I’m Back!

Yep it’s true. I’m back and bigger and better than ever.

Firstly, I need to make some apologies.

To those of you who I haven’t spoken to enough, when I really should have done; to those who I argued with and upset and was mean to – I apologise. I apologise for not talking, or for talking too much – for the tears and the tantrums, for the arguing and the pain. Basically, I’m sorry for having been such an almighty pain-in-the-arse.

And the hugest THANK YOU in the world too, to Mrs H3 for sticking with me through thick and thin – you are, quite literally, my lifeline. Without you I wouldn’t be writing today. I love you matey, in all your guises.



There are two main reasons why the blogging stopped, neither of which I really want to go into in detail. Enough to say that the concert season pretty much dried up for the summer (damn you festivals!), thus leaving Mrs H3 and I in the situation of having to make our own entertainment down the pub - although that did produce some interesting evenings as the pictures show, and I have been recovering from an illness which has left me unable and not wanting to write anything, let alone a blog.



But as the words of the song say, I’m picking myself up, dusting myself down and starting all over again and the re-emergence of the blog is part of that.
So, back to the good stuff.


*~* MUSIC *~*

The concerts have started again, although they are a little thin on the ground, especially after the extremely sad announcement that Chas and Dave have split up. Obviously our entire autumn schedule had revolved around their concerts, but neither Mrs H3 nor I have any interest in seeing the Chas Hodges Band. We need Dave to make our evening complete. However, all is not dim on the concert front as we do still have Marc Almond, The Flaming Lips, Gary Numan, Alice Cooper and the mighty Rolf Harris to see between now and Christmas and Mrs H3 is off to see Dizzee Rascal later this week.

This is a weird feeling for me, as I’ve never had any interest in Dizzee (although I quite like Bonkers) and I decided that I didn’t want to see him, so told Mrs H3 she could find someone else to go with her. Of course, now I’m wishing I hadn’t said that as it seems very strange NOT to be going to a concert with her and I’m worried that I’m going to miss something good. So yep, now I’m wishing I was going!

Since I last blogged a million years ago, we’ve been to see I Am Kloot at Relentless Garage who have just released a new album of b-sides and rarities, and who were absolutely fantastic (no, of course I’m not biased). I rather like the venue and it was a joy to see the songs performed by the whole band again, although I was a little surprised by their jazzed up version of my favourite song Fingerprints and not entirely sure that I liked it that way.



We also saw Peter Doherty at the Roundhouse, which I’m not sure was the right venue for him. Although he was good as ever, we got the impression that he wasn’t completely comfortable there and he seemed to be lacking something that we’ve seen at previous shows of his. A good evening, but I think he’d have been happier somewhere where the audience could get a bit closer – the gap between stage and audience at the Roundhouse is huge and their bouncers are numerous and well-prepared. There was never any chance of a stage invasion, which probably ruined Peter’s night a little as he does like to get people up on stage whenever he gets the chance.



A repeat visit too, to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Once again they were very good (although they omitted Psycho Killer from their repertoire this time unfortunately), but the venue, Blackheath Concert Halls, was dreadful. The whole building was over-heated, but the concert room itself was totally airless and it was hard to stay awake because of the heat, although the chairs were so uncomfortable that they did help a little. There was one fan, located in the bar area, which Mrs H3 and I spent most of the break standing in front of (bad luck to anyone else who wanted to get the benefit) in an attempt to cool down. The toilets were acceptable, but the cold water had been turned off, leaving only scalding hot water for hand washing – definitely not needed at any time, but especially when the place was already so warm. All in all the evening wasn’t as entertaining as it should have been and even though the UOGB did several of those clever multiple song mixes including some I’d never heard before, it was hard to think of anything else but getting out and getting some fresh air. This was followed by the worst chips I’ve probably ever tasted in my life from a fish and chip shop that apparently has won awards for being the best chip shop in...well, I’m not sure where...London? the UK? The world? I’m guessing maybe it’s the best chip shop in Blackheath.

We were also fortunate enough to see the always excellent Blue October at the O2 Islington Academy. This is a strange little venue and not being in the mood for heading for the front (much to Mrs H3’s relief I imagine) my view of the band was rather restricted, to the point that in the end I gave up even trying to see them and just enjoyed the blast of freezing cold air from the excellent air conditioning whilst I got lost in the music. There was a bigger crowd than I’d anticipated which I’m hoping is a growing fan base rather than people just turning up on the off-chance, although as Mrs H3 pointed out, rather a lot of the audience were foreign.

There was a chance to meet the band afterwards, but although I wanted to get a hard copy of the latest album Approaching Normal, the whole thing looked rather disorganised and there were a lot of screaming girls around, so we decided instead to just get the hell outta Dodge. Amazingly, the car park that we’d used was almost empty despite being pretty cheap. Definitely a good find for future concerts in that area as getting up that way is a nightmare when the tubes are playing up as they were for the IAK concert.



Finally, Mrs H3, her mum and I all wandered down to the Lewisham Country Fayre (apparently Lewisham is in the country) and had a pleasurable afternoon petting llamas and goats, eating cakes, drinking tea and watching Boney M. Yep, that’s right, Boney M were headlining the afternoon’s attractions. Running through their range of hits (most of which Mrs H3 didn’t know, being such a youngster) the band, who still contain one original member (the woman in red) were enthusiastic and lively and we rather enjoyed the show, although there were some very strange people there – which I suppose livened the proceedings up even more.




*~* FILMS *~*

Now the last time I posted about films it was, of course, excitement at the impending Harry Potter film that I’d been counting down to for over a year. As luck would have it I ended up seeing the film twice on opening day, the first time alone, the second with Mrs H3 and I think it would be fair to say that it comes in as my second favourite of all the films, top place still being held by the Prisoner of Azkaban.

It’s almost time for the DVD to be released and way too late for reviews, but I think my view pretty much fits with the majority of other HP fans – the film was good, but had its flaws. I was confused rather than elated when I left the cinema the first time and couldn’t actually decide if I thought the film was brilliant or rubbish.

As ever there wasn’t enough Snape, although admittedly there was more than any previous film and I was hugely disappointed that they missed the most important line of the whole book out of the film – it wouldn’t have taken too much more screen time for Snape to say ‘DON’T CALL ME COWARD!” I was disappointed too at the lack of the battle at the end of the film, instead replaced by a pointless (in my and lots of others opinion) attack on the Burrow. I was also exasperated by the Ginny/Harry/Room of Requirement scene as that leaves too many important things unsaid or undone for the next film.

In fact that would be my main criticism – too much important stuff not explained. Mention of the horcruxes, but not how they were made, or why they were important. Too much stuff removed and little put in that added substance, although the fish scene was quite delightful.

The ‘unfortunate event’ as it’s become termed by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, was wrong and gave a completely different impression of the end of the film to the end of the book. And I have to congratulate too, Steve Kloves for still attempting to ship Hermione and Harry even when it’s completely obvious that they’re never meant to be a couple.

Since then there’s been little on the cinema front either, although Mrs H3 and I did, sadly, waste two hours of our lives going to see The Time Traveller’s Wife which was incredibly dull and just totally crap and the completely excellent District 9 which I would definitely recommend to everyone, although I did find it incredibly sad.

But this week has seen the beginning of the new season and the release of a load of films that I want to see and of course I’m now on countdown for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland next March (as it’s a little early for me to be counting down to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One ). Coming up are 9, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant , New Moon, the Twilight sequel; Where the Wild Things Are and, surprisingly, Guy Ritchie’s version of Sherlock Holmes (or maybe not a surprise as it stars Robert Downey Jr). Out now are Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Up and even Zombieland which received pretty good reviews.

I went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs after good reviews from both critics and friends and thought it was excellent. I went to a Saturday afternoon showing and thus shared the cinema with lots of children, all of whom seemed to enjoy the film as thoroughly as I did. This animated film revolves around the premise of a man who invents a machine to turn water into food and is both laugh-out-loud funny (for children and adults) and touching and although a little mawkish at the end, is generally an all round feel-good movie. I came out of the film feeling glad that I’d seen it, which I think says it all.

I was also impressed with the staff of Showcase Cinema at Bluewater as they had no problem in throwing out a large group of youngsters who were mucking around in the cinema and refused to shut up even after repeated requests from the rest of the audience. The woman who removed them received a cheer from the rest of us.

And the fun doesn’t stop with films. Halloween is on its way and Mrs H3 and I are going to Hendrick’s Halloween Ball - St Anthony’s Dance a fancy dress event at the Troxy ho sted by the Last Tuesday Society. The following night will see us once again dressed up (for a change) for the Sherwood Oak Halloween Party . Expect a huge bunch of photos to appear shortly.

So I think it’s time to shut up now. You see, now I've got going again I can just rabbit on...and on...and on....

Music and Moanings

So, I’ve discovered that, unfortunately, I am too old for music festivals.

To be fair, I wasn’t really all that much in the mood to go to the Lovebox Weekender anyway. Depression from PMT, a niggling backache and bad hayfever left me wanting to climb back into bed for the weekend and ignore the world, but having spent so much on the tickets I was determined not to waste them. Of course, I was also regretting the choice to go on Saturday, where the line up consisted of little other (from my point of view) than Duran Duran, however much I love them; when Sunday’s line up had Gary Numan and The Doves, amongst others.

Being in the already grumpy mood I was in, I was also unhappy about the weather. Obviously I’d been hoping that in the middle of summer, the day would be long, hot and dry. Sadly, it managed only one of those three things.

It all began so well, considering. Having got to Mile End, having been able to travel on the part of the Jubilee Line that is still running at weekends, with the weather showing signs of being sunny, things didn’t seem quite so bad. But then came the walk to Victoria Park, which the Lovebox website had described as being ten minutes away. I had already been made aware by Kev the beanpole that even he couldn’t walk it in ten minutes. However, we hadn’t anticipated something nearer to a forty five minute walk.

Still trying to get into the spirit, our first stop was the tequila tent for a rather tasty margarita and some excellent Latin American disco, where I became the proud owner of a rather tacky pink and orange maraca.

So, things seemed to be looking up, although more alcohol (which I suspect would definitely have helped the day) was out of the question as I was driving, so instead I moved onto the water and the odd nice cup of tea. There were many food stalls, and all seemed to be fair trade and organic and all those other good things, the choice varied and eclectic. Eventually Mrs H3 decided on a Greek chicken kebab, whilst I went for an organic sirloin steak burger with some divine onion relish (and another cup of tea – yep I know, I’m so rock n’ roll!)

Having checked out the various other entertainment areas (most of which appeared to be hardcore house music) we ended up sitting near the main stage as there were at least people we’d heard of on there. We missed VV Brown as we were debating about food, we caught most of the Rumble Strips, who I personally didn’t think much of, although to be fair we were sitting outside of the area where we could hear them properly and during the break while we waited for Mr Hudson to come on, we went over to the Warehouse stall to get our free ‘Rain or Shine’ kit, consisting of a cheap paper fan and an even cheaper white plastic poncho. This was our best move of the day.

Sadly, by this point I had to admit to Mrs H3 that I was feeling somewhat bored as there wasn’t enough (of interest to me at any rate) going on between acts on the main stage and sitting around was beginning to make my back hurt again.

So back to Mr Hudson, and I was desperately trying to remember which rapper had taken him under their wing (it turned out to be Kanye West – is he a rapper?). Anyway, I thought Mr Hudson was okay although not really my cup of tea, although I did recognise Supanova which means that Greg James must have played it between 4.45 and 5.30am a few times in the recent past (the only time I listen to Radio One these days).

Having found ourselves in the optimum area for viewing and sound, we proceeded to stay and watch Florence and the Machine, who were the only other band that I’d been looking forward to seeing (as Friendly Fires clashed with Duran Duran on the other stage). Disappointingly, for me at least, I wasn’t overly impressed. I will admit that Florence does have a good voice, but her songs were quite boring and even Rabbit Heart, a song which I’ve quite enjoyed when I’ve heard it on TV, didn’t lift the proceedings. Eventually we gave up and instead joined the humongous queue for the toilets.

By now I was fed up of standing (backache and arthritis setting in big time), so we headed for the barrier in front of the disabled viewing area/sound booth and finding a nice central pitch sat down while we waited for N.E.R.D. to come on stage.

It was at this point that it started raining and so we donned our cheapo ponchos and settled in to watch Pharrell and his crew doing their thing. Now I have to say that this sort of music really does pretty much leave me cold, although Mrs H3 was in her element. But, although I was no longer able to sit down due to the rain, I actually found myself starting to quite enjoy the show, especially when they blantantly broke every Health and Safety rule in the book and invited a whole load of fans onto the stage.

But now everything was wet and so sitting down was a no-no, which meant the next few hours were spent standing with all the old age pain that goes with that. Again there was a long wait for the final band, who as Mrs H3 surmised, were obviously waiting for it to get dark so their (admittedly spectacular) light show was visible. By the time Duran Duran had made it to the stage the temperature had dropped considerably and I was now freezing cold, to go along with wet and miserable and the wishing I hadn’t come had returned.

I’m sure you’ll be unsurprised to hear that I thought Duran Duran were bloody excellent, and Simon looked gorgeous, dressed as he was in frockcoat, waistcoat and top hat (definitely feeding a fantasy of mine). His singing too, was spot on, and as had been the case with Voodoofest, it was clear they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. For the duration of their set, I forgot the cold and the rain, almost forgot the pain from standing for so long, and even, for a moment, stopped thinking that I’d wished I hadn’t bought a ticket and experienced some real pleasure.

But then the concert ended and we had the long, long walk back to the station and the even longer trip back home. I was in so much pain by this time and Mrs H3 was so fed up, that we decided that even if we’d had tickets for Sunday we wouldn’t have gone (yep you heard me right, I’d have missed seeing my beloved Gary rather than make that journey again). By the time we’d got home we were determined that we’d never go to another festival ever again.

However, sleep and hindsight made me consider that had the day stayed dry I’d have not been in as much pain as I’d have been able to sit down more and had there not been so great a walk, it would have been fine. As an urban festival Lovebox was nothing like Reading or Glastonbury and I think I’d been expecting it to be like them. Whereas at the larger festivals there are so many different things to do that you can never get bored, even if the music isn’t quite to your taste, unless you were up for getting drunk there wasn’t so much to do at Lovebox. There weren’t enough bands that I liked, I’ve never been into all that house music stuff, and even the fringe stuff wasn’t as entertaining as other places I’ve been so the day soon became rather boring.

So actually, maybe I’m not too old for festivals, I’m just too old for the Lovebox Weekender or any other festival that takes place in Victoria Park. Give me an easy journey and a seat to sit in and I’ll be happy!



Having missed Gary Numan at Lovebox, we did instead get to see him at what used to be called the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (it’s something O2’y these days, as everything seems to be) last Saturday evening - and yes, we had seats.

I had been a little maudlin as Ben and Jerry’s Sundae Festival (yep the ice cream people, and yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to any more festivals) had a cracking line up, including I Am Kloot and the Super Furry Animals. After a lot of considering we decided that it would be too much to try to attend both, although part of me was still disappointed at missing IAK. Anyway, all disappointment was forgotten once Gary took to the stage.

Mrs H3 told me on the journey home that she always enjoys watching my face when Gary comes on stage, as I always look so ecstatically happy to see him. And it’s true. Every time he appears I’m transported back to the first time I ever saw him live and the joy and love that I felt for him then spreads through my entire body.

Whilst watching him this time I was thinking about the number of incarnations he’s gone through over the years and how far away his music is now from what I was listening to and loving so much back in the late seventies. I wondered for a moment whether, if I’d been told, at the time I first saw Tubeway Army on Top of the Pops doing Are Friends Electric? that Gary would eventually be doing hardcore metal music, whether I’d have believed it, or even been such a fan. But, whilst I might not have believed that he would head that way, I would definitely have still loved him.

Music-wise it doesn’t seem to matter what Gary turns his hand to, I enjoy it. I don’t LOVE all of it, but then, personally, I think it would be a very strange person that could say that. But I’ve enjoyed his journey to where he is today, and love the way that he integrates the older songs into his current style. And I love his current style. And when I see him live there is no equal for me... I adore I Am Kloot and often say they are my favourite band, but Gary is a lifelong love that will never die and for me nothing, and no one else will ever come as close to perfection as he does.

So now we have a quiet period. Not much going on in the way of concerts, I assume because of the summer holidays and people going away so nothing interesting has been booked. The next concert at the moment is Peter Doherty (oh yes) on 19th September, followed by concerts by people as diverse as Blue October (yes, they are coming back to the UK and I am very happy about this), Flaming Lips, Alice Cooper, Marc Almond, Chas and Dave and Gary Numan again towards the end of the year.

We found out recently that Dave's wife died of lung cancer, which may have accounted for his absence from the last concert we went to, and others since. I'm hoping that he's back for the three concerts we've got booked for the end of the year, or I fear for Mrs H3’s sanity. My sympathies go to Dave and his family for their loss.

I’m also looking forward to September/October as this signifies the release of the new I Am Kloot Album called B, which contains B-sides, rare recordings and new songs. Obviously this will be accompanied by a tour, which is always good news!

Hurrah another post!

Okay so I’m trying to be good and blog a little more regularly. Obviously good for me as I don’t have to write ‘War and Peace’ whilst trying to kick start my somewhat bad memory into gear back over a month and good for you not to have such huge posts to plough through.

As usual most of the post will be about music, but first some Harry Potter news. Last week Warner Brothers announced the release date for the film had changed again ... although fortunately by only two days. Anyway, the film will now be released on Wednesday 15th July, which as the ticker shows is in 87 days and I am getting very excited about it. The main reason for this of course was the release of a new trailer last Thursday, which is below. Also you should check out the much better quality HD version here as it’s amazing.



Obviously for me the high point was Severus Snape and the whole “fight back you coward” bit (although I thought the Katy Bell section amongst others was also excellently done) and thanks to the Leaky Cauldron my desktop is now sporting the screen cap of Severus blasting Harry off his feet.

So back to the music. Mrs H3 and I went to the Half Moon in Putney for the latest Johnny Bramwell gig and it was an absolute cracker. Recently released from recording the new album, having announced that Pete and Andy had chucked him out of the recording studio, Johnny was more talkative than at some of the previous gigs we’ve seen, although he was a touch dark and brooding (not that that’s a bad thing in my book). He did an excellent live set including songs from the new album including a fabulous new track called The Moon is a Blind Eye although unfortunately had to stop singing on a few occasions due to interruptions from a rather loud crowd, including a very drunk girl and her friends, who instead of being responsible enough to remove her from the room instead spent the last half hour of the concert loudly shushing her – which was almost as annoying as the girl herself. I have to admit that several times I was debating whether I could give her a quick punch to the side of the head to knock her out without being ejected from the gig – but of course I and none of the others around her, who I am sure were thinking similar things did that.

As I’ve mentioned before talking during concerts is a pet peeve of mine. I can understand friend’s saying a few words to each other occasionally; obviously even Mrs H3 and I aren’t immune to that. But when your conversation is continuous and drowns out the music of the performer then it is most definitely NOT acceptable. What I don’t understand is why people pay to go and see an artist and then ignore the concert to have a chat. If you want to talk, piss off back to the bar and talk there. Don’t ruin my and everyone else who is seriously trying to listen to the artist’s set’s evening. If nothing else it’s incredibly rude!

Sorry rant over.

Anyway, there were two support acts and I have to admit that we missed the first completely. However, the second Jonny Taylor, I thought was rather entertaining (not quite so much to Mrs H3’s taste), although he did sound a touch too much like James Blunt (which is never a good thing). I particularly liked one called London Town which you can hear on the link at his Myspace page.

Before the concert we went to the Lebanese restaurant called Mezza which is across the road from the pub. The last time we were at the Half Moon they were serving food which they brought in from the restaurant and so we decided to cut the middle man and head straight there. The food was lovely. The starter was spiced meat or feta cheese wrapped in filo pastry which was followed by lamb and vegetable kebabs with rice. The service was friendly but not over-attentive and it seemed a popular place. Definitely one I’d recommend.



On Wednesday we’re off to see Peter Doherty (yep him again) at Proud in Camden and then, in a bit of a departure from the normal stuff for us, we’re going to Headphone Disco on Friday in Islington. I’d never heard of this concept of a silent disco until Mrs H3 introduced me to it. Basically you are given a pair of headphones upon entering and you wear them to listen to the music which is provided by two DJs. You can toggle between sounds as you wish and dance away to your heart’s content (yep you know that’s not going to happen!) or you can take off the headphones and watch everyone else dancing to the music that you can no longer hear. It should be interesting if nothing else and we’re on the guest list so it costs nothing except for travel and drinks.

Oh and I finally started uploading stuff to my YouTube channel which you can find here. So far I’ve only uploaded the three videos that I took at the Johnny Bramwell concert (alas not the new track, hopefully I’ll get that at Guildford in a few weeks time) but hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll find the time to upload our videos from the Peter Doherty and Elbow concerts, plus of course any new concerts we go to (and maybe some old ones too ... perhaps the time has come for the guess the song game!). There is also an old and very bad quality video from my old phone which was taken one night in the Sherwood Oak. Feel free to watch it if you wish.

It's That Time Again ...

Good grief another month gone already! So once again you get the extremely late and horrendously long update.

Firstly a HUGE apology to Mrs H3 for not mentioning earlier that amongst all the things we were doing recently we were celebrating her 30th birthday on 27th March. Part of the reason for this is that for quite a long time she was panicking about reaching this milestone and I didn’t want to upset her any further with a reminder, but then obviously failure to blog regularly came into it as well and so instead of getting ready for the big event after a complaint that I hadn’t mentioned it on here, all I can do now is report on the weekend and say congratulations on getting through the celebrations and for realising 30 isn’t the end of your life!


The Music Bit…The Deal was for the Diamond and the Skulldozer!

So the last time I blogged we were on the verge of going to see Elbow at Wembley and what a fantastic evening it was too. Completely different from the Brighton gig in so many ways, not least the quantity of people in attendance (obviously, considering the size of the place compared to previous venues, although I have to admit I was surprised at how full the place was – I guess it really is finally their year). It was clear from the moment that Guy and the lads stepped onto the stage how chuffed they were to be there and the huge crowd added considerably to the anthem-like numbers such as One Day Like This, although as I said before I’m just happy to see them wherever they perform (however, not the show they’re doing supporting U2 – and not just ‘cos of the £150 price tag - and annoyingly, the concerts in Manchester with the Halle Orchestra sold out before I even had a chance to read their Myspace blog post about them!)

Unfortunately my snazzy new phone broke (the slider cable broke causing the screen to black out) and had to be sent back to Sony for repair however, once again Mrs H3 and I managed to take copious amounts of photos and video footage (pics below as ever … I really will get my Youtube channel up and running for the videos one day I promise).





So then began the Peter Doherty (yes Peter in the press now he’s turned thirty (just like Mrs H3!) and grown up, although actually he’s always called himself that) tour to promote his rather excellent new album Grace/Wastelands which began with two concerts in Brighton and Folkestone and ended on the Sunday after Lisa’s birthday at the Troxy in London. Disappointingly, for all those detractors who have done nothing but slag him off ever since I mentioned we were going to see him, he is now completely clean and turned up at every gig.

The first at Brighton Dome (where else) was an interesting affair to say the least. The first support band didn’t turn up so his drummer came out and did a few songs, followed by a friend of his who we’d seen at the Royal Albert Hall and hadn’t enjoyed, although he was better than the drummer. Finally came Dot Allison and her band, who weren’t my (or Mrs H3’s) cup of tea at all. Luckily, having parked ourselves in the front row of the stalls seats, we were having fun watching the other members of the audience which took our minds off the support. When Peter eventually made it onto the stage, dressed casually in jeans and jumper, he did so with his full band along with a three piece string orchestra and at one point a double bass player and Dot again (as she collaborated on some of the songs), as well as Wolfman who strangely didn’t sing along to For Lovers as I would have expected. The music ranged from his solo acoustic stuff to full on rock and roll chic with a lot of free-form jazz type stuff in between. At one point there were so many people on stage I thought it was turning into a Sigur Ros concert. However, throughout he was excellent, even if the pseudo free-form jazz stuff didn’t particularly float my boat and with a crowd that was very clearly upper middle class and awfully polite it was funny to see the excitement that songs like Fuck Forever and Can’t Stand Me Now produced. It was a really good, if somewhat different evening to the one I had been expecting. He finished without an encore, which came as a surprise to most of us, but as he’d been hit by a drink thrown by someone in the audience and then almost by a lit cigarette, perhaps not completely so.

The following night at the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone was completely different. Firstly, we totally missed the support acts and then chose to go and sit on the balcony to watch the show rather than join the moshers. This was an excellent choice as it turned out as the crowd were very different in culture to the previous night. So was the show. Peter, who was once again sporting the casual jeans and t shirt look performed solo for the most part, with only occasional guest appearances by fellow Babyshambles cohort Mick Whitnall and the always value for money Wolfman (still dressed in the same clothes), to break things up (and no, he still didn’t sing on For Lovers). Peter spent a considerable amount of the concert proving his guitar skills with some lengthy riffs and even more time dodging the considerable amount of drinks that the very rowdy audience threw his way. After promising to finish with Albion, he did actually close with Can’t Stand Me Now. As is our wont Mrs H3 and I didn’t move when the lights went up, waiting for the venue to clear somewhat before heading home and it was lucky we didn’t for about seven minutes later Peter reappeared to do a blinding version of Albion to a by then largely empty room. As ever both evenings were caught in pictures and video.

And so to the Troxy - a beautiful art deco venue in Limehouse, London. This was the last night of the tour, and the last night of a very long weekend of celebrating for Mrs H3 and I. The audience was made up of a selection of the types of people that had been at the others - both the stylish and fashionable and the die hard beer throwing fans and the show was sold out. Once again we opted to miss the support acts, although we weren’t successful in the case of Dot Allison, who hadn’t grown on us at all. The gig too was a hybrid of the previous ones we’d seen – the band and the string section was in attendance as were special guests Graham Coxon, Wolfman (and yes this time he did sing on For Lovers and he was bloody awful – although he was wearing different clothes at last!) and Lee Mavers (the lead singer of 90’s band The La’s), which meant of course that the free-form jazz was back, but also there was the acoustic numbers (which I think on balance I generally prefer) too. Peter had chosen to be more formal for this last evening, dressing in a suit and hat, very dashing and very much in step with the venue. Unfortunately, the late arrival meant that we were quite far back and so my view of Peter wasn’t good enough to take any photos or video, although Mrs H3 did manage to. All in all I felt this was the most interesting of the three shows because of the mixture of styles, although I have equally enjoyed all of the shows just for the opportunity to spend a great deal of time gazing at Peter Doherty who, when clean, is a truly beautiful looking man.




So the next concert on the agenda is John Bramwell at the Half Moon in Putney on Thursday, the first time I’ve seen anything I Am Kloot-related for almost a year. Needless to say I am very excited at the prospect of seeing him (and hopefully Pete) again. I’m really hoping that he might be doing some of the tracks from the new Kloot album that he and the band performed in gigs earlier this year. This is followed on 22nd April by another evening with Peter Doherty in Camden and then the eagerly awaited (by me at least) Ultravox concert at the Roundhouse. Early May brings a visit to see the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain at the Cadogan Hall in London as I have become interested in learning to play the ukulele (if anyone wants to teach me please feel free to shout).

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that the new album Hocus Opus One by one of my favourite Wizard Rock bands Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office has finally been released. This long anticipated album is a heavy duty slice of electro-dance pop and is definitely worth a listen so check them out at their Myspace page by clicking on the link. Hmmm, actually while I’m about it I’d also like to mention another excellent new release. Zoë from Split Seven Ways and Malfoy Manor is giving away free (as she often does – check out her Myspace pages) The Broken Bird e.p. under the name Zoë’s Adventures Underground. This is a beautiful piece of work and non-Wrock, for those of you still a little nervous about the whole Wizard Rock thing.

Concerts, Harry Potter and the wonderfulness that is Wizard Rock!

So it’s been a little while since the last catch-up again as I’ve got lots of things coming up in the future, but there’s been nothing much of interest going on in the recent past.

Valentine’s Day came and went without troubling me as usual and lack of money meant quiet evenings down the pub in lieu of any real excitement. But that all changed as the first of the two Elbow concerts we’re going to finally arrived last Saturday night after a somewhat drunken and uproarious Friday session that involved rather too much champagne among other things. Now I’m still ecstatic at the fact that they won the Best Band award at the Brits (although a little surprised I will admit) and then followed that up with another win at the NME awards, the well deserved Outstanding Contribution to British Music so was looking forward to seeing them immensely, especially after my disappointment at missing them last year.

So Saturday night found us at the Brighton Dome, tired from the previous night but happy and ready to be entertained. And what a good job Elbow did. The Acorn are supporting them on their tour, which is good as I really enjoyed their album Glory Hope Mountain and thought they did a fine job. But Elbow were sublime. Obviously incredibly happy at their awards and their ‘sudden’ fame Guy was happy to talk and joke with the audience and even at one point engaged in a question and answer session between tracks. The concert was uplifting and every bit as good as the BBC televised one earlier in the year, although of course the songs weren’t just restricted to Seldom Seen Kid as that one had been, nor was there the huge orchestra and choir.

Between us Mrs H3 and I took about 500 photos (see a selection below) and a good deal of video (hurrah for my fabby phone – although I did feel a slight pang for the crap quality of the old Nokia and am considering taking it to Wembley just for old times sake). So on 14th March we’ll be at Wembley with the guys (and possibly David Hasselhoff) doing it all again, except a bit different. It will be interesting to see the band in such a large location and I’m suffering those pangs of all fans whose bands go global, that I’m torn between wanting to see them in such large venues but at the same time still wanting to see them in smaller places. I expect knowing how down to earth Elbow are they’ll be doing a mixture of both for a while.



Also on the horizon are concerts by Peter Doherty on consecutive days at the Brighton Dome and Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone on 20th and 21st March and after a lot of praying and wishing on my part I Am Kloot, or at least Johnny Bramwell, is finally coming south of the Watford gap again and performing at the Half Moon in Putney on 9th April with an appearance at the Boileroom in Guildford on 11th May. We will be fitting in a visit to the Roundhouse on 30th April to see the newly re-formed (and believe me I’m very excited about this) Ultravox, who I haven’t seen since the Monument Tour in 1982. But the fun doesn’t stop there. It’ll be Chas and Dave time again on 14th May in Croydon and on 18th July Mrs H3 and I will be heading to London for the first day of the Lovebox festival. I am definitely expecting to see an eclectic mix of music there with bands like Florence and the Machine, N.E.R.D. and of course the mighty Duran Duran. The following week will see us at Shepherds Bush for the latest Gary Numan concert.

But one of the events I am most looking forward to is the Hogwarts Jamboree UK on 27th June which is being held in London. Now everyone who knows me knows that I am Harry Potter fanatic (what…you never realized?) and am into everything HP related. Through this I have become involved in a genre of music called Wizard Rock which, having started (rather late I will admit) as a vague interest of mine in hearing bands who called themselves after Potter characters and sang songs about the stories, has turned into devotion to the cause with a considerably increased CD collection.

How to explain Wizard Rock? My personal view is that it’s almost impossible (unless you have a complete hatred of music) not to like at least one of the bands around and believe me, although most of you not in the HP fandom will never have heard of this phenomenon, there are literally hundreds of Wrock bands out there. The musical styles are varied – everything from pop to blues to rap to country, with a healthy dose of comedy thrown in for good measure. In fact, think of a musical style and somewhere there will be a Wrock band that meets your criteria.

Initially started by American bands like Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys, it didn’t take long before the Wrock revolution spread worldwide (and I mean worldwide as there are bands in Sweden, Australia, Japan, Israel and Canada to name but a few) and Britain can boast what I think are some of the best bands around. Personal favourites are Split Seven Ways, Riddle TM, Peeved, Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons, Siriusly Hazza P and the awesome Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office and excitingly for me at least, some of these bands will be appearing at the Hogwarts Jamboree.

Ok so this was a funny moment for me: As usual I had 4Music on in the background while I was working earlier on. On comes the video of Apologize by One Republic. I’m confused: the words are all wrong. Then I realize. I’ve listened to the Ministry of Magic’s cover version of the song so many times now that I’m automatically singing their words, rather than the original. And I have to admit I prefer the MoM version.

So lots of music already planned, with more to come I’m sure. After all Michael Jackson is rumoured to be doing a series of concerts at the O2, which I think must be a dead cert assuming the tickets aren’t stupidly priced, although knowing him…. Plus of course the festivals are just beginning to be announced. I’m really fancying Sunday of the V festival, even though Oasis are headlining on the main stage, as there are plenty of other bands that I love playing (read Elbow, James, Snow Patrol and Ocean Colour Scene) and Keane will be headlining the 4Music stage.

The Other Stuff including new concerts

Mrs H3 and I haven’t just been going to the pantomime for the last 6 weeks. Oh no. We’ve also found time to go to the cinema and to a concert.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity ‘Twilight’ was released over here on 19th December and Mrs H3 and I went on the opening night. Now as you know I’ve been waiting for this film for ages, so I was extremely excited – enough to forego the alcohol (yes really) at my works Christmas party, which took place in the afternoon.

We had decided to see the film at the O2 Vue – although it turned out that it wasn’t in the huge cinema, but one of the smaller ones. We had elected to eat there too, which turned out to be a mistake as there was a Madness concert taking place in the arena so it was packed and we had to queue for almost an hour to get into Zizzi’s.

The evening didn’t get any better when we went to collect our tickets from the machine. The booking had been lost. After a long argument with the useless staff we had no choice but to buy the tickets again.

So to the film. Almost as soon as it started I knew I was going to love it. Robert Pattinson, looking gorgeous as ever filled the screen and soon I was drawn into the Twilight world. It would be fair to say that 95% of the audience was under eighteen and I had forgotten, having rarely been to a film showing with so many young people, how much they like to talk through films. The whole cinema was filled with people discussing the film, whether it was about the actors, the plot or how it compared to the book.

The girls behind us were no different in that respect except that the one behind me must have been the only person in the cinema who hadn’t read the books and spent the whole film asking her friends who characters were and what was going on.

Distracting as this was it didn’t stop the enjoyment of the film which was a decent enough adaptation of the book. I was already on Team Edward, and thought Robert perfect for the role – although I’ve never been able to convince Mrs H3 of either – she is firmly Team Jacob (poor deluded woman) and couldn’t understand my swooning over Mr Pattinson at all. However, whilst the film didn’t sway her from the Team Jacob camp she did admit that Robert was completely gorgeous.

For me there were a few disappointments, although they were mainly superficial – the overuse of the pale makeup on the vampires (I’m sure that could have been more naturally done) and especially the ‘dazzling’ scene. With the wealth of special effects available these days I was expecting Edward to be truly stunning but instead he was rather lacklustre – a pot full of glitter would have worked better then the final film version.

Notwithstanding my few gripes, I thought the film was excellent, although I would definitely be interested to see it with a more mature audience and without the talking.


The following night we were back at the O2 to see the Bootleg Beatles at Indigo. Once again we were in the Kings Row, but a few rows back from where we had been for Gary Numan. To be honest it was a bit high for us and fortunately there were enough empty spaces for us to move during the interval to a less dizzy height.

The last time I saw the Bootleg Beatles was at Glastonbury in 1995 and I had such a good evening I’ve recounted the story of it many times over the years. I can say that they are just as good today as they were then, and yes they sound – and look – just like the Beatles. Working through the whole catalogue from “From Me to You” right through to “Hey Jude”, they incorporated the fashions and the news of the times. At the end ‘John’ came on and sang “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” after which the encore consisted of “Let It Be”, followed by “Twist and Shout” which they performed as it was the last night of the tour (they said).

I thought it was a fantastic evening, although I was aware that Mrs H3 was not quite as enthusiastic as I to begin with as Chas & Dave (with Pete Doherty in support) were playing the Tap n’ Tin that night and normally we would have gone there instead. However, as the evening went on she was soon joining in as happily as I. It turned out that Pete didn’t turn up at the Tap n Tin (even though all his family did) so we didn’t miss anything interesting , and we’ve already got tickets to go and see Chas & Dave at Fairfield Halls, Croydon in May so all’s good.

Actually the concert season is already looking quite bright. We have the two Elbow concerts in February and as mentioned above Chas & Dave in May. Gary Numan is playing the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 25th July and I Am Kloot are currently recording a new album, being produced by Guy and Craig from Elbow (lots of happy fangirl squeeing from me) which surely means a new tour shortly, to which I’ll obviously be going to as many shows as possible (alas unable to make either of the dates in Manchester as it’s just outside my finances to go – I suspect it would be cheaper to get to the Paris show than Manchester). However, I was very excited to find that Blue October, whose new album “Approaching Normal” is released on 24 March 2009, are FINALLY coming to the UK. Short notice as its next Tuesday, 27th January at Camden Underworld – but of course we’ve got tickets and I’m completely twitchy with excitement. They are being supported by People in Planes whose album “Beyond the Horizon” I’ve just listened to (and very good it is too). It should be an excellent evening. Also keeping fingers crossed for an e-mail saying that I’ve won the Duran Duran competition tomorrow night, which would see us at a concert with them in London next Wednesday evening.

Anyway, kicking it all off, tonight is a return visit to see Bill Bailey in Tinselworm and of course tomorrow is the final pantomime and then I’ll be celebrating my birthday. Have a feeling it could all get a bit messy, but there might be some decent photos at the end of it all.

The Music Bit

So Thursday 20th November saw Mrs H3 and I accompanied by Stevie G, to the venerable Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone for an evening with Chas and Dave. Now you know Mrs H3 and I like a good knees up with our favourite cheeky cockney chappies and so were looking forward to a fun-filled evening.

The first shock for me was the size of the theatre. Now when I was sixteen (and yes I know it was a bloody long time ago, you don’t need to rub it in) I used to work at the Hazlitt – and I loved it. I enjoyed everything about the place, from being in the box office to working behind the scenes, helping with the costumes to sitting in the sound and lighting box, but I don’t remember it being so SMALL.

There was a pretty good crowd for the concert, but unlike the Catford crew they were a tough crowd. There was little movement, not much in the way of clapping and definitely no dancing – except from Mrs H3 and I who were at the back of the theatre anyway. Certainly WE had a good evening and of course there were the obligatory photos with the band (who are beginning to recognize our stalker qualities by now). Mrs H3 was trying to convince the boys to play a gig in her lounge, but they didn’t seem convinced. Funniest moment was collaring Mick the drummer for a photo. He had been trying to eat a Mars bar but kept being asked to do photos and autographs and was getting grumpier and grumpier. We managed to catch him just before he snapped!

I'd just like to point out that Mrs H3 named the folder for the following pictures!

So next up we have the Bootleg Beatles at O2 Indigo on 20^th December. It would have been the Chas and Dave Christmas Party at Camden Palace, but Mrs H3 has a prior engagement that she can’t get out of (the works Christmas do).

I did have a small moment of excitement when I Am Kloot announced a new date on Valentine’s Day next year – but of course it’s in Manchester so Mrs H3 isn’t keen on going. I am waiting to see if they announce any other dates, but am seriously considering it as it’ll have been ten months since I last saw them by then and they are showcasing the new material that they’ve been working on which I desperately want to hear. Fingers crossed they announce some new dates further south soon, although I still like the idea of seeing IAK on Valentine’s Day.

Halloween Pics and More

So I should be busy writing my novel but I’m not. Instead I’m having a quick catch up on here.
Last Friday there was a Halloween fancy dress party in the Sherwood Oak and Mrs H3 and I both dressed up (of course), along with a few other brave souls. It was an excellent evening and the photos are below.

I had bought the most fantastic witches’ hat from M&S and built the costume around that, as you can see Mrs H3’s costume was mainly the most fantastic red patent leather DM boots and a rather bouncy tutu.



So it’s Bonfire Night and all around I can hear the bangs of fireworks, although I can’t actually see anything. I love fireworks but I can’t be bothered to leave the house tonight to try and see them as it’s too cold out there and I’m still full of this horrid cold that I’ve had since last weekend. Instead we are going to Leeds Castle on Saturday evening for their ‘Legend of Excalibur’ display. Mrs H3 is excited ‘cos she gets to wear her wellies, I’m excited as I get to wear my Slytherin scarf – I’m not sure which of us is the sadder! LOL

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had got tickets for Elbow at Wembley. Since then they’ve announced a full tour (I get a feeling that Elbow are a bit like I Am Kloot on the touring front i.e. they don’t really stop) and the first night is at the Brighton Dome (Wembley is the final night) so we’ve got tickets for that too. Am very excited at this but also hoping IAK are going to tour the UK early next year ‘cos I’ll be going frantic by then as it’s been almost 7 months now since I last saw them live (and watching them on the internet doesn’t count however good they were!)

So I suppose I should get back to the novel. Jonathan Stroud (author of the wonderful Bartimaeus Trilogy) has sent me (and everyone else taking part in NaNoWriMo) an e-mail containing a pep talk and some advice for getting the story written and sticking to deadlines. I’m really behind now as I haven’t written anything on it since Sunday but I’m sure once I get to grips with the plotline I’m thinking about at the moment I’ll have loads to write about.

A General Update

As I’m off to Spain on Sunday and might not get round to updating again till who knows when, I thought I’d have a general round up on the things I’m looking forward to in the next couple of months.

-- Movies --

At the moment I'm considering going to see 'Brideshead Revisited', although I love the 1981 TV series with Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons so much that I'm a little worried I'll be disappointed with the film, just as I was with 'Pride and Prejudice'. I suspect though that the next film will be Kiefer's 'Mirrors' which is now out on 10th October instead of this week as originally scheduled (sorry Mrs H3, apparently it really is scary).

The good news is that 'Twilight' has finally been brought forward. Unfortunately not to the spot vacated by Half Blood Prince as I was hoping, but to 19th December (the same day as my work's Christmas party - guess which one I'll be going to!)

So now I’m focussing on possible upcoming movies. The one I really want to see is ‘Good’ starring Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs and Mark Strong but as yet there’s no release date for it in the UK. I just hope it isn't going to go the way of ‘Bottle Shock’ and ‘Nobel Son’, the Alan Rickman films I’m still waiting to see (now released (or just about) in the US but still with no sign of a release date over here – I guess they are going to be another ‘Search for John Gissing’ or ‘Snow Cake’). Other than that there seems to be a dearth of movies until the new Star Trek film which isn’t slated to be out till next May after being delayed.

And look! Only 288 days to go now till the release of Half Blood Prince - the time's just flying by isn't it?

-- Music --

Well still no sign of that philanthropist giving me free tickets for the Roundhouse next weekend *sigh* but Elbow’s new found fame from winning the Mercury Prize has apparently launched them into the big time and they are doing a show at Wembley Arena (yep, really) on 14th March 2009. Not wanting to miss out this time I’ve already bought our tickets!

And I’m seriously considering Johnny Bramwell at Night and Day on 27th November. Of course I was anyway, but news on the IAK board that he’ll be doing a 90 minute set including NEW songs is more than enough to have me champing at the bit to go. All I need to do now is work out the logistics (and cost of course) of getting to Manchester.

Other than that there are two more concerts planned so far for this year – Chas and Dave (yep those perennial favourites) at the Catford Broadway Theatre on 18th October and the Bootleg Beatles (who I last saw at Glastonbury in 1994 and completely stole the weekend) at the O2 Indigo on 20th December.

-- Panto --

It’s soon going to be that time of year again (…oh no it isn’t; oh yes it is!) and so to get in the Christmassy spirit Mrs H3 and I decided that after the excitement of last year’s Peter Pan with Paul Michael Glaser we’d take in a panto or four this year. It was a matter of making some tough decisions (there was NO way I was going to see Joe Pasquale in Dartford) but finally our panto season looks like this:

29th November – Jack and the Beanstalk (Maidstone)
6th December – Cinderella (Bromley)
13th December – Peter Pan (Croydon)
3rd January – Snow White (Catford)

Among the ‘stars’ we’ll be seeing this year are Brian Blessed (yay, we love BB!), Steve Guttenberg, Antonio Fargas and Helen Lederer.

Off To Sunny Spain

I’m now on a countdown for going to Spain for some well deserved R&R at my parents. I’m gratified to see that the weather is likely to be good, especially with the deteriorating weather over here. This week is a busy one so by the time I get there I’ll probably be ready for a good sleep.

Mrs H3 has deserted me to go to Dubai with her mum for few days (of course I’m not at all jealous…well not if she brings me back the bottle of Jack Daniels she promised!)

Not having a hectic social life over the weekend did give me a chance to get a bit of Autumn cleaning done and I now have a huge pile of stuff for the tip that will be going this week, so a nice tidy flat is assured (well as tidy as I can get being an inveterate hoarder!) by the time I go away.

On Wednesday evening I’m going for dinner at Lynnie Lou’s. It’ll be a good chance to catch up and have a gossip, as she’s been all tied up recently with sorting out her lovely new house. Then Saturday night is Heidi’s 40th birthday party, which reminds me that I need to make her a card.

So partying Saturday night followed by an early flight Sunday morning. Not a good combination but I’m sure I’ll manage, especially with the prospect of a week off work to look forward to – nicely timed too as I’ll have just finished with the latest round of talks/arguments on our new database and will be needing to get away!

A little part of me is still hoping to acquire some tickets for the Elbow concert which is the weekend after I get back from Spain, although I’m not holding out much hope. If anyone has a couple of tickets they want to donate please let me know (yes I know that’s even more unlikely than me being able to buy them, but you never know there might be some nice philanthropist out there who has a couple of tickets to spare.) *LOL*

I Am Kloot have released the dates of their latest tour. Unfortunately with the exception of two solo gigs by Johnny (both annoyingly in Manchester – one this coming Friday (and believe me I did look into going but it just wasn’t viable either financially or work wise) and one on 27th November – still not yet decided about that one) all the other dates are in places like Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Austria. Obviously I’m gutted about this as it’s now been 151 days since I last saw them live and to say I’m having withdrawal symptoms would be a major understatement. They are doing a gig in Dublin on 15th December which I am also considering, but I’m really hoping they are going to announce a few UK dates soon…and preferably ones down south. Not all IAK fans are from Manchester you know!

The Music Bit

So as well as lounging around eating ice cream and watching the latest blockbusters Mrs H3 and I have also been enjoying the music.

On Thursday 3rd July we were back at the O2, this time seeing Duran Duran. This was a weird experience for me. It was promoting their last album ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ which I have to admit I’d not listened to after the first couple of days of owning it as I wasn’t overly keen on it and so I don't know the words to any of the songs. It was odd to be at a concert and not singing along except to ‘Falling Down’, especially as Mrs H3 and everyone around me was. Of course they also didn't play any of the songs I really liked from the album so I actually, and I really hate to admit this, found myself a bit bored at various points throughout the night. Of course things livened up when they played the old tracks and overall I will admit that the evening was excellent and I did thoroughly enjoy it.

I was unlucky enough to be stuck behind a fat bird with fat hair to match (yes I am aware that I’m not Twiggy) who was dancing like she was having an epileptic fit for the whole concert. Every time I tried to get a picture or video the stage, in fact even just look at it she was in front of me waving her big hair around all over the place. Although we were pretty near the front of the venue I spent most of the evening watching the band on the big screen as it gave me an unobstructed view of Simon.

Mrs H3 says that I’ve been different about Duran Duran since their treatment of me in New Orleans. And I think she’s right. Whilst I didn't expect them to stop and talk to me I didn’t think it was too much to expect a smile or a wave, having travelled so far to see them, especially considering there were so few people there. On their fan club website and when they are on stage they are always going on about caring about their fans, but I saw no sign of that at Voodoofest and being cynical it is easy to think they are just about making money.

That cynicism is even easier to have when you discover that the VIP packages that they sell for an extortionate amount of money (I believe the O2 ones were about £400) aren't so VIP after all. My idea of VIP is for a select group of people to be given the chance to have the top seats and the experience of meeting the band etc. At O2 there were 150 VIP packages sold – certainly not my idea of select, and they were sitting only a few rows in front of us. Did they get to meet the band beforehand? I don’t know but according to the information on the website it’s not always guaranteed. This year I also decided not to buy a programme (and actually stuck to that) and the t-shirt stand was left well alone as they didn't seem to have anything under £20 (the blingy t shirt I liked was £35!). Of course as much as I moan I will still renew my fan club membership and be nervously waiting for tickets the next time they tour, so I guess I’m not too cynical just yet.

In the end we decided against going to the Mighty Boosh festival, mainly due to a severe lack of money and so our next musical outing was to see the rescheduled Pete Doherty show at the Royal Albert Hall. Now obviously we had been eagerly awaiting this since Pete had got himself put in prison back in April and I’m sure Mrs H3 was the same as me in hoping that he didn't do anything stupid before Saturday 12th July came. Fortunately he didn't and the show went ahead as planned.

And it was brilliant. I know a lot of people knock Pete for his drug habit but they are being unfair. If you didn’t listen to a band/singer because of drug taking there would be very few bands left in the world, and the ones left would generally be pretty boring. Pete really does have a wonderful voice; he’s a brilliant songwriter and a consummate performer. When he appeared on stage he was well dressed in a suit, completely clean and sober and drinking tea. Oh and he wasn’t wearing his trademark hat either.

The audience dynamic was interesting to say the least. A mix of hard core fans who are more used to him playing venues like the Tap ‘n’ Tin, seat owners who had come along purely to see what all the fuss was about and others like Mrs H3 and I who just enjoy good music and a good evening out. We were lucky enough to have front row seats in one of the boxes and so had an excellent view of the proceedings.

As the evening went on it was clear that some of the die hards were having trouble with the RAH concept of sitting still and watching the performance. Occasionally they tried to get up and dance but were asked to sit down, this wasn’t what they wanted or were used to. Pete did make a couple of mentions to it, at the beginning asking if everyone was sitting comfortably, and later saying he’d been told by another artist that the best bit about being at the Royal Albert Hall was the respectful silences between songs – his die hard fans didn’t shut up for a moment.

What amazed and impressed us most was his ability to keep going under difficult circumstances. At one point in the evening a guy in the front row was trying to get him to talk to his girlfriend on the phone in the middle of ‘East of Eden’. Pete stopped singing, asked the guy to turn his phone off and then carried on pitch perfect from where he’d left off as if he’d never stopped singing. Shortly after the same man was evicted from the hall after he threw a bottle of water at Pete.

Unfortunately the Royal Albert Hall chose to only have two of their bars open during the short interval and so we missed the first few songs of the second half (including ‘For Lovers’ which I’d been hoping he’d play) as we and a million other people were still queuing for water and the evening was cut short by a stage invasion at the beginning of his encore, which effectively ended the show. However, yet again, even with the stage filling around him he only actually stopped singing when the crowd dragged him too far away from the microphone to be heard. I just hope he had as good an evening as he appeared to be having. I know Mrs H3 and I did, although more than a little disappointed at losing the final fifteen minutes of what could have been an amazing encore.

I was worried that as usual the reviews would show the old drugged up pictures of Pete that they always seem to reel out for stories about him and that the stage invasion would be used against him. Fortunately there were only a few that used this tactic, the rest being fair and respectful and even using pictures of him from the evening which showed how good he was looking. The event was filmed and so hopefully at some point in the near future everyone will be able to see just what a good evening those of us at the RAH had that night.

Since then it’s been all quiet on the music front, although we do have plans to see Gary Numan at O2 Indigo on 7th September and hopefully, when I can afford the tickets, Elbow at the Roundhouse in October. By then I’m hoping the I Am Kloot guys will be back from their festivals and touring again as it’s now been 105 days since I last saw them and I’m having serious withdrawal symptoms. Having caught part of their performance at Latitude on the TV I see that Johnny has had his hair cut and I approve. I think he looks better without the long curls.

A New Game

I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not as happy with my new phone as I could be. Although it’s lovely and pink it takes really crap photos and even worse video. It is so bad that I’ve decided to create a new game for Mrs H3. It’s similar in style to the old ‘Shooting Stars’ game where Vic would sing a song in a club style and the guests had to guess the song. I’m going to do the same with my concert footage. By the time the sound goes through my phone it comes out just as thumping bass. So the game is guess the song, the singer and the concert. With clips to choose from My Chemical Romance, IAK, Gary Numan, Duran Duran and Pete Doherty it should be interesting – especially as they all sound pretty much the same!

It's My Blog's Birthday!

I’ve just realised that I’ve been doing this blog for two years now so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my blog which I started on the 15th May 2006! Wow two whole years of aimless rambling – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!

Disappointingly I’ve just lived through a whole week without any live music; I’ve not seen a show, been to the cinema or done anything even vaguely of interest. Of course there are things on the horizon – in fact the future looks pretty good, but my present is most definitely boring.

The one bright spark has been the acquisition of the new(ish) Elbow album ‘Seldom Seen Kid’. I already had and enjoyed an earlier album ‘Cast of Thousands’ but hadn’t really taken much notice of them for a few years. With the possibility of seeing them with I Am Kloot in Cheshire next month I thought it was high time to catch up with their newer work. I had heard (and loved) the single ‘Grounds for Divorce’ but hadn’t expected to enjoy the album quite as much as I did. I think it is probably a completely ‘me’ album. With fantastic lyrics, lush storytelling over divine music, upbeat yet careworn, dreamy and enchanting, the album is a joy to listen to and gets better with repeated listenings and I can safely say is one of the best albums (if not the best) that I’ve heard this year.

Not such a surprise I guess when Elbow are so closely linked to Kloot and have Richard Hawley doing guest vocals on a track. Perhaps it was obvious that I was going to love it.

Music will be playing a big part in my future as we’re still going to see Duran Duran on 3rd July at the O2 arena and now that Pete’s been released from jail it looks like his concert at the Royal Albert Hall has been rescheduled for the 12th (according to the NME anyway). I’m really interested in the Mighty Boosh Festival on the 5th at the Hop Farm as Gary Numan has announced he’ll be playing there and I love the Mighty Boosh; whilst Mrs H3 has shown interest in the Zoo8 festival at Port Lymphe mainly due to Chas & Dave’s appearance I think, who are unfortunately on the same date. I'm also extremely tempted by Jools Holland's upcoming concert at Rochester Castle on the 17th as Marc Almond is playing with him. All I need now is to win the lottery and I can go to all of them and the Latitude Festival that same weekend which IAK have just confirmed that they are playing (with Elbow).

But it doesn’t stop there. Next week sees the opening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Although the critics haven’t been very kind to the film I’m sure it’ll be just as entertaining as the other three so I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’m not sure when though, next Friday Mrs H3 and I are off to see ‘Potted Potter’ a 70 minute take on the Harry Potter series. Believe me when I say we’ll go and see just about anything if it looks interesting enough!

In my last post I mentioned Diesel Park West playing at Chatham Central Hall. Fortunately I didn’t get tickets for this as the following day Mrs H3 got us tickets for the premiere of ‘Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ at the O2 arena. Not only did she get us tickets but she got us amazing tickets at the front, dead centre. Obviously this is going to be a fantastically star-studded event (after all it is the UK’s biggest film premiere and for charity – Great Ormond Street Hospital) and I understand that there is a dress code involved so look out for the two of us gracing the red carpet, no doubt trying to upstage any minor celebrities that may be there.

But before all this comes Chelsea Flower Show on Wednesday – the horticultural highlight of my and Lynne’s year and so far the weather forecast is looking good. The gardens … the flowers … the Pimms … ahhh the pleasure of a nice day and relaxing with the sounds of the brass band and an ice cream. Of course there will be the usual hundreds of photos uploaded somewhere on line after the event – my fabby purple new camera very kindly donated by Mrs H3 has a card big enough to hold almost 3,500 pictures – more than even I’ll need for the day!

Loving the sound of Motown

Well keeping up with the growing tradition of live music every week, last night I went for a slightly different type and went to the theatre to see the Motown musical, “Dancing in the Streets”. Lynne had a spare ticket as someone who was supposed to be going was ill and I stepped into the breach. I rarely take much notice of what’s playing at Chatham Central Hall, but obviously a lot of people do as it was pleasingly well filled.

The premise is as simple as the set – a recording studio in downtown Detroit filled with the house band and a run through of the greatest hits and hitmakers of the Motown catalogue - the Marvelettes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, The Supremes and Diana Ross, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Glady’s Knight and the Pips and more.

I love Motown and for me the chance to see the sort of dance routines that groups like the Temptations would have used was the real pleasure, as was hearing all those fantastic songs again. All the cast were thoroughly excellent, although I personally wasn’t keen on the girl who played Diana Ross (although to be fair to her she did come into her own on ‘Love Child’, one of my favourite Supremes songs) and actually cringed during the singing of ‘Endless Love’ which I think the show could have done without (actually the whole Lionel Ritchie thing seemed a bit out of kilter with all those other fantastic songs).

As with all the best musicals there was loads of scope for the audience to sing and dance and Lynne and I took full advantage of the opportunity. It really was a very good musical and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes that type of music.

As I was there I thought I’d pick up the leaflets for upcoming productions having spotted the wonderful Dara O’Briain on the cover (unfortunately he’s on the same day that we go to Chelsea Flower Show), however something that did catch my attention was Diesel Park West’s Marrakesh Express Tour which is hitting Chatham Central Hall on 19th June.

Now Diesel Park West are one of those resurgent psychedelic bands that I loved in the early ‘90s but, as I’m sure you’ll be astounded to hear, didn’t do as well as they should have done. After early promise (EMI actually bought the record label (Food) they were on as they wanted them so badly) with their first album ‘Shakespeare Alabama’ they disappeared, never to be heard of again (except by die hard fans I expect). Now, suddenly here they are doing a tour covering the songs of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Freakily, I had a conversation about Diesel Park West only last week at the I Am Kloot gig as it turned out that one of the two women I chatted to after the show’s sister lives with the lead singer John Butler. She was amazed that someone had actually heard of DPW, let alone actually knew any of their work and we had quite an interesting discussion about what they’d been up to over the years.

Anyway this seems like an interesting evening so I may have to go for it, however plenty of time between now and then to decide as I can’t see it being sold out.

Oh and IAK have announced that they’re supporting Elbow at Delamere Forest in Cheshire while Mrs H3 and I are on holiday. I’m thinking a trip up that way could be in order …

The Perfect Evening ... Almost!

So the concert last night was fantastic (bet you guessed I was going to say that *LOL*) but it really was. Unfortunately things didn’t quite go to plan. I found my hotel but couldn’t find any sign of the car park. As Nottingham is a one way town it meant driving right round again for the second attempt. At this point my petrol light has come on and I’ve found that the garage marked on my sat nav has been knocked down, with no sign of any other garages in the area. Unable to keep driving aimlessly I park in the hugely expensive NCP car park and make my way on foot to the hotel, which is one of those ramshackle bad end of town jobs. Having established how to get to their car park I go back to release my car from the NCP at the extortionate price of £2.80 for 13 minutes parking. Soon I’m back in the hotel with its musty smell, peeling wallpaper and slightly too spongy carpets. I’m allocated the room the furthest away from the entrance – on the third floor (with no lifts) and a real hike once at the top of the stairs. The only bonus is that it’s right next door to the fire escape so I’m okay if there’s a fire. Although the hotel was a bit grim the room itself was clean and tidy with fresh bed linen and a rock hard bed, but then the downside to my cheap room – no ensuite. The toilet is right down the end of a very long corridor and the bathroom is next to it. Thank god I’m only here for one night.

Then I find that the new memory card that I bought for my camera on the way up is the wrong one, even though I showed the salesman my camera. I am not happy as I’d wanted to record ‘Fingerprints’ and the card I currently have is nowhere near big enough. I have to admit now that I deleted all the pictures I’d taken on 25th April for Shimelle’s course to free up some space, but alas it wasn’t anywhere near enough – I managed to get only the first verse (*sigh* am I ever going to get a decent copy of this song? Why on earth don’t they release it?)

By now it’s gone 7.30pm and I still need to get some food before I go to the concert but there’s plenty of time multimap has said it’s a 15 minute walk to the Rescue Rooms from my hotel and I’ve got the map and the directions. The problem is that Nottingham isn’t very well signed and so I have trouble working out which way I should be going. I ask the receptionist who’s clearly never been to Nottingham before as she doesn’t recognise any of the roads around the hotel at all and can’t tell me whether to go left or right out of the door. Eventually she tells me to go left (she’s wrong). So finally I head off in the right direction only to discover that they’re not keen on street signs. By some fluke I manage to find Maid Marion Way after about fifteen minutes of walking and set off up the huge hill to find the roundabout. I find that too, after another twenty odd minutes and then try to find the next road (according to the map I’m almost there). It’s not there and no-one I ask has ever heard of it (or the Rescue Rooms … I find out later that it used to be called something else and everyone knows it by its old name). Eventually a nice doorman at one of the Casino’s takes pity on me and tries, without much success, to decipher the map and instructions I’ve got, but he too is stumped. Eventually after more aimless wandering I finally manage to find a cash point and someone who can point me in the right direction. I’ve still not had any food but there’s no time as it’s now almost 9pm and I’m still not there yet.

By fluke I spot Rock City, the bigger sister of the Rescue Rooms so I know I must be in the right area. I am, sort of. I’ve found the back where the tour coach is. Luckily I find someone to ask and they direct me back round the corner where I finally reach my destination just in time to hear Ferraby Lionheart’s last song. From the applause he’s receiving they obviously really liked him. I get a drink and head over to the desk to (finally) buy his CD and have a chat with him about the concert and the tour in general. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and tells me that he’s really enjoyed touring with IAK and has loved the UK.

The venue is a small one, not much larger than the Half Moon and I head (of course) for the front. The stage looks rather crowded with all their equipment and when they come onstage almost 15 minutes early Johnny comments on the way that his guitar cables are completely messed up. Everything goes pretty smoothly, with the usual jokes and heckles until ‘Life in a Day’ when Johnny’s guitar stops working. He disappears off to the side of the stage to try and sort it, but it doesn’t work. When a second guitar doesn’t work either he proceeds to strut the stage like some old time rock god, highly appreciated by the crowd.

When the rest of the band disappear for their cigarette break (poor Pete used to smoke 20 cigarettes during a concert so the smoking ban has hit him badly) John creates mayhem trying to get his guitars to work. He decides to plug them directly into the amp and there’s a cheer as the guitar works once more, but the wires are still tangled and as he heads back towards the mike he ends up pulling over the amp, almost wrecking his other guitars in the process. Norman nips back onstage to help him get the amp back up and eventually Johnny gives up and moves the mike nearer to the amp. The last few songs go without a hitch and suddenly it’s all over again.

After saying I wasn’t going to do it, I did buy the official release of ‘Moolah Rouge’ with the DVD as it gave me the chance to get it signed by Johnny. We had a brief chat during which I was surprised and pleased to find that he recognised me – probably from Half Moon, and discussed the concert at Koko, with the conclusion that while it was a fantastic concert he’d enjoyed this one more.

As luck would have it I’d got chatting to a couple of women who were standing next to me during the concert (alas my memory for names is rubbish) but it turned out that they were good friends with Colin and Norman McLeod, the brothers helping IAK on their tour and owners of the Moolah Rouge Studio. Soon I had been introduced to them too and had quite an interesting discussion on the tour, the amazingly huge glitter ball at Koko, Colin’s Theramin that Norman had played during the concert and other such fascinating topics. They asked me if I was going to the final gig at the Manchester Academy on Saturday night but I told them I had to work and it was too far to go (aren’t I a good girl). They did try to convince me and even suggested that the band wouldn’t be going onstage till 10pm, but I wasn’t swayed (yay me for being so strong!)

As much as I was having fun chatting to them and Ferraby who’d made a reappearance I knew I had to go as I still had to find my way back to the hotel and I wasn’t sure what walking back would be like at that time of night. Amazingly I managed to find the hotel pretty quickly as I now had some idea of the route and it actually did only take about 20 minutes. Of course by the time I’d got back to the hotel my mind was turning over the idea of going to Manchester, working out that I could just about make it, especially if I manage to get them to let me finish work at the pub at 3pm.

Of course I won’t really go – 1 long trip in a week is more than enough, especially as a bad cold that I had earlier in the week has now increased to leave me with a sore throat, hardly any voice, blocked sinuses and a strange noise in my right ear. No I won’t go … although I really, really want to!