Word Magazine blogs (Free subscription) | yesterday
Next Thursday, I'll be hitting Princess Street in Edinburgh, to try and start and finish my Christmas shopping in one day. I'll hopefully squeeze in a pint or two in the old town, before heading home and writing up my notes on Marillion's gig in Glasgow from the Wednesday night. I'm a man of simple pleasures; all I've asked for this Christmas is the second installment of Michael Palin's diaries and...
From the Dust Returned (Free subscription) | 17/11/2009
To-Mera are certainly an anomaly in metal music: one of the few progressive metal bands with a female singer that I am aware of even existing. Julie Kiss has a vocal style which recalls Anneke (formerly of The Gathering ). She uses a lot of emotion and inflection within her voice, instantly separating her from a lot of the talentless gothic metal band fronting hacks. To date, the band has released...
Fleetwood Birder (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009
...and others might call it science and dedication! Despite not getting to bed until 1.00 a.m. this morning I still set my alarm for 06:30, got up, listened as the "rain auditioned at my window" (Marillion reference there!) and then went back to bed. When I got up again a couple of hours later it was still raining, a carbon copy of yesterday. 'Her indoors', or should I say Gail, had made...
Guitars and Life (Free subscription) | 13/11/2009
The Muse gig was great! We had really good seats, at the side just about level with the front of the stage so a really great view if side on. The stage set was very impressive, huge risers for all three of the band and they opened with them on the top of these structures about 30ft in the air - i.e. level with us :-) They played a lot off the new album particularly at the start of the show kicking...
The Northern England Art Rock Society (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
THE ENID have been added the the NEARfest 2010 line-up. The Pineapple Thief, Astra, Three Friends & Forgas Band Phenomena are the other acts booked so far. The event will take place on June 18th, 19th & 20th, 2010 at the Zoellner Arts Center, Bethlehem, PA. NEARfest is proud to be able to present for the first time in the U.S, the enigma that is The Enid. Called by many as THE band that actually...
Good Math, Bad Math (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
Porcupine Tree, "Kneel and Disconnect" : New Porcupine Tree! It's always great to get new stuff from these guys. It's good, but it's not up to the quality of their last two albums. (But given that their last two were utterly amazing, that's not much of a criticism.) Mind Games, "Royalty in Jeopardy" : Some prog that I recently found via eMusic. They've got a sound that I describe...
The Northern England Art Rock Society (Free subscription) | 01/11/2009
MARILLION are planning to video and record their London dates in December for a DVD and CD. The shows which are part of the band’s current acoustic tour, will take place at the Cadogan Hall on December 6th & 7th. The tour is to promote Marillion's new album "Less Is More". Marillion also have plans in hand to kickstart the next new studio album by going out to Portugal in March,...
Word Magazine blogs (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
So, when I go to the gym I have Sasha/Digweed's sans pareil "Northern Exposure" to listen to, specifically the North cd. Wonderful music, highlights include their mix of "Water from a Vine Leaf" by William Orbit. When this came out in 96, buoyed by Orbital at Glastonbury 94/95, "Firestarter", Death In Vegas, "Leave Home", banco de gaia, "papua new guinea"...
Edged in Blue (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
Marillion should have a bigger American following. They’re better (and less arrogant) than Oasis, less commecial than Coldplay, and about as good as Radiohead. Hell, they sounded like Radiohead before Radiohead did. Plus, they’ve got that great prog backlist with Fish as the lead singer. I could take the Tea Party Movement more seriously if they’d [...]
Word Magazine blogs (Free subscription) | 25/10/2009
I'm currently listening to "Songs Of The Dead",a compilation CD made for me by a friend, who takes an annual week off to celebrate Halloween. His CD is more soundtrack based, featuring the likes of "Poltergeist", "Evil Dead 2", "House On Haunted Hill" and "The Grudge". It makes quite good background music for a Sunday morning, I'm not reduced to terror...
BounceFM (Free subscription) | 24/10/2009
Two weeks after launching its mission to raise $250,000 (£152,500) to finance its latest record , hip hop pioneers Public Enemy have hit the $50,000 (£30,500) mark through Amsterdam-based site Sellaband.com . More than 700 people in 50 countries donated to the cause, making it the site’s fastest fund-raising effort to date, and it puts Chuck D and crew on course to make their full...
The Common Room (Free subscription) | 21/10/2009
Marillion in a rock version- the lead singer sings in a kilt, and you gotta love that: It's rather different than what we're used to, but I like this one, too. The name 'Marillion,' by the by, is from Silmarillion, the name the group originally chose. They had to change it due to copyright restrictions, as Tolkien's Silmarillion is not in the public domain.
Word Magazine blogs (Free subscription) | 19/10/2009
Marc Riley's just played Morrisey's "Everyday Is Like Sunday" on 6 music and whilst I'm waiting for Master Chef to come on air, it's made me think of songs with days of the week in the title. I'm really struggling with Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, infact I can't think of any at the time of this blog. Feel particularly thick for a Monday night. Can you assist, so far all I have is:...
Guitars and Life (Free subscription) | 17/10/2009
See that... that's me on the bill! So committed now, and some friends have somewhat surprisingly shown enthusiasm for coming along! The Set List Develops So here we are at the moment Babylon David Gray Sail Away David Gray The Circle Ocean Colour Scene May You Never John Martyn Beautiful Marillion On Camber Sands Gordon Giltrap Dublin Day Gordon Giltrap Then a selection of my own from Gypsy Solo Sunday...
Lights in the Sky (Free subscription) | 15/10/2009
. A short post with some of my highlights of the year so far. Check some of them out. ALBUMS I'VE LISTENED TO IN 2009 SO FAR ----> GARY NUMAN - The Pleasure Principle (30th Anniversary Edition) ----> PLACEBO - Battle for the Sun ----> MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Journal for Plague Lovers ----> EDITORS - In This Light and On This Evening ----> MARILLION - Less is More ----> RADIOHEAD...
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