Sophia Loren

As you may have seen, Sophie Ellis-Bextor is currently the face of Rimmel London is a series of TV Commercials. If you listen carefully, the music playing in the second commercial is Sophie's forthcoming single "Sophia Loren":

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Fr9LENnvM

Sophie is expecting her second child in April 2009 and plans to release her fourth album sometime in July/August. Her official myspace site also features two unreleased tracks "Off And On" and "Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer"

http://www.myspace.com/sophieellisbextor

No L....!!!

I am absolutely delighted to tell you that I passed my Driving Test yesterday (14th November). Cue a BIG screaming, jumping up and down celebration at my house!!!

Some people just sail through their driving test and if you're one of those people then good luck to you. I'm not one of them. I'd already failed twice this year (September and October) and there were times when I doubted myself and wondered if this was something that I just couldn't do. To be able to prove myself wrong has been a huge confidence boost and VERY cathartic.

Apologies to my friends for keeping quiet about this (I've been trying to take pressure off myself, I hope you understand) and big thanks to my driving instructor and fellow Wolves supporter Dave Marsh for teaching me and giving me confidence when I didn't have any.

It's the best early birthday prezzie I could have had. It hasn't quite sunk in yet!! I'm now off to buy that Genesis box set in the post below...!

"A Flower...?"

This object of beauty is the Genesis 1970-1975 Box Set, released on Monday.

This set consists of Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound & The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway as CD/DVD sets, featuring new stereo mixes of the original albums on CD, along with a DVD that includes the original album in 5.1 DTS and Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

As if all that weren't enough the set has a wealth of video footage, new interviews with band members filmed exclusively for these reissues, photo galleries featuring rare pictures and tour memorabilia AND a whole CDs worth of rare tracks. Fabulous stuff.

Further details can be found here:

http://www.genesisbox3.com/

Evidence Of Autumn

I absolutely love Autumn!. It's my favourite time of the year. It's a rich, golden, evocative and magical time, alive with possibilites.

At this time of year I find my musical tastes changing too. I find myself moving away from the sunny pop/rock/soul/dance that I played in the summer and towards music that is deeper, mystical and that I connect with more emotionally. For me this means Yes, seventies Genesis, Kate Bush, Mostly Autumn, Blackmore's Night, Peter Gabriel and newer bands like Wishing Tree and Breathing Space. With this in mind, this entry is slightly prog-tastic so if that's not your bag (man!) then you may want to look away now...

Music News

Mostly Autumn - Congratulations to Heather Findlay & her partner Ian on the birth of their first child, Harlan, who was born on 1st October 2008.

The Mostlies are on tour again in December and there are some excellent pictures of the last gig at the Robin 2 taken by Chris Walkden which can be found on the Mostly Autumn website. I saw him taking 'em!

http://www.mostly-autumn.com/

Panic Room - Plans were afoot to film the Cardiff gig of the group's current tour and include it as a DVD with a 'special edition' of the group's second album. Hope that materialises. Further details can be found on the Panic Room forum here:

http://panicroom.omgforum.net/

Also check out Hippy Dave's comprehensive view of the gig at the Little Civic in October here:

http://hippytowers.livejournal.com/968.html

Breathing Space - I wanted to bring your attention to the official site for this band, which features Iain Jennings & Livvy Sparnenn who are also a members of Mostly Autumn. On the last Mostly Autumn album ('Glass Shadows') there was a very moving song called "Tearing At The Faerytale" which was about Livvy's Dad, Howard Sparnenn, who at the time had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. Sadly Howard passed away earlier this year and a tribute to him can be found here:

http://www.breathingspaceband.info/howard.htm

Electric Light Orchestra - An ever-cryptic message on the 'Face The Music' website states the following:

"On the list is an ELO Single Box Set (or three), expanded & remastered editions of "Zoom", "Xanadu", "The Night The Light Went On (In Long Beach)" & "ELO's Greatest Hits". Plus there's unfinished business for the 2001 remasters of "Eldorado", "Discovery", "Time" and "Secret Messages" as all need to be upgraded with improved packaging & additional bonus tracks"

Sounds interesting huh?! Also in the pipeline is a 5 CD Idle Race retrospective, an Idle Race BBC Sessions CD and a reissue of Jeff Lynne's "Armchair Theatre". Watch this space as they say...

Status Quo - Release "Pictures: 40 Years Of Hits" on 3rd November. It comes as a 4 CD set, 2 CD edition, 2 CD + DVD Deluxe Edition and a USB edition (is it me or was it easier when it was just LP & cassette!). Anyway full track listings for all formats can be found here:

http://www.statusquo.co.uk/pictures/pictures_album.html

Quo also release their first Christmas single "It's Christmas Time" on 1st December.

Friends

Nina is my friend on myspace. As well as being the biggest Rick Wakeman fan that you will ever meet she also has her own You Tube Channel showcasing her rather splendid Yes related artwork. If you have a moment please pay it a visit:

http://uk.youtube.com/user/wakeyforever