My Motley Meanderings

Madness are doing a Manchester gig this December!

Madness recently put on three shows in London showcasing songs from their new album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate. The clips I've seen on YouTube look brilliant and I really wanted to go, but they were all mid-week and I decided it wasn't quite worth taking two days off work and spending a lot of time and money getting there and back. I hope they decide to take the show on tour later this year.

The consolation prize for people who couldn't make it to an actual gig was that you could buy a recording from the sound desk. In the past these recordings have taken the form of a couple of audio CDs in a nice case. This time round they decided instead to sell a bunch of sound files, images, video clips, etc. on a USB wrist band. Mine arrived today and it's a natty little thing, though I'm not quite sure what advantage it has over a data CD. There is one small problem. Here is what is on it. A single text file called "Click Here for Help" that contains the following text:

For help with this LIVE in a FLASH USB Wristband please contact us on [an email address]

www.aderra.co.uk

QC _ Test PASSED

Gah. I want my MP3s!

UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive. About an hour after posting this entry someone from Aderra (the company that made the wristband) emailed me with a link to the MP3s. Excellent customer service!

I took the day off work yesterday and drove down to Birmingham to meet emmzzi and see Our House, the musical based on the songs of Madness. It was the first time I had ever driven into the centre of Birmingham, and I left the motorway at bang on 5PM. Luckily nearly all of the traffic was heading out rather than in, but working out which lane I needed to be in at each junction/roundabout wasn't easy. I miraculously reached the car park behind the theatre without getting lost, parked up, and wandered off in search of food and a public toilet. The latter proved rather difficult to find - I came across one in a shopping mall that was locked, then I found my way to the railway station because I was sure there was one in there, only to discover that the toilets are on the concourse and you need a valid travel ticket to get to it. While I was in the station I decided to grab some takeaway food from Burger King, then carried on up the escalators and through the huge mall, eventually finding some toilets about another ten minutes walk away. The place was strangely laid out, and it took me another five minutes to work out how to get outside (passing a second Burger King on the way), where I sat down near some interesting buildings and water features to eat my now-cold burger.

emmzzi had arrived at the theatre by this time so I set off back, taking a detour on the way to buy a new parking ticket (it costs £2.50 from 6PM to midnight, but I had arrived at 5:30PM so was forced to buy a more expensive ticket that didn't allow me to park for as long). I encountered three Big Issue sellers, two of them very bouncy and charismatic compared to the ones we get in Nelson (but still not enough to make me buy a copy). Even though emmzzi had texted me to say she was in the bar, I still wandered twice around all the public areas of the theatre without spotting her before phoning to discover she was sitting at a table a few metres away.

The musical itself was really very good. It's a fairly simple morality tale about a lad who takes a girl out on his 16th birthday and breaks into an empty flat to get out of the rain, wrongly thinking this will impress her. The police arrive and the story splits off in two directions, one where he runs and gets away, and the other where he stays to face the punishment for his crime. Musically the songs were good and fit the plot fairly well. We discussed during the interval how they might be going to fit Night Boat to Cairo in, and the link was... inspired. The hero had a rather harsh singing voice but his girlfriend sung beautifully. The cast were all very young and athletic apart from the hero's parents, and the choreography really took advantage of this. Of course the real star of the show was the knackered white Morris Minor convertible the hero buys at one point for £80 to take his girlfriend out in (It says Morris on the door, the GPO owned it before). We had a good time and I would definitely recommend going to see it if you enjoy Madness songs.

There was another incident of lorry-rage on the way home. Entering a single-lane 50MPH section of roadworks on the motorway, the van in front of me slowed down to 50 so I did likewise, maintaining a sensible stopping distance in front of me. The HGV behind me kept on going until he was literally inches from my bumper. If I had braked at all at that point, he would have clipped me. After a few seconds he dropped back perhaps ten yards (still much too close to safely follow someone at 50MPH) and maintained that distance all the way through the roadworks. It's not as if I could have gone very far if I had accelerated as he seemed to want me to do, because I was simply following the van in front of me. Upon reaching the end of the restricted area, the van quickly accelerated up to 70 and so did I. The HGV pulled into the next lane as if meaning to overtake me, only to see me rapidly getting away. This really ticked him off, so he pulled back into my lane and gave me a long blast on his main-beam headlights and spotlights.

I really wish I could go to this gig Madness are doing to promote their new album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate. Unfortunately it wouldn't be very practical because it's in London mid-week - I would have to take a couple of days off work to get to it.

I love the style of the advert, although it could have done with a bit more proof-reading and they have scaled it down too much for the web. "[The Liberty of Norton Folgate] Danced skanked and boggled for the cause of man and woman's need to be." Check out the video too. How many movies do you recognise?

I've decided not to buy a ticket for the O2 Arena gig Madness is doing at the end of the year, as I don't particularly want the hassle and expense of going to London for it. I just hope it won't be their only UK gig this year - the language announcing it seems deliberately ambiguous: "The only planned gig in December." The past couple of years they have done a UK tour in December.

I know there are at least a couple of Sandy Denny fans reading my journal who will be interested in this: tonight at 22:30 on Radio 2, Bob Harris presents Who Knows Where the Time Goes - the Sandy Denny Story. It's a new documentary marking the thirtieth anniversary of her tragically early death.

ETA: That was really good. If you missed it, you should be able to get it through Listen Again soon.

Here is a video from the Jonathan Coulton gig I went to recently, showing him performing Code Monkey with a Tenori-on as well as his trademark guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCZeb83i2DE

The brilliant geek singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton is playing a gig at Dingwalls in London on Thursday the 20th of March. That's the day before Orbital 2008 opens, so I'll already be in London for the con setup!

I've just booked my ticket. If there are several of us at the con hotel on Thursday who want to go to the gig and can tear themselves away for the evening we could travel as a group. Tickets are £15 + a £1.80 booking fee. Better book your ticket soon if you want to come because I expect it will sell out when the word gets around.

I went to see Fairport Convention play at the Burnley Mechanics on Wednesday night. I've long been aware of them by reputation but I'd only heard an occasional song on the radio so I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it. I was pleasantly surprised - they're really very good. I think if they're lacking anything at all, it's a female singer. Apparently the late Sandy Denny was in the band for a year or so when they first took off. They played a really lovely song of hers at one point; unfortunately I can't remember the title.

The audience was a very friendly crowd but there didn't look to be many who were under fifty. Apparently Fairport has played at the Mechanics every year for the past twenty years so I suspect there were more than a few 'regulars.'

The support act was a great northern-Irish singer/songwriter who I hadn't encountered before called Anthony John Clarke. He came across as an amiable chap and entertained the audience between songs with numerous anecdotes. I'd be happy to go and see him do a full gig.

I've booked to see Fairport Convention perform live at the Burnley Mechanics next Wednesday.

JoCo has pointed out on his blog that a group of trolls have been giving a fan a hard time in the comments to a YouTube video of her singing Still Alive, the end-credits song from the Portal video game. Give it a listen, and please consider leaving her a supportive comment. There's cake in it for you if you do! Feel free to pass this on.

PS. The cake is a lie.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Somebody has uploaded a video of Forever Young, one of the brilliant new songs Madness will be putting on their next album.
( Video behind the cut... )

I couldn't find the lyrics posted elsewhere on the web so I've transcribed them myself (using my CD copy of the Astoria sound desk recording because the audio on the Youtube video is a bit ambiguous in places): ( Read more... )

As seen on bugshaw's journal: ( iTunes on random shuffle as a means of divining the future... )

I've heard of multitasking, but this is incredible (Youtube video link).

Glastonbury isn't really my thing, but I'm very sad to be missing this.

Madness are doing a set on the Lost Vagueness stage, and at 1:30AM they'll attempt to break a world record by asking the entire audience to kiss the person next to them. The record they have to beat is 6,124 couples. Good luck to them!