Where Worlds Collide

So Saddam is dead.

I don’t agree with the death penalty, regardless of how horrible his crimes have been. It’s never acceptable to take life in cold blood, and as far as I’m concerned that’s a moral absolute for which there can be no exceptions. There is nothing that his death will solve that wouldn’t have been solved by life imprisonment. Not that he deserves any tears. Norm Geras thinks much the same thing.

Saddam should not have been hanged. He should not have been, because judicial execution is not a morally defensible practice. Apart from other reasons, it brutalizes the community that inflicts it.

And Saddam should not have been hanged now, before having to come before a court to answer for his greatest crimes.

As for those greater crimes, Jim Henley doesn’t mince his words.

[T]he US and its Iraqi allies chose to try Saddam on one of his relatively minor crimes because if they did so they could get him safely hung before they had to try him for the major ones, the gas attacks and massacres that happened during The Years of Playing Footsie with the United States. The Dujail reprisals were a war crime, no doubt about it, a bigger sham of justice than Saddam’s own trial, by two orders of magnitude. They were also the sort of war crime that people like Ralph Peters and a hundred other pundits and parapundits think the United States should be committing. Every time you read a complaint about “politically correct rules of engagement” you are reading someone who would applaud a Dujail-level slaughter if only we were to perpetrate it. Those are the people who are happiest of all about tonight’s execution. Smells like — victory! It’s the pomander they don against the stench.

But there’s no point in accusing the Freepi of hypocrisy; that only works for liberals or traditional conservatives, people who possess actual moral principles, and have some sense of shame. This doesn’t apply to the wingnut right. All they recognise is power. Just like Saddam himself.

It’s that time of year when everyone posts their ‘best of’ lists. When I think back on this year in music, I think of live music rather than CD purchases; many of my favourite artists haven’t released an album this year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I don’t discover many of the greatest releases of 2006 until some time in 2007.

I made it to a grand total of fourteen shows, including Anathema, Blue Öyster Cult, Hayseed Dixie (twice), IQ, Journey, Mostly Autumn (four times), Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Queensrÿche and Zappa plays Zappa. None of the four chord flavour of the month stuff, but not all nostalgia acts either.

The following four are probably the highlights.

• Zappa plays Zappa at Manchester Apollo on July 1. Dweezil and band reviving his father’s classics on stage, starring old hands Napoleon Murphy Brock and Stevie Vai, plus a bunch of talented unknowns.
• Opeth at Manchester Academy 1 on November 10. I never would have thought I’d really enjoy a gig full of Cookie Monster vocals, but this was just awesome.
• IQ at the Mean Fiddler in London on December 10. What have I been missing all these years? I’ve always known these guys were great on record, but I never realised how good they were live.
• Mostly Autumn at Limelight Club in Crewe on December 21. One that I never got time to review properly due to the flurry of activity over Christmas. But it was very bit as excellent as their previous Christmas shows, and certainly the best of the four of their shows I’ve attended this year. It was as much a party for the fans as it was an ordinary gig; this one ended with Bryan discovering that he couldn’t sing and drink beer at the same time during the final encore.

None of this years gigs were in any way truly awful, because I’m not in the habit of seeing crap bands. Weakest was the merely average performance from Queensrÿche. I’m told they died horribly on stage at Castle Donnington the night before. Most controversial has to be Journey, which would have made the highlights had it not been for those rumours of lip-synching.

Next year it starts over again with The Reasoning in January. See you on the road.

The Xmas meme comes via Scott

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Cannot bear egg. Ugh! So it will have to be Hot Chocolate, although I’d prefer mulled wine or a winter beer. (Something like double chocolate stout will do nicely!)
Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Have to be wrapped. This is the reason why all presents must be rectangular, and nothing non-Euclidian in shape is allowed. That wooden rocking horse many years ago cost me an awful lot of SAN.
Coloured lights or white on tree/house? Coloured ones.
Do you hang mistletoe? Haven’t for many years.
When do you put your decorations up? Last Sunday before. That way the needles on the tree last until the traditional January 6th.
What is your Favourite Christmas dish (excluding dessert)? Christmas dinner with turkey and everything else; especially the brussel sprouts. (Well, not just the brussel sprouts).
Favourite Christmas memory as a child? Dragging a christmas stocking down the stairs with the words “Father Christmas did come! {Bump} Father Christmas did come! {Bump}”
When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I can’t actually remember that one.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Used to many years ago.
How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Tinsel, lights, baubles and one really kitsch white mouse that my mother absolutely hates. There used to be a Teletubby (Po), but she disappeared one January 6th and was never seen again.
Do you know how to ice skate? No. Never actually tried, but since I’m Mr Absolutely No Coordination Whatsoever it’s probably best that I haven’t.
What’s the most important thing about the Christmass for you? Family.
What is your Favourite Christmas dessert? Christmas pudding and brandy butter.
What is your Favourite Christmas tradition?. Eating toast at one o’clock in the morning after coming home from midnight communion on Christmas Eve. I’m not quite sure how that tradition got started.
What tops your tree? A star.
Favourite Christmas Song? Got to be traditional carols like Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Come All Ye Faithful and Silent Night. Didn’t get the last of those on Sunday’s carol service, but I am expecting to hear it performed at the Mostly Autumn Christmas show at Crewe on Wednesday. As an unrepentant prog-rock fan I can make room for Greg Lake’s I Believe in Father Christmas, but I share Scott’s dislike of tacky drivel like Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

It sounds like one of the modern clone band songs. You know… one of those bands that all sound the same band everyone under the age of 30 thinks are the best things to ever hit music, like, ever.

David Meadows on the somewhat controversial song “Pocket Watch” from the new Mostly Autumn album. (You should read the whole thing, of course; quoting that line out of context gives an entirely false view of the album)

And my copy still hasn’t come, Dammit! Bad postie!

The Gline is depressed about the way supposedly creative industries are run by corporate bean-counters.

Every time I read horror stories about Art vs. Commerce I always wonder about how anyone manages to stay productive or happy in any creative industry. I would guess there are at least some pockets of creative happiness, where people are allowed to do their thing without meddling bluenosed dickery-pokery from the guys who count the money. But they’re few and far between, and they don’t last long, because eventually the pressure rolls downhill to produce, produce, produce, and everything that was once fun and casual and footloose is turned into a meatgrinder.

It makes me wish the guys who ran the studios and the record companies and whatnot were actually a little crazier — basically, guys who had lots of money and wanted to cultivate their tastes by creating a stable of artists, the way Ahmet Ertegun did with Atlantic or Berry Gordy did (for all of his flaws) with Motown, or the way Hideo Ike’ezumi does with PSF. Basically, the executive as patron, not as creative director — a role that’s rapidly vanishing as the studios eat each other alive and sponge up all the little guys in the process like so much gravy on a plate.

Instead, we have people like Rupert Murdoch running the big electric train sets, who are vulgar in every sense of the word. They’re not interested in anything except money, and not merely because they’re businessmen. There’s nothing wrong with being a businessman in the abstract, as long as it’s tempered with other things.

Surely it’s Richard Branson who’s got the big electric train set?

But why do we need the big media companies at all? In much of the music business they don’t want actual creative talent; they’re really looking for pretty faces over whom they can exercise total control. Any real talent might get in the way; they might want some of that pesky ‘creative freedom’, and that would never do. It’s all “Do what we tell you because there are hundreds of wannabees willing to take your place”. The end result is of course sausage-factory pabulum.

The significant recent trend in music (at least in Britain) is to recognise that whenever there is actually some significant creative talent involved, the record companies are no more than middlemen. More and more bands are cutting them out of the loop and selling directly to the audience, getting fans to pre-order albums rather than getting advances from cynical record companies. Without all those record executive’s cocaine habits to pay for, many bands discover it’s possible to survive economically with relatively modest sales.

Over time I think we’ll see a bigger and bigger divide between demographic-driven corporate music and an eclectic independent scene. And with a bit of luck, the corporate sector with shrink as their more discerning customers desert them.

IQ are unapologetically a prog band. Their music is all swirling Mellotrons, spectacular solos and melodramatic vocals, preferably with 9/8 time signatures. You won’t hear any of that “We’re progressive, not prog” nonsense from them.

Believe it or not I’ve never seen a full set by a proper lineup of the band; the nearest I got was a gig many years ago at the old Marquee club, after Paul Menel had left, but before Peter Nicholls had rejoined. They played most of the set as a four-piece, and Peter Nicholls joined them for the encores of “My Enemy Smacks” and “Awake and Nervous”.

The final date of IQ’s 25th anniversary tour was at the Mean Fiddler, formerly the Astoria 2, a venue threatened with demolition. I have to say I won’t really miss the place provided there’s a quality replacement; it’s a bit of a grotty dive, and the beer is terrible. But there was still a great sense of anticipation as the start time approached.

From the moment IQ hit the stage at 7:15 and launched into “Breathtaker” from ‘Subterrania’, it was clear this was going to be a superb gig; a tremendously tight and impassioned performance with a crystal clear sound. For the next two and a half hours IQ stormed through a setlist covering their whole 25 year career, from “Sacred Sound” from the recent ‘Dark Matter’ to spectacular set closer “My Enemy Smacks” from their 1983 debut. They even played a couple of songs from the Paul Menel era.

They’re not just a bunch of anonymous musos letting the music speak for them; they put on a show as well. Guitarist Mike Holmes spent the entire show sporting a gigantic pair of angel wings, while the most animated had to be bassist Jon Jowett, leaping around as if he was in a punk band, while reeling off some incredible basslines at the same time. Martin Orford’s keys are a major element of their sound; from the biggest mountain of keyboards I’ve seen since Iain Jennings left Mostly Autumn he produced big washes of Mellotron and plenty of ornate moog solos. He even had Mike Holmes playing air keyboards at one point. Peter Nicholls kept the Gabrielesque theatrics to a minimum, but was an entertaining frontman nevertheless, with his comments about bootlegs (“This will be the last song on the first disk”).

Keeping with their long-standing tradition of playing bizarre encores, the first one was a cover of The Sex Pistols hit “God Save the Queen” (I’m sure there were no keyboard on the original!) leading into their own reggae song “Barbell is In”. The came back not once but twice more, finishing with an “Awake and Nervous” that included a verse of Status Quo’s “Caroline”.

I’m not going to leave it another twenty years before seeing them again.

“Layout Design for Operation” is the third volume in Atlantic Publishing’s layout planning series.

Unlike it’s two predecessors “Designs for Urban Layouts” and “Mainlines in Modest Spaces”, this one’s not the work of Iain Rice, but’s co-authored instead by Steve Rabone and Trevor Ridley.

Rice’s two books, for all their strengths, concentrated very heavily on 4mm scale British-outline steam-era modelling. Designs for the diesel and electric era, or for N gauge were something of an afterthought. This book, while it might lack Rice’s evocative prose and meticulously-drawn plans, does a lot to redress the balance.

For a start, it doesn’t confine itself to British modelling; more than half the layout designs are of Continental European or North American themes. Then there’s a more or less even balance between OO (or HO) and N. Finally, although there are a few steam age designs, the emphasis is very much on modern diesel and electric operation.

Apart from a couple of big 00 steam-age loft-busters, most are room-sized plans, suitable for fitting in to the sort of space modellers are likely to have available. All are either based on real-life locations, or plausible ‘might have beens’. Just about all of the N gauge ones focus on intensive main line operation rather than shunting; this is the sort of thing N really excels at.

To give a couple of examples, there’s one plan based on the evocative west end of Edinburgh Waverley, not the first I’ve seen published for this location. It’s intended to operated entirely with large numbers of multiple units. It simplifies fiddle yard arrangements by taking advantage of the fact that multiple units don’t have to be remarshalled offstage. A perfect antidote for those that say contemporary DMUs are boring.

Similarly, there’s a spare room (9′ x 6′) plan for Göschenen in Switzerland, focussing on the endless procession of international passenger and freight trains over the steeply graded alpine main line; the operating interest centres on bidirectional running enabling fast trains to overtake slower ones, and the banking of freight trains. This turns what could have been a simple tailchaser into a potentially interesting layout.

Many of the OO and HO plans in contrast are typically L-shaped end-to-end affairs, although the themes vary from Arctic Norwegian termini to through stations on Irish secondary routes. Just about all list the typical rolling stock that’s likely to be needed; did you know northern Norway sees both GM Nohabs and class 66s?

Overall, an excellent book, and very inspirational especially if you’re into either modern traction or N gauge.

It’s been a hectic weekend. First it was Mostly Autumn at Bilston Robin 2 on Friday night, followed by two days at the Warley MRC exhibition at the NEC.

I stayed with an old friend, Dreamlyrics member HH, who had never seen MA live before, but evidently concluded that if I kept going on about how great they were, they can’t be all bad.

Bilston is either in the heart of the Black Country, or the arse end of Wolverhampton, depending on how you look at it (Rhyl, Bury and Crewe; they sure know the salubrious places to play). Once you get inside, the Robin 2 is actually quite a nice venue; a fair bit bigger than some other places I’ve seen them play.

This was quite a momentous gig; the first time they’d played material from the forthcoming new album “Heart Full of Sky” live, a warm-up for the showcase performance in York the following night. Having seen the band perform two almost identical setlists of oldies this year, I’m sure I wasn’t the only person eager to hear the new songs.

In fact, almost half the set was new, something like nine songs in total, interspersed with enough old favourites like ‘The Dark Before the Dawn’, ‘Evergreen’, ‘Carpe Diem’ and ‘Heroes Never Die’ to keep the fans happy. The band were all on pretty good form; Brian’s guitar and Heather’s vocals as great as ever; Heather has now added the triangle to her repertoire of instruments; is there no limit to her talents? Liam’s slide guitar was much more prominent on some of the new songs, and new boy Chris Johnson sang lead vocals for one song, adding yet another dimension to the sound.

The new songs will probably take a while to sink in, but first impressions are that they’re continuing further in the direction taken with ‘Passengers’ and ‘Storms’, rather than playing safe by retreading their past. Interesting that HH, who had never seen MA before, preferred the newer, more harder-edged songs to the oldies that got the big reactions from the fans.

I’m looking forward seeing them again in two weeks time at Crewe, on the 20th December.

Saturday saw me at the National Model Railway exhibition at the Birmingham NEC, organised by the Warley MRC. In some ways, this show is to model railways what GenCon is to RPGs. It’s part exhibition, part trade fair, and part general meetup of people with a common interest from all parts of the country, and beyond.

There were 40-odd layouts on display, varying from small highly detailed ones like the excellent ‘Hedges Hill Cutting’ (5’5′ x 2′, but with three pubs, all accurate models of real sarf London watering holes) to a couple of massive O gauge monsters. I don’t think the quality was quite up to the standards of some years; some very good layouts, but a fair few rather mediocre ones as well. Impressive ones were the US N gauge ‘Oceanside’, and the 2mm finescale ‘Wansbeck Road’.

On the trade side, when it comes to N gauge products, Dapol pretty much stole the show this year, with the launch of their Virgin Voyager, Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T and Gresley coaches. Bachmann only had the EWS HTA bogie coal hopper on sale; although the pre-production versions of the class 57s look very nice, especially the Porterbrook ‘Purple Monster’ No 57601. Supposedly due out in January (in Bachmann time), I’ll be having one of those! Modern stock sold out fast; with both the Voyager and the HTA sold out from all traders by the end of the show.

The show is also the big annual meetup of the Ngauge and Ngauge-Modern mailing lists. Over the weekend I saw Grahame Hedges, Mat ‘Who ate all the Panniers’ Peacock, Nick Meredith, Stu from Swindon, Roechard Wibd, Bryn Davies, Ben Ando, Bernard Taylor and Robert Shrives among others. Dave Jones appeared on the Dapol stand; where did George Smith manage to find an XXXL purple shirt for him?

I didn’t spend quite as much money as on some years; although I did manage to get my hands on one of the last Dapol Voyagers on sale at the show.