Mani, Liquid Limousine and Dirty South

The lovely Liquid Limousine squirrelled me some tickets to their rebel rousing performance at Dirty South in Lewisham on Saturday night and it met with some mixed emotions.

The boys did good and even managed to pull off a tricky Beatles cover.Top tune of the night was "Shoot me Down" - I love that tune.

The mixed emotions come from a very below par venue which was pretty empty. First off charging £8 to get in! Admittedly I got in free but still if I'd paid boy would I have been annoyed. Next up two beers and one cider where off. Leaving you with the choice of Fosters and Budweiser. Note - Boy was not impressed.

Post bands - where I have to say Liquid Limousine stuck out like a sore thumb Mani arrives. In a flurry of sequin t shirt and dodgy looking sidekick he hit the decks. Playing I kid you not, not one tune post 1998. My god I thought he was just trying to be ironic but the joke just didn't stop. he played for probably an hour, with about 6 people on the dance floor at any one time. then flounced out.

Shame on you Dirty South! Brixton Jamm is an ace venue and I was thinking that being a sister venue you would have been not too bad.

Last off you are one of the few venues who also tries to rip bands off. I know someone who was approached recently to play at your venue and was told they needed to secure 50 people to play. there wasn't 50 people in there in total on Saturday night! I then found out that you made the bands who did play buy 30 tickets each up front. That is very naughty.

It's a big shame really as its not a bad venue in terms of size and probably has a lot of potential. Its also fairly local for me and I would love to have somewhere nearby I could go to.

Dirty South ain't it.

I am not a racist but I don't like Jay Z - is that OK?

I set up a group today on Facebook entitled - "Boycott Jay Z at Glastonbury - discuss".

Boy did I open up a can of worms. The vitriolic tirade of abuse that came back at me from a few limited numbers of my network both shocked and upset me.

Simply put I do not believe Jay Z should headline Glastonbury. He is not representative of most of the Glastonbury crowds taste and I (being selfish) don't like him. The music does nothing for me - much like Westlife or Kylie. Not comparing Jay Z to those artists before you get on your high horse - its just they are all artists I dislike.

So I would just like to say I am not a racist and I do not like Jay Z.

P.S I also think it is racist to assume all black people like hip hop - yeah that's directed at you Aaron.

Top 10 Greatest Rock n Roll Bands Ever

Over at the home of indie they are compiling a list of the Greatest Rock n Roll Bands Ever...

Sounds like one of those dodgy compilations eh? Well all not looking too bad except two major things.

1) The Stones are at No.4 when clearly they should be No.1
2) Manic Street Preachers are at No.8, now that's just silly

Get on their, vote and get the Stones to where they belong!

Good old Keef sticking up for Winehouse...kind of

There is a great irony in the fact that good old Keef Richards has been quoted in the media today criticising Amy Winehouse's drug taking:

"Amy's got to get smart," Keith Richards explained in an interview. "That girl isn't going to be around long unless she sorts herself out pretty quick."

I am currently on page 326 of Keith Richards, The Biography by Victor Bokris. Now this is a very explosive book. With moments of great glory but more often than not filled with depressing and shocking tales of a very sad but talented man. It took him 10 years to kick the junk.

So I reckon he is pretty qualified to give her a dig. After all if Keith Richards is worried about Amy - there must be something seriously wrong.

You could almost take him seriously...

"She should get her act together," says Richards. And after a pause: "Apart from that, I have got nothing to say to the bitch."

Happy Paddy's day from Pete and Carl

Pete Doherty, Carl Barat, Franz Ferdinand and Billy Bragg are among a sea of musicians who have signed a St Patrick’s Day letter aimed at London’s Irish community.

Celebrating the glory of St Paddy's day (errrr this is getting a bit strung out now isn't it? Saturday, Sunday and Monday?) the letter, issued by Rock Against Racism, and also signed by MPs, is warning the UK capital’s Irish community against voting for the British National Party in the forthcoming London mayoral election in May.

Apparently the BNP are specifically targeting the Irish community.

“We believe that the BNP remains an inherently racist organisation; their past and present is based not on nationalism or patriotism, but fascism. The Irish community in Britain and especially in London has a long history of involvement in anti-fascist and anti-racist activities. Everyone who rejects the BNP's politics of hate has the duty to do everything they can to stop them. We urge the Irish community and all communities in London to reject the politics of division and hate in May.”

Other signatories to the letter include author Will Self and former Irish football internationals David Kelly and Kieron Brady.

RED KEN CONDEMNS THE ASTORIA...GET HIM OUT

So Red Ken has finally put the kaboosh on the mighty Astoria. One of London's greatest rock n roll venues. Plans have now been confirmed for new building and transport development in the area. I guess due to the often congested Tottenham Court Road Tube Station.

Despite the submission of a 35,000 strong petition Ken says "There are some instances where that just physically isn't possible. The construction of (new underground railway line) Crossrail means that the Astoria can't be saved."

He also added that the Astoria will be replaced with a new venue designed as part of the nearby Tottenham Court Road development, adding: "We're basically putting in a vast train station but the developers that have actually drawn up the scheme for the area are replacing it (the Astoria) with a larger live music venue."

Livingston also revealed he is now plotting a 'live music strategy' in order to protect landmark venues in the city after other venues such as Hammersmith Palais and The Spitz have been forced to close their doors in recent months, reports BBC 6 Music.

Too little too late? I think so. You can't shut down these three classic venues and then say...oh but I'll stop any more coming down! People you can't trust this man. Please, please show your disgust when it comes to the London Mayoral elections. This arrogant man has to go!

Boys given Festival Tickets in Exchange for Sperm

Spermfortickets.com has today announced that due to dwindling stocks in Ireland, young men would be offered festival tickets to a European festival of their choice in exchange for a drop of their precious man juice. My god I seriously pat the back of the PR guru who came up with that idea. Its bloody genius!

So quel surprise they are massively inundated with offers from people like Gary, 17 from Preston who thinks yay I get kinda paid to have a wank. However, surely there is something completely morally reprehensible about this?

And then we find out...oh its only a pilot. Brilliant. PR 9, stupid UK public 1. The scheme will never happen and is just to create some spin.

Young White Soul Singer Conundrum

I should be happy about this but I am getting a little sick of these young, white, soul singers. Not one of them is a patch on the originals and none of them come close to the Winehouse.

I like Duffy's new single and all credit for hitting the number one spot on downloads alone but I am bored of it already. Rockferry is far better and hopefully will be a more successful single.

As for Adele et al...they are just pale imitators.

All Hail the Winehouse, Queen of the young, white, soul singers!

Queen to attend Eels gig?

Awww EELS frontman, E has penned a very sweet letter to out very own "Her Majesty" ahead of his gig at The Royal Festival Hall on February 25th.

Very cute*

Your Majesty,

My name is Mark Oliver Everett. My friends call me "E." I am the singer in an American rock band called EELS. We will be playing a show at your Royal Festival Hall on the evening of February 25th and I would like to extend an invitation for you to attend our performance. We have played the Festival Hall several times and I've noticed that your royal box is usually empty. I'd like to change that. We have also played your Queen Elizabeth and Royal Albert Halls. I don't think you were at those shows either.

I recently saw the movie "The Queen" and while I know that wasn't actually you in the film, it made me think that I would like you as a person. I'd like you to be one of the people who call me "E." If you're free February 25th, please come down to the show. It's sold out, but I would be happy to put you on the guest list. I also have a new book, Things The Grandchildren Should Know, and two new compact disc and DVD collections, Meet The EELS and Useless Trinkets. I think you'd enjoy them and I'd be happy to give you complimentary copies of each, which I will even sign for you after the show.

If you're busy, I understand. But if you can free up your calendar, we'd love to see you there. Thank you for your time, Your Majesty.


Sincerely,

Mark Oliver Everett
aka E

Top 10

Ok so you must of all had the great top 10 debate. I was thinking about it again today and its weird. Some of the stuff that gets into mine is odd.

Firstly, Stevie Wonder's "I just called to say I love you" would be in there. That is totally the saddest song I have ever heard. I used to call my Dad when I was a kid and sing it to him when he was at work.



Then there is The Carpenters, "Please Mr Postman" way better than the original and The Beatles versions. Karen Carpenter has the most innocent voice and she is sooooo beautiful.

Then I guess I'd have Paul Weller "Sunflowers", Rolling Stones "Gimmer Shelter", The Dubliners "Fiddlers Green", Depeche Mode "Enjoy the Silence", Steinways "My hearts not in it anymore", The Supremes "Baby Love", Guns n Roses "Rocket Queen" and ELO - anything!!!

Crikey this list always changes though. Funny days:)

Reading and Leeds Festival Drop Carling Sponsorship

Hooray for the greatest news of the day. After my major moaning last Summer about the tackiness of festival sponsorship it appears there is a god!

Melvin Benn, director of festivals for promoter Mean Fiddler has confirmed that Reading and Leeds's 10-year contract with Carling has come to an end and that a replacement sponsor will not be sought.

"I wanted to reclaim the name Reading festival and the name Leeds festival," Benn told BBC 6 Music. "I wanted them to return to their roots, so to speak. I didn't want the events to be called after a sponsor. I'm not asking another sponsor to come in."

Its been known as the Carling Weekend for some years now - with most people still referring it by the respective town names instead. I remember when I worked at the Virgin Megastore in Reading and Virgin sponsored the festival we got free tickets. A much less corporate affair than the Carling sponsorship. But then look at the corporate fest which is V Festival. Absolutely hideous!

So whats next for all the other venues that Mean Fiddler has renamed? The Brixton and Islington Academies for starters. Bring back the original names we all still call them by those anyway!

Bit of Dusty...you know you want to

The lovely Duffy has now inspired me to go back to one of my first love's - the cutie pie Dusty Springfield.

I actually saw her funeral procession when I was at college in Henley. The whole town stopped as big black horses pulled her glass coffin up to the church. There is a plaque there for her in the graveyard...pop by sometime and drop off a few sunflowers - the women was a legend.

Catch her singing "I Only Want to be With You", her first solo hit on Dutch TV.

Love you Dusty!

Duffy - The jury is back in and it's a big fat Yes!

What am I on? That song rocks!!!

Move to DRM-Free tunes at iTunes on the Up

Apart from the (for once) good EMI, we all know the majors labels refuse to license DRM-free tracks on the iTunes Store. Good news is that in the meantime, Apple has been quietly licensing DRM-free content from various independents and digital distributors, and beefing the protection-free iTunes Plus in the process.

Independent's see the benefits of DRM free and iTunes simply represents a bigger venue for them to sell.

With Brussels-based PIAS Entertainment Group licensing roughly 44,000 DRM-free tracks from its roster of 200 labels this weekend and PIAS, which offers a range of services to its member labels, offering its content as unprotected AACs at 99-cents each - things are looking up.

Value-added offerings involving Ticketmaster and iTunes ringtones are also being bundled.

Which means all good for the music loving consumer! Yay!

Evil Guy Hands - EMI cuts 2,00 Jobs and Verve to walk?

So pretty sad news for EMI staff today when the company announced it was gonna cut 2,000 jobs.

It's sad as it means less and less people will have a chance of working in the industry. I know I would have loved to work in the music industry full time but the money just wasn't there and I was not from a fortunate enough background to spend my life on a perpetual cycle of work experience placements.

It was inevitable - when a venture capitalist firm buys you out they are are gonna trim the fat.

The Telegraph probably added more reasons for Guy Hands (EMI Chief Exec) to get worried when it leaked that the Verve may be the next act to throw their toys out of the pram:

"The Verve are to join Robbie Williams and Coldplay in threatening to withhold their next album from EMI until they receive assurances about marketing and the company's financial health."

The paper goes on to quote the reformed Wiganites' manager, one Jazz Summers, as saying: "Why would we deliver a record when EMI is cutting back on the marketing and is in financial difficulty? I am going to tell Guy Hands I want assurances."

Change is inevitable and as I have written in previous posts the music industry has been far too slow in its reaction to the uprising of digital media and is now paying the price. Ultimately it probably means cheaper products for us and anyways I'd love to be in the next EMI management team meeting;)

Brit Nominees and who the Jukebox thinks should Win

Best bit of Brit Nominee news so far? Tom from Kasabian's rant on Radio 1 last night where he says he doesn't care they havn't been nominated and that its just another f$"king award show. Yeah maybe some poeple wouldn't believe him but I do they are way too cool to care.

So I've listed out the nominees below and highlighted in summery yellow who I think should win and in red who probably will win. OOOO I love prediction time:)

The only problem is that some right stupid people have been nominated. The Eagles for Best International band? Are we still in 2008 or have I lost the plot? And is it just me or does PJ Harvey get nominated for Best Female no matter what she does? Lastly how come Rhianna hasn't been nominated for best single? Its not my bag but come on how long was the single at number 1 for?

BRITISH MALE SOLO ARTIST

JAMIE T
MARK RONSON
MIKA
NEWTON FAULKNER
RICHARD HAWLEY

BRITISH FEMALE SOLO ARTIST

BAT FOR LASHES
KATE NASH
KT TUNSTALL
LEONA LEWIS
PJ HARVEY

BRITISH GROUP

ARCTIC MONKEYS
EDITORS
GIRLS ALOUD
KAISER CHIEFS
TAKE THAT

MASTERCARD BRITISH ALBUM

ARCTIC MONKEYS – FAVOURITE WORST NIGHTMARE
LEONA LEWIS - SPIRIT
MARK RONSON – VERSION
MIKA – LIFE IN CARTOON MOTION
TAKE THAT – BEAUTIFUL WORLD

BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH ACT

BAT FOR LASHES
KATE NASH
KLAXONS
LEONA LEWIS
MIKA

BRITISH LIVE ACT

ARCTIC MONKEYS
KAISER CHIEFS
KLAXONS
MUSE
TAKE THAT

BRITISH SINGLE

LEONA LEWIS – Bleeding Love
MIKA – Grace Kelly
TAKE THAT – Shine
KAISER CHIEFS – Ruby
SUGABABES – About You Now
MARK RONSON Ft AMY WINEHOUSE – Valerie
KATE NASH – Foundations
THE HOOSIERS – Worried About Ray
JAMES BLUNT – 1973
MUTYA BUENA – Real Girl

INTERNATIONAL MALE SOLO ARTIST

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
KANYE WEST
MICHAEL BUBLE
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
TIMBALAND

INTERNATIONAL FEMALE SOLO ARTIST

ALICIA KEYS
BJORK
FEIST
KYLIE MINOGUE
RIHANNA

INTERNATIONAL GROUP

ARCADE FIRE
EAGLES
FOO FIGHTERS
KINGS OF LEON
WHITE STRIPES

INTERNATIONAL ALBUM

ARCADE FIRE – NEON BIBLE
EAGLES – LONG ROAD OUT OF EDEN
FOO FIGHTERS – ECHOES SILENCE PATIENCE & GRACE
KINGS OF LEON – BECAUSE OF THE TIMES
KYLIE MINOGUE – X

CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARD

ADELE - errr what the fuck is that about???

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY

Radiohead and Trent Reznor - download results

So after the name-your-price download experiement Radiohead have now offf the back of a traditional relase secured the number 1 album slot. It appears the album, In Rainbows, is likely to chart within the top 5 in the United States, and has already grabbed a second-place slot in Australia.

So maybe a happy ending? The experiment got mixed results and by not releasing sales figures Radionhead invited some sceptiscism. In fact comCore produced a report which showed a low percentage of paying fans which was denied by the band. However the increase in publicity sureley didn't harm this weeks chart entry.

Well done boys for being so brave and breaking the mould! Howver, word of caution to other bands who may not be so lucky with the Trent Reznor project yielding mixed results.

Reznor recently produced an album for poet and musician Saul Williams, and the pair opted to release the project online using the name-your-price model pioneered by Radiohead.

But like the Radiohead project, paying fans were in the minority with 18.3 percent of fans opting to pay the $5 asking price, a total that mirrors Radiohead results estimates. 154,449 downloaded the Williams release, which was offered in a lower quality for non-paying fans.

So is that disappointing? Reznor doesn't think so, "Keep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record". On the flip side, Reznor admittedly incurred heavy production and licensing costs. A back-of-the-envelope calculation yields revenues of roughly $141,610, though resulting profits were not disclosed. The album, titled The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust, was first released in late October.

Best festival 2007?

I love Summer. And, I love festivals. Seeing as I havn't had any excuse to write about them for a while I thought I would find out what you guys think. What was your favourite festival of the year?

Vote in my poll and if you want email me your stories - why was it good, what was your most memeorable performance?

Also keen to hear any funny stories - name and shame people!

Victoria


xxxxxx

Led Zepp Vanish from You Tube

The mystery of the disappearing You Tube vids of Led Zepps performance at the O2 this week seems to have been cleared up.

YouTube have now anounced they were foreced to take the clips down by Warner Music Group.

Sad really - will it really impact sales of the planned DVD or just make Warner look like over protective wallys?

What do you think?

NME's Cool List...Big Up Serge!

So perhaps the least coolest journalists in the world (nah I take that back...thats just too easy a target) have compiled their list of the coolest people of 2007.

Well here is a surprise - I don't agree with them...Frank Carter coolest person of 2007? Don't be ridiculous! I agree with Lovefoxxx, Alex Turner and Keith Richards that's ok fare dues.

But I cannot forgive the inclusion of Beth Ditto who makes me wanna be sick after her hideously ignorant interview in September's Observer Music Monthly where she proved just how much of a sad old yankee she really was. How can a woman who has only really had one hit get the opportunity to be interviewed with her idol Yoko? It's just wrong. But then she won this poll in 2006 so I guess it figures.

My cool list for 2007 goes something like this...and its in no particular order as it would make my brain hurt:

Seasick Steve
Natasha Khan
Sam Riley
Samantha Morton
Alex Turner
Lily Allen
Pete Doherty
Kate Moss
Serge Pizzorno esp after this
Ian Brown

Arghhhh I wanna change it again!

Oooo I hate lists!