PaulBM

It’s a new year, a new decade even. It doesn’t seem 10 years ago we were concerned about the over hyped millennium bug. I can still remember calling manufacturers of equipment that we had installed and getting their ‘Year 2000 ready document’ sent to us. Then the carefully worded document being sent to the customers.

I’m not a new year resolutions person, but I do find myself looking to make changes as a new year dawns. Don’t we all? Nothing drastic, but hopefully for the better. A re-tweet on twitter summed up new year resolutions for me…

My New Years resolution for this year is 1024 x 768!

Music wise the holiday has been great. Lot’s of new CDs and DVDs, too many to take in in the holiday.  Which CD didn’t Santa bring me? Less Is More by Marillion. After posting about it and looking forward to it so much I forgot about it. And the VAT has gone up by 2.5% today too!

One CD/DVD 5.1 mix that Santa did bring me was A Curious Feeling by Tony Banks of Genesis fame. The new 5.1 mix is stunning. His orchestration of the keyboards really benefit from the extra channels. I’ve always liked Kim Beacons voice too and was sorry to read in the sleeve notes that he’s no longer with us.

We watched the Joe Bonamassa Live from the Royal Albert Hall DVD. It’s a fine mix of his own material and some blues standards. Guitar playing at it’s best, from smooth blues to raging solos. Just listen to the guitar sound on the opening track, Django, nothing out of the ordinary, just spot on. Eric Clapton makes an appearance that clearly is the icing on the cake for Joe himself. Oh and there are two drummers, which is an unexpected bonus for me. Anton Fig has stepped in to boost the drum sound. The two kits are separated left and right which works very well especially during the drum duet throughout High Water Everywhere. The duet greatly enhances the live version of the song Joe originally covered on his You & Me CD. So click the link and buy it, you won’t regret it… honest.