Tuesday 15th October 2013

Robbie Williams is unhappy.

This is in itself is not remarkable. Nor is the reason he is unhappy either.

What has made Robbie unhappy? That Radio 1 have decided not to play any of his current releases in that he is of no interest to their current demographic. Robbie is 39 and his current album is called ‘Swing Both Ways’ and appears to be full of more ‘standard’ covers. Which on first glance indeed would have little of interest to the average 12-29 year old. I mean it doesn’t get my juices flowing either.

Robbie found fame initially as part of Take That and then as a drunken slob and friend of Oasis before suddenly stumbling into stardom with Angles and Let Me Entertain You. And so on. When you think of it, Robbie has been famous since he was a teen, maybe 25 years. And what he has not encountered what most of us come to terms with in time; that we all are getting old. I realised I had outgrown Radio 1 back in about 2002. It did mark the passing of my youth, but I ended up hating the music and the gibberish that Chris Moyles and his posse would spout every morning.

I found Radio 6 and never went back.

One thing to point out however, is that Radio 1’s mantra was ‘in new music we trust’. Now that in itself is not enough. New music for its own sake is not enough. You should understand what has happened before to see if what is happening now is really any good, or are they just being lazy and copying others. I mean, take Jack White. We all like Jack White, he has been around for a decade and so must be at least 30, plays music based on the blues, and not many would really call him original. But you might think that if you have no concept what has come before. Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Led Zeppelin, Jack White. All play versions of the blue, relying on what came before.

But in the meantime, Robbie will deal with his own mortality by covering Sinatra songs, bemoaning the fact Radio won’t play his stuff now. And does any of it really matter? I think there are two types of music: good music and bad music. If something is bad, don’t listen. There’s more than enough good music out there waiting to be discovered to last a lifetime. Several lifetimes.

Annie Lennox is also not happy. And neither is Charlotte Church.

Seems that the music industry is full of sweaty middle aged men all wanting young women to get their kit off and act all sexy. You don’t say? Who’d have thunk it?

It’s been the way of the bizz for decades now, but with you tube and all that on demand stuff, how someone looks is far more important than the music. Oh its true. In the interest of research, I did become the 27 millionth person to watch Miley Cirus’ Wrecking Ball video on you tube to see if was overly sexy. Now, to answer that question it depends on whether you think that licking a sledgehammer is sexy. I like a good sledgehammer, but it really doesn’t float by boat. As it were. Later on she sat astride said wrecking ball stark naked, for which there does not seem to be any other reason other than she could.

Now that Top of the Pops and The Chart Show have finished, and for a long while Sky stopped me from watching music channels not for any other reason other than I refused to pay a pound extra a month. They now provide them free after all. Not that there is much watching from what I saw. Anyway, yes, there is an overtly sexualisation of women by the music industry, and has been for ages, the question now is should videos be rated in the same way films are?

Probably.

Most probably.

Yes.

But it should all be about the music, shouldn't it?

And so back to the real world and the wonderful world of wind turbines. Life goes on, and the pressure begins to mount. Which is nice. Meetings begat meetings which begat more meetings. Each day has more and more meetings which require more and more time to write and read minutes and then act upon the agreed outcomes. Such is the modern way.

And so after work, I drive home, pick up Jools, we go home, drink coffee, make dinner, mess around with photos, have a shower, play with cats and then go to bed. Repeat until weekend arrives.

It was dark this morning when we got up. I mean dark with a capital D. As we made breakfast, fed the cats brightness appeared in the east, and by the time I was driving towards Ramsgate it was getting light. It seems that autumn has crept up on us, it only seems a few weeks ago we were sitting on the patio in the twilight at ten in the evening. In nine weeks it will be the shortest day, and in the middle of winter. I am already looking forward to Spring and the arrival of the orchids, butterflies and warm days again. Not helped by a nature documentary we watched last night which was all about spring.

Hmmmm, spring.

So, heading headlong towards the middle of the week and the hump which indicates the beginning of the long gentle slope towards the weekend. And then a week in Denmark next week, and then some more hoibobs and another beer festival.

Yay, beer.