Posts by thewatcher

    What might have been. I still look at that brief period and think "right voice, wrong material" and a second album with better writing and a stronger influence from Ray (and others if really brave) could have been special. Rather like Marillion needed a little time to find a new groove after Fish's departure, Genesis needed to work on this and treat it as an entirely new beginning.

    Interesting performance just the same.

    Precisely this. They had a good foundation to build on. The thought that both Ray and Tony wanted to do a second album but Mike didn't is never far from my mind. What might have been if he'd said yes.

    I'd never heard it before. It's ok but it's very meandery and doesn't have anything to especially to mark it out in terms of musicianship, melody, atmosphere or production. It's like a very extended version of a forgettable snippet from the soundtrack to a weak movie. I doubt I'll ever listen to it again. 3 (the + is for annoying me less than Battle of Epping Forest which I gave 2).

    Steve Harley has died aged 73. I confess I didn't know much beyond Make Me Smile, but I've always really liked that song and associate it with my parents as being music of their vintage. Rip.

    Covers that take the original and really distort it fascinate me. A good example is the Scissor Sisters version of Comfortably Numb where they took a dirgey heavy Pink Floyd number and made a perky disco track of it.


    An opposite example is this one, where Billy Corgan had Robert Smith guest on his cover of the Bee Gees cheery "To Love Somebody" and made a somewhat melted, alternative version. I think their voices and guitars meld so well on it, and as an aside, whenever I hear it I can't help but think of the photo from David Bowie's 50th birthday where he had dozens of stars perform with him but in the photo Billy's on one side of him and Robert Smith on the other. Such a creative trio.


    External Content music.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    Here's the image I'm thinking of too

    I heard this song on the radio that I found equal parts catchy and annoying. It got stuck in my head but I could never find it after. Months later I heard it on the same radio station and tried to Shazam it, but Shazam couldn't identify it. This happened once or twice at intervals spaced several months apart, to the point where it's likely a couple of years now since I first heard it. A couple of weeks ago it came on again, and for some reason Shazam worked. It turns out it's an obscure Boston band that I gather was briefly active in the early 90s. I haven't explored the band beyond this song. I share it here not as an inducement to explore further, but because the damn thing is still stuck in my head going on a couple of years now. It might get stuck in yours and as they say, a burden shared is a burden halved 😃. There is a little bridge with the woman singing that I like a lot but I'm not sure that 15 second stretch compensates for the rest of the song.


    "Joyride (I saw the Film)" by Tribe.


    External Content music.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    My daughter doesn't listen to CDs at all. She watches lyric videos on YouTube. She doesn't even watch the actual videos (e.g. she likes Games Without Frontiers, but doesn't watch the official video). I assume she sometimes listens to music on her phone.

    My oldest is ten, obsessed with Taylor Swift. We stopped her once as we were leaving the house to go to a cabin in Maine with no wi fi. She had an Alexa (or echo dot I think) under arm as she wanted to listen to music at the cabin. We had to explain to her that the music was not actually in the little Alexa device and it wouldn't work up there. The ask for Christmas was for something that could play music without internet. I got a discman and 4 of the albums on CD. She thought it was the best thing ever! I think her next move is to ask for speakers. The ear buds it came with are pretty basic.


    I'm curious to see if the appeal of being completely independent of wifi will stick going forward. And if I can sneak CDs of albums I like her way 😀.


    Yes, we're off topic. Erm... If the Genesis albums get reissued soon I'll buy them and let her borrow one. Maybe Abacab or self-titled would work.

    Apparently when Star Wars was aired on TV in Chile many years ago, instead of breaking for commercials, they worked the commercial into the movie. I laughed a lot at the results... If there's a Star wars thread feel free to move the post!


    External Content twitter.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    That's great! And unfortunately doesn't appear to be what the majority are doing. I think revenue from physical music is about 10% of the music market now, with the vast majority coming from streaming.

    I'm 42 and avidly attached to my physical media (I recently set up a VCR 😆). That said, I stream a lot for convenience - mostly while commuting - and I find it excellent for discovering new music, along with the local college radio station. If I find something I like on streaming I'll typically go and buy it then.


    It may also be a consequence of my browsing habits, but I keep seeing articles online about some sort of revival of physical media, usually vinyl, CDs and DVDs, but even audio cassettes. However, I don't know the actual data and suspect the articles are hyping a small increase from a low baseline, or possibly misinterpreting/misrepresenting an increase in absolute numbers that hides a declining proportion of sales. For example one of the Taylor Swift albums sold more copies on vinyl in whatever year it was (2021 say) than the top 100 selling vinyl albums in 2011, but likely streamed a gajillion more times than that.


    Along the same lines, I read articles decrying the steady "enshittification" of streaming services; content withdrawn or moving to another platform, introduction of ads on free tiers etc. This rings true to me.

    Continuing my regular "just heard this on 6music today" series.


    SOME by JJUUJJUU ft Boogarins. Rhythmic yet trippy.


    This one I heard in a shop on Great Western Road in Glasgow: Talk Talk by Cannons. The woman at the till switched it to something else about 30 seconds in and I blurted out a reflex "Ohhhh, I was enjoying that!" She kindly put it back on and told me who it was. (Then switched it back again as soon as I left).

    I like both of these. The first one reminds me of Tame Impala but with more substance. And the second one is a band I have a passing familiarity with; this song Purple Sun is on a playlist of mine. I suspect the algorithm on YouTube led me to it because of my love of Still Corners' album Strange Pleasures.

    Indeed, plus regarding inclusion of old stuff in the set I read a while ago that while planning the WCD tour PC suggested they do the whole Supper's Ready but it was vetoed mainly by Banks, who said "it's such a slog to get through".


    PC always spoke warmly of the fun they - well, he - had doing The Waiting Room live. I bet he'd had loved them to throw that in occasionally and have a real blow. I'd have loved it too. Given how brilliantly they did the 70s stuff as time went on, imagine the 80s/90s Genesis letting rip like that.

    I didn't know he'd wanted to do SR on the WCD tour. I'd heard he wanted to do Carpet Crawl and that was shot down. Imagine if this willingness to be ballsy and explore their catalogue was shared by his band mates. I liked the WCD show on video, but I wonder... Could his suggestions being rejected have played a role in his decision to bail? I remember another comment he made in an interview about setlist choices where he said fans would be surprised at what he'd like to play if he could... I always thought he meant something like Carpet Crawl on the WCD tour, but it could have been anything at all.


    Always tantalizing to think about the road not taken, esp with this band.

    Now that's interesting. Wonder what it will be and what the extent of his involvement will be. Every now and then I have a fleeting thought that it's a shame he's not more active, although of course if he wants to spend his days chanting in a monastery or gardening that's entirely his prerogative. I shall wait with keen interest to see what this is

    Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to buy this CD in the U.S.? So far I'm finding limited availability and higher prices than I want to pay. If not, it looks like I'm going to have to wait a while.

    I recently discovered an amazing, employee owned small chain of shops called Bull Moose. Most of their stores are in Maine, and a couple in New Hampshire. Their physical stores are laden with new and used CDs, DVDs, Blu ray, vinyl, books and video games. It's an absolute paradise for me. And they have the most incredibly useful online store I've ever seen, that shows what's available in all of their stores. I stumbled across one in Brunswick and they were very friendly and helpful.


    Anyway they have Steve's album for a couple of buck less than the store Christian linked too, and a non-blu ray version that will be around $15 but appears to be on order.


    https://www.bullmoose.com/pid/36924422/steve-hackett-the-circus-the-nightwhale-cd-blu-ray

    I agree, as do a number of us here. While I understand their reasoning for stopping after CAS, this will always be for me one of the most unfortunate things about how their recording career ended.

    If I could like this 10 times I would (I am obviously one of us here!). I try not to dwell on things too much but they were relatively young despite the long career they'd already had. The phrase that sticks in my mind the most was Ray's, when he was lamenting the whole thing and made the observation that "we were just starting to be a band", in relation to the group clicking and getting better in the course of the tour. Oh well.


    I also suspect he'd have done very well with the older material, had the opportunity arisen on subsequent tours. Hmph 😡