Sheffield IS the place

Did Friday 24 April symbolize Sheffield's current standing as a great place to make and to experience music? 

Four gigs to choose from on a regular Friday might - Dylan at the Arena, the UK premiere of the Youssou Ndour film 'I bring what I love' at the Showroom (the opening event of the highly commended Sensoria festival), Basement Jaxx at the Academy and, not least, the wonderful Derek Trucks with his band at Plug. 

My choice was to see Dylan and I was genuinely sad to be disappointed by what I could discern from the performance of a lifelong hero, especially having greatly enjoyed seeing him on each of 10 occasions since 1999. There were great moments but so much was marred by a horribly distorted, apparently over-amped sound system. Was it just me? The next night I was privileged to see the Dead at Madison Square Garden where the 5 sets of speakers suspended on each side of the stage put Dylan's sound system in perspective. Perhaps I should blame Dylan, but I prefer to blame to promoters, his management and the man in the moon ... someone should be taking care of business for the Z-man.

All the 7s

Over on the http://www.philzone.com/ discussion board, there have several references to Phil Lesh and the Number 7. The first four nights of the www.dead.net/dead09 tour this week were all 7 song affairs ... until last nite's Worcester show, where song N0.7 (China Cat Sunflower) sequed (a rumoured act of audience/ band group mind) into I Know You Rider. There was no No.9.

However, we still have evidence of the 7s at play. After 5 nights the band have delivered 77 songs (including Milestones, the Miles Davis instrumental) without a single repeat ... and still no Scarlet > Fire, lots to go at from the first album, Bobby blues, Dylan, etc.

What makes the Grateful Dead unique? There are lot's of good and bad answers, but no one can deny they are the only ones bold enough to do this.

PS Thanks to the band, the tapers and the good folks at the Live Music Archive, you can grab free legal MP3 and Flac downloads of all the shows at http://www.archive.org/details/TheDead. Try Albany (04-17-09) for staters

Greensboro - The Music Never Stopped

The Masters golf finishes and the Masters begin ... following Cabrera's 74th hole play-off win, stayed up in the UK to catch Taper Rob's photos of the auditorium filling ahead of the opening night of the Dead09 tour in Greensboro NC. 

Jam > Music Never Stopped 

Thanks to Rob and all the good people making it happen. I'm hoping to enjoy that first download in a few hours time - my money is on the Z-man being first up.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - a wonderful space and perhaps too-well-kept-secret on the border of South & West Yorkshire, less than a mile from the hustle of the M1. It's hard to imagine a better place to encounter the work of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Memorable today, however, were the extraordinary reconciliations of Sophie Rider and Andy Goldsworthy's countryside reflections. 

And then there was the inspiration of Isamu Noguchi, an expansive exhibition extended into May. Having visited the wonderful Noguchi workshop in New York (actually Long Island, a short hop over the East River via Roosevelt Island) in November, I find myself even more inspired by my second visit to the YSP showing.  

Noguchi appears as a true 'Renaissance Man', a master of art forms large and small, practical and absract - theatre sets, furniture, lighting, playgrounds, bronzes, stone sculptures resembling massive Easter Island symbols. Such breadth of skill and vision seems rare in an increasingly digital throwaway recombinant world. Noguchi's art reminds me of why I admire Owsley Stanley, the Bear, jeweler, sculptor, chemist and sound engineer.