MSN Music Blog: Dancing About Architecture

Beth Is Not The End

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:37:13 GMT

In fact, she's just the beginning. What am I talking about? Live sessions on MSN Music, that's what.

OK, let me back up and I'll explain. I've been trying for ages to persuade my superiors to let us record live sessions with up-and-coming artists.

This is a lot easier said than done for a number of reasons, not least the money involved. Anyway, I'll spare you the boring business politics stuff and cut to the chase: two days ago we recorded what I hope will be the first of many with my favourite new female singer, Beth Rowley.

I first saw Beth live towards the end of last year at an industry showcase for new artists. The fact that she had to follow Duffy and was still, to my mind at least, the highlight of the evening, says it all.

Soon after I got an advance copy of her debut album, Little Dreamer (it's finally out on May 19th), and fell in love with it. I've waxed lyrical about it in a previous blog post so, keeping it very brief this time, I'll just say that it's the best blues/gospel/soul/old-school R&B album ever recorded by a Bristolian girl who was born in Peru.

Anyway, all being well, we'll have the session live on the site very shortly, so you'll be able to see for yourself that my gushing isn't entirely down to thinking she's just about the cutest darn thing in the whole world.

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Growing Down

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:57:55 GMT

I mentioned in a previous post that I was quite the music fascist in my younger days. Basically, I liked one type of music made during one specific era and everything else was, without question or exception, rubbish.

There was no 'live and let live' about it, no allowance for subjectivity; if your taste fell outside my strict boundaries, you were just plain wrong.

The most heinous of all crimes to someone of this opinion is 'manufactured' pop. Anything too catchy, too commercial (a favourite insult word, that), too accessible is worthless. In fact, it's worse than that, it's positively insulting to 'real' music made by 'real' musicians.

This sort of thinking isn't unusual and it's not restricted to younger music fans. Walk up to the fiftysomething AC/DC fan of your choice and tell them you think the first three Spice Girls singles are absolute corkers (they are!) and, to quote Alan Partridge, you'll be picking up your teeth with a broken arm.

I gradually shed this snobbery over the years and can now say without a flicker of embarrassment that ABC by the Jackson Five is, in its own way, the equal of anything recorded by, say, The Beatles or Led Zeppelin.

Anyway, this is all to set the scene of an interesting and unexpected little bit of unpleasantness I found myself involved in at the end of last week.

We were recording the latest MSN Entertainment podcast and I had brought along a tune called Fascination by my new favourite thing, a Danish pop group called Alphabeat, to discuss on mic with my colleagues.

Now I didn't expect movies editor Ed (who is a devoted metal guitarist in his spare time) to think it was the best thing he'd ever heard but I was a little shocked by the unbridled contempt it managed to inspire in him and the two other guys in the room.

Much of what was said was edited out but suffice to say that I only made matters worse by suggesting they might outgrow their snobbery one day (they're all in the early twenties).

On reflection it was a patronising thing to say and was only ever going to further inflame the situation but I was trying to make a serious point. I think I'd have felt the same as them 10 years ago, you see.

Anyway, what do you reckon? Have your tastes broadened over the years? Has your attitude to what constitutes good music mellowed? It would be interesting to get another view.

March Mailbag

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:40:12 GMT

Not a huge amount of feedback to report on last month but the Greatest Guitarist Ever battle provoked a fair bit of debate. It was always going to really, wasn't it?

I got a number of outraged 'where is so-and-so?' emails, sometimes about guitarists who are actually in there.

This one was interesting though:

So where is Django Reinhardt?.....can anyone hold a candle to his technique? Manouche (gipsy) jazz music is becoming rediscovered, by the masses, Put the Django up, you may find an unplugged following, who judge the 'musician and not the 'pop package'

Well, yes, being a bedroom guitarist myself (not a euphemism), I do know about Django but I wasn't sure how many of our users would. I didn't want to be too obscure and muso about it.

Speaking of which, what does Dimebag Darrell mean to you? Ed, our movies editor, is a bit of an axe god on the quiet. He's actually studying for a Diploma In Popular Music Performance (Rock School, basically) and was naturally keen to contribute lots of his favourite players for the battle.

I frequently had to reject his suggestions on grounds of obscurity but he would not budge on Dimebag Darrell. He was so insistent that I included him just so we wouldn't fall out. I have lost all sense of perspective on this now and have no idea how well known Dimebag is to the general public, so I'd be grateful if you'd care to drop me a mail and let me know.

What else? Oh yes, Bonnie Tyler was incorrectly listed as Bonnie Taylor in a piece about British women who have topped the American charts. More worryingly, the photo originally accompanying it was of a lookalike from the Romanian version of Stars In Their Eyes. The illegal immigrant responsible has been forcibly repatriated.

Rock and Roll Serendipity

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:24:20 GMT

The night before last I finally got around to seeing a band I've loved for 18 years - The Black Crowes. Back when I first heard them, I had very definite ideas about music, far more so than I do now. In fact, if the truth be told, I only had the one idea and that was that no music of any merit was recorded after 1975. I liked the Stones, The Faces, Hendrix, The Doors, Zeppelin, and that was about it. Everything else, particularly anything contemporary, was beneath my adolescent contempt.

The Black Crowes were the first band to make me reconsider my cultural absolutism and they did so by clearly thinking the same way I did.

When I first heard their cover of Otis Redding's Hard To Handle and, shortly afterwards, their debut album Shake Your Moneymaker, I knew these guys were kindred spirits.

It was slap bang in the middle of grunge but this lot were completely oblivious. To borrow one of Keith Richards' favourite sayings, they were as much about the roll as the rock. They had the funk, the boogie, the snake-hipped, loose-limbed, androgynous white boy soul of my favourite bands, and in Chris Robinson they had the best front man since Rod Stewart went crap (which was 1975, incidentally).

Like me, they were essentially in denial that it wasn't still 1972 but I didn't care about that. They made me feel like I wasn't alone and that sort of thing is inordinately important when you are 15.

My blinkered attitude to music receded in tandem with my hairline and it's been a very long time since I thought like that but it was still great fun to enter Black Crowes World the other night, a place where long hair and beards are virtually compulsory for men (well, those lucky enough to be able to grow them) and 20 minute guitar jams are met with awestruck appreciation.

I hadn't been able to get a plus one, so I was there on my own. To be honest, I was perfectly happy about that. It was quite a personal thing, you know? Anyway, I arrived fairly late so finding a seat was a bit of a challenge. I eventually found a spare next to a particularly authentically dressed couple who I immediately recognised as Heavy Load Rob and his lady Karen.

Heavy Load is to nightclubs what the Black Crowes are to bands. Their playlist is like an expanded version of my teenage record collection. It's a loving homage to the rock and soul of the late 1960s / early 1970s held on the last Saturday of every month in the basement of a central London pub. If you're a fan of music from that era*, you will love Heavy Load.

Rob and his missus are the loving curators/hosts/DJs and two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. Chancing upon them in the dark upstairs of Brixton Academy felt like rock and roll serendipity.

(* Rob steadfastly refuses to play music recorded after 1975 at Heavy Load. With the exception of one band. Yep, The Black Crowes)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:47:20 GMT

It's all go in MSN Music land at the moment. Well, from a website architecture point of view anyway. Come on, stay awake at the back!

Actually, there's quite a bit more to it than that. We've just undergone a pretty major overhaul of the channel and there are a few things to let you know about.

In terms of new stuff, we're now getting our music news from the most comprehensive online source there is - NME.com.

The same publication will also be providing us with the lowdown on the latest albums in our newly revamped reviews section. We'll be featuring the week's best singles in there too.

One thing we've been lacking up to now is decent coverage of live music. This has been rectified with the addition of the gigs section, which features both reviews and previews.

Last of the new additions is the video section. Whether you're looking for an interview with your favourite star or a full-scale concert, there's bound to be something to tickle your fancy there.

We've shaken up some of the old various subsections too. Thus, the old Artist Of The Month has bitten the dust to be replaced by a section called Spotlight.

This is better for two reasons: firstly, we're not restricted to featuring just one in-depth artist profile per month, and second, we won't be banging on about the same thing for four weeks. Everyone's a winner, we're sure you will agree.

We're also ramping up our commitment to bringing you the best new music with a section called First Look. This, we promise, will be much more than barely rewritten press releases put up as a favour to someone at the record company.

What else? Well, coming very shortly will be our Unsigned section. If you're an aspiring chart-topper then we can put you in front of millions! Lay off the emails until the section is launched though please.

Last but not least, we'll be filming our very own intimate acoustic sessions with the best new and established artists. As a great man once said, watch this space.

So, that's it from us. What do you think? What do you like/dislike? Is there anything we've overlooked? Feel free to send me a message by clicking the link in the box below the advert on the right.

Less Is More

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:19:23 GMT

As you've no doubt heard, the music industry is in decline. The rise and rise of downloading (both legal and otherwise) has taken a huge chunk out of record company profits, leading to jobs being lost, bands being dropped, and expense accounts being slashed.

If you want an idea of just how much things have changed in the last 10 years, you could do worse than read a novel called Kill Your Friends by a guy called John Niven.

Based on his own experience of being an A&R man in the pre-download Britpop era (the last boom time for the traditional music business), it's a tale of drugs, depravity, and ruthless ambition which is both highly amusing and, particularly if it bears any relation to what really went on, extremely disturbing. Comparisons with American Psycho are apt.

Anyway, that was then. There simply isn't the money floating about to fund that sort of decadence any more and, you know, in our post-9/11 world of terrorist threats and imminent recession, that's no bad thing.

One casualty of the current financial climate is the album launch party. Back in the 1990s an obscenely expensive shindig was par for the course for any major release.

These days they are much thinner on the ground and, oh the horror, sometimes you even have to pay for your own drinks! (That was mock indignation, by the way)

Very occasionally, however, serious cash is still splashed. In the two and a half years I've been in a position to be asked, I have been invited to three such events - for The Feeling's first album, James Blunt's second, and, just the other week, Portishead's third (which, satisfyingly, is called Third).

A load of us were flown to Berlin, given an iPod with the new album preloaded on it to keep, were wined, dined, put up in a very nice hotel, and treated to an intimate performance by the band. How could that fail to generate journalistic goodwill towards the new record?

(Let's not be under any illusions, that is the whole point).

At the risk of sounding like a character from Kill Your Friends, the gig part was really badly thought out. Nicely full of food and beer, we were driven by coach to what can only be described as a draughty school hall outside the city. A makeshift bar had been set up but it closed, without prior warning, shortly after we arrived.

It then transpired that Portishead were actually recording a radio session, so it wasn't really a gig at all. Notorious perfectionists that they are, it turned into what felt like hours worth of tinkering about and aborted takes. In a school hall miles from anywhere. With no booze. And no escape. Goodwill was hard to muster by the end of it.

By contrast, Supergrass' bash for the release of their new one, Diamond Hoo Ha, was a typically scaled down 21st century affair. There were a couple of free cocktails knocking about but otherwise it was a case of watching the band's mildly amusing half-hour mockumentary before they took the stage (minus bass player Mick who is still out of action after breaking his back last year) and tore through a grand total of four songs.

Yes, four. Two from the new record, a cover of Beat It by Michael Jackson, and old-school favourite Lenny from their very first album. That was it, good night, see you later. And do you know what? It was absolutely bloody brilliant. Sod the trip abroad, the freebie gadgets, and all the rest of it. This was four songs by a great band in a tiny venue. No contest.

This isn't to be ungrateful for the Portishead invitation, nor to suggest that I didn't have a great time (school hall aside). Nor is it to say their new album isn't any good. To be honest, I've not really listened to it since I got back. And that's kind of the point really because I almost certainly would have done by now had I not been to Berlin.

In spending all that money, their record label achieved (with me anyway, I can't speak for anyone else) the opposite of what they were hoping to.

Sometimes less really is more.

(Si, Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:26:36 GMT

There has been a bitter rivalry between Britain and France since time began. We may be the closest of neighbours geographically but we couldn't be more different in terms of temperament.

They have that supreme Gallic confidence in their stylistic and gastronomic superiority (best exemplified by a disdainful shrug at any suggestion otherwise) while we cling to our plucky good humour, our sense of fair play, and, inevitably, not having been occupied by the Nazis.

There is, however, one area of style in which the British can claim absolute dominance - rock and roll. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Clash, The Smiths, The Cure (to name but a few) - quite apart from the music, these artists have / had their own sense of style which the French, for all the catwalk elegance of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and the rest, have been fascinated by but never been able to appropriate for themselves.

Regardless of what happens in the football tonight, it's one little victory that is often overlooked. Zut alors!

Marmite Music

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:40:43 GMT

I know I've been banging on about this (as yet still unreleased) new Guillemots album for ages but it remains the best thing I've heard this year (Duffy and Elbow being the next closest contenders). I often get to listen to records before they come out but rarely, if ever, have I been this enthusiastic about one for so long before reviews start appearing.

Being in a position to make your own mind up about something free of external influences is an interesting and all-too unusual experience. It's harder than you might realise to know whether you genuinely like something or whether you feel like you ought to.

Anyway, reviews of Red are starting to crop up all over the place now and it's looking like a distinctly mixed bag. Now, clearly the world would be a very dull place if we all agreed about everything but I just cannot fathom how the NME have given it four out of ten.

The main thrust of Jamie Crossan's criticism is that "All those who loved Guillemots' orchestrally sweeping debut... will most likely loathe this album". And why?

Because they "have unexpectedly gone all R&B on our asses, and not in a good way." The review concludes, "If only Guillemots main man Fyfe Dangerfield hadn't woken up one bright morning believing he could be indie's Timbaland, this could have been a half-decent return".

I am often surprised at how angry some of the comments I receive about my articles can be but reading this utter nonsense reminded me what it's like to be incensed by ignorance and prejudice masquerading as music journalism.

Everything that is wrong with the NME is summed up in those two sentences.

What Crossan is actually saying is that Dangerfield's ambition should remain within the confines of classically-inflected indie introspection and he should leave "booty shakers" (as he refers to them) to black artists like Timbaland. This is completely absurd and illustrates the extent to which the NME have painted themselves into a corner in recent years.

50 years ago there was much consternation among the paper's jazz-centric writers about covering rock and roll, a genre which was very much looked down upon. Only the sheer weight of public demand forced them to reconsider.

Just over 30 years ago a similar thing happened when punk broke. NME writers of the time were almost exclusively smug baby boomers who thought their Merseybeat/ psychedelia/hard rock/singer-songwriter/glam/prog journey would continue uninterrupted and unchallenged forever.

Only a bloody editorial coup prevented the paper becoming the literary equivalent of the Cambridge Folk Festival.

If we're really at a point where Guillemots are criticised for bringing heart, soul, sex, and joy to the indie party while an unutterably dull band like Foals are lauded to the rooftops simply because they wear tight trousers and play in odd time signatures, the NME is as close to self-imposed irrelevance as its ever been.

Shine A Light Screening

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:52:50 GMT

I've been pretty excited about Shine A Light, the Martin Scorsese directed Rolling Stones concert film/documentary, since I first heard about it last year. Despite all their best work having been recorded before I was born, the Stones were the band that got me into music in the first place and started me on the rocky path that leads directly to this blog entry.

If you'll permit the indulgence of a digression, mine wasn't a musical background. My Mum and Dad didn't listen to anything beyond the radio and I didn't have any older siblings to take direction from. Still don't, as a matter of fact.

The pop music of my adolescence was particularly hideous (Stock, Aitken, and Waterman were rampant) and I didn't have any inclination to look beyond the surface. If I had, I might have discovered that one of my future all-time favourites, The Stone Roses, were then at the peak of their powers.

But I hadn't, so I didn't. Until one day when, purely out of boredom, I was rooting around at home and found a Stones Best Of collection on vinyl. I think a friend of the family had bought it for my Dad several Christmases previously on account of him having liked them (sort of) in the 1960s.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I put the needle on the record, stuck a pair of headphones on, and my whole world changed forever. I remember being instantly transfixed by the swaggering rhythm of Brown Sugar and the languid voice you can just make out after the final chord exclaiming "Yeah!" (it would be a while before I discovered Keith Richards was responsible for both of these).

I entered a new phase of my life that day. I'm still in it, to be honest, which is possibly a tad unhealthy given that I turn 33 tomorrow but that's my problem to worry about.

So, that's the background. The Stones mean a lot to me. I know they do to Martin Scorcese too because he often uses their music to great effect in his films. In fact, Jagger has quipped that Shine A Light may well be the first Scorcese film not to feature Gimme Shelter on its soundtrack. The wag.

So what was it like? Good. Great, even. And slightly disturbing in a way that's difficult to describe. Just before I get to that, I should also point out that it was the first screening I've ever been to with a security guard at the door whose sole function was to check everyone's mobile was switched off. Not only that, he had his own reserved seat at the back, presumably to ensure nobody produced a camcorder from their trousers and started filming.

How very paranoid. How very heavy-handed. How very Stones, I thought.

I was slightly disappointed to discover that Shine A Light itself is nine parts concert film to one part documentary. In fact, it isn't really a documentary at all. There is a scattering of archive interview footage (ruthlessly excising Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, and Mick Taylor from history), most, but not all, of which I'd seen before.

Still, what there is serves as a handy reminder of just how bloody long they've been doing this, as well as how many accents Jagger has been through, that Keith did actually look young once, and that Charlie has always been loveably miserable.

The intimacy of the gig footage, shot at New York's Beacon Theatre in the autumn of 2006, is remarkable. You can see every piece of interplay between them, every wink, every little in-joke. And every mistake and every wrinkle.

It's one of the great contradictions about the Stones that they are clearly massively narcissistic yet, at the same time, surprisingly lacking in vanity.

The other thing that occurred to me was how no other English band has ever (or could ever) write American sounding songs about America, sing them in an American accent, and not sound like they were taking the piss. It's like the Stones have special dispensation.

One song in the film, a relatively obscure track called Faraway Eyes, sounds like a vicious country and western pastiche.

As Jagger raps in his best 'po boy' voice about listening to the preacher on the coloured radio station and Ronnie Wood extracts all sorts of cheesy Nashville sounds from his lap steel guitar, the effect, when combined with Scorcese's ultra-intimate cinematography, is disconcertingly surreal. It's like the gig has been transported to Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge via a Dennis Potter play.

Anyway, I could go on and on but I've probably said enough already. In conclusion, Stones fans will love it, even if they will secretly wish it had been shot in 1969. Non-believers are more likely to think of it in the same way they do this blog post - alright but possibly a little self-indulgent and definitely too long.

February Mailbag

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:56:38 GMT

The Brits is by far the biggest single music event of the year and the emails I received last month reflected that. The consensus seemed to be that the Osbournes were a bad joke (I hate to say I told you so but I saw that one coming), Amy did well despite looking a little shaky, and Macca lent some much needed dignity to the proceedings.

This was a fair summation of opinion:
"What a complete mess. The Osbournes were an embarrassment, not amusing at all and what happened to Ozzy?? The producers of this show should be ashamed to have made such a mess, and not in a good way.
Highlights for me:
Kylie- looked fab and was one of the only people acting professionally, wasn't expecting her to win though! Mark Ronson, glad he won something. - Amy Winehouse, was good to see her looking better but she ruined it with another silly comment about her husband. Alan Carr - at least he just admitted he was drunk, didn't like the Winehouse 'joke' though.
Bad points: the Rihanna/Klaxons...why????, Sharon Osbourne, Vic Reeves, Foo Fighters speech, Arctic Monkeys - the 'we're too good for awards' attitudes went out of fashion in the 90s. FEARNE COTTON - why??? there was no need for her, we could have seen all Macca's performance if we hadn't had her bits, she was the worst bit by far. Macca was a saving grace.. a true professional."

Some people saw fit to focus on one aspect in particular. One user was especially distressed by Sharon Osbourne's predatory flirting, saying:
"Get Sharon treatment as her sexist comments towards young, fit men under the delusion that they fancy her is turning into a national cringe fest, all 16-25 year old male wannabes at the next X Factor auditions....be afraid...very afraid".

Another took issue with Kylie's national treasure status:
"Am i the only person in the world that hates kylie? I never have liked her I think she is so over rated some of our english singers are far better than her annie lennox for one does any one else agree?"

And, perhaps inevitably, some thought Leona Lewis underrepresented:
"Why the hell has hardly anyone mentioned Leona Lewis. She's genuine, talented and has a beautiful personality. She rocked at the Brits. What a star!!"

Pertinent though all these comments are, my favourite analysis of the event was as follows:
"dat woz lame.da good people didn't evn get a trophy,but da rubbish people gets 1.amy winehouse iz all right but yesterday.dat woz lame,she woz dancing like she needs a pee,nd like she iz shy or somefink"

Poetry.

Finally, this Cliff Richard debate won't die. Despite it stemming from an obviously light-hearted remark I made over six weeks ago, I'm still getting correspondence like this:
"KNEW THAT MY COMMENTS WOULDN'T BE PRINTED (WHY BOTHER?) ALL i WAS SAYING WAS THAT WHAT CLIFF SAID WAS TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT, BUT FOR SOME REASON IT COULDN'T BE PRINTED (??) NOT LIKE YOUR ORIGINAL MESSAGE WHICH I FELT WAS QUITE OBSCENE, AND OVIOUSLY MALICIOUS! I DON'T SUPPOSE THIS COMMENT WILL BE USED EITHER!! WHY BOTHER RESPONDING AT ALL??"

Happy now? I'm guessing not.

Drinking With The NME

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:06:51 GMT

(Full list of winners at the bottom of this post)

OK, so I missed out on the Brits this year but I did get to go the NME Awards last night which, if the truth be told, is a whole lot more fun. In fact, there's no comparison.

The Brits is an industry bash held in an aircraft hangar (well, Earl's Court but it may as well be). There are 20 lawyers, accountants, secretaries, liggers, and pluggers for every genuinely interesting person and it's all "restricted access unless you've got the right colour wristband" this and "you're not seriously going to the official after-party, are you?" that. In short, it's a zoo.

And they do things like give Best Live Act to Take That.

I've nothing against the lads but, come on, be serious. A Take That gig is a great night at the theatre but it's not a live music experience in the proper sense. The NME awards righted that particular wrong last night by giving their Best Live Act gong to Muse.

Speaking of live acts, there were three distinct highlights for me. First was Lightspeed Champion. I'm not proud of this but I've kind of ignored them up to now. Ironically enough, I thought they looked far too much like an NME writer's wet dream to take seriously, so I didn't. But they pulled off a great performance while dressed as Star Wars characters, which is something you can't fail to respect. I'll have to check them out properly now.

The second was Kate Nash and Billy Bragg duetting on A New England. My initial thought was that they were an odd pairing but I couldn't have been more wrong.

They might be separated by gender and a couple of generations but the Bard of Barking and the, errrr, Hack of Harrow (you heard it here first) are musical kindred spirits and clearly recognised that in each other.

Completing the trio were the Manic Street Preachers. I've never been a huge fan but I've always admired their commitment to GNR inspired rocking, even if the manifesto nonsense started out embarrassing and has become more so with every passing year.

Anyway, the thing with these awards dos is that everyone's far too cool to do anything as gauche as, you know, get up from their tables. Well, sod that. It's not often you get to see a legendary band so close up you could actually touch them so I had no qualms whatsoever about leaving the free booze for 15 minutes and standing right in front of the stage.

What else? Well, Matthew Horne and James Corden did a great job presenting. Anyone with the balls to call Kelly Osborne 'the queen of hanging around with bands' to her face gets my vote.

But, incredibly, that wasn't the funniest remark of the night.

That accolade must surely go to Faris Rotter (not, I'm guessing, his real name) of The Horrors who, on presenting the Best New Band award to the urchin-like frontman of The Enemy, described them as "the band who laugh in the face of natural selection".

Miaow.

Anyway, here's the full list of winners:

Best British Band: Arctic Monkeys
Best International Band: The Killers
Best Album: Klaxons - Myths Of The Near Future
Best New Band: The Enemy
Best Track: Arctic Monkeys- Fluorescent Adolescent
Best Video: Arctic Monkeys- Teddypicker
Best Solo Artist: Kate Nash
Best Live Band: Muse
Best Dancefloor Filler: The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division
Phillip Hall Radar Award: Glasvegas
Best Radio Show: Zane Lowe
Best Film: Control
Best Live Event: Reading and Leeds Festival
Godlike Genius Award: Manic Street Preachers

BRITS Results

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:32:35 GMT

For the best coverage of last night's awards, check out the MSN Brits 2008 special.

RESULTS:

BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST: Mark Ronson

BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST: Kate Nash

BRITISH GROUP: Arctic Monkeys

BRITISH ALBUM: Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

LIVE ACT: Take That

BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST: Mika

INTERNATIONAL MALE: Kanye West

INTERNATIONAL FEMALE: Kylie Minogue

INTERNATIONAL GROUP: Foo Fighters

INTERNATIONAL ALBUM: Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

BRITISH SINGLE: Take That - Shine

CRITICS' CHOICE: Adele

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION: Sir Paul McCartney

BRITS Live!

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:59:31 GMT

22:10

Sounds like it's finally wrapping up now. Sir Paul just introduced the band. The place went ballistic, I am told. That's a legend. Easy to take him for granted but we'll miss him when he's gone. And that's it for another year.

22:06

Right, the TV coverage is over but my spies tell me Macca is still totally rocking the house. He did Lady Madonna, then took his jacket off and is currently steaming through Get Back. "Singing like the divorce has just come through" is the exact phrase I had no option but to repeat.

21:59

Hey Jude is the national anthem of British pop/rock music. Those kids down the front aren't pretending they're loving it, they really are. And Macca's playing the bass heavy version from Love. Excellent choice.

21:54

His voice is a little bit shot but you can't argue with Live and Let Die. Total tune!

21:47

Speak of the ...ummm...devil, they just wheeled Ozzy back on to prematurely announce "Mr Sir Paul McCartney". Nice one. Come on then Macca, let's see what you got.

21:42

Arctic Monkeys have just won Best Album but not before Sharon Osbourne clearly realised it was past the watershed and embarked on a swearfest with Vic Reeves. Not seen Ozzy for an hour now. It wasn't ever really anything to do with him, was it? She's terrifying.

21:36

Take That have won Best Single for Shine and Sharon Osbourne has gone all wannabe MILF on them. Unpleasant.

21:31

Arctic Monkeys have just won British Group and are doing an acceptance speech dressed as country squires. Quite surprised they are even there actually. Oh look, it's 'my dear friend' (Kelly Osbourne) Amy Winehouse again doing Love Is A Losing Game. Bloody hell, she's flirting with the camera. There is something utterly compelling about her. Oh God, did she have to mention 'my Blake' and ruin it?

21:18

Amy really can't dance, can she? Really good performance though. She looks properly animated again. Just been told by my spies on the ground that she got by far the biggest reception of the night so far. Was the same at the Mercurys last year. People really do love her, it seems.

21:15

Foo Fighters have just won International Album. Fair enough. Nicely sarcy speech from Dave Grohl. Oh right, here's the much heralded Ronson bit. Ha! He's playing a double necked guitar! Rock! Wait for Winehouse... I predict a riot.

21:11

What the hell is Andrew Lloyd Webber thinking? That best international groupie 'joke' was just embarrassing. Anyway, Foo Fighters won, which was fairly predictable. Excellent, Kate Nash has just won British Female. What a composed speech. The BRIT school lot obviously adore her. As do I.

21:04

Melisma-tastic!

21:00

International Female is Kylie. That may well have gone to Rihanna had it not been for the old cancer scare. You can't begrudge her anything though, can you? Here comes Leona Lewis... my sister will be pleased.

20:51

Looks like they are using Ozzy sparingly, which is probably wise. Kaiser Chiefs were pretty good just now. "You need to go party"? Sorry Fearne, where do you come from again? Silly girl.

20:46

OK, Mr Ego Kanye West has just won International Male and phoned in a typically charmless acceptance speech. Oh, and now Ronson has just won British Male. No surprises about either of those.

20:34

That was good. Enjoyed the robot thing. Yay! Looks like Adele feels the same way about Fearne Cotton as I do. She could barely conceal her contempt there.

20:30

Breakthrough Artist is Mika. Should have been Kate Nash. Blimey O'Reilly, it's Kylie!

20:27

Right, so half the BRIT school are down the front screaming their wannabe heads off. They are going to go absolutely MENTAL when Amy Winehouse comes on. Oh stop with the sexual innuendo, Sharon. It's vile.

20:18

God, I hate Fearne Cotton.

20:15

The Klaxons and Rihanna? Interesting. Why are they all dressed like extras from Mad Max? I don't really see what either side gains from this. Still a great pop song though.

20:11

OK, best live act. I tell you one thing. On this evidence, it's not Chris Moyles... Take That. I think this is an omen for the way the rest of the night is going to go. I've got nothing against Take That. I met them once and they're very nice chaps. I've seen them live too and it was very impressive. But it was theatre, not what live music should be about. Oh well, impossible to dislike them all the same.

20:05

To quote Guardian journo Alexis Petridis, I feel like I've just been mugged by Bonnie Langford. At least he's finished. Here come the Osbournes...

20:00

Oh God, not Mika. Love, love me indeed. Whoa! Beth Ditto! Now we're talking. Oh bugger off Mika, let the girl get on with it.

19:58

OK, I've wolfed down my dinner, got a can of lager on the go, and Corrie has finally finished. The BRITS get going any minute now and I'm here for the next two hours. Rock and roll :o)

Cafe Rage

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:20:54 GMT

It's an accepted part of the aging process that you get grumpier and less tolerant of people and things in general. I have observed this happening in myself since I turned 30 but I've gone into some sort of cranky warp-speed lately.

Put it this way, until a few hours ago I had never before stood up from an unfinished meal and left the premises because a remark I overheard from a neighbouring table infuriated me so much that I felt physically unable to stay there a moment longer.

And it's not as though the bloke responsible was mouthing off about immigrants or gays or something. In fact, I'm quite sure the majority of people wouldn't have found what he said offensive at all. This worries me slightly.

OK, enough preamble. This is what prompted my spontaneous exit.

Man in greasy spoon to wife/girlfriend: "Now City Of God is a good movie, yeah? But it's got one flaw. The acting, script, story, cinemat... cine... it looks wicked, yeah? But it's the sort of movie you can't watch more than once. That's the only thing wrong with it."

Do I need to look into meditation or something?

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January Mailbag

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:59:39 GMT

I'm always getting hassled by my bosses to update this blog more often. You didn't think I wrote it for fun, did you? I mean, without wanting to sound smug and/or self-satisfied (you can leave a comment saying that I do at the bottom), my job means I don't have a shortage of interesting stuff to write about. But the truth is, it goes against my nature.

The unstoppable rise of blogging, Facebook, and the like is making exhibitionists of us all and it makes me uneasy. "Read what I had for dinner last night and how it compared to a similar meal I ate a while ago!" "Look at these photographs of me drunkenly humping various items of office equipment!" And worst of all, "Peer into my very soul as I share my innermost thoughts and feelings with whoever happens to be reading".

And it's not as though technology is merely providing an outlet for the naturally extrovert. One of the self same bosses who periodically bollocks me for my meager output is a case in point. He's the sort of person you could work with for years, spend countless Friday nights in the pub with, and yet know next to nothing about.

But anything goes on his blog.

Anyway, it wouldn't be fair to say any more. See? I'm interested in his privacy even if he isn't. And that's why my blog entries (even this one, ironically enough) read more like articles than the diary entries they should more closely resemble.

In an attempt to find a compromise, I wrote a very short, throwaway entry about an unintentional innuendo I heard Cliff Richard make on a TV program. It must have been picked up on and linked to from elsewhere (I didn't promote it from MSN) because it attracted more user feedback than anything else in January.

As expected, Cliff fans came out in droves to defend their man. For example:

"This is definately an insulting remark, taken out of context. Haven't you got anything better to do than tarnish the reputation of one of the most talented performers in this country who is now celebrating 50 years in showbiz. Many people cannot live up to Ciff's whiter than white image and feel the need to cease any opportunity to smear his image. People that make such comments should be held to account."

It's precisely because Cliff and his fans are so notoriously prickly and humourless that he's such an obvious target for mickey-taking. It's the British response to pomposity and self-importance and nobody does those two quite like Cliff.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that about half the comments recognised this. This was particularly on the money:

"I've always had a problem with Cliff and his die hard fans. No doubt he has talent as he's been around for 50 years, but I always get the impression that he doesn't like the fact he isn't as good as he wishes he was. He seems to resent the fact that The Beatles took his crown in the 60's and it took him nealry 40 years to out sell their 8 years of recording work. Someone mentioned that he is Britain's top selling artist, well it's only because it includes his work with other artists in the collective sales. If you added what Paul McCartney did as a solo artist to the sales of The Beatles he clearly tops the list."

Saint Cliff's resentment of The Beatles and, more generally, the musical revolution of the 1960s is obvious from any interview where he's asked about it. You just know he thought they represented the decline of morality then and is even more sure of it now.

Funnily enough, Elvis viewed them in much the same way.

Anyway, this leads very nicely into a comment I received about the BRITS nominations, specifically Sir Paul McCartney's Outstanding Contribution award.

"Why oh why do we insist on treating the members of the beatles as if they have done something fantastic for humanity? If you havent guessed I cannot stand the way the beatles are put up on a pedestal especially bloody Lennon and mccarteny. Ok they wrote some catchy little tunes but its not like they have done anything to really help humanity. it irritates me that we have to 'honour' these annoying individuals and treat them with god like status!"

I've said all I will ever have to say about whether the Beatles deserve their untouchable reputation but I think the answer to this point is pretty clear. The BRITS is an industry affair and there is nothing any industry respects more than money. I'm just amazed that the biggest-selling musician of all time (according to the Guinness Book Of Records) has had to wait this long.

On a lighter note, the email that made me smile the most this month was in response to my piece about vinyl:

"vinyl lasts decades and like you say the scratches become part of the intro, its character. I had a discussion last night with a friend about have a game of name that tune but only using the crackling before the tune started as the clue because, the wear and tear became part of its personality that we grow to recognise and regard with fondness. Call me a sentimental old fool, but i know at least 5 people who agree!"

Makes you want to play, doesn't it?

Red Alert

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:19:19 GMT

The latest issue of Music Week has an article about how the major record labels are unusually dependent on successful second albums this year. It seems 2007 saw a trend of artists delivering efforts which, despite critical acclaim, sold considerably less than their debuts - Arctic Monkeys and James Blunt being two of the most high-profile examples.

Now I'm no Mystic Meg but I'd be willing to put money on at least one band bucking the trend in 2008. In a recent blog post I mentioned hearing an almost-finished mix of the new Guillemots album (which is to be called Red, apparently).

Well, I received an advance copy of the finished article earlier this week and it's just fantastic.

As I think I said before, I wasn't a huge fan of Through The Windowpane. I mostly liked the singles and I appreciated the fact there was a band out there prepared to do things like fill a piano with paperclips in pursuit of the perfect sound.

But I found the whole just a little too ethereal for my taste.

Red is no less eccentric or experimental but not, this time, at the expense of its accessibility. There are huge, joyous choruses, dirty overdriven riffs, deranged techno beats, happiness, sadness, excitement, and more than a hint of sex (absent from the first album).

It should be a sprawling mess of contrasting moods and jarring influences but somehow it succeeds brilliantly.

Through The Windowpane reached number 17 in the album charts, produced three singles in the bottom half of the top 40, and received a Mercury nomination. Looking into my crystal ball, I can see Red making the top five and at least one of its singles hitting the top ten.

And here's a really bold prediction given that I have no idea what the competition will be - I reckon they'll win the Mercury this time.

Cliff Comes Clean

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:24:53 GMT

I've been enjoying the Pop Britannia series on BBC4 recently. It's the sort of thing the Beeb does really well; intelligent commentary, great archive footage, and the odd unexpected laugh.

Far and away the most amusing moment (to my juvenile mind) occurred during the first episode. Cliff Richard (all fake tan, hair dye, and mid-Atlantic accent) was trotting out his usual story about the very first time he heard an Elvis Presley record.

"I didn't just want to be like him", admitted Sir Cliff, "I wanted to be him". Then he paused, looked straight at the camera, and said, "I actually wanted to wake up in the morning and be inside Elvis".

Now that's honesty.

Animal Magic

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:28:53 GMT

In one of those not-particularly-noteworthy-don't-know-why-I-even-thought-to-mention-it coincidences that life throws up approximately three times a week, my two most recent interviews have been with bands named after animals.

I spent last Friday afternoon in the charming, if slightly odd, company of Guillemots. I must admit I never really got into their debut album, the Mercury-nominated Through The Windowpane. I appreciate its dream-like quality and there are some great tunes tucked away but it always felt a bit too much like hard work for me.

I don't know, perhaps I'm just a philistine.

Anyway, I got to hear an advance copy of their as-yet-unnamed new one in the car on the way to their East London studio and it sounded fantastic. They've really ramped up the pop factor and there are a lot more beats and hooks going on.

The band themselves were really nice. They were filming a fans-only video for the first single when I got there, which involved Fyfe, MC, and the really rather foxy Arista nodding their heads in time to the music while drummer Greig (who had got himself nicely drunk by way of preparation) pranced around in a pink suit (minus shirt and shoes) with one of those kids' springy headband things on.

Greig isn't the most slender of gentleman, so it was quite a sight, I can tell you.

The interview itself was great fun and featured Fyfe doing the best John Peel impression I've ever heard. It should be live on MSN Music in the next couple of weeks and is definitely worth checking out for that alone.

Meeting Mark Oliver Everett, otherwise known as E, from Eels yesterday was a much more sobering experience. Hey, if you'd found your father dead in his bed, had a sister commit suicide, your mother die of cancer, and had a cousin working as a flight attendant on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre, you'd probably be a little on the melancholy side too.

E was somewhat reluctantly (I got the impression he does most things somewhat reluctantly) promoting two new Best Of releases plus his highly acclaimed autobiography, Things The Grandchildren Should Know. For the first time in over two years of doing this I was specifically warned by the PR to do my research.

E doesn't suffer fools gladly, I was told.

That much I could tell within a short space of time but we got on just fine. He was thoughtful if unusually brief (by musician standards) in his answers and sent up his negative view of the world several times (on the Obama-Clinton battle: "Is America more bigoted or sexist? That's the real issue"), but it went ok.

Mind you, he did tell me off for asking what new music he was enjoying. Apparently every journalist in the world asks that and it's boring. Oh well, you live and learn.

2008 Brit Awards Nominations

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:04:45 GMT

Here are all the nominations for this year's Brit Awards, which will take place on 20 Feb.

British Male Solo Artist
Mark Ronson
Newton Faulkner
Richard Hawley
Jamie T
Mika

British Female Solo Artist
KT Tunstall
PJ Harvey
Bat For Lashes
Kate Nash
Leona Lewis

British Breakthrough Act
Kate Nash
Klaxons
Bat For Lashes
Leona Lewis
Mika

British Album
Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
Leona Lewis - Spirit
Mark Ronson - Version
Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion
Take That - Beautiful World

British Single
Kate Nash - Foundations
James Blunt - 1973
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Mark Ronson Ft Amy Winehouse - Valerie
Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
Mutya Buena - Real Girl
The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray
Take That - Shine
Mika - Grace Kelly
Sugababes - About You Now

British Group
Kaiser Chiefs
Arctic Monkeys
Girls Aloud
Editors
Take That

British Live Act
Klaxons
Take That
Kaiser Chiefs
Muse
Arctic Monkeys

International Male Solo Artist
Kanye West
Rufus Wainwright
Bruce Springsteen
Michael Bublé
Timbaland

International Female Solo Artist
Alicia Keys
Bjork
Rhianna
Feist
Kylie Minogue

International Album
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The Eagles - Long Road Out of Eden
Kylie Minogue - X
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace

International Group
Foo Fighters
Eagles
Kings of Leon
Arcade Fire
The White Stripes

Critics Choice Award (new category)
Foals
Duffy
Adele - *Winner*

Outstanding Contribution to Music
Sir Paul McCartney - *Winner*

What do you think of the nominations? Is someone up for too many awards, or has anybody been cruelly neglected? Who do you want to win? Leave your comments below.

December Mailbag

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:25:59 GMT

A bit late this month but you know how it is getting back into the swing of things after Christmas. On top of which, I've had approximately 12437892374 emails pointing out that I'd published an Elvis birthday tribute on the wrong day (January 5th instead of January 8th) to contend with.

Feedback on this ranged from the politely questioning to the predictably abusive - with the majority in the latter camp. There were a lot of emails of the "call yourself a music editor?" variety, many of which finished with "perhaps you'll do your research in future" (or words to that effect).

What can I say? I made a mistake. Hey, it happens to the best of us. The "do your research" stuff made me smile though. Did anyone really think I'd tried to guess Elvis' birthday? If so, three days out wasn't a bad effort.

As it happens, I had looked up the date, but my source, which it would be unfair to name, was wrong. Needless to say I fired off a series of furious emails insisting they do their research in future. And my God it made me feel smug, powerful, and ever so slightly excited.

More observant readers will have worked out that this really belongs in January's mailbag, due at the end of this month. Well, technically, yes it should, but there wasn't a great deal of feedback in the run up to Christmas and, more to the point, this is an issue of huge importance which it would have been unfair to leave hanging unresolved any longer.

On a different note, a user contacted me in December to say:
"Can't for the life of me think why the Eagles Long road out of Eden isn't on anyones best of 2007 list. Most mags and reveiws gave it 2/3 stars. An absolute disgrace. Journalists do not LISTEN to albumns anymore. The songs, production and their voices are still spot on. 9/10 at least."

I have LISTENED to Long Road Out Of Eden and it's alright. As you say, time hasn't diminished their singing voices or musicianship. But it hasn't given them much in the way of new ideas either - and they were a pretty conservative bunch to start with. It might have been an album of the year in 1974 but not now.

Speaking of albums of the year, the relevant messageboard featured a number of people deploring the absence of Back To Black by Amy Winehouse.

It was released in 2006, that's why it wasn't there.

More surprising to me, though, were the number of votes for bands like Machine Head and Avenged Sevenfold. I genuinely didn't realise how many serious metalheads we had among our users.

I'm going to try to cater to you guys a bit more this year.

Photo Album: With a Little Help From My Friends

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:23:46 GMT

With a Little Help From My Friends

Tom Jones

Beyonce

Rod

James-Hurley

Photo Album: Blog Images

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:18:13 GMT

Blog Images

Photo Album: 02 November

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:26:20 GMT

02 November

Amy Winehouse

Bolton 'swings' Sinatra

Ray LaMontagne

Me and Rod

Tony Bennett

Photo Album: 11 October

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:32:53 GMT

11 October

Tim and Girls Aloud

Custom List: MSN Music

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:58:24 GMT

MSN Music

Book List: Book List

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:05:53 GMT

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