Not yet, not yet!

I will always remember something a young teacher I mentor wrote about her dead parents -
 

Mum and Dad if you are looking down at me remember
what both Maximus and Juba say in Gladiator

"I will see you again... but not yet... not yet!"

 

Some more "while I'm doing boring jobs on the computer" music.

Gregorian chants Pop mix 2006

 

 

 

Enigma - The Greatest Hits

 

–

 

 

Solar Fields - Random Friday (Album)

 

 

 

Alien Earth (psybient / psychill / ambient / goa trance mix)

 

Olympic Highlights - London 2012

 

Olympic Highlights - London 2012

 



 

Unusually for me it was events on the national and international stage that made 2012 particularly memorable. The 2012 London Olympics were a great triumph and proved to the world that we can run major events spectacularly well. The doom-and-gloom merchants plus those family members of mine who exhibited total indifference to the whole event must be fuming! Later in the year the defeat of Mitt Romney in the US presidential election was a relief but the thought he was even considered to be a viable candidate by mainstream Americans fills me with horror.

 

 

The Opening Ceremony

 

My favourite background music (Part 2)

Musical Rapture from Joao Cota-Robles

 

 

 

Rain and Thunderstorm

 

 

Rain and Thunder Sounds 10 Hours

 

My favourite background music (Part 1)

 

Night Mist - Adrian von Ziegler

 

I discovered him by accident and found that I liked almost everything he has written.

Such is the value of YouTube!

 



 

 

Almost as good - Nights Amore

 

 

 

 

 

Now if I could have either of these on a repeating loop!

 

 

 

Some more on Gregorian

With or Without You

Probably the best version of my favourite Gregorian song -

 

 

 

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Two of my friends sing this as a duet: then their babies are brought on stage and audience suddenly realises that they are singing it to the babies.

 

 

 

In the Air Tonight

 

 

 

Forever Young

 

An eclectic mixture of music - all of which I enjoy (Part 2)

Best Music from a Group you have never heard of

 

 

 

Fields of Gold

 

 

 

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
 

 

 

Amethystium

 

 

With the bonus of a fantastic digital art slide show

An eclectic mixture of music - all of which I enjoy (Part 1)

Gothic Funeral Music

 

 

 

Riverdance

 

 

 

Scotland the Brave

 

 

 

Rowan Atkinson's Greatest Hits

Rowan Atkinson as the devil greeting newcomers to Hell. 

 



 

 

Rowan Atkinson as a school master taking the register.

 

 

 

 Rowan Atkinson as a vicar when the service is being televised.

 

 

My top 10 favourite pieces of music - just not in any order! (Part 7)

 ENIGMA - Remember the Future

 



 

ENIGMA - Up until the release of Voyageur in 2003 I really enjoyed everything that Enigma released. After that date they "changed direction" and totally lost me as a supporter.

 

 

My favourite track from all the Enigma albums.

My top 10 favourite pieces of music - just not in any order! (Part 6)

Jean Michel Jarre

 



 

 

Although Revolutions isn't Jarre's best known album I think it is easily his best.

 

 

The best track on any of his albums is probably Oxygene Part 2

 



My top 10 favourite pieces of music - just not in any order! (Part 5)

 

Miserere Mei Deus - Based on Psalm 51 and set to music by Allegri around 1630. This is one of the finest and most popular examples of renaissance polyphony.

 

 

I can never hear this music without remembering hearing it being sung, extremely well to my untrained ears, in a supermarket car-park in Kidderminster by two friends of mine! 

 

 



 

This other version isn't nearly as good as the version sung by "The Sixteen".

My top 10 favourite pieces of music - just not in any order! (Part 4)



 

Pink Floyd - Three entries in the top 10!

If you asked my family to guess my favourite piece of music they would all say that it would be something by Pink Floyd. What makes this rather strange is that I also like Gregorian and Enya - both of whom are about as far from Pink Floyd as it is possible to get! 

 

 



 

Run Like Hell

 

 

 

Us and Them

 

 

Another Brick in the Wall

Remembering Mel Smith - of "Alas Smith and Jones" and "Not The Nine O'Clock News" (2)

 

 

 



Some of the funniest sketches starring Mel Smith are those that poke, gentle, fun at religion. "The Devil, is he all bad?" and "Does God Exist?" are just two of many.

 

Rest in Peace Mel - Star of the best football sketch of all time!

 

 

 



Remembering Mel Smith - of "Alas Smith and Jones" and "Not The Nine O'Clock News"

 



 

Remembering Mel Smith - of "Alas Smith and Jones" and "Not The Nine O'Clock News"

 

 

 

My portrait of Mel Smith - copyright 2013

My top 10 favourite pieces of music - just not in any order! (Part 3)





 



 

Mike Oldfield

 

Whenever I listen to Tubular Bells it brings back memories of my three very happy years at Nottingham University. The later versions - unsurprisingly called Tubular Bells 2 and Tubular Bells 3 - were great albums but my choice is the "original and best" version.

 

 

 

My favourite track of Mike Oldfield is Man in the Rain with Moonlight Shadow a very close second.

My top 10 favourite pieces of music - just not in any order! (Part 2)

 

 

 

EAGLES

 

It was very difficult to select my favourite Eagles' song from so many contenders and both Hotel California and One of these Nights are better known and have received more critical acclaim than my choice. But I'm right and the experts are wrong!

 

 

 

 

ENYA

 

I've got the same problem with Enya. There are so many of her songs that I really enjoy that picking my favourite one was tricky. The Celts and Boudicea would make up the rest of my top three.

My all-time, all-star favourite sporting clip.

 







 

This is a classic clip in so many ways. This was a team race and the best team (GB) won. The USA had the fastest runners and came second.

 

The US network commentators are clueless - for example "The US is in front" - no, they were actually third at that point. This is just so typical of their approach to "news", the USA first, last and always.

 

 

For a more balanced approach to the race watch the version by the BBC.

My top 10 favourite pieces of music - just not in any order!

 



 

 

GREGORIAN - I discovered this group by accident and loved their music. That said they do have some off-days, especially in some of their live performances, so it is probably a good idea to listen to a range of their material before you make a final decision.

 

 

 

JOURNEY -   I love this song but nothing else they wrote would appear in my top 50 list. Open Arms which is probably their most famous song has zero emotional impact on me and most fans of the group would find my view quite amazing.