Can anyone tell me who the man on the right in this picture is? It is taken about 1959-60, possibly in New Zealand. On the left is the promoter Phil Warren (think Larry Parnes), and on the right a visiting performer probably called Eddie (according to his inscription, and his monongrammed handkerchief). In 1959 Warren toured Johnny Cash and Gene Vincent to New Zealand, its first overseas rock tour. The album on the wall is "The Lively Guy" by Guy Lombardo, 1959.

New Zealand's classical public radio network features Randy Newman as its composer-of-the-week this week - only one 'popular' composer gets this coveted slot each year (in previous years they have deigned to feature Dylan, Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Bowie). The 6 x 54 minute programmes are podcast for two weeks here...
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/composeroftheweek
Okay I put them together, but it's his wonderful music, from the Metric songwriter-for-hire years to Harps & Angels: with some soundbites from interviews done back in 1999.

When I ran into Van Morrison, on a street in Sheffield in 1989, he almost had steam coming out his ears. I knew not to approach. Glen Hansard recalls meeting him in 1995. Glen was 20; it's Van's 50th birthday...

Aretha's guitarist from 1967 to 1976, he plays the deep twang that opens her 'Respect'. With Bernard Purdie on drums, he is the backbone to perhaps her greatest album, 1972's "Young Gifted and Black". Aged 69. I have a special fondness for this, with King Curtis, Purdie, and Jerry Jemmott on bass:

To give British and other northern hemisphere Word readers an idea of the earthquake devastation in Christchurch, New Zealand, here is a dramatic photo stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28470621@N05/?v=1

More details of the best news links are at Stephen Stratford's Quote Unquote blog, which usually covers literary matters:
http://quoteunquotenz.blogspot.com/2011/02/note-for-overseas-readers.htm...

Keeping it rock'n'roll, here's a clip from one of the New Zealand's most popular beat bands, which emerged from Christchurch in the early 1960s:

Thanks to Speechification.com I just heard a brilliant doco on composing for film and TV comedies. Hear the unheralded geniuses who made music behind the Carry on films, Tony Hancock, Harry Worth et al reveal their secrets:

http://speechification.com/2009/02/17/waa-waa-waa-waaaah/

Among those interviewed is the recently deceased Angela Morley, the "Wendy Carlos" of film composing. Here's her fascinating obit:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/angela-morley-composer-and-...

David Fricke's Rolling Stone review of "Astral Weeks Live at Hollywood Bowl" may have a different meaning for Word blog watchers and podcast people. He writes that Morrison brings out the blues in his music

"more emphatically — his vocal-and-harp break in 'Sweet Thing' is like a hot wind of Little Walter."

I am as yet unconvinced by the album. It seems cluttered, like Phil Spector's involved, and the bass bleeds through everything whereas Richard Davis's clarity and risk-taking were a big part of the original's genius; it also seems often in the wrong register. Compared to "It's Too Late to Stop Now" it lacks intimacy. Thankfully the call-and-response shtick that became so tiring in the 1980s is only there on the last, bonus track. The pianist Roger Kellaway, and especially Jay Berliner the original acoustic guitarist, are terrific though. So it's early days, and it's a lot more interesting than those R&B/jazzer albums he flicked out in the 1990s. Though the cover and graphic design are so ugly it's an encouragement to turn it into an MP3.