Music, Music, Music

I've just had three days of music, three intense musical days...

Now I can't be arsed to write since a) I'm still recovering from the fun of it all and b) Blogger's new autosave didn't actually save what I wrote (b@st@rd). So here's some Neanderthal typing from yours truly...

• Tumbledown Dick
• Friends
• Cider
• Bands (Friend's band)
• Kebab
• Party
• Kronenberg 1664 (nasty)
• Red wine
• Xbox 360
• Mad video game, me crap
• Stagger home
• Sleep
• BMX
• Tumbledown Dick
• Friends
• Cider
• Bands (Moly, Sparrows, Menendez, The Pluto)
• Kebab
• Staggering home in rain
• Sleep
• BMX
• London
• Forget phone
• Institute of Contemporary Arts (Big word for a Neanderthal)
• iTunes Music Festival
• David Ford
• Duke Special
• Sober
• Home
• Sleep

I'll fill in all the URLs later when I get time to share ;)

Outlaw the Movie DVD

I totally forgot to tell you... Outlaw, the movie came out on DVD the other week, so if you're a Sean Bean or Danny Dyer fan, if you aint got a copy, get a copy :)

And where's my copy? I was bleeding well in it, I even chucked some spare cash at Nick Love's production company to bankroll the film, so where's my copy and my credit?

Oh, just to balance my slight bias, Ryan Gilbey didn't like the film as he so eloquently stated in his Guardian post Ten things I hate about Nick Love's Outlaw, which is fair enough. The Captain, Nick Love himself, said people would either love Outlaw or hate it; that it would divide opinion. I like the film, but then I would. But for this Gilbey twit to stir up the nest and cause as much negativity as he slates the film for... well, that's hypocrisy for you.

It's a shame the comments are closed on that post as I'd love to have waded in on the discourse, especially with regards to the producer Alan Niblo getting a verbal kicking by the mob for being a racist when I know for a fact that he certainly is not.

Also I'd like to have questioned Ryan Gilbey about his decision to drop a link to my site in the midst of a paragraph where my website might be misconstrued in the context of sexism... well thanks for the link, Ryan, here's one for you, you twat.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I just had txt with Becky.

She now knows I have my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. At least us Brits get some things before them damn Yankees ;)

I told her the queue outside Tesco, The Meadows, in Camberley was big... it surprised me too; there must have a hundred plus people waiting there when I turned up at ten minutes to midnight.

Becky had offered that when her copy turns up on our doorstep tomorrow morning I can read it... but I couldn't resist being part of the bundle for the last book in the Harry Potter... er... septology?

Right, I'm off to finish a bit more of it now; I told here that at the foot of page 35 it says;

"Back in his bedroom, Harry fiddled aimlessly with his"

But she didn't want to know in case I spoiled the plot...

Donny Tourette = Fake Punk

I was watching a repeat episode of "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" tonight and for those of you who don't know it's a brilliant British musical quizz/comedy show, or at least it was in the days of the acid-witted Mark Lamarr.

One of tonight's guests was some bloke introduced as Donny Tourette, "punk" and front man of the band "Towers of London". Now I'm usually a pretty damn good judge of character and this geezer instantly struck me as being a sham. He had this air about him, like he was playing up to the audience, pretending to be a bad boy for the cameras, sneering, and yet never quite convincing enough that he was for real.

Well, I wasn't the only one - the members of the show latched-on to the same vein and started taking the piss too. At one stage Donny Tourette, a name strangely reminiscent of Jonny Rotten or Sid Vicious, had walked away from the stage, probably for a slash. He came back and later started smoking a cigarette, to which the compère, Simon twatty whateverisnameis, said something along the lines of "Ooh, smoking! Whatever next?"

Yeah, rock and fucking roll, Donny, you're such a bad boy. And Donny? Is that short for Donald? Donald Tourette? No. His real name's Patrick Bunnyhop or something like that. Twat.

Just to prove Donny Tourette's "I'm a punk, honest" credentials, the show even played some footage of him having some sort of outburst on a documentary where he toed the "Do you know who we are?" line and came out with the fabulous quote "We dick on the Sex Pistols" Well, Donny, the Pistols were manufactured but at least they were more real than you mate, and much as I admire John Lydon I wouldn't put my dick on him, you fucking idiot.

Now just to prove I'm not just being a bitch, you might wanna check out Donny Tourette, Not Quite A Bad Boy! You've just gotta love the quotes from his former college drama teacher, like;

"The Patrick that I saw on the opening night of Celebrity Big Brother is not the Patrick I know. He was an extremely polite, well mannered boy who would always go out of his way to help others."

Yeah, punk rock, Donny! Or there's the old friend who said;

“He used to be clean-cut and a nice guy. He wasn’t the cursing, arrogant type at all. I couldn’t believe that was the same person I saw on Big Brother because he would never swear. He was really well spoken, a proper posh boy.”

Oi mate, you're fucking rumbled!

Now, to finish off check the video of Donald Patrick Bunnyhop Tourettes falling over and then roll on the floor at the comments, particularly the ones of "blah blah I'm a REAL Punk" Makes me fucking laugh that does... Unemployed, depressed & disillusioned? No future in late 1970s England have you? No? Then fuck off!

Real/Fake... Ironic isn't it?

Punk is Dead. Long Live Punk!

</rant>

Madness

"Madness, madness, they call it madness
Madness, madness, they call it madness
It's plain to see, that is what they mean to me
Madness, madness, I call it gladness

Yee-ha."

Well it was a bit mad deciding on Saturday night (post midnight) to go to Guilfest 2007 on the Sunday.

And it was a bit mad that I called a bunch of mates on Sunday morning expecting them to go at the drop of a hat.

It was even more mad that Psycho Si said "Yeah man" and was ready to rock n roll in 5 minutes.

Mad was the fact the train got cancelled leaving us an hour late to the festival.

Even more mad was that we were told this by a random person at the train station who just happened to be, as yet un-met fellow Farnborough blogger Val.

It would have driven us mad waiting for the train and twiddling our thumbs, so to go down the Prince of Wales and have a couple of pints was a great idea.

Once in Guildford I was mad at myself for not packing a waterproof jacket in my bag - rain, thunder and much wetness followed.

I bumped into my bro & his girlfriend and we hooked up with the Guildford Ghost woohoo! MAd!

But then the rain cleared, the sun came out, we ate burgers, drank beer, watched The Icicle Works, drank more beer, watched Simon Friend (from The Levellers) do an acoustic guitar set, drank some pear cider, drank some pear cider again, went down to listen to Toots & The Maytalls (first time in 20 years), drank some more pear cider, had some country music band from Texas play that honky tonk stuff in our ears whilst we ate noodles, shouted at Duke Special from the front row, got some more cider, then a gin & tonic and watched, listened and danced to the mighty MADNESS.

"NIGHT BOAT TO CAIROooooooo..."

If my BBFK and baby BBFK had been in England they have caught this show and danced their little socks off... I bet they're mad they couldn't go :p

1000 days

On May 20th 2007 I was going to proclaim that this blog had been up for 1000 days and maybe unveil a shiny new design.

I missed posting on the 20th May and life's been too busy since for redesigns of mere personal blogs. So I hacked the CSS of this one again, produced a few new graphics and it should be just a *little* bit shinier than it was before - yes, a little slower maybe but a touch more pretty. I like pretty.

Tour de France

The last time I publicly stated my desire to see the Tour de France was back in December 2004 and here we are with 2 and a half years rolling by before I finally get to achieve a small personal goal.

I got a little help though; for those of you who may not be aware, the Prologue and Stage 1 of Le Tour de France 2007 were in England :) I tried to see the Prologue in London yesterday but was denied by the lack of parking on the outskirts of the capital - yes, it was heaving - 1 million+ people turned out to cheer the riders on.

But Sunday's jaunt involved a sunny drive out to the Kent countryside and I finally got to see Le Tour.

Having found myself a nice spot outside the little town of Royal Tonbridge Wells, along a green and leafy oak-lined English road, I bagged myself a handful of photos of the riders as they whistled past, before heading east to the finish in the city of Canterbury.

Canterbury was fun getting into - road closures and diversions, but finding a spot to park was surprisingly easy. Getting anywhere within sight of the race finish was nigh on impossible so I holed-up within view of the raised winners podium for some long-distance zoom shots.

And I wasn't totally disappointed - I got to see Robbie McEwen, the Aussie stage winner, who crashed just 25 kms before the finish, but still got back on his bike and went on to win, maillot jaune winner Fabian Cancellara and Britain's own David Millar, holder of the "King of the Mountains" jersey for now (yeah, I know; where are the mountains in Kent?)

And when all the public festivities were over and everyone was told to go home, I lingered on a little and somehow found myself in the journo's compound; I don't know how I got in there ;) I was just a few feet away from Robbie McEwen and could easily have interviewed him about his fall and consequent amazing comeback, but nah, I grabbed some pics of him and Cancellara instead.

So, a good day out, I'd recommend it, especially as it's in Belgium today and then on to France. We will be there next year...

Check out the beeb for Sunday's Stage 1 Tour de France 2007 report.