It’s time once again for the annual series of postings we like to call Shadows and Reflections, in which our contributors and friends look back on the past twelve months. From Jeff Barrett (with photos by Wendy Barrett):
UPPERS
Port Eliot Festival, July.
The Caught by the River tent at The Good Life Experience. Glorious late summer sunshine, a new, better, location for us in the grounds of the Hawarden Estate, a terrific line up covering everything we love. Even if we’d known at the time that it was going to be our last year at the festival we couldn’t have given ourselves a better send-off.
A successful Arts Council application which allowed us to get out of the south and put on CBTR Social Club events in the Yorkshire towns of Huddersfield and Todmorden. I should mention that there’s one more to come, also in West Yorkshire – Farsley to be precise – on Thursday 6th February. Tickets and details can be found here.
We – and I personally – visited Yorkshire on several occasions in 2019. And I’d single out the CBTR Calder events at the Trades Club in the town of Hebden Bridge as personal highlights. We did something different with the programming at these two (one being entirely fiction-based) and had several new faces join us on stage and off and they worked. It’s a cracking venue and the good folk of the Calder Valley warm it up no end. Also of significant note: The Heavenly Recordings Weekend at The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds.
A short holiday with Wendy in West Yorkshire. Based in Hebden Bridge and taking in first time visits to the village of Heptonstall, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Hepworth, Wakefield. Plus, with instructions and directions from CBTR contributor and dear friend Nick Small, we undertook a mentally and physically regenerative walk that began and ended in the National Trust car park at Hardcastle Craggs, taking in Crimsworth Dean, Bridge Clough, Lumb Hole Falls, shared time with the curlews who were in glorious action on Charles Rough, and back into the valley via Horodiddle Hamlet and following Upper Hebden Water to where our adventure began four hours earlier. I think this might have been the happiest I felt all year.
An afternoon in Halifax, checking out venues and record shops with Nick Small.
Dartington, Totnes – Sea Change Festival. Catching up with old friends, including one of the original Saltash Monsters, Ross Read, and winding things down on Sunday night by playing records to a small and lovely bunch of people whose attention and appreciation was heartwarming (special shout out here to my old mate Pete Theelk. Pete, if you’re reading this, let’s do it again in May, same time, same place). A memorable lunch with the Parkers and Sonny at the excellent Open Table. A river cruise from Totnes to Dartmouth. A steam train from Kingswear to Paignton.
DOWNERS (UK politics aside)
The last ever Port Eliot Festival.
Bushfires and climate deniers.
Republicans and evangelicals.
BOOKS
Jon Savage – This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History
Jay Bernard – Surge
Helen Mort – Black Car Burning
Nico Walker – Cherry
Wendy Erskine – Sweet Home
Kembrew McLeod – The Downtown Pop Underground
Patrick Radden Keefe – Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland
Don Winslow – The Border
Tracey Thorn – Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia
Emma Warren – Make Some Space
DJ Target – Grime Kids: The Inside Story of the Global Grime Takeover
Andre Perry – Some Of Us Are Very Hungry Now
Kathleen Jamie – Surfacing
Steph Cha – Your House Will Pay
Eve Babitz – I Used To Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz
Virginie Despentes – Vernon Subutex One
Robert Gallagher – The Dancefloors of England
Hanif Abdurraqib – Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest
Zaffar Kunial – Six
TUNES I PLAYED THE MOST
(Note: I never, okay rarely, include any records that I worked on in these round-ups. If you wanna know more about those records, visit the Heavenly website).
Bill Evans – Evans In England (Resonance Records)
Johnny Burch Octet – Jazzbeat (Rhythm and Blues Records)
Soho Scene ’64-’65: Jazz Goes Mod – Various artists (Rhythm and Blues Records)
This Is Lowrider Soul: 1962-1970 – Various artists (Ace)
Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures Vol. 5 – Various artists (Ace)
Yesterday Has Gone: The Songs of Teddy Randazzo – Various artists (Ace)
The Time For Peace Is Now: Gospel Music About Us – Various artists (Luaka Bop)
Torrid Zone: The Vertigo Recordings 1970-1975 (about half of it anyway) – Nucleus & Ian Carr (Cherry Red)
Charlotte Adigéry – ‘Paténipat’ (Deewee, 12”)
Charlotte Adigéry – ‘Yin Yang Meditation’ (Deewee, 12”)
Little Simz – ‘Selfish’ / ‘Boss’ (from the album GREY Area)
Sault – ‘Think About It’ / ‘Up All Night’ (from the album 5)
David Murray Quartet – Ballads For Bass Clarinet (Koko, LP)
Reggie Andrews and the Fellowship – Mystic Beauty (Mad About Records, LP)
Basso Valdambrini Sextet – Exciting 6 (DejaVu)
Tubby Hayes Quartet – Grits, Beans and Greens (Decca)
Comet Is Coming – ‘Summon The Fire’ (Impulse, single)
Bobby Oroza – ‘Should I Take You Home’ (Timmion 7”)
Sampa The Great – ‘Freedom’ (from the album, The Return) (Ninja Tune)
Brittany Howard – Jaime (ATO)
Nathan Micay – Blue Spring (LuckyMe)
Abdallah Ag Oumbadougou – Anou Malane (Sahel Sounds)
Ebony Steel Band – Pan Machine (OM Swagger)
Jessica Pratt – Quiet Signs (City Slang)
Devendra Banhart – ‘Kantori Ongaku’ (from the album, Ma)
Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains (Drag City)
Frazey Ford – ‘The Kids Are Having None Of It’ (Arts & Crafts, single)
Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell (Polydor)
Róisín Murphy – ‘Incapable’ (Loaded, single)
Durand Jones – American Love Call (Secretly Canadian)
Aldous Harding – ‘The Barrel’ (from the album Designer)
Marvin Gaye – ‘Where Are We Going? (Alternate Mix 2)’ (from the album You’re The Man)
Mac and Party – ‘Zandale’ (Afro7 7”)
Octo Octa – Resonant Body (T4T LUV NRG)
Dr Packer – ‘Moods of Music’ (Re-Loved 12”)
Ernest Ranglin – Be What You Want To Be (Emotional Rescue, mini LP)
Coastal County – Coastal County (Preservation Australia)
The Famous Ward Singers – ‘I’m Getting Richer’ (Honest Jon’s 7”)
Jo Bisso – ‘The Mystery With Me’ (Glowing Palms Edit)
Jackie Shane – ‘Any Other Way’ (Numero 7”)
Rupa – Disco Jazz (Numero)
Cannonball Adderley – Swingin’ In Seattle (Wienerworld)
Eric Dolphy – Musical Prophet – The Expanded New York Studio Sessions – 1962 – 1963 (Resonance)
Sachiko Kanenobu – Misora (Light In The Attic)
Sad About The Times – Various artists (Anthology Recordings)
LIVE MUSIC
(Note: as above, I tend to avoid including gigs by artists that I work with, but this year that rule has gone out of the window as these shows by Mattiel and Working Men’s Club really cannot go unmentioned).
Mattiel, EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney), London
Working Men’s Club – The Good Life Experience, Hawarden / The Moth Club, London / Supersonic, Paris
Doves, Royal Albert Hall
Will Burns & Hannah Peel, Milton Court, London
Erland Cooper, Milton Court, London
Bill Callahan, Hammersmith Apollo, London
The Comet Is Coming, St David’s Historic Sanctuary, Austin, Texas
TV/FILM
Succession
Unbelievable
Chernobyl
The Irishman
Pose (series 1 only)
Peter Taylor: My Journey Through the Troubles
The Sisters Brothers (2018)
Dolemite Is My Name
EXHIBITIONS
Mark Leckey – O’ Magic Power of Bleakness at Tate Modern
LOOKING FORWARD TO
Back in 1990, a grown-up working in the distribution sector of the UK music industry suggested that he and I start a record label. I said yes and I came up with the name Heavenly. This year I’m looking forward to the thirtieth birthday celebrations and putting out some amazing music. Ones to watch: Katy J Pearson and Working Men’s Club.