Kevin Buckle: Knock Sheeran on the Ed and Be Like Pablo

These days when I hear a new song or album I always think about whether it is so good that people will feel they need to own it in a way that actually involves paying out hard cash. Most music to be honest is either not that good or not good enough to be worth somebody's money.

Be Like Pablo - quite possibly the only band ever to come from Forres

Getting somebody to buy an album is hard enough but the days of people going out and buying singles in any quantity are long gone.

Huge artists benefit greatly from downloads, though even that is declining and of course streaming, which is currently looking like the way many people are choosing to listen to their music.

So when I heard the single There She Is from Be Like Pablo – the only band I can ever remember coming from Forres, though I’m sure I’ll be corrected – my first thought was it belonged to a time when people would rush out and buy the limited seven inch and possibly two limited seven inches with different B-sides. The old days when people bought sometimes three formats of the same single to get different extra songs, which of course did its chart placing no harm. On the plus side each format was often only 99p so all three for less than £3 was a bargain!

Jerry-Jane Pears stars in the video for There She Is

First and foremost it is a very good catchy pop song but it also has an excellent video by the award-winning company Freakworks.

I’m taking that award-winning on trust but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if this video won awards. It stars the model and actress Jerry-Jane Pears, which itself leaves you wondering how they persuaded her to take the role, as an old high school crush that finds fame and fortune and literally comes to life from magazines and TV screens.

Watching on YouTube it is no surprise when finished that it quickly recommends Weezer and possibly the ultimate accolade, Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus. So a great song, a brilliant video and yet unfortunately you are left wondering in a world where Ed Sheeran inhabits most of the top 20 how it will reach the much larger audience it deserves.

By coincidence I nipped out to the local chip shop earlier and took my youngest daughter’s car which had the radio tuned into a commercial radio station.

Jerry-Jane Pears stars in the video for There She Is

The first song was I assume a chart hit called Paris by Chainsmokers. Not that I recognised it but I remembered enough of the lyrics to google it on my return. Terrible name though.

Anyway, the next song was dreadful, generic nonsense that seemed slightly familiar but I couldn’t place it. Hearing the chorus for the second time it finally dawned on me that it was indeed Mr Sheeran with Shape Of You !

There She Is is out this week and there is a launch for the single in Edinburgh at The Mash House on April 22. You can find details on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/belikepablo/. Log on to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Jy5OL_SPk to see the video.

Both sides must step up to the plate

I’m not sure which is more annoying– the slick PR campaigning of those supporting the music school for the old Royal High or the hotel developers who just refuse to engage in the media at all. David Orr appeared at a public meeting recently, which is something, but they really need to up their game.

On the other hand the most recent social media accounts set up to support the music school are just PR propaganda along with funny little photoshop pics that smack of an attempt to be clever but just don’t work.

There are good and bad points to both plans and I do wish they had been discussed more intelligently in the media than has been the case.

Soon we will have moved on again as more decisions are made and hopefully both sides will realise that neither name calling nor silence are going to win over the public.

So sad to see the Circus roll out of town

Sad to see the Electric Circus finally close its doors this Saturday. I recently had a long chat with Dennis Chester the owner on the state of live music venues in Edinburgh and as you would expect from a man who has been involved over 40 years he had a great perspective on how things had changed over the years and what if anything was the way forward.

The jury is out on whether Edinburgh has too many or too few venues for the number of people who drag themselves from their TV screens to actually go out at night these days but certainly the discussion on the support live music needs will continue as many millions of pounds are poured into sections of the arts far less popular and reaching very fewer people.

I think everybody will wish Dennis well in his retirement and thank all who have helped Electric Circus over the years to be one of the city’s best venues.

It is isn’t good enough for Edinburgh Council to simply say they want to support music in the city centre they have to actively do so and it will be interesting after the elections to see how that manifests itself.