Everyone in London is fucked. I met our new Mayor back when I lived in Bournemouth. He is a twunt. The bumbling fool shtick is real people. On my way home from work last night the tube started fucking up. The announcements were weird. Trains that were due took a lifetime to arrive at the platform. I could just tell it was a sign that Boris had won. Oh dear. I've done a quick diagram for you to highlight the main issues as I see them...
We've been scribbled in the margin of a story that is patently absurd...
Just a quick reminder about my gig at Nambucca in September. It's still quite a while off yet, but tickets are selling really fast. It holds about 150-200 people and there are only 47 tickets left as I type. If you want to go, now is the time to buy your ticket (there won't be any on the door). Details are below. It's gonna be ace.
Saturday, September 6th 2008
Lexapalooza
Nambucca, Holloway Road, London N7 ***ALL PROCEEDS GO TO BREAST CANCER CAMPAIGN***
With: FRANK TURNER (compere and live set) plus...
Armed Response Unit
Al Baker
Chris T-T
Dave Hughes
Dave McPherson (INME)
In Search Of Apollo
Inertia Blooms
Jedethan
Kill Chaos
Kenny Leckie
Palehorse
Screaming Ballerina
Spectrum 7 ...plus many more
+ Exclusive merchandise, competitions and goodies only available on the day!
I teeter between tired and really, really tired....
Greetings folks. Not much new to report. I've made some changes to the website. I've put the blog on the main page. Fancied a change. I like it more.
Also, I posted a new video to youtube a while back and forgot to put up the link. So here it is... 'Stitch Together' live to about 5 people at Phibbers in Islington. Lovely. I might upload some footage from the Central gig soon if I can be arsed!
You dress in clothes of black, as I recite didactic prose...
Back in London. Tired. Last nights gig was excellent. Thanks to everyone who came out to see me. Bournemouth gigs are weird, but this one was more special. More people seemed up for it. Even a shitty PA couldn't ruin it (not the fault of the guys running it - it was just fucked!).
I had a great time and it was cool to catch up with good friends. I'm in 'post-gig slightly bummed for no reason' mode right now though. I'll put it down to lack of sleep. Pah fooey.
Have you noticed just how ill we've been since we moved to this town?...
Greetings from Bournemouth everyone! I'm currently at my parents house, pre-gig, wondering how the fuck to pass 5 or so hours before I head off to The Central. Hmm...
A surprisingly hassle free drive to Bournemouth has left me a bit out of sorts. Only one prick trying to kill me on the way. It's usually at least three or four. All very weird.
Every time I come back home, I find it a little bit weirder than the last. I guess I've adpated to London life more than I thought (and by adapted I mean got grumpier!). Ho Hum.. I'm off to do rock star things... like eating some lunch... and er probably sleeping! Rock on!
Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings...
Sunday was a weird day. First things first... Snow in April? Weird.
I'd half-heartedly decided to try and get a Glastonbury ticket. Tried at 9am, servers all fucked. Gave up about 20 minutes later. Came back about 1pm, homepage was still set to seetickets, and suddenly it was all working and there were tickets available. So the upshot is I bought a ticket. Sadly, nobody I know is going! Well, 2 people are camping in the workers area, complete with showers and free food. What to do people? What to do...
Had the tv on in the background and most of the day it was on bbc news 24, reporting on the Olympic torch fiasco in London. All very surreal, especially when you hear sentences like "and now the torch is onboard the bus with the sugarbabes.." without even a trace of absuridty in the newscasters voice. Also, imagine being the protester who'll forever be known as the guy who failed to wrestle the torch from Konnie Huq! haha! Priceless.
In other news, my voice is slowly coming back. I'm still not 100% convinced that it'll be ok for Saturday's gig though. Tits!
My voice is totally fucked! I played a kick-ass show at The Ivy House on Saturday and it was an unplugged shindig, and much shouting has reduced my voice to a mere fart of noise. It was worth it though. Gigs like that make me realise why I keep plugging away at this whole music lark. There was a great atmosphere and the other acts all kicked serious arse. I came away with a copy of Pj & Gabby/Neil Sutherland's split cd. Lovely stuff and lovely people to boot. Gabby also loves Monk. Gabby is therefore incredibley cool. If you don't know what Monk is, then I'm sorry, but you're simply not cool. Nevermind.
In other news, I got Frank Turner's new album in the post this morning. On first listen it would appear Frank has come up with the goods yet again. Everyone should go out and get a copy immediately. Why are you still reading this? Go on... Go!
Also listening to James Barrett's new cd, the new Naomi Hates Humans album tracks and some Dan Bern. All of which are ace. Now, if I can only get my voice back before my next gig!
So, I'm sure I'm way behind everyone else, but I saw these guys supporting Billy Bragg at the start of the month. I really wanted to hate them, but was won over by their brilliance. Even the Camden Roundhouse's shitty acoustics couldn't stop me liking them. Enjoy...
Last night I went to see a screening of 'The English Surgeon'. It's a really interesting film about a brain surgeon and his efforts to help create a viable clinic in the Ukraine using discarded NHS equipment, bringing hope to people who don't have access to the kind of health care we take for granted in the west. It also had an excellent soundtrack courtesy of Nick Cave & Warren Ellis. Why am I telling you this? Because it's on BBC2 soon and I think you should all watch it.
Last night's gig was everything that makes me want to keep going with music. I hadn't played in over 4 months (the longest gap between gigs ever for me) and I was rusty and nervous. Once I started playing however, it went damn near perfectly. I fucked up a bunch of times. Shaking off the rust. The audience really seemed to enjoy it. Great venue too. Sometimes I guess it all just works...
