Neat On The Street

The Neat14 arts festival starts on Friday, and to get everyone in the mood, one of the bands that's performing during the next ten days gave a taste of their music to shoppers outside the tourist office near the Old Market Square.

The Balkan Express are playing at Cast Bar next Monday, and quite a few pedestrians had stopped to listen to their tunes. Of course there is always someone out to spoil things, and so one of the many Community Protection officers that patrol the city centre appeared and asked them to stop.  Fortunately on of the Neat14 promotion guys was on hand to explain what was happening.

Rockin' The Night Away

This is Tim Boynton, singer and ace guitarist with local band The Outriders.

He was playing solo tonight at the Lincolnshire Poacher pub on Mansfield Road.

Our main objective was to see our great friend and talented folk singer Dave Mitchell, who was doing a turn, so seeing Tim as well was a bonus.

Michael Rowed A Boat Ashore

St Patrick's Day today, and the contingent of the cities' Irish population were out and about in the Old Market Square following on from the traditional parade from the Forest recreation ground.

As I have seen the parade for a number of years now, I knew what to expect, so I was on the lookout for something different. And different I got!

It's not everyday you see a fishing boat sailing down the road that's carrying musical fishermen. And in keeping with the musical theme, how about Elton John dressed as a nun? Not the real Elton John of course, and not a real nun either. But he was funny, and the audience were laughing at his antics and comic tunes.

Oxjam

Phew, have I had a busy day photographing bands and singers for Beeston's Oxjam music festival. Some sixty bands over twelve hours at ten locations.

Obviously with that many artists, and some appearing at the same time, but at different locations, it was going to be almost impossible to see them all. But I managed to do about twenty.

The three photos that I've put on were all taken in the evening at the former Barton's bus depot, which has now become an arts and crafts venue.

Rebecca King is a young soul singer from London, but lives in Nottingham. This was the first time that I heard her sing. And very good she was too.

I first came into contact with One Boy One Girl's music last October when they won the local music contest called Notts Factor. Since winning it, they have produced an EP, toured extensively and put out some videos which can be seen on YouTube.

I've mentioned Emma Bladon-Jones a few times on here now, since she went in for the Notts Factor competition too. This was her tenth gig of the day, as she had set herself a goal of playing at each of the venues during the length of Oxjam. This feat, which she sucessfully accomplished was being followed by a cameraman from the BBC, who had followed Emma around throughout the day, for an item on Midlands Today.

Music Makes The World Go Round

As you can imagine, being a very keen photographer and practically shooting every day for the past seven years or so, I have built up quite a very large collection of images.  So many in fact, that my Mac's hard drive is now almost full.

So to make some space, I have been partially deleting lots and exporting others to an external hard drive.  It's a long job, but one that desperately needs doing.

As I have been working away through the many folders, I came across this photo that I took last year of  Geordie band The Jar Family. They were playing in Beeston Square as part of the Oxfam music festival, which aims to raise money for Oxfam.

It's quite fortuate me coming across the photo, as it's just been announced by my friends at Oxjam that they will be playing in Beeston again this year, along with about 50 other acts scattered across various pubs, cafes in Beeston and Chilwell, and of course in Beeston Square.

D.I.S.C.O

You may remember a band that I mentioned last year called the Disco Prophets. They are a local group that play well known disco songs from the 1970s and 80s.

They went quiet for a while, but I have been in regular contact with their leader Rupert, who I knew when we were both children in London. He said that he's had a change of line up and got rid of the horn section.

So as a first outing and warm up gig for a charity night next week, they played at a pub in town for an hour or so. The Disco Prophets usually have a male singer as well called 'The Soul Panther' but as they didn't have one at that point, Fay, a singer from another band was borrowed for the evening. And very good she was too. Singing songs that were around probably before she was born.

They also had a new bass guitarist called Heather, who is Paul the keyboard player's partner. She was also excellent, thumping away on an instrument that was nearly as big as she is.

It was a great gig, and I think the smallish audience enjoyed their unique take on all those hits from all those years ago

I Have A Dream

There are quite a few bands that I would have loved to have seen live; Kate Bush, Pink Floyd and ABBA, to name a few.

Due to stage fright, I don't think Kate Bush will ever tour again. She's only ever done one, and that was in 1979.  With the death of keyboard player Richard Wright and ongoing animosity amongst the remaining members, we are probably not going to see another Pink Floyd tour in the foreseeable future.

So that leaves ABBA. And as Agnetha Faltskog (the blonde) has more or less become a recluse, and Anni-frid (the brunette) is not interested in pursuing a singing career anymore, there is no chance of them recording again. Even after newspaper reports once said that they were offered a huge sum of money to perform for some Arab billionaire.

So we have to make do with tribute bands. And I saw a very good one yesterday at the Armed Forces event at the Embankment. Here are some shots of the individual members that make up Arrival UK. And very good they were too. They soon had the open air audience dancing on the grass and singing along to those oh so familiar tunes.

Dancing The Night Away

The Old Dance School are a Birmingham based folk group that Gail and I went to see tonight at a venue that we'd not been to before.

Well, when I say not been to before, I'm not being completely honest, as we have been to the Lakeside Arts Centre in Highfields many times, but we have never been to their theatre. So it was a first tonight.

I happen to be thumbing through their brochure at the weekend, as I was having a bit of a sort out, and saw the advert for the concert. As I had never heard of the band before, I had a look to see if there was anything about them on YouTube. And of course there was. Some videos of their shows and promotional stuff. So I played a few tracks.

Gail said that she liked what she was hearing, so I said that they were here on Wednesday & did she want to go. "Why not" she replied, so I had a look on the Lakeside's website, to see if there were any tickets left. There were, so I booked two for the second row.

When we got there, one of the ushers showed us to our seats. Shen then noticed that there were two empty ones on the front row. "Do you want to sit here" she enquired. OK, thanks, we replied. And so settled in ready for the show to begin.

They were very good too. There is seven in the band, including a guy called Aaron who played the trumpet. Which to be honest, did spoil some of the songs, as it sounded a bit out of place. The two fiddle players Helen & Samantha were wonderful, so too was Laura who was on woodwind and vocals. She also chatted to the audience, and amusingly told us that she had opened a shop selling band CDs and tee shirts at bargain prices. The rest of the band; Tom the drummer, Adam on double bass and Robin the lead singer and guitarist really helped to gel the group together and made for a very enjoyable evening.

Here's a LINK to their website, so you can see and hear for yourself.

The 'N' Factor

                                                                                                                                                 1Girl 1Boy

    Band Of Jackals                                                                                                                   

Music was definitely in the air tonight as Alice Cooper was playing a concert at the Royal Centre. I thought about going, but the tickets were £36, and besides a couple of songs, I don't really know any of his back catalogue.

So instead I went to see the final of 'Notts Factor', a talent contest for local musicians. It was free entry, but contributions of £3 for Framework were encouraged. I happily paid that, as the charity helps homeless people.

There were ten acts all vying for the winners position. The prizes included £500 cash, an interview on local radio, a photoshoot and help with recording their songs.

There was a good selection of artists; several acoustic guitarists, folk band that included a cello, and a couple of rock bands. The acts had the opportunity of playing two songs each, and were then judged by a panel of four people, which included one of the bosses of the Playhouse and another local musician.

In the end the judges found it impossible to pick one artist, so they decided to award a second place prize. This went to Band of Jackals; a high energy rock band, and my favourite of the night, as they worked well together and the guitarist on the left was amazing.

1Girl 1Boy won after much deliberation. They sounded a bit like Portished. Quite melodic, but dark songs. it will be interesting to see how all the acts fair in the near future.

Lying Down On The Job

Today is of course Wednesday and so it is time for the Headbanger Challenge.

It was postponed from last week as Stewart was away; although he posted, and I wasn't able to spare the time to participate, due to previous engagements. So we are doing it this week. I chose the theme and I went for advertising.

Promotional material is all around us, informing us of special offers, buy this, buy that. Some of it is very clever and artistic, whilst other material is stupid, poorly conceived and looks completely out of touch with the 21st century.
We all have our favourite TV adverts from when we were younger. Mine was the Cadbury Smash aliens. Creatures from a far distant planet telling us that making your own mashed potato was very primitive and the way forward was granules.

So what to show. The latest travel posters, buses carrying advertising or something a bit different. I tried to find two posters next to each other whose straplines go well together; such as "Eat chocolate every day" "Makes you run for the hills". That sort of thing.

Instead I've gone for a bit of self promotion. Well not me personally, but the wit and wisdom of the late Brian Clough. He was the manager of Nottingham Forest Football Club in the 1970s and early 80s, and saw them win various trophies every year. Unlike now as they languish in the first division. He was a bit of a character and this T Shirt is advertising his most famous quote. They are available from the tourist office which is under the Council House, should you wish to buy one. Mmm, I'm doing a bit of advertising for them now!

Do have a look at the gangs' pages and what they have found to show you. And do enjoy this bit of music which was used on an old British Airways advert.

Gail and I went to a street party close to where we live on Monday. It was great to be invited, as it was on a street that we don't really use that much. We were made welcome and chatted to perfect strangers for a few hours. We both took our cameras to record the adventure. Here's a shot of Gail lying on the ground, so she could get a better shot of an impromptu band that were playing to us all. One of the members is our neighbour, who owns the old yellow Citroen van that I showed you all a year or so ago.

Music in the Sunshine

Something unusual happened yesterday; the sun came out nearly all day & it didn't rain. This group of musicians in Beeston Square were obviously relieved, as they could play to an audience, rather than empty chairs. Their outfits also matched the sunny day.

Fanfare for the Common Man

While Princess Anne was being entertained by the Lord Mayor, the public were being entertained by these military musicians. Their red uniforms brought a bit of colour to what was a cold & dull day.