Ride - 20 years on

I've written here before on Leave Them All Behind by Ride being my favourite ever song.  Ride's album Nowhere remains the best debut LP I've heard.  

To mark the 20th anniversary of their first EP, there's a nice article and interview with the band members in the latest edition of Nightshift - a free monthly Oxford music magazine.  You can download the magazine as a pdf from Nightshift (click the January 2010 edition) but if that link ever dies I've archived the pdf here.  

Ride didn't just change Oxford music forever.  They impacted on my life and many others around that time. 

The article is a good read for fans of the band but as a spoiler here's the last paragraph which addresses the nostalgic question we all want to ask.   

Hope springs…

Joy

 

Info here

BBC Caves in to Carter Ruck Threats Over Trafigura Film

Not something I thought I'd ever do here. Reposting an entry from a Tory blogger. By rights I should feel unclean. But Iain Dale is absolutely right about this. He's also a West Ham fan and that'll justify it in my head:

Carter-Ruck have succeeded in persuading the BBC to remove all reference to the Trafigura story from its website, according to the New Statesman. They really don't learn do they - Carter Ruck or the BBC. You cannot suppress things like this in the modern media age. If one organisation caves in, there will the dozens more only to willing to step up to the plate.

So do enjoy this Newsnight film, which I really wouldn't bother to have posted had the BBC not caved in.

Could I encourage every single UK blogger to embed this video in their blogs too?

Footnote: For the history of this saga click HERE.

UPDATE: The original Newsnight report, which is the one Trafigura really object to has now also been removed from Youtube. However, Wikileaks still have it for download HERE.

Note to self: Stop writing about Sugababes

You'd think that with Keisha leaving Sugababes I would stop mentioning them.  But how can I resist this? 

I haven't made up that picture.  There really is a website called www.sugababeslovewindows7.com  where the Sugababes...

...showcase just how simple Windows 7 is and how it helps them manage their busy showbiz lives. 

The videos are a very natural recreation of a typical conversation from these showbiz lives.  Of course they are. Judge for yourself.

If you can bear the prospect there are another 5 videos like this.

In the post Keisha Sugababes era it is good to know that new member Jade brings more than new vocal talent to the group. She can probably help Heidi with a diagnostic scan of her laptop's registry key settings.

All my Sugababes fantasies now appear plausible by comparison.

Described by popjustice as "very clearly the worst thing of all time", the site tries to promote a radio station event, the new lineup of a once great girl band, and the latest iteration of the world's most ubiquitous computer operating system.  That it fails to deliver on all fronts is, in a way, genius.  I love that the photos link on the site is just a Bing image search giving old pics of Mutya and Keisha.

At least when John Lydon advertised butter it was meant to be ridiculous.

Keisha, you got out just in time.

We have a new desktop background

ITV - Football (and Violence) United

Two months ago, I wrote about football trouble which had occurred at the West Ham versus Millwall Carling Cup tie. Amongst my reactionary ranting I highlighted that there was a romanticism attached to hooliganism that a whole new generation who had only just been born in the 1980s were now inheriting from their parents. 

I felt strongly that this romanticism is clearly enhanced if not justified by relentless films and documentaries which portray violence, antisocial behaviour, and disrespect as a way of life - something to be embraced.

Social problems run a lot deeper than I can outline in a few sentences and I'm not blaming ITV for this but boy they don't help.  They currently have a campaign promoting their football coverage in the UK under the banner "We Are Football United."

Now take a look at the schedule for ITV4 tonight: 

Yes that's right. Two games of football from the Europa League followed by the movie Green Street, and if that wasn't enough a documentary on fan rivalry in Croatia and Austria.

A point of disclosure - I haven't seen Green Street and in some ways my comments can be seen as ridiculous as the Christians who complained about Jerry Springer The Opera without seeing it and those who were furious with Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand without hearing their radio show.

I accept that there may be some very valid artistic merit in Green Street with social commentary on emotional ties / personal identities that develop in all male groups bonded together by violence.   

When the promotion of this art becomes intertwined with the promotion of football as sporting rivalry the lines between social commentary / art and glorification of violence become blurred. 

My point, and what I was trying to say two months ago, is that this film was directly marketed at those who see football hooliganism as a romantic aspiration. The very people who looked forward to the West Ham v Millwall match for reasons other than football.  The target audience and the commercial (not artistic) ambition of the movie sickens me, as does ITV's scheduling tonight.