Paddy seems like such a wise soul, but it is undeniable he has been
distracted by a need for commerical success, the anithesis of his persona -
i imagine he has fought these feelings [or demons ?] throughout his entire
career - just who or what is his "audience"?

If you take a band like scritti politti, similar in a few ways - ie era -
and good pop for 80s [ im no fan of scritti incidently], they disappeared,
yet released a cd last year to huge critical acclaim because they catered
for a specific audience, rather than a scritti politti audience.

Another disparate artist that somehow reminds me of paddy mcaloon, in that
he touches on genius, and dabbles in pop - is robert wyatt - now i know he
has been around a lot longer and done a lot more etc - but he is always in
the music press and this is probably because he doesnt care for chart
success and [serendiptitiously ?], he garners new fans whilst keeping old
ones happy as a result.

I seriously think that paddy still dreams that there are a "loyal 70s type
music consumer", like fans of the Beach Boys or Van Morrison who would wait
eagerly for each LP and put it at the top of the charts with each new
release, but music fans are fickle creatures, particularly these days.
Andromeda and Gunman I saw as an attempt to keep existing fans happy, but of
course, comparing hese Cds to Steve / Protest / Jordan / Langley etc would
always end in tears....

I think after Langly park which is a fantastic item i felt should have
signified a change - yes, Jordan was a superb follow up, but something very
different should have followed then, something more angular and
experimental, jordan material really should have been put on hold, and a
return to form article to release in his hey day - which is hopefully still
years down the line..., is there another jordon type masterpiece shelved for
future release, fingers crossed!

I do hope Paddy is working on something , it really does feel that there is
something missing in music, and im talking about music as a whole and
throughout the last 5 decades - i could easily envisage in any music
overview that paddy is crowned the greatest ever british songwriter, but he
needs to produce a couple of great lps and consolidate - there are some
loose ends that really need tidying, paddy knows it im sure, he also knows
what he is capable of which i find totally refreshing, not at all arrogant -
i just wish i knew what the hold up was - some sort of writers block?

- guess the music industry, with all the pirating etc is just too difficult
to crack, perhaps a paddy website that offers his next release, a release
that is as good as his best ever work, for free and subsequent articles in
the broadsheets about the novelty aspect of a masterpiece being offered for
free would be original and perhaps capture the nations imagination once
again and position him better for future works...........

ahh, fuck it, all i want is more good music - its easy for me to sit hear
and go on about it - i remember ricky gervais asking bowie, for the serial
Extra"s, to compose a song, he put it to Bowie that he wanted a "Life on
Mars type melody - with which Bowie replied, "oh right, ill just knock up
another life on mars for you, shall i....??

_________________________________________________________________
The next generation of Hotmail is here! http://www.newhotmail.co.uk