I was in the car the other day with my 10 year old daughter, with a CD on (as you do) and in the gap between tracks, I sang the opening of the next track. When the track started, she was amazed and asked me how I knew it was going to be that track.

It occurred to me that in these days of digesting tracks one at a time (either on Spotify or another streaming website of choice) or via ipod shuffle, the joy of anticipation (knowing what next the next track will be) has probably been lost for the younger generation of music listeners.

Courtesy of Sight and Sound in concert, BBC4 are showing Ian Dury and the Blockheads recorded live at Queen Mary's College, London, from 1977 - a must for all Dury fans. It's on Friday 23 April at 10.50pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s3vzc

The concert, which also features Dr Feelgood, is followed by the Stiff Records documentary "If It Ain't Stiff", worth a look for anyone that missed it before.

Seems that those Spotify guys might be about to bite the hand that feeds. Either that, or they still haven't worked out a business model.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/7588396/Spotify-accu...

Interesting to read in yesterday's Guardian about the Men At Work plagiarism case (details here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/men-at-work-song-theft.)

Seems that if an instrumentalist who plays on your song lifts a note or two from something else in their playing, you the songwriter can be found guilty of plagiarism.

What - then - would the courts make of this, I wonder?

Trouble No More (credited to McKinley Morganfield): http://open.spotify.com/track/5GuLcaIqn4zMAgMQAtKoZB

Someday Baby (credited to Bob Dylan):

Can I recommend that you all go out and immediately buy Kevin Coyne's reissued Marjorie Razorblade LP, along with the superb new 4 disc compliation I Want My Crown?

Those unfamiliar with Coyne's work will be startled and entranced. It's a challenging listen, but these reissues are not before time - Britain's last blues man!

Then maybe EMI will revisit their decision to limit the other reissues to download only.

EMI - WE WANT CDS!!!!

As anyone currently living in the UK knows, when we have a bit of snow, the whole country grinds to a halt.

My children are just about to embark on their 3rd day off school, and I was wondering whether any of the Massive in parts more used to snow (say, Scandinavia/Canada) have any nuggets they can pass on about what happens in their countries when snow falls.

Over to you....

Wondering if anyone else has come across this one yet...

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#

The Tree of Wooden Clogs.

FilmFour - Tuesday 27 October, 23:40

"(1978) Ermanno Olmi's Cannes-winning drama is set in rural Italy at the end of the 19th century, centred on four families of peasants, following their lives and traditions over the seasons."

I remember watching this years ago with my late father - back in the days when you used to get quite a few foreign language films on TV. I do remember a rather gory scene involving a goose, so beware if you are fainthearted!

I decided to replace my two disc Past Masters with the new set. I thought it would be a good way of dipping my toe in - loads of tracks across the whole career.

I've had a bit of a listen and........I can't really hear much difference, or indeed any to be frank. On the stereo tracks, there is still that infuriating quirky separation. And for some reason, we now have stereo "From Me To You" and "Thank You Girl" but I think I preferred the mono.

Don't get me wrong - what I have is a triumph of packaging and design, and for that reason alone it may be worth picking up the other LPs, but the music - it don't sound much different to me.

Anyone else got a view on this?

And if so, what do they sound like? Wondering if these are worth a punt.

Unless I misread it, the new edition of The Word appears to have Mark Ellen describing Dylan at the O2 as "perfect" and Kate Mossman waxing lyrical about the Roundhouse show. Seems to be something of a change of tune from the sensationalistic blog posts!!

Remember how back in the day we were told that no one wanted vinyl any more - CDs were the future! And it came to pass like some kind of self fulfilling prophecy that you couldn't buy vinyl because a) the shops stopped stocking it and b) record labels stopped releasing LPs on vinyl. So, it kind of proved the case that with plummeting sales, no one wanted vinyl. If, like me at the time, you still wanted it, you found you couldn't get it.

A similar thing is happening now with CDs and downloads. The "media view" is that the CD is dead and downloads are the future. Or is it that the download is dead and streaming is the future? Whichever, the CD has not just been sentenced to death but if you believe what you read it's already dead and buried.

Interesting then to read that in the year 07/08 physical CD sales accounted for 92% of albums sold, with downloads bringing up the rear with a miserable 8%. While it certainly wouldn't surprise me to find that CD sales had fallen - what with the ole recession and all - it's still interesting to see a tidy audience for the physical product.

It would be interesting to see The Word do some in depth research into this area. That is unless they are so in swoon to Roberta from Spotify that they can't tell right from wrong. What do other Word readers make of all this??

Do yourselves a favour - get out to your local record store today and buy a CD!

Apparently. So....happy memories of "Silvio" and "Ugliest Girl In The World", their previous co-written efforts...

Just to offer something to counteract the Spotify love-in which seems to be flooding through the media at the moment, I was wondering whether other readers had come across notable omissions from Spotify.

To get you started, here are a few:

- Madness (currently UNCUT cover artists) - no albums except for the Utter Madness compilation
- Ian Dury - nothing except "Spasticus Autisticus"
- Elvis Costello - no "King of America" or "Imperial Bedroom"
- Bob Dylan - no "Good as I been to you"
- Kevin Coyne - only three albums and one compilation
- Vic Chesnutt - only the "Merriment" LP
- Peter Gabriel - none of the solo LPs
- Kate Bush - no "Dreaming", "Hounds of Love", "Sensual World", "Red Shoes"
- Dinosaur Jr - only "Where you Been" and "Green Mind"
- Husker Du - only "Living End", "Warehouse" and "Candy Apple Grey"
- Shellac - nothing!
- Lambchop - nothing pre "Nixon"
- Frank Zappa - nothing!
- Tom Waits - no "Swordfish", "Franks Wild Years", or "Orphans".