Category: music

New favourite podcasts

Recently came across a great set of podcasts called Coverville.

Hosted up to 3 times a week by a guy called Brian Ibbott and he puts together a really great show.

He has a great laidback delivery and it’s just a great way to hear new artists.

As the name suggests, every song he plays is a cover version. Some podcasts are themed to tie in with artists’ birthdays, many are just listener requests.

If I have one minor criticism it’s that there are possibly too many American rock covers, but that’s minor. Give it a listen!

And in honour of the podcasts, here’s Candi Staton’s beautiful version of Elvis’ In The Ghetto.

Peter Andre – legend?

DavidOne of my guilty pleasures is listening to Smooth Radio in the morning – one of the benefits is that you hear a wide variety of music…

As a commercial station Smooth does, of course, have adverts and one of the recent ones caught my ear the other week.

It advertised an upcoming gig playing at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls and the O2 Arena on the Thames at Greenwich.

The event is being put on by none other than David Gest and is called David Gest – My Life! A Musical Extravaganza.

The former Mr Liza Minnelli is giving us the opportunity to see ‘live on the show… nine legendary acts‘.

Wow, I thought. Who are these legendary acts? Shalamar, Freda ‘Band Of Gold’ Payne, Russell Thompkins from the Stylistics, Coolio – yup, I’ll just about go with them.

But then right at the end of the list was a slightly odd name – one to whom I would never ascribe the term legend. The name was Peter Andre!

Yes, Mr Katie Price is apparently some sort of living god, according to David Gest. Shurely shome mishtake?

Last.fm – the next stage!

I’ve been a big fan of last.fm for over two years now – a brilliant way of keeping track of the music you listen to and an ability to find people who share your listening tastes.

Well, it’s nearly time for the next stage in their development. They’re currently allowing users to test out their open beta site.

It looks very different – much more white space and more than a couple of echoes of other well-known social media sites.

Genius new functionality is the library – a fantastic searchable online archive of all the music you’ve ever listened to.

There are lots of doubters among users, but you’ll never please all of the people all of the time.

Personally, I like it a lot. It feels fresher and more modern and there’s far more space. I’ll be sad to see the old site go, but am looking forward to the new beta site becoming more permanent.