This weeks most wonderful thing..

Is the return of The Loft. Of all the early Creation bands they were by far the best: and now the original line-up is playing again! Thursday at the Spitz! I am SO there :)

Things are afoot in Jones land...

But it's nothing to do with us! If you go here and listen to the first tune on the list, you'll find out what I mean. Rather odd, having this sort of thing happen, on first listen, I was shocked..then after a while, rather proud. Whether it'll take off, I don't know. Watch this space.

Shirt Folding...

This would make my life so much better :)

The garden was full of sculpture... 

The Pringles turned up in the Lagonda... 

Everyone was engrossed in the Cricket... 

And there's always a barrel of Harvey's ale :) 

It's a great excuse for a blow-out... 

The other event of the weekend was the Scullsgate Odd Pod show.. a sort of mini agricultural fair for the houses that make up the hamlet where the In-Laws live in Kent...here's the main table with all the produce from everyone's back gardens.  

GP and Tessa (looking as glam as ever) 

Polly and Gareth... 

Sarah, Grace, Rachel and Kate.. 

I absolutely LOVE this photo...that's the divine Ms. Cawood, looking gorgeous... 

Eddy TM, a picture of restraint... 

My view of the festival tended to look like his... 

This was my home for a couple of days.... 

That's Reading, then... 

Where have I been? Here. 

Stuff you NEED at the moment....

Right now, it *has* to be The Arctic Monkeys demo's... it's a huge file, but if you've got broadband, get to it. Now. (via the excellent Headphone Sex mp3 blog)

Top of the musical pile at the moment...

Is an EP by a canadian band, Wolf Parade. They're a little like "No Love Lost"-era Warsaw meeting a rather more louche version of the Shins... and the EP (on Sub Pop) is wonderful. the website, however, could do with a little bit of work :(

Oh, found this the other day....we were the meat in a 3rd Bass/Cindy Crawford sandwich...eeeeeep! 

And should you wish to investigate further....

Link to Insect Longboards : here.

this has been my transport for the last couple of days....insect longboard with 150 Randalls and Krypto classics. The Photo doesn't really show it, but it's got a huge camber...and when you add that to a super-responsive fibreglass core, it means that by pumping hard, you can actually speed up whilst skating along a level surface: it's so fast....... 

there's so many things that zoom around my head when I see this: all to do with the fact that I spent all of my formative years obsessed with Ultravox! and now Mr. Leigh knows who I am. It's humbling. 

Sunday night...

..and the seagulls are continuing their insane shrieking outside, as they have done for most of the weekend. Inside my head, it's rather different: this quiet piece of melancholic genius (guitar tab version, couldn't find a straight lyric page) is on a constant loop in my brain.
Today's lesson? No pain, no gain: keep trying and you'll get there.
Today's flavour? Juicy fresh prawns with fresh chilli, coriander, mirin, lime juice and rice wine.

Today's tune that's been stuck on the IJ?

"Stop And Smell The Roses" by the TVP's.

Back from the UK tour....

Pictorial evidence below..as with the Portugal pictures, best to go down and work your way back up! Want to see what the gigs actually looked like? Lots of photos here.

A little dark, but it's always interesting to see the venue with no-one in it..... 

Mikey from the Jungle (support band) brought his dog to soundcheck..... 

John, our soundman, at his post in the Garage in Islington.. 

It's a curious mix of low and high tech: Laptop running NI Kontakt (it's on Move Mountains, if you've got a magnifying glass) all gaffa taped to a bar stool...It's the laptop i'm on right now, you can almost see the photo of Lulu which is my desktop background... 

This was my home for a few days...(note: small picture of Claire and H from Steps that Tony stuck on my Keyboard) 

I like this photo, Jez's face seems to be showing confusion AND fear at the same time... 

Oh dear 

Birmingham was the first time we used the backdrop: it was so large it wouldn't fit on the stage in Manchester. We briefly debated using half of it and going on as "US JON"