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On January the 30th 2009, Olympic Studios closed its doors for the last time. 

For decades, EMI have been unable to tap into the merchandising market for Olympic in the same way they had with Abbey Road, due to legal problems concerning the use of the name “Olympic”.

Nevertheless, Olympic has up until now braved onwards, producing great music by the likes of Eric Clapton, The Who, David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, The Beatles, The Small Faces, King Crimson, Sammy Davis Jr., Paul McCartney, Björk, Roger Waters, INXS, Hawkwind and Queen amongst many others, winning numerous UK recording industry awards for “Best Studio” along the way. 

In modern times this trend has continued, with Olympic being home to the last few generations of SSL large-format in-line mixing console.

Olympic Studios Studio 1 SSL K-series in-line console

To say goodbye, the last remaining staff of Olympic Studios got together in the final week of business to record a cover of The Rolling Stones classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.

Here’s their version of the song, and the video they made to go with it…

Goodbye Olympic, and thanks for all the wonderful memories!  Best of luck, everyone!

Discuss this story or anything else music-related or otherwise in our forum…

http://www.realmusicforum.com/forums/article-a-sad-day-for-music-t143.html

Tags: Abbey Road, Björk, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, forum, Hawkwind, Helios, INXS, Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, music, Olympic, Paul McCartney, Queen, recording, Roger Waters, Sammy Davis Jr., SSL, Studios, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces, The Who, Thin Lizzy
Posted in Music History | | 22 Comments »

Chris Cornell will be playing Download 2009

Twelve more bands have been announced for Download Festival UK 2009.  Former Soundgarden and Audioslave lead vocalist Chris Cornell will be playing, as will be rock giants Journey! 

Chris Cornell will be playing his solo meterial and the appearance follows the recent release of his 3rd solo album, Scream, last week.

I’ve not heard Scream yet, but rest assured, I’ll be reviewing it soon.  His first solo album, Euphoria Morning is a work of genius, but sadly his 2nd effort, Carry On, didn’t hit the same heights.

Incidentally, if you haven’t heard Euphoria Morning, get yourself onto Spotify and check it out.  Superb stuff.

Chris Cornell has stated to the press that a Soundgarden reunion is unlikely to ever happen, and that the various former members of the band had put a lid on their Soundgarden days.  Ah well.  Another great band I’ll never get a chance to see live.

 Discuss Download UK 2009 on this thread in the Real Music Forum….

http://www.realmusicforum.com/forums/article-download-festival-uk-update-12-more-bands-announced-t135.html

Skin as they were in the mid 90's

UK rockers Skin will be appearing, making their first live appearance since 1998!  Once upon a time, almost every gig I went to, Skin seemed to be supporting, but alas they disbanded during the decline in popularity of rock in the late 90′s.  Is this the beginning of the second era of Skin?  Who knows, but if you’re into 80′s/90′s rock with some proper guitar solos and you happen to be going to Download, check them out!

Also added to the bill are Down, Lacuna Coil, Tesla, Papa Roach, Clutch, Black Stone Cherry, Architects, Parkway Drive and Karma To Burn.

 The lineup so far (in no particular order) :

Faith No More
Def Leppard
Whitesnake
Motley Crue
ZZ Top
Journey
Tesla
Dream Theater
Chris Cornell
Skin
Dragonforce
Marilyn Manson
Korn
Slipknot
Killswitch Engage
Trivium
Limp Bizkit
Papa Roach
The Prodigy
Down
Black Stone Cherry
Lacuna Coil
Pendulum
Clutch
Buckcherry
Anvil
Devildriver
Parkway Drive
The Blackout
Billy Talent
Architects
Karma To Burn

Don’t forget, you can discuss Download UK 2009 (or anything for that matter) in our forums…

http://www.realmusicforum.com/forums/

Come and have your say!

Tags: 2009, anvil, Architects, audioslave, billy talent, Black Stone Cherry, buckcherry, Carry On, Chris Cornell, Clutch, def leppard, devildriver, Download, dragonforce, dream theater, Euphoria Morning, faith no more, Festival, forum, Journey, Karma To Burn, killswitch engage, korn, Lacuna Coil, limp bizkit, Lineup, marilyn manson, motley crue, news, Papa Roach, Parkway Drive, pendulum, prodigy, real, rock, Scream, Skin, slipknot, Soundgarden, Tesla, The Blackout, trivium, UK, whitesnake, zz top
Posted in News > Tour | | No Comments »

A new poster on the RMF has recommended a new pop artist to our readers.   If you’re a regular reader of the RMF then I’m sure you’ll know already how I feel about the pop industry, (and if not, you should start by reading my “Recent Music Releases” article).   So a word to the wise… if you’re here to deliver SEO spam, be prepared for your link to be reviewed in true RMF style.

So, without further ado, here’s my review of Gabriella Cilmi – Sweet About Me…

Gabriella Cilmi: Nothin' sweet about her?

I’ve got to say, compared to a lot of pop artists, she’s not too bad… there’s certainly a lot of potential there, but it appears to me that the label and producer had too much say in her “sound” for my liking. They seem to have placed the emphasis on making her fit in with modern pop trends and ignored her actual strengths. 

Voice:   This is a case-in-point for me.   She’s reasonable enough in the bits where she stops putting on The Whinehouse Effect – you can hear that under the neuveau-pop surface she can probably actually belt them out with the best of them.   It’s a shame that her label / producer have forced her to sing in that Winehouse-esque pseudo-Anastasia post-Gabrielle half-throaty-and-half-nasally style, because it’s certainly not her natural voice – you can tell in the bridge sections where she almost lets herself sing properly.   Macy Gray opened a door a few years ago, showing the labels that this kind of voice had a market, and since then every other “alternative pop” vocalist seems to have this same croaky edge.   The majors are doing the same thing to this sound that they did to indie music in the mid-90′s – taking a tiny part of what makes it “good” and exploiting it by papering over the cracks of bad pop music with this new sound to market the same tired old crap with a new wrapper.   Such a shame. Such is the modern pop industry.  

The band:   Real instruments played by decent session musicians, but the whole thing’s just a bit too… “poptastic” for my liking.   With the wealth of talent at her fingertips, having a band full of session musicians of obvious skill, and yet the song is a formulaic 4-chord stumbler.   She probably has to kick them during performances to keep them awake.

Hit / Miss?   Miss for now, but a definite “wait and see”…. if she gets enough limelight from this album, she will have more sway with the label for her “sound” for the 2nd album, and hopefully she’ll let her musicians have more input for the song structures and start singing with her real voice, and who knows, maybe, just maybe she’ll fulfill her Real Music potential and leave the mindless pop thing behind. 

P.S.  Cilmi?   This surely isn’t her real name, is it?    How is it pronounced?    “Kill me”?    A cry for help perhaps?    Cynical and jaded about her own project from the outset?

Do the right thing, Gabriella, sack off the major label pop chart thing and start playing jazz clubs for a few years.  Start hanging out with Donavon Frankenreiter too.  It’ll make all the difference.  Trust me.

Stay tuned for more up-to-the-minute news and reviews of the pop charts and recent music releases.

Tags: charts, forum, gabriella cilmi, jazz, music, news, News > Chart, Pop, real, real music forum, recent music releases, review, sweet about me
Posted in News > Chart | | No Comments »