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York Music Latest: Ian Cole creates soundscape from a rainy night
York musician Ian Cole’s spooky ambient evocation of a stormy summer night is the subject of his latest record.
You can hear the entire album online here.
Multi-instrumentalist and keyboard player Ian is a well-known figure on the York scene, playing in a wide variety of genres.
You might have spotted him a while ago with punk/ alt-folk band Ryan Shirlow And The Bloody Marys, or more recently, as the driving force behind power pop girl troupe Katie And The Questions.
But this latest outing, The Clifton Hotel (Bristol 1), catches Ian in reflective mood, and back to his love affair with ambient music.
It’s his third album of ambient soundscapes, and the first in a three-CD set.
Ian, who also finds time to be an occasional contributor to YorkMix, is fast developing a reputation for his pioneering work in melding field recordings with acoustic and synthesised sound.
The new recording is based around a dramatic recording made during a stormy night on an overnight hotel stay in Bristol two summers ago. Melding harp, oboe and a string quartet with synthesisers and home-grown samples, the album is formally released on August 31.
Here is an archived interview with Ian from 2011’s Streaming Festival in the Netherlands, where his album, Deconstruction : Demolition : Re-invention, saw him selected as “artist of the festival” for two days.
By David Nicholson Article written: Tuesday 12 August 2014
You can hear the entire album online here.
Multi-instrumentalist and keyboard player Ian is a well-known figure on the York scene, playing in a wide variety of genres.
You might have spotted him a while ago with punk/ alt-folk band Ryan Shirlow And The Bloody Marys, or more recently, as the driving force behind power pop girl troupe Katie And The Questions.
But this latest outing, The Clifton Hotel (Bristol 1), catches Ian in reflective mood, and back to his love affair with ambient music.
It’s his third album of ambient soundscapes, and the first in a three-CD set.
Ian, who also finds time to be an occasional contributor to YorkMix, is fast developing a reputation for his pioneering work in melding field recordings with acoustic and synthesised sound.
The new recording is based around a dramatic recording made during a stormy night on an overnight hotel stay in Bristol two summers ago. Melding harp, oboe and a string quartet with synthesisers and home-grown samples, the album is formally released on August 31.
Here is an archived interview with Ian from 2011’s Streaming Festival in the Netherlands, where his album, Deconstruction : Demolition : Re-invention, saw him selected as “artist of the festival” for two days.
By David Nicholson Article written: Tuesday 12 August 2014
YorkMix reviews 2013
Review: Bruce Springsteen shows the Rolling Stones how it’s done
Review: Bruce Springsteen
Venue: Leeds First Direct Arena, July 24
I’ve always been a fan of Bruce Springsteen since hearing Born To Run on the radio in 1975 and thinking “that’s a good tune”. It wasn’t until I heard Badlands from the follow-up album that I parted with my cash and bought Darkness on the Edge of Town, thinking that was the Boss’s debut album instead of his fourth.
at I was initially disappointed that the song Born To Run wasn’t on that album but over the years I’ve compared all of the ten Springsteen albums I own and Darkness is still the best. My last Bruce purchase was The Rising in 2002 which I described as lyrically sloppy at the time thinking that he’d lost it – and I haven’t bothered to listen since.
So my reason for paying £70 + £5 booking fee (what’s that all about?) and getting a ticket for this concert was: “I must see Springsteen before he dies (or I die)”. I don’t like large concerts and normally refuse to pay more than £35 to see anybody.
The concert is the first in the new Leeds Arena which has cost £60 million to build. Arriving at the car-park from York was a doddle and there were plenty of guides in yellow T-shirts to direct me along the three-minute walk to the venue. Getting inside was painless and quick although there were piles of food and drink on tables which had been taken from concert goers as no food or drink were to be taken inside (standard practice these days I’m afraid). The cost of food and drink once inside was very expensive and low grade fare (pizza and chips or burger or sausage in a bun).
Bruce arrived on stage 20 minutes late and people had started booing and slow handclapping before the lights went down. Promoters should make announcements when concerts don’t start on time – we understand about technical difficultly so just keep us informed.
I had concerns about the acoustics as the auditorium is built of concrete and steel like some huge fan-shaped tram shed. The sound in my seat was poor (Block 327 Q8) the treble was harsh (but clear) and the mid and bass frequencies were very muddy making it hard to pick out particular instruments on some solos. There was a drum break in the third song that sounded very strange as I could hear a popping sound hitting the back wall behind me.
The sound did improve a little as the show went on, and may have been great at lower levels, but at these prices I expect it to be good in every seat.
So what about Mr Springsteen and his E Street Band? well for the first two hours he played most of the songs from his latest album Wrecking Ball which I’ve not listened to – but these songs were well known by a large number of the audience and made me want to go and listen to the record.
He did include some songs from earlier recording such as The Promised Land from Darkness on the Edge of Town, Hungry Heart from The River along with a fantastic rendition of Atlantic City from the Nebraska album.
He also did his song jukebox section, collecting pieces of cardboard with requests scribbled on by members of the audience. The funniest moment was him working out which key to sing Bad Mood Rising (he chose the key of D after working out another key was too high).
After two hours the band went off stage only to come back on very quickly to play another hour of greatest hits such as Badlands, Born To Run and Lulu’s Shout.
Bruce and the band were amazing – he stage dived, went walkabout in the audience while singing, had a whole family up on stage dancing with him and got a young lad to sing the verse of a song for him while he had a short breather. Everyone was up on their feet singing along and dancing.
And then it was over – only it wasn’t! Bruce came back on with an acoustic guitar and harmonica and played a couple of very intimate songs with the final song being a very touching and brilliant acoustic version of Thunder Road.
At 63 years old, Bruce performs like a guy in his early twenties. He certainly knows how to work a crowd and can certainly show younger (and older) performers a lot about stage craft. In fact the Rolling Bones, last seen headlining Glastonbury this year, could learn a lot from The E-Street Band – but really they should just retire.
By contrast I hope Bruce keeps going. In fact I’ll come back and see him when he’s 90 (even if it does cost £500 per ticket).
Published 25th July 2013
Review: The Magic Of Motown – great singing, shame about the impressions
Review: The Magic Of Motown
Venue: Grand Opera House, Friday, June 21
I was looking forward to The Magic of Motown having seen other shows of this type such as Smokey Joes Café and Jersey Boys in the West End of London.Tonight’s show started with a voiceover introducing the cast. Just as I was settling into the first song I was hit on the head by a handbag belonging to a woman in the row behind who was arriving late to her seat. A lot of people were having to stand up to allow latecomers to access their seats; perhaps the Opera House should have a policy of only allowing latecomers in between songs.
The audience, whose average age must have been between 45 and 65, were clearly up for a good night out and from the moment the band started playing, people clapped along and cheered.
The Magic of Motown cast consists of four backing musicians, all dressed in Blues Brothers-type suits (with a change of shirt for the second half). The quality of the musicianship was good but not exceptional; in fact I felt the musicianship of local band The Supermodels could give these guys a run for their money.
The sound was OK apart from the keyboard player’s string and brass sounds which sounded very 1980s. There is no reason in this day and age of high quality orchestra and brass samples that inferior keyboard sounds should be tolerated.
The show was fronted by seven singers, three women and four men, who all had incredible voices and the moves to match. There was a costume change every two or three songs. Their laundry bill must be massive because the whole cast was working incredibly hard and sweat was pouring from all of the performers.
Yet although everyone seemed to be having a good time I felt the show lacked soul.
The show was last in York in October 2012 when there was 16 members of the cast (an extra male and female vocalist and three extra musicians) and with the cast now down to 11 corners have been cut and it shows.
The Magic of Motownis still directed and led by singer Andre Lajeune. It is obvious that this is Andre’s show; other singers have their moment in the spotlight but Andre wants everyone to know that he is the boss.
André had a great voice, but he sings some songs that other members of the cast could clearly sing better. The first low point of the evening is when André does the Diana Ross & Lionel Richie duet Endless Love em> which he plays for laughs, and his performance is cringingly bad. The poor girl singing Diana Ross’s part does her best to salvage the situation but all hope is lost.
The next low point is when Andre is led on stage by one of the girls pretending to be a blind Stevie Wonder and he even mimics Stevie’s head movement which was in such bad taste I felt like leaving. This is such a shame because vocally André sings the Stevie Wonder songs brilliantly. There is a little problem with the bands timing in Sir Duke and the vocals overpower the music on occasion but these are small matters compared to watching a pretend blind man sing.
By the time we got to the Jackson Five the show was becoming pantomime with the four guys and one of the girls wearing big afro wigs (the girl was singing Michael Jackson’s parts as a soprano – which didn’t work). It was enough to make poor Michael J turn in his grave. It comes across as less tribute and more a weird parody. If I could have left I would have but I was blocked in by all the middle-aged women cavorting in the aisles.
It was clear from the standing ovation at the end of the show that the majority of the audience loved it. Although I wasn’t alone. There was a gentleman sat in front of me who wasn’t leaping about like a thing possessed. The female friend who came with me enjoyed the show but agreed about the poor taste Stevie Wonder and Jackson Five impressions and said she wouldn’t recommend it and neither would I.
In fact go and see the real legend Geno Washington who is still touring. Granted it’s not a Motown show but Geno covers a lot of the same songs in his set and you’ll still have change from 20 quid.
Published 22nd June 2013
Review: Fantastic production of ‘perfect’ opera
Review: Cosi Fan Tutte by English Touring Opera
Venue: York Theatre Royal, April 11
Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte (or The School For Lovers) is described by The English Touring Opera as “a cynical gentleman’s conviction that women cannot be faithful [which] sets in motion a chain of deceit, disguise and desire”. So it’s all about fiancée swapping in the 1700s.
The English Touring Opera are a large ensemble which must be costly to maintain and run. It consists of a 25-strong orchestra (plus conductor), a 13-piece choir, who are able to sound as if you are listening to a choir of 40, and an opera cast of six in this case (larger for other productions) – so I was pleased to see a full house.
My first impression as the orchestra started the overture was that the music sounded a little dead and too quiet. It lacked the reverb of a large classical concert hall and then I realised that the orchestra were playing acoustically without any amplification.
I wished for a couple of overhead microphones to give the orchestra a bigger sound but by the time we got to Act I, Scene 2 and the singers had started, I’d forgotten all about amplification and was enjoying the performances. It really was fantastic to go to a opera and hear it as it was meant to be heard in 1790 when Mozart first performed Cosi Fan Tutte.
This is “the most perfect ensemble opera ever written” according to the ETO – so what about their production? Well I had concerns about the work being sung in English and I fully understand why the company have done that (making opera more accessible and all that) but I would have preferred it to be sung in Italian.
The big vocal pieces worked well and you could say that Cosi Fan Tutte doesn’t have any of Mozart’s hits in the repertoire (unlike The Marriage Of Figaro and The Magic Flute) but I struggled with the pieces of sung dialogue that were there just to move the story along, they all were a bit samey to me. I blame Wolfgang Amadeus for this and not the ETO who did a fantastic job.
The acting, singing and playing were all superb and the cast were lively, engaging and brilliant (particularly Paula Sides as Despina the maid). The opera seemed to dip in the early part of Act II when Fiordiligi (Laura Mitchell) had a long solo and some of the energy disappeared (Wolfgang’s fault again) but this was a fantastic production.
I think everyone should experience a live theatrical opera at least once in their life, and I don’t mean watching a London production that’s been filmed for viewing in a cinema (a medium I’m still unconvinced by). You need to be in the room with the performers.
The running time of the opera was just under three hours and it is testament to the ETO that I was completely engrossed in the show and the time flew by.
Published 12th April 2013
Review: The gypsy kings of the strings
Review: The Dutch Gypsy Jazz Legends
Venue: York Theatre Royal, April 9
This was billed as a showcase of two of the world’s finest gypsy jazz musicians: Tim Kliphuis a violinist who was classically trained at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and started playing gypsy jazz in the style of jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and Paulus Schäfer considered to be one of the most talented gypsy jazz guitar players from the Netherlands.
These talented musicians were joined on stage by Kliphuis’s regular sidekicks from the Tim Kliphuis Quartet in the form of Roy Percy on Bass and Nigel Clark on Guitar (both from Scotland) and perform as the Tim Kliphuis Trio.
The evening started with the Trio playing a piece written by Stéphane Grappelli (much is made throughout the performance of Grappelli’s influences on Kliphuis) this was followed by a composition created by Edward Grieg or Eddie Grieg as Tim described the composer which lighten the mood as the audience settled in for an evening of virtuoso performances.
After these two warm-up pieces the Trio were joined on stage by Paulus Schäfer who, according to the press release, was to “evoke the true spirit of Django Reinhardt”.
Reinhardt (for those of you who don’t know) is often regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, partly because he only played by using the index and middle fingers of his left hand on his solos (his third and fourth fingers were paralyzed after an injury in a fire) and he was a performer of outstanding ability, the Jimi Hendrix of the 1940s and 50s.
Django Reinhardt’s 1949 record Djangology was one of the five influential records that were left to me after my father died, so Reinhardt hold a special place in my heart and I was particularly interested to see if Schäfer was the new Reinhardt.
The performances by this quartet of musicians were outstanding and breathtaking at times, Tim’s in-between patter was jovial and funny and it was a delight to watch the musical interaction between four world class jazz players. I particularly liked how Tim managed to turn the violin into a percussive drum at times.
I only have a couple of slight niggles. One is that I felt the violin was too loud in the mix at times and overshadowed the other players (it was obvious that Roy Percy occasionally had problems hearing Nigel Clark). Also I don’t think that Paulus is “the reincarnation of Django Reinhardt”, he’s a very original Paulus Schäfer and should remain that way. Stop with the comparison please.
This was a fantastic evening of virtuoso playing which the audience clearly loved. The title was The Dutch Gypsy Jazz Legends – I don’t think these guys are jazz legends yet… but give them time and they will be.
Published 10th April 2013
Fascinating, disappointing, inspiring: prize winning art
York musician Ian J Cole mulls over the prizewinning artworks at a York exhibition
Before I start let me say that I hate award ceremonies…. I never watch the BAFTAs or Oscars; I record The Brits so I don’t have to listen to the inane rambling of the presenters (James Corden the last two years). In fact this year I managed to watch the whole of the two hours Brits awards show in 24 minutes and the only performance that I liked was Taylor Swift, but that’s another story.
A couple of weeks ago an e-mail arrived for me at YorkMix Towers inviting me to the opening evening of the Aesthetica Art Prize. I think I was invited because they liked what I’d written about the Aesthetica Film Festival last year. I went along with my wife whose job it was to keep me in check and stop me ranting about rubbish art.
On arrival the very friendly staff offered us drinks and there was an opportunity to mingle – something I’m not very good at and as I was there to look at the art that’s what I did… although I did get the feeling that some people were there just to be seen.
The first piece I looked at turned out to be the winner by Damien O’Mara which was two very staged photographs that I was unimpressed by (I clearly can’t pick winners). Now call me cynical but one of O’Mara’s photographs was the cover art for all of the exhibition’s guides and leaflets, so was the award decided before all the artwork went to print or is this just a coincidence?
As I wandered through the crowds trying to get a glimpse of the artworks, I stumbled across three TV’s with chairs and headphones, so I sat down and watched the last minute of a short film called Sutre by Madaleine Trigg which I found fascinating.
Madaleine Trigg is a performance artist and photographer and in Sutre we see her collaborating with costume designers Francisca Rios and Cristina Valls to create an improbable and visually astonishing melting dress, which for me should have won the main prize. Sadly it wasn’t even shortlisted as it was in the Longlisted Artists Film category (whatever that is).
Halfway through watching Sutre the speeches started, which were hampered by a poor quality PA system that rendered it almost impossible to hear what was being said. The speeches were too long for me and I soon went back to watching the Longlisted Artists Films until they were finished.
The student prize went to Poppy Whatmore’s The Family Meal which was described as a ‘subversive deconstruction’ of everyday objects, I quite liked it but felt it was a little derivative of some of the early work of one of my favourite artists Tony Cragg, particularly his piece Axehead.
Other pieces I particularly liked were by Koren artists Kyunghee Park (Untitled) and Hyung-Gyu Kim (Chromaphone II) both fine pieces of art.
After about an hour I’d had enough of the crowds and I vowed to come back when there were fewer people about. My wife and I were discussing the final piece of the evening Roma: Transylvania (2011). I felt the work reminded me of some fantastic photographs that I’d seen as part of Gaiety is the Most Outstanding Feature of the Soviet Union exhibition in the Saatchi Gallery last November 2012 only to find out that Mary Humphrey’s photos were included on the Saatchi gallery website and might have been include in that show.
It was at this point that Mary Humphrey bounced up to us and asked us if we had any questions and what ensured was a lovely exchange about life-changing experiences and how we should all explore what we want to do. Mary described herself as a “grandmother who only started taking photographs ten years ago and was asked by her children why she doesn’t want to just take wedding photos”.
Mary’s response was that she wants to do “what she wants to do” and loves to build relationships with her subjects very quickly, often without the use of language. Her passion for her art shines through her work and my parting comment was for her to “keep doing what you’re doing”.
How they tried to steal Seat Number Seven from me
York musician Ian J Cole is stunned when two companies try to claim copyright on his brand-new compositions.
I’ve recently had a run in with a couple of music publishing houses (one in France and one in Germany) and this prompted me to cover the thorny issue of music copyright.
The copyright of music is a massive problem for record companies and anyone trying to make a living out of their music. There are two schools of thought, one that copyright doesn’t matter and we should be able to copy, download, resample, rewrite and do whatever we like with a piece of music because once it’s out in the public domain than it’s for everyone to use.
The other camp feels that the composer and artist should get a royalty for every time a piece of music is played or recorded or sampled. A few years ago the most sampled record was drum patterns from James Brown’s back catalogue and in fact Funky Drummer is still number two according to WhoSampled.com. All of this royalty copyright stuff keeps music publishing lawyers ready to sue at the drop of a hat.
This is not a new problem. Mozart apparently had issues with people stealing his ideas. Albinoni’s famous Adagio in G Minor wasn’t written by him it was written by his biographer Remo Giazotto. Imagine how his descendants feel at missing out on all those royalty cheques.
Even the guy who recorded Buddy Holly, Norman Petty, added his name to the writing credits of several of Holly’s songs including the hit Peggy Sue. Petty of course didn’t write these songs – he recorded and produced them – but part of the deal was adding his name to the writing credits. So another poor musician/composer gets ripped off.
Anyway my story starts with my birthday present, a small synthesiser from Korg called a Kaossilator 2 which allows me to create music on the fly. I tend to use it as a composer’s notepad and this is exactly what I did on travelling on the train back from Edinburgh. I spend about 30 minutes composing the basics of an electronic piece that I called Seat Number 7 – this was my seat number on the train of course. The composition was edited back at home; a little piano was added and then finally mixed and mastered by myself.
I decided to put the piece on my You Tube channel, so I created a little video to go with the finished track and duly uploaded the finished masterpiece (I’m being ironic) thinking no more about it, apart from hoping people might listen and like it.
Within seconds of the video going live on YouTube I was send the following email:
Dear ianjohncole,
Your video “Seat Number 7”, may have content that is owned or licensed by Kontor New Media, but it’s still available on YouTube! In some cases, ads may appear next to it.
This claim is not penalising your account status. Visit your Copyright Notice page for more details on the policy applied to your video.
Yours sincerely,
– The YouTube TeamAnd within a few more seconds another email arrived from YouTube with the same message, but this time the company was called Believe. I was flabbergasted as all of the content was created by sounds generated in the Korg Kaossilator which need any copyright clearance.
I duly wrote back to both companies the same day (through YouTube’s web email system) and explained where, when and how Seat Number 7 was composed saying that I even had a witness, as sitting in seat number eight on the train was my wife who watched me compose the piece. She didn’t have to listen as I was wearing headphones.
And then I waited…
And waited…
Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks. Just as I was about to start a “Free The Seat Number 7 One” campaign and rally everyone I know in York to march down Coney Street on a Saturday afternoon stopping at the YorkMix offices en route for tea and biscuits, I finally got the following email (it only took them 36 days to have a listen to my piece):
Dear ianjohncole,
Believe has reviewed your dispute and released its copyright claim on your video, “Seat Number 7”. For more information, please visit your Copyright Notice page
Yours sincerely,
The YouTube TeamAnd then the following day another similar message regarding Kontor New Media’s claim against me.
Hurray! I felt like a free man and so relieved to know that the copyright police were not going to come knocking at my door demanding access to my computer hard-drives.
I am of course joking. I found the whole thing mildly annoying but there is a bigger issue here: musicians and composers should be paid for the work they do (see my YorkMix piece from May 2012). There was a lot of fuss over musicians not getting paid at the Olympics and Paralympics which led the Musicians’ Union to launch an awareness campaign.
As for which copyright camp I fall into, I’m somewhere in the middle. If you’re a guy working in your bedroom wanting to remix a composition I’ve created or add it to your own work I’m happy for that to happen and I won’t want a fee (unless you’re loaded). But I would still want to be asked (it is my right to refuse of course) and I’d want you to make sure I’m credited and the correct PPL, ISRC & PRS codes are registered (these are codes that identify a song/composition on a CD or download so writers can receive royalties).
But on the other hand if you’re a film company or large publisher wanting to use my piece in the next blockbuster (I wish) then I would like paying please.
In fact I’ve turned down two film contracts in the last couple of years because they required me to give up my copyright on the songs that were going to use in each film. This means that if I added these songs to the Katie And The Questions album and those were the songs the company wanted then I would be paying a percentage to the film company every time I sell an album. Even though they don’t have anything to do with it. That doesn’t seem right somehow does it?
The publishing deal that I finally signed with MusicIQ, a music publisher in New York, means that I get to keep all copyright, I can licence or do whatever I want with my songs and compositions I’ve written. And if MuseIQ want to place one of my songs in the next episode of Game Of Thrones or the latest CSI spin-off (CSI Boston maybe!) then we’ll split the fee and the royalties (although I’ll get full composer’s royalties) and both will have better bank balances for it.
As for Kontor New Media and Believe, they are both off my Christmas card list!
Ian J Cole (All copyright clearance provided) ©2012 🙂
Published 17th January 2013
Review: Bruce Springsteen
Venue: Leeds First Direct Arena, July 24
I’ve always been a fan of Bruce Springsteen since hearing Born To Run on the radio in 1975 and thinking “that’s a good tune”. It wasn’t until I heard Badlands from the follow-up album that I parted with my cash and bought Darkness on the Edge of Town, thinking that was the Boss’s debut album instead of his fourth.
at I was initially disappointed that the song Born To Run wasn’t on that album but over the years I’ve compared all of the ten Springsteen albums I own and Darkness is still the best. My last Bruce purchase was The Rising in 2002 which I described as lyrically sloppy at the time thinking that he’d lost it – and I haven’t bothered to listen since.
So my reason for paying £70 + £5 booking fee (what’s that all about?) and getting a ticket for this concert was: “I must see Springsteen before he dies (or I die)”. I don’t like large concerts and normally refuse to pay more than £35 to see anybody.
The concert is the first in the new Leeds Arena which has cost £60 million to build. Arriving at the car-park from York was a doddle and there were plenty of guides in yellow T-shirts to direct me along the three-minute walk to the venue. Getting inside was painless and quick although there were piles of food and drink on tables which had been taken from concert goers as no food or drink were to be taken inside (standard practice these days I’m afraid). The cost of food and drink once inside was very expensive and low grade fare (pizza and chips or burger or sausage in a bun).
Bruce arrived on stage 20 minutes late and people had started booing and slow handclapping before the lights went down. Promoters should make announcements when concerts don’t start on time – we understand about technical difficultly so just keep us informed.
I had concerns about the acoustics as the auditorium is built of concrete and steel like some huge fan-shaped tram shed. The sound in my seat was poor (Block 327 Q8) the treble was harsh (but clear) and the mid and bass frequencies were very muddy making it hard to pick out particular instruments on some solos. There was a drum break in the third song that sounded very strange as I could hear a popping sound hitting the back wall behind me.
The sound did improve a little as the show went on, and may have been great at lower levels, but at these prices I expect it to be good in every seat.
So what about Mr Springsteen and his E Street Band? well for the first two hours he played most of the songs from his latest album Wrecking Ball which I’ve not listened to – but these songs were well known by a large number of the audience and made me want to go and listen to the record.
He did include some songs from earlier recording such as The Promised Land from Darkness on the Edge of Town, Hungry Heart from The River along with a fantastic rendition of Atlantic City from the Nebraska album.
He also did his song jukebox section, collecting pieces of cardboard with requests scribbled on by members of the audience. The funniest moment was him working out which key to sing Bad Mood Rising (he chose the key of D after working out another key was too high).
After two hours the band went off stage only to come back on very quickly to play another hour of greatest hits such as Badlands, Born To Run and Lulu’s Shout.
Bruce and the band were amazing – he stage dived, went walkabout in the audience while singing, had a whole family up on stage dancing with him and got a young lad to sing the verse of a song for him while he had a short breather. Everyone was up on their feet singing along and dancing.
And then it was over – only it wasn’t! Bruce came back on with an acoustic guitar and harmonica and played a couple of very intimate songs with the final song being a very touching and brilliant acoustic version of Thunder Road.
At 63 years old, Bruce performs like a guy in his early twenties. He certainly knows how to work a crowd and can certainly show younger (and older) performers a lot about stage craft. In fact the Rolling Bones, last seen headlining Glastonbury this year, could learn a lot from The E-Street Band – but really they should just retire.
By contrast I hope Bruce keeps going. In fact I’ll come back and see him when he’s 90 (even if it does cost £500 per ticket).
Published 25th July 2013
Review: The Magic Of Motown – great singing, shame about the impressions
Review: The Magic Of Motown
Venue: Grand Opera House, Friday, June 21
I was looking forward to The Magic of Motown having seen other shows of this type such as Smokey Joes Café and Jersey Boys in the West End of London.Tonight’s show started with a voiceover introducing the cast. Just as I was settling into the first song I was hit on the head by a handbag belonging to a woman in the row behind who was arriving late to her seat. A lot of people were having to stand up to allow latecomers to access their seats; perhaps the Opera House should have a policy of only allowing latecomers in between songs.
The audience, whose average age must have been between 45 and 65, were clearly up for a good night out and from the moment the band started playing, people clapped along and cheered.
The Magic of Motown cast consists of four backing musicians, all dressed in Blues Brothers-type suits (with a change of shirt for the second half). The quality of the musicianship was good but not exceptional; in fact I felt the musicianship of local band The Supermodels could give these guys a run for their money.
The sound was OK apart from the keyboard player’s string and brass sounds which sounded very 1980s. There is no reason in this day and age of high quality orchestra and brass samples that inferior keyboard sounds should be tolerated.
The show was fronted by seven singers, three women and four men, who all had incredible voices and the moves to match. There was a costume change every two or three songs. Their laundry bill must be massive because the whole cast was working incredibly hard and sweat was pouring from all of the performers.
Yet although everyone seemed to be having a good time I felt the show lacked soul.
The show was last in York in October 2012 when there was 16 members of the cast (an extra male and female vocalist and three extra musicians) and with the cast now down to 11 corners have been cut and it shows.
The Magic of Motownis still directed and led by singer Andre Lajeune. It is obvious that this is Andre’s show; other singers have their moment in the spotlight but Andre wants everyone to know that he is the boss.
André had a great voice, but he sings some songs that other members of the cast could clearly sing better. The first low point of the evening is when André does the Diana Ross & Lionel Richie duet Endless Love em> which he plays for laughs, and his performance is cringingly bad. The poor girl singing Diana Ross’s part does her best to salvage the situation but all hope is lost.
The next low point is when Andre is led on stage by one of the girls pretending to be a blind Stevie Wonder and he even mimics Stevie’s head movement which was in such bad taste I felt like leaving. This is such a shame because vocally André sings the Stevie Wonder songs brilliantly. There is a little problem with the bands timing in Sir Duke and the vocals overpower the music on occasion but these are small matters compared to watching a pretend blind man sing.
By the time we got to the Jackson Five the show was becoming pantomime with the four guys and one of the girls wearing big afro wigs (the girl was singing Michael Jackson’s parts as a soprano – which didn’t work). It was enough to make poor Michael J turn in his grave. It comes across as less tribute and more a weird parody. If I could have left I would have but I was blocked in by all the middle-aged women cavorting in the aisles.
It was clear from the standing ovation at the end of the show that the majority of the audience loved it. Although I wasn’t alone. There was a gentleman sat in front of me who wasn’t leaping about like a thing possessed. The female friend who came with me enjoyed the show but agreed about the poor taste Stevie Wonder and Jackson Five impressions and said she wouldn’t recommend it and neither would I.
In fact go and see the real legend Geno Washington who is still touring. Granted it’s not a Motown show but Geno covers a lot of the same songs in his set and you’ll still have change from 20 quid.
Published 22nd June 2013
Review: Fantastic production of ‘perfect’ opera
Review: Cosi Fan Tutte by English Touring Opera
Venue: York Theatre Royal, April 11
Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte (or The School For Lovers) is described by The English Touring Opera as “a cynical gentleman’s conviction that women cannot be faithful [which] sets in motion a chain of deceit, disguise and desire”. So it’s all about fiancée swapping in the 1700s.
The English Touring Opera are a large ensemble which must be costly to maintain and run. It consists of a 25-strong orchestra (plus conductor), a 13-piece choir, who are able to sound as if you are listening to a choir of 40, and an opera cast of six in this case (larger for other productions) – so I was pleased to see a full house.
My first impression as the orchestra started the overture was that the music sounded a little dead and too quiet. It lacked the reverb of a large classical concert hall and then I realised that the orchestra were playing acoustically without any amplification.
I wished for a couple of overhead microphones to give the orchestra a bigger sound but by the time we got to Act I, Scene 2 and the singers had started, I’d forgotten all about amplification and was enjoying the performances. It really was fantastic to go to a opera and hear it as it was meant to be heard in 1790 when Mozart first performed Cosi Fan Tutte.
This is “the most perfect ensemble opera ever written” according to the ETO – so what about their production? Well I had concerns about the work being sung in English and I fully understand why the company have done that (making opera more accessible and all that) but I would have preferred it to be sung in Italian.
The big vocal pieces worked well and you could say that Cosi Fan Tutte doesn’t have any of Mozart’s hits in the repertoire (unlike The Marriage Of Figaro and The Magic Flute) but I struggled with the pieces of sung dialogue that were there just to move the story along, they all were a bit samey to me. I blame Wolfgang Amadeus for this and not the ETO who did a fantastic job.
The acting, singing and playing were all superb and the cast were lively, engaging and brilliant (particularly Paula Sides as Despina the maid). The opera seemed to dip in the early part of Act II when Fiordiligi (Laura Mitchell) had a long solo and some of the energy disappeared (Wolfgang’s fault again) but this was a fantastic production.
I think everyone should experience a live theatrical opera at least once in their life, and I don’t mean watching a London production that’s been filmed for viewing in a cinema (a medium I’m still unconvinced by). You need to be in the room with the performers.
The running time of the opera was just under three hours and it is testament to the ETO that I was completely engrossed in the show and the time flew by.
Published 12th April 2013
Review: The gypsy kings of the strings
Review: The Dutch Gypsy Jazz Legends
Venue: York Theatre Royal, April 9
This was billed as a showcase of two of the world’s finest gypsy jazz musicians: Tim Kliphuis a violinist who was classically trained at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and started playing gypsy jazz in the style of jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and Paulus Schäfer considered to be one of the most talented gypsy jazz guitar players from the Netherlands.
These talented musicians were joined on stage by Kliphuis’s regular sidekicks from the Tim Kliphuis Quartet in the form of Roy Percy on Bass and Nigel Clark on Guitar (both from Scotland) and perform as the Tim Kliphuis Trio.
The evening started with the Trio playing a piece written by Stéphane Grappelli (much is made throughout the performance of Grappelli’s influences on Kliphuis) this was followed by a composition created by Edward Grieg or Eddie Grieg as Tim described the composer which lighten the mood as the audience settled in for an evening of virtuoso performances.
After these two warm-up pieces the Trio were joined on stage by Paulus Schäfer who, according to the press release, was to “evoke the true spirit of Django Reinhardt”.
Reinhardt (for those of you who don’t know) is often regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, partly because he only played by using the index and middle fingers of his left hand on his solos (his third and fourth fingers were paralyzed after an injury in a fire) and he was a performer of outstanding ability, the Jimi Hendrix of the 1940s and 50s.
Django Reinhardt’s 1949 record Djangology was one of the five influential records that were left to me after my father died, so Reinhardt hold a special place in my heart and I was particularly interested to see if Schäfer was the new Reinhardt.
The performances by this quartet of musicians were outstanding and breathtaking at times, Tim’s in-between patter was jovial and funny and it was a delight to watch the musical interaction between four world class jazz players. I particularly liked how Tim managed to turn the violin into a percussive drum at times.
I only have a couple of slight niggles. One is that I felt the violin was too loud in the mix at times and overshadowed the other players (it was obvious that Roy Percy occasionally had problems hearing Nigel Clark). Also I don’t think that Paulus is “the reincarnation of Django Reinhardt”, he’s a very original Paulus Schäfer and should remain that way. Stop with the comparison please.
This was a fantastic evening of virtuoso playing which the audience clearly loved. The title was The Dutch Gypsy Jazz Legends – I don’t think these guys are jazz legends yet… but give them time and they will be.
Published 10th April 2013
Fascinating, disappointing, inspiring: prize winning art
York musician Ian J Cole mulls over the prizewinning artworks at a York exhibition
Before I start let me say that I hate award ceremonies…. I never watch the BAFTAs or Oscars; I record The Brits so I don’t have to listen to the inane rambling of the presenters (James Corden the last two years). In fact this year I managed to watch the whole of the two hours Brits awards show in 24 minutes and the only performance that I liked was Taylor Swift, but that’s another story.
A couple of weeks ago an e-mail arrived for me at YorkMix Towers inviting me to the opening evening of the Aesthetica Art Prize. I think I was invited because they liked what I’d written about the Aesthetica Film Festival last year. I went along with my wife whose job it was to keep me in check and stop me ranting about rubbish art.
On arrival the very friendly staff offered us drinks and there was an opportunity to mingle – something I’m not very good at and as I was there to look at the art that’s what I did… although I did get the feeling that some people were there just to be seen.
The first piece I looked at turned out to be the winner by Damien O’Mara which was two very staged photographs that I was unimpressed by (I clearly can’t pick winners). Now call me cynical but one of O’Mara’s photographs was the cover art for all of the exhibition’s guides and leaflets, so was the award decided before all the artwork went to print or is this just a coincidence?
As I wandered through the crowds trying to get a glimpse of the artworks, I stumbled across three TV’s with chairs and headphones, so I sat down and watched the last minute of a short film called Sutre by Madaleine Trigg which I found fascinating.
Madaleine Trigg is a performance artist and photographer and in Sutre we see her collaborating with costume designers Francisca Rios and Cristina Valls to create an improbable and visually astonishing melting dress, which for me should have won the main prize. Sadly it wasn’t even shortlisted as it was in the Longlisted Artists Film category (whatever that is).
Halfway through watching Sutre the speeches started, which were hampered by a poor quality PA system that rendered it almost impossible to hear what was being said. The speeches were too long for me and I soon went back to watching the Longlisted Artists Films until they were finished.
The student prize went to Poppy Whatmore’s The Family Meal which was described as a ‘subversive deconstruction’ of everyday objects, I quite liked it but felt it was a little derivative of some of the early work of one of my favourite artists Tony Cragg, particularly his piece Axehead.
Other pieces I particularly liked were by Koren artists Kyunghee Park (Untitled) and Hyung-Gyu Kim (Chromaphone II) both fine pieces of art.
After about an hour I’d had enough of the crowds and I vowed to come back when there were fewer people about. My wife and I were discussing the final piece of the evening Roma: Transylvania (2011). I felt the work reminded me of some fantastic photographs that I’d seen as part of Gaiety is the Most Outstanding Feature of the Soviet Union exhibition in the Saatchi Gallery last November 2012 only to find out that Mary Humphrey’s photos were included on the Saatchi gallery website and might have been include in that show.
It was at this point that Mary Humphrey bounced up to us and asked us if we had any questions and what ensured was a lovely exchange about life-changing experiences and how we should all explore what we want to do. Mary described herself as a “grandmother who only started taking photographs ten years ago and was asked by her children why she doesn’t want to just take wedding photos”.
Mary’s response was that she wants to do “what she wants to do” and loves to build relationships with her subjects very quickly, often without the use of language. Her passion for her art shines through her work and my parting comment was for her to “keep doing what you’re doing”.
- The shortlisted artworks are at York St Mary’s – York Art Gallery’s contemporary art space – until April 28 from 10am to 5pm. Entry is free
- Organised by Aesthetica Magazine, an international art and culture publication, the art prize is a celebration of excellence in contemporary art from across the world
How they tried to steal Seat Number Seven from me
York musician Ian J Cole is stunned when two companies try to claim copyright on his brand-new compositions.
I’ve recently had a run in with a couple of music publishing houses (one in France and one in Germany) and this prompted me to cover the thorny issue of music copyright.
The copyright of music is a massive problem for record companies and anyone trying to make a living out of their music. There are two schools of thought, one that copyright doesn’t matter and we should be able to copy, download, resample, rewrite and do whatever we like with a piece of music because once it’s out in the public domain than it’s for everyone to use.
The other camp feels that the composer and artist should get a royalty for every time a piece of music is played or recorded or sampled. A few years ago the most sampled record was drum patterns from James Brown’s back catalogue and in fact Funky Drummer is still number two according to WhoSampled.com. All of this royalty copyright stuff keeps music publishing lawyers ready to sue at the drop of a hat.
This is not a new problem. Mozart apparently had issues with people stealing his ideas. Albinoni’s famous Adagio in G Minor wasn’t written by him it was written by his biographer Remo Giazotto. Imagine how his descendants feel at missing out on all those royalty cheques.
Even the guy who recorded Buddy Holly, Norman Petty, added his name to the writing credits of several of Holly’s songs including the hit Peggy Sue. Petty of course didn’t write these songs – he recorded and produced them – but part of the deal was adding his name to the writing credits. So another poor musician/composer gets ripped off.
Anyway my story starts with my birthday present, a small synthesiser from Korg called a Kaossilator 2 which allows me to create music on the fly. I tend to use it as a composer’s notepad and this is exactly what I did on travelling on the train back from Edinburgh. I spend about 30 minutes composing the basics of an electronic piece that I called Seat Number 7 – this was my seat number on the train of course. The composition was edited back at home; a little piano was added and then finally mixed and mastered by myself.
I decided to put the piece on my You Tube channel, so I created a little video to go with the finished track and duly uploaded the finished masterpiece (I’m being ironic) thinking no more about it, apart from hoping people might listen and like it.
Within seconds of the video going live on YouTube I was send the following email:
Dear ianjohncole,
Your video “Seat Number 7”, may have content that is owned or licensed by Kontor New Media, but it’s still available on YouTube! In some cases, ads may appear next to it.
This claim is not penalising your account status. Visit your Copyright Notice page for more details on the policy applied to your video.
Yours sincerely,
– The YouTube TeamAnd within a few more seconds another email arrived from YouTube with the same message, but this time the company was called Believe. I was flabbergasted as all of the content was created by sounds generated in the Korg Kaossilator which need any copyright clearance.
I duly wrote back to both companies the same day (through YouTube’s web email system) and explained where, when and how Seat Number 7 was composed saying that I even had a witness, as sitting in seat number eight on the train was my wife who watched me compose the piece. She didn’t have to listen as I was wearing headphones.
And then I waited…
And waited…
Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks. Just as I was about to start a “Free The Seat Number 7 One” campaign and rally everyone I know in York to march down Coney Street on a Saturday afternoon stopping at the YorkMix offices en route for tea and biscuits, I finally got the following email (it only took them 36 days to have a listen to my piece):
Dear ianjohncole,
Believe has reviewed your dispute and released its copyright claim on your video, “Seat Number 7”. For more information, please visit your Copyright Notice page
Yours sincerely,
The YouTube TeamAnd then the following day another similar message regarding Kontor New Media’s claim against me.
Hurray! I felt like a free man and so relieved to know that the copyright police were not going to come knocking at my door demanding access to my computer hard-drives.
I am of course joking. I found the whole thing mildly annoying but there is a bigger issue here: musicians and composers should be paid for the work they do (see my YorkMix piece from May 2012). There was a lot of fuss over musicians not getting paid at the Olympics and Paralympics which led the Musicians’ Union to launch an awareness campaign.
As for which copyright camp I fall into, I’m somewhere in the middle. If you’re a guy working in your bedroom wanting to remix a composition I’ve created or add it to your own work I’m happy for that to happen and I won’t want a fee (unless you’re loaded). But I would still want to be asked (it is my right to refuse of course) and I’d want you to make sure I’m credited and the correct PPL, ISRC & PRS codes are registered (these are codes that identify a song/composition on a CD or download so writers can receive royalties).
But on the other hand if you’re a film company or large publisher wanting to use my piece in the next blockbuster (I wish) then I would like paying please.
In fact I’ve turned down two film contracts in the last couple of years because they required me to give up my copyright on the songs that were going to use in each film. This means that if I added these songs to the Katie And The Questions album and those were the songs the company wanted then I would be paying a percentage to the film company every time I sell an album. Even though they don’t have anything to do with it. That doesn’t seem right somehow does it?
The publishing deal that I finally signed with MusicIQ, a music publisher in New York, means that I get to keep all copyright, I can licence or do whatever I want with my songs and compositions I’ve written. And if MuseIQ want to place one of my songs in the next episode of Game Of Thrones or the latest CSI spin-off (CSI Boston maybe!) then we’ll split the fee and the royalties (although I’ll get full composer’s royalties) and both will have better bank balances for it.
As for Kontor New Media and Believe, they are both off my Christmas card list!
Ian J Cole (All copyright clearance provided) ©2012 🙂
Published 17th January 2013
YorkMix REviews 2012
Two great books with links to York? No Doubt
York musician Ian J Cole puts aside music for a while to check out two books by York writers
I want to take a slight detour from music in this blog and consider the written word. My very good friend and fellow muso Mr Ryan Shirlow (of Bloody Marys fame) contacted me last summer by sending me one of his very long funny rambling text messages telling me he had spend the previous two years writing a novel.
We swapped a few texts on the subject of the written word, me having just finished writing a music technology dissertation and a book chapter for an academic text book on the usability of virtual learning environments and software design (both only interesting to a very small audience, and more of this later).
The outcome of these exchanges was that Ryan agreed to read my music technology dissertation and I agreed to read his novel. I think I got the better deal.
I started to read Ryan’s book before last Christmas, just after having finished reading Julian ‘from The Press’ Cole‘s (no relation) first novel The Amateur Historian. A historical/modern crime ‘who done it?’ that I liked very much mainly because it was based in the York of 2007 and 1901.
Julian’s book is well written and a bargain that I got for £2 from the Minster Bookshop.
And I was delighted to find out that it was also a signed copy to boot, this saved me a job when I saw Julian at a Christmas Eve party.
Anyway as I started reading Ryan’s book, I didn’t know what to expect. There were similarities with Julian’s book – both were first novels, both have elements of the police and both can be classed as a thriller.
Luckily I loved Ryan’s book which was a relief because I wasn’t looking forward to telling my friend that I hated his pride and joy and that he’d wasted the last two years of his life.
Doubt is a difficult book to explain so I’m not even going to try as this isn’t a book review. I’ll leave that to David Martin, but I can heartily recommend it – see the synopsis below.
I fed back to Ryan some of the things that I thought didn’t quite work, but these were small tweaks. Ryan also got fellow friends Lord Sludge and one of the editors of this esteemed magazine to review the manuscript, and the outcome is a novel that has well written characters that I as a reader really cared about.
And that is a very hard thing to do (read Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow or any Will Self book if you want to read about characters you couldn’t care two figs about).
It seems that the same thing that is happening to the record industry is happening to book publishing. ‘Do it yourself’ is the way forward. Ryan decided to self-publish though the Lulu website instead of farming the novel out to lots of big famous publishers only to get lots of rejection letters.
So go and download Doubt for £1.99 or have it printed on demand for £6.74. Lulu take a cut but Ryan gets to keep the copyright and a percentage of every sale.
Ryan read my music technology dissertation on a long haul flight to America where I’m sure it was very useful as a sedative. As a parting shot the book chapter I’ve written is being published by a large academic publisher in the USA next month. The publisher insisted that all the chapter authors signed over copyright to them.
They will be charging $165 for the book and $30 for anyone wanting to download a PDF chapter – none of this money will find its way to the authors. In fact I’ve now been told that if I want a copy of the book I can buy it for the reduced price of $100 – you can guess what I told them to do with that idea. We live and learn.
- Ian J Cole is currently reading Phillip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Making Tracks: The Rise of Blondie by Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Victor Bockris
First Published 5th July 2012
What!? The band want paying too?
York musician Ian J Cole wonders why it’s OK to pay a plumber – but not local bands
When I first started playing in local bands in the mid 1970s (yes I am that old), the band members I played with were lucky to get paid £10 each and at the time we were happy just to play. Any money for doing something you love was the icing on the cake, or so we thought.
Fast forward to the 2005 when I re-entered the local music scene by joining the then fantastically eccentric folk punk band Ryan Shirlow and the Bloody Marys.
After spending the intervening years playing music as a professional (where the band I played with wouldn’t get out of bed to play music for less than £300 a gig – it was the 1990s), raising a family and running a business before entering the heady world of academia, I was dismayed to find I was still lucky to get paid more than £10 per gig from the local music venues.
Fast forward to today and this is still the same situation. My current band have been in existence since 2008, we’ve played lots of gigs, have been on national TV (although blink and you would have missed us), have been featured on radio stations in the USA, France, Spain and the UK, released one EP on Corporate Records with a full album due for release later in 2012 – and we’re still lucky to come away with any money from a gig.
Why is this so I ask myself? well everyone wants their music for free these days I’m afraid Ian. Oh, OK!!
I’m reminded of the recent tail of a local band’s first headlining gig for a York promoter a few months back. The gig was not well attended and netted the band £28 after they bust a gut trying to promote it. It wasn’t helped by the lack of promotional support from the venue as the gig didn’t feature on their Facebook or Twitter feeds leading up to the night (it was all about the venue’s club nights, and nothing about the bands that were playing that week).
I understand that venues and bookers need to make money to survive but so do local bands. It may not be a musician’s main source of income but bands need to get paid just as much as anyone else, as in my experience the income generated usually goes back into recording and rehearsal rooms costs. Nobody would ask a plumber to work for free so why do people expect musician to play gigs for free?
The only free gigs should be for charity, but it seems even a good cause has it problems. Last year the Musicians’ Union put out the following statement regarding payment for charity gigs:
“It is extremely unfair to put musicians into a situation where they are emotionally blackmailed into working for no fee and are asked to give their services to a good cause.”
I used my last blog to promote the Best of York CD launch which was in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support charity.
The night was very well attended with all of the acts playing for free but it saddened me when Connor Devine (the organiser) informed me that the Basement Bar had insisted on a venue fee and a percentage of the door takings (not very charitable it seems). This is not an isolated incident as we are seeing cases of others getting paid for this type of work while the musicians are not.
Here is a Musician Union statement put out the other day regarding unpaid work for the Queens Jubilee and the Olympics 2012:
“We have been receiving reports of professional musicians being asked to perform for no payment at events connected with either the London Olympics 2012 and / or the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations… Our understanding is that all other sectors involved in putting on these events e.g. security, staging, equipment hire etc are being paid their usual fees but not the musicians. The MU would ask that if you are offered any work around these events, paid or otherwise, that you report the offer to your Regional Office. Furthermore, the MU urges you not to accept any offer of unpaid work.”
It seems the problem of musician getting paid for their work goes back at least four decades, and for many years there seems to have been an exploitation of musicians across the country. Last month I went down to the Analogue to Digital Music Expo in Exeter, Devon and musicians there were saying the same thing: “Plenty of places to play but no one wants to pay us.”
The problem was highlighted by Paul Gray from the Musicians’ Union who said they were trying to get promoters and venues to work together with the bands to share the costs and the profits ‘so everyone makes something’ so there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.
And as a parting shot I am reminded of a radio Leeds interview back in 2006 when a good friend of mine was asked if the his band were prostituting themselves because they were selling a gig on eBay.
My friend answered: “Yes of course we are! We’ll play anywhere if you pay us.”
First Published 24th May 2012
One great cause and 13 fantastic bands
York musician Ian J Cole joins fellow city artist doing their bit for a very good cause
A few months ago I was asked if Katie and the Questions would like to contribute a song to a ‘Best of York Album’ CD that was being put together by a chap called Connor Devine.
The Best of York album is a project that Connor undertook as part of his final year project on a BA music production course at York St John University and his idea was to produce an album that contributes to the local music scene and has all of the profits going towards the Macmillan Cancer Support charity – so a worthy cause indeed.
We decided to record a new song ‘A Perfect Life’ for the project and spent a fun-packed, very cold day in February recording the track with Connor before I took the recordings to my own studio to add keyboard overdubs and final vocals. I then met up with Connor over a coffee last month to hand back the finished recordings for him to mix and master.
I’ve not heard the finished result but I’m sure it will be great judging by the level of expertise Connor has shown us while recording Katie and the Questions.
Over the last few months Connor has managed to get together and record with 13 fantastic local bands which is a brilliant achievement, as trying to get all of the members of Katie and the Questions in one room together is like herding cats.
Others featured on the album include our good friends Suzy Bradley and the Morning After (Katie and the Questions sometimes steal Suzy’s bass player Dave when needed) and Boss Caine. The CD album will be released on April 25 and there will be a launch party the same evening at the City Screen Basement Bar starting at 8pm – so put the date in your diaries.
The line-up for the CD launch party will be:
What the Cat Dragged In
Boss Caine
Suzy Bradley and the Morning After
Katie and the Questions
First Published 13th April 2012
‘He barely registered our existence – which is not good for performer/audience relations’
York composer Ian J Cole is distressed by a musical “performance” which is anything but...
As a musician for more than 35 years, performance is an important facet of what I do. A few weeks ago my wife pointed out that Steven Severin (or plain Steve Bailey as his birth certificate states) was playing a live musical score to the silent film, Vampyr, at the City Screen in York.
Knowing I was both a horror film fan and an exponent of experimental/ambient music, she asked if I wanted to go to this spectacle. I of course said “yes” and promptly booked two tickets.
Vampyr is an amazing 1932 German film (City Screen had it listed as French) that tells the story of the arrival of a young man, Allan Grey, at an inn close to the village of Courtempierre and the strange goings-on thereafter. Although sold to us as a silent film, Vampyr did originally have dialogue, sound effects and a score. I’m not sure why the original dialogue was missing from the Severin-scored version but it was presented to the audience as a silent movie.
The City Screen website described Severin’s score as:
“The unsettling tale of fear and obsession finds its aural counterpart in Severin’s suitably textured score, a synthesised, highly atmospheric soundscape drawing the viewer rhythmically into the oneiric imagery on screen.”
Having read this I was excited and really looking forward to the event, although I did have to look up ‘oneiric’ [‘dreamlike’, dear reader]. I was not familiar with Severin’s music.
Of course, I knew he had been bass player in Siouxsie And The Banshees, a band whose music I had dismissed and disliked, with the exception of the pop song Hong Kong Garden, and an interesting cover of the Beatles’ Dear Prudence. So, after searching for Mr Severin on Spotify I was pleasantly surprised with his solo output, I particularly liked the soundtrack album ‘London Voodoo’ and made a mental note to buy a couple of CDs at the forthcoming performance.
The appointed day arrived; and to set things off correctly my wife and I went for a nice lunch in Plunkets and a gentle saunter to the City Screen for 2.30pm so we could get good seats. Being a musician/composer I wanted to sit in a position where I could watch the film and see how Serverin manipulated the electronics live.
I sat where I could watch Mr Severin’s hands and laptop screen and the main screen. A small man introduced ‘Steven’ to us and we gave him a round of applause. Steven nodded our existence then sat down at his computer and clicked the mouse and the show began. After a few seconds, Steven twiddled a knob on the mixer (making no discernable difference to the audio sound or volume output) and then sat there for 75 minutes looking at a stereo wav file running slowly across his computer screen.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film and, for the most part, liked the score. There were a couple of sections where I didn’t think the music was right for what we were seeing but these were small criticisms.
At the end of the film Mr Severin stood up, nodded to us and walked out of the fire exit where he had walked in some 80 minutes before, without uttering a single word to us.
Here is where I have a big problem, how dare Mr Serverin (nee Bailey) call that a performance? There was no interaction with the audience whatsoever and he barely registered our existence which is not good for performer/audience relations.
It would have been nice for him to say, “Thanks for coming and I’ll spend a couple of minutes taking questions.” But no, he did a runner into the foyer to sign CDs. He might as well have not been there because anyone could have clicked the mouse button to start the show. My wife summed it up by saying “that’s money for old rope isn’t it?” and I have to agree with her.
The interesting thing is that I have to do a similar performance from my latest solo album at the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music in Belfast. Instead of sitting staring at my computer screen, I am planning to do a live mix of one of the compositions with visuals triggered by what I’m mixing; I also intend to spending five minutes at the start talking about the piece of music.
I have been trying to get a choreographed dance sorted out for the performance but it won’t be ready in time. Sonorities are planning to video it and put it on YouTube so you’ll be able to decide for yourself if my approach to this type of laptop performance works.
And finally, a parting shot: the money I had allocated to the couple of CDs I was going to buy from Mr Severin was spent on a Daphne Oram CD and a Bjork CD, the latter a Super Audio Compact Disk, both to be discussed in a future blog.
First Published 1st April 2012
Ian J Cole is a composer, sound designer and producer who splits his time between writing experimental music and being the creative force behind the pop group Katie And The Questions
