I write this piece with a mixture of profound joy and heart-wrenching sadness. Five days ago the Crotchety Couple enjoyed another Clannad concert. We saw them perhaps 20 years ago and they were a delight, although the sound then was a little muddy where we sat in the wings. This time we had just about…Read more In a Lifetime
Gig
Hidden Orchestra – Live
Sometimes the Fates deal us a difficult hand. Just recently it has not been enough for Crotchety Man to paddle his own canoe; he has been asked to paddle other people's canoes as well. That, of course, is flattering but this naturally nervous gentleman was never cut out to lead the paddlers' flotilla. Do I…Read more Hidden Orchestra – Live
Sylvia
Six of us went to see Focus at The Flowerpot in Derby last night. We arrived about 8:50 pm, gathered around the stage and waited patiently for the band. At around 9:30 pm a very fat and impossibly old man appeared. He had long white sideburns and was wearing a fisherman's cap. It was as…Read more Sylvia
Whiskey In The Jar
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I'm late!", moaned the fluffy white bunny shaking his long furry ears in shame and humiliation. And he was. Very late. Crotchety Man had outsourced his next Track of the Week to White Rabbit Publications because he was going to be otherwise engaged at the weekend. There was a final band…Read more Whiskey In The Jar
Cwlwm
When the Crotchety Kid was just nine or ten years old one of his teachers was a woman not so young in years but with all the best attributes of youth in her manner. There was a timeless beauty in her face and the fresh warmth of her personality has never been matched in all the…Read more Cwlwm
Soft Machine – Gig
Last night Soft Machine played a gig at The Flowerpot in Derby. The band has appeared in these pages twice before but, for anyone unfamiliar with them, there's an excellent biography (if a band can have a biography) on Spotify. Suffice it to say that the current Soft Machine line-up includes three guys who joined…Read more Soft Machine – Gig
Crotchety Man 