NancyJohnson

They didn't really find their way until Get Your Goat. PXR is great, in my top five, I think the addition of Nathan Larson was a godsend, just gave them a different dynamic. I have a brace of other stuff.

I bloody love Shudder. Which album?

Today is all about Sleep by Max Richter. Just need some very quiet/chill stuff while I'm working. It's eight and a half hours long. If anyone is remotely interested, Max Richter recomposed/reinterpreted Vivaldi's Four Seasons in 2012 and it's quite brilliant.

We always had music on in the house when I was growing up. My late mum was a huge fan of The Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones and also gave me an appreciation of big band stuff and Frank/Dean etc. What did I give her back? She loved Cheap Trick and Kiss. My dad loved Doris and also loved Hall & Oates and The Carpenters. The Doris Day Christmas Album is essential listening any time of year too. Her voice is velvet.

Doris Day. Seriously.

Consider it done.

I fell into Credit Management at an early age (supply of medical products and then retail jewellery supply) and also did a six year stint in project finance (telecoms sector) that ended about 18 months ago. It's certainly not something I wanted to do by any stretch...had I been a little more astute in the early 80s and had more supportive parents (who were more concerned about me paying my keep that finding a career I was genuinely interested in), I lived a cycle-ride from Shepperton Studios and a bus ride from Pinewood Studios, so would loved to have gotten into there and just found my way once in. If I had my time again, I would have loved to have studied Astronomy and found a career through that.

Lovely. Just the job.

I know we have the notable deaths thread, but Rolling Stone magazine just posted Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne bassist, has died following contracting the virus. I'm gutted. Absolutely gutted. Stay at home.

For some reason, UK resurfaced in my conscious earlier today. My brother had the first LP and I bought the original Night After Night in 1979/80. I did a little digging and found out Eddie Jobson had overseen a 16-disc box set, which included the whole NAN show. Hunt on.

Has anyone here got the 2CD version of this album? I remember having the vinyl in the 1980s...four years too late I saw it was reissued.

Weird week. Kiss, NIN. Wednesday is all about Counting Crows.

So yesterday it was all about Kiss Alive II, but today we get into real noise territory. Right now I'm listening to Nine Inch Nails: The Fragile Deviations 1. It's wonderful. Just wonderful. Oh, and I just ordered some wellingtons.

Kiss Alive II.

My response is very much a, 'Well, I had...' I had a desert gold(?)/orange one, a 5HH and the playability was spectacular. I loved it, there was nothing wrong about any of it (except, well read on...), but sold it on as I had Thunderbirds incoming. My only moan, was that the onboard preamp was a bit hot; I'd start out with everything flattish, just allowing the amp to shape the tone, but as you do, you tweak up and up, so by the end of the session everything was full on and it sounded fairly horrific. I did make enquiries here to ascertain whether I could run things passive...I'd have been happy leaving the preamp in the cavity, but just running with two volumes. I moved it on before I made any changes.

OK...I've gone with the Alto TX210. Should be more than enough. I'll just XLR the dUg into the thing. Fingers crossed!

Thing is, I can just plug into my dUg and it'll be 100 times better...

Queen - A Night At The Opera. Wokring from home...have already done Sheer Heart Attack. Rich Kids next. Then Japan - Obscure Alternatives.

I definitely have a little PJB chubby going on at the moment. One of the ones recently on sale here was just down the road from me too. pink torpedo. One thing that's a great pity is that these things don't have a 9v output on them. Just an observation.

Is that A string machine crooked?

Spector. Yeah, I know my legacy, but put that onto any bass and it works.

I downloaded Futureman Records 'Garden Of Earthly Delights - An XTC Celebration' earlier today (Bandcamp/$12.00); I'm not generally a fan of tribute albums, I suppose in my time I've been on the receiving end of too many of these frankly awful rock tribute albums and I'd sooner avoid them. Anyhow, that said, this is a little different and although I came to the party a bit late, I am an XTC fan. Thankfully there's no heavy metal reinterpretation of anything and it's almost as if Messrs Partridge and Moulding have just gone in and rerecorded 50-odd tracks of XTC/Dukes material with a load of different musicians; in the main, the vocal delivery is extremely close to that of the original recordings, which makes things all the more listenable. Money well spent.

Why not just cut all the ones where Ringo is playing drums? (Runs for cover)