Tuesday 10th November, 2009 and the Muse Resistance tour rolled into Birmingham in the heart of England. Having secured tickets to see Muse on this tour some three months ago and having seen Muse twice previously (at the NEC in Birmingham) the levels of expectation and anticipation were to say the least, elevated!
Muse on stage, Birmingham NIA
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Muse didn’t disappoint! The stage show was very impressive, the set comprised a good mix of old and new songs and the guys themselves gave their all and played their hearts out in a hot & steamy NIA.
Highlights for me were New Born, MK Ultra, Unnatural Selection, Hysteria, Knights of Cydonia and Part 1 (Overture) of the Exogenesis Symphony.
All too soon (about 1hr 50mins) the show was over and the house lights came up on yet another Muse gig that will live long in the memory!
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Dean Music, Pictures Muse, The Resistance
I first encountered Spotify about a year ago when a friend sent me a link to the then fledgling website. At that time there wasn’t a great deal of music available and I decided (somewhat hastily it now transpires) not to use it.
A few work colleagues have recently been telling me how much music is now available and how great the site is. Unfortunately, registration to the free service is now by invitation only, so I was starting to think I might have missed the boat (having failed in every attempt to resurrect my old account).
Lady luck was smiling on me though and a colleague of mine was able to secure an invitation through a twitter user he follows and I was by that means able to register today and to start using the free Spotify service.
Regular updates mean that there are songs being added on an almost daily basis, another 40,000 or more today alone. It’s like having the whole of the iTunes store available to listen to, for free, from any PC where you have the client software installed.
I’m going to stick with it this time because if nothing else, it’s a great way to find and listen to new music (quite legally) before committing to a purchase.
Dean Music Spotify, streaming audio
I seem to recall that’s a line in the song ‘Parisienne Walkways’ by Phil Lynott & Gary Moore. I’m a big fan of both of their work but it’s not for that reason that I chose that phrase when considering a title for this post.
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The reason I chose that particular title for this post was because I have literally been looking back at the photographs, photographs I have taken in the years between 2001 and 2005, of business jets (bizjets), mostly at Luton Airport.
Due to it’s proximity to London, Luton Airport is the UK centre for business aviation. In addition to the VIP passengers passing through the airport there are also major maintenance facilities based at Luton which account for many of the bizjets visiting the airport.
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Dassault Falcon 2000 bizjet
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There was a time I was making several visits a year to Luton Airport to photograph (during the time I was semi-seriously into aviation photography) - it’s surprising when looking back just how many pictures I have taken. I have uploaded a selection of the more interesting images to a new picture page entitled BizJets, linked from the Pictures menu above.
Dean Music, Pictures bizjets, Luton, photography
September the 14th, 2009* - Muse release their fifth studio album, ‘The Resistance’.
It doesn’t seem like three years have passed since the release of their ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ album back in 2006 but it’s certainly been time well spent by the band because the latest offering is a very impressive collection of music, songs and lyrics.
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Not for nothing do I list music, songs and lyrics separately because each of those elements really deserves a mention in its own right.
The progression from their early works (’Showbiz’ and ‘Origin of Symmetry’) through ‘Absolution’ and ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ is now complete with ‘The Resistance’.
Musically this is an incredible album full of multi-layered guitars, synth, piano, orchestral and vocal elements combining to create a sonic soundscape of immense proportions.
The lyrics cover such diverse topics as politics, conspiracy theory and love, all contributing to some epic songs.
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Muse - ‘The Resistance’
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Ah, the songs! This is for me where this album really shines. Sure the music and lyrics are important but if they don’t gel to produce some really great songs then what’s the point? Matt, Dom & Chris don’t miss the point though and on ‘The Resistance’ they have delivered some wonderful new songs. Highlights for me are ‘Uprising’, ‘Resistance’, ‘Unnatural Selection’ and ‘MK Ultra’ - you may lean toward the Queen-esque pomp rock of ‘United States of Eurasia’ or the haunting piano of ‘I Belong to You’.
Saving the best until last? The album closes with a 15 minute epic entitled ‘Exogenesis: Symphony Pts. 1-3′ - the end result of something that Matt is quoted as saying that he has been “…working on sporadically for many years.” I have listened to this several times now and I think it is a masterpiece. It’s not rock by any stretch of the imagination - in fact it is more classical in nature, but just listen to the textures and multi-layered instruments, particularly the guitar in ‘Part 1 (Overture)’ - it is a magnificent piece of work.
Muse dare to be different and they succeed where others would only look silly. In ‘The Resistance’, in all it’s variety and grandeur, they have demonstrated to the world what we fans already knew - that they are a GREAT band. Buy it, play it loud and enjoy it!
* Release dates - 11/9 Australia, Benelux, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland. 14/9 Europe and New Zealand. 15/9 USA and Canada. 16/9 Japan. 17/9 Brazil.
Dean Music, Pictures Muse, The Resistance
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If you’re a fan of good music and great guitar playing you’ll likely have heard of Ritchie Blackmore. Best known for his time with Deep Purple and Rainbow he’s now working with his wife Candice Night (vocals) in the Renaissance-inspired ‘Blackmore’s Night’.
I digress - the reason for this post is that I have recently ‘discovered’ a great Rainbow album - the quite amazing ‘Stranger in Us All’ featuring Doogie White on vocals. Released in 1995 this was to be Ritchie’s last album before forming ‘Blackmore’s Night’.
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the legend that is Ritchie Blackmore
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I find it hard to believe that this great album has been unknown to me until literally a few weeks ago. The last album I purchased by Rainbow was the 1982 release ‘Straight Between the Eyes’ so I’d kind of lost track of their output…and of course there had been the on-off-on-off Deep Purple thing for Ritchie. But having found it I love it. I’d recommend you check it out because it has some great playing by Ritchie and Doogie White’s vocals work really well as you might expect from such a great vocalist!
Stand out tracks for me are ‘Ariel’, ‘Stand and Fight’ (shades of ‘Can’t Happen Here’), ‘Too Late for Tears’, ‘Black Masquerade’ (shades of ‘Eyes of The World’) and a rousing kick-ass version of ‘Still I’m Sad’ - there just isn’t a weak track on the album!
Dean Music, Pictures Blackmore's Night, Doogie White, Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore, Stranger In Us All
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A somewhat belated mention of the fact we have tickets to go and see Muse in November at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. We’re both very excited!
This will be the third time we’ll have seen Muse live in concert and of all the bands I’ve seen live (in almost 30 years of going to gigs) Muse are one of the best - their live shows really are a bit special.
All credit to Dulcie for getting us the tickets when the pre-sale (registered fans only) website came online at 9am on Thursday last week. I wasn’t able to do much myself (at work) but her efforts paid off, eventually securing us the two tickets we needed.
It seems to be as popular as ever because many people we know weren’t able to get tickets and by Friday when they were due for general release they were sold out.
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Matt Bellamy, Muse
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I’m not entirely happy with the way in which the website worked - even though we have confirmation of our tickets, and having paid for them, we still don’t know where we’ll be located in the arena because there were no seating plans presented during the booking process - simply a confirmation screen when you did eventually get beyond the first few screens and were fortunate enough to get to a purchase screen.
The main thing is though that we have tickets when many who tried weren’t so fortunate. We’ll be looking forward to the show anyway - being there is what matters and the word on the net is that these concerts will be ‘in the round’, so you’re less likely to be stuck ‘at the back’. Roll on the 10th of November!
Dean Music, Pictures Muse
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I’d like to share with you this great album I discovered recently (actually recorded back in 2006).
From the kick-ass opener ‘Breaking Through’ to the album closer ‘She’s Got Class’ this is an album packed full of quality heavy blues tunes. Variously cited as ‘the British Black Crowes’ and ‘the souths answer to The Answer’ Jaded Sun are one great band formed in 2002 in Dublin by John Maher (vocals), Damien Kelly (bass), Gavan Murray (drums), Eorann Stafford (guitar), and Sean Gosker (guitar).
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 Gypsy Trip album cover |
I’ve long been a fan of ‘The Answer’ (who hail from Belfast) and I’d also recommend you check out their two fine albums (’Rise’ and ‘Everyday Demons’).
The blues-based hard rock of Jaded Sun is at times similar to The Answer and John Maher does at times sound very like Cormac Neeson of The Answer - trust me when I tell you this is a good thing! Jaded Sun rock hard and they play the blues with true feeling. Check them out!
Dean Music Jaded Sun, The Answer
A work colleague of mine with whom I share some musical tastes recently asked me if I had anything by ‘Cold Chisel’, a band I had never even heard of. I told him that no, I didn’t, but intrigued as to what kind of music they might play, I looked them up and listened to a few songs. I was very impressed!
It turns out that ‘Cold Chisel’ were a big name act in Australia & New Zealand in the late 70’s and early 80’s and their lead vocalist Jimmy Barnes on leaving the group in 1984 achieved wider success with a string of successful albums and collaborations with the likes of INXS, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker and John Farnham.
‘Cold Chisel’ don’t fall into any particular musical genre rather they incorporate elements of rock, blues, rock’n'roll and pop. I’d recommend you check out their greatest hits album ‘The Very Best of Cold Chisel’ - even though the songs are now approaching 30 years old they really are worth a listen.
Dean Music Cold Chisel, Jimmy Barnes
Persevere, never give up, try, try and try again! The soundcard I refer to in my previous post is now working as required with both line and speaker audio out. Music is restored to my world - all is well 
Dean Life..., Music technology