Saturday 15 January 2011

Some small things...

I do bits and pieces for The 405 here and there, and here are a couple of recent headers I've done for them.
Firstly these, for their "Saturday morning video blowout" feature, and you can read/watch the first edition of that here...








And secondly, headers for their weekly gig guide... You can read the first edition of that here
(The photograph used in these headers was taken by me at a Robots in Disguise gig in Brighton, all the way back in 2008, at the now closed Barfly)

Since this blog seems a bit limited on content if I just post these headers, I'm going reappropriate them for a gig guide of my own, of sorts... namely to talk about the last gig I went to in each of these cities. (I'm not particularly well travelled, so some of these were some time ago!)


Well, Brighton being my home town, it's not actually that long since I've seen live music here... Most recent I think was Ratatat. They were excellent, however being in Coalition, the venue with the most pillars in the world, standing in a place where I could actually see them proved something of a challenge. Having been ousted from my hard-fought for 'good spot' half way into the first song (by two drunk obnoxious idiot-men), I spent the rest of the gig lurking at the back of the crowd, enjoying the music, but sulking because of all the tall people and pillars in the way.

As part of Bristol Jam fest I saw Reggie Watts, followed by Jessica Hynes (from Spaced) DJing at the Cube Cinema. Both were lots of fun, and the Cube Cinema is a gorgeous venue that I'd really have liked to have spent more time at. Bristol seems to have lots of exciting things going on at the moment, and I'm pleased to have seen a bit of that while I was there. I'd love to go back sometime.

Despite living within an hour of London I've not actually been to a proper gig there in three years! Brighton generally provides me with everything I need, musically. The last music I saw in London was the Mars Volta at the Brixton Academy, and I was SO excited. Of course they were mind-blowing, incredible, epic, everything I'd hoped for, but they played for THREE HOURS, and I'll be honest, by the end I was just about ready to collapse from a combination of thirst, aches and guitar feedback tinnitus. Fun times...






 Growing up in North Wales, the nearest place where bands usually played was Manchester, about two hours away, and it was here that I saw my first gigs, always in the MEN... A huge, echoing vault of an arena, which never really gave me a true appreciation of what a great thing live music can be.
It was only when I was about 18 that me and some friends travelled over there to see CSS in the Manchester Apollo that I truly appreciated the magic of the smaller venue. Robots in Disguise were supporting, which was delightful, and CSS were every bit as awesomely danceable as you'd hope for. Also, notably, this was the first ever time someone tried to chat me up, and the last ever gig I went to where everyone was still allowed to smoke indoors.

The other headers are Cardiff and Norwich... both places I've been to, but never seen gigs at, and there's also Glasgow, which I'm afraid I've never set foot in. One day!

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