Music For An Arabian Night/Holiday In Beirut - Ron Goodwin

Advantages: Easy but not shallow reading, deeply chucklesome
Disadvantages: At the price, none

...A book that is tremendously annoying in the sense that as a music fan you wish you'd written it first. Giles Smith's comfortable, easy writing style takes you through his life with popular music; listening to it, buying it, obsessing over it, and finally attempting to play it in public for money. Along the way he goes through such pivotal moments as buying your first single (and lying about what it was years later), realising that Dark Side Of The Moon is rubbish, discovering that a music fan can't lose his virginity with the record player on, being compelled to buy everything Nik Kershaw records, failing to heed John Peel's warnings that it'll all end in tears, the revelation that Andy Partridge is a total genius, being big in Germany for about five minutes, having your bandmate break down and run off to become a gardener... Read review

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Advantages: The virgin diving to Westerners
Disadvantages: The way South!

...**********INTRODUCTION********** Whenever anyone mentions Beirut visions of war, unrest, kidnapping and death are conjured. I had heard on the grapevine that Beirut was the place to go for diving that was “a bit different”. I was not too sure if my preconceived opinions would get me there! However, I decided to take the plunge. My friends looked at me in horror when I told them where I was bound. I was sure some of them were ready to scour the “papers waiting to read of my capture or death”, and had visions of Kate Adie leaping onto the dive boat to escape the latest outbreak of fighting. Whilst that would have been nearer the picture some 14 years ago, today, the reality is far less dramatic: 1. The civil war ended in 1990. 2. The city is now largely rebuilt and has a wonderful infrastructure in place... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Beautiful and unique music
Disadvantages: Not to everyone's taste, very unusual

...From listening to the debut album from Beirut, Gulag Orkestar, the last place you would think Zach Condon, the 19 year old behind the band, was from would be New Mexico, as his music sounds very much like it is made by a traveling group of musicians somewhere in Eastern Europe who lived about 50 years ago. Zach found this Balkan gypsy style of music when he was sixteen after dropping out of high school to travel Europe, obviously this had a huge impact upon him as a musician, and to the benefit of all that hear his music. On this record he is accompanied by a whole range of instruments played by a few musicians that helps to conjure up images of traveling communities and gypsy culture, even though he lives considerably closer to Mexico than anywhere in Europe. It is almost certain that listening to the different tracks on the album... Read review

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