Tag Archive for "on an island" tag

It’s Graham’s birthday today, so what better excuse could you possibly need to play all your favourites as written and sung throughout a distinguished career; first with The Hollies, then with Crosby, Stills & Nash and later with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as solo (five solo albums to date and counting, not including last year’s three-disc career retrospective, Reflections, which boasts over 30 previously unreleased tracks), and not forgetting session work (On an Island being one such case you can all recall without even trying)?

Best known for helping to create the most flawless of harmonies and for penning deeply meaningful lyrics, as well as for all those much-loved pop classics of the early Sixties, Graham, of resolute social conscience, has also been a loyal campaigner for issues that mean most to him, such as environmental causes (establishing NukeFree.org, for example).

He also gave his support – and song – to help Gary McKinnon’s campaign to challenge his extradition on charges of computer hacking. If you missed it or just want to enjoy it again, you can find ‘Chicago (Change the World)’ featuring David, Chrissie Hynde and Bob Geldof, with all-important download links, here.

Did you know that Graham is also a keen photographer and collector of photographs? If you share a passion for photography, have a look and perhaps, in addition to sharing which of Graham’s songs you like best, you can also comment on his diverse collection – there’s plenty to listen to whilst you browse.

Aside from the obvious (‘Just One Look’*, ‘Carrie Anne’, ‘Dear Eloise’, ‘King Midas in Reverse’, ‘Teach Your Children’, ‘Marrakesh Express’), a selection of my favourites would have to include ‘Postcard’, ‘Southbound Train’, ‘Helplessly Hoping’, ‘Liar’s Nightmare’, ‘Military Madness’ and this one, ‘On the Line’.

As a life-long Hollies fan, I’m really pleased to say that they will – finally! – be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next month in a ceremony at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria. It’s about bloody time, too.

Congratulations, and Happy Birthday, Graham.

* ‘Just One Look’, you may not know, was co-written by one Doris Troy/Payne, probably best remembered ’round these parts for being one of the acclaimed female backing vocalists on The Dark Side of the Moon. Here’s her 1963 original.

Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames were at the top of the singles chart in the UK with ‘Yeh Yeh’ on this day in 1965.

The song was originally recorded by legendary Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist and band leader Ramón “Mongo” Santamaria in 1963, and later that year, at the Newport Jazz Festival, with lyrics by Jon Hendricks of American jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross (by now Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan).

Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames were one of the most popular, and most jazz-influenced, R&B bands on the London club circuit in the Sixties. They had two other UK chart-topping singles: ‘Get Away’, in June 1966, and ‘The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde’, in December 1967. The latter was also a Top Ten hit stateside.

Singer, pianist and organist Georgie, a founder member of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, also enjoyed a successful solo career and became a much sought-after hired-hand; indeed, he can be heard on On an Island, played and acted as musical director on all of Van Morrison’s albums between 1989 and 1997, and has also worked with the likes of Count Basie, Eric Clapton, Gene Vincent and Muddy Waters.

Here’s the song, anyway. Get a load of the front row. And you thought only the youth of today has a tendency to appear empty-headed and expressionless.

Just kidding, kids.

The topic today, then, as I hear you scratching your puzzled brows: recommended, possibly jazz-influenced, tracks from your favourite keyboardists and organists (as opposed to pianists, as we’ve already covered them).

I can’t decide if it would be best to spend an hour or so listening to the glorious music that Richard Wright composed before or after I attempt this exercise. The one thing I can be sure of is that I will not be the only one likely to question whether there has ever been anyone I have enjoyed listening to more.

Wikipedia has a list of Hammond organ players, which of course includes Richard, and has reminded me of a few talented others. For example, Dave “Baby” Cortez, who also recorded ‘Yeh Yeh’ in 1965 and apparently gave us the first pop/rock hit to feature the organ as the lead instrument (‘The Happy Organ’ in 1959, which was also Billboard’s first instrumental Hot 100 No. 1, fact fans).

Which year had the best new music?

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

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If I’m honest, and I almost always am, if we didn’t start 2010 by looking back at 2009 in order to applaud the good and jeer the bad, I’d feel that something’s not quite right (much like the quibbling as to how this new year should be referred: is it ‘twenty-ten’ or ‘two-thousand-and-ten’?), so let’s start with the decade’s finest long-play offerings and maybe we’ll think about the tunes another time.

(I’m curious to learn if you’re playing, never mind buying, fewer albums in favour of single tracks; I know I am, and I can’t help but feel slightly sad about that whilst, at the same time, uncomfortably asking myself whether many of the albums I have recalled as high points of the past ten years are really good ‘albums’ or just decent collections of songs, some of which are really good.)

Anyway, The Times jumped the gun slightly and produced this diverse, yet somewhat incomplete, list in November.

Here’s mine, trimmed down to leave one from each year, which wasn’t difficult for 2003, but was considerably so for 2006. What a fine musical year that was.

On an Island is obviously a given, so, should you choose to nominate a favourite on a year-by-year basis as I have done, please list another from 2006.

- Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, The Blue Trees (2000)
- Starsailor, Love is Here (2001)
- The Mooney Suzuki, Electric Sweat (2002)
- Kings of Leon, Youth and Young Manhood (2003)
- Jet, Get Born (2004)
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Howl (2005)
- Neil Young, Living with War (2006)
- Eagles, Long Road Out of Eden (2007)
- Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (2008)
- Ray Davies, Kinks Choral Collection (2009)

Planet Rock is currently asking listeners to vote for the Greatest Solo Album.

Only those who were in established bands before they went solo count, so your Bob Dylans and David Bowies aren’t welcome on this occasion.

Ray Davies of Kinks fame has put out two corkers in recent years; I particularly enjoyed Other People’s Lives from 2006.

Don Henley can do no wrong in my book. Pete Townshend’s another prolific talent.

Two more that stand out are James Dean Bradfield’s The Great Western and Richard Ashcroft’s Alone with Everybody.

We all know that John Lennon’s Imagine will probably win, but Paul McCartney’s Electric Arguments has some great tunes (which you can listen to here). We shouldn’t forget Run Devil Run either, where David joined his Beatle chum to play some good, old-fashioned Rock and Roll.

If you’d like to vote, you have until this Friday to do so. Voters will be entered into a prize draw to win a DAB radio.

The Top 10 will be revealed on Saturday 26 September and repeated on Thursday 1 October. As always, everyone can listen to Planet Rock online.

I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that you all vote for On an Island, About Face and/or David Gilmour, but I would like to know which others you’re most fond of.

David made a surprise appearance at Ronnie Scott’s in Soho last night, joining ‘On an Island’ colleagues Phil Manzanera and Leszek Możdżer – as well as drummer, Charles Hayward, and bassist, Yaron Stavi – on stage for ‘Autumn Leaves’, Sidney Bechet’s ‘Petite Fleur’ and Miles Davis’ ‘Filles de Kilimanjaro’.

The chatroom will be open from 16:00 (UK) today, if you care to call in.

If you were unable to catch David and the band performing on Later… with Jools Holland back in September, and haven’t discovered the performance anywhere online since, part of the broadcast footage is now available for your guilt-free viewing pleasure over on the ‘Live in GdaÅ„sk’ page.

‘The Blue’ (from ‘On an Island’) can be found there, as well as some chat.

Although it really does seem like only yesterday, this was originally televised on 26 September 2008.

Other performances on the celebrated show, or its New Year’s special, Hootenanny, include appearances with BB King (in December 1997), Paul McCartney (in November 1999) and Mica Paris (in November 2001). Not forgetting, of course, the visit in May during the 2006 tour, where David Crosby and Graham Nash particularly shone.

Have I forgotten any others, and do you have a favourite?

Oh, and if you were hopeful of breaking news about a forthcoming appearance, I do apologise.

Here’s November’s. (Yes, just 29 days until Christmas, folks…)

It’s the very well-read Pawel, with his signed copy of ‘On an Island’.

Thanks for sending it in, Pawel.

If you haven’t seen it yet, do have a look at the new GdaÅ„sk microsite. Comments welcome.

Also, if you’re in the States, you can catch ‘Live in GdaÅ„sk’ – and lots more – as part of VH1’s all-day Pink Floyd Thanksgiving fest. That’s from 11:00 (EST).

Other programmes include the ‘Which One’s Pink?’ documentary, The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story, a Classic Albums special on the making of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, footage from the ‘P.U.L.S.E’ DVD and ‘The Wall’ film. Nothing that you haven’t seen before, I expect, but still.

There are also plenty of the usual repeats coming up. Please see the calendar for those.

Some extra ‘randomness’ (just in case the word ‘nonsense’ offends anyone, perish the thought) to get us started this week.

With the impressive artwork which graced record sleeves, particularly in the Seventies, hopefully relatively fresh in the memory from the last-but-one poll, I’d like to know which you think are the most iconic album covers (from any artist, from any decade – but no more than ten, please).

I’d also like to know which is your favourite from David’s three studio releases: ‘David Gilmour’, ‘About Face’ and ‘On an Island’.

And, because they deserve a list of their own, which are your favourites from Pink Floyd?

Remember, it’s just the cover art, not the music.

This is the one I picked as my favourite for July.

Possibly one of the youngest fans to attend an ‘On an Island’ concert anywhere – with mum, Rachael.

Thanks for sharing one of your snaps from the Paramount gig with us, Rachael.

Our Flashback series continues this weekend, as we’ll be looking back to the concert at Klam.

If you were fortunate enough to have tickets for that, or any of the summer shows, please have your stand-out memories at the ready, because we’d love to reminisce with you.

As usual, there will be a post for each gig, and you can still leave your comments for the ones we’ve already covered; just use the Archives drop-down menu on the right to locate the month you need, or select ‘Tour’ under Categories and scroll ’til you need scroll no more.

If you missed today’s chat, the chatroom will re-open on Monday at 12:00 (UK).

Until then, have a good weekend.

Here’s June’s.

This beautiful image was captured by Comfortably Dumb (Comfy, if you chat with us). It’s the Greek island of Kastellorizo, known as Megisti in ancient times. You’ll know it better as Castellorizon, one of the inspirations behind David’s ‘On an Island’ album.

Do click the picture for a closer look.

Keep your creative juices flowing and your cameras snapping. If you’ve been anywhere that you were somehow able to connect to David and ‘On an Island’, we want to see where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to. Just get it online and let me know the URL.

We’d love to see your favourite holiday snaps, if you’ve ever visited Kastellorizo.

Your artistic creations and pictures of your pets modelling tour merchandise are also most welcome. If there’s a place for it here, I’ll find it.

Thanks again to Comfy for sharing this stunning scene.

Who wants to go there right now for a week of tranquil bliss?

These extra discs that we’ve been talking about…

Well, you’ve asked about it on more than one occasion, so here it is: a 5.1 surround-sound mix of ‘On an Island’.

You get that with the four-disc package, by the way. Packaged in cardboard, with a 12-page booklet. That’s two live CDs, one live DVD (114 minutes of concert footage from GdaÅ„sk, plus a 36-minute documentary)…

Plus an extra DVD which, as well as the 5.1 audio, also has 11 bonus audio-visual tracks, three of which are never-before-heard Barn jams (from January 2007), courtesy of David, Richard Wright, Guy Pratt and Steve DiStanislao.

The other tracks are from the Mermaid Theatre (‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, ‘Wearing The Inside Out’, ‘Comfortably Numb’), AOL Sessions (‘On an Island’, ‘High Hopes’) and Live from Abbey Road (‘The Blue’, ‘Take a Breath’, ‘Echoes’).

So, hands up who will be able to listen to ‘On an Island’ in 5.1…

A bit more information about this ‘Live in GdaÅ„sk’ thingy, then.

First, the release date is 15 22 September for Europe, 16 23 September for North America.

As you’d expect, it’s a double-album, but you’ll be able to get a copy with a bonus DVD, if you want it.

This DVD will have 114 minutes of concert footage from Gdańsk, plus a 36-minute documentary.

The concert footage includes all of ‘On an Island’ – this was performed with the Polish Baltic Philharmonic, conducted by Zbigniew Preisner – plus ‘Astronomy Domine’ and ‘Echoes’.

So, a live DVD, as many of you were hoping. What do you think about that?

More surprises over the weekend. Have a good one.

David’s ‘Live in GdaÅ„sk’ album, I’m so glad to say, is going to be carbon neutral.

Both ‘On an Island’ and ‘Remember That Night’ were CarbonNeutral releases, using the most environmentally-friendly packaging available instead of traditional (evil) plastic.

In keeping with the green theme, I’d like to know five very simple things that you’ve been doing to reduce your carbon footprint. So simple, in fact, that everyone could do the same and it really wouldn’t seem as though any real effort was being expended.

These small things might seem silly, and you might not believe that the minor actions of one insignificant human being can make a jot of difference on a global scale, particularly when industry and air travel seem to be sticking two fingers up at the compost heap and solar panels in your back garden. But it’s something, and I happen to believe that old, often misused quote: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem (or even the precipitate, if you prefer four syllables to two and have a fondness for chemistry jokes).

So, five things that you do regularly to try and help the planet, if you can, please. Inspire us.

There’s been no word on a delayed release date as yet, by the way, so “mid-September… hopefully” is still looking good for ‘Live in GdaÅ„sk’. Keep those fingers – and toes – crossed that it stays that way.

They asked (told?) you to wave your arms in the air and, boy, did you wave them?

Whether you were there or not, if you have any memories from seeing David and the band perform for ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’, approximately two years ago – aside from the swaying and arm-waving, that is – don’t keep them to yourself.

What did you think of the show? How does it compare with others that feature live music? Do you have a favourite television performance by David? If you can share it without pointing anyone towards YouTube (there, I’ve just done it for you) and remember that offering to make copies of television broadcasts is a no-no, that would be grand.

Thanks to everyone for their flashback memories of the ‘On An Island’ tour’s first 20 concerts. They’ve been a pleasure to read. There are another 12 to come, so please be prepared to cough up more of the same for Manchester, Glasgow, London, Klam, Munich, Vienne, Florence, Venice and GdaÅ„sk.

The chatroom is closed today, but will be open tomorrow between 16:00 and 18:00 (UK).

Two years ago this very weekend, the ‘On An Island’ tour rolled into that wonderful town – Chicago – for two nights at the Rosemont Theatre (yes, it’s Theatre, not Theater).

Your thoughts, if you were in attendance, please. We’d love to know what you remember most clearly from these shows.

If you wish to enjoy the initial reaction to these concerts all over again, there were some great comments submitted immediately after both Wednesday’s, and Thursday’s, performances.

And, for a change, here’s a photo of a cat. (Thanks for sending in your picture, Violet.)

Have a good weekend, everyone.

It’s two years to the day since David and the band were in Toronto for a two-night residency at Massey Hall.

Were you there? If so, do let us know.

There was a great atmosphere at these gigs, by all accounts. Guy thought the first night was one of the band’s best performances. Your thoughts on this, as always, are most welcome.

If you have nothing better to do today, why not look over the fan comments for the tour’s 13th and 14th shows?

The chatroom is closed today, but will be open tomorrow between 15:00 and 17:00 (UK).

New York was the first stop on the North American leg of the ‘On An Island’ tour.

There were two shows, on Tuesday 4 April and Wednesday 5 April, both of which were at Radio City Music Hall.

David Crosby and Graham Nash were surprise guests.

Were you there, too? Looking back, what are your fondest memories from these nights?

The chatroom will be open from 13:00 (UK) today.

Thank you for all your DVD Easter Eggs comments. It was nice to know that you found everything.

Here’s what’s hidden – and ‘hidden’ – on the ‘Remember That Night’ DVD:

Disc One

Nothing much here, but it was quite enjoyable letting you believe that there could be something other than Wireman serving ice cream after ‘Where We Start’ (if you chose to ‘Play All’). If you hadn’t noticed it, give it a try.

Disc Two

Starting with everyone’s favourite…

The impromptu acoustic ‘Echoes’ from Abbey Road immediately follows ‘Dark Globe’, but only if you select ‘Dark Globe’ from the menu. You miss it if you choose to ‘Play All’.

David playing the cümbüş (on a yacht, back in 1993) can be found if you wait for a firework to appear on the main menu. You have to be quick with your remote control’s Enter/OK button.

Some fans dancing at the Royal Albert Hall to a dance remix of ‘On An Island’ can be enjoyed (?) if you catch the firework on the ‘Royal Albert Hall’ sub-menu. Again, be quick.

The documentary, ‘Breaking Bread, Drinking Wine’, has bonus footage/extended scenes – as explained at the start. Press Enter/OK when you see Wireman appear in the top-right. Titles and times are as follows:

Guy’s Tour Bag: 0:19:42
Wine Glasses: 0:26:14
Philadelphia Story: 0:37:40
Burano Trip: 0:40:56

Wireman is your prompt during ‘The Making of ‘On an Island”, too. There are eight bonus clips of David discussing the album. No imaginative titles for these ones, but here are the times, should you need to know them: 0:01:02, 0:04:05, 0:06:44, 0:09:03, 0:10:07, 00:12:03, 0:13:40 and 0:15:09.

So, that’s it.

Thanks again for your patience in waiting for this list, not to mention your efforts in finding the goodies.

The tenth ‘On An Island’ concert was in Rome. It was also the European mainland’s final show… or so we all thought.

After this, the band took a short break and headed to the States.

If you were in attendance at the Auditorium Parco della Musica two years ago, let us know.

This photo (yes, with added fret markers, we know) turned out to be the cover for David’s ‘Remember That Night’ DVD.

The chatroom is open today from 11:30 (UK).

There were two gigs in Milan: the eighth and ninth dates of the tour were held at the beautiful Teatro Arcimboldi, the first of which was exactly two years ago.

If you were there, we’d love to hear from you.

If you weren’t there, take solace from knowing that, together, we’re going to re-visit all the other concerts from the ‘On An Island’ tour. Maybe you’ll be able to share a memory or two a little later.

This photo isn’t in the Galleries, so do click it for a closer look.

Alternatively, click here to read-up on the first Milan show, and here to read-up on the second.