SO the top five things were

1 The Violet Burning‘s performance – brilliant, absolutely brilliant. stage craft as well as musical performance.

2 Marytn Jospeh‘s gig. very good indeed.

3 Show of Hands/ Ron Sexsmith back to back gig on the monday night. SHow of hands must be one ot the top live bands working today. ROn Sexsmith has a great song writing skill and some brilliant tunes,

4 Peter Case. What can you say, quality music is always a show stopping experience.

5 spending time with my wife. she’s awesome and not too bad company if i do say so myself.

Yesterday the 5 hour journey to cheltenham for the Greenbelt festival, took 7.30hours in total. [nice]

but anyway we arrived in time to see the site and find our tent. (using the In tnet system of someone putting up your tent before you arrive and tearing it down after you leave. very handy)

saw the Handsome Family. alright I thought but his voice was so deep it was a rumble sometimes. I also don’t like band who have laptops on music stands for any purpose.

Went for a wander. saw some blues band in the YMCA tent, Andy Thornton in the Sticky tent, Calamateaur in the Acoustic cafe and then back to main stage for lambchop.

Lambchop was awesome. What a band. Nine of them (reduced fromt eh usual 14) very, very good. My wife was tired after a long drive so I promised her a seat at the next band.

The next performer was on in the new centaur building. All the pictures show a large hall with seats on the floor and a balcony of nice comfy seats.

we queued for 25 minutes for a seat. when we got in no seats. none. nada.

(Mental note to self. when home write a trongly worded letter of complaint about this)

But more than making up for this was the Preformance of peter Case. The Guy was amazing.

very, very Good.

anyway, went to bed.

was woken up to some Goth/punks/ shouting about the size of Joe’s penis and wether it was a caterpiller or not. (8.30am.)

Who owned the milk (8.45am)

And who was going to Firefly’s Punk Goth worship at Nine am. (8.45am)

Got washed, walked passed simon Mayo and Paul cookson resisting the urge to engage in pointless conversation.( “I love you show” , “thanks”, “so, I’ll be off, then” , “yes you should”.

Heard Shane claiborne (very good. Inspiring Guy.)

and Just found out that Someone turned off the greenbelt Radio’s transmitter at the mains and no one notices for twenty minutes. (Lots of shouting in the back ground, did you turn the trasmitter at the mains?)

anyway away to hear either Jeffery john or Prof. Sir Ghileadean Prance. Then Martyn Josephs the Rising with Peter Case or Stewart henderson/Paul Cooksons Tickling In Public.

I may stop in to catch one or two of Suzanne Adam’s Set on Stage 2.

Then the weblogging metting in the pub at 4.

tough choices huh.

CD’s For Going to Greenbelt

The trick is to get the right balance between those performing and those who are not performing. so I have split the Cd selection into 2 sections. Here, or Absent

1 – Over The Rhine – Ohio – Absent

2 – Paste Magazine – Sampler #9 – Absent (Majority of Artists)

3 – Barenaked Ladies – Greatest hits – Absent

4 – Vigilantes of Love – Summershine – Absent

5 – Juliet Turner – Seasons Of The Hurricane – Absent

6 – Lambchop – Aw C’mon / No You C’mon – Here

7 – The Violet Burning – This Is The Moment – Here

8 – LA Symphony – The End Is Now – Here

9 – Show Of Hands – No Song To Sing – Here

10 – DJ Andy Hunter – Exodus – Here

I am so excited I may have to go get them now.

That means no links to artist homepages. sorry about that.

see you at the festival then.

sleep sweet.

Off to Greenbelt tomorrow. all that vital camping stuff is in the hall, dusted down and ready to go.

Greenbelt I have been a regular since 1996 until 1999 then I was busy until 2002 when I got to go again.

This year the big blogging meeting is happening. it is a meeting of people who have weblogs and go to Greenbelt. I am sure it will be much more interesting that that. The guys from the Wibsite are hosting (I Think) so it should be comedy at least.

Hi I was sent the minutes of the most recent meeting of a commitee i used to be on. enjoy

(please note the names have been changed to protect the innocent)

They came today to fix the roof.

After an hour they wnet on a drive to pick up materials from there home base.

I am waiting their return with slight trepidation and worry about the state for the kitchen.

On a brighter note i sorted out my wife with here new mobile phone today. I negociated the company responsable for a £200 discount on the first quote they gave me. for a better deal than the one I was on.

::[nice]::

hi last night sarah came over to join my wife and I for dinner.

I cooked and we had,

Tomato and basil soup and fresh baked bread.

Roast chicken, Roast potatoes, Roast Root Vegetables, Couliflower in a cheese sauce and Broccholi.

then with coffee and tea (and water for sarah,)

Apple pie with Ice Cream or Fresh Cream

I enjoyed it very much. Sarah and My wife both looked very happy with The food I provided for them.

I like cooking.

Just a small note to thank Louise and Denise for a lovely time in Edinburgh on Saturday. During a wide ranging conversation we covered life, love, marrage, the future and who we were in relation to who we had been.

As the Festival is one we managed to see some weird things such as the man standing on his head in a bucket (Good work if you can get it.)

ALso the men singing the song about Al Quaeda deserve a special mention.

All in all, a lovely few hours were spent in the company of friends.

thank you both

scott

Hi I got sent this today and thought is was possible the most tackiest, underhand using religion as a blackmail piece of marketing I have seen ever.

enjoy

_________