Music Blog

Some local politicians know nothing about music, if the reactions to a proposal to give Ozzy Osborne the freedom of Birmingham are anything to go by.

One councillor, John Hemmingway, told reporters: “Frankly the idea of Osbourne as a role model is laughable. If we want to give the honour to musicians, UB40 would be a far better vote.”

I find it sad that heavy metal has never been accepted as a valid part of rock music in Britain, perhaps a reason why bands like Black Sabbath have never had the recognition they deserve in their own country. And heavy metal was very much Birmingham’s contribution to music. ELO? How many bands can you name that cite ELO as major influence? Black Sabbath more or less invented heavy metal as we know it today, and their influence goes far beyond the metal scene. Without them, I can’t imagine punk sounding the way it did.

What are UB40 in comparison, apart from being politically-correct reggae-lite? If you want to honour reggae bands from Birmingham, there are plenty of far better bands to choose from. UB40 are nothing but commercial pop fluff; most of their hits were covers anyway.

Face it, Cllr John Hemmingway, Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward are to Birmingham what Paul, John, George and Ringo were to Liverpool. If Liverpool can have the John Lennon International Airport, then Birmingham should have the Tony Iommi International Airport.

A bulky envelope plopped through the letterbox this morning. It contained something I’l almost given up for lost, a copy of “The Top Heavy Metal Songs of All Time” by Martin Popoff, sent by blogger Andrew Ian Dodge. Somehow it managed to take a month and a half to get from New England to Old England!

I opened to book at random, and came to #473, Anthrax’s “Madhouse”. Although it’s not in my record collection, it’s a song has some very special memories for me. Back in 1986 I was living under the same roof as my brother, and every Saturday morning I would be awoken by the words “Time for your medication, Mr Brown”, followed by loud maniacal laughter, and then that monster of a riff.

Revealed! The awful truth about the RIAA File-Sharing Amnesty. (link from Samizdata)

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Dizzee Rascal wins Mercury

Unlike some people, I never expected The Darkness to win. They might have been the best band, a blast of fresh air in the currently stale British music scene, but they were never going to be trendy enough for the Mercury judges. And there’s also the rule that the favourite never wins.

On My Stereo: The new album “Watching the Storms” by Steve Hackett. I’ll give this a couple more spins before attempting to write a review, since “Darktown” took me a while to get into. This one’s a bit more accessible, and I think a slightly better album.

I managed avoid spending any more money on N-gauge rolling stock to clutter up my already overfull layout, but unfortunately for my bank balance I did make it as far as HMV in Stockport and binge on CDs instead, and ended up with the new album “Bananas” from veteran rockers Deep Purple, “Dream Harder” by The Waterboys (I’ll blame that on HH), and “Damnation” by Opeth (to be blamed on Marty Dodge) I’ll try and post reviews once I’ve had a chance to listen to them all; I’m quite impressed with the Deep Purple one.

In response to this rather silly Worst of All Time list, here are five artists I think belong in rock’s hall of shame. And I haven’t started on annoying novelty acts like Joe Dolce.

Phil Collins
He was okay when he was merely the drummer of the best of the 70s crop of prog-rock bands. But then he spent the next decade dismissing the music he himself had made the decade before, while releasing turgid albums of maudlin ballads and dreadful watered-down soul covers that sold in lorry-loads to people with no taste called Kevin. And he took the ‘credit’ for turning that same sublime prog-rock bands from the 70s into one of the worst examples of bland, corporate stadium rock, sold to those same Kevins.

Sledgehammer
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal gave the world Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and, er, Saxon. There were a vast number of other bands in the ‘scene’, including this lot from my home town, Slough. I felt I had to support them as our local heroes, and for a while I was in denial over just how bad this talentless ‘power trio’ were. I even endured them live three times. The last time I saw them play, in the Student Union of what was then Slough College of Further Education, the venue burned down a few hours later in the middle of the night, presumably to stop them ever coming back.

Boney M
Rah Rah Rasputin! Russia’s greatest Sex Machine! Brought to you by the same people that were later to give us Milli Vanilli. Do they represent the grimmest barrel-scrapings of 70s disco, or the primordial ancestors of Euro-Cheese? Not exactly Germany’s finest contribution to global culture.

The Smiths
The English music press, so long the enemies of all that’s good in music, have an official policy that the sun shines out of Morrisey’s backside. If I read one more hagiographical article declaring that pop music is dead because no-one can beat the ‘perfection’ of The Smiths, I’m going to throw up.

Rod Stewart
Rumour has it there was once, in ancient days when men were men and beer was one-and-six a pint, a time when Rod Stewart was a significant rock artist rather than a horrible cheesy self-parody. If there was such a time, it was before mine. There is a special circle of hell dedicated to anyone that can release a record quite as awful as his “D’ya think I’m sexy”. During the 70s he was a tax exile in America, and stated that he would return to Britain if the Tories won the election and lowered taxes. This gave rise to the election slogan “Vote Labour to keep Rod Stewart out!”. An argument for why we should never have allowed Hadrian’s Wall to fall into disrepair.