Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang Of Mine

Published on Fri 29 Apr 2011

I'm sitting and watching the Royal Wedding and finding it strangely moving. Tradition gets very detailed doesn't it. Not that it couldn't be improved upon - I was convinced that the fanfare as The Queen went into Westminster Abbey was going to turn into the Star Wars theme. Or Indiana Jones. It's fun listening to the pundits talking about Kate Middleton's dress "Well, it's definitely a lace top, and white". I could do that job. I wonder if they got her oddly-windowed limo made specially for this. It's more like a Popemobile than anything else. Spending my days off like this is why I never achieve anything. But, yeah, all strangely moving. Why do I always laugh when they say "forever hold his peace"?

This morning aside I have actually been fairly productive this week. I've rejigged this website slightly and owned up to all my old CDs on the music page. I might get around to putting up some lyrics/sound clips soon. I've also made a fair bit of progress with the artwork for Trinkets and Offcuts. The master should be with me today or tomorrow so it'll go off for pressing next week. Exciting. You can preorder it if you're moved to. I've been cautious with the release date - I might well be able to send them out sooner than that. I'm not going to try and promote this one - if I wanted people to write mean things about me on the internet there are plenty of cheaper was of making that happen. I could give a shit one way or the other about this whole AV thing for example.

I went to a country/punk BBQ at The Windmill in Brixton on Sunday - I'd only been there once before, years ago, to play a gig with The Morning People. It's exactly how venues ought to be - painted black, covered in stickers and coming apart at the seams. The BBQ was tastier than I'd dared hope and we were lucky enough to see someone else's vain attempt to get seconds so knew to take far more than it would be possible to eat comfortably. It was an interesting mix of bands - a screamy female protest singer, a couple of ageing punk outfits (one with a small Welsh frontman who looked more like a rugby pundit than the Green Day tribute act) who were too loud to enjoy without earplugs (which I didn't have), and a couple of really great ones - Crazy Arm, Two Cow Garage and a younger band with a long name that I've forgotten. Two Cow Garage in particular were brilliant - big countryish rock, with excellent lyrics (though I mostly only know that from Spotify, apart from when the PA turned off a few songs from the end and they played unamplified - "Jesus is another word for nothing left to lose" is a great line). Apparently they hardly ever make it to England despite touring almost constantly in America because it's too hard for them to make it profitable over here. Which is a shame.