Will someone make Mark Ronson disappear, please?

The first time I heard the name ‘Mark Ronson’, I think it was a radio play of his cover of Radiohead’s ‘Just’. It was one of those times when you take a mental note of the name and check their MySpace later.
Ronson’s funked-up version of ‘Just’ may be a stoke of genius, but his current [...]

Triptych, R.I.P.

There are perhaps more serious things to lament than the death of a mere music festival, but then Triptych is/was no mere music festival. This weekend it bows out with a typically diverse barrage of gigs across Scotland, and I at least plan to attend the Clinic show, with Errors and RememberRemember in support, at Cabaret Voltaire [...]

Coldplay are so dull they cause sleep, officially

Newspaper and website editors were finally able to publish a headline today that until now has been just a cynical complaint of the tasteful minority: ‘Coldplay sends you to sleep‘.
Yes, Chris Martin and his fellow bland members have been voted number one in a poll of 2,248 Britons who were asked what music sends them to sleep, [...]

In breakfast cereal news: Honey Monster rips off Boosh, Tony the Tiger turns up in Tibet

Adverts for cereal don’t usually have much effect on me. Of course, it’s all about keeping the brand there in our subsconsiousness, not about teaching us anything we don’t already know about the sound Rice Crispies make when you pour milk on them. They snap, crackle and pop, I presume?
Anyway, I’m a Tesco fruit ‘n’ fibre [...]

Portishead: overrated or what?

I could be committing musical sacrilege for a lot of people with this question, but aren’t Portishead a bit… dull? Now, in 2008, for some reason beyond my comprehension the band are revered and marketed as influential, provocative alchemists of cracked beats and haunting emotion whose commercially motivated reunion we should all buy into with fond [...]

…And we’re back!

So: Happy New Year folks!
Christmas is a strange time of year it has to be said. There is nothing to do. Zip. Everything’s shut, no-one ventures outside, too stuffed to rise from their Baileys and chocolate fuelled stupor. Surely the ideal time to write some blog material? But no.
It’s not just physical energy that’s lacking [...]

Hold the front page: football manager expresses original thought

The world of football is not noted for its eloquence, or its honesty. In interviews, players or managers – with the obvious exception of ‘the special one’ – resort to a well-drilled, endlessly recycled phrasebook, in thrall to club and/or country.
It relies on humdrum mantras like these: ‘I’m happy with the result but it was [...]

Too much Festival affects your eyesight

If you’re an Edinburgh native, you train your eyes not too see properly in August. Otherwise you’d never get anywhere. Unlike the tourists, actors, promoters and performers, us locals actually have to get to places. Like work. Or the pub.
So we walk that bit faster than the shuffling crowds. We weave and jostle; sometimes, much [...]

Blogging with a pen; and a story about words

One of the first lessons I’ve learnt about blogging is that there are two basic requirements of the genre:
1) Something to say
2) An internet connection
Okay, the first requirement is open to interpretation. On the journalism course that I’ve just finished, one of the major complaints (of many) that the course leader held was that the [...]

the joy of decks

It took me a few years but on Saturday night I finally fulfilled a long-term, if loosely-held, ambition: I DJ’d at a friend’s flat party.
Now I know my mixing was haphazard at best and my track selection nonsensical to all but myself, but I genuinely believe I have found my new favourite pastime. My destiny, [...]