A couple of nights ago I dropped by The Drum nestled in the courtyard behind 4 Prorizna Street just off of Khreschatyk in Kyiv's downtown core. I found the usual suspects there, but primarily journalists from the FT, BBC and Bloomberg(Warsaw) as well as Euan MacDonald... of Speeding Lisa and co-owner of The Drum.
Euan came over and sat down as I greeted Nate (Bloomberg) whom had seen last time on my sojourn to Warsaw in April, Euan (BBC), who I guess I saw about about a month or two ago, and Roman(FT) who had just returned from Georgia. Not the state but the country!
"Bill, I guess you know that Speeding Lisa is pretty well dead, but a few weeks ago Blair and Mick asked me to join them to play bass at Sean Carr's birthday party somewhere out near Rivne!"
Now for a short digression. As it turns out Mick Lake, the guitarist of the Death Valley Screamers would frequent The Drum quite often and at some time back in about 2005 I had met him there and a number of other times as well. Somewhere along the way his common love for music he ran into Blair Sheridan, one of those other Montrealers who sort of ended up in Kyiv. Blair at one point had started talking with Mick about starting a new band here in Kyiv, but something that they had sort of grown up with... and lived through... The Punk of the UK (Mick) and Montreal (Blair).
Euan, continued: "So we all had to meet some bus out at the Zhytomyrska Metro station, we got out there on a Saturday morning and eventually found the bus, and the other bands that had Mick had set up to play at Sean's birthday bash! We were on the road for about 5 and a half hours! And as you can imagine there was plenty to drink on the bus," he paused and took a sip of his beer. "There were quite a few bands there at the gig," as he started to show me some of the pictures on his phone and then handed me the earphone to listen to what he had recorded. "Don't mind the sound quality," added Euan, "it was pretty loud and a lot of it just comes out as noise on the phone," as he started one of the video's running.
"I can't remember all the names of the bands that played there that night but there was one band that was pretty good, and they got this guy in a kilt!" Euan then added.
I saw a video of these guys a few nights ago as I was dozing off, but can't remember their name either...
Well it turns out that the band that Mick and Blair are called the C-men... and they will be playing at O'Brien's Irish Pub in Kyiv tomorrow night. OOOPS... Blair has corrected me, they are playing on Saturday, September 27th - Thanks, Blair! I will try to check them out... Maybe just a little of Ukraine has rubbed off on them.
Everything is constantly in flux, from the music we listen to, to the politics and society around us. uaMuzik is a reflection on Ukrainian music, politics, society, the food I create and technologies.
Showing posts with label Sean Carr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean Carr. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2008
Monday, June 18, 2007
The Sir Elton John Show - Who I want to see in Concert if I'm a Ukrainian Billionaire
Like almost two hundred thousand other people in Kyiv I headed down towards Maydan Nezalezhnosti on Saturday June 16 in order to see a living legend. Yes, at 60 years old one can consider Sir Elton John can be considered a living legend. I had earlier predicted that I would probably watch the concert on television, and I was right. With the number of people that were at the concert, there was no way that I was going stand, especially for what turned out to be a two hour and twenty minute gig, surrounded by thousands of Ukrainians who some day will be able to tell their kids or grand kids. "I saw Elton John on Maydan back in 2007!" Well that's if being at the concert really meant anything to them, or if they were part of the so many flocks of sheep in Ukraine that just go to events if they are free.
Whatever my comments are worth I would like to make a simple observation, which I believe will confirm my belief that the music listening public as well as those in radio in this country have a long way to go regarding understanding what has transpired in the international music industry over the last 40 years, and what good music is.
In any recording of concerts of Sir Elton John I've seen right from the first note his fans have sang along to all of his songs during the concert. While I can't say say that I know every single song of Sir Elton's but I definitely know the words to nearly all his early material released on his first albums Honky Chateau, Don't Shoot me I'm Only the Piano Player and Good Bye Yellow Brick Road. By the look on his face at times during his performance on Saturday, Sir Elton was surprised that practically no one was singing along with him during the songs that most Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers in the west grew up with to some degree or less.
One might be able to say, "Well Ukraine never had a chance to listen to that music!" OK if that is the excuse, let's not forget that the Iron Curtain fell over 15 years ago.
Who is it that forms the listening tastes of Ukrainians? To my knowledge there are some radio stations in this country that have a play lists of over 10,000 songs, out of that number there must be some other good music other than what actually gets played. So what am I getting at here... In short DJ's on those radio stations know very little about the music they have at their disposal. Some of the recorded concerts I have seen of Sir Elton have been in countries which were under the influence of the USSR where western music was not exactly given a green light, but at most of those concerts in those countries everyone was singing along.
Where as this wasn't the case last Saturday. Well there was one exception, those who were at the Drum watching the concert on Victor Pinchuk's Noviy Kanal.
While I never met her personally, the young woman who was with Sean Carr's guitarist Mick, whom I have met, was singing along to many of the songs.
Whatever my comments are worth I would like to make a simple observation, which I believe will confirm my belief that the music listening public as well as those in radio in this country have a long way to go regarding understanding what has transpired in the international music industry over the last 40 years, and what good music is.
In any recording of concerts of Sir Elton John I've seen right from the first note his fans have sang along to all of his songs during the concert. While I can't say say that I know every single song of Sir Elton's but I definitely know the words to nearly all his early material released on his first albums Honky Chateau, Don't Shoot me I'm Only the Piano Player and Good Bye Yellow Brick Road. By the look on his face at times during his performance on Saturday, Sir Elton was surprised that practically no one was singing along with him during the songs that most Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers in the west grew up with to some degree or less.
One might be able to say, "Well Ukraine never had a chance to listen to that music!" OK if that is the excuse, let's not forget that the Iron Curtain fell over 15 years ago.
Who is it that forms the listening tastes of Ukrainians? To my knowledge there are some radio stations in this country that have a play lists of over 10,000 songs, out of that number there must be some other good music other than what actually gets played. So what am I getting at here... In short DJ's on those radio stations know very little about the music they have at their disposal. Some of the recorded concerts I have seen of Sir Elton have been in countries which were under the influence of the USSR where western music was not exactly given a green light, but at most of those concerts in those countries everyone was singing along.
Where as this wasn't the case last Saturday. Well there was one exception, those who were at the Drum watching the concert on Victor Pinchuk's Noviy Kanal.
While I never met her personally, the young woman who was with Sean Carr's guitarist Mick, whom I have met, was singing along to many of the songs.
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