The Seldom Seen Kid
15th March 2008
The fourth album from Elbow is another intensely personal journey through main man Guy Garvey’s experiences, dripping with introspective worry and wonder. Twice divorced, world-weary and used to life in England’s rainy cities, the music of Elbow always reflects the intricacies of life and loves in Northern towns, and its a narrative I buy into with every release.
#737 | 15/03/08 | Music | More >
More Nottingham gig artwork - Jay Ryan (Bird Machine)
2nd February 2008
Earlier today I wrote about Chris Summerlin’s brilliant gig posters, and he and I had discussed the work of The Bird Machine - a Chigago-based outfit led by Jay Ryan - responsible for quite a few Nottingham posters.
These beauties are sketchier, more heavily worked than Chris’s posters, but just as covetable. They can be purchased via the Richard Goodall Gallery of Manchester, or by contacting The Bird Machine directly.
#732 | 02/02/08 | Culture Music | More >
Official gig poster art by Chris Summerlin
2nd February 2008
Top Nottingham-based illustrator Chris Summerlin just delivered nine of his incredible gig posters in person. And a fine chap he is too. After ordering my prints, it turned out that Chris lived one street away from me in Sneinton! Small world.
These are all genuine gig posters commissioned by the bands for some of their gigs in Nottingham, so they all mention fine venues such as The Social, Rescue Rooms, Rock City etc - and I even went to some of these gigs. One is even from a gig at Sneinton Hermitage!
As many of you know, I’m a huge music and illustration fan, so when the two combine I get excited. Trawl the web and you’ll find lots of gig poster sites (I’m also a fan of The Small Stakes folio), but there’s so much lame gig poster art out there or artwork not authorised by the bands, or made after the gigs, that to have these wonderful genuine prints is a bit of a coup.
Chris sells his posters as crisp A3 prints for around a fiver each, or he’ll do you a deal for bulk orders. All delivered carefully in strong cardboard tubes. Visit Chris Summerlin’s website to order prints or get in touch with him, or check out his Flickr poster art set. Chris is a freelance artist, and is available for commissions of all kinds. Word on the grapevine is that some commissioned artwork might just appear in my redesign later this year, but keep that to yourselves.
#731 | 02/02/08 | Culture Music | More >
Ágætis Byrjun
9th January 2008
Eight years ago, I spent the Millennium Eve week in a tiny chocolate-box house by the lake in Reykjavik’s old town. I’d just split from my Icelandic girlfriend (Hi Erla) of two years, and I was down. Really down. We were getting on though (still do), working stuff out, and she gave me an album by a band I’d never heard of called Sigur Rós (about whom I’ve written many, many times). This was some time before most folks in the UK had heard of them.
#723 | 09/01/08 | Music Personal Travels | More >
CSS Creative Design
31st July 2007
Hopefully you will thank me that I do not have time, energy or desire to write up my lengthy moans about the big Arctic Monkeys super-gig I attended at the weekend. Sufficed to say that the bands were excellent, as expected, and that most of my moans are to do with beer queues, my age and its importance at all-day gigs, and having hundreds of teenage girls shrilling the lyrics to Mardy Bum at Emma and I until our ears bled. At least the stage artwork was amusing. Nope, lets have a bit of self-promotional CSS-based news instead.
The Erskine Design and Erskine Corp sites are featured in a gorgeous new Japanese book CSS Creative Design. A few snaps of the book can be seen in this Flickr set.
Thanks to Kazumichi Takahashi for sending us a copy all the way from the other side of the world. What a nice person.
#707 | 31/07/07 | CSS Erskine Music | More >
Our Love To Admire
24th July 2007
I guess I should say something about the latest Interpol album, seeing as I’ve just played it three times in a row. I’ve already written about this band on several occasions, and I suppose I’m knee-jerking to the middling reviews in the UK press for their third album. In a nutshell, the average review is wrong, and I am entirely right. It is perfect.
Perfect? Well, I’m not sure yet, but bloody hell - how it has grown on me in the last few days. The opening trio of Pioneer To The Falls, No I in Threesome and The Scale equal anything they did on the past two albums. I’d even go so far as to say that Pioneer... is better than seldom heard non-album favourite The Specialist. That good, that dark.
I dunno. There is something unique about this band. Nonsensical lyrics, dark, Joy Division-inspired guitars (yes, just like Editors) and a thick slab of moodiness - but it all works, and their sound seems more mature with every track they make. I’m hooked yet again. Anyway, back to work…
#706 | 24/07/07 | Music | More >
Erskine give Beatport its own Beatportal
30th June 2007
Over at Erskine Design, we’ve just cut the ribbon on Beatportal - a massive new site for another of our US clients. Beatportal is the latest project from the top-class chaps at Beatport.com, the recognized leader in electronic music downloads.
You may already be aware of their cleverly databased Flash-built store, and now the new portal (yes, it seems we do still use that word) provides lovers of bleepy, electronic music with up-to-date information and worldwide events whilst finally giving their customers a real sense of community. And thanks to some trickery-pokery, we’re able to deep-link directly from Beatportal into their Flash store.
Just about all of the credit needs to go to our Jamie Pittock, whose fine craftsmanship, unparalleled knowledge of EE (I thought I knew it all until he came along), and ability to dispense with sleep for months on end allowed the folks at Beatport to basically give us a complete wishlist of what they wanted. Naturally, the site is running off EE 1.6, which is perhaps the most exciting release from the EE team to date. I’m trying not to be quite so evangelical about EE for a while as I was going overboard, so I’ll let Veerle fill you in.
We ended up making quite a few layout amends at the end of the testing phase to accommodate standard advert sizes and other things, so if you spot any errors in our last minute changes then feel free to tip me off as usual. Don’t tell me that the site lacks guitar-based music - I tried to push for more but it was never gonna happen.
We’ve quite a few other juicy things to throw out in the next month or two, including some projects we’ve been desperate to talk about for months, plus (finally) exciting stuff such as a brand new office and our forthcoming call for staff. Keep ‘em peeled.
For now, Jamie, myself and the other Erskinites are off to spend two days in the remote Yorkshire dales without access to phone networks or wifi. It is a Summer Holiday of sorts, but also our annual opportunity to catch up with each other properly, drink ale, and chat in the saunas. Lovely.
#703 | 30/06/07 | EE Erskine Music Web stuff | More >
The Killers: Geniuses or Peniuses?
2nd November 2006
I was penning a new Music Monthly, as I’m getting numerous requests to bring them back. Part of this forthcoming installment was a long and winding rant about The Killers.
This cathartic rant has spiralled out of control, so I’ve pulled it out and am just going to post it right here, right now. So, do I love The Killers, or do I hate them? Read on…
#656 | 02/11/06 | Music | More >
Best Gig You Ever Experienced?
20th October 2006
Last week, in an attempt offset the mammoth workload and do something without pixels, I assembled all of my gig tickets from the last fifteen years. In doing so, the memories came flooding back and I began to compile my top ten gigs as I went.
Not an easy task, I’m bound to have forgotten one, and I’ll probably re-order it at some point, but I think I got there…
#648 | 20/10/06 | Lists Music | More >
Great Expectations
28th September 2006
There are a few things I’d love to write about, but can’t - not until Monday. So, for now I’ll share something very personal.
Here are the lyrics to a song about a man who imagines he’s married his girlfriend on a nightbus. This song reflects where my head is at right now, on many levels. This may not be what you assume. I’d tell you who the song is by, but then it wouldn’t be mine any more…
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This is the personal home of Simon Collison; web designer/developer and author. Simon runs Erskine Design, a web agency based in Nottingham, UK. Read more...
Note: I've stripped down the site for a while whilst I rethink it. I'll give it a fresh lick of paint really soon.
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