“…you have to say that this is no longer a music contest” – Sir Terry Wogan

Did you know, we’ve won the Eurovision Song Contest five times? That’s an honour we share with France and Luxembourg, but we’re still two wins behind our Irish friends.

However, I doubt if we’ll ever win it again, and I doubt if Ireland, France, Luxembourg or any Western European countries will either. It’s not gone unnoticed that the contest has been more about the political vote in the past few years, and this year that voting pattern seemed to crank up several notches. The Scandinavian countries voted for each other, but even more noticeable was the ex-Russian countries voting for Russia and the Baltic countries voting for their neighbours (which I find bizarre considering that fifteen years ago they split up Yugoslavia as they all seemed intent on murdering each other).

As we watched the voting, it became all too easy to predict where the 8, 10 and 12 points would go where the ex-Russian and Baltic countries were concerned. I’d have put my house on Montenegro’s top marks going to Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia, and it was one of many occasions I got it spot on. The break up of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia has forever changed the face of the competition.

Back over to Sir Terry – he always provides a cheery and enthusiastic tongue-in-cheek commentary that suits the cheesy nature of the content, but after the voting tonight he sounded totally deflated and questioned whether the UK should drop out of future competitions. Interestingly for a short time tonight, the Wikipedia page for Eurovision stated that the ‘big four’ (UK, France, Germany and Spain) who provide most of the funding had indeed pulled out, although that statement has now disappeared. The highest placing this year for any of the big four was 16th (Spain), and the UK and Germany came joint-last. There was a time when we could have at least counted on Malta for a few points, but this time it was just Ireland and San Marino.

It would be a shame if we did pull out – perhaps we can form a Western Europe pact and start getting our own back. But then it would further remove the ideal on which the contest was based… a song for Europe, and not who wants to suck up to their neighbours.

Earlier today I was reading through Marty Moore’s update on Activities version 2. I’ve said before that the idea of Activities was a real eureka moment, and version 2 just builds upon that great work. But that’s not what this post is about (more on Connections 2 another time). Further down Marty’s IBM-internal blog was a rather neat widget showing his iTunes content for the world to see. “How cool is this?” I thought. Mind you, I need to have a word with Marty… he has some good stuff listed, but also… Dido?

Anyway, I fancied a bit of this iTunes widget action, so I did a bit of investigation. And it seems the My iTunes widget isn’t ideal for me. Basically what it does is reads your purchase history from iTunes and displays it in the widget. Sounds good but I rarely buy anything from iTunes. This may sound a bit pre-historic but I actually purchase CDs… and then import the music into iTunes. Very quaint and old school. Also, I very recently changed my iTunes account ID as the old one was based on a soon-to-be-dead e-mail address. So my purchase history, which was fairly small anyway, amounted to very little… just ‘We Are Scientists’ floating across the widget in a lonely fashion. This reminded me I had a few tracks in the shopping cart which I went on to purchase – but there’s obviously a lag as the latest purchases haven’t hit the widget yet.

‘Brain Thrust Mastery’ by We Are Scientists – I am a big fan of their second album ‘With Love And Squalor’, but this is much better. Since that album they’ve lost their drummer (the aptly-named Michael Tapper) and continued as a duo. Where ‘With Love And Squalor’ was a fairly straightforward vocals / guitar / bass / drums in-your-face offering, ‘Brain Thrust Mastery’ is more intricate, varied, catchy and ultimately more interesting.

Tracks like ‘Let’s See It’ and ‘Impatience’ are lively echoes their first album but are just better all round. ‘Lethal Enforcer’ is a clever mix of all the hallmarks of an ’80s pop tune, ‘Spoken For’ is nearly their first ballad (not quite, but it’s slow by their standards), and ‘Dinosaurs’ is the album’s grand epic offering. Best track is a toss-up between the next single ‘Chick Lit’ and the jazzy melodic ‘That’s What Counts’.

Listen to the two albums back-to-back and you could be forgiven for thinking you’d missed a few and they were ten years apart. ‘Brain Thrust Mastery’ is a giant leap forward… and it’s so damn catchy, it’s been in my head all week.

‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ by Supergrass – I think Supergrass are one of the most under-rated yet consistently great British bands… ever. Especially when you compare them to the current crop of British bands I hear on the radio (Scouting For Girls I find particularly irritating).

After their previous rather short offering ‘Road To Rouen’ (eight proper tracks plus one throwaway instrumental) it’s nice to see them serve up eleven full very strong tracks. And thus the equation is simple – if you like Supergrass you’ll love this because it’s probably their best album. ‘Road To Rouen’ was fairly mellow, but with ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ the guys return to what they do best – lively pop / rock. Occasionally they sound like the Rolling Stones, on ‘Ghost Of A Friend’ you can hear echoes of Mott the Hoople, and the final track ‘Butterfly’ reminds me of Bowie’s ‘Heroes’.

At the risk of a bad pun ‘Diamond Hoo Ha’ is an absolute gem.

A quick synopsis. First of all, two well-deserved awards for the Foo Fighters (best international group and album) – anyone else winning those would have been a travesty in my humble opinion.

Best live band – Take That? Well, their New Year’s Even gig shown on t.v. was actually quite good, but you could imagine Muse feeling a bit hard done by. Mark Ronson won the best male artist – despite the fact that I thought his set at the Electric Proms was excellent, you have to consider that this is an award won by a man who has essentially produced an album of covers. What does that say about the range of options?

Amy Winehouse stayed sober and upright long enough to sing twice, but during her second performance she jigged and squirmed and clutched at her dress like someone needing the toilet. Or perhaps in need of something else.

Now here comes my gripe. What do people see in the Arctic Monkeys? I just don’t get it. Best album and best group. Huh? I’m in my, errr, early forties, perhaps I’m not supposed to get it. Mind you, I like the Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Incubus, Muse, The Flaming Lips, Manic Street Preachers, Supergrass – my point is I’m not a Val Doonican fan in a rocking chair (yet). I just don’t get what people see in the Arctic Monkeys.

And finally, an outstanding contribution to music award for Sir Paul. About time too. Other than that the whole thing was rather forgettable.

I should first explain that these two bands aren’t in the middle of a feud or planning a ruck (as far as I know). Having said that, you’d have to think that although the members of Radiohead outnumber that of the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl could probably take both Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with one hand tied behind his back and a beer in the other. No, this is more about their approaches to being part of the music business.

Radiohead produced what was quite simply one of the best albums ever made, ‘OK Computer’. Following that critical acclaim and commercial success, they basically disappeared up their own backsides with their next two albums, and re-emerged partially for ‘Hail to the Thief’. Thom Yorke said of their fourth and fifth studio albums “If you look at the artwork for Kid A… well, that´s looking at the fire from afar – Amnesiac is the sound of what it feels like to be standing in the fire”. But the reality was that ‘Amnesiac’ was the sound of what it feels like to be listening to something that really wasn’t any good. Or what it feels like to have wasted £9.

So, I was interested to hear that Radiohead are trying to be too clever and too different all over again. Their new album ‘In Rainbows’ is not available on CD (yet). Instead, you can download it from their web site having paid a sum of money which you decide upon. It would seem fair to say “okay, average price of a CD is £9, so I’ll pay them £9″. However, since I paid a combined £18 for ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’, and given that the two of them spawned only four decent tracks, I’d say Radiohead owe me money. So when I do download ‘In Rainbows’ I reckon £2 will be fair.

Let’s turn our attention to the Foo Fighters. While Radiohead were trying to reinvent the world of music and music-based commerce, the Foo Fighters have followed a more traditional approach… write an album, record an album, tour, play festivals, tour some more, and repeat. While Radiohead brood in a studio somewhere, Dave Grohl, a man with almost God-like status in the rock world, will cheerfully give interviews and guest-star on other artistes’ works. Maybe that’s why the Foo Fighters’ new album ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’ is so damn good.

Every Foo Fighters album so far has been reliably excellent, although in my opinion ‘In Your Honor’ was a slight dip. ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’ puts them well back on track, and it’s never been so evident that Grohl is an excellent song writer, a vocalist with a huge range (from silky crooning to screaming), and a talented musician (guitar, drums, and now the piano).

The album starts with a typical Foo Fighters offering, the single ‘The Pretender’, and roars along until it gets to one of the stand-out tracks, the mainly acoustic ‘Stranger Things Have Happened’ – and here’s the prime example of Grohl’s song-writing skills. Back to the guitars with ‘Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)’ and then back to the mellow with the radio-friendly ‘Summer’s End’.

‘Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners’ is the only skip-over track, and towards the end comes the outstanding piano and vocals of ‘Home’ – an instant classic on the first listen. £9 well-spent would seem to be better than £2 badly-spent.

I am honoured. I have been badgering Darren for a while to get on and write down his thoughts on Billy and his gang’s latest offering, but with him being such a busy boy, he has asked me to do it.

I will be the first to admit that I have never been the Pumpkins’ biggest fan. Certain tracks from their past such as “Tonight, Tonight” from the Mellon Collie album and “Siva” from Gish have piqued my interest but it has never really led to a lasting relationship in the way it has with other bands.

But times they are a changing. Here on MTV in the US of A, in between constant re-runs of “My Super Sweet Sixteen” and “Pimp My Ride”, they find time to show an occasional video or two and there it was… the loudest and most brightly coloured offering I had seen in many a long day. I turned it up loud and it sounded even better. The track was “Tarantula”, the first single from “Zeitgeist”. Knowing Darren’s enjoyment of all things Pumpkins, and with a desire to hear more I blew an entire $10 (that’s five quid to you) on the CD. That was about a month ago and the album is rarely out of the CD player.

The opening track, “Doomsday Clock” sets the mood for much that follows. Both forceful and aggressive, it is a wall of noise that only Billy Corgan could produce. There are several stand out tracks, from the dark and moody “Bleeding the Orchid” through the single “Tarantula” to a track which Darren and I disagree about. “United States” lasts a full 9 minutes and 52 seconds. Darren says and I quote, “It is too long and self indulgent”. I on the other hand, am slightly older and was brought up on long and over indulgent stuff. “Stairway to Heaven” and “Freebird” spring immediately to mind. Thank you Billy for resurrecting an art form… the 10 minute album track. I also enjoy the surpisingly cheerful “(Come On) Let’s Go!”

My award for indulgent track goes to “Pomp and Circumstances” which feels slightly out of place. Listen to the album… you’ll see what I mean. The US version of the CD gets a title track, the acoustic “Zeitgeist” which for some reason is omitted from the UK version. Fret not, you didn’t miss much.

So, in conclusion, a splendid offering, best listened to either on your own in the car or on the iPod. The reason for this, for maximum listening pleasure, I recommend turning up the volume, very, very LOUD.

Review to come later…

Billy Corgan is back, joined by original Pumpkins Jimmy Chamberlin, but without James Iha or D’arcy Wretzky… which makes Corgan the only member of the band to appear on all of the albums.

So it’s here and I’m very excited. The only problem is, I ordered the ‘Special Edition’ which according to play.com includes a 72-page paperback book. This book actually holds the CD, it doesn’t come with a normal CD case.

How am I supposed to fit that onto my CD rack?

I watched some of it, I recorded all of it (yes, Sky Plus worked), I whizzed through all of it to watch the interesting bits…

• Genesis – when I was in my teens I loved Genesis, and took a lot of flak at school from my mates who were into New Wave and punk. My supposed mate Nigel Roberts once asked me if people took a book to read at Genesis gigs. Based on this performance, the answer should have been ‘yes’. They trotted out a sad collection of pop hits from the days when they’d forgotten their roots and were looking for chart success. And they looked like they really couldn’t be bothered. Was this really the band that created one of the best live albums ever (‘Seconds Out’)? Steve Hackett must have been sitting at home smirking.
• Razorlight – can’t bear them, didn’t watch them.
• Snow Patrol – would have done better with some more lively songs.
• Damien Rice and David Gray – surely somebody else was available. Well, David Gray was good value with a wobbly-legged rendition of ‘Babylon’, but Damien Rice… good grief, cheer up mate.
• Kasabian – ah, that’s better. Great songs, great performance, great shirt.
• Paolo Nutini – sings like he’s quaffed a whole case of Special Brew before coming on stage. Forgettable.
• Black Eyed Peas – chaotic whooping, sounded more like a first rehearsal, although ‘Where Is The Love’ was okay. I think they were the only band to feature someone playing the flute. And what precisely is the point of the guy with the leather trilby?
• Duran Duran – predictable set of songs, but that’s exactly what the crowd wanted. Actually they were very good.
• Bloc Party – not bad, a good performance of some not very good songs.
• Terra Naomi – who?
• Keane – I’ve always joked that Keane are “that band with the bloke who plays the piano out of tune”… but it yesterday it came true. They were totally lost on the big stage in the big stadium.
• Metallica – nice beard. They won the Mrs Adams “who the hell are they?” award.
• Red Hot Chilli Peppers – can’t bear them, didn’t watch them.
• Spinal Tap – there must have been a large percentage of the population who just didn’t get it, the current Mrs Adams and the offspring included. Entertaining, must watch the movie again soon.
• James Blunt – Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
• Beastie Boys – never did see anything to like about them, still don’t. It’s just shouting really.
• Pussycat Dolls – I think they should be called ‘Pussycat Doll’ because only one of them can sing. The other five could be replaced without anyone noticing. In the interview afterwards I concluded that they look better from a distance (apart from the singer).
• Foo Fighters – what a shame they didn’t put any effort into their performance. Okay, that’s a joke, they were the highlight of the day. Dave Grohl had the audience in the palm of his hand, and joked that they should just play on all night. Millions of people would have agreed with him. Rock gods.
• Madonna – I’m no big Madonna fan, but she was okay. Good varied set. What is she, 54 or so? She looks good for her age.

Meanwhile in New York…

• Various assorted rappers – I’m a white English guy in my (early) 40′s. I don’t get it. Perhaps I’m not supposed to. I don’t know… it’s just shouting really.
• AFI – never heard of them before, but they were really good (if not a bit odd).
• Fall Out Boy – formulaic EMO rock. Dull.
• Alicia Keys – great voice, chunky legs, and seems to be visiting the same tanning salon as Michael Jackson.
• Kelly Clarkson – I shouldn’t like Kelly but I do. She has a great voice and (I don’t know whether she writes them) some great songs. Well done Miss Clarkson.
• Bon Jovi – I’ve never liked them. I suppose for someone who does like them it would have been a great performance.
• Smashing Pumpkins – I’m just about to start writing a letter of complaint to the BBC who featured only one Pumpkins song in their coverage. I don’t pay my license fee so that I can be so massively short-changed when it matters most. Thankfully MSN (choke) are showing all of their set. Two songs from the new album… fantastic. One question… where does Billy Corgan find this endless supply of female bass players? James Iha must have been sitting at home thinking he’d made the wrong decision.
• Roger Waters – predictable song choices. He prowled around the stage like someone looking for a fight, and knowing his track record he might well have been. I spotted someone hidden at the back playing the bass, so was Roger’s guitar plugged in? Who cares, great stuff, and once again the BBC missed a few songs.
• The Police – great performance, but why did they feel it necessary to add that rapper (whoever he was) to ‘Message in a Bottle’? Only negative point is that Sting and the boys fell into that old gig bad habit of dragging a song out in a meandering fashion.

With hours to go before the start of the global gigs, the knives are out. Critics are pointing out that the stars are jetting in and arriving by gas-guzzling limousines, and are more concerned about what it will do for their own careers rather than what it’ll do for the Solar System’s third planet. That’s a bit mean really. I mean, what’s the alternative? Shall we all just not bother, and carry on as we are?

Anyway, there I was flicking through the list of artists for London… Keane (zzzz), Razorlight (featuring that white-jeaned tw*t), Genesis (prog-rock dinosaurs, I’ll never forgive them for selling out to crap like ‘We Can’t Dance’), James Blunt (pass me that bottle of pills), Spinal Tap (could be great, could be too awful to watch), Madonna (put some clothes on woman), and (thank the stars) the Foo Fighters. Still, it could be worse, you could be in Germany and have to snooze your way through the human insomnia cure known as Katie Melua and the bloke who represented his home nation in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Turning my attention to the New Jersey gig… wait a minute… a somewhat forgettable line-up features some pure gold. The Police have to be worth watching, Roger Waters and (can it be true?) the Smashing Pumpkins. Well, who cares what the intentions are, the Pumpkins are playing live on a world stage. And their new album is out next week. How cool is this?

Shame Incubus aren’t playing.

Amazingly, during my time off the web site late last year and early this year, some people told me they missed my CD reviews. It amazes me that anyone would miss anything about the site, but a couple of people (who I’d never met before) told me at the Irish Lotus User Group that they enjoyed reading the reviews. So, I might put this stuff into it’s own page, but for now it goes into the blog. Let’s start with…

‘Light Grenades’ by Inbubus – in the midst of the black-out period this CD nearly prompted me to post something. It was released in November 2006, but I’m still playing it now more than anything else. As has been the way of the more recent Incubus offerings it’s a mixture of styles – perhaps less consistent than ‘A Crow Left Of The Murder’, and with a couple of weaker tracks, but the high points on the whole exceed anything they’ve done before (with their all-time best ‘Here In My Room’ as a notable exception). Those high points are the blasting ‘A Kiss To Send Us Off’ (I love the way the first track ‘QuickSand’ melts into it), ‘Dig’ and ‘Oil And Water’. Probably the best £9 I’ve spent in the past two years.

One small annoyance – the Japenese edition has two extra tracks. Why don’t we get them? So, if anyone is going to Japan, let me know.

Next up we have ‘Send Away The Tigers’ by the Manic Street Preachers. Personally I loved their previous offering ‘Lifeblood’ (many didn’t) and I like this too, but I don’t love it. It’s a very solid album, no duff tracks, but equally there’s nothing outstanding. As usual James Dean Bradfield’s vocals soar (especially on the best track ‘The Second Great Depression’) and his guitar playing is mesmerising. Perhaps the once-angry young men are now playing it a bit safe. However, the equation is simple – if you like the Manic Street Preachers then you’ll like this, and remember I’m basing this on their own extremely high standards.

Finally for now ‘Yours Truly, Angry Mob’ by the Kaiser Chiefs. One word – outstanding. Their first album ‘Employment’ was very shaky with some great tracks and some real dross. ‘Yours Truly’ is much much better – better songs, better music, better production, no weak tracks and some real classics such as ‘I Can Do It Without You’ and ‘The Angry Mob’.

At times they sound like an early-80′s post-punk band, at other times they sound like The Beatles. The more mellow tracks like ‘Love’s Not A Competition’ sit nicely alongside the more high-enegry ‘Highroyds’ and ‘Heat Dies Down’. The added bonus is the great lyrics, for example “Raise a glass or two, You raise a fist or two, Get a shopping basket wrapped round your head”.

Next month sees the return of the Smashing Pumpkins with ‘Zeitgeist’ and if you know me you’ll know I’m looking forward to that. Counting the days in fact… 23 to go.