Connolly’s Corner

Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙎𝙪𝙗 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙖 – 𝘽𝙧𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝘾𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧

Charles is under wraps…

Some of the best things are done in private. Equally, so are some of the worst. Honest privacy is a good thing. Secrecy is often not so good. It can be good for the element of delighted surprise (like when I was given an album review by 18 people), but usually a secret is to stay a secret. It is never to be known. But when one does something in private, it usually doesn’t mean one has something to hide. It is simply that we wish to be left alone while we do whatever we are doing. Call it “me time”. This is very different to shady people and their shady practices. Almost everything I do, I do in private. But I am not MI6. I hold no state secrets. And if I was, and I did, I wouldn’t be telling you. Which has possibly got you thinking. Could CC be one of those spies you’ve read about? Is he working for the British government, yet pretending to lead a relatively normal life…? He can be everywhere one day, then suddenly disappear the next… Is he really just mixing and producing? Does he really just write these weekly articles out of the kindness of his heart? Surely there has got to be an ulterior motive… You’ll never be able to read his private messages in order to find out. Besides, all you’d find there is chat from clients about mixing and production, and gratitude from reviewees for having written these articles. You won’t find such a message from last week’s reviewee however. Kind! But I digress. So, am I a British spy? You will never know. Shh, it’s a secret.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙖𝙢𝙚 – 𝙇𝙪𝙣𝙖𝙧 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙭𝙪𝙨

Charles plays a game…

This weekly thing of mine. You all witness it, but only in its finished form. None of you ever sees the process. It’s possible that many of you barely register there being a process of any kind. A bit like how my father never imagined Beatles songs actually being crafted and put together in the studio by his heroes playing instruments, manually and laboriously, take after take; rather that the songs simply came to exist. I don’t just tap the “make review” button, then tap the “post” button. If only. But “if only”? Would I really like that? Where’s the fun in that? Sure, it would certainly give me a lot more time to work, and not keep artists/clients waiting (I’m a producer/make-things-sound-gooderer, just in case you wondered), and it certainly would be nice not to have that persistent weekly pressure on my shoulders… But then again, isn’t this all part of what has turned it into a “thing”; like a PROPER thing? My little Corner has apparently become something special. Which makes me rather proud, I must admit. However, I see the column differently to you. For me it’s a weekly challenge, and one that I relish. It’s not an obstacle or a chore to be completed. The fun is in the process, but the outcome is just as important. But fun doesn’t mean lack of effort; hell no. The effort is what makes it enjoyable, both in the giving and the receiving. Basically, much like Solitaire, it’s a game I play by myself. By the way, did you spot all 11 card games in last week’s article (12 if you include Tarot)? That in itself was a game you probably weren’t even aware was being played!

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙏𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙚𝙨𝙩 – 𝙆𝙚𝙡𝙚 𝙁𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜

Charles eats stars for breakfast…

Alan Turing. One of the great minds of the 20th Century. I will be bold enough to claim that his brain even surpassed those of our more recent greats, Billie Eilish and Oprah Winfrey. But you’re welcome to argue that point, should you so wish. It just occurred to me that some of you might not know who Alan Turing was. Turing was a technological genius. He developed The Bombe (not the atomic kind); responsible for cracking the Nazi Enigma code used throughout WWII. It is questionable as to whether we would have won the Second World War without Turing. A vital asset, therefore! Note that we are not currently in the middle of a Third World War, while Billie Eilish and Oprah Winfrey just happen to be around. Coincidence…? Yes. A completely unrelated “coincidence”. Turing is also hailed for being the forefather of the computer as we know it. But this was all in the past. Most people were not familiar with the name and he went the way of obscurity. That is, until relatively recently as he has popped back into chit-chat over the last 15-or-so years. Was this because people thought it was about time he was truly recognised for his achievements? Well, I suppose there was a bit of that. But mainly, it was because he was gay. Never mind what he actually did! The point is, he was persecuted and prosecuted for being gay in a time when it was illegal to be gay. And so we now rectify that matter by praising him to the sky for being gay. I can see a flaw here…

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙎𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙮 – 𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝘿𝙞𝙧𝙩 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡

Charles quotes 10cc: “Art for Art’s Sake”

I had the privilege of seeing 10cc at the Royal Albert Hall, back in 2019 when things were normal and we could enjoy such things without wondering if we were threatening our health in doing so. We’ll get back to that form of life soon enough – just a matter of time. I told you this for absolutely no reason other than to tell you this (told for telling’s sake). But the band’s famous message, originally coined in the early 19th century in France (l’art pour l’art), really made me think. Art for Art’s Sake. Art for the sake of art. No statements, no morals, no politics. Just art to enjoy. Art to enliven the soul. Speaking of things returning to normal, I am hoping that when things open up here in London I will be able to visit a gallery or two. The artist David Hockney, has always intrigued and irritated me. I very much like how he started in the 60s with his Splash paintings, but then quickly went off him. For decades his art didn’t excite me. In fact, it didn’t really move me in any way – it was simply there, and my eyes drifted over and past it. What irritated me was actually the general public praising him for the mediocre work of his middle years. This century however, he has come back strong, starting with his tree paintings in the mid 00s (I say ‘paintings’ loosely as he mainly works digitally these days). He is a man of nature. Like the old greats (Monet, Renoir etc.) he is obsessed with light and feel. The passing of time, and how this changes our surroundings through the seasons. A splash of colour; a dose of light. This is pure art – art for art’s sake. I am hoping to see his new summer exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in the coming months. For those who don’t know, Hockney is an extremely famous artist from England. For those who don’t know, England is a country in Britain. For those who don’t know, Britain is also a country, because we’re weird like that.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙢𝙖𝙣’𝙨 𝙇𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 – 𝘿𝙤𝙢 𝙋𝙞𝙥𝙚𝙧

Charles plays a word game…

Justice. It’s a funny thing. We say it’s not revenge. We say it’s not. We say things like “They can’t get away with this. It’s just not right”. And we’re right in saying this. If wrong has been committed, the wrongdoer should go back in time and undo their wrong. But since we don’t yet have time machines, we have to deal with it another way. Punishment by beating…? No no no. We are a civilised society. Or so I am told. Ask them politely not to do it again? “Say you promise”… Unlikely to work. So prison then. But what if their crime is so much worse than, say, stealing a car, or even high level fraud? Say it’s something like… MURDER!! Well, it’s the chair for you. At least in some states. But in Britain, we have no such punishment. Prison for theft, prison for murder. Just simply more time. In fact, in Britain the last execution was 60 years ago next year. Now THAT’S a cheery thought! Who says I don’t bring you joy. Let’s go back to the “good old days” of the 19th Century and further…

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 – 𝙀𝙙 𝙀𝙖𝙜𝙡𝙚 (𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙩. 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙮)

Charles crosses his fingers and touches wood as he covers a cover.

As I switch on, switch off and switch on the light again, a blind man sways with a smile from behind his electric piano. He rounds off a soothing ballad and segues into a funky number. Something changes in the air. From clouds of cirrus to bolts of loytneen, there’s a storm a-brewin’. A god is in charge and the genius is at work. I speak of Lord Stevie of Wonder. One of the greatest people in music lending us one of the greatest riffs ever known to man, and not a guitar in sight! Superstition is perfection from beginning to end. Unbetterable (ahem). This is clear to almost any musician. So why cover it…?

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 – 𝙑𝙞𝙭 𝟐𝟎

Charles Connolly is unwell…

Let’s see how this goes. Like Jeffrey Bernard, I am currently not very well. Nothing terrible. I’m not dying, or anything, but it was all rather sudden. On Sunday, I was carrying on with a mix/production for a client. All was relatively normal throughout the day. Lunch was late but hearty. The music continued its journey through my mind with every bite. I was “in the zone”, and feeling perfectly normal. Or as close to normal as a thing like me can be. As you can probably tell from that last line, I’m not exactly feeling “wordy”. Words are NOT flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. They are instead missing the cup entirely or occasionally sticking to the brim. It is more like constipated drizzle than endless rain. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was feeling normal whilst immersed in music. Noyce. In my element, one could say. But then towards the evening, I coughed. Now, coughing is not particularly a sign of anything, in fact we do it all the time. Particularly we asthmatics. The word asthma reminds me of Jack Lemmon in The Odd Couple when he is attempting to clear his sinuses. Thma. Thma thma thMAA! If you have no idea what in God’s name I’m talking about, do watch the film – it’s worth it. Ugh, I really am like a meandering tangent today. So, I coughed. It was different though. I felt it in the centre of my chest. It banged like a distorted timpani drum. Instantly I knew this was not normal and that I might be starting to get ill. Oh bugger. I am never ill. I am almost never anywhere I could catch anything (i.e. outside). Maybe it was just one isolated oomphy cough. A “man’s cough”. But no. It happened again. I continued with my mixing and arranging and whatever else I do most days. But over the following hour or so, I started to feel dirty. Dirty on the inside. You know those satisfying before and after cleaning videos? This was the before. Then as the early evening became later, my head started to get all stuffy and bunged up. You know that feeling all too well. We all do. I just so rarely GET this! The lower back started to ache and I became fragile. This must be what it’s like to be old. It gives us a glimpse of the wonderful days ahead. Bloody awful.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙑𝙖𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 – 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙨, 𝘾𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙙𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙮

Charles explains, for folk’s sake…!

I have heard that foreigners learn English from songs. Whilst I can see this being a sensible technique – “betcha by golly, wow” – it can have its drawbacks. I am he as you are he, as you are me and we are all together. Wise words. But complicated words, nevertheless. And it probably doesn’t really help much… There is you, and there is me. And there is them. There is a person, there are persons. There are people and there are peoples. And I would imagine this at times to be rather confusing. There is singular, and there is plural. Take a sheep, for example. Just hold it for a moment. Heavy, right? Now imagine carrying two of them. Two sheeps? Nope. Two sheep. Why? Because it is. Okay, you can put them down now. What about a fish? Well, what ABOUT a fish? Certainly lighter than a sheep. No legs to kick you in the groin. Have another one. Two fishes? Nope. Two fish. unexplainable, but that’s how it is. How about when you go on holiday and you’re still waiting for your two suitcases to ‘ker-chunk’ on to the sturdy conveyor belt at the airport. Surely that’s two luggages, no? No. You might even have 10, but it will always be luggage. This comes under a peculiar term called ‘uncountable nouns’. Other such uncountable nouns include water, bread, flour, rubbish, research and sand. Put all these together and you get a recipe to avoid. In fact, it can be so confusing that even native speakers have started changing the language and incorporating the foreign way of speaking. Pluralising everything. One such example that IS correct though, comes back to where I started. We say “they” when we don’t want to mention a specific gender. Despite “them” being one singular person.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙒𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙔𝙤𝙪 – 𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙅𝙤𝙨𝙝𝙪𝙖

Charles speaks frankly…

Throughout the noughties and early tens, I was obsessed with one particular producer. It seemed to me like he was capable of anything. Whatever he got his hands on, he would turn to greatness. He would make a good thing better. He would make it his own. I also wondered if the artists he worked with minded that each record he produced sounded very much like a “haven’t mentioned his name yet” album, rather than an album by that particular artist. His stamp. I don’t think they minded though, because if he was involved it was pretty much a guarantee that the record would be fabulous, popular and reviewed well. Praised to the skies, even! The artists he has worked with include Radiohead, Beck, Zero 7, Travis (never mind), Air and a slightly more obscure artist by the name of Paul McCartney. There are of course others, but this is enough to be getting on with for now. While these artists are hugely different from one another, there is something warm and cosy, yet grand and impressive about all of them. This is what this producer manages with everything he touches. His name? Nigel Godrich.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙑𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 – 𝘽𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙖

Charles rises above…

Something came to my attention a few weeks back. I am not universally loved. I know! Quite impossible to believe, but there you have it. You can close your mouth now; the shock has passed. But let’s delve. Those of you who weren’t shocked by this news are probably already swearing and shouting at the screen that my arrogance knows no bounds: “He actually thought everyone LOVED him!! Twat”. And these are the very people who seemingly very much misunderstand me. It’s a joke (laugh with me?)! But they wish not to understand me, of course, because then they couldn’t continue enjoying the private maligning of moi. It seems that some people believe I am against them. That I am above them in some way or other. Just because I was educated somewhat decently and I’m able to express myself with words, I am seen to some as being some sort of snobby toff. Or toffy snob, but that sounds like a sweet Yorkshire treat from the 1950s: a Toffee Snob, probably nicknamed ‘a Londoner’.

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