Meet you behind the bike-shed.

Music Night - Whoo Hoo!!!

8:19 AM, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 .. 3 comments .. Link

Keep changing your mind. It keeps you young.

For some reason I used to dislike piano music until I was probably into my 30’s. I have no valid reason, except perhaps that I was pressed into going to piano lessons when I was a kid, and when you’re a kid who just wants to play footy with the lads on the bomb-site, you really don’t want to go to piano lessons (or tell the lads about it). So that may have had some effect. Mind you, one thing I did learn was ‘bunking off’ – oh, and ‘shame’, when my dear grey-haired piano teacher came to our house, concerned for my health as I hadn’t been to lessons for two weeks… Anyway – somehow the veil suddenly lifted in my 30’s and I discovered Chopin and then Rachmaninov and suddenly I had a whole new musical world to explore. It was magical.

My musical revelation in my 40’s was modern music. I’d locked the door on that very firmly shortly after Prokofiev. Schoenberg… Webern… ‘atonal music’ (how the hell can you have atonal music?)… they all seemed as mad as organised religion. The dreaded words on Radio 3: “…and now the premiere of a new work…” made me lunge for the radio 'off' switch while shouting loudly “la la la la la la” just in case a bit of atonal, 12 tone, or orchestration for a “hoover and a bin lid …” music slipped out before I got there. And then… I watched “The Draughtsman’s Contract” on TV and was blown away by the music. What the hell was that? And so I discovered Michael Nyman, and then investigated a bit further and found the minimalists, and then more, and hey, goodbye veil, there were modern composers who were interesting, and fun, and musical, and didn’t use hoovers and bin lids. Rock on! Another door-lock picked and a room re-opened.

In my 50’s, it’s been Indie music and pub music. Pub music was always some embarrassing eejit singing ‘My Way’, or kids who were so bad they couldn’t even manage punk. But it’s not. Well - not always. By accident (i.e. I was drinking there anyway), I heard an amazing local group play in a local pub. I swear he played Voodoo Child almost as well as Hendrix. And in a local pub, packed to the rafters, it was bloody good fun – and free, with real ale on tap, and I didn’t have to travel into London, or tramp through muddy fields, or experience chemical toilets. Hey – good pub music down the road is the way to go! (If you ever see Richard Sharp, remember to request Voodoo Child…)

So tonight is music night at my local in Bramley. The guy playing tonight – Willie Austin - has been around the circuit for years, and now his daughter and two sons also both play in other groups (I swear his son is Keith Moon re-incarnated on drums – just watching him attack the drums makes me grin) and they all seem to just really enjoy what they are doing, and turn up at each other’s gigs. Now that’s great to see, and their fun comes across in the music too.

What shall I discover in my 60’s? Any suggestions? Gregorian chants? It can’t be country music, can it, surely not? I hate the stuff! Well… unless you could get Shania Twain to play down my local… now, I think I might just make an exception then.

Meet you behind the bike-shed.

Music Night - Whoo Hoo!!!

I love your blogs mate...

Aw...shucks...

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