Music

The Other Brit Awards 2014

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on February 23, 2014
Posted in: Music.

As a spectacle, this year’s Brit Awards maintained the recent high standards, particular the stunning visual effects.  But somehow the show has become too contrived, lacking any spark of spontaneity and leaving me wondering at times if the 1989 nadir of Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood really was as cringeworthy as some of the table set-ups we get these days.

Brit Awards

Ella Eyre winning the award for Best attempt at achieving a Wardrobe Malfunction

We all like to disagree with the judges – it’s a British tradition, and not only in Awards Shows.  However, even there I found myself nodding approvingly at some of the nominations, even if most of those inevitably lost-out to that frightful combination of corporate dollars and Buggins’ Turn.   So whilst enduring the more tedious parts, I found myself creating a few awards of my own: Continue Reading

The Bear, the Hare and the Passport

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on December 7, 2013
Posted in: Music. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Once upon a time, there was a bear who missed Christmas every year because he hibernated for the winter.  A hare decided this was sad, so left his sleeping friend a present of an alarm clock, which woke him on Christmas Day.  To do this, he enlisted the help of a Mr Lewis, who sold bits of Christmas to the local folk.   Mr Lewis thought it would be nice to tell the locals all about the hare’s plan, and they became so interested that they twittered about it to their friends far and wide.

the bear and the hare

This generated so much interest that Mr Lewis’ business grew and grew until he felt he just had to make a film about it and, as films have to have a title song, he enlisted the help of a famous songstress to sing it for him.  Mr Lewis played the song in his store, and it so enchanted the people who heard it that they wanted to buy their own copy.  So Mr Lewis manufactured a single that became so popular it topped the Hit Parade.   So where, you may ask, does the Passport come into this.  Well to tell you that part of the story, I need to take you far, far away, to another land – Somewhere Only Jobsworths Know. Continue Reading

Florence and the Interpretive Dance

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on March 14, 2012
Posted in: Gigs, Music. Tagged: , , , .

I cannot remember too many occasions when a harp has featured on the stage of a rock concert, except perhaps for visual effect or, during the late seventies, to provide the pretentious ending to a tedious Jon Anderson lyrical soliloquy.

But I certainly have never seen one used as a major instrument throughout a ninety-minute set – until yesterday when, for once, a band with the word ‘Machine’ in their name were anything but mechanical.  Added to which Florence Welsh is not merely a vocal force of nature, she also comes over as, quite simply, a lovely person; not something you can say too often about female leads in these days of ladette culture. Continue Reading