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Them Swinging 1990s

Glasgow's got a knack for certain kinds of bands.
Wee knock-kneed indie kittens with striped tights and straight fringes... not so keen on those kind myself. Belle and Sebastian are the acceptable face of this twee substrata of the Glasgow sound and even then, I'd recommend bringing a steak slice with you to their gigs just to stop yourself getting an iron definciency by osmosis.

Another branch of Glasgow's musical tree is made of pure plastic soul - Blue Nile, Orange Juice, Trashcan Sinatras. Got a lot of time for these guys although Paul Buchanan lives on my street and he needs to smile more.

Then there's the wide-eyed, grinning power pop palookas.
Teenage Fanclub and their various friends and allies - BMX Bandits etc. Alex Harvey, I'd even put him in there.
They are my favourite.
And here's the newest version.

The 1990s


Genuine life-affirming band. Best thing at T in the Park in 2006 by a mile and by a mile the best new band I've heard in ages.

This video's fun too - the cute munchkin cartoon versions of the band are actually pretty accurate portraits

CLICK HERE

Everyone say awwww

Oh, by the way, on the album front... if I said tech glitches, illness and other things life can sometimes chuck hard at your head... you'd get the picture.
Good news is it really isn't far off now.

ach, you might well laugh but just you wait and see Gunga Din, just you wait and see!

Love to all
Colonel Cam
Grosvenor Crescent
April 07

Thursday 18th January : Seagal Day

Oh yes, today is the day alright.

In a few short hours we will make the short trip to Bilston to see Stephen Seagal and Thunderbox. As Anna quite rightly pointed out on the 'phone last night, "Our lives will never be the same after this. Everything up to this point has been pre-Seagal."

Eagle-eyed readers will remember that we were meant to see him play last September but the show was rescheduled at the 11th hour due to (it says here) 'unprecedented demand'.

Seagal has been all over the media here in the UK promoting the tour. Actually, to be perfectly honest it's more accurate to say that he's been surly, evasive and monosyllabic all over the media as DJ after DJ has taken the piss...Shame on them.

Do we care? Do we fuck.

A FULL report will follow in the next few days.


Whilst I'm here........apologies for the lack of activity thus far in 2007. Things are busy, y'see.....A precis of the year so far....I've had a (very drunked) birthday to celebrate, me and Anna did an acoustic gig with The Village Wakes and we're all in the process of helping Executive Producer Robson move house. Tis all go.

Normal service will be resumed very early in the new Post-Seagal era.

xx

Happy New Year........

Ok, so under pain of death from Executuve Producer Robson I am being FORCED to explain why our album has not been available at some point in 2006, as stated in the heading above.

Well...

There are various reasons and quite frankly I'm about to go to the pub to get fucking larruped, so I won't go into them now. Suffice to say, it WON'T be available in 2006. However, it WILL be available in 2007. The current estimate for it's official release is some time in April via iTunes etc, but shortly before that and...erm...exclusively via the Friends of the Stars site.

Anyhoo.........Wishing all 4 of our readers a very happy 2007.

Keep on keeping on

Craig
xxx

(ps...if the spelling and punctuation is out of whack then I apologise. Drinknig has begun already. *Hic*)

Jarvis Cocker driving like Henry Paul

I was never a huge Pulp fan, but I always liked Jarvis Cocker. He's a genuine one-off and has a highly developed sense of the obsurd, especially when it comes to his own 'celebrity' status. He had the humility and honesty to admit that after years of chasing fame he found it stupid and hollow when he finally found it. A stance perhaps best illustrated when he famously went head-to-head (or rather Weidro-to-Arsehole) with Michael Jackson at the equally stupid BRIT Awards.

Anyway, here he is mowing down pedestrians, pissing off bike couriers and (of course) offering romantic advice to the down at heart with his new single "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time", taken from the debut solo album, "Jarvis"

Don't think and drive? Maybe.

Ghost Hunting with Girls Aloud

Fucking hell.

First of all...What a BRILLIANT idea for a telly programme.

Second of all....What a BRILLIANT telly programme!!!!

Seriously, if you haven't seen it then do yourself a favour and go to You Tube and type in "Girls Aloud, Ghosts". The whole 2-hour show is available in 10 installments.

It's ACE.

It's The Blair Witch Project made with the help of the best UK Girl POP group since Bananarama.

What's not to like?

The long and the short of it is that the Girls are taken to various locations and then petrified beyond their wits. In the dark.

Mostly the girls scream and are generally terrified. In fact, Nadine doesn't even bother joining them in the first place and Nicola might as well not have bothered (she spends most of the time hiding away from the action) so in actual fact we only get 3/5 of the band.... Of those that do stick it out, Kimberley and Sarah are ok and pretty game but Cheryl Tweedy is absolutely fucking NAILS and gets through some Olympic-standard swearing when pushed. She does her best to appear not scared at all and is the closest thing I've ever seen to a real-life Ghostbuster.

Ghosts exist in a strange, scary hinterland between life and the ultimate, unknown beyond; where eveyrone has dead eyes and half-remembered feelings of love are distant memories. Cheryl Tweedy is married to Ashley Cole.

..

Josephine Foster is amazing....so there!

On Thursday night we took a trip to Coventry to see Josephine Foster.

Anna drove over and after spending a frustrating 30 minutes negotiating an entirely baffling road system, we parked and found the venue and went inside. Then we were told that the gig was at the 'other' venue. Unable to face getting back on the ringroad horse, we all jumped in a cab and were soon there. I can't remember the name of either venue. Coventry is only 20 miles away from where we live, so I'm always amazed what a monumental pain in the arse it is to actually get there and go about your chosen business. There was a lot of swearing in the car.

Anyway, so I came across Josephine Foster in late 2005 when a friend played me her album "All the Leaves are Gone" which she recorded with a full band and shortly afterwards I heard the solo, acoustic album "Hazel Eyes, I will lead you", both of which were released on the Chicago-based Locust label. Both albums are amazing and whilst they are quite different they are held together by the strength and originality of her voice, which is where the trouble usually starts.

See, I've been eulogising this music pretty much since I first heard it and I've faced wildly different reactions. A handful of people have felt the same was as I do but the majority have ran from the room screaming "Make it stop, make it stop!!". I'll be the first to concede that her voice is out of the ordinary and I can see how it would divide people - Quite simply, you will either love it or hate it and indeed Josephine has described herself as 'a failed opera singer', which is pretty damn accurate.

In terms of our own ranks, Anna absolutely loves it and Cam totally hates it. Ho hum. Despite this internal bun fight the fact remains that the last track on our (yawn!) forthcoming album is inspired by her.

Make your own mind up.

Listen:



















From "All The Leaves Are Gone" : Who Will Feel Bitter At The Days End?



















From "Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You" : The Golden Wooden Tone


Mmm?

If you didn't run from the room screaming then there are a couple of other releases to track down. A newer album on Locust called "A Wolf In Sheeps Clothing", on which she sings entirely in German (That's right, I said German) and also an uber-limited seven-song 7" (which my friend managed to get for me off of Ebay!) available from Australian label Art School Drop Out that contains one of my favorite tracks, "Sunny Moony Starry Rainy Cloudy Sky".

So. After defending this music for the last 18 months I was chuffed to finally see her play live. She completely delivered and live her voice is even more astonishing. It is completely flawless and seemingly effortless. In a small, intimate venue in front of about 30 people sprawled on sofas and in armchairs it was all the more special. The horrendous journey was well worth it.

xx