There is no divide - no ditch, no fence, no wall separates the classical from the contemporary - and no band illustrates this better than Sky. All the members of Sky were classically trained musicians who chose to make pop/rock/classical cross-over music. The most high-profile member of the band was John Williams, who was already…Read more Desperate for Your Love
Track
The Siren’s Song
There has been a lot of prog rock on the menu at Crotchety Mansions recently. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but you can have too much of a good thing. So, Crotchety Man demanded a more varied selection of songs from his favourite streaming service. Setting the controls for the Curated All Songs…Read more The Siren’s Song
Rising Sun
There was no sunrise here this morning. Thick black clouds covered the sky and a miserable rain fell, steadily soaking the dark streets and the gloom-shrouded gardens of our village. The mood at Crotchety Mansions was sombre. The cloud-penetrating radar screen was similarly dark other than for a few small bright specks. Yearning for light,…Read more Rising Sun
Old Love
Crotchety Man has become hopelessly distracted lately. The object of his latest passion is taking up far too much of his increasingly precious time and is never far from his thoughts. An old love has been rekindled by seductive words in a seemingly innocent email. You see, the ageing rocker has been invited to join…Read more Old Love
Birdwatcher – Episode 1
Fyfe Anthony Dangerfield Hutchins was born in 1980 in Mosley, a suburb of Birmingham in the heart of the UK's West Midlands conurbation. His family moved to the leafier and somewhat less cosmopolitan town of Bromsgrove when he was eight. The Crotchety Brain knows he is a classically trained pianist and avid birdwatcher but, sadly,…Read more Birdwatcher – Episode 1
Waltz for Richard
Crotchety Man used to write software for a living. Writing good software is hard and he enjoyed the intellectual challenge. Like other forms of writing, producing good code is also very much an art, which added considerably to the pleasure. For Young Man Crotchety programming was both a job and a hobby. Early in his…Read more Waltz for Richard
Pentecost Hotel
It's been a busy week here at Crotchety Mansions and the old blogger is rather tired today. So for this Track of the Week I'm going back to a familiar song from 1967, one that I don't have to think too hard about. Pin back your lugholes, listeners, as we visit the Pentecost Hotel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pEz9kMSczg…Read more Pentecost Hotel
Landscapes
No other band sounds like Hidden Orchestra. Or so I believed. But perhaps the Crotchety Research Elves just hadn't mapped that part of the musical landscape thoroughly enough yet. Recruiting the Global Network of Discovery and Spotify as guides, Crotchety Man embarked on a journey of exploration. Those regions were not thought to be dangerous but…Read more Landscapes
The Riddle
As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives, Each wife had seven sacks, Each sack had seven cats, Each cat had seven kits: Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, How many were there going to St. Ives?¹ For 62 weeks during 1984 and 1985 songs by Nik Kershaw peppered the…Read more The Riddle
What a Waste
Some year in the early seventies, while Crotchety Student was wasting a few years studying biochemistry, he was dragged along to a pub in the suburbs of London to see a band called Kilburn and the Highroads. That young man had no idea what to expect from the gig. He had never heard of the…Read more What a Waste
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