RA-D

some of you just seem to be having a go at people who are really not part of a musical scene I would ever expect you to care about. Really, we all know that the popstars that can't write their own songs are naff, boy/girl bands are just a mass-manufactured product. Look within some of the tripe that some record companies are actually expecting thinking people like yourselves to buy. The Arctic Monkeys - The most overhyped thing since Jesus, which, contrary to the views of their many fad-chasing 'fans', is the only relation they have to the saviour . Hard-Fi - Fortheloveofgods, you're not original, you're not talented and you definitely don't have a clue about good music. The singer's not even that attractive, though every single one of their fans does seem to put this across as the first point when trying to describe their positives. The Dears - It cost me £6/7 to get to Manchester and £20 for two tickets, and as the minimum wage is around £5/hour, that's................... about £52 this pile of s***e owe me for the worst 'music' gig I have ever been to. The Bravery - My gods fellas, you wouldn't have got by on Baywatch with haircuts as bad as those. What would end up on Baywatch of The Bravery's though, is their terrible 80s throwback keyboard prancing naffness-in-the-extreme music. That bad that I actually took a squid to throw at them at V. The best part of their support for U2 was when the sound system went down, I'm rarely that happy during sex. Bloc Party - This band is actually tolerable, I must admit they're really not that bad. However, not bad doesn't necessarily equal good and my main beef with them is that the NME referred to their middle-of-the-road album as 'The Holy Bible of the 2000s'. In the Manics' honour, I burnt my friend's copy of that particular NME (I was too annoyed to give them money in order for the cremation to be possible). Green Day - Green Day are not a bad band, American Idiot was quite a good album, even some of their pop-rock from before was quite good. What Green Day is NOT is punk. Please, please, please, anyone who calls/dreams/thinks/dares to mention of Green Day as 'punk', go wash out your mouth and then listen to The Holy Bible. You'll be a better person for it. Babyshambles - OK, I think we've proved which of The Libertines was a good songwriter and which was the drugged-up, over-hyped, band-wagon creating waster haven't we. Franz Ferdinand - Do I want to what? There's a reason that modern art is so ridiculously rubbish. See here http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/950-22/sf-moma-abstract-5.jpg for an example of what is considered graphic art in the current age. See here http://www.franzferdinand.co.uk/ for what is now considered a form of music art. You may note that the two have remarkable similarities in that both are uninspired, untalented wastes of space that have somehow gained a popularity through sheer manipulation. At least, I assume that's what it must be. I must stop now, that's all the annoyance I have in me at this minute, having left most of it at Valley Parade earlier this afternoon.

(Funeral are earlier 2004 albums that would have been eligable last year.) None of that stuff that you mentioned (possibly except for Arcade Fire) is particularly inspired or interesting. Even with respects to the Arcade Fire, I don't see their album as a stunner, more a sign of great potential for the future. One of the problems is, last year seemed a particularly unimpressive year for music (my favourite albums of the year were Open Season by British Sea Power and the sadly disbanded 22-20s' debut but they're still only 8/10s at best) and they have to give the award to someone. HTDAAB isn't a great but its quite possibly the best of the last year. I thought you were annoyed that U2 had beaten Coldplay, not just won in general, so my last reply was unaware of this. In summary: Taking all names and histories aside, and just judging the albums by their music (pretend each was by a new debut artist), I reckon I'd pick HTDAAB over most of last year's crop. Here's to a better year musically than the last!

Muse, Radiohead, Wilco, Morning Runner and Snow Patrol off the top of my head.

so, anyone in britain manage to get tickets for the small venue tour this morning? I got the ones I wanted for Manchester, so glad.

I hope and pray that it's anyone other than Man Utd, Chelsea or Madrid, but I can't see past Chelsea at this stage.

what's the quality like? thanks for uploading gigs!

i'm intrigued as to whether its split evenly or not

cg, have you got the leeds version of bullet the blue sky? That is one incredible version of a great live song (I'm not asking for it BTW)

Amsterdam is the only song on my "You can't spell funeral without fun" playlist.

i was hopeful before Gilmour (sp?) announced his solo tour, I wouldn't have thought so now (on a side note, i'm annoyed he's only doing 1 venue in his own country)

i'd say wish you were here has the best average quality song-wise but Dark Side Of The Moon is the better album in my book.

that's why I bracketed it out, so's Com Lag (though I can't stand this one after track#1) and Oxford's Angels is a bootleg, not an official release (correct me if I'm wrong someone).

its nigh on identical to the Edge's solos on the PopMart tour isn't it?

The Bens OK Computer (My Iron Lung) Hail To The Thief Kid A Pablo Honey Amnesiac that's my order anyhow

spot on, exactly the same band as every other one that the NME gets its way with apologies steph, i was agreeing with the 'shite' part, didn't mean to quote the second bit. I'm afraid that I stand by the first point though, they are exactly the same as the other bands around that the NME labels as 'original'. If people could say "yes they're nothing original but they are more of a genre i like" (or something phrased better than that) then i'd understand, but after hearing their album and reading reviews such as http://www.nme.com/reviews/hard-fi/7683 and smaller publications' similar gushing its just very hard to see what gives a band like this such mass appeal. They're just another here-today-gone-tomorrow band that the 2000s will hopefully not be remembered for and by the time the record company has gotten its fill from them, they will have introduced something 'new' all over again.

spot on, exactly the same band as every other one that the NME gets its way with

quite excellently, the people of coldplaying saw sense and gave The Scientist more votes in their header. Shame on those of you who voted against it for #4. I voted Amsterdam on this one though, as it is the best song Coldplay have written, in my book. It gives me much hope to see that others feel the same way.

6/10 not bad but nowhere near as good as they can do coincidences: Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely

if you got x n y first, the only way is up, have fun!

the number of cameras they have there though isn't enough for them to make a DVD out of.

Bradford City FC!

RIP Minardi :cry: