by Peter Moore

Number One: Blur, Entertain Me

You’ve got to feel for people who spent their formative years during the eighties, when hair-rock ruled supreme and the arrival of New Kids on the Block marked the height of musical excitement. All it took was for the nineties to arrive and everything improved dramatically. And happily for me, this period when I graduated from Playmobil and Lego to music and football, was also the time when Grunge and Britpop ruled supreme.

The first album that I ever bought was Blur’s Great Escape, which was released in the September of 1995. It was the time of the great Battle of Britpop, between Blur and Oasis, and everyone was going on about the lead single Country House, but on reflection – I think that this song, buried in the second half of the album, has better stood the test of time. If only, that is, for the jumpy bass of Alex James.

by Peter Moore

The countdown to Christmas

If this isn’t the zenith of self-indulgence, then god knows what is. In the next twenty five days, as we approach Christmas Day, I am going to be posting a different song each day on this blog. It is, if you like, a bit of an extended version of the familiar Vibe Box that you can find in various editions of EV Magazine – the twist here being that it is all online, accessible, digitalised, interactive, and all those other impressive business-like adjectives that you can associate with the web.

Blogging, so I have learnt, is supposed to be personal, with the writer throwing into the mix a few details about him or herself, and how many glasses of orange juice that they have drunk that day.

So here goes. My name is Peter Moore. I’m English and I’m 25. If my memory serves me correctly (and occasionally it doesn’t), I’ve been writing for EV Magazine since issue two, and in that time I have written articles about music, films, books, culture and sport and travel. I had a spell as editor of this magazine, and if you want an odd fact about me, then I’ll confess to being allergic to octopus.

All these songs that are going to emerge over the next couple of weeks are ones that I love, for one reason or another. I’ll try and accompany each post with a little vignette, or explanation. Don’t expect them in any way to reflect the kind of Christmas music that you hear in Starbucks, El Corte Ingles or Vips. And Bing Crosby will certainly not be making an appearance.

I won’t apologise if you don’t like this music; because if you don’t, then you are, as Stephen Fry once accused people who didn’t enjoy reading PG Wodehouse, ‘fit only for treasons, stratagems and spoils.’

Right, I’ll get on with it.