Lopez Blogs

Well i am back and shockingly a little bit sunkissed. Coming up is my V highlights and some photos...this may become two posts depending on how tired I am :) (I was wussy and left sunday night!!)

The Cast:
Paul, Ruthless, Lydia, Rich, Stu, Ross, Jemma (Glyn)

Day One - Its a fella looking dapper and he's sitting with a slapper...

• Getting to V was the typical nightmare - traffic was horrific. Still we managed to pass the time in the car quite adequately by playing V artists and sending rude pictures to Ruth's sister Lydia
• I quite geniusly found us a short cut which got us there a lot quicker than sitting in stationary traffic, which can be quite boring...
• Carrying the camping equipment from the car to the campsite is the most unforgiving job in all of christendom and I swear the weight pulled my shoulders from round to square and corrected my posture...

• In what we thought was a stroke of cunning magnificence, Lydia and I left Rich and Ruthless to put up the tents and went to find her friend Stu, his brother who looks ridiculously like him (in a good way of course) Ross and their friend Jemma. We then got stuck carrying some of their camping stuff back and I got them lost. Twice. (Clearly my shortcut magic was only working once this day)
• Once the tents were up and everyone was settled, Ruthless cooked up a storming dinner which was most enjoyable.
• She then did the most charitable but less brilliant act of inviting two stoned young lads to come sit and drink with us...
• they ruined our fun drinking game, leered at ruthlesses dairy pillows (boobs boys boobs) and made a complete nuisance of themselves.
• Well one of them was ok, but the other was a total crack whore who was really also getting on mine and stuarts tits.

• Luckily we got rid and had a fun evening - i christened Jemma Glyn after the fact that he only came second on BB and failed to beat evil Pete ;)
• Sleeping next to a tent who play red hot chilli peppers cd on repeat all night quite loud is most annoying :( Boo you whores!!

• Rain and me go together like me and festival toilets. We just don't mix. So i was most unhappy that the heavens opened and stayed open for most the day. And that a lot of my fave acts were on at the same time as each other...
• First up was Gavin DeGraw who was quite good - he dragged the One Tree Hill song out a bit but Chemical Party and Belief were top drawer. Even if no one had the foggiest idea of who he was...
• Lily Allen may have only been on for twenty minutes in the JJB Tent but it was packed to capacity (partially because of the rain one suspects) and she gave a fun show - despite her opening statement of "oh god I'm shitting it there are so many of you!"
• Alfie, LDN and Smile all sound brilliant live and Glyn was bopping around like a nutter...
• Lily was super dooper pleased at her US signing and album being released there. She may be knocking on the D'Luv door...;)

• Running through the mud to get to see James Morrison in the smallest stage of the festival was not fun. Neither was the fact that he had the number one cd in the land so everyone wanted to see him...
• Foolish James spunked his best song You Give Me Something second (thats 2nd!!!) in the set and I have never seen more people leave in droves after it finished...
• Including me. Well it was really quite bloody warm in there and my waterproof top was making me sweat into my arjanwrites teeshirt!
• Sadly had to miss Lorraine. This is the third time I have had the chance to see them and haven't so maybe "the gods" are trying to tell me something...

• but it was for a good cause because The Feeling were absolutely the top band for me of the festival. They were consistently amazing despite the rain and their perfect summer pop songs cheered everyone up.
• Dan Gillespie Sells made me have a tiny crush on him by looking so stunning and is still totally my style icon.
• Mr Ellis Bextor fell on his ass because the stage was so slippy. The dope.
• Seeing The Feeling meant we missed Sugababes too. I bet that they looked good on the dancefloor...
• Nerina Pallot is so polite on stage even when she is a little bit pissed on free red wine

• Geek love is possibly my new favourite Nerina song because it is so heartwarmingly beautiful
• I swear Nerina was channelling Kate Bush and Alanis throughout her set and even flirting with her foxy guitarist a little bit. The downright filthy minx ;)
• Nerina had the most godawful belt on.

• It continued to piss it down outside which was not the most fun in the world. Still I bought some fudge from one of the stalls which the man packed for me so it wouldn't get wet! I just reread that and it reads that a man packed my fudge! Quelle horreur!

• Ruthless who looks gorgeous in a zip up anorak and I caught bits of Paul Wellers set while waiting for some food or booze. One of the two. He was quite good.
• I imagine that That's Entertainment, Changed Man and Town Called Malice could quite change people's lives
• The shame of wearing the same cheap £10 argos waterproof outfit as two chavs leaving some indie act concert. And them being delighted by it!
• BellX1 were only ok but at least I got to sit down for a while
• The Pipettes finished up the night for us and were utterly genius. They really channel the 60s spirit, get the toughest looking of geezers pulling shapes and just are an absolute fantastic fun band to see live.

• Judy is their next single and they sang that Milkman song...

• Back in the tent we all had a fun time sheltering from the rain without any crack whores. Richard was steaming drunk and Glyn was on top form at some random A-Z game we were playing... ah classic Glyn...

• Nearly wet myself laughing showing round a little phonevid sent to me by Mr Ward about a certain MGH who didn't want his picture taken... kiss your mother with that mouth Mark?!

• I slept quite well from 2.30 -8am so was quite pleased with that. My mouth tasted vile when i woke so thank god for funky mouthwash that practically strips your tongue dry.
• I gargled for 60 seconds while waiting for the toilet then made the huge HUGE mistake of trying to be polite by trying to spit it down the toilet bowl.
• At a festival? What the eff was I thinking??? I nearly wretched and had to open the door and spit it onto my adoring public before having a quick wee. Ew.
• That story is nowhere near as vile as the "poo" story Richard came back and felt he had to enlighten our little group with. I dry heaved it was so wretched. I'm dry heaving now at the thought of the story so clearly i won't relay it for you. Evil richard.
• I made people watch Daniel Powter, which isn't considered cool at the best of times, but certainly isn't at V. Still he made Jimmy Gets High sound great and of course Bad Day was fun to listen to live and then...

• THE SUN CAME OUT!!!! Not of the closet obviously, cos everyone already knows the sun is as gay as can be, but the weather changed and it didn't rain again once. I may have even burnt my nose a little bit! Viva the sun!
• I had the worst pork sandwich thing ever. The man who was selling it lied about his quality meats. He obviously just wanted to stuff me with his pork. Ooer missus.
• Seth Lakeman is really good. He knows his way around a fiddle. I think i did a hoe down but can't really remember...
• Paolo Nutini was a genius. Much like James he spunked his single second in the set, but it was so achingly beautiful and wisely followed by These Streets that everyone stayed anyway. I think i had a tear in my eye.
• Paolo is so far ahead in the James v Paolo debate its not even funny anymore. Was it ever funny to begin with?
• I made the loyal choice to watch The Upper Room while everyone pissed off to see Magic Numbers. Not one person would stay. Mean bastards :)
• The Upper Room were so very worth it. Fear not XO, their new song Bad Luck still featured their trademark lyrics but was only marginally rockier but also instantly catchy.
• They did a brillo cover version of something I can't remember quite now, but Portrait, Black and White and All Over This Town rocked my world and made me sad that they are not more famous...
• Lead singer Alex has had a bit of a makeover and looks a lot better thankyou very much
• I ran all the way to catch my second favourite new find of 2005, The Magic Numbers absolutely rocking the sunny main stage...
• I missed the new song and Forever Love, but Love Me Like You Do and Morning Elevens were on and even though i couldn't find everyone else, I was dancing like a loon on loon tablets at a loon convention. Ie they were vair vair good :)
• Captain were quite good, but Glorious was definitely the highlight of their set. The Duels still slightly ahead in that debate...
• I had high hopes for Keane and certainly opening with Everybodys Changing (though no one noticed Tim Rice Oxley who needs a bit of a hair trim come on stage) was a stroke of genius.
• Other than that and somewhere only we know, Keane are incredibly boring live and they didn't make me love their second album anymore either (its still only 66% as good as the last one)
• Keane - one of my fave new finds of 2004 one of my biggest let downs of 2006...
• I'm still not giving up on them though...

• But some random bloke took a great picture of all of us and we managed to wipe the boredom of our faces :)
• Bloody Hell! Girls Aloud were brilliant. The tent was absolutely packed to the gills.
• They came on looking a MAZE ing as did they entourage of black clad backing singers...
• They were wise to keep things up beat and not go into any of their slow stuff...
• Biology, Wake Me Up, Sound Of The Underground and Long Hot Summer all sounded just bloody brilliant live...
• Best bits were Jump cos everyone was, their absolutely storming version of last years anthem I Predict A Riot madeover electroclash style...and Love Machine.
• I didn't feel inhibited dancing like a mincer to love machine at all. Their ill advised break into One Thing was not good.
• Goodbye V 2006 :(

Gosh - i didn't take many pics on the sunny day did I???

Now this isn't going to be the "coolest" blog entry i have ever done or the most wide reaching in terms of appeal, but.... i went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang last night and wanted to tell you guys what i thought of it...

A good family musical needs several ingredients - some stomping show tune numbers, far too cute kids, a baddie to boo at, some good solid adult humour that will fly above the kids heads, a bit of a love story and some comedy villains. And of course chitty had all that in spades. We were on row A right in the centre, so our seats couldn't have been better and I really enjoyed it from start to finish...Best bits?

• not being able to stop smiling when the song Chitty Chitty Bang bang came on...
• the baron and baroness of volgaria admitting they used "toys" in their marriage ;)
• Goran and Boris becoming Doris and Gordon as their British disguise, then referencing the surprisingly family -unfriendly Sticky Vicky (if you've ever been to Benidorm, you'll know what I mean)
• Trying to spot which of the ensemble were fancy nancy west end wendies (most of them!)
• Being a sucker for a love story, i couldn't help but be moved when Truly and Caractacus sang Doll On A Music Box/Truly Scrumptious and realised their love for each other. Darren, i'm sure, was quite rightly mortified...
• Booing at the actually very creepy and scary child catcher, whose voice echoed around the theatre...hisssssss
• Kind of getting carried away with the brilliance of it all and the infectious enthusiasm of the kids when the car actually did fly. No it really did - it was magic :)

While i was listening to the strangely ok actually new song from Hussica Simpson (You Spin Me Round - not exactly a cover, more of a "tribute!"), i dug out some songs that a friend had emailed me a week or so ago and have started popping up on link blogs all over the place now so i thought i would get my two penneth in... (ps - if you want to check out the Jessica song, go here, here or here. Don't be confused dear readers - these are three separate blogs they just cover lots of the same music. Of course we like Henry best ;0 )



Aly and Aj are two little broads I avoided for a while because I thought they were those two weird ethnic cleansing girls that featured in a few magazines recently. I'm not even going to mention their names cos obviously they deserve NO publicity. But Aly and AJ are two puggle loving, kidnap hating, jesus worshipping, tweenage riot predicting little minxes in the making and based on this song (the best song Hilary Duff never recorded) I may be tempted to at least listen to a bit of their cd...

MP3: Chemicals React

Abi Ryan has the cheapest looking webpage (after this one) but that doesn't mean the quality of her music is subpar. This is potentially going to be a great single - its a little bit electro (which apparently we are not over yet), a little bit seductive, a little bit funky and a lot catchy. I suspect, that much like goddess Stevens "I Said Never Again", its about the joys of bottom loving. She likes it rough and from the back. Don't we all love...

MP3: You Know I Like That



Finally, Stefy are apparently in that new Mr Nadine Coyle movie John Tucker Must Die and hopefully this will boost their profile... they have influences of No Doubt, goldfrapp and yes even rachel stevens who so needs to do a third album already. This song might even make me like girls called Chelsea and we all know they are complete bitches. Unless you are called Chelsea or know someone and then they are the most absolutely lovely exception to that rule. Eek!

MP3: Chelsea

In 2000 after a few years silence, an album came out that to me was the perfect comeback album, one of my favourite albums of the artists career and a perfect example of polished classy pop to attack the charts with...

It would be easy to assume that I am talking about Kylie's "Light Years" - a seminal album by her that lit up the dancefloors of europe and australia, and provided her with the platform that would lead to world domination. But actually, its a far lesser known album i'm talking about.

MYOB was the second album by Deborah Gibson to be released on her own record label after Atlantic (and later SBK) decided they no longer wanted her on the books (fools!) It was a focused selection of 11 songs that ranged from dance/pop that shined down on you like a glistening glitter ball, to smooth AC to jazz tinged ballads about lost love and heartache. Not only did Deborah transcend style and trends, she created an album that would appeal across the board. However, I really feel this album would have been her Light Years if she had the promotional "oomph" behind her and found her a core gay audience in England had she come and toured the clubs. The title track MYOB told people to Mind Your Own Business (i've posted it before here) when it came to who you are in love with/sleeping with, while dance hit Your Secret (actually written about a married man from the view point of a mistress) could easily be about a gay boy and his closeted lover. Jaded touches on the heartaches that difficult relationships can bring while Chynna Phillips (of Wilson...) co-penned Wishing you Were Here is transformed by a radio remix from a gentle AC chugger into a disco frenzied declaration of lust.

Anyone who reads this site knows I am a huge fan (and you can check out previous posts here, here , here, here er and here) but even if Ms Gibson is not your thing, this is one perfect pop album worth checking out.

Links:

Deborah Gibson official site

MYspace site

Buy MYOB

now i don't really know much about this so hopefully someone can fill in the blanks for me ;) Before they released their debut album, the Scissor Sisters (hereafter known as the Scissters) had a demo album out that has of course "been floating" on the internet for a while. There are some versions of songs that ended up on the seminal debut cd and some that didn't. It does have a rawer, less polished feel than the debut, more of the brilliant talky bits (check out music is the victim - "whats shaking miss matronic? Nothing but my bacon Mr Shears") and the strange but entrancing genius of backwards discotheque (part one)... If you like these, let me know and i'll try and upload some more :)

MP3s:
Music Is The Victim demo (Right click)
Backwards Discotheque Part One (Right click)
Monkey Baby (Right click)
Doctor I'm Only Seeing The Dark (right click)

Before i start this post, can i just say in 7 years of Big Brother I have never seen anything more hilarious than Davina McCall's face when she saw a video of evicted (thank god) housemate Mikey saying "I can't wait to get out of here - i will worship the gash!" Quite rightly she was horrified...

Anyway... I am quite glad this week is over. Having recurring stomach problems (a little gift from when i was ill about 7 years ago now!) is never fun, but this week has been quite horrible, then darren found out he was being made redundant (his office is closing down) so we now have to work out what to do next... it was quite nice then to finish off the week celebrating ruthies birthday, even though i did still feel a little dodgy... (quote of the night at the restaurant by ruth "i'm going to have what i was going to have last time until Paul turned me on the fish!")

(darren with lou and ruths head - i am loving darrens shorter new hairstyle. RRRRR)

(this is me and our friend craig - again with part of ruths head!! Strange that ruths head is only partially in lots of these shots - usually she is so good with head, so i hear...)

(l to r back to front - our friend mark whose birthday it was yesterday also [and who is also currently loved up with craig - hurrah!] dazpants, me, ruthie and lou)

(and back to ours for absinthe shots that totally killed mark off so he went home dreadfully ill, poor lamb. We were joined by Lydia and Stuart at the back who will be Ruth and mines V Fest buddies. Screw you skanky ho Hilton!)

I have known Ruthie since 1997 (so next year is our ten year anniversary - we should go to glastonbury as well as v!) and she is one of the funniest, warmest, most genuine, non-judgemental people I have ever had the privilege to know. Not only is she super lovely, she shares almost exactly the same musical tastes as me (she draws the line at mcfly and the debs), is a brilliant concert buddy and is as passionate about buffy, gilmore girls and veronica mars as i am. In short, she is the best lady loving lady a 'mo could wish to have. Happy Birthday :)

(i got this song yesterday and instantly knew ruth would love it!)

MP3: Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing (Linus loves Vox mix)

ps - it would be rude not to leave ruth a birthday greeting even if you don't know her!!
pps - check out her equally lovely sisters myspace site

There are people in the world who will tell you Captain are wimpy powder puff schmindie types and not worth a second of your time. These people are clearly idiots... Captain, you see, peddle pop that recalls the gloriously melodic heydays of Prefab Sprout and could easily reduce the hardest of hearts to puddles of mush with the mere flutter of single Glorious' chorus. They are like a consistently ace Aussie indie rock troupe The Go-Betweens if a major label had thrown loads of money at them. Glorious, by right, should be number one forever. If the lead singer would only take of his rubbish Orson hat, i'd henna his name on my heart forever. Or until it washed off...

MP3: Captain - Glorious (rightclick)