Last weekend I was staying in this great little hotel on looe. I had gone away to meet up with some old friends and we decided that going down to Cornwall for a long weekend would be a great idea. I always take my mp3 away with me because I love to be able to plug the speakers in and set the mood to things with some great tunes. We met up and decided to have an evening barbeque on the beach as the sun was shinning and there is no better way to chill out and have fun. We found a nice little spot on the in the sand dunes and set up the barbeque, put on some music and had a really good afternoon. There was one song in particular that has been stuck in my head ever since then - ’Tonight’s the kind of night'by Noah and the whale. This is a great feel good song that really had us all singing along and dancing around on the beach, burger in hand. Noah and the Whale’s new album ‘Last on earth'is peppered with feel good, sing along songs to lift the mood and make you feel great about life. If you are not familiar with them I strongly recommend you check them out now, and to make things even better they are touring this year in October, so head online or to your nearest ticket booth and get buying. This isn’t a gig you want to miss out on!

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Good music means different things to different people just as white diesel has various meaning to those in that line of business. Good music can be the choice of genre or even how and where one listens to it. I am a fan of rock music but I do not consider a lot of them as good music. These days, most of the rock songs that can be considered as good music are those sung by the bands form the 70’s, 80’s and a few of present day bands that started from back then as well. This is my personal opinion; it is necessary to say this because I have friends who do not agree with my opinion of good music. I have a friend who listens to thrash/heavy metal and nothing else sounds good. To her, slow music is not cool; therefore it is not good music.

How you listen to music adds to the goodness as well. Using my friend as an example again; there is no point in listening to her thrash metal songs on a low volume since she sees quiet songs as not good enough. That is for her anyway and it does not mean people who don’t agree with her view do not know the true meaning of good music. Moving on to where we listen to music, I bet a few people agree to the fact that some songs are best listened to on radio than when you play it by yourself. There are also songs that I do not like to hear on radio; such songs are strictly meant for an i-Pod. How do you like yours?

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There has been lots of media coverage of the Royal wedding here in the UK – and lots of talk about the correct etiquette for those “lucky” enough to be attending the happy event. Things like don’t use your mobile roaming charges to call your relatives abroad from inside the church, don’t burp in front of the Queen and definitely don’t ask Kate if she fancies any of the rugby players in attendance…
It started me thinking about gig etiquette. OK, so attending a music gig is not quite the same kind of social occasion as a Royal wedding, but over the years I have seen some atrociously boorish behaviour at gigs. And have also seen how that behaviour can ruin a great night out for the others who are just there to watch their favourite band.
One of the worst, as far as I’m concerned, is the quite recent craze of throwing half-full pints of beer skywards, vaguely towards the stage, but the liquid usually just sprays all over other gig attendees! It’s not just annoying for people who get a pint of warm beer all over their head, it can be pretty dangerous too. One gig I was working at had a lot of keyboards, and one of those pints managed, somehow, to cover them in liquid, so they couldn’t then be used for the rest of the gig. These guys (The Killers) were true pros, and the show went on, but a lot of the songs had to be dropped or changed, so the paying customers didn’t get the show they deserved!
Another example of bad behaviour at gigs is talking. Why pay £30 to see a live band if you’re just going to chat to your mate all the way through songs? It’s just about forgiveable if you’re going to see a loud rock band, when a little chatter is just annoying, but I’ve been to see acoustic gigs where some of the crowd have been talking so loudly, I’m sure the guys on stage can hear them too! If you want to talk to your pals while you listen to music, please stay at home and put the CD on!!

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True music fans should recognize that title as the name of an album by the sublime Scottish band, Teenage Fan club, one of my favourite bands from north of the border. Actually, I have quite a lot of Scottish music in my CD collection – and I don’t mean bagpipes and that hurdy-gurdy stuff that you dance around to in your kilt! It’s surprising how many great bands have come out of Scotland.
One of the most underrated is The Proclaimers; who some of my unkind friends suggest would benefit from the experience of my English teaching jobs. Famous for the football anthem “500 miles” and the political polemic “Letter for America”. They were one of the first musical acts to sing with their own accents, something which is almost considered cool now, especially since the Arctic Monkeys started doing it.
There’s a whole music scene in Scotland outside of the central belt cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow too. OK, a lot of the bands that come from the outer reaches are more “folk” then “rock” if you had to pigeon-hole them, but the Fife singer and musical entrepreneur King Cresote probably couldn’t care less which category you stick him in as long as keep selling records! You may bot have heard of him, but his Fence Collective launched the career of fellow Fifer KT Tunstall, and she still makes regular appearances on his records.
One of my favourite Scottish bands hail from the bleak northern city of Aberdeen. I’ve only been to Aberdeen once and it rained horizontally the whole time. With that in my mind, it’s easy to see why Aberdonians The Xcerts have relocated to Essex to launch their music career. They’re one of those bands that do intelligent rock; strong melodies, lyrics that tell stories and they don’t feel the need to cover themselves in black eye make-up. After all, eyeliner on boys isn’t very Scottish, is it?

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I can be a bit of an evangelist when it comes to my favorite bands and singers, constantly singling their praises and forcing people to listen to tracks until they admit that they sound great. Sometimes I feel like I’m just not getting my message out far and wide enough; perhaps I need to employ some sort of email marketing software to make sure I don’t miss out any of my mates when it comes to my latest musical discovery!
My latest cause is the Glasgow band Admiral Fallow, though you’ll probably be out off if I tell you that iTunes classifies them as “Folk”. I can understand where that label comes from – after all, there’s lots of harmonies, kooky instruments and unrequited love – but that could easily be country music too, right? Or has that just put you off them even more?
Well, it shouldn’t. For a start, there’s nothing wrong with good country music and these guys are just too brilliant to miss out on. They’ve just been signed to the impressive Fence Records in Scotland, home to the innovative and engaging King Creosote, who has taken the young band somewhat under his wing.
I saw them live the other day and you can really hear the Fife troubadour’s influence on lead singer’s Louis Abbot’s already whimsical lyrics. Whereas on their debut album, Boots Met My Face, the songs could sometimes lack direction, the new stuff they played at the gig was much tighter, with real (and often funny) stories to tell. Couple that with some impressive double bass playing and happy tunes that I challenge you not to dance to, and we have a winner for 2011. Let’s just hope the great British record-buying public aren’t put off by that misleading “Folk” tag!

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Now I don’t know much about designer jewellery but I do know a lot about digital music. Here are some of my predictions for the coming year for online music:

1/ Bands will more than likely stop using Myspace as sooner or later musicians will go onto a new platform to show off their music. There is one called Bandcamp which is becoming increasing popular because this platform makes it easy to make money for the bands without iTunes taking any of the cut. I predict that bands will go onto Myspace much more, as they can build proper pages on there.

2/ Google’s music store is going to launch this year but it won’t be as big is we are lead to believe. Also iTunes in the cloud, which is supposed to be launched around autumn, will possibly be much bigger, as the music you have downloaded can then be streamed onto your phone.

3/ Downloads should be getting cheaper as online retailers are going to be offering special offers and discounted MP3’s. The price of albums could be cut to £1 by the end of 2011, which is something we all want to see.

4/ Streaming will be more common as key albums will be yanked from their library. Sky Songs has died a quick death and new services will still be launched, and among them, Sony’s Music Unlimited. Since ad funded streaming isn’t making financial sense anymore you are unlikely to see it much..

5/ Piracy will flourish more and more, and even though there are legal actions being taken against this, none of it seems to be making any huge difference. It is like tackling a needle in a haystack and will continue indefinitely, even though there is a war on file sharers.

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I’d been happily enjoying an evening of listening to the BioShock and Bioshock 2 soundtracks. Classic songs from the 40’s and 50’s interspersed with a modern take on that theme via it’s score. This got me thinking about using modern technology to recreate sounds from a past era, how it might be possible to emulate that sound and create something new from it.
Having done some research and deciding to take a break before a session of further contemplation I switched on the TV and was greeted with essentially the opposite of my chain of thoughts. There was Lemmy from Motorhead sitting in a bar playing the harmonica on what turned out to be a slowed down version of ’Ace of Spades’. Intrigued I continued watching until someone poured a pint of Kronenbourg and then it all fell into place as smoothly as the beer poured and the tag line ’Slow the pace'appeared on the screen (anyone fancy a pint?).
It seems the makers of aforementioned beverage are teaming up with a series of artist’s to reproduce slowed down versions of their classic hits in what is surely the biggest music/product marketing move since Britney Spear’s did that song for Pepsi that no one can remember.That goes to show it’s not essentially a new idea but never has it been done on such a large scale.
So the track itself becomes a harmonica filled bluesy number which I have found I’ve stuck on a few times. In a couple of places it feels a little as if Lemmy is phoning it in but he can certainly play the harmonica well. Of course, despite being a free download you have to sign up via the Kronenbourg site but the constant emails I now expect to get from them and Motorhead alongside all the other things like debt relief and currys discount vouchers are a small price to pay for what is an interesting take on a rock classic. A clever idea as I will never be able to disassociate it in mind from the product it is intended to sell every time I hear it and I suspect this will be the case for many people. I like the idea of it as an experiment but if it takes off I can see it becoming commonplace, and that I think, for music lovers is not necessarily a future we want to see.

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The perfect thrill seekers holiday would be a trip into the unexplored, extraordinary and extreme nature - somewhere where your adrenaline lever will rise up significantly more than any other visit or action (except probably meeting your boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s parents). So a thrill seeker should always look for that dream location where there are only the nature and his pure adrenaline running throught his veins. For some people this recharges their lives, for others it gives them extreme happiness, and for the rest - it is a way of living.

Well, there is something every thrill seeker would love -the extreme climbing. It is not probably the most dangerous thing to do but, believe me, it gives you the feeling of endless freedom and … quite fast heartbeat. And the best location for that is the Canadian triangle Banff, Canmore and Lake Louise where many of the climbers all over the world gather throughout the whole year to climb the Canadian Rockies.

The sandstone rocks, mainly situated near Banff, will give you a fascinating experience and a lot of fun. A bit slippery and steep enough, you will feel like almost climbing an icy rock when moving up that sandstone - a person can almost feel the heartbeat of the one climbing nex to him because of the thrill - you are never in control while fighting that hostile rock.

And if a tourist needs something harsh and hard to climb, with more difficult tracks, then the limestone and quartzite rocks, that are found all over the three resorts, are perfect for that. For the more advanced climbers, there are several extremely steep routes. And the opportunity the explore the wildlife and the fascinating of the area is quite a thrill as well - so do not hesitate and pick up the best vacation for you to Canada, for the best thrill experience you can get.

But luckily, we weren’t disappointed (a good thing too since we had to spend the night in a mates second hand campervans). We both agreed afterwards that Rudd gave one of the most electrifying performances we had ever seen. His style is absolutely unique. Although he had two band members playing with him, he seemed to play almost every instrument at some point during the gig. He sat on a stool with what almost looked like an enormous drum kit arranged in front of him, but in fact the array contained at least one didgeridoo, as well as a large assortment of other percussion and wind instruments from different cultures, the combination of which produced an extraordinary range of sounds.

And we were also able to see, even more than was already apparent in the lyrics of many of his songs, who he is influenced by and what makes him so individual. He said a few words about the oppression of the Aborigines in Australia, as well as talking about the apartheid in South Africa. Much of his musical sound originates from the ancient Aboriginal and African tribes. This also explains why we don’t see him in the Northern Hemisphere very often, as his tours in Australia and South Africa carry a cause and a motive – Rudd aims to spread a political and social message through his brilliant music.

Her song Me and Bobby McGee is one of the most well known songs ever. People still to this day sing it on a daily basis. It is sung in karaoke bars, on the radio, by the famous, and for auditions. It is a song about traveling with the love of her life. Janis sung about life experiences. She tells stories when she sings. You are taken on a journey when ever you listen to her. You can feel her passion in her music.

There are not many artists that sing with passion and desire. Now people rap and cuss constantly in music. Janis did not have to do any of that to get your attention. She stepped on stage with her unique look and amazing voice and you were in a trance. There was no looking away when she performed. To this day if you see a video of her performing you will not be able to turn away. She was such a great artist and will forever be truly missed. She made such a huge impact on the music scene. She empowered so many women to feel like they could do anything. She was an icon for many women and made women believe in themselves. Women can still use her for inspiration. Her message of peace and love still translates well to this day. Love is universal and transcends time. Her voice is a voice that helps that message to send through generations of different people.