Boom Boom

I have blogged before about my love for the Blues singers I watched perform over 50 years ago. I saw John Lee Hooker sing 'Boom Boom' in London in 1960, the year this was recorded. He was at the forefront of the electric guitar adaption of the Delta Blues. But I have an admission to make. I bought Johnny Tillotson's 'Poetry in Motion' in the same year. My excuse was that I had fallen in love with Jenny, the salesgirl in the local record shop. She had brush curls, a pink hairband and wore pleated, fluffed-out dresses you may remember from early Elvis Presley movies. All tight belts and lots of buttons. She loved Pat Boone. She tried to get me to buy 'April Love', but 'Poetry in Motion' was as far as I would go with this music. Boone was, like Tillotson, from Jacksonville, Florida. But it's Clarksdale Mississippi for me. Hooker for ever. Here are two more 1960's recording for you. Enjoy. There's a lot more about music in Left Field

The War Child 'Help' album

It's 20 years since the War Child Help album – the brainchild of Andy Macdonald and Tony Crean of Go! Discs, the then record label for Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, the Housemartins and The Beautiful South. The idea was to raise funds for War Child's work in war-torn Bosnia by recording an album in studios across Europe on Monday 4 September 1995 and have it on sale in shops by Saturday, 9 September - less than a week from start to finish. On that Monday more than 20 artists performed in multiple studios across Europe. Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, Orbital, Massive Attack, the Stone Roses, Neneh Cherry, Sinéad O’Connor, Paul Weller, Paul McCartney and Portishead were some of the contributors. Weller recorded 'Come Together' at Abbey Road with Paul McCartney. Read about this experience here. Brian Eno produced the album and was responsible for making sure the recordings were ready for pressing in time for the Saturday release. Racing against the clock, he said of the experience, ‘Enjoyable panic, but I went into Hitler mode in the last few minutes.’ Help sold over 70,000 copies on the first day, becoming the fastest-selling album in British music history and raising more than £1.5 million. I was responsible for deciding what to do with the money, working from the principle that the Help money should not be solely for those parts of Bosnia Hercegovina where War Child was represented but for those in need across the whole country. So we funded school meals in central Bosnia, support for a mobile medical clinic in Bihać, the supply of premature baby units to Banja Luka, food and clothing to orphanages in Zenica, artificial limbs for wounded children, the purchase of a refrigerated truck to supply insulin, as well as baby milk, contraceptives and even funding for mine clearance programmes. Linda McCartney supplied twenty-two tonnes of her veggie burgers which we delivered to three Bosnian cities. Help monies were also used towards the running of the War Child bakery and to expand the charity’s music programmes to include towns in Republika Srpska such as Trebinje. Here is Radiohead's 'Lucky' being recorded with film from BiH. Watch this and then read more about Help at Left Field

Viva Anne Aylor & La Quince Brigada

Without Anne Aylor I would never have written Left Field'. Author of two books, No Angel Hotel and The Double Happiness Company, she is now working on her third novel set in the Spanish Civil War. Much of her research has involved finding out about the US Abraham Lincoln Brigade volunteers. 'The House of Wild Beasts', a chapter from this forthcoming publication, won the 2014 Historical Novel Society Award. Every June she runs a week-long creative writing course – in Spain! This year, after her writing retreat, we are staying on to celebrate my 70^th birthday - “Ten years before I saw the light of morning a comradeship of heroes was laid.” My own birth year was one more than Christy Moore's in Viva La Quince Brigada, which honours those who fought against fascism in Spain. Check out his amazing Glasgow gig. A free copy of 'Left Field' to the first person who correctly names where this photo of Anne was taken. Reply to messages at my FB.

Christy Moore Viva La Quince Brigada

Mostar Blues & Rock Festival

This July the Pavarotti Music Centre  (PMC) is hosting the 13th Mostar Blues & Rock Festival. In that time they have presented names such as Ten Years After, Ana Popović, Vlatko Stefanovski, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Sugar Blue, Snowy White, Dr. Feelgood, Tito & Tarantula, Deborah Coleman, Danny Shephard, as well as regional artists: Majke, Partibrejkersi, Dado Topić & Telephone Blues Band, Zdenka Kovačiček,Yu Grupa and others. 13 years of dedication and hard work from Mili Tiro, Oharn Maslo (Oha) and others at the Centre. Today the PMC is very much alive ... and kicking arse. Get to Mostar this year if you can. Check this out:  InnesSibun and Coco Montoya, 2014

Lots more about Mostar & the PMC here:

Tom Morello for Stop the War in London

Here is a clip from another Stop the War gig I helped organise, June 2007 Tom Morello at the Scala in London.On the bill with him were Ed Harcourt, Frank Turner and MC Mark Steel.It was a great evening but not as exciting as 7 years earlier when Morello and Rage Against the Machine caused the doors of the NY Stock Exchange to be closed when they played outside  They and their fans stormed the building and it had to lock its doors during the middle of the trading day. Morello was quoted: "Our protest stopped trading at the stock exchange for the last two hours of the day. I guess we stopped downsizing for at least a couple of hours." Who says music can't change anything. And here's a Monday morning treat – Tom performing solo in Cuba 

Rachid Taha with Brian Eno (guest Mick Jones from the Clash)

27 November 2005 at the Astoria in London (now buried beneath Cross Rail's new station at Tottenham Court Road). I helped organise this gig for the Stop the War Coalition with Rachid's UK manager, Rikki Stein. What a night! And what a great surprise when Mick Jones turned up to join them for 'Rock the Casbah'. And we raised some serious money for the anti-war movement.  Music has been an important part of my life: the Pavarotti and Friends concerts, the daily events that took place at the Pavarotti Music Centre, music workshops in Sarajevo and Mostar, smuggling Island Records Bob Marley exhibition into war-torn Mostar, organising gigs for Stop the War. And I have seen music change the lives of others around me. Greetings to all the great musicians you will come across in Left Field - Oha, Teo, Eugene, Senad Suta, Atilla Aksoj, Dubioza Kolektiv, Siktar, Mostar Sevdah Reunion, Deicola Neves,  EM, Paul Belben and so many others. Enjoy 'Rock the Casbah'

Miss Sarajevo

This blog is in memory of all the unnecessary dead

"Is there a time for keeping your distance, A time to turn your eyes away"

from Miss Sarajevo

I sat two rows behind Diana and it would have been rude to lean across, tap her on the shoulder and tell her I am a citizen and not a subject. By 1995, she might have agreed with me! 

For now, enjoy "Miss Sarajevo" and "One" at Pavarotti & Friends concert for War Child (1995)

Read my answer to the question from the song at LEFT FIELD