Category: Music

To Wembley Arena (never a fun phrase to type, but it was pretty painless this evening) to see Bruce Springsteen. Now I’ve got to admit that I’m not a “Bruce” fan. In his heyday he was selling out Wembley Stadium, but we’re now in the somewhat smaller Arena – not that the stadium’s available of…

Seemingly, the BPI is calling for record companies to be given tax breaks! This seems to be the latest hare-brained scheme for British record companies to make more money for themselves. It seems that when they’re looking for new artists, it’s not because they might hit big and earn loads of profits, but they’re actually…

So how is SprialFrog going to make money exactly? According to a piece in today’s FT (read it quick before it costs you), Universal Music is backing the service which will offer free downloads based on users experiencing ads. Unless we’re going to have to watch a whole series of ads, I can’t see how…

A busy afternoon of not winning any Arqiva Radio Awards and then heading on to a party at the Hard Rock Café where a few bands were playing. I got to see Bonnie Tyler and the Fun Loivin’ Criminals. Somewhere around I have a copy of Holding Out For Hero on 7″ – I remember…

Two years after MyCokeMusic launched, and it closes down. I can’t say I’m really surprised since the OD2 service they had working for them was relatively poor if you wanted music from outside the mainstream. But it just goes to show that even the might of Coca Cola doesn’t guarantee online music sales success. And…

Seen on the tube this evening: a kid in his generic Orson/Feeder type t-shirt with a Download Festival wristband. That is to say, he hasn’t removed his plastic wristband from a concert that was over a week ago. Oh dear… Incidentally, I discover that it only takes 10,000 single sales to make the Top 10…

I recently bought a copy of the new album recorded by Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler, really out of shear curiorisity. Of course I’m familiar with Knopfler, Brothers in Arms having been one of the first albums I ever bought (and curiously one of the few albums I’ve ever owned in three formats – vinyl,…

I know just about every magazine or newspaper has already given the new Pet Shop Boys album, Fundamentalism, 4 or 5 stars (out of five), but it really is that good. I am a bit of a long time Pet Shop Boys fan and this album really is the best since Behaviour with some great…

A quite hilarious “Crib Sheet” from last week’s Music Week about Radio One making unsigned artists available on a special podcast. It’s all behind a pay-wall, so here are a few choice extracts with my thoughts: Isn’t that illegal? Hardly the kind of behaviour I would expect of the nation’s favourite. Well not if –…

I was going to get on my new bike today (more anon), but the weather forecast was poor, so I settled down to a lot of BBC Four’s recent Folk Britannia season that I’d saved on my PVR. First up were a couple of concerts from Celtic Connections in Glasgow. They’re all available to view…

I’ve just been watching, again, the BBC documentary that recorded the creation of the 1984 Leonard Bernstein conducted “operatic” version of West Side Story. It was on BBC Four a few weeks ago, and I’d not watched it since it was first shown in 1985. It’s a fantastically interesting document of the wonderful musical’s first…

So Smash Hits is no more. What a shame. Where will be without Smash Hits editorial alumni like Neil Tennant, Mark Frith and, er, Kate Thornton. Ah, those happy days I spent memorising the lyrics to Baggy Trousers and Shuddupa Your Face from its hallowed pages. The free badges on the cover. But it does…