And Also The Trees @ Southbank Centre, London, Saturday 23rd June 2018

Much like post-punk legends, The Chameleons, I never considered I'd get the chance to see And Also The Trees perform live. I had heard the band mentioned alongside The Cure, and that Robert was friendly with and a fan of And Also The Trees, that the two had toured together - and Lol Tolhurst had produced the band at times. Moreover, that the musical similarities were/are striking. Only in recent years did I hear about the band being active, and - though I missed the chance to see them at the Garage in London a couple of years ago - I started picking up their music at record fairs and online, and became quite fascinated.

That Robert Smith selected the band for his personally curated roster at his Meltdown festival this summer was a brilliant piece of news. An intimate venue, too.

So it was that I sat a couple of rows away from the stage, bathed in amazing purples and glowering reds, entranced by winding, textured, emotively woven musical soundscapes.

Singer Simon Huw Jones cut a stark figure in his frock coat, waistcoat and romantics' pale white shirt. Suddenly, a creak like the coffin lid of a vampiric creature in some gothic tale. 'I like that,' he announced. It was people creeping out to the bar, the heavy doors cranking. The noise came again. 'But not too much.' We laughed aloud.

But the mood was mostly beautifully sombre, dreamy, and filled with silent awe.

Saxophones, clarinets glazed the songs that were generally heavy in bass and drums. 12-string guitar pickings sounded flamenco-like at times yet still gloomily beautiful. Keyboard strings also iced the set.

It felt like the best band you could see, the closest you could get, to seeing The Cure. My Bloody Valentine might have been pedalling away and creating sensory noise in another building nearby, and Suzanne Vega sounded golden caramel wonderful next door in snatches as I passed by, but And Also The Trees created amazing atmospheres, tension, emotional release, poetic phrasings, all delivered with vocal intent, and it was incredible.

Nice one, Bob, for booking them! (I bet he enjoyed a few glasses of lemonade with the band afterwards).

Support band A Dead Forest Index were not only aptly chosen by name but pleasingly evocative and musically innovative, on a similar wavelength, too. Sadly no guest spot from Bob Smith, but maybe that is happening at today's big gig he's doing.

Brix and The Extricated @ Oslo, London, 3rd November, 2017

My 5th Brix gig! She's a legend of The Fall. Backed with other revered former members such as Steve and Paul Hanley, the band just gets mightier and mightier.

I had a different song from Brix and the Extricated's first album in my head each day in the week leading up to this, and the week after. It's an outstanding collection of new songs, livid with grinding bass and alive with the powerfully confident vocals and surefire lyrics of Brix.

Old Fall songs are in the mix live - but just three make the album: LA, Feeling Numb and Hotel Bloedel. All of which, Brix co-wrote or wrote. Hotel Bloedel was actually the first song Brix wrote - before she even met Mark E Smith. It was the song he first heard that inspired him to call her a "Genius" and invite her to join the band - when she played him a tape of it in his car one night, after they met in a bar, post-Fall-gig. So any detractors who think The Fall is all about Mark E Smith and his ego can do a runner. Brix is a talented component of The Fall past, and a remarkable force right now, on stage and performing once again.

She'll draw you in with her hectic vocal delivery, all full of intent and infused with a smashing passion and defiance.

Something to Lose has a Fall clatter intro and bursts into a percussive, driving grind, Brix carefree and singing to us directly. Steve Hanley's bass playing is obviously an almighty part of the force of the band too.

Damned for Eternity and Pneumatic Violet are catchy as hell. And Brix's persona as frontwoman doesn't need to convince anyone. She asserts her vocals half-rap style, strutting around the stage, here a punch to the air for emphasis, here a kick to emphasise her words.

I love her new t-shirt that suggests a double-meaning: LIVE.

Perhaps the best moment comes as Siobhan Fahey - one of her old pals in pop - joins the band on stage to duet with Brix. If a member of Bananarama singing Totally Wired kitted out in glitter is any Fall fan's idea of crossing a line - bring it on. Brix and Siobhan are having a ball, reeling off the lines normally ranted out by Mark E Smith. It feels like necessary defiance, rejection of the bullshit notion of only men being allowed to own guitar music and that it must be done SERIOUSLY!

But that's a fun gig climax, when everyone's clearly had a few. It's not to be forgotten that Brix is a songwriter to be taken seriously and in her own right. I celebrate every gig, every time she sings out and crushes all the times women were never afforded equal respect and the chance to take centre stage with guitars. Brix is brilliant, and bring on her rightful recognition in rock stardom.

Desperate Journalist @ The Garage, London, 10 November, 2017

A second Desperate Journalist gig in London within a few weeks of the last. I grabbed the chance! Just a 30-minute set, which left me hoping for an encore, but it was perfectly delivered - in the usual crisp, shiny indie style,.

Why Are You So Boring? continues to sound like an anthem. Lacking in Your Love, epic as ever with its crepuscular, swirling guitar notes winding around dreamily, all hazily reminiscent of This Twilight Garden by The Cure.

Resolution sounds better with every live performance, or maybe it's just grown on me as another indie pop hit single sounding success. Christina burst in with further pop aplomb.

Great to be down the front, singing along and enjoying the splendour of it all.

From my spot, I didn't get the whole band in the photos, but I thought I'd include them anyway for the lights and the pop stariness of the three quarters of the band I did capture under pink and green dazzle.

All the chorus pedal guitar riffs are still ringing out in my ears and I'm full of adoration for this band.

Desperate Journalist @ The Dome, London, 19th October, 2017

A Fierce Panda Records bop with one of Britain's best indie bands of the day.

I hadn't been back to the Dome in Tufnell Park since my indie-rock student dancing days of the late 90s when they had Loony Tunes night! It's a great, medium-sized venue with a friendly air, and suited Desperate Journalist well.

Me and a friend burst into the venue just as Young Romance were tearing into their instantly anthemic Wasting Time. I was reeled in right away by the pounding Jesus and Mary Chain stand-up drumming, melodic synths and guitars swirling to perfection. 

The comparison of singer Claire's vocals to Kate Bush is easy and true, the high pitch pop and light delivery. 

One of the best moments comes through with the persistent refrain: 'I don't want a love like this anymore / No, I don't want a love like this anymore!' followed by 'Get out, get out / Be on your way.' More in the melody and emotion than anything, so immediately anthemic, Danceable bliss!

They are, quite simply, fabulous, and I have lacked the nous to find them up to now. Album was instantly bought, and I greatly anticipate the second one that's currently being recorded, along with a 2018 spent gadding about watching them lots!

Desperate Journalist have been at the uppermost end of my list of favourite, emerging, young indie bands since I caught them at a nascent gig supporting Six By Seven in 2013. Many a gig, CD, badge, and t-shirt from the band has been snapped up eagerly by me since. I went onto to see the band again within a couple of weeks of this gig, as I clamour at any opportunity.

Since I've not written about the band on here just yet, I need to point out the shiny layers of Cure and Smiths influences - hypnotic guitars all atmospheric and emotive, aching, impassioned vocal deliveries and the most thoughtful and lyrical song words I've heard from a band in quite some time.

The melodies are entrancing, Cure-perfect with vocals delivered in the most Morrissey-idolising way - sometimes drawn out, always with meaning, emotional emphasis, intent - but still Jo Bevan's own style with it all. There's also the added kick of Manic Street Preachers' rock bluster, epicness of Suide, and other British rock influences both musically, lyrically, and in the band's star-like garb and cosmetics. Now that I'm aware that Jo is in the premium Duran Duran tribute band, Joanne Joanne, I can also pick up on 80s synth-op influences more.

On stage, Jo and her band are heroic. They ought to become massive any day now. They've been working away, and their second album advances much of the qualities of their first, in catchiness,  delivery, production, everything. The strength of the musicianship has reached an ideal.

I love the emphatic singing, the way Jo adorns the mic to her, wire winding and close, so the music becomes a meaningful appendage. She sings with power and strength. She sings with Moz-like tremulousness. 

The newer songs feel more tender at times, and many are more forthright in their outright melody, with Why Are You So Boring an all-out pop hit, if you ask me.

All a bit glorious and special - onwards to further brightness they stride.

MC Asher Senator @ Merton Arts Space, Wimbledon Library, 20 October, 2016

Libraries do incredible things. Who would expect to be treated to a live reggae MC, after hours, in the reference library? And all for free.

Asher Senator is a man who influenced generations of musicians in reggae, hip-hop, R'n'B. I know he's a big deal, because when I met up with my brother - a DJ and hip-hop and dub fan who's been through the 80s and 90s - his smile said it all when I handed him a signed book! -

Asher's vibrant energy, wit, and warm personality brought the house down. A great sound system backed him as he performed old favourites.

Live performances were interspersed with fantastic old tales from his years working with Smiley Culture. Whilst Smiley Culture is sadly no longer with us, the friendship was relived via all the anecdotes of friendship in youth, starting up in music, and jetsetting. As Asher pointed out, if you were a new MC in 2016, you'd just turn up to the club with your USB stick with your backing track, plug in and go. Back then, Asher and Smiley had to build their own sound systems from scratch, lug their gear around in dodgy old bangers, and got into scrapes.

My favourite story was hearing about the duo's acquaintance with a man who owned a field of the green stuff. Cue a song featuring the lyric: 'Me no wake for 24 hour' !

These days, Asher runs a charity for kids getting into multimedia arts, and it sounds like he's doing a noble job, inspiring future generations, anew.

Asher is a joyous bloke, and it all came through with the songs, readings, and stories. Listen to the songs, buy the book!

Chorusgirl, live @ The Finsbury, London, 12 October, 2016

One of the best new indie-pop bands to come from Fortuna Pop, and of recent times. I am hooked on the bright and melodic, chorus-pedal-laden brilliance of Chorusgirl, and glad of their being around right now.

This was a free gig, which also introduced me to Dream Nails, who were bouncy, giddy fun - the kind of female-gang, punk-pop we took for granted in the mid 90s. I've just been reading about their feministic drive and zine-making, which makes me love them even more.

Interview with Chorusgirl over at Godisinthetv.

Luke Haines, The Borderline, London, 30th July, 2013

A trip to the Borderline, a venue off Oxford Street that, mercifully, didn't succumb to Crossrail's clutches - the last significant rock venue left round that area, save the 12 Bar Club. On entering, realise we're 'fashionably late' as we hear ladies exclaiming: 'Why, thank you, Sir John Moore!' at the guestlist - as the dapper, suited man strolls coolly into the venue with them (and he does forever cut cool).

 

A couple of minutes to get a good spot near the front, and then Luke Haines is up, painted rock n roll animal versions of Nick Lowe, Gene Vincent, and Jimmy Pursey lit up behind him.

 

The set is entirely Haines on acoustic guitar - with added beats of a small hand drum, the odd keyboard moment (jokes about how he can't fucking play everything at once, if I recall). The set is primarily from the new Rock n Roll Animals LP - which would be a brighter performance had comedienne Julia Davis joined in on her spoken-word bit, surely? She is in the venue, hanging with fellow comedians, and I feel let down that she isn't adding to the performance, instead watching as we are.

 

 

Haines in his ROCK/ROLL shades:

 

There's a powerful moment when Haines reads from a Mick Farren book (rock journalist and musician Mick Farren having recently passed on, and Haines being saddened by his death). Tell of poor Gene Vincent and his ailing leg, followed by his painful death by stomach ulcer. Crowd are laughing, I suppose at the uncomfortable, and also amidst the long, slow, deep, laconic vocal delivery of Haines, and how Haines speaking is somehow comedic whatever he utters tonight. But it's really sad, and I never fully knew all this (sweet Gene Vincent died - aged 36) , and Haines reads with such wonderful, wry, horse, commandeering panache...

 

Long-term Haines fan with me was ecstatic to hear Leeds United, Baader Meinhof, and Lenny Valentino.. But, tonight, it was also, here we go again, satin wrestler suited feller (probably a drunken John Moore), passing round bonafide liver sausage sandwiches for the crowd, during the 'wrestling album' numbers, not a best Haines album effort to either of us (old fan and new) - albeit there are a couple of great saving graces of songs, and we did enjoy those. But really we wanted oodles of songs from the similarly recent but truly remarkable 21st Century Man album, and didn't get them, bar maybe one. The off-the-cuff seeming song about certain 60s/70s bands/singers being name-checked and all said to be 'righteous' was something I could pass on, if I'm brutally honest.

 

A quirky gig, with a lot of charm - just cut so short, and in need of more favourite songs.

Allo Darlin' @ The Half Moon, Herne Hill, London, 20th June 2013

The Half Moon in Herne Hill is a stone's throw away from Brixton. It's a stunning, historical pub, with a brilliant backroom for gigs. Last time I was here was for an all-day shoegaze/dream pop festival with a record fair. I was thrilled when one of my favourite current indie pop bands, Allo Darlin' announced a 'compass' tour of London - playing in four different corners, north, east, west, and here in Herne Hill: south (west). Tickets were instantly bought.

it's so nice to have a gig that is not in the typical, clichéd, 'cool' places of the moment like Shoreditch or Dalston - moreover, this was a pretty local gig for me, and travel was a joy.

I'm afraid the night was tinged with a little sadness, though, since - whilst looking online for stage times - I had come across a website noting the possible plans to convert the gig room into flats ! This trend - and the trend for converting pubs into mini, big chain supermarkets - is heartbreaking to a music fan like me, who thrives on tiny gigs. So I made the most of being in the venue with the utter privilege of this wonderful, fun band tonight. I took photos of the venue, although sadly it was too dark to capture the golden stars and chandeliers adorning the ceiling. I got a nice red-lit shot of the stage before the bands came on. And those plush, turquoise velvet curtains surrounding the stage too.

It was such a fun gig. This was my third Allo Darlin' gig, and the band always put a smile on my face. Elizabeth Morriss's own smile, and her pure, obvious enjoyment in singing and playing is so infectious. The new song sounded so strong. Since I didn't have names to note down set-list style, I, er, just wrote down the themes of the new songs: being stronger, nostalgia, Australia, living in a cupboard. The Allo Darlin indie pop songwriting skills are at work, so much melody, energy, and genuine emotion. Elizabeth Morris has one of my favourite singing voices, lots of warmth and feeling.

Sad for the blurriness of these photos, but we are lo-fi here.

The Wave Pictures were in support, with Darren Hayman style vocals, and songs of Johnny Cash's shoes, and whisky, and tales of the heart.

I had a good time, chatting to the Fortuna Pop people, who were kind to put the paper zine of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill on their merchandise stall. Allo Darlin are featured in two issues! Another Fortuna Pop band, Tender Trap are also interviewed in issue two of the zine. Nice to bump into two people that were dining with Tender Trap and us the night we interviewed them, including a sound engineer for various bands including The Wave Pictures and The Lovely Eggs, and a DJ from Atta Girl club. I passed some zines on to be sold at the next Atta Girl club night, in Birmingham, which is this coming Saturday 22nd, at The Hare and Hounds pub. Wish I could go!

Rounded off the night by transporting myself back to my youth and trying on band t shirts for size in the gig venue toilets! Came home with a bright orange, sunny, lovely Allo Darlin' t-shirt, plus replaced our digital version of the recent, very excellent Tender Trap album, with a physical CD version. And that's how gigs should be, amazing venues, full of community, supporting independent bands and labels and promoters who work damn hard in really harsh times, and where you come away smiling.

Music pub gentrification and loss

Just read in the CAMRA official publication that The Grosvenor pub in Stockwell, south London has been sold to a property developer.

I fear about the future of pubs in general, have done for a couple of years, and seen and felt so many negative, dramatic changes, or losses - especially to music venue pubs.

I had a sad day for favourite London pubs yesterday - first a visit to The Hope and Anchor yielded the fact that it now resembled one of those identikit looking swish eating pubs - all the historical music posters from the punk 70s and post-punk 80s have been removed, replaced with Breakfast at Tiffany's style dainty wallpaper. This isn't what I want as a music fan - The Hope and Anchor was a wonderfully old, historical music pub, famed for its venue, and loved by me (and by many others, I'm sure) for its jukebox music, and rock pub feel, plus pool table upstairs. It was the pub I always took friends of indie/musical mind to, place have a pint and a talk about music, with decent music, and maybe a game of pool soundtracked by decent music. Thankfully, the gig venue remains, as does the jukebox (not sure about the pool). The basement gig venue is the place's heartbeat. Pretty much every punk/new wave band has played there, and there are innumerable new bands starting out from here still. But it's just not the same in the main room of the pub. It's all too sensible now, and has lost much of the feel that made it totally unique, famous, a place to want to go out of your way to go to if you were not local (when I was local, I was in there so much, it's the only place I've ever drunk in where I'd go up to the bar, and they'd already be pouring my favoured pint).

I don't mind that it might serve food to survive - god knows pubs need to do what they can to survive in these harsh times, and food is useful to the drinker - but to strip this landmark pub of its history is unforgiveable, and beyond belief. I saw this happen to The Half Moon in Putney, and I find it too distasteful to go back now it is a wine-glass/napkins-on table eaterie with so much faux decoration and all the musical history torn out - plus, it's painted the most depressingly drab grey in the world (over its beautiful Victorian red brick).

Also yesterday I was floored to walk up to Filthy McNasty's with a couple of its fans in tow, to see that a sign had been put up: COMING SOON! MEAT LOVERS' PUB! A bit of investigation asserted that the pub has indeed been sold. Also, merely looking inside the windows you could see that all the historical music posters had been completely removed - in favour of stark white walling. The place looks completely devoid of character so far. And as a non-meat eater, it will never get my custom in my lifetime. I'm guessing a new food pub won't launch itself under the original name of Filthy McNasty's...

Again, another significant pub. Owned in part, I believe, by Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, and a place where there was always a good atmosphere, and a welcome if you were an alternative music fan. A place that hosted book readings, off-kilter gigs, showed films, and was just generally an individual place to enjoy the night. Lost forever. Its owners do still have the Boogaloo up in Highgate, thank goodness (let's hope that legendary joint is secure). And there is also the New Rose down on the Old Essex Road, which is nearby to Filthy's but that place is not quite the same in look and feel. However, it does play excellent music (yesterday enjoyed a slew of stuff, mainly 60s garage rock and pop, and some newer stuff. Particularly The Box Tops' The Letter, and Let's Pretend It's Summer by the Brian Jonestown Massacre - tell me anywhere where you can hear all that of a casual afternoon!), and it is helpfully located a stone's throw from a couple of excellent record shops (Haggle and Flashback Records).

So, three London pub blows in one afternoon/evening for me yesterday. The future feels quite threatening, and so so sad and empty. That's why it is a political act where you choose to go and what you choose to do. Supporting your favourite (and especially those that are independent or small in operation) pubs, shops, etc is more crucial than ever. Rising prices for pints and pretty much in everything else, plus so many other factors (rent, wages, licensing laws, the smoking ban), have throttled pubs' abilities to survive so much. But should this really result in pubs becoming identikit or dull/conservative looking over-priced/unaffordable dining houses? Is that what people really want?

Under this government, property sell-offs and development are like a (cold) soul to everything. Anything that can be bought up and refurbished or sold for big bucks seems to be in danger of being up for the taking when times are tough - but how many more ugly looking mini/express big-name supermarkets and 'luxury' high-rise flats do we need? It feels like gentrification has taken over, and beyond the loss of communal places like pubs/cafes/libraries, lies not only the loss of community, but moreover for crass money-orientated individualism to succeed over all - combined with other current factors (and many more just kicking in), so many people are going to be pushed out of the city of London unless they are rich. The message seems to be clear: rich people welcome, we want to cater for you above everyone else.

Windmill dog / all-day Easter gig at Brixton Windmill

This big creature was keenly overseeing the free barbecue at The Windmill in Brixton yesterday!

Good to go to an afternoon-into-evening gig on a Good Friday. It was much too cold to be having a barbecue, but on arrival we managed to eat vegetarian burgers and salads in the freezing outdoor garden - my friend with gloves on! There were about three terrifyingly large dargs on the roof as we ate, plus we got unwanted conversation from someone with a musical Noddy doll, which made for an unsettling start.



It was excellent to see Viv Albertine once again, though. Small wonder that she is playing somewhere as compact as this. She was greeted like a legend, by many, rightly, though. Her songs and lyrics are so off-kilter, funny, clever, political, great. She said she had arrived feeling grumpy, and had multiple technical problems - including us witnessing her getting electric shocks on her mouth so bad, she resorted to putting what looked like a sock over her mic. But her smile was as sunny as this Easter day in April should have been. She was inspiring and entertaining to watch, really reaffirmed my faith in things. I must definitely buy some of her albums at next financial opportunity.

Interestingly, I bought some old music magazines on a market recently - one of which was an edition of Q from late last year. Inside, there was a mock image of a cover of Q with Viv Albertine on the cover, saying if the magazine had been around in the late 70s, that's how it would've looked. Hello, Q! Viv Albertine is very much alive, performing, and kicking - so what's your excuse ?

(Above photo of Viv Albertine from the Strummerville event I went to a few years ago as didn't get to take any photos at the Windmill gig).

EDIT: Since I wrote this post, it's been announced that Viv Albertine has written an autobiography! This will be utterly superb, and I cannot wait. We need many more female rock musician biographies, there are not so many.

There are few gigs I genuinely can/want to go to nowadays, so it's really sad to find that one I have already bought tickets for (British Sea Power) clashes with another I was so passionate about going to - A Hawk and a Hacksaw ! I double checked the dates, and am so deflated. They seldom play live in this country, as they're from Albuquerque (even though they make eastern european sounds, and for ages I thought they were so obviously from Russia). I have seen them live once, years ago, and it was a sort of crazed accordion-led/boozed up hoe-down. Oh well, I shall have to buy all those albums of theirs that I never got onto pursuing, instead.

Speaking of gig venues, I am still sorely disappointed at news that The Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, one of the last sticky-floored indie hide-aways of my youth, is going to not only become one of those horrible dining rooms where you can't feasibly sit and have a pint; but it will also lose its music venue. The music venue that has broken many a tiny band (including Coldplay, if you must!), or quite simply just been a vital little platform for indie rock bands in their infancy for years and years.

I shall be going to as many gigs there as I can before it closes in May, but before that, I went to the pub as soon as I possibly could after hearing the news, for pints. So many memories, gigs, pints. It's a pub I have always felt glad to see standing in its same old ways whenever in Kentish Town - because it's a pub and venue that seemed to continue to defy stupid gastropub fads and any kind of large, ugly, corporate branded enterntainment format or trended style. It was a good old pub, a good old venue.

Immediately on being served at the bar the other week, I found myself having a really decent chat with the landlord about what had happened. He said the place had been up for sale for a few years, and how not one person from the music industry had come forward with an offer to take it over. How shameful.

But he did bear the good news that the pub would have to retain its decor and architecture, because it is Grade II listed. So there is a sliver of hope. Because the pub's history and the place as a building is so important too. Opposite The Bull and Gate, you have a glassy estate agents (probably a big part of the change in the area, catering for/aiming at new sorts of people), and a really soulless looking glassy eating place (I forget its name), plus The Assembly Rooms seem to have lost the feel of a relaxed pub and are now more like swish dining rooms themselves.

I despise gentrification. I will always love history and character. I would always rather a bit of paint peeling and a touch of scruff to show a place has been lived in/enjoyed, than permanently pristine/new looking places that are essentially only for the wealthy. Poorer people need pubs too! Pubs should welcome anyone, but when The Bull and Gate becomes a gastro pub many people will be alienated or simply no longer welcome. Club Fandango (Fierce Panda Record lable's clubnight) will move on, but this is still such a huge loss to the indie music world.

And what of the Grade II listed pub's side-sign that boasts the word VENUE?

Issue #2 of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill + Luke Haines's cat

The second issue of the paper music fanzine The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill shall be launched this Saturday 23rd Feburary! Featuring an exclusive interview with Tender Trap, and lots more that I shan't detail here yet!

You may already know of the spectacular How Does it Feel to Be Loved indiepop/60s/girl soul night in London. They are hosting their first record fair in Brixton, at the Canterbury Arms Pub, from 12noon till 5pm, on Saturday 23rd Feburary (this coming Saturday!).

All Thrills No Frills 'zine will have a stall, and we'll be selling music fanzines old and new - ours and other people's wonderful creations.

I am donating profits from my own creations to the cause of Luke Haines's cat! More info here.

Full details of the event in general + MAP are here.

Come and buy records or fanzines, maybe both - support independent sellers, and independent creative types, and Colin the Cat, too!! Oh, and there are DJs too, and I think HDIF are still seeking the odd DJ or two.

Love From London

I absolutely love the image Robyn Hitchcock has painted for his new album, Love From London:

I like the joy of my perceived meanings behind it, and of course the skill of the artwork alone. On a personal level, it resonates/represents something to me as well. The t-shirt too:

In times when download vouchers are given to me as birthday presents, or I overhear people justifying their 'still' buying CDs as if it is absurd unheard-of behaviour, it's a fine feeling to fall in love with album artwork. I've written before about the wonder of bands like Joy Formidable who use the art of physical music artefacts to their advantage in selling records - selling one-off hand-painted/numbered Christmas singles, or specially wrapped live albums that come with one-off band t-shirts, or the absolute: selling a new release in limited quantities with broken bits of the singer Ritzy's smashed-up-on-stage guitar! And British Sea Power are the epitome of/experts in releases/design/merchandise, and it really adds to the feeling of uniqueness/romance about the band.

Needless to say, I have fervently rushed to order both albums by Hitchcock and BSP couple of months before release date - the latter direct from the band; former from the noble Yeproc Records. It's very rare that I take excited interest in the very release date of a new album nowadays, but this feels very much like an event, combined with Robyn's 60th birthday shindig gig set for the end of the month - as does the upcoming British Sea Power tour and album. It was luxury and reward to be able to spend the first bit of my wages on some things as wonderful and life-affirming as these. If I could, I'd travel the country a fair bit following both tours.

I love the many songs that Robyn Hitchcock has written about London, and how in recent years the timing and locations have had such poignancy to me, and make the very streets I tread reverberate with meaning, poetry, definition. I suppose spotting him about, or hearing of his frequenting/enjoying certain corners adds to enjoyment and love of these areas that perhaps haven't been celebrated so much, particularly by recent songwriters.

The new songs from Robyn have come right up and hugged me. A recent session on an American radio show was just perfect, and I'm looking forward to catching up on the Daytrotter stuff he did last Friday too.

And again and again and again, if I could be in a band with anyone of any mindset, it would be someone like Robyn Hitchcock - only there is no one like him.

Cops and Robyn Hitchcock

I was virtually running round the house last night when I read about this gig:

November 17, 2012 – Kensal Green, London, at the Lexi Cinema. Robyn Hitchcock plays a one-off show, co-starring with the 1973 Clint Eastwood movie Magnum Force. The film – depicting an epic duel of personalities between ‘Dirty Harry’ (Eastwood) and his nemesis, Briggs (Hal Holbrook) – will stop at various points and Robyn will sing a song triggered by whatever has just happened in the story.

This is the gig of a life-time, and I have not been this excited about a gig in years! Robyn Hitchcock is a genius in the greyest of times, but he'll be bonkers brilliant joy for this. I wish I had the means to be a bootlegger!
I'm now set to wondering if the perfect, magical acoustic gig RH did last Autumn ever did make it onto DVD?