Glastonbury

Has anyone been watching Glastonbury on TV. I just caught the last song of Bruce Springsteen last night, what an incredible performance and as for Tom Jones, Kasabian, Neil Young, Florence and the Machine, all magic.

My son Jason is actually attending the festival himself. I sent him a text last night asking him if he was enjoying himself and his reply was... It's smashing here. Make sure you tape it for me again! J..... All-in-all sounds like he's having a good time.

Maybe next year I'll have to attend? However the only problem is that I don't like the mud or large crowds. So that's me out, but it still looks like fantastic fun.

Top Ten Songs With Saxophone Solo's

Last night my son Jason and I were talking about our all time top songs ever produced. He mentioned that I should create my own top ten favourites to put on my blog.........Which got me thinking.

Because I'm learning to play the Saxophone and forgive me if I'm biased but I personally think that the Saxophone is the coolest instrument out there (sorry to all you guitar players.) I thought that I would compile my all-time top ten pop songs which have Saxophone Solo's in them.. so here they are.

Let me know what you think or if you have any other suggestions.

10/ Year Of The Cat - Al Stewart

9/ Spandua Ballet - True

8/ Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones

7/ Born To Run - Bruce Sprinsteen

6/ One Step Beyond - Madness

5/ Careless Whisper - George Michael

4/ Us And Them - Pink Floyd

3/ Young Americans - David Bowie

2/ You Belong To The City - Glen Frey

1/ Gerry Raffety - Baker Street

Yeah... I know they're all mostly eighties hits - but there you have it my all time favourites.. albeit 'Golden Oldies'

Leonard Cohen

Have you heard of Leonard Cohen? I'm sure many of you have. If you haven't - I've been told that he's a gifted performer as well as being an outstanding songwriter.

If your not so familiar with his work, you might recognise the song Hallelujah which he originally sung himself, but was later covered by Jeff Buckley and more recently popularised by Alexandra Burke on X- Factor.

My son Jason and I, after our memorable trip to see Bob Dylan in Birmingham have also decided to go and see Leonard Cohen perform live at the Mercedes Centre in Weybridge, Surrey in July.

Jason thinks he's the bees-Knees being a singer songwriter himself and has listed him as one of the top performers/songwriters that he wishes to see live.

As for myself I have to say that I've listened to some of his other songs and have to admit that they sound a little dreary and depressing - but what do I know!

Didn't I think the same about Bob Dylan - now I'm playing his CD's in my car.

Dylan

One of my main ambitions for this year is to broaden my horizon in many aspects of my personal life.

Last Wednesday my son Jason and I went to see the legendary Bob Dylan at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham UK.

Now I have to be honest - I have never been a great fan of Bob Dylan, although I do appreciate that he has written and produced some really fantastic songs.

Over the last couple of years I have been exposed to Dylan through my son, who absolutely loves his music and writing style.

To get us in the mood for the evening we listened to endless amounts of Bob Dylan songs in the car during our 3 hour journey to Birmingham............... Talk about endurance.

Anyway getting back to the Gig in Birmingham - I have to say that I really enjoyed the evening, it was far better than I had anticipated and I even found myself buying a BD T-shirt and humming a few tunes to myself afterwards.

All-in-all it was a great evening for a father and son to spend together and I have to say it was money well worth spent, watching a legend and a genuis perform.

Rock On!!

New Saxophone

After a couple of months playing the Saxophone I'm now testing out a different model - it's a Yamaha YAS-275.

Of course I really know a lot about Yamaha technology - Initially starting off with a Yamaha FSIE and then progressing to a Yamaha RD 350 and ending up with a Yamaha XS 500.

Of course as you've probably guessed these are all motorbikes that I had in my youth. Reflecting back to those days, I have to say my bikes rarely let me down and I'm feeling confident that the new Yamaha Saxophone will also be excellent value for money too.

From a playing perspective - I can now recite a couple of more tunes - 'Scarborough Fair' and 'Auld Lang Syne', which has boosted my confidence - however I'm looking for a teacher (close to home) who will be able to take me to the next stage in my musical development.

The most important thing at the moment ~ I'm really enjoying playing the Sax and can't wait to get into some more Jazzy material.

Saxophone

I've made it official - Yes I'm learning to play the Saxophone, one of the things that I wanted to do before I reach fifty.

I started just before Christmas and hired a Sax from the Internet, just to see how things went before I committed myself to purchasing one outright.

After a lot of squeaking and unbearable noise, I'm now finally playing a couple of tunes reasonably well. - 'Oh When The Saints Come Marching In' and 'Annie's Song' written by John Denver and I've even attempted the famous Sax intro from 'Baker St'.

Keep watching this space - you never know you might even eventually see a clip of me playing on YouTube.

Now that would be interesting.