Live Review - Pretenders/Squeeze Liverpool Arena

The first and only gig of the summer* saw myself and Messrs Gray and Watt off to the Liverpool Arena [much smaller in real life] to see a double headed of The Pretenders and Squeeze. Both are bands with 30 odd years of hits under their belts and they do exactly what’s expected of them. The 70 minutes of the Pretenders flew by – their set comprising all of the usual suspects, peppered with a few songs from new record [natch] but none the worse for that. Squeeze are, of course, are the ultimate sing-a-long band and having been introduced by Peter Kay and arriving on stage riding bicycles [crayzee guys!] did not disappoint with a 90 min plus show, which got the crowd on their feet from the off.




Someone on the Word website did comment that the sound was poor with a distinct and annoying echo. From the 2nd row I noticed this too, but maybe being so close to the speaker stacks took the edge off and wasn’t so obtrusive.

I did spend most of this morning wondering around in what I can only describe as a hungover state, which is bloody annoying seeing as I wasn’t actually drinking last night. This served to remind me why I tried to cut down on the giggage. If I felt this bad after a trip to Liverpool how am I going to be schlepping all the way to Preston and York? Then again that’s why I’ve booked holidays for after ?

Thanks to Mike for the use of the pics.




*Mr Gray is off to Sheffield next Saturday for some free festival which he is charged with photographing and he’s taking the FPO and asked me to tag along to provide her with company while he’s working. Who knows it might just be fun

Harmless...Mostly.

This is the cover on the new Hitchhiker’s book. I have mixed feeling about this. I am a huge H2G2 fan and part of me feels this is some sort of sacrilege. On the other hand given that the last effort by Douglas Adams “Mostly Harmless” was, in my opinion, nothing more than a contractual obligation knock-off, this effort by Eoin Colfer [who wrote the best selling Artimis Foul series] couldn’t be worse. The bottom line is that I will [must] get it. Having seen the foul mess that was the official movie this will hardly sully the brand any further.

We Has A Cunning Plan

The long held suspicion that cats is evil seems to have finally been scientifically proved. Ok, maybe not actually evil, but definitely more Machiavellian. According to an article in yesterdays Guardian, scientists studying feline behaviour have found cats will purr instead of miaowing when hungry, because they know that this will actually get them food rather than just booted out of the bedroom. They obviously didn’t study my little tubby orange friend who would get me out of bed of a morning with a well placed claw to the toe. There is a reason he now lives with the DSM.

Justa One Cornetto!

It’s the little things in life that really annoy. There’s war, famine, pestilence and death scoring the earth and a jaded eyebrow can barely be raised. Yet the BBC use “O Sole Mio” over pictures of Venice [again!] and I feel like chucking a brick through the TV. If they put the sounds of bagpipes over pictures of London, or used an Oasis track while talking about Liverpool people would be up in arms. OK Maybe in Italy they do, but that’s not the point. It’s just sloppy and frankly the people at Walls have got a lot to answer for.

Plug n Play

Getting a new Laptop can be a lot of fun, particularly for a geek like me. Even if it is only a bottom of the range HP, it’s got LOTS of coloured lights, so what’s not to like? Thing is, much as I like shiny new toys, a new computer is like moving house. I was comfy with the old one, knew were everything was and how everything worked. I’ve spent all day tweeking / installing / rebooting. Still haven’t got things sorted – the damned IP Phone STILL isn’t working and may require a call to the dreaded helpdesk [shudder].

TV Review - Torchwood: Children Of Earth.

WARNING!! MAY CONTAIN NUTS AND MINOR PLOT SPOILERS!


Stripped across five nights of prime-time BBC1, the third season of Torchwood was billed as 'event' television at it's most errr..eventy-ist. Having watched the first part on Monday, I took the decision that I would wait 'till Friday to watch the remaining episodes and indulge myself in one almighty 4 hour marathon. The story begins with children all over the world suddenly freezing at the same time. Next they start to chant [in that scary way that kids can] "We are coming!" Given the nature of this show, it's no great mental leap to work out that the "WE" in question is a strange and very probably malevolent, alien race. Designated the 456, it turns out what they want is 10% of the world's children. So, no biggie then!

On the acting front, there's nothing to fault. No one camps it up quite like John Barrowman and guest star Peter Capaldi did a splendid job at portraing yet another civil servant - though I kept expecting him to turn the air blue every time he showed up, a la Malcolm Tucker. The scenes involving how the "units" [no one could bring themselves to say "children"] would be selected were creepily credible and the big "reveal" as to the 456's ultimate motivation was also very well handled and for once not cliched. However, I did feel that over five hours, the show was rather bloated and would have benefited from trimming down at least an hour. I also know it's never a good idea to think too deeply about the plots for these types of shows and generally I don't, but this had more and bigger holes than Blackburn, Lancashire*. Why didn't the 456 [an advanced alien race, remember] just TAKE the children they wanted? Why the all the palaver with the so called negotiations? If they had the power to kill the entire human race, then why not just come out and say so, instead of pussy footing about? In the end, I was left unsatisfied, more so by the raised expectations of the format. The biggest unanswered question though is, will there be a 4th series? With the death of yet another major character, Captain Jack going AWOL, the Swansea Hub blow to kingdom come and more importantly, faithful creator and chief scribe Russell T Davis off to La-La Land was this end?

*That would be 2000 for the non Beatle fans amongst you.

I Wanna Be Like You...Ooh Ooh Ooh

This is yet another Twitter find, this time c/o Times journo Caitlin Moran. You think you've gotten old, jaded and cynical, and then you find something on the interwebs that's SO utterly simple that it blows your mind. Who knew we could learn something so practical from monkeys and apes? I mean, I've watched many a natural history documentary and not once did it cross my mind, as I watched our simian cousins frolicking about, that I'd spent my entire banana eating life, peeling them the WRONG way? Watch this little demonstration and prepare to change your life forever.





And here's King Louie - note that even HE opens his bananas the right way!