Check out VV Brown
I think she’s great! Love both these songs!
Win Two flights to the UK with Alt Albion and Air New Zealand
Win two free flights to the UK? Really? Sweet!
This competition is now closed. We will be contacting the winner in due course and announce the winner onthis site.
Yup, thanks to the great people over at Air New Zealand we’ve got two return flights to the UK to give away.
In-van entertainment sytem
It seemed like a great idea at the time; eveyone has ten minutes to run into an HMV strore and buy a CD to play in the van. We’d been a little light on the sounds while in the highlands and now we were in the lo-lands it was time to pump out the jams [...]
sixty pictures from the London Eye
We had an amazing time, thanks to Craig our wonderful host for the trip. I almost didn’t make it to the Eye but I am so happy that I did, highly recomend it to everyone.
Shoreditch
By day Shoreditch is a pleasant wee area, with interesting lanes, street art, cafes and a rad bookstore (Artwords). By night it is another beast all together. The streets fill up, becoming pumping conduits of people having a marvelous time at a million tiny clubs.
One of these is Jaguar Shoes. In a former life DreamBagsJaguarShoes [...]
Monsters in London
While many of my blogging comrades were doing things you should do in London (wine, gigs, beautiful people etc), I jumped in a cab and found my way to the Grant Museum of Zoology at London’s University College. Sort of like the UK’s AUT I imagine.
After looking about in the Darwin building’s specimen room (some creatures in [...]
On the black market
For as long as I have been a drum and bass DJ I have wanted to visit Black Market records in Soho. It is probably the most famous drum and bass record store in the world, in the spiritual home of bass heavy sounds.
On the Wall
This has been a trip of visual firsts - my first beautiful Blake prints at Tate Liverpool, the first much lauded Picasso, a few cheeky Warhols and my favourite to date - a piece by modern Brit icon Mr. Banksy.
We found it off Oxford St; the ‘discovery’ felt pretty excellent, tucked in behind a [...]
#17: Rough Trade
Any trip to London for a self-respecting vinyl nerd is incomplete without a trip to Rough Trade records, the shop which gave birth to the label which just owned the early ’80s, putting out masterpieces by the likes of the Young Marble Giants, The Feelies and The Clean. I’ll post clips at the bottom. They are all amazing.
Alternative shopping
Shopping in the UK is amazing. Cheap (even with the crazy crap exchange rate working against us), massive selection and friendly helpful staff in almost all stores. I am not going to bore you with the details of all the regular shopping though, suffice to say it is rad. Jump in for my summary of crazy shopping destinations in the UK..
Honey I’m Home
Over the last 24hrs I have I walked a couple of New Zealanders from Commercial St down Brick Lane, into Vibe bar for a quick half, to the Jewish Deli that is always open for a bagel (or baigel). To Liverpool St via Spitalfields market, a tube to Old St (for the sake of it) a [...]
Wasabi
I have a theory about proximity to greatness. The closer you are, the more you are empowered or some waffle like that. People move places because all the best things of the world collect in one pool and you get the best of everything… Anywho, being in one of the world’s greatest cities gives you [...]
Hyde Park: A Dream Come True.
Always wanted to come to London’s Hyde Park. I enjoy parks and heard this one was particularly good. And it was.
Magazine Invented Manchester
Howard Devoto, a diminutive figure, now with an odd resemblance to Dr Evil, appears at centre stage. It’s dark and green, though it will soon become apparent that he’s in a pink pastel suit and your eyes just devour him.
“Here is the idea. Here is the explanation of what happened,” he intones in that marvellously creepy pantomine voice of his.
March Of The Spoons
A geeky cutlery update. I suffered serious shock and horror in Liverpool when there wasn’t a single Beatle encrusted spoon to be found. Not even one with Paul’s foppish grin. One themed with a bit of Brit Pride feat. the liver bird sufficed.
Vintage Manchester
Vintage shopping in new cities is always a lot of fun, especially when you are given a personalised itinerary complete with coffee breaks. These shops are in the Northern Quarter of the city - the creative indie hub of Manchester.
The Prettiest Girl in Manchester
English Rose, The Rose of Tralee. The Uk woman lives in mens hearts, the paragon of beauty. Riding the waves of myths and legends. Sirens on the rocks like Girls Aloud.
PRET
Pret/Pret-a-manager is brilliant. A chain store done really well is always a joy to find. This one hooked me in with promises of free wifi, decent coffee and a good attitude. On closer inspection it provided an awesome brand story, cool packaging and writing, nice people and free wifi. Mmmmm wifi. I had a latte, [...]
The Liver Bird
I took an early morning walk down to the docks in Liverpool and saw the most wonderful architecture. On the edge of the river you’ll find Liver Building - the most famous in the city. It’s a big building, built in 1911. You can’t miss it - it’s the one with twin clock towers and [...]
Tate Liverpool
You know those moments that force you to look at your life, your neuroses and your clumsy attempts at creativity in perspective and then soundly draw you to the conclusion that you’re actually a semi-talented insignificant speck?
I’d really like to recommend one of those to you. I had one today and it was beyond awesome.
William Blake was [...]
Forbidden Planet.
So I sort of was a bit panicky thinking Liverpool would be all Football heads running about drinking beer, maybe commiting crimes etc - and it sort of is I suppose - but it’s also quite civilized.
I can tell it’s civilized because it has what every civilized place has: A toy store. A toy [...]
#7: More comedy than you can laugh at
Right, so I feel like since I’ve dedicated a whole post to Peep Show, I have to tell you about this in case you haven’t heard about it.
Fuck empire, imperialism, wealth, brit pop and all that shit. Things like this are why the UK is awesome.
Yeah. That’s right. You can be first to tell your [...]
Yes! Fab & Kinky
Yes! Optimo truly was.
Seriously, who has a party on a Sunday night. WTF.
I was insanely tired. I didn’t want to go out, not really. Twitch and Wilkes are in Australia, how good could this really be? I thought I was going for an hour or so just to get a feel for Optimo and what [...]
