Summer, or the poor pretence at summer that England offers, is the season for Music festivals and great music concerts. Although this post refers to concerts back in June, but let's face it, I'm not exactly good at keeping up my blog. Anyway, back in June, Alex and I did our usual concert rounds and that's one thing that I plan to keep up even when little baby is around - at least music festivals - which are day time. I've already decided that baby enjoys music, but that's because we aren't (at least I'm not) giving him or her a chance not to. In the car (about 1h30 a day in total) I sing along radio and even tell the baby all about what it can hear me sing - all that I know about the song or the singer or the band and whether Mama and Daddy actually like the song or if it is Daddy's favorite band - Radiohead - I make sure to point it out. If nothing else, our kid should be born knowing a thing or two about music or maybe even musically gifted (not from me, I could not find my talent even if it was served on a silver tray!) but Daddy is multi talented and I intend to take advantage of that to the max.
I can't find my pictures of the Radiohead gig, well it's mostly videos, it was a good gig, we went with a couple of friends, who were meeting their own friends there, so it was a bunch of us. In the celebrity spotting, Alex and Grit saw Stella McCartney (not the bitchy ex-wife, the daughter of the ex-Beatles) and Alex also spotted one band that I really like The Magic Numbers, that he rightfully described as "What's that hairy band you like called?", very nice bunch. I'm not one to go and disturb famous people, but they were a lot less intimidating than the lead singer of Stereophonics Alex spotted at the airport to Venice, who I could not bring myself to bother for a photograph. Radiohead was very good and very exciting, I enjoy listening to them more live than in the car for example (except The Bends, that sounds good anywhere).
Anyway, a couple of weeks later we were back at the Hyde Park Festival where my very favorite band in the world (since September last year!) The National was playing, and guess what, I did not get to see them once but twice!!! As we walked through the gates, I told Alex, Oh my God, this is Brainy, we're missing out on the National, they started playing already. In a panick we rushed to the small stage where a gathering of 50 were watching the band play, I was devastated because I'd missed them, I was also very surprised the crowd was so small, I was quite sure they were much more famous than that. They played 3 more songs (including Fake Empire, Yay!!!) and before walking off the stage, the lead singer announced that they were playing again at 7 on one of the side stages - Thank God for that! So I got to see them twice that day, three times since last year. I absolutely luuuuuuuv them.
Then on the main stage for the main show was Morrissey, the one and only, he put up a good show, but except for two songs, he only played his latest albums and nothing of the earlier stuff! He opened with The Last of the Famous International Playboy (with a backdrop of the Rat Pack) and I can't remember the title of the other one "If it's not love, then it's the Bomb, the bomb, the bomb that will bring us together". Other than that, he was entertaining in-between songs a lot livelier than for example Beck (I'll get back to him), but I did not enjoy the new songs as much as the old ones, so it felt a bit disappointing.
We also saw a band I had never heard of before called 'The Lightspeed Champion' who was well funny and played quite catchy tunes, but Alex and I loved it particularly when he played his very last song, introducing it as 'it is so long, you'll be booing me off the stage...' which was a rock version of all the Star Wars music, it was awesome for fans like us, very cool.
Beck also played, I am not a huge fan, as in I haven't got his albums but I had a few singles in the 90's. I can't complain because Beck played all the hits that I knew and liked in the first 15 minutes (after that I was running off to the The National stage), but Beck did not say a word (besides singing of course!), he came on stage and played his songs, no 'Hi Hyde Park, no How you' doing etc', shame really, I always imagined him to be a very cool dude and very friendly, but then again I'm a bad judge of characters, so just because his songs are cool, does not make him cool.
Also performing was Guillemots, I like them, I have all their albums, but Alex brought me once to their gig in London and it was sooooo bad, they are soooo bad live that I had to leave the place within minutes, this time, they were still bad - they just can't play live??? - but at least the guy seemed nice, chatting with the crowd in-between songs and played (badly) all the songs I normally like.
Siouxsie (previously from Siouxsie and the Banshees - a band I used to worship in the 90's) was also performing her new stuff, but after the third song, I could no longer make Alex stand this excrutiating noise, it was dreadful, we came here hoping to hear one or two old hits, but maybe she couldn't maybe The Banshees hold rights for the old songs. Shame really.
We were due to watch REM next weekend, but now, Alex is travelling to New York, so we had to sell off our tickets, anyway, I love REM but I would not go without Alex.
Sarah (who caught the bouquet), Emma (who's boyfriend said 'Thank God' when she didn't) me, Tracy (who still isn't married to her partner and father of her child after 20-odd years), Danny (who is planning a wedding for next year) and Sarah (who's already happily married like me).
