Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Wayne Jackson - The Storm
Biography
Bill Shankly the legendary football trainer of Liverpool FC in the 60s and early 70s once famously said…..”Football's not a matter of life and death ... it's more important than that.” He was mistaken of course. If he’d substituted music for football he’d have been much more accurate.
Aged 15, in an average rainy Manchester suburb, Wayne Jackson informed his sports teacher he would no longer be participating in the school football team and in future would be spending his time in other more productive ways. Typically, this would be attempting to play an electric guitar at deafening volumes through an old WEM amplifier belonging to his oldest brother.
Sadly it all sounded rather uninspiring until one day the very same brother returned home from work with a tape delay echo effect machine. Immediately after plugging it in and wiring it up, Wayne was able to replicate the more ambitious sounds of his favourite bands U2, The Chameleons and Joy Division. From this point on, it was obvious where his passions lay. Manchester City Football Club would have to look elsewhere. Over the course of the following years, the echo machine remained on. It became part of the fabric of his guitar sound.
Switch scenes to the Hansa studios in Berlin, 20 years later, and Wayne can still be found playing his electric guitar at deafening volumes through an old Vox amplifier this time, but the old tape delay is still there. Not the original one of course. This was lost along the way, swapped in a misguided attempt at progress in the early 80s for a plastic digital effect from Japan. Everybody makes mistakes. But this time he’s laying down guitar tracks for his first solo album with the renown Swedish producer and mixer Michael Ilbert (The Cardigans, The Hives, Supergrass, The Hellacopters).
The intervening years were not uninteresting. Wayne’s brother again reappeared as a catalyst when he left his day job and became a live sound engineer. Over the next 15 years he would work for a whole host of seminal groups; New Order, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Electronic, The The, Primal Scream, Oasis and The Chemical Brothers. Wayne was often invited along to shows as a teenager and was able to see things from the shadows of backstage.
Wayne left Manchester to study at the University of Wales aged 18 and never stopped moving. He graduated with a degree in English Literature and formed a band called the Dostoyevskys. They signed to Go!Discs in London and began touring extensively in the UK and Germany. They crossed paths with fellow Mancunians Oasis and supported them at the height of their fame on two legs of their European tour.
Eventually Wayne decided the band no longer fitted his needs and he split the group to focus on his more personal solo material.
He fell in love with a girl from Berlin, packed his possessions and crossed the channel heading for the old German capitol.
His new Berlin life offered fewer distractions. It was a kind of spiritual exile. He wrote songs prolifically, day after day sitting in the small Berlin apartment he shared with his girlfriend. He started to train kickboxing and several years later entered into the German championships achieving a semi-final spot.
Along the way he co-produced, co-wrote songs and played his echo guitar on the solo album of German punk legend and friend Bela B. He also joined Bela on tour as part of the Los Helmstedt band. The Echo Award nominated album peaked at number 2 in the German charts and achieved wide critical acclaim. They headlined at Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park and the MTV Campus Invasion.
He also played a similar role for another member of the flourishing Bela B. family, Lula. Her delicious album entitled “Lost In Reverie” will be released this year too.
Switch scenes again. It’s December 2004 and it’s the birthday party of world famous Trance DJ Paul Van Dyk. Wayne’s manager hands Paul a demo featuring a few of Wayne’s songs. Paul was so inspired by the voice, he immediately wrote a track for Wayne to sing. The layout was sent and over Christmas Wayne furiously added lyrics, a vocal melody and guitar harmonies and the track Glorious was born. Paul then asked him to do a similar job on a second track called The Other Side which. This appeared on Paul’s Politics Of Dancing 2 album and was released as a single world wide. Wayne also sang live with Paul at a number of live shows culminating in a performance in Central Park, New York in front of a sell out crowd of over 10,000 people. Glorious will now finally see the light of day as Wayne’s first single.
Record deal offers came and went with the seasons, but none of the situations seemed right. Pavarotti once said “Compare music to drinks. Some is like a strong brandy. Some is like a fine wine. The music you're playing sounds like Diet Coke.” Sadly the labels chasing Wayne seemed to be more interested in no name cola.
For a brief period it looked like Wayne might relocate to the US, after whisperings of typically fabulous record deals, but unsurprisingly he returned to his second home Berlin and signed to the fledging label BPX 1992 headed by the iconic figure of Fitz Braum. It was no coincidence it was also the home of Bela B. and Lula. For the first time since leaving Manchester it felt like he had found a new family.
Wayne’s new album has fittingly enough been recorded in Berlin. It features a guest appearance on violin from Goldfrapp’s Davide Rossi who has also recently added his flavours to the new Coldplay album. Apart from the drums which were played by Swedish maestro Christer Jansson, the rest of the instruments were played entirely by Wayne himself. Producer Michael Ilbert also managed to organize the first live recording in the Meistersaal in Hansa studios, the room where Bowie’s Heroes, U2’s Achtung Baby, and many other important songs were recorded. It was the first session there for 17 years. The studio was closed and stripped soon after U2 left in 1990.
The songs unashamedly hark back to the kind of sounds Wayne was listening to all those years ago in Manchester. It’s time. The circle is complete.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
James Ingram & Michael mcdonald - Yah Mo B There
Heavenly father watching us all
We take from each other and give nothing at all
Well it's a dog-gone shame
But never too late for change
So if your luck runs low
Just reach out and call his name, his name
[Chorus:]
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Yah mo be there (up and over)
Whenever you call
Never be lonely lost in the night
Just run from the darkness
Looking for the light
'cause it's a long hard road
That leads to a brighter day (hey)
Don't let your heart grow cold
Just reach out and call his name, his name
[Chorus]
You can count on it brother
'cause we're all just finding our way
Travelling through time
People got to keep pushing on
No matter how many dreams slip away
Yah will be there
Well it's a dog-gone shame
But never too late for change
So when your luck runs low
Just reach out and call his name, his name
Swan Lake
100 acrobats and dancers of the "Great Chinese State Circus" can be exciting show in a circus as art.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
breathe - hands to heaven
As I watch you move, across the moonlit room
There's so much tenderness in your loving
Tomorrow I must leave, the dawn knows no reprieve
God give me strength when I am leaving
Chorus:
So raise your hands to heaven and pray
That we'll be back together someday
Tonight, I need your sweet caress
Hold me in the darkness
Tonight, you calm my restlessness
You relieve my sadness
As we move to embrace, tears run down your face
I whisper words of love, so softly
I can't believe this pain, it's driving me insane
Without your touch, life will be lonely
Repeat Chorus
Morning has come,
I must pack my bags and say goodbye,
Goodbye
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Augustana - Sunday Best
When she's sleeping on the sofa,
When she's laying in her Sunday best,
when she's turning over Friday,
I could swear I'm sleeping less and less...
and the ocean's getting warmer,
and California's on her mind,
Los Angeles is tired, but we always seem to feel alright,
but I won't...
no I won't...
Cause she's already out the door,
she's already out of here
she's already gone away...already gone away...
When I'm coming over Sunday
and I think about you all the time,
I wonder what you're doin
I wonder why you never cry,
When Boston's always raining,
And we never ever seemed alive,
I sung about you once now, I guess I might as well
But I won't...(don't look back [x2])
No I won't... (don't look back [x2])
No I won't... (don't look back [x2])
Cause I'm already out the door,
I'm already out of here
I've already gone away...already gone away...
Well I'm already out the door,
I'm already out of here
I've already gone away...already gone away...
Don't look back, don't look back [x3]
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Oliver - Good Morning Starshine
Good morning starshine
The earth says "Hello"
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glup gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy la la la lo lo
Sabba Sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla nooby abba nabba
Early morning singing song
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glup gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy la la la lo lo
Sabba Sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla nooby abba nabba
Early morning singing song
Singing a song, humming a song
Singing a song, loving a song
Laughing a song
Sing the song, sing the song
Song the sing
Song, song, song, sing
Sing, sing, sing, song
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Beatles Real Love
The video to the song "Real Love" from Anthology.
Paul, George and Ringo playing together again.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Invocazione di Orfeo
This song is from one of the earliest "musical dramas" (later called operas) by Jacopo Peri (1560-1625) with additional music by Giulio Caccini (1551-1618). "Euridice" was first performed in Florence on October 5, 1600 for the wedding of Henry IV of France and Maria de Medici. In this performance the title role was sung by Peri himself.
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