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Which Premier League Football Club Should You Support?

A helpful flow chart (above) to help you choose the appropriate club for you. I'm a new West Bromich Albion fan.

Via Salut Sunderland

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25th Feb 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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June Tabor and Oysterband

Chichester Festival Theatre

West Sussex based organisation “Roots around the World” have organised a music festival "The Britfolk Footprint" as part of their efforts to promote both new and established artists. This was the headline evening of the festival with veterans June Tabor and Oysterband top of the bill. Their act was largely based around their two collaborative albums, the folk rock classic "Freedom and Rain" and their current much acclaimed "Ragged Kingdom".

The performance got off to the best possible start with the rousing traditional "Bonny Bunch Of Roses" modified to blend folk diva Tabor's smooth and melodious voice with the stomping backing of the Oysterband. However it was not all folk based music as they worked their way through PJ Harvey’s "That Was My Veil", Dylan’s "Seven Curses", Joy Division’s "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and an excellent duet between Tabor and John Jones of the soul classic "Dark End of the Street". The finishing number was the powerfully delivered Jefferson Airplane 60’s classic "White Rabbit".

On the 8th February, the artists scooped four awards at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including Best Singer, Best Group and Best Album (Ragged Kingdom), making our attendance very timely.

The support acts for the evening were provided by talented and gimmick free English folk trio "Pilgrim’s Way", and singer guitarist Sean Taylor.

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13th Feb 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Wassail

Poole Lighthouse

This concert included some of Dorset’s finest musicians - The New Scorpion Band, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Purbeck Village Quire and the St. Osmund Singers. They blended magnificently to produce a great evening of everything that is traditional about Christmas.

The Scorpions are a group of musician/composers – several of whom regularly perform at the Globe Theatre - who sing and play unamplified music using a wide variety of historical instruments. However, amplification was hardly necessary with the full BSO behind them and they produced a varied and very enjoyable selection of music and verse. Highlights were Sans Day Carol and the Dorset Mummers’ Play whilst the BSO excelled with Warlock’s Bethlehem Down and Vaughan Williams’ English Folksong Suite.

This conceptual concert started at the Lighthouse in 2010 and returned by popular request, whilst now also expanding to a tour with new venues in Bristol and Portsmouth. Look out for further expansion in the years ahead.

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18th Dec 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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June Tabor & The Oyster Band

Ragged Kingdom

Check Bonny Bunch of Roses, Dark End of the Street and more. \#Puskas


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4th Dec 2011

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John Mayall

Poole Lighthouse

This was our second John Mayall concert - the first was in 1967 (UCL Union); so only a wait of 44 years in between. In that time John, who remains one of the godfathers of British blues, has made many albums, lived a life of constant touring and launched the careers of many rock & blues legends - Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor and John McVey to name but a few.

This was the 6th night of a 25 date British tour that ends 18th November. The band retains a traditional line up of Rocky Athas - lead guitar, Greg Rzab - bass guitar, Jay Davenport - drums. Remarkably, Mayall did all the vocals, played keyboard and/or harmonica on all numbers apart from one, when he played guitar - not bad for a 77 year old!

The programme consisted of many standard rhythm and blues pieces, which were all played at a high technical level with a lot of feeling. Particularly memorable were “All Your Love” and “Parchment Farm” from the Blues Breakers (the Beano) Album.

Supporting act was from the Oli Brown Band.

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3rd Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Jeff Beck

BIC, Bournemouth

This was the opening night of guitar maestro Jeff Beck’s UK tour, with his last date 26 October at the Royal Albert Hall. He was fronting a three-piece band of percussion, bass and keyboards. Bassist Rhonda Smith did limited vocals, but the majority of the programme was not surprisingly instrumental to allow Beck to show off his technical virtuosity. Jeff doesn’t talk much; so don’t expect introductions, except to the other members of the band.

The numbers oscillated in a balanced way between jazz funk and lyrical anthems such as Beck’s Bolero and (amazingly) Nessun Dorma. Best of all was his acclaimed grammy winning version of A Day in The Life, where he recreates the varying moods of the piece through his brilliant playing. It was a little disappointing not to hear more work from his early blues-rock era, but this has clearly been superseded by works from his more recent albums.

The support act on the show was Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. Shorty (Troy Andrews) plays not only trombone but is equally at home on trumpet and vocals with a mixture of jazz of all types. Virtuoso solos and a brilliant rhythm section made for an excellent opening act.

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22nd Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Hair Care

.....just came in from a dust storm.

 

.....beards freshly washed for Essen, Germany.

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23rd Apr 2008 - 9 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Jethro Tull

Bournemouth Pavillion

April 16th, 2008

Jethro Tull are on the UK leg of their 40th anniversary tour. In fact, it appears that they have been toured for every one of those 40 years, with a back-catalogue that has grown to include a mix of jazz-fusion, R&B, folk rock and heavy metal, leaving no shortage of things to play. Two members remain from the early days – founder, front man, folk rock guru and general good guy Ian Anderson, looking like the Pirate King meets Fagin, and lead guitar hero Martin Barre. Unfortunately they have a bit of a problem with Ian’s voice - which was never the strongest - and is now in some difficulty with the higher notes. Their solution is to play plenty of the early jazz flute based numbers; invite a young guest vocalist to help with the tricky ones; concentrate on the anthems and pump up the volume.

This they did to good effect, finishing with their greatest hits Thick As A Brick, Aqualung and the always excellent Locomotive Breath.

“Too Old to Rock and Roll; Too Young to Die”? – don’t believe a word of it.

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18th Apr 2008 - 5 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra

Bournemouth International Centre

Jools and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra are in mid-U.K. tour. They now total nineteen performers with the addition of his brother Christopher on Hammond organ. Tour guest artists are Lulu and Ruby Turner.

The band went through a wide range of numbers from boogie-woogie to blues to big band and back, to great effect. Each member is a star, able to lead pieces, which they all did superbly. One of the best was the ska and reggae trombonist and vocalist, 73-year-old Rico Rodriguez.

Lulu still looks absolutely great, which was just as well as most of the ladies in the audience were of similar age, and were clearly there to check her out. Luckily, she still sings well too, including the obligatory Shout. However, she faced stiff competition from Ruby Turner – she of the phenomenally powerful blues voice, honed over the years boosting many a fading rock star. Her rendition of the Otis Redding classic Try A Little Tenderness was superb.

However, the star of the show is inevitably Jools himself. He compered proceedings with his usual wit and charm, but he remains at his best with his effortless piano renditions of boogie-woogie – and ever other type of rhythm music you care to mention. My parents were fans of the great Fats Waller and always used to amuse me with the comment “Just listen to that left hand”. After this concert, I now know exactly what they meant.

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23rd Dec 2007 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

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