|
ALBUMS The Smashing Pumpkins: 'Zeitgeist' While still a good record this is nowhere near their previous work with the lack of standout songs like 'Tonight, Tonight' or 'Disarm ', nothing that really jumps out and grabs you. A pretty good rock record but one for Pumpkins purists only! The Libertines: 'Time for Heroes– The best
of the Libertines' Some of the best rock songs that Britain has ever produced are contained on this album from 'Can't Stand Me Now' to 'Boys In The Band' to the title 'Time For Heroes' this album captures two geniuses at their peak. One for the Christmas stocking! R.E.M.: Live
It was a confusing time for the band and they ended up recording it in England. This turned out to be one of their best LPs. Before that they released 'Chronic Town', 'Murmur' and 'Reckoning' which were very hard to follow up, but they did, with mesmeric hits like 'Feeling Gravity's pull' and 'Maps And Legends'. A couple of LPs later and Bill Berry the drummer developed a brain aneurism and had to leave the band. He settled down on a ranch in the States and is still sorely missed by the other three members. REM come from Athens, Georgia and they sure let us know this. Just as U2 are proud to be a band from Dublin. REM are just as proud to be Athens Georgia men. I have seen them play twice: the first time was backing U2 at Croke Park when REM were promoting their third LP 'Fables of the Reconstruction'. This was with a shy Michael Stipe, the lead singer wrapped up in coat and hat, who really comes out of himself when he sings. The second time I saw them was in Marlay Park, headlining in 2005. Michael Stipe is an enigma. He talks quickly, intelligently and in a whisper most of the time and in some interviews is practically unintelligible. You have to listen very hard to hear what he is saying. The rest of the group, Mick Mills on Bass and Peter Buck on Guitar, seem like normal men who play the most melodic music I have ever heard. 'REM Live' is well worth the money, including as it does tracks such as 'Cuyahoga' and 'Rockville', 'Life's Rich Pageant, and 'Walk Unafraid' from 'Up'. The fact that it is the Point Depot gig should put the lid on it. As Michael Stipe says at the end of the gig, Slainte– REM. like Dublin and they want Dublin to like them.
FORTHCOMING GIGS December
January
'BROKEN MUSIC' STING'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The miraculous potion tastes disgusting, but it works, sending Sting right back to his childhood growing up in Newcastle, and forces him to question the foundations of his existence. His parents have both been recently deceased, as he is about to play in front of an audience of 200,000 people in Brazil in 1987. He has become a hugely successful solo artist, with an extraordinary song writing talent, since leaving the Police. He wrote this book upon arriving at the reflective age of fifty. It concerns the early part of his life, from childhood through adolescence, right up to the eve of his incredible success with the Police. He recalls the freezing cold mornings doing the milk round with his father and practising the piano at his grandparents' house, and his grandmother saying “Eh son, can't you play something nicer than that broken music?” He attended the local grammar school and then the teacher training college, and buys his first bass The bass has a weight and a heft to it that feels like a weapon yet there is a quiet beauty to it. The instrument is the root of all harmony, the bedrock at the bottom of the stave upon which the music is constructed'. He had a vision. To make a living playing music seemed to him, if not the noblest of ambitions, then something pretty close. He listened and practised with sheer bloody-minded determination' as he dreamed of escape to live a life on the road as dramatically different as possible'. His is the story of a romantic idealist as he recounts his early adventures and influences. Seeing the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 significantly altered his world view. He says his singing makes him feel invincible, which is why some people come to think he is arrogant, it's just the pure joy of singing'. He starts to consider singing as a form of prayer. It is the angular and unpredictable qualities of his voice' that attract Stewart Copeland, the brash American drummer he meets after he moves to London. There's a story to this. They become joined at the hip' and they meet the urbane Andy Summers, to form the Police. The band tour Europe in a Ford Transit. Roxanne' is composed in 1977, about a prostitute Sting sees from a hotel room in Paris. When Miles Copeland hears the song, he says “It's a goddamn classic. Its a smash.” They make their first TV appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test'. They arrive in New York under a shimmering moon', that no doubt inspires Sting's later song Moon Over Bourbon Street'. That is where the book ends. When Sting goes to visit his father on his death bed, it is very emotional. He takes his father's hand, and for the first time notices that they have the same hands. “We have the same hands Dad, look.” And his father pays him one of the only compliments he ever received from him: “Aye son, but you used yours better than I used mine”.
THE POLICE AT CROKE PART
The group played their last date in Melbourne on March 4, 1984, one of the greatest bands of all time. They had made five albums: Outlandos D'Amour' (1978); Reggatta De Blanc' (1979); Zenyatta Mondatta' (1980); Ghost in the Machine' and finally Synchronicity' (1983). The group had a legendary potential for volatility. But Sting says “We just had different views. This time there's healing going on. I love these guys. I always have. This has genuinely been fun.” The group split at the height of their powers because Sting wanted to pursue a solo career. All three have had extraordinary credits to their name in the intervening years. Rehearsals for the tour took place at Sting's Tuscan estate where “there is a distinct absence of rock-star tantrums; nothing is being thrown or broken. The regime is strictly work, with everyone turning in around 11pm and up for the 8am Pilates sessions on the lawn overlooking the picture postcard view below. In the studio, the Police are creating multilayered music of the past, present and future that stirs you to the bones.” On the night of the 6th October in Dublin, 82,000 people filed in to Croke Park to see the gig, filling the pitch and stands to await the band. Fictionplane' were the support act, featuring Sting's son as lead singer. The stage screens were filled with images about Water Aid before the band finally take the stage, opening with Message In A Bottle'. Everyone goes wild, knows all the words. Then the hits, as during their career, just keep coming… Walking On The Moon', Donít Stand So Close To Me', Driven To Tears', There's A Hole In My Life'– non-stop brilliance. What Stewart Copeland says holds true. “I am the chief proponent of giving this audience what's written on the tin. One thing we have to deal with is runaway creativity. We want the punters to get the song they remember.” And that's what we did get. We can see Sting, Andy and Stewart in close-up on the large screens. They looked great and seemed to be concentrating really hard. Sting says “This next song I wrote near Clifden, in Galway,” and they play their 1982 hit Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. Everyone sings along. This is followed by Wrapped around Your Finger', De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', Invisible Sun', Walking In Your Footsteps', I Can't Stand Losing You' and Roxanne ', which comes from 1978. The encore is four songs: King Of Pain', So Lonely', Every Breath You Take', (which was the number one record in the United States for eight weeks), and Next To You'. The Police exit the stage after delivering two hours of some of the best pop songs any of us can remember. |
Back to the Front Page
The Smashing Pumpkins, one of the most influential
bands of the 90s are back with their
first studio album since 2000. Well, I say the
Smashing Pumpkins but not really. The only
surviving members from the original line-up
are the drummer, Jimmy Chamberlain and the
nucleus of the band, front man Billy Corgan.
This album is a change from the experimental
stages of the last few albums and back to
the hard rock, Siamese Dream era roots. Billy
's voice is still as distinctive and powerful
as ever and musically the other members
aren't really missed. The stand-out tracks being
'Bring The Light' and the power chord
driven 'Tarantula'.
Just in time for Christmas, this best of the
Libertines has been released. Consisting of
thirteen tracks from Albion's finest likely
lads Carl Barat and Pete Doherty. Though
both have now gone their separate ways, Carl
with the Dirty Pretty Things and Pete with
Babyshambles, rumours still abound of a
Libertines reunion and this album shows us
just why some of us froth at the mouth at the
mention of the two lads in the same room together.
This CD has been long awaited. There are tracks to please everyone,
from the second LP to the present, with monster hits
included. You also get a free DVD of this live C.D. which,
incidentally, was filmed and recorded in the Point Depot in Dublin.
It is true to say REM are one of the most enigmatic bands ever
to hit the planet. From their roots on the college circuit in Southern
America to world domination has not been easy. Firstly, they nearly
broke up while recording 'Fables of the reconstruction', their third
LP.
Sting's 2003 autobiography
is full of light and vision.
The storytelling is very
fluid and evocative, and begins
with Sting and Trudie at a synergetic
religious ceremony in a
church somewhere in the jungles
that surround Rio de Janeiro
where they drink ayahuasca (or
vegetal), an ancient medicine derived
from plant materials, said
to induce extraordinary and profound
visions. 
This year The Police embarked
on a world tour, lasting
a year, the first time that
the innovative and immensely successful
trio of Sting (56), Andy Summers
(64) and Stewart Copeland (55)
has played together professionally in
23 years.