Sup up your beer and collect your fags

There has been a spate of bands recently getting back together some for the right reasons and some to boost the pension funds for one last hurrah. It was pleasing to see that Crowded House have reformed, though this is one reunion that is tinged with sadness. As the original drummer Paul Hester will not be around, having committed suicide in 2005.

The news to today that The Jam are getting back together is something of a shock, given that Paul Weller had previously said that his kids would have to be destitute before he considered it.

The news is all the more baffling given that Weller in fact will not be joining the band for the ‘reunion’ - it will be bassist Bruce Foxton, Rick Buckler and AN Others instead. Worryingly they have a 20-date tour and album ready to roll.

This has got to be the most ill conceived idea that I have ever heard in my life. As the years have rolled on, the dignity of the other two has lapsed year-by-year, from the whingeing biography Our Story, through to Rick Buckler joining The Gift – a Jam tribute band!

The Jam is Paul Weller, and though Buckler and Foxton have some claim to the legacy of The Jam – this would in effect be pissing all over that legacy.

I don’t think I’ll be buying a ticket or the CD – I wait eagerly as to what Weller’s response will be.

TV Hell

I know it is a cliché to moan about TV, though I think I will do so here. Last night followed the usual pattern, as most workday nights tend to follow.

I usually come home from work and throw something into the oven that’s easy to cook and usually barely edible – as most of my cooking tends to be.

At no point in the night did I decide to put the TV on. This was mainly due to the paucity of anything worth watching to be fair.

Instead I spent the time listening to music, reading and going on the Internet. I seldom watch TV these days – unless there is something on specifically that I would like.

I wouldn’t miss it if I was to get rid of my TV, but that would mean I wouldn’t be able to watch my DVDs – a mainstay of my week.

This could turn into an anti-licence-fee rant but I feel that BBCi and the Radio are worthy of the licence-fee alone. One of the good things about my TV abstinence is that thankfully I have missed Nonentity Big Brother – though it is something that I would avoid anyway.

Apart from the usual washed-up has-beens and nonentities, this series has thrown up a fair bit of controversy over the racist bullying of the Indian Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Though I have not watched the programme – I have seen the alleged clips of racism on the news today. It is hard to describe the people in question as card carrying Nazis – I just think it may be the fact that are swimming in a shallow gene pool.

What do they expect? It is lowest common denominator TV, starring people from the lowest-of-the-low. Jade Goody is a vacuous, excuse for a human being anyway, but rolling out the rest of the family is a nadir, not just in the history of Big Brother, but TV. They are scum and pond life.

The rest are a f*cking waste of time and should be horsewhipped – not just for the racism but for the fact that they are a bunch of tossers. Rant over!!

We Are All Doomed

Apparently the Doomsday Clock now stands at 11:55 having been pushed forward by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (the organisation that devised the timepiece) as a result of the current concern over the threat of global warming.

The clock, which was set up in 1947 once reached two minutes to midnight in 1953 at a time when the United States and Soviet Union were involved in nuclear testing.

The clock has been moved backwards and forwards on 18 occasions in its 60-year history and reflects the prevailing political climate of the time.

This is the nearest that the clock has got to midnight for a number of years and the reasons this time are not just as a result of unstable political factors, but also for environmental reasons.

I guess I better clear out my shed and convert it into a panic room/shed to ward off the impending cataclysmic meltdown.

Shame really, as I was looking forward to a busy February.

It was 50 years ago today

The most famous club in Liverpool’s history (other than Everton) turned 50 today.The Cavern a club made famous with an association with The Beatles, celebrated an anniversary with a series of events.

It is a club that I have a fondness for and not just because of the links with The Beatles, but it was also a place that I spent some of my formative drinking years.

I remember the first time as an underage 15-year-old setting foot down those winding stairs to the dank atmosphere of The Cavern below – this could have been a disappointment to some – but not for me it was magical.

I can even remember what I drank in those days, it would without doubt have been Cider. (That must be the right of passage, as most underage drinkers start on that before ascending or should that be descending to drinking Lager).

At the time I didn’t realise that it was not the original club, but a carbon copy in roughly the same location on Matthew Street. In a typically short-sighted Liverpool City Council decision it was demolished in the 70s to make way for a ventilation shaft for the underground railway system – that ultimately wasn’t required.

It is a club that I suppose I started a relationship with one of my first girlfriends. It was a place that I lapsed from being a vegetarian after almost twelve months of abstinence. After a particularly inebriated night, the waft of the smell of onions from the botulism-burger van on the Matthew Street was too much of a temptation to overcome.

It was also a place where I ruined a pair of white jeans (I think they were just about fashionable at the time) when I decided to take James’ song Sit Down literally and park my arse on the floor amongst the dregs and slops – and no doubt other detritus that accounted for a night out in the Cavern.

I have taken numerous foreign visitors there who have not failed to fall for the charms of the old place.

Happy birthday and here’s to another 50 years in existence and hopefully I can fulfil one of my long held dreams and actually play a gig there.

A bunch of fives

As is the way at this time of year there are numerous retrospectives and round-ups of everything that happened in the previous twelve months.

This year is no different and having looked through the numerous lists I have decided to have a go at compiling my own.

I must admit I have lost touch with the NME of late - I no longer purchase it religiously every Wednesday like I used to, but I still takr the time to pick up the Christmas edition to check out the end of year round up.

The fact that I own 2 albums from this years NME top 50 indicates that I’m either getting too old or I’m losing touch – as I said I seldom buy the esteemed journal these days and the quality of the Christmas Edition is evidence that I’m not missing much – but that’s for a future blog.

I fare a little better with the Uncut(the magazine of choice these days) poll. I own 3 albums from their end of year list. Again in the Observer’s arts blog I only manage to accumulate 3 of the 50 albums – note to self – must do better next year. In their poll-of-polls I have 2 out of the ten.

I have probably bought a reasonable deal of albums this year – probably not as many as in previous years. I think I have probably bought a number of older records that I have I could have included such as the Editors and Jose Gonzalez but as they weren’t released this year I have omitted them.

Here are my lists as follows:

Favourite Albums 2006

1. Kelley Stoltz – Below The Branches
2. Roddy Frame – Western Skies
3. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
4. The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
5. Mansun – Legacy (Best of)

Favourite Singles 2006

1. Kelley Stoltz – The Sun Comes Through
2. Howling Bells – Setting Sun
3. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
4. Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright – Set the Fire To The Third Bar
5. Kasabian – Empire
6. Amy Winehouse – Rehab

Favourite Gigs

1. The Who - Liverpool Summer Pops (July)
2. Roddy Frame - Liverpool University (April)
3. The Zutons - Liverpool University (December)
4. The Raconteurs - Liverpool Carling Academy (March)
5. New Order (Liverpool Summer Pops (July)

Zuton Fever

That was just what the doctor ordered, after a weekend that can be best described as ordinary, last night rounded the weekend off nicely - watching Liverpool's finest The Zutons.

They were playing the third of a four night residency at Liverpool University, Academy, Mountford Hall or whatever it's called these days.

It's been a few years since i'd see them, but they have developed into a tight little band. From the opener of 'What Don't You Give Me Your Love' to the final 'Zuton Fever' they were on top form and their energy levels belied the busy year (and week)that they'd had.

It is amazing the songs that pass you by, but when you hear some live they take on a different perspective. 'Valerie' is one such song that passed me by this summer when I heard it on the radio - but tonight I grasped what it was all about. As did the numerous others surrounding me.

Here's to the next gig and album. On this form, I can't wait.

All you need is cash!

With Christmas approaching the current raft of available musical product to purchase and I use the term ‘product’ with great significance.

November and the run up to Christmas seems to be a time of year that bands issue albums that have no real reason other than to fulfil a contractual obligation or it is about time that they got around to releasing a greatest hits.

U2 and Oasis fall into the category of the contractual obligation and this fact has prevented me from purchasing the said albums…as yet. I must be living a parallel world as somehow Girls Aloud have enough material to justify the release of a greatest hits!!!

While doing my weekly shop at Tescos – I had the usual urge to make an impulse purchase of a CD – as I hadn’t bought one for a while. Given the limited range on offer, the purchase was always going to be The Beatles - Love album.

This is a curious album, and it is one that after repeated plays makes wonder what is the real point of its existence. I had heard a few snippets here and there on the radio and I was intrigued to hear the album in full.

I was expecting a radical presentation and reappraisal of a selection of Beatles songbook. What I found instead was a number of curious alternative versions which sound great given the remastering that has taken place, but ultimately make you long to hear the originals and their imperfections.

The concept behind the album is that the music forms the backdrop to the Cirque du Soleil's ‘Love’ show in Vegas. The show has been given the seal of approval by those with significant influence in the Beatles affairs and is currently winning rave review for the performances.

The album is given some credence given that it has been produced and remixed by Sir George Martin and his son Giles. This is part of the part of the problem for me, the Martin’s are probably a little too precious with the recordings and the fact that they had carte blanche to be a little more radical could have seen them go a little further.

Some of the mixes are quite innovative especially the splicing of Hey Bulldog with Lady Madonna – but again they don't really go far enough.

It has been branded as the first official bootleg of the Beatles – a mash-up, but for me this album is a little too safe. I was hoping that it would be more in keeping with the Danger Mouse bootleg that appeared a few years back. That took liberties with the Beatles and JayZ tunes and went under the name of the Grey album.

To me the Love album, good though it is (you can’t go to far wrong when putting together a selection of Beatles tunes, in what ever form) this is nothing more than a soundtrack album and one that is nothing more than a pointless exercise in trying eek out a little more cash from a back catalogue that has so far not been too badly exploited.

This album and the release of Let It Be Naked hopefully are the last drops that can be wrung out the Beatles back catalogue.