|
|
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
|
|
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
|
|
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
|
|
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
|
|
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
|
|
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
|
|
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
|
|
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
|
|
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
|
|
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
|
|
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
|
|
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
|
|
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
|
|
|
 | You scored as Rowlf the Dog, You are one easy-going dude! You are mellow and outgoing, and are great with little kids and animals. People love you!
Rowlf the Dog | | 88% | The Swedish Chef | | 75% | Statler and Waldorf | | 75% | The Great Gonzo | | 63% | Robin the Frog | | 50% | Janice | | 50% | Sam the Eagle | | 50% | Fozzie Bear | | 50% | Pepe | | 38% | Animal | | 25% | Miss Piggy | | 25% | Sweetums | | 25% | Rizzo the Rat | | 25% | Kermit the Frog | | 13% | </td>
Which Muppet are You?
created with QuizFarm.com |
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, March 29th, 2007
|
|
|
Apparently our canteen, under threat of closure if it doesn't make more money, have adopted some sort of new way of selling sandwiches:
Old Way (Price about £0.90)
- Customer asks for sandwich
- Canteen staff put sandwich on plate
- Customer pays at till
New Way (Price about £1.30)
- Customer asks for sandwich
- Canteen staff get sandwich, wrap it up, hand to customer without plate
- Customer goes to till
- Person at till unwraps sandwich to check what type it is
- Customer pays
Apparently a salad sandwich is now impossible to do, although you can now get salad free with whatever fillings they still have.
I think this means they might be closing very shortly, I'm glad I take in sandwiches I've made myself really ...
One of the new treadmills is working now, and it's full of lots of different buttons to press which don't seem to have any effect whatsoever.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
|
|
|
| You Should Learn French | 
C'est super! You appreciate the finer things in life... wine, art, cheese, love affairs.
You are definitely a Parisian at heart. You just need your tongue to catch up... |
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
|
|
|
The Lyric Theatre at The Lowry is a very purple room, as the support guy notes, he is alright, but the best moments are a cover of Tim Buckleys Song to the Siren & a song called Winter which involves playing the guitar almost like a keyboard/percussion instrument, the main problem seems to be a lack of any memorable tunes and a tendancy to go on for 4 or 5 minutes+ at a time with each of them. The other gimmick he adopted at one point was tuning/detuning the guitar to the end of one song which went from working quite well to suggesting he was having problems with the thing staying in tune fairly often.
John Martyn is wheeled out onto the stage at half eight, during the evening he makes several references to having the lurgy, if I was being cynical I would say that the very slurred between-song banter may suggest he caught this lurgy from a beer glass or several during the afternoon, and this slurring incomprehnesibility continues through some of the songs in the set, with mixed results (ok, sometimes it as been said he's done this, this time though it does seem over-excessive). The band are tight, but the saxophone player gets annoying after a while, the number of songs he actually makes a good contribution are fairly small, similarly the fretless bass player also takes us all back to the eighties & some lounge jazz tribute at points.
They start off with Cooltide, before going into Glorious Fool (introduced with what sounds like "ppffft pfpfft mmmmzzzz ... Shrub! mmmfrrts sszzzz frrfrr", which has certain members of the audience laughing along with the air of being either faintly patronising or, unlike me, being able to hear what he's saying), both are ok, but not particularly great. The first moment of greatness comes on the third song, Couldn't Love you More, played in the 80's Grace & Danger style rather than like the original from One World, but the first time when Martyn's guitar playing is immediatly obvious. Unfortunately they then revisit another from Grace & Danger, Lookin' On, a song I didn't like on the album and is only slightly improved here be a few bits of good drumming, perhaps JM isn't that bothered by this as he appears to be dropping off to sleep towards the end.
And then we're into the Solid Air section of the show, starting off with a powerful version of Dreams by the Sea, with a return of the guitar, and Don't Want to Know, which sounds great. Over the Hill is the highlight of the show, and allows a view of what the show would be like if JM didn't coast on the talents of the other musicians so much, him on guitar the bassist on a mandolin and some basic percussion, and it all works well, as does May You Never which starts off with JM on the guitar and no-one else playing until right at the end when they go into a bit of a jam session that's quite good.
Man in the Station and Go Down Easy have got radically different starts to them, but soon flow into the familiar album versions, the only problem with the former is that the guitar is hardly used and despite threatening to the song never really catches fire. I'd Rather be the Devil starts ok, a little slower maybe & features an exchange between JM & the Bass Player about which button works the echo-plex ("the blue button", "They're all blue"), but towards the end gets better as the keyboards swamp the sound and threaten to take it into Stereolab territory, and Solid Air is as good as ever.
Another exchange with an audience member: "You're a legend John, mate", "a Leg-end, you taking the piss?"
To finish off with he abandoned the guitar altogether and did two more songs I was unfamiliar with, Rock Salt & Nails and Never Let Me Go, they were ok but I would've preferred a few more songs done without the saxophone being involved.
I'd give the whole gig 7 out of 10 though
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
sad.
cheerful.
awake.
amused.
accomplished.
