Update 29 Nov 2005: The original Virgin link no longer seems to have the picture. It should still be available here. I have also been told that Virgin have claimed that there are actually 74 bands in the picture since my original post. Perhaps, with all the excellent guessing and varied interpretations in the comments below, they have realised that there were some other bands included by accident.

The Virgin Digital Find the 72 Bands competition is the cleverest piece of marketing I have seen in ages. If you haven’t already got the picture in an e-mail forward, you can get it at the Virgin Digital site.

Guaranteed to provide endless hours of amusement and head scratching, it’s a large image which contains graphic representations of 72 band names. For example, there are 2 pink scissors with pink ribbons in the middle of the photograph which represent the Scissor Sisters (I hope! ).

I’m not even halfway there yet! I’ll leave the ones I’ve figured out with a little help from my friends as a comment. I won’t leave explanations for the moment to avoid spoiling all the fun and to spare my blushes if I’m wrong How many have you got?

I remember many a summer evening spent listening with my mum and sister to her late night 2FM show. My musical tastes were usually a bit more mainstream, but Uaneen’s passion and enthusiasm for all sorts of music were infectious.

Whenever I think of Uaneen, I can still see her smile and hear her warm bubbly tones going into raptures about a great new band. She certainly made her mark. RIP Uaneen.

I downloaded my first song from iTunes today. I always thought that the songs you downloaded would be yours to play where you wanted; just like owning the single but without the physical disc and sleeve. Then I realised that the file was in fact in m4p format, which meant it was a protected file. This would not have been a big deal except for the fact that I had downloaded the song for my Mum, who wanted to listen to it on a standard CD on her stereo.

Luckily that’s where JHymn comes in. This small program converts protected m4p or m4b audio files to either standard iTunes m4a files or, better again, mp3 files. It claims to convert the files without any loss in quality and the end result sounded pretty good to me. Well, as good as you could expect a Simon Webbe song to sound!

I love my iPod but I don’t love the proprietary file formats and iTunes hassle that go with it. I often wish I could just download songs onto it from anywhere on any machine. Regardless of how tricky they ever make it all, I’d still take the rather fabalicious iPod nano any day of the week

Franz Ferdinand were absolutely fantastic. I was impressed by them in the Olympia last year but it was great to see they have raised their game even further in the meantime. Lead singer Alex Kapranos (in a rather fetching purple and black stripy jumper) and guitarist Nicolas McCarthy really worked the crowd. The highlights of the set for me were 40 feet, This Fire and naturally Take Me Out. They played a few songs from their forthcoming second album which sounded mighty fine too.

They are set to play The Point in November so catch them if you can.

He graduated with a degree in politics from there back in 1990 but never made it to the graduation ceremony, so it was his first time donning the cap and gown. He was presented with the honour before playing a gig there last Thursday night.

In true Nicky style, he then played the gig while wearing the university robes – rock on!

So, I was crestfallen last week when I realised that my click wheel had marks on it. I consulted my iPod and iTunes Hacks book to no avail. This book was a big disappointment. Much of the info is specific to Macs, and unless you want to make a cardboard case for your ipod or integrate it with your motorcyle, you won’t get excited.

Then I was on the verge of a breakdown when I realised that the screen protector of my pink iskin cover had somehow disappeared and there were several marks on the screen.

Now, I am pretty clumsy but being out and about on the buses seems to take its toll on my belongings. My lovely little Sony radio is in bits and my old Discman did not look much better. But my iSkin screen protector never really stayed put so I’m not surprised it escaped. Unfortunately, I’m testing out the ipod remote at the moment so it could well have been without it for several days – hence the marks.

However, maybe everything does happen for a reason. Having scoured the net for replacement screen protectors and click wheel covers, I came across the all new iSkin Wildsides, which launch sometime this month. Apple die hards will probably hate these. They are pretty gaudy! I *so* want one Plus as well as getting a new screen protector, I will get a co-ordinated click wheel cover, so it’s essential I indulge for the safety of my ipod

In the meantime, I’ve ordered an iPoDonut for $10 (including shipping worldwide). This weird glow in the dark donut shaped thing will cover my click wheel and comes with a film screen protector. OK so I’m paying 10 bucks for 2 bits of plastic but compared to most of the ripoff paraphernalia around it’s a bargain. It seems you can stick the letter i in front of anything and make a mint these days

To complete the fairytale ending, I discovered that lightly pressing and removing some not too sticky sellotape on the click wheel does a nice job of cleaning it up. I’m off to set up iTape inc.

they even played australia this time – my favourite song ever!!! i nearly jumped out of my front row seat the tracks from their new album lifeblood sounded great, especially to repel ghosts and the forthcoming single empty souls (which you got a limited edition slip case for at the door).

of course i never tire of hearing old favourites like a design for life, which closed the show, and they played plenty of holy bible stuff which i hope kept the hardcore happy too…

all in all a great night and something tells me next week’s entertainment will provide the perfect contrast

this will be his first ever irish show despite the fact that he has *lots* of irish fans (yes really!) and does lots of recording here.

tickets go on sale next saturday, 24 july at 9.00 am from ticketmaster and i’ll be up bright and early sitting at my laptop with my credit card handy when they do! i think i better leave right now before i go out of my mind with excitement

Will Young announces debut Irish shows (rte news article)