Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Day 65: Pilton here we come!

Today's soundtrack: Aimee Mann - Live at St Ann's Warehouse

Hot on the trails of the Wembley ticket confirmation, today saw the arrival of this year's ticket for Glastonbury! Hurrah!

This seems very early to me - the festival still seems a mile off, and I'm sure in previous years the tickets have been much later arriving - long after the full lineup has been announced. Still, I'm not complaining, it's one less thing to worry about in the lead-up to the festival.

What's to worry about anyway? I think I've got things down to a fine art now - although I still take far too much stuff (thank heaven for sack trolleys!). I will try - as always - to take less stuff but it just never seems to happen in practice!

So what's to do? I still need to repair the boy's tent following the unfortunate wheelbarrow incident last year (don't ask) but I've got all the bits - quick and easy job I think. Big shop for booze and other essentials...and that's it, I think.

Oh, and I need to make sure that there's an empty fabric conditioner bottle (with lid!) to take along as well. Possibly the most important piece of kit of all! And if you have to ask, you really don't need to know...

The lineup this year is still largely to be announced, but I think it's fair to say there's more to grab my attention than there is for the boy - it's all a bit 'for the Dads' this year. Still, I'm sure that there'll be plenty going on in the John Peel tent and on the Other Stage to keep him happy. As always, it's not about the big names, it's the unexpected moments in out of the way places that make Glastonbury the adventure that it always is.

Like seeing the Hold Steady in 2007 and falling in love with them immediately. 'Secret' performances from Franz Ferdinand and The Last Shadow Puppets on the Park stage last year. Seasick Steve in Leftfield, two days before appearing on the Pyramid Stage.

Looks like I'll be spending more time than usual at the Pyramid this year. All three headliners are likely to get a viewing (for the first time) and there are plenty of other acts confirmed or rumoured that will keep me happy. My main problem is going to be dealing with clashes, although as always the golden rule applies - enjoy what you are seeing, don't regret what you're not...you can't see everything so don't try.

And hopefully the weather will sort itself over the next month or so. The difference the sight of the sun (and the lack of mud) makes to the Glasto experience is phenomenal.

In other news, I finally received the paperwork confirming my car is now mine, so Captain Paranoia can get back in his box. I've had this irrational concern that the leasing company was about to go bust in between getting my cash and transferring ownership, leaving me significant quids out of pocket. Need to find something else to worry about now!

Went to the job centre to sign on again today, buoyed by another phone call from my Leeds consultant updating me on things. Another firm appear to be happy to have a conversation - which could be quite an interesting conversation (for reasons I can't go into) and there are still a couple of other irons in the fire. But more importantly, it feels like things are moving!

As far as I know, Aimee Mann is not appearing at Glastonbury this year - be nice if she did, though. The former leader of another 'seminal US Power Pop band', 'Til Tuesday, she is one of my favourite female singer/songwriters. Her first solo album, 'Whatever', doesn't have a duff track on it. The work she did for the soundtrack of 'Magnolia' (a great film, by the way) is also superb and the soundtrack album is great even despite the appearance of Supertramp!

'Live at St Anne's Warehouse' is an iTunes download that I've never seen on CD in the shops, although the Album Art would suggest that it's actually the soundtrack to a live DVD. In any event, it's a good solid performance of some of her best songs and well worth investigating.

Here's Aimee performing 'Save Me' on the St Anne's DVD. Save Me also is the standout track from Magnolia.

1 comment:

Simon said...

The CD comes "free" with the DVD (with a slightly different/shorter track listing to the full concert on the DVD if memory serves me well). I got it as a present for my 40th last year and definitely worth buying the DVD if you are into Aimee Mann.