Tuesday 27 July 2010

MUSIC: SANDY DENNY BOX SET 2010

I've been finding out more information about this massive box set of Sandy's which, correcting the previous entry, will be released this October. Amazon's price is currently £149.99, actually a tenner higher than the official price, but a Sandy Denny blogger and source of more information about this set believes the price will drop as the pre-orders come in. Suppose I should add mine and starting saving my pennies; I can always cancel at a later date.

This is from the record company's official release:
"This superb limited edition box set includes 19 CDs, 11 of which feature Sandy's complete studio recordings with Alex Campbell, Johnny Silvo, Fotheringay, Strawbs, Fairport Convention and solo with additional content – outtakes, demos and live recordings. There are 8 CDs of bonus material – unreleased songs, demos, unreleased BBC recordings, alternate takes, live recordings, acoustic versions, and rare radio interviews. This set includes the legendarily 'long lost' Lord Bateman.

Lavishly packed, this unique collection features all new artwork. It comes with a 72 page 11" square hardback book containing over 100 rare and mostly unseen photographs, Sandy's handwritten lyrics (many of which are unrecorded songs) and fascinating memorabilia. Each CD is housed in an individual gatefold digipack sleeve. The box also contains reproductions of a beautiful original Island press pack, an exceptionally rare A3 promo colour poster for Northstar Grassman And The Ravens, a set of Postcards, the receipt for the purchase of her first piano and one of Sandy's handwritten notebooks."

The compiler, Andrew Batt, adds:
“I have been working on this boxset and have compiled the tracklisting, which will be released soon.
I think the way to look at it is, if there wasn’t substantial high quality unreleased material then this boxset wouldn’t be happening. Aside from two new songs – Lord Bateman and Twelfth Of Never – there are amongst other things demos for the whole Sandy album and most of Northstar that are exceptional and which fans will love. If you like Sandy in a more stripped down setting then this boxset will delight you! It is amazing that so much unreleased stuff has surfaced over the years, but after going through literally every master reel, this is really it!
I would estimate that there is 15-20% unreleased material, and remastered versions of things like All Our Own Work, Swedish Fly Girls that have never been on CD. All the previous bonus stuff will be included as well, and will also make their digital download debut.
The whole project has been a real labour of love and aims to represent Sandy’s complete legacy.”

I've signed up to a list so I'll get an email with the full track listing in when it happens. In less than 24 hours I've gone from not getting this to pre-ordering it. I'm mad, but I've loved Sandy Denny's voice since the beginning of the 70's so how can I resist?

Monday 26 July 2010

MUSIC: REDISCOVERIES

Well, not so much rediscovery as uncovery. You see I'd put them somewhere and forgotten where I'd put them and they weren't in the obvious places. Most of the time this didn't both me except when I was flicking through Itunes and I'd notice that they weren't on the very long list of music I'd copied from my CDs (and downloaded, but that's not really relevant here). I suspected that they were buried in boxes deep in the depths of our garage. 

Then Susan decided that we had to empty my study. This is actually the third and smallest bedroom which contains: a bed with all my Amazon selling stock in boxes on top of it; three sets of bookcases containing (yes, obviously) books, graphic novels, DVDs, and CDs. One long but low 3-shelf bookcase was half hidden by the bed, completely obscuring the bottom shelf and that is where I found the following three massive box sets by The Grateful Dead (two) and Sandy Denny (one, in case you weren't sure).

And they are big and beautiful.
This is a gorgeous 5-disc 85 track collection with a fabulous booklet containing an introduction by Richard Thompson, an extended warts and all biography, comments by fellow musicians and friends, plus full track details. Apart from the fact that it doesn't include my favourite song ever (understandable: see my favourite 100 songs), it's as perfect a compilation as you could wish to hope for. Emphasis on compilation. I've recently learned that next year will see a 19-disc box set containing everything that Sandy ever recorded and will retail for around £140.00 from Amazon. I don't intend to buy it but don't be surprised if I do.


And these two hunky boxes, about as thick as a brick but bigger, contain all the band's major label albums and span nearly a quarter of a century. They also contain massive booklets with dozens of photos. Golden Road begins with a 2-cd of studio and live recordings before they became The Grateful Dead and are mostly unreleased. The rest of the albums have all been remastered and extended, sometimes almost doubling in length. Their running time averages (at a conservative estimate) around 75 minutes per disc and there are 12 discs in each box making a total running time of 30 hours for the two. A number of the albums are live but as the Dead were primarily a live band, many of their songs were never recorded in the studio. Each album comes in a replica sleeve with a new introduction by a variety of people from cult actors to sound engineers.

Together, the box sets are an amazing piece work with all the experimental stuff, jamming, mix of folk/blues/rock/country/bluegrass, long guitar solos and not totally boring drum & percussion solos. Even more amazing is that this is the tip of their recorded output. Also available on their own label are dozens of live albums in multi-disc sets and there are usually three or more every year. I've got about eight and that's my lot.

But I've said that before.

Saturday 24 July 2010

FANTASY AND COMIC ART

I recently bought a couple of art books about Frank Frazetta -which I'll probably review properly in due course- but it wetted my appetite for books about fantasy illustrators and comic artists who are a bit obscure to most people but whom I like a lot.

Wally Wood was a comics artist who produced a wide-ranging amount of work, doing horror, humour, superheroes, SF, porn, satire, etc. Sadly when it came to looking for books about him there's virtually nothing and very little of his work available. I ordered MARS Patrol believing it be some of his SF work but it turned out to be invasion USA and not his best work by a long way. On its way to me is a superhero collection from the 60's, the first volume of THUNDER Agents (and the reason for capitals in both cases is that they're acronyms and I couldn't be bothered to put in the dots.
If you're easily offended, please don't look too closely at the third image below. It's rumoured that Walt Disney is still spinning in his cryogenic chamber over it.

Roy G Krenkel was somewhat of a mentor to Frazetta who held the elder artist in high esteem. Sadly, except among a coterie of affionados, Krenkel is almost forgotten. There is one book available about (see cover below) but the reviews suggest it's a somewhat inadequate job so I'm passing on it. It's even difficult to find a decent selection of his art on Google Images, not even his wonderful cover for the Lancer paperback of King Kull which I used to own.
The recently deceased Al Williamson was a prolific veteran of newspaper strips and comics for many many decades and an artist who, until recently, I'd rather taken for granted; probably because he was always around and often working on highly commercial projects like Star Wars where he always slick but didn't register with me because of my familiarity with the subject matter. There is a volume of his Flash Gordon work available which I'm in two minds about buying again because of the familiarity of it.
I'll probably be looking at this subject again sometime.

Thursday 22 July 2010

AND THIS WEDNESDAY...


Everest installed a new bay window, two upstairs windows, a small window, and a new door. The results are excellent. The new windows completely cut out sounds from outside that the old ones didn't.  I feel safer because the upstairs window open top and bottom making it easy to climb out in the event of a fire. The new front door is solid and secure. However, unlike the old one, it doesn't have a lower glass panel so I can't look down the stairs at 11 o'clock at night (or indeed any time) to see if any of the cats want to come in. And neither can they see nor hear me as I realised just a little while when I opened the door much to the surprise of four of them sitting on the step and they scattered before they realised what was happening.

They arrived at 8.30 and packed up at 2.30, job done and done well, and were a pleasant bunch of lads.

Thursday 15 July 2010

CD: THE ULTIMATE CHUCK BERRY

5 STARS.   
  More fun than the most fun thing you listened to before this.

It's been a few years since I last listened to Chuck Berry and now I'm asking myself: Why? You could subtitle this record 'The Joy of Rock'n'Roll' because one track after another is a joyful romp, an exhuberant celebration of rock'n'roll and rhythm & blues, of being being young with a girl on your arm, a fancy car, and listening to music with the open road in front of you.

Memorable classic track after classic track along with a few unexpected detours. There's a swamp-bluesish Downbound Train, a great version of blues standard The Things That I Used To Do, a cover of crooner Charles Brown's Merry Christmas Baby, the just odd but likeable Jo Jo Gunne, Havana Moon with its Louie Louie echoes, along with a plethora of Berry's lesser but still fun rockers. And, of course, there are all the big hits that made him a sensation.

In the unlikely event that you've never actually heard any Chuck Berry, you will certainly have heard several of his songs as he's one of the most covered artists in the history of Rock from Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones up to the present. The sad thing is that such marvellous life-enhancing music comes from someone who is a notorious mean-spirited miserly curmudgeon who was never the same after a spell in jail in the early 60's.

But we have his marvellous music. If you're ever feeling down, just put on this collection and if it doesn't put a smile on your face then check your pulse because you aint down you're dead.

(And, really, it isn't compulsory to listen to My Ding-a-ling, indeed it's best avoided. But after everything else, we can forgive him this one.)

Wednesday 14 July 2010

HARRASSED & HECTIC

Been one of those weeks.

Last Wednesday, Eric the joiner (who's been doing jobs for us for nearly 20 years) and his son Adam arrived to create a new bathroom for us and he only, not quite, finished yesterday, so the house has been chaotic and for the last three days I've been peeing into a glass vase in the kitchen during their working hours. Still, now that he's almost, but just not quite put a couple of finishing touches, finished, it's looking pretty good. Here's a picture of what it partly looked like last week.
And, yes, that is my thumb upper left.

Saturday and Animal Krackers had a stall at a local community fete in the grounds of a primary school. We had a tombola, a lucky dip with parcels for boys, girls, tiny tots boys, and tiny tots girls, and lots of cuddly toys (buy a ticket and get the one with the matching number). We ended up taking over £200.00 which wasn't bad, plus it helped raise our profile.  Here's us.
About 12.45 I wanted to take a break and pop home for lunch when I met Gordon, one of our founders, who told me a kitten had been handed in at the shop and the staff in weren't great when it came to looking after it so off I went. She's about four months old and everything a naughty little kitten should be. We've had her at our house for five days and the chances of her being re-homed are getting lower the longer she stays.

On the other hand, last week Carol asked me if I could give a young cat she had a little one to one TLC, I could keep it in a cage in the garage. So I did. Here's her picture. Sweet little thing, isn't she.
Purrs and rubs herself against you until the moment she launches an attack with her claws. My nephew Alex, who was helping put up some standalone bookshelves saw me with my face dripping blood and a neighbour with teeth buried in the back of my hand. Apparently she lived with some junkies who thought to share their habit with her which might explain her behaviour. Whatever the reason, she is actually a dangerous cat and I really don't know what to do with her.

Right this minute there is a small elderly terrier-type dog in a large cage in our dining room where she is recovering after having had an operation to remove a tumour almost the size of a football from her belly. You can just about see the tumour by her hind leg in the photo.

Just after I uploaded the photo a few minutes ago, Susan shouted for me to come down. The dog, Trixie, was on her feet and had knocked over her water bowl. It's clear she's stressed and doesn't know where she is or where she wants to be. Susan is very upset but, as I told her, there's nothing we can do except wait for nature to take its course. We've done all we could for her and now she'll either get better or she won't.

The reason she's here is because Susan saw her went she took some food to West Hall, a commercial dog kennel which the council pays to take in strays. The strays, like Trixie, get the poorest conditions. Trixie had been in this state there for nearly two months. Despite a vet saying she should be put to sleep, nothing has been done and there seems to be no documentation so we know nothing about her. We brought her home yesterday after having her checked out by one of our charity's vets. I took her out for a walk in the rain late last night and again early this morning and then she went for her operation.

There's other stuff been going on but right now I'm not in the best of moods so I'll leave it at that.

Monday 12 July 2010

BOOKS: RACHEL CAINE'S MORGANVILLE VAMPIRE SERIES


We seem to be inundated with vampires at the moment. On tv we have the teen-orientated Vampire Diaries (which I rather like) and, very much for adults as it's packed with gore and explicit sex and I love it, True Blood. Both of which are based on a series of books. Look at the horror section in any decent bookshop and the shelves are packed with vampire series, plus assorted other series often featuring werewolves and often as romantic heroes/heroines. And we all know about the Twilight series and the movies which are reaching but not quite getting there Harry Potter heights. I did read the first of the Twilight books after being impressed by the author's adult SF novel but couldn't make the effort to face the second though it was pleasant enough.

I happened upon this series in a remainder bookshop and picked up the first two along with a crime novel for £5.00. I quickly read the first and immediately went back for the rest. To my mild annoyance they had 7 out of the 8 published to date so I had to order the third volume from Amazon for four quid which is still three less than the published price.

The setup is this: Claire, a precociously bright 16 year old girl, could go to Harvard early but her parents want her to try out academia by going to a mediocre college at a town in the middle of nowhere. This was not their best idea as it turns out the town is run by vampire. After being bullied by the town's rich bitch (think young Cordelia Chase from Buffy only without any redeeming features whatsoever), she ends up sharing a house with another girl and two boys who become the main characters next to our heroine. Over the course of the novel more layers and secrets about the main characters, vampire and human, are revealed. The first three books are pretty much standalone stories though they follow each other chronologically and the 8 books published to date cover less than a year. Vols 4-6, however, are one complete story.

All in all this series is a pleasant if hardly earth-shattering read but it is engaging and likeable enough as a time-passing diversion. And if that sounds like damning with faint praise there are a lot worse things to be. 

At the top are US covers, underneath is one from the UK editions which are all in a similar format.

Monday 5 July 2010

GRAPHIC STORIES: X-MEN feat. THE BEAST, A SHORT HISTORY

In a review of a Conan graphic novel collection recently I mentioned that the original Marvel comic series was what got me back into comics in the first place. My interest was maintained by a number of other interesting titles of which the main one was the X-men. Now this was the revived X-men as co-created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockcrum. Now while Wein was there for the conception and birth, it was writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne (and it would be unfair of me not to mention the outstanding inking/embellishing of Terry Austin) who raised the family to adulthood, or more accurately if metaphorically to dominate the world of comic books. They were also responsible for the character of  Kitty Pryde, a barely adolescent mutant with primarily defensive powers and it was Kitty who, I'd argue, gave the team a wider dynamic which was behind their growing popularity from minor to cult to cultural domination.
In the above panel, note 3rd from right the hairy version of Hank McCoy aka The Beast. Now originally Hank looked completely human until writer Steven Englehart, in what would become known as a mini-series in one of Marvel's tryout titles, transformed him into something like a wolf-man type Beast. He became less monstrous quite quickly and later joined the Avengers where he found himself to be attractive to women.

Hank is probably my favourite Marvel character. He's a super-intelligent scientist, wise-cracking in battle, wryly witty when not, self-effacing and emotionally vulnerable with a very big heart. He's one of the few superheroes that you feel you would actually enjoy meeting if he existed. His range means he can be used in a variety of situations without ever being untrue to the character; he can be the powerhouse, the conscience, the light relief, and even the romantic as he's very cultured.
And then there's Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy in the third X-Men movie, God help us.
So Hank McCoy muddled along as a likeable all-purpose in a multitude of Marvel comics in varying groups or as a guest star and always returning to the X-men for the next 25 years or so until Grant Morrison came along.

Morrison's intent, aided by superstar artist and pseudonym Frank Quitely, was to revive and transform the X-Men to give them a firm foundation in the new millenium. Which he, to a large extent, did. Which Marvel then pretty much ignored as they felt like it and Morrison signed with DC. There's no doubt it was an interesting series full of twists and turns and surprises and it was certainly the best X-Men or New X-Men as Morrison insisted on it being titled, for many a year.

One thing he did was to emphasise the Beast's mutating physique by giving him feline features and reducing the number of fingers on his what has almost become paws. Hank's character remained pretty much unchanged; he just got better dialogue courtesy of GM.

When Morrison's reign was over I simply stopped reading the X-Men again. I'm not really a Marvel fan and these days I tend to buy a title on the basis of the writer or writer/artist team and even then I'm selective. I started up again with a title which was, as they say, a no-brainer: Joss Whedon and John Cassady.

Joss Whedon, the brains behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, co-screenplay writer of Toy Story and sole writer of Alien: Resurrection (and a much underrated movie that one is too). Simply: a deity among men. And was to write a 24-issue maxi-series, later published in four trade paperbacks (which I own), and then in one single massive de luxe hardback volume (which is winging its way to me from Amazon even as I write so obviously I'm not going to say it's crap).
And John Cassady. Well just look at this comic book art.
And then: The Astonishing X-Men
Whedon simply wrote a great story with terrific dialogue which encompassed everything which makes a story good: high adventure, romance, tragedy, humour, philosophy, and probably anything else you can think of.

He brought back Kitty Pryde as mature young woman in her early twenties and Peter Rasputin (aka Colossus who'd apparently been dead for years -which I didn't even know- but, like I said, I only get these titles when they're likely to be too good not to) who was Kitty's teenage crush with the result that they finally get it on and Wolverine laconically observes, "About time."
Whedon also brings to centre stage an antagonistic character called Abigail Brand boss of the acronym SWORD which is an organisation operating as a defence from/interface with aliens and operates from a space station and appears to be working with the alien villain of the series. He also adds an innovative twist by revealing that Kitty's alien pet mini-dragon Lockheed is highly intelligent and has recently been spying on the X-Men for SWORD.

Brand turns out to be alien on her father's side and gets a few scenes with Hank McCoy resulting in her declaring to him, and much to his surprise, that "(I am) so frikking hot for you."

Their relationship is still ongoing, albeit off-screen, in the next, less successful and still ongoing,  series of Astonishing X-Men written by Warren Ellis and confusingly illustrated by the Italian Simone Bianchi.

More fun is the spin-off series. What follows is my Amazon review of-
This has been published under the X-men banner but the link is somewhat tenuous as it only features one bona fide X-man in the furry and loveable form of Hank McCoy aka Beast. Stretching a point and you could include Lockheed who was once thought of as Kitty Pryde's pet mini-dragon but who was recently revealed as an intelligent alien with his own (still unrevealed) agenda.

More of a grumble is the physical portrayal of Hank McCoy who I ought to state is my favourite Marvel character. His appearance has changed often over the years from pure (extremely well muscled and agile) human to human with blue fur and more recently into human with feline features and paws. And then again in this story where he has been given a horse-like muzzle which is considerably at variance with his features on the cover, and also much less appealing. That it makes him resemble (as we find out when we meet Abigail Brand's half-brother) his girlfriend's father's species still doesn't justify it.

Okay, as for the story itself, it's set on the space station responsible for defending earth against aliens and is co-lead by the mutually antagonistic Brand and Henry Gyrich (who, as Hank points out about this long-running X-men supporting character, has been wrong about everything for years. There are lots of wheels within wheels but basically Gyrich has SWORD round up every alien on Earth (including superheroes) while Brand and Beast are off fighting Deathshead.

If it hadn't been for the physical portrayal of Hank McCoy, I'd probably have given this 4 stars as it's a fun romp. But that horse-faced appearance is just SO annoying.

And there we have it. The story so far.


Sunday 4 July 2010

WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?

Busy with cat rescuing stuff. See my cat rescuing blog for details. I'll do doing a proper post soon.