Farewell Chris Cornell

This one hurts so much. Chris Cornell and Soundgarden were such a huge part of my teenage years and I never stopped following his career. I saw Soundgarden live seven times back in their hey day from the tiny Camden Underworld to the huge Reading Festival. I was then lucky enough to see them twice when they reunited in 2012, which I wrote about on this blog. I also saw Chris solo twice, once on his first ever solo tour in 1999 and then at the Astoria in 2007, where his voice still amazed me. His music has just meant so much to me over the years, it's so sad to think I'll never hear his voice live again and my heart goes out to his poor family. I wanted to go see him last year for his acoustic show at the Royal Albert Hall and now I'm even sadder that I didn't. The above clip of one of my favourite Cornell songs, Seasons, is from that show. A brilliant songwriter, an incredible voice and, by all accounts, the loveliest man. This is such a huge, huge loss and far, far too soon.

By Crooked Steps

Soundgarden's amusing new video for By Crooked Steps, the best track on their comeback album King Animal. It's directed by Dave Grohl, because, you know, all those original grungers are best pals. It is interesting though that Grohl actually requested to direct this and sent in a proposal to the band. It's probably done more to finally convince people that Chris Cornell et al, who were once dubbed Frowngarden by Guns 'N' Roses' crew, actually have a sense of humour despite the fact that in the past they've recorded songs with titles such as Big Dumb Sex, Full On Kevin's Mom and a cover of John Lennon's One Minute Of Silence (which really was just one minute of silence at the end of their debut album). So good on Grohl for that and for helping keep the appearance, at least, of the original Seattle grunge brotherhood alive.

My Favourite Albums Of 2012

I had a really difficult time this year whittling down my favourite albums of the year to just 10, there were so many I really loved: so I decided to make it 11. There are others I really loved too like Ryan Bingham's brilliant hard rock meets traditional country Tomorrowland, The Mars Volta's underrated Noctourniquet and Kathleen Edwards' lovely follow-up to Asking For Flowers, Voyageur, but these are the records that ultimately made the cut.

Best gigs of 2012

This year I seem to have been revisiting my youth as I saw more reunited bands than ever and my summer was like a big flashback to the early 90s. But it wasn't all nostalgia as I got to experience some great new bands too as well as a few legends I had never experienced before, like Mike Nesmith, who was back on these shores for a solo show for the first time in 38 years! I feel pretty lucky to have seen him, as different and quirky as his show was.  I also spent two days standing in the rain and mud in order to see Soundgarden and Bruce Springsteen, both of which were worth it but I don't know if I have it in me to do again. Still there's part of me that is sad that the Hard Rock Calling concerts will longer be taking place in Hyde Park, I definitely had some good times at those events over the years. Also sad was Cat Power cancelling her December show at the Roundhouse due to illness. I was really looking forward to that one but hopefully she'll be back next year to make up the dates. So anyway, with all that said, here's my list of my favourite shows this year:

10. Eddie Vedder at Hammersmith Apollo

9. Bat For Lashes at The Forum

8. Anaïs Mitchell at Camden Dingwalls

7. Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park

6. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Royal Albert Hall

5. First Aid Kit at Shepherd's Bush Empire

4. Sharon Van Etten at the Scala

3. Wild Flag at the Electric Ballroom

2. Soundgarden at Hyde Park

1. Afghan Whigs at Koko

Soundgarden at Shepherd's Bush Empire

Soundgarden
Shepherd's Bush Empire, 9 November 2012

About 17 years ago my brother and I, along with my two best friends, won tickets to see Soundgarden play the first concert at the newly re-opened Shepherd's Bush Empire. Before it had been a theatre and the set of Wogan's daily TV chat show but this was the first time it was being used as a music venue. Our seats were way up in the gods but damn, were we excited. I had seen Soundgarden before and at smaller venues but this was the first time they had returned to these shores since becoming one of the big grunge four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains were the other three) and it was just before their huge breakthrough album, Superunknown, was released. I remember Artis The Spoonman, the man they had named the first single from the album for, coming on and playing a short support and then watching the tops of the band's heads as they treated us to songs we hadn't heard before from the forthcoming album as well as old favourites.

Soundgarden at Hyde Park

 
Hard Rock Calling 2012:
Soundgarden
Iggy & The Stooges
Cold Chisel
Hyde Park, 13 July 2012

There was mud galore and it rained heavy into the night but this was a glorious show and I cannot even tell you the thrill to see and hear Soundgarden back together. And of course Iggy Pop was as wild and entertaining as ever. All in all it was completely worth standing in the pouring rain for.

Happy New Year!

The new year has already started off well for me with this news.
Oh Kim Thayil, how I've missed you, please help make Chris Cornell cool again. The news of this reunion can only be good for all involved although I wonder if drummer Matt Cameron will be joining them, since he's already got a good gig going with Pearl Jam. But if he does get back together with his old grunge pals this could potentially be as good as the Faith No More reunion last year. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. But however it turns out it can't be as bad as working with Timbaland.

The snazzy new website:

Soundgardenworld.com

Sweet gig memories...

Soundgarden playing the Camden Underworld in London
(my shoulder and hair is just seen in the corner in front of Chris Cornell)

I've been to so many gigs over the years often I have trouble remembering them all, so recently I've been trying to compile a list of every gig I've ever been to and it's been tougher than I imagined.