Alison Moyet touring in Ireland (and Europe and the UK)

Alison Moyet is playing in Cork this evening, in Belfast tomorrow, and in Dublin the day after that.

But her website indicated that all of these three places are in the "UK".

I wrote to the webmaster about it. I made three suggestions:

1. Put Ireland in a category of its own
2. Put us in with Europe
3. Change the "UK" category to "UK and Ireland".

He very kindly apologised, selected the third option, and fixed it in a flash.

It problem may seem minor to some, but I think its important to get these things right.

The photo below shows how it used to look. The new version is here as I write.

Gabrielle - Twitter

Gabrielle is on Twitter as GabrielleUK.

Here is what she tweeted just after the new version of Dreams was played for the first time on BBC 1Xtra at 8PM this evening:

Gabrielle - Dreams

Just listened to the new version of Dreams by Gabrielle.

It was played by MistaJam on BBC Radio 1Xtra for the first time just after 8PM.

In fact he played it twice.

She teamed up with Naughty Boy for this version. It is beautiful.

And Gabrielle's voice is as beautiful as ever.

Her new album will be out in November.

When is a charity not a charity?

The following flyer came through our door a while ago. I took a copy of it before I dropped it in the recycling.

I think that anyone who saw this would initially assume that it was from a charity. But on closer inspection there is no evidence that it is.

The note uses the following words and phrases:

• Clothing Appeal
• Developing World Clothing
• communities who need urgent help
• support single mothers
• Let's care about others together.

They even include their "Co.Ref.No". But, of course, that is not the same as a registered charity number.

On closer inspection they don't claim to be a charity. But I wonder if anyone might have been unintentionally mislead by this flyer?

IMDB plugs Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I had to take a picture of the IMDB homepage today.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears in 5 different photos and his name appears 4 times!!

I don't think I've ever seen anyone so prominently featured!

Check it out for yourself:

Steve Ballmer Resigns

On the August 23, Steve Ballmer announced that he will step down as Microsoft CEO within 12 months.

There are a number of surprising things about this announcement.

The main one is that he wasn't forced to step down years ago. Anyone who say the video below would agree with me. Imagine having to treat that person as your boss!

The second is that it's going to take up to 12 months to find his successor! Why?! Couldn't they just walk down the corridor until they find someone who's acting bizarrely!

The one thing that wasn't surprising about the announcement (widely covered in the media) is that the stock price jumped 7.3% on the announcement. Why should that surprise anyone?

Microsoft finally buys Nokia

In September of last year I blogged about the Nokia/Microsoft alliance and I said that the former must be "waiting and hoping that Microsoft will step in and buy the company".

Well it took another year but this September it was announced that  Microsoft has agreed a deal to buy Nokia's mobile phone business for 5.4bn Euro.

To be honest I don't think the deal is a good idea. I think Nokia was a great company in its day but that day has passed. I just don't think it can get back from where it is now.

In fact I think that commentators who say that buying Blackberry would have been a better idea are right. Better to buy a company that is sick than one that is on life-support.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

I was never a huge Johnny Cash fan, but I challenge anyone to watch this video and not be moved by it.

The song was written by Trent Reznor and released by Nine Inch Nails in 1994.

Johnny released it in 2002. Johnny's wife, June Carter Cash, appears in the video. They married way back in 1968. He passed away in 2003, 4 months after her.

It's amazing when a song, a singer, a life, a relationship, and a video can come together to create something so perfect.

Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman

Wichita Lineman was written in 1968 and released by Glen Campbell in the same year.

I have always loved it. It's a song about love, and loneliness, and phone lines!

The lyrics are quite strange. Some of them really are about phone lines, like this one:

And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain.

I saw an interview with Glen some time ago where they spoke about the impact that Alzheimer's disease is having on him. It was very moving, of course, but it was amazing to see that (at least at that time) this horrible disease had left his music alone.

Billy Idol - Eyes Without a Face

I happened to hear "Eyes without a face" on the radio a few weeks ago.

What a fantastic song. I have no idea how many times I have listened to it since then. I have played it on Grooveshark. I have watched/listened to it on YouTube.

Here's a link to Steve Stevens talking about how he came up with the chord structure (starts at 1:15).

Included below is a video of Billy and Steve performing it live in Chicago in 2006.

They've still got it! And Billy still has the snarl!