Two sevens clash

Last week two completely unconnected ( except through me) friends on Facebook posted links to Stevie Nicks' songs. On BBC4's music programme on Friday there was footage of George Benson, from The Old Grey Whistle Test, circa 1976. I usually write about concerts I have enjoyed, and I've usually enjoyed the concerts I have been to, but there are two that are fixed in my memory as personal turning points. They really made me feel that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometime around 1976/77 I went to see Fleetwood Mac with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, at the Ardwick Apollo.I'd loved Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac since I was about 14, and Christine MacVie was one of my favourite singers ever. I couldn't stand the way she was upstaged by Stevie Nicks, and I wanted to see a progressive British blues band, not some Californian hangers on. Of course with the benefit of hindsight and maturity I can see that it worked for them then and the millions of fans since. The appeal carries on because all eras of music are now so accessible, and I have calmed down! Around the same time I made a special trip into Manchester to see George Benson at the Palace. Now I like jazz guitar, I appreciate those smooth sounds, and I love soul music. On a summer's evening like we are experiencing as I write, there's nothing better than 'Breezin' blowing in the wind. But on that night back in 76/77 I could barely keep awake during the concert. I was bored by live music. Luckily something was stirring to fire up my enthusiasm and wake me up. Punk, New Wave, Rock against Racism, reggae - a new energy created when two sevens clashed.

Young hearts run free

1976. I'd just left university and was working in a car wiring factory. Radio One was played over the Tannoy system in the mornings. Candi Staton's Young Hearts Run Free was the sound of that summer. My friend Marie loved the song, loved the sentiment.I loved the song but the sentiment didn't seem as relevant. My heart wasn't running free - I'd been married for two years and didn't see the end of it. Fourteen years, a divorce, a second marriage and two children later, I got a phone call to tell me that Marie had taken her life.Running free in her own way. Last summer Candi Staton was part of the Manchester International Festival, and my son and I got tickets to see her in the big tent in Albert Square. It was packed with devoted fans. We were right at the front, by the stage.We could see the colour of the nail varnish on her toenails! She was warm, pretty, in her seventies and totally fabulous. You Got the Love. It felt like being surrounded by friends. The emotional impact of her songs was overwhelming. She had already given some free performances in a local gospel church. This was no Radio One pop concert - her music took us all to a higher place. She is coming back to Manchester to the Royal Northern College of Music this summer. Go if you can.

Dr Dee - Manchester, Myth and Magic

There's a real buzz about Damon Albarn's Dr Dee in the run up to the Olympics. He was on Jools Holland the other week talking about his opera, and I think I heard a song from it on Radio 2 when I was out and about last week. I haven't heard him say much about John Dee's links with Manchester, but it is because of those links that the opera was devised for the Manchester International Festival last year. I went to see it, as I have been fascinated by the story for some years. I also really regretted not getting tickets for Monkey in a previous festival, and I didn't want to regret missing Dr Dee. He was strange figure, playing an important role at the Elizabethen court as a magician and mathematician, a conjuror and astrologer. He fell out of favour and was exiled to Manchester, where he allegedly attempted to levitate Manchester Cathedral. I was thrilled to discover that a group of Manchester psychogeographers tried to repeat this event a few years ago. How fantastic! That area of Manchester is still part of my dreamscape - not quite as it is in reality, but along with a dream version of Leeds railway station, it appears in my remembered dreams several times a year. It is thought that John Dee was the inspiration for Prospero and Faustus, two of the most powerful and mysterious figures in Elizabethan drama. His scrying mirror - a polished piece of obsidian, Aztec in origin - has featured in the recent BBC series Shakspeare's Restless World, and is part of the British Museum's collection. The opera portrays a broken man, tricked by his so called friend and teacher. It's a fascinating blend of visuals, words and music. The sets are amazing, and one point there is a crow that steals the show. It's not a pop opera,nor a stage musical yet it's accessible. It's very charming,authentic and folkloric, international in the mix of musicians and instruments, and yet quintessentially English.It extended my appreciation of Damon Albarn and the tragedy of John Dee's rise and fall. I feel privileged to have seen it in Manchester, and before the hooha of the Olympics takes it over.