I have long been a fan of the A-Team series. The sort of fan who owns all the DVD box sets, watch episodes ad naseum and extoll the virtues to anyone who will listen, so prepare yourself for a little bias. Providing gentle and amusing passive viewing, with little depth or meaning, The A-Team was the epitome of 1980s television. So I was keen to see if Joe Carnahan and Stephen J Cannell would be able to bring one of the most iconic series of all time into the 21st century.

Read my review of The A-Team film over at Screenjabber

It has been a while since posting a YouTube find but this particular video was worth it. Squeeze, bringer of Jools Holland, appeared on the Jimmy Fallon show a few weeks ago to promote their upcoming tour. Besides giving a rollicking performance of this classic from 1980, the performance featured an iPad piano solo – the first on television! Organ is featured throughout but their keyboardist throws in this gem at 2:27 into the performance. It is outstanding to see the precision in his fingers as well as the excellent sounds coming from his tablet.

Speaking from experience, few keyboardists would give up a human-surrounding rig of keyboards for an single device, but gigging musicians can continue to dream…

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Dire Straits are a band who were at their best when they focused on elegance, atmosphere and imagery. London music pubs, sweeping northern moors, youth-filled dance halls, rum soaked detectives and forlorn lovers are frequented in some of their most loved songs. All these characters are are present on this excellent reissue of their definitive live record, which maintains the charm of the original, while adding additional clarity and depth. The same unfortunately, can not be said of the accompanying DVD, which displays an energetic band at their peak with an enthusiastic audience, still shows trails of the grain that discloses the age more so than any of the clothing on stage.

Prior to their later super-stardom, Alchemy finds Mark Knopfler and company extending and improving the recorded versions of their early material. Four of the songs exceed ten minutes, thanks to extended introductions and improvised solos. These grand ideals are not always a universal success – signature song Sultans of Swing looses its raw rock and roll appeal thanks to overzealous organ work and arena sized drums. The occasional throw away tracks – such as Expresso Love – still maintain a certain quality but do not bring anything additional to the record. Throughout listening to the album, it becomes apparent which way the band were progressing as, Brothers In Arms is clearly sign posted all over the songs.

Besides the predictable guitar genius of Knopfler, the outstanding musical work on this record can be found within the piano-organ-synthesiser work of Alan Clarke. His contributions are superb – the tasteful additions help to fill out the space left by the minimal guitar as well as transporting the listener to the remote haven of musical nirvana – the introductions to Tunnel of Love and Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) take you places you never thought Dire Straits could.

For those who dismiss Dire Straits as bourgeois father rock, Alchemy is the definitive response that shows they can be as hard rocking, experimental, free flowing, jazz influenced and as rock and roll as you could get.

• Apple iPhone 4: countdown to the press conference – It’s crunch day for Apple and iPhone 4 – what can we expect? Stay with us for coverage throughout the day

• Google News update adds (gasp!) human choices – at a safe distance – The choice of news on the site will not, in future, be entirely computer-generated, though Google’s not quite giving in to flesh-and-blood just yet/li>

• Sinking HMS Symbian heading for Android iceberg – Gartner report suggests that ‘Symbian foundation is just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’.

• Smartphones revived the radio star – Survey finds internet listening is on the up thanks to mobile devices

• Google Me, Facebook you? – Rumours abound about imminent launch of new Google social network to rival Facebook.

• eBay sued for $3.8bn for patent infringement – PayPal systems use information shared in confidence, claims XPRT Ventures

• The Technology newsbucket: PRs iPhone recall call, iPlayer on Android, keep or kill XP SP2 and more – Plus how Steve Ballmer foresaw 2010 in 2000, OrgCON coming up, Twitter’s name search and more replacements – but only to a limited number of owners. Will others sue?

• BMW plugs into Apple’s new in-car iPod feature – BMW is the first car manufacturer to announce support for the little-heralded iPod Out feature from the iOS 4.

• Ballmer admits mobile failures but promises ‘devices to be proud of’ – Microsoft ‘missed a generation’ on the mobile side, but chief executive Steve Ballmer insists that the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 will ‘give you a set of Windows-based devices which people will be proud to carry’

• The Technology newsbucket: periodic swearing, Facebook locates, iTunes costs and more – Plus why News Corp should sell MySpace, the programmers who are really in demand, talking to a Univac, Spotify on Linux and more

• Google offers drag-and-drop App Inventor to goose Android app market – Aiming to catch Apple’s lucrative App Store, Google has released a web-based system which it says needs “NO programming knowledge” to write your own app..

• And it’s goodbye from them: Facebook gifts, that is – It’s all about Facebook Credits now (from which Facebook nets a tidy 30%) as the social media site aims to widen its reach even further

• Microsoft beefs up Windows 7 slates – Microsoft has announced that it is ‘hardcore’ about Windows 7-based slate machines

• Apple finally admits problems with Time Capsule and offers replacement – Nine months after a Guardian investigation pointed to a limited lifespan for the wireless backup, the company has offered free replacements – but only to a limited number of owners. Will others sue?

• The Pirate Bay under attack. Again… – Argentinian researchers claim to have hacked The Pirate Bay – and downloaded the private data of more than 4 million users.

• The Technology newsbucket: Directions from Yoda, iOS4 gets “Bolt-ed” in test with Android Froyo, and more – Also in today’s newsbucket: RIM needs a boost with new BlackBerry, Nokia enlists Russian officials, and visit London in retro fashion

• Internet television – to the living room? – Despite improved quality and more content, streaming television has yet to make it out of the study.

• The Technology newsbucket: Star Wars, XBox Live, Apple darts and more – Also in today’s Technology newsbucket: Amazon and AT&T branch out

• Guardian Viral Video Chart: Psychic Paul strikes again – We thought we’d celebrate the passing of this year’s World Cup with a special mention of Paul, our favourite wiggly mollusc