The Edge: “Touring will always be a very important aspect of what we do. When we’re in the studio, getting close to finishing a song, you inevitably start thinking about how it’s going to be performed. A song you don’t think you’d play live, that’s not a good song.” Interesting. That’s exactly what I was …
Buildings that rock funk: Architectural dream no. 654 To make a building whose entrance is as flawless as the beginning of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. Walking in the door and down the hall during the first thirty seconds would put a spring in everyone’s step. (see previous dream no. 1256)
For War of the Worlds fans: I noticed a billboard on the way to work this morning advertising a guest appearance by Jeff Wayne, composer of the 70s musical version, at St. Paul’s Gallery in Birmingham tomorrow night. It’s currently being re-released as a collector’s edition. Remastered, remixed, DVD etc, etc. A whole bunch of …
Another Peel related entry: I was lucky enough to see a Half Man Half Biscuit gig this week. It’s Peel related because it was he who revitalised my appreciation of them years ago when he played their Paintball’s Coming Home one evening. Years before that I’d only heard Trumpton Riots, but it was through Peel …
I effectively turned my back on Radio 1’s evening schedule after John Peel died. It turns out that was a big mistake. Stuck in traffic after a late night at the office last week, I caught some of Annie Mac’s show and the opening few tracks on the following show hosted by Rob da Bank. …
Buildings that rock: Architectural dream no. 1256 To make a building whose narrative develops when you walk through it with the exact same change in tempo as Lynard Skynard’s Freebird. It would take nine minutes and seven seconds to complete the journey.
It’s been a bad week, architecturally speaking; making spaces and places hasn’t been as much fun as usual. Problems on site, a roof that wouldn’t fit, wasting time explaining why it wasn’t my fault and grappling with more design codes is a small sample of the last seven days. This week’s bid and this week’s …
New Street, Birmingham City Centre. 1:45pm. Buskers. Looked like this: Sounded like this (1.2 Mb mp3 link)
If anybody is in the market for a turntable, you could do a lot worse than the Bush MTT1, which is currently on sale at Richer Sounds for £39.95. It got a blazing review and 5 stars from What Hi-Fi magazine. I bought one this afternoon. I just dropped Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats on to …
I learnt something interesting this morning. Forgive me if you already know this, it’s possible I’m the only one who wasn’t aware of it. The term ‘heavy metal’ was given to us by Steppenwolf; it’s from the lyric Heavy metal thunder, in their song ‘Born to be Wild’. What’s doubly interesting (for me), is that …