Northumberland and the Noughties

 Hello!

 A belated Happy Easter!

 I'm still on my Easter holidays and am enjoying having some rest and relaxation. Last weekend I went with my family to Northumberland for a few days, and I wanted to tell you about the trip, through, as always, music.

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 Firstly, the way there was as much an adventure as the stay itself: the scenery was beautiful and an unexpected road diversion meant we had to go a very long-winded route that brought us even more moody views of mountains, lakes and heathland. It was very atmospheric.

 We listened to two different compilations of 00s music. Here are some of the highlights:

This song always reminds me of a friend's birthday party I went to when I was young. Very nostalgic!

I remember Pop Idol being the first talent show I ever experienced, when I watched the last few shows and the final. I wanted Will to win and was so glad when he did.

I also did a post about Westlife's song Flying Without Wings.

This has inspired me to do a whole post about Dido, so watch this space!

 Ah, the memories!

 We also listened to the radio and this song played.

 It is so typically Coldplay. If asked to identify the band you wouldn't hesitate a minute. While I'm not completely bewitched by it (see what I did there) I do find it quite pretty, and it will now always remind me of our journey to Northumberland.

 I also found out through research for this blog that it was released on my 20th birthday!

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 When we got there, we explored Kielder Water and the surrounding woodland - it's very scenic and peaceful. We also did some stargazing as the skies were dark and clear, and the moon was incredibly beautiful.

 The first line from Annie's Song sprung to mind on more than one occasion.

"You fill up my senses, like a night in the forest."

 For a while this was the only line I knew in the song, and I was almost disappointed when I heard that the song consists of similar analogies. For me, that one analogy was enough. "A night in the forest" on its own is such a powerful, evocative, lustrous image that I don't see the need for any others, although I do find the rest of the song very lovely.

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 We also visited a bird of prey centre, where we saw some amazing owls and falcons. Let me share one of my favourite songs about flying. I hope to do a whole blog post about flying songs soon.

 A talented singer performed this song at my school talent show; that was the first time I heard it and I immediately liked it. It remains one of my favourite songs.

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 We saw lots of birds in the wild - chaffinches, a siskin, ducks and crows - as well as a red squirrel, rabbits - lots of rabbits -, deer and wallabies. Yes, wallabies.

 We visited a castle, got lost in a maze and sat in a giant artwork.

The artwork

 Our trip finally ended, and we drove home, going through Scotland this time. This song came on the radio. At the time, I thought I'd never heard it before, but now I think I may have done; I have a bit of déjà vu.

 I really like it; it's very simple but I love simple love songs. It goes without saying that Heather Small's voice is amazing.

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 Our weekend was brilliant and really refreshing, and one I'll always remember. I hope we can return to Northumberland in the future.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs: 

Push the Button - Sugababes - 2005

Evergreen - Will Young - 2002

World of Our Own - Westlife - 2002

All You Want - Dido - 2001

Magic - Coldplay - 2014

Annie's Song - John Denver - 1974

On The Wings of Love - Jeffrey Osborne - 1982

Just for You - M People - 1997

Remember Me This Way

 Dear readers,

 I am now on my Easter holidays! Hooray! Three weeks of relaxation before going back to University and facing my summer exams. I will do plenty of study, of course, but a lot has happened this half-semester, and it will be good to have the chance to chill out a bit.

 I would like to bring to your attention that I have set up a blog for my poetry and possibly other types of writing. It would mean a lot to me if you could have a look at it. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

 Finally, I thought I would share this song and clip from the film Casper. Beware of spoilers if you haven't seen the end of the film!

For anyone who doesn't want to see the clip for fear of spoilers, here is the song on its own:

 As a kid, I'd occasionally go to an activity club where they had a TV room. At least half the time, this film was showing. I saw all of it in bits and pieces, but never from beginning to end. 

 It was only a couple of years ago that I caught it on TV and was able to sit back and enjoy the whole film. It was a lot better than I remembered; I think being older allowed me to appreciate the tragedy/friendship/romance side of the film, whereas as a kid I saw it more as an adventure/mystery film.

 Anyway, I really love the dancing scene. While I do like the song in its own right, I believe that being fitted with this specific scene elevates it to something incredibly beautiful and poignant. The lyrics are very simple, but work so well with the music and with the scene.

"Every now and then, we find a special friend,

Who never lets us down."

"If you lose your way, look back on yesterday,

Remember me this way.... Remember me this way."

 I hope you're well,

 Liz x

Song: Remember Me This Way - Jordan Hill - 1995

Feels Like Home

 Hello!

 There has been a fairly big development in my life, in that I have moved to a new University hall of residence.

 There were various reasons behind the move which I won't go into. What I will say is that I settled into my new hall really quickly - even on the first day I felt that I was home. This song kept playing in my head:

 That was last Wednesday - eight days ago. It feels like so much longer. I feel as though I've been living here for a long, long time. I already know a large number of the hall's residents, and I have made some wonderful friends. It's safe to say that I'm very happy here.

 Long live my new home, and may many happy times be ahead of me here.

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

Song: Feels Like Home - Edwina Hayes - 2008

Eurovision article

 Hi!

 I'm just letting you know that I've had an article about the Eurovision Song Contest published in The Mancunion, the University of Manchester's student newspaper. Check it out if you love Eurovision - or if you hate Eurovision. Hopefully in the latter case I can change your mind.

 Liz x

Facebook page

 Hi!

 Just to let you know, I've set up a Facebook page for myself as a writer. Feel free to "Like" it or, if you don't have Facebook, to check it from time to time, to keep up to date with all my writing - be it blogging, poetry, journalism or novel-writing.

 Hope you're well,

 Liz x

Flying Without Wings

 Hello!

 Last night I stumbled upon Flying Without Wings by Westlife. 

 From what I had heard of this in the past I used to find it cheesy in the extreme, but listening to it properly I... I really like it. The lyrics aren't mindblowing but are very pretty...

"Some find it sharing every morning,

Some in the solitary night..."

 I especially love the last verse:

 "For me, it's waking up beside you,

To watch the sunrise on your face..."

 Cheesy and not very original, I know, but I really do like it and would love to sing this song at karaoke one day... Maybe I will if I can get someone else to sing it with me as I think it would work wonderfully as a duet.

 And what's my special thing that helps me fly without wings? I don't know if I can pinpoint one thing. Maybe simply the beauty of this earth. My family, friends, my cat, the stars, the sea, sunset skies, the cool breeze in the evening, that smell when it's about to rain...

 And I call the song cheesy!

 What helps you to fly without wings?

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Song: Flying Without Wings - Westlife - 1999

Love songs of spring ♥

 Hello!

 Since I last posted on here, in January, spring seems to have come to Manchester! There is blossom on the ground, the birds are singing... And I just can't help feeling happy.

 A few other things have happened since I last posted: I have turned 20, I have had several important University exams, and I have made big steps in trying to become a published novelist. Re. the novel, watch this space: I really hope to have good new for you one day!

 2014 is going scarily fast - I really hope it slows down a bit so I can enjoy it while it's here, and make it a year to remember.

♥

 What music have I been listening to? Well, I've been listening to On ira, a French song by Jean-Jacques Goldman.

 I first discovered most of Mr Goldman's music when I was at sixth-form college, and listening to his songs always brings me back there. Sitting in the infamous "Islands" computer area, with my earphones in, waiting for my bus and supposedly doing some work while actually just listening to the song. Happy days.

 If you speak French and are interested, I wrote a piece in French about Jean-Jacques - click on the link to read it, or click his name above the video to read another piece I did about him in English. (Yes, I'm a huge fan!)

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 There's also All Out of Love by Air Supply. 

 I heard this for the first time in a long time on the radio last year, and assumed it was a woman singing the choruses - I was in for a surprise!

 The radio DJ described this as "one of the best love songs ever written," making it sound, as DJ's have a tendency to, like this sentiment were universal. When it played, I thought, it isn't that amazing. 

 However, I did like it and I started listening to it on YouTube, and one day I heard the beautiful simplicity and sadness of the opening bars and realised it is an incredible song. One of the best love songs ever written? Quite possibly. I'm really glad I heard it on the radio that day.

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 After I listened to All Out of Love on YouTube just now, Right Here Waiting came up in the suggested videos, and I decided to share it here as it fits my developing theme of simple but beautiful love songs.

 This was one of the first songs I ever knew. It was on a compilation album called "Bitter Suites" that my parents used to listen to when I was very young. It was probably the first song on the album that I learned to recognise and to like. 

 The words meant little to me and I couldn't understand his accent a lot of the time, so the song was less a story, something with meaning, than a beautiful series of sounds and - in my head - colours and patterns. 

 Soon I knew most of the songs on the album, and I think I might do a blog post about it (so again, watch this space!) but Right Here Waiting was always, and will always be, special to me.

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 Another song that follows in a similar vein is In Too Deep by Genesis.

 I heard this on the radio in the car late last year. I liked it. I was pleased, as I was looking out for Genesis songs I might like, having spent a vast amount of 2013 listening to what was undoubtedly my song of the year, Follow You, Follow Me.

 For a while, In Too Deep was nice but not mindblowing. Then something changed. I realised it was playing in my head at random times. I dreamed of singing it at karaoke. While it will never replace Follow You, Follow Me in my affections, it has become another song whose simplicity, for me, makes it a classic.

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 I'll end this list of simple but effective love songs with one of my favourite such songs: I Want You, by The Silencers.

 My parents used to play this at home, and I quite liked it. Then when I was at sixth-form I played it to myself and I realised I really liked it. It has become one of my favourite songs. So simple, so beautiful. It's near the top of my list of "songs I will learn to play first if I ever master the guitar." It would be just wonderful to be able to play it and sing it with joy and pride and so much love.

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 I've just realised that I have managed to collate a song each from France, Australia, the US, England and Scotland. This wasn't intentional and just shows that all over the world people are writing simple, beautiful love songs - it is a genre that spans continents and cultures and that we all can enjoy and respond to.

 Well, night's coming in and it's nice and cool, and people are milling about outside, probably unable to believe their luck that spring seems to have come overnight. I certainly appreciate this change in the weather - good weather really can lift your mood. Time for spring, for blossom, for lighter nights and birdsong and feeling great ♥

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs: On ira - Jean-Jacques Goldman - 1998

All Out of Love - Air Supply - 1980

Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx - 1989

In Too Deep - Genesis - 1986

I Want You - The Silencers - 1991

A few more JSC songs

 Hello!

 You may remember that in July last year I started a song challenge. I used the prompts from a photo challenge but chose songs for them instead.

 I never finished this challenge due to travelling and generally being busy, but I had an unfinished post with three days worth which I just stumbled upon and thought I should post so it wouldn't be wasted. Here it is.

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 Prompt 2: Shoes

 I've picked Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes by Paul Simon.

 I used to like this song but it always came second to You Can Call Me Al - recently, however, they seem to have switched places in my affections. It's just so upbeat and a song you want to run down the street dancing to. Well I do, anyway.

 It's also a song I imagine being played at the end of a film; an everything's-turned-out-okay kind of song. If I ever write a film I might include it.

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 Prompt 3: Cold

 I've picked Sun Burns Gold by Maura Kennedy.

 I've mentioned the Kennedys often on this blog and have even have the honour of interviewing them - I simply love their music. Sun Burns Gold is a solo effort by Maura and I found it on Retrospective, their best-of album on which I just keep finding new and wonderful songs.

 In the song, Maura describes very vividly and beautifully the wintery scene around her and wishes summer would come. It's an ode to the summer - yet it's an ode to the winter at the same time. It's very cleverly done.

 In the instrumental in the above live clip she does amazing things with her voice. I don't think this is as prominent in the album version where the instrumental is mainly the guitar, but it is still a lovely instrumental, simple but very powerful. All in all, I really like this song and am glad I found it.

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 Prompt 4: Red, white or blue

 I have chosen Red, and The Right Thing by Simply Red for my song.

 I first encountered this song on the way to college in the car - the fact that I was going by car rather than bus suggests I had an exam that day, and I have a strange feeling it may have been biology, though I can't say for sure.

 I have since been a big fan of this song. One of the top comments on YouTube says the best bit of the song is the key change at the end, but I actually much prefer the sound of it before the key change. The key change sounds like Stars a bit too much! Before that it sounds so sophisticated and jazzy and is a unique song, I feel.

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 So there you have it; days 2-4 of the challenge. I had picked songs for other prompts but hadn't written about them; maybe I will sometime. For now, I hope you enjoyed my song selection.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs: Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes - Paul Simon - 1986

Sun Burns Gold - Maura Kennedy - 2010

Simply Red - The Right Thing - 1987

Interview with Eddi Reader

 Hello all!

 In October I had the honour of interviewing Eddi Reader for The Mancunion ahead of her gig at the RNCM on 1st November. I was then given the chance to review that gig, which was brilliant, and afterwards I met Eddi! She came across as a lovely, down-to-earth person and the whole experience was fantastic.

 You can read my interview of her here and my review of the gig here. I hope you enjoy them.

Eddi and me

 Let me now share with you some Eddi Reader videos. 

 I wish there was a video for Married to the Sea, a gorgeous song she performed at the concert I saw. Look out for that song, it's wonderful.

 Bell, Book and Candle is probably my favourite song that she sings, and this live version is so beautiful.

 There's also Patience of Angels, which I heard in a music quiz last year and which I recognised but couldn't place. I'm sure I heard it when I was much younger. It's a lovely song and always has that sense of déjà vu for me.

 Here is Perfect. I never was a massive fan of this until she performed it live at the RNCM gig, and since then it's grown on me. I love this performance:

 Finally, here is one of my favourite music videos of all time, Is This Love? by Alison Moyet, in which she, Eddi and the rest of the band dance on the beach and look so happy and carefree - that's how all music videos should be!

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz

Songs: Bell, Book and Candle - Eddi Reader - 1998

Patience of Angels - Eddi Reader - 1994

Perfect - Fairground Attraction - 1988

Is This Love? - Alison Moyet - 1986

A special night in Southport

 Hello dear readers!

 I want to tell you about the brilliant concert I went to in Southport on 22nd September. It formed part of Southport's From A Distance Americana Festival and was a tribute to Nanci Griffith, a folk artist whose music I love. The gig featured The Kennedys, The Carrivick Sisters and Edwina Hayes.

 I had been looking forward to this gig since I first heard about it. After having seen The Kennedys live in June this year, I had resigned myself to not seeing them until they would return to the UK in June 2014. Then I found out they were coming to Southport in September!

 As well as the chance to see The Kennedys again, it was a chance to celebrate Nanci's music, support the Mines Advisory Group, be introduced to the Carrivick Sisters' music and finally see Edwina Hayes, of whom I had heard great things but who I had never seen live.

 The timing was also pretty good as it was at the end of the first week of my second year at University. I have some extra responsibilities at Uni this year so the first week was very busy for me. This gig would be a nice treat at the end of the busy first week.

 Another useful thing about the show was that it was fairly local - just an hour's drive for me. So all in all, this gig could not have suited me better.

 I arrived with my Mam in Southport on the Sunday evening, and we found the venue: the lovely new Atkinson centre. Well, an old building but newly done-up. It was gorgeous. With live music in the foyer and a fountain bubbling outside, as well as fairy lights on the trees, it was just an amazing atmosphere.

 We went to the studio where the performance would be and I was glad that it was a fairly small, intimate space - and my Mam and I managed to get the best table, in the middle at the front. The lovely Maura Kennedy appeared and we chatted, she took some requests and then the show began.

 It opened with a Kennedys set. It included some songs I hadn't heard before, such as Didn't It Rain and Jasmine. The latter was a request and I am so grateful to the couple who asked for it, as I had never before heard the Kennedys' version of this John Stewart song and it is absolutely beautiful.

 After The Kennedys' set, they were joined by the Carrivick Sisters; Laura and Charlotte, who play a huge range of instruments between them. During this show Laura played the fiddle and steel guitar and Charlotte played the mandolin. Both sang backing vocals for some songs, while Maura sang lead vocals - beautifully, as always.

 Pete and Maura Kennedy have played with Nanci Griffith on and off for twenty years and know her stuff better than pretty much anybody. I adored their renditions of her songs. Maura had said they were planning to do some of her lesser known material, so I had expected not to know some of the songs - but I was very familiar with all of them. I must know Nanci's back catalogue better than I had realised!

 Among the most memorable performances was Love Wore a Halo, which they entered into with such gusto, it was brilliant. You just wanted to sing along! They also did I Wish It Would Rain, which I love - if I remember correctly it was the first Nanci song I learned by heart, when I was about six.

 They did Love at the Five and Dime - I had been half-hoping for the whole anecdote ("One of my greatest fascinations in life...") but they plunged straight into the song and did a lovely job. I was also glad to hear Lone Star State of Mind and There's a Light Beyond These Woods, both Nanci classics in my view.

 Certainly the highlight of the set for me was Gulf Coast Highway, which Maura and Pete did as a duet. It has always been a Nanci favourite for me; I think its simplicity made it easy for my childhood self to understand and sing along to. Maura and Pete's version has to be one of the nicest I have ever heard, if not THE nicest - maybe even better, dare I say it, than the original.

 Edwina arrived and performed It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go - not my favourite Nanci song, but Edwina's voice is gorgeous and I was inspired to listen to more of her music.

 Finally, all five performers sang Ford Econoline with all the energy and passion it deserves. Ah, the memories! I used to love this song! This evening really was a trip down memory lane for me.

 The encore was Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, and I was so glad they did it - and that they'd done Across the Great Divide earlier in the set. Why? These two songs were performed by The Kennedys with Nanci Griffith and Frank Christian on Jools Holland twenty years ago and the videos are available on YouTube.

 Seeing Nanci's one-time backing band do these songs themselves was, for me, something really special - the whole thing has come full-circle. I told Maura as much after the show and I also bought their album Get It Right.

 I will do a proper write-up of the album when I have time, but for now I'll just content myself with saying that the song Get It Right is mesmerising, and for a while after first hearing it I just sat and played it again and again and again. Amazing.

 I had my photo taken with Pete and Maura - I'm building up quite an archive of them - and with Edwina Hayes who turned out to be as lovely as her voice. She's certainly someone I'll keep an eye out for in the future.

 Overall, a fantastic night out that was even better than I had imagined it would be. The Kennedys are wonderful musicians and such sweet, friendly people. It's safe to say I will be coming to every Kennedys UK gig that I possibly can for a very long time.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

 PS: If you are a Kennedys fan or want to learn more about them, you may enjoy my 2013 interview with them and my write-up of their album Closer Than You Know.

Songs: Jasmine - The Kennedys - 2006
Across the Great Divide - Nanci Griffith - 1993
Speed of the Sound of Loneliness - Nanci Griffith - 1993