Sonrise @ St. Mary?

Click on the images to enlarge. Article from Hastings & St. Leonards Observer, Friday Dec 29, 2006.

Well here we are Ladies & Gentlemen & welcome to The Show. Plans by the Council to lease St. Mary-in-the-Castle to the Sonrise Church should bring a welcome breath of fresh air into a decidedly God-less Arts Centre. This American based church operate strictly within the ethos, guidelines, language, framework, of all globally successful American businesses. Their business just happens to be selling Christianity. Creationist Christianity to be polite: Evangelical Right Wing Neo Conservative Christianity to be honest. The poster above comes from their local Hastings & Maidstone website http://www.christianoutreachcentre.net/index.php & (literally) gives a very clear picture of their general operational style. The website is full of endless Biblical references, all applied to "modern day living" & the problems arising from it - depression, stress, family breakdowns, poverty, young people, etc. The website index has categories such as the "Pastor's Page", (where the above poster is), "FAQ's on GOD" (sic), "God's Girls", "Polls" (Has Christmas lost it's true meaning?") & other such fascinating promotional material, so to speak.
And for a real treat, go to their main website http://www.sonrise.org/ for the full-blown epic Western version. (Money Talks). I'm sure their presence at St Mary will be yet another fine addition to the ongoing, all-embracing, regeneration of Hastings & St. Leonards currently taking place, even as we speak. I'll be getting our local newspaper later today - more news for sure!

More sixes & sevens

I posted this in June '06 --->

Sixes + Sevens

There's definitely a link between the history of rock/pop music & sixes + sevens.
Rock 'n' Roll hit the streets around 1956/7. Psychedelia changed everything in 1966/7.
Punk appeared between 1976/7. The rave scene & the 2nd Summer of Love 1986-7.
BritPop & Battle of the Bands - Oasis v. Blur 1996/7.
2006? The supremacy of the Internet. MySpace etc could soon be history. 2007? The mind boggles! The Blog Minders are here.

Obviously I was being a bit flippant, especially on the Oasis / Blur thing, & the MySpace comment, knowing full well I'd have to give up & join the masses at some point.....
But the general idea seems ok to me, & here we are at the end of 2006, & the start of 2007, so it's now........or in ten years time!
I've had many questions over the years about some of the famous jazz (& rock, to a lesser degree) musicians I got to see live onstage in my younger days. I've been promising to tell the tales for so long, I figured it would be a really positive new year resolution to actually sit down & start doing it.
Likewise "The Real MCCB History" (Mass Culture Control Bureau to the non-initiated).Now the official MCCB website is stranded, & slowly sinking just off the coast of Cyberia, Aliens@C has become the main info source.
By a sheer stroke of luck, Blogspot have just introduced a new version of their Blog. Amongst other things, it enables posts to be given a label which can be accessed easily at one push of a button.
I'm going to start the jazz story from 1956, & the MCCB History from 1976 - both of these dates being relevant, as you'll find out.
So watch out for the labels "MCCB HiStory" & "JazzMan-T"

A thought for 2007

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all blogging friends.

New Release - Mirage CD

Mirage, the long awaited cd from Geoff & Cathy, is finally out. Recorded in Newport (Pembrokeshire, West Wales), it features Geoff mainly on flutes, plus soprano sax, shenai, zithers, jaw's harp, percussion, & voice; Cathy on voice, harmonium, tampura, percussion & singing bowls; plus special guest Chris Rogers on tampura. The music is inspired & influenced by the North Indian Raga Tradition, Contemporary Folk & Jazz Improvisation, & the natural beauty of the Preseli Mountains in West Wales.
As for availability, we're still checking out potential distributors, & hope the cd will be fairly easy to find by late January / early February. We are planning a low-key intimate presentation concert in March, to be held in Newport itself. The cd is released through Hard World, the label shared with the Ex Wise Heads. (Catalogue Number HW CD 004). If anybody out there is really desperate to get their hands on this music now, please feel free to contact me here giving your private email - I will try & sort out a way of getting the cd to you safely - £12 including postage. More news as it arrives! Sorry but for contractual reasons I can't put up any mp3's from it yet - you'll just have to trust me on the quality control front - or wait! Special thanks to the Arts Council of Wales for financial assistance.

Hipsick Alienation Theory In Practice

Well here she is - my beautiful daughter & co up to even more crazy (beat) trix in Holland.

More info -----> www.state-xnewforms.nl