Not The KSHE Klassics Show, May 28th

Quotation du jour ~ Jane Siberry: should the universe bring / the song to your ears / and you give it a spin / and it makes people stop / and say hey who was that? / say a sparrow started it / with a strand of grass.

There was no Klassics Show on KSHE yesterday. It's Memorial Day weekend in the States and they were doing a weekend-long top 500 countdown, but i went through such a hassle to learn that, i thought i'd share my pain.

A few minutes before nine, i tried to connect to the audio stream. Nuffink. Tried again. Nada. Reloaded the page. Zilch.

My primary browser is Vivaldi. I tried to connect using my secondary browser, Avast's Safe Zone. Rien, encore. But then i remembered that i also have a third browser, Microsoft's Edge, but trying to connect using that was hampered somewhat by the fact that i was unable to open the damn thing.

A few days ago i installed an ad blocker in Vivaldi, i wondered if that might be creating the problem, so back i went to Vivaldi and disabled the ad blocker for KSHE. In a word, nope.

By now it was gone 9:30 and i supposed that i had missed a good half hour's worth of brilliant classic rock and that my week was pretty much ruined, and i was tearing my hair out in frustration.

I eventually solved it, though. I have said that KSHE doesn't stream their audio to Canada and that i need to connect via a VPN, which tells them that i am somewhere in New Jersey. I hadn't turned the VPN on! Duh!!! So i did and that's when i discovered that there was no Klassics Show. And i spent the morning listening to Radio Paradise and at least i got to hear my new favourite singer, Caro Emerald. And look, here she is.

And as i can't post a KSHE playlist, here's what i listened to this week, because i know you're fascinated:

Paul Simon – Graceland
James Taylor – Sweet Baby James
Terje Rypdal – Descendre
Björk – Post
Rory Gallagher – Stage Struck
Kate Bush – The Dreaming
Marillion – Holidays In Eden
Sparks – Kimono My House
King Crimson – Starless And Bible Black
Richard Thompson – More Guitar
Sky – The Great Balloon Race
Jeff Beck – Official Bootleg U.S.A. '06
Johnny Clegg And Juluka – A Johnny Clegg And Juluka Collection
Peter Hammill – In Camera
Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home
Various Artists – Folk And More, Vol 12
Ten Years After – Undead
Billy Talent – III
Ashley Hutchings – By Gloucester Docks I Sat Down And Wept
Dan Fogelberg – Live At Carnegie Hall
Steve Reich – Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint
Saga – Silent Knight
Bonnie Raitt – Luck Of The Draw
Ray Davies – Americana
Yes – The Yes Album
The Beatles – A Hard Day's Night
Seether – Poison The Parish
Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives Of Henry VIII
Paula Cole – This Bright Red Feeling
Caro Emerald – Emerald Island
Mike Batt – Tarot Suite
Tyrannosaurus Rex – A Beard Of Stars
Roxy Music – The Avalon Tapes

Kiss vs Ariana Grande

I can't stand KISS. I think that they are one of the worst rock bands of all time. If one of their "songs" comes on the radio, i change the station.

Ariana Grande's music, on the other hand, is completely unknown to me: i'm a long, long (long!) way from being her target audience.

I won't need to remind anyone of the horrific bombing in Manchester on Monday. Ms Grande herself was devastated and flew home -- i can't begin to imagine the emotional pain she was suffering, poor girl.

Now, read these snippets published yesterday:

'NEW YORK (AP) — Ariana Grande has vowed to return to Manchester, England, to give a concert to raise money for the victims of Monday’s deadly bombing at her show there.

'In a statement on Friday, the pop star says “we won’t let hate win” and offered to “extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours.”

'“Our response to this violence must be to come closer together, to help each other, to love more, to sing louder and to live more kindly and generously than we did before.”'

And this:

'MANCHESTER, England (AP) — KISS has canceled its show at the arena where deadly terrorist attacks occurred at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, earlier this week.

'Live Nation announced Friday that the rock group’s May 30 concert at Manchester Arena will not take place. Band members Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer said in a statement that they “are heartbroken by the atrocity committed against the innocent victims of Manchester.”

'The bombing on Monday night claimed the lives of 22 people, many of them teenagers and their parents. Refunds for the KISS show will be granted to all ticketholders at the point of purchase.

'The band said its “thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those affected and all the people of Manchester at this difficult time.”'

KISS, you spiritless fucking cowards, i can't imagine why you have any fans but apparently you do, but it seems you don't care enough about the ones in the Manchester area to go there and put on a show that might help them through this "difficult time" as you put it.

I recall the example of my favourite guitarist Rory Gallagher who, during "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland in the seventies, was one of the few performers who would tour there regularly. He did it for the fans, as a way to brighten their lives.

Well done Ariana Grande! I may even go to YouTube and check out your music. Bless you.

The KSHE Klassics Show, May 21st, 2017

Quotation du jour ~ Bob Dylan: The radio makes hideous sounds. 

(For a Nobel Prize winner, Mr Dylan sure has said some dumb shit: today's show was excellent.)

I said two weeks ago that i would be unable to post the playlist for last week, because last Sunday was Mother's Day -- the busiest day of the year in my business -- and i had to work. I was able to listen for about an hour, on my 'phone, but it's such a noisy place it was hardly worth the effort. Or the data. (My work's wi-fi is utter crap and i couldn't connect to the network. I wound up using almost half of my month's data allowance.) (Apparently none of my tech-savvy manglement team knows how to re-boot a router!) I certainly couldn't create a playlist -- although Uman did play Dan Fogelberg's "As The Raven Flies," which made me wish i was at home with a beer and a sausage samwidge. I can't even remember anything else he played.

But here's what he played today:

Russ Ballard -- Rene Didn't Do It

Oh, look, there's Russ Ballard himself. A fairly recent pic, i think. He was the singer in Argent and wrote one of the most dire songs ever, "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You" -- i find that most songs written since about 1971 that have the expression "rock 'n' roll" in their titles, have little relation to the genre.

Nantucket -- California
Steve Hackett -- Narnia
Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- From The Beginning
Dickie Betts -- Hand Picked
Chicago -- 25 Or 6 To 4 (live)
The Firm -- Radioactive
Strawbs -- Keep On Trying
Badfinger -- No Matter What
Bruce Springsteen -- Kitty's Back
Journey -- The Girl Can't Help It
Spirit -- Nature's Way
Ambrosia -- Life Beyond L.A.
The Hooters -- All You Zombies
Point Blank -- Nicole
The Animals -- It's My Life
Electric Light Orchestra -- Ma-Ma-Ma Belle
Mistress -- China Lake
Dave Mason -- Let It Go, Let It Flow
Dan Fogelberg -- Part Of The Plan
The Moody Blues -- The Story In Your Eyes
Roxy Music -- Love Is The Drug
The Steve Miller Band -- Space Cowboy
UFO -- Only You Can Rock Me
Genesis -- Eleventh Earl Of Mar
The Stabilizers -- One Simple Thing
Yes -- Time And A Word
Graham Parker -- White Honey
Pat Travers -- Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)
Supertramp -- Crime Of The Century
Jerry Garcia -- Sugaree
Mama's Pride -- Merry-Go-Round
Santana -- Samba Pa Ti
Rory Gallagher -- Brute Force And Ignorance
Heartsfield -- Racin' The Sun

And my own playlist for this week:

Ray Davies – Americana
Robin Trower – Day Of The Eagle
Rory Gallagher – Top Priority
Paula Cole – This Bright Red Feeling
Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold As Love
Chuck Berry – The Great Twenty-Eight
Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn
Caro Emerald – Emerald Island
Florence + The Machine – Lungs
Mark Hollis – Mark Hollis
Saga – Images At Twilight
David Bowie – Hunky Dory
Brian Plummer – No Questions
The Kinks – Everybody's In Show-Biz
Sheryl Crow – Be Myself
Laurie Anderson – Bright Red
The Yardbirds – Greatest Hits
The Who – Odds & Sods
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bayou Country
The Allman Brothers Band – Beginnings
Home – The Alchemist
Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
The Beatles – Beatles For Sale
Arkells – Jackson Square
Dan Fogelberg – The Wild Places
Runrig – The Big Wheel
Figgy Duff – A Retrospective 1974-1993
Caro Emerald – In Concert (DVD)
Ashley Hutchings – 5
Propaganda – A Secret Wish
Jane Siberry – Ulysses' Purse
Procol Harum – Home
Max Webster – High Class In Borrowed Shoes

KSHE Klassics, May 7th, 2017

Quotation du jour: Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.

As my regular reader will have noticed, i did not post the playlist last week. Tech problems again, but for once, they weren't local. KSHE's audio stream must have been down -- i couldn't open it with my laptop, phone or iPad. It was fine the next day: i was able to listen to The Rock Magazine with no difficulty. So i don't know what happened on Sunday, it was very disappointing. I listened to Radio Paradise for most of the morning instead and heard some darned good music but it wasn't the same....

Radio Paradise, as you may or may not know, is commercial free and listener supported, and i am now a supporter. I have -- what's the word i'm looking for? Not "donated," they're not a charity. I have given them money once or twice but have just made arrangements to give them a monthly, um, er, support-type payment. I won't say how much -- not a lot but over the course of a year it should help. I felt i had to -- after all, they did, among other things, introduce me to my current musical obsession, Caro Emerald (www.caroemerald.com).Oh, look, here's Caro:

On to this morning's program.

My router died yesterday and my laptop crashed twice before the show began -- the usual netio.sys failure -- but apart from a browser crash a few minutes into the show, which was easily fixed, i was able to listen uninterrupted and it really is the highlight of my week -- especially as work has become so depressing and i've virtually stopped going out for a beer at the end of my shift there. Not that i've become abstemious or anyfink -- god no -- but really, the only pub i want to go to, Bentley's, is a twenty-minute walk and the weather has just been so cold and rainy....

Oh, and i should warn you in advance: i won't be able to post a playlist next week. Next Sunday is Mother's Day, the busiest day of the year in the food poisoning industry, and i'll be working. I'll try to listen to at least some of the show on my phone, but i won't be able to compile a playlist.

Here's today's, and here's Heartsfield, a scruffy looking bunch:

Heartsfield -- House Of Living
Billy Joel -- Root Beer Rag
Beat -- Don't Wait Up For Me Tonight
Aerosmith -- Big Ten Inch Record
Derek & The Dominos -- Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
Automatic Man -- My Pearl
Uriah Heep -- Stealin'
John Mellencamp -- Thundering Hearts
Badfinger -- Baby Blue
Justin Hayward -- Forever Autumn
Todd Rundgren -- We Gotta Get You A Woman
Peter Frampton -- Lines On My Face
Graham Nash -- Chicago / We Can Change The World
Sweet -- Love Is Like Oxygen
Les Dudek -- City Magic
Atlanta Rhythm Section -- Champagne Jam
Mott The Hoople -- All The Young Dudes
Steve Miller -- The Stake
REO Speedwagon -- Music Man (live)
Couchois -- Do It In Darkness
Michael Stanley -- He Can't Love You
Little River Band -- It's Not A Wonder
George Harrison -- What Is Life
The Glass Moon -- Killer At 25
Leon Russell -- Stranger In A Strange Land
Off Broadway -- Stay In Time
Jefferson Starship -- Play On Love
Wet Willie -- No No No
Chicago -- I'm A Man
Roger Daltrey -- Say It Ain't So, Joe
Nazareth -- This Flight Tonight
Triumvirat -- March To The Eternal City
Bob Welch -- Sentimental Lady
UFO -- Rock Bottom
The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver -- (I Don't Want To Love You But) You Got me Anyway
Rod Stewart -- Hot Legs
Flash & The Pan -- Down Among The Dead Men
The Greg Kihn Band -- Jeopardy
Jo Jo Gunne -- Run Run Run
Queen -- I Want It All
John Kay -- Easy Evil
Judas Priest -- The Ripper

And the CDs i listened to this week:

Caro Emerald – The Shocking Miss Emerald
Peter Gabriel – Passion
Dan Fogelberg – Nether Lands
Marc Cohn – Marc Cohn
The Quintet – Jazz At Massey Hall
Tangerine Dream – Phaedra
Saga –  Full Circle
Runrig – In Search Of Angels
The Pretty Things – The EP Collection
Bonnie Raitt – Give It Up
Rival Sons – Pressure & Time
Mark Knopfler – Shangri-La
FM – Black Noise
Genesis – Nursery Cryme
Donovan – What's Bin Did And What's Bin Hid
10 c.c. – How Dare You!
Garmarna – Guds Spelemän
Various Artists – A Little On The CD Side, Vol. 5
Roxy Music – The Early Years
Rob Hyman – Largo
Sparks – Kimono My House
Jethro Tull – A Passion Play
Humble Pie – Classics Volume 14
Counting Crows – August And Everything After
Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger
Caro Emerald – The Shocking Miss Emerald Acoustic Sessions
Ten Years After – Live At Reading
Buffalo Tom – Big Red Letter Day
P.J. Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
The Cure – Greatest Hits
Fairport Convention – Rosie
Sheryl Crow – The Globe Sessions
Steeleye Span – Dodgy Bastards