Monthly archives: July 2004

Cool as Kim Deal

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The Move festival yesterday, in the rain. I got there by a convoluted route, involving a lift out to Eccles New Road and hopping off the tram to catch a shot of The Mirrorcow.

I met my sister at the tram station. Security were asking everyone with glass bottles to get rid of them. I had the brainwave of dumping two bottles of Stella into my water bottle and donating the other two to security. But it turned out we weren’t supposed to bring any alcohol in. It’s all part of a scheme to fleece the punters by selling them overpriced booze once they’re inside the festival. I downed the two bottles I’d opened and tithed the other two to the good natured but confused bloke who’d stopped us.

That much beer that quickly made me a bit fuzzy for a while. Thankfully Jo and I had both planned to avoid the expensive food stalls and there was quiche, chocolate brownies, cold mega-veg roast and jasmine tea to keep us going. We bagsied seats in the stands and kept them until the pixies set.

First up were the 22-20s. Raucous indie- guitar stuff, which I’m always a sucker for. Very good. They released a single- Shot Your Gun at the end of last month.

Second set was The Stands. Folksy tinged stuff. Not as good as 22-20s. Album- All Years Leaving.

Tim Booth has a very distinctive voice and his current music is a progression from his days in James. Good stuff. He still dances like he’s pissing on the middle rail, though. New album, Bone, released last month. (The Best of James is worth a listen as well.

Goldfrapp. Perspex guitars, theremins and a singer so high pitched windows must have been shattering for a mile around. Strict Machine is their most recent single, Black Cherry the album.

I’ve seen Frank Black a couple of times, but this was the first time I’d seen Pixies and was the main reason I bought a ticket. Absolutely awesome. The rain started coming down hard for the last two songs, but that made the atmosphere better, if anything. Wave of Mutilation is the recent best of. Last Splash by The Breeders and Frank Black for an idea of what Frank ‘n Kim have been doing in the meantime.

Stereophonics were going to be a disappointment after the might of one of the most important bands ever. They make a nice enough noise, and have done some songs I really like. They just weren’t good enough to hang around in the heavy drizzle for the whole set. A couple of good songs then we left to avoid the mad charge for the Metro. Best Stereophonics album is their first one, Word Gets Around, where they document small town Welsh life, which is so much like small town Cumbrian life that it holds a special place in my heart.

All in all, a great day and well worth the money. Sunshine would have been nice, but rain was so much more Mancunian.

(Cool as Kim Deal, Dandy Warhols)

All you had to do was ask…..

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I’m still getting hits for Abi Titmuss, but they’ve started taking on variations along the “sex tape” line. I thought this was just people being optimistic, but no, Fleshbot informs me there really is an Abi Titmuss sex tape. (They also had something about a Cameron Diaz S & M sex video, but you wouldn’t find me doing anything as crass as mentioning it just to help the search engines. Oh no, not me.)

The Pisstaker

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A former Green Beret, who claims he was the basis for George Clooney’s character in The Peacemaker, has been arrested in Kabul for running a private prison where captives were hung from the ceiling by their feet and tortured. The plan, it seems, was to use any information they gave up to capture wanted Al-Quaeda members and claim the multi million dollar rewards. The story compares Kabul to postwar Vienna in The Third Man. this is certainly the sort of thing that would make for a great story, but it’s horrific in real life.

Before that they put up a bowling alley, On the site that used to be the local Pally

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The Odeon cinema on Oxford Street, which has been showing films since 1930, could be facing closure. It’s not the best outfitted of Manchester’s city centre cinemas, but I’ve been visiting it for years. I used to take advantage of the cheap Monday deals in much the same way we’re using Orange Wednesday’s nowadays- to see films that I would never pay full price for. I guess it’s losing out over parking as well as in the facilities battle.

Just down the road, the Laser Quest on Whitworth Street West has been fined for electrical faults in its equipment. LQ was popular with Team Spinneyhead members, particularly Daz, in years gone by. Perhaps the team should get together some day and brave electrocution to shoot schoolkids.

(Come Dancing, The Kinks)

Cow Punching

This entry was posted in Cow Manchester Vampire Wythenshawe on by

The bovine terrorists have started attacking two year olds. Fearing for my safety, I headed off to get the Wythenshawe and Airport Moos. The shiney new Forum is very impressive, but if it needs to have the lights on on a day as bright as this then there’s something wrong.

I’ve never actually flown out of Manchester Airport, only gone to drop people off and pick them up. And I’ve only ever gone there via the M56, so I got lost trying to cycle from Wythenshawe to Ringway. But it was a nice kind of lost, particularly on a day this sunny. I managed to get six of the seven cows, Alphadite is airside and I really didn’t want to piss off Police with guns. If anyone’s flying out of Manchester before September can they try to get me a picture please.

And then I went to pay homage to Concorde, seeing as I was in the area. I also found the cutest little Vampire. I think I want one.