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
Spiral Cities
Facebook sucks. Early in the morning of Thursday, 8th November I checked my news feed. Among a few useful, but unexciting, notifications there was one by Fyfe Dangerfield announcing that he would be interviewed live on the RadMac show on BBC 6 Music 'tomorrow' afternoon. That was worth a diary entry and the Crotchety Ears…Read more Spiral Cities
Glass Towns
The Crotchety Man blog gained another follower last week. There's nothing remarkable in that - it happens from time to time and the current total of 71 is hardly something to get excited about. I usually check out the Gravatar and the Home page of new recruits to my personal campaign to promote good music.…Read more Glass Towns
Desperate for Your Love
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
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
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