January 2009 Archives

When people are interviewed in magazines and asked the first single they ever bought, they all say that they bought songs by The Beatles or The Jam or The Stone Roses (depending on their age).

It always makes me think: "Hang on, that sounds a bit suspect. Either (a) you were very cool as a seven-year-old, (b) you didn't buy any records until you were 18 or (c) you're lying." I reckon it's usually the latter.

The first single I ever bought, by contrast, was I Am A Cider Drinker by The Wurzels, a novelty band from the 1970s who re-wrote popular tunes with lyrics about life in the West Country (which seemed to amount to drinking cider and being a farmer).

As far as I can tell, Brad Mehldau wears the same shirt in every photo shoot.

Brown and two-tone - that most hideous of fashion mistakes made consistently by forty-something men who have a 'Friday night shirt' - the thing is frankly nauseating.

For those fans of Sheffield rockers Bring Me The Horizon this was a bad night even before the first power chord had been struck.

Illness forced frontman Oli Sykes to shelve plans for a potentially barnstorming set on Tyneside and the 'cancelled' notices struck an early blow to a bill already under pressure to deliver.

Throw in the fact that a snaking queue around the Academy, caused by the doors opening too late, meant at least half the crowd missed the bulk of openers In Case Of Fire's set and it's safe to say this was becoming an evening to forget.

Sam Wonfor sees if the now older fellas on the block can recreate the magic which took the world's teenage girls by storm two decades ago.

When it comes to gigs, I'm usually one for nailing my colours to the mast pretty early on in proceedings... and it takes more than a wink and a smile to make me take them down for a rethink.

If the usual form had applied to the return of the New Kids to this particular Block, you'd be about to read a rather bitter collection of grumblings from a grouchy 33-year-old who was expecting a triumphant boyband return a la Take That and felt thoroughly short-changed by the end of song three.

I saw Into the Blue by Drever, McCusker and Woomble when I accidentally turned on The Culture Show last night and I've been humming it ever since.

The band are folk musicians Kris Drever and John McCusker along with former Idlewild singer Roddy Woomble, who came together last year to record an album called Before the Ruin.

Woomble has a really individual and rather splendid voice and I'll probably be investigating this album, but I do think it's a bit rubbish to just call the band Drever, McCusker and Woomble. Couldn't they think of a proper name? Bah...

Keane are going through somewhat of a transitional period at the moment.

Their 2004 debut album, Hopes and Fears, propelled the band from obscurity to instant stardom, and the 2006 follow-up Under the Iron Sea, despite its more sombre undertones, still received critical acclaim.

This latest tour, on the back of their latest offering Perfect Symmetry, sees the band going down a more 1980s, synth-driven route, threatening to alienate the fans who helped them sell out their last two arena tours.

Following on from yesterday's "if you don't like this, you don't like music" theme, here's Brown Eyed Handsome Man by Chuck Berry.

Berry's celebration of the black man is subversive, witty and a great bit of storytelling with six verses crammed into two minutes and 19 seconds. It was originally released as a B-side (to Too Much Monkey Business) and became a posthumous hit for Buddy Holly in 1963.

I first got into Chuck Berry after watching the 1987 film Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll, in which Berry celebrates his 60th birthday with two concerts backed by an all-star band.

Today is a day of great excitement for GP's Song of the Day as I have rushed out and bought the new Bruce Springsteen album Working On A Dream.

As I haven't got home to listen to the new album yet, let's just make Born To Run today's song of the day because if you don't like this, you pretty much don't like music.

After his first two albums received a fairly lukewarm reaction, Born To Run was (in his mind) Springsteen's final shot at stardom. He agonised over the sound and recorded the guitar line a number of times to get it right.

Great music often takes risks and it doesn't get much riskier than Richard Thompson's latest live offering.
As he told a packed auditorium at The Sage on Friday night, "ambitious is not the word" for 1000 Years of Popular Music - a history of songwriting spanning from the 12th century to Nelly Furtado.

Neil Tennant once remarked that the Pet Shop Boys wrote three types of songs: funny songs with social comment, romantic love songs from a slightly different perspective or songs you can dance to.

That's a pretty good summary of what is probably one of the best back catalogues in British pop music. The Pet Shop Boys write funny, clever lyrics and fantastic tunes - what more do you need?

I love the Pet Shop Boys for their music but also their attitude to pop.