en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal The Last.fm journal for andrew_j_w. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2010/03/08/3h0azk_save_bbc_6_music Mon, 8 Mar 2010 14:44:04 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2010/03/08/3h0azk_save_bbc_6_music I have written a letter the BBC Trust urging them to save bbc6music (BBC 6 Music). You can read it, in full, here.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2007/05/24/17q_editors_at_the_roundhouse,_camden Thu, 24 May 2007 09:54:08 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2007/05/24/17q_editors_at_the_roundhouse,_camden Wed 23 May – Editors, I Was a Cub Scout, The Envy Corps

I moved downed to Guildford nine months ago, and haven't seen a gig in that time. Clearly that is too long between gigs, and a trip across to London's fashionable Camden Town was in order.

First on was I Was a Cub Scout. I like IWACS, I really do, but live they suck. Their drummer is amazing. He thrashes around on his drum kit, arms flailing and hair bouncing. His technique is top notch. Unfortunately he is joined by his less talented brother. While his brother's voice sounds ok when recorded, live it's grating and not very nice to listen to. Pink Squares is by far their best track, and is probably the only track worth listening to.

Next up were The Envy Corps. I hadn't heard anything by The Envy Corps before this gig, and it's always hard to form an opinion on a band based solely on a single live performance. Still, they blew me away. Straight out of the Grandaddy and Midlake school of American melodic rock they were tight, infectious and fun. Definitely a band to watch out for.

Finally Editors appeared and kicked off with the epic Bones. Mostly alternating between tracks off their forthcoming album and ones from The Back Room they kept the crowd bouncing while giving us a taste of what's to come. And trust me, what's to come sounds great. While I was a bit disappointed by their latest single Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors other tracks on the album sound bigger, more accomplished and more epic than those from their first.

I was a concerned that with Interpol releasing their third album soon Editors would get lost. That's not going to happen though has they have carved out their own distinctive brand of dancable dark rock. As a band they're extremely talented and tight performers, with lead singer Tom Smith's epileptic style of dancing adding some infectious energy to the show.

Buy the album, see them live, Editors are band going stratospheric.

Photos from the gig can be found here.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2007/04/24/17p_editors_new_album:_%22an_end_has_a_start%22 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:52:06 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2007/04/24/17p_editors_new_album:_%22an_end_has_a_start%22 Today Editors announced that their second album will be titled "An End Has A Start" and will be released on 25th June.

Personally, I can't wait. They'll be previewing tracks at their May gigs, including their gig at London's Roundhouse.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/12/01/17o_biggest_month_yet_for_chart_changes_script Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:45:42 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/12/01/17o_biggest_month_yet_for_chart_changes_script My chart changes script (available for download from here) accesses my webserver for the archived chart information. This allows me to (anonymously) track the usage of the script.

Last month (November 2006) was the biggest month ever for the script with 11540 unique users (up a whopping 58% on October) causing 947993 hits and using 13.55GB of bandwidth!

My server can cope with more usage, so don't worry and get downloading - you won't regret it!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/11/11/17n_last.fm_6_degrees_of_separation Sat, 11 Nov 2006 21:46:50 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/11/11/17n_last.fm_6_degrees_of_separation I previously had a website which would let you calculate chains in the style of 6 degrees of separation for Last.fm users and artists. Unfortunately the website would regularly crash my webserver so I had to take it down.

I'm now pleased to announce that the same functionality can be found in a program which you can download and run on your own computer.

It is available in the form of a Windows binary, or source which can be run on Linux and hopefully Macs as well - although I have not been able to test this.

Please download the application from here.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/08/11/17m_future_direction_of_chart_changes_greasemonkey_script Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:12:46 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/08/11/17m_future_direction_of_chart_changes_greasemonkey_script The server that hosts the archived overall charts is coming up for renewal, and unfortunately due my PhD grant ending my money situation is not as good as it once was. The server costs about £150/year to run, and I really do want to keep running it.

To put things in perspective the server takes just over 1,000,000 hits each month from my Greasemonkey script and stores over 1.5GB of chart information. While it might not be quite on the same scale as Last.fm itself it's not a small operation.

My current plan is to let you, the script user, chose how far back you want the overall charts that you look at to be compared against. There will be a little set of links next to the charts which let you choose between 1,2,3 or 4 weeks.

This is a slight improvement on the current script, but it doesn't require the server to do anymore than it already does.

What I'm proposing is that in return for a £2,~$3 (or more :-) donation I'll set my server to store charts for up to 3 months, not 1 and the server will automatically request charts for that user so it's not dependent on a user visiting the page. This will be a one-off, lifetime donation that will benefit everyone who views your userpage with my script.

My question is this - does this sound like a good deal, and would people be willing to donate? The current features offered by the script will always remain free, and I'm never going to change that.

Andrew]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/05/21/17l_editors_play_millennium_square Sun, 21 May 2006 14:00:03 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/05/21/17l_editors_play_millennium_square Almost a year ago I saw Editors play a gig to around twenty people. After year's hard work touring in support of their album, The Back Room, they played their biggest show anywhere in the world to a pack crowd at Leed's Millennium Square.

Starting at the early hour of 6pm The Motorettes took to the stage. They played a lively, if uninspiring set. Their best songs came were released under their previous incarnation as mos eisley which is sad because they haven't used that name for quite a while.

Second to the stage were local lads Forward, Russia!. Having just released their debut album these guys were clearly out to have fun. Bouncing around the stage the lead singer seemed intend on tying himself in knots with his microphone cable. Their shouty, incomprehensible rock seemed to appeal to a lot of the crow, but I just stood there bemused.

The final support act were Biffy Clyro, a straight up rock act. Their music was a cross between Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Plenty of noise from just three guys, and some good tunes to rock out to.

Finally, after several hours stood around in the drizzle Editors took to the stage. This was the fourth time I'd seen them live, and it was their best performance by quite some margin. Epic, dark and mysterious rock music played with energy and commitment by a bunch of highly talented guys. The many shows that they've played over the past year have clearly paid dividends as the band is incredibly tight. Tom Smith put his heart and soul in the show, dashing from side to side, spinning wildly all over the stage taking his previously crazy dancing to new heights. The band played a couple of new tracks, including the epic Bones which has hit written all over it. They also went through the whole of their album, and threw a cover of Road to Nowhere into the encore.

A really top quality gig in a top quality venue. A fantastic night out.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/04/03/17k_gigs_on_last.fm Mon, 3 Apr 2006 20:47:24 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/04/03/17k_gigs_on_last.fm Following on from my chart changes greasemonkey script is my new script that adds upcoming gigs to Last.fm artist pages.

This script will only be of any use to people who live in UK as it gets its data from my site, IndieGigs.co.uk, and to those who use Firefox (if you don't, you should try it).

Although my site doesn't have a vast number of gigs in its database it's growing all the time and I'm working on allowing any Tom, Dick or Harry to add gigs. In the mean time you can email gigs@indiegigs.co.uk if you think I'm missing any and I'll put them in myself.

Installtion is very simple, just visit this page and follow the instructions.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/03/15/17j_live_review:_morning_runner_at_fopp_records_in_nottingham Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:11:33 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/03/15/17j_live_review:_morning_runner_at_fopp_records_in_nottingham Following the release of their debut album, Wilderness Is Paradise Now, Morning Runner went on a short tour of FOPP record shops. I was lucky enough to catch them in Nottingham.

They played on a small raised square in the corner of the shop to an audience of around 50 people. The small size of the stage necessitated some interesting changes to their sound - electric guitars were replaced with acoustic and the drum kit consisted of just a bass drum and a tambourine. They still sounded great and it was nice to see them in such a relaxed, friendly setting. The band didn't seem too at home playing in such an intimate venue however and Matthew even commented that he finds in-store performances more stressful than full on gigs. They played a 15 minute set consisting of 5 songs and afterwards they signed albums and chatted with the many waiting fans.

Morning Runner are the sort of band you wouldn't mind go out for a drink down the pub with. I've seen them live four times now and enjoyed every one, I hope the album catapults them to the stardom they deserve.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/03/15/17i_live_review:_bloc_party_at_nottingham%27s_rescue_rooms Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:00:02 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/andrew_j_w/journal/2006/03/15/17i_live_review:_bloc_party_at_nottingham%27s_rescue_rooms This was a pretty low key tour for Bloc Party. A series of gigs at smaller venues with tickets only available to their fan club members. They'd promised that they would be road testing new material from their forthcoming new album. No surprise then that the gig sold out in short order...

Opening for Bloc Party were Komakino, an artist I'd previously seen supporting Hope of the States back in November 2004. They were terrible then, and they're still terrible now. A wall of noise and indifferent screeching that purports to be singing, intersperced with quiet sections to display their mediocre guitar playing abilities. Playing to an army of hard core Bloc Party fans was always going to be tought but even so they left the stage to distinctly muted applause.

When the main act came on it was clear the crowd, and the band, were here to enjoy themselves. Tearing through s set of old and new songs the band seem relaxed and confident - even for the new tracks which they were supposedly road testing. New tracks such as 'Waiting For The 7.18' and the excellent 'Uniform' seemed polished and bode extremely well for the new album (which is due in September).

The mix of songs was just right - a smattering of new material to keep us interested and the majority of their acclaimed debut Silent Alarm to keep us happy. 'She's Hearing Voices', 'Blue Light' and 'Banquet' were dispatched early in the set, but it was the final two tracks of the main set, 'So Here We Are' and 'Helicopter' that really brought the house down. They returned after a few minutes to play a four set encore finishing up with 'Little Thoughts' and a promise to return to the road in September.

It's a promise I'm sure they'll keep and I'll definitely be catching them live again. I sent a one word text message to my girlfriend after the gig that says it all...

"Awesome"]]>