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Daisy dares you to be young
I can't remember who pointed me to it, but earlier this week I was directed to a free download of a track by Daisy Dares You - the project of 15 year old Daisy Coburn. In order to get your free mp3 you need to sign up for some permission marketing. I always like to see a well optimised form, and so it was good to see 'United Kingdom' and 'Ireland' head the list of territories. There had obviously been...

Read the full post - Published June 27, 2009 in Music, Usability, Web - No comments yet

Michael Jackson's death sweeps BBC expenses from the front pages
"Michael Jackson's death spares the BBC" What would have been on Friday's front pages.

Read the full post - Published June 26, 2009 in BBC, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Media, Music, Post of the moment, The Guardian - No comments yet

Idlewild's post file-sharing blues
Last week the new CD by Idlewild - "Post-Electric Blues" - arrived at our house. Like several bands before them including Marillion, the recording and pressing of the album was financed by getting their fan base to pre-order it in return for a physical CD and a mention inside the sleeve. As well as a booklet featuring my wife's name, the CD came with a small note imploring fans not to upload the album to file-sharing sites. "Thank you very...

Read the full post - Published June 15, 2009 in Music - 1 comment so far

BBC Radiophonic Workshop Q&A at the Camden Roundhouse
On May 17th I went to see an evening with 'The Radiophonic Workshop' at Camden's Roundhouse, which was part of their Short Circuit festival of electronica. Yesterday I posted my review of the gig. Photo by Stickpeople Before the show started there was an hour long Q&A session with 5 members of the Radiophonic Workshop, which I was lucky enough to attend. Here are some of my notes from the event. The conference circuit Thanks to their involvement with Doctor...

Read the full post - Published May 31, 2009 in BBC, Doctor Who, Events, Music, Radio, Television - 2 comments so far

BBC Radiophonic Workshop live at the Camden Roundhouse
"BBC Radiophonic Workshop live" Read my review of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop gig at Camden's Roundhouse, along with my notes from the Q&A session which preceded it.

Read the full post - Published May 30, 2009 in BBC, Doctor Who, Music, Post of the moment, Radio, Television - No comments yet

Idlewild go iPodwild in Camden
On Thursday I went to Dingwalls in Camden to see Idlewild play two of their albums in full, as part of a three night residency they were doing there. We were standing behind the sound desk, and it was interesting to see a real contrast in the technology on display. The mixing desk incorporated a touch-screen control panel, and looked worth a fortune. However, the poem by Edwin Morgan that closes one of my favourite tracks, 'The Remote Part /...

Read the full post - Published May 24, 2009 in Music - No comments yet

"The look and the sound of The Voice" - Ultravox at The Roundhouse
It may seem to the casual observer, that, having recently seen The Cure and ABC, I'm trapped in a desperate mid-life crisis retro cycle of watching 80s bands live. I did nothing to dispel that illusion the other week by going to see Ultravox at Camden's Roundhouse. They were the first 'modern' band that I went to see live. In 1984 I wasn't old enough to go to a gig on my own, so one of my friends got tickets,...

Read the full post - Published May 9, 2009 in Music, Nostalgia - 2 comments so far

The computer print-out Evangelists of the future
It is twenty years since The Shamen released their second album, "In Gorbachev We Trust". This was the album that saw them move from being a psychedelic indie four-piece band, to being a duo experimenting with acid house. [1] The main single from "In Gorbachev We Trust" was "Jesus Loves Amerika", a stinging rebuke to right-wing evangelists in the USA. It features vocal samples from several American televangelists, including an opening quote from James Robison stating: "I'm sick and tired...

Read the full post - Published May 1, 2009 in Music, Nostalgia - 1 comment so far

ABC's "Lexicon Of Love" live at the Royal Albert Hall
In the unlikely event that a) I'm ever on Desert Island Discs, and, b) that they've changed the format so that you can only take one album with you, I would be faced with a tough choice between two contenders. I suspect that Talk Talk's "Spirit Of Eden" would probably provide longer lasting spiritual nourishment for the soul and greater depth of listening. However, I'm pretty certain that I would in the end opt for ABC's "The Lexicon of Love"....

Read the full post - Published April 18, 2009 in Events, Music, Nostalgia - 1 comment so far

Their greatest album?
The new U2 album is being promoted by a TV spot in the UK, using a chunk of the middle section of "Get On Your Boots" - the first U2 lead single from an album to miss the UK Chart Top 10 since "Gloria" in 1981. The TV ad quotes Q's opinion of "No Line On The Horizon" "Their greatest album - *****" I'm unsure where the quote comes from. Try as I might, the only line close to this...

Read the full post - Published March 8, 2009 in Music - 1 comment so far

"You are what you measure" - why the music industry should adopt user-centred charts

Published March 6, 2009 in Music - No comments yet