music – Page 3 – Fooyah

August 17 2022August 16 2022

M’era Luna 2022

THREE YEARS. That’s how long it had been since I’d been anywhere other than the south east of the UK, Lincolnshire or Cornwall [which was twice this month]. Three years since Smith and I had travelled to Germany to see a collection of bands, dress in weird shit and have a great time. The wait was worth it. 2022 was a great year for M’era Luna and I had an amazing time. There was news to make this year’s event even more interesting: a band had to pull out and they were replaced by Combichrist!

The journey out to Germany went well. The Eurotunnel was on time and Smith and I made it to our standard hotel in Bochum with time to explore the centre of the city and get some food. Most of the centre looked like Harlow – a new town in the UK. But we did find a street with some life and many restaurants. It was a hot evening with temperatures hitting 30C. After food and a couple of drinks we headed back to cheap hotel and planned Friday.

We arrived at Hildesheim early and queued for entry into the camp site. Once in we chose a spot far enough away from the noise and close enough to the car. Then we went for a walk to see how the grounds had changed in the three years since we had been there. Friday night is normally disco night but we didn’t go to that. Instead we found a bunch of Germans who we knew and spent some time with them, drinking their beer. It was good fun. The real music started at 1100 on Saturday though.

As with previous years this is where I just copy my notes from my phone. I can’t remember every band or song. I can’t remember what I thought about them. So I make notes as I go and then regurgitate them here. What follows is pretty much, word for word, my notes. Occasionally I will add detail for particular bands as I have remembered more from those appearances.

SATURDAY

Enemy Inside – main stage -I enjoyed this. They had a female lead singer and it was rock/metal.

Enemy Inside - M'era Luna 2022 — Enemy Inside – M’era Luna 2022

Rave The Requiem – main stage – I also enjoyed this, christian sounding metal. There were references to religious passages and I couldn’t tell if they were critical or supportive after that.

Ambassador 21 – club stage – industrial punk and was great. I really loved this show.

Ambassador 21 - M'era Luna 2022 — Ambassador 21 – M’era Luna 2022

Schattenmann – main stage – actually really enjoyable. Heavy songs. Singer had a chainsaw. Flames from front of stage.

OST+Front – main stage – Enjoyable, very similar to when we last saw them. German new metal. Female dressed in various outfits.

Lacrimas Profundere – main stage – Waiting for Faderhead tbh. Opening bars were really good. But everything else was not. Went to sit in the shade at Club stage.

Solitary Experiments – club stage – perfectly fine but his voice isn’t strong enough. A bit boring really.

Faderhead – club stage – AMAZING. Totally loved this. This was the best attraction on Saturday.

Faderhead - M'era Luna 2022 — Faderhead – M’era Luna 2022

Blut Engel – main stage – halfway through when we arrive. Everything Is Black playing. Next song had 4 girls on stage. 4 songs then left to:

In Strict Confidence – club stage – 3 good songs.

Nitzer Ebb – main stage – probably great if you are off your head. Nice beat stuff. But boring live.

SUNDAY

Hell Boulevard – main stage – they sang hit me baby one more time.

Aeverium – main stage – elements of thrash, not really. But I enjoyed it.

Unzucht – main stage – Fuchs yeah. I do love a bit of Unzucht and they were really enjoyable. Great fun.

Feuerschwanz – main stage – medieval rock shit

Combichrist – main stage – Andy and I started the pit and it was good. Thank god. This made the weekend worth it. Totally loved the show.

Combichrist - M'era Luna 2022 — Combichrist – M’era Luna 2022

Rotersand – club stage – amazing. Really enjoyable. People came and thanked us for starting the pit during the Combichrist show.

Rotersand - M'era Luna 2022 — Rotersand – M’era Luna 2022

Nachtmahr – club stage – good show. Two dancers.

Eisbrecher – main stage – amazing show, really good fun.

And there we have it. A great weekend. Such a shame there were massive delays getting back into the UK but that’s the sort of shit we have to put up with now I guess a bunch of arseholes lied to us. One of the best bits of the weekend for me was Smith’s realisation that paying to have a shit in the posh loos was worth it and made things soooo much better.

The Last Moments - M'era Luna 2022 — The Last Moments – M’era Luna 2022

July 10 2022

Wheels Of Steel – Saxon

I do like a bit of Saxon. I am rather partial to their sound. Can I tell you what’s on this album? No. I’ve got a “best of” and that’ll do for me. Not sure when I got this particular album.

June 27 2022June 26 2022

Weapons – Lostprophets

Fuck. I don’t know what to say. I haven’t listened to this band since it became known the singer was a paedophile. I just can’t physically listen to it.

I remember that musically this was great. I saw the band once and it was amazing. In a very small way I feel I enabled that man. I know I didn’t. The best thing is that as soon as people knew he was a cunt they just stopped playing this stuff. The political right would have called this “cancel culture”, but really it’s just “we don’t support your views so fuck off”. I feel sorry for the rest of the band. But fuck the singer.

June 26 2022June 26 2022

We Want Moore! (Live) – Gary Moore

I’ve had this album since I was a teenager. Listening now I’m surprised that I’ve never heard the first song before but I think my taped version never had that on it. I have always been surprised that Gary Moore wasn’t a bigger star. Everything thing has written is fantastic. He had a great voice, played well, good song writer. I wonder if it’s a thing that his music resonated with me more than with other people and I’m placing my values on the world? Just because I like something doesn’t mean everyone should, and I’m aware that’s clearly a thing, but the metal crowd should love this stuff. It’s amazing.

Every song on this album is great. I think everyone should own this album.

I have to add to this communication. I’ve been playing this album while doing home admin and generally “surfing the internet” [which I don’t think people say anymore]. This album is beautiful. Empty Rooms, Back On The Streets, Shapes Of Things, Victims Of The Future, Cold Hearted. All these songs hit me right where it matters. It’s an album I can listen to when I’m really happy. It makes me happier. If I was sad it would make me sadder. It hits the emotions. Today it makes me absolutely really fucking happy, it’s a Legend of an album.

June 19 2022June 19 2022

Nine Inch Nails – The Eden Project

This weekend has been pretty awesome. Smith and I drove down to Cornwall yesterday to see the band Nine Inch Nails. There aren’t many bands that would have the draw to get us to travel the width of the country but NIN are one of them. Firstly we stayed at a hotel in Okehampton which was on the route and far enough away from Eden to make the journey home this morning less by an hour. While waiting in Okehampton I persuade Smith that we should try and see a viaduct!

Meldon Viaduct - Okehampton — Meldon Viaduct – Okehampton

We parked near the reservoir and walked down by the river to the viaduct. Climbed up and walked the length of the bridge/viaduct. On the return journey we saw Dartmoor ponies and they were rather cute. We also got up close and personal with the dam holding back the reservoir waters.

Meldon Reservoir - Okehampton — Meldon Reservoir – Okehampton

After the walk and some food we drove to Eden. Parking was at the top of the project but there were shuttle buses up and down before and after the concert. It was lovely wandering through the biomes with 6000 other metal fans. It was absolutely pissing it down outside at this point with a lightning storm. The noise of this inside the biomes was like a small jet taking off, quite spectacular.

First band on were Yves Tumor. Not really my thing. Listened to a couple of songs but left it at that. Wandered around for a while.

Yves Tumor - Eden Project — Yves Tumor – Eden Project

Nine Inch Nails were quite spectacular. There wasn’t much interaction with the crowd from Trent Reznor. But is was still an amazing show. I hadn’t noticed until right towards the end of the concert that the biomes had lights and lit up as part of the show. The sound quality was really good and the fact there were only 6500 people attending made it quite an intimate venue. It’s the largest concert I’ve been to for years (mostly because of covid).

NIN - The Eden Project — NIN – The Eden Project

Andy disappeared into the pit on the second song which was “Wish” from The Downward Spiral. I maintained my composure until they started playing March Of The Pigs and I joined in with the pit. I didn’t stay there, I just hovered on the edge and enjoyed the show.

At one point Trent spoke and said there were two things that happened this evening that had never happened at any other gig. First, he made a mistake playing one of his songs and secondly, there was a rainbow. The rainbow was enjoyed by the crowd, it was quite life-positive-affirming.

It was a great concert. As we left and walked up the winding path to the main entrance my niece called both of us and drunkenly chatted which was pretty funny. Also, the biomes were lit up thus:

June 5 2022June 5 2022

What hits!? – Red Hot Chili Peppers

This album was one of my first CDs! I recall getting a CD player in somewhere around 1993. Before then I had used vinyl records and cassette tapes. I think I knew about the song “Under The Bridge” and that was on this album so I bought it. There were a few CDs I had bought before I even owned a CD player because I knew I would get one. I really enjoy this album. It is a good collection of the best songs this band produced in the days before they got mainstream and super massive. I’ve always considered the band to be a great rock show. I’m also really impressed with the bass playing because bass was meant to be my thing but I didn’t practice enough to become great at it. I consider myself “good enough to play a song”. I am not musical.

I’ve just looked at the track listing and I could have sworn that Give It Away was on this album but it isn’t and now I need to go and re-evaluate all my memories!

May 31 2022May 31 2022

Weirdmachine – Treponem Pal

I bought this album after seeing Treponam Pal support Killing Joke at the Forum. It’s quirky and fun. Worth the money.

May 10 2022May 10 2022

We Are Not Your Kind – Slipknot

I’ve been listening to this while doing some other things on the computer and this is a very good album. I enjoy it a lot and there are some great songs. But the problem, as always, with this new music is that is has to get into my brain on top of all the old music and I think the old dog struggles sometimes to learn new tricks. I can remember playing this album in the car quite a bit and I liked it.

Slipknot are great.

May 10 2022May 28 2022

W.A.S.P. – W.A.S.P.

I’ve been trying to see this band for about two years! It’s all been messed up by Covid-19. I missed this band in the late 80s and early 90s for some reason. There were stories of Blackie Lawless throwing raw meat into the audience and I wonder just how true those stories are? It doesn’t really matter. This band cemented their reputation with the song “Animal”. I love the sound of this album but it’s not one I’ve played loads as I prefer the live album which has many of these songs on it. This is proper 80s cock rock.

Fuck Like A Beast – AKA “Animal”, a brilliant song and really quite funny.
I Wanna Be Somebody – a galloping song of excellence.
Love Machine – another galloping song and it’s great.
The Flame – Pretty good.
B.A.D. – a little slow for my liking but a generally good song.
School Daze – Blackie’s voice is so classic. This song is ok. Funny cow bell like sounds.
Hellion – I’d love to mosh to this one. It has a good speed, the crowd would be amazing.
Sleeping (In The Fire) – a great slower song.
On Your Knees – Nice up tempo song. Classic W.A.S.P.
Tormentor – Excellent.
The Torture Never Stops – Proper galloping.

May 1 2022May 1 2022

Welcoming iTunes Back

I have been using CopyTrans for over ten years to manage the music on my iPhone. I found in the distant past that iTunes mostly hated me and it would crash/hang/takeforever to do anything and was a complete pain to use when synchronising with my phone. So I move to a free piece of software that did exactly what I wanted CopyTrans. I could upload songs to my phone and edit their details. This worked well because some music I have been buying from Bandcamp rather than through iTunes because the artists get more money. I was still using iTunes to collate all my music on the NAS drive and for the Sonos system. It made sense as it organises the music nicely into directories and allows the creation of playlists. The thing I couldn’t do was synchronise my phone.

All of that changed when I got a better computer. But it has still taken around two years to actually take the plunge and delete the music from my phone and allow iTunes to do its job. There were a couple of things that made me do this. There were two albums which CopyTrans consistently – or maybe my phone – had the wrong artwork even though it was correct in the iTunes library. I really couldn’t figure out how to correct this. I also wanted to synchronise a playlist onto the Sonos system, one I had created on my phone. I took the plunge yesterday and for the first time in over ten years I plugged my phone into the computer and opened iTunes at the same time. I clicked synchronise and left it to do its job.

Three hours later, after transferring around seven thousand songs, it was done and I opened the music app to see what had happened. It had worked! After deleting some albums a second time around I synchronised again and it took a couple of minutes. Well, that is a timeframe I can live with. This makes it a lot easier to buy music and keep all the content nicely aligned over time. I’m quite happy and it feels like a decent achievement. Sad really, but I do feel smug sometimes over music.