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YouGov MRP poll in “red wall” seats finds CON to LAB swing of 4.5% – politicalbetting.com

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  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729

    I thought Paul Simon hated what he did to The Sound of Silence? The original recording was just acoustic and then the record company added heavy production without consulting them.
    Certainly, but not the first time Simon has been too austere and joyless considering he was firmly in pop and not art music.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,110

    With your inclusion of Wonder and Gaye (I assume!) I think some credit needs to be given to the 'Funk Brothers', the Motown house band that played on nearly all of their label's recordings.

    On a similar (soul music) vein. I think Amy Winehouse warrants a mention among UK artists of the last 20 years. I've never heard another British singer sing like that.

    If you like Amy Winehouse's Back To Black you should check out the record company she recorded it with, Daptone Records, they've made so much good music.

    The world is going up in flames
    I love some of Daptone’s stuff; it’s sad that Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones are no longer with us.

    Amy was great, but ultimately (dare I say it), imitative rather than inimitable.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,047

    Extension Rebellion are heading into some dark waters.

    Was that a Floyd album?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,004
    tlg86 said:

    BiB - that was Real Madrid, you numpty!

    But I do agree with you. I actually think the 2000s were alright for music, but the last decade has been pretty rubbish.
    I don't think it's recency (dis)bias - the 2010s have been utterly atrocious. I mean there is stuff I do like from the 2010s but there's not all that much.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,675

    Was that a Floyd album?
    The lost album. Yes. :smile:

  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    If you can write "The Dangling Conversation" unironically I think you may occasionally need to be prodded into the danceable sunlight.
  • Was that a Floyd album?
    Existentialist Rebellion.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 33,910
    1977 to 1984 was a great period in pop music. So was 1991 to about 1997.
  • TazTaz Posts: 16,911

    I think it's my favourite Beatles track
    I’d have to say my favourite album is The Best of the Beatles.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,675

    L

    Beautifully presented smoke and mirrors.

    Watching the new Labour biopic, Blair sounds remarkably similar to Sunak. Has anyone ever seen them together in the same room?
    You mean Sunak is copying the Master, as Cameroons used to call him in awe?

  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,912

    Modern formats don’t help, of course.
    The great pop peak (1963 to ?1997) was made possibly by the LP, which expanded the limit available to the pop “composer” but also set a limit of around 50 minutes.

    Now, Spotify.

    I saw a big billboard for the “new album” from some band the other day and I thought, album? ALBUM?

    It was like seeing an ad for fax machines.
    Yes, absolutely

    And Renaissance Italy had just the right eco-system for brilliant young artists. They had a base level of great expertise from church painting, then they had the Popes and Medicis, proudly commissioning artistic talent, and also the system of great masters teaching apprentices in their studios, plus a fractured polity which meant minor dukes and counts across northern Italy would all want their own new artists, thus encouraging further innovation.

    But they also had something else: an incredible series of magnificent artists, one after the other. Something inexplicable. Dumb luck maybe. How the fuck did Michelangelo sculpt the Pieta in St Peter's, age 23?

    How? How do you get that good?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietà_(Michelangelo)

    I wonder if we will look back at the Golden Age of British Pop Music 1963-2003 (admittedly less exalted, but still important) and think Wow, what happened, all those genius musicians, one after the other, then...... it stopped
  • TazTaz Posts: 16,911

    The lost album. Yes. :smile:

    Yes.

    Aren’t they a different band with a large back catalogue ?
  • Modern formats don’t help, of course.
    The great pop peak (1963 to ?1997) was made possibly by the LP, which expanded the limit available to the pop “composer” but also set a limit of around 50 minutes.

    Now, Spotify.

    I saw a big billboard for the “new album” from some band the other day and I thought, album? ALBUM?

    It was like seeing an ad for fax machines.
    Also, the great pop peak depended on having basically one shared pop culture. During the 70's and 80's, the audience for Radio 1 was about 25 million. That's down to about 9 million now, because the popular music audience has shattered into a dozen pieces that aren't really exposed to each other.
    There's more media space to fill, and probably more groups filling it. But it's much harder to get the whole nation's attention. And it leads to choice and opportunities and they're good things, but we have lost something significant on the way.

    It's the same logic that leads to Somewhereism.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,792
    Heathener said:

    By the way, I thought No Time to Die was absolutely dire.

    Possibly the dullest movie I've ever seen and a good example of why an actor should never be allowed to get above himself and start dictating plots.

    It's the only Bond movie I would never see twice.

    Happy to be disagreed with by others. Just a personal view.

    Happy to disagree with you.

    You are wrong.

    In my personal view.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,836
    Charles said:

    How did they resolve?
    I think the owner of the company who had be inadvertently granted the copyright assigned it back, and was very good humoured about it.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924

    Happy to disagree with you.

    You are wrong.

    In my personal view.
    NTTD = Liz Kendall of Bond movies
  • I love some of Daptone’s stuff; it’s sad that Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones are no longer with us.

    Amy was great, but ultimately (dare I say it), imitative rather than inimitable.
    I'm so glad to have someone other than me bring up Sharon Jones in a music conversation! I know I led it there, but still ;) I was lucky enough to see her and the DapKings at the Wilderness festival about 10 years ago. Have you seen the movie about her, Miss Sharon Jones?

    I love that her guitarist is called Binky Griptite.
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    Leon said:

    Yes, I agree entirely. Popular music has simply declined, in quality. The difference between now and 1967, or 73, or the early 80s, or even the mid 90s, is stark.

    This isn't a Fings Aint Wot They Used To Be perspective, either. Art forms rise and fall (and sometimes rise again)

    English Verse drama peaked with Shakespeare. It is extremely hard to say it has ever seen those heights again.

    English lyric poetry peaked with Byron, Shelley and Keats (et al), and then came a slow descent. Hardly anyone reads poetry now.

    Jazz? lol

    Sometimes cultures are aware of their decline even as it happens. The italians knew that Mannerism, which replaced the High Renaissance, was a serious Decline and Fall. There was no one to replace Da Vinci, Michelangelo. Raphael - Italy in that era was, artistically, like Barcelona FC during Peak Messi, the team which now loses to Moldovans

    We had 30-40 years of brilliant new pop music every year, and now we don't.
    Depends how you define brilliant new pop music though, from a personal point of view I think the music is better than ever before - there is loads of it and it is all accessible immediately via the internet. Standards are much higher than they used to be. 25 years ago if you wanted to look for new music you would need to sit through hours of terrible unsigned oasis copycat bands, now you can find much more interesting stuff from all around the world on youtube. It is therefore harder and more challenging for bands to develop a niche and get noticed, and that is a good thing as it drives innovation and creativity.

    On the downside, I suppose that pop music always had a countercultural and rebellious element to it, but this has now been lost completely in the woke era. Pop music has become the establishment, which is a problem.

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,432
    Hear the tremor in the Taiwan Foreign Ministers voice. I think it is more than his accent:

    https://twitter.com/NewGranada1979/status/1445059655135154188?s=19
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,912
    EPG said:

    It's impressive that you have the expertise on contemporary jazz to know that it is currently lol. The rest not surprising because of your career as a writer, but jazz?!
    I went to Ronnie Scott's recently, to see five of Britain's best jazz musicians on stage in one go (a kind of celebration of the end of lockdown). They did a nice set, of thier own music, but really it could have been modern jazz from any year since about 1980. Set down a neat tune, then everyone does their riffy little solos, then reassemble for the crescendo, then end. And repeat

    The musicianship was impeccable but the music itself was, to be honest, tediously predictable. Nice, but samey

    I am not an expert but my friend who took me their was and is an expert, He reviews music regularly for top newspapers, he's so expert he's good friends with legends like Robert Plant

    I told him my opinion of the jazz and he shrugged and sighed and said Yes, it's true, it hasn't moved on in decades, it is probably doomed

  • I'm so glad to have someone other than me bring up Sharon Jones in a music conversation! I know I led it there, but still ;) I was lucky enough to see her and the DapKings at the Wilderness festival about 10 years ago. Have you seen the movie about her, Miss Sharon Jones?

    I love that her guitarist is called Binky Griptite.
    Oh, and have you seen the Charles Bradley movie, Soul Of America?
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    I thought Paul Simon hated what he did to The Sound of Silence? The original recording was just acoustic and then the record company added heavy production without consulting them.
    Yeah but the original bombed without trace and Simon and Garfunkel had split up. The reworked version went ballistic and launched their career.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,559
    I've never liked Queen.

    The sort of music that gets me changing channel on the radio.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    darkage said:

    Depends how you define brilliant new pop music though, from a personal point of view I think the music is better than ever before - there is loads of it and it is all accessible immediately via the internet. Standards are much higher than they used to be. 25 years ago if you wanted to look for new music you would need to sit through hours of terrible unsigned oasis copycat bands, now you can find much more interesting stuff from all around the world on youtube. It is therefore harder and more challenging for bands to develop a niche and get noticed, and that is a good thing as it drives innovation and creativity.

    On the downside, I suppose that pop music always had a countercultural and rebellious element to it, but this has now been lost completely in the woke era. Pop music has become the establishment, which is a problem.

    Offhand I can think of West and Minaj and Stormzy all having courted controversy against governments, some sensible, some dopey. You'll always have the banal figures like Drake. Plus there are genres that have huge roles for violence and criminality like drug-taking, and not just neutral analysis either.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,432

    I've never liked Queen.

    The sort of music that gets me changing channel on the radio.

    Never been my cup of tea either.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,912
    darkage said:

    Depends how you define brilliant new pop music though, from a personal point of view I think the music is better than ever before - there is loads of it and it is all accessible immediately via the internet. Standards are much higher than they used to be. 25 years ago if you wanted to look for new music you would need to sit through hours of terrible unsigned oasis copycat bands, now you can find much more interesting stuff from all around the world on youtube. It is therefore harder and more challenging for bands to develop a niche and get noticed, and that is a good thing as it drives innovation and creativity.

    On the downside, I suppose that pop music always had a countercultural and rebellious element to it, but this has now been lost completely in the woke era. Pop music has become the establishment, which is a problem.

    Please point me in the direction of great new music?!

    The only excellent new band I have discovered in the last 5 years is The Gloaming. Sort of Gaelic Irish music and words mixed with system music from America - modern classical/John Cale chamber stuff.

    At it's best it is brilliant. I cook along with it. They are fabulous live

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gloaming
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,099
    Leon said:

    Yes, absolutely

    And Renaissance Italy had just the right eco-system for brilliant young artists. They had a base level of great expertise from church painting, then they had the Popes and Medicis, proudly commissioning artistic talent, and also the system of great masters teaching apprentices in their studios, plus a fractured polity which meant minor dukes and counts across northern Italy would all want their own new artists, thus encouraging further innovation.

    But they also had something else: an incredible series of magnificent artists, one after the other. Something inexplicable. Dumb luck maybe. How the fuck did Michelangelo sculpt the Pieta in St Peter's, age 23?

    How? How do you get that good?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietà_(Michelangelo)

    I wonder if we will look back at the Golden Age of British Pop Music 1963-2003 (admittedly less exalted, but still important) and think Wow, what happened, all those genius musicians, one after the other, then...... it stopped
    You're on form tonight pal!

    Spot on with the wax and wane of art art forms over time and place.

    All things must pass.

    (Another great album btw)
  • I thought Paul Simon hated what he did to The Sound of Silence? The original recording was just acoustic and then the record company added heavy production without consulting them.
    I'm more of an Enjoy the Silence man, personally .

  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,792

    The production values on that make me think it's a GB News outtake.
    Classic example of shitposting.

    (or a shit positing shit)
  • Leon said:

    I went to Ronnie Scott's recently, to see five of Britain's best jazz musicians on stage in one go (a kind of celebration of the end of lockdown). They did a nice set, of thier own music, but really it could have been modern jazz from any year since about 1980. Set down a neat tune, then everyone does their riffy little solos, then reassemble for the crescendo, then end. And repeat

    The musicianship was impeccable but the music itself was, to be honest, tediously predictable. Nice, but samey

    I am not an expert but my friend who took me their was and is an expert, He reviews music regularly for top newspapers, he's so expert he's good friends with legends like Robert Plant

    I told him my opinion of the jazz and he shrugged and sighed and said Yes, it's true, it hasn't moved on in decades, it is probably doomed

    There that old line of Kingsley Amis about jazz going from Chaucer to 'Finnegans Wake' in a single generation - from a promising start to irredeemable obscurity and decline.
  • kyf_100kyf_100 Posts: 4,953
    edited October 2021
    darkage said:

    Depends how you define brilliant new pop music though, from a personal point of view I think the music is better than ever before - there is loads of it and it is all accessible immediately via the internet. Standards are much higher than they used to be. 25 years ago if you wanted to look for new music you would need to sit through hours of terrible unsigned oasis copycat bands, now you can find much more interesting stuff from all around the world on youtube. It is therefore harder and more challenging for bands to develop a niche and get noticed, and that is a good thing as it drives innovation and creativity.

    On the downside, I suppose that pop music always had a countercultural and rebellious element to it, but this has now been lost completely in the woke era. Pop music has become the establishment, which is a problem.

    It is the other way round for me, and that's due to barriers to entry.

    Once upon a time you had to be able to play, and be really good at, an instrument, or be an amazing singer, to stand above the crowd.

    These days anyone with a copy of Logic, which autotunes and quantizes perfectly, can make something acceptable sounding - that sounds like everything else.

    Which leads to an enormous amount of "just ok" pop music that sounds perfectly palatable but is utterly forgettable. A McDonalds cheeseburger for the ears.

    There is a great deal more "OK" at the expense of far less "great". And that is almost certainly a by product of greater automation in the music making process.

    Parodied years ago:

    https://youtu.be/O_8S_7P7abM?t=110
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,004
    Bozza's burnt his deal in the oven so he's had to go and get some fish and chips ?
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,110
    edited October 2021

    I'm so glad to have someone other than me bring up Sharon Jones in a music conversation! I know I led it there, but still ;) I was lucky enough to see her and the DapKings at the Wilderness festival about 10 years ago. Have you seen the movie about her, Miss Sharon Jones?

    I love that her guitarist is called Binky Griptite.
    I have not. I really must.

    I am an absolute obsessive about soul music and so imagine my delight when I discovered this thing called Daptone.

    One last thing from me about the Beatles, they are *not* served well by Spotify.

    I find there is really no point to listening to any of their albums except Abbey Road and the White Album which have been remastered by Giles Martin and are Spotify-friendly.

    Let It Be has had the same treatment and is due out later this year. He did Sergeant Peppers too but has decided it was a botch job and has pledged to re-do it.

    We just have to wait for the rest.

    Or listen on vinyl.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    95% top rate? Hear those pips squeak!
    How about this litany of first world problems

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIl6n_SRCI
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,675
    Nottingham hospitals go black alert and it's only start of October...



    Shaun Lintern
    @ShaunLintern
    NHS trust declares ‘black alert’ over unacceptably long waits for A&E patients
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,099
    darkage said:

    Depends how you define brilliant new pop music though, from a personal point of view I think the music is better than ever before - there is loads of it and it is all accessible immediately via the internet. Standards are much higher than they used to be. 25 years ago if you wanted to look for new music you would need to sit through hours of terrible unsigned oasis copycat bands, now you can find much more interesting stuff from all around the world on youtube. It is therefore harder and more challenging for bands to develop a niche and get noticed, and that is a good thing as it drives innovation and creativity.

    On the downside, I suppose that pop music always had a countercultural and rebellious element to it, but this has now been lost completely in the woke era. Pop music has become the establishment, which is a problem.

    Ffs - do you see 'woke' in literally everything?

    You need to come to terms, this is a modern world.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,432
    Pulpstar said:

    Bozza's burnt his deal in the oven so he's had to go and get some fish and chips ?

    No chance of a battered sausage...
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,047
    Foxy said:

    Hear the tremor in the Taiwan Foreign Ministers voice. I think it is more than his accent:

    https://twitter.com/NewGranada1979/status/1445059655135154188?s=19

    That's extremely worrying.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,912

    There that old line of Kingsley Amis about jazz going from Chaucer to 'Finnegans Wake' in a single generation - from a promising start to irredeemable obscurity and decline.
    That's brilliantly true. A clever man, Kingsley Amis. Flawed, but undeniably clever

    The biography of Kingsley Amis by Zachary Leader is superb. It may "authorised" but it does not spare any blushes. Amis was a fucker, in all senses of the word

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Kingsley-Amis-Zachary-Leader-ebook/dp/B00CP5UCLK/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=zachary+leader+amis&qid=1633381242&s=books&sr=1-2
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,836

    My top six:

    The Living Daylights
    Casino Royale
    Goldeneye
    OHMSS
    Spy Who Loved Me
    Goldfinger

    Also, soft spots for Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only, Thunderball, From Russia with Love and Live and Let Die. A View to A Kill if only for Christopher Walken.

    Die Another Day and Diamonds are Forever are embarrassing.

    The Living Daylights
    Casino Royale
    Goldeneye

    - all in my top five

    I would Goldfinger to the list. Not sure what number five would be.

    Most overrated Bond movie has to be Skyfall. Javier Bardem is brilliant, but the Sam Mendes balletic fight scenes were rubbish, and the whole final act was more Home Alone than Bond.

    I have a soft spot for Die Another Day, if only because Toby Stephens curls his lip in a wonderful way.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,912

    That's extremely worrying.
    It really is. That sounds like a man who actually thinks his country is about to be invaded
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,792

    NTTD = Liz Kendall of Bond movies
    What a ludicrous statement.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729

    There that old line of Kingsley Amis about jazz going from Chaucer to 'Finnegans Wake' in a single generation - from a promising start to irredeemable obscurity and decline.
    Fair enough, but I am going to posit that Britain is not at the progressive edge of jazz. Unfair comparison, but while Coleman and friends were fomenting free jazz the UK had "Midnight in Moscow" (which I like!). There is nothing wrong with the latter tendency toward nostalgia (I do like it!) but no different to the Scandis who love their jazz on the retro side (or to chaps discussing The Beatles in 2021!).
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,432

    That's extremely worrying.
    I think the Social Media collapse is a diversion.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,099
    Charles said:

    How about this litany of first world problems

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIl6n_SRCI
    Brilliant! Haven't heard that for years.

    It's a very jolly evening on PB tonight!
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,559
    Leon said:

    I went to Ronnie Scott's recently, to see five of Britain's best jazz musicians on stage in one go (a kind of celebration of the end of lockdown). They did a nice set, of thier own music, but really it could have been modern jazz from any year since about 1980. Set down a neat tune, then everyone does their riffy little solos, then reassemble for the crescendo, then end. And repeat

    The musicianship was impeccable but the music itself was, to be honest, tediously predictable. Nice, but samey

    I am not an expert but my friend who took me their was and is an expert, He reviews music regularly for top newspapers, he's so expert he's good friends with legends like Robert Plant

    I told him my opinion of the jazz and he shrugged and sighed and said Yes, it's true, it hasn't moved on in decades, it is probably doomed

    Why should a genre of music move on?

    If it has reached its pinnacle, then stay there.

    The best tracks and the best artists in many styles are from decades ago. We don't expect continuous improvement of Mod or Ska or Northern Soul or House. We dust off the old vinyl and give it a spin.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,099
    Foxy said:

    I think the Social Media collapse is a diversion.
    Blimey.

    Once PB goes down I know we're really in the shit.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,675

    Neil Henderson
    @hendopolis
    ·
    2m
    YORKSHIRE POST: Tory and Labour politicians’ United call to build HS2 in full #TomorrowsPapersToday
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Extension Rebellion are heading into some dark waters.

    Spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out the pub… then realised it was just a typo 😂
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,559

    I'm more of an Enjoy the Silence man, personally .

    A brilliant track.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,110
    EPG said:

    Fair enough, but I am going to posit that Britain is not at the progressive edge of jazz. Unfair comparison, but while Coleman and friends were fomenting free jazz the UK had "Midnight in Moscow" (which I like!). There is nothing wrong with the latter tendency toward nostalgia (I do like it!) but no different to the Scandis who love their jazz on the retro side (or to chaps discussing The Beatles in 2021!).
    What about chaps discussing Mozart or Bach?

    I never understand the cringe against music produced a while ago. Great art is universal and timeless.

    Having said that; it’s great to keep your ears open. Perhaps you can recommend some contemporary jazz classics?
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,792
    No Time To Die will divide opinion. Soon, there will be two types of people in the world: those who love No Time To Die and those that don’t love No Time To Die.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729

    What about chaps discussing Mozart or Bach?

    I never understand the cringe against music produced a while ago. Great art is universal and timeless.

    Having said that; it’s great to keep your ears open. Perhaps you can recommend some contemporary jazz classics?
    There's no cringe - Coleman is good and so is Kenny Ball, even if Coleman is better! Merely to note that one cannot go out and see a post-lockdown gig in the UK in a genre critically dependent on live performance, and draw conclusions about the whole.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    rcs1000 said:

    I think the owner of the company who had be inadvertently granted the copyright assigned it back, and was very good humoured about it.
    Are you sure it was Northern Songs Ltd? Wiki seems to think that got very nasty with Lew Grade, Robert Holmes a Court et al getting involved
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,836

    I’m my view, Beatles and Dylan are god tier, and the Beatles have a slight edge.

    Then you have (in no particular order) Bowie, Young, Marley, the Stones, maybe Stevie, Marvin or Prince.

    Then everyone else.

    Queen (really Freddy) were insanely good but don’t have the depth or breadth. They weren’t an albums band, either.

    In the last twenty years only Radiohead, the Arcade Fire and Kanye have nudged at greatness.
    And The National.
  • FishingFishing Posts: 5,402

    L

    Beautifully presented smoke and mirrors.

    Watching the new Labour biopic, Blair sounds remarkably similar to Sunak. Has anyone ever seen them together in the same room?
    Watching the film reminded me how vacuous and dismal the whole New Labour project was.

    And you're right about the resemblance with Sunak. I think that's a big reason why I can't stand him either.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,004
    Off topic, how the hell can a case alleging mass murder take 4 years to get to trial.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,912

    Why should a genre of music move on?

    If it has reached its pinnacle, then stay there.

    The best tracks and the best artists in many styles are from decades ago. We don't expect continuous improvement of Mod or Ska or Northern Soul or House. We dust off the old vinyl and give it a spin.
    I entirely agree. However the problem is that the music industry needs a constant supply of new stuff, to get people spending, so they punt out any old bollocks, year after year

    There's an interesting comparison to be had with domestic architecture.

    In terms of urbanity, and aesthetics, we have never equalled the Georgian or early Victorian terrace. Harmonious and beautiful. Yet architects want to make a name for themselves so they force new versions of domestic housing on us, which are invariably inferior, sometimes calamitously so

    Just build bloody Georgian terraces and crescents, nicely but not overly varied, with leafy trees, and wide pavements, and mix it with shops and pubs and parks. Its not missile science. That's how you make nice places to live. You can also build quite densely in this form, there is nothing preventing it
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,675
    Charles said:

    Spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out the pub… then realised it was just a typo 😂
    Extension Rebellion are a radical off-shoot of XR.

    They will not stop until no more extensions are built in Britain, thereby saving a lot of energy. :wink:
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,047

    Ffs - do you see 'woke' in literally everything?

    You need to come to terms, this is a modern world.
    To be fair, sometimes it does seem relentless.

    I asked for an exfoliating facewash in Boots this afternoon. The female 20-something shop assistant in there asked me all sorts of questions about type and product and I said I had no idea as I'm just an ignorant bloke who doesn't normally get the stuff and just wanted to just scrub my face.

    She took me over to the mens section and managed to muffle something about "patriarchy" on her way over and about marketing of what's essentially the same product, which I politely ignored, and then asked expectantly if I'd feel comfortable in my own skin if I perused the women's section instead.

    So I shuffled over with her and found it eventually (Clean and Clear, Johnson and Johnson) and she wasn't unpleasant but it was all a bit weird.

    My wife thinks she was flirting with me but she seemed pretty serious to me.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,792
    Charles said:

    Spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out the pub… then realised it was just a typo 😂
    Some Dark Waters, the pub in Clapton?
  • I'm so glad to have someone other than me bring up Sharon Jones in a music conversation! I know I led it there, but still ;) I was lucky enough to see her and the DapKings at the Wilderness festival about 10 years ago. Have you seen the movie about her, Miss Sharon Jones?

    I love that her guitarist is called Binky Griptite.
    On a related bit of trivia, in this video of Sharon Jones & the DapKings live, the bass player is Hagar Ben Ari - an Israeli born lady who now plays in the SNL band, who I met after a gig, made facebook friends with and turns out I share a birthday with, and who I saw mentioned on twitter this week because she was talking about male architects making buildings that look like dicks on SNL
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,912
    Jack Posobiec
    @JackPosobiec
    ·
    2m
    All of US social media going down at once is what day one of a Taiwan invasion by China would look like. GPS too
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 64,675

    Blimey.

    Once PB goes down I know we're really in the shit.
    It's one of the signals for the submarine captain isn't it? PB going down?
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Foxy said:

    Hear the tremor in the Taiwan Foreign Ministers voice. I think it is more than his accent:

    https://twitter.com/NewGranada1979/status/1445059655135154188?s=19

    He’s scared. He knows this has a real chance of getting out of control
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,047
    Leon said:

    It really is. That sounds like a man who actually thinks his country is about to be invaded
    I note he cites Australia for help - what can they do?

    He clearly knows that Biden won't do anything, which he won't.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,836

    I’m my view, Beatles and Dylan are god tier, and the Beatles have a slight edge.

    Then you have (in no particular order) Bowie, Young, Marley, the Stones, maybe Stevie, Marvin or Prince.

    Then everyone else.

    Queen (really Freddy) were insanely good but don’t have the depth or breadth. They weren’t an albums band, either.

    In the last twenty years only Radiohead, the Arcade Fire and Kanye have nudged at greatness.
    You also forgot the other great lyricist - Paul Simon.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,099
    NEW THREAD
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924

    It's one of the signals for the submarine captain isn't it? PB going down?
    TSE joke incoming
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 62,047
    rcs1000 said:

    The Living Daylights
    Casino Royale
    Goldeneye

    - all in my top five

    I would Goldfinger to the list. Not sure what number five would be.

    Most overrated Bond movie has to be Skyfall. Javier Bardem is brilliant, but the Sam Mendes balletic fight scenes were rubbish, and the whole final act was more Home Alone than Bond.

    I have a soft spot for Die Another Day, if only because Toby Stephens curls his lip in a wonderful way.
    Agree with all of that, except the last paragraph!
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    Presumably there is a commercial reason why pop music does not keep pumping out Beatles soundalikes for the teen-ager of 2021. The industry is hardly renowned for its Medici tendencies of extravagant patronage without financial return. Then it's just a matter of taste, and for older men to dislike pop music is a feature, not a bug.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,110
    rcs1000 said:

    You also forgot the other great lyricist - Paul Simon.
    It was extremely painful to make the break, but I had to cut it off somewhere.

    Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, Smokey Robinson…I could willingly lose an entire day listening to any of them.

    But I think the people in my top tier kind of transcend, create whole new genres or movements.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,297
    Well it's like ELVIS never existed. Bizarre group of blokes.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 58,836

    Nobody has mentioned “A Day In the Life” which may be the best thing they did.

    It’s the emotionally taut, soul-gripping and ultimately cathartic sound of existential ennui. If you listen to it properly, the last chord will leave you “shook”.

    If you know it already, listen again just for Ringo’s drumming, which is amazing in its own right.

    John Lennon famously said:

    "Ringo Starr, not the best drummer in the world... not the best drummer in the Beatles"
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,110
    rcs1000 said:

    John Lennon famously said:

    "Ringo Starr, not the best drummer in the world... not the best drummer in the Beatles"
    Apparently apocryphal.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,105
    Heathener said:

    By the way, I thought No Time to Die was absolutely dire.

    Possibly the dullest movie I've ever seen and a good example of why an actor should never be allowed to get above himself and start dictating plots.

    It's the only Bond movie I would never see twice.

    Happy to be disagreed with by others. Just a personal view.

    I agree with you. I struggled early on from the age disparity between Craig and his love interest. I couldn't get past believing her to be his daughter. This wasn't helped by the construction of the film. In fact there's 20 years between them but he isn't aging well and the difference looks closer to 30 years, Apart from that the number of technical mistakes such as the CGI looking like it was done on the cheap and the product placement being intrusive it was a film with few saving graces. Having said that I went with someone who rarely goes to the cinema and she loved it (and thought DC 'stunning'
  • theProletheProle Posts: 1,290

    Also, the great pop peak depended on having basically one shared pop culture. During the 70's and 80's, the audience for Radio 1 was about 25 million. That's down to about 9 million now, because the popular music audience has shattered into a dozen pieces that aren't really exposed to each other.
    There's more media space to fill, and probably more groups filling it. But it's much harder to get the whole nation's attention. And it leads to choice and opportunities and they're good things, but we have lost something significant on the way.

    It's the same logic that leads to Somewhereism.
    Radio 2 and Radio 1 are also virtually indistinguishable now as well - they had that prize ass Scott Mills covering for Ken Bruce a week or two ago. Both are really covering the same narrow segment of music, with a bit of a nod to the decent stuff of the past on Radio 2.

    I honestly never thought I would listen to commercial radio, but it's Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits Radio on the way home from work now. I used to listen to Radio 2 or Radio 4, but PM has become beyond tedious, and the 5-6pm slot on Radio 2 has become poor music interspersed with a woman with a voice like nails on a blackboard and a laugh more irritating than Steve Wrights.
  • It's one of the signals for the submarine captain isn't it? PB going down?
    Pretty sure anyone on PB going down is a blue moon kinda thing, potential sign of the apocalypse for sure.
  • NemtynakhtNemtynakht Posts: 2,329

    Nobody has mentioned “A Day In the Life” which may be the best thing they did.

    It’s the emotionally taut, soul-gripping and ultimately cathartic sound of existential ennui. If you listen to it properly, the last chord will leave you “shook”.

    If you know it already, listen again just for Ringo’s drumming, which is amazing in its own right.
    The Beatles are far and away the best band ever - I learnt guitar by listening to my Dad's record collection and going through his 3 books of 50 Lennon and McCartney songs. There really are so many fantastic songs, and there are a few filler songs but really not many.

    The underrated songs

    And I love her
    All I've got to do
    Things we said today
    I should have known better
    You've got to hide your love away
    It's only love
    Here there and everything
This discussion has been closed.