After many recent multi-million pound apologies for logo designs by high-flying marketing studios, this one’s a real breath of fresh air. It was designed for a competition by 10-year-old Katherine Dewar, from Chester. Brilliant – and well chosen, whoever the judges were.

Next, the gubmint should commission this young lady to give the 2012 Olympic logo a swift makeover before the rest of the world start tuning in to our broadcast coverage and falling off their chairs with laughter.

A while back, I read an article on The Register describing how a derogatory spoof ’2012 logo’ was used in error by a South African news outlet to illustrate a story about ticket availability.

You can see why they got mixed up – the right and wrong versions are below

 Fakenham’s theatrical rockers STONE RUNNER will be headlining at the Blakeney Harbour Rooms on Saturday FRIDAY October 1st (Sparky got his days mixed up!).
The band, featuring ‘Bloomers’, ‘Nick the Badger’, ‘Sparky Baldano’ and ‘Spider Biggles’, will be on stage at 8.30 and will perform an energetic 2 hour set of classic 70′s rock covers and self written songs. Admission on the door.

You see, I used to like it, back when Christopher Eccleston reintroduced the character with Billie Piper as his sidekick. It was a bit edgy, fresh and intriguing, with clever twisting plot patterns being woven in the background.

Since then, it has decended into a typical ‘BBC-fest’ of  special guest stars & self-congratulation and has become a back-patting excercise for the Beeb and the writers and producers who are involved. The first series’ success became the actual focus, much to the detriment of the subsequent programme content.

When I went to see Miss Jenkins in an outdoor concert a couple of years back (see – I don’t just like rock music), she seemed to concentrate on her name-dropping and dress-changing rather than the actual content of her repertoire. It was all a big PR excercise rather than for the sake of the music. Style over content. No wonder she’s been signed up for this…

 BBC News – Katherine Jenkins to star in Christmas Doctor Who.

Oh, and did I mention the music in Doctor Who is still way too loud?

Just thought I’d indulge myself  in providing you with an insight into the sort of guitar and Christmas-flavoured music I’ve been playing this afternoon/evening via Spotify, shared with various family members -well, if you run yer own blog, it comes with the territory! I always think it’s good to hear what other people are listening to (it provides a way to find artists and genres you may not have heard before, which is definitely a good thing) and to that effect, I humbly offer the completely disparate selection which follows….

Peter Finger – Wishbone Ash
Tom Petty – Free Fallin’
Rodrigo y Gabriella – Stairway To Heaven
Carol of the Bells (John Williams, from the film Home Alone)
Eric Whiteacre – Sleep
Hilliard Ensemble – O Lord, in Thee is all my trust
Vaughan Williams, Fantasy on a theme of Thomas Tallis

The Leisure Society – Last of the Melting Snow

This is the best contemporary band I’ve found out about for a while. Their viral marketing is nice too! Here’s a Youtube video of them performing in one of a series entitled ‘bandstand busking’ (proving they can do it live as well as in the studio).

Clever lyrics, great playing and a style reminiscent of… well, perhaps a cross between Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Elbow. I’m a fan now – remarkable, as I was drawn in by a simple one-off ad on Spotify!