Sunday 31 October 2010

Call it Synchronicity, Call it Deja Vu........


Hullo ma wee blog,

Music connects many of us to incident, time and place and here are a couple of pieces that do that for me. I spend a lot of time while on the computer with earphones on listening to music, be it via radio, you tube or uploaded CD.  {I'm not that into downloading music yet}  A few days back I was listening to Classic FM and Rossini's Thieving Magpie came on through my headphones and I was taken back to a dark Edinburgh night in the 80's sitting in 'The Playhouse' waiting for a concert to start when the lights went down and cheers of anticipation and whistles of approval grew until after a few moments, the sound of this piece began to pour out of the speakers all around the pitch black hall. It started very quietly and slowly but deliberately someone in the background began to raise the volume very gradually so that over a few minutes the sound had become almost deafening. The anticipation of the crowd had grown along with the volume of this uplifting bit of music and roars of anticipation, cheers, whistles and cat calls would at times come through the sound as people become more and more whipped into fever pitch by the amazing sound until quite suddenly at the end of the piece the curtains whipped up and the unmistakeable sound of local superstars 'Marillion' took over the volume as they launched into 'Incommunicado'.



At the end of this video you can hear the crowd chanting "Geeza Bun" {give us a bun} during which time lead singer Fish and the band would traditionally be pelted with bread rolls by large parts of the audience. It was very funny and enjoyed by all - probably less by the band as the years passed - but I've no idea where the tradition came from.

It was a welcome memory and led me to play a lot of my Marillion favourites over the next few hours and days and has taken me back to many exciting concerts of the time in small intimate and deafening venues.
Perhaps thats why I love my music played so loud.

But.

Does it sound better when upright or is it best savoured horizontal on the floor or laid out on the couch?

Now 'horizontal dancing makes me think of  'Gregories Girl' and the final scene.......


ignore the ad at the start and concentrate or you might fall off!



See you later.

Listening to Marillion of course.........

4 comments:

Scottish Nature Boy said...

"I just place my faith in destiny - it's the way that I choose!" What a lovely collection of inter-connected pieces here. Funny how once thing sparks thoughts of another apparently unrelated one, only for you to realise the connection later! We both seem to be going through a Fishy phase! And I was at that Marillion gig in Edinburgh too (I went to all of them there while Fish was aboard!) and remember how dramatic the Thieving Magpie intro was that night - does that mean we are on the live album? I must check! Idefinitely love Gregory's Girl, a classic Scottish comic masterpiece. I watched it again last year for the first time in many years and noticed, for the first time, that the eponymous hero has, on his bedroom wall, the same Rush poster that I cherished for years on my teenage bedroom wall around the same time the film was made. Don't know how I missed that before! But it was fun and funny to spot it! Lovely post Al, cheers, SNB

Alistair said...

Small world eh-no.....

My wife and her two brothers are all huge Rush fans and they got me {a wee bit anyway} into their music. The two boys played in numerous Rush - and Marillion - inspired bands when they were younger and are still playing together {drums and bass} in a band called 'Crooked Mouth' in fact they were playing a gig tonight. They play Sneeky Petes in Edinburgh next week. You should check them out on-line.......

DB Stewart said...

Don't stop dancing or you'll fall off. It sounds like a good way to live one's life from moment...to moment...to moment.

Alistair said...

Very true buddy, very true......

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