Year: 2005
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Beware When The Drums Stop…
I heard this week that Peter Hook, bass player with New Order, is putting together a new side-project. This is to be – I can barely contain myself – a bassplayer supergroup! Hooky will be teaming up with Mani Mountfield (ex Stone Roses) and Andy Rourke (ex Smiths) under the catchy monicker Freebass (maybe Bassic Instinct was already taken, and BassCamp was a bit too, well, camp). What on earth are they thinking of? Whilst all three are undoubtedly accomplished bass players (although I don’t recall Rourke doing anything substantive since the late ’80s), they aren’t exactly the ‘creative spirits’… Read more
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This Is Music…Don’t Make It About The Money
My mention of The Verve a couple of entries ago got me thinking about their demise. They were a great band, and it’s a shame they called it a day. Personally, I blame it all on Allen Klein. Arguably, the peak of The Verve’s success was their hit single Bittersweet Symphony, which reached #2 in the UK and #12 in the US. The song used a sample from a version of the Rolling Stones song The Last Time, for which The Verve had obtained permission. However, once the song became a massive hit, Allen Klein (the former Rolling Stones manager,… Read more
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Tabling The Alcohol Issue
Last weekend I met up with a few of my old drinking buddies whom I haven’t seen in about eight years. (The recent demise of Ruth made me resolve to start catching up with my old friends before they’re gone.) I was a bit apprehensive at first, as the week before an old colleague of mine from 10 years ago joined our project and he looks really old now, which makes me wonder just how badly I’ve aged… But thankfully Mick, Chris, and Kev and Dennis (always said as a phrase – like “Bert and Ernie” – not ‘life partners’… Read more
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Out Of Control In The Temple Of Love
I recently invested in the Joy Division four-CD boxed set Heart and Soul. Prior to this, the only thing I’d ever heard by Joy Division was the ‘hit’ single Love Will Tear Us Apart – which is OK, but not exactly There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. But Joy Division have been given a lot of good press recently, and have been cited an influence by several bands I’ve been listening to, so I thought I’d give it a go. And on the whole, it’s not too bad at all! Quite different from what I expected – a… Read more
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Be Your Own Guide
Last week I picked up a copy of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s first album (B.R.M.C.). It’s a good couple of years old (2001), and I never bothered with it when it first came out, mainly because BRMC were described in several reviews as being very derivative of the Jesus and Mary Chain, and you just can’t better the Jesus and Mary Chain. But the CD was languishing in the bargain bin of a department store, so I figured I didn’t have too much to lose (?5.00 to be exact). Besides, I’d bought their second album Howl (on the back… Read more