really like Glasvegas’ album and I think it has a great chance. However, I’d love to see Lisa Hannigan win for her album, Sea Sew. It’s a real grower and has taken me a while to get into it. But, it’s a very cohesive album and is one of my favourites of the last few years. You can check out tunes from eight of this year’s nominees below. La Roux features in a mashup with Hard-Fi, who appeared on 2005′s list. The rest of them sing other people’s songs including Bat For Lashes being joined by Fionn Regan on a song from Screamadelica, the first winner of the prize

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Electric Boogie

Kinky Boots

The sixth instalment of Electric Picnic takes place this weekend in Stradbally, County Laois. It began as a one-day fest in 2004 and I attended it in 2005 when it turned into a two-day festival. I saw some great acts that year such as Kraftwerk, the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Nick Cave and Toots & the Maytals. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the crowd was nice and chilled out. It’s been a three-day event since 2006 and is still a big draw. I would have loved to have gone this year, but I’m a bit light of pocket after all my gallivanting this summer. Besides, each person who attends is only allowed 48 x 500ml cans of beer. Sure, they’d be gone by Saturday. I’ve checked out this year’s line-up and I’ve put together a selection of songs from 21 acts that would be worth a few minutes of your time. Here’s hoping that the weather will remain fine for the weekend and that those attending will enjoy it as much as I did a few years ago

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