Mike Heron & the Trembling Bells at Exeter Phoenix

A week ago we ventured out reluctantly (given the temperatures) to see Mike Heron and the Trembling Bells at Exeter Phoenix. It had been billed as a standing gig, so we were relieved to find that the venue had actually been laid out with tables & chairs and that the evening was not going to be a repeat of the Johnny Marr sweat-bath a week or so earlier. I must admit that I wasn't familiar with the Trembling Bells and that my knowledge of Mike Heron really dated from Changing Horses - an album recorded after Heron and Williamson had given up drugs and converted to scientology which, unsurprisingly, was not regarded as one of the Incredible String Band's best.

However, from the moment that they took the stage we could see that we were in for a good night. Although most of the Mike Heron songs predated my String Band days, his unique delivery was unmistakeable and the arrangement of the songs by the drummer, Alex Neilson, was appropriately hippyish, with plenty of percussive and other folky effects. As luck would have it we found ourselves sitting next to Deb and Jez Winship. Jez has done a brilliant review of the gig on his blog Sparks in Electrical Jelly which traces the origins of many of the songs to relevant String Band albums and also fills in with information about the Trembling Bells material. So rather than try to top that (as if I could) I have just posted below a selection of photographs from the evening:

I've just looked back at my blog and it was April 2012  when we saw John Renbourn & Robin Williamson at the Phoenix. That gig was a bit disappointing (although Renbourn's guitar playing was masterful) and as a result I never posted any photos - but I may get around to doing that soon. Suffice it to say that Mike Heron and the Trembling Bells provided a far more satisfying evening and I will be looking out some of those older String Band albums that Jez mentions in his review, as well as investigating the recorded output of the Bells. To finish up, here is a taste of Mike Heron and the Trembling Bells doing Log Cabin Home in the Sky at the Hyde Park Picture House:

Bourgeois, Emin, Macke, Baldessari, De Waal, etc

At the weekend we went down to Cornwall for a couple of days, avoiding most of the Jubilee stuff - Took in the Tate, the Newlyn Gallery and some of the Cornwall Open Studios. Will post about that shortly - For the moment, however, here are some blog posts and other stuff from the web that I've liked recently:

Lisa Thatcher's piece on Louise Bourgeois. If you're interested in Bourgeois I can recommend the DVD about her life and work: The spider, the mistress and the tangerine.

Tracey Emin's interview about her homecoming exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate (until 23 September).

Poul Webb's piece on August Macke (part 1 of 4 - select the links from Poul's blog).


Tasseomancy - Reminds me of the McGarrigles and the Incredible String Band from the early 70s.

A Brief History of John Baldessari, the influential conceptual artist, narrated by Tom Waits.

Edmund de Waal, the ceramic artist, introduces his ceramics installations at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. See the Guardian review here.

And finally, Skymonk's interactive kaleidoscopes (right click on the images and zoom in to see less symmetric patterns).