Where Worlds Collide

After an interval of almost Kate Bush-like proportions, Uriah Heep will finally be recording a new album in 2007.

Uriah Heep are delighted to announce that the band has signed a new, exclusive worldwide recording deal with Sanctuary Records.

Heep will commence recording their first new album for nine years since 1998’s “Sonic Origami”, during March/April and going into pre production rehearsals in February. The as yet untitled album - which will be Heep’s 21st official studio album - is scheduled for release during late summer and will feature at least ten new tracks, produced by Mike Paxman.

Heep have been touring pretty solidly over the past few years, mostly overseas - they even toured Siberia in February a couple of years back: are they mad? But album releases have been restricted to live releases and somewhat dodgy rehashes of older material. An album full of completely new songs is long overdue. Let’s hope it reaches the heights of 1995’s excellent “Sea of Light”. Difficult to believe that one was released all of twelve years ago.

So you thought that Lordi’s victory in last year’s Eurovision Song Contest might mean the British entry this year might some kind of credible rock artist rather than some manufactured unknown. Unfortunately, the BBC’s interpretation of ‘credible rock artist’ is the high priest of NME indie drivel.

Former Smiths singer Morrissey could represent the UK at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC has confirmed.

The Mancunian musician first expressed an interest in taking part after Daz Sampson’s song, Teenage Life, came fifth from last in the 2006 contest.

Where are The Darkness when we need them?

The Guardian’s Martin Kettle, talking about the demise of Tower Records, gets it completely wrong.

I’m simply talking about the wonder of discovery. My generation learned an awful lot about music by browsing records in stores. It was both solitary and sociable. We learned in depth about bands and singers we’d not heard on the radio, that there were dozens of different recordings of this symphony or that sonata, and why this or that performer was better than the rest. And we learned in breadth too - as a teenager browsing in Valances in Leeds on Saturday mornings in the 60s, I learned more about jazz than I ever learned on the radio. I owe a lot of the scope and detail of my musical interests to record stores, and I wonder how the next generation is going to find that kind of opportunity.

I can’t help feeling that an important educational window is closing with the demise of record stores. Yes, it will be easier and cheaper to get the piece you already know you want online. But what about the piece or the genre you didn’t know about until you started browsing through the records in places like Tower? How are you going to learn about Hindemith or Art Tatum if you don’t know about them already? Online music destroys many barriers while erecting others.

Presumably Martin Kettle has never heard of music blogs, mailing lists of internet discussion forums. I cannot think of a single new band I’ve discovered in the past 20 years purely through browsing the shelves of HMV. More likely it be from a discussion in a place like The Opium Den or Mostly Other Music.

And unless you only care about whatever’s being hyped by the corporate media, high street record shops are increasingly useless for even buying music any more. A common experience is getting the train into Manchester, finding HMV has none of the CDs I wanted to buy, then ordering them online when I get home.

I think Martin Kettle really indulging in nostalgia for his misspent youth; the world has changed since he was 17. Most of those independant record shops run by music enthusiasts disappeared years ago, to be replaced by corporate chains staffed by people who might as well be selling baked beans. If HMV was to disappear tomorrow, I won’t miss it.