"I'll give you 10 good reasons..."

why Take That were effing amazing last night

1. The greatest show I have ever seen
2. They performed a Beatles medley in the centre of the arena - and got there on a floating rampway
3. There was a special accapella image of Robbie doing Could It Be Magic
4. They danced to Back For Good in the rain
5. Beverley Knight did Relight My Fire a million times better than Lulu
6. There was no hint of covering Teen Spirit (thank God)
7. If they can look that good at 35 (maybe excluding Barlow) then there's no reason why I can't at 29
8. Every person there knew every word to every song
9. The encore of Never Forget was perfect - it made Tash boo
10. It was Take That - the greatest boy band ever!

Two posts in one day!

Well, more of a link really, but an important one. I finally got it working. And a flickr account too.

Better late than never

Despite being over a fortnight ago here are a few more photos of the trip to Blackpool.


Although fancy dress wasn't compulsory, Stu managed to pull off a modern twist on the Lawrence Of Arabia look




During the first 15 mins of the game Rob realises why one Gills game a season is more than enough



Appearing at a Casino Room near you soon

With content this good, who needs headlines?

Three random celeb spots from London's glitzy West End yesterday:

Around 1pm - Robert Lindsay opposite Tesco in Covent Garden, looking hurried. He eyed my bag of fruit, I swear...

Around 6pm - the entire motorcade of Venezuelan big-cheese Hugo Chavez, blocking my route to the gym. His (not particularly inconspicuous) secret service bodyguard filmed me as they drove past.

Around 7.30pm - the return of the entire motorcade of aforementioned Venezuelan Blair-botherer as I exited the gym. Bodyguard took my photo as they past. Started to wonder if I made a bigger impression on South America than I had thought last month. Perhaps his whole visit is a covert mission to scope out my movements before a lightening strike on my North London hide-out...

Around 7.40pm - that bloke who occasionally gets on the tube at Charing Cross at the same time as me gets on the tube at Charing Cross... at the same time as me. I SWEAR he is Matt Everitt from Menswear. Really. If I'm right, he's gone quite grey. He dropped a CD from his bag and hurriedly gathered it, looking a bit shifty - perhaps a copy on the long-awaited Montrose Avenue comeback album?

I have applied to take over the Holy Moly column in the Metro, naturally.

Sod's Law:

The one year that Keef isn't in the Med for his birthday, Kent has finally got a festival (that doesn't involve Sweeps and morris dancing), and the Charlatans are headlining, AND they encourage people to stay in local B&B's so it's luxury all round.

Now hear this

What: Drinks, food (a selection of foreign cheese and meat, or BBQ if the weather's good) and Eurovision.
When: Saturday 20th May, 7pm onwards.
Where: My house.
Who: You know who you are.
Why: To judge the good, the bad and the ugly*. Scorecards will be provided.
How: I don't care how you get there, just get there if you can. Parking available if you decide to come by car, caravan (across the desert like an Arab man), trailway, airplane, sled, speedy colt, carpet ride or big balloon, or to simply cross the border in a blaze of hope. If you come by railway, aim for Tooting Broadway. Windsurf and sail boat, leave the Wandle at the Savacentre and make you way by foot from there. If you decide to climb a tree and swing rope to rope, we're the 14th garden on the left as you come down the east side of Lambeth cemetery. Oleta Adams knew some weird men.

--------------------------------------------------------

* The Good:
Denmark - A great rock and roll pop song! The Danes must surely also pick up goodwill points for providing the world with Infernal.....
Portugal - Classic Eurovision. A brassy pop belter, performed by four girls each dressed like an Australian's nightmare.
Lithuania - An all-star line up of Lithuania's biggest pop stars (hmmm) with a terrace anthem song all about winning the Eurovision Song Contest, and some great eighties keyboards 'stabs'. Sounds better than it, errr, sounds.
Spain - Now with 33% extra free. A flamenco-based summer sound. A key change. Manages to be great despite having no chorus OR dance routine. They've done El Tomate proud again. DENMARK OR SPAIN TO WIN!

This assumes Lithuania and Portugal will make it safely through the semi-final - I DO NOT want a repeat of last year's Suntribe injustice!

The Bad:
France - Classy, earnest, boring, as usual.
Latvia - What no song? Sounds like the part in Pop Idol when the contestants get slung together and have to perform a 'vocal harmony piece'.
Greece - Pools panel says definitely no home win.
Cyprus - Dull, although the singer has great things in front of her. Two, at least. (Carry On Eurovision anyone?)
And numerous other bland ballads.

The Ugly:

Gypsies, trams and thieves

The beautiful town (city?) of Blackpool had it all:

Blue skies, the world famous donkeys and the Tower - including ballroom dancers, an old-school organist, cream teas and a genuinely scary walk of faith at the top, where you have to step on a floor made if strengthened glass so you can see the 401-foot drop below.

Plenty of 'seaside' humour and Carry On style gags - comedy-wise it was mine and keef's spiritual home. Thank God we resisted the temptation of Joey Blower on the North Pier though.........


While the rest of the boys (and Tash) went to the football I spent the afternoon in the Pleasure Beach, winning (quite frankly) a load of old tat. Which I have now given away. Why did I bother? Maybe I just love grabbing things with a metallic hand - makes me feel like Terminator.

And of course, a fantastic beach perfect for kicking a football around on. Vive Le Shank! Much more fun than STICKERS!!!

I've posted a few more photos at flickr

Ten reasons why last night's Pet Shop Boys gig was brilliant

1. It was the Pet Shop Boys
2. With The BBC Concert Orchestra, and Trevor Horn.
3. And Anne Dudley (Medway in the house!).
4. The massive intro to Left To My Own Devices.
5. Sodom And Gommorah Show and Casanova In Hell (sung last night by Rufus Wainwright) from the new album were both ace.
6. An interval!
7. A beautiful version of Dreaming Of The Queen (I'd forgotten just what a good song it is)
8. Robbie singing Jealousy, doing it justice and managing to not be annoying.
9. West End Girls, It's a Sin, Nothing Has Been Proved, It's Alright, Rent, You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk........these were all so good they should probably be individual reasons but I think ten bullet points is quite enough.
10. It was the fucking Pet Shop Boys!

Will post some Blackpool pics later today..........

"I survived the Inca Trail"

Sadly, I passed on the chance to invest in a t-shirt proclaiming this fact. Nevertheless, it's true. Here's the obligatory piccy of me and Rob at Machu Picchu to prove it. There was a moment when I doubted that I would complete it alive, but then again I am a bit of a drama queen.

I went a bit snap-happy in Peru - if you're very bored at work you can see more photos here.

Testing testing 1-2-3

My ambition for next week is to take some good video footage of our trip to Blackpool and somehow post it on here, but meanwhile here's another test transmission, featuring THE worst tackle you'll see this side of the Black Lion projectile room. Can anyone else view this or is it just me?

Pop quiz, fools

First in an occassional series:

Q: Which artist, who will be ubiquitous for the next three weeks including an appearance in the top 5, lists his influences as 'Joy Division, Jilted John, Stevie Wonder' and claims to sound like 'Dr Dre, Ghostface Killah, Jay-Z, Cam'ron, Warren G and Kanye West'?

First (and only) prize will some piece of tat I pick up in Blackpool.......

The South American Adventure pt 1

D'oh!

I've started typing this 3 times now - things keep going wrong on my ass...

Anyway, I keep thinking I need to post some stuff about our sojourn to Peru. Truth is, Rufous is a better blogger than me and can provide a more fulsome account of the trek .

However, I s'pose I have some stuff of my own to say...

Firstly, Keef & Tash - thanks for the Alberto Granado diary - I read it on the trail , and one of the guys we were trekking with was reading the Che Motorcycle Diaries at the same time, so it gave us an interesting view of South America back then compared to now (which, in Peruvian terms, seems not to have changed much!).

Secondly, check out Ruf's Flickr account for the John Peel Memorial Photo. Peel had set Machu Picchu as his last "must see" location, and he didn't quite make it (he died in Peru). He has even set aside a t-shirt to wear once he got there. In tribute we wore: Ruf - Ginger Baker t-shirt ; Anun - Bob Dylan T-shirt; Me - Graham Coxon T-shirt; Dave - plain khaki t-shirt. The spirit of John R. P. Ravenscroft was with us that morning (as well as certain others which aren't so deserving of a mention...).

Dave J and I actually started our Peruvian adventure a couple of days before leaving the UK; we went to see The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the NT., which is Peter Schaffer's play about the Spanish conquistador's take-over of Peru. It certainly set me up for the trip - I learned a lot about Pizarro (the chief Spanish dude in the takeover of Peru, played brilliantly by Alun Armstrong in the play) and Atahualpa (chief Inca guy, played fantastically by Patterson Joseph from Peep Show / Green Room / Dr Who etc). The tension between the Christian, literate, corrupt Spaniards and the illiterate, proto-communist Inca people was made clear in the play, and came across even more clearly when we started exploring the country.

Joys of imdb

Whilst noodling about on imdb and trying to see if anyone famous was actually born in medway. The expected stars didn't emerge - all those tales of Ted rogers, David Frost and Karl Howman were untrue. There were a few confirmations - Kelly Brook, Lee Ryan, Zandra Rhodes and Lisa Andreas. Then a couple of suprises including Janet Ellis.

However the best one on the imdb records is none other than the Carry On producer PETER RODGERS! And unlike most of the Carry On team he's still alive - maybe he still lives in Rochester.