Have you ever realised that a song you love and have listened to over and over again, doesn’t actually have the lyrics you thought it did? Sometimes you can listen to a song hundred times before realising what one lyric actually says, and it feels like you’ve like discovered the song all over again! On the other hand, there are those songs that you know word-for-word and will sing along to it without actually knowing that the lyrics mean. In this blog post I will discuss some confusing, misunderstood or misheard lyrics from 3 songs by Blink-182. All of these are some of my all-time favourite ..read more

Ska music has been around for a very long time and it’s one of those rare genres that gets described in terms of waves or generations. So… Why is that? What do the waves actually mean?  Why aren’t more music genres defined by waves? Well, let’s start at the beginning. Ska music 1st wave The beginning of ska music was in the late 1950s, when sounds from different cultures started to be combined together and developed into something new. American rhythm and blues started to be heard in the Caribbean, specifically Jamaica, and eventually combined with calypso and mento music, creating a wh ..read more

Bloodstock Open Air festival, often shorted to just Bloodstock, or BOA, is a heavy metal music festival that takes place every year in August, currently situated in Walton-on-Trent, England. The festival is known for more extreme heavy metal and has a smaller capacity than other festivals in the UK, but it also has a more dedicated following. Festival Origins Bloodstock was originally created by Paul Gregory and his family.  The festival began all the way back in 2001, two full years before Download Festival, 6 years before 2,000 Trees and 8 years before Boomtown. Bloodstock began as an i ..read more

An Easter Egg is a hidden reference or message in a piece of media.  Normally easter eggs are hidden in things like tv and movies, like how Disney hides hidden mickeys in a lot of their shows and films. The original name comes from, maybe unsurprisingly, Easter Eggs! The original Easter Egg in a video game was credited to Warren Robinett, who his his name in the Atari 2600 video game, Adventure, as a form of protest because Atari was not crediting their developers.  The term Easter Egg was then coined by another Atari Employee, Steve Wright, who liked the idea of having hidden thin ..read more

Download Festival 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the festival! Sorry, lets back up a bit and start at the beginning: What is Download Festival? Download Festival is a rock and metal festival held at Donington Park in Derby every year since 2003.  Over the years it has moved from being a 2-day, to a 3-day festival, and this year marks 4 full days of music. Download is my annual festival destination, and so in this blog post, I just wanted to talk about it; the history and some notable events from the festivals’ history. History and origin  Download Festival didn’t just burst onto ..read more

Nowadays the UK has two big rock and metal festival: Download Festival and Bloodstock Open Air. There are other rock and metal festivals around like Damnation and Hammerfest, but they aren’t a tenth of the size of these other behemoths. But once upon a time, there was a third serious contender: it was like Download festival but with some changes – mostly for the better! I am talking about Sonisphere. Sonisphere was a world-wide festival, taking place in 7 countries.  It existed in the UK from 2009 to 2016 and was held in Knebworth. But eventually the festival stopped happening in the UK ..read more

What is Doom metal and how is it different from Sludge metal? Well, both are heavy metal, both are played generally at a slower tempo, and with distorted and ‘thick’ guitar sounds. So what actually makes them different from each other? In fact, IS there a difference between them? Before we answer these questions, let’s answer the question of; how did we even get here?  An analogy Let me give a really silly analogy. On December 17th, 1903, the Wright Brothers took their inaugural flight in the Wright Flyer. On July 20th, 1969, just 66 years later, man first stepped on the moon. In 66 shor ..read more

Every year there are arguments caused by certain Christmas songs. The annual ‘They’ve ruined Fairytale of New York by removing the gay slur’ crowd seem to start up earlier and earlier every year. And since the uproar about ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ a few years ago, interest in the song has basically fallen off a cliff. But the very worst Christmas song ever made makes those songs seem angelic in comparison. Oh and this song was made by a novelty singer: Tiny Tim.  Who was Tiny Tim If you are below a certain age, you have almost certainly never heard of this artist. I’m 31, and the only rea ..read more

Let’s imagine you’re at a gig.  The best gig you’ve ever been to. Well, top ten at least. The band plays a fantastic set: all your favourites, a lot from their well-loved back catalogue, and some (but not too much) of their new stuff. You know, the good songs from the recent album. You’re having as much fun as this guy, basically Then the band finishes and heads off stage. You come back to reality, and you leave the venue with the throngs of other happy music lovers and head home. No, of course you don’t.  You wait around for 5 minutes for the band to come back and play another coupl ..read more

Is there any genre of music that is more linked with a specific phrase than Ska music and “Pick it up”? Maybe heavy metal and “Hail satan”?  Or Jazz music and “do-be-do-bap-di-she-wah”? The phrase ‘Pick it up’ is in so many ska songs (Superman by Gold Finger, Don’t Stop Skankin’ by Reel Big Fish, etc.) it’s essentially impossible to actually name them all.  There was even a recent documentary named after the phrase, that’s how closely tied to the genre it is. But where did the phrase actually come from?  Who invented it?  Why those words and what do they mean?  And wh ..read more