Infernal Shrug

I toured with Therapy? back in 95. From this whole period I have only one photo of me with any and members, playing in the backstage supergroup Faberge. I don't have the pic on the PC, but will scan it and upload it when time allows. For now though, here's a pic of me at a merch stall, sucking on a large drumstick.

(If anyone has any pic of me in this period, or in general, please let me know!)

Kaiser Chiefs review by Kirsty Perry aged 6. PLUS - Sunday at the Monkey Forest (in pictures)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXCX1qedcPw

Sunday 25th February - The Monkey Forest - Trentham.
http://www.trenthamleisure.co.uk/monkey.html

Wedgewood Museum - Not the most interesting place to photograph.

Amerton Farm

Going Home.

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Matt Berry – Wolverhampton Civic Bar – 16th February 2007

If you’re wondering who Matt Berry is, chances are you’ve seen him on many fine comedy works over various TV channels here in the U.K.
Matt has played roles such as ‘Dixon Bainbridge’ in ‘The Mighty Boosh’, and ‘Todd Rivers’ in ‘Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place’, as well as both appearing in, and co-writing ‘Snuff Box’ with Rich Fulcher. Matt also has written music for the afore-mentioned programmes, and released two albums, the latest of which, ‘Opium’, for which this tour is to promote.

Live, this was definitely a gig as opposed to a comedy event. Sure, some of the lyrical content is downright hilarious, especially when heard through Berry’s booming voice, a voice you could imagine as perfect for audio books, but it was pure gig. Track after track, Matt, backed by Jonas 3, brewed up a veritable banquet of MOR funk, and 70’s rock, all in a fun way, without ever coming across as kitsch or clichéd.

Once the gig finished, and whilst not in full-on interview mode, I collared Matt backstage for a bit of a chinwag. Matt’s told me that the response to this, his first music tour, has been fantastic, which I can agree with after watching the packed civic’s response. Due to this response, Matt has decided to play some more gigs in May, including one in Birmingham. TV wise, Matt will be appearing in the next series of ‘The I.T Crowd’, as the son of Chris Morris’s character. Films are also on the agenda for Matt. There is talk of a Garth Marenghi film, though this is still just that, talk, but there is a leading role in the upcoming horror film “The Devil’s Chair”.

LINKS:

You can buy Matt Berry’s album ‘Opium’ here:
http://kaplan-kaye.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=1&category_id=1&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=44
http://www.myspace.com/mattberrysmusic

http://www.jonas3band.com/

http://www.brandmason.co.uk/The%20Devil%27s%20Chair%20Gallery.html - The Devil’s Chair Gallery

The Noisettes – Wolverhampton Little Civic 15/02/07

Some people get a lot of junk mail. I get something worse than that. I get cd’s from promotion companies. 9.9 times out of ten, they are abysmal, but every now and again you get a real gem. A few months back I got “what’s the time Mr. Wolf” by The Noisettes through my door. It didn’t leave my car stereo for an age.

Whenever I’m near a campfire I’ll inevitably have to leave at some point, due to the acrid, chokey, uncomfortable, nauseating stench that hit’s me in the back of my throat. That is caused by Plastic. This is the effect I’ve had at a lot of gigs of late, and it’s by the band’s I’ve unfortunately chosen to view’s plasticity. Thank god this wasn’t the case tonight.

Support came from Mayor McCa (www.myspace.com/mayormcca) who came across as a drunken one-man badly drawn band, but was funny and highly watchable. Infinitely more of substance than the Klaxons were on Monday/
The Noisettes came on and played for about an hour. 60 full minutes of fantastic noisy, spiky, full-on rock and roll action.

When I really love a band, I feel a sense of pride when watching them, I guess akin to a parent watch their child score a winning goal at a footy match. This is the feeling I got tonight as The Noisettes ploughed through fantastic track (Sister Rosetta), after fantastic track (The Bridge to Canada), after fantastic track (Don’t give up). I felt proud in my association as ‘fan’ and The Noisettes should be pleased to have re-introduced me to proper gig’s, for the first time in a long time!

http://www.thenoisettes.com/
http://www.myspace.com/noisettesuk

Happy Valentines Day

Klaxons/CSS Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall 12/02/07 - Back to the old skool (Disco)

Cast your mind back to 1991. Rave. Vicks. Idiots in stupid clothing. Glow Sticks. A truly horrible time for music. It may have been a ‘scene’ but it was to me and many more, obscene.

2007 and music once more is in a sorry state. There are a few good bands around, as there were in 1991, but not enough to justify calling anything a ‘scene’. Tonight’s headliners, Klaxons made the mistake of giving their music a tag in an interview once, New Rave. Oh dear, this was all it took for the NME to vacuously decide that ‘New Rave’ is indeed, a ‘New Scene’.

Where once to be fashionable, you went to the high street and bought the same clothes as everyone else, now you pick up NME, glance over the many full page adverts and promotional features for such ‘alternative’ boutiques such as Topshop and Next, and marry that together with what NME are telling you is fashionable (New Rave), and what do you get?? New Scenesters, or New Ravers.

Klaxons are a very good band. They proved this tonight by blasting through the bulk of ‘Myths of the Near Future’ with energy and passion aplenty. Joint headliners CSS, who are about as 'New Rave' as Dakota Fanning is 'Near Grave', were also fantastic, considering the fact that they were given hardly any time to prove this. Package tours eh...

The audience riled me. I hate glowsticks, and they were here en masse, because NME says it’s trendy. It isn’t, it looks stupid. Call me miserable, but I wish they were made out of toxic chemicals that burn through skin and bones, and I wish everyone would split, as they annoy me immensely, and remind me of how bad the early nineties were. Despite this however, I remained happy that the bands themselves were fantastic and didn’t wear a glowstick throughout the whole gig, which resembled one of my old school discos.

PS Hypocritical I know, but I once worked with Altern 8. This is allowed; on the basis of they released some fantastic, innovative records under the name Nexus 21, (check your Techno history books folks). I once had to go round Birmingham with them to buy Yellow dust masks for a forthcoming top of the pops appearance, as they were fed up of painting white ones only for the paint to chip off during the performance. The embarrassment of going into Snow and Rock knowing that everyone thought that we were ‘fans of that novelty band’ as opposed to a band with some heavyweight serious techno records cum subversive novelty band, shopping for official ‘stage wear’… Those weren’t the days!

Elizabeth's first ever day outside in the snow, with big sis Kirsty.

The end of the world is nigh.....

If you listen to the way they're harping on about the snow on the news.

Did I mention, it's been snowing?

Say no to flying killers

My daughter kept me up all night last night. ALL NIGHT, save for an hour on the sofa. She's 15 months. There was children's entertainment on TV for her to watch, but she got hold of the remote. She turned on film 4. She became engrossed in the film that was on. I tried to turn it off, but she was having none of it. She decided to get an umbrella from behind a sofa, and watch the whole film, whilst hammering the floor with a my little pony umbrella. When trying to nap on the sofa this afternoon, she came up to me with a remote control, and belted me on the head with it, base first. I must remind myself to check for any unusual birthmarks on her head!

By the way, the film she wouldn't let me turn off?.....

Send away the tigers.

The Manic Street Preachers - Wolverhampton Civic.

Tickets priced £25.00 will be available from 10.00am on Friday 9th February at Midland Box Office: 0870 320 7000 or online at www.wolvescivic.co.uk

The Cross at St. Pauls.

I went to Walsall today, excuse the boasting, I know you're all jealous. Parking cost me a mere £8. I can dishonestly say, I didn't rant and rave.

Anyhow's, when I was in town, Elizabeth started to get hungry..............

............ so at lunchtime we decided to nip into a bizarre shopping centre inside a 'normal working' church.

Inside The Cross at St. Pauls, Walsall, is a coffee shop come cafe, the usual fare, sausage rolls, toasted sandwiches, jacket potatoes with ham. Also on the menu is toast. I queue up for two cups of coffee for Lisa and I, and some toast to feed Elizabeth with, as we're in a bit of a food rut. The self-righteous sanctimonious staff members refused to serve us toast as it was past 11.30am (I did my best not to 'go' Michael Douglas) ((in regards to the film Falling Down, not shagging everything in the room, who like Michael Douglas, were also in their nineties)).

I can understand that if the equipment used in the mighty act of making toast was switched off at a certain time, making it impractical to make toast, but I find it offensive that they refuse to make toast for a baby when A: They know full well there's nothing else on their menu for a baby to eat, and B: They're serving TOASTED SANDWICHES!!!!

So I told them if they were'nt willing to do some food for a baby, in a holy church, I'll take my custom elsewhere, before somewhat petulantly (but gratifyingly) proclaiming loudly, "See what the lord does, he won't even feed a hungry baby in one of his own homes).

In Limbo

We are currently stuck with my dad's dog. The dog is insane. He is driving us mad, and is making a god-awful mess. My dad seems to think that the dog is 'playing a game'. The game of "smelling like horse crap - smearing it all over the floors, biting my clothes and being a potential danger to the baby' is not a game i'm a fan of.

This dog has already (inadvertedly) caused the death of another dog of ours, and left me with two scars on my arm, from the same incident.

This dog recently 'playfully' nipped my leg. I now have a hole in my jeans, and no offers to replace them. (RECENT AMENDMENT: HE NOW HAS)

This dog repeatedly jumps at doors, so far knocking one clean off, landing on myself.

This apparently too is a game, because he's a sheepdog.

I love dog's, but this little excuse of a hound is putting me off the creatures for life.

C/x