How I got really cold at Glastonbury....

Below is a short (working, unedited, rough etc) extract from my forthcoming book about the Glastonbury Festival.

In this bit I'm standing waiting to watch The Rolling Stones...and getting really cold.    

As I stood there watching the field fill up more and more-many people must have been waiting for Primal Scream to finish- I realised that I felt cold. 

I’d gone and got a coffee from the nearest place at the back of hill while Primal Scream were playing, but that hadn’t warmed me up that much. I had my t-shirt on and a thin jacket, my rain jacket, although it didn’t make much difference. 

There was a dampness in the air; not a fog, nor a mist but a bone-chilling dampness. It was if condensation was seeping through to my very core. I couldn’t believe it. It was June and I was cold at 9.00 at night. I had never been that cold during an evening at Glastonbury. I wrapped my coat tightly round me and stuffed my hands in my pockets. It made no difference, I was still freezing. It was ridiculous.

I looked around me at everyone else standing there and walking around. They all seemed to have fleeces, hoodies and jumpers on. Some of them even were wearing woolly hats. I’d have killed for a woolly hat.

I looked at my watch. It was just coming up to ten to nine. The Stones were on at 9.30. They’d be on stage till midnight I guessed. I couldn’t see them finishing much earlier than that. 

What to do? 

Could I stay as cold as this for another 3 hours or more? 

It wasn’t as if it was going to get much warmer. The sun wasn’t going to come up and even if I danced around a bit to the Stones (not that I would) I couldn’t do it for 3 hours and I didn’t think that it would make any difference.

I’d end up in the medical tent with hypothermia, wrapped up like a big oven-ready turkey in a foil blanket and stuck with a bunch of pissheads and kids who’d taken too many drugs. This wasn’t me being overly dramatic, I really was that cold. 

I’d started shivering involuntarily. Wasn’t that one of the first signs? Would I start to hallucinate and lose all sense of where I was? If I went to the medical tent with those symptoms, there’d be a fair chance that I’d be mis-diagnosed and I’d be shunted in a corner with all the acid casualties. 

“I’m cold, I’m so cold,” 

“Of course you are. And you think you can fly as well. We know. It'll pass.” 

I could well imagine the conversation. I had to do something to avoid such a scenario. Even though it would have been a ripe source for writing material, I wasn’t prepared to go that far.

The rest of the (as yet untitled) book should be finished and published sometime before the end of this year.

In the meantime the first two books in the trilogy are available here, both as Kindle e books and paperbacks;

"Turn Left at the Womble" 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Left-The-Womble-Glastonbury-ebook/dp/B0060YCKGW

"Left Again at the Womble"  
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Left-Again-Womble-middle-aged-Glastonbury-ebook/dp/B00IBK2V6M

Totally Shuffled- The Full List!

"Totally Shuffled-A  Year of Listening to Music on A Broken iPod" 


This is what it ("Totally Shuffled", the book) is all about:

One track per day for 366 days on a broken iPod. 366 tracks out of a possible 9553.

From the obvious (The Rolling Stones), to the obscure (Karen Cooper Complex). 

From the sublime (The Flaming Lips) to the risible (Muse). 

From field recordings of Haitian Voodoo music to The Monkees. 

From Heavy Metal to Rap by way of 1930’s blues, jazz, classical, punk, and every possible genre of music in between. 

This is what I listened to and wrote about for a whole year, to the point of never wanting to hear any more music again. 

Some songs I listened to I loved, and some I hated. 

Some artists ended up getting praised to the skies and others received a bit of critical kicking. 

There’s memories of spending too many hours in record shops, prevaricating over the next big thing and surprising myself over tracks that I’d completely forgotten about. 

But with 40 years of listening to music, I realised that I’ll never get sick of it. 

I may have fallen out of love with some of the songs in this book, but I’ll never fall out of love with music.     

   

The Full List of all the Artists

So, I've decided to start (re) tweeting a track a day in the order they appear in my book and just so they are
here on the blog as well as in the contents of the book, this is what will be coming up for the next year or so.

Like me, there must be some artists you love, some you don't love and some you've probably not heard of.

Or never want to hear again.

But that's the way it goes with nearly 10,000 tracks to shuffle through at random.

These are the artists in the order they shuffled up on my iPod, starting on January 1st and finishing on December 31st.

  

January

The Clash/ Half Man Half Biscuit/ Steinski /Carl Smith with the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle

Big Star/ The Upsettters / AC/DC /Buddy Holly/Wilco/Joy Division/High Rise

Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir/Jackie Brenston

William & Versey Smith/Boards of Canada/Randy Newman/The Blue Nile/The Chords

Wire/Steely Dan/Mercury Rev/Sigur Ros/Massive Attack v Mad Professor

Steve Reich/TheSugarcubes/U2/A Sudden Sway/Laura Cantrell/Genesis

Mbuti Pygmies of the Iruti Rainforest/The Sisters of Mercy

February

Holy Fuck/ Swans/The Sundays/My Bloody Valentine/Ja-Man

Charles Wright & the 103^rd Street Rhythm Band/Juana Molina/Sparklehorse/ The White Stripes

New Order/Dennis McGee & Ernest Fruge/Beethoven/ You.May.Die.In.The.Desert

Kate Bush/Cabaret Voltaire/Blind Lemon Jefferson/Bill Drummond/Gong

The Hold Steady/Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston/ Sunn O)))/Crass

Jelly Roll Morton/Grandmaster Flash/Led Zeppelin/Status Quo

March

Karen Cooper Complex/Spiritualized/Professor Longhair/Coldplay

Dee Clark/Prince/Teenage Jesus & The Jerks/Jeff Buckley

Young Marble Giants/Rovo/Lazy Lester/She & Him

Voodoo Ceremony in Haiti/Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers/The Woodentops

Tinariwen/Blind Blake/ Arctic Monkeys/Van Morrison/Burial/Boozoo Chavais/Teenage Fanclub

Mogwai/Nirvana/Girls/Skip James/The Lemonheads/Air Traffic Controllers

A Gril Called Eddy/ Aztec Camera/Goldfrapp

April

Evil Gazebo/ The Durutti Column/Cymbals Eat Guitars/Swell Maps/Warren Smith

The Go-Betweens/Fats Domino/Joanna Newsom/Dave Dudley/Fleetwood Mac/Lightnin Hopkins

Neil Young/Chin Up Chin Up/The Jesus Lizard/Mel & Tim/XTC/Faron Young/Electro Hippies

Rev. Gary Davies/ Robyn Hitchcock/Lee Perry/Fuck Buttons/Portastatic/The Jesus & Mary Chain

Blind Willie Davis/The Misunderstood/ The Art of Noise/The Feelies/Francoise Hardy

The Rolling Stones

May

Dracula’s Daughter/American Music Club/Godspeed You! Black Emperor/Echo & the Bunnymen

Link Davis/Television/This Mortal Coil/Elder Curry/Vampire Weekend/Scritti Politti/Battles

Immortal Technique/Pavement/Jad Fair/The Everly Brothers/Impact All Stars

Hambone Wille Newbern/The Zimmermen/Chic/Buzzcocks/Ellis Regina & Toots Theilman

The Silver/Lights In A Fat City/Althea & Donna/Phew!/Eddie & Ernie/Sly & The Family Stone/

The Parliaments/The Ruts/Muddy Waters

June

Captain Beefheart/Emmylou Harris/Jimmy Rodgers/Bob Dylan/Lush/Foetus Interruptus

Johnny Cash/Lattie Moore/Satan Alfa Beel Atem/Freddie Hall/The Ravens/Robert Parker

David Sylvian/The Stone Roses/Charlie Parker/SonnyBoy Williamson/Steve Earle/Tiny Bradshaw

Lonnie Johnson/Blind Alred Reed/Southside Johnny/The Showstoppers/L/Roy Orbison/The KLF

Tony Bennett/The Chantells/The Nightingales/Luciole

July

Some Chicken/The Meters/Kris Kristofferson/Rev A W Nix/The Flaming Lips/Big In Japan/Morphine

The Greenhornes/Ron Sexsmith/DoMaJe/Girls At Our Best! /The Masterdon Committee

Umm Kulthun/Alton Ellis & The Flames/James Brown/Brownsville Station/ The O’Jays

Jimmy Lewis/Tom Archia/Big Youth/The Smiths/The Fuckers/Nat King Cole/The 012/Group Doueh

Louis Prima/Jonsi & Alex/Carolina Buddies/Jerry Lee Lewis/Lori & The Chameleons/Dogie O’Dell

August

Frank Sinatra/Roy Head/Lara & the Trailers/King Solomon Hill/Central African Pygmies

The Beach Boys/The Pixies/ Billy Ward & His Dominos/Shep & The Limelites/The Adverts

Los Campesinos!/Elmore James/”Do you ever have a night when you don’t dream about The Fall?”

Aramic Wedding Chants/Camille/The Anemic Boyfriends/Trinity/Prefab Sprout/Bobby Marchan

The Grateful Dead/A Certain Ratio/The Beta Band/The Bell Rays/ DJ Food/

Booby Saffron & The Postal Bargains/Miles Davis/Anne Peebles/Marvin Rainwater

The Manavishnu Orchestra/Culture/Clannad

 

September

Gormenghast/Tammy Wynette/Wah! Heat/Mississipi John Hurt/The Henchman/Elvis Costello

The Velvetones/Mott the Hoople/ Armando/Walter “Kid” Smith /Junior Parker/Sandy Denny

The The/The Pilgrim Travellers/Muslimgauze/The Marvelettes/Elf Power/Ry Cooder

Johnny Burnette Trio/Big Amos/Johnnie Taylor/Ronny Jordan/Brahms/John Coltrane/ O V Wright

The Fall/George Jones/The Gang of Four/Pink Floyd/Mickey Lee Lewis

October

Young Fresh Fellows/ the passage/System Fucker/The Bays/Molton Rock/De La Soul/Muse

Popol Vuh/Schubert/Curtis Mayfield/Joe South/The Beat/Sleepy John Estes/Bruce Springsteen

I Roy/Soledad Brothers/Roshell Anderson/Louis Armstrong/The Nitecaps/The Clovers

Clarence Ashby/Emitt Rhodes/Black Uhuru/Gram Parsons/Chuck Willis/Johnny Fortune/

Blind Willie McTell/Dinosaur Jr./Charles Brown

November

Billie Holliday/Rocketship/Johnny Dove & the Magnolia Playboys/MGMT/Chrome/Blue Angel

Little Axe/The Delgados/Mahler/Novem/Siouxsie & The Banshees/Charlie Mingus/The Monkees

P J Harvey/Riley Puckett/Roger Miller/The Sonics/Louis Jordan/The Raincoats/Paul McCartney

Tampa Red & Georgia Tom/ The Upholsterers/Kristina Bruuk/Green Bailey/The Blue Orchids

Harry Pussy/Shostakovich/The National/Don Covay/K T Tunstall

December

Bill Monroe/Sonic Youth/Eltric Light Orchestra/Johnny Adams/The Cocteau Twins/Squeeze

The Latin Playboys/The Cherry Pies/Stevie Wonder/Toussaint McCall/Eva Cassidy

Howling Wolf/Crowded House/Stanley Winston/The Velvet Underground

Pat Metheny/Elbow/Alternative TV /Long Gone Miles/The Pernice Brothers/Paddy McAloon

Al Green/Talking Heads/Radiohead/AMM/Smokey Robinson & The Miracles/

Big Black/Joni Mitchell/Madonna/The Birthday Party/Honeyboy

"Totally Shuffled" is here as a Kindle book (bit of a massive tome; 600 or so pages)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA 

and here as a paperback (Part 1:The First Six Months) 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Broken-iPod-/dp/149495687X

Top 50 Debut LPs List-A Sort of Explanation

Top 50 Debut LPs

A bit of an explanation.

I thought long and hard about this list. Well, for a couple of days at least, but it sort of worked itself out without much intervention by me.

There were a lot of artists whose first albums didn’t make the list, but who are up there for me; Bob Dylan being a prime example. As much as I love Dylan’s work, I can’t honestly say that his first album deserves to be in my Top 50 debuts of all time. I think that he falls into a category of artist who only really get into their stride after one, two or three albums

There are also many, many other artists, who if they had ever recorded an album, would surely be in there; most of the blues artists from the 1920’s and 30’s could stake a claim, as well as some jazz greats such as Professor Longhair and Jelly Roll Morton, but albums were just not part of the landscape back then.

I then turn to those odd artists who have only recorded one album and sunk into obscurity. (Odd, being the correct word for some of these. Odd ,but great; that’s why they’re there!) I suppose these debuts could also be their final ones and it all depends how you look at it. I’m going for the glass half-full angle.

What has surprised me slightly is the lack of music from the 60’s & 70’s as well as whole genres largely missing; (album-era) jazz, soul, reggae, prog, punk. It could be that many of my favourite reggae, soul and punk tracks are singles rather than albums. As for prog, well, I just don’t like it very much! 

The final piece in the jigsaw was grading them in some sort of order.

I know these choices are my Top 50, but the hard part was sticking them in some sort of graduated order. Is the 50^th one than much less worthy than what’s number one? Or does number two really deserve a place up there in the stratosphere?

It is all down to how I felt at the time of compiling the list. I’ll bet If I look back at it in a years’ time, I’d be thinking, “Number three? Really?”, but for now, here it is.

Hope you like it!

 

1	Madonna	Madonna
2	The Slits	Cut
3	Elvis Presley	Elvis Presley
4	The Fall	Live at the Witch Trials
5	U2	Boy
6	Tammy Wynette	Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad
7	Blue Angel	Blue Angel
8	Little Richard	Here's Little Richard
9	Swell Maps	A Trip to Marineville
10	MX-80 Sound	Hard Attack
11	Swans	Filth
12	Fats Domino	Rock and Rollin with Fats Domino
13	The Beat	I Just Can't Stop It
14	Frank Zappa	Freak Out!
15	the passage	pindrop
16	Satan Alfa Beel Atem	Delicior Pink Ribbon Beel (Music of Death)
17	Howlin Wolf	Moanin in the Moonlight
18	Jeff Buckley	Grace
19	Prefab Sprout	Swoon
20	The Saints	(I'm) Stranded
21	Tony Bennett	Because of You
22	Rip Rig & Panic	God
23	The Sundays	Reading,Writing & Arithmetic
24	Big Black	Atomizer
25	The Blue Nile	A Walk Across the Rooftops
26	Muslimgauze	Kabul
27	Alternative TV	The Image Has Cracked
28	Laura Cantrell	Not the Trembling Kind
29	The Descendents	Milo Goes to College
30	De La Soul	3ft High & Rising
31	Bruce Springsteen	Greetings from Astbury Park
32	Karen Cooper Complex	Shinjuku
33	The Congos	Heart of the Congos
34	The Strypes	Snapshot
35	Wire	Pink Flag
36	Rocketship	A Certain Smile A Certain Sadness
37	The Woodentops	Giant
38	Portishead	Dummy
39	Young Marble Giants	Colossal Youth
40	Capt Beefheart	Safe As Milk
41	The Art of Noise	Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?
42	The Ramones	The Ramones
43	Manic Street Preachers	Generation Terrorists
44	Aztec Camera	High Land,Hard Rain
45	Scritti Politti	Songs to Remember
46	Burial	Burial
47	Ry Cooder	Ry Cooder
48	Talking Heads	77
49	Thomas Leer & Robert Rental	The Bridge
50	The Baby Astronauts	All the Pancakes You Can Eat

I wrote about many of these albums and artists in my book “Totally Shuffled-A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod”

This is what the book is all about:

One track per day for 366 days on a broken iPod. 366 tracks out of a possible 9553. From the obvious (The Rolling Stones), to the obscure (Karen Cooper Complex). From the sublime (The Flaming Lips) to the risible (Muse).  From field recordings of Haitian Voodoo music to The Monkees. From Heavy Metal to Rap by way of 1930’s blues, jazz, classical, punk, and every possible genre of music in between. This is what I listened to and wrote about for a whole year, to the point of never wanting to hear any more music again. Some songs I listened to I loved, and some I hated. Some artists ended up getting praised to the skies and others received a bit of critical kicking. There are memories of spending too many hours in record shops, prevaricating over the next big thing and surprising myself over tracks that I’d completely forgotten about. But with 40 years of listening to music, I realised that I’ll never get sick of it.  I may have fallen out of love with some of the songs in this book, but I’ll never fall out of love with music.   

“Totally Shuffled” is available as a Kindle book here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Music-Broken-ebook/dp/B00CJYZ3CA 

and as a paperback here: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Broken-iPod-The/dp/149495687X