Sometimes you look at a band/artist name and get exactly what you expect.

On this month's cover CD, the wonderful Carolina Chocolate Drops didn't disappoint - their name evokes their music perfectly.

But not all bands are well-named. The one that instantly springs to mind is the country singer Keith Urban.

Similarly, when you stop to think about, Barry White. The least 'white' and most unlikely 'Barry' that you will ever come across.

I also think that Nightmares On Wax is completely inapt, when you consider their music.

Any other good examples?

Reading this month's Best/Worst in the magazine, the placing of 'Trapdoor' reminded me of the much-missed Willie Rushton.

I could listen to his voice forever - in fact, somewhere I've got some vinyl of him narrating the Thomas the Tank Engine stories (waaaay before Ringo and Michael Angelis got in on the act).

Equally, I've been listening to the new Desert Island Discs podcast and love Kirsty Young's voice - so much sexier than watching her on TV.

Spoken voices aren't something that comes up much on here, so I thought I'd throw the floor open and see whose vocal talents bubble to the surface.

Anyone?

There's a gig next Thursday (21st) at Brighton Dome, called Way To Blue - The Songs of Nick Drake.
http://www.brightondome.org/events/Way-To-Blue---The-Songs-of-Nick-Drake...

It's curated by Joe Boyd and features the likes of Robyn Hitchcock, Vashti Bunyan, Lisa Hannigan, Green Gartside, Scott Matthews, Teddy & Danny Thompson.

I bought two tickets, but the person who was meant to be coming along has now had to cancel, so I have a spare ticket.

Ticket originally £27.50 - I'll take offers - of course you'll have to sit next to me.

Doors open at 7.15pm

Anyone interested? Message me via my profile.
Cheers
Rob

I was trawling through some of my dodgy compilation CDs yesterday and came across a rather nasty 70s collection of tunes.

Among the Sutherland Brothers and Chicory Tips, though, was John Kongos' fantastic version of 'Step On'.

Of course, this was most notably a hit for those Monday chappies, and I don't think most people know it was even a cover.

Naturally, the Massive will be far better informed, but for those of you who haven't heard it before...

Caught some of the current R2 Here, There and Everywhere doc and was struck by the ubiquity of the phrase, 'changing the course of history'.

I'm not doubting the influence of The Beatles, but surely everyone influences someone, even in a small way.

I put it to the Massive that all game-changing music acts could conceivably have been replaced by someone else in the event they hadn't come along.

After sitting on my must-buy list for a while, I finally got hold of a copy of Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue a few weeks ago.

How bloody great? I've been blown away by how good it is and how much better it is than 'most' of the new stuff I've heard this year.

The odd thing about listening to it, though, is the fact that it reminds me of so many other artists/tracks.

There seems to be a lot of Stones in it, among others.

Anyway, my point is that as I'm only a 70s kid, I have no context against which to set it. Was it seen as truly fantastic first time around? Was it perceived as a bit derivative? Has it influenced anyone else since?

Any insight greatly appreciated and if I can generate another on-site spat, all the better...

So I was out last night and the talk in the pub got round to stuff we'd been listening to.

One guy who I'd never met before suddenly came out with Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies and proceeded to tell us they are part of the math rock movement.

I've done a bit of looking up on wikipedia and I'm still none the wiser and am not sure if I've missed out on something. Have I?

More to the point, is this the most bizarre genre of music out there? Other suggestions welcome...

Caught the BBC4 80s computer drama Micro Men last night and was pleasantly surprised.

Quite apart from the nostalgia of early Sinclair products such as the calculator and ZX81, I was amazed at the portrayal of Clive Sinclair as a power-crazed megalomaniac.

Always seen as cuddly boffin, it appears he was actually a fiercely competitive, angry man.

Still time to catch it on iplayer, natch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n5b92/Micro_Men/

Worth downloading for a rainy October day...

My one slight gripe was Alastair Armstrong's performance as Sinclair, simply because he sounded exactly like himself - given the propensity for his voice to appear on countless TV ads, it was a teeny bit annoying.

Can it be true? No more Rabbit, Gertcha or Ain't No Pleasing You.

I'm mortified

Addendum: The Sun's story about it

Probably not the best forum on which to raise this, but here goes.

El Tel W is running a bumper Barbra Streisand week of comps on his morning show.

Now I quite like Woman In Love, but can anyone please explain the attraction of her and her music?

I realise I'm a little too young - again - but she really doesn't seem that grest shakes.

FYI, wogan said they'd had 10k entries one morning, so there are a lot of fans out there.

I've relatively recently moved to Brighton and don't know that many people, so wondered if anyone on here lives sort of locally and fancies a night in a drinking establishment, talking about stuff that may come up on this 'ere blog or even other things.

Anyone interested?

Let me make one thing clear before I start - I'm not deliberately being disingenuous here.

The thing is, I like and know a lot of Beatles songs, I own a couple of albums, I recognise that many of their songs are brilliantly-crafted pop songs.

And yet, and yet... I genuinely don't understand quite why they are so feted.

There were so many other fantastic artists in the 60s, so why did The Beatles end up top of the pile, so to speak?

I write this in the middle of the Radio 2's Beatles Weekend, during which they're playing lots of different Beatles-related shows, in advance of the remastered albums in September.

Obviously, they were done and dusted by the time I was born ('72), so that's one reason why I probably don't get it.

I'm not looking for statistics to back anything up, because that doesn't answer why, just how.

Please - I'm really interested to know what people think.

It's holiday season so a good many radio presenters take an annual break and leave someone else to hold the fort.

I tend to listen to Radio 2 more than most stations and have noticed that they have an annoying tendency to replace their regulars with 'names' in an effort to stop listening figures dropping, rather than employing someone who knows what they're doing.

Case in point: Jonathan Ross is away and who do they shove in his place? Lisa Tarbuck and Huey Morgan! Who came up with that combination down the pub on a Friday night? I know Ms Tarbuck has some admirers, but I for one am not one of them. She always sounds so patronising.

Another example is Steve Wright's Sunday morning lovesongs (yes, I know I listen to some tripe on the wireless) being caretaken by none other than Cilla Black - possibly the worst radio broadcaster I've heard in a long time.

My final exhibit is the replacement team for Alan Carr and Emma Forbes: last week it was Gaby Roslin and Patrick Kielty - ugh!

Personal prejudice aside, I find it hard to justify bringing in a 'name' if they aren't actually up to the job.

I know this has been talked about before, but how do radio hopefuls expect to get any sort of inspiration if the main criterion for work on one of the country's premier radio stations is 'celebrity status', rather than ability?

Sorry for the tirade, but it gets my goat a little. Surely I'm not the only one, am I?

Thoroughly enjoyed the latest issue with the Cult Heroes feature a particularly enjoyable read.

Naturally, I was moved to try out some of those featured. I found a suitable Robert Wyatt thread so I know where to start there, but nothing on The Blue Nile.

Can anyone point me in a direction? They're a group I've been meaning to check out for a while, but have never known where to start. Recommendations greatly received.

Thanks in advance

Forgive me if this is well known, but I came across a link to the fantastic Elton John Saturday Sun Sessions the other week.

Yup, the prince of honky-tonk does Nick Drake no less.

There are some cracking versions of Time Has Told Me, Way To Blue and it also features Linda Thompson on some of the tracks.

Here's one example - his version of When The Day Is Done

Any other favourite Nick Drake covers out there?

UPDATE: Apologies - it features Linda Peters, not Thompson and not all the tracks from the session are Nick Drake