#13; You will never break The Chain

Sunday afternoon, with a lunch roasting away in the adjacent kitchen and the windows steaming up from the warm, succulent evaporation of the steam rising off your dinner. A television aurally eases it’s way into your mind with the sound of a weatherman advising on the next day of climate worries, the short inset weather program goes off to be followed by an announcer, thrusting out the lines ‘And coming up next on BBC1… it’s Formula 1.’ Then you hear it. The bassline of a thousand races, of race cars screaming past your eyes at 200 miles an hour, of Murray Walker shouting down the race and screaming out many a classic line, the bassline of that haze that shudders above the tar that holds down the sport we love, the bassline of that champagne that flows freely around the souls and personalities of everything we love about Formula 1… the bassline of The Chain.  The shudder that it brings down the spine of lifelong Formula 1 fans as it opens up an afternoon of drama, excitement, sheer intensity, everything that Formula 1 should mean to it’s fans, and yet everything I feel can be placed into the sheer intensity of this incredible song that provides an entrance, for a few brief hours, into the opening arms of a sport ready to excite.

To me a great sport deserves a great introduction. It all comes down to personal taste but with a sport such as Formula 1, you just don’t want a drab little montage bringing you into someone like Steve Ryder, who I will remind who was recently described as ‘beige’ by myself, just keeping the excitement down. Take a look at Match of the Day in the world of football – how much outcry would the BBC get if they decided to get rid of that legendary intro theme with a modern song that would just have absolutely no effect like the Match of the Day theme has! Away from Formula 1 you can see how painfully obvious how every big show has it’s own personality tagged by that introduction theme – Coronation Street’s trumpets slowly falling into Manchester, the thumping piano introduction of Eastenders, even the association of smaller things like the News at Ten and Blue Peter!

I do question though, how can such a song BE an entire sport though? What is it about The Chain that saw thousands upon thousands of people demand the BBC to hunt down the rights to have this when we tune into our televisions ready for Qualifying or a Race? We hear it for about a minute, in a show that least for 3 hours… and yet, to a lot of people, F1 on the BBC just would not be without this incredible opener. When ITV acquired the rights in 1996 to Formula 1, and when the coverage started  the following year, we had no Chain. We had nothing even similar, but instead a dark and intense view of a Formula 1 car being unveiled alongside mechanics and the clinks of screws, spanners and generic metal objects inside a wind tunnel, nothing spectacular or traditional, just a dramatic but dark opener. I personally feel that, with ITV, their few years at the start of their license with the Formula 1 theme, they did a fair job with it. Yes, it wasn’t the Chain, but they had a solid introduction that provided fans both casual and hardcore to be interested and enjoy a brief introduction into the sport they love.

For a few years we were introduced with a far more gracious and exciting introduction to a sport that demands excitement from all factors of its production. Accompanying a generally heavy guitar riffs and a beating synth in the background, it was shown off with overtaking manouvres, crashes, famous moments from f1’s history, everything that made F1 exciting – it was a brilliant intro! It didn’t have The Chain beating it’s way into the sport but it had everything that you needed to get you pumped up and ready for an exciting few hours of F1! All of this was topped off with the adrenaline pumping scream of a F1 car as it rushes through your head and a simple subtitle that said where the Grand prix was. Simply, effective, exciting, brilliant! This was the pinnacle of ITV’s work with the intro to Formula 1, as along with their productions, it became a disappointment from herein. The greater detail on this can be found on my previous blog so I shalln’t go into greater detail here, but we instead got very generic introductions you’d imagine an American news network would use to transcend from the news into a sports section with no real meaning. The final theme used by ITV turned out to be the song ‘Lift Me Up’ by Moby. See… I have nothing against Moby, or the song; it’s on my iPod as are a few others within his library. This said, I have no clue what made the production team at ITV who were so well praised and awarded for constantly choose to have this as a theme for Formula 1. It seemed so lifeless alongside images of Lewis, Jenson, DC and even Anthony Davidson for a millisecond one season, and for me it never worked. Plus, I didn’t understand what the song actually said - ‘Lift me up, lift me up, UGGAUAUHGU’ – totally agree. I do like the song, but a F1 theme? Sorry Moby, better luck next time buddy.

So now of course we have the Chain and that accompanying video of a racing driver walking through that deep haze previously mentioned, the car forming in front of him as and it develops  into the the Red Bull-esque cars racing through CG animated roads alongside those electrifying beats caused from the bass of John McVie with Mick Fleetwood tapping away softly, growing louder and louder, as the electric guitar grows from Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar then BAM! It all comes together, onscreen a sight of F1 cars racing each other with the shouts of the cars screaming through Fleetwood Mac and The Chain. The intro is a brilliant, brilliant intro and one I feel just would not have been as strong if it weren’t for the presence of Fleetwood Mac’s legendary tune. It’s delightful for myself to see something that is a part of Formula 1 heritage within the UK back where it deserves to be in so many ways, just the final minute or so of that fantastic song itself has such a Formula 1 feel to it as I’ve described already, and thank goodness it’s the song that brings us back into the world we love to be part of.

It does seem a strange subject to blog about, I’m sure it may seem that way to some but again, I brought up the fact earlier in the blog that so many programmes have that intro that is just associated with them through thick and thin, and if things changes, then people want the old back and want rid of the new. I don’t really have much else to say at the moment about things, but I am hoping that more people now get to experience this incredible song for a younger generation as for me it does personifies everything about Formula 1 – a bassline with tension, fear, and a building excitement, a guitar riff that slowly builds up, prepares for that big start then rushes into action and sends the song into a spiral of activity alongside the bass and a massive sense of excitement and racing poured into an incredible piece of music.

I can still hear you saying
We must never break the chain.

#12; Welcome Home Formula 1

Formula One in the United Kingdom is back at it’s rightful home; the BBC. For years and years, whether it have been through 30 minute highlight shows to multi-hour live programmes, the BBC provided the masses of British F1 fans with the opportunity to watch one of the world’s most daring, thrilling and exciting sports in the world. However, the announcement in 1996 that their foes ITV has stolen the rights to broadcast the sport from 1997 onwards had taken many by the surprise, including the BBC themselves. What was to come for us? Were ITV going to take this sport, produced professionally by the BBC, and take it down a route us fans didn’t want or ask for? Personally… ITV did a wonderful job. For a few years. Then it started to go downhill. Faster than a Jamaican bobsled team.

Opinions are a wonderful thing really; we all have one and we’re all entitled to one. Many people may be saying to this blog entry ‘But ITV were terrible! Don’t give them credit!’; it would be criminal to simply class them as terrible when, from the year they started up their coverage, they brought many new elements into the coverage of Formula 1. Gridwalks, for example, are the brainwave of ITV with Martin Brundle scrambling his way through an anxious crowd of the F1 world, and gave us viewers a greater insight into the preparation of the races from their point of view. We saw the shows being presented from the races themselves, adding an atmosphere some studio in London could never produce. There were other little additions to our coverage that we never saw with the BBC and yet are now being used alongside some of the fantastic additions we’ve seen since the BBC’s regaining of the formula 1 coverage.

Where did it all go wrong for ITV though? They had the guts to use their money towards f1 and they didn’t hold back with it, they gave it the attention it deserved. For me, it all began to come very tiresome that the coverage we were being provided with was not as interesting as it should have been. After the American Grand Prix of 2001, the infamous Murray Walker retired from the sport his voice was so famous for being associated with, and ITV replaced the unreplacable with James Allen, formerly a member of the ITVF1 team as a pitlane reporter. His job within the pitlane worked to great effect and provided us with more information, but sadly, following up such a legend as Walker provided no help. Allen seems a nice enough bloke, there’s no doubt that he loves the sport and he has a massive amount of passion for the sport. As a commentator, however, he never fully lived up to what he could have grown into. An obvious bias for British drivers, Hamilton and Button specifically, began a tiresome annoyance for many fans, as well as repeating information unnecessarily and generally not providing a service that so many had gotten used to under the perhaps clumsy-but-lovable Murray Walker. However, it is not just James Allen who dampened ITV’s coverage – other factors such as the pundit work provided by Mark Blundell and the awfully dry presenting of Steve Ryder, both seeming uncomfortable in their roles with Ryder’s presenting style far too rehearsed and stiff whilst talking alongside a badly spoken, annoying pundit in Blundell. I have absolutely nothing against any of these individuals, but they just were not Formula 1 – what we had in Tony Jardine’s punditry work alongside Jim Rosenthal’s vampire-esque stares worked personally, although Jardine was a lot more satisfying to listen to than Rosenthal I must admit. The final contribution to the downfall of ITV F1 began from the day it started – adverts. We all knew that adverts were going to be a part of the sport because of ITV’s stance with advertising for revenue, but my my, did advertising become a bit annoyance in the coverage. Whether it be that moment in 1998 where an advertising break caused viewers to miss Mika Hakkinen’s world championship win, or just random annoying advert breaks when a race becomes exciting or when watching overtaking or action occur on the track, plus the general paranoia of knowing as soon as the adverts came on you’d miss something big, they tended to cause a serious lack of fluidity when watching a Grand Prix only to be constantly interrupted annoyingly. It was these things that, for me, provided much relief when I heard the BBC had finally bought back what they always should have had.

However, this is all in the past and now we have a bright future in BBC F1. We’re 4 races into the season and I can safely say that I’m utterly delighted that we have a refreshing new stance of programming to view for our loved sport. The entire team is almost completely new on the BBC; the addition of Jake Humphreys as a host was very brave personally as his experience in general sport on the BBC is there, but most associated him with CBBC and children’s programming in general. However, Humphreys has been an absolute star when us F1 fans has gotten used to Steve Ryder’s beige presenting. You may be asking, beige? He seemed to always wear beige, his hair was beige, and his speech and general presenting style was so boring that it can only be described as beige. In comparison, Humphreys feels like a spectrum waterfall gushing into our living rooms with a vibrant, interesting presenting style, and we’ve seen him with drivers, at press conferences, and generally jumping head first into the world of Formula 1 and absolutely bloody loving it, just as much as I’m loving watching him present the BBC’s F1 coverage.

Next up, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan were appointed with the roles of punditry work alongside the wonderful Jake Humphreys, and so far, it’s a case of love and hate it seems. Coulthard has been charmingly funny but also strikingly interesting to listen to, with his insights and experiences as an F1 driver being massively helpful in improving his role as a pundit race by race. His improvement over the Grand Prixs as the season as progressed so far as been a pleasure to gel with, but the problem herein lies with Eddie Jordan as a pundit. It does not work, and I fear that many others agree with this. It’s a shame because the presentation of BBC F1 has been immaculate, it has been professional and interesting, a joy to watch and a pleasure to talk about. Jordan’s punditry work is just extremely contrived and forced in an atmosphere that feels incredibly chilled. I feel that he deserves more of a chance because I personally don’t mind him as a formula 1 personality, I just am yet to be convinced that his outspoken and often arrogant views of Formula 1 and the people within it could be a shadow over a team that have been amazingly smooth in their introduction to the world of F1.

Once again, we have issues with the commentary of Formula 1 within the UK when it comes to the BBC’s new lease of life with the sport. It would have been a huge, huge mistake for the BBC to have not acquired Martin Brundle as part as the race commentary team, and thank goodness, they knew what the people wanted and they went straight for him successfully. He may have jumped from ITV’s team to BBC’s team but there’s no doubt that he is the absolute star in the world of Formula 1 commentary right now, and always has been since he began his role with Murray Walker in the late 90’s. However, the new ‘main’ commentator we now have, Jonathon Legard, have been a huge mistake from the BBC’s choices with the BBC F1 team. I am not a fan of him, not at all. I hate to be arrogant or miserable about his role in the team but he is not what the fans are looking for in a commentator at all. Sadly, we seem to have gone from an annoy but passionate commentator into a boring and uncomfortable ‘talker’ of the events unfolding in front of him. His commentator is extremely dry, as in it just has no passion behind his words, and he often seems completely lost in the world of formula 1 when talking about the races. I appreciate he will want to learn more and more about the sport but he’s done Formula 1 commentary in the past – it simply is not a new experience to him! The radio 5 commentary team of David Croft and Anthony Davidson are a humorously fun team to listen to and take you through the race, and one I feel deserve far more credit than are given but are easily accessible with the red button service (something I will go into greater detail soon). If Croft was promoted up to the main commentary setup with Brundle, I feel it would be pure bliss to witness. David Croft is exactly what we need in a main formula 1 commentator – he is interesting, he watched the race without a degree of uncomfortability in his words, and he actually seems to have a degree of knowledge in what fans are wanting to hear as a commentator when compared to Legard’s often inane comments. The final additions of the BBC f1 team are seen in the pit lane via Ted Kravitz and Lee Mckenzie, as well as Holly Samos on Radio 5 pitlane reporting, but concentrating on Kravitz and McKenzie both I feel have provided a service that has been extremely useful and insightful, but unbelievably underused! If there’s one thing so far ITV did better than the BBC, it’s using the pitlane to get quick interviews with retirees and going down to Kravitz at the time more than once or twice a race and get a grand amount of information back.

So what makes the actual coverage so impressive now we’ve jumped back to the land of the Beeb? Well let’s get the obvious out of the way so far – NO ADVERTS! It’s feels so incredibly nice to watch a Grand prix in the knowledge you can sit down for 3 hours knowing the fact that you will not get interrupted, you can simply get engrossed in this beautiful sport known as Formula 1 without seeing who’s sponsoring the television program with an annoying jingle every 20 minuets following by 5 minutes of pure advertising hell. Furthermore, the presentation is a wonder to behold. The very first piece of video we saw with the new life of BBC F1, in the early hours of the morning before Australia’s Qualifying session, was a gorgeous video flying through valleys and oceans with the sounds of sights of Formula 1 occupying, an epic orchestral piece running through our televisions and computers accompanying the video and a voice booming out just why formula 1 is formula 1. Then, of course, we got The Chain. I can do no justice to the song in saying how good it feels to hear that legendary Fleetwood Mac song hauntingly boom out that bassline when the programmes come on for F1 – it is the F1 theme. Nuff said. Furthermore, we know longer have the Lewis Hamilton show, but rather a deeper look at the creation of the cars we see in front of us, deeper insight from all teams whether it be the minnows of Force India, the refreshing family attitude of Brawn or the frustrated giants Ferrari, everyone has been welcomed into the presentation of BBC’s F1 coverage and it’s just very refreshing. Of course, we have the new interactive settings with the red button, but here is one area that has a huge, huge amount of potential for the BBC to take advantage of but one area that does need improving based on the unresponsive, often poorly setup feeds that it should be providing but often tends not to from experience. That said, there is so much potential for improvement and they can make a truly remarkable service from this. There are many more little areas that have been lovely to see, including the respectful inclusion of the Grand Prix host’s national anthem being played before the race start rather than ignored, a lovely montage video being played after every race and the fantastic idea of a discussion Forum going on beyond the race for another hour between the various pundits, and it’s these little touches for me that have made BBC’s coverage so far an absolute delight to behold.

So onwards and upwards we go into the European portion of the season with BBC F1 being rapidly impressive in their work for us f1 fans… and I’m loving every single ruddy second of it. Let’s just hope they keep up this good work!!

#11; Blog for Absolution

I realise that less than 24 hours ago I had written a blog entry cerning my view upon various matters of music and how a personals musical tastes can be too easily judged upon their character as well as various other tidbits. Furthermore, I want to thank those that provided me with some amazing comments about the entry because a lot of heart went into the writing of a subject that holds my heart in a dear way and apologies for the commenting bug that caused no-one to be able to post comments (that has now been fixed!). But I do genuinely appreciate all feedback from everyone so I did truly love the responses I got and am grateful for that! But nevertheless, back onto the subject - whilst I may have written that musical entry, I felt like explaining to you why i'm such a huge Muse fan and what the band mean to me alongside my appreciation for all things musical.

What is it about 3 blokes from various areas around the UK meeting up in the coastal greyland known as Teignmouth that has attracted me so much to be in adoration to the music they create, divulge, emote and perform? How can this band mean so much to me when there are millions of people worldwide singing to make a living, trying their hardest to live off their money and make a name for themselves and yet these three guys create such incredible music personally? I will be the first to admit that perhaps I like Muse too much - just take a look at my last.fm! But to say that I couldn't go a full day without listening to them, as absurd as that sounds, would be a true statement. I realise I'll have people laughing at such an idea, that a simple band could have such a profound effect on any human being, but I knwo that it's not just myself that appreciate this band for everything they do.

I got into Muse nearly a decade ago now, about 2001-ish I would say. It must have been around the release of their incredible second album Origin of Symmetry as I sat down at my sisters house humbley watching that 'lovely' channel known as Kerrang (I was young then, OK?) when this empty room appeared with melting images, and a somber individual with striking black hair stood their gazing into my eyes... then that riff was unleashed. Plug in Baby. Matthew Bellamy just stayed still with his hands just pouring out the most addictive and stunning guitar noise I'd heard for my age at the time... his red guitar, with metal-but-bizarre faceplates swung around his body with his hand continually strumming out this riff. My eyes continued to stare as I watched in amazement, seeing a fellow guitarist on the bass with wild, bushy hair orbit his movements, moshing away alongside a headbanging drummer beringing the song to life with drumfills and snaps of, for lack of a better description, sheer awesome. 'My plug in baby, crucifies my enemies, when i'm tired of giving.' My throat had instantly started humming the crunching bassline whilst my head grew in slight headbanging movement along with the lifespan of the song. Wow. Wow wow wow.What is this!? Where the hell have these guys come from?! Wow!!! What is that riff?! My jaw was on the floor as the guitar slowly faded out by the end of the song. Matt bellamy, Chris Wostenholme and Dominic Howard has blown my brains out with that addictively catchy piece of modern rock. This was the moment I knew something was in it from my point of view to follow these guys. Ohohoho, and follow I did.

I sit here typing this blog entry to you nearly 8 years still as much in love with that band as the day I discovered them. They've released several albums since them, travelled the world, matured into their own styles of music they can develop album by album and have even sold out the new Wembley Stadium twice in 2 nights. I am not trying to advertise the band whatsoever, but I can;t help but express as a fan how much pride these achievements bring to see a band you've loved for years do so much with themselves. Yet they continue to be so fresh with their style of music and surprise you in so many ways... if you told me that in 2001 that same band would have an r'n'b based rock song getting to no. 2 in the charts in 2006 I would have laughed at an idea and ridiculed them for thinking they would even try. But they did, and yet within such an impossibly strange idea for a rock band, they managed to do it without losing any credibility.

That brings me onto my next point - live shows. Muse are THE live band. I've only seem them once in person but that one evening provided a vast amount of amazement, bliss, profound excitement and almost a level of subconscious disblelief that I had the opportunity to finally experience these guys for myself. They make me wonder so much - these are three almost 30's on a stage with 3 instruments - a guitar, a bass, a drumkit. Yet the sound they produce is out of this world; for those not in the know I'd highly suggest looking on youtube for a few videos, or emailing me/twittering me to get a few suggestions what to look at. I can't put into words just how good of a show they produce. yet it's only 3 guys!!

There is so much that I could go into detail about their music that attracts me so much and why I treasure every soundbyte that they've worked into making. At heart, Muse are without a shadow of doubt a rock band; but they're a rock band that incorporate so many other genres into their music and are brave enough to attempt this constantly. If you compare their original album showbiz to their newest album Black Holes and Revelations, the differences are beyond vast. showbiz holds three young lads introduing themselves to the world of rock music with dark, moody insight into the thoughtds of feelings of a frustrated age group living in an area they hate, wanting to escape, with Bellamy pouring his feelings into screaming falsettos and his guitar work on tracks, whether it be distorted power riffs or a soothing Italian-style acoustic. 7 years later, with their 4th studio album Black Holes and Revelations, you hear the band being so much more confident to try new styles of music, to attempt areas of rock where others may not dare tread, to express themselves and how they view the world around them with so much diversity. The album for example begins with an apocalyptic insight into the political dictatorships around the world being asked for a sarcasm bow of appreciation, and is followed up with an insight into political conpiracies, the galaxy we live in, romance, hatred, love, war through a soldier's poem, and finishing on the most over the top, completely mental but utterly brilliant western-space-rock-opera we know as Knights of Cydonia. But it would be totally rude for me to mention all thisn without going into detail into the alvums between these; their second album Origin of Symmetry saw the band unleashing their progtastic, insanely rough and brilliantly addictive riffs fully into the faces of music fans throughout the world. Whether it be an 8 minute rock epic including soothing piano riffs and a bassline that could shake a city, a church organ haunting the echoing screams of Bellamy, the hyper mess of a shroomed-up session causing the most innocently gorgeous river of arpeggios creating an sense of bliss, the album was just completely in your face in comparison to the introductory nature of Showbiz. The followup is where Muse shine their greatest so far personally - Absolution.

Absolution is an album worthy of it's own paragraph personally, and I mean that with no disrespect to Muse's other albums as each album is incredible for their own reasons. This album is my haven though. From start to finish, 12 tracks (2 non songs too, theyre only a few seconds long though) of utter brilliance, and I dare say perfection when I know that nothing in the world will ever be perfect. Rather than go into massive detail I'll tell you just where this album shines ... Where to start...Ohhh... Stockholm Syndrome... How could anyone descrbe this song in words? I'll be honest, I can never describe Stockholm Syndrome properly. Anger, frustration, everything that we feel when we're at the end of our tether. 'This is the last time I'll abandon you, and this is the last time I'll forget you... I wish I could!!!' So much anger comes through these lyrics, and yet Bellamy's vocals are so soft, soothing, almost relaxing in a song that feels so loud and almost apolcaptic. You have heavy guitar riffs being through at your left right and centre, a bassline that jumps constantly back and forth, and an incredible drum riff taking the song along perfectly. And the main guitar riff? Ohh yum. Basically if Stockholm Syndrome were a food, it'd be jelly on top of a washing machine. You know it's good, you know you want it, and yet it's sits there going completely mental in front of you. Alongside SS we have the encapsulatingly addictive Hysteria, a song that runs on a bassline that just makes the song without a doubt alongside the guitar riff halfway through, a riff that spews out a gorgeously sweet feeling for a song that screams out frustration at wanting something more than anything in life and knowing you can't get it. Despite this, Hysteria stands proudly as the 'groovy' track on the abum despite still being totally rooted in Muse's rock origins. Other highlights of the album justify why Muse are more than allowed to dabble their way into new genres - Butterflies and Hurricanes provides an uplifting, positive light of life alongside a buildup of orchestral excellence, combined with a Rachaminov-esque piano section that breaks the song into two, yet makes the song a beautiful, unique experience to behold - Time is Running Out could be considered a pop-pier younger brother to Hysteria, being a bass-driven catchy haven of emotions for the band to unleash in their own unique way. I could go on and on.. endlessly and Blackout being the album's romantic areas... Ruled by Secrecy... Thoughts of a Dying Atheist... but I've already written enough...

And that is Muse to me. Apologies if this does seem like an annoying entry to include and so much to say over something that many people may not consider to be impressive, but I just wanted to get the opportunity to show you just how Muse crept into my life and what they mean to me. I mention them a lot to friends, again I fear this may be too much, so I apologise once more if it gets to the point of pure annoyance... but this is just one of the traits I enjoy in my life and one I'm far from being ashamed of. There are many more out there moreso than myself that truly love this band for everything they stand for, everything they create, for being Muse.

Sing for Absolution? I nmost certainly will be singing!

#10; The Sound of Music

Another blog entry, two in one night? Ridiculous! But yes, i'm in a big writing mood tonight and I feel like I could let out so much at the moment, it's bit strange. Anyways, the ttitle of this entry pretty mushc sums up what I'm just thinking about right now - music. A lot of people would happily agree with me that a world without music, whether it be rock, rap, pop, r 'n b, jamaican rastafarian reggae, hardcore metal, whatever the hell rocks your world, would be a very boring world for us all to live in. I'm pretty open to music and I 100% respect that every individual gets their own rights to listen to what they like and have the tastes that they do but I do wonder -how do we as humans find it so easy to judge a person by their musical taste?

I'll give you an example with the local area I live. Most teenagers now listen to dance music, r'n b, hiphop, that kind of music. Sadly, there seems to be a general closed-mindedness approach to other genres when encountering such individuals as I have found out from experience and from off the mouth remarks that have been... 'discussed'.. in previous events. If you like rock music, or like metal, or anything like that, if you wear dark clothes or earrings or have 'emo- style hair, then immediately you are deemed a 'sweaty'; an indidivual not accepted into the chavtastic affairs that dominate the teenage lifestyle of millions throughout the United Kingdom. I know it;s almost totally ignorant of me to say such an outrageous statement without any real proof backing me up but to deny that the 'chav' stereotype is one undoutedbly routed into the younger society.

But music isn't something to be started at, judged upon, and ridiculed without giving a chance! Music is the expression that we all may hold inside in our own individual ways that allows us to express ourselves through sounds, words, lyrics, screams, instruments, anything our creativity can drive us to! If I were stuck on a desert island with my Muse CD's or iTunes with my entire library then i for one would be a happy chappy because music can get you through anything! There are so many emotions that can be protrayed in so many ways from the way an artist expresses themselves and pours emotion into a song they've worked over, or even in the manner in which you portray songs yourself. Music helps me personally keep my life going, and it would be fair to say that music is such an good indicator into how your mind is feeling - sad and down? put on some uplifting, inspiring pieces of music you love and it can make you right as rain again. Want to go crazy amd mosh like a churchill dog on a rollercoaster? Chuck on that Black Sabbath and make Ozzy proud.

I have absolutely no reason to boast about my own musical tastes. I honestly feel it's no better than anyone elses and I have no reason to feel that it can be judged by others as well, but I'm always willing to listen to what people have to say, recommend, suggest and enjoy. I adore music, without a shadow of a doubt, it keeps my mind sane alongside the fantastic friends I'm lucky to have and my choice of lifestyle. But despite saying I have no reason to boast, I;m damn proud of the music I love! I look at iTunes and see allsorts from Muse, Smashing Pumpkins, Fleetwood Mac, Andy Williams, even classical composers like Rachmaninov and Beethoven whilst ranging back to the progtastic wonders such as Pink Floyd and Rush, and I wouldn't change any of these for the world. Music can have such a stupidly huge influence on your life and I'm more than thankful for the incredible sounds they've made over the years that have brought myself and so many others joy.

So whats driving my mind loco in joy recently, you may be asking? Here's a general list of what i'm hearting recently...

• Smashing Pumpkins - The End is the Beginning is the End and Ava Adore

How can such dark, disturbing songs have such gorgeously innocent choruses? It's such things like this that make me sit back in awe at the Smashing pumpkins and Billy Corgan's truly wonderful voice. They're such a good band and to say these two songs don;t stand out for me would be totally unfair because both hold so much anger and emotion yet bellow out the sweetest choruses...

• Muse - Fury

When music provides the opporrtunity to make the hairs on the end of your skin stand up and goosebumps run wild across your back then you know it's special. I can't stress enough how muvh this song terrifies me in the most pleasing way - probably the stupidest sentence I'll ever write. But it's true! Menacing riffs, crushing basslines, again a sweepingly soft chorus that speaks about the hopes of an atheist (hey!) and just a stunning piece of music

• Franz Ferdinand - Lucid Dreams

I'm not a big fan of electronic music-y genres. They can have their highlights but for me personally, I can't get into them. To be in love with a song that has a 5 minute electronic riff that bounces about from side to side in your mind profounds me to the point of unexplainability. But I can't help it - the addictive feeling I get from lucid Dreams and the incredibly sharp electro melodies it has is just a wonder for my musical tastes to be hold. concerning the album, this is easly the standout track on Tonight, which is a good album in all fairness.

• Fleetwood Mac - The Chain

I had do, didn't I? But I can't help it! That bassline... the story behind the song and the album it's from... the buildup in the song and just how incredibly poignant the lyrics are relating to Fleetwood Mac as a band and their personal issues... it's just an incredible mix of real life worries and musical brilliance. That bassline is one of the most genius pieces of composition personally, as an F1 fan seeing it open up the sport on the BBC, and as a music fan who geniunely appreciates music for the sheer talent and skill it must take to produce music like this without machines and computers doing the work for you.

• Sigur Ros - Sigur 1

So simple... but so beautiful. So quiet... yet so elegant. Sigur Ros are more than pioneers for the music theyr create in their genre. The ability to ease your worries, relax you, or create allsorts of emotions in just the most simple of forms. Sigur 1 is hard to explain because it doesn't do much apart from simply flow into your head like a silk mattress and make your mind as peaceful as possible. All of their music is a gorgeous composition of instruments, sounds, and the musical equivalent of an art gallery as bizarre as that sounds, and yet even though they don't need to do much to create the style of music they achieve, the diversity of emotions they can create for a listener is incredible.

There's so much more I could talk about musically at the moment and different songs but I shall leave it at that. Having the opportunity to ecpress myself on here concerning an area of life that billions of people worldwide run their life alongside is a pleasure because I love music because it's music. Music can sell, it can suggest violence, sex, greed, hatred, it can do anything and people may like it for those stupid reasons, yet I love music because it is music. That's all there is to it. It's emotional, it's beautiful, it;s diverse, and more importantly, it's our lives.

What would I do if music never existed?

Tap a few spoons on the table... tap my knees... and build it up from there...!

#9; Something old, something new...

Yep. You may just have noticed something here - it's all gone light blue and lovely! I've decided that enough with the old dark blue generic blogspot and in with a fantastic new look provided by Ollie over at BlogF1 that was created by the guys from JackBook so it would be totally unfair of me to be taking credit for the fantastic job they've done making this look! Although I have been meddling about with the HTML values and whatnot to edit things around a bit more to my styling... but still! I massively appreciate it! Do let me know what you think of the bluey blue blueness; that's the best name I could think of.

The title for this entry has a lot more meaning alongside the whole 'something borrowed something blue' main meaning it's pretty much hinting at. I have this fantastic new blue design to gawp at (It's so blue I just want to swim in it!) but there's a few other things I've been looking at today and in the past few days. I found it utterly awful to see in the news that the police that attacked the innocent bystander Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests last month were actually the likely cause of death rather than a heart attack as original suspected. How disturbing is it to know that during times of restraint and keeping law whereever possible in a sea of panic and frustration, our police authorities feel the need to attack even innocent bystanders to get their way? It sickens me to know that Tomlinson's fall to the ground via this despicable cause of action from a police officer attacking him has happened, it truly does.

On a less serious note, it was announced that Dan Brown's 'sequel' to the Da Vinci Code is coming out in September, and as an avid fan of Brown's literature, I'm mega super uber excited to hear this great news! It only adds to the fact that the next few months are a ball of excitement for myself - heading off to Goodwood and other places within the summer, Muse's new album and UK tour, this news about the book, the actual summer itself hopefully being a lovely relaxing few months plus fingers crossed by the end of august I'll be a fully qualified blowtorch-wielding driver! Ok, perhaps not the blowtorch....

I don't have much else to say at the moment though. Just looking down at tweetdeck to see that the blog has been plugged by a certain someone from the ever-growingly-mentioned Sidepodcast, so that was nice of him! I'll be doing a feature length blog entry later in the week sometimes relating to motorsport, so feel free to come back and check that out because it should be a good read!

Just want to end on one thing - How cute is this toaster?!! I want it! It even has a mini diffuser! That seriously is the greatest toaster ever, and I know what you're thinking - there are some pretty radical toasters out there! I once saw one that had legs and everything. But seriously, if anyone knows where to buy these, or steal them, or download the toaster, or anything... I must have it! It's so cute! It'd be so great seeing Jenson Breaddon and Rubens Braces-chello pop up....

...yep, I did indeed say those puns. Shocking? Yes. Worth it? Totally.

#8; London Bridge isn't falling down

Wow, what a day! As I said yesterday today I was heading off to London to meet up with some fantastic individuals from the Sidepodcast community to see a Formula 1 related exhibition at London's Science Museum. I say exhibition as do the owners of it but I'd prefer the term 'Several futuristic items watched by a psychotic guard and a bloody annoying alarm thing'. The exhibit itself was a bit underwhelming to say the least, it was pretty small and it had such exclusive items as carbon fiber stairs (carbon fiber stairs!!), a fishing rod and a Ron Dennis Cryogenics Pod... or so it was thought to be with friends and msyelf.

It was a shame it was so disappointing because it could've had so much more but it felt very un-F1 related considering. The highlight of the museum F1-wise was seeing Mika Hakkinen's car from the 1999 German Grand Prix in which he crashed out at silly-speed-mph. I myself was amazed at the 'No Photography' side wing that I'd never noticed before on the car! Furthermore relating Mclaren and the museum, Lewis' car was hanging upside down at the entrance. I don;t really need to explain how much such a sight confused me.

Asides from the museum it was a tremendous day for sure. Just getting the chance to relax in Hyde Park's lucious greens and enjoy the beaming sunshine was rejoiceful and being around some truly wonderful people that enlighted and delighted myself was such good fun. Plus it's so releiving being able to talk F1 to people who love the sport because of it's fundamentals, it's history, the passion they have for it and the sport being bloody fantastic, not because of who the media darling is at any current situation feigning a fake interest! It was also so relaxing being able to just chill out and forget about the worries of the world in such a pleasent environment, one I simply cannot explain and praise enough.

So what did I learn today?

• Traffic lights are evil. If the little man is green, do not stop.
  
• I get confused at a lot of things... far too often.
• London Underground isn't as nervous as I was making myself think it was
• Chairs are not invisible, you cannot walk through them no matter how many times I try.
  
• London rocks. So much.
• SERIOUS SECURITY GUARD IS SERIOUS.
  
• Walking when trying to photograph stuff is a stupid idea
  
• That I'm lucky to have met such a great community and know that I'll be joining them for more escapades in the future!
  

So yeah today was a delight and one I hope to recreate many a times. Thanks again so much to everyone that came along because I can't stress enough how much fun today was and how nice it was to be able to get away and relax in the company of a group of great indivduals. Funnily enough I mentioned today how lovely the sunshine was and how enjoyable it was to be able to relax in such joyous weather when Wales gets so much rain and cloud... and when I get back to Wales... rain and cloud.

Ahh I'll never win!!

#7; A day of many emotions

Tomorrow is an important day. April 15th, to many, may stand out as an unexceptional day, just another day to pass us through Spring. April 15th is however one of the most important days in the world of English football. Sadly, this correlates with one of the saddest days in the history of English football; the Hillsborough Disaster. Lowering the scale of things, tomorrow also is the day Formula 1 in 2009 could be shaken once more when we find out whether the diffuser argument will 'decide the season', or so a certain Mr Fernando Alonso says. But hey, what does he know eh?! Last but not least, tomorrow is the big Sidepodcast meetup that I've really been looking forward to for the past few weeks! It would definitely be fair to say that April 15th, personally, well... it's a day of many emotions.

Going back to the Hillsborough Disaster, for those not in the know, let me do my best to explain. 15th April 1989, Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Semi Final at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield; over 700 people were inured and 96 individuals killed in a horrific crush involving 3,000 supporters in a stand that was purposely made to hold 1,600 at the most, and even then, safety issues meant that this amount was too much as it was. Whilst the match was playing, supporters struggled to breath, move, do anything but fight for their life until 5 minutes into this match police forced the referee to blow up and serious help was obviously needed. Any kind of footage, whether it be through photos or video footage, shows just how terrifying the situation was.

At the time I was merely less than a year old; I don't have any connections to the event at all and as you can imagine I was far too young to know then just what this disaster was. But as a football fan you learn about these events and how much they change the landscape of the sport you love; as previously stated it horrifies me to hear just how bad the conditions were. It horrifies me to hear that after the disaster the police blamed the fans and pathetic excuses such as 'drunken behavior' for the cause of this. It horrifies me just to hear of the stories from various sources watching the events unfold in front of their eyes, and seeing bodies laid out stricken across the pitch at Hillsborough. Whether you're a supporter of Liverpool or not, there is absolutely no denying that as a football fan, it is your duty to provide respect and rememberance for those souls that were stolen due to horrific safety procedures and a chain of bad decisions and bad events leading to what we have 20 years on.

I almost feel slightly guilty of myself explaining this to you as it's not something I'm related to or witnessed at the time but as I have said, I am a football fan, I love the sport, and as it will be to football fans all across the country this week, this was a horrible moment that we all have to remember and thankfully have learned from concerning safety within football stadiums in modern day football. Noone will forget the 96.

I do want to lift the mood however within this blog entry. Tomorrow itself is a big day for Formula 1 as the diffuser argument looming over the sport finally comes to a head as the FIA finally decide what is legal and not. As a Brawn fan, do I think what they, Toyota and Williams have created and designed as a legal car component? Absolutely! I've tried my hardest to keep up with this story and a lot of it has gone over my head at times with technical-side of things, but I honestly feel that any illegality of the rules is void. Brawn himself stated his intentions with the diffuser to the teams over a year ago with no real complaints, he went ahead and worked on this fantastic Brawn car as did Toyota and Williams respectively, and now that other teams see how their interpretation of the rules is different to theirs, the argument has grown. Even now as I speak these appealing teams are making their own version of the diffuser similar to the big three that they're taking to the FIA - a sign of panic in case the diffusers are actually legal, or a sign of defeat to the point they know what the outcome is going to be? I'll let you decide but all comments are totally welcome with your opinions.

Finally, the Sidepodcast meetup is finally here! I'll definitely be checking back in on here in a few days to let you know how it went but I am very excited - seeing London for the first time in years, meeting people I really do want to meet and generally just having an excellent day out away from where i live should be fantastic! So yeah, bring it on!

#6; Summertime Blues?

We've entered the Easter holidays it seems and as I've previously mentioned we're well into the Springtime now. Easter's a nice time for me, I'm certainly not a religious person so the pleasant feeling doesn't come from the religious aspect of the holiday but these 2 weeks for pretty vital personally in charging up my batteries in a rush for the final few weeks of university where assignmetns flood in and stress levels rise. So it's nice these weeks to have a chance to relax before the storm comes in.

I've been thinking a lot these past few days about the summer as well and what possibilities it holds for me. I don't have many plans at all; I'd absolutely love to go to Devon or Cornwall for a few days and have the opportunity to relax in the sunsets of the cornish coast with a pasty or ice cream but I can't see it happening sadly, which is a shame. My driving lessons are coming to a close now though, as I slowly make my way towards the final steps before my driving test, so if I pass by the summer then fingers crossed for that possibility.

There's also other little events like the Goodwood Festival that I'm hugely interested in attending this year. Every year I see it on TV and it amazes me to see these classic cars in what seems such a lovely atmosphere and from feedback from friends it's an amazing few days to experience as a fan of motorsport, so I'm definitely looking at that to get away in the summer.

To be honest the summer does give me much mixed feelings; the weather really is lovely and you get some beautiful days in the summer, everyone seems to be in a good mood and it's a lovely time but I personally get so much time off University (from stat of June to end of September, so 3 months) that it eventually gets extremely tiring being off so much and not finding much to do with my time. As bizare as that probably sounds, it doesn't take long before I want to get out of Uni when it starts up again! It's a very strange set of feelings...

There's not much point to this entry, I just felt like rambling about the summer because it's so lovely outside at the moment. Another highlight is the fact Muse's new album will finally be out towards the end of the summer/start of the autumn so I'm mega excited for that! I'm excuted for the year in general to be honest as a few spects of my life have evolved so much in the past few months and there are new areas of my life that make me incredibly happy, so much more than I've been in the past year or two, so yeah. I'm a happy chappy!

I may do another post later on something else as I'm in a big writing mood today but we'll see.

#5; April Fool

Formula 1 is back once more. Luxurious lives, immaculately designed cars, the rich and famous, travelling in the world's most exotic locations in a sport that I deeply treasure s I've said before. We've had Australia, we've had drama and crashes and outrage and glory, upsets and excitement galore. Yet what we've had already more than anything is off track action. Appeals, decisions, lying, deceiving, the list could go on and we're not even a week into the sport. I absolutely love the sport, and I'm not going to say 'Im not gonna watch this with all this crap!' at all. What I am gonna say in this blog entry is simple; Why, lewis? Why Mclaren?

What good did you achieve from lying about what was said over the pit radio? This is a new, transculent era of formula 1 where everyone will hear what's going on. We don't need lying to dirty a sport that's rebuilding in the face of a horrid economy. The sport is growing, and whilst its changes has the obviously criticisms from many fans, it is trying to step forward into an exciting future based on the challenges everyone has right now. What good is it going to do saying one thing to the (albeit frustrating) regulators of our loved sport then providing the pit radios showing something else?

I think Lewis is a good driver. I'm not a fan but I respect what he has done in that car and for the team. What I don't respect is how both he nd his team knew exactly what they were doing and now, whilst they admit to it, they have faced a pretty lenient penalty personally. Mclaren have already had a fair share of controversy with the Spying affair that spoilt the sport a few years back, and whilst this new affair isn't anything on that level by any means, it's just a shame to see the team in the headlines once more. In a weekend that was truly glorious for seeing the Brawn phoenix rising from the Honda flame in a 1-2 highlight, we had more headlines discussing Lewis and Mclaren than we did celebrating the rebirth of Jenson Button's damaged career. As a Brawn fan it upsets me, as a Formula 1 fan it frustrates me.

I also feel very sorry for Jarno Trulli. I'm a fan of Trulli but from the very start of this he seemed completely innocent about the whole affair. He's a nice guy, and I'm not disputing that Hamilton isn't because he seems a nice fella as well, but it's hard to take the nice guy seriously if he's going to lie about something so sly. Trulli is a Formula 1 veteran, and yet we have the world champion who is still relatively new to ther sport considering it's his 3rd season, using his and the teams lies for one-up-manship over someone who deserved that position just as much as Lewis did personally.

The sooner we can all move in from this the better. Lewis hd admitted his part, Whitmarsh has said what he had to say and now sporting Director Dave Ryan has been suspended. Yet the respect that I had for McLaren as a solid Formula 1 team with a rich history once more gets damaged. I'm no person to this whole scanda at all, but I won't be the only person looking at this with a feeling of shame for Mclaren. The only April Fools I find hard to laugh at this year are these individuals. For shame.

Well that's my mini-rant over at Mclaren... I've noticed that a lot of this has become very Formula 1 related. My apologies if that seems annoying but it is a huge part of my life and one I can become very vocal over.

Phew. Hope everyone has had a good week, it's nearly Easter as well! I have the day off work today which is marvellous and I'm looking forward to this weekend's grand prix and also to a visit to london on the 15th with fellow members of the Sidepodcast community which should be a great day out! There's been a lot on my mind as well latelythat I might write up about over the weekend but we'll see. Right now I just want to lay down, have a cup of tea, and wish for these silly scandals to go away!