Category Archives: Miscellania

on is to review 2005 as a gig goer in the metropolis, future missives will hopefully provide a travelogue of, as Bob would probably put it, the good, the bad and the ugly of the London music scene. This will encompass talking about bands of course, but also of venues and other ephemera upon the way. In fact this first review probably is more of the flavour of the old and the new, rather good bad and ugly, as 2005 for me was both a journey into the past as well as the present. As Karl Marx I believe posited, possibly after a trip down Carnaby Street, it is impossible to appreciate the future without having a sense of the past, and I will gleefully accept this opportunity to test that theory.

Perhaps at no time in my musical memory has the past loomed so large over the music scene. Apart from the current penchant for post punk writ large over most current alternative music (we all can play spot the reference point when we hear Franz dies in Bloc Chief Monkey etc) 2005 saw a raft of golden oldies grace the stages of London. My year started with a trip to see the Gang of Four at the Empire, ably supported by the Departure. Having always had a soft spot for any band on the Faversham axis, especially with Leeds University Russian and Philosophy department thrown in, this was a most pleasant trip down memory lane, although how such an occurrence squares with their own Marxist rhetoric is open to conjecture.

Other retro pop acts seen throughout the year included The Las (with Mavers gardener who had never played drums before on drums and it showed), The House of Love (if you are interested in cover versions better than the original check out The Shins Destroy the Heart incidentally, The Proclaimers, the lovely Teenage Fan Club and the esteemable New Order. Indeed New Order was perhaps my gig of the year, finding myself down at the front shouting nonsense at Hookey, with him shaking his head at me as if to say what is that old codger doing down the front? There are a few more but my addled brain finds it difficult to recall them all.

In terms of the new, an early gig in 2005 was the NME Awards tour, arriving too late to see the Kaiser Chiefs I luckily was able to catch The Futureheads who to me, at least, in an admittedly small minority, blew Bloc Party and The Killers out of the water. Other highlights throughout the year included seeing Pete Doherty play a solo set supporting the Streets and realising behind all the hype is actually a good songwriter and performer (a duet of Dirty Old town with Shane McGowan was fantastic apart from a pick of Babyshambles and Libertines back catalogue), catching the heroic Elbow and Doves a few times and being in the same room to hear Anthonys voice which was something to behold. Whilst seeing the Pixies was a prime motivation for a trip to the Reading Festival catching the magnificent Arcade Fire was reason enough in itself. Seeing, ahem, VIPs knitting at the Astoria during the Subways was also most enlightening. Knitting is after all the new rock and roll. There were other trips here and there but hopefully this gives a flavour of my musical year, which put down in print actually seems quite busy and respectable. Future reviews will be more show focussed and more regular, alcohol intake permitting.

Over and out Continue reading →

Handouts, freebies and the delights of podcasts. January, the month of misplaced guilt, worthy resolutions and dark nights. I’ll be honest I’m no exception to this annual round of self flagellation and indoors imposed misery, but I don’t smoke or … Continue reading →

An ugly duckling matures gracefully Barely a month goes by without some rock journalist from Mojo or Uncut mentioning MBVs Loveless and saying that it is the best album of its era or genre, but hardly anybody ever mentions Isnt … Continue reading →

Queen – Killer Queen We start with the only decent Queen song, and it even has Moet & Chandon in the lyric. As a child the words in this song had me very confused between gelatine and gelignite; unless Freddie … Continue reading →

in the film Wild at Heart, but doesnt feature on the Wild at Heart soundtrack album!). The other tape was the Frank Black LP Frank Black from 93 containing a massive 15 tunes An absolute bargain!

Next to the Cancer Research shop in Moortown – Got 2 CD singles – The Sultans of Ping FC novelty hit Wheres me jumper for £0.75, The wonderful I want you by Inspiral Carpets (with Mark E Smith helping on vocals-ah) for £1.00 and a tape of Elvis Costellos Armed Forces for £0.30 that has a live version of Accidents will happen as an extra track.

With my last £1.45 I went along the parade to the Oxfam shop where I found another 2 CD singles Last stop this town by the Eels (featuring a Moog version of their hit Novocaine for the soul) and All the small things by Blink 182, both for £0.4947 pence change from a fiver I was very proud of myself!

Mark used his £5.00 on an LP he heard being played in the Headingley Oxfam shop (it has a large, dedicated music section). I loved the 1st track, then the 2nd was just as good and by the third I asked if I could buy it. Planet Funk Funky 45s features Aaron Collins and Lee Dorsey who Id heard of, and 10 other artists I hadnt (Freddy Scotts Orchestra, Wilbur Bascomb, The Dynamic Conceptsetc.). It instantly made us feel like we were in a Quentin Tarrantino film I felt obliged to offer them drugs whilst waving a gun around and swearing profusely.

Kul hadnt really grasped the concept and spent £5.00 at a charity shopon a new baby chair (he was about to have twins).

Martin (fairly new to parenthood) just hadnt had time to get to a charity shop so brought his vinyl collection round that hed recently recovered from his mums attic which he very kindly donated to my collection, as he hasnt had a record player in years. There were 30+ LPs that I didnt have including (for the 2nd time tonight) Inspiral Carpets Life and a brace of Monochrome Set LPs. There was also 40+ singles including 2 x 45s Id always wanted, Kinky Boots by Patrick MacNee + Honor Blackman and Stakker Humanoid by Humanoid What a result!

During the evening (I cant quite remember how) Marks love of the London Underground map came up, which got me to dig out the map with bands replacing station names and the lines being different musical genres a work of genius.

Mark and Kul are comic aficionados so I got out my latest purchase (The comics journal library, Volume 2: Frank Millar (2003) Fantagraphics Books, Seattle ) a fabulous book of interviews with Frank Millar heavily illustrated with his work. It was one of those books I was flicking through whilst having a coffee in Borders and just didnt have the heart to put it back on the shelf. Millars wonderful illustrations for Sin City lead onto a conversation about his film work. He gets a pencil in his head in the Daredevil movie, wrote Robocop2 not bad and Robocop3 a bloody awful film! We all agreed that the original Robocop movie was one of our top 10 films so we rounded off the night watching it Id buy that for a dollar! Continue reading →