Top 25 Albums of the Year

Pretty self explanatory, my favourite albums of the year.

25. Potty Mouth ~ Hell Bent

24. Willis Earl Beal ~ Nobody Knows

23. David Bowie ~ The Next Day

22. Shellshag ~ Shellshag Forever

21. Daft Punk ~ Random Access Memories

20. Foals ~ Holy Fire

19. Savages ~ Silence Yourself

18. Chelsea Light Moving ~ Chelsea Light Moving

17. Fuck Buttons ~ Slow Focus

16. These New Puritans ~ Field Of Reeds

15. Yo La Tengo ~ Fade

14. Jon Hopkins ~ Immunity

13. Danny & The Nightmares ~ Death Of Satan

12. Franz Ferdinand ~ Right Words Right Action

11. Neon Neon ~ Praxis Makes Perfect

10. Boards Of Canada ~ Tomorrow's Harvest

9. Joanna Gruesome ~ Weird Sister

8. Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy ~ What The Brothers Sang

7. She & Him ~ Volume 3

6. Juliana Barwick ~ Nepenthe

5. Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer ~ Can't Stop, Shan't Stop

(No tracks this album on YouTube yet, so have this instead)

4. Public Service Broadcasting - Inform-Educate-Entertain

3. Ghostface Killah ~ Twelve Reasons To Die

2. Steve Mason ~ Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time

1. Kurt Vile ~ Wakin On A Pretty Daze

Life on the Ocean Wave

Just over a month on from our Norwegian adventure and it's high time I wrote about it. I did surprise myself when I decided I'd like to go on a cruise, but after a few years of looking after my mum, the idea of being able to go away and do as much or as little as I wanted certainly appealed, and after months of planning and waiting our cruise finally arrived.

The less said about the epic train journey with two big suitcases the better, but when we arrived at the Port of Southampton check-in was a breeze and we were on board within 15 minutes and sitting poolside with a beer!

Day 1: At Sea

Our first full day was spent at sea which gave us the opportunity to further explore the ship and while Debra had a massage in the spa, I tried my hand at shuffleboard out on deck. I turned out to be not too shabby at shuffleboard but unfortunately I was paired with another first-timer who was useless and we lost both our matches. The sea state had been forecast as moderate which was fine but by mid-afternoon the movement had made us pretty tired, and come dinner time I felt too sick to go to the restaurant and Debra went by herself. When she returned our waiter had sent a plate of cheese & biscuits with her for me, how did he know! We found out the next day that the seas that afternoon had been much rougher than expected, a force 8 gale with waves up to 25ft!

Day 2: Stavanger

Gamle Stavanger

Thankfully the sea was much calmer as we sailed into our first port of call, Stavanger, Norway's 4th largest city. Our activity of the day is a walking tour of the city which begins in the Gamle (Old Town) area which is populated by pretty whitewashed wooden houses on steep narrow cobbled streets. Our guide is an American woman called Kerri whose husband is stationed in the NATO Stavanger base, the tour takes in the Cathedral, Fire Tower, Oil Museum and the colourful Fargegaten street.

 Tea in the Hansson House

Tour over the rest of the day is ours and we start with tea & cake in the Hansson House, the oldest house in Stavanger which is now a teashop, before visiting a small Viking museum on the harbour front. We then visited the Oil Museum, which is far more interesting than it sounds, which looks at the geology and technology and environmental issues behind the industry that is fuelling Stavanger & Norway's economy. Back on board and after dinner we stopped for drinks in the Malabar and took in the entertainment on offer, Deal or No Deal that night as we looked forward to our first day in the fjords.

Day 3: Skjolden & Sognefjord

The Azura docked at Skjolden

Waking up to the smooth like glass waters of the fjords made us very glad we had a balcony cabin, no words can do justice to the to the steep fir covered mountains that tower over you shrouded in early morning mist. Skjolden is a tiny village at the end of the Sognefjord, dwarfed by our huge ship, the Azura, so our excursion today took us out by coach along the narrow roads that cling to the side of the fjord and through tunnels to the village of Solvorn where, after a short walk around we board the ferry that will take us to the other side.

The Solvorn to Urnes Ferry, Sognefjord

Once there it's back on the coach and up a hair raising series of hairpin turns to the Urnes Stave Church, the oldest Stave Church in Norway. The wooden church is ornately carved inside and out and sits on a hill overlooking the fjord, as we return to the ship on the coach our guide Harald an ex-teacher continues his commentary about the history and way of life of the people that live here and even tries to teach us some Norwegian.

Urnes Stave Church

 

Aboard the Azura Debra take a night away from our regular restaurant to eat in Seventeen, the gourmet restaurant on board which has to be one of the best meals I've ever had with fantastic service and palate cleansers. After dinner we go up to the Planet bar for cocktails before hitting the casino and losing £10 in the slots in record time before one final cocktail and bed.

Day 4: Olden & The Briksdal Glacier

Floen, on the way to the Briksdal Glacier

Our third port of call was the village of Olden located at the end of Nordfjord, and we were very excited as today we were going to see a glacier. After a short coach ride inland following the river that flows from under the glacier, we then hiked 45 minutes uphill past spectacular waterfalls, past signs showing where the front of the glacier used to reach (no such thing as global warming, my arse) until we reached the Briksdal Glacier itself.

The Briksdal Glacier

The next part of our excursion was going out onto the lake in a small 11 man dingy to get up close to the glacier, and paddling against the current was alot of hard work but well worth it as we got to within 250m and witnessed a (thankfully) small amount of ice calve off of the glacier and fall into the lake. In the evening we returned to our regular table in the peninsular restaurant and afterwards went to see comedian Mark Walker in the theatre, who was a bit middle of the road, but then he has to entertain everyone.

Day 5: Bergen

Bergen

Our last stop was in Norway's 2nd biggest city, Bergen, our planned excursion up Mount Ulriken by cable car was cancelled due to high winds so instead we were taken up Mount Floyen on the popular funicular railway and the top does offer spectacular views of Bergen. After a short coach tour the rest of the day is ours, so we walk around Bergen's famous fish market which has whale meat on sale, along with live crabs & lobsters, and big pots of mussels being cooked. Next we explore the Hanseatic quarter where german merchants used to trade, now the crooked wooden buildings and narrow alleyways are home to art & craft shops, and it's an area I quickly fall in love with.

Hanseatic Quarter

While in the centre of Bergen I come across SK Brann's club shop, Bergen's football team, and go for a look inside, they certainly could teach Southend a thing or two about merchandising and I leave with an SK Brann hat & t-shirt and a new second team. Having missed the first Black Tie night when I was seasick earlier in the week it's great that I am able to go tonight's event and after dinner we go back to the Planet Bar which is now our favourite bar for the views of America shown on it's video wall.

Black Tie Night

Day 6: At Sea II

Our last full day on board is a relaxed one, and we finally make use of the gym & swimming pool and try the Atul Kocha restaurant, Sindhu, for lunch which is lovely. In the afternoon we got to the chocolate buffet in the Oriental restaurant, which is a pretty spectacular array of desserts and treats before taking the tour of the galley, a very impressive operation that serves food for the ship's 3,000+ passengers every day.

After a brilliant week away, it was sad to leave the Azura but it did feel good to head home, although it was only a matter of days before we started discussing where we might like to go on our next cruise!

Listening #5

This is a long overdue catch-up of the albums I've bought over the last few months, so I'm going to try to keep each album to less than 100 words so as not to bore you.

Daft Punk Random Access Memories (2013)
Columbia www.randomaccessmemories.com
Ok, so you'd have to have lived under a rock for the last 6 months to have not heard this one, but one thing Daft Punk haven't done over the last 20 years is stand still. RAM forays further into funk than they have before, recruiting Nile Rogers helps add an old skool flavour but on the slower tracks the album does flag somewhat. That doesn't change the fact that when it's on it, it's the party album of the summer.
Highlights: Give Life Back To Music, Lucky, Doin' It Right, Contact.

Wampire Curiosity (2013)
Polyvinyl record Co. www.wampiremusic.com
Less familiar will be less familiar to say the least, and the duo hail from Portland, Oregon. Curiosity is at times a blissful, lo-fi psych-pop affair that reminds me of Of Montreal and to a lesser extent Kurt Vile. I have two main complaints about this album, first all the best songs are at the start, and some of the songs veer into generic driving indie.
Highlights: The Hearse, Orchards.

Savages Silence Yourself (2013)
Matador www.savagesband.com
Savages are an all-girl post-punk four piece from London who wear their influences on their artful sleeves, Siouxsie & the Banshees being the most obvious. It took me a while to get into this album but now I love it, and it seems like it's been a while since there's been a band like this. If you like your haircuts angular, basslines chugging, and drums that sound like they've been recorded in an aircraft hanger you'll like this too.
Highlights: Shut Up, City's Full, She Will.

Boards of Canada Tomorrow's Harvest (2013)
Warp Records www.boardsofcanada.com
The return of the elusive scottish electronica duo after an 8 year absence was greeted with almost as much online hysteria as My Bloody Valentine's. Tomorrow's Harvest's minimal soundscapes are full of contradictions sounding in turn alien and natural, futuristic and nostalgic, gentle and menacing and it is these juxtapositions that make it so enthralling.
Highlights: (None/All)

Chelsea Light Moving Chelsea Light Moving (2013)
Matador  www.chelsealightmoving.com
Chelsea Light Moving is alt-rock god Thurston Moore's new side project band, and it all sounds very familiar, in the best possible way. Thurston's drawl, the teetering on the edge of tunefulness melodies, the sudden lurching changes of pace, the pounding drums. The one way this seems to differ from Sonic Youth's output is that it plays with heavier, metal sounds at times as well as looking back to hardcore punk's fury. What's not to like?
Highlights: Sleeping Where I Fall, Alighted, Burroughs.

She & Him Volume 3 (2013)
Merge Records www.sheandhim.com
Alt-Folk axe for hire & Bright Eyes collaborator M. Ward and kooky actress Zooey Deschanel might seem like an odd pairing, but a shared love of Phil Spector and pretty harmonies and it all makes perfect sense. Now I have to admit to having a crush on the delectable Miss Descahanel which colours my opinion somewhat, but Volume 3, is as close to perfect as pop music gets for me, the sunbeams practically urst out of the stereo speakers.
Highlights: Never Wanted Your Love, I Could've Been Your Girl, Somebody Sweet To Talk To, Sunday Girl.

Danny & the Nightmares Death of Satan (2013)
Munster Records www.vampisoul.com
The familiar lisp, the themes of love, Satan, and painfully lo-fi production will for many may be welcome, others will be mystified about the adoration he receives. For me it's the former, Daniel Johnston makes some of the purest music, honest, full of the joy of just making music, and in a full band setting as here it's really a joy to behold. He's probably best known for the simpler, just him & guitar songs but this is probably closest to what he's heard is in his head all these years.
Highlights: Mentally Ill, Satanic Church, Lucifer Tonite, Walk In The Truth

These New Puritans Field of Reeds (2013)
Infectious Music www.thesenewpuritans.com
I somehow lost track of Southend's These New Puritans after their taut art-rock debut and skipped the second album so Field of Reeds came as quite a surprise to me. Gone are the tumbling beats and angular guitars, replaced by orchestras, jazz & electronica subtleties, exemplified on Fragment Two. The skittering beats return to an extent on V, but with a more organic feel than on their Beat Pyramid debut. Move over The Horrors, you're no longer the best band from Southend.
Highlights: Fragment Two, V(Island Song), Organ Eternal.

Fuck Buttons Slow Focus (2013)
ATP Recordings www.fuckbuttons.com
If Boards of Canada's style of electronica is more soothing and pastoral, then Fuck Buttons is far more aggressive and difficult. This doesn't sound very attractive I know, but it's done with impeccable skill, and using repetition even the most abrasive beats and sounds burrow their way inside your head. Fuck Buttons 3rd album, keeps pushing at the edges to see what they can make addictive and listenable with, for the most part, great success.
Highlights: Brainfreeze, Sentients, Hidden Xs.

Ghostface Killah Twelve Reasons To Die (2013)
Soul Temple www.12reasonstodie.com
Less of a solo album from the Wu-Tang Clan member, as a full collaboration with producer/composer Adrian Younge. Twelve Reasons To Die is a concept album that tells the story of a 1960's mafia enforcer killed by his employers, who returns as an avenger when records infused with his ashes are played. There are of course numerous appearances from his bandmates, but the cinematic, Ennio Morricone & blaxploitation influenced music keeps this record unlike any hip-hop record I've heard before.
Highlights: I Declare War, Blood On The Cobblestones, The Rise Of The Ghostface Killah.

Reading #3: Graphic Novels (Pt2)

Welcome to the second part of my journey into the superhero comic book universe, as you can see this time mostly from the DC Comics stable. So let's get stuck in...

Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader? (DC Comics)
Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert
I'd been interested to read Neil Gaiman's take on the cowled one for a while, even more so when I learned that it was about the death of Batman. Bruce Wayne has finally been beaten and his friends and enemies gather in a backstreet bar for his funeral, and begin to tell their own stories about the caped crusader. Through their conflicting stories about his death the truth at the heart of Batman is revealed, it's a very interesting & clever concept. The art is pretty good, the advantage for illustrators is how dark and dramatic the night makes everything, plus Batman has a very iconic silhouette. The two back-up stories in the book are alot of fun, the first looks at Batman & the Joker on their time off from the page, in the second a documentary maker interviews Batman's many enemies.
Artwork: 3/5 Story: 4/5

Batman: Cacophony (DC Comics)
Kevin Smith/Walt Flanagan/Sandra Hope
I picked up Cacophony when I saw it was written by Kevin Smith, I've been a fan of Smith's films since my time at university and actually bought a Jay & Silent Bob comic many, many years ago. Smith's story sees Bat come up against a new foe, the eponymous Cacophony, who is silent other than imitations of noises, this new villain seems to be hunting vigilantes. I didn't really "get" the point of Cacophony as a villain, but I did like the modern twist Smith gave to the story and the genuinely funny lines the Joker had.
Artwork: 3/5 Story: 3/5

Hellboy #2: Wake The Devil (Dark Horse Comics)
Mike Mignola
The second book in the Hellboy series is as all action as the first, which makes it suffer a little as I would have liked to learn more about the characters than I did. Hellboy is once again battling Nazis who, under instruction from Rasputin, are enlisting the vampire Giurescu. I like the way mythology and history are used, and we do find out more about Rasputin and the higher power whom he serves.
Artwork: 5/5 Story: 3/5

Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow? (DC Comics)
Alan Moore/Curt Swan/George Perez/K. Schaffenberger
I found out about 'Whatever...' and 'Red Son' in Little White Lies magazine's Man of Steel special, and was instantly interested in this book as I had read Moore's peerless Watchmen and V For Vendetta a year or two ago. Like it's Batman namesake, this is a death of Superman story, but sadly I did not find it anywhere near as interesting. I found the story very contrived and cliched, squeezing in every hero and villain from Superman's past imaginable including plenty a novice like me had never heard of and just found plain silly, and the artwork wasn't much better. The ending however did provide a clever little twist though, which I won't reveal here.
Artwork: 1/5 Story: 2/5

Superman: Red Son (DC Comics)
Mark Millar/Dave Johnson/Kilian Plunkett/A. Robinson/W. Wong
Red Son is an 'elseworld' story, where an iconic hero is placed into a different situation to see what would happen. In Red Son, Kal-El's ship crash lands in the USSR instead of the USA, in this version of events Russia wins the Cold War, Lex Luthor becomes president of the United States, and Batman is a russian terrorist. This was a brilliant and fascinating re-imagining of the Superman story in total contrast to the Millar's Civil War which featured in my first graphic novel post. The artwork was also excellent, drawing on the distinctive russian communist propaganda of the last century. I'll definately be finding more 'elseworld' graphic novels after this.
Artwork: 5/5 Story 5/5

(Modern) Art Makes Me Want To Rock Out

Since I quit my job in April I've actually had a chance to go and do things, and by a quirk of fate some of my favourite artists have had retrospectives in London since then. So here is a quick look at the exhibitions I've been to in the last couple of months.

Lichtenstein: A Retrospective @ Tate Modern
Roy Lichtenstein is one of the first artists I can recall liking, infact at secondary school when we were asked to copy a famous painting I chose 'Whaam!' and I remember being pretty pleased with the outcome.

The exhibition was well arranged into periods & subjects, showing how he developed his style aswell as the objects of his art. From the early comic book frame representations to later more abstract pieces, from the most familiar & famous to the more obscure that I hadn't seen before which became some of my favourite works in the whole show such as the mirror series, seascapes and japanese landscapes.

 Mirror #1

 

 Seascape

 

Landscape In Fog

 



His work is so stylised and perfect looking from a distance it was interesting to see Lichtenstein's work up close. You can see the colour going outside the lines, the paler than others dots, the brushstrokes. Which was inspiring for someone like me who tends to be very critical of my own work. We accidentally missed the room with his most famous comic depictions, so looped back at the end which worked out well as it meant 'Whaam' was the last picture I stood infront of and spent a long time taking in. This exhibition ended 27th May 2013.

Whaam!

David Bowie Is @ Victoria & Albert Museum
Whilst not strictly art per se I thought this was well worth including here, both Debra & I are big Bowie fans, especially Debra. Normally I'm not one for the audio tour handsets (in art exhibitions people spend more time looking at them than the actual art) but in this case they were compulsory and really added to the experience, playing Bowie's music as well as interviews and other related clips. Comprehensive would be an understatement in relation to this show, working through Bowie's career, inspirations, costumes and artifacts. Of course it helps that he is a very visual musician, the highlight was probably the huge space near the end with live footage projected onto the walls and costumes around all the walls. A superb exhibit that I highly recommend to all music fans, the show is on until 11th August 2013.

Lowry & the Painting of Modern life @ Tate Britain
If Lichtenstein was one of the first artists I remember, then Lowry is the very first. And stood in front of 'Coming from the Mill' in the first room of the exhibition brings it all back, a print of the picture hung on the chimney breast of my parents house throughout my childhood and in sixth form college I wrote an essay about him.

Coming From The Mill

 



Debra did not come with me, she finds Lowry depressing, but I've always found his work endlessly fascinating, depicting as it does the minute of daily working class life. There is alot of repetition in his paintings but everyday life was and is repetitive. The figures that people seem to concentrate on reflect the ordinary people you see around you every day even today with the pace and stress of modern life. The chronology showed how Lowry's work began by depicting everyday street scenes before he moved onto showing how heavy industry was destroying the landscape, before then zooming out to view imagined cityscapes set against the countryside.

The Lake

Industrial Landscape

 

I found it very interesting to see some of his influences alongside his own work, from his mentor Adolphe Valette, to the french impressionists such as Monet & Pissarro to even Van Gogh. It was also fantastic to see some of his drawings for paintings, many of which are amazingly clean-lined and very different to how you would imagine. The only disappointments for me were the absence of his portrait work and the only recently uncovered drawings of fetishised women, which show an important different side to the man. This exhibition runs until 20th October 2013.

The Auction 

Patrick Caulfield @ Tate Britain
Caulfield is a British artist that I know little about other than one or two pictures that I have seen and liked alot. His paintings are highly stylised, cleanlined and boldly coloured usually in block colours with the use of collaged photography to striking effect. This show was much smaller than the Lowry show but well worth seeing especially on the combined ticket I had bought. As a graphic designer & illustrator myself I found his work especially interesting and the influence of his work on advertising is obvious. Exhibition ends 1st September.

After Lunch

 

Dining Recess

Reading #2: Graphic Novels

34 is a pretty unusual age for someone to start getting into comics and graphic novels I admit, and while I've been reading Harvey Pekar and other biographical graphic novels for a few years, it's only this year that I've started to read more traditional superhero tales. All of the books below I bought at Ace Comics in Southend-On-Sea, who are very friendly and welcoming to new customers and are happy to order in anything you're looking for that they don't already have in their large stock.

Civil War (Marvel)
Mark Miller/Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines, Morry Hollowell
Having been a fan of the Iron Man & Avengers Assemble movies in recent years I wanted to read a Marvel book and after a bit of research on the internet I settled on Civil War. The plot is a well worn superhero one of which side of the law superheores fall (as explored in X-Men, Batman, Watchmen etc), in this case costumed crimefighters are required to register and reveal their secret identities. This creates a civil war between those willing to sign up and those unwilling with familiar Marvel faces on both sides (although the Hulk is oddly absent), the principle players are Iron Man & Captain America. While the story is an interesting one I did find the dialogue cliched, but my main problem was with the artwork. I found it too perfect, the colouring was airbrushed, too realistic and high sheen - as someone who draws himself I want to see the mark of the illustrator and it lacked character for me. So my first experience of Marvel left me disappointed and a little put off.
Artwork: 1/5 Story: 3/5

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (DC Comics)
Frank Miller/Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley
Batman is probably the most told crimefighter story in the movie world (7 films to Superman's 6), and with Chris Nolan's darker films in mind I opted for The Dark Knight Returns, written by Sin City author Frank Miller. In this story Batman has retired and Gotham has gone to hell in a handcart, and the release of Harvey Dent from prison prompts a greying Bruce Wayne to take up his cowl once again. But's a different world Batman returns to, mutants rule the underworld, 24 hour news coverage gives him nowhere to hide, Commissioner Gordon is retiring and the new commissioner wants Batman's head on a stick. I really enjoyed this book the story had depth and the artwork was much more interesting - simpler and with more character than Civil War, I'll definitely be reading more of Frank Miller's Batman stories.
Artwork: 4/5 Story: 4/5

Hellboy #1: Seed of Destruction (Dark Horse Books)
Mike Mignola/John Byrne
Although not your average superhero, I'm a big fan of the Guillermo del Toro directed films so Mike Mignola's original books were always on my 'to read' list. Seed of Destruction follows a similar story to the first Hellboy film although the film script is very different - Hellboy is a paranormal investigator, and while investigating the death of his father figure he comes up against Rasputin who needs Hellboy in order to end the world. That's where the similarities with the film end, despite the radical differences I enjoyed the book and look forward to exploring the character more (I've already ordered #2), and I liked the bold block colour artwork alot.
Artwork: 5/5 Story: 4/5

Live #1: Akira the Don & Art Brut

Unbelievably it's been over 2 years since I last went to a gig, being a carer will do that to your social life. But when I heard that Akira the Don was playing a support slot for Art Brut at the Scala, I knew I couldn't miss it.

Having arrived at the Scala, perused the merch stand and bought a beer, we saw Akira bound over to the merchandise, a prime opportunity to meet the man himself. So I sent Debra over (I'm far too shy) - they say never meet your heroes, but 'they' didn't get to meet AtD, who is as nice in real life as he is on twitter and is soon posing for photos with me and even using his own phone to take the picture as mine doesn't have a flash (see below). Then he has to run off as he's due onstage in 2 minutes and we make our way into the, so far, sparsely populated auditorium where we take up a position at the front.

Akira the Don & me, taken on his phone.

Supporting a guitar based indie five piece isn't probably the ideal situation for Akira the Don's stripped back one man rap show, but he pitches his short set perfectly playing his most 'pop' & singalong tunes. His boundless energy & enthusiasm quickly wins the growing crowd over, and it probably helps that his lyrics share some DNA with Art Brut's, rapping about the everyday, politics, comics, music and more. 'Steven Wells' certainly hits a chord with the older indie music lovers, and on 'We won't be broke forever baby' & 'Thanks for all the Aids' he gets everyone singing along. Debra and I are surprised and pleased to hear the very poppy 'Babydoll' & 'Oh! (what a glorious thing)', two of our favourite songs, before he rounds the set off by getting Eddie Argos onstage to sing 'Living in the Future 2.5' with him. And then he's gone leaving Debra & I with a warm glow that we've finally seen someone whose music we've loved for so long, and hoping he'll do his own headline show soon (subtle hint).

Akira the Don onstage at the Scala.

It may have been a long time since I've been to a gig but pretty soon it feels like I never stopped going to them, dashing off to the bar between bands, finding a spot, random support bands like Keith TotP & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band. There are 15 people onstage, 7 guitarists, 1 bass, 2 sax, 1 french horn, 1 trumpet, 1 flute, 1 musical saw and a drummer, who make a joyful lo-fi indie-pop racket with quirky lyrics.

This is however Art Brut's night, their 10th anniversary party no less, they're a band whose first two albums I loved but somehow lost track of after that. They are in a party mood and eager to impress that as they are now 10 years old & have a 'best of' out (it hasn't left my stereo since the gig), they are now a CLASSIC ROCK BAND. They open playing the intro to 'Paradise City' before launching into 'Formed a Band' when Mr Argos arrives, they may be an energetic 'indie' band but they're not shy to wear their love of Guns'n'Roses on their sleeves. Eddie Argos is a chatty & funny fellow, often interrupting songs to talk about how things have changed, such as during 'Little Brother' where he talks about how his younger sibling is no longer the brother his parents are worried about. During 'Modern Art' he ventures into the crowd to tell us that in the 10 years since he wrote the song he has managed to go to one more art gallery on his travels around the world. The rest of the gig flies by in a blur of energy, fun and a family party atmosphere, and this lapsed fan has well and truly returned to the flock.

Art Brut are indie, Art Brut are punk-pop, Art Brut are witty, but most of all Art Brut are CLASSIC ROCK. Long may they continue and we'll see them at the 02 in another ten years.