Originally published as a book, the list is also available on their website in a handy searchable table.
It’s going to be a long task, but I’m looking forward to exploring some new music as well as revisiting some classics; many of the albums are outside of my normal ‘comfort zone’ and I’m painfully aware that Durham’s bubble doesn’t do much for expanding my auditory horizons these days…
I’ll list all the albums and chart my progress in this post, I’ll also be tweeting my thoughts along the way.
I’ve finally got around to ploughing through the Fame soundtrack from the Van Mildert 2008 production, and have sorted out some decent-ish tracks from the slightly dodgy recordings. Some songs have come out better than others, but have a listen if you’re interested anyway – none of them are that bad! I’ve also included my favourite snippet of the entire show, which I plan on using as a sound effect forever now…its here.
You should be able to download those with right-click Save-As, If anyone wants recordings of any of the rest of the show, the spoken parts or filler music etc give me a shout. Enjoy.
Since being in Durham I have come to understand it as a bit of a bubble when it comes to music; a safehaven for 90’s bubblegum pop, a place where Chesney Hawkes never grows old and Queen is the only way to end a night in style. Only Durham could sustain a club like Klute, where the overuse of Stock Aitken Waterman cheese is almost nauseating, a club which takes pride in the fact it holds the position of the ‘Worst Nightclub in Europe” (albeit as a de facto title, since the club actually voted worst – in Sarajevo – burnt down).
There are some havens for the more alternative music taste, but they are few and far between. Fishtank is the only place that can really call itself an alternative venue, but with a capacity of only about 70 people, it just can’t get enough people through the door to make bigger acts affordable. Revolver, Twisted and Planet of Sound at the DSU are about as good as it gets, but even they compromise on music in order to pull more mainstream crowds, and rarely have live acts or guest DJs. Colleges do their best to put on the odd event, and Jam By The Lake at Mildert even managed to secure Frank Turner this year – but these sort of names should be possible regularly, all year round, not as an annual one off.
So What? Well after a year of complaining about alternative music in Durham, I’ve decided to do something about it! Teaming up with other likeminded individuals we’ve formed “Bursting The Bubble”; a music promotions group aimed at advertising and organising alternative music events in Durham. We’re working with both local and student bands, local promoters, Fishtank and DSU to try and straighten things out a bit in Durham! We’ve launched a website, www.weburstbubbles.com which we’ll use to profile Durham based bands and advertise forthcoming alternative music events. We’re also on Facebook and Myspace so check those out and add us there too! If you’re in a band and looking for gigs in Durham give us a shout.
Our debut event (get tickets here) is headlined by the Karoshi Brothers; billed as Newcastle’s answer to Justice these guys are rapidly growing on the electro scene at the moment, and are tipped to tour with the likes of Pete Tong and Goldfrapp next year. We’re starting off with relatively small scale events, primarily at Van Mildert College and some club nights at Fishtank, but we’ve also got plans in the pipeline to throw some seriously big acts at the DSU which is very, very exciting. Look out for more on that once term kicks off in October…
Now I’m back at home I finally have a chance to catch up on things like blogging, its been a pretty hectic term – far more hectic than expected – depsite only have two weeks of lectures out of a 9 week term!
One of the things I’ve thrown myself into this term (or rather, was thrown into, cheers James!) was being Technical Director for the Van Mildert College production of Fame! The production was supposed to be a technical masterpiece, and despite some budget cutting that meant some of my cool gear got cut from the hire, we still ended up spending around £1500 on hiring some very shiney equipment, and the show itself was amazing – a real credit to all of the cast, crew, production and directing teams.
The production was way off of the scale of events I’d worked on in the past, and it pushed both my organisational skills (as a Director, co-ordinating a technical crew of 8, and trying to get the most out of my budget) and in a very practical sense by sound engineering skills to the limit. We ended up running out of mixing channels, submixing 12 radio mics into a further 20 channels of band, it was also the first time I’d extensively used a wide range of effects units in a single production. Everything went very smoothly in the end though, despite quite a few setbacks and I can’t thank the rest of my technical team enough for all their help, especially those so dedicated that during the rigging (which took nearly two days straight) they slept in the PA storage cupboard!
Scary how there can be so much information about people “lingering” on the Internet, forgotten, misplaced and unconnected…
I recently came across udntgtme.blogspot.com, the website for a spoof band – udntgtme – that me, Steve, Andy and Chris formed for a day back in Sixth Form. I had completely forgotten this existed, and the only reason I realised is because I stumbled across on the images in my web server space. As if that wasn’t enough, I noticed a flash slideshow of photos (click Read More on this post to see it!) and wondered how it was being powered, turns out I have a flickr account as well! I wonder how many other things there are like this “lying around” on the internet, and how would I find them? In our so-called throwaway culture we are even throwing away websites and online accounts, polluting the www with redundant and out of date content.
This week, on the advice of a friend I am embarking on a journey into Quintessence’s “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die“.
Since being in Durham I have come to understand it as a bit of a bubble when it comes to music; a safehaven for 90’s bubblegum pop, a place where Chesney Hawkes never grows old and Queen is the only way to end a night in style. Only Durham could sustain a club like 
There are some havens for the more alternative music taste, but they are few and far between. 
So What? Well after a year of complaining about alternative music in Durham, I’ve decided to do something about it! Teaming up with other likeminded individuals we’ve formed “Bursting The Bubble”; a music promotions group aimed at advertising and organising alternative music events in Durham. We’re working with both local and student bands, local promoters, Fishtank and DSU to try and straighten things out a bit in Durham! We’ve launched a website, 
I recently came across