Nerds and Geeks

You don't just have to be a techie to be a nerd or geek, although many are. Just today for instance I was reading that the UK's version of the coronavirus track and trace app didn't work that well and they'd abandoned it in favour of the one jointly developed by Apple and Google. I don't know about anyone else but derrrrr. I did wonder at the outset why the UK government would bother trying to outdo the nerds and geeks from two of the biggest and in my view best tech companies going. It was always going to be an uphill battle but I'm glad at least they've now seen the light. What was it Churchill said about the Americans? He said you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing.... after they've tried everything else first. Sounds about right for the UK too.

Just this week we had some friends over for lunch (first time since the lockdown was eased) and somehow the conversation got around to accountants (spoiler alert I have an accounting qualification). Apparently they are all OCD (I think that's the correct acronym but in any event it means Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which is just about what our friend meant). Our friend therefore asked me if I am OCD. Tricky question actually. If I said no, any subsequent display of anything approaching compulsive behaviour would be highlighted no doubt. If I said yes, it would simply prove the point. Of course I said no... just before I wiped the kitchen counter 5 or 6 times. 

That isn't why I started this post though. I have been watching lots of You Tube videos in the past few lockdown weeks. What a choice! I started out searching for interesting things but quickly homed in on the daily broadcast from 10 Downing Street (I know, quite painful at times), some history podcasts about WWI in the main, but mostly live music from the bands and artists from the 60's and 70's that I like. It has become something of a compulsion for me now.... there I have acknowledged it... but what a wonderful journey.

I don't know how it has happened but as I type I am watching a 3 hour special celebrating the 25th anniversary of the death of Rory Gallagher. 

Not a well known name I know but Rory was a fantastic guitarist. I remember watching him many times in the 1970's and he was always great. He was one of those guys who had no idea or interest about the business, just about playing. He was very good indeed. This special has some people playing who I have never heard of and they are also really good. It made me think that you have to be really lucky to make it in that industry. Skill alone just does not cut it. But how on earth did I get here watching this?

It came about because I also found several channels on You Tube from people who assemble these wondrous clips and in some cases long segments of live concerts from the 1960's and 1970's ... the era that I listen to. I imagine there is the same for other interests and times. One guy I have now subscribed to has dozens of such long segments on his channel and only a couple of days ago I started looking at the dates when he/she put them together. Many were at random dates over the last 3-4 years but a growing number are coming every other day now. Clearly someone else has lots of time on their hands too! The fact that one of the segments I watched yesterday with Janis Joplin, Cream and Pink Floyd was premiered only 3 days before and had been watched by 20,000+ people already says lots I think. 

Not just me then.

Outtakes

Its been a little while now since Desert Trip.  Back home in Bermuda we had 2 hurricanes that knocked out power temporarily but most annoyingly the internet which is why I hadn't posted the photos before now -- apologies for that.  However the time has provided perspective.

It isn't very likely that three of the greatest bands of all time (Macca, Stones, Who) will ever play on the same bill again.  Macca is 75 like Dylan whose set I panned but whom I really did want to see just in case.  For who will take the place of these guys in the future?  I just don't see it.  Likely my parents said the same thing as I did but I just don't see Katy Perry or Justin Bieber in the same frame as these guys much in the same way as there wasn't much of anyone to compete with Mozart and Beethoven, genii of a different era.

Viv and I had a blast, no question about that and for that thanks do go to Stu who emailed me when we were in Amalfi in May about the tickets.  

Biggest thrill was being there and seeing these legends.  Biggest annoyance was... really well nothing.  OK Dylan was a pain in the ass but whatever, he's deserved it.  His songs and back catalogue are some of the best ever.  I was listening to the Eagles Greatest Hits in the car today and thought realistically their first 3 albums was just about all they did.  The rest was top 10 singles and Hotel California.  How can that compete with Dylan's 50 year career?  OK his voice was terrible as was his attitude but he rearranged everything whilst towards the end the Eagles just replicated the studio albums.  

At the time I thought The Who were the best act of the six and I still haven't changed my mind on that. What I like the most is the way all of them continuously keep doing something different, even Macca.  Their back catalogues in each case are beyond formidable.  None need the money or prestige.  I really hope they are doing this because they like it and they want to give pleasure to the fans that have supported them for 50 years.  Thing is of all of them I don't believe Roger Waters is in that category even though I and many others like me have paid him really well over the years for the privilege of getting his political views rammed down my throat.  Why isn't it that entertainers just realise we love what you do, just don't give us your opinions.  They probably aren't the same as mine.  I made the choice with your music but not your opinions. I just don't care what you think.

Trouble with this is that people like me are gullible and predictable.  I met a guy years ago that managed a British band called Tears for Fears.  I asked him why he and people like him didn't canvass people like me for my opinions.  He told me that I was a given.  I loved music and would do whatever I needed to to get it, listen to it and own it.  It was was to people who didn't love music that he was appealing to.  That really annoyed me but from his perspective, he's right.  Why waste time on someone like me who will always buy the records and go to the concerts?  It's the guys that don't are the ones he wants to convert.

Aaaagghh!  Isn't that irritating?

At times like this I tend to listen to music to solve my problems and make me understand.  This is 'Careful with that axe, Eugene'.  Once you listen to it, you'll understand.

 

Pigs Can Fly

The final show of the Desert Trip spectacular was Roger Waters' new Pink Floyd tribute band delving deep into the repertoire and bringing out a monster show... spiced of course with plenty of political angst.

RW was effectively kicked out of the Pink Floyd because he became overbearingly focused on war and alienation from his audience.  His dad had been killed at Anzio in WWII and he forever dug it up from about Wish You Were Here onwards.  The madness and alienation bit came I suppose from PF founder member Syd Barrett and was taken onwards to the point where RW combined the two in The Wall -- building a wall between the band and audience.  I'd seen RW's production of The Wall in 2011 on a couple of occasions and the political posturing and nonsense almost overturned the terrific show and one thing I do have to say is that his shows were/are/will be terrific.

As a random choice, here is the original band doing Green is the Colour, a lovely tune from More.

I'd seen the PF for the first time in I think 1972 or 1973 at the Empire Pool Wembley, a concert the music reviewers of the time really had little positive to say other than talk about Dave Gilmour's split ends ("for goodness sake, he could have washed his hair at least") but like so many others I didn't care about any of that, I just thought the music was fantastic -- this show was Dark Side and earlier tunes finishing with an immense version of Echoes.  Later shows I went to showcased the 3 core tunes that made up Wish You Were Here and Animals and of course all the later shows too up to and including The Wall when really annoyingly I lost by damn ticket a couple of days before the show at Earls Court and found it 2 days later!!  Aaagh!  Cost me 3 quid as well.

So all this said, I am a big fan.  I don't much care that they all fell out and went their own separate ways.  I also don't much care if they subsequently said they thought Atom Heart Mother and Umma Gumma were terrible albums too -- I loved them both as most likely did their army of fans many of whom were at Desert Trip tonight.  It was the music I was there for and not the other nonsense and I think that was what all real fans felt.

I was reading an article the other day that related that at the Live8 show when the originals reunited briefly that the PF were the only band to not be specifically announced.  The pulsing sound of 'Speak to Me' was all that was needed.  So it was here at Desert Trip although it was accompanied by a light and sound show...

The big question was what would the setlist look like?  How much attention would be paid to Rick Wright, the keyboard player, who RW fired for not pulling his weight given that it was very much Rick Wright's keyboard noodlings that started it all off back in the late 1960's?

Homage to the original Fab 5 -- including Syd, briefly

The answer was in the setlist and what a setlist it was.

1. Speak to me
2. Breathe
3. Set the controls for the heart of the sun
4. Time
5. Great gig in the sky
6. Money
7. Us and them
8. Fearless (Whoa!)
9. Shine on you crazy diamond
10. Welcome to the machine
11. Have a cigar
12. Wish you were here
13. Pigs on the wing
14. Dogs
15. Pigs
16. The happiest days of our lives
17. Another brick in the wall
18. Mother
19. Run like hell
20. Brain Damage
21. Eclipse
22. Poem by RW (that didn’t rhyme)
23. Vera
24. Bring the boys back home
25. Comfortably numb

Essentially 3/4 of the set was laced with keyboard intense stuff that Rick Wright was so good at which was very nice to see and hear.  I was really happy to hear Set the Controls played live and also surprised to see Fearless -- not one I expected at all.  This setlist was copied from Setlist.com but I don't think it is completely correct as I am pretty sure they also played One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You Into Little Pieces, an instrumental off Meddle.  But maybe that was my faulty memory.

For the Animals section, the backdrop was an awesome version of Battersea Power Station and the famous pig flew that night too (not the next week apparently as it was too windy) with a happy little honorific for Donald Trump painted on the side.  From this part on the politics stuff started.

The image of Battersea Power Station was fantastic.  One of the reviews didn't know what that industrial building was and had to be informed by a PF nerd... such is the quality of journalism these days.

Here comes the pig!

As I said before I'm not a fan of all that nonsense.  Why stuff your views down other people's throats... particularly when you are not a citizen of that country too?  Why should I care what you do and don't believe?  Why should you take this forum when the audience have paid a total fortune for their tickets to drone on and on and on about something that bugs you... particularly since in return you want to build a wall between yourself and your audience and thereby prevent them from reciprocating?  That's incredibly arrogant and presumptuous, but having said that the pig was pretty cool! And the music was great.  Not too much improvisation though. 

It was a long show and given that the Who started earlier than expected around 6.15 pm, this was another late one!  

I did say 'Cool Pig' earlier, didn't I?  Great show though.

As a footnote, since returning home all I have been listening to is The Who and PF in all their various incarnations!

How could they open?

I don't think its possible to say you have a soft spot for The Who as they aren't that kind of band.  They are an in your face, 'Yer What?' kind of band.  As soft and cuddly as a crocodile really doesn't cut it but whatever expression it is, I do like them.  I like them a lot.  I'd bought tickets for their New York show last year at Madison Square Garden which they cancelled as Roger Daltrey had meningitis as given that he represents 50% of the remaining original members above ground, that particular show could not go on.  However they had taken the $7 million on offer to appear at Desert Trip and were placed on the final day -- so far so good -- but they were to open for Roger Waters and his Pink Floyd wannabes!!

The Who don't open for anyone!

Really?  These guys opening for someone else...???

Back in 1968, the Rolling Stones invited a bunch of different musicians and bands to their great Rock and Roll Circus.  Nobody wanted to follow The Who.  Same with Hendrix at Monterey in 1967 who supposedly tossed a coin with the Who to see who would go on first.  The Who went on first and the performance that followed included the famous stage destruction during "My Generation" which prompted Jimi to use lighter fluid on his favourite Fender Stratocaster later on.  (Take a look at the boys and Jimi in action below.  It's the disbelieving faces of the love children in the audience that get me!).

Amazing what you can do in 3 minutes!

Now that's pyrotechnics!

However I suppose that Roger Waters' show would be heavy on the lighting and effects so would be more likely to need darkness than the Who.... which was the case.

Pete said in between tunes that this was one of the most amazingly beautiful sights he'd seen on stage... and he wasn't talking about us old codgers but the lovely sunset

1. I can’t explain
2. The Seeker
3. Who are you?
4. The kids are alright
5. I can see for miles
6. My g-g-g-generation
7. Behind blue eyes
8. Bargain
9. Join together
10. You better, you bet
11. 5.15
12. I’m one
13. The rock
14. Love, reign o’er me
15. Eminence front
16. Amazing journey
17. Sparks
18. The acid queen
19. Pinball wizard
20. I’m Free with segue into the usual ending bits
21. Baba O’Riley
22. Won’t get fooled again

The setlist was of course a cracker!  All the big ones.  Lots of Who's Next, Quadrophenia and Tommy which was nice.  Rog's voice hung in well and Pete was his usual engaging self.  The reviews of the night were big on the political commentary during the evening, but that wasn't the Who.  It was Roger Waters later on.  All Pete said was "Interesting election campaign you're having".  Scarcely deep political commentary.  In England this is called irony!

Love the Quadrophenia film at the back.  Viv and I had walked along the top of Beachy Head last year.  Great view, wonderful music, terrific movie too. OK you need to be a Who fan ...

What a show though!  The Stones, Neil Young and Macca all had segments during which they improvised and improvised beautifully.  Pete did the same in this set showing that you don't have to faithfully reproduce what happens on the album to make a show great.  It has been a few years since I've seen the Who and I think that it is either my memory playing tricks or that they have held up remarkably well and in my book take #1 spot for performance of the week (I know I haven't written my blog yet on RW's set but whilst it was terrific, it wasn't as good as this one).

Backdrops for Behind Blue Eyes and Love Reign O'er Me

And of course they didn't do an encore.  They never do.  At least this audience wasn't as disappointed as the Charlton audience in 1974 when after 10 minutes of screaming, every can and bottle consumed that day by the 90,000+ attendees was thrown on stage.  Different time and place of course.

The team.  One old guy, one popsie and a young gun!  The Who were THE BEST!! Don't believe anyone else.

Poets, deserts and mumbling... but not necessarily in that order

It has been a week or so since I returned home from Palm Springs and the Desert Trip series of concerts.  I had meant to write brief blogs whilst I was away so they would be fresher and in the old pre-iPad days I would have.  Then, I would have lugged my half brick lap top and would have dutifully clacked out the blog post.  Today with an iPad the weight of a feather, it is a lesson in self hair pulling out to write anything more than 10 words even with a remote keyboard which makes the entire purpose redundant in the first place.  Certainly at times it makes me wonder why I bothered giving up a laptop.

But grumpiness and age related tech issues aside, the delay has also given me some chance to reflect on these gargantuan shows. 

The location was amazingly large -- one or many polo fields in one of the many Palm Springs cities I think called either Coachella or Indio.  I saw both names used interchangeably so am not too sure.  The space was flat and felt nearly as big as Bermuda.  The grass was that really fine stuff rather like my hair these days that dies twice a year and needs to be replanted (apparently this is so in this part of the world where it has not rained probably since the 19th century).  They sold 80,000 tickets so it was full but as I noted (i.e. droned on at length) at one of the Knebworth shows where Led Zeppelin played, 375,000 were supposed to have attended and the space was nowhere near as big as this (as with other Knebworth shows I attended, I lost my friends early on and burrowed under the mixing booth so had a great view and good sound). Here as technology has moved on, everything is perfect.

The line up was great too: Bob Dylan to open for the Rolling Stones on Day 1, Neil Young doing the same for Paul Macartney on Day 2 and The Who opening (what!!) for Roger Waters' current line up of Pink Floyd impersonators to close on Day 3.  I'd never seen Dylan so hoped for the best even though I knew that it was in the hands of whatever deities you chose which Dylan turned up; the engaged one or the mumbling tramp.  I hoped it wasn't the latter.

Mind you the tickets were eye wateringly expensive and our mate Stu who'd organized had bought us near, front and centre tickets to maximize this particular pain on top of which the booking agents added a further 20% for our convenience!  Not that there was any other way of buying tickets other than through these bandits.

The seats were good though and I was particularly happy to see that my age at least was not out of the norm.  Happily there were families as well so all ages were covered but the default hair colour was definitely grey.  A nice touch was the large area set aside for those little buggies that people drive around in when they get old, I can't think of the name of them but that's where the lack of mobility crowd hung out.  Good to see them there too.

Apparently the acts were paid $7 million for their particular night's work and one sage informed me that Led Zep had been offered $14 million for a one off which Messrs. Page and Plant rebuffed -- they still are not speaking apparently.  So this would be one heck of a payday for these guys and I therefore wondered idly how many people would be on any particular stage.  Roger Waters of course would have an army of players, people, lights and props whilst others may simply roll up in a pair of jeans to maximize the payday.

We walked around the arena before one of the shows when it was light still and I think it could easily have been 1 mile from one side to the stage, maybe more.  So no hope of seeing the artists perform then without the help of the monster screens dotted around everywhere.  And of course all the artists would be cognizant of this and would therefore do all they could to maximize the paying public's enjoyment of the event, wouldn't they?

Well sadly no, not everyone anyway.  Enter the new Nobel laureate Bob Dylan.

Apparently Bob had a clause in his contract such that his image would NOT be shown on any screens but for the first 15 or so minutes of his set -- he came on over an hour late -- nobody realized this as the screens showed black and white films of the great man from all ages during his career, young and now old.  Then the films moved to repeated 10 minute loops of some unnamed and unremarkable subject that even we who could see at least the tops of the heads of the band, had no idea about.  And the music itself?

Sounds like a great set list and it certainly would have been had we been lucky enough to recognise any of the tunes from the midst of presumably the great man's mumbling.  As we could not see who it was and he made no effort to engage the audience, it was difficult to know whether it was him or some random guy who mumbled into the microphone for a bet.

This is from the early part of the set before the movie was turned off

However the media saw it a different way. I'm not necessarily picking on the NYT but these are there words.  I bet the reviewer didn't have to pay for his ticket.  If he had, he may have had a different opinion!





I am impressed how the reviewer can write like this.  I have no ability at description of this kind that makes what has transpired vivid to the imagination and interesting.  I realize I am a fact reporter and not much else but one thing about facts is that they are... well facts.  At no point was the set upbeat.  In fact I feel more like the singer in "Lovesick", betrayed and devastated.  However the bar of expectation was set very low to begin with so what else should I have expected?

This is what the people at the back missed