It must be at least a year since I posted here, does anyone still look? I'm not planning on posting here any more frequently but I have made a website for my fledgling new band which you can find here
Pros: Getting there early, sitting in the sun, drinking sangria and watching Absentee.
Cons: Queuing for an hour to get to the bar! By the time I had reached the front my order went from 2 beers to 6 to save requeueing. How difficult is it to open another beer tent or have someone selling cans, to add insult to injury they forced people to pour away their own booze outside.
Queues for toilets, and when you get to the front finding out the urinals are overflowing! They knew how many people were coming because it was ticketed, and people must have been producing a below average amount of urine anyway as no-one could get to the bar to drink.
Sound too quiet, I want Battles to hurt my ears not be gentle background music.
Dion losing his wallet, train ticket, festival ticket and money, I have not yet determined how this is directly attributable to the festival organisers.
If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there to hear it does it still make a sound?
The Lovely Brothers went some way to answering this age old philosophical question on Sunday when we played to an audience of about 8 people in Camden. It took us almost 3 hours to drive up from Brighton, with the help of our new TomTom which repeatedly asked us to do u-turns in the middle of central London; very useful. At least it diverted all arguments which normally took place between Annalise and I in these tense driving moments towards an automated voice called Jane.
In an attempt to drum up an audience before the gig, we got costumed up and Annalise led Mr Pump around the Dublin Castle bar (the venue part is at the back) whilst I tried to convince the public that they wanted to pay to come and see us, the only real response I got was when a girl asked me if Mr Pump and Annalise were getting married. A slightly bewildering question given our attire that I can only imagine was prompted by the way she was holding his hand leading him along (Mr Pump is essentially blind). Anyway the gig was fun to play but a bit of a waste of time really.
Got back on Sunday from a week in sunny Barcelona. The first few days were spent in a very swanky hotel we managed to get for cheap on the internet. It seemed posher than I really deserve, with a swimming pool on the roof (which was effectively our own private pool due to no one else really using it) and a widescreen telly in our room with free films, although Annalise outlawed the viewing of the free porn, what a waste! Spent a lot of time walking around the city, and taking in the envitable Gaudi sights. The Sagrada Familia was a bit disappointing this time around as you couldn't climb to the top, you had to take a lift and we couldn't walk between the towers, still impressive though.
For the remainder of the week we had an apartment and were joined by Claire and her two friends Gareth and John. What luck that our apartment was positioned next to an excellent sword shop. Unfortunately no-one accepted my offer of going halves on the reproduction sword from the film 'Blade', a snip at 350E.
Prima Vera festival was lots of fun, a lot of the bands that played at ATP were also here but that was no bad thing. Highlights included Sonic Youth playing Day Dream Nation in its entirety, Maximo Park and The Fall. I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the Smashing Pumpkins.
Last weekend was another ATP, my third one. The venue has moved to Minehead, it's probably twice the size as it was when it was at Camber Sands but it's bloody miles away! The chalets are certainly much nicer though. This has to be the politest festival I've ever been too, everyone is so meek and indy. Highlights included Shellac (so good I saw them twice), Les Savy Fav (exciting but not loud enough for my liking), Battles (guitars+laptops) The Notwist (is this pronounced NO-TWIST or NOT-WIST? Could someone let me know), and carrying Annalise in my arms whilst running and singing 'Holding out for a Hero' by Bonnie Tyler after she twisted her ankle. I thought this was a beautiful moment but she had no recollection of it in the morning.
I'd had this for ages but never really wanted to watch it, not due to any latent homophobia just because I thought it was going to be really boring. I was pleasantly surprised. It's incredibly beautiful and although the 2 leads are selfish, aggressive, self-destructive and generally not very likeable I still sympathised with them, and the fact that the affair between them basically rendered them unable to have any other form of life.
Devil's Backbone
By the director of Pan's Labyrinth. Pretty similar in tone and set at the same time, the Spanish Civil war. Set in a boys orphanage (or orphanarium if you prefer), which is haunted by the ghost of a small boy. I really enjoyed this, like Pan's Labyrinth the 'reality' part of the film is strong and not simply a bookend for the fantasy or in this case horror.
LoudQuietLoud
A documentary about the Pixies reforming in 2004. Pretty interesting if you're a Pixies fan. It all starts off well and I was surprised how well everyone seemed to get on. Things take a tragic turn for the worst when Dave Lovering, the drummer who has since given up drumming and turned to metal detection and magic, loses his Dad to cancer. He attempts to distract himself with copious amounts of valium and booze and buying an ipod. Kim Deal still seems to find it surprising how adored she is by young and insecure indy girls!
