But as I dug a little deeper I started to come across some CDs a lot older than my relatively recent student radio days. And when I mean old I mean the days of 4x writing on external Iomega CD-RW drives over USB 1.0. Ahem.

What I rediscovered was a relic of my initial foray into the world of HTML. Back in the day, possibly Year 9, Nav Atwal and I had a bit of a Web-off. A game of oneupmanship whereby we each tried to design personal websites, Nav on Dreamweaver and myself on Frontpage, to an audience that really only consisted of ourselves. The following audio file must have been the product of a day when I’d put the code to bed.

Nav’s Site

Nav’s Site

The second offering from this little blast from the past has German Christmas Markets Trip written all over it. Created on a demo of some generic dance music creation programme, it features the “Get Off My Land” sample of the Levellers live at Glastonbury 1992. As a mature bunch of 15 year olds at the time we found it very amusing to play this sample very loud on my ghetto blaster on the coach when entering the bit of France in the UK side of the Channel Tunnel.

DJ Peroxide – Get Off My Land (Super Star Mega Rave Mix)

DJ Peroxide – Get Off My Land (Super Star Mega Rave Mix)

For an approximate route take a ganders at this map.

Today was Talk day, lots of talks, where I could look very interested, maybe even voice an opinion, but because I am no one important in the industry (as I described myself quite often when asked to ‘say who you’re with’) it was of no consequence whatsoever.

Nevertheless there were some very interesting talks. I just caught the tail end of a one on one between Terry McBride and Jeremy Silver. Jeremy, MD of Avid Education (think Pro Tools) and CEO of Sibelius Software, chaired the interview and consequent panel discussion and asked some amazing concise and ‘crux of the issue’ questions. Terry, CEO and co-founder of Nettwerk Music Group (Canada’s Largest independent record label), gave us an insight into how the industry is developing, and explained how the digital platform was enabling the industry to overcome previously geographically constrained economics (think lots of little markets make one big market). In addition Terry gave examples of how some of his artists further their career by being ethical and ‘doing good’, but these acts weren’t motivated by a desire to further their career, and had they been, in today’s digital age they’d have been quickly seen through.

In between talks there was just enough time to pop over to Komedia to say high to Willy, Richard and my Dad as they started out on the Celebrity Pop Quiz. They boys were up against it, facing a team of musicians (inc. Mark from The Levellers) and a team of music journalists. Nevertheless, Willy’s musical mind proved fathomless and the team finished in second place just half a point behind the music journalists, and this was enough to win over the admiration of people who’s job it is to know this sort of anal information and receive first prize! Pete’s contribution was ‘mumblemublesomethingintheintrosroundmumblemumble’ but took one for the team when asked to recite lyrics from a love song in front of the contestants.

|Video: Pete’s Love Song Recital|

Anthony Volodkin

However, I couldn’t hang around in awe of Willy’s musical knowledge for too long. I had Anthony to see! For those of you not mildly obsessed by what some (read: Anablogue’s SRA application) have dubbed a revolution in the way we discover new music, Anthony Volodkin is co-founder of The Hype Machine, a website that aggregates music blogs from around the internet. The Hype Machine and Derek Davies inspired me to create Anablogue Radio, the specialist music show that Harry Garne and I presented in February 2007 on Fuse FM, so as you might imagine I was quite intrigued to see what he had to say.

It was a shame however that Toby Lewis from Music Ally who conducted the interview with Anthony and chaired the subsequent Net, Blogs and Rock n’ Roll panel discussion wasn’t quite as competent as Jeremy from the morning’s talks. Nevertheless, it was informative to hear from bloggers Stuart and Juan from 20 Jazz Funk Greats (XXJFG) who receive up to 2000 unique visits a day to their blog, and made up for the fact I didn’t spot Derek Davies of GWFAS.

I even managed to fire off a question to David Emery, Head of Web Development at Beggars Group. I asked him whether the paradox of labels financing tours to sell records but music fans downloading music from blogs and then seeing bands was evident, and what he thought of it. He replied that blogs are really a medium used by the early adopters, the muso’s and the die-hards. The benefit of exposure to this section of the music fan base outweighed the cost of lost record sales, therefore the music blog was an essential PR medium. Interesting eh?

Anyways, enough of that. Back to the music.

Matt and Kim

Despite being shifted around a couple of times, Brooklyn duo Matt and Kim finally managed to play. And play they did. With Matt’s keyboard and vocals running through a hastily set up PA and Kim’s drums just as they were, I almost missed them by watching the wrong band at the Ocean Rooms downstairs – good job I went for a slash! Kim didn’t stop smiling the whole gig through and Matt even got a bit of jovial flack when he used rarely abundant American irony in advertising sponsors Red Stripe.

|Photos – Matt and Kim|
|Video – Matt and Kim – Yea Yeah|

Late of the Pier

Despite being slagged off by Willy, I thought it best that I go and see a band who are as much as I can call local since I discovered the Young Knives were from Ashby de la Zouch. Late of the Pier are from Castle Donnington, even if NME interviews about the band giving a guide to their local town hark on about Nottingham.

They all look incredibly young, but I had to say give quite a mature sound. I don’t know of any other band quite like them at the moment and they do have some friends in the industry like Radio 1′s DJ of the moment Kissy Sellout. So, going their expecting to be disappointed I ended up quite surprised. The only thing I didn’t like though was the keyboardist – he acted and had this look about him like the weird kid at school does, you’re not quite sure whether he’s going to come out with something brilliant or stab a biro in your eye.

|Photos – Late of the Pier|
|Video: Late of the Pier – Broken|

Hot Club de Paris

Off to the end of the pier next to skip past another queue and spend an hour trying to buy a pint of coke from Horatio’s Bar. However, I did get to watch Hot Club de Paris in the process, notably the only band of the weekend I saw perform an encore. Listen out in the Shipwreck video below where I very shout “Wreck” very loud and the very wrong time (almost as bad as my Main Offender/Hate To Say I Told Your So moment at a Hives gig).

|Photos – Hot Club de Paris|
|Video: Hot Club de Paris – Yes No Goodbye|
|Video: Hot Club de Paris – Shipwreck|

The Black Lips

In a bid to not repeat the performance of last night’s pillar kipping antics it was a strictly alcohol free caffeine and sugar refreshments break between Hot Club de Paris and Barfly’s late night offering, The Black Lips.

The Black Lips are definitely an odd looking bunch, with one chappy reminding me of a flower pot man, and the lead singer sporting a Gangs of New York handlebar tasch. That didn’t put off the crowd though, they were definitely up for it. There was a heady thronging before the gig culminating in a pre-band pogo to the Rolling Stones by some of the audience. This led me and the chap next to me to have a very silly E number induced conversation about throwing pebbles and how dangerous it was.

And when The Black Lips eventually came on stage, all hell broke loose…

|Photos – The Black Lips|
|Video: The Black Lips Sound Check|
|Video: The Black Lips – O Katrina!| <- pint dodging mosh-cam action

So this is the first of my posts rounding up my long weekend at The Great Escape 2008 festival, held from May 15th to May 17th. I don’t profess to be a music blogger (well, actually I do, but not in the conventional guise), so I’ll keep things short and sweet mixing up my post with a combination of twitter updates, photos and videos.

Magic Red Passes

Ida Maria

Having heard Oh My God by this young fringed Norwegian I went in search of more using the trusted Hype Machine and was impressed with what I found. Nothing particularly new and dangerous here, just good pop choons fronted by a competent if not at times a little shy front woman. She opened the weekend’s entertainment at Audio (Downstairs).

|Photos of Ida Maria|
|Video – Ida Maria’s Opening Track|
|Video: Ida Maria – Oh My God|

Next up at Audio were Johnny Foreigner, a band who’d I’d liken to a cut down version of Los Campesinos! but still making as much noise, and a noise with a grittier edge. It was no surprise to find that both bands had in fact toured together. They were good, and the crowd certainly had a jostle but I fill my quota of this sort of music with the aforementioned.

|Photos of Johnny Foreigner|
|Video: Johnny Foreigner – Champagne Girls I Have Known|
|Video: Johnny Foreigner – The End Of Everything After|
|Video: Johnny Foreigner – Our Bipolar Friends|

Vampire Weekend

The highlight by far of my Thursday night was the superb Vampire Weekend. Definitely popular with the kids, the queue outside of Concorde 2 stretched back a good 400-500 yards, and I reckon there must have been a good few hundred people waiting.

Despite the bouncers announcing that people should try and find an alternative venue for the night I walked to the front to find a an empty delegates queue. One in one out, it was just a matter of time. After a few teasers with girls leaving to go to the loo, eventually 4 people left and myself, another delegate and a couple from the standard queue made our way in. Worth every penny of its £99 price tag.

Inside MTV and Zane Lowe had jumped on the boat to film the gig, so if you find the distorted sound unbearable in the recordings below, you know where to go to find better. Some complain that Vampire Weekend are bit slow, maybe even a bit ‘plinky plonky’; I’d argue that even if they were, the atmosphere of that gig, the singing from the crowd, and the outstanding performance from the band were enough to crown this the gig of the weekend.

|Photos of Vampire Weekend|
|Video: Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa|

The Ting Tings

Sadly its at this point the tweets stop and it all gets a little bit too much for me. The Ting Tings were on at Barfly at about 2am and Vampire Weekend finished at around 11pm. Not much to do in between then other than drink…

I just about managed to catch the opener, Great DJ, and take the photo above but then I was falling asleep against a pillar. That’s no way to treat a band that would have a number one single and album in the charts the following week.

|Video: The Ting Tings – Great DJ|

I mean what were our parents doing 9 months ago? Was the summer of 1984 particularly boring for all us lot to be born. Or is it just the season for baby making….

No really, Vish is that short.

So the first birthday of many was in fact Vish’s closely followed by Kev’s. And what better excuse for a good old knees up in Manchester than celebrating their birthday’s eh? Well, actually, celebrating mine as well

Despite turning the grand old age of 69 (whey) between us we still found great enjoyment in a bit of bowling, but not quite lawn bowls. Not just yet. First game was girls vs boys, which wasn’t quite the stereotypical result you might have expected, and for the second game we picked teams like you used to in school. I got picked last; some things in 23 years just don’t change.

Some slices of half price domino’s pizza later and we were well into the drinking games and enjoying an amazingly warm night atop the 12 stories of Castleford. Then off to Mint Lounge for some swanky boogie action.

Thanks to all who attended, it was great to see some old faces again, – and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Vish and Kev!

|Photos|
|Video – Happy Birthday Vish|

“It isn’t a surprise. He just doesn’t know about it.”

Evidently fresh out of fat ladies the weekend wasn’t quite over just yet. Just enough time to get myself back to Derby for an asian buffet at Buddha Bar for Mr. Matthew Pearson’s celebrations.

Quite worryingly this was the third successive birthday we’d all managed to to be in the same spot at once, it could be because we’re getting older, more mature and sophisticated, or it could be because a woman organised us.

|Photos|
|Video – Happy Birthday Matthew|

Tim LOVES Dirty House

Weekend II, birthday IV, started off with treating Dan and Lizzie to a night daan taan with the Derby folk. Oddly enough it felt quite bizarre having to make executive decisions about where to go next and the like, normally I just follow the crowd. And whilst I tend to slag off Derby a little from time to time (in a socially constructive manner of course) I think I showcased a good range of quality drinking (and dancing) establishments.

|Lizzie’s Facebook Photos|

By Joanna Jackson, decorations available at competitive rates.

The hoards arrived on Sunday from their respective corners of the country and we all went for Sunday lunch at The Coopers, which was nice. We had planned initially to have an evening packed fun full of board games and such like, but found, much to my delight people were more than happy making their own entertainment just catching up, chatting and getting to know each other. [Big glowy smiley happy feeling ]

|Photos|
|Video – Its the crazy ‘Family-Fortunes-Catchphrase-Guess-Who’ game!|

Captain Jack ‘Speirs’ Spiegler

Day three of my birthday celebrations (yes I’m a greedy bastard for having a whole bank holiday weekend) meant paintball! Now, there were some apprehensive members of the party, namely the ladies. They’d heard one or two nightmare stories about being shot and bruising and it really hurting and stuff like that…

Well, most of that turned out to be true as my killer inside-thigh shot on Angela proved to be. Nevertheless I did notice the women on my team turn from slightly anxious ‘not-quite-sure’ paintballing virgins into ‘go-get-em’ pop pop pop ruthlessly trained killing machines. Or something like that at any rate.

Teams were roughly Derby vs Uni with myself and Stu on the uni side, whilst Jack ‘Kamikaze’ Spiegler, who technically should have been on an Ashby side all of his own, joined the Derby side. I’m not going to highlight the fact that my side won, because that would not reflect a man of my age and maturity.

WE WON WE WON WE WON Nerr ner ner nnerrr nerrr WE WON WE WON WE WON. Ahem

Thank you to everyone that made the effort to come down and see me for my birthday. I appreciate paintballing isn’t the cheapest of activities but I really appreciated having such a large group of friends turn up, it was thoroughly enjoyable day. I hope you enjoyed it too!

|Photos|
|Video – Paintball Headshot|

Jo is also a member of the Spring Chicken Crew

And finally there is just enough time to say Happy Birthday to Jo to whose birthday I turned up at in a mixture of sandals, shorts and eight cans of Kronenburg… oh dear.

Thank you Stu for playing host that afternoon and inviting us all to your house for a BBQ. The oven glove look suits you.

|Photos – Stu’s BBQ|
|Photos – Jo’s Birthday|

That’s what its all about these days apparently, in the real world [god, I hate that phrase]. So that’s what I’ve been doing… and so has Claudio, evidently.

Album cover of the forthcoming Pablo’s Finest Hour EP

I don’t know how she does it, it could quite possibly be a heart of gold, although that’d be difficult to run with, but Hannah has pledged to raise lots of money for Oxfam this year. Possibly £2000, but don’t hold me to that… I’d had a lot to drink alright!?

As one part of her master plan to raise the cash (other part’s being playing gigs, running the London marathon and holding fashion shows) Hannah held a rather lovely charity dinner. And may I just add, that despite the pretentious qualities it may have, it sounds great to be wearing a tux and say ‘oh, I’m off to a charity dinner’.

It was cooked superbly, compliments to the chef and all, and it was for twelve people – which is a pretty daunting task. Well played Hannah, and a self-assuring pat on the back for all those who attended to help a good cause. You can still sponsor Hannah here at bymycharity.com.

|Photos|

Cocktail Party Shenanigans

But alas, I couldn’t be content with just one social event in one evening. Cometh the midnight hour (and the snow) it was time to move on. Off to Briony and Jen’s fantastic new flat (way better than Claudio and Vish’s but don’t tell them that) for a cocktail party which was pretty much in full swing when I arrived – I say pretty much, that’s because no one had had a Mojito yet…

Big thanks to Jen and Briony for hosting the bash, it was good to see some old faces again. And may Dan, Lizzie, Claudio and Vish’s gut rot be a lesson to your all – kebab’s at 5am are bound to a bad idea.

|Photos|
|Video – The Secret of a Moj-ito|

The afternoon after the night before

Last weekend it was off down to Brighton for Vanessa’s 23rd birthday bash. Cat and I had turned up a little hungover from our respective Friday night’s – but nothing a cuppa tea and a slice ‘ut cake can’t solve (and maybe some diet coke, and some drugs). By which time we’d collected Hannah from the station and Vanessa had finished work (on a Saturday! it should be made illegal).

It was quite a refreshing change to go out with no end goal of ‘the club’. Too often a great night catching up with friends is spoilt because of some nonsensical overpowering urge to move a conversation into an entirely inaudible environment. Fortunately this night was not one of those, and Brighton’s late night pubs and bars were more than happy to help.

It was great to see everyone and get to know some characters I’d heard of from Brightonian stories of Vanessa’s and Claudio’s. Thanks to Vanessa for getting it organised and looking after us – and Happy Birthday!

|Photos|
|Videos – coming soon|

All the crusties came out to play

In other news, my Dad, Willy, and I went down to London for the night a while back, for the Levellers 20th Anniversary Tour gig at Brixton Academy.

And it was AMAZING!

|Photos|
|Video: The Levellers – England My Home|
|Video: Dreadzone – Elevate|
|Video: Alabama 3|

Alt+0134 before you ask.

So I’d seen the Parisian duo DJ at Sankeys last year and it blew my socks off, as well as left me with some permanent hearing damage. But what would they be like 8 months on in concert, playing their own stuff at a venue usually reserved for indie/rock gigs? I predicted to my old school friend Jack who had kindly invited me to come along, that there would be scenes of pogo carnage as one half of the audience waved glowsticks in a vague attempt to be nu-rave whilst the other half reacted in fashion not dissimilar to nu-metal.

And I wasn’t wrong.

Definitely not suitable for epileptics

Justice opened with Genesis, the opening track on their album † (Cross) [I bet the staff at HMV were cussing the day it was released], which was really of no surprise. The blasting horn-like intro is a warning call to all those at the front to fly or fight, and something that always reminds me of the start to Smash Sumthin’ by Adam F feat. Redman (Roni Size Remix preferably). I captured all of the track on video here, which also really emphasises the impressive light show that Justice put on.

Justice pretty much played out their album but with enough of a difference for the crowd to know they hadn’t just hit play. They did well to keep tracks we all know and love fresh and different in a live environment. They padded out the remainder of their set with a few remixes including The Fallen by Franz Ferdinand, they teased elements of Atlantis to Interzone by The Klaxons and after bringing the lights all the way up they brought ‘em all the way back down again for their encore of NY Excuse by LCD Soundsystem.

But their most impressive moment by far was acknowledging Soulwax’s genius by playing a live re-edit of the Niteversion of Phan†om Pt II. Which would make it Justice – Phantom Pt II (Soulwax Niteversion Remix) (Justice Live Re-edit). A mouthful if ever there was. Nevertheless, I admired the fact that they played out someone else’s version of their own work at a live gig, but then added something of their own on top of that anyway. Fantastic.

PPE is all the rage

In all, looking around at the crowd, it was quite an interesting bunch. There were the nu-ravers complete with PPE reflective vests, the pill poppers and there over-expansive white rimmed Ray Bans, the trendies who had just turned up for We Are Your Friends [video], and everyone else in between. I enjoyed the fact that Justice played a track I hadn’t heard before as there closing number. It was closer to heavy metal hardcore than dance music and spread a few bemused looks across the crowd, but saying that my mate Jack who has his musical roots in a box labelled ‘Tidy’ enjoyed it thoroughly.

Which leaves me only to say that Justice are blurring the Rock/Dance boundary by more than the odd synth here and drum machine there, instead they’re the aural bulldozer intent of flattening the definition of genre.

|Photos|
|Video: Justice – Genesis|
|Video: Justice – We Are Your Friends|

So, what have the past 2-3 months had to offer. Well, as far as updates are concerned its been a dozen weeks of not a great deal punctuated by gigs and birthdays. So like some TOTP-esque countdown (derr duh der de de de de), here we go….

Coming in at No.7 is a visit to Leicester’s Charlotte to see Cut Off Your Hands (in support) and Foals. COYH were an incredibly friendly bunch, and I felt extra cool having had a chat with them at the merch stall before the gig. Funny really, but for some reason I wouldn’t have expected them to be running their own merch stall. I think all the praise and column inches Derek Davies of GWFAS has given them over the past 12 months has lifted them higher in my estimation as to where they really are in the ‘making it big’ rat race of the music industry.

I thought I’d scored twice having spotted the lead singer of Foals and approached a sufficiently indie looking gentleman only to the response of “oh, you want him over there, but my band are playing here next week…”. I said I’d definitely come and made a swift exit. I blame it on the generic fringe across the forehead haircuts…

To cut a short story shorter, Eskimo Hoax were a bit to out there for me, as Willy said, its almost as if we were expected to all sit down on the floor and clap politely after each song. Cut Off Your Hands were a fresh of breath air in contrast and the highlight of the evening, despite their short set of only 6 songs induced by the lead singers throat infection. A darned shame if you ask me. Finally Foals came on to a rapturous applause and suddenly things all got a bit feisty, there was pit and pogoing galore, unfortunately to the detriment of Jam who ended up with a blooded nose. The whole scene was in stark contrast to the previous week’s visit to see Sons and Daughters, here in Leicester the Skins kids were out in force and sales of Coca Cola were through the roof.

|Photos|
|Video: Cut off Your Hands – Still Fond|

The Birthday Boy

Coming in No.6 is Mr. Ben Sharratt’s 23rd Birthday meal out at the Friar Gate Steak House. And all very nice it was too. Our second civilised birthday outing for the boys in the same month, but this time with greater numbers, its a wonder we all managed to fit in the place.

In any case the waitress and chef managed to deal with us raucous bunch of lads with ease and the meals were delivered on time and cooked brilliantly. After that the hardcore bunch (yes that did include me you cynical gits) headed off to Mosh for some indie schmidie dancing and a prancing.

|Photos|

Asta la Vista Baby

Closely following in at No. 5 is a geek weekend away in Leeds where Dan and I upgraded his PC, and the played games all weekend. Yes, we are incredibly sad, but then it was incredibly good fun – and great to see Dan and Lizzie again of course (ahem).

|Photos|

How can four guys sitting down make people dance so much?

At No.4 is gig number two, this time a trip down to Tamworth with Pete Jackson (of Pete Stock fame), to see those ageing folk punk rockers The Levellers in the Drunk in Public guise with Rev Hammer. My Levellers gig going had dried up in recent years compared to my infamous groupy like behaviour at school so this gig was a welcome return to the old days – I even had my dad pushing me about from behind in the mosh. Yes, a mosh pit, at a folk gig, WITH A VIOLIN, with lots of old people who look as if they’re all from the West Country. That’s just a testament to how good these guys are.

Just a shame everyone used Rev’s songs as a fag/beer/piss break.

|Photos|

Consoles and Players

The New Year brought us some post-christmas with the welcome return of Consoles and Players to the gigging circuit. So in at No.3 is the Consoles and Players gig at Night ‘n Day on the 4th of January. It was great to see the boys play again and I am still eternally grateful for their performance at Petestock. Mike was in good spirits after 6 months in France, but it was just a shame the Night ‘n Day isn’t really conducive to catch-up chats – nor is it for camera captured movies, all fuzz I’m afraid.

|Photos|

My photography has some way to go I think.

And for No. 2 we have the latest batch of recruits to the ‘getting old and we know it’ brigade. Holly and Ruth turned 23 on the 19th and saw the midnight hour of the 18th in with lots of cheese music and a collection of recently graduated and jubilant students. Mind you as a teacher and accountant respectively I’d say they were growing old with dignity (the clock is ticking Andy…)

|Photos|
|Video|

Four of the last 23 years in the North take their toll on Dan

In at No. 1 on this Andresworld mega round-up is Dan’s 23rd Birthday! The first time all the housemates were back together since Petestock and a great opportunity for everyone to catch up. Needless to say Dan hit it big on the Friday night, almost a little too big. But he was back for Wii and more on Saturday and Sunday – there was just no stopping him.

Muchas Gracias to Dan and Lizzie for putting me and everyone up for the time we stayed – they even bought us bacon, eggs and mushrooms for our fry up on Saturday morning!

|Photos|

*Sadly any DJ Wildchild reference could not make it into the body post.

As per usual I’ve been pretty slack on the updates of Andresworld of late but despite being unemployed I find myself quite busy [okay you can pick yourselves off of the floor now, its not that funny]. So come with me back in time to rediscover November… doo dee doo doo, doo dee doo doo.

So, first up Vicky Spain’s 23rd birthday bash. And not just any ordinary bash I tell thee – one which included compulsory fancy dress and none other than the infamous Soup Lady Sophie Baxter. Sophie and Vicky dressed as men for the evening, or rather flowerpot men, or at least very effeminate flowerpot men. Some might have even called them flowerpot women, but to be quite frank that’d just be silly, who’s ever heard of a bird called Bill or Ben?

Everyone was impeccably dressed, and those that failed to don a costume were booed out the house and subjected to an assault of empty Red Stripe cans. In hindsight that’s quite harsh…

|pics|

So, for some the most important night of the year, and for Fuse the culmination of a spectacular set of efforts that has seen the station host an awesome launch party and nominations party already. The Student Radio Awards was back this year and bigger and better than ever. A dazzling array of stars attended the ceremony including Tim Westwood, Edith Bowman, Scott Mills and Steve Lamacq. Of course, this time we got to see them thanks to two large screens either side of the stage, however the acoustics of The New Connaught Rooms meant we couldn’t understand a word they said.

The reason we were all there? James Collins and Becca Day Preston of course. JC was up for Best Entertainment and Becca up for Best Female. Both were up against stiff competition from full time established student radio stations but Fuse still managed to upset the big boys and come away with a Bronze Award in Best Female for Becca.

Good time was had by all, well played for all of those who made the trip down, and thank you to Rich and the UEA Livewire boys who joined us on our table. And of course a big round of applause to station manager Sarah Vale for organising it all and not killing anyone after having 2 and half half ours spent on her hair.

|pics|
|videos|
|Fuse FM|
|Student Radio Awards|

Back from London on Friday after all that Student Radio nonsense for Tim’s 23rd birthday. An incredibly civilised affair, which is not to say a meeting with the boys can’t be civilised, just that they normally involve vast quantities of carnage. A sit down curry at the Shalimar followed by a few drinks at The Bless and some early departures for work commitments probably means the countdown has begun to wife, kids, and mortgage. Joy.

Happy Birthday Tim!

|pics|
|videos|

Finally, to round off the weekend, a Sunday evenings visit to The Clubroom, aka the upstairs of Revo’s in Derby. Support bands The Victorian English Gentleman’s Club and The BeauPeep Show were both excellent, hats off for braving what turned into a snowy winters evening. However, the real stars of the show were Sons and Daughters, who are touring to support their current single Guilt Complex and in anticipation of a new album very very soon.

Lead singer Adele Bethel was as enticing as ever, lunging off the stage and holding her mic cable like she was about to engage in sexual foreplay with lead guitarist and king of cool Scott Paterson. Paterson added an extra special something to the set by playing with a range of effects and techniques not used on the album recordings. The greatest example, was a breakdown into The Stooge’s I Wanna Be Your Dog, in the middle of Johnny Cash – with great play made on Bethel’s monotonous key bashing, something I’ve tried to recreate on Anablogue. Drummer David Gow was tight and dressed in braces, shirt, and flat cap, and lastly bassist Ailidh Lennon combined some steps to and fro to compliment her sexy solitary shoe gazing look.

What was not quite so fantastic though was the pitiful turn out that constituted the Derby audience that had come to see this superb live act. Amid Peterson’s comments of the crowd being ‘very quiet’, I wondered whether the lack lustre lighting was just bright enough to blind him from counting the thirty or so gig goers who actually made it. I appreciate a snowy bitterly cold Sunday evening isn’t the best of times but I am sure there’ll be a more faithful turnout at the Foals gig at The Charlotte this Sunday. At least then I’ll be saved the embarrassment and the overwhelming need to apologise to anyone affiliated with the bands.

|pics|
|live video of ‘Red Receiver’|

NB. I was obviously so overwhelmed by the aforementioned bassist that I failed notice that the tour t-shirt she sold me was a small whilst clearly marked medium. Consumers beware!

As you may or may not know, all of October is host to the country’s biggest and longest festival: OXJAM. Basically its a series of gigs and nights put on by anyone who wants to raise a little cash for a good cause. There have been some high profile gigs, notably with people like Norman Cook doing sets in OXFAM charity shops, but on Monday night Hannah Newcombe and the rest of the Pablo’s Finest Hour crew played host to OXJAM Presents Twisted Folk.

Now some of you may be familiar with the Twisted Folk guise, it first made an appearance as a tent for Pangaea III and in combo with Acoustic Stage for Pangaea IV. A mix alternative folk, americana and ‘psychedelic poptasticism’, this incarnation of Twisted Folk had the added twist [whey!] of a catwalk showcasing the ethical clothing range from OXFAM Originals. And like Pangaea III I was DJing, with the extra bonus that I got to talk, or compère, between the bands and let the audience know how good they should all feel about themselves for giving to a good cause!

Pablo’s Finest Hour put out a cracking set, as did all the bands, and it was good to hear a few new tunes that were no doubt the product of their two week residency at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A big hand to all those who helped out or turned up to watch, and an extra big hand for Hannah, whom without the night would have never happened.

|Photos|
|Pablo’s Finest Hour Videos|

Nursing my hangover on Tuesday left me fully recovered for the second excellently hosted Fuse event in almost as many weeks. Wednesday night was the eagerly anticipated Student Radio Awards Nominations with the announcements for the North West region being held at Oxford Road Kro Bar.

I shan’t be economical with the truth, and I will say that I did have the rather excessive three applications in the running for various awards, but alas history wasn’t to repeat himself. Or not for me at least. By his own admission, JC’s surprise at being nominated for this years awards, looked very much akin to mine twelve months earlier. Needless to say the roar that erupted as The JC Show made the final entry on the Best Entertainment nominations list was sufficient a reality check to necessitate a call to his mum.

But that wasn’t to be the only cause for celebration that evening. Little did she know but whilst Becca Day-Preston was laying down some ground rules in the world of electro on her 8 till 10 show DoubleDrop, her name was being read out as Fuse FM’s second contribution of late to the world of upper-class female radio DJs, and was nominated for Best Female for her work on her daytime show Lady and The Tramp. Another almighty Mancunian roar filled the second floor room of Kro that evening, but was only followed by a bemused search for Becca and the subsequent slow dawn of realisation. Nevertheless a quick minded Harry Garne was soon on ye olde mobile to let her know the good news.

So Fuse FM enters this years Student Radio Awards with nominations in two of the most highly coveted categories, and I fear that ASRA have made a severe judgement of error in not including Harry Garne and making it three. But hey, who am I to judge? Well played JC and Becca.

Curiously, from blitzing the awards last year University Radio Nottingham have almost slipped off the radar with this years awards being dominated by Cambridge’s CUR1350. In fact CUR1350 and Warwick’s RaW are the only other stations contending in JC’s battle for Best Entertainment. Leeds’ LSRfm has a strong presence again and will hope to take home a bit more glassware after falling at almost every hurdle to URN at last year’s awards. Overall the North West has a healthy offering, with Fuse, Storm and Bailrigg offering six nominations between them.

The awards will take place at The New Connaught Rooms in Holborn, London, on November 15th with Jo Whiley, Scott Mills, Edith Bowman and Tim Westwood already confirmed to be attending the event. Fusebies should get hold of Sarah Vale ASAP if they want to attend by emailing her at stationmanager@fusefm.co.uk.

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|Student Radio Awards Website|