Dave Depper - The Ram Project

Dave Depper's latest production, The Ram Project, is the kind of concept many musicians would love to get their heads around. In fact, it's likely that quite a few have done so already, but their efforts never saw the light of day.

The album is Depper's own re-record of Paul McCartney's 1971 album Ram, credited to the ex-Beatle and his partner Linda McCartney. It marked part of the bridging period between McCartney's time in The Beatles and the formation of Wings.

Ram was originally released in both stereo and, unusually for a 1970s album, in a mono version as well. Depper's version pays its own homage to that school of thinking, as The Ram Project - while not lacking in production quality - has decidedly lo-fi elements and is likely to please fans of treble more than lovers of bass.

80s Movies: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Ah Ferris Bueller's Day Off, now here's a classic 80s movie if ever there was one. The story of one man's struggle to take it easy, to quote the tagline on the posters, was a massive success in 1986, and has gone on to become a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of fun-loving, anti-authoritarian slackers everywhere.

Strangely I don't think I saw this movie until atleast 2003 when was at university, so I can't really blame it for my own lazy, work-shy approach to life, the seeds of which were certainly already in place by the age of 18 (don't you just hate when you can't pin all your personal shortcomings on popular culture). Anyway, when I did see it I had high expectations, and I was absolutely not disappointed.

Writer and director John Hughes made this movie coming off the back of successes with The Breakfast Club and Weird Science in 1985, and was already a hot property in Hollywood. He wrote Ferris Bueller as a tribute to his native Chicago, and with Matthew Broderick (Wargames) already in mind for the title character. Broderick was 23 at the time of filming, but had the young looks and innocent boyish smile to pull off the role of charming high-school truant with aplomb.

The Beatles are on iTunes

So Apple's big exciting announcement was that The Beatles can now be found on iTunes. It is kind of exciting, but not for the reasons they meant it to be. It's exciting because it means there's a very real likelihood that The Beatles will be in the top ten this week. Possibly at number one. If you really fancy it, William Hill are offering 100/1 on The Beatles filling the entire UK Top 40 Singles Chart in any one week in 2011. They're also 25/1 to have the Christmas number one. So, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do you...?