The concert is titled "The Music of Billie Eilish, Bridgerton, and Beyond" - it's all crowd-pleasers covering everything from "Take On Me" to the earworm from KPOP Demon Hunters. Venues now know they can't stop people pulling out their phones, so there was an announcement politely asking people not to record the whole show or use their flash but, other than that, snap away.

It was a delightfully relaxed performance. The audience were encouraged to sing along which filled the hall with pleasing susurrus of half-remembered lyrics. I'll admit to being ignorant of some of Billie Eilish's work but even if you don't recognise the tunes, there's no escaping the brilliance of the performances.

I'm not sure how adapted the setlist was for a UK audience, but it was nice to hear some Radiohead and Coldplay in there. The encore of Bohemian Rhapsody was, of course, outstanding and had everyone leaping to their feet in applause.

If a permutation of the VSQ visits your neighbourhood, I'd highly recommend basking in their talent.

The Venue

We picked up cheap tickets for the show. There's no such thing as a bad seat at the Barbican Hall. We were literally as far back as possible and still had a superb and unobstructed view of the stage. The acoustics were flawless and the seats were comfortable and had leg-room. Basically, every performance space in London should be this good. Of course, the toilets were another matter!

While there are loos scattered about the building, they're clearly inadequate for the number of patrons. The queue out of the ladies minutes before the show started should be an embarrassment to the Barbican.

Pre- and Post-Show

I've written before about The art of the Pre-Show and Post-Show. This concert had… nothing! There was no souvenir programme to buy and only a perfunctory pre-show email explaining how to find the venue.

The warm-up act, Tom Speight was decent. A half-hour acoustic set to get us going. His music was charming as was his crowd-work getting us to sing along.

There was meant to be a post-show merch stall with the opportunity of a meet-and-greet with VSQ. The Barbican is a maze and we couldn't find it on our trek from the balcony to the exit. Perhaps a little signposting would help?

The post-show email was utterly generic. No encouragement to share the experience or find out more about the performance or look for future tickets. Just a soulless Net Promoter Score exercise.

A few days ago, a different algorithm alerted me to the fact that they were touring the UK - so I snapped up tickets.

It was, of course, an amazing gig. Thanks Algorithms!

I don't know when I've enjoyed myself more at a gig. The LVLS venue in Stratford is charmingly intimate (and their drinks prices aren't too outrageous for London). The Girls filled the space with their sonic perfection. A brilliant mix of their original songs and crowd-pleasing covers. Their act is obviously well-rehearsed with very little time between songs spent faffing with equipment.

The multi-instrumental nature of the show gives it a wonderful variety - not that you can really tire of their singing - and they are generous with their chat between numbers.

The support act, Bart Budwig was delightful. A sweet selection of homespun songs and a magnificent stage presence. His crowd-work was excellent, bringing in the audience to join in with his songs. A particular favourite was Idaho Sober which the London crowd greatly enjoyed.

The Rainbow Girls are currently on tour throughout the UK, Ireland, and Europe. Catch them if you can.

For the first time in its illustrious 114 year history, the historic London Palladium will host a monthly orchestral residency beginning in February 2024, which will see iconic artists’ music celebrated.

This was an entertaining, but curious, gig. It isn't a tribute act - no sequinned sound-alikes strutting the stage here - it's a a full rock-n-roll orchestra fronted by three dazzlingly talented female vocalists. They blasted out hit after hit - knowing that the audience is probably unlikely to remember an obscure B-Side from a 1968 single.

The songs are played with joy and panache. The singers are outstanding - filling the Palladium with their roar. There are really only two problems.

First, is the audience. I know it's fun to rag on Boomers - but the event staff were constantly dashing around telling the oldies that they weren't allowed to record the gig on their phones. The youth of today, eh?

Secondly, as delightful as it was to have Cerys Matthews as a host, it seemed a bit of a waste to have her merely recite Wikipedia trivia for each song. She did her best to get the audience motivated - but I think it was a bit too late on a Sunday for the Boomers.

The residency continues with music from Bowie, The Bee Gees, and Phil Collins.

The "Hits Back" tour pairs The Who with... The Heart of England Orchestra. Now, obviously, The Who are your classic 4-piece rock 'n'roll group. Do they need a full backing orchestra on their songs?

I don't know about "need" - but it works beautifully. A smashing start with a collection of songs from Tommy proves the power behind a dozen violins and assorted brasses. It absolutely elevates the music. The songs don't become sappy symphonies, they lose none of their punchiness or power. They become lush and full bodied. Less an aural assault, more like witnessing an explosion in a cello factory.

The middle set is just the band. They cheerfully admit that they're playing the oldies that everyone remembers. There's no deep-cuts here, or a Jazz Odyssey, or anything other than the exact songs you came to hear. Belted out as though the band members were a third their real ages. Imagine the roar of several thousand middle-aged men screaming like Swifties. Now imagine the queue for the gents...

The third and final act brings the orchestra back for a good ramble through the Quadrophenia. Once again, playing the hits with style. They've lost none of their energy. Cheerfully shouting at the audience and raising the roof.

A special shout out to lead violinist Katie Jacoby who absolutely steals the show by shredding her fiddle. Every single musician on stage plays their heart out. It was absolute sonic perfection.

Spotify, for all its tech, isn't magically disruptive. The business model is similar to a radio station. It pays music publishers based on what songs its listeners' request.

(This is grossly oversimplified. Stick with me.)

Spotify buys a product wholesale and then sells it retail.

This is different from, say, the original Napster which paid nothing for its product and then gave it away for free.

Is there a way to provide value to consumers and extract revenue from them, without paying for music to be produced?

What if the next Spotify could take a free product and sell it to customers? Most musicians and studio staff won't work for free. But machines will.

Algorithm generated music. Feed an AI the top 10,000 rock and roll songs and then let it spit out an infinite stream of "original" music. Assuming a good-enough AI, would people buy a subscription to it? Possibly. Lots of people use music as background noise.

With enough reinforcement from listeners - ratings, dwell time, repeat requests - a company could create an insurmountable moat around their business. They would have the most aesthetically pleasing procedurally generated music.

Now, this ignores a lot of things about what people like about music! Plenty of people want to hear a specific band play a specific song - not even a decent cover band will do. But for those of us who just want the radio on in the background, it could be a compelling proposition.

There might be questions of copyright - especially if a model is trained on a catalogue of existing songs. People might reject the idea of paying for mechanically generated sounds.

AI isn't free. It costs money to design, train, and reinforce. But it is probably cheaper than getting humans to produce music.

It might not sound original, or amazing, or have any "humanity" behind it. But it'll be marginally cheaper and more convenient. No more having to hit the "next track" button when a band's "Jazz Odyssey" starts playing.

I'm not saying this is the future. I'm saying I expect someone to try this - or something similar - as a way to disrupt the music industry.

Although, judging by the current state of AI generated music, maybe not!

X ARCHIVE - @ThisisLJRich Insta - find me!

@LJRICH

This is what happens when you encourage an #AI Freddie Mercury to sing a version of Frozen's "Let It Go"... pic.x.com/JacDDJjPgJ

---

Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets is an epic blast. Recorded at the Roundhouse, it is gorgeously colourful and has just the right amount of "backstage" interviews", And, being a disc, there's no sticky floors and the beer is a lot cheaper.

The surround sound speakers get a good work out. Being a modern recording, it is sonically perfect. So you don't get any of the grunginess and distortion that you might expect from a gig like this. It's almost waxed clean. You get LPCM and AC3 - but you won't be able to tell the difference between them.

Picture is 1080p, although in 2.35:1, rather than 16:9. Doesn't make it feel that much more epic to be honest. Again, crisp and clear, even in the murky scenes.

Perhaps that's part of the problem. It feels far too clean. I guess that's what the (middle aged) audience wants. We're too old to be standing, we don't want screaming noises; we want to hear the band, damnit!

In the end, it's a bunch of old white guy - with rather less hair than the music merits - banging out some incredible tunes.

• I accidentally won a load of vinyl on eBay, and
• I bought the cheapest record player I could find.

The record player has USB output. So I shoved it into a Rock Pi S - an SBC similar to a Raspberry Pi - to broadcast vinyl all over my house via ChromeCast! Here's how.

Detect the audio

Install alsa-utils if they're not already present.

Find your hardware with

arecord -l

One of the outputs should be:

card 2: Microphone [USB Microphone], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

In this case, we want Hardware Card 2, Device 0. From now on, we'll refer to this as hw:2,0. Yours may be different.

Record a sample from the input. Make sure the record player is playing music!

arecord  --device="hw:2,0" -d 10 -f dat -t wav test.wav

That will record a 10 second WAV file at the best possible audio resolution. Check that it has worked by playing back the WAV on a different computer.

Install Icecast

Icecast is a terrible bit of software with no sensible user documentation or guide. Install it with:

sudo apt install icecast2

It should prompt you for some information. And then it will start in the background automagically. If not, run:

/etc/init.d/icecast2 start

You can edit the default config with:

sudo nano /etc/icecast2/icecast.xml

Here's a minimal config. This The admin username is admin and all the passwords are password - you probably want to change that! The hostname is set to the IP address of the Pi, 192.168.0.123:

<icecast>
    <hostname>192.168.0.123</hostname>
    <location>Earth</location>
    <admin>icemaster@localhost</admin>
    <limits>
        <clients>100</clients>
        <sources>2</sources>
        <queue-size>524288</queue-size>
        <client-timeout>30</client-timeout>
        <header-timeout>15</header-timeout>
        <source-timeout>10</source-timeout>
        <burst-on-connect>1</burst-on-connect>
        <burst-size>65535</burst-size>
    </limits>
    <authentication>
        <source-password>password</source-password>
        <relay-password>password</relay-password>
        <admin-user>admin</admin-user>
        <admin-password>password</admin-password>
    </authentication>
    <listen-socket>
        <port>8000</port>
    </listen-socket>
    <http-headers>
        <header name="Access-Control-Allow-Origin" value="*"/>
    </http-headers>
    <fileserve>1</fileserve>
    <paths>
        <basedir>/usr/share/icecast2</basedir>
        <logdir>/var/log/icecast2</logdir>
        <webroot>/usr/share/icecast2/web</webroot>
        <adminroot>/usr/share/icecast2/admin</adminroot>
        <alias source="/" destination="/status.xsl"/>
    </paths>
    <logging>
        <accesslog>access.log</accesslog>
        <errorlog>error.log</errorlog>
        <loglevel>3</loglevel>
        <logsize>10000</logsize>
    </logging>
    <security>
        <chroot>0</chroot>
    </security>
</icecast>

To restart after making changes, run:

/etc/init.d/icecast2 restart

If you visit http://your_server_ip:8000 then you should see a boring interface. You can't do anything with it yet.

Install Ice2

Icecast is a server - but you also need a client to broadcast audio to the server. Annoying that Icecast doesn't come with one. And annoying that there's no tutorial to tell you all this.

sudo apt install ice2

I followed this tutorial. Basically, create a file called ice.xml with this in it:

<ices>
    <stream>
        <input>
            <module>alsa</module>
            <param name="rate">48000</param>
            <param name="channels">2</param>
            <param name="device">hw:2,0</param>
        </input>
        <metadata>
            <name>@edent's record player</name>
            <genre>Live Vinyl</genre>
            <description>Listen to what's on my record player</description>
            <url>http://192.168.0.123:8000</url>
        </metadata>
        <instance>
            <hostname>192.168.0.123</hostname>
            <port>8000</port>
            <password>password</password>
            <mount>/vinyl.ogg</mount>
            <yp>1</yp>
            <encode>
                <quality>10</quality>
                <samplerate>48000</samplerate>
                <channels>2</channels>
            </encode>
            <downmix>0</downmix>
        </instance>
    </stream>
    <background>1</background>
    <logpath>.</logpath>
    <logfile>ices.log</logfile>
    <logsize>2048</logsize>
    <loglevel>4</loglevel>
    <consolelog>0</consolelog>
</ices>

Now run ices2 ice.xml - it will run in the background.

The admin page of Icecast should now have something like this: You can now play the audio via the HTML5 player on the page - or open the M3U in VLC.

ChromeCast Broadcast

For my home AV set-up, the easiest way to broadcast audio to my amp is to use its built-in ChromeCast Audio.

There are loads of solutions, but the easiest to use was PyChromeCast. Once installed, it can stream audio from IceCast to a ChromeCast. Bit convoluted, but it works!

To discover ChromeCasts on your network, run python3 then enter these commands:

import time
import pychromecast
pychromecast.discovery.discover_chromecasts()

You'll get a list of ChromeCasts on your network. Mine showed:

[('192.168.0.789', 4321, UUID('5632e20d-1030-4885-ad3d-496504b7c820'), 'Pioneer VSX-933', 'Pioneer VSX-933 ABC1234')]

We want the ChromeCast's ID - which is the 4 digit int. Back to Python

pychromecast.get_chromecasts(4321)

You'll get a bit more debug data:

[Chromecast('192.168.0.789', port=4321, device=DeviceStatus(friendly_name='Pioneer VSX-933 ABC1234', model_name='Pioneer VSX-933', manufacturer='Onkyo And Pioneer', uuid=UUID('5632e20d-1030-4885-ad3d-496504b7c820'), cast_type='cast'))]

This supports cast - good!

Now we can send the audio to the ChromeCast

cast = pychromecast.get_chromecasts(4321)[0]
cast.wait()
mc = cast.media_controller
mc.play_media('http://192.168.0.123:8000/vinyl.ogg', 'audio/ogg')

Success! Vinyl ➡️ USB ➡️ ALSA ➡️ IceCast ➡️ Ogg ➡️ Ethernet ➡️ WiFi ➡️ ChromeCast ➡️ Speakers.

Is it worth it?

Depends. Do you like lossy, crackly vinyl, smushed down to OGG, flown across a network, then digitally reprocessed into luscious 5.1 surround sound with a 4.5 second lag?

Meh.

I think it looks great during video calls.

Here's how I did it:

Step One - Stalk eBay

With lockdown, I couldn't exactly go to my local record store. And I didn't fancy rummaging through bins of second hand items trying to find exactly what I wanted. So I decided to buy a job-lot of records from eBay.

Beatles collections are regularly sold. Some are designed for people who want pristine records, and some who want original pressings. Prices can go absolutely wild. I managed to find someone selling a collection of Beatles (and solo) records which had attracted no bids. While other sets went for £400, I snapped up 33 records for £165 including delivery.

A fiver per LP!

While it might have been nice to have factory-fresh covers, I kinda like the worn æsthetic.

OK, it didn't include every record that I wanted. And had a few that I didn't really want on my wall (sorry Michael Jackson fans!) so the real cost was about a tenner per record.

Step Two - Hang 'em High!

Sticking things to walls is fun! But I didn't want to damage the record sleeves, and I wasn't overly keen on drilling a hundreds of holes in the wall. I considered lots of solutions (see later) but ended up using...

STICKY MAGNETS!

These strong magnets come with 3M glue pads to stick them to non-magnetic surfaces.

These particular ones were £9 for 10 magnets. A cost of £1.80 per album

Step 3 Test

I stuck one of the magnets to the wall. The glue held it tight, so I tested whether two magnets could hold up a the weight of the cover and the record. They couldn't. I could have bought some more powerful magnets, but I decided just to ditch the vinyl.

I didn't want to damage the record sleeve, so I stuck the magnet to a bit of cardboard which was small enough to fit inside the sleeve.

Moment of truth...

IT WORKS!!

Step 3 - Stabilise

Getting the interior magnet in exactly in the right place was a bit annoying. Especially as my grid wasn't exactly perfect.

The strip of cardboard was just what I needed. I could snap the magnets together, and then move the album sleeve vertically and horizontally - keeping the magnet in place.

Flapping open

Some albums aren't just sleeves, they open up gatefold style. I didn't want them flapping about, so needed a non-destructive way to keep them shut.

I used paperclips. They're small, discreet, and cheap.

Sorry that I didn't use some 3D printed, biosonic, weak-nuclear-force, mechanised doo-dahs. Sometimes simple is best!

Step 4 - More Music

I had 10 magnets, so I stuck five albums up - one by each Beatle, and Sgt Pepper.

Step 5 - More Magnets

I had proved that the set-up worked. So I bought a butt-load more magnets. They're cheaper in bulk. And you can always find a use for a spare magnet.

Final Costs

• £10.31 per LP
• £ 1.69 per pair of magnets
• =====
• £12.00 per stuck up sleeve. Not bad!

I also have a bunch of records to sell, or swap, and four pairs of magnets for other projects.

Other options I considered

Buy pre-framed records.

Some enterprising folk sell pre-framed Beatles record covers for £20 each.

Didn't include the vinyl. But ready to go.

Solo Frames

If I just wanted 12x12 frames, the cheapest I found was around £9 each.

Print your own

There are loads of high resolution scans of album covers. Printing a ready-to-hang canvas box frame would cost about £15 each.

Minor risk of copyright infringement. Lack of authenticity. A bit sterile?

Simple Hangers

I found these hangers with built in record sleeves for £15

The plastic might be too glossy. The reviews mention the sleeves tearing easily. There's also no sense of mystique that you get with floating magnetics.

But, £1.88 per record is a good price, and they're a lot easier to hang - just bash a nail into the wall!

3D printed shelves

I found a bunch of 3D printed mini-shelves on Etsy

They were about £2 - £4 each. They looked nice - but I was worried they'd be too fragile. And, they're really only suitable for holding records. With my magnets, I can swap to anything light enough.

Final Thoughts

I don't care if I'm going through a mid-life high-fidelity crisis. I've turned a plain, boring wall into something that brings me joy. If my tastes change, I can quickly and easily shuffle the record sleeves around.

And there's no way I'm buying a record player!

And thus I am introduced to Kula Shaker. It was the first CD I ever illicitly ripped to MP3. It was my reference album for any audio equipment purchase. Potential girlfriends were unfairly judged on their appreciation of its mystic tosh. 

I'm 36. My mate Vicky posts that she has spare tickets to Kula Shaker's 20th anniversary tour. I sprint to the web and discover that the opening night is tomorrow, a short bus ride away from where I live.

I am standing in a sweaty venue. It is packed with blokes my age who are balder than they used to be, rounder than they used to be, up quite late for a school night, and all - to a man - screaming like they're teenagers again.

It was 20 years ago today…

There's a moment in every gig where the band's singer says "…and here's something from our new album!" to groans from the audience.

No such nonsense here. The plan is simple. Kula Shaker are going to play all the songs from K, in order. And they do, with terrifying enthusiasm. I had thought that they might regard it as a bit of a millstone around their neck. But no, every drop of sweat is a bead of pure joy for an album that people adore.

The crowd know the lyrics and the track order intimately. There's no need for introductions. There's a bit of banter, but we're all here to get lost on the music, to relish the lyrics. To be young again.

It's the end. Naturally we're cheering for an encore. If we're lucky we'll get a couple more songs, right? The hits keep coming. All those singles! A few barely remembered B-Sides, sure, but they just indulge the crowd in an explosion of nostalgia.

I'm 36. My knees hurt and my throat is hoarse. This never happened when I was 16, surely? But my mind feels the same. My head spins with joy.

For you shall be tomorrow, Like you have been today, If this was never ending, What more can you say?

Kula Shaker are touring the UK throughout December.

ॐ

That said, I find music with lyrics particularly problematic as my brain prefers to concentrate on the words rather than the task in hand.

On long flights, I often use a white noise generator to drown out sound.

I've recently started listening to random music. A simple command line script to generate a highly synthetic / chiptune / glitchnoise neverending piece of music.

This code is shamelessly ripped off from Robert Elder's blog post and the subsequent HackerNews discussion

cat /dev/urandom | \
   hexdump -v -e '/1 "%u\n"' | \
   awk '{ split("0,3,5,6,7,10,12",a,","); \
   for (i = 0; i < 1; i+= 0.0001) \
   printf("%08X\n", 100*sin(1382*exp((a[$1 % 8]/12)*log(2))*i)) }' | \
   xxd -r -p | \
   aplay -c 2 -f S32_LE -r 24000

Copy & paste that into your Ubuntu terminal and it should sound something like this:

I don't know enough music theory or maths to determine what will sound pleasant and what won't. But a little bit of fiddling got me this jaunty little number:

cat /dev/urandom | \
   hexdump -v -e '/1 "%u\n"' | \
   awk '{ split("0,1,2,4,8",a,","); \
   for (i = 0; i < 1; i+= 0.0001) \
   printf("%08X\n", 100*sin(1382*exp((a[$1 % 8]/12)*log(2))*i)) }' | \
   xxd -r -p | \
   aplay -c 2 -f S32_LE -r 30000

It's not quite up to the standards of Daft Punk - but it covers up the noise of the office and allows me to concentrate without (audible) distraction.

Yesterday...

In 1960s the predominant form of music recording was in mono. Indeed, The Beatles weren't involved in many of their stereo mixes.

If you listen to some of those early tracks, you'll get an idea of how stereo worked back in the day. For example, here's the right speaker from "I Wanna Be Your Man"...

While there's a little bit of mixing going on - the vocals are almost entirely constrained to one side. If we take a look at the waveform, we can get an idea how how diverse the stereo track is.

Here's the left of "Get Back"

...and the right...

Slightly better mixing - although you'll note that the lead guitar is exclusively on the left. The effect is almost as though you are standing on stage with The Fab Four and have them playing all around you. Almost...

What would it have been like if 5.1 surround sound was available back then?

(As an aside, some of their later solo work was released in Quad format.)

..and Today

If you have a surround-sound system, it is likely that it will try to "upmix" a stereo recording. That is, use digital jiggery-pokery to play the sound in all the speakers. But that's an imperfect substitute. Sounds get muddled together and the whole thing sounds a bit shabby.

Due to the limited nature of The Beatles' recording technology it's hard to get pristine, discrete tracks of Beatles sessions. That is, a file which only contains the bass guitar part, or a track with just the vocals.

Until, that is, The Beatles Rock Band video game!

For the game, engineers went back to the original master tapes and separated each element of the recording. Rock Band has a simple premise - play along with the track - if you miss a note, it doesn't make any noise. So the game needs individual guitar, drums, bass, vocals, etc.

If you've got a copy of The Beatles Rockband, you can extract the song files from the disc. These are MOGG (Multitrack OGG) files - there are 64 different songs available.

On some songs, it's clear that these are pure extractions from the original tape.

Here, for example, is just the bass-line from "Get Back":

On others, it appears that the engineers have done the best that they have with limited mono and stereo recordings. Have a listen to this "solo" drum track, again taken from "I Wanna Be Your Man":

Tomorrow Always Knows

So, this is what I'm doing. Taking those multitracks and assembling an album which attempts to recreate The Beatles' stereo sound in surround. Ringo behind you, Paul's bass on your right, John singing off-centre, and a George solo shining in the corner.

I'm not an audio engineer - I'm not trying to create a beautiful modern album with perfectly mixed levels and a blended sound. I'm also trying, as far as possible, to stay away from fancy audio tricks and sweeping sound effects.

I want you to feel like you have been magically transported inside Abbey Road and have the Fab Four surrounding you.

Here's a snippet from "Get Back" in 5.0 OGG format. You need to listen to it on a surround sound system in order to get the full effect.

As you can see from the waveform, all the tracks are fairly discrete, which makes it simply a matter of deciding which channel to place them in.

Take a listen to this "Dear Prudence" sample on a 5.1 system. You'll hopefully notice that some of the music is deliberately placed in the virtual "rear" speaker - that is, it should appear to come from directly behind you (assuming your speakers are properly calibrated).

Well - that's my summer project. You'll find some similar works done by much more talented remixers floating around the web. But if you ever want to hear my take on the classics, you'll either have to pay me a visit or wait for copyright laws to regain a sense of perspective.

I know I’m not going to leave it ten years before I next see him.

Indeed, I didn't even leave it a full calendar year. Mitch is back and better than ever - he even has a new single out.

Buy the single for 79p at Amazon

It's rare for Brits to get passionate without being cynical. Watching Mitch Benn sing "Proud of the BBC" is a joyous experience - especially with a packed theatre screaming the hideously complicated lyrics at the top of their lungs back at him. I think it's the only time I've seen a "comedy singer/songerwriter" get a standing ovation.

The video for the single is quite beautiful as well.

There are still a few more date on his tour - it's a brilliant evening of laughs, music and some wicked satire.

Looking forward to seeing Mitch again in 2011!

Amazon's mp3 store on mobile

Music is a huge seller in the mobile marketplace.  Why carry a walkman or a discman when your phone can deliver high quality music to your £3.99 headphones?  Hear a song you like on the radio, in a concert, from a busker singing - a few clicks and it's on your phone ready to play.

At the moment, MNOs* rule the roost in terms of mobile music sales.  Customers don't want to type in their credit card number on a phone's keypad.  They're also wary of risky premium rate, reverse billed SMS.  They want ensured compatibility. That's why MNO portals do so well - the charge goes straight on the customer's bill.  If there's a problem, they know who to ring and complain.

Amazon, I think, changes that preconception.  A customer probably already has a relationship with Amazon and trusts them.  A customer can go straight to Amazon's Mobile Site, log in and then purchase using the infamous 1-Click.  A little up front complication (the logging in) is off-set by Amazon's wishlisting, giftlisting, customer reviews, recommendations and silky-smooth interface.

Could Amazon change the mobile purchase marketplace in the same way that they revolutionised book-selling?  MNO portals are traditionally locked gardens (only MNO customers get access; as opposed to walled gardens where customers can't get out).  Will competition from Amazon - and their inevitable imitators - radically alter the market?  We've already seen DRM dropped from mobile music, a range of new subscription plans, and complex bundles - what next?

But, for now, potential Amazon customers simply see "This mobile site does not currently support the purchase of this item."  For how long, I wonder...?

*Yes, I work for one. No, I don't speak on their behalf.

When I was a fresher at university, Mitch Benn played the union.  I don't remember why I didn't go.  I do remember being woken up by the guys in my halls banging on my door telling me that I'd missed a brilliant evening.  The CDs that they bought back from the gig were hilarious - the perfect antidote to looming finals.

Since missing him play 10 years ago, I've caught up with him on The Now Show and Twitter (where I'm happy to report he's a user of Dabr - the mobile Twitter client I code for).

So now, on to his gig at The Bloomsbury Theatre.  A few hundred people made it through the driving rain on a cold November night - and they were rewarded with the funniest set I've seen since... well... since Boffoonery earlier in the week!

The audience were, as Benn put it, a right bunch of weirdoes. A mixture of Radio 4 fans, prog-rockers, students, comedy buffs and - fairly obviously by the way they wooped during the opening bars of every song - some die-hard groupies.

As much as I love The Now Show, it's obvious that Mitch is much better when freed from the constraints of the 90-second-topical-song format - his long form work is energetic, funny and surprising caustic.  That said, he skilfully took audience suggestions and composed a short topical song - Nudey Bear - during the interval.

For me, the highlight of the evening was "IKEA" - hearing a hall full of people sing like demented Vikings while the band turned the volume up to 11 is a memory I'll treasure forever.  You can listen to the track for free at We7 BandCamp.

His current tour runs until the 27th of November - walk, hitch-hike or drive to your nearest venue; Mitch Benn shouldn't be missed.  I know I'm not going to leave it ten years before I next see him.

(I do work for Vodafone, but these are my own opions....)

MusicStation by Omnifone is a service offered by Vodafone. For £2 per week, you can download as much music as your phone can store and listen to it any time, anywhere. It is, in essence, iTunes for your mobile. All of the songs are delivered over the air, so you don't need to sync your phone with your computer.

I use MusicStation on a Nokia N95 8GB.

Where MusicStation is good, it's very good. Where it's bad, it's merely a bit irritating.

The Good: The fact that you can easily search for new tracks, artists and albums on your phone is great. It's like the Amazon Kindle in that you can browse, buy and use all on the same platform.

Downloading over 3G or HSDPA is just about fast enough to listen to track 1 while track 2 is downloading.

The community features are great - seeing the latest music news and downloading the artist's music at the same time is a great idea.

You can share your playlists with your friends and the wider community.

Music qualty is fine, sounds as good as the iPod - your phone and headphones not withstanding :-)

It's cheap. £2 will buy you 2 and a half tracks on iTunes, here it gets you a week of music.

The Bad: The usability isn't as good as the iPod. It works well, but it's not quite as fluid.

No gapless playback... Grrr... This was, I'm sure the number one feature request on the iPod and every other MP3 player. It really disrupts the flow of a live album to have a few seconds of silence between each track.

You can only play tracks you've downloaded from MusicStation. While their catalogue is very extensive, it doesn't have The Beatles - nor will it let you download profane songs (I think). So, you can't use it to play any audio books or music you've made yourself. The catalogue - like iTunes- has occasional errors and multiple versions of the same album, but nothing serious.

Being a software app, it has occaisional bugs and doesn't always integrate well with the phone's native features (volume control is done in the app, not the N95's hard keys, for example). After leaving it on all day downloading The Monkees' back catalogue, the app does become slow and occaisionally unresponsive. Admittedly, it's not going to be used for such extended periods most of the time.

There's no way I can find to delete tracks you've downloaded. With an 8GB phone it's not a problem, but if you're stuck with something smaller, it could be annoying.

DRM. I'm against DRM. It's evil. BUT, this is a rental model. For the price of 1 album (£8) you get to listen to every album in the world for a month. Without the DRM, you could download every album and quit paying at the end of the month. I'm happy to return a movie to Netflix or Blockbuster, I guess I can be happy to do it with music. Overall, I set it downloading a couple of albums and listen to them when commuting. I'm broadly happy with it as a consumer. It's cheaper and more convenient than iTunes or any other music provider I've tried.

I wish that they had a message board where people can contribute feedback - but they seems fairly responsive by email.

The good, I feel outweighs the bad.

These are my own opions, not Vodafone's. I'm typing this on my Blackberry, so please excuse any typos.

(Imported from my old blog)

Contemporary reports from Oxford Mail and PistonHeads