This Note's For Who, Neil?

My previous post on Neil Young's Archives set expressed my disappointment that it did not contain all of his released work thus undermining his previous claims that it would contain "everything".

Why am I not surprised at the news that his first four albums (which cover the same period as the Archives box) are now to be reissued in remastered form.

Neil clearly makes a distinction between musical notes and dollar notes.

Book Review : Moondust - Still Potent After All These Years

I've been thoroughly enjoying much of the coverage of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landings over the past couple of weeks. I was always fascinated by the space programme when I was young, although I was a bit too young to catch the initial element where the Russians were showing the Americans a clean pair of heels. By the time I was interested, much of the Cold War element had subsided to reveal an endeavour allegedly for the good of all mankind.

I think my first vivid memory was of the fated Apollo 1 mission where the three astronauts were fried in their capsule as they were testing. It was another 18 months before another mission launched into space, but what seems astonishing now is the huge leaps that were taken to get to the ultimate goal of Apollo 11.

One of the programmes I watched recently was Being Neil Armstrong which was presented by Andrew Smith. It was an attempt to delve further into the enigma that is the first man to step onto the Moon, and I was impressed by the presenters enthusiasm and his sensitivity towards Armstrong. As I knew from the programme that he'd written a book I resolved to check it out. As is my want, I not only got this but also two other books in a 3 for 2 offer! (The others were an authorised biography of Armstrong and a book details the political wheeling and dealing that went alongside the altruistic endeavours of NASA).

I'm halfway through Moondust and can say that the characteristics of the author that I identified with on the television programme are on full display here. He (like me) remains fascinated not only by the moon landings but also by the fact that we haven't done anything vaguely as adventurous or inspiring since. The book attempts to look at the remaining astronauts involved in the moon landings and the impact that it's had on their subsequent lives. They are an interesting bunch of people who have all been impacted in different ways, although the uniting factor is that none of them was unaffected by their experiences.

And then there was Buzz Aldrin! I won't reveal any of the intriguing, and in some cases, slightly bizarre stories about Aldrin but suffice to say he could fill a book in his own right.

It's an easy read but also an interesting way for the less-committed to discover some of what drove the guys who made the trip to the moon in the certain knowledge that the likelihood of success on most trips seldom exceeded 50%.

And, yes, it is emblazoned with "The Richard & Judy Bestseller" on the cover!

Film Review : Moon

This is an excellent film that tells an ironically very human story of an astronaut reaching the end of his three year shift on the dark side of the moon.

The investigation of an accident on the moon reveals that the victim appears to be the same person as has conducted the investigation. We then have two versions of the main character having to deal with the implications of their dual existence whilst there is a countdown before an emergency team lands on the moon to deal with the repairs and to take one of the characters home at the end of their mammoth shift.

Sam Rockwell puts in an awesome performance with virtually every scene featuring him in his different personas. The last film that I can remember being so dependant on a single performance was Colin Farrell's turn in Phone Booth but don't let the list of other actors fool you - this is Sam Rockwell's film from start to finish. All of the other characters are seen from the end of a video link - which has malfunctioned meaning that real-time conversations are impossible.

This is director Duncan Jones first movie and, whilst on a limited budget, the visuals make the telling of the tale very believable. This is a sci-fi rooted in the characters and the telling of a story and is all the better for it.

There is, of course, the delicous irony that this film opens on the 40th anniversary of the moon landings when the directors father was enjoying his first major (sic) hit in the music charts. But the quality of this film will ensure that Duncan is easily able to step out from his father's immense shadow. It won't be too long before people are asking of David if he's Duncan's father rather than the other way round.

Film Review : Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Number six in the Potter series continues the darkening of the scripts as the trio grow up and we move step by step towards the climax.

I think the quality of the movies has also tended to increase along the way as well, and this doesn't disappoint. It's a movie of contrasts with the humour and lightness of touch needed to deal with the budding relationships alongside the impending doom that is clearly coming.

Michael Gambon invests Dumbledore with a melancholy that indicates that something bad is in the pipeline whilst Daniel Radcliffe enjoys himself after ingesting what is clearly the wizard-world's equivalent of a spliff! And Alan Rickman is as excellent as ever, dripping the ambiguous world that the character of Snape has inhabited over the course of the tale.

There's another downbeat ending to this film but one which sets you up with anticipation for the two-parter that will bring the series to a close.

Hello, My Name Is Allan And I'm An Iron Maiden Fan

Is this what it's come to? Almost 30 years since the supposed New Wave Of British Heavy Metal which brought them to our attention in the first place, I'm beginning to get a considerable liking for Iron Maiden. Is there an Iron Maiden Anonymous group that meets in secret that I should consider joining?


Being in my mid-20's when this all struck first time around I was pretty dismissive of the whole scene at the time - in retrospect, possibly the last time I allowed a bit of snobbishness to get in the way of enjoying honest to goodness music.

By way of some of the recent concert DVD's, I found my interest being grabbed by many of the songs and via FOPP have since invested in pretty much the entire back catalogue. Whilst the early albums suffer from a certain naivete, from Number Of The Beast on they take things up a level or ten.


Great guitar work and terrific arrangements more than compensate for the occasional lack of a strong tune (twas always thus with music at the heavier end of the scale) but as they move through their career the albums become more adventurous and play well to the proggier tendencies of my listening preferences.

Whatever next? I'll tell you now that it won't be Def Leppard!

Concert Review : Bruce Bosses Hampden.....

It's been 24 hours since Bruce Springsteen turned Hampden Park into a "house of love" along with the E-Street Band. When you see someone like Springsteen you need to leave that period (at least) to allow you to assimilate the experience you've been through.

To describe it as a gig, a performance or a show seems entirely inadequate. There's just something so marevellously life-affirming about a Springsteen show with his comrades-in-arms in the E-Street Band that makes such descriptions utterly banal. That the man himself is now 60 years of age and still giving everything for us is just further confirmation of this.

Where to start? Well, it was raining from the heavens from about 1750hrs until just before 1900hrs. I was perfectly dressed for such an occasion wearing t-shirt and jeans, but my Partick Thistle cap at least kept the rain from my glasses. The advertised starting time of 1930hrs came and went and anticipation was growing along with the realisation that each passing minute cut into the potential length of the show given that we knew there was a 2300hrs curfew.

Just before 2000hrs Nils Lofgren wandered onto the stage with his accordian as has been the custom playing a tune of local relevance. In this case, it was Flower Of Scotland. The band followed him onstage with Bruce taking up the rear. After acknowledging the crowd, he then went to the side of the stage to support Clarence Clemons to his position on the stage.

A quick flourish from the band, and the Mighty Max then beat out the introduction to Badlands on his kit and we were off. This has always been a song that struck a chord with me and last night was no different. Most of the crowd was singing along puching the air with glee at the prospects of what was to follow.

Next up was Out In The Streets which, on record, is a relatively minor song but which is always fantastic on stage and another one to test the vocal chords. By now, it was clear that both Springsteen and the crowd were up for it.

As with most of the songs tonight, Springsteen kept the band ticking over at the end of one song before counting into the next one - in this case, it was into My Lucky Day from the new album which powered along in the powerful care of the E-Street Band.

Next up was a surprise when Bruce went into She's The One off the seminal Born To Run album. Not a song I was expecting but it was nevertheless a joy to hear it. And Bo Diddley boogied in his grave!

What followed was one of the highlights of the evening in Outlaw Pete which is the opening track on Working On A Dream. An awesome song, and an even more awesome performance. Stunning.

Another surprise next when Bruce donned the acoustic guitar and came right down the front to lead the Hampden audience through a rousing Working On The Highway. Looking round at the large crowd, you could see the magic of this man as even up in the highest stands furthest away from the stage that Springsteen was able to reach absolutely everyone in this huge stadium.


Next up was a trilogy of, for want of a better word, serious songs. Seeds, Johnny 99 and Atlantic City are all far from singalong songs but Bruce still had the audience doing the sound of the train whistle in Johnny 99. It was also apparent that most of the audience were aware of the nooks and crannies of the Springsteen canon and not just the better known songs.

Now if I was a closer observer of things, I'd have known what was about to happen. I'd seen many fans with placards with song titles on them and I had wondered what the purpose was, but during an instrumental version of Raise Your Hand, Bruce went along the full length of the stage (and that was long!) picking them up from fans and ultimately depositing them on the stage.


It was then that I realised that he was going to pick a song out of the pack and play it for us. First up was Incident On 57th Street from The Wild, The Innocent And The E-Street Shuffle. Never entirely succesful as a song, it was still a wonder to behold the band pick this up and play it seemingly at the drop of a hat.

Second in this section and requested via a very decorous placard was Pink Cadillac. Now when any list of great Springsteen songs is drawn up this one is perhaps not going to be on it, nevermind being anywhere near the top, but it's one that I've always loved. Very much The Boss in Elvis' mode, it struck me that this man has become that Elvis seemed to promise but never came close to matching. Springsteen has always been very aware of the mythology surrounding rock'n'roll and has been meticulous in his attempts to move this forward. Elvis was one of his first idols, and we've never have had Bruce without him but to see him at 60 - 18 years older than Elvis was when he died - not just working on a dream but living it and making it real for the rest of us was simply an overwhelmingly emotional experience for this fifty-something and the performance of Pink Cadillac seemed to exemplify that.

Last up (for now) from the requests was Cover Me from the Born In The USA album. After this, we moved back toward the more regular songs that feature in the final third of the show starting with Waiting For A Sunny Day. Needless to say, the rain started again briefly as this song came to an end!

Back to a couple more serious minded songs as we got The Promised Land and The River. The former had a similar impact on me as Badlands (and both are from the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album) whilst The River has to be near the top of any list of Springsteen classics. At the end of this, he found a simply gorgeous falsetto which developed variations on the melody at the end. A beautiful moment, but I just don't know where he gets that voice from as it's so different to his more regular singing style.

Following up were Kingdom Of Days and Radio Nowhere which did what they had to at this stage of the gig with the audience preparing for the coming finale.

As appears to be fairly standard that came with Lonesome Day, The Rising and an ecstatic performance of Born To Run to bring the main part of the show to a conclusion.



Encores were inevitable and the band didn't leave the stage but took the appreciation of the audience and regrouped for the next numbers.

Stephen Foster's Hard Times was first up and it is quite chilling to think how relevant this song remains despite it being more than one hundred years old.

Bruce went to the pile of placards again and dumped one down in front of his mikestand. It read "Thunder Road" Another magnificent performance, with the coda at the end as thrilling and inspiring as it has proved on every listen since I first heard the Born To Run album all those years ago.

American Land was next and was a grand Celtic knees-up for which some others joined the stage including Bruce's son Evan. An original song which came out of the Seeger Sessions band it simply served to emphasise the sheer quality of all the musicians that took the stage.


After that, party time continued as we got Bobby Jean, Dancing In The Dark and a joyous romp through Twist And Shout. Just short of three hours from when they started the band left the stage and the crowd made for the exits.

So what further thought are there 24 hours on. Well, my legs have been aching all day. God only knows how Springsteen gets though these shows - even after half an hour, he's given more than most other performers do in their entire gigs and he never lets up. Truly inspirational.


One thing that stands out is the connection this man has with his audience. He was often down in front of the audience and although I wasn't near enough the front to be part of that you could see on the screens the sheer joy of those in front of the stage and Bruce himself in the whole occasion. There was also a point during Waiting For A Sunny Day where he was one to one with a young girl (at a guess she was six years old). All captured on camera, he got the girl to sing the chorus through his mike. A beautiful, heart-warming moment where his concentration was 100% with the girl but it was shared by the rest of us. I suspect if you could get a picture of the rest of us it would show us all with silly grins on our faces and a tear in the eye.


Springsteen is clearly very aware of the cameras on stage and uses them to enhance the performance and this is probably the key to him being able to reach out to those further away.

Whilst there's an element of calculation there, it's not in any way cynical or manipulative. And his on-stage relationship with the band is an entertainment in itself, particularly between him and Miami Steve Van Zandt and also with Clarence Clemons.

Is there anyone out there to match him? To be honest, the answer has to be no. On musical grounds alone, there's a lot of artists that I'd put beside him and perhaps above him. However put this man on a stage (and perhaps the presence of the E-Street Band is a necessary component although the Seeger Sessions Band suggest that may not be true now although it was in the early 1990's) and he is utterly peerless.


(Pictures from Backstreets and are not from Hampden)

The Night Before

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Hampden Park to see Bruce Springsteen And The E-Street Band and am hoping that God considers that Glasgow has had more than its' share of rain today and that he'll keep it dry tomorrow (evening at least).

I've had the pleasure of seeing Springsteen on two occasions before and these two shows would appear at either end of any list of best gigs that I've been to.

Dealing with the poor one first - you may have seen a portion of this. It was at the SECC in Glasgow and the performance of Lucky Town was broadcast live on Top Of The Pops (and is available on the DVD version of the Video Anthology).

The venue is typical of the multi-purpose halls that are built these days, and which seldom make any allowance for such niceties as sound quality. We were in the largest hall and it was all standing meaning that there were no stands to at least absorb some of the sound. I was stuck fairly near the back of the hall and, sonically, the whole thing was a mess.

Of course, this was the tour that Springsteen did without the E-Streeters and a more anonymous bunch you'd be hard pressed to meet. Despite making every effort (and you did feel he was overdoing it to compensate for the paucity of inspiration from the others on the stage) Springsteen simply failed to project any of his usual passion and warmth and it was a hugely disappointing evening. All the moreso, because I knew precisely what The Boss was capable of......

Indeed I did, having witnessed him on the Born In The USA tour at Roundhay Park in Leeds (some clips of which appear on the live Born To Run video - it's the venue that looks like a natural amphitheatre). Pristine sound, and a performer and band that connected with every single member of the audience. The crowd was about 80,000 that day and I recall vividly turning round at one point to look back across the multitudes to see everyone dancing, jumping up and down or participating in some way or other right to the very back. Simply awesome.

I know which Bruce I'm wanting and hoping to see tomorrow night!

Concert Review : Crosby, Stills And Nash Regal At The Castle

CSN were excellent at Edinburgh Castle and successfully kept the predicted heavy rain at bay during their performance. Stills was in excellent form throughout and made this a much more satisfying show from them than my previous gigs where he was largely along for the ride.



Have to say that, despite the scenic advantages, that Edinburgh Castle is a terrible venue for a rock gig. Even for the slimmer amongst us the seats would be a challenge with no room to move, and which consequently make turning towards the stage (for those at the sides) somewhat difficult. Luckily, there were some spare seats last night and others in the row moved elsewhere which allowed more room for manoeuvre.

Stewarding was also poor with next to no assistance showing people to their seats and queuing for the toilets was somewhat haphazard and relying entirely on the good sense of those in the queue.

The toilets themselves were portakabins which appeared to be sizable but were taken up internally by the latrine itself leaving very little room to stand in.

Back to the music though - highlights were Southern Cross, Cathedral, Guinevere and the "new" songs from the forthcoming Covers album sounded super. Perhaps best of the night was Crosbys’ rendition of Long Time Gone.


Stills played with a winning combination of flash and economy and never outstayed his welcome when soloing, thus adding considerably to the impact of the songs.

Crosby sounded a little weak in places (perhaps related to his finding the weather somewhat un-Southern Californian!) but came through for his solo set pieces.

Nash was as solid and reliable as ever. That's not meant to sound in any way demeaning - Nash is the rock of stability that's kept these guys at it all the years and is a fine role model for any aspiring musician to follow. Perhaps regarded as the lightweight at the outset, it's amazing how many of his songs resonate down the years. More power to his elbow.

Music Review : It's been so long since I've added to this blog that Neil's actually issued Archives!!!!.......

Strange but true!

After an interminable period of teasers and delays the first volume of Neil Young's Archives have now been released to the wider world.

There's been much debate about the format in which this is going to appear but ultimately fans were given three choices:-

• the music on an 8-CD set
  
• music and video on a 10-DVD set along with the first official release of Journey Through The Past, or
  
• in Blu-Ray format with the same content as the DVD but with the promise of extra content along the way via links to the internet. (There is also wider options when it comes to listening whilst browsing other content than on a DVD)

Not wanting to miss the opportunity of the extra content I decided ultimately to go for the Blu-Ray version. This presented me with a couple of issues:-

• firstly, I didn't own a Blu-Ray player! Well, that was easily resolved with a visit to Richer Sounds -I have to say that, Neil apart, it's been a worthwhile investment as the couple of films that I've seen in this format have been stunning. In addition, the upscaling feature does mean that your DVD's do look better as well
  
• secondly, being hooked up to my telly (and no, I'm not getting a surround system!) I wasn't going to get the best out of the sound. Only one option then, get the CD version as well!!

So was it all worth it? To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced.

Young promised early in the project's gestation that "it was all going to be on there". Sounds great, except that it isn't. The first major disappointment is that not everything from the originally released album is on there. I understand that Neil intends to now issue these in remastered form, and owning just the first generation CD's I'll feel somewhat tempted, if not obliged, to purchase these. Poor show on this count, Neil, because as far as I can see there's still loads of capacity to have done this.

Next up is the fact that the albums issued over the past couple of years as the Neil Young Performance Series are also included. This means that the additional material on the Archives is considerably less attractive as a result. Another poor show.

And there's more! All Neil Young fans know that there's load of other material out there from this era that could have been included but hasn't been. Indeed, the set could possibly have been made up of material leaving the official releases off entirely. Young has built a reputation as a rewriter of history (for example, his shameful exclusion of some tracks from the Buffalo Springfield box set) and he appears to be continuing in this vein. It's not all there, Neil - only that which you want us to hear. Not good enough.

As for the other material, the documents and memorabilia are interesting but having had a peek there's not much that I'll be searching out quickly. The video material is good but, so far at least, it falls into the category where we know that there's more available.

The packaging is good but more bulky for the DVD/BluRay sets than was strictly necessary.

Having said all that, the music is uniformly superb. However, this isn't a set that the casual fan is going to buy but neither is it a set to get the already committed fan too excited by.

Raise the bar higher next time, Neil