We woke at 7:30 to clean the chalet, our minds and ourselves. Food and fuel was grabbed via the aforementioned Tescos. At was at this point that Rob became a granddad. Confused and agitated by the world, he explained that after I went to bed, he snaffled the remains of his pixie dust, ran off to the Crazy Horse and ended up in another Chalet where he wrote and recorded an off the cuff demo with some guys from Cornwall. He hadn't been to sleep at all and was still up. Very much up.
I whacked the CDs on again. Driving back was far worse than the drive down: a constant battle of heavy eye lids and Relentless Juiced Berry (seriously. endorsement.) The average speed cameras hit us harder this time. With so many roadworks along the stretches free of cameras, progress was slow and we all lost our minds to the cabin fever insanity. The pasta was now able to melt steel and fumes were probably intoxicating us off our collective faces. This required constant service stops so that we could find a large open space for screaming and bloodletting to keep us on the right side of crazed. If Rob had become the drug addled grandfather, Seymour was quickly becoming the child in need of tranquilisers. Powerful ones.
Saturday 12 December 2009
All Tomorrow's Parties 3/4
Sunday was day three and we took a much needed lie in until the afternoon, missing everything up a Place To Bury Strangers. We stayed for the first half of their set which was nothing but dull. We were later told the second half of their set was amazing, but why play half a set of boredom to slog through before the good stuff. Whatever. I'm not a fan, never have been so it's no loss to me.
As I said, we left the grey, non-event of A Place To Bury Strangers and retreated to the arcades for round two of our video game battles before we headed home once more to hang with the neighbors before múm.
Múm were grand in scale but far more open and euphoric than i was expecting. Theirs set was weighted with newer tracks that forgo the older, darker sounds. It made for a nice set, and probably fitted the sunday a bit better as a chill out/warm down from the night before. As with Sonic Youth, some of the crowd moaned about the set choice but it worked if you took it for what i was. Maybe if they'd been given a slot on the darker, noiser saturday we may have seen some of the more oppressive múm material. The band also had to regularly contend with sounds emanating from the arcades, something quite farcical for a festival on this scale.
As I said, we left the grey, non-event of A Place To Bury Strangers and retreated to the arcades for round two of our video game battles before we headed home once more to hang with the neighbors before múm.
Múm were grand in scale but far more open and euphoric than i was expecting. Theirs set was weighted with newer tracks that forgo the older, darker sounds. It made for a nice set, and probably fitted the sunday a bit better as a chill out/warm down from the night before. As with Sonic Youth, some of the crowd moaned about the set choice but it worked if you took it for what i was. Maybe if they'd been given a slot on the darker, noiser saturday we may have seen some of the more oppressive múm material. The band also had to regularly contend with sounds emanating from the arcades, something quite farcical for a festival on this scale.
All Tomorrow's Parties 2/4
Day two began with a hangover, front and vice. We managed, with herculean effort, to lift our leaden heads off our pillows and out the door for the weekends most bizarre spectacle: Sun Ra Arkestra. An amazing array of sparkly outfits and free form calamity jazz with truely interesting results, they had to be one of the highlights of the whole weekend for me. Some impromptu break neck speed charleston-esque dancing from one of the sax players, who could easily claim a pension or two, made for a jaw dropping visual metaphor to the impressive set. Afterward we sought out two friends who had also made the epic journey down from Leeds in search of some beautiful noises; mike and teresa. We once again sought out some food from one of the nearby vendors, this this time plumping for some Finnigan's fish and chips which were revolting. Soggy batter, dry fish, shit chips and expensive... you may be wondering what happened to the pasta, so did we! It wasn't going well for our epic tubs o' carbs and the concept of eating them was dropped on this, the saturday, due to the funky odors and worringly tangy/sour tastes arising from our plastic nosh mountains. With a poor excuse for fish and chips in my belly and other food options looking increasingly insane price wise we landed upon a heavy and fateful decision. Do we go to Tescos and buy some cheap grub or stay and try and enjoy the Horrors? I voted for the faceless corporate monster that wanted to assure me that "...every little helps!" ...they do cheap sandwiches.
Poverty and hunger beget principles.
Poverty and hunger beget principles.
All Tomorrow's Parties 1/4
After Leeds and Bestival, ATP was my third festival this year. We (Maz, Seymour, Rob and myself) decided to wait until only seconds remained before we had to get down to Minehead before pondering the transport question, by which point trains, planes and buses had become very very expensive. Instead, we lied to a hire car company about driver details, essentially age and identity, and we swanned off in a tidy seat ibiza packing in the kids (Rob and Seymour) and the luggage in the back and boot. It was day one, friday, and we had a road trip on our hands.
Food was going to be expensive and I, an inhabitants of studentdom, copied Rob's seemingly amazing idea of cooking a shit load of pasta and throwing it in the biggest tupperware container known to man. This helped, at least at first. Other amazing money saving options included two home burnt mix cd's from yours truely and Seymour's audio bargin hunting (£2 for Fucked Up's latest and £6 for the best of the buzzcocks, the second of which is, looking back, terrible value but back then, caffeine had already made us it's bitch). Fucked Up, a band that wrestled my head with arguments aplenty. I initially heard about them more for their name, political imagery play and extra-musical activities, mostly revolving around jail time. I admit, it was all wikipedia's fault and i was romanced, as i always am, by open source information-gasms. My first taste of Fucked Up live left a shitty taste in my mouth. At Leeds fest, i was massively disappointed. To my ears they bombed so hard that all i could hear was dresden circa '45. It's funny how opinions can be turned by an album listen of attrition forced by the overplay of all other options; my mix cd's that were now into their 4th listen or the dreaded buzzcocks cd which was terrible. The chemistry of common life became an oasis for my ears.
Food was going to be expensive and I, an inhabitants of studentdom, copied Rob's seemingly amazing idea of cooking a shit load of pasta and throwing it in the biggest tupperware container known to man. This helped, at least at first. Other amazing money saving options included two home burnt mix cd's from yours truely and Seymour's audio bargin hunting (£2 for Fucked Up's latest and £6 for the best of the buzzcocks, the second of which is, looking back, terrible value but back then, caffeine had already made us it's bitch). Fucked Up, a band that wrestled my head with arguments aplenty. I initially heard about them more for their name, political imagery play and extra-musical activities, mostly revolving around jail time. I admit, it was all wikipedia's fault and i was romanced, as i always am, by open source information-gasms. My first taste of Fucked Up live left a shitty taste in my mouth. At Leeds fest, i was massively disappointed. To my ears they bombed so hard that all i could hear was dresden circa '45. It's funny how opinions can be turned by an album listen of attrition forced by the overplay of all other options; my mix cd's that were now into their 4th listen or the dreaded buzzcocks cd which was terrible. The chemistry of common life became an oasis for my ears.
Saturday 31 October 2009
Madness? THIS IS...
...the aftermath of last thursday's john peel day?
A night of handing out perma-warm tins to the strange collection of cover bands, pastiche acts and various oddness purveyors (speckled with a couple of interesting bands and singer songwriters) assembled to raise some dollar for charidee and promote exciting new local music the late and legendary peel would be proud.
Sadly, the term "abject failure" springs to mind.
Rusty, prehistoric wanna-bands playing to a room of similar, mostly non-paying bandanna wearing people who came and went as quickly as a jack cable can be inserted and removed from a guitar. No crowd, no money for teh sick children. Peel would be getting some air doing the 900 in his grave. 900; a number which brings me onto act 2 of this car crash-tastic night.
A night of handing out perma-warm tins to the strange collection of cover bands, pastiche acts and various oddness purveyors (speckled with a couple of interesting bands and singer songwriters) assembled to raise some dollar for charidee and promote exciting new local music the late and legendary peel would be proud.
Sadly, the term "abject failure" springs to mind.
Rusty, prehistoric wanna-bands playing to a room of similar, mostly non-paying bandanna wearing people who came and went as quickly as a jack cable can be inserted and removed from a guitar. No crowd, no money for teh sick children. Peel would be getting some air doing the 900 in his grave. 900; a number which brings me onto act 2 of this car crash-tastic night.
Monday 12 October 2009
Another exciting weekend in Leeds
once again here i am throwing my efforts into kick starting the perpetually still-born offspring that is my blog.
this weekend, as with most, i was in leeds visiting maz and friends. we got off to a good start on the friday; a short but sweet trawl through a miniture mutated otely which ended up at the brude and then subculture for some much needed idioteque. not too shabby. happy birthday to gareth by the way and thank you for an epic excuse for such a knees up!
saturday rolled round as did an eventful day of food and frolics. we headed off to popinas for some breakfest. we'd originally set ourselves the challenge of getting down for food at 11am, ignoring the our heroics of the night before. we ended up getting down for 1ish only to find bryony (of maz's, soon to be renamed band, little bear fame) tucking in having waited for half an hour for us. we were, and still are, terrible, terrible people.
this weekend, as with most, i was in leeds visiting maz and friends. we got off to a good start on the friday; a short but sweet trawl through a miniture mutated otely which ended up at the brude and then subculture for some much needed idioteque. not too shabby. happy birthday to gareth by the way and thank you for an epic excuse for such a knees up!
saturday rolled round as did an eventful day of food and frolics. we headed off to popinas for some breakfest. we'd originally set ourselves the challenge of getting down for food at 11am, ignoring the our heroics of the night before. we ended up getting down for 1ish only to find bryony (of maz's, soon to be renamed band, little bear fame) tucking in having waited for half an hour for us. we were, and still are, terrible, terrible people.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Scarboro'geddon and the Scarborough music scene
the dust has settled.
on saturday i put on a 1pm till 1am all dayer headlined by pulled apart by horses who were brilliant. helsinki seven, mum locked in castle, cassini, lover octave, everyone an army, kitchen girls and missionary were all also excellent. the night didn't quite break even but we had a lot of fun putting it on and i hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
monday also saw the first of our new monday nights at quids inn. it went alright-ish. missionary pulled a fair crowd which my friends, leeds band antares, decimated. they weren't bad, far from it! quids inn just wasn't ready for it. cassini and olivine saved the day though and brought the masses back.
the antares set put a lot of things in perspective for me. the whole reason i wanted to start putting on gigs in scarborough was so that i could bring mental, exciting stuff to the town that may or may not be challenging at times. i was never in this purely for the sake a night which is, at the moment, what it feels like. every week we'll be barely managing to scrape a line up together and it's just a big incoherent mess. pretty harsh considering it was only our first gig and we did bring 130 people through the door, i know, but i'm sure i can put on something a bit wilder, a bit darker perhaps, in a more focussed space than a bar coated in mirror balls. i want sweaty rooms packed out with people all belonging to a scene or something approaching it. a night that people will come down to even if non of their mates are playing, purely for the music. i know it's a big ask but i don't feel like i can make it happen at quids with scarboro'geddon and it looks like i'm gonna have to walk the plank.
on saturday i put on a 1pm till 1am all dayer headlined by pulled apart by horses who were brilliant. helsinki seven, mum locked in castle, cassini, lover octave, everyone an army, kitchen girls and missionary were all also excellent. the night didn't quite break even but we had a lot of fun putting it on and i hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
monday also saw the first of our new monday nights at quids inn. it went alright-ish. missionary pulled a fair crowd which my friends, leeds band antares, decimated. they weren't bad, far from it! quids inn just wasn't ready for it. cassini and olivine saved the day though and brought the masses back.
the antares set put a lot of things in perspective for me. the whole reason i wanted to start putting on gigs in scarborough was so that i could bring mental, exciting stuff to the town that may or may not be challenging at times. i was never in this purely for the sake a night which is, at the moment, what it feels like. every week we'll be barely managing to scrape a line up together and it's just a big incoherent mess. pretty harsh considering it was only our first gig and we did bring 130 people through the door, i know, but i'm sure i can put on something a bit wilder, a bit darker perhaps, in a more focussed space than a bar coated in mirror balls. i want sweaty rooms packed out with people all belonging to a scene or something approaching it. a night that people will come down to even if non of their mates are playing, purely for the music. i know it's a big ask but i don't feel like i can make it happen at quids with scarboro'geddon and it looks like i'm gonna have to walk the plank.
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