4 Acts In 4 Minutes [and a bit]

It's been a while since I blogged anything of consequence. However the new Monolith is operational, additional hard disks have been purchased, so I'll soon have everything organised and sorted. Yeah right!

Anyhew here are a few gems from the first episode of the most recent series of music & comedy radio show 28 acts in 28 minutes. A show which does exactly what it says on the tin.

First up a one minute wonder from the marvelous Tom McRae


Now for a bit of learning as Jeffrey McGiven reads John Betjemen's The Olympic Girl


More funny poetry, this time Simon Jones and Hilaire Belloc's Dangerous Toys


And finally a rare and wonderous treat - how could you have Simon Jones and Jeffrery McGiven in the same room and not be rewarded with a little of Douglas Adam's finest prose?
Definitetly one to "share and enjoy" as Arthur and Ford find themselves in a bit of a tight spot.

Stalking

following from a thread on the Word website about how many gigs for a particular artists folk have attended, I did a quick count from when records began [2002] and thus my top ten live acts are

Nerina Pallot x35
Thea Gilmore x33
Rosalie Deighton x11
Kathryn Williams x10
KT Tunstall x9
The Pipettes x9
David Ford x8
Beth Orton x7
Aimee Mann x6
Eileen Rose x6

STUPID STUPID STUPID

They [ the possibly not so good people of Italy - land of my fathers ] have only gone and bloody well done it, haven't they? Silvio Berlusconi, Media Magnate, richest man in Italy and not in anyway [ and I can't EMPHESISE this strongly enough ] corrupt or evil or be known to drown puppies, has just won the Italian general election...for the 3rd time. Yes that's correct. The THIRD time. As in more than TWO.

For the love of pete people, what the hell were you thinking??? This man makes Rupert Murdoch look like a saint! Twice I could have forgiven, but THREE times? Will you NEVER learn? I even think my brother may have voted for him.

Oh and it's looking increasingly likely that Boris Johnson will become Mayor of London. Livingston's a bit of a twinkle and is basically handing it to him on a plate. Can you imagine...Boris Johnson Mayor of London. That phrase is almost as scary as "Dan, I'm not feeling very well" [for younger listeners it's a US presidential reference]

Have I fallen through some inter-dimensional rift to find myself on an alternate version of Earth where this is allowed to happen unchecked, or as the planet always been this twisted and I - to quote Arthur Dent - have been to wrapped up in myself to notice?

Tell you what, next passing spaceship and I'm outta here.

Goes to bed humming REM "...and I feel fine."

Out With The Old

Having read Andrew Colling's blog entry about finally dumping all his old magazines, I have made the momentous decision to follow suit and clear out the attic of over ten years accumulated Qs Empires and Mojos that are festering up there unread and unloved. Word, gets a stay of execution this time. I shall be a little sad, but I realised I that as I was never going to be able to house them anywhere other than in the loft, it made their value as a reference source null and void.

So, this weekend it's load up the car and off to the dump they go. Ho hum.

New Album Aquisitions

99 reasons for not being up to date with the gig blogs. They fell off the back of an interwebs, honest guv...

Amanda Kaletsky	Wait [EP]
Ana Lann	Chocolate And Roses
Ane Brun	Changing Of The Seasons
Ashton Shepherd	Sounds So Good
Berry	Mademoiselle
Beth Rowley	Sweet Hours [EP]
Bobby Blumm	Everybody Loves
Cat Power	Jukebox
Clara Luzia	The Long Memory
Clare And The Reasons	The Movie
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set	The Moon Looked On
Counting Crows	Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
Dropkick	Dot The I
Duffy	Rockferry
Duke Special	Songs From The Deep Forest
Eileen Rose	At Our Tables
Elvis Costello & The Attractions	Girls! Girls! Girls!
Emily Barker	Photos, Fires, Fables
Emily Haines	Cut In Half And Also Double
Emily Loizeau	L'autre Bout Du Monde
Etta James	Gold
Forest City Lovers	Haunting Moon Sinking
Ghost Buffalo	The Magician
Goldfrapp	Seventh Tree
Heidi Talbot	In Love And Light
Helen Boulding	New Red Dress
Hopper	Deergirl
In Flight Radio	In Flight Radio
In Flight Radio	The Sound Inside
Isabelle Boulay	Au Moment D'etre a Vous
Isabelle Boulay	Etats D'amour
Isabelle Boulay	Fallait Pas
Isabelle Boulay	Mieux Qu'ici-bas
Isabelle Boulay	Nos Lendemains
Isabelle Boulay	Tout Un Jour
Isobel Campbell	Amorino
Isobel Campbell	Milk White Sheets
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan	Ballard Of The Broken
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan	Sunday At Devil Dirt
Jack Savoretti	Between The Minds Unplugged
Jean Michel Jarre	Magnetic Fields
Jean Michel Jarre	Equinox
Jean Michel Jarre	Oxygene
Jean Michel Jarre	Rendez-Vous
Joan Osborne	Breakfast In Bed
Kathleen Edwards	Asking For Flowers
Kathryn Williams & Neill MacCall	Two
Laura Veirs	Carbon Glacier
Laura Veirs	Year Of Meteors
Letters To Cleo	Aurora Gory Alice
Letters To Cleo	Go!
Letters To Cleo	Sister
Letters To Cleo	Wholesale Meats And Fish
Michelle Shocked	Arkansas Traveler
Michelle Shocked	Captain Swing
Michelle Shocked	Short Sharp Shocked
Michelle Shocked	The Texas Campfire Tapes
Mindy Smith	Long Island Shore
Mindy Smith	One Moment More
Mystery Jets	21
Natalie Grant	Relentless
Phoebe Killdeer And The Short Straws	Weather's Coming
Robots In Disguise	We're In The Music Biz
Room Eleven	Mmm Gumbo
Rubies	Explode From The Center
Sandrine	Dark Fades Into Light
Sara Melson	Dirty Mind
Sarabeth Tucek	Sarabeth Tucek
Sarah Slean	Night Bugs
Sarah Slean	Orphan Music
Sarah Slean	The Baroness
Sarah Slean	Day One
Secret Beauty Cream	Addicted To You
Sera Cahoone	Only As The Day Is Long
Sheila Sondergard	Spoke Too Loud
Shelby Lynn	Just A Little Lovin'
Sheryl Crow	Detours
Sia	Colour The Small One
Sia	Some People Have Real Problems
Suzy Mangion	The Other Side Of The Mountain
Talking Heads	Greatest Hits
The Afternoons	Baby, You Know The Deal
The Afternoons	Sweet Action
The Bonzo Dog Band	Cornology
The Hush Sound	Goodbye Blues
The Kills	Keep On Your Mean Side
The Kills	Midnight Boom
The Long Blondes	Couples
The Pigeon Detectives	Wait For Me
The Small Faces	Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
The Veronicas	Hook Me Up
The Veronicas	The Secret Life Of
Tift Merritt	Another Country
Tift Merritt	Bramble Rose
Tift Merritt	Tambourine
Tina Dico	Count To Ten
Tristan Prettyman	Hello
Tristan Prettyman	Twentythree
Wallis Bird	Spoons