Beyonce

I have just noticed the picture of Beyonce “stealing the show” at the Grammy awards, on the same page as the article linked below in relation to Men at Work.

Looks like she is indicating what she thinks about the show to me…

Labels: music

Men at Work

I appreciate that this is like when you say your goodbyes at the hotel check out and then bump into one another again in the carpark. But I am going to make another post notwithstanding yesterday’s portentous farewell, because this is important news:

Men at Work have apparently been successfully sued for copyright infringement. I had always assumed that the flute hook in ‘Down Under’ was an entirely deliberate musical reference to ‘Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree’ as a piece of well–known Australiana, along with the references in the lyrics to other stereotypically Australian things (Vegemite, etc). A bit lame of the composers of ‘Kookaburra’ to object to what is in effect an affectionate musical ‘quote’, in circumstances where the money made by Men at Work for ‘Down Under’ was never going to be made by ‘Kookaburra’ on its own.

Labels: law, music

Chas and Dave

It was reported yesterday that following the death of his wife, Dave, one half of “Chas and Dave”, has decided to retire from the music business, bringing to an end 30–odd years of Chas and Dave. Sad news. I went to see them a couple of years ago at the 100 Club and it was a bloody good night out. I am sorry that I didn’t get down to another gig before now to see them again.

Labels: music, news

Public service announcement

Earlier, we were trying to remember the background music that is always used to accompany documentaries about the industrial revolution. It turned out to be quite a hard thing to google. No longer, I hope (Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights, in case you were wondering…).

Labels: music, TV

Jimmy Buffett - SummerZcool Tour 2009

Went to see Jimmy Buffett at the Shepherds’ Bush Empire last night. Not exactly my cup of tea, but a fun night nevertheless. He performed well, with lots of energy and came across as a nice guy. Seemed genuinely happy to be there and played a good long encore to a rapturous reception. Crowd were mostly Jimmy Buffett die–hards who had been waiting 39 years for Jimmy to gig in the UK and who knew all the words to everything (my wife falling firmly into that category). But he played many of the well–known songs that even I recognised.

Songs that I recall, in no particular order (and with assistance from google) — Son of a Son of a Sailor, Pirate Looks at 40, Margaritaville, One Particular Harbour, Changes in Latitudes, Grapefruit, Mañana, 5 O’Clock Somewhere, He Went to Paris, Stars on the Water, Conky Tonkin’, Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw, Come Monday, Volcano, Cheese Burger in Paradise, Last Mango in Paradise, Fins, We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About, plus a few covers (Yellow Submarine, Brown Eyed Girl, Werewolves of London (bit random, that one — but I assume he felt it appropriate to London and I guess it’s handy to have in the back pocket for gigs in other locations should a large werewolf contingent be spotted in the crowd)) and some songs that I think are from a latest album (SummerZcool, I Feel Like Goin’ Surfing in a Hurricane, A lot to Drink About).

One thing: there was no option for the general public to reserve seats at the venue when buying tickets. We turned up nice and early to queue to make sure that my somewhat small in stature, rather pregnant, uber–Buffett–fan wife got a good spot on the level we had been assigned (level 1). The seats we got were fine, but all of the best seats on level 1 (like, the first 6 rows or so) were reserved, presumably for VIPs. Once the gig got underway, the whole place was totally packed with every seat and all the standing room downstairs taken, save for a large number of these optimally located reserved seats, which remained unoccupied for the duration. Funny how the people who are in a position to get the best stuff are the people who don’t even want it. Jimmy ought to write a song about it. Fair play though to the venue security, who with about 45 minutes to go took the view that the VIPs definitely weren’t coming and removed the reserved signs, allowing us to score the best seats in the house at the front of the balcony for the last 5 or so songs plus the encore.

Labels: diary, music

GNR

I like this review of Guns N’Roses album Chinese Democracy, now finally released after 14 years in the making. The conclusion:

“A million monkeys with their million proverbial typewriters would have taken far longer to create something as good as this. The classic Guns N’Roses line–up which gave us Paradise City and Sweet Child O’Mine would have taken a lot less to deliver something better”.

Labels: music

Went to see the Average White Band at the Jazz Cafe last night. Very entertaining gig.

Labels: diary, music

Internet Radio

While I was out in the US for the wedding, a friend who lives out there introduced me to a very cool website, which had previously passed me by, although I now think I recall having read about the site, its founder Tim Westergren and problems with the US copyright authorities on Doc Searls. Pandora.com is a website that allows you to play a stream of music over the internet, which you can “teach” so that it plays a programme of songs that appeal to your taste. The way it does so is by having laboriously catalogued all of the available tracks according to their characteristics and playing songs which have similar characteristics to songs or artists in relation to which you have expressed approval when “seeding” your “station”. You then have the opportunity to approve, deprecate or remain neutral about each song played by the website, further guiding it in the desired direction. Basically, you end up with an internet radio station where the “DJ” only plays stuff you like.

How gutted was I, therefore, to arrive back in the UK to find that as from January 2008, access to the website has been restricted to those in the United States due to international licensing restrictions. We need this in the UK. Come on, the PRS, etc, give them a licence.

Labels: computers, music

Akon still struggling to grow into mighty oak

Does the extended remix version of Sorry, Blame it on Me by Akon include a line about “sorry for being shite and making irritating records”? It should do.

Labels: music

Stan Tracey

After watching the first half of the rugby last night, I took the difficult decision to go to a gig at the Pizza Express Jazz Club on Dean Street instead of watching the second half. It was the Stan Tracey Trio (ST + Andrew Cleyndert (bass) and Clark Tracey (drums)) with Benjamin Herman (alto sax) and Guy Barker (trumpet). It was extremely good and enjoyable and I think that in the end I made the right decision. Spoke to Clark Tracey afterwards and apparently they were recording for a CD that night, so I will be looking out for that in due course for my collection.

Labels: diary, london, music

Led Zep

Did anyone get tickets for the Led Zeppelin Ahmet Ertegun tribute gig on 26 November 2007? Tickets are £125 and were allocated via a ballot that was enormously over–subscribed. I applied but was unsuccessful. I saw that Harvey Goldsmith was on the TV having a big moan the other day about the secondary market that has developed on ebay (although I am not exactly clear what the principled basis for his complaint is — “real fans” are no more likely to win in the ballot than anyone else, or any less likely to have £1,000 to buy a ticket on ebay than anyone else).

Labels: music

Apparently, this Joseph is the big thing at the moment. “He looks handsome, he looks smart. He’s a walking work of art”. Doesn’t stop him looking like a young Colonel Gadaffi, mind you.

Labels: london, music

George Melly

R.I.P. George Melly. Ronnie Scott’s at Christmas won’t be the same without you.

“He was a noted drinker but claimed to have cut down in later years. “I’m very fond of alcohol, but I drink a minute amount compared with what I did at one period in my life, when I drank at least a bottle of brandy a night, plus gins and things during the day,” he said. “Now I’ll have a dry sherry around noon, maybe a glass of wine at lunch and then in the evening I’ll have two or three gin and tonics and half a bottle of wine and probably a couple of brandies, which for me is practically being teetotal.””

Labels: music

Woah, I just heard/saw Natasha Bedingfield’s song “I want to have your babies” and its accompanying video and they are bloody terrifyingly egregious. Following on from her earlier single “These Words” (“I love you, I love you, I love U-hu”), this confirms my view that Natasha Bedingfield’s concept is totally, like, “the over–sized nightmare psychotic girlfriend set to music”. Clever positioning: sure she’ll sell millions.

Labels: music

Not every Akon grows into a mighty oak

Is it just me, or are Gwen Stefani and Akon crap? By which I don’t mean “Gwen Stefani feat. Akon” is crap. I mean separately, they are both crap. “Gwen Stefani feat. Akon” should be doubly crap, but in fact it is actually slightly less crap than some of their particularly crap stuff separately. But it’s still crap. In my opinion.

Labels: music

What do you get if you nick the title from Velvet Revolver (Fall to Pieces) and the music from Bob Dylan (Like a Rolling Stone). Razorlight’s new single that’s what. Also, that boney posh bloke seems like a nob. Put a shirt on mate.

Labels: music