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This weekend was pretty busy, but it felt longer because we had Friday afternoon off. The reason? We were going to see Muse at the O2 :-) We left mid afternoon and got there in good time. We got free entry into the British Music Exhibition with our tickets, so we had a quick look round beforehand. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to go round the whole thing but what we did see was interesting, and we’ll have to go back and check it out more next time! They have a roomful of guitars / drums / pianos you can play around on which was pretty cool.

Anyway. The support act were called The Big Pink, who we’d never heard of before. They were OK – quite dramatic music and I liked the arrangements, but unfortunately it seemed a bit too loud and the tunes weren’t very strong. Still, I did check them out on Spotify afterwards so they must have done something right!

After that, Muse came on. They were amazing. Really, really good live. We were saying afterwards, it’s the knid of music that lends itself very well to being played live: Keane pretty much played their songs as they were on the album, Coldplay were a bit different, but Muse really rocked out. Brilliant stuff. They started out with ‘Uprising’, then ‘Resistance’, and then played a selection of new songs mixed with a few from ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ and their previous albums. I was quite pleased with how many older songs they did play actually, it was so great to hear them live. There were a few surprises in there. I didn’t think they’d play ‘Supermassive Black Hole’, ‘Cave’ (from the first album) or ‘Hysteria’ but all three went down really well.

It was a shame they didn’t play ‘Space Dementia’ or ‘Butterflies and Hurricanes’ but you can’t have everything! They finished with ‘Knights of Cydonia’ which was amaaaaaazing live and had everyone going. All in all, it was worth every penny and I’d definitely love to see them again.

Anyway, so. That was a good evening :) On Saturday afternoon we headed down to stay with Philippa’s parents overnight. It was a horrible day (the Dartford Bridge was closed, they diverted the traffic through one of the tunnels instead) but we got there safely. Then on Sunday morning we drove down to Reading to see Phil’s sister Roz.

Roz is engaged to be married, and although we had met her fiance (obviously) we hadn’t met the rest of his family. So we went to Roz’s church in the morning, and then afterwards went round to their house for lunch.

It was a really nice lunch and a very enjoyable time. Matt’s family all seem nice, and they seem to get on well with each other which strikes me as being a good sign! So that was a lovely time.

Then we came back home and watched Top Gear and “The Waters of Mars”, the new Doctor Who special. It was indeed a good episode – probably one of the best that Russell T. Davies has written. I like it when they show a slightly darker side to the Doctor, show that he isn’t invulnerable. The ending of the episode was actually quite unsettling. I’m looking forward to the last two episodes of Tennant’s Doctor now, I think it’s going to be interesting what they do with the character! If anything, though, that episode proved (as if you need any more proof) that Doctor Who is not just a kids’ show.

A few weeks ago, Muse released their new album “The Resistance”. I have avoided commenting on it thus far because I wanted to give it a proper listen. I find the problem with albums is that my opinion can change over the course of time, so I want to try and give it as long as possible before commenting!

This is why it’s been a while for me to mention this. But now I’ve given it a proper listen through. This album is GENIUS. It’s the best album Muse have ever put out, a seminal work which one day may be looked on in the same way that Sergeant Pepper is looked at today. Well, perhaps not quite Sergeant Pepper, but – this is good. Very, very good.

What I’m going to do is go through all the tracks and make a few comments about each one.

Read the rest of this entry »

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!

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 :)

Covers of songs, that is to say.

In my guitar learning, I’ve been looking out some old songs to play, and I came across Joe’s “committee song” (to the tune of “Can’t take my eyes off of you” by Andy Williams)… it certainly brought back a few memories (“At last Linja’s arrived / at just a quarter past five” and “And although we’ve just finished / Joe’s got just one more thing” being two of my favourite lines).

Anyway, I was looking around the internet for chords to the song, and I stumbled on a cover version I’d never heard before, played by Muse! If you haven’t heard it already, you should definitely watch it on YouTube. It’s a whole new slant on the song, but I really like it!

If only other cover versions were of this kind of standard…

I was listening to Virgin Radio last night, and Ben Jones interviewed Matt Bellamy of Muse. What interested me was Matt’s response to the possibility of doing the new Bond theme.

Virgin Radio have been saying that Muse should do the new Bond theme for a while, and a lot of people agree (see the number of people who’ve joined the Facebook Group). Anyway, Matt said that he’d quite like to write it, although felt that they needed someone else to perform it (i.e. you really need a diva in the style of Shirley Bassey to sing it).

I for one would love to hear a Bond theme written by Muse, even if they didn’t perform it. If you agree, join the Facebook group, let’s see if we can make a difference… the last couple of Bond themes haven’t been all that Bond-theme-esque, IMHO.

Muse have got that dramatic edge to them, I think they’d be fantastic.

Who would sing it though? Apparently the name Amy Winehouse was mentioned… I don’t know… maybe someone like Amy Lee from Evanescence?