...but you might like to stream this, which is my 1999 CD, TANTRUM EGO, now available for paid download for the first time. Give me a shout if you want to buy a copy...:-)
Regards, and Happy New Year!
djp
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Like clockwork...
I was lying in bed this morning, listening to the news on the radio.
Every year around this time, the government releases files which were formerly confidential. This is done under something known as the "30-year rule". Since 2009 is almost upon us, the files relating to 1979 have now been released and the news bulletin was reviewing some of the historical issues covered by the files now released.
As a musical accompaniment to the review, tracks from the Boomtown Rats' 1978 album "Tonic For The Troops" were played, and I was transported back to my teenage years. "Tonic..." was a great album and was released just when the Rats were poised to conquer the UK charts. The first track played on the news was "Like Clockwork", which, to me, has to be one of the great pop singles of all time. Tight punchy playing with a clear Sparks influence and clever lyrics - what a great song and one which should have been a huge hit. Ironically, the track that was probably the worst on the album, "Rat Trap" went on to be No. 1 in the UK...
I recall buying "Tonic..." in a record store on O'Connell Street in Dublin, known as Harmony Records, in the summer of 1978. If memory serves, I also bought Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" album there that day. I seem to remember that Harmony was a fine big store. No longer there now - I think the first Mc.Donald's in Ireland took over the site pretty soon afterwards. I don't remember Harmony being there in 1980 when I started working in Dublin.
I have very fond memories of "Tonic..." Unfortunately, my copy of the album came to a bad end. We had a lodger living with us at home who fancied himself as a DJ. He persuaded me, against my better judgement, to lend him the album to play at a disco. He gave it back to me a few days later, horribly scratched and, to my OC ears at the time, virtually unplayable. I lost all "meas" in the album and gave it to one of me mates.
Such is life...
Regards,
djp
Every year around this time, the government releases files which were formerly confidential. This is done under something known as the "30-year rule". Since 2009 is almost upon us, the files relating to 1979 have now been released and the news bulletin was reviewing some of the historical issues covered by the files now released.
As a musical accompaniment to the review, tracks from the Boomtown Rats' 1978 album "Tonic For The Troops" were played, and I was transported back to my teenage years. "Tonic..." was a great album and was released just when the Rats were poised to conquer the UK charts. The first track played on the news was "Like Clockwork", which, to me, has to be one of the great pop singles of all time. Tight punchy playing with a clear Sparks influence and clever lyrics - what a great song and one which should have been a huge hit. Ironically, the track that was probably the worst on the album, "Rat Trap" went on to be No. 1 in the UK...
I recall buying "Tonic..." in a record store on O'Connell Street in Dublin, known as Harmony Records, in the summer of 1978. If memory serves, I also bought Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" album there that day. I seem to remember that Harmony was a fine big store. No longer there now - I think the first Mc.Donald's in Ireland took over the site pretty soon afterwards. I don't remember Harmony being there in 1980 when I started working in Dublin.
I have very fond memories of "Tonic..." Unfortunately, my copy of the album came to a bad end. We had a lodger living with us at home who fancied himself as a DJ. He persuaded me, against my better judgement, to lend him the album to play at a disco. He gave it back to me a few days later, horribly scratched and, to my OC ears at the time, virtually unplayable. I lost all "meas" in the album and gave it to one of me mates.
Such is life...
Regards,
djp
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Well, duh...
Got this in an e-mail from a mailing list today:-
"THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE: The remarkable story of 'Lucky' Herschel McKee - Barnstormer, war hero, test pilot, motor racer, scoundrel
Herschel McKee's remarkable life story reads like that of a comic-book hero. A daredevil, a leader of men and, above all, a survivor, McKee fought in both World Wars, suffering numerous skirmishes with death. His colourful life included spells as a Foreign Legion soldier, fighter-pilot ace with the elite Lafayette Flying Corps, prisoner-of-war escapee, racing driver, WWII bomber-wing commander and test pilot. His amazing resilience led to him being nicknamed 'The Man Who Would Not Die' while he was still alive."
...well, duh. Bit late to give him that nickname after he'd popped his clogs and handed in his dinner-pail, eh?
Regards,
djp
"THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT DIE: The remarkable story of 'Lucky' Herschel McKee - Barnstormer, war hero, test pilot, motor racer, scoundrel
Herschel McKee's remarkable life story reads like that of a comic-book hero. A daredevil, a leader of men and, above all, a survivor, McKee fought in both World Wars, suffering numerous skirmishes with death. His colourful life included spells as a Foreign Legion soldier, fighter-pilot ace with the elite Lafayette Flying Corps, prisoner-of-war escapee, racing driver, WWII bomber-wing commander and test pilot. His amazing resilience led to him being nicknamed 'The Man Who Would Not Die' while he was still alive."
...well, duh. Bit late to give him that nickname after he'd popped his clogs and handed in his dinner-pail, eh?
Regards,
djp
Season of good cheer and bad teeth
If it's Christmas time in Ireland, then it's prime time for the wall-to-wall broadcasting and performance of "Fairytale Of New York" by the Pogues and Kirsty Mc.Coll.
If there's anything that's going to depress me about Christmas, it's that damn song. It may or may not portray a reasonably accurate depiction of the experience that some people have had (or continue to have) in the run up to Christmas. However, for me, it perpetuates the tiresome stereotype of drunken Irish emigrants in America - ironic that neither Mc.Gowan nor Mc.Coll were first-generation Irish...
It's particularly galling for me to think that any expression of distaste for the song is met with remarks questioning one's "Irishness". That's a bit like saying that a dislike for the recorded works of Chas & Dave means that one is in some way less "English".
Of course, over in Ireland, we take things a step further - around Christmas time, our national broadcaster plays a version of the song performed as a spoken dialogue. As if this makes things any better.
The one thing I will say in favour of the song is that it acts as a foil to all those mindlessly positive and optimistic songs one hears at Christmas time. This needed to be done. But did it have to be done within the context of a negative cultural stereotype?
Regards,
djp
If there's anything that's going to depress me about Christmas, it's that damn song. It may or may not portray a reasonably accurate depiction of the experience that some people have had (or continue to have) in the run up to Christmas. However, for me, it perpetuates the tiresome stereotype of drunken Irish emigrants in America - ironic that neither Mc.Gowan nor Mc.Coll were first-generation Irish...
It's particularly galling for me to think that any expression of distaste for the song is met with remarks questioning one's "Irishness". That's a bit like saying that a dislike for the recorded works of Chas & Dave means that one is in some way less "English".
Of course, over in Ireland, we take things a step further - around Christmas time, our national broadcaster plays a version of the song performed as a spoken dialogue. As if this makes things any better.
The one thing I will say in favour of the song is that it acts as a foil to all those mindlessly positive and optimistic songs one hears at Christmas time. This needed to be done. But did it have to be done within the context of a negative cultural stereotype?
Regards,
djp
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Futureheads supported by 28 Costumes - Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick - 16 December 2008
Brilliant, brilliant gig. The Futureheads evoke the spirit of 1978 and 1979, channelling XTC's Go2 and Drums and Wires albums.
I was delighted that the recent "post-punk" revival came about, as I always felt that new wave music expired around 1980 with a lot of unfinished business on the agenda. Bands like Editors, Interpol and Maximo Park have done much to explore the uncharted regions of post-punk music, but the Futureheads are the best of the lot. Sassy and shouty with more angles than a dodecahedron and bags of provincial attitude to boot. One of my two favourite bands of the moment (the other being Elbow, who performed in a rather more mature, less "spiky" but just as distinctive style).
This was the loudest gig I've been to in a while, possibly too loud for the small venue and the mix was rather muddy, making the distinctive bass and drum parts rather indistinct. But the energy on stage more than made up for that.
Supporting were Liverpool group 28 Costumes who plough a similar furrow to the Futureheads, but they are less angular stylistically and have a certain cabaret feel to their songs. Well worth checking out.
Regards,
djp
I was delighted that the recent "post-punk" revival came about, as I always felt that new wave music expired around 1980 with a lot of unfinished business on the agenda. Bands like Editors, Interpol and Maximo Park have done much to explore the uncharted regions of post-punk music, but the Futureheads are the best of the lot. Sassy and shouty with more angles than a dodecahedron and bags of provincial attitude to boot. One of my two favourite bands of the moment (the other being Elbow, who performed in a rather more mature, less "spiky" but just as distinctive style).
This was the loudest gig I've been to in a while, possibly too loud for the small venue and the mix was rather muddy, making the distinctive bass and drum parts rather indistinct. But the energy on stage more than made up for that.
Supporting were Liverpool group 28 Costumes who plough a similar furrow to the Futureheads, but they are less angular stylistically and have a certain cabaret feel to their songs. Well worth checking out.
Regards,
djp
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, December 06, 2008
And today's new word is...
... ANHEDONIA.
I came across this word for the first time yesterday when reading Ian O'Doherty's article in the Irish Independent on Roy Keane's departure from Sunderland (that's a lot of hyperlinks, folks...).
O'Doherty (God bless his chubby cheeks) usefully defines anhedonia as an inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences (which, as it happens, is almost a direct quote from the Wikipedia article referred to above). While there seems to be a sexual element to this condition (isn't there always?), it can also manifest in normal everyday events. O'Doherty refers to Keane's "disgust at the joy of some of the (Manchester) United players after they won the long lusted after Champions League trophy" as displaying "an obsession verging on anhedonia". Now, winning sporting trophies is not exactly an everyday event to me (although I do seem to recall winning a gold medal as part of a Castleisland Town League soccer tournament sometime in the mid 1970s), but it would have been more commonplace for Keano.
I am always surprised when I find, quite often after years, that there is a "name" to describe a feeling I have experienced and wondered just what the hell it was. I'm sure that I don't suffer from full-blown anhedonia, as defined in Wikipedia, but there are certainly moments when I have felt an inability to "join in the fun" with friends or colleagues. For instance, I have a real problem with the usual office social activities. Christmas "do's" are pretty much a thing of the past for me - I prefer to go for lunches rather than evenings in the pub, on the basis that the requirement to provide cover in the office gives me the perfect excuse to bolt down my food and dash back to my desk. On occasions where I cannot avoid an evening meal, I whizz through the nosh as quickly as good manners allow and can be homed and hosed (that sounds a bit rude, doesn't it?) in around 90 minutes. The shortest office party I ever attended lasted (for me) about 30 minutes. I declared in advance that I wasn't going for the meal, arrived in time to buy a round of drinks for my staff and buggered off home. I appreciate that this is an irrational way to behave - it's almost as if I willed myself not to enjoy the evening. As an example of this, at that 30 minute outing, I didn't even buy myself an alcoholic drink - I bought a glass of sparkling mineral water and - wait for it - I didn't even drink it...
It's not that I don't like my colleagues - I do like them a lot. It's just that, for some reason, I can't cut loose and live in the moment, as it were. I am always conscious of the morning after. In the past, I have spent too many evenings over-intoxicated and misbehaving, leading to horrendous hangovers and deep depressions as I realised that yes, I had said/done that... So somewhere along the line, I took a decision to sort that crap right out.
Here are a couple of things I've noticed over the years:-
Regards,
djp
I came across this word for the first time yesterday when reading Ian O'Doherty's article in the Irish Independent on Roy Keane's departure from Sunderland (that's a lot of hyperlinks, folks...).
O'Doherty (God bless his chubby cheeks) usefully defines anhedonia as an inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences (which, as it happens, is almost a direct quote from the Wikipedia article referred to above). While there seems to be a sexual element to this condition (isn't there always?), it can also manifest in normal everyday events. O'Doherty refers to Keane's "disgust at the joy of some of the (Manchester) United players after they won the long lusted after Champions League trophy" as displaying "an obsession verging on anhedonia". Now, winning sporting trophies is not exactly an everyday event to me (although I do seem to recall winning a gold medal as part of a Castleisland Town League soccer tournament sometime in the mid 1970s), but it would have been more commonplace for Keano.
I am always surprised when I find, quite often after years, that there is a "name" to describe a feeling I have experienced and wondered just what the hell it was. I'm sure that I don't suffer from full-blown anhedonia, as defined in Wikipedia, but there are certainly moments when I have felt an inability to "join in the fun" with friends or colleagues. For instance, I have a real problem with the usual office social activities. Christmas "do's" are pretty much a thing of the past for me - I prefer to go for lunches rather than evenings in the pub, on the basis that the requirement to provide cover in the office gives me the perfect excuse to bolt down my food and dash back to my desk. On occasions where I cannot avoid an evening meal, I whizz through the nosh as quickly as good manners allow and can be homed and hosed (that sounds a bit rude, doesn't it?) in around 90 minutes. The shortest office party I ever attended lasted (for me) about 30 minutes. I declared in advance that I wasn't going for the meal, arrived in time to buy a round of drinks for my staff and buggered off home. I appreciate that this is an irrational way to behave - it's almost as if I willed myself not to enjoy the evening. As an example of this, at that 30 minute outing, I didn't even buy myself an alcoholic drink - I bought a glass of sparkling mineral water and - wait for it - I didn't even drink it...
It's not that I don't like my colleagues - I do like them a lot. It's just that, for some reason, I can't cut loose and live in the moment, as it were. I am always conscious of the morning after. In the past, I have spent too many evenings over-intoxicated and misbehaving, leading to horrendous hangovers and deep depressions as I realised that yes, I had said/done that... So somewhere along the line, I took a decision to sort that crap right out.
Here are a couple of things I've noticed over the years:-
- If I am socialising with people with whom I don't have a natural affinity but who do have a natural affinity with each other, then I quickly discover that there is a set of rules for how the various members of the group behave. These rules are almost instinctive for the group members, but only become known to me retrospectively when I have breached them. So I now try to avoid socialising with people where my presence is more of an obligation than a natural desire on my part.
- If there is an office "do" in honour of particular individuals, I tend to weigh up in my head whether that individual is "worth" the inevitable hangover. If s/he is not, then I tend not to go. Notice I said "tend" - this rule doesn't apply in all cases...:-)
- The night I enjoy best the morning after is not necessarily the night I enjoyed while experiencing it. These can usually be classified as "grand nights out" where imbibing, talking shite and unseemly behaviour is minimised, if not completely eliminated. Obviously, the converse applies.
- One can neither undo what one did (particularly if the doing involved "undoing", if you follow), nor unsay what one said. I still get the shudders at what I called a former boss of mine, to his face, while in me cups, over ten years ago.
- Finally, and most importantly, if something can't happen, then it won't happen. If one could only stick to that mantra, one could go through life with a clear head and conscience.
Regards,
djp
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Monday, December 01, 2008
My Top 10 iPod tracks - 01/12/2008
- (-) - Death And Night And Blood (Yukio) - The Stranglers
- (1) - No Way Of Knowing - A. Tent
- (6) - She Really Wants You (acoustic version) - Aimee Mann
- (-) - Berstein/Candide Overture - Andrew Litton/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- (-) - Fantasy - The Blizzards
- (10) - Light Of Your Love - Carlene Carter
- (-) - How Long Have I Got, Doc? - Daniel Prendiville
- (-) - Bullets (live) - Editors
- (2) - My Kind Of Soldier - Guided By Voices
- (-) - You Can Live At Home - Husker Du
djp
Top Gear Show, RDS Dublin - 2008.
Some pics for your possible enjoyment. I hope to get some videos up on Youtube too. Most enjoyable - the kids loved it...
Regards,
djp
Regards,
djp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
