Depeche Mode were on Jool's Holland on Tuesday night. Now how cool is that? Their new album ison contonual rotation in my car at the moment. I think what I most like about it is the use of the old synths. It sounds great. there's even an insturmental track which sounds like it could have been on A Broken Frame. By the way, a Broken Frame is my favorite Depeche Mode album and yet everyone says it was hit. Even the band themselves always rate it as their worst album. Now that's bloody annoying when an album you love is disowned by the group itself. David Sylvian does the same thing. Actually I'm reading his biography at the moment, or at least flicking throught the parts on his Japan days.
Sorry but this made me laugh. Its from a group called 'I Pooh'!. Indeed! And the name of the song in english is 'Give me a Minute' or 'Give me just a minute'. Nive, very nice.
The words go something like this...
I know There's no need to talk more about it, I know its inconveniente, but all of a sudden... I find it hard to accept It's hard to imagine
Goodbye, there's a slight smell here.
No joking, those are the words. And its not even about poohing!
here's another great piece of synth pop from the 1980s. A friend of mine went on an exchange to France and brought me back a gift of this single. I never heard of them again or ever saw them until perform until the arrival of youtube.
Here they seem to be performing on some kind of 'Back to the 80's' show on French TV.
I bought this single called 'Who Will Stop the Rain" by Montage back in tthe eighties but never heard anything else about them. The b-side is called 'If I Only Had Money'. A quick search on the Internet reveals that their record company Reekus Records in back in operation, and there's even a video of them performing another song on TV, called when I close my eyes. There's a discography on irishrock.org
Pity that there's no sign of 'Who Will Stop the Rain' on the net. I'll keep searching.
One more for today, a great classic video from a unique Irish singer. I saw him perform once in Cork jumping around from table to table. Crazy, Mad. Fantastic!
I loved this song, from another Limerick man, Barry Warner. I've only ever heard the two songs by him, Real Man and Dancing Without You. I still have the Real Man single but I have no idea what happened to the other. Its been years since I've seen these videos! the onwdes of YouTube! I remember buying the single in Stardiscs at Tots to Teens in Patrick Street. I also remember that they wouldn't let is kids in the shop until you agreed to buy something. Oh wonderful days of anti-marketing they were.
I've just seen that Barry Warner is still going strong and has a myspace page.
Remember Irelan'd answer to Live Aid, back in 1986 entitled Self Aid. If I remember right, the objective was to get people back into employment. This is a time when there were zero jobs in Ireland and the only prospect was to go abroad. I was still at secondary school at the time and found it interesting to learn about booms and busts in economics class. I couldn't help thinking that Ireland had only ever been in a bleak economic situation. There had never been a boom. How weird it must be to have full employment and not to have to go abroad.
How things changed in the 90's! It all took off about 1995 just when I headed off abroad!
Here's what I've been buying overthe last month or two. People are always amazed when I tell them that its still possible to buy current releases on vinyl.
I can't make up my mind if I want to buy one of these things or not. Is the gimmick worth the asking price of about 80 euro? Not sure. Meanwhile I can watch it on youtube.
For me, the only geat group to emerge from X-Factor/Amercian Idol/ Pop Idol programs is Nena Daconte, with lead singer Mai Meneses who was thrown out of Spanish TV's Operacion Triunfo program after about two weeks.
I love this girl's voice. And she was lucky to find the perfect musical partner. They have 2 albums, the first is a pop classic, as good as any spanish pop record since Mecano. This video is for the first single from their second album “Retales de Carnaval“ (Universal’ 08)
I watch the X-Factor every year. It's great TV. Mind you, it is not a music progam! What they are good at is not making music, its about making great TV.
Now after these words of wisdom, I would highly recommend Ben Elton's last novel called Chart Throb. After reading it you'll enjoy watching the X-Factor or even American Idol even more, cause it emphasises what makes these programs great, how the judges make fun of the freaks, how they talk up the contestants until they believe all the hype they tell them and then they cut them down again making them look silly in front of millions of people.
This is a total classic! Its like when Simon Cowell (in his godly wisdom !!?) talks about taking a song and making it your own, well this song by Tight Fit should be the master class example of how to do that.
Has anyone noticed that Q magazine has been improving a lot lately. For a while there I was getting a bit bored of their format, boring interviews with the same old tired questions, simplistic music reviews and endless "50 best of..." lists.
Well, they did something very smart at Q. They bought a few copies of Word magazine and copied the best parts. And Q is so much better for it.
1 - Q copied the Word's subscriber only uncluttered cover concept. If you're a subscriber you now get a much neater, cleaner, less cluttered cover photo.
2 - Q copied Word's use of regular high quality columnists. Q brought in Billy Bragg and a few others high profile journalists to write regular articles, and so far so good!
3 - Q copied Word by bringing in more non-strickly-music related articles.
4 - Q copied Word by improving the quality of their interviewers. For a while Q's interviews were begnning to sound like they were back in the 80's with Smash Hits (What's your favorite ready meal?)
But the overall result is that Q magazine is so much better for it. There's just a lot more reading to each month's issue. And its almost as good a Word. Almost.
P.S. - I might be wrong on this one, but I seem to remember receiving a weekly 'Something for the weekend' email from Word and now Q are doing the exact same thing on their web site.
My thoughts on seeing them on Jonathon Ross? They seemed to be really getting on. They played extremely well. The music sounded great. I'll go to see them if I can get tickets.
But most of all its changed my mind on the possibility of other reunions. I was always of the mind that we would never see a Smiths reunion. And I still think its highly unlikely, but if this lot can actually want to be in the same room together after such a bad falling out, then I think that anything is possible, even a Smiths return, or at least a Morrissey and Marr show.
And at the end of his show Jonathon Ross announced that next week, live on the show, he'll have Depeche Mode!!! It really is 1982 again!
And to cap it all off, I turned over to BBC to watch the Jool's Holland show and there was Madness singing old songs and new tunes from their new album!
Three new records I bought this week on ebay. In general I never have any problems with buying on ebay although I only purchase with sellers who accept some form of middleman payment such as paypal. I got ripped off of 500 quid last year off my creditcard so I'm more careful nowadays. My most understanding bank manager refunded me!
Anyway, I saw Carole King on Jools Holland and bought Tapestry on a total impuklse buy on ebay right after the program for a fiver. Its in good condition and even the few background crackles add to the character of the record. So many times I hear these people murdering these songs on programs like American Idol. Its so refreshing to hear the originals and remember why they are classics.
I bought this Madness LP cause I was listening to their stuff at home and I realised that I was missing their last two albums from the 80's, this one and the Mad not Mad one.
I don't know why I never bought the third Altered Images album before. I was playing around with Spotify to see what there was and what there wasn't on there, and I came across this album by Altered Images. I've seen it som any time dirt cheap but never got round to buying it. IN fact, I've ended up with two copies of it. I bid 99 pence and decided to buy it on a 'buy it nowthingy' and ended up winning the one for 99 pence as well.
One annoying thing about buying records on ebay which is the P&P costs. The difference in cost from different sellers can be huge. And then when the record arrives I can't help checking how much they paid on post. Why should I pay 4 pounds on P&P if they spend 2.66 pounds? Is the difference for the horrible envelope they put it in? Or the hassle of waiting in line at the post office?
I've noticed this new group 'Oficial Secrets Act' being advertised in many of the music magazines and I remembered that I have an LP from the late 70s by a group with the same name. In fact I though it was a fairly shite name when I found this record a few years back in a second hand record shop and the more I looked at the sleeve the more crap it seemed. I think it cost me about 50 cents for the record (hence the pruchase).
Anyway, now there's this new group and they're also Official Secrets Act but without the 'The'. Let's hope the music is better than the name. No sign of them yet on Spotify.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
The signed new shaped picture disc single by La Roux. When I bought it online I didn't realise that it would be signed and shaped. What a great surprise.
Well I haven’t written anything here in ages. Seems a shame to have such a great blog name (I think!) and not use it. But family and life get in the way of regular updates. And such things as the current episode of the Apprentice (UK) (and other shows like Lost, Battlestar Galactica , etc) which is on in the background as I write this. What a bunch of plonkers they always are these contestants on this program. But nevertheless, it’s very interesting to watch. It never ceases to amaze me how normal they are when they’re fired and the appear on the ‘Apprentice – You’re Fired’ program.
Also, I wasn’t sure where this blog was going. It was supposed to be a diary of a music fan when in fact what really interests me is music on vinyl. And I suppose I was letting too many things influence what I wrote about and why. I don’t want anyone to know who I am so I try to keep personal information at a minimum. Then again, the music I like is probably not considered very cool. I’m a child of the 70s and a teenager of the 80’s so I like to listen to all sorts of eighties pop, even including Shakin Stevens who was my first music idol (who gives a fuck if you think he wasn’t cool, I was 11 at the time in 1981 when he broke onto the music scene and I adored seeing the guy singing and dancing on breakfast TV. I lived for his next single).
So from now on I’m going to concentrate on my vinyl purchases. Who says vinyl is dead? It’s not! In fact most people think so but I buy most of my new music on vinyl. Only recently I’ve bought the new albums on vinyl by Late of the Pier, Antony & the Johnsons, U2, Heartbreak, The Filthy Dukes, Lady Gaga, Friendly Fires, Ladyhawke, Royksopp and White Lies. I also like to display record sleeves in my in my house.. Since I was 11 years old I’ve been fascinated with record shops so I suppose that by displaying the sleeved from the records I’m currently listening to at home I feel like I’m in some kind of imaginary record shop or art gallery. Hey and I’m 39 years old!
So I’m going to concentrate on explaining the vinyl, old and new, that I’m buying, explaining what the records mean to mean and why I bought them, and so on. If no one else reads this then at least I’ll have a record of my music purchases over time. Let’s see if it evolves or remains entrenched in the 80 and 80s revivals. I did start to but some jazz stuff when I turned 30. I somehow thought it was the right thing to do. But I got over that after a few months. Still I like the stuff I bought. Now I’m nearing 40 I wonder if I’ll have another silly 10 years crisis.
The new Antony & the Johnsons single on yellow vinyl. mmmm!
Also I’d like to highlight any special purchases such as picture discs or colored vinyl. Last week I bough the new single by La Roux and it arrived on a shaped picture disc signed by the artist! Brilliant! And the new singe by Antony and the Johnsons is on yellow vinyl. To me its something precious, a beautiful physical format of recorded music.
