Author Archives: Tim Hall

When Empires Fall

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Tim Hall

When Empires Fall is the new project from Paul Teasdale, formerly of Breathing Space and Stolen Earth. They describe themselves as “nu-progressive” and something that ought to appeal to lovers of classic rock.

No word (yet) of the full lineup of the band, but their facebook page (they don’t have a website yet) states that they’re due to release the self-titled debut album in the Spring 2013, with their first download single in February.

Give the promo (above) a listen, and see what you think. It’s an instrumental version of the track “Trial of Theseus” which will be on the album.

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If Twitter is anything to go by, the way to scare prog-rock drummers is to start talking about Furries.

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

I know Kermit the Frog? Really?

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Tim Hall

This might just be an artifact of LinkedIn’s algorithm, but it does make it look as if somebody’s test data has escaped into the wild.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

I mean, five out of the first six are comedy parody accounts. And a couple of names I’ve used as test data in my own testing too. What’s going on here?

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JLS Britain’s hardest-working band? Churnalism at it’s worst

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Tim Hall

The story that boy-band JLS have been named “Hardest Working Band” by the Performing Rights Society is making just about every music fan and musician in my circle of friends throw up the hands in despair.

To call an act who have played 34 gigs in 2012 the “Hardest working band” is surely an insult to actual real hard-working musicians, the sort of people who slog round the clubs and theatres and form the backbone of real music in this country. As a friend on Twitter has pointed out, John Otway plays 200 gigs a year at the age of 60. The whole thing smacks of “biggest moneyspinner for PRS” rather than a reflection of any actual amount of work.

The way this non-story is all over the media is a textbook example of so-called “churnalism”, the process by which vapid PR guff is translated into column inches without any actual journalism having taken place. It’s risible nonsense to anyone whose knowledge of music goes beyond what’s available on the shelves of ASDA, and doesn’t exactly do much for PRS’s credibility, let along the media outlets that unquestioningly repeated the story.

Shame on everyone who had any part in this charade.

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English Electric (Part Two) on Pre-order!

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Tim Hall

Big Big Train announce the pre-order for English Electric (Part Two), the follow-up to the highly acclaimed English Electric Part One.

Big Big Train continues its journey across the English landscape with an album of seven new songs which tell further tales of the men and women who work on and under the land. Along the way, stories are told of the shipbuilders in Neptune’s Yard, of a machine that burned its legend across the pages of the history books, of a keeper of abbeys and a curator of butterflies, and of a second chance at love.

Part One was one of my top five albums of 2012, and I have every expectation that the second part will be every bit as good. Whatever the fate of high street music chains, there’s nothing quite like supporting real music by real musicians by buying direct from the artist.

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Adam Dawson leaves Stolen Earth

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Tim Hall

Stolen Earth at the 2012 Cambridge Rock Festival

It’s always this time of year we get announcements like this…

Hi,

I’m writing this update to tell you that I’ve made the difficult decision to take a step back from Stolen Earth. I feel that with work and family commitments, I can no longer give the band the attention it deserves. However, I’ve had some truly wonderful times and memories over the past 3 years which I will take with me and never forget.

Joining Breathing Space back in 2010 was an incredible experience which led to one of my proudest musical moments; the release of ‘A Far Cry From Home’ last year with Stolen Earth. But meeting so many great people on the way has been equally amazing. To get to know such generous and loyal supporters of original music has been a humbling experience and one which gives me a lot of optimism for the future. This certainly won’t be the end; not for Stolen Earth or for me – I’m hoping to use the ‘down-time’ to work on the many ideas that are floating around my head for new songs and so I’m sure this won’t be the last you’ll hear from me!

I’d like to wish Barry, Chris, Heidi and John all the very best for the future, and I’m sure I’ll see many of you at some gig or other very soon!

Best wishes,

Adam Dawson

Adam’s distinctively atmospheric guitar playing was an important ingredient of Stolen Earth’s sound, and he made a big contribution to the songwriting on the band’s superb début album “A Far Cry From Home”. He’ll be a hard act to follow.

The band added their statement:

He has been a real asset to the band and will be greatly missed, we wish him every success for the future. Of course we will continue and have started work on our second album. We look forward to seeing you all later in the year.

Heidi, Barry, Chris and John x

It’s never easy for bands at this level juggling their musical actities around work and family responsibilities, and in some ways it’s remarkable that some bands can keep stable lineups together as long as they do.

As a fan I naturally hope Stolen Earth bounce back stronger than ever with a new lineup, and wish Adam all the best in whatever musical projects he does next.

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Thin Lizzy and UFO are two great bands who still seem to be overlooked by rock historians. Was this because their best years coincided with the heyday of punk, so they don’t fit neatly into the default rock narrative of punk replacing everything that had gone before?

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Tim Hall | 3 Comments

Why the old-style record business is circling the drain

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Tim Hall

Last weekend I bought a CD in HMV’s sale, Yes’ “90125″, a record I owned on vinyl but a gap in my CD collection. When I tried to play it using the CD drive on my laptop, it was unlistenable, with horrible distorted buzzing sound all the way through.

I assumed the disk was faulty, took it back and HMV exchanged it without question. The replacement disk played without problems on the big stereo in the living room, with all that big 1980s Trevor Horn production reproduced perfectly. But when I tried to play it this morning on the computer in my home office, that distorted buzzing was back. Just like the first disk, and along with another album purchased at the same time, the record was effectively unplayable.

Turns out, after a little research in Google, that the reason that distorted buzzing was that they’re both crippled with DRM. Significantly neither disk carries the Compact Disk logo, so technically speaking neither are actually CDs, since their encoding is not compliant with the Compact Disk specification.

In the year 2013, when I purchase music, I don’t expect to have to pay twice just for the privilege of being able to listen to it in more than one room of the house. Since DRM has fallen out of favour even with the most clueless of labels I can only assume it’s old stock which should have been withdrawn from sale and ground up for use as road foundations in China. Most technically-savvy customers would consider format-shifting of legally-purchased music to be an basic consumer right in 2013, regardless of what Warner Bros’ lawyers would like the situation to be.

So what should I do? Return the two not-CDs and demand my money back, which is a bit of lose-lose situation since I won’t have the music and HMV won’t have my money. Or just go and do what everyone else would do and bittorrent the bloody things?

Yes, musicians. This is why people bittorrent rather than buy music legally. But I assume that most of you already know that.

Posted in Music Opinion | Tagged | 11 Comments

Mini-Module idea – Llugwy

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Tim Hall

image from Google Maps

I’ve been wondering about this location for a mini-module based layout. It’s on the Cambrian line between Machynlleth and Dovey Junction where the line follows the river, and happens to be the exact spot where I used to watch trains on family holidays in 1973 and 74. The rolling stock at the time was a mix of DMUs and loco-hauled trains using class 24 locomotives, and I’ve got as far as acquiring a blue class 24, some Dapol gunpowder vans (the signature item for the line) and blue 101 and 108 DMUs for the project.

Looking at the meander of the river and the track curving in the opposite direction, it does make me think of a corner module. The problem is published mini-module standards use Kato’s #2 curves (249mm radius, about 9½”) which in my opinion is far too sharp for scenic modules, although the rolling stock of course has no problems negotiating them.

One option might be to use a much wider radius. The modularity of Kato Unitrack means that if you want an oval, you can build corner modules any radius you like as long as you build the things in pairs. So you could build a rugby-ball shaped layout with two sceniced corners using 381mm (approx 15″) radius corner boards, and two non-scenic 249mm corners. The whole thing will of course be little more than a scenic test track, capable of being set up on the dining room table when required.

Posted in Modelling Projects | Tagged | 1 Comment

Get Well Soon, Trevor Bolder

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Tim Hall

Press release from Uriah Heep.

Trevor Bolder is going into hospital for an operation which will require several months’ recuperation. Everyone connected with Uriah Heep wishes Trevor a speedy operation and recovery, and Trevor’s wishes are that the band should carry on without him, until he is fit and ready to come back.

Venerated bass player John [JJ] Jowitt has agreed to deputise for Trevor at short notice, to ensure that the band’s show in Israel at the end of January can still go ahead

Having spent 20 years with IQ, plus varying stints with Ark, Arena, Jadis, Frost and other respected bands, John is renowned for his on-stage charisma and has won Classic Rock Society’s Bass poll on no less than 10 separate occasions.

Mick Box said:- “We all wish Trevor a speedy return to the fold, and in the meantime we are very pleased that JJ has agreed to step in and cover Trev’s unique bass panache, so crucial to Heep’s sound. JJ will also contribute to the signature 5-part vocal operatics”.

John Jowitt said:- “I have long been an admirer of Trevor Bolder’s iconic playing, and it is a huge honour to be asked to stand in for one of the all-time greats of the bass. I intend to bring due respect to the legend that is Uriah Heep, and I hope I can do justice to Trevor’s presence, both on and off stage”.

We know all of you out there will support Trevor and the Band as we move forward together into 2013. Trevor will use his recuperation period to write songs for the new Uriah Heep album, the follow up to Into The Wild, which will be put together in the next 12 months.

As a long-standing fan of Uriah Heep who once (briefly) met Trevor Bolder, I wish him a speedy and full recovery from the operation. Although Trevor is not a founding member of the band and wasn’t on some of their classic early albums, his time in the band does go right back to the 70s, and he’s an important part of what makes the current band Uriah Heep. And he’s a damned fine bass player. He wouldn’t have played bass for David Bowie if he wasn’t.

I’m sure the multiple winner of the Best John Jowitt Award will be a worthy stand-in in the meantime.

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