Sheffield-born Peter Stringfellow who died yesterday, aged 77, was Britain’s most famous nightclub entrepreneur. The glitzy London club that bore his name a magnet for celebrities during the ‘80s, epitomising the glamourous world he always sought, in contrast to his cash-strapped working class roots.
Woke up to the news this morning that David Bowie had died from cancer, aged 69, just a few days on from his birthday last Friday when his latest album, ‘Blackstar’, was released.
Following a run of 2 years 9 months I’ve decided to wind things down with Living To Music, perhaps making it an irregular feature of the blog from herein. Up until now it had been a monthly series, but something has to give and, as I’m currently stuggling to fit in all the things I need to be doing, I can’t maintain this commitment, although I don’t want to stop the series completely.
On October 5th 1962 the first single by The Beatles, ‘Love Me Do’ c/w ‘P.S. I Love You’, was released in the UK on the Parlophone label. Principally written by Paul McCartney a few years earlier, when he was 16 (John Lennon added the middle-eight), and based around 3 chords, it was the first of a run of 3 singles that featured John Lennon on harmonica – the others being ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘From Me To You’, both released the following year (the instrument, a signature of the early Beatles sound, was retired by Lennon 1965). The harmonica used had been pinched from a music shop 2 years previously in Arnhem, Holland, whilst The Beatles were on their way to their first stint in Hamburg, Germany (Aug – Dec ’60).  A photograph was also taken of them that day by Barry Chang, the brother-in-law of then manager Allan Williams, as they passed through Arnhem, which would later prove to be somewhat prophetic – the then unknown band, minus Lennon, with their pre-Ringo drummer Pete Best and original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, Williams and his wife Beryl, along with Williams’ one-time partner Lord Woodbine (aka Harold Phillips), who drove the minibus they were travelling in over from Liverpool. The snapshot was taken in front of the War Memorial, on which the legend ‘Their Name Liveth For Evermore’ was carved. Lennon had stayed in the van, opting out of the photo opportunity, whilst apparently declaring himself, in another portent of the future, a pacifist.
ARTIST: THE KLF
ALBUM: CHILL OUT
LABEL: KLF COMMUNICATIONS
YEAR: 1990
This Sunday (September 2nd) at 9pm, you’re invited to share a listening session with some likeminded souls, wherever you might be. This can be experienced either alone or communally, and you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to participate. If it’s not possible to make the allotted time, hopefully you can join in at your convenience at some point during the following week. See update here:
https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/07/living-to-music-update-july-2012/
ARTIST: PINK FLOYD
ALBUM: WISH YOU WERE HERE
LABEL: HARVEST
YEAR: 1975
This Sunday (August 5th) at 9pm, you’re invited to share a listening session with some likeminded souls, wherever you might be. This can be experienced either alone or communally, and you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to participate. If it’s not possible to make the allotted time, hopefully you can join in at your convenience at some point during the following week. See update here:
https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/07/living-to-music-update-july-2012/
It’s almost 2 years since Living To Music was launched with Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ in August 1st 2010. Since then it’s been a key feature of the blog and pretty successful in fulfilling its basic objective, which is to help get people to sit down and listen to music, as opposed to treating it as something in the background. It’s also spun-off ‘Classic Album Sundays’, which has gone from strength to strength in recent times, and is even holding sessions in the US now:
https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2011/01/classic-album-sundays/
Watched the 1982 film ‘Pink Floyd The Wall’ with my son a couple of times during recent weeks. It made a strong impression on him, as I hoped it would, whilst reminding me just how powerful an audio / visual experience it provides.
This was meant to be the first post-ideological generation, right? This was meant to be the generation that never thought of anything bigger than our Facebook profiles and our TV screens. This was meant to be the generation where the only thing that Saturday night meant was X Factor. I think now that claim is quite ridiculous. I think now that claim is quite preposterous.
Barnaby Raine 27.11.10
Having enjoyed such an auspicious start, Living To Music is catching the imagination of an ever increasing amount of music lovers.  You can read all the comments here for the previous session – Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’:
https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2010/08/living-to-music-pink-floyd-the-dark-side-of-the-moon/#comments
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