In what is likely to be one of the 'must see' gigs this year for indie rockers, if not the rest of us, Pearl Jam have announced a special one-off gig at Shepherds Bush Empire on August 11th. It's time to beg, borrow or steal your way in there folks, as this promises to be something else.

Of course considering Pearl Jam sold out London's humongous O2 in 17 minutes I think we can all safely assume that those not in the industry will have a gnats piss chance in hell of getting in. Still, hope springs eternal, and for those of you who are hopeful (read: 'deluded') what you need to do is pre-order a copy of Pearl Jam's new album Backspacer from HMV.com. They will then send you a unique link that lets you fight it out during the pre-order period between 21st and 22nd July. For the rest of us tickets are on sale July 23rd but let's face it.. there won't be any beyond 0.1ms into the pre-sale assuming HMV's servers don't go into meltdown. Which they will.

Labels: Bands, gigs, London

Just got back from Southend where we saw Blur perform their "first official gig" (according to Damon himself). And what a gig it was.

From the very start the Blur boys rocked like they'd never stopped with a long set of all their hits. Song 2, The Universal, PopScene, Essex Dogs, Chemical World, Modern Life is Rubbish and of course, Girls & Boys, which had the whole crowd jumping along for the first of many pogo sessions.

They have a few smaller gigs to follow over the next few weeks - so if you get the chance go see them for a show you won't forget.

A big congratulations again to Aimi & Gary, who tied the knot yesterday in a wonderful ceremony at Orchardleigh Estate near Frome.

And a big thanks for organising such an amazing celebration in such a beautiful location! You've just set a high standard for the rest of the weddings we're going to this summer. Pretty sure we won't get to stay in a tower with a four poster bed and a bathroom on a separate floor very often - lush.

More photos as soon as I find a spare moment to get through them. Right now though we have to shoot off to see Blur...

You can currently watch the Gorillaz documentary 'Bananaz' online for free right now. It's a great behind the scenes look at one of this decade's biggest bands, from the initial conception right through to their rapidly sold out shows in NYC.

Labels: Music, videos

Recently the UK government announced a scrappage scheme, whereby you can scrap your old car and get £2000 or more in return for buying a new car. The theory behind this is pretty straightforward, incentivise people to get their old, unevironmental cars off the road and at the same time stimulate the UK car market. Simple.

Of course although many people have jumped at the chance to get this 'free money' the reality is much more complex. It looks as though some car dealers put their prices up on the new cars that they then 'reduce', meaning you can save more money from just buying a car without trading in your old clunker. Not so good from a money standpoint. And from an environmental perspective, the strict scrappage rules define that any car over 10 years is worth scrapping - but is that necessarily the case? Are we just creating more landfill from the unrecylclable parts of a car rather than learning to maintain what we have - a much more green approach to life.

Either way the scrapage scheme is here with us for a year at least, so make your own mind up. As for us, well our car isn't quite ten years old - even if we did have enough spare cash to buy that new Ferrari I need for my pre-mid-life crisis. Mmm... red.

Labels: Brit Stuff, Cars