Music – Page 2 – Hello Curns

Disappointing Frustrating

Why is it that it’s always the small stuff in life that is the most infuriating?

This morning I thought I would give the MSN Music Club the once over. You’re supposed to be able to download music legally and all that kind of thing. Well, today they did manage to take my credit card details (I signed up for the minimum service) but that’s about all they’ve done. I haven’t actually managed to get a track out of it. It seems to be a permanent error (but perhaps not as big an error as me handing them my credit card details). Obviously, I was also silly to try to access it later in the day with the Mozilla browser.

How disappointing.

This afternoon I rushed home from work to meet the plumber who was coming to fix a new kitchen tap to replace the one that’s been dripping for a year (I know it’s a water-crime but I do have a life to lead). Anyway, he arrived (after I had hauled my ass and walked up the escalators on the tube to make sure I got the right train home) only to leave ten minutes later saying he couldn’t fit the new tap and somebody else would have to come out next week and show him how to fix it.

How frustrating.

On the up-side my Oyster card that allows me to travel on the tube hasn’t yet been erased by my mobile ‘phone despite the fact I keep sticking them in the same pocket.

Silly Pop Stars

Blue’s Lee Ryan has been charged with drink-driving. I should file this under silly popstars, shouldn’t I?

Who’s a silly boy then? With all that fame and money you think Blue’s Lee Ryan would be more careful and pay for a driver, wouldn’t you? If you didn’t know, he’s been charged with drink driving. Let’s hope the adulation is not going to his head and he thinks he’s better than everyone and above the law. Still, another shameless excuse to post a picture (I took this one at Pride In The Park last month).

I should file this under silly popstars, shouldn’t I?

Beep Beep To Profit

There’s a market of over 70 million pounds for ringtones – a figure I find astonishing.

Sometimes, I live in a world of hope and today is no exception.

BBC News reports that sales of mobile ‘phone ringtones are set to overtake sales of CD singles. Ringtones are worth an astonishing £70million, if the article is to be believed, and are highly profitable for the record industry. I wonder if they will now start to realise that there is money in the digital delivery of music and it’s about time that they embraced it fully? I do hope so. Sadly, I can’t contribute their new revenue source as I find those high-pitched beeps trying to sound like a song all too irritating. I accept that’s an age thing. I wonder when – for I’m sure it will happen – we’ll see the first ringtone only hit?

Seven Inches of Joy

Four Minute Warning is in the shops today. But what was the first single you bought?

And lo it came to pass that after years and years of waiting, Mark Owen’s new single Four Minute Warning was released this morning. And, I like it. In fact, I like it so much I went and bought the single – which at £1.99 seems to me to be the right price for a single. While I was stood in Tower Records handing over my two pound coins, it struck me that it has been a very, very long time since I bought a single at all and I can’t even remember what it was.

I can, however, remember the first single I bought. I was around eight years old (back in 1978 which just shows what an old duffer I am) and I desperately wanted a copy of the theme tune to Southern Television’s Famous Five TV series. I had saved all my money (I don’t remember how much it was) and raced around the shops of Wigan for it. Eventually, I found it and must have played it 1000 times that night. I can still remember the magic and joy of that moment.

I wonder if an mp3 of that exists? I still have the vinyl but nothing to play it on!

Pride 2003

For the first time in many, many year, the Pride festival took place in Hyde Park and I was there.

Well despite the weather and the somewhat officious woman searching my bag on entry, this year’s Pride in the Park in Hyde Park was fabulous – the best I have been to (probably ever – although my first Pride on Clapham Common was pretty cool too).

After breakfast at a friend’s house, PY and I headed down to Embankment for the parade. This is the first time I’ve ever marched with the crowd and it was brilliant – the only downside of actually taking part is that you do not get to see it all. In a bid to overcome this, we ran ahead and watched part of the parade (including the fabulous OutEverywhere bus) and then joined in at some point (for a great deal of the time we marched near a float that Josh from a previous Big Brother was prancing about on). The atmosphere was superb and the crowds watching were huge. Coming up to Piccadilly Circus was just a mass of people – it was quite exciting really.

Then we made the park. We made our way to the main stage and seeing Liberty X (who were surprisingly good), Ulta Nate (who sang a whole stack of songs that I was familiar with) and Blue (who were also very good). Later in the day we caught Tom Robinson and Jimmy Sommerville (this after standing on the sidelines singing along to Bananarama – but as nobody has a picture of that I will deny it at a later date).

At some point in the afternoon – just after it started to rain – we had a wander around the market stalls (which seemed more varied than other times) and had a poke in some of the dance tents (although it’s not really my thing). By late afternoon, the rain was pouring but spirits were not dampened (and. luckily, for most of the afternoon the ground in Hyde Park held up).

It was an exhausting day but it was worth it and it was great to be with a bunch of other homos just having a good time. There will be some pictures in the gallery, eventually.

UPDATE: Other sites:

Pride in Pictures at BBC News
DotMusic’s Review of Pride music

Pop

I am currently listening to pop. This is a difficult thing to write. Pop is not considered to be a credible music genre by people who listen to lots of music. Pop is considered the home of the boy band. Pop is the cheap and nasty side of music. People, especially people of my age, should have grown out of pop, but I have not. I enjoy the throw-away nature of it. The three-minute perfect pop song can take you away from your day and, if this week’s other entries are to be believed, away from your fellow commuters.

Actually, I hope, the current music I am listening to is considered the good side of pop (see, I am joining in the criticism of the genre). Not for me the sounds of the Cheeky Girls or S Club Juniors. No, I hope my current selection is a little more discerning.

I own a reasonable amount of music but I don’t purchase CDs weekly like some people. But I am listening to three recent albums which must be the first time that has happened to me in a long while. My current favourite is Justin Timerlake’s Justified. That is followed closely by Erasure’s new release (just last Monday), Other People’s Songs. Finally, I been unable to resist Will Young’s From Now On. Yes, unable to resist!

Continue reading “Pop”

The Ultimate Boy Band CD (2) Aka The I Am Shallow Project

Another take at the Ultimate Boy Band CD

The Ultimate Boy Band CD Project is starting to depress me for several reasons:

Because compiling a CD takes time (how do those guys select for Now 195? (Update: They get paid to do it all day, of course)
It’s also much harder than I imagined to come up with a CD full of songs that I would actually say is the best Boy Band CD ever (wonder if the Best … Ever people have done this, maybe I should look)
Nobody else seems to think this is a fun idea
Some people seem to think all I care about (musically) is boy bands
Almost everybody thinks boy bands are crap
Almost everybody seems to think this makes me shallow, which is amusing.

I know there is more to life than this! I was having a bit of fun. Lighten up. Please.

And so, on with the project:

N’Sync – Pop
Take That – Relight My Fire
Take That – Could It Be Magic
F5ive – If Ya Gettin’ Down
Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
A1 – Same Old Brand New You
NEW A1 – Caught In The Middle
NEW Blue – All Rise

I guess I really am shallow!

Previously: Ultimate Boy Band CD (1)

Up Above The Streets And Houses

In case you’re wondering, my attempt to bring forth an avalanche of programmes from my childhood didn’t quite have the desired result.

In case you’re wondering, my attempt to bring forth an avalanche of programmes from my childhood didn’t quite have the desired result. However, Danny Baker on BBC London this morning did spend some time talking about Rainbow (fab title sequence here). Somehow, it doesn’t seem quite so much of a spooky coincidence as the whole Fame thing.

Starmaker, Dream Breaker

So it’s all getting a bit spooky. There I was on Friday night remembering the songs from the TV series of Fame (I preferred the TV series as it was much fluffier. Being so young, the grittiness of the film version didn’t hit me for several years) and remembering Danny as one of my childhood lust-objects (you used to be able to download your own Danny wallpaper here).

I spent yesterday doing all the boring things you have to do around the house occasionally. Cleaning. Paying bills etc. At some point I switched on VH1 to find it was their 100 Worst Videos day. And the song I switched on to? No 62 (I think) which was Starmaker, by the Kids from Fame (OK, it would have been a better story if it was Friday Night, but still)

So let’s see if I can tempt fate – I want to see more about the following: Play School, Rainbow, Harley Hare, The Clangers, Trumpton. How spooky would it be if this actually works?

It will aid my aching bones. I’ve been in the garden all day cutting down bushes and pruning. I was outside for the grand total of seven hours and it rained for most of them. Strangely, I feel invigorated by having spent the day outdoors. No doubt I shall ache tomorrow.

Friday Night’s Gonna Be Alright

Friday nigh’s gonna be alright.

Well in a few minutes I will, hopefully, be leaving the office. I have been here late most evenings and, to be honest, I am really looking forward to going home and sleeping. The air-conditioning in the office has been broken so we have gradually baked our way through today. I would he happy without the nonsense air-conditioning anyway, but all the windows have been sealed shut so that you can’t get any really fresh (well, fresh for London standards) air into your lungs. I have a weekend of hard, manual labour planned. I have to tame some of the wild growth in my garden. I can’t wait. Friday Night, as Danny (one of the Kids from Fame) once sang, is “gonna be alright”. I’m sure I remember that because I used to have a huge crush on Carlo Imperato.

Start shaking your hips
Baby pucker your lips
Cause I’m coming to see you soon

I must only have been about 10 years old!

Anyway, why you may ask do I spend ten minutes writing this? Well, our dumb systems are taking forever to do some processing and I am not going to sit here all night watching the screen!

Ultimate Boy Band CD (1)

I am trying to compile the ultimate boy band CD and I am unsure where to start. Anyway, current thinking includes:

N’Sync – Pop
Take That – Relight My Fire
Take That – Could It Be Magic
F5ive – If Ya Gettin’ Down
Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
A1 – Same Old Brand New You

I shall now go away and think about it properly, updating as I go.

Number One

Well for no reason at all, I decided to look up what was the number one UK single on this day in 1982 (I don’t even know why I chose that year). Well, it’s a bit of a minefield as it somewhat depends on which chart you count as being the “official” chart. Still, it would appear that it was Irene Cara and the theme from Fame which is, of course, one of the greatest records from my childhood.