I do a folk radio show and desperately want to work in some Grateful Dead tracks onto the show. I know very little about them - apart from their famous love of bootleggers! - However everytime  I go to listen to a track - it seems to me that they would be a great bunch of mates to jam with - but pretty boring to watch? Is that fair comment?

Perhaps a bit harsh, but my post recently about Poor Man's version of .... bands prompted a few cutting remarks - about other bands and the ones i chose. Thanks for all the other suggestions. I will be commenting on them in the future (which based upon the regularity and efficiency of this blog will be the year 25 25 and Zager and someone said).
But i have been listening to a few artists recently who i had read about and can now conclude -
Paul Davis (American 70s singer songwriter who died in 2008 - not the Happy Mondays musician) was a pale imitation of Billy Joel - almost down to every refrain!
The soulful but very generic plastic success that is James Morrison is beginning to move from boyish insipid to sound like a poor man's Terence Trent D'Arby on his new singles (why am i listening to these? I don't know!) But if you don't know TTD's Sign your name - download it now and give that classic LP a spin! Even better check out some cheesey vids on youtube!

 Dublin for most bands (because of geography really) is either the first - or mostly the last night of a (European) tour. That can be a blessing or a curse. 

It is a tough balance to strike for a touring band. The last night of a tour can and should be firstly a cause for celebration, as well as a celebration in itself. However as well as having overcome the first few nights nerves and teething problems you then run the risk of falling into the formulaic trap bordering on the apathy of ‘going through the motions’.

How do you overcome that? I know when I worked a 40 hour week I was bored stiff of my daily and weekly and even monthly routines!  As much as 'Satisfaction' is a classic song, without a doubt, the Rolling Stones must be sick to the back teeth of performing it perhaps 200 nights some years! If i was sympthising then it would be the smallest violin in the world I'd be playing, but still it must be mind numbingly boring to know that for perhaps 1000 minutes of the year you are playing that song!

Superb! I think I have now heard the best ever rhyming couplet ......ever! Taken from Gary Allen's mediocre funny song 'what would willie do?' - here it is "He loves all the people, no matter their races, hell he even had a hit counrtry song with Julio Iglesias" !! How great a line is that!!
Classic lyric

I read recently that Lou Reed was only really a poor man's Herb Albert. Whilst i am not sure that is fair comment - here are a few others I find hard to disagree with:
The Quireboys really were a poor mans Faces.
Guns and Roses really became a poor mans Rolling Stones.
The Scissor Sisters started out as a poor mans Elton John.
The Verve could be called the poor mans Echo and The Bunnymen,
P J Harvey borders on the poor (wo) mans Patti Smith at points.
Ronan Keating is not even close to being the poor mans Cliff!

I have whinged about 'reformed' (re constitued!) bands and anniversary tours before - but ..... with Metallica doing Master of Puppets Anniversary, The Pixies, Public Enemy, The Levellers and many more in the last 12 months, surely the music world is regressing? Sometimes the band even play the album on stage following the same track listing?! I really can't decide where i stand. Do i hate that the album is reduced to a commodity that they can then reissue with bonuses as well? and follow that with a 'generate a pension' tour? Or do i begrudge the fact that they are cashing in on older items when they should be trying to push new boundaries? Or do i begrudge going to see these bands and knowing i won't see tracks from other albums that i love? I really don't know. Where do i draw the line. I am certain that by the time of the 20th Anniversary tour of 'Oooopppps' I did it again Britney certainly won't be as hot!

I'm back, from outer space, finally doing another blog after another 6 week absence! Talk about mr clockwork! (ha ha).
Is it really true that Neil Diamond has released 37 ! Greatest hits since he began his career? (30daysout.wordpress.com/.../review-the-very-best-of-neil-diamond-by-neil-diamond/) how can the money men justify this! Are there really that many bored housewives out there? I must admit i an a big fan of Neils (and own a double cd greatest hits from the 90s) but how can the record labels justify fleecing the public? Especially as you really need more than just a greatest hits by a man who is such a great songwriter!  Though you could live without some of his movie work!

 
We are now in the dawning of a new age which was unthinkable over ten years ago really. You can now download 333 copies of The House Of The Rising Sun (http://bitsnoop.com/333-houses-of-the-rising-sun-q3903820.html)  or if that doesn’t take your fancy someone else has collected 500 covers of Yesterday of, as he put it ‘varying quality’ Such amazing consolidation of music, whilst illegal, would have been inconceivable years ago – and also prohibitively expensive!  The wonders of modern technology!