Boards of Canada

I really like their music - took me a long time to get into the "headspace".
They are absolutely amazing on so many levels & they happen to be from Edinburgh as far as I know. :)

A Coral Room

Really beautiful song - Kate Bush is amazing, this must have been hard for her to sing. Few people can get such a warm & sensitive sound from the piano...

Dudley Moore

My friend Ryan showed me this the other day, absolute classic Dudley Moore!

Simon Cowell

Why do I not like this guy & his TV shows?

Not content with being just a multi-millionaire Mr.Cowell has expanded his empire to include TV shows where he not only enjoys humiliating the (often mentally ill?) contestants but also has the audacity to be the self appointed judge of people's musical talents, despite being clearly tone deaf & possessing *no* proven musical abilities of his own - all condescendingly served up with a level of sarcasm that no-one in their right mind would endure during the course of a normal conversation.

I love the way towards the end of each season that he starts to overtly praise the last remaining contestants (no matter what harsh put downs he's given them along the way) because he knows that at least one of them will soon be releasing a chart topping C.D. fueled by the show's popularity that will make him even more money in addition to all the revenue coined from the public phone-ins.

Does this seem anti-competitive, lame & blatantly false to anyone else but me?

Bill Gates and Microsoft get slapped down and fined every couple of months for practices a lot less monopolizing than this but it's totally acceptable & normal in the music industry it seems.

I saw him say to a contestant on a recent show - "You had all the Beatles songs to choose from and you chose a song about a Blackbird..?"

Sigh.

More Stoyan!

I found some footage of Stoyan playing drums - he makes this look so easy...

Prefab Sprout - "We Let The Stars Go"

Prefab Sprout have been one of my favourite bands for the last 14 years or so now...this song comes from the album "Jordan The Comeback" - one of the most lyrically and sonically amazing records ever made...(produced by Thomas Dolby).

The lead singer and song writer Paddy McAloon is simply a genius - I read recently that he has a severe medical condition leading to a deterioration of his eyesight...I hope he's going to be OK!

Ivo Papazov & his wedding band

I can't believe some of the things these guys can play - you probably have to grow up playing that music from a young age to have any realistic chance of getting to that level. I know weddings can last for several hours there with non-stop music throughout- that would get your chops up pretty fast! We tried to play music with these influences in Bruford's Earthworks - just getting through the melody alone was usually a major achievement!