This is Alexis's blog which is just wonderful.
He has posted all the videos from the michele stodart/ villagers gig on there too.... have a looksie....
Friday, 20 May 2011
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
The Villagers and Michelle Stoddart at the riverside, 10th May 2011 newcastle
The Villagers featuring support from Michelle Stoddart (From The Magic Numbers fame) at the Riverside, Newcastle, 10th of May 2011.
We were well and truly caught on camera at The Villagers gig yesterday. I obtained a handful of pictures. (mostly of the three of us) I had to do it the 'naughty way' due to the fact they have restrictions on them. However, they are purely for personal use and I will say that they are a mere few from many, MANY excellent and well covered shots from the Jazzy Lemon lady, both of The Villagers performance and Michelle Stoddart's from the magic numbers.
Michelle Stoddart supporting was a nice, unexpected surprise. I saw the magic numbers play at Glastonbury a few years ago and find them to be a fairly cute sort of a band.
Her family resemblance to her brother; both in looks, sound, and singing style are uncanny. That's not to say she's in anyone's shadow though. I always thought her basslines were pretty good, but upon witnessing her guitar playing, I'd say she was very also fairly competent in this area also and could quite easily kick her brother off guitar if she so desired.
The Villagers were excellent. We were introduced to them a few months ago through seeing their support slot for elbow at Newcastle Arena. I purchased their album, 'Becoming a Jackal' on the same evening. (Something I rarely do. Part with money for a full priced cd upon hearing a band live on first listen - that is.) They reminded me at the time of several other artists. I heard elements of muse, (mainly in the piano-led opener 'I saw the dead') damien rice, mumford and sons and even hints of arcade fire. Upon seeing them a second time round what I think is particularly impressive is the way their songs are instantly accessible upon first listen and recognisable upon second listen. For example, when supporting Elbow at Newcastle arena, Conor J O' Brian played a song called 'memoir' acoustically. This song did not feature on the album, but when they played it again as a full band at the riverside, I found myself humming along even though I'd only heard it once and months earlier. I have also come to the conclusion that they might actually be better live. I have so far referred to the villagers as 'they' collectively, but from the album liner notes it becomes evident that the 'band' are more like session musicians to Conor J O Brian's (front man) compositions. All the songs on the album are written and performed by himself alone. This is by no means a bad thing and I would hardly say that the album is 'lacking' in any way, however i think that as a band they manage to create something more raw and more complimentary to what can be heard on the album. A certain energy and atmosphere which can only really be achieved by a live band playing together. I think the villagers guitarist contributed largely to this. Armed with a large selection of pedals and effects, he added hints of Jonny Greenwood to O'Brian's songs. I wouldn't mind hearing something recorded by the whole band at some point...
The audience at this gig were super polite and respectful. Verging on shy even. The first song on the set featured O Brian singing a verse completely acapella before joining with some very lightly touched guitar accompaniment. It was so quiet that I actually felt self conscious over needing to shuffle my feet!
Oh and by the way... if we look a little bored on these photo's I should explain that we're actually mesmerised.
Friday, 6 May 2011
Yellow car advert....
"
I don't drive. I probably should. But don't.
This is the only car advert that ever appealed to me. It made me think, 'wow... maybe when I'm older I'll get to drive a yellow car and be free and not have to go to school anymore.'
But of course, I realise now that had it not been for....
1) Slade's 'Cum On Feel The Noize'
2) Red headed girl/lady - which basically just reminds me of Pre Raphaelite art imagery.... (which I LOVE...)
3) My hatred of school generally....
The truth is that the car probably wouldn't have really appealed all that much....
Damn those clever advertising people...
x
Saturday, 30 April 2011
YouTube - Dancing to the Smiths at the 'Royal Wedding'
YouTube - Dancing to the Smiths at the 'Royal Wedding'
WARNING: BAD, LOUD AUDIO.
At the end of the 'royal wedding' reception after almost everyone had left, four of us (Including the Groom) danced in a rather silly fashion to 'This Charming man' by The Smiths. Too funny to not post.
WARNING: BAD, LOUD AUDIO.
At the end of the 'royal wedding' reception after almost everyone had left, four of us (Including the Groom) danced in a rather silly fashion to 'This Charming man' by The Smiths. Too funny to not post.
Friday, 29 April 2011
It's our big day as well (From The Northern Echo)
It's our big day as well (From The Northern Echo)
Congratulations to Luke and Vicky Two Jary who featured in the northern echo recently due to the fact they happened to be getting married the same day as the 'royal wedding'...
I'm also pretty sure their wedding was better to be honest...
In the event that the article is taken down, I'm saving here so that such a lovely thing may never be wrapped in fish and chips.
IT may not be Westminster Abbey, but Luke Robinson and Vicky Mee’s royal wedding day marriage will have a certain regal feel.
The couple will wed at 11.30am tomorrow – only 30 minutes after Prince William and Kate Middleton, the participants will be dressed in royal blue and the newlyweds will make their home at Windsor Terrace, in West Cornforth, County Durham.
Luke, 24, from Tursdale, and Vicki, 21, from Brandon, met through friends in 2006.
Their wedding day has been three years in the planning and the date was set last May – well before the world knew what other significance Friday, April 29, 2011, would assume.
“The first thing that crossed my mind was prices will go up,” said Luke, a window cleaner. “No, it’s canny. It gives us something extra to remember the day by.”
The couple will wed at Durham City registry office, will have lunch with relatives at Whitworth Hall Hotel, near Spennymoor, enjoy a ceilidh in Mainsforth village hall, before honeymooning in Rome.
Oh and here is the royal crest I made for them...
Thursday, 14 April 2011
numberonemusic.com is a SCAM
numberonemusic.com appears to be a total scam.
I joined very innocently a few days ago, thinking it was more or less on the same lines as myspace or reverbnation - just another place online to put your links and music, but was then taken back by the amount of email addresses signing up to the mailing list and the amount of plays the music was receiving.
It was insinuated that because I had a free account, I would need to review other bands in order to get any further promotional privileges and that the free promotion works from a 'word of mouth' basis.
'Fair enough' I thought... so I requested to become a 'reviewer' and to be sent an email about it. After no email arrived and no indication was found on how long it would take for the email to be sent, I thought I would try to contact them.
It was when they were asking me to type my user name and password into the contact form that I began suspecting the website's legitimacy. By this I mean that rather than the usual privacy dots that occur when you type in your password online, my real password was completely visible.... ???
eg. Rather than: ******** it came up as 'PASS9876'.
Why would they need to know my actual password just so I could contact them?
No one asks for your physical password outright do they???
So I did a quick google search on numberonemusic.com and then found a number of forum threads:
amongst other numerous blogs detailing their personal experiences with numberonemusic.com....
Virtually, 99% of the people online are detailing many logical reasons as to why numberonemusic.com is a scam website.
It seems they are very cleverly deceiving people into 'buying in' (literally) to the flattering statistics/reviews/commentry, and that the people joining the mailing list are real, genuine fans....
It appears as though numberonemusic.com employ a crafty mix of computer generated comments/reviews, with some non-computer generated fraudulent humans, and that the combination of both seems genuine enough to trick people into parting with their money.... so much so that amongst the angry people that are speaking out about the website, there are others who are so convinced that their money has been well spent and that both the contacts and flattering comments they get are real, that they are defending numberonemusic.com to the death!
There seems to have been alot of musicians out there that have trusted and invested money into numberonemusic.com and have been completely ripped off.
The scary thing is that alot of these forum thread date back to 2006, and the most recent ones I can find are to 2010.
It has been suggested that the numberonemusic.com was closed down for a while and is now back up and running... but how have they managed to stay online for this ammount of time?
In my personal experience, I only joined a matter of days ago and have a free link back to my website and my details uploaded online... they haven't taken my money, but I am now wondering what exactly they have achieved through me signing up and not paying out?
I can't find anyone online who raised the 'contact / password revealing' issue.... and are therefore wondering what they might get from knowing my password...? Perhaps they want to use my profile account details to falsely sign me up to other people's mailing lists? Probably, they'll spam my email address too.
Besides which, I intend to boycott the website out of principle anyway... my profile on there only serves to make the whole thing appear more legitimate and convincing, thus contributing to the deceit.
The problem is that there appears to be no obvious way that enables me to close the numberonemusic.com account, therefore, I'm just going to use the account itself to inform people that it is a scam.
I should also mention that the reason I found numberonemusic.com to begin with was through a myspace contact who was paying a compliment and referencing a specific song on our profile. I know that half of myspace mail tends to be spam anyway, but as the comment seemed human and that genuine compliments are commonplace, I had no reason to doubt it. Silly me.
Please pass on this information to all other musicians out there....
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
The Quietus | Features | Anniversary | Looking For Water: Ten Years On JJ72's Debut Revisited
The Quietus | Features | Anniversary | Looking For Water: Ten Years On JJ72's Debut Revisited
I can't believe JJ72'S debut was over 10 years ago!
What a flippin brilliant, brilliant band.
They deserved to be around alot longer than they were. JJ72 have always been a pet favourite band of mine. I even spent a while back there hunting down jj72 merchandise from ebay... t shirts, badges and what have you...
I remember very excitedly listening (and taping) an interview with radiohead, possibly on radio1 just prior to their kid A release and hearing 'October Swimmer' for the first time, falling deeply in love with it, the 'I don't need anyone' lyric in particular, and rewinding the tape over and over just to hear it again... Ever since then, they've always kept a very fond place for them...
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