Music

After buying most of my Christmas presents from them, Amazon kindly gave me a £2 voucher to spend in the MP3 download store. As the festive season of hosting friends and family approaches, I decided on a ’easy listening’, ‘middle of the road’ purchase suitable for all the family to act as a quiet backdrop while we gather to play charades around the fire. ‘Killing Joke’ by ‘Killing Joke’ was one of the first vinyl records I ever bought and, as always, I was introduced to the band by the wonderful John Peel....

John Cooper Clarke recited punk poetry while The Buzzcocks performed some punk karaoke but the real stars of the show were, inevitably, The Fall. I just posted a brief review of the concert over on The Fall forum (blogging is so last year).

I have most of my music available in digital format and have occasionally pondered the purchase of a wireless streaming device so I could listen to music anywhere in the house. Another possibility would be to upload all the music to my own server and stream music from any computer using freely available software (e.g. Icecast). Of course, both those options cost money and more importantly, time so, as always, I chose to so absolutely nothing apart from duplicating my iTunes library on my two main (home/work) computers....

Amazon (UK) recently announced an online music store and a £3 discount on all music downloads on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. To download an album, you need the Amazon Download utility and the music is MP3 format encoded at 256kbps. Best of all, the music is DRM free so you can transfer, copy and play on any device. Normally, I like to buy an actual CD so I can rip into whatever format I need and also as a backup so ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ by ‘Elbow’ was my first ever purchase of online music....

Last week, I travelled to Hamburg, near Germany, on business. As Mark Burgess (lead singer of The Chameleons) now lives there, I took the opportunity to send an email to one of my all-time heroes (even though he is a City fan). Unfortunately, I guess Mark must be busy with his musical commitments as I haven’t had the courtesy of a reply (yet). Hi Mark Excuse the intrusion but I am coming to Hamburg tomorrow on business....

I have a penchant for some of Oasis’ tunes and, although he’s a City fan, I also like Noel Gallagher. I like his sense of humour, I like his professional Mancunian accent and his occasional digs at United. I also agree with him that Morrissey’s lyrics are hilarious rather than morose. I also love some of his quotes. Just one recent, brilliant example: ‘Amy Winehouse is like a destitute horse.’...

Orange Crush Wake Up Bomb Drive What’s the frequency Kenneth ? I’ve been high Horse to water Supernatrual Superserious Living well is the best revenge Man on the moon Electrolite Walk unafraid Ignoreland Exhuming Mccarthy Let me in Fall on me Man sized wreath I’m gonna DJ Country Feedback Losing my religion Imitation of life So fast, so numb Bad day The one I love Disturbance At The Heron House Perfect circle The great beyond End of the the world These songs were played although not necessarily in this order....

The time has finally come to shave my head and don blue facepaint.

The Chameleons used to cover ATV’s ‘Splitting in Two’ for an encore. Reg (guitar) played the drums and John (drums) played bass. Mark Burgess threw himself into the crowd and chaos ensued. Burgess also used to improvise snippets of The Fall’s ‘Rowche Rumble’ and occasionally Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and some Beatles tune. 8 minutes of pure, manic, unsurpassed joy. I once asked Mark Perry of ATV (via email) what he thought of the cover....

Since I started blogging, three intelligent friends have complimented me on my musical taste and 123 people have accused me of being stuck in an ‘manic depressive, 80’s time warp’. Obviously, this is preferable to being told you have abysmal taste in music and started me thinking. So here is another in the very occasional and popular ‘30 second’ series: ‘Superlative’ - You love everything I love. You despise everything I despise and I have actually discovered new bands from your recommendation engine....