Birthday Presents

[rhythmaning]

It was my birthday recently - well, three months ago.

Yesterday, I received three birthday presents from my brother.

These were a couple of CD reissues - Ken Hyder's Talisker's "Dreaming of Glenisla", and the Chris McGregor Group's "Very Urgent" - together with a DVD set of The Wire a tv series set in Baltimore. (Whilst I know that my brother will have sent me this because, when in the States, he lives near Baltimore and once talked of moving there, I can't help thinking he maybe thought it was actually back issues of a jazz magazine I used to read, edited by the late Richard Cook, or maybe even a post-punk band I must once have seen...).

The Talisker CD is very interesting. I remember my brother having this on vinyl when it first came out in the early seventies, and hating it. Really hating it. My tastes have changed; now, I love it: a mix of jazz improvisation and Scottish themes, more experimental and less ceilidh than John Rae's Celtic Feet, more jazz and less folky than Colin Steele's Stramash

So good they named a whisky after it...

Comments

Gong

[(Anonymous)]

Incidentally, I saw Gong last Sunday at the Forum Kentish Town. Really good but absolutely totally packed out; I was hoping to be the only person there. Worryingly, I still seemed to be the oldest person there. The audience was strangely "chav", not the middle class hippy type I'd expected, although millions seemed to be wearing "Camambert Electrique" T shirts (not me).

Good gig, but when I saw them in 1997 (sans Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, and with Didier Malherbe rather than Theo Travis) I think they were better. Mind you, Miquette Giraudy is rather attractive.....

Must buy their CDs - I only have collections rather than the originals.

Also another case of the premature death of a drummer.

HH

Re: Gong

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I was thinking I might like to pick up Camembert Electrique.

Talisker

[(Anonymous)]

I just came in and someone drew this to my attention.

It seems that the album needed 30 years to mature, because it's got better reviews this time round.

Your comments made me smile.

So I'm going to pour myself a wee malt. Talisker.

Thanks,

Ken Hyder

Re: Talisker

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Ken,

Thanks for your comment. I thought I ought to point out that when I first heard the record in the seventies, I was a young teenager enthralled by Hawkwind and Emerson, Lake and Palmer - my tastes have changed a lot since then!

And a thirty year old Talisker is a rare thing indeed!