Life's about experiences. These are mine.
It has been quite a while since I last did a Record Store Day; in fact, it has been eight years. The reasons for this are many but mainly it’s been because the date has clashed with other things in many of those years and then there was COVID too. However, this year I decided …
It’s time for my annual round-up of the year just gone (you can read the previous year’s reports here). My change in working circumstances has very much driven these stats as they did last year. Next year, well, this year now, I will be fully retired and therefore in theory all time will be my …
The Proms or more accurately as it is now known “BBC Proms” is an institution and something that I’ve had on my bucket list for quite a while. As it says in Wikipedia most people if asked would cite The Last Night as their view of the Proms. This appears to me to be a …
Reading holds an annual programme of classical music events called “Classical Music Alive” which includes a variety of events. As part of this we went last night to the Hexagon to see Film Music Gala. This was basically classical music but for those that are afraid of classical music! I’d never seen the Hexagon so …
Continue reading “Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Film Music Gala, Hexagon, Reading”
My annual round-up of the year just gone (you can read the previous year’s reports here). This year I was interested to see how the fact that now I am pretty much fully retired would have had an impact on some of these stats. For a start, I feel that I have listened to less …
During lockdown one of the things that many took great delight in was Toyah & Robert Fripp’s weekly videos where they would cover another artist’s song in their own style. What made these so watchable wasn’t so much that Toyah barely dressed for the videos (although that obviously helped) but that Fripp would wear make-up …
Continue reading “Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch, Basingstoke 2023”
I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two concerts that I have been to recently – American pop rockers The Band CAMINO and British aging rockers Mike + the Mechanics. The Band CAMINO, O2 Institute, Birmingham The Band CAMINO have been around long enough to release an EP and their eponymous debut …
Continue reading “The Band CAMINO vs. Mike + the Mechanics, May 2023”
My annual round-up of the year just gone (you can read 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021‘s reports). This was very much a transitional year as I moved from working part time to retirement at the end of August. I haven’t fully retired yet as I am still doing some consultancy but my daily rhythm has …
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD! If you haven’t been and want to keep the magic for when you do stop reading now! When it was announced a year or so ago that ABBA were reforming and would be performing I knew that we would have to go. ABBA has long been a guilty pleasure of ours. The …
Continue reading “ABBA Voyage, ABBA Arena, London, 25th August 2022”
There is a shop in Reading that I regularly frequent and takes plenty of money off me and that’s the Oxfam Music Shop on Duke Street. It is a tiny place, not much bigger than my front room but it packs a lot in such a small space. They always have a great selection of …