Latitude
It's been a while since I posted and a lot has happened - all good I'm pleased to say. I'm gonna try and keep this as brief as possible though because I do have a tendancy to waffle and it's always bad when I start to bore myself!
Anyhoo... the other weekend, I made another trip to Sheffield to visit my friend Samantha. I stayed for the whole weekend this time in honour of her birthday. We were also joined by her housemate Jane and her London friends Nicky and Jana... so the weekend was much like a pyjama party... fun :D
On Friday night, we had a Chinese meal. I went with the vegetarian option and discovered I do like tofu after all. I just don't like tofu when I try and cook it! As well as the pyjama posse, we were joined by several of Samantha's local friends. A good time was had by all.
On Saturday, we did the girly thing and shopped. Except Jane. She had the flu and had not been looking great the evening before so she stayed in bed for some much needed rest. In the evening, we all went out to the bar Muse and the indie club Casbah. Jane never made it past Muse but, trust me, it was an impressive effort that she made it that far. The remaining four of us had a brilliant time rocking out and strutting our stuff at the Casbah. They played mine and Samantha's song, REM's "It's the end of the World" as well as others we requested. Apparently, I look good in a fedora hat... but only when on backwards...
On Sunday, there was a chocolate fondue and chilling my playing the board game Settlers. Jane won. Dang her! She lulled us into a false sense of security with her illness!
All in all, a damn fine weekend. I was also the only one not to catch Jane's flu. Maybe if I'd stopped long enough I may have but things were about to get more hectic...
Long story short. I ended up on the guestlist to Guillemots' Koko gig in Camden, London. The gig was on Thursday 17th July. The following day, I was due to be in Suffolk for the Latitude Music & Film Festival where I had also managed to get myself on Guillemots' guestlist thanks to an invite from forum friend, Laura and the promise to earn our tickets by mounting a "guerilla sticker campaign". So, I left work in Manchester on Thursday at 4pm, got on the posh Virgin Pendelino(sp?) train and ended up in London. Here I met Laura and we made the short tube journey to Koko. I spent £8 in the cloakroom due to a £2 per item charge and the riduculous ammount of stuff I was carrying. The reason for all the stuff was I was spending the night kipping on Laura's floor on Kent before heading to Latitute. I'm getting ahead of myself though... The only real perk of being on the guestlist was early entry. This was perk enough though as I and a load of the other forum guys whose also got on their guestlist maanged to secure our spots by the barrier. The gig was amazing... full of energy and passion as always. Here are some photos:
The gig was part of the iTunes festival and iTunes are releasing the recording later in the month. It costs about £4 and I think (hope) it will be video as well as audio. I also hope it will be the whole gig - they recorded it all so it should be. Time will tell.
On to Latitude Music & Film Festival 2008. It was quite a trek getting from Kent to Henham Park, Suffolk. Two trains, two tubes and two coaches. We finally arrived about 3pm ish and met up with Guillemot's manager, Ed. Who looks like he should be in the band not managing it. At this point, things didn't look good as they couldn't find us on the guestlist. Rather a long way to travel in order to turn tail and head back home... Not to mention the begging I did at work to get the time off! It turns out that I view dignity as a resource not a necessity. All was not lost though! Ed kicked ass and eventualy it turned out that someone had forgotten to print the email of... We were in! We got to pitch our tent in the Guest area which was good for two reasons... it was really close to the arenas and it had some nice toilets with flushes! Ed handed us a pick bag full of stickers, explained our mission and left us to pitch the tent.
The "guerilla sticker campaign".
Basically, we had a load of stickers with big, red downwards pointed arrow that said "Don't Look Down" and it was our job to plaster all the festival toilets with them. Smelly work but perversely fun. The sticker also includes information on how to download your free copy of Guillemot's song of the same name. Text Guillemots to 78789. If you don't own the album Red and you've never heard this song... text now. Go on, you know you want to. Hey, it's not as if you had to visit a stinky festival loo to get this information. feel lucky. Download. Now. ;)
The photos I included above are one of Laura's back and the the loo roll dispensers. Because no-one wants to look at festival toilets. Not me. I've seen enough of those for the year!
So, we had to sticker a lot of loos. It seemed like a damn fair trade-off for free entry to what tuns out is a spectacular festival. I overheard someone describe it as the "Waitrose of festivals" and indeed there were many jokes from one of the compares in the comedy tent with regards to how midle-class the festival was.
"I wouldn't say Latitude was middle-class but I just saw a tent with a gravel drive leading up to it..."
"I wouldn't say Latitude was middle class but I just saw someone roll their spliff with the Guardian..."
etc... etc...
It is a beautiful location. Gorgeous. Added to this, there are 13 arenas plus a kids play area (with events) and "festival initiatives" which pop up everywhere... basically, you walk from one place to another and pass by a mini-play being performed... or a poetry reading... or a piano with the words "Please Play Me" on it. The arenas themselves are as follows:
Obelisk Arena (main music stage - outdoor)
Uncut Arena (secondary music stage - in a big tent)
Sunrise Arena (tertiary music stage - in a small tent)
The Lake Stage presents BBC Introducing... (outdoor music stage)
Comedy Arena
Cabaret Arena
Music & Film Arena
On the Lake (mostly dances and possibly PE torture as I spotted several people in what looked like vest and pants...)
In the Woods (if you go down today...)
Literary Arena
Poetry Arena
BBC Radio 4 Arena
Theatre Arena
The programme is the size of a small textbook... A5 but 1 inch thick! Laura and I saw a lot of comedians, some bands and Guillemots' rescoring of Eraserhead (along with some accompanying short films). However, for what we saw, we missed loads! So much to do... so little time. Such a lovely venue. Such happy crowds. Come rain or shine! I cannot adequately describe it so I'll post these photos of the venue before moving on to what we did get to see and do! Photo-dump!:
So... I think I'm staring to waffle now so I'll try and summarise the weekend.
Friday
Caught the end of Beth Orton
Good but not my kind of music. Not currently, in any case.
British Sea Power
Awesome set. Really enjoyed these. Conclusion: Must buy albums. Must listen to Arwel more often...
Caught the beginning of Martha Wainwright
Again, not realy my type of music so Laura and I stayed long enough to watch Fyfe Dangerfield make his guest appearance then headed to the Music & Film Tent. Here we watched various short films including the rather good animation "Peter and the Wolf" before the main event...
Guillemots' rescoring of Eraserhead.
Easily the highlight of my weekend. Guillemot's improvised the entire score and it was a truly awe-inspiring experience. I hadn’t previously seen the movie so I cannot compare with the original but the score they provided certainly seemed to convey the themes well. I was sat on the floor at the back (with Laura) watching on one of the smaller screens (too many people in front to watch the main screen). The improvised score was immersive and I found myself totally absorbed by the movie and it’s almost stream-of-consciousness dream-reality. They played without a break for the entire length of the movie. Here are some clips which truly do not do the experience justice
Then we stickered more loos, danced outside the cheesey disco tent and finally collapsed back at the tent!
Saturday
Mooched in the morning. In the afternoon, we mainly watched comedians:
Dan Atkinson - don't really remember...
Carey Marx - gets away with close-to-the-knuckle jokes by holding up a cute teddy bear. Strangely works.
Tim Minchin
- Easily the funniest comedian I saw all weekend. Like Bill Bailey but funnier. Dark yet somehow fluffy sing-along humour. Brilliant.
Scott Capurro - wasn't so fond myself
Jon Richardson - funny - much better than in his podcast with Russell Howard. The podcast seems to be aimed at a more laddish audience than myself but JR's stand-up had a wider audience appeal
Bill Bailey
- Funny but a little disappointing after having seen Tim Minchin. Similar comedy but I found TM's topics closer to my heart.
Then we stickered some more loos...
Then we caught the end of the Coral's acoustic set before pushing our way towards the front of the crowd for House of Love
Not that we were that bothered by HOL (although I recognised and sang along to one song and they were entertaining enough) but next up were...
Guillemots
Another awesome show. During the first song "Get Over It", leadman Fyfe Dangerfield's guitar strap broke about three-quarters of the way through playing it. He played on... awkwardly. A roadie tried to fix it. Failed. Fyfe played on. Hence, in the second photo of this batch, he is balancing his guitar on his leg.
Next up, were The Mars Volta. I'd never heard of them but would have stayed to check them out had we not needed to return the remaining stickers to Ed the Manager (I don't know his second name). So, we waited outside for Ed to appear and when he did, he brought half the band with him.
Fyfe and Arista are both truly lovely people who thanked us for helping them out. I definitely feel we got the better end of the bargain! We chatted for 5mins and I've no idea what I said because I was pumped on adrenaline from their gig, deprived of sleep, dehydrated (loo-avoidance policy) and had just gorged myself on more of my festival diet of chilli chocolate and gummy bears. Still, it was cool. I should explain the second photo. Ed was taking the photo but becuase I have the preview switched off, he didn't think it had taken. I knew it had, hence in this photo I'm gesturing and saying "it did take... give it here" whilst he accidentally takes another snap. Despite the fact that it's not my best look, I like the photo because of its natural less-posed quality.
What could top that? Well, nothing did really but I the rest of the festival was still fun and far from over...
We didn't venture back into the Uncut Arena for The Mars Volta (must check them out on You Tube as they sounded good from the side of the tent) but wandered over to The main Obelisk stage for Sigur Ros .
We took a few snaps then I attempted to sit and chill but there were too many people. Eventually we wandered back to the tent. I should listen to Sigur Ros again. They'll never be one of my favourite bands but their mellow music may be good to study and revise to.
Sunday
More comedians:
Russell Kane
- Funny. Another to watch out for.
Phill Jupitus & Friends Improv.
- Basically, "Whose Line is it Anyway?" Brilliant stuff. Loved it.
Steve Weiner - seem to remember him being funny but obviously not hilarious...
Andrew Lawrence
- Laura really likes this guy. I thought he was OK.
Frankie Boyle - rather aggressive I thought. Not my cup of tea.
Then some music...
The Shortwave Set
Good set. Enjoyed. Played my fave from their first album (the only one I have). Enjoyed the others so must purchase second album as well.
Spotted Alan Davies being interviewd in crowd... (see first Latitude photo dump).
The Breeders
To be honest, a little disappointing. Laura described them as "unprofessional" and it's a fair point. It probably works for a smaller stage but they were on the main one. Chatty and engaging enough but their music didn't really impress. Except crowd-pleaser Cannonball which I too had been waiting for. That was top.
Blondie
Wasn't expecting much but Blondie turned out to be another high point of the weekend. Debbie Harry can still rock! The crowd was simply one of the best I've ever been in... all ages... everyone singing along and dancing. We were far away from the stage but the atmosphere was still amazing. Atomic! You had to be there...
Laura and I decided nothing could top this end to a fab weekend so we ventured back to our tent via the bar were we purchaed only one drink only but still ended up giddy due to a lack of proper nourishment and sleep during the weekend.
Monday
Alarm goes off at 6am. Yet again, I've had about 1hrs proper sleep due to the closeness of arena playng the disco until 4am, then people chatting in tents without the realistaion that tent walls are not as private as brick ones... Still, up we get, pack up the tent and throw ourselves and luggage onto the first coach to start our long journeys home. We're knackered. But it was so worth it! A truly amazing, fun weekend :D
I spent Monday evening with my beloved long-suffering fella, Paul. He's great &hearts
Back to reality. I really have to study this weekend else my degree is heading down the pan. Overdramatic. But my grade on this module will suffer if I don't pull myself together. Hey ho. I just cannot bring myself to worry too much about this. I'm having a fantastic year. I'm happier than I've ever been. Not just because of the last two weekends but just because I feel at one with myself and have done for much of the year. Something has clicked and life just seems good. I know many of my friends are having a shitty year and I truly do sypmathise. For myself though, I'm living and being thankful I'm here.
Anyhoo... the other weekend, I made another trip to Sheffield to visit my friend Samantha. I stayed for the whole weekend this time in honour of her birthday. We were also joined by her housemate Jane and her London friends Nicky and Jana... so the weekend was much like a pyjama party... fun :D
On Friday night, we had a Chinese meal. I went with the vegetarian option and discovered I do like tofu after all. I just don't like tofu when I try and cook it! As well as the pyjama posse, we were joined by several of Samantha's local friends. A good time was had by all.
On Saturday, we did the girly thing and shopped. Except Jane. She had the flu and had not been looking great the evening before so she stayed in bed for some much needed rest. In the evening, we all went out to the bar Muse and the indie club Casbah. Jane never made it past Muse but, trust me, it was an impressive effort that she made it that far. The remaining four of us had a brilliant time rocking out and strutting our stuff at the Casbah. They played mine and Samantha's song, REM's "It's the end of the World" as well as others we requested. Apparently, I look good in a fedora hat... but only when on backwards...
On Sunday, there was a chocolate fondue and chilling my playing the board game Settlers. Jane won. Dang her! She lulled us into a false sense of security with her illness!
All in all, a damn fine weekend. I was also the only one not to catch Jane's flu. Maybe if I'd stopped long enough I may have but things were about to get more hectic...
Long story short. I ended up on the guestlist to Guillemots' Koko gig in Camden, London. The gig was on Thursday 17th July. The following day, I was due to be in Suffolk for the Latitude Music & Film Festival where I had also managed to get myself on Guillemots' guestlist thanks to an invite from forum friend, Laura and the promise to earn our tickets by mounting a "guerilla sticker campaign". So, I left work in Manchester on Thursday at 4pm, got on the posh Virgin Pendelino(sp?) train and ended up in London. Here I met Laura and we made the short tube journey to Koko. I spent £8 in the cloakroom due to a £2 per item charge and the riduculous ammount of stuff I was carrying. The reason for all the stuff was I was spending the night kipping on Laura's floor on Kent before heading to Latitute. I'm getting ahead of myself though... The only real perk of being on the guestlist was early entry. This was perk enough though as I and a load of the other forum guys whose also got on their guestlist maanged to secure our spots by the barrier. The gig was amazing... full of energy and passion as always. Here are some photos:
The gig was part of the iTunes festival and iTunes are releasing the recording later in the month. It costs about £4 and I think (hope) it will be video as well as audio. I also hope it will be the whole gig - they recorded it all so it should be. Time will tell.
On to Latitude Music & Film Festival 2008. It was quite a trek getting from Kent to Henham Park, Suffolk. Two trains, two tubes and two coaches. We finally arrived about 3pm ish and met up with Guillemot's manager, Ed. Who looks like he should be in the band not managing it. At this point, things didn't look good as they couldn't find us on the guestlist. Rather a long way to travel in order to turn tail and head back home... Not to mention the begging I did at work to get the time off! It turns out that I view dignity as a resource not a necessity. All was not lost though! Ed kicked ass and eventualy it turned out that someone had forgotten to print the email of... We were in! We got to pitch our tent in the Guest area which was good for two reasons... it was really close to the arenas and it had some nice toilets with flushes! Ed handed us a pick bag full of stickers, explained our mission and left us to pitch the tent.
The "guerilla sticker campaign".
Basically, we had a load of stickers with big, red downwards pointed arrow that said "Don't Look Down" and it was our job to plaster all the festival toilets with them. Smelly work but perversely fun. The sticker also includes information on how to download your free copy of Guillemot's song of the same name. Text Guillemots to 78789. If you don't own the album Red and you've never heard this song... text now. Go on, you know you want to. Hey, it's not as if you had to visit a stinky festival loo to get this information. feel lucky. Download. Now. ;)
The photos I included above are one of Laura's back and the the loo roll dispensers. Because no-one wants to look at festival toilets. Not me. I've seen enough of those for the year!
So, we had to sticker a lot of loos. It seemed like a damn fair trade-off for free entry to what tuns out is a spectacular festival. I overheard someone describe it as the "Waitrose of festivals" and indeed there were many jokes from one of the compares in the comedy tent with regards to how midle-class the festival was.
"I wouldn't say Latitude was middle-class but I just saw a tent with a gravel drive leading up to it..."
"I wouldn't say Latitude was middle class but I just saw someone roll their spliff with the Guardian..."
etc... etc...
It is a beautiful location. Gorgeous. Added to this, there are 13 arenas plus a kids play area (with events) and "festival initiatives" which pop up everywhere... basically, you walk from one place to another and pass by a mini-play being performed... or a poetry reading... or a piano with the words "Please Play Me" on it. The arenas themselves are as follows:
Obelisk Arena (main music stage - outdoor)
Uncut Arena (secondary music stage - in a big tent)
Sunrise Arena (tertiary music stage - in a small tent)
The Lake Stage presents BBC Introducing... (outdoor music stage)
Comedy Arena
Cabaret Arena
Music & Film Arena
On the Lake (mostly dances and possibly PE torture as I spotted several people in what looked like vest and pants...)
In the Woods (if you go down today...)
Literary Arena
Poetry Arena
BBC Radio 4 Arena
Theatre Arena
The programme is the size of a small textbook... A5 but 1 inch thick! Laura and I saw a lot of comedians, some bands and Guillemots' rescoring of Eraserhead (along with some accompanying short films). However, for what we saw, we missed loads! So much to do... so little time. Such a lovely venue. Such happy crowds. Come rain or shine! I cannot adequately describe it so I'll post these photos of the venue before moving on to what we did get to see and do! Photo-dump!:
So... I think I'm staring to waffle now so I'll try and summarise the weekend.
Friday
Caught the end of Beth Orton
Good but not my kind of music. Not currently, in any case.
British Sea Power
Awesome set. Really enjoyed these. Conclusion: Must buy albums. Must listen to Arwel more often...
Caught the beginning of Martha Wainwright
Again, not realy my type of music so Laura and I stayed long enough to watch Fyfe Dangerfield make his guest appearance then headed to the Music & Film Tent. Here we watched various short films including the rather good animation "Peter and the Wolf" before the main event...
Guillemots' rescoring of Eraserhead.
Easily the highlight of my weekend. Guillemot's improvised the entire score and it was a truly awe-inspiring experience. I hadn’t previously seen the movie so I cannot compare with the original but the score they provided certainly seemed to convey the themes well. I was sat on the floor at the back (with Laura) watching on one of the smaller screens (too many people in front to watch the main screen). The improvised score was immersive and I found myself totally absorbed by the movie and it’s almost stream-of-consciousness dream-reality. They played without a break for the entire length of the movie. Here are some clips which truly do not do the experience justice
Then we stickered more loos, danced outside the cheesey disco tent and finally collapsed back at the tent!
Saturday
Mooched in the morning. In the afternoon, we mainly watched comedians:
Dan Atkinson - don't really remember...
Carey Marx - gets away with close-to-the-knuckle jokes by holding up a cute teddy bear. Strangely works.
Tim Minchin
- Easily the funniest comedian I saw all weekend. Like Bill Bailey but funnier. Dark yet somehow fluffy sing-along humour. Brilliant.
Scott Capurro - wasn't so fond myself
Jon Richardson - funny - much better than in his podcast with Russell Howard. The podcast seems to be aimed at a more laddish audience than myself but JR's stand-up had a wider audience appeal
Bill Bailey
- Funny but a little disappointing after having seen Tim Minchin. Similar comedy but I found TM's topics closer to my heart.
Then we stickered some more loos...
Then we caught the end of the Coral's acoustic set before pushing our way towards the front of the crowd for House of Love
Not that we were that bothered by HOL (although I recognised and sang along to one song and they were entertaining enough) but next up were...
Guillemots
Another awesome show. During the first song "Get Over It", leadman Fyfe Dangerfield's guitar strap broke about three-quarters of the way through playing it. He played on... awkwardly. A roadie tried to fix it. Failed. Fyfe played on. Hence, in the second photo of this batch, he is balancing his guitar on his leg.
Next up, were The Mars Volta. I'd never heard of them but would have stayed to check them out had we not needed to return the remaining stickers to Ed the Manager (I don't know his second name). So, we waited outside for Ed to appear and when he did, he brought half the band with him.
Fyfe and Arista are both truly lovely people who thanked us for helping them out. I definitely feel we got the better end of the bargain! We chatted for 5mins and I've no idea what I said because I was pumped on adrenaline from their gig, deprived of sleep, dehydrated (loo-avoidance policy) and had just gorged myself on more of my festival diet of chilli chocolate and gummy bears. Still, it was cool. I should explain the second photo. Ed was taking the photo but becuase I have the preview switched off, he didn't think it had taken. I knew it had, hence in this photo I'm gesturing and saying "it did take... give it here" whilst he accidentally takes another snap. Despite the fact that it's not my best look, I like the photo because of its natural less-posed quality.
What could top that? Well, nothing did really but I the rest of the festival was still fun and far from over...
We didn't venture back into the Uncut Arena for The Mars Volta (must check them out on You Tube as they sounded good from the side of the tent) but wandered over to The main Obelisk stage for Sigur Ros .
We took a few snaps then I attempted to sit and chill but there were too many people. Eventually we wandered back to the tent. I should listen to Sigur Ros again. They'll never be one of my favourite bands but their mellow music may be good to study and revise to.
Sunday
More comedians:
Russell Kane
- Funny. Another to watch out for.
Phill Jupitus & Friends Improv.
- Basically, "Whose Line is it Anyway?" Brilliant stuff. Loved it.
Steve Weiner - seem to remember him being funny but obviously not hilarious...
Andrew Lawrence
- Laura really likes this guy. I thought he was OK.
Frankie Boyle - rather aggressive I thought. Not my cup of tea.
Then some music...
The Shortwave Set
Good set. Enjoyed. Played my fave from their first album (the only one I have). Enjoyed the others so must purchase second album as well.
Spotted Alan Davies being interviewd in crowd... (see first Latitude photo dump).
The Breeders
To be honest, a little disappointing. Laura described them as "unprofessional" and it's a fair point. It probably works for a smaller stage but they were on the main one. Chatty and engaging enough but their music didn't really impress. Except crowd-pleaser Cannonball which I too had been waiting for. That was top.
Blondie
Wasn't expecting much but Blondie turned out to be another high point of the weekend. Debbie Harry can still rock! The crowd was simply one of the best I've ever been in... all ages... everyone singing along and dancing. We were far away from the stage but the atmosphere was still amazing. Atomic! You had to be there...
Laura and I decided nothing could top this end to a fab weekend so we ventured back to our tent via the bar were we purchaed only one drink only but still ended up giddy due to a lack of proper nourishment and sleep during the weekend.
Monday
Alarm goes off at 6am. Yet again, I've had about 1hrs proper sleep due to the closeness of arena playng the disco until 4am, then people chatting in tents without the realistaion that tent walls are not as private as brick ones... Still, up we get, pack up the tent and throw ourselves and luggage onto the first coach to start our long journeys home. We're knackered. But it was so worth it! A truly amazing, fun weekend :D
I spent Monday evening with my beloved long-suffering fella, Paul. He's great &hearts
Back to reality. I really have to study this weekend else my degree is heading down the pan. Overdramatic. But my grade on this module will suffer if I don't pull myself together. Hey ho. I just cannot bring myself to worry too much about this. I'm having a fantastic year. I'm happier than I've ever been. Not just because of the last two weekends but just because I feel at one with myself and have done for much of the year. Something has clicked and life just seems good. I know many of my friends are having a shitty year and I truly do sypmathise. For myself though, I'm living and being thankful I'm here.