Down in Tennessee it’s closer to March’s ‘coming in like a lion’ analogy with tornado warnings, but I’m up in Michigan for the weekend where the drip-drippin’ has indeed been the occaisional shower.  It may snow tomorrow though.  Weird.  

I’m here in Grand Rapids to talk at the Festival of Faith & Music at Calvin College.  My workshop, entitled Radio GaGa is on tomorrow afternoon at 4pm, and I hope that some people will come.  Or do I?  At the moment, as I’m wrestle my thoughts in order, I have vague dreams of an empty room, so I can just have a little lie-down instead.  But No!  It will be great.  I’m looking forward to pointing people in the direction of media both new and old, and the opportunities they bring.

Tonight I’m looking forward to hearing Makoto Fujimura give the first of 3 keynote speeches.  He’s friends with my lovely Mrs Metaphor, and she’s spoken highly of him so I’m glad to get the weekend off with a bang.  

Also a delight is the fact that so many lovelies are here with me.  My beloved is here to sit in with the fabulous Julie Lee, David Dark is speaking, and James & Kari are around again, so it’s going to be pretty fab even without meeting new people!

Now I just have to write this talk…

The email read “a parting gift.  It’s not much but…” and then it was simply a link to this:

Jim. The pleasure has been all mine. Never change.

I had a long, frustrating and complicated work-day at the end of a long, frustrating and complicated week.  I’d got to the point where going felt like a hassle… but oh!  I knew it would be good – they’re a band I’ve wanted to see for a long time but never made it happen –  in fact I knew it would be great, but I hadn’t even considered that it would be one of the gigs of my life.

The venue is amazing, with staff who, to a wo/man are helpful pleasant and seem to actually enjoy their jobs;  the company was amazing, as going out with my sister is always something fantastically special; Supergrass supporting was amazing, as I can never get enough of them;  the crowd were amazing, with a general good feeling purveying throughout and a stadium is the only place where Mexican Waves look truly awesome; and the band were phenomenal.

To go all Westwood on yo’ ass it was Heavy Hit after Heavy Hit after Heavy Hit.  Cath and I rocked out as only two 30-something, white, middleclass, British girls can – singing, jumping, pointing and shaking our expensively cut hair all over the place.

They finished the main set with Monkey Wrench, vanished below and then came back for the encore, only to introduce Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones and proceed into Rock N Roll with Dave Grohl on Drums and Taylor Hawkins doing the vocal of his life.

I stood, open mouthed, with my hands behind my head until Cath nudged me and reminded me to enjoy it!   Overwhelmed is an understatement.

Having ripped through another Zep track they finished with Best Of You, and I surprised even myself by crying pretty much all the way through it.   AMAZING.

And so I find myself on the eve of something that feels important.  Tomorrow is a day that felt like it would never come, and yet here it is.  1 more sleep.  1 more complicated and long day at work.  It’s nothing at all.  It’s less than 24 hours.

Mr Grohl can sum it up even better… Everlong

Hello
I’ve waited here for you
Everlong

Tonight
I’ve thrown myself into
And out of the red, out of her head, she sang

Come down
And waste away with me
Down with me

Slow how
You wanted it to be
I’m over my head, out of her head, she sang

And I wonder
When I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I’ll ever ask of you
Gotta promise not to stop when I say, when
She sang

Breath out
So I can breathe you in
Hold you in

And now
I know you’ve always been
Out of your head, out of my head, I sang

And I wonder
When I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I’ll ever ask of you
Gotta promise not to stop when I say, when
She sang

And I wonder
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I’ll ever ask of you
Gotta promise not to stop when I say, when…

Life: Good

Han & Tom got married

Work: Good

Cute Clare
Captain played in The Hub for Steve Merchant’s show

Levels of Siliness: Good

Self Portrait (with moustache)

Coming Week-Day-Weekend: Looking Good.

These girls are the reason I happily give up my Friday evenings to hang out with 11 – 15 year olds. The eldest pair in my youth group, Lizzie and Claudia are best friends, or sisters from another mister as they say. The best thing is that they include me in that sisterhood in a way that a 20 year age gap will allow.

There was no JYGSAW (Junior Youth Group St Anne’s Wandworth) on Friday so the three of us just went for dinner. Being 15, we sat in Pizza Hut, cramming as much into our salad bowls as we could and talking about boys. Awesome.

::

The evening had started somewhat less salubriously, as a rainy evening made the steps into Oxford Circus tube station something of a death trap. Walking steadily down in the midst of the rush hour throng my right foot skiddied out from under me. My left foot followed suit, and I came crashing down hard on my bottom, lower back and hands.

Everything stopped for that second where you mentally figure out how on earth you didn’t hit your head. Eyes looked at me from the bottom of the stairs, asking questions that my inability to find any breath made impossible to answer. I moved wrists and ankles as I realised that nobody was passing me; a glance over my shoulder (pain) let me see about 150 people backed up the stairs, keeping well back. It must have been a pretty spectacular fall to make Londoners stop still in the rush hour.

I’m feeling much better now, but the last 48 hours have been weird. It’s strange to think how a tiny slip like that affects you. I’ve been sore, achy, stiff, nauseous and for the first few hours was burping almost constantly! It just shows how everything is shaken up when you hit the ground hard.

::

If you get the chance I’d like to humbly suggest you listen to a couple of things that I’ve produced this weekend. If you’re yet to subscribe to the Adam & Joe Podcast, then do it! But if not, then do listen to this weeks’ show on Listen Again. Bizarrely Joe was away this week, but the WONDERFUL Garth Jennings (director of brill music vids like Blur’s Coffee & TV and the upcoming movie Son Of Rambow) was in his seat and it’s a great listen.

Also double fabulous was this afternoon’s Stephen Merchant show. We had the staggering Beth Rowley in session and you just have to hear it, then go and buy all her music because not only is she fabulously talented, but a wonderful wonderful person who deserves all the great things that are coming her way. So there.

night night.

Wonderful H in Los Angeles has sent all five of our fabulous group of girls matching shirts. They speak assurance to ourselves and also mean that, when needed, we can show solidarity in our uniforms, however great the physical distance between us.

I’m at the end of a few days at home, using up leave and trying to get writing done. I’ve got some, if not all of it finished, but I’ve also used the time to fall hopelessly back in love with the words of one of my favourite lyricists; Guy Garvey.

I’ve been listening to the new Elbow album The Seldom Seen Kid on repeat and, as always with new Elbow, there’s a couple of tracks who’s lyrics hold me totally captivated.

Here, for your delectation, are the lyrics of The Bones Of You, a song about – frankly – the way music makes you its bitch:

So I’m there
Charging around with a juggernaut brow
Overdrafts speeches & deadlines to make
Cramming commitments like cats in a sack
Telephone burn and a purposeful gait
When out of a doorway the tentacles stretch of a song that I know
And the world moves in slo mo
Straight to my head like the first cigarette of the day

And it’s you
And it’s May
And we’re sleeping through the day
And I’m 5 years ago and 3 thousand miles away

Do I have time?
A man of my caliber
Stood in the street like a sleepwalking teenager
No, and I dealt with this years ago
I took a hammer to every memento
But image on image like beads on a rosary
Move through my head as the music takes hold
And the sickener hits; I can work till I break
But I love the bones of you that I will never escape

And it’s you
And it’s May
And we’re sleeping through the day
And I’m 5 years ago and 3 thousand miles away
And I can’t move my arm
For fear that you will wake
And I’m 5 years ago and 3 thousand miles away

And, while you’re digesting that, here’s a picture of me dressed as Audrey Hepburn/Holly Golightly from Hannah’s hen-do at the weekend.

Judy Golightly

After a significant dry spell this week brought a hatrick of live music.

Tuesday night was Mr Lawson’s Solo Bass Night at Darbuka. Yolanda Charles and Steve were both brilliant, and wonderfully different from each other. Yolanda is the most amazingly funky woman, and was beautifully nervous considering the kind of gigs she’s done in the past (if you’ve ever seen a woman playing bass on telly or at a big stadium show… it’s likely to have been her). Her voice was beautiful and you didn’t miss the rest of the band at all! Lawson did as Lawson does, and held us all in a beautiful contemplative bubble. He also dedicated Grace & Gratitude (my current fave of his) to me, which was lovely.

Last night it was MGMT at the ICA with Catster. In a completely trendy industry crowd, I was pleased to see lovelies from work, as well as a couple of surprise friends from the ‘real’ world – all of us worried that we might look a bit old… but no. The few teenagers and obligatory Japanese girl super-fan stayed in a tight pocket front and centre, as the majority of the crowd all tried to stand at the back and look cool.

The band got better and better as the set wore on, and although a couple of the tracks were so proggy-noodly-electro-with-rhyming-lyrics that they sounded like Flight Of The Conchords doing an impression (listen to Electric Feel and get back to me) it didn’t make it any the less fun. Their two encores, Youth and Kids respectively, also got everyone dancing like teenagers, and at the end I bizarrely found myself in a bit of a mosh with The Queens Of Noize and Mark Ronson. Weird.

Finally, tonight Rach and I headed over to The Bush Hall to see one of the new batch of wonder-girls, Duffy. The jury’s been out for me since the first time I heard Rockferry, which everyone seemed to love, and I thought was a bit boring. Then suddenly she’s all big noise and getting to number 1 with Mercy, which – I admit – is a fantastic song. Well… the jury’s back in now and the verdict is that she’s got a brilliant brilliant voice, but is totally dull. We agreed it seemed more like the entertainment you’d get on the most expensive cruise you could go on.

Sorry Duffy… We got more excited about dropping soggy lemon pieces into the handbag of the horrid moo that was standing in front of us, then heading to the bar for some free drinks, and to talk about boys. (Who are great. Fact) Now THERE’S some fun for an evening.