Sound of Music

Like the noise between radio channels, Sound of Music shouts into the void once more. The gap between posts is less ideal thigh size, more mouth of the Tyne. But, like a kracken slumbering from the depths, the keys type once more. With a fresh, and artist index now available, what else is coming up? Well in the intervening months  years, some great gigs have been witnessed. From the new sounds of Boy Azooga and the Golden Sounds Festival (circa 2018, topical as ever), taking in the glorious goth of Drab Majesty via the original Chameleons Vox, we stop by some regulars (Manics, Paint Nothing, Suede), to first time artists I've seen (Mon the Biffy) and say a farewell to some favourites (Chapman Family, Wild Beasts). So what are we waiting for? Oh, yes, me...new content incoming.* Is this thing on? Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash *Over several days, give us a chance....

So here it goes...the review of all gigs ventured to since 2010. Gulp. It's quite an ask to remember the finer points of gigs that happened years ago, so to be clear - it is retrospective. I'm looking back but with the benefit of hindsight (like the Dodgy comeback at Galtres in 2010 turned out to be anything but a comeback. A comedown, now that's a different story). Why am I doing it? Well, a couple of years ago I made a Christmas gift for my gigging partner of choice, a huge scrapbook filled with photos, setlists, random trivia and inane commentary. The plan was always to recreate a version for myself, but with the arrival of this blog I figured I could write an e-version here. Like a gig time capsule for the future, written in the present, about the past. Sexy stuff. Ubiquitous gig shot. In context, the gigs featured between 2010-2011 would have been a joint version between myself and my close mate (I won't mention names as she's easily embarrassed) ....

There's been a little bit of a lull on the old blog front. Hardly surprising really, like any diary ever written (maybe with the exception of Adrien Mole), it starts out like wildfire with entries about space, love, bands, music, the meaning of life before dripping off to what you ate last night before finally stopping all together.Years later, you dust it off and write about a paragraph covering the past decade, somewhat apologetically, before informing the audience (future you? children?) that you're now married to that boy who was last mentioned forty odd pages ago, and is no longer the 'pig' you last referred to him as. So to befalls the humble blog, fervent passion waning to an occasional ramble. Well no more, here comes the crescendo. Inspired by the amount of gigs my fellow colleagues have not been too (two in a lifetime...mind boggling), I opened the ticket stub archive and had a little reminisce. There's been some absolute gold, some over-hyped ...

And then there was no more.

Following on from the last post,  the British Recorded Music Industry (better known as the slightly confusing BPI, presumably because BRMI gives the impression of being a Brummie only society*) have released the official stats of all things music in 2012. The headlines? Well here it goes - contrary to popular belief cassettes are still out there. A record 604 were sold last year, albeit 480 of which were Feeder's single effort 'Borders'...the musical equivalent of discovering a long lost relic from the pyramids, shipping it back home only to cover it in shit and set fire to it while laughing manically. There was brighter news though, 270 Minidisc albums were sold. Yes sir. If you're not familiar with such things, they are essentially an encased smaller version of a CD; the musical equivalent of a tortoise if you will. God knows how they sold as many though, having not seen one in years I can only think some bloke called Alan is doing a roaring trade somewhere on a m...

So here it is, 2013. There’s been a notable gap between posts, which has probably ensured Sound of Music has gone on Blogger's scrapheap of unwanted blogs, abandoned after only two months of frantic, frenetic activity. Well. I’ve donned the golashes, swam in and rescued it from the wilderness. Sound of Music breathes again! Why the delay? Well, there’s a couple of lessons learnt from December – don’t move in the last month of the year, unless you want your possessions to be dusted lightly with snow and while you might be in by Christmas, never ever forget the vital step that hits you when you walk through your new front door – unpacking. Oh yes, Santa bought more than just presents, there was the greatest gift of all of finding your own possessions in the very last box checked, every time. Anyways, we’re in and now find ourselves in the New Year. Like many recent years, this again seems to be a cross-roads year for music. If you believe the scaremongers (not Simon Armitage’s b...

Not content with just blogging, am now tweeting (ocassionally). Still navigating between the rules of following followers, retweeting and/or favouriting,the fruits of the twitter chaos can be followed here: Follow @SoundofMusic86 That's right, a sexy button. That's all I have to show after an hour of google-searching. I'm not sure I get Twitter, but so far I have managed to amuse myself by bouncing off reality TV ideas with Teeside's finest band, the Chapman Family, and promote posts here. It's like a circle really. Anyways, see you there soon, yeah?

There's lots of controversy at the moment about the old X Factor marlarkey and the latest results saga that saw those two that can sing go against each other, whilst those two that can't sing sailed out of the studio safely through to the next round. You have to think though, somewhere along the way, people have lost the point. Yes, music is important, yes people who have a talent have every right to be lauded on screen and get that Christmas number 1 single with a song about love, loss of love, or working in a garage. But let's not get too hung up on the outrage that is a man singing badly while gyrating on stage going through at the expense of a brilliant warbler; after all, its worked for Robbie Williams on a massive scale. Up and down the land, there are people who have bought all manner of tat, ranging from Dutch pop nonsense Vengaboys to the glorious lack of talent that was Flat Eric, with a million grandmothers at some point having bought, or worse been given...

And so it begins, another blog clogging up over-jacked internet veins... Let's just clarify one thing, Sound of Music is the title because a) it'll broadly be the theme of the pixel posts above, as without music there's nothing and b) it's a Joy Division reference, one of the most important bands ever. Manchester bands. Always having a go. It's not, and never will be, a reference to the Judy Garland film. Sorry. And get over it. Ta!