Current mood: GETTING BUOYANT AND LOVED UP!!!!
Category: GETTING BUOYANT AND LOVED UP!!!! Music
There's an ongoing argument amongst those who give a shit, as to which is Englands second city..
Officially, I believe it's designated to be the concrete, shitty, hell hole that is Birmingham, but periodically folk rant and rave about how Manchester IS, and can only be second in command because of music, football and blah....
But, for what it's worth, I'd probably vote for Birmingham, even though (or in fact, mostly because) it's awful AND because I was once banned from the neighbouring satellite town of Wolverhampton for 3 months until I was cleared of a set of trumped up burgulary charges...
My main problems with Manchester are as follows:
Manchester always strikes me as being a place that has an over inflated opinion of itself and it's own importance. It's the kind of city that takes itself and it's salt of the earth, down to earthness terribly, terribly seriously...
Yes boss, for some bizarre reason, Mancunians seem to have this thing about being decent, good and honest. They have a great and rather naive pride in being 'working class' - a good days work for a good days pay, BLAH BLAH BLAH...
Now, I honestly don't get that attitude in a city at all...
I mean surely the whole point of a city is to provide a place for power, corruption and crime and to flourish and thrive in. It's a place for egos to batter the hell out of one another on the path to riches and success. A place where old folk get bardged out of the way as they try to get on a bus....
Shit, this time last year, I was on one of those medical trials here in London, and I had this terribly nice Mancunian in the next bed.
Basically, this guy, who I'll refer to as 'The Magician' spent his whole day going on about how wonderful Manchester was, and how shit and selfish and expensive and generally crap London was...
I put these 2 points to him:
MOVE THE FUCK BACK UP THERE IF IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD!!!
&
If I want peace, quiet and grannies buying eggs at bargain prices in a re-useable woollen bags (after they've been let off the bus first) I'll live in a damn village in the sticks with clean air, a fishpond, thatched cottages and a nice corner shop, not in a grotty northern city with a friggin filthy old Arndale Center..
Yes boss, for my money, cities should be corrupt and proud of their filth and pollution, because filth, pollution and depravity is an inevitable side product of the change that drives human evolution - without it you have a backwater...
Frankly, I love the terror of London. the fact that no-one gives you an inch without trying to get a mile back on the sly. I like the burtality of the place, the savage mix of people who hate one another all trying to share the same space. I love the chaos and confusion and the knackered grey look on everyones faces at the begining and end of every day...
What I'm driving at is that cities shouldn't be nice homely places, for the same reason that rock stars shouldn't be genuinely nice guys...
FACT!!!
Anyway, last night I went to the London launch of the Futuresonic Festival.
The Futuresonic festival is a 12 year old festival that takes place in Manchester. It celebrates and promotes art, muisc and culture with a particular bent towards the future and the ever evolving digital age...
Now quite why this festival needed to have a free booze media launch in a trendy bar in Shoreditch, London when the whole shebang has nothing AT ALL to do with the capital city, remains a mystery to me....
I guess it's another example of Manchester wanting to claim it's better wholesomeness and allround good guy credentials, whilst gently sucking on London's ample boobies...
Whatever - it was an alright do.
There was free beer, a few talks by the movers and shakers, and the news that this years festival is to be headlined by The RZA...
Once all the talk was done, AGASKODO TELIVEREK delivered a set of their frenetic thrash metal pop SCREAMMMOOOOOOO WHAM!!!!!!!
AGASKODO TELIVEREK are the kind of band you take one look at and think: SHOREDITCH!!!
Yes boss, they wear retro 70's tight shorts, retro 70's hair, there's a few Hungarians playing quick guitar and a Japanesse woman who SCRRREEEEAAAMMMSSSSSS!!!
It's all very clever and completely and thoroughly post modern, and because of this, both times I've seen them, I've thought 'Oh my good christ, what a cliched disaster this lot are...'
But then both times, the longer the set has gone on, the more I've liked them...
I mean that girl can really yell, and at times the sound they create is completely exhilarating. It throws you back and I like that..
So a BIG HURRAH for AGASKODO TELIVEREK!!!
And if you have the misfortune to live in Manchester, why not go along to The Futuresonic and catch the RZA, Luke Vibert and AGASKODO TELIVEREK...
YAYYYY!!!
 | Currently listening :
Finding Forever
By Common
Release date: By 31 July, 2007 |
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