Dr. Feelgood have often been called ‘the greatest local band’. Canvey Island is peculiar and strange little island at the end of the Thames Estuary. I’ve always been embarrassed by my ‘hometown’ but have always been proud of Dr. Feelgood. Lee Brilleaux – the Feelgood’s frontman – and my father were great friends and I used to recieve The Big Figure’s –the Feelgood’s drummer – spare drum sticks and drum skins. I ‘escaped‘ from ‘The Island’, moving to London to work in a design agency, when I was 18. Appropriately my very first ever piece of commercial design was for the Dr. Feelgood sister band The Canvey Island Allstars and their album Escape From Oil City. I too escaped. The CIA’s single, Werewolves of London, was the soundtrack to Paul Newman’s Hustler sequel, The Color of Money.

Oil City Confidential is the brilliant film documenting Canvey Island’s legendary local band Dr. Feelgood. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described it as “ ..a vivid study of period, music and place”. The film was broadcast on BBC Four in April 2010. It has recently one a Mojo award.

Moondog’s music is wonderful.  Moondog was the pseudonym of Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), a blind American composer, musician, poet, and inventor of several musical instruments. Moondog removed himself from society through his decision to make his home on the streets of New York for approximately twenty of the thirty years he spent in the city. He could be found on the streets of New York wearing clothes he had created based on his own interpretation of the Norse god Thor. Because of his unconventional outfits, he was known for much of his life as “The Viking of 6th Avenue”.

The Flaming Lips; Stardeath And White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins and Peaches cover Dark Side Of The Moon. Success. It’s a Syd Barret style shining-diamond [what do I even mean by that?].

From the opening : Henry Rollins calmly reciting “I’ve been mad for years” - to the last notes of a stellar brainmashed “Eclipse”, the Lip’s version is a new venture. Songs embedded in our psyche – and as familiar a pop culture moment as The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper– are new and different. And it’s proof as such, that a great album is not just about such songwriting, but also about the sound, the treatment and the approach given to the material. If you’re expecting a version where you can predict every drum roll and guitar lick give up now. As a fan of both bands though, this “DSOTM” is an essential listen even if just once – for fans of either.

The strength of “Dark Side” is, and always was, the timelessness of the themes within it ; song titles betray the core lyrical obsessions, Time, Money, Breathing, Death, Us And Them – the things that drive human beings.

Sonically, this album is clearly a labour of love. As a treatment, this will definitely alienate a few of the more slavish Floyd fans who believe The Holy Canon should NOT be touched: they are zealots who miss the spirit of their beloved band – it would be fair to say that this re-imagining is both respectful and original. A remake that has validity and integrity. Genius. How wonderful to have sat here listening to this recording while watching the snow fall and the sky turn black.

Adidas has launched a range of men’s trainers in the US that transform into a branded virtual world held in front of a computers web-cam.

The five different trainers will enable Adidas to introduce three games developed by game developer xForm into the virtual neighborhood. The games will include a skateboard game, where the trainer acts as the controller to navigate the virtual city’s alleys, along with a Star Wars themed game and music based game.

Robert Kirby, the musical arranger best known for his work with Nick Drake has died. His arrangements and plush sound scapes complemented Nick Drake’s beautiful and often elaborate songs.

Robert Bruce Kirby, musical arranger and orchestrator, born 16 April 1948; died 3 October 2009.

Last Monday Alberta Cross released their incredible debut LP, ‘Broken Side of Time’ and, with it, were the first band ever to use ‘Augmented Reality’ technology within their album artwork.

Lead vocalist Petter Stakee commented

“The album is pretty haunting in itself, we wanted the videos to show it and put that across” Stakee continues “Brantely and I talked about ideas to match the video with the music so he went to Salt On Sea in California, which looks like a ghost town that’s been blown up by a nuclear bomb to shoot the videos. It was on old posh Hollywood star’s getaway, they all bought houses there, and one night the whole place sunk into the sand because of a chemical reaction… Some of the old shit like old cars, houses, broken vinyl records are still there, half buried”

The content of each marker/code will be changed regularly and Alberta Cross will be uploading special videos, competitions and other content throughout the year, which will only be available to those who own the album artwork.
‘Broken Side of Time’ was released last Monday through Ark Recordings and

Intel’s latest campaign celebrates Geek’dom and Tech’head culture. This appeals to me – I take pride in being a geek – and although the wider audience may not immediately recognise the achievements of the ‘rock star’ engineers – and OK, the ‘rock star’ comparison is tired, and actually, are ‘rock stars’ cool anymore?  –  the overall treatment focuses on the Intel folks’ talent; their pride and their immersion in what they do -  this is communicated to everyone.