Here's an update, apart from a couple of exact ones all figures are estimated to the nearest 1000 based on released sales data. Best album of the year so far, Bloc Party, has slipped down to no 41.
1 X&Y - Coldplay 1,086,768 2 Back to Bedlam - James Blunt 759,793 3 Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters 646,000 4 Hopes And Fears - Keane 635,000 5 Hot Fuss - The Killers 632,000 6 American Idiot - Green Day 576,000 7 Love Angel Music Baby - Gwen Stefani 541,000 8 G4 - G4. 527,000 9 Definitive Collection - Tony Christie 517,000 10 Employment - Kaiser Chiefs 491,000 11 Forever Faithless - Faithless 482,000 12 Don't Believe the Truth - Oasis 476,000 13 The Singles - Basement Jaxx 454,000 14 The Massacre - 50 Cent 445,000 15 Trouble - Akon 436,000 16 Tourist - Athlete 429,000 17 Language, Sex, Violence, Other - The Stereophonics 377,000 18 Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand 342,000 19 Demon Days - Gorillaz 326,506 20 In your Honour - The Foo Fighters 317,000 21 Kasabian - Kasabian 316,000 22 How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2 305,000 23 Mind Body & Soul - Joss Stone 299,000 24 Il Divo - Il Divo 294,000 25 Songs About Jane - Maroon 5 280,000 26 Eye to the Telescope - KT Tunstal 279,000 27 It's Time - Michael Bublé 267,000 28 Finally Woken - Jem 256,000 29 O - Damien Rice 249,000 30 Push the Button - The Chemical Brothers 233,000 31 Up all Night - Razorlight 229,000 32 Breathe In - Lucie Silvas 228,000 33 The Emancipation of Mimi - Mariah Carey 227,000 34 Rhythm & Gangsta - Snoop Dogg 219,000 35 Final Straw - Snow Patrol 216,500 36 Encore - Eminem 216,300 37 Time To Grow - Lemar 215,000 38 The Documentary - The Game 211,000 39 Get Lifted - John Legend 207,000 40 Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield 191,000
All of these tracks are acoustic and were recorded in the Live Tent at the Oxegen Festival in Ireland earlier this month. Oxegen Tent. Michael Jackson. Geddit??
Oh and the photo is of the Michael Jackson who does beer programmes on BBC TV. I had a look on Mr Google for pictures of the other Michael Jackson, but they are few and far between.
Anyway get leeching, here's the dorty duzzen. BTW my favourite by a long way is the Hounds Of Love one.
all the files in one big Rapidsharey zip file Athlete - Tourist (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Brendan Benson - Cold Hands (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Embrace - Gravity (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Feeder - Tumble And Fall (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Futureheads - Hounds Of Love (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Kasabian - LSF (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Kasabian - Processed Beats (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Magic Numbers - Forever Lost (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Maximo Park - Going Missing (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Maximo Park - Kiss You Better (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Stephen Fretwell - Emily (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3 Tears - Ghost Of You (acoustic) (Live Tent Oxegen 2005).mp3
I was pretty close to the front but I found the stage a bit of a dull and dingy affair. Shame really as although it was a sell out, there was plenty of room at the back of the hall and it wasn't too claustrophobic.
elbo.ws listed this blog on its front page under "What's Hot". How nice is that, thanks! We've only been going 25 days (thereby breaking my blog record by 24 days).
The new single - Do You Want To - is out on 19 September and the second album on 3 October.
This recording was made at the Einslive Koenigstreffen Festival in Herzogenrath, Germany on 25 June. Alex told the crowd it was the first time they'd played it live. Sounds like it has been recorded from FM radio but it's quite a good copy. And yeah it's pretty good too.
Bloc Party – 'Silent Alarm' Hard-Fi –'Stars Of CCTV' Kaiser Chiefs – 'Employment' MIA – 'Arular' The Magic Numbers – 'The Magic Numbers' Coldplay – 'X&Y' The Go! Team – 'Thunder, Lightning Strike' Antony And The Johnsons – 'I Am A Bird Now' KT Tunstall – 'Eye To The Telescope' Maximo Park – 'A Certain Trigger' Seth Lakeman – 'Kitty Jay' Polar Bear – 'Held On The Tips Of Fingers'
I haven't heard all of these but I can't see how anyone can beat Bloc Party!
From my second favourite album of the year (don't you love making lists?) - three session tracks recorded for XFM here in London. Going Missing is released this week and will hopefully be another top 20 hit to add to the excellent Apply Some Pressure (no 20 in March) and the slightly less excellent Graffiti (no 15 in May).
I really really wanted to hate this song - nothing wrong with a bit of blind musical prejudice, it keeps us all ticking over. But I've heard it twice and I've had to decide that I don't hate it, I quite like it. It's out on 8 August.
Normal MP3 service will be resumed shortly, so for the meantime, leechies, you will have to share in some of the things my puerile brain finds funny. Last month I just happened to be driving through the Netherlands and I picked up a copy of Algemeen Dagblad while I was in Maastricht. This cartoon appeared in it:
The great thing about this cartoon is that you don't have to understand Dutch to enjoy it.
I wonder how many extra visits this page will get now I have made a post called Kinky & Cosy?
From "the wires". Please be as good as the first one.
BLOC PARTY have revealed they are in the process of recording their second album.
The art rockers are set to release a new single in October and bandmember Russell Lissack claims that the four-piece already have 25 songs to choose from for the follow up to their debut ‘Silent Alarm’.
“We’ve recorded two [possible] songs but we still need to mix them and finish them, so we’re not sure which one’s going to be the single just yet,” he told XFM. "One’s called ‘Hero’ and one’s called ‘Two More Years’.
“I like all the new songs better than any of the old ones because I think they’re all better. We’ve been playing a couple live like ‘Into The Blue’, one called ‘Kids’ and one called ‘The Present’ but I don’t know when they’ll see the light of day. I can’t say too much though because they’re still in the tentative early stages.
“It’s strange for us because the album’s very old in our eyes. I mean even before it was out we were writing a lot of new stuff, so it helps us to get new things out.”
The band have been working with producer Paul Epworth yet again on their forthcoming album at Jacobs Studios in Farnham, Surrey.
The band will release their new single ‘The Pioneers’ on July 18.
I'm such an easy going person normally but I HATE Elton John. Which was why I was distressed to hear this news today:
Elton John is looking on course this Sunday to join an ultra-exclusive club by replacing himself at number one on the UK singles chart.
Early retail reports suggest his Rocket/Mercury-issued Billy Elliot cut Electricity will end the three-week chart-topping run of 2Pac's Interscope/Polydor single Ghetto Gospel on which the UK artist performs.
Only a handful of artists have replaced themselves at number one in the 52-year history of the UK singles chart, including Elvis Presley during Sony BMG's re-issues programme of all his number one singles earlier this year. The feat has also been achieved by The Beatles and John Lennon.
Electricity, which would became Elton John's eighth chart-topping UK single in total, is expected to be joined in the chart by a handful of new entries towards the bottom end of the Top 20. Among those debuting will be Inaya Day's Nasty Girl (All Around The World), Blood by Editors (Kitchenware), Deep Dish's Say Hello (Positiva) and REM's Wanderlust (Warner Bros).
One guy on the mailing list where this was posted added this explanation:
Have you seen how Elton is doing it, though. It's via a competition on his website. If you download the single from the website you are automatically entered into some sort of draw to win something. Without downloads, Elton would only be at 15! Surely this is in breach of chart rules. It's like the rules for physical singles not allowing promotional devices like stickers to be given away free with CDs. Is there anyone we can complain to about this? He shouldn't be allowed to get away with it...
And then he signed off with the coup de grace:
Especially since the record is crap.
I haven't heard it but ... yes, he's right. It is.
A bit of a contrast with today's MP3s. The Magic Numbers mp3s are the first ones I have heard from them live, and they are pretty good, just like the band's general output, although I find the brother-sister thing just a little bit creepy. The Ordinary Boys are hated and despised by everyone I know, but I have a big soft spot for the Jam and the Specials, and obviously the OB rip both of them off in equal measures which is why I love both these songs.
Had an enjoyable day on Saturday watching a whole load of live bands - at the Ship pub in Horndon on the Hill, a village so old and quaint that you would never believe you were only a few miles from the urban hell of Basildon. Horndon Live is in its second year and although the numbers weren't very big, they were double the previous year and if they double again next year it'll be a pat on the back for the organisers.
On getting home managed to catch a few hours of T In The Park on BBC3. I wonder if events like this ever found themselves setting up in a pub car park!
I know they're a bit out of date now but I just wanted to air again the excellent session that British Sea Power played on XFM just before their second album, Open Season, was released in March this year.
It's a real shame that they didn't go for Bring Me The Head ... as the title of their second album. It seems to sum up their Nero-esque approach to life perfectly.
I finally got my FTP at home working this morning. It was in passive mode. No I have no idea what this means, and nor did 1and1's technical support, which is exactly how they normally respond to my queries - no technical knowledge at all, but always fix the problem - superb. In the past I used to deal with other companies who do quite the opposite.
The upshot of this is that I am going to be able to upload a few more MP3s starting with these ones from Athlete. El Salvador is by a long way my favourite of their tracks. I don't know why as a lot of their songs are quite, erm, similar.
After yesterday's bombings in London I haven't been in much of a mood to do anything on here but I did get this email today which made me laugh a bit. Now I don't really know what Dear Abby is, but I do know a good dumbass when I see one. So here goes:
The following are actual letters that Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby) admitted she was at a total loss to answer:
Dear Abby, A couple of women moved in across the hall from me. One is a middle-aged gym teacher, and the other is a social worker in her mid twenties. These two women go everywhere together, and I've never seen a man go into their apartment or come out. Do you think they could be Lebanese?
Dear Abby, What can I do about all the sex, nudity, language and violence on My VCR?
Dear Abby, I have a man I never could trust. He cheats so much I'm not even sure this baby I'm carrying is his.
Dear Abby, I am a twenty-three-year-old liberated woman who has been on the Pill for two years. It's getting expensive, and I think my boyfriend should share half the cost, but I don't know him well enough to discuss money with him.
Dear Abby, I suspected that my husband had been fooling around, and when I confronted him with the evidence he denied everything and said it would never happen again.
Dear Abby, Our son writes that he is taking Judo. Why would a boy who was raised in a good Christian home turn against his own?
Dear Abby, I joined the Navy to see the world. I've seen it. Now, how do I get out?
Dear Abby, My forty-year-old son has been paying a psychiatrist $50 an hour every week for two-and-a-half years. He must be crazy.
Dear Abby, Do you think it would be all right if I gave my doctor a little gift? I tried for years to get pregnant and couldn't, and he did it.
Dear Abby, My mother is mean and short-tempered. Do you think she is going through her mental pause?
Dear Abby, You told some woman whose husband had lost all interest in sex to send him to a doctor. Well, my husband lost all interest in sex years ago and He is a doctor. What now?
Still continuing to trawl through about 3 gigabytes of wave files recorded over that week. Not enough TV time was given to this band who have a number of good songs from their debut album plus one of the very, very best covers of all time in Hounds of Love - although that's partly because Kate Bush (who I unashamedly adore) is such a good songwriter in the first place.
Up to 30 June. Quite a few half-decent ones in there, a lot of old ones too. Good to see Bloc Party on the edge of world domination.
1 X&Y - Coldplay 803,642 2 Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters 606,000 3 Hot Fuss - The Killers 559,000 4 Hopes And Fears - Keane 543,000 5 G4 - G4 525,000 6 Definitive Collection - Tony Christie 507,000 7 American Idiot - Green Day 493,000 8 Love Angel Music Baby - Gwen Stefani 474,000 9 Don't Believe the Truth - Oasis 414,500 10 Trouble - Akon 414,000 11 Tourist - Athlete 406,000 12 The Massacre - 50 Cent 403,000 13 The Singles - Basement Jaxx 390,000 14 Employment - Kaiser Chiefs 367,000 15 Language, Sex, Violence, Other - The Stereophonics 343,174 16 Back to Bedlam - James Blunt 335,000 17 Forever Faithless - Faithless 334,000 18 Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand 334,000 19 Kasabian - Kasabian 292,200 20 Il Divo - Il Divo 292,000 21 Demon Days - Gorillaz 268,000 22 How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2 267,800 23 Songs About Jane - Maroon 5 265,000 24 It's Time - Michael Bublé 263,500 25 Mind Body & Soul - Joss Stone 244,000 26 O - Damien Rice 225,000 27 Push the Button - The Chemical Brothers 225,000 28 Eye to the Telescope - KT Tunstal 219,000 29 Breathe In - Lucie Silvas 213,000 30 In your Honour - The Foo Fighters 212,000 31 Time To Grow - Lemar 210,000 32 Encore - Eminem 197,000 33 Rhythm & Gangsta - Snoop Dogg 195,000 34 The Documentary - The Game 188,000 35 Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield 186,000 36 Finally Woken - Jem 179,000 37 Final Straw - Snow Patrol 177,000 38 Turning Point - Mario 169,000 39 Rooster - Rooster 167,000 40 Silent Alarm - Bloc Party 166,500
Some more Glastonbury MP3s - a bit of Ash, a bit of Interpol, a bit of Razorlight
Nearly finished and I can now go back to disconnecting the Sky+ box from my PC and putting it back on the TV where it belongs so I can resume recording episodes of Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob.
I've been thinking about this all day and I can't.
I think the idea of ending world poverty is a great one but couldn't Bob Geldof found some other people to convey the message instead of a succession of multi-millionaire ego-driven control freaks?
Babyshambles and the mystery of the roll of tin foil
Apparently Pete Doherty's rider was: 4 crates of beer, 2 bottles of gin, 2 bottles of vodka, 2 bottles of whiskey, and one roll of TIN FOIL. What the hell is he going to do with that then :-)
I caught 23 minutes of the set and then had to get going. I heard the set only lasted 23 mins. I took pics here.
I was ill the last couple of days but I managed to get over to Hyde Park yesterday and stand in the rain to increase my chances of getting more ill.
For me the highlight of the day was El Presidente. I knew they were going to be good when the Sun announced that they were "Off Radar" in their Bizarre column last week. WTF brought that on?
I've put up a number of pics from the Wireless here. Now I can get back to the business of sorting out my new MP3s!
