Spotify & Boring Cities

Artrockers,
First, an apology, Jonas, John Power, Charlie, Daniel and about 50 others all noticed my 'deliberate' mistake last week - yes indeed, George Michael was sentenced to eight weeks in jail and not, as I stupidly claimed, eight months. And many pointed out that he'd been canned not because he was a toker but because he's a danger behind the wheel - which is certainly the case, he does seem to like driving under the influence but hey, it must be some awesome weed 'dude', wherever he gets it I can tell you for a fact that it isn't South London, there hasn't been anything worth rolling round these parts for months, just nasty rubbish that seems to have been sprayed with a perfume called 'Vaguely Like Skunk'. Yuck! But I did get this response which makes it all worthwhile: 'Very moved by your excellent piece on the jailing of George Michael.
'Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?' indeed. Thank you. -BP Fallon [bpfallon.com]
Thanks BP.

I saw an advert for Spotify on TV last night, still offering free membership, which prompted the question once more: Why would I buy music? Now they're advertising it on TV I guess we might as well pack up and go home. I have yet to have one person explain to me why Spotify is a good thing for the industry or the artists - can somebdy enlighten me please?

And news just in: London gas failed to make the top 50 of the most liveable cities (whatever the hell that means), the top 10 are; Vancouver, Canada- Melbourne, Australia - Vienna, Austria - Geneva, Switzerland - Perth, Australia - Adelaide, Australia - Sydney, Australia - Zurich, Switzerland - Toronto, Canada - Calgary, Canada. Which is a major coincidence because that just happens to be my list of the most boring cities in the world, so by 'liveable' they must mean 'incredibly dull', plus New York of course, or at least Manhattan which carries off the prize for going from 'most exciting city in the world' to 'most boring, smug and middle-class city anywhere in the universe'. Why do people go to NY? To shop. Cultural hot-spot to shopping destination in one generation - quite an achievement.

Tom Artrocker