Remake / Remodel

In his book "Last Shop Standing" Graham Jones (see here) remarks on how Greatest Hits packages and compilations are stagnating the music industry. Apparently Roxy Music have had seven such items , and over the past week there's another Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits, another compilation to celebrate Blur's reformation called Midlife and another Black Sabbath Greatest Hits Compilation.




Add this to the rush of "Platinum Collections", "Dad Rock" compilations for Fathers Day , and similar ones on Mothers Day, Christmas and the like and you can see just how bloated and lazy the corporate music industry has become concentrating solely on moving product rather than nurturing music . The two items should be compatible , though the fact that the industry is run by accountants shows in spades.








I put together a short video featuring recycled music , soundtracked by Roxy Music's Remake/Remodel from their eponymous debut, available for download here.

However in some ways greatest hits are not all bad, they may be a good introduction to a band , and it's good to see bands still touring even if they do rest on their laurels so to speak. Fleetwood Mac (with the genius of Lindsey Buckingham) and Fairport Convention are two that spring to mind. But the best news on this front for was that Arthur Jeffes, the son of the late great Simon Jeffes has put together a band to play the music of the truly wonderful Penguin Cafe Orchestra and will be touring with them , including old and new compositions. Now that IS worth looking forward to. Information here.

What's The Meaning Of Free?

After Carphone Warehouse's re-imagining (see Orange Goldspots ad below) of the word "unlimited" in relation to mobile downloads (250 Mb a month se article here) we now have Sky offering free broadband, calls and Sky+ Box as the main thrust of their advertising campaign. In the small porint it does mention that you have to pay a minimum of about £16 a month to get these "free" services.

A similar thrust is 3s "never pay for another phone call" advert , the condition being that you make Skype to Skype phone calls using VOIP and incur the related internet access data charges . Yes, you dont pay for the calls , but you DO pay for being able to make them!!

The Orange Goldspot that uses THAT word:

The Train Can Be Fun

Train journeys can be annoying , borring and infuriating. There's lots of things can go wrong , unexplained delays , drunken idiots , jobsworth officials who just seem intent on obstructing you in any way you can.

However the experience can often be enhanced just by talking to the person you sit next to. Sometimes it can be amazing the number of things you find in common. Speaking to a young lady who alighted at Durham for a 62 mile journey to her job in York, we found that we both like the Sage, Richard Thompson , Half Man Half Biscuit and our conversion finished as she recognised my alarm tone of ELP's Hoedown which was meant to be my alarm call to wake me up at Darlington, which thanks to her I didn't need.

Hopefully there will be more journeys like that and less where they guy at the barrier at Darlington spends an age inspecting my ticket making me miss my train.

Here's the video for "Dickie Davies Eyes" one of my favourites, and it features Forton Services , I remember it when it was modern. When this hit number one in the Indie chart the band split for the first time!!

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I Didn't Imagine The Jazz Playing Monks in Bright Orange

In a conversation in the Market Lane last night I was accused of being off my head when I said I had seen a troupe of monks dressed in bright orange playing jazz in the street in Tynemouth. I spoke to a couple of them in the queu for the beer tent in the Priory (Tynemouth Priory that is) where they told me they were called Excelsior (or some derivation thereof) , maybe had a relationship with the Dutch Excelsior Brewery or Football team. Anyway cant find anything about the jazz band on the net , though I'm sure I did at the time. Situation is the only proof I have is a bit of video I took when I saw them at the 2006 Mouth Of Tyne Festival , the sound was attrocious so I've replaced it with Morse Code Melody by The Alberts available on the album "By Jingo It's British Rubbish" here

The video proof is above

(S)crappage

Scrappage ... Is it even a real word? This must rate as the most idiot waste of tax payers money ever. Supposedly to help the (British?) Car Industry. You get a couple of grand off a new car if you scrap that one one you've kept on the road for the last fifteen years or whatever? Apparently 35,000 people have taken this up , so that's cost us £70m in payouts to car companies for discounts that you could have got with a bit of negotiation anyway!! Then there's the cost of trashing the old car. Recycling?? , will probably end up as landfill.

And the killer punchline .... you can trade in against a new Skoda, Fiat, Ford , Renault , Peugeot etc because we dont really have a British car industry any more !!

I'm keeping my 16 year old Renault Clio until it drops , then it can go for scrap . That's a far greener and more cost effective option.

Lucifer Sam....

Earlier in the the year we had a problem with cats using the garden as a toilet , so decided to try the "Silent Roar" Lion Poo solution (see here) One cat in particular was a total git , any way I have some film of said offender now avoiding our garden in this bit of video accompanied by Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam" which you can get here.

Jan's Jansz

Just wandering past Oddbin's today and ran into my good friend Jan, just as I was about to purchase a couple of bottle's of the appropriately named Jansz for a party!! Co-incidence or what!!

Jan's on the right in the left hand photo and the gorgeous wine is described thus on the Oddbin's site:

"The bouquet shows lifted aromas of honeysuckle and citrus fruits from the Tasmanian Chardonnay, with nougat and roasted nuts derived from the lees ageing, while the Pinot Noir contributes delicate strawberry. The palate is well balanced with delicate fruit flavours, creaminess and fresh acid, leading to a dry, light finish." ... much like the lady herself.....