Where Worlds Collide

I didn’t see Amy Winehouse’s Glastonbury set on BBC2, and I’m not sure I really want to. I’m not particularly a fan, and by all accounts it was a car-crash; a shambling performance from an anorexic drug addict too drunk to perform properly.

Of course, it was predictable that some third-rate NME hack would proclaim it a work of genius. This toxic little squit appears to imply that it’s necessary for someone to be that screwed-up in order to produce great art, and anyone that disagrees is ‘Daily Mail’.

He claims she “is an icon because she can articulate pain and heartbreak through her songs”. I’ve seen more than one person articulating genuine pain and heartbreak through their songs in the past year and a bit, and not one of them is screwed-up drug addict that will be dead within a year if they don’t clean up.

This post is turning into a bit of a rant, I’m afraid. But I have complete contempt for people that idolise such self-destructive behaviour, or voyeuristically gawp at it.

Continuing the Book Meme, the bottom third of the list.

100. James Herbert
Oh dear. Juvenile hack horror I read back when I was young and stupid. I suppose he’s not quite as bad as the awful Guy N Smith.

97. Charles Stross
Definitely a current favourite. I first came into contact with Stross’s work through the world of blogging, and since then I’ve been on a major Stross binge over the past 18 months. First one I read was “Accellerando” a couple of years back, and his imagination was so overwhelmingly powerful it gave me a sort of mental vertigo. He’s far more than a one-trick pony; he’s done near-future conspiracy (Halting State), parallel-worlds fantasy (The Merchant Princes series), so-called “New Space Opera” (Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise) and surreal black comedy (The Atrocity Archives).

95. Brian W. Aldiss
I’ve found his 60s “new wave” work rather uneven, but his later “Helliconia” trilogy remains one of the best examples of SF worldbuilding I’ve read.

94. Ken MacLeod
I think I’ve read most of what he’s published. I loved his first couple of books, but felt he’d got into a bit of a rut, writing books that were entertaining at the time, but tended repeat the same tropes book after book. And he tends to wear his libertarian-socialist politics on his sleeve at times. But his last two, the first-contact story “Learning the World”, and the very dark near future “Execution Channel”, seem to show him breaking out of that rut.

93. Olaf Stapledon
Only read his two best-known books, “First and Last Men” and “Star Maker”. Chilly, and rather dated. I can’t imagine anyone writing a novel today with no real characters and no dialogue whatsoever.

91. Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Read his Arabesque trilogy plus “Stamping Butterflies”. Intriguing cyberpunky stuff, often quite complexly plotted.

90. Christopher Priest
“Inverted World”. One book that’s given me actual nightmares, which I put down to compellingly good writing.

86. M. John Harrison
Only read “Pastel City”, which for some reason I could never really get into.

84. Kim Stanley Robinson
Only read the Mars Trilogy; entertaining hard-SF read although I wonder how on earth some of the flakier characters managed to get past the sort of psychological tests that would be needed to get on a manned Mars mission.

80. Joe Haldeman
“The Forever War” is the necessary counter to Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”

78. George Orwell
“And they looked from man to pig, and from pig to man….”

75. Julian May
I loved her Pliocene Exiles saga, felt the ‘prequel’ Intervention series was a bit forced, and found her next one (for which I can’t even remember the name) very disappointing. I’m forced to conclude this is a writer who peaked early.

73. Robert Silverberg
I’ve only read a couple of his later works, which I get the impression are a bit more lightweight than his earlier books.

70. Larry Niven
I read a lot of his ‘known space’ novels at an impressionable age. Good scientific and engineering ideas but flawed by embarrasingly wooden characterisation and poor plotting. Good at ideas, not so good at telling stories.

69. Alfred Bester
Read his 50s classics, “Tiger! Tiger!” and “The Demolished Man”, and they’re both good.

67. Jack Vance
Quite possibly my favourite author. I love his mannered prose style, and the way he seems to paint pictures with words. The epitome of ‘soft SF’, concerned with cultures and societies rather than mechanics of how spaceships work; his starships are plot devices to transports the characters to exotic worlds and the baroque cultures that exist there.

The Ministry of Information has picked up the lastest meme doing the rounds, which is to copy SFX Magazine’s list of top science fiction and fantasy authors, list the ones you’ve read, and say a few words on each.

I’ll do this one in several parts, starting with a list of those authors I’ve not actually read, and haven’t really got anything to say about. In most cases I do recognise the name, and one or two are on my ‘to read’ list.

99. Gwyneth Jones
98. Sara Douglass
96. Terry Goodkind
92. Michael Marshall Smith
89. Jonathan Carroll
88. Scott Lynch
87. David Weber
85. Jacqueline Carey
83. Theodore Sturgeon
82. J.V. Jones
81. Joe Abercrombie
79. Simon Clark
77. Samuel R. Delany
76. Charles de Lint
74. Edgar Rice Burroughs
72. Susanna Clarke
71. Stanislaw Lem
68. Katherine Kerr
65. Marion Zimmer Bradley
64. Richard Matheson
62. Elizabeth Haydon
61. Terry Brooks
60. Richard Morgan
58. Jennifer Fallon
57. Mercedes Lackey
55. Harlan Ellison
54. Jasper Fforde
53. Octavia Butler
51. Robert E. Howard
50. Sherri S. Tepper
47. Jules Verne
46. Alastair Reynolds
44. Clive Barker
43. Jim Butcher
42. Tad Williams
40. Trudi Canavan
37. Alan Moore
31. Lois McMaster Bujold
29. Anne McCaffrey
28. Steven Erikson
26. Guy Gavriel Kay
22. Philip Pullman
21. Robin Hobb
16. J.K. Rowling
12. David Gemmell
10. Robert Rankin

There are a couple of them I recognise from quotes - Theodore Sturgeon is known for Sturgeon’s Law, which states that 90% of everything is rubbish, and this applies across all genres, and presumably all media. And Mercedes Lackey gave the famous quote “Clichés are useful shorthand for readers”. I parsed this to read “Don’t bother to read her books, you’ll find them clichéd”.

Psycho Chicken has let loose the Seven Songs meme again.

1. Mostly Autumn - Tearing at the Faerytale
2. Mostly Autumn - Unoriginal Sin
3. Blue Öyster Cult - Astronomy
4. Fairport Convention - Tam Lin
5. Breathing Space - The Gap Is Too Wide
6. Opeth - Burden
7. Uriah Heep - What Kind of God

Four out of the seven are songs I’ve seen live recently, in some cases more than once. And yes, I know I’ve listed one song by the band that have been playing it live, not the band that originally recorded it.

On RMWeb, there’s a thread on 1923 Grouping. While the initial post was about the reasons behind the grouping (it was an alternative to nationalisation, which was seen as too radical a step in 1923), it’s spawned a side-discussion on alternatives.

For example, what if, rather than the government imposing the big four, they’d instead changed the law to make it much easier for railway companies to merge, and let the market decide which groups would form? We probably wouldn’t have seen the uncomfortable forced marriage between the LNWR and the Midland, for starters.

One scenario that sounds interesting would be a merger between the Midland and the LSWR, forming a network stretching from the Scottish border (and probably beyond, as a Midland-GSWR merger would be likely) to Cornwall. To counter that, the Great Western might merge with the Great Central to form a rival network with a very similar national footprint. This gives a couple of big company networks that will be very different from any of the historical ‘big four’. I wonder what they might have looked like? Would either of them have gone for large-scale electrification?

Blue Öyster Cult are my favourite American band. In recent years they’ve come over to the UK every couple of years. Last time they came over was 2006, so I figured they must be due over again this year. And lo! a tour was annouced! Last time I said to myself I’d try and get to multiple dates, but in the end Manchester turned out to be the only one I could make. The gig moved from the smaller Academy 3, where they’d played last time, to the larger Academy 2. I asked the doorman how many tickets they’d sold, and he told me they’d sold 600 in advance, half again the capacity of Academy 3, which explains why they moved it. If it wasn’t completely sold out, it was a pretty good crowd; and enthusiastic too; who was the guy behind me shouting for “The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein’s Castle in Wessaria”? Beats “Grendel” at Marillion gigs, I suppose.

I was underwhelmed by support band Rolling Thunder. Instrumentally they were pretty tight, and their guitarist, though a bit too much of a showoff, had good chops. Unfortunately their frontman was a far better poseur than a singer, and they suffered from a critical lack of memorable songs.

With Allen Lanier absent due to ill-health, this tour saw Danny Miranda return on bass, with previous bassist Richie Castellano moving over to rhythm guitar and keys. As you’d expect from the last night of a tour, they were pretty tight, Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma on great form vocally, and Buck reeling off some wonderful solos, reminding me just why I rate him so highly as a guitarist.

BÖC always vary their setlists a lot from tour to tour, and even night to night, and you never know quite what they’re going to play, they always manage to throw in some surprises. This was a great setlist; opening with “This Ain’t the Summer of Love” and “Career of Evil”, we got personal favourites of mine, “Shooting Shark” and “The Golden Age of Leather”. And Astronomy.

Astronomy is my favourite BÖC song, in fact one of my favourite songs by any band. Although it’s always been regularly rotated in and out of the setlist, I’ve never heard them play it live on the five previous occasions I’ve seen the band. So I’ve waited for 28 years to hear this song live. So when I heard that opening guitar figure and a huge cheer went up.

Occasionally hearing a favourite song after a long wait can be an anticlimax. This wasn’t. The version they played was utterly spellbinding, with Buck Dharma playing what might well have been the best extended solo I’ve ever heard him play.

They closed the set with the usual standards, “Godzilla”, complete with bass solo, drum solo, and a brief Queen medley, and of course “Don’t Fear the Reaper”.

Sadly the strict curfew meant the band couldn’t come back for an encore, which left what had been a great evening ending a little flat. But that was soon forgotten; it was still a fantastic gig; they may be old, they may not have released a good record for ages, but they still rock live.

Another Mostly Autumn tour has come to an end. This time I managed to get to six dates, two of which I’ve previously reviewed in full on this blog.

The band had gone through a lot of personnel changes from last years spring tour - gone were Gavin Griffiths and Chris Johnson, busy touring with Fish, and Angie Gordon, taking an extended career break following the birth of her daughter at the end of last year. We saw the welcome return of Liam Davidson and Iain Jennings, Anne Marie Helder continuing in the role she took on from Angie at the end of last year, and welcomed the new drummer Henry Bourne. The new version of the band gelled pretty quickly. I really hadn’t realised how much I’d missed Iain’s keyboard playing until he was back; whether it was that Hammond solo on “Never the Rainbow”, or the delicate piano playing on a great many songs. Same with Liam; while having just the one guitar last year gave Bryan more space, having two guitars does make for a much bigger sound. Liam’s not really a rhythm guitarist as such, while he doesn’t play much in the way of solos, much of what he plays is lead runs, often doubling up with Bryan.

Anne-Marie Helder has really fitted in well; she’s a very different personality to Angie Gordon; one of the strongest images I have of this tour is Anne Marie really going for it on the tambourine during “Never the Rainbow”. The choice of songs meant she didn’t play as much flute as Angie did last year; but her contributions as a backing singer were very prominent.

Henry Bourne is a fantastic drummer. The two drummers last year, Gavin Griffiths and Andy Jennings, had different strengths; but Henry seems to combine the best of both; he’s powerful when the songs needs it; can do complex stuff when required, but never overdrums with over-ornate fills when it’s not appropriate. For this band and their music, he’s perhaps the best drummer I’ve seen with the band. And he’s a really nice guy as well.

And hats off to Heather Findlay, six months pregnant by the end of the tour. Playing a two hour show singing lead must be very hard work in her condition, but she sang flawlessly throughout the tour. And she still manages to look fantastic.

I wasn’t at the very first show, at Bilston, although I’ve heard it said that they were a bit rusty in the first half, and took a while to get going. I did get to the second, in Gloucester, and that one was an absolute blinder. Leicester was shortly after the sad death of Howard Sparnenn, and the band were rather subdued that night for obvious reasons. The next one in Crewe was the weakest of the tour, where poor sound and a lot of niggling technical problems took the edge off things. Eight days later in Bury the band were firing on all cylinders again. A couple of weeks later in Lincoln was the best one I saw on the tour; a superbly tight and emotionally intense performance helped by a crystal clear sound mix. The final date at the brand new venue in Stocksbridge just outside Sheffield was another good one, apart from a few niggling problems with the venue (and a bad case of gig talkers - who in their right mind pays 15 quid to see a band then loudly discusses the football with their mates?).

Apart from a couple of changes very early on, they stuck to the same setlist all tour, the only changes being in the running order, with the piano ballad “Above the Blue” alternating between the later part of the second set, and the first encore. While I’d love to have heard more songs from the new album “Glass Shadows”, I have to admit this was a very strong setlist indeed - it was lovely to hear “Simple Ways” and “Another Life” from the previously-neglected “Passengers” album. They’ve rested a few oldies, such as “The Dark Before the Dawn”, and only a couple of songs from “Heart Full of Sky” remain in the set.

It’s difficult to pick out highlights; that superb “Carpe Diem” at Bury, “Unoriginal Sin” which grew and grew in intensity as the tour went on; some real lump-in-the-throat versions of “Tearing at the Faerytale” and “Heroes Never Die”. Even oldies like “Nowhere to Hide” and “Spirit of Autumn Past” seem to have gained a lot of power on this tour, especially towards the end.

Those who wrote the band off because they didn’t like “Heart Full of Sky” don’t know what they’ve been missing.

It’s another five weeks until their appearance at the Cambridge Rock Festival, which will be their list appearance before Heather goes on maternity leave. I’m guessing there won’t be an extended spring tour next year other than the limited number of dates in February.

See you at Cambridge!

Swedish death prog metallers Opeth have done it again! I wondered if their ninth album “Watershed” could possibly top 2005′s superb “Ghost Reveries”. But with this new one, they’ve taken their mix of Scandinavian cookie-monster death metal and 70s pastoral English prog to yet another level.

There’s a bit less of the old cookie monster on this one; Michael Åkerfeldt sings ‘clean’ on quite a few of the heavier parts as well as the many quieter sections. But the appeal to me has always been the complex symphonic instrumentation rather than the vocals, with Åkerfeldt’s voice as another instrument. These guys are superb musicians, but never once descend into self-indulgent widdling. Åkerfeldt comes over as a composer first, and a muso second. And that’s how it should be.

It’s got all the trademark Opeth sounds; dense swirling guitars, piledrivingly heavy sections giving way to gentler acoustic passages, and some beautiful twin guitar harmonies with Michael Åkerfeldt and new guitarist Fredrik Åkesson. Per Wiberg’s keys are more fully integrated into the band’s sound on this disk; check out the fantastic Hammond organ solo on “Burden” (And I bet that’s a genuine B3, not a synth with a Hammond patch!). And naturally there’s plenty of Mellotron.

While there are still many extremely heavy moments, the balance seems tilted slightly more in favour of quieter more atmospheric parts; you can hear a strong Camel influence in one or two places. Out-and-out metal fans might not rate it quite as highly as their early work, but prog fans who liked their decidedly non-metal “Damnation” will find much here to enjoy. For me, its the contrast between the lighter and heavier sides of their music that accounts for a lot of their appeal.

Postie delivered the new Uriah Heep album “Wake The Sleeper“. Two or three songs in and it sounds impressive. Not being a music journalist I’ll listen to the whole thing a couple of times before writing a review.

Coldplay have postponed their world tour for two weeks, citing “production delays”. The Guardian wonders why:

Chris Martin can’t remember the new lyrics? The dancers can’t fit into their leotards? The band are struggling with a new carbon-offsetting mango forest project?

Or perhaps one of the band is pregnant? Or Chris Martin has viral laryngitis, and he knew there were some people out there who would have rejoiced in his fall and who would bury him under the “his voice is permanently shot”? Or maybe a key venue has been double-booked with a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band…

Or maybe it’s more sinister. Perhaps the final date of the tour was rearranged to a date when The Stars Are Right? The last encore of the final date of the tour completes the blasphemous ritual that causes the sunken city of R’lyeh to rise, and releases the tentacled Elder Gods into our dimension. It all makes sense now…