A soggy wet Sunday morning meant an escape from the campsite to seek refuge in a dodgy city centre caff (the only thing open at 10:30am). But it gave us the chance to linger over breakfast and read the papers. The musical action re-started for me halfway through The Long Blondes’ set – actually with [...]
Saturday’s musical adventures started at the early hour of 2pm with Howling Bells in De Montford Hall. My prior knowledge of HB has been through some tracks off various blogs. I quite enjoyed their dark brooding rock which had a certain swagger and was perfect for the darker-than-usual interior of the Hall. The highlights came [...]
Friday’s music began at half six for us. But like I said, festivals aren’t just about running to see band after band. There was plenty hanging about, talking, eating, drinking and even shopping in Leicester to be done before heading to the main stage.
Richard Hawley’s set feels way too short. It feels like he’s just [...]
Well that’s it over for another year. I’m just back from the Summer Sundae festival in Leicester where I was with assorted friends and family (some of the gang are pictured above). It was all pretty good. No real major musical stand-outs like last year, but a lot of fine stuff seen and heard and [...]
Here’s a quick ‘n’ lazy post for you.
Lazy because probably every music blogger out there has got an email from ‘Jesus’ recently bearing mp3s from the new Dan the Automator album. But hey, I don’t post the email freebies I get very often (usually because I don’t like ‘em) and I’m not claiming to [...]
Fruitstock is surely the ultimate in what journo Miranda Sawyer recently called ‘restivals’. That is, “festivals tailor-made for the bourgeois festival-goer. You get good music, gorgeous surroundings and ‘relaxed’ people; but you also get proper toilets, decent food and comfy accommodation.”
Now as I get older, I can almost embrace that description as something positive. [...]
I’ve been listening to the new album from Various (aka Various Productions) a lot recently on my iPod and on my computer at home. But somehow I feel I’m missing out on an extra dimension of their music, because I remember back to earlier in the year when I first encountered the Various crew. [...]
I’ve been bit slow with these but better late than never. A couple of RIPs.
Firstly and most famously, Arthur Lee of Love. Laterally, since his release from prison in 2001, the rejuvenated Arthur was Love. I’m kinda wishing now I’d got to see him, as Forever Changes is a particular favourite of mine. Give me [...]
Other people’s drug stories are never that interesting. Especially if they involve magic mushrooms. “Yeah man, it was like this and it was great and this and that happened and…” by which time you have slunk off to get another drink / find someone better to talk to. But here’s young Mr Ali Love, straight [...]
Having experienced Gotan Project live before, it was with a real sense of anticipation that we hot-footed it from Clapham Common to Shepherds Bush for a dose of their brushed-up tango. Mind you, I must admit I haven’t got fully into their new album Lunatico properly yet. Maybe, like the last album La Revancha del [...]
