Annual Brits rant...2006

Here is my annual rant over the ridiculous Brit awards that took place tonight at Earls Court in London.

Best Male + Pop Act - James Blunt
Best British Group + Live Act + Rock Act - Kaiserchiefs
Best Album + Single - Coldplay
Best Breakthrough - Arctic Monkeys
International Female - Madonna

Are these the most obvious awards in the history of awards? If the bands above are the cream the UK has to offer then maybe it's time I moved to Sweden.

The NME awards will be with us soon and I'll wager they will be as poor a selection.

Oh woe is me.

Al

10th Feb - Belle & Sebastian @ Hammersmith Apollo

This was my 15th Belle & Sebastian gig but first in London and rather than dop more than one in Scotland we thought we'd have the weekend in London instead. I had never been to a gig in the Hammersmith Apollo and added to this, Brakes were in support so it all had the makings of a superb night.



Go Kart Mozart opened and although we were in early, we decided to sit in the bar and have a couple of pints of cider and listen from afar and they sounded good. It wasn't until later that I found out that this was Lawrence Haywards new band - ie the leader of the magnificent Felt.

Brakes are a strange band, their live set was totally different to their excellent debut album, but they went down well especially the 5 second epic "comma, comma, comma, full stop"! Superb.

It was a strange feeling being amoung a 5000 crowd at a B&S gig, I'm used to intimate gigs at The Arches, or the QMU and at the begining of this tour, rather than play one big show in Glasgow they played three smaller gigs. This is to their credit as other "Glasgow" bands like Franz Ferdinand seem to easily forget how bad bigger venues are and go for the money when they realise the SECC is a rubbish venue.

15 gigs on and you'd think I'd be getting bored but I can assure you this gig has only strengthened my love for B&S. It was good to hear the new songs after having had a copy of the album for a while but they were mixed in with some classics - including The State I'm In, La Pastie and Judy and the Dream of Horses - making this was a superb show.

Hopefully number 16 will be somewhere abroad but we'll keep that one to ourselves just now!

Al

8th Feb - Jenniferever & Beerjacket @ Bar Bloc, Glasgow

Wednesday nights in Bar Bloc are becoming a bit of a habit. It’s not my favourite venue but when there is a free offering of Beerjacket and the magnificent Jenniferever, who am I to argue?

Peter has been on top form recently, the new album is excellent and his live shows are gaining more audience and he is becoming more confident and tonight was another strong show. I filmed it for him for the archive he is amassing and thoroughly enjoyed his 35 minute set.

Jenniferever are a Swedish band who makes an amazing noise, which was amplified in the small surroundings of Bloc. It was a strange venue for a band like them but their set was amazing and I bought their cd which blared in the car on the way home.

If you haven't heard them, check their myspace site out www.myspace.com/jenniferever

Al

The Nintendos

After the gig on Friday night, I had alot of thinking to do. I wasn't impressed with the atitude and actions of the band during and after the debut gig and as such I resigned as manager with immediate effect.

Its disappointing after the work I've put in over the last 2 years but I felt that I had no choice and I do wish them well in the future.

Al

3 Feb - The Nintendos @ Furys, Glasgow

This was the first gig of The Nintendos, who also happen to be the band that I "manage". I use that term lightly as I've had little to do with the band since we made the changes to the previous line up and put the old band to death.

The set started very well and the opening 2 songs gave me some hope that in the new form, the band could have a future, however from the third song, which was an old SmytherJones number, the set went downhill and the band seemed more interested in banter with their mates at the front of the stage and I lost interest in their set as I'm sure did a fair amount of other. A 5 minute break between songs and what I consider to be a terrible final song left my initial optimism dented and the less said about the after show antics the better but they have left me with the feeling that this band has some way to go and a lot of growing up to do if they have any interest in making it.

Al