Johnny Cash's last interview - 'I Expect My Life To End Soon'

This interview was on 20 August 2003 and Johnny Cash passed on September 12 2003.

Vinyl Feature: Artie Shaw And His Orchestra ‎- did someone say "a Party?"

Clarinet player extraordinaire, composer, and bandleader Artie Shaw released this wonderful album of his typical swing style band music in 1956. It was produced by the Decca Record Company and Ace of Hearts Records as a mono album and my copy says it was printed in England by James Upton Ltd. Birmingham & London.

Front of Cover

The cover features a “pin-up” drawing of the “Petty Girl” by artist George Petty who was well known for his portraits of young ladies for Esquire Magazine between 1933 and 1956 as well as numerous calendars and other publications. Often reproductions of his drawings could be found decorating warplanes during the Second World War.

Interview with Eric Burdon of The Animals

Vinyl Feature: Pink Floyd - Animals

There is no other band in history that ever sounded quite the same as Pink Floyd, and with their largely experimental style of music they succeeded in becoming one of the stand out studio bands of their era. Their combination of progressive and psychedelic rock soon became very well known to many millions of ardent fans worldwide. Myself included!

The album featured here is Animals and in 1977 was the tenth album to be released by Pink Floyd in a long line of successful albums. The cover is a photograph of a pig floating between two chimneys at Battersea Power Station which was conceived by Roger Waters but photographed by an English art design group called Hipgnosis.

When released Animals made number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, number 3 on the US Billboard 200, number 3 on the Swedish album charts, and number 1 in New Zealand.

Front of Cover

How Vinyl Records Are Made

I am a sucker for these "how it's made" type videos, and I found this particular one very interesting. I'll never look at my LP records quite the same way as I did before knowing the incredible engineering that goes into producing these almost magical black vinyl discs of musical purity!

Paul McCartney interview in 1968

I’m not an Audiophile, I just listen to Great Music!

When it comes to music listening there are really only two categories of people, those that listen to music and those that are obsessed with the equipment for listening to music. It is a very human trait to want better and shinier things, and I have to confess that for a while I was distracted by the desire for the latest and greatest shiny new toy with all the bells and whistles one man could possibly play with, but thankfully that was just a fleeting and short lived phase.

I remember as a youngster growing up in a very typical middle class family in Pretoria South Africa, this would have been back in the seventies when I was young, carefree and ignorant of many of the realities of the world outside of my school, friends and neighbourhood. We were neither rich nor poor, there was always food on the table and my folks could afford a stereo system that was adequate to our music listening needs. We bought and listened to a wide variety of music and in our house there always seemed to be music of one sort or the other playing.

Top 30 Best-selling Physical Singles

Vinyl Feature: Count Basie & The Mills Brothers - The Board Of Directors

A gem of an album featuring a dream collaboration between the legendary Mills Brothers and Count Basie that is almost mythical in it's imaginings! From the very first note until the very last every moment of this album demands to be savoured, listened to with utmost attention, engaged on a personal level as one would pour over a newly discovered treasure that has finally been found. I really cannot fault it and it simply has to be heard by anyone who is a fan of either the "Count" or the Mills Brothers. Fortunately the quality of the recording is as great as the artists themselves and consequently every instrument and every voice is clear, full and real.

First released in 1968 it has carried its age well, and while the music will only really be appreciated by fans of this particular style of swing/big band music, the quality of the sound coming off the vinyl will satisfy even the most picky audiophile! It was recorded at A&R Recording Studios in New York on November 20th and 21st in 1967 and was released in 1968. The album featured the Mills Brothers with Count Basie and orchestra, but the arrangements and conducting were by Dick Hyman.

The great thing about these old LP's were that the covers were used to convey a lot of background info on the artists in a large enough typeface that one can actually sit and read it in a dimly lit sitting room while enjoying your third glass of wine. Who can do that with cd's anymore? Heck, I struggle to read the micro script that most cd's come with in good light, outdoors, at midday, during a sunny summer. They even list the entire orchestra, engineer, producers and still found space for a nice selection of photographs on the back cover of this one!

Front Cover

Sting - Interview on "Frost Over the World"

Top 30 Best Selling Albums of All Time

It has always been very difficult to track exact sales of music throughout the world, but this is as accurate a list as has ever been put together. With the advent of the online digital age, and mp3's being the modern medium of choice, tracking sales is even more difficult. All that to say that other sources may differ a little from this list.

Interview with music icon Bob Dylan

There is no such thing as "Free Music"

I was having a Facebook conversation with someone a couple of weeks ago and when reading more about the topic online I realized that a lot of people confuse the issue of internet privacy and music (or other copyright protected material) “piracy”. I use the word "piracy" in inverted commas here simply because it isn't really the right term that is being used. Piracy involves rogue sailors forcibly boarding and robbing someone of their ship or yacht at sea and doesn't really have anything to do with music, videos or the internet, but it has become the common term for the illegal online theft of copyright protected content and so for better or worse we use the word “piracy”. The use of this word was also probably helped along by the now infamous file sharing site “The Pirate Bay”. I think arguing over whether the word used should be “piracy”, or anything else for that matter, borders on the pedantic and is really just to obscure the actual problem.

I think it would be useful at this point to say that I am 100% against anyone, whether they are individual people, organizations or governments being able to read my personal and private emails, listen in on my Facebook chats or Skype communications and gaining access to my banking details. I am entitled to my privacy on a legal and moral basis and I object very strongly to anybody, I don't care who they are or what reason they have, being able to spy on the intimate details of my personal life. I am sure most people would probably agree with me on this point so let’s move on.

Vinyl Feature: Tom Jones - Greatest Hits

On a regular basis I will feature a "new" purchase that I have made in the previous week. Pretty much all of my vinyl purchases over the last few years have been from secondhand shops, charity shops, etc. where it is possible to get great records for a mere pittance! I hope to show you that building up a music collection via vinyl LP's is both fun and affordable!

Here in southern Sweden we have a chain of second hand stores connected to the Svenska Kyrkan, called Erikshjälpen, that use the funds generated from their sales to sponsor education, child protection and health related causes worldwide. So not only can I indulge my constant hunger for music related vinyl based bargains, but I am also supporting a worthwhile cause. Both of these things make me happy and ease my conscience at the same time. What a great deal!

First up is a wonderful copy of Tom Jones Greatest Hits. It has a modest collection of hits that we know and love and would expect to hear from Tom Jones and the quality of the pressing is top notch as well. The copy I got is 100% scratch free and sounds just as good as new. I am always very picky about checking every LP I purchase and if there is even a hint of a scratch on the vinyl playing surface I do not buy it. I am less picky about the state of the cover.

I'll start by showing some photographs of my purchase.

Front Cover

Bought my first brand new vinyl in 24 years... not a great experience!

I first heard First Aid Kit playing on the radio here in Sweden and quite liked what I heard from this folksy sounding Swedish duo. They consist of sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg and have been a hit in Sweden since they sent a tape of their home recorded song "Tangerine" to a Swedish radio station back in 2007.

Last year one of the songs from their "The Lion's Roar" album was used in a television advert and it was a really catchy tune! I found myself singing or humming the few lines used in the ad while sitting at my computer, taking a shower or cycling down to the beach. I then looked them up on the internet and found their website here: First Aid Kit, whereupon I was delighted to see that they offered their music on vinyl! Whoohoo! Instantly I was a fan because lets face it, very few bands actually release their stuff on the black medium of musical purity any more.