TWELVE MORE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 7: CIRCULATION (GUITAR CIRCLE OF EUROPE)

TWELVE MORE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 6: SUITE FROM THE OPERA 'NEW YEAR' (MICHAEL TIPPETT)

YES TOUR FOR LATE SPRING

The adverts for the latest Yes tour in Britain, April-May 2014, are now starting to appear in national newspapers and the music press.

This is from The Observer, 29 December 2013.

There are ten nights schedules so far, including one date in Scotland (Glasgow) and one night at the Royal Albert Hall in London, with a possibility of a further concert there, depending on demand.

The Yes Album (1971), Close to the Edge (1972) and Going for the One (1977), from what many regard as the band's 'main sequence' will be played in their entirety. That will include a British debut for 'A Venture'.

TWELVE MORE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 5: ORGAN CONCERTO IN G MINOR (POULENC)

TWELVE MORE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 4: TUTU (MILES DAVIS)

TWELVE MORE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 3: LA NATIVITE DU SEIGNEUR (MESSIAEN)

TWELVE MORE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 2: RED ALERT (ALLAN HOLDSWORTH)

TWELVE MORE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 1: GAUDETE (STEELEYE SPAN)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 12: RITUAL - NOUS SOMMES DU SOLEIL (YES, LIVE AT QPR 1975)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 11: SOUND CHASER (STEPHEN PRUTSMAN, piano / YES)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 10: NO WARNING LIGHTS (LEVIN-TORN-WHITE)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 9: ENFIELD DANCES (WILLIAMS / HARVEY)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 8: WAY OUT OF HERE (PORCUPINE TREE)

A MUSICAL CAUSE WELL WORTH SUPPORTING

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 7: ROMANTIC WARRIOR (RETURN TO FOREVER)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 6: PANIC (BIRTWISTLE)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 5: CONCERTO FOR DOUBLE STRING ORCHESTRA (TIPPETT)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 4: E-TUNE (ALLAN HOLDSWORTH)

PRIAM TOURING IN SPRING 2014

We interrupt this Christmas series to bring the excellent news that Michael Tippett's opera King Priam is touring in Spring 2014. This is a must… Way to go, English Touring Opera!

Written for the reconsecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962, it's a magnificent evocation of the last days of Troy inspired by Homer’s Iliad. The music is sparse, haunting and occasionally lyrical in a surprising way.

I was really sorry to miss The Midsummer Marriage in 2013 -- still my favourite Tippett opera, for largely nostalgic reasons (and because the Ritual Dances would have to be on any Desert Island Discs list I composed), but King Priam comes a close second...

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 3: THE EXPLODING PSYCHOLOGY (SQUAREPUSHER)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 2: NIL (AUTECHRE)

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 1: DOTS THROTS (OZRIC TENTACLES)

DEAD OR ALIVE?

This blog, I mean. Truth be told, a bit of both on the D or A front, I suppose. It was actually my first foray into blogging, way back in 2002. Then after a year or so, partly for professional reasons and partly for personal ones, it got shoved into the 'occasional' hole… until occasional became 'very infrequent indeed'.

Much needs to be done to bring it up to scratch. The links need an overhaul, there are posts that need adjusting, labels need adding, and so on. I kind of like the retro look. We'll see...

But NewFrontEars is what it is. For such is the untidiness of [too much] life online. It will, I imagine, continue its half-life, since music keeps surfacing in my life as an irrepressible force; though one I have been attending to far too little in recent years... to my detriment, I'm sure.

Still, I have at least one serious music writing project on the go, with a putative aim of getting it out in published form next year. No, I'm not telling. Not yet. Plus I'd like to put some money aside to get someone to help me redesign my website, various blogs, social media, work sites, etc. Here's hoping.

Meanwhile, this is one simple idea that I decided to go ahead with, as it's fun and not too much effort. Twelve Days of Christmas - a series of YouTubes I've looked at and listened to over the past year, organised into an ascending order of not-particularly-Christmassyness. There (above) you go…

Have a good rest of 2013, whoever and wherever you may be.

TIPPETT: THE PHOTO-REMIX

Here's a pleasantly whacky idea. A visual tribute to my favourite composer, with an unrelated funky lo-fi choon chugging along for the ride.