A fortnight's worth of entries...
Nov. 5th, 2003 01:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaHmm. Quiet here, isn't it ? Well, I've been on holiday, to Ireland and to Whitby.
Having had a whole Whitby to forget what I got up to in Ireland, I shall present my opinions as a series of disjointed sentences:
Dublin is a really nice city, though I'm suspecting it's not a place to go to as a tourist. Ideally, you want someone who knows the place who's willing to show you round. Guide books can try and tell you where to find the un-touristy "real" bits, but by definition they presumably break them.
Dublin's also full of really friendly people. People randomly help you out, offer assistance and advice, and are generally lovely.
The big paper spike in O'Connell Street is bizarre, but impressive.
Having left it rather too late with hiring a car, I was offered a minibus or an automatic Peugeot. I've never driven an automatic before, there's nothing like getting into a car you have no idea how to control in front of the person you just hired it from. And it turns out that automatics have a semi-manual mode, too, which is scarily like a computer-game gearstick. I left it in fully automatic, and grumbled about its inability to know when I wanted to changed down for bends.
Passage graves are great. The biggest (New Grange, circa 3200 BC, I think) is a spectacular bit of engineering - imagine building a large dome out of slabs of rock, then putting a hill on top. The passage is long, and narrow, enabling you to walk down into the main chamber. Sadly, because it's so impressive, it's also very touristy - parties are herded in and out by guides. They did, however, have quite a funky lighting set-up to simulate the rising sun shining down the passage on the winter solstice. Fortunately, Loughcrew Cairns is close by, and has a rather smaller passage grave you can let yourself into, and prod about to your heart's content. Note to anyone thinking of trying it: take a torch.
Galway is one of these bizarre towns in two pieces. The bit that I wandered round was all little streets, shops, pubs, restaurants. I rather liked it, and quite enjoyed poking about. Driving out of the town (or is it a city?) you're suddenly in an area that thinks it's California. Ice cream coloured beach houses, large gardens - with palm trees, would you believe - and beaches. I think someone said "West Coast" to them, and they just ran with it...
<rant>
(with apologies to anyone who saw me at Whitby, who's probably heard this already)
Everyone - but everyone you meet in Southern Ireland tells you to go to Connemara (ie coasty-mountainy area just north of Galway). Because "it's beautiful".
It is, in fact, orange. Not just autumnal, but eye-straining cheap-red-Leicester orange. It is much strewn with stone, rocks, stone walls, more stone walls, more rocks and some rocks. Why the hell they're quarrying there I have no idea, if you want stones you can just pick the buggers up. Parts of it really are very pretty, particularly the mountains. but the vast majority just looks like it needs... well, tidying up, frankly. And someone needs to photoshop it to make the colours look more natural. And someone really, really needs to sort out Ireland's architecture.
3000 BC, neolithic man built passage graves in Ireland. 1970 AD, they started on pebbledashed dormer bungalows. And in between they took a five millennium sabbatical. Or sent all the builders to England as navvies. Or something. Rural Irish architecture is just nasty. And painted in pastels. All of it. Really. A white or cream (or, contraversially, unpainted) house is a real blessing when driving round Connemara.
</rant>
And yes, despite the ranting, I did enjoy it.
And, because it's more recent, you can have Whitby in extremely long-winded format.
After a certain amount of critical faffing, Pawl and I got on the road. With commendable forethought, we not only took along a CD player, but also a DJ - we installed![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deeteeuk on the back seat and left him to get on with playing us music. Which he did rather well - right up until the point where the fuses blew and selected sections of the electrics in my car stopped working. Clearly William (my car) does not approve of Richard Cheese. Fortunately, critical bits like headlights remained, and we turned up in Whitby about teatime.
Thanks to the amazing summoning powers ofemarkienna's phone (use with caution: whoever you try to phone arrives in person!), I met up with davefish. We fed ourselves, sat in a pub, and talked to people.. then went home and had a Rock And Roll Cup Of Tea.
Up late, monster fried breakfast, down the pub to meetkeris and vast hordes of others. While in the pub, mr_flay showed me a rather nifty card trick (actually, I'm no judge of conjuring, it may have been a bobbins trick, but I was impressed).
At some point, we realised that if we were ever going to remember the line-ups (or, according to Mr_Flay, the lines-up), we needed mnemonics. So this evening was: SuckyDeathMoose.
Deathboy I haven't encountered Deathboy before, beyond a rather strange mp3 track whichdiffrentcolours brought to Intrusion a year or so back. They're much more rock (and less computer generated weirdness) than I'd thought from that.
Their set was noisy, but enjoyable - sufficiently so that I bought the album later in the weekend, anyway - though now mostly faded from my brain thanks to the intervening eleven other bands.
The only track which remains in mind is "The 80s Are Dead", a great piss-take based (loosely) around Blue Monday and laying into the goth scene from all sides. Sadly, I think this might be the track they end up best known for - turning them into a Libitina for the 21st Century.
Faith and theMoose Muse I'm unexpectedly unfamiliar with Faith and the Muse. I enjoyed their set - not least because they had a real, live drummer, and real instruments. And they do do having two singers (one male, one female) very well.
Much rockier and less ethereal than I expected, though sadly this has again faded a bit from memory. Should have written notes at the time. Retroactively, I should add Running Up That Hill to the list of covers heard.
Inkubus Sukkubus As soon as these guys started playing, I remembered my gripe with them. Nine albums. One song. They make The Strokes (two albums, five songs) look like prolific creatives. I wandered off to talk to people.
And came back just in time to hear them playing Kylie's Can't Get You Out of my Head, setting a standard for daft covers for the weekend. And I stayed and heard Vampyre Erotica and Belladonna and Aconite, and remembered why I like these guys - it is at least a good one song.
And they sang a highly bizarre ode to Jagermeister, made all the more odd because they passed a bottle of it round on stage, anddeliberateblank managed somehow to con a glassful. I tasted it - chartreuse cut with cough mixture. I'm not sure I'm convinced.
Our household was all sufficiently tired that a Cup Of Tea was just too damn Rock And Roll. Straight to sleep.
Up late, monster fried breakfast, down to the Spa to hit the stalls. I was commendably restrained, buying only a pair of gloves... until I got to the CD stall. And then it went a little wrong, and Resurrection don't take cards, and I had to sponge money off Keris. And then the other set of stalls, and I found a secondhand tailcoat for £15 - then realised I still had no money and had to sponge offneilh. But hurrah; I've wanted a tailcoat for ages. (And if you want one too next Whitby, go to the bloke in the Met not the Spa - much nicer quality and much cheaper).
Mr_Flay provided today's magic trick, which was disappearing and appearing coins.
This evening was: All Living Chaos Hussey.
All Living Fear I can't think of anything to say about All Living Fear. And it's not forgetfulness, I couldn't at the time either. They sound like Generic Identikit Goth Band. They don't suck. They weren't interesting enough to stop me wandering back out and talking to people.
The Chaos Engine Chaos Engine are larger than life, noisy, and not at all the sort of thing I'd expect me to like. They're great :) I've never been that struck with their recordings, but live, they're amazing.
Veering between rock, industrial, and a little bit techno, they still have a surprisingly melodic sound for a band fronted by an angry yelling bloke. Who sometimes shouts into a megaphone into the mike.
Can anyone tell me what was going on with the keyboard player and the angle grinder ? I could only see the sparks (being short).
And they finished with a cracking cover of Gimme, Gimme, Gimme a Man After Midnight, which somehow managed to incorporate Bloodhound Gang lyrics. They were joined on stage by a bloke someone tells me is Eris, co-founer of the Wasp Factory, who was disappointingly inaudible - once his mike got sorted out he appeared to be rapping bits of Sisters lyrics... And then all the Wasp Factory artists who could still be found (and stand up best out of three) turned up for a blast through Kids in America. Which was admittedly better in concept than in execution :)
Wayne Hussey Wayne Hussey played an impressively long set - nearly two hours, I think. I missed most of it.
Y'see... I wandered in during the first song, and thought "OOoh, it's not him solo, it's an entire band". Then I found Richard who's noticeably taller than me and could see the stage, who pointed out that actually it was just him, and a backing tape. Which disappointed me. I hung around for a while, then decided Hussey was just going to set there and trot out Mission favourites on after another, so left. (In fairness, someone did later tell me he was taking requests from the front row, hence the hit-heavy set list).
What I could hear of the set from the foyer made it sound really quite dreary, though many other people were impressed, so I'll shut up now.
No Tea this evening - Davefish and Keris had some Rock And Roll Chocolate, and I had a salami sandwich (which I like to think shows that I lean more towards the punk end of things.)
Up late, monster fried breakfast. I identifed the blown fuse of Wednesday, failed to buy a new one, sorted William's radiator out and went to the pub.
Today's magic trick was provided by a guy who mostly gets called Leatherman (or, apparently, Sleazy Pete). It involved disappearing fag ash and, though, simple in mechanism, was impressive if you're not expecting it.
This evening was: Go Sheep on Coil.
Goteki I watched Goteki's set, and kind of enjoyed it, though they do sound a little bit like everyone else who sounds like that (ie kind of bleepy). Was somewhat bemused by the idea that with three blokes on stage (singer, bloke with Box O'Twiddly Knobs and someone whom I couldn't see properly but was probably a keyboard/synth person) most of the time all three of them had their hands in the air. Bit heavy on the old backing tapes there, chaps.
Sheep on Drugs I was a bit confused by Sheep on Drugs. I only know a couple of songs of theirs, and didn't really know what to expect. My impression was: a front man who didn't give a stuff about the crowd or about performing, and was daring them to dislike him (and assuming they wouldn't). A female singer who sounded like she should have been in Babes in Toyland (and I'm not a fan of that kind of screamy tortured singing style). A bloke who appeared to do very little with a Box O'Twiddly Knobs (though in fairness there was rather more live sampling going on than in most cases). I rather feel like I Just Didn't Get It. This band is widely acknowledged as seminal, I'm disappointed I didn't enjoy their set more.
However,surje (who was standing next to me, clearly watching the same band) had a somewhat diametrically opposed viewpoint. And put it more articulately, so you should ask him :)
Icon of Coil I was surprised not to know more of the tracks Icon of Coil played, as I expected them to be one of those "oh aye, them" kind of bands that you've heard in clubs.
I feel like I should have a nice word for the genre they fit in, but don't, so they're kind of Euro-bleepy, but with strong tunes and an impressively bouncy singer. They finished off a drum-kit-free evening (which always disappoints me), and I'm actually unsure how many of them there were on stage.
Pretty solid performance though (despite the house lights being on because of some Mysterious Incident), and I enjoyed it. Though I'm not sure I'd buy albums, they sound to me more like a live/club band than a listen-to.
And unexpectedly, they'd read the rules, and provided a daft cover: Headhunter[*].
Up late, no fried breakfast, met parents for dinner. Then went to a fashion show, which was strangely invisible. When I Am Dictator, all audiences will be arranged in height order, and Loki will not be allowed to stand at the front.
I was mostly there to seesnow_leopard strut her stuff, and I just about managed it owing to standing behind someone with a digital video camera, who obligingly tilted the screen down for us. Nice boots, Snow_Leopard, and you looked great :)
We just couldn't come up with a good mnemonic for this evening's line-up. Answers on the back of a sealed-down LJ comment.
I didn't get a magic trick either :(
Sorrow Or possibly Rose McDowell. The program seemed a little confused on this issue. Either way, it consisted of RMcD slowly dragging out lyrics that made most goth poetry sound inspired, in a sort of low wail. (Or, as Davefish said, "like Dolly Parton being eviscerated"). Kudos to them for having real instruments - electric violin and 'cello - but sadly the backing was also cliché goth.
There's only so much "my bleeding skull" you can take, after a few songs I escaped.
Manuskript This lot play slightly 80s-sounding bouncy electronica, and only save themselves by quite clearly not taking it in the slightest bit seriously. They're a great feel-good band, and I enjoyed their set immensely.
Still no drums (boo!) but real guitars (and even some guitar-wank occasionally). And a sense of humour. What's not to like ?
Surpsingly lacking in silly covers - only one, Rock Me Amadeus, which they opened with. Actually, I was told later that there was an Elvis cover in there too, but it passed me by.
All About Eve Again, I know nowt about this band. I saw them supporting the Mission a few years back, and was left with the impression of them being a bit feeble, wet and girly [**].
It turns out I'm wrong, though. Apparently they have had their frilly folky phases, but they weren't letting them show. Mr_Flay tells me the phrase I want for what they were playing is "circa Ultraviolet".
They rocked, they had drums, they produced a big, solid sound that was utterly unlike what I was expecting. A fine end to a pretty good set of bands.
Maybe I should get around to listening to all the AAE albumsmarkbanang gave me about a year ago...
Rumours of our Rock And Roll Tea had grown so fierce that Mr_Flay andlnr turned up to share it.
Davefish and I had a plan: get up early(ish), monster fried breakfast, do some photography at the abbey, take over the world...
Unfortunately, this plan ran directly into a couple of shabby boozers (notablygrahamb and Deeteeuk) who turned up at our flat as we were finishing breakfast, and doled out cider/beer. And refused to let us do anything remotely constructive. One kudo to GrahamB, though, for remembering that lager is foul and bringing me decent beer. Minus one to me for failing to notice that one of the beers was bottle-conditioned, and making a right hash with the sediment.
We stopped this decadent alcoholism to, er, go to the pub. The usual Sunday-night tradition (owing to the double-length festival, Monday was morally Sunday) of those too apathetic to make either of the club nights gathering in the pub didn't seem to carry over so well - it was relatively quiet. Though this did, of course, mean actually getting a seat. A pleasant evening and home, naturally, for Rock And Roll Tea.
Magic once again provided by Mr_Flay, making a handkerchief disappear.
And today I drove back. Must be the end of a long weekend, all my little passenger gothlings went to sleep for most of the journey :)
[*]If you're going "What?", then it's a song by a band called Front 242 - known because everyone (and, quite literally, their dog) have remixed it and caused it to be played in goth/undustrial clubs throughout the land.
[**] I'll know ifgrumblesmurf is reading this at work tomorrow, as he'll pop in from next door and belt me round the back of the head.
This week's Designated Hero is actually someone who wasn't even there... Many thanks to Andy, without whose instructions and advice over the last few years I wouldn't have the courage (or knowledge) to go delving about under my car's bonnet when things go wrong.
Having had a whole Whitby to forget what I got up to in Ireland, I shall present my opinions as a series of disjointed sentences:
Dublin is a really nice city, though I'm suspecting it's not a place to go to as a tourist. Ideally, you want someone who knows the place who's willing to show you round. Guide books can try and tell you where to find the un-touristy "real" bits, but by definition they presumably break them.
Dublin's also full of really friendly people. People randomly help you out, offer assistance and advice, and are generally lovely.
The big paper spike in O'Connell Street is bizarre, but impressive.
Having left it rather too late with hiring a car, I was offered a minibus or an automatic Peugeot. I've never driven an automatic before, there's nothing like getting into a car you have no idea how to control in front of the person you just hired it from. And it turns out that automatics have a semi-manual mode, too, which is scarily like a computer-game gearstick. I left it in fully automatic, and grumbled about its inability to know when I wanted to changed down for bends.
Passage graves are great. The biggest (New Grange, circa 3200 BC, I think) is a spectacular bit of engineering - imagine building a large dome out of slabs of rock, then putting a hill on top. The passage is long, and narrow, enabling you to walk down into the main chamber. Sadly, because it's so impressive, it's also very touristy - parties are herded in and out by guides. They did, however, have quite a funky lighting set-up to simulate the rising sun shining down the passage on the winter solstice. Fortunately, Loughcrew Cairns is close by, and has a rather smaller passage grave you can let yourself into, and prod about to your heart's content. Note to anyone thinking of trying it: take a torch.
Galway is one of these bizarre towns in two pieces. The bit that I wandered round was all little streets, shops, pubs, restaurants. I rather liked it, and quite enjoyed poking about. Driving out of the town (or is it a city?) you're suddenly in an area that thinks it's California. Ice cream coloured beach houses, large gardens - with palm trees, would you believe - and beaches. I think someone said "West Coast" to them, and they just ran with it...
<rant>
(with apologies to anyone who saw me at Whitby, who's probably heard this already)
Everyone - but everyone you meet in Southern Ireland tells you to go to Connemara (ie coasty-mountainy area just north of Galway). Because "it's beautiful".
It is, in fact, orange. Not just autumnal, but eye-straining cheap-red-Leicester orange. It is much strewn with stone, rocks, stone walls, more stone walls, more rocks and some rocks. Why the hell they're quarrying there I have no idea, if you want stones you can just pick the buggers up. Parts of it really are very pretty, particularly the mountains. but the vast majority just looks like it needs... well, tidying up, frankly. And someone needs to photoshop it to make the colours look more natural. And someone really, really needs to sort out Ireland's architecture.
3000 BC, neolithic man built passage graves in Ireland. 1970 AD, they started on pebbledashed dormer bungalows. And in between they took a five millennium sabbatical. Or sent all the builders to England as navvies. Or something. Rural Irish architecture is just nasty. And painted in pastels. All of it. Really. A white or cream (or, contraversially, unpainted) house is a real blessing when driving round Connemara.
</rant>
And yes, despite the ranting, I did enjoy it.
And, because it's more recent, you can have Whitby in extremely long-winded format.
Wednesday
After a certain amount of critical faffing, Pawl and I got on the road. With commendable forethought, we not only took along a CD player, but also a DJ - we installed
deeteeuk on the back seat and left him to get on with playing us music. Which he did rather well - right up until the point where the fuses blew and selected sections of the electrics in my car stopped working. Clearly William (my car) does not approve of Richard Cheese. Fortunately, critical bits like headlights remained, and we turned up in Whitby about teatime.Thanks to the amazing summoning powers of
emarkienna's phone (use with caution: whoever you try to phone arrives in person!), I met up with davefish. We fed ourselves, sat in a pub, and talked to people.. then went home and had a Rock And Roll Cup Of Tea.Thursday
Up late, monster fried breakfast, down the pub to meet
keris and vast hordes of others. While in the pub, mr_flay showed me a rather nifty card trick (actually, I'm no judge of conjuring, it may have been a bobbins trick, but I was impressed). At some point, we realised that if we were ever going to remember the line-ups (or, according to Mr_Flay, the lines-up), we needed mnemonics. So this evening was: SuckyDeathMoose.
Deathboy I haven't encountered Deathboy before, beyond a rather strange mp3 track which
diffrentcolours brought to Intrusion a year or so back. They're much more rock (and less computer generated weirdness) than I'd thought from that. Their set was noisy, but enjoyable - sufficiently so that I bought the album later in the weekend, anyway - though now mostly faded from my brain thanks to the intervening eleven other bands.
The only track which remains in mind is "The 80s Are Dead", a great piss-take based (loosely) around Blue Monday and laying into the goth scene from all sides. Sadly, I think this might be the track they end up best known for - turning them into a Libitina for the 21st Century.
Faith and the
Much rockier and less ethereal than I expected, though sadly this has again faded a bit from memory. Should have written notes at the time. Retroactively, I should add Running Up That Hill to the list of covers heard.
Inkubus Sukkubus As soon as these guys started playing, I remembered my gripe with them. Nine albums. One song. They make The Strokes (two albums, five songs) look like prolific creatives. I wandered off to talk to people.
And came back just in time to hear them playing Kylie's Can't Get You Out of my Head, setting a standard for daft covers for the weekend. And I stayed and heard Vampyre Erotica and Belladonna and Aconite, and remembered why I like these guys - it is at least a good one song.
And they sang a highly bizarre ode to Jagermeister, made all the more odd because they passed a bottle of it round on stage, and
deliberateblank managed somehow to con a glassful. I tasted it - chartreuse cut with cough mixture. I'm not sure I'm convinced.Our household was all sufficiently tired that a Cup Of Tea was just too damn Rock And Roll. Straight to sleep.
Friday
Up late, monster fried breakfast, down to the Spa to hit the stalls. I was commendably restrained, buying only a pair of gloves... until I got to the CD stall. And then it went a little wrong, and Resurrection don't take cards, and I had to sponge money off Keris. And then the other set of stalls, and I found a secondhand tailcoat for £15 - then realised I still had no money and had to sponge off
neilh. But hurrah; I've wanted a tailcoat for ages. (And if you want one too next Whitby, go to the bloke in the Met not the Spa - much nicer quality and much cheaper).Mr_Flay provided today's magic trick, which was disappearing and appearing coins.
This evening was: All Living Chaos Hussey.
All Living Fear I can't think of anything to say about All Living Fear. And it's not forgetfulness, I couldn't at the time either. They sound like Generic Identikit Goth Band. They don't suck. They weren't interesting enough to stop me wandering back out and talking to people.
The Chaos Engine Chaos Engine are larger than life, noisy, and not at all the sort of thing I'd expect me to like. They're great :) I've never been that struck with their recordings, but live, they're amazing.
Veering between rock, industrial, and a little bit techno, they still have a surprisingly melodic sound for a band fronted by an angry yelling bloke. Who sometimes shouts into a megaphone into the mike.
Can anyone tell me what was going on with the keyboard player and the angle grinder ? I could only see the sparks (being short).
And they finished with a cracking cover of Gimme, Gimme, Gimme a Man After Midnight, which somehow managed to incorporate Bloodhound Gang lyrics. They were joined on stage by a bloke someone tells me is Eris, co-founer of the Wasp Factory, who was disappointingly inaudible - once his mike got sorted out he appeared to be rapping bits of Sisters lyrics... And then all the Wasp Factory artists who could still be found (and stand up best out of three) turned up for a blast through Kids in America. Which was admittedly better in concept than in execution :)
Wayne Hussey Wayne Hussey played an impressively long set - nearly two hours, I think. I missed most of it.
Y'see... I wandered in during the first song, and thought "OOoh, it's not him solo, it's an entire band". Then I found Richard who's noticeably taller than me and could see the stage, who pointed out that actually it was just him, and a backing tape. Which disappointed me. I hung around for a while, then decided Hussey was just going to set there and trot out Mission favourites on after another, so left. (In fairness, someone did later tell me he was taking requests from the front row, hence the hit-heavy set list).
What I could hear of the set from the foyer made it sound really quite dreary, though many other people were impressed, so I'll shut up now.
No Tea this evening - Davefish and Keris had some Rock And Roll Chocolate, and I had a salami sandwich (which I like to think shows that I lean more towards the punk end of things.)
Saturday
Up late, monster fried breakfast. I identifed the blown fuse of Wednesday, failed to buy a new one, sorted William's radiator out and went to the pub.
Today's magic trick was provided by a guy who mostly gets called Leatherman (or, apparently, Sleazy Pete). It involved disappearing fag ash and, though, simple in mechanism, was impressive if you're not expecting it.
This evening was: Go Sheep on Coil.
Goteki I watched Goteki's set, and kind of enjoyed it, though they do sound a little bit like everyone else who sounds like that (ie kind of bleepy). Was somewhat bemused by the idea that with three blokes on stage (singer, bloke with Box O'Twiddly Knobs and someone whom I couldn't see properly but was probably a keyboard/synth person) most of the time all three of them had their hands in the air. Bit heavy on the old backing tapes there, chaps.
Sheep on Drugs I was a bit confused by Sheep on Drugs. I only know a couple of songs of theirs, and didn't really know what to expect. My impression was: a front man who didn't give a stuff about the crowd or about performing, and was daring them to dislike him (and assuming they wouldn't). A female singer who sounded like she should have been in Babes in Toyland (and I'm not a fan of that kind of screamy tortured singing style). A bloke who appeared to do very little with a Box O'Twiddly Knobs (though in fairness there was rather more live sampling going on than in most cases). I rather feel like I Just Didn't Get It. This band is widely acknowledged as seminal, I'm disappointed I didn't enjoy their set more.
However,
surje (who was standing next to me, clearly watching the same band) had a somewhat diametrically opposed viewpoint. And put it more articulately, so you should ask him :)Icon of Coil I was surprised not to know more of the tracks Icon of Coil played, as I expected them to be one of those "oh aye, them" kind of bands that you've heard in clubs.
I feel like I should have a nice word for the genre they fit in, but don't, so they're kind of Euro-bleepy, but with strong tunes and an impressively bouncy singer. They finished off a drum-kit-free evening (which always disappoints me), and I'm actually unsure how many of them there were on stage.
Pretty solid performance though (despite the house lights being on because of some Mysterious Incident), and I enjoyed it. Though I'm not sure I'd buy albums, they sound to me more like a live/club band than a listen-to.
And unexpectedly, they'd read the rules, and provided a daft cover: Headhunter[*].
Sunday
Up late, no fried breakfast, met parents for dinner. Then went to a fashion show, which was strangely invisible. When I Am Dictator, all audiences will be arranged in height order, and Loki will not be allowed to stand at the front.
I was mostly there to see
snow_leopard strut her stuff, and I just about managed it owing to standing behind someone with a digital video camera, who obligingly tilted the screen down for us. Nice boots, Snow_Leopard, and you looked great :)We just couldn't come up with a good mnemonic for this evening's line-up. Answers on the back of a sealed-down LJ comment.
I didn't get a magic trick either :(
Sorrow Or possibly Rose McDowell. The program seemed a little confused on this issue. Either way, it consisted of RMcD slowly dragging out lyrics that made most goth poetry sound inspired, in a sort of low wail. (Or, as Davefish said, "like Dolly Parton being eviscerated"). Kudos to them for having real instruments - electric violin and 'cello - but sadly the backing was also cliché goth.
There's only so much "my bleeding skull" you can take, after a few songs I escaped.
Manuskript This lot play slightly 80s-sounding bouncy electronica, and only save themselves by quite clearly not taking it in the slightest bit seriously. They're a great feel-good band, and I enjoyed their set immensely.
Still no drums (boo!) but real guitars (and even some guitar-wank occasionally). And a sense of humour. What's not to like ?
Surpsingly lacking in silly covers - only one, Rock Me Amadeus, which they opened with. Actually, I was told later that there was an Elvis cover in there too, but it passed me by.
All About Eve Again, I know nowt about this band. I saw them supporting the Mission a few years back, and was left with the impression of them being a bit feeble, wet and girly [**].
It turns out I'm wrong, though. Apparently they have had their frilly folky phases, but they weren't letting them show. Mr_Flay tells me the phrase I want for what they were playing is "circa Ultraviolet".
They rocked, they had drums, they produced a big, solid sound that was utterly unlike what I was expecting. A fine end to a pretty good set of bands.
Maybe I should get around to listening to all the AAE albums
markbanang gave me about a year ago... Rumours of our Rock And Roll Tea had grown so fierce that Mr_Flay and
lnr turned up to share it.Monday
Davefish and I had a plan: get up early(ish), monster fried breakfast, do some photography at the abbey, take over the world...
Unfortunately, this plan ran directly into a couple of shabby boozers (notably
grahamb and Deeteeuk) who turned up at our flat as we were finishing breakfast, and doled out cider/beer. And refused to let us do anything remotely constructive. One kudo to GrahamB, though, for remembering that lager is foul and bringing me decent beer. Minus one to me for failing to notice that one of the beers was bottle-conditioned, and making a right hash with the sediment.We stopped this decadent alcoholism to, er, go to the pub. The usual Sunday-night tradition (owing to the double-length festival, Monday was morally Sunday) of those too apathetic to make either of the club nights gathering in the pub didn't seem to carry over so well - it was relatively quiet. Though this did, of course, mean actually getting a seat. A pleasant evening and home, naturally, for Rock And Roll Tea.
Magic once again provided by Mr_Flay, making a handkerchief disappear.
And today I drove back. Must be the end of a long weekend, all my little passenger gothlings went to sleep for most of the journey :)
[*]If you're going "What?", then it's a song by a band called Front 242 - known because everyone (and, quite literally, their dog) have remixed it and caused it to be played in goth/undustrial clubs throughout the land.
[**] I'll know if
grumblesmurf is reading this at work tomorrow, as he'll pop in from next door and belt me round the back of the head.This week's Designated Hero is actually someone who wasn't even there... Many thanks to Andy, without whose instructions and advice over the last few years I wouldn't have the courage (or knowledge) to go delving about under my car's bonnet when things go wrong.
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Grumblesmurf
Date: 2003-11-05 01:55 am (UTC)He may offer to lend you AAE albums you don't own, however.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-05 02:02 am (UTC)All About Man's Sorrow?
Automatics
Date: 2003-11-05 02:20 am (UTC)I've only done this once, in the US about ten years ago. After all the confusion by the girl at the Hertz counter, because I'd got a Welsh driving license (not only does it fold out to ludicrous size, it's got these unpronouncable words on it), I ended up with a ... Oh, I dunno. Automatic, anyway. With no front number plate, which was a peculiar concept.
It took me about 10 minutes to remember *not* to change down when I was pulling up at traffic lights. It didn't like me putting it into first gear at about ten miles an hour...
no subject
Date: 2003-11-09 05:36 am (UTC)...which looked damned good - got any pictures yet?
no subject
Date: 2003-11-11 07:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-11 02:15 pm (UTC)I say alledged because
Nice to meet you,