THIS IS A JOURNEY INTO SOUND

Despite my wide ranging tastes in music - and my deep love for it - i barely own any studio albums that date before the 1970s. I'm not really a fan of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones and whilst i love The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Who, The Small Faces, plus vast swathes of soul, Motown, Mod-related music and so on i've yet to buy anything beyond compilations of that music. I put this down to the sheer amount of new and old music i have gotten into, plus limits on time and money. The free covermount cds' you get with music magazines have opened my ears to a lot of older music, but aside from various artists compilations, greatest hits and best of's i've yet to delve deeper into a lot of it. There are currently only two albums i own that come from the 1960's: Pink Floyd's The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and the album i'm going to write about today - the dark folk-rock masterpiece that is Forever Changes, by the Los Angeles band Love. Love were form...

The last few years have been a sad time for lovers of music. The roll call of legends and heroes who have departed from this life seems to be endless, from all genres and eras, as time and illness take their toll as they do for all of us. Bowie, Aretha, Lemmy, Prince, George Michael, superstars the like of which we will never see again. And a host of others who may not have all been household names but were - and are - loved and revered just as equally: Pete Shelley, Mark E Smith, Chris Cornell, Tom Petty, Rick Parfitt, Dolores O'Riordan, Mark Hollis.... the list goes on. In recent days i've heard of the sad passing of two personal favourites, both from very different worlds and eras but whom still made a big impresssion on my musical tastes and outlook. Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Engel) 1943-2019. I first heard the music of Scott Walker in 1995, on a rare radio interview to promote the reclusive legends' new album Tilt , his first in 11 years. The avant garde sound...

This year my musical tastes were a mixed bag. The great mix of indie, rock, alternative dance and and pop that filled my ears continued, usually via 6music and MTV2, with a more gothic tone that had steadily been creeping in for a couple of years. Looking back, the year seemed to belong to four acts: Arctic Monkeys continued their rise that had begun toward the end of the previous year with another chart topping single and their equally successful debut album, plus a standalone Top 5 single and a five track EP featuring four brand new songs plus one from the album. All this whilst still keeping a fairly low profile as far as television appearances go. Muse also continued their increasing success with a No.1 album and three hit singles, two of which went Top 10. Lily Allen, daughter of actor Keith, came out of nowhere to score a chart topping single and a No.2 album, her music being inescapable that Summer. Emo - a more introspective and emotional brand of Punk that had been around for ...

Amongst my record collection are numerous compilations - Greatest Hits, Best Of's and Singles Collections. Whilst i might sneer in the manner of Barry from High Fidelity at anyone whose music library consists solely of such albums, they are an essential part of musical discovery, especially in the case of any artist who has a long career and a large back catalogue. They are how i discovered older music in my teens - Punk, New Wave, Synthpop, Bowie, even my beloved Madness (of whom i own half a dozen compilations, even though they have more or less the same songs on!), and a well curated Best Of can often revive interest in a band whose star may have faded or whose name might not be known to the wider public. Multi-artist compilations are a big seller - the continuing success of the NOW That's What I Call Music series, currently on 101, is testament to that, and a well placed track on such a collection can alert people to music that they might not have heard otherwise. I've ...

2018 was one of those years where buying and listening to music often took a back seat to the ups and downs of life. Family illnesses, bereavement, and all the stress and upset that come with those things meant that i had little time for hobbies or interests, plus planning a wedding in the midst of all this meant that money was scarce. Not that i'm complaining: getting married was one of the happiest days of my life, regardless of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding it. But although i wasn't actively indulging my passion for records i still had one ear listening out for new stuff. So when things began to settle down later in the year i knew what i wanted to add to my collection. I've had most of the albums i wanted for Christmas - mostly on CD with a couple on vinyl - so i've been playing them over the festive period, and am still getting properly acquainted. I have, however, been using my iPod to download a few tracks (mostly whatever passes for singles these day...

I love the changing of the seasons. Those points in the year when one season suddenly makes its appearance: the first frost that reminds you Winter is on its way, the first flowers budding as the earth wakes up for Spring, the moment when an Autumn chill makes itself felt on a late August evening. I could never live somewhere that had the same weather or temperatures year round. And my favourite season is Winter, due in no small part to the festive celebrations that lay at the core of it, but also for the dark clear starlit nights, the possibility of snow, the frosty air that really invigorates you in a morning. The moaners and naysayers can sod off.  Music soundtracks the seasons for me, much as it does life in general, and there are songs and albums that i can only really connect with at certain times of the year, that create a ambience suited to a particular season. Winter has a few perennial favourites for me: Mad Not Mad, the 6th and - at the time - final album made by my musi...

Last night i - along with my wife - ventured out to watch live music for the first time in nearly a year. Gigs have become less of a priority in recent years: work, money, and home comforts seem to have taken over, and going out until late when i have an early start the next morning is something i can no longer cope with! But with a couple of days off work booked, and a free pass to a local venue (the gig was sold out, but we have connections!) we headed out, and were not disappointed. The place was The Maze in Nottingham, a small sweaty venue in the back of The Forest Tavern pub. The headliner was blues rocker Barns Courtney (more of whom later), but first we were treated to the support act, Stephanie Cheape (the name of the band as well as the woman). A young, talented, flame-haired woman from Glasgow with a big voice and big, dramatic indie-pop songs to back it up - not to mention a great sounding band behind her -, she left an impression on the small crowd and certainly on me. Dark...