'I spy' - Highlight of Reading 2007

A lad I know who did the weekend at Reading remains unshaven and still has the armband tightly clamped round his wrist. I'm not sure if he realises that it's all over yet. He can occasionally be heard mumbling something about how lucky they were with the weather, but he's definately still dancin' inside. Below is my highlight of what I heard on the TV coverage, Get cape, Wear cape, Fly performing a classic festival audience sing-a-long moment, the sort that makes you impatient for summer when you listen to it in January. Local lads The Enemy also played another electric show.

MP3: I spy - Get cape, Wear cape, fly (live Reading 2007)

Air Ambulance Festival photographs

Photography by Chris Johnson from the event can be found here

Away from Here - The Enemy (Godiva Festival 2007)

Celebrating Coventry Weekend

click image for readable program

Reading and Leeds weekend is here, at which local lads The Enemy are playing. and it looks like it’ll be bathed in sunshine unlike Vfestival last weekend. Last night, I met up with a friend who was at VStafford and he said despite the rain he had enjoyed the weekend his highlight being Mark Ronson’s set, he described it in full detail, non of which I can remember. He did mention some heavy handedness by the police a sentiment which was echoed by someone else I talked to who was there, he said the festival was ‘a bit on top’, I will find out exactly what he means when he returns from Skegness were he has been holed up recovering from last weekend.

Local fun this weekend includes various theatre, dance and music taking place arcoss the city centre under the banner of Celebrating Coventry Weekend. I hope it goes well, my wife has been down town this evening and said the music had already started. Sunday will see local artists and bands, signed and unsigned, playing in the Upper Precinct between 12:00 & 3:00pm which will be kicked off by Olivia Broadfield who we rate highly and we once saw perform with SumladfromCov at The Maudsley, she has now adobted a more electronica sound since those acoustic days, you can find out for yourselves on her myspace page where you can have a listen. Thats my tip for the day.

A bunch of us have also managed to grab a couple of tickets to see Hard-Fi at The Coliseum in Coventry on Sep 7th, so we are looking forward to that the last time we saw them was at The Brixton Academy last year and with a hotel and The Mega Bus this time it'll be less of a journey.

Stonehenge photographed August 2007

Photograph by K.Tomlin

V2007 (without the rain)

Well I 've just watched Channel 4s afternoon coverage of yesterdays Chelmsford Vfestival and whilst annoyingly short it was quite a treat. The show contained performances by The Kooks, Snowpatrol, Just Jack, The Hoosiers, The Editors, Paolo Nutini, Pink (??? - main stage), Kanye West and the Foo Fighters. Despite the weather it looked like a day of music worth experiencing. It looked like the festival goers may have had some dry periods today, although, it is, at the moment, pissing it down in Coventry. Anyway here is, in my opinion, the best track from the coverage I have seen so far, a grand performance by what sounds on occaission like the 
Scottish Bob Marley - Paolo Nutini. A track from his 2006 album 
These Streets.

And yes, I would rather be there, than watching it on tele.

Text from V2007 - Stafford:
Just seen him mate (Paolo Nutini) very good. Killers were good last night. Pished it down all weekend.

MP3: Paolo Nutini - Jenny don't be hasty (live V2007)

Its Vfestival weekend

Sadly I am not present at this years festival. As for many festivals this summer it looks like the revellers that are attending are going to have to contend with at least some rain. This includes several close friends who are either camping or have day tickets. The coverage on tele isn't as comprehensive as it was for Glastonbury but there is some coverage on E4.

Kenilworth town centre earlier this week

BBQ review 2



Last weekend we managed to have another BBQ and we roadtested another disposable BBQ. This time is was a Supagrill Instant barbecue (spelt this way), which was bought at our local shop. As with the Sainsbury's one this came with legs in the form of a wire stand. It lit easily and got to temperature better than the Sainsburys one and featured vents in the foil container to aid air circulation. It didn't come with a lighting 'stick' as the Sainsburys one did but this BBQ performed and cooked better (although the veggy burgers I chose to cook turned out to taste like shite). So enroute to becoming a disposable BBQ connoisseur I have now discovered that I can buy a better disposable BBQ closer to home and help support the local economy without going all the way to a Sainsbury's, who were out gunned here by a specialist manufacturer. I have a Morrisons one to test but looking out the window I don't think that will be this weekend. More later.

Neon Neon

I only heard this for the first time today and I love it, definately track of the week. Neon Neon is another project between Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and Boom Bip . Trick for Treat was released on 25th June 2007. I can't wait to hear the album, which also features Spank Rock, Yo Majesty and Fat Lip. (ref)

MP3: Trick for Treat - Neon Neon

reference for origin of mp3 | purchase track

Tony Wilson dies

Tony Wilson who formed Factory Records has died of kidney cancer aged 57. He started off his career on TV as a news reader on Granada Reports and also presented So It Goes which gave The Sex Pistols their television debut, but he will be best known for his influence on popular music and culture throughout the 1980’s .
Factory Records, formed with Alan Erasmus in 1978, had many well known artists and acts on their label including Joy Division, New Order, OMD and The Happy Mondays. Factory Records and New Order also opened The Haçienda (FAC51) nightclub in 1982 which became a legend with the ‘rave-ecstacy’ generation in the late eighties.

RIP

Air Ambulance Music Festival - Coventry

The Old Bull & Butcher Ryton-on-Dunsmore

Covscene

Further information

Mid week blast from the past

A past classic from Carter USM. Their 7th single taken from the groups 1992 The Love Album.
Carter are reforming later this year for two shows at the Brixton Academy (Sold Out) & Glasgow Barrowlands.
You can download Glam Rock Cops from their myspace page and also listen to other tunes including Sheriff Fatman which is another bloody classic too.


MP3: The only living boy in New-Cross

Goodnight Irene

I've had this track for some years and somewhere along the way it got lost or formatted or was involved in some computer related disaster. Anyway whilst searching a rather knackered looking CD I rediscovered it. Finding it was like finding an old friend. Its Mike Seeds cover of Goodnight Irene a track originally realeased in the 40's by Lead Belly but has been covered by many others including Johnny Cash. I reckon this version blows the others out the water. The track now appears on his 2005 album Songs For The Wintering Show Troupe. Its a feel bad to feel good record and dispite the rather despairing lyrics it always leaves me chuckling.

Mike Seed peddles a unique brand of experimental folk, and it can be sampled on his SVC records page where other tracks from his solo albums are available to download free. You can also buy them for 3 quid which isn't bad is it.

MP3: Goodnight Irene

I also discovered that the Spoilt Victorian Child MP3 blog is back and I was well pleased with my days discoveries.

Notes from a small island

OK, well this week I have read Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. It’s a travelogue of a tour of the British mainland, mainly on public transport, which he undertook before moving back to the US with his family. It’s a descriptive, funny and informative book and makes you realise how much of Britain you miss whilst zipping up a motorway at 70mph. It seemed odd that an American should be teaching me so many intriguing facts and statistics about Britain that I didn’t know. You really get a feel for Bryson’s character from reading this book, especially his interaction with the characters he met on route. The book was originally published in 1995 and reading it now already felt like reading about a by-gone age.
He didn't visit Coventry on his tour, or perhaps more surprisingly Birmingham, though I do seem to remember a fleeting mention of Hinckley.

Always Outsiders, Never Outdone

Musicremixed are giving away, for free, an MP3 album called "Always, Outsiders, Never, Outdone" a collaborative remix of The Prodigy's album "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned" . It may have been available a while but it only came to my attention today.

Download it here: Always Outsiders, Never Outdone (MP3 page)

Other Musicremixed projects here: http://www.musicremixed.org/