Maybe I’m getting old but it does feel like music has reached the end of the road as far as innovation is concerned. I haven’t heard anything that sounded in any way new since the nineties and bands like the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Since then the sounds have all been pretty much the same. The charts these days are full of songs that even my mother likes as they sound like music that was out when she was twelve – no innovation at all. Where is the Punk? What happened to challenging the system? Is there really nothing new going to happen in music from here on in?

I despise the X factor and believe that Simon Cowell should be in prison somewhere for his crimes against music. When I hear of a band like Jedward in the charts you have to pity the kids. My parents feared my music; today’s parents probably just want to console their children because the music is so banal. And although the eighties had a lot to answer for with Vanilla Ice being a part of it, bands who are trying to imitate him make music today much worse. All you have to do these days to become a pop idol is get enough clicks on a video you have placed on YouTube. The fact that there is no originality and zero talent these days in the music industry is the main problem; however there are some in the industry who would have you believe the problem is piracy. Although listening to Joe McElderry singing would be a punishment worse than death for me, it would be far worse if I had paid to do so.

I am a music lover but the state of things has really got me down lately. Maybe there just is nowhere else that music can go. Maybe there is nothing more than can be done. Perhaps future generations will just have music we once enjoyed but recycled with flashier animations.

When it comes to large corporations, everybody has heard of virgin holidays. That’s right, the huge monster of a company founded by the indomitable sir richard branson. Among many of the virgin brand names are virgin trains.