Still feeling like a bit of weekender. Last week was an 8 on the bonkersly busy scale - did loads, loads still to do, annoying set backs, lots of achievements. Although we are working to a deadline of July 1st it has become more apparent that the teething problems after launch will make things just as nuts. Bring it on - I'm feeling energised and motivated.
Left work bang on 5:30pm on Friday - the earliest for a least a month. C has a friend who works at Channel 4 who very kindly gave us some tickets for Taste in Regents Park. A foodie festival basically where top London restaurants, food producers and chefs set up stalls and punt sample dishes to the gastronomically minded. All good fun and very well laid out event. Had some great 'samples' of nosh - finally tried Wagyu Beef from Cocoon - (yep, it's damn good), some amazing Gelatti and Anthony Worrel-Thompson's hog roast. The only thing I will say is it was very overpriced for what you got. If we had paid it would have been £25 each to get in, then as each (very small) sample dish starts at £5 and you need at least 5 to feel even slightly satisfied it gets very expensive, even though the food is exceptionally good.
Saturday we chilled, then went round to see Mike and Lou in Croydon. Good fun night playing games, chowing down, messing about with light sabres and being merry. Got totally lost trying to get out trying to find the M25 next day, but eventually got on our way to Amersham to see C's Grandpa and her Mum who is down to look after him for a few days. Lovely relaxing summer Sunday in the home counties. Sunday Roast, G&T in the garden, games of boules...all very civilised. Lovely and hot and great to see Clare and Robert again. We bought our tent to put up in the garden - reason being we packed it away damp in 2006 after a festival and haven't opened it since! It ponged, but nothing a few hours airing and a squirt of air freshener couldn't solve. C drove home and I jumped on the tube back to Marleybone - how nice to be on a tube that is above ground and travelling through the Buckinghamshire countryside instead of dark sweaty tunnel...
I last saw My Bloody Valentine on the Rollercoaster tour in 1991 with Dinosaur Jr, Jesus and Mary Chain and Blur. They have always had a special place in my record collection and are a truly pioneering band. Their seminal album Loveless will often be found in any '50 albums to hear before you die' listing. On first listening they can be an uncomfortable band to appreciate - they employ huge layers of guitars, effects, disjointed harmonies and awkward melodies...but, the more you listen to them the more they grow on you and eventually you are hooked. It really is addictive stuff. The vocals are thin and ethereal and basically lost in the mix, but it just doesn't matter, because the spiralling whirlwind of everything else just binds the whole thing together. All I could remember of the '91 gig was they were very good and very, very loud. Well, 17 years later and they have reformed to finish the album they started of the same year and play a few gigs. Myself and some friends bought a load of tickets months ago for Sunday's gig at the Roundhouse in Camden Town - a fantastic and very famous venue in English contemporary musical history (The Doors and Pink Floyd played early gigs there). In short they were fantastic - incredible sound and visual effects. They played the same set list as their last gig and it was faultless. The last song is their single 'You made me realise' which is famous for it's 30 seconds of white noise shit storm in the middle...at this gig it lasted 20 minutes! When the venue staff handed out ear-plugs on the way in I thought it was a PR stunt or 'statement', not a necessity. I had to move further back to stop my tonsils sweating and my ribcage caving in. I have never heard such a monstrous, but beautiful sound. Although it is near painful, it is totally entrancing and you couldn't tear yourself away from it. Definitely in one of the top 5 gigs I've ever been to. 10/10. Can't wait for the new album, though at their current rate of production I will be an old man by the time they release it!
Tunes of the week: Vampire Weekend's and Fleet Foxes's new albums. Top stuff - check them out.
Finally a massive thank you to PaintMonkey. We commissioned him to put brush/palette knife to canvas for us a good few weeks ago and he has created a beautiful piece of work for us. We look forward to growing old with it on a wall wherever we call home.
Until next time...
