Saturday 29 November 2008

A Mostly Impressive Gig

Friday 28th November: I still find it difficult to believe that, until just over a year ago, I hadn't heard of Mostly Autumn. York-based, prog-rock (with more than a hint of folk), eleven years old, extremely talented and, somehow, completely off my radar until I took a chance and went to the launch of Offerings by Odin Dragonfly.

Yet, in some ways, it's not that surprising. Despite a country(world?)-wide hardcore of truly dedicated fans, the Mostlies still come across as a small band that have somehow made it reasonably big. The band members are people you could pass in the street and not have an inkling that they were, at least in the minds of some people, rock gods. Being York people, you occasionally see them in local pubs (usually when music is involved) and, if you timed it right, you could probably bump into some of them in the supermarket. Their style of music isn't the most popular around and, unless you listen to the likes of Planet Rock, you aren't likely to hear them on the radio. Modern progressive rock seems to exists solely on the foundations of word of mouth and links on the internet.

However, since I discovered them, Mostly Autumn have become one of my favourite bands and though them I have come across a few similar outfits. Currently, Mostly Autumn (or, perhaps more specifically, Bryan and Heather) appear to be the music centre of a whirlpool of talent. Past and present members link the band to Panic Room, Breathing Space, Fish, Coverdale's Night, Odin Dragonfly and, probably, many more. Just following links from those bands can open up a world of exciting and interesting music.

When Mostly Autumn played their York gig last year, I missed it and went to see a Led Zeppelin tribute band instead. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with the latter's performance and vowed that I would take the next opportunity to see the former. So, when tickets went on sale for tonight's gig at York's Grand Opera House, I bought mine almost straight away. Despite it being month's away, my anticipation was high.

Tonight's gig was the first after a four month break due to the birth of Heather's son in October. Heather herself looked radiant in a series of simple black and red dresses. The relatively small stage meant that, from where I was sitting, I could hardly see anything of Iain Jennings, only saw Anne-Marie Helder whenever she ventured from behind her keyboards to play flute or guitar or Livvy Sparnenn, who looked incredibly lonely so far back on the stage by herself. The rest of the band were fully visible, however, with Bryan and Heather front of stage (but who was that third microphone for?), Andy Smith alternating between pacing around like a caged tiger and retreating to his corner, Liam Davison rarely coming forward from his central position and Henry Bourne, of course, staying in place behind the drums.

The set itself contained about an even split of songs that I did know and ones that I didn't, although their were more from the latest album, Glass Shadows, than I had expected from reviews of other gigs. The vast majority of songs were excellent. My only complaint would be that the simple repetitive keyboards of Above The Blue was pretty much repeated a handful of songs later - once was just about bearable, the second time was bordering on monotonous. It should be said, though, that Heather's rendition of Above The Blue was absolutely superb. A lot of the band's songs are written, from the heart, as personal tributes or celebrations of life. Powerful songs that, in some ways, batter the audience on an emotional level (as Bryan himself pointed out). Heroes Never Die and Tearing At The Faerytale aren't the kind of songs you hear from "ordinary" bands and the audience loved them. A Different Sky is an entirely different type of song - the archetypal three-minute pop song - and was almost a breath of fresh air compared to some of the others. Songs such as Evergreen and The Spirit Of Autumn Past are typical of the style of the band and are personal favourites. There were (obviously) more but I either can't remember them or didn't know them.

Mostly Autumn are, without doubt, an ensemble band. Yes, Bryan is the heart and guitar of the band and Heather is the voice, but everybody has their part to play and, tonight, they did so admirably. Iain's keyboards soared, Anne-Marie's flute was used to great effect and the various guitarists were brilliant, while the backing vocals added just the right amount if variation to to the main ones. Towards the end of the show, the mystery of that third microphone was solved - Troy Donockley appeared on stage to perform a tune on the Uillean Pipes and continued to play for the remainder of the gig, providing accompaniment on the pipes, various whistles and guitar. The whole performance was highlighted with a much smaller and much less subtle, but no less effective, light-show than you would normally expect from a rock concert.

Despite it still being November, Christmas was an ongoing theme during the gig. The first half was ended with Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas, while the encore started with Heather singing Silent Night accompanied by former band-members Angela Gordon and Chris Johnson. Bryan then proceeded to tell us how the band see Christmas as a special time for family and friends before announcing that they were really going to "*&%$ing ram it down our throats..." What followed almost needed a bigger stage as the whole line-up ended the show with Fairytale Of New York and Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody, while wearing suitably festive headgear. At one point, Livvy was joined at the back by Heather, Angela and Anne-Marie - that's not a bad-looking backing vocals line-up in anybody's book.

Throughout the show the band appeared to be having fun on stage. At the end, the audience (finally) got to their feet and gave them resounding applause.

Forget Chinese Democracy being the most anticipated album of the year. Tonight's gig was my most anticipated of the year and it lived up to those expectations. To my mind, there isn't another band quite like Mostly Autumn. Conversely, Mostly Autumn are like quite a lot of other bands, but I don't mean that in any disparaging way whatsoever.

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Saturday Is A Sort Of Preview Of Next Friday

Saturday 22nd November: It's not that often that my wife and I can both say that we like the same band. It's also not often that you get to see fantastic original music, played live, for free. So, when the opportunity to see a fantastic band, that both my wife and I like, play live, original music, it's time to take advantage and organise a rare night out together.

So, after a good curry, we head off to the Roman Bath to see Breathing Space. It's as full a turn-out for the weekend gang as you are likely to see, with six of us squeezing into a rapidly filling pub.

This is our third time of seeing Breathing Space and, I think, their best performance to date. Not only were we treated to songs from the first (Breathing Space by Iain Jennings) and second album (Coming Up For Air by the now-steady line-up) but also at least one new song from the third album, which is currently being written. I'm sure that lead-vocalist Livvy told the story behind Butterflies but, it being the Bath, too many people were there just to try to be louder than the music and I missed what she said. It was a good song, though.

As were the rest of the songs played during a two-hour set. I can't remember whether bassist Paul Teasdale has contributed backing vocals before (and I can't remember which song he did for tonight) but he did so superbly. As which much keyboard-led prog rock, the songs seem to take on a life of their own when played live. It's always going to be hard to tell whether each song is played the same at each gig. The keyboard players, Iain and Ben Jennings are talented enough that they could be ad-libbing and you wouldn't know it. As usual, Livvy's vocals were excellent and the guitar playing, by both Teasdale and lead guitarist Mark Rowen, was superb. The whole thing was backed up by Barry Cassells on drums and added to by John Hart on sax and various electronica. As is traditional, the set ended with The Gap Is Too Wide, my personal favourite.

Next Friday, Livvy and Iain will be rejoining Mostly Autumn on stage at the Grand Opera House, as their tour restarts after being delayed to allow Heather Findlay to give birth. Which gives me a not-too-subtle link to...


Through These Eyes is the first solo album by Bryan Josh ("the heart and guitar of Mostly Autumn"). Apparently he has been working on this, the first of a series of albums, in secret and the first I heard about it was when an advertising email landed in my inbox earlier this week. Obviously, being the careful spender that I am, I ordered a copy straight away and, luckily, it arrived yesterday, giving me plenty of time to listen to it before taking it along to tonight's gig to get it signed by both Bryan and Livvy, who provides vocals on some of the tracks.

"Solo", in this case, means Bryan doing pretty much everything himself. He has written the whole album, performs almost all the vocals and plays almost all the instruments (except drums - Gavin Griffiths and Henry Bourne - and flute - Sarah Dean). He has also done most of the technical wizzy bits behind the scenes. Bryan is quick to settle fans' nerves by stating that this is not the end of Mostly Autumn, just a chance for him to explore other shades of music. However, on this album at least, it can be hard to separate the man from the band. Inevitably, much if not all of the songs have a resonance of the band's sound. That certainly doesn't detract from the quality of the release, though. Behind a welcoming front cover and brilliantly designed booklet, lies a top album.

I don't pretend to understand a lot of what Bryan has written about, although there is an undercurrent of loss and, perhaps, a yearning to allow friends, relatives and heroes to live again running through a lot of the songs. The CD opens with Merry She Goes, an eighty-five second instrumental track a little reminiscent of Dire Straits, which appears to be a tribute to a deceased pet. The title track (and my favourite on the album and again reminding me of Dire Straits but for another reason) appears to tell of a dream in which Bryan wanders around a gathering of his heroes (although quite why Hitler is there isn't answered) as they mingle with each other. At the end of the song the members of "tonight's band" are introduced - that's one band I would pay good money to see play. Not A Dream appears to be a message from Bryan to his father, telling him things that he couldn't tell him in life.

It's not all doom, gloom and memories, though. The Appian Way is this album's epic track if only in theme and not in length. It tells of a soldier forced to join the Roman army in their fight against the Gauls (although the Appian way actually led South from Rome so the Gauls could have been lost). As befits the song's story, the music reminds me of incessant marching which actually makes it sound boring. It is far from it. A "radio edit" of this song, with the one F-word blanked out, is included as the fourteenth track and, to me, is nothing but filler.

As I mentioned, many of the songs aren't too far removed from the sound of Mostly Autumn. Land of the Gods, Black Stone and Not A Dream could all sit comfortably on an MA release, with Bryan's trademark guitar playing, as well of the overall style of the songs, reminding me of the band's music.

This album contains some of the best use of Livvy's vocals I have heard. From the haunting voice on Slow Down, through the brilliant counterpoint to Bryan's voice on We Grow and through to the almost duet on Carry Me (which is also dedicated to her), her singing is superb and used well. Old Friends is sung entirely by Livvy - he only sing on the album not to feature any of Bryan's vocals.

Going Home, shows Bryan at his most poetic, with a gorgeous description of moonlight and the sun going down, while Only In The Loss is a short, spoken word track, almost a poem in its own right.

Which just leaves Into Your Arms. I think I would have ended the album with this track, rather than placing it in the middle. Its Queen-like guitar track and somehow familiar vocals (my wife suggests Oasis, I'm not sure and am still racking my brains) make it the most unlike Mostly Autumn track on the album and its soaring sound seems somehow out of place where it has been put on this release.

An excellent album.

Monday 24 November 2008

Carrolls in November and Keyes to Intelligence

Monday 24th November: Because I currently have so many books waiting to be read, my usual modus operandi is to read everything that I own by any one author, one after the other. There are exceptions (for example, despite enjoying the Alistair Reynolds books that I read recently I haven't read the last one in my pile simply because they were each taking so long to get through) and there are probably reasons good reasons for not doing it, but it works for me. And so, after The Wooden Sea, I found myself reading two more novels by Jonathan Carroll.


White Apples (2004) tells the story of Vincent Ettrich, family-man but womaniser, who discovers that he has died and been brought back to life by his one true-love.

It is also, perhaps, the most frustrating book I have read in a long time. Containing some wonderful characters and sequences (I love the whole idea of the King of the Park), brought to life by some truly magical and lyrical writing, I found it disjointed and, ultimately, it went nowhere. I don't think that I rushed through the book but I still don't know why Vincent was brought back. The cover blurb gives an explanation but I struggle to remember any part of the story which relates back to the blurb.

Like The Wooden Sea, White Apples deals with big questions without giving any real answers but, whereas in the former novel, that didn't seem to matter, in this one it seems to leave an empty space where answers should be. The writing, however, is superb. Carroll's characters are always well-written. In this book, they are exceptional. The first ten pages are used to describe Ettrich meeting a woman and asking her out - how many other authors would take ten pages to do that?? Throughout the book there are snippets of sheer brilliance - a man writing on pills the memories that he knows are about to be taken from him; the description of death, heaven and purgatory; the aforementioned King of the Park - and, while I wouldn't recommend this book for its story, I would definitely recommend it for the writing.

On the other hand, Land of Laughs (1980, this version 2000), Carroll's first novel, is a good overall read. While not having fully developed the dream-like writing style of his later works, Carroll again manages to fill a (short) book with interesting characters.

School-teacher Thomas Abbey's favourite author is Marshall France, a reclusive writer of children's fantasy who died at the age of forty-eight. A chance encounter in a second-hand bookstore leads to a relationship with the slightly strange Saxony and, ultimately, to both of them travelling to Galen, where France spent much of his life, in an attempt to convince France's daughter to allow them to write a biography of the author. Once there, they discover that there is more to the town (or, more specifically, its inhabitants) than first appears.

This is fantasy with a slight edge of horror and Carroll's pacing means that it works extremely well. If the cover blurb hadn't stated that there was something strange to be found in the town, you would get halfway through the book thinking that there might be but never quite being sure. Then strange things start happening and the pace picks up towards a suitably creepy ending.

My version is a reprint in Gollancz's Fantasy Masterworks series and, while some may argue that there is much better fantasy that could have been used in the line, I would agree that this book deserves to be in there. Brilliant stuff.

As is Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes, 1966). Originally published as a short story in 1959 (and winning a Hugo in 1960, while the novel won the Nebula award) it uses a series of "progress reports" written by Charlie Gordon over the course of less than a year. At the beginning, Charlie is a janitor at a bakery with an IQ of just 68, but he is about to be the first human to undergo a surgical procedure designed to increase his intelligence. Within months Charlie is a genius-level intellect, far surpassing the team who carried out the procedure and who are monitoring him afterwards. The procedure had already been tested on mice but when the titular Algernon starts showing signs of regressing, Charlie realises that his intelligence may be fleeting.

The style of this novel, with all the words and thoughts being those of Charlie, makes it one of the most moving pieces of fiction I have ever come across. At the start of the novel Charlie is happy in his ignorance. He gets teased by his colleagues at the bakery but believes they are his friends while at the same time hoping that the surgery will make him better so that he can make more friends. As the surgery unlocks both his intelligence and his memories, showing his life with a family that abandoned him seventeen years ago, he comes to believe that he is better than those around him and he becomes less likable. As the inevitable decline happens, however, the reader's ideas of just who Charlie's friends are are turned on their head.

Although written in what could be regarded as a much simpler time, Flowers For Algernon still resonates today. If this story doesn't make you question your attitude to people less fortunate than yourself then you don't deserve the ability to read it. Superb stuff.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Stadium Rock Live in the Heart of a Small City

Monday 17th November: When I was younger I went to quite a few gigs. Admittedly, not as many as I find myself going to now. However, back then they were, for the most part, larger venues than I go to now. I started my gigging career at the now demolished Queen's Hall in Leeds but quite quickly moved up to stadium concerts, both indoors and outdoors. I saw the likes of Queen, Genesis, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and many others. Big names at big venues. As time moved on, I got bored of being constantly on the phone, trying to get through to buy tickets for the next big draw and, in hindsight, feel a little privileged that I managed to get to see some of the bands that I did. With ticket prices moving towards the somewhat extortionate, I practically gave up live music for a few years, until the opportunity to join up with the weekend group came along and I discovered the relative joys of smaller venues and smaller bands. There are still some big names that I would try to get (reasonably priced) tickets for (and some, sadly, where the opportunity will now never arise again) but, in the main, I'm enjoying seeing up-and-coming bands with little or no recorded material behind them.

Until tonight's visit to The Duchess...

Firstly, a mention for the support act. Yes, just the one. This was no three band, thirty-minute-a-set line-up but the more traditional main act with one support band. Maccara are a band of undetermined locality - the only detail I can find is that Boanecker Illy (lead guitar and main writer) is Sri Lankan. Vocalist Hollie Evans, singing with extreme clarity and sounding just a notch down from Amy Lee (Evanescence), speaks with the kind of lilting Scottish accent that makes me go weak in the knees. The rest of the band are Andy Brook (guitar), Klaus (bass) and Tom Kirkham (drums). Their musical style was heavy/melodic rock with a sprinkling of pop and a small smidgen of reggae - unusual to say the least. But they really were extremely good, putting lie to my theory that you never properly hear lyrics of live songs, but that your brain fills in the words from the recorded version, assuming you have heard it. Although there were a couple of weaker songs, the set overall was excellent, certainly good enough to entice me to shell out cash for a copy of their debut CD (or, at least, the advance copy that was on sale). Holly and Illy were signing as many copies of this as was put in front of them and, Holly told me that she thought the sound was a bit on the loud side. I had to disagree as I thought it was top notch and kudos should be heaped on the sound engineer for tonight's gig.

In my past gig-going experiences, it wasn't often that I saw a support act that was as good as the main band. Maccara, however, were certainly getting there tonight.

That main band was, in fact, twenty-one studio album veterans Uriah Heep. Formed in 1969 and almost constantly recording since then (although with many line-up changes), Heep somehow bypassed my musical radar in the 80s when rock and heavy metal were my main "things". However, I had heard of them and when I found out they were playing York I didn't hesitate to buy a ticket. Flipping glad I did as well. As good as Maccara were, the youngsters were put to bed by these old-timers of rock.

Scintillating guitar-playing, superb drumming, melodic keyboards and powerful vocals (although not quite as clear as Hollie's) all added up to a performance that met, exceeded and then soared past my expectations. The set list comprised of the whole of the latest album (Wake The Sleeper, released earlier this year) together with older songs which, judging by the reaction of the majority of the audience, are considered classics by the fans. Listening to the songs, I could hear similarities between them and other bands - most notably Asia, Yes and Deep Purple - but, while the sound might not have been unique, Uriah Heep have been around long enough for it to be coincidence rather than plagiarism. After all, two of those bands were recording at the same time as Heep and the other pretty much formed from the remnants of Yes.

As the set went on, and the years seemed to fall away from lead singer Bernie Shaw, I found myself enjoying the music more and more. I'm told that, for most of the time, my jaw was on the floor.

Overall, this was easily the best gig I've seen in years and definitely the best I've seen in York. This really was stadium-sized rock played in the heart of our fair city.

Monday 10 November 2008

Stealing the Wooden Sea

Monday 10th November: At this time of year, I tend to pick easy reads from the rather large pile of books that I have waiting to be read. It helps me bring my average pages per days up (I'm a bit of a closet "statto") and brings the total number of books down a bit more quickly.

Most people I know think that I have strange taste in books. After all, apart from a few forays into crime (generally Patricia Cornwell and Jonathan Kellerman) and the odd horror novel (generally Stephen King), most of the books that I read involve spaceships, ray-guns, elves or magic. It seems to me that if I read a lot of science-fiction, I get a hankering for fantasy. And vice versa.

However, every so often, I like to dip into "contemporary" fantasy (or, perhaps, magic realism). Stories in which elements of the fantastic sit side-by-side with everyday life. It's still fantasy but I like to think of it as a bit more grown-up than the majority of "epic" fantasy. Proponents of this genre include Brit Neil Gaiman, Canadian Charles de Lint (my personal favourite) and Vienna-based American Jonathan Carroll.

The Wooden Sea (2000) tells the story of Frannie McCabe - forty-eight year old Chief of Police for the small town that he grew up as a rebel in. As the book opens his life has taken a turn for the strange. The ugly three-legged dog that he had "adopted" has just died. Two of the town's inhabitants have disappeared, leaving a beautiful feather in their lounge. His stepdaughter has just got a tattoo. The three-legged dog, which McCabe buried in the woods, has turned up in the boot of his car, with the feather, which also happens to be the exact thing that the stepdaughter has had tattooed on her back. Oh, and McCabe's seventeen-year-old self has turned up in the middle of the night.

Reading back that summary of the first couple of chapters, it sounds slightly flippant. As though the book is humorous. There are funny moments. There are also tender, unsettling and exciting moments. McCabe's town is populated with well-rounded, original and likable characters. The story starts quietly, despite the catalogue of events above, but gradually reaches a page-turning ending, along the way leaving the reader desperately wondering what the heck is going on.

In this book, the fantasy elements come thick and fast and I'm not going to spoil it by listing them. Perhaps the best bit, for me, was the idea that we, human-kind, have been a little on the vain side when interpreting the biblical story of the Genesis.

Unfortunately, despite this being a very good book, it was also a bit of a disappointment. I can understand why the ending is unresolved - Carroll couldn't finish this story in a satisfactory manner any other way - but there are too many unanswered questions throughout the story.

Overall, a good book but not up to the standards of Kissing the Beehive or The Marriage of Sticks. Still, Carroll is definitely worth a look if you fancy something different.

The Thief of Time (2002) was Terry Pratchett's 26th Discworld novel. I'm not a huge Pratchett fan, although I have quite a few of his novels published as special editions by the SF and Fantasy Book Club. To me, he just isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as Douglas Adams' Hitch-hikers books.

The Discworld novels that I have read, however, I have liked. There are a few laughs and more than a few chuckles in most of them and Thief of Time if no exception. In it, the fate of the Discworld is under threat when the world's first truly accurate clock is invented, stopping time and allowing the cosmic auditors in. It's up to Death's grand-daughter, Susan, Lu-Tze and Lobsang (two Monks of Time) and Ronnie, the fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse (he left before they got famous) to save the world and, perhaps, the whole of creation.

It's a complex plot, with many, many references and in-jokes some of which I got, others of which I can't believe I missed. I particularly like the character of Susan, reluctant more-than-human heroine and she is joined this time by the two very funny monks. There are some excellent sequences - particular favourites are Susan's meeting with the headmistress of the school she is teaching in and the final battle against the auditors, with the heroes' weapon being...

...well, that would be telling. All I'm saying is that I would have been no good in that fight...

Sunday 9 November 2008

A Full Head of Hair

Thursday 6th November: A weekend of standby for me, together with location and general busy-ness for the others meant that it was going to be impossible for all of us to meet up this week. The others were going out on Friday night at least and you can see a review of their trip to the Duchess by clicking the link on my Blog roll. Not wanting to miss out on live music for another weekend I took a late decision to make my own way to the Duchess to see a couple of bands that I already knew I liked.

The evening didn't start well, however, when Dead Rebellion took to the stage. Rock-style drumming with some sort of small keyboard-type thingy and hip-hop lyrics - not my cup of tea at all, to be honest. I lost interest very early in the first song when I realised that the lyrics were shouted, repetitive and completely unintelligible. The latter may not have been the band's fault - the sound (especially the bass) was up so loud that not only were my clothes vibrating but, I suspect, so was my wardrobe back home. Frankly, the thirty minute set felt a lot longer but that was probably just my prejudice against this genre of music.

Second on stage were The Runaway Sons. This is the third time I've seen them and they seem to get better every time. This time they only had a thirty minute set and, unlike Dead Rebellion, that wasn't long enough. Most of the set was familiar songs although, towards the end, I thought they played one or two new ones (or, at least, new to me). As usual, the playing was excellent - these guys have a really good stage presence - and this time they seemed to be a bit more comfortable talking to the audience between songs. Most noticeable, however, was the fact that Jim Gipson has had his hair cut and is no longer a Suzi Quatro look-a-like.

Finally, tonight's "head"-line act - the appropriately named The Hair. Last time we saw these guys, they were supporting Hope&Social at Fibbers. Since, then, they have been propelled to the big time by supporting the Kaiser Chiefs on their recent tour. Again, a lot of their infectious pop/rock/alternative tunes were familiar from the last time but, being a longer set, they also played new ones and there wasn't a duff song amongst them. These guys seem to really enjoy performing and are definitely developing their own style. By this time I had met up with another colleague and he admitted that, while he didn't know what to expect from this band, he really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, their forty-five minute set (including two song encore) was over much too soon, ending with each member of the band (except the drummer) in turn eschewing his own instrument in favour of bashing a cymbal. A good end to a really good set. Hopefully they'll be back soon.

Sunday 2 November 2008

Reading, Listening and a Bit of Drinking

Sunday 2nd November: This is the second weekend in a row when I haven't been to see any bands - not that the opportunity wasn't there, but November could turn out to be busy in terms of music so I took the decision to stay in with the family. So, what have I been up to instead?

For a couple of days this past week, I was working in Norwich. This coincided with the annual CAMRA beer festival in the city and my colleague and I decided to wander along to sample an ale or two (or three, or four, or... well, you get the idea). This was my first visit to a beer festival, even though I profess to being a fan of real ale and like trying different ones. I was a little surprised by the payment method used. On entering the hall, you purchase a "starter" kit - a pint glass (used to hold whatever drinks you decide to try) and a number of "tokens", basically a perforated sheet of paper made up of a number of stamps worth 10p each. Each beer then has a token value for either a pint or a half and you hand over the relevant number of tokens for whatever you are trying. This means that all cash is held in one place in the hall and, to my mind, could work better. At the end of the evening, my colleague and I had a small number of tokens left - less than £1's worth but unspendable unless we went back and bought more and, even then, only by careful planning of which drinks to try. The drinks themselves were priced similarly but not all the same - between £2.20 and £2.80 per pint, if memory serves. To my mind, this whole system would work a lot better if the drinks were all priced the same - say £2.50 a pint, £1.25 a half - and tokens were to the value of £1.25, meaning 1 token per half pint bought. Much easier to work out than counting out twenty-eight small paper tokens once you have had a few drinks.

That aside, it was a pleasant evening. We tried seven different beers, after working out that the pint glasses were also marked with half pints so we didn't have to buy a pint every time. It felt a bit strange drinking halves all night but we soon got used to it. Being honest, I don't think I could remember which beers I tried even if I were to look through the event's programme booklet, but I enjoyed all but one of them to one degree or another.

On the way back to York I heard on the radio of somebody who had received eighty different beers for his 80th birthday and has, so far, tried over 750 different British beers. That's a record worth going for, in my opinion. I really must start recording which ones I have tried.

A few days ago I finally finished Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space trilogy - Redemption Ark (2002) and Absolution Gap (2003). I'm not going to write full reviews of them, partly because I didn't make any notes while reading them and partly because I couldn't say too much more than I have in past reviews. Although I read these slowly (normally a sure sign that I'm not enjoying a book) Reynolds writes excellent science fiction. These books are so full of ideas that it is practically impossible to read them quickly. Sentient spaceships; pigs genetically altered to be almost on a par with humans (much like David Brin's Uplifted dolphins); humans genetically altered to be more than human; doomsday weapons; the death of planets; the death of suns; messages from the future; a whole religion based on an accident; mighty cathedrals slowly moving across the face of a moon in order to be constantly underneath the parent planet; far future galactic collisions and, perhaps most challenging of all (for me anyway), the concept of Brane Spaces - multi-dimensional spaces layered on top of each other. All these and much, much more are used to stunning effect to tell the story of a small group of characters, but much larger group of people, against a backdrop of interstellar destruction being wrought against Humanity by the ancient Inhibitors.

The third book, in particular, as the story rushes towards its conclusion, shows how Reynolds uses different styles within one trilogy. Absolution Gap tells its story across three different times and two different planets and the interstellar space in-between. At the end of the trilogy, the Revelation Space universe has been irrevocably changed with many of the locations used in the series being destroyed or totally changed.

At first, I was a little disappointed with the end - a huge, galactic scale war was ended off-page, almost as thought Reynold's had backed himself into a corner and needed a Deus ex Machina device to enable him to complete the story. After a bit a musing, however, I realised that the large scale story had always been in the background. The story I was reading was more to do with the various members of the smaller casts - always involved in the war but only really on the periphery (well, apart from starting it all off in the first novel). Then the ending made sense. I believe that there are a number of short stories and another novel set in the Revelation Space universe, which add to and expand the overall story. I will be looking out for them when my "to read" pile is a bit more manageable.

Since finishing the Reynolds books, I have been trying to get through some smaller, easier to read books in order to boost my total for the year. I'm not going to review them but I have recently just completed a handful of the Doctor Who novels put out by the BBC a while back. I was buying them as they came out but stopped after a while, while the Doctor portrayed was still Paul McGann. The few I have just read are variable to say the least but, in the light of the new version of the TV series, it is vaguely interesting to see the direction that the books were going in, portraying the Doctor as a fallible half-human.

Finally, notes on a couple of the CDs I bought recently. Again, I'm not going to write full reviews but just give some general thoughts.

First up is Asia - Live in the U.S.A. (recorded November 1992 at Chestnut Cabaret, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). This was the seventh show of the Aqua (fourth album) tour, featuring Geoff Downes (keyboards), John Payne (vocals, bass), Vinny Burns (guitar) and Trevor Thornton (drums), with a guest appearance from Steve Howe (guitar). This is a fabulous live recording, the sound is raw and you feel as though you are actually standing in the audience as, at times, you can hear people chatting in the background (thankfully between songs rather than during). Originally, this was one of a three part "official bootleg" series and lives up to that name by not appearing over-produced or tidied up to any great degree.

Apparently, the Chestnut Cabaret was a night-club with a stage for live bands. I have seen it described as a mid-sized room. It no longer exists but sounds as though it could have been a good place for live shows - during the encore of this performance Downes is heard commenting that it's 01:15 and people are still wanting more. Asia are one of my favourite bands (I plan to write more about them when I've had a chance to properly listen to their latest release) but this is the first live album I've bought by them. While definitely a product of it's time - big sounding, keyboard-led prog rock - limited by the size of venue, I consider it to be a very god addition to my collection.

At the other end of the venue scale is Roger Waters' In The Flesh tour from 1999. Originally planned to be held in small venues, tickets sold so well that many shows were upgraded to much bigger locations, despite Waters' apparent disdain for stadium concerts. This two-CD recording is one of those annoying types that, instead of being a genuine representation of a single concert, takes bits and pieces from a number of shows and links then with crowd sounds. Not that you would know from listening to it. I only realised when reading the accompanying booklet.

Without delving too much into the politics and personalities of the members of Pink Floyd (another of my favourite bands), I was a little surprised by how much this concert sounded like a Pink Floyd show. I'm not an aficionado and haven't heard a great deal of the solo releases by either Gilmour or Waters but I did see the recent (shortened) airing on BBC4 of the former's Gdansk show which, although featuring some Floyd songs, was definitely a Gilmour concert. Waters' In The Flesh shows seemed to me to almost channel Floyd and, being honest, most of the tracks on the album are Floyd songs.

Apart from Waters himself, the band comprises of Doyle Bramhall II (guitar, vocals), Graham Broad (drums), John Carin (keyboards, lap steel, guitar, vocals), Andy Fairweather Low (guitar, bass, vocals), Andy Wallace (hammond, keyboards), Snowy White (guitar) and Katie Kissoon, Susannah Melvoin and P P Arnold (vocals). The more musically-knowledgeable may recognise more names from that list than I did.

Overall, a good live album just, tinged with a similar disappointment to finding out that Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous wasn't a true live album.