6 February 2010

Just take a look at the above NME Awards Tour 2010 poster! If this isn’t the best line-up ever, I’m a Dutch uncle. What’s more we’re covering it, with photos, so stay tuned to download some great free images. For a photographer, the Manchester Academy is one of the best venues to shoot in with (usually) good lighting and some cool and friendly security staff. Sound quality is also (usually) excellent, so it will be a great show to cover in more ways than one. Tonight I’ll be taking two Nikon camera bodies (D700 and D3) which right now are about the best to use in an indoor concert scenario, and I’m going to mount Nikon 24-70 and 14-24 lenses, with perhaps a 70-200 in reserve for close-up shots. However, when one is only allowed the first three songs (from each band) to photograph, changing lenses may be impossible/impractical, and with a sell-out audience who could become quite animated, photographers could be ushered out after only one or two songs - fingers crossed… I covered The Maccabees in 2009 after reviewing the bands wonderful WALL OF ARMS album which was criminally ignored by most of the media with the notable exception of NME who, like us, included it in their best-of-year list. I understand the band is having second bite of the cherry in 2010 by repackaging the album and re-releasing it. Hopefully this time round the media in general will at last take notice of one of the best albums of 2009. Another Brit band’s album was unjustly ignored in 2009. Elliot Minor released a minor (pun unintended) masterpiece in SOLARIS which even NME seemed to ignore. We included it in our end-of-year list and after listening to it again today I think I should have placed it higher. So I’m making amends by playing no less than four tracks from it on tomorrow night’s radio show. The album represents a quantum leap for the band and I’m still puzzled by the way it was received by the UK media. Anyway, if you’re interested you can can listen on 105 FM or www.calonfm.com from 10pm Sunday night.

5 February 2010

Talk about a moral maze! Government and the Iraq War, John Terry and the England captaincy, Child Social Services, MPs expense scandal - the list is endless. The media of course loves it because they sell more papers (I wonder how many journalists and editors have squeaky clean hands…), but it does seem that that the UK is in steep moral decline. Hell, we have mothers and fathers killing their children, children torturing other children, doctors killing patients, and a burdgeoning trade in ‘orphaned’ children in other countries. Then we have the mindless fascination with ugly and awful people like Posh and Price - what have we become, where are we heading? Then there’s the city bonus culture and the huge sums being paid to (most recently) retail executives - isn’t a decent salary for a decent day’s work enough? Then there the ‘lessons learned’ mantra trotted out endlessly by incompetent officials who mostly remain in post, while you can be jailed for not paying your Council Rates and TV licence. If you’re a government head or minister you can get away with being responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and get off stock free - ‘lessons learnt.’ And if you’re a major defence corporation paying massive bribes to customers to buy your products, well that’s business… Then there’s the transport, fuel, water and power utilities who have been allowed to increase their prices  to a point when many people cannot afford them, and at a time when their costs are declining. Oh, and don’t forget the massive debt the country is saddled with in articially boosting a dead economy as a result of years of mismanagement, and voter ‘feel-good’ bribes. Four words: what an unholy mess!

3 February 2010

JJ reckons that all these awards (Grammy, Brits, Mercury, etc.) are a waste of time, and after watching the Grammy show last night I’m beginning to think he’s right. Two females cleaned up, namely,  Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, who between them received no less than thirteen gongs. These are voted for by the Academy member cognoscente of the USA music industry. The Academy states that music sales play no part in the selection of final nominees and winners, but I wonder… I checked with Metacritic (http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2009.shtml) to see if either album had been critically acclaimed and included in best-of 2009 lists submitted by a wide range of quality print and Internet media. Neither album had been included in ANY top ten selection (check for yourself at the above link) and neither had many other nominees. I smell a corporate rat! I watched the performance by Taylor Swift to see what all the fuss was about and was ’surprised’ to hear a very average voice (Stevie Nicks wiped the floor with her as Swift struggled to make certain notes) and songs that were pretty awful. She was also introduced by a ’star’ who proclaimed she was the finest singer/songwriters - ever! To me it all seems like one massive tit-wank, which bypassed some of the best music released in a single year - ever. As shows go it was pretty spectacular and enjoyable, but the cringe factor went right off the scale. And we still have the Brits to come…