Sebastian Early Anthony Payne

As my friends have seen, I have never stopped ranting and raving about this new guitar - the Fender American Precision Electric Bass with S1 switching is now mine, after doing a direct swap for my Jazz. The style, shape and body of the Precision seem to suit me much better than the Jazz ever did.I have yet to try it through my Ashdown Engineering combo amp but after exams, I'll be pumping out some great bass moves - that's the idea. If anyone has a good suggestion for an ironic, tasteful or even relevevant name then be sure to let me know.

The Bruce Springsteen ticket is still with me so I will try the various Springsteen forums. I want to avoid eBay as much as possible as the seem to be many scalpers around who are looking for poor saps to take advantage of. The lack of entries has not been empathy but simply exams. Some more interesting things (less pictures, more words) will come when work is flowing less.

I bought a ticket to see Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band at Manchester but discovered it was a day before my last three-hour-epic exam that is very important to pass this year. I'm going to see Mark Knopfler - whether this is good or not - before an exam but I couldn't do this, especially with the amount of traveling involved.

After a tip off from a friend, I got a ticket to see him at Arsenal on 30th May instead, so I have a ticket spare. Shame the Manchester tickets are much better than the Arsenal ones. If anyone is interested in a ticket for Wednesday 28th May at Manchester Old Trafford Stadium at 7:30pm, send me a message! I'll try eBay and the various ticket swapping sites soon.

11th May 2008 marks a year since I travelled to London to see Roger Waters at Earl's Court. Earl's Court doesn't seem to get the musical attention of the O2 Arena these days. In my humble opinion, the O2 is more comfortable, has better viewing angles but is not as central as Earls' Court is. Roger is playing the UK again but the O2 this time around - proof in point. Switching back to 2007, I was heading up to my A-level exams and had booked this well in advance with high hopes for a show. Having see Jet, The Feeling and Bob Dylan within the past six months, I was looking forward to my first big show. When people ask whom my favourite band are, I give two answers. One is my current favourite and then the overall one. The current one at the moment is MGMT or The Raconteurs whereas the overall is always Pink Floyd, very English music about very English things. Seeing Roger Waters (original member and bassist of the band) was the best chance I'd ever have of seeing the music live. I missed David Gilmour's On An Island tour - hopefully he will tour again some day and I will be sure not to miss it!

The concert sticks in my mind as just fantastic. Unlike Bob Dylan (whom I saw just a few weeks previously), it was a proper show with excellent music (loud!), banter with the audience, pyrotechnics, flying pigs and topical films for each song. Being Roger Waters, it wouldn't be a show without some political statements. Being a 'newbie' to concerts, I wasted time taking photos, without the knowledge that it's better to go for videos for best memories. I did manage to snap this shot from the song 'Leaving Beirut'. Controversial I think you may say.

Roger played the same playlist with any variation but this suited me fine. An eclectic mix of a few solo songs, a sample from every period of Floyd's history and of course - Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety. I loved the record before but my appreciation has increased even more since watching the whole thing. It's not an album you can dip in and out of. To appreciate it as a work of art, you need to listen to the whole thing as a story. It's timeless and sounds (to me) excellent and relevant today. The instruments of On The Run and Any Colour You Like were songs that were really brought alive in concert compared the album versions. The epic opening to Time simply builds up the audience until the song kicks in and everyone went wild. The encore of Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2 and Comfortably Numb were a great roundup to the show. David Gilmour's guitar work and vocals were sorely missed the most on Comfortably Numb and Money. Roger's guitarists did a very good job but it was missing something. I'm unsure if having multiple guitarists for a epic solo works.

All in all, I've got great memories and will hopefully see Roger, David GIlmour or even Pink Floyd again some day. I've seen Roger on his 'Dark Side Of The Moon Live' tour and would only see him again if he does something different - The Wall maybe or Wish You Were Here? Speculation continues to rise about a reunited Pink Floyd and if Gilmour can brought around, I will be one of the first in line for tickets.

As I near the date of leaving for London (tomorrow), I thought I would suggest some fantastic Eagles songs I have discovered while exploring their back catalogue in preparation for seeing them live.

• The Sad Café (from The Long Run) - Known to Eagles fans as a hidden classic, this song was the last material to heard until 1994 with Get Over It. Being a Henley/Walsh/Fray/Souther composition, it is some of the best songwriting Don has ever done and includes everything you want from an Eagles song. Soft singing and precise drumming with touching lyrics. Finished off with a saxophone solo by David Sanbourn, it makes a lovely finish to an album full of hard rocking songs and deep cutting issues. Like Hotel California, it's up to you to decide what the song is about and how it relates to you personally.
• My Man (from On The Border) - In the vain of their early sound, this is an atypical country-rock song, driven by acoustic guitar with light drumming and slide guitar to brighten the mood. A tribute by then-Eagle Bernie Leadon to Gram Parsons (who had recently passed away at that time), the song will touch anyone who has suffered the loss of a close friend. The immortal line "and we who must remain, go on living just the same" is awfully special. I can not think of another song that expresses this so eloquently (Tears In Heaven comes close), My Man is a gem of a song which has never been performed by the band.
• Journey of a Sorcerer (from One of These Nights) - The track is most commonly associated with 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' but I can honestly say I have never heard it until I played it from the album, not being a science fiction fan. Space and country music have rarely been pushed together but this song shows it can be done. Driven by a banjo, strings and slide-guitar, it makes a top notch instrumental to chillax to, even if it is an uncommon path for the band. Sonic experimentation I believe is the term for such songs

That ends today's music thoughts. I've just purchased The Zutons' Tired of Hanging Around and absolutely love some of the songs on it. Expect a write up or a mention in the future. The album came out just before my interest in music really began to flourish, hence the delay in finding it. Good music and good songwriting - not something you see cobbled together in modern music. They are recording a new album so hopefully I may see them on tour soon.

When I get 'into' a band, I tend to explore their artiste's solo collections. Done this with Pink Floyd and now I'm doing the same with with The Eagles. Don Henley and Glenn Frey (drummer and guitarist, both lead songwriters) have had successful solo careers with Henley edging in front of Frey on sales and public exposure. Both of their music is full of hard, 80s guitar and synth driven rock which is awesome in my eyes and

The best place to begin for Don is Actual Miles, a greatest hits collection that includes a selection of songs from his first three albums, including such awesome tracks as Dirty Laundry, All She Wants To Do Is Dance, The Boys of Summer and The End of Innocence. His voice is instantly recognisable the same as Hotel California but the music is quite different - harder, funkier and certainly pop orientated. Pop is not something The Eagles ever aimed for.

On the Fray side, he hasn't released a collection of his hits which leaves you either buying several albums or getting individual songs for online sources. If it was this, I'd go for Smuggler's Blues, You Belong To The City, Sexy Girl and Brave New World. They are all different, enjoyable to listen and showcase a different side of 'the lone arranger'. The latter two hits are very pop orientated and both climbed their way up the Billboard 200 in the 80s but Sexy Girl is reminiscent of the Eagles with a soft moving, almost bouncing beat. Brave New World is idealistic to say the least.

Joe Walsh deserves a post of his own but that's for another day. If you ever listened to music radio, chances are high you will have heard of Rocky Mountain Way - a typical example of 70s rock. Out of the artists, either Walsh or Henley have experienced the most successful career and it's more up your individual tastes to decide which has the better songs. Thankfully for us all, the '14 year vacation' did them all good and they are back on top with Long Road Out Of Eden and UK tour coming soon. Long Live The Eagles...