I'm Wondering

[will vine]

I'm wondering....How's Charlie these days?

and I'm wondering....To what extent have sales of "World" music suffered since the demise of the Saturday Night show...who has the sales figures?....(our local record shop abandoned it's world music section about 3 months ago.....and now it's Blues section - to make way for more DVDs !)

Since the Saturday show went off the air I've been able to pause for breath and catch up with a lot of stuff I never had time to listen to properly in the first place. I feel out of touch though with recent releases and new names, and whilst I'm not certain that's entirely a bad thing,......well, I guess I just want to record that I have really begun to miss the fun of that Saturday Night LIVE thing. That's All.

[Paul S]

Will, don't worry too much about that record shop.

In a year's time it'll be selling overpriced skinny lattes or charity goods (it grieves me to predict, if today's press release on HMV's plummeting figures are anything to judge the market for physical music sales by.)

My local branch is now just a DVD shed. The independents went years ago.

I hugely miss that Saturday 8pm slot too and I can't believe how the goodwill that was built up over all those years was let go by the local BBC, when it could have been in the safe hands of Gerry Lyseight or someone similar. Know what I miss the most? It kept us in touch with good music in London and if we're out of touch with new music - it isn't a good thing.

[NormanD]

Know what I miss the most? It kept us in touch with good music in London and if we're out of touch with new music - it isn't a good thing.

Let's give a big shout of thanks to Alan for keeping up the link here and listing what's on and coming up in London. You just have to imagine a nice piece of background music with an interrupting voice going through the days of next week......

norman

[Charlie]

I'm wondering....How's Charlie these days?

Thanks for asking, Will.

My feet still feel weird, and it could take four or five years for them to recover.

Meanwhile the sinusitis that had been a prelude to the attack on my feet has come back to make pronouncing 'm' and 'n' a daunting challenge.

It's all part of the Churg Strauss syndrome, indicating a malfunctioning auto-immune system, and my latest hope is that some kind of Chinese medicine might manage to deal with it, where conventional medicines have only made it worse.

But people keep commenting on how well I look, so what do I know....

CG

[uiwangmike]

I daresay Charlie knows about this already, but Ben Watt, half of Everything But The Girl, wrote a book about his experience of Churg-Strauss syndrome. There's a review linked by Wikipedia at http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/1096/10-sl1.htm

[howard male]

Will wrote -

I feel out of touch though with recent releases and new names

I'm going to sound a bit like a stuck record here, but, my hope has always been that the reviews posted here would prompt other writers to post their reviews, and also responses from anyone who has an opinion on an album or artist.

We can't replace a radio show here, but at least we now have the Internet to check out what a CD sounds like if comments here have aroused our curiosity.

Occasionally dialogues have got going, on, say, Tinariwen's new one, but on the whole you all seem more interested in compiling lists of old favourites in various obscure categories - like characters in a Nick Hornby novel. Nothing wrong with that of course - it's an irresistable need for anyone with a Y chromosome - but I think it would be great if we started to use this space a bit more to tell each other of new discoveries.

I seem to recall that one objection to this idea in the past was that non-professional contributors to the forum felt that their opinions would be out of date once they got round to buying an album. Opinions are never out of date, and as topics conveniently jump back to the top of the pile whenever they are revived, the format of the forum perfectly suits the reviving or starting of discussions long after the original review or comments were posted.

End of speech.

[Charlie]

I daresay Charlie knows about this already, but Ben Watt, half of Everything But The Girl, wrote a book about his experience of Churg-Strauss syndrome.

Yes, Mike, Mary Ann Kennedy put me onto the book, Patient, which is exceptionally good, and I said a few words about it in the Books section of this forum. I've since established contact with Ben (and Tracey) via our respective myspace sites

[Con Murphy]

on the whole you all seem more interested in compiling lists of old favourites in various obscure categories - like characters in a Nick Hornby novel.

Top 5 characters in a Nick Hornby novel:-

5...

Only kidding, natch. I wouldn't dare attempt that one, for fear of the board disappearing up its own rear end forever.

I think the forum has a decent balance of humour, trivia and serious criticism. At least there aren't the spats of the past, although I do miss Garth C's and Phil M's contributions. But whatever our efforts here, there is a massive gap where once there was an essential weekly listening post and aural bulletin board for This Kind of Thing, and as Will illustrates, this must have a knock-on effect on the world music industry, such as it is.

Still, as Norman says at least we've still got Alan. And CG's World Service show. And now that you are back online, Will, you can catch up on Andy Kershaw, the blessed Mary Ann Kennedy and her excellent Radio Scotland show (currently on a spring break), fRoots Radio, DJ Rithu, the LJ ladies, Gerry Godley on Dublin's RTE Lyric, EK on C4 (http://www.channel4radio.com/store/view.php?Id=441&ProductCategoryId=55) and many more, I'm sure.

Just trying to remain positive!

[howard male]

Con wrote-

At least there aren't the spats of the past, although I do miss Garth C's and Phil M's contributions.

But don't you realise that the two halves of the above statement are related, Con? As things have been so much quieter and more friendly since they departed it's clear to me that you can't have your cake and eat it.

It's nice that Garth has dipped his toes again recently with a couple of posts, but as far as Phil M goes, he's certainly not missed by me.

But, yes, I agree that the balance is pretty good here, and while I don't have a great deal of interest in contributing to many of these list type topics, I do still enjoy reading them.

[Dayna]

I don't write much about the music from Charlie's shows because I don't know enough about it yet. I'm trying to learn from you guys. The more I learn the more I'll be able to say about it. I enjoy all parts of the forum but the thing I like the most is just talking to people, about what everyone else is interested in.