i said do it again, do it again

howdy pop pickers

out of some misguided (and likely incorrect) idea that i have some notion of why, exactly, you people come and read all of this i have a tendency to avoid writing of similar subjects two or so posts in a row. this indeed does rely on people reading it all in a chronological order, look you see. if not Star Wars then perhaps some of the earlier Quentin Tarantino films have (has) taught us to disregard order can be reasonable fun and a more better way to do it.

but just what, exactly, is one to do (from a writing perspective) when one goes and does the same thing once more? kind of the same thing, i suppose. as in i took the decision to go and see the joint tour of the Manic Street Preachers not just once, sadly not as many as three times but twice. in one week. 

when the bands announced that the joint tour of the USA and Japan (and other places) was coming to the UK it felt like an excellent thing to go to more than once. on the announcement of the dates i elected or if you prefer opted for Leeds and Alexandra Palace. the decision was made on the basis that Suede were to be the second act on in each instance, and it just felt more better to see them that way round. 

the first of these gigs was covered earlier, rather than later, in or on this very blog. Leeds was an extremely wet yet amazingly brilliant event. on, then, to the sunnier venue of Alexandra Palace Gardens, as pictured above. this is indeed the view on the walk in, with a simply stunning view of that there London (innit) behind the stage. 

quite an extraordinary thing (to me, at least) was just how many people off of Japan, in particular ladies, had come all the way to London for this gig. mostly for Suede, but some of them were clearly keen disciples of the Manics. they were lovely, wandering around asking people (as in everyone) if they were also there for Suede. both bands to somehow trigger an incredible devotion in fans.

should you be of the (not incorrect) view or opinion that the above is a fairly poor picture, well, just wait until you get a load of the (mercifully) brief video below. i tried to do one of them sort of quasi panoramic sweeping shots of it all, and likely failed. 

at, or for, this gig i had the distinct pleasure of two dear friends being there. one of them had only a basic, or in passing, knowledge of the bands. the other has been to very close to 50 gigs off of the Manics, and indeed featured prominently in a wonderful documentary about them. but, she had not seen Suede before, although was a fan of a few of their songs. which, as it turned out, all got played by the band. in one instance unexpectedly yet predictably, but more on that in a bit. 

having a sense of "been there, done that", plus for other reasons which would not be appropriate to disclose here, in this instance i didn't make a rush to be up as close to the front as possible. with it being a beautiful day (and evening) and the venue lending itself to a suggestion of it being best, we took up a relaxed spot sort of kind of in the middle. view felt better than the limited pictures i am sharing here, with the limitation being that a few concerts have now established that the phone with a camera welded to it what i have is useless for documenting such things. 

first up were, then, the Manic Street Preachers. above is the one and only picture of it, from when they performed Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, with (once again) guest vocalist The Anchoress. which is something i perhaps should have mentioned on the first post. oh. anyway, it's not that there was anything wrong with the performance at Leeds, it's just that they (the Manics) were on most impressive top form here. perhaps it was the weather, which they commented on frequently with some profanities added concerning sunburn and rain. 

it was this performance which, after some 17 (or so) years has finally forced me to accept that this particular song, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, is actually quite good. at the time it felt like too much of a go at getting chart success, when the charts did indeed make a difference. still, what they have on display in the background, your love alone won't save the world would be a more better and more Manics song lyric, even if it would be somewhat convoluted to get into a rhyme of sorts. 

any particular highlights, or outstanding moments, from the Manics set. oh yes. 

great doesn't quite cover my feelings on, at last, getting to see them perform one of my all time favourites off of them, This Is Yesterday. so far as i am aware this is the only lyrics Nicky Wire wrote, or contributed, for or to The Holy Bible. yet these were the lyrics one newspaper quoted (think it was the Guardian) in an article called something like "can rock music kill" when Richey disappeared. no, i know the video is terrible and i probably should have just enjoyed the song, but still. 

that's also me corrected, then, if i needed such. i believe in my Leeds post i mentioned that i wasn't at all sure if i would go and see the Manics on their own again any time soon, but (being fair) did qualify that with yes of course i would. well, that's now absolutely the case on the basis of this far more energised performance. 

moving on, then, and as the sun set, we got Suede. 

exactly how many times would i be expected to write about just how brilliant Suede live are, and what a formidably exceptional frontman Brett Anderson is? all of it is true, and the more you see them the better they get. which is something, considering how mind-blowingly boss they are on any first encounter. my devout Manics friend there was well impressed, and conceded that it would have been a massive anti-climax to see an even on peak Manics after that Suede set. that's not saying there's anything wrong at all with the Manics, rather more just how good a live act Suede are. 

highlights from the Suede set? well, a few days is a long time in rock and roll, and this is the unexpected yet predictable part. between the Leeds gigs and this one Suede had announced another re-release of Dog Man Star, with this one being in furtherance of celebration of its 30th (!!) anniversary. indeed i do have all the material on it, but i shall be buying. we got more from Dog Man Star than had been the usual for these shorter sets. on top of the usual (and very welcome) Wild Ones we also got to see and hear them do We Are The Pigs and Still Life. 

rather than film any of those songs, since i just wished to enjoy them, here you go. for fans of really quite bad footage, some of Trash for you. mostly i recorded this for the friend who(m) i went to see them at Leeds with, but that shouldn't stop you watching. 

other bits of excellence off of Suede? all of it, as in the entire f*****g set. well, yes, favourites shall always and forever be (not in order, or maybe) Animal Nitrate, Trash and Metal Mickey, but then all of the others. that new song Antidepressants was played again and if it's the direction the new album is going then we are all going somewhere excellent. 

famously, or perhaps infamously (for those that know) i was supposed to see Suede at Alexandra Palace about three (or so) years ago, counting back from now (2024). yeah, the wheels kind of fell off of that one, but it matters not, i have kind of made up for the lost experience since. 

momentarily, then, i shall take a break from rock and roll. a brief break, for indeed i do have some tickets for a gig towards the business end (or latter part) of the year. nothing lined up before then, but you never know. for now, extreme thanks to the friends that went with me, to the bands for putting on this fan friendly show and all of the crowds at each gig. stay beautiful, beautiful ones. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

meeting Griffin Dunne

greetings

well, what can i say. every now and then the title for a post actually directly relates to the content. and this is such an incident of that. so i suppose that is what i can say, look you see. yes, i did indeed get to meet the celebrated actor Griffin Dunne. 

this was, of course, all down in that there London (innit) place. somewhat spurred on by my (rather) unexpected chance to go and see the Fawlty Towers stage production (or play, if you will) i decided to look around for other forms of entertainment, especially as there's nothing decent on at the cinema momentarily. mostly, i guess, i was looking for another show or play to attend, when up flashed an event entitled A Conversation With Griffin Dunne. i went "no way", read on, saw it was actually very much a case of "yes way" and immediately signed up. no, i am not prepared to disclose the cost of doing so, but be assured it was worth it. 

since it was a rather intimate event i opted for the approach of not taking pictures, or for that matter videos. as regular readers shall be aware, my current phone with a camera welded to it is particularly useless for video. so much for Samsung being quality. others in attendance were happily snapping away and making a video or two, but honestly i wished more to listen to him. the above image, as you can most likely work out from his "cheers" toast, was at the end of the session, when it felt more appropriate to take a picture. 

i would presume (or suspect) the overwhelming majority of anyone on the internet reading this knows precisely who Griffin Dunne is. for those strange ones who read all of this for what i do rather than what the content is, well, thank you. he (Griffin Dunne) is an actor, most famous for two 80s films in the form of the superb An American Werewolf In London and the outstanding After Hours. actually his segment in Amazon Women On The Moon remains as funny now as it was then. sadly, just as his fame was catching up to his talent level, an horrific tragedy struck his family, soon followed by a miscarriage of justice, i think it best to describe it as. this understandably changed the course of his life and indeed that of his family, in particular his father. 

he has recently published his memoir, or if you will autobiography,  The Friday Afternoon Club, with the text being a link to a google search for it. the publication of this was, as you have probably concluded, the reason for this appearance being scheduled. next to my copy of this book in the above picture is yet another copy of An American Werewolf In London, which i bought on the way to the event on the off chance i could get it signed. it was indeed the case that i already had rather more copies of this film than i could possibly need. a temptation was to purchase After Hours, but Fopp wanted £22 for it. this isn't an entirely unreasonable price for it, yet i felt i would have felt foolish spending so much and not be sure of getting it signed. of course i regret not doing so now, but hey, i have an all time favourite film signed by one of the cast and it was signed in Soho, too. the significance of that will be pretty obvious if you have seen the film. 

exactly how much value there is in me attempting to "review" this event, for surely it was a unique thing, is debatable. at the risk of going fawning it really was an incredible evening. Griffin Dunne is, as you may well expect on the basis of his acting, a truly gifted and compelling speaker. quite a few of the things he spoke of, in particular (of course) the murder of his sister and the subsequent events, saw him lose composure momentarily. i believe i and everyone else in the audience wished to go and give him a huge hug, but what he wished for, and why he was doing this, was for people to listen. 

yes, i was able to get a picture with Griffin Dunne. and i can assure you my choice of t-shirt was indeed quite deliberate. there are a couple of other pictures, but this is the one in which i least look like a trembling starstruck fool. although i would suspect none of you are actually all that interested in looking at the aspect of the picture which features moi. 

my feeling is that it is not my place to recite some of the things he told us, and nor is his story a story which is for me to tell. but what i can do is encourage you to get a copy of The Friday Afternoon Club, either as a proper book or one of them "audio book" things. the aspect which affected me most was his discussion of (for want of a better word) the journey, psychologically, he has been on as the relative of a victim of crime. it feels to me that this book, beyond catharsis for the writer, is going to be of tremendous empathic impact for anyone to be so unfortunate to have experienced similar tragedy. this has clearly taken Griffin Dunne some courage and inner resolve to speak and write about. i would really, truly hope that it brings a degree of comfort for those who can, sadly, relate to what happened to his family. 

presumably now everyone knows which is my favourite video (disc) in the collection, for there it is, signed above. i was extremely nervous about the idea of asking him to do so, but then others had brought similar. not excessively. as point of fact one top bloke there had a copy of the video (disc) cover which had been signed by nearly everyone involved in the film, with Griffin being the only major absent signature. that has now been done. for good measure he was also kind enough to sign my copy of his memoir. those that know me know that i very rarely read non-fiction and generally avoid hardback editions. exceptions are there, and exist, to be made. 

for those keen on provenance, or correct dates, the event with Griffin Dunne just happened to take place on the night of the (so far only) general election we had in 2024. which means a most peculiar pattern has developed of me meeting famous people in London (innit) when there is some form of election on the go. in the last instance of an election, being as it was of provincial style and also for the Mayor of London, i got to meet Piers Corbyn (that one). link is there for those interested in that sort of thing, but i think i can comfortably state that this was my favourite celebrity encounter of the year. so far. 

right, thank you for indulging me showing off a (hopefully little) bit here. mostly, though, i would like to encourage you to go and pick up a copy of Griffin Dunne's book. should the means by which i got to see and hear him not be unique and you do get the chance to go and hear him in conversation, please go ahead and do it.

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

live at leeds

howdy pop pickers

and so at last i get to tick off one of those unusual, perhaps peculiarly specific things in life that i would wish to do. quite a few of these have been doing stuff like drinking lime in coconut purely as Nilsson suggested it in a song, true, and a lot have been related to A Bit Of Fry & Laurie sketches, look you see. but now i get to write with the subject (or title) of Live At Leeds without it being just a reference to the classic or if you like seminal album by The Who.

my relatively recently rediscovered love of going to gigs is mostly due to being fortunate enough to be living close to where they are and (kind of) having the coins of money enabling me to get a ticket or two. it's not too often i travel that far for them, unless it's particularly special, like for instance Holly Johnson in that there London (innit) last year (2023). but the chance to see both Manic Street Preachers and Suede do a joint tour meant that oh yes, i was travelling. and, in the first instance, travelling to Leeds. 

for what reason, or if you like why, is it that these two immensely excellent bands have put on a joint tour? mostly, i suspect, fan "demand" if not pressure. they are good mates, and i have a vague memory of them touring together (reasonably) early in their careers. recently, and presumably to make it economically viable, they have done joint tours of America and Japan, allowing the fans in those nations the rare chance of seeing them. as they were very successful tours i guess they responded to the interest from UK based fans in it with a "well why don't we do it at home too" approach. very, very glad that they did so. 

no i most certainly did not let the fact that i had seen both the Manics and Suede fairly recently stop me from going again. and again, but that is for another post. the lure and appeal of seeing two bands who have played a massive part in the soundtrack of my life in one go was not going to be denied. and it was wise to have no such denial, as the night in Millennium Square in Leeds was phenomenal. 

it remains so that my current phone what has a camera welded to it, the oddly celebrated Samsung A14 or what have you, is not really any good for pictures or videos from gigs. quite a shame, but there you go. still, for the curiosity factor i thought the above video might be of passing interest. a chance stroll by the venue allowed us to catch the Manics doing what i believe is called a "sound check". not sure if you can make it out, but that's a bit of Kevin Carter they were playing to make sure speakers and what have you were all working proper. obligatory apologies for the poor quality. 

being a joint tour is all well and good, but there has to be an "order" to it. as in one of the band has to be the opening one and the other the closing one. the latter, or last, would generally be considered the headliner, which is the "more prestigious", no matter how good friends they may all be. for the tour they've come up with a (relatively) straightforward solution by which they simply alternate which way around they play. my feeling was that Manics building up to Suede made more sense, which was mostly why Leeds got selected over Manchester (in the area) for tickets bought. 

 

let it be noted that i considered the Manics to be on top form. i've seen some mumblings across the web of them being "below par" and what have you. this is the life of Manics fans, though. a core exists which says they have been downhill since their first album, or since Richey went missing, or since some other landmark. James was brilliant on both vocals and guitar, but yes, Nicky Wire did appear to be rather restrained (by Nicky Wire standards). he did explain that he had been suffering with the "dreaded lurgy", by which i think he meant that plague thing from a few years ago. oh. as for drums, well, Sean Moore does as Sean Moore does. except now with a massive beard. 

my experience of the Manics as a live event had followed a set path. up to now i had always seen them have Speed Of Life off of Bowie as an intro, Motorcycle Emptiness as the opening song and A Design For Life as the last song. in this instance the intro was a very excellent 80s feel remix of 1985 which is likely on the Lifeblood box set that i haven't opened up yet. sorry, been busy. after that the first song was, for a change, You Love Us, and then they closed with If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next. should you wish for some quite bad footage of a bit of the latter song there, well, then your wish is right below this. 

whilst it was excellent to see the Manics once more and, at least as far as i was concerned they were on top form, something felt somewhat off. it was a delight to take a good friend who had not seen them before, but perhaps like the last instance it all feels "wrong" to be seeing them at all without my now former (considerably) better half being there. but you cannot fight the future. 

putting aside any sort of sentimental hygiene concerns, it could be, to misquote a famous comedy line, they were playing all the right songs, just not necessarily in the right order. i am trying to think of the right words here, not sure this is it but it keeps coming to mind, so to write it (and waste no more of your time) the set felt weirdly directionless. the beauty of the Manics, that the link, or if you will bond, between fan and band is so strong, is sometimes a curse. if there's a standard 8 - 10 songs that they are guaranteed to play, it's the ones around them that are a battlefield of what they wish to play, what they think the fans may want to hear and what the fans actually wish to hear. reactions to these choices are always one of two; either "oh my f*****g god they are playing it!" or "what the f*** are they playing this for?". no, nothing in between. 

going with the "what" reaction, it was baffling to see them (enthusiastically) play To Repel Ghosts off of Lifeblood. for those unaware, Lifeblood is an album the band has spent most of the last 20 years sh!tt!ng all over, saying they will "never make that mistake again". except a lot of fans love many songs on it, plus the band have issued a deluxe 20th anniversary edition of it that i have but have not played yet. it would have been beautiful and amazing if they had played 1985 in full, or Empty Souls or Solitude Sometimes Is or I Live To Fall Asleep or perhaps even Emily off of it. maybe even A Song For Departure. but no, they went with what always felt like one of the two weakest tracks on the album. that quite a lot of people decided to head to the bar or bathroom once they started playing it is perhaps a better comment than i could make. 

ultimately i shall (all day every day) take what after the fact feels like a disjointed, partially confusing Manics set because at the time, in the moment, it all makes sense. a new album is, apparently, not that far off. i suspect they might rather benefit from a slight break, to recharge and refresh. but yes, any new album and subsequent tour will see me part with money. 

enter Suede, then. just a half an hour or so break between the bands, and it was quite class to see the roadies at work, changing one set to another with immense (and impressive) precision. for the fans of such information indeed, just as last year they started with Turn Off Your Brain And Yell and closed with a singalong-heavy rendition of The Beautiful Ones. rather similar set to last year, only with a few songs trimmed to fit in with the 75 minute slot each band had, and to include an absolutely mind-blowingly brilliant new song called Antidepressants. they too have a new album on the way. 

mostly (or for the most part) this is going to be me waffling on with admiration, worship, lust, jealous and praise focused entirely on the wonderful Brett Anderson. but, or so, before such, shout out to the rest of the band. in particular Mat Osman who(m) to me and the crowd looked like he was absolutely stoned out of his bracket but swaggered and swayed with the bass like he was having the best sex ever in all of recorded history. go for it mate, never stop. 

some have questioned the wisdom of the Manics agreeing to a joint tour with Suede, at least in regards of doing so in the UK. true, a number of Manic fans there simply cannot stand Suede and visibly left as soon as the band they wanted to see finished. for many of us, though, it always appeared fairly obvious that no matter what the Manics did, no matter how good they were, they were destined to be overshadowed by virtue of what an extraordinary frontman Brett is. he has that gift where he has the audience in the palm of his hand from start to end, a rare gift that one would normally assume only someone like Freddie Mercury or Bono had. yes, those that dislike Suede will disagree with me, but different views make the world more interesting.

yes, those what are in the camp which has always (and will always) refer to Suede as "effete southern w@nkers" will disagree. fair enough. for me it's just an exhilarating joy to watch someone take to the stage with such bold confidence of belief in what they are doing, knowing that what they are doing is what the audience craves. it's like he draws beyond human strength and energy from those in the crowd and gives it all back, leaving all that he has on the stage. and let me once again mention the outstanding, excellent swagger of Mat Osman and his sex bass. 

that my phone with a camera welded to it is only good for poor quality footage was the perfect excuse i needed not to film too much or take to many pictures. but, for fun, there you go, a snippet of the introduction to The Beautiful Ones. from what i could tell a good many people which much more better equipment (as it were) seemed intent on filming it all. if you are interested in footage off of this gig then i dare say loads of it is on the internet somewhere. 

just as the Manics have a standard list of songs which shall always feature, so too this is true of Suede. i would suggest there are four (4) which shall always be played - Animal Nitrate, Trash, Metal Mickey and The Beautiful Ones. hang on, i think they unexpectedly dropped Metal Mickey on one gig, but saw the error in that and put it back in. yes, these got played, and i suppose i went absolutely mental as they played them. quite like i did when they did She Still Leads Me On, So Young, The Drowners and, well, nearly all of them. 

nice to hear Brett declare that he believed Autofiction was now their best album, with him adding that this meant Dog Man Star, long his most treasured work, was second best. oddly enough i do have it playing as i write this, and yes it remains a great album. my choice would probably be either Coming Up or Dog Man Star as their greatest, but still. up to now they've only really done one poor record, and let's not mention that one no more. 

were it so that for some reason i "had" to choose which of them to see again based on performances on the night then it would be Suede. that said, and as mentioned before, of course should chance permit i will be off to see them on their own as and when they next tour. but if all goes well there might just be a post soon that's not all that different from this one. 

one regrettable thought about this amazing night is that it's now perfectly clear exactly just how much i and everyone else there got f****d over at that recent James gig. for context or what have you the ticket price for Manics and Suede was more or less what it was for James alone. unlike James, both the bands actually played and acted like they were happy to be there and had no particular quarrel with playing the songs fans wished to hear. still, Girl At The End Of The World remains an incredible record. 

right then, or phew. i don't think i fawned too much over Brett, but then such things are the kind of thing that you might be here to read about. onwards to the next...........

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

new shoes

hello there

usually, or normally, yes, indeed i am someone that gets all sentimental and what have you over certain things. with this it is a rare instance of me not being alone, look you see, for many other people get the same way. but, that said, being somewhat sad and emotionally challenged by having to replace shoes is quite a new one on me. 

i suppose it's because the shoes which are now knacked have been on quite the adventure with me. as in yes, they are the ones i wore all the way to New Zealand and back. which means they were the very ones what got tested and x-rayed at customs in Heathrow on suspicion of having explosives on or in them. many a think it is that i have been called, most of them true, but shoe bomber (or at least potential one) was indeed a whole new experience. 

they are, however, of no practical use no more. for a start they seem to be worn out. the thickness between my feet in them and the ground beneath the shoes is more or less equal to a sheet of paper. so, with reluctance, i got new ones. of a similar style of course. 

a perplexing factor of this century which i don't understand is how "them", the people, go out of their way to make things as difficult as possible. we live in an era of extraordinary communication availability and the potential to create wonders. yet we spend all of that in making things far tougher than they need be. it is already so that my (UK measurement) size 13 feet are a challenge to find shoes for. now they have littered the market with all sorts of "laceless technology". what a farce that is. shoes what do not have laces are not "new", they are either slip ons or mere slippers.

by some miracle them sort of nice people at Sports Direct were able to sell me the only pair of size 13 Skechers what they had. well, the only pair with laces. i really, really don't care for this "laceless" idea of theirs. going on the adverts, no, i am not "wasting time" tying laces, i am making sure the shoes stay on, thanks. also, if you want your product to be taken seriously, maybe don't limit the budget to the extent that Jamie Redknapp is the "face" of what you sell. he is at best, and i do mean at best, a very poor man's "he will do" alternate to the bewilderingly omnipotent Joe Cole.

right above these words is an image of the box. someone got all excited with the space they had and wrote out as many "special features" of the shoes as they could think of. the first two make vague sense, but i am not certain of the third. can't think of a time when i had shoes on and they were unresponsive. not entirely sure what "positive energy return" is either. again, i am at a loss to think of a time i was aware that shoes were giving me a "negative" energy return. perhaps i have been doing shoes all wrong for all this time then. oh. 

provenance was established above, if you were paying attention. for the matter of the price, well, let's say north of £50 but also south of £60. somewhere between those two. generally yes i do try and find the cheapest shoes possible, but with the limitations of stock on the size i need this is not always possible. besides, cheap shoes are going to be uncomfortable, so it makes little sense to do it so. 

would i describe myself as happy with the purchase? pretty much. of the ones they are replacing, the left one had developed a sort of squishy squelching sound as i walked about. it was annoying and fairly audible, so it was uncomfortable if not embarrassing to be strolling in them. 

at this stage no, i don't know of these will at some point be tested for explosives (or similar) by the staff of any particular airport. you never know, though, they might. hopefully not, as it wasn't the greatest thing what had ever happened to me, but i suppose at least they didn't get the gloves out for any further checks. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

happenings

howdy pop pickers

and so one more album "review" (or what have you) for a record that i wasn't immediately compelled to purchase. the record in this instance, as the title gives you every indication, is Happenings off of Kasabian, look you see. 

my reluctance to get this tape (disc) stemmed from just how underwhelming the previous album off of them, the needlessly complicatedly packaged The Alchemists Euphoria, was. also when i heard what i believed to be the first single from Happenings (but turned out to be the third), Coming Back To Me Good, i was very much "no". however, i remembered that one must always purchase any new Kasabian album as it inexplicably upsets Billy Bragg. no idea why there was a stage when he got wheeled out by the NME (and similar) to sh!t over anything Kasabian did, but if he doesn't like it then it's well worth some coins of my money, thanks. 

for those of you in some sort of rush, yet have read this far, actually i am quite glad that i relented and bought it, as Happenings is a really good (and noticeably short) album. merrily Serge has come on leaps and bounds as the now lead vocalist. i would suspect that anyone with any interest has already picked up the tape (disc), what with it already being out two weeks by the time this hits that "internet" thing, but if not, yeah, give it a go. 

what makes it a good album? generally the flow of it. as with Kaiser Chiefs earlier in the year they have most certainly gone with quality over quantity, as here's another throwback to the days of albums what have a running time less ("fewer") than 30 minutes. once this was quite common, and a whole load of the albums off of The Beatles had a similar run time. ever since CD came along with that digital display, though, people are aware that "more" could be put on a tape (disc). this has led to some needlessly bloated albums over the last 30 or 40 (!!) years. 

it turns out that the lead single, Algorithms, was released as far back as last year (2023). no idea how i missed it, was probably more listening to tapes (discs) as i drove rather than the radio. quite a pity that i didn't hear it first, as then i would have been far more optimistic for this record. so yes, it's rather good. certainly Liam Gallagher heard it, as he used the one lyric, "we're not here for a long time but we are here for a good time", to justify the infamously short concerts he and John Squire did. this song is the last one on the album, and the last time i can recall a lead single being the last track on the subsequent album was indeed Love Spreads on Second Coming off of The Stone Roses. well, yes, if you excuse or leave aside The Foz, that track 90 (ninety) on the disc version.

other highlights? this may be the overriding issue with the album. whilst it maintains a consistently good quality, with a wonderful flow as mentioned, there's no real "wow" outstanding signature tune. even that one single i didn't quite take to sounds really good here, which shows the importance of listening to vibes properly, and not on a radio or via "streaming". 

some aspects of the packaging, in psychedelic mode (of course), are pictured above for your consideration. indeed that is a "signed insert", similar to the one what came with the previous album which is just too complex to keep typing, and indeed like what Crowded House included with their most recent record, the again previously mentioned Gravity Stairs. if that is what it was called. 

realistically Kasabian are still in the midst of re-inventing themselves after the departure of Tom. as i and many others have said, this wasn't exactly a major loss, as his vocals were always the weakest element of any venture (or adventure) by the band. let us hope they stick with it, as i would anticipate the next record has them firmly on the groove they wish to be. 

mostly, of course, it's always going to be interesting whatever Serge does next. he is a man seemingly determined to make his life one long scene out of This Is Spinal Tap and i envy him for it. truly he is out there doing what he wants. having now "mastered" the art of a short, thirty minute album, well, it won't be all that much of a surprise if the next Kasabian record is a double (or triple) concept based rock opera album. which would be quite class. 

unlikely that Happenings shall be declared my "album of the year", but this album existing has at least made this year all the better. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one thousand miles of hell

bonjour mon amis

welll, yes, ok that is a slight exaggeration. it is simply not so that i drove for one thousand miles in a particularly bad vehicle. the total was somewhat less ("fewer") than that. nine hundred and thirty two miles, if my record keeping was accurate, look you see. even then it would have been about two hundred less ("fewer") only i noticed i had left my suitcase at home on one journey, about a hundred miles in. yes i certainly uttered a few "oh bother" terms as i went to fetch it. 

so, for my sins (and it must be future and past) i had to drive something called a Peugeot Partner for a week or so. yes, i do travel a lot to get those miles in. my understanding is that the hire company were less than thrilled to learn i had taken it to that there London (innit) but they didn't say not to. for an overall view i cannot say it is the worst vehicle in the world, for i have not driven every other type. but i do believe it is the worst thing i have ever had to drive. scary thing is that it's brand new (only had just north of twenty miles on it when i took it on), so why they made something so appalling bad is a mystery. 

here comes a review, then. be warned, as there is nothing good for me to say of this Peugeot Partner thing. well, except hopefully i shall never have to even see one ever again. 

none of this is in any sensible or thought out order, alas, just the way in which the pictures loaded up for me to write around. and yes it did make me ill to have to take pictures of this thing, but i suppose worth the sacrifice if anyone is thinking of the folly of getting one. 

above is an image of what greets you when you get in it. yes, the French flag on proud display. for quite some time. most "modern" vehicles with such displays instantly tell you useful stuff, like doors open, time, temperature, fuel level and what have you. no, this thing wishes to make sure you know full well you are in a Peugeot and that it is French. handy if you are inclined to forget either of those things and for some reason are keen to know. 

that above is what they have in it instead of a steering wheel. a quick dictionary definition of wheel would be a circular object that revolves on an axle and is fixed below a vehicle or other object to enable it to move easily over the ground or a machine or structure having a wheel as its essential part. not some bizarre collapsed octagon monstrosity. my assumption is that the French makers thought they were being stylish here, making it all a bit Batman or, laughably, like an F1 car. really, really impractical to use, it is. 

quite f*****g annoying too, thanks to them buttons. few (if any) have any clear marking what they are for. one tends to accidentally touch them as they use the whatever it is to steer. the most annoying is the speed limiter thing to the bottom left. it would be useful and help one avoid speeding, but the briefest touch of this button as you drive - and more often than not you fail to notice as it is silent - switches it off for you. just great, that. 

really, really annoying is how low down the door handle is. what the f*** have they put it all the way down there for? it's awkward to use and is in such a position that your thigh or knee is constantly rubbing against the coarse, unpleasant plastic of it as you drive. 

on the subject of unpleasant things as you drive the Peugeot Partner has the most insane (as in stupid) feature i have ever encountered. it took a while to work out what it was doing and for (fairly) obvious reasons i couldn't get a picture. the thing has some sort of function whereby if you are deemed to be straying out of a lane (according to the vehicle) it literally takes over and straightens you out, so to speak. yes i did have the indicator on to change lane but apparently that's not connected to the "super computer" in it. also, i was in London (innit). swerving out the way of cyclists and moped riders is quite the necessity. i tried my best to give them space but the Peugeot was having none of it and turned itself on a collision course with them. 

provenance fans may well be pleased to know that yes, i think that was Paddington Square i was parked at. notice something about the view? indeed, they have shoved a huge massive black plastic (of course) block in the centre. f*** knows what it is for, but it really affects your vision whilst driving. as in i would have thought it illegal. when you are parked at traffic lights it perfectly obscures your view of the lights, so you have to wait for the car behind you to hoot at you to know it's green for go. 

now then, how about some video? with a really annoying soundtrack? sure. 

i will assume, or take it as a given that if you played the video you heard the exceptionally annoying "bip bop bip bop bip bop" sound the indicators make. this is louder than the maximum volume of the device it has in place instead of a stereo (more on that in a bit) and i will be f****d if i could find a way to switch it off. just why, France, why? the van makes no sound at all when you lock it or unlock it so you always check. yet when you indicate you get to hear that you are. makes as much sense as the bit where it reminds you of the maker of the car and their unforgettable nationality. 

did anything decent actually ever come out of France? oddly yes. the list of such is - croissants, Napoleon, her out of Betty Blue, JJ Burnell out of The Stranglers, Marilyn Jess and Bridget Lahaie. some footballers too (although not as many as you may think) and quite a few rugby players. oh hang on, Monet too. i really do wonder why we bother having an organisation like the United Nations if they aren't going to stop the French polluting the world with their ideas on what vehicles should be like. it's not like they even drive on the proper side of the road, the contrarian tw@ts.

for me the worst crime is this ridiculous console instead of a proper, actual stereo. it's badly positioned and close to useless. very unresponsive and extremely difficult to navigate, which again is a factor that makes for very dangerous driving. no inputs on it except USB "C" ports, which means you cannot connect a proper music player to it. believe me, i tried. i experimented with a top grade discman (thank you Gill and Grant), a headphone jack to headphone jack and a headphone jack to USB "C" converter. no music came through. 

eventually i had to settle for "streaming" that Spotify thing via my phone via the device. yes, all of this streaming business is remarkably convenient, but it completely drains the soul out of music. on a proper disc you hear the music as the artist intended, via "streaming" you hear the music how a work experience kid and a computer can make it work on it. playing Led Zeppelin through it felt like a sin, and i grimaced when i heard what it did to the boss New Sensation off of INXS. 

perhaps i am really just overweight and out of date (spot the quote), but no, i insist on listening to music in the best way possible. that remains the compact disc, since you can't really put several thousand pounds worth of record player in a vehicle. again, streaming is convenient, but it's just not the quality or experience music should be. if you had the chance to go to Paris and see the Mona Lisa, would you instead opt to look at a recreation of it on MS Paint? sure it would be similar, but not the real thing.

the Peugeot Partner is ridiculously wide, yet the cabin (driving bit) is ludicrously narrow and cramped. easily the stupidest aspect of this, and i am not sure i have captured it in the picture, is the laughable way they have made it a "three seater". yeah, that middle seat is perfect for a midget, or someone with no legs, or at best someone who only has a left leg. where exactly would two regular legs go? across or over the left passenger or the driver? 

just to make the experience of driving one of these things is a complete misery the fuel requirements are dire. either it's the single most fuel inefficient thing i have driven or they have a two litre drink bottle in place of a fuel tank. perfect if you really, really like petrol stations. 

according to a quick (and basic) google search a Peugeot Partner will cost between £22,000 and £35,000 in real actual money. wow. no way. i had assumed they just gave them away for free, as that's about the most accurate value for money for it, in the hope that someone may say something nice about it. however much you hate yourself you cannot be so bad as to deserve being punished by driving one of these around. go look for basically any other vehicle. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fawlty towers

hello there

well, yes. this is yet another tale of adventure from that there London (innit), look you see. only this one might be of vague interest to a few people. hence the more specific title, rather than some abstract concept which relates to it all. but, for those looking for information on Fawlty Towers The Play then there is the "optimised" search term in the first paragraph. 

i haven't, i suppose, taken all that much of an advantage of being down in London (innit) so frequently. but also that's not quite true. often, for instance, i find myself propping up (financially) some of the music shops there. the quality ones at least. and there's been the odd cinema trip. yet i had not gone to too much in the way of the theatre or a show. on deciding to address this i was as delighted as i was surprised to find that going to see the previously mentioned Fawlty Towers play was not only possible but remarkably affordable. bearing in mind of course what one considers affordable another may well not. 

part of my problem with planning anything to do in London is the nature of my verk means it's rare i know for certain i will be in the area all that far in advance. well, at least, no, i am not always somewhere that one can easily access their vast public transport network. when i did have a couple of weeks notice of an exact place i went and took to "the internet" to see what shows i could grab a last minute ticket for. to my surprise i found that i could get one for what's likely the "hottest" or most in demand show going at the moment, which of course is (was) Fawlty Towers.

going on what the website for the Apollo Theatre (Shaftesbury Avenue one) said, they generally have a few "stray" tickets for sale every week. these are no doubt odd  seats here and there, where other guests have bought groupings together. one (1) solitary seat on its own is absolutely perfect for someone like me, destined to be forever in the exiled, isolated alone life i apparently want or at the least acted like i was begging for. well, that's what i am told. moving on, it was with sheer delight that i could purchase an aisle ticket which was obviously legit (from the theatre direct) for £20. 

no idea what the standard price for the ticket would be, but £20 sounded quite (as in most) agreeable for a supposedly long since sold out new show. granted, yes, it was a seat at the back, as you should be able to see below. to be fair there was on offer a front row ticket for £50. quite tempting, but it was to the far side and warned of a restricted view. the one i bought did not say it had a restricted view, which proved to be mostly correct. 

quite a bit up, then. not sure if that is what they mean by "up in the gods" or if that's a reference to the posh box seats. unfortunately i am an english literature student and not a homosexual, so i couldn't really deal in theatre terminology fluently. that said i did indeed once have some rocket on a sandwich, so who knows. yes, by the way, an actual (sort of, by my standards) review of the play will crop up here eventually, but i thought general theatre in London information might be of interest. one does hear all sorts of horror stories about costs. 

that i am not much of a drinker means that usually i would not be able to offer much in the way of telling you how much drinks cost at the theatre. or at the least the one i went to. oddly i can in this instance, as for some reason a gentleman stood next to me at the urinals struck up a conversation. he spoke of his plight, which was that two gin and tonics and three cokes cost him somewhere over £40, or if you like north of twice as much as my ticket cost me. oh. well, i just had a (small) orange juice, the price of which was slightly south of £3. right. being fair, they do have jugs of iced tap water available gratis. unless those costs are in your budget, would consider going for a drink or two somewhere else, but then again the pubs in London (innit) probably charge a reasonably similar price. 

merch, as in merchandise, is "the thing" these days, i believe. i had some whim or notional hope to get something along the lines of a mug or pen, with the former very much being available the last time i went to a play proper, which would have been Phantom Of The Opera with my now of course former but of the time (considerably) better half. no such items were on sale that i could see, but was happy enough to find they had a very good quality programme. or brochure if that's the proper posh term. i had a suspicion or guess that such would cost £10. as point of fact it was £5, which was rather more agreeable than my expectations. very high quality it is, too. 

but what of the play, Fawlty Towers, itself? nothing short of spectacularly brilliant. i thought it may fall flat as surely there was no way at all they could find an actor and an actress (or actors if that is now the right way to say it) capable of taking on the roles of Basil and Sybil in the sheer face of just how iconic the originals from the television show are. well, got that wrong. the two ostensible leads are absolutely perfect. just about all of the cast are, really. for the rest, well, if i have one complaint about it all then it's the actor playing Manuel just doesn't feel right, vocally or physically. he does just fine, but distracts you from the convincing illusion that you are watching the real thing. 

plot? i suspect no spoiler warning is needed. wisely the wise John Cleese has brought together three episodes which can both interlace into one story and easily be carried out within the limitations of the stage and set design. the three episodes are The Hotel Inspector, The Germans and Communication Problems. and the odd bit from other episodes, notably Basil The Rat or whatever it was called. it all gets set up wonderfully in the first act, and the second act is so familiar yet so hilarious it feels like the hour or so of it flies by in about ten (10) minutes. cannot honestly recall the last time i laughed so long and hard for that much time, to be honest. 

if you are wondering whether it is worth it, the effort, to go and see Fawlty Towers, i can very happily confirm for you the answer is yes. well, at least if you are a fan of the tv show. part of me wonders what someone who had never seen the original would make of it all. maybe one of them millennial or whatever types - them born after a time at which a Beatles reunion was impossible - has written a review of it quite different to mine. it is entirely possible with more better writing.  

rather likely that the selfie of me (moi) above was entirely unnecessary, but hey, my blog, and i just felt oddly it was the thing to do, taking an "i was there" picture. oh, no, you are not allowed to have your phone on in the theatre, and no less a voice than John Cleese at the start warns you that you do not have any permission at all to take images of the cast. so, i did not. would have been a silly thing to get thrown out for, especially considering the (poor) quality of videos from gigs. 

should it be so that you have a general, or specific, interest in things Fawlty Towers, then you might quite like some posts what i have gone done on the infamous myth (or urban legend) of a thirteenth episode existing. if that's the case, then here's one thing i wrote concerning the subject, and then for good measure here's another one. the idea of a "hidden" episode has always fascinated me, even if i have come to accept (should you have no interest in reading them) that it's exceptionally unlikely it ever existed. still, who doesn't like a good theory? 

unlikely as it may be to be so i do, all the same, hope that some of the information tucked away in here has been of interest if not practical use. above all, many thanks for reading!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gravity stairs

howdy pop pickers

well right now, as in the time of writing, it is roughly a month since Gravity Stairs off of Crowded House got released. a month more or less, look you see. in this peculiar and incomprehensible world in which we find ourselves, where all has been made instantly available and disposable, presumably most will have by now forgotten it even ever came out. how strange. 

anyway, since i (reluctantly) bought the tape (disc) and have now played it, my usual sense of obligation to write of such kicked firmly in. so yes, then, this is a kind of vague review of it. for those in some sort of immediate rush, and who(m) is not so, indeed it's quite good and certainly better than the previous one. but also no, it's not Temple Of Low Men or Woodface good. 

by no stretch of the imagination do i have all of the music what Crowded House have gone done. this may be a bit peculiar (yes a sort of review to come along eventually) with my proclivity for going full tilt autopilot on buying stuff off of my favourites. my passion for Crowded House stems off of my devotion to Split Enz. of course the bands are quite different, but at first it was like Crowded House are simply a different kind of the same excellence. think i kind of went off them when they released the first of a few "greatest hits" things, which featured Instinct which i consider to be a truly brilliant song, but i seem to recall the band for whatever reason didn't care for it themselves, so i just went f*** it and let them get on with their lives. likely three or even four tapes (or discs) what they gone done which do not feature it my collection. 

so, this album. it's much more better than the previous (link above somewhere) but not entirely sure how to best quantify that. feels rather more "together" with a good flow, if that makes sense. last one, in retrospect, was disjointed, but then i suppose such would happen when everyone was in exile due to that plague or whatever it was. how about i word it like this. on the afternoon i got to play the tape (disc) at last i played it through some five (or maybe six) times. so yes, inoffensive. but that said, after the first play (or so) it was on as a bit of background music as i did all sorts of other things.

the above is, ultimately, the reason the tape (disc) got bought. on that big social media thing an advert cropped up off of HMV, offering copies of the album with a signed insert. the price of the tape (disc) was not increased from a standard version sans signatures. honestly i am a bit fatigued by the novelty factor of signed tapes (discs) and now have to go out of my way to find Manics releases what they haven't signed. being truthful my most desired Finn signature would be that of Tim, preferably on a copy of Time And Tide or Frenzy. but that said Neil has written some incredible songs which i could list here, but shall not. 

returning to the album and, well, track (song) one, Magic Piano, answers a very important and pressing question. this is true if anyone has asked "did Neil Finn ever hear Dark Side Of The Moon off of Pink Floyd and did he like it". it turns out the answer is yes, and yes. he pays a most decidedly overt and generous tribute to Breathe with this song. oh. 

no, i am not too sad that i am not going to see them live (in concert) this year, as it is likely they will for the most part just play stuff off of this Gravity Stairs tape (disc). quite like James, then, and their new album didn't sound that great live. actually the more i think about that gig the more i am aware of just how bad it was. got to see Crowded House in the early 90s, so that will do. i would absolutely hate myself if i went to a Neil Finn gig and did not enjoy it, so best leave well alone. 

most of the reason i wasn't going to buy this tape (disc) was in the lead single, Oh Hi. when i first heard it i can distinctly remember thinking "f*** that's sh!t, i am having nothing to do with that". here on the album it doesn't sound that bad. not much better than my original reaction, but still. 

how best to classify this album? back in the 80s it was excellent. when one needed to buy a gift for Dad, be it birthday, christmas or father's day, you could absolutely count on their being something out on tape (or record) by, say, Dire Straits, or Paul Simon. even them tw@ts Sting and/or Phil Collins. a perfectly harmless, non-threatening gift that would be appreciated by the recipient. that is what this album sounds precisely like, with the main issue being not that many people buy records for dads for gifts no more. such is the sorry mess of the world we are in. 

for a measure of that, on the week of release it charted at 8, then the next week it was gone. so everyone who wanted it got it in the first week, and a (very) few of us bought it the following. not enough of us around in that second week to even keep it in the top one hundred. as a i said, strange world in which we live. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

does not contain fluoride

now then

recently i took a decision to completely revamp my dental, or if you will teeth cleaning practices. actually i am not sure that simply saying a decision was made is enough, look you see, for i went out and did it. no, not sure what came over me, but is was exhilarating. quite the rush. maybe not in the league of, say, going and throwing exhausted car batteries into the ocean (which is as surprisingly enjoyable as it is legal), but still something to do on a modest budget. 

it would be unlikely, i suppose, to expect much in the way of surprise being the notional greetting to news that it all got out of hand. for some inexplicable reason i purchased (considerably) more toothbrushes, toothbrush holders (actually cases) and toothpaste than i would reasonably need right now. there would be, i suggest, little need for me to go anywhere near any teeth related products in any shop at any stage of the year (2024) ahead. or (2025) next. 

many (well, one or two) of you shall wish to know some specifics. certainly i shall share. on returning to my lodgings in my place of exile i did a reconciliation thing and established that i had purchased four toothbrush holders (cases), six (!) toothbrushes and 2 (two) tubes of toothpaste. actually that figure is misleading, for i also purchased that which is pictured above and so below. 

as i would have every confidence you can see, this is an intriguing combination set of some toothpaste, with an ostensibly free toothbrush. so two of the three listed above should increase by one. the decision to purchase this set was made when my hands, for i declined a basket, were already full. for some reason it occurred to me to purchase this as a sort of "back up" or vague safety net like item of emergency use value should the other items fail. 

yes, indeed it does state that it is "hemp toothpaste" on the box. which, as the leaf on the packaging pretty much tells you, is of the provenance of cannabis or marijuana or what you will. grass, perhaps, or even weed. for those urgently wishing to know the price of this, it was £1. that did indeed have some considerable sway on my purchasing decision. 

of interest was a disclaimer, or note, on the back. no i have not thought to take a picture of it, you shall just have to trust me that it says so. what it says there is what the title of this is, which is that the product does not contain fluoride. oh. right. my understanding, and i am not a particularly clever or overtly intelligent person, is or was that this (fluoride) was very much the "business end" of toothpaste, and like kind of needed to be there in order for it to be what it says it is. although yes in this instance it does rather seem to say what it is and what it does not have in it. 

hang on, i am sure i can (vaguely) recall one conspiracy theory or another about fluoride. there's no doubt some sinister reason it is in toothpaste, at least according to those who take the time to think about such things. or was it all about fluoride in drinking water? anyway, whatever. might be like that thing when people kicked off and got all angry about "chlorinated chicken" from America, without ever explaining what was bad about that, or clarifying if it was so bad then why did they do it. 

perhaps (or possibly) the most interesting thing about this toothpaste is you just know someone has tried to snoke it. that or eat it, or even (at a push) inject it, all on the unlikely assumption that doing so would lead to them getting what is popularly called "high". at a guess it would not be successful, with any attempt at such likely leading to some form of distress. trimming the herd is what they call it. 

quite surprisingly it has been some (considerable) time since my last musings on the subject of toothpaste. generally it isn't a subject i find particularly interesting, yet it is a world i get pulled in to every now and then. it has, at time of writing, been an incredible twelve years since i was drawn into the rather murky world of illicit love bead infused toothpaste smuggling and a little north of five years since i was last involved in it. looking at those posts i also rather like the map for the smuggling route i produced. 

sadly no, i have not (as yet) tried this toothpaste. i did mention it was purchased mostly as a sort of emergency, last resort thing. up to now no such form of peril has occurred which would necessitate breaking out the fluoride free hemp toothpaste. i shall let you know if it does. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!