Recently on holiday I read Sting's autobiography BROKEN MUSIC in a day and a half. I was intrigued as I kinda figured him a private person but I guess he wanted to write the definitive version rather than some hack.
It covers his life up till Police was formed. As you can imagine he writes really well.
The title comes from the story that he was playing [very badly] the piano in his grandmother's house and making a terrible racket. His grandmother shouted 'stop playing that broken music'.
I was truly amazed at his musical upbringing and grafting, something you just don't think about when you are presented with the Police image. He worked in a jazz band first and foremost at universities, social clubs etc., and evn played on P & O liners.
When I first heard Roxanne, I absolutely hated it and his wailing tenor voice .. I am now a huge fan and have practically everything he has recorded. I can listen to him endlessly but don't particularly like watching him perform and I am not too sure why as he is good to look at. The book tells how he came to write Roxanne.
The one song which finalised me as a lifelong fan was the timeless FRAGILE.
I hope he goes on to tell the rest of his story in a second book but I don't think somehow that he will, still this was well worth the time spent on it in a 2 day sunless spot in Portugal.
It was a test as I would like to read more musical and musicans biographies but was never sure if they were worth it or not.

Sting and my glasses!

Life is in full force at the moment with work and hospital radio 'stuff' so my only listening hours I am getting is in the car on the way to work which is a drag.
Currently listening to Alanis Morrisette's JAGGED LITTLE PILL but the acoustic/unplugged version. These acoustic albums really show if the singer has it or not as nothing is disguised by lush orchestrations or driving beats. She definately has it and her voice sounds enough better on this version.
I think I prefer the acoustic version of Hand In My Pocket to the original, here she has slowed the temp right down and it really works. I love the hope in this particular song.

OK I need help! For the radio station I have to put a collection of songs together for Halloween. The obvious I have, i.e. Thriller, Ghostbusters etc. So any tracks you can think of which are suitable, please let me know.

I'M SHORT BUT I'M HEALTHY
Hand In Pocket
[Love this line as I am barely 5'3"]

The intro to my blog says that I am currently sorting through my huge collection of music.. well, it's not exactly true.
Work, volunteer work, house jobs and simply life are holding it up a little. I use to be a complete workaholic but turning a certain milestone in my birthdays stopped all that, the constant tiredness and the inability to function as a freindly, normal human being AND not giving enough time to my girlfriend of 15 years made me realise that a major life change had to occur and it has or will be at the end of next year. I have given in my notice and will be working freelance next year. Less money but more free time, the latter being my major goal at the moment.
So I am not working my way to digitalising my vinyl collection, putting the one track I may have bought a whole CD for onto my ipod or compiling my music database, but I will be next year.
It's frustrating but I know I will get there eventually, something I didn't feel at the beginning of the year when I hadn't taken my major decision and could see me being too old to even read the writing on CD cases before I started work on anything.
But I am going to continue to blog as I have really enjoyed it so far and it's just brill to get comments and I have had a few suggestions on what to listen to as well.
I love reading other blogs also.
Invisable friends.

Time is still being taken away from me regarding my itunes problem, think I have found the cause so it's home from work then on the computer writing more postings to the Apple forum in an effort to get it sorted.

Weather in the Midlands was fantatsic till about 4ish yesterday so we went to Burton Dassett hills and flew the re-stringed Skymaster and my sisters Twister kites. Great, great fun, the whistling through the strings is both eerie and exciting. Wind was moderate between 12 and 14mph but it was strong enough to snap 2 winders!

Have to fit fun into the timetable as well!

Heard the new Kate Bush single on R2 [you know, the station which gets exclusive rights to new singles. Plays then to death so that by the time the single is avaialble, you are sick of hearing it!] King of the Mountain. It hasn't got a WOW factor but it is curious, enigmatic and pure Bush. I love it and am eagerly awaiting the CD in November.

Check out Code 46 on DVD, it's one that got passed by too quickly and I have a hunch will become a classic.

To everyone who may have the Monday Blues, time rolls quickly so pretend it's Friday and it soon will be but make sure you fill the in between time with little things which make you smile.

How do we like the revamped Chris Evans on Radio 2 then? I never listened to him on any of his other shows/stations so would like to know if the edge has gone as I suspect as he's approaching 40.
It sounds to me like he has bought his fun TV side of him and combined it into Radio 2.
I quite enjoyed it, I love all the bits and spots like 'I never usually say this but..'. It stands out a mile from most of the other R2 shows. They have a contradictory policy don't they? If you are just your average, long standing radio presenter who does a good job then you present a bland, standard, follow the playlist and rules and deliver a mind bogglingly boring show [tune into the Ken Bruce show for a fine example], BUT if you arrive at R2 with a developed celebrity personna then you can pratically do your own thing and pick your own tracks like Chris, Johnathan Ross, Michael Parkinson. Bizarre! A combination of confidence, defiance and musical savy.

Not sure about Robbie Williams comment on Bono being his Jesus!

I am usually quite upbeat but since returning from my holiday it's been a blur of horrid happenings. The main one being that I am one of the 'many' suffering from a itunes 5 download.
Being from Apple you trust them [when perhaps you shouldn't I know] so you happily click that DOWNLOAD button. It downloaded OK and it all seems to work except for one small thing - I can't actually play anything through it, not from my own Library or from a CD.
I will spare you the details of how I managed to trash 4 hours trying to solve this. I eventually went to the Apple forum group and then promptly found that not only have several people got exactly the same problem [thank god as that rules out there being a problem with my computer] but the hassles others are having puts mine in the pale! Computers crashing, itunes 5 not downloading to people loosing all their downloaded music - sounds like a complete nightmare.
And as I said you just DO NOT expect this from Apple AND you have to download it with QuickTime 7 and new software called Bonjour so of course there are bloody problems!!!!

There is nothing like the comfort you have when you switch on your magic computer and everything is where you put it, everything looks like you want it to and everything does what you set it up to do AND THEN something goes wrong. Your entire world caves in. Anyway someone from the forum is helping me I just need to find more free time to get it sorted.

Other horrid happenings have been politics within the volunteer group I work in, the temperature drop accentuating the end of summer, stuck in the NEC for 3 days doing a trade show, and a crippling bout of IBS.

Did manage a quick listen to some new music [new to me that is as the album is 30 years old], STORM COCK by Roy Harper which was astonishing, strange and beautiful all in one go. Fantastic use of words in his lyrics but I just don't understand what any of them mean. It begs more listening which I will give. Anyone else ever heard of him?

Just got back from a week in Portugal where we rented a villa for a week. It was so remote that the only thing you could hear was the breeze and dogs off in the distance. Unbelievable peace and quiet which you hardly find anywhere these days.

To my surprise I hardly listened to any music whilst away, I mainly read and listened to the blissful silence.

Caught a little Claude Challe [to help the chilling] and Big Band stuff on the ipod. Had an overcast day so sat indoors reading with a Portugese radio station on in the background. The music was good but the presentation left much to be desired and it had a lot of 'dead air' which is utter radio anathema!

What I did realise whilst flicking through stations in the hired car was that they has a lot more female presenters on air than we do. Have you noticed how nearly every UK radio station has 90% male presenters and hardly any female voices during prime time [if you don't include Steve Wrights' 'old woman']. What the hell is that all about?

Back in the office today and a gigantic 252 emails, half of which were trying to sell me something or infect my PC.

Just took a lunchtime walk in glorious sunshine, it always appears on a work day following a grey and damp weekend doesn't it? Sods law!!