Take a look in the mirror that shows the outside

[venta]

I hadn't planned to go and see Children On Stun. I hadn't even known they were reforming. Butmrph had a spare ticket, and it sounded like fun.

(Actually, it was a bit more complicated than that. Mrph had a spare ticket. Then he had no tickets. Then he did a deal with Manuskript and had some tickets but none leftover. Then ulfilias dashed up like the cavalry with a spare and we all went to the ball.)

I'd walked up to Islington from my office, realising at the last minute that I'd no idea where I was meeting the others. I'd forgotten that the approach to the Academy has a handy footbridge, from which you can both see and be seen. I spotted Mrph and Tim, and joined them to wave/shout abuse (as appropriate) at passersby until we were quorate.

I've commented before that some gigs - my canonical example is going to see Carter USM - do an excellent job of recreating a very particular time. Same faces, same shirts, same DJs playing the same tunes that everyone knows. This was very much like that. Just blacker and with more eyeliner.

Mrph and I entertained ourselves before the first band came on, guessing what the DJ would play next. By the time they were on to Big Electric Cat, we were just shouting random names. Die Laughing! New Church! Star Industry! (Actually, next up was a cover of Atomicthat I didn't recognise; apparently the Dreamies').

The support was In Isolation. As dmh put it: the trouble with shit goth bands is that they're all made up of bits of other shit goth bands. So it was the singer from Emma Conquest, bass played by Jo who played violin for Screaming Banshee Aircrew (and another band, I forget which). I couldn't place the guitarist, but he looked familiar (the drummer was, as always, hidden away invisibly at the back. At least they had one!)

Anyway, In Isolation were going for the crowd-pleasing vote, chucking in Cure and Rosetta covers. To me, they always sound a bit like Emma Conquest with all the silliness knocked out, but others seem to think that's a good thing. They're a perfectly solid guitar-pop-goth support band, but didn't make me want to dash out and buy stuff.

Come to think of it, I got given a promo single on the way out, and I have no idea what I've done with it.

'Stun came on stage looking young enough to prompt a number of picture-in-the-attic comments. They launched into their set full tilt, pausing only for extended bouts of waffling between songs. When they popped off for an unexpected mid-set interval everyone seemed faintly disappointed at their competence.

"Hardly classic 'Stun," muttered someone. "They only fucked up the sequencer once." (Fortunately, the bass guitar comprehensively packed in shortly afterwards, and honour was satisfied.)

If you go to YouTube and type "children on stun" into the search box, you'll find a bunch of stuff. If you let it run (more on YouTube's capricious auto-playlist policy later) it will eventually settle into playing you various different uploads of Sidelined. Over and over again, with occasional pauses for Cats or Devils Eyes. Unless you search by name you will not, for example, hear Tortured By A Sense Of Humour.

In short, it will make them sound like a Serious Goth Band with one song. In actuality, they are a Ludicrous Goth Band with many songs. Three blokes: one bass, one guitar, one singer and an awful lot of backing track. Comparison to Carter remains appropriate.

A few songs in, someone was standing on someone else's shoulders. Security intervened. Then lots of people were on shoulders, including the singer. Security did not intervene. But it Had Words. No more shoulders instructed the (now somewhat disheveled) singer, dutifully. Go ballistic, he added, but please don't break anything.

All in all, a jolly fun evening. Many thanks to Mrph for organising me.

And now: the perils of letting YouTube choose your videos. These days, when your video comes to an end, YouTube automatically proffers and begins playing another one. This is a relatively recent innovation (and one that ChrisC tells me you can switch off using the "autoplay" toggle on the right hand side).

Yesterday, a 60 second clip of a very dubious laid-back cover of Welcome to the Jungle (on an Axe deodorant ad) sent me to YouTube looking for GnR. The song finished, and it played me a variety of GnR until my colleagues all came back from the shops and I called a halt. That seems like a reasonable service from YouTube.

I suppose there is less - and less well-curated - Children On Stun available, which is why I got the same song over again. That is, while not great, at least explicable.

But why, when I finally put persuaded YouTube to play me Tortured By A Sense Of Humour did it immediately follow up with an instrumental track which even my rudimentary Spanish could translate as Intimacy With God: Music For Worship #5 (Prayer)?

These videos didn't share an uploader. They didn't seen to be part of a playlist. Maybe they'd been favourite'd by the same person? I can't think of any sensible reason any video-selecting algorithm would segue from one to the other.

My personal favourite so far is the bit of logic that went ah, you've just been listening to Lilies by Creaming Jesus. What you'll want next is a nice 1970s episode of Blue Peter. I think any DJ would agree that's a natural dancefloor progression.