A Lark Ascending

I just wonder how much interest there is in the Beatles amongst younger listeners. The kids I teach are aware of them because they absorb their parents record music collections in a way that I know I didn't (conscious rejection was much more common). But the Beatles are part of a bigger jukebox that includes Abba and Queen as equal partners (certainly in the UK). I've been at work socials with 20-something staff that have ended again and again with drunken communal singing of 'Dancing Queen' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. I don't recall one where Beatles songs were sung. Younger folk don't have our obsession with hierarchies - the 'importance' of the Beatles. They listen for fun. I can recall a big Beatles revival in the UK in the early 80s, and again in the 90s when Oasis were big and championed them. But I have a feeling that they are part of a much wider soundtrack now, much less likely to attract obsessive devotion amongst new, young listeners. Young listeners also tend to fillet the 'best' tracks, rather than go for whole albums. I have a suspicion that EMI might have missed the boat on this - 10-15 years ago was the time to catch the market with upgrades. Having said that, some of my 14-15 year olds were very excited about having Michael Jackson tickets for his forthcoming performances in the UK. So who knows!

I tend to put 'Vinyl is back' in the same box as 'The big bands are back.' Swallows and summers.

Perhaps...but I imagine (when I'm not imagining that there's no heaven) that most over 50s have either dumped their vinyl versions or have them in the loft or garage. Far easier to deal with a CD. Very few people (in my experience) have functioning turntables. Those that do tend to be vinyl nostalgics.

Vinyl fetishism is a minority sport even amongst we over 50s. I never had the White Album on LP; I did have Sgt. Pepper - it's up in the loft and would not even be there if I could make the effort to offload it along with all the other worn vinyl. Much as I like the Beatles, their LPs/CDs only come out on very rare occasions (though I did play 'A Hard Day's Night' earlier today - very enjoyable...but the CD will do me). I won't be needing an upgrade. In fact, I think I'm upgraded out in general now. Much happier buying things I've not heard (new or old). Maybe if they put the upgrades in e-music........

I suspect it has gone for good, Alex. Neil Ferber, who was the heart and soul of it, seemed to have been disheartened by the poor turnout in 2007 (the time of the endless rain and floods) and the sudden withdrawl of funding. I think I read he'd moved to Italy (the 2007 festival had a big Italian element which must have upped the cost).

Excellent book!!! Just finished this - excellent indeed. With a walk-on role by Conan Doyle who supported the protest movement against Leopold's Congo (whilst being a defender of British colonialism). Interesting to read of Sir Roger Casement's role - I know him only for his part in the Easter Rising. Though I've come across mention of of his humanitarian work before I'd not realised how extensive it was.

There are other ways of drawing attention to yourself. Try the haiku approach - minimalist two or three word interventions in threads you are not really interested in, generally barking at people there for not sharing your views. Or if you are particularly insecure, find the minor celebrities on the board and tell them how much you've learned from them; when they bark at you, tell them how much you appreciate their plain speaking. I prefer the 'Why are you still all talking about America?' approach to attention seeking. Doesn't seem to work very well. Someone posted a wonderful site that identifies scores of internet types with cartoons and definitions. You recognise everyone you've ever met on an internet site...including, embarrassingly, yourself! Can't recall the name. Edit: Ah! This is the one: Flame Warriors

Good luck with all of these, Alex. You seem to be moving in heavy company. What a pity Appleby is still not running - I suspect I'd have got to hear you at the Freezone.

'Facing You' is one of the foundation records in my jazz collection - still my favourite Jarrett. I didn't get to hear 'Open to Love' until about 25 years later, but Idu Lupino soon became one of those tunes that can make me buy a record. Both records seem to have a similar feel, despite Jarrett's more florid approach. I'd not want to be without either.

I live acouple of hours from Boston so don't know the area at all. I did find this: http://www.bostonstandard.co.uk/news/When-...orld.3630877.jp There's even a book: "Goin' to the Dance: A Personal History of the Boston Gliderdrome"

And next year:

You are truly blessed with your view, Chris. I rather like the curve. Here's an anticipation from the early 19thC of that photographic effect: Casper David Friedrich - my favourite painter. Worth a trip to Berlin just to see his stuff. A place I drive past twice a day - finally got to get a photo of its wonderful spring display: The weather went overcast on me and then the sky went strange:

Just re-read Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' - I last read it around 1973 and didn't really get it. Still not an easy read but very powerful. Has led me to:

Why do the Saturday operas on Radio 3 start so late?

Awesome!: Anyone know a ten step programme to stop me posting like a character from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure? *********** Top Ho!: you can learn to post about jazz the Bertie Wooster Way Begob and Begorrah!: you can learn to post about jazz in stage Irish. Both part of the 'Learn to post about jazz in an affected regional patois' series.

March ticked off. Dave O'Higgins quartet with Eric Alexander. Very enjoyable hard boppy/Rollinsy/Coltraney night. Special mention for pianist Tom Cawley who I've only previously heard in the more punkified Acoustic Ladyland - some inspired and very distinctive playing. He might have been really fired up as he was playing on his home turf (Lincoln). Packed hall too! One of the strangest places I've heard jazz - the Lincoln Drill Hall which seems to be a refurbished hall once used by something like the Territorial Army. A huge war memorial on the wall in the entrance area. Nice place, nonetheless, with good sound. Outside: Inside:

Kevin Coyne Recommendations? Well, in his lifetime, not to sit in the first few rows. I did c. 1974/5 and was nearly hit by a chair he hurled across the stage which flew off and into the audience. Clearly a punk a couple of years ahead of his time.

The move from shopping in stores to online shopping is just one aspect of the present day drift from a communal society to a society of more-or-less isolated individuals. I don't think that's really so. More a piece of Sunday supplement paranoia. In my experience most people seem able to enjoy the benefits of the net...and still go out and mix with others in real life,

I remember it as a late teenager/student. At that age everyone buys records. But after that I've always found it a pretty solitary affair; and shop staff too busy (or disinterested) to spend long chatting. I hear you but even at that age, I bought stuff almost completely on my own. I'd occasionally talk about the pop stuff with others and even trade cassettes, but never shopped in a pack. Maybe it would have been different if I had grown up in New York or Chicago. It was never in a pack - just one or two close friends who were also music obsessives. Since university I suppose I've never had close friends who share my musical interests. They tend look on them as rather excessive.

Might be a national thing...we Brits tend to ignore one another if we haven't been formally introduced by a chaperone!

I remember it as a late teenager/student. At that age everyone buys records. But after that I've always found it a pretty solitary affair; and shop staff too busy (or disinterested) to spend long chatting.

The Good Old Days: not all they're cracked up to be.

I've got used to the change...and am now relishing the time released on a Saturday that I used to spend travelling to/from and then browsing in record shops. I don't know what it was like before the mid-70s in the UK but outside of London and one or two big centres the choice of jazz was never that wonderful here in the 70s, 80s, 90s. Seemed to come and go pretty randomly (I recall travelling to London in the late 70s to buy import copies of what would now be considered 'core' recordings like 'Miles Smiles'; or waiting a month for copies of 'A Love Supreme' and 'Africa Brass' to be located from an order). For me the possibilities opened up in the late 90s with the ability to buy online from anywhere in the world (apart from anything else it revealed there was more to jazz than just the USA and Britain!). I still have access to a greater range of music today than in my early listening days...though not in physical shops which have all but disappeared here. So I'm content with the new model. I've actually grown completely impatient with physical shopping of any sort!

East of Cape Cod, west of Hawaii...what's that all about?

Michael Tippett - The Rose Lake, The Vision of St Augustine (Spotify)