After seeing them on NME.TV about a month ago, hearing them being played on Soccer AM/FM and then being told that beat-boxing extraordinaire, ‘Petebox ‘is their drummer, I was quick to become bare keen to see ‘Swimming’ play at A Nation of Shopkeepers last night.
It was an ideal opportunity to catch up with favoured gig buddy Alice Marns, who (along with boyfriend Nick) made my night before I even finished my first pint, when she ended one of her weekend stories with “…and there was pizza in me bum crack!” Lol-demort.
The free gig also provided further opportunity for Andy Fairweather to show his friend (of 2 chance meetings at Reading Festivals) Arthur the sights and sounds of Leeds. Although I had an inkling, it’s just this second been confirmed that Arthur did in fact have a ‘sweet time’.
We missed the first band, sadly. Alice did however catch them and she was bumming them quite a lot. I bumped into friend Luke who informed me that ‘I Ching’ features his brother Tom and that they do warrant the aforementioned ‘bumming’. Check them at http://www.myspace.com/weareiching.
Arriving halfway through the second band’s set, I joined Alice on the sofa to speculate whether the sound engineer was in fact Tom Woodhead who used to front the band, iForward Russia!. After rinsing her iPhone for picture references (and a 50% cut of 3 bottles of wine), it was Alice who politely asked whether he was indeed the former front man. This was confirmed by the slightly tired, scrawny and more introvert looking Tom. Aint it funny how things turn out? Despite performing in front of 7,000 people in the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading/Leeds 4 and a half years ago, he seemed happy enough to be helping a relatively unknown band from Nottingham sound terrific for 7 people.
Swimming were brilliant.
Sending my genre-dar all over the ruddy place, I can only describe them as engaging and uplifting synth-shoegaze. In an attempt to portray an accurate story, this potential description has taken me all morning to word. Sometimes Sonic Youthy, other times Duran Durany and occasionally even White Liesy, it’s a bit pointless even attempting to type-cast them, which lead singer John will be more than happy with. “I hate being labeled as indie”, he said.
We spoke with John’s brother Pete AKA Petebox for quite a while covering topics of festivals, his experiences (namely playing to massive crowds at Reading Festival in which Arthur was in attendance), drumming work and hair. It was a really great evening.
‘Sun in the Island’ is their new single, which I happen to think is, well, a bit good (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZCLJ9I8HE)
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee x
About Me
- Simon Nigel Danger Wood
- Born at the age of 4 in a woodcutter’s cottage in the Black Forest sometime next year, I’m a student at Leeds Met University studying Project Management. Despite the absolute lack of creative freedom, it’s alright and I’m quite good at it I suppose. Leeds Met is often referred to as ‘the other one’ in relation to its more distinguished cousin but I like to think it’s not important. We are all students of Leeds. I’m not an absolute ‘rah’ and I’m not a complete ‘spaz-tard’ – I’m very happily sandwiched in-between, all warm and snug. Anywho. I digress. I enjoy many things in life, from the humble Jaffa Cake and social intoxication to music and my attempts of being a ‘lad’. The idea of blogging has long been wandering aimlessly in my less-than-average sized head. During my previous life jumping when Yorkshire Water clapped, I put together a monthly newsletter which people seemed to like. So. Possessing a half decent grasp of the written word and the occasional tendency to be a bit of a douche, I thought ‘blogging’ could be a hoot. Enjoy. P.S. I must credit the late John Peel who I based my whole ‘born at the age of four...’ intro. Kudos, John. Kudos.
Thursday 17 March 2011
Tuesday 8 March 2011
A Wee Dram
Meh. Where to start? It feels like a wee toddler ago since I last wrote anything of substance documenting the events and occurrences of my increasingly ‘young-professional’ life. I have much to tell but gladly, what I’ve experienced over the last month has been shared by many, decreasing the need to record my (in)activities.
However, I am going to write a little bit, like.
Like Japanese Knotweed, working has slowly but surely taken over my whole life, leaving me sometimes un-keen for the fun times I adore so much and often on the brink of collapsing into my pint. The work placement itself has been tough yet somewhat fulfilling and ever more worthwhile. I am genuinely starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, I’ll one day be a half decent Project Manager. Straight up.
After having January off, I’ve been really happy being back and busy at the Academy with what is turning out to be a quite brilliant and galvanised Box Office team. The gigs themselves have been nothing short of ‘wowzer’. Hurts shocked me (I was like, visibly shocked) at how good they were.
The ‘interesting’ blend of NME Awards clientele were treated to a truly incredible performance by Crystal Castles, which was only slightly marred by one ‘rah’ stood next to me who (in relation to Alice Glass’ stage antics) asked, “what’s wrong with her?”. What a plonker.
White Lies were simply brilliant (although their performance didn’t quite out-do seeing Grace Naylor for the first time since meeting in Belgium two and a half years ago) and Rob Zombie put on one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. Period. Serious wow-job.
Rather than taking valuable days off to recover from a night of over-indulgence, I took 3 of my remaining days annual leave to make a trip to Edinburgh with beloved friend and weather enthusiast, Reid Morrison. Deciding that flying to Barcelona or Amsterdam would create issues of fatigue, farce and agro, we decided that a 3 hour train ride up to his (and Holly Andrews’ apparently?) family’s city of origin would be a splendid idea – and it proper was.
The weather upon arrival was pretty glorious, which made drinking (mainly Deuchars IPA) down the Royal Mile an absolute treat. Quiet enough to move around with ease, Edinburgh provided some breathtaking sights, some cracking food and an opportunity to experience the real Edinburgh through those who live and breathe the place. Reid’s cousins kindly offered us shelter and entertainment, some of which I took particular note...
Our first night in was spent ‘socialising’ in the living room watching Reid’s cousin Paul edit a video he’s shot for a chap called ‘Nasty P’ (tekkers). The music production was excellent and the video was edited brilliantly. As it turns out, Nasty has previously produced a record (and shot a pretty neat video) with Akil from Jurassic 5, which (I’m sure you’ll agree) is cool as duck. Nasty was in fact not nasty at all and was a nice, modern gentleman into the bargain. Take a look see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH1dm5ce2WE
Now I’m not overly down with the big names of BMX-ing, so I was more than prepared to feel slightly slow on the uptake with this one. Danny Mackaskill is a legend in Edinburgh and although now signed up with Red Bull (and thus losing most of his underground mystery and charm), this is probably the best Scottish-BMX-You Tube-based thing I’ve ever seen. Amazing, non? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o
Under my rock on Uranus, I don’t often get to watch silly yet overwhelmingly popular YouTube videos. The series of ‘Will it Blend?’ films were also successfully introduced to me, my favourites being the ones where they destroy Apple products. Take the iPad for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko
In what I like to think of a bit of a cultural exchange visit, there was also the introduction of Brett Domino to inner city Edinburgh and full and frank debates of fajita/taco politics.
All in all, it was a cracker.
Reid now leaves for the Atlantic Ocean’s Ascension Island in between Somalia and Brazil for 5 months, so I will miss him. I will miss him dearly. If you’d like to ‘Reid’ more about his destination, there’s about a paragraph about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island
It was my faja Nigel’s birthday yesterday (7th March) so I will be spending this weekend with him at home-home, recuperating from a pretty intense fortnight, eating well and downloading a shit load of films, for which I would like your suggestions please.
There’s plenty to look forward in the upcoming months, more of which I plan to point out to the world on a slightly more regular basis.
Peace up. A town.
However, I am going to write a little bit, like.
Like Japanese Knotweed, working has slowly but surely taken over my whole life, leaving me sometimes un-keen for the fun times I adore so much and often on the brink of collapsing into my pint. The work placement itself has been tough yet somewhat fulfilling and ever more worthwhile. I am genuinely starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, I’ll one day be a half decent Project Manager. Straight up.
After having January off, I’ve been really happy being back and busy at the Academy with what is turning out to be a quite brilliant and galvanised Box Office team. The gigs themselves have been nothing short of ‘wowzer’. Hurts shocked me (I was like, visibly shocked) at how good they were.
The ‘interesting’ blend of NME Awards clientele were treated to a truly incredible performance by Crystal Castles, which was only slightly marred by one ‘rah’ stood next to me who (in relation to Alice Glass’ stage antics) asked, “what’s wrong with her?”. What a plonker.
White Lies were simply brilliant (although their performance didn’t quite out-do seeing Grace Naylor for the first time since meeting in Belgium two and a half years ago) and Rob Zombie put on one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. Period. Serious wow-job.
Rather than taking valuable days off to recover from a night of over-indulgence, I took 3 of my remaining days annual leave to make a trip to Edinburgh with beloved friend and weather enthusiast, Reid Morrison. Deciding that flying to Barcelona or Amsterdam would create issues of fatigue, farce and agro, we decided that a 3 hour train ride up to his (and Holly Andrews’ apparently?) family’s city of origin would be a splendid idea – and it proper was.
The weather upon arrival was pretty glorious, which made drinking (mainly Deuchars IPA) down the Royal Mile an absolute treat. Quiet enough to move around with ease, Edinburgh provided some breathtaking sights, some cracking food and an opportunity to experience the real Edinburgh through those who live and breathe the place. Reid’s cousins kindly offered us shelter and entertainment, some of which I took particular note...
Our first night in was spent ‘socialising’ in the living room watching Reid’s cousin Paul edit a video he’s shot for a chap called ‘Nasty P’ (tekkers). The music production was excellent and the video was edited brilliantly. As it turns out, Nasty has previously produced a record (and shot a pretty neat video) with Akil from Jurassic 5, which (I’m sure you’ll agree) is cool as duck. Nasty was in fact not nasty at all and was a nice, modern gentleman into the bargain. Take a look see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH1dm5ce2WE
Now I’m not overly down with the big names of BMX-ing, so I was more than prepared to feel slightly slow on the uptake with this one. Danny Mackaskill is a legend in Edinburgh and although now signed up with Red Bull (and thus losing most of his underground mystery and charm), this is probably the best Scottish-BMX-You Tube-based thing I’ve ever seen. Amazing, non? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o
Under my rock on Uranus, I don’t often get to watch silly yet overwhelmingly popular YouTube videos. The series of ‘Will it Blend?’ films were also successfully introduced to me, my favourites being the ones where they destroy Apple products. Take the iPad for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko
In what I like to think of a bit of a cultural exchange visit, there was also the introduction of Brett Domino to inner city Edinburgh and full and frank debates of fajita/taco politics.
All in all, it was a cracker.
Reid now leaves for the Atlantic Ocean’s Ascension Island in between Somalia and Brazil for 5 months, so I will miss him. I will miss him dearly. If you’d like to ‘Reid’ more about his destination, there’s about a paragraph about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Island
It was my faja Nigel’s birthday yesterday (7th March) so I will be spending this weekend with him at home-home, recuperating from a pretty intense fortnight, eating well and downloading a shit load of films, for which I would like your suggestions please.
There’s plenty to look forward in the upcoming months, more of which I plan to point out to the world on a slightly more regular basis.
Peace up. A town.
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