So, the Eavis’ have at long last secured U2 for Glastonbury Festival 2010.  A great achievement, of course, considering the sort of money Glastonbury doesn’t pay performers, in comparision to what bands like U2 and Springsteen would normally expect. Whether you like the decision, respect it or think it’s an absolute travesty, there is a slightly more concerning thing to note. Year after year we see the UK music festivals (and, in fact, those worldwide) clamouring after the same set of ageing bands. And pretty soon this is going to run out…let’s face it, the crowds probably won’t get bored but the performers sure will and whether they deny it or not, these bands will retire back to their mansions in LA to live out their days in peace.

But where does that leave us? OK, so there’s an argument to say this generation has producer a few headliner size bands, Kings of Leon, for example, who proved last year at the Reading Festival that stage presence isn’t really their ‘thing’ and apparently, The Killers. Enough said. But compared to the undeniable legends that have existed in the past, our pickings are slim.  Don’t get me wrong, we have a mass of bands capable of owning the Other Stage, or other similar sized slots, but the state of the music industry is dictating that perhaps it might be time to start moving on from this traditional notion of ‘the headliner’: unless you genuinely believe we can spend the next 40 years watching Thom Yorke and Matt Bellamy age, not necessarily gracefully, year on year.

In recent surveys, its been proven that although the headliners are still considered important, they are not the most important factor when deciding which festivals to go to. Then, in comes that lovely, indefinable, key word: ‘atmosphere.’  This obviously isn’t a new concept: everyone’s been harping on about the ‘Glastonbury spirit, man’ for years.  However, what is new is the concept that it might entirely replace the role of these household name bands that, until now, have had the status of Gods. With the download culture and record industry in catasrophic decline, the only superstars that are being created are those of the pop world, of the reality TV breed. Rock superstars aren’t necessary anymore…we don’t need to unite in the love of these stars, because now we have the freedom of choice to truly embrace the things we actually love and not just those that it is cool to like. As subcultures become the core of culture in general, it becomes harder and harder to book bands that aren’t going to cause backlash because people are becoming so much more idosyncratic in their consumption of music. You like hardcore, electro, gothic-metal trance? Thats fine. In fact, you’re probably less likely to be sneered at than somebody who, god forbid, openly admits to liking Coldplay’s latest album. Without these rock superstars, the sense of hysteria diminishes (it’d be easy to start a whole extra point about blogging and the internet and celebrity culture there…but I’ll spare you…) and therefore, headliners no longer thrive, as the buzz of excitement that used to surround their performances no longer exists.

So while we debate whether we can tolerate the general irritation that is Bono long enough to witness 80,000 singing ‘One’ by the Pyramid, a moment that will, undoubtedly, be ‘classic Glastonbury,’ maybe we should stop whinging about the bookings that festival organisers are practically bankrupting their festivals to secure and instead focus on everything else that the festivals have to offer. Who knows what this could mean for festivals such as Reading and Leeds, who have little else to offer bar the line-up. The days of the headliner are numbered, mark my words.

If you hadn’t already checked Pitchfork or NME today then you’ll be blissfully unaware that U2 are headlining next year’s Glastonbury festival. I’m going to make it known early on in this piece that I fucking hate U2. I have nothing positive to say about them at all. They don’t evoke any emotion in me at all other than the desire to take a sledgehammer to my stereo. Admittedly it is mainly Bono himself who annoys me; sneakily walking between the shadows of God and Bob Geldof, poking his head out whenever there’s a disaster or an appeal he hasn’t yet lent his name to.

There’s that old joke isn’t there:

What’s the difference between Bono and God?

God doesn’t strut around thinking he’s Bono.

And it’s true, Bono does think he’s above everyone else – a higher being as it were. U2 are definitely not one of the band’s who you could see hanging out with, they’re the band who would have you escorted 100 metres away from the rose petals scattered before them as they waltz into the VIP section of that club you’re not posh enough to get into.

Alas this is about U2 headlining Glastonbury and it is a coup for those attending Worthy Farm next year. Tickets to see U2 on their 360 tour were selling for upwards of £50 and if you looked on eBay then it was well into the hundreds. A single Glasto ticket next year is £185 (plus booking fee and postage etc), so you’re actually getting a very good deal. There are seven stages at Glastonbury, culminating in hundreds of bands and you could have paid your £185 to just see U2 alone! If you’re attending Glasto and a U2 fan then you have won the game! Congratulations!

Also for those of you big on rumours, here’s the current roundup for Glastonbury 2010:

Bon Jovi
Chemical Brothers
Dizzee Rascal
Elbow
Florence And The Machine
Levellers
Led Zeppelin/Robert Plant
Muse
Pet Shop Boys
Pulp
Rolling Stones

Hello! Hello Glastonbury!

U2 have been announced as the first headliners of next years Glastonbury Festival.

The Irish rockers will play the headline slot on the friday night (25th June) for the first time in their 32-year career.

Earlier this year, lead singer Bono had said that they band wanted to play at Glastonbury at some stage in the future.

Other bands that are rumoured to headline this years slots are Muse, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Bob Dylan.

Picture courtesy of U2005 and Deine Stimme Gegen Armut @ Flickr.com

Bono y compañía por fin harán su debut en el festival de Glastonbury en su 40 aniversario así lo confirmo Michael Eavis  el organizador del evento.

Al parecer el 2010 será un año muy importante y movido para U2, lo bueno es que no estaremos exentos de ello ya que tendremos a la banda por nuestros territorios el próximo año, la banda de 32 años de carrera que por extrañas razones nunca a podido encabezar el Glastonbury o cualquier otro festival de este índole acaba de confirma su asistencia en este festival.

Eavis comento “ Hemos estado intentando por años, pero pues nunca habíamos podido realizar esto, sin dudas todas las trabas quedan aun lado para que esta versión del 40 aniversario sea de las mejores en toda la historia.”

Algunas de las otras bandas que se rumoran que estarán en esta versión del Glastonbury son: David Bowie, Coldplay, The Rolling Stones y Muse.

…the Glastobating season that is.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the definition according to The Urban Dictionary is

Discussing, Talking about, conversing regarding the Glastonbury Festival at the expense of all other subjects

Example: “Sorry I can not talk now I am Glastobating with the people I met this year.”
Or
“Sorry Love I can’t fix the Leak as I am Glastobating on Facebook”

The Glastonbury Festival is still over 200 days away, and normally the acts aren’t announced until Spring. Yes the odd name slips out, or someone announces that they are appearing as part of their Summer tour, but the main names on the poster aren’t official until the Eavis’s say so (and until the tickets are sold and the money’s in the bank, some would say, hence the panic in 2008, the Jay-Z year).

So this morning, there was a story in The Sun saying that U2 were going to play Glasto. Yeah ok, it’s November, the Glasto rumours have dried up recently, it’s crappy weather, no-one’s thinking of Summer, and it’s The Sun, so this isn’t so much a pinch of salt to go with the story, it was a silver salt shaker inlaid with rare stones, personally engraved and hand delivered…

…except it was true. I caught a glimpse of the rumours floating on Twitter while I was at work, and then a few minutes later saw it confirmed on the official Glastonbury Festival tweet.

Now, I’m not a U2 fan. I was back in the day, in fact I think The Joshua Tree was one of the first albums I remember buying (on cassette, and it got chewed up not long after and I was gutted), but over the years (like many people it seems), the U2 deal seemed to be less about the music and more about ‘Saint Bono’ (as I’ve seen him described several times today) and his beliefs. There is nothing wrong with his beliefs, and in many ways he matches the aims of Glastonbury (working with charities fighting for peace and healthcare, looking after the worlds resources and battling against poverty), but many see that he’s become more of a political figure rather than the brilliant musician that came out of the troubled streets of Ireland with his mates over 30 years ago.

But still, for Glastonbury, which is huge in itself, this is huge. Yes it’s the 40th anniversary, and Michael Eavis has been talking about getting superstar names, but this is U2, in the middle of their world dominating 360° Tour, flying back specifically from the US to headline the Friday night, then go back again to the states for their next gig a couple of nights later.

But thinking about it, it makes some sense. At the recent NFL American Football game at Wembley, one of the players said something along the lines of it’s not that much further to fly from the East Coast of the US to London than it is to fly from New England in the East Coast to LA on the West Coast of the states for a game (but after checking the map, I now don’t really believe that, but I kind of see what he was saying).

The thing that’s really intriguing is that they’ll play the Friday night. Now, that fits with their tour (as much as a trans-Atlantic hop ‘fits’), but what was wrong with saying “we’re on our tour this year, but in 2011 we’ll headline Saturday night for you”? 2010 is going to be packed with musical names (Eavis wants a headliner from each of the 40 years to play, and there are some rich pickings), and the rumours that won’t go away are the Rolling Stones (pretty much the biggest band still out there) for Saturday night, and Muse (the biggest British band of the current crop) for Sunday night, together with any number of others to fill the 40-odd stages over 3, 4 or 5 days (depending how it’s going to be staged next year). U2 risk being ‘just another act on a great bill’ when they could be the headliners.

And as always, the haters are out there – “I’m glad I can get a refund on my deposit”, “I’ll be getting drunk at the cider bus when they’re on”, and “Hope there’s someone good on somewhere else”, etc, etc… and the last one sums it up – it’s Glastonbury, of course there’s somewhere else, and I’m sure whatever you’ll find will be brilliant (for your taste, be it an Irish rock superband, a German industrial rave mash-up or a Somerset folk trio, or chilling somewhere nowhere near a stage getting pissed, stoned, or whatever). That’s part of the beauty of it. In a temporary town of 150,000 you don’t get all the same thing wherever you go, imagine that in your towns high street. If you can’t handle that then here’s your deposit back, no hard feelings, but the ticket will go to someone who’ll love it instead.

Whatever happens, it’s invigorated the Glastobating forums, Twitter, Facebook and co, and put the countries biggest (and best) festival back in the spotlight.

I’m glad I’ve got my ticket sorted anyway. Now, where’s my tent & wellies, and roll on June….

A long overdue review of Biffy Clyro, Cardiff University Great Hall, October 25, 2009…

After a long, long weekend of (Sŵn) festival fun I was more than ready to call it a day and go to bed, with the intention of completing an impending deadline the next morning. However, I had booked my Biffy Clyro tickets months and months in advance and there was no way I was going to miss it. So with a can of Red Bull in tow I headed off to the front of the SU only to be unexpectedly met by a crowd of snogging neon-clad 14 year-olds queuing for Chase & Status, before making my way to the back, and correct entrance…

The first incarnation of Biffy Clyro was formed in 1995. The band hail from Kilmarnock, just outside of Glasgow, and is made up of childhood friends Simon Neil (vocals/guitar) and twins James (bass/vocals) and Ben Johnston (drums/vocals). United by a love of underground, experimental rock and post-hardcore bands such as Braid and Karate, along with the more famous Guns N’Roses and Metallica, the band soon sharpened their own unique sound, a strangely beautiful mixture of off-kilter tempos, impulsive guitars, untamed choruses and raw screams, all jumbled together to create a sound that sat far apart from anything else being recorded at the time, both in character and – thanks to their bold refusal to uproot from their hometown for the wider music community of London – geographically too.

The band’s first three albums – Blackened Sky (2002), The Vertigo Of Bliss (2003) and Infinity Land (2004) – arrived in an onslaught of creativity, a record released every year and relentless touring assembled a small but devoted legion of followers. Biffy Clyro’s ranks grew even more when their more commercial album Puzzle (2007) was released, stunning listeners with its achingly personal, rich and complex take on rock anthems. The band soon found themselves playing Wembley Stadium with Muse, headlining the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury and performing with The Rolling Stones. U2 even supported them at a special Little Noise session at London’s Union Chapel, although the band claim their biggest musical highlight came when they headlined in front of a hometown crowd at Glasgow’s SECC.

Cardiff University’s misleadingly named Great Hall is not exactly the SECC. Having seen Biffy Clyro twice before in 2003 and 2007, and at much bigger venues, it seemed ironic that the band has never been bigger, yet this venue was the smallest I’ve seen them in.

Disappointingly main support Manchester Orchestra were unable to play the first batch of Biffy shows due to previous touring commitments, which meant that Pulled Apart By Horses were the only support. Having seen them at (Sŵn) only two days before it was easy to make comparisons between the two performances. Although the band played the same set list they as their (Sŵn) gig, the performance was completely different. Although they definitely have the presence to fill a large stage, I much preferred their set at Clwb Ifor Bach as their songs sounded much louder, and the closer proximity of the band and audience helped to create most of the energy at the gig. That said, the audience responded well to their songs and on-stage banter and the Leeds four-piece certainly fired up the crowd for the main act.

Kicking off with That Golden Rule- the first single from the band’s latest album Only Revolutions- along with an epic display of lights, set the bar for the high-paced energy of the rest of the gig. Due to the band being invited to support Muse once more on their UK and European tour, Biffy Clyro had the bring forward the dates of their own tour. However, with their Only Revolutions album due for release halfway through the rescheduled tour dates, a lot of their set was brand new to the audience. Although hearing songs for the first time live is an amazing experience, it was also one of the gig’s weaker points, as fans were expecting more of Biffy Clyro’s more familiar back catalogue. This, combined with the fact that the band only played four songs from their first three, and infinitely better albums, meant that most of my favourite Biffy Clyro songs, and old live favourites such as Wave Upon Wave Upon Wave, Toys Toys Toys Choke Toys Toys Toys, Convex Concave, Eradicate The Doubt and My Recovery Injection were discarded in exchange for almost the entirety of Puzzle.

A less-hairy Simon Neil showcasing beautiful melodies and his even more beautiful tattoos...

Although the band played an amazing set to a packed venue, it was probably the least enjoyable gig I’ve seen them play, partly due to the overwhelming presence of new, unknown material, and partly due to the band’s lack of interaction with the audience. Although I realise that the main reason for touring is to promote new releases, the fact that aside from the two singles, The Captain and TGR, no one knew the songs, and the titles were not even introduced, meant that there was a slight air of confusion from the audience. Only two words were uttered the whole hour and 45 minutes the band were on stage, with Simon Neil saying “Awesome” and then “Beautiful” after the crowd had finished singing the melodic endings of Machines and All The Way Down. There was rightly a lot of love in the room for the band, so luckily this lack of interaction did not detract away from the incredible music they were playing.

Whether playing their metal epics, or exposing the more vulnerable side of their music with softer personal ballads, Biffy Clyro never fail to disappoint musically. Although the set list seemed to be aimed at the newer legions of Biffy fans, with the last song of the encore being their most commercially successful single Mountains, the band were still on top form, and demonstrating how they have managed to remain on top of their game for nearly 15 years. With the release of Only Revolutions and their support slot with Muse this winter, Biffy Clyro look set to increase their fan following even more over the next year. Only time will tell whether, which such an enormous back catalogue of amazing songs, the band will ever decide to unleash many of their earlier songs live again…

As ever, WordPress is not letting me upload any of the videos I took… these will be up soon, promise!

Michael Eavis has finally got his wish!    For years he’s been trying to entice the Irish super-group to Worthy Farm with little effect, now he’s finally landed the deal in conjunction with Glastonbury’s 40th anniversary.    Great timing and an excellent result for both parties in more ways than one…….this is the ultimate collision of the music super-brand – most famous, commercially succesful music festival in the world teams up with the biggest, most globally recognised band in the world…….Well not quite…..Since U2 released ‘No line on the horizon’ they’ve seen their world domination falter and diminish quite rapidly – the album has been their slowest selling  in the last decade, even with all the blanket publicity and exposure it received.    As a live draw their massive popularity has frayed around the edges – Wembley Stadium failed to sell out both nights until a few weeks before the concert and tickets were selling on ebay for less than their face value!   This never happened to Muse or The Foo Fighters at Wembley…..Muse recently sold out their latest show at Wembley in 12 minutes.
Maybe the public feel U2 publicity fatigue – or maybe the younger, more relevant bands around have stolen their thunder and their marketing ideas. Whatever the case Glastonbury 2010 feels like the perfect opportunity to remind everyone that they’re still here!

Hay… así empiezan

Pues como su media naranja, Glastonbury el festival dónde todo deber ser super basto, empezando por el cartel, ya tiene al grupo más grandilocuente, ni más ni menos que U2, que tras muchos años de rumores por fin han sido atados, para este 40 aniversario del festival. Aunque, yo tengo más nervios paras los confirmaciones de hoy del Primavera Sound, a las 16h…

Almond fingers really are one of my favourite sweet  treats. i remember at Glastonbury festival,  the food which I brought (well stuffed into a camping bag) consisted was these. Thankfully It did only rain on the first night, but unfortunately my tent was cheap and leaked… but it was o.k I had my almond fingers as comfort food, and the festival was great. This recipe makes 15.

What You Need:

200g ground almonds, 100g caster sugar, 1 zest of orange, 2 drops of almond extract, 2 eggs, 1tsp baking powder, Icing sugar to dust.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Simply mix all the ingredients in a bowl to form a pliable dough. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and icing sugar. Take around a tablespoon of dough and form a cigar shape, roll in icing sugar and place on the tray. Do this until you have used all the dough. Then place in the oven for 15-20mins. Take out, cool and then serve.

Best with mint tea (^-^)

A britek a kontinens legnagyobb fesztiválozói, ezt nemcsak az példázza, hogy a szigetországban van a legtöbb jelentős zenei fesztivál, de onnan zarándokolnak el legnagyobb számban külföldi eseményekre is a fiatalok. Éppen ezért kicsit sem meglepő, hogy saját fesztiváldíjuk is van, amit minden évben odaítélnek a legjobb rendezvényeknek, illetve előadóknak. Idén a legfontosabb elismerést az év elején visszatérő Blur kapta, a Glastonburyn nyújtott produkciójáért, Damon Albarnt pedig külön is jutalmazták egyéni díjjal, csakúgy, mint Lily Allent, akit a legjobb női fesztivál-előadónak tartottak idén…

Az év legjobb nagy zenei fesztje a Glastonbury volt, a legjobb külföldi rendezvény az ír Oxegen, a legjobb wc-k a T In The Parkon voltak, a legjobb közepes fesztivál a Bestival, a legjobb új fesztivál a Sonisphere volt. Az év himnusza a ‘Sex On Fire’, a Kings Of Leontól, a legjobb új előadó a Florence and the Machine lett.

-est-

It’s Friday, and I’ve got Friday on my mind. Lucky, really. Let’s do this security news thing, before we indulge in weekendly leisure activities.

So – first up is a bit of Dutch video. You like that, don’t you? It’s of some UK gangsters robbing an ATM in a shop in the Netherlands. A dangerous way to bring home the bacon.

SMT Online editor Brian Sims has gone ahead and had a look at the Government’s Crime and Security Bill. Read what he wrote by clicking here!

It’s not often that we use pictures of Beyonce and Shakira in our pages, but there was one of each this week. Why? Read the story for further enlightenment.

And for more exciting Glastonbury-based security news, you could do a hell of a lot worse than reading this story all about it. At least Bosch’s involvement, anyway.

This week’s tenuously justified Song About Security comes courtesy of one of my favourite ever bands, the Jesus and Mary Chain. They’re noisy, and/but utterly brilliant. It’s my opinion, and I’m sticking to it. Of course, you are perfectly entitled to hold the wrong opinion. That is your right.

Farewell!

www.info4security.com, www.ifsec.co.uk

Good Thursday! Here’s a piece of trivia for you: Thursday was named after the Norse god Thur, famous for his ability to cheat at golf. Fact!

The security newsathon begins here: with Brian Sims‘ look at the Government’s Crime and Security Bill, revealed yesterday. Insightful!

There’s also an update on SmartWater and its forensic evidence gloop. Crimebusting!

Axis Communications puts the fun back into Christmas with a warning/gentle encouragement for retailers based around avoiding shoplifting by using high tech surveillance.

Here are three exciting things: Bosch goes to Glastonbury; and also grand prix racing; and ICTS provides access at Lord’s cricket ground. Eventastic!

Tomorrow is Friday. It’s Songs About Security day. What will tomorrow’s be? You will have this answer, and many more – some to questions you never thought worth asking – on your friendly neighbourhood security news hub, info4security.

See you then.

www.info4security.com, www.ifsec.co.uk

Wikipedia knows next to nothing of the Stockton-on-Tees noisenik quartet undulating the underground enough to crack Geordie pavements. Lead barker Kingsley Hall may well be the most articulate cult figurehead to shred the pages of NME with unequalled bravado and outspoken chivalry since Morrissey. Taking on the mainstream, one sycophant-smashing step at a time, The Chapman Family may well be the dark horses to back over the dingy, hurdled tracks of a recession-obsessed England. Brace yourselves- it’s lenghty. But comedic genius shouldn’t be abbreviated…

Dots: The majority of those aware of the cataclysmic punk that is The Chapman Family will presumably have come across it through the medium of NME, namely supporting that old quiffed electro Shirley Manson/ Annie Lennox copyist (or “electro goddess” on a good day) La Roux on last Easter’s Radar Tour. With the forthcoming Virgins being your second single proper, most bands would perhaps see toilet tours as something of a regression…

Kingsley: There’s no comparison between ourselves and La Roux but certainly we’d never have even dreamed of the scale of publicity we got off the back of that tour. Bearing in mind that even after playing the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury last year, we were still a band just playing in relatively pubs and clubs so bagging that tour was a proper coup for us. Having to do interviews every single night and playing to sold out crowds in far bigger venues that we were used to was amazing, although we were under no illusions as to why those shows were sold out. It certainly wasn’t anything to do with us, rather that Bulletproof was at number two in the charts and everyone wanted to have a big ginger quiff on their head so we had front rows of fourteen/ fifteen year old girls, sexually confused, looking up longingly at their petite ginger songstress.

Dashes: You’re almost speaking positively of her, being renowned for twisting the knife with a fair few mainstream chart chancers…

Kingsley: Possibly, yeah but I don’t see any reason to lay into La Roux; as much as I either like or despise some of her songs etc, she was always really quite nice. She had her sister doing the merch so I think in her case she’d never really done a tour of that scale either before that point so it was presumably an eye-opener for her too, having to gig with diverse bands, namely four sweaty oiks from the North East of England. And she was pretty good. I can gladly slate people as much as I like but sometimes when they’re just so darn nice… I don’t know though, she may be completely different now, she may be a complete corporate whore but I doubt it. She made Pop [Chapman, bassist] up to look like her one night in Bristol so he was a little Rouxette for the night. But that was quite early on in the tour, when we were all still friends.

Dots: Where La Roux’s been categorised within the fictional genre of the year “Female”, The Chapman Family don’t seem to slot neatly into any pigeonholes or scenes of late…

Kingsley: No, we’re in a funny sort of situation but we always have been as we’re not extreme and metal enough to be lumped in with the likes of Pulled Apart By Horses or even Dinosaur Pile-Up but then again, we’re not indie enough to be billed alongside insert-indie-band-of-moment. Even when we’re trying to get bookings, promoters are usually quite confused as to which bands to put us on with so throughout this tour a load of promoters have just said “Great, they’ve been in the NME, we haven’t even listened to them so we’ll just put on any old indie trite. We’ve played with bands desperate to sound like Oasis or The Libertines and that’s not really where we’re coming from whereas others have been quite savvy. There’s definitely a resurgence in younger bands who are probably equally as bored as we are of corporate indie and we’ve been quite lucky to play with a few of them.

Dashes: In terms of the musical void that you’re haphazardly filling at this present moment in time, where do the influences for the ramshackle show that is The Chapman Family come from? You’re of course vaguely renowned for being somewhat outspoken…

Kingsley: It’s never meant in a bad way, although I’m sure it sometimes comes across like that. You can read anything on the internet and if you haven’t got lol written behind it, you’ve got no idea whether anybody’s kidding or not. The reasons I started the band are quite well documented, meeting Paul in a call centre and going to local venues at weekends. I loved watching bands and still do, every band I’ve watched has at least one decent song but it was the back end of bands striving to be Pete Doherty, maybe not in London but certainly in the North, so we’d get bands from Scotland or Liverpool all wearing vests, chatting in mockney accents and using one mic for all vocals, bumping into each other and we’d had enough of all that so anything different really stood out. I remember watching Friendly Fires in the Ku Bar in Stockton a couple of years ago and I swear there were only about ten people watching it and out of those ten, maybe five enjoyed it whilst the others were just looking at them, thinking “what the hell’s this?” There weren’t two guitars, a bass and drums, nor were there vocals about going down Hammersmith Palais. We’d go watch this sort of crap, go home and then decided we could probably do better than that and gave it a go, writing as many songs as possible before managing to fluke ourselves a gig, basically because I was the best man for the husband of the bloke who owned the club’s girlfriend’s sister. It’s really difficult to get first gigs I think and so you’ve got to just blag your way in. I didn’t really know how to do anything with bands or even run a Myspace so we basically formulated our own way of doing everything. A few local bands gave us a leg-up, Das Wanderlust especially. They used to put us on predominantly because we had a female bass player at the time, because they like things like that. I think that factor got us a fair few gigs early on, which sounds terribly sexist…

Dots: And typical of indie music…

Kingsley: Exactly, especially if there’s a girl playing guitar: “Wow, that’s different!” but then she decided she didn’t really want to do it any more so we drafted in Pop, who’s just noisier than everyone else and a bit outlandish shall we say, so he was just a bit of a personality in his own right. That helped us, gave us a kick up the backside and changed the sound completely and gave us a bit more of an identity.

Dashes: When you look at the band aesthetically, the image is a varied one, perhaps something along the lines of four individuals meeting in a call centre, brought together by communal interests that don’t quite converge with the latest D-list celebrity scandal or new edition of Windows…

Kingsley: I’m not going to get all Northern on this again, because I think I do it a bit too much but I think that collectively, as the North, I think we need to get over that perpetual chip on our shoulder, that Southerners never make it to the North of England, “we’re never going to get anywhere because we’re from the North”…

Dots: Feeling Northern rather than Northern English…

Kingsley: Exactly but we need to get over that and were we to decide that it didn’t exist and just made good music and got it out there then you don’t have to go on bemoaning a Northern heritage.

Dashes: Contradictorily though, your tag line of ‘Not A Cult’ serves as something of an alienation from the mainstream…

Kingsley: Kind of but the origins of that were fairly simple; when I was constructing the band Myspace, I didn’t really know what I was doing so when I was asked for a headline, what do you put as a headline for a band? So I just thought of that line, didn’t think it sounded too bad and went with it. It went on a bit from there… I might embellish the story every now and again, claim we were meaning to be like David Koresh or The Brian Jonestown Massacre or something like that but it’s all nonsense really.

Dots: Ironically, you’re almost entirely a cult band these days…

Kingsley: I know, how ironic!

Dashes: During your shows, it tends to be the same faces staring back at you, particularly down South, in and around London. Have you had brushes with obsessives, stalkers or anything down that avenue?

Kingsley: The girl with the half white/ half black Mohican, a photographer who initially got into us because her surname’s Chapman and she now drags all her crowd down and they’re kind of obsessive, which is pretty humbling. Up until relatively recently, we were just playing these tiny shows in front of next to no one before driving home that night so to have these people ritualistically, regardless of the size of the venue or the size of the crowd, come down and go slightly mental at the front for half an hour was great.

Dots: Looking at London as something of a main hub of British music contemporarily, breaking into a sedated market through mic lead asphyxiation whilst head butting guitars probably isn’t the most sure-fire route to stardom. Whereas East London attempts to channel eccentricity at its most debauched, it all seems somewhat superficial… Take your pick from a fair few of the style-over-substance acts at September’s Offset festival…

Kingsley: It’s difficult, of course although I really like Offset Festival, almost like the Artrocker edition of Reading Festival and I’m into a load of the bands there but I kind of get what you’re on about in that London scenes tend to come and go so if you can get thirty mates to come down to a show at Nambucca or Hoxton Bar & Grill for instance, you’ve basically created a scene and it’ll presumably be in next week’s edition of NME, entitled ‘New Red-Faced Goth Scene’ or something along those lines so we try and remain as honest as we possibly can really.

Dashes: The X Factor seems to wield the most power within chart success these days. Being a Northern lass, do you feel an affinity with the lady of the hour, Cheryl Cole?

Kingsley: No. I think she’s a funny one. I mean, do you watch X Factor?

Dots: Do you?

Kingsley: Yeah, massively. Jedward are fucking awesome. But that Fight Four Your Love’s absolute rubbish. She beat us in the Sun singles section; we got three stars for Virgins and she got three and a half. You know that N-Dubz, Tinchy Stryder, VV Brown collaboration, that fucking abysmal Killers cover, that got four out of five but on the hallowed Teletext we beat Cheryl by one point with eight out of ten and that collaboration got one so justice was served. But it’s worrying that she’s gone from some Geordie slapper to the new fucking Princess Diana. You don’t listen to Radio 1, do you?

Dashes: Um no.

Kingsley: Oh God, it was a nightmare earlier. Robbie Williams was doing a live lounge set for Fearne Cotton.

Dots: Opinions on Miss. Cotton?

Kingsley: Is there a premeditated response to this one?

Dashes: No.

Kingsley: She looks bizarre and you’ve got to be a bit wary of her I think. The phenomenon that is Fearne Cotton’s just odd and she’s a worry. I never thought I’d rue the day Jo Whiley wasn’t on Radio 1 any more but now, I kind of miss her. But Cotton’s encounter with Robbie was just so sycophantic. There are photos on the site of them together, arm in arm and he’s just a fucking prick. He’s so shit. I’ve never seen such a smug fucker in my life and I can’t believe he’s proclaiming he’s back: “I’m back, Robbie’s back.” Basically what he means by back is that he’s not doing his experimental Rudebox shit any more, reverting back to classic Robbie and classic Robbie is just this smug cunt that everyone seems to fall for. But a photo of Fearne Cotton cuddling Robbie Williams portrays the two faces of the devil and it just makes you fucking vomit.

Dots: It sounds like you spend too much time tuned into Radio 1…

Kingsley: I think you have to. I wanted to be in a band because I thought other bands were rubbish and Radio 1 proves that. For the same reason I watch X Factor, and I love it. Jedward are brilliant, I can’t stress that enough.

Dashes: They need to win to kill off the whole fucking shebang.

Kingsley: Exactly but as Big Brother seems to have come to its logical conclusion now, even if you dress up in wacky clothes, you’re a bit camp and cover your face in make-up it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win Big Brother any more as people have finally seen through that and thought hang on, he looks like a prick and I think exactly the same will happen with X Factor. You can’t be force-fed this crap any more. How can Danii Minogue come out and bombast the competition for not being about singing any more, claiming that it’s lost all credibility. When the fuck was there? When Leon Jackson won? When Steve Brookstein won? When Same Difference came third? What the fuck are they talking about? Absolute joke. At least Jedward have a bit of spark about them. There’s talk of them getting kids TV shows but I think that’s totally wrong. Just send them out on tour. They’re above that. We Will Rock You and Ghostbusters- you can’t fault them. Louis was dead right from the off. He’s easily my favourite judge.

Dashes: On a slightly different musical note, compared with the visceral demos scattered throughout the internet throughout the past year or two, Virgins is something of a step in a more commercial direction…

Kingsley: Definitely. It was intentional but basically, obviously we did Kids, our signature tune if you will, so we wanted to make it as noisy, bombastic and immediate as possible. Not everyone got it, opening with five or ten seconds of feedback, before a chorus, before a solo that’s played pretty abysmally. I hate Youtube but I saw a comment that said it sounded like someone’s got a guitar and they’re just hitting it with a hammer. It was meant as an insult but that’s the best description of our music I’ve ever heard. But for the next single, I want to go back in the direction of Kids, more avant-garde. Without sounding pretentious.

Dots: And the album’s going to be something of a halfway house…

Kingsley: We’ve got a few gigs lined up but apart from that, for the next few months I just want to write the best possible stuff for the debut record proper so whatever fits onto that will make its way on there. I want to rope in Future of the Left’s producer to make sense of everything but if we were to pool together all the tracks recorded over the past few years it wouldn’t work whatsoever, regardless of production values etc. I’ve always demoed with my little synth, not in the electro Little Boots/ La Roux vein though…

Dashes: With your sequins on…

Kingsley: With sequins on, exactly.

Dots: You probably don’t have a clue as to how to answer this but do you have a rough idea of how many guitars you’ve smashed to date?

Kingsley: Ah right well I’ve had to stop doing it.

Dashes: You’ve run out?

Kingsley: I can’t afford it! Pop has told me not to do it any more as he didn’t want people to come down to shows just to see me smash seven shades of shit out of a replica strat so over this tour I haven’t smashed any. We’ve broken stuff but completely accidentally. I swear though, there’s nothing better than smashing a piece of relatively expensive musical equipment in front of people. It’s really good fun but I’ve got to suppress the urge at the moment but hopefully we’ll get a really high-profile gig soon and I’ll just sneak a guitar in round the back

Dots: When you reach Wembley Stadium you could smash the Gibson…

Kingsley: Well no, that’s my dad’s. I’ve broken so many I have to use his now. Over the NME Tour I smashed seven over twenty-odd dates but I’d also manage to put it back together again. Reading Festival was rather difficult, but eventually smashed to smithereens. So I’d say maybe somewhere in the region of 15 to 20. I used to take all the frets off the guitars too and everyone would say I was just changing guitars to smash them but it wasn’t really like that; I took all the frets off so that it’d be easier to run the drum stick up and down the fret board so that was the point of it in the first place, before it developed into me just smashing the crap out of it. Again.

Thisisalloneword is (please feel free to act mock surprised at this point) in a record store. To be precise(ish) he is in an HMV – possible the one on Oxford street. He is shopping for a kids book for a friends 3 yr old for Christmas. Where have the books been moved? He walks upstairs and follows a path which cuts between two tall glass-mirror buildings in some city-banking type area – the occasional power pressed women runs between doors either on their way to get a coffee or return with one.
Thisisalloneword hangs a left and up an escalator which builds itself before his very eyes, it’s more a travelator with steps but that curves in a large semi circle high above a collection of music hardware; amplifiers, mixers, and suchlike. There is no barrier and thisisalloneword has to trust that the moving platform he is on will not suddenly jar and let him fall. The journey ends, pretty near back to where he got on the escalator, and he sees three tents and a collection of clothes. Hang on! They are his clothes and one of those tents is his…
…people appear to tell him that he left his tent and clothes here after a Glastonbury Festival when he needed to crash out on his way home, seemingly in some weird store room somewhere in London… he jokingly asks “wow, had I taken a fair bit of LSD that day?” to which he is told, “yes, you had, during band x”. Oh! He then finds that the whole area is filling up with friends and that they are under a massive marquee which is protecting them from the rain. “It was a great idea to bring this marquee,” says someone, “well worth it”.
It seems with that comment that they are actually at the festival and not in some storeroom at all. Oh well, lets all get some kip then, under our nice warm massive marquee…

It’s quite simple; The Wildhearts are one of the best British rock bands of the last 20 years, and there’s definitely an argument to be made that Ginger is (and has been for a long time) one of the most important figures in modern British rock music.

A prolific songwriter and musician, he’s always bubbling away somewhere writing your new favourite riff, recording his latest project or playing a show that’s just as likely to be a secret acoustic set as a loud in your face national tour. 

People like Ginger were born to do these things. They do what they do because natural talent compells them, not because a careers officer interviewed him at age 15 and suggested he learn a few chords.

What Ginger does is play guitar, write songs, drink liquor, take a lot of drugs, go on wacky retreats to find inspiration (or disappear altogether) and enjoy life.

Good work if you can get it.

Somewhere amongst all that he finds time to get onstage with the band and blows audience’s heads clean off with a confidence and ability rarely seen. Fortunately there’s a wealth of world class material to back up the swagger.

When putting together a setlist you’d think after 20 years it’d be an easy decision for them; please the crowd with well known hits and pepper the set with standout tracks from new album ‘Chutzpah!’.

And maybe beacause that’s what we thought they’d do, that’s what they didn’t do. The set was divided into two distinct halves; first half was a complete run through of the new album, second half the more usual crowd pleasing greatest hits.

It was a format I personally thought worked very well and not something I’ve seen since A Perfect Circle first toured their debut ‘Mer De Noms’ (although in that instance it was more due to the limiting factor of only having one album’s worth of material to draw from!).

‘Chutzpah!’ is the Wildhearts latest album and my first journey into being a Wildhearts fan proper. I’ve seen them live once before (which was also awesome) but I’ve only really been aware of their more well known songs such as ‘I Wanna Go Where The People Go’, ‘TV Tan’ and the lesser known solo Ginger song ‘Motorvate’.

I’ve also read about Ginger’s well publicised battles with band members and substances over the years, but this is the first album I’ve bought into and actively listened to on release.

So I guess you could call me a ‘Wildhearts-aware’ prior to the gig. After the gig I was definitely a ‘Wildhearts fan’.

Viewed as an introduction to the new album, the first half of their set it made me want to go and listen to it all over again. If this was the first time I’d heard the tunes I’d have been straight off to the merch stand to pick up a copy. 

Coming onstage they were greeted like returning heroes and promptly ripped into ‘The Jackson Whites’ (ideal to start a storming set and album with). If the new album was anything longer than the 35 or so minutes it is then this run through would’ve been a bit too much. While undoubtedly fun, the relative unfamiliarity of the new material had the crowd’s attention and appreciation but garnered a reserved response for the most part.

This attitude was mirrored by the band with Ginger telling us they’d do the album and then things would get a bit more informal and boozy in the second half. I guess this is because they can play the old songs with their eyes closed whereas new material needs more concentration (and a more sober head).

When the band came back onstage for the second half it was clear the crowd and the band had been saving their energy for this part of the gig. Given I’m writing this whole thing about two months after actually going to the gig I can’t remember the setlist here but ‘TV Tan’ was noticable by it’s absence.

Also, due to being in the middle of the sweaty insanity right up front for the entire second half I can only really review the second half by how I felt being consumed by it.

Suffice to say it was one of the best gigs I’ve been to for sheer enjoyment.

After a few beverages Ginger has relaxed into his jovial, wisecracking self and explains to us that his guitar “appears to have been drinking”. I’m not well enough acqainted with Wildhearts history to know why Kerrang described Rock City as their “spiritual home” but there’s a genuine love for the band and it’s not unrequited.

Whereas most frontmen will tell whatever city they happen to be in that they love them and how they’re a much better crowd than last night or the nearest rival town (Papa Roach, I’m looking at you), there’s something very sincere about Ginger saying exactly this to the audience. Maybe it’s because he’s been doing it for so long and he’s gotten the standard patter of revving up an audience down cold, but I really believed him. They all look so happy to be up there still able to perform and provide entertainment for what they rightly recognise as a room full of loyal fans.

There’s some young ‘uns yes, but mercifully few of the silly fringed, badly tattooed and undernourished adolescent emo’s. They’re clearly saving up their pocket money for the Papa Roach gig in a couple of weeks. I went to that gig and the audiences couldn’t have been much more different. I’ll stick with my greasy northerner band. They can keep their shiny professional horror punk (whatever the FUCK that means) rock stars.

The Wildhearts have always had a genuine knack for combining killer riffs and choruses with a keen appreciation of pop sensibility and hooks. This combination makes for a fantastically positive atmosphere and being in the same room as them means you’ll have a smile on your face, even if you’ve never seen or heard them before. They’re one of those bands that have crossed over into simply being ‘a great band’ instead of having to quantify it with the word ‘rock’.

As far as I’m concerned, The Foo Fighters are damn lucky to have gotten to where they are in the music world. It could’ve easily been The Wildhearts, it should’ve been The Wildhearts. Only thing is that I don’t think Ginger would want that kind of exposure.

Fine, if you like the Foo’s that’s up to you, but people who aren’t into rock claim to be into it simply because they like ‘Monkey Wrench’ or ‘Learn To Fly’ (or whatever the lastest Radio 1 friendly formulaic three minute ditty is fresh off the never ending Grohl conveyer belt).

The Wildhearts are ours, not Radio 1’s, not the so called ‘music fans’ who think the music world begins & ends with Glastonbury and certainly not those pesky emo children I mentioned earlier.

No, The Wildhearts are ours. And I’ll be buying a ticket to see them whenever I’m in the same place as they’re playing.

And, just as I thought the evening couldn’t get any better, it did. In fact, it got awesome.

Although to write about exactly WHY it got awesome would break my self imposed rule about not writing about things that are too personal. Still, two months on, at least Anne -Marie agrees our unofficial first date was an awesome night full of silly dancing, glam music and late night car-conversation.

So, in the tradition of giving a gig some kind of star rating, taking into account how awesome the gig was and then how awesome the after-gig club night was I’d have to go…

5 FUCKING STARS!

There’s a prophecy floating around that I will be the next Perez.  With that in mind, I had to do this!  I hope you don’t disown me.  IMO the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s had one of the best sets from Monolith this year, and probably most major festivals.  KO you make hocking loogies look so darn sexy (I think she knows this… and while teenagers practice in their rooms late at night… there’s only one KO… just ask 150,000 ragin’ Brits).

Here’s a “hot” Friday Track, comin’ to you early.  Hey we can do this…The blog is in it’s “Grand Opening” phase and it’s almost Christmas… right?  Shhhhh… DVD players $5 bucks!

Download Link: Head’s Will Roll (A-Trak Remix) (Club Edit).

I apologise to everyone that’s been recently reading my blog, that I haven’t been able to update this immediately the day after the previous, as I have out and about. I experienced the Great Lines fireworks display yesterday for the first time… ever. To be quite honest, it was meek. 20 minutes of fireworks and half of hour of a pitiful flame. Despite this, it got me out of the house and potentially made my stomach smaller through the use of exercise. However now thinking this, I did have a meatball marinara on the way home. Damn.

Currently sitting in my room with my feet up on the desk, I glare at the newspaper cutout of last year’s Glastonbury photograph glued with bluetack. How sad. I didn’t even go last year. 2010 however, I’ve got my ticket. Have you?

As well as a music review today, a film mention would also suffice. Yesterday I managed to watch about an hour and a half of Gods And Monsters, before my playstation decided to just give in doing its primary, and only purpose. Illustrating the life of James Whale, legendary director and father of Frankenstein, it captures his eccentric life, also starring Brendan Fraser and Lynn Redgrave. James Whale is played by Oscar nominated Sir Ian McKellen. From what I saw of the film, I thought it was very good – especially sections where you had behind the scenes shots of the making of The Bride Of Frankenstein. I will give a rating when I manage to watch the entire film later on this evening.

Music review – even though being released on CD only recently, it was leaked on the Internet, allowing many fans to listen before it hit the stores. Brand New’s Daisy. Their fourth album, it explores their rock inspirations once more, which slowly became apparent in The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. The first track of the album, Vices, is most definitely a shocker - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mc6JKM_YkQ ; you will see what I mean. It is a very good album, however their previous releases are definitely better. I myself being a big fan of Brand New, and have purchased a ticket for their only UK gig this year at Wembley Arena, I would love to see how they will perform this album live. Jesse Lacey is a fantastic lyricist – I will end with some of my most favourite lyrics from one of my favourite songs, Seventy Times Seven.

"So, is that what you call a getaway? Tell me what you got away with.
'Cause I've seen more spine in jellyfish.
I've seen more guts in eleven-year-old kids.
So have another drink and drive yourself home.
I hope there's ice on all the roads.
So you think of me when you forget your seatbelt,
and again when your head goes through the windshield."

This is a really good live video with Blur from this year’s glastonbury.

Blur – Beetlebum – Glastonbury [2009] [HD] from pezdemonio on Vimeo.

If there’s one thing Jay-Z and Liam Gallagher already have in common its animosity towards Noel Gallagher, brother of Liam. Contention emerged in April 2008 when Noel said it would be “wrong” to book Jay-Z as a headliner for Glastonbury. The result was Jay-Z covering the Oasis hit Wonderwall to open the show before quite simply blowing away the audience with a string of underground and already commercially successful tracks. Glastonbury boss Michael Eavis hailed the show as a great success and little has been heard about the matter since.

On August 29th however Noel,42, released a statement on the Oasis website saying the was quitting the band and couldn’t work with Liam,36, a day longer. Rumors have since emerged that Snoop Dogg plans to work with Noel Gallagher, and Jay-Z weigned in this week saying he wants to work with Liam.

Jay said:”When I teamed up with Linkin Park nobody expected it to work, but we made a success of it, the same could happen with Liam.”

Mr Carter added:”When you have two artists like us in a room just throwing about ideas you come up with something brilliant fairly easily.”

The Into Somerset awareness video has gone live on YouTube…

It features celebrities including Deborah Meaden from Dragon’s Den, England cricketer Marcus Trescothick, Mistresses actress Sarah Parish, conductor and broadcaster Charles Hazlewood, Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis, Gold Cup winner Kauto Star and his trainer Paul Nicholls and local people who are making the most of the amazing opportunities and lifestyle that Somerset provides.

Some signposts near Glastonbury.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.