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.

It ain't the meat it's the motion (that makes your daddy want to rock)

Quick recap on the last few days:

Thursday night at Acoustic Suicide to see harpist extraordinaire Serafina Steer playing a sublime version of Morrisey's 'Suedehead'.

Friday night in the Oak with Spratticus for the AGM of the Tony Harrison appreciation society.

The Resonance (no relation) Association were live on Saturday's show, after which there was a brief Crops reunion at the Parquet Mortar.

Then on to the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club to meet up with Adaesi, Rod and Nick for a very pleasant evening of rock and roll. The band were great, as were the lady dj's, who played some fantastically edgy sounding stuff from the fifties. Time to get the fluorescent socks and the Showaddywaddy LP out from under the bed - I can feel a teddy boy phase coming on!

If it ain't a mess it'll do til the mess gets here

First Hello Goodbye show of 2008 kicked off the new year with great sessions from David Cronenberg's Wife and a solo Jamie Irrepressible. DCW's set included a song about a relationship between a man and a schoolgirl, the lyrics of which they'd thoughtfully typed out for us to vet in advance, in case they were too controversial for a family show. I didn't see anything that could cause offence so gave them the go ahead, secretly hoping that we would get a couple of outraged emails or phone calls from retired colonels in Tunbridge Wells. Sadly, however, it would appear that the self appointed bastions of family values and common decency are not setting their dials to 104.4 fm of a Saturday lunchtime. Which means they would have also missed Jamie's performance too - only one song, but terrific stuff.

Caught up with T-Lo, Tomoland et al in the Parquet Mortar for a couple of swellies, then had a great dahl makani in Simply Indian and went to see No Country for Old Men, the Coen Bros adaptation of the Cormac Mcarthy book. Fabulous stuff, already a candidate for best film of the year I'd say. Classic Coens and nicely dark, like Blood Simple. There's some great business with dogs in the film ('That's a dead dog' 'Yes it is') and a particularly marvellous scene where Josh Brolin is pursued across a river by a hound. Fantastic cast, excellent dialogue, brilliantly shot and a pleasingly ambiguous ending. Go and see it.