Padjeq

I'm on that one at the moment. I'd heard of Sigue Sigue Sputnik before but I never knew much about them.

A year ago (or maybe 2?) I went to get the observer from the tesco in new street station (I live 2 minutes walk away). They were filming stuff all round the place, and there were a lot of security positioned. Rumour was it was Mission Impossible as Cruise and McQuarrie had been spotted on the escalators the week prior. As I made my way back with my paper I glanced inside the empty john lewis that had been done up to look like an airport lounge and there was Tom Cruise standing stock still, adorned in his sharp blue suit replete with aviator shades and doing that big smile of his. I felt like the young Bernadette witnessing the apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes.

Feel by Chris Heath is the best I've read. A Rolling Stone journalist embeds himself with Robbie Williams during his imperial phase. Some great anecdotes about his time in Take That and beyond, along with meditations on fame. Nothing else, including multiple autobiographies, has come close to explaining what it's really like at the top of the tree.

The soapy parts are my favourite parts! Had no idea where it was going after I started episode 1, but I really admire the bravery.

Wolves flag was everywhere on the iplayer.

I like their vlogs cuz they're the only ones I've seen that look and feel like what it's like to be at the actual festival. Most vlogs I've seen by others are just a middle class couple effectively interviewing each other in their tent, then some sped-up footage as they walk through the fields, then a clip where they sing along to the most popular song by the blandest band imaginable, set to the sounds of license-free music, all before disappearing home on the sunday afternoon to beat the traffic. With TPD I always think 'I know that feeling'

Pretty good imo!

Was just watching Shame on iplayer and the singer, while crowdsurfing, took that pink guitar that was held aloft constantly last year and smashed it to pieces

I like them in general, but the people with the vertical banners, and the ones with more than one flag on a pole need to spend an afternoon snorkeling in the long drops.

Aziya at the Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham 14th June 2023 No set-times listed, none of the 'special guests' named, we headed into the Sunflower at 8pm hoping for the best. The gig room was empty and the guy on the door told us Aziya would be on at 9pm 'or earlier, if it fills up'. We went upstairs for a drink and found ourselves reminiscing 20 years worth of memories of this place. Our first date, hearing damage at Orchards, some people coming fancy dress to my mate's party because they read the invitation wrong, 'The Farmfooders', 'Fat Lee'. An exodus from the smoking area was our cue to move. Excitedly entering through the mixed 50 strong crowd, and dressed like a catholic school teacher, Aziya went straight into things with 'Blood' - which sounded like VV Brown covering 'Smile Like You Mean It'. Later she pinballed her way into the crowd for a song, her infectiousness and youth reminiscent of Annabella Lwin. Very short gig with nothing else around it (a post gig offy visit and we were back home by 9:45pm), but a nice taster of someone likely to be involved with the Wet Leg/Last Dinner Party sartorially-antiquated girls-with-guitars movement.

Stone are very good.

The Flash is pretty good. The non-superhero stuff works best, and Miller is great as 2 different versions of himself. Very interesting take on an origin film too. Some proper big laughs - I was absolutely howling through an early setpiece.

Bruce doing I'll See You In My Dreams solo really felt like a goodbye.

KISS at Birmingham NEC 5th June 2023 My second time seeing KISS, my second time not paying for a ticket, and amazingly the second time seeing them on the same End of the Road tour (4 years apart!). We missed the opening band, but got in in time for Skindred. They've got a job and they do it well - party starters, crowd engagement, a singer who puts on novelty specs and then changes them for a different pair because they were wrong for that crowd. Not ashamed to say I stood in my seat and did the newport helicopter with a handful of others as the bemused crowd looked on. KISS came onstage following an intro video of a drone shot of the Birmingham NIA - a building we were not in! - and then a backstage walk through an arena with distinctly american signage. A good laugh, but soon forgotten once the opening pyro was scorching our faces as the band instructed us to both GET UP and GET DOWN. 71 year old Paul Stanley has the energy of a man a third his age, effectively crip walking in his platform boots and talking to us in his Roger Rabbit voice, shooting around on his harness-free zip wire, and mugging for the audience. Unlike most american acts who emphasise the 'ham' in Birmingham, Paul Stanley pronounced it as Ozzy might ('Burmingum'), leaving the ham for the fire breathing, tongue waggling, blood drinking, stage rising performance itself, replete with the drummer miming piano play for encore song 'Beth'. A lot of jokes are made about every tour being their last tour, but watching them it's clear they just don't want to let this feeling go. They played for over 2 hours! The set was mostly the same songs in the same order as 4 years ago, with a few additions in the middle, and sickeningly 'Crazy Crazy Nights' being cut from the encore. As we left the arena singing to the outro tape of 'God Gave Rock And Roll To You', a woman looked at me and smiling said 'Mott the Hoople'. She couldn't be more wrong, but we can't all be firing on all cylinders like KISS on a monday night.

pre-sales start in 33 minutes. Bad Omens are a great addition.

Damn, love that album

I was there for that! Sunday night and somehow we managed to be late and missed a few songs. Did you also happen to see Lykke Li in the Guardian tent? That was amazing. We saw Sonny J in a dance tent the same year and we were literally the only 2 people in there. The whole sunday felt much emptier across the whole site even though the worst of the weather was thursday into friday.

Panic! At The Disco Other Stage headliners 2008. One of my favourite bands at the time, but I was very close and still had space around me. Loved it.

They're teasing another UK tour. I'll go again.

I believe that 2 years of well publicised bad weather will make it easier to get tickets, but also that would be a shame for the people there (and me the same weekend, standing in the courtyard of a castle marching along to Hollaback Girl)

Tried coach sale, main sale, coach resale and main resale and failed every time. Bought a packet of cheese and failed. Went to Oxfam to procure the choccy and found it was now St Giles' Hospice shop. I've done a clashfinder and my days would be very full if I was going, but the only thing I'm sad to be missing out on is Guns N Roses and Lana Del Rey, and if I was going I'd have to miss out on one of them anyway. Over Glastonbury weekend I've got Siouxsie and Gwen Stefani to go to, neither of which are at the G anyway. And then I can watch everything on the tele.

Never a Birmingham date.

Sad to see the Pulpheads and the Foo Fans turning against each other like this. At least they will be united when cosplay farmboys Mumford and Sons are revealed to be the Churnups.

I watched series 1. The hitman plot I could not care less about, but the acting class thing was very great, and based on a few experiences I've had with extras I've met on music video shoots, very very real. Think I might get back into it now it's all over.

I watched the whole set back on iplayer so I could see the comments in context. It actually makes it worse. The singer comes on immediately upset and seemingly embarrassed, likely because of the subdued cheer that followed presenter Jack Saunders shouting their name. I feel like they thought they'd be the Rage Against The Machine to Horan, Capaldi etc's Daphne and Celeste. I guess things are different when you've only ever seen festivals from one vantage point. The 'clapping ourselves' and 'this is rock music' moments brought to mind the time my boss's (privately educated) son near tears explained down the phone to philpotts that his sandwich had 'the wrong bacon' on it.