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Feeder - Silent Cry Tour @ The Point, Cardiff May 28th

FEEDER - Silent Cry (Released June 16th 2008) warm up tour.
It's not often that a band capable of selling out Stadiums gives you the chance to see them live in venues that hold just 200 or 300 people however Feeder are one such band. In fact in the middle of this 8 date warm up tour they played the Millennium Stadium with the Stereophonics!
This gig took me right back to the first time that I saw them, supporting "A" at the Driftwood Spa pub in St Agnes, Cornwall, it was tipping with rain after the gig and we had to walk miles up a pitch black road to get our lift back to the campsite we were staying at. I have been seeing them play ever since.

Typical of the great guys that they are they have given 8 unsigned local bands the chance to open for them, it must have been a great thrill for all of them, tonight it was Butterflies With Beards.

Feeder! Feeder! The cry went up, and from the opening bar of the first song (set list below) we all knew we were in for a night to remember! Feeling A Moment, yes indeed, I think we all were. Shatter, a double A-Side single when first released and on to a couple of tracks from the new album, I had already heard We Are The people on the Feeder web site but Miss You was a new one to me. Come Back Around and then three blistering new tracks. My Perfect Day from Polythene, and it was becoming one of them. Before I new it they were walking off stage after Lost and Found. A huge chant went up and they duly came back on for an encore, and what an encore it was, the fantastic sing along High followed by Just A Day. And then it was all over....

If you could pick some of your very best Feeder rock tracks they were played tonight, interspersed with 7 tracks from the new album, Silent Cry all of which stood up to the classics we all know and love so well.

I was hugely fortunate, and quick enough, to be able to buy tickets for two of the shows, and I am off to see the final show tonight at The Thekla in Bristol, I hope to see some of you there, including Heulwen who I have seen at countless other Feeder shows over the years.

Silent Cry is going to be a classic Feeder album and would not go amiss in anybodies record collection, pre-order your copy from CD WOW! now!!

Cardiff Point 28th May Set List (Thanks Andrew, I owe you one!):

• Feeling A Moment - From Pushing The Senses
• Shatter - From The Singles (Compilation)
• We Are The People - From Silent Cry
• Miss You - From Silent Cry
• Come Back Around - From Comfort In Sound
• Itsumo - From Silent Cry
• Tracing Lines - From Silent Cry
• Guided By A Voice - From Silent Cry
• Just The Way I'm Feeling - From Comfort In Sound
• Pushing The Senses - From Pushing The Senses
• Sonorous - From Silent Cry
• My Perfect Day - From Polythene
• Fires - From Silent Cry
• Yesterday Went Too Soon - From Yesterday Went Too Soon
• Lost And Found - From The Singles (Compilation)
• Encore:
• High - From Polythene
• Just A Day - From Echo Park

Other releases by Feeder:

• Swim
• Polythene
• Yesterday Went Too Soon
• Echo Park
• Comfort In Sound
• Picture Of Perfect Youth (Fan club release later given a commercial release)
• Pushing The Senses
• The Singles (Compilation)
• Silent Cry

New Release Game - Friday 30th May

Race Driver: Grid
This new racing game is going to be available on both PS3 and XBox360 platforms. The game play is based on the already successful Ego Engine from Codemasters although the damage code has been completely rewritten to allow for sustained damage effect.
This means that unlike in the previous game that used the technology Colin McRae: DIRT if you sustain damage it actually effects the way your car handles, so for example if you take a rear ender your car may start to spin out on corners, too much damage and it may well end up not running in a straight line! This is of course much more realistic, and adds to the overall excitement of the game.

This game is all about the race, from the rush at the start through to the buzz at the chequered flag it has everything that you need to set your heart pounding!

Races are crammed with action and incident, high-impact moments will come at you thick and fast, one right after another: engine blows, tyre blow outs, tight overtaking, accidents, opponent cars flipping, spinning, collisions with other cars and trackside objects.
The races are mainly set on tarmac surfaces From just a humble beginning you can build a  respected racing team with a multi-million dollar income, complete at dramatic race locations and dominate a multi-disciplined world of racing.

Here is a preview of Race Driver: Grid courtesy of our friends at You Tube;

Or even better download a free Race Driver: Grid Playable Demo from the official Race Driver Grid website.

DVD Of The Week: In The Valley Of Elah

In The Valley Of Elah is a film loosely based on the true story of American war veteran Richard Davis who was murdered on his return home from the Iraq War in 2003.
Directed by Paul Haggis who was responsible for the excellent Crash and starring three academy award winners the film itself has been nominated for an award.

Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) gets the phone call that every Father who has a son in the army dreads, 'your son is missing'. The big difference here is that his son is at home in the U.S. on leave after a tour of duty in Baghdad. Facing what appears to be Military indifference to the issue Hank takes it upon himself to investigate the disappearance.

With the reluctant help of Police Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) he takes on the task of discovering the truth. The journey of discovery takes many twists and turns and the suspense is kept high throughout as they come up against the closed ranks of the military and the harsh realities of modern day warfare.

Here is the official film trailer from those good folk at YouTube:

The Valley of Elah by the way was where biblical hero David met and defeated Goliath, every day for 40 days Goliath went into the Valley of Elah and challenged the Kings best warriors, but no one would fight him, until a boy, David, delivering the bread faced him with just seven smooth stones. And this is indeed a story of David facing Goliath.....

This Optimum Edition comes with these Special Features:

• Featurette: After Iraq
• Featurette: Coming Home
• Interview With Paul Haggis
• Additional Scenes
• Trailer

CD Of The Week: The Futureheads - This Is Not The World

The Futureheads – This Is Not The World
This album comes after a difficult period for the band, dumped by their record label after reportedly poor sales of their second album News And Tributes it could have been easy for them to drop by the wayside like so many other promising bands have after being dropped. But the Futureheads decided to take fate into their own hands and created their own record label, NUL Records, on which this, their third album appears.

Like so many other albums I have reviewed lately the band took themselves off abroad, this time to Spain, where they recorded the album at the studio of producer Youth. It would have been an easy mistake to be too cautious, and worry too much about the final outcome of the debut record on their own label but the Futureheads were having none of it. Full of songs that have a very definite structure and anthems that pay tribute to their post punk revivalism the set starts at a pace and hardly falters. 

Reminiscent of some of the best bands of the late 1970’s, The Ruts, and The Skids spring to mind, a bit of early Clash or The Undertones, and even The Jam. I guess you might say that this has of course all been done before, not quite as raw as those earlier bands but if you liked them, you will love this!

You can take a preview listen to the whole album at the Futureheads Myspace page.

Releases from the Futureheads:

• Futureheads - Futureheads
• Futurheads - News And Tributes
• Futureheads – This Is Not The World

This Weeks UK Charts and New Entries

The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing has as expected entered the chart at the prestigious #1 spot.
They manage to produce a mixture of pop and Indie that somehow keeps the power of both, an almost unique ability. The pair originated at the Islington Mill in Salford where they produced their own limited edition and now collectible singles, and indeed this first album!
A White Stripes in reverse, their sound has the shout style vocals of Go! Team mixed with the electro pop of Hot Chip.
The album includes all three singles released this year; Great DJ, That's not My Name, which entered the chart at #1, and Shut Up And Let Me Go from the iPod ad.

Beth Rowley - Little Dreamer is another high entry on this weeks chart at #6. Born in Peru, Beth returned to the UK when she was just two years old. It would be a real shame if the talent of this singer was lost in the mountain of hyped up female vocalists that are in the news seemingly every day of late. Amy Winehouse and Duffy to name but two.
Beth's voice has a touch of Karen Carpenter about it and puts her right up with the best female vocalists. The album consists of 5 original songs and 6 carefully chosen covers and sounds somewhat retro with it's mixture of Blues, Gospel, Soul and Jazz.

A quick shout out for Neil Diamond, two albums in the top ten at age 67! Not bad sir, not bad at all!

Here is the Top 10 run down for you, nearly all of them at just GB£7.99 delivered to your very door from CD WOW!

1. The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
2. Neil Diamond - Home Before Dark
3. Duffy - Rockferry
4. Scooter - Jumping All Over The World (£8.99)
5. Pendulum - In Silico
6. Beth Rowley - Little Dreamer (£8.99)
7. Madonna - Hard Candy
8. Neil Diamond - The Best Of (£6.25)
9. Monks Of The Cistercian Abbey Stift Heligenkruez - Chant: Music For Paradise
10. Scouting For Girls - Scouting For Girls

Other notable new entries this week from;

• Neil Diamond - The Best Of (#8) (not a new release but running very nicely on the back of his chart topping Home Before Dark offering!)
• Monks Of The Cistercian Abbey Stift Heligenkruez - Chant: Music For Paradise (#9)
• The Osmonds - The Very Best Of (#11)
• Mick Hucknall - Tribute To Bobby (#18)

Verra Cruz @ the Fleece and Firkin - Bristol May 26th

It's a fairly long time since I have been to the Fleece and Firkin in Bristol for a gig, and it was time for a return visit. So how fortunate that I had an e-mail from Verra Cruz courtesy of their MySpace Page inviting me down to a showcase gig for their new album Innocence.

It has some great tracks. Check out 'Put The Weapon Down' and 'Soul On Fire' for two rock anthems! Having both of their previous offerings and being a big fan of their Southern style Rock I could hardly refuse now could I?
Bands come and go and every now and then you come across one that really should be better known than they are... and Verra Cruz are just such a band. Think Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Reef and throw in a steel lap guitar and you may be half way there!!

So with bank holiday Monday evening off I went with my good friend Ian to catch the band's newest songs. We arrive to find out that the Bass player, Henry Cross has broken down on the M4 and is not going to make it, but do the band give up the ghost, No!!
They play a superb set with just the drummer Jimmy Cooke, and lead guitarist/vocalist Marc James... and I gotta tell you, they rocked!!
Big thanks Marc for taking the time out after the set to chat, and for the review copy of Innocence, I have been playing it all day today!!

Check out the track Soul Collides from their second album Verra Cruz - Emancipation Day here courtesy of our friends at YouTube!

New Release CD's - Monday May 26th

Spiritualized - Songs In A & E
This is also available as a Limited Edition with special packaging. It's the first all new material release from the band since 2003's Amazing Grace, and is the sixth studio release from a band whose only constant member is Jason Pierce, AKA J. Spaceman.
The album consists of 18 different instrumental and vocal tracks, with the different parts of the album being interspersed with six different harmony interludes.
J. Spaceman has recently written the score for the new Harmony Korine film, Mister Lonely, so it comes as no surprise that the album also contains a duet with Harmony's wife Rachel 'Don't Hold Me Close'. The music is full of dark overtones and lyrics relating to mortality but with the usual flair is an uplifting listen.
This will please long time fans, but if you are new to the band, take a listen... you will be pleasantly surprised! Take a preview of the whole album at Spiritualized MySpace page!

Pigeon Detectives - Emergency
It's that 'dreaded' second release from a band that brought us four hit singles from their first album Wait For Me.
Having stuck with their small independent label Dance To The Radio (fair play boys!) despite lucrative offers from several major players, their second release comes almost exactly two years afterwards.
So, the verdict? This is a great follow up album and they have jumped the difficult second album hurdle successfully. The songs bounce along in a rock-crowd-chanting-the-lyrics sort of a way, and as the lyrics are quite catchy will no doubt enthral the 70-odd-thousand people who have already snapped up tickets for their tour in May.
The album does however show a maturing with two very nice numbers, the acoustic, Nothing To Do With You, and Making Up Numbers, another good song. Check out the first single This Is An Emergency courtesy of the nice folk at YouTube.

Also look out for new entries next week from:

• Usher - Here I Stand
• Yazoo - In Your Room
• Futureheads - This Is Not The World
• Wedding Present - El Rey
• Sandi Thom - Pink & The Lily
• Ashlee Simpson - Bittersweet World

Now don't tell me you can't find something there this week! However, if you are looking for something else, why not check out the essential New Releases and Future Releases on CD WOW!

New Release DVDs - Monday May 26th

I normally try to keep the DVD new releases to film or television but this week sees a music DVD at the very top of the Pre-Sales list so it couldn't be ignored.
Of course I have also found a great TV series and some excellent highlights that you can see further on down the page...

Genesis - When In Rome - Live 2007
Any Genesis fan worth their salt will know about this concert. Taking place at the end of their 2007 Turn It On Again re-union tour, two dates in Austria and the Czech Republic had to be re-scheduled to accommodate the new date at the Circo Massimo in Rome.

Announced as a free show a crowd of 400,000 people was expected, in the event estimates put the crowd at over half a million! This is the DVD of the entire concert, bar a mistake during Firth Of Fifth which has been overdubbed, a shame if you ask me as mistakes often make the night more memorable!
Performing together for the first time in 15 years the guys run through some fantastic tracks, Turn It On Again and I Can't Dance, and some favourites of mine, I Know What I Like, Los Endos (video Clip from Italia 1 courtesy of YouTube) and The Carpet Crawlers.
Fantastic, a must for all Genesis fans, lovers of prog rock old and new, and anyone else with the slightest interest in good music! 

Weeds - Season 3
OK, so this is stating the obvious but this is the third season of the fantastic Showtime hit TV series on DVD.
If you are new to the series then you can pick up loads of info from the Official Weeds Web Site. To the outside world, Nancy Botwin appears to be an average mom still recovering from the death of her husband. But making a living as a single mom is tough, so Nancy does the most logical thing... and becomes a pot dealer.
Surrounded by her cannabis-craving accountant, her scheming friend, and her slacker brother-in-law, Nancy attempts to support her family without arousing suspicion from the cops or her neighbours.
Season 3 picks up with several subplots involving the fallout from the botched drug deal of the season two finale.
Great clip to watch here: Weeds An Inside Look At Season 3 from the fine folk at YouTube.

Also look out for new entries next week from these great new DVD's:

• In The Valley Of Elah
• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 days
• The Hills - Season 1
• The Savages
• Ghost Whisperer - The complete second season

Check out all the New Release DVDs and Future Releases on DVD at CD WOW!

Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Eurovision Song Contest 2008!
So, the big weekend is nearly upon us. With two semi finals already held this week (20th and 22nd May 2008) we now know who is going to face the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and of course our hosts Serbia in this years gripping final.
Sorry Ireland... the puppet didn't do the business!

The contest is of course a gala of pure kitsch with a mixture of tacky songs, camp singers and glamorous, ludicrous and even revealing outfits! The Eastern Europeans shameless 'rigged' voting is at once outrageous and at the same time a distinct pointer as to how much this most silly of competitions means to all of the participating countries.

Check HERE for a minute by minute update on the semi finals! With 43 participating countries this is bigger than the European Cup and in any case England haven't got a team in that this year!! So here is what I am thinking;
This year the UK are being represented by Andy Abraham - Even If. The title song from his forthcoming album, released June 2nd, has to be as good a chance as we have had in recent years, although you would have thought last years entry Scooch - Flying The Flag would have done better!

Andy was a dustman before becoming the runner up to Shayne Ward in the second UK series of the X-Factor and his first album The Impossible Dream was one of the top selling albums of 2006. Andy was chosen by public vote in Eurovision - Your Decision to represent the UK in this years Eurovision Song Contest with Even If, a song he co-wrote.
Here is the song, with a hook reminiscent of Isaac Hayes - Shaft it is an upbeat number that should get the crowd on it's feet;

We have had some outstanding success in the past here are our previous winners:

• 1967 Puppet On A String - Sandie Shaw
• 1969 Boom Bang-a-Bang - Lulu (result was a four way tie)
• 1976 Save Your Kisses For Me - Brotherhood Of Man (Remember the skirts?)
• 1981 Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz
• 1997 Love Shine A Light - Katrina And The Waves

Whatever you are doing tonight fly the flag for your country, and have a great time! And from me...  Come on Andy. Your country needs you!!

New Release Game - Friday 23rd May

Haze for the PS3
This is a much anticipated new 3D first person shoot 'em up game built from the ground up to take advantage of next generation hardware.
Stunning visuals, mega intelligent AI and realistic physics combine to make this an unforgettable gaming experience. It also has one of the coolest twists ever, read on....

Set 25 years in the future the world's major governments have abandoned training, paying and running their own military operations and instead outsourced them to private multinational corporations.
You play as Shane Carpenter, a new recruit in the Mantel Army, a corporation who is feared world wide. Your mission begins in South America where you are sent to fight the vicious rebel faction, The Promised Hand (Oh dear, what a pun!).

As a combatant you are quickly to be doomed without the help of the enhancing drug Nectar as used by all of the Mantel troops. It gives you some weird, but none the less very useful effects. For example your enemies glow slightly in the dark, you get a spring in your step enabling you to be a little faster, increased strength always useful, and you heal quicker when injured very helpful too!
Most important it gives you an ability to preempt explosions, you see a ripple appear around things just before they go up! But beware, it is easy to overdose on Nectar and then you lose the plot altogether!

Now here is the twist... halfway through the game you switch sides!! A whole new range of Nectar less tactics must be employed and you try to push the Mantel troops to overdose by surrounding them in clouds of Nectar or sticking them with a knife dipped in the stuff.
This twist half way through the game brings a whole new element of fun and skill to an already challenging game.
A must for fans of Call Of Duty 4, Assassins Creed and Quake 4. Here is a post from videogaming247 about the demo version of the game, interesting reading!