Monthly Archives: February 2008

classic Lenny Henry

26 Tuesday Feb 2008

Posted by in General

≈ Leave a comment

The comedian Lenny Henry is on classic form with a new Radio 4 comedy called “Rudy’s Rare Records” (listen to it from the BBC here). The premise of the show is that Lenny plays a classical record shop owner in London, however when his father reportedly has a heart attack he is drawn back to Birmingham with his son to help his father Rudy, and run Rudy’s  Reggae record shop.

 

Lenny’s character (Adam) is almost an inversion of his late 80s Delbert Wilkins with a dose of his Chief character from the 90s comedy – completely obsessive to the point of being anal about classical music, a completely elitist thinker. At the same time his son (Richie) is very much an updated Delbert.

 

If the first episode is anything to go by the next four Tuesdays will be very funny after the news.

 

For the BBC page on the series go here and Lenny’s own site here.

 

del.icio.us tags: , , ,

Interesting Download pricing model

26 Tuesday Feb 2008

Posted by in Music

≈ Leave a comment

I’ve just read about an interesting pricing strategy on Digital Music News for an online store (article here). Amie Street sell their downloads with a price based upon the demand ranging from free to 98-cents.  This is great for new artists, have a better chance at attracting sales than say on iTunes.

We just have to wait and see if it can develop by getting deals made with some of the major labels (currently only deals with significant indie labels) and come to the UK.

The Brits

22 Friday Feb 2008

Posted by in Music

≈ Leave a comment

Another year, and another Brits award, and yet another farce. A few years back the Brits showed signs of becoming credible by acknowledging new artists and new music. But this years’ Brits giving awards to Arctic Monkeys (3rd year running), Take That (just for doing a comeback tour) seems a little retrenchment to say the least. This sort of thinking contributes to the death of the UK music scene. Reading the Guardian blog shows that I’m not the only one holding this view. The only success is that the Osbournes did a relatively reasonable job of hosting the show.

You can see the results from the awards at http://www.brits.co.uk/

del.icio.us tags: , , ,

World’s Greatest Music Collection – turns out not to be mine

21 Thursday Feb 2008

Posted by in Music

≈ Leave a comment

Bah, I’ve found someone with a bigger music collection than mine. At 3 million records and 300,000 CDs Paul Mawhinney has a slightly larger collection than I have, but he is selling it on eBay. I might have to just get in there a make a bid (I wish).

If you’d like to know more about Paul Mawhinney and this amazing collection then checkout an article here and Record Rama here.

del.icio.us tags: , , , , ,

Play & HMV offers DRM free music with Amazon coming soon

20 Wednesday Feb 2008

Posted by in Music

≈ Leave a comment

An online MP3 war seems to be developing here in the UK.  With word that Amazon will arrive in the UK this summer.  Play the online music/games retailer have just introduced PlayDigital with DRM free tracks from EMI and Indies (and probably others to come) at prices below that of iTunes (65p a track and £4.95 for an album). Today HMV have launched their service which offers unlimited Streaming at £5.99 per month as well as track purchases from as low as 49p, although chart prices appear to range between 79p and £1.