After some time of praising the Independent world of Cinema, isn’t it about time you watched a film there? Yeah me too, just did.

There is something special about visiting these little worlds, maybe it’s the special prices they seem pleased to be charging for pop corn and fizzy water, that’s corn that is made to pop and water mixed with packaged gloop and fizzed up, not even proper coke, but many times the price, the film better be fucking good. That price based rant is a well trodden route, that’s because it’s not humanly right to charge these amounts, not even Zimbabwe knows these mark up figures.

If the cinema is Independent on the other hand, it’s all OK man, please welcome: The Rio Cinema in Dalston, (considerably cheaper) you don’t mind because you can guarantee the people that work within the establishment do it because they truly believe in the magic of cinema (excuse the cliche, but it’s there for a reason). The Cinema reminds me of The Duke of York in Brighton, in the fact that the building has charm, you can buy home made cake and samosas at the counter and the ushers don’t have the demina of a grubby teen with head lice as their best asset.

So visit and enjoy the cinema, Indie cinemas are few and far between, and they maintain the confidence we have in the arts, which is what it’s all about after all, it means that when you go to the cinema it will be an experience as opposed to a good film marred by a soulless shell and sticky floors.  But I’m afraid there isn’t any cup holders in the chairs, so if this is a serious problem for you I’m sure the Odeon still has tickets left for Big Mommas House……………..tosser.

http://www.riocinema.org.uk/

LT

Back in my early teens the nearest little big town was Colchester, yes it’s an army town and yes Mr Albarn slags it off in Indie biopic ‘Live forever’, but it was home to one of the best record shops i have ever embraced, ‘Rapture Records’, a guarantee of geezer fuelled action and UK Garage where the first thing to hit you, but under the surface the customer care was second to none. When your turn came at the counter you could describe the genre of vinyl you wanted to trial and no matter how niche, you would be given a slab of vinyl to sample, and if that wasn’t enough another was quickly sourced.

Since those heady days I’ve found many a record shop but NONE that offer this specialist service, as much as people say they like record shopping, i pretty much hate it, it’s not the vibe or staff, 90% of the time they are tip-top, it’s the time it takes to find a gem, then comes www.junorecords.co.uk.

It took some time to find them, but now i go on line, choose genre and a colossal list appears of different tracks, but what of the sound? Well click the headphones and a neat little box appears and a sample of the music, don’t like it? That’s fine click another and another, and yeah; why not another! This was an absolute God send to me, it saves me time and ear drum damage. This isn’t to say record shops are dead, you will never emulate the vibe and people in a record shop, but it’s an alternative and they deliver to your door, that’s is my fucking droid of a postman lets me know…………….but thats another story ( and not a good one).

Liam

——-11.10.2008—— 2nd post

Just listening to a bit of commercial radio.  They played The Wombats – Kill The Director.  What a pile of shite.  Seriously.  If anyone ever asks me why the world needs DCR I shall direct them to this post.  Thats it for now.

——-11.10.2008——

It seems that the financial climate gripping the world and its media has finally filtered down to the live scene in London as the news came through a couple of days ago that the Lark in the Park has closed its doors.  I’m also aware that a couple of big name venues in north London are also pretty much on their knees and now its just a case of guessing who will be next to shut up shop.

However, global finances can only be partly blamed for whats happening.  Most venues are run on the tightest of margins and it only takes a small amount of instability for a business that may be just about breaking even to start running at a loss and begin the downward spiral from which it is hard to recover.  The competition London venues and promoters face from each other is massive.  Last night I counted five premises showing live music within a half mile radius of my house, and I don’t even live in Camden or Shoreditch.  The last 18 months has seen a vast number of pubs jumping on the bandwagon, installing a PA and declaring themselves a ‘music venue’.  The Lark in the Park is one such pub and its not surprising that an establishment of this nature has been one of the first to go.

I don’t blame the landlords and promoters that run these places, if sticking a couple of bands on each night increases attendance and gets more punters drinking at the bar then fair play, but the quality is generally low and I personally think that they detract from the live scene as it makes it tougher for the real venues with a proper set up to prosper and therefore push bands and give them decent exposure.  I disagree that 10 people watching their mate’s band at the Dog & Partridge ‘music venue’ is actually a help to the scene or the artists.  Again, I don’t have a problem with the individuals that are doing this but the collective impact of these establishments is a real problem for the real promoters and venues who will increasingly prefer to invest in established bands that are a safe bet, rather than taking a chance on new blood and helping those artists onto the ladder.

It may look like I’m simply having a go at the competition but that really isn’t the case.  Competition is healthy and most small to mid sized venues couldn’t survive without feeding of one another anyway.  However, it would be a real shame to lose some of London’s best and most loved venues because of the cumulative impact of these pubs parading as music venues.

So the Lark in the Park is gone, admittedly I won’t be shedding too many tears, but watch out because some big names are going to fall.  If you have a favourite venue, or somewhere that is particularly close to your heart, get down there and watch some live music, because nothing lasts forever.

——-06.10.2008——

Its been ten whole days since the last post so I feel compelled to get something written.  Firstly, congrats to all those involved in the launch party and thanks for everyone that turned up.  It was a great night, some exceptional music was performed and you know you’ve nailed it when the owner of the club and the bouncers are raving alongside you on the stage at the end of the night.

Glastonbury tickets have gone on sale again this week.  Hats off to Eavis & co for once again experimenting and pushing the boundaries when it comes to ticket sales.  Sure, they’ve got it wrong in the past, but every year they keep coming back with something even more innovative than the previous year and I really think they’ve got it right this time around.  Of course some people will still miss out and it won’t please everybody but, at the end of the day, Eavis is doing his utmost to keep the festival going and cut out the touts who, lets not forget, are utter scumbags.  Kudos to you sir.

Keeping with Glasto, I’m glad that those who criticised the festival last year over the whole Jay-Z thing were shown up to be 100% wrong.  The festival tried something new, it was a brave choice and they knew it would piss people off yet they stuck with it.  Fair play.  No doubt the usual suspects will rear their ugly heads again this year, moaning that its gone all ‘commercial’ and that ‘its lost the old spirit’.  I’m sorry, but Glasto is still the world’s greatest festival and if you really don’t enjoy it any more then you’re past it and you can fuck off, simple as that.  Hope you enjoy keeping the ‘old spirit’ alive watching The Automatic at the Red Stripe Virgin Mobile Weekender.