Posts Tagged ‘Lecture’

25 Feb

Professor Brian Cox Horizons The Globe Stockton 22 February 2024

Posted by vintagerock in Professor Brian Cox. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

COX0I know, this is not rock ‘n’ roll but then it is sort of as Brian Cox was a member of a band at one point in his multifaceted career. Now he is a megastar science Professor who travels the UK, and probably further afield, teaching us all about the formation of the Galaxy and much, much more. He normally performs at arenas and sells them out, but this tour, which is entitled Horizons, he is visiting smaller regional theatres. Which brought him and Horizons to The Globe Theatre at Stockton.

I have visited The Globe once before, to see Status Quo, no less. The venue harks back to 1935 when it was first constructed as a musical hall. From then on it became a massive cinema, and hosted many great pop stars during the 1960s including The Beatles. It then closed sometime in the 1970s and a few years ago was renovated, brought back to its former glory, and started to attract a vast array of artists of all types including rock music, comedy and, on this particular evening, science.

COX1Brian Cox explains on his website: “Horizons has taken over 250,000 people across three continents on a dazzling journey; a story of how we came to be and what we can become. Using state of the art screen technology, venues across the world from New Zealand to the Arctic Circle have been filled with images of far-away galaxies, alien worlds, supermassive black holes and the latest theories of the origin of the Universe. What is the nature of space and time? How did life begin, how rare might it be and what is the significance of life in the Cosmos? What does it mean to live a small, finite life in a vast, eternal Universe? Having travelled the world, it’s now time to bring Horizons back home to the UK for a final journey around our magnificent and baffling Universe.”

The reviews of the show are fantastic:

‘A Jaw-dropping reminder that human life is both irrelevant and hugely precious.’ The Guardian

‘Science and cosmology doesn’t get any more dazzling and interesting than this – a wonderful journey through space and time orchestrated by Professor Brian Cox.’ Daily Echo

‘Stunning’ Liverpool Echo

‘Is your brain hurting yet? Because mine certainly was, but in beautifully, mind-expanding sort of way…We came away with a new found of love of the basics of science and maths, and a thirst to learn more’ Express and Star

COX PROGWith reviews like that how could I not go along and see what all the fuss was about. So, I bought tickets for the show, which were quickly snapped up and it was soon a complete sell-out. On the night, Jackie my carer and I had a trip down to Stockton courtesy of my friendly taxi driver. When we arrived, we joined a short queue and soon realised that Professor Cox appeals to people of all generations. The audience comprised many older people (like myself) down to teenagers and families who had, presumably, brought their children along to learn a little about science and the universe.

COX3Brian Cox popularises the science of our galaxies and Horizons covers the birth of the universe, how we all evolved from amoeba, moving on to more modern concepts including black holes and the multi-verse. He draws from the work of famous scientists such as Einstein and Stephen Hawking. The performance was in two parts, with a short interval, during which I took the opportunity to purchase a couple of programmes and a T-shirt. Yes, this science dude even has merchandise! The staff in the venue were extremely helpful in showing us to our seats which were up in the circle, helping us locate and use the lift and even coming to us to allow us to order drinks at our seat (which was, by the way, an excellent view). Well, I had to have a Jack Daniels; it would be rude not to.

COX2Brian’s performance is augmented by a massive screen showing us pictures of the many galaxies which surround us. He made the science of how we evolved, galaxies, time and space, black holes and much more very accessible. As myself being a former mathematician, with a PhD in Mathematics from 40+ years ago and being a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (sorry, it is out there now, I am a closet academic as well as a total rock maniac) I could relate to the concepts he took us through. Jackie was fascinated and found it totally enjoyable. And it was soon over in the blink of an eye. Totally fascinating and everyone gave him a tremendous ovation at the end.

We were soon back in our taxi and weaving our way through Norton, past the Tilery where my son used to play hockey (not sure why the area is called the Tilery; I guess there must have been a tile factory in that location many years ago), and 45 minutes or so we were back home. Many thanks to Jackie for taking the photographs and Chris for manipulating the site.

23 Aug

Brian Eno Movements Edinburgh International Festival 23 Aug 2013

Posted by vintagerock in Brian Eno. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Brian Eno Movements Edinburgh International Festival 23 Aug
National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Friday, 2.30pm
enotix As part of the Edinburgh International Festival Movements is a series of talks and events, presented in association with National Museums Scotland, exploring how artists have kept pace with technology over the centuries and how technology in turn influences artists. “An afternoon in conversation with influential, ex-Roxy Music synth player Brian Eno, as he shares his thoughts on the future of music and music production.Music since recording is a new art form, which bears only as much resemblance to traditional, performed music as cinema does to theatre. What are the special characteristics of this new art? How did it evolve? Where might it be going? Brian Eno shares his thoughts.”
Laura and I had a pleasant train journey up to Edinburgh, arriving at Waverley station shortly after noon. The weather was fine for this, our third visit to Scotland in last couple of weeks, and our second to the Edinburgh festival. We were both looking forward to hearing Brian Eno speak. He is a hugely influential figure in popular music, and we figured that it would be interesting to hear his views. I haven’t seen him in any live context since the 70s and his days with Roxy Music, and a performance with Phil Manzanera and the 801 band at the Reading festival.
The venue for Eno’s lecture was the National Museum of Scotland, which is a grand building just off the Royal Mile and a short walk from the station. We had a sandwich lunch at a cafe on Bristol Square before taking our seats in the lecture theatre. The chance of hearing Brian Eno speak does not come vey often, and the event had been sold out or some weeks. At 2.30pm prompt Eno entered the hall to a round of applause. He stood at a desk strewn with visuals, which he displayed on an overhead projector.
He explained that his talk was to centre around the two concepts of “the composer” and “the audience”, how these have developed over time and continue to develop, and how music sits between the two and “sometimes brings them together”. eif He then took us the through the history of the composer, starting back when music was there simply to enable dance, or as a way of creating noise which would frighten away big cats who had come to prey on ancient man. This progressed to a discussion of early recording media, and how the advent of multitrack enabled music to become an entity in its own right, a piece of aural painting or sculpture, separate from the performance, and existing not in a score, but in the record itself. He used the recording techniques of Les Paul and Mary Ford, Phil Sector and George Martin as illustrations of this, showing visuals to support his point.
Eno then turned to the subject of the audience, making a distinction between the formal, regimented, and structured way in which an audience of a classical recital behaves, and that of a rock concert, where the audience and the performer come together, sometimes literally, showing a picture of Iggy Pop standing on top of his crowd. He explained how he wanted to use technology to create aural soundscapes, as he has done in his pioneering work on ambient music.
The lecture finished with a short discussion of where music lies now, being created and layered from the recordings of our past, drawing an analogy with the techniques of the animator in film. Time was short, and the lecture was strictly constrained to one hour, which soon passed, with our speaker finishing with a couple of questions from the audience, and a few visuals left unused. One guy asked “what do you think of jazz?” and Brian answered that Frank Zappa said that “jazz was the definition of how to be unemployed”.
It was a very interesting and engaging lecture, which passed all too quickly. it was fascinating to hear Eno’s thoughts on music. Well done to the Edinburgh International Festival for including this in their programme.
Laura and I caught the 4.30pm train back to Newcastle; we were home around 7pm.