Hear ye! Hear ye!
Within the past couple of hours, the nominations for the Mercury prize (or the poor man’s Shortlist prize, if you like) have been announced; anyone who has read my past blogs on the subject will know that I often adopt the role of grizzled old cynic when it comes to the names making it onto the list, but in some ways the (again lamentable) shortlist for this year’s prize is worse because it confirms the view (held not only by myself) that the Mercury prize is in terminal decline (personally, it also highlights the fact that British music is in a poorer state of health than its counterparts in North America, France, Sweden and Germany, but that’s a topic for another blog altogether.)
The first thing one notices is the whiff of stale familiarity about the whole event, given that this year’s list features 2 former winners of the prize (in the form of Dizzee Rascal and the Arctic Monkeys, the latter being last year’s winners, no less), with even Amy Winehouse being a past nominee. The rest of the list reads very much like an NME/Radio 1 playlist, with some very mediocre indie albums (The Young Knives and Arctic Monkeys excepted) managing to garner a place on what is supposedly Britain’s premier musical showcase; the fact that a woefully average Libertines tribute band like The View can make the list rather says it all, as does the presence of the immensely irritating Jamie T (who, along with fellow Mockney troubadours Lily Allen, Kate Nash and Jack Peñate, was satirised quite superbly in the track “LDN is a victim”, whose title is a fusion of Allen’s “LDN” and Nash’s “Caroline’s a victim”.) As I have alluded to in past blogs, the Mercury prize was initially set up to recognize British music as a whole, and ought to return to this ideal; even as someone who was grew up as an indie kid (and who still listens to quite a bit of indie), the fact that the Merucry prize is focusing solely on indie music is a damning indictment not only of the narrow, commercial view of British music that the Mercury’s seem to be increasingly taking, but also how indie (or, rather, “Topshop indie”, as the current indie scene bears little resemblance to the genre’s outsider roots) has become the new mainstream.
It’s probably worth drawing attention not only to the gross excess of mediocre indie acts making the list, but also the many genres that were overlooked in compiling the list, given that only 1 jazz group (Basquiat Strings) and 1 folk act (Fionn Regan, an Irish born/Brighton-based singer-songwriter) made it onto the list (though Bat for Lashes, from what little I’ve heard of them do display some folky, Kate Bush-like qualities.) Add to that the fact that Maps is probably the closest the list gets to a dance act (though I’m told that Maps’ particular brand of miserablist electronic bears more of a comparison to My Bloody Valentine than The Chemical Brothers, for instance; apologies for once again betraying my ignorance on the subject, but I have yet to hear any of their/his stuff, even though I’m looking to get hold of some downloads to better inform myself) and Dizzee Rascal is the closest thing to a hip-hop nominee, and it all makes for depressing reading.
Another thing that is painfully obvious upon perusing the list is that, sadly, like much of the rest of the press, the Mercury panel have fallen hook, line and sinker for Nu Rave, resulting in the frankly disastrous nomination of Klaxons (surely responsible for the worst album released by anyone from any country this year), as well as the presence of New Young Pony Club, a band I actually quite liked when they first emerged but have since gone off, not least because the formula that worked well on individual tracks like “Ice Cream” was stretched over an entire album, which is never a good idea.
Oh well, it’s probably best to stop ranting at this point and finish off with a few closing thoughts: my tip to win the award would be Amy Winehouse, largely because the other obvious favourites (Dizzee Rascal and Arctic Monkeys) have already won the award, with Bat for Lashes being my tip as a dark horse. As ever, your thoughts on who will/should win the award, as well as who should not have made the list that did (which I won’t go over again) and who should have made the list that didn’t (for me, only the Long Blondes really spring to mind, as my knowledge of modern folk and jazz is pretty poor, and most British dance music has been poor this year), will be welcomed with open arms.
See you la-la-later,
Prof.
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Can you hear the Kop, Fernando?
Apologies for the use of a rather obvious title (like a moth to a flame, I was irresistibly drawn) and, indeed the tardiness of this article in entering the blogosphere (given that Torres signed for Liverpool almost a week ago), but with frenzied transfer activity in store over the next couple of days (with Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun looking set to arrive at Anfield) and with Steven Gerrard proudly boasting that the arrival of Torres signals Liverpool’s intent, now might be an ideal time to take stock and assess whether Torres really can help Liverpool make the push from regular Big Cup qualifiers/Premiership nearly men to being genuine title contenders.
First of all, what I think everyone has agreed on from all the discussions I’ve seen/heard re. the Torres transfer (and this is something I would definitely go along with) is that the fee that has been paid for him is ridiculously inflated; I’ve seen reports where the fee has oscillated between about £20m and £26m, but even the lower end of those estimates seems rather excessive for a player of potential rather than one of proven talent (which he has yet to demonstrate consistently and irrefutably.)
As for Torres the player, I must admit that I, like a number of Liverpool fans, have my doubts about his credentials as a striker. On the one hand, his goal record is hardly fantastic (last season, he managed only 14 goals for Atlético, and has yet to score more than 20 goals in a single season; the closest he has come to achieving that feat was in the 2003/04 season, and even then 6 of those goals were penalties.) On the other hand, as Sid Lowe rightly pointed out in his excellent article (which was obviously far better than this humble post), one could argue that the fact that he was playing for Spain’s answer to Manchester City (i.e. Atlético de Madrid, a side for which mediocrity and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory have become stocks in trade) may go some way to explaining that tally. Certainly, he is unlikely to have encountered a coaching set-up that is as good as the one currently in place at Liverpool (and, given that his current Spain boss is the country’s most high profile Simian simpleton, Luís Aragonés, that includes the national side as well), which may yet bring him on a level. Similarly encouraging to me as a Liverpool fan is that pretty much all of the “big four” clubs have been linked to Torres at one point or another (which is why the claims on various different football sites that “Wenger/Ferguson/Mourinho wouldn’t be stupid enough to blow £20m on Torres” have been so amusing during the past few days.)
It’s also quite possible that Torres may have been brought in to improve Liverpool’s style of play; too often last season, aimless long balls were punted forward in the general direction of Peter Crouch (or, worse still, the likes of Bellamy and Kuyt, who were never likely to win aerial battles), which made us rather 1-dimensional going forward. The fact that Torres plays in a similar manner to the way Michael Owen used to (i.e. on the shoulder of the last defender, with pace and strength being his main assets) might help us to play a more expansive attacking game, with through balls being played along the ground rather than through the air. Similarly, it’s conceivable that the runs of Torres may help to create space in the box for the likes of Kuyt in particular (but also, potentially, Voronin and Crouch), given that the vast majority of their goals are scored from 18 yards or less. That said, all of this will be rendered redundant unless we improve the service to the forward players, which will involve us getting a couple of wingers (which is why the links to Babel and Ricardo Quaresma are encouraging.)
Anyway, that’s quite enough Kop chat for one day. I’ll be chipping in with my preview on the 2007/08 Premiership season once all the transfers have been conducted (which will of course feature my view on how I think my own team will fare), and, who knows, I may even be penning something regarding the big European leagues; in the meantime, keep your comments coming (as they’re always gratefully appreciated.)
Later,
Prof
First of all, what I think everyone has agreed on from all the discussions I’ve seen/heard re. the Torres transfer (and this is something I would definitely go along with) is that the fee that has been paid for him is ridiculously inflated; I’ve seen reports where the fee has oscillated between about £20m and £26m, but even the lower end of those estimates seems rather excessive for a player of potential rather than one of proven talent (which he has yet to demonstrate consistently and irrefutably.)
As for Torres the player, I must admit that I, like a number of Liverpool fans, have my doubts about his credentials as a striker. On the one hand, his goal record is hardly fantastic (last season, he managed only 14 goals for Atlético, and has yet to score more than 20 goals in a single season; the closest he has come to achieving that feat was in the 2003/04 season, and even then 6 of those goals were penalties.) On the other hand, as Sid Lowe rightly pointed out in his excellent article (which was obviously far better than this humble post), one could argue that the fact that he was playing for Spain’s answer to Manchester City (i.e. Atlético de Madrid, a side for which mediocrity and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory have become stocks in trade) may go some way to explaining that tally. Certainly, he is unlikely to have encountered a coaching set-up that is as good as the one currently in place at Liverpool (and, given that his current Spain boss is the country’s most high profile Simian simpleton, Luís Aragonés, that includes the national side as well), which may yet bring him on a level. Similarly encouraging to me as a Liverpool fan is that pretty much all of the “big four” clubs have been linked to Torres at one point or another (which is why the claims on various different football sites that “Wenger/Ferguson/Mourinho wouldn’t be stupid enough to blow £20m on Torres” have been so amusing during the past few days.)
It’s also quite possible that Torres may have been brought in to improve Liverpool’s style of play; too often last season, aimless long balls were punted forward in the general direction of Peter Crouch (or, worse still, the likes of Bellamy and Kuyt, who were never likely to win aerial battles), which made us rather 1-dimensional going forward. The fact that Torres plays in a similar manner to the way Michael Owen used to (i.e. on the shoulder of the last defender, with pace and strength being his main assets) might help us to play a more expansive attacking game, with through balls being played along the ground rather than through the air. Similarly, it’s conceivable that the runs of Torres may help to create space in the box for the likes of Kuyt in particular (but also, potentially, Voronin and Crouch), given that the vast majority of their goals are scored from 18 yards or less. That said, all of this will be rendered redundant unless we improve the service to the forward players, which will involve us getting a couple of wingers (which is why the links to Babel and Ricardo Quaresma are encouraging.)
Anyway, that’s quite enough Kop chat for one day. I’ll be chipping in with my preview on the 2007/08 Premiership season once all the transfers have been conducted (which will of course feature my view on how I think my own team will fare), and, who knows, I may even be penning something regarding the big European leagues; in the meantime, keep your comments coming (as they’re always gratefully appreciated.)
Later,
Prof
Monday, 9 July 2007
Abaht facking time!
Hello everyone,
As I’m sure you’re aware (probably because I’ve been boring everyone who’ll listen with the details) I’ve been involved in a number of (largely fruitless) job/PhD searches over the past couple of months. Well, it gives me great pleasure to inform you all that, last Wednesday, I finally had an interview for one of these positions (as a lab monkey for Pfizer, just so you know) in every militant Muslim’s favourite tourism destination; that’s right, Britain’s, erm, “fair” capital city, London (which I think goes some way to explaining a title containing so many ridiculous Mockney affectations that it makes Kate Nash sound like a posh, public schoolgirl, which in reality she probably is…)
Anyway, to the interview itself, the most pleasantly surprising (if somewhat disconcerting) aspect of which was the fact that one of the interviewers was someone I actually knew; the person in question being Hayley Jackman (someone I knew not only from my university days, given that she did both her MChem and PhD at Leeds, but also from my placement year at AstraZeneca in sunny Macclesfield, which overlapped with her 3 month stint there as part of her PhD.) Rather unsurprisingly, given that fact, it was a bit intimidating answering questions of a technical nature from her (after all, what’s worse than being asked a question you can’t answer by someone you know?); thankfully, the scientific portion of the interview went relatively smoothly.
Rather more fraught, if you like, was the more general portion of the interview, where the 2 people conducting the interview pored over my CV. It’s probably worth pointing out at this point that I have a rather worrying tendency to freeze when it comes to interviews (as well as metamorphosing from the witty, sophisticated, urbane author of this blog into a gibbering buffoon); in the case of this interview, it led to me blurting out that one of the reasons for choosing Leeds as a university (as well as choosing the AZ Macclesfield site as the place to do my industrial placement year) was the fact that both of them were in the North, allowing me to be fairly near to friends and family. Unfortunately (but rather predictably) this then led to one of the interviewers asking, “So why do you now want to work for Pfizer in Kent?” Faced with this, I could only reply, “Well, you go where the jobs are, don’t you?”
The 2nd awkward point of the interview came when being quizzed about PhD’s. Having not yet developed the ability to lie convincingly, I found it impossible to deny that I had been searching for suitable PhD’s for the coming year (though I managed to stop short of stating that that option had been my 1st choice all along.) This prompted 2 slightly tricky follow-up questions:
1. “What stopped you doing a PhD this coming year?” (Not overly difficult, this one, as I had a few well-rehearsed answers for this one: “The projects I would like to do, and the researchers I’d like to work for, weren’t available”, “At this stage, I’d just be throwing myself into something just for the sake of doing a PhD” etc.)
2. “If you were to get the job at Pfizer, what kind of work would stop you from going back to university to do a PhD?” (This was probably the most difficult question I was asked in the entire interview, as the answer, in truth, is probably “Nothing, you’re going to lose me after a year”, but, acutely aware that my chances of getting the job even for 12 months would vanish altogether if I said that, I opted instead for “Being challenged in my work, and being able to do lots of varied, interesting chemistry.” Not an unreasonable statement, I would say.)
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ve been assured that I will find out whether or not I will be invited to a 2nd round interview (at Pfizer’s site at Sandwich) within the next week or so; the outcome of the 1st round interview (good or bad) will be posted on this thread; in the meantime, keep on visiting, my loyal blog readers, as I’m sure that I will get round to penning a blog on Fernando Torres/Liverpool’s other prospective summer purchases at some point (while the announcement of the nominees for the Mercury prize will be made in just over a week’s time, which is bound to provoke a length, venomous diatribe from yours truly.)
Later,
L.I.am
As I’m sure you’re aware (probably because I’ve been boring everyone who’ll listen with the details) I’ve been involved in a number of (largely fruitless) job/PhD searches over the past couple of months. Well, it gives me great pleasure to inform you all that, last Wednesday, I finally had an interview for one of these positions (as a lab monkey for Pfizer, just so you know) in every militant Muslim’s favourite tourism destination; that’s right, Britain’s, erm, “fair” capital city, London (which I think goes some way to explaining a title containing so many ridiculous Mockney affectations that it makes Kate Nash sound like a posh, public schoolgirl, which in reality she probably is…)
Anyway, to the interview itself, the most pleasantly surprising (if somewhat disconcerting) aspect of which was the fact that one of the interviewers was someone I actually knew; the person in question being Hayley Jackman (someone I knew not only from my university days, given that she did both her MChem and PhD at Leeds, but also from my placement year at AstraZeneca in sunny Macclesfield, which overlapped with her 3 month stint there as part of her PhD.) Rather unsurprisingly, given that fact, it was a bit intimidating answering questions of a technical nature from her (after all, what’s worse than being asked a question you can’t answer by someone you know?); thankfully, the scientific portion of the interview went relatively smoothly.
Rather more fraught, if you like, was the more general portion of the interview, where the 2 people conducting the interview pored over my CV. It’s probably worth pointing out at this point that I have a rather worrying tendency to freeze when it comes to interviews (as well as metamorphosing from the witty, sophisticated, urbane author of this blog into a gibbering buffoon); in the case of this interview, it led to me blurting out that one of the reasons for choosing Leeds as a university (as well as choosing the AZ Macclesfield site as the place to do my industrial placement year) was the fact that both of them were in the North, allowing me to be fairly near to friends and family. Unfortunately (but rather predictably) this then led to one of the interviewers asking, “So why do you now want to work for Pfizer in Kent?” Faced with this, I could only reply, “Well, you go where the jobs are, don’t you?”
The 2nd awkward point of the interview came when being quizzed about PhD’s. Having not yet developed the ability to lie convincingly, I found it impossible to deny that I had been searching for suitable PhD’s for the coming year (though I managed to stop short of stating that that option had been my 1st choice all along.) This prompted 2 slightly tricky follow-up questions:
1. “What stopped you doing a PhD this coming year?” (Not overly difficult, this one, as I had a few well-rehearsed answers for this one: “The projects I would like to do, and the researchers I’d like to work for, weren’t available”, “At this stage, I’d just be throwing myself into something just for the sake of doing a PhD” etc.)
2. “If you were to get the job at Pfizer, what kind of work would stop you from going back to university to do a PhD?” (This was probably the most difficult question I was asked in the entire interview, as the answer, in truth, is probably “Nothing, you’re going to lose me after a year”, but, acutely aware that my chances of getting the job even for 12 months would vanish altogether if I said that, I opted instead for “Being challenged in my work, and being able to do lots of varied, interesting chemistry.” Not an unreasonable statement, I would say.)
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ve been assured that I will find out whether or not I will be invited to a 2nd round interview (at Pfizer’s site at Sandwich) within the next week or so; the outcome of the 1st round interview (good or bad) will be posted on this thread; in the meantime, keep on visiting, my loyal blog readers, as I’m sure that I will get round to penning a blog on Fernando Torres/Liverpool’s other prospective summer purchases at some point (while the announcement of the nominees for the Mercury prize will be made in just over a week’s time, which is bound to provoke a length, venomous diatribe from yours truly.)
Later,
L.I.am
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