Clive Burr has died, after a 12-year battle with Multiple Sclerosis. He died peacefully in his sleep. He was 56.

( He was kind of a big deal for me back in '82 )

A few years ago former XTC guitarist Dave Gregory put together a new band, Tin Spirits. Initially it was just a chance to play live again and indulge in some classic prog covers. I saw them back then, and rather good they were too.

But since then they've started doing their own material too. Their debut album Wired To Earth is now available; it's ( Read more... )

Earlier today Hugh Laurie broadcast a live performance of several tracks from his first musical project. He's hardly the first actor to make the leap to music, and it was obvious from the diverse range of musical parodies he performed in A Bit Of Fry & Laurie that he's pretty damn talented. And while Too Long Johnny may be a parody, strip away the ( Read more... )

Mitch Benn's Proud Of The BBC is out today!

Nice little review here, which poses the question: Novelty song, or Protest song? Hadn't occurred to me before, but the Dylan-esque use of cards certainly resonates with the latter.

You can download it from Amazon. Or iTunes. Or Play.com. Or Musicishere.com. And probably others.

On thursday and friday I caught a train into London to spend two very pleasant evenings with saintmaryuk and doctorstewie. Mary invited me on the thursday, but I had a lads' night out planned so she suggested friday. Then my thursday plan fell through at the last minute so I went to London both nights instead ( Read more... )

( In which I meet shimgray, and also Dar Williams )

...are ever more rapidly turning into Queen.

Gacked via tyrell from here.

"David Pesetsky, the Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics at MIT, is also the principal second violin in the New Philharmonia Orchestra of Massachusetts. For their 4/1/2009 rehearsal, he provided English translations for the sometimes-confusing performance instructions in Mahler's 1st Symphony."
Even ( Read more... )

Step 1: Put your iPod/media player on random ( Read more... )

I still get weary fairly easily, but I'm getting a bit more active, and therefore being housebound is starting to chafe just a little. I'm not ready to drive, though, and I'm not up to walking anywhere useful, so I'm a little stuck. I'm tempted to persuade a nearby friend to pick me up and let me shop around Asda; it'll be cheaper than ordering ( Read more... )