Current mood:	muggy
Current music:	L'Esqualita - Soft Cell
Entry tags:	animals, jonny cola, smoking, the 18 carat love affair, the barnacles, the indelicates, the new royal family, venues

baby penguins that live in a volcano and have a fight with a crab.
Not a dream, not an imaginary story, but the episode of South Pacific from two weeks ago (I forget where, reprised in the last couple of minutes but the whole show is pretty awesome). Nature is mental.

Didn't see as many bands/people as planned this weekend, as a combination of late-running gigs and inexplicable (though possibly weather-based) tiredness left two-stage plans looking untenable. So sorry to catbo and Artery, though if the latter are reading this I'll be surprised and slightly creeped-out. Saturday was the ever-eccentric Barnacles (who, by leaving their sailor hats at the gig, contributed to a later outbreak of camp posing and eventually Benny Hill impressions) followed by an 18 Carat Love Affair whom the sound-mix left rather less shiny than usual - though it seemed to suit the megaphone monster apparently called 'Truman Capote' which has now been added to their set. In between, we hid in the Famous Cock, whose emptiness on a Saturday night can't all be down to the Victoria line having another weekend off, and might instead owe something to it being a contender for London's most character-less boozer (the L*rr*k doesn't count - that has a soul, and its soul is despair). Afterwards, realising the Newington Green plan is no longer going to happen, we danced to Britpop classics, AC/DC and the Inspiral Carpets. Yes, in 2009, though in our defence it was 'Saturn V'.
Sunday sees Jonny Cola torpedoed by equipment issues. Then there are two other bands, one of which has pretty enough personnel that I give them three songs rather than the usual one-and-a-bit to impress me, before deciding instead to hang outside and take a brief trip to Gosh (Beta Ray Bill!). Then the new New Royal Family, playing 50/50 their own hits (I have already forgotten the 'Rules OK' dance routine) and rock'n'roll classics, thedavidx in an excellent Teddy Boy jacket. Unwisely, I have by this point decided that yes, maybe I do want a drink. I really didn't. Between this and the venue's eau de vomit (thanks, smoking ban!) I only manage two songs of the promising Last Army before departing.

Simon Indelicate on the music industry's woes; probably the best short piece on the subject I have ever seen, and we haven't exactly been short of them these past few years, have we? Contains bonus comment on why 'piracy' is a bloody stupid term to use for the illegal copying of data.