How Lowe can you go?

We were lucky enough to see Nick Lowe and band play live in his old stomping ground in Kent last week, as part of the world tour that's about to take him, and indeed them, to Australia and the USA. But if you're in the UK - and especially the south eastern part of it - there's still time to see Mr Lowe and co before they depart these shores, as they're embarking on a a mini-residence at the Leicester Square Theatre in London's fashionable West End for the next five nights (March 7-11). And tickets are, as they say, still available. (Click here for details.)

I can pretty much guarantee that you'll have a thoroughly enjoyable evening anyway - but then you really don't need me to tell you that. Here's one he didn't play the other night, but which still sounds absolutely brilliant almost three decades on: Half a Boy & Half a Man missed out on the UK top 40 when it was released, in 1984, too, peaking at #53. How's that for inexplicable?



Mildly Interesting Lowe Fact: Nick's 1979 hit Cruel To Be Kind (which he did play the other night) peaked at number 12 in the British, American, Australian AND Canadian singles charts. At least it did if you believe Wikipedia.

"Your bill is rubbish!"

A revealing clip. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is taken to task by a doctor over the government's controversial Health & Social Care Bill (i.e. their plan to privatise the NHS by stealth), during a visit to the Royal Free hospital yesterday. Here's a useful hint for governments: if the name of your policy is invariably preceded by the word controversial, you've probably gone wrong somewhere.

Apparently BBC News managed to miss out on broadcasting this story - which just makes it doubly handy that literally millions of licence fee payers read this blog.



DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING

Fame, fame, fatal fame

I don't know about you, readers, but I'm getting increasingly cheesed off with celebrities not only getting their names into the titles of TV and radio programmes when interviewing someone talented or illustrious, but also having the cheek to put their own names first in the show's title e.g. Spoony Meets Sir Alex Ferguson (Five Live, the other week) and Jo Whiley Meets Annie Lennox (Sky Arts, next week). Do the programme directors or whoever really think that the audience give a toss who's asking the questions?

"Oh, well, I was going to watch that exclusive interview with Sir Paul McCartney in which he gives fascinating new insights into the band dynamics within The Beatles and on his real feelings about Yoko Ono, but since I found out Fearne Cotton's not simpering witlessly at him throughout I've completely gone off the idea. I think I'll watch Celebrity Juice instead."

Or maybe they do, I dunno. I just think we're careering down a very slippery slope here and if we're not careful we could realistically end up watching or listening to programmes like Tim Lovejoy In Conversation With Lionel Messi; Olly Murs and Nelson Mandela: A Meeting of Minds; and When Jordan Met Noam Chomsky. Balls to that.

While I'm on the subject of (for want of an original phrase), dumbed-down TV, enough of the panel shows already! Barely a day goes by without a new one appearing on the TV or wireless, and they all seem to feature the same small pool of guests - mostly stand-up comedians with the odd journalist or TV presenter thrown in for good measure. And the formats are getting flimsier and flimsier. Talk about ever decreasing circles. (Now there was a good show.)

Anyway, must dash. My favourite stand-up's just completed a gruelling three-part challenge involving an egg and spoon half-marathon through the villages of Sussex, a non-stop bike ride around the deck of a ferry between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, and swimming three laps of the Olympic pool doing only the doggie paddle. All in support of his new DVD Comic Relief too. So yeah, I've been so inspired by his actions that I've decided to try something new myself: I've booked tickets to see him at the o2 next month. Great guy, lot of work for charity. Doesn't like to talk about it though.

Freewheel - Starfriend mp3

Grey day hilarity

Heard this on the wireless this morning and it made me laugh a lot. Simon Munnery improves The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds no end with this, ahem, slightly less quixotic interpretation.



Simon Munnery - Grey Clouds mp3

Scorchio!

During this evening's 6 o'clock bulletin, the weather presenter on Anglia Tonight promised us "T-shirt weather by the end of the week". With these words I can only surmise that she must have set herself some sort of Chris Packham-esque shoehorning-in-song-titles challenge, only with Lucksmiths tracks rather than those by The (not-Luck)Smiths.

Actually, thinking about some Lucksmiths song titles - Sunlight In A Jar, Cat In Sunshine, Weatherboard, Shine On Me, Friendless Summer, Warmer Corners, Spring A Leak, Good Light, Brr It's A Bit Nippy Out - this might just work!*

The Lucksmiths - T-Shirt Weather mp3

*if only it wasn't entirely implausible.

Now that's what I call 1991

Right then, where do we all stand on Curve? I seem to remember them getting a bit of flak in the music press all those years ago, although I can't quite remember why. Bandwagon jumpers? Too shoegazey? Not shoegazey enough? Major label chancers? Singer too good-looking? Guitarist too hairy? I dunno. To me they were like a slightly gothy Lush and, although not a massive fan, I did fork out for Coast Is Clear, which still sounds pretty fine to me two decades on. Am I wrong or am I wrong?



Mildly Interesting Pop Fact: Curve blew so much of the budget for this video on wind machines that they ended up having to shoot it in black and white. It wasn't just because they were trying to look arty or anything. Goodness me no.

A light that never goes out

If only the British music press could stop wetting themselves over First Aid Kit for five minutes, they'd see that there are other Swedish artists worth getting excited about. None more so than the ridiculously talented Frida Hyvönen, who releases her third album, To the Soul, in April.

The first single from it is Terribly Dark, which perhaps doesn't quite match up to the quality of some of her previous songs musically, but as ever the lyrics are a cut above what you'd expect from yer typical modern-day popster, and unlike some others I could, and in fairness already have, mentioned, Frida never affects an American accent when she sings. What more could you ask for from The Swedish Kate Bush?

Song of the Day

This one went down like a lead balloon at the 1986 Royal Variety Performance, culminating in Princess Margaret calling Matt Johnson an "absolute fucking disgrace" and throwing her tiara at him from the royal box. Bit harsh - but what else could he do but suck it up?

Pointless pontificating and a bit of Bergman

If, by some unfathomable sequence of events, I were to become controller of programming at ITV (just go with me on this one) the first thing I'd do would be to schedule Ingmar Bergman's Persona for 8pm the following Saturday on ITV1. That'd wake the buggers up / traumatize their children / make them switch over to ITV2 / get me the sack immediately. Good film though.



(The film's up in its entirely - well, in eight parts - on YouTube if you fancy it.)

Actually, me putting Bergman's name before the title there reminds me of a bloke - let's call him the wazzock - who appeared on Pointless the other night. In the final (because he made it to the final - of course he made it to the final) the wazzock was asked to guess any films that had won the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival since 1975. So this he duly did, but not before he'd shown his expertise by blithely and needlessly announcing the names of each film's director before giving each answer.

This extra director information really wasn't necessary, so the wazzock was to all intents of purposes showboating when giving his guesses as "Roman Polanski's The Pianist", "Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies" & someone or other else's something or other else, rather than just naming the films. Oh, and of course one of the answers - Secrets & Lies - turned out to be pointless (of course it was) and thus earned wazzock that day's jackpot. I don't have a picture of him to hand but his expression immediately afterwards was much like this:



So anyway, the moral to this tale is this: if you're good at trivia and you ever happen to appear on a TV quiz programme where such knowledge is a boon, don't embellish your answers unnecessarily. It just makes you look like a massive arsehole.

The Bear Quartet - It Only Takes A Flashlight To Create A Monster mp3

Play your cards right

Ah, Valentine's Day. The greetings card industry's annual attempt to piss off single people everywhere. Must be fun if your birthday happens to fall on this particular date though, as it would deceive your postman into thinking you're massively popular with the laydeez/gentlemen, what with him or her having to deliver a load of cards bearing your name every 14th Feb. (Alright then, so not that much fun really.)

Valentine's gripes aside, I'm a sucker for a good love song, and this is one of the very best. Magnus Carlson joins Acid House Kings on the wonderful Will You Love Me In The Morning.

Acid House Kings & Magnus Carlson - Will You Love Me In The Morning? mp3

A day at the Racey

It's all about Racey on the blog at the moment. Most chart bands are so po-faced and joyless nowadays that it's easy to forget that pop music used to be about, well, having fun. Which brings us to Lay Your Love On Me and Some Girls. If these songs - and performances - don't cheer you up on a dreary winter's morning, there's really nothing I can do for you.

Not dead, merely resting

Right, time to blow the cobwebs off this mother I think. I've had enough of winter, enough of the coalition, the build-up to the build-up to the presidential race in a country thousands of miles away, the BBC fawning over the monarchy, Cameron having an opinion on everything, top-level football and all its attendant hype, homegrown players throwing themselves around football pitches like they were auditioning for the lead role in a Jurgen Klinsmann biopic, racism (but not Racey. You can never have too much Racey), award ceremonies, red carpets, pop stars popping their clogs, panel shows, bills, people with a sense of entitlement, people whinging on blogs, people not getting irony, people called Alan Shearer, that new bloke on Countdown, and people doing better than me in the fantasy football. You know who you are. But enough of all that. Time to get back to the music I think. As of now this blog is officially in a 'go' situation!

Hands up everyone who'd forgotten how chuffing marvellous this song is?

Synthesiser Patel

My hero!



Buy 'Look Around You'

Could be worse

Linking to five-year-old pop videos as if they were brand new; it's what I do best. In fairness, though, I've only just discovered this song this week and cannae get enough of it.

(Don't try this at home, kids)



Steso Songs - The Worse mp3

Capricornia

It's the new single from Allo Darlin'!

Allo Darlin' - Capricornia

First heard this last night on Gideon Coe's 6 Music show and didn't immediately place it as being an Allo Darlin' song, despite the fact that we go back years. But you know those rare occasions when something jumps out of the radio at you (not literally) the moment you hear it? That's exactly what happened to me with this song. And you can imagine what a pranny I felt at the end when Gideon revealed who it was by. (Also quite relieved to know that my critical faculties were still intact.)

It's the debut single from Allo Darlin's forthcoming, second album Europe, which, rather than being a musical tribute to Joey Tempest and his hard-rocking Swedish pals from the 1980s, is actually, as Elizabeth herself puts it, pitched "Somewhere between A New England by Kirsty MacColl and Cattle and Cane by The Go-Betweens. I think this song [Capricornia] is the closest to that.”

The album's not due till the spring but what a great start to the year this song is!

Song of the Day

There can't be many songs that would leave you feeling joyful, sad and nostalgic all at once. But the Divine Comedy's At The Indie Disco is definitely one of them, if you happen to be of a certain generation and disposition. Simply devastating.