I throw out a large black bag of old scribblings (having leafed through 20 ringbound notepads going back around seven or eight years, mainly of various lists I’ve made but also including many lyrics and chord sequences – the latter I keep, the majority of the former I dump – I can’t throw them all away of course...) and old music magazines (not before ripping out a few articles which I will probably never read again....).
I have hundreds of old magazines in boxes in our attic, NME, Sounds, Q, Record Collector, Classic CD, Gramophone...the list goes on).
Since they are in our attic, you can imagine that I never actually read them. Nowadays, anything I’ll ever want to read about anyone will no doubt be available somewhere or other on the internet. A further clear out beckons (but will probably never happen).
Of course, like probably quite a few other people today, I watch the Live 8 concert from Hyde Park....
My main interest is in seeing the Pink Floyd reunion and they don’t disappoint, frankly blowing everyone else on the bill away.
Others who impress with their stage presence and professionalism (but not necessarily their music) are, as you might expect, the more “seasoned” performers such as Paul McCartney, Madonna, Sting, Annie Lennox and the Who – the last three are not particular favourites of mine but, judged on their performance, you can see how they got where they are and they, along with the Floyd, will no doubt enjoy a resurgence in record sales.
Of the newer acts, only Scissor Sisters seem to have that command of the stage. While Robbie Williams obviously has the audience in the palm of his hand, his set for me is marred by his incessant comments during the songs and its singalong nature - that plus a band of session-players in the background that somehow just don't make it real for me.
I miss Coldplay, which is a disappointment but see a clip later on where Chris Martin aptly inserts Status Quo’s “Rockin’ All Over the World” into one of their songs. I would rather see the Quo than Bob Geldof’s “I Don’t Like Mondays” (thankfully I miss Bob – even Midge Ure thinks it was crap).
Other low points for me (I watch it from Madonna onwards) are the quite dreadful Craig David (how come with Muse and The Cure playing in Paris, all we get is one "song" from Craig bloody David - his guitarist is excellent but as for him...less said the better)
...and Joss Stone - what is it people like about her? Do we need another Janis Joplin - wasn't the first one bad enough?? Much as I detest Mariah Carey, young Ms Stone could perhaps learn a thing or two from her. As with Robbie, JS' band of session players sound like they’re playing on a Top of the Pops covers album...(except the drummer – he’s good)
Velvet Revolver are "interesting". George Michael should retire NOW.
As for the reason for the day’s concerts – it’s admirable – however, a little galling to have multi millionaire rock, pop, soul and rap stars (and our fat cat leaders Blair and Brown) saying our taxes (remember the Government's money is actually OUR money) should be used to wipe out Africa's debt when there's easily enough cash salted away in their own leaders' bank accounts to sort things out money wise but it's not all about cash - that doesn't solve anything - there needs to be Free Trade to allow the African economies to develop in a free capitalist format – how galling for the protesters to find that if poverty is to be eradicated, it’ll be capitalism which enables this to happen.
Seeing Multi BILLIONAIRE Bill Gates giving a speech beggars belief – he could wipe Africa’s debt single handedly no doubt.
Perhaps the rock stars should pledge their royalties for the next few months or so to put the lie to them benefiting personally from the concert.....
The incessant interviewing by Fern Cotten and Jo Whiley is very annoying - how many times can they ask "what was that like for you, was it amazing?" and get the answer "it was amazing!" in one day??
Best interview of the day has to be with political correspondent Andrew Marr – for once someone who knows what he’s talking about.
He tells us:-
Debt – it will be wiped but only for the poorest countries – no change due to Live 8
Aid – It will be increased but only by an already agreed amount – no change due to Live 8
Trade – This will not get any better for the African nations in the foreseeable future – no change due to Live 8
So all in all, a pretty good concert and much mobilisation of the masses (for a good day out) but, really, all the deals are already done before the G8 even meet next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment