Manchester, Glasgow and Eurythmics

 Hello!

 It is Friday and it has been a while since I last posted on this blog, so I apologise for that. There have been times when I have really wanted to write a post to share a song or memory but I have had to put university work first.

 However, I am planning on making myself a blog schedule so that I can fit blogging into my week and still get everything else done. I am aiming to write at least two posts a week on this blog from now on. That is the plan!

♥

 How am I? Okay, on the whole. Tired! But enjoying Uni so much. I keep meeting amazing people and making wonderful friends.

 I really love the seminars and the style of teaching and I really look forward to lectures and learn a lot.

♥

 I also love living in Uni accommodation - it is really nice living with so many of my friends and being able to see them every morning and evening at breakfast and dinner - one of the many joys of being in a catered Hall.

 We had a formal dinner on Tuesday - it was the Hall's second one this year but my first. It had a Harry Potter theme so there were a handful of wizards and other spooky characters, and cobwebs draped over the wine bottles. The food was lovely, as it always is in Halls, and we got to wear gowns, which was fun. I had a nice evening.

♥

 Manchester looks very beautiful right now, in that bit of time when autumn and winter overlap, with the trees all green and gold and yellow. There have been some truly gorgeous sunsets and I am so proud and happy to call this place my home.

♥

 Over reading week, which happily coincided with my brother's half-term, I went with my family to Glasgow, another city I adore. The Clyde was as stunning as ever, especially at night with all the lights from the buildings and the bridges reflected in it.

 We visited the city centre at night, something we hadn't got around to doing before, and it was so scrumptious; all the lights and the beautiful buildings illuminated and the hustle and bustle of people doing their shopping and chattering and laughing.

 And somebody was playing an oboe in the street which was lovely and is a bit of a coincidence considering my last post on this blog was about an oboe piece!

♥

 We visited the Kelvingrove Museum and the Glasgow Science Centre; both were amazing as always and in the latter I watched a show in their planetarium which was really good. As I've mentioned before on this blog, I adore stargazing, and I learnt a few things that I hadn't known before. It was so soothing just sitting gazing up at the stars while gentle, relaxing music was played. A lovely experience.

 All of my trip to Glasgow was lovely and I was sad to leave, but it was nice returning first to my home in Wigan and then to Manchester. How lovely to have so many places you feel you can call home.

♥

 Music-wise I have been listening to a lot of The Cure, Nanci Griffith, Alison Moyet and Martika.

 "You've Placed a Chill in my Heart," by Eurythmics, got stuck in my head for a while for some reason, and at times I found it merging with with "Why" by Annie Lennox. Which is understandable in a way, because in my opinion the two songs are quite similar and of couse they both feature Annie Lennox's excellent vocals.

 I comment on Why in my post, "The Best of British," if you are interested in hearing my views on it.

 2.19 to 2.27: I love this bit! You go, girl! The above version of You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart is the original uptempo version, but for most of my life the only version I knew is the acoustic one below. 

 I love both versions but I think I slightly prefer the acoustic one because it feels, as acoustic performances often do, more raw and natural and honest, and straight from the heart. In fact, when I first discovered the faster version I wasn't keen on it, but have come to love it and see it as a great song in its own way.

♥

 I'll sign off here for now, but I will hopefully be back very soon! I still have some really good news to tell you, so watch this space!

 Thanks for reading!

 Liz x

Songs: Why - Annie Lennox - 1992

You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart - Eurythmics - 1987/8

You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart (Acoustic Version) - 1988

Ireland, the Olympics, Snowdonia and Nanci Griffith

 Fáilte! Hello dear blog readers! I love you all!

 I apologise for not having blogged in quite a while, but I have been on holiday in Ireland and since then have been busy with a few things, such as a new project at Cornerhouse cinema/art gallery, about which I am very excited! More about that later.

 Firstly I will tell you about my trip to Ireland. It was lovely. I love Ireland; I have a lot of family who live there and have visited many times. It is a truly beautiful country and I really feel at home there. 

 We stayed in County Wexford, in the south-east of Ireland, where we spent time in the pretty little town of Wexford itself, at the beach, walking in the hills, and at Hook Head with its lighthouse - the oldest intact operational lighthouse in Ireland - and its spectacular coast with crashing blue waves, seals bobbing up and down and hundreds of tiny fossils all over the rocks.

 We then drove across Ireland to County Limerick, to the city of Limerick which is one of the largest cities in Ireland. We met up with family there and had a really nice time. Limerick is a lovely city - and it has the River Shannon running through it! I love cities with a river or a coastline. I just love being near water. 

 I also want to proudly point out that in one day we crossed the two longest rivers in Ireland - the Shannon and the Barrow. I think that's quite a cool achievement, especially when we didn't set out to do it; it just happened that they were both on our route from Wexford to Limerick.

 We watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony when we were in Ireland, and I was quite impressed. More than I had expected to be! I didn't have any prejudices, I just thought it would be impossible to match Beijing. But it was actually really good. I especially liked the beginning section with the choirs and then the industrial revolution and Kenneth Branagh. 

 I also liked the part with James Bond and the Queen, the Abide With Me section - Emeli Sandé is amazing - and the lighting of the cauldron. I think the petal idea was really good.

 I wasn't keen on Paul McCartney's appearance - I like his music but am a bit tired of him being treated like some kind of national treasure and featuring at every event like this. And the same for David Beckham! I think he's very overrated as a footballer. However, I understand he played a big part in bringing the Games to London, so I respect him for that. 

 I loved the fact that they had Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, in the ceremony. The Web really does shape the way we live in the western world in this day and age. I hadn't known he was British. Now he is a national treasure!

 On the way back from Ireland I spent some time with a good friend of mine in Wales, which was lovely. We also got to explore some of the Welsh countryside and Snowdonia. I had never been there before and it was very beautiful and striking; I would love to go back there some day. It was brilliant to see Mount Snowdon, even if most of it was shrouded in mist!

 Since getting back I have been working on a new project at Cornerhouse; I am one of a team of young curators who are curating our very own exhibition of artists' work. I did something similar in January when I was on the curation team for the exhibition Lost is Found, and I really enjoyed that, so it's lovely to have the chance to do it again.

 I have been listening to a great deal of music from the amazing Nanci Griffith. I will do a full post on her very soon, but for now here is a selection of some of her very best songs.

 I Knew Love, which is a simply stunning love song - and very sad too. I learnt the lyrics to this when I was little and used to sing it all the time.

 More than a Whisper; this is a live version which I only recently discovered and which I love. I have listened to the album version all of my life on the Last of the True Believers album (pictured below as the thumbnail for the next two songs which are also both from that album). All the images of the winter and the snow and needing to be woken up always made me think of a badger curled up asleep for the winter.

 Goin' Gone; this was one of my favourite Nanci songs, and probably my favourite from this album, when I was younger. I then went though a stage of not liking it very much, and then I started liking it again! Ah well, there's no accounting for tastes! The lighthouse imagery is a bit top-heavy, but the sentiment is very real and beautiful.

 Fly by Night is a Nanci song I didn't used to really appreciate because it is the second-last song on its album, and I used to listen to Nanci albums going to sleep, and so I'd usually be half asleep by the time this was on, and although I liked it, it never really stood out for me as a favourite. 

 I then rediscovered it years later on YouTube and realised I really love it; it is a really strong, gutsy song about someone who is not taking any nonsense any more, and I love that. The musicality is gorgeous too, as in all Nanci songs. The woman is nothing short of a genius.

 She is so fantastic; she has a beautiful, unique voice, and is a simply stunning songwriter. She is one of the best musicians I have ever known. 

 In other news, I have found out that In Your Eyes by Niamh Kavanagh was the reigning Eurovision winner when I was born, and I am very chuffed about that because I love that song.

 I'll sign off for now.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

 If you enjoyed this post I recommend: My top songs lyrics-wise, Mountains and memories: Nanci Griffith and Tina Turner, The Songbird from Bouth and Amazing news and the Kennedys ♥.

Songs: I Knew Love - Nanci Griffith - 1988

More Than A Whisper - Nanci Griffith - album version released 1986, this live version released 1988

Goin' Gone - Nanci Griffith - 1986

Fly by Night - Nanci Griffith - 1986

Eurovision 2012 Countdown: Céline Dion - a Eurovision success story?

 Hello! Bonjour!

 I must hasten to add that the point of this blog entry is not to question whether or not Céline Dion is successful. I love her to bits and it is clear that she is one of the biggest and most influential artists in the world.

 However, unlike ABBA, whose international career was without doubt jump-started by their Eurovision win, I have to ponder, wouldn't Céline have made it anyway?

 Someone with such an amazing voice, such beauty, such charisma and stage presence, and the driving forces of René Angélil and Jean-Jacques Goldman on her side, this talented woman would always have eventually become a global superstar.

 That is my opinion, anyway.

 However, we can't deny that appearing on Eurovision - and winning it - helped her a great deal when it came to gaining international exposure. She represented Switzerland in 1988 with the song, "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi."

Although I had known that she won the competition one year for Switzerland, I had never actually heard the song until quite recently. 

 Listening to it for the first time, I had high standards, because I love Céline Dion's music, especially when she sings in French as she does in this song, and I love Eurovision, so I was hoping this would be something spectacular.

 In reality, I was a bit disappointed at first, because I found the verses a bit too slow, and the changes between the verses and the faster choruses a bit too abrupt and unnatural-sounding. 

 I also thought it was all a bit clichéd and generic (how many times have I said that about Eurovision songs! But then, I guess back then there was a winning formula and it kind of made sense to stick to it).

 However, Céline fans, don't storm off in fury yet! Because when I listened to this song again a few days later... I really liked it. I kind of "got" the change in the verse and the chorus speed this time, and how it can sound quite effective. And I love the lyrics...

"Vous qui cherchez l'étoile,

Vous qui vivez un rêve."

"You who seek the star,

You who live a dream."

 It is a very beautiful song.

 I also love how she is one of those artists who are always changing their image - though in Céline's case, it seems like a natural change as she has grown and matured, unlike some people who change their image just to expand their market. 

 However, I feel that the magical thing about Céline is that while she has changed so much, in essence she has stayed the same - same big voice, same emotion when she is singing, same presence. 

 And she is recognisable; she hasn't metamorphosed physically like many artists of her age have since their younger days. I think what we can gather from this is that firstly, Céline stays true to herself and her natural musical style, and secondly, her music is timeless.

 I really like this song now, and I will always love Céline ♥ A worthy winner!

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

Song: Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi - Céline Dion - 1988

♥ Martika ♥

 Ciao,

 It's April and I have been listening to all kinds of music since I last updated this blog - in fact a lot has happened in my life since I last updated this blog. For one thing, I am 18 now!

 I have also been to France and back twice, once to Paris and once to Montpellier. These cities are both amazing, but are so different. Paris is so busy and vibrant and full of life, and you really feel as though you're in the middle of it all when you're in Paris; the middle of the universe. You're where everything is happening!

 Montpellier has a much more relaxed feel, and is absolutely beautiful with some magnificent architecture and palm trees lining the streets, and as it has three universities it is full of students and the nightlife is... pretty good, to say the least.

 I love both cities for different reasons, and I really couldn't decide which is my favourite. They're both wonderful.

 I'm also very happy because I've had an article of mine published in a national magazine: Your Cat magazine. The article is, surprisingly enough, about my cat. He is called Murphy, and it is lovely that this beautiful, gentle and inspirational creature can now be recognised as the hero he is. He is a survivor, and the best pet I could ever wish for. I love him and I hope the readers of the magazine will too ♥

 Anyway, as I said I have been listening to lots of different music recently, especially Nanci Griffith, Joan Armatrading and Martika. Nanci Griffith and Joan Armatrading are both fantastic artists of whom I have been a fan for a long time, and both will probably have a blog post dedicated to them in the near future. However, Martika, aka Marta Marrero, is someone I have discovered more recently, and whose music I adore, and this blog post will be about her.

 I am listening to her music right now, and singing and dancing along - I literally cannot help it. The beat is so infectious, and the passion in her voice - she clearly loves what she does, and I find that when an artist clearly loves their music, it is easy for me to love it as well.

 When I say I discovered her recently; I was familiar with Toy Soldiers, which was without doubt her biggest hit and is still her best known song, especially since Eminem sampled the chorus in his 2005 song, Like Toy Soldiers (which I remember seeing on Top of the Pops when it came out and thinking that the chorus was the only good bit - obviously I was going to grow up to be a Martika fan!)

 I then heard the original Toy Soldiers at the gym (where I first heard a lot of my favourite songs - they had good musical taste at that gym) and later I found it on YouTube and fell in love. When I found out that the song is supposedly about drug addiction, I liked it even more, because I like it when a singer and/or songwriter chooses to tackle a difficult subject - and in this case, she got a massive number one hit out of it; thus spreading the awareness of a global problem.

 I know I probably say this a lot, but I really think Toy Soldiers is a song like no other: deep, haunting and powerful, it can really send chills down your spine. And it is so beautiful. Her voice is amazing, and you can tell that every word has an emotional significance for her, from the way she sings it. She is amazing ♥ and this song is without doubt a classic.

 The next Martika song I want to tell you about is "Water," which I discovered only the other day - like I said, I had always known Toy Soldiers, but it is more recently that I have started to uncover the rest of Martika's sensational back catalogue. And there is some pretty amazing - and unbelievably underrated stuff in there! Water is just fantastic - and I love how she sings in Spanish as well as in English. The passion in her voice in both languages is just so powerful, and her voice itself is sublime. If Martika had never become a singer, it would have been a huge loss for the music industry.

 I can't believe that, according to Wikipedia anyway, Water was not released as a single in the US, and it only reached number 59 in the UK. It is simply beautiful and should be top 10 at least, in both countries!

 She sings with such genuine love and passion, and the song is brilliant - technically an excellent song, and so full of raw emotion. From many singers, all the water imagery might get a bit tiresome, but from Martika... You could never get sick of it because you can tell that she means every word, and it makes perfect sense. I love her!

 Finally, More Than You Know. An 80s classic! Upbeat, bouncy; a happy tune despite the slightly bittersweet lyrics... You just want to get up and dance. Correction: you just have to get up and dance, and sing along too! As with Toy Soldiers, there is a Spanish version too, and as I love the Spanish language, this is something I am pleased about!

 I love how the official video version of this song is a rather self-indulgent 6 minutes 13 seconds! Luckily there is a shorter version if you don't have 6 minutes to spare. Yet every second of the full version is fantastic, and I recommend listening to it at least once and watching her amazing dancing - I think she moves like a cross between Prince and George Micheal - but better than either of them!

 More Than You Know is up there with the big anthems of the 80s, but sadly I had never heard it until a few months ago. Martika needs more love! She is amazing and so genuinely underrated. She is one of the true stars of the late 80s/early 90s, along with my other musical heroes, Roxette.

 Spread the Martika love! She has so many great songs that you never hear on the radio; find her on YouTube and enjoy the Martika beyond Toy Soldiers (although Toy Soldiers is amazing. But she has so much more wonderful music!)

 Martika is amazing; I am so glad I discovered her fantastic, evergreen music, and I look forward to enjoying her music and her beautiful voice for many years to come ♥

 Liz x

 Songs: Toy Soldiers - Martika - 1989
            Water - Martika - 1990
            More Than You Know - Martika - 1988
            Como Un Juguete (Spanish version of Toy Soldiers) - Martika - 1989
            Quiero Entregarte Mi Amor (Spanish version of More Than You Know) - Martika - 1989

Gorgeous song!

My mum recommended this to me and, like most songs she recommends to me, it is amazing.

Gorgeous song, just exquisite. Roberta has a fantastic voice and sings this beautifully and with so much soul and feeling. The lyrics are lovely and the tune is mesmerisingly beautiful and emotional.

The arrangement on this LP is amazing; the sound is clear and sharp and the instruments and Roberta's voice go together perfectly and create the most gorgeous harmonies.

I will sign off before I have used the word "gorgeous" a million times! But it describes this song to a T!

Be warned: this video is a bit psychedelic towards the beginning!

Song: Oasis - Roberta Flack