Gambit’s Blog

This morning I received an e-mail from YouTube claiming that I’ve infringed upon copyright.
Now, I don’t use YouTube much, i’ve probably put no more than 10 videos up in all the years I’ve used it, and as far as I was aware, none of these were breaching copyright. The culprit video was entitled “Goo Goo Dolls - Give a Little Bit (Live!)” and was a recording that I took of the Goo Goo Dolls performing Give a Little Bit at the Carling Academy in Birmingham.

The person who claimed the infringement was apparently a guy called Roger Hodgson. A name that after googling I should probably have known, but I didn’t. So I wondered who this was - as far as I was aware, he was nothing to do with the Goo Goo Dolls, and I was right. Roger Hodgson is the guy who wrote the original version of Give a Little Bit, and member of Supertramp.

This brings up an interesting situation in my mind. At what point does copyright kick in? Roger Hodgson has clearly given the Goo Goo Dolls permission to use his song - it’s on one of their albums, and they regularly perform it at gigs. I clearly had permission to watch the original performance as I had bought a ticket, and there was nothing to stop me taking a video or photographs; in fact at points during the performance the ‘Dolls actively encouraged it. So in my mind this means that I have the right to this video. But I stick it on YouTube, and Roger Hodgson can have it removed. Now, I’m not really angry or even bothered by this at all - it’s not me who’s missing out on seeing it, it’s not me thats missing out on the potential publicity from the video, and it’s not me that’s missing out on the potential revenue that could come from a greater knowledge of this song.

Am I wrong? Should Roger Hodgson have the right to remove this song, even after he has passed the permission onto numerous others? Or should it be allowed to stay up? I’m not knowledgeable on copyright law, so I really don’t know, but I’m interested to hear other people’s opinions on this… I suppose the worst part of this is that there are a lot of other versions of this song on YouTube, both by the original artist, and by the Goo Goo Dolls (even at the same gig as I was at!)

Why is it me that has be singled out?!

You can find the text of the original e-mail after the break…

(more…)

What is the best way to organise your music collection?!

I’ve been looking at my collection recently and i have TONS of duplicate songs. I use iTunes to organise my music, and this has never been a problem, but I recon i could save myself a fair amount of space if i could just remove a number of the duplicates. All very well… BUT WAIT! There is a problem. What happens when you want to play the soundtrack from School Of Rock, but you no longer have Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song in there, because you already have to complete albums collection of the Zep? This for me is a problem. I want to be able to have my cake and eat it. I want one copy of the file, but the ability to have it recognised as part of multiple albums/track numbers etc.

Oh but wait - i want more. I also want all of this to be automated when I import one of my cd’s. I don’t want to have to go through my collection song by song and add this information…

Ah, dreams - where’s that star when i need it…

Am I alone in this? Anyone else crying out for help sorting their music collection? Is there already a solution for this that I dont know about?! (please say yes). Who knows… maybe I’ve just lost it…. ciao for now…

The final chapter of my look back at 2006 is a look at the Music of 2006. I havent found myself with that much time to sit and listen to music this year, but I have heard some good, and some bad things in the little I have heard. Here’s my lo-down:

1. My Chemical Romance - Black Parade
   
2. The All-American Rejects - Move Along
3. Wolfmother - Wolfmother
4. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
   
5. Evanescence - The Open Door

Honourable Mention: Teddy Geiger - Underage Thinking
Most Disappointing: The Killers - Sam’s Town, Most Over-rated: The Arctic Monkeys

My Chemical Romance are definately my band of 2006. I discovered them at the start of the year with Three Cheers for Sweet Revence, and have been loving them ever since. Their classic rock influences, combined with their upbeat punk make them one hell of a listen, that always puts me in a good mood. Black Parade takes this a step further, and is well worth a listen!

The All-American Rejects were not a band I immediately wanted to listen to. Swing Swing was, at the time, a bit cheezy for me, so I decided to give them a miss. Then I heard Move Along on the radio, and it gripped me. It Ends Tonight in an episode of Smallville was the final straw, so i got hold of this album - an absolute gem - where every track is a good listen!

Those who know me know that my favorite band of all time are Led Zeppelin. Wolfmother clearly have the same fandom and are massively influenced by arguably the greatest band of all time. This album is great when i’m in the mood for something Zeppelin-esque yet have bored myself with the Zep! Cant wait to see them live

Muse have done it again, with another cracking album this year. Not much needs to be said about one of the greatest live bands of all time. The only problem with this album is that the songs get in my head and I cant get them out again!!

Evanescence are a bit of a breath of fresh air for me, lending some nice, female vocals to the music that I love. Arguably a little cheezy, this doesnt deter me from what is ultimately another great album for the band (although still a large step behind their first outing, which is probably in the top 10 of the last 10 years).

Teddy Geiger gets an honourable mention for an easy listening album from a young (16) artist. Definately worth checking out, i’d also like to applaud him for his appearances in Love Monkey - a great show that was cancelled WAY too early. Ah well, it happens…

The Killers, after releasing one of the best albums ever have followed it up with something that, while it has the same feel, just isnt on the same level. In fact it isnt on the level below it either. Its not a bad album, but i was expecting so much more. Nevermind. Still…disappointing.

And finally, a band that need no introductions, the Arctic Monkeys. They have been over marketed, over hyped and tickets for their gigs were going at over 300quid even before they released an album. And they arent even good. In fact, they are annoying. Most overhyped band of the centuary - i think so.

So, that ends my roundup of 2006. I hope you enjoyed reading it, if you did, spread the word, as I fully intend to get this blog back up to speed now!

Until next time…

Eurovision this year has been scarred by the sharp edge of Finnish Metal!

Finnish ‘hard rockers’ Lordi have won the Eurovision Song Contest by a massive margin, leading the contest into a new realm! For me, Eurovision has always been about cheesy pop and generally crappy songs, and I have never bothered to watch it. However, for some reason, this year i felt compelled to watch, and I have the feeling that reason was Lordi.

In the scheme of Metal, these guys are incredibly cheesy, however, their song, ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’ is actually pretty good (albeit incredibly tongue-in-cheek), and obviously the whole of Europe agreed (even the UK who voted them 12 points - the highest possible - which I never would have expected!)

For me, this is great news, as it is once again bring Rock and Metal to the forefront of culture, something that can only be good for the genre as a whole! As record labels realise that rock is here to stay, and still popular (if not increasing in popularity), they will sign more new rock and metal acts than the otherwise would have done! Vive la revolution!
Well done Lordi!!

Last night i went to see Simple Plan live at Nottingham’s Rock City. For those not in the know, Simple Plan are a punk rock band, similar (but different) to Blink 182/Sum 41 etc.

The support acts that warmed up the crowd last night arent really worth mentioning - i didnt think they were particularally good, and i definately didnt think they were suitable warm ups to a band like Simple Plan. So for me, i was waiting for the band i came to see…

I’ve liked Simple Plan for a while, and the thing that makes them stand out for me is their Lyrics. They’re both witty and meaningful, and many of them you can really relate to! Unfortunately, in my opinion, the one fault with the gig was that the vocals really needed to be turned up a bit. Other than this, the gig was brilliant.

The band were energetic throughout the one and a half hour set, really feeding off the sold out crowd. At one point, they even got one of their fans up on stage to play drums for the band! And to be fair, he did a pretty good job!

This energy really showed up in their songs - every song they played was excellent - great representations of the album tracks! I say representations, as they werent straight copies (thankfully - it always annoys me when you pay to see a band live and you just get a copy of their album on stage!).

All in all, the gig was amazing and thouroughly fun. It’s a shame that the support’s werent picked better to give a better representation of the music following. If that had been the case, it would have been a 5 star gig!

Buy Simple Plan at Amazon: