It takes two and a half hours to travel from London to Brighton.Through Purley and ... more
Earlswood, Haywards Heath and Hassocks, and ontowards the sea. For two years, this was a journey that RaissaKhan-Panni would make several times a week; writing notes in herjournal as the train edged past Three Bridges, staring out of thecarriage window, dreaming. Khan-Panni was once better known asRaissa, a solo artist that revealed an extraordinary jumble ofinfluences; a mix of Chinese, Indian, Mexican and Englishness. Shewas raised in the South London district of Tulse Hill, immersedfirst as a child in classical music, and later discovered thedelights of Rickie Lee Jones and Prince. Raissa learned oboe,taught herself to sing, and bunked off school to head up toLeicester Square and busk. In her late teens she busked all overEurope, performing Mozart in Vienna's Mozart Square, playingguitar, oboe, violin, and singing along to a ghetto blaster, beforeheading back to the these shores to study music at Bristol. In astrange twist of fate, the right collaborator in fact found her.One day Khan-Panni was sent a track that a friend-of-a-friend hadwritten around one of her vocals. "It was so completely amazing,"she recalls, "after waiting so many years I knew this was theperson I wanted to work with." The problem was the track came withno contact telephone number, just a name: Mark Horwood. They metand started writing together. For a long time the project wasnameless; just Horwood and Khan-Panni and their ever-changing castof musicians. Eventually they would take their name from themedieval performing troupes who would go from door-to-door wearingmasks and costumes, staging plays in rhyme and song and mime. Theproject took two years, with Khan-Panni making the regular commutefrom London, the waitressing shifts gradually giving way to music.The result is Tale To Tell, originally sectioned into two separateparts. Khan-Panni describes these opening chapters as being thestory of her time away in mundanity, but it is also a story thatsomehow manages to weave together nightbuses, negro spirituals, theOwl and the Pussycat, the Wings of Desire, orange trees, earlymorning walks through London and the fairytale tapes she wouldlisten to at bedtime every night as a child, set to the sound of acarnival and a marching band and a string quartet, and sung inKhan-Panni's bewitching tones; it is the sound of the ordinary castadrift, of the humdrum left to float somewhere extraordinary.
Advantages: Great introduction to Bennett. Disadvantages: Quite pricey for a short book.
?TellingTales? by Alan Bennett does exactly what it says on the cover? Alan Bennett, one of the country?s best loved wordsmiths, tells ten tales about his childhood in Leeds, a provincial city in the West Riding where life generally tended to avoid.
In several of the tales Bennett details the causes of his frustration as a youth ? he knew that his family was very ordinary (not working class, but certainly not middle class), yet at the same time being much different to all others. His mother, too, assumed that life for everyone else was much different to hers and that the cocktail party lifestyle she read about in Woman?s Own was the norm and attainable by a move to the hallowed ?down South?.
We learn much about Bennett?s ?Mam and Dad? (so good to see the word Mam, I feel I?m one of the few who still uses it). Their real names were ...
Advantages: Amazing vocals, brilliant instrumental, and catchy rifts. Disadvantages: -
I have been a fan of Funeral For A Friend for the past couple of years, which has allowed me to follow their musical development through two previous albums ('Casually Dressed In Deep Conversations' and 'Hours'). Now I have had the chance to listen to their newest creation - 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves'.
I have to say, this album wasn't what I was expecting from them. Only two of the songs remind me of their previous work - 'Into Oblivion' and 'Out Of Reach'. This might be a disappointment to some fans - but not to me. I keep listening to the songs over and over, and they all have catchy tunes you want to listen to again, and lyrics you want to learn just so you can sing along.
Their new album shows how far the band have come since the start of their career, and it couldn't be better. My particular favorite tracks are 'The Great ...
Advantages: expansive, mature Disadvantages: a distinct step away from the bands' old sound
They say time brings change, that nothing ever stays the same. And it's true, just ask Welsh rock mob Funeral For A Friend. The band have continued to grow ever since their startlingly brilliant debut Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation, so much so that frontman Matt Davies forayed effectively into alt-country land as part of side project The Secret Show just a mere couple of months ago.
It's s a progression that's seeped whole-heartedly into the bands latest release, the battle-ready, all hands on deck ride that is Tales Don't Tell Themselves.
It's safe to say many would - and doubtless will - scoff at the mere idea of a concept record based upon a lonely fisherman, lost at sea miles away from his wife and kids. But the Valley boys make it work, and work reasonably well too. This is Funeral For A Friend stepping outside ...
