Thursday, 16 August 2007

Hey all... sorry I haven't been shouting for a bit, I've been very busy.

One of the things that kept me busy was going to see Prince in the O2.  Now I don't know your take our Prince/male symbol but in his glory he was the boy!  I was all geared up about his band and the musicianship I was about to experience as I sat waiting for him to come on stage and although I did experience that, the show itself left me with a bit of an odd taste in my mouth...

If you go to McDonalds (don't) for something to eat it'll be, to all intents and purposes, quite a nice taste for a minute or two but that'll soon disappear.  Not like good home cooking that tastes great and has a lasting satisfaction.

If you go to a theme park it'll be fun but it'll soon end.  Not like going to Barcelona and visiting Montserrat, the old Holy city in the mountains which leaves an indelible mark on you.

I enjoyed going to see Prince, but compared to what it should or could have been like, it was a bit like the Big Mac, Disney Land scenarios.  It all felt like a bit of a media campaign to me.  He kept joking about how many hits he had and how we couldn't handle them "London, y'all ain't ready for Prince" he'd say, "I got too many hits for y'all".... which was all great fun, but then he hardly played any of them?  Instead he started to play them and seconds into it as people were cheering he'd stop, kick his chair over and walk away from the piano in a WWF (pantomime wrestling for those that don't know) manner.  Then he'd come back and do the same with another huge hit!  It was as if he was saying, "look, remeber how important I was... I wrote this, and this and this and do you remember this one too...."  but failed to actually involve himself with them and pour himself into the performance, which is what made me want to go to the gig in the first place.

But hey... what am I... some sort of journalist?  No!  You don't need to heed me, maybe you've gone to see him and thought it was great?  He was good, just not great for me, or for what I was expecting.

Nonetheless, I've been working with another legend and someone I've admired for a long time, David Holmes.  Some of you will be saying "who?", but I assure you that most, if not all of you have heard his stuff.  He did the music for Ocean's 11, 12 and 13 to mention just three of his better known films...  aside from that he's been putting out some great records over the last few years.  Check him out on iTunes, 'Let's get Killed' is a wonderful record documenting his time in New York.  In fact you should just buy anything that has his name associated with it in my opinion, it's dance, punk, funk, junk, rock and everything in between.  All very cinematic.  What's more, he's a local lad, from the Ormeau Road in Belfast (and very proud of it).

I've been working on his new album doing some vocals, and doing a wee but of work on Be with me, which I plan to release on vinyl in September as a double AA side with my version and the version I'm doing with him... it's got Voodoo, I'm really enjoying the new take on it, let's just see where it goes from here...

Anyway, I need to get off to bed as I've not rested properly for a few days, partly due to being in the Rotterdam the other night and having about three too many pints of Guinness... well it was a hard days work you know, we deserved it!

 ni night