Marconidelorian’s Weblog

Oh my word, Manic Street Preachers are releasing a Christmas single. This is either the best news or the worst news in the world. I hope it’s the best. If it’s as good as the ‘classics’ by Slade, Wizzard, Shakin’ Stevens, it’ll be great. If it’s on a par with The Darkness, it’ll suck balls. Anyway, here’s the story again in someone else’s words:

Manic Street Preachers are planning to record a Christmas song to release this December.

The single will coincide with the band’s forthcoming UK tour.

Frontman James Dean Bradfield told BBC 6 Music that the band were in the early stages of writing the song.

“I think we’ve got more of a sense of humour than people realise,” he said. “We regard it [the Christmas single concept] as a great, great tradition.”

Explaining more about the songwriting process, Bradfield added: “The way it reads is a bit funny at the moment. We’ve got to decide what we’re going to do with it. We’ve always got lots of little plans and dreams - one of is to do a Christmas single.”

From Nme.<p

No fool, nothing new. Unfortunately. Two demos from the time Blur were leaving dark times behind with Modern Life is Rubbish and demoing songs for what would become brit pop archetype Parklife. There’s two demos, one of Girls and Boys, and one of Parklife. Damon does the speaking parts in Parklife, as it was intended that Phil Daniels talk over The Debt Collecter- unfortunately, Damon couldn’t be arsed to write some lyrics for it so he ended up doing Parklife instead.

Girls and Boys sounds a bit more 80s, and my god is that bassline excitable! Thank goodness 
it calmed down a bit for the proper version. Anyway, to hear them, head over here.

Ouch. Supergrass bassist Micky Quinn has managed to sleepwalk out of a 1st floor window and break several vertibrae on his back. Well, if you will insist on staying in the south of France…

Full story.

Please please please God let it happen. NME are reporting that there are whispers that Coachella have managed to tempt My Bloody Valentine in to reforming and performing classic shoegaze album ‘Loveless’ in it’s entirety. If this happens, they had better come and play it in London too- I can’t afford to fly to America for it!

Anyway, the full story.

Wow, best band in the world, Pete and Carl are the second coming, I’d sacrifice my first born to get them back together yada yada yada. In actual fact a fairly decent band who produced a good first album and a piece of shit second album, then broke up and produced the horror that is Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things and Yeti- all fucking rubbish, hopefully they’ll all tour together in a transit van that’ll fly off the edge of a cliff.

Anyway, the story from NME

“An unreleased song by The Libertines has begun circulating on the internet.

Information about how to get the track, a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Eight Days A Week’, has been posted on the fan forums of the official Libertines website.

Recorded in 2003 during the ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ sessions with Bernard Butler producing, the song features Carl Barat on vocals, but Pete Doherty does not feature.

The cover was leaked online by a music industry figure who works in licensing/publishing.”

Last night we took our lives in our hands and went to Didcot to see ‘Knocked Up’ at the cinema. Judd Apatow’s comedy starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann tells the story of two very different people who meet at a club one night and have a drunken one night stand. Ben Stone is a 23 year old ’slacker’ who lives with his friends, gets stoned every day and plans to make money from a website that gives information about nudity in films. Alison Scott is a career minded girl working at a TV station who just gets a promotion, hence the reason why she is out at the club celebrating when she meets Ben.
After a misunderstanding involving contraception, Alison finds out she is pregnant 8 weeks later. She contacts Ben and the two get to know each other in an attempt to see if they are right for each other.
‘Knocked Up’ is the latest in a positive trend of teen comedies, as the dialogue is a lot wittier than these kind of films used to be. Most charcters are well drawn out, coming over realistically and sympathetically which is far more engaging than anything in the recent ‘teen gross out’ comedies. The plot is nothing new of course, but the journey the audience experiences is refreshing. the dialogue is witty but realistic- when Ben’s friends are ripping it out of each other it’s completely believable, you feel like one of the group. The relationship between Ben and Pete is nicely drawn out, a mixture of ‘older brother worship’ and annoyance at his treatment of his wife.
‘Knocked Up’ is a huge success for Apatow, following on from ‘the 40 yr old Virgin’ and I can’t wait to see ‘Superbad’ more than ever.

Sadly, the founder of legendary New York venue Hilly Kristal has died due to complications from lung cancer. see here
for more information.<p

The Manics are following up on their mega hit (arf!) ‘Autum Song’ single with ‘Indian Summer’, due out on October 1st and once again available in 3 formats with 5 new songs spread over:

CD #1
1. Indian Summer
2. Anorexic Rodin

CD #2
1. Indian Summer
2. Heyday of the Blood
3. Foggy Eyes
4. Lady Lazarus

7-inch

Side A
1. Indian Summer

Side B
1. You Know It’s Going to Hurt

It’s also possible to pre-order it from recordstore.co.uk and get 3 for £6 plus p&p, you also get a set of post cards, one of which is signed by the band.

Saturday brings us another scorching sunny day, factor 50 is essential. I start the day with a visit to the toilets in the arena, a good judgement on my part as they’re relatively clean and smell-free. Feeling ten pounds later, I make it to the dance tent to se The Teenagers, a wonderfully foul-mouthed French dance pop act. The biggest cheer is reserved for ‘Homecoming’ which features a chorus of ‘I fucked my American cunt/ I loved my English romance/ It was dirty, a dream came true/ Just like I like it, she’s got nice tits’. Then it’s time for perenial festival band Brakes in the Radio 1 tent. Brakes have been playing this and every other festival since before time, let alone music festivals, began. Howeveer, it’s made them pretty good at what they do, the short jokey songs still go down well, and the proper tunes such as ‘All Night Disco Party’, ‘I Can’t Stand To Stand Beside You’ and the newer material all hit the spot. Eamon has grown as a frontman now, ably assisted by the White brothers and Alex from Tenderfoot.

The Noisettes are interesting to watch, just for the energy on stage but the tunes themselves aren’t up to very much. A short break later and we head to the main stage to watch The Shins, but the scorching sunshine and the need for sitting down renders them as background music, though they sound good from where we’re sitting. Then it’s time for the yearly highlight- Hugh Lennon and his hypno dog! One of our friends manages to get on stage to be hypnotised, and is put through the various stage- conducting an orchestra, riverdancing. At one point he’s given a cigarette and told it is a joint that will make him very high after 2 drags. However, 2 more drags and everyone in the audience will be revealed as police officers! The look on his face was priceless, as was the complete denial that he ever smoked. Eventually the hypno dog is brought on and all volunteers look in to his eyes and fall asleep.

Bloc Party have become an engaging live act, despite a weak second album, and an evening main stage slot sees them concentrate mostly on the hits- ‘Hunting For Witches’, ‘The Prayer’, ‘Banquet’ and ‘This Modern Love’ all sound good, before finishing with a racaus ‘Helicopter’. Aracde Fire follow, providing beefed up arrangements of ‘Funeral’ songs and some highlights from the less engaging ‘Neon Bible’, though still no ‘black light/black wave’ alas. The finale of ‘Power Out’/Rebellian (lies)/’Wake Up’ is stupendous as always.
Now it’s time to dance- !!! are the perfect band for this. There probably aren’t many bands with the drive and energy on stage that !!! possess, so watching them is always a treat. They’re followed by UNKLE, who are merely average- we only get ‘Lonely Soul’ from pysence fiction, meaning the majority is made up from their latest ‘rock’ record. A bit of a damp squid as a headliner, really. As I come out of the tent, the sound of dying, wheezing dinosaurs can be heard- yes, Red Hot Chilli Peppers are finishing with a joyful 2 hour improv funk jam. Run and hide!

I’m a big Joy Division and New Order fan, and I’m very much looking forward to the film ‘Control’,based on Ian Curtis’ widow Debbie Curtis’ memoir on their time together- the book is a fascinating read that portrays Ian Curtis as he really was, a dominating presence who let his life slide out of control due to various factors- it’s thought the medication he took for his epilepsy caused him much of his depression. He also had an affair with a Belgian girl he met while on tour with Joy Division. Just as they were making headway, and a few days before their first American tour, Curtis hanged himself at his house. He was just 23. So it’s probably not going to be a comedy…

Anyway, the soundtrack has three new New Order songs, which is a bit disappointing 
reallyI’d previously heard they were due to record a full soundtrack under the name
Joy Division, but New Order became so bloody lazy towards the end it’s hardly a surprise.
I hope the new tracks aren’t inspired by Hooky’s rather dramtic exit of the band!

Anyway, the tracklist is:

New Order - ‘Exit’
The Velvet Underground - ‘What Goes On’
The Killers - ‘Shadowplay’
Buzzcocks - ‘Boredom’ (live)
Joy Division - ‘Dead Souls’
Supersister - ‘She Was Naked’
Iggy Pop - ‘Sister Midnight’
Joy Division - ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’
Sex Pistols - ‘Problems’ (live)
New Order - ‘Hypnosis’
David Bowie - ‘Drive-In Saturday’
John Cooper Clarke - ‘Evidently Chickentown’
Roxy Music - ‘2HB’
Joy Division - ‘Transmission’ (cast version)
Kraftwerk - ‘Autobahn’
Joy Division - ‘Atmosphere’
David Bowie - ‘Warszawa’
New Order - ‘Get Out’

It’s due out on October 1st, with the film itself released on October 5th. Can’t wait!