The Master is back!

It was a few days before my 14th birthday and i was out in town with a few of my friends who wanted to buy my birthday present. We were in Our Price (RIP), and were looking at the singles (they were 14, we had no money). I chose two singles, one on CD, the other on tape. One, to my eternal shame, was Michelle Gayle's 'Sweetness' ( i really don't know why), the other was Oasis 'Some might say'. This was a major turning point in my musical life. No, not Michelle Gayle, OASIS!

I attribute Oasis to the tectonic shift in my music taste. Despite growing up with The Beatles, The Who, Status Quo, Stevie Winwood, Eric Clapton and Elton John, among others constantly played in the house, i had been somehow taken over by the dark side. I owned Eternal albums, i had bought New Kids on the Block singles, somewhere something went spectacularly wrong.

I had had one of those epiphany moments when i first heard 'Some might say' on the radio, an isolated 5 minutes, which you can't explain as to why it made such an impact on you, or what that impact actually was, but you knew something had changed. An incredible cliche i know, but these things do happen. Some people find God, see Jesus in a piece of toast, I found Oasis, but perhaps more importantly, i had found Noel Gallagher.

Over the next 3 years i tried to collate and own anything I could Oasis, singles, albums, interview discs, magazine features, posters and anything else with Oasis on. More specifically i wanted to be Noel Gallagher.

I had already began to learn guitar before that fateful day in May 1995, but now i wanted to learn Oasis songs.

Of course it wasn't solely Oasis, because that wouldn't be a music epiphany, that would be an Oasis epiphany. I had never heard of Britpop or any of the bands involved, but suddenly everything appeared out of nowhere, Pulp, The Bluetones, Shed Seven, Dodgy, Supergrass, Sleeper, Echobelly, which moved with the times to Travis, Stereophonics and then on to Mansun and heavier bands like Terrorvision, Symposium, Foo Fighters, and even backwards to Nirvana and The Stone Roses. I could name many, many more. Its funny, it took me forever to get into Radiohead and Blur. The latter probably for obvious reasons because of my fandom to Oasis.

I spent hours, hanging up, redialling, hanging up, redialling for tickets to gigs, then getting to the venue at 8am to make sure we were near the front, not that we were alone in that. Oasis began the insanity that is buying gig tickets and the ridiculous speed they sell out at.

'Be Here Now' came out the day my GCSE results were to be collected. I turned up late because i went and bought it before, and listened to it twice.

The same level of obsession could be applied to one or two other bands to a degree, and to a lesser extent to a few more, but as a teenager it was hero worship, without the screaming and urination.

I blame Oasis for my music snobbery, but its something i class as a good thing, not negative.

It's not an exaggeration to say it altered the way my life was going, maybe for better or worse, or a mix of the two, hard to say what would have happened without it.

Now, he's back. The Greatest Songwriter of my generation is returning. 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' is out in October and it feels like the anticipation is akin to the wait for 'Be Here Now', but, if the leaks on Youtube of soundchecks and demos are anything to go by, without the let down of the final product (not that we felt that at the time of BHN).

Maybe it's just me that is regressing to a schoolboy again and getting ridiculously excited about Noel's solo career. I hope I'm not. Anyone who has heard his Teenage Cancer Trust gigs at the Albert Hall, will know he can still hold a crowd in the palm of his hand, more over, he can do it on his own without Liam prowling next to him.

He's promised he will play Oasis songs, or rather HIS songs that were played in Oasis, when he tours in the Autumn, and with a back catalogue like, Live Forever, Slide Away, Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger, Masterplan, Talk Tonight, Stop crying your heart out, Listen Up, Fade Away etc etc who wouldn't be excited about seeing all that live.

He quoted in his press conference it would be like Paul McCartney not playing Beatles songs, if you know what that is like to see and hear, and i do, the composer of so many timeless songs is up there with Macca, especially as he did it on his own.

Would it be too much to call him a genius. I don't think so. Is there anyone else like Noel? You had the Beatles in the 60's, Bowie in the 70's, The Smiths in the 80's, Oasis in the 90's and beyond. They should be said in the same breath as the greats, and that's down to one mans songs.

This 30 year old feels like a kid again, and that's down to one man too.

News of Rock being dead premature!!

Rock music is dead is it?
So what passes for cutting edge sounds now is a bloke talking over a sample of "Fools Gold" by The Stone Roses, is it?
The new word in hip hop is Jay-Z's 100th return from retirement, and Eminem trying to regenerate the corpse of Dr Dre in formaldehyde, is it?
The future of Pop music is a chap re-hashing of the same lyric about "having a good time" and "getting on down" to the tune of "Time of my Life". And saying 'Dirty Bit' a few times.

Don't get me started on J-Lo's "come back".

It seems that the ONLY genre of music capable, or even attempting to merge different types of music, IS Rock!

The only bands with anything new to say in Dance music are Radiohead, Two Door Cinema Club, The Strokes and Everything Everything and the like.

Now i'm pretty certain these bands are directly influenced by dance pioneers, The Prodigy, The Chemical Brother, Aphex Twin and Orbital. They will also listen to pop music, genre defining pop that even a miserable music snob like me can't deny is catchy, well written, innovative pop.

This isn't a bashing of chart liking, X-Factor loving, disposable music appreciators, its a rhetoric at commentators of ALL music.

Reviews of the new 'Strokes record make comparisons between 2011 and 2001, in so much that with a decade between their debut and "Angles", they have returned at a similar time when rock is dead in the water. Well it wasn't then and it isn't now. They even try and condemn The Strokes for being of their time, a band that plays on its laisse faire attitude and that, contradictorily, the same atmosphere that "Is this it" was made in prevails with the new L.P and that The Strokes know they have limited shelf life.
How can a band that have lasted 10 years be "of their time"? The fucking Beatles didn't last this long.

The doom mongers have returned, circling like vultures, talons stretched out to pick on what they believe is the dying carcass of rock, whilst foaming at the cock when listening to anything with a synthesizer and a cassette of "Songs that will make great samples".

There are great, great bands out there now, fusing genres, like Tame Impala, The Joy Formidable, These New Puritans, Everything Everything, The Hurts (actually, forget them, he just wants to be Phil Oakley from Human League).

A band like Brother are just helping the naysayers out, shifting "Acquiesce" around and coming up with "The Darling Buds of May". It seems they give them column space to further the argument against rock.

Music television isn't helping anybody apart from record labels. They saturate the viewers with the same songs, the same programmes, over and over. MTV got so bored at the sound of their own voice they turned into a crap U.S reality channel, and have finally owned up to the fact, by adding to their already overburdened rostrum of channels with "MTV Music". Does that mean 'Dance', 'Beats', 'Rock', 'Hits' etc will be scrapped to make way for it? Surely then there will be even less airing of good new music, and publications nibbling at the 'Big Labels' teat will further champion the uninspiring, insipid shite that passes for music.

If ever there was proof that a trailblazer for music was sick of it, it's Mike Skinner hanging up The Streets moniker. You couldn't pigeon-hole The Streets and now he's gone and we'll be left with Example and Chase and Status spewing their samples all over our ear holes.

If music is going to be boiled down to the touch of a button, then its not just rock that's dead.

End of the slumber!!

I have finally crawled out of my post-White Stripe split enforced hermitage!

In that time of constant spinning of their 6 albums i have discovered a few things; It doesn't matter how long it has been since you last heard it, Seven Nation Army has been ruined by saturation. Ball and Biscuit is the Jimi Hendrix Experience song they never wrote, and there are some really odd songs on Get Behind Me Satan (The Nurse, anyone).

Spent some time watching God on Discovery Shed. The painter Bob Ross. The Joy of Painting. Jeremy and Mark on Peep Show call him God. He's a good painter, but God is a bit much.

Radiohead released a new album. The King of Limbs. Have absolutely no idea what a "Newspaper" album is, but that's what it is, apparently. Digital release last Saturday, physical release in March sometime. I can only assume its being released by The Daily or Sunday Mail, although obviously not them, but the Observer or Guardian. The Times maybe. Hmm. Can't decide if I care or not. In Rainbows seemed to pass me by a bit. Everyone says its a step forward with every album, but new single Lotus Flower could have come off Amnesiac, so i don't see how that's a step forward. I know i should be interested, that's what a Radiohead fan and music lover should be, but.......

So, the Middle East ay, bloody hell......is it good what they are doing? Obviously overthrowing tyrants is a good thing, but every single country is doing it. Do they have a plan? I'm not convinced. Good luck to them though!!

Its the NME Awards tonight. That'll be exciting. I'm sure every band i voted for won't win because they aren't NME enough. Somehow Kasabian and the Arctic Monkeys will win something despite not doing anything last year. I think. Did Kasabian release an album? Can't remember. Don't like them, so didn't get it, so how should i know! Was "Fire" out last year?

Right, erm....anything else......nothing off the top of my head.........better get up really, got work in just over an hour........Cup of Tea??

THE WHITE STRIPES ARE NO MORE!

This is terrible news.

If you have never (and now will never have) seen the duo of Mr Jack White and Miss Meg White ruin a stage and audience as if they were barely there, then you have missed out on one of rock'n'roll's purest of entities.

To see them is divine. To experience the explosion of noise and passion is nirvana.

It is a genuine announcement that i have never born witness to such a relentless assault of the senses than that which Jack White exposes the audience member to.

There is no reasonable or rational explanation for what is created by two solitary figures on stage.

In the main, a cover version can be catastrophic or passable. Very rarely does it become awe inspiring. The White Stripes version of "Jolene" originally by Dolly Parton is quite magnificent!

If you could bottle the essence of pain and release quite like Jack does when singing " please don't take him, even though i know that you can" then you have all you will ever need from a song about the heart wrenching fear of losing the person you love to someone else.

Quite how the duo can create such a wall of sound from such a small outfit is testament to the raw aggression and talent that lies behind such an irreverent pair.

Quiet and demonstrative, they display an air of nonchalance and relaxation that belies their frenetic and frantic on-stage persona. Jack is an unchained beast, released from its shackles, stalking the stage like a man possessed. Meg, can change within the blink of an eye, into a frenzied skin-thumper, taken over by a rabid behemoth.

It brings a tear to the eye that no-more shall we see such a wondrous spectacle. A sound that should be coming from a 9 piece band, is emanating from one man and his female companion.

The back catalogue is spell binding. The White Stripes, De Stijl, White Blood Cells, Elephant, Get Behind Me Satan and Icky Thump. A legacy of striped down Blues, Rock'n'Roll, Music Hall, South American and many more influences besides, should be a starting point for any modern day musician who wants to make a difference in this sterile music scene, that only realises something new and original once in a blue moon.

Thank God Jack White will continue to be the voice of the true alternative to the mass produced, manufactured, counter culture that is festooned across the Atlantic divide.

It is unfortunate that NME's God-Like Genius award has already been chosen, as these two deserve it, and with such an un-timely demise it would have been a perfect send off to an incredible band.

R.I.P The White Stripes. Long Live Mr Jack White and Miss Meg White.

Thank you for the memories.

Am i too old to be in a band? I'm nearly 30, is that too old?
You watch the TV and you see the students rioting, and you think 'Is this the generation that should be starting a band and fighting back?'. Is being in a band all about fighting against the establishment?

It doesn't feel like 12 years since i was playing my first gig and feeling the most alive i have ever done in my entire life. It feels like yesterday. I want to feel like that again.

Every band that emerges today seem so young, so full of life and gumption it makes me feel old and decrepit. They also come across as angry about the state of Britain today. Working class and furious about how they are marginalised and reduced to a poor, scrounging or reduced to a menial job that is un-fulfilling and dead-end, non-entity with no prospects.

Brother have emerged with an ethos of "Fuck the man" and a batch of tunes that say 'We are downtrodden' and 'We demand respect'.

Haven't we heard all this before? The Enemy came out with a similar manifesto and people got behind behind it, but now things are significantly worse, and the jobs they didn't want because they wanted to sit at home with Richard and Judy, aren't even available.

Too many people demand rock'n'roll is for the underprivileged and deprived, but is it really?

Why isn't it for everybody?

James McMahon of NME fame, talked about the issue of certain elements of society being "too posh to rock". The student tuition fees issue talks to a specific sub-section of society, but is this jilted generation the only people allowed to vent their dissatisfaction with life or just plain and simply comment on their situation.

There are other people in this country that can write a tune, a lyric or a whole song that doesn't have to belong to the young. It can speak to everyone, and it makes it no less valid.

Surely Rock'n'Roll is classless! It can speak to everyone no matter where they come from.

You can write about how shit your "working class" life is, or your not, and you don't. Sometimes its more interesting to hear that your aren't and you have the same feelings as everybody else, but it isn't about escaping from the suburbs and "making it".

This is in no way an attack on the whole ethos of being "working class", purely a diatribe on how music is for "everybody" and that someone that may not be from the most deprived background can feel alone, trapped, un-loved, disappointed or, God forbid, happy.

Rock'n'Roll is for EVERYBODY! Except Matt Cardle! The tosser!

I read the NME today, Oh boy!!!

NME was telling me today that the best new bands for 2011 are Brother and The Vaccines, amongst others. Shit, i thought was up with times. I bought albums by Everything,Everything, The Drums, These New Puritans (NME's album of 2010, no less) and The Drums last week. Are they old hat now?

I've ordered The Joy Formidable album too. Is that "so last year" now too?? It is their debut album for crying out loud!!

Admittedly, TJF have been around for a year or so, i saw them twice last year, but is that their shelf life over?

I realise i should be listening to everything NME tells me, but i can't keep up.

I hadn't heard anything by Brother or The Vaccines so i checked them out on Youtube. Its ok! They are saying all the right things, but haven't we heard all this before?

I love the fact i heard The Joy Formidable with no hype surrounding them. It did help the genius that is Paul Draper, ex-Mansun maestro, collaborated with them for the ace "Greyhound in the Slips" but i read precious little in the music press. All of a sudden they became headliners of some NME tour or other, but they haven't had the sort after "Front Cover". If you haven't heard them, they are fronted by the feisty, pint-sized Ritzy Brian, angelic vocals dripping with angst and vitriol and an axe-wielder at that. They write thundering, epic anthems, as atmospheric as "Kid A" era Radiohead, with the explosion of "The Bends".

Check this: The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZXQ16yPPU&feature=fvst

Not that they sound anything like Radiohead, but the link above is better than my words.

Why is hype so necessary though? It provides ridiculous pressure on the bands, who obviously want the exposure, but branding them as "The Next Big Thing" surely can't help them sustain the momentum such praise demands. If anyone can remember previous recipients of this accolade by NME or Q or any other music magazine having lasted more than a couple of years? Arctic Monkeys maybe. Were they pin-pointed as the greatest thing since sliced bread in the January of 2005 or 06 or whenever? They may have appeared in June or September and avoided such weighty tributes. I don't know, i can't be arsed to check.

Whenever it was, it suggests a band cannot be granted an audience of music fans unless it is at the beginning of another year. Furthermore, what if a great band isn't primed and ready for mass exposure at the dawn of a new 12 months? Is the latest band that had an A&R scrum scrambling for their signatures the best option? (The Twang, anybody)

What it does do, is guarantee they will be on the next NME tour and their debut album is dropped just before for maximum sales.

If i was to state who my tip for the top would be for 2011, i would probably say Brother or The Vaccines, based on the above. If i was to say who i think the best band of 2011 will be, right now it The Joy Formidable, and i wish them every success. Unfortunately, they won't get the fanfare the Brother debut L.P will get.

So I'll do it for them....GO BUY THE JOY FORMIDABLE'S DEBUT ALBUM "THE BIG ROAR" OUT ON 24TH JANUARY.

Oh, and the Everything, Everything album is great too, buy that as well!!!

New Year - New Beginning

Who has made a New Years Resolution? Who thinks they will keep it? Who believes this year will herald something new for them? Who believes it is something that will happen TO them?

It's debatable that this is superstitious. Making a claim that someone will "change" or "make a commitment" just because the date has changed to a brand new year is, really, nonsense.

It is just another day. Nothing has changed. The world hasn't altered. It is exactly the same as it was on the 31st December. No miracle has occurred. It's the same morning as before.

People will have "wished" you a Happy New Year, with genuine sincerity, hoping the next 12 months are better and more prosperous than the last. With all due respect, good will and thanks, it is as if they expect a heavenly gift to be bestowed upon those they bless, and much happiness to be enjoyed by them they say it to.

Within a few days, those choruses of well wishes are but a faint echo in a cave. It is up to the individual to make the new year a success.

Almost every single person whom you receive a greeting from will say it as a standard, generic phrase. Many will hope that 2011 is a good, happy, successful and peaceful year, but do they think the gods will look down on you and grant you everything you want and wish for?

Some will. Those who believe in an almighty being who, if you give your life to it, will grant you happiness, in this life or the next.

Everyone can hope for some luck. Pray that something will come their way, whatever it may be. Is this a real, tangible entity we can hang our hats on and hope for the best? Or do we have to work for it?

Many people believe in fate. That everything happens for a reason, and there is someone for everybody and a path for every single person to follow.

What do you believe? That we have to fight and strive for every penny and every moment of happiness? Or that, somehow, the moons and stars align and the person you will spend the rest of your life with will emerge from the ether, and that your chance to be someone and have a career and fulfilled life will land in your lap.

Maybe sometimes it does happen. Maybe you have experienced it yourself or know someone that it has happened to. Life makes sense and everything is good.

It is an easy thing to believe in. That nothing takes any work, and what is meant to be is meant to be. A perfectly rational person will say this to you and in the next breath will tell you to belt up, pull your socks up, knuckle down and get on with it.

What is the truth? Which one is right? Is it both?

One assumes there is a plan for you, written by God or the stars or whoever. The other suggests you must make your own luck, create your own world, and discover your own happiness,

Can it be one and the other? Is it just all about your life experience and something you can be retrospectively happy or sad about. Joyous or angry.

Can anyone really answer that question? I doubt it. People more intelligent, articulate and worldly wise will agree or disagree with me and most will have worked hard and had a slice of luck along the way.

I hope you have all had a slice of luck.