& were you there? The old adage that everyone who claims to have seen Bob Marley at the Lyceum wouldn't fit into Wembley Stadium. Myself I did see Springsteen in 75, Tom Waits at the Dominion & the Roy Harper Valentine gig. Also the Naughty Rhythmns tour. I also went to see the Sex Pistols at the 100 club as I was intrigued by the bands name. I left after 10 minutes so probably don't count. How about you? Little Feat with the Doobies? Live Stiffs?

Apologies if it's been posted before.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/how-musicians-really...

Mine's shaping up nicely with Tom Russell,Todd Snider, Steve Knightley, Gretchen Peters, Show Of Hands, Albert Lee, Chuck Prophet & Dave Alvin lined up in the next couple of months plus Petty & Springsteen at the Isle Of Wight. Anybody beat that?

How about a Danny Baker style giveaway. You can claim your artist or band, when its gone its yours. You can then adopt them in your profile & are expected to be the expert that we will all defer to in relation to them. I will kick it off with Roy Harper. I will compile the list when it looks full. Over to you

Talking of Cream as we were lower down got me thinking. As long as one of you can sing the trio is the perfect group. ZZ Top, ELP, The Police, Nirvana, Hendrix Experience. Any more?

playing the Isle Of Wight Festival. & Springsteen. I've booked my b&b & am a very happy old man.

Last night I bought my ticket to see Todd Snider at the borderline. I can't wait its going to be amazing.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice. My younger son is 18 & dosen't seem to know where to go with his life. I am fairly chilled but it's driving Mrs Pedro to an early grave. He didn't enjoy school being very bright & very lazy. He seems to be able to pull it out of the bag when he has to & has got good GCSE's & we hope (but may well be wrong) that he will have A* gov & politics, A in english & maybe C in history. This will all be based on about a terms work he did at the very end.
He would not apply for uni this year despite the fact it's going to cost a foutune to delay it. We hope he will start looking at next years uni but I don't think he has a clue what course to do.
He won't look for a job at the moment saying he just needs some chill time. He is very social with lots of mates who he spends time with playing football, guitar & smoking the evil weed. Lots of his mates seem to be in the same boat so we can't get any peer pressure there & we wonder if this really is a lost generation where uni & jobs just don't seem worth it. We would happily pay for him to have a gap year experience but again he can't be motivated. Do we just wait for some maturity to kick in?

Following on from the itunes shuffle game where I was suprised by the amount of artists I didn't recognise who are the less well known who I really should know. Here's my ten;
Tom Russell
David Ackles
Laura Nyro
Todd Snider
Peter Case
James McMurty
Dave Alvin
Chuck Prophet
Pete Atkin
Bobby Charles

Just been to a preview screening of the new Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy film. All I can say is The Boat That Rocked & Love Actually have some serious competition for cynical, sentimental overlong puff. Great perfomances from our old thesps but somebody forgot the script.

Listening to the wonderful Laura Nyro over the weekend it got me thiniking who are the acts who could have made it as big as the established names if they had the breaks luck or determination?

Laura Nyro for Joni Mitchell
David Ackles for Randy Newman
J.D Souther for Jackson Browne
Tom Russell for Tom Waits

No Budgie for Led Zep now.

Seen him at the Half Moon Putney a few times which is a lot easier for me but there's something about a Word gig that makes it so much better. Apologies to all those non Londoners who can't make it. See some of you lot later.

The Todd Snider blog got me thinking that he is the one artist the whole of my nuclear family like. My two lads one of 18 who likes blues & metal & my eldest who is into some techno beat thing that I don't understand will all be happy in the car with Todd. Loudon works as well. What brings your troops together?

What old artists have you discovered/rediscovered this year? My list includes Peter Case, Jim Ford, Jake Holmes, Neal Casal, The Moonlighters & The Old 97,s. Not a bad year for the old. You?

Perhaps I could cycle from one site to the other between sets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture...