We are a few weeks away from the release of the album Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. The words highly and anticipated would be used here but you can take that as a given. When Noel’s former group imploded so publicly and the Brothers Gallagher went their separate ways everyone waited to see what roads each took but the writing was already on the wall; Liam carried on driving in a new motor made of trusted parts. It’s good that they continued, there is an audience out there for them. There are some that will like both Noel’s and Liam’s offerings, some that like either and some that like neither. The latter lot probably don’t think Oasis did anything remotely noteworthy after 1995.
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Christian Kane – Let Me Go and More!
Given to Sound favourite Christian Kane song Let Me Go is from the album The House Rules, released in 2010. NOW UPDATED WITH THE OFFICIAL “LET ME GO” VIDEO.
Behind the Scenes Christian…
Duran Duran at Coachella 2011
Duran Prove All They Need is Now!
Duran Duran sauntered onto the stage at close to 7-30pm which is just about 3-30am in Britain and if I was staying awake for it, it was going to have to be worth it. Bit by bit, player by player the pieces of the intro to ‘Planet Earth’ built up and the show was underway. ‘I only came outside to watch the night fall with the rain…’
‘Hungry like the Wolf’ followed before the brilliant title track of their new album, All You Need is Now. Simon told us the song was about ‘not looking up, not looking down, living right now!’ He could have said anything, by this point the crowd was in the palm of his hand.
Duran looked confident blending new tracks with the favourites everybody loves to hear from them. At no point did it look a struggle for Le Bon to sing the older material which, lets face it, it can be for some artists. ‘Notorious’ sounded brilliant. You could be forgiven for thinking that the impressive start was bound to tail off and there would be a lull. There wasn’t. Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters was on hand to sing her part of Safe (In the Heat of the Moment). ‘How bout you and me get down, babe I know you’ve been around’… It sounded delicious.
Daystar Believer!
We at Given to Sound are really excited about a new Manchester band called Daystar. There. That’s the first sentence done. It was a tricky one, because the Manchester thing brings with it the baggage of Madchester and ghosts of bands that swaggered into many a music buyer’s heart and strolled off having made a phenomenal impact. It may lead many to read Manchester band and switch off, preferring to cling to the memories instead.
Daystar are a five piece Manchester band with influences such as The Buzzcocks, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Joy Division, The La’s, The Kinks and The Sex Pistols. It’s easy to get protective over that and think that you’ve heard it all before. One recently defunct Manchester band with brothers in it told us over and over that the same bands influenced them. Then you’ve got, The Stone Roses; a Manchester band that made self-imploding cool well before Noel and Liam, they also had a similar list of influences.
It’s okay to have those influences, those bands made good music. It’s not the influence, it’s what you do with it that counts – and Daystar do something good.
Elbow – Leaders of the Free World
Approaching Home
Home is where the start is for Elbow, on Leaders of the Free World.
When you’ve written about wanting to get somewhere and you’ve written about what you feel like when you’ve got there, you’ve got to find your way home. Elbow do this with a stomp and a wink with Leaders of the Free World (2005). Whereas they certainly needed grace under pressure to complete Cast of Thousands, the band had learnt that the right approach this time was to capture ideas as and when they happened on the road, whenever and wherever inspiration hit them.
The band manage to channel the ideas into a collection that has a very developed sense of place and environment, this is very clear in the opening track. Station Approach is about coming home to Manchester (station approach, Piccadilly station) and literally knowing the area well and being at home. The listener is not excluded if they happen not to live in this city, because Guy Garvey’s lyrics can apply to anyone wherever they are listening. Three albums’ in, the universal intimacy is something they have perfected.
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