Everything Everything

I heard the above band last Friday on Jules Holland's late music show on BBC HD. Now these chaps can play, they are musically literate and know all the tricks of how to write a pop song, but are they original?

To their young fans, having heard nothing quite like it there will be a temptation to see them as musical messiahs. I did download the album and both appreciate it and enjoy it with a qualification I will come to later.

OK here are the bands I could hear very obvious references to in their music. If any are unfamiliar Utube is there for you to educate yourself.

Henry Cow- the organ sound.
Gentle Giant- vocals and composition
The Lotus Eaters- guitar sound, including the above track
Geoff Buckley/Jon Anderson(Yes)/Coldplay- vocals and composition.
Gabriel Faure 'In Paradesum'.- Vocals and repeating riff on Tin (The Manhole)-an extraordinary piece despite the title.

So clearly they are standing on the shoulders of giants but hey in all branches of art and science (did I miss anything important?) it's the same for everyone. Everything Everything are not daunted by their origins but inspired and incredibly motivated by them. 'The Weights' has an ending that takes me back to the great symphonic climaxes of progressive 70's rock. I love this track- I know how it ends. 'Yes' drummer Bill Bruford would be proud of the drums for sure.

Oh yeah- the qualification- some of my musician mates felt that the vocals are over-dominant across the album. When the band so obviously have such instrumental virtuosity on tap, for Pete's sake it's a crime against good music not to let them play -more solos please.

Otherwise- just fantastic. For me, musical love at first sight!

Space Shuttle take off 2006

Last flight of the space shuttle.

Am I alone in feeling distraught about the impending end of the NASA Space Shuttle programme? It resonates so sadly with my teenage memories of the ending of the Apollo missions that revealed that they had been more to do with Cold War rivalry than a credible global ambition to take our species into our extraterrestrial destiny.

I stood in awe and watched the shuttle taking off some years ago in Titusville and celebrated afterwards in the Dogs 'r' Us bar and diner where some of those that make it happen pop in after work. I really feel for the 40+ thousand people who make the most impressive technological and scientific phenomenon in human history work again and again as they face an uncertain future they do not deserve.

If only there was some way to keep them flying, not just because of the contribution they make to science, but because they are iconic, inspirational symbols of everything I, perhaps naively, thought our human future was all about. I know the money's tight in the US and elsewhere but some things are beyond cost. These things become the secular equivalent of sacred objects, inspiring and guiding young people around the world away from superstition and brainwashing and leading them to science, reason and free-thinking. How important is that? Vital I would say.