I am going to a gig tomorrow! I had thought that – Glastonbury aside which is of course “not about the music man” (i.e. the music is atrocious) – this was my first gig in three whole years but I’d forgotten about Brian W[…]

Pop Factor: 711 Controversy Rating: 286
From a marketing point of view, the double-whammy repositioning of Dizzee in the mainest of mainstreams is startling, particularly as the rest of Showtime is only user-friendly compared to his older stuff. I […]

I had thought Popjustice was going a bit over the top with its critique of Band Aid 20 (if you accept PJ’s logic then EVERYONE needs to be on the single to fully reap the marginal benefits – if Sam and Mark, why not Nurse With Wound?). Bu[…]

Download and singles chart to merge – in ‘new year’, i.e. just after the 1000th No.1? Or just in time for it. (Yes I know three quarters of you care less than nothing about this.) (via No Rock And Roll Fun)[…]

A small crumb of good news: Hi-I’m-Wes to leave R1, mind you the replacements don’t look much of an improvement.[…]

Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton
I’d never been to a jazz gig in my life. I’d never listened to much free jazz, or got into it at all. My friend Andrew wanted to go to this gig, part of the London Jazz Festival at the Royal Festival Hall,[…]

The Tarquin Records All Stars – Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Okay, I haven’t heard the new version of DTKIC?, but all the talk has inspired me!…This is my all time favourite version of the song, recorded way back in 1997. It f[…]

BANDAID 20, first impressions*
What a mess! What a real mess! It sounds like a sixth form jam session. They’ve dispensed with the need for a drum track, replaced the “whur-ur-uh” noises with some sort of nasty synth line, bongo m[…]

Ol’ Dirty Bastard and John Balance, RIP
Not that much connects them in an immediate sense. Seemingly the only reason to think of them both off-hand would simply appear to be the accidental timing of their deaths on Saturday. ODB = famous, sco[…]

I once had a conversation with a rock fan about favourite guitarists: I mentioned Steve Cropper, of Booker T & the MGs, who also produced and co-wrote many of the great Stax recordings, such as Otis Redding’s. This guy hadn’t heard o[…]