This is from Flure, one of my favourite Thai bands. Just listen to his voice — it’s beautiful and he can pull it off live.

This won’t interest any of you who don’t live in Phuket, but for those of you on the island, there are two great concerts in the next week that are worth checking out. First up, at 9Richter tomorrow night (Thursday), Flure are playing. Then, next Thursday at Blue Marina, Phuket Merlin Hotel, Da Endorphine and Bodyslam will be playing. These gigs will be busy so get down early. See you there.

I get a kick out of listening to good Thai music. Although I rarely know what they are singing about, there’s still a lot of enjoyment to be had from listening to decent bands. One of my favorite bands at the moment are Endorphine. It’s actually Da, the lead singer, who I’m really into. Her solo album My Love Songs is fantastic. It was released some time last year, in August I think.

It’s one of those albums that you will have heard in its entirety if you’ve ever been to a Thai club at least a couple of times. The lead song, “Parb luang tar” is particularly popular. There’s just something about her voice and the melodies she creates that is enchanting.

I hate to say it, but many of her songs remind me Ace of Base. To me that’s not a bad thing because I think that as a pop band Ace of Base were totally misunderstood. The first two albums were class. Wait, don’t stop reading. I’ll move on.

Another Thai band I’m keen on at the moment are Flure. They seem to have the scene sussed and make some great music.

You can pick up CDs by Da and Flure for about 150 baht from almost any CD shop in Thailand.

I spend a lot of my time writing for blogs about music downloads and filesharing. While the music industry hates filesharing, it’s clear that it was so late in dealing with the issue that it now cannot be overcome.

Living in Thailand, there are few people who could say that they do not own at least one pirated item, be it music, software or a movie. Filesharing seems to follow a similar line of thought: If you can get away with it and everybody else does it, what’s the problem?

There are strong arguments for and against filesharing. What is undeniable is that while there may be an ethical issue, the practicalities of eradicating filesharing make such a task impossible.

The record industry is trying, though. Last year, Jammie Thomas was sued by the record industry for $220,000 for using filesharing service Kazaa. Similarly, hordes of university students in the US have been accused of filesharing and sent pre-litigation letters. If the students refuse to settle out of court for several thousand dollars, they find themselves being sued by the record industry.

Thailand is known as a hub for piracy in Southeast Asia where filesharing is commonplace. Filesharing is technically theft, but with so little power to control it in Thailand, clearly there is nothing that can be done for the time being.

In France and the UK, MPs are dead set against filesharing and the solution lies in ISPs being obliged by governments to terminate Internet accounts of people who download music illegally. I cannot imagine such a measure ever being implemented in Thailand.

The problem, then, is that on a global level, filesharing cannot be stopped. So what should be done about it?

Are you pro-filesharing? I have a keen interest in this because I write about it almost every day but rarely get to voice my thoughts in any real discussion.

From the British Council today:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Muse are disappointed to have to announce the cancellation of their show in Bangkok Hall on Wednesday 28 November. They hope to reschedule as soon as their schedule allows.