JANUARY 14 2010 THE WELLINGTONS REVIEW

THE WELLINGTONS

THE WORKERS CLUB

MELBOURNE

THUR JAN 13 2010

The WELLINGTONS from Melbourne are a power pop band. Actually no they are not. They are a really FANTASTIC power pop band from Melbourne. They have fantastic songs, full of sugar and sunshine. They have fantastic hooks and harmonies, riffs and catchy sing-a-long lyrics. They look cool. They wear hip indie kid clothes. They leap about the stage; they look like they are having fun. AND they can really play.

The band is tight, harmonies bang on and they have great handclap bits! They have recently had the infectious Come Undone all over Triple J and Rage, and the previous single Song for Kim, has one of my favourite all time couplets in it.

You’re the girl that I want at my party

You’re so cool you probably know karate

They play to adoring fans in Spain, USA, Japan and Europe. Their songs have been used on the US sit-com hit How I Met Your Mother. So why are there only forty people here tonight? Buggered if I know. It’s week two of their four week residency at the Workers Club (formerly the Rob Roy) in totally hip Brunswick Street. And there is a small but appreciative crowd here. They know all the words. They sing along. They don’t dance though. Later I am told indie kids don’t dance at gigs in Melbourne, only at indie clubs. I am sorry to tell you non-dancing Melbourne Indie kids, you are getting this bit totally wrong. The Wellingtons I saw tonight were a MEGA-BLAST of pure power pop kinetic energy. Just have a dance – you’ll be glad you did.

The five piece consists of Zac Anthony (guit/voc), Kate Goldby (bass/voc), Koji Asano (guit/voc), Gustav Lindstrom (drums) and the keys tonight are admirably taken care of by Anna Dobbyn, til their regular person returns from … well, elsewhere.

With three albums to cherry pick from tonight they concentrate on their latest Heading North for the Winter. With Zac leaping round and climbing onto speakers, doing big jumps at the end of EVERY SONG (pretty much), The Wellingtons encapsulate everything great about this music. Yeah there aren’t a thousand people in the room, but they play like there is. They crank through these pop gems like they are ploughing through a box of crème centred chocolates, savouring each one before picking up the next, consulting the guide on the lid and devouring it with gusto. Come Undone is early in the set and sets pulse’s (if not feet) racing. On & Off is terrific and the live favourite Freak Out is enthusiastically received. The incredible I Get My Heart Broken Every Day was also a set stand out.

There is a line in their song For Friends in Far Away Places that goes:

It’s not that we are bored here,

It’s just that people who like our songs live far away

The danger is that we will lose these guys to a more power pop friendly nation. I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope the good people of Australia embrace all that is good and glorious about these kids from Melbourne and hang onto them with a big fuzzy bear hug.

Ian Bell

PS: See the accompanying POWER POP rant over at my other blog thing at

http://djianmaiden.blogspot.com/

JANUARY 11 2020 My favourite jokes at the moment.

My favourite jokes at the moment.

Q : WHATS BROWN AND RHYMES WITH SNOOP?
A : DR DRE

Q : WHAT IS GRANDMASTER FLASH'S FAVOURITE WEBSITE?
A : WIKI WIKI WIKI WIKI WI WI KI KI PEIDA

Q : WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TIGER WOODS & SANTA CLAUS?
A : SANTA STOPS AT THRE HO'S

Two pirates are talking and Pirate number one says to Pirate number two.
"I like those ear rings you have there"
"ARRRR, thank you sir"
"Where did you pilage them from" says pirate one.
"I got them from the two dollar shop" says pirate #2
"Thats not bad for a buccaneer"

JANUARY 10TH 2010 WE'RE HAVING A HEATWAVE

Hot enough for you?

Is there a more annoying phrase when you are in the middle of (yet another) heatwave.

We had seven days of 40+ degree days back in November. Would the Global Warming deniers please now shut the hell up.

I get really angry when i see the weather for Australia and Adelaide is hotter than Alice Springs and Darwin. I mean WTF Mother Nature? Alice Springs is in the DESERT! Darwin is up near the equator in the sub-tropics. So it's blistering hot up there right? No people from the Northern Territory come to Adelaide when they need to go somewhere to get a bit of sun.

I notice (mainly through various Facebook updates from my pals in the UK) that when we are having a run of five days of 40 degrees here, they seem to be having a run of five days of -2 + snowdrift weather in the UK.

I like it when it's hot, 32 is good. But 42, 43, 44, is just taking the piss. It's impossible to do anything useful even with (an admittedly struggling) air conditioner. it's hard to do any work. It's hard to do no work. It's hard to sleep.

Actually I think I'll go and get an ice cream.

Global warming solved.

JANUARY 9TH 2010 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIS

Elvis Presley would have turned 75 year old yesterday if he had lived.

I wonder what he would have been like.

Would he have had gastric by pass surgery and had everything tightened and lifted.

Would he still be playing Vegas.

Would he have gotten to tour the world, something he never got to do (because of that asshole manager Col Tom Parker).

Would Rick Rubin coaxed him into the studio to make a series of critically acclaimed albums of Elvis doing songs by Nick Cave, The Pixies, Sonic Youth and Morrissey?

Would he have got the chance to make any movies where he could actually use his under-utilised acting talent?

I finally got to go to Graceland last year. As a life long Elvis fan it was pretty mind-blowing. That is a blog for another day though.

Today I just thought I'd say Happy Birthday Elvis

JANUARY 8TH 2010 DEATH TO ALL BUTT METAL

One of the things some people will be unaware of about me, is my love of 1980's Cock Rock.

Back in the day, in the heady days of the early 1980's, it wasn't my biggest priority. I was far too busy dividing my time between other types of music. I was entranced by foppish sensitive types like the Smiths, Aztec Camera and Go-Betweens. I loved all the new garage rock, much of it Aussie, Hoodoo Guru's, the Stems, Lime Spiders, etc. I loved 'alternative' bands like The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Pixies, Wall of Voodoo. And I loved a lot of mainstream music Duran Duran, Culture Club, Prince, etc. It's not that I didn't like metal. I'd been a Kiss fan since 1975, and I always recognised a good song when I heard one. I was always attracted to the theatrics of Metal. The costumes and the posturing. It was very obvious with Kiss, but also AC/DC, Iron Maiden all had a uniform of sorts. When 'hair metal' raised it's highly bouffanted head in 1983, I was just looking elsewhere. I did however love Poison, Motley Crue, Girlschool, Lita Ford, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, etc. I lost a bit of interest when that stuff gave way to Winger and stuff like that. I also didn't take to Guns'N'Roses. Not at all. I thought they were poseurs. I thought their whole 'I'm so wasted man' thing was tired and I'd seen their whole shtick before, done much better. I did think 'Welcome to the Jungle' was a great song and a good riff, and a couple of others were good songs. but at the time I wasn't into it. Was probably more interested in chasing up lightning Seeds singles on import. my attitude to Gunners changed when i had Andromeda Music. We had a GNR Pinball machine, and it was a brilliant game. All the way through various targets would cue bits of GNR songs. You'd lose the ball down the side and it would go 'WELL WELL WELL MY MICHELLE', or if you were doing well it'd play 'Mr Brownstone'. Suddenly one day i realised that I had been missing out all this time and went and bought the entire catalogue that day. I have never looked back.

These days my interest in metal is a considered one. I don't like it all. But I will happily go and see Motley Crue, LA Guns, anything to do with Kiss, Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, WASP, etc. I will never get a tattoo of the warrant logo and I would never claim to be HM hardcore, but i know my stuff to some degree and get along well with a lot of the people who go to those gigs. I have conversations with those guys i never have anywhere else. We talk about the next Alice Cooper tour or whether we are going to Melbourne to see brilliant Swedish Metal band Hardcore Superstar. I really enjoy those nights.

For the last few years I'd been hearing about this thing in LA called Metal Skool. Basically it was a cock rock cover band that played on the Sunset Strip every Monday night. It had built up a huge following and it was packed every week. These guys would get up and play Kick start My Heart, Nothing But A Good Time, Hot For Teacher, etc, and they'd be all dressed in spandex and huge hair, doing scissor kicks and so on. The other thing they recreated was that 1985 Strip attitude. Part of why those bands were popular back then was this crude, rude, sexist and hedonistic behaviour that was celebrated by the bands and fans alike. That kind of behaviour is quite rightly frowned upon in this day and politically correct age. Except at the Key Club in LA every week. They are up there coaxing girls to flash their breasts and talking about sex with groupies, picking on people in the audience with the most PC taunts and jibes imaginable. People just LOVED it, word spread like wild fire and it became the hottest ticket in LA. Soon celebrities and musicians were coming down to see what all the fuss was about. If somebody famous was in the house the band would ridicule them til they got up to sing with them. That lead to more people going and so on.

Eighteen months ago they changed their name to STEEL PANTHER and when we were in the USA last April we arranged our schedule so I could go to the Key Club. My wife (to be at that stage) had no interest in going to see a bunch of sexist metal heads, but decided it might be fun at the last minute and off we went to Sunset Strip. We got there and bought tickets but were told Steel Panther didn't come on til midnight. So we went wandering around the strip, going to Grumman's Chinese, The Roxy, the Viper Room etc got my photo taken by Tom Jones Hollywood star and with Jesus Christ (long story). Shortly after we got back the place filled up with girls in spandex and lingerie, and guys in spandex and lingerie and lots of big hair, some real some fake. After a couple of support bands (including one from Melbourne i have NEVER heard of), the stage was cleared the lights went down and STEEL PANTHER exploded onto the stage like they were at Madison Square Gardens. The Key Club holds 1200 people and is set up like HQ (Adelaide) or the Metro (Melb) on three levels, but the way they set the stage up gives the band maximum 'poncing around' space. They certainly looked the part. The singer Michael Starr looks like Vince Neil from Motley, before the plastic surgery and too many pies. He is short and bleach blonde and is wearing a cut off denim jacket and spandex tights. The drummer has the best name in rock, Stix Zidinnia (say it out loud a few times) is a powerhouse on the kit. The bass player is called Lexxie Foxxx and is constantly preening his ludicrously long blonde hair, often stopping mid song to pick up a mirror and re-apply his lip gloss and at one point doing a 'hair solo', facilitated by two of the others holding hairdryer at hip height to blow his locks about. The line-up is completed by Satchel on guitar. Good looking chisel jawed, and a shredding guitar player. The first thing that hits you is 'damn these guys can really play'. They are a really tight band, and they pull off all the Metal nuances with both precision and humour. The interaction between the band when they are playing is hilarious and often really subtle. we saw them just before their own album Feel The Steel was released, so there were some of their originals sprinkled through the set, which was like a Metal's greatest hits. Motley, Ratt, Poison, Jovi all covered with pin point precision. Their own songs had all the hallmarks of classic hair 80's tunes.

In between songs the banter was more...let's say contentious. Jordan was disgusted. She liked when they were playing, for they are extremely good. But she HATED every second of them talking between songs. They have decided to resurrect all the un-PC, sexist, racist, offensive attitude that existed in hair metal in the 80's as well as the music. Every shred of my right thinking brain knows that even as a joke all of that stuff is appalling, offensive and wrong. They said things I would never have stood for at another gig, but as it's clearly meant to be comic, or ironic. Probably. The problem is to make an 'ironic' 'fag' joke you are still doing that material, whether you mean it or not. I liken it to the Suicide Girls phenomenon. Tattooed, pierced alternative girls being alternative and being empowered and so on, but at the end of the day it's still girls taking their clothes off. It is wrong like Lonely Island is wrong yet still funny, but more Panther is way more offensive. But I thought it was funny as fuck! Hilarious (if obviously scripted), jibes at people's sexuality and ethnicity, which everybody was lapping up. I wonder what bit of my brain gave this material a 'hall pass' because it is in the context of a 'funny hair metal thing'. Is it the same as watching a Victorian play and going 'well you wouldn't treat the help like that these days, but back then for purposes tonight of entertainment...'. I guess I'd say it's about 'Context'.

When they got John Corabi (ex: Motley Crue, Brides of Destruction/Union member) up they basically paid him out and said 'Nah we're not doing any of your songs, let's do Halen', he was very clearly in on the gag.

Since we saw them last April they have appeared in Europe and the UK, becoming the most talked about act at the Download festival and selling out their own shows to rabid crowds. The skydived into a US Festival in June. In full Lycra gear. They have released their debut album full of hilariously offensive songs. Check below for the video for Death To All But Metal' and there dozens of clips and live footage of them playing live, including guest spots by Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Paul Stanley, Justin from the Darkness, and many others. be warned some of the clips are VERY un-office friendly, be warned (especially their power ballad Community Property uncut version), but if you enjoy 80's hair metal and are offended by say the video of Warrants Cherry Pie, you'll probably dig Steel Panther.

Death To all but Metal
http://video.universalrepublic.com/?plid=1481452858&v=18409155001&aid=0

*Sarah Silverman bit at the end gets funnier every time i see it. Which has been a lot.

JANUARY 7TH 2010 - Marine Boy Vs Astro Boy

I have long been of the opinion that Astro Boy is over-rated. the twee Anime do-gooder with the rocket up his pants, was always a poor second to the fantastic Marine Boy in my opinion.

Marine Boy was one of the first Japanese cartoons to be dubbed into English and syndicated in the USA back in the late 1960's. It was shown endless on Aussie TV during the 1970s (and is apparently now showing on Saturday mornings on one of the free to air digital channels). So he was totally a pioneer. He was a bit more of a teenager than the pesky Astro, and he wasn't a robot. He was a regular 'could-be-you-or-me' kid who could do remarkable things. He was a kid, but he was a Marine for Ocean Patrol. He could breathe under the water with the help of 'Oxy-Gum', he had a white dolphin and his girlfriend was a topless Mermaid called Neptina, who's nudity was always hidden by an arm or her flowing hair. there were a couple of other older men in his crew, called Bolton and Piper. And his dad (Dr Mariner - hilarious) and the clumsy scientist (Dr Fumble - double hilarious). Originally called Under Water Boy Marine in Japan, they changed it for the Western audiences to the snappier Marine Boy.

Every week marine Boy would face off against pirates and devious types, but mostly it was giant radio active crabs and maniac giant squids and so forth. It was great. MUCH better than Astro Boy. He would totally kick Astro boy sorry robot arse in a fight.

So why isn't there Marine Boy t-shirts, lunch boxes, figurines and bubble gum cards then?

I don't know. But I am not happy about it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HqSkY4vtVY

JANUARY 6TH 2010

I am currently playing Baby Bingo with many other friends of Beth and Jono, who are expecting the arrival of little Lemon any tick of the clock. The official due date is January 10th but I am betting on January the 8th. Why? It's Elvis Presley's birthday. Good enough reason and plus it gives Beth a strong message that I am hoping for an earlier rather than later arrival. Some people are saying Jan 28, which is just cruel!

I met Beth when I was running BANG! the first time. She was very shy, but one week she brought in heart shaped lollipops and was handing them out to people. The following week she approached the DJ box with lollipops in her hand and I started screaming

LOLLIPOP!
LOLLIPOP!
LOLLIPOP!
LOLLIPOP!

at the top of my lungs and pretty much scared the crap out of her (sorry Miss Beth). We have been firm friends ever since. She met Jono at my club and here they are a few years later, married and having babies.

It's a wonderful world.

Anyway welcome Lemon Elvis Adey (JAN 8, JAN 8, JAN 8, JAN 8) and much much love to Beth & Jono!

JANUARY 5TH 2010 YEAH YEAH YEAH

THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Circle Pit
Thebarton Theatre
Tues Jan 6th 2010

After waking up this morning resigned to the fact I wouldn't get to see the YEAH YEAH YEAH's at Thebby Theatre tonight, a good fairy rang me with most welcome news. It was the indie equivalent of 'YES CINDERELLA YOU WILL GO TO THE BALL' and suddenly everything changed and calls were made, and plans were made, pulses raced.

There were a LOT of familiar faces in and around Thebby. Many a Karen O aspirants (is that even a word?) / inspired fashion statement was in attendance. Many home-made YYY's t-shirts, fashion accessories (even sunglasses). There was much buzzing around the merchandise desk, and many a summer wardrobe filled in a range of colours and styles.

After meeting up with my gang we decide to go in and check out the support band. Circle Pit are from Sydney. I was assuming they would be kind of hardcore as a 'circle pit' is defined by the Websters on-line dictionary as :
A mosh pit where everyone is running in circles, often in roughly the same direction and at roughly the same speed. Context: Most often used at concerts. Also quite violent as elbow are used as battering rams, etc.

Far from being punk or hardcore they were jittery, sloppy, dirge like sludge and had an air of having idolised too many wasted icons for too long. So this did not work for me at all. I thought it was a bit like going to see a band called AMPHETAMINE SLAMDANCE and them actually being a Hall & Oates cover band. Circle Pit, do not by the way, play music anything like Hall & Oates. The two main singers (a boy and a girl) are very anguished about, well something or other, and the guy singer is wearing 'gasp, shock, horror - A DRESS! Surely that gender stereotype has never been smashed before.

http://www.the-rudy.com/images/nvn_kurt-dress_b-up.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/Queen_i_want_to_break_free_video_still.jpg

The racket coming from the stage was not holding our interest and I think most of the young audience endured rather than enjoyed their overwrought set. I'd be prepared to give them another listen, but on the brief time I spent with them last night they seemed quite try hard. I read a review when I got home of their album Terminal Boredom

PINK REASON REVIEWS ALBUM ON TERMINAL BOREDOM

Circle Pit - Bruise Constellation

Definitely the "coolest" band in Australia in the traditional rock 'n roll sense. They look like Royal Trux but have a hold of their own sound that follows in the traditions of stuff like LA's X, Cheater Slicks, Jesus and Mary Chain, Jim Carrol Band etc... Dirty street romance vibes, with sugar on top. The kind of catchy songwriting that makes everything sound classic and familiar on the first listen. Go see them when they hit the states for sure! Everyone I talked to in Australia seem in agreement that they're one of the best live bands around.

Now without pulling that to pieces line by line, I am not comfortable with the words 'definitely' and 'coolest' being in the same sentence in this context. They sound nothing like Jesus & Mary Chain (whose every record I have bought since their first indie 7" about 300 years ago) and nothing like LA's X (who I was thrilled to finally see at Coachella last year). still, they were apparently hand picked by Karen O for this tour, so maybe she sees something in them that I haven't unearthed as yet. I do not wish to dismiss them hollus bolus, this is merely a straight from the heart reaction to the evenings events as they unfolded for me. Maybe if I'd seen the whole set from the start...but maybe not.

Anyway, the YEAH YEAH YEAHS hit the stage beneath a giant eyeball (although not as giant as the one they used at Coachella in April - Thebby has a much smaller stage) and started with an amazing Dull Life. People were losing their minds as soon as the lights went down and the atmosphere was electric. Karen O is completely mesmerising on stage. Charisma ten miles wide, quirky jerky dance moves, constant costume additions and subtractions all of which look like she has been frantically colouring in with her Hobbytex pens and working the Bedazzler to within an inch of it's glitter setting. Dull Life merges into Phenomenon and the pulse rate cranks up a couple of notches Karen O pulls a TISM style ski mask over her head and when the lights go out fro Heads Will Roll, the ski masks lights up with neon orange lights - a great effect. On stage Karen changes from a screaming banshee to a infant girl within moments. Heads merges into Pin and the entire place in jumping up and down like loons. She crawls and slithers across the floor for Shame & Fortune. After Man (from Fever To Tell) the thumping drum intro to Gold Lion sends everybody into spasms. Could it get any better? Well, seeing as you asked, Cheated Hearts is up next. And it's syncopated rhythm track chugs through the building like a robot discotech. Karen leaps off the stage into the pit at the front and gets various people to sing into the microphone for the 'woah woah' bits (mostly pretty badly - but at least for a moment about 12 different people were singing lead with YYYs which must have been mind blowing for them - if not us. LOL).

Much is written about Karen and quite rightly so. She is remarkable to watch. She is sexy without being sexual in any offensive way. Larger than life and captivating. However the boys in the band deserve kudos too. Brian Chase on drums is a stylish and rock solid bedrock. He thumps at those drums like a jack hammer having a good time in a club somewhere. Nick Zinner is dressed in black, tweaking and coaxing a mammoth sound from his guitars. With effect peddles and triggers augmenting his unquestionable talent as a guitarist, the sonic end of the band is fantastically well attended to, leaving Karen to do that Karen thing out front. The textured sound is further enhanced by a touring keyboard player filling out the bottom end.

Karen returns to the stage after slipping into a shorty kimono and a headdress made out of flouro hands to perform the atmospheric Skeletons. Throughout, the light show is astounding, and mix crisp, with the vocals only occasional swimming below the surface. Soft Shock and Honeybear are folowed by the anthemic Hero. During this song two additional giant eyeballs are launched over the crowd who squeal and scream and play with the worlds biggest beach balls. Then they are gone. I look at the time, they have been on for 50 minutes. They return for a two song encore. An acousticy version of MAPS which was very cool and then an absolutely mind blowing Date With The Night. There is a blitz of light, explosions of Y shaped glitter confetti and then it's all over.

The full set list was ;

Dull Life
Phenomenon
Heads Will Roll
Pin
Shame and Fortune
Man
Gold Lion
Cheated Hearts
Skeletons
Soft Shock
Honeybear
Zero

Maps (acoustic)
Date with the Night

Everybody was buzzing after the show, talking about their favourite bits and certain words like 'amazing' and 'incredible' just kept coming up over and over again. It was a hell of a first gig for the year and set the bar very high indeed. Having said that, tickets were $80 and they only played for an hour, which does seem a little bit skimpy to me. That would be a good length set at a Festival. Given they have three albums of material and b-sides (at Coachella they covered Human Fly by the Cramps as a tribute to Lux Interior), 60 minutes seemed a little short to me. Last year I saw Leonard Cohen, he was 75 years old at the time he played for just under THREE HOURS. Anyway that is a VERY little quibble to have at such an amazing show.

After the show we were lucky enough to catch up with Brian and Nick, who were lovely and signed things and did photos and gave people hugs. They whisked Karen out with just a wave and smile. Quite a night.

JANUARY 4TH 2010 - HOLD IT RIGHT THERE LAST DECADE

The close of the 'naughties' has been the most ho-hum non-event in the history of decade endings.

It's like 2009 slipped by at midnight, half apologising for being a bit rubbish, and when it was half way out the door people started going;
'hang on, is it the end of the decade too? Are you serious? Get back in here decade - EXPLAIN YOURSELF'.
The 2000's look at the floor, and shuffles it's feet.
'WELL?' we implore.
'Dunno' spits the 2000s like a sullen teenager.
'Well what did you DO for ten years? What have you accomplished? What great art, music, movies, literature and innovations do you bring us? Well? SPEAK UP!'
'I did lots of stuff.'
"LIKE WHAT 2000s SPIT IT OUT!'
'Reality TV, bad R'nB Music, infomercials, 9/11, crappy versions of Vegemite, I did TONS of stuff! Swine flu, global economic crisis..."

Ten years ago, it was a different deal altogether. Admittedly it was wrapping up the century as well. But we had songs back then - good ones (1999, Disco 2000, End of the Century, Millennium). People thought the end of the world was really possible with the Millennium Bug, the wide spread panic of people thinking that when the clocks ticked over to 2000, all computers would stop working, planes would fall out of the sky, catastrophe and mayhem would ensue. Partly because of this silly near hysteria, people expected NYE 1999 to be the biggest blow out mega-party of all time. It wasn't. It was a bit of a fizzer. I was running POP! (at Stix in Gouger St) and I remember they had blocked out roads all over the city because they were expecting a million people in the city. They never came. It was even a bit down on a regular NYE. POP! was packed with people partying like was in actual fact 1999, and Prince had the most played song on planet earth that day I suspect.

It is possible that the Naughties have now taken over the mantel of the crappest decade in recent history? It is also possible that in 10 years time we will be sitting around yearning for the good old days of the 2000's and bemoaning how the 20TEENS's was the worst decade ever.(BTW - I did try referring to this new decade as the Teenies for a while, but stopped when I had to say the phrase 'we are leaving the naughties and entering the teenies' so I vowed never again).

People used to go on and endlessly on about how the 1980's were rubbish, the music, the movies and the fashions were missing the explosive youth culture exuberance of the the sixties with all it's Beatles and Hippies and drug culture and political activism. The 1970's were full of punk, disco, glam, rock and Mohawks, flairs, platform boots, tinsel and make-up. For much of the 1990's and the 2000's people also sneered at the 'decade that taste forgot' the much maligned 1980's. But in the latter years of the decade we just put to bed, suddenly all the young hipsters were wearing 'BIG WORD' t-shirts and flouro prints and wearing white framed, over-sized sunglasses. The only thing missing was those goddamn awful Hyper-Colour T-Shirts. So nostalgia is not what it used to be. Of course if you were 18 years old in 2008, maybe t-shirts with flouro designs on them might seem a bit 'rad', but if you had been through all that the first time flouro is, ironically, very dull indeed. That's what happens though. When you are a young pup, you are constantly looking for ways to define yourself, to mark out your territory in the world. You are looking to say loud and proud THIS IS ME WORLD - PAY ATTENTION TO ME. Of course what generally happens is that kids define themselves by desperately trying to fit into a group they think is 'cool'. If the group also annoys/upsets/outrages their parents all the better. It might be a clique at school or you might pick a band you like and decide to dress, act and talk like them. Even this great tradition has been horribly corroded these days, because most bands look and personae is constructed by the record co's fashionistas wardrobe department and not by the artist's unique expression of who they are and what they have to say.

Were the 2000s the worst decade ever. Not even close. Compared to a decade that included The Black Death, the depression, World War, the Spanish Inquisition, conscription, an ice age or any decade during a 100 years war, the 2000s were not that bad. At worst the 2000's were a bit bland. Like anytime, there was good stuff if you looked for it, but that is a blog for another day.

Retrospect is 20/20. But I do wonder if we will be looking back with fond nostalgia at the Crazy Frog and bloody nickleback

JANUARY 3RD WTF HOLLYWOOD?

JANUARY 3RD 2010

WTF HOLLYWOOD?!?

I was disturbed to hear they are in the final stages of making a new version of the 1984 classic movie Red Dawn. In the original, with a young Patrick Swayze, the USA have been invaded by the Russia and Mexican mercenaries and the ‘greatest nation in the world’ has fallen. The story whilst still having some jingoistic U-S-A leanings is more about actual patriotism, the survival and rite of passage of a bunch of young kids having to learn everything from how to survive to how to fight and becoming heroes. I love this movie. Now they are remaking it, with some changes. Obviously Russia is no longer the threat it might have been when the original was made, so what would be the obvious threat? The Taliban? No, not plausible enough. No they have opted for an old American favourite. The Red Peril. Commies. In the new one the States will have be invaded by China. Given the state of the States these days, once more waving Communism around as a threat to democracy is like red rag to a bull (sorry couldn’t resist). But wait – there’s more!

There is also a big budget of ROBOCOP in the works.
They are remaking FOOTLOOSE (with Zach Efron in the Kevin Bacon role)
And FAME.
And ROMANCING THE STONE.
And BARBARELLA.
I am actually feeling a bit sick writing this list. Why would you need to remake Barbarella? Why not make an original piece of work that can become the new Barbarella? Fans of Horror films should be quite rightly horrified at the massive list of remakes of classic slasher flicks getting re-made, instead of coming up with new ones.

It is one of the saddest trends in movie history that Hollywood, that they don’t make new and innovative movies any more. They just go through old TV Guides looking for whatever b-grade TV shows nobody has picked over yet to turn into big CGI FX flicks. I mean what are they going to be making remakes of in 20 years time? Remakes of the current remakes? These include Rosemary’s Baby, Child’s Play, Hellraiser, Poltergiest, The Birds, The Thing, and the one that is doing my head in, is NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET which will NOT have Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and has two words attached to the project guaranteed to set to the heart of any fan of the Elm Street on edge. Michael Bay. Michael Fuckin Bay. Have we learnt nothing people??

We’ll get back to the movie remakes in a tick. Also brace yourself for a Tsunami of big budget movies developed from much loved TV shows, including but not exclusive to
MAGNUM PI
THE JETSONS
THE A TEAM
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
THUNDERCATS
THE SWEENEY
CHiPS
FRAGGLE ROCK
THE SMURFS
MIGHTY MOUSE
KNIGHT RIDER
MIAMI VICE
KUNG FU

Think about the time, effort and MONEY involved in turning the Smurfs into a major motion picture. Does the world need a Thundercats movie? Stuff like CHiPS they are not even trying. Why not make a new movie about a couple of Highway patrol men. Why tag it to a thirty year old TV show that barely anybody even remembers? Did the Dukes of Hazzard movie make so much money they rushed to CHiPS next? I doubt it. Knight Rider is completely redundant now everybody has a talking car (GPS baby)! Why do they do it? Because the fat cats at the top of the movie making food chain, don’t know anything about movies (even low-brow ones) they only care about the bottom line of how much box office it will do in the first weekend. So if you take a cop movie to them and say it’s about to Highway patrolmen riding motorbikes and fighting the bad guys. Fat Cat goes ‘-------------------------------‘ until you say, like the TV series CHiPS and then the eyes light up, the palms rub together and deals are made.

But I have saved the worst til last. Even if you discount the mountain of bad idea remakes including remaking Valley Girl, The Neverending Story, Halloween, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bad News Bears, TRON, Death Wish, Evil Dead, Karate Kid (although they are calling in Kung Fu Kid) , An American Werewolf In London, My Fair Lady, AKIRA (for god sake) and the Fritz Lang silent classic Metropolis. I find all these are merely just stupid and pointless re-makes. They are called ‘classics’ for a reason. The word Classic means “: serving as a standard of excellence : of recognized value”. Excellence. Does anybody in Hollywood remember what it is like to make an ‘excellent’ movie. It seems they are only interested in excellent opening weekend box office. Even if you ignore ALL of those, there are a five remakes in the works that make me want get on a plane go to Hollywood and STAB PEOPLE IN THE FACE.

So here is my top five most hated forthcoming remakes of films that are ABSOLUTELY PERFECT ALREADY and are in no need WHATSOEVER of being remade.

5. ROCK’N’ROLL HIGH SCHOOL – I can barely discuss the ridiculous notion of trying to make a new version of this Roger Corman film from 1979. Corman’s distinct, cheap and nasty, film making, his that’ll do style could never be replicated. And who would replace THE RAMONES? Good Charlotte? My Chemical Romance? Short Stack? I shudder to think. Dumb Idea Mr Hollywood.

4) ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK – *takes three deep breaths. Look it must be obvious to anybody that trying to remake Escape From New York (or it’s sequel Escape from LA) is a pointless exercise. Part of what makes these cult classics is the very fact they are relics from another time. In 1981 all that pseudo-futuristic bizzo was very ‘in’. The post apocalyptic, fetish wear, mutants with Mohawks, were de regur. Mad Max, Blade Runner, Class of 1984, Duran Duran’s Wild Boys. HOWEVER – this idea could be saved by not re-making Escape from New York, but making a BRAND NEW Snake Pliskin movie. Kurt Russell has still got it (see Death Proof) Escape from Old London, Escape from Hawaii, Escape from Kangaroo Island…pick NEW one – DON’T REMAKE AN OLD ONE.

3) HIGHLANDER - *grinds teeth to powder while gripping desk til knuckles are white deciding that he should go and find the producers and lop their heads off with a Japanese sword while shouting THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. Okay I know they made another one, that didn’t make much sense and then there was that TV series that was quite good for what it was and there seemed to be ‘only one’ per episode, but we have the perfect Highlander movie already. It is perfect. Do you understand?

2) BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER - *hyperventilating with rage at this point. Do not misunderstand me. I LOVE BUFFY. I believe that the TV series is one of the most perfect works ever made. It looks like a fluffy little Beverley Hills 90210 with Vampires at first, but then you realise the layers, and the writing and the story arcs and the character arcs, and the way this tiny thing means nothing til two series later. It is the ultimate and complete television drama/action/fiction/fan boy package. We are currently re-watching Buffy and Angel for the umpteenth time. I was deeply sad when these shows ended. Not so much Angel, which was okay, but Angel is only really good when he’s Angelis and being all uber-evil and bitey. When he is Angel, he just looks sulky and he’s a bit wet. I even like the original stupid movie. It’s a dumb teen romp, that has little to do with the Buffy-verse that Joss created later, but it’s pretty cool. Understand me when I say, I would be going into conniptions if the proposed new movie was written and directed by Joss, with Sarah Michel Geller and all the gang back for some big screen showdown with a mega-bad. I say bring that on! BUT it turns out the people who made the goofy ass original film, retain the rights to make a new film and they are making noises like ‘re-imagining’. (starts sharpening his face stabbing blade). Especially as Vampires are ‘so hot right now’, the danger is they’ll rush something out that sucks balls on a major scale.

1) THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW - *steam starts exploding from ears, face goes crimson with rage, foaming at mouth while banging head on table, sparks fly from now razor sharp and white hot face stabbing blade, as I drag it on sharpening block, etc.,

Oh my God! THIS IS THE STUPIDEST IDEA EVER IN THE HISTORY OF STUPID IDEAS. If a team of stupid people, climbed to the highest and stupidest peak of Mount Stupid, this stupid idea would be at the peak. In 1975 The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released to lukewarm houses and reviews. But over the next few months and years something happened that we may never get the chance to see happen again. It grew a mammoth audience through late night screenings, audiences dressing up like the characters, making the whole thing interactive. The stage show continues to play to packed houses the world over and THIRTY FIVE YEARS LATER, the movie still looks glorious. The colours, the costumes, the songs, the performances, has not one microbe out of place. Deciding to remake RHPS is like going to the Louvre and saying ‘Yeah the Mona Lisa is good, but it’s a bit small and who is this Mona Lisa chick anyway. I am seeing a remake, with..Jennifer Aniston. And it needs to be a LOT bigger, like billboard sized, with CGI backgrounds….AND IN 3-D! Call the FX guys this afternoon I’ll start working on the product placement’.

What set Rocky Horror apart from everything else was that it wasn’t like anything else. It was a bit like a 1950’s b-grade horror movie, but it was a musical, it has science fiction, sex, fetishism, cannibalism, and it is really funny. A lot of why it works is because it is larger than life, and cartoon like (the cut always to the narrator with his Time Warp dance step chart, etc). Hollywood seems incapable of not going overboard with any one of these elements. The idea of them trying to re-invent this perfect wheel fills me with dread. It’s not even like the characters look horribly out of date. Brad & Janet look like a couple of squares, and everybody else Frank N-Furter, Magenta, Riff Raff are all perfectly over the top already. Could anybody ever top Tim Curry’s performance of Frank? I have seen a dozen stage versions and while I have enjoyed them all, nobody has ever come close to the perfection of Curry.

The money men just can’t resist the combination of known brand+CGI+big name stars = sure fire winner. I’m not saying there is no movie that should ever be remade. The Marvel adaptations have all been great, nobody needed to be stuck with the crappy 1970’s Spiderman. With the zillions of dollars they spend to make some of this crap surely they could develop some NEW classics, new chacters, new franchises. Even new ‘cult’ classics.

I should also say that the reason Rocky Horror made it to numbero uno on my list is only because it now appears that the rumours I have been hearing about absolute favourite movie of all time being remade this year, now appear to have been false. The original PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE was released a year before RHPS, and shares some similar elements. It has rock’n’roll music, a sinister bad guy, stunning costumes, and a dark sense of humour and story line that combines the musical svengali (Swan) following a Faust line of selling his soul for worldly wealth and power. He steals the work of a struggling songwriter who then wreaks a terrible revenge. I have watched this movie a hundred times easily. It was Brian DePalmas earliest feature film. It was never a huge hit (except for some weird reason in Winnepeg Canada where it was a huge cult hit – they still have conventions there for it etc), but it has a legion of fans around the world. If you have never seen it, you can get a dvd of it for under ten bucks and I would recommend you do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n5qVJEg3qA

Will it ever end? These remakes, re-imaginings? In ten years will people go we should re-make those Lord of the Rings movies in plasticine stick figures coz that’s what the kids like these days. Will they remake all the Harry Potters films in hologram-vision. Let’s hope by then there has been a change of the guard in the Hollywood Hills and that new and innovative movies are once again gracing our screens (or whatever they will be using by then).

Don’t get me started on TV…….

JANUARY 2ND 2010 A GREAT WEDDING

I spent the first night of the new year without my wife.

Jordan was in big sister helper mode for her sister Rowan's wedding to Ralph today. Having just got married ourselves in September, Jordan had been using Rowan's wedding like the Wedding Methadone programme, weaning herself off wedding prep mode. Fortunate really, because you do get really 'into it' in the lead up to the day.

Getting married is the most incredible and powerful thing. It is also really stressful, and the most massively expensive and full on party you will ever throw in your life. But it for us it was one of the best days of our lives. Neither of us are particularly religious and more importantly we both come from families who didn't pressure us to do anything we didn't want to do, or invite people we didn't want to invite. Nobody was screaming at us that that 'isn't how you do things at a wedding'. We were extremely fortunate to be surrounded by supportive, generous, loving and smart friends, families and colleagues who just went into turbo mega-drive for us every step of the way.

The worst things :
The absolute worst thing was doing the guest list. My family is small (there is four of us) but Jordan's is gargantuan (close to 50) and when we sat down to make an initial list it was over 200 before we got out our mobiles to go through those numbers. We knew that this was impossible. We settled on 100 and then had to try and think of reasons to 'cut' people we REALLY wanted to be there to share our day with us. It was completely torturous, hell on earth type stuff. If we invite these guys, then we have to invite all the other people in that group. If we don't invite this person, they will be hurt and upset, etc. The easiest people to cut are people who have been married themselves and have been through it all themselves. Mostly those were the people who gave us a pat on the back and a knowing raised eyebrow. "That's cool! Have a fantastic day." they would say with a distinct flavour of 'been there-understand your pain - we're still all good'. We were advised to assume that 15% of the people we invited wouldn't be able to make it for one reason or another, so invite more than you can cater for. It turns out we both had very passionate invitee's and almost every single person we invited turned up and we were full house in the best possible way. You also tend not to do too much discussing with people why they didn't make the list. It's an unspoken thing, you just hope people realise that it's not a slight or a statement of how much you like or don't like them. It's just logistics and budget constraints.

Surprisingly, the second worst thing about getting married was doing the gift registry. The best gift for us was that over a hundred people that we love would all be in the same place to witness us making what I referred to in our Wedding Invitation Fanzine as 'sincere declarations'. However the convention is that on a day that is all about the two of you, people demonstrate that they hold you in great affection by bringing you stuff that will help set you up for your lives together. In order to not end up with 15 dinner sets or whatever, department stores have the 'Bridal Registry'. The happy couple go into Myer, get a little scanner so they can wander round the store zapping things they'd like to get as gifts, into the registry system. Then their nearest and dearest go to the store and get a 'wish' list of stuff the couple wants and pick what they want to buy for them. Doesn't that sound like fun? What do we want? Zap that. And that. And we'll need four of those. Zap, Zap, Zap, Zap. It would be good if everything matched. Zap, Zap, Zap, Zap. But both times we went to Myer we found ourselves getting tetchy with each other in a way that we never do usually. In fact on the second trip we spend as much time deleting stuff from the first trip as we did adding more stuff. I think for me it was something about the presumptuous nature of telling people to buy us stuff that got under my skin so much. It is terrifying to think that Myer now offer the same service to Kids for Xmas.

We opted for Myer, but also had an on-line 'donation' site to contribute to our house fund. We had it set up so people could buy us a brick or a window or a fire place. This worked really well. People could give us money, but have a nice and tangible feeling of contributing to our future home, brick by brick. There are several of these types of sites on the net. We used Not Another Toaster.Com. The only negative was that is when people pay by credit card, there is a quite hefty surcharge (that doesn't apply if paid by direct bank deposit or cheque). It meant folks would 'buy' us $100 worth of bricks and then be slugged with a $15 fees at the last stage. This was a cause of some embarrassment, because we just didn't know about it. We understood that the 'one-time fee we paid ($150) covered everything. We also gave people the option of donating to KIVA (http://www.kiva.org/) on our behalf. KIVA is an organisation that gives business loans to people in third world countries to help start or maintain businesses in order to become more self sufficient. Which meant some of the wedding money went to help people buy a goat, or raw materials, seeds, etc. And when those projects start making a return, the loan is repaid and we can either withdraw the money or re-invest it in other KIVA projects. So far we have been repaid from a pig farmer in the Philippines, a mother’s group running a roadside cafe in Uganda and farmer in Somalia and Jordan is deciding who to send that money to next. Nice to think our wedding has helped some people out in situations much worse than our own.

The Best Stuff
There was a lot of best stuff. The gathering of the people was amazing. People came from all over the country and beyond in order to be with us on the day. It is wonderful and exciting to have so many people from so many different nooks and crannies of our lives all in the same place, all unified together in a common thing. The two of us were the common thing. The 130 people (yeah the guest list did blow out a bit now you mention it) in attendance were our families, childhood friends, all our besties, our confidants, our mates, friends from jobs we've had, it was like This Is Your Lives doing a special episode on us. It is rare that you are ever in a room with that many people and you REALLY LIKE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Every single person there was smart, generous, giving, creative and supportive of us in different ways. It is a bit daunting and humbling to have that many people LOVING AT YOU with such intensity. There's a lot of love in the room at Xmas for instance, but that it spread around in all directions. On your wedding day it is all aimed right at the two of you, like light through a magnifying glass. When we walked into the reception the place went bananas. It's a bit like being a rock star. Everybody is cheering and applauding and it is dizzying. You can understand why people crave fame, in some ways. Every night Pink or whoever, walks on stage and 20,000 people are loving at you for a couple of hours; it must get pretty addictive.

Our ceremony was really special. We wrote the whole thing (plagiarizing a few things along the way), made our vows very personal and realistic. 'I Promise to love you as much as I can, as hard as I can, for as long as I can..'. We both felt very strongly that the current legal wording of marriage being between a Man and a Woman, had to have a caveat to acknowledge the loving partnerships of people of all sexual orientations. It was a decision that was not hard to make, but meant a huge amount to us both and to many of our friends and family members in same-sex relationships. Our readings were not traditional. They were not sickly sweet or full of unrealistic floweryness. There was some gritty stuff. The main reading (read splendidly by our good friend Andrew McClelland) was actually a children’s book called I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warhurst. It starts off

I like you and I know why.
I like you because you are a good person to like.
I like you because when I tell you something special, you know it's special
And you remember it a long, long time.
You say, Remember when you told me something special
And both of us remember

When I think something is important
you think it's important too
We have good ideas
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I'm funny and you think I'm funny too
Hah-hah!
I like you because you know where I'm ticklish
And you don't tickle me there except just a little tiny bit sometimes
But if you do, then I know where to tickle you too
You know how to be silly
That's why I like you
Boy are you ever silly
I never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it's time to stop being silly
Maybe day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Too late, it's a quarter past silly

Read the whole thing here :
http://ginevra.vox.com/library/post/i-like-you.html

We had our first kiss five years ago in the doorway of Natasha Stott Despoja’s office in Grenfell St. We had been turfed out of the Chocolate Bean at closing time and ended up round in that door way. We were kissing and some guy went past on his way to the The Cranker and yelled ‘HEY DJ IAN – NICE ONE MATE!’. So that doorway became a part of our legend, and whenever we went past that office I would say ‘Thanks Natasha’. When I told that story as part of my speech I got to that line and hit go on the video. Natasha Stott Despoja appeared on the screen saying. “Hi Everybody. My name is Natasha Stott Despoja. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Ian and Jordan all the very best on the occasion of their marriage. I did, however, want to talk to you about this security video from my office from August 2004. Now whilst I can not condone this kind of behaviour, I am kind of glad to have played at least a small part in your budding romance. I hope you have a wonderful night and congratulations”. The reception went crazy and the look on Jordan’s face was priceless.

But the best thing of all was looking into the eyes of the woman I love, and swimming in her love for me, complete and total overwhelming love and trust. We made sure to have some quiet moments together even in the middle of the wedding hurricane that was swirling all around us. To have those very quiet and personal moments together was very special.

Then there was a massive party! We moved the speeches forward by an hour to allow for more dancing and EVERYBODY was dancing their arses off, including us.

It was absolutely perfect in every single respect.

Did I mention the worlds great cup cakes?

So all that said, today was Rowan and Ralph’s perfect day. He looked sharper than normal (no mean feat for the always impeccably well dressed Ralph), and Rowan looked like a Hollywood Star and they both glowed with happiness and joy. The ceremony was warm and wonderful, the reception was fantastic, the speeches – heartfelt, funny, sincere. The DJ was amazing (okay – it was me – but I was terrific!) and the dancefloor was a blitz of people dancing to party favourites and German tunes. It was a long and wonderful day celebrating the union of two people we love very much indeed.

JANUARY 1ST 2010 - a brand new year.

At midnight on New Years Day 2010, I was presiding over the music at my latest club (IT'S TOPS). We dragged a bunch of people into the new decade in precisely the way they should be. In a dark noisy place, with loud music, and a bunch of people who play well with each other, out for fun and not trying too hard. Over the years I have gained a reputation for playing a quirky smorgasbord of sounds based loosely on my slogan of many years 'We play Pop Music'. It was a way of saying to the Indie police "I'm not bothered about being the most Indie DJ in town - you are welcome to it champ!". I LOVE indie music and I play lots of it, I just love a good pop song more. For many years I had a club called POP! which started primarily as an Indie or Brit-Pop style club in the mid-1990's. It was hugely successful, with queues round the block every Saturday night, in summer or through the freezing cold winters kids would line-up for like two hours to get in. This always confused me, but made me want to give them the best night ever when they did get in. But when the lager lout crowd started getting a bit belligerent, acting like they were a Milwall FC away game, demanding in their fake English accents for me to play 'PLAY SOME FOOKING OASISSSSS', I started to shy away from a strictly indie/alternative format. Partially to discourage those chaps from coming. They weren't actually dancers. They mainly wanted to stand round in a circle and sing Wonderwall while spilling beer on each other. I love a lot of different types of music, you can find me at gigs by Jarvis Cocker, Kiss, The Buzzcocks, Kylie, Nick Cave, The Residents but the constant for me is a good pop song. By 'pop' music I don't mean 'Chart Music', although it is often music that makes the chart. I am talking about the glory of the pop song. A collection of beats, sounds, melodies, counter melodies, catchy chorus and chord sequences that lift your heart and strike a big fat happy power chord in my heart, brain and feet. Abba made perfect pop. So did the Ramones. Enter Sandman by Metallica is a perfect pop song. Oasis have many pop songs of note (although i always preferred Blur or Pulp). Tom Jones, Dead Kennedys, Kylie, Madonna, Bloc party, Dandy Warhols, The Cure, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, The Clash, Beach Boys, Beatles, Outkast, Lily Allen, Lady GaGa, Pet Shop Boys, The Wondermints, TaTu, Dylan, Beyonce, all of them are pop singers no matter what sub-genre they get put in or put themselves in. So to me it's just good pop music. Variety is the spice (girls) of life in my book. It was the Spice Girls that was the breaking point for some of the Lager Lads at Pop! 'WHARRA YOU PLAYING THIS POP SHIIIIIITTTTTEEEEEE FOR? It's an indie club!' Spat one young chap.
"Well," I cleverly countered, "the club is called POP! and the slogan is WE PLAY POP MUSIC, and the Spice Girls is about as POP as you can get". Somehow my fantastically astute observation were lost on him, as he puffed up his giant parka and flounced off into the night. The venue received a letter of complaint about how I was destroying a good club and they should 'POP! SHOULD STOP PLAYING POP SHITE AND GET BACK TO BEING A PROPER INDIE CLUB' and that they should 'STOP HIM IMMEDIATELY'. It was a very bitter and hostile letter (which I still have somewhere) , attacked me and my club but they were too gutless to sign it. Where is the strength of your convictions fella? I learnt a long time ago you can't keep everybody happy. Especially if you play a wide variety of styles in the one night. The Indie kid will think you're playing too much retro and the retro kids will complain about too much indie. So it's a constant juggle to keep most of the people happy for most of the time. What did happen was that we weeded out the narrow minded ones and ended up with a fantastic (and sizable) bunch of regulars who liked lots of different stuff. Also when I played the Spice Girls, the cool 'indie' kids could dance to it 'ironically', in a way they couldn't do in another venue.

I refuse to be pinned down to what somebody else thinks I should or shouldn't play. Where would be the fun in that? The answer is there is none. None fun. So for those nights like : POP!, BANG!, CRANK! and now IT'S TOPS! the format takes a little getting used to, unless you are familiar with my shenanigans. But mostly people work out pretty quickly that a club with no pop prejudice is actually a good thing. The first couple of It's Tops have gone really well and I am loving watching people go crazy when I play something they are not expecting.

Traditionally at New Years people make resolutions and get reflective about what has happened in the last year. For me I am always to busy getting ready for the biggest night of the year (those NYE tapes take days to make), working on the night and sleeping most of the first of January, so I'll cover that stuff in a few days.

So I started the new year and the new decade the way i have for many years, in a dark noisy place with a bunch of great people going mental to great pop music.

Roll on 2010 - it's going to be great.

...So I've been thinking...

that I should really write more. So I have given myself a little task to write something everyday of 2010 in a place where people can see it and see how it goes. I have never been any good at keeping a diary or a journal before, so this will require me reaching into hereto untapped resolve and determination. Some days it wil be really short and others I suspect will be long and rambling, hopefully it will be worth reading. Let me know. Roll on 2010!