Jay-Z on the way to releasing his very own greatest hits!

The greatest rapper of all time Jay-Z is on the way to release 'The Hits Collection Vol.1' which will be released on June 29th 2010 will be his first greatest hits compilation. Jay-Z is yet to release the song listings but it will include hit singles: 'Public Service Announcement', 'D.O.A.', 'Run This Town', 'Empire State Of Mind' and 'Where I'm From'. This will be an impressive 21st album release for the star but it is highly unlikely he'll be retiring anytime soon. The Hits Collection Vol.1 will most likely be very similar to 'The Blueprint' franchise which consists of 3 different albums.

Yamaha BB614 bass guitar review

I have been playing the bass guitar for about 5 years now, and have used a wide array of different guitars. All the way from a passive Fender Precision J-Bass to my trusty Yamaha BB614. I personally believe the Yamaha BB614 is one mean bass that any keen bass player should have in their inventory.

The Yamaha BB614 has a standard bolt on neck that allows you to have complete control over the action in the neck (how far the strings are from the fretboard). The next itself is an impressive 864mm long containing 21 large frets, instead of the standard 22 most basses have, these produces a cleaner sound with less buzzing. The fretboard is made of Rosewood, which is generally a soft wood, which absorbs the vibrations from the strings giving next to no prolonged buzz. The neck of the guitar is pure Canadian maple, which is considered the best wood for the neck of the guitar, as it generally is very clean and light in terms of weight. This basically eliminates any unnecessary weight; again the body is made of Alder, which is a heavy wood, hard but extremely durable which basically prevents the action of the guitar from breaking if the guitar is dropped.

The bridge is a typical vintage, found on many early Fenders, as guitar players have always said simplicity is the best option. The pickups contain 2 split single coils, which basically help create any sound whether this is distortion, clean or deep this is all based on the preamp, which I will cover shortly. On the bridge there is a single soapbar coil that acts as mid cut frequency, this mechanism basically controls exactly what sort of tone you're looking for.

The controls consist of 5 knobs, a master volume, balancer, treble, bass mid cut frequency and a bridge selector. A standard passive guitar usually contains only 2 knobs, but a preamp guitar such as this has 5 knobs which allow you to create a specific tone without even having to touch your amplifier, this makes the guitar extremely desirable but equally confusing for new players as it will take some playing around for you to find the exact sound you're looking for. One of the main benefits of the preamp is you can substitute them with buying pedals which can potentially save you a lot of money!

Lastly the guitar can be bought in 5 different colours, ranging from sunburn to uncoloured.

Apple's new iPad, is it really just a big iPhone?

The iPad was initially introduced during the year of 1993 as the Newton MessagePad 100, obviously technology wise it was 17 years behind what is on sale today, but it was the foundations of the future. Apple continued to develop the Newton MessagePad until 1998 when they finally discontinued them. The next appearance of a touchscreen computer for Apple would be the iPod Touch and the iPhone; the operating system for these were highly advanced and completely pioneered the touchscreen world.

It wasn't until late 2009 that speculation was occurring that a new Apple touchscreen device was about to reach the shelves. According to Apple, it was simply referred to "Apple's tablet" although iTablet and iSlate were suggested names. Finally the wait was over and by January 27th 2010 Steve Job's CEO of Apple had introduced the worlds first iPad to the general public.

Apple were in no rush to release the iPad, and began taking pre-orders for the USA only on March 12th 2010, followed by the general release of the Wi-Fi version on the 3rd April 2010, and 27 days later the Wi-Fi + 3G version was released in the US. The iPad is still yet to be available elsewhere in the world and will take to the shops in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom from May 28th and then Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July, 2010.

"Developer Apple Inc.
Manufacturer Foxconn (on contract)
Type Tablet media player/PC
Release date Wi-Fi model (US): April 3, 2010
Wi-Fi + 3G Model (US): April 30, 2010
Both Models (International): May 28, 2010
Units sold 1 million (as of May 3, 2010)
Operating system iPhone OS (modified)
3.2 (build 7B367)
Released April 3, 2010; 41 days ago
Power Internal rechargeable non-removable 25 W·h (90 kJ) lithium-polymer battery
CPU 1 GHz Apple A4
PowerVR SGX 535 GPU
Storage capacity Flash memory
16, 32, and 64 GB
Memory 256 MB DRAM built into Apple A4 package (top package of PoP contains two 128 MB dies)
Display 1024 × 768 px (aspect ratio 4:3), 9.7 in (25 cm) diagonal, appr. 45 in2 (290 cm2), 132 PPI, XGA, LED-backlit IPS LCD
Input Multi-touch touch screen, headset controls, proximity and ambient light sensors, 3-axis accelerometer, magnetometer
Camera None
Connectivity Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, USB 2.0/Dock connector
Wi-Fi + 3G model also includes: A-GPS, micro-SIM slot, Quad-band GSM 850 900 1800 1900 MHz GPRS/EDGE, Tri-band UMTS 850 1900 2100 MHz HSDPA
Online services iTunes Store, App Store, MobileMe, iBookstore
Dimensions 242.8 mm (9.56 in) (h)
189.7 mm (7.47 in) (w)
13.4 mm (0.53 in) (d)
Weight Wi-Fi model: 680 g (1.5 lb)
Wi-Fi + 3G model: 730 g (1.6 lb)"

The general pricing in the UK is as low as £429 in the UK and $499 in the US, making the iPad an affordable piece of equipment, but a luxury for most.

Social networking is rapidly taking over the world!

Want to know some interesting facts involving Facebook and Twitter and all the other social networking sites, then look no further!


There are more than 400 million active users, that's 6% of the world are currently using Facebook to communicate between themselves. Facebook was created in 2004, so that's 1% of the world signing up to Facebook per year approximately! 3% of the worlds population sign in EVERYDAY. Facebook has announced that 500 billion minutes are spent on Facebook per months and the average user has an impressive 130 friends. Facebook has announced that everyone on their network is linked together somehow via friends lists.

There are over 160 million objects that people interact with including pages, groups and events. The average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events and the average user creates 70 pieces of content each more. An incredible 25 billion pieces of content including web links, news stories, blog, posts etc shared each month.

Facebook has been made highly accessible to the entire world by allowing 70 translations to be available. 70% of Facebook users are outside the US and over 300,000 users helped translate the site through translations application.

More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries
Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications
More than 550,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform
More than 250,000 websites have integrated with Facebook Platform
More than 100 million Facebook users engage with Facebook on external websites every month
Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated with Facebook

Twitter is emerging to be the latest social networking phenomenon, celebrities across the world are using it to continuously post what they're thinking and what they're doing. Ashton Kutcher is currently the most followed celebrity with a staggering 4,884,693 followers.

Twitter has 105,779,710 registered users, with 300k joining everyday, approximately 60% of them are coming from outside the USA, which is still less than Facebooks dominance. However they do receive 180 million unique visitors per month. Amazinglt since Blackberry application was launched there has been an increase in 7-8% of new signs. Users search for 600 million queries a day on Twitter which makes it the most searched website in the world to date. Similar to Facebook 37% of users Tweet using their phones.

Ramones ex manager's PA killer gets life imprisonment

Natavia Lowery was convicted with a 27 years to life sentence, which is just under her after killing her former boss Linda Stein. She allegedly brutally battered Stein to death with a piece of exercise equipment. Lowery was said to have stolen $30k, which is the equivalent of £19.5k from Stein in 2007. Lowery claimed that she tried to hide the theft by killing her boss.

Regardless of her sentence, and regardless of the judge calling her 'almost inhuman' she claims she is going to appeal the sentence in attempt to get a less aggressive sentence. Stein's lifeless body was found in her apartment in October 2007, she had suffered extensive blows to her head and neck, which would of, killed her almost instantly. Lowery initially denied the murder, with her lawyers completely defending her claim, things turned sour however when CCTV footage was shown that Lowery had in fact left the premises soon before the body was discovered. Initially she claimed the police had forced her into a false confession but evidently the jury failed to be convinced.

Lowery told the court she wanted to meet famous people with a total unparalleled desire. It was found that she wanted to meet Denzel Washington so badly she stole $4,000 from the rock’n’roll Realtor’s account. She tried to justify her actions by claiming that she donated the money to a charity in order to receive premier tickets to see American Gangster.

However the true irony of the matter was that Stein due to her ex husband (Seymour Stein) she had connections with nearly all the stars. Their relationship fell apart as Linda was touring with The Ramones during the 1980s. Although their relationship ended bitterly they soon reconciled as good friends, which gave her links in the music industry. This basically meant that if Lowery had just asked then she wouldn’t of had the need to steal.

Many celebrities including Sylvester Stallone claimed: “She was America’s conduit to the stars”

My top 5 albums of the 20th and 21st centuries

There are so many albums out there which are influential in many different ways, to different people. The following are my top 5 in numerical order, one being my top.



5.

Artist: The Strokes
Album: Is This It
Release Date: 2002
Genre: Indie/ Alternative
Opinion:: Like Nevermind, Is This It, will always crop up in the top 100 albums of all time. Q named it the best album of the last 50 years, NME the best album of the 21 century. The melodic retro style Casablanca's band follows gives it a real depth which gives it a true originality, however his seemingly effortless vocals gives the album it's edge, with songs such as "New York City Cops" and "Last Nite".
Rating:4/5




4.

Artist: Nirvana
Album: Nevermind
Release Date: 1991
Genre: Grunge/ Alternative
Opinion:: You will nearly always find this album in the top 10 albums of all time, musically it's brilliant, simple and a piece of art in music form. The raw and shallow background which Cobain originated is shown clearly in his lyrics, particularly in the last track "Something In The Way" where he describes his time homeless and living in the shelter of a bridge. Grunge at it's finest
Rating:5/5


3.

Artist: Fleet Foxes
Album: Fleet Foxes
Release Date: 2008
Genre: Folk/ Alternative Rock
Opinion:: The unusually beautiful vocals and harmonies of this album easily launch it into my top 5, I often wonder what my influences would be without such an emotionally charged band such as Fleet Foxes
Rating:5/5

2.

Artist: The Libertines
Album: Up The Bracket
Release Date: 2002
Genre: Folk/ Indie/ Alternative
Opinion:: This troubled band, although together for a fairly short period of time made great things. Destined to collapsed, achieved a sound like no other. Doherty's lazy, but meaningful vocals accompanied by Barats emphasis created a vocal combination that still leaves shivers down my spine.
Rating:4/5


1.

Artist: Arctic Monkeys
Album: Favourite Worst Nightmare
Release Date: 2007
Genre: Indie/ Alternative rock
Opinion:: By far, with no competition whatsoever, Favourite Worst Nightmare is my favourite album of all time, it's gorgeous guitar riffs, with Turners raw vocals leaves such a distinctive sound that from the first time you hear the album, i guarantee you'll fall in love with it.
Rating:5/5

Lounge on the Farm 2010

Lounge on the Farm is Kent's most well known, and newest festival. Created in 2006 and based at Merton Farm; the amount of visitors has steadily but greatly increased from a thousand in it's first year, to a modest five thousand in 2009.

This year however is coined to be bigger and better! Last year LotF introduced, "you say they play", this is a competition where the general public vote for which local acts who they wish to see play at the festival. Last year twelve bands won this opportunity and this year thirty-six lucky contestants have the chance to win! LotF continuously sticks to the fact that they only try to promote local acts and local produce at their festival whilst at the same time producing a mind-blowing spectacular weekend. This is probably one of the factors which has enabled them to win "Best UK festival 2009".

During the past 4 years some of the UK's most well known acts have made appearances on the main stage, featuring Super Furry Animals, The Noisettes, Ellie Goulding and the Mystery Jets to name a few. Although the acts aren't quite on par with larger festivals such as Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury, V Festival etc, it is slowly making a name for itself and perhaps it will only be a short time until it's one of the national festivals.

According to the founders, Lounge on the Farm was an idea initially created in 2004, when the founders first met in the center of Canterbury watching a band play in a flat bed lorry. They decided amongst themselves creating a festival that supports local bands would be a great thing to do, they exchanged numbers on 'the back of a pack of fags' and started work on what would be Kent's most successful music festival, and in six years time one of the most famous festivals in England




(Moving on to some swift promotion! My band Zephyrus has been placed up for nomination, so if you can vote for us here it would be fantastic, thanks!

Liam Gallagher to create a new Beatles film

It has just been revealed that Liam Gallagher ex frontman for the legendary Manchester rock band Oasis would be making a film about The Beatles, titled after the book: 'The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider's Diary Of The Beatles, Their Million Dollar Apple Empire And Its Wild Rise And Fall'.

Nobody would of ever thought that loud mouth Liam Gallagher would be dedicated enough to create a film, let alone write the scripts. The Gallagher brothers have always been open to their love of The Beatles, citing them as being one of their main influences, despite their (The Beatles) Liverpool routes.

Although nothing appears to be official yet Mr Gallagher is due to make an announcement at the Cannes Film Festival next friday regarding his plans. Revolution Films is most likely going to be the company who will help create his vision. Who knows who'll be creating an Oasis film in 20 years time?

Lil Wayne busted (again!)

Hip-Hop star Lil Wayne is reported to have been hiding an Mp3 player and a charger in his cell, hidden inside a crisps packet inside a bin. The star who has collaborated with R'n'B singer Rihanna, Hip-Hop rap star Kanye West and numerous other well known artists has been charged and could be facing an extended prison sentence for breaking prison rules. Lil Wayne is currently serving a one year prison sentence for possession of an illegal firearm, similar to that of T.I.

Guitar Hero, as popular as the real thing?

Guitar Hero is a game console phenomenon, initially introduced on the Playstation 2 North America, during November 2005 and then in Europe in the April of 2006. It has taken the music and gaming world by storm and sold 25 million copies, grossing a total of $2 billion USD making it the third most successful games franchise of all time. It appears on every console, all the way from the Wii to a simple keychain or an iPhone application.

So the real question is, is Guitar Hero equally comparable to the likes of a real guitar? In my opinion, no I find nothing more satisfying than playing together with my band Zephyrus the enjoyment of improvisation and the pure satisfaction of a materialized ending result is something that a game simply can't replace. However that is just my own personal opinion, coming from a musician.

I asked Thomas Morris, a third year at Christ Church University what his opinion on the subject is: "Music plays an important part in my life, it is something which I involve in my everyday routines. I often play Guitar Hero world tour in my spare time and parties as it's great to play with mates". So Guitar Hero is good at passing time, and for socializing but does it really cut it, in the world of music? Malcolm Richardson a game designer from Hampshire believes: "Guitar Hero is purely fictional, it doesn't attempt to stimulate rhythm, or improvisation other than in freestyle mode, however it can fill the entertainment needs of the individual(s) playing".

Gaming experts believe that the Guitar Hero franchise is milking itself; to the extent the market is becoming 'saturated' with the same product just slightly improved over the years. Some people beg to differ however; recently a child in America gave up school to be a 'professional' Guitar Hero player, participating in popular competitions against other Guitar Hero fanatics. Therefore surely there must be a line to draw between reality, and gaming? Unfortunately it is becoming more and more likely that guitar based video games are taking over the real thing, and with the release of DJ hero will DJ'ing finally start to have a downfall too? Only time shall tell!

M.I.A's 'Born Free' a little too graphic?

Born Free was first uploaded for the general public on the 26th April 2010, and was 'deleted and banned' within half a day, before making a reappearance and then 'deleted' again a day later. However the movie can still be found on YouTube despite popular beliefs of it being removed. Unfortunately the only way that anyone can watch it is if they know the link already! Good work YouTube!

Society doesn't really know what to make of M.I.A's work, the views are so diverse that surely M.I.A music video must of made an impact upon the music and media scene. The short film touches on key issues in society, racism, prejudice and the unneeded violence in our world. As soon as an individual attempts to make the public aware for the better or the worse involving these problems, they're pummelled with political correctness and cursed by people who are to ashamed to see the big picture.

However M.I.A's response to the video fell far from the mature adult that she is known as. She lashed out at her record label Universal Music Group on Twitter "F#@K UMG WHO WONT SHOW IT ON YOUTUBE!" shortly followed by a less than acceptable apology "OK NOT UMG FAULT!"

The video itself is disturbingly graphic, it features a genocide of ginger haired adolescents being condemned to death by running across a mine field for 'safety'. One scene shows an innocent looking child being shot in the head at close range which is sickening to watch. Romain Gavras a French director formed a coalition with the rap star who wrote the piece.

From this short documentary we are able to see what political stance M.I.A stands by, and how clearly her impressions are on racial and prejudice abuse, we aren't however too sure whether this is was the right way to go about it.