You may not know this, indeed you may not want to know, but Key Notes will be getting married in 57 days time. You're probably also unware of the fact that one of this blogs favourite bands is Biffy Clyro, a band who just happen to have a song called 57.

Feeling bored this morning; Key Notes set its mp3 player to random. What song should happen to play first? Yes, you’ve guessed it; Hannigan by Fairuza. However, 57 did pop up somewhere between Neil Young’s Rockin' in the Free World and Mercury Rev’s Opus 40. There is a reason why it's called random.

To mark the event, Key Notes proudly presents 57 as its inaugural Song of the Week: 

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The boys and girls behind the Mercury Music Prize clearly know more about music than we do. How else can you explain the decision to award 1995’s prize to Portishead above Oasis (Definitely Maybe), Supergrass (I Should Coco) or, if they wanted leftfield, Leftfield (Leftism). Portishead have gone on to produce approximately one studio album since winning the Mercury, showing that the judges faith in the band using the award as springboard for a glittering music career, (as the prize is designed to do) was incredibly ill-founded. 

1999 was another occasion when the Mercury judges showed us mere mortals how cool they really where when Talvin Singh usurped the likes of Blur, Beth Orton, Faithless and The Chemical Brothers to claim the award for his debut album OK. The problem with OK was just that, it was nothing more. Even 13, which, in Key Notes humble opinion, is Blur's weakest album, was more deserving of the nod that year. However, Singh ticked a number of pc boxes that the judges couldn’t ignore. Middleclass white boy rock just wasn’t hip enough anymore it seemed. 

And so we come to last night. The winners of the 2007 awards were (and lets hope you haven't taped it for viewing tonight) Klaxons for their debut, Myths of the Near Future. Now, far be it from this blog to predict the future, but as interesting (indeed as refreshing) as Klaxons are, it is very much the sound of 2006/7 and the fickle record buying public will shortly move on to whatever sound du jour our friends in NME and Hot Press tell them they should be liking in 2008.  They are hardly a band that we'll still be talking about in 10 years time.

Personally, Key Notes vote would have gone for Bat for Lashes. Fur & Gold is a lovingly and skilfully crafted collection of music veneered with haunting vocals and moments of pure unadulterated pop eccentricity not seen since Kate Bush disappeared over the top of that hill. It’s not the best album this blog has ever heard by any means, but it has longevity, a timelessness, that Key Notes just can’t hear in any of the other contenders for this year’s prize. 

With all that being said, music is about opinions, and an album one person hates could easily be another’s favourite and that’s why Key Notes believes we should stop all these silly awards, after all, the only real winners are the sponsors behind the prize. Tellingly, not many Mercury winners have gone on to forge massively successful careers (it’s too early to tell for The Arctic Monkeys). 

Over to you then dear readers. Who did you feel was most deserving of last nights award; or indeed, like Key Notes do you feel that music awards serve no greater function than promoting the awards sponsors (whom, you'll note, Key Notes has failed to acknowledge)?

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About twenty minutes from Paris by train, going south-east and up the Seine, there’s a town called Ris-Orangis. Sadly, it doesn’t live up to its evocative name; there are no orange groves or rice plantations - just grey motorways and peeling tower blocks. But when we went there it was not in search of a paddy field but a Paddy-street.

Like looking for Willie McBride's grave in 'The Green Fields Of France', after walking across this dusty town in the scouring sunshine for most of an hour (one cobbled road en route had literally been taken up), eventually discovering that another train station is much closer, we found it.

Welcome to Rue Rory Gallagher.

At first sight, considering the trek it takes to get there, it’s a bit of a let-down. You won’t find a tree-lined boulevard or bluesy back-alley; Rue Rory Gallagher is a drab dead-end road* running through a small industrial zone. It’s not attractively-planned or picturesque – the end of the road leads on to unused ground.

Around the corner is a large secondary school, so in the afternoons straggling teenagers traipse along it as a short cut to the nearby train station of Orangis Bois de l’Epine (the one we should have used). There’s no café or bar where you can sit down, get a drink and contemplate Rory – or even a shop to buy a choc-ice (it was a REALLY hot afternoon).

Basically, it’s no tourist attraction - the Rory Gallagher corners, squares and so forth across Ireland easily beat their French namesake in the picture-postcard stakes.

But why did this Paris satellite town name one of its backroads after an Irishman with no obvious French connection? Well, among the windowless warehouses and small factories on this street there’s a music venue called Le Plan – and it was here that Gallagher played his last French concert, in 1995 – just months before he died in June of that year.

Such was Rory’s popularity in France that immediately after his death local music fans moved to have the road outside the venue named after him. The local council promptly agreed and so, before Ballyshannon or Dublin or Cork got round to it, an unremarkable French town marked his memory and music. Rory’s brother Donal, keeper of the flame, and their mother Monica attended the unveiling of the new street-name in October 1995. An information panel outside Le Plan explains Gallagher’s life and work for any curious passers-by. Unfortunately, the panel tends to get pasted over with flyers for forthcoming shows.

On reflection, maybe the location is fitting – after all, factory-workers and schoolkids seem like exactly the sort of audience (or ‘demographic’, in today’s less-romantic term) that a bluesman would have wanted. There’s a live music venue there too, of course – and a train line** nearby; how blues is that?

And that waste ground at the end of the street has grown into a lush green meadow, natural and untended. This globetrotting and widely-loved musician has as a memorial a corner of a foreign field that is forever Ireland.

* The French don’t say ‘cul-de-sac’ and look at you funny if you do – it just means ‘the arse of a bag’; the French term is 'impasse'. In fact, there's another French dead-end street named after Rory; the Impasse Rory Gallagher in the southern town of Bedoin, near Mont Ventoux (infamous for the death of British cyclist Tom Simpson during the 1967 Tour de France).

** To get from Paris to Rue Rory Gallagher in Ris-Orangis by train, take the RER D (branch D4) from either Châtelet or Gare de Lyon. Make sure you take a train that stops at Orangis Bois de l’Epine – the station at Ris-Orangis is an hour’s walk away and on a different spur of the same line. From the station at Orangis Bois de l’Epine it’s just a five minute walk along a path through a field, bearing right towards some low warehouse-type buildings. You’ll come to some concrete bollards that mark the end of Rue Rory Gallagher; the street-sign is at the other end.

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What's the summer equivalent of 'hibernating'? 'Estivating'? Anyway, France is slowly reawakening from its traditional August slumber on the beach/beside the pool - everyone's back to school, work, politics and normal life.

Here in Paris the metro is packed again, all the boulangeries are open... and France's music stars are launching their new products. It's la rentrée!

For those who consume their music through the gossip mags (coming soon: the Amy/Pete/Britney love triangle), the most notable French record this season bears a similarity to last year's big rentrée release - an '80s child singing star of glamorous background, returning to high-profile music after concentrating on acting. Last year it was Charlotte Gainsbourg and her fine '5:55' album; this time around it's Vanessa Paradis, whose new album 'Divinidylle' comes out on 3 September.

Nowadays best known for being a Chanel model and Johnny Depp's rather emaciated partner, she will forever be famous in the English-speaking world for 'Joe Le Taxi', her breathy and suggestive 1987 single that established her as a Lolita-esque sex symbol. Nowadays, looking and listening back, it's striking how innocent the song actually is: it's really just about a guy driving a taxi!  That said, the song sounds fantastic - compared to today's cluttered and compressed production values, 'Joe Le Taxi' has the same sparseness as 'Walking On The Moon', married to a breezy summer vibe.

Interestingly, French press coverage of Vanessa's return has been skipping over her 1992 English-language album with her then boyfriend/Svengali Lenny Kravitz. This may be mere forgetfulness due to the album being fairly unspectacular; 'Be My Baby' was a catchy UK hit but the rest of the record was just harmless '60s French-pop pastiche.

'Divine Idylle', the chart-topping title track and first single off her new album, is something similar - well-made but unremarkable jangly guitariness with Mlle Paradis' breathy French vocals. And it doesn't have a chorus, it seems. Still, we'll never discourage any French acts from making glamorous Paris-pop. Vas-y, Vanessa.

Coincidentally, on the same day as the return of la Paradis, Manu Chao (left)follows up his summer single 'Rainin' In Paradiz' with his new album 'La Radiolina'. You can hear extracts from it on Chao's website. By the high standards of his ethno-pop back catalogue, 'Rainin' In Paradiz' was a stale lump of terrace-rock, so hopefully it's not typical of the album.

France's biggest international star is touring Europe in October; there's a string of dates up and down Britain but no Irish concert as yet. Surely some savvy Irish promoter will realise that the huge numbers of French, Spanish, Italians and South Americans in Ireland (oh, and plenty Irish too) will fill multiple nights of Chao at any Irish venue.

Many French indie fans are waiting impatiently for the new release by Deportivo (right), a three-piece from the Paris region. Their second album, 'La Brise' (produced by Strokes collaborator Gordon Raphael) comes out on October 24.

However, we reckon the French indie-pop album of the autumn will be 'The Fortune Teller Said', the second long-player by Grenoble band Rhesus. At first we were less than enthusiastic about first single 'Hey Darling' but recently it's been growing on us.

But, judging by magazine covers and airplay, la rentrée 2007 belongs to Vanessa Paradis, so here's the video for 'Divine Idylle':

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Everytime Bruce Springsteen heads off with his acoustic guitar, he comes back with an absolute class slice of electric Rock 'n' Roll and on the evidence of the lead single 'Radio Nowhere' from the forthcoming album 'Magic', it looks like it's going to be business as usual. It was never about getting your money's worth with Bruce, it has always been about getting something that money can't buy. Here it comes again.

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MUSIC
Friday, 7th September
Fun Lovin’ Criminals, The Blizzards, Roisin Murphy and Majella Murphy.
Doors 6.00pm
 
Saturday, 8th September
Paddy Casey, Ocean Colour Scene, Republic of Loose, The Enemy, 28 Costumes and The Kinetiks.
Doors 4.00pm
 
Sunday, 9th September
Badly Drawn Boy, Kila, Tom Baxter, Buffalo Souljah and Delorentos, Newton Faulkner
Doors 3.00pm
  

SURF

For surf lovers and first time surf spectators, Spanish Point Beach will be the place to catch all the surfing action.  A two-day professional surfing competition will be held on Saturday, 8th September and Sunday, 9th September in association with Sony Ericsson, West Coast Surf Club and Sony Ireland who are providing €10,000 euro worth of prizes including Sony Ericsson handsets, a Sony Bravia 42” LCD TV, Blue Ray player, a home cinema system and a Sony VAIO laptop.

Saturday, 8th September between 9am – 3pm:
Competitive surf heats will commence for all registered surfers at 9am and will continue up until 2pm.
 
Sunday, 9th September between 9am – 2pm:
Finalists will compete from 9am and go head to head in the final round at 2pm.
 
All advised surf heat timings are subject to change pending weather conditions on each day.
 
Cois Fharraige ticket holders are strongly advised to dress appropriately for rain and shine so don’t forget to come prepared and bring your picnic supplies!
  

THE TRANSPORT
The Surf Shuttle – Ketts Lounge Kilkee - The Armada Hotel Spanish Point and return.
A surf shuttle bus will be in operation for Cois Fharraige ticket holders only to provide transportation from Kilkee to Spanish Point to view the surfing event.  The surf shuttle service will be independently operated by Noel O’Shea coach hire.  Bus Tickets will cost €3 return.
 
The Surf Shuttle Timetable:
 
From Ketts Lounge in Kilkee to Burke’s Armada Hotel in Spanish Point
Departure Time: From 9am every half hour on a continuous loop until 1pm

From Burke’s Armada Hotel, Spanish Point to Ketts Lounge, Kilkee
Departure Time: From 10am every hour on a continuous loop until 4pm

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One of the small and infrequent joys of this summer was the gorgeous aerial footage of the 2007 Tour De France that aired on TG4. Sweeping shots of brightly dressed cyclists racing through amazingly picturesque, sunlit scenary only confirmed for us that, doping or not, France is still the real star of the Tour De France. This reality was brought home when I watched RTE's aerial footage of the closing minutes of Stage 4 of the Tour of Ireland. As pro cyclists whipped through Salthill on their way to the finish line I couldn't help but notice how this whole section of Galway from Knocknacarra onwards looks like one giant, ugly, concrete, outdoor jacks. You can criticise the French all you like about how they do or do not tackle drugs in sport but you can never accuse them of deliberately ruining their own countryside and heritage unlike the assembled forces here in Ireland who are determined to destroy, among other priceless treasures, the Hill of Tara.

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In the 1990s the actor Kevin Kline appeared in a light comedy film entitled 'In & Out' about a small town teacher who is inadvertently outed by a former student during an Oscar night acceptance speech. In the film, the big giveaway about Kline's sexual identity  is his passion for the music of Barbara Streisand; a narrative shorthand for all things fey, flowery, effeminate and, well, gay. So far, so cliched, so what. Except that when it comes to being treated, how shall we say this, not at a level with the prices charged, your average Babs fan is more Spartan warrior than shrinking violet. Rock fans, on the other hand, who are in the main teenage, rebellious and given to wearing black t-shirts saying things like 'Unleash Hell' are more reminiscent of The Gimp in 'Pulp Fiction' than the brave little punks that Jack Black leads to glory in 'School of Rock'. Hey, you can play 'Standing In The Way of Control' all you like but if you roll over on your back everytime you are taken for a ride you have no right to talk about how rock can change the world.

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There are, of course, a multitude of various publications and online sources all vying for your attention when it comes to reviewing the latest album releases. Obviously, CLUAS is your first port of call, not least for the exceptional standards of critiquing on display. If, however, you happen to seek a second opinion, you can expect some of the following. Oh, and all while all the names below are figments of Key Note’s imagination, it unreservedly apologises for any offence caused if you happen to share that persons/bands name.

Singer Songwriter Positive Review

‘While Paddy Casey’….I mean ‘While Padraic Kirwin eschews the spirit of Nick Drake and others of his ilk, one can’t help but get the impression, especially on album opener Mojo Pinball, that the ghost of Jeff Buckley rests heavily on his shoulders.’ If the singer songwriter happens to be Irish, you can expect something along the lines of ‘Kirwin’s falsetto vocals and sparse guitar, particularly on the rarely covered Leonard Cohen classic, Hallelujah, reminds the reviewer of the passionate subtleties of a pre 9 Damien Rice.’

Singer Songwriter Negative Review

‘Another in the long line of singer songwriters to emerge with a guitar and a broken heart is Brian Merlehan. A pale impression of Jeff Buckley, Merlehan has the singer songwriters full repertoire of teen-angst, lost love and woe is me three chord tricks.’ If the troubadour is Irish, the reviewer will tend to throw in: ‘Damien Rice and the gazillion selling O have a lot to answer for.’

Band

If a reviewer likes a band, and that band happens to have a keyboard, then an absolute must in music critiquing is to compare them to Joy Division/New Order. If you don’t like the band, and they happen to have a keyboard, then it is equally acceptable to compare them to New Order/Joy Division.

Likewise, if your band has a piano you’re the new Coldplay/Chris Martin, this again can be both a positive and negative comparison. Irish bands tend to be compared with Whipping Boy (for successfully being accepted by both the indie crowd and the music press), Snow Patrol (for making dull, pretentious stadium rock) and U2 (for having a really short front man).

Finally, if you’re from Liverpool then you were obviously influenced by The Beatles, even if you are a 76 piece A Capella Punk collective.

So, that is Key Notes observations on the Irish music journalists take on The Album Review. Have you noticed any recurring themes the reviews you have read? 

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