Blog of James Goodhead

The University of York Jazz and Blues society celebrated the year’s finale by going to The Wadrobe, Leeds. After manoeuvering ourselves from York’s campus, at a dozen strong, the society started its first ever event in Leeds. For people that are unaware, The Wardrobe is a fine venue for live music, predominantely jazz, and it is based on two floors. The top floor can be described as a hybrid of Wetherspoons and a bohemian cocktail bar (Evil Eye), and this floor offers a fine opportunity to discuss the event ahead whilst quaffing a fine selection of drinks. Indeed, the society took great advantage of this and all around the table there was friendly and lively conversation. Just over an hour pasesd before the downstairs became open for the public. On entering for the first time, one is always extremely impressed by the expansive dancefloor combined with stylish red leather seats and a large bar sweeping most of the far corner.

It did not take much persuasion for many of the society to enter the dancefloor when DJ Eric Speak started his set. Combining broken beat with jazz funk, DJ Eric Speak created some high octane mixes that envigorated the whole area. From a personal perspective, I generally go to The Wardrobe for the live act, however, DJ Eric Speak provided such an excellent set it was worth the entry fee alone.

Midnight came and this marked the start for Soul Vaccination. Soul Vaccination are a 10-piece band who are a tribute to the legendary Tower of Power, which is certainly a hard act to copy. The set started in a rather weak manner, mainly as the lead vocalist’s voice was flat combined with little feeling and emotion. These two characteristics are imperative for Soul music to come across in the right manner. To my surprise, the dancefloor began emptying.  More of the same quality was to follow and unfortunately I started to become disinterested with the music. The band began to redeem themselves with a few excellent guitar solo’s combined with three strong saxophonists and mellifluous backing vocals. Yet, when the lead vocalist started to have a larger combination in the track, the song started to decline in quality once more. Maybe my judgement is too severe, however, when a tribute band is on stage they can put themselves up for a fall as generally the band they are trying to take influences from are extraodinarily good. To conclude, Soul Vaccination have some compensating features in their band but an overall impression is somewhat negative as the togetherness and musicianship of the band is lacking compared with the impressive Tower of Power.

Soul Vaccination left the stage to a muted reaction. DJ Eric Speak was aware of this and to counterbalance played some stupendous mixes to really give the evening a fine finish. The society members had a positive reaction by the end of the evening and are certainly keen to have another event at The Wardrobe. Arriving back to my home at 4.30, I tried going back to sleep despite rays of sunshine beaming into my room and the birds singing melodically outside. Well, at least this gave my ears the opportunity to hear how music should be sung! 

Before returning to York, I took the opportunity to visit the Home of Cricket, Lords. After a relaxing start to the day, I arrived to St. John’s Wood during the Lunch interval on the third day (out of four). Being a London Victoria Championhip match, the attendance was understandably low. However, the crowd was boosted from a large amount of schoolchildren who were both supporters and had the great opportunity to grace the outfield during the Lunch interval creating a carnival atmosphere.

Lancashire were the opponents for Middlesex and had posted an impressive 505 runs in their first innings. Not so impressively, Middlesex were bowled out for a dismal 161 runs, thus were forced to follow-on. When I joined, E. Smith had just completed his century for Middlesex and O. Shah was well poised, providing signs of a strong recovery by Middlesex. After seeing off the Lancashire’s seamers in the first dozen overs of the afternoon session, the Lancashire spinners were then brought on to exploit the rough that was becoming more pronounced on both sides of the wicket. To the crowd’s delight, O. Shah started to take the attack to the spinners, especially B. Hodge, by dancing down the track and smashing the ball to and over the mid-wicket boundary. Yet, in quick succession, the spinners managed to gain revenge as they masterfully took the wickets of four of the Middlesex batsmen, leaving the Home team in an extremely precarious situation. As a form of consolatoin, S. Styris provided a comprehensive set of attacking strokeplay and eventually reached 133 off only 127 balls. Despite the defeat being inevitable by the final hour of the day, it certainly is always a pleasure to watch cricket at Lords, especially in the glorious weather that Friday afternoon provided.

Instead of observing the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, I decided to visit an old-friend and his girlfriend in London. We met at 1pm at Leicester Square so China town was the first destination and naturally Luncheon was our first priority. Having a knowledge deficiency of the area relative to my friends, I wisely let them decide on the restaurant. After ordering, I was quickly informed my selection was typically English due to my reluctance to explore anything too exotic. In authentic Chinese restaurants, it always amazes me the amount and diversity of dishes one can have. Thirty minutes into the meal, I was trying to juggle about seven different main meals into a small bowl with chopsticks. Luckily, I have had experience of this challenge (a three week stay in Beijing in 2004) so by the end my stomach certainly was satisfied.

After the meal, we had a task to find a typical Buckingham Palace guardsman souvenir of intricate design. To our utter disbelief, after looking in a good number of tourist shops, the best we found was a cartoon guardsman of obviously low quality. Therefore, if anyone knows where to find a better alternative I would be delighted to know!

Baker Street was our next destination and we went to Madame Tussauds. The experience starts with a trip to Hollywood where there are many wax models of various actors and actresses. I must confess of knowing very few of the personalities so I quickly moved on. The next section had various political wax models from a very young Tony Blair to George W Bush. Never to avoid controversy, models of Hitler and Hussein were there and Mugabe also made an appearance. Slightly too close for my comfort to these wax models were the Royal Family with the Queen, Prince Charles, William and Harry along with Princess Diana appeared but there was no place yet for The Duchess of Cornwall.

You would be hard pushed to find a more exhilirating and terrifying experience than The Live Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds. On entering a pitched-black room, four to five actors with appropriate clothing and face-paint swarm around you making high pitched and deranged noises. One of my friends sprinted - at the speed of light - out of the Chamber, whereas I courageously (or somewhat foolishly carried on). More of the same was to follow with many actors appearing from the celing, behind and to the side of unsuspecting visitors right up to the exit. It was worth doing and will be an experience to remember.

To finish the day, we visited Buckingham Palace and strolled through St James’ Park back to Westminster. The grandeur and opulence of the area is always lovely to experience and was a perfect way to finish a most enjoyable day. 

I must say when the year 1903 is casually mentioned in sentences, the Wright brothers do not instantaneously spring to mind. Thus, on Tuesday, I went to the RAF museum in London to become more acquainted with the intricacies of aeronautics and its esteemed history.

When meandering around the museum it became quickly apparent that flying had been a concept that started many years before 1903 (for those who do not know, 17 December 1903 represents the first powered flight by the Wright brothers in Kittyhawk, California). The exhibition started in the pre-1903 period, with various balloons and gliders combined with literature stating the initial importance of the UK, Germany and France to aeronautics. After viewing the early planes of the post-1903 period, I started to focus on the 1939-1945 period. On show, was the Lancaster and its sheer size, power and incredible history of completing 137 missions was something to behold. In complete contrast, the Messerschmitt Bf109E (Germany’s principal fighter during the Battle of Britain) reinforced the brutality and massive losses that occured over the period.

The postwar period for aeronautics provided a greater degree of sophistication in design. I was particular impressed by the design of the 1952 Vulcan bomber. The Vulcan’s wing-span and streamline nature would undoubtedly be a ferocious weapon in battles. Unfortunately, due to the vast amount on display it was extremely difficult to absorb anymore and thus will return at a later date. For people that are interested, I would strongly recommned planning your visit as it is practically inconceivable to visit all the attractoins in one visit. On reflection, I was delighted to see an attraction of such significance and its evolution over the various periods.

After thirty-four years of excellence, the Eagles have decided to start a Farewell Tour (Part I) as a tribute to the fine support given by their legions of followers over the decades. Yesterday, as a reward for finishing my Finals, Gemma and I saw the finest hybrid of country and bluesgrass instrumentation ever to have graced a music stage. As most farewells go, the Eagles provided a comprehensive set of music covering all their different styles and genres throughout the evening.

Take it Easy was played to start the evening. Unquestionably, the song electrified the arena and for anyone still speaking about the World Cup (this comment is mainly aimed at the group of cretins behind Gemma and I) were quickly drowned out. Take it Easy is a cheerful song filled with pure country rock. Further, it is a song that everyone can relate previous experiences to whether it is going on holiday or sitting in a park on a sunny day. The raptuous applause that followed the song was fitting and Don Henley certainly was pleased with the reception. Don stated that unlike the previous night at Twickenham there will be no support act so there will be more tracks from their many albums throughout the evening.

After a couple more tracks from the album Take it Easy, the sinewy and slightly aggressive rock stance of One of These Nights filled the arena. Joe Walsh who joined the band in place of Bernie Leadon in 1975 started playing the guitar tremendously well. Before this song, a guest guitarist Stuart Smith had been playing the guitar solo’s to a mixed reception from the Wembley Arena. However, Joe’s personality shone through when playing the electric guitar and the whole audience stood up to applaud his unique skill. The very popular New Kid in Town from the 1976 album Hotel California was played followed by In the City, which let Joe Walsh explore his gravelling and high-pitched voice. This was the closest the Eagles came to the music from the utterly infamous Bee gees. The Eagles illustrate how to do a track of this nature properly whilst the Bee gees show how certainly not to do it.

A small intermission was called for by the band after an hour of playing. I was interrupted mid-conversation discussing the great musicianship and togetherness of the Eagles by Tequilla Sunrise, which followed the 10 minute interval. The Eagles have a voluminous amount of tracks that are instantly recognisable and likeable and Tequilla Sunrise is certainly one of these.  After another track from the album The Long Run, the Eagles played the September 11th-themed Hole in the World. Don explained the Eagles were meeting to discuss a new album, which was pre-arranged for 11 September 2001. After the tragic events, the Eagles decided to cancel their meeting and instead wrote Hole in the World. The song verges on gospel music and describes their wishes and aspirations for the World ‘There’s a hole in the world tonight. There’s a Cloud of fear and sorrow. There’s a hole in the world tonight. Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.’  Don also hoped the next President of the USA would be wiser, which the majority of the audience nodded approvingly to.

The affectionately nicknamed ‘credit card song’ Take it To the Limit was played to start the Status Quo-esque rock section of the show. This was my least favourite part of the show, mainly due to my musical preferences, however, before I started to wander off, Heartache Tonight played followed by Life in the Fast Lane. Joe Walsh’s guitar riff to start Life in the Fast Lane is surely one of the most memorable and pleasing to hear. By this time, the whole audience were on their feet swaying as one to each and every beat of the song. After the track, to everyone’s utter disbelief the Eagle’s left the stage. The following en-core shouts, stamping on the ground and screams from the audience were some of the loudest I have ever heard. If the people in front of me are reading this blog, I would like to apologise profusely for causing temporary deafness you certainly would have experienced.

Before a riot erupted, the most crisp and beautiful bars from the trumpeter (dressed appropriately in a Mexican hat) started playing. I truly enjoy listening to solely one instrument be it the trumpet, saxophone or piano, melodically filling an arena. After a two minute solo, the never forgetable Hotel California was played. The audience response and interaction was just incredible and it truly was some of the finest minutes of live muisic I have ever heard. If this wasn’t enough, Desperado was then performed. Again, the song started with only one instrument, being the piano. Then the slow, powerful and meaningful voice from the Eagles frontman combined with creative and truthful lyrics ’Don’t you draw the queen of diamonds, boy. She’ll beat you if she’s able, you know the queen of hearts is always your best bet’ was a perfect finish to a complete set from one of the most accomplished, respected and famous bands that there probably will ever be. After three hours of live music from the Eagles, I have hundreds of memories to carry forward and eagerly look forward to their Farewell (Part II) Tour!   

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