Check out “Bauer”
Just thought I’d try and spread the word from my buddy a little bit. He’s lead singer in a group called Bauer which comes from the north of England and has been playing gigs for a few years. Their radio play in the region and country has slowly been increasing and on January 28th they are going to release their first single, “Starting Again” which will hopefully break into the charts and increase their exposure.
The music video for their new single can be seen here:
And music video for their previous E.P., entitled “Connected”, here:
The videos are also downloadable at www.redbridgestudios.com/videos/bauer. If you like their stuff & want to support them you can go to www.wippit.com/bauer and download their tracks.
Let me know what you think and thanks for your support.
What’s with Japan’s sudden interest in Africa?
Last week Masahiko Komura announced that 30 billion yen would be given to African nations for refugee relief, food assistance and in support of UN operations in the region. And in today’s news we hear that Fukuda has invited Kenyan, Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development later this year. In addition, he is going to make a personal plea to Matt Damon, Bill Gates and Bono at an international conference in Switzerland this month for them to attend. And he’s also scouting out Angelina Jolie (understandable) for her to be present at this Tokyo conference.
So what has caused this interest in Africa all of a sudden? Fukuda seems to be going all out on this and it begs the question, “Why?”. It’s possible that the government is trying to make Fukuda look like an established statesman. Hopefully they are not trying to go down the cringeworthy route of “Cool Brittania”, which the British government adopted just after Blair came to power. If these figures attended though, surely an equal number of [i]tarento[/i] would be needed (as seems to be the case whenever a foreign celebrity makes an appearance in Japan.
My thoughts are that some sort of trade or economic agreement will be made between Japan and African nations somewhere in the next 6-12 months as that would seem to be the most logical explanation.
Ayumi Hamasaki deaf in one ear
Ayumu Hamasaki, one of the top 3 J-pop divas, has revealed on her website that she has gone deaf in her left ear. The problem is most likely caused by tinnitus and, according to Hamasaki her ear “doesn’t work anymore”. She is currently scheduled to tour Asia in the upcoming months and says the tour will go ahead.
For those of you not familiar with her, she has sold almost 50 million albums and has had 28 number 1 hits in the Oricon charts in Japan. Along with Koda Kumi and Utada Hikaru, she is one of the top female performers in Japan and has legions of fans. Her first album was released in 1995 and since then she has gone on to make 10 more studio albums.
Although not a big fan of hers myself, I wish her all the best and it’s good to see that she’s said she wants to continue making music for as long as she can.
Utada Hikaru - worth checking out
Managed to get hold of a couple of older Utada Hikaru CDs over the weekend: Automatic and Deep River. Have to say I’m highly impressed, especially with the latter. If you like Japanese music at all then this CD is well worth your time and money. She is definitely a refreshing change to the dire J-pop that dominate the Oricon charts. The Deep River music videos are very similar to Bjork videos in their style, if you like that kind of thing. Not so keen on her English stuff although her English is fluent.
You can check out some of her stuff by following the links here, including 2 of my favourite Hikaru songs and an excellent cover of Boulevard Of Broken Dreams:
Jeremy Clarkson for PM!
Reading this article in the Mail on Sunday, it’s not actually his words, but is definitely something he would come up with. Didn’t know that 28,000 have signed a petition for him to be the UK’s next PM. Can’t do much worse than Brown or Blair, to be fair!
1 ENCOURAGE GLOBAL WARMING
Britons will be encouraged, through discounts and tax relief, to drive 4×4s, Jaguars and BMWs. Not only will this give a valuable boost to our oil industry, but it will encourage climate change. And what’s not to like about global warming? Holland gets flooded and we get California’s weather. That’s what I call a win/win situation.
2 ABOLISH CRICKET
How can we take seriously a sport that stops for afternoon tea and whose followers wear striped blazers and bray like horses? Let’s face it, we have been rubbish at cricket for years, so we should put an end to the endless cycle of misery in summer. My Government will bring back proper sports, such as jousting and bear-baiting.
3 END THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
The only thing special about our link with the U.S. is the amount of grovelling we do. My Government will stop acting as if Britain is the 51st state of the union. The last time I went across the Atlantic, I found people so stupid I’m convinced their nearest living relative must be a gherkin. They’re the sort of people who can’t read a road sign without moving their lips. Plus their cars are about as sexy as Ann Widdecombe’s armpit.