Rashbre seems to have Kate Walsh as a car CD fairly often and I'm pleased to see Kate is about to do a UK tour of mainly small venues.
Kate started with home assembly recording, made an exceptional album and performs spellbindingly with an acoustic guitar. I see she is also performing at the Union Chapel in a few days (thats where the above video was filmed) and I couldn't resist getting some tickets. I suspect various rashbre central associates will be present!
I've mentioned the various other uses for churches and chapels in my area. The Polar Bear gig was in an ex church now a museum and performance space and the late lunch a few weeks ago was in a converted chapel.
Now I'm on the trail of the Little Noise gigs, which are in November and due to be held in Union Chapel, Islington. The plan is to run around nine nights of acoustic sets by some of the great and good on the indie and pop circuit, hosted (curated?) by Jo Whiley and in aid of the Mencap charity.
And this chapel? It is still used as a church, as well as being a London venue and a homelessness project.
From yesterday's gig, here's one of the pieces of software that leafcutter john was using to make the ambient effects. This version is a free version for the Mac. His live version had a playstation controller to operate some effects, too.
One of the main people that got me into creating music with synths and voices was the person behind the formidable i-sense. The new album is released on 24th September, but I was lucky enough to get a preview copy.
Several of us sat together in Chelsea today to unveil it and it lived up to promise. A shorter recording than the last couple, but highly evocative of the middle east and mysticism. There will be unknown messages wrapped in the braids of the music and it may take a time to unravel.
Mixing spoken vocals with strong bass, sweeping and combed synthesizers and emphemeral effects, this is a fine work and one which I've already listened to about four times. John even flipped on his Fender and jammed some eastern accompaniment when we'd had the first listen through.
So jump across to myspace and be swept off to the beautiful deserts of the middle east. More when I've iTuned it.
Not my typical venue, but a very famous club in Frith Street, nonetheless. I was asked to go there on Monday to get some tickets for a forthcoming event, in the knowledge that the tix went on sale at 12:00. Only thing was, they actually went on sale at 10:30 and by 12:00, they had all sold out. Ronnie Scott's has 300 seats and were absolutely deluged with requests for the gig which is taking place on the 23rd September. I wasn't even trying to buy the tickets for myself, but lets just say that Julie is rather disappointed that she won't be seeing her pop icon.
This is not just any brick wall, this brick wall has another one of those space invaders half way up it.
I spotted it a few days ago during my travels around London.
You may have to look carefully to see it as well as to wonder how it got there in the first place.
Lunch today in Sloane Square with friends. We had a great laugh and a few too many cocktails. Imagine my surprise afterwards when I found this picture on my phone. Its us leaving Oriel's! I've no idea how I took it.
Technorati Tags: trackback, wordlesswednesday
Well, my post about the new iPod was speculative and slightly wrong, but not that wrong, really. Here's the real thing. To my surprise, the initial capacity is the same as the last Nano. I'd have expected a disk based system with maybe 10 times the capacity at launch. Oh well.
A minor comparison of the Dome vs Wembley as a venue. Not a "Sports" comparison, but for audience care and facilities. The Dome crushes Wembley in a moment. Better transport access, better entry logistics, better free space areas, better range of on site facilities, better restaurants and cafes, better food. And as a venue for live, 20,000 seats at the dome still seems fairly intimate whereas 50,000 seats at Wembley creates distant dots.
And an £8 disgustoburger at Wembley is no match for the £7 chinese at the Dome.
C'mon Wembley, fix it.
I never meant 2 cause u any sorrow
I never meant 2 cause u any pain
I only wanted 2 one time see u laughing
I only wanted 2 see u laughing in the purple rain
Purple rain purple rain
Purple rain purple rain
Purple rain purple rain
I only wanted 2 see u bathing in the purple rain
A great gig with Prince keeping the whole Dome on its feet from the opening chord to the very, very, very end of the show. Consumate performer, robust band, great dancers, many great tunes mixin it up between soul, jazz, funk, fusion, blues, rock, pop. The Prince threw a great party for London.
strictly no cameras allowed, so you'll have to imagine the rest
Strolling onward to Brick Lane, nowadays nicknamed "Bangla Town" by the locals. Originally an area for the manufacture of bricks, then a Jewish neighbourhood and nowadays the centre of the Bangladeshi community. Ask a Londoner about Brick Lane and they'll talk about the excellent curry restaurants (bring your own beer- the restaurants are mainly Muslim). There's also the markets in the middle part of the Lane and at night its a clubbing area with the Vibe and others open till very late. The 24 hour Beigel Bakery does good trade around the clock.
The Bangladeshis first came here as seamen in the 1920s and expanded a wide range of trading in the area. The signage is often in Bangladeshi and as well as items likw saris from the indian sub-continent there's designer fashion from the Laden Shop or vintage clothes from Rokit.
Around the middle of the Lane is the tall chimneyed Truman's Black Eagle Brewery with origins in the 1700s. Nowadays its been converted to a tourist, cafe and shopping area, although part is still open for guided tours.
The area was one of the most densely populated in the middle of the 19th century and at that time was known for slums, narrow alleyways, poor water supplies and no proper sewage facilities.
Brick Lane today is a bustling and multi-cultural area. Off to each side are other small roads with fame of their own. Chicksand Street is reputed to be where Bram Stocker stayed on his return to Transylvania. Flower and Dean Street was the address of most of Jack the Ripper's victims at some stage in their lives and Hanbury Steet was the site of one of the murders. I'm not sure about Bacon Street.
And any spare flat surface will have been postered or display some form of graphic. This varies from mindless tagging to the street art of Banksy or sometimes installation pieces that have somehow made it onto the street.
Brick Lane may have converted to being more be halal than kosher, but the area continues to cast a vivid image into east London.
Emm, this was supposed to be the Saturday post after team rashbre had entered another one of those Shoot Experience photo walkabout competitions. Unfortunately it all went a bit pear shaped. We had tickets and were kind of prepared. The last one we did was, for us, an anytime start and this suited us just fine. This one had an un-noticed 'be there at eleven am' message in the email.
oops.
So turning up at two o' clock in the afternoon wasn't a bright idea. Then being told the clues took around 30 minutes each and that everyone had to be back at four thirty to upload the finished items.
So dutifully taking the team rashbre materials, including the team badges with 'I love Hackney' written on them it was time to go outside Cargo to plan the rescue operation. 
That's when the pub came into view. After a Grolsch, this became a 'cut the losses' situation. So instead of hammering around the circuit snapping wildly and producing some ill-planned entries, it became more fun to abandon the competition and to simply wander around 'the area formerly known as Hackney' now called Hoxton, Shoreditch and Brick Lane.
Hoxton itself has become one of the gentrification areas in London and the small grassy Hoxton Square was filled with people chilling out for the afternoon, overlooked by various trendy restaurants and art galleries.
Indicatively, around the square, with graffiti like stencilling onto the pavement, was a series of signs for the "Cereal Killer", either advertising an Australian rock band or Kellogg's breakfast foods.
The nature of the area creates a fusion between street culture typified by graffiti at one end and posh art galleries at the other. As an example, there's a shop which has been converted into an advertisement for the recent Chemical Brothers album.
So there's a balance required here to interpret the difference between substance, pretence with perhaps a little wry humour. I'd need to spend more time in this finely delineated area to be able to make the necessary judgement. ShoHo (Shoreditch/Hoxton) is less clear-cut than the SoHo of Manhattan, yet shares some of the characteristics.
and the Hoxton snaps were on the way to Brick Lane...
...well not my garden. And not really a garden, as such.
Covent Garden.
An area often featured in 'Lies Londoners tell Tourists' (because its not a garden), along with 'The Mall as a great shopping area'. And as a place to visit, for a quick buzz of lots happening, Covent Garden has it all from smart cafes, street entertainers, boutique shops and little craft market stands.
For much of its existence Covent Garden served as a fruit and vegetable market covering the whole of the square. Back in the 1600s the land belonged to Westminster Abbey and was a Convent garden, hence the name.
It emerged in its current form out of an experiment in London of town planning as the creation of a public square, developed by the Earl of Bedford, Charles I and architect Inigo Jones. It also introduced Italian style Palladian columns, some smart houses and a grids for streets instead of London's random twists and turns.
The original public square ultimately caused the residential well-heeled toffs to leave the area for Bloomsbury to escape the riff-raff and lack of privacy.
Then the Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed the major markets in the City and the fruit market moved to this area where it remained for around 300 years, evolving in the late 1800s to a covering of the area with a train station style roof.
The final closure of the extensive fruit market in the 1970s was an effect of London road congestion and became the reason for the market to move to South of the river to its current Nine Elms location.
Unimaginative developers wanted to knock down the market and build a conference centre but local opposition was so strong that a renovation plan ensued creating what is, today, a major magnet for tourists and Londoners at rest. Street performers ply their amusements on every corner and there is always a big crowd by the Punch and Judy pub looking out to the end of the square where a high wire act, jugglers or a stand-up will be working the crowd (or sometimes one person doing all three together).
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the Covent Garden Opera House also operate in the area and it has a 'one way' tube station at certain times of the year (exit only) and this encourages tourists to wander the area and then find a different way back from Leicester Square or Embankment.
And of course, the spirits from many a yesteryear still inhabit the whole area.
Close your eyes, listen to the noise and you can imagine any time from the past in this vibrant part of London.
But I only took these snaps as I passed through on my way to Shoreditch.
Nikon sent me their publicity for their new D300 camera. I frequently use Nikon cameras and think they are excellent; even the base-line D40 is a very good piece of kit. As the cameras get bigger numbers they get more expensive, except for the ones with only one number which are REALLY expensive.
I think the D300 is really the souped-up D200 with a new wibbulator to shake dust off the sensor when lenses are changed and better waterproofing than the cling-film that I sometimes use on my Nikons. There's some new LiveView preview technology for when the mirror is up, though I'm so used to SLRs that I'm not sure whether this is slightly like a consumer feature. They have also added an HDMI output for links to HD televisions, though I don't think I'd use one of the HDMI slots on my television for an SLR feed.
They also announced an eye-watering D3 (one digit, so pricey), which is really for folk of the press. To be honest, I find the intermediate cameras more useful for my type of photography. The really expensive ones have big built in battery compartments and bulk which equates to weight. Not as easy to wrap up in a T-shirt and chuck into a backpack.
I see that DX and FX are now the designations for the size of the capture areas in SLRs. DX is the smaller size used by most digital and FX is a bigger format like 35mm film. Of course there needs to be a bigger and bulkier lens for the FX format, so I guess thats where the press end of the market is headed.
The dichotomy is that sometimes its better not to look too professional when out with a camera, because it can either put people off or even prevent entry to some things (has happened to me). On other occasions, a super-duper camera is what's needed to 'look the part' like when were hyping the Warhol production in Edinburgh. Big lenses equated to 'press interest'.
I still believe its finding the shot rather than the camera, and there are some excellent people on flickr who prove this time and again.
Technorati Tags: Canon, D2, D200, D3, D300, D40, D80, Nikon, rashbre
17 teenage gun deaths in London this year, most recently Brixton this month. A gun killing of a biker on the M40 a few days ago and now an 11 year old killed in Liverpool by a BMX teen cyclist with a shotgun.
Gang culture is ascribed as a form of belonging, often with violence as entry price. Social deprivation, petty crime and the spiral to drugs and organized crime become the challenges for the projects trying to stabilize and turn the tide. A family is supposed to teach independence, but a gang seems to drive dependence.
Ethnicity is in the debate but only a few days ago a white male gang leader was sent to prison following violence based rule of Nottingham. The Krays have gone, but there is still organized money making at the edge of the law.
Pop Culture also features; number one on Billboard is Underground Kingz with lyrics about 44's, glocks and Ks (guns) and 454's (shot gun cartridges). Teens of all types face gory Playstation options as influences.
Intellectualising about missing context and cultural references being replaced by Americana doesn't do it for me. The 'only amongst themselves' arguments also seem rather convenient. Near enough to where I live we've had both a drive by shooting at a petrol station and a gang related murder (years apart but in memory).
So what to do? Socializing, Governance, Education? All have price tags and timescale implications. Heavy policing? Risks of escalation. The thing for sure is to bring this into the agenda. We all need it to be better.
Meetings in central London today, with Oyster card to the fore.
Main journey was on the bus of champions, the 137. Lets face it, the number 25 and the number 10 get lots of press for the areas they visit and are part of prime tourist London, but the 137 knows a thing or two also. From crossing the River Thames, to meandering through Sloane Square, past King's Road and all along Sloane Street, through Knightsbridge, Park Lane, Mayfair and finally to Oxford Street, it can show a sight or two.
And some of them seem to be new generation buses, too. Extra wide-windows and most of the cameras and general high-tech pieces look as if they were designed in, rather than added as afterthoughts. And they seem to be called Enviro, which presumably means they are good for the smog.
And the windows make it easier to take pictures, too. Here's a few snaps from the journey.
Older version of the same bus
Oxford Street specializes in buses and taxis.
and tourist shoppers
mainly buying Man U and Arsenal soccer shirts
Sometimes its best to know when to leave
A rather blurry picture from the end of the Nitin Sawhney concert. The camera we were using seems to have a mind of its own and kept destroying the pictures.
Nitin Sawhney is a remarkably versatile artist and this concert showed some of the breadth, from simple acoustic pieces, through voice only effects to full symphony orchestra sized pieces, by way of sitar-based Indian fusion. Quite an evening, with an astonishing amount packed in. Listen to Prophesy.
I've managed to get tickets for a few London shows in the next few weeks.
This Friday its Nitin Sawhney at the Albert Hall as part of the Proms.
I'll also be doing Proms in the Park which is a bit more poppy and at the end of August it's Prince. These will be some good gigs to look forward to.
As well as a side visit to Birmingham at some point to see Rufus.
The picture is the Royal Albert Hall from the top of a 452 bus and if you look closely you can also see the reflection of the Albert Memorial, which is on the other side of the road in the park.
After a week of wellies and mud at Glasto, the prospect of seating to watch some pop acts was really quite good. We met at Edgware Road and tubed it to Wembley Park, then making our way into the stadium in time for the start.
There were a huge number of acts for this concert, started with Elton singing "Your Song" and then the two princes coming on to the stage for a right royal welcome to the crowd plus the estimated global audience of 500 million. Some of the acts had a clear linkage to the Princess and some of those that didn't had made an effort to find something special or appropriate to perform.
At some points it was clear that the acts were backing up, because there seemed to be quite a few cuts from say two songs to one (Will Young, Natasha Bedingfield as examples) and some of the longer acts were also commenting in away that suggested they were being asked to cut back.
I enjoyed Lily Allen singing about London, the Status Quo doing a reprise of Rockin all over the world and getting an audible sigh from the crowd that they were only allowed one song, Tom Jones in a venue like this was well-judged, Will Young with his troupe of dancers stood out in their brilliant white. Nelly Furtado also drove a strong performance. I also liked the P.Diddy rap with funky violinists which had been specially written for the occasion.
Overall a strong way to catch up on mainstream pop and a lot less muddy than Glastonbury, although the food at Wembley was awful compared with anything on offer at Glastonbury with £8 at Wembley purchasing any variety of inedible option.
Here's the view from the seats we started in before I discovered we were in the wrong block and we moved to right underneath the Princes!
...Oh and the Spice Girls were there, with Beckham, but not performing!
