Bought a couple of CDs from FOPP - Art Blakey's 2CD set "Meet You At The Jazz Corner of the World"- recorded live at Birdland in September 1960 and featuring Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt.
It was originally released on record as Volumes 1 and 2, so to get both sets for £7 was a bargain indeed. There are some questions over the recording quality but I think it's just fine as a live document of a great band at its prime....
And for a measly £3 I picked up "Neil Young's Greatest Hits". OK I know NY has had perhaps just one bona fide hit during his almost 40 year career ("Heart of Gold") but, to be fair, the disc does say "based on original record sales, airplay and known downloads" - so watch out for CBQ's greatest hits soon based on the same criteria....not
I probably have all the tracks already but the set has been remastered from the original master tapes and has a clarity to it which is missing from previous compilations like the 2CD set, "Decade"....
Mr Young's disc sat alongside Prince's last album and David Bowie's "Reality", both also going for just £3. Now, both those albums (and indeed NY's GH) were touted by the critics as being pretty good....
So what happens here? Does the record company just make too many copies, overestimating the extent to which the public will be swayed by plaudits in the music press and so the overpressing ends up at FOPP who somehow buy up all the leftovers for 50p a disc each??
Whatever the cause, it means bargains for me from time to time...
Back home and , as usual, Meg runs out to meet me - saying something like "Miaow miaow"...
In the evening I pick up Jamie from his house, where he lets me hear some of his latest recordings, two new self penned songs and a nice cover of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World"...
His daughter, Madison, and her friends are impressed with the way the handle works on the boot of my car, pronouncing it "cool"....here are those arbiters of taste....
We head out to Penicuik where we learn one last song to complete his set for Sunday, then run through all the tracks trying to iron out any bugs as quickly as possible.
By 9:15, we're finished the first stop-start run through and I want to perhaps go through it again but Jamie wants to go back to town to catch Jim Park's show near the Castle - so we leave Andy to continue rehearsing along to the "Live at the Roxy" disc and give ourselves 25 minutes to get back to Edinburgh, find a parking space and get to the venue....Neil Young provides the soundtrack...
We make it with about 30 seconds to spare.
OK, the show, "Park's Circus" (at the Roman Eagle Lodge, Johnson Terrace, 9:55 £6) is not up to the standard of seasoned professionals like Richard Herring and Dara O'Briain (who, let's face it have been doing the Fringe for years) but it certainly has its moments and it's good to see Jim doing a 20 minute set - the longest I've seen him perform.
All four comedians hold their own before a difficult-to-win-over crowd, including Jamie and me in the front row...
Jim's managed to get a couple of groups of colleagues/ex-colleagues from Standard Life and Royal Bank in so it's fairly full but the majority of the audience doesn't seem to get the comedy...
Notwithstanding this, Jamie and I had a few good laughs at the material and enjoyed a drink with Jim afterwards in the nearby Castle Arms...
Then I took Jamie home and arrived back just after midnight and to bed listening to Art Blakey on the walkman...
2 comments:
Fair comment on the show Dave. It has become clear during the show's run that large groups of people who work in IT departments do not make the most responsive comedy audiences. They've been hard work, and our inexperience has shown when we're forced to deal with tricky audiences.
It's like we need a "Plan B" to cope with this and gee them up a bit. You know, have a few custard pies backstage, and also have a little car that we can drive onstage and the doors fall off...! that sort of thing....:-)
Jim - your comment had me laughing out loud - which is great cos I'm feeling under the weather at present - personally, Jamie and I really enjoyed your show. It's a conundrum - getting bums on seats id good but they must also be the "correct" bums for what you're doing.
Glad to hear the midnight show went downa storm at the Holyrood Tavern..
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