Bloc Party @ Alexandra Palace 15/12/07

It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised. Whether receiving something out of the blue or enjoying a outing that you had previously been dreading. ‘Always expect the worst, and you’ll always be pleasantly surprised’ One saying goes. After feeling just a little under whelmed by The Arcade Fire failing to fully live up to their huge live reputation, in the same venue as tonight’s gig, I did not have great expectations for the supposedly ‘shambolic’ Bloc Party.

I arrived late, nearly too late. But that’s another story. As I shuffled in The Rakes were just finishing off what appeared to be a dull, lifeless performance. I wormed my way towards the front, passing all the early comers who had been placated by the performance of one of the Indie genre’s many anonymously named bands.

They payed their thanks and shuffled off - anticipation for the main event grew, the crowd were in good spirits, and entertained themselves with the dance hits booming out of the PA system that you suspect were chosen by Kele and the band to improve their image as not only ‘another indie guitar band’ but something more. A strategy evident already in the frantic, D&B inspired drumming of Matt tong and the release of the bands latest single, the dance-pop number ‘Flux’. A lone glowstick waved in the darkness as testament to this attempt.

The music faded, the lights went down and Bloc Party took to the stage. Kele is very much the focus of this four piece, despite it being the angular guitar riffs of Russell Lissack and the aforementioned drumming of Matt tong that the crowd reacts to the most, and not his sometimes sappy lyrics. He remains one of modern music’s more identifiable front men, his sharp dress sense, knobbly hair and nasal, yelpy voice standing his out from the rest of the floppy haired pretenders to Bloc Party’s ‘Art Punk’ crown.

There was little acknowledgement of the crowd as the band settled into position on stage and got down to business and opened their set with one of the better efforts off the disappointing Weekend in the city ‘Song for Clay’

The rest of the gig is a bit of blur. As the crowd erupted in response there was very little time to ponder or cringe over the sometimes sloppy lyrics, or space to worry about what they would play next. The crowd bellowed every lyric and bounced to every thunderous guitar riff and drum beat. In larger venues such as this, you’re enjoyment is often as much down to how well the energy of the music is conducted through to the crowd, rather than any deeper aural appreciation of the bands song craft. And it is here where Bloc Party, or perhaps their fan base succeed. Their brand of snappy and infectious dance-rock works perfectly with the younger audience in attendance.

After the initial flurry of up tempo hit’s the crowd was afforded a much needed rest bite by one of the bands more sedate and ballady tracks; ‘Waiting for the 7.18’ which was appreciated, perhaps more down to the chance to regain your breath than anything else, despite the songs up tempo second half, with expansive tremolo guitars it lacks the immediacy and rhythm that gained the band their fame and the kind of song the audience is evidently here for, as they remain relatively subdued for the remainder of the track.

Using this breather, I soaked in my surroundings. I had surged a few feet towards the stage and was now facing the stage dead centre a few rows from the front, An Ideal position to enjoy the rest of the show. As 7:18 dragged on to an end the frenzied torrent of flying arms, legs and fingers continued as the instantly recognisable riff of Banquet fired up. As hit followed hit the crowd became more possessed, recent additions The Prayer and Uniform proving their worth and holding up well in comparison to ’older’ material in getting the desired response from the audience.

I had not experienced such a level of crazy europhoria for most of the year. Even the might of heavier rockers such as Muse, The White Stripes and QOTSA rarely get the crowd going as hysterically as the relatively meek Bloc Party were here. Kele joked that he had “Nearly broken into a sweat” as he surveyed the sweaty sea of bodies amassed before him. Waves of people continually fell to the floor in comedy domino fashion and only then did the sensible British reserve return to allow the fallen comrades to return to their feet and continue jumping as before, undeterred.

Worries over the band’s tightness faded away as they continued to storm through a seemingly never ending set, which thankfully leaned towards the band’s more prompt numbers. Kele by now seemed relaxed and chatted jovially with the crowd between number’s making the venue seem more intimate than the sometimes cold Alexandra Palace really is.

Despite clearly being the centrepiece of the band, he is by no means a magnetic front man , his voice whilst instantly recognisable in it’s yelpy quality is not breathtakingly spectacular. Kele succeeds as a the centre of attention in his relative normalness. There is no glass shattering screams, peculiar uniform or hip shaking moves. He stands, plugging away at his guitar providing the anthemic vocals for the crowd to join in with.

The carefree feeling of a band enjoying themselves at the end of a busy year touring Is evident in their donning of tragically unfashionable Santa Claus hats towards the end of the set. This attitude is perfectly mirrored in the audience, who are desperate to have a good time. Perhaps there was a time where they were rubbish as a live band, but tonight they most definitely were not.

As the night comes to a close they only stumble once more in their song choice. Choosing the painfully dreary Sunday, which becomes even more of a wasted song when it becomes apparently they won’t play the turbo-charged Luno. In an audience as up for it as this one it seemed the obvious choice in retrospect. However complaints such as this are small and only reveal themselves when I dig deep for one to make.

I could go on about the venue, its mind boggling tokens system, excessive queues for coats and it’s relative isolation from any form of public transport but this is a music review and I’m sure’s there’s plenty of bad words out there if you want to find them.

The night arguably peaks with Helicopter which prompts several crowd surfers as the end draws close. The reflective Pioneers acts as the perfect come down for earlier highs, the spent crowd muster one last applause but do not rally too hard for another encore, they are satisfied. As the lights return and blind the audience briefly there is definitely no nagging feeling of disappointment lying under the contentment that often plagues gig’s you’ve hyped up. Instead an exhausted satisfaction is etched on the sweaty and dazzled faces of the audience as they staggered out of Alexandra Palace into the chilly Winter night.

A fitting end to a quality year of live music. Here’s to a better 2008!

Setlist for Bloc Party @ Alexandra Palace - December 15th 2007
Song For Clay
Positive Tension
Hunting For Witches
Waiting For The 7.18
Banquet
This Modern Love
The Prayer
Two More Years
Little Thoughts
Uniform
So Here We Are
Like Eating Glass
Flux Sunday
She’s Hearing Voices
Helicopter
The Pioneers

Hip Hop is dying.....An update

The future of UK Hip'Hop? (Sounds familiar)

Well, I guess I was wrong.

Kanye West defeated 50 cent in their chart battle of epic proportions and single handedly saved Hip Hop. Or at least that’s how I remember it, my memory is foggy.

Of course, Curtis Jackson already has another album on the way. ‘Before I Self Destruct’ due March 2008, which coincidently has a collaboration with Kanye West originally intended to go on Curtis, according to a interview on American TV. You would be forgiven to think that this whole thing just might have been manufactured to increase record sales and that despite their fierce media battle, Kanye and Curtis get on perfectly fine.

Of course that’s just a scandalous accusation and completely untrue, its merely coincidental that both albums became the first two albums to sell over 600,000 units in the US each in the same week since 1991’s Guns’n’Roses Use your Illusion I and II.

In my previous post I stressed the importance for Hip Hop to ‘innovate itself once again’ to reclaim its fair share of the mainstream. As modest as I am, I realise the influence my prophetic words must have on the music industry but I was shocked over the speed in which artists would heed them. Lately I’ve been monitoring Lethal Bizzle, who seems to have followed my master plan word for word.

A member of the ‘Grime’ wave here in the UK which has been, apart from himself, Kano and Dizzie Rascal, largely unsuccessful due in large to its resemblance in subject matter to US Gangsta rap which, as tends to be the case in most aspects of life, is something that the Americans just do better and bigger. The lacklustre and frankly embarrassing MOBO awards this year only reinforces the current lameness of the UK Hip’ Hop scene, regardless of whatever you call it.

However Bizzle is networking, reaching out to the incumbent indie scene, going on NME ’Rock and Roll’ tours and getting press inches as a result for the Grime scene some accuse him of abandoning. Probably the same traditionalists deriding Kanye West for using Daft Punk samples in his songs and collaborating with Chris Martin.

The same music elitists who would rather their favourite sub genre stay overlooked. It’s necessary to mix a few pop sensibilities into your music if you want to breakthrough to the mainstream, which is something that is true whether you are a new Grime artist or a Death Metal band, before you reel away from your screens and imagine your favourite band attempting a Britney Spears cover, im thinking more Nirvana’s Nevermind than Ms Spears Baby one more time. Radio 1 doesn’t want to hear it if it aint catchy.

It’s a fact which he’s more than aware of himself, as he talked to the Guardian’s Lindesay Irvine.

"It's true that the grime scene can come across as too intimidating. I'm trying to move away from that: it's OK for five minutes but it doesn't take you very far." That variety of bruising two-step battling, he adds, "is like the early days, the nicking-cars stage of the game. Then you realise that there's more than that. Me, and Dizzee Rascal too, realised we want to get beyond that."

Maybe using the analogy of ‘nicking-cars’ for describing Grime is an iffy one, but he is more than aware that he acts as a ambassador for the Grime scene, maybe UK Hip’ Hop as a whole. And as Kanye West has dethroned 50 cent as the ‘king’ of International Hip Hop by attracting a whole new audience to the genre by sampling Daft Punk. It’s just as necessary that Dizzie Rascal collaborates with the Arctic Monkeys and Lethal Bizzle tours with The Gallows.

Hip Hop is dying

The future of Hip' Hop?

All eyes, for the moment at least, are on Hip’ Hop. Next week will see the release of the Third albums of arguably the genre’s two biggest stars, Kanye West’s Graduation and 50 Cent’s Curtis

Its an important date for the music industry too as this blog from a Chicago Tribune Blog points out.. http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2007/09/showdown-betwee.html


Two of the biggest-selling artists of the last four years go head-to-head Tuesday in the record stores with new albums: Kanye West’s “Graduation” (Good/Roc-A-Fella) and 50 Cent’s “Curtis” (Aftermath/Interscope).
It’s a big day not just for West and 50, but for the ailing music industry. With sales down 30 percent this year, the major labels who have dominated music for the last half-century are in need of a blockbuster album (seven or eight of them, actually) as the holiday buying season looms into view. Hip-hop in particular is tanking. In the ‘90s the genre led the surge in CD sales. Now it’s in the doldrums, with only three of the top-20 best-selling titles of 2007.

Hip’ Hop may not quite be ‘dead’ as the album title of Nas’s latest effort suggests, but its definitely in decline.

Why is this the case?

Well, my generation at least and seemingly the market as a whole has been turning enmass away from Hip Hop towards the skyrocketing genre’s of rock, whether that be emo, indie or even the classic variety.

Quite a range of tastes and preferences, which mainstream Hip Hop, just doesn’t have. Its dominated still by gangster rap and chauvinistic men boasting about their strength, magnetism and how many times they’ve been shot. Its not exactly appealing to the music fan who wants a bit more substance from their music.

Cue a great exodus of teenagers, including me, who were of the age were you truly become critical of the music you listen to, rather than merely accepting it. As a result a whole generation of 14 and 15 year olds switched allegiances away from the Hip’ Hop and embraced Rock which had arguably suffered its own crisis in the late 90’s where in the temporary gulf in the absence of Britpop, it was perhaps justifiably seen as the genre for miserable Goths, if you told someone you listened to rock. Jokes about Korn and Slipknot would invariably follow.

Rock has since smashed into the mainstream and managed to diversify itself, the NME lead revolution of fresh garage rock bands such as the Strokes and The White Stripes replaced the since Dormant Blur and Oasis and Pop Punk bands such as Blink 182 and Sum 41 offered a more cheerful alternative to Korn and Slipknot, unfortunately these two strands of Rock would later create two of the most despicable social scenes ever created in history, ‘Indie’ and ‘Emo’ but that is the price you have to pay for mainstream success.

Hip Hop will need to innovate itself once again and provide, like Rock has , greater variety, more originality and greater creativity to pull itself out of its rut, mainstream hip hop is and has been for quite some time, dominated by this ultra masculine and often homophobic figures which as gun crime spirals in the UK appears less and less attractive.

Hip Hop’s great hope lies In artists like the outspoken Kanye West, the self proclaimed nerd, who is more than happy to throw in political and social commentaries into his lyrics rather than talking about shooting cops and has denounced homophobia and chauvinism in Hip Hop in the past.

Or the outstanding Outkast, Imparticular the unpredictable Andre 3000, who is more than happy like, Kanye West to borrow from other genre’s, throwing in a guitar lick here and there and lending drums that sound more like drum and bass than a traditional hip hop loop. Rock music has always been ’borrowing’ from traditionally black genre’s, Rock juggernauts Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones have made their fame and fortune on blues rock originated from the deep south of America.

It’s time for Hip’ Hop to lend back some ideas to level the playing field and claw back some fans. Next weeks chart battle is not as simple as a fight between two stars of the genre, as Blur vs. Oasis was in the 90’s, its far more important than that. It is a battle between the new wave of Hip’ Hop and the old, the future and the past. Kanye may not win the popular vote, but it is his brand of Hip Hop that offers the genre’s greatest potential growth for the genre.

Klaxons in Mercury win shocker!!!

'Nu-Rave pioneers'

Arguably, the best album on this years Mercury music prize was never going to win. The artists in question won it last year. Having the honour of being the awards ceremony that praises itself on rewarding artistic merit over commercial success, the odds for the world touring, platinum selling Arctic Monkeys far removed from the edgy newcomers of last year, being the first act to win the award twice in a row were low.

The bookmakers odds reflected it, with relative unknown Bat for Lashes AKA Natasha Khan and the troubled Amy Winehouse leading the pack both with similarly fine albums. Surely they would take home the prestigious prize.

Of course not, ever controversial often for the sake of it, they chose the plucky, arguably less talented, outsiders as they done many times before (M people anyone?) It was the Klaxons, who had not been on anyone’s lips as a possible winner who pulled through, with their annoying brand of ’New Rave’, sorry ’Nu Rave’ (ugh) that stole the prize. Acting like drunken schoolboy tossers on stage, declaring how brilliant they were and how hard they had worked to get here, displaying the kind of shoddy mic work that has had them branded as an awful live act.

To add insult to injury the band went on to blow their trumpet perhaps a little too hard, proclaiming the win as a victory for ‘forward thinking music’ and casually dismissing Winehouse’s Back to Black as ’A retro record’ then modestly adding “We have made the most forward thinking record since I don’t know how long” More than happily adopting the underserved crown of musical innovators with little modesty. Quite a contradiction to the humility and maturity shown by last years winners the far more talented Arctic Monkeys “Someone call Richard Hawley he’s just been robbed!” Adopting an arrogance beyond their talents only made the Klaxons made themselves look even bigger wankers.

But hey, it’s the Mercury’s I’ll be sitting in my living room this time next year eagerly watching if Radiohead’s 7th LP can trump Pink Floyd’s critically acclaimed comeback album…maybe

We wouldn’t have it any other way would we? At least it wasn’t The View.

Final Fantasy 7: Ten years on

Ten years ago, a solitary videogame dragged me kicking and screaming away from my until then relatively normal existence and into the dark, cold and lonely world of the so called ‘Hardcore’ gamer.

It triggered a change in me that would remove any healthy social activities I had left in my life. Sunday league football was abandoned, in favour of lazy lie-ins recovering from the Saturday nights gaming session. Playing out was replaced by browsing various games related internet forums, conversing with complete strangers.

You would think I would resent this game intensely, for turning me into a academic underachiever and a social recluse in the space of a few short years. But I don’t.

So what mere videogame could be so good to excuse this unsightly metamorphosis? Well as you may have guessed from the title. It’s Final Fantasy 7.

In the days before internet forums or even indeed the internet *shudder*. I chose it from the shelves of my local rental store on the strength of the cover art alone . I didn’t get far, I didn’t even get out of Midgar during the following 3 days, yet my eight year old self was hooked and wanting more.

The pure scale of the thing was what initially hit me, fresh out of the 16 bit Mega Drive era, the game was huge. In the same way people are today struck by the enormity and immersion of game worlds offered by Oblivion or even the Grand theft auto series. For a impressionable eight year old with little previous gaming experience to be introduced to a large, varied, vibrant and most of all 3D game world as impressively pulled off as in FF7 was a devastatingly huge leap from the 2D sprite based levels of Sonic the Hedgehog.

A few months later and Santa Claus delivered this bundle of joy to me, overjoyed, my love affair with the game continued unabated over the next few months. Being young and not yet ‘Hardcore’ in my passion for gaming the game took me the better part of a year to complete, which perhaps goes some way to explaining my obsession with the game. It was a constant presence for a sizable length of my childhood. The clock had stopped rolling at 99:99 long before completion as I aimlessly stumbled about soaking in the game’s delights. It had taken me a timeframe similar to the game itself, the better part of a year, to complete the game, which inevitably gave me a feeling of resolution, relief and joy somewhat similar the characters themselves that a more hardened gamer completing it in the space of a week might not have.

However citing this as the main reason for my love of the game would be unfair, on my subsequent visits to the game In more recent years in more mature, cynical state the quality still continues to shine through as brightly as it did 10 years ago.

Final Fantasy 7’s story is as clichéd as, well, other Final Fantasy’s. Hero faces inner struggle, village gets burnt down and world is doomed by mysterious villain, it’s textbook fantasy. What separates it from its predecessors and even now from its followers is the deceptively dark game world. People died in FF7 despite your best efforts to save them, not only supporting characters but the central cast were also not invulnerable from the grip of the Grim Reaper. Every beautifully rendered member of your party had its own convoluted pasts and intertwining sub plots and reasons for being other than ‘saving the world!’. Your hero; Cloud, was and remains the very definition of the troubled, but not (too) angst(y), anti hero in videogames, rather than your generic whiter than white poster boy that still plague videogames and even the series itself today.

All this, set to the backdrop of the near future alternative reality of Gaia, where castles were replaced by Corporation headquarters and dungeons replaced by MAKO reactors gave a dark twist to the traditional ‘save the world/princess’ storyline, which Final Fantasy, for the most part, still followed.

Every member of the Squaresoft team was on top of their game for not only the series first foray into the fifth generation but its debut on the yet unproven Sony Playstation brand.

Nowhere is this excellence more personified in the musical score written by the legendary veteran Nobuo Uematsu and the bold distinctive Manga influenced character designs of relative newcomer Tetsuya Nomura.

A constant presence on all Final Fantasy scores since FF2, only recently taking a break on FF12 which unfortunately suffers from a bland inspiring soundtrack in his absence. Uematsu’s score for Final Fantasy 7 was and remains his opus. His songs carry the memories of long forgotten locations and long since fought battles in their rousing melodies. They personify ably each character without simplifying them and stir emotions from the games many highs and lows. None more so than the rousing Aeris’s theme, which both serves to not only remind you of the game’s lowest low but also carries a hopeful, stirring vision of hope. It is one of the few original game scores that deserves to be listened to in its own right, rather than just to serve as a nostalgia trip and compliment the game it stands out on its own as a brilliant piece of music. The many live orchestral and, in the case of the Black Mages, rock renditions of the soundtrack confirm this as a serious standalone piece of music all created on the most constricting of audio technologies, MIDI, it is nothing short of amazing.

Despite the graphical leap from previous incarnations Nomura has stated he felt the graphical limitations prevented him from achieving his ‘true style’. The clean manga style does stand out In particular from the more photo realistic designs seen in future Final Fantasies in particular 7’s immediate successor FF8. However they remain amongst the strongest seen in the series and definitely show no signs of compromise which is testament to his versatility as an artist.

The bold and simple designs make no apologies for revealing the characters traits in their attire, however the game is not cheapened as a result. As much as the strength of Uematsu’s soundtrack is displayed by its many live renditions. The quality of the cast of FF7 is shown not only by the dozens of badly dressed Clouds and Sephiroths at any self respecting Cosplayers convention, but by the wide range of favourites the game generates, many love the quiet struggle of Cloud Strife, just as many love the spunkiness and vitality of Yuffie Kisagari.

However the highest testament of the character design is the love shown to the villain of the piece, despite shedding a tear as many other’s did over the result of his most dastardly deed, I still love Sephiroth, I wanted to be him for a brief period. He was the very definition of badass cool, his long flowing grey locks and ridiculously sized Masumane outdid even Clouds admittedly impressive Barnet and Buster Sword and like all good villains you wanted him to win just a little bit, deep down you know you did.

I could go on forever about the quality of every aspect of the game, In particular the gorgeous map design and the ingenious battle and Materia system that has yet to be bettered. But if you don’t know about it already, you owe it to yourself to find out about these things for yourself and treat yourself to the most cinematic gaming experience ever created. Forget Metal Gear Solid, this did it first and better.

Embrace your music

Eager collectors of music, of which Last Fm has many, have a tendency to consume far more than they can digest. Moving onto the next artist or album before necessarily becoming familiar with their previous obsession.

A habit of which I am more than familiar with, a quick glance through my iTunes library reveals that around a quarter of my 4,000 songs do not have a solitary play count. Not to mention the 1,000 on top of that, that have only been listened to once.

1,000 songs sitting on my computer taking up 5.5 gigabytes of valuable hard drive space that have never been played.

Taking that rough estimate a bit further into territory that might not necessarily be true that’s 150 albums and 125 artists that I’ve neglected to listen to.

It’s a wasteful habit that has and continues to deprive me of quality music. Of course the quantity of music I acquire introduces me to a lot of excellent albums and artists, only today I fell it love with Slayer’s unrelentingly thrashtastic Reign In Blood. But who’s to say there isn’t another dozen Reign In Blood’s, Ok Computer’s or Wish You Were Here’s amongst the 150 albums I’ve neglected to listen to?

Often the best music takes multiple listens to ‘click’, I hated Dark Side of the Moon and found Ok Computer tedious and dull at first, but nothing beats that eureka moment of not only discovering great new music, but discovering new music that you have persisted with despite discouraging initial listens.

We’re all on the search for that new favourite artist, album or even song. But sometimes it’s lying right beneath our noses.

So instead of buying that latest release, have a rummage through the more murky depths of your music collection and dust off that album you never gave a chance. You might just like it.

2 Nights in London with Prince

A little prologue on my long term love affair…

Prince currently lies 6th in my ‘Top Artists Overall’ list on Last.fm. Quite an achievement when he was closer to 36th this time last month only wheeled out for a cursory listen of mega rock ballad Purple Rain and a few other choice tracks off Sign ’O’ the times, recommended to me by a well meaning friend but assigned to languish in the lower reaches after failing to ‘click’ with me.

After enjoying the Planet Earth freebie. I downloaded the album Purple Rain and its rawer and rockier sound instantly clicked with me. As his 21 night ’Purple Reign’ drew closer a promotional email from Ticketmaster and a short transaction later I had tickets for the opening night, August 1st. I hurriedly downloaded several choice Prince classics, according to Allmusic at least, and begun my last minute revision of the purple pocket rocker. Once again nothing immediately clicked it would take a mighty opening night performance to earn the 111 listens he’s gotten this week.



August 1st 2007, 02 Arena, London

UK Hall of Fame video intro
01. Purple Rain
02.Girls & Boys (included D.M.S.R. lyrics towards the end)
03. Satisfied
04. Cream
05. U Got The Look
06. Shhh
07. Musicology
08. I Feel For You
09. Controversy
10. What A Wonderful World (Mike Phillips & Renato intermission)
11. Somewhere Here On Earth
12. Lolita
13. Black Sweat
14. Kiss
15. If I Was Your Girlfriend
16. Pink Cashmere (included The One U Wanna C lyrics)
17. 7
18. Come Together
19. Take Me With U
20. Guitar
1st Encore
21. Planet Earth
2nd Encore
22.Crazy
23.Nothing Compares 2 U
24. Let's Go Crazy
3rd Encore (solo Prince on electric guitar)
25. Little Red Corvette
26. Raspberry Beret
27. Sometimes It Snows in April
(band returns)
28. Get On The Boat
29. Sexy Dancer (music) / Le Freak (lyrics)
30. A Love Bizarre


It threatened to be very self congratulatory as the houselights went out and a video ran on the big screens suspended above the stage, featuring various talking heads such as Pharrel, Salma Hayek and Joni Mitchell, all reminding us how innovative and masterful the man is or perhaps was.

Luckily as the opening chords of what could only be Purple Rain rang out and he rose from a lift hidden in the centre of the stage in a cloud of dry ice there was little doubt that he had remembered to bring something for the fans, no matter how ‘hardcore’ or ‘casual’ we were, Prince had brung the hits.

Despite the sound being less than satisfactory, with Prince’s vocals muffled under a droning echoey bass and his trade marking screaming guitar strangled by overbearing keys.

However as is often the case with sterile Arena shows like this the sound quality is only half the battle when winning over the audience. Thankfully Prince at least tonight showed why is he is the gold standard when it comes to live performances even if the sound is a bit crappy. Its hard to take your eyes off a performer once described as making Michael Jackson look ’nailed to the floor’ and he sure was in a jubilant mood tonight, temporarily forgetting the religious scriptures that have arguably made him less provocative as a live performer dancing like no 49 year old should be able to and possibly getting most of the female portion of the audience pregnant in the process he definitely drew enough orgasmic screams from them as he slipped his jacket off his shoulders just for a moment.

Most artists would struggle to keep the attention of their audience after opening with (arguably) their biggest hit. Prince however is not most artists, although ever unpredictable he did seem to try his best to lose the audience with the songs from his more obscure past and his less loved present. Combined with the shaky sound things threatened to turn ugly, luckily throwing in songs like U Got the Look, I Feel for You, Kiss, If I was your Girlfriend, Take me with U and rather oddly covering The Beatles’ Come Together kept the audience on side, entertained and more willing to enjoy his lesser know stuff. Although Prince being Prince he would still be engaging in whatever he does.

Closing the main show with a recent highlight, Guitar, Prince returned for two pre planned encores emerging up the lift to sing the title track off his latest album Planet Earth then returning for a second much more satisfying encore opening with another good but unnecessary cover this time of last years summer hit, Crazy sung at first by a talented ’backing’ singer. Remembering that he does have a fair few hits of his own that he hasn’t yet played he roars through Nothing Compares 2 U and with little rest bite teases the audience with the galvanising line of ’Dearly Beloved’ three times whilst strutting along his stage, demanding and gaining a louder response from his audience each time before tearing into ’Lets Go Crazy’

As the screaming guitar solo dies down and Prince declares his love for London and the audience before descending down his lift in a cloud of dry ice it appears to be all over, people start streaming out under the ugly lights. But those eager to beat the rush will have missed a memorable piece of spontaneity in a venue which hardly encourages it.

A cheer ripples from the far corner of the floor, the venue now half empty with only the slow and the hardcore fans left soon catches on as a parting of the sea of remaining fans takes place as a shell of burly bodyguards make way for the Prince to return to the stage. As if returning to the stage through the common people wasn’t bad enough he also climbs a flight of stairs to take to the stage underlining that this is indeed a spontaneous gesture to celebrate his return.

Anarchy descends upon the venue, people clamber over seats and jump barriers to get a closer look at this event. Once everyone is settled he plays stripped down electric versions of Little Red Corvette, Raspberry Beret and Sometimes in snows in April which garners a louder response from the lucky few left now the casuals have made a hasty exit. The band also returns and it seems as if its going to turn into the perfect gig as he polishes off the last few major hits left unsung but unfortunately this is not the case as he decides to treat us to one more cover and two more obscure numbers this time with a 70’s theme as the houselights go down once again and are replaced with disco lights as Prince steams through Get on the boat, Le Freak and A Love Bizarre.

A special gig to be sure but one with many missed opportunities and unplayed hits (When Doves Cry anyone?). Prince however is an enigmatic performer with or without When Doves Cry and makes the majority of his contemporaries look distinctly average, on the stage at least, even at the age of 49. If this is the last time he is to play his hits (well..some of them) , it is a very fitting farewell. If its only a marketing trick to increase ticket sales the gigs and the media hype around them will secure Prince a whole new generation of fans to see him well into his 60’s.

Why I Love....

Just a nice thread idea on wakinglimb which inspired me to gush over Wish you were here.


Wish You Were Here





Squeezed between Pink Floyd's two tens of million selling and universally praised behemoths, 1973's Dark side of the moon and 1979's The Wall. Wish you were here is often overlooked by all but the most committed Floyd fans. Only more recognisable than Pink Floyd’s other overlooked classic from their 70’s heyday, Animals, thanks to the instantly recognisable title track Wish You Were Here.

As Bob said with Purple Rain it is probably not my favourite Pink Floyd album, that honour changes from week to week between the ‘big four’ (Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall). But as with Purple Rain sums up everything that is great about Prince, Wish You Were Here sums up everything that is great about Pink Floyd who are often, much like Prince, dizzyingly diverse in their sound.

From their earlier psychedelic drug induced ‘Barret era’ sound stretching from 1965 to 1971 with the release of Meddle. To their classic Prog Rock sound fusing Water’s stunning lyricism and Gilmour’s and Wright’s keen ear for a tune. And then the closing era of the ‘true’ Pink Floyd sound (Gilmour’s subsequent slaughter of the Pink Floyd name with Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell just doesn’t count. ) With Water’s ego leading the band to eventually become a vehicle for Water’s political critiques, first evident in Animals and finally overbearingly present in The Final Cut. It can be hard to know where to start.

Wish You Were Here, lying around about the middle of their discography draws everything from its surrounding albums. Everything that had made them great and everything that would continue to make them so. From the powerful instrumental and lyrical minimalism of Shine on you crazy Diamond Pt 1 - 5, which sets the theme for the rest of the album which as the title suggests is a theme of absence and lost relationships on a general wide reaching level and a very touchingly personal one with this I particular acting as an ode to the bands former leader Syd Barret


Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

Arguably some of Water’s best lyrics interlaced with some of Gilmours most emotional almost ‘vocal’ guitar playing which seems at times to mournfully reply to the questioning lyrics.

Parts 6- 9 carries the same message and neatly closes the album, Wish you were here carries the same theme and needs little description but its common Verse - Chorus layout squeezed into a relatively short (For Floyd anyway) running time of 5:40 minutes, which is a song structure that would become used more as the band became less experimental in its later years. it’s a heartfelt anthem that despite its massively airplay does not grow old. This and Comfortably Numb are both fine contributions to the karaoke industry but still maintain a strong message.

Have a Cigar and Welcome to the Machine also share a relatively normal ‘later’ Floyd song structure but are similarly brilliant, more scathing and satirical of the music industry which had now welcomed the band with open arms but still maintaining the theme of loss in a different sense.

Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar. you’re gonna go far, fly high,
You’re never gonna die, you’re gonna make it if you try they’re gonna love you.
Well Ive always had a deep respect, and I mean that most sincerely.
The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. oh by the way,
Which ones pink?


I like to think of Wish You Were Here as the litmus paper for Pink Floyd, it draws from such a wide range of the bands sound that it is impossible to dislike completely, I mean the title track is worth the admission alone.

Harry Potter and the Midnight Launch

Despite not being particularly enamoured with the books, I stopped reading them with Goblet of Fire a good 4-5 years ago, and not actually having seen any of the movies. I still counted down the hours until the books global launch at 12:01 BST. I’ve always been a sucker for good hype, even for products that I didn’t previously want and definitely didn’t need, the hype always sucked me in.

The hype from my other great love, games, also achieves the same effect. There is rarely a console launch that goes by that doesn’t draw the same feelings of jealously and greed from me. I didn’t want the PS3, it was overpriced and had virtually no titles that interested me and it still doesn’t months after its release, however I still watched the queues on the news and I mentally counted down to midnight and visualised those shiny, happy people holding the console in their arms and then begun speculating a few hours later what fun people were having with it, without me.

Even more ridiculously I felt the same feelings with the launch of the PSP, despite giving up on handheld gaming with the Nintendo SP after Pokemon released me from its addictive grip making the idea of handheld gaming more pointless than ever. But still, those lucky people playing Spiderman 2 well into the night taunted me relentlessly.

I wasn’t even just indifferent to Harry Potter. I was against it, it annoyed me. It was over hyped for as far as I could see no good reason. Even a few Potter fanatics would agree the writing is pretty average. So the success of the book and the subsequent movies made me even more certain that I would never read a Harry Potter book again.

So why at 11.57pm British Summer Time did I go out of my way to watch the release of book and observe the first lucky few in queue outside Waterstones receive their copies of JK Rowlings long anticipated book with a ridiculous smile on my face (And awoke this morning to find the 7th book staring me in the face on my bedside cabinet)? Partly the unrelentless hype all over the internet, Partly a simple piece of journalism from BBC arts correspondent David Sillito reminded be that maybe Harry Potter wasn’t all that bad.

There's between 1,000 and 1,500 people here. The queue stretches all the way around Waterstone's, which is Europe's largest bookshop, then spills out onto the street and continues as far as the eye can see.

And I think I've worked out why...

JK Rowling published the first Harry Potter book 10 years ago, when the core audience was about eight or nine years old.

Half of these kids are now 18, and they've just finished their A-level exams.
It's like the ultimate rite of passage. This is the end of childhood for thousands of people.

They're graduating with Harry.


“I’m not graduating with Harry!” I exclaimed disappointed, feeling more left out of a launch than ever.

My resistance to the craze softened and my traditional pessimism faded. I had enjoyed the first four books, I had finished them, that’s an achievement In itself as I traditionally leave most books I purchase half read.

Whether you like them or not its hard to deny the series is a brilliant page turner, crafted inside a rich fascinating world populated with similarly rich characters. Yea her writing may not be up to much at times and the attention the series has received may not be entirely deserved but then it rarely is.

So the hype has gotten me again, well the hype and a bit of good journalism. I shall be rereading the series over this summer, having spoilt the ending of the 7th book myself before the release It may seem a little pointless, but I deserve giving the series a second chance, enjoying the journey along the way.

And of course. I don’t want to feel left out.

I just need the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth books to make a go of it now.

Planet Earth - Prince

Prince Rodger Nelson the artist formerly know as Prince but now formally know as Prince is back

The music is unpredictable as the man himself ranging from the funk rock of the lead single Guitar, the r’n’b ballad of Future Baby Mama and the fusion of rap and soul in Mr Goodnight.

Also unpredictable is the quality of the tracks themselves, which range from the great to the cringe worthy. The unashamedly funky Chelsea Rodgers with its brilliant baseline providing the foundations for Prince to wax lyrical about arguably his favourite subject, women, with triumphant sounding trumpets thrown into the mix heralding the arrival of another quality Prince track.

Guitar also stands out, comparisons have been made with early U2 but I haven’t heard any early U2 so I couldn’t possibly comment. All I hear is a quality track and a obvious choice for the albums lead single, the melody is simple and immediate unlike most singles it doesn’t get old, no doubt down to the two excellent solos that grace the track and make it clear that Prince does indeed love his guitar and remains us what a underrated guitarist he is.

However the rest of the album does not fair as well, the remainder of the album drifts apathetically between mediocre and cringe worthy, as Prince indulges in some stripped down ballads which only serve to remind you how weak he is lyrically without any funky bass lines or guitar riffs to hide behind.

From Prince hopping on the same eco warrior bandwagon that fellow 58’ babies Madonna and Michael Jackson have long been members of with his Earth Songesque song to save the world Earth, title track Planet Earth. 50 years from now what will they say about us here?
Did we care for the water and the fragile atmosphere? Like Earth Song its come across as quite corny and like Madonna asking Wembley Stadium to “Jump if you want to save the planet” slightly condescending and insincere, nice bit of guitar at the end though..which is nice.

All in All it is another ‘ok’ Prince album, he has definitely recovered from his near suicidal dip in the 90’s and continues to maintain a respectable form since his comeback with Musicology. Had it not been for the masterstroke or ‘sell-out’ depending on how you look at it of taking a lump sum from the Daily Mail to give away this album for free this album would have slipped into the bottom half of the charts with little buzz or interest. The mismatch between Princes music and the profile of the Daily Mail raised a few eyebrows but this album for the most part is quite average easy listening, something that you could imagine the 50 something readership of the Mail enjoying.

Perhaps Prince is feeling his age.

The future of the music industry

All the fuss being made lately over Prince giving away his latest album, Planet Earth, free as a covermount with the Daily Mail of all papers, has made me wonder on the future of the music industry imparticular recorded music. A spokesman for Prince gave reasons for his move on his site...

"Prince feels that charts are just music industry constructions and have little or no relevance to fans or even artists today."

Quite a big statement so will this be the opening salvo in a new battle beteewn 'true' artists and the established record labels? A free music revolution if you will.

It's well known that acts get very little income for themselves from album and single sales, the real money is earned, for the artist at least, through touring and record deals themselves. It is of course not the first time Prince has given away albums for free, he gave away his 2004 release Musicology free at live shows for his lucky fans. Radiohead also famously considered giving away Kid A, when the album was leaked on to Napster weeks before its official release, Thom Yorke commented in an interview with Time magazine. "it encourages enthusiasm for music in a way that the music industry has long forgotten to do."

So...can we expect to see artists giving away their latest album on their offical websites in order to gain as much exposure as possible? Well no not really. The 'big four' and all record labels alike won't have to lose any sleep over some sort of free music revolution lead by artists such as Prince. Big labels are still required for distribution and putting the spotlight on artists, only a few veterans with an already established fanbase could reasonably expect to tell their record label what they intend to do with their latest album. Starbucks aren't going to tell Paul Macartney where to stick it if he decides to give away his next album for free, he is too much of a asset to their brand. The same is true at the other end of the specturm, tiny unknown bands are already giving away their music for free at gigs and on the internet and have been doing for probably decades now that will never change.

It is the staple 'average' reputation bands that would realistically have to demand change for the status quo to change in favour of the artist, but groups like Kasabian, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire and Editors can't propose to give away their latest album with the Daily Mail or they would be out of a job well at least find themselves a few rungs down the ladder with a smaller label. Artists such as these need their music to provide a living unlike unknown bands they dont have a normal 9 to 5 job to fall back on, (And they probably wouldnt want one anymore) unlike Prince/Madonna/The Rolling Stones they haven't accumilated enough money to make money on real estate or have enough reknown to release their own brand of cooking sauces.

So basically in conclusion, nothing will change. Not for the time being at least, the internet has and will continue to shift the power in the recording industry away from the established labels and towards up and coming artists. That is already evident from the number of unmanufactured acts that have rose to prominence over the past few years.

With it being cheaper and cheaper to record music to a decent standard in your bedroom, upload it to your bands myspace and use your mates CD burner to produce a few hundred albums, on some cheap discs you got down Tescos, It has never been a better time to be a new artist.

Music should always be an artform and form of entertainment first but it is unreasonable to expect established acts to sacrifice themselves for this cause, they also need to make a living from their trade. Its unreasonable to expect these artists to 'stick it to the man!', martyr themselves for creative freedom and give away their music for free. Anyone suggesting this makes them sell outs obviously has a very unrealistic view of how music works nowdays. Maybe we will look back on Prince's actions as the start of the free music revolution but more likely we'll look back and see it as another action in giving us cheaper more accessible music.

Which isnt bad is it?

People who don't actually listen to music

Just a minor rant..


People who just listen to the singles of their 'favourite' artists. People who'll list songs they own of their 'favourite' artists rather than albums. People who like Pink Floyd because that 'Comfortably Numb song is good'

I hate them.

Ok, maybe the last example was a bit harsh and maybe I don‘t actually hate them, I love Comfortably Numb but the principle of loving a band for a selection of well known songs gets me wound up. If you like Comfortably Numb why not buy/steal/borrow The Wall? If you like Stockholm Syndrome buy Absolution.

Perhaps being weaned on concept albums such as Dark Side of the Moon and Ok Computer has made my view on what makes someone a true music fan in the iTunes generation a little dated. But to me being a fan of something implies some sense of commitment. I would not call someone a fan of football if they only occasionally watched World Cup matches. I would not call someone a fan of Italian food if they only occasionally eat spaghetti...or something like that.

Yes I love music, yes I love Radiohead, yes I love Pink Floyd. But don't try to fire up a half hearted conversation on either of them when you've only heard Creep or Wish you were here. I'd respect you much more if you talked about bands you do know, rather than feigning interested in my taste in music.

Go out and buy an album instead of a scattershot bunch of individual tracks, owning an album and liking its theme or style will give you a far greater sense of what kind of music you do like, and what other albums/artists you may also like.

Same goes to please to zealously listen to one genre of music and trash others. There’s no better example of this than the rift being Rock (or ‘Indie Rock’ whatever the hell that means nowadays) and Hip Hop/Rap fans. Both seem to have equal amount of disdain for each others taste in music, both have little idea of what the others taste preferred genre is actually like, preferring to fall back on long established stereotypes for each. Rock being entirely made up of skinny white men playing guitar really fast and screaming dark hateful lyrics down the microphone probably all clad in leather covered in makeup. Hip Hop of course is dominated by criminals, large intimidating black men wearing basketball jerseys and constantly singing about participating in drive bys and how many ‘ho’s’ they’ve fucked.

Like most stereotypes these do have some truth in them. The stereotype of rock music could well apply to any Metal band. The stereotype of Hip Hop could be any of the torrent of ‘gangsta’ rappers spawned from the late 80’s. But like all stereotypes these stereotypes only offer a very narrow view into what is usually something very complicated.

To wrap this up. What im trying to say is, be a true fan of music. Listen to as much of the stuff as possible. Don’t limit yourself to one genre of music, it’s a waste. And BUY ALBUMS!

That is all.

The Aftermath

This time last week I had just returned from Muse's first night residency (I started writing this last Saturday before you say anything smart ok?) at a Wembley stadium still shiny enough to justify being called the 'New' Wembley Stadium, still shell-shocked from the enormity of the venue and the music itself. Muse as you probably already know delivered a typically brilliant performance, never being the chattiest of groups they stormed through their two hour set with great gusto and little time for niceties.

Anyway lets start at the beginning where most stories begin, our prize for queing through several showers for several hours was a place in the 'Golden Circle' which was disappointingly not Golden. A Golden circle is a special area at the front for a limited number of people, to prevent too much crushing, the same kind that totally killed the atmosphere at Live 8. With our front row seats secured we endured one last torrent before the skies cleared in time for Mexican duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela who had obviously brought some sun with them. Their set whilst initially impressive dragged on a bit as their album tracks do sound a bit sameish but a cover of Stairway to Heaven was warmly received. Half the fun with these two is simply watching them play, the speed in which their fingers dance across the frets is amazing, Metal'esque shredding on acoustic strings is something that must take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to achieve. Acknowledging this the audience warmly applauded them off. A rapidly drying Wembley had a smile on its face. A good start.

Dirty Pretty Things, probably the second most anticipated group on the line-up, completely misfired. Whether their awful sound is down to the quality of their musicianship or sound problems (there was a lot of smoke coming out of one of the amps, not a good sign) we'll never know, or indeed care. Neither did they appear to at the time looking rather apathetic and uninterested in the whole affair, apart from the drummer who seemed a decent bloke. They played Bang Bang You're Dead, got a few bottles thrown at them, threw a few back, gave someone in the crowd a trumpet and thankfully left the stage. The less said the better.

I should also mention Zane Lowe was doing an ok job keeping the audience mildly interested in-between sets, although he really should have done some more research on the demographics of his audience as he belted through dance numbers.

The Streets had been booed every time their name was mentioned in the build up to their performance, they had a tough job ahead of them in securing the support of the increasingly filled Wembley Stadium. And they did with 'Frank Skinner' as one person behind me called him, hopefully jokingly, proving that the audience doesn’t have to love your music to love you. The majority of their songs washed over me and most of the audience but Mike's masterful working of the crowd throwing in Queen references and constantly reminding the audience of Muse's impending arrival throwing in the lyrics to 'Time is Running Out' amongst other ploys to earn our trust and support. The best support of the evening, although I wouldn't pay to see them or any of the supports for that matter.

This time Zane Lowe did not appear to fill the silence, and the crowd was left to stew waiting in quite anticipation of Muse's arrival..

Emerging unexpectedly from the centre of the stadium amidst a explosion of confetti and smoke, which left us in the crowded 'Golden Circle' utterly confused but excited certain that something was going on even though we could not see it. They strode down through the crowd nervously with Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights (you know the music from the apprentice…yea that one) playing providing a suitably dramatic, overblown entrance for a band know for its supermassiveness.

After a tense wait, in which the band armed themselves with their instruments, they stormed into Knights of Cydonia, which if I’m honest was a bit disappointing, the performance itself was greet the crowd went wild but Take a Bow is such a better opener, however what’s done is done and Muse were away. As had happened 7 months earlier a few metres away in Wembley Arena they began with a devastatingly uptempo start to their set list. KOC, Hysteria and Supermassive Black Hole soon separated the men from the boys and many of the smaller, weaker Muse fans had been filtered to the back, I had again been separated from my friends and my jeans were slowly falling down, my earlier decision to not wear a belt for comfort reasons turned out to be the wrong one. (Apologies to anyone standing around the afro’d guy in the jeans near the front of the right hand side golden circle, I really didn’t want to be jumping in my boxers)

City of Delusion gave me a small respite for me to secure them more firmly around myself , however this was immediately followed by Butterflies and Hurricanes and Muse's magnum opus Citizen Erased both of which were performed brilliantly, brilliantly enough to make my jeans fall once again. Matt performed a brilliant solo at the end of CE must akin to his one off the Hullabaloo CD which despite its length is a brilliantly intense solo, one of my favourites. As the song climaxed with its beautifully calm finish with Matt sat looking quite overwhelmed on his piano it was clear this would be a memorable night.

However there had yet to be any great surprises in Muse's setlist, it was pretty much their greatest hits and material off BHAR. This changed after Hoodoo, which once again stands out live for some reason as the studio version is quite forgettable. Dom , wearing retina burning lime green trousers dropped a frankly disgusting puntastic introduction to their next song; "How you all doing out there? We hope your Feeling Good" Lost on most in the crowd at the time, much like his introduction of Supermassive Black hole being for “all you R’n’B fans out there” being greeted with boos by the same audience that had proven themselves quite elitist in their tastes outside of Muse. The admittedly poor gag became apparent as the opening notes of Muse's cover of the classic Feeling Good rang out, which was accompanied by a rather sexy video in the background (I like to notice this things rather than things about the actual performers you’ll soon notice) This was followed by another welcome surprise in the shape of Sunburn, unfortunately the only song off Showbiz they would be playing. The performance continued on with the usual Muse staples and some less popular stuff off of BHAR. It would not be until the first of two encores that Muse truly stole the show.

Blackout an album track of off Absolution would serve to be the unlikely hero of the night, not because its a great song, which I’ve since realised it is, not because of the thousands of lights shimmering out of the darkness that created a mini galaxy inside Wembley at Matt's request. None of these things compared to the spectacle of two acrobats flying at what seemed like a few feet above us on huge balloons which we presumed would be for us to play with during Bliss. As they floated gracefully above the crowd against a backdrop of lights and camera flashes beaming out of the darkness it was clear that Muse really had provided something special, something that went beyond playing Citizen Erased or simply having big satellite dishes on stage, they had provided a awe inspiring spectacle that was good enough to draw 100,000 pairs of eyes away from the band itself. As the song drew to a close with one of Matt's many Manson’s shimmering to a crescendo I noticed a woman behind me wipe a tear from her eye, I might have done the same if I wasn’t so devastatingly masculine and immune to these things.

However this wasn’t a MCR gig, (That rain would fall on tomorrows parade) Muse immediately set about getting the crowd geared up for the final finale as Matt fiddled around with his fuzz factory, us true Muse fans, all knew what was coming, the night had been so goon thus far we had almost forgotten it, but now it was coming a song I had myself grappled with for so many months in my bedroom was now gonna be showcased in its full glory. As the opening riff rose and fell, 100'000 Muse fans wiped the tears from their eyes (well something like that, I have a tendency to exaggerate) and started jumping in unison to Muse's breakthrough hit Plug in Baby. As if the night could not get any better, Matt went walkabout during the closing riff of the song, he may not be the most traditionally charismatic frontman, he rarely speaks to the audience and when he does his speech is nervously rushed and muttered, leading to the unusual arrangement of the drummer providing the banter imbeteewn songs. But he sure knows how to move with that guitar, its something you appreciate more as a musician (that’s what I am <.<) how hard it is not only to play the songs, but to throw your body and guitar about whilst you do it, this was something I fully appreciated as he stood what must of been metres away from me and the rest of the idiots that had stood for hours to earn a place near the front, it made the slight dehydration, jean malfunctions and general pain worthile as he bounced around in the midst of the crowd before returning to the stage and disappearing with the rest of the band once again. Usually you only get one Encore at gigs, but this was Muse, this was Wembley, this was special. They hadn't played Stockholm Syndrome or Bliss yet!

Unlike the first encore, there was a sense of unease and dare I say it thoughts of "Is that it?" Even people in the seats started to filter out, we begun to grow uneasy and begun shouting out "We want Muse! We want Muse!" And so they returned obviously because we had cried out for it so much, not because Encore’s are not prearranged pointless gestures these days, for a few more songs, one of them, we knew would be Take a Bow, one of them must be Stockholm Syndrome and the other would probably be Bliss. Muse had other ideas, and mixed things up a bit with one of their lesser known hits, Micro Cuts. Thankfully for the first and last time that night the crowd did not attempt to sing, partly down to exhaustion, but mostly down to self respect and our deep manly broken voices that had struggled to reach the peaks of Knights of Cydonia and Citizen Erased, leaving the extreme, indecipherable falsetto of Micro Cuts out of reach. It was a welcome surprise, and we dutifully jumped to the chorus, I was never a huge fan of Bliss anyway.

More predictably Stockholm Syndrome follows up and the crowd once again dutifully returns to singing duties, its worth pointing out now that I couldn’t actually hear Muse for most of the gig just dozens of teenage boys around me singing "THIS ISSSSSSS THE LAASST TIMEEE ILLLLL ABANDOONNN YOOUU!!!!!1" But it was a laugh nonetheless, I engaged in a bit of gentle moshing, a pleasure I hadn’t engaged in at Wembley Arena, but I was bigger stronger now, ready to play with the big boys, to assert my masculinity I knocked one guy to the grown, apologised and lifted him up. As most of the crowd let loose, it was clear this was the true finale, crowd surfers emerged out of all directions perhaps less in a anarchic rock and roll fashion but more to beat the imminent rush for the exits and catch the 11.05 back to Norwich the securities no nonsense policy to such deviants ensured they would get that cosy window seat. Stockholm climaxed with the achingly familiar 'improvisation' made famous 3 years ago at Glastonbury, if its not broke don’t fix it I guess but it is a problem I have with Muse, surely they have the musical ability to improvise properly a bit more. Take a Bow closed the set, perhaps for little more reason than allowing Matt to literally take a bow (lolz), its not as good a closer as Knights, or Stockholm or even Plug in Baby. But it would do, Muse finished the set and disappeared behind a wall of flames (well not quite literally as dramatic as that, but there was fire..and Muse) And it was done, back to reality, perhaps not quite the religious, generation defining show I expected It was...great but Stockholm Syndrome ,Blackout and maybe Citizen Erased served as the only truly jaw dropping pieces of the set.

The stadium lights bolted on blinding permanently many who had already been injured during the pyrotechnics and Sinatras come fly with me echoed through the stadiums dodgy acoustics and I now had the relatively mundane task of finding the £18 t shirt I had lost half way through the show and finding my friends. To add some factual accuracy to this massively overexaggerated piece here’s the setlist that ACTUALLY DID HAPPEN! Its on the NME check it out for yourselves, when did they ever exaggerate or lie about something?

'Knights Of Cydonia'
'Hysteria'
'Supermassive Blackhole'
'Map Of The Problematique'
'City Of Delusion'
'Butterflies & Hurricanes'
'Citizen Erased'
'Hoodoo'
'Feeling Good'
'Sunburn'
'Invincible'
'Starlight'
'Man Of Mystery'
'Time Is Running Out'
'Newborn'
'Soldiers Poem'
'Unintended'
'Blackout'
'Plug In Baby'
'Micro Cuts'
'Stockholm Syndrome'
'Take A Bow'(Shit)

The N word

Bit late to the party, but I’ve been busy with other things mainly revision and AS exams. You've probably heard something about the whole 'race row' in the Big Brother house over the past few week, unless of course you've been living as a hermit.

So I just feel like getting a few things off my chest.

As ever the majority of the press has made it a clear black and white issue (no pun intended). When of course as with most things in life it should be taken on a case by case basis. When someone uses the word or indeed any offensive language you can usually immediately gauge if they are being serious and intend harm or not. I wouldn’t have a problem with any of my friends calling me the 'n' word as we are friends and it is used tongue firmly in cheek, usually to ridicule its serious use by others. Emily whilst not friendly with Charley meant no malice when she used it, stupid yes, racist? Of course not.

There's no point getting so uptight over the word itself, but obviously its detestable to use it as a racial slur/insult. We can tell our friends to 'fuck off' etc etc in a joking manner I don’t see why this can't be the same, obviously its a far more explosive word so greater care should be taken in the company you use it in but if you make rules like 'oh only black people can use it to other black people' it just becomes a minefield of double standards where no one feels comfortable on how it should be used/

In Emily’s case she appeared as she has done many times before(skinny jeans) trying really hard to appear cool and with it. It was ill judged especially when you consider that the two are not particularly close to one another. But definitely not racist, offensive in its shock factor perhaps, but more akin to an elderly persons outdated views on 'coloured' people rather than a genuinely offensive assault by a BNP party member.

Like all naughty words people are going to have completely different sensibilities and standards over its use. I wouldn't swear as much as I do around my mates sometimes in front of new company until I get to know them better and can map out how comfortable they are with bad language, the 'n' word should be no different.

Did Big Brother overreact? Yes, but it had little choice after the Shilpagate episode. Emily really should of had that in mind before she opened her stupid mo

Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Thought I'd swot up on these two considering they are supporting at Muse and they're amazing their sound is the complete opposite of Muse's, just two dueling acoustic guitars so they may get booed by the more obsessive Muse fans but they create an amazing noise with just two instruments. Not sure how well they'll perform in a huge stadium, their style lends itself better to a small intimate club, but we'll see.


The album features a brilliant cover of Led Zep's Stairway to Heaven which is linked to below, check it out its easily one of the best cover's I've ever heard. Check it out on by using the sendspace link below, or visit their site also linked below.

Stairway to Heaven download

Rodrigo Y Gabriela homepage

Im working on a review for Bjork's Homogenic slowly but surely, pesky revision tends to get in the way though, Volta's helped me discover how amazing some of her previous work is so rather than reveiwing that I thought I'd got for Homogenic.

Tomorrow I'll be hyping up the Howling Bell's and providing a track from their excellent album Howling Bells, so stay tuned.

If any representative of Rodrigo Y Gabriela wishes me to remove this link please contact me at JoRichards77@gmail.com and I will be happy to do so. (Dont sue me)

The Seven Ages of Rock - Art Rock

Its that time of the week again!

Obviously much more interesting for me than last week with the subject matter being focused on my favourite band. It was a lot better constructed and paced than the previous 'birth of rock' episode, with equal airtime for most of the bands involved, not a view of the 'age' through one artist/groups eyes as the Jimi Hendrix episode was, which was kind of a shame for a Floyd nut for me but it did what it said on the tin.

I didn't learn anything new but once again there was some nice footage must of it as a expected taken in Floyd's case from the excellent 'Live at Pompeii'. Some nice footage of The Wall live stage shows, there's one concert I would have loved to have seen, musically not my favourite Floyd album but its a great one and the pure scale and spectacle of the show and the construction (and destruction) of the wall must have been breathtaking.

It didn't do much to convince me that the The Velvet Underground are worth getting into, don't see the fuss about the album with the Banana on it. But it did make me want to investigate David Bowie and Roxy Music, not sure where to start though.

As you would expect, its 'Punk' next week. Can't say there's anything in the episode that interests me, Punk's never really appealed to me. So don't expect an analysis of the program in my journal this time next week.

Linkage to the BBC site

Held back by different tastes

Anyone else have this problem? I have friends they're great etc etc, but they are divided into two camps.

Friends who like different music on the whole to me.

Friends who don't like music that much. (Strange I know)

Now the friends who don’t like music that much are fine, they buy the odd CD, but mostly listen to whatever’s in the charts, and that’s fine.

The friends who have different tastes to me are frustrating, Im going to Wireless on my own as a result of being the only The White Stripes fan in my circle of friends, which is fine, its only 'down the road' in Hyde Park, but when it comes to bigger festivals/gigs outside of London's its not really realistic to expect to go on my own to Suffolk for the incredibly tempting Latitude festival or wherever.

If I had some friends who liked Howling Bells, Jarvis Cocker, The Arcade Fire as much as I do. I'd be having a significantly better summer. :(

Anyone else share my pain?

Howling Bells - Howling Bells

A couple of unconstructed streams of consciousness that I had to put down onto the internets, haven’t the time for writing something more formal due to lovely lovely exams.

Howling Bells self titled album really is one of the best albums I’ve heard in recent times. I can listen to every song with no desire to skip, and it never feels like its dragging, it goes by in a instant in a good way of course, time flies whilst your having fun and all that.

I really need to see these live, the albums just brilliant, not enough people listen to them which is a shame, but in a way its a good thing as they can be 'my' special band, along with the 14,316 other listeners on Last fm this week.

Are they really playing at Latitude festival? I've considered going, for The Arcade Fire, CSS and Jarvis Cocker to name a few, but if they're playing as well I’ll be really tempted, that is considering tickets are still up for sale. Last fm also says they're doing some live 'label showcase' gig on July 10th in London, may have to investigate.

Not that any of my friends would be interested :(

Anyway, Howling Bells - Howling Bells go forth and buy it now! You won't be dissapointed.

The Seven Ages of Rock

The Seven Ages of Rock - BBC 2 9:10 pm

Did anyone else catch this?


I enjoyed it, the first 20 minutes were a bit dull but it soon picked up some great footage in there. Although their definition of the ’birth’ of Rock was a little different, nothing much about Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and the like.

Only Little Richard and Howlin' Wolf were mentioned in their direct influence on Jimi Hendrix and the The Rolling Stones but it felt a bit tacked on but they've got to start somewhere I guess and Hendrix is a bigger viewings puller than Little Richard. Not an awful lot about The Beatles either, everything only seemed to be mentioned in relation to Hendrix, Sgt Peppers was only given 4 minutes or so due to Hendrix’s famous rendition of the title track two days after the albums release. Maybe that’s what the programme’s creators intended, a view of the 60’s through his eyes, it would make sense as his death pretty much heralded the end of the era, Anyway Its not like there’s anything else competing for my attention on a Saturday evening so I’ll definitely be watching.

Looking forward to ’Art Rock’ and Pink Floyd in the next episode!

The Advancing Guitarist

After progressing through Justin Sandercoe's excellent beginners guitar course (If you play guitar you owe to it yourself to visit his site) I felt a bit lost their was plenty of stuff left on the site for me to learn and I am currently trying to commit the Pentatonic scale to memory, but I need structure. I need discipline! I bought this book ignoring all the warnings about its lack of 'user friendliness' thinking of myself as an 'intermediate' player now, a Advancing Guitarist if you will. I hoped this book would provide me with a good structure in which to learn advanced techniques from. To pick me up where Justin left me hanging.

I dont think it will.

On a quick skim through it appears to be written in an alien language, proper musical notation! Because I live in the ghettos of London my secondary education of Music was poor to say the least, despite Mrs Ross's best intentions to tame our class and teach us some music theory she cracked and had a mental breakdown.

So I'd have to stretch back all the way to Ms Crombie in primary school and my brief venture into playing the Cello before I could possibly remember anything to do with notation. Yeah Im learning an instrument now, but tabs are so easy and tell me everything I need to know why should I have to learn notes and thingy’s because of this book. Very disappointing, I should have seen it coming, im not sure what I was thinking at the time, but you know Justin said it was "the best guitar book ever written" and I've grown to trust Justin over the past few months, ah well im sure it'll be a good future investment for whenever I am a 'Advancing Guitarist' I blame the government for my lacklustre music education.


At least I have some bedtime reading now though...



EDIT: Oh yeah Bjork's albums starting to grow on me, Wanderlust is actually quite funky its sort of a ballad but its beat is too quick for a ballad it works well, you might say its a Hyper-Ballad.

Ill get my coat.

Bjork - Volta First Impressions

Today I did something I rarely do..






Something I haven't done for years...







I bought a CD.


Not exactly life changing stuff I know but I had to draw you in somehow, that is, if anyone's there. Anyway back to the point, Bjork's shiny new album came out in the UK today. Five days after its release in Japan, and strangely, Six days after its release in the media hub that is.....Mexico. I had intended to go to the Woolworths down the road to perform this historic act, but it being a bank holiday I was persuaded to make a day of it and spend more money than I had originally intended and celebrate the purchase with McDonalds. In retrospect I don't think Woolworths would have had a Bjork album in stock, despite pre release hype suggesting its her most 'pop' album yet, so it was probably the right choice in the end.

Anyway as I strode into the not so local branch of HMV there it was, a solid bright red chunk of the new releases shelf was occupied by Iceland's biggest export. (Icelandic readers correct me if im wrong) I took down the limited edition version of the album. I wasn't one to generally buy limited/special edition versions of anything especially not at £15 but it was Bjork and it felt nice and chunky in my hand so I bought it. After spending far too much time in WHSmith trying to spend £20's worth of vouchers to the irritation of my friends and having a unplanned detour to a friends house for a few games of Pro, I returned home Volta firmly in hand.

The packaging was all very nice, some nice mini sleeves with some eye catching photographs of Bjork in typically eccentric clothing/costume, and a nice sticker which I resourcefully peeled off the front of the box and placed on my guitar. (Not sure I like it there so It may find a new home soon enough) One complaint, the CD and DVD both come in envelopes, brightly coloured envelopes, but envelopes nonetheless, a jewel CD case would have been nice especially considering I spent £15!

Rants on the packaging and rambling on my day aside onto the music.On first impressions its ok, I don't really get how its more 'pop' than anything she's done before, its no more pop than Homogenic or Post. The three Timbaland produced tracks is of the most accessible stuff she's done in a while but the rest of the album is just like a typical Bjork albums plenty of ballads and strange instrumentals to keep the fans happy, no real massive change in direction here.

But maybe thier should have been, as the 'different' tracks stand out the most on my initial listens. The three Timbaland produced tracks, Earth Intruders, Innocence and Hope, have a far more distinctive beat to them, and Declare Independence which has a far grittier, angry sound to it.

The album mix of Earth Intruders is far superior to the single cut, its much longer with a extra verse thrown in. It feels a bit muffled, whenever I hear it I want to turn it up some more and not in a good way, the instruments just aren’t loud enough for my liking to the point where it is almost frustrating.

Innocence features a Timbaland beat that would appear to be more at home on a Nelly Futardo album, but it works perfectly with Bjork's soaring, dynamic voice as well as it would with Ms Futardo's.

Hope has a much more low key beat behind it, and song is focused on Bjork's vocals and lyrics about suicide bombers (I think).

My final favourite is the song I like most, Declare Independence, a modern Pluto but much much better, like Pluto it has Bjork's voice switching from a her normal melodic floaty notes to a raw primal snarl, with a deep grinding constant bassline in the background with is eventually joined by a headache inducing (in a good way) drumbeat. The song is a war cry for well err, Independence and encourages the listener to "start your own currency/make your own stamp/protect your language" An obvious political tone here, but a great song first. If Bjork does actually peruse a new sound in a few years time for her next album then this should be it.

What does everyone else think? I think im going to start writing in Arial, much nicer. Dunno who im talking to..

Indie, not all that Indie?

A piece/mini-rant I wrote on Last Fm




Independent 'Indie' music is defined in Wikipedia as...

indie music (from independent) is any of a number of genres, scenes, subcultures and stylistic and cultural attributes, characterised by perceived independence from commercial pop music and mainstream culture and an autonomous, do-it-yourself (DIY) approach.


Well, there is definitely a perceived independence from commercial pop music and the mainstream culture, prevalent in much of the 'Indie' media, imparticular the bible of every Indie Kid (at least here in the UK) The New musical express or NME.

But as Indie music has risen in popularity or at least a certain brand of Indie music, is it truly Indie anymore? With a army of bands following the blueprint left behind by 'pioneers' such as Franz Ferdinand, the Strokes and the Arctic Monkeys, all with their own accented singer, two guitars, bass and drums, all looking very identikit and bland. The appearance of bands like this wouldn’t happen if there wasn’t money in it, and this is evident from the many indie bands that occupy the charts, has Indie music simply become to an extent a branch of music that every teenager cringes at the though of; Pop? Has it simply become a tag to throw on that cheery band with the catchy riffs to give it credibility?

Yes, they are for the most part on Independent labels, but that’s irrevalant if every other 'independent' label chases the same formula to achieve commercial success rather than as independent labels should strive to do, encourage and nurture artistic freedom and creativity. Which the huge music labels such as EMI cannot be 'trusted' to do?

Now I know there's plenty of other bands that get labelled with Indie, who are actually very independent from the 'mainstream' and probably deserve the tag, but for every...say Arcade Fire or Bjork (If they're allowed to count) there’s a dozen 'The View' 'The Frateillis' and 'the Rakes'

Anyway, to get to the point, and what id like to see what people think, has Indie simply become a fashion statement, a tag to add kudos to a band, or does it still have meaning and actually mean independent boundary pushing music and the appearance of these four piece guitar bands just the mainstream radio friendly face of a healthier than ever indie scene?



Joseph Richards

Dead Rising Review

The final draft of my AS level English coursework. Feedback as well as general thoughts appreciated.



Dead Rising, Capcom’s long awaited first venture into the next gen market on the xbox 360, is finally with us, having received much publicity and hype since its first showing at the now defunct E3 exhibition back in 2005.

The 360 also received much praise and anticipation when it was first revealed, since then enthusiasm has waned for the Microsoft’s vision of the next gen. A summer drought of quality titles only serves to amplify voices questioning the 360’s robustness, especially with the release of the Wii and the PS3 now not far off. Microsoft will be hoping that their patience with developers will reap a 2nd wave of quality titles to end the summer drought and drown out voices of dissent.


No pressure on Capcom to deliver then.


But unsurprisingly for a company of the stature and reputation of Capcom, they have delivered. Dead rising is an interesting fusion of other Capcom classics such as Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 4. The only striking differences are the surprisingly normal ‘hero’ of the game Frank West, an overly zealous photojournalist and swapping the eerie gothic castles and run down mansions for the relatively friendly, inviting setting of a shopping mall. One of the first not so subtle nods towards George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.

Unlike Dawn of the Dead however, the goal isn’t simply to survive the zombie outbreak. Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to investigate, strange goings on around the sleepy rural town of Willamette. It soon becomes clear that the town is ground zero of the beginnings of a zombie uprising, as you swoop over the town in a commandeered helicopter, flown by an equally overzealous pilot.

The next 10-15 hours that you should spend completing this title are well spent, slaying zombies in a seemingly unlimited number of ways, saving the many stranded survivors of the Willamette incident and killing the frenzied psychopaths that are peppered around the mall. Or alternatively you could progress through the main story thread. If you like that kind of thing.

Although, the sandbox design does mirror GTA at times, Capcom ventures into this increasingly popular genre in its own trademark style. This is Dead Rising, not Grand theft auto: Willamette, you have 72 game hours (6 real world hours) in the mall until your ride out of Willamette arrives, and takes you and any rescued survivors to safety.

This large amount of freedom the game affords you, mixed with the limited time before the game ‘ends’, is pulled off well keeping you focused and working towards whatever goal you’ve set yourself to achieve. It also gives what is essentially a short game, huge amounts of replayability, extending its life massively.

As the game retains any level you’ve reached on previous attempts, restarting the game due to time constraints is not a problem. Infact at least one restart will be most probably be required if you intend to beat the main story arc on your first go, even if you are cold hearted enough to ignore all those helpless survivors.

The system of being able to restart without necessarily losing progress, along with the GTA style mission tree’s also ensures the game remains fresh and enjoyable even after many hours and restarts.

The controls as you would expect in a Capcom title are slick and smooth, only slightly let down by the clumsy inventory system, which often causes you to gulp down that last precious carton of orange juice when you intended to whip out that mini chainsaw, to carve a path through the undead.


The other nightmare for developers creating a game in 3rd person, the camera, is tamed well and is generally co-operative and smooth, occurrences in which your death can blamed entirely upon a unhelpful camera are rare. Which is a relief considering the number of enemies you encounter on your journeys around the mall.

On the same note, fears arisen over the games difficultly due to the extreme number of zombies and limited amount of weapons to slay them with are unfounded. Zombies are generally passive and unaggressive during daylight hours, however when the sun sets your enemies become more ferocious and agile (although not to the level of the zombies in Zack Snyder’s remake) and quick wits are often required to get out of danger. Especially early in the game when you are weaker. Images released showing a seemingly impregnable wall of zombies to navigate through are thankfully not the case in the game. Whilst the number of zombies milling around can seem slightly overwhelming if you are under armed, or with survivors, it is never impossible or difficult to the point of frustration, and in many cases it is more than possible for Frank to simply sprint, climb or shove his way through the undead hordes, and if one of the undead do grab you in their cold grip it is relatively easy to escape with only a scratch.

However whilst on the point of navigating through the undead, the survivor AI can often be just stupid, willingly charging into groups of zombies,(although perhaps this is a another homage to the general intelligence of humans in survival horror movies?) or getting stuck in ridiculous places. combined with the games unforgiving save system, can often leave you unwilling to backtrack to save an idiot who was clearly too stupid to deserve to live. The ability to arm them with weapons and restore their health with foodstuffs makes this less of a sore point, but it remains a major flaw.

The idea of basing the game in one enclosed area was a risky one, but the vibrancy and variety of the locales inside and around the Mall make it seem as ‘limited’ or enclosed an area to explore as other ‘free roaming’ titles, such as the Grand
Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls series. You could argue that it creates a better illusion of freedom with its map than GTA or Oblivion does, your travelling isn’t ever halted by an invisible wall or a bridge that is conviently out of use. Rather brick walls
and blockaded entrances, decorated with several dozen stumbling zombies, reminds you that you are probably safer in the mall. Only a few times as I was wondering around on the roof of the Mall did I look longingly to the ‘outside’ world and wonder if they could have expanded the game world. The limited time you spend in the mall soon stops any daydreaming though, and reminds you to get back to the story at hand.

However short, but illusion shattering load times, on travelling to different 'areas’ of the mall are quite annoying. You often wonder how hard it would have been for Capcom to implement a GTA (yes im comparing it to that game again) or Halo style long load time at the beginning of the game, followed by short brief load times, which would have helped keep the player immersed in the story, a feature available and used in the last gen, and one that should be expected to be used this gen, especially by a developer as experienced as Capcom.

The story is surprisingly deep, extremely deep for a video game, especially one based on a B movie zombie horror. The game would be thoroughly entertaining with little or no plot, but Capcom, ever generous to the customer, have placed an interesting story, which has stolen its central themes directly from Dawn of the Dead, like the movie criticising American
consumerism, materialism and the powers that be.

It is executed well in its own right though to not feel like too lazy a rip off or an afterthought as is in the case in most games, the story also posses a interesting twist, and is well paced, draws in your interest and keeps it there, encouraging you to continue playing.

By the conclusion of the game you genuinely feel as if you have been taken on a journey, a feeling you often don’t get with videogames. Whose worlds whilst carefully crafted often feel depressingly constant despite all your achievements.

In conclusion, Dead Rising is a brilliant title, the gameplay is fun, killing zombies by ripping their fetid guts from their rotting stomachs as well as literally mowing them down with a lawnmower is laugh out loud funny. The impressive story line threads you along through the game, with it rarely feeling like a chore. The game world and its cast, Imparticular the wide cross section of society the survivors (and psychopaths) represent. Survivors all of whom react differently to the situation the uprising has placed them in, making you feel a little bit of empathy for them, even when they go and kill themselves stupidly. All this is displayed ‘impressively’ although by no means breathtaking graphics, (You’ll have to wait for Gears to blow you away graphically im afraid) serves to make you feel fully immersed in the game, it only rarely suffers from blips that remind you ‘its only a game’

A game however full of little quirks and hidden treasures demanding to be found. Such as the twang the electric guitars make from the music store as you crash them over the head of a unsuspecting zombie amongst many other things. This game oozes quality, whilst it adds nothing new to the action/adventure genre Capcom dominates, rather than juxtapose it in a new interesting setting. The ‘lack’ of originality isn’t a bad thing, when Capcom does it as well as it does with Dead Rising.

This and the occasionally flaky controls and NPC AI, combined with the unforgiving save system, limit it somewhat, but Dead Rising is still a great game, that every 360 owner owe’s it to themselves to play if only until Gears of War and company turn up.

8/10

Joseph Richards