Work trip to Philadelphia, USA - 26th to 29th June 2006

A work trip to Philadelphia, and my first trip to the US for about 5 years. The last one involved a trip up to the top of the World Trade Center, about 8 months before it was attacked, so I certainly remember what I did last time I went.

After a very boring flight over, the first USA experience involved the fun that is US Immigration. Having waited in the queue for about half an hour, the first question that the immigration official asked was "Why are you here?". Very welcoming. After answering several inane questions (what job I do, what company I work for, what the company does, when I was last in the US, why did I go to Malaysia 2 years ago, did I have more than $10,000 in cash on me - good god they are stupid), I was allowed into the country. Americans always seem to be amazed that their immigration officials put foreign visitors through such pointless interrogation - but as long as it keeps them safe from terrorists, its all OK of course.

A cab ride into Philadelphia went through some pretty dreary and industrial surroundings, lots of chimneys, and the outskirts looked quite run down all in all. But then, at the end of the journey, we entered a smart city centre, with a familiar grid of streets (in fact, the first city in the world to have a grid layout, so I'm told).

Once in the hotel, I turned on the TV to see what Americans were amusing themselves with. That turned out to be the Switzerland vs Ukraine World Cup game, on ESPN, with some comedy US commentators, and more pop-up stats about the game/players/team than you would ever want to know. Elsewhere, there appeared to be a murderer about to be executed on death row - Fox News helpfully had a countdown clock on the screen, waiting for the big moment, whilst showing reconstructions of his crimes. Only 22 hours to go!

Philadelphia is apparently one of the "fattest" cities in the US (or its inhabitants are), largely attributed to Philly Cheese Steaks, basically a steak and cheese sandwich that seems very popular. There did seem to be a good number of completely obese people around, although of course in America, it is always hard to tell if this is a "normal" city or not. There were however a shocking number of people walking around with Double Gulp drinks in their chubby hands - containing more sugary liquid than anybody ever needs. Attempting to get anything to eat is easy if you just want lots of food, less easy if you have too much concern over how good (or good for you) the food actually is. A classic case of quantity over quality abounds.

Surprisingly, there are lots of tourists in Philadelphia, albeit almost all from other parts of America. Few Europeans go to the city for anything other than work, and with New York, Boston and Washington DC all fairly close by, it isn't too hard to see why. Philly is OK, but it doesn't compete with any of the big-hitting cities nearby. The Americans come for the "history", of which there is more in Philadelphia than in probably any other city in the country. It was the capital whilst Washington was being built, and was at the centre of the American Revolution - nothing more than 250 years old, but for Americans, that is ancient history, and they flock to the city to see it.

It was great to visit the US on a work trip, my previous trips have all been to laze around on holiday, or whilst travelling around the world. Very interesting to see how Americans go about their day, and stationed right in the city centre, I got a great feel for the place. They seem to like their coffee in the US - I often bumped into people carrying those insulated plastic coffee cups, usually in coffee shops in fact, where they were busy buying even more coffee. I learned that "America runs on Dunkin'" too, probably 10% of people at any given time are carrying a Dunkin' Donuts bag.

By the way, this is what a typical American office looks like - high walls, cubicles everywhere, and you get the feeling that you could be laying dead in your cubicle for days before anybody would notice. For anybody that works in a UK open-plan office, this is how the other half live - and it doesn't look very appealing!

Since I last visited 5 years ago, a lot has happened in America - 5 more years of George W Bush alienating the country from the rest of the world, for starters. Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock (and others), have also between them raised the attention of the world to some of the less desirable features of the country - like food that kills you, politicians that would if they could get away with it, and a culture that is oblivious to the rest of the world, and that just wants to consume lots. Most of this is of course true, but meeting individual Americans tends to make you forget about all that.

We Are Scientists, The Double, Au Revoir Simone - Theater of Living Arts, Philadelphia, USA - Wednesday 28th June 2006

Whilst in Philadelphia for work, I was determined to engage in some other activity as a diversion. A quick look on Pollstar to see what was going on, and I was very pleased to see that We Are Scientists were due to be in town. A visit to Ticketmaster later, and I had been relieved of $12.50 for a ticket, plus another $12.35 on top in various "fees". Shocking!

The venue for the gig was the Theater of Living Arts, in the South Street area of the city. This had been described to me as being like a mini Soho. Hard to disagree really - lots of fashionable shops, bars and restaurants, and a general feeling that this was the cool and edgy part of town.

The theatre, like many American venues, had a bar which you had to show ID and get a wristband to enter. Once in the bar though, with a beer in your hand, you weren't allowed to take beer out of the separate area, onto the main floor of the venue. The reason for this, of course, is to protect under-21s from coming into close contact with such a dangerous substance as beer.

So, with a weak beer in the bar (despite drinking lots of it, I completely failed to get even remotely drunk, but I did wake up the next morning with a hangover - the worst of both worlds!), I got talking to a number of Americans, many of whom were interested to know about the music scene in the UK. They were surprised that We Are Scientists are much more popular in the UK than in the US, and many seemed to be generally into a good number of British bands. Arctic Monkeys were the obvious example, they rock, and they kick ass, so I was told.

First band on the bill were Au Revior Simone, who looked and sounded very much like The Pipettes. Three girls dressed in black and white checked dresses, they played keyboard-based synth-pop music, to a largely disinterested audience. After their set, they decamped to the back of the venue to sell their own CDs and T-Shirts, and chat to the odd punter that showed an interest. Most of the interest was in chatting them up, not in buying their music though. We Are Scientists themselves were also milling around inside the venue, which was probably no more than 25% full at this point, and mainly full of people who had no idea who they were - so it was easy to stop and talk to them.

Next on were The Double - another New York band, whose sound was a gloomy mix of keyboards and guitars, not at all unlike Interpol in fact, or The National. Some of their songs plodded along unnoticed, but others were full of energy and built up to very noisy finishes. I thought that they were slightly hit and miss, but the "hit" parts were worth waiting for.

At around 10pm, We Are Scientists took to the stage, and I retreated to the upstairs bar, so that I could continue with the weak beer and still get a good view. By this time, then venue was no more than half full. The band started joking amongst themselves, and with the crowd, as they do - getting people laughing right from the off. They admitted to being quite drunk, and were clearly enjoying themselves! They played for around an hour, covering pretty much all of their album, plus a couple of new songs.

What really struck me about the crowd at the gig was that there was very little movement - no dancing, no surging or moshing or jumping around. The crowd just seemed to stand there watching, even at the front. Very restrained, and I couldn't help thinking that if they were allowed to get their hands on beer (and drink it wherever they wanted), that things might have been a bit more lively. We Are Scientists had certainly had the alcohol, so they provided enough madness and jumping around to make up for the lack of activity in the audience!

I didn't need to be converted to We Are Scientists, because I was a huge fan before I went. But, in the audience, they did seem to be winning a number of new converts - their set was more polished and refined than previous times I have seen it, but not losing any of the spontaneity and rock and roll-ness. Very good indeed - they now have a long festival season in Europe to come, but on this form, and having this much fun, they will do very well indeed.

The Strokes, Bob Mould, The Raconteurs, Dirty Pretty Things, Gogol Bordello - Wireless Festival, Hyde Park, London - Wednesday 21st June 2006

I couldn't really disagree more with this review, which seems to say "great festival, shame about the bands". My view is the opposite - crap festival, but (on this day only) decent bands. Why is the festival crap? Many reasons, but the fact that they are seemingly unable to give the tickets away, for any of the dates, may provide evidence to back me rather than the review.

Amongst other things, the sound at the show was quite possibly the worst I have ever (barely) heard at an outdoor gig - they seem to have invested in a sound system to blow away an outdoor audience of 500 people - which unfortunately sounds pathetic when there are 20,000 there - it just was nowhere near loud enough. Then there is the fake VIP-ness, you can buy a ticket for £100 to get into a VIP enclosure and avoid all the plebs - but of course if you can buy your way in, it isn't very exclusive at all!

Lastly, the O2 blueroom - as sponsors, O2 have another "VIP" area, for their subscribers. With another stage (featuring bands I had never heard of), some seats, and some minor diversions that may keep you amused for 10 minutes if you are particularly easily amused. This is "for O2 customers only" - oh, and 3 guests per person as well - given that about 1/4 of the population is on O2, and they could take 3 guests in each, that probably meant that almost everybody in the site could get into the "exclusive" blueroom. But having been in, its easy to see why few bothered.

For the people that paid £37.50 each, plus £6.50 booking fee (!), plus postage, to attend this, I feel sorry for you, because compared to pretty much any other major festival, it would not have been good value for money.

Anyway, to the bands, which despite all the venue-related rubbish, were generally good. Gogol Bordello were the first band I saw, and were in many ways quite similar to the Polyphonic Spree. Not musically at all, but in the sense that I can't imagine ever buying one of their albums - their attraction is all in seeing them live. Billed as "Gypsy Punks", which is a pretty accurate description, they spent 35 minutes bounding around the stage with immense energy - playing a mixture of violin/accordion gypsy music, and simple rock - all in the same songs. Very interesting to watch, but I just can't imagine sitting at home and putting the CD on.

Dirty Pretty Things were up next, they rattled very quickly through a half hour set that really left me wanting more - they covered most of their album (Deadwood was a particular highlight) with the minimum of fuss. The sound was starting to play up by this point, even with relatively few people around, but the band were good, and the only shame is that they didn't play for 15 minutes longer.

After DPT came The Raconteurs, who absolutely rocked the Astoria when I saw them there - but there is always the question of how that translates to an outside gig. The answer was, pretty well actually. The set went along with good momentum (lurching directly from one song into the next always helps with that), and I appreciated more how well Jack White's dirty guitars, and Brendan Benson's great voice, complement each other.

After an enjoyable Raconteurs set (where Jack White's microphone cut out completely on at least 3 occasions - not his fault though), I wandered across to the XFM tent to catch a bit of Bob Mould. Bob used to be the singer in a band called Sugar, who I loved in about 1993 - he is an indie god in the same vein as Evan Dando. On stage alone, with an electric guitar, he went through some older and some newer songs. But, I couldn't help thinking how much better it would have sounded with a bassist and a drummer too - it was good, but could have been incredible!

So to The Strokes. When watching Arsenal games (and reading the reports afterwards), Thierry Henry has often been described as being "averagely brilliant" - meaning that he is always exceptional, but today he was just normally exceptional by his standards. The Strokes tonight were similar - very good, but by their standards just normally good. Highlights included a rendition of "Three Lions" by the crowd, accompanied by the band's instruments. Then, a cover of "Walk on the Wild Side", which although good, seemed to be another unneccessary reminder that the band are from Noo York.

So, back to the original point. Great bands, but a ropey festival all in all (especially the sound quality) - I can see why they have trouble selling tickets. The line ups are too sparse, and tickets too expensive, compared with a day at other festivals. You seem to be paying extra for having the gig in Hyde Park. That is very convenient, but it remains to be seen if it can be made to pay its way.

Work Trip to Athens, Greece - 31st May to 1st June 2006

A quick trip to Athens for work, and a chance to bask in the 30-degree heat of Southern Europe. Or at least, to sweat in a 30-degree meeting room for a day and a half. Last time I went to Greece was for a football trip, so this was a very different experience altogether. It started with a magnificent dinner in a hotel overlooking the sea, in the resort of Vougliameni, near to Athens. The courses kept coming until we thought we might burst - along with plenty of liquid refreshment as well, and all on a beautiful terrace in 20-degree heat at 11pm.

The following day, and onto the meeting part. The 2-hour time difference between the UK and Greece really hits hard when you have to be up, dressed, checked out of your hotel, and in a meeting, all by 9am Greek time (so 7am UK time). That felt extremely early! A sweaty meeting room for a day was not ideal, especially at 30-degrees with no air conditioning, but it was a good chance to escape the average weather in London for a couple of days.