Tag: musiczone

Pet Sounds at 50, Return of the Mac and Your Views on the State of Rock

Posted on by musiczoneadmin

Hi Everyone,

Have we all been transported to Espana for a week…Tis magic…Ole ole ole…..Terrible for biz…Good for the head though.

Releases in Music Zone towers that hit the shelves in the last week or so include PINK FLOYD, ROLLING STONES, MINOR VICTORIES, THE KILLS, JOHN WILLIAMS STAR WARS, DARK FUNERAL, THE KINKS, TEGAN & SARA, VOLBEAT, BRAD MEHLDAU TRIO,MUDCRUTCH and JESS GLYNNE.

 

Or for those who prefer the video, this week’s video is now up! (Which actually covers the last two weeks, the sun has made us lazy!)

Releases with us for next Friday the 10th include PAUL MCCARTNEY self titled compilation album of his solo work, Wings stuff and Fireman stuff on a deluxe 67 track 4 CD box set or a 4 LP set also.

UNIVERSAL

U2 – ‘Innocence and Experience Live in Paris; on DVD, BLU RAY, Deluxe 2 disc DVD and a limited ( pricey) super deluxe box which has the DVDs , BLU RAY , USB lightbulb, 64 page hardback via book, individually numbered dog tags, stencil set, postcard set, sticker sheet, pin badges and download codes for more stuff is also next Friday via Universal.

BAND OF HORSE’s fifth album “ Why Are You Ok” is also out on CD and LP via Virgin/EMI.

 

Universal also have the 50th anniversary of considered one of the greatest albums of all time, ‘Pet Sounds’ by THE BEACH BOYS ( note of interest…..if you have not seen Love and Mercy, the Brian Wilson movie….try watch…its excellent….well i thought it was anyway….probably a bit of hollywood license…but really good insight into the man i thought anyway..) this one on double CD, mono and stereo LP versions of the album and a 4 CD/Blu ray pack.

STEVE EARLE and SHAUN COLVIN are releasing a album together and there are some Sinatra reissues on Vinyl  are out next Friday including “ Strangers In The Night” “ The World We Know” and “Songs For Swinging Lovers”.

 

Lastly from Universal for next week are some more quality LP reissues including THE POLICE, DRAKE, WEEZER, DIRE STRAITS and NATURAL BORN KILLERS OST.

SONY

Sony for next week have the complete VAN MORRISON “ It’s Too Late To Stop Now “ performances on 3 CD/DVD…VOLUMES II, III, IV of these live performances from his mythic 1973 tour with the Caledonia Soul Orchestra….11 piece band with string section….Van at the very top of his game arguably….the original album is getting re issued also on CD and LP….it was the first or very nearly the first live album to have no overdubs….moondance got the chop because of one single bum note!

TOM ODELL has his follow up to his million selling debut album out next week also, there is an ELO studio album CD set, ELO ‘Very Best Of’ on DLP, STONE ROSES ‘Very Best Of’ on DLP also…nice track listing….why wouldn’t there be says you….the new one is growing on me a bit to be honest….has a hook that gets in your head…..PREFAB SPROUT  give us a reissue of the poptastic “ Steve Mcqueen “ on LP and the HENDRIX EXPERIENCE give us “Smash Hits “ on LP also….all the above out via Sony

PIAS

PIAS for the 10th of June have GARBAGE’s new album, their 6th entitled ‘Strange Little Birds’. Also through PIAS is the new Temper Trap album ‘Thick as Thieves’..

 

Samaris second album is out via One Little Indian called ‘Black Lights’, and lastly PIAS have a double ‘Best Of’ by John Holt..

 

Bowie Reality Tour 3LP Set is also now in with us, lovely set to be fair..

WARNER

Warner for the 10th have MOTORHEAD’s – ‘Clean Your Clock’ on CD/DVD, CD/Blu Ray, + 2LP with codes.. Recorded in Munich just 3 or 4 weeks before Lemmy left…

 

Warner have a CARS 6LP coloured vinyl boxset.. All different colours.. Also a JOHN COLTRANE
‘Mono Years’ 6CD + 6LP plus 7’’… New documentary also coming later in the year called ‘Chasin’ Trane’, supposed to be good..

 

Rick Astley new CD ‘50’ is also out next week, written and played by himself (fully).. That surprised me… Fair play, looks like he’s never gonna give us up… Eh hemm.. Sorry..

 

I had a few reactions to last week’s newsletter when i suppose  i asked the questions where’s the great stuff….where’s the top shelf stuff….kids , what are ye doing…..those questions….here’s one reaction from a good friend of mine and the shops.

 

“Morning Ray, Really enjoyed reading this weeks newsletter from the corporation and you raised some interesting points.  I’d like to add my two cents worth so get ready for a ramble. In the letter you write of the industry still pushing the “old reliables” like the Stones, Beatles, Floyd etc. I understand the point that you are making but I don’t think that this ploy is necessarily a bad thing. I don’t believe you can dismiss the bands or their music just because it is old.  If that were the case then logic would dictate that classical music has no place or relevance in todays world.  We should object to the marketing strategy not to the bands or their music. 

With regards to new bands and new music and that mythical band slaving away in the garage? I firmly believe that that band is out there but does anybody particularly care.  Take our own John Blek for example.  I make no apologies for stating yet again that his two albums with the Rats contain some of the finest music I have heard in a long long time.  Great songs, great music and great lyrics.  All the qualities we look for in this great garage band.  Well here they are on our doorstep.  But as previously stated, does anyone care.  I would argue very few.  If John was called Dizzie John Misty and came from Tombstone in America I bet you’d have people beating a path to Music Zone Towers to buy his album!  But No, he’s from Cork, and he is one of many talented local musicians and that will always be their problem in one word…local. 

As for Springsteen in Dublin, I cant knock it, up to a point.  The guy still delivers and believes in the power and glory in music.  Cant fault him.  Back in the early 80’s when you had the likes of Queen, Elton John, Rod Stewart and our very own Foster and Allen and Joe Dolan playing dates in South Africa, Bruce took a political stand and said Fuck That,” I aint gonna play Sun City.”  He helped form Artists against Apartheid and helped to overthrow an evil regime.  Would Rihana or One Direction or any of todays acts do the same, or take a political stand on anything? I doubt it.  Don’t rock the boat.  And on the subject of Bruce in Croker, I guarantee you that at least half the crowds at the gigs are the same people who were Garth Brooks crazy a few years ago!!!!  Coming back to the local scene again I always tend to put John Spillane and Bruce in the same bracket.  Now I know that Bruce is streets ahead of John, I understand that.  But they both chronicle what goes on in their hometown.  John singing about his Dunnes Stores girl is as relevant and vital to Cork as Bruce singing about his Jersey Girl is to New Jersey.  The geography is different is all.  But both equally relevant.  I don’t think that young people today feel or believe that music matters anymore.  Does anyone take any notice of the charts. 

I know when we were young the charts were everything.  Music and football (and girls) was all we talked about in school.   Where was your team in the league and where was your band in the charts?  It was almost life and death.  Not now.  Not anymore.  You see now people don’t have the time to put in to listening to new music (hence Beatles and Stones being re-issued) so they just download what they know and in some ways that’s no ones fault.  Just ’cause something is popular doesn’t make it good.  It often means people have no choice.  Its just the way it is now.  Many many years ago Bowie said that if he were a young kid today he wouldn’t be into music, he would be interested in the internet.  That’s where the future was.  Music doesn’t shock anymore.  No revolution there.  No danger.  All that is now to be found online.  In 1970 Gill Scott Heron said ” The revolution will not be televised.” He was right.  The revolution, when and if it happens will be downloaded.  The last time we spoke of Bruce, I said I was a dinosaur. 

But Ray anyone, no matter what their age who walks into Music Zone and buys a physical copy of music, cd or lp is a dinosaur, just by buying something you can hold in your hand.  All of us a dying breed.  Its a different game now Ray, as you well know music is tailored to demographics.  Record companies now look at different age groups, eg people in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and manufacture bands or music to suit that particular age group (One D, Ollie Murs, Il Divo).  Music is made easily digestible for people.  Nothing too out there or shocking.  Bring back The Pistols please!! Most of these people do not go to gigs or clubs anymore.  Sat at home in front of the t.v. waiting for the next big band/act from X Factor.  People want music they can listen to over cocktails, and see Springsteen or Garth Brooks every two or three years to get that roc’n’roll experience.  That’s rock and roll now, All wrapped  up in a bow.  So nothing too challenging.  Just perfect sounding music produced to within an inch of its life.  Check Beyonces new album, count the  number of producers.  There are 75 writers credited on the album, 17 on one track alone. I rest my case. 

Jesus Ray I’v gone on enough and trust me I could go on even more about how punk and hip hop were the last two global movements in music in that they influenced fashion, writing, film and culture in general but that was 40 and 30 years ago.   Nothing since.  Oasis/Arctic Monkeys are /were really only average bands.  Good because there was no one else.   The biggest mistake rock and roll made was having a self destruct button.   Once you went over 25 you were by the very nature of youth rebellion over the hill.  But look at all the great Blues legends in their 70”s.  Wouldn’t it have been great if the Stones had written and sung about aging in terms of rock and roll!!! And on that note Ray I’ll say “Its only rock and roll but I like it.”

 

There’s a lot to take in there and most of it has it’s merits.. Gan aon doubt… But I have to believe.. The next mind blower is out there.. Not that I have to believe… I do believe.. Not that some of our local stuff is not as good if not better that the stuff on mainstream radio.. I think you will agree that I have banged that drum for a long time.. But to get a break is so difficult even when you show quality.. Consistently it is so difficult to get noticed… So when you get your shot on The Late Late Show young and upcoming Cork bands, throw your guitar into the crowd at the end with venom, eat a dove, start to show your crown jewels to the 40 something plus audience.. Do something out of the ordinary.. Get seen… If the music is good enough then you shall be noticed after your stunt has been forgotten.. I do disagree with the point about young people today not feeling or believing that music matters anymore. I just think there has not been a whole lot for kids to relate to… To be honest… On a massive scale anyway.. Pockets of Strypes fans, Jake Bugg fans, Mumford fans.. All going about their business in a really worthwhile way… Strypes newest album, a fine record in my opinion from what are essentially only four kids… Hit the English charts at number 9 or something like that, but plummeted to 46 in week two.. These boys are one of the few great hopes out there.. But I saw little support really nationally here for them around the time of the album…

 

Maybe I am missing it…. What’s changed so dramatically this century that we, or more importantly young people, mainly have had no supergroup.. No Beatles, Zeppelin, U2, Oasis… There’s one from every decade prior to the millennium, and plenty more I could have mentioned…

 

I would love to know ye’r thoughts on this… Especially if you are under 25.. But everyone’s thoughts if you want to drop us a line… Is it the fragmentation of the way we consume music now? Is there too much choice, so support for bands gets diluted?… We are all lost in a fog?!!!

 

Is the cream at the top of the pile or if not, why can’t it rise there?

 

Some fierce interesting points made by my good pal TC but part of me does not want to believe them… For personal and business reasons! I would love to hear anybody else’s feedback, or hell maybe it just don’t matter..

 

Sin é for this week,

 

Thanks for listening as always.

 

Ray

www.musiczone.ie

Joys and Tears of RSD, Acts for the day and more from Mr. Bonnamassa

Posted on by musiczoneadmin

 

Hey everyone,

How’s the form?

Kind of normal service resumed this week.

First up is the new vinyl record release video, which has the big releases from the last couple of weeks, including local lads JOHN BLEK AND THE RATS and some big names such as JEFF BUCKLEY, JAMES, POLICIA and many more, check the video out below, if you want to see them all, a good bit in! :

https://musiczone.ie/videos/

Records released last Friday include BRIAN FALLON, RICHMOND FONTAINE, IGGY POP, PEARL JAM, JAMES, TOM PETTY, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.

Big response to last weeks note on the Record Shop Day, very varied selection this year…. Nothing huge but nice and varied… Maybe not as strong as last year, personally as a shop keeper I prefer album releases, always less of a graveyard after RSD with albums.. RSD can get a bad wrap at times and certainly there are some negative aspects to it… Pricing being one I suppose.. To be fair the 7” and 12” can be excessive.. I don’t know why, it’s unfair… Record companies could feel there is major re-sell value on a lot of the stuff but that’s not a fair reason for inflated prices. Infact, that only fuels another negative for RSD and that is people who get involved for the wrong reasons, purely and simply to buy a record and flip it for twice it’s value 3 hours later on Ebay… Parasites is the industry term for them.. But there are parasites in all games where product is limited and only increases in value… It’s the way of the world as unfortunate as it is… Most who visit us are cool, no issues there, thank God.. I’d hate if the wrong hands got an only limited release to flip it on Ebay taking it away from a genuine fan.

Another problem faced by us on RSD is the availablitiy of the produce… It’s rare and limited by nature but one company this year decided not to support the Irish industry, that company being Music On Vinyl.. Here’s the reason that I can’t buy stock from them this year, in a’roundabout fashion from rep

‘Hi Ray,

I’m afraid that a RSD order is not such a good idea after all because of the way it is organized:

We have to create a special sub account for each participating store; a special RSD account.

Then all RSD orders are collected and automatically entered in the system at once.

Until this is done it is still uncertain who will get what or how many.

When the stock has arrived and is divided between all the participating stores in chronological order,  then all the RSD shipments will be shipped out on the same day via priority mail.This is quite expensive but priority is the only option.

And on top of that our accounts department does not make an invoice for an amount below € 300,-

No matter how much I wanted to ship you these titles, all in all its probably not worth the hassle and it would be better to wait until after RSD to see what’s still available then.

I did not know it would be such a tour du force to organize this otherwise I would have told you this much earlier.’

So, I apologise in advance to anyone hoping to get MOV RSD releases here, or in fact anywhere in the country for that matter.. I suppose my returning cribbing emails have yielded promises for next year…

All that said, RSD, is for us what it says on the tin.. It supports us as independent record shops.. And it does.

Last year it was as as good as any day Christmas week.. There was a lovely vibe in the shop all day long… People supported us even without buying any of the RSD stuff… It was humbling, the support, to be honest, from ye the customers and the musicians who played for us… Truly humbling. Musicians signed up to play already for this year include CRY MONSTER CRY, CROJAN and ANDERSON who plays a gig in Cyprus Avenue on Friday April 22 (tickets available now!), and is going to drive down from Dublin to us on the day to play a few tunes in the shop.. Top man… Fair play.. We don’t mind if he turns into… Bleeding Bono (said in my Dublin accent). Anyway bottom line… It’s a hugely important and special day for us here..

CARGO

Right. On to releases for next week the 25th of March.. Merge via Cargo have a new BOB MOULDrecord out, limited coloured LP here!

UNIVERSAL

Universal have the MOTORTOWN REVUE record Live In Paris, which includes all the Motown stars, the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder etc, all on a 3LP set.. Universal also some STATUS QUO CD expanded reissued versions of ‘If You Can’t Stand The Heat’, ‘On The Level’, and ‘What Ever You Want’. They also have an ERIC CLAPTON 4LP Live Album Collection, which includes Derek and the Dominos, Rainbow Concert, E.C. Was Here and Just One Night.. Also some nice new Bluenote Jazz vinyl reissues with classics from Count Bassie, Ella / Louis, Billie Holiday and Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker…

WARNER

Warner probably have the biggest releases for the next Friday the 25th with the new JOE BONAMASSA album on CD / Deluxe CD and 2LP… The album is called ‘Blues if Desperation’, out via Provogue..ALL NEW TRACKS

Warner also has the BIRDY record on the same 3 formats, EVA CASSIDY ‘Simply Eva’ LP reissue, and a lost JEFF HEALEY album gets a release.

SONY

Sony have a bit out next Friday also, including a new WHITE DENIM record (Major Label Release), new AMON AMARTH album on CD and LP as well as a load of good vinyl record reissues, such as PEARL JAM’s Vs and Vitalogy, as well as all of THE SCRIPTS albums.

Sin é for this week folks,

Check out VINYL RECORDS CORK for all comings and goings..

Thanks for listening,

Ray.

 

Bowie, Gaga and Radio 1 Chasing Us

Posted on by musiczoneadmin

Hi everyone,

Hope all is well…

Starting off with the links for vinyl records that came into the shop this week.

FOO FIGHTERS, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, JACK GARRATT, THEM, DEEP PURPLE,MARLON WILLIAMS.

 

Here is this weeks vinyl video post for those interested… Few nice releases in this week

https://musiczone.ie/videos/

 

Big week next week for Friday the 26th.

 

WARNER

Have to start with Warners reissues of the boy BOWIE’s early 70s albums. Some classics amongst ‘Space Oddity’, ‘Man Who Sold The World’, ‘Hunky Dory’, ‘Ziggy’, ‘Pin Ups’, ‘Aladdin Sane’, and lastly ‘Bowie at the Beeb’ 4LP vinyl boxset at €75 retail…. all the others €23…. €27 with the big dog in the sky…

Pre-order any of the Bowie reissues before next Thursday at 4PM, and have them delivered to you for release on Friday in Ireland! Check that out here :
https://musiczone.ie/product-category/pre-order/

I saw the Grammy’s ‘tribute’ to Bowie the other night and thought ‘tribute’ was a strong word. No disrespect to anyone involved, they were on a hiding to nothing.. I wonder was Gaga the first to be asked?? It reminded me of a wedding band medley aside from the corporation backed graphics that were aesthetically pleasing for a minute or two..

I thought a sincere, heartfelt collage of music, images, anecdotes, quotes from the boy BOWIE himself and from other artists he influenced and helped would have worked better (in my opinion)….

Corporate backed Hollywood razzmattattlle we got instead…

 

Warner also have a CHILI PEPPERS ‘Greatest Hits’ out over the next few days on double LP.. Limited Marbled vinyl for this one.

Warner also have a new Santigold album, ‘99 Cents’ on CD and LP, and a new MACKLEMORE + RYAN LEWIS CD (their second offering), and a new BONNIE RAITT album on CD and LP, and lastly more PHIL COLLINS reissues.. ‘Hello, I Must Be Going’, and ‘Dance into the Light’.

 

UNIVERSAL

Universal have a big release for the 26th also with the second album by THE 1975on CD and Double gatefold vinyl.. I really like the 80s vibe to the single. A real band, a real frontman. I’m going to give this record a good chance.

Here’s a taster

Small tiny critischism… The album is called  ‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful and Yet So Unaware of it’…. Could be the title of a Michael Bolton song… Get your buckets.

Universal also have the GEORGE FEST which is a tribute to the late, great GEORGE HARRISON recorded on what would have been his 73rd birthday. Guests on the night included BRIAN WILSON, BRANDON FLOWERS, and THE FLAMING LIPS among others. This comes as a 3LP set or 2CD/DVD
Here’s a taster of the gig.. 

Universal also have a MILOS KARADAGLIC Beatles tribute LP, with the likes of TORI AMOS, GREGORY PORTER on vocals.

 

Got a nice bit of reaction for my Bruce bashing??? Last week… I like Bruce. Best reaction here…

 

‘We do need a younger BROOCE…a younger everyone really.. but they aint there Ray. Now maybe it’s because I’m a dinosaur but I don’t see anything or anyone revolutionary out there anymore. No young guns coming up wanting to change the world. Plenty out there wanting to make a fortune and be famous but to me music and roc’n’roll was always more than that. It’s probably the romantic in me but music is suppose to change your life and very few artists these days do that. Nick Cave once said that when you listen to  music when you’re  young it changes the gears of your heart. You know when you just couldn’t wait for the next album by your favourite artist. But are there any acts out there now who really affect people that way. Where are the tribes gone? You know the Punks, Mods, Skins, whatever…..It’s all a bit bland now. No one there that will make you go..WHAT THE F**K was that….. And I believe that the  young people coming to music these days are losing out on a lot….but look I’m a Dinosaur…….Anyway back to BROOCE, wasn’t it the Who that said ‘meet the new BOSS, same as the old BOSS’

 

Could not have said it better myself… Feedback is great.. Feel free to engage please… I am a bit younger than this dinosaur but my age were Cureheads or Modeies… I loved both bands, so didn’t go goth or leather but kids of today are missing out… Music is not shared well. Not in the right way. ‘Come around my gaff I got the new Guns N’ Roses cassette if you want to listen’.. It’s all singurly with youtube/dowloads.

Saw two girls (15/16) taking photoes of each other in the shop during the week flicking through the records… (For their profile pictures i’d imagine, never saw them before…)

selfeh

 

At this point last night (about 11:40) disaster struck (well thats a complete overstatement really). I lazily kind of clicked a few keys on the keyboard and everything I wrote on Mailchimp disappeared… Spent until 1.50AM driving myself insane trying to retrieve it… no joy had to do it all again today (got I.T. advice.. vanished…).

 

CARGO

Cargo fave a new album by ERIC BELL out next Friday called ‘EXILE’.

PIAS

PIAS for February 26th have the new ANTHRAX album ‘For All Kings’ via Nuclear Blast on Double LP and double CD limited digi-pack. The Gloaming’s second album is also out next Friday via Realworld Records…. LP not till 6th of May though… PIAS also have a reissue of Jesse Malin’s Debut, that Ryan Adams produced, called ‘Fine Art of Self Destruction’. Fine album… Lastly from PIAS is the new Ricky Warwick solo project (front man of Black Star Riders) on double CD and double LP.. ‘When Patsy Cline was Crazy and Guy Mitchell Sang the Blues’. Great title

Essential have the ‘SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS’ album out for next week..

 

SONY

Sony have a deluxe version of MICHAEL JACKSON’s ‘Off The Wall’ album on CD/DVD, ENTOMBED’s new album ‘Dead Dawn’ and a vinyl reissue of CAROLE KING’s ‘Tapestry’ again…

 

An interesting customer of ours rang me on Thursday and asked me did I want to do an interview piece on the vinyl resurgence for the Sean O’ Rourke radio programme… after a gulp…. I said yes!!!  Thanks Brian.

(REDACTED :p)

It was on Radio 1 Monday morning…http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_seanorourke.xml…down the page a bit under ‘Vinyl’

 

Sin é for this week,

 

Thanks for listening,

 

Ray

www.musiczone.ie

one word this week…….BOWIE

Posted on by musiczoneadmin

musiczone

hi all,
Well, where do i start?
It has been a strange, surreal and very sad week for music lovers but more so Bowie fans.
It started for me with unanswered beeping on my phone on a few occasions after 7 but before 8 on Monday morning….when i finally did attend to the beeps, the first message i saw had three words…Bowie is dead ( from a good source, i knew it was no wind up) i replied with two words….what? how?…which i received a one word answer…cancer….after that it was a stun.
As he mystically and magically pronounced….WHERE THE FUCK DID MONDAY GO.
Image result for DAVID BOWIE IMAGES
I was knocked for six, i had two thoughts, one was for some hard core Bowie fans who support and frequent the shop and the other was….what a class act…what a way to go…graceful and dignified and on his own terms, not allowing his ego to be massaged or smoke blown up his arse for the last number of months…granted, he probably didn’t want the hassle of press and all the rest….nope, he spent his last months being incredibly creative and left a beautiful haunting piece of work for his fans to cry over for now but grow to love over time….i said it last week, its a brilliant record, it is dark, has Jazz and drum and bass influences but give it time, its a gem…last track on the album here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE1Zcngd3VA&list=PLJ8y7DDcrI_rZ4E1JZobJCezqGnQi9ouh

Now, i don’t profess to being a huge Bowie fan, league one type of fan ( promoting myself to the championship over the last week and looking forward to diving into more of the catalogue),i know a good few albums from the 70s well, and vaguely know other albums outside the hits, but we all probably have our own little Bowie memories….here are a couple of mine….i knew the name before i knew the music…born in 74…early 80s was the time for the Bowie suits, thin red leather ties, slick pants, open shirt, slip on shoes…a fashion movement brought about by a musician….i remember taping a Dave Fanning radio show where famous guests picked their favourite songs and Bowies ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao2ZLifNLXc was on it…i loved that song…..i remember him stopping in the middle of the Freddie Mercury memorial concert, going down on one knee and praying….in english….
Ár nAthair atá ar neamh,
go naofar d’ainm,
I remember he was the first to use the internet to sell his album, 1997s Earthling i think….
And then i remember, his declaration in Irish this time of Tiocfaidh ar la at one of his Dublin concerts back along….made a stir at the time…he enjoyed that id say.
He was a musical genius, innovative and always ahead of the posse….

Image result for DAVID BOWIE IMAGES
I asked one of the premier league lads , did he want to write a few lines about what Bowie meant to him,and some of his friends as i felt it would be better coming from him, a true true fan…
Here’s what he had to say…..

This has really knocked me for six. Even now my chest feels like it’s going to explode. It really is like losing a family member. I couldn’t be consoled on Monday. Tears were shed. Ray it’s hard to describe, but I grew up with this man. Forty years Ray, forty years. That’s a long time. The guy was with me since I was a child and all the way up to today. He sound tracked my whole life. BOWIE was always there even in the years when he was off the radar..he was never off mine. My abiding memory from my teenage years is my Mother screaming at me ’If you knew as much about your maths now as you do about David Bowie you’d be better off’!! Myself and Caroline even walked down the aisle to the sound of Absolute Beginners!! Dean the youngest, was born on a Thursday..Thursdays child! When I was in school there were two gangs or tribes in the yard..you were either Status Quo or BOWIE. For me there was no choice. Every album was an event in our lives. And as you know no two albums were the same. We tried to copy him..at one point I even smoked Gauloise cigarettes because BOWIE did. Jesus I nearly choked to death. You’d read an interview with BOWIE and if mentioned a band you never heard of e.g. Velvet Underground you’d go and get their stuff and listen to it. Something new. If he mentioned books he was reading you’d get then too. Something new.. Fashion..art….learned all about it from BOWIE. He informed all the various parts of our lives. I can honestly say he changed my life…completely. And all the friends from all over the world I’ve made over the years that I’ve met at various gigs. And we all keep in touch. I’ve followed him all over the world. America, Australia, Europe…everywhere. I met him a few times and a nicer guy you’d never meet. As we say in Cork..Sound out!!! And maybe that would be a good epitaph..SOUND….As you know the new album is a cracker. He was on a roll again, Seemingly he was eager to do  another one soon and had cut 5 demos with Visconti for the next album. What that man must have gone through to cut BLACLKSTAR and the two videos no one knows. It must have been so hard physically and mentally. My heart breaks. This morning we hear he has already been cremated on his own. His wishes were for NO FAMILY to be present. My youth gone. I can honestly say that there are now no heroes left in my life. My heroes were Sinatra,  Georgie Best and Bowie. All gone. Bowie was out there on his own in terms of music. No one there like him now. Always going forward. Never looking back. It was always about what’s next. Always the future. Always change. Sure it didn’t always work. But that was the beauty of the man. Not afraid to try or fail. And by the way  I thought Tin Machine were great. You just never knew where he was going to take you. You always looked to him to see what the future was going to be. I always thought that Bowie would cheat Death. I truly expected to be getting a new release in 3016. Nothing has changed?……Everything has changed…… Jesus Ray sorry about that..looking back it looks like the ramblings of a deranged mind. All I wanted to ask you was,  would you let people know in the newsletter that there’s a night to remember BOWIE and celebrate his life next Saturday night in the Friary at 9…Jim Comet…… Will drop in soon…Thanks….Tony

daughter

Bits in the shop for tomorrow include the new DAUGHTER record ” not to disappear” , the new SKUNK ANANSIE  ,

Releases for next Friday include the new MEGADETH record ” dystopia” on CD, deluxe limited CD , LP and picture disc LP from Universal as well as a reissue on Vinyl record of THE KOOKS debut ” inside in, inside out” and a second album i think from ELIOT SUMNER…yep that guy SUMNER’s daughter.

RoM

REPUBLIC OF MUSIC have the new TINDERSTICKS record next Friday, on clear vinyl for the usual limited time folks!
suede

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U65WFfykH9c

Warner

Warner have the new SUEDE album which i must tune in to…” night thoughts” on CD, CD/DVD, Boxset thingy and double LP….as well as some fancy RHINO reissues on coloured Vinyl including THE MONKEES, GRATEFUL DEAD, VELVET UNDERGROUND and THE CARS.

Sony

Sony have talk of two SPRINGSTEEN reissues on Vinyl, MAGIC and THE SEEGER SESSIONS but i think they are pushed back a week or two….will let ye know next week.

PIAS

PIAS have the new ( second) SAVAGES record next Friday also….will could be a good un….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7ZpPsaMNMM
Pias also have new records from TY SEAGALL, BESWARD LAKES and PROMISE OF THE MONSTER and reissues from BADLY DRAWN BOY and JOHN CALE.

ESSENTIAL has the newest LUCINDA WILLIAMS record, ” the ghosts of highway 20″ out next Friday also….a double LP

Image result for david bowie daughter

So, Sin e i think………for some people it feels like last Monday really was the day the music died……. but in celebration of an absolutely STAGGERING musician whose music will live on long past all of us, i would like to finish the newsletter the same way as last week, so…..
altogether now…
THERES A STARMAN WAITING ……

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