Things To Do In England When You're Dead

My attempt to recover regular blogging extends now into a second post...

A few weeks ago I attended the inaugural Across The Tracks Festival in Leeds. Unhelpful stage times, early train departures and a mixup which mean bottles of pure Finlandia vodka where left on the counter meant that I remember little of the festival itself, but there was one band I was front row centre for, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
Combining a love of Simon & Garfunkle and destabilizing governments with all Ukulele (And one bass) renditions of Anarchy In The UK, Silver Machine ("For that young man in the front with he sensible haircut") along with Ukulele classics such as Leaning On A Lamp Post, they where the true festival highlight, and the only band whos entire set I caught. The all Uke' sound was fantastic, performance excellent and the inbetween song banter excellent, the only problem was they only played for about 30 mins.

So imagine my delight at finding they're playing in the Salford Lowry, and on good ol' 11/9 as well! Surly there is no better way to overcome uncomfortable memories of terrorist attack and cancelled episodes of Diagnosis Murder. So, if you're after a night out there is no better way to spend £15 than on a ticket for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain! And this time, I can have the delight for more than 1800 strum filled minutes.

I can hardly wait.

There was a time when this Blog averaged three posts a day, but recently, like oh so many Blogs its fallen into neglect. Not that I'm not doing anything, I've had a fair few adventures, just been lacking the inspiration.

Till today that is, and you know this'll be a good tale because it involves Johnny Cash and his new album, Personal Files. After being seriously disappointed with the Hundred Highways album I was cautious about this, but it represents recordings some 25 years old while Mr. Cash was in a creative wilderness, performing the spares one man and his guitar recordings that would later revive his career.

Some of the songs may be a bit Jesus heavy but their sound quality is fantastic and the brief spoken introductions bring the songs to life and remind me of reading his two autobiographis (He certainly lead quite the life). I first head about this album in Mojo where the Song Half A Mile A Day was mentioned, but the best track I've heard on the album so far is Cremation of Sam McGee, a reading of Preston born, Canadian wilderness based poet based poet Robert W. Service.

This poem is a grim tale of a man freezing to death while out looking for Gold and making his friend promise to cremate his remains so he can be reminded of what warmth is, with its dark humour and twists making it very reminiscent of Half Man Half Biscuits opus, Tour Jacket With Detatchable Sleeves. This song is the stuff Halloweens are made of and would no doubt would make a great party piece.

Really, anybody reading, forget the American V album, which had far strayed from thier original point of stripped down balladry and stroytelling and had instead become a collection of artists desprrate to work with the ailing man, and get The Personal Files. Some of the songs miss the mark, yes, but its a vital insight into what music meant to Johnny Cash, why he played it and the songs that hit the mark are amongst the best narritivies Johnny Cash ever performed, right up there with The Baron and One Piece At A Time.

This album has made me want to write this at 4 AM, after a late night shift at a bar filled with drunken Irish Hen parties trying to remember a tune, and by writing this I feel just slightly better of for having survived the incident. I also pledge now to make more effort to update and record for my future selfs sake, the damnedable sod.

Excuse the lack of postings, but I've been working intensly on getting a photo into the BBC magazines Ten Things We Didn't Know Last Week feature. It's been an intense search but I think I'm onto a winner, snapping a pic of Gate 10 of Roskilde Festival. This giant number flaoted eerily above our site casting a calming pink glow and acting as invaluable beacon when finding home. Remember, you saw it here first.

Now that the media attention over Lordi has passed us by I've had to look elsewhere for my monster rock fix, without it, I fear I forget that brutal distruction and the hands, or claws, of Heavy Metal monsters from space is just a matter of time.

Of course, where else to look but to the might Gwar, whos new album, "Beyond Hell" is on the way (Produced by Devin Townsend, none the less). In a radio freinbdly move everybodies favourite space monster living under Antartica have covered Alice Coopers classic Schools Out, with pleasing results. Delightful.

As if that wasn't enough Gwar in days gone past made great moves to enlighten people on what the joke was all about by appearing on some talk shows. I've gotten into YouTube.com recently, a great was to see footage from the Neighbours 20th Annivery bash. But, keeping on point, witness Gwar put on thier poshest accents for a Joan Collins interview, and clap your hands in delight as Gwar get Jerry Springer eaten on stage, and go on the win over the audience on his show. It's groovey, a mum blames Gawr for making her kid violent and they accuse her of lazy ass parenting. Love it.