Doing this doesn't deter people from ripping this audio and illegally downloading the tracks. It actually makes them more likely to go and download the music illegally in full (because it will have already leaked somewhere).

So instead of staying on your website / social profile where they may *actually* listen to the music, fall in love with it and then buy merch, tickets, or music (because you let them listen whilst they browsed) they'll go and download it elsewhere and have no need to come back to your website.

It's not 2001, it's 2011. Get a grip.

**UPDATE**

As @seaneeboy points out, Bandcamp have summed it up perfectly via @dubber!

Monday night was a blast from the past. My friend and former Dum Dums frontman Josh Doyle played in Birmingham on his first UK tour since the Dum Dums split up and he moved to the USA in 2003.

From 1997-2001 I ate, slept, walked, and talked Dum Dums, going along for the ride of a lifetime with Josh, my cousin Steve, and Stu. In 2000-2001 they went from being an unknowns to having top 20 singles, a top 20 album, appearing on almost every TV show in the UK, touring the world with the likes of Bon Jovi and Robbie Williams, and playing numerous festivals, culminating in a sell out show at the legendary Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. It was an amazing time for everyone involved, and we all had a ball before we were really old enough to appreciate what was going. As with all good things, it had to come to an end, and in mid 2001 during the writing of what would have been their 2nd album the band imploded, taking their final bow before a huge crowd at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham. Relationships were strained after the break-up and I only saw Josh once very briefly before he sold everything he owned and moved to Nashville, Tennessee with his wife in 2003.

Having kept in sporadic contact via email over the last 7 years, I was pretty excited when I got an email from Josh a few weeks ago saying that he was planning on returning to the UK to preview his new solo material, particularly as he was coming to Birmingham. It was a long time since the Dum Dums had split up but I was secretly hoping that Josh, Steve, and Stu would be able to put their old differences aside and enjoy the occasion. Luckily, everything turned out brilliantly!

Josh approached Steve and Stu in advance and asked them if they'd be interested in doing a couple of Dum Dums numbers at the encore of his Birmingham show...and they were both game And so, the worse kept secret in the history of the band was born...

At the gig Josh played a great set with his makeshift band of UK-based friends, including my good friend Rich Johnstone who put in a sterling effort on bass guitar (nice one Rich!). The set stretched Josh's career and included Dum Dums tracks, as well as song from his EPs 'The End Of Fear' and the new 'Values and Virtues', and before long, Steve and Stu joined him on stage much to the 'surprise' of everyone in the audience.

Having not played together since 2001 they were understandably a little rusty, but in true Dum Dums fashion bashed through 'Photographs', 'Robot Boy' and debut single 'Everything' (which they'd run through once in soundcheck), before Josh decided it was a good idea to attempt 'Lonely Hearts Company' and 'Can't Get You Out Of My Thoughts', completely unrehearsed. Strings were broken, capos were dropped, songs were re-started, jokes were made, and everyone had a great time! It was rough around the edges, and just like the old days when no one knew what might happen next, but they pulled it off and everyone finished with smiles on their faces. It was great to see so many familiar faces at the gig - a real testament to the band's influence.

After the show we headed back to Rich's house and talked into the early hours. It was a really special night, and it was great to see Josh, Steve, and Stu joking around as if they'd only seen each other yesterday.

I love it when a plan comes together.

A couple of weeks ago, as  the world was gripped with Swine Flu fever (forgive the pun!), a great game emerged on Twitter. Feeling somewhat disillusioned with the mainstream media's attempt at convincing us we were "all going to die", a bunch of twitter users began various games based around a swine flu theme.

My favourite game to emerge was the 'swine flu bands' game, where you had to come up with as many musician/band names that played on words related to swine flu as possible, and tag them with the Twitter hashtag #swineflubands - these could then be viewed on Twitter Search.

I got rather carried away one afternoon and came up with a bunch, whilst laughing my socks off at some of the names that other Twitter users had come up with.

Check out the  #swineflubands I came up with here,  and everybody else's here.

(Pic: 'Swine Flew' album cover by One Bad Pig, originally released in 1990, well before swine '09!)

My Morning Jacket from Tugboat Productions on Vimeo.

I recently found this mini-documentary about My Morning Jacket (a band that I've been in love with for several years now) - which coincided with the release of their 'Celebración De La Ciudad Natal' EP. It's a great snapshot of what I think is one of the best live bands in the world right now.

I've put off my annual list this year for long enough! I've found it really hard this year to pick a top 5 this year, so much so that I almost didn't bother writing this post, but that would have been daft! So here they are - my top 5 albums, followed by a (long) list of honourable mentions - albums I just couldn't leave out! Top 5 albums of the year (in no particular order): MGMT - Oracular Spectacular Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely Honourable mentions go to: Everest - Ghost Notes Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes The Futureheads - This Is Not The Word Glassvegas - Glassvegas Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cardinology Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha Songs of the year: Everest - Rebels In The Roses Biffy Clyro - Mountains MGMT - Time To Pretend Foo Fighters - Let It Die Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Fix It 2008 proved by far the hardest year since I've begun posting my top 5 albums, but this can only be a good thing as it means there was a lot of good music! I hope 2009 is just as hard, if not harder! Previous years: Albums of the year: 2008 (so far) Albums of the year: 2007 Albums of the year: 2006 Albums of the Year: 2005

The Astoria in London is one of the capital's most loved music venues, and unfortunately it's being pulled down next week in order to build a new Crossrail train system. Whilst being a bit of a dump (it's the kind of place you can't stand still in for too long without becoming stuck to the floor) it's a really great, dirty rock 'n' roll venue, and there aren't enough venues like it left these days - mainly thanks to the increasing corporate sponsorship/stranglehold of venues.

I've been to several stand-out gigs at the Astoria, gigs that have really stuck in mind as being some of my favourites ever. These gigs were usually to see bands that can fill much bigger venues play small, low-key shows. I remember seeing the Foo Fighters (supported by Ash) playing 24 hours after seeing them headlining the Leeds Festival - I travelled over half the length of the country to see them at the Astoria - one night they were playing to 60,000 people, the next 2,000! I was lucky enough to see the Foos play there again a couple of years later and will never forget them playing  'Aurora' - it was awe-inspiring.

I also saw Audioslave's first UK gig which was at the Astoria - they were never the band they could have been on record, but live they were something else - the energy of Rage Against The Machine, with the vocal power of Chris Cornell was outstanding! Then again a few years later I saw Chris Cornell perform solo - another great gig with many highlights from his career, including several Soundgarden numbers.

And in 2006 I attended what was (and still is) the best gig I've ever been to. After not touring the UK for 6 years (and me never having seen them) I saw Pearl Jam perform the first show of their 'self-titled' album world tour at the Astoria, and by a bizarre twist of fate met all of the band afterwards. That gig has to be one of the loudest I've been to - maybe it was just my emotions running away with me, but you could feel the balcony swaying up and down that night as they played 'Alive' in the encore. This one stands out as my most vivid Astoria memory and I'd like to think that dark, dank, old building brought me a little bit of luck that night. So long, Astoria! Gone, but never forgotten!

To say I dislike reality TV would be an understatement. To say I dislike the musical variety of reality TV, things such as X-Factor would be a massive understatement.  However recently I stumbled upon Orange unsignedAct on T4, and my god it's good!

The show pits unsigned bands against each other in a 'battle of the bands' style show where celebrity musicians judge their performances and decide who goes through to the next round. The difference with this show is that the bands are real - they sing live, they play their own instruments, write their own songs, and have even played gigs before being on the telly (who'd have thought it)! It's been pretty inspiring watching it - I've felt genuinely excited watching the show - something I can't say about any other 'reality TV' I've ever had the misfortune of watching.

Tommy Reilly is 19 years old and from Glasgow., Scotland He looks like he could be the bastard child of Elvis Costello and The Proclaimers, minus the glasses. He looks completely unremarkable, but when he popped up on the show during the auditions and started playing I jumped up out of bed with a start. After his initial performance with just his acoustic guitar, audition judge Jo 'Radio One' Whiley told him she didn't think he was ready for the competition and to try again next year. Tommy said "ok thanks" and toddled off - no tears or strops a la X-Factor , afterall he's a musician doing what he does, not some little wannabe who's determined to be the next Kerry Katona. Within seconds of the door closing Jo Whiley and the other judge began whispering on the sofa, and before long realised their mistake. To their credit, they called Tommy back in and told him they thought they'd made a mistake, and were putting him through into the next round.

The judges for the next round were Alex James (the bass player from Blur), Lauren Laverne (ex-Kenickiea nd all-round good egg muso presenter), Simon Gavin (the usual industry type), and rapper Leathal Bizzle. After watching Tommy's performance (click on the image above to watch the video) all four judges gave him their vote - making him the only person on the show to get all four votes.

I listened to Tommy's demos on his Orange unsignedAct profile and they're okay, but they nothing compared to hi no-nonsense live performance of 'Give Me A Call' - they don't do his songs justice - watch the video and decide for yourself.

I hope Tommy wins the competition so that someone talented and real can come out on top of one of these competitions, however part of me fears for him, as winners of this type of competition usually get chewed up and spat out by the industry within 12 months. Maybe he's be better off coming second, signing to an indie label, and releasing a couple of records before a major snaps him up - it would be a real shame to see the raw nervous energy he has 'polished' by an A&R man and producer.

Only time will tell how Tommy gets on - but right now he's definitely one for the future, good luck son!

Dear Steve...

Today you turned 30 and are no doubt recovering from last night's shenanigans, like the rest of us. As you now know a bunch of us have chipped in to buy you a shiny new Powerbook to replace your ageing PC, but I also wanted to do something else for your birthday and have decided to make a 'Songs of Steve' mix CD full of songs that remind me of you, and some of the good times we've shared. I've not got as far as making the CD itself yet, but here are the stories behind the songs that remind me of you...

Pearl Jam - Alive

Pearl Jam are a band Steve and I have both loved for a long time. Big time. We discovered Grunge together in the early 90's despite the fact that Steve was living in Amsterdam, Holland and I was in sleepy old Aldridge, England. Every few months the postman would deliver a jiffy bag stuffed full of cassette tapes, albums by the latest Grunge sensations, fresh from Amsterdam! Bands such as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice In Chains, Screaming Trees, Rage Against The Machine, Faith No More, Stone Temple Pilots, and so on arrived through my letterbox and I lapped them up.

Every summer Steve's family came back to England for a few weeks and we'd spend hours listening to the cassettes and catching up on what each other were listening to, something we still do to this day. Pearl Jam are one of the few remaining bands of this era, so 'Alive' with it's "I'm still Alive" lyric is pretty apt.

Bon Jovi - Keep The Faith I have a very vivid memory of a story concerning Steve and Bon Jovi - and not the obvious one. It was an important moment in my life as a music lover. At the tender age of 11 years old I travelled to Amsterdam without my parents to visit Steve and his family. On one of our many trips into the city we ended up in a record shop, where I made an important decision. I had enough spending money left to either buy 'Keep The Faith' on cassette single, or lunch at McDonalds. I chose Bon Jovi, and have never looked back - music over food!

Faith No More - Caffeine

FNM are one of Steve's favourite bands. I can remember him re-telling so many stories he'd heard about them, most of which were pretty outrageous, and therefore very appealing to teenage boys. There was also Steve's own story of the first gig he ever went to - to see Faith No More at a football stadium in Rotterdam. Being a rather naive gig goer he made his way to the front of the crowd during the support act, somewhat surprised at how easy it was to get to the front. Before long FNM took to the stage and opened with 'Caffeine' - the next thing Steve knew he was picking himself up off the floor at the end of the song, covered in ice cream, at the opposite side of the stage from where he'd started.

Feeder - Tangerine

A couple of years after coming back to the UK from Amsterdam Steve was on the move again, this time to Nottingham with his band the Boot Brothers. Having already been to Amsterdam alone aged 11, geting the train to Nottingham at 14 was a piece of cake. I made several trips there during which Steve and I went to Nottingham's Rock City to see bands such as Terrorvision, Ugly Kid Joe, and Feeder - who became a favourite of ours for the next few years.

We saw Feeder several of times, and on one occasion came up with the brilliant idea of sneaking tangerines into the gig so that when the band played their song of the same name, we could throw the tangerines on stage (Geniuses!). The only flaw in our plan, having smuggled the oranges into the venue in our boxer shorts was that whilst we were in the mosh pit trading blows with fellow concert goers, the tangerines in our pockets were getting pulverised.

Six songs into the set Feeder abandoned the gig as their singer had the flu and was losing his voice. In a move of desperation we scooped what was left of the tangerine pulp from our trousers and hurled the contents at the stage. The fifteen fans that had turned up at the gig were looked on amused, and the band who were leaving the stage at this point looked rather bemused and left the stage grinning. They hadn't even got around to playing 'Tangerine'! Steve and I left the venue grinning like loons, with wet stains down the front of our trousers, smelling of oranges.

Jellyfish - Joining A Fanclub One of the many band's Steve has been a part was 'Cheapskate'. This band consisted of Steve, Mike and Jimmy Mac. I remember one memorable gig when whilst playing at a Church in Derby the only goth in the youth fellowship group stood up at the end of their performance and set about tearing strips off the congregation for not showing their appreciation for the band. 'Joining A Fanclub' was a Cheapskate regular and the first Jellyfish song I ever heard, thanks Steve.

Carrie - Molly

In 1998 Steve and the Dum Dums were on the verge of signing a record deal. Confidence was high. One cold winter night we were headed to The Varsity in Wolverhampton in Steve's blue Metro to see Carrie play. En route we were pulled over by the police. At the time it seemed that wherever we went in the Metro we got pulled over. (Possibly something to do with that bloody blonde stripe in Steve's hair?).

After the usual questions the Policewoman asked Steve what he did for a job - he explained that he was a musician, in a band etc. The Policewoman then asked "Are you any good?" and Steve being Steve replied "Yeah, we are!", "Sing me something then..." she said, so Steve & Stu began singing their song 'Can't Get You Out Of My Thoughts' on the road side. Once they were done, the Policewoman offered to get them a gig at the local Police station - they politely declined and we continued our journey to see Carrie, who were great.

The Lemonheads - If I Could Talk I'd Tell You Before Steve moved to London to pursue his Dum Dums career he very kindly helped me and my friend Gav out and played bass in our band 'Carousel'. Steve took us under his wing and gave us the benefit of his musical experience, giving us songwriting and performance tips, almost like a 'musical director' - something I've since seen him do numerous times with other bands. Along with a handful of original songs 'If I Could Talk I'd Tell You' by The Lemonheads was one of the songs we played and we clocked up a fair few gigs The Vaults in Walsall, along with the odd gig at The Wharf. Every time I hear this song it reminds me of the three of us rehearsing and playing gigs together - good times!

Ben Folds Five - Steven's Last Night In Town The week before he moved to London, Steve, Mike, Dicko, and I were all at The Vaults in Walsall where we spent almost every Thursday and Sunday night. Mike ran a live music night where a lot of our friends hung out, this meant we were able to play whatever songs we liked on the PA in between bands. As a tribute to Steve and the fact that he was leaving Walsall for the bright lights of London town (possibly to never return!) I played 'Steven's Last Night In Town' over the PA, cranking the volume up. Being a jazzy number it stood out like a sore thumb amongst the mix of Ad Heath-approved Chilli Peppers and Hendrix, but then Steve never was one for blending into the background.

Lit - My Own Worst Enemy It was the summer of 1999, Steve and the Dum Dums had just signed their record deal and completed their first tour supporting Nik Kershaw. I was heading down to London to visit Steve when I got wind that Lit were playing at The Garage in Islington. We'd discovered Lit via the video for their song 'My Own Worst Enemy' on the The Box music channel and at that time they were the embodiment of the kind of music we were into - super-catchy pop melodies, loads of harmonies, and Elvis Costello-esque vocals, pounding bass and drums, and crunching guitar riffs - power pop at it's finest!

We booked tickets and after meeting up with a couple of friends headed to Islington on the tube. It was a swelteringly hot summer's night and The Garage was rammed. Lit took to the stage to heroes welcome, despite it being their first ever UK show, and they were great. The highlight of the set was of course their soon-to-be hit single 'My Own Worst Enemy' during which we moshed our socks off. We left the gig drenched in sweat, hoping that one day the Dum Dums might get a reaction like that. Within 6 months they'd sold the same venue out!

These are just a few of the songs that remind me of times I've spent with Steve, here's to another 30 years of them!