Buddha

I see that Bowie's Buddha of Suburbia is back in the shops. This is the one that first alerted hard core fans like myself that the man's creativity wasn't completely gone. The cd had been out of print for years and your's truly, the fool that he is, paid a fortune for it on ebay a couple of years back. Anyhow, if you were to sly over here for a minute, you might be able to catch it for nowt. You didn't hear it from me of course.

My Friends Electric

A lot to catch up on...

first off, what some people have said will be the last outdoors Rolling Stones show (although I doubt it), Aug 18th, Slane Castle 2007. The weather yet again let us down as we hit town early to buy bus tickets to take us from Dublin out to the wilds of Slane so we hit the Oval on Abbey Street to wait it out. The bartender knew which side his bread was buttered on and stuck 40 Licks on the stereo leading to a massed sing along at 12.30 in the afternoon - nice. By the time the weather cleared and the old gang had assembled - Coff, Willy, Denis, Murt, Kenny and myself, it was getting on in the afternoon and a good many pints had gone down. Stopping only for a tasty burger and a trip to the off licence, we made our way to the bus stop only to be greeted by a queue that you could see from space and the rain started again. We made a deal with a taxi man and were on our way although we did end up with a day's march to the actual gig when we got there, that said we could enjoy a few beers in the back of the cab so it's all swings and round abouts.
Missed both Frankie Gavin and the great Tinariwen by the time we got there so I can't say much about them. The Hold Steady sounded like they were playing with a blanket over their heads and the Charlatans were really shite and totally out of place. This didn't matter a jot once the opening blast of 'Start Me Up" rang out to begin two hours of fantastic rock n' roll thrills. Jagger made frequent mention of the fact that it had been 25 years since they had been in the venue (and his attempt at Irish gave everyone a great laugh) and in fairness, apart from the recent "Rough Justice", the set list could have been exactly the same. Highlights included a great "Dead Flowers", "Midnight Rambler", James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy" and the encore of "Brown Sugar" with Jagger running round like a man half my age, not to mind his. Great, great show. Getting home from Slane was, as always, a pain in the arse but I did manage to run into Don Brady in the Oak playing the part of the drunkest man in the universe.

Electric Picnic

Friday
Good old Electric Picnic took place last weekend. Three days of music and sitting round in a field drinking- how can you beat that? Spent the Thursday night in Hayes' gaff hitting the booze and got in to the campsite the next morning about 10.30. All set up and sitting down with a drink by noon - the cocktail hour. We'd bought a load of cans and managed to sneek in a bottle of Absolute while we were at it so we were in fine form before we heard a note and in fact Friday was a bit confused. I remember seeing the Good, The Bad and The Queen (great), a bit of Manic Street Preachers (alright), a bit of Bjork (Confusing, when you're drunk) and not being able to even get near the tent for Modest Mouse (boo!). Night ended for me at the Bacardi tent, sipping cocktails and chatting to the nice English bloke who was telling me how he got there and then, casually, took a pair of glasses out of his pocket and put them on. Then he turned them on, something out of an Elton John nightmare. I had to ask him to take them off before I could follow what he was saying. Bed for me.

Saturday
Most refreshed after yet another night asleep on the ground and the breakfast of champs - warm beer and half a pack of Camels. First musical stop of the Day was Marlena Shaw who wished us peace and love several times but no hate and war for some reason. Good bloody singer through. This was followed by an extended stay in the old style saloon, which made me feel very much at home in my Roy Rogers gear. Nicest bouncers in the world but what's the story with this eco cup business - pay a €3 deposit with your first drink and then hang on to your glass, the theory being you can leave it back to the bar at the end of the night (at which point surely you'd just want a last drink?). I'm all about saving the world but don't give me a pain in the arse. Back to the main stage for the fantastic Easy Star All-Stars, who actually make Pink Floyd and Radiohead listenable, blasting it out in a reggae style. Jarvis Cocker next, great show, great arse wiggling although he could do with a few more songs. The Polyphonic Spree were a bit too over the top for me, the singer having the biggest god complex I've witnessed since Micheal Flatley. "Supergay" was one comment bandied about ( this comment lead to a long tirade from Myself and Jim aimed squarely at the always immaculately turned out Niall O'Doherty, the final remark containing reference to the fact that there is a lot of soap in the world but you are only in the possesion of one arse) while "a poor man's Arcade Fire" was another. I'm not even mad about Arcade Fire so you can see where this left me.

The Jesus and Mary Chain gave it out in fine style - loud and rockin' and even seemed close to having a fight on the stage - result. Tried in vain to get into see the Beastie boys but to no avail. At this point I headed for the tent as I was falling asleep standing up, getting old you see. Things I missed - everyone getting a bit browned off at the Chemical Brothers (I've never seen the attraction in watching someone play records) and Hayes jumping on the Carousel while out of it. In a misjudged attempt to impress a member of the opposite sex, he claims, he used his hat to whip the wooden horse then jumped from beast to beast and finally held on between two of these mighty animals, stage coach style. He slept alone that night.

Sunday
Woke early on Sunday and managed to use the surprisingly clean facilities and get a proper breakfast with coffee and actual food. Then back to the vodka and beer. In with Rachel and Hayes for the spiritual sounds of the Dublin Gospel Choir (great version of Stevie Wonder's "As") and then over to the chill out stage to spend my Sunday morning getting down with the hippies (interesting chat with the vendor who was out of it on acid on the way). Lovely set up here and enjoyed some mellow sounds with my beer, special mention to the dude out of Kila who is some musician. Back to the main stage for Horace Andy giving us a bit of Studio One. We then went in search of the "special guest" in the tent and realised after about 30 mins that we were in the wrong one, but got in to see the end of the Beastie Boy's "secret" show and out of the torrential rain. Did
get to hear them do "Sabotage" however, which was all I wanted frankly. Back to the main stage in the drizzle for a fine show from Soul II Soul. Went back to my tent at this point for some supplies and had my times mixed up so we had to listen to Rilo Kiley on the radio which was annoying but made up for it by sneaking in several cans for Iggy and The Stooges on the main stage. The man is a force of nature and, as always, gave a fine account of himself. Life, it would appear, begins at 60.

Took a lift home at this stage with the redoubtable Jim Roche (bit of panic in the car park when the van got stuck in the mud) as my daughter was starting school the next day and staying on would only have shown me, as the man says, to be the leading asshole of the state.

Great festival, highly recommended but how many more years left before the whole world turns up to it.

Lastly, good luck to Pavarotti. I'm no expert on his music but that was a proper star who carried himself well. Remember him this way.