This Old House

Thanks to an online suggestion, the refurbishment of our flat is now being driven forward by comparison with the "Welsh Wizard", the one and only Shakin' Stevens. There's a strong Welsh link with this blog, but this might be the first time I've had the pleasure of featuring someone from Ely. Or "Lower St. Fagans", as a taxi driver once told us the locals call it (Cardiff in-joke).

In Praise of Clutch

It would be great if this was an article about the rather good band by the name of Clutch. In fact, it wouldn’t be hard to write in praise of them, as their first album was an absolute ripper. But no, it is with the third pedal in manual transmission cars in mind that I write. And I’m not talking about “the” clutch. No. I’m talking about the concept of clutch.

Salsify your Soul

We went out last night to a free concert the district culture ministry had organised to celebrate Bogota being named as one of UNESCO's cities of music. In the line-up were La-33, who I'd never seen before, and Ondatropica, a collection of living legends from Colombia's musical past, partly guided by Quantic as a producer.

Get Your Rocks Off

It’s a pathetic attempt to spice up a tawdry tale of house renovation with an over-worked reference to rock and roll, but there has been a noble tradition of glancing rock references in the titles of the various texts in this blog, and chipping 50 year old tiles away from our cracked walls seems close enough to “getting your rocks off” to warrant defiling the memory of Bob Dylan, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, the Rolling Stones and Primal Scream.