Jessica 6 in 1984

I have been ridiculously busy over the last few weeks (all work and no play makes Jessica a crappy blogger)

However, I did find time to listen to a myriad of treats from 1984 and choose a few to share with you - my 1984 show is now available as a podcast here

This month's show includes selections from Black Flag, Special AKA, The Smiths, Wang Chung and Colourbox - you can see the full playlist here

In January I will be in 1952 (I like to make my life difficult) so if you'd like to help and make a suggestion for a song - or a year you'd like me to visit in 2011, please get in touch via Twitter or by e-mail

Have a wonderful festive season and I'll be back on 4th January wearing my poodle skirt and pearls... hope you'll join me x

Jessica 6 in 1971

You can now download my 1971 show as a podcast, available here

This month's show includes selections from Leonard Cohen, T Rex, The Supremes and Can, as well as many more. The full playlist for this show is available here

Thanks to Emma Mitchell, who helped me reach a final playlist for 1971 - if you would like to request a year or put in some suggestions for my next show, when I'll be in 1984, you can get in touch via e-mail or twitter

And, remember, it's RadioNowhere's 8th birthday on 11th November - if you can provide even the smallest gift to help us stay on air, we'll be your best friend forever... to donate, click here

Enjoy!!

Shiny new things

I haven't been to any more gigs this month, but have been in the business of acquiring shiny new things instead.

Recent purchases include a wonderful, sexy and beautiful Indietracks postcard painted by Eddie Argos - it's two canvases, one being the front picture and the other being the bit you write a message to people on, which has been personalised to me. I love it. I love it. I love it. You can see it on his blog, where he sells paintings and band merchandise and stuff. He's great.

I have also bought a copy of the 7" of Uptown Top Ranking by Althia and Donna (spelled Althia on this release and Althea on subsequent releases - I know, I'm a nerd) on Lightning Records from a wonderful vinyl record shop near where I live. We also got a 7" of De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da by The Police recorded in Spanish and Japanese. Yay! AND we got the vinyl of Me And My Big Mouth by John Cooper Clarke, which was a bit of a surprise when we got it home as I had only heard his stuff performed live before and didn't realise that most of his stuff is set to music. I think I prefer the live stuff as his delivery is better without it being slowed to match the rhythm of the music, although saying that I really liked I Don't Want To Be Nice and need to visit 1978 soon so I can play it. I have really got into vinyl again, but I think it's mainly seeing thousands of records of cool stuff that is otherwise so very hard to find.

Other than scanning record racks this month and buying art brut (haha), I have been mostly writing about opium/opioid markets and listening to music from 1971. Speaking of which, you can catch the next Jessica 6 show from 1971 (see, shameless promotion) on Tuesday 2 November 2010 at 9pm UK time on RadioNowhere - 'twill be a pleasure to be with you then.

Jessica 6 in 2006

You can now download my 2006 show as a podcast, available here

This month's show includes Hot Chip, The Divine Comedy, Matisyahu, Art Brut and Absentee plus many more. The full playlist for the show can be found here

Next month, by request, I'll be in 1971 - if there are any songs you think I just must play, contact me by e-mail or on Twitter

Enjoy!

Back to School!

Last night I once again joined my partner-in-crime, Christopher Laird in seeing a great band, and friends of RadioNowhere, The School. They were playing at The Corner House in Cambridge, a small but perfectly-formed pub venue, put on by new local promoters Sleeping Today.

On arrival at the venue, Christopher was locked in the pub cellar and members of The School stole all of his equipment and ran away with it. Fortunately, rather than throw the stuff in the river, they showed their incredible work ethic and their dedication to good music and decided to use their down time by recording a show for him, taking over the controls and recording all manner of crazy banter and picking all their favourite songs of the moment to share with the wonderful RadioNowhere audience. Their takeover show will go out on RadioNowhere later this year, with some special seasonal surprises - keep an eye on www.radionowhere.org for more information and a transmission date.

After reluctantly releasing Christopher from the cellar (he was very dusty), The School took to the stage, playing several songs from this year's Loveless Unbeliever album, as well as some new songs, which I thought sounded great, and they assure us will form part of an album scheduled for next year (yay!) on Elefant Records.

They will be off to Germany soon, so if you're in that part of the world, go along and support them - they are the loveliest people you could wish to meet, so friendly and enthusiastic - some of the members are in about 5 or more bands because they love making music and are overflowing with talent. And if you can't get to see them live just yet (they'll be in a town near you soon) just get a copy of the album - it will make you smile and want to dance even if it is raining and dark and miserable (like today).

If you like the sound of that, visit them at www.myspace.com/theschoolband

The Formidable Joy Formidable

On Tuesday 28th September I joined Christopher Laird at the Norwich Waterfront for one of the best bands around - The Joy Formidable. I was meant to join Christopher for an interview with the band before their show, but unfortunately I was unaware that Norwich City Football Club were playing at home that night not 5 minutes from the venue, and therefore my plans for parking just around the corner from the venue were thwarted by several thousand football fans. Finding a parking space on the other side of the city meant that I turned up at the venue a whole 75 minutes later than expected, and so missed the interview - boo hiss.

I did, however, turn up well in time to see the main act, who were their usual amazing selves. This is the third time I have seen them, twice before at the Portland Arms, a teeny-tiny venue in Cambridge, and the move up to a full-size venue is well deserved. The Joy Formidable are currently headlining the NME tour in the UK and this is only the beginning for them - they are going to be huge. I remember seeing them for the first time - in February 2008? with Betty & The Werewolves and It Hugs Back (a great line-up) - and they were about to go out on tour supporting Passion Pit (I think) - Christopher Laird leant over to me and said 'there is no way I'd want these guys supporting me, they are way too good' - and he was right - they deserve to be headliners and they will be playing huge venues before long.

The show on Tuesday was brilliant - all three members took the front of the stage and have amazing stage presence, all the time still looking like they are enjoying themselves. Their drummer, Matt (below) has to be the best live drummer I have EVER seen and I don't know whether it was a peculiarity of the stage set at Norwich that he was sitting up front, but he certainly deserves his place there - his immense sound draws your eyes to him and a number of people standing up front were watching him at least as much as the enigmatic and beautiful Ritzy.

The band played material from last year's mini-album, A Balloon Called Moaning and from their other singles, and the highlight of the show for me was the main set-ending Whirring, ending in a crescendo of feedback. The album is due in January - a must have - and maybe a Mercury Music Prize nominee?

Their tour continues across the UK... get tickets now!

Jessica 6 in 1960

You can now download my 1960 show as a podcast, available here

This month's show includes selections from Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, and Buddy Holly, amongst others. The full playlist for the show can be viewed here

Next month I'll be in 2006 - if there are any songs you'd particularly like me to play, contact me via twitter or send me an e-mail

Enjoy!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

On Sunday we were the beneficiaries of a beautiful summer's day so we took a trip to the seaside and had a walk along the beach, and I had a paddle in the sea.

The lighthouse above is now a holiday cottage and I would love to stay there, as the views out to sea must be amazing. The picture also shows the beautiful layers of red chalk limestone and white chalk making up the cliffs. This area of beach is fairly quiet and my favourite part of the coastal resort, as further along comes the new town with the arcades, fish and chip shops, tacky souvenir shops (which I secretly love) and donkey rides.

At this end you have one shop/cafe and a pitch and putt golf course and that's about your lot. For me, it's a dream afternoon... a 99 (ice cream) and a wander across the lovely sandy beach to the sea, having a paddle, and staring out to sea.

Slow Club at Summer Sundae

At Indietracks, Charles and Rebecca kindly invited us to see them when they returned from Japan and Sweden at the Summer Sundae festival in Leicester. We jumped at the chance!

Summer Sundae is a sweet (pardon the pun) little festival in the grounds of De Montfort Hall in the centre of Leicester and runs from Friday to Sunday in mid-August. I have been a couple of times before and saw Belle & Sebastian, The Divine Comedy, Buzzcocks and Camera Obscura, amongst others, and enjoyed it very much. It's small enough to have a wander and find things to do, but not so big that you get lost (I have a terrible sense of direction) or so corporate that it is full of wankers. However, if you do decide to go, prepare yourself for being surrounded by middle-class mums and dads in their Boden rainmacs and 'fun' wellies. Also we noticed a change since we last went (3 years ago) in the food provision - be prepared for mostly pricey and high-street chain food options, e.g. small and soggy Pizza Express pizza for £10. Needless to say I avoided it, having a raspberry tea and a piece of cake from a lovely little tea tent near the indoor stage.

We were also slightly disappointed this year by the weather, as it was rainy and disgusting, but actually being based around De Montfort Hall means that you can find shelter and a proper seat to sit on for a while to escape the rain, so that helped. We were more disappointed by Fanfarlo not turning up - they cancelled Summer Sundae last year due to swine flu, dropped out of this year's Indietracks, and then on Friday were apparently thwarted in their efforts to actually play a show by the traffic on the M1...

Summer Sundae has always previously seemed to be very organised and efficient, but a number of drop-outs from the line-up this year seemed to confuse and bewilder a lot of the stewards who were pretty unaware of what was going on (however, to the middle-aged 'weekend hippy' who saw fit to shout, rant and rave at the poor guy on the reception desk - shame on you) and rather than announcing the Fanfarlo weren't going to be playing, the (unnecessary) MC came on to the main stage to announce the replacement act as if nothing was up - coward!

This year's line-up on Friday for us also included Fionn Regan (who replaced Fanfarlo on the main stage), Teenage Fanclub, plus Seasick Steve and Roots Manuva (who clashed so we saw a bit of both). Teenage Fanclub had been seriously disappointing when we saw them previously, but thought we'd give them another chance and I'm so glad we did - they were great, harmonies were tight and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. But for us, of course, the highlight was Slow Club...

Slow Club played one of the best sets I have seen them play, and although they were great at Indietracks, this blew it out of the water. They played in De Montfort Hall, which is a really nice space, and the 1970s TV-special visuals on screen behind them (which you can see in the photo of Charles, above) really added something to their sound and the whole experience. It was a bit freaky when they came on stage as I had earlier suggested to my companion that I thought Charles would be clean-shaven, and he was - he still had the beard in Japan (as we watched one of their shows live online - yay for technology) so it had obviously disappeared somewhere en route from Japan to Sweden to Leicester. Slightly concerned that I now sound like I have a facial hair fetish. Their whisker-free set included several tracks from Yeah So, as well as a few new songs, which they'll now be off to add to in order to begin the second album. Awesome.

Can't wait for the Christmas show at the Union Chapel - only 4 months to go!

You're turning violet, Violet!

As you may be aware, us folks at RadioNowhere have a fondness for a gang of Norwich bands including Violet Violet, The Kabeedies and The Brownies (and watch this space for superstars in waiting, Alloy Ark). It was therefore with great sadness that we received the news of an indefinite hiatus for Violet Violet, tinged with some temporary joy at the news of a farewell gig in Norwich with labelmates The Kabeedies and friends Mondo Ray.

The gig was held at the Norwich Puppet Theatre, which is a converted church, with the performance space having been converted with a small stage and steep, tiered seating so that it is really dark and intimate. As someone with a bit of a panicky fear of puppets, actually attending the venue was a bit of a challenge for me, but most of those on display looked quite friendly - it's the Punch and Judy-style mean-looking, carved wood faces that scare the living daylights out of me. My favourite 'puppet' on display was the The Admonitor (below):

In honour of their latest (and last?) release, the Ebony & Ivory EP, Violet Violet requested a black and white dress code for their farewell party (not a difficult task for me!). They also requested that everyone attend for the entire night, meaning that no-one was to be admitted after 8pm (although I didn't know this so it was just good luck that we rolled up at about that time!).

First band was Mondo Ray, who were good fun but not really my cup of tea. They were introduced by the VV girls themselves, who also gave presents to people who had helped them along the way and did lots of thank yous.

After a short intermission and a much needed bottle of water (we'd spent the afternoon in the WONDERFUL Rumsey Wells Public House - the Meantime Wheat beer was going down rather too smoothly) it was on to The Kabeedies, who played a great set from their album Rumpus plus a couple of new songs. I tried to get some photos but the damned energetic little blighters move around too much. I did get this one of Evan, who was wearing one dangly earring, and this bothered me.

Finally, we had the pleasure of a thumping set from Violet Violet, after they were introduced by a video they had put together of all their finest moments. It could have been seen as a teeny bit narcissistic, but I think they just about got away with it. They played from their most recent album, The City Is Full Of Beasts, but also gave a nod to the previous incarnations of the band and former members, as well as playing from Ebony & Ivory (unfortunately not a cover of the McCartney/Wonder classic).

We will miss you, Violets but have a feeling we'll probably be seeing you back on stage again soon...?

Jessica 6 in 1993

You can now hear my 1993 show as a podcast, available here

You can view the playlist here

Next month I'll be in 1960 - requests can be sent to me via twitter or via e-mail

Enjoy!

Indietracks: The main event

The highlight of my weekend was Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now! Christopher Laird interviewed Eddie Argos (above) for the RadioNowhere Indietracks Special (go to http://www.radionowhere.org/ to listen) and he was a really lovely bloke. I had briefly met him before at a gig in London but everybody in the place was wasted (myself included) and I don't exactly remember making his acquaintance! Eddie was rather annoyed that he was able to play Indietracks but was not able to stay for the whole event, therefore missing the Pooh Sticks on Sunday. His on-stage persona really appeals to me, and the 'reply' songs on the EWITFR...N! album are funny AND clever. I really liked him as he appears to have no ego at all and was just pleased to be there. I also like him because he's bloody talented. My favourite bit from their show, though, was the two 'blokes with beers' standing in front of me for a while watching the show, then seeing one turn to the other and mouth 'what the fuck?' - ace!

Other highlights for me included Yokoko who played a set on one of the vintage trains. Apart from my legs going dead while sitting on the train floor watching them, it was great and the band were also very lovely people who just want to get their music out there and get people to hear it, a really down-to-earth attitude about making and sharing music (hooray). One of the best bits for me was their innovative use of a friend as a set list holder (below - front and back:)

The Blanche Hudson Weekend (below) were a breath of fresh air for the festival on Sunday - just as we were all beginning to get slightly twee'd-off, they played the engine shed and blasted the entire audience on the arses with their wonderful feedback-laden sound. On stage, unsmiling and dark, they look like intimidating rock stars, but off stage, the strong Leeds accents and Yorkshire warmth knock you over like an eager puppy - a really cool bunch who make fine music. Clearly influenced by my favourites, The Jesus & Mary Chain, but also bringing to the party echoes of the 60s 'Spector' sound, they surprised me greatly when they said this was only their second gig!

Slow Club were their usual amazing selves (below) - not too keen on festivals by the sound of it, but they played a wonderful set, including my favourite: I Was Unconscious, It Was A Dream. Charles and Rebecca chatted to Christopher Laird and me before their set and told us how excited they were to be going off to Japan, playing a few gigs after that, then taking a break for most of the rest of the year - I think it's about 2 and a half years since I first saw them and they have been gigging relentlessly since then, I think they deserve a holiday!

One of the main reasons for us heading to Indietracks this year was the announcement that Linda Guilala were going to be playing. We were sad that they weren't at last year's festival as it was partly curated by their label, Elefant to celebrate the label's 20th birthday. However, the wait was well worth it. They were wonderful, playing a selection from their album Bucles Infinitos and being joined onstage by Paula and Adria from Papa Topo for their last song, Torremolinos. I LOVE Papa Topo (below) and very much enjoyed meeting them with Linda Guilala after their set. If you haven't seen the video for Oh So Panda, head to YouTube NOW!

Indietracks: Why I love it

I LOVE INDIETRACKS! There, I've said it! I don't really fit the stereotype of people who love Indietracks, as I am not anywhere near cutesy twee enough, but nevertheless, one of the strengths of the festival is that is pretty welcoming to allcomers.

For anyone who doesn't know, Indietracks is held at the Midland Railway - Butterley in Derbyshire, and you can either camp near the actual festival venue of Swanwick Junction, or 'commute' in each day via Butterley Station and take a vintage steam or diesel train to the festival site. It's a really lovely walk too (below).


There's just something really heartwarming about attending a festival with around 1500 NICE people. I have been to most of the 'old' festivals in the UK and have spent weekends in the general company of some of the biggest tossers known to man, but all this is different at Indietracks, it's small but not boring, although if you're a party animal you might be a teeny bit bored with the trains and the twee crafts and so on... however, if you work hard and fancy a pretty low-key but fun weekend without any pressure, this is the place for you. It's nice to just sit around and watch some bands, have a wander to the cafe, get a beer, or have a rest sitting in a vintage train carriage that is converted into a bar for the weekend (below).

This year's line up was good too - highlights for me were The Blanche Hudson Weekend, Linda Guilala (accompanied on stage by the wonderful Papa Topo), Slow Club, Yokoko and Everybody Was In The French Resistance... Now! More on the bands in my next post...

If you like what you've heard about it, you'll love the RadioNowhere Indietracks 2010 Special with Christopher Laird - just visit http://www.radionowhere.org/ and hit the Podcast link

If you want to find out more about Indietracks, visit their website: http://www.indietracks.co.uk/ and maybe even come to next year's Indietracks (but only if you're not a tosser)

Jessica 6 in 1958

You can now hear my 1958 show as a podcast, available here

You can view the playlist here

Next month I'll be in 1993 - requests can be sent to me via e-mail or via twitter

Enjoy!

And The Beat goes on...

Last night I got to see The Beat at (what I discovered is) the largest unticketed free music festival in Europe, which is held a few miles from where I live. I am becoming a big fan of ska music and, of the UK bands from the late ‘70s, The Specials are undoubtedly my favourites, but I have been introduced to The Beat’s music and think there is a great poppy/punk/ska feel. Mirror in the Bathroom is a stand out track for me, but there are some other great covers and original songs in their repertoire.

As you can imagine with a free festival in a small town, there were some very interesting people out for the night, and people-watching was as much fun as the show! Ranking Roger’s son, Ranking Junior is also in this version of The Beat, and together the band were great. We were hoping they might sing ‘Stand Down Cameron’ instead of ‘Stand Down Margaret’ (they didn’t), but Ranking Roger didn’t disappoint, dedicating ‘Get A Job’ to Mr Cameron. Glad to see the years have not diluted the politics.

I have so many poppies in my garden the police will soon be coming to investigate

About three years ago a couple of poppies grew in my garden as the seeds blew over from my neighbour’s garden. They were really beautiful, so that year I collected some seeds from the seed pods and sowed a few more. Last year I went a bit crazy and sowed as many seeds as I could find in any patch of soil in my garden and over the last few weeks, every single seed seems to have produced a great big poppy plant so there must be THOUSANDS of poppies in my garden and driveway.

As you can see from the pictures they are amazingly gorgeous – there are loads of different colours and styles. We also have some wild poppies too (below) which are just so beautiful in their simplicity.

I love water lilies

My late grandfather (Poppa) dug this pond in our back garden, and bought us this water lily. Now he’s gone (2 years ago today), it is extra special to see it thriving so well and producing such beautiful flowers.

I can already taste the pie

This is a picture of the pumpkins I am growing in my garden – I don’t really have ‘green fingers’ and as you can see there are still some weeds around the pumpkins, but they grow so fast they’ll soon block out the nasty weeds. This picture was taken a week or so ago and as it is so ridiculously hot (for England) at the moment they are growing like crazy. These plants have been grown from the seeds of the pumpkins I grew last year – what about that for self-sufficiency?! I love pumpkins. I grew loads of plants last year though and ended up giving everyone I knew a pumpkin and still having loads left which are chopped up in cubes in my freezer, waiting for me to be bothered to cook/bake. I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin curry and the katsu curry that they do at Wagamama is just delicious; that makes me want to go buy some panko breadcrumbs so I can make katsu curry for my tea. Yummy.

Birmingham on a beautiful summer day

After the Wynton Marsalis concert, the next day we had a wander through Birmingham City Centre, which has some great public art and architecture. All of these photos were taken within a five minute walk through the centre to have breakfast.

This is the edge of the library building (I think) which looked quite striking against the blue sky:


After the library, we saw this statue in the centre of the waterfall in front of the Council House in Victoria Square. I love public art and particularly really big, in-your-face sculpture.

On the edge of Victoria Square was this statue, which looked a bit Egyptian with celtic-style designs on the side:

And after that, was this one, which I think is stunning and is one of the most pleasing things I have seen in a city for a long time:

I have only been to Birmingham once before on a flying visit, and didn’t really explore as the weather was so horrible. I liked the city a lot and thought there was a really good vibe of community unity.

Jazz in Birmingham

On 25 June I went to see Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at Birmingham Symphony Hall. The whole night was amazing. I am no aficionado of jazz or instrumental music as I have never played an instrument, but this is the second time I have seen Wynton Marsalis and each time now I have just been blown away. On this occasion, I particularly enjoyed the tributes to John Coltrane and Count Basie. One of the stars of the show for me was Walter Blanding Jr. who played saxophone and clarinet, and played one of the most beautiful solos I have ever heard. Watching people who are so at the top of their game is truly inspirational.

After the show, all of the orchestra came out to chat to the audience, and I had the opportunity to meet the aforementioned Walter Blanding Jr., Dan Nimmer (a jaw-droppingly amazing jazz pianist), and trombonist Chris Crenshaw, who sang Count Basie’s I Left My Baby so beautifully it was almost tear-jerking. After a while, Wynton Marsalis came out to greet the audience too, and seeing him chat with the youngsters in the audience was lovely. Whilst he has been in the UK he has spent some time working with young people on workshops and to see him chat away so easily with the little ones was great. There is no doubt about his talent, and I’m sure he knows just how good he is, but one-on-one he certainly is a gentleman.

Happy Anniversary Filmic!

I am currently working on a short segment for Ley Bricknell's first anniversary Filmic show on RadioNowhere. For those of you unfamiliar with Ley's show, she plays film soundtracks, incidental music and cues, interspersed with soundbites and trailers from her favourite films. There is a special place in her heart for John Barry, and she also likes the occasional dodgy cover!

Ley has kindly invited her fellow RN DJs to introduce their favourite piece of film music for her anniversary, and as difficult a task as it is to choose, I have finally decided! I'm not going to say what it is - you'll have to tune in to find out!

Ley's show will be broadcast on RadioNowhere on Thursday 8th July at 9pm UK time. Make sure you go along to http://www.radionowhere.org/ for a listen!

I like to read books

I have just started reading George Orwell's 1984, so yes, I am 60 years behind the rest of the world! I have only read 30 pages so far, but already I am entranced... perhaps the book should have been titled 2010. Someone was talking to be about 1984 the other day, and I thought 'I really must read it' so now I am. There are so many things already that anger me about present-day society that I have found explained, like the term prolefeed to describe 'rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime and astrology' (I see they had The Sun even then!) and crappy entertainment designed to anaesthetise the masses (so they also had ITV4).

I just finished The Comedians by Graham Greene, which is set in 1950s Haiti and really brings to life a vision of living there at such a volatile time in the country's history - obviously fictionalised, but from the Introduction, it appears that Graham Greene spent a lot of time in Port-au-Prince, and made quite an enemy of 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, who tried to discredit Greene's reputation. The themes include love, commitment, status and goodwill. It's a great book, but if, like me, you aren't fluent in French, you might want to have a French-English dictionary by your side, just so that you can get the best from the text.

I borrowed both of these books from the library (yay to libraries) but will probably buy them both anyway as they are well worth another read. Away to zShops...

Storm clouds are gathering

This is a picture of a storm cloud over my garden a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It was my birthday yesterday and I got lots of presents, including a beautiful Momiji 'Dancing Girl' doll ("I like monkeys and movies") and The Specials' 20th Anniversary DVD, which I will watch and watch and watch until my already slightly broken DVD player finally dies. It is sooooooooo good. I also got presents from my friend's 10 year old daughter, who paid for them out of her own money! And about 50,000 cakes.

I also had a THREE HOUR social policy exam ON MY BIRTHDAY - how rude - but it seemed to go OK, so no more studying until October - yay!

Jessica 6 in 1977

You can now hear my 1977 show as a podcast, available here

You can view the playlist here

Next month I'll be in 1958 - requests to jessica6@radionowhere.org or 'tweet' me www.twitter.com/jessica6uk

Enjoy!

Cola Jet Set... Go

I went to see Cola Jet Set, the wonderful Elefant records band, on Saturday at The Buffalo Bar in Highbury & Islington, London. I got to meet Filipe and Alicia beforehand and they were both really lovely and so full of positivity about their music and life in general. And they like cider.

They were on the bill as part of a night put on by Pic 'n' Mixx. Their events encourage people to take along a mix-CD and swap it with someone else's, but I didn't know this and so didn't take one, and so I can't tell you about the wonderful mix-CD that I received from a brilliant stranger. Because I didn't take a mix-CD with me to the show, I was stamped with an unhappy face when I entered the venue. Only those who brought a mix-CD got a happy face stamp. I felt rather sad about this.

I also didn't get any pictures at the show as the venue uses those crappy red lights, and being short I couldn't see much. There are also big columns in the venue, so turning up just before Cola Jet Set went on stage, nursing my unhappy face stamp, I ended up standing near the back feeling a bit sorry for myself. I missed the first two acts because I was talking to two nice men in the pub upstairs. I did know them, I wasn't just randomly talking to strangers - Charly the cat warns us against such things.

This is Charly (he's the one on the right):

The band were fab, and their happy sunny pop was just the thing on what had been a rather drab and rainy London evening. I have a thing about bands who have songs with the band's name as part of the lyric (Sheep on Drugs, Pizzicato 5), and Cola Jet Set didn't disappoint. I was also wearing my purple Elefant badge to show my allegiance to the happiest record label in the world.

We had to leave early to catch the train to Dullsville, so missed the headliners Pocketbooks. I'm sure they were good. And, on the way home, some nice people sat next to us on the train and talked to us about music (of the classical and operatic variety), so I even learned stuff. I now know that Alison Balsom is a rather attractive trumpet player, and that it costs a lot of money to move a Steinway Grand Piano from London to the West Country. I probably could have guessed the last one.

Christopher Laird's interview with Cola Jet Set will be broadcast on The Christopher Laird Show on RadioNowhere on Monday 28th June at 9pm UK time - tune in at www.radionowhere.org

Let's start a war, start a nuclear war!

This was a discarded set list from one of the support acts at The Enterprise last week. I don't know what they were called and I didn't see them so I don't know if they were any good. Sorry.

Tim Ten Yen Take Two

The second wonderful occasion last week was a triumphant and hilarious set from Tim Ten Yen at The Portland Arms in Cambridge, supporting his mate Jim Bob (ex-Carter USM). This is a bad photograph, but I like that Tim looks more sinister than The Sinister Cat:

Forget paying stupid money to see the same old act from stand-ups, just go and see Tim Ten Yen, he's a singing salaryman with a side order of comedy - honestly, I was still laughing about Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers on my way home.

As I said, also on the bill that night was Jim Bob, who was reading from his new book Storage Stories and playing some solo and Carter stuff too. This is a picture from the slideshow that accompanied his reading:


The concept of the reading and the songs worked really well, I thought. There was one guy in front of me, however, who looked over at his friend after the first reading and mouthed, 'What was that all about?', which rather made me giggle. They finished their drinks and left.

The show was up against the Cambridge Beer Festival, which was being held just across the road, so although it was sold out, I think a few people may have found themselves either unable to leave the festival (the magnetic pull of beer) or they tried to make it to the venue but forgot where they were going and got a kebab instead. Earlier in the day, when walking past the beer festival site, I watched a man leave the festival, get on his bike which was parked outside, and immediately crash into another cyclist. I laughed a lot.

I bought Jim Bob's book at the gig and read it the next day - it's really good. It reminds me a bit of Alexei Sayle's short stories, in terms of it's connection to reality, and especially to Martin Millar's Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation, which is one of my favourite books of all time. Apparently others have said it reminds them of Chuck Palahniuk, but I wouldn't know as I haven't read any of his books.

You can buy Jim Bob's book in all the usual places - also from http://www.storagestories.co.uk/

Our lovely friend Tim Ten Yen has interviewed Jim Bob about his new book for The Christopher Laird Show, and this will be broadcast, with Jim Bob as Artist of the Week, on Monday 21st June 2010 at 9pm UK time - head over to http://www.radionowhere.org/ for a listen!

If you haven't read Alexei Sayle's short stories, do so now, they are brilliant - first compilation is called The Dog Catcher, second one is Barcelona Plates. Also Ten Sorry Tales by Mick Jackson is a MUST READ - and worth buying for David Roberts' illustrations alone.

Tim Ten Yen Take One

I was lucky enough to see the lovely, the wonderful, the marvellous Tim Ten Yen twice last week - on Tuesday 25th May at The Enterprise in Chalk Farm, London, and on Thursday 24th at The Portland Arms in Cambridge (see next blog entry). The picture above was from The Enterprise.

Also on the bill at The Enterprise was Hafdis Huld, the sweetest person I have ever met who comes from Iceland (actually probably the only person I have ever met who comes from Iceland). She was kind enough to take full responsibility for the volcano, as she informed us that she had been poking it with a big stick.

This is a picture of Hafdis (and Alistair on guitar):

Starfish and Coffee

When I went to the beach recently, this poor little starfish was stranded after the tide had gone out and I felt bad, so I put him into a little pool of water that had been left.

I read later that they can survive for up to 5 days without water, so he probably didn't really need my help at all, and he might actually have been enjoying a bit of fresh air, so perhaps next time I'll just say hello and walk on by.

The School in Shepherd's Bush

Back on 27th March I went to see The School at Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush, London and I took this picture of their stage set. Sorry about the person on the right hand side - I'm no master photographer, I just like taking pictures! The show was excellent and the venue is just too cute - there are some great photos in the lobby of it when it was a proper bingo hall. The staff there were really nice too and can't recommend it highly enough. It is in a bit of a weird place though, and options for drinks and food nearby are a bit limited. Before the show we went for a drink at a local pub (and I mean local) and while we were sitting there (me with my flat diet coke and my partner with a half - 'just in case it's a bit weird') a rather dodgy looking character came in and approached a man by the pool table - he then produced a flat pack of meat from within his jacket, a transaction took place and the dodgy man left. After that, every few minutes, the purchaser took the meat out of his bag to look at it, and each time looked rather rather pleased with his newly acquired meat.

Also, on the way to the venue, I saw this:

There was a VG store on the road that I grew up on and I rather liked this retro sign. Be aware, I had bought my new camera the week before so I was taking pictures of pretty much anything that caught my eye at that point!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello to anyone who has found me here... you might already know my show on RadioNowhere, if not then do check out http://www.radionowhere.org/ as it is the best online radio station you will ever find! I present the Jessica 6 show on the first Tuesday of the month, and basically I visit a year in music each month in my magic little bubble car (see left).

I have a Twitter page as well (www.twitter.com/jessica6uk), but when I go to gigs or see things that I like, I have often thought that maybe it would be fun to post some photos or just document some of the stuff I sometimes get to do. And books I've read, and music I like and all that sort of thing.

I recently came across Jorge Garcia's blog (he was Hurley in Lost) - http://www.dispatchesfromtheisland.blogspot.com/ - and he inspired me to just get on with it, as so many of his pictures and posts are so funny even though many of them are short. I also got a new digital camera and am crazily taking pictures of stupid stuff that I like and I think maybe other people might like my pictures too. So, here goes...