I've just come across a new website called Owngig that's been running for a few weeks now. The idea is to club together with a load of likeminded people and commission a band of your choice to play when and where you want.

Fed up waiting for your favourite band to tour or playing a venue that is convenient for you? It works like this...

1. Register at the site
2. Tell us which artists you would most like to see live
3. State how much you would pay and how far you would travel
4. We'll match your request with those of other people
5. Once there's sufficient interest we approach the artist for you
6. Result: An extended tour or a one-off private show!

So if you can't afford to invite Supertramp to play at your local pub get a load of mates to register an interest and start voting.

It's a nice idea but will it ever work?

Fancy a Cajun meal and like a good bop to some eighties hits.

Well Paul Young has just turned up chefing at a local eatery. There is live entertainment advertised so I guess he might pop out after washing up for a quick 'SYSLJFM'.

I always thought he was a grafter but I think if I was him I'd get out on the road with ABC and Yazoo - much less hassle.

I am very encouraged to read today that Prof Adrian North of Heriot Watt University has been spending his research grant wisely. Apparently he's been investing in drinking wine and listening to music.

"The research showed that when a powerful, heavy piece of music is heard, a wine such as Cabernet Sauvignon is perceived as being 60 per cent more powerful, rich and robust than when no music is heard."

According to his list of the ideal tracks to accompany wine, a Chardonnay slips down nicely accompanied by Atomic from Blondie, and Merlot is good with Otis Redding singing Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. Jimie Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower is recommended with a 2006 Chilean Cabernet Sauvingnon.

David Williams, editor of Wine and Spirit magazine, said: "I love the idea that music has such an enormous effect on the way we taste wine. Maybe one day there will even be music lists in Michelin starred restaurants."

And I always find that things improve considerably after the first bottle. Anybody got any tried and test pairings that we could have a go at validating?

A great little piece from Clive James, as usual, in A Point of View on Radio 4 this evening (text here). It's a long time since I've heard anyone really talking with some consideration about great talent and how a national teasure has left the rails.

Are there any women out there that are thinking of trying their luck in the music business?

Here's some sound advice from someone who's made it.

Anyone else get this email from those Radioheads today...The DIY remix. If I knew anything about GarageBand I'd have a go
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To celebrate this week's single release (we still have those in England) Radiohead have broken up the song 'Nude' into pieces for you to remix.

For those of you who enjoy this sort of thing, you can buy the separate components or 'stems' (bass, voice, guitar, strings/FX and drums) and remix your own version of the song. You can do this by adding your own beats and instrumentation or just remixing the original parts. More information here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/information/

You can buy the stems here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/buy/

You can upload your finished mixes here http://www.radioheadremix.com and be judged and even voted on by 'the public'.
You can also create a widget allowing votes from your own website, Facebook or MySpace page to be sent through too.

Hope you enjoy it

For those of you who aren't that way inclined, Nude is also available in its entirety on CD and 7 inch (UK release) at the usual retail outlets.

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This does allow a whole new way for fans to get involved with the band and their tunes. But is it a good thing I wonder?

The Toumani Diabaté track on the Word CD this month is a stunning track. I had it on repeat the other day and must have listened to it at least 15 times, great to keep you going on a winters day (a good antidote to the Brits). I've just been reading Mr H's article about him, plus the one in The Guardian today. I was amazed by a couple of things they both mentioned...

"...he and his producer, Nick Gold, moved the session to north London, to a little studio in Wood Green, where they recorded the album in just two hours."

Recorded in two hours in Wood Green...and I had a lazy few days in a tent in the desert in my mind.

"Two of these (tracks) are named after London streets that are home to those who have helped his career. One such track, Elyne Road includes echoes of an old UB40 song, "because I remember the melody from when I first came to London"."

Being a bit slow I've just realised the track on the CD is a variation on Kingston Town I had no idea.

I can't wait to get hold of the album. Why has it taken three years to release it?

Oh, and the Damon falling down a drain story was good as well.

If you've got a few quid and a climate controlled warehouse it could be yours. 3 million Records and 300,000 CDs all computer catalogued. I wonder who judged it to be the greatest?.

Starting at $3m it's on sale via ebay but be quick there's not much time left to bid...

I'm glad to see the obligatory quote:

When his collection grew to 160,000 records, his wife gave him an ultimatum: Either he or the records had to go. Paul stayed; the records went. He rented a warehouse with some retail space, where he did more buying than selling.

The best of both worlds and the ultimate shed!

No effort goes into packaging MP3 downloads does it? The thing that bugs me is the lack of decent cover art, sleeve notes and band/writer info.

When you download In Rainbows there wasn't any cover art included, so the bands fans made thier own (note to EMI sack cover artists and leave it to the kids)

There must be lots of possibilities for making cover art more interesting in an MP3 file. animation, hyperlinks etc?

What about sleeve notes? I don't know anymore who wrote or played on the recordings I've downloaded, and there's no easy way of finding out. Aren't we missing a trick with MP3 tags? Why aren't the MP3 tags populated properly by the record companies with composer info, lyrics, notes, hyperlinks to websites, promotion of other recordings? (note to EMI put paid for advertising in your download tags and charge me less, torrent guys have been doing it for years).

I would have thought this would be a serious problem for most artists and writers how are people going to know who you are? Most people know the Mark Ronson and Amy Winhouse version of Valerie but do they know who wrote it?

Maybe nobody cares anymore, but I can't believe that.

I can't pretend to understand it but what made Robbie feel strong enough to go on strike? Why did Tony Wadsworth and Radiohead feel it necessary to move on? Why do the artists feel so threatened? I guess cutting 1,000 jobs is a pretty good reason for starters.

The article on the BBC News last night is good publicity for Robbie but their seems to be a lot more going on their. Was it really such a flabby company? Anyone out their with any insight?

Shouldn't there be a law passed at the BBC that makes it illegal for 'professors of pop' and classical musicians to make programmes about pop music.

After Paul Morley's rather good programme yesterday I was quite looking forward to today's instalment of the BBC4 pop thing. But how many more deconstructions of Imagine, Bohemian Rhapsody and Knowing Me Knowing You does the world need? Especially if it involves a classical conductor. What audience were they thinking would find this even vaguely interesting?

You leave pop music alone and we'll leave classical music alone OK!!

Why didn't they just give the programme to the articulate fans that were talking some sense (i.e. John Harris and Phil Jupitus) and tell them to get on with it…

They were playing In Rainbows in their front room and filming it...bloody good it is too.

Did anyone mention it was No Music Day today?

Switch off NOW!!

Following on from the discussion about only allowing yourself a few albums a month. So we could recapture the 'good old days' when we could only afford one or two albums a month.

Does anyone remember rationing a good album to one or two plays a day so you wouldn't get bored of it? I distinctly remember doing that in my student days. Nowadays I have so much music to get through there's not enough time to get bored of a album.

That was until a few days ago when I realised I was getting bored of dear Amy's wonderful second album. This is probably because as mentioned in the podcast, it's one of those albums you can put on at home and everyone likes it, all the family...the same goes for Richard Hawley. Put on Uncle Richard or Auntie Amy and everyone's happy! Just hope no one mentions the "fuckeries" or the "you don't mean dick to me"'s.

I know it sounds a bit like a PhD thesis but does anyone out there read the New Yorker (thought not...) or more specifically Sasha Frere-Jones? I'm not sure if this is for discussion in Word magazine (!) but it's worth a read (and there's an associated podcast)

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/10/22/071022crmu_musi...

It's something I've had at the back of my mind for a while. Isn't most indie music coming from folk/white rock roots nowadays? Whatever happened? Where did the sexiness go? Are there any great black/white crossover acts left (Andre 2000?). Certainly not Arcade Fire or the Decemberists...