Finnish Cowboys & the Hook

The search has been on for the movie "Leningrad Cowboys go America", a simply brilliant movie from Finland. it had it all, Rockabilly, pointy shoes and quiffs to die for. The music incidentally is brilliant! I have located a dvd across the pond and it soon should be winging it's way over here fairly soon. Their concert with the Red Army Choir in St.Petersburg will also be joining the Library. Have a looksee here at "Kalinka" from that concert here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJIeBsvxh4k

The lads decide to tour America but one of the group dies on the way there so they tour America with the stiff in his coffin tied to the top of the car; I've located a clip here from the movie here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcovyF8j50g . The Cowboys hit Nashville. As they cross the states they try a variety of musical styles from Steppenwolf to Mariachi..it is just a great little movie and deserves a proper re-release and a new generation of fans discovering it.

The movie was so big in Wexford's Hook peninsula that even the trees got in on the act. Actually I just had to include this picture in this blog. I took it in '98 one winter's day on the Hook Drive just up the road from Templetown. "The wind can get hairy down here during the winter", my cousin Billy Walsh told me when I was visiting him at the Hook lighthouse. Looking at the tree above, you knew he was telling the truth.

Billy was one of the keepers at the Hook till the Commissioner of Irish Lights automated all the stations. Billy is a great fellah who gave me many opportunities to explore the tower and marvel at it's engineering. Nowadays I understand it is open to the public. If you're in the vicinity, pay it a visit.

It was (almost) 40 years ago today

That Sgt Pepper taught the band to play.....



Can you remember the first piece of music to literally blow you away...I can...For me, it was not a song, It was an album from start to finish...was it the world's first concept album? I dunno but it is regarded as a masterpiece and rightly so.

The Beatle's "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Released in Europe on June 1 & the US on June 2, 1967....the music world changed forever... I was a three year old then, I did not discover it till 9 years later.

I literally wore out my album; I played it so much...it was, each time, an incredible journey.
Needless to say there were not many albums that come close to it in terms of its genius

There are so many firsts, events & connotations associated with this album, that to write of them here would be a waste of space..see the wiki article here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Pepper

The greatest band in Music History?....I think so.

I went on to discover Roxy Music soon after, Peter Gabriel & Genesis not to mention the Police, Ultravox, The Waterboys & the Divine Comedy plus a few others but the Beatles magnum opus remains supreme in this writer's collection.

All I want for Christmas.....

I have been dropping hints left, right & center lately...


The conversation goes like this......

sez she"What do you want for Christmas?"

sez he " er, the white album by the greatest band that ever lived would be wonderful"

sez se " but what do you want for Christmas?



sez he"I rather like to hear how the "Cat" is these days, he has a new album out under his real moniker, Yusuf - it's called an other cup"

sez she"- but what do you want for Christmas?"


Bah, Humbug!


So maybe if I post it on the blog, the missus will get the hint!

D'unbelievables - unbelievably funny....

Podge & Rodge - I've already given a shout to but there was a pair from the "mid westhhh" that gave them more than a run for their money.....bog humour but with a subtle difference, it was from the Bog!

Seriously though, John Kenny & Pat Shortt were "D'unbelievables".

Brilliantly funny, two dynamos whose energy had to be seen to be believed....sadly though the the act is no more. I had the pleasure of meeting them when I worked backstage in the Theatre Royal and two nicer fellahs you could never hope to meet, John was very intense (mind you the man had torn knee ligaments in Kilkenny the night before and was in some pain which I am sure had a lot to do with that!) while young Pat was just so relaxed throughout the performance. It was interesting to observe how they interacted.

Both Men are tremendous musicians and I remember John Kenny's reggae version of "Spancil Hill" from my school days. He was a regular visitor to the County Hotel with his one man show back in the day.

John Kenny I understand is doing well after being seriously ill while Pat Shortt had some success with a show called "Kilnaskully" which the folks sent over and after viewing it, I have to say I was underwhelmed with it. A bit like Lennon & McCartney, perfect together.....hit & miss apart.

Anyway the good folks at "You Tube" have some great clips taken from the stage show "I doubt it says Pauline". The beautiful thing about this humour is that it is almost transcendental to any parish in Ireland.

"The Legendary Timmy Ryan"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guT76kAPYs0

"A Right Funny man D'Arcy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrujV0PG_7k&mode=related&search=

"Back of the Church"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC6kcDYOPls&mode=related&search=

The Divine Comedy

The Missus & I have a decent music collection...I'll chat about it another time but a band I have listened to since the early 90's is one that goes by the name of "the Divine Comedy". Basically it comprises of principally Neil Hannon (of Enniskillen) as he is really known and his musical colloborationist (Joby Talbot)...anyway, the music is brilliant - the lyrics are incredible. Profundity abounds, witty, sharp, deep whatever cliche you can use to describe genius - it applies in this case.

Mr. Hannon is now the band and I guess he always was -regardless, he has now retaken control of his work from earlier musical labels. One song that echoes to me especially in the last few years is "Dumb it down !" taken from the "Regeneration" album:

You've got a personality

We'll throw you in the sea

and watch you drown

Dumb it down

Your concentration span's too long

It's longer than this song,

that's not allowed

Dumb it down

You don't need books to know what's what

We'll pile them up and burn them to the ground

Dumb it down

And if you say that we're corrupt

We'll round you up and run you out of town

Dumb it down

Down and down and down it goes

Where it stops nobody knows

And not a lot of people seem to care

Well it's so crazy, it's so great

We can all communicate

But no one's saying anything out there

Is there anybody out there?

Intelligence is dangerous

A virus of the brain you pass around

Dumb it down

We'll vaccinate each boy and girl

Lobotomise the world through sight and sound

Dumb it down

No one can tell you what to think

And if you think that's true then you're a clown

Dumb it down

'Cause freedom's wasted on the free

You just don't see the beauty all around

Dumb it down

Down and down and down we slide

It's too tricky to decide

Between channels one and sixty-three

'Cause everything is mindless fluff

Like this world's not dumb enough

Does anybody feel the same as me?

Is there anybody listening?

A song for the times....wouldn't you agree?

The Divine Comedy has a cult following back in Europe, are brilliant to watch live & each album is a winner..I suggest you start with "a secret history" a compilation of hits to 2000 or so...that will give you a taste...

Incidentally you may be more familiar with their work, if you like the Comedy series, "Fr. Ted", all music pertaining is theirs...yes "My lovely horse" included and that is Neil singing btw.

Joby Talbot is now a film scorer, most notably, "Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy", Neil chimes in the closing credits...to "so long & thanks for all the fish".

My favourite Divine Comedy songs/tunes?...all of them but there are a number of personal standouts.."Tonight we fly" and " Charmed life" are two in particular. Anyway, Do yourself a favour and become acquainted with this band....I hate to sound like a Theatre Royal "luvvie' but gush I most...they are well worth the listen.

The website is here: http://www.thedivinecomedy.com/

Probably the Greatest Rock Band in the World...

Phil Lynott's 20th anniversary was back in January. To those that did not know, the man or his music, specifically Thin Lizzy, he was and is a legend.

He was taken from us tragically young, victim of his own indulgence you might say, like so many in that art. He left us with wonderful memories.

Thin Lizzy(imho) was the greatest Irish band ever! - "What about U2?"- what about them? Hype is the modus operandi of that Industry as it always have been. Some managers have been brilliantly exploitative of that fact!
But if you don't believe me about "Lizzy", have a look yourself here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9iyF-Q4eVM&mode=related&search=
The boys are doing Jailbreak, Gary Moore looking er, a wee bit bloated but is he the world's greatest guitarist? Some say he is, I'd love to hear somebody better!


Anyway back to Phil....
His Mother told Billy Connolly this tale:
Somebody asked Phil "What was it like to be Black & Irish?
" a bit like a pint of Guinness!"- Phil retorted!

Gone but not forgotten!

"Chess"- the review

Have you ever sat through a performance where you cringe for the performers? Well I did tonight!

“’Her indoors” & I went to Chess and yes, it was the crap Broadway version as I feared. Performed by Cincinnati Music Theatre, who did a wonderful job with a flawed gem. The Broadway version is a convoluted if not conceited version of the original concept version of Bjorn Ullvaeus, Benny Anderson & Tim Rice.

Y’see, I was ruined years ago in relation to this show! I had seen the original version when it went on tour with Elaine Paige as Florence & Barbara Dickson as Svetlana. Then, a few years later, our own Wexford Light Opera Society did a superb and may I say World Class production, comparable to the West End production! It (the Wexford version) was theatrically stunning and the set design of the Redmond Brothers was simply incredible, let alone the musical direction & the choreography.

Back to CMT, they resurrected a show albeit the “arrrgh!” version and did a grand job of staging it. Bob Weidle, a former colleague of ours, playing the part of "Molokov" was wonderful. The part of Florence played by a lass rejoicing in the name of Alison Collins Elfline was a sterling performance whilst the part of Svetlana played by Kelsey McKelfresh (what a name, eh?) was a show-stopper, a wonderful singer! The principal male characters being outperformed by their female counterparts

All the cast were enthusiastic & capable. In fairness they did a great job with a book that was allegedly butchered by Richard Nelson at the behest of Trevor Nunn. (My opinion and I am entitled to it!). I just wish The American people could see Chess as it was intended.

I understand though that a contractual stipulation ensures that the London version, which to many fans was the source of the show's popularity and appeal, will (at this moment in time) never be seen in the United States.

It is a real pity as in this Broadway version;

• The whole plot is totally goofed up, arse over tit in favour of a more sugary taste to its American audience – When will this patronization of the paying public end on either side of the Atlantic pond and let them see a show the way it was originally written! As a result,

• The wonderful “Merano” is axed as the setting is now set between Thailand & Hungary (???) as opposed to Italy & Iceland (neutral venues).

• The Arbiter’s role now stripped back to essentially a walk-on with some “dialogue”. In the concept/original version, his opening number opens essentially Act 1 and is a great piece of theatre. The essential premise of the show musically, two acts, book-ended by 4 terrific musical pieces is thrown to the dogs in return for a cop out vis a vis the plot.

• Again the whole show is unbalanced as the prologue instead of being a choral piece is now an insipid lecture by Flo’s daddy as the Russians are invading Budapest…

• The wonderful defection scene in the British consulate (Embassy laments) chopped off as The Russian now defects tadaaa! to the states. Therefore the plot just falls flat on its big fat arse!

• The opener of Act 2, the brilliant “One night in Bangkok” is demoted to Act 1, diluting Act 2 and unbalancing the show dreadfully. “ONIB” is a high energy, pacy number, clearly an act opener not a filler scene.

• And of course the Yank wins when he is a total & utter jerk with no redeeming qualities when the whole point of the original book is that The American loses and redeems himself somewhat by coming to the aid of the (now British Citizen Russian, follow me, you’ll get there!) when he is confronted by the Molokov protégé automaton ….Think of Drago v Rocky in Rocky 4!

I could go on but I’ll stop here. I enjoyed the Cast and the production. They are clearly a committed bunch of people who clearly love their art and are to be congratulated for producing the show. They are a treasure in the community, bringing great talent to the public at an affordable price.

The main thing is that the missus enjoyed the evening and was pleased to see her old pal Bob do so well in the show.

If you want to find out more about Cincinnati Music Theatre,
Go here: http://www.cincinnatimusictheatre.org/

Wexford Light Opera Society, go here: http://www.wlos.org/

P.S. The new Indian restaurant in Eastgate , "Apna India" is the Dog's Bolli*...

Chess

Well Les Miserables came & went, the wife loved it and that is all that matters in the end, I guess. 2700 souls filled the P&G hall and enjoyed the show too.

We are off to see Chess next in the smaller Jarson – Kaplan theatre which reminds me of my former stomping grounds in the Theatre Royal back home in Wexford. Indeed It is being produced by Cincinnati Music theatre which is akin I imagine to an old friend of mine, Wexford Light Opera Society.

Working backstage there was great fun and “Chess” was one of the shows, the W.L.O.S. produced some years ago (I think 1996). I saw the original show about 1990 in the Point Depot in Dublin and it was a wonderful production, great score & story by Bjorn Ullvaeus & Benny Andersen, brilliant lyrics by Tim Rice.

I just hope the version in Cincinnati is the concept version that I write of above and not the terrible crap that was rewritten for Broadway.

A bloody good laugh!

I’ve noticed I’ve been getting a little heavy on here lately, not just the sugary tea & the waist line either!

One of my favourite websites when I need a good laugh is Joel Veitchs’ rathergood.com, His singing kittens are the biz! Simply brilliantly silly!
I particularly like this clip,
http://www.rathergood.com/independent_woman/
Anyway more mayhem can be found at http://www.rathergood.com/, Bookmark this site!

"Danzan solas" (They dance alone)"

I was about 18 when I saw “Missing”. A movie starring Jack Lemmon as an American looking for his son who had gone missing in the Chilean coup in 1973. I remember being struck by the powerful message of the film, the crawling desperation of the father as the sheer hopelessness/helplessness of the situation develops. All that he found certainty in, being stripped away before his eyes. A tragic yet brilliant movie….

When Pinochet & his junta grabbed power on September 11, they wasted little time in silencing effective opposition to their power-grab using the main soccer stadium in Santiago as a Concentration camp for one.

Pinochet lost power in 1988, the matter of his indictment in the torture & murder of his citizens has not been effected..yet!

Ten years later as I watched the Chilean national team sing their anthem at the World Cup in France, I will never forget the passion those lads poured into the lyrics, pride in their country and the long journey out of a dark & brutal night.

I’m a fan of Sting, who wrote this beautiful ballad (below) in honour of the women of the missing of Chile. The mothers, wives, sisters who danced alone in a park in Santiago..a silent protest, a protest of immense dignity….Dancing a Chilean dance, “La Cueca”. Their dance was a symbol of the silent courage of the oppressed masses, a testament to the will of the common people will overcome tyranny in the end.


"They Dance Alone"
Why are there women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?I
can't see what it is that they despise
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone

It's the only form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their silent faces scream so loud
If they were to speak these words
they'd go missing too
Another woman on a torture table
what else can they do

They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone

One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance

Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Ellas danzan con los muertos
Ellas danzan con amores invisibles
Ellas danzan con silenciosa angustia
Danzan con sus padres
Danzan con sus hijos
Danzan con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas

Hey Mr. Pinochet
You've sown a bitter crop
It's foreign money that supports you
One day the money's going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns
Can you think of your own mother
Dancing with her invisible son
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
They're anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone


More on Chile and her recent travails found here http://www.chipsites.com/derechos/dictadura_victimas_eng.html

La Guantanamera

"Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist". - Jose Marti, Cuban Statesman, Poet, and Journalist (1853-1895)

I love music!

It seems these days I am listening to a lot of stuff from the sixties. Maybe it is because I was a baby/toddler/youngster and that time was a happy period in my life. Maybe it’s because I remember the optimism of those earlier years and the music reflected that.

In these days I tend to go back to “La Guantanamera” a lot. It is a song I heard a lot of when I was a kid…I remember I loved the chorus, never knowing what it stood for or indeed what the preceding Spanish verses meant! Just the sheer beauty of the sounds made me smile then.

Years later it was adopted with adjusted lyrics by various football fans on countless terraces around Britain & Ireland. I heard it with a deal of sadness when The Republic of Ireland beat Northern Ireland 3-0, “one team in Ireland, there’s only one team in Ireland”. I loathe the fact that the small island of Ireland has to have two football teams when we are united in other sports. I imagined that the writer of the true lyrics Jose Marti would not have appreciated the sentiments of the crowd in Lansdowne Road that day as it was a poem identified (with) the love of freedom for his native Cuba…It is a beautiful song, set to a traditional Cuban air by Jose Fernandez Diaz.

Yo soy un hombre sincero I am a truthful man
De donde crece la palma From where the palm tree grows
Y antes de morirme quiero And before dying I want
Echar mis versos del alma To let out the verses of my soul
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Mi verso es de un verde claro My verse is light green
de un carmín encendido And it is flaming crimson
Mi verso es un ciervo herido My verse is a wounded fawn
Que busca en el monte amparo Who seeks refuge on the mountain
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Cultivo una rosa blanca I grow a white rose
En julio como en enero In July just as in January
Para el amigo sincero For the honest friend
Que me da su mano franca Who gives me his open hand
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Con los pobres de la tierra With the poor people of the earth
Quiero yo mi suerte echar I want to share my luck
El arroyo de la sierra The stream of the mountains
Me complace más que el mar Gives me more pleasure than the sea
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

The sheer beauty of the lyrics even in English is breath-taking, I simply love this song and Pete Seeger’s 1963 live recording of it is incredible. The world owes a great debt to Pete for keeping songs such as this in the public consciousness….more on that man later.

As I play the song my two year old “sings” along to the melody…the torch is passed!

Dirty old town

Covington's latest star

"The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge"

by Daniel Libeskind

Les Miserables

I remember a fellah called Les Dawson who was bloody hilarious but who is Les Miserables?, his Greek cousin?

Seriously, her indoors has never seen the show yet so as it is on its last legs…tour I mean, it will be coming to the Queen city on the 28th of this month so we’ll head down-town, I have already ordered the limousine from Brinks & taken out three more life policies as we venture into Cincinnati/nasty/natty.

It has all the qualities to be a lovely city but as always grasps defeat from the jaws of victory. Meanwhile across the river, Newport & Covington are fast developing into the type of City that Cinci wanted to be.

Daniel Libeskind, he of the new towers in NYC (to replace & commemorate the World Trade Center) has designed a beautiful 21 floor tower in Covington which will be built in the next year.

Other developments are taking place in the area, developments that should have been in Cincinnati. The “Banks” controversy, a searing indictment of the stupid politicking & no imagination that City Council has displayed in what really is an elegant city. Hopefully new mayor, Mark Mallory can knock some heads together, get a consensus on what is good for the city and bring her back. He seems a decent man and may be able to make Cinci the place to be …but don’t hold your breath.

Les Miserables, fitting isn’t it?

Ketchup!

Home thoughts from abroad...
It’s hard not to grin like a Cheshire cat these days…Flying in the League..3 games from our first Championship in half a century!

Mourinho is having a laugh with the Football authorities showing them up to be the pompous buffoons we all know them to be. To see & hear Arsene Wenger keening like a French Banshee and Alex Ferguson contenting himself with an FA Cup run…these indeed are heady days for a Chelsea fan.

The greatest day of my life was the birth of my son!. Now whether it was in the subconscious or whatever but when he popped out into the world I sung to him two songs in that delivery room “Molly Malone” and “One man went to mow..” , the respective anthems of my birth city, Dublin and the sporting love of my life, Chelsea FC.

He’s sixteen months old now, the owner of two CFC kits as well as a Wexford kit plus his own hurl and ball. Whenever Fox Soccer Channel comes on, he jigs to the music and cheers to the “Chels” on the pitch. Already he has had a spot on a TV program, Chelsea fan and all round good guy Steven Cohen read him a dedication on Fox Soccer Friday last December on his first birthday.

Needless to say, I believe the next greatest day is soon to follow when John Terry lifts the premier league trophy.

Odds & Sods!

We (that was a royal we, meaning her indoors and myself) went to see Tom Jones last week. At the shows end, I counted 24 pairs of knickers on the stage, not bad for a 65 year old boy from the valleys…a great show, a great showman. Great to see fellow Celts in the numerous welsh who were present, glowing in my congratulations on their rugby team winning their first grand slam in 27 years and more power to them! With regard to the Knickers owners, they obviously didn’t count on it been so windy as they were whistling down Broadway after the show’s end…giving that piece of anatomy a second purpose in life! well at least that night!

Sting is next on the list next week. We’ll be visiting Oxford on the Ohio-Indiana border for that. Joe Jackson comes to Cincinnati next but Ticket master are scalping us with a $20 cover fee for two $33 tickets…it is getting ridiculous so I’ll hold fire on that.

The night before Tom Jones, we went to see Columbus crew open their MLS season v LA Galaxy…atrocious weather made an atrocious match..3-0 to the Crew

The Clan went to Chicago last month…all I can say about that is what a wonderful city it is. Wonderful architecture, tremendous attractions, fabulous restaurants and simply lovely people…we’ll be going back there very soon. The Missus’ maternal family is from Chicago and I know it was emotional for her, the first time she visited her mom’s old haunts and neighborhoods.

If ever you go there buy the Citypass combo pack…great value altogether.
http://citypass.com/city/chicago.html Check it out here!

England plays the US at Soldier Field and methinks I may head there if the Chelsea contingent doesn’t cry off.

Finally

The New York & US Blues heads to “Mecca” next week and take in The Fulham and Arsenal games….here’s wishing them all a safe and hugely enjoyable trip…fantastic people…we are close to setting up the Ohio branch here very shortly…details will be announced presently.