I will not lie to you, I have not been to any concerts. Of all the artists in music history, past and present, there are only two for whom I would have spent good money to go see live. Although currently fighting a legal court case, which could last for months, MJ would be the one! Who would come second? Well there are very few artists musically who can compete with Michael Jackson. Elvis, of course. The queen of Pop, started her Re-Invention tour on Saturday. There are very few artists that have such an impressive back catalogue, which is able to embrace your every mood, emotion and time/scenario. The music channels on Sky were playing Madonna’s Greatest Hits. I have both the Immaculate Collection and the more recent, GHV2. Each song is a classic. Within a second taking you to a very personal time and place. The power of music, something that you can never define but when you feel it, you know that you have been touched. Ask some of your friends what their favourite Madonna track is. I can guarantee that they they chose a song from her earlier career than from her more recent material. They are likely to chose “Crazy For You” or “Cherish”. There is one act of criminality. My favourite track is missing from the first greatest hits collection. Hoping to view the music video over the weekend, I was disappointed that it was never shown, not even on Magic. At 10pm, I had the television on, and was scrolling down the music channels (you know the drill by know guys, 440..441..442…) I reached Q and stopped. The song had just started, and the background was blue. If anyone can explain, why “True Blue” is not rated as one of Madonna’s greatest songs, please let me know. Surely she should be forgiven for the peroxide blonde hair and pocadot dress. Then, would you believe it, I receive this e-mail in my inbox at work on Monday, last week. The plot does not just thicken, it explodes…

When did you last burn? No, this is not some insane reference to the recent number one from Usher. I mean, created an audio CD. For me it has been several months. I think it was the time I was in between jobs. Thankfully this was a busy two week period during Euro2004. I am itching to be given the opportunity to burn and the moment cannot come too soon. I have added so much music to my world famous, Audio collection. The reason for the delay is quite simple. I no longer commute to work in my car. The twenty hours of commuting are either spent a drifting into micro sleep or reading (unfortunately not some major literacy work, but the Metro). With my mobile audio collection, it is merely a case of re-issue a few albums for updates. However there is one album that I have forever been thinking about but never got around to actually producing. The Drive Easy album was to be full of selective mellow tracks. My sister, insisted on Life for Rent for Christmas last year. Originally, I had always believed that Dido was a artist producing quality, if somewhat bland material. This changed, the moment, I started listening to this album. My sister had it in the car, and told me to select track six, late on Monday evening, as we drove into the night. Don’t Leave Home, is an extremely interesting track,with lyrics that do not just merely entertain, but generate a response, a reaction. The title track, itself is uniquely sentimental yet still powerful enough for you to be moved. This is one artist who is going to appear regularly on this easy listening compilation for the car.

What do the 1980s mean to you? Do you ever wish you could go back? I do, constantly. I have even mention to some friends, that I am willing to sell my soul to any willing bidder on eBay (only if the Devil is unavailable!) Finally, someone has written a song about the best year of the 1980s. How about this for the name of an punk rock album? Pure class. Just like when I discover that the ground floor reception number is (would you believe?) 1985…