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Hi, you're in the Archives, September 2008 - Part
2 |
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September
30, 2008 |
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WF’s
concert review department never sleeps!
While Nick was in Shanghai, it’s
fellow Malt Maniac and guest music
writer Luca Chichizola who sent us
this excellent review of a R.E.M.
gig in Torino… |
CONCERT
REVIEW by Luca Chichizola
R.E.M.
Isozaki Olympic Arena,
Torino, Italy, September 27th 2008 |
As
the fellow Maniacs probably have understood,
when it comes to travelling I am quite
a lazy person. I like to see places,
but I don’t like spending hours
on a plane, train or car… especially
if I have to travel alone. So when
some friend tells me that he travelled
500 Kms for attending to a concert
in some distant place, I don’t
feel much envy for him: in his place,
I wouldn’t have enjoyed the
show after such a long trip. |
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One
notable exception was my 2006 Depeche
Mode concert in Manchester, but that’s
another story… and after all,
it was Depeche Mode (sorry, Serge!).
So when after many years one of the
big names of rock comes to play in
my hometown… no, wait, not only
in my hometown, but right across the
street from my house, well…
missing the occasion would have been
a crime. |
There’s
been a time when I used to hate R.E.M.
(when they were constantly overexposed
on MTV) thinking they were boring
and overrated, and there’s been
a time when I suddenly found myself
loving them and listing them as one
of my favourite bands. Now I am no
longer exactly a fan like I used to,
but I still like their music: their
early “indie” albums from
the ‘80s still have a unique
charm, and their early-mid ‘90s
ones are great classics of my generation.
Sure, after drummer Bill Berry chose
to leave the band in 1995 some spark
was lost: what followed were a melancholy
and experimentally minimalist (but
also a bit boring) album, an enjoyable
but overproduced and slightly stale
one, and a complete misfire (“Around
the sun”, a yawner of epic proportions).
|
When
all hopes were lost, R.E.M. surprised
everyone this spring with the release
of “Accelerate”,
which sounded like the band had travelled
25 years back in time to recover their
post-punk/garage/indie rock band origins.
Eleven extremely short songs, mostly
fast-paced and tight, raw and energetic.
The critics raved and welcomed this
new burst of energy from the “old
timers”, sometimes even hinting
that this was one of their best albums
ever. In my opinion, it was a bit
of an exaggeration: “Accelerate”
sounds good and invigorating, but
it’s little more than a rehash
of the classic R.E.M. style. A competent
rehash, written and played with unexpected
enthusiasm, but not a masterpiece
like “Automatic for the people”,
“New adventures in Hi-Fi”,
their debut “Murmur” or
the underrated “Fables of the
reconstruction”. |
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As
expected, this concert would feature
many songs from “Accelerate”,
but what really attracted me was that
in all previous dates of the tour
R.E.M. had played lots of songs from
the old albums (including some that
they had almost never played live
in the past decade or even longer)
spanning their complete career from
1981 to 2008. Ok, I was sold: tickets,
please! |
After
a quick pizza (onions and gorgonzola
for me!) at home with my friends Umberto
and Manuela, we reached the PalaIsozaki:
it’s the biggest covered sports
arena in Italy, and it was built for
the 2006 Winter Olympics. As such,
it’s a very modern venue: a
shame that only few concerts took
place here so far (the only international
names up to yesterday were Pearl Jam,
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Ennio
Morricone), simply because the organizers
usually choose Milan for this kind
of events. Anyway, we took our seats
and waited for the support band (We
are the scientists, an indie group
I knew nothing of) to finish their
show. The audience seemed kind of
civilized, compared to other rock
shows I have seen: many middle aged
couples, quite a bit of grey hair,
some elegant and pretty young girls.
After all, R.E.M. are popular, but
their appeal seems to strike a chord
mostly in free-thinking liberals,
well-educated and generally “quiet”
people (no, not exactly “nerds”,
although there sure was quite a bunch
of them). No traces of long haired
bikers, or of funny faces like the
straight-out-of-the-Addams-family
goths I had in front of me at the
Depeche Mode concert I mentioned above.
Good, a nice relaxing evening, then…
but also some sort of a (visually)
boring audience. |
Anyway,
the concert starts on time at 21:05,
immediately revving up at full speed:
the band is hot and lively, performing
with the usual great enthusiasm. The
result is that the first song (“Living
well is the best revenge”, from
their last album) kicks some serious
ass, as do the following ones: an
old favourite like “Begin the
begin”, that great electric
rocker called “What’s
the frequency, Kenneth?” and
the equally loud and gritty “I
took your name”. Wow, the age
of R.E.M. ranges from 48 (singer Michael
Stipe) to 52 (guitarist Peter Buck),
but they still can pack a punch! The
music is vibrant and youthful as ever,
and Stipe (dressed very elegantly
in a coat and tie) dances around the
stage with his unmistakeable jerky
and disjointed but graceful movements.
No time is wasted in talk except for
a “Grazie!” at the end
of every song, and then the train
keeps rolling at full speed. Even
slower songs like “The great
beyond” are played in a slightly
faster and more dynamic version than
in the albums, and the audience soon
warms up. Maybe the political references
to the incoming American elections
(Stipe is a passionate democrat) are
wasted for an Italian audience, but
it’s very nice nonetheless to
hear a live performance of old vitriolic
classics like “Ignoreland”
and “Exhuming McCarthy”. |
And
the show goes on, at a frantic pace:
only the choice of the very minor
and little-known “Animal”
seems completely out of place, while
it’s a great pleasure to hear
old gems like “Driver 8”…
and even a little throwaway song like
the recent “I’m gonna
DJ” becomes a thumping and thunderous
arena rocker when played live. At
the middle of the show, while Peter
Buck keeps being his usual impassible
self and Mike Mills just smiles, Stipe
starts getting a bit talkative: he
chats with the audience, recalls funny
anecdotes of the last time he came
in Torino as a tourist, jokes on how
tired the band is after such a tour
and how coming to Italy has a nice
relaxing effect on them (maybe thanks
to the food and wine?). And then they
start playing again with the same
passion… “She just wants
to be” ends with some very energetic
electric guitar soloing, much better
than in the studio version, and “The
one I love” sets the audience
on fire singing along with Stipe during
the chorus. Not only that, but the
members of the Italian fanclub start
waving sheets of paper with the silhouette
of a naked woman… a clear homage
to Peter’s Rickenbacker
360 guitar that was recently stolen
(and then luckily “found”
again) after a concert in Helsinki.
A very loved guitar, as Buck started
playing it in 1982 on their debut
album and never replaced it: very
fitting that the homage from the audience
was staged during “The one I
love”!!! |
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After
sixteen songs, the pace slows down
and becomes meditative: first with
“Until the day is done”,
and then with a touching acoustic
version of Kurt Cobain’s homage
“Let me in” with all the
band gathered around the piano: so
much better and more intimate than
the distorted and buzzing album version!
After this lovely moment, it’s
time to rock back again with four
more songs: as predictable, the highlight
is the final one, a rousing version
of the anti-military “Orange
crush”, with the audience clapping
thunderously in pace with the marching
rhythm. |
The
band then leaves the stage without
further notice, but on the projection
screens a sheet of paper appears and
a hand scribbles “Encores?”,
at which of course the audience reacts
with ominous screaming, clapping and
stomping of the feet. And so here
they come back on stage, to perform
their recent single “Supernatural
superserious” and then some
of their all-time favourites: “Losing
my religion”, a superbly fast
and dynamic version of “Walk
unafraid”, the unmissable arena
rocker “It’s the end of
the world (and I feel fine)”
and of course the usual lively rendition
of “Man on the moon”.
What a great way to end a concert:
they had never really lost steam for
27 songs in approximately two hours,
but the encores were really a treat! |
Overall
the concert was very satisfactory:
sure, the acoustics of these sports
arenas are never top notch and Michael
Stipe’s voice sounded a bit
distant during the louder songs, and
I personally feel that the arrangements
would have been more effective and
clean if Buck had been the only guitar
player, without the backing from an
additional musician. Stipe did his
best to make the show involving: perhaps
his stage presence is not as commanding
as some other lead singers, but no
reason to complain. |
 |
The
choice of songs was interesting: apart
from the handful of landmark classics
and from the cuts from the new album,
the setlist was accurately compiled
to include some almost forgotten gems.
Not the usual “best of”
singles to please the casual fans:
on the other hand, a wide array of
great songs which only the TRUE fans
love (and as a matter of fact often
love even MORE than the hit singles).
Personally I would have loved to hear
some stuff from their first two albums,
maybe even “Gardening at night”,
or some more songs from “New
adventures in Hi-Fi” because
they are perfect live material due
to their raw edge… but, again,
complaining about such an extensive
and at times unexpected setlist would
be unfair. |
Good
job Michael, Mike and Peter…
and see you (hopefully) soon in Torino
again! - Luca Chichizola |
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TASTING
– TWO 14yo ABERLOURS |
Aberlour
1989/2004 (56.8%, James MacArthur,
Old Master, cask # 12198)
Colour: white wine. Nose: rather spirity,
yeasty and fruity (porridge, apples
and pears), with a little smoke and
hints of coffee and milk chocolate.
Typical young Speysider without much
cask influence. With water: gets extremely
porridgy. Ensilage and yoghurt. Mouth
(neat): pure apple and pear juice
with a little cinnamon. Hints of bubblegum,
jelly beans… Slight grassy sourness.
With water: more of the same but with
a better balance. Added grassy notes.
Finish: long, on cider apples and
white pepper. Comments: not particularly
interesting I‘d say but perfectly
quaffable, why not with ginger tonic.
SGP:431 – 78 points. |
Aberlour
14 yo 1992/2008 (58.2%, OB for LMDW,
casks 235/8641, 150 bottles)
A vatting of first fill bourbon and
sherry. Colour: amber. Nose: it’s
the sherry that plays the first part
here, with rather heady notes of peonies
and orange liqueur but the bourbon
wood is well here as well, with quite
some vanilla and whiffs of newly sawn
oak. Maybe a bit brutal, let’s
add water right away. With water:
gets much more complex, with very
nice notes of palo cartado this time.
Balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, slight
beefiness, walnuts and Havana cigar.
Way nicer with water! Mouth (neat):
funny how it’s more the bourbonny
side that strikes first on the palate,
with a huge spiciness and quite some
vanilla. Pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg
and tea tannins. With water: less
development than on the nose, the
rather heavy woodiness still dominates
a bit. Coffee dregs, cinnamon, walnuts,
roasted haelnuts and tobacco. Finish:
long, rather balanced but a tad drying.
Comments: another modern-style single
mal, very well made but with a rather
huge oak influence. Very good but
at 139 Euros for a 14yo, one may prefer
the best batches of A’bunadh.
SGP:452 – 87 points. |
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September
29, 2008 |
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TASTING
– TWO BRORAS |
Brora
22 yo 1983/2005 (50%, Douglas Laing
OMC, Sherry butt, DL566, 224 bottles)
1983 is an interesting vintage at
Brora’s because after quite
some years of relative ‘unpeatiness’,
we’ve always found the 1983’s
to be quite peaty, as if the old distillery
had willed to send a phenolic farewell
to the world before being closed down
for good. Colour: amber with salmony
hues. Nose: beautiful at first sniffs,
extremely smoky and sort of ‘sooty’,
with very big notes of gunpowder (like
when you smell the barrel of a gun
that was just shot). All that settles
down a bit after one minute or two,
leaving more room for some fine sherry
notes. Chocolate, blackcurrant jam,
orange marmalade, butter and ginger.
These notes’ youthfulness may
suggest more a finishing than full
maturing but I’m most probably
wrong. Anyway, this Brora is very
“dual’, pure smoke on
one side, pure sherry on the other
side. Very, very big dram. Mouth:
yes, very big, with the sherry striking
first this time (jars and jars of
orange marmalade) and the smokiness
trying to keep up. Notes of very strong
black tea, liquorice, salmiak, toffee
and prunes, with also quite some pepper
and cinnamon. Rough and explosive.
Finish: very long, even more concentrated,
with even heavier notes of liquorice.
Comments: quite monstrous if we may
say so. Spectacular in any case, not
for the fainthearted (as they say).
SGP:666 (devilish
indeed) – 88 points. |
Brora
25 yo (56.3%, OB, 3,000 bottles, 2008)
Exit our beloved 30yo, here comes
the new 25yo! Colour: pale gold. Nose:
this is more delicate than the 1983,
which suggests an earlier vintage(s).
The smoke is sort of shier but also
more elegant, the whole being more
complex for sure. At random we get
notes of fresh bitter almonds (quite
a lot), white wine (Sauvignon), wet
leaves and mushrooms (a walk through
the trees, really), cloves and ginger,
smoked tea (lapsang souchong)…
Gets then a little fruitier (ripe
apples and pears), grassier and even
a tad mustardy. With water: gets a
bit farmier (wet hay) and maritime
as well (drying kelp on the beach),
with also hints of fresh mint. Mouth
(neat): starts unexpectedly fruity
(granny smith) but it’s soon
to get rather smokier, with big notes
of fresh walnuts and crystallised
lemon zests together with hints of
liquorice, horseradish and green pepper.
Gets then grassier and “pleasantly
acrid”, if you see what I mean.
With water: it’s here that it
gets closer to the 30yo’s, with
the kind of ‘majestic austerity’
that we like so much in most Broras.
It is to be wondered if they didn’t
sort of ‘dope’ this one
with one or two casks of older spirit.
Just a wild guess! Finish: long, grassy,
smokier now, with these very idiosyncratic
notes of mustard and salt in the aftertaste.
Comments: we had feared that the new
25 would not hold a candle to the
30; we were wrong. But please give
it time and, most importantly, don’t
forget to add a few drops of water
to it to unleash its full ‘Broraness’.
SGP:265 - 90 points. |
PETE
McPEAT AND JACK WASHBACK |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: If you’re not against
highly repetitive extragalactic electronica
(or whatever they call this), you
may have a go at Tranquilizer.mp3
by Jon Marshall aka Fat
Jon, The Ample Soul Physician,
and then buy his music (thanks for
the tip, Arthur) |
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September
28, 2008 |
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TASTING
- TWO LIGHTLY PEATED ARDBEGS |
Ardbeg
'Blasda' (40%, OB, 2008)
‘Not a true Ardbeg’, ‘why
only 40%?’, ‘too expensive’,
‘weird sounding name’…
What didn’t we already hear
or read about this new version! But
as always, the (well, our) truth will
be in the glass… By the way,
one can read on Ardbeg’s website
that it’s ‘peated to an
average of just 8 parts per million
phenol (8ppm) compared to the more
usual 24ppm.’ Ah, we had thought
the regular Ardbegs were peated to
55ppm, unless they’re talking
about the phenols in the spirit, which
would mean that the Blasda’s
ppm in the malted barley would rather
be around 15, which wouldn’t
be too far from Bowmore’s (+/-20ppm).
Pure speculation, eh! But enough ramblings,
let’s try it… Colour:
white wine. Nose: gentle and a tad
shy but oddly enough, the first things
we get are peat smoke, ashes and soot.
Gets then rather lemony, extremely
clean and fresh, with notes of lemon
balm, green apples and kiwi. Also
used matches and quite some iodine.
Anybody expecting a virtually unpeated
Ardbeg will be disappointed here!
Mouth: rather light but not weak,
at least at the attack. Quite some
peat again, and then the very same
notes as on the nose (green apples,
quite some smoke, lemon…) Too
bad the middle is weaker, it really
drops… Finish: short to medium,
fresh as a baby’s mouth, with
an interesting return on full peat
in the aftertaste. Comments: again,
there’s quite a lot of peat
and it’s very, very good whisky,
but it would have deserved to be bottled
at 45 or 46% in my opinion. Somewhat
lacking body on the palate. SGP:336
– 83 points. |
Ardbeg
1981/2005 'Kildalton' (52.6%, OB,
5ml from 'The Peat Pack')
This one never came as a ‘full
bottle’. We really liked the
earlier 1980/2004 version a lot (90).
Colour: gold. Nose: extremely unusual,
starting on bold notes of cocoa and
tinned sardines. I’m not joking.
Then there’s quite some vanilla,
herbal tea (more like camomile), yoghurt
and lemon juice. Very far from displaying
the Blasda’s cleanliness on
the nose, and certainly much less
peaty. Gets finally more ‘Ardbeg’,
with more maritime notes (not only
sardines, yeah, yeah), a little tar
and more green apples than in the
Blasda. A tad bizarre, sort of ‘undecided’.
Whiffs of menthol do come through
after a few minutes. Mouth: good body
and good mouth feel, creamy and lemony
but with also some weird notes of
C-vitamin tablets, Sprite, wood tannins…
Not my cup of malt at all. Fast forward…
Finish: long but prickly and lemony.
Ginger ale, gin fizz. Comments: we
liked the 1980 a lot, but we don’t
like this 1981 too much, even if the
nose was very okay. The Blasda is
much better – and peatier -
in our book. SGP:433 –
77 points. |
Bonus:
Ardbeg 'Corryvreckan' (57.1%, OB Committee
2008, 5000 bottles)
It was about time we published our
own notes for this baby! In case you
don’t know, the Corrywreckan
is a huge whirlpool that one can sometimes
hear when on Islay. We heard it once,
in any case. Colour: full gold. Nose:
yes! We don’t want to sound
like f*****g purists but Ardbeg is
better at making Ardbeg. There’s
as much smoke, iodine, tar, wet wool,
wet clay, oysters and fresh walnuts
as possible in whisky. With water:
even wilder, with unexpected notes
of green olives. And we love green
olives… Mouth (neat): even better
than on the nose. Very thick, very
creamy, peaty, lemony, kumquatty (wot?),
bergamotty (hey?) and rather salty.
Prototypically Ardbeg, kind of a bigger
Airigh Nam Beist. With water: just
sumptuous. Probably one of the best
young Ardbegs we ever tried (we take
it for granted that it’s not
an old Ardbeg.) Finish: as long as
a Fidel speech. Amazing peat/pepper
combo. Comments: a winner despite
its slight roughness. SGP:369
– 92 points. |
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MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: Peru's very brilliant
Susana
Baca singing a sad but
soulful Maria
Lando.mp3 (from The Soul Of Black
Peru, 1995). South Anerican pathos...
Please buy Susana Baca's works... |
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September
27, 2008 |
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CONCERT
REVIEW by Nick Morgan
FESTIVAL SPECIAL:
THE RHYTHM FESTIVAL - Part Two |
Twinwood
Arena, Bedford, August 29th, 20th
& 31st, 2008. |

The
Saw Doctors |
There’s
nothing quite like being woken up
by the gentle “psssssst”
of a ring-pull being lovingly teased
from the first can of the day, is
there? It’s Sunday, it’s
been raining most of the night, and
Scrumpy Jack and Scrumpy Pete are
getting fuelled up for the day ahead
while reviewing the previous evening.
|
Actually
it’s just Pete – Jack’s
inside their van cooking up a mess
of breakfast. “I said, those
Saw
Doctors were shite. Irish folk
music bollocks. I mean, what you need
is a real rock band with attitude
to get the crowd going. Like the Levellers.
They’re good. No, two eggs,
three sausages. Black pudding. Where
are the other cans? By the way, did
you ever figure out why your Shirley
left you? I’ve never got why
Maureen walked out on me. Any fried
bread?” |
It
has to be said that the Doctors (the
self-styled “Irish super group”)
can polarise opinions, although what
was masquerading for a mosh seemed
lively enough. |
I’d been dragged there on pain
of not enjoying myself otherwise by
the Photographer, who as it happens
had spent much of the afternoon seeking
Doctors guitarist and singer Leo Moran.
Down there, it was Gaelic Football
shirts, waving arms, “to be
sures”, and tuneless singing
along. The set was the usual stuff,
to be sure: all safe, no surprises,
included the truly awful ‘Chips’
(“vinegar tears, salt in my
wounds and the ketchup like my poor
bleeding heart …”) and
a brief tribute to Glen Miller (I
did mention that he made his last,
and of course fateful, flight from
here, didn’t I?). |

Leo
Moran and fan |
But
the crowd, to be sure, were loving
all of it – all of it except
the thoroughly inconsiderate video
cameraman that is, clearly some third-rate
amateur who’d never worked at
a gig before. Who the jerk was I don’t
know, but most of us spent more time
looking at his arse than at the band
(not by choice), until the Doctors’
management managed to get him off
the stage. It was almost enough to
ask for a rebate on the price of our
tickets, to be sure. Of course, Jozzer,
who’d just turned up for the
day with Trizza, had a characteristically
contrary, yet sober and thoughtfully-crafted
opinion. |
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He
wrote as follows: “ …the
Saw Doctors catalogue is riddled with
small-town jingoism at its worst.
Mundane, one-paced and shallow pap.
Singing about the stars in the night
skies over some nothing town in Eire
doesn't work for me…the lead
singer would be OK busking - ideally
in a small town in Eire. The drummer
made Animal from the Muppets seem
like a sensitive, talented percussionist.
The preening lead guitarist had no
idea how talented he was. If you're
around my age, you'll remember The
Barron Knights, an 'hilarious' group
of buffoons who used to parody current
hits - with about 3% of the wit and
charm of Weird Al Jankovic. |
When
the Saws all swapped instruments during
a number, I yearned for the comedic
genius that was The Barron Knights.
The culmination of the Saws' act was,
of course, a medley of their hit.
When it came I wasn't sure it had,
until the stargazers around me went
even more delirious. I could Google
it now. But I really can't be bothered.
And by the time I came to write it
up I'd have forgotten it. It's that
sort of song. If only the Saws had
come from Skibbereen, it would have
been moderately more amusing and hopefully
more difficult to write songs about.”
Ouch, to be sure! |
|
A
sun drenched Saturday... |
We
were agreed upon Saturday afternoon’s
sun-drenched set by an unusually garrulous
Jah
Wobble (who pointedly refuses
to have any ‘friends’
on his Myspace page), who performed
a crowd-pleasing set drawn from his
extensive dub-drenched oeuvre, and
in a very unassuming way provided
the musical highlight of the day,
if not the weekend. |
With
Neville Murray on percussion, Clive
Bell on pipes and all sorts of stuff,
Chris Cookson on mesmerising guitar,
vocalist Liz Carter (?), they featured
some of Wobble’s English Folk
song material, and tunes such as ‘Visions
of you’. Towards the end he
reintroduced Mrs Wobble who’d
been on the stage for the first two
pieces: “Oi oi, here’s
the missus, so we’ll do some
more of that Chinese dub stuff.”
Mrs W was playing, with some dexterity,
the Guxheng, or Chinese zither, the
instrument at the heart of Wobble’s
latest venture, named imaginatively
‘Chinese Dub’. He’s
been touring this during the summer
with a Chinese orchestra, singers
and face-changing dancers, to rave
reviews. And despite an occasional
studied indifference to the audience,
Wobble’s playing, like the band’s,
was of the very highest order, not
least on his encore (“Would
you like some English folk music played
in a curiously good way, or a 7-4
groove thing?” he asked the
audience). We got the groove thing,
complex, hypnotic, and something that
even Robert
Fripp would have been proud of.
One point to note – for all
his maverick sensibilities, Mr Wobble
left the festival ground driving a
battered grey Ford Mondeo. I might
have hoped for something more. |
 |
We’d
also witnessed on Saturday a less-than-impressive
set from a moody Delroy
Williams, former backing singer
and agent to Desmond Dekker, with
a set of fairly well-played but badly-sung
(“he’s so flat he should
be making pancakes” said Jozzer)
reggae standards, ranging from Dekker’s
‘007’ to ‘The tide
is high’. |
And following Jah Wobble the rowdy
Mike
Sanchez Band who worked the audience
pretty well with some tight boogie-woogie
playing. Just right for six-thirty
in the evening. The Pretty Things,
who were also victims of the comedic
cameraman, demonstrated that for all
their reputation of supposed menace,
they were really never anything more
than a good quality R&B covers
band, reminding me of the shameless
propensity of many sixties bands to
rip off the work of US blues artists.
Of all the Festival acts they also
seemed the worst mixed. And before
the Doctors took to the stage, we’d
observed the distressing sight of
a pair of septuagenarians - one with
a hearing aid - grooving out to Stackridge’s
opening number on the Alternative
Stage in their Zimmer frames, exotic
cigarettes in hands (I’m not
making it up). Shouldn’t they
all be being looked after somewhere? |
|

Mike
Sanchez |
First
of the British bands on Sunday were
Ricky
Cool and the Hoola Boola Boys.
With his unlikely haircut and painfully
irrepressible good humour, Ricky probably
wasn’t quite what the damp crowd
needed, struggling as they were to
come to terms with the previous night’s
hangover and the morning’s first
three or four pints. |
|
Ricky
Cool (L) - Beer stocks dwindle!
(R) |
Up
on the Alternative Stage, Juicy
Lucy played to what I swear was
the same crowd, now atrophied, that
had been watching Stackridge on Saturday.
Not even the voluminous guitar of
Mr Fish, echoing from his Marshall
stacks (yes – Marshall stacks!)
in an attempt to cover for the absent
and sadly invalided front man Ray
Owens, could rouse them from their
deathly torpor. Indeed the only real
sign of movement was from the bar,
as beer stocks around the site began
to run low and speculators started
stacking up in advance of a shortage.
And sadly we missed Geno Washington
due to “an administrative error”.
The
Zombies touring band played the
main stage, fronted by Colin Blunstone
and Rod Argent, and turned in a pretty
lively set, comprising a small selection
from Odessey and Oracle, and then
a mixture of their hits and Argent’s.
Unwittingly they facilitated one of
the nicest moments of the weekend
when guitarist Keith Airey ripped
into the lead riff of ‘God gave
rock and roll to you’, when
for the first time in three days the
much-put-upon young and very hard-working
stage crew burst into huge grins of
recognition and barely-restrained
air guitar. |
It
wasn’t long after this, as far
as I could tell, that the beer ran
out, causing consternation all round.
We watched the excellent Richie Havens
and then as the rain fell retired
to the Whiskyfun Festival van, as
the tones of Nine
Below Zero battled against the
downpour. And even Scrumpy Jack and
Scrumpy Pete seemed somewhat subdued
by the rain when they returned later
to finish off their nightcap of a
few twelve packs and a packet of peanuts.
And despite part-promoter Jim Driver’s
cheery optimism, how this nicely-conceived
event can run again next year I fail
to see. Some bands didn’t show
up, others seemed pretty miserable,
many of the facilities were not as
described, the food was very poor,
the beer ran out, the security guards
were somewhat heavy-handed, and the
crowd was as sparse as last year –
albeit they were all having fun. Next
year – well, let’s see.
- Nick Morgan (photographs by
Kate and Nick).
|

Colin
Blunstone and Rod Argent |
Listen:
Jah
Wobble's MySpace page |
Kate's
gig photo album  |
 |
TASTING
– TWO INVERLEVEN |
Inverleven
30 yo 1978/2008 (50.6%, From Huntly
to Paris, Duncan Taylor for LMDW,
cask #1876, 212 bottles)
Duncan Taylor already issued quite
few excellent Inverlevens from 1977,
1978 and 1979 and it seems that the
stocks aren’t exhausted yet.
Good news! Colour: pale gold. Nose:
starts slightly smoky (wood) but is
soon to get very lemony, almondy and
herbal. Lemon squash, verbena, fresh
butter, ashes and lemon balm. Another
‘riesling’ whisky, so
to speak. Very fresh at first nosing
but gets then maybe a bit more spirity,
simpler and oakier. Maybe water will
revive it? With water: yes it worked,
the whole getting now rather beautifully
austere. Grass, wood ashes, rubbed
lemon skin and almond milk plus notes
of lily of the valley. Mouth (neat):
rather concentrated, fruity and almost
sugary, all on lemon drops and icing
sugar, with a few tannins from the
wood flying around. Not too complicated
but rather pleasant, except that it
does taste rather younger than 30yo.
With water: more spices from the wood
(ginger, white pepper) and more citrusy
notes (grapefruits). Finish: medium
long, mid-herbal and mid-citrusy.
Comments: fresh and clean, an anti-peat
and/or sherry monster. SGP:461
– 85 points. |
Inverleven
29 yo 1979/2008 (56.2%, Duncan Taylor,
Rarest of the Rare, cask #5666)
Colour: gold. Nose: we’re quite
close to the 1978 a first nosing but
the whole gets then much more bourbonny
and vanilled, with hints of orangeade,
bubblegum and strawberry drops in
the background. It’s almost
as if it was an 8 yo malt. With water:
oh, now it smells just like some oak-matured
Vicks Vaporub! (didn’t you say
no ads, Serge?) Gets back to bubblegum
after that. Mouth (neat): thicker
and richer than the 1978 when undiluted,
with a better oakiness (notes of curry,
green tea, a bit of varnish, vanilla…)
Very pleasant notes of orange blossom
water (oriental pastries.) With water:
really resembles the 1978 now, only
quite woodier. Finish: ditto. Maybe
a tad drying, but there are always
these pleasant notes of strawberries.
Comments: another very good old Inverleven,
but my all-time fav is still cask
#1878 by the same bottler. SGP:441
– 84 points. |
|
September
26, 2008 |
|
 |
 |
TASTING
TWO
50yo+ GLEN GRANT |
Glen
Grant 50 yo (40%, Gordon & MacPhail
'Book of Kells', +/-2008)
From a refill butt. Colour: deep amber.
Nose: rather expressive but not really
explosive, starting on roasted chestnuts,
chocolate and orange liqueur, with
quite some wood in the background.
Far from being plankish, that is.
Goes on with more winey notes such
as strawberry and raspberry jams with
also hints of fresh mint and something
slightly toasted and smoky. Gets quieter
after a moment, loosing a bit of steam
but with also more minty notes. Also
hints of verbena, almond milk and
whiffs of empty wine barrel. Very
elegant altogether but not a big dram.
Mouth: a rather dry and oaky attack,
maybe lacking some body even if the
general profile is very pleasant.
Chestnut crème, bergamot and
caramel plus nutmeg and cinnamon (loads).
Thinnish middle, alas. Finish: not
too long, as expected, but balanced
and clean, with no overly woody tones
(but quite some tannins). Hints of
salt as the signature. Comments: I
don’t know how this one would
have been, had it been bottled at
a higher strength, but at 40% it’s
a bit thin on the palate. Fading away?
SGP:231 – 84 points. |
Glen
Grant 1955/2008 (50%, Gordon &
MacPhail for LMDW, cask #844, 87 bottles)
From a first fill sherry hogshead.
Colour: mahogany. Nose: this is completely
different. Much bigger, richer, with
quite some oak again (varnish) but
also loads of dried fruits, walnut
liqueur, orange marmalade, angelica
and unusual hints of chalk in the
background. Gets then immensely chocolaty,
smelling almost like, err, a whole
chocolate shop. Almost like pure chocolate
liqueur mixed with raspberry ganache
for a while, getting finally back
to more ‘walnutty’ notes,
with a beautiful dryness and hints
of beef bouillon and soy sauce. Amazingly
alive at 53 years of age, but the
sherry does a large part of the job.
Mouth: big tannins with various herbs
and a big spiciness. Green tea, mastic,
marzipan, dried cardamom, white pepper,
chives, oregano (very unusual in whisky
methinks) and peppered chocolate.
Gets drier and drier, with little
fruitiness except orange zests. Big
oak. Finish: long and very oaky and
tannic, with quite some ginger and
rather huge notes of thyme and pine
needles (ever ate some?) Comments:
for lovers of ‘good but heavy’
oakiness. Very, very good globally
but we liked the nose better than
the palate. SGP:362 –
88 points. |
 |
STEPHANE
THE MAD MALT MIXOLOGIST
proposes
his Autumnal malt cocktails
Cocktail
#2:
"Berries
and Nuts" |
Pour
into a whisky tumbler:
- 8 cl Macallan 12 yo sherry
- 1 cl crème de myrtilles (blueberry
liqueur)
- 1 cl crème de marrons (chestnut
liqueur)
- 1 dash Amaretto
Add 2 or 3 ice cubes, stir and decorate
with one lemon slice, a little winegrape
and any autumnal berries and nuts.
Variants: You may
use other sherry-typed malts instead
of the Macallan, e.g. Glenfarclas,
Glendronach...
For more intense sensations, try also
the Macallan 10 yo cask strength. |
 |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: let's have some very minimal
yet delicate piano playing by Marilyn
Crispell (with Gary Peacock
and Paul Motian), here doing Annette
Peacock's Open,
to love.mp3.Quite exceptional
methinks, please buy Marilyn Crispell's
music, even if (or because) it's sometimes
a bit challenging. |
 |
|
September
25, 2008 |
|
 |
 |
TASTING
– TWO OLD BOWMORE |
Bowmore
36 yo 1972/2008 (48.8%, The Prestonfield
for LMDW, cask #3881, 565 bottles)
We’ve very fond memories of
a 1965 Bowmore and of an earlier 1972
in the same series, so no need to
say that we’ve got high expectations
here. Colour: gold. Nose: an exceptional
start on cappuccino and toasted cake,
then gunpowder and grapefruits, then
coal smoke and green tea, with a constant
waxiness in the background (lemon
scented candles.) Notes of wet wool,
bitter oranges, ‘new leather’
and earl grey tea (very obvious here).
Absolutely typical of these vintages
when Bowmore got less exuberantly
fruity and rather smokier as well.
Beautiful grassiness (uncooked asparagus).
Much less wham-bam than the Bowmores
from the 1960’s and rather austere
in fact, but wonderfully complex.
Mouth: starts peatier and smokier
globally, maybe just a tad cardboardy
at the attack but getting rather cleaner
and more in line with the beautiful
nose after that. Lemon zests and marmalade,
grapefruit, barley sugar, faint hints
of violet sweets (very good here),
very ripe redcurrants, then pepper,
salt… The whole isn’t
really big but very complex indeed.
Needs time. Finish: medium long, on
something like smoked lemons, should
that exist. Quite some nutmeg as well
and maybe just hints of cardboard
again. Comments: one of the best of
the vintage, mid-peated. Needs attention
and concentration, that is. SGP:535
– 91 points. |
Bowmore
43 yo 1964 'White Bowmore' (42.8%,
OB, 732 bottles, 2008)
After the legendary ‘Blacks’,
here’s the new ‘White’,
assembled from six bourbon casks (retails
for 3,300 Euros a bottle). Colour:
gold, not white (but white wine isn’t
white either, is it?) Nose: amazing,
in seven letters. Fantabulous notes
of tropical fruits (where to start?
Mangos, grapefruits, passion fruits,
kiwis, god knows what else…)
mingling with a very ‘Indian’
blend of spices. Cardamom, caraway,
ground ginger, nutmeg, green curry…
Stunning, really. There’s also
these very maritime notes (kelp, iodine,
wet beach) and these floral ones (lilies
and peonies, beautifully heady here.)
An amazing whisky – no, rather
a perfume from the very best makers’.
Mouth: frankly, I had thought it would
all happen on the nose, but it’s
not the case at all. Superb attack
all on passion fruits (my mum would
say “buy passion fruits, it’s
cheaper”) and then mastic-flavoured
Turkish delights, a little roasted
argan oil, lemon pie, all kinds of
soft spices, high-end lemon squash
and, as expected, notes of oak, with
a very pleasant and subtle bitterness
as a signature. And there’s
well a little peat lingering somewhere…
Finish: probably not extremely bold
but amazingly clean and straightforward
for a short while, getting then very
subtle and complex again. Whispers,
but whispers for a very, very long
time... … … Comments:
is this an “anti Black Bowmore”?
Probably, as it’s very subtle,
complex and maybe sometimes a tad
‘diaphanous’ but always
very wonderful. And what a nose! The
epitome of elegance as far as whisky
is concerned. I’d even dare
to write that it’s (almost)
worth its heavy price tag. SGP:644
- 95 points. |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: Trans-global
Underground's first
CDs and very big sound had really
impressed me when they came out
ten years ago or so. Their lyrics
as well ('Let's swing with this
thing' - yeah!) Let's listen to
the very joyous Delta
Disco.mp3 again and then buy
their music if we didn't already.
|
 |
|
September
24, 2008 |
|
 |
 |
STEPHANE
THE MAD MALT MIXOLOGIST
proposes
his Autumnal malt cocktails
Cocktail
#1:
"Peaty
Martini" |
Pour
into a shaker, with ice:
- 6 cl Bunnahabhain Toiteach
- 1 cl dry vermouth
Shake, then strain into a cocktail
glass. Drop one olive stuffed with
anchovies and one little vinegar onion.
Decorate with one pickle, one onion,
one tomato slice, and maybe one little
chunk of smoked ham or even a shrimp...
for hungry people!
Variants: substitute
the Bunna with any other young peaty
malt of your choice, dry, vegetal,
bourbon-typed rather than sherry.
E.g. young Caol Ila or Bowmore, or
other versions of young peaty Bunnahabhains
(by Signatory and so on).
You may also add one dash of lime
juice. |
 |
In
the series "the bands we just
know nothing about at WF", here's
a very interesting new CD review by
MM's Luca. |
CD
REVIEW by Luca
METALLICA - DEATH MAGNETIC
Elektra
Records/Warner |
This
might be a biased review, as I have
grown as a teenager listening repeatedly
to the first four groundbreaking Metallica
albums… Metallica in my opinion
have practically invented the thrash/speed
metal genre in the early ‘80s,
reaching unprecedented heights in
fury, anger, energy but also in musicianship.
These guys were stylish and creative
even when playing the fastest, heaviest
and most brutal songs: below the grittiness
there always was extremely solid composition
and structure, a great taste for an
epic sound and even for introspection. |
 |
Their debut “Kill’em all”
was raw and unpolished (though invigorating
and infectious), and with the eerie
“Ride the lightning” and
the punchy “Master of puppets”
they reached perfection: two milestone
metal albums, as influential today
as twenty years ago. “And justice
for all” was a bit too over-elaborate
but still a masterful record, while
the following “Metallica”
(the “Black album”) already
showed some signs of decline. While
excellently crafted and inventive,
it was clearly targeted at a larger
audience: some ballads, a mellower
and catchier “MTV-friendly”
sound which would appeal even to casual
listeners. |
Nothing
bad in this, if it weren’t that
this new commercial approach (courtesy
of producer Bob Rock) went slightly
out of hand with the following two
albums. “Load” and “Reload”
were very slick and polished, almost
overproduced, but also very ordinary,
disposable and often uninspired southern
hard-rock albums, almost devoid of
thrash metal influences. Listenable
and with a handful of genuinely good
tracks, but horribly unfocused and
heavy to digest as a whole. The albums
sold very well, but longtime fans
were appalled. A feeling which was
possibly even made worse by the release
of “St. Anger”, an album
which effectively was a 100% return
to heavy metal, but which also was
unabashedly and even deliberately
UGLY. Ugly in sound (those awful tin
can drums…), ugly in mood and
themes, ugly and repetitive in songwriting,
ugly in its relentless buzzing aggressiveness.
Raw and uncompromising… but
also barely listenable: only twice
have I bravely stood to listening
to that album from start to finish
in a single session. So forgive me
if my expectations for “Death
magnetic” were low, even if
the band had promised a true return
to form and to their classic stripped-down
sound thanks to the new producer Rick
Rubin (a name which should ring some
bells). |
The
tracklisting is consistently good,
with many songs exceeding the seven
minutes mark like in old times: a
sign that they have returned to the
traditional complex metal structures
instead of throwaway radio friendly
songs? Well, sort of: the approach
is certainly no-prisoners-taken trash
metal almost from start to finish,
with a couple of slower moments and
the welcome return of a healthy dose
of totally crazed virtuoso solos from
the great Kirk Hammett (who had unfortunately
never been allowed his signature style
in “St. Anger”) plus some
classical/Spanish acoustic guitar
bits like in the best tracks from
their earlier albums. But it must
also be said that the album is lacking
in powerhouse songs like “For
whom the bell tolls”, “Master
of puppets”, “Damage Inc.”,
“Battery”, “Sanitarium”,
“One” or other equally
legendary classics. On the contrary,
it focuses on fast, powerful and very
skilled but somewhat all similar songs:
all equally pleasant, angry, headbanging
and very tasty, but without peaks
of true genius. |
Not
to mention the lyrics: not always
inspired, which can also be said of
James’ voice… he still
sounds passionate in what he does,
but perhaps not as convincing, powerful
and spotless like 20 years ago. Same
must be said about Lars Ulrich’s
drumming: bombastic, lightning fast
and frantic, he does sound
better than in St. Anger
but stills lacks creativity and finesse.
But after all, lack of subtlety has
always been his real shortcoming from
the very beginning of the band. |
 |
Some
tracks do stand out, indeed: “The
end of the line” is hard, bluesy
and quite exciting, and “The
day that never comes” starts
out melodic, touching and mellower
than other songs on the album before
turning absolutely frantic and furious.
“All nightmare long” is
another fine cut: fast and aggressive,
with some powerful rhythm guitar and
double pedal drumming. And guess what?
After the powerful Morricone-tinged
“Unforgiven” and, some
years later, that bland carbon copy
called “Unforgiven II”…
in “Death magnetic” we
get a ballad called… “Unforgiven
III”!!! Luckily it’s not
another simple rehash of the original
like II was, and follows a different
melodic line although there obviously
ARE similarities, but while pleasant
it still never reaches the emotional
intensity of the 1991 classic. A problem
common to many of the tracks here,
which at times sound even a bit boring
in their “predictable perfection”
in spite of all the efforts by the
band. |
At
the end a handful of questions remain.
Is it really a return to the good
old Metallica? Did they really succeed
in throwing away the cheesy, forced
and ill-attempted efforts to sound
modern and trendy? Does the album
deserve to stand with their old classics
without embarrassment? Or, more simply,
is it at least a good record? Very
briefly, and in that order: mmmmhhhh
/ yes / are you crazy? / definitely
yes. Given the very low expectations…
it’s a much better album than
I thought possible, but at the same
time I can’t manage to get completely
excited by it. It is a good Metallica
album, quite classic in sound and
song structure (finally!), exactly
what the die hard fans were asking
for, but it also completely fails
to innovate on any level… or
simply to sound even moderately “fresh”.
It is pure unadulterated fast, invigorating,
dynamic, skilled and enjoyable metal,
but it’s also predictable and
overlong, with few flashes of originality
or greatness. It could have been much
worse, but also much better. Probably
it’s also a matter of personal
taste, as in these years my musical
preferences have shifted towards other
genres (including more arty, sophisticated,
subtle, innovative and flamboyant
metal bands like Opeth and Dream Theater),
and maybe if “Death magnetic”
had been released 15 years ago I would
have welcomed it differently and with
more enthusiasm. But it’s also
true that when I listen to “Ride
the lightning” and “Master
of puppets” they still
raise a chill to my spine today after
many times, a feeling that “Death
magnetic” rarely seems to evoke.
Even when some passages start to get
involving… there always is a
thought in my head which says “but
haven’t I heard this before?”,
not to mention that the vocal hooks
(a strong point of their earlier releases)
are often weak. If I had to make a
comparison, I would say that “Death
magnetic” is style-wise a VERY
scaled down smaller relative of the
somber “And justice for all”,
but certainly less inspired and virtuosistic
(AJFA was so musically complex that
some songs were reportedly almost
impossible to play live without committing
too many mistakes!). For 2008 it’s
a good effort by an aged band from
which as things go would probably
be unfair to ask more. So let’s
rejoice in the small pleasure of finally
having at least another almost-old-school
Metallica album… even if it’s
not exactly a masterpiece. |
Score:
73 (and please buy
Metallica’s music unless you
really want to piss them off like
in the old days of Napster…
even if the mixing of the CD is affected
by awful clipping and distortion which
make it sound no better than MP3s:
another victim of the “loudness
war” that has ruined many rock/pop
albums in recent years). - Luca
Chichizola |
 |
TASTING
TWO OLD GLEN ALBYN |
Glen
Albyn 1968/1991 (40%, G&M Connoisseur’s
Choice, old map label)
Colour: full gold. Nose: this is superb,
starting right on top notch wood,
bitter oranges, old piece of furniture
that’s just been polished, cigar
box, leather… Also quite some
coffee and toffee and an unexpectedly
high peatiness. A lot of torrefaction.
Close to some old Cognacs. Mouth:
round and assertive, not weak at all,
maybe a tad more ‘wacky’,
as Glen Albyn can be in our book.
A lot of beef bouillon, chives, slightly
overripe oranges, toffee, Armagnac-soaked
prunes… Finish: long, on plum
pie and wine brandy. Comments: excellent,
even if more so on the nose. SGP:453
– 88 points. |
Glen
Albyn 25 yo 1964/1989 (58%, Signatory,
cask 942-943, 750 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: ha, this starts
right on beef bouillon, oxtail, mint
and even goat meat. Wacky indeed,
especially since it goes on with hints
of Comté cheese and old barrels,
then coffee-schnapps and lovage…Very
entertaining if not very classic.
Not to pour to your ‘non whisky
neighbours’! Now, the palate
could be disastrous, let’s see…
Mouth: no, this isn’t bad at
all. Powerful and very meaty, with
a lot of very, very ripe fruits, prunes
(huge), well hung game, chicory…
What’s sure is that there's
always something happening in any
Glen Albyn! Gets a little rounder
and softer after a moment, but there’s
also a very faint bitterness (taste
of still, rubber and burnt fruits.)
Nothing too embarrassing that is.
Finish: long, still powerful, a little
rough again and more caramelised.
Tangerine liqueur. Comments: a big
Glen Albyn and a very unusual whisky,
anything but boring. SGP:562
– 85 points. |
|
September
23, 2008 |
|
 |
CONCERT
REVIEW by Nick Morgan
FESTIVAL SPECIAL: THE
RHYTHM FESTIVAL - Part One |
Twinwood
Arena, Bedford, August 29th, 20th
& 31st, 2008.
No
need to worry, Serge – the
Whiskyfun van is back on the road,
all cleaned up and as right as nine
pence. We’ve driven it through
the pretty Bedfordshire countryside,
where I notice many fields of barley
are as yet unharvested, to the Twinwood
Stadium, home of the Rhythm
Festival. We were so
impressed by this unusual setting
for a Festival last year when we
just came for a day – it’s
an old air-base with a wonderful
semi-natural auditorium at one end
– that we thought we’d
come for the whole bash this time.
At times I doubted the event would
go ahead – it must have made
a big loss last year, and with so
many festivals this year and rumours
of poor sales everywhere it wouldn’t
have surprised me if this one got
pulled like a number of others.
But we’re here, nicely parked
on what I guess was part of the
old runway (now grassed over) with
lovely views down across the valley
on one side, and of our neighbours
gathered around their fold-away
table on the other. |
 |
As
it’s Friday, and it’s
almost four o’clock, they’re
acting out the famous English Scrumpy
Jack tea ritual, which appears to
involve the consumption of several
cans of the aforementioned beverage
along with some of Mr
Kipling’s Assorted Fancies.
On the van we’re preparing dinner
– but don’t worry Serge,
there’s no signature dish tonight. |
It’s
an interesting line-up – no
one exactly new or cutting edge –
that’s not what the Rhythm Festival
does, but an eclectic collection of
vintage acts from both sides of the
Atlantic, with a particularly strong
American contingent over the three
days. |
Some
were big hits – some less so,
but all seemed a trifle bewildered
by the relative paucity of the audience.
Partly it’s because there simply
aren’t that many folk here –
and also because the site can easily
swallow up thousands of bodies and
still seem like one of those deserted
RAF camps that used to feature heavily
as sets for early episodes of the
Avengers. There are three ‘stages’:
the main auditorium which never feels
more than about a third full; the
Alternative Stage, mostly hosting
the British bands such as Wilko Johnson,
Hey Negrita, Stackridge, Neville Staples
and Geno Washington, then the tented
Marquee Club Stage, which at one point
on Saturday hosted the smallest audience
of them all. The principle attractions
seem to be the bars, as almost every
empty Nissen Hut (that is, those that
aren’t decked out with period
equipment and rather odd people dressed
as Second World War soldiers and airmen)
seems to be full of beer kegs, a few
tables and chairs, an occasional DJ
and hordes of people. It’s as
if the organisers are on a responsibility-free
mission to make as much profit as
they can from booze, and many of the
participants seem only too happy to
join in. |
 |
Talking
of drinking reminds me not only of
Scrumpy Jack and Scrumpy Pete, who
disappeared in search of something
called Gwynt
y Ddraig, but also the feisty
(or was it ‘kooky’?) Michelle
Shocked – not that she was
drinking since she doesn’t now,
but she did in her bad marriage when
her husband drank, and she drank,
but you’ll be glad to know that’s
all over (as, thank heavens, so was
her set soon afterwards) and now she’s
met a great guy and is very happy.
Performing solo she also sang some
of her nice songs (so that’s
who played ‘Anchorage’),
but probably should have followed
her own oft-offered advice, “Don’t
talk too much now, Michelle”.
|
She
was by no means the best, or worst,
of the US performers over the weekend.
Sadly the latter accolade rested somewhere
between Saturday’s Quicksilver
Messenger Service and Sunday’s
Jefferson
Starship, both of course great
names from the acid-tinged San Francisco
of the late 1960s. The Quicksilvers,
who I remember with some affection
having been played their first album
at great length (do you remember Dino’s
song?) by a school friend who’d
arrived in Oxfordshire from the West
Coast with albums by them, Moby Grape,
13th Floor Elevator Company and others
under his arm, were not much short
of a shambles. |

Michelle Shocked |
Faced
up by original members Gary Duncan
on guitar, who looked like a fully-paid
up member of rock and roll’s
walking dead, and Dave Freiberg (should
that be ‘Friedhead’?),
who Jozzer said reminded him of his
Nan, they were woefully under-rehearsed
and out of touch, inflicting lengthy
latinesque guitar solos on a largely
unimpressed audience, and eventually
literally ground to a halt half-way
through ‘What About me’.
Later as we queued for tea we could
see some arm-waving recriminations
backstage between Friedhead and Duncan.
But Friedhead had a second chance
singing with Jefferson Starship, with
the newly-recruited Cathy Richardson
as the band’s latest Grace Slick
replacement, led by a rather disinterested
chain-smoking Paul Kantner. |
This
was on a damp Sunday afternoon and
the crowd was shrinking by the minute.
The set was divided between their
classics (“We’ll try not
to fuck up White Rabbit for you …”)
and material from Jefferson’s
Tree of Liberty (“we’ve
got a new album out of folk songs
and other old shit …”).
Time has not treated their songs well,
and much of their their new material
also seems very dated in a clichéd
Californian way - faux radicalism
combined with sentimental environmentalism
and piano riffs designed for TV golf
shows makes pretty sorry listening.
The worst moment was when Kantner
left the stage (“I’m going
to look for MI5 agents in the audience”)
and Friedhead sang the maudling ‘Cowboy
on the run’ – “Sometimes
I dream of a world without war: people
laughing in the sun…”.
Ugh! |

Paul Kantner and Cathy
Richardson |
Far
more to the audience’s liking
were New York’s Gandalf
Murphy & the Slambovian Circus
of Dreams, who, with not a grey
hair amongst them, kicked off on the
main stage on Friday and Sunday. The
early morning rain hadn’t cleared
when they started their second set,
but they patently won the hearts of
the damp and characteristically weather-defiant
audience with their eclectic selection
of Irish jiggery, swampy country and
western and the odd King Crimson tribute.
And as they played their final song,
‘Alice inside’, I was
tempted to wonder if every American
singer didn’t have a Neil Diamond
somewhere within them. |
Stax
veteran Steve
Cropper, partnering with the
Animals, also won some spurs,
although he was almost upstaged by
Blockhead and sometime Animal Micky
Gallagher, who certainly showed he
had a Booker T somewhere inside him.
Gallagher’s keyboard playing
(he’d played briefly with the
original Animals when Alan Price left)
was absolutely outstanding, and as
he and Cropper gelled during their
Friday night set, Cropper blasting
out his trademark riffs, they gradually
left original drummer John Steel,
bass and vocalist Peter Barton and
guitarist John Williamson firmly in
the shade. They were followed by Big
Star, fronted by the legendary
Alex Chilton, all floppy hair, creased
chinos and sports shirt and sports
jacket. As one of the real highlights
of the weekend Chilton was justifiably
puzzled by the diminishing crowd that
almost evaporated in front of his
eyes in favour of the timeless cockney
charms of Chas and Dave. After all,
this is the man who brought the world
the fabulous Box
Tops, with songs like ‘The
Letter’, Cry like a baby’
and ‘Soul Deep’. Big Star
was his commercially unsuccessful
venture into power-pop but now regarded
as hugely influential on a later generation
of musicians. |

Steve Cropper and Micky
Gallagher |
This
all seemed to be lost on the Twinwood
audience, and thus, not surprisingly,
the band lost a bit of interest themselves.
A shame, as they had apparently played
a blinder at Shepherd’s Bush
a couple of nights before. |
But
it was a real elder statesman who
made the final transatlantic contribution
to the Festival. A man whose remarkable
contribution to Woodstock (have you
watched it recently?) must nonetheless
follow him around like an albatross:
Richie
Havens. It was Sunday afternoon,
and by this time the clouds were dark
and low, but in his short set Mr Havens
just managed to keep them at bay.
He was gracious and charming, engaging
and egregious, accompanied by a wonderfully
sensitive guitarist, Walter
Parks, and for a few songs, cellist
Stephanie Winters. I was astonished
to watch his guitar playing close
up – a most unorthodox
technique, but simple and effective.
I understand from the Rhythm
Festival Forum that some people
didn’t like it, but we thought
it almost an hour of perfection, with
an eclectic selection of songs including
‘All along the watchtower’
(and an amusing story about its composer),
‘Freedom’ (of course),
‘Won’t get fooled again’,
‘Licence to kill’, and
as an encore his unlikely and unintended
disco hit (as recorded by Odyssey)
‘Going back to my roots’. |

Alex Chilton and Richie
Havens |
And as he sang his final song, the
long-threatened rain (the forecast
had promised hurricanes, hail, a plague
of locusts, toads etc.) began to fall,
and we retreated to the comfort of
the Whiskyfun Festival van. -
Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate and
Nick). |
 |
TASTING
ARDBEG 1974 DOUBLE BARREL |
Ardbeg
1974/2007 ‘Double Barrel’
(44.9%, OB, cask #3145, 250 bottles)
According to Geert, who’s a
great Ardbeg (and shrimp croquettes)
collector, there’s been three
different versions of the double barrel
case and this is the one for mainland
Europe. We’ll spare you any
further comments on the packaging,
the goodies, the prices and so on.
Colour: gold. Nose: starts on bold
notes of green walnut and cider apples,
with also hints of shoe polish and
warm butter, and develops more on
linseed oil, dried apricots and mangos
as well as hints of old leather and
Virginia tobacco. Gets more resinous
after that (pine needles, retsina).
Also notes of vines and fir cone ash,
used matches... Very elegant and complex,
not a wham-bam 1974 Ardbeg. Mouth:
starts unexpectedly soft (vanilla,
buttered fudge) but gets then very
peppery. ‘Explodes’ on
ginseng, gentian roots tea and dried
mushrooms, with a beautiful bitterness.
Finish: medium to long, more on oily
peat and ashes, with touches of dark
chocolate and quite some salt. Comments:
again, not really a big 1974 despite
the spicy burst on the palate but
a complex and elegant one. SGP:457
– 90 points. |
Ardbeg
1974/2007 ‘Double Barrel’
(49.9%, OB, cask #3524, 250 bottles)
Colour: dark gold. Nose: this one
is bigger, more powerful and much
more compact, sort of closer to the
Provenances. Starts on dried pineapple
slices, lemon balm and ginger, with
a rather huge peatiness, getting then
more resinous and almost tarry. Camphor,
eucalyptus, pine resin, seaweed…
In short, classic! Mouth: classic
indeed. Huge medicinal notes in the
attack, almost brutal but with fine
notes of dried fruits in the background.
Kumquats and lemon marmalade. Goes
on with tea (tannins) and ginger.
Very beautiful. Finish: long and dry,
grassier, with a lot of green tea,
tar and ginger. Comments: again, classic
1974 Ardbeg, our favourite. SGP:368
- 93 points. (And many
thanks, Thierry.) |
|
September
22, 2008 |
|
 |
 |
TASTING
TWO
1975 GLEN MHOR |
Glen
Mhor 32 yo 1975/2008 (43.5%, Duncan
Taylor, Rarest of the Rare, cask #4034,
208 bottles)
One of the three rather ‘wacky’
Inverness distilleries that got closed
in the early 1980’s (Glen Albyn,
Glen Mhor, Millburn.) A sister cask
(#4031), bottled last year, was in
our opinion fabulous on the nose but
was pure ‘oak infusion’
on the palate. Let’s see…
Colour: straw. Nose: wow, this is
as smoky as whisky can get, even on
that particular Hebridean island,
but it gets then curiously soapy and
cardboardy, like when you smell pure
paraffin. Beyond that there’s
quite a lot of apple juice, walnuts,
pencil shavings, graphite… As
almost always, this Glen Mhor just
couldn’t smell like ‘regular
malt whisky. Also hints of ale, leather
and ham. Mouth: ah, there is some
oak of course but it’s nowhere
near ‘oak infusion’ this
time. Big, rather complex, very earthy,
with notes of gentian, liquorice,
tea, then pepper and cloves…
No meaty/beefy notes this time. Gets
finally very lemony and very grassy,
which was unexpected. Finish: long,
zesty, even more lemony. That is to
say not very ‘Glen Mhor’,
but who cares, this is very good.
Comments: surprising, and surprisingly
good. Gosh, Glen Mhor’s lovers
will kill me. SGP:662 –
88 points. |
Glen
Mhor 30 yo 1975/2005 (51.2%, Glenkeir
Treasures, 270 bottles)
This was bottled by Douglas Laing
for The Whisky Shop in the UK. Colour:
gold. Nose: this is rather the beefy
kind of Glen Mhor at first sniffs
but it gets then closer and closer
to the ‘Rarest of the Rare’
in style, that is to say waxy and
mineral, with quite some ink, graphite,
and then a little cheese (say, gouda.)
Gets then smokier, with also hints
of aniseed and dill. Unusual? You
bet! Mouth: a dry and slightly cardboardy
attack, with waxy and mineral notes.
Gets then very grassy and almost bitter
(some stouts, not all.) Notes of caramel.
Gets finally maltier but the bitterness
never quite disappears. Finish: long,
a tad less bitter again but very austere.
Comments: not bad at all but the grassy
bitterness kind of wrecks it all in
my opinion. SGP:272 –
77 points. |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: I guess it's no secret
anymore that we're huge fans of Brian
Auger, and consequently
of Julie
Driscoll. But beyond
their famous high energy organ+vocals
works, there are also some wonderful
and peaceful piano ballads such as
Lament
for Miss Baker.mp3 (1967). Be
quick, Julie Dricoll's part is very
short and right at the beginning ;-).
Please buy Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll's
musics! |
 |
|
September
20, 2008 |
|
 |
TASTING
A
BRETON SESSION
Just
like not only the Scots play the
bagpipe, not only the Scots distil
great malt whisky, and in both cases
we have excellent evidence coming
from Brittany (Bretagne). But let’s
focus on whisky, as we could gather
two new samples from Glann ar Mor
distillery, one unpeated, and the
other one peated.
We’ll try the unpeated version
‘against’ the Whisky
Breton that’s sold by French
hypermarket Carrefour. |

Pipers. Who's Scottish and who's
Breton? |
 |
Whisky
Breton ‘Reflets de France’
(40%, Warenghem for Carrefour, France)
Colour: pale straw. Nose: pears, vanilla
and dust/paper, with a little porridge
in the background. Gets even a tad
‘chemical’. Pass…
Mouth: weak, grainy, a bit dusty but
drinkable. Notes of apple juice and
just touches of cinnamon from the
wood. Finish: short, getting sugary.
Comments: again, this is drinkable
and it isn’t flawed at such,
but it’s not for us malt aficionados.
SGP:320 – 50 points. |
Glann
ar Mor (single malt, cask sample,
distilled July 2005)
A three years minus a few days old
sample, so almost whisky officially.
Colour: white wine. Nose: obviously
another story, even if it is a little
pear-ish at first sniffing. Much more
oomph, and that doesn’t only
come from the higher alcohol. There
is quite some ginger and vanilla,
probably from the wood, then the expected
notes of ale and muesli, as well as
something maritime that reminds us
a bit of Clynelish and Pulteney. Develops
slowly but surely, gaining ‘wideness’,
with more grassy and leafy notes.
It’s rather complex spirit but
let’s see what gives with a
little water… With water: it
got much more phenolic and even farmy,
with hints of ‘modern Bowmore’
(not Bowmore from the 1980’s,
mind you) despite the absence of peat.
Hints of clean cow stable, mint, dill,
coal smoke... Frankly, it’s
as if there was a little peat in there,
maybe 5ppm. But there isn’t
any! Mouth (neat): definitely more
mature on the palate than on the nose.
Big fruitiness encapsulated in fine
oak. Ripe apples and pears, white
peaches, gooseberries, touches of
ginger, strawberry drops and a little
paprika. Very, very clean, no more
notes of ale/beer. With water: really
super! Full, coating, fruity, spicy,
peppery… Finish: medium long,
with a very pleasant peppery and gingery
burst. Comments: all we can say is
‘well done’. It really
tastes like an excellent Highlander
(which isn’t really a surprise,
as it’s made like a Highlander,
except that the pot stills are direct-fired),
with no ‘foreign’ notes
whatsoever. It’ll be a winner
at 6 or 7 years of age, no doubt,
and is already extremely enjoyable
at 3 years old. Definitely the best
non-Scottish/Irish/Japanese malt I
ever tried, by far. SGP:553
– preliminary score at +/-3yo
85 points (off commerce
at this moment). Update:
a first expresion will be launched
in 'selected markets' in October but
there will only be +/-320 bottles,
so you may have to be quick... |
Well,
I agree it wasn’t such a good
idea to try the unpeated Glann ar
Mor against whisky that isn’t
in the same class at all, so let’s
change methods for the peated Glann
ar Mor. We’ll do something we
never did before, that is to say compare
it with home vattings of various expressions
from single Scottish distilleries,
all composed by our friend Matthias. |
Matthias’
Caol Ila Mix (+/-50%)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: fresh, maritime,
almondy, mineral, with a rather grassy
peat smoke. Green apples, ashes. Typically
Caol Ila of course, that is to say
extremely nice and rather zesty. Mouth:
fruity, peaty, smoky, lemony and very,
very clean. Extremely drinkable. Finish:
long, clean, very zesty. Comments:
extremely good. Keywords: ‘ashy
peat’. SGP:347 –
no points (off commerce). |
Matthias’
Ardbeg Mix (+/-50%)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: this is a
little heavier and rather fruitier
as well (apples, apple peeling, lemons.)
More iodine than in the Caol Ila,
the whole being a little heavier and
(pleasantly) sourer and yeastier.
Bigger smoke as well. Mouth: again,
oilier and fattier than the Caol Ila,
saltier as well. Also earthier, but
not much, much peatier and smokier.
More body but the Caol Ila is a tad
more elegant in my book (albeit a
little simpler.) Finish: very long,
peaty and fruity (fresh apples), with
a lot of liquorice in the aftertaste.
Comments: extremely good again. Keywords:
‘liquoricy peat’. SGP:448
– no points (off commerce). |
Matthias’
Port Ellen Mix (+/-52%)
Colour: gold. Nose: similar peatiness
but more tarry and even a tad rubbery/sulphury.
Maybe slightly metallic as well. The
least ‘polished’ and maybe
also the least balanced of the three
Islayers. Mouth: again, this is rather
less ‘clean’ than the
Caol Ila and the Ardbeg. Most of all,
there’s much more tar and much
more liquorice, as well as less fruit.
A little caramel. Finish: very long,
more orangey (there must have been
some sherry casks in the vatting.)
Comments: a tad more difficult. Some
may say a tad less ‘commercial’.
Keywords: ‘tarry peat’.
SGP:538 – no points
(off commerce). |
Glann
ar Mor ‘Peated’ (single
malt, cask sample, distilled april
2006)
Colour: white wine. Nose: this
is very interesting. Different from
the Islayers yet not that different.
A little less smoke and peat but more
fruits (pears, pineapples, apples),
with also faint bubblegummy notes
and a little vanilla. Hints of varnish.
The whole is extremely clean and zesty,
and already quite mature (not completely
mature, of course, but already drinkable.)
Hints of ink, ashes and wet limestone.
More smoke coming through after a
moment (wood smoke, but also coal.)
A very impressive baby whisky!!! Mouth:
well, it’s amazing that this
youngster manages to ‘dialog’
with the three very heavy hitters
we just had. The main difference with
them comes from the fruitier (and,
again, more bubblegummy) notes that
we find here – no wonder, it’s
barely 2yo, but other than that we’re
well in the same league, which is
totally amazing. We can’t wait
to see how these very fruity notes
will evolve. Also little notes of
fruity beer (gueuze and so on), which
was expectable at 2 years of age.
Finish: long and very playful, the
big fruitiness and the rather big
peatiness mingling very well. Comments:
no doubt whatsoever that this will
be a winner once it’s completely
mature. Four words only: watch Glann
ar Mor! When a very young spirit is
as clean yet full bodied and 'wide'
as this, it’s always very good
sign. SGP:627 - no points
(off commerce). |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: in the true tradition
of Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan
(or Ross), or of the Double-Six,
here's Les
Saisons du Plaisir.mp3 composed
by Gabriel
Yared (from the OST
of Mocky's rather colourful - look
at the bill - movie Les Saisons
du Plaisir.) I like these vocal
fireworks! Please buy these good
people's music and movies. |
 |
|
September
18, 2008 |
|
 |
 |
TASTING
TWO MILLBURN |
Millburn
1972/2006 (46%, Gordon & MacPhail)
Colour: straw. Nose: very interestingly
flowery, with notes of lily of the
valley on top of orange blossom and
fresh almonds, as well as fresh putty.
This half-floral, half-resinous profile
is rather unusual but it works well
here, especially since it’s
complemented with very nice whiffs
of wet stones, chives, and suddenly
ultra-big notes of fresh strawberries
and the liqueur made thereof. Right,
it does get a tad papery after a moment
but the whole never falls down. Mouth:
well, may I write ‘Glen Mhor
by G&M?’ The great bottler
issued a lot of various Glen Mhors
in the past and we always felt that
all were rather different from most
versions by other bottlers, including
officials. Something rather indescribable,
with kind of a meatiness that’s
sometimes very beautiful, and sometimes
not, but that’s always there.
Smoked ham dipped into pineapple sauce?
Anyway, it’s very good this
time. Finish: long, with more spices
and a slight ‘cardboardiness.’
And quite some salt. Comments: like
its neighbours Glen Mhor and Glen
Albyn, Millburn is sometimes, say
‘bizarre’, but what’s
sure is that the three of them are
never boring whiskies. This one isn’t
for sure – what’s more,
it’s very good. Recommended.
SGP:552 - 87 points. |
Millburn
31 yo 1974 (52.3%, Cadenhead, sherry,
246 bottles)
From a bourbon cask. Colour: pale
gold. Nose: this is much grassier
at first nosing, austere, smelling
almost like newly cut grass and salad.
Nice freshness, that is (obviously).
This one may need water, so, with
water: that brings out quite some
mustard and then a rather sumptuous
fruitiness (kumquats, tangerines,
grapefruits.) Close to perfection
now. Mouth (neat): as much as the
nose was austere when undiluted, this
is a wonderful palate. Strong, nervous,
perfectly oaky, smoky and fruity,
zesty (truckloads of oranges)…
Great! Also a perfect grassiness here,
with quite some green tannins that
keep it very lively (but never astringent.)
Green apples and liquorice wood. With
water: becomes somewhat antique, whatever
that means. Notes of wax, nuts, old
wine, praline, honey… Finish:
medium long and maybe a tad oaky but
still quite sumptuous. Comments: this
one needs time to develop, and quite
some water as well, but then it gets
quite stunning. Very ‘authentic’,
miles away from modern, easy-sexy
whiskies (I know you see what I mean).
Congrats to Cadenhead’s for
having sourced and/or filled this,
whenever they did it. SGP:653
– 92 points. |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: maybe the epitom of early
Brasilian 'loveboat lounge music',
the delicious Astrud
Gilberto doing Zé
do Norte's Meu
Pião.mp3 in 1977. Yeah,
a bit second degree but you should
really buy Astrud Gilberto's music. |
 |
|
September
17, 2008 |
|
 |
 |
Dalmore
40 yo (40%, OB, 2007)
Priced at £1,300 but comes with
a huuuuuge leather-covered box. Well…
Colour: amber. Nose: superb, starting
all on smoke, ashes, fruitcake and
orange marmalade, very elegant and
assertive at the same time. Goes on
with quite some chocolate, old Rivesaltes
or Maury, chocolate cake, herbal tea
(camomile), ‘arranged rum’
with banana slices, chestnut honey…
It’s got quite some oomph at
these ‘meagre’ 40%, as
often with Dalmore – we think
that Dalmore is one of the malts that
stand lower ABV’s best. Gets
ashier over time. Beautiful sherry
for sure… Mouth: starts more
on orange peel and vanilla but gets
then fruitier, in the same way as
on the nose. A lot of dried fruits
(figs, bananas, papayas, dates) and
then notes of ‘smoky’
honey (chestnut). Gets then a tad
oakier with quite some toffee (and
chocolate fudge) but there’re
always Dalmore’s trademark oranges
in the background. This is excellent.
Finish: medium long but coating, honeyed,
chocolaty and orangey. Comments: great
whisky as almost often with old Dalmores.
We can’t even imagine how high
this would go, had it been bottled
at 45% or more. SGP:633 –
91 points. |
Dalmore
17 yo 1990/2007 (59.7%, Adelphi, cask
#7327, 590 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: almost as ashy
as the 40% at first nosing but gets
then much more vegetal, waxy and grassy,
a little rough in fact. Pungent. Let’s
add water straight away… With
water: ah yes, water makes wonders
here. A little wood smoke, then fresh
orange juice, hints of chicken bouillon,
ham… Gets meatier and meatier,
in a beautiful way. Even notes of
parsley. Unusually and nice. Mouth
(neat): hot and spirity, but what’s
in the background should be nice.
Huge notes of ‘new kirsch’.
With water: barley sugar, orange marmalade,
ginger and strawberry pie. Very good,
even if there aren’t any beefy
notes anymore here. Too bad (not that
we love beef, but these kinds of notes
can be quite spectacular in some whiskies).
Finish: rather long, a tad simpler
but with an excellent smokiness. Comments:
a dram that needs water. Extremely
interesting on the nose. SGP:462
– 86 points. |
Dalmore
17 yo 1988/2005 (59.3%, SMWS, 13.36,
588 bottles, 'Tea and marmelade')
Colour: pale gold. Nose: very punchy
and very chocolaty, the kind of chocolaty
notes that often come with very high
ABV’s. Also coffee (same comments)
but not much else. With water: unlike
with the 1990, water doesn’t
work at all here, as the whole gets
plastic-like and even a little smelly
(gym socks). You’ll have to
wait for quite a long time before
it gets a little cleaner (but very
yeasty). Mouth (neat): as hot and
spirity as the 1990 but less kirschy.
Anyway, this isn’t meant to
be sipped at cask strength, so, with
water… Much better now but it’s
a little late, isn’t it! ‘Smoked
oranges’ and black tea (indeed).
Finish: long, orangey and peppery.
Comments: parts of this malt are really
‘twisted’ in our opinion,
but other parts are really nice (the
palate when diluted). SGP:361
– 75 points. |
MUSIC
– Recommended
listening: one of my favourite discoveries
of the past twenty years as far
as jazz trios are concerned, Finland's
Trio
Töykeät.
Let's listen to them in their very
enterntaining Another
Ragtime.mp3 that was on their
CD called 'Sisu', and then please
buy these brilliant people's music! |
 |
|
September
16, 2008 |
|
 |
CONCERT
REVIEW by Nick Morgan
ALABAMA
3 ACOUSTIC AND UNPLUGGED
The Roundhouse, London, August 12th
2008 |
We’re
back at the Roundhouse for another
of their series of intimate nightclub-style
evenings. I guess the thinking behind
these is that it’s difficult
to fill a big venue in August –
what with the holidays, and multiple
festivals every weekend. |
But
the formula isn’t quite right
here. In the first place, as I have
said before, you simply can’t
make the Roundhouse seem small.
Then the layout is all wrong –
we’re at tables, but they’re
not nightclub tables, they’re
function (or even, dare I say it,
‘banquet’) tables. There
are six of us around a table big
enough for a dozen, and any self-
respecting nightclub owner would
have us at a table a third of the
size. So there’s almost more
table than people, and the atmosphere
suffers accordingly. Not that Jozzer,
Trizza and the rock-chicks seem
to mind as they work their way through
bottle after bottle of pink and
rather tasteless wine (“It
was hot” says Jozzer a few
days later, as if that’s an
excuse) . But Alabama
3’s Larry Love
does. “I don’t play
no motherfucking chicken in the
basket shit for you motherfuckers”
he splutters, to the delight of
a largely adoring audience, “motherfucking
chicken in the fucking basket gigs!”
he snorts to himself with amiable
derision. |

From top to bottom:
Larry Love, Rock Freebase,
Nick Reynolds aka Harpo Strangelove
and Devlin Love |
Readers
may remember that when we last saw
Mr Love with his full band he seemed,
let us say, somewhat the worse for
wear, so I’m delighted to report
that the Roundhouse, intimate or not,
witnessed him with his acoustic outfit,
in scintillating form, even if his
newly-acquired grey beard did give
him an unexpected (and not very long-lasting)
aura of venerable gravitas. The acoustic
band are as good as ever, driven by
Rock Freebase’s pulsating slide
guitar and Nick Reynold’s harmonica.
I have to say the guitar playing is
as simple and uncluttered as it could
be, ‘though I don’t quite
know how Mr Freebase manages it (have
a look here
to see). The charmingly diminutive
Devlin Love’s powerhouse vocals
give the quartet additional drive
as they work their way through a set
including ‘Converted’,
‘Woke up this morning’.
Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom
Prison Blues’, ‘Bullet
proof’ (“for all the ladies
with Saturday night specials in the
audience”), ‘Two heads’,
‘U don’t dance 2 techno’,
‘Too sick to pray’, ‘Let
the caged bird sing’, ‘Up
above my head’, ‘Monday
don’t mean anything to me’
and ‘Johnny Cash’, at
which point I gave up taking notes,
largely due to the genteel mayhem
that was breaking out around me. Oh
yes – and there was an encore
including ‘Love will tear us
apart’, not perhaps the best
choice. |
And
thinking about it, great fun though
it was, the gig could have been unremarkable
had it not been for the orange-juice-drinking
Mr Love’s garrulous good humour.
He had a lot to say on a variety of
everyday subjects: binge-drinking
women (could he have been looking
at our table – by this time
the girls had given up glasses and
were using straws?); the hugely irritating
and perky pop-chanteuse Kate Nash;
MDMA (‘Monday don’t mean
anything to me’); bi-polar disorder;
not surprisingly Johnny Cash (the
A3 have contributed a track to Johnny
Cash Remixed, produced by John
Carter Cash and for release in October),
and of course God (it seems Love,
aka Rob Spragg was brought up in a
Mormon household, or so I read somewhere
recently). |
And it’s funny to hear Love’s
gloriously improbably southern American
accent descend into his native Welsh
brogue (he was brought up in various
south Wales Valley towns). And when
he gets really excited (perhaps it’s
his medication) he can barely get
all the words in his head out of his
mouth. He is thoroughly captivating,
ending the evening navigating between
the tables, encouraging members of
the audience to attempt Johnny Cash
impersonations. Sometimes you just
want to go out and have some honky-tonking
fun, and simple though it is, it really
doesn’t come much better than
this. - Nick Morgan (photographs
by Kate) |
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TASTING
TWO
LOCAL BARLEYS |
Springbank
1966/1998 ‘Local Barley’
(55.3%, OB, cask #498)
Please note that the pictures aren't
of the same casks. Colour: gold. Nose:
the first feeling we get at first
nosing is complexity. First there’s
hints of old sweet wine (Sauternes)
and then it’s coal smoke, gunpowder
and flints, together with notes of
smoked ham and faint hints of truffle.
Gets then even smokier, with a little
peat, something faintly maritime (sea
breeze), roasted nuts, a little cough
syrup (eucalyptus), hints of pine
needles... More mint after that, wet
moss, fern, cigar box… Keeps
developing for a very long time, quite
kaleidoscopic, with the notes of coal
smoke and mint as permanent features.
Amazing complexity. With water: keeps
developing, this time more on turpentine
and game, with even hints of beef
stock. Mouth (neat): very big, rich,
powerful, exactly cough syrup this
time. Eucalyptus, camphor, mint, then
ginger, crystallised lemon, pepper…
Hints of tannins in the background,
and quite some tar as well. Very big.
With water: gets more on oranges and
other citrus fruits, with a bigger
spiciness as well. Finish: long, slightly
salty, half orangey and half minty.
Slight dryness from the wood. Comments:
a very big and very complex dram,
as expected, but maybe not one of
the absolute winners that most other
Local Barleys are. But let’s
not be fussy… SGP:563
– 91 points. |
Springbank
1966/1999 ‘Local Barley’
(55%, OB, cask #507)
Colour: full gold. Nose: this cask
is more nervous, directly minty and
grassy, which means that it somewhat
starts where cask #498 finished. Pine
needles, eucalyptus, moss, antiseptic…
There’s also a little more peat,
and a lot of coal smoke again. Gets
then richer, doing ‘the peacock’s
tail’ on vanilla, various nuts,
praline, coffee and wet hay. Extremely
rich and extremely compact at the
same time. With water: wonderful development,
with everything from the forest. Mushrooms,
moss, leaves, wet clay… Brilliantly
brilliant! Mouth (neat): it’s
close to cask #498 but once again,
bigger and more oomphy. More spices,
more grassy notes and even more tannins
but with a perfect balance and no
dryness whatsoever. Black tea and
dried oranges, cloves, coconut liqueur,
vanilla fudge, pepper… With
water: oh yes! Significantly above
cask #498 here, with quite some oranges
again but also a lot of cough medicine,
mint, liquorice, roots… Finish:
very long, reminding me of a wonderful
old Chinese tea, with a little candy
sugar (no, we don’t put candy
sugar in old Chinese tea.) Comments:
one of the bottlings that kept building
the Local Barleys’ legend. Too
bad it’s so expensive nowadays.
SGP:653 – 94 points. |
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September
15, 2008 |
|
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CONCERT
REVIEW by Nick Morgan
THE
COLD WAR KIDS |
The
Bloomsbury Ballroom
Bloomsbury, London
August 11th 2008
This
is our first visit to the Bloomsbury
Ballroom. It’s one of
Vince
Power’s joints, housed
in the basement of Victoria
House, a recently-refurbished
1930s office building, originally
built for the Liverpool
Victoria Friendly Society, which
had begun life in the 1840s to help
low-paid workers save for their
funerals – it’s still
the UK’s largest friendly
society offering a range of financial
services to its members. |
 |
Quite
why they needed a ballroom isn’t
clear (maybe it was for morally-uplifting
lectures about funeral management)
but when the building was redeveloped
a few years ago VPMG
leased the space and employed designer
Shaun
Clarkson, who’s worked on
many of their venues (including the
ghastly Pigalle), to give it the full
Art Deco treatment. Actually it feels
a bit more like a school assembly
hall with twiddly bits on the radiators
than an Art Deco triumph of the sort
claimed by VPMG. But either way it’s
not the décor that the folks
in the bar are gasping at –
open-mouthed with astonishment –
but rather the exorbitant prices being
charged for soft drinks and water,
which is what this relatively sober
Monday night crowd are mostly going
for. They’re largely students,
apart from the older, greyer and heavier
blokes scattered around the audience
who are all, strangely, scribbling
into little black notebooks. |
 |
That’s
probably because we’re here
to see California’s Cold
War Kids, whose second
album is just about ready for release,
so it’s a sneak preview of this
new material (played, it has to be
said, with uncompromising gusto) along
with some old favourites from their
debut album, 2006’s Robbers
and Cowards. The Kids (mostly in their
mid-twenties) have been going for
about four years, and having toured
almost without respite in the run-up
to Robbers and Cowards had built a
considerable fan base, amplified by
a virtual blog-fuelled buzz. However
it all went a bit wrong for them when
one album reviewer ‘outed’
the band as covert Christians, subversively
injecting religious messages into
their songs, provoking something of
an ill-informed backlash. The fact
that three members of the band attended
the same Catholic college may well
account for a heavy use of religious
imagery and language in some of their
songs, but aside from that it’s
hard to see why they might be any
more closet-proselytisers than say
Nick Cave, who’s not short of
the odd biblical metaphor himself.
What I would say is that for young
men (albeit not Kids) their songs
are surprisingly intense, mature and
not a tad on the gloomy side. |
And
if you might think they’re difficult
to listen to on disc, then that’s
nothing compared with the live performance,
which is one of the most disrupted
and disruptive that I’ve seen
for a long time. Although musically
quite different it even puts the Gang
of Four to shame – and is none
the less compelling for that, in fact
quite the reverse. Singer Nathan Willett’s
voice is probably best described as
“agonised” – seemingly
a pleasantly twangy transatlantic
rock voice, he pushes it to the edge
with a wailing falsetto – like
the characters in the songs, full
of self-doubt and uncertainty. |
 |
When
he goes to the piano it’s more
often to crash out some discordant
notes than to pick out a melody, most
of which are almost subverted by his
wayward keyboards and the guitar of
Jonnie Russell. He’s got a fantastic
rich booming sound – no doubt
in part deriving from the DeArmond
pickups on his Harmony guitar (I can’t
be sure but it looks like a Rocket)
– but his playing is jerky,
almost out of time. Which is how he
moves, although it’s not as
distracting as bassist Matt Maust,
who roams the stage with spastic motions,
careering at will into both Russell
and Willett. It’s quite a performance,
dense, very intense, very powerful
and very impactful. |
So if I knew their work better I might
be able to tell you what they played
off the new album, Loyalty to Loyalty,
which is released any day soon. But
I don’t, and they certainly
weren’t helping by giving out
song titles. Not enough time for that.
But they did play more than half the
stuff from Robbers and Cowards, perhaps
a bit more poppy than the newer material,
but sufficient for me to buy the album.
And I’ll certainly get Loyalty
when it’s released. So should
you. - Nick Morgan (concert photographs
by Kate) |
 |
TASTING
THREE
DALLAS DHU |
Dallas
Dhu 32 yo 1970/2002 (46%, Coopers
Choice)
This one has quite a reputation, due
to the fact that the excellent Dave
Broom scored it 90 in Whisky Mag a
few years ago. Colour: full gold.
Nose: rather unusual and certainly
‘old style’, starting
more complex than most more ‘modern’
whiskies. Scented candle wax, orange
blossom water, metal polish, fragrant
honey (orange), incense, ‘old
wardrobe’, cigar box and vanilla
fudge. Hints of smoke and then old
white wine that matured perfectly
well (it’s got something of
a great old white Bourgogne.) Very
complex and very elegant. High-end
perfume? Even a little musk. Mouth:
more classic but not less pleasant,
very orangey, with maybe not too much
body but that’s replaced with
elegance. Milk chocolate, brioche,
caramel and bergamots, tasting more
and more like very good black tea.
Tea-schnapps? The tannins are quite
apparent but very silky. Finish: medium
long, toasty and maltier now, with
even more tannins but again, pleasant
ones. And always quite some smoke
and maybe just a faint soapiness in
the aftertaste. Comments: a balanced
and very elegant old dram. SGP:453
– 89 points. |
Dallas
Dhu 27 yo 1981/2008 (55.1%, Duncan
Taylor Rare Auld, cask #389)
From a sherry cask. Colour: gold.
Nose: probably a tad less complex
and refined that the 1970 at first
nosing but the overall profile is
still great. More chocolate and coffee
at first nosing, and then much more
fresh fruits (big lemony notes). Fruit
salad, almost fizzy and very pleasantly
so. With water: gets even cleaner
and zestier, all on lemons and grapefruits,
with hints of coal smoke. Very beautiful,
if you ask me, and stunningly fresh
at 27yo. Mouth (neat): big, very fresh
and quite lemony again at first sips,
but it gets then very spicy and very
oaky, in a most excellent way (a lot
of oak isn’t always a problem!)
So we have the expected cloves, a
lot of cardamom, notes of lemon balm,
lime, ginger… Very, very zesty
dram. Even hints of tequila (of which
we have vivid memories as we tried
three of them a few days ago.) Most
interesting! With water: zing! Clean,
fresh, lemony, with also notes of
green apples plus various mild spices
from the wood. Finish: long, an extension
of the palate. Comments: I wouldn’t
say that this is exactly a surprise,
but it sure isn’t a ‘regular’
Dallas Dhu, and one may wonder if
they didn’t ‘mis-stenciled’
an old cask of Rosebank here. Come
on, of course not! SGP:642
– 90 points. |
Dallas
Dhu 26 yo 1979/2006 (58.2%, Murray
McDavid, Mission Gold, Bourbon/Guigal
St. Joseph Blanc Casks, 240 bottles)
Colour: deep orange. Nose: very interesting
at first nosing, with distinct winey
notes but this time they mingle rather
pleasantly with the whisky, especially
with the lemony notes that we already
found in the 1981. Quite some wood
smoke, toasted cake, spices (cloves
and soft paprika) and very nice whiffs
of wet wood. The white St. Joseph
really shines trough here, which makes
this malt very interesting to wine
aficionados (white St. Josephs are
usually big whites.) This works so
far. With water: it still works. Hints
of soot. Mouth (neat): it is hugely
vinous and hugely lemony as well,
the whole working like kind of an
excellent pre-mix if you like. It’s
funny how these lemony notes that
we already found in the 1981 work
well with the St. Joseph (very obvious
notes of marsanne, the main grape
variety there in the northern Rhône
valley.) It’s to be wondered
if these white Hermitage / Crozes
/ St. Jospeh casks wouldn’t
work very well with Rosebank as well.
Anyway, enough winey ramblings, let’s
try it with water now. With water:
it’s interesting to witness
to which extent the spirit wins here
(even if it’s in no way a wine
vs. whisky fight.) Very good. Finish:
long, maybe just a tad drying now.
Comments: another excellent Dallas
Dhu/St. Joseph. As always, it’s
worth it to try any wine finished
whiskies after their ‘neat’
counterparts. SGP:541 –
88 points. |
Check
the index of all entries:
Whisky
Music
Nick's Concert
Reviews
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Best
malts I had these weeks - 90+
points only - alphabetical:
Ardbeg
'Corryvreckan' (57.1%,
OB Committee 2008, 5000 bottles)
Ardbeg
1974/2007 ‘Double Barrel’ (44.9%,
OB, cask #3145, 250 bottles)
Ardbeg
1974/2007 ‘Double Barrel’
(49.9%, OB, cask #3524, 250 bottles)
Bowmore
36 yo 1972/2008 (48.8%, The Prestonfield
for LMDW, cask #3881, 565 bottles)
Bowmore
43 yo 1964 'White Bowmore' (42.8%,
OB, 732 bottles, 2008)
Brora
25 yo (56.3%, OB, 3,000 bottles, 2008)
Dallas
Dhu 27 yo 1981/2008 (55.1%,
Duncan Taylor Rare Auld, cask #389)
Dalmore
40 yo (40%, OB, 2007)
Millburn
31 yo 1974 (52.3%, Cadenhead, sherry,
246 bottles)
Springbank
1966/1999 ‘Local Barley’ (55%,
OB, cask #507)
Springbank
1966/1998 ‘Local Barley’ (55.3%,
OB, cask #498)


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