Well, last night to be precise - Tokyo Police Club entertained a young crowd at ULU, London, on the last UK show of their current tour.
It's been a year since MustyMC and I saw them play in the hot and sweaty confines of the Camden Barfly. I can remember thinking then that 'these guys are going to be big'! Well I guess they are getting there slowly - a good first album proper and ULU is a step up size wise, but last night it was hardly close to full and the crowd were a bit lacklustre. Maybe it was just down to it being summer and not term time. Calling the youth of today - TPC need more students!
I see that they are going to be supporting Geek-fathers Weezer on tour later in the year, hopefully that will help raise their profile. Cheer it on.
Oh, give us your vote Give us your vote If you know what's good for you Your English Is Good/Nature Of The Experiment/Cheer It On
"In the future, a man returns home from war only to discover that his town is now dead, in more ways than one. Fortunately, he finds comfort both in some undead monsters, and a very, very special album."
Written, edited & directed by Daniel Fox and Terence Krey. Nice job. It's better than the official Radio Nowhere video! Plus it has the Gonk!
Tonight I caught The Hold Steady giving a free in-store performance at Rough Trade East, in the old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London.
As they began to play I was up against the right hand speaker - whoa! It was painfully loud. Rather than stand there with my hands over my ears, I gave up what I'd thought was a prime position and moved round to the side. I was slightly behind the action with a restricted view, but I could enjoy the songs without my ears bleeding and my brain vibrating against my skull...
The band ran through a short sharp 11 song set to promote their new critically acclaimed album Stay Positive. For some reason I've not found the album to be the immediate knockout that Boys and Girls in America was. Up until tonight it has been slow to grow on me. However, hearing the new stuff live does make all the difference, and now I'm really looking forward to seeing The Hold Steady's next proper show in London @ The Roundhouse on October 8th. 'We Gotta Stay Positive'!
I managed to grab a tad (pun intended) of video with my little Sony, one of the quieter moments - it's just a shame I was on the wrong side for Tad's excellent guitar solo!
Lord, I'm Discouraged - The Hold Steady
Stuck Between Stations (end clip) - The Hold Steady
Setlist: Constructive Summer/Stuck Between Stations/Magazines/ Yeah Sapphire/One for the Cutters/Lord, I'm Discouraged/ Sequestered in Memphis/Navy Sheets/Joke About Jamaica/ Stay Positive/Slapped Actress
I skipped breakfast and boarded the 8:30am Whale Watch boat heading out of the harbour towards the Stellwagen Bank marine sanctuary. I'd say that around 90% of my fellow passengers were from Korean and Japanese tour groups. It was a very smooth ride but one or two people were unfortunately staring into their sick bags right from the start.
I'd made this trip twice before on previous visits to Boston. The first time back in '99 was an amazing revelation - there were whales everywhere - numerous humpbacks, minkies and dolphins, splashing and jumping all around the boat. The second time, a few years later, was however a bit of a damp squib in comparison, with maybe 3 whales obscured in light fog. I mean it was OK, but I knew that with a bit of luck this third trip might be better...
And sure enough, it was. When the boat reached Stellwagen Bank it was like entering humpback town. It's hard to say how many there were, but I think we saw perhaps 10-15 different humps breaking the surface. I managed to take a bit of video with my little sony - it's OK, just a couple of minutes captured from the whole event, but it inadequately represents the size and grace of these majestic creatures. Squashing the video resolution down into YouTube distances you from the experience even more. You really have to the whales in high definition real life.
It was a good 3 hour trip. As my fellow passengers enthusiastically took photographs, it occurred to me that maybe a few of them might be thinking about what they wanted to eat for lunch. I always find that being out at sea makes me hungry too, and as we headed back to Boston I was looking forward to some fish and chips and a nice cold beer.
Two new Carbon/Silicon tracks (featuring Gary Kemp) are available now as free downloads: Maybe that's the Meaning of Life and The Inconvenience of Truth. Get your mpfrees here
Aug 1-3 Boston Boston locals are a strange mix of sports fans and eggheads. Just walking about town, people pass by shouting out 'Go Red Sox!' to complete strangers, and if you sit down in a restaurant or café you'll probably hear the group on the next table talking theoretical mathematics or quantum physics.
Friday: I arrived in Boston from NYC by Greyhound bus and flopped onto my bed at the very nice Royal Sonesta hotel right on the Charles River. I needed to quickly figure out how I was going to get to the Bruce Springsteen concert the next day. The problem was that it was at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, about 40 or so miles away from downtown Boston, and there was no means of getting there by public transport. I guess it's a bit like trying to get from London to a concert in Milton Keynes with no car, trains or buses.
When I bought the ticket I knew that the stadium had a station next to it for 'event trains' i.e. there was a train service for events at Gillette Stadium. As I was to find out, with no help from the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority), the event train was not being provided for this concert!! Nightmare! Everyone going would have to travel by car - 50,000+ people is probably 20,000 cars, and at $40 to park the Stadium's going to make a hell of a lot of money!
I was stressed out. The nearest train and bus services were miles away and not running after the show's end. I was quoted $120+ each way for a taxi (if I could get one) and around $170 an hour for a 'car service'. I guess if I'd had my driving license with me I could have hired a car and paid the parking, but it wasn't an option. So, I decided to see if I could get a ride with a fellow fan who was going to be driving there from Boston. I posted my request to a Springsteen message board and crossed my fingers. At this stage I was seriously considering just eating my ticket and not attempting to get to Foxboro at all. Thankfully someone came through with an offer of a lift (thanks Howie!) and I could relax and enjoy my evening.
Saturday: Having previously arranged my transport for the night, I was able to take an interesting 90 minute boat trip up the Charles River that focused on its locks and bridges. It's always great to watch a bridge open, especially ones like this giant monster or the swing bridges around Manhattan. The rusting metal, the weight, the giant gears grinding. It seemed to me like a kind of Victorian steampunk.
Now on to the evening's entertainment. The striking open-ended design of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, is weird but very pleasing on the eye. As we arrived the heavens opened. Torrential rain fell and lightning bolts crashed down all around us. Whoa! Everyone was cleared from the pitch as the tropical storm passed overhead. I was thinking about the next day's headline - '50,000 fans fried in stadium strike!'. Fortunately the severe weather soon died down and the concert could go ahead, albeit an hour late. Another curfew busting post midnight finish was on the cards.
At 9:20pm Bruce and the band started to race through another marathon set that was to include a sign requested Little Latin Lupe Lu, a passionate Tunnel of Love, the inevitable Who'll Stop The Rain and a very rare appearance of that almost forgotten Born In the USA single I'm Goin' Down. It was great fun.
By all accounts it was a good show. I enjoyed it, but this time, standing to the side of the stage rather than in front of it, watching the screens and the crowd, I found myself a little detached from the performance. Sadly, I've not got any great video or pictures of the event - just this crap phone photo looking towards the back of the stadium during Glory Days...
Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Tunnel of Love/Little Latin Lupe Lu/Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?/Hungry Heart/Who'll Stop the Rain/Youngstown/Murder Incorporated/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: I'm Goin' Down/Jungleland/Born to Run/Glory Days/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). Boston Globe Review
Sunday: My last day of this short trip. I was up early to catch a Whale Watch boat from the harbour - more of which in a later post.
Then, after one of the best plates of Cod and Chips ever, it was just a case of heading for Logan airport and my flight home via Newark. Of course it wasn't that simple, another thunderstorm hit the east coast and that meant I couldn't meet my connecting overnight flight back to Gatwick. Nightmare! So, powerless, I reserved a spot on a flight out the next day and started to look for a hotel room... Then for the second time that weekend someone pulled through for me - a nice lady at Continental managed to squeeze me onto an American Airlines direct flight back to Heathrow; 'grab your bags and run'! Result!
I'm now shaking off the jet lag from a short jaunt across the pond; just 3 days in New York and then 3 in Boston. My aim was to take a break from the pain of job hunting and rejuvenate myself with a couple of E Street Band concerts. It was a trip that would add more pointers to my insanity. 'Broooce'!
July 29-31 New York/New Jersey Not the best of months to be a tourist in NYC. The streets of Manhattan were sweltering. Underground it was worse. Down on the sauna-like subway platforms it felt like I was following a trail left by Arne Saknussemm. Welcome relief from the stifling heat was however provided in the cool air conditioned trains.
Tuesday: After arriving and installing myself in a nice cheap-ish hotel on the upper east side, I headed out across Central Park, past frisbee catching dogs and the humans and turtles alike sunbathing down at the lake.
I'd come to New York to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band play but I'd not got a ticket. Doh! So, moving around town I was stopping off at Star*ucks watering holes and using their Wi-Fi hotspots to try and score a ticket via the net. No joy! There were hundreds of tickets available online, but only at vastly over inflated prices from arseholes on eB*y and Stubh*b. W@nkers!
Wednesday: Frustrated, I decided to relax a little, just slip back into tourist mode and enjoy the city. I took the subway down to Brooklyn Heights and made what's now become my traditional walk back over Brooklyn Bridge. My usual DVD, CD buying frenzy then took over before I sat back with a 'small' soda the size of a dustbin, and enjoyed the fun and stunning visual beauty of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Thursday: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were going to be playing a third night @ Giants Stadium, on their New Jersey home turf. The concert was sold out and I had no ticket... My best hope was to try the drop line at the stadium and see if there might be a return. I arrived at 10am and became the 7th person in the queue. I was in for a long long wait out in the 90 degree heat with no guarantee of getting into the show.
By late afternoon the queue had grown to several hundred people, all hoping that they might get lucky and be part off the 55,000 capacity audience. The sun blazed down, and shade was at a premium. Sunburn and heat exhaustion were becoming a problem. As I stood there on the concrete by the stadium fence, fans with tickets were arriving in their thousands, setting up tailgating parties in the vast parking lot. They had music blaring out and were enjoying their barbecues and cold beer. I was wilting. Water, beer everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
Event staff numerically wristbanded us in queue order and we were told that chances of getting a ticket were not good, and if any were available they would not be given out until just before the show start at around 8pm. So what's a few more hours to wait eh? In for a penny in for a pound. As it turned out the show start was delayed to around 9:30pm due to a major traffic incident involving a propane gas container, and this meant that the ticket office didn't start releasing tickets until around 9pm! All my fingers and toes were crossed.
Fortunately, I ended up with a great seat on the floor. I was in line with the back of the General Admission standing area ('The Pit') where I could see Jesse Malin and 3 of the Seeger Sessions Band 10 yards to my right, packed in like sardines. The lights dimmed. A colliape played The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze as the E Street Band took to the stage, and then Max Weinberg started hitting the drums...
Summertime Blues - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 31st July 2008, Giants Stadium, Meadowlands, New Jersey
It was of course a fantastic show - a Jersey special. At 30 songs, 3 and a quarter hours long, it finished at around 12:45am and tested the physical endurance of the crowd. After queuing in the hot sun for over 10 hours I was absolutely knackered. I must have been nuts. My feet were aching and I was fit to drop just 12 songs in, but Broooce and the energy of the crowd kept me going until the end. I've now seen 3 shows at Giants and each time the atmosphere in the old stadium has been tremendous. Song highlights for me included Blinded By The Light, a sweet Pretty Flamingo, Incident On 57th Street prompted by a sign requesting it 'For Your Old Bald Fans', and the ever powerful Because The Night which had Nils Lofgren embellishing his stunning spinning guitar solo with a John Otway-like forward roll!
Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Prove It All Night/Two Hearts/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Light of Day/Brilliant Disguise/Pretty Flamingo/Blinded by the Light/Cadillac Ranch/Candy's Room/Night/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Incident on 57th Street/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: Jungleland/Born to Run/Bobby Jean/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Jersey Girl/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).Star-Ledger review.
Shagged, I got back to my hotel at 3am, took a cold shower to cool down and then crashed out, grabbing a welcome few hours of sleep before getting the bus to 'Bosstown' on Friday morning...
It has taken me some time. It's been over three years now since my holiday in Peru but I've still not got around to completing the editing of my camcorder footage. For some reason, other than my condor moment, I can't seem to face up to the job. The horror, the horror...
So there I was, in the Peruvian edge of the Amazon basin, a place of great natural beauty. Three days in the marvellous Tambopata reserve, walking jungle trails and exploring Sandoval Lake by boat. Colourful birds were flying across the rainforest canopy, monkeys were searching for food in the trees and piranha were swimming close to the surface of the water. In the distance you could hear the sound of Giant Otters, squealing like children playing ...
After a 10 days of travelling across the Andes visiting Incan sites and Peruvian cities, great though that was, I was really looking forward to this short rainforest stay making an exciting end to my trip. Well it was certainly an experience. Unfortunately, a couple of days before arriving in Tambopata, despite being extremely cautious about what I was eating and drinking, I picked up a stomach bug in Cusco. It was something that no amount of Imodium could deal with! I won't go into the awful details but I was feeling pretty queasy and anxious on our flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado, the boat ride to Tambopata and then the long hot muddy hike to our jungle lodge. Thankfully I made it without any er.. mishaps. However, looking out over the serene Sandoval Lake, its water calm and motionless, the bottom fell out of my world! ¿Donde está el baño?
Ugh. Perhaps I should move this story on before it becomes too bogged down with my tales of the toilet. I'm not at all religious but I did find myself praying that the lodge wouldn't run out of loo paper. Oh dear, I was feeling drained, and I couldn't spend too much time away from my room. As a result I couldn't enjoy the planned nature walks and boat trips as much as I should have.
So anyway, enough of my troubles, here's the video I've cobbled together of some of the lovely sights and sounds of Tambopata. Sadly, due to my dance with the devil, I wasn't able to shoot much or take and any good pictures. It's a memento that only tells half of the story...
April 2005, Lago Sandoval, Tambopata Reserve, Peru
I should have been on the boat that goes past towards the end. My travelling companions were setting off to look for the Giant Otters, leaving me and my turbulent tummy behind. In those three days I think I just managed to eat about 6 tasteless biscuits and a handful of rice. I was a weak as a kitten and dreading the long flight home to London. Amazingly though, as if by magic, my life was saved in the food court of Lima airport. Starving, I could have gone for a little roast Guinea Pig, but no I chose a McDonalds! Just 10 minutes after eating a Cheeseburger and fries I was feeling much better. Thank you God!
Having the trots towards the end of my time in Peru did taint my holiday experience a bit, but it was still a great trip, and besides I managed to lose half a stone which was a bonus. Recommended for nature lovers and weight watchers alike.
'Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images' - Jean Cocteau
It's a quote that I often say to myself after waking up in the morning and taking a look in the bathroom mirror. Uggh, not a pretty sight. I can't help the fact that, as a child, I fell out of the ugly tree and hit several branches on the way down. Beauty is supposedly perceived in the eye of the beholder - when I look in the mirror all I can see is someone who looks like Rondo Hatton.
Perhaps though I can be helped? Trinny and Susannah could give me a style makeover, and Gok Wan could make me look good naked! I could get my eyelids lifted or have a botox injection. A little touch up and a little paint and I could be a thing of beauty, a joy forever. Albeit a fake one.
Bill Nelson - When Your Dream Of Perfect Beauty Comes True
Being a fan of Bill Nelson's music I stumbled upon the above unofficially made video. I've no idea where the original film is from but the chosen instrumental track fits it well. When Your Dream Of Perfect Beauty Comes True is from Bill's excellent 1982 album The Love That Whirls (Diary Of A Thinking Heart) - my joint favourite album of all time.
As they began to play I was up against the right hand speaker - whoa!
The band ran through a short sharp 11 song set to promote their new critically acclaimed album 
I'd come to New York to see 
So there I was, in the Peruvian edge of the Amazon basin, a place of great natural beauty. Three days in the marvellous 
After a 10 days of travelling across the Andes visiting Incan sites and Peruvian cities, great though that was, I was really looking forward to this short rainforest stay making an exciting end to my trip. Well it was certainly an experience. Unfortunately, a couple of days before arriving in Tambopata, despite being extremely cautious about what I was eating and drinking, I picked up a stomach bug in 
