Dutch folk take note: Two years after their amazin' return to Amsterdam the New York Dolls will be playin' at Tivoli De Helling right here in Utrecht on August 1st. Holiday season or no, this demands your attendance!

A truckload of Roky/Nomads YouTube vids can be found here.
I'm constantly pickin' up my jaw everytime I'm watchin' this... Did I mention the droolin'?
I'd say a Euro tour should be next on the agenda... Then again, I'd fly just about anywhere to catch this team in action....

The fact that the Hoodoo Gurus were in Glasgow sometime in 1989 came as news to me. My powers of recall charted just a singular appearance, opening for Boner and Co. in 1987. But anyway, it's a bloody long time since they were here.

Given the wealth of material that they can choose from, a Gurus set is never going to be long enough. Tonight there was a curfew that you get in these venues where the gig is a precursor to the disco. Although I’m pretty sure there couldn’t have been anything on a Tuesday night? You can see from that what was played and it was great to be in the company of so many people who knew the songs. I was curious to hear Dave introducd “Death Defying” as “the closest he’d come to writing a country song”. Just the other day, I was thinking that Amy Allison could do a corking version of that very number.

When all is said and done they have a whole caboodle that should have swept the world. Tonight they let us have it with some of ‘em at full tilt volume. They closed the night with a Persian Rugs song (I think it was “Be A Woman”?) and the perennial “Like Wow Wipeout”.

Edinburgh was a strange choice. Maybe next time they’ll shimmy back to the West Coast and I’m sure most of those who were present would make their way there too.

It was great to meet those guys too after all these years. I think I was the first person to review “Stoneage Romeos” here in the UK, a couple of lifetimes ago. The fact that three-fifth’s of the band from the “Mars Needs Guitars” is still available to throw a party of this magnitude (cum loudness) is testament to the world’s rock audiences being largely deaf and/or stupid.

With some Bow Bar pies for pre-show sustenance, The Gurus brought some considerable hoodoo down on this otherwise sleepy Tuesday night in Auld Reekie. They’ve still got it and you need some. I hope the flood gates will open and more Australian combos will make it this far north.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GIRL TROUBLE PLAYS MARYMOOR PARK ANYWAY

As you may know, the first Girl Trouble album, “Hit It or Quit It”, was released on K/SubPop in 1988. In fact, this was the first full-length record SubPop ever released. The record matrix number was K/SP-20. This month SubPop is hosting a huge, two-day concert of SubPop bands in Marymoor Park on July 12/13 to celebrate their 20 year anniversary.

It’s billed as the SP-20 event, one letter off from the old Hit It or Quit It matrix number. Coincidence? You be the judge. Of course, Girl Trouble awaited the invitation to join their old friends and label-mates on stage for this most festive occasion. Unfortunately, the band now suspects that a mistake has been made. They have yet to be contacted by their old label! With only weeks to spare it was obvious there was some sort of unintentional oversight by SubPop.

Girl Trouble has never been a band to let a small detail like not being invited deter them from joining in on any celebration. That’s why they have decided to bring some instruments and play the show anyway, somewhere in Marymoor Park, as close to the venue as they can legally get.

This will be the first all-acoustic Girl Trouble show, playing selections from their SubPop album, Hit It or Quit It, in order. Feel free to look for Girl Trouble somewhere in the park (possibly by some picnic tables or a tree) starting at noon, where they promise to entertain anybody who happens by. Unlike the $30 ticket price for the bands inside the Marymoor Park venue - there will be no charge for this one-day-only performance.

Please join us on Saturday, July 12 for this special event. Don’t forget your picnic lunch, blanket and sun screen. Complementary bag of chips to the first 40 K/SP-20 attendees. Hope to see you there!

Possibly the reason is that, with the possible exception of Mudhoney, no other SP band is up to snuff when it comes to sharing a stage with the mighty Trubb. That's my opinion, of course.

RIP - Larry (Bozo The Clown) Harmon

It's the 32nd Anniversary of The Ramones at The Roundhouse. Topping the bill that night were Sire stablemates at the time, the Flamin' Groovies. In a bizarre coincidence, Cyril Jordan is back here for a set at the Wireless festival with Magic Christian on Sunday.

It's a funny old world... but it's also Friday. So here's a song to celebrate the US holiday and the alleged punk rock year zero from a guy that should need no introduction... along with the best band in the world. It included the late, great Chris Gaffney. Can you guess who it is yet? - without clicking the clip.

THE GO-GO -
Saturday 5th July

Upstairs at Studio 24, Calton Road, Edinburgh.

From Dublin, psychedelic-garage 5-piece, THE URGES play live - band on stage at midnight. Admission £5/4.

60's garage, pop, mod, beat, soul, ska, psychedelia, girl groups, French pop, and punk.

DJs Tall Paul Robinson & Special Guest 'Chris from FAST'.

Posts here have been like buses recently. Nowt for ages then a whole pack at one time. That's the nature of my existence at the minute. So anyways, I wonder how The Pastels opening for My Flipping Valentine went? Any of you folks there? I was at the Hoodoos and it was a belter but I need to gather my thoughts before I blog about it. I read a really annoying review of it by some plonker who missed the point by at least one funnel.

It's nearly Friday and I plan to go exactly noplace and to catch up on stuff. Friday night in Stockholm? If you're there then I Are Droid are at the Slussen Debaser. If you're at Roskilde then don't let me find out that you watched Wirelessnapper instead of Säkert!

That would be three bowlfuls of wrong right there.

The priority at the minute is to catch up with Season 4 of The Wire so that's just what I'm about to do. I'll leave you with this, not great quality but three weeks ago tonight I was at that very show and this song is so new that i believe it's as yet untitled.

Damn... I just realised today is July 3rd... if you're in NY, head for Manitoba's and request that Emma play Säkert!, and of course, The Nomads.

THURSDAY JULY 3rd
SWEDISH INVASION AT MANITOBA'S

8 DJ's from Sweden take on señor Handsome Manitoba's punk-rock dive on Ave B. Joel & Krille from Denimzine Magazine, Stockholm along with DJ's from Gothenburg clubs like Wipe Out and Showdown. Along with myself we will be bringing the house down with punk-rock-garage from Sweden as well as U.S. Christopher and Sara pours the drinks.
99 Ave B. 10pm-4am. http://www.denimzine.com/








FRIDAY JULY 4th - BBQ BASH AT ASTERISK

What better way to spend fourth of July then with full on BBQ and the best of the best from NYC garage-rock scen. Bands play on the boss DIY scene in this highly cool house. BBQ and drinks on the roof. The Jadewalkers are very happy to play this along with good friends like The Back C.C's, Abducteens, The Rats, The Choke, The Beat Rats and The Totallys. Vikingskull will be DJing as well. 9pm fireworks!!! After this we'll trug our way down to Don Pedro's for the Hullbaloo. DJ's Shimmy and Charles Gaskins.

On stage Nobunny and The Okmoniks.

Asterisk - 280 Johnson Ave. 2-9pm.

Don Pedro's - 90 Manhattan Ave. 9pm-4am.

Both in Brooklyn (who wants to spend this day on Manhattan. really?)

The scene last Saturday in Borlänge when Texas brought in the Stockholm artillery. Nick told me that Roky, his son Jegar and his wife Dana were cool people to be around and that it all went great. Knowing these guys to be the perfectionists and total gentlemen that they are, there was never any doubt from this end. Dana paid Hans quite a compliment when she told him that he was the best guitar player Roky had played with since Duane (Aslaksen). And who knows, it may even happen again - somewhere down the road.

Photo courtesy of Eva Vahlberg

Without any further ado, a report from the Rotterdam (Water)frontline...

PRIMITIVE LIVING 2008 by Lenny Helsing

OK, so I missed the opening kick off party again on Wednesday night with The Peptones… and all of Thursday too I’m afraid this time, I didn’t arrive until Friday afternoon…So Thursday night’s picks like UK whipper-snapper garage-loudniks Thee Vicars, and Argentina’s Los Peyotes, I regrettably didn’t catch. Everyone who saw them said they were pretty great too! So for me, Primitive began on Friday afternoon when we picked up the Ronnie Splinter, Leendert ‘Buzz’ Busch and Appie Rammers – the Outsiders, and headed over to the venue.

We then rehearsed for an hour or two and it was amazing. The only singers present were Primitive Dave, Jorge from Dr Explosion and myself. A little later, Marky from Phantom Keys turned up. As you can imagine, getting to sing through a load of Outsiders songs was pure magic for me and for Jorge too. Plus the beer was now beginning to flow and I was supposed to get up and do a number with Dutch group the 1 2 5 in the Café but things started late – they weren’t there when we arrived at first at 4pm, so I thought I’d come back later…and then I absolutely couldn’t pull myself away from singing song after song with Ronnie, Buzz and Appie. It was all too much. So again, I really do apologise to the 1 2 5 for my no-show.

First on in the hall at 9-ish were Hipbone Slim and the Knee Tremblers who, despite being without our loveable bass-playing rogue John Gibbs (now an ex-member of the band) put on what was in essence a great rockin’ swampy / blues’a’billy show, with Diddlin’ Bruce ‘Tasker’ Brand on truly fine form bashing along on the drumkit / maracas as is per usual. The first up of the evening’s bu-bu-Burlesque dancers was the great Agent Lynch. She came on in slow motion, a high-healed go-go spacewoman no less, with primitive Union Jack in tow, and those filling the hall were spellbound.

My favourite UK group were on next, The Higher State. By this time I had also been cajoled into being some sorta MC for the night – well, after a fashion. So, like some kinda South Coast Pop Art Experimental Group, Marty, Mick, Mole and Mark took to the stage and thrilled all with their high-coined beat music. They have classic after classic building up in their repertoire, with big chiming Rickenbacker chords blazing over superb vocal harmonies. Also heard in this much clearer mix than I’ve heard before, were some of Marty’s climbing Elevatoresque breaks and so great to actually hear some of Mick’s cool tom-tom fills and Mark’s doozy bass lines. The fizzing, fuzzing latest 45 ‘And In Time’, and ‘If We Don’t Realize’ was aired with panache, plus some ‘From ‘Round Here’ faves and some great new tracks from their coming-out-soon LP ‘Darker By The Day’.

One of the longest-running or at least certainly one of the earliest of the UK garage-styled teen punk groups, The Cannibals, were here too. It was a different line-up from what I witnessed a couple of yrs back in Belgium and I think, all round, singer/leader Mike Spenser now has a better group around him. Pretty spaced-out sounding garage rock with drips of Electric Prunes-noise here and drops of Standells-isms there is what they specialise in. Lots and lots of repeat echo, over-the-top fuzz fx and cadavernous reverb is what they seem to especially like to put into their midnight-trash soup feast. Most of the crowd seemed to like what they were fed too.

Trixie Malicious of the Burlesque dancers was up on the podium next shaking and shimmying to the delight of the crowd. Then I was called over to introduce transatlantic beat bashers par excellence Graham Day & The Gaolers. These ex-Prisoners and Solarflares guitar / vocal legend doncha know, aided and abetted by two noise merchants, on drums and bass respectively from Georgia and LA-based combo The Woggles. More on The Woggles later. Them Gaolers were pretty much on fire from the off, having lots of energy to share out. Not sure of song titles since I’d never heard anything by them up until now, but I can tell you they really did liven up the night with their screamingly electric beat rock songs. Graham really knows how to write and sing out on these hook-filled garage mod-rock anthems.

And then of course there was the DJs spinning their mad records in the hall and in the café while the equally-mad folks got onto the floor and slipped, sloshed, stomped and biff-bang-pow-wow’ed their way through hits by lost rock’n’rollers inc. The Music Machine, The Seeds, The 13th Floor Elevators, Great Scots, literally loads of great Dutch 60s records like From’s ‘Be Mine Again’, and also of course some honest-to-goodness Big Bad Bo Diddley sounds!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday for many of us started before we even knew it had done, having not long gone to bed. Still bopping the night / morn away to the late-bar DJs including my good friend Eva Haller from Barcelona who, like a lot of them (not me though) were still there partying like crazy till the bitter end…I got out when the going was good and could still see kinda straight as I knew the following day I had to be not too done in, there was much to get through. I met up with Jeff Conolly as he got to the hotel fairly early. He’d just got into town having waited a couple of hours at Schipol with no-one showing up to ferry him onto Rotterdam… however Youri, the Primitive driver, did show up and brought Jeff to the Zeemanshuis, where we talked and drank coffee for a couple o hours until the Lyre-man’s room was ready for him to crash after an exhausting flight from Boston… me, well I was up and about. Having missed breakfast, I was ready for something and headed for the Waterfront area with various Screaming Apple / Soundflat folk. Frode and his missus (of defunct Norwegians, The Indikation) came too and my old pal Mal Kergan, ex-Thane, now of Spanish garage psychsters The Phantom Keys wandered by. Hellllllooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

So eventually after we found most of Primitive still locked up, we headed back the way we came along the water front to The Strand, where Baldy’s Knee Tremblers, or rather Knee-Jerk Reactions were soon gonna be bustin’ up the surfboards (had there been any on display) with their raucous rockin’ din and my Wildebeestin’comrade Russ Wilkins (also of Lord Rochester’s Diddley-itis infamy) was to be MC for the early afternoon’s hilarious bout of wooden shoes racing, yes Clogs by any other name. So we sat nursing white beer and were seen, well Russ and I anyway, addling maracas to the group’s more Diddleyesque numbers, as did a couple of the Burlesque Go-Go girls.

Ah yes the ‘clog race’ … well in my bout the clogs went flyin offa my feet 2m from the finishing line, and I went sprawling almost head first into the sand…and good buddy Lutz, of Screaming Apple / Soundflat came to my rescue and though he himself coulda won, he stopped, helped me up and dragged me over the finishing line. Whatta star that man is, give him a Bunker Hill 45. Dandy Dave, Lord Rochester’s Tim Matthews, Phantom Keys’ Mal and Lord Bacon, among others, also took part. I hope Tomas’s feet are not still giving him gip.
Then after all the excitement of The Strand happenings, we made our way to the venue for the start of the evening’s entertainment. I’m guessing they did play, but if so, then I / we missed J.C. Thomaz & The Missing Slippers, and the set that Armand, the Dutch 60s protest singer and hash/grass afficianado, played.

But we would catch up with him again later, as part of the Outsiders guest vocalists. First up that I saw at the café then, after a good few wild 45s being spun by PJ Dirtywater, were Finland’s The Micragirls. They were something special to behold, that’s for sure. They had a singing drummer, and a guitarist / singer who was into going quite nuts at times, and another Micragirl was on the bass, with added deep-drone Hohner mini-keyboard something-or-other at hand, which was very boomy and subsoniccy at times, and quite grating, but in a good way added to the Micragirls’ punk-style spirit. They were received rapturously in the now chokka-blokka café atmosphere, performing a great version of ‘Funnel Of Love’, a real spook-chilled instro of their own that I can’t recall the title of, and their theme of sorts, ‘Micraboy’ among other things.

Into the main hall again, first band up was The Phantom Keys from Galicia, Spain. Did I tell you these guys now feature on bass and backing vocals none other than Mal Kergan, ex- of The Thanes. I must say he fits in real well to this fantastic garage punk (with a little acid on the side) group. Their first single ‘In The Summertime’ sounded real fab, and the six guys put on a helluva show, with lead guitarist Roi pulling out all the stops, a perfect foil for vocalist Marky’s hair-shaking antics. Great to know that they can really do justice to the likes of ‘Velvet Illusions’ and Cuby+Blizzards’ beat-punk winner ‘Stumble and Fall’ on stage too. Can’t recall if it was Linda A- Go-Go dancing next or maybe it was Denise Dubieux, or even Miss Christine L’Amour, it all got decidedly blurry around this time…Anyway the next group on were London-based King Salami & the Cumberland 3. Their crude rockin’ rhythms and hill-billy blues racket went over great with everybody I spoke to. I thought Eric was great on the old drum-bashing front, even though I’d actually forgotten that they were gonna even be on the bill, ha ha…
And then, before you know it, it is the turn of the Outsiders to take the stage. Well…Dandy Dave introduced them as is on their first spectacular LP, live side…and then after a minute or so they launch into ‘Space Demo’ an old unissued thing that gets them warmed up nicely. First of the guest singers is Michel Terstegen, of Da Capo records, ex- of The Otherside, who came on with a giant blow-up of original Outsiders singer Wally Tax, and sang ‘Don’t You Cry’ and ‘I Love Her Still, I Always Will’. The group were amazingly fired-up with Appie on bass and Buzz on drums pounding away while Ronnie Splinter conducted some pretty lightning-fast cool guitar runs here and there, and some perfect, slower chord shapings for ‘I Love Her Still…’. The crowd were eating it up. Next to sing was Robert Muter, ex- of The Kliek and Kek ’66, now of The Timeflies. He vocalised perfectly on ‘Teach Me To Forget You’, and another of the group’s achingly happy/sad songs ‘You Remind Me’. Robert was nervous about singing such songs, but man, he was great, one of my favourite singers of the night.

Spanish Jorge from Dr Explosion and Circo Perrotti recording studios was third up, and wow, he was brilliant, willing the crowd to go mental along with him on garage punk killer classic ‘That’s Your Problem’, he also did ‘Keep On Trying’ with great spirit and style. And the group kept things just right, never floating off on a tangent or deviating too much from what we wanted to hear them do. Superb!!!! Dave from Dutch group The Madd took on ‘Do You Feel Alright’ and ‘Filthy Rich’ and did a great job with both, although Ronnie, Appie and Buzz played their hearts out more on ‘Do You Feel Alright’, sounding totally spot on, proving that they may be getting on a bit now, but they can still play better than guys half their age. Oh Yeah! Dandy Dave, the Primitive main man was up next giving a great account of the 1st LP thriller ‘Won’t You Listen’, again Buzz’s heavy drum beats were right on the money, and the others did well keeping the pace up too. Next was the turn of Armand, who looks like some Renaissance bard with his long flowing red hair and loose, flamboyant attire.

Armand was the ‘mellowest’ of all the singers, choosing to do the wonderful folk-beat-garage ballad ‘Lying All The Time’, and one of my all-time fave Outsiders songs – probably cos it was the first one I ever did with my old group The Green Telescope – ‘Thinking About Today’. What can I say that would sound right about the next one up…it was me, of course…all I can tell you is that it was a pure dream come true and a real honour for me to be up there participating with these deities of garage-punk-beat-psych. I was allowed to do a couple of their more Bo Diddley-ish bashers ‘Felt Like I Wanted To Cry’, and ‘You Mistreat Me’, but also ‘I Would Love You’ that The Thanes recorded for an old Misty Lane comp. LP back in the mid ‘90s, and that chilling CQ LP fave, ‘Daddy Died On Saturday’. Man, I could hardly contain myself.

And last, but by no means least, was Jeff ‘Monoman’ Conolly, of The Lyres and DMZ infamy. He chose ’67 ballad B side ‘What’s Wrong With You’, ’66 killer B side ‘Sun’s Going Down’ and that other – ain’t they all – Outsiders killa dilla ’66 garage smash ‘Touch’. He and the group did not disappoint, giving out with both energy and suave suss. And as if this wasn’t enough, they were called back on, and I couldn’t help taking a lead vocal, along with Jeff, and supported by most of the others on whatever percussive instruments were lying about, we set about ‘Lying All The Time’ as a finale. I think most people were happy…I know the Outsiders and friends / family were.

The night was not over yet folks, as USAs long-running garage rock’n’roll / soul firebrands The Woggles took the stage over and kinda blew everyone away, such was their post-midnight highly-energized set. They also invited various people onstage to help out in their crazy, sweat-drenched show, and although I missed him, Jorge turned in another wild performance by all accounts. They did invite Jeff C. back on but I don’t think the Lyre-man showed? By this time I was just hopping from one place to another trying to catch up with people and couldn’t stand still to watch much more… of course there was more dancing and drinking and dancing drinking and everybody was getting high high high, until the big hand in the sky pointed the way to a hotel, where sleep beckoned. Zzz

Sunday’s Primitive capers were kicking off in the late afternoon at the Tiki bar, but on the way there I caught the ‘60s Dutch Beat, and UK Beat picture exhibition at Vips! Wow, so many great pix of Outsiders, Het, The Motions, Q65, etc…and the ‘Stones, and The Who too…
After sipping a few beers at the Tiki, the phantasmagorically brilliant Lord Rochester’s Diddley-it is took to the floor. Their Bo Diddley sounds have to be experienced to be believed. Let’s see, we have His Lairdship on vocals and Mumblin’ guitar, Lady Muck on bass duties, and the great Mr Tim Matthews on drum bits and bobs. Great performances of tunes like ‘I’m Ridin’ The Train’, ‘Little Jermyn’, alongside the adopted future classic ‘Monkey Monkey’. Yours truly also participated during ‘Psychotic Reaction’ and ‘Cadillac’. Burlesque was by Agent Lynch and Trixie. A great time was had by all…Cheers and here’s to the next one!

The more eagle-eyed browsers of this portal will have noticed that CAKE has mutated into NORTH FORK SOUND. However, I know there are sleepier, less alert individuals out there that may not have gotten the memo, so here's another honk on the horn. A more diversely solid playlist is virtually impossible to find. Expertly curated, it's an encyclopedic journey through the entire history of all good music, irrespective of alleged pigeonhole. And there's also the NOFO blog to dig into while you're groovin'. With this and So Many Records... you folks are being spoiled but hey - you're worth it, right?

Suicide’s Alan Vega 70 This Year
Limited Edition EP Series - 4th Aug
Live Box Set - 4th Aug

Uncompromising solo artist and legendary front man of the band Suicide, Alan Vega celebrates his 70th birthday this year. To mark this occasion, blastfirstpetite is conducting a yearlong series of monthly limited edition releases.

Each release includes:
• an established recording artist paying tribute to Alan by covering one of his songs,
• a previously unreleased Suicide/Vega rarity from the archives, and
• proving that Vega's work even now continues to inspire, a cover version by a young up and coming band.

Major artistes will include Bruce Springsteen, Primal Scream, Peaches, Grinderman, Spiritualised, The Horrors, Klaxons, Sunn 0)) + Pansonic, Julian Cope, Lydia Lunch,Vincent Gallo and Liars . Upcoming bands include Beat The Devil/Shilpa Ray, No Bra, HTRK, X-Vectors, Nik Void (ex-Kaito), Effi Briest, S.C.U.M., and Stephen Burroughs (ex-Head Of David).
The sleeve images are all by contemporary visual artists who have been inspired by Vega, including Edward Mapplethorpe, Alex Rose, Cary Kwok, and Colter Jacobsen.

The series kicks off on 23rd July with two editions of 4000 each (catalog number PTYT 017), in both 10" vinyl & a limited download. Featured on the A-side is Bruce Springsteen’s cover of "Dream Baby Dream" (a live recording from The Boss's 2005 "Devils & Dust" solo tour). The sleeve is by Edward Mapplethorpe.

Any of series can be pre-ordered via links at blastfirstpetite.com and alanvega.com. Physical distribution is by Cargo (UK), Forced Exposure (USA), and digital distribution by State5.

Suicide Box Set Live 1977 – 1978
Out Aug 4th

Blastfirstpetite have released a six CD 3000 limited edition box set featuring thirteen live Suicide sets from the early New York performances and their legendary first European tour supporting The Clash & Elvis Costello. Entitled Live 1977-1978, the recordings are culled from the archives of Howard Thompson, the man who originally signed Suicide to Bronze/EMI outside of the USA.

Howard Thompson's archive, of which this box set largely comprises, consists of recordings made by himself and others who shared tapes so as to keep up with Suicide’s latest live adventures, and was originally intended purely for personal use. Captured on small handheld non-professional cassette machines of the era, tapes run out mid-performance and all the clunks, clicks, chatter and blather of amateur recording are captured fully intact, an audio-verité of Suicide performing in the flesh in clubs and halls of the time.

The gigs are presented in the order in which they happened, all the better to hear how the Suicide live experience evolved, to glean which audiences failed to grasp the implicit freedoms of Punk and which small bands of hardy souls rallied to Suicide’s brave new vision.

This set of recordings is not for the faint hearted. Nor is it the ideal starting place for uninitiated listeners seeking an easy introduction to Alan Vega & Marty Rev's dark and decidedly queasy proto-futuristic, low-tech sci-fi music, first unleashed on a mostly uncaring world under the banner Suicide many years ago.

Paul Smith
Blastfirstpetite (2008)

July 1 - Liquid Room - Edinburgh
July 3 - The Audio - Brighton (NOTE VENUE CHANGE!)
July 4 - Forum - London
July 5 - Guilfest - Guilford
July 8 - Open Air Free Concert - Town Square of Palma, Mallorca, Spain
July 9 - Kafe Antzokia - Bilbao, Spain
July 10 - MadridEl - Madrid, Spain

Finally some downtime to recharge these virtually unrechargeable batteries. Much as I'd like to see The Dolls tonight, I don't do the place they're playing. Perhaps I'll have to re-think that somewhere down the line but not today. Never say never.

Re-assessment does happen y'know, despite my overwhelming ability to cut my nose off to spite my face. Glasvegas are sort of an example of this. One of the main things that put me off them was the fact that Alan McGee was/is so keen. They tend to attract O*sis worshipping meathead fuckwits as a result.

It is rowdy, there's a lot of cussing and it sounds kinda exotic in the Scots brogue. That's one thing we're very good at. Swearing. We do it better and more expressively than any race on earth. Even the French. However, this "Geraldine" single is great, like Slik vs JAMC, and there are no swearies in it so it's radio-friendly. There's no question that they have a great sound. Founded on many of the things I (and you folks) hold dear so we'll see how it pans out. Maybe the music will do the talking in the end.

Glasto gets hip hop karaoke, Peace and Love gets something a little more god-like. It really happened and Björn kindly sent this link to prove it. I know photoshop can make anything possible but this was for real. While we're waiting for visual and audio action from the event, go to Roky's myspace and listen to "Wait For You". I'm keeping my fingers crossed for "I Have Always Been Here Before". Anybody out there up for filing a report?

Kjell just sent me this review and my limited command of the language suggests that our team played a blinder.

Woah, first photographic evidence! (I guess you have to be logged in to view 'em)

Got back too late last night, plus it felt like Saturday for some reason. Edinburgh seems to be a haven for packs of drunks way worse than I ever noticed before. However, as long as they keep themselves to themselves…

So let’s rewind to Thursday. My friends Valerie and Greg run Music4Games which is involved with pretty much what it sez on the packaging. They’re great kids and 150% immersed in the medium. They fixed it for me to go see the Video Games Live extravaganza in Glasgow. I’d never played a video game in my life until two weeks ago. If you read my Stockholm report then you perhaps remember that I was trounced by a 6 year old Vincent Vahlberg at Wiii (how many i’s?) Bowling. Anyway, getting the chance to hear the RSNO and choir perform the soundtrack to these alien forms (to me) seemed like a good idea.

The Royal Concert Hall is the perfect venue for a show like this. Where electric, bordering on rock shows can sound a bit tame, the orchestra sounds full and crisp. Plus its very civilised, the polar opposite of the Barra’s. Being unfamiliar with the material, it peaked and troughed in terms of the visuals but the sound was phenomenal. Some of this gear is very John Williams in terms of grandiosity. Very nice but quite bland. It was the stuff that hinted at Mancini or maybe Percy Faith that I got a kick out of. At one point, I even detected a little Esquivel maybe?

This is composition like soundtracking a film. Built to evoke emotional ties to the visuals and my problem with a lot of the graphics is that they have the same effect on me as your average costume drama. It’s not the same as anime or straight animation. It also has that Lord Of The Rings vibe which I’m not down with. This ain’t a hobbit for me anyone? A couple of earlier games looked like Hanna Barbera cartoons, those I could get a beat on.

Essentially, I never felt quite so out of my depth since I nearly drowned in the pacific. It’s a pretty slick affair and while I dug some of the pieces, the rendered nature of the stuff going on with the screen just began to blur. It impeded being able to watch the players. That’s the musicians not the “gamers”. One person I did see during intermission whilst trying to scope out the M4G banner which wasn't there was the writer, Ian Rankine. I'm sure his creation, Rebus, would share my trepidation for the format being celebrated. All the evangelical zeal in the world probably won’t snare me into going anywhere near a console anytime soon. I am curious about these "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" things though. I might well take another spin with the RSNO though.

So, Friday (the day that felt like Saturday)… back into film festival mode and an early start. How do you feel about the smell of Truffaut in the early afternoon? Well the practically full house for “The Bride Wore Black” at 2.30pm were certainly eager. It’s a pretty good period piece and said to be the kernel of the idea seed that was "Kill Bill". Tarantino apparently claims to have never seen it but what the hey. It’s these stories that give it all a little mystery. Closing the Jeanne Moreau season, it hit the spot, great Bernard Herrmann score too. Thinks were looking up as Artistic Director Hannah McGill introduced it, finally it seemed like an effort was being made.

Couple hours to kill before Werner Herzog’s “Encounters At The End Of The World” in a very wet Auld Reekie trying to keep out of the rain. So, back into the red with regard to effort, no intro, no nothing lights down and away. I like Herzog but this is too long and his dry, piss-taking style sort of started to grate. Some of the underwater photography is mind-blowing and turns out that this footage was shot by Henry Kaiser. I think it’ll look pretty good on your flat screen TV. The soundtrack is by Kaiser and David Lindley who also did “Grizzly Man”.

Once more into the pissing rain and down to Haymarket, missed a train by two minutes and had to wait a half hour for the next one. This is the back arse end of beyond in terms of public transport but it’ll all be different when we become indie-fucking-dependent. At this point, I’m about 50/50 not going to the Bill Plympton screening tonight. There’s a noon screening of "The Cool World" tomorrow and those Hoodoo Gurus at The Liquid Rooms on Tuesday. I think I’ve had enough of the cinema for now though. I’m all cultured out.

But hey, the sun just came out so who knows. My spirit is in Borlänge, what can I tell ya...