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A hot sweaty night at the Brudenell saw Leeds finest Ukrainian folk band give a tour de force performance that you just couldn’t sit down to.

Maia

Support came from ‘Maia’ who may have looked like the cast of ‘The Big Bang’ but made a lovely sound. The vocals were just a bit too high pitched for a bit too long for my liking but certainly interesting!

UK

There was a group of young men at the front for The Ukrainians who were doing traditional dancing all the way through, the rest of us had to made do with bopping up and down in a more traditional fashion……it’s hard not to move when this lot are on – just a fabulous noise! They managed to squeeze in all the Smiths songs from their recently re-issued EP to boot. Go see them if you get the chance!

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Bob the Chiropodist

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Local music obsessive Tony put together a night of live music, to celebrate surviving another year, at the lovely New Roscoe. Local bands ‘Lost Souls’ and ‘Joyhause’ provided post punk covers with a healthy dose of Joy Division, PiL and Bahaus thrown in.

For me, the star of the night was Aziz who’s played with some big players in his past and tonight played an eastern tinged solo set of instrumentals and songs that looped around and lodged in your head. Some of his guitars had lights within the fret board but this chap doesn’t need gimmicks. He was lovely to chat to too!

Photos to come…….

Bob the Chiropodist

 

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This year Marisa joined me between finishing school and her GCSE’s and spending a month in Equador……when I was 16 I got my excitement by trying to sneak in pubs….

Arrived early on the Wednesday this year and by the time I went to work (4pm) the site was pretty much full! With not a lot else to do, most people drank…..and darank some more…….

Thursday

Mik Artistik's Ego Trip

Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip

We opened our festival week end at the Rabbit Hole with the wonderful Mik Artistik’s Ego trip introducing him to some of our gang for the first time. Before we went, although it was 3 years ago, Fog could remember all the songs he played last time he saw him. Mik went on to do 16 gigs over the week end – Glastonbury’s hardest working act!

isla

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Marisa and I got to see a band in the red pizza tent in the Green Futures field, but can’t remember their name…….sorry!

Friday

We wandered down to the Other stage on Friday morning to see who the ‘suprise’ TBA act was going to be. The rumour was that Liam Gallagher had been seen getting off a train in the area the day before and hey presto, Beady Eye get the ball rolling.

Beady Eye

Beady Eye

I’ve never been a massive Oasis fan (even though ‘Bonehead’ was in my year at St Peter’s school, Prestwich) but this performance was great. The band were really into it and the strutting featherless peacock that is Liam was entertaining to watch as he shadow boxed then leaned into the mike……. “You’ve been amazing – but not as good as us!”

The Hives

The Hives

We were going to go off and see ‘Teleman’ next – the band that rose from the ashes of ‘Pete and the Pirates’ but Fog (who’s rarely wrong) said that The Hives may pull off the performance of the wek end, so we stayed, and he was right! Lead singer ‘Howlin Pelle Almqvist’ is a God-damned marvel. Limitless energy and self belief “This is the first time in festival history that they got the artists the wrong way round and put the best on first!” – Hard to dissagree!

Who’s line is it Anyway?

Who’s line is it Anyway?

Marisa and I then went for a wander in the theatre field and amongst other things, joined a marching kazoo band…..the kazoo’s then came out at at various stages over the weekend to the delight/ disgust of people around us. We popped our heads into the big tent in the theatre field and the Steve Frost all stars were doing improv comedy in a ‘Who’s line is it anyway’ stylee. Phil Jupitus, Richard Vranch, and 3 others I recognised, but couldn’t tell you who they were, were very funny! We vowed to go back each day…..but didn’t manage it.

Jake Bugg

Jake Bugg

A friend of Marisa’s loves the band ‘Peace’ so we hiked over to the ‘John Peel’ Stage, past the Pyramid to see them, catching some of Jake Bugg’s set who pulled a huge crowd. I was wearing my bright orange ‘Neu!’ T-shirt with white writing and saw a guy walking in the opposire direction, wearing a white one with orange writing – we stopped, checked each other out and them had a big hug (krautrock style) before continuing our different paths. We then asked a steward for the quickest way to the Peel stage and he too commented on the shirt too “I remember them giving away a free Neu! LP with the NME many years ago…..it was rubbish but y’know….a free LP…wow!”

Peace

Peace

Peace did a good rocking indie set….but as the sun was out, I lay outside with my wellies and socks off and let Marisa have a bop on her own.

The Lumineers

The Lumineers

Back to our meeting spot at the Other Stage for another of Marisa’s choices, The Lumineers who played poppy songs with memorable choruses. They took some chairs out into the middle of the crowd to do a couple of songs which was a nice touch.

Tame Impala

Tame Impala

The gang met up for Tame Impala who I was really looking forward to, but they’re really a late night band and we were in the mood to PARRRRTY! so we ventured off to the West Holts Stage wher we saw the wonderful Tom Tom Club.

Tom Tom Club

Tom Tom Club

They had us dancing our socks off……

Dancing to Tom Tom Club

Dancing to Tom Tom Club

and doing ‘Psycho Killer’ as their last track got the thumbs up all round…..

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Marisa Bat and I then headed to the Arctic Monkeys via the theatre field……

Giant Bug Attack!!!

Giant Bug Attack!!!

….and a bar that was showing the BBC coverage of the festival on a huge screen (quite surreal really. The tables were blackboards so after a game of ‘make something out of a random squiggle’ we ventured back into the festival and caught Dizzee Rascal doing his last song ‘Bonkers’ on the Pyramid stage

Bonkers

Bonkers

We got infront of the mixing desk for the Arctic Monkeys and it was packed. They did a fantastic set that started with the heavy new track ‘Do I Wanna know?’ and was packed with hits including all the ones Marisa wanted them to play, ‘Dancing Shoes’ ‘I bet you look good on the dancefloor’ ‘Mardy Bum’ ‘When the sun goes down’. They were really tight with fantastic drumming right up in the mix

Arctics

The only worrying thing was people very close to us lighting flares whilst on others shoulders…..the parent in me kicked in thinking “If they set someone’s hair or coat on fire, the emergency services have got no chance of getting to them”.

Arctic Monkeys in Flares

Arctic Monkeys in Flares

During the encore, Alex got us all to sing happy birthday to his mum Penny who was in the mixing desk behind us loving it! After they’d finished we couldn’t move for a while which unnerved Bat somewhat “I’ve never been in a crowd like that before and I’m not sure I want to again!”. He was shattered so headed for bed whilst Marisa and I wandered down to the theatre field and had a sit down to watch life go by. A ‘Traveling freak show’ stopped infront of us and we saw the back of their show with the artists warming up.

Warming up

Warming up

We watched the end from the front and bumped into Mike and Fenella (who’d bopped to Nile Rogers) and Tal and Freya (who’d also done the Monkeys). We left them for the circus tent but to be honest, were starting to flag so walked back up the hill to bed.

From the front

From the front

Saturday

The Others

The Others

I wanted to catch Bridie Jackson who was on early in the Acoustic stage and on the way we heard a great racket coming from the Williams Green tent and happened upon The Others – a great little outfit who were perhaps a bit too raucous for 11.30am……perhaps not!

Bridie Jackson and the Arbour

Bridie Jackson and the Arbour

I first heard ‘Scarecrow’ by Newcastles Bridie Jackson & the Arbour on Mark Radcliffes folk show whilst driving. It was one of those times when you pull over to write down who it is. I bought the said track and their CD as soon as I got home. They’ve since been picked up by Dermot O’Leary who had them on recently and the same hand bells made great effect on their new single which they gave out for free afterwards. Bat joined us for a chilled out sit down session……lovely!

Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg

We next had a lie down in the sun listening to Billy Bragg who did a country set that included ‘You woke up my neighbourhood’ and Woody Guthrie’s ‘All you Fascists are bound to lose’. His ‘political’ banter between songs was a treat “Journalists always ask me why are there no political songs out there anymore, well it’s not the singers who make change it’s you, singers just write about what they see”.

Dance area from John Peel stage

Dance area from John Peel stage

We had a walk to the John Peel stage as there was another ‘TBA’ artist on….but we didn’t recognise them and didn’t fancy walking through the dance bit so skirted the top of the sight back to the West Holts stage for The Bombay Royale.

The Bombay Royale

The Bombay Royale

I first heard the Bombay Royale track on a ‘Songlines‘ CD and their mix of Bollywood and rock’n’roll had me in stitches. Live they were very entertaining with an inflatable elephant as a prop….

Devendra Banhart

Devendra Banhart

Since seeing ‘Searching for Sugarman‘ I’ve wanted to see Rodriguez so we headed towards the Park stage. On the way we walked past ‘Noah & the Whale’ doing ‘Five years time‘ and sat on the bank at the back of the Park whilst Devendra Banhart entertained the kids.

Unknown

On the way down the front for Rodriguez we saw this duo in the rabbit hole who were great, but have no idea who they are…..

Rodriguez

Rodriguez

Seeing Rodriguez was a little strange. He was lead on stage by his daughter looking very frail but once he started singing he seemed fine. Told jokes between songs and announced himself  as “A solid 70”. My main complaint was ‘why was he singing ‘standards’ with such a great catalogue to choose from?’. He then seemed to lose the plot a bit looking a little confused and strumming irratically. He was then told he could do 2 more songs and said “You know sometimes you feel like you’re on a leash”. His daughter came on to lead him off stage after only one song and he meekly followed……

We were going to stay and watch ‘Calexico’ but the crowd were very young and drunk and it didn’t feel particularly friendly with people jumping up on stage and challenging the bouncers……we moved on…

Tony Husbands Tshirt

Tony Husbands Tshirt

The main story of this years festival was that The Rolling Stones were headlining Saturday night. We played the drinking game ‘You have to take a swig everytime you see a Rolling Stones T-shirt” but as every 3rd T-shirt seemed to be one….we soon stopped. Mine for the day was by the lovely Tony Husband…..a very sweary man….

The Bootleg Beatles

The Bootleg Beatles

We watched the beginning of the Stones but as Marisa didn’t really know them and I have a ticket to see them in July at Hyde Park (and they were due to be on for 2.5hrs) we went to see The Bootleg Beatles instead who look and sound just like them & were terrific fun. When we arrived there were about a dozen people in there…. John: “They may have a bigger crowd than us, but we’ve aged better!” We danced our socks off to all their early hits which sounded so fresh and alive played live.

It was 20 years ago today...

It was 20 years ago today…

When they came on for the Pepper hits, Marisa suddenly flagged so I got a pint and we sat out back singing along. We then popped to the Cabaret tent (the warm up guy was great but the main act….hmmm.) before heading up the hill home. We caught the end of the Stones and their encore before hitting the sack

The Rolling Stones (honest)

The Rolling Stones (honest)

Sunday

Sunday for me was a work day (8am-4pm) so after that I arranged to meet the gang at our usual OtherStage spot for PiL. Saw a bit of Kenny Rogers on the way down and heard ‘The Congo’s’ but more of them later.

Public Image Limited

Public Image Limited

PiL did a storming set that included ‘Public Image’ ‘Death Disco’ ‘Rise’ and finished with Leftfields ‘Open Up’. We weren’t in quite our usual spot but Marisa found us “I knew it was you lot cos you were all dancing”.

Theatre field

I had loads of bands lined up for the next couple of hours (including ‘Everything Everything’ and ‘Public service broadcasting’) but a little stop in the Theatre field turned into an entertaining chill time, with those grannies on speeding shopping trollies terrorising the field!

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Marisa was drawing fairies on a balloon for Isla when 2 sugar plum fairies came by walking in a ballet stylee. They happily drew some more……

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Then got our Damien involved……

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Everything was just fun there…….

Coppers

…….then we went to the dark side with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at the Pyramid. Met up with Amber, Andy and Max (who had his 10th birthday this week-end).

Enjoying Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Enjoying Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

The seeds were just fantastic – powerful and menicing and compelling. ‘Deanna’ ‘Tupelo’, ‘From her to eternity’….Max loved Nick’s “Potty mouth!”. During ‘Stagger Lee’ he climbed onto the fence at the front of the crowd and seemed to hypnotise a young lass who was on a guys shoulders….. “Evil?” I hear you say…..could be…’Red right hand’ encore – ace!

Hollie Cook

Hollie Cook

We got to the Gully just in time to catch the end of the fab Hollie Cook’s set. She plays reggae just the way I like it, straight from the 70’s.

Dreadzone

Dreadzone

We saw out the rest of our night in the Gully with Dreadzone next….although Bat wasn’t keen…..the Kazoos came in handy for ‘Little Britain’…..Derrrr der de derrr de de derrr derr derrrr….

Little Britain with Kazoo's

Little Britain with Kazoo’s

Last on were the wonderful Congos….real 70’s reggae from one of the original real deals. Their Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry produced ‘Heart of the Congos’ is one of my favourite LPs and to be able to sing along with ‘La la bam bam’ and ‘Fisherman’ was just fab!

The Congos

The Congos

Hanging with the Congos

Hanging with the Congos

Marisa and I then left the others to dance til 4 at the silent disco whilst we wandered back, pausing to look one last time at the site of another glorious week end. Thank you Glastonbury xx

Goodbyeeeee

Goodbyeeeee

Bob the Chiropodist

 

 

ModernWorld Cover

After a few false starts, we managed to finally get the gang together for an evening of Modern themed music….modern marriage, modern schooling, modern methods of recording, modern languages, modern communication…..etc. were all covered. Funniest moment was the look on John M’s face when John F played an avant garde jazz tune……

This is the modern world – The Jam.  (John “predictable” Murray)
VCMG – wind up robot (Roger rocket Parker)
James Ferraro – Global Lunch (jrf)
Me and my beretta – Angel Corpus Christi  ( Bob – Modern school life)
The Now Generation – Public Service Broadcasting (Simon)
Googoosh – Talagh (Jez)
Radio 4 – PIL (John M of course….Very modern for 1978)
Feel the love – Rudimental feat John Newman (Roger THX1138)
Banque Allemande – schwarz vor Schwarzer Wand (jrf)
La Luna – plank!  (Bob – Modern languages)
Destiny – John Talabot (Simon)
Bored Housewife – Laugh laugh clap your hands (Jez)
Road runner – the Sex Pistols (John M – not the modern lovers…)
Exile Vilify – The National (00011011101)
Ornette Coleman – lonely woman (jrf)
The Neighbors – Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers (Bob)
You don’t know how lucky you are – Keaton Henson (Simon)
Adam Green – Choke on a Cock (Jez)
The modem song – looper (John fretless bass)
P45 Gorrilaz – Galen (Roger)
Glenn Gould – prelude and fugue no 1 by Bach (jrf)
Computer World – Kraftwerk (Bob)
Ms – Alt-J (Simon)
Frank Turner – The Real Damage (Jez)
Song to the Siren – James Yorkston  (John M)
Collider Jon Hopkins – frsggattfddfmnbga (Roger)
Robert wyatt – a beautiful peace (jrf)
Hands across the sea – Modern English (Bob)
Dead and Gone – Toy (Simon)
Modestep -Feeling Good (Jez)

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Quims cover

Posted in Meetings, News | 1 Comment

jeff Peter

It’s been a couple of years since we last saw The Jeffrey Lewis & Peter Stampfel Band at the Brudenell and along with the Wave Pictures ‘Franic’ there’s a couple of female band members now, who add a new dimension. The new CD ‘Hey Hey it’s…..’ was recorded in a week end earlier this month – perhaps the soonest I’ve ever perchased an album after it was recorded.

Misty

First up was the excellent ‘Misty’s Big Adventure’ – It was beautifully sunny outside but they were dressed for winter. “There’s usually 8 of us but tonight you’ve got 3” but you wouldn’t have known if they hadn’t’ve told us.  Some a capella songs like ‘Crumpled man’ happily slotted in amongst the rockier numbers like ‘Love has a beginning a middle and an end’, all sang with a sense of cheeky knowingness – I thought they were great!

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Had a quick chat with Peter Stampfel at the bar, such a nice guy. Jeffrey Lewis has been hanging out with him for a while now and obviously loves his company. He asks him questions about the old days between songs “So how much did you make out of the ‘Easy Rider’ soundtrack?” “Nothing” “You should go to Peter Fonda and ask for a thousand Bucks or something, he couldn’t say no!” “I’ll make a note of that and give it a try”. The band sang some songs from old 40’s commercials that Peter had been “singing in the van”. Jeff is off to do a gig with Daniel Johnston at the week end and they played ‘True love will find you in the end’ illustrated by Jeff (the other illustrated song was a hillariously X-rated tale………

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There was a lot of new stuff and some old favourites tonight. A new song about ‘Beatniks’ “I never met a beatnik in my life!” mentined that as well as Gauloise and berret’s they all have ‘Orgone boxes’ which led on to them doing a cover of everybodies favourite Hawkwind song (well, mine anyway) ‘Orgone Accumulator‘ with Misty’s sax player joining them for the madness. Got the CD at the end and had a chat to Drummer Heather who has a great tattoo of Paul Klee’s angel on her shoulder. They are all such nice people

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Bob the Chiropodist