Interesting article here about why the switchover to digital radio is a bad idea. And a pretty well reasoned one at that: I've never quite figured why the government thinks analogue FM transmission is a bad idea when analogue radios are so ubiquitous, and DAB ones so rare.
You can only guess that the government of the day will say its a great idea right up until the point they cancel the switchover and common sense once more prevails...
Snow Patrol last Wednesday (11th March) ... spent too much of the show thinking about work. But the songs that stood out where the last few: the last of the main set was superb (Open Your Eyes?), with the band playing in front of a projection of the tops of buildings as someone travelled through an indeterminate city...
And the first three of the encore were fantastic: the last songs on the "A Hundred Million Suns" album collectively named The Lightning Strike. The first the band played behind a massive sheet with a psychedelic display which continued behind the band after the sheet had dropped and the music continued...
I love seeing live music, but throw in some excellent visuals, and I'm really happy...
Fantastic corporate video here from BAE SYSTEMS in 2000 that I remember from my time with the company. Makes me proud to be an engineer, though I can't help thinking that it does glamorise military hardware a little...
Another fantastic video from Coldplay. Inspired and funny. Although I have to say I prefer the instrumental only version...
My old, but trusty ipod has finally given up with what looks like a hard drive fault; there is a lot of noise, but not much going on. So I have decided that a new machine is in order.
My 20Gb machine was full but given that I only listen to a fraction of it, I have decided to be selective and get a sleek new 8Gb solid state ipod Nano which so far, looks superb. The whole 'shake to shuffle' function looks like a bit of a gimmick, but it looks good, sounds good, and I'm looking forward to taking it on holiday...!
I didn't get round to it at the time, but it was fantastic to see Elbow win the Mercury Music Prize. They are obviously a firm favourite of mine, and of course the jealous music snob wishes they would return to obscurity where I can claim to have known of them forever...
But it was fantastic to see them, drunk, absolutely over the moon and in complete disarray, amazed that they had won. They deserved it. It is great to see such fantastic songwriting and musicianship rewarded and it is even better to see it appreciated by those it is awarded to. Long may they continue...
Apparently Keane went to Berlin to record their new album, and it feels like they may have accidentally travelled through time to get there, as their new album feels stuck very definitely in the '80s.
But that said, it is growing on me, especially track 3 (which also has a nice hint of banjo unless I am very much mistaken). In the olden days I would have known the song name from the LP sleeve, but with the advent of the CD, I only know the track numbers...
She told me that now I needed to get rid of all those mix tapes from other, earlier women... I said yes.
Is is wrong to want to play this thumping great song by Elbow at the disco of your wedding?
Thinking about it, it's probably not really appropriate...
This is one of the few albums I have owned first on cassette (remember them?), then vinyl, and now CD. It is the album I have probably listened to the most number of times in my life, and listening to it again today it is still every bit as good. I remember all the subtleties, can hum the guitar breaks, everything. And the lyrics are great:
And then you turned to me on the big wheel
and said marry me
I closed my eyes threw my head back and said
what comes next?
I remember listening to it almost daily at the age of 18 on my way to work; periodically through University as new music got in the way; and now occasionally, just to remember just how great it is.
It is fantastic to see Boo is still around (and to see Neil playing recently with David Gray), and now I have found someone else who appreciates this fantastic music, I'm looking forward to seeing him live again soon...
Goldfrapp were excellent last night: her voice amazing; the songs as fine as always;the sound quality was fantastic...
Birmingham Symphony Hall is a great venue acoustically, it is just a shame that everyone is sat down. I think the bands themselves need a response from the crowd which comes easier when everyone is on there feet.
Still, sonically and especially at volume, it was hard to fault...
Despite what some lazy journalists think, I really like the new Coldplay album, and am looking forward to seeing them live. It is funny how people get riled about music: it is only music, and generally everyone does have very different tastes. I like Coldplay, I don't like Oasis, and am not hugely keen on Blur (although I do like their later stuff). I don't like critics' favourites The White Stripes: popular but not populist maybe? And some of my favourite bands are nowhere near as successful as they should be (ref The Bible, Elbow etc). Still, in common with everyone else I can sit back and say with confidence than when it comes to music, I am right and everyone else is so very wrong...!
An excellent video for the new Coldplay single Violet Hill can be found here; an interesting montage of dancing politicians and soldiers, with the odd disconcerting image of violence thrown in.
One of the harshest songs I've come across recently is from perennial favourites Elbow and the song Snowball from the 'Help- A Day in the Life' album:
...When the pills you take
No longer help you
You're fading in your chair
And would've met him
We see the lightning
You hear the birdsong
You hear the voices you've been holding off for so long
Words around you
And then a hurricane
A hundred thousand souls
And everyone in pain
We'll come and visit you
We'll come and visit you
This is on the day that David Davis the Shadow Home Secretary resigned his seat in protest to the 42 days detention law passed by the House of Commons. It looks to be a very honourable thing to do: a show of conviction so often lacking in modern politicians, and it should be applauded. But I do have the nagging feeling it is going to perhaps backfire a little...
There is a song by the fantastic Elbow that goes:
So I'm there
Charging around with a juggernaut brow
Overdraft, speeches and deadlines to make
Cramming commitments like cats in a sack
Telephone burn and a purposeful gait
When out of a doorway the tentacles stretch
Of a song that I know
And the world moves in slow-mo
And it captures beautifully the way that music can spark a memory. Like it did today when I listened for the first time in years to Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout. It took me straight back to the very early nineties when I first got hold of the album, a time when although as Paddy himself sings 'some things hurt more much more than cars and girls', sometimes it doesn't feel like it. The music reminded me how I felt then: not the details but the generality of the time. And it is really quite scary to think that it was nearly eighteen years ago. I still feel very young, but sometimes the figures don't reflect that...
