Geordies can't rock?
Roll Jimmy Eat World and the Foo Fighters into one and send them to Byker Grove for a few weeks and they'll come out sounding something Solaflair, the guys in that pic up there, which if you click on will take you to their page where you can find out more about them and gawk at their magnificent Tuuuune-age! Enjoy =D
Slainte!
Je m'appelle Steve. Je suis un journalism Student at Glasgow Caledonian University! I'm on holiday at the moment, keeeping my self in the cash (aye right...) working weekends glass collecting at Buffalo Joes, yes that's the cowboy nightclub, no I don't get the chaps and the cowboy hat...yet!
I dislike arrogance and ignorance as much as the next person, but from experience people are too quick to cast off someone who doesn't talk much as "arrogant" or "up themself", completely ignoring the posibility that they may not be very confident. If I seem at all quiet, don't assume, try actually talking to me (initiating conversation has never been my strong point), you might learn a lot.
30/08/07 16:12 - Summer is severely overrated. Trust me, without a proper daytime job it's horrible, you have absolutely no idea how mind numbingly arse clenchingly BORING it is getting up at 3pm, having breakfast, then crashing on the couch with your laptop in front of Top Gear re-runs you've seen 5 times over until 3am when you retire to bed, only to start the routine all over again the next day. After 6 weeks, I wanted out, hence why this month has been a lifesaver, what with working for Festival FM and all, and this week in particular has been one of the best ever! As I shall explain...
So Tuesday morning (21/08), about 8am, i'm sitting on my own in a radio studio in Bristo Place in Edinburgh, trying to work out what I could use from the Metro newspaper in front of me to entertain my 2 listeners. Then a little box on the bottom right corner of a page catches my eye: "We have 2 tickets to see the Foo Fighters live at Meadowbank Stadium tonight...". Seems rather appealing, so I drop them a text, expecting nothing. The show finishes at 9am, I go home and catch up on the sleep I would've got had I not volunteered to present breakfast radio! About 12.30, my phone wakes me up: "Hi, it's Jennifer from The Metro here, just to let you know you've won those Foo Fighers tickets..." Y'WAHH?!?! So after much bouncing around, contacting of Dave and apologising to Lynsey for missing the radio show that evening, I ended up in front of Dave Grohl with several thousand others for the night - and what a fucking night!! Put it this way, they started their set with Everlong, followed by Monkey Wrench - after that I remember very little, mainly because i'd exploded from excitement, it was the best start to a gig i've ever experienced!! And it only got better, the band were on top form, the crazy small girl behind me was providing me with much entertainment with her plot to kidnap Mr Grohl, I was as high as a fucking skylark! It's a potential contender for best gig this year, which says a hell of a lot!
Two days later, the fun began again. At 9am I presented my final Festival FM show of 2007, handed back the studio keys, then disappeared homewards to prepare to meet Dave once again and catch the train to Leeds for the greatest music festival in the UK! By the time i'd trawled town and found a kilt pin (to allow me to actually run about this weekend without flashing anyone), it was about 9.40, so I jumped on a bus, reaching Corstorphine at 10am. Glancing in the window of my local barbers, I saw that it was open and there were only 4 people in the queue. "Perfect", i thought, " i'll pop in, get a quick trim, and get home in plenty of time". How the hell could that go wrong?? Well, turns out old men are just as gossip-y as the womenfolk!! By 11.20am I was on the edge of my seat almost in tears from indecision, I had 40 minutes before I was due to meet Dave (the train was at 2pm, miss that and the entire weekend's over), I could either keep waiting the 2 minutes left before my turn to get my hair done then be very very late, or grab my bag and run, embarrassing myself in the process. Option B seemed the lesser of 2 evils, so I scarpered, mumbling a red-faced apology, convincing myself I could be on time. Jumping on a 31 bus while taking panicing phone calls from my mum about being late, I was still convinced I would make it to meet Dave at his work in time, despite having half an hour to get home, grab my stuff and run to the Gyle with my rucksack. When the 31 broke down about a mile from my house, tearfully, I considered admitting defeat. With steam bellowing out my ears, my wonderful mum came home, picked me up and took me straight to Daves house, where I sat outside looking dodgy (this is a classy area we're talking about) until he sauntered home. One quick change into the highland dress and we were go, the taxi bombing us down to Waverly station in bags of time, what was I even panicing about before?!
The journey to Leeds couldn't've been any smoother, both trains and the shuttle bus ran in perfect time, meaning I had my tent set up before 7pm! So grabbing a can of Strongbow in celebration, Dave and I went in search of the motley crew of geeks from the official Leeds Festival Forums I'd arranged to meet. After scouring the football pitch area, I finally found a familiar face and mop of red hair in a crowd of similarly familiar faces! After strolling up to them and waving manically, I established that it was indeed the group of people I was looking for and settled down, introducing myself to Eddi, his mate, Beki, Nat, her 2 mates, Katy, Laura, Katiee, Charlotte, other Nat, Phil, his 2 mates, Andrew, Rich and Crip who had all managed to turn up too, managed to spend a good hour or so chatting to and wandering around with them, i'm so unbelievably pleased I met them, such a great bunch of people =D Splitting up that night, we arranged to meet at Midnight in the Lock-Up tent where they were showing a film (I fell asleep during it, I really wish I could remember what it was!) OK so only Eddi and a couple of other girls off the Forums (Vonni and Sophie, both wasted, but only 1 tried to feed me cheesy pasta!), but it was a nice chilled out way to end the night!
Now having spent the entire weekend reviewing bands for the official website (as you can see here ), I'm not going to bother going over them again, read them on the site! Instead i'll add in the rest! Friday consisted of my first awkward trip to the Press Tent, very wierd atmosphere in there, all the different publications on top of each other providing their own reviews, once I worked out which computers I could use I was on my way, taking slightly longer than planned and missing Funeral for a Friend, dammit! After managing to see 3 headliners (I challenge anyone to top that!) we grabbed food (one of the nicest chineses i've had in a long while), returned to the tent for some cider, then wandered the campsite in search of some night time entertainment, ending up eventually in the Oxfam tent, with a dodgy PA system, no crowd control, but an amazing atmosphere, conga lines, some really cool music, and lots of beautiful people to mingle with! Unfortunately it finished at 2am, but the Strongbow was really dragging my eyes shut, so we retired for the night.
How he did it I have absolutely no idea, but Dave managed to wake up at some point on Saturday morning, half in the tent, half out - whaa?? Anyways, one breakfast baguette later and the day was go, starting with the amazing Paramore. After their set, they were meeting and greeting in the signing tent - a chance to meet the stunning Hayley Williams? Not a chance of turning that down! The queueing was an absolute shambles, due entirely to the useless security staff who don't were obviously borrowed from the Ape enclosure of some dodgy zoo. However, after getting pissed off at idiots pushing in the queue, and chatting to the people next to us for the hour and a half we were waiting, I eventually got what I wanted - a photo with the fiery redhead singer herself! It's in my pics, take a look! After the usual food at the end of the day (the Pie and Mash stall undercharged me - score!) and Strongbow, we wandered to Picadilly Circus, where Beef Warehouse were in full swing with their outdoor party, to meet Phil, with whom we wandered to Camp CODFOD (still not got a clue in hell what it means) where Craig, Crip, Katy, Charlotte and a load of other randums were relaxing around a campfire, just what I needed on that cold night! So after a bit of banter and a lot of warmth, I was in need of food and party, so me + Dave returned to Beef Warehouse, officially the best party in Leeds that weekend, playing the hugest mix of music 'til 3am, amazing!!
One night, after a few ciders, I can understand. But how the hell do you fall asleep half outside the tent...AGAIN! Well Dave managed it, I don't even wanna imagine how! So the last day of Leeds, as saddening as it was, was filled once again with much amazing music and writing up of reviews, which I reckon i'm getting better at doing on the spot! After the Chili Peppers rounded up the whole festival, I needed to party one last time! So back to the tent...we were out of Strongbow! Not a problem, we thought, we'll just head to the bar...which is shut??? Something to do with the last night riots that have plagued the festival over the past few years I reckon, but someone up there was obviously telling me not to drink. So my last night was spent completely sober, and turned out to be my best of the entire weekend! Starting one last time in the Oxfam tent, the sound system was on its last legs, but it was just like an old school house party! So dancing away at the back of the tent, this absolutely stunning girl, you have no idea just how hot we're talking, catches my eye. Sweet!! So I start dancing (using the term loosely, you haven't seen me dance!), and all seems to be going pretty damn well! Then sods law, the absolute BASTARD that it is, kicks in. There's a huge crowd surge in our direction, and the barrier breaks. So I turn to help fix the barrier (which really shouldnt've been there, there wasn't enough space as it was), by which time the party is finished, I turn back and she's gone, with my hat!! So I hang around afterwards (just to get my hat of course...) and she's nowhere to be seen. Slightly gutted, me + Dave wander for one last rave down at Picadilly with Beef Warehouse, a rave that just refuses to stop! Despite one technical glitch, the night is rescued by what appears to be an iPod, and we're partying to Marilyn Manson, Phil Collins and the Chemical Brothers 'til half 5 in the morning, and we only left because I was in severe pain due to the massive boots I was wearing all weekend!
So a pizza and 3 hours sleep later, we packed up the tent and headed for the bus home, with probably the biggest arsehole of a bus driver ever! The train ran as smoothly as on the way down, just with a lot more sleep!
So it's back to Uni in a month, and to be honest it can't come quick enough, I could really do with a bit of routine! In the meantime, I've seen more bands in a week than I have in the last year, i've seen enough of Dave to last me the rest of this year, and I made more new friends in that weekend than I have since Freshers week! That ain't gonna be beaten in a long while.
11/06/07 17:55 - If you want to experience true pizza, you go to Italy. For a real safari, you'd go to Kenya. So to see and hear rock music at its finest, you have to visit the masters, and nobody does it better than Sweden! So at 7.30am on Tuesday 5th June, I was in Edinburgh airport ready for the trek to the mecca of metal that is the Sweden Rock Festival. The unfortunate bastard stuck with me for the week was my good mate and old Red Dot Radio co-host Tommy, who managed to persuade me at the start of the year to give Sweden a try.
Slightly scarily, this was my first time actually flying (apart from one of those 3 seater things, but they don't count, i'm talking proper jumbo jets!), what all the fear is about I have no idea?? The actual taking-off part is great fun, then once you're up there you may as well be on a bus! It didn't stop me turning into a big kid though, nose pressed flat against the window, flying past clouds going "ooooohhh"! An hour later I was in London Stansted, scoffing a burger and a pint in Wetherspoons before continuing on the next plane to Copenhagen. We arrived to glorious sunshine before making a dash to the train station for the next part of our journey to Solvesborg, the home of the festival itself. After boarding the first train we found, with all the announcements being in Danish (strangely enough!), we found ourselves asking around if we were in the right place, at which point we turned to find a huge, long haired rocker-looking guy at the back of our coach suddenly shouting "Sweden Rock"! We made the big mistake of trusting this guy, thinking we were safe; within seconds he stumbled up to us, big, crazy, drunk and Norwegian! Instantly we were his new best friends: "We should make camp together...take a drink of this beer...Nazarus are great, but their ballads fucking suck...have some of these "cactus" sweets...". Luckily, there was some kind of problem at Malmo train station where we had to change trains, we managed to lose him, presumably he's still on a train somewhere trying to get to the festival! So 1 train and 2 buses later (I said this was a trek right?) and we were there. My tent couldn't've been up any quicker, the thought of a cold drink after a day of travelling was far too appealing! So my first evening in Sweden ended with a bottle of home-brewed pear cider in front of an amazing local band and surrounded by Swedish rock chicks (yes, the legends are true), not a bad start!
My crappy £12 eBay tent has 2 extremes - it's a freezer, or an oven. I could have baked a turkey when I woke up on Wednesday morning it was that hot, not that I had to, breakfast came in the form of a baguette with Swedish meatballs in a strange purple sauce, couldn't for the life of me work out what it was but it tasted damn good! Today was an extra unnofficial day added to the festival with it being a Swedish national holiday, so with doors not opening 'til 3pm, Tommy and I took a wander to the beach, the temptation to jump in to the cool sea was resisted (that far up the planet I would've frozen my bollocks off!). We returned for a drink at the bar about half an hour before the festival kicked off, whilst enjoying the sun and the cider we were joined by a guy looking for somewhere to sit and have a chat. After introducing ourselves, it turned out that this guy, Thomas, worked for the bank that dealt with the festival, hence the backstage pass around his wrist. Explaining that we'd travelled from Edinburgh, his face lit up: "I took my wife to Edinburgh for her 50th Birthday, everyone was so kind and friendly to us, we must repay that kindness"! So as repayment to the whole of Edinburgh, he took me and Tommy to his holiday villa just a few minutes walk away to introduce us to his family and treat us to a couple of beers! Possibly the most surreal event of the week, they couldn't have been any friendlier to us! We returned to the arena to find the stages packed with the first lot of fantastic bands, highlights of the day were Annihilator, Canadian thrash metal with some amazing melodies, and The Australian Pink Floyd show, the official Floyd tribute act for whom I can't use the word "stunning" enough. I have now sworn to invest in some Pink Floyd material, I know it wasn't the real thing, but it was absolutely beautiful, the songs were flawless and the stage show looked fantastic, complete with lazers and big screen. I ended the night with a hot dog with 2 lumpts of mashed potato on top, another Swedish delicacy?
Thursday morning, I left my oven/tent for what was technically the first day of the festival, and it was looking brilliant, it was scorching, revealing a field full of beautiful Scandinavian girls dressed...well actually I struggle to use the word dressed! Here was where the real music started, the high points of the day started with Thunder, who have been around since 1989, but still sound amazing, and hell can they work a crowd. Talking of working crowds, one of the most enjoyable performances of the day was from Meatloaf, one scary looking bastard but he puts on a show and a half! Fair enough, vocally he's past it, he never fully recovered from an illness and sounds terrible, but he made up for it with a full band and backing singers sounding as amazing as they looked. Later that evening was a band I knew I had to see, knowing that it was going to be a once in a lifetime experience. Thin Lizzy were one of my favourite bands of the week, despite one hell of an anticlimax in discovering that they don't actually perform Whiskey in the Jar, the atmosphere at the front of that crowd was absolutely buzzing! Headliners that night were Heaven and Hell, basically Black Sabbeth, but fronted by Ronnie James Dio rather than Ozzy, for a midget (no not really, he's just small) he can belt out rock numbers! Damn impressive for day 1!
Now you can't visit a new country and not experience it's cuisine. Around lunchtime on Friday i'm absolutely starving, so I find myself I little kebab stall. With the menus written is Swedish, I ask the woman behind the counter what meat they were serving. "It's moose", I was told! Interesting, but very tasty!! However a couple of hours before this culinary discovery I witnessed the Faroe Islands finest (possibly only) rock stars in the form of Tyr, musically by far one of the best bands of the festival. With hints of traditional Faroe sounds, along with the oddest sounding guitar riff and the best cover of The Wild Rover that i've ever heard, they made for damned fine listening!
Today was definately the day for the rock chicks. Swedes 'All Ends' and the Dutch 'After Forever' floored pretty much every bloke in front of the stage, looking and sounding beautiful, but in a way that you wouldn't mess with them for fear of a heavy boot to the balls! But the best of them came with McQueen, a Brighton based rock band who played one of the smaller tents, again one of my favourite bands of the festival! Not just because they looked incredible, they sound it too, think The Distillers, but with a punkier edge. Managing to get a spot at the barrier paid off too - right at the end of their set, lead singer Leah Duors jumped off stage and came right out to the crowd. Leaping onto the barrier, she stood directly in front of me...and bent over, chest hitting me full on in the face! Tommy will back up the fact that the smile didn't leave my face for the rest of the day =D
However this was all leading up to the band i'd been dying to see since January - Aerosmith. Despite claims from the older ones of the crowd (yup that's you Tommy!) that they could've played more of their earlier material, all the big ones that I wanted were there, Love in an Elevator, Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, Walk This Way, the crowd reaction was something else, absolutely fantastic!
The final day of a festival for me is usually the chillout day, where I fall asleep in front of a stage in the sun with not a care in the world...not with Tommy's schedule though! With the amount of incredible bands playing, we were darting much needed kip while Black Oak Arkansas were on, not that they were all all bad, the lead singer was hilarious (or what I could make out of that southern American drawl was!). Anyway, Saturday held the biggest surprise of the entire festival in the form of REO Speedwagon! Sticking out slightly in a festival lineup of heavy rock and metal, they were actually really enjoyable, heavier than i'd expected from the one song I knew, but another back catalogue I'm going to have to look into! Another band I found myself chilling to were Focus, never have I heard rock and yodelling combined in such an ingenuius way! Best of their set was Hocus Pocus and Sylvia, which sounded extremely familiar (Tommy's answer to this was: "Alan 'Fluff' Freeman used it as a jingle on Radio 1" - how bloody old do you think I am man!) After an afternoon gazing at legends such as Suzi Quatro and Motorhead (once again, bands i'm never likely to see again), I experienced it. One of those gob-dropping moments that happen so rarely when a band blows me away that much that i can't speak! Korpiklaani: folk metal from Finland, and the most fun i've had in a tent in my life! They are one of the most insane bands i've ever seen live, up there easily with Gogol Bordello, and by fat the highlight of the entire festival. Seriously, if you do one thing after reading this, find "Happy Little Boozer" and listen to it, it'll explain everything! So after that madness, I was again ready to attempt some more food-based experiments. I was advised by Tommy to try a wild boar kebab (yeah the Swedish tend to eat all their wierd meats in kebab form, i'd say it was wierd but it's done over here too, only with cats and pigeons (oh come on, what did you think was in kebabs here!)), my God those things taste good! Thinking that life couldn't get any better after Korpiklaani and my kebab, the final, and best, headliner of the week rounded of the festival absolutely perfectly. Scorpions haven't made any material in well over 20 years, but what they played tonight was amazing, the performance made more special with the addition of original guitarist Uli John Roth. Only knowing Winds of Change by the band, it turned out that what they actually sounded like was no comparison, they were far far heavier than I imagined, and it sounded fantastic! If you can, check out 321 from their new album.
And that ended my Swedish experience! Sunday consisted of the knackering reverse-trek back to Edinburgh, it was long, and only made difficult by Stansted Airport: if you've been there, you'll know that to get to departure gates 1-39, you have to take a small, very cool electric train type thing. Flying home, we were leaving from Gate 83. Despite telling Tommy that we didn't need to get on the electric train, he somehow managed to convince me otherwise. So we hopped on, the doors closed and it started travelling...past a sign for gates 81-89...pointing in the opposite direction! Now the one major flaw with these trains is that once you've gone one way on them, you can't get back again! So we ended up with airport security being summoned to escort us back to where we should've been, one of the more amusing points of the week! At 11.15pm, we arrived back at Edinburgh airport. I bid Tommy farewell after getting off the airport bus in Corstorphine and tried to hail a taxi to take me home, seemingly impossible whilst looking like a bedraggled hobo as 5, yes 5 taxis drove right past me! I got home eventually at half 11, never has the offer of a pie from me lil' sis been so heartwarming!
If you're still reading this, then you're braver than most, I didn't realise I would go on for so long until now, when I look up and see what i've actually written! So i'll finish by offering the biggest thanks possible to Mr Tommy Cornell for accompanying me on what has to be one of the best weeks of my life, to that Rush-head I am completely indebted! So to you: Slainte!
07/04/07 19:51 - OK I admit, this is poor, 3 months and no bloggy bit?? *smacks self* I blame my lack of laptop-age, but I promise not to neglect my page so badly in future!
So gigwise it's been slightly too quiet for my liking recently, but this week hasn't been to bad! And wierdly enough the first gig involves the same artist as my last little review! I needed to review a gig for my Feature Writing module (by far one of the best i've had since I started uni =D ), so scouring the gig listings, the one that jumped out at me was the wonderful Jo Mango at Bar Bloc here in sunny Glasgow. Not just because it was free, it was also slightly unusual sounding in that she was on her own and performing material by other artists! Intreaged, I wandered along after work, bought meself a much needed pint (well so would you after an afternoon in that shithole) and propped myself up at the bar with my notepad. First on was the brilliant Brother Louis, performing with only one of his self titled Collective, the wonderful vocallist/flautist Sarah Hayes. The accoustics I have to admit weren't great, even mic'd up I couldn't hear much of them, but they were pretty darn good, not as great a performance as in Brel back in January, but I blame the venue.
Not knowing what to expect from a Jo Mango perforance is a new experience for me, usually I know the songs and prepare for a spellbinding show. But I knew I wasn't to be let down when she launched straight into a stunning Beth Orton cover. Despite a noisy door and slightly too chatty crowd by the bar, as per usual she was stunning! Highlight of the night had to be her cover of Evaporated by Ben Folds, fair enough i'd heard it before, but it's absolutely beautiful. Don't believe me? Listen for yourself here . Amazing night, and I (just) managed to write a damn cool 530 words on it!
Thursday nights are now the official flat nights out! Starting of course at the legendary Cally pub quiz, which we won the first 2 weeks we entered, but after a team split (a bad idea in my opinion) we ain't won squat :( Anyways, the accountancy bastards came joint first, then lost the tie-break (I actually reckon they shoulda won it, but they were robbed by the cheats that won last week!). So to cheer ourselves up, we headed for a night in Campus, where the Irish beauties from 1996...thats right...B*WITCHED were playing!! Well, it was only 2 of them (the 2 sisters), but they still look hot! And they played C'est La Vie =D Actually one of the best nights out i've had in ages, other than experiencing the most painful occurance known to man (no not that, someone stood on my toe with some kinda heeled shoe, I have not experienced that level of agony in a long time).
So no doubt i'll find something soon to ramble on about, you know fine well you missed it!
25/01/07 00:44 - Well, a new year, new bloggy thing...and a new broadband connection! Which means I can sit here in my living room at any time of night or day and talk my utter crap! So I get it installed this evening, i'm sitting on my sofa at ten past seven trying to work the stupid installation CD when a horrible thought creeps over me: "SHIT! I'm meant to be at a gig". So I grab my ticket, run out the door and make my way down to the Tube station - usually gigs are hassle free living in the city centre, but this particular one was in the West End - Brel on Ashton Lane - the performer, the amazing Jo Mango and her merry cohort. I found my way to Ashton Lane (yes, I got lost trying to find the street next to the Tube station!) just in time for the Brother Lewis Collective, one of the best support acts i've seen in a long while! Especially when the full band got on stage, the vocal harmonies were fantastic! Plus it's not often now you see a band with a flautist and a clarinetist ('mon the clarinets!) As they were leaving the stage, they announced that they'd just that morning been offered a support slot for none other than Guillemots at Glasgow Carling Academy! My first thought: what a gig! Until I realise it's on the 8th February - clashing with another gig in Edinburgh (more on that soon!).
Next up was Ben TD, second time i'd seen this Aussie singer (he played at Jo's Hootenanny a few weeks back) and as always he was on top form. He reminds me a lot of Luke from Nizlopi, I know they ain't Australian but their voices are really similar!
You'll probably know that most of the gigs I talk about here I go to alone - no reason other than I don't know anyone else locally who would be into the gigs I go to. So standing in a crowd on my own can feel pretty bloody awkward. However seconds into a set from Jo Mango and i'm completely at ease, big smile on my face thinking "fuck it", I could be anywhere and not give a damn! Hence why I was seeing her again for the fourth time - this woman has one of the most stunning voices on the planet, and the instruments her band uses - kalimbas, harp, piano, completely different from what you'll see at 99% of gigs - create the most beautiful sounds. Not to mention Jo's improv comedy, stories of getting rings/hats stuck on fingers/heads give some balence to songs about watching people getting stabbed (not a clue what it's called, but it's about a guy called Mark, and it's absolutely stunning) and being on the verge of losing a partner to someone else. Highlights of the night had to be hearing Antidote (or "Auntie Dot") and Joy live, not sure if I'd heard them live before, but they sounded amazing.
There's not much else I can say about Jo's shows having talked about them several times on this page, but I will repeat: see her before she hits it big, which I can guarantee the band'll be doing very soon. They're playing the world famous South by South West (SXSW) festival in Texas, America, for anyone who doesn't know it's one big journo-fest, where bands get discovered - you play this festival and you're seriously going to become huge (in popularity terms, though you are in America...) Your next chance to see her here before she leaves will be on March 9th back at Brel in Glasgow's West End, i'll be there, hopefully this time I won't be alone!
18/12/06 23:14 - As has been pointed out (cheers Sam!) it's been waaay too long since i've had the chance to have a bit of a ramble here, which is wierd since last weekend consisted not just of a gig, not even of 2 gigs, but a whole 3 in a row, not done that in a good long while! So what the heck, here's the update!
Thursday found me back in Edinburgh for the night (which I made by the sheer luck of having one last tenner left in the bank, damn Citylink putting prices up by 30p) to see the band I feared had done a runner with a healthy chunk of my money (a good 80 quid or so)! But no, the mighty Amplifico are back, after hitting a slight rough patch, the only difference turning out to be a new bassist! Or so I thought before I saw them - my fucking GOD they are sounding unbelievable now!! They've given their sound a buff up and a sanding down, as well as chucking in a few more instruments, namely a brass section, a cello, and as a complete surprise the absolutely stunning Karina from Opal Sky! The new material sounds brilliant (search 'Amplifico' on YouTube...ach screw it, click here , you'll find some of the new songs recorded at the gig) and the older stuff sounded absolutely stunning after having been clearly mastered to include the new instrumentation, words honestly can't describe how beautiful 'Just To Pause This' sounded. Finished with a seriously rockin' cover of Mariah (s)Carey's 'All I Want For Xmas', and an encore of 'Same Song' and of course 'Comedy Stops Here' which never, ever sounds bad. Best news of ther night however was that the long awaited album is finally finished, WOOHOO! Think they're looking at a late January/early February release, whenever it is I canna bloody wait!
24 hours later and I was at a completely different kind of gig, one of the most special i've been to all year. The absolutely wonderful Jo Mango had organised a bit of a Hootenanny, in a tiny community hall of all places, with a load of very cool folk-y acoustic Scottish artists (all for the kids at yorkhill Hospital): I actually made a complete double take when I saw Eddi Reader and Vashti Bunyan on the line up, these are singers you normally see on the telly at new year and stuff (Eddi is actually playing a huge gig at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, as well as touring with Willie Nelson, thats the kinda gigs she normally does) so there wasn't a chance of me turning this one down! So sitting in this lovely little hall with a cup of mulled wine (I don't actualy like the stuff, but it was warm!) watching loads of really talented people doing very quiet 20 minute sets, with Jo in between acts with her infamous crowd banter, that woman is hilarious in the kind of way which isn't supposed to be, she rules! Later on into the evening different artists started collaberating with each other, everyone was playing with everyone else, like a huge melodic orgy (except with guitars and pianos, NO not like that). The headlining of Jo and her band, followed by the amazing Ms Reader, was amazing to watch. But the finale of 'Waltz With Me' performed by all the artists from the night, with for the first time (that i'd seen) people actually getitng up and waltzing, was absolutely spellbinding, an amazing 5 minutes. Came out feeling all warm and fuzzy, rather than warm and sweatly like I usually do with was a nice change! And it turns out it takes exactly 57 minutes to walk from Hyndland community hall to my flat, a really nice walk at 1am!
The last of the 3 gigs was on a whim; by sheer luck my flatmate Ducky had a leftover ticket for the Strathclyde Union Christmas ball, with Jaegermeister shots, free santa hats, Ministry of Sound DJs...and a headline set from Idlewild, who I hadn't seen in a good 3-4 years! So I snapped it up, got changed and headed down there with the Accountancy crew (they're wilder than they sound, honest). Got up to the 7th floor just in time (that Union building is massive!) for the band to walk onto the stage and into 'I Argue When I See Shapes'! Only annoying point of the set was some arsehole chucking a pint at the guitarist, blowing the guitar completely. Still, few minutes later and they were back. They were only on for half an hour (still amazing for £7.50!) but they got through evrything I wanted to hear, all the singles anyway, it was just amazing to see them again! Highlights of the set were 'You Held The World In Your Arms' and 'Love Steals Us From Loneliness'. And the best part was that the gig ending didn't mean the end of the night! Despite having work the next again day, I managed a few drinks down on the main dancefloor, elbowed Mick a few times, knocked over my pint and ended up on my arse during '500 Miles' and spun loads of unwilling people round during Cotton Eye Joe! One of the best nights out i'd had in ages, complete pain having to leave at 2am when the party was going on 'til 8am!
So unless anything major happens in the next couple of weeks my next little rant will probably be in 2007! So have fun whatever you're doing, I could be standing in the middle of a field, all on my own, naked, with wolves chewing my bollocks, and still have a better new year than last year [/sly dig]. Not that I will be, i'll be celebrating somewhere! Anyways, Merry Christmas and all that jazz, have an amazing one!
02/11/06 00:29 - Last year it was Flogging Molly, this year it was given a Romanian twist: the Eastpak Antidote Tour is always guaranteed to be a crazy night! Unfortunately it got off to a slightly shakey start - my own fault - as I got down to the Barrowlands where my ticket clearly stated the gig was taking place I couldn't help noticing that the huge illuminated sign wasn't glowing as it usually was on gig nights. Slighly worryingly as I got closer I realised the place was dead, nobody outside queueing, nothing. Then as I actually reached the doors, I found that all the shutters were down and the place was empty. Cue terror. A lone security guard was all that was about, so I asked: "there's a gig on here tonight right?", to which he replied: "Not here nope..." *panic* "...it's been moved to the Carling Acadamy." Bit of a pain in the ass, but no complaints, I love the Acadamy, the accoustics are second to none, and it was only a 15 minute walk. The bar staff can pour a decent pint too which is an advantage, even if it is the bartenders first night working the bar and she'd only previously poured 3 pints! Unfortunately the venue confusion meant missing half of openers Disco Ensemble which was I was disappointed at, what I heard of them was amazing! A Finnish heavy electro-pop outfit, they really impressed me, even if I did only see 15 minutes of them. However any lateness-frustration was blown off by Danko Jones, think The Strokes and Green Day (early stuff) mashed together and you have these guys. Again they were a first for me but I really liked what I heard. The frontman Danko himself was a cocky bastard, very funny ripping into the front row, clearly a great showman, but the whole fake-masturbation over the crowd was a bit much. Sounded excellent though.
Next were one of the bands I was really excited about seeing. I'd only heard one of Bedouin Soundclash's songs ("When the Night Steals my Soul", yes the one from the T-Mobile ad) so I was interested to hear what else they had to offer. Unfortunately I was let down slightly, they really weren't that exciting. I wasn't expecting full on bouncing around heavy rock or anything, but I was at least hoping for a bit of life. Their stuff just sounds a little plain, nothing i'd immediately jump to buy. There were moments where they shone; a cover of that reggae song that goes "No no nooooo, you don't love me anymore..." (i'll work out who it's originally by) and the current single both went down as well as would be expected, but I won't be rushing out to see them again any time soon.
If anything, that gave me time to prepare. Prepare for the insanity that is a live performance from Gogol Bordello. Last time I saw them we were treated to Eugene Hutz seemingly on speed, crowdsurfing on bass drums and a half hour encore. Tonight was just as insane! Unfortunately the crowdsurfing part didn't happen (venue limitations I assume), but the band were on absolute top form, Eugene Hutz didn't stay still for any more than half a second at a time, darting around the stage in and around his fellow band members (yes you read that right), and the first few instantly recognisable notes of "Start Wearing Purple" threw the crowd into an even bigger frenzy than it was originally in, almost the most energetic i've ever been for a band. The set was topped massively by the encore, which lasted a good 20 minutes; halfway through, the band sounded like they'd finished, everyone went wild...then they started again!! The front 10-15 rows in front of the stage became one giant jig/pit thing, as always the stoners and the 40 year old bald fat bastards managed to squeeze themselves down to the front rows with their unfair use of excessive bodyweight, but for one night only I thought "fuck it, if I can't beat 'em, join 'em", and I bounced around with the rest of them, absolutely amazing, i'm gonna be buzzing all night!
As much of a bastard as tinnitus is, nights like these are well worth it! If you ever get the chance to experience Gogol Bordello, jump at it. Admittedly it's not the same listening to their CD (which is still recommendable) so get to a show! Bzzzzzz...
02/10/06 - I should be on Citylink's payroll or something, it feels like i've been living on their fucking buses! Still, another 2 weeks (2 weeks tomorrow come to think of it!) and i'll actually be living in Glasgow rather than going back and forth...and back...and forth once more. Saying that, travelling to Glasgow for entertainment purposes rather than 9am Management lectures feels much more worthwhile! As will be explained...
Friday night I needed out the house - parents buggered off north somewhere for the weekend, lil' sis had her mates in and they were baking, so rather than risk ending up in a burning house, or in the oven with a fresh batch of muffins for making cheeky comments about her burning the house down, I disappeared to Murreyfield with Mulder + Mulder Snr to watch Edinburgh ('parrantly not the Gunners any more??) trash Glasgow Warriers...well not so much trash, the game itself was pretty trash up until the last 10 minutes when it actually got exciting. Shot a few games of pool afterwards, Daveyboy won 3 games to 2, i'm actually getting better! Couple of pints and a rant from the barman about the girl at the front desk (something about a key, he was pretty pissed off!) later and we were done for the night. Got home to find sis + mates + N64, so stayed for a game of Pokemon Stadium (old school!), trashed them all (mwahaha), then disappeared off to bed to leave them to do whatever girls do at sleepovers, i'm sure its very exciting...
Saturday, I was only up an hour or so before making my way over to Dave's house to meet him and Muff, so that we could make the treatcherous journey through to the Wild West (Glasgow) to see Papa Roach! Seeing as Muff was driving (yes there's an 'r' in there...) I suggested meeting early, to skip traffic etc, plus its an hour long drive...or so I thought! We got in the car, I looked down to sort something on my phone, looked back up again, and we're at bloody Harthill (the half way point between Edinburgh and Glasgow)! Quick glance at the speedo, and yup, we're nearly flying! Managed 45 miles in 30 minutes, do the maths. Anyways, got parked, made a nostalgic trip back to Best Kebab for tea, then wandered down to the Garage to take our places in front of the stage, as always right in the middle of the mosh pit, every bloody time! Support act were pretty rocking, would really help if I remembered their name though, wouldn't mind hearing more from them! The main act started pretty quickly, bursting straight into a track from The Paramore Sessions, which i'm gonna have to get me a copy of! Absolutely amazing set lasting well over an hour, about 5 songs in I was dying from dehydration, I was seconds away from exiting the crowd in search of water when, as by some wierd act of God, Coby Dick threw a bottle of water off the stage...and right onto me!! 'Of Angels and Insects' sounded fantastic live, though the highlight of the night was the whole crowd (a fairly small one at that) singing along to 'Scars' - beautiful. The atmosphere there was amazing though, considering the gig wasn't even sold out it was crazy, the most knackered i've been at a gig in a long time (or maybe i'm just getting old)! Made our way back to the car afterwards for the journey back to Edinburgh - once more, we left the car park at 11pm, and arrived in my driveway at 11.30, absolutely amazing sitting sprawled out in the back of Muffs Ford Fiesta, Papa Roach on the sound system, watching the needle hit 95...100...110...112...115...and it kept going! A quick change of clothes, an even quicker stop at Daves, dumped the car back at Muffs and we were on our way to Nicol Edwards to finish the night off, and what a finish! May I say now: Tesco Dave, the guitarist in that pub every Saterday from (I think) 10pm-12midnight, is a fucking legend! The 3 of us arrive at about half 12 and prop ourselves up at our usual spot by the bar - about 1.30am, long after his set finished, Tesco Dave gets back up on stage with his guitar, gives me a wink and says "I'm playing this song because there's a couple of guys at the bar who have been to a few of my gigs and are particularly good at singing this song...", before breaking into Zombie! I did try and buy him a drink for it but he disappeared too quickly!
Got home at 4am on Sunday, got up at 2pm and spent a few hours manically preparing myself to head back through to the Weeg again, back to The Garage...again, this time for Seether. Now I hadn't actually heard any of their songs before I went, which is a preference of mine, hearing songs for the first time performed live gives a much truer impression of the music. Somehow Dave managed to persuade me to get the train through - never again! "It's quicker, it's more comfy" were the arguements I was flogged off with, absolute bullshit! Firstly, nothing is faster than Muff (in a car anyways, intellegence-wise is debatable, I won't go into any other further meanings...). Secondly, there were no seats! At least in a bus I could've sat down. Plus, £5.80 for a single?? Nope, not doing it again! Got to the Garage, forgetting that my mum had put a bottle of wine in my bag to give to my gran, with whom I was crashing for the night. Not quite what Garage security were expecting anyway! So they ripped the piss outta me for a few minutes (apparantly wine/gran's aren't very rock n' roll) before putting the bottle in the 'confiscation box' (yes it sounds like something outta Supernanny, it was lying next to the naughty step). Support wasn't fantastic, however it turned out I wasn't the only one with that opinion: before Seether started, the manditory roadies had to prepare the stage - one at the mic shouting "one, two, hey hey, hey hey", one at the guitar practicing his C major chord for a minute solid, and one at the drumkit giving Meg White a run for her money. After they disappeared from the stage came one guy from the audience - "that was the best support act tonight!!" Considering Shaun Morgan's recent release form Rehab the band were on top form (according to Dave anyway, not knowing any songs I wouldn't've known any better had they stood and wailed for an hour), I liked their sound anyway, Shaun's voice very scarily similar to a certain Mr Cobain at times. The mosh pit was possibly one of the strangest i'd ever seen though, a massive hole in the crowd with 2 guys grappling for the whole gig, which was funny for a minute or 2, but just got annoying. Other than that I had a ball though, i'm gonna get me some Seether stuff soon as!
So offski I head now to jump on a Citylink 900 back to Edinburgh, thats right, travel Citylink, Cityliiiiink...*awaits promo fee...
