UKHamlet's Blog

Tony Blackburn

The Digital Switchover for TV appears to be in full swing and generally it appears to the consensus that this is a good thing. That’s another debate, but more concerning to me is the momentum being gained by the Radio Switchover proposed for 2015. It seems a long way off, but it is only five and half years away. If government has its way then at some point in 2015 all car radios, analogue hifi radios, the radio you have in your kitchen, your clock radio and so on, will become scrap.

Let’s just take the car radios. There are more than 35 million cars in the UK, with slightly smaller numbers in most European countries and slightly more in Germany. There’s about 200 million in the USA. In 99.9% of these cars there are analogue radios and for the foreseeable future car manufacturers will continue to pump out cars, vans and trucks with analogue radios.

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“She has the sweetest darkest side. And when it comes into her eyes I know iron and steel couldn’t hold me.” From An Audience With The Pope from the album The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow.

Elbow have largely flown under my radar, acquiring an accretion of awards and celebrity plaudits as they flew by. Both the Brits and Mercury music prizes have landed on their collective mantlepiece and despite looking like a young, straight Stephen Fry, Guy Garvey has delivered on his promise to add to their predominantly female fan-base. With the release of “The Seldom Seen Kid” and their introduction to my car stereo, they have a male fan too.

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They’ve been around for a while – forming in 1990 as Mr Soft – as wrong a title as you could possibly contrive without assistance. Rock bands are never soft, particularly “alternative” rock bands and that’s where Elbow have pitched their tent. To their credit, they realised the error of their ways and thanks to Denis Potter and the character Philip Marlow, from his mini-series “The Singing Detective”, they switched to Elbow, which according to Marlow is; “the most sensuous word in the English language”, not for its definition, but instead for the way you feel when you say it. I’ve been reliably informed, the inside of the elbow, the crook, is very sensuous anyway. I’ll get back to you on that one once the research has been done.

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The Seldom Seen Kid, is the latest of four albums from the band, released in March 2008. Preceding it were: Asleep in the back, Cast of thousands, and Leaders of the free world. The progression in skill, both in terms of song writing strengths, and production are clearly illustrated if you listen to each of the albums in succession. They are now at the peak of their powers and it really does show, because there is scarcely a track on the album that isn’t of the highest of standards. Continue reading