The Christmas Chart Is Open

Image: catm.co.uk

Damon Albarn got it spot in a BBC article about the evil of X-Factor the other day, which he referred to as “a karaoke coliseum, which is actually just an advert for one record label.” He continued: “The thing I find incredible is that Simon Cowell gets paid an enormous amount of money to promote his own acts. It just seems to be the greatest con of all time. He should surely be paying a fortune to put these crappy acts on primetime TV.”

Suggs from Madness also chipped in: “The charts are being filled up with people who haven’t really understood what it is to be an artist. It leaves less room for people who are trying to struggle their way around pubs and clubs and make it to the top in a more organic fashion.”

There may have been 20 million that tuned in to watch this programme, but it seems that with such fighting talk from a growing number of legitimate musicians, we could have a real and proper rebellion on our hands. And about time too.

The Cage Against the Machine single is now available. Buy a copy; it’s for charity and to make a point in a humorous way. Click on any of the icons below to make your
purchase of the Christmas #1. Don’t be a sheep – be of a free, creative mind, I emplore you.

The rather exciting video I posted in my last blog entry (of Rick Witter in the crowd at the Shed Seven gig) got picked up by the band and re-tweeted through the ionosphere. The only thing I hate about YouTube is it takes what was originally a high definition video and knackers it during the upload. The quality is never as good as it should be afterwards.

I’ve done some substantial work on the photography website over the past couple of nights, installing some nifty slideshows, making adjustments as per requests, and ploughing forward with the main parts of the site build. We have company logos and banners to use now, too, which all adds to a developing aesthetic that is rather nice. The quicker I can get it done the quicker I can get back to writing and the faster I’ll have a happier wife come the big launch in January.

My neck seems a whole lot better. Thanks for all your suggestions but for some reason since the gig on Saturday it’s eased off. I’m not sure if it was the alcohol of the music that relaxed the muscles, or just time being a healer, but it’s feeling much better and hardly a problem. Mind you, Devon’s suggestion of a neck massage does still appeal if only to get shot of some of the stress knotted up in there. Acupuncture, though, hmmmm – one has to remember I’m a big softy and that sounds a bit scary to me. Whenever I think of acupuncturists an image of Hellraiser pops into my mind.

I’m rather pissed off that some companies won’t deliver to Scotland as this has severely hampered my plans to purchase a few of my Christmas gifts this year. Marks and Spencer, Tesco and even the Post Office has brought forward it’s posting dates, the international deadline being AFTER they made the announcement. Now at least I know in advance that most of my cards and pressies won’t arrive in time. Happy Christmas, eh?

So now I’m going to have to plan a trip into town. It will have to be done early morning, on a weekend, with the shops I need to go to targeted in geographical order. Then I will get the hell out and hopefully not be too stressed out by the whole experience. The one fly in the ointment is the forecast of more snow tomorrow. Supposedly it’s going to be a whole lot worse than what we’ve already suffered and it’s due in the early hours, so getting into town on Saturday/Sunday morning could be a problem.

Until tomorrow peeps!

CHRISTMAS DEALS

Get 20% off all my poetry books – FRINGE FANTASTIC, POOLSIDE POETRY, SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2 – when you order from my website at www.colingalbraith.co.uk. Simply quote BEREMARKABLE305 at checkout. Valid until 31 Dec 2010.

Get 25% off STELLA, my spy novella with a twist, when you order the e-book from the publisher’s website at www.eternalperss.biz. Simply quote 612JMZN67VZX at checkout.

Grab issue 24 of Open Wide Magazine for only £1 (one British pound) and you can read my short story, LETTING GO. It’s well worth it!