1112th
May

Long time no see! (write/post/read/etc) I’ve been pretty busy over the past month as my table at the London MCM Expo has been confirmed, so I’ve been making lots of jewellery, sending off new designs and coming up with exciting ideas. I did have a minor setback, where I accidentally ordered a design sheet in pink instead of red, so I now have a load of pink Star Trek engineering insignias. Luckily all the other designs work just as well in pink, so I just need to reorder the insignias in the correct colour.

There have been so many public holidays over the last few weeks and I have spent them lazing about in the sunshine in parks, having BBQs and going to house parties. I will do a big photopost soon to recount my adventures.

There have also been lots of gigs which have all been awesome. I went to see Tim Minchin at the Royal Albert Hall on the 28th April, and although I was late arriving I luckily only missed the first two songs. It was the same show as at the O2 Arena last year, but to be honest I had forgotten half the new songs already so it was still just as funny and captivating. The show was being filmed for a DVD which was exciting, and I had seats that were really close to the stage, so maybe I will be able to spot myself!

The next gig was one I had been looking forward to for most of the year; Death From Above 1979 at the Forum. Due to some last minute spare tickets I ended up going with some friends, which really made the experience even better. We got there early and bagged some nice places on the railings behind the pit so we had an awesome view without getting squashed. The crowd were hands down the most mental I have ever seen at a gig, and the amazing thing was they kept going from the first song to the last. You could literally see the steam rising off the mass of bodies. DFA played pretty much their entire discography, bar two or three tracks, and kept the talking to a minimum. It was exactly the comeback it needed to be, just the audience and the band connecting over the tracks that have made them such a cult favourite over the years. I highly anticipate their set at Reading Festival, along with their inevitable future tours and hopefully a new album too.

Turn It Out
Dead Womb
Going Steady
Too Much Love
Cold War
Black History Month
Go Home, Get Down
Little Girl
Blood On Our Hands
You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine
Pull Out
We Don’t Sleep At Night
Romantic Rights
Do It!
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You’re Lovely (But You’ve Got Lots Of Problems)
Losing Friends
If We Don’t Make It We’ll Fake It

Coincidentally, while I was at the DFA1979 gig I managed to blag tickets for an intimate Friendly Fires show on the Monday. God bless Scarlet Mist! It was at Heaven and was a small warm-up gig to preview their new album, Pala. I was confident it would be amazing as their self-titled debut was one of my favourite albums of 2009 and they had always been great when I had seen them at festivals. Luckily it lived up to my expectations and we danced away an hour in the sweaty arches of the venue with no cares in the world. The new tracks sounded great and they had a ridiculous light show full of lasers, spinning colours and confetti to accentuate the carnival atmosphere. They ended on Kiss Of Life which elicited a loud cheer from the crowd and we all shook our hips along with Ed before it was time to leave.

Lovesick
Blue Cassette
True Love
On Board
Chimes
Skeleton Boy
Show Me Lights
Live Those Days Tonight
Hurting
Jump In The Pool
Pull Me Back To Earth
Paris
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Hawaiian Air
Kiss Of Life

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1017th
Dec

More gigs this week! December has been a pretty busy month for me.

Tuesday was Tim Minchin at the O2 Arena. Having seen him on his last tour a stupid number of times, I had gotten a bit weary of seeing the same show over and over, so this was a welcome change. It was mostly new material, beefed out with a 40 piece orchestra and theatrics that can only come with touring arena-sized venues. Tim seemed to make it work, although I do miss the days when I used to see him in tiny 200 capacity rooms. The new stuff was very funny, and I especially enjoyed his religion-based rants and songs about taking things out of context. No doubt some of the dates on the tour have been filmed for a new DVD, so everyone will be able to enjoy it.

On Wednesday I went to Brixton Academy with my mum for the XFM Winter Wonderland. Due to tube fuckups we arrived late and missed all of Mona (not a great loss) and all but one song by The Drums. We slotted into our favourite position (front right, just by the middle barriers) in time to see Two Door Cinema Club. I hadn’t realised before just how many singles they had released, so it came as a surprise to me when all but one of their 6 song setlist was a single. The crowd seemed to enjoy it though and bounced around gleefully. The music may not be a work of genius, but it is very catchy and fun.

Next up was White Lies, who surprised everyone else by not playing many singles at all. It was mostly tracks from their new album, which as it is released in January they are obviously very keen to promote. I’m not sure how well it went down with the XFM crowd though, as the audience seemed to thin out towards the end as people headed for the bar. I liked it and I’m definitely going to be getting a copy of their new album.

The penultimate act was Suede, who unfortunately had to do a quick acoustic set as their drummer was off sick. It was a bit of a disappointment for me as I had been looking forward to seeing them, but it was still pretty good. They played ‘Trash’, ‘Animal Nitrate’ and ‘Beautiful Ones’.

Lastly it was time for the Manic Street Preachers who chose the right route and played a set consisting of their greatest hits, rather than tracks from their new album. There were clearly a lot of die-hard Manics fans in the audience and everyone had a great time. It really got me excited for their rescheduled Brixton gigs next month.


Two Door Cinema Club


Suede


Manic Street Preachers

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