The Week of Britpop

OK, before I begin (as Mr Fry might say), some housekeeping. I've posted a crazy THREE times this morning, my excuse being that I'm sat in waiting for a UPS man to pick up my 360, which has succombed to the Red Ring of Death. Below you'll find my opinion on the "most anticipated album of all time" tm. and "the best night out ever" tm.

I'm now in my new house, broadband works (on everything but the Mac so far...grrr!) so I'll be posting more often. Also, I'll shortly be setting up a twitter, cos it's about time, I'll be updating it as often as I can be bothered. A few photos have also been added to the Leeds Post. Right, on we go...

These things always come in threes.

On Tuesday I saw Supergrass, who were characteristically brilliant (if a little drunken, but HEY, IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!). They did loads of new stuff, but none of that mattered after a beautiful rendition of She's So Loose. Photos are below.

THEN I was reminded yesterday that I'll be seeing the vastly underrated Bluetones performing their vastly underrated debut Expecting to Fly tonight. More of which tomorrow.

Then to cap it all, came the announcement I've been waiting for for at least 5 years, but never really expected to arrive. Damon and Graham are cuddling on the cover of NME, Blur are doing Hyde Park in July and all is fucking right with the world.

Apart from my 360 being buggered, but hey, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been bored enough to blog, so think yourselves lucky.

As an aside, the landlord of my new house has left behind two DAB radios and, as such, I have now discovered the joys of 6music. Lovely. If anyone has any other reccommendations of good DAB stations, please let me know.

Supergrass

Chinese Democracy

And another thing, while I'm catching up. As most of you now know, Chinese Democracy is fucking atrocious, but Timmy told me to blog it so I didn't piss him off complaining to him about it any more.

In brief, it's a horrible, horrible mess.

The level of overproduction, and the amount of autotune so ham-fistedly on display is gobsmacking. For comparison, take a listen to anything from Bat out of Hell 3. Now, bless him, Meat Loaf can't pitch like he used to, so there's a fair amount of autotune on that album. You have to listen real close to hear it though, because it's only done where absolutely necessary, and it's done with a light touch. The result is a Meat Loaf record which is in tune and still sounds like Meat Loaf.

In the case of Chinese Democracy, whoever's been at the desk has been so heavy handed, Axl's voice loses all of it's character. On occasions it sounds one step away from a vocoder.

It's hard to believe that it took 13 years to make something that sounds so much like everything being thrown at a wall. There's no finesse, no subtlety. Even Death Magnetic sounded like a band playing songs, Chinese Democracy sounds like a Guns n' Roses simulator programmed by an excited teenager.

Add to that the fact that the best song (the slow, piano one, fucked if I can remember what it's called) is lifted from a Polyphonic Spree song, and you have a record custom designed to piss me off.

I was going to give it some time to settle in, but much like the NME reviewer, I'm not sure I even want to give it a second listen.

Nah, bollocks. Life's too short.

Best. Night. Out. Ever!

Before I start on more recent events, I thought it only fair to post about, quite honestly, the best night out I'm ever likely to experience (unless Blur in Hyde Park turns out to be REALLY good). 

Those of you who know me, know how much I love the Wildhearts. They are (for those unfamiliar) the perfect combination of Beatles pop tunes, Therapy? riffola and Aerosmith attitude and cool. Their first album, Earth Vs The Wildhearts is, quite simply, perfect and has been in my top five ever since I've had a top five. Glad was I when frontman Ginger announced that he was following the trend and doing a 15th anniversary show, playing the album beginning to end, with an encore of B-sides from the era.

The show took place one Saturday in September at the Shepherds Bush Empire. The Empire is a lovely venue, four storeys high but not too deep. There's a good view from everywhere and, due to The Academy Group's standardised pricing, the beer's cheaper than the pub across the road. 

The sound was spectacular (not so onstage, apparently, but the band held up admirably), perhaps a little too loud for the Earth Vs set, to get over the volume of the crowd, but reduced to a more delicate level for the encore.

So, those who know me will also know that I, more dubiously, adore Andrew WK, who, as fortune would have it, was playing his first UK show in about 3 years at the Astoria 2 the very same night. I mean, that kind of timing only happens in London!!

There was no band, just him, a keyboard and a backing track, but that's all you really need. Pit injuries, the walk from Shepherds Bush to Charing Cross and the late hour (went on stage about 1.30am!) notwithstanding, Mr Wilkes-Krier got a very drunken me, very excitable indeed. No doubt much to the embarrassment of my companions.

But fuck 'em. Best night out ever. 

Photos of the Wildhearts, plus supports The God Damn Whores and Eureka Machines are below. AWK photos will follow shortly.

The Wildhearts, God Damn Whores, Eureka Machines

Leeds, then...

***ADDED PHOTOS, SCROLL DOWN!***

I went to Glastonbury 2004. The last really wet one.

Fuck all compared to Leeds 2008, and I didn't take any wellies.

But once I'd picked up what I thought were the last pair of size 10 wellies on site, but my other half discovered to be one size 10 and one size 9, I managed to see some bands and develop the bare minimum of WW1 diseases.

So, with comments where appropriate, here was my Leeds 2008:

Thursday

Wintermute

The Pigeon Detectives

"Secret" set on the BBC introducing stage. In a remarkable display of "lost sight of why we're doing this", the stage manager tried to pull them off before they'd finished. That's right, they arranged a secret set by a big selling act on a tiny stage, which thousands of people turned up to watch....and then asked them to finish up so they could get the local band on.


Friday

Eureka Machines

Brilliant. Follow this band to the ends of the earth and they will not disappoint.

MSI

Truly, truly awful

Adam Green

The Whip

Lightspeed Champion

Quite charming. Lovely to hear the full version of Midnight Surprise, which I have since been informed, is inspired by the Legend of Zelda video games. The folkiest geek in this hemisphere. 

Johnny Foreigner

Hadouken!

First really big crowd of the weekend, and brilliant as ever.

Avenged Sevenfold

Crystal Castles

Feeder

Old faithful...Feeder never disappoint

Pendulum

Well, I say I saw them, what I actually did was squint to make them out on the video screen from about a mile and a half away from the tent, which was the closest I could get. They sounded alright.

Tenacious D

Sublime.

The Last Shadow Puppets

Got to give them credit for bringing an orchestra to a festival. Props. Songs are still a bit meh, though.

Metallica

Not loud enough, but as (I think) NME pointed out, Metallica just don't know how to be shit. Oddly, though, they kept leaving the stage through a little door at the back, through which I can only assume was a bevy of whores with lines on their bellies. Or something.

Saturday


Future of the Left

Best. Band. In. The. World. Today. It's only a matter of time.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly

Surprisingly meh. Was expecting better, but it didn't really translate well into a field....

Dizzee Rascal

You what, you what? Blinding. A proper highlight. Fix up sounded massive

Frank Turner

Very special. This is what Get cape should have been like. The Bragg comparisons are totally deserved.

Serj Tankian

Surprisingly diverting. Had a lovely moment where he spotted an Israeli and a Lebanese flag in the crowd, and asked them to come and meet each other in the middle. Think I have a photo somewhere. EDIT: Also, it's just come back to me that he covered ABBA's Money, Money, Money. Which was pretty fucking weird.

Biffy Clyro

On fire. Mountains may well be my single of the year.

The Enemy

Shite. On such a vibrant bill, they just seem so dull.

MGMT

This is where my alcohol intake makes things get hazy. Which is exactly the way MGMT should be enjoyed.

Vampire Weekend

Should have been outdoors, in the sun, but apart from that, wonderful.

The Bacchae

Can't remember what the fuck they sounded like, but the singer was really realy hot

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Seriously, guys. Very hazy indeed. Pretty intense in the little tent, as I recall, and though you may doubt me, it was totally worth missing the beginning of Rage for...

Rage Against The Machine

Did exactly what was expected of them. Not the highlight I was expecting it to be, nor the highlight everyone else said they were, but still a masterful performance.

Sunday

Santogold

Wonderfully out of place. A very surreal start to the day. Creator was immense!

Mystery Jets

By this point the stage management on the NME stage was starting to grate. The main stage has overrun by at least 20 minutes every night, and no-one's cared so far. But woe betide a new band who run over, despite playing a career defining set. Was interesting to see "Helmet Guy" (the stage manager, whose headgear came in handy when the crowd turned decidedly ugly...) squaring up to a guy on crutches. Sort it out, Festival Republic

The Ting Tings

Did exactly what it said on the tin. As usual, the crowd were more entertaining than the band, but still, it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Dirty Pretty Things

We Are Scientists

Foals

Once again, Helmet Guy puts punctuality ahead of brilliant music and festival moments. Because we all paid £120 to come to Leeds to marvel at the efficient stage management. Foals overran by 60 seconds. Did they get asked to wrap up? No. They pulled the plug. Disgusting. Letters will be written.

Justice

I wasn't in the right place for this. Not enough substances in me, or something. I tried, and I'd like to see them again, in the right frame of mind.

Bloc Party

At the end, I remember saying "Right then Flowers, follow that, you fucker!" So it must have been good. Headliners next year. Or maybe the year after.

Alkaline Trio

Manic Street Preachers

Of the seven or so times I've seen the Manics, this was the best. The crowd were amazing, and Wire and Bradfield fed off them like vultures to a carcass. Brilliant set, such energy. The best band of the weekend. And Helmet Guy made them cut a song. (Only Autumnsong, but still, cunt.)

The Young Knives

A nice, post headliner oddity in the "Alternative" tent. I love the Young Knives, but I can understand why some people don't. 

So that was that. The weather made it exhausting, but the line up made it worthwhile. I urge both of my readers to write letters of complaint to Melvin Benn about the stage management on the NME stage. Even if you weren't there to see it.

Leeds 2008

Liquid Lunch

I swear I'll get the tracklisting up here tomorrow, along with another from tonight.

Incidentally, I spent much of today explaining to people who Calvin Johnson was, and why it was cool that I had lunch with him.

Live from Sheffield, it's Saturday night!!!

I've set up a myspace page for myself, trying to drum up some extra work. I need a recent playlist up there, and to save me the effort of retyping from scratchy notes, I'm going to put tonight's set on the myspace blog live, as it happens, from about 10.30pm (GMT)

Behold, My myspace

I'll try and repost it over here with a director's commentary during the week. Don't touch that dial.

Facebook will follow shortly, although it's slightly irksome that if I want a page specifically for my work then I have to have "fans" instead of "friends". Which makes me sound a bit like a "wanker".

I fucking love Does It Offend You, Yeah?

And here's why: They do what so many euro and scandi squelchy-bass post-big-beat electro acts (see Daft Punk through Justice) do. However while their squelchbeat peers are all either impenetrably foreign or wear Kraftwerkian disguises, it feels like you've known DIOY,Y? for years before they perform their (always impeccably timed and perfectly rehearsed) walk out onstage....

First of all, frontguy Morgan is surely AWOL from the set of Back To The Future Part II, all pattern print hoodie and ecstatic energy. He's the coolest dance-rock-crossover frontman since Maxim Reality put those contacts in. The drummer apparently looks like someone from a soap, although I forget who and which, and founder members Dan (synths) and James (bass) look like either your brother-in-law or your IT support. I guarantee it.

Having seen them live for a second time, musically my opinion remains unchanged. They occupy the exact middle ground between the aforementioned Daft Punk, The Prodigy (live, circa 1997) and Bloc Party, which is a pretty fucking good middle ground to occupy. I'm only half way through the album as I type, and while I can't see my opinion shaking much, I still refer to the highlights in terms of "That one that goes Doo Doo widdly wii!" like an excited and over E-numbered toddler.

I assume they'll be playing at Leeds, which I've just recieved a confirmation of my tickets for. Just fucking see them. Just. Fuck.

Fucking..

Just....

Mmmmm....doo...doowiddlywii!

4 hours of flu.

Or, TL:DR.

The flu has me.

And in my line of work, being technically self employed and all, you don't get no sick pay. If I don't work, rent don't get paid, so I saddled up and prepared for an evening of pain. Not only that, but the punters don't tend to care if your head's twice it's normal size or the world's trying desperately to escape from your arse. If you're not on form, they complain to anyone and everyone, leading you one step closer to redundancy.

So, in an attempt to keep my concentration I decided it'd be a good idea to "do an Offbeat" and write down my set as I played it. While the choices may not give the most accurate portrayal of my personal tastes, I figured it'd give a bit of background to this burgeoning blog and save me doing a proper "about me" page.

Also there has been a punter in a few times who's asked me to post up a setlist cos he's liked what I played but didn't know much of it. He was an older guy, and really nice. If only everyone was so open minded.

I'm going to post it on a rough hour by hour basis, so you can pretend it's a live blog if you wish. Whatever works for you. I started somewhere between 10.45 and 11.00. Slightly late because I wanted to listen to the Kermode podcast on the way to work and therefore got a bus instead of a cab.

Blur - MOR
Editors - Munich
The Coral - In The Morning

23.00

Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God

Modest Mouse - Float On
The Enemy - You're Not Alone
The Long Blondes - Giddy Stratospheres

Which, I might add, is just as rubbish as I remember. And fell predictably flat. Needs to be at least 2 minutes shorter

The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It
Arctic Monkeys - Teddy Picker
Milburn - Send In The Boys
Kasabian - Shoot The Runner
The Cribs - Hey Scenesters
The Strokes - Someday
Muse - Starlight
Elastica - Connection
Oasis - Supersonic
The Fratellis - Henrietta

It's at roughtly this point that a girl who we'll call "James girl" requests Laid for the third time. I explain to her that if I play it too early I get no end of earbashing from middle aged ladies later on. I have a fairly strict policy of not playing anything twice, but if she's patient I'll definitely play it when the place busies up a little.

The Cure - Close To Me
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor

Which I love a little more every time I hear it. James girl comes back for the fourth time, asking exactly when I intend to play Laid. I inform her that it's gonna be at least an hour away. She seems to understand.

Supergrass - Pumping on Your Stereo
Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure
The Wombats - Moving to New York

00.00

Blur - End of A Century

James girl sends her friend over to ask nonchalantly if I have Laid. She must know that I know, because they've been standing and dancing in full view of the DJ booth for the past 40 minutes or so. I play along and politely inform her that I'll play it in a bit.

Blondie - Hangin' on The Telephone
The White Sripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
Pigeon Detectives - Take Her Back
Stone Roses - Made of Stone

James girl returns herself again. "We're leaving in five minutes, are you going to play it"
I wish her well on her journey to the Leadmill.

About a verse in, the fire alarm goes off. We begin to evacuate the premises. About half the punters are outside when the alarm stops. I press play again and resume the song from where we left off.

After about 20 seconds it goes off again. Word is passed that it's either the hotel upstairs testing the alarm, or the smoke machine downstairs setting it off. Either way the decision is made to ignore it and carry on. Much to the delight of the attending punters.

Ash - Burn Baby Burn

Oh yes I did! 3 people get it. I try desperately not to break into a self satisfied grin.

The Housemartins - Happy Hour
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Kasabian - Klub Foot
PRML SCRM (Bloody fascist vowels!) - Movin On Up
Razorshite - In The Morning
Kaiser Chiefs - Every Day I Love You Less And Less
The Automatic - Monster

Who's that coming over your face? It's Kevin Costner, It's Kevin Costner. It's getting properly busy. I'd have played Laid about now if James girl had stayed.

Mark Ronson - Valerie
The Strokes - Last Nite
The Smiths - This Charming Man
The Enemy - Away From Here
The Killers - Mr Brightside

I can only assume, but beatmatching Mr Brightside out of Away From Here, pitched up 6.5%, with a room full of people punching air, must be what coming up must feel like.

01.00

The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
James - Laid
Pulp - Disco 2000
The Clash - Rock The Casbah

Without a hint of irony

The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Reverend And The Makers - Heavyweight Champion of the World

Just before I start to play this, when it's too late to cue anything else up....Jon Mclure's mum walks in. Seriously.

She heads straight downstairs.

Pigeon Detectives - I Found Out
PRML SCRM - Rocks
The Stone Roses - I Am The Ressurection
Gorillaz - Dare

Which beatmatches perfectly into...

The La's - There She Goes

Honest. For serious. Pitch it up about 0.3%. It's a revalation.

The Jam - A Town Called Malice
Morrissey - First of the Gang to Die
Kooks - Naive
Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
Killers - All These Things That I've Done

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that there is no subliminal message about Morrissey in the previous three artists. Morrissey's views on immigration are nobody's business but his own.

02.00

Blur - Song 2
Arctic Monkeys - Flourescent Adolescent
Kasabian - LSF
The Enemy - Had Enough
Oasis - Live Forever
The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now
Razorshite - Somewhere Else
Ocean Colour Scene - The Day We Caught The Train
Pulp - Common People
Supergrass - Alright
Cure - Friday I'm In Love
Muse - Plug in Baby
Fall Out Boy - This Ain't A Scene It's an Arms Race
Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Klaxons - Golden Skans
Kings Of Leon - Molly's Chambers
The Smiths - There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

With which ends the indie disco. I however continue....

The Specials - Rudi, A Message To You
Jackson 5 - I Want You Back
Sheena Easton - 9 to 5

Which prompts only slightly tongue in cheek complaints from a semi-regular who I know for a fact is a fan of both Meat Loaf and Queen. You'd have thought he'd have more of a sense of humour, no?

And with that it was over. I'd managed to fight off the flu for a few hours with nothing but Red Bull and adrenaline. Turned out to be one of the most enjoyable nights I've had in a long time.

Reckon I'm going to keep writing my sets down, though I'll not post them all, you'll be relieved to hear.

My girlfriend tells me I play better when I have an audience. By which she means either a busy crowd or someone in attendance who I respect and want to make an impression for. Hopefully this blog will hold me to account nicely.

Stroppy Corgan....

So, having spent twelve years getting my arse around to seeing the Smashing Pumpkins live, it ended an hour early with a botched acoustic version of 1979.

He walked off, no goodbye, no Cherub Rock, no nothing. Billie afterward explained that he's always looking to the audience to see smiling faces, and that last night there weren't any. Apparently we as a crowd were not entertaining enough.

It's a shame, because despite my first instinct to moan at such an unproffessional display of diva, for the hour and a half they were on stage they were fucking brilliant. And in a way I can't really blame him. Since the Pumpkins proper folded, Billy and Jimmy haven't had too much luck. Rumour has it that communications in Zwan had become so strained that Pajo quit by fax. The Future Embrace was an interesting experiment in aural endurance, but it didn't really have any songs on it...and Corgan's decision to announce the reformation of the Pumpkins the day before the album was released suggests he knew it.

So he reclaims his name and his songs, but can do no better than a half full house at the Nottingham Arena (small by arena standards...). It's gotta be tough looking out to see a LOT of empty seats when you were hoping for a return to former glory.

Whatever the case, you can't beat Porcelina as an opener, newish song Tarantula sounded absolutely immense, and Mayonnaise will stay with me for a long time. I only wish Billy could have faked it, for just one more show.