I Want My MTV

Remember when MTV was good? When it had some kind of relevance? No, we'll it has been some time.
MTV not as good as it once was, it's not exactly a revelation I know. But it really was a decent Chanel. Or maybe it has always been awful and I just remember because it in a time when almost all the music information I got was from MTV. That or music magazines.
The post school routine was to switch on MTV News at 4pm.
‘Let’s see what Billy Corgan is whining about and what airport Snoop Dogg is getting arrested at today. Ah no, its that twat Jamiroquai going on about his new Lamborghini. Oh look, I see Courtney Love is back on the smack.

Recently I saw a video on Youtube called why MTV Don't Play Videos Anymore. Watch it below. It sums it up better than me.
So I don’t like MTV as much as I used too. I’m not supposed to. After all its not aimed at people in their thirties. I couldn't even name one song by No Direction. And I'm happy to keep it that way.

The Perfect Take

Its impossible to say what my definite favourite song of all time is. Depends on the day, and only then I could only narrow it down to a rough top fifty
But if I had to choose then Waiting for the Man by The Velvet Underground would be a strong contender. I’ve recently downloaded an alternative take of the song. Its good but doesn’t have the same impact of the one that appears on the album.
I’ve also got some live versions of the song that are slower and nowhere near as intense.
David Bowie covered it and it there’s nothing great about it at all.
Infact no version comes close to the one from the album. Its menacing and sounds like it could fall apart at any minute.
A great moment captured on tape.

Nirvana On Top Of The Pops

The early 90s, when American guitar bands discovered irony. And then post-irony, whatever that means. They mixed this with a self worth of authenticity and knowing cool.
The best and most obvious example of this is when Nirvana ‘performed’ their breakthrough hit Smells Like Teen Spirit on Top of the Pops.

Maybe the band were annoyed that they were only allowed to perform the vocal live so they thought they would properly take the piss. Jumping about with no relation to the music and Kurt Cobain’s comedy vocal. Its all done with a smugness of ‘this is so beneath us.’ and ‘we don’t even like this hit song anyway.’
Now I really like Nirvana but I can’t stand this performance. Not at the time and twenty two years on it looks even worse.
Its not like they had to go on the show. It wasn’t like someone was holding a shotgun to Kurt Cobain’s mouth. Oh bad choice of words.

Hyde Park Curfew

So at the end of the Bruce Springsteen concert in Hyde Park Sir Paul McCartney came onstage to have a bit of a sing song, only for the plug to b pulled halfway through the second song as they went over the curfew.
I Saw some mobile phone footage of it on the news. Everyone stops playing apart from Springsteen who carry’s on in his bombastic fist pumping manor. A bit embarrassing to say the least.

I have to applaud the authorities on this one. No I don’t care about the local residents. If you’re lucky enough (I mean rich enough) to live that central in London then expect noise. Especially in the summer months when there’s always a few concerts in Hyde Park.

What I applaud them for is not giving them time to do a rendition of Hey Jude. I’m sure they would’ve done it. And it would’ve gone on for ages.
“La la la la la la la… la la la la hey Jude, all the people at the back. La la la la la la la… la la la la hey Jude, all those in the front. La la la la la la la… la la la la hey Jude all together now.”
How much longer will McCartney continue joins other old rock stars on stage and bang out a couple of songs from the sixties?
Well there’s the Olympic closing ceremony. Then please, no more.

The Best Stupid Song

In a previous blog post I mentioned how apart from a few exceptions I can’t stand songs that sing something like “na na na’s” or “la la la’s” in the chorus. Especially the use of it by British bands in the 90s to disguise their lack of song writing and musicianship. The Super Fury Animals song The International Language Of Screaming being an exception. Well the Wilson Picket’s Land Of A Thousand Dances takes the na na na’s to the extreme. Not only that but the verse’s are lyrically just as banal. Its basicaly listing types of dances. But as stupid as it is, with the bands driving rhythm and Picket’s voice I defy anyone to not like the song.

A Random Find On The Net - Anthony Pandofino

I randomly came across an album on a blog that I blindly downloaded. I've done that many a time, with varying results. Though its not that often that I download a real find that's a keeper like I did with an album called Gnosis by Anthony Pandolfino. Its down-tempo electronic, that has a dark drone undercurrent beneath the rhythm. And that's about all I know about him. The only other information I could find is that he’s based in Tampa, Florida. No pictures, no bio. Only great music. Get a free download on his bandcamp page here

The Limpest Of Combacks

I saw a clip of the reformed S Club formally known as S Club 7. That was when there were seven in the group. The comeback is a limp three members.
That’s embarrassing enough in itself, but add to the fact that they are in their thirties, carrying a few extra pounds and singing songs that were always aimed at the youngest end of the record buying public, well it takes cringe to a new level.
I didn’t make it all the way through the song (I defy anyone to) but skipped to the interview at the end. When asked why they’re a few members short the reply was that everyone’s busy, a couple of them are in the theatre and another member has just had a baby.
So they are getting on with their life’s. Instead of desperately clinging on to when they had some success in a pop group back in the nineties.
I almost feel sorry for them. But I don’t because I don’t understand why they can’t just get a job. They will make a lot more money working behind a till or a bar.
And there’s no embarrassment in that.

Damon Albarn's Pretentions

Damon Albarn has a solo album out. Que broadsheet music writers swooning with descriptions like: prolific musical chameleon.
This time he’s taken his pretentiousness to a new level because the album is apparently “a strange pastoral folk album inspired by the life of 16th century mathematician, alchemist, and philosopher John Dee, who was a trusted advisor of Elizabeth I.”
So I guess he’s wearing his ‘I’m a serious thoughtful musician’ hat instead of his cheeky chap mockney one that he puts on in Blur mode.

Damon Albarn doesn’t play or sing a note on any of the music that I own. None of it has ever interested me. No, not even the album when he went to Mali, recorded a bunch of local musicians and played that toy like instrument that you blow into over the top of it.

The truth is that I’ve never given his music a chance. I just can’t get over my intense dislike of Blur. Their music and especially the floppy haired bass player that these days won’t stop banging on about his bloody cheese farm.
No doubt Damon’s album will sell a decent amount. Mostly to his devotees. Who will play it a couple of times, force themselves to like it, tell people it’s a masterpiece and never listen to it again.

Stop The Rap

Last Friday night I watched a bit of the programme Room 101. Never knew that frank skinner was presenting it now, that shows how long since I watched the programme. Anyway, Ross Noble was on it and wanted to lock folk dancing up in the room.
If I lived in a quaint English village then I would banish it to the room without any hesitation. But thankful I’ve only seen Morris dancers in action the one time. I was about seven and even at that young age it was apparent to me that they were a bunch of dicks.
Frank Skinner wouldn’t put them into the room and then said. “you might not like folk dancing but how about this:” and then out came some girls in tight tops and short skirts doing an Irish jig. Then another girl started beat boxing and at the end some bloke runs on and starts doing crap brake dancing.
Do I like it now Frank? No! Its so much worse. Haven’t we got over the let’s make something cool by doing a rap.
I heard a discussion on the radio a little while ago about education. A teacher called up to say that a good way to teach kids maths is by making it fun and cool for them. “I call myself MC Maths and I rap the times table to them.”
That blows away the cringe meter.
There’s an episode of the Simpson’s where Homer turn his hat back to front and does a rap. Bart and Lisa beg him to stop, when he does Lisa say to Homer “Promise me that you’ll never do that again.”

When Music and Football Meet

When football and music come together its usually a very bad thing. Sometimes it can be good but that’s as rare as a Panda
I’m thinking Waddle and Hoddle singing their song Diamond Lights. Its now looked back as a funny and Chris and Glenn might have a laugh about it when its brought up in an interview on Soccer AM or Talksport but really, what the fuck was that all about?



What about Paul Gascoigne in his shell suit singing about the fog on the Tyne and sickly sausage rolls. Anyway sausage rolls are savory, not sickly at all.
Then there’s the Anfield Rap. Imagine the Liverpool team of today doing that. Would never happen. If they did then Luiz Suarez could use a racist term and claim it to be part of hip hop culture.
When it comes to football and music the mid 80s and early 90s has a lot to answer for.

As for good examples of music and football mixing there’s The Suntans of Ping’s song Give Him a Ball and a Yard of Grass. In fact for me it’s the undisputed song about football.
“Give him a ball & a yard of grass, he'll give you a move with perfect pass Give him a ball & a yard of space, he'll give you a move with godly grace.”



Then there’s film the film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait which has a camera that just follows on Zinedine Zidane playing a game for Real Madrid and has the post-rock band Mogwai doing the films score. Though its not Zidane’s finest match and its not Mogwai’s best work, the combination works really well.
I watched it post pub. Now usually when I see a film late at night after a few beers my attention span is almost non existent. But For the whole film my eyes never left the screen.

Some Ways To Tell That A Band Is Crap Before Hearing A Note

What’s the music equivalent of the saying don’t judge a book by its cover? I guess it’s the same as its not exclusively meant for books. Stupid me.
Anyway, when I’ve been out at live music venues around London (the type of places where the bands have to get as many mates down as possible so they will be allowed to play at the venue again, and maybe make twenty quid between them) I’ve often made up my mind that the band is crap before they even play a note. And almost always they are.
You can also see a picture of a band or read an interview with them and make a judgement, for instance I new that The Darkness were a big pile of dog shit just by looking at a picture of the singer in a cat suit. And guess what, they were. Though for a while there were people who new this but still bought their records.
So here’s some ways to tell if a band is crap before even hearing a note:

The bass player straps on his bass just below his neck
Usually in funk rock, the bassist will throw in a bit of slap to show what an accomplished musician he is and will usually move his head back and fourth like a pigeon.

The Drummer has a gong
This is more likely to be seen in a prog rock documentary on BBC 4 than at the Hope & Anchor on a Tuesday night but the band in that documentary won’t be too good.

The keyboard player wears a cape
Same sort of band as the drummer with the gong.

The guitarist has an ugly pointy guitar
These guitars sometimes have a pointless handle built into the body. They were popular with hair metal bands in the mid 80s. If you see a guitar player strapping one on then he will no doubt play fiddle solos that don’t impress anyone but himself.

When asked in an interview what their new album is like they say “Its got something for everyone.”
It hasn’t, they are just widening their net and catching nothing.

Noel Gallagher says that they are his new favourite band

Don’t listen to him.

Crap Lyrics From Records I Own #1

Whenever I go to visit my parents out in Essex I always have to go and have a rummage through my boxes of CDs and cassette tapes that are stored in the garage.
I always come across something that I’ve not heard in years and give it a play or take it back home to put onto my hard-drive.

On my most recent visit one of the lucky albums to be chosen was Soul Asylum’s early nineties big seller Grave Dancers Union. Back then I really loved this album and must have been played over a hundred times.
So after giving it a listen for the first time in about seventeen years does stand up to being as good as I remembered it? Well no. Its okay in places but mainly it just sounds like second rate early nineties rock.
I knew it would be as good as I remembered it after the first verse which contains one of the worst metaphors that I’ve ever heard.

‘Grandfather watches the grandfather clock, and the phone hasn't rang for so long.
And the time flies by like a vulture in the sky, suddenly he breaks into song.’

Time flies by like a vulture in the sky? Makes no sense at all. Its not clever its just thinking of words to fit around rhyming by and sky. Never in my life have I heard anyone say something like: ‘Yeah I had a really good time last night. The time just flew by. Yeah it flew by like a vulture in the sky.’

Sure a song doesn’t always need to have good lyrics or lyrics that make sense. But when its as bad as this then the chorus - which is still pretty good - still can’t quite redeem it.

Best Bad Covers on YouTube

When I have a day off work I always have a slight hang over. Usually just a tinge of a headache but enough to make me not want to do too much in the morning apart from make tea and coffee and watch stuff on my laptop. Sometime’s I might watch a film or a documentary but most of the time I’m more likely to skip around YouTube. Usually I won’t even watch a whole video, its like my fragile hung over brain has the attention span of a child who’s just scoffed back a bag of Haribo.
Today’s skip around was bad cover versions. Its an old favourite of mine.
Here are some of the best bad covers:

Sweet Child O’Mine from a young shirtless band in a rehearsal room.
The song starts with an out of tune interpretation of the well known Slash riff but for some reason the drummer feels the need to count him in. Then the drums and bass enter the song in the wrong place and all three of them manage to play the whole song a bar or two ahead of each other.



Comfortably Numb by a band on a stage at a small town benefit show or something.
You don’t expect a young teenage band who’ve only been playing their instruments for a few weeks to have it together but this band are not young at all. Maybe the band is just a bit of a laugh, but they don’t seem to be having a lot of fun up there.



Smells Like Teen Spirit at a school assembly. Another drummer counts in when the song starts on its own. I love the mangled solo on this and the ending of the song when amp stops working and the singer is giving it her all as she rolls around on the floor.



Why play one song badly when in three minutes you can ruin a handful of songs with A Metal Medley. The band that consists of a drummer, bassist, two singers and a mosh pit that’s playing to a disinterested audience. One of the singers gives a pre song speech that ends with her saying “With metal anything is possible.”
Then near the end for some reason one of the moshers starts doing a Russian Kozak dance.

Queen, Why So Liked When So Many Awful Songs?

When someone asks “what music do you like?” Its not a question I like to answer. I like lots of music but of course listen to some genre’s a more than others. Yes I like rock music but it’s a broad genre with lots of sub-genres but overall most its crap, some alright, a smaller percentage good and a fraction great.
A few times I’ve been asked who my all time favourite band is. That’s hard to answer too as it changes. If I was asked last week I would have said Creedence Clearwater Revival, this week I would say Hüsker Dü.
For as many bands as I really like there are as many who I can’t stand. Bands like Creed and Nickel back -who’s song Rock Star might well be my all time worst song.
Another band that I really can’t stand but who are widely regarded are Queen. When I’ve mentioned this to people the response has often been “how can you not like Queen?“ Well I don’t and I don’t believe that anyone who’s said that to me actually owns any of their records and if they do it’s more than likely The Greatest Hits (that seems to be repackaged and re-released every other Christmas) and I doubt they ever play it.
Kurt Kobain would always champion little known punk bands like Flipper and Bad Brains but would just as regularly mention his love of Queen. I don’t get it, I’ve never heard a Queen song I like. Does anyone really play We Are The Champions outside the realms of a sporting final anymore? Its terrible. Then there’s another sporting events favourite We Will Rock You with the big drum beat, nonsense lyrics and Brian May’s solo that he plays on the guitar he built from a fireplace, motorbike springs and scrap metal. An Argos catalogue guitar would sound better.
Then there’s the Flash Gordon theme song (it fit’s the film well enough, but that’s not a compliment), Fat Bottom Girls and a song about how much fun it is to ride a bicycle. What about Don’t Stop Me Now, everybody likes that song. Non it reminds me of very drunk men dancing at a wedding where one of them has his tie tied around his head.
And as for Bohemian Rhapsody. That opera bit with all the Mama Mia let’s do the fandango with thunderbolts very very frightening. Its just another novelty song from a novelty band.
I can hear Queen fans saying “Fuck off with your Hüsker fucking Dü.”

Italian Folk Music (Not Recemended)

At the back end of last year I got my hands on the self-titled debut album by the Italian band Guano Padano. It’s a record that’s heavily influenced by their fellow countryman Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western film scores, along with Tex-Mex Americana and surf guitar. I don’t own any other Italian music. I don’t really know any other Italian music. Sure they have the whole opera thing going on, which I will never get into for as long as I live. And they have their own pop music that’s stuck in 1980s cheese, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a music scene going on there. Well I didn’t see any places where bands might play when I was recently in Italy. Okay so I was in Cagliari, maybe there are places for bands to play in the bigger cities like Milan, Rome and Turin.

But I did see some kind of Italian folk music when I was there. Well I had it forced upon me. I was sitting with my girlfriend outside a restaurant having a beer. When this little man with a oversized accordion came up to our table and began to play away. Now when I say play I mean play very badly. It was like he’d only picked it up for the first time that day. The accordion is like the bagpipes, you can be a very skilled player, but no matter how well you can play the instrument it still sounds like a dreadful racket. And this small little Italian bloke was making an awful racket and more some. I said “no thanks” but he didn’t hear me or ignored me. He kept on playing and smiling away. Again I said no thanks but he was really going for it and was in the accordion zone. After about a minute which felt like five I gave in and handed him a Euro. Mostly so that he would go away and take his noise elsewhere but partly because he was making a lot of effort for a small bit of change. Plus my girlfriend seemed to find him amusing. Or maybe she was finding my awkwardness amusing.

I’m still listening to Guano Padano and I love Ennio Morricone’s film scores but I don’t think that I will be buying a CD of Italian accordion folk music anytime soon.

Worst Festival Line Up Ever.

It’s the time of year when students, middle class Islington types and eco warriors decent to The Glastonbury festival. I’ve never been and have no intention of ever doing so. For me, a long weekend of camping in a muddy field is enough reason not to go. I’ve been to the Reading Festival before, and that’s my festival quota done.
Fridays headliners at Glastonbury are U2 and on the Saturday its U2 wannabe’s Coldplay. If you’re going then I would stay away from the main stage. Instead of Coldplay go and see Queens of the Stone Age on the other stage.
Though the line up might not be the best, I saw an advert for a festival in a music magazine that has the worst line up ever.
It’s the Cornbury Festival in Oxfordshire. By the name I already know that it’s a Pimms and sushi rather than cider and Pot Noodle kind of festival.
That is confirmed by the headliner on the Friday - James Blunt. I really cannot stand James fucking Blunt.
Saturdays headline is Ray Davies, as long as he only plays the songs that he wrote in the sixties with The Kinks that might be okay.
Sunday is Status Quo, who are a contender for the worst band ever.
Also playing is Cyndi Lauper who as far as I know hasn’t done anything since the mid eighties.
Eliza Doolittle, I guess that’s meant to be something for the kids.
The Faces, without Rod Stewart or of course Ronnie Layne.
Sophie Ellis Bextor, who was big for about six months sometime in the late nineties. And various others has beens and never heard of’s.
I'm just saying that this must be the worst line up ever.
Looking around the other festival line-ups the two that appeal to me are the End of the Road Festival and Latitude Festival. I would go to one of them, that’s if I didn’t have to sleep in a tent for the weekend and I could have a guarantee that it won’t piss down with rain.
No its not that I can’t hack it. I’m not scared of a bit of rain and mud. I work outside in whatever weather gets thrown at me. But I do that for work not pleasure. Plus I don’t go back home to a tent.

Crap Covers On YouTube

Today I came across a website devoted to bad cover versions. Take a look at Robbie Williams doing Blur’s Song 2. Yeah Robbie you are so RAWW N’ ROLL! Ha, it’s so so bad. Then there's Peter Gabriel’s version of Radiohead’s Street Spirit (Fade Out). What a painful listen that is. Sure it’s good to take a song in a different direction, but Gabriel has taken it to the vets to have it put down. Gabriel's latest album is all cover songs done in this sparse style. Think I will give it a miss. But then Peter Gabriel has always been crap to me, what with him dressing up as a flower in crap prog rockers Genesis and then that annoying song Solsbury Hill. He rides around on a bike when he sings it live. How shit is that.

So I looked around to find some crap covers and I came across a version of Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues done by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It starts with a drum solo which is never a good thing. Then they all come in with their funk and Anthony Kiedis does that crap faux rapping that he specialises in. Still, makes a bit more sense than his own lyrics.
But then I clicked onto the Alanis Morissette's version. It’s even worse. The Dylan version was the perfect take, it's one of them songs that should be left alone.



Then I looked around for some crap cover versions by unknown or bands. There are just too many, especially the bedroom guitarists that post up anything. Sometimes they’re just badly strumming away the basic chords while the song is playing in the background. “Yes! I’ve just learnt the intro to Come As You Are, I‘m going to post it up on YouTube!”

Abbey Road Misleading Crossing

The Abbey Road crossing on The Beatles 1969 album has recently been made a grade two listed. “It means that its secure for a whole new generation of Beatles fans,” a BBC news reporter on London Tonight said last week. “People from all over the world come here just so they can have their picture taken on the famous crossing,” he went on to say as it cut to tourists walking on the crossing.
Then at t the end of the report he slips in he that its not the original crossing as the crossing made famous on the album cover was further down the road but no longer exists. Hold on a minute. So its not the crossing on the album cover at all, its just the nearest one to it. So why has it been made listed? Surely the original crossing should have been made listed before it was taken away. Its not the real one but sshhh don’t tell the tourists.
Marc Boland fans put flowers by the tree that his car crashed into and killed him. If that tree got cut down you can’t just put flowers up against the nearest tree to where the tree was. Well you could but that would be a bit of a dumb thing to do. But then again putting flowers by the tree is a bit dumb or a bit weird anyway. If you were a relative or good friend of Marc Boland’s then laying down a bunch of flowers on the anniversary of his death is understandable but not if you’re a fan of him. Especially as he died over thirty years ago. But then some fans are like this, I saw a documentary on Buddy Holly were every year fans of his would stand out in a freezing cold field in Iowa and pay their respects to him. Pointless.
If you’re passing a place where something is relevant to a musician you like then that’s fair enough, but I don’t think that going out of your way to stand in a field where a plane crashed is.
Going back to Abbey Road- I’ve just read a book on The Band and a lot of the book revolves around the time that they lived in a pink house in Woodstock New York. Bob Dylan used to come around and they would knock out a few tunes in the basement. The Bands first record was called Music From Big Pink ,and if I was passing through Woodstock I’m sure that I’d take a look at the house and its surroundings. But if it had been knocked down I wouldn’t get my camera out take a picture of a nearby house and show people and say, “Look this picture its the house just up the road from the pink house where The Band used to live.”

That Awful Song (fuck off James Blunt)

I don’t think that I would recognise any other James Blunt song apart from ‘Your Beautiful.’ I intend to keep it that way. I noticed that he was on Never Mind The Buzzcocks the other week so I took it that he has a new album out just in time for Christmas. I checked, he does. Who buys this mawkish shit? People who like James Morrison and think that Coldplay are edgy and want to get the new Rod Stewart American Songbook record (just in time) for Christmas. But at least James Blunts new record seems to have slipped under the radar. Not like in 2005 with that awful song Your Beautiful.
I fell out with a girl over that song. She was playing it on her phone. She’d recorded it onto her phone by holding it up against the TV speaker and pressing sound record. She had a load of recordings like this. I was bemused.
So I say to her, “Could you please not play that terrible song.”
“What do you mean terrible? If its so terrible then why has it sold so many records?” she says.
“Just because its sold loads doesn’t mean that it isn’t terrible.”
“I don’t think that you should criticise him until you’ve anywhere near as much money as he has. Which you never will.”
That comment really annoyed me. “Look, every time that I hear that shitty song from James fucking Blunt I want to punch him in thee face and keep on punching and punching,” I said as I smacked my right fist into my left palm.
“You couldn’t beat up James Blunt, He was in the army you know.” She then starts singing allow with the chorus.
“So what,? So is prince Harry and I’m sure that I could beat him in a fight.”
She dismissively tutted at me and said, “Prince Harry would beat you in a fight. He plays Rugby.”
“So, so fucking what if he plays a little bit of Rugby?” I was getting angry with her. She started to sing again.
“Look,” I say trying to compose myself, “whether I can or can not beat up James Blunt or Prince Harry is not the issue. That issue is that that song is shit.”
It ended there. I don’t see the girl around anymore and my feeling on that god damn has not mellowed.

Sunday Truckin'

Last Sunday I went to see the Drive-By Truckers at the Shepherds Bush Empire. The Drive-By Truckers are one of my favourite bands. I’ve got every album of theirs, even a bootleg called Christmas At Cooley’s House which is a recording of them getting pissed and playing acoustic versions of their songs. I’ve seen them numerous times, including when I was passing through Chicago and had to pay a ticket tout way over the odds to get in.
On the way to the gig I wasn’t looking forward to it as much as other Drive-By Truckers gigs. Maybe because it was on a Sunday. I think it would be so much better if Sunday gigs began late afternoon as things start earlier and end earlier on a Sunday. On Sundays you eat the main meal of the day earlier, go to the pub for a few pints in the afternoon, then early evening go back home and sit in front of the TV trying not to think about getting up early for work in the morning. Well for most people of my age anyway (which is the demographic of the Drive-By Truckers fan base).

When I got there, went to the bar and had to fork out just over four quid for a beer that wasn’t even pint size I would’ve rather stayed at home, that is up until the band came onstage and banged out the opening chords to the song Uncle Frank.

The Drive-By Truckers are always good value for money, but it wasn’t one of the best gigs of theirs I’ve been to. Nothing to do with the band but I preferred it when I saw them at smaller venues like the Highbury Garage, The Carling Academy and Dingwals. Surely everyone would rather see a band in a small venue. Medium sized venues like the Sheppard’s Bush Empire and The Roundhouse are okay but I don’t think I’ll watch a gig in bigger places than that anymore.
One thing for sure is that I will never make the mistake of seeing a gig at either the Wembley or Docklands Arena again. Just awful.
The bigger the band the more money you pay to get a worst view and sound. Give me The Luminaire in Kilburn or The Borderline in Charing Cross anytime.