Kasabian - Astoria, London - Thursday 25th August 2005

Off to see Kasabian in a fantastic venue, the Astoria. Previous Kasabian gigs I've been to have not left a great impression, mainly because they have all been outside, with the wind (and sometimes rain) blowing the sound all over the place. I'm still a fan of many of their songs, so seeing them in such an intimate venue gave them a good opportunity to redeem themselves. This gig was a warmup for their headlining of the second stage at the Reading Festival the following day.

One thing about the Astoria in summer is that it does get extremely hot, and this gig was no exception. Even from the relative safety of the balcony, it was sweltering when Kasabian came on stage, and only got hotter as the gig went on.

From the moment that Kasabian came on, they completely blew the place away - they were incredibly loud, and played a very intense set. The balcony in the Astoria was shaking from the first song onwards, and the band kept the crowd going for the full hour or so.

As the set began to draw to a close, Kasabian started to play some of the classics with which to end a gig. The gig had been excellent up to this point, but when the band played LSF, the place went wild. I have to say that their rendition of LSF was definitely one of the best performances of any song, by any band, that I've ever seen - it blew the roof off the place. My ears were ringing for a few days afterwards, but an awesome gig.

Arsenal vs Fulham - Highbury, London - Wednesday 24th August 2005

A collectors item match, in more ways than one. Thierry Henry moved to within touching distance of the all-time Arsenal goalscoring record. Lauren missed a penalty. The ground was full of redcurrant shirts (and no jackets) for probably the last time until it gets warm again in April. And, Pascal Cygan ended up scoring 2 goals, leaving him just a tantalising 181 or so away from the all-time Arsenal scoring record.

In reality, despite scoring first early on, Fulham did not look a great side, and were eventually swept aside fairly easily. Seemed like a confident, convincing performance, and a good way to bounce back after defeat against Chelsea.

Surrey vs Kent - The Oval, London - Monday 22nd August 2005

A large non-event, this one, because it rained solidly all afternoon. Even though there was very little prospect of any play, we dutifully went to the Oval, then to the pub near the Oval, to wait for the rain to clear and play to start. But, it never happened, so we just stayed in the pub and got drunk instead. Not a bad fallback option as it turned out.

Chelsea vs Arsenal - Stamford Bridge, London - Sunday 21st August 2005

Back to Stamford Bridge, with not too many games played in between. The difference of course this time is the 40,000 fans that are now full of it, having been bought deservedly earned the success of winning the Premiership. A new home in the stadium for away fans as well, moving away from the East Stand touchline, to the Shed End corner behind the goal - and a price rise to pay £48 for the privilege!

Being still in the sunny, warm part of the season, lots of celebrity fans came out for the day. Cheryl Tweedy (Ashley Cole's bird, aka the best looking one from Girls Aloud), was in the front row of the Upper Tier for the game. At half time, she was in the Upper Tier concourse, being beseiged by Gooners wanting to take a photo of/with her.

Mickey Rourke was also in the Arsenal section, having apparently met, and been given tickets, by Freddie Ljungberg in a club the previous week. His presence would also hopefully deter Chelsea fans from getting too lively outside afterwards. Lastly, the muppet Maxwell from Big Brother was making his first visit to an Arsenal game since making the entire world (especially Arsenal fans) hate him on national TV all summer.

The game was an annoying, typical Chelsea game. Arsenal looked the better team in the first half, but didn't get close to scoring - too much faffing around with the ball in buildup play, and not enough willingness to shoot. And, that approach was eventually punished. Even in the second half, Chelsea didn't look very good at all, but a goal that scuffed in off Drogba's knee was enough to win them the game. Chelsea didn't deserve the win at all really, but I can't help thinking that Arsenal's failure to kill them when on top meant that we deserved what we got.

The most galling thing of all is that Chelsea, through their criminal legitimate businessman owner, enjoy all the advantages that a football team could wish for already. Incredibly annoying that they get luck on top, like the bounce off an uneven pitch, or the jammyness of their winner today. What goes around doesn't seem to be coming around where they are concerned.

Anyway, on trophies, there is still a large difference between Chelsea and Arsenal, can you spot it?

Oasis, The Streets, Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery, The Kooks, Jet, Magic Numbers, Protocol - V Festival, Chelmsford - Saturday 20th August 2005

A trip to Chelmsford for one day of the nice, clean V Festival. Which annoyingly requires travelling out of London for the day!! On arrival at Chelmsford station, there are lots of buses to the site, which spend what seems like ages driving the length of a horrendous queue to the gate. However, when you get up to the gate, there is actually no queue to get in, the half mile line of people is full of sheep who see a queue and join it. Very silly.

The gates opened late, at 12:30, by which time the first bands were already on - why book them if you're not going to let people in in time to actually see them?

We went to the tent to have a look at Protocol, who have had nice things written about them, and have secured some good looking support slots for the autumn. They were not bad, although reminiscent of The Killers or The Bravery with their synth-80s/rock sound. Sounded OK though, although the singer's haircut is appalling, and should rightfully prevent them getting much success until he sorts it out.

A drinking break before the Magic Numbers, who predictably wowed the crowd, and had everybody eating out of their hands within about 2 songs, before their set just descended into a sunny party. A perfect festival band, and so much better than the classic "festival bands" of the past. After they finished, we rushed to catch some of Jet on the main stage - they seemed quite promising when they first started out, but now just seem somewhat cheesy.

Killing time whilst waiting for the Kaiser Chiefs, we went to see The Kooks, who are also having much written about them lately - the singer was going out with Radio-2 friendly Katie Melua, which can't do any harm either. They sounded very promising, and are worth looking out for in future, although their set was so short that it was difficult to judge them too much. Moving into position for the Kaiser Chiefs, we managed (if that is the right word) to catch The Bravery, who were fully expected to sound like a complete comedy act, but actually came across marginally better than that - possibly a reflection of the low expectations rather than how good they really were.

Kaiser Chiefs were excellent, if very arrogant indeed. Almost all of the banter between songs referred to the band in the 3rd person "Kaiser Chiefs are about to play a new song", which is always one of the more irritating things that bands do on stage (see also The Hives). Playing audiences of this size at festivals seems to have inflated their egos, either that or they now have a record company drugs budget to reward them for selling all those albums.

Everything seemed to be running late on the Kaiser Stage (which had been renamed officially by the time they finished), so The Streets set on the main stage was largely missed. Shame, because I'd really wanted to see them, and from what I did catch, I was very impressed. They obviously sound very different indeed live from on record, different but still very good.

So to Oasis, my girlfriend hadn't seen them live since 1994, and after 2 songs she was crying at how old and passenger-like they looked to her. It made her feel old - but taking into account that they have been like this for most of the time since 1994, today was a good performance. The idiot count (always a factor at Oasis gigs) was moderate, but then we were in deepest Essex, and The Streets had just been on, so it could have been worse. A now familiar-ish set, which ticked all the right boxes in terms of greatest hits, and showcased the best of the (pretty good) current album.

After the gig, a run for the shuttle bus and train, then a trip to the Garage in Highbury to round off a good day of music and drinking.

The Veils - Luminaire, London - Monday 15th August 2005

A first visit to a new-ish venue, the Luminaire in Kilburn. I actually used to live about 5 minutes' walk from this place, which has been comprehensively done up in the last few years. A nice little venue, albeit with a strange shape - rather like the 100 Club in that the area to watch the bands is very wide, and doesn't go very far back at all - 10 yards from the stage is the bar!

The Veils were a band I watched a few times a couple of years ago, mainly initially because a friend's friend was their (very good) guitarist. They were signed to Rough Trade, had their debut album produced by Bernard Butler, and all looked to be going well. That was until the singer/songwriter sacked the rest of the band, and appeared to go slightly mental.

The aforementioned singer was back with a new band this time. They were not a patch on the originals, the singer pranced about with a very Pete Doherty-esque hat, and some of the new songs sounded like there was a definite influence there - unfortunately without any of the (few) redeeming features of Mr Doherty. The old songs they did play were executed quite clumsily (although their quality still shone through occasionally), and the new ones were largely poor attempts at Libertines/Babyshambles rip off.

Definitely one to avoid in future, unless the singer looks like he has got his act back together. A real shame to see the shadow of a once-promising band.

Arsenal vs Newcastle United - Highbury, London - Sunday 14th August 2005

Always good to have football back after what seemed like an eternity - with no World Cup or Euros this year, the summer break was always going to seem like forever.

The first game of the season always brings people out full of excitement, and it was incredible to see how many redcurrant shirts were out and about at Highbury - it seems that just about everybody has taken the plunge and bought one.

The game itself was typical first day of the season stuff, anybody's game for a long time really, and not really a good indicator of the season to come. The game was decided by the referee in the first half, by his strange decision to send Jermaine Jenas off for an innocuous challenge. Newcastle had been well in the game until then, but the sending off put them on the back foot.

As the game progressed, it became harder and harder for Newcastle to keep up, and Arsenal evenutally picked them off with 2 goals in the last 10 minutes. A good win to open the season, but you can't help feeling that the referee's strange sending off decision won us the game.

Ordinary Boys - Islington Academy, London - Tuesday 9th August 2005

This was a free gig, open to competition winners only, recorded for broadcast on XFM Live. The Ordinary Boys first album was a great collection of indie-pop songs, most of which are well crafted, punchy tunes. Having said that, I was less impressed by their new single - they seemed to be turning into Madness!
They were supported by the Mitchell Brothers, good mates with Mike Skinner, who were extremely Streets-esque, but then I guess you'd expect that really!

The Ordinary Boys played all that one would expect - about 2/3 of their first album, and about 2/3 of their second. I loved all the songs from their first album, and most from the new one (apart from that irritating single!). However, I wonder if the trick may wear thin for them, and if the 2 albums aren't too similar for them to maintain any more than their already committed fanbase. They are on to a good thing, but do they have another trick to broaden their appeal? I'm not sure.