Fear and Loathing in South London

Backstreets 5th March

2010-02-19T12:59:00.003Z

Finished the new poster last night... Unfortunately I won't be there since I'll be basking in the Mexican sunshine, but line-up looks set to be a blinder...

Backstreets XIII

2009-09-03T17:24:00.002+01:00

It's that time again... new Backstreets poster is done. Hope you can come along, The Winter Olympics are likely to blow the roof off... And if they don't, me and ElectricGoose will be playing music until the early hours afterwards. See below for more info:

Now into its lucky 13th running, Backstreets is a semi-regular night of music featuring some of London's best bands and DJs spinning classics. Great music to get drunk to on a Friday night!

BITTER THINGS (London)
Formed out of the ex-members of the Furies (who played the very first Backstreets!) and bass player/vocalist Lizzi Ford, Bitter Things have gone from strength to strength primarily through word of mouth. They’ve recorded at the illustrious Mayfair studios with Simon Hayes and headlined shows across London and have been compared to a range of acts including The Velvet Underground, the White Stripes, the Pixies, the Strokes and … Fleetwood Mac. This is great bitter-sweet folky-rock with a garage twist.
http://www.myspace.com/bitterthingsmyspace

THE WINTER OLYMPICS (London)
Backstreets’ favourite office workers are back! Inspired by the DIY dignity of Dischord, the daft funk of DFA and the non-ironic, no-nonsense stadium-slaying standards of Def Leppard, they are not like the other bands. Live, the Olympics are an unlikely riot: all loose loud guitars, warehouse sized rave keys and lion-lunged love songs about girls, work and spaceships. They play like five IT guys who happen to be hiding The Stooges inside, they sound like a bomb going off inside a tiny radio.
http://www.myspace.com/winterolympics

THE 45 REVS (London/Leatherhead)
Rock with a punk-edge, these boys play quirky and jumping riffs mixed with wild vocals that will make you want to jump and dance. They stormed last years’ Surface Unsigned Music Festival and look set for even bigger things in 2009.
http://www.myspace.com/the45revolutions

THE HEAVENS (Leeds)
Brainchild of Richard Green, songwriter, guitarist and singer from both Ultrasound and The Somatics. The Heavens are a blend of British and American Psychedelia, Rock & Roll and 90's Brit-Rock and have gone down a treat in the Leeds music scene.
http://www.myspace.com/theheavensband

Plus Backstreets' legendary drunk DJs until late.

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/backstreets_london
http://twitter.com/backstreets_lon

Backstreets

2009-07-15T14:04:00.003+01:00

New Backstreets poster done and dusted... should be a good night, great line-up of Backstreets regulars, plus myself and the Electricgoose getting drunk and playing music until the early hours...

Guardian Politics List

2009-03-19T13:52:00.001Z

...and some great political songs to accompany them...

1000 songs everyone must hear

Politics and protest: part five of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 63 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 141

I Am the Walrus (The Beatles, 1967)
Revolution (The Beatles, 1968)
War Pigs (Black Sabbath, 1971)
Cop Killer (Body Count, 1992)
Between the Wars (Billy Bragg, 1985)
Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud (James Brown, 1968)
White Riot (The Clash, 1977)
Running the World (Jarvis Cocker, 2006)
Brother Can You Spare a Dime? (Bing Crosby, 1932)
Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, 1970)
Thou Shalt Always Kill (Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, 2007)
California Über Alles (Dead Kennedys, 1979)
Television: The Drug of the Nation (The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, 1991)
Maggie’s Farm (Bob Dylan, 1965)
Masters of War (Bob Dylan, 1963)
The Times They Are a-Changin’ (Bob Dylan, 1964)
We Care a Lot (Faith No More, 1985)
Two Tribes (Frankie Goes To Hollywood, 1984)
Respect (Aretha Franklin, 1967)
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (Marvin Gaye, 1971)
What’s Going On? (Marvin Gaye, 1971)
The Message (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, 1982)
American Idiot (Green Day, 2004)
This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie, 1944)
19 (Paul Hardcastle, 1985)
The Star-Spangled Banner (Jimi Hendrix, 1969)
The Eton Rifles (The Jam, 1979)
Going Underground (The Jam, 1980)
Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon, 1969)
Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire, 1965)
Material Girl (Madonna, 1985)
Redemption Song (Bob Marley, 1980)
Kick Out the Jams (MC5, 1968)
Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell, 1970)
Police and Thieves (Junior Murvin, 1976)
Fuck tha Police (NWA, 1988)
Monkey Gone to Heaven (Pixies, 1989)
In the Ghetto (Elvis Presley, 1969)
Come Together (Primal Scream, 1990)
Sign o’ the Times (Prince, 1987)
Bring the Noise (Public Enemy, 1987)
Fight the Power (Public Enemy, 1989)
Killing in the Name (Rage Against the Machine, 1992)
Street Fighting Man (The Rolling Stones, 1968)
I’m Coming Out (Diana Ross, 1980)
Whitey On the Moon (Gil Scott-Heron, 1970)
Anarchy in the UK (Sex Pistols, 1976)
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols, 1977)
To Be Young, Gifted and Black (Nina Simone, 1970)
Swimsuit Issue (Sonic Youth, 1992)
Revolution (Spacemen 3, 1989)
Ghost Town (The Specials, 1981)
Free Nelson Mandela (The Special AKA, 1984)
Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen, 1984)
The Man Don’t Give a Fuck (Super Furry Animals, 1996)
The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II) (Rod Stewart, 1976)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2, 1983)
We Are the World (USA for Africa, 1985)
Get Up, Stand Up (The Wailers, 1973)
My Generation (The Who, 1965)
Shipbuilding (Robert Wyatt, 1982)
Harrowdown Hill (Thom Yorke, 2006)
Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young, 1989)

Guardian's Life & Death list

2009-03-19T13:43:00.001Z

Been playing around with the Guardian's lists. Here's the Life & Death one, my fav's listed below...

1000 songs everyone must hear

Life and death: 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 44 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 131

Fluorescent Adolescent (Arctic Monkeys, 2007)
What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong, 1968)
Yer Blues (The Beatles, 1968)
Yesterday (The Beatles, 1965)
Paranoid (Black Sabbath, 1970)
(Don't Fear) The Reaper (Blue Öyster Cult, 1976)
This Is a Low (Blur, 1994)
Kooks (David Bowie, 1971)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By) (The Carter Family, 1935)
The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 1988)
If I Could Turn Back Time (Cher, 1989)
School’s Out (Alice Cooper, 1972)
Killing an Arab (The Cure, 1978)
Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode, 1989)
Sunshine Superman (Donovan, 1966)
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan, 1973)
Summertime (Ella Fitzgerald, 1959)
Regulate (Warren G and Nate Dogg, 1994)
Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum, 1969)
Hey Joe (The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1966)
Stuck Between Stations (The Hold Steady, 2006)
Losing My Edge (LCD Soundsystem, 2002)
Baggy Trousers (Madness, 1980)
Safe from Harm (Massive Attack, 1991)
Fade to Black (Metallica, 1984)
Lithium (Nirvana, 1991)
Mo Money Mo Problems (The Notorious BIG, 1997)
Live Forever (Oasis, 1994)
Ms Jackson (OutKast, 2000)
9 to 5 (Dolly Parton, 1980)
Another Brick in the Wall, Part II (Pink Floyd, 1979)
Message in a Bottle (The Police, 1979)
Glory Box (Portishead, 1994)
Paranoid Android (Radiohead, 1997)
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding, 1968)
Paint it Black (The Rolling Stones, 1966)
Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard (Paul Simon, 1972)
Feeling Good (Nina Simone, 1965)
It Was a Very Good Year (Frank Sinatra, 1965)
100% (Sonic Youth, 1992)
Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads, 1980)
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads, 1977)
I Ain’t Mad at Cha (Tupac, 1996)
One (U2, 1992)

March of the Idiots

2009-02-23T23:38:00.002Z

They're coming, they're coming... And as part of their continuing campaign against science, logic and progress, they're complaining about the MMR jab... Listen to this, then go and check out the Bad Science blog to follow the story and hear why Jeni Barnett is wrong. And potentially bad for the health of the nation...

Advertising on the Edge

2009-01-27T11:12:00.003Z

Here's a link to some work we've just completed at The Economist - posted it on Slideshare and they made it one of their 'Top Presentations of the Day', which was nice.

Not exactly related to the rest of the stuff on this blog, but there you go....

Design classic: London Underground

2008-10-10T17:34:00.002+01:00

Apparently it's 100 years ago this week since London Underground introduced the 'roundel' icon, and in so doing created arguably the first true brand logo. The whole point of the roundel was to reassure commuters that, wherever they saw the symbol, the quality of service would be the same, and it would connect to all the rest of the Tube system. Although it changed slightly from its initial inception, the redesign by Edward Johnston in 1913 was pretty much the last significant change to it.

So what better way to celebrate this than a photo of Clapham South in 1926, before the hordes of frisbee-throwers and Foxtons estate agents moved down, and turned it into a suburb of Surrey.

Lessons in Media Buying 101

2008-09-24T17:39:00.002+01:00

Check your tube stations carefully...

Raving bishop at the big chill

2007-08-06T16:42:00.001+01:00

Fashion victims: Totally Mexico Global!

2007-03-30T15:59:00.000+01:00

Vice Magazine, that esteemed read of the gutteratti, have published their Global Trend Report 2007, which is absolutely hilarious.

Apparently a guide to what the ultra-fashionable are wearing in the ‘cool’ cities of the world, the more I read it the less I can tell if they’re being serious or not. Judging from the comments at the bottom, they’ve clearly annoyed a lot of people, but then that’s kind of what Vice does, so perhaps it was all done just as a massive wind-up…

Either way, the London male fashion (pictured here) is not something I’ve seen rocking the streets of Stockwell recently. Real London ‘fashion’ (and by this, I mean the acutely-considered clothing of the East London self-facilitating media nodes) looks much more like the New York picture. Maybe they just got mixed up. And the Amsterdam fashion is waaay out (though the guy looks strangely like the bass player from Dee-Lite).

It’s also pretty interesting to see which cities they’ve covered. As well as the predictable transnational hubs of New York, London, Paris, etc, there’s Melbourne, Montreal and Helsinki. Good for Vice for trying something new, just a shame they’re all just holiday destinations of trendy Vice journalists. Wouldn’t it be cool to see what the fashionistas in Middlesbrough are wearing? Or Lyon? Or Reno?

Rapping Rove

2007-03-30T12:42:00.000+01:00

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

Here’s a video of Karl Rove, White House advisor, dancing and rapping at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner.

Ok, here’s the thing. It’s not just that another bloated white middle-aged (well, probably pushing 70) politician is desperately trying to appear ‘cool’ and co-opt urban American culture as his own. We’re used to that, and I’m sure that David Cameron will be releasing his own phat beatz album before the year is out.

It’s that this man is, at the best of times, a nasty, illiberal crook, who has been the driving force behind some of the Republican party’s nastiest activities in recent years. There are the stories of how the Republican elite were so impressed by his vote rigging in local elections (when he was still in his early 20’s, and paid homeless people to vote), that he was fast-tracked straight into the inner circle. He’s the man most people point the finger at for ensuring that hanging chads became such an issue. And he’s also been extremely influential in rewriting the President’s official history, in particular the chapters that took place during the Vietnam war, and the chapters that occurred whilst he was in the grips of his cocaine addiction.

So to see him up on stage laughing and joking about ‘shooting Quayle’ really isn’t that funny.

Fuck it, who am I kidding? This is hilarious…

(Red) spend 82% of money raised on advertising

2007-03-29T13:26:00.000+01:00

We always knew there was something a little bit dodgy about the (Red) charity. Firstly, anything involving Bono has to be viewed with an innate scepticism. Secondly, any ‘charity’ that has pictures of Elle Macpherson posing with a Masai warrior does seem to be teetering on the edge of the fetishisation of the poor. And thirdly, any organisation with such a cavalier attitude to punctuation is clearly a danger to the very fabric of society. But, being a mild mannered chap, I had been giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I discovered today, however, that of the $100 million that the organisation has spent, 82% of it went on advertising (leaving a paltry $18 million for fighting HIV/AIDS). This is clearly not the impression that had been given to consumers and I’m sure that many of them are now feeling decidedly short-changed.

But hold on a minute. Surely (Red) will at this point throw up their hands, plead guilty, and promise to do better in future? Not a bit of it. Allow me to hand the mike over to Bobby Shriver, CEO of (Red):

“…because (RED) is explicitly NOT a charity, we encourage our partners to go about their business including their marketing. This sells the products; the products generate the $25 million. In addition, this marketing would have been spent anyway, on other product lines. It never would have been (nor will it ever be) given to the Global Fund.”

So basically, “we don’t make that much money for charitable causes, but at least we’re not spending quite as much money as before on corporate hospitality and cocaine”.

Well, thanks. All just goes to show, Bono is an evil and misleading bastard. Always has been. And I suspect I’m not alone in thinking this… http://www.myspace.com/bonomustdie

…

Incidentally, the American Express (Red) credit card is also pretty nifty, in that those nice folk at Amex make more money out of it than they do out of their normal credit card, whilst at the same time appearing to be concerned about the spread of HIV/AIDS. It’s a marketers wet dream, but in decidedly dodgy ethical waters.

Obama takes on the icons

2007-03-23T11:41:00.001Z

Just found this video, which I think has probably been around for a while now (it aired during this year’s Superbowl). Barack Obama’s campaign against Hilary Clinton in the US Democratic primaries looks set to be a scorcher…

The ad is a reworking of the classic Apple ‘1984’ ad, which aired (in 1984) in the middle of the Superbowl, and is widely held to be one of the greatest ads ever made in terms of it’s effects on public perception of the brand. That we still consider Apple computers to be ‘creative’, ‘anti-establishment’ and ‘different’ is testament to how effective it was. In reality of course, they’re nothing of the sort, just a bundle of chips same as any other, except more expensively priced and used by geeks with pretensions to creativity (like me). But imagery like this really helped them to establish themselves as something different.

Incidentally, the latest Apple ad, featuring the chaps from Peep Show, actually seems to be having a negative effect on their brand perception (according to BrandIndex). Probably due to the fact everyone knows the ‘Mac’ character is overly smug and conceited in the TV show… they ran the same ad in the US, but with non-celebrities, and it went down very well, but I think they might not have fully considered the implications of using the Peep Show characters…

Anyway, back to the Obama ad. As well as ripping off Apple’s ad, and even bastardising their logo at the end of the reel, it’s amazing that the only significant change they chose to make to any of the actors (aside from the inclusion of Hilary Clinton) was to CGI an iPod onto the ‘freedom fighter’. Apparently, in the last 23 years that single item is most representative of our new found digital freedom, or something. Either that, or Obama was just trying to be down with ‘the kids’.

Either way, it’s a great ad.

I Swear I Was There

2007-03-22T18:20:00.000Z

So I went for a quick drink in Filthy McNasty’s after work last night, just to catch up with some friends and because it’s a great bar. It’s only a short walk from my office, and as I strolled along I realised the only things I had in my bag were a copy of the NME and a bottle of Veuve Cliquot. Feeling pretty rock and roll at this discovery, I got to the pub and waited for my friends to arrive.

The evening rolled on and we got progressively more merry (partly due to the discovery that a ‘BlackJack’ contains equal parts Black Sambuca and Jack Daniel’s, and tastes like Jaegermeister), until a woman got on the stage and announced that David Nolan would be launching his new book here tonight, with a couple of readings. Random. Turns out he’s written a book about the notorious 1976 Manchester Sex Pistols gigs, which everyone in modern British music seems to have been at. The reading is pretty interesting (most significantly for stating quite clearly that Mick Hucknall was definitively not there, despite rumours to the contrary…), and at the end we all go and buy a copy and get it signed.

Chatting to Nolan is a lot of fun – he seems surprised that there’s anyone there at all, so is happy to chat about what he thinks of modern music and Manchester, and the influence of that Sex Pistols gig. He’s the only person I’ve ever met who has ‘Punk Rock Consultant’ on his CV (from his time working on the set of 24 Hour Party People). At one point, James asks some question about what the Sex Pistols think about the book, and Nolan simply points behind us and says “Why don’t you ask him?”.

Stood at the bar in Filthy McNasty’s is Glen Matlock. We all feel a bit guilty for not having recognised him sooner (it might be the camel coloured long coat and generally smart demeanour), look awkwardly at our shoes, and then carry on talking to Nolan. The beers have taken affect though, so before I know what I’m doing I’ve had my photo with him, and got him to sign my book, apologising profusely the entire time for being so cheesy.

Seemed like a nice guy though, and merrily waved goodbye when he left about an hour later. The book, ‘I Swear I Was There: The Gig that Changed the World’ consists mainly of interviews with various Manchester scenesters from the time. The best bit about my copy though, is the title page, across which is scrawled ‘I Know I Was, Glen Matlock’.

Red square, Moscow

2007-03-13T22:35:00.000Z

Moscow continues to surprise, delight and confuse, but until I get decent internet access this picture will have to do as a summary of the trip so far. Suffice to say I am currently very drunk on a Tuesday night, having been to a trendy bar in the middle of a mall, and a Russian wedding party in some dodgy bar with no lights in the toilets. Mir to one and all...

Moscow Skylounge

2007-03-10T19:33:00.000Z

I'm at the top of Moscow's academy of science, drinking a ten pound cocktail while looking down on the city's sky line. Life is good. Moscow is surreal.

The Fratellis @ Brixton Academy

2007-03-09T04:15:00.000Z

'Thank Fuck for the Fratellis' screams the giant illuminated screen during the encore, and by that point I couldn't help thinking they had a point. It's a slightly guilty pleasure, rocking out to premium jock pub-rock, pint & fag in hand, but as they rattle off anthem after anthem with the crowd well and truly on their side, who cares that they're not going to win any silverware for insightful lyrics or experimental sounds? Four-to-the-floor crowd pleasers seems to be doing the trick just fine thanks.

Highlights would have to be a quick acoustic segue into Mr. Tambourine Man, and two minute banger Got Ma Nuts From A Hippy turning into a six minute, solo-filled epic. Not what you'd expect, but given they did everything else as you would expect that's probably not a bad thing. Who'd have thought the Goonies would ever have led to so much rocking..?

Network Burnout

2007-03-06T17:33:00.000Z

Ok, so this whole Social Networking thing is great, but it’s starting to get a little complicated, and is it just me or is the whole world just turning into one giant friend request?

I just got onto Facebook this week, which is great, and takes random linking to whole new levels, but also confuses the hell out of me. Myspace’s interface might only work about 60% of the time, but somehow it feels more intuitive. And I know it’s a mess (and ugly), but at least there’s music on it, and you can customise it to the Nth degree. Which is handy for all you little Scriptz kiddies out there (though just plain irritating for the rest of us). More to the point, it’s easier to nose around other people’s profiles, which helps when you’re deciding whether getting back in touch with that girl you used to stare at in 3rd Year French lessons is really a good idea…

But it’s really the number of sites that’s the problem - I’m now on Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, Flickr… the list goes on. And you end up having to duplicate information on each site (although the clever people at Facebook manage to feed this RSS feed straight into their pages… nice.). And you end up duplicating friends, which seems to defeat the point…

Apologies for posting the third successive grumpy post on this blog, but I was finally starting to get my head around Facebook, and then got an email that said: “Sandra is now your friend on Bebo”.

I didn’t even know I had a Bebo account.

Bring back the bulging filofax please, I’m running out of login names…

Backstreets – coming to The Windmill, Brixton, soon!

2007-02-21T17:26:00.000Z

Ok, so I’m plugging this everywhere else at the moment, so I should probably stick it up here too… Next Friday (2nd March), my friends over at Rockbeatstone.com are throwing a party at The Windmill in Brixton (and I’m carrying the bags).

Should be a great night. The Windmill is the kind of down-and-dirty venue with a beer-encrusted floor that you can’t help but have a good night in. The bands we’ve got lined up look great (Adam from The Tailors is definitely going to be worth turning up early for, and Elks used to be Sojourner Fleet, who’ve been on here before).

We’ll be playing some music after the bands come off, hopefully to inspire some ass-shaking, but at the very least some more boozing… So, if you’re in the area, come along.

Guillemots @ Brixton Academy

2007-02-19T20:14:00.000Z

Funny band, the Guillemots. Incredibly cool, transnational wig-out genius, known for such Beta Band-esque tricks as using a typewriter on stage and taking a power drill to their guitars. But also in possession of some of the most up-their-own-arse fans this side of a Jethro Tull gig. But then if you call a song 'Trains from Brazil', I guess you're always going attract accountancy wankers with dreams of far off climes and long hair.

As ever the band produced the goods, and for the last night of their tour still seemed pretty energetic. Just a shame the crowd were dead from the neck down. Maybe they should stop being the critics darlings for 2 minutes and build up some real fan base. Or maybe I should stop being so judgemental. But I kind of prefer the first option...

Magic Numbers @ Kentish Town Forum

2007-02-17T18:29:00.000Z

The return of the happiest beard in show business... There's just no way you can stand through a Magic Numbers gig without smiling incessantly. At least that's what I thought, until I'm stood there with the grumpiest accountants in North London. As ever the tunes were uplifting and got the on-the-spot line dancing in full swing, but some of the crowd just refused to relax, leaving me going nuts surrounded by the arms-crossed brigade. Still, the new tracks were great, and the hour and 45 minute performance covered plenty of b-sides and fun as well as the singles you'd expect... Just a shame some people take the beards so seriously.

Web 2.0 turns out to be bullshit: No one surprised.

2007-02-15T17:57:00.000Z

If, like me, you often find yourself drowning in the vacuous tautological truisms of interactive media (or even getting paid to spout them yourself), this website might be a godsend.

Sample meaningless expressions include:

reinvent viral value
syndicate dynamic podcasts
capture embedded ecologies
tag peer-to-peer networking

Or my favourite:

disintermediate user-contributed synergies

Soundtrack to your Valentine’s Misery

2007-02-14T17:14:00.000Z

Happy Valentine’s. No, seriously, hope you’re having a good day. I’m having a reasonably ok one, and am far from the depths of despair that the title of this post might suggest.

That said, I was woken up this morning by the most beautiful, mournful, heart-wrenching song I’ve ever heard, which seemed perfectly appropriate on Valentines Day. It was ‘I Want You’ by Elvis Costello. There’s something about the middle section that is so shot through with pain, and his voice cracks on one of the notes… pure melodramatic genius.

Probably worth saying a massive thanks to Phil Jupitus for choosing Costello as the first song of his breakfast show on BBC 6Music this morning. I like to be shocked and/or confused at least once before breakfast, and Jupitus usually manages to deliver…

Anyway, that was all I wanted to say. Am now off to hopefully have a much more pleasant evening than the narrator of that song. But if it all goes pear-shaped, I’ve got it on standby…

Bolt Action 5 @ Goldsmiths College, London

2007-02-10T17:54:00.000Z

Artful dodgers of screech-noise take on the ghouls of halloween. Brilliant night run by No Pain In Pop, the deranged bastard sons of New Cross. Spent quite a lot of time in those beautiful surrounds, and it makes me weep just thinking about the place... Bring back Duke's all-night booze emporium and I'd be back before you can say 'fried chicken'.

Tenacious D @ Xfm's Winter Wonderland

2007-02-10T17:14:00.000Z

It's been a while, and have a whole load of pictures to blog, so what better way to start than Tenacious D at Xfm's Winter Wonderland? Comedy gold that blew the pretention of Kasabian out of the water.

Plagiarism: The Way things go…

2006-12-02T01:14:00.000Z

So when Russell Davis came into our offices the other week, he carefully explained that the inspiration for the Honda ‘Cog’ ad was “the sound that an upmarket cassette player makes when you press eject”.

Somehow, I think the video below (taken from the longer DVD by Peter Fischli & David Weiss "The Way Things Go") might have had more to do with it.

Advertising: Ripping off creative ideas since 1902.

Thanks to Kate for the spot...

Current Nationality

2006-11-30T18:53:00.000Z

So I’m on the plane to Mexico, and we’re all busily filling out those little visa forms, where you need to confirm that you have never single-handedly attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, or at least that if you did you now regret it. I’ve been travelling for about 24 hours at this point, which included a 6 hour stopover in Washington Dulles Airport (Dulles by name…), and I’m tired, grumpy and generally not in the mood to be trapped in a steel cylinder 32,000 feet above the Earth with a bunch of overweight Americans.

You see, that’s the problem. Not the Mexicans returning home to their families after a brief business trip to Washington, or the travellers in beads hoping to find themselves in the land of the Aztecs, but the fat, pasty middle-Americans determined to go down to Mexico for some sun, booze and free dentistry. The kind of guys who see a neighbour with severe political, social and economic problems as a bonus, since at least the local mamasitas will be impressed by their dollar bills.

I work my way down the form, ticking the relevant boxes and trying to print my block capitals neatly. And then I hear this shrieking from behind me:

“Current nationality? What does that mean? I mean, what’s my current nationality?”

“I think it just means your nationality”

“Well then why the heck don’t they say that? Gosh… these Mexicans make it all so confusing…”

Soccer mum sitting behind me evidently finds is shocking, and confusing, that these damn wetbacks don’t even know that nationality is Eternal, much like the stars and stripes she has flying in her front lawn next to her picket fence.

And I sit their pondering whether I should point out that all white Americans are immigrants somewhere along the line, and that for all of them, ‘American’ is only their ‘current’ nationality.

Nah...

Russell Davies and the death of the media budget

2006-11-22T19:46:00.000Z

Now here’s an idea – get yourself one of the UK’s premier Account Planners/Communications specialists and invite him round to a major global media planning agency after work. Make sure you all have a beer and a few crisps, and then ask him to talk about the future of media. Sit back and enjoy the fireworks…

Actually, it was a really interesting talk. Russell gave the presentation he recently gave at the APG’s ‘Big Thinking’ conference (for which he won the ‘Biggest Thinker in Media’ award), which had some thought-provoking ideas, as well as a selection of ace Japanese commercials which inspired the Honda ‘Cog’ ad.

Most controversially though, he discussed how brands could still have a huge impact with zero media budget: “Take that budget, put it into production, and if you do something interesting enough, consumers will find you by themselves”. Which is a brave thing to say in the middle of one of London’s biggest media buying arms. Effectively, he was saying “You guys working in planning, you’re going to be ok. In fact, you might even be better than ok. But you guys working in TV Buying… start updating your CV…”

The thing is, he could well be right. Some of the best work of the past year, such as Nike’s Run London and Joga Bonito campaigns had a minimal media budget. And even Sony Bravia’s ‘Balls’ ad wasn’t on TV as much as you’d think - they chose to spend the money making something that was just beautiful to look at, and word-of-mouth and online communities took care of the rest.

The problem comes for the low-interest advertisers – how do you make engrossing, consumer-led content for a mortgage provider or drain unblocker? Can you do it, or do you end up with a secondary tier of brands so dull that they can’t escape the curse of the 30” TV spot?

More to the point, if the era of push advertising is over, and everything is going to be based on transmedia story-telling/Web 2.0 delivery/insert-your-favorite-buzzword-here, what does that mean for the media owners? Their major source of revenue will disappear, forcing them to air crowd-pleasing minimal-budget drivel (see ITV…), and those media owners that broadcast more premium content will need to start charging their audiences subscription fees. Which is bad news for pensioners who enjoy foreign films and students who are trying to save money for their tuition or lager.

Anyway, all good food for thought, and a thoroughly entertaining talk. Have a read of Russell Davies’ blog to find out more.

The State of the World

2006-11-20T11:33:00.000Z

Went for a walk along the South Bank on Saturday morning, one of my favourite things to do in London, especially when it’s a beautiful sunny day and the tourists are out in force. They’re annoying until you remember that they’ve travelled for miles to come and visit your city – once you think about it like that, I tend to find it quite flattering.

Anyway, as part of my wander I ended up in the National Theatre looking at the Reuters ‘The State of the World’ photo exhibition, which I heartily recommend. The images are by turns horrific, inspiring, heart-warming and terrifying, but all are totally captivating. And the fact that it’s free helps as well.

Plus you get to pop out and buy a second-hand book afterwards. Go on, spoil yourself.

Reuters: The State of the World

Tired of Being Sexy

2006-11-19T13:37:00.000Z

Went to see Cansei De Ser Sexy (CSS) the other night at the Scala in King’s Cross. Ok, it’s not South London, but still plenty of Fear and Loathing in the surrounding areas, including a Irish pub that still seems to have a ‘men only’ room and a strictly-stout drinking policy…

Anyway, by the time we got there, support act The 1990s were about halfway through their set. Nice rollicking bass lines rumbling under a broad Glaswegian accent, somehow managing to sound like they could soundtrack Wacky Races. They seemed to think they were already playing a stadium gig in Houston, but it’s easy to forgive them their delusions when they’re such an affable bunch.

Quick break for a pint, then back down the front to wait for CSS to appear. For those who don’t know, they’re a Brazilian electropunkpop combo that are currently hyped in the UK as the answer to all your ass-shaking needs. And judging from the CD, the hype might be right. I was really looking forward to finding out, although was mentally preparing myself for disappointment, especially when the band took to the stage and the bloke next to me immediately started shouting ‘Get yet tits out!’. Lovely British welcome that, thanks mate.

But, once lead-singer Lovefoxxx and the rest of her motley crew take to the stage, there’s no question that this band knows what it’s doing.

They’re Brazilian, but about as far from the samba-and-football Girl From Ipanema stereotypes as you can get. If they’re anything to go by, Sao Paolo must be some kind of Brazilian Shoreditch, all angular haircuts and brightly coloured leggings (a look copied, unsuccessfully, by quite a few of the crowd). Plus their guitarist has a moustache. These fashionistas aren’t messing about.

But despite being the hard-edge of totalitarian electropunk fashion, they also manage to be bloody good fun. Lead singer Lovefoxxx (possibly the most beautiful fringe I’ve ever seen) chats with the crowd, borrows their clothes, gives them coquettish kisses on the cheek… and then gets down into the crowd to dance around with us, security desperately trying to keep her mike lead from being ripped to shreds by the revellers.

In terms of the set-list, let’s not bore ourselves by going through it one at a time, suffice to say they played the majority of their album, with Meeting Paris Hilton, and new single Alala probably being the highlights. Until they finish off with Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above, at which point all hell breaks loose and the crowd turn into a mad moshing funk monster, only to have Lovefoxxx give up all pretense of maintaining her calm and throwing herself over the crowd. There's nothing quite like having the greatest thing in Brazillian electropop crowdsurf over your head...

It's rare to see a band who place the emphasis so squarely on just having a great time, but that seems to be what CSS are all about. Their name comes from a quote from Jennifer Lopez, who claimed she was tired of being sexy, which the band apprarently thought was such a ridiculous comment it might make a good band name. But if they're tired of being sexy, they're clearly not tired of having fun.

User-Generated Life

2006-11-11T22:12:00.000Z

A painful amount of my day-job is spent thinking about User-Generated Content. What does it mean? How can advertisers best capitalise on it? How can brands be protected from the networking masses? What does it mean for traditional media companies? How can we make money out of it?

So in this kind of environment, it's nice to take a moment and remember that it is people that are at the heart of this seismic shift in communications, not marketing strategies. The below video's quite long, but it reminds you of the sheer variety of people that make YouTube such as fascinating place...

Semantic note: Most US advertising companies are now talking about Consumer-Generated Content, not User-Generated Content, which illustrates just how much they are putting the cart before the horse. Would it be totally radical to suggest people called it People-Generated Content? Or even just 'stuff that people make'? With this in mind, have a look at the new BuzzMetrics system from Nielsen and shudder.

Avenue Q

2006-11-11T21:08:00.000Z

Went to see Avenue Q this week, a musical featuring puppets and such show-stopping tunes as 'The Internet is for Porn' and 'Everyone's a Little Bit Racist'. I'd heard great reviews of it, both from my mates and in the media, which always makes me a little anxious that it'll be a dissappointment. But far from it, it's one of the most entertaining things I've ever seen.

Basically, it sits somewhere between Sesame Street and South Park. Human actors stand on the stage controlling the puppets, but after a couple of songs you hardly even notice they're there. And most bizarrely, everyone in the audience seemed to be getting really involved, with a couple of people I was with getting genuinely emotional during one particularly heart-wrenching scene...

And how can you not love a musical that includes the refrain:

"Schadenfreude!
Making the world a better place..."

Adventures in Chicken

2006-11-11T20:20:00.000Z

So I'm in Millenium Chicken on a Wednesday night, swaying slightly while Shiva throws together a tasty piece of fried foul for my drunken pleasure. There's a tall black guy playing the fruit machine in the corner, wearing a dirty tracksuit with the hood pulled up and looking slightly shifty. In fact, if David Cameron had been in that chicken shop with me at 1 o'clock in the morning it would have been the ideal time to find out how serious he is about his 'Hug A Hoodie' scheme...

No change there then. All walks of life come through this chicken shop, it's one of the reasons I love the place. The guy on the fruit machine turns around and asks me for a light, so I reach over and light the tightly rolled fag hanging from his mouth. It occurs to me that I didn't think you could smoke in here, but I make a mental note to start doing it. Just then, Shiva starts laughing, and implores the hoodie-guy to open the door at least. It's then that I smell it - that little roll up is filled with some seriously strong hash, and the heady scent of it is mixing pleasantly with the smell of burnt grease.

I prop the door open slightly with my foot, while hoodie-guy starts laughing and offers Shiva a drag, "Come on man, it'll make you relax a little..."
"No sir, if I am smoking this I am sleeping while I am working!", Shiva giggles. All three of us are chuckling now as I pick up my food and start to leave.

And as I leave, I can't help thinking how nice it is to live somewhere with a friendly chicken shop and a relaxed attitude to the law. And how no number of Conservative policy statements will ever be as effective as a giggle and a burger.

Monkey Media

2006-11-09T17:41:00.000Z

So Dennis Publishing have launched a brand new product, Monkey magazine, in an attempt to stem the inevitable decline of their profits. With the print medium slowly shrivelling and dying, and their flagship product Maxim struggling to translate its brand online without getting lost in the sea of lad sites, I can understand their motivations.

But why they have gone ahead with Monkey is totally beyond me. They came into our offices a few weeks ago, and although I managed not to physically attack them it was a close run thing…

So here’s the thing. I love blokey magazines – all those pictures of scantily clad ladies, articles about blokes drinking their own body weight in Estonian lager or jumping the Thames on a tricycle… it’s all great stuff. Plus you’ve got reviews of CDs, books, cameras, digital hoojimeflips… And then, on the other hand, I love wasting time on the internet (especially whilst at work…). Again, loads of funny videos, little viral games, pictures of scantily clad ladies, reviews of CD and cameras and…

It’s at this point that Dennis Publishing stopped and had their eureka moment: “No one’s buying our magazines, and everyone’s talking about the internet. Unfortunately, we don’t know the first thing about the internet. But it sounds like people use it at work during their lunch hour for exactly the same thing as magazines. So let’s just email everyone a magazine! Wow! And then tell everyone we’ve done something revolutionary! Yeah! Job done, let’s go to lunch!!”.

But it’s nonsense. Every Wednesday, they send the Monkey ‘magazine’ to your in-box. You open it and can flip through the pages, read articles, watch funny videos and stare at naked ladies. Great. But you have to go through it page by page, in order. That’s to say, it’s a totally linear experience. And everyone knows the most exciting thing about the online experience is that it’s non-linear. Then there’s the videos, which are grainy and don’t load fast enough. Then there’s the fact that most people don’t have a full 25 minute block to devote to looking at tits in the office, and would rather do it by skimming the odd viral sent to them by a friend. Then there’s the fact that the ‘boss button’, supposedly to make it look like your working, takes a good couple of minutes to load and opens in a small corner of your screen, leaving Holly Valance still artfully draped in all her 15 inch glory across the centre.

I don’t want to be so negative about all this, but I really can’t understand what Dennis are thinking. The lack of attention to little details is unbelievable – on the review page, there’s a camera review, and then a phone number to call if you would like to purchase one. But you can’t by it online. Why not? What’s the point of an online magazine that doesn’t connect to the rest of the internet? Plus at the moment it doesn’t look as though you will be able to access previous issues of the magazine, so there’s no archive of ‘funniest animal injuries ever’ or whatever. Again, this would have been such a simple thing to do, but they missed it.

So there you go, that’s an update on what’s happening in the world of press – it’s floundering in a blind panic. And with the exception of FHM, who have delivered an amazingly integrated digital offering, complete with MMS, WAP, digital TV, the full works (and even managed to get users to pay for content…), every other player in the Men’s Monthly market seems to be struggling.

Which leaves Dennis Publishing’s latest offering looking like a total monkey.

Don’t just take my word for it: Monkey

Badly Drawn Boy

2006-11-09T00:56:00.000Z

...live at Bloomsbury Ballrooms. Poshest gig i've been to in a long time, but none the worse for it. in fact, there's something quite pleasant about a gig where the audience stand on a light maple dancefloor... After apologising for playing his new material (despite Born in the U.K. being a stormer) Badly Drawn Boy proceeded to do everything to get the crowd on side, including giving a fag to a hard-up punter and mocking the inherently Bono nature of crowd participation. Looked like he was drinking tea though. Is that rock 'n' roll? Hmmm....

Isobell Campbell played support, which I can't do justice blogging from my mobile, but suffice to say that she and her band know how to put the desolate sigh into slide guitar...

Requiem for a Candy

2006-11-08T17:51:00.000Z

Went to see Candy, this year’s sex-and-drugs morality play on the nature of addiction, last night at the Ritzy. It’s basically an Australian take on Requiem for a Dream, and equally as traumatic and upsetting as that film, while also equally as great. There’s some lovely direction (and by that I mean over the top: silly camera angles, a long shot of the pretty patterns made by a trickle of honey…), a great soundtrack, and really powerful performances by both Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish (who I may have fallen in love with last night. Which is a shame because she’s an insane junkie who covers farmhouses in lipstick graffiti poetry, and thus potentially fairly high maintenance).

It’s weird though, watching an Australian film about drug addiction. It’s every bit as gritty as a Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream, but no matter how harrowing, it’s still set in Australia, where you can leave the city and get out to beautiful open fields within minutes. And where your dealer says “G’day” in a chipper tone as he sells you your smack. And where even junkies have swimming pools…

Dammit, if it wasn’t for all the bloody locals I’d be there in a flash.

Still, meantime I’ll just watch the film in the Ritzy (which, as ever, delivered: a couple of beers before the film, half listening to a free screening of a Spanish documentary on the revolutionary possibilities offered by organic crops. Happy days…) and ponder the greatest line of the entire film: “They say for every ten years you’re a junkie, you spend seven of them waiting”.

I just can’t imagine Lou Reed sippin’ a VB waiting for his man.

We lose Lost to Murdoch

2006-11-06T13:15:00.000Z

I sent my flatmate a link to all the epsidoes of Lost, 24, Scrubs etc. online, and he wrote back to say thanks. Then asked if I knew that Murdoch had stolen it.

Well yes.

Bizarrely, was watching Badly Drawn Boy last night, at the Bloomsbury Ballrooms (lovely venue, but possibly the whitest, most middle-class gig I’ve ever been to….), and the girl behind me was loudly informing her companion that “Well they just had to chose between Desperate Housewives and Lost, they couldn’t have both. And we decided to go for Lost. Yes, it’s £980,000, but we think it’s worth it”. I’m fairly sure she actually said “£980,000 an episode”, but I’m loathe to misquote someone so outlandish.

So obviously I turned around, called her a media imperialist raping the cultural commons, and spilt her Red Stripe.

Dan Sartain

2006-10-29T18:52:00.000Z

2006-10-29T18:51:00.000Z

The Raconteurs

2006-10-29T18:50:00.000Z

Ok, so it's not a great photo, but that's what happens when you're confined to the seated balcony of Brixton Academy with a camera phone and a marginal case of the DT's... Went along last Friday (20th), when Jack White, Brendan Benson and the rest of their merry men gave the Academy a serious ass-kicking. Is Jack White the only young man left who can play guitar like that? Absolutely amazing, unsurprisingly, with 'Hands' and 'Steady As She Goes' getting the crowds going absolutely nuts (even up in the cheap seats). And their cover version of Nancy Sinatra's 'Bang Bang' went on for an epic 20 minutes or so, with Jack White's scream getting increasingly desperate. They've been playing it as a cover for a few months now, and it knocks the Audiobully's version into a cocked Burberry baseball cap.

Tootsies Orchid Lounge, Nashville

2006-10-29T18:48:00.000Z

This is the original sign that hung outside Tootsies Orchid Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee, now hanging in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

I'd never heard of it before I got over there, but ended up spending quite a lot of time in there after hours, slapping my thigh and getting down with some real, gritty Country and Western. It's not the polished, souless twang of Shania Twain, it's a guy with a guitar singing his heart out and making you dance around like a lunatic. Clearly, the locals weren't fooled, and knew I was just some damn Limey Johnny-come-lately, but it was great nonetheless.

It's played host to all the greats; Willie Nelson, Neil Young and even Dean Martin played there. Nowadays its mainly full of local bands hoping to make it big, but it's definitely worth checking out if you find yourself on the main drag in Nashville.

2006-10-29T18:47:00.000Z

No idea of their name, but these slick characters were banging out the good stuff in Nashville after the JD Set... plenty of Cash covers, a dash of bluegrass, and a good ole' boy on the double-bass who alternated between humping it and beating the crap out of it. Proper rock 'n' roll.

Richard Hawley

2006-10-29T18:46:00.000Z

Lynchberg, Tennessee

2006-10-29T18:44:00.000Z

Hot Club De Paris

2006-10-29T18:40:00.000Z

The Holloways

2006-10-29T18:39:00.000Z

Cheeky scamps did an afternoon JD Set in Camden.

Sojourner Fleet gig review

2006-05-19T20:21:00.000+01:00

Read my review of Sojourner Fleet here: http://www.rockbeatstone.com/reviews/live/sojournerfleet.html. Alt.country in the heart of Shoreditch. It was a good night.

Myspace

2006-04-13T12:58:00.000+01:00

Never really keep this up to date.. have moved over here: http://www.myspace.com/38057324

Living in 2006

2006-02-08T18:42:00.000Z

So it's been a year, which is far from ideal, and an even further cry from regular. Not to worry. Some kind of service should hopefully be resumed shortly.

It's been a busy year, moving house, selling souls and drinking on rollerskates. Then there were a couple of events of global geopolitical significance happening down my street. And then the URL of this blog took on all kinds of new significance. None of which had any effect whatsoever on my total blogging apathy.

I'll try and give some kind of update on all stuff that another time. Meantime, just wanted to check the blog was still alive...

Living in 2005

2005-01-07T22:27:00.001Z

After an uneventful but thoroughly enjoyable New Years at The Bedford (which requires a post all of its own, which I can't be bothered to write now), New Years Day was spent in the altogether more surreal surroundings of Living in Brixton.

Arriving at 6:30, heavily hungover and fairly dubious, things didn't look like they were going to start well. I'd recieved an email about the New Years Day party, which was free from midday until 3am, and featured 80s & 90s disco classics from Nervous Stephen upstairs. How could it fail? Thing is, a fairly random group of friends were meeting up with me that night, and I was really hoping they'd all have a good time. But, when the first of us arrived, the place was full of semi-conscious bodies either avoiding our gaze or aggresively staring at us. Not great.

Trying to make the best of it, we quickly got ourselves enveloped in a sofa and a couple of beers (over-priced, naturally), and busied ourselves by staring at the nightmarish seventies wallpaper. Then, suddenly, half the bar just upped and left, leaving only about ten people in the place, sprawled out across a multitude of cushions and attempting to calculate how many hours they'd been awake for. Then, just as suddenly, it began to get heaving. Apparently, we'd just witnessed the changing of the Brixton guard, as last night's casualties finally made it home and the fresh meat arrived.

Things picked up after that, with a busy and trendy crowd downstairs dancing to some fairly pants house music and taking 2005 far too seriously, whilst me and my friends took over upstairs, dancing unashamedly to the Bugsy Malone soundtrack. There were only a couple of other people who had ventured up the stairs, so thankfully we were free to embarass ourselves to our hearts content.

All in all a great night. Living seeemed to be full of people who knew each other, or were desperately keen to give that impression, but the music upstairs was all good fun, and you can't really argue with fifteen hours of free drinking..!

Starving in Clapham

2004-12-10T18:36:00.000Z

Too much time in a confined space is never good for anyone. Especially when the confined space doesn't have cold beer, loud music and the company of others. So, after a couple of days sitting around the house, I headed off into Clapham this afternoon to 'do lunch' with my housemate, an attempt to start the Friday night partying early, and get a bit of fresh air in the process...

First stop, Circle Bar on Clapham Road. I should have known it would be a disaster, given that the last time I went there I couldn't even work out how to open the door. Anyway, it's supposed to have a loyal Clapham chique following, and since I was wearing clean socks, I thought I'd splash out. 'Time Out Recommends' stickers cover the window, and inside it's got a nice vibe, all raw wood and random leather sofas. No one else about, but it was 3 in the afternoon, so fair enough. We sat ourselves down, ordered drinks, and then asked to see the menu. No can do, apparently. Stopped serving food at 2:30.

Bugger.

Still, it's a nice bar, we have a quiet drink, I ponder renting the upstairs room for some imaginary future function, and we head out onto the street again.

Second stop, The Clapham North. A beautiful bar, really love it, complete with excessively copious armchairs and ultra-relaxed chillout music, with just a hint of St. Germain. Nice. Same story though, get in, sit down, get a drink, then go to order food, and they've stopped serving.

Does no one eat after two o'clock round here? Jesus. Had a pint, stumbled on the faulty wooden flooring, and went home hungry.

First Post

2004-12-10T18:13:00.000Z

So here it is, my first post. Hopefully, there'll be plenty more to come, detailing the highlights and lowlights of London bars, clubs, gigs, and maybe even a few other things as well... Seems unlikely...