I know, let's tag on a concert

There is one thing about family holidays when it's pissing down and you are trying to ignore the kids tearing lumps out of each other and that is it gives you time to think. I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past week. Don't worry I'm not going to get angsty here, I'm not talking about life, the universe and everything and that kind of shit, no something far more important than that,  gigs.

Not gigs in general but the ones that seem to latch themselves onto every other event that is talking place. It seems to me that these days any kind of gathering  must have a huge open air concert with lots of the least relevant artists prancing about the stage singing songs from their past glory days.

Why can't we just have the Olympics doing what it used to do, some folk, running, swimming etc and if they are good enough getting medals, end of story. Why do the organisers have to show just how out of touch they are by getting a load of has-beens and manufactured acts going through the motions on stage to promote the thing.

After giving this  much thought I can now point the blame in the direction of Bob Geldolf, the wee bloke with the funny 'tache & raincoat and Harvey Goldsmith. As their charity not change concert showed would -be promoters and musicians on a downwards trajectory in both sales and talent that all they needed to seize the cash cow would be to get on the bill of some concert or other which would be going out on TV or better still these days organise one for someone else and get yourself on the honours list into the bargain while paying all the proceeds of the subsequent downloads and cds into your off shore account, perfect.

I have never been an advocate for illegally downloading music but any artist involved in one of these concerts I think is fair game. Do you think that they are performing out of altruism or because they really wanted to be Olympians but went down the sex, drugs and rock and roll route instead? No there in it for the money. So if after one of these concerts there was a huge increase in illegal downloads of the artists involved then maybe, just maybe they would think twice about taking part, the promoters profits wouldn't be so certain, so less of them would be be willing to take the risk and we would have less of these pish events,  sporting events  could go back to being sporting events and old women wouldn't have to sit through shit like that Jubilee rubbish. As much as I have no time for the Windsors, I did feel sorry for the old dear having to listen to Cliff Richard and the like that's akin to torture. I think I would rather have had a UTI that sit through that.

Anyway, that's the kind of things that go through my head when I'm bored out of my skull.

Here is bit of blissed out balearica which will sound great when the sunshine eventually arrives, when I'm back at work and every other bugger is off. It's the b-side to an even better a-side by Almunia that came out last week on the Claremont 56 label, strangely reminiscent of John Martyn.

Almunia - The Magician