New Tentative Gig Announcement

I'll keep it short and sweet for once. A new gig is in the offing, in my home town of Bolton, Lancashire, on August 30th. An evening of folk music and other assorted indie-whatnots, the headliner will be my friend and work colleague, Ben.

It will also feature a performance on guitar from my good friend, Daniel Beckett, and joining him on vocals, none other than my own good self. So, if you want to hear me sing, come down to the Blue Boar on Saturday night, entertainment commencing from roughly 8:30pm onwards. Price of admission: no more than a couple of quid I'm sure (or a pint directed my way, or towards my friends of course).

I'm the one on the left, naturally. I will be signing autographs, but not on any body parts...it's a long story.

Mercury Rev - New Albums, New Tour Dates

On Monday, September 29th, Mercury Rev release their new album, Snowflake Midnight, which is accompanied by a second album, downloadable for free, entitled Strange Attractor. We are being treated to a double burst of the Rev's unique brilliance, subtlety and beauty, on the same day, at the same time, in the same dimension of this ever etheral existence of ours.

For full details of the albums, go to either http://www.mercuryrev.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/mercuryrevmusic, where all the details reside, including information about track titles and how to obtain the Strange Attractor download.

Ah, the hell with it, here are the track titles for your viewing pleasure:

Snowflake Midnight

"Snowflake in a Hot World"
"Butterfly's Wings"
"Senses on Fire"
"People are So Unpredictable (There's No Bliss like Home)"
"October Sunshine"
"Runaway Raindrop"
"Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower"
"Faraway for Cars"
"A Squirrel and I (Holding On...and Then Letting Go)"

Strange Attractor

"Love Is Pure"
"Taken Up into Clouds, Changed and Rained Down"
"Pure Joie de la Solitude"
"Persistence and the Apis Mellifera"
"Fable of a Silver Moon"
"Loop Lisse, Loop"
"In My Heart, a Strange Attractor"
"Incident on Abeel Street"
"Af Den Fader Kommer Den Sol"
"Because Because Because"
"Nocturne for Norwood"

What has also been announced, and is just as exciting as two new albums, are Mercury Rev's tour plans, which include twenty-nine concerts, eleven of which are in the UK, one in America, and seventeen in the EU and Switzerland.

Three nights in Northern England are the personal highlight for me, and I will be attending the shows at Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, bringing to nine, the number of times I will have seen The Rev, with only The Doors at ten surpassing them in terms of my gig attendance. I suspect it is merely a matter of time before The Rev surpass even the mighty mighty Doors in my affections, having been The Doors of my generation, with the same originality, talent, beauty, terrors, and eerie otherworldliness that Jim Morrison and co. brought to the world 43 years ago.

It is so rare to see and hear such great talent, and I have been lucky enough to have met most of the these two sets of musicians who possess it. Thank God one set is still completely alive, active and creating new music and religious and spiritual experiences for those with the minds open enough to get it. Jonathon Donahue, you have been well missed here, as have your compadres of The Rev. Welcome back, my home is your home, always.

The Rev's 2008 Tour Schedule

7 Aug 2008: 22:00: For Noise Festival: Lausanne Pully, Switzerland

9 Aug 2008: 20:00: Beatday 08: Copenhagen, Denmark

12 Aug 2008: 20:00: Kilkenny Arts Festival: Kilkenny, Ireland

14 Aug 2008: 20:00: Pukkelpop 2008: Kempische Steenweg in Kiewit-Hasselt, Belgium

29 Aug 2008: 20:00: Hydro Connect Festival: Inverary Argyll, Scotland

13 Sep 2008: 20:00: End Of The Road Festival: North Dorset, UK

21 Sep 2008: 20:00: ATP New York 2008: Monticello, New York, USA

31 Oct 2008: 20:00: Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland

1 Nov 2008: 20:00: Roisin Dubh, Galway, Ireland
2 Nov 2008: 20:00: Vicar St., Dublin, Ireland

4 Nov 2008: 20:00: Mandela Hall, Belfast, UK
5 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Manchester, UK
6 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Leeds, UK
7 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Birmingham, UK
9 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Newcastle, UK
11 Nov 2008: 20:00: Corn Exchange, Brighton, UK
12 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Bristol, UK
13 Nov 2008: 20:00: Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK
14 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Oxford, UK

16 Nov 2008: 20:00: Den Atelier, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

17 Nov 2008: 20:00: Luxor, Koln, Germany
21 Nov 2008: 20:00: Lido, Berlin, Germany

22 Nov 2008: 20:00: Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands

24 Nov 2008: 20:00: Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium

25 Nov 2008: 20:00: Elysee Montmartre, Paris, France
26 Nov 2008: 20:00: La Vapeur, Dijon, France

27 Nov 2008: 20:00: Bikini, Barcelona, Spain
28 Nov 2008: 20:00: Joy, Madrid, Spain

29 Nov 2008: 20:00: Aula Magna, Lisbon, Portugal

Glastonbury Festival Of Performing Arts

Well, it was all last minute, and it was chaos to arrange, but me, my mate Dan and my mate Carl decided to not just go to Glastonbury, but to actually go live and work there for a week, running traffic checkpoints, closing down roads, and generally imposing a truly minimal amount of order for the sake of protecting human (and animal!) life.

Yep, we camped out for a whole week, wearing ridiculously bright orange uniforms, working with the good folks at Avon & Somerset Police (who unlike Greater Manchester Police, actually treat citizens as human beings, considering them innocent until proven guilty and not harassing the law-abiding and trustworthy).

I'll keep it short, because there are a million other blogspot Glasto write-ups out there. Saw and heard a few bands, including The Feeling (ouch they sucked!), Leonard Cohen, Goldfrapp, The Verve and several jazz and indie acts knocking around random stages. The biggest highlight though was working for the good people of the villages and towns around the festival, such as Pilton, Cockmill, Shepton Mallett and of course Glastonbury village itself. Never have I seen a group of people so patient of 150,000 others, keeping a smile on their faces, enjoying the entertainment and not overreacting to the many minor acts of drunken silliness that in many other places would result in complaints and arrests.

Long live Glastonbury, and hopefully next year Michael Eavis will NOT book some dumbass rapper, and instead book a real talent like The Arcade Fire, David Bowie, Lou Reed or Iggy Pop to headline the most glorious festival gathering in the world.

I'll say no more. The happiness of 150,000 other people speaks more to the success of this event than my mere words ever could. Long live Glastonbury.