How strange to wake up this morning and to switch on the TV news in the middle of the government security statement. I've forgotten the name of the young chap with the slicked back hair who was reading out the instructions, but his steely tone certainly sent a chill through the early morning air.

Not wishing to personalise this serious event too much, but I know that my mum will be having kittens now. I only told her yesterday that we would be going to New York later in the year, she is a professional worrier so I'm sure the anxiety gene will have kicked in with this mornings news.

In 2001 we had our New York trip booked up well before our Xmas trip, so when the news of the shocking events of September 11th started to reach us it, we had those inevitable selfish thoughts regarding our own safety. Pretty soon we decided that unless anything else happened, we would stick to our plans and make the trip. We didn't want to be voyeurs of others peoples misery but, the signs coming from the city were that once the dust had settled (literally in this case) they wanted people to visit. My mother was very concerned about this and had to put on her best trembling stiff upper lip voice when wishing us a good trip.

So we went, and had an amazing trip. We kept away the ground zero area, however we did spend some time with a friend of a friend who was working in the second tower at the time of the attack. The things he told us about that day were truly awful but he was doing his best to get his life back on track.

So unless we are told otherwise we will be getting on the plane later in the year, looking forward to another fascinating trip to one of the most eclectic places on the planet. The first time I went to New York was in 1984, with the my good friend, the unfortunately named Simon Templar. At the time any potential worry about a trip to New York was purely linked to the supposed wildness of ordinary street life, rather than a terrorist threat. Family and friends were convinced that we would be murdered within seconds of arriving, such was New York's reputation at the time, it's fair to say that Simon and I probably weren't the most streetwise pair of lads, so maybe their concerns were justified.

We managed to get stung within seconds of our evening arrival in Manhattan! We took the bus from the airport to central Manhattan, with the idea of getting a cab to the Vanderbilt YMCA on East 46th street. On leaving the bus we dashed round to collect our luggage before the anticipated gangs of gun touting hoodlums made a play for our enviable collection of black clothing. There must have been a glut of black T-Shirts that year, as no-one took any interested in our cases. We were almost there, now we just needed to take a short ride in one of those famous yellow cabs and we would be safe for the night.

The bus pulled away, and magically the crowd that had been around us melted into the night, leaving Simon and I looking expectantly for a cab. At this point a man approached us, saying that the cab drivers of New York were on strike! Luckily for us, he happened to know where a few strike busting cabbies would be and that he would be happy to help us out. Wow, what a stroke of luck, how nice of this fine fellow to come to the rescue of these strangers in his city. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

He told us to follow him, which we happily did, maybe we should have taken a moment to consider where this chap may be taking us, but no we just skipped along behind him. Luckily for us, the guy wasn't interested in a major scam, all he did was stand in the road, flag down one of the many passing taxi's (obviously there was no strike) and charge us for his hard work. I can't remember how much our special taxi tax was, so it can't have been too much, we took this as notice to sharpen up act and not get caught out again. During the rest of our stay nothing untoward took place and indeed every subsequent visit has been touble free

Saturday saw me back at Ashton Gate for the start of another football season. It was good to catch up with fellow fans outside the Nova Scotia, the general mood was one of optimism. however given the traumas of recent seasons it was tempered with some caution. City managed to get off to a winning start, with a hard fought 1-0 win over Scunthorpe United, only another 45 games to keep the unbeaten run going!

Slightly more exciting, was the fact that we booked a trip to New York in the autumn. We are going for a couple of weeks and are just waiting on confirmation that a nice looking apartment will be ours for the duration of our stay, delighted that we will be flying direct to NYC from Bristol airport as well. We last went at the end of 2001, I'm sure that many things will have changed since then, can't wait to see as many of them as we can. The nice thing about going for a couple of weeks is that we can take our time and have a few lazy days as well, also hoping to catch up with some friends whilst we are in town. In fact some of our musical friends from Bristol will be in NYC at the same time as us, so we hope to catch some Bristolian talent in action. Sufjan Stevens in playing when we are there, the cost of the tickets which I've seen advertised is rather offputting at $150 per person, so sadly I think that we will have to give that a miss.

Saturday evening saw us attending a family wedding, which featured some of the worst music you've ever heard. Classic wedding fodder, painful to the ears, yet I can't really criticize. The DJ at our reception played some shocking stuff and strangely he organise some sort of skipping competition as well, we are still not really sure what that was all about.

Looking forward to the Summer Sundae festival this weekend, so many good people to see: Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura (who have just anounced a gig on the Thekla on October 19th), Richard Hawley, Absentee, Calexico and lot's more. The following weekend we have another treat when the splendid M Ward plays in Bristol, he was fabulous the last time he was here and indeed his 'Transistor Radio' album has had many more plays than anything else on our iTunes, so we are really excited about the prospect of seeing him again.

Had an impromptu walk around the Stokes Croft area last night. We been trying to find a new sofa that we like, without much success so decided to take a closer look at Sofa Riot and liked the look of the place. I’m going to pop in and have a chat with on Friday.

Thought we would eat at Café Kino, and although the menu looked inviting we had to leave for another day. In the early part of the week, it shuts at 7pm, which was just about the time we were peeping through the window.

So we took the short walk along the fabulously interesting Picton Street to the excellent One Stop Thali Café on York Road. It’s a while since we’ve been there, so we were pleased to find that the food is as good as ever and the atmosphere was wonderful. As well as the people eating inside they must have provided about 20 of the take away Tiffin meals for which they are becoming famous.

Lovely to see three independent businesses providing such a interesting and fun place to spend some time.

Update on the Bristol record shop crisis. Had the following message from my friend Pete who owns Rooted Records on Gloucester Road.

“We deal with Vital, Baked Goods & SRD and a multitude of small companies and have good contacts there so we can always get stuff to order for you I hope !! or we'll certainly try - you know we'll do our best - And we also buy just about any vinyl. Pass it on”

Although they deal mainly in the harder end of dance music, they will try to get hold of any of those obscure items and indeed some of the less obscure ones as well. They hope to be selling gig tickets in the near future as well, so why not give them a go, I know that we shall.

So I appear to be in one of my regular Japan phases - watching Lost In Translation, reading Murakami, watching Tony Takitini. I guess I should be listening to Japanese music as well, but I've lost track of what's going on musically in Japan at the moment. Maybe I'll dig out some old CD's from Cornelius, Pizzicato 5 or Roundtable.

I've been trying to work out what started my fascination with the culture of Japan, I'm convinced that it started with a TV series in the 1970's. Thanks to a bit of web research, I think that the programme was called Shirley's World. My memory is of Shirley MacLaine playing a photographer in Japan, in my head the whole series was set in Japan, from what I've been able to find out it doesn't sound as though that was the case, in fact it was probably only 1 of the programmes in a 17 show run. Anyway, it obviously made a deep and last impression on me. I also realised the other day that another, earlier encounter with Japan had lodged itself in the deep recesses of my memory.

I was flicking through a book the other evening and noticed a reference to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Over recent years I've always said that my first memory was of my father getting rather excited during the Manchester United 1968 European Cup victory, but upon seeing that reference to 1964, I suddenly remembered watching grainy black and white highlights of those Olympics. So Tokyo and Japan have both obviously been on my mind for a very long time.

Managed to get down to Arnolfini this evening to see the film “Tony Takitani”. It’s a Japanese film, based on a short story by Haruki Murakami. Most of the English reviews that I have read have been rather unkind about the film, however I’d have to say that if you are a fan of Murakami’s work you find plenty to admire in the film version.

True, the pace is languid and the story slight, yet I thought it was a wonderful evocation of loneliness and loss. Not a car chase of fight scene in sight, just a simple meditation on the events that shape a life.

Bristol looked pretty great this evening as I walked along the dockside to Arnolfini, bumped into a couple of friends in the cinema and another one on the bus on the way home. How nice it is to live in this city of ours, despite the lack of any interesting record shops.

Another one bites the dust!

So just a matter of weeks after bemoaning the loss of Disc n' Tape, news reached me last night of the closure of all the Replay Records shops, where do we go now ?

Other than Rooted, all the interesting record shops have now gone, with that the chance to chat to someone who might actually have some knowledge of music from the margins has gone as well. It's a real shame, I guess it's time to join the world of internet shopping! Apart from Piccadilly in Manchester are there any other good sites out there for the slightly more obscure end of the market?

Our picnic on Saturday was a lovely relaxed affair, we ended spending over 6 hours just hanging around with our friends. Over the course of the afternoon about 20 friends came along, bringing loads of kids with them as well. Our Iranian friend Bij bought along his traditional Iranian 4 stringed mini sitar like thing, which was nice. We chatted, ate and drank and even managed to sneak in a bit football as well. Top afternoon, away from the heaving crowds of Ashton Court, same again next year I think.

We’ve just watched the excellent Lost In Translation, as we now have Film Four thanks to our lovely little Freeview box. I really love the way it captures the dislocation of being in a wonderful city, where everything almost works in the same way – yet doesn’t quite. Causing lots of unintentional confusion along the way.

We went to Tokyo in 1999 for an amazing holiday. I still think that visually it’s the most amazing place that I’ve been to. The film captures the wonder of the place perfectly, the amazing chaos and serenity which can be just a matter of yards apart. It’s a fantastic place to visit, even with our limited grasp of Japanese it was a relatively easy place to navigate your way around and of course the people were amazingly helpful and friendly.

Talking of Japanese things, I’m excited working my way through the latest collection of short storeys from Haruki Murakami – Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. I’d managed to track down a few of these over the years, thanks to the New Yorker and the web, it’s good to see them collected together with the additional bonus of many completely new ones as well.

For me Murakami captures the mood of Japan perfectly, whilst hardly ever writing explicitly about the place. It’s the air of detached understatement more than anything else, which works so well. Many of his pieces have wildly strange stories to tell; yet he tells them in such an undemonstrative way that they appear believable. When his deals with the straightforward events of like, he can do so in a heartbreakingly simple way, it’s fantastic stuff.

If you are not going to Ashton Court on Saturday, why not meet us for some relaxing fun in the sun. We'll be there from 1pm. Click on the thumbnail to see a nice poster that a friend made.

What a disappointing, dispiriting and hollow feeling Sunday evenings World Cup final left me with. Nothing against Italy, although after a good first half, virtually all their attacking verve vanished into the Berlin night. No, the real misery was the shameful behaviour of Zinedine Zidane; It was one of the ugliest, most brutal things I’ve ever seen on a football pitch, barbaric thugishness made somehow worse, when it’s perpetrator has been the instigator of some of the most beautiful football I’ve seen.

And yet today, Zidane is given a hero’s reception upon his return to France, how different from the response to David Beckham following his sending off for a very minor moment of stupidity against Argentina 8 years ago. Obviously the comparative contributions of these two players to their national teams and football in general were wildly different at the time of their misdemeanours.

Beckham was at the start of a career, which would hopefully lead England to a new level of success on the world stage. As we now know, that promise has never come to full fruition, Zidane was at the other end of the spectrum, having achieved everything any player could wish for on a personal, club and international level. So I assume the praise was for past glories, whilst the hatred for Beckham was caused by the frustration of under achievement when the carrot of success had been briefly dangled under English noses.

Interesting that the French president should praise him for displaying “the greatest human qualities”, whilst failing to mention the inhuman ones he showed on Sunday evening. It was a sickening, shuddering act of brutality, repulsive in it’s vitriolic hatred. The beautiful game lost much of its charm through his selfish act.

The games over the weekend didn't give the level of brilliant excitement I was looking for, we did however get plenty of tension in the Germany - Argentina, England - Portugal games. I thought that apart from a 5 minute dodgy spell Italy looked very good, although who knows how good Ukraine really are. The stars of the show for me though were the French and Zidane in particular. From the 1st minute of the game he was in complete control, every inch the master craftsman. What a joy it is to watch someone playing the game with such style and zest.

I've had a go at picking my team of the world cup so far:

Lehman (Germany)

Sangol (France)
Cannavaro (Italy)
Neill (Australia)
Zambrotta (Italy)

Zidane (France)
Gattuso (Italy)
Riquelme (Argentina)
Ballack (Germany)

Henry (France)
Ribery (France)

Several people came close to making the final cut, Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand from England, Ayala and Crespo from Argentina, Rosicky and Nedved from the Czech team, Bufon from Italy, Gusin from Ukraine, Klose from Germany.

Away from the World Cup , we enjoyed a very nice Sunday afternoon with a few friends in St Andrews Park. Using the copious coverage from the magnificent trees, we managed to avoid getting too hot in burning sunshine. Strangely at around 5:30 we were caught in a major hail and thunderstorm in South Bristol, it was so bad that we turned the car round and came home, of course 5 minutes down the road, the pavements were as dry as a bone

We've spoken to lot's of people who are as appalled as us at the current state of play with the Ashton Court Festival. As mentioned here in the past, we've decided to boycott the event as it has become a travesty of the community festival that it started as. So as long as the weather is ok, we've decided to gather with a few friends in St Andrews park from around 1pm on Saturday July 22nd for our own alternative Ashton Court gathering. Not sure if any music will be involved but we will be able to take advantage of the wonderful little cafe that has opened in the park, enjoy lovely surroundings and hook up with friends old and new, without having to battle to get into the site, get past security, pay £7 (or £9 on the day), and pay over the odds for food and drink. All welcome.

Hey, we're off to a festival!

It's not for a while and we won't be camping, but one again we are dipping our toes in the muddy world of the music festival. In August we are heading to Leicester for the Summer Sundae festival, we've decided that we are too old/lazy/snobby to camp, so have booked ourselves into a local hotel for a few nights.

The line up was just to good for us to resist: Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, Richard Hawley, Calexico, Isobel Campbell, Absentee and loads more there are even indoor toilets - bliss. I'm not sure what the capacity of the site is, but I don't think it's too enormous, so it should be a pleasant weekend. It's worked quite well as Bristol City are playing away that weekend, so I won't even need to miss a game.

Talking of football briefly, I'm really looking forward to the games this Friday and Saturday. With the exception of Ukraine I think that any of the teams left in the competition can win it, so it should lead to some very exciting games. This is where my 4 day working week really comes into it's own. The idea of being stuck in work as Germany and Argentina are playing each other is a miserable one, so pleased that I'll be able to watch it all.

I've actually had 6 months of a 4 day working week and it's great. It's easy to take care of a bit of household stuff during the day which leaves more time for us do what we want to do on the weekend. Of course I earn a little less, but I've always thought that time is more important than money.

The Day The Music died….Again.

Yesterday I paid a final visit to Disc N’ Tape, yet another independent that is about to close. It was never quite in the league of some of shops like Revolver and Imperial but something else made yesterdays visit rather poignant for me.

Back in the late 1970’s my record buying kicked in with avengence, fortunately this coincided with me starting work and having some money to spend. Every Saturday morning, I would venture into central Bristol to make the rounds of the record shops.

Revolver Records up at the top of Park Street would be my first port of call, small chaotic and cramped it was the first place where I heard dub reggae blasting out alongside the quirkiest indie gems of the day, leaving there I would wander back down the hill pausing in a couple more record shops and Forever People (for fanzines and badges) on Park Street, before doing the rounds of the bigger chain stores in Broadmead. HMV was in odd little unit across the road from The Odeon and then it would be onto Virgin Records.

Now in those days, Virgin somehow managed to have the feel of bigger version of an indie store unlike the shop that it has become today. One of the main reasons for this was the guy who became known to me as “Chris from Virgin”. Chris was obviously a true music enthusiast; keen to pass on his knowledge to all and sundry despite often looked harassed to the point of distraction.

Of course around that time I started going to gigs inevitably Chris would be there, often playing some tunes between the bands. Virgin eventually became a hellish place to visit as all the new punks decided that they wanted to hang about outside the store on a Saturday, leading to lots of unpleasant behaviour. Chris just soldiered on, in the same way. Briefly I recall him being a DJ in the early days of GWR (I think), bringing a rare slice of eclectic music to the local airwaves.

Years later I would see him shops as became a rep for the Virgin record label, still the same smile on his face as he passed the news of new releases on to the expectant shop staff. Then he seemed to disappear for a few years, before turning up in Disc N’ Tape (you can imagine kids these days asking what Tape is!). The shop is having a closing down sale and I know from my time at Imperial how hard that can be, so I rather shamefully picked up a few things at rock bottom prices and took them up to Chris at the counter. I asked him what his plans he had once the shop closes, sadly he told me that after spending his whole working life in music, he had finally had to give up on it and get an ordinary office job.

I know that directly or indirectly he has been involved in selling music to me for the best part of 30 years. Never again will we see that lovely grin as he pops a CD into a bag and says “great album that one, have you heard…….?”

It was 20 years ago today…..that Orynthia and I had our first date. The location was The Tropic just off Stokes Croft in the middle of Bristol. Now back in the glory days of the C86 era The Tropic was the venue of choice for the up and coming indie bands. The general routine was: NME article one week, Tropic gig the next, Peel session the week after that, then a single on The Creation label, wrapped in a lovely polythene bag.

That particular evening The Loft were playing so we all had a chance to laugh at the leather trousers, which Peter Astor was wearing (another given for the time was that in every Creation band at least one person had to wear leather trousers). The sequence of events was a little different for this gig, as The Loft had already released a couple of brilliant singles.

It was a good gig, but the 20 year encore has been fantastic.

Still caught up in World Cup frenzy at the moment, however I had found time to write a couple of album reviews for Global Café. You can find my reviews for the latest albums from Charlie Parr and Camera Obscura on their site.

Did manage to see new Bristol band The Chimes on Monday, very good they were too. Reminded me a little of Microdisney if anyone out there remembers them.

That’s it for now; I’m off to watch Germany V. Sweden.

Had a rare night away from the world cup and what a great night it was. A few friends came to our place to catch the end of the England match (not great, but we did enough), so that we could make the shot trip to Cardiff for the exciting prospect of a Camera Obscura gig with Francois & the Atlas Mountains supporting. The journey was made all the more enjoyable, as we were listening to a great CD from a chap who records under the moniker Little Name. Go to his lovely website to discover more about this very talented chap.

We weren’t disappointed! A slightly truncated version of the Atlas Mountain joined Francois for a wonderful 45 minute set, which featured a few new songs. As ever their infectious ear for a melody coupled with an exuberant sense of fun and energy quickly won over the crowd. It’s great that they are getting some wider exposure by doing this tour, I’m sure that they will pick up many new friends along the way.

Camera Obscura were on fine form, with 3 albums of songs to choose from they now have a set list, which is full of shining gems. The band themselves seem to be aware of the fact that they are playing at the top of their game at the moment and appear to be really enjoying themselves. They are off to the USA soon, well worth catching them if you can.

Talking about being on top of their game, I’ve just watched a fantastic Argentina side win 6-0. Wonderful football, head and shoulders above anything else we have seen so far.

A bit of a lack of updates round here caused by the World Cup. After a belting start we’ve had a couple of slightly duff games today, still a bit of settling in going on for some of the teams. Loads more good stuff to come I’m sure.

We are off to Cardiff on Thursday to see Camera Obscura, it’s the only gig on the horizon for us at the moment. Looks like it’s going to be another year for us to give the Ashton Court “community” festival a miss. Back in the days before Orange got involved, the festival was a great weekend for the music loving people of Bristol, the perfect chance to catch all those local bands that you had heard about, but had not actually heard. Chuck a couple of quid in the bucket, have a wander round for a few hours bumping into mates old and new – perfect.

What do we have now? £9 per day to get in and Simple Minds – Yes, Simple Minds headlining, what is the point? As a friend was saying to me on Sunday, Ashton Court used to be a community festival because everyone in the community could go to it. Kids with no money, parents with no money and a couple of kids to amuse, OAPS having a curious stroll around, in short anyone.

Now we have to have huge fences and masses of security staff to keep the people out, not really my idea of community. It also used to have a brilliant Jazz tent, featuring the cream of local talent, over the years that changed into the Hip Hop and breaks area, and then it just became a generic dance area. All very sad, but I’m sure that the people who run it will all end up getting lovely jobs in the media or the exciting world of corporate promotions.

So we find ourselves on the brink of another World Cup, it will be the 10th one that I’ve watched. If you do the maths you can work out that I don’t remember watching the tournament in 1966, when England won.

In fact my first memory of football was back in 1968, when my normally placid father shocked me by getting very excited as Manchester United overcame Benfica to claim the European cup for the first time. I don’t remember much about the game itself, just my startled response to dad’s behaviour.

Over the years football has caused me to have pretty excited reactions to the events unfolding before me. Will it be the same during this World Cup? My knowledge of football and footballers is less than it has been since I was a schoolboy. That can bring it’s own excitement, in the past I’m sure that I’ve spent too much time looking for the players I know to perform the star turn. Who knows which players will have me leaping from seat in amazement?

On a rather more parochial level, I have decided to renew my season ticket for Bristol City. After a long period of doom and gloom around the end of last year, I did see enough in the last few months of the season to convince me that watching City could be fun after all.

I’m currently reading “Black Swan Green” by David Mitchell, it’s quite different to his previous works in that the narrative structure if fairly conventional. What I’ve read so far it set around the time of Falklands War, such a strange time in our recent history. It was the first time that became fully aware of the fact that I didn’t think the way the media told me to think. I was deeply uncomfortable about the war and was really concerned that if things carried on for some time, I might to go and fight. Of course it never got close to the sort of call-up, which would have involved me, but I well remember the appalling jingoistic tone of the country at large.

Then a few years later we had the miners strike and the battle lines were clearly drawn. To this day I can’t imagine liking or even warming to anyone that had any level of support for Thatcher and the mood, which she created in the country at that time. I’m not sure where David Mitchell is going to lead us, with this nostalgic schoolboy tale, he normally has a trick or two hidden in the narrative, and so I’m intrigued to see what he has lined up for us.

On Saturday evening, a few of the Grumpy Man gang and myself were asked to play a some tunes at benefit gig for the NO2ID campaign group here in Bristol. It was a strange evening featuring some interesting and some not so interesting music, a speech from our local MP Stephen Williams and of course some top notch tunes from the Grumpy Gang. The organisers were able to swell their rather meagre funds by around £200, which was pretty good news for them.

A couple things I forgot to mention previously. I recently read Everyman by Philip Roth, it’s a pretty slim novel, in fact it could probably be reading in one sitting if you live the sort of life where you have time to do that sort of thing. Anyway, I thought it was great, it perfectly captured the way we unthinkingly push ourselves into corners, cutting ourselves off from those that care for us with a mixture of stupidity, carelessness and fear. I also forgot to mention how fab Micah P. Hinson was when he played with Richard Hawley last week. He burns with real intensity, looking forward to a new record from him.

Over the course of the weekend we’ve spent a bit of time with one of Orynthia’s uncles. He is the captain of one of those huge ships that move coal around the world. This weekend his boat was dropping of a massive amount of Russian coal at Portbury Dock. This afternoon we got to look around the ship and hang out for a while in his Captains Quarters.

Not quite as glamorous as you might imagine, it was still cute in faded glamour kitsch 60’s sort of way. I’m not very good on boats, so was quite happy that this one was securely docked, especially when we discussed how the sea could throw around even a monster ship, such as the one we were on. Being a sea for months on end is the strangest way to earn a living that I can imagine, it’s certainly not an easy life.

Ok let’s get this straight; if Richard Hawley comes anywhere near playing a gig in your town, you MUST get yourself a ticket

His gig in Bristol last night was the best show we’ve seen in ages. What a band, what songs, what a raconteur, what amazing guitar playing! Just superb, from start to finish. I did have a small concern that it may have been a slightly one-tempo evening – no way. We had a bit of everything country, ballads, rockabilly, big old anthemic indie rock, killer tune after killer tune.

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

So Saturday evening saw us partaking in the festival of bad taste which a Eurovision Song Contest Party. We decided to adopt Lithuania for the evening, on account of the splendid holiday, which we enjoyed there a few years ago, the fact that they had a ludicrous song helped as well.

Orynthia found a Lithuanian recipe for poppy seed cake, and we made froze a bottle of Vodka in some water, giving us fine traditional treats from the area. Jon & Katja’s house was a mass of adults and children wearing a strange verity of costumes as the fun began. Had to feel sorry for the bemused Zimbabwean neighbours we arrived late in the evening as the spectacle neared its conclusion. Lot’s of truly awful music, but a top night of fun.

Last night we nipped along to see, the indie survivors Shack and new kid on the block Jim Noir. The lad Noir and his band produced a sparkling set of tunes – witty, catchy and beautifully played they were indeed a treat.

Shack are very much at the other end of their career and by all accounts it’s a miracle that Michael Head is still alive, let alone producing great music. Pleased to say that Mick and the lads looked to be in rude health and stormed their way through a psychedelic / folky array of gems. Sometimes the guitar solo’s may have been a little too long, but the crowd (mainly men of a certain age) loved it. The final song from the band was the spellbindingly lovely “Comedy”. One of the hit’s that should have been from way back in 1999, at the time it sounded like a great comeback record, now its just sounds like a classic.

Tomorrow we are off to see Richard Hawley and Micha P. Hinson, should be another top night.

Well our London trip was a big success; the gigs by Irene, Bricolage and Camera Obscura were pretty fab. Three bands at different, but exciting stages of their careers, for Irene it was their first gig in the UK. They whisked their way through a blistering set of power pop gems, they were so good that I was convinced they had only played for about 10 minutes, Orynthia assured me that they had played for much longer than that, but it was over far too fast for me.

Bricolage are the being courted by a few labels at the moment and are trying to make sure that they make the right decision. Their gig was in the basement of a club in Shoreditch, the main focus of the evening for most of the crowd was the DJ stuff going on upstairs. They still managed to sound crisp and tuneful, when they eventually hit the stage at 1 AM, it would be good to see them in Bristol soon.

Sunday evening saw us heading to the other side of London, to see Camera Obscura playing in Kilburn. They played all of their soon to be released new album, including the brilliant new Single “Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken” which was released this Monday. It may even be a hit, now that would be something.

We also caught up with a couple of excellent exhibitions; firstly we went to the V&A for the big Modernism show. So many wonderful things here, loads of fantastic architectural stuff, being the highlight for me. On Saturday we went to the Tate Modern for the joint exhibition of the work of Josef Albers & Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. It was the perfect companion piece for the Modernism show. Lot’s of overlapping themes between the two shows, so many brilliant ideas.

When we see exhibitions such as these which focus on work from the early to middle period of the 20th century, I always want to ask older people at the shows what their memories of the artists / designers are. Did they like the work at the time? Did their friends like it? Did it influence their life or have they only become aware of the stuff in later years? Of course being English, I never talk to strangers unless they speak to me first.

We were so sad to hear about the sudden death of Grant McLennan this weekend. The Go-Betweens were one of those bands they never quite became as big as they should have done in the UK. So many great songs over so many years, they even managed to make wonderful records when they got back together after a 10-year break, not many bands can that. Last November we very nearly went to Valencia to see them playing with Teenage Fanclub, two classic guitar bands playing on the same bill, in a interesting city was very tempting, in the end we didn’t make the trip. It’s sad to think that we will never get the chance to see The Go-Betweens again, they were a fine band.

Other than The Go-Betweens I’ve been listening to lots of new stuff recently. The new single by the brilliant Camera Obscura – "Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken" comes out next Monday, it’s just wonderful and should be a stonking great big hit single. Also been enjoying the following:
Sol Seppy – The Bells of 12
Calexico / Iron & Wine – In the Reins
Jenny Lewis – Rabbit Fur Coat
Freddie Hubbard – Open Sesame (not exactly new, as it was recorded in 1960!)
Bricolage – 4 track promo single featuring Flowers of Deceit, Footsteps and 2 others
Flaming Lips – At War With the Mystics

Very excited that we are going to see both Camera Obscura and Bricolage in London this weekend!!!

Picked up new books by David Mitchell and Philip Roth the other day, haven’t had a chance to start either of them yet as I’ve been doing a lot of New Yorker catching up. Tomorrow night we are going to a talk which Nick Hornby is giving here in Bristol. I’m sure that’s his a very happy man at the moment, given the success which his beloves Arsenal are enjoying.

Speaking of the New Yorker I’ve got hundreds of back-issues, which I need to get rid of I guess I should go down the ebay route, but can’t really be bothered with all the fuss. Any ideas?

So the 1-1 all draw at Ashton Gate this weekend means that City will not be making the playoffs. The last 15 -20 minutes were amongst the funniest times I have spent at Ashton Gate, with a draw meaning that we would be staying in Div 1 for another year and that Swindon would be making a swift departure to Div 2. Consequently both sides gave up any idea of defending, giving the best game of playground football I’ve ever seen. The fact that both sides failed to score even though no one was really trying to stop explains a lot about the sort of season that both clubs have had. Still I’ll be back for more next season.

Yesterday we hooked up with Dad and Step Mum, as they stopped off in Bristol for the afternoon, whilst heading from Gloucester to London. We had a brilliant lunch in The Olive Shed, before spending an hour or so in the Bristol industrial museum. Must be the first time in about 30 years that I’d been in a museum with my Dad, it turned to be great fun. As every good parent does in these situations the pair of them filled in all sort gaps in my knowledge of the industrial past of the region.

Given my Dads background in the motor trade, it was great fun to look at the part of the museum with him. One of the first things you see upon entering the place is an old wooden wagon, donated by the Gazard family of Oldbury-On-Seven, a family that were well known to him, as his parents lived in the village for many years. At the other end of the spectrum was a lovely example of a Bristol car, a gorgeously sleek car from the 1950’s which my dad used to drive from time to time as his former boss at the Evening Post had one, which Dad sometimes drove him around in.

Upstairs we took a look at the printing history of Bristol, both of them had connections to the print trade through there newspaper related work, so yet more little pearls of wisdom came to light. I felt just like a kid.

Today was spent at Redland fair; we managed not to spend too much money this year, a couple of books for me and few items of clothing for Orynthia. Hooked up with countless friends in a lovely informal way, shame the weather was not a few degrees warmer, but we had fun anyway. Another 3 day working week ahead of me, I love these bank holiday weekends!

Well last weekend didn’t really go to plan. Things obviously weren’t right when I realised that I didn’t really want breakfast. Now anyone that knows me, we realise that this is an unusual situation to say the least. I guess it happens about as often as whole week going past without a self inflicted humiliation for the The Labour party.

Anyway I spent the whole day in various degrees of discomfort, including a few periods studying at close quarters the lovely porcelain of our lavatory. In the evening we had tickets for the Calexico / Iron & Wine gig. After managing to have a spell of stability we decided to go the gig. Must admit that I expected to see a 60% full venue as was the case the last time Calexico play the Academy, but this time the place was packed, Not really want I wanted to see as it’s a very uncomfortable place when it’s busy.

Iron & Wine were first on and pretty soon I was struggling to stay on my feet. After about 20 minutes of their set, I realised that I needed to get out quickly or I was going collapse in the heat. As I mentioned the Academy is not a pleasant place when it’s full, trying to take the short walk to outer bar area was horrible. The stairs leading up from the “pit” area were covered with people trying to see the band. Meaning that you had to push your way through people who had nowhere to go (bit of a health and safety issue I’d think). At last I did make it to the seating area and sat there feeling rather strange for a while.

I had told Orynthia to stay in the main room and watch the band, but after a short while she came to see how I was. When she tried to get back in the main room she found it imposable to get back to where she had been or get any sort of few to see the gig, so without seeing Calexico we decided to leave. Good job we did really, as soon as the car pulled up outside the house, I knew that I was in trouble1 I just about managed to make it to the Tulip bed in front of the house, before depositing an unusual load of plant food at their base. The good news is, that almost a week on the plants are looking better than ever, don’t really fancy feeding them in this way on a regular basis though.

Tomorrow should see the last home match of the season for BCFC, amazingly having flirted we relegation almost all season, we could still make it into the promotion playoffs! It depends on the two teams above us failing to win their games and us winning both of ours, but it could just happen, If it does we have the delight of running around getting tickets for the extra games!

It’s Redland fair this weekend, the social event of the year for people round here. It’s a community fair / car boot sale / performance afternoon where we have picked up some amazing things in previous years. The fun officially starts at 1pm, I think Orynthia will have us looking for bargains before that!

I just been sent this link to some fantastic footage of the brilliant and bonkers Sun Ra, take a look it’s genius.

Joe Volk
Wow, where did those 2 weeks go? I guess that we’ve just been catching up with friends and family following our little trip.

In fact over the Easter weekend we had a bit of a family gathering here, to celebrate the fact that one of Orynthia’s cousins had just returned after about 4 months travelling around Southern India. She had loads of amazing stories to tell and pictures to show us. It felt as though we spent the whole afternoon laughing.

Being a Burmese gathering we obviously had way too much food, so on the Monday we invited 4 other friends over to join us in an attempt at eating it all, they did pretty well, but could not quite clear the decks completely. It’s great to have friends who are happy to come and ear leftovers, pretty wonderful leftovers they were though.

I did my little bit of DJ’ing at “Lost In The Woods” last night. It was the first night for the boys in a new venue, The Lansdown in Clifton. The music took place in a lovely room above the bar. The acoustics of the room were perfect for the “voice and guitar” approach of all the guys who played, lovely evening.

Tomorrow we’re very excited about the prospect of seeing Iron & Wine + Calexico playing. It will be interesting to see Iron & Wine in a larger venue, we seen them twice before in St Bonns which is a tiny social club which no stage at the time. Will their intimate sound work in a venue, which holds around 2000 people? I’m sure that it will, we’ve seen Calexico in this venue before and they were great.

We arranged a little trip to London in May. Over the course of 4 days we will be seeing Camera Obscura, Bricolage and Swedish band Irene. In addition to that we hope to catch the Modernism exhibition at the V&A and the Bauhaus exhibition at Tate Modern!!!!

We will be making the trip on the Mega Bus, it’s costing the outrageous price of £4.50 for the two of us. Yes, £4.50! That’s the return price – it’s mad! To be even more cheapskate we are staying in the guest room with Orynthia’s aunties sheltered housing complex, that’s setting us back £5 per night, amazing.

Well we are back home after our mountain and lochs/lakes holiday. It was about a 1700 mile round trip taking in Glasgow, North West Scotland, The Lake District and Snowdonia. Lot’s of amazing scenery along the way, it was also great to catch up with lot’s of friends during the trip.

Whilst in Glasgow we went to see an excellent band called Bricolage. The 1990’s were also playing, they were pretty good as well, have to say though that the highlight was meeting James Kirk. For those that don’t know him, he was one of the founding members of the group Orange Juice. He released an excellent solo album a couple of years ago called “You can make it if you boogie”. Turned out to be a lovely chap, very funny and interesting. He even managed to give us a few tips for things to look out for in the highlands – he was quite the tour guide.

Lot’s more to write, but lots of stuff to catch up with around the house as well. Just time to say that I’ll be playing a few tunes at the next “Lost in the woods” evening. This will take place on April 20th at The Lansdown in Clifton. The performers will be James McArthur, Joe Volk and Jonny Collins, it’s all arranged by those nice people from Aspen Woods. Admission is £3, which ain’t bad.

So were off for a while, catching up with friends all over the UK, should be fun. Only 1 gig booked, that’s Bricolage in Glasgow.

Will let you what we got up to when we get back.

6 – 0! Yes, Six – nil, no matter how you write it it’s still amazing to see City win a league game by 6 clear goals. To be honest it could have even more, so inept were poor old Gillingham, you had to feel sorry for their fans. Such a long way to travel, for such a shocking performance, I’ve never really been sure why people travel such lengths for a game of football. I’ve never really been to more than 5 or 6 away games in the course of season, in fact which the exception of the play off final in Cardiff a couple of seasons ago, I don’t think I’ve been to any away games in the last 5 or 6 games, no matter much City improve, I think that my away days are over, really – life’s too short.

Other than that, I enjoyed a very funny evening at The Cube on Friday night. A couple of my friends arranged the a gig for the maverick Scottish poet Jock Scot, They are putting out “The Caledonian Blues”, the latest album from Jock, which features musical input from erstwhile Bristolian Gareth Sager. The pair of them played a brief but very entertaining set, Sager seemed to get enormous pleasure from making a seat squeak, whilst playing guitar and Jocks poems and banter were entertaining and enlightening about his rather chaotic existence. Free Cider and a DJ set from Geoff, consisting completely of bagpipe music made it a night to remember.

Today we nipped up the road to see “Good night, And Good Luck” at The Orpheus enjoyed the film as any leftie would. Also made me think that everyone looks good in black and white.



Well maybe not quite everyone!

OK we admit it, we are old! A couple of weeks ago we bought a shredder, so we can take care of all those bits of paper which have our vital details on it, before the hoards of international criminals descend upon our casually discarded paperwork, taking away all our hard earned money.

I well remember laughing at Orynthia’s mum a few years ago, when she refused to put anything in the bin, which had her name on it. What excuse do we have for such grown up behaviour, well not much really. It’s just that virtually every bit of post which we receive these days appears to be from some sort of financial institution offering to lend us loads of money, which is obviously lovely and oh so sweet of them. The worry is that as we cheerfully throw these things away, someone else decides that they would like to pretend to be us and suddenly we have a nice little debt to take care of.

Have to admit that shredding is great fun, must remember not shred any actual money, as that would rather mess up our wonderful idea.

We had some top fun in Bedminster on Saturday afternoon, whilst Orynthia was driving along North Street in search of a mid afternoon snack, I spotted a great looking second hand shop, only a couple of doors away from a café/second hand bookshop, shopping heaven.

Orynthia picked up a wonderful old coat for £10 and some great 60’s crockery (3 plates for a £1!), and then we went into the café. After ordering our drinks and snacks we took our place at a table and started to browse through some of the nearby books. It was then that I noticed the chap on the table next to us, nodding slightly over enthusiastically to the generic 80’s hits CD which was playing. We continued to chomp, slurp and browse as the sound of Thompson Twins filled the air, the guy was around my sort of age but looked as though his mum still shopped for his clothes, maybe even dressed him as well. Really mum, those white socks really aren’t a good idea.

Then I started to notice that he was adjusting the volume and skipping tracks, so I guess he was the in café DJ, nice work I thought. Suddenly whilst Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood was playing, someone else asked what the tune was? Brilliantly our DJ friend launched into a polemical discourse regarding the cold war atmosphere of 1984, which had inspired the song, he reeled off fact after fact in rapid time, before going onto lament that The Power of Love by F.G.T.H. was a sadly overlooked gem, which wallowed in underserved obscurity, in fact the whole tone of his conversation indicated that he thought the Frankie’s were an obscure cult band that never really got the attention they deserved.

Fair enough if he was a young chap, but obviously that was not the case, as anyone who can remember the days of “Frankie Says…….” will remember only too well, for a while in the mid 80’s we all saw more of them than we did of our families. We amused ourselves looking at books of pie recipes and pictures 19th century Burmese girls, smoking huge cheroots, trying desperately not to make eye contact with our DJ friend, before dashing for the door. Top place though, must go back soon.

Talking of top quality DJ’s Sundays Grumpy Man gig was a little strange. We only played for about 2hrs 30 mins as the evening was also a launch night for Helicon magazine. A few friends were amongst the performers and most of the crowd hung around to hear us putting a lie to the notion that anyone can DJ. My own highlight of the evening was one of my colleagues getting most of the way through an Elvis track, whilst remaining convinced that he was playing Billie Holiday, genius. The next one is on April 30th make that a date in those oh so busy diaries.

We had a wonderful night at the ever more bizarre Seymours on Wednesday evening. In addition to some really rather splendid music, the venue itself provided us with lots of fun; the place is covered with signs instructing the punters exactly what is (or is not) permitted. Best of these, is the sign advising that you should “Keep your Shoes on – Be Safe”. Clearly Sandie Shaw could never play a gig there.

The music? Well the evening started with Rozi Plain and Romanhead playing together. Poor old Rozi must be worn out, virtually every time we step out of the house, she’s there playing with someone or other. Not that I have a problem with that, she has some good songs and interesting arrangements are a speciality of hers.

Next up were M. Craft, not someone I knew much about before the gig. The band he has assembled provided a pleasant, understated backing for his American fringed songs. Nice enough without really standing out, I’d mark them as mid-table performers.

King Creosote however is certainly heading for the top of the league. Wonderful songs, sung with real intensity, making even the murky world of accordion lead folk tunes seem vital. His great band provided superb support, whilst keeping a cheeky grin on their faces at all times. The packed crowd lapped it up, demanding several encores.

Yet another sad death this week, the passing of Ivor Cutler was no great shock as he was in his 80’s, but still came as unwelcome news. As with so may things, I first came across his work on the John Peel show in the 1970’s. He had a unique view of the world, telling the most ludicrous stories in a voice that would normally be used for serious political debate, he was a unique performer. We only saw in the flesh once, that was at the Bristol Old Vic back in the 1980’s it was a strange evening, Ivor appeared to take no pleasure in the joyous reception which he was given, keen to do his bit and get off as soon as he could. Everyone in the crowd loved it, he was like the perfect example of the strange uncle in the family – the kids all love his strange ways, whilst the adults never quite know how to respond to things he says. End of an era stuff.

Another Grumpy Man night at Mr Wolfs coming up on Sunday.

It’s been a very musical weekend around here. Friday evening saw us visiting a wonderfully buzzing and lively Louisiana, a couple of our friends are playing in Amelia Tuckers band, we’d missed a couple of gigs by them recently and had been hearing good things about the shows, so it was time to check them out.

Three other bands were in action as well, because of the early start we missed Rob Sharples completely, Caught a bit of Roger Tarry, who sounded ok without quite having the killer melody lines which his sort of music requires. Seven Days Til Sunday make big confident rock music, which would suit the lighters in the air brigade, not really my sort of thing but other people seemed to enjoy it.

Onto Amelia Tucker, well as I mentioned a lot of positive things have been said about Amelia over the last few months, but after hearing the songs on her myspace site I was not so sure. Pleased to say that the live show had much more of a positive impact of me, vocally much more like Tracey Thorn from the Love not Money period than I had anticipated some of the songs in the short set were excellent. There was an element of over politeness about the show, but you do the get feeling that she could produce something special if she if she could really lose herself in the music and turn up the intensity a notch or two. One to watch.

Saturday dawned wonderfully clear, crisp and cold. I spent the afternoon at Ashton Gate watching a rather messy game of football between City and Notts Forest. At the start of the season, I think that most people thought that we would both be at the top half of the table, slugging in out for promotion, as we all know things have not worked out like that. A change of manager for both clubs has bought improved results of late, but the 1-1 all draw should way both clubs are no better than mid table at the moment.


On Saturday evening we were back at The Cube for another helping of musical dynamite, in the form of Charlie Parr. First up were the now expanded My Two Toms, playing last night as a 4 piece, they were at their melodic best as than ran through a set of splendid instrumental’s with the banjo at the heart of the action. Once again Adrian Cowley played a low key bit in the middle, before the wonderful Mr Parr took the stage.

He played a blistering set, tearing into what some would call folk, or country-blues with the vigour, energy and passion of The Ramones. His big gravely voice can bellow ferociously or whisper with disbelieving horror of mans ill treatment of his fellow souls. He really is the stuff of legend, word is that when he returns to Duluth, the beard of 13 years will be removed, can’t see it diminishing his powers though in any sort of Samson type way as he jokingly mentioned during his set. Let’s hope it’s not too long before we see him back here again.

Next up is King Creoste on Wednesday.

Finally got round to making a visit to the cinema last night when we went to see Capote at The Watershed. It’s a fantastic portrait of the way vanity and selfishness can destroy the most brilliant of people. How strange though that Capote and Harper Lee should work so closely on the book “In Cold Blood” whilst she was releasing “To Kill a Mockingbird” to a grateful public.

Yet, following the huge success of both books we hardly heard from them again. From the little I know about Harper Lee. It looks like she choose a self-imposed exile in much the same way as J.D. Salinger did. Capote’s situation was very different as he promised to produce the next great work right up to his death, able only to produce some enjoyable short stories and a disappointing posthumous release. Sadly the sparkle and wit of his conversation became his calling card rather than his writing. Even that appears to have left him in later life as his comments became spiteful and aggrieved rather than charming.

We are off to see the splendid Charlie Parr at The Cube tomorrow night. One the fondest memories of my time at Imperial Music was the day that Charlie came into the store to play for us. A lovely man, with an inspired take on American blues music it should be a great night. To hear him attacking that guitar of his with such gusto, whist singing with the weight of the world sitting on soul is one of the great things in music.

A couple of other things come to mind. Firstly isn’t it great to have some in the England cricket team called Monty? Pretty soon they will be using ties for belts and having handle bar moustaches once again.

Sadly the other thing is not so good, we were both really shocked to hear that Linda Smith had died earlier this week. She was the probably the sharpest, funniest person in the UK. Never cruel, but able to put the pompous in their place with the most subtle of put-downs, she captured the absurd nature of the British character perfectly. She will be missed.

This weeks gigs were great, Wednesday evenings visit to Cardiff to see a very nervous looking Isobel Campbell was well worth the petrol money. The Point is a nice venue, perfect for the intimate music provided by Isobel and her friends. Eugene Kelly did well in the Mark Lanegan role; one of the highlights was a great version of “Love hurts”

Friday was just fantastic; I met up with Orynthia in Pieminister on Stokes Croft, could any evening have a better start? We then took the short walk to Francois’s, he had kindly invited us round for some pre gig entertainment, it wasn’t just us though, the first 10 ticket buyers were also there, along with most of the band and Traceyanne from Glasgow’s Camera Obscura, plus the splendid Tom (aka Freeze Puppy). So quite a houseful!

Francois played some songs on the piano, and then Freeze Puppy played several spellbinding numbers accompanied by his acoustic guitar. It was all rather magical, to heighten our sense of bemused wonder, we were then asked to take some home made apple tart round to The Cube. How strange to be walking through the so-called mean streets around Stokes Croft, worried that we may be mugged for fruit based dessert! Luckily we made the journey without any unwelcome interventions, successfully delivering the tart to staff at The Cube.

The gig itself was a triumph. Entertaining support came from Sleeping States (who were great) and Corey O’s (very enthusiastic and entertaining set).

Francois and Atlas Mountains started the gig with the now traditional walkabout, before settling onto to the stage and playing a gorgeous set, mainly focused on the new album “The people to forget”. It does seem as though Francois is incapable of writing a song without a simple yet captivating melody, the swoonsome arrangements for the 10-piece band are just superb. There was a brilliantly conceived video link up with masses of associated musicians and friends as Francois played along from the stage. It was clever, funny and touching the best use of video at gig I’ve seen since seeing Cornelius at The Thekla many, many years ago.

Quite simply a night with this lot is just the best fun in town at the moment. They have a self-effacing musical beauty which so refreshing, affecting without being precious, they provide a rare musical treat in these days of over stylised chart wannabe’s. Bristol is lucky to have them.

Isobel Campbell and Eugene Kelly in Cardiff last night.

Forgot to mention that we had a great meal at Junipers last week. I had a fantastic starter of Pheasant with Figs, sounds odd but was delicious. The rest was all fantastic, it really is a lovely place to eat. Better still we had 25% of the final bill thanks to our wonderful "Big fund raiser" discount book. If you live in Bristol and eat out more than, say twice a yeah, you really should get one of these books. The discount we received at Junipers means that our book has paid for it's self already,

Finished reading Saturday by Ian McEwan, an interesting and at time gripping account of one not so ordinary Saturday for one man.

Over recent weeks I've been enjoying lot's of interesting new albums, including work from Belle & Sebastian, Arctic Monkeys, Isobel Campbell, Elected President, Howie Beck, Paris Motel, Jens lekman, Mazarin. Also been enjoying a splendid bootleg mash up single which brings together ODB and The Specials to fine effect..

Unusually for us Bryan Munich were involved in a slightly contentious game of football this weekend. We were playing Redland Ramblers and went a goal down fairly early in the match. Not long afterwards one of our strikers saw his shot pushed onto the crossbar by the hand of a Rambler defender. The ref missed it, which was a shame, the defender refused to acknowledge what had taken place, which considering the nature of our "casual" league is unacceptable. It caused a level of bad feeling, which lead to several bookings and a few unpleasant moments. It's the first time that it's happened in one of our games and left a bit of a nasty taste. if people want to win at all costs that's fine, but they should go to a different league to do it.

We spent Saturday at the splendid wedding of one of Orynthia’s workmates. Once again the wedding DJ entertainment was provided by a couple of our friends, Steve and Ian of Fuzz Against Junk played a section of top tunes whilst placed on the half landing of a very grand staircase, most unusual. The layout of Kings Weston House meant that the dancing was rather more restrained than some recent weddings we have been to, but we managed a bit of flutter around the floor.

Plenty to look forward to this week, tomorrow we are off to Cardiff for the night. Isobel Campbell will be in town, promoting her excellent “Ballad of the Broken Seas” album for this tour she is being joined by Eugene Kelly so it should be a good night.

Then on Friday we will be at The Cube for the launch of the long awaited album by Francois and the Atlas Mountains, we are both so excited about this album (and evening). Some of the best gigs we have seen in the last 6 months have been by this marvellous band. Exuberant, melodious, touching, and fun are a few of the words that spring to mind when I think of their gigs. Tracyanne from Camera Obscura will be spinning some tunes as well as performance from a couple of bands which are new to me – Sleeping States and Corey O’s. Fantastic.

Talking of music, talk is spreading of some sort of C86 twenty years on type event in Bristol. Not sure what form the evening will take yet, but it could be time to squeeze into those skinny black jeans and get the national health glasses on once more!

Where does the time go? A week on and the chaos is gradually receding, most of the records are back on the shelves. Somehow the books appear to have been reproducing, will they all fit? I’m not so sure. Anyway the new carpet is in place, so that’s a room that we don’t need to play around for a good few years.

As mentioned in the last update Sunday saw us embarking of another Grumpy Man evening, and I think that it was the best one that I have been involved in. Only four of us behind the mixer the mixer, playing for nearly 6 hours , meant that I had time to play everything I planned to (and more besides), so we had tunes from the following:
Tom Waits
Rufus Wainwright
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Lou Reed
The Coral
Clap Your Hands Say yeah
The Shins
New Order
Joe Volk
Martina Topley-Bird
Au Revoir Simone
Clor
Charlie Parr
Camera Obscura
Shout Out Louds
Richard Hawley
The Smiths
Clem Snide….and many more. We do it all again on Sunday March 12th at the same place. Then on Thursday March 16th I’ll be playing some tunes at Bar Unlimited as part of the “Lost in the Woods” evening arranged by Aspen Woods. My good friend Ian Green will be performing so you can expect the unexpected!

Books and records all over the place at the moment, after fighting off the thought for many years we have finally decided to replace the carpet in our back bedroom. The room is actually used as more of an upstairs sitting room, as that is where the Mac's and aforementioned goods live.

The carpet has been on poor side of threadbare for a number of years, but the judicious placement of various rugs has helped us to delay the inevitable. We started moving things out on Sunday and it went rather well, the only problem being the break up of all those years of placing records in a careful alphabetical order. What fun awaits us, when it comes to restacking the shelves, do we change the system? For years albums and 12" singles have been kept firmly segregated, but why? CD singles and albums happily co-exist so why not 12" slabs of vinyl? What long forgotten gems will re-emerge after years in the wilderness, then again I'm sure that masses of very embarrassing '80's nonsense will leap out at me.

Talking of music, this Sunday will once again find me masquerading as a DJ at the latest Grumpy Man bash, once again it's at Mr Wolfs noodle bar, everyone is welcome.

Over the weekend we watched the fantastically stylish and wonderfully loopy French film 8 women. It was perfect viewing for a cold grey Saturday afternoon. The perfect snow bound country house murder mystery, populated by the most impossibly well dressed women and the occasional crazy musical interlude it made for great viewing.

After that we watched a very different, and very moving programme as Stephen Fry traced his family roots through the heart of one of the blackest periods of European history. On a couple of occasions it made for very painful yet also strangely hopeful viewing. The bleakness of his family story contrasted wonderfully with the amazing optimism of one of the people he came across, the one remaining Jewish person in a place in which he had previously been part of a thriving community. How splendid to be uncontaminated by all the hatred thrown at you, refusing to live your life in bitterness and spite. Truly inspirational!

Phew rock ‘n’ roll frenzy, well not really but we have had an interesting couple of nights this week.

As mentioned previously Wednesday saw the long awaited Bristol debut of Belle & Sebastian. Stuart Murdoch told an interesting little story regarding a trip around the UK, which a few of them undertook about 8 years ago in an attempt to find interesting venues to play. Sadly when they reached Bristol it was a Sunday evening and apparently they struggled to find anywhere which was open, let alone interesting, so that’s why it’s taken them this long to make it here.

The gig itself was great, a nice mix of old and new. It’s amazing how many of the new songs sound like pop classics. That’s pop as old-fashioned hit singles of no particular genre, just good pop songs. Some spellbinding moments with a few of the old songs, notably “Fox in the Snow” and “Judy and the dream of horses”

Memories of that wonderful night when we saw them at the Union Chapel in London in 1997 came flooding back. The confusion as people would jump up from the seats for the fast bits, before quickly sitting down again as the songs slowed. Making for a strange slow motion pogo effect. No such confusion this time around, everyone knows what those songs are about and can pace themselves accordingly.



Last night we went along to latest acoustic night to be organised by those nice people from Aspen Woods, they take place at Bar Unlimited and go under the header “Lost in The Woods”. So on a freezing cold night we took the short walk to Gloucester Road to be entertained by the excellent Katy Tucker and the interesting and unconventional Bij. The cosy environment was perfect for the intimate performances. The unconfirmed line up for the March event looks good as well, worth check out if you are free on March 16th.

When in Cheltenham I got caught up in a bit of 80’s nostalgia. Whilst enjoying my traditional “full English” in the hotel, an article on The June Brides by American writer Dave Eggers took my eye. Now for many people the music of The Junes Brides won’t mean much. However when Orynthia and I got married (19 years ago next weekend since you ask), their album “There are eight million stories” was one of the ones that we both had copies of, there were a few others, feel free to guess.

Mr Eggers piece perfectly captured the strange hold that the work of a band can have over you. The way that years later, you can still find yourself looking for news of a performer, who moved onto a more secure way of earning a living many years ago.

Later whilst trying to finally spend some of my Xmas / birthday book tokens, I picked up the Simon Reynolds book “Rip it up and start again – post punk 1978 – 1984” it does sound more like someone’s specialist subject on an episode of Mastermind than an exciting read. But that’s exactly what a book covering the music of that time should be titled. A mixture of knowing reference and dry fact, which our bible of the time the NME would have revelled in.

Much like Simon Reynolds my real musical obsession started in 1978, previously I’d taken an interest in prog and heavy metal and strangely bits of jazz. However, the combination of spending money (having started work), and a burgeoning addiction to the John Peel show saw me throwing my money at any number of soon to be forgotten guitar bands. What a treat then to turn randomly to page 222 to find a top ten consisting of bands such as “Prefects” “The Cravats” “Notsensibles” “Spizzenergi” “Family Fodder” “Fatal Microbes” “(And The) Native Hipsters”. Should be a good read, before I get into that I’m going to spend my time with the latest book from Ian McEwan “Saturday.

We had a great couple of days, on Wednesday evening we had the chance to reacquaint ourselves with The Strokes. Very fine they were too, I’m not completely convinced by the new album but from the moment they took to the stage they were on top form. Crisp, concise and punchy they were on top form and were a treat to watch from first to last. Support band The Shout Out Louds, did their best, but found it hard to replicate the bouncy fun of their excellent album due to the awful sound which the mixing desk provided them with.

On Thursday evening we made the short journey up the M5 to Cheltenham for slightly early wedding anniversary treat. We stayed in the majestic splendour of the Hotel De La Bere, before enjoying a wander around Cheltenham on Friday.

I’ve just got in after watching one of those games, which remind me why I go to watch Bristol City play football. A full-bloodied encounter saw us beat highflying Swansea City 1-0 on a bitterly cold afternoon. Much shouting and jumping up down ensued.

More music treats in the upcoming week as we get to see Belle & Sebastian for what I think must be the 7th 9th time. It will be the first time that they have played here in Bristol, so I hope that my fellow citizens are nice to them. Then on Thursday, we are aiming to go to Bar unlimited for the latest acoustic night to be arranged by local guitar gods Aspen Woods.

Disappointingly I’ve given up reading Moby Dick, after 450 odd pages. After a sparkling start, I’ve been worn out by the minutiae of detail surrounding Whales and boats. It’s back to dry land for me.

So what’s been going on this week? Well apart from spending quite a lot of time with the lovely new debut solo album from Joe Volk “Derwent Waters Saint”, I’ve been messing around with that new fangled (well, not that new actually) fangled myspace business.

So we now have a site where we can link directly to many of our favourite people and bands. It’s a good way of hearing a few tunes from people that you may have read about, without taking too much of a gamble.

It’s turning into a bit of a mini empire, what with this blog, the Flickr site and now the Myspace site. Where will it all end?

We are in the midst of planning yet another trip to Scotland. This time we aim to venture considerably further north of our traditional stopping point of Glasgow, although of course we will spend time there as well. We are going to venture back in time with a good old-fashioned driving holiday, taking the chance to catch up with a few friends along the way. Time to find a pair of those strange string backed driving gloves that were all the rage in the 50’s and 60’s. At least we have a few months to locate a pair.

Our film week ended on a slightly unsettling note with the film “Innocence” at The Watershed. It was a French study of young girls seemingly kept against their will in strange and unsettling closed society. Featuring some wildly inappropriate scenes it left both of us feeling more than a little disconcerted, not pleasant viewing. Still we saw 8 films in a week, and apart from our last choice at least one of us enjoyed all the others.

After a night off on Friday, Saturday saw us returning to French cinema, this time with much more enjoyable results. We went to The Orpheus to see “The Beat That My Heart Skipped”. Interesting, thoughtful and occasionally funny it was a perfect antidote to the nasty feeling which “Innocence” left us with. It was directed by Jacques Audiard who previous film was the equally splendid “Read my Lips”. Of course it helped that the central figure in the film is called Tom.

Had an interesting character sitting next to me. Of course Orynthia is always interesting, but on this occasion I’m talking about the chap that was on the other side of me. I was impressed when He returned to his seat after just before the start of the film holding a mug of coffee, that’s a mug of coffee mind you, not the normal cardboard cup. So I assume that he must have taken his own mug to the cinema. Then when he sat down, he delved into a large bag of sweets and noisily unwrapped 7 or 8 of them, so that he would not disturb either himself or the rest of us whilst the film was in progress. He also took copious notes, whenever the film changed direction or mood. It all left me feeling very the amateur filmgoer.

He reminded me of those people that you see whilst you are plowing you way around an art gallery. Whilst I stand and gawp at the paintings you can’t help noticing those intellectual looking types – notebook in hand, recording, well recording what exactly? The name of the piece in question, their thoughts about work, notes on the composition? Maybe it’s just a shopping list, whatever it is, I always think that they are getting more out of the experience of me.

Managed to pick up a few CD’s on Friday whilst we out and about. Most were things that have been on my personal shopping list for a while. Such as the albums by The Cribs - “The New Fellas”, The Rakes – “Capture / Release”, the self titled album by Clor, the mini album by Au Revoir Simone – “Verses of Comfort, assurance & Salvation”, all of which I’m enjoying. Also picked up a copy of the new Strokes album and we managed to finally track down a couple of tickets for their upcoming gig at the Colston Hall, which I’m looking forward to a lot. Just a week after that Belle & Sebastian come to town, hooray!

Cinema week continues for us, we’ve seen two more films in the last couple of days. Firstly on Monday evening we took the short walk to The Orpheus in order see Just Like Heaven, which was fun in light-hearted sort of way. Last night we went to Arnolfini to see Factotum, must say that really enjoyed this take of the crazed world of Charles Bukowski. Tonight we are off to The Cube to see The Constant Gardner.

Other than that not too much to report, Grumpy Man nights are going so well that we have booked into Mr Wolfs roughly every 4-5 weeks for the rest of the year! In 3 weeks time we will be seeing Belle & Sebastian again when they play their first gig in Bristol. Also looking forward to seeing Francois and the Atlas Mountains at The Cube on Feb 24th for the launch of their album. Calexico and Iron & Wine are playing at The Academy soon as well; they are both lovely bands so that’s really something to look forward to.

Quite a weekend! After some family stuff during the day on Saturday, we took a trip down to Clevedon for the latest leg of our cinema week. We wanted to visit The Curzon, which is apparently “The oldest purpose-built, continuously operated cinema in the world”. It’s a fantastic old place, which even has an organ at the front of the screen. Well worth a visit if you are in this part of the world. The film we saw was “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” which we both enjoyed a lot, very funny post modern take of the noir films of yesteryear.

Sunday was always going to be busy and indeed it was. Started well in the morning with a 5-0 victory for myself and the rest of the Bryan Munich boys. Then back home to sort out CD’s for that nights Grumpy Man event. Of course we had to fit in another film, so it was off to The Watershed to see the 5pm showing of “Brokeback Mountain” I think I enjoyed it more than Orynthia, great performances from the two leads.

Then we had the short walk over to Mr Wolf’s for Grumpy Man. All was going well until I was about to order some food from the bar and realised that my wallet wasn’t in it’s normal place, I knew that I had it in the cinema so I hoped that I’d lost in there rather than on the street, Played a few tunes which went down well enough, then nipped over The Watershed, where the very helpful staff took my details and said that they would check the room when the showing turned out. Luckily for me I had a call at around 10:15 to say that they had found the wallet, better still everything was intact. What a lovely place Bristol is!

Played a few more tunes back at Grump Man, quite a few friends came down, indeed considering that it was the worst Sunday of the year to do anything, I’d call it a bit of a success. Lot’s of people looked like they were having a good time, it could have been the drink but I’d like to think that my fellow DJ’s and I had something to do with it. Due to an earlier finish than anticipated and 5 of us playing, I didn’t play as many songs as last time. Here is the list of tunes.

King Creosote - Not one bit ashamed
Animals that Swim – Faded glamour
Shack – Miles apart
A Girl Called Eddy – Somebody hurt you
Clearlake – Jumble sailing
Craig Armstrong & Evan Dando – Wake up in New York
The Dears – We can have it.
Stars – Your ex-lover is dead
Silver Jews – Punks in the beerlight.
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Sometimes always.

As we both had the day off, we started our week of cinema today. First up was an early afternoon visit to The Odeon for The Chronicles of Narnia. Thought that it was great fun, just the right amount of magical wonder and not too much running back forth type battle scenes. Much has been made of the Christian propaganda attachment that has been levelled at the film. I must say I think its just another good Vs bad film, like any Western, Pirate or Sci-Fi film. No more, no less.

When that finished we took the short walk over to The Watershed, giving ourselves just enough time a pot of tea and a cake (Scone for Orynthia), then it was time for the new Woody Allen film Match Point. Strange one this, thought the first 20 minutes or so was really rather awful. The acting was all over the place, particularly from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Scarlett Johansson. Then suddenly a genuinely tense and gripping film emerged, not at all what we have come to expect from Mr Allen and all the better for it.

More to come tomorrow!

Had rather a strange weekend, starting rather abruptly at 3am on the morning of the 31st, with the first of many desperate dashes to that special room. Yes that’s right my purge of the festive excess’s started early, things were leaving my body a great speed from several exit points.

Now some people seem to be quite happy to indulge in a spell of vomiting, one chap that I work with thinks that no night is complete without something heading the wrong way past his larynx. I, on the other hand, loathe it.

Without going into too much detail, at one point I had visions of a strange variation on the classic rock star “choked to death, on his on vomit” affliction taking my very un-rock star life away from me.

I’m sure that everyone has experienced the horrible sensation of unwanted mater forcing itself through those delicate nasal passages, well on this occasion things started to become stuck, causing me to gasp desperately for air. Between bodily convulsions my mind raced, “That’s it! I’m going to die!” “what an timid way to go.” “How pathetic”

Somehow I conveyed my fears to Orynthia as should stood patiently beside me. Brilliantly and instantly she saved my life with a simple comment, “Blow your nose” -

Genius.

Any that sort of thing went on for the next few hours, meaning that virtually the whole of Saturday was spent feeling wonderfully dreadful, whilst wrapped in duvets and blanket’s. Various radios playing seemingly astonishing songs, which slipped in and out of my mind as, I drifted away.

We had made plans to go to Holy Cross Social Club for the New Years Eve night arranged by my friend Boca 45 and others. We decided to give it a go, and very fine it was too. A great little band featuring Jim Barr from Portishead and John Gardner from the Scissor Sisters live touring group worked their way through a great set 60’s instrumental soul gems, sounding like they had come straight from 1967. They went off, Boca 45 kicked off his set with the Paul Anka version of “Come as you are” then it was hip-hop, reggae, old soul and the Arctic Monkeys all the way to midnight.

After catching up with a few friends it was time to head back to the place I knew best, my bed.

By the way since I last moaned about Bristol City, it’s all changed. 8 points from the 4 games over Xmas seeing us moving up the table. What’s more the team appear to be playing with a smile on their face. I had to join in.

I'm going to be playing a few CD's at Grumpy Man again this Sunday.

As ever all those films that I intended to watch on TV over the Xmas period passed me by completely. In the old days it seamed as though we would lose hours wallowing in wonderful old black & white films, as the holiday break slowly edged past us.

2005 has also seen a marked decrease in our cinema visits, this has mainly been due to the increasing amount of time that we have been spending on hospital visits, as our families lurch from one health crisis to another. "Have you seen the new King Kong?" "No, but have you checked out ward 14 yet? I think it's their best work so far."

Anyway in an effort to change things, our Xmas gifts to each other were rather different this year. Neither of us could come up with particularly inspired options for one another, so rather than just buying things for the sake of it, we have decided to set aside a week in January when we are going to surround ourselves in cinema. For a week, we will watch as many films as we can during the evenings and weekend, we also have the bonus of both of us being at home on Fridays in January, so we may be able to sneak in couple of films then. Bristol does have a good range of cinemas, so hopefully we will be able to find enough things to amuse.

It was great to see "I know where I'm going" the other week, it's a magical film. We are really lucky to be able to see wonderful old films in the cinema. When I was younger I would spend hours looking through the revival cinema listings in the New Yorker to work out an imaginary day of viewing. It's always struck me that one of the signs that you live in a civilised place is that you don't have to have to be dependent on just recent cinema releases for your viewing pleasure. You should be able to watch a classic film from the past, rather than the latest thing that Hollywood wants to push at you.

So it’s over already. It’s the same every year – obviously. The big build up and then in flash, it’s done.

I have to say that I do enjoy Christmas, I know that with my advanced years (another one added on December 24th) I really should be cynical about the whole process, yet somehow I’m not.

The timing this year was really rather nice. Finished work at lunchtime on Friday so had time for an unhurried drink or two on Gloucester road with some colleagues before meeting up with Orynthia for a quick visit to a friend’s new house. Oh the fun we had looking at all his wonderful storage areas. No, really it was fun.

As mentioned before the 24th was my birthday. Orynthia gave the most fantastic present, the complete history of the New Yorker magazine on an 8 volume DVD set. That’s right, every page from over 4,000 issues of the magazine is not at my disposal. Piece after piece by the likes of Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, Milan Kundera, Lorrie Moore, Dorothy Parker, Philip Roth, Oliver Sacks, James Thurber……Then, there’s all the amazing artwork and cartoons. I may never leave the house again! Well actually we did manage to get out for a lovely birthday breakfast in Cotham, before making a quick visit to the Here shop in Stokes Croft and taking a lovely walk around some of the architectural delights of the Cotham area.

Some parts of Christmas day were a little chaotic, but we saw lots of family and I think that everyone had fun. We finally made it to bed at around 1in the morning after being beaten on the final letter at Scrabble by Orynthia’s mum. Can’t believe I lost after using my “Z” on a triple letter, double word spelling of Zebra. Then getting double word points for the “Z” again in Zoot. Must try harder!

So yesterday I worked a full day on a Friday for what may be the last time! In the New Year I’m going back to working 4 days a week, having Friday as my day off. Orynthia is switching back to a 5 day week in February, so for January we will both have Fridays off which will be great.

I’ve avoided a couple of work Xmas meals so far, but on Thursday we had the Bryan Munich Christmas curry, which was good fun. After leaving the restaurant at around 11:25 we wondered around the Whiteladies Road area for about 25 minutes trying to find a bar that was open. Strangely everything was either closed or closing it looks as though the much heralded 24 hours opening has yet to reach that part of town.

Tonight we are off to Gloucester Road for a meal with some friends; then tomorrow will see a get together with Orynthia’s family for the first of the Christmas birthday gatherings. The only other certain thing for Orynthia and I next week is a trip to Arnolfini on Wednesday evening to see the wonderful “I Know Where I’m Going”. It’s one of the best films from the amazing directorial duo Powell & Pressburger. We’ve seen it many times at home, but the chance to see it at the cinema can’t be missed.

Had a great night at the Gaz’s rockin’ blues’s evening down at The Tube last Friday. He plays an extraordinary mixture of reggae, ska, stompin’ R & B, just about anything to set your feet twitching. All the while he stands behind the decks, huge clouds of smoke bellowing from an enormous cigar, laughing and grinning from ear to ear as he watches the poor people try to drag their weary limbs off the dance-floor. Top man.

Had the almighty shock of watching an excellent performance by City on Saturday. A gutsy, spirited and dare I say skilful performance saw us turn the league table upside down, gaining a deserved 2-0 win over Huddersfield. I even leapt from my seat when we scored the 2nd goal...just like the old days.

Over recent days I’ve really been enjoying the iTunes only Belle & Sebastian live recording of the “If you’re Feeling Sinister” album. It brings back so many great memories of seeing them in the early days, Union Chapel, The Bowlie and more.

Other than that I’m loving the new single from The Strokes, have to say that I was horrified when I first heard it. Now I think it’s the best thing that they have done. I love the way that it really charges along; I swear that the record gets shorter each time I play it!

Another great single is “Boot Prints” by King Creosote, taken from the excellent K.C. Rules album this is a wonderfully infectious song. On first hearing it appears to a really silly little song, but the more you listen to it the more complex it becomes. Loads of supremely chirpy organs sounds and a top-notch chorus. Should be number 1 for weeks, then again maybe it is? Must admit that I’ve got very little idea about the charts these days.

Still enjoying “Set Yourself on Fire” by Stars a great pop record from Canada. An album from a few years ago, which I’ve only just picked up, is “Soft Spot” by Clem Snide, plenty of fine songs on that one.

Paid our first visit to the newly open "Tube" in Unity St this evening. Very nice relaxed place, a nice alternative to the mega bars and clubs of central Bristol.

Last night we had a very pleasant evening at Arnolfini in the company of Francois and the Atlas Mountains. They were playing as part of a book launch, so the gig was free and what’s more they provided free drink. As well as the music Francois also showed some short animated films which he had made. That boy has too much talent!

Once again the unbridled enthusiasm and wonderful melodies of this great band, made for an evening of sparkling fun. Looking forward to their album in 2006.

Before the gig I met Orynthia in Obento for some splendid Japanese food. Not only do they sell lovely food they also sell Japanese condensed milk sweets!!!! We first encountered these on the plane out of Tokyo a few years ago. That’s right, the plane out – just when it was too late to buy any. We did find some in New York a few years later, then Selfridges in London was selling them in London as part of a Japanese festival. Now we can get them in Bristol – yum yum. They are the perfect hard sweet, richly creamy and long lasting.

Some of our friends are involved in a new bar / club in Bristol called “Tube”. We missed the opening night last weekend because of our Glasgow trip. Tomorrow they are having a bit of a food promotion which we are going to go along to, then on Friday it plays host to the excellent Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues, top tunes guaranteed.

We had a wonderful time in Glasgow, thanks to all the lovely people in Camera Obscura, their partners and their manager Francis. We were made to feel really welcome at the intimate party to celebrate the end of the recording period for their new album.

On occasions it did feel more akin to a wedding party, with exception of us everyone who was there was friends or family. Party poppers, crisps and chocolates on the table and a free glass of wine when you arrived, splendid. Former football star Pat Nevin played a indie hits DJ set before the band came on, following the short but lovely gig, Victoria from The Concretes took over the DJ role. After a lovely post gathering, we finally got back to our hotel at around 4:30am, exactly 24 hours after we woke up to get our flight to Glasgow, tired but happy.

On Tuesday we are off to see Francois at Arnolfini, he’s a very popular boy with the Camera Obscura crew, should be another good night.