Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales

The other day I has a cataclysmic vision of a big brother UK.

I was on the train heading south when the rain starting pouring, going past the Battersea high-rises which were all covered in clouds and rain a computerised feminine voice came over the loud-speakers: "Beggars sometimes operate on thsi train. Please do not encourage them by giving money. If you spot a beggar please inform a member of staff" (or words to that effect).

Looking around the train there were literally hundreds of safety notices: Don't: eat, smoke, hang your head out of the window, put your hands in the door, pull the safety leaver, don't smoke a camel, don't punch the snack trolley, don't do this, don't do that.

Looking around the sanitised carriage there were a few older women devouring their celebrity magazines, seemingly oblivious to all that was around and not caring. It felt like I was in that film where there are no babies in the world anymore, Children of Men. The vision of future London seems to me to be frightfully close to fruition (albeit without the weird baby thing).

Sorry ...I just feel that I realised then and there that things are a little screwy in the UK at the moment. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be here... Maybe I should just chill out, but riding that tain on Monday evening gave me the chills for a country, to paraphrase BRMC, on which I no longer want to waste my love.

Chimes of Freedom

Then time will tell

Mark Ronson is now a superstar DJ who has redone and remixed many famous and semi-famous songs. He'll will be redoing Bob Dylan's 'Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine' for a new Dylan best-of collection due out at the end of the year.

The Guardian arts & entertainment blog covered this subject this week one of the comments on the article had this joke.

Two dj's are talking in a bar..
DJ 1 says to DJ 2, "fancy going to the movies?"
DJ2 says "dunno, depends who the projectionist is"

And I guess that says it all about my take on DJ culture. Be interesting to see what Ronson does with the song though. He'll probably add a few horns and that'll be it. Attempting to make it sound modern, it will probably end up being the most-dated track on the collection in five years time.

Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine

I'd be there on Wednesday night

One of my favourite artists at Latitude was Elvis Perkins. He really tore the house down with his melancholy singer-songwriting. Brilliant stuff. I've written a review of his album, Ash Wednesday over at Rockbeatstone. Below is a clip of my favourite song from the album performed live on David Letterman. When he last was in the UK he played the Borderline - I expect he'll be back playing bigger venues when he's next in London...

Expect a review of the Latitude festival soon.



Percy's Song

The party's over, and there's less and less to say

There are some songs that you listen to and pass on almost without thinking. Then something happens which makes you listen to it again and reappraise that song. This happened to me today.

I've just come back from the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, which is probably the best festival I've ever been to: stages where we could easily get to the front when we wanted, large open spaces to lie down in the sun, beautiful setting in the woods surrounded by a lake, small stages 'hidden' in the middle of said woods, no aggro, and some great, great, and absolutely mesmerising music from some amazing musicians.

One of the bands we saw were the Hold Steady, probably my favourite band right now. They finished with 'Killer Parties' (as they did when I saw them at Shepherds Bush a few weeks ago), a beautiful end to the set it really made me realise what a great band they were and firmly cemented in my mind what a great set I had just witnessed.

A beautiful slow song, it builds with a repetitive bass line which oozes the feelings of the end of the night. It's truly amazing with Craig Finn's beat-poetry lyrics really encapsulating the spirit of a massive night: "I'm pretty sure we partied, I don't really remember". Which is how the best parties should always be, I guess.

Anyway, I've only listened to this song today - at lunch and commuting into work. I just can't get it out of my mind. I guess that this song fully encapsulates the weekend I've just had. It has just made me smile and smile. I love it when music does this kind of thing to you. It really is an absolute joy to be listening to that song and remembering the weekend I've just had. Music is sometimes a powerful thing.

Other bands I saw were: Wilco, Magic Numbers, Cake, Two Gallants, Herman Dune, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The National, Arcade Fire, Jarvis Cocker (who played 'Eye of the Tiger' as set closer), The Good the Bad the Queen, Elvis Perkins, Cold War Kids, the Rapture and some others I've probably forgotten. Comes with a HeNotBusyBeingBornisBusyDying stamp of approval. I'll be reviewing this soon for Rockbeatstone.

Highlands

Unless they're from another world

Before I head off to the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, I wanted to show you all my favourite episode of the Simpsons which features a guest voice from the legendary Johnny Cash. He's the fox. In this episode, Homer ends up being deported to another dimension where all is bizarre and not as it seems.



I've also written some stuff. Click for a review of Art Brut's new album, It's a Bit Complicated.

Series of Dreams

Dignity never been photographed
(for some reason, I can't edit my subject line!)

I've recently got the internet at home, so I can now update this blog with loads of photos that have been stuck on my hard drive for the last few months. Here is me meeting Southampton FC legend, Matthew Le Tissier. I went to see Saints v Derby (0-1) earlier in the year.



Another footie related one. This is Barnet v Stockport. Barnet has a quaint ground, vrey old-school. So far from the billions of pounds floating around the Premiership. Another great day out. I like the photo as it is an action shot. Wonder at the beauty of North London behind. What a shit-hole.

I imagine that I'll be updating with photos for a while yet, seeing as I've ran out of interesting things to say. Coming up will be: photos of Amsterdam, Milano and Metallica at Wembley.

Dignity

For another plate of food

Metro newspaper in London had this story which Ananova is running, in their informative 'Quirkies' section of their news service.

A guest stunned hotel staff by scoffing 15 fried breakfasts in one sitting.

Businessman Barry Bradley, 47, paid £7.50 for the 'all you can eat' grease mountain, which took more than three hours to devour.

He gobbled up at least 30 sausages, 20 rashers of bacon, 15 fried eggs and three tins of beans, reports Metro.

He even topped it off with six bowls of cereal at the Premier Travel Inn in Tonbridge, Kent.
A waitress said: "We couldn't believe it - he looked like he was never going to stop."

I've also written some stuff. A review of the new Bruce Springsteen album and a review of Mumm-Ra's debut album. Please read them if you're interested in what I have to say about them.

One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)