Shortly after my first Bangface, I was already looking forward to attending my first Glastonbury festival. Having already opened my eyes to excessive drug use, new music and social interaction over the past couple of months I was understandably very, very excited. For those of you who went to Glastonbury in 2007 you’ll know that from early Friday afternoon (when I arrived) all the way to Monday, it rained constantly turning the whole site into a quagmire. I didn’t so much mind this, I thought that it wouldn’t be a proper first Glastonbury if there wasn’t a bit of mud and treated the whole scenario as a baptism of fire. I remember the lineup that year being what mainly drew me in. One of the main memories I have of the weekend include waiting for ages for Arcade fire to start and strategically buying 2 pints of lagar to save having to leave the crowd to get another one ofcourse. However after slugging back the 2 pints and the band were just coming on, nature called and since I had just stood through one set of an act that was awful and had secured myself I really sweet spot, I decided that in the spirit of things I should just piss myself, and in doing so filled my boots and warmed my feet up quite nicely. After an absolutely awesome Arcade Fire set I decided to go on a Friday night stroll having a look at all the headliners since I couldn’t decide which one to choose from, I don’t think there will be many opportunities to see the Arctic Monkeys, Damian Marley and Bjork all in the space of a couple of hours of each other. Later on that night at a mates campsite I emptied my piss filled boots over his spot and said it was water… The following evening was qually as eye opening. I stood at the G-stage just to watch Bong-ra and ended up staying for Shitmat, Scotch Egg and Noisia all of which I hadn’t heard of before but was blown away by them all, I then ducked out to go see the Killers who I quite liked at the time. This was also the night however that I was to experiment with LSD for the first time, leaving me curious to venture further down the rabbit hole of the human consciousness. The following day I remember seeing Shirley Bassey, The Manic Street Preachers and The Who. The whole weekend was an eye opener, I’d fallen in love but didn’t realize how strong the love would be, and from that weekend on I was officially addicted to festivals.
Looking back on that first ever festival, I would of done it again completely differently. I focused too much on the music and getting wasted that I nearly missed the true sense of festivals. Over the next couple of years I was to learn the true description of a great festival. The following year I went to Glastonbury on my own, a strange experience which I’m glad I’ve done, I had some great memories and saw some amazing sets (Kings of Leon on the Friday, Elbow, Hot Chip and a truly memorable Massive Attack set on the Saturday) But the whole time whilst walking around and talking to people I couldn’t help thinking that although I was having a good time I really wanted my mates to be there with me to. But this was the weekend I discovered Beans On Toast, who is now one of my favorite artists.
Now its going to be a bit tricky to give all my festival highligts because I will literally be here all day, I suppose if I could give a brief run down I shall say that Glastonbury, although not without its flaws (size, price, dwindling music policy) is the best festival to go to in this country. It embodies everything festivals are to deliver. It transports you to another world for a week, a whole years worth of organization for just 5 days, the effort, the art, the unlimited options of things to do, the diversity of the music and sheer epicness of it all. Glastonbury has also been the setting for some of the best live sets I’ve ever seen; Blur, Bon Iver, Massive Attack, Christy Moore, The Who. And even for people who I wouldn’t usually go see play at all Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Rolf Harris, Bjork, Ray Davies.
To get anywhere close to something of the standard of Glastonbury you have to go to small or medium sized festivals for a similar vibe and organization. Secret Garden Party is nice, like the all the little parts of Glastonbury you spend most of your time seeing condensed into one site. A beautiful location, a truly friendly and divers crowd, and the music policy is quite quaint as well (a lot of gypsy-step, folk and traditional festival favorites to keep me entertained). Also despite the whole festival being a Bedales and Italia Conte student’s wet dream, it fails to be pretentious at all, I also had another highlight from Beans On Toast there, who performed 3 times one of which being one of the best live sets I’ve ever seen from someone. Then there’s Glade, which is always a lovely intimate affair. A pure mix of brilliant tunes, fun times with the chosen family and hefty hedonism, An offshoot from Glastonbury’s Glade stage, I’d consider it the Electronic equivalent to the mother of festivals itself. It’s had a few issues these recent years, but will be back this year just as good as ever I should imagine. Then of course there is a new lovely little festival discovered last year called Boomtown fair. A tiny little 3,000-person community, filled with a top dollar Ska, Punk and Reggae lineup including Nevile Staple and Toots and the Maytals. A short affair that only really kicks off on the Saturday, but lovely and intimate and only 60 quid! Then of course there is the ‘commercial’ festivals… I went to Reading to see Radiohead one year, I have always resented Reading, mainly from school days were it seemed that all the wankers in my year would all seem to go, and any other twat at a party or a night out seemed to be going. I always had this image of it being filled with students away from mummy and daddy for a weekend, celebrating their exam results… I was right. As soon as I walked through the gates onto the campsite someone kicked a bottle at me then laughed, other items chucked in my direction over that day included toothpaste, food and cups of what was probably piss, at a friends campsite I listened in disgust as the congregation bragged about how he spat in a girls hair who walked passed, and how later on that night they was all going to deliberately anti-social. I dropped a tab of acid which luckily wasn’t that strong otherwise I would of spent my entire time there pissed off and incredibly aggy. However despite being surrounded by fools there was 2 moments of beauty. I dropped my wallet with EVERYTHING in it, and a couple chased me up the path to give it back to me, and then when I lost my phone the geezer ran through the phone book trying to contact people so he could give it back. I rung the phone and met up with the geezer who said “be careful in future man the next person might not be so nice” Unfortunatley I had no beer and no spliff to give him so just gave him a cuddle and ‘nice one mate’, all this whilst the whole campsite was setting fire to each others tents and acting like animals, it showed that there is still some sign of decency even at the shit festivals. Radiohead were amazing and I got to meet Frank Turner which was nice. However having an arena and campsite area split, booze restrictions, average sound, a location which is literally just a field next to Reading town centre, horrible people and mainly horrible NME style music, makes Reading easily the worst festival I’ve ever been to. No diversity, no atmosphere, no effort. Melvin Benn is the Alan Shugar of festivals.
When ask why I love festivals so much I sometimes fail to project all the emotion behind my reasoning. For one it’s the sheer Englishness of it all… Camping out in the unpredictable, British elements, getting leathered in a field, listening to music is something that even our ancestors in medieval times can relate to. America can’t do it properly, and Europe lack the amount that we hold. But a more in-depth reason behind my love for them is that in this cold, loveless and unfair world we live in I find comfort and sanctuary in escaping to the great British countryside for a weekend, to sleep with the elements and live in small sectioned off communities with genuinely lovely people from all different backgrounds and countries, listening to amazing music, testing my bodies limits to how much alcohol my my liver can filter and how many drugs my brain will allow me to play with, in an environment where there aren’t really any boundaries or laws. I often get humor from people getting caught at the gates at festivals with enough drugs to put them away for 12 years, and escape with confiscation and a slap on the wrist. I can forget entirely about the real world and truly be myself in this little bubble protected by a 12-foot fence. There’s always that poignant moment on the Monday’s when I arrive back in London, seeing people talking on mobiles, people rushing to work and reading newspapers reporting on all the fucked up stuff that nobody really wants to talk or think about, and I say to myself “It shouldn’t be like this”. I’ll bring my kids up at festivals when the time comes to it. Teach them how to use the Diablo’s and the devil sticks, and show them the importance of community, music, art and human decency in society which are all vital lessons to learn in this unforgiving world we live in.
I suppose now I shall have to touch on the present day… the whole reason I started to attempt this mammoth entry was that I was so inspired by the return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor that I thought I’d reflect. However its been the past 12-18 months where I have truly used live music to its full effects. My knowledge of genres which I first discovered when I started to go to gigs I have built on and seen my heroes. In folk I have gone one to see Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, , Frank Turner and Beans on Toast several times. I even consider Beans on Toast to be the most influential musicians of modern days. Acts which I assured myself I would see before I’d die of before they split up; The Pogues, Primal Scream, Leftfield, Alabama 3, Christy Moore, and of course Godspeed… All were exceptionally amazing gigs, also my regular attendance at such venues like the Jamm and the Hootenanny keep helping me discover amazing new bands such as The Correspondents, Molotov Jukebox, Ta mere and Lazy Habits. To the new rave nights which have gained more popularity since the demise of Bangface. Earblender giving us the Gabber, Breakcore and Happy Hardcore, Jungle Syndicate giving us the Jungle and ALAN giving us the atmosphere it once had. But also a special thanks to Heidie who shares my flair for live music, and gave me a new passion for searching for new bands… All cracking evenings spent in good company and without her I would still be that bloke standing in the corner on his own, because all of his mates were busy tonight and couldn’t come with him. Thanks for taking the time to hang out with me.
Now for the point… If there is actually a point, why do I spend most of my time and money on tickets to events of live music? Many of the reasons I think I’ve already explained, I suppose I should probably give a list of some of the best live acts I’ve seen… But it’s impossible, and doesn’t matter anyway, through all of the gigs I’ve been to and all the festivals I’ve attended even if the act playing has been awful I have still felt something. In real life I am a bit of an emotional cripple who doesn’t express his feelings to anyone, but there have been moments where I have cried in a huge group of people, felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, or totally forgotten everything I was worried about, or felt a love for the people, even strangers around me so strong I just couldn’t help but give them a hug. It’s the moments like that when I actually feel quite happy to exist that makes it all worthwhile.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Friday, 21 January 2011
Part 2: Folk to Rave
One night whilst lying in bed and living out the ritual of reading whatever book I was on at the time and listening to John Kennedy’s ‘Xposure’ show on XFM, a radio show which has had a profound effect on my listening and the gigs I have gone to. I’ll talk about that in the next paragraph, but I’ll carry on with the story for now… this particular evening on the live sessions was a London based lady of a bout 21 years at the time called Emmy the Great, and the first song she performed was a poignant yet beautiful tune called ‘Edward is Dedward’. I honestly think that this was the first time I’d properly listened to folk music and it sure weren’t the last. When I explored more into this London based music scene. Or “anti folk’ as it was properly, but not officially know. I never really liked the name because it had an elitist sentiment to it. Being that it wasn’t meant to be considered folk at all. But it had acoustic guitars and fiddles, and all the songs were stories so I can’t see how it couldn’t be considered folk.
Ah yea I’d like now to take a bit of time to give an over due thanks to the outspoken John Kennedy. Since I was discovering ‘alternative’ music post John Peel and pre Myspace (or atleast I wasn’t aware of finding music via this medium yet) John Kennedy was the music guru that was to help shape my music tastes. The Xposure show even to this present day is on Xfm at 10-2 on weekdays and like John Peel, or Mark Lamarr, John Kennedy will play anything of any genre he is given, providing it isn’t usually played during peek hours. It has been the catalyst for my music tastes and some of the artists and bands I heard for the first time include: Frank Turner, Bon Iver, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Florence and the machine, Mumford and Sons, Noah and the Whale, Joanna Newsom Jeremy Warlmsley, Willy Mason, The Teenagers, Laura Marling and even bands that I wasn’t particularly fond of like Foals, The Maccabee’s and Crystal Castles, aswell as endless amounts of great punk, electronica and digital hardcore. His nights at the Barfly were a monthly thing for me, and he was a lovely bloke who always took time to have a chat.
That’s the ode done with now back to the gigs. After the revelation of hearing a new genre I took it upon myself to go out and see it live. Unfortunatley though, none of my friends really liked it that much and I had to go to most of the gigs on my own, (My mate B however joined me for a few gigs) There was a few crackers that stand out for me. One particular being Noah and The Whale’ single launch at The Enterprise in Camden, with Laura Marling and King Charles as support, now I don’t know if any of you have ever been to The Enterprise, but your bedroom is probably bigger, so it was bloody packed, it was also the gig that made me lose a lot of respect for Laura Marling. After the gig I went to do my usual courtesy of saying ‘nice one’ to the band, but instead of a thank you back, I got a dirty look, to which I replied ‘charming’ which was met with a ‘fuck off’ reply. Laura you make some pretty nice tunes, but you’re a total bitch. One thing I found funny about that gig is that almost exactly a year later, Noah and The Whale, re-released that single and held a free gig at the much larger Roundhouse across the road.
Now you may be wondering why I keep mentioning Emmy the Great but don’t explain why she is so amazing, so here are some reasons… I used to chat to her online through the medium of Myspace (remember that thing) just about what gigs she’s playing and general music stuff, and then when I first saw her live at the Ben and Jerries festival after her set she took the time to come and have a chat with me and stuff, the same with all her other gigs as well. Even after her debut album came out and she got all-famous and that, toured round the world a couple of times and was probably able to quit her day job, she still recognized me and took the time to have a proper chat. But it was an invite to her E.P launch at The Macbeth that was to seal her as a proclaimed Queen of folk. She managed to put together a superb lineup which included Noah and the Whale, Mumford and Sons, Lightspeed Champion, Stars of Sunday League, Florence and the Machine (when her act involved her and a man with a guitar) and Slow Club, aswell as herself of course, there was also cake and E.P handouts, all for free! I look back at that lineup and wonder what the price of it would be today as pretty much the majority of it have gone on to be superstars.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time knocking around at folk gigs. It was all so very traditional, getting pissed in intimate venues with all the names on the bill, sitting on the floor whilst watching people perform, friendly and genuinely interesting people, classy birds and some truly inspiring music. There were very few downsides to it; sometimes the venues were too small, and I found people talking through some of the lesser-known acts really rude. It’s a shame that I now have to pay about 30 quid if I want to see these acts again, however Emmy still remains modest and is currently running a pledge scheme to release her new album off, which involves fans being able to pay a bit of money to fund the new album in return for signed albums, postcards and opportunities to be in the new video, and even a living room gig. It don’t get much Indie then that. These days however I am one of them ‘I liked ‘em before they were famous’ wankers, which I think is down to a lot of the bands having their albums get the studio treatment and lose its original rustic feel… However I think I may also just be a wanker.
On June 12th 2007 I think it was, I went to the Electrowerkz on recommendation from a geezer named Tree, that I got talking to there a month earlier “You should come to the Bangface nights here, if you like this you’ll love them”. At the time I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t know it, but that night was to be the night that I fell in love with raving. The loud repetitive music, the endless smiling, welcoming faces in the crowd, the drugs, the individuality of the people, the fact that anyone had the chance to get up there and play tracks to a roaring crowd, the sheer fuck offness of it all. I finally found what I was looking for in a music community. I remember me and Lauren taking our first great pill at The Mass and as a typicial 17 year old pill honeymooner would do, went round hugging everybody telling them that we loved them. Although it wasn’t until the following April that I was to consecrate my marriage with rave culture and electronic music, when the two of us went to the Bangface Weekender….
As my 18th birthday approached I was given a couple of options by my parents over what they’d get me for it. One being that they’d front the money for me and 3 or 4 mates from college to go to Amsterdam for a weekend, or they’d front the money for me and a friend to go to the Bangface weekender, looking back on it I’m quite glad I chose the latter. I found us a chalet space off the Gladtalk forum, and on pure faith hope it would all go through without a hitch. One of the main memories I have of that festival was me and Lauren both coming up off whatever pills it was we had boshed, walking through the chalets taking in the atmosphere and Lauren turned to me and said “this could be the best weekend of our lives” as hokey and gay as it sounds it actually was, and when I get nostalgic about that weekend, I think back and wonder what type of person I’d be today if I hadn’t of gone to that festival. I owe a lot to the culture for shaping me as I am, before I discovered the environment of taking drugs like ecstasy and speed and socilising with people I’d never met before, I was a social cripple who lived the lifestyle of a typical Smiths fan. Stuck in my bedroom not talking to anyone, partaking in nothing social at all (apart from the laughs that me and my old school mates would have). Infact I thought about who my friends were the other day, and I have to say that over 90% of them I have met through either Bangface or other kinds of raves, one of which I’m currently living with, and many of them I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if I weren’t mates with ‘em. All of this I owe to a geezer named Tree. Although its Bangface which I owe my main thanks to, the mash pits, the stupid signs and inflatables, the social melting pot, the epic line ups, the mash pits and to being able to literaly be carried across the dance floor is what made Bangface the best live music experience I've ever had, yea these days it may be 'commercially diluted' and Hidden is a bit of a shit venue, and all your mates dont go any more but I'll still call them nights out the best nights of my life.
I suppose I should fill part of this in with the greatest rave I’ve ever been to (apart from the weekender) had to be the massive ‘sofa-tek’, ‘squatwars’, ‘skumtek’ whatever you like to call it party back in September time I think it was, around 3 years ago now. I remember leaving work on Saturday evening and fancied a rave, so called the Every1sound party line as I religiously did back then. And was greeted by the message of “Tonight is going to be a big one, we have 30 rigs, a huge building…. This one is not to be missed” so obviously after hearing this I gathered up what friends I could and we was on our way. Over an hour of traveling to Acton via bus (which was filled with party goers, a ritual I always enjoy about finding parties) and the building just happened to be the BBC props building, but we didn’t know this at the time. Through the labyrinth of sofa’s, washing machines, lawnmowers and beds, there was a rigs beyond every twist and turn playing tunes from DJ’s from all over the country. Ofcourse to celebrate the situation I ploughed myself with a ludicrous amount of stimulants and wondered around for seemingly ages. I remember one of the main rooms which was from memory about the size of 2 football pitches (but I was tripping) and it had the Every1Sound rig occupying it in all its glory, looked a bit like the Berlin wall. In this room was also a huge pile of books which Lewis commented on the time “was photography” on the pile of books was people passed out, couples embracing, wasted people flicking through them, a few people collecting them… And then it happened, one of the Liberator brothers was on the decks and was playing that Dawn Penn track that everybody knows, this created a momentum of people swaying and singing along, then a huge drop into a heavy techno drum loop sent everybody into a dance frenzy, also prior to this Lewis had just heroically skinned a 12 inch joint which we took to the dance floor, and shared with everybody… it was the rave equivalent of a religious experience. When we left that party I said to the door man “best one yet” to which his reply was “plenty more better to come mate” unfortunately he was wrong, and whilst walking away from what was the best rave I would ever attend, someone through a microwave out a window. Lovely.
As it goes raving has been my favorite pass time in my short life, the friends I’ve made, the places its sent me, the music and the lifestyle have all made me who I am today. They were and still are the best days of my life, I think I’ll stop when I finished, but I know there will be that time when the 808’s and 303’s wont be the friends they used to be and to be quite honest I wont mind.
Ah yea I’d like now to take a bit of time to give an over due thanks to the outspoken John Kennedy. Since I was discovering ‘alternative’ music post John Peel and pre Myspace (or atleast I wasn’t aware of finding music via this medium yet) John Kennedy was the music guru that was to help shape my music tastes. The Xposure show even to this present day is on Xfm at 10-2 on weekdays and like John Peel, or Mark Lamarr, John Kennedy will play anything of any genre he is given, providing it isn’t usually played during peek hours. It has been the catalyst for my music tastes and some of the artists and bands I heard for the first time include: Frank Turner, Bon Iver, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, Florence and the machine, Mumford and Sons, Noah and the Whale, Joanna Newsom Jeremy Warlmsley, Willy Mason, The Teenagers, Laura Marling and even bands that I wasn’t particularly fond of like Foals, The Maccabee’s and Crystal Castles, aswell as endless amounts of great punk, electronica and digital hardcore. His nights at the Barfly were a monthly thing for me, and he was a lovely bloke who always took time to have a chat.
That’s the ode done with now back to the gigs. After the revelation of hearing a new genre I took it upon myself to go out and see it live. Unfortunatley though, none of my friends really liked it that much and I had to go to most of the gigs on my own, (My mate B however joined me for a few gigs) There was a few crackers that stand out for me. One particular being Noah and The Whale’ single launch at The Enterprise in Camden, with Laura Marling and King Charles as support, now I don’t know if any of you have ever been to The Enterprise, but your bedroom is probably bigger, so it was bloody packed, it was also the gig that made me lose a lot of respect for Laura Marling. After the gig I went to do my usual courtesy of saying ‘nice one’ to the band, but instead of a thank you back, I got a dirty look, to which I replied ‘charming’ which was met with a ‘fuck off’ reply. Laura you make some pretty nice tunes, but you’re a total bitch. One thing I found funny about that gig is that almost exactly a year later, Noah and The Whale, re-released that single and held a free gig at the much larger Roundhouse across the road.
Now you may be wondering why I keep mentioning Emmy the Great but don’t explain why she is so amazing, so here are some reasons… I used to chat to her online through the medium of Myspace (remember that thing) just about what gigs she’s playing and general music stuff, and then when I first saw her live at the Ben and Jerries festival after her set she took the time to come and have a chat with me and stuff, the same with all her other gigs as well. Even after her debut album came out and she got all-famous and that, toured round the world a couple of times and was probably able to quit her day job, she still recognized me and took the time to have a proper chat. But it was an invite to her E.P launch at The Macbeth that was to seal her as a proclaimed Queen of folk. She managed to put together a superb lineup which included Noah and the Whale, Mumford and Sons, Lightspeed Champion, Stars of Sunday League, Florence and the Machine (when her act involved her and a man with a guitar) and Slow Club, aswell as herself of course, there was also cake and E.P handouts, all for free! I look back at that lineup and wonder what the price of it would be today as pretty much the majority of it have gone on to be superstars.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time knocking around at folk gigs. It was all so very traditional, getting pissed in intimate venues with all the names on the bill, sitting on the floor whilst watching people perform, friendly and genuinely interesting people, classy birds and some truly inspiring music. There were very few downsides to it; sometimes the venues were too small, and I found people talking through some of the lesser-known acts really rude. It’s a shame that I now have to pay about 30 quid if I want to see these acts again, however Emmy still remains modest and is currently running a pledge scheme to release her new album off, which involves fans being able to pay a bit of money to fund the new album in return for signed albums, postcards and opportunities to be in the new video, and even a living room gig. It don’t get much Indie then that. These days however I am one of them ‘I liked ‘em before they were famous’ wankers, which I think is down to a lot of the bands having their albums get the studio treatment and lose its original rustic feel… However I think I may also just be a wanker.
On June 12th 2007 I think it was, I went to the Electrowerkz on recommendation from a geezer named Tree, that I got talking to there a month earlier “You should come to the Bangface nights here, if you like this you’ll love them”. At the time I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t know it, but that night was to be the night that I fell in love with raving. The loud repetitive music, the endless smiling, welcoming faces in the crowd, the drugs, the individuality of the people, the fact that anyone had the chance to get up there and play tracks to a roaring crowd, the sheer fuck offness of it all. I finally found what I was looking for in a music community. I remember me and Lauren taking our first great pill at The Mass and as a typicial 17 year old pill honeymooner would do, went round hugging everybody telling them that we loved them. Although it wasn’t until the following April that I was to consecrate my marriage with rave culture and electronic music, when the two of us went to the Bangface Weekender….
As my 18th birthday approached I was given a couple of options by my parents over what they’d get me for it. One being that they’d front the money for me and 3 or 4 mates from college to go to Amsterdam for a weekend, or they’d front the money for me and a friend to go to the Bangface weekender, looking back on it I’m quite glad I chose the latter. I found us a chalet space off the Gladtalk forum, and on pure faith hope it would all go through without a hitch. One of the main memories I have of that festival was me and Lauren both coming up off whatever pills it was we had boshed, walking through the chalets taking in the atmosphere and Lauren turned to me and said “this could be the best weekend of our lives” as hokey and gay as it sounds it actually was, and when I get nostalgic about that weekend, I think back and wonder what type of person I’d be today if I hadn’t of gone to that festival. I owe a lot to the culture for shaping me as I am, before I discovered the environment of taking drugs like ecstasy and speed and socilising with people I’d never met before, I was a social cripple who lived the lifestyle of a typical Smiths fan. Stuck in my bedroom not talking to anyone, partaking in nothing social at all (apart from the laughs that me and my old school mates would have). Infact I thought about who my friends were the other day, and I have to say that over 90% of them I have met through either Bangface or other kinds of raves, one of which I’m currently living with, and many of them I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if I weren’t mates with ‘em. All of this I owe to a geezer named Tree. Although its Bangface which I owe my main thanks to, the mash pits, the stupid signs and inflatables, the social melting pot, the epic line ups, the mash pits and to being able to literaly be carried across the dance floor is what made Bangface the best live music experience I've ever had, yea these days it may be 'commercially diluted' and Hidden is a bit of a shit venue, and all your mates dont go any more but I'll still call them nights out the best nights of my life.
I suppose I should fill part of this in with the greatest rave I’ve ever been to (apart from the weekender) had to be the massive ‘sofa-tek’, ‘squatwars’, ‘skumtek’ whatever you like to call it party back in September time I think it was, around 3 years ago now. I remember leaving work on Saturday evening and fancied a rave, so called the Every1sound party line as I religiously did back then. And was greeted by the message of “Tonight is going to be a big one, we have 30 rigs, a huge building…. This one is not to be missed” so obviously after hearing this I gathered up what friends I could and we was on our way. Over an hour of traveling to Acton via bus (which was filled with party goers, a ritual I always enjoy about finding parties) and the building just happened to be the BBC props building, but we didn’t know this at the time. Through the labyrinth of sofa’s, washing machines, lawnmowers and beds, there was a rigs beyond every twist and turn playing tunes from DJ’s from all over the country. Ofcourse to celebrate the situation I ploughed myself with a ludicrous amount of stimulants and wondered around for seemingly ages. I remember one of the main rooms which was from memory about the size of 2 football pitches (but I was tripping) and it had the Every1Sound rig occupying it in all its glory, looked a bit like the Berlin wall. In this room was also a huge pile of books which Lewis commented on the time “was photography” on the pile of books was people passed out, couples embracing, wasted people flicking through them, a few people collecting them… And then it happened, one of the Liberator brothers was on the decks and was playing that Dawn Penn track that everybody knows, this created a momentum of people swaying and singing along, then a huge drop into a heavy techno drum loop sent everybody into a dance frenzy, also prior to this Lewis had just heroically skinned a 12 inch joint which we took to the dance floor, and shared with everybody… it was the rave equivalent of a religious experience. When we left that party I said to the door man “best one yet” to which his reply was “plenty more better to come mate” unfortunately he was wrong, and whilst walking away from what was the best rave I would ever attend, someone through a microwave out a window. Lovely.
As it goes raving has been my favorite pass time in my short life, the friends I’ve made, the places its sent me, the music and the lifestyle have all made me who I am today. They were and still are the best days of my life, I think I’ll stop when I finished, but I know there will be that time when the 808’s and 303’s wont be the friends they used to be and to be quite honest I wont mind.
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Live Music and Me (Part 1)
From Indie to Screamo
This blog is a lot later then planned, a refreshing coctail of being really busy with important things and not having access to the internet has cocked up the timing, I would also like to warn that this first part is a bit ropey and all memories aren’t 100% accurate.
Back at around about May earlier this year All Tomorrows parties announced that Godspeed You! Black Emperor were to reform and curate one of the tenth anniversary festivals, with a statement saying that they would also announce UK tour dates. Then on the week of Glastonbury, I got an email from a website which I put my email address on 7 years ago when I first heard their music with tour dates and ticket news, and forked out 60 quid for a couple in a heart beat. As this gig approaches I have realised this is the first band that I can remember splitting, then having to wait for them to reform to have a chance of catching them live. Which then made me think about my life through live music and my attitude, and love and devotion to music. Through the different social scenes it lead me, the venues I got drunk in and the people I met along the way. This will probably take a while so I’ve taken the liberty of knocking it into several parts. This is my best attempt at a memoir, from The Zutons to Godspeed…
For Christmas 2002 me and my friend Lauren both got tickets to see the Zutons at the Brixton academy for the 23rd of March. At the time my knowledge of music wasn’t vast, my favourite band was as it still is now Oasis and that’s about all I remember. I remember a few weeks before the gig avidly researching the Zutons music and enjoying most of it and when it came to the big day I was quite excited for my first gig. I remember my mum giving us a lift to the Brixton academy, I remember me and Lauren sitting down watching the supports before heading in when the band came on. It was with this set that I suppose I then fell in love with live music. The electric atmosphere, the people jumping around, I also think it was my first experience with people taking drugs around me. After this gig I was hooked. I went home and got on to buying tickets for my next gig, which was to be a band I was quite fond of at the time, who happened to be the Kaiser Chiefs. I bagged a couple of tickets for 20 quid and it was for the now late Astoria. Again I kept having my passion for live music enhanced. A more intimate venue, at the time I found the Kaiser Chiefs to be a very exciting new band. Which I suppose they were considering their now success, despite what my view of them now would be. I’d caught a bug by this point and every bit of pocket money I earned I would save up, and spend it on a ticket to see one of my favourite bands play live. It was also by this point that I had first heard The Libertines and The Strokes, and the whole idea of Indie Rock seemed really good. Solid guitar rifts and cool vocals seemed to me the most flawless kind of music that was around, but it wasn’t until July the following year that I would then attend a landmark gig, which was to be seeing my favourite band Oasis, play at the Southampton Rose Bowl on July the 6th. I remember it being even to this day, the most violent gig I’ve ever been to. Football terrace crowd in a live music atmosphere and the beer was 50p a pint (unfortunately at this age I had no interest in drinking) and considering that 80% of the crowd was male, you could expect that fights were breaking out absolutely everywhere, even to the point where during the gig Noel addressed the crowd by saying “any of you chaved up cunts want to fight, focking take it outside and do it”. There was also many incidents involving Liam slagging off Pete Doherty for Babyshambles not showing up to for their support act. A member of the crowd had an inflatable penis to which Liam shouted “Ah good to see that focking cunt Pete Doherty showed up” After this gig there wasn’t a lot left in the way of milestone events, a Babyshambles gig here and there, a Kasabian gig here, an exciting night out at the XFM Winterwonderland at the Brixton Academy until one Saturday afternoon I was sitting in my room playing a bit of Playstation, listening to my Saturday afternoons intake of radio which XFM used to supply so well, Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington, followed by Adam and Joe, followed by Justin Lee Collins (which is what I was listening to) when he played ‘I bet you look good on the dance floor’ by a young band called the Arctic Monkeys, I remember at the time thinking it was one of the best track I had ever heard and instantly became addicted to a bunch of young lads from Sheffield. They were the Oasis of my generation, I paid through the nose to see them on their first full UK tour, bloody good gig it was aswell,. But it was with this love of this band, which was to be the downfall and the start of my disillusion to the entire Indie Rock scene, I had a good opinion of it at first and to be fair I don’t exactly hate it now. The style was cool, the birds were tasty and the people who followed it were more or less really nice. But it was the lack of progression in the music and the plummeting quality of the new bands that diverted my interest. The Arctic Monkeys second album wasn’t that good and by this time I was well acquainted with The Smiths, Manic Street Preachers, The Stone Roses and Radiohead. Whilst the radio was ploughing out shit like Calvin Harris, The Kooks, The Fratelise, It was when a new sub genre called ‘Nu-Rave’ emerged that delivered the final nail in the coffin for my relationship with popular music and when the Klaxons won the Mercury music prize I finally turned my radio off and went looking for music through other means…
As a recap I’d say that by the age of 16 I would have listed my top 5 bands as Oasis, Radiohead, The Smiths, Pulp and The Manic Street Preachers. A long summer had finished and I had just started at college, where I was to become good friends with a geezer called Matt, it was with this geezer that I was to attend my first screamo/metal gig. It was at the Dome in Finsbury park, a small pub venue which didn’t I.D at the bar and had just one security guy. It was an interesting experience I can’t remember much of, however one thing that did keep my attention and that was the energy that the crowd possessed. I have always been a fan of using gigs to blow off steam and go mental and these gigs helped me do that. I was never particularly a fan of the music as such. It all sounded the same to me. Really fast guitar rift and vocals that literally sounded like someone growling, but I suppose that was the point. Anyway for about 8 months all I ever went to was metal and screamo gigs, mainly because that’s were all my mates went and it was always fun to get really pissed and punch a scene kid in the face. A few gigs stood out for me, Suicide Silence at the Underworld, Job for a Cowboy at the Mean Fiddler and many visits to The Peel and The Dome for the unsigned acts. There was however a few flaws with the whole scene, the people seemed very elitist. Their music tastes rarely excelled anything but metal, they were all so immature and if you had long hair, a tattoo and/or a huge plug in your ear you would probably get laid by the unattractive and mostly horrible women on offer. There was no love between the audience, always bitching, constant relationship problems and the respect pecking order came down to how many Myspace friends you had and how old you were… It was also the only music scene were I never met a fellow football fan. I quickly got bored of the whole scene even though at the time I had a lot of fun, the ‘2-step’ dance was one of my favriotes to do at gigs even though I never properly mastered it and being the only person who actually stood out at the gigs was a guilty pleasure. I remember one night in particular I was getting funny looks whilst wearing my huge parker, trackies, a pair of blue tinted sunglasses, swaggering around the Meanfiddler smoking cigs and pretending to be Liam Gallagher. I never shagged a scene girl, looking back on it though I’m not too bothered.
Whilst swinging my arms around, pissed out my head was all good fun I needed something more from live music then I was achieving with screamo, and then one night whilst lying in bed reading and listening to the Xposure show on XFM I listened to a live session with a lovely folk singer called Emmy the Great, I didn’t know it at the time but I was about to become a huge fan of the London Anti-folk scene and got a chance to rub shoulders with artists that are now topping the charts….
This blog is a lot later then planned, a refreshing coctail of being really busy with important things and not having access to the internet has cocked up the timing, I would also like to warn that this first part is a bit ropey and all memories aren’t 100% accurate.
Back at around about May earlier this year All Tomorrows parties announced that Godspeed You! Black Emperor were to reform and curate one of the tenth anniversary festivals, with a statement saying that they would also announce UK tour dates. Then on the week of Glastonbury, I got an email from a website which I put my email address on 7 years ago when I first heard their music with tour dates and ticket news, and forked out 60 quid for a couple in a heart beat. As this gig approaches I have realised this is the first band that I can remember splitting, then having to wait for them to reform to have a chance of catching them live. Which then made me think about my life through live music and my attitude, and love and devotion to music. Through the different social scenes it lead me, the venues I got drunk in and the people I met along the way. This will probably take a while so I’ve taken the liberty of knocking it into several parts. This is my best attempt at a memoir, from The Zutons to Godspeed…
For Christmas 2002 me and my friend Lauren both got tickets to see the Zutons at the Brixton academy for the 23rd of March. At the time my knowledge of music wasn’t vast, my favourite band was as it still is now Oasis and that’s about all I remember. I remember a few weeks before the gig avidly researching the Zutons music and enjoying most of it and when it came to the big day I was quite excited for my first gig. I remember my mum giving us a lift to the Brixton academy, I remember me and Lauren sitting down watching the supports before heading in when the band came on. It was with this set that I suppose I then fell in love with live music. The electric atmosphere, the people jumping around, I also think it was my first experience with people taking drugs around me. After this gig I was hooked. I went home and got on to buying tickets for my next gig, which was to be a band I was quite fond of at the time, who happened to be the Kaiser Chiefs. I bagged a couple of tickets for 20 quid and it was for the now late Astoria. Again I kept having my passion for live music enhanced. A more intimate venue, at the time I found the Kaiser Chiefs to be a very exciting new band. Which I suppose they were considering their now success, despite what my view of them now would be. I’d caught a bug by this point and every bit of pocket money I earned I would save up, and spend it on a ticket to see one of my favourite bands play live. It was also by this point that I had first heard The Libertines and The Strokes, and the whole idea of Indie Rock seemed really good. Solid guitar rifts and cool vocals seemed to me the most flawless kind of music that was around, but it wasn’t until July the following year that I would then attend a landmark gig, which was to be seeing my favourite band Oasis, play at the Southampton Rose Bowl on July the 6th. I remember it being even to this day, the most violent gig I’ve ever been to. Football terrace crowd in a live music atmosphere and the beer was 50p a pint (unfortunately at this age I had no interest in drinking) and considering that 80% of the crowd was male, you could expect that fights were breaking out absolutely everywhere, even to the point where during the gig Noel addressed the crowd by saying “any of you chaved up cunts want to fight, focking take it outside and do it”. There was also many incidents involving Liam slagging off Pete Doherty for Babyshambles not showing up to for their support act. A member of the crowd had an inflatable penis to which Liam shouted “Ah good to see that focking cunt Pete Doherty showed up” After this gig there wasn’t a lot left in the way of milestone events, a Babyshambles gig here and there, a Kasabian gig here, an exciting night out at the XFM Winterwonderland at the Brixton Academy until one Saturday afternoon I was sitting in my room playing a bit of Playstation, listening to my Saturday afternoons intake of radio which XFM used to supply so well, Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington, followed by Adam and Joe, followed by Justin Lee Collins (which is what I was listening to) when he played ‘I bet you look good on the dance floor’ by a young band called the Arctic Monkeys, I remember at the time thinking it was one of the best track I had ever heard and instantly became addicted to a bunch of young lads from Sheffield. They were the Oasis of my generation, I paid through the nose to see them on their first full UK tour, bloody good gig it was aswell,. But it was with this love of this band, which was to be the downfall and the start of my disillusion to the entire Indie Rock scene, I had a good opinion of it at first and to be fair I don’t exactly hate it now. The style was cool, the birds were tasty and the people who followed it were more or less really nice. But it was the lack of progression in the music and the plummeting quality of the new bands that diverted my interest. The Arctic Monkeys second album wasn’t that good and by this time I was well acquainted with The Smiths, Manic Street Preachers, The Stone Roses and Radiohead. Whilst the radio was ploughing out shit like Calvin Harris, The Kooks, The Fratelise, It was when a new sub genre called ‘Nu-Rave’ emerged that delivered the final nail in the coffin for my relationship with popular music and when the Klaxons won the Mercury music prize I finally turned my radio off and went looking for music through other means…
As a recap I’d say that by the age of 16 I would have listed my top 5 bands as Oasis, Radiohead, The Smiths, Pulp and The Manic Street Preachers. A long summer had finished and I had just started at college, where I was to become good friends with a geezer called Matt, it was with this geezer that I was to attend my first screamo/metal gig. It was at the Dome in Finsbury park, a small pub venue which didn’t I.D at the bar and had just one security guy. It was an interesting experience I can’t remember much of, however one thing that did keep my attention and that was the energy that the crowd possessed. I have always been a fan of using gigs to blow off steam and go mental and these gigs helped me do that. I was never particularly a fan of the music as such. It all sounded the same to me. Really fast guitar rift and vocals that literally sounded like someone growling, but I suppose that was the point. Anyway for about 8 months all I ever went to was metal and screamo gigs, mainly because that’s were all my mates went and it was always fun to get really pissed and punch a scene kid in the face. A few gigs stood out for me, Suicide Silence at the Underworld, Job for a Cowboy at the Mean Fiddler and many visits to The Peel and The Dome for the unsigned acts. There was however a few flaws with the whole scene, the people seemed very elitist. Their music tastes rarely excelled anything but metal, they were all so immature and if you had long hair, a tattoo and/or a huge plug in your ear you would probably get laid by the unattractive and mostly horrible women on offer. There was no love between the audience, always bitching, constant relationship problems and the respect pecking order came down to how many Myspace friends you had and how old you were… It was also the only music scene were I never met a fellow football fan. I quickly got bored of the whole scene even though at the time I had a lot of fun, the ‘2-step’ dance was one of my favriotes to do at gigs even though I never properly mastered it and being the only person who actually stood out at the gigs was a guilty pleasure. I remember one night in particular I was getting funny looks whilst wearing my huge parker, trackies, a pair of blue tinted sunglasses, swaggering around the Meanfiddler smoking cigs and pretending to be Liam Gallagher. I never shagged a scene girl, looking back on it though I’m not too bothered.
Whilst swinging my arms around, pissed out my head was all good fun I needed something more from live music then I was achieving with screamo, and then one night whilst lying in bed reading and listening to the Xposure show on XFM I listened to a live session with a lovely folk singer called Emmy the Great, I didn’t know it at the time but I was about to become a huge fan of the London Anti-folk scene and got a chance to rub shoulders with artists that are now topping the charts….
Friday, 2 July 2010
Glastonbury 40th Anniversary (or the reason I love my friends)
It’s been 7 days now since Dinn, Dave, Sarah and I had just finished watching an overly satisfying Gorrilaz performance. A performance that consisted of such guests acts as Shaun Ryder, De La Soul, Mark E. Smith, Snoop Dogg, Mos Deff, Mick Jones, Paul Siminon and even Lou Rheed. Seeing this just hours after Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood surprisingly showing up for a secret was quite overwhelming. A night like this can only happen of course at the biggest and arguably best festival in the world that is Glastonbury. So I shall start from the beginning.
This year they let the car parks open on Tuesday night to ease congestion, a genius idea I thought and a genius idea executed, the Pussy Wagon made it in 2 and half hours and we was in the closest possible car park to the gate. Next was to execute my personal master plan, to make sure I get my first major festival friends (Bangface weekender I crew) and my chosen family of London (Bangface Hardcrew) to be camped up together to create my personal campsite of love. Which was achieved by late Wednesday afternoon. Right time to relax, get pissed, skin up and maybe have a walk, although by this time I realised which quite frequently seems to be with Glastonbury, was the following weather forecast. However this time fears of thunderstorms weren’t on the agenda, it was the fear of a sheer energy sapping heat wave. A sign of typical British behaviour from myself and probably a few of my fellow festival gowers. Never happy. The Wednesday however was a blur for me, I got in, got my mates camped up, shut my eyes for a bit then did a bit of visiting to some other mates. Thursday followed suit really except for getting so pissed that I was sick all over myself and passed out, but when I came to I realised that the long awaited Bangface Glastonbury takeover was about to come to life. I however got so munted that I had a “Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing moment?” and lost my phone as a result. Bangface I felt was a complete success and we concluded the evening with a visit to stone circle for sunrise and a mind expanding magic moment.
By Friday the temperature had risen and I wasn’t climatising anytime soon, Friday again is a blur and by this point I hadn’t stuck to my drug timetable well and everything I was pummiling myself with just didn’t seem to touch the sides, however I later concluded this might have been down to me generally having a really good time. I pretty much saw a Radiohead set then managed to find Dave, Sarah and Dinn to go see the Gorrilaz. We had a quality spot at the Pyramid stage, far right hand side, 50 yards from the bar, 15 yards from the toilet, view of the stage and plenty of room to dance. Like I said before the overwhelming scale of the guests was enough to make it a memorable set, but it was also very fitting to the theme of the 40th anniversary of the festival. World interludes followed by superstars of genres performing tracks. I’m not a fan of the Gorrilaz music, but they did very well. When they had finished performing I turned back to my 3 friends and said in the best way I could “If I looked up cunt in the dictionary all 3 of your faces would be there… But I couldn’t of asked to watch it with anyone else” Looking back on this it might of seemed harsh, but I did also have the genuine feeling that if I’d of watched that set with anyone else it would have been shit. Great Friday night… The following couple of hours then made me realise how lucky I was to have been stuck with the company I had. I put myself on man mission to drag my mates to a stage I’d never found in 4 years, and for a set that would be finished within an hour, I dragged them through every field on the west side of Worthy Farm, turning over to say “You are so lucky I don’t have any sharp objects otherwise I’d kill every single one of you” there was a part of me that meant this, but then I was overpowered by this emotion, this emotion I have chased for about 10 years, I think its called Love and considering their manor towards it I think that was exactly what stopped me from killing them all. I dragged them along for another until we found the stage and I pilled them and myself full of whiskey, popped into Bez’s Acid house then I lost ‘em all and headed back for some rest.
Saturday at Glastonbury for me has followed a ritual of dropping strong acid then going on an adventure of the green fields, healing fields, circus and cabaret and my personal favourite park stage. However this year I was quite horribly constipated and the heat was really starting to get to me. Instead of wondering around all trippy and happy taking in the magic of the place I sat at my campsite with a pack of wet wipes in hand insulting my best friends. Until night fall when my other plan of getting pissed up with Heide and seeing a god of music was to come to place… However it did have signs of a faultier when Heide did give the confession that she was going to see The Pet Shop Boys instead… This was never going to happen as my threats of murder earlier on in the weekend had settled in, but we did actually pull off my plan of finding a place that sold draught Guiness and getting pissed up for the man himself…. Christy Moore was brilliant, his soundman made him quiet for some reason, but the crowd and set list were pretty spot on. I don’t remember what happened that night but I think I enjoyed myself. My initial plan of pulling at Glastonbury had resorted to asking random girls to sit on my face, to which I had a reply of puzzlement or was just ignored.
By the Sunday I think I had finally acclimatized and was ready to actually do shit, unfortunately this is always too late, again Dinn, Dave, Sarah and I went to see Ray Davies perform the Sunday Legends slot which was very nice, that evening I saw Faithless, and Orbital. Orbital being a bit of a controversial one as I’d swarn to see Stevie Wonder on my “who will I have a chance of seeing again” Glastonbury Manifesto. But the atmosphere for Orbital was amazing, and seeing Dave in a moment of sheer awe and finally meeting Alan’s friends that he’d brung along each year, who were sound as fuck. That night I attempted to go see the Arcadia fire show and Shangri-la but was exhausted from a week of hedonism.
In conclusion this years festival was not the finest hour I had hoped for, the weather came into play as it usually does, I moaned a lot, threatened to kill my mates, missed pretty much everything I came to see, and broke my Glastonbury manifesto. But I have noticed with every year I’ve gone I’ve learnt something different….
2007=Festivals are the best things in the world
2008=You need friends at festivals
2009=Glastonbury is the best place to have the best week of your life
2010=I have the best friend I can possibly hope for…
Although this year I was mainly very aggy from the heat, and was probably a downer for the atmosphere, I have nothing but appricieation for the people that pulled me through it, and seeing them genuinely enjoy themselves was enough to keep me happy. I had actual intentions of killing every single one of them, but was stopped by the power of love. Which is that similar thing that stops you from killing a family member, but as the saying goes friends are the family you chose for yourself, and seeing my mate Jem having a laugh with Tom the nonse, or Julie getting wrecked with Dinn, or Sarah having conversation with Ian and Rosa, was magic enough for me. To have a week in the company of my two favourite sets of people and seeing them enjoy themselves was the only selfless thing I can take from the week. I can’t threaten to kill many people and them laugh in my face lets put it that way. So I’ll do a roll call and for those I’ve missed out it’s because I met you that weekend and my appreciation for you will be shown maybe after next years festival?
So… Alan, Dinn, Dave, Elliot, Fiona, Heide, Ian, Jem, Josh, Julie, Petch, Rosa, Sarah, Tom ‘The Nonse’… It was a privilege and a pleasure to serve under you all and if you’re ever in need of a kidney, lung, blood or even heart transplant, I will happily give it to any of you.
Until next year.
This year they let the car parks open on Tuesday night to ease congestion, a genius idea I thought and a genius idea executed, the Pussy Wagon made it in 2 and half hours and we was in the closest possible car park to the gate. Next was to execute my personal master plan, to make sure I get my first major festival friends (Bangface weekender I crew) and my chosen family of London (Bangface Hardcrew) to be camped up together to create my personal campsite of love. Which was achieved by late Wednesday afternoon. Right time to relax, get pissed, skin up and maybe have a walk, although by this time I realised which quite frequently seems to be with Glastonbury, was the following weather forecast. However this time fears of thunderstorms weren’t on the agenda, it was the fear of a sheer energy sapping heat wave. A sign of typical British behaviour from myself and probably a few of my fellow festival gowers. Never happy. The Wednesday however was a blur for me, I got in, got my mates camped up, shut my eyes for a bit then did a bit of visiting to some other mates. Thursday followed suit really except for getting so pissed that I was sick all over myself and passed out, but when I came to I realised that the long awaited Bangface Glastonbury takeover was about to come to life. I however got so munted that I had a “Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing moment?” and lost my phone as a result. Bangface I felt was a complete success and we concluded the evening with a visit to stone circle for sunrise and a mind expanding magic moment.
By Friday the temperature had risen and I wasn’t climatising anytime soon, Friday again is a blur and by this point I hadn’t stuck to my drug timetable well and everything I was pummiling myself with just didn’t seem to touch the sides, however I later concluded this might have been down to me generally having a really good time. I pretty much saw a Radiohead set then managed to find Dave, Sarah and Dinn to go see the Gorrilaz. We had a quality spot at the Pyramid stage, far right hand side, 50 yards from the bar, 15 yards from the toilet, view of the stage and plenty of room to dance. Like I said before the overwhelming scale of the guests was enough to make it a memorable set, but it was also very fitting to the theme of the 40th anniversary of the festival. World interludes followed by superstars of genres performing tracks. I’m not a fan of the Gorrilaz music, but they did very well. When they had finished performing I turned back to my 3 friends and said in the best way I could “If I looked up cunt in the dictionary all 3 of your faces would be there… But I couldn’t of asked to watch it with anyone else” Looking back on this it might of seemed harsh, but I did also have the genuine feeling that if I’d of watched that set with anyone else it would have been shit. Great Friday night… The following couple of hours then made me realise how lucky I was to have been stuck with the company I had. I put myself on man mission to drag my mates to a stage I’d never found in 4 years, and for a set that would be finished within an hour, I dragged them through every field on the west side of Worthy Farm, turning over to say “You are so lucky I don’t have any sharp objects otherwise I’d kill every single one of you” there was a part of me that meant this, but then I was overpowered by this emotion, this emotion I have chased for about 10 years, I think its called Love and considering their manor towards it I think that was exactly what stopped me from killing them all. I dragged them along for another until we found the stage and I pilled them and myself full of whiskey, popped into Bez’s Acid house then I lost ‘em all and headed back for some rest.
Saturday at Glastonbury for me has followed a ritual of dropping strong acid then going on an adventure of the green fields, healing fields, circus and cabaret and my personal favourite park stage. However this year I was quite horribly constipated and the heat was really starting to get to me. Instead of wondering around all trippy and happy taking in the magic of the place I sat at my campsite with a pack of wet wipes in hand insulting my best friends. Until night fall when my other plan of getting pissed up with Heide and seeing a god of music was to come to place… However it did have signs of a faultier when Heide did give the confession that she was going to see The Pet Shop Boys instead… This was never going to happen as my threats of murder earlier on in the weekend had settled in, but we did actually pull off my plan of finding a place that sold draught Guiness and getting pissed up for the man himself…. Christy Moore was brilliant, his soundman made him quiet for some reason, but the crowd and set list were pretty spot on. I don’t remember what happened that night but I think I enjoyed myself. My initial plan of pulling at Glastonbury had resorted to asking random girls to sit on my face, to which I had a reply of puzzlement or was just ignored.
By the Sunday I think I had finally acclimatized and was ready to actually do shit, unfortunately this is always too late, again Dinn, Dave, Sarah and I went to see Ray Davies perform the Sunday Legends slot which was very nice, that evening I saw Faithless, and Orbital. Orbital being a bit of a controversial one as I’d swarn to see Stevie Wonder on my “who will I have a chance of seeing again” Glastonbury Manifesto. But the atmosphere for Orbital was amazing, and seeing Dave in a moment of sheer awe and finally meeting Alan’s friends that he’d brung along each year, who were sound as fuck. That night I attempted to go see the Arcadia fire show and Shangri-la but was exhausted from a week of hedonism.
In conclusion this years festival was not the finest hour I had hoped for, the weather came into play as it usually does, I moaned a lot, threatened to kill my mates, missed pretty much everything I came to see, and broke my Glastonbury manifesto. But I have noticed with every year I’ve gone I’ve learnt something different….
2007=Festivals are the best things in the world
2008=You need friends at festivals
2009=Glastonbury is the best place to have the best week of your life
2010=I have the best friend I can possibly hope for…
Although this year I was mainly very aggy from the heat, and was probably a downer for the atmosphere, I have nothing but appricieation for the people that pulled me through it, and seeing them genuinely enjoy themselves was enough to keep me happy. I had actual intentions of killing every single one of them, but was stopped by the power of love. Which is that similar thing that stops you from killing a family member, but as the saying goes friends are the family you chose for yourself, and seeing my mate Jem having a laugh with Tom the nonse, or Julie getting wrecked with Dinn, or Sarah having conversation with Ian and Rosa, was magic enough for me. To have a week in the company of my two favourite sets of people and seeing them enjoy themselves was the only selfless thing I can take from the week. I can’t threaten to kill many people and them laugh in my face lets put it that way. So I’ll do a roll call and for those I’ve missed out it’s because I met you that weekend and my appreciation for you will be shown maybe after next years festival?
So… Alan, Dinn, Dave, Elliot, Fiona, Heide, Ian, Jem, Josh, Julie, Petch, Rosa, Sarah, Tom ‘The Nonse’… It was a privilege and a pleasure to serve under you all and if you’re ever in need of a kidney, lung, blood or even heart transplant, I will happily give it to any of you.
Until next year.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Why Alabama 3 are the best replacement
Yesterday it was announced that U2 were to cancel their headlining Friday night slot from Glastonbury due to U2 lead singer and infamous hypocrite Bono having a bit of back trouble and needing surgery. This now leaves a slot open for one of the most covenant slots in all of music, a chance to headline the biggest, and most famous festival in the world. This following blog is my reasons for why in my opinion Alabama 3 should take the slot….
Now I know first of all Alabama 3 are already playing twice at this years festival and they are almost part of the furniture there after playing pretty much every other year and I know traditionally the festival headliners are top selling artists mainly of the rock genre, however I feel that since this year is the 40th anniversary of the festival, a festival from my own experience and from what I’ve been told is a festival rich in tradition, diversity, and high quality and due to these circumstances the organizers should try something new and celebrate these traditions with a band like Alabama 3 headlining the Friday.
When asked who Alabama 3 are and what they play, my usual response is “have you ever seen the Sopranos?” and if they have then the reply of “They do the theme music to it” and when they haven’t I usually get the question “What kind of music do they play?” which is when I’m given the opportunity to explain the concept of the best band in the country today…
Alabama 3’s obvious main influence lies within their southern American country and blues vocals, as well as adding acid house drum loops, rock n roll guitar rifts, politically and socially charged lyrics which usually involve communist, anti racist and drug based themes, as well as frequent references to old delta blues and country singers (Robert Johnson, Woodie Guthrie, Hank Williams etc) sometimes sung in the style of a rap by supporting vocalist and co writer D-Wayne Love.
Now you may be wondering how a band like this could of possibly spawned well the founders are; Larry Love (aka: Rob Spragg) who is the son of a Welsh Mormon minister and D-Wayne Love (aka: Jake Black) who is incredibly Scottish. The band aren’t from Alabama, they was formed in Brixton and there aren’t 3 of them there are between 8-11 when they perform live. Now it’s not just A3’s diverse music style and eccentric set up which I think makes them worthy of headlining Worthy Farm, it’s everything else they represent and for everything they stand for…
Now I often get asked by fellow fans of the band “Why aren’t they bigger then they actually are?” I think the answer to this lies within the bands ethics of making music and going about as a band. They are on an independent record label for starters, they have never played a venue bigger then a 2,000 capacity and even when they do it’s for no more then a reasonable 20 pound a ticket, one of my particular favorite traits of theirs is the fact that they let the producers of The Sopranos use their track ‘Woke Up This Morning’ for nothing! And to this day have absolutely no regret to what they did and never actually mention it unless asked, now I don’t know how much it would cost a television producer to play even one of the later, mundane U2 tracks like “Vertigo” or “City of Blinding Lights” But I’m pretty sure Bono and his men wouldn’t let it be played without a figure with at least 4 0’s on the end of it. Also when it comes to charity work Alabama 3 have trumped’s U2 yet again. Now I know U2 have given a lot of money to charity, if you don’t know this then you must be completely death or have ignored everything for the past 25 years. But despite what ever U2 does for charity it just proves them of further hypocrisy. The band hold duel passports to several different countries and as a result do not pay any tax to either of them since they don’t live in the country for long enough, they support helping climate change but are currently on a 14th month around the world tour, where they are probably all flying in their own private jets and also jetting around there 20 ton 360 stage, burning Christ knows how much electricity on one of their over produced 2 hour stage shows. Another thing I’d like to note on the recent tour was the irony behind the tours sponsors and one of the recent U2 tracks of their latest album. I don’t know the tracks name but the premise behind it is basically a dig at how are communications are being controlled by technology. THE TOUR WAS SPONSERED BY FUCKING BLACKBERRY!!!!. Ok I think I’ve vented enough anger about U2 so I can get back to promoting my campaign….Now the contrast between U2’s preaching, hypocritical charity campaigns and Alabama 3’s slight mention of a charity every gig and ask to donate to it at the end is a great one, also considering that all of U2 are on multi million pound contracts who could probably pay off the 3rd world debt if they all chipped in a bit and Alabama 3 make enough money off ticket sales, merchandise and their music to probably live without thinking of having to take up a day job. Like that passage in the bible where Jesus and his mates are hanging out in a temple and there is loads of rich people donating money to it, then a peasant woman comes up to the box and puts in like one coin and all of the rich people turn their noses up, I think Jesus then has a bit of a go at them which then leads to one of his mates asking him what the deal was, to which Jesus replies “those rich blokes have given just a fraction of what they can just to look good, even though they gave loads it don’t mean anything to them. Where as that bird is completely skint and has given all she has to the cause” It was words to that effect anyway. But anyway my point is Alabama 3 on the whole do more for charity.
I would like to start rolling things up now as I’ve noticed that I’m starting to ramble a bit and kind of getting away from my point, which is this in a few words….
Glastonbury festival is like I said earlier, a festival of great tradition, diversity and love. It also gives lots to charities and gives creative people platforms to express these on, The main one being the headlining slot. I feel that Alabama 3’s contribution to music and the world is worthy of that slot. The Guardian to this day states that they are the best live band in the world, and I probably wouldn’t fault that statement, not only do I feel that they are of the quality and have the back catalogue to headline, I also feel that a band that has been able to mix so many traditional forms of music from all over the world and turn them into songs refrencing old time artists as well as famous Brixton landmarks and streets, they have written one of the greatest drinking songs of all time (Old Purple Tin) a tribute to Tennants Super. ‘Mao Tse Tsung says’ which is mainly just a Jim Jones sample with D-wayne hitting a nice rap in the middle of it. The song isn’t much of a recorded track, but live it is followed by a left handed communist salute and is one of the bands landmark tracks…I could go on but I’ve got things to do….I just feel that a band as inspiring as Alabama 3 should have the privilege to headline this years festival instead of some shit like Coldplay.
Further watching….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpGgLyfDERI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAFU9cHZ1Xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grPFfrLRBRI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHEjuZmVTi4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tmxVAEMxDI
Now I know first of all Alabama 3 are already playing twice at this years festival and they are almost part of the furniture there after playing pretty much every other year and I know traditionally the festival headliners are top selling artists mainly of the rock genre, however I feel that since this year is the 40th anniversary of the festival, a festival from my own experience and from what I’ve been told is a festival rich in tradition, diversity, and high quality and due to these circumstances the organizers should try something new and celebrate these traditions with a band like Alabama 3 headlining the Friday.
When asked who Alabama 3 are and what they play, my usual response is “have you ever seen the Sopranos?” and if they have then the reply of “They do the theme music to it” and when they haven’t I usually get the question “What kind of music do they play?” which is when I’m given the opportunity to explain the concept of the best band in the country today…
Alabama 3’s obvious main influence lies within their southern American country and blues vocals, as well as adding acid house drum loops, rock n roll guitar rifts, politically and socially charged lyrics which usually involve communist, anti racist and drug based themes, as well as frequent references to old delta blues and country singers (Robert Johnson, Woodie Guthrie, Hank Williams etc) sometimes sung in the style of a rap by supporting vocalist and co writer D-Wayne Love.
Now you may be wondering how a band like this could of possibly spawned well the founders are; Larry Love (aka: Rob Spragg) who is the son of a Welsh Mormon minister and D-Wayne Love (aka: Jake Black) who is incredibly Scottish. The band aren’t from Alabama, they was formed in Brixton and there aren’t 3 of them there are between 8-11 when they perform live. Now it’s not just A3’s diverse music style and eccentric set up which I think makes them worthy of headlining Worthy Farm, it’s everything else they represent and for everything they stand for…
Now I often get asked by fellow fans of the band “Why aren’t they bigger then they actually are?” I think the answer to this lies within the bands ethics of making music and going about as a band. They are on an independent record label for starters, they have never played a venue bigger then a 2,000 capacity and even when they do it’s for no more then a reasonable 20 pound a ticket, one of my particular favorite traits of theirs is the fact that they let the producers of The Sopranos use their track ‘Woke Up This Morning’ for nothing! And to this day have absolutely no regret to what they did and never actually mention it unless asked, now I don’t know how much it would cost a television producer to play even one of the later, mundane U2 tracks like “Vertigo” or “City of Blinding Lights” But I’m pretty sure Bono and his men wouldn’t let it be played without a figure with at least 4 0’s on the end of it. Also when it comes to charity work Alabama 3 have trumped’s U2 yet again. Now I know U2 have given a lot of money to charity, if you don’t know this then you must be completely death or have ignored everything for the past 25 years. But despite what ever U2 does for charity it just proves them of further hypocrisy. The band hold duel passports to several different countries and as a result do not pay any tax to either of them since they don’t live in the country for long enough, they support helping climate change but are currently on a 14th month around the world tour, where they are probably all flying in their own private jets and also jetting around there 20 ton 360 stage, burning Christ knows how much electricity on one of their over produced 2 hour stage shows. Another thing I’d like to note on the recent tour was the irony behind the tours sponsors and one of the recent U2 tracks of their latest album. I don’t know the tracks name but the premise behind it is basically a dig at how are communications are being controlled by technology. THE TOUR WAS SPONSERED BY FUCKING BLACKBERRY!!!!. Ok I think I’ve vented enough anger about U2 so I can get back to promoting my campaign….Now the contrast between U2’s preaching, hypocritical charity campaigns and Alabama 3’s slight mention of a charity every gig and ask to donate to it at the end is a great one, also considering that all of U2 are on multi million pound contracts who could probably pay off the 3rd world debt if they all chipped in a bit and Alabama 3 make enough money off ticket sales, merchandise and their music to probably live without thinking of having to take up a day job. Like that passage in the bible where Jesus and his mates are hanging out in a temple and there is loads of rich people donating money to it, then a peasant woman comes up to the box and puts in like one coin and all of the rich people turn their noses up, I think Jesus then has a bit of a go at them which then leads to one of his mates asking him what the deal was, to which Jesus replies “those rich blokes have given just a fraction of what they can just to look good, even though they gave loads it don’t mean anything to them. Where as that bird is completely skint and has given all she has to the cause” It was words to that effect anyway. But anyway my point is Alabama 3 on the whole do more for charity.
I would like to start rolling things up now as I’ve noticed that I’m starting to ramble a bit and kind of getting away from my point, which is this in a few words….
Glastonbury festival is like I said earlier, a festival of great tradition, diversity and love. It also gives lots to charities and gives creative people platforms to express these on, The main one being the headlining slot. I feel that Alabama 3’s contribution to music and the world is worthy of that slot. The Guardian to this day states that they are the best live band in the world, and I probably wouldn’t fault that statement, not only do I feel that they are of the quality and have the back catalogue to headline, I also feel that a band that has been able to mix so many traditional forms of music from all over the world and turn them into songs refrencing old time artists as well as famous Brixton landmarks and streets, they have written one of the greatest drinking songs of all time (Old Purple Tin) a tribute to Tennants Super. ‘Mao Tse Tsung says’ which is mainly just a Jim Jones sample with D-wayne hitting a nice rap in the middle of it. The song isn’t much of a recorded track, but live it is followed by a left handed communist salute and is one of the bands landmark tracks…I could go on but I’ve got things to do….I just feel that a band as inspiring as Alabama 3 should have the privilege to headline this years festival instead of some shit like Coldplay.
Further watching….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpGgLyfDERI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAFU9cHZ1Xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grPFfrLRBRI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHEjuZmVTi4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tmxVAEMxDI
Friday, 14 May 2010
A rushed look at this years Premier League
The End of Season Review
The date is the 14th of May 2010 5 days after the rollercoaster of the Premier League jolted to a complete holt. A season, which has at times lacked in quality but has never been short of surprises, a season where mighty forces of the past have fallen, and where finally enquiries are being made about the corporate bastards using our football clubs as toys and business opportunities after the first ever Premiership club went into administration. As well as all that there was one of the tightest battles for fourth place I can ever remember, the title race kept
The first few months started off like any other, there were a few changes to some of the top sides, Chelsea had a new manager in but no real big signings were made in the summer, United has lost their wonder kid to Real Madrid for a record 80 million pounds, Arsenal again went in with the belief that they could go and win the league with a youth team and City splashed out more cash then any other premier league club with their new Arabic owners. The opening day did have one significant result in it that at the time spectators wouldn’t of predicted, Tottenham beat Livepool at White Heart Lane. As a Chelsea fan I always do find it amusing when Liverpool lose because having had to witness a Chelsea and Liverpool tie over 20 times in the past 5 years is no laughing matter. But yes would you believe it everybody’s favourtie whipping boys Tottenham managed to fight for and win the dog fight for 4th spot this season and change the face of the “Top Four”, they deserved it more then City and was more consistent then Villa (Although Villa were my favored team for the spot). There was always this constant horrible feeling that even though Liverpool were playing without any spirit or any skill and for the first time in their history dropped out in the group stages of Champions League, as well as going out in the 3rd round of the FA Cup to Reading, that despite all of this I could still picture how the last day of the season would play out, 3rd minute of stoppage time, it’s 1-1 and if Liverpool win they seal fourth after an unprecedented 10 wins on the trot, ball gets wipped out from a corner “ It comes to GEEEEEEEERRRRARRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD” and Steven Gerrard, savour of Mersey side belts in a 30 yard volley in the last kick of the game…Typical Liverpool. But instead they finished 7th, one of their worst performances in the league for years. Benitez looks like he’s out of the job, and towards the end of the season all their star players were looking unbelievably depressed. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the big 2 (Gerrard or Torres) were to leave in the summer.
The race for the title however was a bit of a different beast this season. Those of you who know me will know that I am a Chelsea supporter, always have, always going to be, but this season my love for them changed ever so slightly. The same way that your relationship is with a mate who you love dearly, but whenever you go out and get pissed he can’t help but start trouble. This was pretty much Chelsea’s attitude to games this season, whenever we would look like losing most of out star players would get aggy with the referee and we’d lose all faith in getting anything out of the game. This was shown when the Special One came back to the Bridge to tactically, mentally and physically out do us in every department. The loss came without shock really, Mourinho knows Chelsea inside out and he is the greatest manager in the world…we never stood a chance. But he had it played out so well. Shut Lampard out the way so we had to no playmaker, get on Drogba’s nerves so he loses his temper and probably gets sent off (Which he did) and hit us on a counter attack where we was consistently weak this season. A situation we was never in when the Special One was in charge of us. Despite the loss in Champions League I took many positives out of it. Both United and Arsenal were left back in it, this meant another 2 mid week games for top players to get injured in, or to just generally get jaded in. A lot of my non-Chelsea fans couldn’t understand this but as it goes I turned out to be right. Rooney was injured in the first leg of Uniteds tie against Bayern Munich, the Wednesday before we was set to play them, and Fabregras and Arshavin were injured for Arsenal in their fantastic game against Barcelona at the Emirates. Which did eventually lead to a dip in form for both of our rivals and for us to steam ahead. There were a few further hiccups but nothing major and more or less throughout the season played like a tank in Tiananmen Square, stopping only once or twice to minor teams. We got 6 out of 6 against the top 4, most goals scored by any club in a season ever, highest ever goal difference, topped off by an emphatic 8-0 win on the last day of the season. Which also included a Drogba hat-trick to give him the Golden boot for the season. The Premiership returns to Stamford Bridge.
It is the FA Cup final tomorrow and in true cup final fashion it is an underdog challenge. Botom side Portsmouth against League winners Chelsea, now despite my love for Chelsea and how I’d love us to pull off our first ever League and Cup double, I cant help but have this hope that Pompy do the impossible tomorrow, not just because I have a respect for the town of Portsmouth as it has been good to me over the years and is the home to some of my friends and is supported by my mentor. But because I feel that the fans deserve it more then any other. The way that that club has been allowed to be run into the ground by an owner who obviously didn’t have a clue has been absolutely sickening. A guestermat to the high courts and customs said that Portsmouth owed around 60 millions pounds in bills, it now turns out that they owe nearly 130 million and then the bills were released to the public. Ridiculous amounts owed to ridiculous people. 500 pounds owed to the milkman, 700 pounds owed to the local florist, 13,000 pounds owed to Chichester college, and I’d like to know what dealing they did with Qatar airways because they owe them 20 pence. This has been a harsh reminder that corporate bastards are being allowed quite happily to use our football clubs as toys without having any knowledge what so ever about running a football club, or having any respect for the fans that devote their lives to it. So tommorow at 3 o’clock when two 2 blue sides go out onto that pitch at Wembley I will have this slight support for the underdog. If we snatch an early goal, it’ll be a repeat of last week, but if Portsmouth play with the attitude that they have nothing to lose, then considering this is the oldest and greatest domestic cup competition in all of sport where anything can happen I turley believe that Pompy could do it.
Sorry this is brief and rather rushed I wanted to complete it before tommorows game and I’m currently getting ready to go to an Alabama 3 gig…here is a brief list of awards for the season
Player of the year – James Milner: Did he have a bad game for Villa? An absolutely certainty for Capello’s 11 in South Africa surely.
Best goal – Danny Rose: Spurs V Arsenal: your 19 years old, its your premier league debut and you score a 30 yard volley in a north London derby that you then go on to win for the first time since you was born. An absolute dream come true and a cracking goal.
Manager of the year: a toss between Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson: Premier League I’d give it to Harry for his achievement with Spurs, but nothing can be taken away from the spirit that Fuhlam have played with this season.
Signing of the season: Adam Johnson, Middlesborough – City: He might of come in January but young Adam Johnson has impressed amongst a team full of over payed pre madonna’s. good on him
The date is the 14th of May 2010 5 days after the rollercoaster of the Premier League jolted to a complete holt. A season, which has at times lacked in quality but has never been short of surprises, a season where mighty forces of the past have fallen, and where finally enquiries are being made about the corporate bastards using our football clubs as toys and business opportunities after the first ever Premiership club went into administration. As well as all that there was one of the tightest battles for fourth place I can ever remember, the title race kept
The first few months started off like any other, there were a few changes to some of the top sides, Chelsea had a new manager in but no real big signings were made in the summer, United has lost their wonder kid to Real Madrid for a record 80 million pounds, Arsenal again went in with the belief that they could go and win the league with a youth team and City splashed out more cash then any other premier league club with their new Arabic owners. The opening day did have one significant result in it that at the time spectators wouldn’t of predicted, Tottenham beat Livepool at White Heart Lane. As a Chelsea fan I always do find it amusing when Liverpool lose because having had to witness a Chelsea and Liverpool tie over 20 times in the past 5 years is no laughing matter. But yes would you believe it everybody’s favourtie whipping boys Tottenham managed to fight for and win the dog fight for 4th spot this season and change the face of the “Top Four”, they deserved it more then City and was more consistent then Villa (Although Villa were my favored team for the spot). There was always this constant horrible feeling that even though Liverpool were playing without any spirit or any skill and for the first time in their history dropped out in the group stages of Champions League, as well as going out in the 3rd round of the FA Cup to Reading, that despite all of this I could still picture how the last day of the season would play out, 3rd minute of stoppage time, it’s 1-1 and if Liverpool win they seal fourth after an unprecedented 10 wins on the trot, ball gets wipped out from a corner “ It comes to GEEEEEEEERRRRARRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD” and Steven Gerrard, savour of Mersey side belts in a 30 yard volley in the last kick of the game…Typical Liverpool. But instead they finished 7th, one of their worst performances in the league for years. Benitez looks like he’s out of the job, and towards the end of the season all their star players were looking unbelievably depressed. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the big 2 (Gerrard or Torres) were to leave in the summer.
The race for the title however was a bit of a different beast this season. Those of you who know me will know that I am a Chelsea supporter, always have, always going to be, but this season my love for them changed ever so slightly. The same way that your relationship is with a mate who you love dearly, but whenever you go out and get pissed he can’t help but start trouble. This was pretty much Chelsea’s attitude to games this season, whenever we would look like losing most of out star players would get aggy with the referee and we’d lose all faith in getting anything out of the game. This was shown when the Special One came back to the Bridge to tactically, mentally and physically out do us in every department. The loss came without shock really, Mourinho knows Chelsea inside out and he is the greatest manager in the world…we never stood a chance. But he had it played out so well. Shut Lampard out the way so we had to no playmaker, get on Drogba’s nerves so he loses his temper and probably gets sent off (Which he did) and hit us on a counter attack where we was consistently weak this season. A situation we was never in when the Special One was in charge of us. Despite the loss in Champions League I took many positives out of it. Both United and Arsenal were left back in it, this meant another 2 mid week games for top players to get injured in, or to just generally get jaded in. A lot of my non-Chelsea fans couldn’t understand this but as it goes I turned out to be right. Rooney was injured in the first leg of Uniteds tie against Bayern Munich, the Wednesday before we was set to play them, and Fabregras and Arshavin were injured for Arsenal in their fantastic game against Barcelona at the Emirates. Which did eventually lead to a dip in form for both of our rivals and for us to steam ahead. There were a few further hiccups but nothing major and more or less throughout the season played like a tank in Tiananmen Square, stopping only once or twice to minor teams. We got 6 out of 6 against the top 4, most goals scored by any club in a season ever, highest ever goal difference, topped off by an emphatic 8-0 win on the last day of the season. Which also included a Drogba hat-trick to give him the Golden boot for the season. The Premiership returns to Stamford Bridge.
It is the FA Cup final tomorrow and in true cup final fashion it is an underdog challenge. Botom side Portsmouth against League winners Chelsea, now despite my love for Chelsea and how I’d love us to pull off our first ever League and Cup double, I cant help but have this hope that Pompy do the impossible tomorrow, not just because I have a respect for the town of Portsmouth as it has been good to me over the years and is the home to some of my friends and is supported by my mentor. But because I feel that the fans deserve it more then any other. The way that that club has been allowed to be run into the ground by an owner who obviously didn’t have a clue has been absolutely sickening. A guestermat to the high courts and customs said that Portsmouth owed around 60 millions pounds in bills, it now turns out that they owe nearly 130 million and then the bills were released to the public. Ridiculous amounts owed to ridiculous people. 500 pounds owed to the milkman, 700 pounds owed to the local florist, 13,000 pounds owed to Chichester college, and I’d like to know what dealing they did with Qatar airways because they owe them 20 pence. This has been a harsh reminder that corporate bastards are being allowed quite happily to use our football clubs as toys without having any knowledge what so ever about running a football club, or having any respect for the fans that devote their lives to it. So tommorow at 3 o’clock when two 2 blue sides go out onto that pitch at Wembley I will have this slight support for the underdog. If we snatch an early goal, it’ll be a repeat of last week, but if Portsmouth play with the attitude that they have nothing to lose, then considering this is the oldest and greatest domestic cup competition in all of sport where anything can happen I turley believe that Pompy could do it.
Sorry this is brief and rather rushed I wanted to complete it before tommorows game and I’m currently getting ready to go to an Alabama 3 gig…here is a brief list of awards for the season
Player of the year – James Milner: Did he have a bad game for Villa? An absolutely certainty for Capello’s 11 in South Africa surely.
Best goal – Danny Rose: Spurs V Arsenal: your 19 years old, its your premier league debut and you score a 30 yard volley in a north London derby that you then go on to win for the first time since you was born. An absolute dream come true and a cracking goal.
Manager of the year: a toss between Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson: Premier League I’d give it to Harry for his achievement with Spurs, but nothing can be taken away from the spirit that Fuhlam have played with this season.
Signing of the season: Adam Johnson, Middlesborough – City: He might of come in January but young Adam Johnson has impressed amongst a team full of over payed pre madonna’s. good on him
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
A silver lining in a very black cloud
Today was one of the darkest days in my living memory. Within hours not only has the countries fate been given over to David Cameron’s army of Tory’s thanks to the treacherous Liberal Democrats, but one of our finest sanctuary’s was forced to cancel due to rising cost’s forced by local money grabbing police. A stark reminder that our civil liberties have no sign of letting up when it comes to them being stripped from us without argument and that money is still the main evil preventing us from having a good time. Now I know next to fuck all about politics, so this isn’t going to be a politically based blog (I was only 7 when the Tories last had the ruling of the UK anyway) and I only ever went to 2 Glade’s so this isn’t going to be one on the history of my time there (Fantastic them 2 festivals were though). But there’s one thing would say I know a lot about and that is the history of music and film and its surrounding cultures, but again most of the stuff I’m going to document hasn’t come from my own personal experiences due to me being full of youth. But I feel that in my time I’ve been able to gather enough research from an addiction to IMDB and questions of curiosity when it comes to meeting people from that particular era as well as obsessing over music from that period. One of the main positives that can be taken from the new Tory government is a possible return to quality guitar music. Brit pop ended in allegedly ended in 1997, partly because of the New Labour government and something to do with Princess Diana generally putting a dampener on things as well, but from what I can see from 1979 to 1997 music, especially British music, was at its peek. Factory Records was a year in and starting to make some noise by 1979 and Thatchers call to power, Joy Division had released their first E.P and shit seemed like it was properly kicking off. Factory records then went on to sign many more influential bands and hold host to many at the notorious Hacienda. By the mid 80’s we had such class Indie music like The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Fall, James, The Happy Mondays and so on, back when the term ‘Indie’ actually had proper meaning and the bands didn’t all sound the same. The Hacienda can also be credited with the rise of Acid house, ecstasy culture and the rise of raving. Hosting 808 State in 1989 and having reports of some people “crawling through the air vents just to see them” (according to Wikipedia), with this came the birth of free parties, which then led to ‘the law against rave’ also known as the “Criminal Justice and Public Disorder act 1994” which was bought in by John Majors Tory government mainly because of the infamous Castlemorten festival in 1992, where approximately 30,000 people descended on the tiny village for a week! The mighty rave was dealt its first major blow, not helped by the closing down of the Hacienda (although eye witness reports say the club had been truly dead for several years anyway). I’d like to at this point intervene the history lesson to note that the reason I give this period much praise is because of its lack of motivation for profit. Free parties lived up to their name, and got it’s meaning from “being free from the restrictions of legal club nights”, and Tony Wilson with Factory records famously made many calamities when it came to running a club night and a record company by spending more then they was taking. They released L.P’s that cost more to make then they was actually charging for, and literally rinsed all of New Orders profits from their biggest ever-selling Blue Monday single by putting it straight back into the Hacienda. Why? Because they loved music and felt this is how it should be, and from it we was given quality music from many quality bands. Now at this point you’re probably wondering what this has to do with Glade’s cancelation and a new Tory government, but I’ll be getting to that in a minute…. Anyway 1994 marked the first death of Rave (although I’m sure many still went on for a long time afterwards for arguments sake we’ll call the 1994 law the first death). 1994 also bought along a new band, again another Manchester based band 2 lads and a couple of mates who in 2 years went from the dole cue to performing to having the fastest selling debut album of the time and now one of the biggest selling British albums ever and to then performing to 250,000 people at Knebworth. The absolute Rock n Roll dream despite what anyone’s recent opinions of them are there is no doubting that Oasis were a revelation to Rock n Roll and proved that if you wanted to be the best at something all you had to do was rip off what you’ve heard before. There are many aspects to Brit Pop that I love; The Blur V Oasis war, the rise of Glastonbury, the peak of British Rock n Roll, Jarvis Cocker, I even like that an artist like Damien Hurst could be called a genius, literature such as American Psycho coming in from the states and Irvine Welsh writing his tales of decrepit Scotland and Film makers such as Danny Boyle making films like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. A time when Britain seemed like it actually had some proper balls. Until of course like I mentioned earlier it all came to a bit of an abrupt end with the New Labour government, death of the peoples princess and the release of Oasis highly anticipated, and somewhat disappointing 3rd album, ‘Be Here Now’ from then on nothing happened. Music started to decline, a new Millennium was rung in and bands like Travis, The Darkness and Coldplay, even Robbie Williams was being praised for his excuse for music, Blur and Pulp put themselves on permanent hiatuses and everything else Brit Pop had was almost forgotten about, Glastonbury was then restricted by a massive fence, and television shows such as Pop Idol and then the X-Factor showed that mainstream music was just a tool for a bunch of gormless cunts to produce another production line fad of a performer, tricking the innocent public to come on and lose all their dignity or sell their soul on live television. This has been allowed to continue ever since, despite the brief rise of a new look of Indie music (which was very brief) and being saved by the reformation of a few bands from the old days. Popular music got so shit that I decided to abandon it and find new avenues in Folk and Electronic music with great results. Although the music was fairly bad we have now been given an amazing opportunity through the internet, an opportunity where any of us with a musical note and a lyric can produce a song and put it out to the world via the internet. Yea I know most of it’s shit but that’s not the point, musicians are back to promoting their music and giving it away for free and being more in touch with fans then they’ve ever been.
I think its now time I got to my point well here it is... I like to believe in omens and signs, and I find it more then coincidence that on this black of all days, a community’s legal festival has been stripped from it and the very government that tried to destroy it before is back, I find this more of a coincidence as music, just like the weather or may I be so bold to say the economy, change with every generation and I think a new Tory generation will be just what we need for our muscians, film makers, writers and artists to start giving a shit again and turn Britain back into the super power it once was. The previous Tory government might of stolen your milk, banned you from drinking on the terraces of a football stadium, forced you or a parent out of work due to privatization, and even tried to force a new pointless tax on you. But shit there wasn’t there some great music made under their reign? A Labour government was probably a bit easy on us, we got a minimum wage, tuition fee’s for higher education which could have been paid off by an easy little student loan, as well as a shit load of increased benefits and allowances which will probably now be cut. Now I'm not saying that the past 13 years will be known as the glory years of Britain. Don't get me wrong any government that goes to War illegally, bans the civil liberty of smoking and draws alliance with the dangerous, war mongering, bully Americans is not a good one in my view, but we are working class people and a change over from Red to Blue is against an unwritten social code, which is also why I think so many people voted for the Liberal Democrats this time round... So I ask that on this black of all days you try and have a little hope that beyond the inevitable lower standard of living, us working classes who enjoy our drink, cigarettes, music, films, drugs and parties can look forward to an increase of quality in the arts. It’s been a long time coming and it’s a new decade anyway so its bound to happen, lets use this time not to morn or moan, but to stand up against the new law of the land. I’ve already seen a Facebook group asking for support for a free Glade festival, and with the catalyst of the glorious Internet I’m almost certain that guitar music will return in this of all dark times. The Tories will moan, and living will probably only get worse, my main concern that the greatest institution left in this country, I am of course referring to the mighty BBC, will be allowed to be sold off to the evil Rupert Murdoch, that however is a blog I shall write if the situation arises, but fuck it lets go take in a film, get wasted and then listen to some tunes.
Thanks for reading; Sorry if my Wikipedia based research was all bull shit,
RIP Glade. 2004-2009
Lahm
I think its now time I got to my point well here it is... I like to believe in omens and signs, and I find it more then coincidence that on this black of all days, a community’s legal festival has been stripped from it and the very government that tried to destroy it before is back, I find this more of a coincidence as music, just like the weather or may I be so bold to say the economy, change with every generation and I think a new Tory generation will be just what we need for our muscians, film makers, writers and artists to start giving a shit again and turn Britain back into the super power it once was. The previous Tory government might of stolen your milk, banned you from drinking on the terraces of a football stadium, forced you or a parent out of work due to privatization, and even tried to force a new pointless tax on you. But shit there wasn’t there some great music made under their reign? A Labour government was probably a bit easy on us, we got a minimum wage, tuition fee’s for higher education which could have been paid off by an easy little student loan, as well as a shit load of increased benefits and allowances which will probably now be cut. Now I'm not saying that the past 13 years will be known as the glory years of Britain. Don't get me wrong any government that goes to War illegally, bans the civil liberty of smoking and draws alliance with the dangerous, war mongering, bully Americans is not a good one in my view, but we are working class people and a change over from Red to Blue is against an unwritten social code, which is also why I think so many people voted for the Liberal Democrats this time round... So I ask that on this black of all days you try and have a little hope that beyond the inevitable lower standard of living, us working classes who enjoy our drink, cigarettes, music, films, drugs and parties can look forward to an increase of quality in the arts. It’s been a long time coming and it’s a new decade anyway so its bound to happen, lets use this time not to morn or moan, but to stand up against the new law of the land. I’ve already seen a Facebook group asking for support for a free Glade festival, and with the catalyst of the glorious Internet I’m almost certain that guitar music will return in this of all dark times. The Tories will moan, and living will probably only get worse, my main concern that the greatest institution left in this country, I am of course referring to the mighty BBC, will be allowed to be sold off to the evil Rupert Murdoch, that however is a blog I shall write if the situation arises, but fuck it lets go take in a film, get wasted and then listen to some tunes.
Thanks for reading; Sorry if my Wikipedia based research was all bull shit,
RIP Glade. 2004-2009
Lahm
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