Category: Music

I’ve just been watching, again, the BBC documentary that recorded the creation of the 1984 Leonard Bernstein conducted “operatic” version of West Side Story. It was on BBC Four a few weeks ago, and I’d not watched it since it was first shown in 1985. It’s a fantastically interesting document of the wonderful musical’s first…

So Smash Hits is no more. What a shame. Where will be without Smash Hits editorial alumni like Neil Tennant, Mark Frith and, er, Kate Thornton. Ah, those happy days I spent memorising the lyrics to Baggy Trousers and Shuddupa Your Face from its hallowed pages. The free badges on the cover. But it does…

I just thought I’d post here, the comments I left over at On An Overgrown Path in relation to free mp3 downloads of classical music: My question is this? What proportion of the UK population (and I’ll limit this to the UK for simplicity’s sake), currently purchase classical music CDs? Unfortunately, the BPI, who’d probably…

Record companies may have scared off the BBC from doing more classical downloads following their Beethoven symphonies last year, but the idea seems to have taken hold in Scandinavia where both Swedish and Danish state radio services are offering free Mozart downloads to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth. Swedish Radio is offering a…

The next time record companies are bemoaning the fact that piracy is killing the industry, blah, blah, blah… just think about this: “record firms are vying to get ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ housemate Chantelle to record the song that she pretended had been a hit when she had to fool other contestants into thinking she was…

Some of these places just drive me mad. Earlier this year I got loads of free credit from Mycokemusic, the music download site. As a rule, I hate downloads. You’re effectively leasing rather than owning the music and with DRM it’s just a total pain. However I accrued a bit of virtual money and got…

Madonna wasn’t the only artist playing a “secret” gig last night. Alanis Morrisette was playing the intimate confines of the Kings College London Student Union in a one-off gig to promote the recently released “Best Of” (or rather “Collection”). All good fun with all your favourites, although the annoying idiot near me who kept shouting…

Someone in a Newsnight editing booth has obviously been to see Michael Nyman recently because Susan Watts’ piece on nanotechnology this evening was packed full of Gatacca music. Fantastic.

This article (free subs. reqd.) about the BBC’s Beethoven downloads really annoys me. Not the article itself, but the words and thoughts of John Whittingdale of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. It seems that the record companies are still annoyed that the BBC actually gave away some music free. These were recordings of…

Salon have a free download of a track from the latest Cowboy Junkies album available. You will have to watch an ad if you’re not a subscriber. Uncut magazine also has a track from the same new album cover-mounted this month. But not having the CD with me, I can’t tell you whether it’s the…

Since I downloaded this on Friday, it’s barely been off my mp3 player if you see what I mean? (Via Boing Boing)

While watching part 2 of the Dylan documentary, there was a brief sequence showing the position of Like A Rolling Stone in the charts. I’m pretty sure that the top four entries of that chart read: 1. Help – The Beatles 2. Like A Rolling Stone – The Beatles 3. Unchained Melody – (Unsure exactly…

This year was V Festival’s 10th anniversary, and I think that one way or another I’ve been to the last nine of them, starting with V97 and Blur (featuring Phil Daniels doing his Parklife stuff). This year was inevitably our biggest ever effort with some fabulous music in the Virgin Radio tent making it harder…