Dave Sparks

The Stereophonics dropped a new album recently, I hadn’t heard much pre-release, I just noticed it in my Spotify feed and thought “I’ll give that a spin”. It’s not bad, but I was mostly struck by the sweet nostalgia of hearing Kelly Jones’ singing again and it put me in mind of the earlier ‘phonics stuff that I’ve listened to more times that I can possible remember, both on recordings and live. They were a band that were at the sweet spot for me releasing great guitar music as I was a mid to late teen leaning guitar myself. So

I’m at a point in my life where I’ve seen plenty of musical figures pass away, artists I’ve grown up with. In the last few years some colossal figures have died, but for some reason the death of Taylor Hawkins has hung in my thoughts more than any others have recently. I don’t know if it’s because they were such a huge band during my formative teenage years or if it’s because I’m due to see see them on their upcoming UK tour but something of the tragedy of Hawkins untimely death has stuck with me. The Foo Fighters are

I recently had a guitar repaired* and when I got it back the first thing I did was blast out the opening to this song. I don’t know why but at some point it became my go to riff. I guess I got comfortable playing it and just settle into easily, but I haven’t picked a guitar up in years. I can”t remember the last time I even thought about how to actually play this song yet it comes out without much thought. It got me to thinking about Jimi Hendrix though, this song as well as others, and what

There’s a long historic tradition of purely vocal music, beat boxing, choirs, the recent resurgence of sea shanty’s, babershop –  after all beside maybe percussion the voice is the one instrument we’ve always had. But who are we kidding, amongst all this, the most recent love of a cappella music is firmly routed in that god awful American TV Show Glee, maybe if you’re stretching it, the Pitch Perfect films. Which gives me a natural instinct to want to dislike it. But come on you can’t can you? There’s a strong hypnosis to well done vocal harmonies and great acoustic

There’s a great relatability in a working class person singing songs about their hometown. Especially one with a way with words who can create a captivating story in a three minute song. Think early Oasis or the fantastic “Word Gets Round” by the Stereophonics. But it’s a relatability that often means their music diminishes or at least suffers as they grow and move away from that initial inspiration. It’s hard to sing about being on the dole and bumming round a city when you’re making money off a huge hit album having left that life in the rear view mirror.

I remember over the years many people who have commented about listening to downbeat music, asking why you’d want to. Which I guess I understand, I mean it’s a valid question, why would you want to listen to something that isn’t exactly going to put you in the mood to be a little ray of sunshine. But that’s not the point really, music inhabits so many different areas of the emotional spectrum, it has a place everywhere. It has power to make you feel various things and reflecting from the bad as well as the good can make great music.

In the not too distant past Radio 2 compiled a list of the top 100 guitar riffs. It’s a list that’s topped by Led Zepplin’s Whole lotta love and generally full of the tracks you’d expect. The inclusion of the Arctic Monkey’s Do I wanna know? at number 15 feels a little contentious. It’s not that I don’t like the track but I can’t imagine it’ll still be in the top 100 if this was redone in 10 years time, let alone the top 20. Aside from that though it’d be hard to argue against much else in the top

I have a long love affair with Ben Fold’s music but Way to normal may just have been the album where that started to show strains. Not that it isn’t a good album or that I don’t like it, just that it doesn’t live up to the previous ones quite as well. Maybe it’s a nostalgia for what I’d heard before but Way to normal just never hit the same highs for me. But there may be another reason it never quite hit home and strange as it sounds it’s because this opening track is so good, it’s brilliant, it

I’m sure I’ve said before on here but the power of music to conjure up thoughts of different times and places is sometimes phenomenal. For this track in particular it’s time I spent living in New Zealand. I can vividly remember hearing this track on the radio travelling around in the minibuses we used to drive around in out there.  Matchbox Twenty are much less of a well known band back here, although most people would recognise lead singer Rob Thomas’ vocals on the Santana track “Smooth” which was a big hit in 2000. I was aware of some other

There are many firsts through your life that you can probably remember, first gig is definitely one of them. Mine was the Royal Court in Liverpool in ’99. Off the back of their Mercury music prize win the year before I’d picked up the album “Bring it on” and enjoyed Gomez’s unusual blues / folky / rock / indie sound. Me and two friends headed off to watch the band, I remember waiting whilst each of us, just slightly under age, took turns to try and get served at the bar, trying the different bars around the venue and having various

I think my first introduction to this song was via the Greenday cover version, possibly done for a Pepsi advert or at least used on one. It’s a song we used to play with my band in college. My uncle pointed out when we used to cover it that the song was originally written for his generation, yet it doesn’t seem to ring any less true for any preceding generation, as much as we think we’re different to our parents  it turns out we’re all treading the same paths. We’re all trying to make our way and overthrowing the expectations of

I’m pretty sure as a result of this song there’s a generation of people who can only count past five in Spanish by saying cinco, twice. It’s a straightforward story of a guy trying to be cool and failing miserably (we all knew one). There’s not much to think about just enjoy the track and don’t get bogged down with anything. A nice straight forward riff tying everything together all bundled into an easy catchy package. I don’t think it’s a universally enjoyable track for everyone but for those who get it it’s great. If you were around at the