Hello Brummies, Brummies Abroad, and especially Birminghams beat musicians of the 60's.
FENDER METEORA PLAYER PLUS
What a beauty!
I have oft found myself of the opinion that Fender guitar design started very well with two iconic guitars, The Stratocaster and the Telecaster, then had lived on the Fender name because, frankly, their designs from then on were mediocre at best, totally lacking in imagination. The Jaguar lacked soul, it was too clean sounding which is strange because it had a panoply of controls but no amount of twiddling produced anything other than the same clunky sound. I played Gibsons at the time and one night one of the tuners broke. The support band's guitarist kindly gave me his Jaguar to use while our roadie fixed the tuner. The difference between the warmth and/or aggressive tones of my SG compared to the Jaguar was staggering, in the negative sense.
The horrible Mustang and Coronado were just as bad. Since then, Fender launched many ranges of their two main models with slightly different model names or signature models but nothing really new at all.
As a very young kid I had stood, open mouthed, staring at the first Stratocaster in Birmingham. It was inside a glass case at Jones and Crossland music shop and looked like something from outer space with a Sunburst paint finish that was glorious beyond imagination in those early years. Since then, Fender had never managed to dedicate the time for great design aesthetics or forward thinking. It was more profitable to flood the market with cheap versions of the Strat under the Squier or Affinity label.
I was enormously pleased to see and hear Fenders latest mainstream model, the incredibly stylish METEORA!! I was hooked from the moment I saw it and at last Fender have installed two Fireball Humbuckers as standard and have also adopted a push/ pull pot similar to the Yamaha SG to enable its arsenal of fantastic sounds. This guitar's design flows, its sexy, its aggressive and growls at you but purrs along nicely with rich clean tones too.
The guitar comes in various colours but for me the nicest option is the Sunburst Player plus. Such a beautiful paint job. You can pre order from Andertons music Store for the sum of £859.00, it comes with a gig bag too. If I had the money this would soon be in my hands inspiring me to greater heights. So, thank you Fender I am beginning to drool, I guess I'd better start saving.
PLATINUM JUBILEE CONCERT
Here we go again! It only seems like yesterday that the Queen held her 2012 jubilee concert outside Buckingham Palace with a panoply of some great artists and some who frankly, stunk. Well this coming June it's happening again and I thought it timely to republish my last review of that day as an aid to the people whose job it is to assemble the artist line up, just to help prevent repetitive errors and here it is:
THE JUBILEE CONCERT 2012
"It became pretty evident that some of the Jubilee Concert was really the corporate arm of the 'X Factor' franchise on a day out which meant we had to suffer some poo, and didn't we just? But wait a minute.....there were some great people on too weren't there? Well everybody who was a star in the 60's was still a star of that concert and performed like the REAL performers they are. But as for today's pop heroes
CHERYL COLE (Nee Tweedy).
It has to be said that Cheryl Cole (nee Tweedy) was in a class of her own for this concert and in some ways it was her re-launch onto the world scene, having been dumped by the Americans a year ago, so she had something to prove. Her publicity machine had conveniently brushed aside the recent controversy about her miming when appearing on the hit TV Show, 'The Voice", which is a show for singers apparently?
Some people said "She can't sing" and you know what, they're absolutely spot on!! but surely, she must be more than just a pretty little geordie?..... hang on, she was definitely taller than the Queen!!....that's something isnt it?
It's a good job the Queen didn't ask her about her dress either, a calculated publicity grabbing headline would surely have filled the Daily Rags to say she was wearing a dress designed by EWA MINGE..I thought that was a Saturday night game for consenting adults? and as for little Gary Barlow, now this might be a tad critical but "Gary I'd get another tailor" - I mean he must have been pissed out of his head when he went for a fitting cos his jacket had to be held together with a chain!! It didn't even cover his stomach, he was probably thinking "Well I'll slim down into it" and didn't quite make it.
Anyway, when Cheryl Cole's (nee Tweedy) duet with Gary started, she opened her mouth, and out came the sort of discordant noise that I have only heard once before from a sick Himalayan Yak. I was moved to comment to Mrs Bob that it could be another one of those Bananarama 'harmonies' but was proved wrong as she continued her 'avoidance of melody' technique. She wasn't a million miles away from the Bananas but was definitely worse than the sick Yak.
Gary Barlow's face was magic, there was this fleeting moment of horror as he heard those first notes. He looked in her direction, (probably expecting to see a Yak?) and I bet he was thinking "What the ****?, I was hoping for a Knighthood for this?". Sir Gazza of Boybandland.
I could clearly hear the sound techie, who by the way was shit all through the concert, piling on the effects board to try and salvage what could only be described as a vocal Kamikaze dive into a sea of useless crap. As I watched this dire performance I was reminded of the mantra given to me by my old Indian cave-dwelling guru - "You can't polish a turd".
This is the face of music in our times my friends, concocted, orchestrated publicity machine and AUTOTUNE. It was the only time I can think of being envious of the deaf, she probably sounded OK on sub titles. Her manager, Will-i-am came to her rescue though with a host of flatties himself during his performance and then pathetically struggling to sing with the incredible Stevie Wonder. The Queen who wore ear plugs throughout the concert was seen mouthing, - "Is it over yet?, "Right then, I particularly loved the Yak impersonater, how novel! time for tea and Knighthoods" - "Not you Barlow!".
2022 UPDATE
Since 2012 Cheryl Cole ( nee Tweedy) has had another two surname changes and has now reverted to being a Tweedy. Apart from that....who cares? So organisers, it's now 2022.... I just can't wait.
WEST SIDE STORY 2
In the late 50's/s 60's, the nation was still in love with film musicals and the songs from those movies made it into the British Charts week after week for a certain time. The absolute cream of those musicals was the phenomenal West Side Story released in Feb 1962 in the UK. My mum dragged me along to see it, I was 13 and definitely didn't want to go, however, after the viewing I was hooked by the sheer brilliance of the cinematography, musical score and dazzling choreography although I am no dancer. Everything about it was incredible apart from the awful mis-casting of Richard Beymer as Tony.
Elvis had been offered the part of Tony but manager Colonel Tom Parker told him not to do it because he didnt want him to be associated with gangs. I don't think Elvis would have been a good choice either but thought it worth mentioning.
It was the same story with which they took liberties, changed scenes and songs around. In 1961, the intimacy and energy of Rita Moreno oozing sexuality with The Sharks dancing on the roof to "America" is a moment of Cinematic history that can't be bettered and it certainly wasn't. The new version doesnt have the dance on the roof.
