time flies when you're having fun

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while waiting at bethnal green tube station the other morning i noticed a poster advertising oasis' latest money grabbing rehash of 90's classics. i'm sure there was something very similar to this last year called 'stop the clocks'? anyway, 'time flies' is a singles collection, all 5627 of them. some are outstanding ('supersonic', 'cigarettes & alcohol'), some are truly awful ('sunday morning call', 'i'm outta time') but it got me thinking about 'the old days'. the days of blur vs oasis, the days of jarvis at the brits, the days when bands had personalities, the days when i had album release dates etched in my gsce revision drained memory and marked on my jet from gladiators calendar. what happened to those days?

why don't we queue up at virgin megastore at midnight anymore to buy a new album? ok, that's a bad example because virgin no longer exists, but those were the days when bands were exciting, albums were events, and music was front page news. maybe i'm showing my years and my ever receding hair line here, but the kids of today (did i really just say that?) don't know what they're missing.

i don't blame the internet, i fucking love the internet, great for arty pictures of the female of the species, or so my friends tell me, but leaking albums is the norm now and we're never going to get back to the excitement of going 'daan taan' to buy that shiny new cd, and racing home to listen to the eleven or so songs on repeat. now we know all nine or so songs well before the official release date and tend to be bored of the offering before it hits the grey metallic shelves. this has it's advantages. our pockets are lined with extra sterling to spend down the local boozer, but we're now faced with a lack of excitement in purchasing new music, and also awol is the camaraderie and personality.

previously mentioned bethnal green tube poster reminded me of what had passed, and what we lack now. our folks had lennon, jagger, pressley and rotten, we had gallagher, albarn, cocker and mike flowers pops, but who have the youth of today got? turner? maybe if he gets back to his sheffield tracksuit routes. doherty? he can barely open his eyes long enough to voice an opinion. that bloke from kasabian who wants to be russell brand? not exactly news of the world stuff is it? we had weeks of excitement, saving of paper round pennies, and midnight queues, today it's torrents and bit rates. so come on today's bands, step up, lets hear about your tv throwing, mistress madness and narcotic naughties, that after all is the romance and charm of rock n roll that can never be taken from us, virgin megastore or no virgin megastore...