Category: Music

So long Scott, thank you for the music…

December 4, 2015

Scott Weiland, the former frontman of the band Stone Temple Pilots, passed away on the 3rd of December 2015, while touring with his current band “Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts“.

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This is a picture of singer Scott Weiland. Brazil, Dec, 2010. Credits – Humberto Bueno

As part of Stone Temple Pilots, and also the super group Velvet Revolver (which featured formers members of Guns n’ Roses), he had a formative influence on what music I grew up listening to and playing over my teenage and early twenties.

Songs like:

And the albums they came from, all made a lasting impression on my musical preferences and directions.  Memories like playing along on my guitar to Plush and Interstate Love Song, are still fresh.

As is seeing Velvet Revolver play live, their stage presence, and energy even in a vast arena stadium was immense. Scott Weiland as a frontman was awesome, to line up and share the stage with someone like Slash, takes both character and charisma.

Thank you Scott for the music, you will be missed.

LifeKids– “Dish Out The Money” – The Charity Single

June 23, 2014

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“Dish Out The Money”  – is a charity single done by +LifeKids Manchester  (children and children’s groups leaders) from LifeChurch Manchester – supporting 3 great charities which all have a connection with LifeChurch Manchester , involved in various communities and projects.

All well worth supporting!

Read more about what they do below.

LifeKids Manchester–Dish Out The Money

The Charities supported are:

City Centre Ministries (CCM)

The aim of CCM is to reach out to the marginalized in our city with the love and compassion of Christ. We believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that is the message we take out on a Wednesday and Saturday night.

City Centre Ministries

 

Hope For Justice

Hope for Justice is an anti-human trafficking organisation working to uncover and abolish the hidden crime of modern-day slavery.

Hope For Justice–Every Good Father

 

PepAids

PEPAIDS’ mission is to contribute to the reduction of poverty and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and to raise awareness, both within the affected communities and internationally, of the issues surrounding poverty and HIV/AIDS.

PepAids

BigChurchNightIn – Manchester

November 22, 2013

The BigChurchNightIn event (1st of 2) in Manchester tonight! (22nd Nov 2013)  (Looking forward to it loads!)

 

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It’s taking place at !Audacious Church Manchester, and will feature the !Audacious Church Band, and headline acts from Martin Smith and Leeland.

Here’s a video preview of the event:

BigChurchNightIn 2013–Martin Smith & Leeland

 

Martin Smith is of course well known as the lead singer from the group Delirious?

Leeland are a Christian rock band from Baytown, Texas

Here are a couple of my favourite tracks from Leeland:

Leeland – I Wonder

 

Leeland – Carry me on your back

There’s also the 2nd BigChurchNightIn event on the 5th of December – which features Stuart Townend and Philippa Hanna – so there’s another opportunity to catch some great music!

Sign2Sing – 2013

February 6, 2013

My eldest daughter took part in Sign2Sing 2013 this afternoon (Wednesday 6th February 2013).

On Wednesday February 6th 2013
at 2.45pm schools throughout the
UK and in other parts of the world
will sign2sing for SignHealth
and try to break a world record!

Here’s the video of the song with signing animation.

Sign 2 Sing Video

I’ll post an update to see, if the record was achieved.

“Alabama Pines”–Song of the Year | “The Civil Wars”- Duo/Group of Year –Americana Awards 2012

September 25, 2012

Two other major awards of the night went to what some might consider a new generation of roots artists, though none are strangers to the awards show or the Ryman stage. With original Big Star drummer Jody Stephens and former R.E.M. member Mike Mills presenting, Duo/Group of the Year honors went to The Civil Wars, who just last year were an Emerging Artist nominee and captivated the audience with a stripped down version of “Barton Hallow.” Before picking up the award, The Civil Wars’ Joy Williams and John Paul White also acted as presenters, handing Song of the Year honors to “Alabama Pines,” written by Isbell and performed by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Isbell was formerly of roots-rock workhorse Drive-By Truckers. He also performed the song on the show. (article link)

As you can see from the press excerpt, a couple of my favourite groups won at this years’ Americana Awards.

Check out the Alabama Pines (Jason Isbell), and 20 Years (The Civil Wars) videos.

Alabama Pines–Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
20 Years–The Civil Wars

Great music is out there!

Slash–rock episodes on BBC Radio 2

April 17, 2012

A serendipitous find for me – as I happened to hear part of this, on the way home last Thursday night.

This particular episode’s available on BBC iPlayer until April 19th.

BBC Radio 2 rocks out with one of the most iconic guitarists of all time. From AC/DC and Aerosmith to Metallica and Motorhead, Slash presents an hour of heavy riffs and soaring vocals.

Click here or the image for BBC iPlayer link

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It seems there will be six episodes altogether : ( this is part #1)

This spring, Radio 2 rocks out for six weeks with one of the most iconic guitarists of all time, Slash. The rock music legend and former Guns N’ Roses guitarist presents six episodes of the music that changed his life and inspired him to pick up a Les Paul.

All I can say is “Nice one BBC!, I’ll be listening.”  Smile

27 Million (Matt Redman & LZ7) Track and Campaign

March 1, 2012

Noticed that Spotify had the 27 Million track on its recommendation list today:

 

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Found out more about this campaign to abolish slavery (Yes it’s still a massive problem!)

27 Million Campaign

facebook_icon  Facebook  & twitter_icon Twitter

See what Ben Cooley from Hope for Justice has to say about this track and campaign:

Ben Cooley–Hope for Justice

Track is available on Amazon and Itunes.

Music Streaming Service Competition

February 3, 2012

My musical playback history Feb 2011- Feb 2012

An Infographic of my musical playback history Feb 2011- Feb 2012 from lastgraph 

I only recently wrote about the recent apps integration within the Spotify client (link).

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So it was with interest I learnt of the new music service from The Lounge.

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The Lounge is a full music streaming service with a large on-demand music album catalogue,  play back from commercial and public broadcast services and audio hardware integration with Pure Radio devices.

The fact The Lounge has a several artists that are absent from Spotify (e.g. Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Pink Floyd) and the direct hardware support, make it a very interesting proposal.

The subscription for the full service – support of streaming your playlists etc. to devices and playing music on-demand is available for a reasonable £4.99/month*. (*only in available in the UK) 

So it does make good competition for Spotify at least in the UK.

Will I move service?

No, not at present. I am not ready to move across.  Why?

Well primarily because of the application and social integration that is present in Spotify, I know some people have baulked at the requirement to have a Facebook account to use Spotify. (link)

    • However, that integration with Facebook is a feature I enjoy and appreciate. 
    • Also the integration with Last.fm is also very important, the ability to scrobble and build my play list into Last.fm is important from a personal viewpoint of tracking my own journey through music.

Finally the effort of curation and assembling playlists all over again, is a barrier too far.   Not inconsiderably effort has gone into their assembly and now they’re created in Spotify, they are shareable and subcribable.  To lose that library of musical taste and disconnect from the sphere of musical sharing is not something I can not stomach. 

The Infographic from lastgraph (at the top of the post) is a great example of the app and service I benefit from the extensibility from Spotify and Last.fm – the “limitations” in catalogue are bearable for service amenities such as these.

I don’t have any playback devices for Spotify apart from the PC | Laptop but there are audio device options (e.g. Logitech) which I have put on that “wish list”. Smile

So what do you think?  Is the The Lounge  for you?

Spotify – now with in built Apps

January 27, 2012

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Spotify actually announced this last year (link).

However, as a user I just recently received the update.

This is a cool update to a favourite app of mine.

It makes services like Last.fm much more integrated and useful, and helps fuel useful recommendations and sharing.

This video offers a great introduction:

Spotify Apps Video Introduction

Learn more >> here

It’s clear that the services integration “the app-store mind set” is coming through more and more.   There is a clear move to application extensions within applications.