Welcome to blogpost #5000. That’s it for me, film festival over for another year. Haven’t seen as many movies at this one and have missed a couple of things but that couldn’t be helped. I imagine that my peepers are relieved.
Been a Mississippi kind of week, starting off with the John Michael McCarthy stint. He’s from Tupelo originally. Last night I saw a show by a guy who has been called “The Sage of Tippo”, Mr Mose Allison. I was a little wary having only found out he was playing two weeks ago. Turns out that it’s been in the Jazz festival programme since Spring, talk about a communication breakdown.
Anyway, it’s a testament to the city that there was a sizeable, attentive crowd. Billed as The Mose Allison Trio, it turned out to be the man and a double bass player. Took an instrumental workout to get the sound right but by the time the singing started, it was crystal clear. What followed was an abject lesson in the blues drawing on originals and standards. I’d say he was pretty much at the top of his game and the audience was with these guys all the way. He even cracked out “My Brain” from the new album, I certainly didn’t expect that from this “Certified Senior Citizen”.
I think it was recorded by the BBC so I’ll try to find out when that might be broadcast, so that you can hear that I’m not telling porkies.
Today, I managed to haul my tuchus into Edinburgh a wee bit early thinking I could pick up a 45 that had been spotted in a charity shop. Turns out it wasn’t what I thought it was. Then I did a kind of good deed on my way to Filmhouse so maybe I’m not overdrawn at the karma bank.
“Soulboy” is about Wigan Casino. It’s always been a regret of mine that I never went there. A couple of friends did but I guess I was deep into the punk rock thing. That was really about 5 years before there was an actual commodity called that. In those days it would have been Stooges , Dolls, Groovies, Alice Cooper etc. I didn’t really come to appreciate soul music properly until maybe 1976. There's a record store in it that reminds me of the one I used to work in apart from the listening booth.
Anyway, it’s good. A bit of a crowd pleaser that’s kind of like if Bill Forsyth directed The Full Monty and shot it on the same film stock as “On The Buses”. It has a beginning, a middle and an end in addition to a great soundtrack. There’s not much that can beat The Marvelettes “When You’re Young And In Love” ringing around a theatre. Solid entertainment and a loving reconstruction of the times with a happy ending. No sign of a sequel and all the better for it.All going well, I’ll be back to the music tomorrow but of course I will be dipping into Glasto just to see how low it can go. The Editors are on right now, how heinous are they on a scale of one to quite?