The (Best) Little Fest in the West

27 Sep 2007: So, on the first day at Loopallu I was talking to a (pleasantly drunk) member of the entourage of the Glenrothes-based band Sergeant, who was getting over just how long it had taken them all to get up to Ullapool. He asked if I was local. “No, I’ve come up from Cambridge”, I replied. I wasn’t showing off – it sounded rather daft to have travelled all that way for this “little fest in the West”, actually. But it was a great couple of days. Of course, the Saw Doctors were brilliant – they always are – and were unsurprisingly the highlight of the weekend for me. You’d have expected the other headliners, Franz Ferdinand, to also be a cut [...]

Led Zeppelin in Scotland?

24 Sep 2007: Yeah, I know, sounds unlikely, doesn’t it? But there was a lot of buzz at Loopallu about a new festival next year in the Highlands, called Otterfest 08, and maybe it was a bit of Chinese Whispering, but I heard “Led Zeppelin” mentioned in passing. Probably just a rumour, but watch the Otterfest 08 web site in case there’s any news. It looks a bit amateur, but I imagine Woodstock did too.

The Perils of Procrastination

18 Sep 2007: I’ve been meaning to do a “Top Ten Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics” blog entry for, well, years. And I’ve never got round to it. Unfortunately, other people have done it, so if I ever do, I’ll just end up looking like the exploiter of second-hand ideas which I probably am. Maybe I should get on with starting the Half Man Half Biscuit lyrics project, in which I aim to publish the lyrics of every HMHB song, ever. That’s an idea I’ve been mulling over for ages. And it wouldn’t take long, would it? (Update: I’ve done it)

Music download services compared: a Mac user writes

9 Sep 2007: There is intelligent life out there beyond the iTunes music store, you know. Over the past few months I’ve used two other music download services, mainly because for all its good points, the iTunes music store sells all its music with some godawful “copy protection” system which keeps nagging you about “authorised machines” and once – when I tried to load my music library onto a new Mac – even told me I was no longer allowed to play songs I’d paid out 79p a track for (which in many cases is more expensive than an old-school CD is!). So here are my thoughts on three music download services, from the point of view of a Mac user (although for [...]

Colchester Golf Club

6 Sep 2007: My brother Tony is a member of Colchester Golf Club, a nice Essex golf course. This blog entry is really just to demonstrate anchor text. But there are some unintentionally amusing videos of golf swings there.