I think the most obvious surprise for most people reading the book is the quantity of drugs, in particular cocaine, that the band and crew were taking while on tour. I knew Neil had a fondness for the white powder because Peter (roadcrew) told me once, years ago.

It's probable that every time I saw Rush at Newcastle City Hall, Geddy helped himself to a snort during the drum solo.

Another thing I didn't know is the state of Alex' health and it's concerning to know that he doesn't always take care of himself particularly well. Heart stress, bleeding ulcers etc etc. Troubling.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001s2sb

It's a three hour show, the interview is 44:30 minutes in. I've only heard a few minutes myself.

I like to read this poem by Wilfred Owen each 11th November.


The Parable of the Old Man and the Young 

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

So as discussed elsewhere, if you're working on something or practicing something in particular, please tell us about it here!

From my point of view perhaps this thread will encourage me to practice a bit more.

At the moment I'm working on diminished scale stuff over dominant / altered 7ths. I have a backing track which is a loop of the first few bars of Larry Carlton's (It Was) Only Yesterday - there are a couple of places in that where you can play the diminished scale.

One really nice hack is that there are a number of major triads consisting of the diminished scale notes and if you deploy those in the right place, you get a lovely sophisticated, modern sound.

May post a video in a few days if I can get a bit more fluent with it.

Really one of the defining figures of the entire sport of football for me. The thing I always remember is that when we went to Spain on holiday when I was a kid, quite often the Germans and Italians you'd meet would mention Bobby Charlton or Bobby Moore within a couple of minutes, in an effort to make small talk when they found out you were English.

Like most people, or I like to think so anyway - I loved Frasier. As you'll have heard, there's been a revival and the first two episodes have now aired on Paramount. I've just watched the first one.

The premise is that Frasier has moved back to Boston from Seattle, following his father's death.

I was surprised to find that Nicholas Lyndhurst is in this - I wonder how that came about? And I wasn't overly convinced by his performance (as a university lecturer) early on, it felt a bit wooden.

The whole thing felt a bit forced to me for the first 15 minutes or so. It has a very traditional, old-fashioned sitcom feel but it doesn't feel as relaxed or natural as the old Frasier, or Cheers come to that. 

But I did warm to it. No Niles (his son appears as a sort of more nerdy and awkward surrogate), no Frasier's dad, no Daphne but I tried to appreciate it for what it is, and I warmed to it. It's not bad. Kelsey Grammar still has all the old subtlety and timing. Looking forward to the next one.

I was going to work through the studio catalogue of The Who after completing my Rolling Stones journey, but this morning's reminiscing about hearing Kiss for the first time gave me a rethink. So:

1. Kiss (February 1974)

I hadn't listened to this for years before today, and I've probably listened to it three or four times if that. It wasn't one of the vinyl albums that I bought as a teenager; I bought it in a CD box set of the first three studio albums about 15 years ago. Good to hear it again. This is actually a pretty strong record for a debut, with classics that stood the test of time for many years - Strutter, Cold Gin, Firehouse, Deuce especially. By the time this was recorded they already had a pretty distinctive voice -these tunes are (mostly) powerful and economical but catchy. I hear shades of Zeppelin, shades of the Stones but for sure they have their own identity.

I have to say though - Kissin' Time is a real duffer. It actually reminds me of a sort of Brotherhood of Man or New Seekers tune on steroids. I've just read that it was a cover of an old '50s pop tune, and not included on the first release. Apart from that though it's all good, though some tunes are less focused than others.

I'd say that the selection of tunes from this record for Alive! is about right although I've never been completely convinced by 100,000 Years and generally when they lean too far toward ponderous metal and away from uptempo rock'n'roll they lose their charm (and my interest).

The Love Theme From Kiss instrumental is quite nice but it's not really the sort of thing you put a Kiss record on for. A novel oddity though. I enjoyed it.

None of the band was a particularly stellar musician (IMO) but they were all good enough to carry this stuff. Ace's sub-Page guitar licks sound a bit samey and predictable at times. The drums are maybe lacking a bit of oomph. But generally I'd say it's pretty well recorded and produced.

Here's an interesting thing. On the studio version, the Deuce riff has an odd syncopated treatment. I don't think it does it any favours.

Improvising over a slow Days of Wine and Roses backing. Annoyingly, I forgot to mute the click track, sorry. It's a bit rough, there are mistakes.. what I'm trying to do is practice smooth and natural transitions from one scale to another, something I do find really hard. You may notice that often, I'm playing a phrase over one bar, then a different, disconnected phrase from a different scale over the next.

Finally, notice how I resort to playing the blues over it toward the end, at which point I decide it's time to give up. Still, it was really enjoyable to do.

I've added a new board to the site, under the Music category, called Musicians. If you have a YouTube performance you'd like to share, or you'd like to start a discussion about music theory, or you'd like to discuss guitars, keyboards, effects pedals, amplifiers, music software, trombone maintenance or similar - please go here.

https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/news/worlds-first-3d-printed-vegan-salmon-debuts/

David McCallum has died at the age of 90. I loved The Man From Uncle as a kid; it's a bit of a shock to find out that he'd just turned 90 quite honestly.

He seemed to disappear for a long time after that, only to return in Colditz. In reality only a few years later, seemed longer to me at that age.

I never liked Sapphire and Steel.

This wasn't the most picturesque view from our road trip along the North Coast 500 but for me, it was one of the most interesting sights. In the early '90s I worked for the part of Rolls-Royce that was responsible for designing and procuring nuclear reactors for submarines. The company used a test facility situated here at Dounreay, about 35 miles west of John o' Groats.

I had colleagues who flew up here from Derby regularly, but I didn't think I'd ever see the place for myself.



I always imagined the "onshore test reactor" (also called 'Vulcan') to exist in something like a big shed overlooking the sea, accessible only by Land Rovers along a remote trail. But this place is huge and easily accessible by an A road.

I'm not sure why but I always imagined the far north of Scotland to be a sort of wasteland, almost untouched by human civilisation. Maybe the odd farm or little stone cottage nestling in the hills. But (as some readers will already be aware, I'm sure) it has decent roads and medium-sized towns with Wetherspoons, Specsavers, pizza places etc etc much like anywhere else in the UK. We stayed at Wick on the way round.

Earlier we'd been to John o' Groats, where I took the obligatory tourist pic.

I always find these "trial by media" exercises involving historic allegations a bit troubling, I must say. There seems to be a presumption of guilt rather than innocence.

Apparently Laura Trott - not the celebrated cyclist, the government minister - was on the telly this morning praising the supposed victims who have come forward. Given that we don't know - and probably never will - whether these allegations are a catalogue of fabrications, that seems rather presumptuous, doesn't it? Meanwhile the BBC have let us know that they're carrying out "urgent investigations", as though his guilt is a given.

The male involved is always guilty, that seems to be the most important principle in these matters.

I'm always interested in the technology of the Space Race but I found this particularly interesting as an examination of historic computing technology, especially from 10 minutes in when there's an interview with Albert Hopkins, who gives an introduction to the onboard computer used for the Apollo spacecraft.

Even in 1965 computers were said to be "dominating our lives" - at a time when a successful large business or university might own two or three of them. No-one had one on a desk at work, or at home, or in their pocket.

Mr Hopkins explains how the necessary technology had been miniaturised for the space programme. He shows the reporter some core rope storage roughly the size of a modern printer toner cartridge, and a logic gate roughly the size of a drawing pin.

These days both of these things are manufactured into tiny slivers of microchip. A modern microprocessor chip might contain a few hundred million logic gates, and a 16GB stick of RAM contains about 20,000 times the capacity of the storage unit shown in the film.

Anyone else finding the indignation and outrage over Luis Ribales kissing Jenni Hermoso a bit ridiculous?

It's actually front page news on the BBC News site as I type, as you'd expect - I'm sure they're only disappointed that Jenni isn't black; if she was the story would run for weeks.

The gender baiters and perpetual offence takers are trying to turn this into Spain's "Me Too" moment. Literally equating an innocuous peck on the lips in public with Harvey Weinstein exerting improper pressure over young women to have sex with him.

This perpetual virtue-signalling victim culture so beloved of the BBC and others .. it really gets on my tits.

I thought we might have another Wordle competition to mark the last UK bank holiday of the year. In the past we've run two types of competition - one which runs over a fixed period (say ten days) and is points-based, and one which is a knockout contest with players being eliminated if they fail to get the solution in four goes.

Please vote only if you would normally take part in one of the competitions, or intend to take part in the next one.

Thanks!

As I've mentioned a few times I'm listening to the Rolling Stones' studio albums in chronological order this year. Rather than posting brief notes in other threads I thought I'd collect my impressions in a dedicated thread. Note: I listened to the UK releases.

1. The Rolling Stones (April 1964)

Sharp, spiky R&B covers in the main; Route 66 and similar. Not brilliantly recorded but the studio hardware wasn't so good back then (American studios were a couple of years ahead of the UK at this time). There's one Jagger / Richards composition, Tell Me. It's a deviation from the Blues tunes elsewhere on the album. Sounds a bit like The Hollies. Unexceptional.

2. The Rolling Stones No. 2 (January 1965)

Very similar to their debut, maybe a bit more light and shade. Definitely better recorded. But pretty basic R&B covers. It was released at the beginning of 1965. They were light years behind The Beatles in terms of imagination, songwriting, production, ambition, everything. All covers, no originals.

3. Out of Our Heads (September 1965)

Mostly R&B covers again. No original tunes. Certainly no recognisable Stones classics. They certainly took a while to find their voice (although to be fair I think they'd already recorded Satisfaction by this time, but that was released only as a single).

4. Aftermath (April 1966)

An extraordinary creative breakthrough after their first three albums of R&B covers. Their previous album, released less than a year earlier, had consisted entirely of other peoples' tunes but everything on Aftermath is a Jagger / Richards original. Equally importantly it's a much more eclectic and interesting record than the first three, with some really strong songs. Reminds me of The Kinks in places.

5. Between the Buttons (January 1967)

Really a very interesting, eclectic album. Definitely not a rock'n'roll record. Folky pop and ballads sit among the more uptempo efforts. All the tunes are written by Mick and Keith. Cool, Calm and Collected again sounds a lot like The Kinks - it has the cod-upper-class-English vocal and old-time music hall feel that McCartney was also fond of.  Who's Been Sleeping Here reminds me of The Animals. Dylan, even.

Certainly no household name songs on this one either.

Where to start?

This was my first 'new' Rush album - the first one to be released after I was indoctrinated to the cause, and I still vividly remember the anticipation before it hit the shops in 1977. On the day it was released, I literally ran out of my final class of the afternoon, and ten minutes later I had a copy in my trembling hands. I ran all the way home, too. I was so excited, and proud, finally to be part of a new Rush album from the very beginning. In those days my devotion to Rush was more or less an obsession. It was like a religion to me, still the closest I've ever come to religion thankfully.

I ran upstairs, closed the bedroom door. Somehow my shaking hand managed to apply the stylus to the groove and I sat down to listen to Rush's latest gift to humankind.

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear.

My anticipation and excitement was replaced with massive disappointment. I tried to like it - I was almost desperate to like it - but, I didn't (and I still don't). In the weeks following its release, I would wake up each morning, remember A Farewell To Kings, then feel sick and disheartened. I played it over and over and over again, hoping that I would grow to love it. No chance.

I have never quite forgiven Rush for A Farewell To Kings. It was a cruel blow.

It's not quite a stinker, but it's most certainly a dud. The songs are generally weak and at times it's unedifyingly pompous. More importantly, it has none of the purity of form, the passion or the finely-crafted edge of its magnificent predecessor - where 2112 was sharp, graceful, dramatic, assured, A Farewell To Kings is blunt, awkward and overblown. I admire their eagerness to develop their sound for the opening page of 'chapter two', but I think that - at least as far as this album is concerned - perhaps they were too ambitious. It's an experiment that emphatically failed.

Xanadu, I quite like. Admittedly, it takes what seems like half an hour to get going, but the guitar work is particularly strong, and it's a very imaginative piece. But even this suffers from an extended, pointless self-indulgent instrumental section. The bit where Alex and Geddy start practicing their scales in the middle - what's that all about? It's probably a five minute tune, padded out by mindless repetition.

But Cygnus X-1 - oh please. Indigestible chunks of thoughtless heavy metal riffola clash with sequences of overlong, repetitive guitar noodling that seem to have been lifted from an entirely different song. I wouldn't go as far as Neil Peart, who is reported to have said years later "I hate that song", but I certainly don't like it. It still beggars belief that the band who came up with 2112 should have been putting out nonsense like this a mere eighteen months later.

The shorter songs often work better, but are not particularly strong. Closer to The Heart is a perfectly inoffensive but ultimately not very stimulating pop-rock tune. The title track has a lovely acoustic guitar intro, then turns into something very jerky and brash indeed, with a wholly inappropriate instrumental section where Lifeson delivers a savage heavy metal solo while Geddy twangs away, pointlessly jumping octaves on a single note. I still wince when I hear the wanky major key lead guitar fills that pipe up every now and then in this track. Cinderella Man has a boring folk-rock verse, a nice chorus and (this time) a lovely, inventive funky instrumental break - but ultimately, it fails to convince.

More generally, Peart's lyrics - take "we turned our gaze from the castles in the distance" for example - are often as pompous and inappropriate as his selection of attire for the inner sleeve photo. And the production seems so very 'in your face', mostly graceless and crude instead of atmospheric.

I can't deny that A Farewell To Kings has a certain naive, inelegant charm in places, and the passing years have afforded it a patina of nostalgia that has made it slightly more palatable in retrospect. There are some good bits. There are some REALLY good bits - the lovely nylon-strung intro to the title track, Alex's lovely harmonic intro to Xanadu (although it gets a bit tedious after the first half-hour), its riff and its expressive guitar solo (it's actually a Blues solo, I wonder if Alex would have chosen the same approach a few years later), Cinderella Man's catchy, affecting chorus - but these are the icing on a tasteless and haphazardly thrown-together cake.

An interesting album, maybe. But not a very good one. It just doesn't 'gel'. It should probably have been an EP. Or a single.

Happily, Rush's next recording project brought forth an album which was a stunning artistic achievement, every bit a worthy successor to 2112, and which rekindled my faith in Rush to a bright, blazing flame.

But the copy-book was emphatically blotted. There's simply no denying that, in the late summer of 1977, Rush knocked out a clunker.

Still - it wouldn't be the last time.