Peer Pressure
Topic: levers
I am of course nothing more than a bare faced liar, as I make the confession that I had in fact been planning this little trip away for some months now, and it wasn’t just a spur of the moment move on my part because I was getting a bit uppity because my housemate insists on playing James Blunt at full volume whenever he’s in the kitchen frying cabbage and brussel sprouts - and invariably setting fire to the place. It wouldn’t be so bad, but more often than not it’s the same bastard track. “You’re beautiful”? You’re A Bloody Miserable Whiney Bastard, more like..

Anyway, partial blame lies with former housemate Greg “Des” Hopton (the Des monikor was apparently awarded to him while at University due to the boy’s penchant for all things Des Lynam – his mum has been instructed to record every edition of Countdown until his return), who decided to pack in his job and up-sticks to Wellington, New Zealand, so he could be reunited with his girlfriend Caitlan, who is an American, and was also a housemate, though not until I had moved out of that particular abode, but she did inherit my bedroom, so lucky her. Although, one complaint she did have on moving in, was with regard to the sudden appearance of large quantities of long black hairs in the chest of draws. To this day, I still protest my innocence as the hair on my head at the time was on a grade one, and although the rest of my body could be described as being of a “hairy dissipation”, my pastimes were generally not spent plucking out great lengths of pubes and storing them in the bottom draw.

I will be staying with Greg and Caitlan for just over a week.

Blame should also lie with Jenny and Chris, who are spending the next three months travelling round the world as of today, and who suggested we meet up in Sydney.

Additionally, blame should also be shared by Stig, who emigrated four years ago and now lives in Melbourne.

Admittedly, I did use the excuse of “going travelling” as an excuse to make myself appear slightly more interesting to my peers when they enquired what I was up to these days. And, so the more people I told, the harder it became for me to turn round and say I wasn’t going or to quietly forget about it. And so the greater the onus became for me to actually do something about it, and so in effect I became trapped.

The jailor to my own personal prison.

And so, to avoid the risk of endless ridicule from my peers, I ended up actually booking the bloody thing. Something, only a few years ago I wouldn’t even have dreamt of doing.

The victim of my own dastardly peer pressure.

Still, it should be jolly fun, and it’s certainly more interesting than the mundaity of every day life. Just means it’s all going to be a bit of a bugger when I actually have to come back and re-enter society.

Early Retirement
Topic: levers
Work took quite a dim view of my having booked a two-month holiday in the middle of their busiest period to date. Unfortunately the tickets are non-refundable, and apparently I can only claim on the insurance if the entire planet is plunged into nuclear war, and then we’ll probably find that the world’s insurance companies are the first to go. And so, it was with heavy heart that I tendered my resignation, effective 14th April. Admittedly they didn’t exactly go out of their way to talk me out of my madness – or mid-life crisis, perchance? Ahem, hopefully not, as I was kind’ve banking on surviving beyond my fifties, thank-you.

What was more annoying was the job agency that called me up the other day, offering me more money than I had ever seen, on a sixth month contract in London.

“Well, yes. Of course I’m interested” I said. “If your client’s got more money than sense, then I’d be more than willing to take them for every penny they’ve got.”

“What’s that? Two-month holiday? Did I say that? Oh no no no. That wasn’t me. You must have me confused with someone else. Er, hello. Hello?”

Bugger. Oh well, they can stick their poxy money. It’s probably all bent anyway. Still, the odds of my returning in June to no job at all suddenly appear to be quite high indeed.

Fly round the world for less than a pound.... (maybe not)
Topic: levers
Yes, yesterday’s rant wasn’t just because I was having a bad day. Oh no. Already I’ve marched my way down to STA travel and handed over a thousand pounds and demanded that they send me (in this order) to Los Angeles, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, back to Los Angeles so I can endure an irritating stop over, onto New York, and then back to Blighty in time for the World Cup. And I didn’t leave the Travel Agents until they’d damn well taken my money! Yeah, that’ll show the like of the Labour Party, James Blunt, Chico, The Daily Express, and erm the complete lack of Global Warming we’ve been having lately….

Farewell to these fair shores...
Topic: levers
That’s it, I’ve had it with this country, with its rubbish climate (March, and I’m still freezing my proverbial bollocks off, whatever happened to the halcyon years of Global Warming, when we could look forward to a Mediterranean climate, and be able to sun bathe on the beach at Weston in the middle of January, while wearing Factor 535 sun block, or risk being as withered and prune like as Robert Kilroy-Silk by the time we’re 30?), it’s rubbish Budget 1p on a pint of bitter? You b’stard. I’ll have to go back to drinking scrumpy at this rate) by a Chancellor who still reckons he’ll be Prime Minister before it’s time for us all to draw our pensions (but of course there’ll be no pension to draw by then as they’ll have been abolished by then, and that private works pension we’d been relying on will have mysteriously vanished in a Robert Maxwell ‘whoops fell off m’ yacht’ Mirror Group scandal – oh how very ‘80s – stylee). It would seem that, Brown is to Blair, what Charles is to the Queen. And then there’s James ‘bloody’ Blunt, making a band like Coldplay seem interesting at one end of the scale, and then hey lets all go crazy cos it’s Chico-Time (Copyright: Simon “how smug am I” Cowell), at the other. And don’t get me started on the Daily Express* still wasting the planets rain forests by printing yet another piece of drivel about flippin’ Diana and the non-story that they haven’t actually got any proof that she was bumped off by Secret Intelligence beyond the rumour that one of the chasing Paparazzo might’ve had a wonky moustache.

*At the risk of being sued by Daily Express owners, I should point out that they probably don’t print the Express on the nations forests, and in fact they’re probably not doing the world any harm whatsoever. On the other hand, a number of Richard Desmond’s other titles do feature quite a number of huge tits.

So that’s it, I’m packing my bags and leaving the country, just like Phil Collins did when Labour won power in 1997, and Frank Bruno (ahem) threatened to do, but then realised that they don’t tend to have Panto anywhere but Britain (I mean, do they? I would be fascinated to know. Where else can you get men dressing up as women wearing massive frocks, and women dressing up as boys? Bangkok, maybe?). And I ain’t ever coming back! Well not till June anyway cos that’s when my money’ll run out, and I’m not actually going till the middle of April as it stands, but I’m going to jolly well start packing my bags right now!

The Go! Team/The Grates/Smoosh Live @ Bristol Carling Academy 26/02/06
The two members of Smoosh outdo the current batch of Indie popdoms young guns (Arctic Monkeys, The Subway et al) by several years, their combined age equalling that of a fresh faced 24 year old. This is rather alarming. Should these girls not be in school? Many a comparison can be made between Smoosh and the pre-teen young bucks that went before them (sisters 11 and 13). On first sighting, the word MmmmBoppp might spring to mind. However, merely passing them off as the female equivalent of Hanson would be to do them something of a disservice. With merely a keyboard and drum kit in use, a comparison to Keane might be more appropriate. This is rather interesting, because if we are to go down this route, then we can conclude that the two girls, born in the dying days of the 20th Century, make a noise that is a hell of a lot more interesting than Keane, bland bland Keane, ever could. On the other hand they could just be the next Cleopatra (Comin atcha!).

Next up it’s The Grates. Are the Grates about to become your new favourite band? On the face of it, quite possibly. Hailing from Brisbane, Australia (or should that be Brissie!, admittedly somewhere I had once believed to have been made up by Neighbours scriptwriters as a handy plot device to deposit any cast members found ro be surplus to requirements), the threesome combine the verve and energy of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes and Le Tigre, to create a concoction of something very close to shear punk power pop madness. Although it is all about lead singer Patience, from the moment she bounded onto the stage, tripped over her microphone lead, and then plunged head long into the first song. This girl is quite simply amazing, as she quite happily belches between songs, in very much a vauderville style humour, mind. However, it’s rare that you find a support band that can captivate a crowd and lead an audience quite as successfully as The Grates. Admittedly, I was of the belief that the drummer and the sound engineer were in fact Smoosh’s parents, as they immediately dashed on at the close of Smoosh’s set to help pack away their gear. New favourite band? Quite possibly. The Internet has been scoured, and the EP should be winging its way any day soon.

With The Go! Team, everything finally comes to fruition. The Go! Team are a band I’ve been attempting to champion to my friends since around August of last year, thanks to a free CD giveway from the NME containing the album version of current single Ladyflash, the only jewel amongst a sea of somewhat run of the mill indie-by-numbers dross. The Go! Team are just something else, fusing Northern Soul with Sonic Youth, 70s disco beats with the themes from shows such as Huckelberry Finn and Friends. And to top it all, they have two drummers! Not since Pavement at their height in the mid-90s has their been a band with two drummers (although I think any comparison between the two, has to stop right there). Stand and marvel, as MC Ninja raps and freestyles through the likes of Feelgood by Numbers and Get It Together (surely worth a commercial release with Ninja’s vocals, anyone?), as she leads the audience in singing the chorus to Huddle Formation. The set is complete with an extended version of Ladyflash, with Ninja performing the various dances of the world (breakdancing for America, and a rather hilarious Riverdance for Ireland, culminating with Britain and a dance my friend Robin attributed to someone having a ‘spaz-attack’). And still it makes my heart weep that they were overlooked for the Mercury Music Prize in favour of Antony and the Johnsons. I mean, p-lease!

The Go! Team in Gig Photo Fury!
Now Playing: The Go! Team Live @ The Bristol Acadmey 26/02/06
Topic: Pop
Photos of such a poor quality the Paperazzi would be up in arms...

The Grates - They really are Grate!
Now Playing: The Grates Live @ The Bristol Acadmey 26/02/06
Topic: Pop



Your new favorite band?

Amstell, Oliver, NO!!!!!!!!!!
Topic: TV
Mere weeks after the shock announcement that Charlotte out of Ash was to leave Ash (https://levers.tripod.com/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1394361), news breaks that Miquita and Simon out of Popworld, are to leave, er, Popworld; thus rendering the 'best pop show on the planet' nothing but a sagging empty vessel, like Dick without the Dom, Cannon without the Ball, Little without the
Large, Chaka Demus without the Plyers, Andi Peters without Ed The Duck...

And who can replace the irreplaceable? Absolutely no one that's who. But, rest assured that it'll probably be a couple of the Dullards (TM) off E4 Music.

In a quote, Miquita said that she'd been on the show since she was 16, and now that she was 21 it was kinda like leaving school. Yes, I expect that would be a school for extremely thick people who kept being put down a year. God, I love that woman.......

Screen Burn
Topic: TV
Y'see. I knew BBC Four had more uses than showing re-runs of the Avengers.

The Guardian's Charlie Brooker (Nathan Barley, TV Go Home), is to get his own show based on his weekly column Screen Burn in the Guide section.

If you're unfamiliar with his sarcasm, then check out his Screen Burn compendium that came out a year ago, and now going cheap in Fopp Records (for the pedantic, it is a book, not a record).

Read more about the show here

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1704667,00.html

Gotta be better than Bushall On The Box..........

Livejournal
Topic: levers.tripod.com
Can I draw your attention to my quasi-mirrored blog at Live Journal.com, in a somewhat futile attempt to actually gain an audience for my inane murmurings?

The reasons are thus described in my Live Journal profile as described via the following:

http://leverz.livejournal.com/profile

Rest assured, this site will continue to be active and updated for no other reason but my own personal satisfaction, until hell freezes over, or something similar.