Archive for the 'Music' Category
Last night’s slot on Mainstage at Greenbelt was headlined by Delirious?, following on from the slightly wacky Duke Special who turned out to be quite good too.
It’s got to be at least a decade since I first saw Delirious? in concert and they can still hold a crowd. Quite a wide ranging crowd too age-wise - all the way from 14 year olds, through those who used to be 14 year olds when they first started, to those who you wouldn’t really think were still capable of jumping quite as high as they did!
Their set was largely stuff from World Service and The Mission Bell, but there was time for the classic History Maker - does it make me old that I remember that when it was new? Martin Smith proclaimed it as the song that has never died (or maybe the song they’ve failed to kill off). Hopefully that’s how it will remain for a while yet.
Even though they began with Rain Down, the clouds luckily didn’t play ball and the evening remained dry. Highlights for me included Now Is the Time and Majesty. There were also a couple of new songs and some of the trademark taking-it-wherever-it-goes moments.
It’s been a few years since I last saw them play live, but yesterday reminded me of how good they are … and how far they’ve come since the Cutting Edge days and Littlehampton beach. It may not quite have beaten Wembley Stadium (what could?) but it was a spectacular way to end our couple of evenings at Greenbelt.
Sunday evening teatime is when BBC ONE enters the God-slot with Songs of Praise. It’s certainly entertaining, with Aled Jones (the Walking in the Air guy, remember him?) or Pam Rhodes taking us around some parish church or great cathedral for a fantastic sing song by nicely dressed middle aged folk (almost certainly most of whom are not exactly what you might call regular attendees) with lips that don’t move in time with the lyrics.
Yet for all it is, there’s something missing … alcohol. Just imagine how much more lively the programme would be!
But imagine no longer friends, for the singing of ye ancient hymns and the drinking of ye ancient organic ales is a reality. At least, it was last night at Greenbelt’s beer tent (aptly named The Jesus Arms).
In true Songs of Praise style, you too can join in by watching my camera phone’s take on the event. Look out for the particularly raucous rendition of Jerusalem at the end of the evening! In the interests of decency, I’ve edited out the reaction of the, erm, congregation/customers, when they tried to make us sing Shine Jesus Shine. Oh, come on…
Some potentially interesting new music is on the horizon in the form of Globus, a group of writers, musicians and producers whose work is normally heard in movie trailers and soundtracks.
I caught an advert for them by chance earlier in the week on one of the 24-hour music video TV stations and have just had a look to find out a bit more about them.
Apparently their album, released at the end of this month, features “the rousing, propulsive style usually only heard in the cinema but fused with contemporary and world music rhythms and styles”.
From the preview tracks on their myspace page the album could definitely be something worth a dash to HMV (10% discount card in hand as always).
And you thought this post would be about GRID Computing. Shame on you.
Christmas Number One time again, eh? So, what’s it to be? By the looks of it there’s a choice of either another dreary Westlife cover, the novelty Is This The Way To Santa’s Grotto, or the results of a reality TV contest.
But wait… there’s also the JCB song by Nizlopi. Admittedly nothing to do with Christmas, but at least the lyrics go a bit deeper than the dross.
Come on, make JCB Christmas number 1!
Incredible scenes from Hyde Park, all to put pressure on the G8 leaders in Edinburgh this coming week. If they’re not listening now, will they ever?
The shit is well and truly going to hit the fan if they don’t … and it’ll be Uncle Bob pressing the on switch, backed by seemingly most of the country and the wider world.
If they/we pull this off, it could be the most amazing thing mankind has ever done. Forget landing on the moon, this has the potential to be way bigger. Most of us dream of living in a better world. Imagine how great it would be if it wasn’t only a dream.
live8
Thanks to a couple of nice cheques from Google and a necessary visit into Guildford this lunchtime, I’m now the proud owner of some new music:
Yes, I know they’re not exactly brand new releases, but they’ve been on my purchase list for a while. Plus, have you seen how much HMV want for Coldplay’s X&Y, even with student discount?? I think I’ll wait a couple of weeks (or buy it online)!
Expect to see them in my Audioscrobbler charts soon.
