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Broadstairs is a Kentish town by the side of the sea (beside which i do like to be). Every year since 1965 they have held a festival there and it goes on for a whole week. Hence the name.
A Section of Broadstairs
This year the dates are Friday 7th ’til Friday 14th August and the line-up includes, to give but a brief summary, Hot Club of Cowtown, Eric Bogle, Shirley Collins, Devon Sprule, Spiers & Boden, Leon Rosselson & Robb Johnson, Faustus, Snapdragons and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. You can find out more about tickets here.
To be honest, when i first started writing this post i thought it was going to be a competition but it turns out it isn’t (which is fair enough, look at how many gigs are going on during this week!). But i’m in the mood for making up a competition question anyway.
In keeping with the theme of step-sized platforms of differing altitudes (like stairs, see?), what (presumably) natural geological anomaly exists in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, which consists of multiple rocks in the shape of hexagonal prisms?
a) The Giant’s Causeway
b) The Elf’s Escalator
c) The Midget’s Motorway
Leave your answer as a comment below (wordpress only, facebook users click here) and if you’re feeling particularly ambitious you can postulate how these rocks formed. I reckon someone was shipping loads of hexagonal prisms around, as was the custom in those days, and they crashed into the shore depositing their craggy cargo.
Entrants must be mammalian, sentient and capable of using a keyboard. If i think your entry is particularly good i might even send you a mystery prize.
There seems to be some dispute as to whether Purbeck in Dorset is an isle or a peninsula, even with talk of it being an island. Either way, the geological classification is of no consequence to whether there are any good festivals happening there, which there are.
Purbeck Folk Festival this year happens from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th September, with a line-up featuring Jim Moray, Mawkin:Causley, Uiscedwr, Snapdragons, Sam Carter and oodles more.
Tickets are great value, and slightly cheaper if you order before 31st July. But let’s try winning the competition first…
(Entrants must be 18 or over, resident in the UK and available to go to the festival if they win. They will also be required to provide an address if they win)
Purbeck is home to the Jurassic Coast, so called because of the geological treasures hidden in the rock which date back to the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras. But, according to science, which landmass would the present Jurassic Coast have been on during the Jurassic era?
a) Laurasia
b) Gondwana
c) There’s no such thing as the Jurassic era, the Earth is only 10,000 years old.
Send the answer you suspect to be correct to competition@properonline.co.uk along with a daytime contact number and with the subject header as “The Fall of Pangea”. The competition closes at 5 of the clock Post Meridian, British Summer Time on Thursday 16th July 2009 Anno Domini/Common Era.
Dub Colossus is a project headed by Nick Page, also known as Count Dubulah, famed for his work with Trans-Global Underground and Temple of Sound. He recorded sessions with musicians in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia and generally considered the birthplace of the human race, and brought the tracks back to the UK to Real World Studios for mixing.
They are playing a show in Dingwalls, Camden on Wednesday 8th July. Wanna go? For free? And win a copy of their EP as well?
Dub Colossus - A Town Called Addis (their EP)
While we’re at it, why not a T-Shirt too?
Click to enlarge
We have two pairs of each of the above to give away! That’s right, 2 pairs of gig tickets, 2 pairs of EPs and 2 pairs of T-Shirts! But entrants must be 18 or over, live in the UK and be able to attend the gig if they win. They must also be able to answer this question correctly:
Which of these messianic figures hails from Ethiopia and is the figurehead of the Rastafarian religion?
a) Haile Selassie
b) Guatama Buddha
c) Chuck Norris
Sent your answer to competition@properonline.co.uk with the subject header as “Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer”. Be sure to include your name and a daytime telephone number. Make sure you’re quick though – the competition closes at 12 noon BST on Monday 6th July.
(The Chuck Norris gag wasn’t mine, i got it from here)
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Like competitions? You’ll find more on our website.
Diana Jones, of pictured below fame, has been recording in the Proper studio for the last week.
Diana Jones - Better Times Will Come
We caught up with her and unleashed Properganda editor Simon Holland on her, who attacked her with a a barrage of interrogation. They discussed such subjects as her reaction to Joan Baez and Gretchen Peters recording her songs, her influences, there’s talk of her upcoming UK gigs in July and of the subject matter on her upcoming album.
Before you listen to it (click the link below), see if you can guess how many tracks she’s recorded in the last week.
Diana Jones Interview Friday 26/06/09
Those of you who delight in magnificent musical sounds will be pleased with our releases of today:
Chris Wood - Albion: An Anthology (Navigator Records - Folk)
21 of his finest works, collected in one package covering his recordings up to and including material from last years Award winning Best Album Trespasser and Cold Haily Rainy Night (with Imagined Village) and previous folk award winner One In A Million (written with Hugh Lupton) plus performance in collaboration with Karine Polwart, Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Andy Cutting, Ian Carr and more.
Kyle Eastwood - Metropolitain (Candid - Jazz)
Aiming to stay true to his roots as a live musician Kyle set out with this record to capture the sound which his band has toured all over the world. Along with producer and long time collaborator Michael Stevens (with whom he has written film scores for block busters such as Changeling and Gran Tarino), Kyle was eager to make a record which had an energy and spirit all of its own. To achieve this Kyle and Michael sought the help of Erin Davis (son of the legendary Miles) who came on board to co-produce the album.
![Brenda Russell - In The Thick Of It: The Best Of [Dome Records - Soul/Dance]](http://properblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/domecd301.jpg?w=204&h=204 "Brenda Russell - In The Thick Of It: The Best Of")
Brenda Russell - In The Thick Of It: The Best Of (Dome Records - Soul/Dance)
This 16 track career-spanning collection from the multi-talented, grammy-nominated New York soul singer/songwriter includes Brenda’s original recordings of her compositions Get Here (Oleta Adams) and If Only For One Night (Luther Vandross) and “the stories behind the songs” liner notes by Brenda.
Plus plenty o’ others:
Charlie Winston, a new signee to Real World Records (who has brought us the likes of Big Blue Ball, Dub Colosuss and Dengue Fever) is celebrating the release of his new album, Hobo, by playing a free gig. Pigalle in London is the venue of choice and Wednesday 1st July is the date of choice. Free is the entrance charge of choice.
Charlie Winston - Hobo
Having had a hard time getting noticed in Britain he has been doing rather well in France. More details about Charlie and the gig, including Charlie’s music videos, can be found on www.run-riot.com.
No doubt after reading this title you’ll want to rub your eyes in disbelief. So i shall give you a moment.
Hmm hm hm – tum te tum te doo dah dee…
Ah, hello again. Yes, this week our super-duper festival giveaway is to the 4-day delights of Shrewsbury Folk Festival.
This year their line-up includes The Proclaimers, Eric Bibb, The Dhol Foundation, Seth Lakeman, Show Of Hands, The Chair, Chris Wood, Megson, Lau, Karine Polwart, Jez Lowe, Faustus, Belshezzar’s Feast, Rachael McShane and plenty o’ others.
The festy takes place from Friday 28th to Monday 31st August. We are offering a full pair of adult tickets as a prize! But if you’re not feeling lucky, or you know there’ll be loads of you going, you can find out more about tickets from here.
So the competition… entrants must be 18 or over, be resident in the UK and available to go to the festival, should they win.
A shrew. Isn't it cute?
Pictured is a shrew which is a small animal, a rodent in fact. But which of these following animals is NOT a rodent?
a) a mouse
b) a rat
c) a goat
Send your correct answer along with your name and a daytime contact number to competition@properonline.co.uk with the subject header as “You can’t spell Shrewsbury without Shrew”. The competition closes at 1700 hours BST on Friday 10th July 2009. The winner will be required to provide an address when they win.
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“King of Pop” Michael Jackson has died, apparently.
Washington Post
Time Magazine
Channel 4 News
August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009
This of course is a blog about folk, country, blues, jazz and world music but, despite how we don’t generally talk about pop music, i think it’s fair to say that the passing of this exceptional performer is worthy of mention. And if you don’t believe me, have a look at the clip from the good part of Moonwalker (ie before the nonsensical film starts) and remind yourself of how outstandingly talented he was as a child, regardless of whether he may or may not have done it.
Having said this, on the same day nearly 70 people were killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad with nearly twice as many injured, although i imagine these people won’t get as much media coverage. I’ll stop now before this all starts getting political.
You know that poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge? No? Well, it was published in 1798 and has had all sorts of impact on popular culture since then, including lines like, “Water, water every where / nor any drop to drink” as well as all sorts of symbolism with people having albatrosses round their necks. I also uses words like ‘eftsoons’ and ‘quoth’. Follow the links and you can find out all about it.
The Ancient Mariner, as he may have appeared*
Back in the realms of what this has to do with anything, fun-time big-band folk orchestra Bellowhead will be doing two performances of an exclusive production based on the epic poem at the Southbank Centre, where the jolly bunch are artists in residence. They will be joined by 150 schoolchildren from Southwark and Lambeth councils who will presumably be doing some acting or singing or something (the press release doesn’t make it too clear).
It takes place at 12pm and 3pm on Saturday 4th July at the Southbank Centre in London. It will cost everyone’s favourite price; free! More details can be found on the Southbank Centre’s website.
A dead albatross
*As much as i’d love to take credit for that picture, it’s actually courtesy of www.tonyynot.com. (Except for the dodgy background editing that was me. I wouldn’t have been able to fit the speech bubble in otherwise.)
As we may have mentioned once or twice before, Proper were recently nominated Distributor of the Year by Music Week, the official music industry magazine. So we thought we’d go out and celebrate! We went to Lingfield Park, a horse-racing course (of course of course).
The Proper Music Team (before some of us got drunk)
We had varying degrees of success on our respective horses although i can tell you a bit about the horse i bet on. Not being a particularly big gambler i went about my highly scrutinous selection process; picking the one horse i liked the name of and sticking a tenner on it. The winner of my attention was Action Girl (i’ve just been disappointed to find that she doesn’t have her own website i can link you to. In fact typing “action girl horse” into google brought up an entirely different site altogether).
A Horse (for illustration purposes)
So i wait until they’re taking bets, only to find that my trusty Action Girl is on odds at 150 to 1. This doesn’t put me off, so i go up to one of the shiftiest looking people i’ve ever seen in my life and bet for her each way, rather than the win. We then go to have a look at the horses before the race starts to find a parade of focused, muscular horses with healthy, shiny brown coats followed by the grey coated, ageing mule that’s clearly more interested in everything around it than the prospect of running a race; the horse we’ve just backed has nearly just smacked its head into a tree.
We return to the track to find that most of the rest of our Proper buddies have also bet on Action Girl, to the point that the odds have shortened to 80 to 1. As the horses do their warm up, it’s clear that Action Girl is saving her energy for the race (or something).
So the race starts. We look at the big screen to find out that she’s not doing that badly, she’s up there in the top three. Our optimism is somewhat short-lived as they come round the bend; it’s quite hard to see from the front-on perspective exactly who is in what position but it looks like Action Girl is lagging. By the time our perspective straightens out it’s quite clear that she’s behind and when the rest of the horses cross the finishing line our Action Girl is a good 4 seconds behind, although she is greeted by us from cheering her over the line.
So the moral of the story is: if you want your CDs distributed, come to us. If you want advice on which nag to stick your cash on, don’t ask us.
