Just a few hours left till 2006 and it seems just 5 minutes since we were chiming in the New Millenium. It's been a defining year for me and my partner in many ways, some real good and exciting, others real sad.
In some ways it's nuts to celebrate what really is just a new 4 figure date, there is no real chance in time or reality. It's daft when folks say 'I'll be glad when this year is over' because midnight doesn't really bring anything new except your perspective and renewed gutso to get things done, get over things from last year.
But it does bring a fresh hope which pushes us forward and I hope you all spring forward into 06 with good health and a strong mind!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Doing a show today on hospial radio which has a somewhat egocentric title: MY BEST NEW MUSIC OF 2005 where I review a few of the CD's I have bought this year, my thoughts on them and then of course a track. I scheduled an hour and a half but soon realised I needed twice as much time!! Anyway here is the playlist which is 'mixed' to say the least:-

Beautiful Child/WANT ONE Rufus Wainwright
Another Sun/LET IT RAIN Tracy Chapman
They/FINALLY WOKEN Jem
I'm Alright/BEST OF Loudon Wainwright
Atom Bomb/ATOM BOMB Blind Boys of Alabama
Circlesong 5/CIRCLESONGS Bobby McFerrin
Meet On the Ledge/JOHN PEEL TRIBUTE ALBUM Fairport Convention
If Your Love Cannot be Moved/A TIME TO LOVE Stevie Wonder
Please Explain/AT THIS TIME Burt Bacharach
Leave Without Running/SON OF DAVE Son of dave
Dance Me To the End of Love/CARELESS LOVE Madeleine Peyroux
Hallelujah/GRACE Jeff Buckley
Roxane's Dance/Soundtrack to ALEXANDER Vangelis
Glass, Concrete & Stones/GROWN BACKWARDS David Byrne
Future Lovers/CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR Madonna
True/ROCK SWINGS Paul Anka
Take the Long Way Home/RETROSPECTACLE Supertramp
Mouth Music/ROCK N'DROLL barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden
Pi/AERIAL Kate Bush

God, the gaps between these postings are getting longer and longer but it's indicative of how I am NOT keeping up with my life let alone my music. But hey, it's 3 days till I leave my job and even more important, 3 days till Christmas!

X Factor - worse one of the series. They sacrificed talent for marketability hence why Shane, pretty to look at, okayish singer and young, won over Andy who obviously could sing better and over a wider range of genre's!

Quarter of the way through the BBC3 Session with Anthony and the Johnsons. Doesn't need me to say what a wonderful voice he has. It sounds like real music and the songwriting craft is making a come back and Anthony is a great role model, doing his own thing albeit in a somewhat sombre way.

NIZLOPI is number one, another well crafted song and the guys are from Leamington where I was bought up, went to school and now live next to. Congratulations but how did it happen, I heard the song about 18 months ago.

Listened to ROCK SWINGS by Paul Anka. What a very clever CD, take some rock greats and tone down the tempo AND make it work as he does. He's another oldie who's voice sounds just diamond!

I am hoping to get some music for Christmas else there will be trouble.

Here's a treat, my sisters photo's taken at Rufus Wainwright's concert at the Birmingham Symphony Hall....enjoy

Downloaded Ricky Gervais' first podcast show which was hilarious and as I was listening to it on my commute, anything that can make me laugh that early in the orning is OK by me.
It's just 3 guys chatting but the guys in questions are FUNNY, Gervais' laugh in particular just creases me, reminds me of DLT's in the good Radio 1 days. But the funniest is the dead pan Karl Pilkington who just takes all the abuse. Can't quite work out if he is serious about what he says or not but either way it's dead funny. The immortal line for me came from Gervais; 'he uses a pelican to mix his cement'! Even totally out of context it gives you a flavour of how Gervais' mind works ... or does not work as the case may be!

Watched Sin City last night and was completely blown away. I am not a comic strip fanatic but this still held my attention. The way the characters ran [through the woods in a long shot in particular was pure comic art], the silvery look of their faces, the ocassional colour [usually red] and some the words the characters used were just comic pages coming to life. Micket Rourke, apart from being unrecognizable, stole the show for me.
Apparently the director hadn't got the rights for Frank Millers story but came up with the unique idea of filming the opening scene then showing it to Miller who immediately signed the rights over. He also showed the scene to actors he wanted who again, just watched it and then signed up. Clever.
The best line comes from Dwight, Clive Owens character:-

"It's great when you're friends turn up with lots of guns"

Went to this last night and once you get past the dreadful and confused cacophony of the Guilemotts, Rufus hit the stage to the sound of Oh What A World with it's steal from Bolero. A perfect number to kick off with.

This was his set list:

Oh What A World
Agnus Dei
Crumb By Crumb
Peach Trees
Hometown Waltz
Vibrate
Grey Gardens
The Art Teacher
This Love Affair
The One you Love
Gay Messiah
Want
Beautiful Child
Memphis Skyline
Hallelujah
Across The Universe
Beauty Mark
Little Sister
Dinner At Eight
Waiting for a Dream
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
14th Street
Old Whores Diet
Oh What a World
I Don't Know What It Is
California

Got this from his website and it's not entirely accurate as he slipped a couple of new songs in and the order was a little diffrent but hey, he's allowed that when he sings as divine as he does. Though with a solo at the piano he did 'fuck up' as he put it and had to try again.

The winning thing is not just the voice or the beauty [which is all too evident] but that he is a musician, hiving off all types of music and blending it with his unique voice and crafting such monumental works. This is shown to great effect in the belting Beautfil Child which he reprised toward the end of the show and to the exact same effect when singing a gentle ballad.

He engages you with really funny banter in his camp style and has the grace to talk of others who have influenced him, his family and Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen etc.

For 2 hours 15 minutes he gave his all which included a bizarre skit which had dancing in togas, his Christ like impersonation whilst leaning against a white cross [not sure what that was about but great that he felt he could let rip and do this as I am sure his US tours wouldn't permit it.] It ended in a couple of encores of him in a bathrobe and sock! Divine, loved every second and am now a dedicated fan.

Unfortunately we did not get this, maybe next time.

"My phones on vibrate for you"
VIBRATE
R Wainwright

Says something that I live only 9 miles away from my office and I can listen to a whole CD on the journey! I have tried every route but none of them shave off any time so I take from the boredom what I can and that's a catch up on music.

With Lennon's Birthday and Death date there is so much around on him at the moment. BBC Radio is doing a ton of stuff next week. So I bought WORKING CLASS HERO THE DEFINITIVE LENNON a double CD.

I have always though his voice to be harsh but just listening to him without Beatles, it's quite an extraordinary voice. It changes with each song he sings. Whilst Starting Over, Imagine, Jealous Guy and a few others I was not new too, I did kinda take real notice of a few others even though they are bouncing around somewhere in my brain:-

WATCHING THE WHEELS is a classic mainly because it was a reaction to friends and the industry having a go at him on his home sabatical. As I leave my job in 3 weeks and am planning to 'watch the wheels' rather than push them round, this had particular resonance with me. It is a great track.

JEALOUS GUY I find contradictory. The lyrics are true and painful but he sings it in a kind of slow, couldn't-care-less melody.

His cover of STAND BY ME, which I hadn't heard for a while, is really good, particularly the backing on it which changes the whole thing. Am going to promote this to the ipod.

WORKING CLASS HERO is a classic and Dylanesque. Sings from the heart and I am sure touches all all.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE love it even though this doesn't travel strongly in time. Bit corny. 'Right On' has been replaced by Fat Boy Slims' 'Right Here, Right Now' hasn't it?

What is OH YOKO? Drivel basically I'm afraid to say but he's allowed a couple of drivel tracks.

That's as far as I have got. Am putting together a one and a half our show on New Music in 2005 for hospital radio over Christmas and whilst this is by no means new, I think I will create a 'revisited' section and pick a couple of tracks.

My new discovery is Anthony and the Johnsons, what a voice Anthony Hegarty has - divine. Have been reading a lot on him plus picked up a couple of tracks somewhere then he appeared on the Johnathan Ross Show with Boy George. I am sure I will be blogging him at some point.

Had my first mince pie today - yummy.

Joined a gymn and went for my fitness assessment last night and to my utter delight all the equipment has a tv with MTV channels! Heaven.