Like most people who work in London, I take the tube to work. Most days I sit and read the paper and try to ignore what is going on around me. Occasionally I take whatever book I happen to be reading at the time.
Once in a blue moon I put on my ipod.
This may seem strange for a man who makes his living in the music business, but having suffered at the hands of fellow travellers who inflict their cheesy house music on everyone within earshot - seemingly without any understanding of the irritation they are causing, I tend to excercise restraint in my listening habits.
Once in a while however I feel the need to commune with a few of my tunes, and the thing that strikes me whenever I do is the extraordinary power of music to alter your perspective.
Want to seethe in private - stick on some thrash metal. Need to hark back nostalgically to your teens - Led Zeppelin every time. Feeling sad and lost - get that Sarah Mclachlan playlist on, want to smile - stick on a bit of ELO.. you get the idea.
Now I know that this is not exactly revolutionary thinking, but it struck me that with such a significant percentage of the public lost in their own musical wilderness for such a large part of the day, it might be an idea to promote our bands in those terms.
Hmm... this requires more thought. I'll get back to you.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
The Twits
There is a great quote in an otherwise unremarkable movie called "Other People's Money". Danny DeVito plays a master of the universe and is commenting unemotionally about a small business he is about to buy up and destroy.
"Fastest way to go out of business?" he asks.. "Take an increasing share of a decreasing market. Slow and steady. Down the drain".
I was reminded of that watching the conspicuous consumption by the record industry tonight at the Brits. How we can celebrate such dreadfully mediocre tosh as The Ting Tings and Duffy is utterly beyond me.
Thank god for Kings Of Leon and Elbow (nice one Phil).
"Fastest way to go out of business?" he asks.. "Take an increasing share of a decreasing market. Slow and steady. Down the drain".
I was reminded of that watching the conspicuous consumption by the record industry tonight at the Brits. How we can celebrate such dreadfully mediocre tosh as The Ting Tings and Duffy is utterly beyond me.
Thank god for Kings Of Leon and Elbow (nice one Phil).
Monday, 16 February 2009
Tears in my eyes..
Its late and I am sitting here listening to Bob Dylan with tears in my eyes.
I have never really been a fan, but sometimes a particular song can resonate with what is happening in your life and this is one of those times.
"How many deaths will it take till he knows, that too many people have died? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind..."
I can not remember ever feeling more sad..
I have never really been a fan, but sometimes a particular song can resonate with what is happening in your life and this is one of those times.
"How many deaths will it take till he knows, that too many people have died? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind..."
I can not remember ever feeling more sad..
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
What's all this then..
So this is me. Late 40's. Happily married. Love my sport and music. Not quite sure how I got to be this age when my 21st birthday was only yesterday, but to be fair I don't really feel middle aged, because I spend my time pretty much the same way I have done for the last 30 years.
As this is my first time out I thought I would share a few of the things that I have learned during the course of my life.
1. The most valuable commodity there is bar none, is time. I should know, I have wasted more than my fair share of it. When you are young you think your life is going to go on forever, so you don't question it when you find yourself propped in front of the TV mindlessly absorbing some bit of trite reality TV nonesense, masquerading as entertainment. But when you are on the downhill stretch, if you add up all of things you wish you had not spent time doing, you will find it amounts to a truly frightening percentage of your time on this earth.
2. Money has only one purpose. It buys you the freedom of choice to make good decisions about your life, so you do not have to waste your time doing things that do not make you happy.
3. None of us spend enough time or energy on the people we really care about.
4. In 100 years time we will all be dead and none of the things that most of us spend our lives stressing about will matter one iota.
5. Alcohol should be handled with care. As someone who has dealt with 2 generations of alcoholics in his family for over 20 years, I have seen both sides of it. There are very few finer things in life than a great glass of red wine with a rare steak, but if you drink too much of it, it will ruin, and very possibly end, your life.
6. People who suffer from drug "problems" do not deserve your sympathy, they deserve only contempt. Nobody, repeat nobody makes you stick a needle in your arm or a line of coke up your nose, so if you do don't come crying to me... and don't pretend you didn't know it was going to be addictive, because that is just pathetic.
7. The older I get, the less tolerant I become.
8. There is no excuse for a click track. Get a drummer who can keep time.
9. The reason the UK music industry is in the toilet has nothing to do with illegal downloading or the credit crunch. It is because for most of the last 3 decades or so our richest labels have been led along by the nose by one or two supposedly all powerful media outlets, and allowed the incredibly narrow minority tastes of those people to dictate what music gets heard. Seriously, most of the people at Radio 1 and the NME could not find their backside with both hands, much less find a decent band. Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong anyone..? Give me a break. This is the country that gave the world Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Who, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones and Radiohead. When did we suddenly decide that groups of young men who cannot write, play or sing in tune were worth investing vast sums of money in. The rest of the world's music business is laughing at us.
10. The music business is not dead. The CD business is. In a few years most of the so called major labels will be out of business or doing something else, and frankly, good riddance. It's not as if they have done an especially bang up job, now is it? The reality is, there has never been a better time to be making a living from music, unless of course you happen to be trying to sell pieces of plastic.
xx
As this is my first time out I thought I would share a few of the things that I have learned during the course of my life.
1. The most valuable commodity there is bar none, is time. I should know, I have wasted more than my fair share of it. When you are young you think your life is going to go on forever, so you don't question it when you find yourself propped in front of the TV mindlessly absorbing some bit of trite reality TV nonesense, masquerading as entertainment. But when you are on the downhill stretch, if you add up all of things you wish you had not spent time doing, you will find it amounts to a truly frightening percentage of your time on this earth.
2. Money has only one purpose. It buys you the freedom of choice to make good decisions about your life, so you do not have to waste your time doing things that do not make you happy.
3. None of us spend enough time or energy on the people we really care about.
4. In 100 years time we will all be dead and none of the things that most of us spend our lives stressing about will matter one iota.
5. Alcohol should be handled with care. As someone who has dealt with 2 generations of alcoholics in his family for over 20 years, I have seen both sides of it. There are very few finer things in life than a great glass of red wine with a rare steak, but if you drink too much of it, it will ruin, and very possibly end, your life.
6. People who suffer from drug "problems" do not deserve your sympathy, they deserve only contempt. Nobody, repeat nobody makes you stick a needle in your arm or a line of coke up your nose, so if you do don't come crying to me... and don't pretend you didn't know it was going to be addictive, because that is just pathetic.
7. The older I get, the less tolerant I become.
8. There is no excuse for a click track. Get a drummer who can keep time.
9. The reason the UK music industry is in the toilet has nothing to do with illegal downloading or the credit crunch. It is because for most of the last 3 decades or so our richest labels have been led along by the nose by one or two supposedly all powerful media outlets, and allowed the incredibly narrow minority tastes of those people to dictate what music gets heard. Seriously, most of the people at Radio 1 and the NME could not find their backside with both hands, much less find a decent band. Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong anyone..? Give me a break. This is the country that gave the world Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Who, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones and Radiohead. When did we suddenly decide that groups of young men who cannot write, play or sing in tune were worth investing vast sums of money in. The rest of the world's music business is laughing at us.
10. The music business is not dead. The CD business is. In a few years most of the so called major labels will be out of business or doing something else, and frankly, good riddance. It's not as if they have done an especially bang up job, now is it? The reality is, there has never been a better time to be making a living from music, unless of course you happen to be trying to sell pieces of plastic.
xx
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