I had a fun time at the U2 gig last night. After reading a bunch of withering articles I was expecting to see damaged goods - a band out of time and thin on resources. But of course you can never under-write this lot, especially when there's a negative wind about the place. And so they assembled under that giant stage apparatus, willing us to hear the value in the new music and then opening up the jewel box of their old material.
Dublin was naturally receptive to 'Bad', 'The Unforgettable Fire' and the premium stompers from the Eighties, when the city was getting on its uppers and Bono was trying that huge persona for size. Tonight he recognised that both parties have been downsizing in the last couple of years, but this wasn't the occasion for petty thinking. It was about empathy and getting roused, about forgetting the economic doledrums and remembering that there are capitvating issues in the Middle East, in Burma and Africa. Yes, we know that the band's own financials are up for scrutiny, but you could still perceive a generosity of the heart up there.
The new songs sit a bit uncomfortably in that company, but the best will stand and the others will be subsumed into that reservoir of effort, experiment, folly and fever. I still like them.
STUART BAILIE
BBC Radio Ulster, 92-95 FM
Online: www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster
Fridays, ten - midnight
Playlist 24.07.09
The Style Council - Sold Bond In Your Heart (Polydor)
Regina Spektor - The Calculation (Sire)
Levon Helm - Tennessee Jed (Vanguard)
Cat Malojian - Alphabet Song (Bad Paw)
Noah And The Whale - Blue Skies (Mercury)
Irma Thomas - In Between Tears (Soul Jazz)
Pete Molinari - Satisfied Mind (Damaged Goods)
Wilco - You Never Know (Nonesuch)
The Mummers- Lorca And The Orange Tree (Big Bass Drum)
Iron & Wine - Love Vigilantes (Sub Pop)
Steeley Dan - My Old School (Universal)
The Travelling Band - Waterfall (Sidewave Saloon)
Speech Debelle - Better Days (Big Dada)
Paul Pilot - Easy For You (white)
Buddy Holly - You're So Square (MCA)
Steeley Dan - Peg (Universal)
De La Soul - Me Myself And I (BCM)
Akron / Family - River (Crammed Discs)
Levon Helm - I Wish I Know How It Feels To Be Free (Vanguard)
Joe Henry - The Man I Keep Hid (Anti)
Regina Spektor - Eet (Sire)
Eels - That Look You Give That Guy (Polydor)
Willie Nelson - You Were Always On My Mind (Blue Note)
Son Volt - When The Wheels Don't Move (Rounder)
Jason Lyttle - It's The Weekend (Anti)
Calvin Harris - Ready For The Weekend (Columbia)
Stone Roses - Fool's Gold (Silverton
Saturday was our sixth annual visit to the Glasgowbury festival in the Sperrin Mountains. As ever, the scenery was ace, the volume was raised and this time around, the event sold out. That's quite an achivement for Paddy Glasgow and the firm. There was no fancy headliner and the weight was carried by a succession of local acts, many of whom were also regulars to the fest and who have grown in parallel to the gig.
Visitors like The Mighty Stef brought in some fresh aspects, while on the big stage LaFaro roared and Mojo Fury made a virtue out of colliding riffs and intelligent design. I enjoyed the fever of Black Bear Saloon, who convinced the audience to hail them like conquering heroes and then lived up to that conceit.
The Jane Bradfords also gave it a momentous bid for grandeur. Deci was lying on his back, croaking with majestic effect as the band peeled off the glowering chords. But there was another side show at the front of the stage - the young lovers who snogged relentlessly throughout the set. It was spectacular, unselfconscious stuff, and soon there was a crowd around the pair, taking photos and making home videos on their phones. After a while, people began to pose beside them, maing rude and amusing gestures. But nothing could cool that passion.
They were still at it when Cashier No 9 came on for a enthralling turn. Still the kissy-face, the lumbering embrace, the enthusiasm. They can doubtless watch the highlights on YouTube. Proof, if needed, that Glasgowbury is about more than the music.
Two social butterflies with matching colouration in Belfast earlier in the week. One is the offspring of Mick Jagger and Bianca. The other one isn't.
STUART BAILIE
BBC Radio Ulster, 92-95 FM
Online: www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster
Fridays, ten - midnight
Playlist 17.07.09
(musical round-up of 2009, so far)
Leela James -Miss You (Sanachie)
Bob Dylan - Beyond Here Lies Nothin' (Columbia)
The Low Anthem - To Ohio (Bella Union)
Manic Street Preachers - This Joke Sport Severed (Columbia)
God Help The Girl - Funny Little Frog (Rough Trade)
U2 - Magnificent (Universal)
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks (Warp)
Julie Feeney - Love Is A Tricky Thing (Mittens)
Madness - NW5 (Lucky Seven)
Camera Obscura - Honey In The Sun (4ad)
The Duckworth Lewis Method - Age of Revolution (1969)
The Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes (Domino)
Morrissey - I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris (Polydor)
M Ward - Rave On ( 4ad)
Diana Jones -Soldier Girl (Proper)
Marianna Faithful - Sing Me Back Home (Dramatico)
Cashier No 9 - When Jackie Shone (Only Gone)
The Decemberists - Isn't It A Lovely Night (Rough Trade)
Lisa Hannigan - I Don't Know (lisahannigan)
Ben Kweller - Fight (ATO)
Steve Earle - Delta Momma Blues (New West)
Passion Pit - The Reeling (Sony)
Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work (Abeano)
Bill Callaghan - Too Many Birds (Drag City)
Regina Spektor - Laughing With (Sire)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Little Shadow (Geffen)
Playlist 10.07.09
Shakespeare In Rock Special!
Lou Reed - Romeo Had Juliette (Sire)
Martha And The Vandellas - All That Glitters (Motown)
Elvis Costello - Mystery Dance (Stiff)
John Simon - King Lear's Blues
BA Robertson - To Be Or Not To Be
The Smiths - Shakespeare's Sister (Rough Trade)
Sparks - Here In Heaven (Island)
Beatles - I Am The Walrus (Parlophone)
John's Children - Desdemona
Rufus Wainwright - When In Discrace
Tom Waits - Romeo Is Bleeding (Asylum)
Duke Ellington - Star Crossed Lovers (Essential)
Kate Bush - England My Lionheart (EMI)
Michael Nyman - Where The Bee Sucks (Decca)
The Band - Ophelia (Capitol)
Echo And The Bunnymen - Never Stop (Korova)
Billy Bragg - The Milkman Of Human Kindness (Go Discs)
Johnny Halliday - To Be Or Not To Be (Philips)
Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside Of Mobile (CBS)
Siouxie And The Banshees - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Polydor)
Brian Ferry - Shall I Compare Thee (Virgin)
John Cale - Lady Macbeth ( Warner )
Supergrass - Richard III (Parlophone)
The New Broadway Cast Recording - Brush Up Your Shakespeare (DRG)
Elvis Costello - I Thought I'd Write To Juliet (Warner)
Radiohead - Exit Music For A Film (Parlophone)
Playlist 03.07.09
Part 1 - Summer festival preview
Blur - Girls And Boys (Parlophone)
Brian Wilson - Love And Mercy (Sire)
Amadou & Miriam - Ce N'ect Pas Bon (Because)
Imelda May - Johnny's Got A Boom Boom (Universal)
Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire (RCA)
Joe Echo - The Heart That Knows Desire (white)
Echo And The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar (Warner)
Kowalski - Phil Kansus (white)
Nick Cave - Straight To You (Mute)
Panama Kings - Golden Recruit (Broken Sound)
Basement Jaxx - Raindrops (XL)
Duke Special - Digging An Early Grave (Universal)
Orbital - Belfast (Internal)
Part 2 - Bap and Brenda Kennedy co-present
The Everly Brothers - When Will I Be Loved (Rhino)
The Mighty Stef - A Pretend Sailors Goodbye (The First Born Is Dead)
The Stylistics - I'm Stone In Love with You (Acvo)
Bap Kennedy - Hey Joe (Lonely Street Discs)
The Pogues - Summer In Siam - (WEA)
Brenda Kennedy - Some Places Magic Can't Go (Lonely Street Discs)
The Mighty Shamrocks - Coronation Street (white)
Art Garfunkel - I Only Have Eyes For You (CBS)
The Byrds - Armstrong Aldrin and Collins (Columbia)
Bap Kennedy - Cold War Country Blues (Lonely Street Discs)
Van Morrison - Bulbs (Polydor)
Brenda Kennedy - Some Places Magic Can't Go (Lonely Street Discs)
Carole King - You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman (CBS)
You sophisticates and metrosexuals who parade the boulevards of Belfast may already know about the goateesaver. But excuse me while I sputter and marvel about this invention. As I understand it, you chomp down on a holding bar, while guiding your razor about the template. Ultimately, you have a symmetrical growth on your chin and you save many valuable minutes of groomng time. Civilisation astounds me sometimes.
Dolphins dig sustained chords. I know this because the songwriter Fred Neil used to play to them all the time. The author of 'Everybody's Talkin' and yes, 'Dolphins' used to swim with his favourite creatures and when he got tired of the music industry, he even settled in Coconut Grove, Florida, so he could be close to his pals. He also lent his support to a special rehabilitation project that released some of these captive animals back into the wild. So while Bowie wished you could swim, like dolphins can swim, Fred Neil was literally in the flow.
I was thinking of melancholic old Fred during my own brief time in Florida. I saw those bottlenose guys along the Gulf shores, charming the humans in the tourist boats, jumping out of the water for fun and for the showbiz lifestyle. And in Clearwater Marine Aquarium I saw Winter, the superstar dolphin with the prosthetic tail. She lost the end of the real one after getting caught in fishing tackle, and she learned to swim a little by wiggling her stump from side to side. But apparently this shark-like motion is bad for the spine and so now she is encouraged to swim with the artificial tail. Apparently the technology used to make all this work is now being used for human prosthetics.
So in honour of Winter, I will play a version of 'Dolphins'' this Friday night. Maybe the Fred Neil original, or that fine version by Terry Callier and Beth Orton. Or perhaps the dreamy live rendition from Tim Buckley. Whatever, I shall be thinking of blue water, a meaningful drift and ideally, a sense of porpoise.
On the radio show tonight: a co-present with Bap Kennedy and Brenda Kennedy, the Johnny Cash and June Carter of the NI twang set. They'll be playing tracks from their respective albums, talking about the space race and chosing tunes from The Stylisitcs, The Byrds and yes, Art Garfunkel.
Next week we finally get aroud to plotting the connection between Shakespeare and rock. It really is a fascinating trip. And the blog will be resting for a short while. Be careful out there...
