So we’re going to the gig and Harry points over his shoulder and says
"There’s Buckingham Palace."  Now usually you’re a tourist, hunting down these
attractions, but to be cruising with residents in their car is a wholly different
experience.  The flag was raised.  The Queen was in.  I suggested dropping by. 
Hell, in L.A. you’d see her in a club.  Everybody’s out and accessible in L.A.
Can you imagine the Queen in "The Enquirer"?  Maybe eating a bagel in the
back seat of her Rolls?

And the show was in a building owned by the crown.  An art academy/museum.

What a space.  It seems nightlife is still happening here.

Oh, it’s happening in the U.S.  In the form of DISCOS!  Put on your trendy
clothes and go out and bump and grind.  But this was a different crowd.  Not
every body was perfect.  Only about a third had on their look.  They were
scenesters of a different type.  The twentysomethings who need to be OUT!

Really, it was quite an interesting space.  There were art exhibits.  A
Concentration game made up of Polish posters.  You hit a block like Whack-A-Mole to show its colors and then you hit another block for a match.  If you succeeded
the two stayed lit, if not, they went back to their generic format.

There was a pulse here.

Actually, it’s a completely different business here.  People still buys CDs. 
They take the iTunes Music Store seriously.  Bands can still change the world.

Turns out the album of the year is by someone who’s made no impact in the
U.S. yet.  James Blunt.  Will was singing along as we navigated our way through
the streets of Manchester on the way to London.  Go to the U.S. iTunes Music
Store and download his single for free.  You’ll get an idea of where the U.K.
market is at.

Then again, it’s not narrow like the U.S.  It’s not all hip-hop all the time.
This is just an ELEMENT!  God, everybody here wants to talk music.  Nobody
wants to talk music in the U.S.  It’s only about the money.

And that’s not the only thing that’s different.  The happening acts, the ones
with the serious buzz, they sign to independents.  Franz Ferdinand…  Hell,
the majors will offer them anything they want, they’ll match any deal, they’re
just that hungry.  But the acts turn them down. So, the download revolution
isn’t happening here, but the indie revolution is.

So, I’m dead tired and under the weather, but I wanted to tell you the latest
Podcast is up and running.  You can, of course, go to Rhino.com to get it. 
But now, you can subscribe to it via iTunes.  You can go into the podcast
section of the iTunes Music Store and search for Rhino and subscribe, or just go to: Podcast and instantly subscribe that way.

This week I tackle the concert grosses.  It was recorded a couple of weeks
back, but as Led Zeppelin said, the song remains the same.