here's something I did earlier...

Last week I went to Lightspeed Champion's album launch at White Heat. As you may have heard Dev was joined by that there Alex Turner from that there Arctic Monkeys... I decided to do a review and send it to Phoenix at Kruger and she kindly stuck it up on the website. But since this the epicentre for all things JON, I've included it below with a fancy pic. Hurrah!




Lightspeed Champion. White Heat@Madame Jojo's 22/01/08



As a very last minute idea Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion has decided to have an album launch party. However this was a world apart from countless other quickly organised affairs we've all been to. You know the ones you get a call with a promise of rivers of free booze, nighttime entertainment and countless numbers of eager members of the opposite sex?? While those kind of parties usually equate to a room full of men listening to drum and bass, Lightspeed Champion is clearly equipped to throw a party you’d admit to attending.



Instead of deciding to treat the crammed crowd with cuts from his fantastic debut ‘Falling From Lavender Bridge’, Dev decided to go one better. Well White Heat is known for being one of London’s more respectable indie disco’s, so why not play a set of indie covers? Even better why not liven up the set by playing the songs with members of Arctic Monkeys, Semifinalists, The Rascals, Ox:Eagle:Lion:Man & Ipso Facto? Believe it or not this actually worked. By this time I’m sure there’s already clips on YouTube so see for yourself.



Playing a short set of classics from 2001 to 2004 the ‘Pun Lovin’ Criminals’ actually ended up playing one of the most enjoyable gigs ever. Culminating with Dev, Alex Turner, blokey from The Rascals & Ipso Facto drummer girl blasting through The Strokes ‘Reptilia’. This gig was like when Arnold and Willis from Different Strokes popped up in the Fresh Prince, totally unexpected but jaw dropping.

Heath Ledger's Dead...

Thats a bit strange isnt it? You know when you just dont expect someone to die?? Not that Mr Ledger's premature demise will affect me in any sort of way, other than maybe slightly spoiling the new Batman film.

Like i heard Brad Renfro died the other day, but I wasnt as shocked. He seemed a more likely candidate for an early grave.

Dont really no why I felt the need to post this....

Well that didn't quite go to plan....

Turns out the bike buying public on eBay don't hold my precious cycle in such high regard as I do....



The closest bid I had to my reserve price of £180 was £126. This is made even more depressing by the fact that this bid was made by my friend David, encouraged by me to bid in order to "get them going". Them being the 21 people who were watching the bike, who I expected to create some sort of miss bidding war. Unfortunately for me this wasn't the case so, the bike remains unsold in my parents garage.



Maybe I over valued the bike? But look at it!!

I felt slightly better after taking the advice of fellow eBay seller 'fizzykid1'. He/She told me that they sold two of them and got £150 and £220 respectively. This made me feel slightly calmer, perhaps it was naive of me to expect someone to buy the bike in January the thriftiest of months.

After this crushing blow I've decided to do a list of five things that make your Monday worse than it already is....

1. Checking your bank balance and realising going out Friday night/Saturday day/Saturday night and Sunday probably wasnt a good idea.
2. Listening to 6Music and forgetting to turn over before George Lamb's show.
3. Going to the toilets in work and hearing someone do a poo.
4. Listening to people talk about their weekend, if it was better than yours.
5. That moment of excitment when you get a batch of unread weekend emails. Only to find 95% of them are trying to sell you Viagra.

buy buy

people are bidding on my bike...

its weird....

Sad Times :-(

So after living in London for a few months I've decided that I'm never really going to make use of my bike anymore so I'm selling it. Here's the ebay link;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=140198743369&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=004

I know it does seem a little strange to be so sad about a bike, but look at it. It's a creature of true beauty. But the trappings of London living have forced me to look for other sources of income. Primarily flogging stuff. It's considerably less risky than selling drugs and it feels ever so healthy to take a look at your worldly possesions and weigh up what you really need.

Although I was thinking. What if no-one bids for it? I imagine it would be a similar feeling to offering your partner to a crowd of people and having no takers. Well maybe not that extreme but you get what I mean....Surely the rest of the world can see the magnificance of this bike? It's not Elephant man inner beauty, it's a straight up Kate Moss in a bath with Sienna Miller blast of joy.

Ah well x

Not the best week ever.....

So this week I threw up on a bus. I had a larger hangover than I thought was particularly fair for the amount of alcohol I'd consumed the previous evening. After the usual, uncomfortably warm, journey to work I felt the need to rehydrate. I though hurriedly quaffing back half a bottle of h2o would soothe my issues, oh no. Rather than spread watery goodness about my person, the water decided to sit uncomfortably in my belly. When you mix this with wacky driving techniques of London's dear ole' busmen, sick happens. But it wasn't even proper sick, it was pure water albeit a slightly frothier warmer version of what I'd gulped down. No chunks. No carrot. Clear water. I pathetically tried to cover my shame with my copy of the Metro, which had no effect since most of had already rolled down the bus. During about the third heave, for some bizarre reason, I caught some in my hands. Maybe somewhere deep in my mind I was thinking "oh no don't make anymore mess" but I'd neglected a serious flaw in my plan. What would I do with it? Naturally I took the only option and let it trickle through my hands to join its brethren.

Then if that wasn't annoying enough, I got into work today late. My new phone's alarm missed a vital part of its function and didn't wake me up. There's nothing like getting ready in five minutes to set you up for the day. Still, no sick today though.

Check this out;

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M1KiXWWTxg

2008 is all about Rambo 4. Believe.

Gabbin' About God

This came into work today;

Now the thought of children in pop bands is usually disturbing enough by itself, if you look at the tracklisting it gets a whole lot stranger. ‘Thy Word’ ‘Pray’ & ‘Live My Life For You’ are among the pop classics featured on this, you guessed it, Jesus inspired album.

Cynical as it may seem, but I don’t really think Caroline, Carolyne & Jordan were the brains behind this ole project. The image of a Simon Cowell meets the Archbishop Of Cantebury svengali figure looms disturbingly in my head. Not that I’m accusing PureNRG of being the pawns in some religious propaganda plan, I just find the whole notion of Christian rock a little strange. It reminds me of a time in school when a husband and wife duo played a few Christianity themed songs to a hall of apathetic 12 year olds. That couldn’t have been a fun tour could it? “What’s on the rider? Turkey dinosaurs?? This is the last time we come to Wales”. I forget their names now but for some reason I remember one of their tunes was called “Chains”. It was some metaphor about how life’s "chains" shackled them until they discovered Jesus and the like. It was probably full of subtle references to sex before marriage and the dangers of drinking that went completely unnoticed by my twelve year old self. There’s nothing like a badly tuned guitar and tambourine solo to put you off the idea of any religion. In fact I solely blame that concert for putting me off learning the guitar for another five years.

In other news Man Utd beat Villa in the FA cup which allowed me to gloat over Tall Jon. There’s nothing like a good football inspired gloat to liven up a Saturday afternoon. I then went to one of my new favourite place’s in London, Bloomsbury Bowling Alley. The whole place is like something out of a Quentin Tarantino film. I didn’t even get to bowl or get involved in a karaoke room and still had a sweet night. Could you imagine going to a Hollywood Bowl, not bowling and still having a good time? I very much doubt it my friend. However the evening was soured later. On the way home me Danielle and Trev noticed there was an “illegal rave” taking place in the closed down pub next door to us. How exciting! After some umming and arrrrghing we decided we should stop off at the flat, refuel, then go. For some reason my body decided it would shut down as soon as entered my flat and I passed out. The girls however continued and raved it right up. Some of the sights they regaled were slightly scary but after hearing my eighth rave tale of the following day, I cursed my weak body for passing out.

2008agogo

For no real reason at all I’ve decided that the turn of 2008 should be the time that I start writing a blog. Unlike all of my New Years resolutions previously I am sticking to this one. Why? Well I’m not sure really. It’s not like a feel that I have anything drastically important to say or that I feel that anyone will actually care to read it. I think the main reason for doing this is an increasing annoyance at people (myself included) saying they are going to do things they never do. Example? “I ate too much over Christmas, I’m going on a diet” By diet do you mean your going to buy ‘Samanda’s Dance Workout’ and maybe drink diet coke for a week? Or how about “I’m learning French” Oh really? Then why has that Rosetta Stone software cd never been in your computer??
Now I’m not getting on my high horse and saying that I keep all the promises I make to myself. I believe my personal exercise regime, consisting of 30 press ups, sit ups and squat thrusts times twice a day, lasted all of 8 days. But I’ve decided to take myself up on one challenge to see if I can stick to it. This wont be a daily blog, oh no sir. There maybe times when I post on consecutive days. Sometimes on consecutive weeks, who knows? The point is I can and will contribute to this throughout the year.

So what about 2007 eh? My own personal highlights include moving to London, meeting and staying with my girlfriend, surviving another rainy Glastonbury and continuing to perfect the technique how to play two records together, without it sound like a stampeding horse. I was also lucky to have left my increasingly frustrating destiny of working crap office jobs, I still work in an office mind but one where I never hear the phrases ‘touch base’ or ‘push forward’.

Musical highlights include albums from Justice, LCD Soundsystem, MIA, The Cribs, Interpol, Future Of The Left, Klaxons, Hot Chip’s ‘DJ Kicks’ and Radiohead continuing to do things that everyone else wished they thought first. There’s a hell of a lot more albums, compilations, EP’s, 12 & 7’s that I wont bore you with

By far the best thing I saw on TV this year was Flight Of The Conchords. Please let the second series be bumped up to BBC 3. Because let’s be honest who ever checks the listings for BBC4? And if I keep watching them on YouTube in work, I may get fired.

Anyways I reckon that’ll do for now. I’ll be back soon x