GOFFA FROM THE BLOCK

The Russell Brand never having voted story was brought to my attention this week.  Was it Newsnight or something?  I must admit I only skim read the a report of the interview but I think the gist/salient points were that Brand has never voted and encouraged others to do the same because it won't make the slightest difference. Depending on the slant of the report he has been described as hero or zero. No sitting on the fence this time.  The "we fought for the vote brigade" have castigated him whilst others have applauded his view and talked of his brilliance.  I presume he is talking mainly about elections here, be it local council or General elections?  Of course in a way he is right.    There is little difference between any of the main parties but in a way you can understand why.  Services have to be provided, bills have to be paid and in the case of national government, financial institutions have to be pandered to.  I'm not su...

My Facebook feed is full of tributes and songs tonight.  Fuck me, I've only got 79 friends (too many).  Feel sorry for the poor buggers with thousands of friends.  Still, I think I'll write something anyway. I went to see Lou Reed at The Sage in June 2006 ( here's the set list).  I've just gone back to my old blog to see if I reviewed it but sadly I was on a break.  I would have been interested to see what I said at the time. Can't remember an awful lot to be honest.  It was a hard time for me and my family and I'm sure my mind will have been elsewhere. Bits are starting to come back though. 1.  His drummer played in a glass cage. 2.  He had a real muso bass player who as well as playing a 5 string bass played a load of obscure instruments. 3.  Lou Reed brought his Tai Chi teacher with him on tour and invited him on stage to strut his stuff at the end of the set. 4. Lou had an electronic autocue with the lyrics on 5  I'...

Thursday 24 October 4 Play at Dr Browns Georgie Brown Shoot The Poet Cellar Door and Saturday 26 October at MIMA By Toutatis Sarah Procter Abel Raise The Cain John & The Ragmen/Sarah Proctor/The Purnells Old Shruggings Middlesbrough is for the most part a rock'n'roll city town.

Historically, I've never liked this day of the year.  You get an extra hour in bed but not being a great sleeper I just tend to get up an hour earlier.  I then just spend all day watching the clock go round until it gets dark an hour earlier than yesterday. Nobody can deny we've had a good run with the summer though eh?  After going out last night (more later) I decided to walk home and it was still warm about 11-30.  Apart from the odd day I reckon the weather's been clement since the early Spring.  And if the forecast is right we're even going to miss the worst of that big storm that's brewing tonight.   Ouch!  Call call me a selfish bastard but if turns out that way hard lines southern dudes. So walking home last night from the town was rather pleasant.  Kids still playing out (really)  in the little playground next to the old white bridge (sorry, only very local residents will know where I'm on about.   Also local residents will...

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before.  I like to think I'm a pretty modest fellar.  I don't consider myself  an expert in pretty much anything but I am confident verging on cocksure about what is good pop music and what isn't.  With that in mind I cannot for the life of me understand why a band like Mumford and Sons are revered and The Walkmen are virtually unknown.  See previous post for my comments on The Walkmen and if you go back far enough you might find a review of Mumford and sons when they played to about 80 people in Middlesbrough in 2009. Dawes supported Mumford and Sons on their last tour and I think it should have been the other way on.   They were splendid at EOTR at the Woods stage on Saturday.  Lots of references to LA, California etc.  Lots of anthem type songs and dare I admit it reminiscent of The Eagles, a band I have generally detested for most of my adult life.  I'm no...

Old news now but still need to say few things about EOTR 2013. I had a strategy before I set off that went totally out of the window when I got there.  I saw most of what I wanted to see and there's no point fretting when half a dozen people tell you that you've just missed the most amazing show on the secret stage.  You win some, you lose some and I actually caught a couple of secret shows this year. There won't be many charge around the stages like me (with the exception of my pal Richard) but I still managed to faff it a bit.  By all accounts Anna Von Hausswolff was great (not sure where I was) and quite a few said John Murry was the best thing on all week-end (good that Dinosaur Jr were, what was I doing?). A few years ago I left The Walkmen's set to watch Beirut and then left Beirut to see The Fall.  Since then I went to see Beirut to play a beautiful set in Leeds and at EOTR I saw every second of The Walkmen .   They are on the rocky...