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Jónsi

So, I'm sure you don't remember, but try and think back to when you were in primary school. And I' sure you didn't notice him,  but every playground has a coy kid stood on the edge. He didn't speak to anyone and stood alone with one finger in his mouth looking sad, and distant. Well, imagine that this kid grows up, learns to climb how to fight and climb mountains. Then imagine that all the schools in the country have one kid like this. If you wait till there all 25, then put them in a room together, this kid come back out of them, and the innocence of youth is exposed by the epic, earth moving experience of Jónsi.

At the Academy, Three quarters of the venue stood motionless for an hour and half in awestruck silence, while the other quarter of the venue sat at home, oblivious, after forgetting to buy their tickets.

A subtley generated yet epically presented, backlit, causally draped screen framed Jónsi (and support) as they swamped the venue with delicate sounds, fragile guitar and stupendously storming drumming. Never before have I seen the Manchester Academy silenced for song after song.Truly a fantastic experience.

 

(Massive thanks to Shan who got me and Alan guest list and onto the VIP Balcony in the venue, not only allowing me to see, but get the best view in the house) :)

Gaping Gill '10

We drove up to Ingelton on Saturday late afternoon and found ourselves a campsite. This wasn't as easy as you might have expected. We had banked on going to the "Goat Gap Inn", a little website I found told us about it, said they had a campsite round the back you could camp in for £3. Things that sound too good to be true usually are, as the pub turned out to be residential accommodation, (the next campsite down the road told us it hadn't been a pub for nearly fifteen years! - Damn Internet!)

After pitching we went to a nice little pub up the road for our tea. (we is Al, Emma, Leah and myself) I wasn't massively hungry so I just got a starter. I got Black pudding, which was 3 rounds of pudding (each about an inch and a half thick). Covered with pepper cream sauce and leeks, and garnished with a fruit salad! Of all the crazy things! But it was very nice. We got Drunk and listened to the Arcade Fire headlining the main stage of Reading Festival.

Met this crazy scouse guy who ended up handing with us and playing pool. Traveling on his own he wanted nothing more than to camp in a cave! I pointed him in the direction of Gordale Scar, and he said he's write my name in the cave if he got there... So there is a trip waiting to happen :)

At 6:30 we got woke up by a cockerel who took it upon himself to visit each tent in turn and "Cock-a-doodle-doo". (When I say half six, I actually heard him coming for about 20 min, until he sat right next to my head and crowed me away... little bugger). Not the nicest thing to happen with a hangover! We had to pack the tents down the the rain/drizzle. The cloud was so low you couldn't even tell where Ingelbroug was, but we packed up anyway, got or lunch from a garage and headed off to Clapham.

We arrived just in time for the cafe to open at 9am. So a quick bacon butty to sort us out, then off up the trail. Almost as soon as we set of up the trail, the weather cleared, the sun came out, and it stayed like that for pretty much most of the day! It always nice walking up the trail from Clapham. Emma and Al found the penny try and hammered some penny's in.

The number of walkers up there wearing jeans and trainers was really surprising. We had taken Al to decathlon the day before and he'd shelled out £25 for a pair of walking boots and walking trouser, it doesn't take much! So we reached Gaping Gill at half ten. Half an hours queue, and we got our numbers "160-163" and there were currently on "73". A three minute turnaround we were told. So for four and a half hours we napped, chatted and played the word association game (difficult when all you all staring at is rocks) :). Also met some of the people who we saw last time we saw up there, which is we figured 4 years ago (which I must say is an incredibly bizarre time scale to get to know people on!)

So we had a nice little tour around Gaping Gill, tourist caving of course. That winch is so much fun, being lowered down into the bowels of the earth like that. Awesome :) Got some good photos of the main chamber, and did a little scramble up one side, just to show Leah what was in store for her if we went and did some proper caving (I don't think I convinced her that is was a bad idea either, so there is another trip waiting to happen!)

We didn't hang about much afterwards, although for the walk down Ingelbrough we were treated to such still, calm and sunny weather you wouldn't believe.

Getting changed in a National Trust car park, from wet, muddy clothes into the "Suited and Booted" look for a night out is quite an experience too :) - that done, we belted it over to Ulverston to go and see LORN. We arrived just in time for Alex' DJ Set (Unfortunately missed Fern's but sure we'll catch her next time). Alex and LORN both played unbelievable sets. It was very odd seeing something in the Lanternhouse that had been on the night previous in the Roadhouse in Manchester, but I think we got the better end of the deal somehow. Had a little chat with LORN after, and he said waking up in the morning and seeing the "Lantern" outside of his window was proper top.

After it had all finished we belted back down the M6 to the new Chemical Brothers album and 2:30am was straight to bed for me thank you very much! (And all of this set to the soundtrack of "Olympians" by F**k Buttons - oh yes) :)

Scafell Pike

• Driving Distance: 292.2 miles

• Walking Distance: 5.74 miles

• Walking Accent: 922 meters

• Average Speed: 1.0mph

• Total Walk Time 5:43

• Pint at End: Black Sheep Cask

What a walk. We took the most direct route. it was massively steep from the beginning till the end! The last quarter mile was a proper scramble (which was a welcome break from everything being on the legs!). 10 minutes at the top and then straight back down again. Legs like tree trunks! Not going to drive over Hardknotts pass again in a hurry though :)

Edale

Went for a walk in Edale yesterday, on my own, with a 12kg pack (all my bivouac kit). I didn't actually bivouac up there, just wanted to see if I could handle all the kit up a hill. Did 6 miles in 3 hours 22 minutes. Ended up doing half of the walk with this dude from Sheffield called Mark, he was walking on his own too. Here is a link to my pictures and data:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alecjcook/20100807Edale#

Konono Number 1.

Every event has it's ups and downs. The beginning of Thursday night felt to me more like "FutureNothing" but by the end of the night, I can assure you it had proved its self as "FutureEveything".
Eight hours at my day job was quickly followed by a dash into town to Club Academy. The next three hours, me and another three volunteers shifted one table from the back of the venue to the stage. I'm sure there is a joke in there about how many engineers does it take to move a table, but I couldn't find the punchline :P

Bass Clef's sound check broke up the day. The dirty, triplet driven grind of dub step filed the venue. When the lad produced a trombone I felt very suspicious, but as the squeaks and rumbles came from the brass I realised that my fears were unfounded. The dull hours before doors dragged somewhat but I was soon rewarded for my patience. He played a storming set. His chilled, easy going style gave an atmosphere of fun and relaxation (and did I mention was absolutely storming).
Following this excellency were Konono No. One. The played a fun filled set, that would not have been out of place at the world music stage in the afternoon at summer music festival . Essentially an acoustic 'african drum' band, they played and enormous two hour set, each song lasting in the order of twenty minutes! The only electronic element was that in of the marimba (thumb piano) that had been passed through the oldest 70's overdrive pedal I had ever seen, causing it to 'stick out' in a peculiar but satisfying was. The whole lot was initially miked through a couple of old aluminium speaker 'megaphone type's that wouldn't have seemed out of place on a sports track. (The drummers cymbal was made of various circles of scrap tin, see video!)
The whole night had a fantastic vibe and had everybody dancing, and i mean everybody. I'm sure if you didn't even want to dance you would have ended up surrendering and moving your body to the beat.

For me the close down was a nightmare, as all the gear had to be emptied from the venue and into an already very full van (to be expected) but then across to SoundControl, where an unrelated event packed the venue full of blue jeans and white tee shirts. All this gear was loaded through the crowd and into the venue, which (without ramps or lifts) needed to be taken down 3 flights of stairs! Exhausted I got to bed at 3am another day of FutureEverything  already not far on the horizon.

Bizarrely, i met my old college mate from years ago, who was running the 'world music society*' merch stand. Apparently the gig had originally been theirs, but had a FutureEverything stamp of endorsement on it! (Although I think that is another story!)

Plaid & Mark Pilkington

Manchester's 'Victoria Baths' was definitely an 'odd choice' of seated venues for the festival. Inside the walls had been coated in black cloth to absorb the sound. The pool (now empty, obviously!) had been lined with seats, the gradient towards the deep end offering a perfect angle on which to hold a show. As I entered calls of 'well, it's a bit weird in here' came from across the room An enormous AV screen had been set up at the deep end, displaying the FutureEverything logo, and the glitchy opening of Mark Pilkington proved to be interesting. 
The show had to be delayed for half an hour, due to the sun (and heavy reliance on AV was needed). So, starting the show early, Mark Pilkington played us in (sat in a cold and rapidly filling venue). Although as the venue filled, something very odd happened. The audience seemed completely unaware that the first act was on. The majority of the audience talked, progressively louder as his set went on, until Mark finally stopped playing, the audience clapped and then went quiet, as if waiting for something to happen, not realising that it just had and they had missed it! Very Unfortunate, because Mark's set was actually brilliant, just a shame it was spoiled.

Plaid played an awesome set, astounding visuals, drifting from abstract views of aeroplane con. trails, to glitchy and distorted fractals. I also found out that Plaid did the Warp "Pig Corp" video, which I think everyone should watch at least once :). Half way through their set they got very heavy and 'warp' esc. At this point, supprisingly quite a lot of people left! (including the family that had brought at 10 year old boy! - well what did they expect!). I realise that this gig wasn't supposed to be a "Plaid - Gig" but have somthing to do with Reindeers, but that guy pulled at the last minute.
In bed at six, back to work at four!