According to this article on the LA Times blog, pop legend Prince (or TAFKAP or Symbol or whatever he is called these days) studies the good book with, and here's the dramatic twist, his homosexual friends.

The controversy over a recent New Yorker "Talk of the Town" item, which Prince feels implied he supported the gay-marriage ban, has upset him... "I have friends that are gay and we study the Bible together," he said.

You see?  Religious and in-with-the-gays.  If any other international rock stars would like a gay as an accessory, just leave a comment below and I'll reply in due course.  Apart from Bono.  And any members of Def Leppard.

(Thanks for Stereogum for pointing me towards this.)

Labels: music, religion

Good morning!

Labels: camping, music, nonsense

The Greenbelt festival has relaunched it's website, so I took a few moments this lunchtime to see which bands would be playing at Christendom's most cutting edge event.

Okay, nothing about music on the front page. 'Shop and talks', 'resources' and the like. Ah, what about the coloured buttons at the top, above the cosy picture of families enjoying the sun on the edge of a seminar tent? Nothing there: I'll just click 'line-up'.

I seem to have landed on the Soul Survivor website by mistake. Are those people worshipping or clapping a band? The main links say 'youth', 'children's festival', 'all-age', 'talks', 'visual arts'...

...ah, hold on, it finally mentions music!

"And remember, Greenbelt is much more than a music festival." At the bottom right corner of the page. Under the link to previous years' events.

Oh.

Greenbelt continues to be my 'spiritual home' in many ways, and I understand most bands haven't been confirmed yet. But if the website's focus is representative of how the festival wants to be seen, I can't help thinking it's become anything but a music festival - with a smattering of good bands if us punters are lucky.

Labels: greenbelt, music

Labels: burning watsits, guardian, music, southwark cathedral, tim footman

Neil the hippy on the Young Ones once worried that he was "beginning to feel like a Leonard Cohen record, cause nobody ever listens to me".

And then, of course, Shrek came along and everyone got into Hallelujah.

It was the greatest song in the world when I first heard it, and it is the closest I have ever been to liking music that LauraHD likes.

You may think there's the Leonard Cohen version and the Jeff Buckley version. But no. Apparently, the song has a long history.

A looooong history.

To read it all, every last bit of it, every last moment of its life from its early live appearances to its use in Scrubs and the OC, read Clap Clap's exhaustive history of Hallelujah, including graphs for the number of cover versions and the rise and wane of radio plays.

In fact, the graphs are so geeky, I post one of them here... with a few helpful lines added by me...


Okay. Not so helpful.

Labels: leonard cohen, music

OK, it's nothing like the last post, but this too was also lurking at the bottom of my inbox, waiting for a wider audience...

I *know* it sounds like it should be a ridiculous mess, but I just think there's something about it that works.

Go listen.


technorati tag: turin brakes, nessun dorma

Labels: music

Anton Corbijn’s Ian Curtis/ Joy Division film, Control, lived up to (very high) expectations last night. Beautifully crafted and shot, it was a period piece as much as any Merchant Ivory - the difference being this was Macclesfield, Salford and Manchester in the 1970s.

Of course, knowing the ending made it a very intense experience from the off. But Corbijn's tenderness and vision made me ache and finally weep for that damaged young man, isolated and alone despite (because of?) his fame.

It was an ultimately fatal, bad mix - the lows of epilepsy, medication, marriage and adultery, and the itinerant lifestyle of the music scene. But as needed, there was humour writ right through it all – not least, a brilliant one-liner about The Fall’s Mark E Smith.

To complete the full Mancunian experience, there was also a fist fight in the cinema during the screening last night! A drunk bloke, who was heckling, commentating and singing (!) his way through the film, finally got shouted at by another bloke down the front and a spot of bother ensued. And I have to say, after we’d escaped the film having got through the rest in reverent silence, we thought it had rather added to both the tension and the moment...


technorati tag: control

Labels: film, music

Things that you might have missed during the Mercury Music Prize, and the mania following Klaxons win (did you know that the Guardian gave their album a one star review in January?!):

Jools Holland pocketed the cheque before announcing the winner, and produced later on whilst interviewing the band to genuinely delight cries of “The cheque! The cheque!!”. I thought the Stormtrooper-style plaster cast added to the vaguely futuristic gold lame look the band had been sporting. And they appear to have Edward Scissorhands as a drummer…


In other notable Mercury nonsense:

Seb Rochford – aka The Hair!

Fionn Regan – his acceptance speech: “From the trenches and the moats, for this drawbridge, thanks.”

Natasha Khan – where does her voice come from? Spooky.

Young Knives – suited and booted in a city slicker version of their usual country jacket attire.

Only the Arctic Monkeys weren’t there to perform live - shame. That’s what winning the Mercury does – means you get so big you have to tour the US.

Everyone else did admirably but nothing more or less than we expected of them, namely, Jamie T, The View, New Young Pony Club, Maps, and Dizee Rascal.

And at last and least, we come to Amy – in her very own “she was there” shocker! She was also sounding and looking good, but the classic moment, caught on camera but off mic, was her mouthing to Jools post-performance, “Have I won?”

Amy, Amy, Amy – what is there left to say? Instead I’ll direct you to the prescient lyrics (given that Amy’s aged only 23) of Sir Andrew of Lloyd Webber in Evita’s High Flying Adored:

High flying, adored, what happens now, where do you go from here?
For someone on top of the world, the view is not exactly clear.
A shame you did it all at twenty-six.
There are no mysteries now,
Nothing can thrill you, no-one fulfill you.

High flying, adored, I hope you come to terms with boredom -
So famous, so easily, so soon, is not the wisest thing to be.
You won't care if they love you, it's been done before.
You'll despair if they hate you, you'll be drained of all energy.
All the young who've made it would agree.


technorati tag: mercury music prize

Labels: music

"You’ll never see the hacienda. It doesn’t exist. The hacienda must be built."


I suspect Tony Wilson's funeral notice should have read: "Flowers, or donations to Christies. But please, no tribute gigs..."


technorati tag: tony wilson, the hacienda

Labels: manchester, music

This is the new single God Is Green by punk-dance beat combo Alloy Mental, remixed by Belfast boy wonder Phil Kieran (yes, Stephen, there's more than one).

The single's out on Monday. Expect a storming Glastonbury set later this year.

Labels: environment, music

Labels: manchester, music, spirituality