Rock and roll irregular verb:
I'm in the music business
You're a blagger
He's a ligger
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Pictures from Monsters of Rock
A choice selection. Standard, from the pit pics. Atmospheric local colour to follow.
Enjoy and let me know what ya think!
Cheers :)
A choice selection. Standard, from the pit pics. Atmospheric local colour to follow.
Enjoy and let me know what ya think!
Cheers :)
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Monsters of Rock 2006
Well that was a curate's egg. Arriving what I though was stupidly
early, Roadstar (Hurricane Party) and Ted Nugent had already been
and gone. Then Queensryche, Thunder, Journey and Alice Cooper
all stomped through thoroughly competent, crowd-pleasing sets,
albeit translating "MoR" as "middle of the Road". Daniel,
you'd have loved it.
Ah, the crowd.
The MK Bowl happily hold 50-60 thousand. Something went badly wrong
with this one. Was it having Download next week the problem? Or that it
clashed with an important 6-0 victory in the football, the Espom
derby, the cricket and an unseasonably for June, lovely sunny day?
At a rough guess, and using rammed sports halls in Germany as a
comparison, I'd say there were no more than 15-20 thousand people
there and a goodly proportion of those were up on the bowl enjoying
the sun, so getting close to the front wasn't exactly difficult.
As for Purple: immaculate and professional as usual. Yes, Gillan was
straining for some of the notes and yes, it was a crowd-pleasing festival
set list, but there were enough quirks to keep it interesting.
Oh, and the sound, at least within the caravan-circle of burger vans
in the main area, was the best I've ever heard in that size of field.
The lack of delay towers made it a bit subject to wind direction up on
the outer banks, but hey, what do you expect! And it was nice to hear Don
cutting through for once.
On the macro-economic level, I think there's a fundamental shift in the
economics of touring going on in the UK. There are so many bands now
catering to every corner of music, and kids are able to get up close
to their favourite bands in a local club for a fiver. So it takes Road
Runner to put ALL their bands on three stages at the same time plus a
few gnarly headliners to pack >100,000 into a muddy field in the
Midlands. Blame Myspace for democratising music?
Pics to follow, dunno how they'll turn out: new lens :)
Well that was a curate's egg. Arriving what I though was stupidly
early, Roadstar (Hurricane Party) and Ted Nugent had already been
and gone. Then Queensryche, Thunder, Journey and Alice Cooper
all stomped through thoroughly competent, crowd-pleasing sets,
albeit translating "MoR" as "middle of the Road". Daniel,
you'd have loved it.
Ah, the crowd.
The MK Bowl happily hold 50-60 thousand. Something went badly wrong
with this one. Was it having Download next week the problem? Or that it
clashed with an important 6-0 victory in the football, the Espom
derby, the cricket and an unseasonably for June, lovely sunny day?
At a rough guess, and using rammed sports halls in Germany as a
comparison, I'd say there were no more than 15-20 thousand people
there and a goodly proportion of those were up on the bowl enjoying
the sun, so getting close to the front wasn't exactly difficult.
As for Purple: immaculate and professional as usual. Yes, Gillan was
straining for some of the notes and yes, it was a crowd-pleasing festival
set list, but there were enough quirks to keep it interesting.
Oh, and the sound, at least within the caravan-circle of burger vans
in the main area, was the best I've ever heard in that size of field.
The lack of delay towers made it a bit subject to wind direction up on
the outer banks, but hey, what do you expect! And it was nice to hear Don
cutting through for once.
On the macro-economic level, I think there's a fundamental shift in the
economics of touring going on in the UK. There are so many bands now
catering to every corner of music, and kids are able to get up close
to their favourite bands in a local club for a fiver. So it takes Road
Runner to put ALL their bands on three stages at the same time plus a
few gnarly headliners to pack >100,000 into a muddy field in the
Midlands. Blame Myspace for democratising music?
Pics to follow, dunno how they'll turn out: new lens :)
Monday, May 29, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Weird iBook problem
Grace's iBook just had a spazz with most things, Finder included, not working. It looks like something got corrupted in an update. Looking in the crashdump led me to rsync this directory:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/
from my Powerbook. And all is good again.
Very, very weird though.
Grace's iBook just had a spazz with most things, Finder included, not working. It looks like something got corrupted in an update. Looking in the crashdump led me to rsync this directory:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/
from my Powerbook. And all is good again.
Very, very weird though.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
I am SO tired. Three gigs in two nights and a LONG day in London doing the other stuff.
Blackbud did the Fleece justice (sorry I missed Clumsy! Argh!) on Monday with the Francos in able support.
Tuesday kicked off with the Cuban 'Eels on an all-Bristle show up at the Anson Rooms followed by the overnight success that will have been (huh?) Fortune Drive (who I first saw being supported by Clumsy, so closing the circle!)
Not putting the others down as they all put on great shows, but it was fantastic to see FD clearly pumped by their first gig in a while and with two LA showcases in the offing turn up their usual high enery levels to near-11 levels.
Oh, I've got some nice pics from Mon and Tues. Russ Cuban is definitely babe of the week though!
Eight more gigs 'till Monsters of ROCK!
Blackbud did the Fleece justice (sorry I missed Clumsy! Argh!) on Monday with the Francos in able support.
Tuesday kicked off with the Cuban 'Eels on an all-Bristle show up at the Anson Rooms followed by the overnight success that will have been (huh?) Fortune Drive (who I first saw being supported by Clumsy, so closing the circle!)
Not putting the others down as they all put on great shows, but it was fantastic to see FD clearly pumped by their first gig in a while and with two LA showcases in the offing turn up their usual high enery levels to near-11 levels.
Oh, I've got some nice pics from Mon and Tues. Russ Cuban is definitely babe of the week though!
Eight more gigs 'till Monsters of ROCK!
Friday, April 07, 2006
Banging music of the day
Check Nomo. Absolutely brilliant Jazzy Afro beat kinda thing. Found whilst trolling through one gigabyte of SXSW sampler!
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
1000 free songs for your iPod?
This year's SXSW conference has made a huge amount of music freely downloadable.
Share and enjoy!
This year's SXSW conference has made a huge amount of music freely downloadable.
Share and enjoy!
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Art statements, Pitchfork, and fancypants analysis
This amused me. Since "becoming a photographer" I've been extremely wary of trying to elevate what I do to the level of "art". Sure there's the learning of the craft of lighting, all the nooks and crannies of the settings on the camera and all the post-shoot stuff and working with the subject. But is it art? Not my problem! I'll do the work to the best of my ability but it's up to someone else to elevate it.
I take my cue from Jean-Loup Sieff: do it for the love of it. Everything else follows.
This amused me. Since "becoming a photographer" I've been extremely wary of trying to elevate what I do to the level of "art". Sure there's the learning of the craft of lighting, all the nooks and crannies of the settings on the camera and all the post-shoot stuff and working with the subject. But is it art? Not my problem! I'll do the work to the best of my ability but it's up to someone else to elevate it.
I take my cue from Jean-Loup Sieff: do it for the love of it. Everything else follows.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Gingered Spam salad?
Interesting. The google ad on my gmail spam page:
http://www.recipesource.com/main-dishes/meat/pork/spam/gingered-salad1.html
Interesting. The google ad on my gmail spam page:
http://www.recipesource.com/main-dishes/meat/pork/spam/gingered-salad1.html
Thursday, January 19, 2006
It's The Wrong Bradford, Gromit!
My train pain this evening paled into comparison with the poor lady sitting at Bradford-on-Avon train station. Having arrived at Waterloo Eurostar terminal from Guadeloupe via Paris and asked for "the train to Bradford", she was put on the train to a Bradford, just not the Bradford. Worse still, she was then told to go to Bristol where via the legendary Virgin Cross Country and a couple of dodgy changes in Manchester, she might just have reached Bradford at half past midnight. A few clicks on the Nation Rail website demonstrated that going from Bath to London then from Kings Cross northwards would have been quicker and with better fallbacks if there were delays.
I hope she complains and gets both a grovelling apology and compensation.
My train pain this evening paled into comparison with the poor lady sitting at Bradford-on-Avon train station. Having arrived at Waterloo Eurostar terminal from Guadeloupe via Paris and asked for "the train to Bradford", she was put on the train to a Bradford, just not the Bradford. Worse still, she was then told to go to Bristol where via the legendary Virgin Cross Country and a couple of dodgy changes in Manchester, she might just have reached Bradford at half past midnight. A few clicks on the Nation Rail website demonstrated that going from Bath to London then from Kings Cross northwards would have been quicker and with better fallbacks if there were delays.
I hope she complains and gets both a grovelling apology and compensation.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
To the lovely young lady currently doing "email marketing" but wanting to be an epidemiologist, who I met on the Central line tonight, heading West, with the tray of mince pies (which she shared freely) on her way to another pub quiz, the word I was trying to think of was "Bioinformatics".
This was a public surreality message.
This was a public surreality message.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Grand Rose Band at Dirty South, Lewisham.
I've seen these guys a couple of times and have a few of their tracks on my iPod and they Rock! It was the most bizarre gig in the back of a pub, but it's the pub where Kate Bush once served, so that's all right then!
I've seen these guys a couple of times and have a few of their tracks on my iPod and they Rock! It was the most bizarre gig in the back of a pub, but it's the pub where Kate Bush once served, so that's all right then!
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