Review of 2011

That time of year again to have a look over what I’ve blogged about and review what the year has been like ( see 2010, and 2009)

GIGS, EVENTS & THEATER…

• May: Milton Jones
• May: Adam Ant & The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse
• Nov: The Good Rum Tasting

MOVIES watched at the cinema…

• June: Mammuth
• July: harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2

RESTAURANTS, blogged about…

• Jan: Jamie’s Italian

BOOKS read this year….

• Jan: Danny Wallace “Awkward Situations for Men”
• Jan: Jack Higgins “Pay the Devil”
• Jan: Nicky & Sila Lee “The Marriage Book”
• Feb: Jack Higgins “The Keys of Hell”
• March: Stuart Woods “Blood Orchid”
• March: Beth Williamson “Christian Art: A Very Short Introduction”
• March: Stuart Woods “Iron Orchid”
• March: Stuart Woods “Hot Mahogany”
• April: Stuart Woods “Hothouse Orchid”
• May: Jonathan Kellerman “The Conspiracy Club”
• May: Shane Hipps “Flickering Pixels”
• Aug: Lawrence Block “Time to Murder and Create”
• Sep: David Baldacci “Absolute Power”
• Oct: David Baldacci “Last Man Standing”
• Oct: Lee Child “The Affair”
• Oct: Lee Child “One Shot”
• Nov: Ava McCarthy “The Insider”
• Nov: David Baldacci “The Simple Truth”

Holidays…

Feb: honeymoon in Barbados

July: we did a wee tour of England, visiting relatives in Coventry then having a few days in Yorkshire and the Lakes.

August:  CLANkidz not always seen as a holiday, but still it isn’t ‘work’ and it is in St Andrews so I think it counts

Other Highlights:

Feb: I got Married, D’ moved into my small flat and we began our married life of bliss.  The reality is that it is difficult to find a balance in everything when married, it hasn’t been easy but it has been a lot of fun.
Also, in Feb, as mentioned we went to Barbados and I found a new interest – Rum!
Oct: Put my flat in Woodlands on the market and it sold within three weeks
Nov: After looking at a lot of places we bought a house in Scotstoun
Dec: Moved into the new house, filled it up with clutter immediately, then had Christmas parties.  What a good month!

gig: Adam Ant & The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse

I never thought I would see Adam Ant on the road again.  But here he was on Monday night playing Glasgow’s O2 Academy with a line up known as “The good the mad and the loveley posse” (with ‘the mad’ referring to himself with his mental health issues).  I actually found myself blown away by how good this concert was, simply one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen, and I’ve found it difficult to put into words why, perhaps it is the concert that I grew up listening to in my head.

The opening song “Plastic Surgery” starts slow with sustained chords and drums but then suddenly takes off to a frantic pace (around 2:10 in this good quality video from the Glasgow gig).  The next five songs came so fast I couldn’t take my eyes of the TWO drummers who must have been exhausted already, but the pace didn’t let up through  – Dog Eat Dog, Beat My Guest, Kick, Cartrouble, Zerox … then Adam was joined on stage by two dancers / backing singers for Deutscher Girls, then Stand and Deliver, and so on

It was around this point that I started to actually notice what was going on.  There wasn’t new material (though apparently there is a CD ready for release), also this wasn’t exactly a retrospective of hits but rather it felt like a back to the roots kind of set.  Adam wasn’t going through the motions by trotting out the big hits but was playing mostly early tracks from the punk days and B-sides.  Some songs were slightly re-interpreted but mostly they were having fun and it showed.  They even played a YMCA spoof called ANTS which was released as a ‘flexi-disk’ 7″ single mounted to the cover of ‘Flexidisk’ magazine (I know because I had it!)

The first gig I ever went to was Adam and the Ants “Prince Charming Review” at the legendary Glasgow Apollo in 1982.  I was about 15 and hooked up with my first real girlfriend during the interval.  Yes there was an interval in a music concert – mainly to give time for the stage to be re-set and Adam to change persona from Pirate to Prince Charming.

However, even though I first discovered Adam and the Ants from their Kings of the Wild Frontier phase withAntmusic, Dog eat Dog, and Kings dominating the charts in ’80, ’81 I then went back to the earlier line up of Ants for the ’79 LP Dirk Wears White Sox.  This opened up a different world for me, instead of listening to the Sunday night Radio 1 chart count down I started discovering music for myself.

Adam Ant was involved in the beginnings of the early Punk rock scene in London in the late 70s, I came to know the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Roxy Music, The Clash, etc. through finding out about Adam Ant.  Monday’s concert was how I imagined those early concerts might have been, rebellious, singing songs that Radio 1 would have banned.  The sound was very heavy, with screaming guitar and the inescapable roar of two drummers thudding through your chest as much as your ears.  A fantastic night and a trip back to my childhood (in a good way).

gig: Blind Boys of Alabama

The Blind Boys of Alabama at the Concert Hall as part of Celtic Connections. First formed at the “Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind” in 1939, they did the black gospel circuit, playing in churches, auditoriums, and stadiums across the country. Influential for many gospel, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll artists The Blind Boys have been recording and touring for more than 60 years.

In the 1990’s they received two Grammy nominations and performed at the White House. In recent years the Blind Boys were awarded five Grammy Awards and their musical brethren have paid homage to their legacy and their continued relevance by asking them to contribute and collaborate on new projects.

Seeing them being led onstage to their microphones starts to build anticipation, but when they start to harmonize together to the blues rifts of guitar and bass the magic really happens.  As a show, it is fairly simple, three vocalists, keys/organ, a blind drummer (which is a first for me), fantastically talented guitarist and the coolest Bass player I’ve ever seen.

I love the sound of the Blues, I’m not too up on old time Gospel but I do like the Blindboys sound and their sound is the sound of the blues.  A fantastic night as part of the Celtic Connections, probably the only gig I’ll get to Celtic Connections this year and worth it.

Review of 2010

Time to sum up what I’ve been doing (or at least blogging about) this year…

It seems like a fairly busy year and I suppose the main reason for that is that this year D’ and I started dating and on the 23 July we got engaged while in St Andrews.  We have set a date for the wedding and since then it sometimes feels like all we are doing or talking about are wedding plans.  However, there have been a few other things going on and here is the summary:

GIGS, EVENTS & THEATER…

• Jan: Celtic Connections Festival Club
• Feb: Celtic Connections: Peatbog Faeries
• Feb: Mark Kermode talk and book signing at GFT
• Feb: Citizens Theater “Backbeat”
• May: KISS as the SECC
• Jun: Snow Patrol in Bellahouston Park
• Jun: Paul McCartney in Hampden Park
• Jul: The Tron Theater “Valhalla”
• Sep: The Academy “Barenaked Ladies”
• Oct: Royal Concert Hall, RSNO “Nice ‘n’ Easy”

MOVIES watched at the cinema…

• Jan: A Serious Man
• Jan: Sweet Smell of Success
• Feb: Avatar (3D at the IMax)
• Mar: Micmacs
• Apr: Exit Through The Gift Shop
• Apr: Blind Side
• Jun: The Brothers Bloom
• Sep: The Girl Who Played with Fire
• Nov: The Social Network
• Nov: RED
• Nov: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Dec: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
• Dec: Monsters

RESTAURANTS, blogged about…

• Feb: The Lansdowne Bar and Kitchen
• Apr: Mzouda
• May: Mitchell’s Restaurant Carmunnock
• Jun: Hillhead Bookclub
• Oct: Dragon-i
• Nov: No. 16

BOOKS read this year….

• Jan: Terry Pratchett “Monstrous Regiment”
• Jan: Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Jan: Stuart Woods “Dirty Work”
• Jan: Stuart MacBride “Dying Light”
• Feb: Simon Kernick “A Good Day To Die”
• Feb: Simon Varwell “Up the Creek Without a Mullet”
• Feb: Stuart Woods “Reckless Abandon”
• Mar: Mark Kermode “It’s Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive”
• Mar: Stuart MacBride “Cold Granite”
• Mar: Stuart Woods “Dark Harbor”
• Mar: Stuart Woods “Fresh Disasters”
• Apr: Stuart MacBride “Broken Skin”
• Apr: John Bevere “Under Cover”
• Apr: Alex Gray “Never Somewhere Else”
• May: Stieg Larsson “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
• Jun: Stieg Larsson “The Girl who Played with Fire”
• Jun: Stieg Larsson “The Girl who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest”
• Jul: Alex Gray “A Small Weeping”
• Jul: Lee Child “61 Hours”
• Aug: Harlan Coben “Hold Tight”
• Aug: Stuart MacBride “Flesh House”
• Aug: Stuart MacBride “Blind Eye”
• Sep: Wu Cheng En “Monkey”
• Sep: Christopher Priest “The Separation”
• Oct: Lee Child “Worth Dying For”
• Oct: Jeff Lindsay “Darkly Dreaming Dexter”
• Nov: Stuart Woods “Kisser”
• Nov: Stuart Woods “Two Dollar Bill”
• Nov: Stuart Woods “Orchid Beach”
• Dec: Raymond Chandler “Playback”
• Dec: Terry Pratchett “Johnny and the Dead”
• Dec: JK Rowling “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
• Dec: Stuart Woods “Orchid Blues”

Holidays (a new and exciting section to my blog as I haven’t done much in the way of ‘breaks’ but hope to in the future)…

Jan: London: part work trip to a conference but three days to myself for sight-seeing, concerts and shows. — Day1 – Day 2a – Day2b – Day3 – Day4 – Day5 – Day6 — highlights included: Victoria and Albert Museum, National Theater gig – Marcia Mello, British Film Institute, Tate Modern,  St Bride’s Church,  British Museum,  Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields (which isn’t), Broadcasting House, recording of Newsjack in the Radio Theater, Hyde Park, Albert Memorial, the Monmouth Coffee Company, Tower Bridge,

May: York: a quick weekend break in the city of York was great.  I didn’t blog as much as in London (when I was on my own and deliberately trying to do everything I could in as short a time as possible).  This trip was much more relaxed and great fun.Happy New Year!

October: Isle of Lewis: another very quick weekend break in Lewis to visit family and to introduce my fiancee to them and to this beautiful island.  We had great weather for the time of year and took lots of photos.

Nov: Campbeltown: again, just a quick one-night stop over in (well just outside) Campbeltown to visit Grant Logan to choose wedding rings.

wedding – food – music – busy Saturday

To the SECC for the Scottish Wedding Show!  For some reason people seemed surprised that I would be interested in going to this at all.  I wasn’t the only ‘groom’ in the room but I do think D might have gotten more out of it if she was with her bridesmaid(s).  Lots of cars to sit in and try to have an opinion about, many cakes, dresses, wedding bands, photographers, etc.  what there wasn’t much of was things that are a little out of the ordinary or quirky – so I don’t think we came away with any new ideas.  There really is a massive industry built around weddings and I don’t think I saw anything today about making your marriage last after that one day, or the commitment involved in the sacrament of marriage, which is a bit sad.  Perhaps there is room for a christian marriage preparation course to market itself at an event like this.

After an exhausting afternoon going up and down the isles of this exhibition we had a bit of a rush to get into town and had to grab some place quick to eat before the concert.  We almost walked past Dragon-i, but had a quick check of the menu and from then on everything was quick – and excellent!

Dragon-i is on Hope Street (across from Theater Royal) and is a modern fusion Asian restaurant with influences from Chinese, Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. The pre-theater menu (at £12.95 for two courses) had more than enough choice for us and we had hardly started our complementary crackers before the first course arrived.  Between the two of us we had nothing bad to say about anything we ate.  The service was quick, friendly and efficient, the garlic rice was lovely and flavorsome.  We were slightly rushed but I would certainly like to go back to Dragon-i – my new favourite Asian restaurant!

Lastly, the slight gamble of the weekend was a surprise for D, we went to an RSNO concert in the Royal Concert Hall.

Nice’n’Easy was billed as a celebration of your favourite hits from the 50s, 60s and 70s by such songwriting greats as Bacharach & David and Henry Mancini.  …Music to Watch Girls Go By, Soul Bossa Nova, Do You Know the Way to San José?  The Girl from Ipanema, Strangers in the Night, etc.  This was a fantastic evening of great performances and lots of fun.  Most of the music was nice and familiar with a few new arrangements of songs.  There were lots of nice highlights in the evening but the standout performance was certainly from Peter Grant, check him out if you like that style of music.

By the way – I found out about this concert and got two tickets for the price of one through the 5pm email list!  5pm often has good deals worth being reminded of.

gig: Barenaked Ladies – Academy 24 Sep 2010

This was only the second time I’ve see the BNL live and they were great. It is hard to describe a BNL concert because so much of it is about the characters of the band members, the patter between songs and the atmosphere in the crowd – and on top of that there is the music.

There are of course a few iconic songs that lots of people know and many others that you sort of recognize or know the hook but not all the words. Probably the best example of this is the theme tune to The Big Bang Theory: (did you know there was more to the song than the first bit?)

The Barenaked Ladies were of course fantastic, playing the usual mix of upbeat, slow, poignant and funny songs. Between times telling of the connections they have with Glasgow and Scotland, playing Proclamers tracks and generally having fun. A BNL gig is an experience and one that should be repeated as often as you get the chance. There has been some change in line-up recently but they haven’t lost any of the fun, energy or quality. Long live the naked-ladies!

Montage of Paul McCartney gig