Spinning Right Round
A Sisyphean effort to play my way through my vinyl records, posting recollections and reflections on each one. The rock keeps on rolling…
That difficult first album
‘What was your first record?’ sparks nostalgia and misty-eyed reflection for those who grew up before online streaming. This post explores how evolving musical tastes shape our recollection of that pivotal first purchase.
Back Here Now:
Revisiting Be Here Now 25 years on
Drawing on personal memories, press coverage, interviews, and biographies, this post revisits Oasis’s third album, Be Here Now, 25 years from its original issue in August 1997. It recalls the expectations and excitement surrounding the release, explores its cover artwork’s creation, examines The Beatles’ influence on the album’s concept and composition, and discusses the quality of the music.
Ask not what your writers’ group can do for you…
Based on over two decades experience of running a scriptwriters group in Bristol, this post explores the expectations organisers and members need to bring to get the most from participating in a writers’ group. Starting with assurances that writers should feel themselves neither imposters in a group nor superior to its other members regardless of their level of experience, it continues by outlining the scope of the task that organisers take on in running group activities. The post then finds that giving and receiving feedback is a two-way process requiring positive attitudes on both sides and looks at evidence from a study that showed that active debate and criticism produces the most creative outcomes.
‘Get a pocket computer, Try to do what you used to do…’
Inspired by a Facebook meme, this series of articles explores the formation and expression of identity through recorded music. Starting by outlining this process as discovered in the conspicuous consumption of recorded music, it continues with an examination of the ways in which developments in consumer music technology have changed this to centre on the technology. The series looks next at the addictive nature of digital technology, showing how this compounds an already compelling psychological need for an elusive expression of self. It concludes by finding that the use of recorded music in expressing personal identity has evolved to emerge on digital media.
‘Nobody knows anything’
First published in July 2007’s edition of ScriptWriter magazine, this article explores the benefits of university scriptwriting courses. It concludes that students need to keep in mind that these courses are not necessarily the gateway to a scriptwriting career.
