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Monday, November 23rd, 2009

This Monday it’s the turn of Camera Obscura.  A band I’ve known the name of for a few years, but never known any songs of. I’m sure my colleague Calum Shanlin will pop up and inform me he knows the bassists cousin or something, he has his finger in every Scottish musical pie.

I was sitting patiently in the cinema last week waiting for The Fourth Kind to start. As ever Emma and I were there about an hour before the film began. I was enjoying the pre film CD that VUE cinemas pipe in to the auditoriums.  On came this 60’s sounding, almost Motown-esque track.  Thanks to the wonders of Shazam on my phone, I found the answer.

Shazam, by the way, is a service which has been around for about 6 or 7 years.  In the past you’d hear a song you like, phone 2580 on your mobile, play a bit of the song down the phone and it would text you back the name of the song.  Now a days modern smart phones can handle the Shazam application. Same idea in theory, except the application listens to a bit of the song, uploads it via the internet to the Shazam server and almost instantly gives you a response.  6 years on and I’m still impressed every time I use it.

The result that came back from Shazam was Camera Obscura, If Looks Could Kill. A track from January 2007. If I’d read January 1967 I’d have believed it.

Camera Obscura – If Looks Could Kill Get Adobe Flash player

By the way, for people who read this blog through Facebook, if you click the View Original Post link below, you will be transported to my blog where you can listen to these tracks that I post.



Tuesday, November 17th, 2009


The Proclaimers – playing the  Virgin Radio VIP tent, by James Cridland on Flickr

A week ago I blogged about seeing 3 gigs in 5 days. Not a spectacular challenge I know, but quite impressive for my non existent social life.

Those 5 days have been and gone and here’s the 2nd of those 3 bands.

For the record, going to see the Proclaimers was a work related freebie.  Record companies let you do that every now and again. They try to keep you sweet. They hope that in turn you will promote their bands by playing their tracks on the radio, despite the fact I have no say in what I play at all. If you are a promoter at a record company, ignore that last sentence entirely.

I’m telling you about the freebie because the Proclaimers were never a band I’d pay to see live. I only know 3 or 4 of their songs properly, and I always feel they’ve had a slightly cheesy stigma attached to them.  But hey ho, the gig was free and we duly went along.

What a fantastic show it was.  If I had known how good it was going to be, I’d have easily paid the £30 ticket price. Gig goers of all ages were there. From young 5 year old children right up to grandparents pushing 80.

So maybe their stage presence isn’t quite up their with what Liam and Noel once had.  Their in between song banter wasn’t the strongest, it mainly consisted of birthday dedications like you’d expect to hear on BBC local radio. And their introduction of songs went something along the lines of: “This is a song about coming home, and being about 3 days away”, and they’d then start playing their new song 3 Days From Home.

But that aside, the crowd bopping to “500 Miles” and “I’m On My Way”, and the almost anthemic singing to “Sunshine on Leith” made up for it.

I probably wouldn’t make the point of going to see the Proclaimers again. Once, all be it a good experience, was probably enough for me. But if you’ve never seen the Proclaimers, and you get the chance to go see them, I would whole heartedly recommend it.

Sunshine on Leith Get Adobe Flash player


Monday, November 16th, 2009

I’ve always enjoyed Bernard Sumner’s work.  Joy Division, New Order, Electronic, all fantastic bands.

I happened to come across Bad Lieutenant, Bernie’s newest band while listening to the excellent Radcliffe & Maconie show on Radio 2 a couple of months back.  Very Electronic-esque, but that’s no bad thing.

Sink or Swim is the first single from their debut album Never Cry Another Tear.  Like a lot of New Order’s most recent work, it’s hardly ground breaking, but it’s a nice, catchy, pleasant song that you enjoy hearing every now and again when it pops up in your music collection while in shuffle mode.

Sink or Swim Get Adobe Flash player


Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Whenever someone finds my blog through a search engine such as Google, the term they used to search with gets logged.  I can then read through all the search terms that have been used.  It makes exciting reading on a dull November day.

Here’s some of the common terms or questions asked in the last month along with the answer to them.

darren brown lottery
It was a con wasn’t it..? He never predicted the numbers, you cant, it’s impossible.

what time does Aberdeen College finish?
about 5pm, although it ultimately depends on what your timetable says.

car ferry aberdeen to norway
Afraid not. If only there was.  Emma hates flying.

baby meerkats at blair drummond
Well worth a visit. Very cute.

aberdeen to stavanger plane cruise height
I’m by no means an aviation expert but I would imagine about 12,000 ft?

asda statutory rights policy
Off the top of my head, I’m not sure..

bt payment processing fee
It’s about £5!! Outrage.  Pay by Direct Debit wherever you can kids.

edinburgh zoo a disgrace
It is..  a waste of money. Don’t go.

if i buy an iphone in uk can i use it with canadian sim?
Not unless it’s unlocked, which coincidently O2 are now doing for free..


Monday, November 9th, 2009

This is a trend I’ve noticed a few people do on Twitter, so I’m going to do it here on my blog. Every Monday recommend some music I like… and call it Music Monday.

So we’ll start today. With Idlewild. Seems only right seeing as my last blog post was about them.

These two tracks are from their latest album Post Electric Blues.  As I said in my last blog post, it’s not had the greatest reviews, but I think it’s up their with some of their finest work.

Post Electric Blues by Idlewild

Readers and Writers is probably the catchiest and most mainstream sounding song since You Held The World In Your Arms.

Take Me Back To The Islands shows a folky side to Roddy and Idlewild that I quite like.  If you like Take Me Back To The Islands then you should check out some of Roddy’s solo work.  I like to think this song is about Shetland, although it’s probably certain to say it’s not.

Readers & Writers Get Adobe Flash player

Take Me Back To The Islands Get Adobe Flash player

Hope you enjoy. More next Monday.