What Is It WIth September?

Just noticed that I've never previously done more than three posts in September . Haven't a clue why this is. Could be that it's the run up to my birthday , or summer is over and winter is coming , certainl had some stormy weather recently.

The thing is there has been stuff to write about , but I haven't written . Maybe this year I will make up .... or not!!

Minimalism #2 - PIL's Album

Just read an article on PIL's Album , which is probably my favourite. While I'm aware that PIL has been a hurricane of members (49 I believe) with John Lydon it's controlling eye so to speak , I was quite shocked to find who actully played on the album.

"Rise" is still my favourite PIL single , and "FFF" and "Fishing" two of my favourite PIL tracks . This isnt to belittle their other stuff. Anyway....

I was aware of John Lydon's affiliation with Bill Laswell from his appearance as a guest on The Golden Palominos' "Visions of Excess" , but what I wasn't aware of (remember the albums minimalist sleeve art and vinyl origins) was that he'd ditched the original band and brought in a veritalble superstar line up to record the damned thing.

These included Ginger Baker on drums , Ornette Coleman on reeds , Stevie Vai on guitar , and more . This is lifeted from the Wikipedia entry , but you get the picture.

"Produced by Bill Laswell (despite Lydon-fuelled faction and disunion) and with many of Laswell's usual rotating cast of musicians, it also featured guitar solos by Steve Vai, considered by Vai himself to be some of his best work. Jonas Hellborg, solo bassist and at the time, member of John McLaughlin's reformed band, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, played bass on the album. Jazz great Tony Williams and legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker drummed on the album, which also featured Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Japanese electropop group Yellow Magic Orchestra."


Anyway , if you don't have the album, rectify the error of your ways and purchase it now to find out what you have been missing !! PIL are currently in the studio recording their first new material in 20 years!! Below playing Public Image and Rise in 2010!

Mininmalism #1

Minimalism , or laziness has been the order of the month for 2011, this being my second post despite various things happening and the run up to my birthday , but sometimes life gets in the way of things you plan to do . I still need to find a place that will hire me a reciprocal saw to dismember the tree that fell into my garden two weeks back. It's in manageable chunks , and the leaves have bee disposed of , but it needs chopping into fire friendly sized logs.

Some Winter Fuel!

The other thing is that I'd started this post based on some surprising facts about one of my favourite albums , but that will get it's separate post.

Also we've have Facebook's pointless revamp , making it almost unusable , crashing phone applications and stuff like that , making people very irate , not least of them me, I believe the iPhone app is well and truly shafted. Not a good "customer" experience.



I'm also getting more than a little bored with all these groupon clones , such as Voucher Cloud and LivinSocial. Both available from the Android App Store and LivingSocial insists I'm in Wolverhampton and won't let me change it , but is happy to send me offers from the USA and Eastern Europe. I'm all for saving money , but not when it costs me my time and sanity!!!

Oh and A Kindle has entered the domicile. And yes it is impressive but it's not mine, I'm happy with the reader on my Advent Vega!!

Give Me £50 - And I'll Let You Advertise My Product!

I have a problem , a good friend of mine bought me a £30 Fenwicks Voucher and I want to buy a denim jacket . Denim jackets are nowhere to be be seen , lots of winter jackets , Belstaff making a big comeback , but I just want a light jacket I can wear when its warm , then thought I maight get a paitr of jeans with G-STAR plastered all over them - £110!!

So I pay £110 and look like a human version of one of these taxis with Claims-4-U palstered all over them! In the sixties my uncled reckoned no on would be idiotic enough to wear T-Shirts advertising a product or brand. Now it seems it's almost mandatory!! Nike , Reebok , Levis , Paul Smith , Superdry , Tommy Hilfiger.

Everyone expressing their individuality by following like sheep , and paying for the privilege. In the mid seventies Don Revie  and Admiral sportswearcame up with the idea of squeezing more money out of Leeds fans by marketing replica shirts , now the biggest Premiership teams often have four kits a season , thats £200 if you want to keep up.

Personally I go for retro shirts , whicj means you buy what you want when you want , but it must be hell for parents keeping up with the kids wants.

It seems almost all we wear today has a brand that marks you out as a potential sales hoarding for the latest Nike , Prada ,Aramani or whatever. So I'm off to town to buy something , I wonder what!!