the sky over london at sunset

These photos were taken on an iPhone in Greenwich Park.

Chew Lips Autumn residency at Catch

Chew Lips are a really great band. They perform really funky, syncopated, stripped down electropop soul. I got lucky enough to turn up late to my job working on the fancy dress tent at Bestival, and saw them up real close:

They've got a residency at Catch, a real intimate bar on Kingsland Road.

Dates are: Oct 6th / Nov 3rd / Dec 1st and it's FREE, so I strongly advise that anyone who reads this blog (...) should get down to it.

graduating

Instead of doing the whole normal graduation malarkey, I headed to Melt festival, leaving my return tickets in the hands of someone who turns out to be a compulsive liar. Who promises free plane tickets to people she barely knows?! The luck of the draw had it that I ended up returning from Melt to Manchester via Liverpool, then the next day I went down to Exeter via London. Two days later I found myself in Guildford, about to go to Dorset for Camp Bestival, the most hectic kids' event I've ever attended.

This could explain a hiatus in blogging.

Here are the bands I've seen, with a rating, and one anecdote attached to what happened whilst watching. Just keeping it nice and simple.

Phoenix ***** During Phoenix at Melt I tried to have a snooze on my knees. At Camp Bestival I jumped around and realised I recognised all of their songs. And the band has a million members.

Erol Alkan **** Better at Melt than at Camp Bestival due to seeming sound restrictions. He's also adored by many youths who keep on asking to drink your booze. As if 'just a sip' will get them laid.

Boys Noize ***** Superb, although, at Camp Bestival, was replaced halfway through by a large crowd of youths, including one girl who kept on staring me and the guyrls out as we flicked them the v-fingers..if anyone can tell me who the fuck they were I'd appreciate it.
(all at Camp Bestival and Melt)

Aphex Twin **** lots of flashy lights and bassline

Royksopp ***** Catchy songs, I spent a lot of this time swirling around in the crowd.

Fever Ray **** The light show was magnificent, the songs a bit Bjorky

Digitalism *** Missed them a bit, but sounded wicked.

Klaxons ** Missed them a bit, sounded fat.

Rex the Dog **** Amaaaazing sounds.

Diplo ***** Horrendously good, the best booty girl visuals I have ever seen. Sound quality was perfect.

Drop the Lime *** yeaaha. Can't remember.

La Roux ***** Her voice has improved and she dances around splendidly.

Oasis ** they could've made use of the epic arena a bit more, but apparently they don't want to be Simple Minds. Why the fuck not?!

Passion Pit **** yeaaaah

Boy 8-Bit **** so beardy

Simian Mobile Disco *** wonderful if i hadn't had needed to sleep on my friend Dom's shoulder during the set, only for all the Indian girls from Britain at Melt to have a go at him for humping them. By accident.

PJ Harvey ***** Beautiful. This is Love would've been amazing, but as far as solo sets go, brilliant.

Bon Iver *** really good but kind of depress sometimes.

Florence and the Machine ***** brrrrirrirlrrlrriant

Laura Marling *** lovely, but snorey.

Annie Mac ** yeaaaah. boresey, until we left the tent and from a great distance heard Caspa's remix of Deadmau5 I Remember. Urghg. I prefer her on Twitter. how weird.

Imelda May *** Didn't see much but looked great.

Skream and Benga - didn't actually see them, met them. They were off their chops and had clearly been fighting.

Mumford and Sons **** shoegazey and epic.

Chase and Status ** kept on being distracted from the pounding drum n bass by 15 year olds wanting me to pick their braces.

Golden Silvers **** very good, like a psychedelic Strokes.

I like music.

Coltman's party in Ealing

Sneaking into a Madonna gig.

After Michael Jackson died, and I finished studying at university, I decided I needed a new direction in my life. I realised that as upset as I was at Michael Jackson's passing, I'd be in floods of tears when Madonna goes. I decided that, whatever I do with my degree, or my life in general, I must always have the means to see a Madonna concert. I know that with her yoga and smoothie lifestyle she's going to last a while, so I thought it would be a long term project of mine to always have enough money in the bank to afford a Madonna ticket.



Until my lodger told me about being sent a few extra tickets. The whole thing is a little dodgy, but I ended up seeing Madonna. Just about. The o2 is the most hideously large venue with a soundsystem which leaves a lot to the imagination, unlike some of Madonna's dancemoves. However, she is a living legend. A lot of her old songs were spliced with new production, with nifty little touches here and there. Frozen was sung over the Deadmau5 remix of Calvin Harris' I'm Not Alone. Holiday had bits of Everybody playing in the mix. Paul Oakenfold was onstage throughout and the whole thing was live. Her voice has deepened a lot since the early years, therefore Papa Don't Preach was out of the question. Human Nature and He Must Love Me were amazing, as were all of the newer songs.


The Spanish interlude was a bit trashy, with all the intentions of being classy disrupted by the audience clapping fat-handedly and out of time. The montage of all the Romany children's suffering around the world was also a bit righteous. I'm not sure how far Madonna's charity work extends, but it was interesting to see an act who vibes off of general humanitarian crises to get an emotional response from the audience.

Michael Jackson was someone who did this exact same thing, and I don't think it's a massive problem, as it does draw attention to the issues, but gazing around the audience, I realised that a lot of Madonna fans are stupid twats. Showing starving children on a big screen won't line anyone but Madonna's pockets. Luckily, she does decide to donate a fraction of her millions to charity work.


The whole thing was a bit of a blur but I'm very pleased to have gone. Now I must make a new mission for life and achieve it within the next week.

Frankie Knuckles and Esser Chuckles

Frankie Knuckles has helped me over the past couple of days to get some work done.

I also impromptu left the library to get to the Cavern to see ESSER.

I had a chat with him afters. Being a bit obnoxious my friend had called him Rufio and then I'd stolen his roadie's jumper. Here's my exclusive post-Cavern interview with the band.

Esser's band: Oh god, we thought you were Adam

Me: No, it's me.

(Adam shows up)

Adam: Watch out for the rich tea biscuits

Me, answering the rich tea biscuits: Hello? Oh, oh it's for you. (passes biscuits to Adam)

Adam: Oh hello?

Me: So guys are you all absolutely fucked? You look fucked when you perform, which is nice.

Esser: Yeah, we're fucking wasted.

(Soundguy starts to take photos of me on his blackberry)

Esser: Do you have a spare cigarette?

Me: You can have THIS one, Rufio.

Esser: Me? Really? Thankyou so much. Why did you call me Rufio?

Me: I just do not know. Are you on twitter?

Esser: Oh yes.

Me: I'll twat you.

Bandmates: We've got to go now, are you coming or going?

Me: Oh goodbye.

The music is a bit like Lily Allen for boys. I liked it.

Fuzzlewuzzlers.

So I DJ within a collective called Bangers+Tash. We used to play in a small venue in Exeter. It was fun, we got a good few nights in but there were drawbacks. Bangers+Tash is now associated with fuel4life, a much bigger electro-hiphop-house night at a much swankier club. Last night was its launch and it was mesmerising. This is the facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=55550438011&ref=ts

I should be playing some funk, soul and hip electro next week. We're also playing lots of other events around campus, including the only student gay night in Exeter and charity events, including the RAG Fashion Show. AND houseparties!

Which is nice.