I don’t know if you like Danny Blu (lives in New York), he was playing Sheffield in April and he let me sing with him! Dude is fucking awesome live, and such a lovely person. He told me it was a dream come true to finally get to play in England 💜💜
Another fantastic band we follow are The Slow Readers Club from Manchester. Also highly recommend October Drift, from Exeter. We follow them on tour everywhere and we’ve met them all
Aahhh! The marmightiness of Robbie Williams. I must admit I'm a fan of his but you are deffo right, his performance skills really up his total gain. There was an excellent interview with him on the Horne Section podcast and also on the Alex Buxton podcast. He did a kind of ska/reggae version of Angels which was pretty good. He has suffered for many years from mental health issues which he talks freely about, and he is able to channel his issues into performance pieces. How many artists do we know who do that?
I saw him at Glastonbury performing when I was doing some ticket touting and his voice didn't seem that good but the performance really made up for it. He acknowledges he hasn't got a great voice but then think about how many times you here Angels sung at a Karaoke night and it gets mullered!
I have a memory of a young fella called Danyl Johnson auditioning for Xfactor, where he is performing in front of 2000 people and throws the mic way up in the air, spins around a couple of times then catches it again. I can't find it as yet so I may have dreamt it...
Rock and Roll and, to my mind, particularly heavy rock and metal, owe so much to classical music. I'm sure you've heard of them but the best exemplars of this have got to be 2 Cellos! I love their crossover and I'm a sucker for the Cello! They are also very good looking chaps, which I'm sure helps...😁
I don't know too much about him but I rather like the Harry Styles approach to... Well, everything.. There is a mofo who don't give no shit about nor not nuffin. But he has talent in bucketloads which possibly let's him have a free pass.
Do you know the Adam Buxton podcast, I think you would be great on there! I know you're not particularly a podcast man but I think you would appreciate his appreciation of music and literature.
Hope the Birthday celebrations went well😀
Nothing from my wife as yet so this must meet with her approval🤔
Excellent — you finally posted properly! I don't know that podcast... I'll go have a listen. I haven't really got into the whole podcast world yet, I must. I do know the 2 cellos guys — they give good performance :-) And you're right, a lot of heavy metal guitarists are explicit about being influenced by classical, especially Bach...
I think the Adam Buxton podcast might be right up your street. He's a real muso and was part of the Adam and Joe show on channel 4, with now Hollywood director Joe Cornish. He's a big Bowie fan and has interviewed the likes of Brian Emo and Paul McCartney amongst many other musical, literary and comedic good 'uns. I think you would go down a treat!
Agree. Agree. Agree. in spades!! What a trip this post has been! I'm 81, and my ex and his brother owned a music store with 14 guitar teachers of all genres - I remember those teachers/musicians discussing the direct influence of classical in other current music/musicians. Very cool. Thanks for the memories. :)
The majority of the musicians started their music introduction on piano... Then in mid-60s guitar became the rage. Also banjo - we had a banjo teacher who liked to play all our instruments - bass, guitars (electric, classic, folk), banjo, German wooden recorders, British pennywhistles... It was a fun time, even though I was having kids (slept in an unused studio, or in a hip sling). Probably the only reason I stayed with him for 14 years! :)
I don’t have much to add to this right now because I’m reading and watching while making dinner, but thought you might appreciate this little bit of mic stand kung fu from the legendary John Farnham, who has more than a little easy charisma of his own (a blues and soul singer stereotyped as a rock singer because of that gargantuan range he has).
It’s about 3.30. He throws the mic stand, one handed, high in the air (so high it’s out of shot) and catches it with the same hand perfectly in time with his own vocal delivery, then twists to throw it far over to stage left. About a minute later he nonchalantly wanders over and, without even pausing to gauge it, just flicks it up off the floor with his foot and back into his hand again.
Okay, something a little more substantive: I feel like it's very difficult to talk about world class confidence and charisma onstage without bringing Dimash Qudaibergen into the conversation. He's a Kazakh singer, a classically trained composer and multi-instrumentalist, thirty years old this month, who can justifiably lay claim to being the best singer in the world. That's not hyperbole - the man has a six octave, two semitone range and is able to alternate singing in a classical, operatic style with belting like a rock star, sometimes from line to line in a song. His tone is perfect: he can shift registers seamlessly from what sounds like a deep bass baritone to a high tenor to a perfect falsetto to a piercing whistle tone, all without appearing to make any effort at all. He's also tall, has movie star looks and as you can see from the following video, the ability to completely command a massive audience on a giant stage, literally all on his own - I swear he doesn't blink the entire four minutes of the song, prowling the stage like he owns it.
This is 'SOS d'un terrien en de'tresse', a cover of a French rock opera tune from the seventies:
To paraphrase every anime ever, that's not even his final form - just the right song to act as an introduction. For me, his cover of Sinful Passion is one of the most astonishing things I've ever seen a singer do live:
I will look him up but won't be able to listen for a little while yet. You may find this annoying but by your description I'm getting a Serj Tankian vibe?
I love Serj, but think more neo-classical, with a pop edge. He tends to sing in all kinds of styles of music, and in around 13 different languages, but think of the most emotionally affecting musical theatre/opera and he’s pretty much the best thing on two legs. The two I linked above are IMO the best introduction to his voice and presence, but he covered Vitas’ Opera #2 for a singing competition when he was a kid (notoriously impossible to sing) and hit three key changes (Vitas only did one) - and if you have a sec, then Olympico is more dramatic than a cheerleader with the flu.
I don’t know if you like Danny Blu (lives in New York), he was playing Sheffield in April and he let me sing with him! Dude is fucking awesome live, and such a lovely person. He told me it was a dream come true to finally get to play in England 💜💜
I don't know him - will check him out!
Another fantastic band we follow are The Slow Readers Club from Manchester. Also highly recommend October Drift, from Exeter. We follow them on tour everywhere and we’ve met them all
Are you actually a vampire, posting at this hour?
Ha :-) You can time when they go out...
If you get the chance to see IDLES live you won’t regret it. Life-changing. From Bristol
Thank you for all the recommends!
Aahhh! The marmightiness of Robbie Williams. I must admit I'm a fan of his but you are deffo right, his performance skills really up his total gain. There was an excellent interview with him on the Horne Section podcast and also on the Alex Buxton podcast. He did a kind of ska/reggae version of Angels which was pretty good. He has suffered for many years from mental health issues which he talks freely about, and he is able to channel his issues into performance pieces. How many artists do we know who do that?
I saw him at Glastonbury performing when I was doing some ticket touting and his voice didn't seem that good but the performance really made up for it. He acknowledges he hasn't got a great voice but then think about how many times you here Angels sung at a Karaoke night and it gets mullered!
I have a memory of a young fella called Danyl Johnson auditioning for Xfactor, where he is performing in front of 2000 people and throws the mic way up in the air, spins around a couple of times then catches it again. I can't find it as yet so I may have dreamt it...
Rock and Roll and, to my mind, particularly heavy rock and metal, owe so much to classical music. I'm sure you've heard of them but the best exemplars of this have got to be 2 Cellos! I love their crossover and I'm a sucker for the Cello! They are also very good looking chaps, which I'm sure helps...😁
I don't know too much about him but I rather like the Harry Styles approach to... Well, everything.. There is a mofo who don't give no shit about nor not nuffin. But he has talent in bucketloads which possibly let's him have a free pass.
Do you know the Adam Buxton podcast, I think you would be great on there! I know you're not particularly a podcast man but I think you would appreciate his appreciation of music and literature.
Hope the Birthday celebrations went well😀
Nothing from my wife as yet so this must meet with her approval🤔
Excellent — you finally posted properly! I don't know that podcast... I'll go have a listen. I haven't really got into the whole podcast world yet, I must. I do know the 2 cellos guys — they give good performance :-) And you're right, a lot of heavy metal guitarists are explicit about being influenced by classical, especially Bach...
I think the Adam Buxton podcast might be right up your street. He's a real muso and was part of the Adam and Joe show on channel 4, with now Hollywood director Joe Cornish. He's a big Bowie fan and has interviewed the likes of Brian Emo and Paul McCartney amongst many other musical, literary and comedic good 'uns. I think you would go down a treat!
My wife just called me fanboy twat...
Normal service resumed...
Jinxed it re wife. 😂
Yup!
Agree. Agree. Agree. in spades!! What a trip this post has been! I'm 81, and my ex and his brother owned a music store with 14 guitar teachers of all genres - I remember those teachers/musicians discussing the direct influence of classical in other current music/musicians. Very cool. Thanks for the memories. :)
Really delighted you liked it — thank you! Wow, what a thing to have heard real musicians discussing that stuff...
The majority of the musicians started their music introduction on piano... Then in mid-60s guitar became the rage. Also banjo - we had a banjo teacher who liked to play all our instruments - bass, guitars (electric, classic, folk), banjo, German wooden recorders, British pennywhistles... It was a fun time, even though I was having kids (slept in an unused studio, or in a hip sling). Probably the only reason I stayed with him for 14 years! :)
I don’t have much to add to this right now because I’m reading and watching while making dinner, but thought you might appreciate this little bit of mic stand kung fu from the legendary John Farnham, who has more than a little easy charisma of his own (a blues and soul singer stereotyped as a rock singer because of that gargantuan range he has).
https://youtu.be/6m2m_9Uijso?si=PdydfzKi2D1kmF-W
It’s about 3.30. He throws the mic stand, one handed, high in the air (so high it’s out of shot) and catches it with the same hand perfectly in time with his own vocal delivery, then twists to throw it far over to stage left. About a minute later he nonchalantly wanders over and, without even pausing to gauge it, just flicks it up off the floor with his foot and back into his hand again.
Whoa. That's some quality mic-wrangling. Into the hall of fame he goes.
Okay, something a little more substantive: I feel like it's very difficult to talk about world class confidence and charisma onstage without bringing Dimash Qudaibergen into the conversation. He's a Kazakh singer, a classically trained composer and multi-instrumentalist, thirty years old this month, who can justifiably lay claim to being the best singer in the world. That's not hyperbole - the man has a six octave, two semitone range and is able to alternate singing in a classical, operatic style with belting like a rock star, sometimes from line to line in a song. His tone is perfect: he can shift registers seamlessly from what sounds like a deep bass baritone to a high tenor to a perfect falsetto to a piercing whistle tone, all without appearing to make any effort at all. He's also tall, has movie star looks and as you can see from the following video, the ability to completely command a massive audience on a giant stage, literally all on his own - I swear he doesn't blink the entire four minutes of the song, prowling the stage like he owns it.
This is 'SOS d'un terrien en de'tresse', a cover of a French rock opera tune from the seventies:
https://youtu.be/W29zEuZVaxs?si=WStGF9avMOLTRio3
That dude is freakishly good!!! I have to add him to playlist.
To paraphrase every anime ever, that's not even his final form - just the right song to act as an introduction. For me, his cover of Sinful Passion is one of the most astonishing things I've ever seen a singer do live:
https://youtu.be/kLxCjIHhV-g?si=eTFwuA2tdpcihHIp
😳😍
I will look him up but won't be able to listen for a little while yet. You may find this annoying but by your description I'm getting a Serj Tankian vibe?
I love Serj, but think more neo-classical, with a pop edge. He tends to sing in all kinds of styles of music, and in around 13 different languages, but think of the most emotionally affecting musical theatre/opera and he’s pretty much the best thing on two legs. The two I linked above are IMO the best introduction to his voice and presence, but he covered Vitas’ Opera #2 for a singing competition when he was a kid (notoriously impossible to sing) and hit three key changes (Vitas only did one) - and if you have a sec, then Olympico is more dramatic than a cheerleader with the flu.
Just did three songs with my wife.
I ain't no poetical writer like what MMS is so I will sum it up for my wife and I...
WTAF!!!!!!!
Wow — that really is an astonishing range of pitch and tone... I'll check out some more!
I linked to Sinful Passion in a comment below, it’s genuinely baffling.