Rock band Rage Against The Machine has won the most competitive battle in years for the Christmas number one.
The band’s single, Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s The Climb by 50,000 copies to clinch the top spot.
Their success followed a Facebook campaign designed to prevent another X Factor number one.
Clearly the problem of illegal downloads is overblown: all you have to do is start a Facebook campaign and people will happily pay to download a song.
Not that I particularly liked The Climb, but no-one should pretend that Rage Against The Machine’s victory is any less manufactured than the X Factor winners of the past few years. Also, couldn’t they have picked a good song to go up against Simon Cowell? Especially as it’s ultimately Sony who own both songs, so the evil corporate people get the money anyway! WELL DONE EVERYONE.
On the other hand, my civil liberty instincts are telling me this is a bad thing, as I’m far from confident that those accused of illegal file sharing will be allowed to access the due process of law and defend their accusations (there are, of course, many legitimate P2P networks out there).
Also, cutting internet connections totally is a draconian step. Most internet users need their connection to function in life and could not manage without it. In the near future, access to the net could be considered as essential as running water or electricity. Throttle their connections, block the ports, but don’t cut them off entirely.
A-ha are splitting up. This is probably very sad news, but it does provide the perfect excuse to embed a YouTube video. Don’t get too excited, you’ve probably already seen it:-
I’m relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born.
Yes, because technological advancement has STOPPED. You just wait a few years, and you’ll have Spotify beaming tracks directly into your BRAIN.
I had the CD version, the Discman, which at the time was hailed as the most wonderful thing to happen to portable music ever. The adverts didn’t mention that if you ran, walked or moved slightly in any way, the music would skip and jump all over the place. Good times.
Congratulations to Kris Allen — I feel slightly sorry for him, as he has already been unfairly labelled as the “surprise winner” and accusations are flying round that he only won because of homophobia.
I swore I would never let myself get manipulated into following one of these TV contests, but it happened, and I suffered for it. I woke up at 4.30am on Thursday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep until I had been on the Internet to find out the result. I am never letting myself get this emotionally invested in a TV show ever again.
Now, when is Britain’s Got Talent on? (I will be watching with a sense of ironic detachment, obviously)
Eurovision may be over for another year, but in the US, another high-profile singing competition is storming towards its finale: namely, American Idol.
I seem to have become addicted to these sorts of shows recently. The Apprentice and (oh, I’m ashamed of this one) Britain’s Got Talent have both sucked me in and got me watching. It’s quite worrying for me: what if I can’t stop it? Will I be grabbing the Daily Star off the newsagent’s shelf during the summer to catch up on Big Bruv? (dear God, no)
Anyway, I have a perfect excuse for plonking myself down in front of ITV2 (aka the Katie and Peter channel) to watch Idol, and that reason is Adam Lambert.
Some quick turnaround thoughts on this year’s Eurovision…
Well done Norway, a great song which deserved to win;
Well done Jade and Andrew Lloyd-Webber for a strong showing (5th place!);
Well done BBC for taking the contest moderately seriously (well, as seriously as a ludicrous international music show can be taken) and making the effort to promote the song by putting Jade on various European TV shows over the last few months;
Well done Graham Norton, who was much better than I expected and got the tone of the commentary about right, i.e. gentle mockery while avoiding some of the more excessive whinging that Wogan tended to indulge in;
Well done EBU for changing the voting system to avoid the Eastern bloc dominance.
I dreamed a dream in time gone by (last Saturday, in fact)
So what lessons can we take from the Susan Boyle internet phenomenon?
Well, one thing I’ve learned is that ITV still apparently has no clue how to use the Internet. The YouTube video linked to above is rocketing towards 30 million views and has been shown on television all over the place — but it’s a ropey, off-air recording (in the wrong aspect ratio!) of Britain’s Got Talent. Why haven’t ITV capitalised on the worldwide interest by having the pirated clips removed and uploading an “official” version to YouTube, thus entitling them to take a share of the advertising revenue?
More importantly though, it’s a salutary lesson in not judging a book by its cover: the unpleasant mocking laughter from the audience and eye-rolling from the judges soon evaporated once she opened her mouth. But isn’t it a sad reflection on society that much of the worldwide reaction can be summarised as, “ugly woman sings surprisingly well”?
Let’s not pretend that this is going to open the floodgates for those who (ahem) don’t meet usual standards of beauty. If (when?) she wins, it will change things very little: the British music industry will consist of a lot of beautiful women… and Susan Boyle. It stinks that this is the case, but it’s going to take an army of Susan Boyles to overcome it.
Nevertheless, it’s a joy to see this unassuming lady become the subject of so much attention. I’m willing to bet significant money that I will be buying her album for my mum’s birthday this year.
July started with my lovely pet cat doing his bit for vermin control. Liverpool One claimed its latest fashion victim, as yours truly bought a glorified school satchel manbag. Metro horrified public transport users across the country with a picture of a henna tattoo gone wrong. London Transport’s Oyster smartcard suffered a serious glitch, proving that the only proper travelcard system is one where you scratch the date off with a coin before sealing it with a bit of sticky-back plastic.
In the middle of the month I suddenly remembered that I have a Friends Reunited profile, then remembered why I never use Friends Reunited.
Another triumph for Liverpool’s culture year came with the amazing Tall Ships festival. It was well worth braving the long queues to enjoy the variety of sailing ships assembled from all over the world.
I told people not to buy me chocolate for Christmas, but what was under the tree on December 25th? A Toblerone selection box and Cadbury Heroes as far as the eye could see. Of course, I could just not eat them, but if you think that’s an option for me, you clearly don’t know me very well.
Today was my first visit to the gym in 6 days (it’s been closed since Christmas Eve) and I could feel every miniature Dairy Milk bouncing around as I jogged on the treadmill.
Christmas itself was uneventful, just the way I like it. Excellently, I received the Rail Simulator Official Expansion Pack, giving me access to the Class 08 Shunter. I spent a happy Boxing Day rearranging virtual HST trailers at Old Oak Common depot, only to be told that my performance was terrible and I must do better next time. Well, if they will insist on parking Class 47s where I’m going to crash into them…
Christmas cheer, courtesy of the Wombats (featuring Les Dennis) and Geraldine McQueen. In my dreams, one of these will beat the X-Factor woman to Christmas number one.
Honourable mention to The Feeling, whose download-only track Feels Like Christmas can be heard on their MySpace. In a shocking development, people are still using MySpace.
I know, I haven’t blogged for over a week. I’M BAD AT THE INTERNET. But now I’m back, ready to post items which may be of interest. Or not.
One of the main roads into Liverpool City Centre has been closed after a sewer collapsed underneath it — normally this would be of no interest to me whatsover, but the same sewer passes directly under the railway line I use to travel to work on a daily basis. Despite the heroic efforts of United Utilities, St Michaels station floods every time there’s a light drizzle and yours truly has ended up on an Arriva bus in a traffic jam on two separate occasions.
John Barrowman apologises for exposing himself on a Radio 1 show, following a complaint by a person who clearly doesn’t understand the concept of radio.
Remember RISC OS, the computer operating system which was great when first released in 1988, but struggled to keep up with Windows and was eventually left in the dust? It’s now available to download for a fiver. Sadly in today’s market it’s still overpriced by about £4.50, but the nostalgic may relish the opportunity to have a legal copy to plug into an emulator.
Steve Coogan says his Liverpool show got bad reviews, not because it was a half-arsed performance, but (of COURSE!) because the Scouse audience hated Mancunians. The reaction locally was… predictable (although to be fair, for once Paddy Shennan has a point).
Many people have suspected as much for some time, but now it’s official: The Simpsons is over as an icon of subversive pop culture. How do I know? The Daily Mail has run an article praising the show.
The new label will be called Mail On Sunday Sounds (MOSS) and launched with a free giveaway of a CD by a Gospel choir. Contrary to rumours, they won’t have any recordings featuring Mick Jagger or Keith Richards, because MOSS gathers no Rolling Stones.
, giving me access to the