John Farnham - The Acoustic Chapel Sessions Review

CD cover of The Acoustic Chapel Sessions
Courtesy of JB Hi-Fi

Yes! I bought it on Friday and have been listening to it repeatedly ever since!  The CD is by Australian artist, John Farnham, and I've loved his music ever since 1996 (the year after I discovered Elton John's music), and each successive album is just as good as the last.  The new CD is called "The Acoustic Chapel Sessions" and it is great!  This CD features 11 great hits from John's music career from 1984 to 1996, and is redone with acoustic, not electric, instruments!  This CD has been released in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of "Whispering Jack", John's comeback album of 1986.

I was worried that the acoustic songs would not be up to par but I was wrong. John Farnham and his great band really did pull it off!  Not only that, the CD was released as a combo CD/DVD set with the DVD featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with John and the band, along with 8 video recordings of songs on the CD!  Great stuff!

The first highlight off the CD for me is "Pressure Down", which I think is even better than the original version!  "Playing To Win", which John originally recorded with Little River Band in 1984, sounds strange without its synth and electric guitar sound but it really does sound great as an acoustic song too!  I also love "Two Strong Hearts"...the backing vocals go so well with John's voice!  The acoustic version of "A Simple Life" also sounds terrific!  "Hearts On Fire" was my least favourite song on the CD but then it grew on me the more I listened to it.  "You're The Voice" was also great but I do feel the original version had more power!

Over all, I think the CD/DVD set is fantastic and well worth buying. It gets a 5 out of 5 star rating from me.  For anyone who wants to know more about this great Aussie singer, I've included some links to sites I'd recommend!  Back in his heyday, John Farnham decided against going to the US to seek his fame and fortune and opted to stay in Australia and tour here instead.  That said, he has had Number One hits and Top 10 hits in other countries.  When I listen to John Farnham sing, it makes me proud to be Australian!  His great sense of humour gives his fans many, many laughs during concerts and he is so well loved by us all!

If you've never heard of John Farnham and you have iTunes, I'd recommend you check him out.  If you don't have iTunes, try checking out the John Farnham links in the sidebar!  Hopefully, next time he tours I just might get the chance to see my 2nd favourite singer LIVE in concert!

Steve Jobs - May Your Legacy Live On

Steve Jobs holding a model of the video playing iPod.

Picture courtesy of Lusakatimes.com.

I felt so sad to hear the news that Steve Jobs had died on October 5th.  It's hard to believe we've now lost one of the greatest minds in the Technology industry.  If it wasn't for Steve Jobs, a lot of things that are easy to use today may have ended up more complex, or not have existed at all.

Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple Inc, the company behind many well-known products such as the Macintosh (Mac), the iMac, MacBook, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and most recently the iPad!  I, for one, love my iPod Classic and use it daily!  I don't really know much about Steve Jobs, apart from what I've mentioned above, but I've read on the Internet that he invented a lot of things and pretty much gets looked on today as the modern day Thomas Edison....a great honour!

Fans of Apple may be concerned about the future of the company, but only time will tell.  A lot of people looked on Steve Jobs as a genius, and from what I've read, he certainly was.

Steve, you will be sorely missed, not only by your family, but also by those who knew you as a friend or business partner, and the many fans you have accumulated over the years.  You changed the world with what you did and the world is a better place for it.

May your legacy live on through Apple and may Apple keep doing great things even though you're no longer here.

RIP, Steve.

I HAVE WON...

...TWO FRONT ROW tickets to go and see my favourite singer, Elton John, live in concert on November 30th!!!  I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Elton John introduces 2Cellos and snippet of "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting"

.

I won the tickets on my favourite radio station, Classic Hits 4KQ, during May in a competition titled "Eltonology"!  I entered my name and details on their website to enter.  The whole competition ran for a week, and on the Friday, the winner would win 2 front row tickets to the concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and the other 4 days would be the standard tickets!

I actually thought I'd have to wait until the Friday morning to win, but as it turned out, the station called me up on the Thursday morning.  It was all pre-recorded for Friday morning, so you wouldn't believe how surprised I was when I got the call and was asked a question regarding Elton's music.  The question - "On Elton's Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy album.....WHO is the Brown Dirt Cowboy?"  I answered without hesitation - "Bernie Taupin!"

As of now, it will be nine weeks until the big night!  It was decided that my brother Reece, who went with me to see Elton solo in 2007, will come with me again on November 30!  Reece did say after the last concert that he would like to see Elton with the band, so he's getting the chance!  I'm still deciding what CD cover to take to hopefully get Elton to sign, maybe my spare copy of "The Captain And The Kid".

2Cellos playing "Smooth Criminal".

This time around, I think Elton will have extra backing vocalists, and from what I've read, Elton had asked two cello players from Croatia, also known as 2Cellos, to join him, not just for his Australian tour, but for other concerts as well!  They won't only be the support acts but perform with the band as well!  If you want to know who 2Cellos are, I recommend you watch the video from YouTube of 2Cellos doing their rendition of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" above!  That is, apparently, how Elton found out about them!

I'm hoping to be notified by 4KQ very soon to let me know my free tickets are there and ready for collection.

Sorry I've been so lax with posts on my blog this year. I'm hoping to post more regularly from now on.

Have a great weekend!