3 posts tagged “hot chip”
The novelty has already worn off.
The GPS is rubbish which is one of the reasons I got it. To make it work you have to be stood on a mountain, on a clear day, directly under a satallite and know exactly where you are.
Saying that, I don't have a proper camera, or MP3 player so this covers those aswell. Oh yes, it works quite well as a phone too.
Maybe heading up to Camden to meet a friend tonight which should be fun. Have been hoping to catch up with them for a while. If not there's always tomorrow.
Been a bit of a non starter today. Wanted to have a meeting regarding an artist with someone this morning. They've been unavailable till about an hour ago. Got that sorted but don't have enough time to see the other chap I wanted. Currently working on developing a partnership with another company which should really help this along. But I've not even discussed it yet so can't really give any details as there's nothing to tell.
Ooh! Something I do want to develop if people would use it, is a page within Vox, available to everyone where you can write your gigs. Like a big annual wall-planner. It would be great to make something really clever that you'd expect to see on an iPhone, but chances are it will just be a big chart. This will help me and other A&R guys organise our diaries better. What d'you reckon?
Captive State are playing next week, go and see them, they're great. Elements of the Beta Band and Hot Chip thrown in with some great skills. (I'm starting to sound like Napoleon Dynamite).
The weather is fantastic so it's bbq time I think. Not sure what day or who to invite but I fancy burning some food again. Got the house to myself this weekend as the housemates are away. It always feels like my parents have left the place when that happens and I should have some kind of gathering.
Forgot to make the pic of my jeans post-theft public if you're curious. Not that it's that interesting, it's just so you believe me I think.
Anyone else out in Camden tonight?
I've never actually had a 'Duvet Day' before. It was originally described to me as a 'Doona Day', but they were Australian and have funny words for just about everything. I was corrected on the expression by a fellow brit. I've really enjoyed it and hope to do it again soon. Though I don't think my boss would like it.
I booked today off and didn't surface until just before lunch, which was great. :-)
It was so dark all morning that I was very glad I didn't have to go to work. Something has gone very wrong with the English summer. I mean, wet.. ok, sunny... very ok. But I just don't know how to dress at the moment (many would say I've never known how to). One minute it's nice, the next a monsoon with hailstones the size of peas. That happened a couple of weeks back.
Today we had this:
Anyway, less weather more music. I went to see Captive State last night and they were fookin brilliant. It's the best gig I've been to in a while. It was at the Spitz in East London. Last time I was there I nearly set fire to the stage when I knocked a drink into the pedal board of my organ. It made a very loud bang and the gig went a bit downhill. I should have checked to see if the burn mark was still there. :-)
Have a listen to their songs. I'm not articulate enough to give you a running commentry or insightful comparisons other than I can say live, they were great. 9 people, mostly on stage, with a great mix of keyboards, percussion, brass, guitars, great backing vocals and most importantly strong songs. Normally when there's loads of instrumentalists involved, half of them needn't be there, for this band it wasn't the case. A great bit of mixing from the sound guy too. Even the backing vocals were tight and added to the layers of sound.
In many ways their set up and performance reminded me of Hot Chip. I'm not sure the recordings can reflect their greatest asset which was their live set.
As usual, I got very drunk which isn't the cool thing to do when technically I'm working. I think I'm meant to be in the shadows at the side of the venue, secretly taking notes and leaving undetected like a Ninja. Rather than drinking several pints, getting shitfaced and making a fool of myself at the front of the stage. :-s Had bad paranoia this morning but that was probably the hangover.
How rock n' roll is this? It's Friday evening and I'm at home writing a blog. Saying that I was meant to be at the barfly tonight but the guy who was taking me can't make it and the tube is stuffed because of the above weather apparently.
Hope all is good out there.
It was quite muddy.
No really it was...
The two most important purchases I've ever made in my life are:
Wellies
Bin Bags.
I cannot describe the utmost importance of these items over the festival period. Without wellies, it would have been an altogether different experience.
Anyway. I was lucky enough to be able to camp on the site behind one of the stages. Good for getting to gigs, bad for being woken up be the soundchecks in the morning. Went down on the Thrusday and there was no traffic whatsoever, not even a queue at the gate. Wondered if I got the weekend right.
We were able to drive right into the site and for me I felt like we were on the set of 28 Weeks Later. The shuffly, undead creatures staring and grunting through the widows of the car as we passed were quite scarey.
Now before I go on, it's very difficult to describe individual moments from the festival. Before your eyes really roll into the back of your head and the tutting starts, no, not because I was hammered. There is so much going on all the time it's difficult to give an account of day to day. Next time I will write stuff down.
However, I did manage to get some video footage together, have a look. Bear in mind, I've never made a film before last week and I'm no presenter. Hopefully you'll get some idea of what Glastonbury was like this year. WARNING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE. :-)
My battery died shortly after my initial burst, and through a combination of technical difficulties and the lack of dexterity to operate a camera, I didn't get much more filming done. I did include some shots from my phone in there too.
I saw a whole heap of bands, but my personal highlights were Hot Chip, Shirley Bassey, Seasick Steve, Amy Winehouse, Lilly Allen (cos of the Specials cover) and Fionn Regan most of all.
The Fionn Regan gig was at the park stage on the Sunday and it was the first time I had been to that part of the festivial, which is like a small festival in itself. This was the only point of the weekend I remember it sunshining. He played everything I wanted to hear, plus new stuff and a elongated version of 'Be Good or Be Gone'. Find it, listen to it now. It's excellent.
The night before was good fun. Before heading to the healing fields I found a 'Jam Tent'. There was an old upright piano
in there, plus a load of guitars, drums, percussion and such. I ended up playing piano into the wee hours with a bunch of equally merry muso's. When I was getting handed the chords of 'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Waterloo Sunset' I decided I should go. Was turning into drunken kareoke.
I must admit, it got to the point where I chucked my toys out the pram and lost it with the weather. I mean..... ALL weekend? Come on, not fair. At least 2005 had some sunishine that baked the mud solid. I took my frustration up to a cafe near the Kings Meadow bit (is that what it's called). Nice rugs, green tea, quiet. Ooh, I could go there right now. I did realise something horrifying though, I'VE GROWN UP. What happened? I was surrounded by 30/40 somethings. Although 27, I found myself really enjoying a nice sit down and a cup of tea. Not looking forward to having to battle the weather again. Ugh.
The food at Glastonbury was actually quite good. Though in buying stuff from day to day, I felt like a stock broker and the market was going up all the time. One day one a coke cost me about a quid. Two days later it was 2.50. Scandelous.
Considering that the Glasto population now matched that of Bath, I ran into quite a few people I know. Very strange, but good fun. I gave up trying to stay with anyone specific as it's too much responsibility an no one wants to go where I want to. Always a compromise.
My personal disappointment was with the Killers. They truely played their tits off but the sound was terrible. I wasn't that far away and there was no volume of any kind. Between each song the crowd was chanting "Louder, louder". On going round to the Other Stage, I was stood further away, but Iggy Pop still blew my head off.
For those non UK people out there who wonder what it's like when it rains, look up any pictures of the Battle of the Somme. It's quite similar. I can't describe how bad the mud gets and how much you need wellies and a pancho.
There's nothing quite as demoralising as packing away a tent in the rain and mud with a hangover. THere's very little that compares. The bin bags came in handy to completely line the inside of my friend's car. Less mud to be cleared away then.
In contrast to the lovely, easy trip down, it took us 11 f**cking hours to get home. It would have been quick to go via Scotland. It was crazy. But there was no way around it once we were stuck in the traffic. I was very glad to get home and extreamly grateful to Rachel for giving me a lift. I would have been knackered otherwise.
I've just had an idea, if you were at glastonbury, send me some pics and vids to onlinedemos@googlemail.com. I'm curious to see what you were up to.
Hope all is good and non muddy out there.
IB
