Fulfilling a Lifetime Ambition

On New Year's Eve 1991 it first happened. The BBC showed her live in concert and, despite the harsh editing, I was mesmerised. The concert was Blond Ambition, and the artist was Madonna.

I think it was the professionalism of it that had me hooked. It was slick but not soul-less. The dance steps amazed me - so much so that I spent the next few weeks learning them all (I could probably still remember most of them!) I did the same with The Girlie Show, a concert that once again pushed boundaries, both Madonna's and the world's. Again it was utterly professional, but still maintained an edge of being live and connecting with the audience.

Since then I've bought all of Madonna's music. Most of it I've loved, some of it has challenged me. That's what I love about her, she's not afraid to make people think. The album American Life is musically very unusual and uncommercial - it wasn't ever likely to be a huge commercial success but it didn't stop her from releasing it. I prefer her more recent stuff, lyrically it's much more personal. The latest Confessions on a Dancefloor is a great example of how you can create music that makes people dance AND think at the same time. Not many people would have the guts to do that.

I reckon she's enjoying playing live more and more, and that's why she's on her third tour in years. I've missed the last two, but not this one. On Sunday I'm going to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff for the first date of her European tour. I've got an unreserved standing ticket, which means I might start queuing on Saturday night to get a decent view! If I can put the experience into words I'll be back with a full review next week!

The Light That Burns Twice As Bright Burns Half As Long...

Apparently it's 10 years this week since the Spice Girls got their first number one. 10 years?!! I feel old!!!

I remember the first time I heard Wannabe. I was 18, and never previously into pop music, always preferring rock. Wannabe was so totally different I think I (like a lot of people) didn't know what to make of it. It was the perfect debut single. It was instant. It explained who they were. It was quirky. It had 3 killer hooks. And it did all this in under 3 minutes. It was also a love or hate song - and hate gets just as many headlines as love.

I was a massive Spice Girls fan. I loved the story of how they got together, sacked their first manager, then wrote their songs and formulated their act before finding a manager and a record label. They may have originated through an advert, but they still did things the old fashioned way, gigging in the US to build a fan base there. I loved the fact that they were totally different from anything that had gone on before. I loved the concept of Girl Power, despite the fact that the phrase wasn't new (it was the title of a Shampoo song a few years earlier) or the concept (Madonna had been selling the idea that women can be feminine and powerful at the same time for years).

People talk about what an explosion it was, but I don't think I realised it. Us big fans were almost as much in the bubble as anyone else, collecting stuff, chatting over the Internet. It was my first foray into an online community - I was on an e-mail list that contributed around 100 e-mails a day to my inbox! I often wonder what happened to many of the people I chatted with there for 3 years...

I find it quite sad that some of the Spice Girls don't want to get together, even for a one-off show. I truly believed in them. I stood up for them and continue to defend them in the face of those who dismiss them. But sometimes I wonder if they really believed it. Have I just been taken for a fool? Was it just a marketing scam? I've no delusions about the marketing involved, but at the centre of it all were 5 girls who seemed to really believe in what they were doing, the music they were making and the messages they were sending out. It wasn't just fluff, it had a real heart - I think that's why it worked so well. Or maybe they were better actresses than SpiceWorld - The Movie belied...

They used the quote above from Bladerunner as part of their World Tour show. I suspect they knew that their time in the spotlight was never going to last forever. As for friendship never ends - well I can imagine that when you spend that much time in someone else's company you're going to need a break eventually. It's always good to see that they are friends again, but I'm not holding out too much hope for a reunion gig. If Live 8 and the 10th anniversary can't do it, I'm not sure what will. But if it does, I'll be first in line for tickets!

Long Weekends...

It's the way forward!!! Just working 3 days this week - it's my boyfriend's birthday on Friday so we're taking his son to Alton Towers for a couple of days. Week-long holidays are over-rated - with 20 days holiday you could work 4 days a week for half the year. Not sure if anyone's ever found a boss who would accomodate that...

I'm soooo bored of everyone complaining about the weather. Apart from everything I'm living on the North East coast which means we get immense sea breezes (gales more like). It's nice, but I kinda miss that really hot, sticky, muggy city heat from when I lived in London.

And what is it about the British which makes us unable to cope? You don't hear about the roads in Saudi Arabia melting? Or the trains system in Spain falling apart? Warmer weather is here to stay, and we can't just feign surprise every year.

And still people complain from the comfort of their gas-guzzling cars that are contributing to global warming, believing that there's nothing they can do and that it's not going to affect them. Wake up people - it is ALREADY affecting you!!!

Me & My ROKR

An explanation about my playlist to the right of the screen. For Christmas my boyfriend bought me a lovely Motorola ROKR, a mobile phone with iTunes on it. It holds 100 songs, and accompanies me on my walk to and from work. Sometimes I put whole albums on it, but quite often I'll let iTunes decide and go for a random selection. I used to play the tracks on random mode, but I found that it would often give me the same tracks so I found a nifty way around that - I sort the songs alphabetically and play them in order that way. It's been really good for listening to a lot of stuff I haven't heard in ages, or stuff that my boyfriend has that I probably wouldn't choose to listen to.

At the moment, I'm on a random, but it's a selective random. I'm off to V Festival in 5 weeks time, and to prepare myself I've created a playlist with all the V artists that I own. The computer picks 100 songs for me and off I go! You can probably see from the playlist the artists who I'm most looking forward to seeing - Beck, Gomez, Radiohead, Starsailor and the newly reformed Kula Shaker. Coincidentally, V Festival have actually got their act together and announced the full line-up for the main 3 stages. All very exciting!!!

But before that is Madonna...

First Blog

Hello All!!!

Well, I'm not sure how many people might read this, but I thought I'd start one anyway. The main reason why I wanted a blog is because I plan to go travelling with my boyfriend next year, and I thought it would be an easy way for my friends and family to keep up to date with where I am and what I'm up to.

A brief history:

I'm 28 years old. I was born and grew up in Braintree in Essex. I went to university in Stoke On Trent and got a BA in Creative Arts. I then worked in music retail for a few years, living in London for 5 years and working in store for HMV before getting a job at their head office. A year ago I turned my life on it's head - I moved to Hartlepool in the North East to be with my boyfriend Darren. Now I'm temping on a reception and biding my time before we head off on our travels around the world next March.

My main love is for music. I love a wide range, my very favourite two artists being Marillion and Madonna. If I can combine music with travel, all the better - I've been to Barcelona, Cologne and Luxembourg for gigs. I also love my food, and try to have a good meal out as often as possible.

I'm passionate about issues like fairtrade, conservation and ecology. I didn't entirely agree with the Make Poverty History campaign, but it did make me re-think my own habits (particularly when it comes to shopping) and try to change them. I'm sure I'll get onto preaching about that sort of stuff at some point!

Well, that'll do for now...