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As promised, here are a few of the pictures from the Leonard Cohen show last Sunday.

It was amazing to see him holding the flowers that Paula is holding in the first shot, a very memorable touch to a perfect evening. God Bless you Leonard Cohen.

I am still not quite the same since Sunday. To say that I witnessed a momentous event in my life is a meagre understatement. To attempt to convey exactly what emotions were felt and the elation that was experienced is almost impossible. If I could verbalise it, believe me, I would. It would not serve justice however, as I am greatly aware of the possibility of vulgarising the affair through poor description. When one writes in an instance of high emotion, the tendency to slip into cliché and overused terminology presents itself to a much greater extent than when covering topics of a lesser degree.

Finding our seats for the Leonard Cohen show last Sunday evening June 15^th, we could not believe our eyes. It has been approximately a dozen years since I fell for Cohen’s music. I never actually thought that I would get to see him in concert at all, so what emerged as our location for the evening took us by extreme surprise. Taking precedence over the sheer joy of being at the venue, finding ourselves in the second row, dead centre, about ten feet from the stage, in a crowd of over 10,000 people, was an exhilarating feeling to say the least.

Although initially apprehensive about the presence of Damien Rice as a support act, he had the good sense not to outstay his welcome. A total of five songs were played lasting approximately twenty minutes, interspersed with some genuinely kind and honourable statements on the privilege that had been bestowed on him by just being there. Whilst the cynic in me would normally dismiss this as both sanctimonious and sycophantic, there was a clear impression that he was quite moved to be sharing a stage with a man who had made an indelible impression on his life. That is the beauty of Cohen. There are very few casual fans of his work, it permeates the mind and resonates in the soul and no one is ever quite the same after hearing him.

Within seconds of appearing onstage acknowledging us as his friends and launching into “Dance Me to the End of Love”, a song that most artists could only dream of to have as an encore piece, the entire crowd were mesmerised. Cohen, dressed immaculately, put to rest all queries concerning his vocal ability at the age of 73. Each note rang with perfect diction and tone, his voice sounding so confident, so at ease and perfected. It is unimaginable just how charismatic and gentle he is, until witnessed up close. Accompanied by Sharon Robinson and English folk duo, The Webb Sisters, who did beautiful renditions during the significant female led sections of key songs such as “First We Take Manhattan”, “If It Be Your Will” and “Everybody Knows”

Cohen removed his hat after almost every song in gratitude and admiration to both his musicians, singers and to the audience itself. This reflected greatly how much of a gentleman (and complete ladies man) he really is. Thousands of women were transfixed and quite clearly fell in love right there.

Being Ireland, it took less than an hour for the wind to rise and the heavens to open. The rain was merciless and unforgiving, making for a spectacular atmosphere as “Anthem” kept us focused on what was really important. Soaked through completely, it did not matter one bit, as our spirits were being lifted far beyond any state of physical discomfort. The choice of songs was infallible, encompassing his entire career, with alternate takes and interpretations, the pitch perfect band and the flawless sound all made this an altogether enchanting experience. To sit so close and see someone whom you hold so dear and personal, is a truly spellbinding thing. For the most it felt dreamlike, especially so when the sun came out simultaneously with the beginning of “Hallelujah” and the rains finally ceased.

Smiling throughout, impassionedly delivering each line with a sincerity and force like no other, Leonard Cohen seemed delighted to be sharing the joy with all of us. Light, it seems has found its way into his life and just as we shared in his sorrows for so many years, he seems now to want us to share in his peace.

After it seemed to be over, I was reliably informed that three hours had passed by whilst Leonard had been onstage. Checking my watch I found this to be true. I had expected a running time of possibly ninety minutes, so, to be given a show of such length and magnitude, which contained such momentum and consistency, is one that will remain unparalleled for some time to come.

My wife and I had such a special evening; it was the first time that we got to use our beautiful new Sony DSCH9, which I can highly recommend as the best lightweight camera for gig photography! We took over 200 shots and are currently working thorough them all so I will post a selection a little later on. We have some truly amazing pictures to share with you. Paula threw up a bunch of flowers that we had brought along, one of the Webb sisters caught them and placed them in front of Leonard, who picked them up, gave thanks and took them backstage with him. It was a truly exciting and personal memento for us to have. I am in two minds, I have a yearning to see him again, yet the memory and circumstance of this night were so unbelievably perfect that I don’t feel that I could ever replicate it again.

In such an often harsh, generally toilsome and unforgiving life, there are rare moments of unspoilt beauty and joy. I have had a few of these, and I can happily count this night as one of them. There was a pure and genuinely moving atmosphere and once again, Leonard Cohen has helped me to believe in love.

The setlist for the night was as follows.

1. Dance Me to the End of Love
2. The Future
3. Ain’t No Cure for Love
4. Bird on a Wire
5. Everybody Knows
6. In My Secret Life
7. Who By Fire
8. Heart with No Companion

Intermission

9. Anthem
10. Tower of Song
11. Suzanne
12. The Gypsy Wife
13. Boogie Street
14. Hallelujah
15. Democracy
16. I’m Your Man
17. A Thousand Kisses Deep – poem

First Encore

18. Take This Waltz
19. So Long, Marianne
20. First We Take Manhattan

Second Encore

21. That Don’t Make It Junk
22. If It Be Your Will
23. Closing Time

Third Encore

24. I Tried to Leave You

The final song was an acappella, sung by Leonard & the whole band, with Mr Larson playing hammond organ.

Photos to follow.

I have been rooting out new music for myself these last few weeks. Having removed myself from the merciless grip of music retail, an older and purer love has once again returned to me. Exciement and enthusiasm that cannot be exstinguished or clouded by the opinions and views of others. As enlightened and as forward thinking as we like to beleive we all are, nothing will put you off a band quicker than when the music nazi’s start telling you why you should like them. So, here are three of the tracks that are getting the most play on my pc over the last few days. First up, “Peacebone” by Baltimore based Animal Collective (Check out side project by Panda Bear also), this is from 2007′s Strawberry Jam album and a new EP Water Curses, has just been released. One of the best videos that I have seen in ages.

Secondly, here’s Wild Beasts, with their ace track, Devil’s Crayon, which I like quite a lot. The video bored me at first and then I got to like it after several viewings, finally admitting that the animation was actually pretty good after all.

Next up, The Teenagers, with an absolutely fantastic (realistic) summer romance track called Homecoming, with one of the best choruses I’ve heard all year. The album is damn cool, damn cool. http://www.theteenagers.net/

Enjoy, any suggestions for similar acts I may not know are always welcome. Wordy blog to follow later.

It’s no real surprise to anyone who knows me even vaguely, that most things Tom Waits related will interest me a great deal. Even through the almost insufferable recent canonisation of Waits as a referential artist, in that by referencing him, you have attained some form of intellectual status. There is nothing more exasperating than listening to some ill informed, pretentious analogy of work which you are not only already familiar, but hold quite dear as well.

Still, this is not going to become a diatribe vetted against the worrying number of Tom Waits fans who make me want to inflict personal harm upon their Topshop Trilby wearing persons. Having missed the point anyway, we shall leave them be for now and allow them to live in their misguided, self important, wankery ways.

More importantly, without resorting to Michael Eavis levels of fluid samples, dna testing, retinal scans and various other forms of internal investigation to even get in the running for an application form to apply for a ticket to one of his concerts, Tom Waits seems to have found a worryingly simple resolve to the problem.

Commencing his first world tour in a long, long time, Tom Waits has made it clear from the start that he disapproves of the current system in which people can get horribly fleeced for tickets on sites like eBay and by touts at the events themselves. In an attempt to stop this, he has made one rule clear for anybody purchasing tickets for any of the upcoming dates.

The person, who buys the ticket, goes to the show. Whoever uses their credit card to purchase the tickets must be the person attending. Photo ID must be shown alongside the credit card which the tickets were purchased on. They are allowed to buy only two tickets, the name of the guest need not be supplied.

The fact that he even managed to get Satan’s Own Ticketmaster to bow down to these stipulations is a show of great strength and integrity, missing from so many factors in the world of big name concerts. This way, no tickets will be showing up on eBay or outside the shows because if the name does not correspond, entry will not be allowed.

As I was trying for tickets to several of the upcoming shows, I saw that the system was the same throughout Europe, the one exception being the Czech ticket site, were it appeared that you could only buy one ticket per registered user. A little harsh methinks. Still, with the rest of the countries allowing two per person, this made things a little easier.

It is such a simple system, the two ticket limit, the production of relevant ID. It will have its critics, however, I feel that it is fair and just and gives fans a fighting chance to get to see their favourite artists without having to subsidise the finances of eBay touts who make an absolute fortune by bulk buying tickets to all major events.

…it’s bloody not. I have many things to do today, this is not going to plan. It’s as dark as twilight, the rain and wind are intertwining themselves in some uninviting looking dance mid air, there’s a grumbling thunder, yet the breeze coming through the doors is a pleasant one. A necessary one, to eradicate the heavy odour that hangs around the room this morning, a mixture of alcohol and food and stale smoke. Tasty.

I think that, whilst I was on a rather strict regime of mental self improvement recently, I have slacked just a little of late. It is probably to do with the fact that I am returning to college in two weeks and will be spending the majority of the summer in full time education whilst waiting tables at night and trying to write a masterpiece in the meantime. Hah! I accept your challenge; I will also flaunt any predisposed narration guidelines and continue to jabber in this fragmented manner.

As anyone who reads my nonsense with any regularity will know, I do occasionally shift drastically from consideration of personal situations, to random stories and thinly veiled opinions on various media output. Blog’s are supposed to be our generation’s diaries. Well, that’s kind of a load of bollocks really, because blogs are nothing like diaries, in that you are composing them with the direct intention of having someone else read them. It would be like keeping a large, leather bound book with a massive opened padlock on the front, leaving it discarded upon tables in and around café’s and whatever other formal or informal meeting places normal people go to and declaring in a loud voice; “Oh dear, I have just left my diary here, I do hope that while I am away for the next few moments, that nobody reads my innermost thoughts, desires and secrets.”

If you did this, you would be a contrived prick. Now, please don’t misinterpret my words and take this as an attack on those sensitive souls who pour their heart, soul and tears into their online musings. One just needs to remember that no matter how candid one may get whilst writing in this manner, subconsciously, at some level, you know bloody rightly that you’re writing this for someone else to read. By that rationale, you are not being truly honest, because you are going to be manipulating the way in which the words are formed to draw emotion from whomever should read it; be it sympathy, appreciation, understanding, empathy, hatred or just simply attention. Everyone writes these things for a reason.

I have finally, started a proper journal. Any previous efforts were written and destroyed a long time ago. Maybe the option of having a selective narrative to post occasionally has reignited some form of literary confidence, more importantly, an honesty. For, maybe in the last few years, I have become more confident in vocalizing a fraction of the things that plague my mind constantly. I am obsessed with society, with human behaviour and interaction, with how drastically we have changed as people in such a short space of time and the effects of all this. This will come as no shock to anyone; I have pondered these ideas before and will do again. My main point being, that whilst there is not a complete level of honesty present in the domain of blogs and internet writing, I feel that even having the option of that selective output is a wonderful thing. As we all decline in to a mass pit of stupidity and drooling, any way to evoke thought amongst that is a powerful tool. It has most certainly given me more options to categorise my thoughts, to unload some of the incessant jargon that spins through my mind and free up some space for legitimate contemplation.

If I do write less about myself directly from now on, you will know why. I am not stating that I wish to depersonalize my writing in any way, just that I may write less on the direct subject of self. To do so would seem both arrogant and fickle. The world may share ideals opinions and interests with you, but that does not mean that they want to hear about every bad day that you have or every time you’re feeling a little peaked. It confuses the boundaries and dilutes the integrity of the work.

I am greatly aware that I have started down several paths of thought on this subject and have not concluded on any, this is intentional in that, there is no real conclusion to draw, this is merely opinion, one man’s idea’s and thoughts put down for the world to share. Put down, with the intention of sharing. Personal thoughts, yes. Thoughts, however that have been notated to be shared and therefore will have gone through some form of internal censorship.

Any thoughts?

In keeping with the standard practice of meeting their quota’s in the easiest ways possible (Motoring tickets, arresting people for having miniscule amounts of weed, etc) and generally, not actually being of any use whatsoever, should you happen to be stabbed, robbed or bum raped. Police have confirmed that they have arrested six UK residents in connection with posting pre-release albums on the now defunct, BitTorrent associated, OINK website.

Three of the arrests were made on Friday May 23rd, the others on Wednesday 28th May.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland police was unable to provide details of which specific criminal law or laws the six are under suspicion of breaking.

This is disconcerting, for the fact that this is the direct result of further investigation of the Oink case from last October. Alan Ellis, a 24 year old IT worker from Middlesbrough was raided by Police in a joint effort with the Dutch authorities. Whom apparently don’t approve of this sort of thing.

On Friday 30th May, the file sharing site Torrentfreak posted more details of the arrests. It states that those arrested did not know Alan Ellis and that they have been ordered to part with all necessary information in relation to the site, including passwords.

“Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act can be used by police to force suspects to disclose encryption keys and passwords. Failure to comply with with a section 49 order carries a prison sentence of up to five years.”

At the time of the shutdown, investigators took over the OiNK.cd domain, posting a warning to the site’s users. It said: “A criminal investigation continues into the identities and activities of the site’s users.” Many BitTorrent users had believed further arrests were unlikely. They were, however, wrong.

Oink was a very highly praised site, featuring excellent quality downloads, an extensive back catalogue and a horde of pre release material. These factors which made it so appealing to so many users, unfortunately made it the primary target for record industry’s, anti-piracy investigators.

Whilst a Cleveland (UK) Police spokesperson could not provide details as to which specific laws the arrested persons are accused of breaching. It is also unclear if they are being targeted for releasing material from specific major labels.

The only comment issued on the arrests so far has been the usual fare from the BPI;

“The BPI and IFPI worked with the police in order to close down the OiNK tracker site last October. The illegal online distribution of music, particularly pre-release, is hugely damaging, and as OiNK was the biggest source for pre-releases at the time we moved to shut it down. We provided the information to assist this investigation, but this is now a police matter and we are unable to comment further at this stage.”

There is an unsettling element to this story. It would appear that information from “Invite Only” file sharing sites is being passed around and that now, the authorities are going to take pot shots at users who trade primarily in major label releases. How dare you take money away from those poor major labels. You complete and utter bastard you.

Yarrrrgggghhhhhh. I like pirates.

Torch songs, chamber music (Torture Chamber anyone?) regardless of what it is referred to, there has been an ever growing amount of deathly, epic, highly romanticised acts of late. In the wake of the success of Antony Hegarty and Rufus Wainwright, a small surge of similar and associated acts began to gain exposure. Some were worthwhile, some less so. From appearing on albums by both the aforementioned artists, the extra press certainly didn’t hinder Joan Wasser, in her quizzically titled group, Joan As Police Woman.

Their first release “Real Life”, from 2006 was a real treat of a record. Varied, sparse and a little damaged, it left a definite impression on those who allowed it the time to explain itself. Multiple listens did nothing to detract from the enjoyment that this record brought. The quality was backed up by some amazing performances on an extensive tour that took them through most locations twice before they finished up to record album number two.

This brings us to the release of “To Survive”. Which is an entirely different affair altogether. It begins with “Honor Wishes”, which is musically, quite similar to one of Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert compositions, simplistic and emotionally descriptive, something that was prevalent in her earlier work. “Holiday” is pleasant, yet wholly unmemorable, a highly polished version of previous singles. “To be Loved” is quite beautiful and reminiscent of her tragic lover, Jeff Buckley, sounding like a lost recording from the “My Sweetheart The Drunk” sessions.

From here on in, it is my great disappointment to report, that the album descends greatly, interest is replaced with apathy and boredom begins to set in. From an artist who has proved herself both original and distinctive, there is very little here to separate her from the legions of mediocre female vocalists adored by those who like to watch Jools Holland and work in marketing and middle management.

If however, you do work in middle management, pretend to know about wine and hold dinner parties for networking purposes, this may just be the album that you are looking for. It is so highly polished and bland that it couldn’t really offend anyone, which makes it equally difficult to be so damning. This combined with the fact that I am exceptionally fond of her as an artist; it was a great shame to find out that this record could easily be placed between someone’s Norah Jones and Katie Melua albums.

There is nothing even remotely upbeat contained on this record, which is strange given the power behind such songs as “Cristobel” or “Eternal Flame”. The production sounds oddly dated and cushioned. Everything is awfully safe, the vocals fitting just a little too perfectly with the stripped down backing tracks. The other musicians becoming less and less relevant as the album goes on.

It is the easiest thing in the world to criticise a sophomore offering and make unfair comparisons to a highly regarded debut. This made it hard to be overly critical, however, if you can listen to an album by an artist whom you respect and still feel that it is awful, then there must be something wrong.

Difficult listening and seemingly lengthy for a forty five minute record, it never offers the listener anything appealing to counteract the overall feeling that this could have all been a lot better.  Like Tori Amos B-Sides. Don’t bother.