Failing to see the difference

I miss the days when buying a single was an easy affair. Generally you looked at the tracks on the 12” to check if it had everything the 7” did. I always bought the 12” and then the 7” if it had a different mix or b-side.

With the release of ‘Together’ the Pet Shop Boys have confused me somewhat. Once I got my head around the myriad of mixes and formats both digital and physical I made my choices and paid my money. However, I am failing to understand the difference between the 3:30 Radio Mix of the title track and the 3:31 Ultimate mix. I consider myself to have quite good ears and especially for Pet Shop Boys tracks but I am left baffled as to the difference between these two uniquely labelled mixes.

Is there a difference? Does anyone know? Is it a typo? The web seems to give me no answers and nobody else seems to asking the question. Am I going mad or are my ears defunct?

a-ha are gone........

A recent trip to see Goldfrapp was so unengaging and frankly, boring, that I don’t even have the strength to write about it here. Last night I needed ‘a-ha’ to banish my memories of their insipid ‘Lifelines’ tour and renew my passion for the live concert.

I wasn’t that hopeful as I entered the Sheffield Arena, I knew this gig was set as a ‘half-house’ with 50 to 75% of the seating curtained off (a very curious affair that I have only ever seen in that arena).

Once inside the arena I headed for the merchandise stall. £15 for a program isn’t that unusual today. The phrase ‘value for money’ is not in the lexicon of bands, tour managers or program vendors, 99% of the time it is about ripping fans off with unscrupulous zeal. Happily, a-ha are marking their farewell tour with a tour book. And it really is a book!

Once the band took the stage I simply forgot any concerns or niggles about the arena and simply marvelled at the show unfolding in front of me. One of the most impressive live spectacles I have seen in many years. If you missed this tour then tough. They are finished. Over. a-ha will be no more by the end of the year.

Until they get short on cash or bored and then the reunion tour will winging its way to a city near you in 2015. But don’t get me started on band splitting up and reforming……..

Time to support the support

Everyone knows support bands are crap. Nobody pays them much attention and invariably they don’t deserve it. Everyone knows that. Right?

Well no.

Invariably I don’t turn up to gigs until a few minutes before the headline act are due to take to the stage, too much shit like “Où Est Le Swimming Pool” or “I Blame Coco” is not good for my ears. On a recent trip to Birmingham to see “Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark” a happy mix of bad timing and pure coincidence meant that we arrived in time to see most of the support act “Villa Nah”. Despite only catching ¾ of their set I was very impressed. Very impressed indeed. In fact I have spent more time since the gig listening to and thinking about “Villa Nah” than I have OMD.

Tracks such as “Daylight” and “Running On” are nothing short of genius. Hints of their skills were apparent in their remix of OMD’s “If You Want It” which was the only decent remix made available (indeed some of the others are amongst the worst I have head in a long time). There is a real craft and care taken in the work of “Villa Nah”. Nothing happens by accident; every note, snare drum, opening filter or vocal intonation sounds part of a wider aesthetic that is both familiar and new. Brilliant stuff and likeable guys.

So will I go to see support acts now? No. Absolutely not, but I am very glad I did this time. It must have been fate.