Listening

Once finally re-opened in the summer, live music rocked in London. Artists were finally unleashed again after over a year of being locked-out from their originally scheduled dates.  Amongst many great nights, Admiral Fallow at The Omeara, Steve Hackett at The Palladium, Courtney Marie Andrews at The Union Chapel, Public Service Broadcasting at Brixton Academy, and Kawala at their ‘homecoming’ venue of Kentish Town, were all worth the wait.  In 2022, radio will discover Kawala and they are going to be enormous. Watching 73-year-old Steve Hackett play for three hours was humbling and inspiring, while across town, Genesis played with a physically shot Phil Collins in a show that at best inspired mixed feelings.  Elsewhere in Devon, it rained and rained at The Leveller’s Beautiful Days festival, where Gary Numan’s set was suitably apocalyptic and dark, until he was hit by an inflatable banana from the crowd.  What joy!  

My record of the year is a six track EP called Since the Dog Died by Manchester band Fuzzy Sun.  While the punchy guitar-riff singalongs are good enough, elsewhere their stunning arrangements, melodic soundscape, and plaintiff vocals on songs like Moviestar and Kolm, are gorgeous and point towards a future sound altogether more mature than a five-piece guitar band from Manchester might naturally churn out.  One to watch, and more here.  Sadly, the wonderfully talented David Longdon [pictured above] of Big Big Train died on the eve of the band’s long delayed tour.  Intriguingly, Longdon once auditioned and came very close to replacing Collins as the singer for Genesis in the 1990s.  His death was a huge loss, and with the ‘accidental’ circumstances clearly odd, a low moment in 2021. Records of the year: 

Fuzzy Sun, Since the Dog Died
Tori Amos, Ocean to Ocean
The War on Drugs, I Don’t Live Here Anymore
The Weather Station, Ignorance
Alfie Templeman, Forever Isn't Long Enough
Wild Front, Drowning in the Light
Admiral Fallow, The Idea of You
The Anchoress, The Art of Losing
Nick Hudson, Font of Human Fractures
Wolf Alice, Blue Weekend. 

Honourable mentions also go to Kawala, Prioritise Pleasure, Circa Waves, The Magic Gang, Spector, The People Versus and Portobello. If you feel tempted, there is a Spotify Playlist here of the best of the above and some other tracks that made 2021 a musical return to form.

Watching

One of the best films of the year was probably the smallest.  While Spider-Man NWH was head-spinningly great fun and the overlong swansong for Daniel Craig in No Time to Die finally put some much-needed cash into the local Picture House tills, it was a tiny movie The Dig, that reminded me of how good well-made films can be. Watching Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan set against gorgeously filmed English countryside, The Dig was beautifully written, acted, produced, and shot.  The cinematographer tried to make east of England appear like something out of Lawrence of Arabia.  The Dig was streamed, not exhibited.  I don’t know if the intention ever was for it to get a theatrical release. Film buffs will still breathe deeply, frown sagely and let you know that there is nothing like seeing a movie in the cinema, wide-screen, surround sound, in the dark, munching snacks. I saw Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE, on a huge canvas, reclined, in crisp Dolby Atmos, in the ‘XL’ format at my local Cineworld and it was indeed, draw droppingly good and I am desperate to see it again.  While something like Dune is hard to match from the comfort of your sofa, the production values and quality of the very best of TV is now so extraordinary that its harder and harder to make the case for theatres only, or even ‘features’ as the pinnacle format.  There is too little of any quality on Netflix, or Amazon Prime, but if you can get HBO streamed, or Apple TV, then Westworld (first two seasons), Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, The Witcher and Succession have raised the bar for streamed TV to a level make the pile it high and stream it cheap approach of Netflix risible.   

Foundation was long awaited and much anticipated - based on the most extraordinary series of books I had read as a teenager. The showrunners took some huge liberties with the story and production direction, but the look, the feel, the mood, the scope and the scale were all extraordinarily well done and the choice of Lee Pace as ‘Brother Day’ and Jared Harris as Harry Seldon was just perfect. Back in the real world, I was outside The Criterion Theatre, pretty much the first day theatres were allowed to re-open and enjoyed the verve and quirkiness of Amelie. Back to The Future at The Adelphi was a life-affirming nostalgic blast, but shows booked at The Bridge were postponed to next year. Most enjoyed watching of the year: 

Dune
The Dig (Netflix)
Foundation (Apple TV Series)
The Mandalorian (Disney TV series)
Succession (HBO TV, season III)
The Witcher
Spider Man - No Way Home
The Last Duel
Midnight in Soho

Elsewhere

Locked down during our 25th wedding anniversary, there was no option to return to Italy, so we found a new hideaway at The Pig, in Combe in Devon.  It is a remarkable place, found down a rough unmarked track, it is beautifully kept, with roaring log fires, out-door fire pits, fresh garden produce, great dining, and sumptuous accommodation.  Securing a weekend room at The Pig is akin to a lottery win – both in terms of the scarce chance of it happening and the unfathomable expense, paid in advance.  We finally got back to Italy in November 2021, where I developed an unhealthy obsession with obelisks.  

Writing

I read very little fiction in 2021 and wrote even less, though I did devour some terrific thought-leadership books (see Reviews). I discovered some amazing source reference material for a book about Seven Dials, with field trips to Weybridge (to see more obelisks) and Tunbridge Wells.  I remain determined to produce something coherent in 2022.  The BLOG continues to get good hits and this year, I continued to develop the #Smorgasbord, a listing and reference resource of the best 250 business/smart-thinking books written in the 21st Century.  You can find out more here.  

Coda

Thank you to everyone for reading and for those who have sent me your comments, twitter follows and feedback here and on Linked-in.  Like millions of others, I have found the past couple of years deeply affecting – and seldom in a good way. I remain hopeful the tide will turn.  In 1666, it took the ferocity of the Great Fire of London to finally wake up the English to the squalor, deprivation and poor hygiene of much of the City and to rebuild and move on from the devastating plague to more prosperous time of peace, enlightenment and revolution. In 2022 we don’t need a fire, or some major geo-political “distraction” (which I do fear might be sprung) to turn our minds from lockdown addiction. We do though need to awaken from the stupor of the past two years, look up and move on. Some of the tunes, viewing and places mentioned above form the soundtrack to a partially wasted year. No time to waste in ‘22.