Cube Blog

Top tip of the day saw Super Group Extreme on stage for a one of feature discussing the sideways view of Radio Venn On-Air. So the first night is drawing to an end, the weather has been amazing, the music great, and the radio has been pretty cool.

I wonder how one will make it through another two days and tomorrow being the all-dayer…

Fav moment of the day has to be Mr Hopkinson’s computer and Frezze Puppy sipping down the cocktails on Turbo Island Disks from the armchair.

Well in truth I’m looking forward to a few hours sleep, seeing Mirand and Maude, and then it will be time for the breakfast show and it all starts again…like that film … hmm … that one with Bill what’s his name.

a man at the cube

i walked over to MX with Team Brick. He told me about his new instrument- a metal CD rack that he has bent all about to get it into tune. He’s going to play tomorrow at MX at 7pm. as we walked along Brick embraced various people we came across. he seemed to know all of them. one of them, Ben, looked like he had come through the time tunnel to this century. i mentioned this to Team and he said that their friends thought he’d come from the ’90s; Team likes that decade.

when i arrived the Aliens were on. i don’t enjoy bass being so bassey that it makes the page i’m writing on vibrate. to me it is an invasion of personal space. i could’ve left but then i would have had to move and besides a fraction of me (probably the piece that was resonating most violently) was curious to see whether the bass could make me throw up.

as i stood with my notebook in hand pondering such questions the man who i had stood next to struck up a converation, asking what i was writing. i’m afraid i gave him the wrong impression and for a while he thought i was a member of the Venn team, one of the big players, a mover and shaker. he writes for lots of music magazines i’ve not heard of ( god, most of the bands are new to me) . but i relaly liked talking to this guy, John Fletcher and his friend/photographer Stuart Green. Both were very friendly and even offered me a drink when they went to the bar. i thought that beautiful behaviour. they are from manchester and when i realised this i was reminded of something two friends of mine had said when i visited them in Liverpool last week. ‘Mancurians are a melancholy breed. they are poetic and tragic.’ for some reason this correlates with gentleness in my mind. and these two men had a gentleness about them.

having said that John seemed to be balancing on a cheesewire of tense excitement that might raise him to epiphanic ectasies or drive him to rampages born of horror and disappointment. he spoke of Ariel Pink and Kode 9 with an enthusiasm that electrified his body. i think this must contribute to his wiry suppleness.

stuart is a bear-tall man. i think he would be good at protecting cubs and catching fish from wild running rivers while remaining a very approachable bear. when we parted company he said of John, ‘i’d drag him away if he hadn’t run off.’

I walked over from the cube to st. george’s and spent the first few steps with a man called Tim who is in a band whose picture is in the program. he was a friendly chap who was a bit tired having jusy flown in from Rome and a gig. anyway. i ended up at st. g’s and had a chat with steve, who was my manager when i worked there. (lyric- “don’t like mondays”). i sat in the crypt bar at a table holding two empty bottles of beer i hadn’t emptied. In St g’s crypt you can hear the show in the hall upstairs through speakers dotted about. i think it was Crescent who was playing when iwas there; they were probably about 10 feet to the left above the table where i as sitting. the music from the speakers was sailing upon the choppy waters of chatter that filled the little bar. every so often a significant roar of applause silenced both. the sound of this applause was similar to that a wave makes when being pulled back from a pebbly beach: lots of small things knocking against one another at the same time. Very Venn.

i’ve started to ask people to tell me a song lyric. strangers mostly. so far i have had a phil collins, joni mitchell, coupla hip hops and one i couldn’t make out the second time it was repeated to me and i felt it was too discourteous to ask a third time. Zahid, one of the techs and a friend from work, asked me the same question. it’s pretty hard. i came up with “ol lady you mashin’ me toe”, a line from a caribbean number i played on my show earlier today.

the place was full of men in shorts and t shirts. many had things clipped to their belts. not much chat but quite a bit of lifting. they were man-ants, lifting equipment at least three times their own weight, all working towards a purpose they didnt need to verbalise. i thnk this is due to them all having a role, knowing their place in the scheme, knowing the value of their work and having a unified aim.

if you see any chalking on the roads and pavements and walls around stokes croft, then more than likely it’ll be ol’ Godfrey here. i’m listening then chalking- lyrics, conversations, venn or un-venn alike. don’t get upset the chalk won’t last. my first chalk was outside the lovely Cafe Kino. lady and i were sitting together having a chat and i wrote down a coupla things she said. the great thing about lucy is that she is completely unphased by me writing as she’s talking. i wondered whether she realised i was actually writing. sometimes lady is talkng about things in the present but her mind is far, far away, you can tell how far by following her eyes, the further they wander the further she is away. if she turns her head as well then she’s nearly gone for good. anyway, amy feneck came in and i decided to chalk while her and lady had a chat about the documenatry filming they are doing along with Mr. Hopkinson. as i chalke di heard a kurfuffle and then amy was by me with her camera. a man aske dme what iwa s doing. he was very polite. i told him and old him about venn cos it seemed like he hadn’t heard of it. i got him a programme and shook his hand. his name is Nick and he lives in the flats nearby. the thing is although i was really enjoying talking to him i was trying very ahrd not to make any spelling mistakes. i don’t think i did. which brings me to my typing prowess. or lack of. i get a bit distracted by capitalising after a full stop, so please indulge me. also, you’ll be able to tell how tired or excited i am by the typos- the more the merrier or nearly asleep.

besides the chalking i am going to be writing about the gigs i get to and anything on the way. if you have any suggestions for me then mail me at lingourd @ yahoo . com

chalking can be a risky business. passing by some house on ashley hill i heard the beginning of an altercation. a woman had just found a bloke pissing in the entrance to her basement flat.
‘Excuse m, this isn’t appropriate to use my garden like this…’
He grunted. i scribbled. best not to chalk it there and then, i thought. a bit later perhaps.

another bit of chalking ‘eat too much’ a big mama was walking down Richmond Road, that’s DOWN the road, and she was puffing and huffing and talking to herself. i smiled and she smiled back and then she said to no one in particular, ‘Eat too much!’ we laughed and passed. and then she passed some squelchy wind. ‘Pardon,’ i heard her say, again to no one in particular.

yes here i am reporting from the darkness that is the Bashout on Radio Venn (87.7 FM) where dance is forever deconstructed into rock.

So Venn Radio has begun and the festival itself sets of with a bang tomorrow so come check it out and see something you may not have seen before…

The circus is calling once again and the clown is only eating spiders for the ones not here.

a man at the Cube