The time is coming! Helena’s finishing off the last of her essays, I’m starting to contemplate which of my limited selection of clothing should go in a box in Galway, and which is suited to the height of Indian summer, and – as if to mock us – some mildly consistent sun has finally arrived in Dublin. It only took seven months! In just over three weeks my blog will transform itself into an (almost) living, breathing tribute to the carnage that is Delhi at (probably) 40 degrees. As for you lot, my hastily assembled fan base of unknown origin, you’ll all be saved my weekly asides on unnecessary public displays of extra-large sized lingerie and occasional paragraphs on the international Guinness value system. While we’re on the subject, did anyone else notice how English the origins of Guinness actually are? I digress. Clearly this trip can’t be a bad thing.
In between the lengthily periods of pondering (none of it, I can assure you, on the subject of oversized Poles), I had the good fortune to catch an extremely good live show on Saturday. ‘Record Store Day’ is probably the best effort I’ve seen to date at overcoming the recession: bring in a load of top quality musicians to play in record stores and hope those who come to see the bands buy a few albums too. I almost felt guilty for not stumping up. All money channeled towards India these days!
Anyway, I caught the (quite brilliant) BellX1 playing an extremely intimate set in a tiny store, including a duet with Lisa Hannigan to finish. There must have been about a hundred people rammed into a room not much bigger than our living room. They didn’t even have any microphones, just acoustic guitars, voices and a few beats from an iPod. Genius. And, as Fiona rightly pointed out afterwards, as much as Lisa Hannigan’s songs aren’t that special, she has a voice that would sound good singing the phone book.
Record Store Day and another dodgy Villa performance aside, it’s been another slow week on the excitement side. In order to occupy myself until the day doth arrive, I have embarked on a truly monstrous written output. My published articles for the past week have reached an average of one a day, which – for the officious amongst you – puts me right back on the 100-for-the-year target I set myself back in January (30 to date). The pick of this week’s is my interview with Pendulum, which actually took place back in Korea, but to finally see this thing in print is something quite special to me. Meeting some of my musical heroes is now forever enshrined on the Internet. At least until said site disappears or goes through a particularly thorough revamp.
Other assorted stuff for the week includes a (highly subjective) top 10 European Cuisines article, three album reviews (Green Go, Margaret Healy and the sensational debut from Sixteen Layers), the product of that Von Bondies interview I mentioned last week and a DVD review on Oasis’ latest offering. I’m very nearly over-musiced, again. And that would be quite an achievement for me!
Music aside, the only other excitement for the week came when I got a message from Dickon the other day, asking when he can come to Dublin. I had to be honest and tell him he probably has two more weekends before it’s all about packing. I expected a solid no, but he booked tickets for next weekend. Respect. It’s going to be a good one!
Now, back to the article grind!
24 days until England, 27 until India!
James x