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Robbie Robertson – R.I.P.

Time passes, we all get older – and then we die. Today I want to pay a small tribute to Robbie Robertson, the humble Canadian who played a fundamental role in the development of rock music through his association with Bob Dylan and others from the 1960s onwards and who passed on 9th August at the [...]

August 15, 2023 // 0 Comments

Isata Kanneh-Mason & the Proms

The Proms are a welcome and regular feature of the British summer. They are experimental and a platform for new and younger talent but not too woke-ish. Last Sunday I watched on the TV a prom featuring Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky. The virtuoso pianist for the Prokofiev piece [...]

August 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

Don Giovanni/Glyndebourne

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s  Don Giovanni purports to be opera buffa (light comic opera) but there is a dark side: the killing of the Commendatore, father of Don Giovanni’s (Amdrey Zhilikovsky) latest quest Donna Anna (Venera Gimlieva), and the predatory nature of Don Giovanni himself. The [...]

June 25, 2023 // 0 Comments

Mike + The Mechanics at the Guildhall, Portsmouth (28th May)

Last Sunday evening the Mem Sahib and Yours Truly travelled to the Portsmouth Guildhall (capacity 2,500) in order to attend the last concert of the current UK tour of the musical combo known as Mike + The Mechanics. Rusters of a certain age (mine is 71) are unlikely to need it, but for those [...]

May 30, 2023 // 0 Comments

Thoughts on the Royal Coronation

Now that the hubbub has died down and we have an unnecessary and grey bank holiday, here are my random thoughts on the Royal Coronation. I’m no fan of King Charles III, considering him a poor thinker and privileged. Worst he thinks he has the right to impose and inflict his views on us. Thus I [...]

May 8, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Night at the Opera/ Falstaff

Last night I went to see Guisepe Verdi’s final opera Falstaff at the Nice Opera House. He composed it aged 80 with the librettist Arrigo Borti. It’s based upon The Merry Wives of Windsor and the story can be simplified to the efforts of the debauched soldier Sir John Falstaff to seduce two [...]

April 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

Jeff Beck – RIP

Time stops for nobody but sometimes a passing touches upon fond memories and thoughts. The overnight news that guitarist Jeff Beck, 78, had died suddenly after contracting bacterial meningitis has come as a considerable shock. In all forms of popular instrumental music – classical, jazz, [...]

January 12, 2023 // 0 Comments

Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul/Prom Concert

A tribute was paid at a Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall to Aretha Franklin by vocalist Shelea backed by the Jules Backley Orchestra. It was broadcast live on Radio 3 and BBC 4 last night. The obvious difficulty to overcome is that  however good the singer paying the tribute – she is [...]

August 27, 2022 // 0 Comments

On musical tastes and one’s place in time

Over the past week or so – nothing to do with my editorial duties I hasten to add – I have chosen to watch specific items featuring popular (rock) music on the television for my own enlightenment and/or pleasure. I have blogged previously upon my view that, in many respects – whether we like [...]

July 4, 2022 // 0 Comments

Fighting nature is sometimes futile

Given its general mission of providing observations upon modern life from the viewpoint of those of us who happen to be beyond the first flush of youth, it would be strange indeed if – amongst all the inevitable and wondrous advances that science, technology and cultural developments bring [...]

June 12, 2022 // 0 Comments

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