Posted by listenhear on July 3rd, 2009
Well here’s that same Scottish pipe band again…a week or so later…I was busy in the studio preparing for my current show and in the distance I heard what is now becoming a strangely familiar sound. This time a parade through Manchester city centre, where they were joined by a few other pipe and some military bands. Here’s an edit of my new favourite band (!) and some of the others on parade that day, recorded from the window of my 3rd floor city centre studio above the theatre..enjoy…
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Posted by listenhear on June 23rd, 2009
The area of Manchester, where I live when I’m working up here, isn’t famed as being the party capital of the north, it’s pretty damn dull…sorry that should read quiet. So imagine my surprise when, on a normal, grey Sunday afternoon, I looked out of my window and saw a Scottish Pipe Band loitering, with a great deal of intent, outside my flat. Anyway it isn’t quite Mardi Gras but it seems that this sleepy suburb has an annual carnival and parade, consisting of a few floats, local scout bands and such…they’d begun congregating outside my flat before processing around the quiet leafy streets.
So here’s a recording made out of my kitchen window….Pipes, drums, some bugles, and children……
Sunday 21st June 2009
2.30pm.
…Thousands lined the streets!…
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Posted by listenhear on June 14th, 2009
Bees enjoying a warm afternoon in a noisy south Manchester garden!
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Posted by listenhear on June 11th, 2009
The noise and tone of my city centre office, which I’m now totally oblivious of….
11.45AM
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Posted by listenhear on June 9th, 2009
WARNING - 8K/16BIT VBR RECORDING (converted from AMR to MP3)
As promised, a really awful recording taken on a tram stop platform well over a mile away from the Oasis gig with my mobile phone….Liam Gallagher very clear, some station staff, tram arriving and a lost drunk …What’s the Story the EU’s Gone Tory….this was also the day of the European Elections…If nothing else it shows just how loud this gig was…
Another Warning : Some drunk swearing!
Apologies to Phonographers around the world for the quality….:-)
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Posted by listenhear on June 7th, 2009
Sunday afternoon, at home in Brighton, the pier, the beach and a stroll around The Lanes…
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Posted by listenhear on June 5th, 2009
Today I was thinking about copyright law…as you do. I also began to think about the recent recordings I’ve put on here regarding the Oasis concerts…sound is simply movement of air, we accept that as a fact…If I choose to buy a CD or, download a tune I enter into a legally binding agreement with the owner and/or creator of the sound I’m purchasing, whoever that might be, and I agree that I won’t copy, distribute, broadcast etc, etc. that music. I give someone some money, they give me the audio and we enter into this legally binding, but unspoken, pact. A contract.
Which got me wondering…what if….what if I’m sitting in my room, minding my own business, for arguments sake let’s imagine that it’s probably an early summer evening and I might have the window open a little, and then someone, lets say, perhaps a Manchester rock band like Oasis, choose to vibrate every cubic inch of air in north Manchester, which, of course, includes the air within the four wall of my flat and lets say, I’ve not agreed with them that they can do this, no money has been exchanged and no silent pact agreed. Then surely, if this scenario was ever to actually happen, I’m perfectly entitled to capture that air movement with my digital air movement capturing device, and do whatever I want with it. They have, after all, invaded my space….space invaders. Can they rightly claim to own any movement and vibration of air in my flat? If they don’t want me to record and distribute this then simply don’t violate my airspace, I’ve not asked for this to happen, and this action has compromised my god-given right to watch the latest edition of Come Dine with Me.…I’m not saying anything more than the fact that I’m considering what the legal implications might be….just an ordinary, everyday, what if moment…personally I don’t reckon anyone can, or should, own the physical act of air movement and vibration, but, if that’s actually legally possible, then I’m going to copyright the sound of wind and make an absolute killing….
So below is some more Oasis, quieter than you’d expect and certainly quieter than Kasabian earlier that evening, with not so much of those damn subs (see below and below) it did get louder and a walk through the streets during the late night encores it sounded as everyone had Oasis blaring out of there houses, it was quite phenomenal. I have some recordings I made with my mobile phone which I’ll try and upload next week. I have to say standing in the street and listening to ‘What’s the Story’ and ‘Champagne Supanova’ I did begin to realise what the masses may see in this band…Give everyone credit where credit is due they did pull off a great night, which people seemed to enjoy, despite the enormous technical problems encountered. Professional to the last.
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Posted by listenhear on June 5th, 2009
The first power failure at the Oasis Heaton Park Gig……
Power failure approximately 1’19” into this recording…..strange how you instinctively know when something has gone horrible wrong….well if you will push a system to extremes….I sensed throughout the evening that whoever was behind the desk was just pushing and pushing to see just how much the system would take…well about that much then, I reckon….
June 4th 2009
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Posted by listenhear on June 5th, 2009
One of a number of recordings I made in my flat and around north Manchester this evening. As you’ll hear from this particular recording the sound engineer did manage to get even more out of those damn subs (see the post below). So, my flat, traffic, birdsong and the trees in my garden gently swaying in the early evening breeze and one of the bands supporting Oasis, Kasabian, playing…..a mile or so down the road…..
Hopefully, I’ll be able to upload more recordings….including the moment it all went horribly quiet….soon……
North Manchester 4th June 2009
19.00hrs
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Posted by listenhear on June 3rd, 2009
One of my least favourite bands, Oasis, are playing some gigs just down the road from my ‘up north’ flat this week….thankfully though I’ll hopefully be heading down south at some point…Living by the beach in Brighton I’m used to the noise especially with Fatboy Slims frequent gigs….but as I try to chill in my flat I can hear a distant sound/system check happening…and it’s beginning to annoy me, as someone who has done thousands, of these myself I understand the importance but…..ahhhhhh…..oh well, perhaps I’ll get to some music for free tomorrow before heading away….that is if I can get home through the masses…..doing their best Manchester Struts despite coming from Ilford.
Oasis, for me, are no more than a pub rock act, if they’d been around 10 or so years earlier they would have made a small living playing small venues, luckily for them they appeared on the scene at a time when they had little or no competition (as everyone else was trying to be a DJ, or sing like their favourite boy band member) and as such easily cleaned up…..The success of arrogant front man Liam Gallagher, who is in reality just a poor mans David Johansen and his brother Noel, who’s no more than a guitar tech who struck lucky, is a total mystery to me, and I’m someone who has been around and in love with music all of my life. But I suppose millions of record buyers can’t be fooled…sorry, I mean wrong…As for the other band members, well, they seem to come and go and come and go….I think it was the record producer Pete Waterman who once said, as a reply to a question about why he changes his studio engineers so often, that – after a while, if they’re good, they’ll start forming an opinion and once that happens then they’re of no use to me…..I think that also probably offers some explanation to ever changing Oasis line ups…..
So here I am, in my flat, smoking silk cut, typing, drinking tea and feeling a little bit hay fevery whilst listening to all the normal Wednesday evening things with the addition, today, of an engineer, a mile down the road, discovering just how much he can get out of those damn subs…..
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Posted by listenhear on June 2nd, 2009
May was a tough month…anyway, my favourite toy! Hours of fun watching it spin around my computer and not fall off the table….
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Posted by listenhear on May 2nd, 2009
A beautiful sunny Saturday morning for the Childrens Parade which traditionally opens the Brighton Festival. It also always wonderful to see The Spiegel Tent pitched so close to my flat…summer is coming….
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Posted by listenhear on April 26th, 2009
7am Sunday Morning – Prague. The sound of distant bells peeling as this beautiful and favourite city of mine wakes to a warm sunny day?…not a chance today, not from my hotel room anyway….with added radio! Lovely…..
Grrrrrrr
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Posted by listenhear on April 24th, 2009
So, I was awake at 4am (better known by some I know as stupid o’clock) this morning in order to get the 7.15am flight from Manchester to Prague. My main intention, upon arrival, being simply to get to my hotel, have a little snooze and then prepare for the workshops I’m running this weekend……I was just beginning to doze and then….this started….little did I know that my hotel was in the middle of a building site….(either that or Einstürzende Neubauten were doing a gig nearby) the chance of any sleep, or even listening to the sound files I was hoping to prepare went right out of the window….so instead I went for a leisurely stroll in the sunshine and happened upon a pizza for lunch…under the circumstances what else could I do?
If you’re planning little trip to Prague then it may be a good idea to keep clear of the Prague 3 area for a little while….
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Posted by listenhear on April 12th, 2009
Easter chocolate rattles…..
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Posted by listenhear on April 1st, 2009
A warmish day and it felt, at last, like the start of Spring.
So I get home, throw open the windows, switch on the television and settle down to watch the International Football World Cup Qualifier, England versus Ukraine, whilst checking out the latest news from the G20 meeting in London on the web.
Football coverage on ITV is generally awful, it’s something everyone seems to be united in agreeing that the BBC does infinitely better. The commentator for this match, Clive Tyldesley, must rate as the one of the most annoying men on television, sometimes he just needs to shut up and simply let the football do the talking for him, he either has an unnatural fear of dead air, or someone has cruelly and unfairly told him that he’s actually interesting, he’s certainly no expert. Gabber, witter, gabber, witter, spew complete nonsense…..Most of the ITV pundits also spout total rubbish, when given the opportunity, the worst culprit being the dire, dull, Andy Townsend, this man alone makes me thankful for the commercial breaks, which always come as a welcome respite to the continual, often ill considered, drivel this man utters. All of this is just purely my opinion of course…and I accept that I might be wrong…not that you should ever consider searching Google to see if I’m alone with my thoughts….
Anyway, traffic, birdsong, and television….windows open…my recorder on the window sill…summer is hopefully on its way…and Tyldesley and Townsend witter on…and on…and on…and on…
Posted in Audio Diary, Manchester, Football and Football Fans | 1 Comment » |
Posted by listenhear on March 16th, 2009
I used to get home from a few days away and the messages n my ansaphone were always from friends but now it’s just spam….I get so much email spam, mobile phone spam and rubbish such as this left on my home phone….why do they never ring when I’m actually at home?
If you were an actor or actress and your agent rang and offered you the chance to be heard in millions of homes I’d suppose you’d do it, especially if you were in debt and needed the money…not quite the Hollywood movie, or BBC costume drama they dreamt about…but I suppose it keeps the wolf from the door…I wonder if they ever pick up the phone and hear themselves trying to sell some two bit financial scam? I hope so…now leave me alone!
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Posted by listenhear on March 16th, 2009
A brief sonic glimse of the Old Town Square, Prague, Sunday 15th March 2009 at midday, bells and a jazz band…
Posted in Audio Diary, Czech Republic | 1 Comment » |
Posted by listenhear on March 16th, 2009
Sunday 15th March 2009
4pm
A great old guy busking just off the Old Town Square in the centre of Prague, singing and playing sax to backing tracks, coincidentally a plane flies overhead during the Glenn Miller track!
Latitude 50° 5′16.02″N
Longitude 14°25′12.93″E
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Posted by listenhear on March 14th, 2009
Prague Cafe - General hubub as I check my emails and enjoy a latte and a sunny Saturday morning
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