seven days in music

A week of musical memories:

1. Oh, alright, I won't go on about the Young Knives again.
2. Watching a band set up and play a set on the beach on Sunday afternoon. School's out for the summer and the young are running free, singing cod-reggae in fake jamaican accents and singing 'funny songs' about date rape. I suppress the urge to dash pebbles against their heads.
3. I just read that Andy Partridge, main man of XTC and best songwriter in the world (if you forget Wyatt, Malkmus, Costello etc) has finished his trawl through the archives and decided to stop cataloguing his demos and out-takes at volume 9. So he's reissuing the Fuzzy Warbles tapes as a nine-CD collection. I cannot afford to buy it. Why do I have a horrible feeling that I will, then? (via)
4. This week I have been mostly living at Dave's house and as a consequence am now, somehow, able to play several songs by Coldplay and Travis. Blame Natalia. I drew the line at learning 'Tears in Heaven' by Eric Clapton, ostensibly because my religion does not allow it (Church of Sonic Youth, English branch) but mostly because, erm, I'm not talented enough to play it.
5. You can buy The Clangers Opera here.