Word Hoard

Back in the mid 80’s I became an avid listener of the John Peel show on BBC radio 1. I like to think that John Peel had some influence on the BBC radio 2 shows that followed his – back then Radio 1 used to go off air at midnight to be replaced by Radio 2 on the FM wave band. I remember one night being totally gobsmacked as a guest on a Radio 2 show played “Wedding Bells” by Crass. I also remember on one insomnia tinged night hearing “Snowblind” by Black Sabbath.

Any way I digress. One of the things Mr Peel did so well was play “interesting” music – all genres – all decades. I like many used to have a blank cassette in my tape/radio to record the show. Especially the festive 50. If the BBC have an archive of the festive 50 shows they should be copied and kept safely in a museum. They are, in my opinion a fantastic record of the best of alternative pop music from the years they were broadcast. Thankfully the BBC website has a page dedicated to the shows broadcast as the Festive 50’s.

On the aforementioned web page there is a list of the top 3 tracks for each year for the decades 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s. For me the most interesting is the 1970’s which starts at 1976 (I think I’m right in saying that the festive 50 was for “all time” favourite records during these years – yes according to the website it changed over to best tracks of the year in ‘82):-

1. Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven
2. Derek & the Dominoes – Layla
3. Bob Dylan – Desolation Row

1977

1. The Motors – Dancing the Night Away
2. Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking
3. The Motors – You Beat The Hell Out of Me

1978

1. Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
2. The Clash – Complete Control
3. Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen

1979

1. Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
2. Undertones – Teenage Kicks
3. The Clash – White Man In Hammersmith Palais

How much did British popular music change in those four years?

I’m glad to say that British radio (especially BBC Radio 6) still seems to carry the John Peel flag. It is also a testament to Mr Peel that in 2005 Glastonbury festival renamed the “New bands” stage after him.

Every now and then you get one of those cds (I was going to type “Albums” but that would be showing my age!) that simply blows you away. Such a CD is Mastodon’s “Crack the Skye”. I first heard Mastodon one evening at a rock night. The track was “The Czar” from “Crack the Skye” and I asked the DJ who the band was and he told me ’twas Mastodon and the track was from their new cd. I’d heard of them vaguely but not actually listened to any of their music. Purely on the strength of that one track, which I latter found out to be the fourth track on the cd and a four part epic, I ordered the cd. On first listen I was hooked.

I’m not a huge “metal” fan, I like a lot of bands that fit into that genre, but find a lot of it dull and unimaginative. Crack the Skye certainly is not that. The opening track “Oblivion” starts with a simple guitar riff that builds as the rest of the band come in until the vocals start and it changes to a chopping rhythm, then well see for yourself…

And that is just the first track. The second track on the cd “Divinations” intros with a banjo then into guitar and wham!

I won’t do a track by track. ‘Twould be better to discover it for yourself dear reader.

The fact that the album has more than a few proggy leanings and influences probably accounts for a lot of the reasons why I like it. I haven’t been so totally into a cd for ages, you know that feeling you like it so much it almost hurts!

I thoroughly recommend Crack the Skye. Thank you Mastodon, can’t wait for your next cd.

I got around to watching “Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements” last night (thank goodness for recording technology!).  It was thoroughly entertaining.  I was really surprised though that there wasn’t a lot about Pink Floyd and I may be wrong, but no mention of Van der Graaf Generator and Peter Hammill.  Maybe the intention was to focus on the more successful bands?

It would have been nice to have a passing mention at least on the non British bands that were around at the time, and modern bands that are carrying the prog flag as it were.

It also bemused me more than a little that as part of the Prog rock “season” that the Genesis concert shown was from their least proggy phase.

After I wrote the last post I was browsing the web and found some sad news.  Davy Graham had passed away that very same day.

Goodbye Mr Graham.

His official website, Obituary Telegraph online

I was more than pleased to see, as I was looking through the Radio Times Christmas edition that BBC4 are going to be showing a series called Prog Rock Britannia.  Prog has been a long standing passion of mine and the Folk Britannia series was excellent.  I learned a lot about british folk music from it and discovered Davy Graham (there is a also a clip on Youtube of the Folk Britannia bit about Davy) for the first time and had to come to terms with just how much folk music I really did like.

Prog or Progressive rock as it is fully named, is an odd one though.  People cringe at the very name.  I’ve even heard it said that Punk was a direct reaction to its excesses.

I remember in my early teens hearing prog and related bands for the first time.  I wasn’t “into” music that much at the time, didn’t have any records as such,  and only really listened to the chart music of the time, which thankfully did contain a few gems as Punk was just rearing its spiky little head.  A friend had an older brother whose record collection was huge and full of the cream of early seventies rock.  It was an education from which grew an eclectic love of music.