In The Words Of

‘Tis the month of fireworks, although being an animal lover and owner of three dogs, three cats and two horses, it can be a bit stressful for them. We do our utmost to keep them calm at this time of the year, as it seldom is just the one night that fireworks are being let off. I wish you all a pleasant night if you’re into this sort of thing, and I send you all my love and respect if you’re - like my family and I - having to make sure it’s passable as a slightly noisy time for our fur family members.

INTRO RANT

Politics - perhaps a rude word to use these days as you and I are surely disheartened and fed up with all this ‘merry go round’ nonsense that the Conservatives have been forcing onto our ears, eyes and patience these last few months! Granted, all MPs are the same, regardless - in my opinion - of whichever Party they represent. However, I am yet to find any MP that ‘properly’ listens and represents the common man or woman. Prove me wrong? I won’t vote again. And this new guy running the UK Government wasn’t voted in by the electorate, neither was the person before him that only lasted a few weeks. It’s a mockery—a farce.

IT MAKES YOU THINK WHAT NEWS THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN BURYING WHILST ALL THIS PANTOMIME HAS BEEN GOING ON!

by Carl Marsh

REVIEWS

Where do I start? There is a saying that you can wait ages for a bus, then suddenly two or three come at once. This is the case for me right now. In a break from tradition, I need to use a whole page following this one to highlight what I’ve done, so expect a little review of Bob Dylan; the first birthday of The Parkgate Hotel; then the opening night of ‘Tir a Môr’ at voco St David’s in Cardiff Bay.

INTERVIEWS

The World Cup commences! I can’t wait to see Wales play against England in the same qualifying group. Granted, one - on paper - should beat the other, but the other has a nation’s pride and support behind them that won’t criticise them if they fail. So I wonder which will prevail.

With the World Cup in mind, I needed to get some football connection, so I did. England’s best football song for any/all tournaments is the David Baddiel/Frank Skinner/Lightning Seeds piece: Three Lions. I spoke to the latter [Ian Broudie] about his new album and upcoming tour, and perhaps a bit about the football and England’s Lionesses. He is performing at Tramshed on November 18th at 7:30 pm. Support is by Badly Drawn Boy, who I interviewed a few years back and can vouch that he’s a stellar support act worthy of filling the venue on his own!

Have a great November, be careful out on fireworks night, see you all next month,

Carl Marsh Twitter - @InTheWordsOf_CM YouTube - InTheWordsOf

I am a firm believer that you treat people the way you expect to be treated. Never look down on anybody. Always be professional, humble and polite. But, of course, plenty of clowns like to think they are better than others, and in the ‘Entertainment World’, there are aplenty. For me, when it comes to reviews, I will be fair, as you will all be aware. I don’t do fake reviews or sprout the usual lacklustre tripe that certain “reviewers” do to keep getting invited to whatever soirée is happening. I may have ruffled a few feathers, but c’est la vie, don’t expect me to tell fibs to my readership. Just don’t. Honesty is my mantra. If I find it good, then I will write it. If not, well… I did two food/hotel events back-to-back on the same night in the following review order:

The Parkgate Hotel - Cardiff

It was a fantastic spectacle to be invited to The Parkgate Hotel to celebrate its first birthday. So popular that anybody that was respected around Wales for media/corporate reasons was invited, as the PR person stated that they had more people coming than planned! A live band in one room, a DJ in the other. It’s an immense and elaborate venue next to the Stadium on Westgate Street. Brilliant for corporate, gigs and the like. My only gripe is that there is no large-scale car parking onsite apart from that tacky NCP multi-storey car park across the road. I left the venue around 7:45 pm after trying a few food samples brought out to try. It looks impressive from what I tasted and saw on the menu. I want to try the food properly at some point, even stay over. I do rate this place highly. Happy Birthday to The Parkgate Hotel!

Tir a Môr at voco St David’s, Cardiff Bay

This was a more relaxed and cosy affair, as the invite list was about a quarter of that was in attendance at the last event at The Parkgate Hotel. So selected indeed that I didn’t know or recognise a single soul at this one, then again, at The Parkgate Hotel, I only recognised three or four people that I personally knew, that’s in addition to a Welsh actor that had been on a few things like ‘Stella’; ex-sprinter Jamie Baulch, and current Welsh boxer, Joe Cordina. This place is fantastic. As you can see from the pics, it’s primarily a seafood affair. And the service is pure class. We arrived late, which was noticed by the Maître d’, who, after we’d been there for 15 minutes, brought us mini samples of five things from the menu without any input from ourselves. Then she offered oysters! I had always wanted to try. I did. They have an acquired taste, and some people chew them! I just swallowed them. Ha! I am a wuss! All in all, superb views of the Bay, amazing music, drinks, staff and food. This is a must-visit and one I am going to come back to!

Bob Dylan - Live at the Motorpoint Arena

It’s not often such musical royalty comes to Wales. I was invited to witness somebody who, at 81 years old, still controls the room. Bereft of any talk between songs, Bob Dylan has always said he lets his music do the talking and that he did. I had maybe the best seats in the house, ten rows back and centre on. It felt like I was in a small venue, as it was quite a stripped-back affair with no flashing lights. The man and his ultra-talented backing band nailed it. This could well have been Bob’s swan song when it comes to touring the UK. I am so glad I got to witness it with my daughter.

Carl Marsh Twitter - @InTheWordsOf_CM YouTube - InTheWordsOf

Performing at Tramshed on November 18th, The Lightning Seeds have been around for decades, but as it happens, Ian Broudie reminded me that he’d not had an album out for more than a decade and a half! The new album is as good as any I have heard in a long time. It’s called See You In The Stars and is available now.

Carl Marsh

After listening to your new album, I know the fans will appreciate the wait, as I know you can’t rush things of this quality, but why did you leave it for 15 or 16 years?

Ian Broudie – The Lightning Seeds

I think after the last album that I did, I sort of stopped The Lightning Seeds really and started producing. I was working with a couple of unsigned bands, and all that developed into something, and then I did my solo album, which was very simple, and just done very quick. And it wasn’t The Lightening Seeds. And I’m not writing like the fella from The Lightning Seeds even though it’s me; it just didn’t fit the bill. So, when I signed to that record label, I had several new songs. And they were very much like, “We don’t want it to be a Lightning Seeds album”. And I hate it when I allow myself to be influenced, so I tried to turn them into a Lightning Seeds album, and they ended up neither one thing nor the other. Some people liked that solo album; some didn’t. I felt a lot of anxiety putting it out. I felt like I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to do anything much after a few things happened in my life over that period. And I suppose the period after you’re famous as well (comes into it). After that, it makes sense that you know what you’re dealing with and figuring out where your life is. And I had a lot of bereavement in the family. It was just a strange time, and I found I was writing differently. And to use a football pun, I’d gone from the Premier League down to the Football League, you know, below the Championship, and then I gradually started thinking that if I’m going to do something, I want it to be great. Various people came into the band, and I managed to get what I think are my favourite people in my favourite band at the moment. And then I started writing a little bit more. I had a couple of songs that I thought, well, these are actually good songs that do feel like Lightning Seeds songs, and then I received kind of encouragement from friends who helped me because not that I’d sort of forgotten how to do it, but I didn’t have the mechanism in place to make it happen. Then when I’d recorded a couple, I quite liked them. Then it stops being an abstract idea. You think, “Oh, I like these. I would like to play these people who like my music”, and everything grows from there. I’ve never had a plan. I’ve never had a master plan for my career. I’ve bumbled around, messed it up, fallen over, got back up, and it seems like that’s what happened here.

Carl Marsh

Three Lions came out 26 years ago, and I bet you’d never in a million years thought it would be in that same amount of time the women’s game has gone from hardly even an amateur level to where it is now for England to be winning the European Championship over the men’s teams, even though that song was released for the men’s team in 1996, and here we are in 2022?

Ian Broudie - The Lightning Seeds

I would never have thought about the women’s game at that time, but I couldn’t honestly say I expected us to win it (back then). [Laughter] I’d be lying if I thought we would. And I still feel that way! I mean, that’s what the song is about, really, hope, living in hope. And to be honest, the song is about fans. One of the things I loved when it came out in Euro 96 was the Dutch fans were singing it, and the German fans were too. It’s just a song about losing. It’s funny about supporting a team or sport, isn’t it? You know, it’s sometimes when you’ve lost, and you’re back on the motorway, and you’re at some service, they’re like very precious memories and everyone’s drowning in their sorrows. So it’s a funny dynamic. But I’m certainly still thrilled that the song is still around after this length of time. I loved the Lionesses because it was so much more different than the Premier League guys. It was just so honest, wasn’t it? They were just so joyful when they all ran into that press conference and started singing ‘Three Lions’. That was lovely—that summed up the whole tournament.

The Lightning Seeds - Tramshed November 18th 2022