SIDETRACKS & DETOURS JUNE 2025 occasional series
SIDETRACKS AND DETOURS
an occasional publication owned and published
by Norman Warwick
Sunday 15th June 2025
CONTENTS
Karla Harris by Norman Warwick
Emily Masser Jazz In Reading
Freddie Benedict Jazz In Reading
Island Life On Lanzarote by Norman Warwick
Island Life On Jersey by Warwick Lever
Manchester Museum by Norman Warwick
The Portrait Players by Graham Marshall
Peter Hook And The Light by Norman Warwick
Steely Dan & session players by Peter Pearson
Radio Whispers by Norman Warwick
Rest In Peace Catherine Coward by Norman Warwick
KARLA HARRIS:
Documentary Premiere,
Heroes Award: Nomination
New Album: MERGE will emerge soon !
by Norman Warwick
There was a press release / newsletter that dropped into the sidetracks and detours in-box this week that immediately lifted the spirits of management and staff. It is always a great feeling when a favourite musical artist announces an imminent release of a a new album, so when Karla Harris told us the news you can read below we were all happy, as her previous album from two or three years ago, Moon To Gold, remains on our daily office playlist. We are sure MERGE will soon be sitting alongside it.
However, even more good news accompanied the announcement
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERS!
KARLA, a short documentary produced by South Fulton Arts, premiered at events in two Atlanta theatres earlier this year.
Karla Harris obviously enjoyed the process of creating a biographical short film.
Being part of this project was such an amazing gift! she says.
Using interviews, concert footage, community outreach clips, and some special scenes, filmmaker Elisee Junior St. Preux created this 16-minute film that, at its heart, is a message of the power of intention and how childhood make-believe can fuel grownup dreams.
Karla adds We are delighted to share with you here first because the film is now available for viewing on my YouTube channel. I’d be honoured if you’d watch, and if you enjoy please give it a “like” and share (and subscribing helps, too :)). Thank you!
HEROES AWARD NOMINATION.
On April 2, Karla learned she was one of 29 individuals selected by the Jazz Journalists Association for their 2025 Jazz Heroes recognition. This annual recognition of “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz” highlights individuals from across North America. What an unexpected honour!
The nomination reads as follows.
´Since making her home in Atlanta, Georgia in 2012, Karla Harris has emerged as a vital force within the jazz community, showcasing her exceptional talents as a vocalist, educator, songwriter and bandleader. With a rich career spanning three decades, Harris’s journey through diverse jazz scenes — from the cozy lounges of Portland, Oregon to the picturesque towns of Provence, France — has enchanted audiences and fellow musicians alike.
Before her transition to Atlanta’s jazz scene, the singer established herself in the Pacific Northwest. Renowned for its dynamic jazz scene, Portland provided a fertile ground for Karla to cultivate her artistry. She quickly gained recognition and became a sought-after performer at various events, including the Sarasota Jazz Festival, Portland Jazz Festival, Oregon Coast Jazz Party, Nantucket Arts Festival and the Atlanta Jazz Party. She’s given a TED Talk, and has three albums to her name, with a fourth on the way.
But Karla’s dedication to jazz extends far beyond performance — her contributions to music education are equally impressive. An artist-in-residence in the Jazz Studies department at Kennesaw State University, she teaches Applied Vocal Jazz, instilling in her students a love for this uniquely American art form and nurturing the next generation of jazz musicians by passing down the heritage and traditions that have shaped the genre. Furthermore, recognizing the importance of early musical education, Karla co-created a children’s music education curriculum entitled The Land-of-Music, aiming to introduce young minds to the joys of music and the intricacies of jazz.
In 2022, Karla embarked on a transformative Jazz Road summer tour through North Carolina and South Carolina, supported by a grant from the South Arts Foundation. In 2024, she was honoured with Atlanta Magazine’s “Women Making a Mark” award for her impactful contributions to jazz education outreach. Her Jazz Discovery Series is a noteworthy outreach program that offers a hands-on learning experience for students ranging from grade school to adults. Karla teaches the technical aspects of jazz while also such emphasizes essential qualities as cooperation, creativity, collaboration, communication, camaraderie, trust and respect.
Karla Harris’s dedication to performance, education, mentorship and community engagement makes her an inspirational figure in the Atlanta jazz scene. She continues to innovate and inspire, so her influence on jazz and the next generation of musicians is sure to resonate in Atlanta for years to come.
— J. Scott Fugate
Jazz Evangelist
- the complete list of fellow nominees is carried on Karla´s web site.
New album¨, MERGE, releasing in six weeks!
I’m excited to tell you about MERGE, my fifth album, which just wrapped´, says Karla.
Making a CD is equal parts arduous and exhilarating, and we’ve been working on this one since early 2024. Co-producer/pianist Tyrone Jackson and I took a deep dive into arranging these songs, mixing influences and blurring genres to find a sound that feels honest and leans contemporary. It’s a full-on soulful embrace entwining the diverse styles of music I grew up with. Many songs will be familiar, and include some favorite standards (Gershwin, Lerner and Loewe, Cole Porter…) and classic R&B tunes I’ve loved (think Al Green, Isley Brothers, Bobby Caldwell…). And I’m also thrilled to share that there are three new original songs on the project!
MERGE by Karla Harris
mixing influences and blurring genres
review by Norman Warwick
The late John Stewart, the writer of Daydream Believer for The Monkees pop group, and the beautiful Strange Rivers for the folk singer Joan Baez, as well as two Billboard country chart toppers, Runaway Train and To Dance With The Tiger recorded by Roseanne Cash, started his career with his own folk music ensemble before writing for, and subsequently joining as a full time member, The Kingston Trio. Despite, or maybe because of, that pedigree he almost shouted his desire to be a rock star.
He succeeded in that field, too. His two best-selling albums featured the Buckingham Nicks partnership that was such an essential part of the era of Rumours from Fleetwood Mac.
The reason John´s music remains so ubiquitous on my playlists is that he is a versatile listener, a canny adapter and whilst his hundreds of self composed tracks and the scores of covers always immediately present a recognisable John Stewart whether identified by beautifully slinky guitar riffs, irresistible beats, great vocal tone and phrasing, all attributes that could be attached to Karla Harris. It should also be said that both Karla and John Stewart pick from, and plant seeds, in so many genres signalling why each of these two artists always sound authentic in their work.
I think the random thoughts above were shooting around my mind like Distant Stars when I first heard Karla´s last album, Moon To Gold. On that album, she re-adapted the song Blue Moon back into the jazz genre, with the help of the wonderful instrumentation of The Joe Alterman Trio. There were several examples of some older jazz sounds on that album too and the whole of the long-playing record reminded us that the genre of jazz both gives and takes from its musical fellows.
The wonderful Merge album, of whfich I have been privileged to hear a pre-release copy, has now helped me to articulate the two paragraphs above: like all my heroes, Karla remains true to herself, whether exploring, experimenting or exhorting.
The Webster´s dictionary definition of the word Merge gives its meaning as being to combine, or cause to combine, or to coalesce. The album, Merge, delivers precise evidence, given by Karla Harris, that shows the words jazz and merge to be very nearly synonymous throughout the thirteen tracks on this splendoured album.
Let´s take a few sidetracks and detours down the tracks to see why I am so excited by this forthcoming release of Merge.
1 WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE
The album opens with a song that most of our readers will recognise in What Is This Thing Called Love? The song enters with an infectious few bars of double bass, joined quietly and patiently by some rim percussion that is then also joined by the light fingered pianist to form a strong platform upon which Karla stands to sing the piece.
Cole Porter, the composer of the song he wrote intending it for a musical Wake Up And Dream, has no reason to scream, Melanie like, ¨look what they´ve done to my song ma´.
Each time Karla sings the title line she asks the question in a slightly different way. She is at once entranced by love, welcoming to love, afraid to love, suspicious of its effects upon our emotions, and yet is also unable to ignore love.
These are age old questions, thoroughly examined by the lyrics and melody and revealed by a singer capable of taking a song apart and putting it back together in perfect condition.
2 MERGE
Many years ago I became obsessed with theories about where truth lies and was determined to write a song of that title. It eluded me then and it eludes me still.
Karla, however, has written the perfect title song for this album. Her lyric details how shades can distance and dim or can gather and glow and she goes on to discuss other forms of merging,…. she therefore calls up ´the legacies of ancestries, of different hues´. This lyric is poetry of a Toni Morrison Beloved tone, read under a swirling and swinging jazz tree.
The lyrics of the song “Merge” describe the personal background of the songwriter, Karla Harris. They allude to her bi-racial ethnicity, the influences of family from both city and rural life, and the variety of music she grew up listening to as a kid in the suburbs of St. Louis – jazz, pop, R&B and rock. The vocal solo later in the song plays with her influences, and you can hear brief melodic quotes from “Good Morning Heartache” (Billie Holiday) and “Magic Man” (Heart).
3 FOR THE LOVE OF YOU
Karla delivers a superb vocal over an instrumental outfit fully deserving of such a gift. There is a piano riff not too distant a cousin of That´s Just The Way It Is (in the country genre) by Bruce Hornby and The Range. The song needs to belted out, so heartfelt is its lyric, and Karla belts it out without ever losing the melody. When we speak of love, how many of us remember the love between the singer and the song? This,once a hit enjoyed by The Isley Brothers, is now a song that now defines the ethos and outcome of Merge, the album
4 STAND BY ME
This track, of course, is a standard in genres such as soul and blues and even the commercial pop market. With the stacatto piano behind it the song is elevated here above soul, blues & pop.Covered previously by artists such as Ben E King and even by Gene Clark, once of The Byrds, since being written by Ben E King (who would later record the song himself), with Lieber & Stoller, the rock and roll writers for the early Elvis, in almost hymnal form. Whilst delivering a blood transfusion of soul into the song Karla Harris and her fellow musicians still place the song in a recognisable serving of jazz.
5 ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE
This is another well known track and has the band and Karla relishing how jazz streams travel right, left and up and under each other, seeming sometimes to dry out somewhere before the end of the trail. More often than not those streams then come crashing together in a torrent of music that makes perfect sense of their explorations,….. and that certainly happens again here.
This song is written by Frederick Leowe & Alan Jay Lerner, two more multi-contributors to The Great American Songbook. Amongst those who have recorded this song are David Brooks and Marion Bell who also delivered the song in the Broadway musical of Brigadoon.
The song was written in the slightly odd key of B flat minor, and Karla leaps splendidly over notes on escalator and elevators. The song is designed, I think, to sound like the melody is running away with / from the lyrics but Karla Harris and these musicians have so much mutual respect for each other that this series of star-burst leaps, and quick sprints, leaves nobody behind.
6 NEVER WILL I MARRY
Even the title of this song sounds folksy. I seem to remember that, when I was trying to deliver my contemporary folk music songs on the club circuit in the UK during the seventies, songs with similar titles to this were ten a penny fare from the folk-traditionalists who preferred their songs from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. However, Never Will I Marry, has clearly adapted to Karla´s modern sound. There´s a somewhat gentle but beautiful piano line and silver and golden brass bursting out at the seams as well as a beat of percussion that drives the song along. Adding to the modernity is Karla´s delivery, sounding here like a university sophomore who believes the world is her oyster. The song was actually writte a few decades ago by Frank Loeesser, still considered as one of Broadway´s most versatile songwriters.The song was recorded by Nancy Wilson, a version often listened to in her formative years.Learning Nancy’s songs from her parents’ albums was Karla’s path to learning her first jazz standards. Karla wanted to include a Nancy classic in this project in tribute to her first “teacher.” This version of Never Will I Marry re-imagines it in a more contemplative, old-school R&B style.
7 I´M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU
A lively brass intro fades and yields to a sultry, sassy vocal, with Karla backed by a pretty piano, saying she is still in love with you. The track has great instrumental interventions from piano and percussion. Wasn´t this a hit for Al Green back in the day?
8 SWEET LAND
A sonorous bass, piano and string riffs help Karla to describe being in love as living in a Sweet Land, and the arrangement boasts an interesting ´organ´ section that becomes almost choral. On this rapturous track Karla sings of ´dancing with abandon now, with no choreography´ (a line so redolent of Dylan´s to dance beneath a diamond sky with one hand waving free) and her vocal delivery reminds me slightly of another favourite female artist of mine in Marilyn Middleton Pollock, (who once recorded a Stanley Accrington song) an artist who could hold audiences in the palm of her hands as does Karla. I´ve been told that this Sugar arrangement came about during a pre-concert soundcheck. A spontaneous groove emerged when Karla asked for a different feel, and this hip-hop/funk version was born. Also woven into the arrangement of this funk version of Sugar is the hook from the 1960s hit Taste of Honey, which earned Herb Alpert a Grammy. This quote is a nod to Sarah Vaughn’s vocal version of the song.
9 WHAT YOU WON´T DO FOR LOVE
Another song with a great bass line, burgeoning brass and another perfect pitch vocal performance, with that lovely piano filling the spaces between the notes
10 ISN´T IT A PITY
The percussionists tip their high hats to usher in a contemplative lyric that, once again, is delivered sublimely by Karla. She demonstrates her ease with Sinatra-like phraseology and her strength in delivering long notes. This is a George and Ira Gershwin collaboration and is not to be cofnused with a George Harrison song of the same name on his solo recording away from The Beatles tiled All Things Must Pass.
11 SUGAR
When singing of ¨Sugar´, the man she loves, Karla describes him as being like Paradise and Sugar and Spice.The keyboards on this track are very nearly of Georgie Fame, and almost echo Booker T and the MGs. Magnificent though the instrumentation is, however, it is always complementary to Karla´s voice as she glides through these songs.
12 NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT
Another soundcheck creation. The drummer started playing this jazz funk feel, the band had a good time with it, and an arrangement was conceived. The rattling rims and deep percussion, and trilling keyboards and outstanding bass make this track sound exactly like nice work and the outfit show that they certainly know how to get it. Some readers will immediately recognise this as the title song of another great Gershwin musical.
13 ALL THE HAPPY PEOPLE
Karla wrote this song because her husband, John, loves the blues and she thought it would be fun to surprise him with a new song. The lyrics have a good time celebrating his positive personality, in contrast with his love for the blues, so the song is for all the happy people in the room! The band quotes “Happy Birthday” at the end – that’s a shout-out to Karla´s husband John. On the day of recording this track it was, purely by coincidence, John’s birthday.
As Karla tells us in the lyric, this is the blues for all the happy people in the room. It tells us of the kind of laid back people we´d most of us like to be. A great bass line gives us a slightly false ending as it prefaces a cleverly disguised piano trill that brings the album to a close..
So this album has delivered thirteen tracks, most of which show Karla Harris in a happy, even boisterous, mood. This is a studio recording but if these songs were collected into a self-contained live performance, Karla Harris and her friends would bring the audience to their feet to boogie, and she would surely have her fans reeling in the years, (to coin a phrase from Steely Dan as alluded to in Peter Pearson´s article at the foot of today´s edition of sidetracks & detours)
With the release of Merge, her fifth album, the celebrated jazz vocalist, Karla Harris offers up an album that somehow transcends genre even whilst rooted in jazz land. She has designed a multi-faceted soundscape of various musical and cultural influences shimmering with originality. She nods lovingly to the diverse musical styles that she first heard as a child whenlistening to Latin, blues, reggae, funk, hip hop and ballads.
She and her co-producer and pianist, Tyrone Jackson, gently rearrange, applying a respectful contemporary approach. In doing so, they add new light and shade to r + b classics, with the strokes of jazz. The thirteen tracks on the album share a sophistication that represents the modern, breathes soulfully and conveys a wide range of deep emotion.
´The album is about convergence, and the intersection of stories, sounds and styles that flowed into my world early and gave shape to as lifelong stream of joy´, Karla tells us.
That is evidenced by how she quotes melodies from both jazz and rock hits. This all points to an artist comfortable in her own skin, at the height of her craft with a generosity of spirit that is delivered with a light-hearted affection and the penchant for fun that characterised her previous offering, Moon To Gold.
Merge is so joyous and dances so elegantly and sounds so spontaneous even though we know this must have been achieved through intentional arranging and sterling musicianship from all concerned. With a career spanning four decades she has captivated audiences across America, earning accolades for her approach to jazz standards and contemporary compositions alike. This album stand as her over-arching achievement.
The project’s official release of Merge is July 7 – that’s when it goes to radio and streaming platforms. I’ll have physical copies at live shows. I hope you love the music, and that MERGE is part of your summer listening and beyond.
Speaking of forthcoming live shows see blow.
St. Louis, MO, May 29-30 – Blue Strawberry Showroom and Lounge. Hometown shows headed toward selling out — just a few seats left
Atlanta, GA, June 21 – Jazz Discovery concert, Wolf Creek Fulton County Library Branch. A fun history of jazz concert for all ages.
Johns Creek, GA, June 21 – Juneteenth Celebration, Newtown Park. Free community concert.
Vancouver, WA, July 3 – Waterfront Concert Series. Back in the PAC NW, with Bobby Torres Ensemble.
Norcross, GA, July 12 – Jazz in the Alley. Block party in downtown Norcross.
St. Louis, MO, July 30 – Whitaker Music Festival at Missouri Botanical Gardens amphitheater. Jazz under the stars, surrounded by the gardens.
For more on upcoming performances, please
visit my website.
Thank you for sharing in the music. As summer calls, I hope to see you out there! 🌺
All the best,
Karla
Jazz at Progress
brought to you by Jazz in Reading
Friday 27 June 2025
THE EMILY MASSER QUARTET
Emily Masser vocalist
Martas Gayer piano
James Owston electric bass
Steve Brown drummer
Rising star Emily Masser is an astonishing vocalist. Still just 21 years of age her range, variation and seemingly effortless delivery reflect a confidence and ability which belie her years. Emily gained attention and encouragement from jazz luminaries Claire Martin and Liane Carroll. Her breakthrough came as a member of The Clark Tracey Quintet, with the release of their acclaimed album, “Introducing Emily Masser” consisting of Emily’s arrangements and vocals, taking classic jazz standards such as “So Near So Far” and “The Man I Love” and making them sound newly minted and excitingly different
Her contributions to this album enhanced Emily’s presence on the scene and also garnered support from jazz media, marking her as a “New Star of British Jazz” (London Jazz News). Her performance on this recording draws on influences and inspirations such as Annie Ross, Betty Carter, and Sonny Stitt and has already picked up the attention of reviewers, magazines and radio broadcasters.
London based, Hungarian jazz pianist Matyas Gayer has become a prominent part of the British jazz scene by forging his own style and musical voice through the use of the jazz piano tradition. A regular performer on the London and European jazz scene, Matyas has collaborated with the greats of jazz such as Eddie Henderson, Scott Hamilton, Rick Margitza, Grant Stewart, amongst others. He was recently part of a live recording at Pizza Express, Soho with Don Branden, shortly followed by a studio album recording with Scott Hamilton. Matyas has released a new trio record this year with Dave Green and Steve Brown.
James Owston is a double/electric bassist based in Birmingham. James is an active performer in his 3rd year studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. As well as running his own groups, James is currently playing with the Clark Tracey quintet.
Steve Brown is a British jazz drummer originally from Manchester. His career began in the 1990s, and he has since worked with notable artists such as Scott Hamilton, Barry Harris, Alan Barnes and Dave Newton, along with his involvement with The Echoes of Ellington band. He has been recognized with several prestigious awards throughout his career. Notably, he has won the British Jazz Award for Best Drummer multiple times, including in 2007, 2009, and 2013.
Jazz at Progress thanks Hickie’s Music Store of Reading and Tiverton for the hire of the piano which will be used at this event.
An Evening with FREDDIE BENEDICT
Bishop’s Court Farm
Dorchester on Thames OX10 7HP
Sat 14 June Doors 6:30pm | Concert 7:30 – 9:30pm
£26.50 (includes booking fee)
Accompanied by his superb quartet, Benedict will be stirring up an unmistakable mix of ageless jazz standards, Brazilian sambas and contemporary pop songs when he returns to Bishops Court Farm this year. With a silky-smooth croon that belies his age, the irrepressible Freddie Benedict has been compared to everyone from Frank Sinatra to Chet Baker.
Hailing from a theatrical family, Freddie’s extraordinary voice soared from a young age. Originally a choral scholar and classical soloist, it is as a jazz interpreter that his mature, warm baritone voice has really found its calling and has seen him perform everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Ronnie Scott’s and as the lead singer of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Line-Up
Vocals/Trumpet Freddie Benedict
Piano Chris Bland
Bass Luke Fowler
Drums Floyer Sydenham
Saxophone Jess Bullen
Bishop’s Court Farm
91 High St, Dorchester on Thames OX10 7HP
ISLAND LIFE
A SONG & DANCE AND BUTTERFLIES
Norman Warwick agrees with his former boss.
The UK might have celebrated the end of May with a bank holiday Monday on 1st June, but here in Lanzarote we celebrated four days earlier with Friday 30th May being the date that all eight of our Canary Islands enjoyed Dia De Canaries (Canaries Day).
Mike Cliffe Jones, owner and editor of Lanzarote Information explained how the day has become an important date on the Spanish calendar.
Mike told the English readers of his weekly newsletter that Diá de Canarias is an important day for islanders, as they celebrate The Canaries becoming an autonomous community of Spain. In other words, the islands took charge of their own destiny. Spain’s system of democracy is a federal one, so each autonomous region is very much like a US State, with a high degree of self-governance. Before 1983, The Canaries were a province, which meant almost all control rested with Madrid. But once the islands became an AC, they were able to create their own parliament and additionally have 11 senators representing the Canaries in Spain’s parliament.
The day here is always marked by a celebration of all things Canarian, but it is also all about family. (Visiting tourists) see lots of people in traditional Canarian clothing, timples being played, folk dancing, and lots of laughter and fun.
Throughout Canarian Day 2025 Mike (Miguel) reflected on how much he admires The Canarian people.
They have so many traits I admire – a positive outlook on life, a belief that it’s for living, and that family and friends are the most important things. And there are characteristics that aren’t part of their culture that I love too – a complete lack of cynicism and sarcasm. Best of all, they are just generally “kind,” and that’s something I value above everything.
I fully agree with Mike´s observations above and when I was reporting on Lanzarote events for his publication I often had a paragraph in my review that commented on the respect shown from gender to gender, from young to old and, importantly, from old to young. Audiences on Lanzarote are generally respectful of each other and also of those artists they have not only come to enjoy, but in the real sense of the word, to support.
We decided to visit Yaiza to watch their 2025 Canarian Day celebrations which included a great performance by the Yaiza Municipal Band. We know from past experiences that Yaiza council take advantage of the sizeable and beautiful town square in front ot the old, historic doors of the wonderfully beautiful and spiritually hushed church of Inglesia Nuestra Senora de Los Remedios.
Bang on time at 10. 30 a.m. the director of The Yaiza Municipal Band raised his baton, and began to lead his thirty or so players through a dozen stirring pieces of music. They gave a typically rumbustious performance in the beautiful town square in the centre of leafy Yaiza, a small town of single floor houses painted white, all covered by a clear blue sky. The mountain behind the town looked down upon the stage, looking a little bit thunderous as the band soon hit high volume. It seemed serendipitous that the white cloud cover rolled away as the band began to play and all the parents, siblings, family and friends filling the square loudly applauded their loved mothers, fathers, husbands, wives and children who constituted the band. Even the head on top of Old Smokey, (a name I always attach to the mountain because at another festival later in the year a fantastic firework display is delivered at midnight) was smiling beatifically as he looked down on the scene.
Today´s programme showed, as it always does, how much the conductor selects music that he knows his band will enjoy, and included cinema favourites and other popular pieces.
With an estimated thirty musicians on show and a wide range of instrumentation, of brass, strings and percussion it was perhaps sensible that this was an open air concert as any roof would surely have been blown off !!
I always enjoy these festivals at which musical and dance groups perform in traditional national costume and play music of local folk lore.
I had to be patient though as the musical leader undertook due diligence in ensuring the players and dancers took an intricate, if intriguing, sound check. The engineer, speaking into a microphone some fifty yards from the performance stage, called for silence from his band and then called upon each individual, whether a drummer, timple player or piper, to play a few notes. This seemed to take an age but there was no doubt that after a two or three minute conflab each player came to a mutual agreement with the engineer.
So, by the time the whole collaboration had taken an individual check one two, two and played his instrument for a few moments, (with the sound hugely improved) we were all, audience and players alike, looking forward to a great time.
From the very outset of the concert, however, gremlins seemed to get into the sound system, forcing hiccups and coughs and stutters that were definitely machine made rather than man-ufactured.Somehow the whole event adhered to that Merge ethos attached to the new Karla Harris album review in todays´s lead story.
I have to say that the band remained cool and calm and played on regardless and the dancers, all colourfully attired, with fixed beaming smiles on their face, hardly missed a step. They performed ceremonial formal dances and traditional work-related dances celebrating the Lanzarote landscape. It all resembled English Morris Dancing with its sticks and red ribbons and even Cajun Dancing with its traditional ´kiss me gates´and other romantically named manoeuvres.
The dancers gently plucked ´volunteers´ from the audience and led them in stately fashion through what seemed to be some quite complex movements.
It had been a great morning exemplifying the Lanzarotecharacteristics that Mike had championed in the article we referred to earlier, and when we arrived back home there was another news item from Mike that read as follows.
Also at this time of year, we often get a plague of unusual insects, which get blown over here from The Sahara. We’ve had locusts, ladybirds, flying ants, and little yellow butterflies, which made a real mess on the front of the cars, over the years. This time, it’s small white butterflies, and it’s almost like driving through snow!
It’s amazing to think we’re fast approaching San Juan, the big mid-summer fiestas on the island. Once they are over, the whole vibe here changes, as families come here for their summer holidays. Once again, the island will be full of excited, happy kids, pushchairs and young parents.
ISLAND LIFE
LENDANEAR TO COLIN LEVER BUSKING ROUND AN ISLAND FAR, FAR AWAY
by Norman Warwick
We ´disbanded´ our popular-in-the local-folk- clubs duo back at the start of the eighties.
Colin Lever, my former soulmate and singer writer partner and I ceased to work together as a performance band, a decision made easier by the fact that despite the obvious optimism of adoptiong the name Lendaner, the truth was that hardly anybody ever did. That said, in the previous decade we had recorded three albums. The first album Moonlight Dancing died by my own over-reaching ambition to turn its twenty songs into mini chapters of a biographical audio book, full of jokes, anecdotes and aphorisms that too often intruded on some really good Lever and Warwick songs such as Just Listen Don´t Talk which featurned the great voice of Helen Howard, a folk club stalwart at the time and also included acoustic and electric guitar by her husband, and our producer, Dave Howard. Pete Benbow also played on this doomed album and put a tune to my lyric of This Old Guitar Case, that was subsequnetly recorded by American singer writer Jeff McDonald
Other popular folk artists of the time were invited to help us on a live recording of our act some six months later, including new songs but without all the fun and laughter of that earlier phase of Lendanear. We always knew Colin had a great voice that was powerfl and suitable for our own writings, and also brilliantly covered covered songs like Factory by Bruce Springsteen. This live alum, Theatre Of The Mind, featured Cath Barlow who had joined us as a vocalist and her harmonies added a great deal to the sound.
It was two years later that we recorded Songs For Sarah, an eight track album that told the story of a childhood freind of mine who was murdered in Manchester.
It was our best album by far and the local press said great things about it. However after only a few weeks of sales around our folk music hinterland my car was broken into on a pub car park whilst we were in the pub, The Cleveland in Crumpsall on stage singing the track lising, including the lovely Heart Between Beats on stage. The thief stole thirty or so albums by artists such as John Stewart, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Dylan, Kristofferson , …..etc.
In what became the worst review we ever had the thiefr left our Lendanear recording of Songs For Sarah still in the CD drive and the cover discarded on the passenger on the passenger seat.
We both thought, however, that the best of Lendanear was yet to come. We were popular with the club circuit audiences and had elevated to the festival arenas and had ´discovered´ a girl singer with a glorious voice, classically trained. We persauded her to join us and spent six months gently integrating her into our stage performances. Our rehearsal time was spent on establshing or re-building our live sets around Steph and Col because their voices worked so well together. I offered to step out the group and manage Lendanear but that didn´t work out well and I soon ended up managing only Stephanie Bennett in a decision Colin warned she and I that ¨could only end in tears´.
He was right and within six months everythng had fallen apart. I knew immediatley that I had let Steph down, and she returned to her classical forte.
Colin formed a duo with a well respected guitar ace, Steve Roberts whilst I began a career as a poetry slam performer and creative writing fcilitator. Colin and Steve enjoyed a few years of being a popular and highly admired live contemporary folk band.
I was freelancing for several British folk and country magazines, and formed Just Poets with Pam Mckee for what was a decade of some major and prestigious gigs and vnues, and togethershe and I worked as perepetetic creative writing facilitators with the government-funded Artsts In School.and over the years Colin and Steve and I and Pete Benbow performed a number of anniversay celebrations but when Colin took early retirment from teaching in Rochdale and he and his family moved ot Jersey, in The Channel Islands and later, in 2025 my wife Dee and I retired here to live on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, it seemed certain that Col and I had simply become Islands In The Stream.
Colin and I stayed in communication, though, and in retirment we both perhaps gained a clearer persepoctive of the fun we had enjoyedas Lendanear, and to be honest, neither of us were surprised that the songs we had written and performed were still standing upright. We like to think we had prepared our songs for light years of travel. John Stewart, the Ameircan songwrter, enjoyed a number of massive hits but primarily wrote his songs because he hoped that one day ´some lonsome picker might find some healing in these songs !´
So, over the last few years I avve been, and still am, wokring on a novel based around a trilogy of songs and poems called Fishes And Coal (Lever), Two Thousand Feet (Warwick) and Black Kisses a haunting piece bya mutual freind (Kim Prince). The novel is intended to trace the decline and demolition of two major UK industries, coal mining and fishing, that in the latter part of the twentiewth century died at the hands od dangerous work conditions, increasd competetion, and govermenttal neglect.
Colin has gone on to write a number of books and has re-collected several of our memories of our nights in the club as he takes a look at the Open Mic scen thathas become so prevalent in therse karaoke days. These comedic writings turned into a five part rfadio series, and it seem there might be one more part to come.
In one of his first communiques from Jersey to Lanzarote, Colin wrote
How are you doin’ old friend? I’m back treading the boards, on my own this time. Did a set (picture) of 5 country/rock songs 2 of them ours. They stood up well against Robert Palmer (Bad Case Of Lovin’ You), Jake Everett (Bad Things) and… Bad Whisky, which I have revamped to be a lot more entertaining than we used to play it. Our songs used were, Southern Comfort & Last Year’s Blonde. I have ’embelished’ both. I plan to record them and a few others in the new year. I’ve found a couple of guys that do recording, one of them in a state of the art studio, but is perhaps a bit expensive.
Last night I sat down at the computer, picked one of your poems (Before the Morning Comes) & put a tune to it straight away. Just like yesterday.
I realised that we had actually never recored Before The Morning Comes, so over a friendly face-time chat Colin and I drew up a list of unrecorded matieral that he might like to consider recording
You can see the outcome at https://lendanear.bandcamp.com/ with Last Boat Home, a song of ous we had never recorded and never even played live. Ity and several otheresd here are the ptome of what Leanear oince were.
Meanwhile, Colin today starts a tour of his island as he buisks round favourite live music venues (see). Left unhindered by me Col was alwas a strong voiced soulfull performer. In the three deades since we last performed together his voice has increased in gravitas and he adapts it to not only our old songs, but alto to new ones we have written together over our computers. Furthermore, in my opinion he now even enhances some of the songs he covers with such opassion !
Over the last five years Colin has re-mixed some of our early recordings and recorded for the time songs like Last Boat Home which has pleasntaly surprised with a small success on bandcamp
You can check out all Lendanear´s recordings at https://lendanear.bandcamp./
Whislt doing so you might like to look at his ´tour dates below and right
Ok folks, I’m off on an around the island busking tour (see dates & times below below). Raising a laugh and raising money for JERSEY HOSPICE CARE. Come along & say hello, perhaps tell me a joke or an anecdote (there might be an episode 6!) Look out for the marathon busk in town, I’ll need as much help as I can to hit 12 hours non-stop busiking. Please share this with F&F. Keeping music live.
ARTS SCENE BACK HOME
MANCHESTER MUSEUM
EUROPEAN MUSEUM OF THE YEAR 2025
celebrated by I Love Manchester
Manchester Museum has been recognised as one of Europe’s leading museums after winning the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) 2025.
The annual prize is one of the most prestigious museum awards in the world, and Manchester Museum is the first university museum to receive it, earning recognition for the way it balances globally-significant academic research with community engagement and social responsibility.
The Museum, which re-opened in February 2023 after a £15m redevelopment with the spectacular Golden Mummies of Egypt exhibition, has been met with universal praise.
The institution, one of the UK’s largest university museums, holds about 4.5 million objects. Its original neo-Gothic building was designed by architect Alfred Waterhouse, who also designed London’s Natural History Museum.
ARTS SCENE BACK HOME
ROCHDALE MUSIC SOCIETY CONCERT
17 MAY 2025 THE PORTRAIT PLAYERS
a review by Graham Marshall
As he passed me on the way out after the concert by The Portrait Players promoted by Rochdale Music Society one of our members told me described the event as a ´delightfully different´ occasion,
And indeed it was just that: ’Delightful’, as an experience of music-making by the three performers who make up The Portrait Players and ‘Different’, in that it brought to the audience some sounds of music from the past which can still entrance the ear and open the mind to the experience of striking beauty no longer looked for by most people in the clamour of the twenty-first century.
The lovely, finely tuned and controlled soprano voice of Claire Watt held together perfectly the musical web of vocal and instrumental sonority woven from settings of poems from stage plays of the seventeenth century. Authors ranged from Shakespeare to Suckling (the inventor of the card game of Cribbage), composers from Henry Lawes to Henry Purcell. Their lyrical outpourings, sometimes subdued, sometimes uninhibited, made for music which demanded wide-ranging technical and artistic demands on those who transmitted it to its original audiences. This remains the case today, and together with Claire were the nimble fingered Kristina Watt with her theorbo and lute and the equally agile though more sedate Miriam Nolh with her cello and viola da gamba – instruments adding colourful authenticity to the artistic impact of the ensemble as a whole.
I think it’s worth adding that, while this concert was enlivening the artistic atmosphere of a mere handful of people in the modest surroundings of the parish church of St. Michael, Bamford, the Eurovision Song Contest was apparently overwhelming its live audience in Basel and the many millions of watchers and listeners around the world with the most expensive and spectacular soon-to-be-forgotten production montages. A very different soprano voice was being successfully featured there. But it reminds us that it used to be the male castrati who dominated the vocal and operatic scene when some of the finest late medieval music was being written and performed for the first time!
ARTS SCENE BACK HOME
ALL ACROSS THE ARTS
STEVE COOKE AND THE ARCHIVES
shared by Norman Warwick
Sidetracks & Detours was born out of All Across The Arts, which The Rochdale Observer still hosts as a twice weekly column created by myself and Robin Parker as we mentored The Crew, young aspirant writers from Faling Park Performing Arts. When I retired to live here on Lanzarote ten years ago I handed the column over to Steve Cooke who has taken it to new heights, broadening its contents, expanding its hinterland and lengthening its legacy. He told me recently that he has taken Matthew Haigh under his wing who will add the energy and curiosity of youth to the pages in the same way as did The Crew all those years ago.
This seems to have allowed Steve time to package the archives of the column and make them accessible to readers. These archives remind us of so many talented writers, musicians, dancers, circus performers and performing artists who live and work in the town. These include individuals such as the late Robin Parker who once served as Mayor of the town and Steve´s own brother, artist John Cook. poets and writers such as Eileen Earnshaw and Seamus Kelly, musicians and ukelele band members like Ray Stern and Maureen Harrison.
Local arts organisations are championed through the pages of the all across the arts archives. These include creative writing groups, Skylight Circus, dance organisations such as Can´t Dance Can and the ubiquitous Cartwheel Arts.
Steve Cooke also regularly artists of national renown who live in Rochdale or who visit the town when on tour. I have to say it felt really quite disorientating this week when I noticed that the wonderful on Paste line site, that predominantly deals in the Americana music I so love, focussed on Peter Hook, a musician who for so long owned an eponymous bar in Heywood, Rochdale´s close neighbour in the UK. Hookie, as he is known to Heywood patrons. is currently touring in the USA with a new band line up, and taking a look back at his work with Joy Division and New Order.
ARTS SCENE BACK HOME HEADING TO USA
PETER HOOK AND THE LIGHT
RE-VISITING NEW ORDER AND JOY DIVISION
Norman Warwick pastes memories on his wall
Matt Garrett of Paste magazine recently spent time with British musician Peter Hook and thus wrote,
Peter Hook (left) points to a pair of rails buried in the asphalt of a parking lot. We’re outside the O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, England, a few hours before his band The Light plays, and he’s thinking of his childhood, as you often do in your hometown. Decades ago, when he was a boy, and when the Victoria Warehouse was an actual warehouse and not a concert venue, one of the companies that stored their products here was Cadbury’s, he remembers. They’d ship their candy bars into the warehouse on those rails, and if they were lucky Hook and his friends could climb into the open-air train car and steal some chocolate without anybody noticing.
It’s a one-off anecdote at the end of our interview, but it’s in line with what has become the dominant theme of Hook’s musical career over the last 15 years: revisiting his past. The co-founder and bassist of Joy Division and New Order, and the co-owner of the legendary Hacienda nightclub, Hook formed Peter Hook & The Light in 2010 with the express goal of revisiting every song he had ever played on and performing them live. The band has gone through the Joy Division and New Order catalogues one album at a time, playing one in its entirety on every tour, along with a selection of the bands’ most popular songs. They’re currently up to New Order’s 2001 album Get Ready; it’s what they played that night at the Victoria Warehouse, and it’s what they’re playing on the American tour that’s already under way.
Joy Division and New Order both sounded ahead of their times, with the latter in particular helping usher in the synth-pop of the ‘80s and playing a crucial role in merging rock and pop with electronic dance music. You can draw a straight line from New Order’s music in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and the musical melting pot of the Hacienda, which they co-owned, to the mainstream dance music that’s dominated the pop charts in the 21st century. It’s that forward-thinking legacy Hook aims to celebrate by looking back with The Light, which he formed after acrimoniously leaving New Order in 2007.
It’s clear Hook remains extremely proud of the music he made with his former bandmates, and justifiably so. “We started playing dancey music because we were influenced by Kraftwerk,” Hook says after The Light’s soundcheck at the Victoria Warehouse. “We were playing that and writing songs like [on] Power, Corruption & Lies before we went to Ibiza. When we got to Ibiza, we found another… Manchester, but in a completely different way. So what we did was we brought that ecstasy and the more hippie attitude to Manchester and acid house was born.”
The Ibiza influence on New Order ignited the rise of rave culture, and turned their Manchester nightclub the Hacienda into the white hot core of one of the hippest musical movements in the world at the time. Today Hook speaks of the Hacienda with a mixture of wonder and pragmatism, knowing he was at the center of a once-in-a-lifetime cultural moment, while acknowledging the venue’s flaws. “There were some really good gigs at the Hacienda,” he remembers, and not just the post-punk and house nights it was known for. “John Cale on a piano, William Burroughs, Jonathan Richman—just him and an acoustic guitar. He’s really good when he played in that way, just not [at the Hacienda], because the fucking sound was terrible. So cavernous and so bricky. It wasn’t… I mean, it’s a long story. When [the Hacienda] exploded, it was fantastic.”
Later that night Hook and his band, which features his son Jack Bates on bass (they both play bass, often doubling up on Hook’s distinctive chorus-tinged melodic basslines), rip through all 50 minutes (and change) of Get Ready to a large, appreciative audience. It’s a multigenerational crowd, from teenagers up to senior citizens, with parents dancing alongside their grown children. At one point a stranger walking past me grabs my shoulders, points to the guitarist David Potts as he plays a solo, and yells “that’s my brother!” (Or maybe he said brother-in-law—it was loud in there.) When Get Ready wraps, they quickly slide into a lengthy set of absolute classics from Hook’s previous two bands, starting with Joy Division’s Transmission. Over the next two hours they play most of the hits—Disorder, Digital, She’s Lost Control, Ceremony, Love Vigilantes, Blue Monday, Temptation, and more, before finishing with a rousing Love Will Tear Us Apart, a warehouse full of Mancunians, several of whom have no doubt known these songs and Hook personally for decades, singing along
If you ever think it seems cynical or uninspired for musicians to make a point of playing their older or more popular material, spending three hours with Peter Hook & The Light will make you feel silly for overthinking things. Sometimes you just want to hear your favorites, and few musicians have a claim to a body of absolute classics as strong as the members of Joy Division and New Order.
Hook loves playing the hits. The Light has fully embraced nostalgia festivals like this past weekend’s Punk Rock Bowling and the ‘80s-themed Rewind Festival. At one point he was sceptical of such events, but he quickly became a believer after experiencing one in person. “Everyone has a great time. And, funny enough, it’s not druggy,” he says. “And because it’s not druggy, it’s actually better. There are no frightening bits. Everybody’s just on the level and having a great time. We did one, and when I looked at the audience, I thought, ‘oh my God.’ It was just such a wonderful atmosphere.”
The desire to play older music sounds like part of the reason he split with the rest of New Order, he explains. “New Order… couldn’t play any of the [Joy Division] songs. It was just so boring. It was so frustrating. So when we split up in 2007, to actually get out of that and be able to play these songs again after 30 years, Joy Division in particular, was fucking amazing. And basically I would play anywhere to anyone.
“I have a very simple theory. One of the first gigs we ever did as Joy Division was in a club in Oldham called the Tower Club. And nobody came, no one. So we had naught, and then we end up playing Glastonbury five times to 175,000 people, right? So as long as [the audience] is somewhere between naught and 175,000, I’m happy, yeah?”
The desire to play older music sounds like part of the reason he split with the rest of New Order, he explains. “New Order… couldn’t play any of the [Joy Division] songs. It was just so boring. It was so frustrating. So when we split up in 2007, to actually get out of that and be able to play these songs again after 30 years, Joy Division in particular, was fucking amazing. And basically I would play anywhere to anyone.
“I have a very simple theory. One of the first gigs we ever did as Joy Division was in a club in Oldham called the Tower Club. And nobody came, no one. So we had naught, and then we end up playing Glastonbury five times to 175,000 people, right? So as long as [the audience] is somewhere between naught and 175,000, I’m happy, yeah?”
ALL POINTS FORWARD
STEELY DAN & THEIR SESSION MUSICIANS
By Peter Pearson
Steely Dan is as close as I get to appreciating Jazz and most Jazz enthusiasts, possibly even Norm, would say Steely Dan are not Jazz, but he may concede that they are jazz influenced.
Whilst most record stores would file Steely Dan under “Rock” I think there is an argument that much of their music on record and maybe more so when played live in concert, is borrowed more from Jazz than Rock. Their revolving cast of session musicians includes a number of jazz legends .In concert their use of improvisation in presenting their music leans heavily into Jazz. On the other hand their legendary quest for perfection in the studio would tend to negate that.
Jazz? Rock? Does it matter? I think not, if you like their music and I count myself in that number.
Steely Dan are essentially a duo, or were until the death of Walter Becker in 2017. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker met at Bard liberal art college, New York, in 1967.There they formed a trio called The Leather Canary with Fagen on keyboards and vocals, Becker on guitar and soon to be famous comedian, Chevy Chase on drums. The name Steely Dan came from Fagen wearing a leather jacket with feathers attached to it. Chevy Chase has referred to the band as a bad jazz band.
After trying their hand at writing for others in New York the pair decided to form their own band and relocated to Los Angeles, eventually forming Steely Dan. The name came from their reading Beat writer William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch in which he describes a mechanical dildo as Steely Dan.
Initially the band comprised Becker and Fagen alongside guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder and additional vocalist David Palmer, recruited because Fagen was reluctant to take on lead vocals due to his lack of confidence, coupled with the record label considering Fagen’s voice not commercial enough.
They released their first official album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, in 1972, featuring Palmer on vocals but after touring the album the decision was taken to go with Fagen as lead vocal and Palmer soon departed. Can’t Buy A Thrill received critical acclaim and radio airplay.
By their third album Steely Dan started to use session musicians to record and tour and after the next album they declared their intention to stop touring and concentrate on writing and recording. The band became Becker and Fagen and a revolving cast of session musicians. By this time their music and arrangements were becoming increasingly more complex. They had moved on considerably from their earlier albums and there was a raft of studio musicians and even established artists eager to add playing on a Steely Dan album to their resume. Unsurprisingly, in order to get the sonic perfection that the pair demanded, you must demand perfection and there are a few notable stories of musicians who suffered crushing blows to their egos and great frustration in the process. Here are a couple of examples:
Drummer, Jeff Pocaro, died at the tragically young age of 38 and is generally regarded as one of the best studio drummers in modern history, yet the studio demands of Becker and Fagen came close to driving him to the point of insanity. This is his comment on being one of several drummers recruited to play drums on the album Gaucho‘s title track. “From noon till six we’d play the tune over and over and over again, nailing each part. We’d go to dinner and come back and start recording. They made everybody play like their life depended on it. But they weren’t gonna keep anything anyone else played that night, no matter how tight it was. All they were going for was the drum track.”
To add insult to injury, after expressing dissatisfaction with the result, the pair convinced their record company to lay out a fortune on a drum machine created by their recording engineer, Roger Nichols, which they named Wendel.
Becker and Fagen were impressed enough by Mark Knopfler’s work on guitar and particularly on Sultans Of Swing that they invited him to play the solo on the Gaucho track Time Out Of Mind. Knopfler became frustrated by the long and drawn-out studio sessions. In addition to this, Fagen and Becker had a brazen way of criticising his work and lack of progression, which only compounded his feelings of dismay. A weary Knopfler would later recall that he recorded over ten hours of guitar for the band during the sessions. In the end, they used 15 seconds of his work. It was a strange experience he described as being “like getting into a swimming pool with lead weights tied to your boot.”
There are numerous other examples one could add to this list but none suffered damage to their careers as a result. It was just part of the almost unique experience of recording with Fagen and Becker.
Steely Dan jazz influences are evidenced by some of the jazz musicians they recruited to play on their albums. Jazz aficionados will recognise the names of Jerome Richardson, who plays saxophone on Can’t Buy A Thrill and of Phil Woods who plays saxophone on the album Katy Lied.
Some of the other great studio musicians featuring on their albums include Larry Carlton. a e jazz influenced guitarist who featured on several albums.
Steve Gadd is reputed to have completed the drum part on Aja in one take.
Elliot Randall has studio credits with artists such as The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon and Peter Frampton. He has a reputation of turning down work as a band member in favour of studio work. His searing guitar on the track Reelin In The Years lead to him gaining fame and respect helping to launch his extensive studio session career.
Perhaps life as a studio session musician playing on a Steely Dan session can best be summed up in the following exchange involving Becker and Fagen and drummer Rick Marotta when recording Peg for the Aja album.
Fagen to Becker: I would ask Rick if he wants to do one more round
Becker To Fagen: You think it can be significantly better?
Fagen to Becker: Tell him we’ve got it, but will he please do one more round? Because it really is good,… but I just think it could be better.
RADIO WHISPERS AROUND THE WORLD
the first of a new series by Norman Warwick
Back in the UK of the nineteen sixties, in my childhood days and my early teens, I fell in love with the radio. Actually radio was too grand a term for the white, square, plastic wireless I used to hide under my pillows so that my younger brother, asleep in his own bed in the same room, and my parents downstairs watching Coronation Street on ITV and Come Dancing on BBC, 1 would not be disturbed in my listening to what I was beginning to recognise as ´pop´ music.
The advent of transistor radios (the white, square plastic wireless mentioned above) in the 1960s allowed fans to listen to Radio Luxembourg in privacy, making it a popular source of music for young people
Sadly, because reception was so poor on the 208 medium wavelength on Radio Luxembourg I more often received only white noise rather than identifiable pop music. Nevertheless, this was the radio station of choice for my generation, being what Wicki describe as a popular, multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg, with a significant following in Britain and Ireland. It primarily focused on broadcasting popular music, including rock and pop, and was a key source of entertainment for young people. The station played a role in shaping the music scene in Britain, and it was seen by some as a symbol of freedom and liberty, especially in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
Radio Luxembourg labelled itself as our ´station to the stars´ and I always tuned in to the weekly top twenty pop programme presented by Barry Aldiss,………………. from there grew my love of The Beatles, The Hollies and The Monkees, ….. and subsequently my love, too, of the US Country music that begat the Americana genre I sill love today.
I have recently, at 72, begun a project which I´m hoping will gather together the playlists of every Bob Harris Country Show played on BBC 2 radio, in a series that is still ongoing.
Robert Brinley Joseph Harris OBE, popularly known as “Whispering Bob” Harris, is an English music presenter. He was the presenter of the BBC2 music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test from 1972 to 1979, and co-founder of the listings magazine Time Out, co-editing it until early 1969.
These days Bob presents his Country show on which he acknowledges the massive growth of Americana over the past decade. On any Venn Diagram of CountryMuisc and Americana sounds you would find groups like The Byrds, Poco and The Eagles very definitely in the shaded, shared area of the two linked circles that represent the country genre and its offspring, Americana !
When I (right) first arrived here on Lanzarote in 2015 I was devastated to learn that I couldn´t receive BBC Radio 2 beause, it was explainmed to me, the mountain behind our house is a volcanoe ?!? I had been listening to Whispering Bob pretty much all my adult life and at least half of the cds in my collection had been bought on a Saturday mornings in Vibes or HMV in Bury and many of my very favourite artists had been first heard and recommended on his programmes. It is a story often told, I know, but only two weeks later after submitting to radio silence on Lanzarote I then saw on the Boxing Day News that 2015´s Christmas in the UK had been devasted by floods in the north of England,…..on the same news on Google that day I saw what looked a lot my cds roaring down the River Roch in Rochdale where I had lived for the previous forty odd years before leaving them in the care of my brothers lock-up.and then saw on the same footage an almost tidal wave roaring down the River Wharfe into my birth town of Tadcaster and ripping up and then carrying the town,s road bridge on the A64 before tipping it into the brewery car parks.
Only this year have we managed to gain fibre optic in Playa Blanca and I started to listen in again to Whispering Bob Harris. His show is still named as Country but there is as much great Americana music plalyed as there is good country. For six weeks I noted the tracklisintg as I listened to Whispering Bob introduce some of my life-long heroes as well as new-to-me names in Americana such as Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings. Then I discoverd the the Bob Harris archive files on line in which all his country show tracklisitngs are stored, and thanks to Spotify I have been able to collate some fantastic compendiums.
All this has come about in a period of ill health that has meant I haven´t been able to drive to concerts, so all this recorded music has been a great solace. Earlier this week I was given a health certificate to drive again, so watch our for more reviews of the great arts scene . Having said that, it´s just about time for this week´s Bob Harris Country show, so I´ll have to leave you now !!
This series of Radio Whispers will explore titles and artists from both genres and will share with you the expert knowledge and exuberant entusiasm that Whispering Bob Harris always delivers sotto voce
REST IN PEACE
Norman Warwick remembers writer. Catherine Coward
It must be almost twenty years ago that I first met Catherine Coward. She walked into Touchstones Art Gallery And Museum to join the creative writing workshop group I had been facilitating for about six months. Touchstones Writing Group was an excellent collection of writers like Val Chapman, Pam Ashton & Rod Broom. We had a number ofpublished writers in the group too and were never lacking confidence or personality or ability. Catherine walked into the room flanked by two body guards, her husband Harry and her ebuliant sister in law, Maureen Harrison. I quickly took stock of both ladies. Maureen would fit right in with this group. She had sparkling mischievous eyes and her writing was almost always infused with humour. Catherine, a petite lady, held her head high and looked me in the eye as she answered my questions, but replied in a soft, meek voice. On that first day our twenty strong ´class´ welcomed the two ladies as new members and Maureen settled in immediately joining the to and of fro banter and critiqueing the work of other members.
Catherine, however, did not. They sat side by side but the wit and wisdom came from Maureen whilst Catherines soft speech asked questions of me and her new´student´ colleagues in a way that immediately suggested she wanted to learn. She took copious notes and mildly challenged every statement I delivered with a ´why´?
Both ladies became performers of their own poetry at The Baum where many of our flock attended a monthly Sunday night poetry reading session, and from those evneings I and my wife Dee became close friends of Catherine and her laugh a minute huisband, Harry. The four of ús would regualry head off to Manchester to hear The Halle Orchestra or other classical music outfits.
We even went on holiday to Turkey together, taking a trip ina hot air balloon over Capadocia. (see, from, left to right, Norm,Dee, Harry and Caatherine)
As we climbed into the basket at the crack of dawn, Harry told the few others in our flying machine that ¨This is Norm,…that´s all the hot air this ballon will ever need!
Catherine´s writing began to acquire a voice of its own and even a personality of its own. She and Harry loved cycling and walking the leafy lanes around Rochdale and her peotry reflected this. She read her work at some prestigious places and at special events and even recorded one of her written works on the anthology of Touchstones Creative Writers recorded and produced by Steve Bewick
Even though her work grew so quickly, both in in quantity and quality, she never stopped asking questions and seeking guidance.
What do you mean when you say we must prepare for light years of travel?
Tell me again the Aboriginal Songlines.
What is the difference between an Unreliable author and an unrelibale character?
When I was invited to to perform my own work at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester I asked Catherine to join me. The opning act was a European Gyspy Folk Band, loud and exciting, energetic and funny and LOUD!
Thar didn´t bode well for my serious poetry nor for Catherine´s usually soft spoken readings. She came on stage, pulled herself up to her full but sill lower than average hieght and her voice boomed across the hall and out into a packed audience, who had probably come only to hear the folk group. Fifty minutes later we had delivered our act of our poems speaking to each other, and she stepped forward to take a bow for the enthusiastic applause from the audience.
In the years before I retired here, Catherine barely ever missed a writing group session and we worked together as a duo on a couple of other occasions. Whenever the writing group was invtied by the council to read at certain events she was one of our most ubiquitous, reliable members, always punctual and well prepared.
She and Harry came over to Lanzaroteto see us a couple of times, once on their own, and once with her sister Anne and her husband Barry,
My wife Dee still talks about the time we laughed with Harry and Catherine over a game of cards in a hotel bar until about 2 o´clock in the morning.
Catherine and Harold loved the scenery of the island, high vocanic mountains and azure coastal roads and tall palm trees swishing in the sun, and they loved the artisty of the island, the timple players, the singers, the dancers in full traditional national outfits and the art works of Cesar Manrique
Our last outing together with Cathine and Harry in the UK was to see John Prine in concert at The Bridgewater Hall, I think.
I had introduced Harry, a rock n roll fan with a huge collection of Buddy Holly recordings, to the work of John Prine via Prine´s matieral like The Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness and Sabu Visits The Twin Cities.
The Warwicks and the Coward are and were huge fans of Leonard Cohen. I´m sure .Catherine is up there now, seeking out Leonard Cohen in that Tower Of Song and asking him if she can join his writing group !
And I know for a certainty that she will be preparing her heavenly writing and preparing it for light years of travel.
Miss you kiddo
Norm (and Dee)
Join us next time for a Mary Chapin Carpenter special.
Our next edition will be on the first Sunday in August 2025
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