Well once again I have not been in touch for a while Blogface and for that I apologise.

Since we last spoke, Obama has been made president-elect which is great news. He has got a lot of shit to sort out for America so we'll see how he does next year. Something tells me that people/the media will get on his back if he doesn't miraculously sort things out straight away; it will be a slow and steady process.

Over the last few months, I have learnt about some extremely inspirational people; people I would call heroes. I've written a tiny bit about them below:

Paul Rusesabagina
You may have seen Hotel Rwanda and heard his story. I read his story of events on holiday in his book and he really is a selfless man. He saved over a 1000 innocent civilians during the Rwandian civil war by hiding them in his hotel. During this time he could have easily left (the UN offered to take him) but he stayed to save the lives of the civilians. The Hutus regularly came to murder the occupants but Paul kept his nerve and kept them away with words (and bribes!) only. I see him as a hero because he was so altruistic throughout the affair and didn't just crumble when so many others would have.

Joe Simpson
Born and bred a Sheffielder, Joe Simpson climbed Siula Grande in Peru in the 80s. Near the top he broke a leg. His fellow climber presumed him dead and climbed back down. Joe spent three and a half days hauling himself back down the mountain in immense pain over boulders and glaciers (unroped). He recounts the story in the documentary film ‘Touching the void’ and I find it amazing how, near death, he pushed himself in an effort to survive. A lot of people feel that anyone would do the same in that situation but personally I don’t think I’d have the will power to see myself through such pain and such a challenge.

Christopher Johnson McCandless
Another film ‘Into the wild’ brought this man to my attention. Chris aced his way through school and was all set to go off to Harvard. Instead, he sent all his savings ($24k) to Unicef and decided to hike into Alaskan wilderness to live in isolation from the modern world. It is incredibly inspiring to see someone so intelligent and settled in the “normal” life decide to completely rip up the rule book and live his life exactly how he wishes. You have to be emotionally strong to just give up friends/family/love/etc. Some may think he is a little selfish; he nerve contacted his family – but what an extraordinary journey for him to go on. It was like the biggest experiment that he could perform on himself and, although he died tragically from starvation, he lived his life to the absolute full and allowed him to do things that no one would even get close to.

Bring on the credit crunch you fucking cunts

This is what is written in big blue letters on the main doors that go into our office building at work. They have covered it up with posters but as it is a glass door, you can see it through the other side.


Sorry blogface, I haven't tickled your canvas with my lettering in a short while. Since we last spoke I have been to Barbados which was absolutely amazing. Towards the end of most holidays I have been on, I've almost been looking forward to coming home. This time though, I could stayed there; lived there perhaps. It is such a beautiful country with happy and polite people at every turn.


This time next week we will know who the president is. I really hope it is Obama - I know everyone is saying this but ignoring the personalities and personas of each candidate and reading policies alone, Obama comes out on top for me. His tax policy just makes sense to me - stop taxing low earners more, and if you earn over $250,000, you will be taxed more. America would only see real change if Obama was president as well, I get the feeling that McCain will just be more of the same for 4 years and that isn't good enough.


I don't have much else to write I'm afraid, I'm thinking of saving up for an accordion...

Robert Mugabe

Once a national hero, Mugabe is now a violent dictator of Zimbabwe. He has fucked up the economy to an extreme - inflation is at 100,000% and unemployment is 80%!! He has waged a violent war against white people and homosexuals (amongst others) and has now won his 6th term as president of Zimbabwe.

When the country went to election, Mugabe lost the public vote. Through violence and intimidation he won the vote by a landslide victory. The fact that there were many spoiled ballots speaks volumes..

"This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold" - R. Mugabe

Shit.

So, Blogface, things seem to be a bit shit at the moment. Nate's dad is currently in hospital - I don't really like to ask for details or anything but as far as I'm aware, things are not good :( I really hope he has a speedy recovery and I know Nate would be absolutely gutted if anything bad was to happen. The above kind of makes the rest of this blog redundant but still is a bit shitty. Julie had a accident with a pole the other day and has scraped all down the side of her brand new car. Though only visual damage, Julie is understandably upset with it being brand new - add on that a couple of customer service/administrative errors with things she's bought lately and things don't seem to be going right. I've also been bedridden with illness - my throat feels like crap and everytime I cough my head pounds and throat tears (not literally, I hope). Cats for peru are recording in 2 weeks time and I'm a little paranoid about my voice so fingers crossed.

I just feel like I'm becoming more and more detached from the world around me. I hardly see my friends and 2 of my best, my housemates, well the majority of conversation is through written text whether it's email, phone or magnadoodle. I just like to keep myself to myself and I know Julie's the same. However wrong it may be, social circles are almost exclusively decided on whether you go out drinking or not. As I hardly ever do, I feel like I'm losing touch. It depresses me to feel like this, yet I hardly enjoy getting drunk anymore. I have no idea why this is, I don't think I can hack the amount of idiots that surround me (that's not my mates obviously, the general public) and everyone always talks about getting drunk, having to get drunk, the "damage drink must be doing to my liver" (said with ironic sarcasm) - I don't know, it's just not me. I'd much rather pile consoles and board games into the living room, have a few vodkas, listen to some good music and not be ill the next day =P If that makes me a sad loser, so be it..

Tom Waits

"My head is spinning round
My heart is in my shoes
I went and set the Thames on fire
Now I must come back down
She's laughing in her sleeve at me
I can feel it in my bones
But anywhere, I'm gonna
Lay my head, boys
I will call my home.
Well I see that the world is upside down
My pockets were filled up with gold.
Now the clouds have covered o'er
And the wind is blowing cold
I don't need anybody
Because I learned to be alone
And anywhere
I lay my head, boys
I will call my home."

What a complete legend this man is.  First time I heard him, I laughed.   I want to go back to 2005 Adam Follett and slap him in the face with a wet fish.

My Armchair Protest

So I've been loosely following the recent China and Tibet conflict.. The long and short of it is that Tibet has already seen itself as free from China but China disagree. In 1951, China sent troops into Tibet and after much bloodshed, a dodgy treaty was signed that made Tibet an official colony of China. Tibet now wants to be relgiously and politically independent of China. Although China has invested in it's Economy, China have famously mistreated the Tibetans compared to the rest of the country. From the 50's onwards, thousands of Tibetans have been murdered (they won't give them independence yet they'll willingly "kill their own"?) and Tibet have now tried to charge China with the crime of mass genocide. Kudos to Delai Lama for speaking out and letting the world know about what would otherwise be a very private and biased affair. The conflict has reached boiling point - journalists aren't allowed into Tibet, external information isn't allowed into China (websites such as youtube and news websites have been banned) and no information is allowed to leave - creating a totalitarianistic China.

The latest news is of people boycotting and protesting against the Beijing Olympics and one piece of news caught my eye. One particular protestor broke through police lines with a banner of the olympic rings replaced with handcuffs. This man was arrested and viciously beaten and is now apparently it prison for five years (where he reportedly is being tortured). He hasn't appealed to this as he believes the Chinese justice system is "corrupt" - like the rest of the country really. It's good to see Amnesty International are getting on the case though and are trying to stand up to these monsters that run China. We're living in a world that proclaims free speech for all yet everything is censored if it's not what "they" want to hear.

Media-ocrity

Blogface,

Sorry to go on about the media again but fuck me, it's a bloody joke. A couple of examples..

Firstly, watch this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ouKJixL--ms

So Fox news prides itself on its unbiased look on the presidential election yet they comment on the most fickle things and pick at Obama like he's a monster. Oh, what's that? They made a deal with the Democratic party to host their Primary Debate? Aha - that explains it. It's disgusting that they would use this kind of propaganda and then deny it - though on a much less scale, it's similar to Nazi propaganda! I thought the whole point of the media was to give a completely unbiased view of the world and if anything was one-sided, it was made clear that it was an opinion of the individual. Of course, this isn't a new thing - look at newspapers, papers like the Daily Mail - they don't give us the news, they give us their right-wing spin on it. The fact that the government can affect the media is terrifying though - they can basically edit the news to for their own gain and millions of people will watch it none the wiser. Pathetic.

I’ll now move on to Prince Harry. He’s been serving in Afghanistan for a few months under strict secrecy. A foreign newspaper got hold of this news and decided to run with it. What kinds of monsters print this information? It’s not like someone is secretly gay or something – this is secret as it puts many many lives at Risk. But no, the media doesn’t give a shit about morals, they just want to sell papers (as if they don’t sell enough already). Even on a smaller scale – oh, Britney Spears isn’t wearing pants again…why the fuck are you laying on the curb getting an upskirt shot? Anyone else would be arrested for this!!

Anyway, rant over, very glad it’s the weekend – going to see Crystal Teet Heart and Corleone tonight – should be a bloody ruddy good gig!

Blogface - two blogs in the same week, how lucky are you? (that’s not a universal you, it’s the ‘you’ as in – the one or, at a push, two people that read this blog).

I have a few things on my mind that I’d like to write about and I’ll start with my vegetarian “adventure”. So far it’s going quite well. I don’t really crave meat at all and am finding it very easy. Unfortunately, the “eating fresh” part of my new diet is really not going well at all - Its cheese sandwiches all the way at the moment. Three nights in a row I’ve had a cheese sandwich for tea. I find it difficult to be motivated to make anything “proper” when I’m just making for myself and also when I’m busy and off out at night. Making a cheese sandwich is too easy and tasty to not bother with! That’s not to mention that I can’t cook and have never made anything more challenging than a pasta or salad. Poor show to be honest…

Last night I caught some of the Brit Awards. Firstly, the nominations were pretty terrible and I wish I had placed a bet on all winners in all categories…it was all extremely predictable. I don’t understand why so many average artists are put on such a pedestal. Everyone was jizzing all over Mark Ronson (metaphorically you understand) who basically rearranges songs with trumpets and suddenly he’s a genius. He is the white Jay-z it appears – he produces songs and collaborates with everyone under the sun. Onto one of his main collaborators - Amy Winehouse. She has been all over NME etc, once again everyone spurting their love juice everywhere at the idea of her playing the Brits. She sang Valerie with Mark Ronson and also one of her own songs. Both were completely dire – she looked a complete mess in physique and persona and her voice was terrible (Janice from Friends anyone?) yet the crowd went wild for her. I just read some of the Metro paper and surprise surprise, all the fuss is about her “flawless” performance. Please piss right off. Am I missing something or are people taking this “she’s a tortured genius” thing too far? If she wasn’t fucked off her face on drugs, I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t be quite as popular which is a shame as it’s magazines like NME who glamorise her lifestyle. NME obvious deny this – on NME.com they have a section called “Tabloid hell” which they seem to think is some kind of semi-ironic take on the general media but no, YOU (nme) are telling us the news and you can coat it in what you like, you’re turning into the Heat magazine of the music industry. The NME cool list confirms this.

This also reminds me that I’ve been rewatching some episodes of the brilliant Brass Eye – a satirical look at today’s media. Brasseye’s 2001 Paedophilia special was ground-breaking TV and was obviously going to be controversial from the start. If you read the following passage from Wikipedia, the reaction to the show is exactly what Chris Morris satirises in his shows:

"Around 2000 complaints (and approximately 3000 calls of support) were received regarding the show, and some politicians hastily spoke out against Morris. Beverley Hughes described the show as "unspeakably sick" (while admitting that she had not seen the programme) and David Blunkett said he was "dismayed" by it. Although she did not criticise the show, Tessa Jowell was reported as asking the Independent Television Commission to revise its rules to allow such a controversial show to be prevented from broadcast [5] even though she hadn't watched the actual episode of the show. There was also a vociferous tabloid campaign against Morris, who refused to discuss the issue. The episode went on to win a Broadcast magazine award in 2002 and the complete series, including the 2001 special, was released as a bestselling DVD later that year.
The show caused a furore among sections of the British tabloid press. The Daily Star printed an article decrying Morris and the show next to a piece about the then 15-year-old singer Charlotte Church's breasts under the headline "She's a big girl now" [6][7]. The Daily Mail featured pictures of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 13 and 11 at the time respectively, in their bikinis next to a headline describing Brass Eye as "Unspeakably Sick"[7]. Defenders of the show argued that the media reaction to the show reinforced its satire of the media's hysteria and hypocrisy on the subject of paedophilia.[7] This episode has been shown 3 times even though controversy was caused each time."


The part about the tabloids calling for Morris’ head next to the risqué pictures of famous youths is pretty much in line with NME’s ethic – ‘we’ll denounce all the tabloid rubbish, but report it anyway’."

From the Brits to the US and more importantly, the election. After 8 years under the realm of the dumb tyrant George Bush, it is time for a change and thank god the Americans agree. 9/11 was a terrible terrible event but it did wake America up and prove the vulnerability of this “Super nation”. However, action needed to be taken but Bush got it completely wrong. Setting up the product “The Axis of Evil™” allowed the Bush administration to scare Americans to death and more importantly to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq. The attack on Afghanistan was perhaps justified – to be honest I was quite young and never really knew what happened so can’t really comment. After a while, Bush decided to go after Saddam Hussein instead and pulled his men out of Afghanistan and put them in Iraq (even though Al-Qaeda is a much bigger threat to his country than Hussein??). You can talk all you want about oil and WMDs but the Iraq war and how manipulative the government and propaganda through media (boom, there it again!) but it’s time to move onto the now.

The presidential campaign is pretty much a three horse race between Obama, Clinton and McCain. The Republican corner will almost certainly be headed by McCain and come the election in November, I don’t think he’s likely to be a great contender – he’s in his 70’s and his policies are completely outdated and he thinks we’ll be in Iraq for the next 100 years. 100 YEARS! No one from the West should be there in the first place! So really, it’s down to Obama and Clinton and it looks like Obama will head Democrat party and then go on to be president. And good on him! Obama and Clinton have very similar policies but Obama will (hopefully) give a fresh view on the world and will be a very likable president. It’s hard to say at this stage – he might be a bare faced liar – but America needs change and Obama should be the man to take them forward. Besides, Clinton keeps crying in her campaigns and who wants a weak president? Somehow I can’t see her being able to hack G8 summits et al. But once again, the only way we can hear of anything on this matter is through the media and knowing how manipulative it can be, who knows what to believe?

David Lynch

Hi Blogface,

It's about time I said a few words on my favourite feature film director, Mr David Lynch. Not only is he a great director, he also writes most of his scripts and his unorthadox take on story telling is excellent. So far I have seen the following movies of his:

Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire

I saw Eraserhead first and it's the first time I've come out of a film and had no idea how I felt initially. Repeated viewing helped me realise that there's not much point looking for a standard plot but to take in the visuals and symbolism and direction; if you will. Lynch is the only director I watch where I try to evaluate every scene - why that angle/lighting/sound/dialogue? It engages me a lot more.

I then saw Elephant Man which I completely love - it's the saddest film I've ever seen; Adagio for Strings coupled with his death is incredibly moving. The film is cast brilliantly and the lighting of the film, though black and white, is superb. The film drew criticism as it is not historically true - Joseph Merrick did not dislike the circus and the ringmaster was his best friend - however, this takes nothing away from it being a brilliant and touching story.

I then saw Lost Highway and although it looks a little dated now, I enjoyed it muchly and I admit that I was straight onto the message boards to read people's perceptions and it in turn helped me appreciate it more. Lynch also has unique ways of building tension - the coversation between Pullman and the Mystery Man is very tense - yet it takes place at a busy party in broad daylight (most directors would go for the "dark alley" approach I'm sure). Once again, I was very engaged by the film even though Pullman is not one of my favourite actors to say the least.

Mulholland Dr was next for me - apart from casting two hot girls that "geddit on", this is probably the best of Lynch's surreal films (that I have seen thus far). The film just looks and sounds great (my favourite OST along with Taxi Driver) and the story is not obvious, but makes a lot of sense and any metaphors are done subtley and brilliantly. The way Lynch blends reality and fantasy and past and present into his scenes is mind blowing and strangely, the more I think about the film, the more I enjoy it. Mulholland Dr is definitely worth a second viewing in the next few months.

Lastly, I watched Inland Empire. Although similar to Mulholland Dr's story, this was directed completely differently. I wasn't aware that Lynch cut the film amongst other things - it is uneasy viewing - unorthadox lighting, hand-held cameras with close-ups, the volume was all over the place...not easy to watch late at night (constantly turning it up and down throughout). I once again am not sure how I felt about the film after I watched it. I didn't enjoy it as much as the above films yet it intrigued me more and is once again worth another viewing. Like someone said above, you are on constant edge throughout the film yet it isn't a standard horror movie.

So in conclusion, I find Lynch's work extremely satisfying and am craving more of his work. Seeing interviews with him just furthers my opinion that not only is he an acomplished director, but a fascinating individual and someone I would genuinely love to meet. Next viewings of his work shall be The Straight Story and Blue Velvet..

Meat is....manslaughter?

Good afternoon Blogface

It's been a while, and lot's has happened since I last spoke to you. The cats have played a few gigs and we're now branching out Sheffield. I'm still the worst eco-warrier ever... I'm good at work, but terrible at home. It has to stop, need to go full on with this I reckon - no lights on, no stand bys, no binning recyclable goods.

I'm also slowly evolving into a wannabe-vegetarian. I think it's a combination of:

1. It's good for the environment to go veggie

2. A lot of programmes recently have evolved around the bad conditions of some animals and, although I knew it was all happening, it's from a fairly neutral stance unlike PETA etc. I get completely put off by PETA and such organisations as it's hard to know what to believe when it's so biased and think they go a bit overboard too.

3. Not knowing where my meat comes from is a bit of a worry. I never buy really really cheap meat from Supermarkets but when I think about eating in pubs and work canteen, it concerns me that I could be eating - well, who knows what..!

4. The idea of lining my stomach with pounds of meat can't be good for my weight or my long term health.

5. I reckon I could easily give up burgers/meat balls etc for quorn..

So there you go, plenty of reasons to be fair. I think I'll edge my way in - try and eat quorn where possible and take it from there. I just hope I don't start being a preacher-type if it all goes well...

Guitars 2...

..I Totally went and bought one didn't I!  Well, a Squier....bargainous at £179 tho!

Guitars..

A quick note firstly to say that I no longer blog Catsforperu gigs here, they are on our Facebook page.

Anyway, on with guitars..  

Basically, I want and need a new guitar.  As much as I love my Ibanez, it's a bit buzzy, the pickups always fall out and it's a bit 80's metal for my tastes.  Saying that, it surprisingly has an amazing clean tone to it but there's not enough beef behind it for me.

So I'm after something new.  Unfortunately, I know nothing about guitars and all that humbucker shit.  So I need something that sounds and looks nice.  The guitar that meets both those requirements for me is the oh-so-obscure Telecaster.  I want a black one.

I also like the one with a black plate too..



So there you have it, I guess I thought it was vital that you knew I needed a new guitar.  You never know, someone might just give me theirs.  Hmmm...

Ramble Ramble Ramble

Well it has been a while since I have written, apologies for ignoring you Sir Blogface..

Just got a lot of feelings built up (in the ol' cliche way) and I need to vent it somewhere and I guess this is the best place for it to be fair. My work have just emailed round for Bernados asking for us to donate CDs, DVDs or Walkman/discman. Alternatively, we could all band together and buy something to donate. I was going to suggest this but then thought to myself that there are hundreds of charities I would give to ahead of that. The idea is that we put in our unwanted gifts to give to underprivileged kids. An underprivileged kid with a walkman isn't going to change much (don't get me wrong, it's still a good charity). So I put it upon myself to donate to 2 or 3 charities monthly - UNICEF is definitely one I feel strongly about. I also thought about donating to Friends of the Earth - a charity to help fight global warming. But then there's Amnesty International....Oxfam....NSPCC....Breast Cancer....RSPCA....etc etc etc. It's just so saddening to think that it is vital all these charities exist - 99% of which are easily preventable if human beings just acted appropriately. Ok there are many exceptions - most cancers can't be helped, earthquakes and natural disasters can't be helped. But child abuse.....fucking child abuse!!! How on earth can anyone abuse a child? It just doesn't make sense to me! Then there are countries like Zimbabwe and North Korea - run my absolute monsters and there is nothing that "the people" can do to stop all this happening and they are stuck in a horrible nightmare that can see no end.

So then when I finally settle on a charity or two, I decide how much to donate a month. £5 each way I think. £5..!!!! I get £900 a month and I'm donating just over 1% of my wage when the rest will go on a big house I don't need, heating that I don't need, electricity I don't need, luxuries I don't need. It almost seems too patronising to give such a small amount. I know that "every little helps" but we can all do so much more but we don't - me included of course. But why don't we? - because we're all selfish... Is it wrong though? Shouldn't everyone be living at the same standard around the world? But then, what about the "bad people" - shouldn't they be living at a lower standard? Of course this theory is Impossible to police. It's impossible to be selfless and it bothers some people more than others. It bothers me greatly right now but I haven't got it in me to do anything about it - does it make me a bad person? I guess it does but that makes the whole world selfish.

Anyway, I'm glad I've got all that out of my system, I do feel a little better for it admittedly...reading back I don't half mumble but I can't be arsed to go back and edit it, it all kind of "flowed out" and I want to keep it that way.
Just save the kids everyone :(

Cats:for:peru gig #006

We played the Grapes last night.  It was a Norwich Union gig but thankfully there was no corporate bollocks in site.  Cant speak for the others but I got a little drunk and had a ball.

Setlist:
1.  Love in a lift
2.  Bring in the experts
3.  Last man in Europe
4.  The nobodies
5.  Cutting the bridges in half
6.  I:am:the:orgasm

I think we went down really well, there were quite a few randoms in that I spoke to after that were full of praise.  Venkman Heist were on after us and I missed most their set due to packing up and talking and all that.  Screaming Mimi were ace as per...

Cats:for:peru gig #005

What up.  So we played Runaway Girl the other night.  We arrived 7pm sharp as advised and paid £2.50 each to park.  After sitting around drinking expensive drinks, seeing Kinny lose to Bolly at pool and Sky Sports missing Derby's goal against Newcastle, we finally soundchecked at 8.45pm.  Soundcheck wasn't too smart either but when we finally got round to playing, I think we had a good time and the place was quite full.

Setlist
1.  Last man in europe
2.  A34
3.  Cutting the bridges in half
4.  The Nobodies
5.  I:am:the:orgasm
6.  Love in a lift

We were due to play Manifesto instead of The Nobodies but Ukulele technical problems prevented this.  All in all this was a good gig and was good to play the new song live before we recorded it.  

Cats:for:peru gig #004

Apologies Blogface, I appear to have forgotten to write about this gig!  We played Grapes again after being invited but all round good chap Chris Murphy.  After Electric Picnic, I lost my voice and it began to get worse and the preceeding week went on.  I tried various remedies and come the gig, I was still not 100% fit.  We carried on regardless though and all wasn't as bad as it could have been...

Setlist
1.  The nobodies
2.  Last man in europe
3.  Tripwires and flashing lights
4.  Bring in the experts
5.  I:am:the:orgasm

We dropped crowd pleaser Cutting the Bridges in Half as I just felt I wouldn't be up to it.  Despite everything, we went down really well again and we were all quite happy with the gig.  Headliners Chris Murphy and Boxer Genius were excellent - his band are extremely tight and talented and complemented Chris' traditional song writing well and giving it a modern touch.

Electric Picnic

Friday:

I woke up at 2.30am and Julie woke at 3.10am. A little obligitary rush and we got a taxi, then train, then plane, then bus, then coach to the festival. We pitched our tent, got some food and headed for the main arena. People call Electric Picnic a "mini-glastonbury" and they appeared to be right.

The first place we headed for was the Body and Soul area - a great little intimate place with the "chill out" stage, wishing wells, campfires, etc. Julie headed straight for the hammocks and then we watching a young lady for a couple of songs on the Chill out stage. After that we found a blackboard and I wrote Cats:for:peru's web address on. More about this place later.

As camping wasn't permitted the Thursday night, the music didn't start until around 5pm on the main stage with The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. A brilliant way to start the festival in the semi-sunshine. They played covers of Psycho Killer, Life on Mars, Teenage Dirtbag, Shaft and many others. Good harmless fun and good for a sing along. 7/10

Next up were Hot Chip. This was the 4th time I'd seen the band in a year and once again they didn't disappoint. 5 men all armed with synths and a guitar, and they can make you dance like nothing else. I think perhaps they were a little lost on the main stage though. Having seen them before in a relatively small Leadmill, they're much more a "club" band. 8/10

I then ran across to the Electric Arena to see the Manics. I watched around a 3rd of their set (the middle third) and thankfully caught sole Holy Bible track Faster which was stonking. The rest was a little MOR and what we've come to expect of the Manics of late - James Dean Bradfield still puts on a hell of a show though. 7/10

The main reason for missing the end of the set was to join Julie for Bjork on the main stage. She entered the stage with her backing musicians including Wonderbrass. She stormed through a set of songs off her new album Volta and mostly her "hits". Bjork really knows how to work a crowd without being cheesy and cliche and her tunes can carry her set alone. The visuals were a complete added bonus. Highlights were difficult to pick but with songs like Joga, Army of me, Declare Independence, Hyperballad you can't really go wrong. Probably the set of the festival. 9.5/10

Since we had been awake now a full 19/20 hours, we were far too tired to see any of Modest Mouse, Mr Scruff or LCD Soundsystem which was a massive shame.

We went back to our tent and tried to sleep. Trust our luck to be next door to a bunch of wankers. Some choice quotes for you:

"I NEED CLASS A'S!"
"I fucking went to meet fucking John and fucking Simon and fucking, yeah, grand"
"Last year we partied hard, we had soooo much sex and drugs!"

Please shut the fuck up.

Saturday: We arose early and took a walk to the main arena. We needed hats man. Hair was greasy already and hats would solve this. So we bought woolly hats. We went back to the Body and Soul area and returned to the blackboard to find my web address was underneath lots and lots of scribbles. And those scribbles were under the large lettering of the word "GAY". Excellent. We watched an Irish man called Liam O'Maoniani who played piano, guitar, recorder and sang. A nice chilled set for the morning and had great in between-song banter to go with it. 6/10

We then headed to a near empty Electric Arena and caught the back end of Shy Child's set. They are a two piece with a wicked drummer and a vocal/keyboardist (slung over his shoulder like a guitar). Obviously part of the "nu-rave" movement, this duo were actually not too bad although the vocals were a tad annoying - he sounding a little deaf and dumb come to think of it. 6.5/10

Next up were funksters !!!. Sporting around 8 members, they crashed onto the stage played the opening two tracks from new album 'Myth Takes'. As per, !!! got me dancing like a fool (but not as foolishly as vocalist Nick). Other sometimes-vocalist John appeared to be missing which didn't bother me too much until his replacement entered the stage. An overly-charismatic woman entered to take the parts of John and it kind of ruined it for me. She was very "pop" in her stylings - her dancing style and her shout outs of "come ooooon Dublin!" (I mean come on, we weren't even in Dublin!). She was only around for a couple of tunes so it didn't spoil it too much for me, but I've definitely seen them do better. 8/10

A small gap in anyone good being on and then over to the main stage to catch a couple of Easy Star Allstars tunes. They're known for releasing two covers-in-the-style-of-reggae albums - Dub Side of the Moon and Radiodread. They did sound like fun but we had to run across to the next band.

In a busy Nokia Trents Lab tent, 65daysofstatic playing a short put blinding set. I've probably seen the band more times than any other and I would rank this around the middle. Great performance non-the-less, even with the missing 'Retreat Retreat'. 7/10

We then got straight to the front to await Patrick Wolf. He then took to the stage wearing his usual leopard skin top with shorts and tall socks. He played a very very short set dogged with sound problems. His performance was outstanding as per usual but his backing band really grate me. There always seem to be sound issues and a lack of chemistry and around 3 times I caught members playing riffs one or two frets away from where it should be! Patrick, find yourself a new band and sort out your sound engineers! 7.5/10

We headed for the Foggy Notions tent to see Ratatat. Having never been in the tent, it was surprisingly very atmospheric and the lighting was complemented well with the low tent (and thus letting little natural light in). They entered the stage as a three piece - synths, guitar and bass and played to a backing of their instrumentals. The 2 "main" members gave a cracking show - rocking out like it was the main stage and it added to the experience. After a slow start, the set picked up and I really enjoyed it. 8.5/10

It was now decision time - do we see Final Fantasy or Simian Mobile Disco? Since we were in the mood to dance we went with the latter and it turns out we made a bad move. The Bodytonic stage and crowd were a bit too "Ibiza" and it was all a little underwhelming. We headed back to Final Fantasy who was 100 times better but we were right at the back. His use of looping violins was extraordinary though.

We now had an hour to get across to the Electric Arena to get a good place for the festivals biggest draw - Beastie Boys. The tent was already heaving and the atmosphere was great. When the boys took to the stage they didn't disappoint. Mixing up their set, they played some of their pre-label punk songs, their trademark rap songs and their newer instrumentals. All of it was brilliant and their set blew me away. Great rapping and stagemanship. Mixmaster Mike deserves a mention for his turn tabling too - amazing! 9.5/10

Next up were Chemical Brothers but as they were the only band on at that time (and hence no clashes) the main arena was miles too full and it was impossible to get anywhere near. So we left again.

Sunday: The next morning we headed back to the Chill out stage to see a performance from ex Damien Rice sidekick Lisa Hannigan. Of course, another chilled set from her - a great great voice and good musicians. Hunger did end up interrupting her set though so we only saw half of it. 6.5/10

Then was the biggest gap of the weekend of things not worth seeing. We did get to explore the site though and found a few shops and bars that we didn't realise existed.

Then came a clash that caused me and Julie to split (physically, not our relationship) - I went to see Bat for Lashes and she went to see Beastie Boys instrumental set. My venture came off a lot more successfully as Beastie Boys set time and venue changed so she missed it. Bat for Lashes played a very nice set in the Foggy Notions tent playing songs from her great debut album. Part Bjork, part Kate Bush, this group are definitely one for the future. 8/10

Torrential downpour followed and then off to the main stage for Sonic Youth. A surprisingly sparse crowd watched as they played a blistering set, top heavy with songs from Daydream Nation. Sonic Youth ended up surprising me, still edgy and fresh sounding at an older age and having got into them recently, they really lived up to their recordings and delivered a very enjoyable set, especially with 100%. 8.5/10

We headed to the Electric Arena to watch Unkle but the tent was far too full, so we headed back to the main stage to catch some of Iggy and the Stooges from far back. Always worth a laugh but not something I'm too bothered about seeing again any time soon.

The final act of the festival for us was Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet playing with legendary drummer Steve Reid. This duo have toured for a while now merging improvised electronics with beats. Most of the time, it really worked - this unusual pairing had great chemistry and a knowing look at each other when a killer part of the set was happening. A great way to end a great festival. 8/10





Festival highs
Amazing line up
Lots to do - PS3 tent was frequented a lot for example
A lot of emphasis on being eco-friendly
Irish accents
Mostly nice people there; a lot of friendly small talk from staff and festival goers alike

Festival lows
Awful pre-festival organisation
Confusing lay out
Rarely cleaned/restocked toilets
Extortionate food pricing
Drunken idiots

All pictures of this festival can be found on my Facebook right here.

Beneath a Steel Sky

So blogface, I think this is the end. My friend Simon alerted me to the outdoors at which I noticed everything appeared to be tinted yellow. I then looked up to see bizarre red and yellow clouds - worth a picture or two I thought:

Weird yellow to the left...

Zoomed up...

Independence Day..??

Crazy shit...

Crazy black and white bit?!

More Independece Day

Very strange I'm sure you'll agree.

Look out for my extensive review of Electric Picnic later...

D Sharps gig

So tonight was a Mentholmen covers gig at West Street Live.  I played with my one-off band called "The D Sharps" which consisted of me on vocals and guitar, Gaz on guitar, Kinny on bass and Tommy on drums.  

Setlist
1.  Gary Numan - Music for Chameleons
2.  Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
3.  Sonic Youth - 100%
4.  Pixies - Nimrod's Son
5.  Wild Cherry - Play that funky music

Had a great laugh doing this.  Dressed up in boiler suits, dust masks and sunglasses.  We were all a little drunk too and, with no pressure, came - played - and fucked off.   Well, I did.  But hey, was good stuff and the gig seemed to be going very well and was well attended.  Plenty of pictures on Facebook that I took with my brand new camera.

Also, while I remember, cats:for:peru have finally put tunes on our myspace... click here

Fuck da system

*yawn*

I am so damn tired.

I'm sat at work again and I just have no motivation. Work is not as bad as this blog makes out, you're never going to see me write a blog saying I'm enjoying work. Going back to the climate change issue from the below blog, part of me wants to try and get a job working on that. The motivation I think I need is to know I'm making a difference. In my current job, we're basically bending over backwards for brokers and there's nothing we can do about it. We need them, they don't need us.

Unfortunately, even though I should feel good at the "new me" re: the climate, it just makes me think things such as "How can I care about that when I eat animals and buy corporate goods that are made by children and underpaid farmers?". Bull fighting, fur-wearing, animal-fights...all of it sickens me, yet I still eat meat because I can't resist the taste and craving. Part of me wants to rebel against everything - sell all my material goods - fuck the internet, fuck TV, fuck the cans of coke, fuck my GAP jacket. But no, it's just not realistic. The most difficult thing in the world is to not be a hypocrite. Rage against the Machine signing to a major record label is a prime example. If you stand up for something you feel is right, people around you will always try and catch you out. This world is too full of corporate goods for it to be avoided - it's similar to Orwell's 1984 ... there was nothing left that he could do, he gave in and loved Big Brother (not the fucking programme).