Meeting up with Pulp in the years 2023 and 2024
I went to just two concerts in 2023, and they were both of Pulp’s performances in Scotland.
Category: Music
Britpop, braindance and broken politics — How 1990s optimism became passé
Britpop has been having a moment again this summer, prompting investigations into why the scene fizzled out. The conventional explanations are unconvincing. Electronic music tells us why.
Lockdown projects — Month 3
As lockdown eased, small craft projects made way for some much larger home improvement projects.
I’m getting rid of 18 years’ worth of plastic CD wrappers
I’m not entirely sure why I started collecting them. Probably a mixture of liking some of them, and thinking that keeping them would make my CD collection more valuable.
After the Belgian Grand Prix — Days out in Spa and Brussels
After our weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix last year, Alex and I stayed on for a few more days to explore other parts of Belgium.
33 adventures in The Designers Republic
“On July 14th 1986 The Designers Republic was declared.” Celebrating 33 years of Brain Aided Design.
13 years too late, the BBC’s classical music back catalogue is being made available
Once in a while, when listening to music on shuffle, a Beethoven symphony plays. The MP3 files came from the BBC. It was an experiment never to be repeated.
The danger of relying on natural talent
Believing you are naturally talented at something may in fact be detrimental to your development.
An inauthentic authenticity: the soulless side of vinyl
The vinyl resurgence isn’t all good news — particularly for independent musicians.
40 years of the Voyager golden record
The 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager has created renewed interest in the two gold-plated phonograph records that are on board.
The George Street Sessions: A new CD featuring musicians from north east Fife
A new CD has been recorded in Alex’s family’s front room — and it sounds great.
Help! I’m becoming an audiophile
After years of dilly-dallying, I have finally bought myself a new record player. But I’m still not convinced vinyl provides the superior sound quality.