Get that Ealing Feeling!

I wonder how many times the teenagers of 50 or so years ago had their father’s tell them ‘It’s rubbish this rock and roll. Rubbish. It won’t last’. I’d hazard a guess that everyone who fought to squeeze a ‘pop’ record onto the family gramophone between Dad’s Pat Boone and Grandma’s Doris Day heard it. Yet as Cliff Richard sang in his first 1958 hit, Move it, ‘They say it’s gonna die but let’s face it, they just don’t know what’s a going to replace it’ and the ensuing years have proven that rock’n’roll is, as more than one singer has screamed into his mic ‘here to stay’!

2012 marks a host of rock anniversaries with three big 50th celebrations; the Rolling Stones, the Beatles (yes, they were of course around before, but not with Ringo), and the legendary Ealing Blues Club.

The last is probably least well-known, yet in the annuls of rock history the Ealing Blues Club ranks right up there with the Marquee, Cavern and the Crawdaddy. Formed as a breakaway from the original Marquee by Alexis Korner, the club, its damp soaked walls giving it the better-known sobriquet the ‘Moist Hoist’, gave many a fledging artist their first opportunity of live performance. Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts, Graham Bond, Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Paul Jones, Manfred Mann all played here; the list is endless. It was also where Jagger, Richards and Jones came together for the first time.

Unusually, the actual basement club is still there, occasionally even functioning as a nightclub. Needless to say, there’s no plaque recognition of the place’s history – despite Ealing borough council having spent zillions over the years in vain attempts to attract a tourist market. Thank God then for the guys who promote and run the annual Ealing Jazz and Blues Festival – itself celebrating 25 years in 2012 – who are working hard to get some form of official recognition for club site in time for the big 50th. There’s talk of some musicians who played at the original club playing at the annual festival, and of an appeal to locals for memorabilia with an exhibition in mind.

Meanwhile, just down the road, another Ealing landmark is disappearing. I doubt that many of its latter day hamburger-munching, chip-eating clients knew of its rock history but the West Ealing Wimpy Bar on Uxbridge Road was a post-gig, late night hang out for 1960’s bands. How do I know? Because Doug Sandom, original pre-Keith Moon Who drummer, told me while we were spending a memorable day scouting old Who sites around the borough.

More on the Ealing festival, exhibition and Doug’s memories in laer blogs but at least we go a picture of the Wimpey Bar before it was torn asunder!

Final Rio Despatch (for now!) CARNIVAL OVER

So that's it. The Carnival is over. Although the main part is just 4-days in length, Rio's carnival holiday stretches over a good 8-days. This year saw the welcome return of the free street carnivals 'blocs' that were so popular of old. And they were back with a vengence with some 340 all over the city!

In theory, these street parties are meant for the locals of a particular block or neighbourhood. Each one has its own special carnival band featuring massed drumming, banjos, 'cavaquinhos' (similar to a ukelele and trumpets. A voclaist leads the chorus as the bloc winds its way through the neighbourhood with a long trail of happy, drunken, singing dancers in its wake. The music is a mix of samba and typical 'marchinhas de carnival' songs. Some blocs have a reputation and attract huge crowds. The 'Bala Preto' (black ball) and 'Mono-bloco' attracted somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 each onto the streets. It's an experience you don't forget!

This year saw the launch of a new bloc: 'Sargent Pimenta'. Fifty drums of various sizes, eleven guitars and some odds and sods of wind playing Beatle songs, carnival style. The bloc was held in a street in Botafogo, a neighbourhood of Rio. About 100,000 attended. I tried but could get no nearer than 80 metres to the band, who wisely substituted a stage for the traditional 'parade'. I could just about hear them, though. And it sounded fantastic!

The Beatles are just amazingly popular here. Every Brazilian artist of note covers Beatle numbers at some time. The shops are full of Bealte merchandise. The bookshops stock a great range of publications. Beatle tee shirts abound. The number of people trying to groove to Sgt Pimenta, a first-time bloc band testifies to the continuing popularity of the Fab Four.

Thankfully, the better bloc bands have a life throughout the year, with some even touring overseas. Imagine Sgt Pimenta playing at Liverpool's annual Matthews Street Festival! They's be a bit too big to fit on the Cavern Club stage but St George's Square might just about hold 'em! I can't wait to see it!

Syd Barrett Exhibition

There´s a very time-limited exhibition on in London this month (and until early April) that´s a must for Pink Floyd fans.

Celebrating Syd Barrett’s creative output as a visual artist, the exhibition brings together the largest and most comprehensive collection of his artwork and photos to date. Revealing a lesser known side of Syd’s creativity, the original artworks will be exhibited alongside previously unseen photos of Syd and his band mates and the letters he wrote to his first loves Libby and Jenny.

It´s open from the 18th March until 10th April at The Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance Street, E2 7JB.

Walking Bossa Nova History

Followers of this blog will be well aware of our ´mission´ at Access All Areas; to identity, preserve, protect and promote world-wide rock heritage. You´ll also be aware of our antipathy towards politicians and administrators who either willfully ignore their local heritage or do little to protect or promote it. It is gratifying to see that the Rio de Janeiro ´Prefectura´ are wise to their musical heritage, and its potential for generating tourism visits and jobs.

Rio is the cradle of many musical styles but perhaps the most famed (and alas perhaps under-appreciated) is bossa nova. Bossa Nova grew out of samba in the 1950s. It was a distinct musical revolution which may have had an even greater impact outside of its birthplace had not the ´beat-boom´ of the early 60s taken place. What makes boss nova so uniquely attractive is not only the gentle, summer-invoking rhythms (Rio boasts of being the city that invented summer´) but the lyrics. Early bossa was basically poetry set to music.

Some of the bossa names and tunes are of course known world-wide; Tom Jobin and Vinicius de Moraes with ´The Girl from Ipanema´, and Óne Note Samba´, Sergio Mendez, João Gilberto, Luiz Bonfá, and the vocals of Elis Regina. Sinatra, Bennett and a host of others paid homage by covering Brazilian-written songs. Inevitably, given it was usually sung in Portuguese, many more composers and performers never made it big on the international stage.

A visit to Rio can now include an ´education´ and an enjoyable voyage of discovery through Bossa Nova history (and discovery of contemporary sounds) as buildings and sites important in bossa heritage are having plaques erected on them (with more promised). Most visitors here manage to find the Ipanema bar where Jobin famously wrote ´The Girl´ but other sites, especially in Copacabana, were in danger of disappearing so well done Rio.

If you take a very short ´plaque trail´ walk (to the rear of the Copacabana Palace, you past clubs, homes, and an excellent music specialist shop. The photo,above, of the plaque identifying the legendary street of clubs, ´Bottle Alley´, is the shop location. Nearby, there is the Baden Powell theatre (not the BP or the boy scouts, but a legendary bossa/sama musician, named after him ) where you can hear music nightly for a pittance. And on Coapacabana beach front there´s a statue to another great, Danilo Caymmi.

It´s forward thinking by a city that´s gearing up to host the World Cup and Olympics. What a pity the good burghers of other cities with musical heritage don´t have the same forward-thinking approach.

Death of a Long-serving Friend ...

And everywhere it’s the same; the forced closure of great record shops due to the ‘download revolution’.

Modern Sounds in Copacabana was an institution. As a retail outlet for CDs, old vinyl and even second-hand hi-fi, it was incomparable. It was a treasure trove; a light, spacious ground floor with case upon case of Brazilian and international music covering every genre, and a part-hidden vinyl basement to set the pulses racing! Add to the mix knowledgeable staff, headphone listening points and a fantastic café that regularly featured artists launching new product – with free attendance – and you get one of the world’s greatest ‘record stores’.

It’s no wonder that visiting stars from Madonna to Page would make Modern Sounds one of their first stops when in town.

And it has shut. Just like that. It was here in December, but it ain’t now. There should at least have been a wake.

RIP Modern Sounds, another victim to modern sound distribution chan

Andy Summers plays Rio

The history of collaborations between Latin and particularly Anglo-Saxon musicians goes way back to Carmen Miranda (she-of–the-fruit-headress), but it took off in the late 50s and early 60s with the advent of bossa nova and the incomparable Tom Jobim. In the early 70s London became the temporary home of ‘Tropicalia’ exiles Gilbeto Gill and Caetano Veloso, both influencing and being influenced by the exploding rock culture. And look out for interesting 80’s collaborations between Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) and Sergio Dias (Os Mutantes) on 1990´s album, ´Mato Grosso, and Manzanera produced the highly acclaimed album Severino from the Brazilian rock band Os Paralamas do Sucesso, which included a participation by Brian May. In more modern times rock’s aristocracy have turned up on Brazilian shores seeking inspiration, with many taking up part-time residence; amongst them Jimmy Page, the late Jim Capaldi, Wayne Hussey (The Mission), and Andy Summers of The Police.

A couple of nights ago I ventured out to catch the last in concert with one of Brazil’s greatest living bossa nova exponents, Roberto Mensecal. The gig was in a comparatively new venue here; the placa de mauai, a renovated warehouse in the somewhat threatening area of Rio’s docks, Unexpectedly, they were joined by the fantastic Marcus Valle and other well-know local musicians.

This was bossa-rock fusion of the most interesting kind. Imagine, if you will, ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Message in a Bottle’ done in bossa-nova style with just Summers on guitar accompanying vocalist Cris Delanno. And then imagine Summers as part of a three-man guitar line up with Valle and Menescal, performing bossa classics like Tom Jobin’s ‘Garota de Ipanema’ (Girl from Ipanema) and Chega de Saudade, Menescal’s own classic, ’Barquinho’ (Little Boat), and Valle’s Samba de Verao (Summer Samba).

Summers struggled with the heat and with his Portuguese but not with the music. His passion for the style, and respect of the history, was evident. The locals’ passion for The Police was equally evidenced by enthusiastic singing, and despite their being a relatively small crowd of approximately 250 souls, he was given a rousing ovation when the whole band encored with Every Breath you Take.

Actually, it’s one of the advantages of this town; you get to see bands and musicians cheaper and in much more intimate surroundings than you’d ever do ‘at home’. Worth the airfare, I’d say!

Bossa Nova affectionados, or simply the curios, will find it worthwhile investing in the DVD that this concert launched; ‘United Kingdom of Ipanema, Roberto Menescal convida Andy Summers’.

ROCK´n´ GOOOOOAL! Even Rio celebrates Rooney

The return of footballing superstar, Ronaldinho, from Barcelona to Flamengo (the Man U of Brasil) has dominated the headlines here recently in ‘Beckam-esque’ fashion. However, the sports pages for Sunday 13th January are full of Wayne Rooney’s wonder goal that proved the difference between Manchester United and Manchester City yesterday.

Perhaps the biggest praise is that of Lance, the daily football paper (yes, there is a paper dedicated solely to the beautiful game). The game reviewer plunders the lyrics of Jorge Ben’s ‘Filho Maravilha’ to find his superlatives. The original is in praise of Flamego´s 70´s wizz João Batista de Sales. Jorge celebrates a particular goal as being ´foi um gol de classe´ (was a goal of class), ´celestial em gooool´, a celestial goal, straight off the sweet-spot , a ´gol de placa´.

Jorge Ben has been one of Brazil’s greatest and most popular musicians for at least 50 years, writing in the process some of the country’s instantly recognizable songs. Infectious is perhaps the best word to describe his style. Two bars in at any concert and everybody is on their feet, and if possible on the stage with him. And I do mean two bars and everybody, as I once witnessed a bemused set of security men discover at London’s Barbican. Rod Stewart ‘nicked’ one of his toons, covering it inadequately as ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’.

Only in Brazil could a musician get away with making a complete album dedicated to football and its heroes – and it being an accepted classic. Rooney will probably remain blissfully unaware of the importance of this particular accolade. Que pena.

Check out the original on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO2RrNBKdeQ