Category: Music
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A New Way To Read The Best Music Book of 2013: “Yeah Yeah Yeah” by Bob Stanley
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the best music book of 2013 was Bob Stanley’s “Yeah Yeah Yeah” – A History of Modern Pop Music. (I haven’t yet read the main contender to that title, Mark Lewisohn’s Beatles epic, but then part two isn’t due for another six years, so there’s plenty of time). Bob Stanley knows a thing or…
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Ten reasons why record flippers are in league with Satan
Traditions. We have a number of traditions in the UK, and many are wonderful. Afternoon tea. Cricket. Moaning about the weather. And there are those that are less wonderful. Queueing. Apologising to the person who has just bumped into you. X-Factor. Add to that list the traditional post-Record Store Day look at eBay. There’s that…
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Don’t Panic! The Secret To Investing On Record Store Day
Don’t Panic! Those “hot” new Record Store Day releases may not be as essential as you think…. As Record Store Day looms ominously like a looming, ominous thingy, and the first flurry of tents begin forming queues outside the nation’s record stores in the same way Eastern European Migrants do outside the UK in the…
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The Worst Ten Records You Must Avoid This Record Store Day
You know what it’s like. You’ve been camping overnight on the street outside Rough Trade East. You are sleep deprived. For the last hour you have been listening to a record dealer talk to a hipster as they swap tales of limited edition versions of obscure Nigerian goat flute music. It has started to rain,…
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Ten Reasons Why People Who Sell Record Store Day Records On eBay May Not Be Evil, Mercenary Scumbags
Life’s bad guys are pretty well defined. Tax collectors are pretty unpopular, as are traffic wardens and traffic policemen hiding behind hedges holding speed guns. But we all know these are not inherently evil people. It’s the job that is evil. The people who choose to do these jobs may well, when they remove their…
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Record Store Day Gets Metal
The Record Store Day 2014 Announcement has revealed some exciting releases this year for rock and metal fans. Mastodon lead the pack with a vinyl and DVD release of “Live at Brixton”. Green Day has announced an album of demos and out takes available on LP and cassette. On the re-release side, there’s Motörhead’s self…
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Bowie, Nirvana, Tame Impala, Damon Albarn: The Pick of Record Store Day 2014 Releases
So what do you make of this year’s Record Store Day List of Releases? There are already a few lists doing the rounds, and the official announcement is at 4pm today. (the official announcement will be found here at RSD HQ) The annual announcement is as widely and eagerly anticipated amongst the vinyl loving fraternity…
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The Top Ten Spinal Tap Quotes You Haven’t Heard Before: The Out-Takes
David St Hubbins (about Marty DiBergi): “He decided to do a hatchet job. We heard that people saw this film and laughed….” It’s thirty years this week since legendary documentary film-maker Marty DiBergi released his groundbreaking movie This Is Spinal Tap having followed one of Britain’s greatest, and loudest, heavy metal bands, Spinal Tap, as…
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The Brit Awards 2014
It’s the highlight of the UK pop music calendar. No, not the moment that X-Factor finishes. No, it’s nothing to do with Bieber being arrested, or that satellite link up with the Doctor Who studio and One Direction that had a delay longer than the time it takes for someone to tell a joke and…
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How George Michael Had Help With Young Guns, Macca Dislikes Wrinkly Front Rows and Other Quite Interesting Stories
“The 120 Greatest Stories in Rock n Roll” proclaims the latest issue of Q Magazine, promising tales of debauchery more extreme than an episode of Celebrity Big Brother. Almost. Claiming to have Rock n Roll’s Greatest Stories is a pretty punchy boast, and as it happens, what they were really compiling was “Rock’s 120 Most…
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Daft, But Not Punk: The Grammy Awards 2014
It’s always a joy to watch awards shows. It’s the sheer joy of the thing as we watch uncomfortable speeches, awkward silences after attempted jokes and disastrous outfits. And that’s just me sitting at home making jokes on Twitter. The show opened up with Beyonce who was joined by her other half, who treated us…
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It was 2 Years Ago Today…
I have always been fond of celebrating minor successes. The first record I owned, Stars on 45: The Beatles, if you must know, was a prize I won at the school end of year party. I won it by winning a disco dancing competition. This remains the one and only prize I have won for…
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Every Record Tells A Story Photos of 2013
“People take pictures of the summer / Just in case someone thought they had missed it / And to prove that it really existed…” Ray Davies: “People Take Pictures Of Each Other” As 2014 begins, I thought it would be good to look back at 2013 through the pictures I took at various gigs. It…
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Let’s Start The Year With a Words and Music Q&A…..
It isn’t often that I am grouped together with former UFO guitarist Michael Schenker, Anthrax six-string slinger Scott “Not” Ian and members of Magnum, Marillion and Saxon, except perhaps in my wildest dreams as I entertain a rapturous Donington crowd of 120,000 with an improvised ten-minute drum solo *, only to wake up and find I have…
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An Open Letter To Simon Cowell: Dear Simon, Please Bring Back Top of the Pops…
It is the 50th anniversary of one of the UK’s most loved and celebrated institutions today. No, not the anniversary of Simon Cowell‘s first Botox injection. It’s fifty years to the day that Top of the Pops first appeared on our screens. Along with Swap Shop, TOTP was my first window into the world of…
Every record tells a story 