Nein - The Ne9ative Album - Track Listing

OK, I think everyone now has a copy of CD 9 'Nein - The Ne9ative Album' so it's about time we published a track listing.

Neil has been kind enough to prepare the CD, so I may have some of the track details wrong here - I'm going mostly by what Shazam has been able to tell me about them. Please let me know if there are any inaccuracies.

Track No	Title	Artist
1	Don't Pick It Up	The Offspring
2	Wake Me Up When September Ends	Green Day
3	Novocaine For The Soul	Eels
4	Paint It Black	The Rolling Stones
5	Death Don't Have No Mercy (Live)	Hot Tuna
6	What Part Of Me	Low
7	No Place Left To Hide	Jessica Hernandez and The Deltas
8	One Year Of Love	Queen
9	Blowin' In The Wind	Bob Dylan
10	Times Square, Poinston Season II	Destroyer
11	Sacntioned Blues (I've Got The)	Ultimate Painting
12	Homesick	Kings Of Convenience
13	Armchair Anarchist	Kingmaker
14	Nowhere Man	Beatles
15	The Man Who Can't Be Moved	The Script
16	You Can't Always Get What You Want	Rusted Root
17	I Should Have Known Better	Beatles
18	The Last Of The Famous International Playboys	Morrissey
19	Oh My God	Kaiser Chiefs
20	Bird	Billie Marten
21	Hey I Don't Know	Kongos

Again, contributors were asked to provide at least one song which matched the 'negative' theme.

CD9 - "Nein (The Negative Album)" - Invitation

Welcome to CD Club #9 - "Nein (The negative album)"

For the latest CD club compilation think of tracks that celebrate the adverse, that champion the pessimist, songs that deny or oppose, or songs that just say no:

How about "I would do anything for love (but I won't do that)" by Meat Loaf? "(I can't get no) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones? It could be "No woman, no cry" by Bob Marley and the Wailers or (for Pete) the Traditional "Irish Rover"?

You've all got the usual 7 minutes and 16 seconds to give me as many (or little) tracks as you like, so long as at least one of them conforms to the theme. I will send you all a link to a dropbox folder in due course, but if you prefer to provide tracks in a different manner then get in touch.

Let's aim to have this one available before the dark nights set in (i.e. before the clocks go back).

Happy selecting!

CD 8 - Hydr8ed - Mick's Comments

Mick's comments to accompany the results:

Subject: CD8 AND THE WINNER IS ...

Katja - with Over My Shoulder by I AM Kloot.  Well done Katja, especially as it follows a bronze for CD7.

This won by a decent margin, followed by Neil and Chris.  I can't say I'm surprised as they're all fine tracks - not, of course, as good as mine (Robben Ford and CCR's Green River) which collected the wooden spoon and wooden spoon runner up spots - is this a record? I don't know how I do it for the money!

The two-track winner is Chris with 86 points, followed by Neil with 84 and Katja with 77.  Five players were in the 50 - 60 range, which gives support to the general impression that people regard it as a good CD.  Just to rub it in I totalled 14 points, 34 adrift of the next total.

Chris showed his knowledge of the punters' taste with a very good 8 strikes in the guessing game - a 36% success rate.

Thanks to all for excellent submissions, and now over to Neil, your next host.

Mick.

CD 8 - Hydr8ed - Who Chose What, and Points

CD Club #8 - Hydr8ed - Points				Awards
Track No.	Title	Artist	Chosen By
1	Get Off Of My Cloud	Rolling Stones	Pete	37
2	Underwater Love (Radio Edit)	Smoke City	Katja	21
3	I can't Stand The Rain	Robben Ford	Mick B	11
4	Have You Ever Seen The Rain	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Jasper	34
5	Seven Seas	Echo And The Bunnymen	Simon	28
6	Seven Seas Of Rhye	Queen	Howard	28
7	After The Gold Rush	Neil Young	Mick L	39
8	Nantucket Sleighride	Mountain	Mick L	23
9	Rinse Me Down	Bombay Bicycle Club	Ailish	39
10	Neptune	Jim Malcolm	Pete	24
11	Martha's Harbour	All About Eve	Chris	34
12	Slainte Mhath (1999 version)	Marillion	Simon	23
13	Green River	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Mick B	3
14	Latchmere (Album version)	The Maccabees	Neil	35
15	Some Nights	Fun	Allan	25
16	You (Are Loved)	The Blue Aeroplanes	Ailish	22
17	Over My Shoulder	I Am Kloot	Katja	56
18	Blank Space	Taylor Swift	Jasper	14
19	I'm Only Happy When It Rains	Garbage	Howard	19
20	Fireproof	Against The Current	Allan	27
21	Speaking of Truth	Laleh	Chris	47
22	Archie, Marry Me	Alvvays	Neil	49

CD 8 - Hydr8ed - Track Listing

Well, the wait is over, and CD 8 "Hydr8ed" is finally with us. The tracks are:

Track No	Title	Artist
1	Get Off Of My Cloud	Rolling Stones
2	Underwater Love (Radio Edit)	Smoke City
3	I Can't Stand The Rain	Robben Ford
4	Have You Ever Seen The Rain	Creedence Clearwater Revival
5	Seven Seas	Echo And The Bunnymen
6	Seven Seas Of Rhye	Queen
7	After The Gold Rush	Neil Young
8	Nantucket Sleighride	Mountain
9	Rinse Me Down	Bombay Bicycle Club
10	Neptune	Jim Malcolm
11	Martha's Harbour	All About Eve
12	Slainte Mhath (1999 version)	Marillion
13	Green River	Creedence Clearwater Revival
14	Latchmere (Album Version)	The Maccabees
15	Some Nights	Fun
16	You (Are Loved)	The Blue Aeroplanes
17	Over My Shoulder	I Am Kloot
18	Blank Space	Taylor Swift
19	I'm Only Happy When It Rains	Garbage
20	Fireproof	Against The Current
21	Speaking Of Truth	Laleh
22	Archie, Marry Me	Alvvays

There were links to the individual tracks on YouTube in the rest of this post, but they seriously slowed down the page loading, so I have tried an experiment, and created a separate page for the CD track links.

The Theme for CD8 is ...

Water

And we're under starter's orders again. The new theme has been declared after a few email discussions. Again - 11 of us have (up to) 7 minutes and 16 seconds of music to select with at least one selection being on the theme of water.

The name of the compilation is still being mooted, but W8t Ones and Hydr8 have been proposed.

Although the announcement was only made today, I think I have probably already made my mind up what my selections will be.

I will share a couple of selections I won't be going for because I have already submitted them for previous compilations (one for the former Department Christmas CD, and one for the former Card School CD).

Madina Lake - Never Take Us Alive 


Whilst I might otherwise be tempted to lump this in with other American Post-Punk tracks, there is just something about this which really appeals to me.


Lost In The Trees - Walk Around The Lake



This song was the 'exit music for a film' I watched, and felt instantly compelled to 'Shazam' to find out more about, I subsequently bought the album, and as is so typical, found this to be the only track of its calibre on there. Having said that, it is a rare album indeed which has nothing but songs of this calibre on it.

CD 7 Results - Mick B's Summary

Here is a copy of Mick B's email, verbatim:

G'day Each,

All results are now in, so see the attachment.

Simon is the clear winner - sorry, no trophy - with Love Spreads (Stone Roses) which is fine as it's my top allocation.  The vote for this was unusually polarised, with four 12 pointers.  Katja (The Future Heads) was looking a cert for gold at the halfway mark, but did herself no favours by giving her 12 to Love Spreads, but nevertheless this is a remarkably successful debut with 3rd and 4th places. Chris 'Hurricane Love' Phillips is a solid silver with 8 scores averaging 7 points each.

Interestingly (or possibly not), these three also have the highest combined two-track scores, but this time Katja (98) handsomely leads Simon (85) and Chris (84).

Pete has most submitter hits with 8 correct, but if we eliminate local knowledge this drops to 6, level with Simon, leaving Neil on top with 7. Pete's innovative assignment strategy could mark a new era, with 4 guesses for Chris, 3 for Jasper, Neil and Simon, and 2, 1, or 0 for the rest of us.  Despite unspectacular scoring success, I had the consolation of topping the unpredictability chart as nobody tagged me for the Machine Head cover of The Police.

I had great difficulty in the points allocation stakes with such a variety of good stuff.  For example I found that wooden spooner Johnny Winter, who I'd never heard of, is seriously talented, but I only had 3 points left.  I guess these encounters are what it's about.

Enough of this - it's nearly on a par with election inquests.

If you want me to host another I'm very willing as I've got a stack of CD -Rs to clear.

We also need to arm-wrestle for theme selection (if we want to continue with the theme meme).

Some suggestions so far (excluding brown animals) are:

   Alphabet (two random letters assigned to each person, artists to start with these - this excludes the totally free choice option but is novel)

   Not a love song

   Steel (you can go off people, Neil!)

   Place names

And here's another.  Cerys Matthews (Saturday Guardian's Dr Crotchety), answering a question on suitable music for lakeside camping, says about water "It's precious stuff and has inspired countless songs - there's a theory that every album has a reference to it somewhere."  

Dialogue open,

Mick.

Co7ers - Who Chose What and Scores

CD Club #7 - Co7ers & faves				Awards
Track No.	Title	Artist	Chosen By
1	Baby I Don't Care	Tranvision Vamp	Jasper	21
2	Beacause the Night	Patti Smith	Howard	40
3	Dallas	Johnny Winter	Mick L	3
4	Dear Prudence	Siouxsie and the Banshees	Howard	19
5	Fake Plastic Trees	Show of Hands	Pete	29
6	Gagarin	Public Service Broadcasting	Neil	32
7	God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)	El Perro del Mar	Ailish	10
8	Hallelujah	Rufus Wainright	Allan	29
9	Hounds of Love	The Future Heads	Katja	51
10	Love Spreads	The Stone Roses	Simon	65
11	Message In A Bottle	Machine Head	Mick B	27
12	Nowhere To Go	Hurricane Love	Chris	56
13	Our Lips Are Sealed	Fun Boy Three	Ailish	40
14	Pleasant Valley Sunday	The Wedding Present	Neil	36
15	Respect	Aretha Franklin	Jasper	11
16	Smooth Criminal	Alien Ant Farm	Allan	17
17	Statesboro Blues	Allman Brothers	Mick L	24
18	Strange Brew	Cream	Mick B	16
19	Swords of a Thousand Men	The Real McKenzies	Simon	20
20	Thank You For The Days	Luke Kelly	Pete	17
21	We Gotta Get Out Of This Place	Space	Chris	28
22	Your Ghost	Kristin Hersh	Katja	47

My Thoughts on the Co7ers Tracks

Well I know some of who put what on, but haven't yet seen a definitive list or the final scores, but I thought it might be a good time to share my thoughts on the tracks ...

1. Baby I Don't Care - I've always liked this and despite being familiar with it, gave it 2 points.

2. Because The Night - Good, but just the kind of track that I'd enjoy in the background

3. Dallas - Hmm, Blues, I find the whole genre very steady - I like the occasional song, but wouldn't want to listen to a whole load strung together. There is some great guitar playing, but in the end, no points from me.

4. Dear Prudence - I remember when this came out and all the weirdos in the arty 6th form common room tended to like Siouxsie - well I think prejudice made me dislike the track ... well luckily I got over that and came to like what I'd previously dismissed - 1 point from me - I now prefer this to the original which I used to enjoy playing and singing to myself.

5. Fake Plastic Trees - I'm going to have to say it - whilst this cover doesn't exactly pull any trees up or break new ground, I just love the song and I've tried to score things on how much I enjoy hearing them when they came on - this therefore scored 10 points from me!

6. Gagarin - This is a great track from a great album which Neil has talked about elsewhere 

The Other Side - 7 points in the end - maybe should have been more.
7. God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get) - Hmm my view on this seems to change depending on how I listen to it - through headphones I like it, through anything else it seems insubstantial. In the end, I didn't give it any points.
8. Hallelujah - Good song, and good version, but I'd still rather listen to Leonard Cohen sing it, and I find Rufus a bit too serious, not that I should let that influence me, but I have.
9. Hounds Of Love - Well, this is right up my street - love the original, but love that this is so different as to be another song entirely - 6 points.
10. Love Spreads - There's a whole story here ... I thought I had the supposedly disappointing second Stone Roses album, but I'd actually never heard this track before - love the track, love the guitar, love the Stone Roses - full 12 points from me and a mission to listen to the disappointing second album.
11. Message In A Bottle - I enjoyed listening to this, but not enough to give it any points.
12. Nowhere To Go - One of mine - see my previous post.
13. Our Lips Are Sealed - I wasn't really a fan at the time of Fun Boy Three, and that hasn't really changed.
14. Pleasant Valley Sunday - Like the original, and like this version too - I almost went for a Wedding Present cover myself - apparently they have done many. 5 points.
15. Respect - Probably like many, I knew this version before realising it was an Otis Redding cover. It's a great song and reminds of The Blues Brothers which is always a pleasant thing ... however, no points.
16. Smooth Criminal - I used to like this more than I do now. It's much better than the original, but I didn't like the original very much and let that shade my judgement - 0 points.
17. Statesboro Blues - More blues - much the same sentiment - 0 points.
18. Strange Brew - Here we go again - next (0 points by the way) [really sorry for being so dismissive and I do actually enjoy listening to these - but not as much as the others]
19. Swords Of A Thousand Men - Good version of a good song - not hugely different, but I don't mind that - 4 points
20. Thank You For The Days - Enjoyed listening - like the original a lot too which helps here - 3 points.
21. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place - One of mine, see my previous post.
22. Your Ghost - Yep - really like this - Michael Stipe again? Well at least we know it's not Katja, she wouldn't put him on twice in a row ... oh, hang on! 8 points

Co7ers - My Choices

OK, well I think all the votes are in now, although we haven't been issued the results, but I think that means that I am safe to talk openly about things without fear of giving anything away.

I'll probably end up doing a few posts, but the main purpose of this one is to talk about my choices, which were ... Hurricane Love and Space.



I can't really say a lot about Hurricane Love as this is the only track by them that I like. It pretty much typifies everything I like in a song - a strong driving rhythm, a few layers of sound, great melody and great harmonies. A bit of variation in the levels - i.e a quiet bit in the middle.

OK and now Space:



Again, I just think that this is a cracking song and I think that this is a cracking version of it. I know there are some amongst the club who think that this is sufficiently different from the original to make it worthwhile. I'm not sure I completely agree - it's definitely got their stamp on it, and I think to have varied the structure or the tempo would have made it worse.

I've just had another thought! Why the hell didn't I go for Goldbug - Whole Lotta Love? So many excellent covers. Oh well.



I'm looking forward to results day.

In The Run-Up To The Deadline ...

Well, I think there's about a week or so until the deadline for the votes to be submitted for the Co7ers CD, so I can't really say too much about it yet for fear of revealing my hand as it were. I can, however, post another track I considered for my cover version. Whilst we were having one of our First Thursday/CD Consortium Steering Committee sessions, in Woodseats, Neil suggested several criteria which would make a cover version worthy of his vote. I can't remember them all (which is ironic in light of the track I'm about to post), but I think points were scored for originality/unfamiliarity, for being sufficiently different to the original, and stamping the artist's identity on the song. Well this song qualifies for all of those, and in some regards, I wish I'd submitted it as it's a great song, and in my mind, an improvement over the original (which might not be that well know to people in the first place).

The song is I Can't Forget, and it's a Pixies cover of a Leonard Cohen song.



Here's the original:



I'm looking forward to the Big Reveal.
Bye for now,
Chris

Spotify Playlist

I've created a Spotify playlist of all the tracks from the covers CD for those of you with Spotify. There's actually one track missing as I couldn't find it on Spotify, so I've replaced it with another cover of the same song.

Radiohead Cover

Prompted either by the fact that I waited until the CD was out before I mentioned it, or upon hearing a Radiohead cover when the CD came out (who can say), I feel the need to share with you my very own version of a Radiohead song. I say my very own, but the drums and bass are created electronically from a MIDI file that some generous internet person created.

The guitars and singing are (unfortunately) me. It was done several years ago, and I know the singing is a little bit out in places, so when you cringe, do so knowing that I know that you know that it's cringeworthy in places.

Having been so disingenuous towards myself, I will add that actually I quite like it and enjoy listening to it.

Co7ers - Track Listing

Well, the wait is over, and CD 7 'Co7ers' is out. So, to recap, 11 contributors, 22 songs - looks a lot like two each, at least one of which has to be a cover.

1 Baby I Don't Care Tranvision Vamp
2 Beacause the Night Patti Smith
3 Dallas Johnny Winter
4 Dear Prudence Siouxsie and the Banshees
5 Fake Plastic Trees Show of Hands
6 Gagarin Public Service Broadcasting
7 God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get) El Perro del Mar
8 Hallelujah Rufus Wainright
9 Hounds of Love The Future Heads
10 Love Spreads The Stone Roses
11 Message In A Bottle Machine Head
12 Nowhere To Go Hurricane Love
13 Our Lips Are Sealed Fun Boy Three
14 Pleasant Valley Sunday The Wedding Present
15 Respect Aretha Franklin
16 Smooth Criminal Alien Ant Farm
17 Statesboro Blues Allman Brothers
18 Strange Brew Cream
19 Swords of a Thousand Men The Real McKenzies
20 Thank You For The Days Luke Kelly
21 We Gotta Get Out Of This Place Space
22 Your Ghost Kristin Hersh

It's a cracking CD as far as I'm concerned, so well done to all.

I will save any writing about the tracks until people have had a guess at who put what on - and it looks like we have quite a long time to deliberate as votes have to be in for Friday 24th April.

Cover Consideration ...

OK, maybe there's one track I gave serious consideration to and I'm fairly safe to talk about because I'm pretty sure that no-one will have put it on, and there's a bit of a story behind it.

Many years ago, you may recall Mike Flowers Pops doing a retro version of 'Wonderwall'. I think Chris Evans may have pretended for a while that it was the original that Oasis had covered. Anyway, it was really good - one of the few CD singles I ever bought. Actually, that makes me think ... I also bought Rolf Harris doing a cover of Stairway to Heaven as a CD single: maybe I need to re-evaluate my belief that I don't really go for comedy songs. As for Rolf Harris, well ...

Anyway, I digress, I once heard a song on the radio and I remember exactly where I was, it was sitting in a parked car in Tonbridge, roughly here:


We were away with work back in the days when I used to go out inspecting rails. Amyway, a song came on the radio and it didn't really get much attention at first, but there was something familiar about it - upon closer listening, it turned out to be a version of 'Last Nite' by The Strokes. I think I had the Mike Flowers thing in mind and wondered if it wasn't an original that The Strokes had ended up covering as it had a bit of a retro feel to it. For some reason, I never caught the information about it - maybe they'd announced it before it came on. However, the track stuck with me and I tried on many occasions to track it down (if you'll excuse the pun) but with no success ... until recently that is.

I spent quite a long time on Spotify browsing various covers when considering my selection for this next CD and came across this ...



Hurrah! At last I'd found it. And it was a cover ... two years after The Strokes version.

I am now wondering why on earth I didn't select it for the CD - it's a cracking version and I bet no-one's heard it before. Ah! How ironic - I'm playing the track in iTunes now and notice it's from an album called 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before'.

7th CD - Discussions

So, there was another meeting of the CD Consortium governing body which overlaps largely with the attendees of the traditional and immutable First Thursday session held in the local pub.

Anyway the subject of a theme for the next CD was raised, and the first big decision to make was 'Shall we have a theme or not?'. After much debate, a decision was finally avoided, but at some point in the conversation, the idea of having one themed track and one free-choice track was suggested. This was then circulated to members in an email and, insofar as one is able to tell from a limited number of replies, there was general agreement that this was a good idea.

The next big decision was then, 'What should the theme be?' and a stream of suggestions from one particular member was circulated, and by some means or other the theme of 'Cover Versions' was agreed upon.

So there we have it - the genesis of CD 7 'Co7ers'.

The 11 of us have 7 minutes seconds each. We must submit one cover track, and if there are any minutes left over, we can use them for a second 'free-choice' track.

I understand that all the submissions are now in - less than a single week after the deadline, so that's a great effort.

I am fighting the urge to write about my particular selection process so as to not give anything away about what my tracks are. I suspect that there are some people who still enjoy the aspect of guessing who selected which tracks; I know that some are less interested.

Anyway, the next CD is now being awaited with great relish ... bring it on.

VIctuals - Track Listing

OK - so there followed another ad hoc meeting of the CD Consortium committee (a few of us met in the pub) and the topic of themes was again discussed. Were they a good thing? Well some seemed to favour the theme because otherwise, the choice of potential tracks was too overwhelming, and others seemed to prefer the freedom to share what they liked. Anyway, we decided to go with a theme, and for some reason, the theme of 'Food' was agreed upon.

Oh - we welcomed another new contributor - so 11 of us with 7 minutes and 16 seconds each.

Following the recent trend of sneaking the Roman numerals for the sequential number of the CD into the title, 'VIctuals' was hit upon by myself. I felt quite pleased with this until I realised that I didn't know how to pronounce the word. For me, it proved to be one of those words you only come across in written form, or if you hear it you ever, you don't associate it with the written form. I had a similar thing with albeit - to me it was pronounced 'Al-Bite' and I knew what it meant. I also knew the phrase 'all-be-it'. Lictual did I know that it is actually pronounced 'vittal'.

Anyway, the tracks ...

1 Breakfast At Tiffany's Deep Blue Something
2 Imitation Of Life R.E.M.
3 Ice Ice Baby Vanilla Ice
4 Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) My Chemical Romance
5 Bran Flakes Snuff
6 Mexican Wine Fountains Of Wayne
7 Mood Bomb Superfood
8 Digsy's Dinner Oasis
9 Deus The Sugarcubes
10 The World Turned Upside Down Dick Gaughan
11 Tangerine Led Zeppelin
12 Change Blind Melon
13 Nando's The Bar Steward Sons Of Val Doonican
14 Romeo And Juliet Dire Straits
15 Chocolate Girl Deacon Blue
16 Boilin' Pot J.J. Cale
17 White Winter Hymnal Fleet Foxes
18 I Can't Go Back To Savoury Now John Shuttleworth
19 Addicted To Spuds Weird Al Yankovic
20 Chocolate Salty Balls South Park - Chef
21 One Meat Ball Ry Cooder
22 Peaches Presidents of the United States Of America
23 First Date Blink 182
24 I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones) Hoosier Hot Shots

Now, what is it about food that draws people to 'comedy' tracks?

OK - so the Gold, Silver and Bronze tracks were 'The World Turned Upside Down', 'I Can't Go Back To Savoury Now' and 'Mexican Wine' with the wooden spoon going to 'Bran Flakes'.

My particular tracks on this CD were 'Na na na etc.', and 'Mood Bomb'

'Na na na' - I just like it.

'Mood Bomb' - I was using my wife's car for work one week and this was 'single of the week' - I heard it a couple of times and loved it, and again was convinced it was going to win everyone over. Not so.

TraVel - Track Listing

Well this time, we went for the idea of a theme full on, and were asked to contribute songs based on the theme of travel. It was left to individuals to interpret this as best they saw fit.

Two more contributors were also introduced, leading to a grand total of 8 minutes each.

It may have been this CD, it may have been the previous one, but a new scoring model was introduced. This time, contributors had to award a Eurovision style score to the favourite tracks - hence handing out 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 accordingly (but not for their own tracks).

This project was probably one of the longest from conception through to completion that we've had, and a tactical transfer of responsibility was required to bring it to completion.

1 I'm Mandy Fly Me 10CC
2 The Day We Caught The Train Ocean Colour Scene
3 The Passenger Iggy Pop
4 Michiko Sultans of Ping FC
5 Sally MacLennane The Pogues
6 Kill The Fun Haley Bonar
7 Traintime [Live] Cream
8 We All Went Down With The Ship Ed Harcourt
9 The Outdoor Type Lemonheads
10 Philadelphia Standard Fare
11 Crosstown Traffic Jimi Hendrix
12 Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel Barenaked Ladies
13 Urge For Going Joni Mitchell
14 Red Hill Mining Town U2
15 Reservoir Metronomy
16 American Interior Gruff Rhys
17 Hold On We're Going Home Drake
18 Parachutes Coldplay
19 Telephone Call From Istanbul Tom Waits
20 Road To Hell Chris Rea
21 Crazy Train Ozzy Osbourne

The Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for best tracks went to: 'The Outdoor Type', 'Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel', and 'Urge For Going'. 'Hold On We're Going Home' scooped the wooden spoon.

My particular tracks were 'Kill The Fun' and 'We All Went Down With The Ship'

'Kill The Fun' was one of those serendipitous findings - I was travelling back from football, discussing the current CD project with the guy hosting the project this time round (let's call him Meil), and listening to 6 Music as I was in my wife's car for once, and this song came on. I loved it instantly, and caught the word 'travelling' in one of the verses. The decision was made there and then - and then came along a familiar problem. How to get hold of the bloomin' thing. It wasn't available in this country. It was available as a download from their website, in the States. Well I just bit the bullet and bought a copy through their website even though I wasn't in the States, and the download code was emailed to me accordingly. Phew. Another track I was convinced would win - I was sure it had universal appeal. It came one point behind the 'Bronze' position. Oh well.

'We All Went Down To The Ship' is from and EP by Ed Harcourt that I found on Spotify - I love the EP, and I love this track, especially the chorus. I'm not too sure about the bass line in the verse - something not quite right about it.

Michelle Shocked, The Live Experience!

OK, as hinted at in the previous post, a few words about Michelle Shocked. I saw her play a couple of times in Sheffield, which is saying something given that I'm not a huge gig-goer. Anyway that was all years ago. Whilst trying to get hold of 'Don't You Mess Around With My Little Sister', it became clear that Michelle doesn't allow her work on Spotify - which is entirely up to her. It also became apparent that she was due to play a gig in Sheffield ... AT THE GREYSTONES! Within walking distance! In a couple of months' time. Well I booked two tickets there and then. And then I did a bit more Googling.

It turned out that in the intervening years, Michelle had become a fundamentalist born-again Christian. Several people are. But it posed certain problems for her. Whilst in the past, she'd never stated that she was a lesbian, there was allegedly little doubt about her bi-sexual nature. This was something distinctly at odds with her new-found beliefs. Anyway, apparently, she had had something of a fall from grace. She was performing in California somewhere (to a very politically correct crowd), and something set her off on a rant against same sex marriage. The audience reacted angrily, many left, the gig was stopped by the management and the rest of the tour was cancelled. I think the media then leapt on this and she became a bit of a pariah. She then posted some very odd stuff on her web page about 'Truth vs Reality'. She also became an Internet troll against a reporter who had written an article about her. This is all a bit hazy now, but I believe that I read that she had started to have a go at an audience who had failed to appreciate some random improvised (weird) stuff that she decided to perform. Her Twitter following fell from many thousands to something like 37!!

All this odd behaviour from someone due to appear before me and my wife in an intimate setting a few weeks hence. Soon after though, the gig was cancelled.

Michelle has subsequently released an album audible only to dogs!