I went to the panto at the Playhouse with Anders & Nick last week. Now, I've got to be honest, at about 2 o clock that afternoon I was feeling really tired and really just wanted to ditch the panto and have a night snuggled up on the sofa watching some dreadful TV and taking it easy. Partly this was down to the tiredness and partly down to my aversion to pantos. I've just always thought they would be bawdy, childish and get infuriated by all the "he's behind you" shouting. I think I went to see a particularly bad one as a child. I have a memory of tiny me all red faced and angry being made to shout "He's behind you" for about the fifteenth time. I used to hate it when people deliberately used to pretend not to know/see things. Sounds like I was an angry child. Weird.
Anyway, off we went to see Mother Goose, rather reluctantly, had a quick bite to eat at Cast (burger, very nice) and loaded up on sweeties for the performance. About 10 minutes in I think the first "Boo!" squeaked past my lips. About 20 minutes in I was laughing along at the one liners and ad-libs. Before the first act ended I was joining in with the singing, cheers and jeers with all my heart. I loved it! It was genuinely funny, the costumes and set were bright and spangly, the songs were fun and I didn't have to repeat chants 10 times to get anything to happen. They had a really nice balance between stuff for kids and adults, between playing it knowingly and getting involved in the performance and between the different characters. I've always been pretty certain that the panto wouldn't be for me, but I loved it and would recommend it to anyone.
On Friday we were hosting two gigs - one a proper Hello Thor gig at Spanky Van Dykes, with Injured Birds & We Show Up On Radar playing live - one a Broadway gig with Anders doing the organising, a celebration of Scandinavian sounds called Nordic Noise, with a Cardigans For Goalposts element thrown in.
Thankfully both were a great success, with lots of nice comments and some awesome performances. I won't talk about them all, but just want to record that We Show Up On Radar played with their full band for only the 3rd time. They were great. Having a fuller sound just totally makes sense and gives the songs a proper setting in which they can sparkle. The full band brings a bit more power and confidence to the performance as well as the tunes and everything just seems really right. I can't wait to see them again.
Here are a few of my favourite pics from the evening:
See more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellothor/sets/72157625467734169/
- Daddy Bones' Birthday at Broadway on Saturday - This is going to be great. The Yeah I'll Play It Later DJs will be on the decks, lots of lovely people will be hanging out and dancing. FUN.
Last weekend we went to visit Chloe & Jamie and see our other friends in London. On the Friday we went to see a 12 piece band who play DJ Shadow's Endtroducing through from start to finish and do all the samples live. I was really excited about that and thought it was going to be super cool, it turned out to be super lame. Lewis likened it to when his teachers formed a "rock band" at school. At times it was toe-curlingly uncool. Shame. However, we did get to go to Koko, which looks like this:
Lovely!
Over the weekend we also ate lovely food, caught up with Lewis and Emma, did a bit of shopping at a vintage market and went to see a great exhibition at Somerset House.
The exhibition was of work created for Dior by the illustrator Rene Gruau. His work is so beautiful and luxurious I just wanted to live in that world. You can imagine it feels like silk and smells amazing! He created pieces such as these:
His illustrations are incredibly stylish, yet minimal, confident and sophisticated. I could've looked at them all day. There were some 80's influenced ones which didn't really work for me so much (airbrushed style faces and angular cheekbones etc), but the 50s-70s ones were so good that didn't matter. Even his signature is beautiful. Look:
Anyway, enough wallowing in the glory of bygone days.
Stuff coming up:
2nd Dec - Studio sale at I Dress Myself to say goodbye to Han & Pete. I still can't believe they're leaving Nottingham, and so soon! They'll be missed.
10th Dec - We Show Up On RadaR @ Spanky Van Dykes. This looks set to be a great show and only the 3rd time they've played with their full live band in Nottingham. Look for the event on facebook for full details.
16th Dec - Jumpers For Goalposts @ Tether - For the first time we're leaving our Alley Cafe home and venturing out into the big wide world for a special Christmas edition of Jumpers to help Tether celebrate their final night of the studios. This is going to be FUN.
I reckon there's probably loads of other good stuff coming up too, but I can't remember everything!
At the weekend we went to see Hot Chip & LCD Soundsystem play a massive gig at the Magna centre in Sheffield. It was awesome! We saw Hot Chip here in Notts at Rock City recently and that was an incredible experience. On an ordinary Monday evening it felt like we had been to the carnival and church at the same time. Hot Chip came onstage to squeals like Beatlemania and every person there was dancing and singing.
This time things were different. By the time Hot Chip came on the area near the stage was a swamp of people crowding and pushing, so we retreated towards the back of this huge cavernous room. Inevitably the distance affected our involvement with the gig, so we didn't enjoy them quite as much this time. To be honest, we would've been hard pushed to equal last time anyway, so that was fine. Plus there were still some amazing tracks and their live sound is great. My favourite part is when the Chip that talks (beard & gingerish? Not a singer?) has to run between all his different instruments - guitar, drums, kettle drum - in one song. He really covered some ground.
The real revelation for me was LCD Soundsystem. Anders loves them, and has done for aaaages, which is why we got the tickets for this gig. I've never really listened to them if I'm honest. I've heard Daft Punk, Drunk Girls and a couple of others and they've never really grabbed me. The only LCD song I've really connected with is I Can Change, so I was standing just really waiting for that one song. We were right down the front, near the stage. Shit Robot was DJing and people were really getting in the party mood. Then, the lights went down and we stood in near total darkness and a familiar song started up. It felt both foolish and electric to be standing in the dark listening to I'm Not In Love by 10CC, with strangers all around singing along. After that, lights came up and LCD came out onto the stage and started up with Dance Yrself Clean from the new album:
(This video is really long, but I think it gives a feel of what the atmosphere created is like if you watch just the first few seconds)
It was like a lesson in how to open a gig. I didn't know the song at all, but everyone around us did and were singing along and really dancing. The song is perfectly constructed for this scenario - starting relatively small with James Murphy's vocals and minimal backing, adding in a few more instruments and members of the band as it builds and then halfway through just exploding into a huge sound. It was perfect to build tension and excitement at the band coming on and then gave the perfect release for everyone to sing and dance and (in the case of a man stood behind me who used me as a steadying post...) headbang. It was perfect.
(We had somehow ended up slap bang in the middle of fan boy central with people who knew every word and some people who had clearly taken their drugs too early and were even bouncing to 10CC. )
After both bands had finished they came on together and did a special collaborative cover of a song called "Seabird" by the Alessi Brothers (no, me either). It was really magical. It was like a moment from The Last Waltz for me, almost romantic... It was like a celebration of a tour romance between the two bands and was just lovely.
(as a post-script, I've just listened to the original and it's lovely, but the brothers appear to maybe have a little lisp... distracting and yet very sweet!)
Anyhow, I loved it and I'm really glad we got to see LCD, particularly as it keeps being suggested that this is their last album. And they played I Can Change. Yeah!
Other fun stuff we've been up to (quickly):
- Saw "A Town Called Panic" at Broadway just before it finished. Animated film, you might recognise it from the Cravendale milk ads. it's all created in stop-motion using little vintage toys (cowboy, indian etc) as the main characters. It's really fast and fun and inventive and I'd recommend seeing it on DVD if you can.
- Saw Micah P Hinson at the Rescue Rooms - This was the day after Hello Gore II (pics here from that by the way) and I was in no fit state to be going to a gig. I can't do things two days in a row. It didn't help that he had a harp lady playing before he came on and the rolling sounds were affecting my queasiness. I have nothing useful to add about the gig.
- My dad turned 60 and we celebrated with him. One of the things we did was go for a meal to a restaurant in Sheffield called Kitchen. We had the most down to earth, Sheffield born & bred, waiter you can imagine. Turned out he was a partner in the restaurant, which made sense, I'm not sure he'd have made it as a waiter. We asked what a dish described as Paris Brest with lots of french words was. His response? "Well, it's a choux bun. The chef came up with the name. I think he's probably made all that other stuff up." in a broad Yorkshire accent. Lovely! I ate a dish called 3 Little Pigs which was pork in 3 ways, including the revelation that belly pork is actually delicious.
- Went to Lustre at Lakeside Arts - this is one of my favourite events of the year - a big craft market with beautifully hand made objects from all over the country. Every year I suggest we go to look at Christmas presents. Every year we go and come back with "us" presents instead. This year I got a brooch with a zebra on. I love it.
SO, just to finish off I can confirm that it is Jumpers for Goalposts this week at the Alley Cafe on Thursday. We've got Burly Nagasaki playing, which will be a real treat. Plus we've got a great creative competition. Come down! It's free!
I'm delighted to say that my work has been chosen to be featured on the fantastic Cultural Expose blog as part of their travel photography feature InterNational!
HG2 Teaser from Dan Toporowski on Vimeo.
What a great line up! Without a doubt this is going to be the Halloween party of 2010.
Have you got your costume sorted yet? The theme is B-movies, but given that I haven't seen any we will be interpreting that very loosely. This is one of those occasions on which I wish i'd been better organised. Three days to go. Haven't decided on an idea. Oh dear. We're in trouble!
Full line-up for Gore II:
FISTS
HOT HORIZONS
YUNIOSHI
BLACK POWDER
HHYMN
RED SHOE DIARIES
BONSAI PROJECTS
JOEY CHICKENSKIN
& Hello Thor DJs
Plus! Nottingham Contemporary will be decorated up by the Left Luggage theatre people AND you can have your picture taken in the Garments of Gore photobooth!
All bands will be performing a spooky cover and a track of their own. It's going to be amazing!
Here's the poster by Rob Garner: (I love this poster, it's so cool)
Just wanted to post up some details about 3 gigs we've got coming up over the next couple of weeks. You can get more info on the Hello Thor website or read below.
1
Jumpers for Goalposts @ Alley Cafe - Thurs 21st Oct.
We're back at the Jam Cafe again this year, because we had such fun there last year. We've got a cracking line up too. Over The Wall, Moscow Youth Cult, Escapologists, Mexican Kids At Home, Matthew Stephen Cooper, Japanese Sleepers & Make A Halo.
It's all raising money for charity - there are other great bands playing all over Hockley and Hello Thor are really pleased to be a part of it.
3
Hello Gore II: The Return @ Nottingham Contemporary- Sat 31st Oct
Hello Gore is being allowed out for a second time. It's a massive FREE party at the Cafe.Bar.Contemporary with 8 amazing bands playing live. Dress to distress and have your photo taken in the Hello Gore Photobooth. Here's the poster:
Sorry posting has been a bit sporadic of late. Been busy!
Anyway, thought I would pop up a little post about exciting things that have happened/ are coming up.
Wales
Firstly, me and Anders went to Wales! It was lovely. We just went for a weekend up to Abersoch, and had a really wonderful time. We paddled in the sea, wandered on the beach, pottered round little villages, went out for really good thai food, watched TV all snuggled up on the sofa and visited Portmeirion. Anders has wanted to visit there for years since watching the Prisoner, so it was dream come true time! It's a really fascinating place - like a small European village (a bit like Prague in some places, italian in others - a real mix) but scaled down by about 20%. All the doorways and arches just skim the top of your head and houses look really big til you get up close and realise it's just a bungalow behind a grand facade. It's in a really beautiful location and uses a really fabulous colour scheme.
So, we had a great time and there was a real magic in being away from home and work, just the two of us. Here's a few pics from our trip:
Gig
Last week we saw Fists supporting Sparrow & The Workshop at the Bodega Social in Notts. It was an early show, which I was disappointed about initially, but actually made for a really good event. The crowd were clearly sober and as a result were super quiet during the bands' sets. It made for an unusual atmosphere, and gave a really good chance to appreciate the bands' music, and not just the performance. Often with unsigned/unfamous bands people are a bit chatty throughout - it's hard to keep your attention wholeheartedly on a band when you don't know any of the songs and I guess you're not invested in the music and performance the same way as you are when it's a band you really love and know well.
I really really enjoyed the Fists set. There were some different tunes in there, including "Roll back my eyes", which, in the hushed atmosphere, came across incredibly well. The band seemed relaxed and at ease up on the stage and there was a real warmth to both their & Sparrow and the Workshop's performances, which seemed borne out of a great bond they had forged during their week touring. I love to watch Fists, and often I'm really proud to see a group of my friends doing something great together like that. Every so often when watching I kind of forget that they're my friends and just enjoy watching a band I love. That's my favourite and that was what Friday's show was all about.
I really enjoyed Sparrow & The Workshop too, although I don't know their songs so I was a little bit less committed as a viewer. Their chemistry was really nice to see and I really liked that the drums played a strong part in their sound and the visual. For me I might've liked it to be a little more rough around the edges, but I guess with a beautiful clear perfect voice like the lead singer had that is tough to muster. Their harmonies were lovely and the songs never outstayed their welcome.
Sewing & Potatoes
Now for sewing and potatoes... two topics close to my heart this evening as I am off to my sewing class in Sherwood tonight and I'm thinking about which fabrics I want to take with me to make a cushion cover. I'm really enjoying my class so far and can't wait to get my own sewing machine. It's a bit like when I first learned to bake - a strange alchemy where some basic ingredients get turned into something wonderful to eat/wear/use. I know I'm doing it, but there's always a moment where the things I've combined come together through the oven or sewing machine and a little bit of magic happens and I'm surprised to see a perfect finished product like you'd find in a shop. (well, perfect to me)
The reason potatoes are close to my heart? Me and Anders harvested a little tub full of potatoes which we grew in our own garden and we're going to eat them tonight! I'm really quite overly proud of our small, randomly sized potato harvest:
So is Anders...
GIGS Coming Up
There are 3 Hello Thor gigs/parties coming up:
21st Oct - Jumpers for Goalposts -Magical music & craft night with Cecille Grey playing live and a monstrous craft competition - FREE
24th Oct - Hockley Hustle - Visit the Jam Cafe for a great Hello Thor line-up of cool bands at this nice charity festival!
30th Oct - Hello Gore II: The Return - This is our paean to Halloween and all things spooky. 8 bands playing live - a gory cover & a song or two of their own. Dress to Distress - FREE.
Been meaning to post this up for a while. The very lovely FISTS are touring next week with a great band Sparrow & The Workshop. Here's a cool video from Sparrow & the Workshop, so you can see if you like them:
This will be a great night, wherever you see them, but if you come to the Notts shhow you can get in for cheap too! Email Fists' record label hellothorrecords@gmail.com and they can sort you out to get in for £3.
And here's a little vid from the first ever Fists single launch, with Mexican Kids At Home & Harry Merry:
PLUS! If you are artistically minded then get in touch and submit a Zine entry to @fourbeatwalk (twitter) or the Hello Thor email above. The zine will be released in Oct in time for the Hockley Hustle (Jam Cafe) & Hello Gore II (Nottingham Contemporary).
Yesterday me and Anders saw Metropolis at the Broadway. I'll be honest, I really wasn't sure about going. In fact, I was chatting to Nick on the phone just before, declaring "I don't even like songs without words and they're only 3 minutes long!" I had reservations about the length of the film and the length of time it could hold my attention for without any dialogue. In fact I loved it. It was fascinating and beautiful and I barely missed the dialogue/ ambient sounds (footsteps, doors closing etc) after the first 5 minutes. It was definitely a bit long though and I definitely had a little cat nap at the end. In fact as soon as we got home after I had to go to bed. I felt really drained, I think something in the focus and concentration needed for a film without dialogue with a pretty involved storyline just wiped me out.
The film is amazingly well restored which makes it a pleasure to watch - not like some grainy/scratchy/blurry old films. You could see the nuance of expression and it didn't feel too broad and over-acted because of that. Plus you could really see the details of costumes & sets and (even though it sounds silly) I really appreciated much more how people from the olden days (1927 to be exact) actually look pretty similar to people from nowadays. I think they always look so different in photos - stiff & still - that they feel really removed from me and my life. Seeing them crisp and clear moving and talking (silently) made it feel much more relevant for me. In fact, I thought the central male character was reminiscent of Johnny Depp & Ray Liotta.
There were some amazing things in it, and I kept wondering afterwards how much of the stuff we were seeing had been invented by 1927 and how much was sci-fi prediction genius from the director.
For example, cars... I just checked, and they started being mass-produced in around 1910. Still, there were scenes with four lanes of traffic winding through the Metropolis, which just looked normal to me as a commuter, but in 1927 surely would have seemed a bit crazy?
The Empire State was built by 1931, so I guess the visual of this very tall, imposing, dominant city wouldn't be so unusual at the time. Still, if you were from a small town in England this would have been like Futurama looks to us now I reckon.
There's a scene where the boss of the city talks to one of his workers via telephone & TV screen - like the buzzer systems you get in flats. They were only just inventing television in the 1920s, never mind it being readily available in people's homes.
Finally then, here's the trailer:
And here's a clip I borrowed from Joey's blog, because it shows this incredible dance scene where the evil version of Maria dances and bewitches men into duelling and fighting. Check out how bewitched they are:
Plus you can see some of the effects Lang used, back in 1927 for chrissakes! They did stuff like combining miniature models of sets with real people using mirrors, with everything looking in perfect scale. They also did amazing scenes like the transformation (scene shown in the trailer) manually - exposing each individual piece of film as many as 30 times for shots which ended up lasting only about 10 seconds. Incredible.
I really enjoyed this as an experience at the cinema, and as an experience of seeing the result of lots of people's labours of love looking so beautiful up on screen.
It's a really interesting article and poses some difficult questions which are totally at odds with the way I, and many other people, think about food.
The prevailing wisdom at the moment is that it's much better to eat fresh food from a local source, grown as organically and naturally as possible. I guess the logic behind that is that it's what we used to do before science got involved and it's the way "god" (or the universe) intended it. It seems completely irrefutable to me that it's better to eat food grown outside in the rain and sunshine than inside in a lab, but will this become a luxury we can't afford in the future? And is it true that it's the best way?
I'll be watching and waiting for science to answer those questions I guess.
I love that strange convergence that happens sometimes where when you are pre-occupied with something you find it everywhere. I guess the clearest example is pregnant ladies who see loads of other pregnant women everywhere. They're not crazy, just noticing more. Anyway, a bad back has meant being restricted to the sofa a lot, which has meant I've gotten to play the new Super Mari Bros Wii game quite a lot. I keep getting the music in my head. I like the music. That's how much I've been playing it.
Anyway, the magic of convergence brought me this:
Students in Japan created this for a school festival. Amazing.
It has been a busy time for us lately. Anders is working hard on finishing off a marketing course and has been locked away in our little office writing a big assignment for weeks now. Soon it will be finished and he will be free! Free at last! He'll be able to emerge from his cocoon and get some sun on his pale skin. OK, it's not quite that bad, but it's pretty close. Plus he starts his new job today! Good luck Anders!
In the meantime I've been standing in for Anders @ Hello Thor, working hard to help get the Anxieteam record made and launched and up online. It's been really fun and the two launch parties were ace.
Nick & I drove down to London for the first gig last Friday and thoroughly enjoyed our first live experience of the band. It was a little bit nervewracking holding 100 copies of a picture disc for a band on your label who you've never seen live, but they did us proud. I love their onstage relationship. It's a lot like their off-stage relationship, but we get to be a little part of it. Favourite moments... pacman & ghost chase during "Lonely in the Digital World", the Anxieteam song, enjoying DJ miniBurgers' set loads (including a remix of an old Prince Paul track), seeing Nick & Anders appear on the projection screen during the "commercial break" to advertise the new single and texting people I love to tell them I missed them during the "Miss You" track, as instructed by Jon & Jim.
It was a late night drive back for me and Nick, fuelled only by Jelly Tots, Haribo and what Nick calls "Frooty Tooties". I remember demanding that Nick gave me the Haribo in a certain order to eat, an order which only I know, asking difficult questions about his life and loves and lots of "I just want to be at home now" comments. I'm a fun road trip buddy.
The Nottingham gig at the Contemporary was also super fun. Jim & Jon did an interview with LeftLion while we drank tea and watched the Contemporary guys set up the stage and projector etc. That was the relaxed part. After that it was busybusybusy. We were so pleased that loads of people came down for the party, old friends, kind supporters of Hello Thor and new faces. It felt like there was a lot of good hearts in that room and we all really appreciated that. I was in charge of the HT shop, so, tucked away in a corner, I didn't get to see so much of the gig, although I did make a break for it to see the pacman chase scene:
Big thanks to everyone who made me busy by buying the cakes / records / hello thor tees and giving out badges, stickers and Kate's cool Hello Thorzine. It really made my night! By the way, if you loved those cakes check out Star Bakery. It's run by a friend of mine and she makes AMAZING cupcakes (and wedding/birthday cakes too). I follow her on twitter (@starbakery) just to see pictures of them and make myself hungry! Cakes here:
mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Favourite bits:
When I managed to find a yellow HT t-shirt for the nice girl who very patiently tried on lots of sizes & colours til I managed to find the right thing, selling lots of records to nice smiley people, seeing Nick drop a classic Wu-Tang tune on the decks and that propelling Ned onto the dancefloor, the "Donut Batter" song by Anxieteam, wobbling dangerously on a chair to try and see the set from the back of the room and taking lots of "Hello!" pics:
Unfortunately during all the fun I had randomly developed myself a bad back, so I spent the rest of the bank Holiday sitting oddly upright on the sofa with a hot water bottle, cups of tea, Ugly Betty, a good book and Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. Ok, not so unfortunate, lovely in fact.
I also became addicted to The Great British Bake Off. Firstly, why are so many shows now the Great British this or that? What suggestions would you have for other great titles along those lines? Secondly, how did this show come about, and why are those people SO into baking?? Surely there's only so much drama and emotion you can squeeze out of a macaroon.... apparently not.
Thanks for reading, hope you had a lovely Bank Holiday.
Bex
x
p.s. if you didn't get to come/ have any cash on you to buy the "Let's Eat Soya" record you can pre-order it here and we'll send you a lovely picture disc and the digital files too!
Look what I helped to do this weekend! Muchos Fun-os.
Puppet Jon & Puppet Jim popped round to help us spread the word about the Anxieteam single launch parties happening this weekend.
Come along to The Lexington, London on Friday, or Nottingham Contemporary on Saturday and experience the (largely) food-based delights of Anxieteam. There will be masks, music, a dance routine, fortune cookies, a ukelele and a chance to get your digital portrait drawn by these two world-famous artists, Jon Burgerman & Jim Avignon, for free!
Support in London comes from caketronica purveyors Yunioshi and in Nottingham from Matthew Stephen Cooper, who sings songs about monsters and murderous birds.
More info on www.hellothor.com or on facebook, search "Anxieteam" or "Hello Thor".
It's the mega one-off music quiz at Spanky Van Dyke's on MONDAY (16th August)!
I'm organising this superfun quiz to raise money for charity, so I'd love it if you came along and brought a team with you. It's all about music, different genres and different types of rounds, so hopefully there will be something for everyone. Test your knowledge, flex the muscles of your musical mind and tell us the answers to questions such as:
Q: Who teamed up with Nancy Sinatra for the 1971 hit 'Did You Ever'?
So, come along on Monday, 8ish at Spanky's and get quizzical! Your host will be the delightful Joey Chickenskin and live music will be provided by the handsome and talented Rory P McCarthy, who (with any luck) will also be providing us with a LIVE "name that tune"!
A Jon Burgerman poster appeared in Neighbours this week. Yep, Neighbours.
And (even more exciting) THAT means we are now only 1 (tiny) degree separated from Dr Karl and Susan Kennedy because ...
On 20th September Hello Thor Records release the debut single by Anxieteam, the brand new musical collaboration between internationally-acclaimed visual artists Jim Avignon and Jon Burgerman! The single is a superfun journey to the heart of veganism and computer games - Let’s Eat Soya / Lonely In The Digital World – recorded in New York, mixed in Berlin, mastered in LA - is the band's debut double a-side single. Oh and it's a picture disc. Limited edition. Amazing.
Anxieteam splice together merry electronic pop melodies with dry, sardonic lyrics. It is music as colourful and as full of humour as their art, and equally as fraught with doubt and longing. Through the magic of electronic sounds and fumbled strumming on the ukulele, Anxieteam will transport you to a dreamy electronic, lo-fi, blip-bloppy pop world of anxiety, heartbreak and salads.
They have already played a series of bright, super-fun gigs (complete with masks, dancers, salad-making workshops, and digital portrait-making) in New York, Germany and Italy. We are pretty chuffed to announce that they will now also be playing the UK.
We've got TWO massive parties planned - Hello Thor proudly present ANXIETEAM, live in the UK for the very first time:
In case you don't know, there's a great blog called Draw Serge. I thought that, what with the film coming out and all, now might be a good time to share.
Basically, it's loads of talented people and illustrators drawing the wonderful Serge Gainsbourg, curated by the illustrator Jonathan Edwards (@jontofski on twitter). There are some great images on there. A new one I particularly like is:
Also look for the Felt Mistress 3d Serge. It's great! Makes me wonder whether we could set this as a challenge at the next Jumpers for Goalposts. I'll have to ask the team what they reckon!
I have also just done a Wordle. You probably know about these, but basically you put your blog/ whatever into it and it makes a little word picture of what you talk about. What I've learned is I say REALLY too too much.
Some weekends ago we all packed up the car and headed down to Truck Festival. Fists were playing, so Hello Thor was there in a loosely "official" capacity to see them & support them as their record label (and record label's wives!). Or we just wanted to hang out in a field for a bit and listen to music... same thing really. We arrived later on the Saturday, so unfortunately missed our friends Spaceships Are Cool in the Beathive. It became clear over the weekend, though, that they must have been amazing, because loads of people kept coming up to them and congratulating them all the time. It was lovely.
Truck had a really nice feel as a festival. I don't quite know what I was expecting, but it was definitely smaller. We parked the car, walked to where we would pitch our tents, pitched and walked down to the main stage and that took about 30 minutes. 25 of which were spent pitching the tent. At Glastonbury you'd walk 30 mins from the car before you even got a glimpse of any festival action and the same for the distance from your tent to any music. It makes a really lovely, relaxing, refreshing change. The farm was lovely and felt like a real farm, not just a huge pitch for the festival. For example, The Barn (where Fucked Up and Miss Dynamite played) actually was a barn and actually smelled of cow poo.
Anyway, music-wise we saw a very few things that evening:
- A mild & gentle introduction to the festival from Stornoway
- A little whisper of Darwin Deez as we arrived
- Fonda 500 in the Village Pub late on (always fun)
That's pretty much all I remember... the rest of the time was spent hanging out, gassing, eating burgers from the Rotary Club, drinking booze, dancing a bit in the dance tent, watching Nick offend a middle-aged gentleman, wandering around. In some ways it was kind of nice to not have the distraction of too many music "must-sees" because it meant we got to spend time with friends and not just mission around seeing a million bands.
Sunday
Obviously we started the day with Fists in the Village Pub. They were awesome. Played some new songs which they've just recorded somewhere in Dalston including one of my new favourites "Ascending". It was great to see them in this lovely, friendly festival context, although a little early at 11.50am. Despite this "morning" slot they gathered a pretty decent crowd and many more were drawn in through the set, which is always nice to see.
We wandered around a fair bit and caught: Danny & the Champions of the World - fun, big country band The Flowers of Hell - space-rock orchestra supposedly, bit like film soundtrack music - nice, but not high impact enough at a festival I felt. Fucked Up - we couldn't make it into The Barn (it was ALWAYS rammed in there), so we peeped in from the side of the stage. We could smell the cowshit still, but couldn't see a great deal of what was going on! Phil Lee - Old country guy who really looked the part and you kind of felt like his whole life was acting the part too, so it was a good show. I especially liked it when he sang about a lady's ugly baby and told us all after it was Willy Mason. Piney Gir's Country Roadshow - I was really excited about this having listened to her online and really liked the music. We even almost nearly booked her back in the day when we did Supernight. However, I found it a bit creepy - too much schtick, not enough music, like a country cariacature, all mime hands and big facial expressions. The Epstein - lovely country(ish) harmonies Unicorn Kid - Super cute young guy bouncing around and having the best time while people danced in a hot hot tent to his music. Will put up a bit of film.
I feel like we saw other stuff too, but I can't remember what. A lot of time was spent on the hunt for food. This would be my only recommendation for Truck... your toilets were clean and had paper at all times, I don't know how you did that, the beer came in compostable cups, the wine in the bar was cold and delicious... but there just wasn't enough nice food. Options were burger, chips, bacon sandwich, wrap, lentil dahl. I reckon a stall with some homemade soups, some stews, more cake etc would go down a treat.
Thanks to Truck from everyone at Hello Thor Records for a lovely weekend and to our lovely friends for making it ace.
Hello and welcome to our blog.
It's about the things which are important in our lives: music, art, performance, parties, photos, food and friends. Plus we occasionally see fit to post up some fun things we've found on the net, or general meanderings about our day-to-day lives.
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