16/07/2008 by Rob.

I recently ordered two CDs from the US company CD Baby, and got this cosy email back today: 

Rob -Thanks for your order with CD Baby!Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make
sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, July 16th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby.  We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year.”  We’re all
exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh…

–
Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little store with the best new independent music

It brought a smile to my face……

Posted in Music | 2 Comments »

22/02/2008 by Rob.

Can you remember where you were when you first heard a particular song?

In 1986, I was standing in an electronics store in Tottenham Court Road, during my lunch-break. The store was relaying a particular radio station over its Tannoy system. As I was contemplating the stack systems all around me, the commercial break on the station came to an end, and a song started up, one I hadn’t heard before.

I was mesmerised by it. It was brilliant. As it progressed, I thought to myself, “Hmmm…….sounds like Paul Simon singing.”

I had been a fan of Simon and Garfunkel since my mid-teens - in fact, their Greatest Hits was the second LP I’d ever bought, in 1978. I’d also seen them live at Wembley Stadium in 1982, a week prior to the Stones. However, Paul Simon solo hadn’t been doing very well in recent years. None of his albums had done well, and neither had his singles. He was ‘yesterday’s man’, as far as most people were concerned.

I stayed in the shop until the song had finished, curious to find out what it was. “That’s the new one from Paul Simon - YOU CAN CALL ME AL,” announced the DJ. My suspicions were confirmed.

“What an amazing song!” I thought. “Too bad people won’t be buying it because it’s Paul Simon.”

Little did I know what a huge smash it was going to be, turning his whole career around in the process.

(Incidentally, I’ve just checked the song on Wikipedia, and discovered the following two facts about it:

Simon allegedly wrote “You Can Call Me Al” after he went to a party with his then-wife Carrie Fisher. A man at the party kept calling Paul “Al”, and Carrie “Betty”, inspiring Simon to write the song.

The song features an unusual bass solo from Bakithi Kumalo, in which the second half is a reversed recording of the first half.

Did anyone else know the latter?)

There are several other songs that, when I hear them now, immediately take me back to the moment of initial discovery - SHINE A LITTLE LOVE by ELO and STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN by Zepp are just two others - whereas I couldn’t tell you when I first heard the vast majority of the songs in my head. They just always seem to have been there.

Any similar situations out there?

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11/11/2007 by Steve.

Now this week has been a very busy social week. I cannot complain. Music has featured very highly and a family day out rounded it off very nicely.The music events started on Monday with the ‘Audience with Rick Wakeman’ gig. Fantastic it was and details have already been posted by Paul D on this blog. On Tuesday I saw ‘The Fray’ at Hammersmith. For those who don’t know who ‘The Fray’ are, they recently had a hit with a tune called ‘How to Save A Life’ (better know in our gaff as ‘How To Shave Your Wife’!). Good they were, too!

‘The Fray’ say ‘Hello Hammersmith!’

Then on Wednesday I took part in a focus group discussing a new ‘pop opera’ act in the mold of Paul Potts (’Britain’s Got Talent’ winner). An odd musical diversion.

Now on Thursday, I stayed in (!) while Ness went out…to a lady’s ‘Indulgence Evening’ - an event designed to raise money for the school. She indulged very well with the help of a few glases of champagne and struggled all day Friday! Then on Saturday, we had a family outing….

Who’s been to the Lord Mayor’s Show during their lives, then? Asking various friends this weekend, it would appear that most of us have at some time. And that ’sometime’ was probably when we were kids - usually when we were around 10 years old. So in keeping with tradition (which is what parades like the Lord Mayor’s are all about) this weekend was when Ruby and Louie got their (first) London ‘traditional’ experience.

Three lie-ins
We hadn’t actually planned to go. Ness only thought about it late Friday night, as a cheap way to get out of the house on Saturday. It was planned that I would take advantage of the empty house to get on with some work. But when I got up at 8.30am on Saturday (while they all slept-on) I realised they’d never get up town in time, or find a decent position to see it from. So I kicked them all out of bed, got them through breakfast etc….and by 10.35, we were all standing in a good position to watch the parade, behind St Paul’s! So much for work!

In the end, it really was good cheap fun. Thousands of people, hundreds of people in uniforms, odd pieces of miltary hardware, whistles, bunny ears, drums etc. Then we went to McD’s for lunch, paid a visit to the Tate Modern to look at ‘The Crack’ (go to the Tate website if you don’t know what I’m on about). We got home about 4pm, leaving time to ‘veg’ in front of the TV for an hour….

Lots of bands	St John’s Ambulance - on push-bikes!!!!

Don’t stop
But then I was off out again! Saturday night and this time to Wembley Arena, to see ‘Heaven and Hell’ - or ‘Black Sabbath’, in another guise. Although I went with Gary, Paul and Di were also there under their own steam, as were another couple of friends, who we bumped into on Wembley Park platform afterwards. Rock’n'Roll!

‘Heaven and Hell’ say ‘Hello Wembley!’

So what a week! I am definitely staying in all this week….I am… definitely. Until Friday anyway…..

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08/11/2007 by Paul D.

Monday evening was spent in the company of the original and finest keyboard wizard and grumpy (but very funny) old man, Rick Wakeman at his one-man show entitled ‘Rick Wakeman’s Grumpy Old Picture Show’ in the Swan Theatre in High Wycombe. I’d managed to secure tickets in the second row, right in the middle, so we could almost see his nasal hairs…..

Armed with a mini grand piano, a cluster of modern and vintage electronic keyboards, a projector screen, a lectern and a very long overcoat, Rick entertained us with stories from his life interspersed with ‘very rare footage’ of interviews with people who had influenced him and he had influenced, some silly gags and of course some incredible piano and keyboard playing.

The screen also showed recordings of other musicians playing that he played along with live, which is quite a technical feat. At various points, there were five Ricks on stage, two Gordon Giltraps, a rock band and a school choir!

Highlights of the show for me were ‘Merlin the Magician’, ‘Amazing Grace’ with Rick’s daughter Gemma on vocals, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ in the style of Prokofiev, and the ‘Injured golfer’ gag….

After the show was another big highlight for me. Rick appeared in the bar for a chat and signings, so I managed to get his squiggle on a few items of great historical importance. We had a bit of a natter and he explained why he was reluctant to agree to do any more massive world tours with YES, which is very sad news because if they do tour in late 2008 for their 40th anniversary (as has been strongly rumoured) it will undoubtedly be their swansong. We can only hope that a compromise is reached and a ‘final’ album and tour do actually come to fruition… It would be unthinkable for the band to end their incredible career without Rick.

By coinsidence, we found ourselves leaving the theatre at the same moment as our host. We continued chatting into the car park where a bemused old rocker came to a stop with a puzzled expression on his face. “Where the bloody hell did I put my car?” he quizzed. Di couldn’t help herself and let out a big belly laugh which echoed around the deserted multi-storey. Our hero appeared slightly less than impressed. Eventually, with a little help from us, he managed to locate his big green car on the level below, so all was well and we could chuckle our way homeward.

Definately another grand success from the YES family, and Di, Steve, Nix and Dave all said they really enjoyed it too. Thanks for coming along guys.

P.

  Rick punishes the keys.

  What a bod, eh girls?

  At the bar.

  Steve couldn’t wait to get an autograph…..

  Old mates?

Posted in Music | 2 Comments »

02/11/2007 by Paul D.

We had a nice couple of days in South Wales last weekend, tearing up some tarmac, eating, drinking (yeah, really!) and raising a few bob for the Born Free Foundation.

There were about 30 cars, most with two people, so a nice social. The weather was crap and the roads were damp which meant the rooves had to stay up until late Sunday morning, when the sun finally broke through, the roads dried up, and the right feet were allowed to become a little more enthusiastic…..

Di took first prize by popular vote in the weekend’s photo competition, winning an iPod Shuffle, with this, which pretty much summed up the feel of the weekend…..

On the Friday night, we were in the second row in a theatre in Dartford to see the brilliant ‘Fragile’ with very special guest, guitar virtuoso Steve Howe of YES doing a solo acoustic set and then joining the band for a few YES numbers.

Steve and the band were certainly on absolute top form and the highlight for me was their rendition of ‘Soon’, the closing movement from ‘Gates of Delirium’, which featured Steve on pedal steel guitar. The piece was beautifully executed, and performed with a passion and grace that even the full YES lineup would’ve been more than proud of.

I guess you guys probably wouldn’t understand, but for me that was truly a little piece of heaven….

P.

Posted in Music, Holiday | 1 Comment »

29/10/2007 by Neil.

Ok everyone. Thinking hats on.

I’m about to start putting together last years new years photo’s, as I did for the The Vagas one.

But I’m gonna need some suitable music. Something with a nurery rhyme theme to it. Prefereably something a bit up beat.

So suggestions please, and mp3 them to me if possible. Probably going to need at least two tracks for the picture’s themselves, plus some music for the front titles.

The only thing I could think of of was that was lsightly nursery rhyme-ish was “Nelly the Elephant”. I think it was the Toy Dolls ?

Get thinking.

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