NIRVANA CLASSIC ALBUM TURNS 20...

When I tuned into Triple J this arvo on my way to work I was totally gob smacked to find that it’s been twenty years since Nirvana’s classic Album ‘Nevermind’ was released.  Twenty years!  Even more shocked to hear listeners ring up and say they were under five or not even born.  Seriously!  Oh, wow – what you have missed.

Nirvana, a grunge band out of Seattle, literally changed how I saw the world.  This is not an exaggeration.  Kurt Cobain – my God! Just the best and of course Dave Grohl – I mean look at him now (Foo Fighters).  I’d like to say I luv them as much but I just don’t...

I have to tell you listening to Triple J and some of the Nirvana tracks they played - Wow how powerful is music? - the memories it evoked where like BAM!  The year was 1991 ‘Nevermind’ had just been released.  I lived in Israel in the middle of the Negev Desert and every Friday night Shabbat (our one night off) we, the volunteers from all parts of the world, would head down to the only Israel night club, Givalot (yes in the middle of the desert) and rock out to ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’.  It’s the one song I can always remember everyone dancing too!  And I mean everyone.  As soon as the DJ spun the record you fought for every inch on the dance floor :)

Here’s that all time brilliant song best played loud!

I saved my pennies (a months pay was equivalent to about AUD $80.00) and I had to buy food for a month but I took the bus trip into Beersheva and spent AUD $15.00 of that hard earned money and bought the cassette ‘Nevermind’ – couldn’t afford the CD :)  It did the rounds on the Moshav – everyone I knew borrowed it and we thrashed it to death.  I have since had to buy the CD.

Another favourite of mine: (pretty difficult to choose actually since I luv em all)

Nirvana was God back then and while it was grunge it was fresh music.  It was beautiful, raw and sexy and we couldn’t get enough of it.  And then the albums that followed and the MTV unplugged – what an album that is :)

Then I returned home in Feb 1994 and two months later Kurt was dead.  I won’t even go into the deep loss and grief I experienced at that time – it was a double edge sword .  I had just left a world behind that I loved and didn’t want to be here in OZ and was grieving for my life in Israel and London and Kurt’s death compounded that – the life I grieved had truly gone.  Kurt and his music was so pivotal to one of the most magickal times of my life and now he was dead.  But this post is not about grief.  This post is about the celebration of a fantastic album, a brilliant band that had the most profound impact for their short time on the music scene.

And if you aren’t bored yet – here’s another:

If you are around  this Friday night and want to check out the release of their movie (their only LIVE show recorded on film) performing at the Paramount in their hometown then check all the details here screening in cinemas around the country – do yourself a favour and check it out.  Watch the trailer here 

 As for me I will have to wait for the DVD as I will be working :(

On that note I will leave you with another song I kinda rather adore: Click here or the vid below. 

Midnight rambler lost in a time steeped with memories that I’m so happy I was actually old enough to enjoy. Maybe being older ain’t so bad after all ♥  Skin the sun, Fall asleep, Wish away…

Storms, shipwrecks, swinging sixties and wishing I was older...



The Wahine - Wellington Harbour

 Maybe I've been watching too many movies set in the sixties of late, or maybe it's the raging storm and the gale force winds outside that take me back to the sixties.  The year in question was 1968.  The year I experienced one of the most terrifying and violent storms of my life.

Lulu and her white boots

That aside, one of the great things I remember about 1968 was Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mich and Tich and their hit, 'The Legend of Xanadu'. I was only ten and I so wanted to be all grown up and going to parties, twisting the night away, with back combed hair, black eyeliner like Sophia Loren, lollipop pink lipstick, white knee high boots, mini skirts and big hooped earrings.  

I did all that eventually, but by then it was the seventies.  Not quite as much fun because there was something extra special about the sixties.  And I always remember wishing I was older...

Then I had the good fortune of seeing Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in London at the Barbican Centre in 1991.  Yep, many years after their songs were hits - but for that afternoon I was living in the sixties, all grown up, drinking beer and doing the twist with my London besties ♥ 

For the nostalgia fans - enjoy :)

Piano is good for the soul...

I was chatting with my very dear friend today and we got to talking about pianos and my passion for musical instruments: piano, drums and guitar being on my hitlist of things to learn since I was knee high to a grass hopper!

I learnt the guitar, not very good, even had an electric gat (NZ slang) with amplifier that I adored, but since gave it to a good home and am content with my acoustic Tanglewood. 

I never officially learnt how to play the drums but I bought a set anyway in my teens and drove the neighbourhood insane.  We were threatened with eviction so, they too (sadly) found a good home.

Last but not least, I bought a keyboard (no space where I live for a real piano) and I learnt a wee bit, mostly self taught and not very good, but somewhere deep inside I know I can be, so until I take up those lessons again - it got me to thinking about some of the pieces that inspired me over the years and here is one of them.  A David Bowie great and one that had me enraptured for all of my teens, and even today the piano in this piece still stirs the soul in so many ways I couldn't even begin to describe it.

Hope you enjoy...

midnight rambler seriously considering taking up those lessons again...

(nb: picture taken above at a B&B on recent trip to Wellington, New Zealand)

DISCO SPACE IN M.A.R.R.S

Hey, hey - here we are in disco space.  This is one of them classics that never die or ever feel dated IMHO...Check it out and see for yeeselves and let me know what you think.

Have fun in MARRS...

midnight rambler is dancing in disco space...