Now, I know I’m not exactly ‘bang up to date’ all of the time. I guess I just have a bad habit of overlooking certain albums now and then. And that’s my excuse for only just getting around to discovering ‘Heligoland’. However, thinking about it I’ve always loved Massive Attack so I don’t really know why this CD wasn’t already in my collection… Oh well, you’ll just have to forgive me for this. Anyway, this is my ‘review’ of this album (better late than never as they say!).

Massive Attack have always stood out from the crowd. Their roots may lie in the Bristol Trip Hop scene, but they have long been known for embracing a variety of different musical styles. And %u2018Heligoland'probably showcases this diversity better than any of their previous albums. But with this record, some things remain just the same too! It still features Massive Attack’s usual variety of guest vocalists and a large selection of computerised/synthesised devices has been employed to record these songs; everything from a Hammond organ to full Apple Mac support!

%u2018Heligoland'has quite a dark feel about it… but don’t get me wrong; this is certainly not a bad thing. Personally I can’t get enough of that melancholy Downtempo vibe! However, this will not be everyone’s cup of Rosy Lee and that is why I am making a point of mentioning it. As far as subject matter goes, %u2018Heligoland'is quite mysterious. Some tracks are reasonably easy to understand, whilst others are very enigmatic indeed.

All in all, this is a totally top dog, crackingly good album which is quite possibly the best thing Massive Attack have ever recorded! But I didn’t really want to say that… Why? Well, because now I feel like even more of a nana for not knowing about it until a few days ago!

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One of the coolest things I saw at last year’s summer festivals were a number of performances by the amazing and astonishing human beatbox, Beardyman. In fact, I ended up seeing him at so many festivals it was beginning to feel as though one of us was stalking the other! I even thought I saw him at an office furniture London store a few weeks after Glastonbury, but it turned out to just be the shop manager who had neglected to have a shave that morning…

Human beatboxing (if that is actually a real word) isn’t for everyone, but even if you don’t find it particularly entertaining there’s no denying it’s a very special skill. Not everyone can contort their vocal chords and face so that they can sound like an entire set of drums, with a miniature Casio keyboard playing over the top. Yet even the incomparable Beardyman would be put to shame by the latest piece performed by the National Youth Orchestra.

HandsFree, developed by the young composer Anne Meredith, is a full orchestral piece played without using a single musical instrument. Instead, human beatboxes, along with clapping, stamping and all the other noises that the body can make, mean that the show at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall promises to be something of an innovation in every sense of the word. I thought I’d seen the weirdest orchestra ever when I saw the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at the Edinburgh Fringe, but I think HandsFree would steal the crown! Following its première, the show will be moving to the Barbican in London and I might just be persuaded to buy myself a ticket to see if the show lives up to the hype. What is the betting I see Beardyman in the audience too?

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Imagine it. Your career’s going great, you’re on the cover of magazines, your album’s gone platinum. You’ve brought a fancy car, a mansion with a guitar shaped swimming pool and a private jet. What next? You meet the man/woman of your dreams, buy a beautiful wedding ring, a ton of champagne and have a crazy rock ’n'roll wedding. And it’s all brilliant.

For a while.

Then the touring for months on end, the groupies, the being offered whatever you want, life in the public eye… it all starts to tell. And before you know it, it’s broken hearts, divorce courts and onto marriage number 3 with a bucket of whiskey and a rolls royce. Being married to a rock star seems to carry with it a lot of stress and uncertainty and sadly few relationships under that kind of strain make it through intact.

Mick Jagger, Madonna, Dave Grohl, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, John Lennon… they’ve all suffered damaged relationships. Jerry Lee Lewis was divorced a whopping four times. Though he’s not alone in that- Joan Collins was also divorced four times, and Billy Bob Thornton has been divorced five times (proving its not just the musical celebrities, but also the actors) Few can beat the woman, the legend that is Elizabeth Taylor who was divorced (wait for it) seven times.

And then there are those who can’t stay apart. Eminem has been married twice to the same woman, and the epic tale of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee could be the plot of a romance novel. They were married, then divorced, then back together, then married (to other people!) then back together, then separated…

Of course, there are happier exceptions to the rule. David Bowie and Iman seem to have been together forever, as do the Osbournes. Ozzy even tried to drunkenly strangle Sharon at one point, so theirs must be a rock-steady relationship to still be going strong.

Of course, you shouldn’t let fear of heartbreak stand in the way of your musical ambitions. But it is something to bear in mind…!

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Everybody loves music and most people love to sing. Very few people dislike music; they are far and few in between, but I have come across such people. Singing is a very personal thing. What else would explain the phenomenon where people who can’t sing a note break into a concert the moment they shut the shower door? Singing is something that comes from the heart, from deep inside. Good singers, blessed with a great voice and a wide range of notes, bring a certain depth into their singing. They truly believe the lyrics and when they sing, they mean every word, every pause and every instrument that is played. Be it country, rock, pop, hip-hop or some new style they all follow this basic rule. It’s so involving that the singers who do not give it their all more often than not fall into obscurity. I was at Stoke, looking for what diesel Stoke has in offer, when I saw a man riding a bike, listening to music with headphones and quite amusingly he sang what he was listening to, without even realising how loud he was.

Singing can also be most dangerous in terms of a career. Have you ever pondered how many famous musicians have succumbed to drugs and eventually gone to their death? How come dancing does not claim as many victims? Or for that matter, acting? The reason lies in the mists of time when a certain Lucifer was banished from heaven due to a high he experienced with music – laying the very foundation of the devil and all that is associated with him. So music will always come with a certain baggage because of its inheritance.

It depends entirely upon the musician how he handles the gift he is blessed with. This handling will determine whether it remains a blessing or turns to a curse.

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Live music is the real thing and that is it. I agree with the person that made the above statement. I came across it online but it was anonymous so there is no way to quote the author’s name. I will also add that your music experience is not complete if you have never attended a live performance. It could be your favorite band or singer; you really have to experience it to know the difference. Live music is special and that is all I can say for now. As special as it is however, not everybody is good at it. By everybody, I mean the singers and performers. Sometimes you wonder why some artistes are into music because they lack either talent or the right voice. Some of them will be better off with Physiotherapy Jobs than killing good music.

Most of these artistes especially pop singers can’t perform live with their natural voices. I know a few people may have noticed this as well. I do not hate pop or rap music but it is boring to perform live while aided by your CD or any music player. Someone recently said they have bad voices and that is why they use auto tune and all other voice enhancing technology to record. If you claim to be a good singer then you should be able to do the same in the presence of a live audience. That is why I love rock bands; they do it live. And I have never seen them doing it bad.

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There are many music lovers around the world. In fact, I have never heard that someone hates music even if some people claim that they are not big fans of it. Some people listen to anything so far it qualifies for their personal definition of good music while others have a few genres of interest that they follow faithfully. Whatever you listen to, the fact remains that you are a fan of music. I personally like some smooth music, smooth as fine lining fabrics with some great wine. The question here is how do you prefer to listen to music? I asked a few friends and I got diverse responses. Someone actually said the best place to listen to a song is in the car which I find a bit hard because I am not a fan of listening to music in cars especially when I am the one driving.

Most of my colleagues however said that live music is the best of all which I really agree with. I have been to only a handful of live gigs but I can tell you that they were the best experiences I have had with music. A female colleague said the best place to listen to music is parties and clubs. She likes it noisy and that environment provides the perfect blend for her. A few others are undecided because they have never really thought of it while closely related to them is those who don’t have a preference for any specific place. Their favourite location for listening to music is everywhere.

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Music as I have heard is a universal language. The easiest way to explain or help people understand this is to ask another question. Why do you like music that is sung in languages you do not understand? That is how I have chosen to explain the cross-border appeal of music. We all have our favourite genres and growing up for me was a Bob Marley thing. My mum loved reggae and she was a diehard Bob Marley fan. As a child, I was very restless and noisy; this is the excuse I use when I am trying to find answers to what got me into rock music early in life. My family also tried to discourage me but I am also a bit stubborn; this stubbornness has paid off because life without rock music is unimaginable.

As a young chap, it was strictly hard rock for me; I loved the beats and the drummers. I just started taking interests in singers and guitarist some seven or eight years ago. While searching the internet for used cars in lebanon, I came across some foreign language bands that are so awesome. That is what music can do; it has got the power to transcend language boundaries. In my undergraduate years, I began to take some interest in soft rock which was mainly because of emotional issues related with those years. The love has now shifted to classic rock of the 70’s and 80’s. This is all about listening to the old songs of old bands and if you have never tried it please do. Those guys can sing!

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I’ve long accepted that I’m too old to go out drinking on a work night, unless I’m prepared to feel like death all the way through the morning meeting. I’ve even accepted I’m probably too old to wear a mini skirt, unless it’s winter and I put on tights so think they might as well be leggings. But there’s no way I will accept that I’m too old to mosh at concerts, despite the horror of my friends that I still insist on heading down to the front of the stage, no matter who the act is or how big the venue. Sometimes they act like they’re sending me off to war without forces insurance. Don’t worry – I’ll come back alive!!
Dancing at the back of a gig just isn’t the same as getting stuck in among the packed, sweaty crowd at the barriers. Some of my best memories of gigs are of getting kicked in the face by this guitarist or spat on by that lead singer. How many people nodding their heads at the bar and looking cool can say they have ever left a venue with their t-shirt (and their modesty) hanging by a thread?
I guess one day I’ll have to accept that it’s no longer healthy for me to squeeze my ageing frame into the midst of all the bouncy teenagers. Maybe when I get a Zimmer frame? After all, I can’t imagine the security guards and bouncers being too happy that I’m carrying that towards a stage. I could end up using it as a weapon, after all. Mind you, could come in useful to clamber up on the heads of the guys around me for a bit of OAP crowd surfing!

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The future of the music industry is very uncertain. It seems that there is little that anyone can agree on regarding exactly what direction it is going in and exactly where it is going. One thing is clear. Music as a commodity is dead. Music as a product that you go out to buy in a store is dead and will never come back. Digital is king, and while no-one knows what could come next in the evolution of the medium, it’s clear that things like CDs and vinyl records have lost their appeal or lost their value in a world of digital ephemera and the ability to download a whole discography of an artist in less than a minute. However, while people have been talking about the way that the physical CD product has changed over recent years, there has been much less discussion about exactly how live music will change.

Live music has become the primary place where musicians earn their money. It is causing many of them to have to take odd-jobs when they aren’t touring because the revenue model that they depend on to earn a living has collapsed. Anyone who takes the advice of a firm like Galvan Research in terms of financial advice will likely hear that they should avoid investments in the entertainment business because it’s in such a precarious position. Live music will change too. More merchandise will become available and more live CDs will be sold. They’ve got to make their money somewhere after all.

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Music has changed a lot in recent years. I remember buying cassette tapes as a child and just assuming that this would be the way that music would always be. Like vinyl there was no precise way to skip the tracks, which meant that you’d usually listen to the albums as the musicians intended — in full, and without distraction. If you really wanted to fast forward a track you could, but it was difficult. Then the CD came along, and suddenly it seemed like we had the format that was perfect. The sound was substantially better, multimedia things could be included, and the case seemed just perfect. You could skip between tracks, and storage of thousands of CDs was easy due to their size. They were hardly threatened by the mini-disc, and I don’t think that the mp3 — legally purchased, mind you — made any huge difference.

People still loved owning the physical product of the CD just as much as they wanted to own contemporary furniture. But the illegal downloads really changed things and proved to the industry that something else had to be done. Prosecuting those who apparently downloaded music illegally — something very difficult to prove, resulting in many innocent people having to pay — didn’t work. But Spotify might. It allows music fans to listen to all the music that the want, for a relatively low price. It’s the ideal response to kids who want to be able to access the world’s music in seconds.

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