Sixty Four

 

Today's my 64th birthday and I can't belief the day because nothing big changed during the last years except getting older. I think and feel younger than my date of birth tells me. There's no greater celebration going on today and I will meet another fellow who has his birthday today as well for a couple of pints with a few friends. There were many thoughts of what to feature today but nothing felt confident to me so I decided to check the dates in music history for May 22 and decided to name a few of the list.

2019 - Scottish musician Jake Black (The Very Reverend D. Wayne Love), died age 59. He was a member of Alabama 3 a very underrated band.

1988 - Prince scored his first UK No.1 album with 'Lovesexy.' The cover (based on a photo by Jean Baptiste Mondino) caused some controversy upon release as it depicts Prince in the nude. Some record stores refused to stock it or wrapped the album in black.

1988 - Billy Bragg were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and 'She's Leaving Home.' The two Beatles songs had been recorded for the childLine charity, sales of the single, which spent four weeks at No.1 on the UK chart, were over £600,000, all of which was donated to ChildLine .

1982 The Hacienda Club was opened in Manchester

1980 Joe Strummer was arrested at a much-troubled gig in Hamburg, Germany, after smashing his guitar over the head of a member of the audience; he was released after an alcohol test proved negative.

1972 The Doors, Pink Floyd, the Faces, Family, Curved Air, Atomic Rooster, The Kinks, Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep, Country Joe McDonald, Buddy Miles, Status Quo, Brinsley Schwarz, Spencer Davis, The Strawbs and Humble Pie all appeared at the 2nd British Rock Meeting, Insel Grun, Germersheim, West Germany. The festival was due to take place in Mannheim, West Germany, but after protests from the locals, the concert actually took place in nearby Germersheim.

1972 Marvin Gaye released What's Going On

Dirty Hugs

 

Yesterday a few remixes of songs from GLOK's album Pattern Recognition were released and all of them were fantastic. Regular visitors of this pages will know that I am a fan of Andy Bell and I featured his work and remixes during the last years. Richard Sen's remix of Dirty Hugs shows another time how great Bell's song were. As he did a great work on his version of Dissident he didn't disappoint the second time. He took the original 20 minutes long song and added a hypnotic krautrock inspired groove to Bell's guitar licks. A perfect start into the weekend.

Happy Endings

 

A few weeks ago Scottish producer and musician Sean Dickinson aka HiFi Sean released his first album with his longer time collaboration with British singer David McAlmont Happy Ending. I got this album when it was released, listened once and forgot about it. During the last days I rediscovered this album and listened a few times to it and I have to admit that it grows the more I listen to it. I enjoy their music whatever the musical press would say. It is an album that I will call timeless because this songs were far away from any popular genres today. Songs that lives because of McAlmont's mighty and also easy voice, well arranged with orchestra and strings. Sometimes it remembers me on the music Marc Almont did ages ago and Kevin Rowland would be proud to sing. A little highlight this year so far. 

Flying

 

The year is going to end and as usually I escape for a couple of weeks to Sri Lanka. Leaving all the troubles and work behind to load up my battery. I prepared some posts in advance and I am not sure if I can write more until January. Until then I wish you all a peaceful Christmas time and a great start into 2023. Keep your pecker up, compadres.