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Well, it’s that time of year again… when the bigwigs of the music industry encourage us to all vote with our wallets for the record that will form part of Christmas Compilation albums for years to come.

I will get around to writing my top 10 Christmas #1’s soon, but first a look at what could be setting the theme to Christmas 2005:

According to redabet the top ones are as follows:

1. The Choirboys ‘Tears in Heaven’ (William Hill odds: 12/1)
2. Tony Christie ‘Merry Xmas Everyone’ / ‘(Is This the Way to) Amarillo?’ (William Hill odds: 8-1)
3. Westlife with Diana Ross ‘When You Tell Me That You Love Me’ (William Hill odds: 9/4)
4. G4 feat. Robin Gibb ‘ When a Child is Born’ / ‘First of May’ (William Hill odds: 5-1)
5. Girls Aloud ‘See the Day’ (William Hill odds: 10/1)
6. Mariah Carey ‘Don’t You Forget About Us’ (William Hill odds: 40/1)
7. Robbie Williams ‘ Advertising Space’ (William Hill odds: 12/1)
8. Crazy Frog – title tbc (William Hill odds: 7/2)
9. Coldplay ‘Talk’ (William Hill odds: 33/1)
10. James Blunt ‘Goodbye My Lover’

so in their top 10, the first 4 are covers. I have already ranted about G4 covering one of my favourite songs in my review of Jasper Carrot’s Rock With Laughter. But still, why can’t they be original? is the lack of musical talent so bad in the UK that we are going for consecutive covers for 3 years as christmas number one?

And Will Tony Christie please stop living off Peter Kay?

The ‘Crazy’ ‘Frog’ (notable for being neither crazy nor a frog) has also had its day. it will be there for novelty value, but I don’t think it will be a contender for Christmas #1 (however, if it looks like a 1 on 1 with G4 and the ‘frog’ then I will buy as many copies of the frog as I can afford!)

However, a notable exception on the list, and a track which is starting to gain a lot of following on the internet is The JCB Song. I heard this last night and it is being released on 12th December. I quite fancy this as an underground hit… it happened with Gary Jule’s cover of ‘Mad World’. Check out the video on the website - it’s absolutely fantastic. The song is OK, too, a change from the manufactured rubbish we have been force-fed.

Back in September I turned 28.

28 is one of those refelective ages, where you sum up where you are now, where you’ve come from, and indeed, wonder where you’re going.

I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about this.

I don’t get hung up on ages, unlike my brother, I suppose I will always be young at heart, but thinking about what I have acheived in the last 30 years, and ensuring that I have no regrets. So far, I’m happy to say I have none, but there’s a few things I’d like to do before I’m 30, and potentially start feeling ‘old’!

1. Get Married.
   Well, this is an easy one, as I am getting married in July 2007, just before I turn 30
2. Pay off all non-mortgage debt
   Nearly there - I’ve only got 4 more payments to make on my student loan, and my credit card is under control… However, this might be negated by the next point:
3. Buy a sports car.
   Nothing over the top, but an Audi TT or Nissan 350Z convertable… to live while I’m still young
4. Do a parachute jump.
   I must be mad, but this is one of the things that spawned this list!
5. Run a marathon.
   This is one of those life acheivements that I’d like to accomplish merely to say that I’ve done it. I did start getting into training, but I’ve let that slip in recent times
6. Lose a stone.
   Just to get me back to the weight I was when I was 27. Hopefully this will build up my self-confidence
7. Start a business.
   Just something small, that I can run part-time while still working full time. It would be nice to be able to escape the rat race, but realistically that’s not going to happen.
8. Learn a second language.
   OK, I did GCSE german, but to be honest, all I can remember is how to ask where the station is. I’ve always fancied learning BSL, so I think that would count towards a language.
9. Write a book.
   Not necessarily a best-seller, just a book that I can publish on-line.
10. Make a podcast.
    I did make one podcast six months ago, it was a slow, painful process that took way too long. However, I’d like to try again, the problem is finding a theme for it. The last podcast was terrible, just me speaking in between music. If I was to do a regular podcast, I’d like it to actually have a proper topic - I have thought about doing a music quiz podcast. The problem is that you have to use “podsafe” music, so I wouldn’t be able to do any “name that tune” rounds, plus I’d like to do a podcast that you could listen to while walking the dog, wheras a quiz you usually want to write the answers down.

There are a few items that didn’t make the list, such as “buy a ferrari”, but I’ve tried to be realistic. They aren’t in any order, but I might put them into some form of order and submit to Top of the Pods.

I like Jakob Neilsen. He says an awful lot without paying much attention to reality.

In line with his annual Top 10 Design Mistakes he has decided to publish the Top 10 Weblog Design Mistakes.

An interesting read - but the second point he makes about no author photos probably doesn’t take into account the fact that the majority of Bloggers are not egotistical self-publicisers who want to be recognised. An episode of The Simpsons features Homer writing a Blog where he takes on the pseudonym “Mr. X” and enjoys a lot more freedom because of his anonymity.

One of my favourite comedians of all time is Jasper Carrott, so when he was bringing an updated version of his “christmas cracker” to the N.E.C., I had to go along.

Rock With Laughter is a variety show of music, dance and comedy, compered by Carrott himself.

Carrott opened with his usual “Oggie Oggie Oggie” shouts and the punchline of “Isn’t it easy to entertain the Welsh!” before introducing the first act: Reelin’ and a Rockin’.

Reelin’ and a Rockin’ consists of five singers from the 50’s and 60’s performing a selection of rock and roll hits. Unfortunately, while they would seem like the perfect opening act, the reception was rather muted.

Carrott then introduced an unbilled addition - Bobby Davro. For me, he was the big surprise of the night. He was genuinely funny with some very original material. Bobby Davro for me conjours up images of 90’s game shows and cable TV, but if he was to do a stand-up tour off the back of this, he would definately be worth a look.

Next was the second musical act, Bev Bevan’s Move. I must confess that I’ve never heard of them, although I did know the song ‘Blackberry Way’. For a group on the nostalgia trail, they were very good and probably the highlight of the musical acts.

Bill Bailey was up next. I have always found him funny and he didn’t disappoint, combining comedy and music to great effect and culminating with the “Scale of Shame” audio-visual performance, with distorted images of dictators and poloticians accompanying quotes to hilarious results.

The Bootleg Beatles closed off the first half, although they looked more like the Beatles than they sounded like them. (In addition ‘Paul’ was playing right-handed - a big oversight!)

The second half was opened by Bonnie Tyler. Oh dear… Don’t get me wrong, I like Bonnie Tyler’s music, but she should really retire gracefully now. Opening with “Holding Out For a Hero” was a mistake. She couldn’t hit the notes and spent most of the performance apparently singing to the guitarist. The backing band were too loud for her, but whether this was to cover up her inadequecies as a singer is up for debate.

Tyler spend most of her performance in the middle of the stage and hardly interacted with the audience. She did improve however, and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was passable, Tyler opting to sing the higher bits lower so she didn’t strain too much.

Perhaps she was suffering from a cold, in between songs she did sound very croaky, but with a singer like Bonnie Tyler, who speaks with a frog in her throat anyway, it is difficult to tell. A real disappointment.

The mood was lifted very quickly though, as Carrott introduced “The Oldest Blues singer in the World”… as the large man swaggered onto the stage, there was no doubt it was Lenny Henry.

A storming set, featuring two characterisations, the blues singer formerly mentioned, and “Lister” the shopkeeper from his recent TV series, interspersed with traditional stand up, as Lenny recounted his days as a boy growing up in Dudley. Definately the highlight of the show.

Finally, the last musical act… Last year’s “X-Factor” runners up (and incidentally the only ones with a record deal now) G4.

First things first, I don’t like G4, I never have, and so I am probably biased against them. However, as they opened with Nessun Dorma, it became quiet clear that G4 are really one bloke and 3 backing singers. The main singer’s voice, however, is far too harsh to sing Opera. I can listen to Opera, and appreciate the amount of skill an opera singer has over their voice, but one of those skills is the ability to sing softly. This guy can’t do that.

It was also apparent that G4’s appearance was mainly due to their upcoming push on the Christmas Singles chart, and they sang ‘their’ Christmas song… a cover of one of my favourite Christmas songs: “When a Child is Born”. Why do these boy bands have to ruin perfectly good original songs - why can’t they write their own christmas song?

Overall though, an enjoyable night of comedy… it’s just a shame the ‘Rock’ part disappointed.

Went to see Amy Wadge live at the Marr’s Bar in Worcester last night. We haven’t seen her live since she played the Birmingham Jam House last year. She played a lot of tracks from her new album (out in January), including the single “Usa? We’ll Wait and See”. Strange title, but not a bad track.

She also played the other two tracks on the CD, “Here in my Hands” is much better live - it has more of a build up, and the drums were louder than they are on the recording. However, her cover of the Manic’s “A Design For Life” was brilliant. If you are going to cover a song as seminal as that, you either perform it as close to the original as possible (although that will draw comparisons) or make it completely different. Thankfully Amy chose the second, and her solo performance with piano is fantastic. I can see her using this more often in her live set.

Although I can’t remember individual track titles, the new material is sounding very strong, with a more upbeat tempo than her previous work (although she may have picked the more upbeat songs).

Mixed in were some of her more popular tracks from “WOJ” - “Valley Boy”, “Scream”, “Breathe”, “Six of One”, “Nothing” and “Paris”. Notably absent was the previous single “Just in Time”. Perhaps overplayed on the previous tour and rested, but as one of my favourites I was disappointed. J was also disappointed that she didn’t play “Prophet”.

Support was from Sumladfromcov and Duncan from Tybalt.

I must confess, I wasn’t too keen on Sumladfromcov. Musically he was fantastic, but I just couldn’t get used to his voice. I was in the minority in the audience though - J thought he was brilliant. Duncan from Tybalt was a brilliant guitarist, but you felt that some of his tracks were better suited to a heavy rock setting rather than the acoustic set he was performing.