There is Music in the Breakdown

I love Arcade Fire too much for words.

2012-01-15T20:57:00.001Z

I should be revising for my exam tomorrow morning, but I'm sure that the law of diminishing returns as to the amount of information that can stick in your head the night before an exam will redeem me. I can only hope that tonight's episode of Sherlock isn't too gripping... There's a major flaw in that plan, somewhere.

Will Butler is one of my favourite people on earth, and the band's performance at Austin City Limits just goes to show why the previous two statements are true. And then Win giving away microphones at the end of the gig... never seen that before. Can't wait for them to get a new album out, whenever that happens to be.

50 minutes of music of epic proportions.

Blows dust off blog

2012-01-12T19:19:00.000Z

Hi. It's been a while since I last wrote anything in this blog... over a year now, I must admit. Quick catch up of the last year and a bit: carried on with gigs with my (very amateur) jazz quartet, managed to send of UCAS forms, get an offer from the University of Manchester and then subsequently got my AAA at A level to get me in, saw Jools Holland at Ripley Castle (epic), saw Arcade Fire at the MEN Arena (super epic), survived Freshers' Week without any signs of Freshers' Flu or hospital visits, saw And So I Watch You From Afar and The Joy Formidable at Academy 2 (more epic than Jools but not quite at the level of Arcade Fire) and didn't get kicked off the course for being useless.

Oh, and I like Barbershop now, Barbershop's cool (Said in the manner of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvWYw0CnuSI).*

No idea if it's the cheesy lyrics which do it, or the fun upbeat nature of most of the songs, or just the irresistible harmonies which get thrown around, but since the start of October, I've loved it. I joined the university's Barbershop Chorus then, and haven't regretted a moment of it. Eventually, it culminated in this performance in the last week of term in December (this was the last and best song of our set).

In February, we're going to see a night of Barbershop groups at RNCM, and among them is an American group called Westminster Chorus. They won the International Barbershop Chorus Competition in 2010 with the second video being a part of their performance, but the first video is their version of the same song posted up there, only with it being done properly and with amaaaaaaaaaaazing choreography (which we copied for the most part). Recently, watching all of the videos from their performances at the 2010 competition has been a main means of procrastination for me. A really epic one, nonetheless, and I don't regret it anywhere near as much as I probably should.

The Arcade Chart

2010-11-19T21:17:00.001Z

Just a quick post giving a ranking of Arcade Fire's album songs. Hard enough just doing that without throwing in the old EP songs and b-sides.

37. Wasted Hours
36. Deep Blue
35. Neighbourhood #4 (7 Kettles)
34. Neon Bible
33. The Suburbs
32. The Suburbs (continued)
31. Half Light I
30. City With No Children
29. Black Mirror
28. (Antichrist Television Blues)
27. Modern Man
26. Ready To Start
25. Suburban War
24. Half Light II (No Celebration)
23. Wake Up
22. Windowsill
21. Une Année Sans Lumière
20. Sprawl I (Flatland)
19. We Used To Wait
18. Empty Room
17. Rococo
16. The Well and The Lighthouse
15. In The Backseat
14. Crown Of Love
13. Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
12. My Body Is A Cage
11. Keep The Car Running
10. Intervention
9. Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
8. Month Of May
7. Ocean Of Noise
6. Haïti
5. Rebellion (Lies)
4. Neighbourhood #3 (Laika)
3. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
2. No Cars Go
1. Neigbourhood #3 (Power Out)

That took a good hour to order, and about 10 minutes was spent thinking about which I prefer out of No Cars Go and Neighbourhood #3. Looking at that list, you might think that Funeral is by several miles my favourite Arcade Fire album, but to be truthful, it is, but the other two are very close behind it. The Suburbs is a great album, but it doesn't have brilliant song after brilliant song like Funeral and Neon Bible do. Feel free to throw abuse at me for putting Wake Up in 23rd.

7 Reasons Muse Are Awesome

2010-09-18T13:26:00.002+01:00

As many of you know, I regularly write a guest post for the generous chaps over at 7reasons.org. This one was written a few weeks before I went to see these fellows in Manchester at the start of the month, which I must say was an amazing night. njoy.

1. The dress sense. Completely non-existent in the frontman, Matt Bellamy. From sporting such catastrophic outfits as ill-fitting suits to his alien waterproof, you know that his outfits during gigs will be extravagant. Then you look to the drummer, Dom Howard, and you see him sporting his favourite superhero costume in a Halloween gig, and you know that these people are either insanely brilliant, or just plain insane.

2. Chris Wolstenholme. The most awesome man to have touched a bass guitar ever. Combine him with a Rickenbacker and a harmonica, and you have several buckets of spare amazing. His epic headbanging antics, his backing vocals and his sheer size, you would be hard pushed to find someone who you’d like to meet more. Except Jennifer Aniston in some cases. Oh, and he does use a bit of slap bass and smokes a pipe.

3. The Instruments. I’d say guitars, but that isn’t all. From the extensive range of custom Manson guitars, Bellamy can choose from a guitar made of an old bomber plane, one with built in lasers and the quintessential red glitter guitar. But, then we have the choice of double neck guitar, keytar and sparkly. My personal favourite: the purple guitar. Yes. Purple.

4. Matthew F****n’ Bellamy. Abnormally short vocal chords, Bellamy can sing insanely high notes, as shown in such tracks as Showbiz and Micro Cuts. He can also play the guitar quite well, even if he is spinning around at several hundred revolutions per minute, or if it’s behind his head. His hair also changes colour/style dramatically every few years.

5. Dominic Howard. A left hander, always a good start in my book, Dom Howard always stands out from the crowd. Whether he’s in fancy dress or wearing a pair of his brightly coloured jeans, he’ll catch your eye one way or another. Finishing each gig with the infamous sign off of “Cheers”, that is the official Dom Howard word. A typical conversation would go, in my mind at least, something like this:

Me: Hi Dom, how’re you doing?

DH: I’m alright, cheers, and yourself?

Me: Everything’s good, Dom. How’s the tour going?

DH: It’s going really well, cheers. We had a great night last week at , and after it, I just thought, “Cheers guys”, because they were cheering awesome.

Me: So what’s up next for you guys?

DH: Cheers for asking, I’m going to be working on my cheers solo album called “Cheers”. It’s a one track, 68 minute drum solo album, with the one track being called “Cheers” cheers. There have been a few cheers….. etc.

6. Morgan Nicholls. The man behind the several hundred synthy bits in every song, Morgan keeps the band ticking over at all times. Whether it’s his cabasa (not a shaker) playing or playing three notes on the keyboard during Map Of The Problematique, the band simply could not function without him. Unless his wife was due to have a baby while Muse have a performance at the VMAs as well as several TV and promo gigs, in which case they can find one of Trent Reznor’s pals to deputise. Apart from those times, he cannot be replaced.

7. The Fans. We’re the best fans in the world. Some people are flying in from America, Australia, Scandinavia, Canada and even York to see them play in their UK stadium tour. Possessing the rare quality of bashing the band endlessly, then reacting with anger when someone else has a little rant, they have on average 300GB* of gig bootlegs on their computer hard drives at any one time, downloading approximately 4TB* of material over their lifetimes. Whatever you say to them, don’t call Muse a rip off of Radiohead to their faces. Just don’t.

*Source: completelymadeupstatistics.com

Hear no tickets, Say no tickets, See no tickets

2010-09-02T11:10:00.003+01:00

As I'm sure that many of you are aware, Muse are playing at Wembley Stadium for two nights next weekend. Muse are a band close to my heart, the same for many people across Europe, and the world. As a result, people are flying in from The Netherlands, Canada and even Brazil to see them. So it's always disappointing when the company who has been put in charge of distributing the first batch of tickets decides that they won't send them out to an address outside of the UK. As you can imagine, this is not convenient for anyone apart from the distributing company, as they don't have to pay for international shipping. Their alternative arrangement: pick the tickets up at the box office during the afternoon of the gig day.

This might sound acceptable to casual fans of the band, but what you must remember that these fans are flying several hundred or thousand miles to see this band, and at great expense. These people are not just casual fans.

So you can imagine their delight when, after months of pestering, the company finally caved (no pun intended) and said that they would send the tickets out internationally, but for a further charge. Happy at this concession, the fans eagerly signed up for this. I should make it clear that I don't know if the fans have been charged for that amount yet. So, up until a couple of days ago, it was all looking rosy for the international fans.

But by now, the fans are starting to get restless. It is just over a week until the gig, and there has still been no sign of the tickets. So, one Dutch fan calls the company yesterday, and finds out that her tickets are waiting in the box office for her. So the miracle solution offered by Sawnotickets has turned out to be a false promise. This, as you can imagine, has left people in disarray. What should they do now? Ask them to keep their promise and send out the tickets, and hope that they arrive in time for the gig? Or resign on the matter and just pick the tickets up from the box office and consign the climax of their long and expensive trip to being at the back of the crowd?

The other company involved in sending out the tickets has been no better. Although they did send out the tickets internationally with a promise of them arriving at least 20 days before the concert, that second promise wasn't kept. One Swedish fan only received his tickets for the Manchester gig last weekend.

What sort of advert for British ticket companies if the two largest, Sawnotickets and TicketAmateur, screw over international buyers like this? To make promises like these and then go and break them is not professional, and certainly not fair on the consumer. The companies must be exposed for this, as this is genuinely unfair behaviour, and the excuse of "they might be lost in the post" doesn't quite cover this and I urge all involved or touched in any way by this to contact Consumer Direct and the Office Of Fair Trading.

If you want to read the full story, then you can read it here.

EDIT: It appears that the tickets that were going to be sent out internationally were printed too late for them to be dispatched. This was only found out due to someone going through the "wrong" options on the automated phone system. They are offering refunds for people who bought the extra delivery package, which is the least that they can do. Leaving those tickets to be printed last really wasn't a fair decision to have made.

Getting lost in The Suburbs.

2010-08-02T16:24:00.000+01:00

So, as many of you will know, today is the official release of The Arcade Fire's much anticipated third album, The Suburbs. At least, it is released officially in the UK today. Those plucky Irishmen have had it since Friday, and our cousins across the pond don't get it till tomorrow (losers). I got my copy on Friday, thanks to the marvels of pre-ordering. So, if you haven't listened to the leak of the album and are considering purchasing the album, I'm going to try and do something similar to my track-by-track guide to Pure Reason Revolution's The Dark Third.

The Arcade Fire are made up of:
Win Butler: Lead vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards.
Régine Chassange: Co-lead vocals, keyboards, drums, accordion, harpsichord.
Richard Reed Parry: Electric guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, double bass.
Will Butler: Keyboards, synthesiser, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals, xylophone.
Tim Kingsbury: Bass guitar, backing vocals, electric guitar.
Sarah Neufeld: Violin, keyboards, backing vocals.
Jeremy Gara: Drums, keyboards, electric guitar.

Track 1: The Suburbs

So, here we go. A nice plinky-plonky piano intro. In my opinion, it works well for the first two minutes or so, but it doesn't develop as much as we've got used to from tracks like Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels), so it does seem to be a bit of a slog after the second chorus, with the only extra things being a few eerie guitar noises and some simple, albeit very nice, string harmonies. So when you're expecting something new to happen after the second chorus, it just feels so......underwhelming as the same, now plodding, piano chord progression continues. But: panic not.

Track 2: Ready To Start

A nice syncopated pair of guitars going at the start sets up this unconventional second track nicely. As can be expected, it strips back to a bass line with, unusually for Arcade Fire, the guitars playing the bass line. The little chorus section builds up wonderfully, with Régine Chassange adding to Win Butler's lead vocals, and this vocal harmonisation continues through the song with great effect. Third verse has the guitars playing the introductory off-beat riff, and a few pad synths adding colour to the whole musical image. Then again, after that chorus, it becomes a slog again, but mercifully not as long as The Suburbs, as the numerous layers are cut away again, leaving bass, drums, synth and Win Butler's vocal, before a new modified refrain, and then, again strangely for Arcade Fire, the song finishes as if it wants to continue, but is just cut off before what one would expect to be the final bar of the song.

Track 3: Modern Man

With an introductory verse out of the mould of Haiti in that it has an extremely simple chord structure, made up of 2 chords throughout. The whole song remains relatively simple, with an 8 bar 'B' section thrown in the middle, but it isn't so far removed as to make you think that the song hhas changed. Then a nice little summery guitar motif following, the music then takes a slightly darker turn, with the drums dropping out, and the guitars and bass adding depth to the sound. As a result, when we return to the original verse, the lyrics sound a lot more unforgiving, and the music seems a lot more cynical of the original idea. The original 'B' section follows, sounding much more haunting with violins playing chords which sound quite....chompy, for want of a better word. Then the song is ruined at the end by a fade out. Oh dear. It was all going so well.

Track 4: Rococo

Arguably the highlight of the first quarter of the album, Rococo always has a mysterious air to it, despite its chord sequence which is barely more complicated than that of Haiti, as in this has 4 chords going throughout, instead of two. The introduction is devilishly simple, with a harpsichord and acoustic guitar playing the chords. Several lines in, we get the irresistable hook of "Rococo rococo rococo rococo" to a muted accompaniment. It may seem bland, but even after only 30 seconds or so of preparation, it is really quite effective. Lo and behold, after this, we have the first "singing along with the instrumental line" of the album. Played live, with 6 or so band members singing along with it, I predict it to be a classic to go along with that of the pre-chorus of Rebellion (Lies) and the early violin line in Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels). All the time, more twinkly bits are getting added to the accompaniment, making it all the more mysterious, so by the time of the second "Rococo" refrain, we have an extra synth and more strings. As a result, when the same violin line returns and drums enter the scene, it feels so overpowering and....well...spooky, so the listener feels almost imprisoned by Win's authoritative vocals and the occasional "Rococo" which pops up. Then the whole thing dies away to the squealing feedback of a guitar and a lovely and rich C major chord on a piano and the harpsichord.

Track 5: The Empty Room

So, while all of the previous tracks have had a slowish start to them, The Empty Room has a much more in your face introduction of some furious violin arpeggios, before the drums kick in below the strings, and a wailing guitar enters. This is the first track on the album which features Régine on lead vocals, something which always works well, in my opinion, usually to spectacular effect, as you will find out later on. With quite an airy and non offensive first few lines from the vocals, I was worrying the first time I heard it about the whole song being like this. Not to worry. The chorus is an explosion of sound, with Régine hitting the top of her vocal range with great aplomb, and the whole accompaniment reflects this burst of energy wonderfully, and somehow the one line of extra passion carries through the rest of the next verse. In no time at all, we're back at the chorus, and we have a mystifyingly intruiging vocal outro, but then a fade out. Ruins it for me.

Track 6: City With No Children

I'll admit to not being a fan of this track. As the immediate successor to Empty Room, the two do not complement each other at all, it just feels like a slog again. The bass line is quite monotonous at times, especially when there are no vocals over the top. While there are very little drums on the track, I feel that they should have just gone without the drums altogether, as the occasional tom-tom and bass drum just feels rather out of place.

Track 7: Half Light I

A weird start with a fade in of clean guitar chords and a spacey entry. The mournful sounding combination of Win's upper vocal range and Régine's lower range make it sound quite absurd. The second verse has a reversal of the balancing, with more bias towards Win than Régine, it works very well, and the track does share a few aspects with In The Backseat, namely the big role played by the violins and double bass in providing the harmony, even though they have a hell of a lot of reverb on them. On this track, the sparing use of drums works very well, otherwise the track would drag a bit. The final image left in your head is all of the male voices singing along with the double bass line, which works very well.

Track 8: Half Light II (No Celebration)

The unorthodox nature of this track is somewhat surprising. With de-tuned violins, wavering synths and even maracas in the back of the mix, this is probably one of the most un-Arcade Fire tracks on the album. Again, the drums take much of a back seat, with only sparing use of the bass drum on each beat. As the track ebbs and flows in volume, after its quietest point with just Win and a few guitar chords, the triumphant moment arrives, with Win singing what could be an awesome line live: "But they're afraid to pay the cost for what we've lost.
Pay the cost for what we've lost". Despite everything else in that song, that line is what I would call a quintissential Arcade Fire moment, something that just sticks out from the rest of the song and sends a shiver up your spine. The rest of the song seems more resolute and strong because of that one moment. As ever, Win's vocal lines become more complex, with little changes in pitch from before taking place before the music calms down to Win's vocal and the strings. Then the repeated refrain of "One day they will see it's long gone." takes us out of the song to end the first half of the album.

Track 9: The Suburban War

Already very different from the last track, the guitar based introduction is exactly what's required after the triumph of the last track. Win's vocals are very understated, with his volume raising above a whisper only every few bars, and the bluesy bass line adds to this sense of calm. Even when the piano and drums start going, the vocal carries on as before, until the rest of the band calm down again. With 90 seconds to go, the song undergoes a transformation to something which sounds very mournful: "Oh my old friends, they don't know me now". The last word of the song "wait", makes it sound very regretful, and understandably powerful.

Track 10: Month of May

In an enormous contrast to the previous track, this song powers out with a very gainy guitar and drum intro, and despite the guitar playing the same note for a long time, the occasional interjections of Régine keep the song sounding fresh, as well as the energetic drum beat. The summery song keeps its energy with occasional quieter sections with just the drums going, sometimes with the bass as well, before swelling up to "With my arms folded tight". Then repeat the cycle with different lyrics and a different idea each time, then a fade out to ruin the track.

Track 11: Wasted Hours

As you can probably guess from the title, the song is extremely bluesy in its emphasis on the second and fourth beats, and clean but very "reverby" guitars. The breakdown section in the middle confuses me, with just Win's voice and an acoustic guitar goin. While this sort of breakdown worked well in Month of May, it just seems to sap the energy from this track. Then there's a fade out to cap it all off.

Track 12: Deep Blue

Another bluesy track led by an acoustic guitar, but this time it builds up with more drums and a piano leading into the second verse. The chorus section adds some much needed contrast, with more slightly distorted guitars adding colour leading into the third verse, where some synthesisers thicken the texture ever so slightly. The distorted guitar has, at this point, taken over most of the acoustic guitar's notes, before the piano and bass hook returns slightly, before the piano moves towards the back of the mix momentarily before the second chorus. After this, a rare guitar hook makes an appearance over the top of some quick violin notes. As the texture builds up and up through the adding of more vocal lines and guitar parts at different intervals, we finish with a very surreal synth and violin chord.

Track 13: We Used To Wait

Starting with a repeated piano chord, you get the feeling that something quite spectacular could happen in this song. The pensive vocal line from Win leads you to raise expectations for the songs. As the bass and drums kick in, as well as more guitars, everything seems to fall into place before the habitual quiet 8 bars, before returning to the opening of the verse instrumentation. The rebuilding proccess stays the same with the same order of entry, before a more profound build-up to the new section, almost like passing through a tunnel where you can vaguely make out shapes outside, but the difference in light is too great to see anything clearly. After the original 'AB' layout returns, the "Oooo, we used to wait" statement returns, taking us to a different breakdown, building up purely in volume, as all instruments are present at the start of the section, ending the song on "Wait for it!"

Track 14: Sprawl I (Flatland)

The most sad song on the whole album is most certainly this. With a similar guitar introduction to Suburban War, only in a minor key. The block violin chords make the whole song sound like a funeral march. With another bluesy bass line to keep it interesting, the song takes on some modal sequences when the piano enters. Then, the song takes on a more passionate feel with tremolo violins, and strong guitar chords make the vocals sound much more powerful, deep and meaningful.

Track 15: Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains)

So you know how Sprawl I was a funeral song? Well, Sprawl II is pretty much as much of an opposite to that as you can get. Even from the opening flute note being joined by two low Ebs from the piano and a bass drum on each beat, you can tell that this song is going to be mighty happy. The low synth notes take the place of the bass guitar. The whispy vocals from Régine make the song sound enormously joyful. "Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small, then we can never get away from the Sprawl" is the line which leads into the chorus, and anyone who can't raise a smile at that must have a soul made of granite. Régine's vocal picks up distortion as the chorus goes along, giving the song a strong Enya feel. The song doesn't actually develop all that much, with the exception of a few extra synths. In my mind, in the synth break, I have an image of Régine strutting around the stage with a beaming smile on everybody in the band's faces. All in all: audio joy as far as myself and several other people are concerned:

"but Sprawl II... wow"
"Sprawl II is by far the most memorable. It sounds like The Knife came in and mixed Heartbeats in."
"Sprawl 2 is just FUUUUUUU- ing fantastic."
"It is like a bunch of 80s songs and GTA Vice City put into a blender to make something stunning. <3 it so much"

Overall Impressions

It's hard to make a definitive judgement on this album. There are some very good tracks on it (Sprawl II, Rococo, Empty Room), but then there are some tracks which don't feel like they really deserve to have made it onto the album (Wasted Hours, City With No Children, The Suburbs), and yes I did say that I didn't think that the title track doesn't deserve to make it onto the record.
But, overall, I'm still mighty immpressed with the maturity of the album. While Funeral showed lots of raw passion, Neon Bible seemed to be quite an atmospheric album, The Suburbs seems to be the most down to earth of the albums, and some of the "indie chic" that the band carried previously will have disappeared through the heavy use of synthesisers on Sprawl II and Half Light II. I wouldn't rate it as highly as Funeral, which had only one or two dodgy tracks but then had some absolute stormers of hits, but it would be quite close to Neon Bible. It's hard to choose between the two most recent albums, as they both have their own advantages and their own flaws.

So, I would still definitely recommend buying this album if you haven't already got the two previous CDs, otherwise I'd say that you're better off buying Funeral.

One final thing to say, Arcade Fire's gig at Madison Square Garden is being streamed live on Youtube on Thursday (local time), which means that if you're in the UK, it's a 3am start. So you could either do that or watch the videos a few hours later when you get up.

A dab of Jazz.

2010-07-24T21:23:00.000+01:00

So, last week I took part in the East Riding College's Jazz Summer school. I have to say that it was very enjoyable. Basically, the pool of 17 or so amateur musicians of all ages were split into 3 groups. I was fortunate to have been put in a group with two people I go to school with a play with regularly. From here, we were told that we had 2 days to prepare for a performance at the Hull Pave bar, and 3 to prepare for playing at the Hull Truck Theatre as part of the Hull International Jazz Festival. So, here a few videos made by one of the organisers of the course.
Our band was called "Mad Dog's Litter" for obvious reasons. The band was made up of:

Martin "Mad Dog" Jones - Band Tutor and trumpet
Will Rafton - Trumpet
Rachael Brown - Trumpet
Ross Cronshaw - Alto Saxophone
Andy Argent - Tenor Saxophone
Dave Ellis - Double Bass
Chris Iyer - Drums
And myself on keyboard.

Pave

Autumn Leaves

Overall, this was a bit of a messy performance, but then again we'd practised together for less than 5 hours in total, but we definitely improved the following night.

Litter-knee

Watermelon Man
Featuring Joel Purnell on Tenor Sax and Kev Holbrough on Trombone

Hull Truck

Autumn Leaves

Litter-Knee

Watermelon Man
This performance features everyone on the course playing at the end, and Dean Howard jazzing away on the harmonica.

7 Reasons Not to Move House

2010-07-04T21:31:00.000+01:00

Something else I wrote for the 7 Reasons blog. I promised that writing would resume, didn't I?

1. Tidying. A horrible piece of collateral that comes with moving. First of all, you have to tidy up the clutter that has gathered around the house since the day you moved in. No matter how tidy you think you’ve kept the house, there’s always more. Looked behind the sideboard? The plant pot? Under the sofa? There’ll be more behind the desk, all those little things that have been knocked off over the years. Good luck picking up all of that rubbish.

2. Estate Agents. Widely regarded as the slippery eel career, a nasty necessity of the moving business. First of all you have to show a number of them around your house, just so you can see how much money they think that they can get out of the poor sod who has to buy your house. Then you hand over a key to them. The equivalent of handing the key to heaven to Lucifer, but with slighty less ramifications to all humanity.

3. Having people look round your house*. So, you’ve tidied your house, chosen the most ambitious estate agent, now you just have to do one little thing. Find someone who actually wants to buy it. Hmm. That means having people look round. Which means polishing every visible surface until you can see the inevitable fly in the air, hovering around the house and not wanting to leave. Then you leave the house in the hope that the estate agent doesn’t scare off any potential buyers, and that the fly hasn’t started breeding.

4. The post-visit call from the estate agent. So, did the people like it? Or did they think that the garden wasn’t big enough for the horses that they planned to get? Well, they’re certainly not going to tell you their concerns to your face, they aren’t going to be that impolite. So, you wait for the call from the estate agent to hear what the damage is, and how little they want to move into your house. So you then repeat steps 3 and 4 until, mercifully, someone decides that they want to buy the house. Then you get more problems for your trouble.

5. Finding a house. So, you’ve finally managed to sell your house. But, it has taken so long, you’ve lost the original ambition and optimism that arrive with putting the house on the market, when you scouted around for suitable houses. All the houses that looked to be perfect were sold months ago, so you now have to find something that will always pale to that ideal house which you had found. It now becomes a slog as you look round house after house, all with their flaws. Until you give up and go for the least bad house.

6. Moving Day. I consider myself a veteran of moving days. Having experienced 7 of these in the 17 years of my life, I’m getting bored of them, to say the least. First, you have to make sure that you have packed everything away in the correct boxes and that they’re sealed up and marked correctly. Then, check that you haven’t left something important and expensive, but small, say, a camera or gold plated iPod, lying in a corner somewhere, waiting to be left behind and found by the next family to live in what was your house. Then you have the fun moment of arriving at the new house and checking through every box to make sure that the removal men haven’t broken anything valuable, say, some expensive china crockery given to your parents as a wedding gift 20 years ago. Then you get to unpack. Fun.

*7. The surprise visit. The worst nightmare of any prospective homeseller. The people who “happened to be in the area” with the estate agent decide, on a whim, to have a look round your house. You’re lucky if you get a phone call half an hour before they arrive. So, you have a mad panic to make the house presentable, which, inevitably, doesn’t help much. So you edge around the house while they look round, trying to avoid confrontation, where they may ask what sort of fire is in the hearth, when it is clearly an open fire. This is where a buyer bunker would come in handy. You’d stick it in the bottom of the garden, underground. You could kit it out with all that you need, a digital radio so you can listen to Test Match Special and a packet of Hobnobs.

Don't worry.

2010-06-26T21:03:00.002+01:00

Been a while since I last posted, apologies to anyone who has been hopefully checking back in hope of new material once a week. There will be more in a week or so. If I don't write more, feel free to throw eggs at me if you see me in public during August.

Pick Up The Pieces

2010-05-26T14:41:00.000+01:00

Yes, today I decided to bash about on my saxophone today again. This time there's no piano at the same time. Anyway, this is one of my school swing band's staple songs, "Pick Up The Pieces". Recorded using the crappy mic on my digital camera, it doesn't make the sax sound too nice. The backing track is off the Pocklington School Swing Band's "This Band can Swing" CD, on which I played keyboards and pressed "Record" and "Stop" on the 16 track when we were recording the whole band. The original solo on the CD is better than mine, I'm free to admit that, and so I tried to base my solo around that a bit. I'm a little peeved that I didn't manage to get that top note to bite quickly, but that's the best I've managed to do the whole song, and I can't be bothered to do it again! Right, where's that video.....

Boredom.

2010-05-25T14:22:00.002+01:00

It drove me to doing this.

The Suburbs/Month of May

2010-05-22T23:17:00.000+01:00

Howdy. Exams start on Monday, so this is just another sporadic post. Today, I stumbled across a sneak preview of Arcade Fire's new single. If Pure Reason Revolution get their sneak previews out tomorrow, then that will certainly help me pull through my exams.

A. The Suburbs

AA. Month of May

Ciao.

Election 2010

2010-05-06T23:00:00.000+01:00

I am 17 and thus, unable to vote. This fact hasn't affected my interest in this election. Five years ago, in 2005, I had only a passing interest in the election. Being 12, you can't be particularly surprised at that fact. This year, however, has enthralled me a lot. From watching the first live televised debate 3 weeks ago to being able to see through the spin of the politicians.

Another thing which has struck me about this election is that it has an amazing effect on how people act on social media. If my thinking is correct, this is the first UK election which has had lots of coverage and activity on social networks, such as Twitter. First of all, I found that as the campaign went on, people became more and more agitated about a prospective Conservative victory. One person that I am following started off the campaign with very level-headed tweets, but then recently has gone on to, to be frank, being close to scare-mongering.

Another person that I am following is a staunch Labour supporter. Recently the tweets have resorted to name-calling and stirring up of the story of Philippa Stroud and her "homosexuality cleansing church". While that is a horrible thing to have done, Mrs Stroud has had nothing to do with any such church for 10 years. That's quite a long time to have been separated from such a horrible idea. Can't we accept that people can change?

The same goes for political parties. I have seen people saying that Cameron is a complete Thatcherite, and will govern in the exact same way. I have seen people tweeting that a vote for the Tories will send us back in time to the early 90s. That's not exactly true, is it? Firstly, time travel is impossible, and secondly it's a different set of circumstances. Cameron is at the helm of a new Conservative party, focused on progressive reform of how the country is run. With the benefit of hindsight, he can see the mistakes made, and they won't be repeated.

Another thing which has struck me, is that Twitter has been giving off more of an "anyone but Dave" impression than people coming out in strong support for the Lib Dems or Labour. In my opinion, that isn't the right sort of attitude to take twhen it comes to voting. The BBC News website had a good tool for comparing policies for people to make an informed choice. Going in to vote with the mentality that you're not voting for the Tories isn't a democratic decision to make.

I had more to say, but I forgot it in the wake of the first seat being announced. Any updates I make will be announced on my Twitter and marked clearly in this post.

IT'S BLOODY APRIL!

2010-04-25T14:08:00.000+01:00

7 Reasons You're Not Watching the IPL

2010-04-17T09:19:00.001+01:00

Apologies for the absence for the past 2 weeks, revision and all that. This week, the kind gentlemen at 7 Reasons have published an article I wrote, giving 7 Reasons why you haven't been watching the IPL this year. Enjoy.

1. Duration Of Matches. It just isn’t long enough. 120 balls per innings? That’s not even long enough to get yourself in before compiling a decent innings! It is also nowhere near enough time to get all of the batting side out. Before you know it, you’ve just batted yourself in, and then you’re being told that the innings is over? Ludicrous! The whole game is over and done with in just a few hours. How are you meant to while away a day that’s meant to be spent writing an essay/revising/doing work by listening to Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott bicker about how someone’s relative could have hit the ball with a piece of fruit?

2. Vulgarity. First of all, the team strips. They are ridiculous. The Mumbai Indians strip looks like it has little cymbals lining the hems along the shoulders. The Chennai Super Kings’ kit looks the colour of a banana, and the Royal Bangalore Challengers kit looks like someone has dumped it in tomato sauce. Then there’s the music that plays at every boundary/wicket/ball/scratching of noses. And then there’s the cheerleaders. Why are they necessary? Isn’t there anything more exciting than seeing a highly rated batsman playing and missing at a ball which fizzes by his off-stump? Cheerleaders have nothing on that.

3. Money. Most of the foreign players are only there for the money. When you see someone getting auctioned off for several million dollars, you get the impression that it is just cattle being sold, not cricket players. Then you see that they are getting lots of money for the privilege of playing cricket in a hot country when their homelands are freezing cold. You begin to question their morals. Cricket players should have standards. They aren’t footballers.

4. The advertisements. If you have the misfortune to watch the cricket on YouTube, then you will quickly become familiar with the adverts. All two of them. The first, an advert for a hair styling cream, is innocuous enough, with only mildly annoying music accompanying it. The second really gets my goat. An advert for a phone company, with annoying music and a painfully annoying voiceover. Then you end up putting the computer on mute until the advert finishes. But then you do something else, and by the time that you go back to it, it’s that bloody advert again. The other alternative is to watch it on ITV. With that woman staring at you.

5. The Tactics. Or lack of them. All the captain of the fielding side needs to say is: “Right, Dale, bowl at the stumps early in the innings, then as wide as the umpire will allow later” and he’s done with it. Yes, he can move his fielders around to try and catch a batsman out, but then again, most of the catches made by fielders are just for miscued smashes which balloon high into the air before being smothered by the wicketkeeper or the long-on fielder. The batsman’s mentality, by the way, is just to smash every ball as far as he can.

6. The Umpires. The players aren’t the only people to see this slogfest as a way of going over the top; the umpires want in on the game too. As the batsmen play more extravagant shots, the umpires find more extravagant ways of signalling that these shots have been rewarded. Instead of just raising the finger (index) at a decent speed when someone is given out, it takes an age for it to be raised. Instead of standing still whilst waving the arm sedately when signalling for four runs, the umpires now appear to be helicopters about to take off. Then with the six signalling, instead of raising the hands, the umpires now appear to be attempting to break the high jump world record. Alright, I’ll admit it. All of the previous points have related to Billy Bowden.

7. You Don’t Like Cricket. I’m sure that this will cover the vast majority of people who haven’t been watching the IPL this season. Does it need explaining?

100 Views

2010-04-03T15:30:00.002+01:00

To celebrate, some Malcolm Tucker swearing to lighten to mood.

Maybe not so Exclusive Muse Tracks + Download.

2010-04-01T10:15:00.001+01:00

A couple of gems to deliver to you, and you can download them yourselves if you follow the link at the end of the post.

First, the greatly anticipated fourth part of Muse's rock symphony, Exogenesis 4: Salvation

Second, a remix of Muse's live favourite Guiding Light by the producer of their albums Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations.

There is also a special live version of Feeling Good at Sheffield, if you want to give it a listen.

If you want to have your own copy of these masterpieces, click for Exogenesis 4, Guiding Light Remix and Feeling Good.

Wouldn't you?

2010-03-31T12:31:00.001+01:00

Could you resist?

The Wonders of Vinyl.

2010-03-27T15:50:00.000Z

Yes, I may be a typical member of the "digital generation", which is the name that both the media and most other adults are keen to call us. I own an MP3 player, I watch videos on Youtube, I have a computer in my room, and I also own a Digital Radio. I also don't remember a world without the Internet and only vaguely remember a world without widespread use of mobile phones, although the world without cheap laptops I remember well. I use DVDs often and CDs and a world without digital TV is hard for me to imagine to be possible. But, that isn't my fault. It's all thanks to those wonderful technological innovators who invented these pieces of technology, and I wouldn't want to change it for the world. Being able to keep up with the latest news and sports results while you're on the move is surely a brilliant asset to have? And if you don't want to use it, you don't have to. It isn't even mandatory for you to watch TV digitally (in certain parts of the UK until the end of 2012), and you don't have to stay connected to the internet 24 hours a day.

But there are some things that shouldn't be forgotten from the past. Yes, most analogue media is obsolete now, serving no useful purpose. For example, when I listen to the Medium-Wave radio downstairs, past 5pm huge blasts of interference make whoever is talking inaudible. My dad has guessed that this is down to a local taxi firm using its radios, but he isn't certain. But, when I go upstairs and turn on my DAB radio, I get a wonderfully clear signal. What's more, there is a bigger choice of radio stations available. Namely BBC Radio 5live Sports Xtra, so I can listen to the cricket. VHS has had its time. The tapes that we bought in the mid-90s have now lost most of their vibrant colours and don't have a clear picture. Meanwhile, CDs that were bought at that time are still playing perfectly.

But this brings me onto the best part of the analogue era, in my opinion. The vinyl record. First of all, the raw facts. The sound quality is crisp and uncompressed, so you love none of the original sound quality. No limitations by bit-rates and file sizes here. Paired with a decent set of speakers, all is good.

Off the facts and onto why else I like it. There is a certain feeling of ceremony that I associate with putting a record into the player, then setting the record in motion and finally placing the needle onto the record. Once the needle has got into the groove, sitting back and enjoying the music is a wonderful feeling. I don't get the same feeling of occasion when putting a CD on, or, much worse, pressing play on iTunes or any other digital media players.

A few weeks ago, I ordered my first vinyl record, the 7" version of Muse's single Resistance. The main attraction was the B-Side: Popcorn.

Listening to that on a record player just seemed to suit it perfectly.

Yesterday, I ordered a limited edition 12" vinyl release of Muse's Symphony Exogenesis. With only 2,000 of these being produced worldwide, this purchase means a lot to me. And, in my opinion, this is, rather sadly, the only real way the vinyl can be kept alive for future generations.It isn't fashionable among the record companies, and only appears to be rolled out for special releases such as this. Although, it appears that Muse are, and always have been, a fan of vinyl, as they have released most of their singles and albums on vinyl. This latest release was part of America's celebration of Independent Record Stores.

While it may not be as popular as it used to be, it is still a brilliant alternative to the impersonality of digital downloads, which I avoid doing where I can. The main problem facing the format is that not as many people own record players any more. I personally hope that it survives. While it shouldn't return to being the primary music format, it should certainly become more widely available so that it doesn't die out.

The Million Bright Ambassadors of Morning

2010-03-24T21:04:00.003Z

My favourite song at the moment, without a doubt. Not just for its length, but for how rewarding it is to listen to, what with the vocal harmonies and the guitar riffs thrown together. Saturday will deliver a more substantial post, but time has not been on my side over the past few days. For now, sit back, turn up the volume, press play, sit back and listen to an amazing song.

The Death of Modern Music

2010-03-13T22:10:00.004Z

This post is an amalgamation of the midweek of weekend post, as some of you may have noticed the lack of a midweek post this week. I can only apologise for this, but let's get on with the post.

Last week, during my Pure Reason Revolution post, I alluded to the fact that it wasn't well received as 6th form common room music, and that most people who claim to listen to music don't delve into "proper" non-orchestral music further than Oasis and Razorlight. In my opinion, this is endemic of the young people of today's problems.

Firstly, as many of you will know, I am not a middle aged, balding man whinging about how music is not as good as it used to be. I am a 16-year old student, saying that there is some good music, which isn't well known for several reasons, of which I will discuss.

The chief problem is an over-reliance on large record label run music. If you were to buy a CD in, say, your local HMV, the chances are that the record label on which it was recorded is owned by Warner Media Group (WMG), Sony Muse Entertainment, Universal Media Group (UMG) or EMI. It is hard to think of a successful band who haven't been on one of these labels. Why is that, I wonder?

Well, let's take the Leeds Alternative Rock band The Kaiser Chiefs as an example. They originally formed under the name Parva, but didn't have much commercial success under the independent label Beggar's Banquet Records, and its sub-label Mantra. After the closing of Mantra, The Kaiser Chiefs got a deal with B-Unique, a sub-label of Polydor Records, itself a sub-label of UMG. Anticipating the rise of Alternative Rock, UMG gave Employment lots of publicity, getting front man Ricky Wilson onto the BBC Music Quiz Show Never Mind The Buzzcocks twice in a short space of time. Remarkably, the Ricky Wilson seen as the alt-rock kid with the ridiculously long hair, and slightly vamp-ish make-up shortly before the release of Employment, the band's first album, didn't appear a year later as the host of the show. In his place was a polished looking Ricky, with short, neatly cut hair and a tidy Polo T-Shirt. Coincidence? I'll let you decide. What it does show is that as Employment got more critical attention, the label were more inclined to increase the band's appearance on easily accessible media channels for the target audience. By doing this, I'm sure that some bigwig at the label thought that the target audience might be put off by someone with a slightly unconventional look. For all the intentions of the record label, this was still good music. The album wasn't produced under the scrutinising eyes of record label management, but was governed on music. Not trying to appeal to the ringtone market.

That is basically the problem with today's mainstream music. There is no effort involved. All someone needs to do is get some cheap synthesisers, some awfully cheesy lyrics, a bucket load of auto-tune and vocal effects and then a drum machine, and you're done: the marketing machine will do the rest and sell the records. Take Scandinavian sensation Basshunter for example. The Swedish "singer" had a song released in the UK in 2008 which set the tone for the next 18 months of languishing in the doldrums of musical imagination. With it's simple, and simply awful, whinging "lyric"

Now you're gone
I realized my love for you was strong
And I miss you here now you're gone
I keep waiting here by the phone
With your pictures hanging on the wall

A 6 year old would be embarrassed by how awful these are. I would be, and I have no songwriting talent whatsoever. Filled with crappy computerized drum beats and synths that only a chav should be expected to love, it somehow managed to get to number one in the UK Charts for four weeks. At first, sensible Britain put it down to chavs buying it over and over again. But it runs much deeper than that.

I go to a very middle-class, middle-England, predominantly white independent school. You might think that old-fashioned public schoolboy elitism would immediately stop any of the Europop trash from being played out in the common room. Oh no it doesn't. Every day, the predominant trend is for someone to put something on with some crappy synths and computerized drumbeat, filled with autotune and no imagination whatsoever. It isn't just the Europeans (ie. non-UK Europeans) to blame for this. The American record labels have been slowly pushing "R'n'B" music through the markets. This week, I heard on a podcast, I can't remember which, a wonderful deconstruction of the genre:

As most people know, R'n'B is an abbreviation of the genre Rhythm and Blues. But how can it call itself that, when it has no traces of any rhythmic interest, nor any signs of blues influences?

I remember, about 5 years ago, when R'n'B was a harmless genre, not offending music as a general term, but just being one of those genres that no-one would really care about it being banned. I remember Usher making the occasional non-suicidal thought-causing song. But not every single song associated with the genre is pure cow pat. To deconstruct the average song:

Intro
Normally just an autotuned, distorted voice "singing" a "melody"

Verse
The torturous whinging noise is joined by, probably lifted from another song, hook, presumably called so because it disembodies the ears from the brain as a hook could do.

Chorus
The hideous "vocal" line is joined by even more awful synths and awful computerized drums.

Then it all repeats, over and over again. In reference to "hook" stealing, I'm disgusted by it. Does anybody remember this?

I do. Now it has been beaten and pulverised into this awful excuse for music.

It really is vomit inducing, how lazy the songwriters are for these people. Then throw in the fact that the people that actually buy these songs are equally lazy, doesn't make for a good outlook on the way that mainstream music is going.

The way I see it is like this. A good song doesn't have to be one that sounds alright on light listening. To evaluate your music tastes like that and then say that you like listening to music is a blatant contradiction. A good song has to stand up to your own scrutineering. Not just have it on a random playlist that someone made on Spotify, but a song that you can make time to sit down and listen to, and for a certain amount of time, renders you addicted to that song. A song that you appreciate the intricacies of the part writing, and makes musical sense as well, not just throwing in meaningless 5 syllable lines just to fill a 2 second gap between phrases.

Ingenuity is also a good habit too. This doesn't have to be pushing the boundaries of playing an instrument further than it has ever been pushed before, as that, by definition, happens very rarely. But a distinctive sound is a good start, and from there you can't be accused of "incorrectly following a formula" set by another artist.

But here is yet another inherent problem. At this particular moment in time, to be seen as different is to be seen as strange, and then you are cut off by other people. Why do you think that the demographic of Radio 4 isn't made up of mostly teenage inner city adolescent boys? The lack of individuality means that record companies are being allowed to plug the mainstream market full of R&B artists who make the same sort of songs on the same subject matter, which is morally wrong to start with. I have already discussed the slipping standards in our society, and will not revisit the subject in this post. For more reading, click here. It is also important to note that the chav is basically a white, inner city boy trying to be black. They copy the accents, abbreviations of words and try to listen to the same sorts of music just to seem cool.

Isn't that inherently sad? And then for middle class teenagers to follow suit, just to try and avoid the tiny bit of banter they may get from wearing a blazer while walking across town? Would the 8 chav artist albums on your iPod really make any difference to the quantity of food thrown at you? Call me elitist/classist, but that is the point of this argument.

The proles are the key to revolution

A little bit of 1984 for you there. Then, it turned out, they weren't the key to any revolution in Oceania. It was just something to keep the occasional dreamer's dreams alive, so that they could be caught out. As a dreamer in this respect, I will allow the proles of this situation languish in their awful music. They will not listen to any reasoned debates on the subject, and even the occasional one or two who will realise that their current music tastes are absolute s****, they would not be worth the effort. For example, there is a fair few people in my school who claim to be Muse fans. But, recently, the lack of musical standards shone through in the common room when I put this on the stereo.

The nearest person to me smiled at the choice, he is a good music fan anyway. It took no less than one minute for a chav music listener to say:

That's not suitable common room music

I, along with my fellow Muse fan, were bemused by this, as he unplugged my MP3 player. I should stress that before this objection, no-one had complained out of about 20 people in the room, but it shows how some people can't take it when other people have a choice over music. I hate the vast majority of the music played through the speakers every day, but you don't see me unplugging the Mac and putting my own music on. I choose the least obtrusive/offensive/rude option and blog.

By no means is there a lack of good music around at the moment. The real shame is that the record companies aren't interested in publicising good music, as they used to be, but now just sell stuff that they are certain will sell, and invest a lot of money in publicising some quite awful music.

Wanted: Gordon Brown. Crime: Attempted Murder of Deity. Reward: Salvation.

2010-03-08T21:25:00.000Z

Please excuse the rather loud-mouthed and rather Daily Mail-esque headline, but I thought that it sounded pretty good.

This week, what has got my goat is the repeated over-secularisation of the country, led by our dear old Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Mind you, it isn't just his fault, his old chum Tony Blair started us off on the road to ruin in the first place. This road to ruin has one large bitumen distributing machine leading us towards a complete lack of morals, and what it is spreading on the ground is our once grand and magnificent religious system.

Back in the days of Henry VIII, at the start of his reign, I am sure that all of you know that England was a part of the Roman Catholic Church. When Henry was refused a divorce of his first wife, he decided to set up his own church, the Church Of England. He appointed himself the leader of this church, as our own Queen is today. This is all well and good - a married couple should have the right to divorce one another if the marriage has broken down - regardless if it is a cross-sex or same-sex partnership. This therefore entails that the couple should have been married in the first place, and has led some liberals in the House Of Lords, most notably Lord Alli (Labour) who put forward the amendment to the equality bill, to ask the question:

"Same sex partnerships should be allowed in all churches, regardless of the view of the vicar or priest who presides over the church's doings."

The amendment states that the ban on same sex marriages and partnerships will be lifted on religious premises, but one key phrase that the Government is keen to stress is that the amendment should not place "an obligation on a religious organisation to host civil partnerships". That's all very well saying that, but this is the thin end of the wedge in terms of undermining a church's teaching.

For example:
A lesbian couple, who love each other very much, go into a Catholic church to ask Father Smith if they can have their wedding in his church. Father Smith refuses, point blanc, pointing out the fact that the Catholic Church teaches that same-sex partnerships are inherently wrong. The couple, aggrieved at this decision, decides to take Father Smith to the High Court, to try and get an amendment to the Equality Bill, which would say that priests no longer have the right to refuse to hold a wedding in their church on the basis of the couple's sexual orientation.

This is a rather extreme set of circumstances, but in today's society where the blame culture is rife, who's to say that it wouldn't happen? At this point, all places of religious worship would be afraid to say no, just in case they did get taken to court, and the settlement would probably lead to the church being shut down, and rendering what was once a beautiful Gothic building to be a pile of bricks. This wouldn't happen? Then why the health and safety culture that has enveloped the nation over the last 20 years?

Over time, the religious backbone of our society has been removed. It wasn't too long ago when you had to go to the local Catholic church for, at least, the occasional Sunday morning service. But nowadays that isn't allowed to happen, as that's "religious discrimination". So that means that anyone who doesn't even believe that there is a god can still get their child into a top Church school. My prime example: the Foreign Secretary David Miliband. A self-confessed atheist with two children, and the nearest primary school for him to send his children to is his old primary school, Primrose Hill. Don't go thinking that Primrose Hill Primary is a run down school, filled with children whose destiny is to flip burgers at McDonald's. This is an excerpt from the Ofsted report taken last year, from the letter addressed to the pupils:

Yours is an excellent school in all respects. Your achievement throughout the school is outstanding. We were very impressed with the way that you use so many skills across all your subjects. We enjoyed looking at the many displays of work that helped to show the wide variety of things that you are taught. Your teachers have excellent skills and they help you to learn exceptionally well. They plan interesting and exciting activities for you, and we can understand why you all love lessons and learning.

This isn't just the inspector being nice to the children. If you read through the report of the inspection, you will read that nearly all of the criteria are graded as Outstanding. So why does Mr Miliband need to send his children to a school a mile away, when there is such a good school in close proximity to his residence? Because Mr Miliband believes that a faith school gives a better education than a secular school, so he is happy to allow his family situation to contradict his beliefs. Even though his wife did attend the church for a while to get the child into the school, that does not alleviate the situation. How can a man in such a powerful position that he can broadcast his belief that there is no God get his child into a school which teaches the lessons of that very God? I can imagine the dinner time conversations:
"So, Isaac, what did you learn in school today?"
"Well, Daddy, today we learnt about how merciful God can be to people who follow his word, and how he can punish those who attack his teachings"
"Isaac, forget about those things, God doesn't exist, it's all tosh."
No matter how good a violinist Mrs Miliband is, no 5 year old child would be able to hold off the spinning powers of a top Cabinet minister, one who is tipped to be the next leader of the Labour party, which can't retain power in May's election, surely? Under the party which has seen our moral values erode and decay over time?

You may be wondering where I got this last point from, but bear with me. Over the course of the last 20 years, British society has become more and more secularised. The common use of blasphemous profanities such as "Oh My God", not just in private surroundings, but in television programmes, radio interviews and films. This is just one example of how previously well guarded values have disintegrated. Referring back to the times of Henry VIII, how many people do you think would even consider committing adultery? My thoughts are: not many. Bring back punishments for adultery, I say, as it will lead to less families being torn apart by unfaithful, and to be frank, cowardly parents. The Catholic Church always encouraged confessionals, so impartial advice could be given on how to deal with a tricky situation. What has happened to these traditions? Nowadays, people are more inclined to finish a relationship with someone over Facebook, than have the decency to do it in person. Imagine being told that you had lost your job via someone telling you on Facebook Chat. It isn't human at all.

But isn't that what religion really is? Man's way of trying to answer questions that Science and Maths can't possibly answer? What happened before the Big Bang? What caused the Big Bang to happen? These are questions that our science can't yet dream of answering, as we are still struggling to comprehend what happened just after the Big Bang. A famous philosophy is this:

Science can only answer how something happens. Religion answers the question: Why does something happen?

I was recently asked how, if he exists, God can let the unfair suffering in India and parts of Africa. I pointed out the fact that India is in the advance stages of industrialisation, and the spending power of the average Indian is increasing, as is shown by the fact that there is a middle class developing.
Africa is a different story. Manipulated for years by the European powers of the post-Renaissance Era (Britain, France, Spain, Italy) by the exploitation of the greed of African tribal leaders who were keen to sell their tribespeople as slaves, this inherent greed has set in for the long term in certain countries. Then we ask ourselves: how did it come to this? These central African countries being run by power-hungry despots? The crucial reason, I believe, is the lack of a centralised religion. In Europe, we have avoided any long running empires and tyranny, with the occasional exception, down to common values shared by most Europeans. And where do these common values that we hold today, and hold our entire continent together come from?

Christianity. We must hold onto these values, or face degenerating into a selection of small states squabbling amongst ourselves until the end of time.

A Quick Thank You.

2010-03-05T18:02:00.003Z

As you may have noticed, the blog has changed shape. It has lost a bit of weight, but now has a new sticker on its head.

I'd like to say thank you to Marc Fearns for making the banner. His blog banner is quite a work of art, although I preferred the mock-soviet poster style which he used to have. He is also one half of the brilliant 7 Reasons team of writers.

My Pure Reason Revolution - Part 1 - The Dark Third

2010-03-04T22:02:00.002Z

A fortnight ago, I stumbled across a recommendation from Max Kirby to listen to a band called "PRR - The Dark Third". Not knowing much about this, and with myself being bored in the middle of half-term, I typed that into Youtube. The first result was this:

To be honest, it blew my mind. 9 minutes of new-progressive rock, taking me on a journey through atmospheric moods of early arrival, through to the mind blowing riff of Intention Craft, filled with wonderful harmonisations between Chloë Alper and Jon Courtney, with the adept backing vocals of lead guitarist Jamie Willcox. Intruiged, I searched for the album on Amazon, and found that it was available for less than £5. At the same time, I found that their 2009 Album, Amor Vincit Omnia with DVD was available for under £10. Bargain, I thought, and promptly ordered the items.

For some background, Pure Reason Revolution are a new-prog band, gigging for quite a few years now, bubbling away under the mainstream surface. They have a twitter account which you can follow, and are currently recording their third album, which will apparently be as guitar based as The Dark Third, as Amor Vincit Omnia was quite a synth-based album. Their current line-up is:
Jon Courtney - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard, Song-writing.
Chloe Alper - Vocals, Bass.
Jamie Willcox - Lead Guitar, Backing vocals
Paul Glover - Drums, percussion
(On The Dark Third, Andrew Courtney played drums, and James Dobson was also in the band, playing Keyboards and violin)
So, the CDs were ordered on the Friday, last proper day of the half-term holiday. I didn't really have any hopes up for the package arriving until the Tuesday, but each day after, it hurt even more as I saw that there was no Amazin package. Luckily, on the Saturday, my pre-ordered Resistance, by Muse, vinyl and CD had arrived, keeping me busy for a while. But as Thursday came, I became impatient. On the Friday, I was not due to return home until later than normal, and upon being picked up, it transpired that the CDs had been delivered on the Thursday, but as no-one was in, they were left next door, and no card was posted through the door saying where it was. So, my father did end up asking arouond the court if anyone had taken the package, an eventuality that he had said on the Wednesday that he didn't want to take place.

So, upon returning home on the Friday, I promptly put The Dark Third, 2006, in my CD Player. What came out from the speakers blew my mind. Track 1, Aeropause, is an instrumental track, something that doesn't go down well with the mainstream music culture. But then again, the mainstream music culture is a load of s***. It opens with a slightly airy vocal line, which promptly disappears. The spacey guitar line drifts through the song, the snare drum cutting through the synthesizer and light level of bass. The piano enters and adds to the rich quality, as well as a thick vocal line. It all dies away to just a piano, then it all re-enters layer by layer. Another metamorphasis takes place, again the piano taking the lead, just quickening the pace a little. Then, the guitar takes the lead, hinting at the vocal line to come in track 2.

Track 2) Goshen's Remains
After what has been essentialy a 5:40 intro, the listener is prepared subconsciously for the bare texture of just the lead guitar, piano and Alper's vocal line. The guitar follows the vocal, and adds a little flourish at the end of each phrase. Then, the track builds into the second part of Verse 1 with the addition of synth, then the drums enter for the second half, then it crescendos to the chorus, and in this first pre-chorus, we hear the first of Courtney's and Alper's harmonisation. The chous is over quickly, without lingering, as if a dream. The second verse moves quickly through, then another chorus follows, with Courtney taking more of a lead in this one. A string break follows, played by, now former member, James Dobson. The violin and guitar lines have already been played in Aeropause, and shows a characteristic of Courtney's self-referencing writing, as numerous motifs come back throughout the album. A stripped back vocal duet follows this instrumental break, before swiftly returning to the chorus along the increasing wave of guitar chords. The intial chorus is forgotten, and a different set of lyrics are adopted, and Alper and Courtney start singing against eachother, instead of together. The track fades, but then the string and piano break from earlier returns, and a synthesized arpeggio grows from nowhere, leading into the next track. When I first heard the album all of the way through, I thought that Aeropause and Goshen's Remains were one track, as they fitted together so easily.

Track 3) Apprentice of the Universe
Led in by the previous track's synth, the spacey feel of the album continues, as Courtney and Willcox harmonise through the first verse in an almost strolling manner. But then, the track picks up pace in the chorus, with Courtney singing the main line and then Alper and Willcox singing backing. Quickly, the chorus is over as quickly as it began. The second verse has more harmonised decorations, before returning to the chorus. The original synth arpeggio is still prominent here, showing that it wasn't juust a fancy fad. A heavy guitar break follows here, with rising chords in the lead. It dies away again, not in any great hurry to move on. Then, the opening vocal line "Lime & Limpid dream colonise" can be heard in the backing, as the new line "She told me I had to much to dream last night" enters in the lead. A piano takes the song to nothing.

Track 4) The Bright Ambassadors of Morning
The centrepiece track of the album, the 12 minute compendium of ideas opens with the vocal idea first heard at the start of Aeropause accompanied by more spacey synths and a drum kit. This makes for good atmospheric listening, as there is all manner of synths dotted around, making all sorts of weird and wonderful noises. These then stop, leaving this wonderful mix of echoey vocals on its own, with only a few synthesized noises coming in after the idea finishes. Then, something new begins. Another airy guitar line, with a drum kit which dies away to the end of each bar. Then, 3 minutes after the track starts, the first "proper" singing begins, with different parts otted around everywhere, but mainly having Alper and Courtney singing the same line in octaves. The rising bass through its range signals an end to the section, with the triumphant line in al parts breaking through the mish-mash, declaring: "Please leave me soulful sunshine". Then, everything stops, with the exception of the odd synth. Then, the main theme of the album breaks through, "The Million Bright of Morning". Again, different vocal parts come in, adding to the polyphonic texture, and traces of the opening of Aeropause can be heard under this also. Slowly, he higher parts fade away, and Willcox can be heard singing clearly, "She left the air in my dream", carrying on the solemn, regretful feeling of the album up to this point. The drums continue to build, with a loud snare hit ending each half bar. Another theme then enters, similar to the first of Bright Ambassadors of Morning. But, instead of returning back to the first "verse", as you might expect, the mood shifts towards a quiet guitar riff, which suddenly becomes much louder, after having heard it for the second time. This is the first real riff of the album, and is not the last. For the first time, there is a sustained feeling that the album is pushing on, and is in a different mood. Then, I can only really describe them as this, but there are some vocals that can only be described as Miss Piggy vocals, as they sound as if she has sung them herself. But they are hidden away in the mix, but I can't see why they were included in the first place. Then, a characteristic, almost spoken word verse continues, another characteristic of Courtney's writing. Then, the strings build up to the "Million Bright Ambassadors of Morning" motif returning, backed with strong guitars, and for the first time on the album, no sustained synths, only punching ones. Then, as you might have guessed, the opening of Aeropause returns, the spacey vocal closing off the track. Just so you know, that track is truly epic, a superhuman undertking, at just under 12 minutes.

Track 5) The Exact Colour

The track opens with a simple piano line on its own, before being joined by the drums. A chance to take stock after Bright Ambassadors Of Morning and all the chaos at the end of that, I see it as. The Exact Colour doesn't dwell on anything that has come before it, Courtney's vocal line adding reflection as he ventures into his falsetto. The thick vocals dominate the pre-chorus, before.........not having a chorus. Another verse follows, similar in every way to the first, no exploding synths in the texture this time. This time, the "pre-chorus", as it doesn't feel like a normal chorus, it feels as if it is building up to something else, has another few lines of interest. Then, another idea is added after, with call-and-response working between Alper and Courtney. Another reflective, texturally thin, section follows, with many different vocal parts thickening up another "pre-chorus", before abruptly ending the track.

Track 6) Voices In Winter/In The Realms Of The Divine

Voices In Winter

The track opens with another spacey guitar and drum kit co-operation, with violin backing the two guitars. Another echoey, imitative exchange between Alper ad Courtney shortly takes place, before the two voices meet and harmonise wonderfully. Another texturally thin verse follows, before the original enigmatic guitar riff returns. The vocal exchange soon follows again. This is the one part of the album that resembles a conventional pop/rock song structure. But this changes, as a new vocal idea of a melodically dodgy rising scale by Alper forces the section to a close.

In The Realms Of The Divine

The start of this part makes it appear to be another spacey guitar led section, but this idea is proven wrong when the guitar and violin co-operate to punch at the listener when he/she is least expecting it. A face-melting guitar/violin riff ensues, with a vocal line similar to the one at the end of Voices In Winter taking the lead over the riff. The actual lyrics are similar to this in the first section, being led off to an interpretation of the opening guitar riff of Voices In Winter. Amidst a cloud of guitar strumming, the track draws to a close.

Track 7) Bullitts Dominæ

This track starts like all of the others, with a whispy guitar line accompanied by the kit and some quiet strings. A piano riff then follows, with guitar accompanying, and the lead playing some high sustained notes. The piano riff and the snare drum carry on into Courtney's verse. For the second half, the other parts return, as well as Willcox on backing vocals. This builds up to the quiet pre-chorus which has the song title in. This section seems to over-extend by a bar, but then enters into a heavy guitar based chorus, led adeptly by Alper. The second verse replaces the piano with guitar, but then the pre-chorus remains the same, as does the chorus. This is then led out by another rising guitar riff, and then the original pre-chorus returning in a triumphant fashion, with Bullitts Dominæ being declared, and the chorus returning for one final time and being led out by the inverse of the middle guitar riff.

Track 8) The Twyncyn/Trembling Willows

The Twyncyn

This track, wearisomly so, starts with the oh-so familiar spacy guitar, but this time it hasn't had any preparation from a lead-in from the previous track, and gets quickly down to business with Courtney's vocal line, which is swiftly joined by Alper. Another mystical pre-chorus section follows, backed by strings, and the verse continues as before. A different bridge section now enters, with Courtney speaking the lyrics, entering into a similar section to the opening, but this time with wandering vocals, singin "Ave Verum Trembling Lovers. Did the Daze Lead You?". Each time this line is repeated, more vocal decorations are added. After the third time, it quietens down.

Trembling Willows

Then the track explodes into an audacious guitar/string riff. Then, an almost rapped vocal line is performed by both Courtney and Alper, and the pre-chorus section consists of a rising sequence into a triumphant chorus, which begs to be blared out at full volume. Alper makes the line "Please carry away this severed head" sound more desparate and pleading than the lyrics suggest, and to good effect. After this, Courtney carries on the vocal line on his own, before Alper and Willcox continue with one harmonisation bar, before Alper finishes the chorus off. The second verse starts a lot more stripped back than the first, with just a palm muted guitar and closed hi-hat for company, before the kit builds up, back to the levels of the first verse. This pre-chorus is different, keeping the guitars playing what they were before, but instead of a sequential rising, there is just a quick guitar scale repeated several times. After the second chorus, a pretty piano motif is introduced, and a laid back drum/guitar jam takes place, before some of the original lyrics of Twyncyn return in a nice, short harmonisation between Alper and Courtney. Then, the guitars are back in full force to lead us out of the track.

Track 9) He Tried to Show Them Magic!/Ambassadors Return

He Tried to Show Them Magic!

In this track, the vocals/guitars harmonise to give a bluesy feel, before exploring a manner of chord changes before settling on a major chord to fade out. Then, slowly eeking back into the groove, the floor toms are bashed out as vocal lines build up as they have done throughout the album. This section is repeated several times until it capitulates. Also, the opening vocal theme from Aeropause can be heard bubbling under the mix again.

Ambassadors Return

Alper leads the section change with a new vocal idea, breaking forth into a more triumphant feel with the guitar backing her vocal. Courtney then takes over with some falsetto vocals against the guitar. As the section grows quieter and then louder, the original, triumphant theme returns: "A Million Bright Ambassadors of Morning", but not for long, but then returns but modified slightly before returning to how it was in The Bright Ambassadors of Morning, complete with the backing vocals. The riff from the aforementioned song returns also to end that mini-recapitulation. Then, the music almost cuts out completely to just Alper and Willcox singing "He showed them Magic In The Dark Third". An almost melancholy violin line closes the album off.

Well, that's it. Pure Reason Revolution's 2006 album, The Dark Third. Filled with returning motifs, you can tell that most of the album, most notably tracks 1,2,3,9, were written to fit around the centrepiece of the album, The Bright Ambassadors of Morning. I think that this is a truly wonderful album. On the surface, it sounds quite nice, so while it isn't going to go down well in, say, a 6th form common room because they are allergic to guitar music which isn't from either Razorlight or Oasis*. But it certainly does reward the listener who sits down and listens properly to it, and appreciates the returning motifs that occur throughout the album. My favourite track on the album is The Twyncyn/Trembling Willows, as it has a truly wonderful capitulation in the chorus of Trembling Willows, especially after the first build up. The bass sounds gorgeous, and the vocal interplay is a joy to listen to. A good live performance of it is this one:

Next week I might be doing a similar analysis/review of their second album, Amor Vincit Omnia, or I may be giving reasons for tormenting people for 2 and a half months with 3 little letters on a badge.

*Another story for another time

The demise of BBC Radio 6Music.

2010-02-28T20:34:00.001Z

This week, the Times reported that the BBC Trust report, to be published next month, would recommend the scaling back of online, television and radio services. Unfortunately, the report recommends the closing down of the nishe radio stations BBC Asian Network, and more importantly for myself, Radio 6Music.

I don't care much for the recommended closing of the BBC Switch and Blast programmes, as they don't have much that appeals to me. TV shows enveloped in fakery, palling up with the "hip" stars of American "R'n'B" music, a genre which, to be frank, disgusts me. But that's for another time.

6Music represents a lot. At the time of writing, after quickly flicking over from 5Live, a very 20th Century piece of piano music is being performed, in the Freakish Music programme. I think that that is the name, I'm not sure. But where else can you find this music on FM/DAB free-to-air radio? Nowhere, I think you'll find. The music radio business is obviously dominated by BBC Radio 1 & 2, as these are broadcasted on FM radio. They both also get a lot of media coverage, both in advertising across the BBC, and in newspaper coverage. I ask of you this. While Chris Evans and Simon Mayo moved slots across BBC Two, how many people in the press gave any column inches to the new Richard Bacon programme on 6Music in January? Very few, I've found. Similarly, how often do you hear 6Music being discussed in the news in the place of, say, Radio 1? Not very much. In fact, I had only ever vaguely heard of 6Music before I bought my DAB Radio in December, my only other experience of it being flicking through the channels on the Freeview box.

6Music is, as is mentioned in the title, a music station, encompassing lots of different genres and time periods of music. At this point, some might ask what is the need for it, if Radio 2 deals with these jobs? Well, 6Music also deals with modern music, giving previews and latest news on ongoing tours and upcoming festival line-ups. Then, you might reason that this is Radio 1's domain. Then I would say that you are wrong, for several reasons.

Radio 1 is a very commercialised station. They have a strictly regimented playlist method, so during the daytime programmes, you won't be able to tell which DJ it is on at the time, as you can't distinguish which it is, purely because they have little or no personal influence on what gets played. So then one particular track, which Radio 1 have told their DJs to play a lot, could be played 4 times in the space of 12 hours, on each of the main shows. This lack of DJ input means that we have little opportunity to gauge whether we like the DJ or not based on their personality, so the closest that we get to knowing them instead of just how they ask the latest R'n'B abomination about how their producer fiddled with their vocals and stole hooks from other, less well known and mainstream, songs. The only show which has a single molecule of personality is Chris Moyles, but unfortunately, that personality is that of an overweight, 7-year old Leodensian who thinks that he is invincible, but at least acknowledges that not everyone likes him.

Then there is the news section, called "Newsbeat", probably because they beat out the actual story into the bare bones, even crunching those down into as small chunks as possible to make it comprehendable to an audience of which about 50% will have the need to juxtapose every second word with "like". The worst part ist that they try and make it seem serious and professional by having two 15 minute Newsbeat sections each weekday, but then not carry those on at the weekend. Why? Does the whole world stop doing everything over the weekend? Does Radio 4 have this break in the schedule? I would think not. 6Music knows its place, though. It doesn't have a fancy "Newswhack" department. It just has news bulletins which are rushed through, before the bulletin that really matters, the 6Music News bulletin. This one gives news on upcoming tour and festival line-ups, and news on albums that are in production. No dumbing down here.

So what would I do if I were Director General Mark Thompson? I would essentially axe Radio 1 and its sister station 1Xtra. In its place, I would change the name of Radio 2 to 1, and move 6Music to become BBC Radio 2Music, to fill the hole in the gaps. The Asian Network would remain, as although I have no personal experience of it, it will definitely offer something more substantial than 1Xtra. What about the Radio 1 DJs? Well, Zane Lowe would get a job on 2Music, as he is their best DJ. He is open to new music, and most importantly, has a personality that he has evidently earnt the right to express.

So what for the logistics? Well, I'd keep the new Radio 1 in its current building. 2Music and Asian Network would move into what is at the moment the Radio 1/1Xtra building. Have no fear for the mainstream music. There would be a very loose playlist for the daytime weekday 2Music DJs, so they would only have to play 3 or 4 song from the playlist of mainstream songs. Then, they would be able to play whichever songs they want, within reason, allowing them to express their music tastes. What is currently called the Radio 1's Big Weekend will remain, with a panel of DJs discussing which bands they would like have playing, not just the record companies calling all of the shots. The free format of it would remain, as that is one good idea that should be kept. The "Live Lounge" feature would be kept alive, as would the Top 40 every Sunday evening. What would now be Radio 1 would keep its role from before, as that evidently works.

So, to summarise, I will be quite sad to see 6Music go, as it represents quality Disc Jockeying and good personality shows, such as the aforementioned Richard Bacon Saturday afternoon show. In its place should be the dumbed down Radio 1, which used to be a behemoth of radio broadcasting, but is now trying so hard to stay "down with the kids" and overendorsing dull and dumbed down music.

Livesey's Lounge

2010-02-24T20:16:00.003Z

Last week, Tony Livesey had a feature on his show entitle 'Livesey's Lounge'. This special lounge was for anyone who had been refused entry to somewhere for a silly reason. As you can probably tell, I'm about to enter into an anecdote.

On the show, Tony had a guest singer, available to sing "any" tune on demand. I figured that he needed a band to back him up. Let me set the scene:

Date: 10th July 2009
Location: Piazza Della Rotunda, Rome

Scheduled to play their final performance in Piazza Della Rotunda, the Pocklington School Swing Band trekked across Rome from a ruined baths in anticipation of what should have been a great performance. The previous night*, the band had entertained around 1000 people in Piazza Nervona, and annoyed one street artist.

At the same time, coincidentally,as our tour was in Rome, the G20 summit was taking place in Rome and L'Aquila. Naturally, the wives of the G20 leaders would need to amuse themselves in one way or another on the balmy summer's evening. So, early in the afternoon, our hapless tour guide Filhemina, armed with her straw hat, received a call that we wouldn't be able to play Piazza Della Rotunda because we would be too much of a security risk. Yes, a group of 35 schoolchildren and teachers were considered a risk to the wives of the G20 leaders. Because we always carry rocket launchers around in the trombone cases and machine guns hidden inside the hole in the keyboard (another story for another time).

So, in summary, the Pocklington School Swing Band of 2009 should be the big band in Livesey's Lounge because we were denied entry to the Piazza Della Rotunda for being a potential security risk to the wives of the G20 leaders.

*In Piazza Nervona, shortly after we finished, this man turned up:

Bringing along an entourage of several police and private security guards, he was evidently upset about missing our performance as he sat and drank his cup of coffee in the next café down the square from where we played. He and his armed entourage left shortly after.

Palin for President?

2010-02-21T16:59:00.002Z

Upon hearing the debate on Richard Bacon's 5live show on Wednesday about the possibility of Sarah Palin becoming the "leader of the free world" in the 2012 American Election, I was led to writing this e-mail into the Richard Bacon show:

With the Scott Brown and Sarah Palin possibility of running for office in 2012, if they do run for office and win the election, it shows how superficial politics is now. Sarah Palin was a glamour model. Scott Brown was a nude model for an American women's magazine. By doing this, politics is being lowered further into the realms of the "celebrity politician". It also shows the complete contradictory nature of the right-wing US media/politics. When Obama was running for President, Fox News's reasoning for him not being a good president was that he was too much of a celebrity. 18 months on, when Scott Brown got elected to the Senate, he was being praised by Fox News, who said that he was important in the Republican's charge for presidential victory for being a celebrity and making politics "more accesible to younger voters". Sarah Palin, rather famously, doesn't know of any Supreme Court decisions with the exception of Roe v Wade [1973 case on the legality of abortion]. Would you really want someone leading your country who can't even name any Supreme/High Court cases apart from the one which the rallying parties around the army shout about? If anything, this is a case of Palin following the crowd, and not having any discernible knowledge of the legal framework of the country. Instead of leading, she is being led. For now, she is just spending her days as a panellist on the Fox News Channel, the notoriously Conservative news network part of the Murdoch group. There she fires off clichés which are lapped up by the flagship hosts, such as Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly. Her first appearance on the network, I kid you not, was an hour long slot of Glenn Beck lavishing over the top praise on her, in a way that only he can. The sad thing is, there are many Americans who will listen, take on board, and worst of all, believe that, say, Obama's health plan will set up "Death panels" to vet whether an elderly person gets healthcare or not. Isn't that what the modern health insurance companies do anyway? That's enough of that for one day...

Alastair Campbell said the other day on your [Richard Bacon's 5live afternoon] show that he wasn't a celebrity, and that no-one who was in Parliament was, as they are primarily politicians. But, if Sarah Palin or Scott Brown did make it to office, it would be a similar situation to if Peter Andre or Joanna Lumley became Prime Minister. While Miss Lumley has done good work in promoting the rights of the Gurkhas [to live in the UK and avoid deportation], she is no politician, and such a division between celebrity and politics should be observed. If Gordon Brown, David Cameron or Nick Clegg said that they wanted to appear in a feature length film, the media would have a field day, saying that they should stay in Parliament, but I seriously doubt that there would be anywhere near as much criticism of someone going in the other direction, as there has already been some support for other celebrities, such as Esther Rantzen, to move into politics.

Any voter in their right mind would note vote for such celebrity politicians. To use another analogy: Would you trust Wayne Rooney as the Chairman of the Bank Of England?

A quick outline

2010-02-19T10:46:00.004Z

Just a quick update today, outlining my plans for this blog. Like any aspiring....anything, I have put together a timetable.

Wednesday

Wednesday's post will normally a frivolous one, the basis of which may be found on Tony Livesey's excellent late-night 5live show.

Saturday/Sunday

The weekend post will be, to use a favourite term in the eyes of broadcasters, my "flagship post". I will aim to discuss something a little bit more important than Wednesday's post. This week for example, I will be discussing the perils of the "celebrity politician", a post made on the back of Richard Bacon's discussion on Wednesday on his 5live show about the possibility of Sarah Palin possibly becoming the "leader of the free world" in 2012. I won't give anything else away, you'll have to wait a day or two for that.

Introduction

2010-02-17T09:31:00.002Z

Good morning!

Just as a starting note, those of you that know me will suspect that the lyric at the top of the screen is one of my favourite band Muse, but thinking that, you would be wrong. I toyed with the idea of using "Yes Please" from this:

But then, a few days ago, I re-listened to this beautiful acapella cover of Postal Service's Such Great Heights:

So I settled for a lyric from that which resonated greatly with me, also because of how it was sung.

Anyway, down to business. Throughout this blog I'll be pouring out my views on politics (rarely),

sporting events (a fair bit), school events (occasionally) and Muse (quite a bit, I anticipate).

You can also find me on Twitter or Last.fm.