MUSIC MONDAY : Purple and Red from Edd

Colour; something that's all around us and yet something that can be overlooked, especially if you are colour blind. Of course being colour blind isn't as black and white as you may think at first (forgive the pun it was there), there are many shades of this condition. Take me for instance, I see colour but not like my wife. I can stand in the paint isle in BnQ and look dumbfounded when she asks me to pick between two nondescript hues of Green.

Surely there are these subtle differences, these light and dark shades that she says there are and yet I simply see green for the most part. If you hold them next to each other I have a shot at saying lighter of darker but on the whole green and red are fairly simple affairs; yes there are shades but it really isn't as exciting as other people seem to think it is.

I sometimes wonder if I'm missing out, but then the only reason I know there are is this exciting myriad of colour is because other people tell me there is. Realistically I'm not missing anything as my world has always been like this and will continue to be so long after I've painted the house and someone points out the wall is 'a hint of' and I nod and look like I know what the fuck they're talking about.

Well, that was a happy dalliance....now on with the tunes yeah?

Good.


PURPLE PEOPLE EATER by I really have no idea what the fuck this is :-)

Right, this is a song we used to sing to one of our big mates down the pub. He was oriental (he, in fact, still is) so how this purple thing comes into play I have no idea. For that mater he never ate anyone while I was there either, so I'm still confused.

This is it, possibly one of the most annoying things you'll ever hear...ever.

Sorry.





PURPLE RAIN by Prince

YES!!! I fucking love this song, album and yes, this man! Okay, fine, the whole 'symbol' thing was incredibly annoying and yes, he is does think he's the sexiest smurf in the entire world... But he moves and sounds like he can back that claim up all the damn way!

You know the song but I'll be amazed if you swing past and go to the next one. You'll press play and spend some time with the diminutive sex machine.




PURPLE HAZE by Jimi Hendrix

I really don't need to say anything here do I? Let Jimi's sound wash over you man/woman :-)




RED RED WINE by UB40

Yep, now I know this is a cover but this is the one I know and so it is by UB40, if you see what I mean? I love this song either way and yep, you guessed it, this is the part where we change from Purple to red.

Can't get anything past you can I?




SKINNY SWEATY MAN by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

I know what you're going to say! I know! 'THERE IS NO COLOUR IN THE TITLE!' Yes, I know, but it goes 'Skinny sweaty man, in a little green suit! Ow!' And that is good enough for me. :-) Oh, yeah, I know what you're gonna say now! IT'S NOT PURPLE OR RED!

I know, but it's my blog, my rules and if I want to rip them up, set them alight and then piss on the fire to put it out... Then I can.

Enjoy the Pepper madness!



Next week I will consider sticking to the rules.

Maybe.

Thanks for reading and listening. :-)

Silent Sunday

MUSIC MONDAY! NEW TUNES!

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.” – Leo Tolstoy

Well, its been a few weeks right? Sorry folks I've been stuck on the edit train and wrapping up a thousand other things that needed doing. Rest assured that none of those things have been actually completed, think more along the lines of all of them being slightly closer to completion than they were several weeks ago ;-)

Right, so we needed a theme otherwise this thing doesn't fly for me and so this weeks is 'New', new to me and maybe (hopefully) new to you. We have five pieces as always and to kick us off we have something to make your world go BOOM!

KEEP ON SWINGING by Rival Sons.

I listen to the radio a fair bit, especially at key times; dinner, breakfast, when cooking, if a match is on and certain shows. One of those is Dermot O'Leary's show on Radio two on Saturday afternoon. There's always something I haven't heard; old and new, some amazing songs that totally capture you and a live band. This weeks was Rival Sons.

They were amazing! They did the song below and they also did a cover of Back in Black by Amy Winehouse. Both were brilliant and on the strength of those songs and their general attitude I went and bought the album. It's on its way right now. If you turn off your music and open the window you may be able to hear the parcel its travelling in buzzing with awesomeness!

Here's the track that made me sit up and say 'I'm buying this NOW!'

It's awesome!





MOJO FIX by Martin Harley

You a regular here or on twitter? If you are then you'll know just how much I love this guy! Personally I think he's one of the very best musicians out there at present; his guitar does things that defy belief.

Mofo Fix is the new album (mentioned on O'leary's show) and it's a far more commercial sound than normal.  This has meant it's taken me some time to get into the rift, to 'get' the songs and find the love, but it's coming slowly but surely. Perhaps going for the more mainstream sound and 'a look' could be seen as selling out by some. I think it's more a guy trying to get himself about a bit more and so altering his sound slightly. That's cool with me!

Anything Martin Harley wants to do is basically cool with me (with-in reason of course).

Here's 'Mojo Fix', the most produced sound Harley has ever put out, if you like it and want to hear what his older stuff is like then just type in 'Grow Your Own- Martin Harley', buy the album and sink into his heavenly slide-guitar sound.





GENTLEMAN M/V by Psy

No, I'm not telling you to go listen to or buy this, I am just telling you there is 'another one' and that you should prepare yourself for more internet insanity as people rush to watch a fairly harmless dickhead dance about.

It's annoying and not memorable, thank god, but I fear this may get rammed down our throats like the last one.

Be prepared!




CAN'T PLAY DEAD by The Heavy

The Heavy have a newish album, I have stolen it from a mate and will have to give it back at some point, when I do I'll have to buy my own copy. I'll do so happily, knowing that some of the cash is going to these big sounded monsters of music!

The Heavy are funky, incredibly funky! They construct the albums not like a list of possible singles and some make weights but as a piece of music to be listened to from start to finish. There is no skipping, no starting at the mid point, there is no picking three songs and then bumping the rest to forgetsville. The album goes on and the album damn well stays on till they have dragged every cord, note and beat from the air and thrown it at you, leaving you a happy but slightly concussed bunny.

Can't Play Dead is an amazing song, big on beat, hugely enjoyable and these guys are awesome. Simple as.




As you know we like to mix it up a bit for the final one right? Well I did have a silly song from Despicable 2 lined up but you know what? We need to be a bit weirder today, so here it is, weird, crazy and normally pretty damn clever, yes, its EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY!!!

Now what these grown ups say to each other isn't always very polite and certainly not very p.c, but that's kinda the whole rap battle thing, so here for your delight/horror/disgust/amusement is a classic.

Romney v Obama!



Next week I should return with some more selections and as always, if you have a theme suggestion then just hit me up... Or whatever it is the cool kids do these days.

Thanks for reading and listening.

Silent Sunday

Song Of The Day (17/04/13)

Been a day of action here, plenty of digging and stripping... yeah, proper excitement! So, on with the song right? Why the hell not?!

I just pulled out a soundtrack I love and a song struck a cord for the current hostilities between the political parties and ideologies. The bonus is I love this song!

 

More tomorrow possibly. :-)

Song For The Day. (A regular feature?)

Seems the world is playing up lately. In fact the world has been playing up for the last 10,000 years or so but we see more of it now. Some bastard shoots up a school and we have people with camera's outside in minutes. Someone bombs a marathon and camera's are already there to capture people's personal achievements as they cross the finishing line; so obviously they capture the blast, three teenager's beat a homeless man to death and we get the blow by blow account from the news.

People have always wanted to drop bombs, use their swords, rule the world, take what isn't theirs and crap on the weak or innocent. Things like the warrior gene make us more likely to be serial killers or world boxing champions or muggers, but we also have the greater majority of the population fighting those urges to scrap and fight and kill for what they want. Instead they save, do without or maybe borrow what they can (saying that I enjoy watching boxing and general combat bloodsports so I wouldn't want to see them go).

There is more than enough of everything for everyone, even money, and yet even if we sorted out food and money we'd have religion and politics to ruck over. We'd pick fights over parking spaces (there will never be enough of those) and how loud someone's music is, whether they like putting tab a into slot b or whether they  want to have more than the person next door to them.

Its weird and perhaps some may find this negative but I don't think we'll ever be rid of the urge to strangle each other, what I hope we can do is lower the percentage of people that actually give in and act on their impulses.

(It's a song post, not a waffle post ya twat!)

Sorry.

So, though this is a sad song it's not the saddest. It's a slow song but not the slowest, and yes, this is a sad day, but we have had sadder.

I hope the world gets a better grip soon. I'll do my bit. I'm going to be nice to as many people as possible. Sound woolly? Yeah, it is, but that doesn't make it any less worthy.


  

Thanks for reading.

Silent Sunday

What The Hell Is Going On Here?!

A Complicated Death

Someone famous died.

Someone famous that was both loved and hated.

That someone brought change, some good and some bad.

That someone brought misery and yet also freed many to pursue wealth and property that they never would have been able to if they hadn't done what they did.

That someone fought a whole load of other someone's that had different opinions to her. The bitter conflict that raged through the land brought poverty, broke families and destroyed communities. Many still feel the effects of that conflict.

The thing about that time, about that era of unrest, social conflict, class war and modernisation is that it was always going happen following the seventies, as the events of the seventies were dictated by the change of the sixties, as they too were birthed by the fifties and forties.

I was born in 1975, making me four when this someone came to power. Four. No, I had no idea what was happening. When they left I was 15. No, I had no real understanding of what was going on. How could I? I had never had to fight for a job, watch my house slip into negative equity, be on the dole, get a shot at owning my own house, watch the social housing disappear, start a business, marry, strike or even vote, and yet millions did all of these things (of course through historical study I could learn and there are always some teens that buck that closed view and do have great perception at a young age).

The north suffered terribly as I understand it, pits were closed, industries were lost and a whole city looked to be on a list that didn't see it as having a future. Grim faces streaked with tears marked the television screens and the police went to war as the strikers rallied to the fight. This is as I understand it.

I watched a program not to long ago about the seventies and it showed the power of the unions; power to halt coal production, shut off the power and water, hell, even power enough to convince the staff of Great Ormond Street hospital to walk out. Power to run a country through the power of the workforce gun. Used with sense and reason this could have been a weapon that brought incredible change for the country but as I understand it it was used undiscriminating.

There was a reaction as many of the population grew sick and tired of the unions and so they looked for someone to fight them. A fight came and you know what? Too many people lost.

This fight was one that both sides picked and neither side really won. It's clear this someone never beat her enemies as they haven't lost their will to fight, even now, and this someone didn't really win either. Not really, seeing as this someone was removed from her post by her own allies and political side.

After all, this someone had had their time.

I can read the numbers and see that we were a more prosperous country (on the whole) at the end of this someone's time but that doesn't tell the story. I can read the reports and see the unemployment figures, see the loss of industry, the privatisations and I can see that this tells a whole different story. I can flick back through my memories and I can tell you that I knew dick all about the politics and I am unable to give you a harrowing account of the eighties. I was a kid, we lived in a shitty area in London, it didn't get any better in the nineties.

I look at this time with mixed feelings. I can see the emotion and the horror that must have gripped many  hearts and is still plainly evident but I can't tell you I hate this someone.It may be unpopular but I see a raging bull of a union movement, coming into a headlong collision with something they had never encountered before; someone that wouldn't back down. Sadly some of the population were crushed in the conflict.

Utterly crushed.

Two forces came to a place where they could have compromised and given some ground each and yet they didn't. This someone is to blame for this as much as the other someone was. I think they share the blood, the guts and the horror.

I won't party when the other someone goes, as they surely will, I'll great that death with as much sadness. Not sadness for them but for the people they led into battle. Both of these people, generals of their great armies, watched as the bodies fell and in the end they both lived comfortably afterwards.

This someone won three general elections and so cannot by definition be universally hated as some people are claiming. There are two sides to each and every argument. Always two sides at least.

I'll do what I always do. I 'll stand in the middle and hate them both, but I can see where they were coming from. One standing against massive change across the whole country, trying to lead the people, yet all he ended up doing was hauling them forward like lambs to the slaughter. The other standing in a castle under siege, determined to bring sweeping change, wielding the sword of power on those foolish enough to test the might of their army.

The end result?

We live in a country that is both better and worse than it was before. The changes brought modernisation and yet destroyed our industry and the livelihoods of millions, millions now waiting for the chance to work and frustratedly screaming at the current fools that they would if only there was work to do! PAID WORK!

We have been failed. Failed by those that followed that recently deceased someone and then by someone that jogged grinning onto out televisions telling us that 'things could only get better.' He stayed as the other someone stayed and the grey men before and after them, and yet they all share a damning truth; none of them have put back what they took out.

None of them have replaced the industries and yet those same industries that were lost thrive elsewhere in the world. The fight against 'Containerisation' destroyed the London docks and they have remained dead. The ship building is gone, the steel, the power, the coal, all gone.

Leaders point backwards and blame but when it comes to pointing forwards they have failed on every single level. All of them. So when I'm told everything that's wrong with this country comes from this someone I just can't agree. The want to have what you can't afford comes through the credit car companies that have plagued the population and they started their assault before 1979. The unions brought the idea of greater and greater wages all through the seventies and took their war to the point that they were attacking the very people that they were meant to represent. THE PEOPLE.

We now have to suffer under more arseholes that follow the arseholes that came before them. There is no money, no jobs and no compassion for anyone on that bread line.

So, when someone like this dies I just feel sad. Sad for everyone that was caught up in the civil war and I'll feel the same when the other main figure of that time goes. They both should have found some common ground.

Sorry I can't stand with you on the picket line or put my feet up on the desk or stick up another brick wall as many private builders did when it was going on. I can't and I won't.I'll feel sorry for the police, the strikers, the families, the unemployed, the broken, the scabs, the boys from the black stuff and the communities that died.

As to the two someones at the heart of the storm?

Fuck em both.

Silent Sunday

Music Monday: The Random One

Andy Kaufman, master of disaster!

Its Music Monday and normally we have a theme, an idea, a gimik that I hang this thing on, but today? Today I find myself conflicted by multiple strands, tugging at the soggy rag that I call my brain, so instead of ignoring the chaos I say we embrace it!

This week we will dive into different subjects without logical thought or a care for direction, we'll cut across country, take the high road and then at the last second veer off and take the low road leaving the traffic behind us confused and beeping its horn!

Is this the grown up, clever, or even right way to write? I don't know! What's right and what's wrong? When writing can we bring wrong, can we bring right? Is writing this wrong? Can I be wrong while also being right to write this wrong?!

I'm clearly confused. Lets leave this folly.


CHOCOLATE JESUS by Martin Harley

I love this guy, saw him live in Brighton at a small but important little venue called 'The Greys' and he kicked so much arse it was scary! How can one guy kick out a depth and level of sound like he can I'll never know, but here he is, smashing it out! Sadly this isn't the album version, which is far superior but there ya go.





RIDE FOREVER by Paul Gross

Due South was a majestic piece of charming light television that had a heart so big its beating practically blew you off your sofa backwards. Adventure, minor peril, comedy, character and the music? All were brought into unison to make a show that had devoted fans and my wife and I loved it.

The three youngest kids have been camping in a pop up tent in their bedrooms for the last three nights. The downstairs bedroom was designated as 'Base camp' and that's where they slept Saturday night. Sunday was an adventure pulling their kit up the stairs as they pretended to be climbing the mountain and that night they camped in the girls bedroom upstairs; the top of the mountain! A place where they look out for bears, Yeti's and make sure no one gets eaten.

This song captures that strange and incredible imagination that can transform a bedroom into a wintery forest on the top of a mountain. It's fun, energetic and well, the video has mounties in it!

Enjoy!





YOU HAVE BEEN LOVED by George Michael

It's a strange thing to have something in your head, developing, growing, finding its feet slowly. This week I finished the final edit I ever plan to do on the book I wrote a long time ago. It went out to agents and came back without a date, trying to work out why it had to walk home alone. I patted it's head and told it it took time and we sat together for a while.

The book didn't get sad and lonely, it went out and made friends. People read it quietly and let me know that they liked it and told me what I needed to do to make it better, to give it a better chance of success, so that it could make a connection. I took all that on board and thought about it as I worked on another book and it stayed on the back burner till February, when I did a full and complete edit. I don't have the money for a professional editor sadly so it had to do with me helping it pick new shoes, get dance classes, get a cool haircut but above all I wanted to help it stay as itself.

I'm sending it away to carve a life of its own finally and its sad because we've been together for so long it's kind of like waving goodbye to a friend that I have worked through so many issues with that perhaps I don't want to share, yet I know its the best thing for both of us.

Some people are going to be mean to it, some will like it, maybe a few will even love it. No matter what happens out there to it I just wanted to let it know one solid thing before it went.

You have been loved.
(I spend far longer writing and editing the books than I do these blogs so I hope they flow a whole lot better)

Good luck

.

COCAINE by Eric Clapton

Drug laws have always confused me. I'm not saying everything should be there for everyone, but I am saying I think it's mad you can drink ten pints but you can't spark up.

This is a cool track, lets leave it at that shall we.

 


Finally I think many people are very upset with the gov and where they're going, how they view the people and what their new laws will do. There are going to be a lot of people that have nothing feeling the pressure even more. I think we see here the black heart of modern politics not just in the laws that are being passed but in the inaction of those that should be opposing them.

No matter how I cook it in my head I can't help but feel angry. I want to be able to say that 'this too shall pass' and that one regime is better than the other but I don't believe it. I hate them all.

I... fuck it, shut up and listen!




*throws down mic, screams at the ceiling, kicks the fucking news on the screen till it shuts the fuck up!*

I'm out of here!