How Free Is Free?

In today's Sunday Times was a voucher for 5 Live Blur songs from iTunes , a follow up to the free CD last week in the same newspaper. This is all well and good , but it turns out the songs are DRm'd and can't be converted from iTunes format , and hence can only be played on a PC if you install iTunes , and on an Apple Mobile device such as an iPhone or iPod.




In my opinion that's very restrictive . I do have iTunes (which is free , incidentally) , but would have to spend at least £50 on a portable device to play them (iShuffle) , which I'm not prepared to do. Given that Blur and their record label supply the music , probably paid for by The Sunday Times how come Apple can stick their oar in and dictate how you listen to the damned stuff. Anyway here's some Apple product if you like that kind of thing!!

What Will They Complain About Now?

Now that the mutant offspring of Bros have been ejected from X-Factor what will people complain about. X-Factor is a method of making a quick buck for Simon Cowell who is excellent at media manipulation. He is the onlsolid thing in the show , everything else is peripheral ephemera. The show is the latest in a long line of prime time rubbish stretching back to Opportunity Knocks , New Faces and Seaside Special. Anyone who watches this can't complain at what the get.




I saw thirty minutes of it over the weekend that confirmed that my general decision to ignore it was correct. Now I DO know what I'm missing , and thank god I am!!!

Incidentally during the adverts they were advertising a Chris Moyles' Parody Album !!! Weird Al Jankovic was bad enough , but Moyles manages to plumb even deeper depths of rubbish . "I Predict A Diet" indeed!!




Oh and they's just announced U2 are headlining Glastonbury next year!! I still wont be going!!

Tickets , Touts and Gigs

It's that time of year when there seems to be a hell of a lot of decent gigs on , and promoters seem to find even better ways of ripping you off. The O2 Academy use some legalized touts called ticketweb who charge a £1.50 processing plus a 10% service charge if you buy one line or by card. Get round it by paying cash at the venue. Previously they had a print your own option, where for £2.25 (plus ticket price , plus service charge) you could use your own materials to print your ticket!

The other venue I've used is the Sage at Gateshead who charge about a pound to send the tickets out to you . Admittedly their tickets are normally about double the acts at The Academy , but they don't rip you off.

Having said that , Paolo Nutini at the Academy was £22 a ticket , and with charges that came to about £26 quid a ticket , provided by my very good friends Jan and Lynn for services supposedly rendered. Gig was great though massively overcrowded and I definitely owe them one!! Here's the offilcial "Pencil Full Of Lead" video: