Just back from a jaunt to Sweden for the Gothenburg Book Fair, where I was looked after very well by both the fair and my friends from SF Bokhandlen, where I also stopped off in Stockholm to do a joint event with Peter Hamilton. Old pals Paul McAuley and Ken MacLeod also joined us in Gothenburg for many panels and discussion events, and a great time was had by all.
Here's Ken up on the impressive space-themed stage being interviewed by Glenn Petersen of the SF Bokhandeln. It was lovely to see Ken:
While in Stockholm I took an hour or so to visit to the ABBA museum:
Which I thoroughly enjoyed. I've got a few more pics but I'll save them for another post.
Back to my vinyl connections theme. I mentioned Weather Report last time, so now let's jump to Genesis and their 1977 double live album, Seconds Out:
I bought this in 1983. It was the second Genesis live album: there'd been one earlier one during the Peter Gabriel years, but this was the first double-live record. It's one of my favorites because it captures Genesis at an interesting point, between the departure of Gabriel and before the first of the mega hits. Unless you're a fan of the band, there won't be any hugely familiar tracks on this album except for the minor chart entry "I know what I like". Phil Collins had become the main singer by 1977 and so Chester Thompson (Weather Report, Frank Zappa) was brought in to play drums when the band were on the road. Chester Thompson was a great fit for the band and continued to play with them until at least the last time I saw Genesis, in 2007.
Despite already being considered obsolete prog-rock dinosaurs by this point, the core members of Genesis were no older than 27 when they made this record! Times have changed.
The opening song is Squonk, off their 1976 album "A Trick of the Tail".
I can only think of one other song that references the word "Squonk" and that is "Any Major Dude" by Steely Dan, which appeared on Pretzel Logic, already mentioned a few posts ago.
How's that for circularity?
According to Wikipedia: "The squonk is a mythical creature that is reputed to live in the hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania in the United States."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squonk
Both songs reference the tears of the Squonk.
Speaking of tears, it's now less than a week until my Cardiff Half-marathon run in aid of Alzheimer's UK. I've had many generous donations, but if you haven't donated yet and might want to, hop on over to my justgiving page. Every amount makes a difference, and will motivate me on the day come what may.
https://www.justgiving.com/page/alastair-reynolds-1713971449990
Ta,
Al
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