1429th
Apr

It was the Glastonbury resale at the weekend, and although I’ve had my ticket since October, it was tense moments all round as a large number of my group were still without. Luckily we managed to get through fairly quickly and got all but two of the remaining tickets that we needed, and everyone is now on high alert for the ‘secret’ May sales for the last pair. I think we’ve got around 30 people now in our camp so I really can’t wait to get back to those magical fields and have an amazing 5 days.

glasto14

1128th
Jul

I have my photos back from Glastonbury, finally! The film processing shop scanned them wrong the first time so I had to send the negatives back. I’m pretty pleased with some of the results.

And just for laughs, here are my photoshoots from LFCC. Look at how excited I am to be standing next to Karen Gillan!

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1128th
Jun

I’m back from Glasto, and just about recovered enough to write down a few coherent thoughts and reviews.

Firstly though, before I forget, I want to just jot down a few words on the Patrick Wolf gig I attended last Monday at the Garage. It was a private gig to celebrate his newest release, Lupercalia, and the tickets were given away to fans who had preordered the album. It was quite an unusual gig with no support act and a start time of 8pm (which of course turned into 8:30pm as Patrick was late) and the fans felt a bit more subdued than his normal crowd. Perhaps it was a case of people winning the tickets who wouldn’t normally have paid to go and see him. Nevertheless I enjoyed myself and we got a few treats in the form of the rarely played ‘Teignmouth’ and ‘Wolf Song’, plus hearing some of the new songs live has made me like them more. ‘Together’ is now ensconced as one of my favourite tracks from the new album. Patrick himself veered between emotional and ecstatic, and spent most of the encore in with the crowd, singing and dancing with his fans. Overall it was not the best gig I’ve seen him do (possibly owing to the fact I’m not a fan of Lupercalia in general) but it was still a pleasant evening. Plus there was the bonus of getting home before 11 for a change!

See below for the setlist:

Armistice
Time Of My Life
Teignmouth
Bluebells
House
Wolf Song
The Libertine
Slow Motions
The Falcons
Bermondsey Street
The Days
The Bachelor
This City
The Future
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Tristan Remix
Together
William

Glastonbury, oh Glastonbury. It’s barely been a day, and I’ve already mostly forgotten the horrible slog from the carpark to the campsite, the sea of mud and the Friday full of pissing rain. All that I remember now are the sunny days, the strong cider and the glorious bands. It really was an experience, although I am secretly glad that there isn’t another one until 2013. I don’t think I’ve walked so much over a single weekend in my life! Band highlights include The Vaccines really living up to their hype, Biffy Clyro rocking out despite the rain, Yuck being sublime, The Horrors blowing me away with a surprisingly fantastic performance, The Chemical Brothers and their massive field of ravers, and of course Queens of the Stone Age, for closing Glastonbury with the best set I have seen in a long time. We also did the Arcadia and Shangri-La experience on Saturday night after The Chems, and that was like a whole festival of its own. We saw Orbital on the revolving DJ booth in the Spider in Arcadia, spent a good few hours in the block 9 gay club NYC Downlow, before getting lost in the backstreet slums of the contaminated Shangri-La. We trekked back to our camp as the sun rose and it seemed like a perfect festival moment. I also managed to get up to the Park to see one of the weekends special guests, Radiohead, although as I couldn’t see or hear much it wasn’t all too spectacular.

I’ll do another roundup of Glasto bits when I get my photos back from the developers sometime next week.

This week is the Arcade Fire gig at Hyde Park, and I’m planning to be down the front and going insane for the whole thing. With support from Owen Pallett, The Vaccines, Beirut and Mumford & Sons, it looks set to be an awesome day.

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1116th
Jun

First matter of the day, as always, is gigs. I actually had a break from gigging last week when I went to see a musical instead! It was the national touring production of Spring Awakening at the Greenwich Theatre, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I missed out on the west end version a few years back as I had stupidly assumed it would be there for a while, so I’m glad I managed to catch this version. I took a friend who had never seen a musical before and it was pretty amusing to watch her reactions.

Even more must-see gig tickets have been released this week and last, and I’ve had to put a fair few on my to-buy list as I’m currently saving my spare change for Glastonbury. The list includes Amanda Palmer, Patrick Wolf, Yuck, Bombay Bicycle Club, Combichrist and possibly Arctic Monkeys at the O2 Arena.

Of course there was a gig last night as well; We Are Scientists at Koko. It was a sell-out show and by the time I arrived around 8pm, the floor was already packed with eager fans. I only caught the second support act, Tall Ships, but I was very impressed by them. They were a bit like Biffy Clyro crossed with Radiohead using loops to intricately layer their guitars, definitely one to watch in the future. We Are Scientists managed to pack a surprising number of hits into their hour and 15 min set, so much so that the teenagers around me barely stopping pogoing in excitement. It was a lovely mix of tracks, with each album getting a pretty equal representation. Their trademark stage banter added to the entertainment and I was particularly amused by their tales of how they claim to be a band from London now that drummer Andy Burrows has joined their ranks. I’m pretty sad that they aren’t at any of my festivals this year. I’ll be needing some form of Autumn gig to keep me going until the next album.

Nice Guys
Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
I Don’t Bite
This Scene Is Dead
Impatience
Rules Don’t Stop
Break It Up
Inaction
Pittsburgh
Chick Lit
Dinosaurs
It’s A Hit
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The Great Escape
Can’t Lose
Jack & Ginger
Foreign Kicks
After Hours

It’s all busy on the jewellery etc. front, as I have some exciting new ideas for designs and canvas bags. I may be selling at a Craft Market in Brick Lane in July too, so look out for more information on that.

Next week I will be MIA for a while as I’m off to Glastonbury Festival. I’m pretty excited as it’s my first time going, and not even the predictions of rain have put a dampener on my spirits. Although I’ve bought some new wellies as a precaution.. I’ve been working out my timetable of bands to see, although I’m still not sure how many of them I will get to. It’s easy at Reading as nothing is more than 5 minutes away, so you can watch half the set of one band and then sprint to another stage for half of another. At Glasto I’ve been told it can take up 30 mins between stages, and that’s in good weather! I think I’ll just have to take it easy and go with the flow, and as long as I see Queens of the Stone Age I don’t really care!

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1115th
Apr

On Wednesday I got to skip free from work at 3pm (after being given an Easter Egg) and make my way to Leicester Square for the XFM session featuring Miles Kane. We arrived with plenty of time to spare, so after some food and cheeky cocktails in the pub we ventured into the Global Radio headquarters. We waited in the reception area until most of the other competition winners had arrived (there were about 25 of us in total) and then we were ushered into the ‘Green Room’ bar where we were served free beer. Beer only tastes good when it’s free! The walls had been signed by previous XFM guests so we wasted time trying to spot the best ones. The Wombats had scrawled their name in massive letters, possibly to compensate for how sh*t their music is.. Eventually everyone had arrived and the band was ready, so we were led into a room just off the recording studio, which had massive glass windows so we could see inside. It felt a bit like we were in a zoo and Miles Kane was a rare tiger exhibit.

Steve Harris was in with us, and introduced Miles and asked him a few questions before they played their set. They played the three singles plus an album track and I was really impressed with how polished it all sounded. I knew it would be good, but they really exceeded my expectations. It was over too soon and we were taken back to the bar and told that Miles would be with us in a moment. After signing the wall himself (and right over Alex James by mistake!) he made his way round the room and chatted to each pair of competition winners, thanking them for coming and signing things and having photos taken. It was a really nice touch, although when he reached us my friend started off the conversation by saying she didn’t actually know who he was! Luckily she recovered and went on to say that she was really impressed, and asked if he was playing Reading and Leeds. He confirmed that he was and after two hilariously bad photos with us, it was time to leave.

All in all it was a really fun afternoon. We got to see bits of the XFM studios, have lots of free beer, watch a great set and meet Miles Kane afterwards. I’ll definitely be trying to win my way into more sessions in the future.

Last night the entire Glastonbury lineup was revealed, which took me by surprise because I wasn’t expecting it for another couple of weeks! The biggest announcement for me is Queens of the Stone Age headlining the Other Stage on the Sunday. I was wondering who I was going to see instead of Beyonce, and now I’m incredibly happy. A lot of the smaller bands are also playing Reading so if there are clashes it won’t be the end of the world.

Bands I am most excited for include:
Morrissey
Biffy Clyro
Two Door Cinema Club
Metronomy
Primal Scream
Bright Eyes
The Chemical Brothers
Friendly Fires
The Kills
Queens Of The Stone Age
TV on the Radio
Bombay Bicycle Club
Miles Kane
Battles
The Horrors
Warpaint
Yuck
Ok Go
The Joy Formidable
Crystal Castles
Graham Coxon
Patrick Wolf

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