It may not be a big deal for everybody, but it produced a 'woohoo' in our house. Stumbled across the fact that they are doing one -that is one! - gig at The Grand at the end of September. One of the great lost pop bands of the 80's, and I can only wish they decide to produce some new material.

As good as this:

More in the comments...

Just watched clips of U2, and Coldplay and quite frankly Chris Martin's voice was as weak as usual, and I can't take the Edge's guitar seriously after Bill Bailey's dissection of his use of the delay pedal. So I wanted to create my own best live festival experience.

And I'd start with this, Fingers of Love from Crowded House in Sydney. Neil in fine voice, Mark's guitar is quite beautiful, and the lyrics touch me deeply. The best performance of their best song in front of their best crowd. Enjoy. And what's next?

http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2010/11/neil-young-and-bru...

Bruce impersonating Bruce is a nice touch.

I think I've seen the phrase "heavy lifting" enough times now to firstly ask someone to explain it to me, and then never want to see it again. I think it's used to mean a good track somehow lifts an average album to above average. Even if I guessed right, it's still annoying.

And in a completely different area, has anyone noticed that the use of ring to mean anus is only used by comedians in a way that is trying to suggest that everyone uses it that way, but when they say it but don't mean anus, they have made a hysterical mistake? The first time I heard that gag, I had to do the double think. (Worst offender being Julian Clarey, of course).

A finally - just getting a lot of things off my chest - the great Jimmy Webb lyric from Wichita Lineman "And I need you more than want you and I want you for all times" is not a great lyric, but some kind of mathematical equation that needs a greater or equal to sign somewhere in the middle?

Wonderful cover version from Crowded House and Johnny Marr.

Finn really does have a fantastic pop voice that can work on Morrissey or Bowie, or indeed Ray Davies. He really owns them.

I know I do. There, possibly the blog post with the fewest responses, ever.

Just prior to receiving my "Something for the weekend", I came across an interesting discussion of compression on the Crowded House website.

http://frenzforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7601061171/m/534107995/p/4

Someone had taken the trouble to do a signal analysis of a song on the last Neil Finn Seven Worlds project. He digitised an LP and compared it to the CD version, which had been heavily compressed. Then he posted the LP digitisation.

I hope you can access the mp3 without having to log onto the site. The link for the sample is:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6tcotv

Normally I take these things with a pinch of salt. But the version from the LP did sound better. A bit warmer, a bit more real. Fascinatingly, the compressed (made smaller) mp3 still had the non-compression (not make quieter) benefits of the LP (confusingly of course compression means two different things in this case). It made me think that there might be a market for trading digitised versions of LPs, as specialist downloads. I'm guessing that everyone who might be interested in it would certainly have the CD and would feel guilt free about owning a copy of a copy.

If you don't mind helping out, who would be a good presenter for a doc on the history of music through it's technology? Engaging, geeky, authoritative, well known. So far I have Eno (too low key?) Gabriel (too low key?). I could be wrong of course (I've never met them), but you get the picture.

Thanks.

This has always bugged me, so feel free to ignore. But if you go to Kate Bushing singing the new vocal on Wuthering Heights on The Whole Story, and forward to 2'33 seconds, is she singing "Cathy" horribly out of tune. It has always struck me as bizarre, as it's a fresh vocal, probably lovingly poured over by her good self. Then again, I would always rate her ears above mine.

And does anyone know of others that slipped through? I was convinced Paul McCartney honked horribly on a note in his re-recording of For No One on Give My Regards to Broad Street. But listening back, it sounds fine. Maybe he re-re-recorded it? My memory probably failed me, it could even have been a dream.

Many years ago I saw June Tabor at Dingwalls and was driven out the concert by her personality.

It was during the miners strike, and her singing was beautiful, but in between the songs she was dedicating each on to miners families, Arthur Scargill and all points in between. It wasn't so much what she was saying, but the way she said it was so dour, sad and downright depressing.

I hear Aimee Mann has handed over her in between song to a comedian and just play the songs. Good for her for having such self awareness. Perhaps it was a bad day for Tabor, but I had to keep going outside to get some fresh air and look for a smiling face.

But has anyone else been so badly affected by a performers stage presence?