The More You Live, The More You Love

What a year 2010 turned out to be. Great concerts, great albums of new acts and old acts. New albums and great re-releases. It was an expensive year, but I enjoyed the music from the first to the last day. And I know we still have some days to go, but by now I can come up with a top 15 of albums of 2010. Since the list of albums was so big and the re-releases were so much, I decided this year to come up with a list of new releases and a list of re-releases, because music is my passion, my first love, and I can not leave all those nice re-releases out of this years list. So first the top 15 of new albums, produced and released over 2010. 01. Marina & The Diamond - The Family Jewels 02. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - History Of Modern 03. Alphaville - Catching Rays On Giants 04. Mirrors - Broken By Silence 05. Hurts - Happiness 06. Customs - Enter The Character 07. Mylene Farmer - Blue...Noir 08. The Script - Science And Faith 09. Steve Hackett - Rails 10. Ultravox - Return To E

Last weekend I had a nice weekend with friends. While drinking nice beers, eating delicious cheeses, we enjoyed listening to music and watching music DVD's. Around one o'clock two of the three left and we decided to turn on some Rush DVD's, and of course turn up the sound level as well. I put on the X3 DVD set and we played the DVD of the Grace Under Pressure tour enjoying the music very much while drinking from our Westvleteren 12. Since I learned earlier this week Rush will visit the Netherlands next year on their Time Machine Tour, their music hasn't been out of my CD player or on my computer. I have listened to Moving Pictures a lot. It is the album they gonna play entirely during this tour. Friday I managed to get a ticket for the concert and the listening became more intense. Okay Ahoy is not a hall I like to visit, and I promised myself not to go there anymore. But well the problem is, Ahoy is the only hall in the Netherlands big enough for Rush. So for one time

It was a long time ago that Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark played the Paradiso in Amsterdam. It was during the Liberator tour in 1994 that Andy McCluskey played there with another band. But tonight it was the original band with a new album History Of Modern, that turned the Paradiso in a great atmosphere. But first it was time for Mirrors, a modern pop-noir electronic four-piece from Brighton, UK, who released four singles sofar, and had a special Limited Tour CD, Broken By Silence for sale in the merchandise stand. They took of with great synthpop sounds which were related to the pioneers in synthpop or electronic music of the late seventies and early eighties. You can hear influences from bands like Tubeway Army, early Depeche Mode, Human League, OMD, Heaven 17, Kraftwerk among others. Their performance is a bit similar to Kraftwerk, as they perform in tuxedo’s and try to stand there as dummies. Only half an hour was enough to show the potential of this young band, which want to r

Take time to see the wonders of the world To see the things you've only ever heard of Dream life the way you think it ought to be See things you thought you'd never ever see Take a cruise to China Or a train to Spain Go round the world Again and again Meet a girl on a boat Meet a boy on a train And fall in love Without the pain Everybody needs love and adventure Everybody needs cash to spend Everybody needs love and affection Everybody needs 2 or 3 friends These are the things These are the things The things that dreams are made of These are the things These are the things The things that dreams are made of Take a lift to the top of the Empire State Take a drive across the Golden Gate March, march, march across Red Square Do all the things you've ever dared Everybody needs love and adventure Everybody needs cash to spend Everybody needs love and affection Everybody needs 2 or 3 friends These are the things These are the things The things that dreams are made of These are th

Volume 23 01. The Mood - No One Left To Blame 02. Kevin Kitchen - This Couldn't Happen To Me 03. Fra Lippo Lippi - A Moment Like This 04. Tanh Chi - How Long Is A Day 05. Haircut 100 - Fish In A Bowl 06. DEVO - Whip It 07. Leisure Process - Rachel Dreams 08. Nik Kershaw - Radio Musicola 09. The Kane Gang - Motortown 10. Bill Nelson - Eros Arriving 11. Paul Haig - Never Give Up 12. Endgames - Somewhere To Run 13. The Big Supreme - He'll Deceive 14. Thomas Leer - Searchin' 15. Peter Coyle - Shattered 16. Robert Görl (DAF) - Darling Don't Leave Me 17. The Tempest - I Want To Live 18. The Angels - No Secrets Alan Parsons - Standing On Higher Ground 20. Echo & The Bunnymen - Bring On The Dancing Horses

01. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - History Of Modern 02. Propaganda - A Secret Wish: Deluxe Edition 03. Customs - Enter The Character 04. Marina & The Diamond - The Family Jewels 05. Hurts - Happiness 06. Lostboy! A.K.A. Jim Kerr - Lostboy! 07. Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back 08. The Scipt - Science And Faith 09. Villa Nah - Origin 10. Ultravox - Return To Eden 11. Brandon Flowers - Flamingo 12. A-Ha - 25 13. Everything Everything - Man Alive 14. Run The Red Light - Run The Red Light 15. Keane - Night Train

An evening of Pioneers Of Love, Willow and Customs at the Patronaat, Haarlem on November 4, 2010. Review follows soon including pictures Setlist Pioneers Of Love Intro - Purgatory Walhalla Confessions For All I Care Fear Of Heights Persist Pretend Franz New Frontiers Setlist Willow Setlist Customs Intro Where The Moon Spends His Days Shut Up, Narcissus Talk No Nonsense Tonight We All Stand Out Justine Violence We Are Ghosts Rex Transmission (Joy Division cover) The Matador

And I hereby present Volume 22 . 01. Bill Pritchard - Pas De Plaisanterie 02. Peter Godwin - The Art Of Love (UK remix) 03. The Angels - Fashion And Fame 04. Box Of Toys - Old Man Rome 05. This Island Earth - Fireflowers 06. Boys Don't Cry - I Wanna Be A Cowboy 07. Fashion - TRader 08. Eyeless In Gaza - What I Want To Know 09. The Big Dish - Reverend Killer 10. Dislocation Dance - Show Me 11. EBN-OZN - Big Lady (I wonder) 12. Blue Zoo - I'm Your Man 13. Dalek I Love You - Masks & Licenses 14. H2O - Hollywood Dream 15. China Crisis - Be Suspicious 16. Nick Heyward - Stolen Tears 17. Associates - Reach The Top 18. Leisure Process - Loce Cascade 19. The Mood - Paris Is One Day Away

This time it is volume 21 . 01. Endgames - Waiting For Another Chance 02. Wild Swans - No Bleeding 03. China Crisis - Watching Over Burning Fields 04. Thomas Leer - Chasing The Dragon 05. Sophie & Peter Johnson - Torn Open 06. Shack - High Rise Low Life 07. Peter Koppes - Take A Vow 08. H2O - Blue Diamond 09. Waterfront - Dancing With Strangers 10. Strawberry Switchblade - Let Her Go 11. The Dream Academy - Indian Summer 12. Nick Heyward - Strange Life 13. Kissing THe Pink - Certain Things Are Likely 14. Fra Lippo Lippi - The Distance Between Us 15. Picnic At The Whitehouse - We Need Protection 16. The Adventures - Your Greatest Shade Of Blue 17. Mobiles - Drowning In Berlin 18. Hurrah! - Velveteen 19. The Cars - Magic 20. Bette Bright - All Girls Lie

And that brings us to Volume 20 this week. 01. New Musik - Warp 02. Endgames - Love Cares 03. Thomas Leer - All About You 04. Kissing The Pink - The Last Film 05. China Crisis - Cucumber Garden 06. Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon 07. Orchids - Peaches 08. Stephen Duffy - I Love You 09. Thrashing Doves - Angel Visit 10. Respect ft. Philip Oakey - What Comes After Goodbye 11. Friends Again - Lullaby No 2 12. B-Movie - My Ship Of Dreams 13. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Everyday I Write The Book 14. The Blue Nile - The Second Act 15. Our Daughters Wedding - Always Be True 16. Vitamin Z - Circus Ring 17. Box Of Toys - It Goes Without Saying 18. It's Immaterial - Several Brothers 19. Throwing Muses - Dizzy

Okay, like I wrote some weeks ago, people have been asking for older volumes, so today I repost Volume 11 to 14 again. Volume 11 tracklist Volume 12 tracklist Volume 13 tracklist Volume 14 tracklist For tracklist check out the older posts, or follow the tracklist links. Please feel free to send in your reactions.

This week brings us to Volume 19 . 01. Two People - People In Love 02. New Musik - Luxury 03. Paul Haig - Love And War 04. Fiat Lux - this Illness 05. H2O - Burn To Win 06. Flynn - The Nobody Inn 07. The Big Supreme - What Love Means 08. Cocteau Twins - Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops 09. Chris Duffy - All The Time In The World 10. Swing Out sister - Another Lost Weekend (long version) 11. Billy MacKenzie - Ice Cream Factory 12. Foreign Press - Love In A Strange Place 13. Hey Elastica - This Town 14. Mummy Calls - Let's Go 15. Gangway - Come Back As A Dog 16. Power - Soul In My Shoes 17. The Lover Speaks - Still Faking This Art Of Love 18. The Primitives - Crash 19. China Crisis - Orange Mutt Mutt Dance

Fischer-Z, live at the Mezz, Breda on 30 August 2010. I was in the second class of the Senior General Secondary Education, when Fischer-Z scoored a minor hit with Marliese, not shortly after I saw a performance of John Watts during the No-Nukes festival on the Dutch TV. A broadcast that still brings back warm memories, cos it also introduced me to the music of The Stranglers, The Sound and Ideal. Since then I have been following John Watts, unfortuantly never been able to see him live. I bought his solo records, the album of The Cry and the later albums of Fischer-Z re-incarnation. So I was kind of surprised learning that John Watts would play two concerts in the Netherlands, one as a support of Simple Minds. Since I've seen quite some concerts of the Simple Minds over the past few years, I decided to visit the Fischer-Z concert at the Mezz in Breda. It turned out to be a good decision, since John Watts] and co did a great concert, with a great setlist of songs from the first three

A-Ha live at the HMH, Amsterdam on 10-10-2010. The support Jimmy Gnecco, and his band Ours which helped him to perform his first released solo-material, had just flown in the other day, maybe in the same plane as the one where Solomon Burke died in just before landing. They were given a change to start up the crowd with a performance of fourty minutes. As said they played material from Jimmy's first solo album The Heart, which sounded very promising for a first listen. At nine o'clock the lights went out and a classical intro was played, after that a keyboard tune followed with Morton singing short phrases over it as if he was practising his voice. Then the band came on and opened with The Sun Always Shines On T.V. It took them three songs, in which Morton wore his sunglasses, to get into the mood. With Scoundrel Days the voice was warm and the band relaxed as if to say the professional photographers are gone it is time to start the party. What followed was a show with a lot of

Volume 18 01. McCluskey Brothers - Slip Away 02. The Indian Givers - Hatcheck Girl 03. Bonk - Cupid In Cars 04. Love & Money - Saint Henry 05. The Painted Word - I Found Love Today 06. Claudia Brücken - Whisper 07. Fiat Lux - Blue Emotion 08. Person To Person - High Time 09. Furniture - Brilliant Mind 10. Big Audio Dynamite - E=MC2 11. Fra Lippo Lippi - Naive 12. Strawberry Switchblade - Trees And Flowers 13. The Lotus Eaters - You Fill Me With Need 14. The Wild Swans - Whirlpool Heart 15. Pete Shelley - You Can't Take That Away From Me 16. Picnic At The Whitehouse - Success 17. John Foxx - Enter The Angel 18. Westworld - Sonic Boom Boy 19. Altered Images - I Could Be Happy I have been asked to re-post some old volumes. I will try to upload them later this week. Meanwhile enjoy this volume.

A week later and here is Volume 17 . 01. Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technopolis 02. Paul Haig - The Only Truth 03. Clark Datchler - True Confessions 04. Friends Again - State Of Art 05. The Lotus Eaters - Set Me Apart 06. Rhythm Of Life - Uncle Sam 07. Endgames - We Feel Good 08. Blaine L Reininger - Paris En Automne 09. The Kane Gang - Gun Law 10. It's Immaterial - Gigantic Raft 11. Tin Tin - Hold It 12. Esquire - Moving Together 13. Thomas Lang - The Happy Man 14. New Musik - While You Wait 15. Frank Tovey - Luxery 16. Fiat Lux - Aqua Vita 17. Fashion - Eye Talk 18. B-Movie - Polar Opposites 19. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet 20. Japan - Quiet Life

After all Ultravox albums were digital remastered and re-released during 2008 and 2009, now EMI will release The Gift and Answers To Nothing, the first two solo albums, of Midge Ure as remastered definitive editions. Besides the remastering of the original albums both second discs contains a lot of interesting material, which, besides B-sides and the single - and/or extended version of the singles, include unreleased live and work in progress material. Both albums will be released on the 4th October 2010, just before the European tour of Midge Ure. The track list of The Gift is: Disc 1 01. If I Was 02. When The Wind Blows 03. Living In The Past 04. That certain Smile 05. The Gift 06. Antilles 07. Wastelands 08. Edo 09. The Chieftain 10. She Cried 11. The Gift (reprise) Disc 2 01. No Regrets 02. Mood Music 03. If I Was (extended mix) 04. Piano 05. The Man Who Sold The World 06. That Certain Smile (extended mix) 07. The Gift (instrumental) 08. Fade To Grey (live) 09. Wastelands (extended

Sorry for those who were waiting for a new Volume. It has been awhile since I wrote a last entry and for sure even longer when I shared a Volume with you. But well finally here you find Volume 16. Volume 16 01. Nick Heyward - My Pure Lady 02. Fiat Lux - Feels Like Winter Again 03. Mainframe - 5 Minutes On.. 04. Esquire - Sunshine (alternate mix) 05. Eyeless In Gaza - All Lone Hours 06. Paul Haig - Big Blue World 07. English Evenings - Those Briliant Teens 08. Zip - Your Love 09. Dalek I - Holiday In Disneyland 10. Planning By Numbers - Lightning Strikes 11. Our Daughters Wedding - Target For Life 12. Martin Hall - Spiral 13. Bonk - The Smile & The Kiss 14. Two Minds Crack - Cry Cry Cry 15. Two People - Heaven 16. Vitamin Z - Angela 17. Pseudo Echo - Walkaway 18. Faith Brothers - Sunday 19. Gangway - You & Yours 20. Bill Nelson - Quit Dreaming And Get On The Bean 21. Voice Farm - Elevate (7" version)

Ultravox, 26 April 2010 at the Paradiso in Amsterdan The third time in a year that I saw the "classic line-up" perform. The 2CD and DVD of Return To Eden, the registration of the Return To Eden concert at Camden Roundhouse, which I visited last year April, hadn't been out of my players, after they arrived in early April and the released setlist through the forum of the Ultravox website promised a nice evening of great music. And it turned out to be a great evening. This time the Belgium violist Sonja Haering, known for her contributions on records of André Rieu turned out to be a much better support, than the singer of last year. Her performance was static, but the songs were promissing. At 8:30 Ultravox opened their set with New Europeans, one of the "new" tracks compared to the setlist of last year. It turned out the opening of a very strong concert. Midge Ure's vocals were great, certainly he has grown during the year. Even the high pitches of Vienna and

Finally after nearly a year on the fifth of April the long awaited live album Return Of Eden was released by Chrysalis. This stunning album, recorded at the Camden Roundhouse on 30 april 2009, is released in two formats. A 13 track CD only version and a 2CD + DVD version with the complete concert and an extra documentary. The sound is great, clear and well balanced, the setlist, for those who visited the tour last year, well known by now. The atmosphere that evening was very special. It was such a great concert and seeing Ultravox perform, for me, after 25 years again, was so special, that I am very pleased I choose to visted this concert. As I wrote last year in the concert review, it was mainly based on the first two albums Vienna and Rage In Eden of the Currie, Cross, Cann, Ure line-up, filled up with the singles of Quartet and Lament. A good setlist with just one dissonance, mentioned by several reviewers already last year, the song Your Name Has Slipped My Mind Again. The song was

Lovers of female vocals synthpop, with an eighties edge, for sure you can say they are living a marvelous and golden age. After Ladytron and Goldfrapp took off some years ago, it seems a new wave is coming from the UK again. To name some Little Boots, La Roux, Polly Scattergood and the stunning Marina & The Diamonds. After releasing the singles 'Mowgli's Road' and 'Obsessions' and the EP The Crown Jewels, expectations were very high for the Greek/Welsh singer Marina Diamandis. Hollywood was the next single a very strong synthpop song with Keane alike piano base, strong Hazel O'Conner alike vocals and wow what a sound. And just after releasing 'I Am Not A Robot' as a single, already available on last years The Crown Jewel, the album The Family Jewel is released. And what an album, all four singles are on it. But the album contains another nine great songs and to be honest the album rocks from start to end and asks for a replay at once. My highlights o

Customs played the Paradiso, Amsterdam on 01 March. Customs is a Belgium combo of four retrofuturists, known for melody, atmosphere and mathematical edge. Influences detected by several journalists include: The House of Love, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Sound, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Cocteau Twins. and you can add nowaday bands like Editors and Interpol to that list. So tonight they played the small hall of the Paradiso in Amsterdam. After the Kraftwerk intro the band opened with The Matador, their third single of their album Enter The Characters, which just has been released in the Netherlands, but already available for several months in Belgium. The sound was excellent, well balanced and very tight. From the start Customs were able to win the crowd for them. With a strong setlist, including the cover Shine On of The House of Love they played three quarter of their debut with a moving crowd from begin to end, which seemed to know more than their singles Justine and Rex. The sound

These days are filled with music and less internet. I'm not in the mood to wander through websites, read blogs or spend time on e-mail. I went back to my cabinet, opened it and took out the CD's I wanted to hear again after so many years. Music which filled up the free times of the past, when you lay on your bed studying, or reading a book while the records made their rounds. So yesterday I played mostly Toyah records. Started from Sheep Farming In Barnet and ended with Love Is The Law. Albums I hadn't heard for quite some time and which I enjoyed a lot to hear again. During the first part of the eigthies I was a huge fan of Toyah Willcox, having all her records and most of the singles. A school friend introduced me to her music, and I remember borrowing the records from the library of Haarlem. A cycle trip we undertook each couple of weeks with a small group of friends. Afterwards we visited the record stores, where I started to buy the Toyah albums and singles. Yesterday