Random Image for the week - Cranes

These cranes are long gone... There is a big shiny building there now. Nonetheless, I liked the way they loomed above the greenery.

Random Image for the week - Snow!

And of course it's snow. Well this is the most snow we've seen in decades around here, so of course it's the topic uppermost on everyone's mind.

Snapped this out of the kitchen this morning with my phone (so actually it's not even a very good photo - don't get me started on Camera Phones!)

But, well, I couldn't just ignore the whole snow thing. So I'm going to be working from home, (Isn't the internet great?) because half the councils seem to be running out of road salt/grit, and snow-plows are a thing of myth around here, which means that whereas in most parts of the world that get snow, this  level of snow would be a minor inconvenience, here in England its a Big Deal.  (And given the fact that anyone under 30 with a drivers license has probably never driven in the stuff, I'd rather not be out there mixing it with them!)

Keith Emerson and Marc Bonilla on Japanese TV

Keyboard legend and one of my personal musical heros Keith Emerson has a new album out (well it actually came out towards the end of last year - I've only just got around to writing about it!) called Keith Emerson Band Featuring Marc Bonilla

Keith and Marc are currently galavanting around the globe promoting the album doing acoustic duet slots wherever they can.  Like this one on Japanese TV:

Keith Emerson & Marc Bonilla(Live)
Uploaded by wonders465

What I like about these duets is that without all the techon-wizardry of a full band and lightshow they really have the ability to shine as musicians.  Keith is obviously having the time of his life playing music with Marc.

And long may it continue

This week's random image

This one is a picture I snapped while walking though a local business centre.  Colours turned out really weird, but somehow it has a really surreal look that I quite like.

Making Music in a hotel room

The picture above is a Behringer U-Control UMA25s.  It was a Christmas present from my wife, and it's awfully good fun.  I know, I hear you saying," but it's Behringer, aren't they a bit naff?"

Well I just don't care.  this thing is light (around 2Kg) happily sits in the bottom of an overnight bag, has a stereo USB audio interface built in, comes with a headset mic and headphone combo, and hooked up to the macbook is a great low latency audio interface and midi keyboard for getting those ideas dow when they hit you.

Coupled with Garage Band (which I have only ever considered a toy up until now) and it is an ideal songwriting sketchpad.  Long lonely hotel room business trip nights are now, officially a thing of the past.  As I type, I'm sitting in my regulation hotel fluffy dressing gown, after a couple of hours noodling, and the best part of a new song in hand.  Sure better than the usual slow death by  CNN/MTV.

Oh, and as an added bonus, it comes with a guitar strap, so after the serious business of composing, you can wig out like Rick Wakeman doing widdly-widdly keyboard shreds.

Happy, happy happy...

Random Image from my iPhoto library

In what might become a regular feature... Here is a random image from my iPhoto library.

This week it's Ayres Rock in Australia, taken from the air.  Pretty, isn't it?

Took it from the front of a helicopter back in October when we visited the Ayres Rock resort as part of our month long Australian adventure

Went to London

We spent the weekend in London, which was a nice change.

We didn't see the Queen, and it was cold.

On the plus side I got to play with my HD camcorder, we ate in Gary Rhodes new place Rhodes W1 Brasserie which was splendid and if you are a foodie of any kind, well worth seeking out.

We also visited the Rothco Exhibition at Tate Modern which was excellent.

So now I need a weekend to get over the weekend.

Welcome Back my Friends, to the show that seemed to end.

It's a new year so I thought I'd have another go at this blogging malarkey.

Whether it will last... who knows. But anyway, here goes.

Apropos the title of this little segment: Some of you if you are of a certain age might remember the age of musical over-indulgence with as much fondness as me. Back in 1973 those rather good musicians Messers Emerson, Lake and Palmer took their seminal prog masterpiece Brain Salad Surgery on the road. The album 'Welcome Back My Friends, to the Show that Never Ends, Ladies and Gentlemen: Emerson Lake and Palmer' (A title that rather trips off the tongue!) records this tour for posterity. And pretty darn good stuff it is too.

For the time, this tour was a bit of a pioneer. They were the first band to create a full stage set that could be rigged, taken down and moved to the next location.

It was so big that their road crew needed three trucks to move it around. And boy have they taken stick for that ever since. 'They needed a HUGE truck EACH.'

But, Come on. How many trucks do you think it takes to move Madonna's shows or U2's shows or even Kylie's shows around. 6? 8? 10? more? some of these shows are enormous logistics exercises, often requiring two or three complete stage sets leapfrogging each other across Europe or the US, and yet nobody that I can remember has ever labeled them ostentatious overblown or dinosaurs.

But perhaps, for those of us who still yearn for music that delves just a little bit deeper, is prepared to take the odd risk with a time signature or a song that lasts longer than 3 minutes and might showcase the talent of the musicians, 2009 might be the year that Progressive Rock - that non-genre that has been reserved for the ire of pretty much all serious musical press for the last 30 years - quietly sheds it's 30 year uncool label.

The BBC devoted an entire series to the subject over Christmas. Prog Rock Britannia which flawed as it was, at least has maybe started some people actually talking about the subject in other than derogatory tones.

Only time will tell, but there are loads of bands out there carrying the torch for musical experimentation and the internet means that even middle aged gits like me can bring some of their meanderings to the attention of anyone who is interested enough to look, and listen.

Perhaps I should find myself a spangly cape.