Music

‘Why Maiden?’ says Payal Rameesh, gnawing corn-on-the-cob before making his way through the corrugated iron ticket barrier. ‘Because they sing about things that matter, serious things. Because they sing about what is happening in the world, like war and famine, not “I love you, baby”. And because it is a big noise.’

Iron Maiden in India.

the future!

OK, it fades a little after a strong start, but I still love 300 getting the treatment it begs for.

Thanks to Pearl.

The 1812 Overture. Especially the end bit. Is there anything happier than a baby being tossed into the air in time to cannon blasts?

As I type, Ada is shaking her new maracas more-or-less in time to Dean Gray’s American Edit.

…only not.

Ahh, nostalgia. I was drawn into a record store and was browsing the classical section when I was hit with childhood memories of the Dick Weir Show and happy Sundays lying in bed listening to Bad Jelly the Witch, Benny Hill’s Ernie, and Peter and the Wolf. What, I asked myself, could be finer than passing on a little of that bliss?

Unfortunately I was buggered if I could remember who composed the last of these, I rung Maire, who was able to supply the answer; Prokofiev. As it happened, I was in luck; the store had a couple of different recordings to chose from - well, sort of. One was narrated by Barry Humphries in his Dame Edna persona, so that was off the list. The second, a Naxos recording with Jeremy Nichols narrating, has been taking me back to that happy place all afternoon. I hope Ada enjoys it as much as I do.

I’ve had Joyriders running through my head for the last day or two, so I popped the whole His ‘n’ Hers album on my playlist for the first time in a while. I’m blown away by what dark, sharp, perfect pop Pulp really were. I’d been describing The Killers’ Hot Stuff as an adequate knock-off, which it is, but Joyriders, Lipgloss, Have You Seen Her Lately, hell, the whole album remind me of how far Pulp outclass everyone else.

And let us not speak of Sam’s Town other than to say that perhaps the Killers should spend less time bagging Green Day for being insufficiently patriotic and more time working on their music.

I expect a few readers to be especially fond of this article.

Time to replace my worn-out Iron Maiden tshirt, obviously.

So what happens if one of the world’s finest violinists goes busking. Does anyone notice?