Pure Bliss
We asked TONY CLAYTON-LEAto pick his top-five must sees at next weekend’s Liss Ard festival in Co Cork. In the end, he managed to narrow the list down to 11 – and that’s just for starters . . .
BOB MOULD BAND
HÜSKER DÜ? Sugar? Bob Mould? If your music-loves checklist includes at least one of these aforementioned names, then you’d be well advised to beat a path to Co Cork, for Mould is currently touring the 20th anniversary of Sugar’s superb Copper Blue album.
For those who may not be fully aware of this man’s pedigree, Mould’s first band Hüsker Dü laid the foundations for 1990s US alternative rock (that’s Nirvana to you, mate), while his second band, Sugar, developed the mix of power chords and pop melodies that still sound great to this day. It isn’t all guitars and surges, though, for Mould. His solo output includes a truly elegiac debut album, Workbook (1989), which blindsided his fan base by replacing wall-of-noise pop/rock with a collection of low-key, pastoral acoustic songs. Less successful perhaps, were Mould’s detours into electronica and dance music. Copper Blue, then, in it entirety? Some people have waited a very, very long time for that.
What we want to hearYes, we know it’s a Sugar gig, but will Mould delve into the nether regions of the Hüsker Dü’s often indelible back catalogue?
PAUL BUCHANAN
You might be more familiar with the Scottish band that Paul Buchanan was at one time associated with – The Blue Nile – than anything Buchanan has released himself, but don’t let that give you any excuses to avoid one of the most supremely serene listening experiences you’ll ever have the opportunity to catch. No longer in official existence, The Blue Nile were never the most prolific of bands, releasing just four albums in a 20-odd year career that started in the early 1980s. Buchanan still sporadically soldiers on, however, keeping the music of the band alive not just by performing tracks from their albums (1984’s A Walk Across the Rooftops, 1989’s Hats, 1996’s Peace at Last, 2004’s High), but also by occasionally popping his own name on the music via his recently released solo album, Mid Air.
Expect, then, a gentleman’s approach to music; in other words, just take time to listen to hushed, intimate songs. No pushing or shoving at the back, now, folks, if you don’t mind.
What we want to hearThe new solo album is pretty darned good, but we have a soft spot for the sheer sublimity of A Walk Across the Rooftops.
ROY HARPER
Is this 71-year-old British singer-songwriter one of the best of his kind that you’ve never heard? Quite likely, you’ll have read of his influence on the likes of Kate Bush, Johnny Marr, Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom (whom he has supported at various live shows); less likely, you’ll be familiar with his associations with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and his early experiences of being on just-about nodding terms with the likes of Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch and Joni Mitchell.
In other words, Harper has seen ’em come and go, and yet he remains something of an enigma. To say that he has followed his own idiosyncratic path from the get-go is an understatement; here is a guy who has consciously avoided sleeping all night, every night with the music industry, yet who has still managed to release more than 40 studio, live and compilation albums. And he’s been living in West Cork for quite a long time.
What we want to hearTwo songs, if you don’t mind – Circle (from his 1967 album Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith), and One of Those Days in England (from his 1977 album, Bullinamingvase).
