A Lark Ascending

I suspect it precedes that. When I first started going to concerts (rock concerts) around late '72 there was an expectation in many concerts that you shut up and listened. We all knew instinctively if it was one of those (in which case we all sat cross legged) or if it was a 'party' gig (don't think there was much quiet at T Rex or Slade gigs in 1972!). When I first started going to jazz concerts quiet was the norm apart from the ritualistic ripple of applause after solos and the occasional whoops in a particularly exciting solo. I've no problem with a talkative audience in the appropriate setting - think of all those live albums from across the ages where the thrilled reaction of the crowd are part of the excitement. Some people go to concerts just to listen, others for the craic, many for both. It's just a case of appropriateness. I prefer a quiet audience but what I like overall is informality. I'd hate jazz, folk etc concerts to import some of the stiffer rituals from the classical world (or the dreaded 'Bravo maestro!'...yes, it's happened to me! I still have the scars!).

A lot depends on where you are listening. In a tent at a festival or an amplified, dancy-type gig somewhere you expect it. But in an intimate venue where every sound carries (be it a dedicated concert hall or the back room of a pub) it tends to be customary to be silent while the music is playing (I'm not a 'serious listener' [places monocle in eye] but I still like to listen in peace). I suspect the noisy lot who irritated me are used to rowdier gigs. If you've not experienced the quiet approach imported from classical music then maybe it's a bit foreign (though until the late 19thC apparently classical concerts were noisy...in opera people chattered throughout only shutting up for the big arias).

Dresden, Germany: A jogger is silhouetted against a red sky as he passes a bridge over the river Elbe - Photograph: Sebastian Kahnert/AP http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/dec/04/photo-highlights-of-the-day-san-bernardino-vigil-and-a-friendly-whale

It's not just the middle aged. I had a group of students near me at the Kenny Wheeler tribute in London last month. They whooped and hollered in an oh-so-hip way to make sure they were noticed during the applause; once the music started they whispered loudly and played with their mobile phones. Entitled London rich kids. *************************** Mingus Profiles Sextet at Sheffield Crucible Chris Biscoe, alto sax and alto clarinet; Tony Kofi, alto & tenor saxophones; Henry Lowther, trumpet, flugelhorn; Kate Williams, piano; Larry Bartley, bass; Stu Butterfield, drums Absolutely thrilling concert of Mingus tunes. Demonstrated again how 'tribute' concerts can be much more than just walking through old music. These are compositions that deserve to be heard live as much as Haydn or Beethoven, tunes that seems to inspire fabulous improvisations from excellent musicians. Everyone was on fire but special mention for Kate Williams on piano. Mingus performances usually (and quite naturally) have pianists from or playing in the soul/blues/gospel tradition of jazz but Williams is more from the impressionistic Bill Evans side of things. Gave a quite different feel to the music. It was also great to watch her, rarely without a smile on her face, obviously enjoying every moment of the gig. A sold out performance to a hugely appreciative and attentive audience. Biscoe (who looked remarkably like Jeremy Corbin!) said how good it was to play to a full house and they all looked a bit overwhelmed by the applause at the end. The Jean Toussaint Blakey concert I went to last month was also near capacity and I know Andy Sheppard sold out in advance last week (wasn't at that). Sheffield Jazz are getting something right. Good spring season coming up too - Peter King, Gilad Atzmon (protests permitting!), Partisans, Kofi/Barnes, Malija (Lockheart/Noble Holby), Greg Osby, Allison Neale and others. (n.b. Not my photo, from web)

What a Performance! Pioneers of Popular Entertainment (BBC4) Always had an aversion to 'Music Hall' (before my time!) - memories of 'The Good Old Days' on the TV in the 60s/70s. But the first of this series about the 19thC origins was very enjoyable.

You'll need to be selective. We might seem a small set of islands but the range of varied landscape is striking. Don't do what most people do and spend too much time in London. It's an interesting city but there is so much more (I say that as someone who visited the USA once and only left Manhattan island to walk over the bridge to Brooklyn for an hour or so!!!!).

Volcanic lightning in the ash cloud as Mount Etna’s Voragine crater erupts for the first time in two years. Photograph: Marco Restivo/Barcroft Media Looks positively Biblical! http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/03/sicily-mount-etna-voragine-crater-erupts-lightning

Marry Waterson and David A. Jaycock at The Greystones in Sheffield Bloody brilliant! I often enthuse about the wonderful young singers and players currently emerging but here are two musicians somewhat longer in the tooth who have only recently emerged. Marry Waterson (daughter of Lal Waterson and part of the Watersons tribe), after years of doing other things, has put out three albums in the last five years, the most recent with Jaycock. It seems many of the melodies here started with Jaycock. A wonderful guitar player who threw you back 40 years to the days of Michael Chapman, early John Martyn, Nick Drake (even the acoustic side of Led Zeppelin!) - intricate finger picking and that determination to choose unexpected chords. Extraordinary use of pedal electronics in the final song. Waterson added lyrics clearly growing out of the deep roots of a family immersed in folk music and wider British popular music before pop. All geographically very particular to growing up and living her life in East Yorkshire. Waterson's voice eerily evokes that of her mother; she has a very strong lower register, a more fragile higher register that she manipulates superbly. Audience of about 20 (and one of those was Martin Simpson, a local)! Sheffield is supposed to be a thriving hub of folk music...where was everybody?

Beautiful landscapes and shots, Tim.

Michelle Patmore captured these spectacular waves in Newhaven, East Sussex on 29 November. Shaun Hamblin captured the stormy waves in Brighton on 29 November. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34974347 Hong Kong's blue period: the cityscape captured at dusk – in pictures Some beautiful shots here: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2015/dec/02/hong-kongs-blue-period-the-cityscape-captured-at-dusk-in-pictures

Finally finished Ackroyd's Shakespeare book. Glad to have read it but it was a book I could only take 20 pages at a time. The problem lies, I think, in that (as with most early biography) there is so little hard fact to go on. Lots of speculation and I'm afraid I couldn't get that excited by the details of his land purchases or legal cases (I imagine that's where the surviving hard evidence is most plentiful). With monarchs and other top dogs a biography can be built up with all the political events going on all around which are fairly well documented. Not the case with a craftsman like an actor/play writer. Ackroyd's interpretation of Shakespeare as a practical, no-nonsense craftsman out to make plays that would enthuse an audience really appealed to me. Onto a couple of music books: This originally came out about 30 years ago and was very expensive. One I've been wanting to read for a while - had my eye in second hand shops. This new edition is in a different format and seems shorter (sorry!) but I might be wrong there. So far a plain and informative telling of his life. As the title says, not a bio but a collection of articles. The first ones are things Matthews himself has written on his own music and that of others (particularly interesting one on Mahler 10 - Matthews and his brother, Colin, assisted Deryck Cooke in the final performing edition from that source. He explains some of the decisions made.) The second part of the book has articles by others of his own music. Matthews writes very much in a tonal idiom and explains in the early part of the book why. Read a lot about this writer on this board. Sci-Fi isn't really my thing but the counterfactual idea of WWII ending a different way appealed. The new film version brought this to the front of my mind so thought I'd like to read it first. Really enjoying it (should finish it today). Especially like the weird mirror effect of reading a book about an alternative ending to WWII with a book about an alternative ending to WWII at its core. Just over half-way through The Pankhursts biography. Fascinating...the family dynamics were very strange indeed, especially the left-wing/right-wing split between Sylvia and Adela on the one hand and Emmeline and Christobel on the other.

Episode 4....equally as compelling. Going to have to sidetrack to the last 7 episodes of the glossier world of Mad Men next where the injuries are largely self-inflicted. Also episode 4 of London Spy.

Namtso Lake, Tibet: A woman carries her child as they visit Namtso Lake. The picture was captured by a photographer who, along with a small group of journalists, was granted a rare visit to the region for an official tour http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2015/nov/30/photo-highlights-of-the-day-climate-talks-and-glaciers http://www.theguardian.com/education/gallery/2015/dec/01/10-best-cities-in-the-world-to-be-a-student-2016-in-pictures

That's an interesting one. My parent's also had the radio permanently on. We didn't have a TV until I was about 5 (1960) and until the mid to late 60s that only came on in the evenings. Strangely they virtually stopped listening to the radio from the 80s; the TV was on virtually constantly. One of the effects of a grammar school education on me was instilling a suspicion of TV (pure class snobbery, I know). I went for a good ten years in the late 70s to early 80s watching no TV at all. I still feel immense guilt if I turn it on before about 9.00 pm. Though I feel safe watching a DVD opera in the late afternoon....that is 'improving' after all!!! The good thing about the radio being on constantly was the range of music you got exposed to. We only ever had 'The Light Programme' (later Radio 2 in the days when it's focus was on M.O.R. and pre-rock nostalgia) on. But when I started listening to jazz it was amazing how many standard tunes I already half knew.

Not if you remember: Quite an apt song! *********************** Not sure how this would cope in the weather: "Amazon has unveiled a new hybrid delivery drone that can fly both vertically, as a helicopter capable of landing in customers’ backyards, and horizontally like a conventional plane. The drone can travel up to 15 miles at high speed." http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/29/amazon-unveils-hybrid-delivery-drone-prototype Doesn't say what the drone does if you are not in.

Prestwick (near Glasgow). http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/29/christmas-lights-stay-off-as-storm-clodagh-hits-britain-and-ireland Not quite like this in Worksop but has been wet and very blowy. This one has been called Storm Clodagh. Someone at the met office must have one of those babies' names books.

Didn't even think of that! Of course, what I meant was that each episode can be watched alongside a glass of port whilst waiting for cook to prepare dinner. Episodes 1-3. Good, lord, this is grim TV. The section at the end of episode 3 where everyone watches the World Cup in the pub whilst the young girl is raped by Lol's father back at home has to be one of the most uncomfortable 15 minutes of TV I've ever seen. Brilliant acting, especially from Vicky McClure.

Pope Francis rocks: this ain't no dinner-party album Expect Pope Francis on 'Strictly' or 'I'm a Celebrity' very soon.

Can't imagine this would have any WAF: Like having reconditioned daleks in the room. I assume the cushion covers come with the £200 000.

My alternative to going to New Zealand, on a cruise etc which seem to be what most middle class people seem to do on retirement. Can't complain at the pension (4/5ths of what I was earning in my last pay check and I don't have to mark a single book!). Edit: Ah, I've just decoded it. Did I use my lump sum? No, just some of my 'rainy day' money that has built up over the years without any major rainy days (watch the roof blow off in the current storm now).

Don't understand!

Had to smile at this: Lost in music: the world of obsessive audiophilia And I felt guilty spending £2000 on a new cd player/streamer a couple of months back!

Seagulls fly near the mouth of the Rio Doce, on the coast of Espírito Santo, Brazil, which was flooded with mud after a dam burst Swarms of fireflies illuminate the undergrowth in a forest on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/nov/28/the-20-photographs-of-the-week

'Twas in London last week in Maria Schneider's combo. Surprised even Maria herself by playing an encore on flugelhorn. Read today that Schneider is a collaborator on the latest David Bowie album. Wonder if Scott Robinson is involved.

Yes, I like coffee shops in bookshops too (even if they are largely chain controlled now). The first one I recall going to was a great bookshop in Dingle on the West Coast of Ireland at the start of the '80s. Oodles of books (many in Gaelic!), Irish folk LPs (I had to be very sparing as I only had panniers on a bike for carriage!) and then a nice coffee shop. They seemed to sweep in during the 80s. I'm not much of a fan of second hand book shops (nor CD record shops...I'm IKEA man!) but there's a great one in Cromford in Derbyshire called Scarthin Books which has a nice, pokey, non-franchised coffee shop. Great after a walk. I liked Helter Skelter, too. Before the net made everything available it was a marvellous concentration of books on popular music.