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The gallows album – Orchestra of wolves is not something I listen to on a daily basis. I find this genre of rock music (‘shouty rock’ as I have baptised it) has a similar affect on me to red wine. Although I like the smell and taste of red wine it just gives me a blinding headache! Gallows - just listening to it - gives me a sour throat! Put Enter Shakari in that category as well. Oh and another thing – doesn’t matter how many tats Frank Carter (coolest person of the year according to the NME cool list) gets, there is no disguising the fact the he is still ginger!

One of the best musical events that did not include music for me was …while on holiday in Antigua flew over to Montserrat for a day in a 12 seat “transit”. Interesting and depressing place. The volcano is still erupting and the remains of the population can only live in the top third of the island. 100’s of very expensive houses just deserted on the edge of the exclusion zone. Saw the deserted Air Studios and Sir George Martins deserted house. He is still raising money for the locals through charity auctions etc.. Here is the point of the story….. Just got back to the tiny airport and checked in for the flight back to Antigua – who walks in…. Sir George and Giles Martin. They had been there to open a new Centre and museum that he had raised the funds for. What can you say to a living legend? All Bev noticed was the huge diamond in Sir Georges wife’s’ engagement ring! All I could think of saying to Giles was – what the fuck were you thinking of with Kula Shaker!

Surprise best gigs of the year – Prince at the O2. Just before the gig one of those little incidents that make life worth while… At the official merchandise stand saw an album that I had herd of but never seen - N.E.W.S - Great, I’ll get a copy – ‘Copy of N.E.W.S please’ – “Sorry can’t sell you a copy until after the gig” – mmmm must be some sort of copyright embargo or something… “Health & Safety mate” …. ‘Errr.. OK … elaborate’ – “Well the CD could be snapped and used as a weapon” ‘What a way to go – stabbed to death by a prince CD!’ … The story gets better – upon entry to the arena guess what – you get presented with the new Prince CD Planet Earth! ‘What about health & safety?’ I tell him. The guy handing out the CD’s looks confused, I look confused.. Still managed to get a copy of N.E.W.S at another stall!

I’m surprised because of health & safety, seat belts aren’t required for the seats we had! Must have been 60 feet up with a 40 degree slope. The people in front of us could stand up and we still had a good view! The stage was in the centre of the arena, so no one had a bad view. I last saw him in 1988 on the Lovesexy tour at Wembley Arena. It was a similar set up to that. The sound was OK but the gig was probably one of the best arena gigs I’ve been to. He teased the crowd by starting songs – waited for the cheer of approval and then stopped – ‘You don’t wanna hear that one – I have so many hits’ then started another song and did the same again! He did manage to do a few all the way through! Biggest omission was the latest single Guitar. Best songs Strange Relationship, Take Me with U & It Always Snows in April.

A week later I was back at the O2 to see the final gig of the Bigger Bang tour by the Rolling Stones. The Enemy opened up. I was familiar with all the songs they did as they have made one of the albums of the year. Ironically they have sold more copies of their debut than the Stones have of their last album in the UK. However about 17000 of the 21000 audience never saw them! Deciding to stay in the bars – or probably the average age of a Stones fan being a little older than an Enemy fan, taking longer than expected to climb the 100’s of stairs to their seats! Best Stones song of the night – I Can Hear You Knocking.

Another great gig – Ryan Adams at the Hammersmith Apollo in November. Played for two and a half hours running through tracks from most of his back catalogue. Not saying much for the first two thirds of the show between tracks, he suddenly burst into banter and you can’t seem to shut him up! Even from the back row of the balcony he makes the place seem like a small club.

One week in July and bit of gig frenzy for me and Bev. Elvis Costello/Allan Tousaint at the Tower of London. Costello seemed to be suffering from some sort of respiratory problem sighting the ‘hot air’ being emitted from the Live Earth gig at Wembly a few miles away at the same time for this condition. Hopefully this was not his last gig in the UK (see below).

Damian Rice in Reading and Guilfest at the following week end. The Hold Steady’s set and Dub Pistols featuring Terry Hall & Lynval Golding doing Gangsters were among the highlights of Guilfest for me. Also good value, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff & The Magic Numbers. Squeeze were a little disappointing due to Glenn Tilbrook suffering from a throat infection. But Chris Difford managed to keep  his songs sweet.  Guilfest Photos.

Other great gigs of the year – The Killers at Brighton Centre, Loudon Wainwright III at The Dome, Manic Street Preachers, Travis & Damien Rice In Reading, Van Morrison in Oxford, Super Furry Animals in Southampton & The Who at Wembly Arena.

Last gig of the year for me..Kaiser Chiefs at the Brighton Centre - Really good. They remind me of Early Faces. Good time Rock 'n' Roll band - no political agenda - no silly attitude - just good tunes with a large element of fun - sadly lacking in too many bands today.

Talking of Elvis – (One of my all time favourite artists) In December’s Mojo he says he has no plans or interest to play the UK again. Sighting a bad Glastonbury in 2005 & a bad experience at the BBC in 2006. He also says he has no further plans to issue any more albums! I hope this is not true. I can understand his frustration at record companies – (see the full article). He seems to dislike MP3’s – as I do – (although he says he has 18000 songs on his iPod - 3000 more than me!) but surly releasing and selling CD’s via web sites and at gigs – although not in the UK - independently must be the way forward for him? What about Starbucks?? Hopefully it’s just a middle age strop and by this time next year hell will have forgotten all about it – maybe!

Was this the last sighting of Elvis on a British stage?

Once again the Technics/Murcury prize was a catalogue of missed opportunities. The Hours, The Good The Bad & The Queen, Gruff Rhys, Jarvis Cocker, The Fratellis, Manic Street Preachers & Biffy Clyro all must have slipped the minds of the selection panel! At least The Klaxons came through to win!

So how much did you pay for the Radiohead album? How much do you know how to pay before you hear it? Do you judge by their track record? I figure you must start from the price you would expect to pay in your local supermarket - £9.75. Subtract the average markup that resellers make, say 25%. Subtract the distribution cost 5%, Then the manufacturing cost, 10%, The marketing cost 15% the record company profit, 15%. So £2.85 then! Sounds about right for a rubbish quality mp3 download album. OK so how much did I actually pay ..£40.00 for the box set – yeah they saw me coming!
 

Build ‘em up to knock ‘em down – the music press have been doing this for 40 years plus. But the cycle seems to have speeded up. As I mentioned last year the cycle for new bands has gone into overdrive. This seems to be a further extension of that cycle. Back in the late 60’s early ‘70’s the music press would at least let a band get the 2nd album out. This year The NME had Jack Peňate, The Twang, to name but 2 – as cover stars - before they even had albums out. The debut came out and…. crash! OK they might have been causing a big noise live - but come on – lets get the 1st album out to get a full picture of a new artist before they are crucified!
 

Seems the NME can not let it lie - Re ignited it's feud with Morrissey. I'm fully behind Morrissey on this one - as were most of the correspondents the following week in NME. I don't know the man and all I can do is read and hear the interviews he gives and listen to the records. I read the interview By Tim Jones and I feel he saw a chance to make a name for himself and stitched Mozzer up. Bet when Jones was studying for his degree (Media studies & binge drinking - I guess) he would never make a splash as big as this - TWAT.

(Seems this story will run for a while - After the NME printed the interview, Morrissey started proceedings to sue the paper for defamation of character. Also according the The Times Friday 7th March 2008 while running an article about the imminent demise of the printed version of the NME, it was claimed - on the Morrissey Blog -  the The NME decided to take revenge on Morrissey for refusing to headline the Big Gig at the O2 on Feb 28th 2008 - Headlined by The Manic Street Preachers)

Although we had only been friends for a couple of years, Fopp was into his 27th year. Born in Scotland in 1981 and moving to England in the last few years, Fopp OD’d on Music Zone and was laid to rest in HMV. Fopp leaves 7 offspring In Edinburgh, Glasgow (2 Locations), Manchester, Nottingham, Cambridge & London.

I have managed to make a couple of visits to the re opened London branch, thankfully it is still the same. (a large selection of back catalogue at £1, £3 & £5). Hopefully more branches may re open at some stage.

Where to buy CD’s other than the usual top 40 that the supermarkets, Virgin (now Zavvi) and HMV have to offer? All they want to do now is sell rubbish mobile phones, games console's, cheap MP3 players & novelty DVD box sets!! So, I use Amazon Market Place. One of the Market place vendors, Caiman seems one of the best. Out of the 40 – 50 purchases I’ve made this year from them, all have been top rate. Good prices and international delivery within 10 days! Not as convenient as Fopp though!

The other places I’ve re discovered are a few second hand shops. Mainly Ben’s Collectibles in Guildford and Rock Box in Camberley. Good selections of second hand CD’s from £3 to £5.

The only other cheap place I discovered but not recommended was Thailand. Went there for a couple of weeks in December. I Couldn’t believe the scale of piracy for CD’s DVD’s. I only spotted the usual top 40 artists albums for sale. Price about £1.00. The only good thing is that it is denying the likes of The Eagles & James Blunt from amassing even larger fortunes! Oh, by the way – if you get caught bringing them back to the UK, Customs can confiscate them!

Gadgit of the year – no contest the iPod iTouch – not the rip off iPhone. Can’t wait for the 160 Gb version in about 2 years time!

 

What are my favourite Albums of the year? In no particular order..

• The Hold Steady – Boy & Girls In America – Yes it came out in the US in ’06 but never reached these shores until March this year.

•  The Good The Bad & The Queen – Damon Albarn’s latest venture.

• Gruff Rhys – Candy Lion & Super Furry Animals – Hey Venus! – Some of the best pop music to come out of Wales this year…apart from The Manic Street Preachers – Send Away The Tigers.

• The Shins – Wincing The Night Away – Portland (OR) based band’s 3rd album hits the spot.

• The Hours – Narcissus Road – Debut album of the year from Joe Strummer’s band members. Sadly ignored by every end of year poll.

• Arcade Fire – Neon Bible – 2nd full album from Montréal’s finest, Includes re record of No Cars Go from their debut EP.

• Editors – An End Has A Start – Not a critics favourite – someone even compared it to Coldplay ????

• Battles – Mirrored – Debut long player. A slice of delicious Post Rock noise from New York combo, succeeds to be different!

• Biffy Clyro – Puzzle – Scottish bands 4th album heads for Muse territory.

• The Bees – Octopus – Isle Of Weight’s 2nd favourite sons (1st Level 42!) 3rd album of cod reggae, Soul & pop.

• Radiohead – In Rainbow – Already enough written about this.

• Beirut – The Flying Club Cup - Arcade Fire’s prodigy!

• Klaxons – Myths Of The Near Future - Deserving Mercury winner & NME album of the year.

• The Enemy – We’ll Live And Die In This Town - 2007 version of The Jam – Listen to ’40 Days & 40 Nights’ and disagree!

• Holy Fuck – Holy Fuck – A brilliant clash of Can & Neu with a 21st century twist.

• The White Stripes - Icky Thump - Jack finds a new chord!

Other great albums that I’ve enjoyed this year worth checking out from :Patrick Wolf, The Pigeon Detectives, Kate Nash, Ian Brown, Maps, Babyshambles, Richard Hawley, The Go! Team, Bright Eyes, The Cribs, Bjork, New Young Pony Club, Cold War Kids, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Art Brut, Modest Mouse, Ash, The Coral, Gogol Borello, The View, Arctic Monkey, Ryan Adams.

The only real disappointing albums that I’ve herd are from Foo Fighters, Turin Breaks, Interpol, Cornelious, Stereophonics & Queens Of The Stonage! But that is just me OK.

What about older artists.. Many people seem to dismiss older bands and artists with nothing more to contribute. Well that might be true for the likes of Rod, Elton, et el..
BUT there have been some albums worth checking out by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Robert Wyatt, Nick Low, Loudon Wainwright III, Lucinda Williams, Ry Cooder & Julian Cope.
 

Tracks Of The Year..

• The Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors

• Klaxons - Golden Skans

• White Stripes - Icky Thump

• Battles - Atlas

• Arcade Fire - No Cars Go

• Super Furry Animals - Carbon Dating

• Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

• The Hours - Ali In The Jungle

• Jack Penate - Spit At Stars

• The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!

• Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby

• Joni Mitchell - Shine

• Bright Eyes - I Must Belong Somewhere

• Maximo Park - Girls Who Play Guitars

Most Annoying Tracks Of The Year..

• Feist - 123456

• Rihanna - Umbrella

Already looking forward to next year. Hopefully new albums from Foals, Glasvegas, The Teenagers, The Ting Tings, Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong, XX Teens, Plus new product from old favourites: Coldplay, U2, Teenage Fanclub, Morrissey, R.E.M. Doves, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly. Gigs already booked for Van Morrison, Neil Young & The NME Big Gig at the O2,

'till next year......
 

Julian White ©1995 - 2008

This is not going to be a regular blog – just a few personal observations on the last year in popular music.

Let me state here, I am not a writer, (I’m a CNC Programmer/Miller if anybody is that interested) I am just a music fan, have been for about 48 years plus! I now buy and listen to between 350 and 450 CD’s a year and try to go to at least one gig a month. On those points alone I feel I have the right to pass some judgment on the music year!

Yes, I still buy CD’s. I consider downloads in the UK a rip off. For dodgy sound quality, no packaging, no disk for backup and no delivery cost or shop staff to pay, at 80 Pence per track I don’t consider them good value for money.

Most of the new popular CD’s are available for between £8 & £9 and back catalogue between £3 & £5 in ‘real’ shops! OK you don’t get some of the rubbish tracks – but with no rubbish tracks you don’t get the full picture!

I’m not against downloading and I don’t agree with illegal file sharing, I just think the price should reflect the points I have just made. The only downloads I make are the legal free ones mostly from official artist sites. I think downloads are the 21st century equivalent of the compact cassette. Hopefully it will co-exist alongside CD’s or DVD music for a few years to come.

People may realise that the humble CD was not such a bad idea when people start loosing their music by theft or hardware malfunction. These collections may have cost punters thousands of pounds. Try claiming for these on you insurance. Despite all the best intentions, people will not back up regularly. I don’t think, despite screaming tabloid headlines, that the CD is about to die out. That aside, where will the next generation of collectibles come from?

 

Back in the early 1980’s, the NME & MM end of year lists would see Bunny Wailer, Marvin Gaye, Black Uhuru, Defunkt sitting next to Kraftwerk, The Fall, The Undertones, U2, The Specials. In the early 90’s you had Public Enemy, Dream warriers, Prince along side Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub & Julian Cope. Even in 1999 you had Missy Elloitt, Eminem & Sizzla squeezed next to Flaming Lips, Beck & Pavement, a real mix of genres. This year the only black artist in the NME list is Gnarls Barkley! I can’t believe that there are no black artists or other genres in music at the moment that would appeal to a mainly white audience. The only magazine attempting to widen its audiences musical horizons seem to be Mojo with its World, Urban, Blues and Jazz lists.

The NME seem obsessed to the exclusion of virtually everything else with new guitar bands of white boys and girls. Six weeks in the NME for a band is a long time! A few good gigs – a couple of great downloads on MySpace – a recording contract – an album – a cash in tour – Next Band Please…. It might be good for the listener, but is it any good for the artist. Dose it matter?

Another observation, more than other years, the NME lists for 2006 seems a little odd. Albums that were championed throughout the year including Peter, Bjorn and John, Dirty Pretty Things, Razorlight, Mystery Jets, Primal Scream, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The Fratellis were no where to be seen. Although the dreadful Lily Allen & My Chemical Romance did! (NME did like these 2 albums – I just think they are rubbish). Two albums off the top of my head that were given lukewarm reviews at the time - Bob Dylan & The Gossip, made the list. (6 weeks is a long time in the NME!)

 

I find it hard pinning any one album down to be best of the year. In six months time my opinion will probably change. But at this moment, if push came to shove I would have to place Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – Tales Of A Bohemian Teenager at #1. From bedroom to debut album of quality. Yes MySpace played a part here.

These ones were probably played the most in the car or on the hi-fi over the course of the last year and I can highly recommend. As you can probably tell from the list, I am a sucker for Pop with the rough edges still intact!

The Strokes – First Impressions Of Earth, Great gigs to support the album.
Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Think…. – Any one over 40 miles outside of Sheffield would probably find the lyrical content a bit confusing. Outside of the UK virtually unintelligible!
The Kooks – Inside In/Inside Out – Best Pop/Rock hooks of the year.
Mystery Jets – Making Dens – Ell pie island’s best export! And one of the members is over 50!
The Fratellis – Costello Music – Scottish band of the year – and noting to do with Elvis!
Kathryn Williams – Leave To Remain – Still Britain’s best kept secret! – Best album to date. Lily Allen eat yr fuckin’ heart out!
Guillemots – Through The Windowpane – Multinational bands debut masterpiece.
Peter Bjorn & John – Writers Block – Scandinavians 1st International release.
Morrissey – Ringleader Of The Tormentors – The rejuvenation continues.
Razorlight – Razorlight – Best Pop/Rock hooks #2!
James Dean Bradfield – The Great Western – The manics solo outing that works
The Killers – Sams Town – contains the best single of the year.
Dirty Pretty Things – What the 2nd Libertines album should have been like.
Kasabian – Empire – 2nd album builds on the success of their 1st.
Muse – Black Holes & Revelations - Bigger than Zeppelin & Queen squeezed together in a mini cooper!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones – Second proper album from US Punk/Pop trio.
 

Albums new to me – but on first listen will be played a lot in the next few weeks – Midlake, CSS, Jarvis Cocker, Howling Bells

Albums that deserve attention, but seem to have been ignored by the media. Badly Drawn Boy – Born In The UK, The Sleepy Jackson – Personality, Babybird – Between My Ears There’s Nothing But Music, Elton John – The Captain & The Kid, Soledad Brothers – The Hardest Walk, Grandaddy – Just Like The Fambly Cat, The Dears – Gang Of Loosers, Two Gallants – What The Toll Tells, My Latest Novel – Wolves, Graham Coxon – Love Travels At Illegal Speeds.

Other albums that seem to fall into my category of ‘OK, but didn’t live up to the hype’ The Automatic – Not Accepted Anywhere, iForward Russia! – Give Me A Wall, The Young Knives – Voices Of Animals And Men, The Gossip – Standing In The Way Of Control, The Vines – Vision Valley, The Futureheads – News & Tributes, Tapes ‘N Tapes – The Loon

Disappointing albums – It seems strange, but I find more words to write about albums I don’t like, than to ones I do like. Ys – Johanna Newsom. I can understand why the critics are wetting themselves over this one, but to me, after about the first 6 minutes (I probably have the attention span of a newt) I was craving for a change of pace or direction. It has all the elements required to be a classic album – Production from Steve Albini – and arrangements from Van Dyke Parks not forgetting the words & voice from Johanna. Over the coming years it will be looked back as a landmark album – but lets be honest – it’s DULL! Not for me. Would make a good single!

The other big disappointing album for me was Nicky Wire – I Killed The Zeitgeist. Sorry it was just his voice. He is not by any stretch of the imagination a vocalist. There are some vocal styles that although not considered singers in the traditional sense – (Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Mark Lanegan, Leonard Cohen, Louis Armstrong) - still make a great sound. I wanted to like this album. He should have got someone else to do the vocals – maybe James Dean Bradfield!

Beck – The Information - another disappointment – it all sounds great on paper, but to the ears – no tunes. I’ve listened to this about 5 times and there is nothing to make me want to hear it again – for about 10 years!

Re Issues

Despite the large amount of new material I have bought, it probably only makes up about 25% of the total for the year. One large collection that I am working on is the Frank Zappa/Mothers set. This was inspired after reading his biog by Barry Miles. I knew very little about the man before reading this volume. I only had a handful of his albums. This has now swelled to 55! There is just a handful of ‘You Can’t Do That On Stage…’ sets to complete the collection.

Zappa is another of the ‘Classic’ artists like Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones who have made loads of albums. They may not be ‘vital’ anymore, but most of their albums usually contain tracks well worth seeking out.

As I have mentioned elsewhere in this article, with re issue prices from around £3 in the UK, an obscure album from one of the above artists is well worth checking out.

Talking of Neil Young, the first instalment of his ‘Archive Series’ has just bee released. ‘Live at the Fillmore East 1970’. The original Crazy Horse line up, well worth a listen. It seems the multi CD box set format for the set has been ditched in favour of single CD re issues. But that may change!

 

In the UK there is a rapidly expanding CD/DVD/Book store chain – Fopp. So far this year they have extracted probably £100’s out of me by selling back catalogue albums at sensible prices. I have managed to buy most of the back catalogue for Yes (up to Fragile & Close to the edge) The Early XTC Back Cat. Sparks, The Cure (Not The Deluxe Editions), Soft Machine plus loads of CD’s to fill the gaps in artist collections. They have just started selling some of the double Deluxe re issue for £10 instead of the typical £20!

Fopp seem to have found a vain in the music buying public that Virgin & HMV missed. Not selling the usual ‘Greatest Hits’ at knock down prices in the hope that a punter will then spend £17.00 on back catalogue albums – though that must work to some extent. Fopp seem to have gone the whole hog and sell the back catalogue at knock down prices for limited a time. Long may it continue.

 

Too many to mention, but off the top of my balding head…

The Killers – When You’re Young
Badly Drawn Boy – One Last Dance
The Fratellis – Chealsea Dagger
Kasabian – Shoot The Runner
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – A Tree
Neil Young – After the Garden
Flaming Lips – It Over Takes Me
Peter Bjorn & John – Young Folks
Muse – Starlight
Hot Chip – Over & Over

 

The most complete gig for me was Flaming Lips/Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly At The Brighton Centre. Sam Duckworth and his laptop – Reminds me of a young Badly Drawn Boy or Billy Bragg. As for Wayne Coyne – Great entrance – inside a large balloon surfing over the heads of the audience. Really like the Brighton Centre. Never been to a bad gig there. The sound is nearly always spot on, and if you like sitting, always get a good view.

The other most memorable gigs – Teenage Fanclub (One of my personal all time favourite top 10 bands) performing Bandwagonesque at the Forum in London. Joined by their original drummer and producer for the event on what was probably the hottest day of the year.

Madonna at Wembley Arena, The Strokes In Brighton, Morrissey at Alexandra Palace, The NME Tour with Arctic Monkeys/Maximo Park/Mystry Jets/We Are Scientists in Portsmouth, Paul Weller In Brighton, Bob Dylan in Bournemouth (Yes. I forced Bev my partner to stand through another 2 hours of his Bobness!) & Kasabian at the tiny Social Club in Orlando & in Brighton with The Fratellis.

The Kasabian gigs were like seeing two bands. Only 3 weeks apart. The stage in Brighton was larger than the whole club in Orlando. In the US they travelled with a bus & a UHaul trailer. In the UK 5 massive trucks!

The only annoying aspect of gig going in the UK is that most of the popular events are sold out within minutes. I had to resort to eBay for the NME, Strokes & Madonna Gigs. Although it would be very difficult to stop this, the technology is there to improve the situation.

I think that too many fringe workers within the industry are making money from selling on tickets to dodgy characters. The promoters know pretty much what gigs will sell out.

My suggestion is: A registration period for these gigs, so all the people that want tickets can register. Names, postcodes etc. can be checked to stop multiple applications, then the applicant can be invited to but the tickets after a lottery. Plus a proper returns policy. It may not be ideal, but at least it will be a fair.

2007

Looking forward to new material from Travis, Editors, Super Furry Animals, Doves, Klaxons, The Rakes, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, The Horrors, The View, Franz Ferdinand, Greenday & Windows Vista to name a few. A few gigs already booked – Badly Drawn Boy, Ricky Gervais and The Killers.

If you made it this far without losing the will to live, and you want to make any comments, email or post on the forum page.
 

Julian White ©1995 - 2008