My bass or yours?

Impending fatherhood and mountains of marking have made the Badger a bit slack on the blogging front once again of late, so here, better late than never, are the last two Saturdays. Pub Pop at the Miller was a cornucopia of remarkable bassists, with Georgie from Plug playing the casio with her feet in a most impressive display of multi-tasking. Not to be outdone, Rose Kemp's bass player opted for the over-arm approach to his instrument, to very good effect, it must be said. T-Lo and I were on the brand new wheels of steel, with Ugly Pop not being killed, but unceremoniously resurrected.Ye Gods: Life in a Northern Town, anyone?
Left With Pictures and the Soft were live and direct on last Saturday's show. The Soft are something of a super group, featuring not only the lovely Rich Nuvo once of the Teens but also ex-Bibster, Chris Kaos, now splendidly renamed Chris Kiosk. Champion!

Hit the deck

Busy week at work means I've been slogging rather than blogging so here's a quick catch up on the last 10 days or so. The Rayographs and Charly Morris were in session last Saturday. Ton was in town from Barcelona, which was a good excuse to check out the Jerusalem Tavern - been meaning to go there for ages...fantastic pub. Ed and Jenny from the Mules were in session yesterday and then the full Mules plus the Rayographs and Charly again put in superb performances at Richard's new Pub Pop night at the Miller in Snowsfields. Me and T-lo were on the deck (just the one!) for a spot of proper old-school 1960's youth club dj-ing.

Farewell to the Crops

Fantastic session from Electricity in Our Home son the first Hello Goodbye show after the summer break today - go and see them supporting Wire at the Scala on Monday if you can.
Great night at the Enterprise for the Crops swansong, T-Lo's birthday bash and the launch of 'The Beast Must Die', with a brilliant performance from the Great Blondini, who is best described as Tommy Cooper meets Roger Melly. Sterling work on the wheels of steel from the Wild Man too. A very enjoyable night all round in fact and good to see so many old faces, including all three Heave bassists! Not feeling sad to have finished, but pleased to have gone out on a high note, rather than a bum note (though there were a few of those too!). Off to Greece now for a week of well earned relaxation!

Que la bête meure

Final ever Crops rehearsal last night, which went worringly well...hopefully not a bad omen. Tomoland was in attendance to document the historic and rare tri-blogged occasion, and Jolly came along for a private view as he'll be in Wales tomorrow. Picked up copies of the album today...Smell the Glove is here! Come and get one for free tomorrow night at the Enterprise in Haverstock Hill!

Sex Pistols

When the Pistols split up in 1978, I would never have been able to imagine myself cycling across London at the grand old age of 44 to see them, in their fifties, play live again. But there we were last night - me, T-Lo and former Heaver Gavin, who we bumped into outside the gig. Playing in front of a backdrop of two giant combine harvesters, the band ripped through most of their back catalogue (i.e. the whole of Never Mind the Bollocks, a couple of b-sides, a few covers and 'Belsen was a Gas' reworked as 'Baghdad was a Blast'), with John Lydon camping it up like a chortling punk rock pantomime dame. This is pretty much why the Pistols still work as a live experience - the set is absolutely solid, with no danger of being diluted by new songs (though the encore versions of Silver Machine and Roadrunner were admittedly a bit flabby). The sound was crisp and loud and demolished the myth that the Pistols couldn't play - they could at the time and they still can. I suppose that in a way the gig was like punk rock's answer to 'The Good Old Days', but 'God Save the Queen' blasting out a full volume still sends a shiver down the most cynical of spines and reaffirms the Pistols as national treasures.

Crops Circle

The first Crops rehearsal in over a year last Thursday went from very shaky beginnings to passably acceptable interpretations of the songs to a very satisfying session in the Roebuck afterwards, joined by SS and Alfie. The Crops farewell gig is set for 6th September at the Enterprise in Chalk Farm, so we've got a couple of weeks to get ship-shape. The gig will also be the launch of our album, 'Foxes Earth and Badger Sett' (though it's also TV Magick's birthday so perhaps a 45 would have been more appropriate). Anyhoo, everyone who turns up gets a free copy...if we get it all done in time.

Blue Sky Thinking

It's been a week of balancing the cycling ying with the boozing yang. Had a few pints of Adnams in Chalk Farm with Judge Ed early in the week followed by 3.5 pints of Aspell (staying loyal to Suffolk brands) in Crystal Palace while discussing artwork for the forthcoming Crops LP with Dan and T-Lo in Crystal Palace on Wednesday night. Out for a 36 mile post-dynamo tootle around the North Downs with Spratticus yesterday, which was very much like going for a bike ride in the school holidays, but with pub stops! Clocked up another 22 miles today riding from home to dentist to the Moat to home to the barber's and home again. I seem to be getting the balance about right as the old blood sugars are behaving themselves again.

Deconstructing the weekend

A very busy weekend...

Friday night we were at the South Bank for Pere Ubu's 'Bring Me the Head of Ubu Roi'. It didn't quite hit the mark but did feature a great performance from Sarah Jane Morris and son, as well as some added amusement as avant-garde curmudgeon David Thomas got increasingly exasperated with his under-rehearsed band and crew.

Saturday's 'Hello Goodbye' was an altogether more congenial affair. The show was an Easycome special featuring Post Modern Antiquarian Andy Hankdog along with Jason McNiff & band, Indigo Moss, and Petra Jean Phillipson, all playing separately and then together for a rousing finale of 'Bella Ciao', which it turns out is a revolutionary call to arms and not a tribute to a South London pizzeria. Good to see my old engine room-mate from the Glint days, Mr Steve Brookes, alive and well and playing drums for Jason.

All that live music gives a man a thirst so I then sauntered up the road to the Parquet Mortar to meet T-Lo and Judge Ed for the nearest we get to a Crops rehearsal these days - a fez-wearing five-pintathon.

Worked off the hangover yesterday with a brisk 108 lengths in the pool and a large dose of constructivism at the last day of the Rodchenko exhibition at the Hayward, inspiring stuff indeed. As if that wasn't enough culture for one weekend, we then pedalled up to the Barbican for a screening of 'I Served the King of England', a Czech film based on the novel of the same name by Bohumil Hrabal. There was a Q & A with the director Jiri Menzel (of 'Closely Observed Trains' fame) afterwards, involving a very amusing translator. The film is the story of a waiter in Czechoslovakia before during and after WWII and is showing at the Barbican for a couple of weeks in May and is well worth seeing, though the book (inevitably) is even better.

Spent all day in the fucking pub...

Celebrated a 2km swim by spending the rest of the day boozing with T-Lo. Lunch in the Priory Arms in Stockwell, then Sintra for Sagres and brandies. The bar staff did everything they could to discourage us, first by refusing to accept an out-of-date fiver, then by giving us the wrong wireless password. Where others might have taken the hint, David simply went to the cash machine for more fivers and picked up a book from his flat to provide us with the info we were looking for online. Genius! Then back to the Priory for the pub quiz, presided over by the Steven Berkoff-esque landlord. We did pretty well considering how hammered we were...I think we came third.