Category: music

Blimey. A new album from the Blue Nile. That makes four in just over twenty years. Not exactly the hardest working band in the world. Their last album, Peace at Last (1996), wasn’t their best, but the first two, A Walk Across the Rooftops (1983) and Hats (1989), are two of the finest in my… Continue reading Blue Nile

I’ve just failed to buy a copy of the new Faithless album because they (or, more likely, their record company) have chosen not to make it available in CD format. There’s a foramt that looks like a CD and will probably play in most CD players, but it had a sticker on it saying that… Continue reading Faithless

The Guardian gave them three stars. But I thought they were much better than that. Update: As Chris points out, the Guardian printed a correction changing their rating to five stars.

I liked Alex Petridis’ take on Avril Lavigne in his review of her new album. Nearly everyone under of 15 appears to have swallowed the official line on Lavigne: that she is an authentic symbol of punk rebellion, a scowling refusenik antidote to manufactured production-line pop. Everyone else is perplexed, largely because she could be… Continue reading Prepackaged Rebellion

Bugger. I completely forgot that tickets for the New York Dolls gig at the Royal Festival Hall went on sale yesterday. And now there are only a small number of really crap seats left :( Amd while we’re talking about dodgy old bands, my stepdaughter went to see Hawkwind last night. She’s about the same… Continue reading Old Bands

78% of NME readers say they will defy the BPI and continue to use free file swapping networks. Is anyone even a bit surprised by this?

When I was younger and interested in the music charts, it was incredibly rare for a single to go straight in at number one. Usually a single would enter the charts lower down and move upwards over the newxt few weeks. A single going straight in at number one was something for the record books.… Continue reading Number One

I’m not entirely sure what the connection is, but on Tom Robinson’s web site I’ve just found the complete text of the KLF’s The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way). I’m sure that the general principles they talk about still hold true, but it’s interesting how much the music industry has… Continue reading The Manual

It is my considered opinion that no-one will ever write a love song as wonderful as Billy Bragg’s The Saturday Boy. How can you possibly compete with lyrics like these: She danced with me and I still hold that memory Soft and sweet And I stare up at her window As I walk down her… Continue reading The Saturday Boy

A few days ago I happened to catch the video for Boys Don’t Cry on one of the music channels and it reminded me that I haven’t listened to anywhere near enough Cure music recently. So I set to on ripping all of my Cure CDs, but I strongly suspect that a number of the… Continue reading The Cure