Belated, but as promised here is my current tech setup. Admittedly, it does not include the two laptops I use, the Asus SeaShell or the Dell Latitude D830 (desk wasn’t big enough to hold the Dell).

I thought it would be nice to annotate it so you know what everything is…

There are 3 things in there which aren’t tech… can you spot them?

Last night I trekked all the way to London town to see Billy Talent at the Brixton Academy. They were excellent!

First up was a band from Canada called Cancer Bats, I have heard lots of their stuff in the past on CD and Spotify etc. But live, not good, partly because the sound was terrible, there was just something about the performance which didn’t quite seem right. Some very fake comments between songs – “Lets make this the best night of our lives”, and others. This led to concerns before Billy T started along the lines of the bad sound quality, however they were totally unfounded.

Billy T sounded great, the mix was just right and they played exceptionally tight. Always helps when you know the 3 albums they have, no songs sneak past. The crowd involvement during Devil on my shoulder worked! Its such a brilliant line, and the melody is just top notch!

You can see more of my pictures here. Were you there?

I have been a busy boy, gigs here there and everywhere, I will strive to write a bit more about each over the comings days! For now, you will have to settle for a couple of pictures from Idlewild at the O2 Academy Oxford on Sunday night.

Check out the rest on Flickr, or check out where I’ve been / going on my Last.FM account.

Were you there? Get in touch!

You may have been wondering what my tweets were about that look a little strange with random first words and referencing http://tinyurl.com/alcopopular3. Well I shall explain, of course if you’ve been to that URL already then you will know something about it, but this is for those who haven’t bothered.

Basically Alcopopular3 is the latest compilation from Alcopop records, this is slightly different though, its only available as a bottle or mp3’s. Brilliant!

Anyway, the tweets, I got exclusive access to the tracks, a perk of knowing Jakkychamp, and each day for the next two weeks I will be reviewing a track in one tweet. The first word is the band name. So yeah keep an eye out and see what you think, hopefully I will drive some sales – LOL.

Proud to have received a special mention already!

Peace.

Last Friday I went to see Gallows at the O2 Academy in Oxford. It’s the first time I’ve seen a gig in the new and improved large downstairs room there and I have to say I was pretty impressed. I have very simple criteria for when I’m at a gig:

Can I see the band?
Is the sound good?
Can I get to the bar?

Of course Gallows were their usual awesome selves, midway singer Frank Carter got bored and went and partied on the middle bar instead of the stage. The bar staff didn’t seem to like the idea too much…

Gallows have also made a good start into social media, they have a Myspace (what band doesn’t?) but they were talking to the venue organizers in the days leading up to the show through Twitter, they also have a Youtube and a LastFm, a good start chaps!

I got bored a while back and made a CD for someone. I thought I would share the playlist from said CD. Jakkychamp from Alcopop records will be happy!

One thing which I always find good in the morning at a festival is waking up. Means I didn’t drink “too” much the night before which meant my body gave up. However, this morning, it felt like my body had given up! A quick G&T for breakfast, by quick I mean 4 quick G&Ts, sorted me right out. Food also a normal necessity in a morning, so got some of that too. Time for some bands…

Where to start when talking about Truck? So much fun, frolics, misbehaviour and did I mention fun(?) all wrapped up into a weekend.

A good change for this year was the fact they allowed us into the camp site on the Friday night. Something to do with the increased number of tickets available, the organisers felt that they would need to get people in before Saturday morning. This seems fair, rather than the normal rule where only people who have previously arranged to enter on the Friday, who were coming from far away, would be allowed in. That’s basically where the carnage started.

Truck this weekend! Oh yes, Truck festival time again. That one weekend of the year where apparently everyone you have ever known in the Oxford area gets together in a field, drinks horrendous amounts of whatever they can get there hands on then cycles off into the night.