phillsacre.me.uk

This weekend started off fairly normally: 21 has started again for the autumn term so we were helping out there on Friday night.

On Saturday we did a bit of shopping – a Waitrose has opened up in Colchester, fairly near us, so we went there for the first time. It was incredibly busy, but looks like it will be a good place to shop. Phil was very excited as she is a big fan of Waitrose, I think we will be back there fairly often!

After lunch we headed down to Wembley Stadium to see Coldplay. They were on at 9PM, but there were a few support acts beforehand. We got there one or two songs into White Lies’ set. They were pretty good, although I didn’t really know much of their music. Ditto for Girls Aloud, and Jay-Z. I must say I’m not really a fan of rap music, but Jay-Z seemed pretty good at what he did and I enjoyed it even if it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

Coldplay were brilliant. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but they played most of their well-known songs, a few older songs such as The Scientist, and quite a lot of their newer songs (from Viva la Vida and Prospekt’s March). Chris Martin seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time wriggling round on the floor, which was quite amusing although a bit strange! I laughed when he got half way through playing ‘The Hardest Part’ on the piano and then said ‘Oh wait, that’s wrong’ and had to correct himself as well.

My favourite song of the evening – well, couldn’t really say, but ‘Glass of Water’ and ‘Life in Technicolor ii’ were both great to hear live. The latter is probably one of mine and Phil’s favourite newer songs of theirs.

The only downside was that we were quite a long way up – a long way from the band! They did have screens up, but it wasn’t quite the same. When we were at the Keane gig in February we were standing quite close to the stage. Although there are pros and cons to that as well, I think in general you get more atmosphere down there. Still, we got into it and had a good time nonetheless.

The real problems started after the gig. Coldplay finished at 11PM, and our train was at 00:18. It took us about 10 minutes to get out of the stadium, and then about half an hour to get to the tube. At this stage we were a bit worried, but thought we could just about make it. Then the tube train only went two stops (to Baker St) before turning round and going back. So we had to jump on another tube train – but unfortunately the next one only went to Moorgate (i.e. one stop before Liverpool St)! Long story short, we missed the last train back to Colchester.

We basically just spent the night wandering around London, which was quite fun in a surreal kind of way! And then we caught the first train back at about 4:10AM. Unfortunately (again), due to engineering works we couldn’t go directly to Colchester. We had to go to Stansted and then catch the bus. Ah well, chalk it all up to experience! If we go to Wembley again we will know what to expect. We finally got home at about 7AM!

Not surprisingly, we didn’t do much on Sunday! Phil went to church in the morning and I went to Sunday@6, but nothing much to report apart from that.

So, this weekend was comparitively quiet! On Friday night we helped out at 21 as per usual. Then on Saturday we did a bit of shopping during the day, and just spent a bit of time relaxing! I have rediscovered OpenTTD (which, incidentally, is all Matthew’s fault!) so I’ve been spending hours designing railway networks. They’re not very complicated ones at this stage, but I am aiming to work in some cool junctions at some point… it will be like Clapham Junction!

Aaaanyway. On Saturday evening we stayed in, watched a bit of Futurama – generally didn’t do very much! Which is probably a good thing as the rest of June is quite busy for us. On Sunday we went to two services in the morning (shock! horror!) and then, a service in the evening as well (gasp)! Still, they all went pretty well – particularly Sunday@6. I felt like the music really clicked last night, and there were quite a few people there as well, which was good after a couple of quiet weeks.

So, there you have it! You may still be wondering about the title of my post. I should clarify: on Friday, I bought us tickets to go and see Muse at the O2 in November :-) It’s a hat-trick because by the end of this year we will have seen our three favourite bands live (Keane, in February, and Coldplay in September). Really looking forward to the next two – Keane were amazing in February, if the next two gigs are equally as good I will be happy.

Unfortunately, I could only get seated tickets for the Muse gig (at Keane we were standing – and pretty near the front too!), but I’m sure the music will be good either way. Roll on September and November – not something you hear me say often!

Bring it on: we’ve just booked tickets to go and see Coldplay in September next year at Wembley. Sweeeeet.

This means that in 2009 we will be seeing two of our favourite bands – Keane and Coldplay … if we could get to a Muse gig as well that would make it a hat trick! Unfortunately I don’t think the bank would take the strain, but still. Really looking forward to next year :)

A few various reviews and news bits…

On Monday, Coldplay’s new EP “Prospekt’s March” was released. I didn’t buy the CD – I just downloaded it from 7Digital.com (£3.99 – bargain!). As I understand it, the EP is basically just songs which didn’t make it onto the album (Viva la Vida) but which are still part of the album musically. Anyway, it’s really good – there’s a small piano solo called “Postcards from Far Away”, which is like a Chopin Prelude. I think it’s virtually worth downloading it just for that! But the rest of the songs are also good – even the Jay-Z version of ‘Lost’.

Last Friday, the new series of “The IT Crowd” started. I was a huge fan of the first series, the second series wasn’t quite as good but still had some great moments. The first episode of this series looks promising – it was very funny and had some brilliant lines. One of my favourites: “(Moss) I’d be upset if you called me a big ugly builder. And not just because I’m an IT contractor”.

Lastly, my new ESV Study Bible arrived yesterday. It looks really good – loads of articles, commentary, information about each book… I’ve been wanting to get a study Bible for ages, and this looks like it won’t disappoint. I’m sure it will come in very handy when preparing talks, home groups etc.

I was thinking the other day – an occupation I seldom get involved with, I hasten to add – and I was wondering what music now will be around in years to come.

We’re living in an age of pop music – there is probably more music produced now, per year, than there has ever been. OK, that’s probably an exaggeration, but – there is a lot of it around! So, how much of it will still be around in the future? Who are the modern day Queen, Beatles, and Rolling Stones? (I still listen to these bands – particularly the first two – frequently).

I would like to humble offer up a few suggestions of what will still be around in (say) twenty years time.

• Muse. What a band. These guys are amazing – despite being only three men strong, they produce a huge sound. Not just that, but Matt Bellamy is a great songwriter as well as a virtuoso guitarist and pianist. What I like about Muse is that they combine excellent songs with unusual ideas and great musicianship. My favourite example of this is probably ‘Butterflies and Hurricanes’. If people have forgotten about Muse in twenty years, it’s a travesty!
• Coldplay. A lot of people I know don’t like Coldplay – I can’t understand it. They write great tunes, and arrange and perform them well. Their last album (Viva la Vida) was probably their best yet, certainly in terms of experimenting with the music. However their previous albums all were very strong melodically, even if the earlier albums were more simple in terms of arrangement.
• Keane. Similar to Coldplay really – these guys write really solid tunes, and are very strong melodically. “Under the Iron Sea” is one of my favourite albums ever, every single song on it is a cracker.

There are a few other bands I like, but I’ll leave it there for now! So… what distinguishes a band like the ones I mentioned above? I think it’s two things: 1. They all have something to say; 2. They say it well! Their songs are usually well crafted and arranged – it’s obvious that plenty of time and thought has been put into the words and music. Proper music should resonate with you, should have something to say, or somewhere to take you emotionally.

Some of the bands I’m going to mention in a moment seem to think music is all about writing a catchy tune which you can whistle on your way to work – real craftsmanship doesn’t come into it! It’s all superficial – but I’ll come onto that in a moment.

Let’s talk about the bands I don’t think will be around in a few years.

• The Kaiser Chiefs, The Arctic Monkeys, The Fratellis, Scouting for Girls (and other similar bands). Phil and I listen to Virgin Absolute Radio most evenings when making dinner. A while back, they went through a phase of playing a lot of music by those bands – and we just couldn’t tell one from another! They all sounded exactly the same. Same arrangement, same guitar sounds, same ‘mockney’-style singer, same subject matter. In other words, I think the record companies had found a formula which worked, and decided to seek out more bands which sounded exactly the same in order to sell a few more CDs. (Note: the only exception is Scouting for Girls – although they do have a Mockney singer. I’ve included them because all their songs sound the same, and they’re all incredibly repetitive. And they also ripped off ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys in one of their songs).

I realise that if I start to go on about these bands I will sound like a grumpy old man, so I’d probably better stop there. Suffice it to say that I think these bands don’t write songs which go much beyond the superficial (as Bill Bailey would say, they’re not exactly plumbing the depths of human experience). They also seem to be incredibly cynical, which doesn’t sit well with me.

I don’t quite know how “She Loves You” by the Beatles is any less superficial than “Flourescent Adolscent” by the Arctic Monkeys, but somehow it is. It just feels like with some of these bands that they don’t really give a toss about what they’re singing (i.e. a cynical attitude) and, to me, that does not make a great song.

Right, I definitely will stop there! Let’s see if anyone has any other suggestions as to what bands we’ll be listening to in years to come, or other thoughts on the matter :)

My copy of Coldplay’s new album “Viva La Vida” arrived yesterday. I’ve listened to it a couple of times now, and it’s fantastic!

I would say this is probably their best album yet. They’ve been a bit more experimental in this one with the way they’ve arranged the music – it feels like a more mature album than “X&Y”.

I was talking with Phil last night about the difference between a band like Coldplay and (to pick a relatively new artist from the Virgin Radio Playlist) Scouting for Girls: I don’t know if you’ve listened to any of Scouting For Girls’ songs, but they all sound the same. I quite like listening to them, but they’re quite repetitive and one sounds similar to another.

Not so with Coldplay. Their music has changed, adapted, and matured. This album is the product of three albums refining, changing, obsessing over details… it shows. I really like it.

DISCLAIMER: Opinion subject to change on repeat listenings (I should start putting something like this on all reviews that I write!)