Anders Hanson

In the last week Amy MacDonald has become an obsession.  At the weekend I read a review of her first album in The Independent and thought it sounded like the sort of music I would like, I then listened to some of her tracks on iTunes and bought the album straight away, I then spent the next two days listening to her music continually, this morning I read in the Metro that she was playing at Plug in Sheffield and tried to book a ticket straight away.  Tonight I went to her gig at Plug and it was brilliant.

Amy MacDonald has been described as similar to KT Tunstall and I see where they are coming from, which is fine by me as I like her music too.  The best description I can come up with though is KT Tunstall but more folky and more catchy.  It does have a distinct folk sound to it, but manages to be very contemporary and memorable at the same time.  Her performance tonight was brilliant.  For someone so young, she has a very deep and strong voice, but it really suits the songs she sings.

The supports tonight were Neil McSweeney who has a brilliant voice but wasn’t really my thing.  Philippa Hanna however was very good.  She is another excellent singer, comes from Barnsley, and does more soulful music with indie and gospel thrown in.  She should be a real star, and her album sales at tonight’s gig bode well.  I hope she does well.

AMY MACDONALD

PHILIPPA HANNA

NEIL MCSWEENEY

THE INDEPENDENT: Amy MacDonald ‘This is the Life’ review

THE PLUG

Can someone please give Terry Wogan a geography and history lesson.  Of course, there is partisan voting in the Eurovision Song Contest, but Terry Wogan seems to believe that all neighbouring countries are likely to vote for each other, and that all former Communist states are friends.  In many cases, the opposite is true.

To me, the heartening thing is how many neighbouring countries will vote for each other despite years of animosity.  Terry Wogan should not be surprised that Poland doesn’t vote for Germany or that Greece doesn’t vote for Turkey, but he should perhaps be impressed that Turkey votes for Armenia .  In some cases though, voting will be influenced by the large minorities that live in one country, which could be the reasons for Germany voting for Turkey and Estonia voting for Russia.  Perhaps also he shouldn’t criticse when the only countries to vote for the UK are Malta and Ireland.  Still at least there was booing when countries blatantly voted for a friendly country.

For what it’s worth, I think Ukraine should have won, although the Serbian song was by no means the worst.  Although voting is political, you do at least have to have support from a wide range of countries to win as you cannot rely just on neighbours to get through.  This year seemed to be one of the most varied, most over the top and campest contests I’ve seen.  It looks as though all of Europe is now getting in to that spirit.  One thing though that I can say with some certainty is that the UK did deserve its appalling showing - our song was dreadful and we should have had Big Brovaz representing us instead.

Who’d have thought it? Ming Campbell manages to give a good answer to the last funny question on Question Time, and at the same time looks in tune with pop music.

To the question, “If ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ was the theme tune to Blair’s arrival as Prime Minister, what should be the music for his departure?”, Ming quickly answered “It would be Kylie Minogue’s ‘Spinning Around’.”

For someone who is criticised for looking old and being old-fashioned, it was a pretty good answer. It isn’t even as if he would have had a chance to prepare.

Anyone who saw cartoon Ming Campbell as a rapper on last Thursday’s local election night coverage, I am starting to wonder if there is another side to him.

A few random pointers to the year I’ve just had and the year I want to have:

The best fiction I read in 2006

OK, so it was a major bestseller and is either loved, hated or one people love to hate, but it has to be “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. It was long, it twisted and turned, and yes it was pretty implausible at times, but I was hooked. I have never read such a long book so quickly and I couldn’t put it down.

The best political book I read in 2006

An odd choice perhaps, but it is “Clement Davies: Liberal Leader” by Alun Wyburn-Powell. The period through which Clement Davies was leader was crucial to the survival of the party, and yet he is a leader that most people know nothing about. It was informative but also an easy read, and I also learnt a lot from it.

The most inspirational book I read in 2006

Another odd choice, but it was “NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success” by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg. I had had this book for some years and finally got round to reading it. It was inspiring on the basis that it shows how much one company can enthuse people and it gave me pointers to life and work by showing that you can be successful and enjoy yourself. At a time when I wasn’t enjoying working for a particular employer, it proved to me why I was right to think they were rubbish.

The best single of 2006

This is a toss up between two songs, and yes both of them are commercial but both are very different. The first is “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol which really stirs the emotions and does what I like in a lot of songs, building and building in sound as it goes along before finishing a beautiful flourish. The other song is “LDN” by Lily Allen which is fun, catchy and is pretty strong on imagery. Just what a song should be. As an aside, one other song I should talk up is “Stronger” by Public Symphony which is a beautiful song that is just so relaxing and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it.

The best album of 2006

This album came out in 2005, but I didn’t buy it until the end of that year and have then ended up listening t0 it non-stop in 2006 and so it should be my album of 2006 - “You See Colours” by Delays. Delays have continued as a band that does brilliant songs that are catchy but serious and just absorb you completely. I also saw them live this year and they were brilliant. My favourite band and my favourite album without a doubt. The band is completely underated and have not had the commercial success they deserve, and the proof of why they deserve it so much is on this album.

The best thing I’ve done in 2006

Early in the year I went to Monaco. I am not a spur of the moment person, but one of my friends is, and so it was great to be asked to go away to somewhere I’ve never visited. It was the most relaxing break I’ve had all year and it was wonderful to go somewhere warm, sunny and so completely different just before my busiest time of the year. Alas, in 2007 I won’t get the chance to go away early on.

The worst thing I’ve done in 2006

Although I managed to stop this by the end of the year, the worst thing was working for WHSmith. A one-time great company which has managed to return to profitability. But this has only been achieved by cutting back to the bare bones and by becoming a bad employer. Reading NUTS whilst working for WHSmith, shows you how far the company has to go to be a decent employer.

Last night I saw the final night of the Delays’ tour at the Leadmill in Sheffield. For someone who listens to a lot of music it’s amazing that it’s the first time, if you exclude pub bands, that I’ve been to see a band play live. It was also significant I was going to see them a couple of years ago in Southampton when I lived down there, but unfortunately job pressures stopped me from being able to go.

It was a brilliant night and included the best songs from their current album “You See Colours” and their first one “Faded Seaside Glamour”, which included my personal favourite tracks You and Me, This Town’s Religion, Waste of Space, Long Time Coming and Wanderlust.

I fell in love with Delays when I heard their single Nearer Than Heaven on the radio, and after listening to the other tracks on the single I went out and got their album. The Delays manage to combine what to me is the best of both indy and pop, and they stand out with Greg Gilbert’s unusual voice. I would probably now consider them my favourite band. On a different level, the images used on Faded Seaside Glamour and the background to the band witht them being inspired by living under the flight path to Southampton Airport which grabbed me as I was living in that area when I discovered them. What amazes me is how they haven’t been more commercially successful despite having two songs used as backing music on TV and Aaron Gilbert made a competent appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Delays

The Leadmill