A Design for Life - Music

A 'Theme-tune' to Life

     Whilst making things it is perfectly reasonable to enjoy a little music. Often a certain CD from a certain band gets played again and again during a Project and will forever be associated with it. I know this to be true of several Foo Fighters, Feeder and Midnight Oil Albums I have.

     So what is this part of the web site all about? It is dedicated to our favourite bands. Simple as that. They have provided us with the pleasant melodies of life so here we provide tribute to them in return. Who do we like? The collection is large and somehow very quaint. It is all on CD. No MP3's in sight. We don't like our music compressed into tiny boxes and piped into our ears like some kind of aural chewing gum. We like the big sound of guitars belting out of stereo speakers. We like real music by real bands who write and play their own material.

     So this part of the site will provide listings and reviews of our favourite CD's. It might not be possible to write a few words for all of them as there are too many but we will endeavour to explain our love for many of them.

     On the remainder of this opening page we will provide a run down of some of our most favourite bands: The Manic Street Preachers and Midnight Oil. It is the lyrics of these two bands that make them the best possible choice in the most trying of times. They are an education in themselves. A true design for life.

The Manics

     In the first few years an obscure band from Wales did a gig at the University I was studying Engineering at. A fact I sadly don't actually recall! Quite when I became conscious of the Manic Street Preachers has long been forgotten. However, it was not long after this time. I soon had a tape of "Generation Terrorists" - evidence of a long association with this band. I soon bought a CD player after I left University hence my tape collection is very small indeed.

     Oddly enough the lyrics to the songs on Generation Terrorists meant very little to me at the time. But they came to have greater and greater resonance nearly fifteen years later. It is possible to rediscover your own record collection. The appeal of the Manics stems from the incredible music and lyrics. Years after they appeared on the alternative rock scene (in their own storm of controversy) they were able to conjure up appearances on peak time TV Pop Music shows singing songs about embittered war veterans - whilst the band wore dresses.

     I saw the Manics on stage more times than I care to remember. This included a free Gig they played in Swansea one year - down by the sea front. Oddly enough I was there by complete chance. It must be fate...

Midnight Oil

     My long and happy association with the 'Oils started at the point I heard "Beds are Burning". Which is probably the first (and last) time most other people had heard of them too. However, I didn't rush out and buy the Tape right then. I actually bought "Diesel and Dust" on Tape sometime later when I actually thought that Midnight Oil was a band I heard on the radio. I had made a mistake - they weren't who I thought they were - they were infinitely better. So, by sheer fluke and chance, a long love affair with this antipodean band started. "Diesel & Dust" is probably the one Tape & CD in my entire collection that has been listened to the most. Whereas most other bands get consigned to the CD rack after a week or two the Oil's consistently produce product that makes you listen to it over and over again - often for months. It can become obsessive.

     There is no point trying to put your finger on why this bunch of Aussy surf bums manage to conjure up such devotion. But you never tire of them. There is a depth and quality to their song-writing that is pretty rare in this life. There are the tunes, the soul, the lyrics, the message all pretty much mixed up together. There is always something new to discover and it keeps you hooked for a lifetime.

     Sadly Midnight Oil came to an abrupt end in the early 2000's when Peter Garrett left to become an MP for the Australian Labour Party. The 'Oils were always highly politically active for a variety of traditional left-wing causes such as Greenpeace anti-logging campaigns. However, the election of Peter to Parliament must have come to a shock to many of us who were convinced that his lyrics painted the picture of a man utterly outraged and disenfranchised by traditional politics.

     Their legacy lives on. I recently found several DVD's of old concert footage of the Oil's back in the eighties pre-Beds are Burning. I have managed to collect most of their known Video releases featuring some interviews with the band. If there is something with their name on I have probably got it somewhere in my collection. I have heard rumour that there is even an unofficial book detailing the band released in Australia. I have yet to find a copy.

     Like the Manics, I have several Oil's CD's on the CD auto-changer in my Car. They have been there for over two years. You can't get better so they haven't been changed. Tunes for life.