Radiohead

Where to find it?

www.radiohead.com/deadairspace

Self-penned?

Oh yes. If you didn’t get the joke that led to Radiohead calling their biggest hit Paranoid Android, you will now.

The angle?

Musicians on the verge of a nervous breakdown “touch base” with their fans to remind themselves that beyond the studio there is a world out there – albeit one that Thom Yorke is convinced is about to end. Probably best avoided by the sort of people who think that there’s no problem that can’t be solved by taking a “chill pill”.

Insider story or brand extension?

Surprisingly candid, actually. Postings oscillate between Thom’s concerns for the planet and his fear that the muses are deserting him: “today i was struggling, feels like we been trapped for a long time in la la land.”

Typical excerpt

“blair has been uttering nonsense lately about kyoto and such, real la la stuff. looks like the american right have finally eaten his mind. blah, blah – why would i meet this man?”

Best

Loads. The MP3 tease of bits that didn’t make it on to In Rainbows. Thom’s riposte to Noel Gallagher’s assertion that “I never went to f****** university. I never went to art school.” “i did,” he writes, “it taught me to respect other artists.”

Worst

Inherent to being in Radiohead seems to be the sense that there are far too many terrible things going on in the world to use the shift key. Do they not teach grammar at grammar school?

Overall 9/10

Manic Street Preachers

Where to find it?

www.manicstreetpreachers.com

Self-penned?

Frequent entries by the bassist Nicky Wire, interspersed with extensive Q&As.

The angle?

Venerable Welsh rockers seek to reconcile their self-image as perennial outsiders with the way they appear to be mellowing with the years. “I was at home for six weeks after Stanley was born which was bliss,” writes Nicky Wire.

Insider story or brand extension?

As you would expect from a band whose most memorable hit ( A Design For Life) begins “Libraries gave us power”, it reads like a group of literate Welshmen chewing the fat.

Typical excerpt

“Pete Murphy came backstage to meet us. He was a bit of an icon for us growing up. Every f***ing indie kid’s dream was to get the sympathy vote from the local Goth girl and get a snog at the end of the night.”

Best

“I think I should stand up for British service stations, there’s always some c***y chef on BBC Two saying: ‘As a kid I was driving through France and there were these great services.’ Yeah? You go into one in France and they’ve still got Betamax videos and dusty antiques”

Worst

Loss of sense and perspective when mulling on the chart entry of recent album Send Away the Tigers: “With the single we ended up losing by a couple of thousand so you kind of take that on the chin, but when it’s as close as it was with the album...”

Overall 8/10

David Gilmour

Where to find it?

davidgilmour.musicblog.co.uk/

Self-penned?

Doesn’t appear to be, so its victory in the Best Blog category at last year’s BT Digital Music Awards is baffling.

The angle?

Regular updates on every aspect of the Floyd man’s musical activities? The chart position of his new CD in several “territories”? Only obsessives could care. Yet the site moderators seem surprised at all the e-mails urging him to tour. “No one likes to be nagged, and several of the messages have bordered on the disrespectful.”

Insider story or brand extension?

Mostly the latter: “The Borders DVD package includes a mini-poster. This shows David at Abbey Road, with the band onstage behind him and green lasers.” Occasional pictures, also, taken by David’s wife, Polly Samson. “

Typical excerpt

One of the pleasant surprises during David’s tour was the drumming of Steve DiStanisiao, we thought you might appreciate an update on what Stevie has been up to...”

Best

A struggle to find anything – but after an hour on the site it was hard not to start laughing deliriously at a longish entry based entirely around a picture of Dave’s bassist relaxing in the studio. An “exclusive”, apparently.

Worst

It’s difficult to retain the will to live when news comes in that “Belgian radio station Classic 21 will be broadcasting an hour-long show on the making of David’s second solo album, About Face, tomorrow.”

Overall 1/10

Babyshambles

Where to find it?

www.babyshambles.net/books.asp

Self-penned?

To the point of almost total illegibility.

The angle?

The Thomas De Quincey of the 3am Pages transcribes the inner cogitations of an artist, so that we may all vicariously see how exciting it is to gaze down from the precipice of, like, the edge.

Insider story or brand extension?

Both. “The joke is on humanity god the self-explanatory irony of agony,” he writes, “Given to occasional phoney personality that parodies and savages my reality.”

Typical excerpt

“I heard tell today of a ‘rat temple’ in Calcutta – where millions of rats run free and are worshipped. I sensed doom shadowing across the room like a heavy cloud of scurrying rats...”

Best

The mild air of affrontery that goes with his posting about hearing some Muzak at his local McDonald’s and realising it was actually one of his own songs. A bitter pill to swallow for the Big Brother generation’s very own Arthur Rimbaud.

Worst

How to choose one when almost every page smacks of an outrageously indulged talent plumping up his own myth, so that posterity may allow future generations of idiots to gaze fondly upon it? Oh, all right, then. The tawdry blood paintings.

Overall 3/10

Belle and Sebastian

Where to find it?

www.belleandsebastian.com/diary

Self-penned?

Very much so.

The angle?

Incorrigibly upbeat daydreamer makes the most of being in a successful band. Frequent reminiscences of teenage life in 1980s Glasgow and impromptu reviews of current iPod obsessions such as They Don’t Know by Tracey Ullman and Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Insider story or brand extension?

As befits a regular churchgoer, several entries verge on confessional: “I was so excitable last night that I drove drunk. S***, I don’t drink, and I rarely drive.”

Typical excerpt

“I’m in a pretty good mood this morning. No broken bones, just a bit of deafness and a touch of athlete’s foot. I would not say no to a massage.”

Best

“Earlier, I received an e-mail offering me free business cards. I’ll have those, I thought. You should have them too, from www.vistaprint.com . You should try this game. See if you can get the free business cards without ordering anything else.”

Worst

That Doherty’s self-obsessed rough book scribblings have been published into a book, whilst these lovingly fashioned observations can only be accessed via the web.

Overall 10/10

Lily Allen

Where to find it?

www.myspace.com/lilymusic

Self-penned?

“I was ill. I don’t want to go into the details as it’s a bit gross.” That’s a yes.

The angle?

Luscious, boozy twentysomething Wife of Bath type goes on MySpace at 2am and slags people off.

Insider story or brand extension?

So insidey that not even the spelling mistakes are corrected (“ciggarettee”). Celebrity feuds and detailed explanations of various illnesses abound, plus a cheery briskness in discussing her work.

Typical excerpt

“Cheryl if you’re reading this, I may not be as pretty as you but at least I write and SING my own songs without the aid of autotune.”

Best

Allen dressed up as a panda. Romantics will be tickled to read her entry about first meeting Ed of the Chemical Brothers, with whom she is now expecting her first child.

Worst

After the Cheryl Tweedy and “FatGate” blogs made tabloid headlines, Allen’s blogging frankness has dropped off. Or, as she puts it: “The tabloid f***s have ruined it... the truth is I don’t want to be in their f***ing stupid magazines.”

Overall 8/10

Courtney Love

Where to find it?

www.courtneylove.com/

Self-penned?

Oh sweet Jesus, yes. Love’s typing style is both as unique and ultimately incomprehensible as a fingerprint.

The angle?

The grunge Jackie Kennedy roams the world in search of rock’n’roll, couture and true love, and then name-drops at a rate of four celebrities a paragraph.

Insider story or brand extension?

Couldn’t really be more inside. At one point, there is an entry on Love’s gynaecologist and her continuing reproductive viability (“Well I wish id had six kids but I didn’t.”)

Typical excerpt

“OOOOH so i sent miyo cooya (in my friends) some cash to go shopping in Tokyo for me and she sent me some amazing Gothic Lolita items – a crazy top hat with fruits flowerrs a veil and a dead mouse with a crest on it”

Best

After Sharon Osbourne claims that Love gave the teenage Kelly Osbourne Vicodin: “sharon knows thats NONSENSICAL but she was too cowardly to pick on Elton who shes apparently vicious about behind his back.”

Worst

No such thing, so here’s another best bit: “I met dame Westwood and i FORGOT id met her an weded talked on tghe phone for three hours once ! christ - I [mentioned Westwood’s son, Joe Corre] and she said “who” i said “Your SON” she seemd distratced”

Overall 10/10

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