Posts by Backdrifter

  • Live theatre and comedy

    Quote from Schrottrocker

    Improv theatre, anybody? I am a musician for improv theatre groups, there is quite a scene here at my place. I hardly ever go watch it myself though.

    I also meant to say, at the Fringe this year are some improv theatre shows and one in which it's a different unrehearsed performer each time who has no prior knowledge of the show. I saw one such production many years ago and it was okay, but I couldn't help feeling that it was unsurprisingly a bit rough. I'm not planning to book for anything like that.

  • Are political threads allowed?

    Quote from FeelItComing

    Sausage sizzles. I can never be bothered. We turn up, cast our vote at my daughter's old primary school, and leave.

    Are the sizzles otherwise well attended from what you can see?


    I gather there are notionally fines for not voting but I'm not sure how they're applied or how the miscreants are identified.


    As to the earlier reference to protest voting/ballot spoiling vs abstaining, to me it's clearly taking some action that sends the clearest message of discontent. Abstaining simply leads to lower turnout, which can be interpreted a number of ways including apathy, assuming your incumbent will win therefore shrugging and not bothering - which itself could mean tacit support or opposition - or broad protest against the system, as well as any number of other reasons for disengagement or simply not making it to the polling station in time despite intending to.


    Abstaining is therefore unspecified absence, whereas spoiling the paper or voting for a 'minority' candidate is an instantly measurable action that is far more likely to send a tangible message.

  • Are political threads allowed?

    Quote from FeelItComing

    Although IWIWRD answered you with a yes, I will also answer! Yes, all you have to do is turn up and have your name signed off by the checkers at the polling both, take the ballot paper, do what you like with it, then put it in the ballot box. You don't need ID.

    Are there still democracy sausages?


    (I think I saw Democracy Sausages supporting Crispy Ambulance at Hammersmith Palais in 1981).

  • Are political threads allowed?

    Voter ID: walking murmuring fossilised column of Edwardian halitosis and formerly Johnson's brexit minister Jacob Rees Mogg admitted that the introduction of voter ID in Britain, publicly justified as combating electoral fraud - virtually unknown in the UK - was an attempt to gerrymander elections in the tories' favour (see also the constituency boundary changes which favour the tories, and the Johnson government's takeover of the previously independent Electoral Commission, which now allows a sitting government to alter electoral law in their own favour - I wonder if Labour will reverse that? Don't hold your breath).


    We also now have leaked communications confirming that a proposal to allow veterans' ID as official voter ID were rejected by the government as they feared it would make it hard to justify disqualifying student ID, also currently not permitted.


    Few people, bizarrely including the main stakeholders, seem to properly understand the nuanced issues involved in voter ID. In a sense, Mogg - as vile as he is (fingers crossed he loses his seat but that's a high hope) - was correct in his gerrymandering remark, in that he was making the point that attempting to game elections in this way is poorly understood and may bite the gamer in the rear end.

  • Are political threads allowed?

    Quote from foxfeeder

    Really?


    2019 election: 3 choices...

    In any UK election there are always more than 3 choices. Infuriatingly, our system as it stands means the range of options on our ballot papers only ever yields either Con or Lab as the UK government. Unless we move away from FPTP we can at best vote to return decent established sitting constituency MPs, vote genuinely with conscience for whichever candidate is the most appealing, or protest vote by avoiding the main parties in the hope that just maybe enough people will do that to give a clear signal of discontent.

  • TotW 05/13/2024 - 05/19/2024: GENESIS - Ripples

    I'm pleasantly surprised to see Fly in the top 10, and happy that BTL and Duchess are appropriately paired up in there. I'm also pleased to see Abacab so high up along with two others from that album.


    Obviously there are other factors that need to be taken into account as the list is drawn from the selections so far in this particular forum which are from a huge number of possible tracks across all Genesis and solo/related albums and other sources. An intriguing test would be what membership here thought of just the Genesis tracks from across the whole of each album, which I suppose could be gleaned from the 'top 3 tracks' threads.


    Getting back to Ripples, while I thought it would score high I wouldn't have expected it to be joint top.


    Quote from Mozo

    I have to go a long way down that list to find the first song that I wouldn't put so high (Land of Confusion).

    For me the equivalent is Earl which is in the top 10, but while I'm not keen on it I'm not surprised it's popular.

  • TotW 05/13/2024 - 05/19/2024: GENESIS - Ripples

    Quote from Backdrifter

    In these top 30 tracks PG is the only solo artist to feature, getting 7 slots. But I didn't look at how many TOTW entries each member has had (I think that's in another thread).

    Just checked this, it's listed here as of January. PG leads just ahead of PC on number of TOTW selections. Even allowing for that, the top 30 seems to reflect the great liking here for his work over that of the others.

  • TotW 05/13/2024 - 05/19/2024: GENESIS - Ripples

    Quote from Mozo

    At this point, Ripples must have one of the highest average scores for TOTW?

    Yes, joint top with The Cinema Show based on my hurried analysis of average scores which makes the top 10 as:


    14.6 Cinema

    14.6 Ripples

    14.3 Solsbury Hill

    14.2 Moonlit Knight

    14.2 In The Cage

    14.0 Fly On A Windshield

    13.9 Red Rain

    13.9 Eleventh Earl

    13.8 Behind The Lines

    13.7 Duchess


    Below that comes the next 20 which are:


    13.6 Abacab

    13.6 Secret World

    13.5 Mama

    13.5 Driving The Last Spike

    13.5 Heathaze

    13.3 In Your Eyes

    13.3 Squonk (average of 2 sets of votes as it was entered twice)

    13.2 Lamia

    13.2 Hogweed

    13.2 Sledgehammer

    13.1 Family Snapshot

    13.0 Mercy Street

    12.9 Dodo

    12.9 Fountain

    12.9 Horizons

    12.9 Me & SJ

    12.8 Tonight

    12.8 Inside & Out

    12.7 Land of Confusion

    12.7 Undertow


    I must point out this was done purely by inspection so it's subject to error and there may be one or two tracks excluded as a result. Taking it as it is, it's interesting. In these top 30 tracks PG is the only solo artist to feature, getting 7 slots. But I didn't look at how many TOTW entries each member has had (I think that's in another thread). If you take PG's two entries out of the top 10 to focus on Genesis only, Mama and Abacab get bumped into the top 10. That gives us a top 10 of four 5-man, two 4-man and 4 trio.


    For some reason I'm fascinated by the grouping of Dodo, Salmacis, Horizons and Sarah Jane all ranked equally. Two quite taut yet very different ones from the trio album that was a major turning point, a prog classic from the first album of the iconic lineup, and an elegant solo acoustic guitar piece. I'm not sure why I like that cluster so much but maybe it somehow sums up both the band and its core fanbase, if the latter can be represented by the membership here.


    Each track seems to get 20 to 30 votes, by the way.

  • KNEBWORTH 1978

    The cover says "The complete broadcast" while the HMV listing says "Full concert", which are two different things. Is there a track listing?


    EDIT: I haven't yet found a tracklisting for this but I'd be wary of the "full concert" claim.


    In searching for it I came across this broadcast from the time. Possibly from Nationwide? For some reason I just started laughing at the guy's earnest voice intoning: "The logistics of a rock festival are intimidating. 25,000 sandwiches. A 7-ton lorryload of meat pies and sausage rolls. Two artics of tea and coffee."


    "25,000 Sandwiches" is begging to be something's title.

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Quote from Mr.Farmer

    Watching Doctor Who from the beginning in 1963 on the i player. We've been watching for months. Now up to series 7, 1970 with John Pertwee. It's gone colour.

    I just recently re-watched the Capaldi ones and really enjoyed them. At the time I saw some but must have missed quite a few as there were ones I had no memory of. I like his grumpy take on the character.


    While the earliest ones I recall are Troughton, Pertwee was "my" one. I vividly remember that first one of his, with the shop window dummies coming to life and smashing their way out. It's one of the most stark and memorable TV images from my childhood, along with the Goodies' giant kitten pushing over the Post Office Tower.


    There's an odd moment in that first Pertwee one, where we see a shot of the plastics factory incongrously accompanied by a snatch of Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac.

  • Are political threads allowed?

    Quote from Mr.Farmer

    Apparently we a general election on July 4th . The news channels yesterday spent hours and hours and hours telling me. I turned it off. When I turned it back on again they were still telling me. I woke up this morning to the radio and they told me again. Nothing changed. No new news. Labour and Conservative have told me I have a choice to make, just in case I don't know what a general election is. The presenters are making full use of their college media "how to fill airtime with nothing to say" course.

    I will as usual be up all night watching results come in, but it's a dispiriting prospect. After 14 years of steadily worsening tory governments, putting some of the most detestable specimens of moral and intellectual vacuum in positions of high office, we're faced with a replacement government that won't be much better. It's like sitting at a table and being told "Let me take that platter of faeces away and serve you this lovely bowl of earwax instead." Uncle Monty in Withnail & I - "Shat on by tories, shovelled up by Labour..."


    Where I live, voting for either won't make a difference as neither are realistically in the running without a gargantuan swing - which, yes, I know can't necessarily be ruled out. But my word, what a lousy system we have.

  • Duke Tour 1980

    Quote from Thelawnmower

    At the time my mates and I were horrified when the title was released before the music. We didn’t like ATTWT and this did not augur well. I seem to remember the band saying at the time they wanted a harder edged word for the title and I don’t suppose Albert would do that although I think I’d prefer it. Maybe it also gave them the opportunity to name the track Duchess.

    Horrified?! I have an amusing image of you and your friends seeing the announcement of the title and variously looking aghast, shocked, swooning, shaking your heads, raising a fist in the air in anger.


    It was the first of three consecutive one-word titles and one of only five in their canon. After a run of wordy titles I can understand their going for this, and avoiding 'Albert' which would have been a rather twee and winsome-sounding title.