In the tiny upstairs room of a lovely bar, Sofi’s, we are
introduced to Andy Quirk and his partner in crime, Anna J. Dressed in what
could be described as street/ ‘chav’ gear, the two entertain us through comedy
in the form of songs addressing some of the 99 problems of the World.
These musical interludes tap into different genres of music –
rap, house, punk pop, 80’s and are all entertaining, addressing Bags for Life,
waiting in a queue and the meal deal; and while funny, they are also true to
life, making our interaction easy and the connection to the narratives true to
life.
The relationship of Andy Quirk and Anna J is on point – they
interact well with us and with each other, making the show flow and with room
to add ad libs, going with the flow and making the show catered to us.
The music is fun, recognisable and also clever in how they
in put the lyrics to the beat. For every song, we have a chance to be involved
so rather than being sung / rapped at, we have the chance to join in and sing
our hearts out to relatable content.
99 First World Problems is fun, funny and quite a nice break out of the main hustle and bustle of busy Royal Mile. If you want a laid back, enjoyable show you can get involved with, then this is it.
Hi Neil. It’s great to meet you. Can you give our readers some
background information on yourself please?
I’m a writer. It’s taken me a while to be comfortable saying that. Because I’m not from an academic background. My dad was a carpenter and I spent my formative years being led to believe that “the arts” were created by posh people, for posh people. I knew I had something to say, though. And so, after having been overlooked yet again, in favour of the tremendously talented, doe-eyed Derek Allen for the lead role in the school drama, I decided that, unless I wanted to be “chorus” for the remainder of my life, it was time to take things into my own hands. As a parting “gift” to my school, I produced, wrote and directed the inaugural end of year School Revue, a chaotic sketch show, interspersed with bands and Spike Milligan poetry renditions.
I left that all-boys grammar school, a hellish hotbed of bullying, conformity and privilege, with 6 average O Levels, to join a Youth Training Scheme in Print and Design (having turned down a potentially lucrative, but ultimately soul destroying, banking career). But that Print and Design Training Scheme was good to me, exposing me to a previously unknown world of words and images and allowing me to quickly learn a balance between creativity and commercial viability. But, as ungrateful as it seems now, it was never overtly creative. Expressive. Risky. At school, I remember my English teacher complaining that my stories were too long and that he didn’t have time to read them. Having pointed out, with typical teenage cockiness that it was his job, he reminded me, as others often did, that I’d never amount to anything. But I’ve always found the need to prove doubters wrong a powerful motivation.
I joined poetry groups. And naively welded words together, as a form of primitive catharsis. Short poems, laden with unconscious subtext, created to accommodate my own limited attention span. But these poetry groups so often consisted of the spurned and disenfranchised of the world. Society’s sensitive rejects, confined to the sad, back rooms of usually celebratory places. So I wrote a screenplay. About a man in his late 20s, who leaves a mundane and unfulfilling life, to go travelling. It was rubbish. But I finished it. And then I wrote another. A time travel love story. About a widower who travels back in time to change his wife’s fate, so that she lives. But while he’s there, he falls for someone else. It wasn’t as rubbish as the first one, but, having received polite letters (and they were letters back then), I decided to put my aspirations on hold.
Years later, after wearing a hole in where I was from, it was time to move on. To the medium-sized smoke of Cardiff. Five months, in a city where I knew next to no one, living in the attic room of a shared house, in a sweltering room, with nothing but the sobs of the duped pensioner in the room below to remind me I wasn’t alone. Motivation enough to get out and start throwing myself into the posh life. Seeing posh art, created by posh people, for posh people. And posh theatre, written by posh people, for posh people. And nobody stared. Or looked at me like I didn’t belong. And before I knew it, I was talking to people. About art. And theatre. And they weren’t posh at all. Most of them, anyway.
One night, at the Sherman Theatre, I saw Script Slam. Five plays, by previously un-produced writers. Directed by and featuring proper professionals.
And I thought, I could do this. Seven People, seven monologues delivered by seven people with undisclosed secrets, and my first ever play, not only won the Script Slam heats, it also won the Grand Final. And soon, there I was, on stage, receiving a prize in front of my parents for writing and I thought, this is it…
Ten years later, with
a London-based agent, two Guardian reviews, and countless performances of my
work in Wales, London and throughout the UK, this still isn’t it. Writing the
play is just the start. Then comes the re-writing, the rejections and the
resolve to start all over again. But, like an addiction, you just can’t stop
doing it. Because you know, that the highs of simply completing a new work are
nothing compared to the incapacitating elation created by that elusive moment
of acceptance.
Since making my first short film, BETWEEN, last year, I’ve discovered new ways of telling stories for the screen (big and small), too. Having had a meeting with a TV production company about my play RABBIT, I’m currently working on a treatment with a view to developing it into a six-part comedy drama. I’m also in the process of applying for development funding for my first feature. Like I said, it’s an addiction. You just can’t stop doing it. And every compelling addiction story has a killer soundtrack…
This chat is specifically about music and the role it has played
in your personal and professional life. Firstly to start off what are you
currently listening to?
Music’s always been there. My mum and dad were jivers, rockers and rollers, lucky enough to hear Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis the first time round. They saw The Beatles in Gloucester in the 60s, in a building which is now a slowly fermenting, beer-sticky Wetherspoons. At every opportunity, they’d jive, perfectly sychronised, at smoke-fogged dinner dances, then play the tunes from the night before, whilst peeling carrots to add to the other overcooked ingredients for Sunday lunch. And, slowly, every one of those anti-establishment lyrics and rhythms started to sink in. So, at the age of ten, I fell for punk. A lamb, in parent-approved, respectable gingham check, demanding 3 minutes of anarchy from the DJ at the family disco at Croyde Bay Caravan Park, so I could pogo, solo, starting with The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks, in 1978. And, though there have been giant deviations in my musical mores, there’s always been something about the energy and attitude of punk-influenced music that energises me and makes me smile.
So, at the moment, I’m listening to Idles, Slaves and Rolo Tomassi. Quick-fix anger hits, to subconsciously energise scenes. Then there’s a bit of Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree, to help me reflect and introspect. And, though it’s not technically music, there’s the looped sound of the sea, coming in, and going out again, my substitute for the uninspiring sound of silence.
We are interviewing a range of people about their
own musical inspiration, can you list 5 records/albums which have a
personal resonance to you and why?
Narrowing it down to five is practically impossible. Like asking me to pick my top five artists. Or insects. But rules are rules, right? And, in spite of my urge to rebel against this seemingly arbitrary figure, here goes.
To help me prepare to write this article, I’ve been listening a lot to Desert Island Discs. They get to choose 8 songs. Single songs. I get 5 whole albums. As someone struggled to say once, would that it were so simple. Should I pick based on my short attention span, which would mean that I’d just choose a record by each of my “new favourite bands” for the last 5 years? Or do I consider those who might be reading this, and allow myself to be influenced by my barely latent artistic insecurities? Choosing obscure Krautrock, soundtracks from the Golden Age of Mexican Film Musicals, niche Austrian yodellers and ironic 90s pop, to offer some contrast and help portray a self-conscious sense of fun? Because I’m, like, an artist, but I literally don’t take myself too seriously.
This all seemed so
much easier when I agreed to it…
OK. In no particular order, there’s Number 1 Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia by The Dandy Warhols.
https://youtu.be/C5_QC16mWHE
I’m in Melbourne in a record shop, stopped in my travelling tracks, hearing it for the first time.I’m lying in a bath, in my tragic “bachelor” pad, on a midsummer’s night, windows open, staring at a bruised sky, dreading Friday’s “big night out”.
I’m at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, having cycled to the gig, the neon-bright colours from the stained glass window behind the stage fragmented by tears of joy, hearing it live and feeling so elated that, in that moment, nothing else mattered. This album has everything. It’s massive. It’s the soundscape of a parallel earth. A dream-like, soft-focus earth, with its ponds of pristine pop, scattered amongst its rolling hills of hypnotic rock, all floating on a sea of fuzzy psychedelia. And there’s chickens. And trumpets. It’s the friend I go to when I need reassurance about aeroplane turbulence or that the thing I’m writing is worth finishing.
2. Then there’s U2’s The Joshua Tree.
I know every word. I can hum every guitar solo. There’s a song for breaking up, fucking up and getting back up. I had that mullet. And I bought into Bono’s pain, until I was old enough to know better. But their extended performance of Bad (from The Unforgettable Fire), and Bono’s one to one with a bewildered audience member (and Wham fan) at Live Aid, will always stay with me. It’s all at once indulgent, exploitative, calculated, poetic, dramatic and beautiful.
U2 were my first serious band. The soundtrack to my later teenage years and the variety of experiences that came with them. I remember one of my first jobs, as an apprentice in a screen printing company, hunched over a lightbox, white vest, mullet and earphones playing the opening jangles of Where the Streets Have No Name (on my original Sony Walkman), goose-bumped and feeling that everything was going to be alright.
And then, much later, in the aftermath of the break up of a long relationship, wallowing in With or Without You. And, deep down, still believing the same.
3. There was a time, when the anticipation surrounding the launch of a new release was so great that you could queue outside HMV at midnight to buy the album in the first minute of its release. I’ve done this once in my life. Having pre-warned my neighbour, I returned home with my still warm, shiny, cellophane-wrapped Fat of the Land by Prodigy.
I’m in my early 30s, purple velvet suit, black silk shirt and Musketeer hair, losing it to Firestarter on the dancefloor. In my head, I’m alone. I am a wide-eyed Keith Flint, emerging from his tunnel, unpredictable and scary as hell.
Minutes later, I’m manhandled into a disabled toilet by two bouncers, insistent on performing a full body search for illicit substances. I mean, dancing with such manic intensity, in such heavy and impractical material, on a sweltering dancefloor, could only possibly be the behaviour of a drug-addled lunatic, couldn’t it?
I’ve never taken drugs (“Alcohol’s not a drug, it’s a drink”), but whatever happens to me when I hear certain tracks on this album, must produce similar chemicals. At the time, Firestarter and Breathe almost seemed to possess me. Something empathy-inducing, car-crash compelling, in that combination of primal beats and Keith Flint’s pained pantomime-punk yelps. I remember being out with friends at Clwb. Bored. So I left in search of a new adventure. Just across Womanby Street, at The Moon Club, the pied-piper bass of Diesel Power pulled me closer. Having convinced the bouncers that I was just here for that song, I soon merged into the heaving mass, all sweat and elbows, eyes closed, smiling and lost. Thanks Keith Flint. Rest in Peace.
4. Over the last ten years, there has been less and less music that has compelled me to learn every line. Maybe that’s more to do with how we consume music now. Attention spans increasingly suited to ready-meal playlists of popular hits, without the time or patience to lose ourselves in something more challenging.
And then, along came John Grant’s Pale Green Ghosts. It’s an album of absolute, awkward honesty, overtly biographical and overflowing with painful poetry. Playwrights have to create characters to hide their flaws in, but this is a balls-out confessional. A “forgive me father” you can dance to. And where does this fit into my ongoing, never a dull moment (but sometimes I wish there was) life?
Well, this particular weekend should have been a triumphant one for me. A new play, premiered at a major London venue, with a transfer to a prestigious arts-themed festival. But everything was about to fall apart and descend into one of the worst weekends of my life. Traversing the country, emotional and feeling utterly alone, I arrived at the festival, hoping to shake off the sense of overwhelming helplessness, only to find myself feeling further excluded at a time when I craved connection. Solitary and mentally and physically shattered, music was again on hand to prop me up, wrap its arms around me and send me on my way, with a sense of hope. And this time, it was John Grant who persuaded me that all was not yet lost.
From Queen of Denmark’s “I had it up to my hairline, which keeps receding like my self confidence”, to You Don’t Have To’s “you don’t deserve to have somebody think about you”, I was comforted by empathy before having everything put into perspective by the monumental Glacier, “don’t you become paralysed with fear, when things seem particularly rough…”
5. Seriously, this isn’t fair. Five albums isn’t enough. I feel that, not that they’ll ever read this, I need to use this opportunity to say thanks for the company and inspiration to all of the following, before I mention my final choice (which, as I write this, I’m still not sure of):
Carrie – Fear of Sound
The Teardrop Explodes – Wilder
Bauhaus – Burning From the Inside
Babybird – Ugly Beautiful/There’s Something Going On
The Walkmen – Lisbon/Pussy Cats
Lou Reed and John Cale – Songs For Drella
The Vaccines – What Did You Expect from The Vaccines
Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking/Ritual De Lo Habitual
Oasis – Definitely Maybe
Radiohead – The Bends
Dogs – Turn Against This Land
Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love will Bury It
Die Antwoord – Donker Mag/Ten$ion
Rammstein – Mutter
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell
Pantera – A Vulgar Display of Power
Frank – Music and Song From the Film
The Mission Soundtrack – Ennio Morricone
O.K. my 5th and final album (I realise that my approach might suggest a sense of over-inflated self importance, but this is music and it means a lot to me, so be kind!) is…
Rufus Wainwright – Want One/Want Two
This could just have easily been Tom Waits or Nick Cave or
Babybird or Jane’s Addiction and I know, I know, this is technically two
albums, creating a Top 6, but they were repackaged as a double album in 2005,
so no rules broken. And what are rules, anyway, really?
Years before the drive-through ease of Spotify, Later with Jools Holland was my trusted introducer to “new” music. In May 2004, Rufus Wainwright performed Vibrate and, like the beneficiary of a free first crack rock, I was hooked. An incredibly beautiful song, saturated with longing and a barely dignified desperation to be loved, delivered in a voice that wavered between absolute self-assurance and disarming vulnerability. In my mid teens, I was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. I convinced myself that she might have survived, if she’d had a friend who hadn’t harboured some sinister ulterior motive. Though I was barely equipped at the time to deal with my own issues, I imagined going back in time and unconditionally offering her my smooth, skinny shoulder to cry on.
And now, here I was, in the waistcoat and cravat wardrobe of my mid 30s, listening to Vibrate and reminded of my noble teenage fantasies.I sought out his entire back catalogue, in typically obsessive fashion. I lapped up his earlier stuff, but the theatrical emotional rollercoaster of Want One and Two was breathtaking. From the triumphant optimism of Oh What a World, to the infectiously rousing Beautiful Child, from the unrequited love of The Art Teacher to the grand, sing-a-long heartbreak of 14th Street, these albums reminded me that songs didn’t have to be inspired by rage to make me feel something.
And live, he’s even better. Whether backed by an orchestra or
alone at a piano, these are songs to sing along to, about the collective human
experiences of life, love and loss. All this, and he’s proper laugh-out-loud
funny, too.
There’s also something inspiring about how he seems to have forgone what could potentially have been straightforward commercial success, to pursue his operatic aspirations. Maybe I see a parallel, however truly incomparable, with my shirking of a lucrative graphic design career, in favour of the dogged pursuit of my own creative writing dreams.If I ever meet him, I’ll be torn between the fake bravado of asking him to collaborate on a show and the awe-inspired verbal paralysis of unworthiness.
So, that’s my Top 5. Ask me tomorrow and it might be an
entirely different one.
Just to put you on the spot could you choose one track from
the five listed above and tell us why you have chosen this?
Why couldn’t this have been an article about my favourite,
most inspiring cheeses? Which would have proved considerably less traumatic.
Ideally, I’d like to say none of the above. So I could choose
Angela Surf City by The Walkmen or Perfume Genius’s Queen or Nick Cave’s People
Ain’t No Good or Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Maps or Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice it’s
All Right or Idles’ Danny Nedelko. But, far be it from me to, yet again, turn
momentary article-based hellraiser…
The song being chosen…
As my favourite…
From the albums above…
Is…
Solid by the Dandy Warhols. There are so many incredible songs on Thirteen Tales, but the nonchalant, stoner-swagger of this song, conjures images of walking through sunset-lit, excitingly dangerous streets, without a care in the world.
https://youtu.be/-2POhuBLUow
“I feel cool as shit, cause I’ve got no thoughts keeping me down.” While I wait for writing success (and hope that I recognise it when it arrives) and/or untold riches, that’ll be the straightforward, spiritual mantra that I awkwardly (but resolutely) aspire to. Music will always be my empathetic friend, ready to tell me what I need to hear at exactly the right moment. It’s there to laugh with, to cry with and to dance with. It’s being inconsolable at gigs, snubbed by your idols (that’s you, Karen O, but not you, Henry Rollins), comforted after break-ups, reflective at funerals, losing it on dance floors and pushed to do one more press-up, cycle one more lap, write one more scene….
A review by Ann Davies from RCT Creative Writers Group on the topic of topic of Taste
What’s on the Menu?
What music do you like? Tastes can vary; they can be mood
shakers; a melody can bring a seemingly lost memory to mind. Emotions can be
laid bare. This was the night of Yeah Yeah.
Were we ready for this high octane enhancing performance?
I guess it all depended on your taste and the performing artists certainly lived
up to a life of their own. What was on the Menu? as the theatre group “Yeah,
Yeah” showcased their act in the lounge of the Park and Dare Theatre in
Treorchy recently.
“Are you ready, Treorchy?”The Haka cry came amidst the burst
of strobe lighting and the throb of music every sound resounding off the
glistening disco ball overhead. Two people strode out, one male one female;
they each had a story to tell. They looked like trapeze artists one with an
enlarged Rod Stewart wig that looked as though it was plugged into an electric
socket. With a fitted costume, accentuating her nubile body, his female partner
embraced the music. Acrobatically and gymnastically the music and story was
revealed as the opposing tastes for musical theatre and rock music battled it
out.
Adult humour laced with music and dance. Changes of
costumes – some more titillating than others were the ingredients for the
night. Their interpretation of known
songs from the musicals and rock classics were exemplary. It awakened deep
seated memories that you would never see or hear a song that you loved in the
same way ever again. It was an experience of tasting selections of melodies
like a club sandwich combining the savoury with the sweet.
During the interval, the duo presented their own adverts
over the lounge speakers.
There was Swan Lake on points overwhelmed with feathers
(now you know where the feathers have gone from your bed linen). The lady’s limbs
were used as an air guitar; the drum set lost its setting the motorbike that
raced to the music of Meatloaf. OMG was the revelation a Smorgasbord special. A
spicy concoction of a recipe, boiled but scrambled, culminating in a Crockpot
of creative juices that would have put Nigella to shame.
Morgan Thomas and Tori Johns were engaging in their tale.
It was colourful; it was crazy, different and an entire work out for your
laughter muscles. Many of the audience would still be laughing at their first
encounter with the company called “Yeah, Yeah”
A tasty dish to savour long after the evening was over.
Music echoed around the valley, the time had come. Radio Rhondda had come to the Rhondda Fach with its supporters and volunteers. The hills surrounding the area, nestled between the villages of Tylorstown and Ferndale were alive with the sounds of people enjoying themselves as the music reached out on the airwaves. Community radio had come to the communities of the Rhondda Fach.
A beautiful sunny day, the pleasant and atmospheric venue of the Scoops & Smiles Diner/Parlour in Oakland Terrace which had been the premises of the former Lockyer and Pacey Garage and forecourt. How many cars had been bought or stopped to refuel there over the years? Present day traffic hooted as they drove past; water fountains were available to all (as were toilet facilities) plus a cool area inside the Diner or at the rear of the building.
Colourful balloons adorned the area provided by ‘Just for you’ of Ferndale, there were stalls offering information on Cancer Research and Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water as they continue their essential work throughout the area renewing water pipes. Representatives from the Police were also present. The central part of the programme was the Official launch of Radio Rhondda in the Rhondda Fach, which was performed by the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Susan Morgans (Ferndale Ward) and Councillor Jack Harries (Maerdy Ward). The diner offered all the delights and descriptive flavours of ice cream in cones and tubs – marshmallows on crepes – plus their usual food fare. Children dug deep into sweet bottles that were offered to them, finding themselves lucky to receive various extra goodies. Face painting with the logo of the station was available. Free key rings and notices promoted the event. A Raffle was held with prizes donated by local businesses.
Commentators promoted the Radio station, introducing their main
programme holders and interviewing local people. There was a miscellany of
music provided by their own presenters, including Lorraine Jones and a chat
about gardening from Terry Walton. Musical compositions were provided by the
group Fiddlers Elbow (where were you, Gerhard Kress?) The Arts Factory Ferndale
duo of Ben and Louise provided a melody of songs which received phone calls
from people who knew them having tuned into the station. Thanks and appreciation
to Louise for mentioning our group RCT Creative Writers.
It was a warm day, which offered entertainment and
conversations with people who soon became friends. Sun cream and Sunhats were
the essential requirements on this day.
Thank you to Radio Rhondda and all who supported and
volunteered for this event. Please come again.
Perhaps like WAM (Mike Church) and Voices from the Bridge
(Rob Cullen) you should go “On Tour” People
in the Rhondda Fach are friendly and creative persons although we often feel forgotten!
Hi Christian, great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?
Born and raised by my maternal grandparents in Clydach, Swansea. I’m an actor, writer and director. I trained at Welsh College of Music and Drama and did what most graduates do after leaving college…moved to London! I missed Wales way too much and now live in Alltwen with my wife (Actress Michelle McTernan) my son Dylan and my dog Dodger.
This chat is specifically about music and the role it has played in your personal and professional life. Firstly to start off what are you currently listening to?
I LOVE MUSIC! There’s pretty much something playing all the time…whether it’s in the background or something I specifically want to listen to. My wife is going through a bit of a Nina Simone period at the moment so the house is pretty much a Simone Zone! I have to say I’m a big Nina Simone fan (I saw her live at the Royal Festival Hall…she was INCREDIBLE!) so that’s fine by me.
https://youtu.be/L5jI9I03q8E
Left to my own devices my music tastes are incredibly varied and eclectic. I achieved a life long ambition recently and managed to see Nile Rodgers and Chic live! IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! So, at the moment I’m pretty much a disco devotee! Having said that I love songs that speak to you or capture a period in time…my son introduced me to a song called ‘Ban Drill’ by Krept & Konan and I found it really moving. It’s a great track. I’ve also discovered something about myself whilst compiling this list…I’m very ‘Riff’ led!
https://youtu.be/nuwcr-M37Do
Music is also a big part of my professional career with the forthcoming tour of Peggy’s Song from National Theatre Wales. I was really drawn to this play for 3 reasons…written by Kath Chandler, directed by Phil Clark and the beautiful, bittersweet characters at the heart of it.
I play Danny Walkman, a local hospital DJ who loves him job. Music is so much more important to him that just songs…it’s his friend, his family, his passion and his life. He loves people and he truly believes they feel the same way about him…until he meets Peggy! Danny & Peggy have nothing and everything in common…they are two lonely people who only have each other… and the challenge to figure out Peggy’s Song!
We are interviewing a range of people about their own musical inspiration, can you list 5 records/albums which have a personal resonance to you and why?
https://youtu.be/jVYQ7wipxtU
1. Here Comes the Sun – Obviously I love the Beatles version but the Louise Dearman version has a very special place in my heart. We lost our son Harry in a tragic accident when he was just 5 years old. We played Louise’s version as Harry’s coffin entered the church. That song means a lot to me because it is intrinsically linked to my memories of Harry.
https://youtu.be/x0njSOZ5M3w
2. Sweet Home Alabama – I have always LOVED this track! As soon as I hear the counting at the top of the song I’m already getting excited about hearing the guitar riff! It is just AMAZING! It is also linked to memory for me. My father died a few weeks before his 52nd birthday…he loved this song and we listened to it on many car journeys! I remember the journey to his funeral. I was sat in front of the funeral car and even though I was deeply upset I was keeping it together…then…as the crematorium doors open I heard Sweet Home Alabama and burst into tears. Music does that.
https://youtu.be/HvDiD_vbwpg
3. Le Freak – It would be almost impossible for me to not include a Nile Rodgers and Chic song! I think Nile Rodgers is a bona fide musical genius! When I saw him live I couldn’t take my eyes off him! It was a real “You are my hero!” moment! The entire gig was totally magical and I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. I was born in 1972 so disco was a huge part of my youth…I loved it then and I still love it now!
https://youtu.be/9Vjj6J7gXpY
4. Superstition – Stevie Wonder is another one of those people that I think is a true genius! For me the guitar riff of Superstition is one of if not the greatest guitar riffs of all time! I could choose so many Stevie Wonder tracks but Superstition is a real classic!
https://youtu.be/RlNhD0oS5pk
5. Immigrant Song – One word…WOW! The first time I heard this track I felt like I already knew it! The riff (told you…Riff led tastes!) is the absolute epitome of rock, the vocal is incredible…it has it all! It’s only 2m 26s…I can’t listen to it just the once! Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are ROCK GODS!
Just to put you on the spot could you choose one track from the five listed above and tell us why you have chosen this?
This is tough. Very tough. They all mean so much to me for so many different reasons. I suppose I’d have to choose a track that I can put on repeat and be happy every time I hear it. I’m going to go with Sweet Home Alabama…I think it is an incredible track…it makes me feel happy. Yep! That’s the one!
Peggy’s Song tour Wales later this year. You can book tickets at the links below
Riverfront Newport – 25 September, 7.45pm BOOK NOW
Pontardawe Arts Centre – 26 September, 7.30pm & 27 September, 1pm & 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon – 1 October, 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl – 2 October, 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Theatr Hafren, Newtown – 3 October, 7.45pm
Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea – 4 October, 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Theatr Richard Burton, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff – 5 October, 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Borough Theatre, Abergavenny – 7 October, 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Blackwood Miners Institute – 8 October, 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Torch Theatre, Milford Haven – 9 October, 7.30pm BOOK NOW
Get the Chance are working with new theatre company YEAH YEAH to support audiences to attend a sharing of an in development piece of work and then discuss their thoughts. The sharing will take place at Chapter Arts Centre on Saturday the 13th July at 7.30pm.
YEAH YEAH are a new Cardiff theatre company developing uplifting gig theatre. A crossover for those that might enjoy a musical, tribute band, stand-up comedy, or a touch of ballet.
The work in development (working title) ‘Magical Place’ is free to attend.
Expect iconic songs you know and love plus drums, keytar, lycra, laughs, dance and the biggest pyrotechnics they can afford, Magical Place is a new work still in development and the company welcome your feedback
Please note, that this is a sharing of a work in progress, and therefore not the complete anticipated production. Sections of the work will be performed, with the aim to gather audience feedback. Audience members participating in feedback will earn two Tempo Time Credits for volunteering their time.
“Tori is here to perform a musical, Morgan is here to perform a rock show.
So expect iconic musical and rock songs you know and love; comedy, dance, live drums, keytar and lycra.”
Age 16+
Duration: 1hr (which will include optional audience feedback)
The latest film Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis is an interesting and very amusing ‘what if?’ idea about everyone in the world forgetting about the songs written by The Beatles, apart from one man.
That man is Jack Malik, aspiring musician, who’s tried to make it big for over ten years and failed. Now the key to success is in his hands, the ‘poison chalice’ of fame and money is offered to him, but is he ready to pay the price for it when the price is his integrity, his self-respect and his true love?
Of course he is!
https://youtu.be/HY0GBmOxyYY
What follows is a funny, charming and well-made film, which makes some good points about how art becomes ‘product’, and how success changes people. There’s also some touching moments that avoid overt sentimentality (just), while still being very moving. Including one scene towards the end that’ll make you misty-eyed, but more on that I cannot say. You’ll know it when you see it.
There’s also a nice running joke about other things that have disappeared along with Lennon & McCartney’s music, and a decent cameo from Ed Sheeran. You can’t say fairer than that.
Boyle shows a visual flair, enhancing a script that is polished Curtis, giving it a more universal feel than the usual middle-class London scene, and it’s all the better for it. But it does have flaws.
Hamesh Patel is endearing as Jack, even though his motivation seems muddled at times. While Lily James as his longtime friend/love interest doesn’t really have a lot to do. And her surprise visit to Jack in Liverpool is so confusing to him (and us) that it makes you sympathetic as to why Jack never realised her true feelings.
There’s a good supporting cast, such as Sanjeev Baskhar as Jack’s dad, but Kate McKinnon is wasted as the stereotypical greedy agent, whose sole aim seems to be to buy up all of Malibu. I’ve yet to see her in a role that does justice to her talent.
The ending is also a little odd, and a good cameo from Sarah Lancashire hints at an interesting plot line that is never developed.
However, despite promising more than it delivers, there’s plenty to enjoy here. The film has an innovative idea at its heart, and the real star of the show is the music of the Beatles. Seen in one go, so to speak, you realise just how wonderful the songs are. Who can blame Jack when he decides to ‘re-discover’ them?
Hi Phil, great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?
I am a professional Theatre Director , I work Internationally. I also work as a visual artist.
Brecon Beacons (Gouache)
This chat is specifically about music and the role it has played in your personal and professional life. To start off what are you currently listening to?
I am listening to the songs of Irving Berlin. I’m about to direct Noel Cowards play BLITHE SPIRIT at Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, Suffolk. The production runs from Tue 23rd July 2019 – Sat 31st August 2019.
The play is set in the 1940s so I’m immersing myself in the music of the period. I use music in my work all the time. I often direct shows created by actor/musicians.
https://youtu.be/d5MPrcX8xAI
In the Autumn this year we will be remounting the National Theatre Wales production of PEGGY’S SONG by Welsh playwright Katherine Chandler and starring Christian Patterson. This is one of a series of plays by Welsh writers in response to the anniversary of the NHS and the unique vision of the glorious Nye Bevan.
The play centres around a character who is a volunteer within the NHS. A volunteer DJ who, by his very being, proves that music can be a healer and how music is essential to our existence because unlike tablets it can touch, disturb and mend our soul. To know more. Come and see us on tour this Autumn. Its a great night out!
We are interviewing a range of people about their own musical inspiration, can you list 5 records/albums which have a personal resonance to you and why?
1 BLUE Joni Mitchell This is the record of my teenage years
https://youtu.be/w5782PQO5is
2 EVERYTHING MUST GOManic Street Preachers. I directed Patrick Jones play of the same name that used the music of the Manics
https://youtu.be/CM_R2p9GDbk
3 TAKE THAT GREATEST HITS….because!!!!!!
https://youtu.be/CTqabbIPfc0
4 LADY IN SATIN Billie HolidayI have everything that Billie ever recorded
https://youtu.be/gncbydxqE4Y
5 WEST SIDE STORYOriginal Soundtrack The greatest musical of all time
https://youtu.be/k19YZKdKI60
Just to put you on the spot could you choose one track from the five listed above and tell us why you have chosen this?
STRANGE FRUIT Billie Holiday A beautiful song that perfectly brings together form and content. Amazing. Never ceases to move me
Hi Patrick great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?
Hello I am a writer living in South Wales. I write plays poetry and film scripts. I have hadd and left or lost 20 jobs before finally going full time writing in 1998. I have three beautiful sons Ethan, Evan and Elian who are my guiding lights. My work includes the plays Everything Must Go, Unprotected Sex and Before I Leave which I am currently adapting into a feature film.
The cast of Before I Leave, NTW Image Credit Farrows Creative
My books include Fuse, Darkness is Where The Stars Are and just published by Rough Trade Books My Bright Shadow and spoken word albums Tongues for A Stammering Time, Commemoration, Amnesia and new work Renegade Psalms in collaboration with John Robb released in September on Louder Than War Records.
I am currently writer in residence with The Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales and take words to neglected sections of the community. I live small. I think skies.
Image credit Lucy Purrington
Music has always played an important part in my life and writing. I obsessively collect albums, still listen to my vinyl collection and create a playlist for every play I create. Music was always playing in our house as kids from Abba to Demis Rossous to Neil Diamond. It gives me happy thoughts to think of those summer evenings with Sweet Caroline blasting through the 6 ft long grampophone player in our living room! I play guitar badly but throw in a fuzz box and a flange pedal and no one knows the difference.
Image credit Lucy Purrington
My
favourite lyrics would be ;
“All that rugby puts hairs on your chest.
What chance have you got against a tie and a crest.’
Eton
Rifles The Jam
and
“One
likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity,…”
The Spirit of Radio Rush
This chat is specifically about music and the role it has played in your personal and professional life. Firstly to start off what are you currently listening to?
The Membranes ‘What Nature Gives Nature Takes Away”
Godspeed you Black Emperor “ Luciferian Towers”
Hole ‘ Live Through This’
https://youtu.be/wflO2b9bHP0
We are interviewing a range of people about their own musical inspiration, can you list 5 records/albums which have a personal resonance to you and why?
1 A Farewell To Kings by Rush – bought from a friend in school when I was 15, as needed to find my band and wanted to fit in! It was £2.50 which was a lot then. Started my journey into heavier music and to follow the band themselves. Opening track A Farewell to Kings just burst through my speakers and I was lost and found. When I saw it was recorded in Rockfield in Wales I talked my Dad into driving out there to see if we could find the studio. We didn’t! I just wanted to be Alex Lifeson! The guitar sound, lyrics to Closer to The Heart, the epicness of Xanadu and the gatefold photo just connected with me somehow. I still listen to it now.
https://youtu.be/eV-5iNu6Sd8
2 The Indigo Girls The Indigo Girls Certain albums have a strange quality that makes them timeless yet acutely of the moment. I first heard this when I lived in Chicago in 1989. I had left Wales to write the great American novel, was madly in love and spent days wandering the Windy City streets in search of Kerouacian inspiration. Didn’t last forever as such wonder never can but it was a beautifully exciting visceral time. My American wife (though no one knew we were married as we had tied the knot in secret so I could stay in the country ( sorry U.S Immigration) and we carve a life together) liked the Indigo Girls and this had just come out. So it reminds me of another life another place- happy in my neon loneliness, my little apartment by the train tracks, coffee shops, cats, minus 20 Winters, huge pizzas and slam poetry nights in downtown Chicago. I loved their acoustic sound and the lyrics were so personal and human.
https://youtu.be/HUgwM1Ky228
Then, fast
forward to 2017 and a complicated love
affair which was destined to fail and I
turned to these songs to give me hope and to help to salve the sadness. Driving
along the M4 listening to Blood and Fire which seemed to be written for the
situation –
“I am looking for someone, who can take as much as I give, Give back as much as I need, And still have the will to live. I am intense, I am in need, I am in pain, I am in love. I feel forsaken, like to things I gave away.”
I get shivers just thinking about that song. So, 32 years apart but those songs timeless yet indelibly etched upon my mind.
https://youtu.be/vIDyGTD6EZw
3 U2 ‘War’ Special on many levels. 1983. I was 18 just finished my A Levels and had surprisingly passed with 3 ‘B’s” and about to go to Swansea University. My Mother and Father had promised to buy me a guitar if I passed so me and my Dad drove to Cardiff ( quite a rare thing in those days – big shopping trip and my Dad never liked shops!) I will always remember it was a cloudy overcast Summer day. The Fender acoustic was £75 ( bloody fortune when I think of it now) and my parents had saved £80 so there was a fiver left over and my Dad said if I wanted anything for University. I had been taping songs from the radio off the album so got the real thing. Oh that stark black white and red cover. The lyrics inside. Gatefold sleeve. A work of art in itself. Before memes, hashtags, likes and trolls just four people in a room making music.
New Year’s Day. Sunday Bloody Sunday. Drowning Man.
It got me thinking about politics, about loss, about
how we treat each other and about how
can I get my hair cut like Bono! And of course The Edge’s shimmering guitar
sound.
Still have it and still listen to the full album no skipping on CD. ‘A world in white gets underway”,
An album that resonates on the personal level as it reminds me of parental love and struggle and on a more political societal level it awoke my interest in writing about how the world works and fails.
https://youtu.be/TmVn3aKY_TQ
4 Setting Sons The Jam Had always loved The Jam. Always remember Going Underground straight into at number 1 double A side in 1979 as I was in hospital with a shattered elbow feeling low and that song lifted me.
The cover, again pulled me in. It looked epic. Sad but strong. Those faces. There was a little record shop in Blackwood, Martin Luther’s- it was where the cool people would hang out on a Saturday, flipping through the racks and then walking down the high street with the plastic bag that signified you had been there AND bought something! Then talk about it in school on Monday. This album reminds me of those days. Saving up for weeks to buy an album after taping the single from the Charts on Sunday. School discos on a Saturday night that would invariably end up with the hard kids who didn’t go to the school but would find a way in and cause a massive fight and the night would finish early because of blood and smashed glass. So Eton Rifles reminds of not so much class war but tribal gangs rucking against each other on a Saturday night when alI I wanted was to slow dance with a girl I had been fancying but too scared to ask out, for 3 months! Little Boy Soldiers, Burning Sky and of course Eton Rifles painted this battered landscape of late 70’s Britain. Wasteland and Saturday’s Kids connected to my own working class childhood. 10 songs that educated and entertained me for many a lonely rainy night in Blackwood. I recently bought the deluxe edition which has Going Underground on it. The missing piece finding its home on one of the most perfect albums ever made.
https://youtu.be/EbmLaLWFhgM
5 Lou Reed ‘Magic and Loss’ I came to Lou Reed late in life. So this 1992 offering didn’t reach me till a few years ago. Again something about the cover spoke to me. It features the musician dressed in black upon what could be a road or a coffin with the text in Red. Looks like Winter. With a stripped back sound and many lyrics spoken it is a monument to two of Reed’s friends who had recently died. Personal yet easily accessible and universal in tone the 14 tracks act as a sort of concept album- linked by the magic and the loss. I would just put it on and drive the A470 that links North and South Wales during a period of my life where I was confused, angry and experiencing my own searching for magic in losing. His voice reaches in and pulls out your stomach. No hit singles on there just brutal truth. ‘Sword of Damocles’ which opens with spine tingling cello, tells of cancer treatment-
‘to cure you they must kill you’
and ‘Cremation’,
one of the most beautiful tracks, tells of
the sea as keeper of souls
Well the coal black sea waits
for me me me
The coal black sea waits forever
The waves hit the shore
Crying more more more
A
bleak yet beautiful work of sonic art. It helped me feel unalone at a very
difficult time and gave me strength to carry on and look to the future out of
the detritus of the present.
As
Shelley said ;
“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”
https://youtu.be/1kCJ_d4p5KA
Just to put you on the spot could you choose one track from the five listed above and tell us why you have chosen this?
I think it would be ‘Eton Rifles’ by The Jam. Still so relevant now. A perfect fusion of melody anger and hope.
Considering they had never played together before, Gareth Bonello, Georgia Ruth and Toby Hay seemed like a long-established trio. Their first gig as a three-piece was certainly an enjoyable one. Coming together from Cardiff, Ceredigion, and Rhayader respectively, these three folk musicians brought real warmth to what was a pretty wet night in Bangor. With songs inspired by land, place and people, this concert, as part of Pontio’s Cabaret series, was a gently inspiring, fairly lucid affair. Transforming Theatr Bryn Terfel into a downtown night club, the ambient lighting and tight staging made this a really intimate experience. It felt refreshing, relaxed, and played well to a hushed and attentive audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG9dqw21j1U
Taking the form of a songwriters round, the evening began
with Bonello, who performed a straight-up folk number before handing over to
Hay. The highly-accomplished guitarist began with a short piece, inspired by
home, before providing us with a wonderfully atmospheric version of his song ‘Starlings’.
Hitting such high, soft and delicate notes on the guitar, the addition of Ruth’s
harp and Bonello on the harmonium created an incredibly visual sound that hung
in the air long after the last note was played. It was then over to Ruth for a
performance of her song ‘Terracotta’. Its hauntingly beautiful tones struck me as
being very reminiscent of 9Bach’s ‘Anian’,
and was just as good. It was then the turn of Bonello again for a performance
of his song ‘Pen Draw’r Byd’ before we returned to Ruth for what was, for me,
one of the highlights of the night. Watching Ruth’s fingers gliding gracefully
across the strings of the harp during ‘Clychai Aberdyfi’ was mesmerising. And
with Bonello keeping a steady beat on duitara and then double bass respectively,
and Hay strumming gently on the guitar, it made this a song to savour, both
visually and aurally. To finish the first half, Bonello played a song written
as a tribute to his grandmother, who used to pick cockles down by the local
river. The low notes of the double bass and deep echo of the electric guitar,
along with the yellow lighting, created a truly evocative scene of a river at
sunset. It made ‘Merch y Morfa’ a beautiful tune with which to close before the
break.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3KuXSwWmR4
The second half opened up with Bonello performing ‘Y Deryn Pûr’
before handing over to Hay for another double header. Asked by his fellow
singers to choose a traditional folk song from his home county to perform, a
lack of forthcoming material meant that we were treated to two originals by Hay
himself instead, both inspired by his local landscape. The first, ‘Radner Lily’,
was gorgeously performed under glowing lightbulbs hung from the ceiling. The
gentle grace of the electric guitar and accompanying harp led to a delightful
skip into the second song, ‘Water Breaks Its Neck’, from Hay’s forthcoming
album. Ruth then performed ‘Week of Pines’ from her latest album to rapturous
applause and cheering from the audience – a clear fan favourite. Bonello then
treated us to two tunes written specially as part of his PhD on the duitara.
This Indian folk instrument proved a fascinating listen on both ‘Maid Marian’
and ‘Diamonds’, the former’s medieval associations really evoked by the sound
of this four-stringed cousin of the guitar. It was then back to Hay for a
performance of an as-yet-untitled song that I recognised from his recent gig at
Focus Wales. It was excellent then, and with the addition of the double bass
here, it was by far another standout moment of the night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSOSALwg1mQ
To finish, Bonello, Ruth and Hay took to the forefront of
the stage to perform off mic. With only the harmonium for company, once Bonello
had found the right vocal range, the three performed a gorgeous final number
that was received extremely well by the audience. It rounded off an impressive
night. They left the audience wanting more. Any nerves they may have been
feeling did not show. There was no sense of awkwardness or any hint that this
was their first time performing together. And after such a positive reaction,
my guess is that it won’t be the last. Keep your eye out for future dates. I’d
be surprised if there isn’t more to come.
Creating opportunities for a diverse range of people to experience and respond to sport, arts, culture and live events. / Lleisiau amrywiol o Gymru yn ymateb i'r celfyddydau a digwyddiadau byw
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