Sightseeing in Prague, Czech Republic - Thursday 28th June 2007

My sightseeing started one evening, after finishing work - after a bite to eat, I ventured off into the city just before dark. I wanted to have a quick wander around some of the main central areas, before a proper assault the following day - and just to get reacquainted with Prague. So, I made a quick tour of the Charles Bridge, a view of the castle as it got dark, followed by the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square.

My first impressions were that the centre of the city had changed little, except that many traces of Czech-ness had been replaced by generic tourist stuff. The tourist trap restaurants, souvenir shops and money changing outlets were all still there, plus more, and they seemed to have got even more sophisticated (if that is possible). It is an efficient machine to fleece tourists, but surely there cannot be many regular tourists in Europe that have not now visited Prague - everybody I know seems to have been there! However, just before sunset, the centre of the city was quite quiet, although that was probably because the bars, restaurants and theatres were all very full!

Wenceslas Square seemed to have got even more seedier than I remember it, which again I didn't think would be possible! It is a safe assumption that any bar or nightclub there, especially if playing music, has naked women as the centre of the entertainment - and there are armies of big Nigerian guys trying to "persuade" people to go in and sample the entertainment, But, even at 10pm on a Wednesday night, I saw at least 3 groups of British lads wandering around, so I'd guess there is plenty of custom to go around. And I guess there lies the problem - Wenceslas Square has got tackier and sleazier, but it is largely the fault of my fellow countrymen, who go there with full wallets, looking for sleazy activities.

The following morning, I headed out into the city again, starting with a number 22 tram up the bloody great hill to the castle. I arrived there (after a nice lie in) just before midday, and the place was absolutely rammed with tour parties - this before the main tourist months of July and August even. I started taking pictures of the amazing view from the castle, over the city, when I was startled to hear some trumpets playing, and playing something that sounded like the music from The Great Escape. I wandered over to the castle gates, and saw what appeared to be a changing of the guards ceremony taking place.

Now, having spent months on end in Prague whilst on university summer holidays, I have seen the guards change at Prague castle dozens of times. Previously, some new guards would wander over to the guard huts, talk the the old guards for a minute or two, who would then wander off (probably to the pub). It lasted for a minute, and was really nothing special to see. This has now been replaced by a full "changing of the guard" ceremony, complete with brass instruments, marching, shouting, saluting, and banging bayonets onto the ground. All utterly fake and pointless, and presumably invented because if you have guards at a castle, tourists expect to be able to see them changed!

Shocked by this experience, I decided against walking down through the castle, surrounded by hundreds of guard change watchers. So, I walked down lots of stairs instead, that run down the side of the castle, between its main entrance, and the Mala Strana part of town. These stairs have been used in lots of films, adverts, and a video by an ex-Spice Girl (now a Spice Girl again, temporarily), although I can't remember if it was Geri or Posh Spice. Anyway, loads of stairs, lots of walking, and almost some falling over too. Near the bottom of the stairs is the British Embassy, with a lovely statue of Winston Churchill outside.

Having descended from the heights of the castle, the next big Prague attraction was to walk across the Charles Bridge, which was built hundreds of years ago, and has lots of statues along it on both sides. Americans always fail to understand how old it is, because "700 years old" just does not compute (I think it is actually older than that). There were lots of tourists here too - I thought they were ALL at the castle - and lots of people who make a living by selling things to tourists for MUCH more than their true cost. If you want a shitty caricature, get it here. Or your name written really small on a piece of rice (can't you get that in any city in the world?). Or a small painting of the bridge on which you are standing. I just settled for taking a photo, whilst listening to one of the many weird buskers - this one was playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Under The Bridge, using a didgeridoo and a bongo. Utter tourist hell, in one short walk of tackiness.

Winding through the narrow streets to the Old Town Square, past endless shops selling "bargain" cut glass, I noticed that several traditional old places had been replaced by more bland, generic bars and restaurants, sometimes advertising "traditional Czech food and beer", alongside the general chicken and chips. In many places, it almost seemed as if the long-standing tradition of Czech beer drinking was being relegated to a mere curiosity - I saw Miller Genuine Draft being advertised, and "traditional Czech beer" in small letters at the bottom of the advert, as if nobody would want to sample that. Also, the "traditional" Czech food being advertised, sometimes seemed somewhat less than authentic. Goulash with dumplings sounded more like a traditional Hungarian dish, with some Czech dumplings thrown in. But tourists want their safe, international stuff, so on such a busy tourist route, maybe it was unreasonable to expect anything more.

Reaching the Old Town Square restored my faith in the beauty of the city. After the tourist traps which have ruined some parts of the city for me, it was great to get to the stunning square and see that little had changed here. Classical concerts were one of the few things advertised here, as much of the square is protected from too much tacky, intrusive advertising.

I think in summary for me, Prague has changed a lot in the ten years or so since I was spending significant time here. Of course that is to be expected, but I thought that too much had been sanitised for tourists - too much generic, international crap, at the expense of wiping away some of the traditional Czech-ness which used to give the city so much charm. Much of the city centre of Prague could just be a Disney-like theme park of a beautiful old city - and many traces of where it is, or the specific history, culture or food, have been hidden away - that is a real shame. But then many Czechs are abandoning their culture and history too, in favour of driving Western cars, eating at McDonalds, drinking expensive imported beer, and hanging out at new shopping malls. It is almost like the locals have moved out of the city centre, to their new out-of-town hypermarkets, and abandoned it to the tourists. Hopefully, like in other cities, that trend will reverse itself, and the locals will claim back their beautiful city.

Ozzy Osbourne, Korn - Sazka Arena, Prague, Czech Republic - Tuesday 26th June 2007

Wow, have I been to some strange gigs lately! Courtesy of my colleagues in the Czech Republic, I went to a large ice hockey arena in Prague, to see Ozzy Osbourne play, also "ably" supported by Korn. Of course, when you think of Eastern Europe, one of the things that springs to mind is an unhealthy liking for heavy metal, with all the dodgy hair and fashion sense that this entails. This gig utterly lived up to the stereotype - the Russians have an awful lot to answer for.

Korn were the support band, and did all the cheesy heavy metal excess in spades, enough to wind the crowd up for Ozzy. The lead singer appeared to be wearing a kilt, and there were several band members on stage whose exact purpose was unclear. One member in particular seemed to be there solely to provide a few growling backing vocals, and to swing his long hair around in a circle, like some kind of signal to all the metallers in the audience.

During Korn's set, I started to feel slightly self-conscious wearing my nice red Strokes t-shirt - it was nowhere near black enough, and I was looking very out of place amongst all the heavy metal hand salutes (you know the really cliched "666" ones). In general, Korn made an awful noise (I sound really old by saying that, but it is true), to an audience of people that seemed to be lapping it all up. Why they need 2 drummers at all times, rising to 3 for certain songs, is a complete mystery.

When the singer growled "get your muthafuckin hands in the air", everybody went mad - I suspect partly because the word "fuck" had just been used. The only (small) saving grace was that they played a bit of the Metallica song One, which was the only tuneful moment of their set. I can safely say that Korn were the most awful band I have ever seen play live, especially in front of an audience of over 10,000 people. 10,000 people meant that one in every thousand citizens of the Czech Republic was watching that show - truly shocking.

If Korn were just plain bad (trust me, they were), then Ozzy Osbourne himself was like a pantomime, his show was so laughable. For many of the songs, he was so incredibly out of tune, and sounded either drunk or very drugged throughout. Which of course, is how Ozzy Osbourne sounds! His drunk Brummie accent had strangely disappeared completely, and been replaced by a really strong American accent - most unusual. And I got the impression throughout that none of the audience understood a word of what he was singing or saying - after all, it was difficult enough for me to understand him, and in theory we speak the same language.

In reality, much of what was going on seemed quite sad. Ozzy was doddering around on stage like an old man, rather than any swaggering or prancing. The instances of staged rock and roll excess, like throwing a bucket of water over the crowd, or saying "come on you fuckers", just seemed to be so ridiculous as to be simultaneously funny and sad. But maybe these over-the-top cliches are all the rage either at heavy metal gigs, or in Eastern Europe, or both. In between most songs, Ozzy would say "Are you having a good time tonight?" in his American accent. The crowd would cheer, then Ozzy would say "I can't fucking hear you". The crowd would cheer a bit louder, then he would say "I love you all". When this was repeated for the tenth time, it all seemed highly contrived.

In between all this nonsense, some of the songs actually sounded OK, although obviously a bit heavy for my normal liking. Or maybe it was just because we had just been treated to Korn. There were a decent number of Black Sabbath songs, which went down really well, some from Ozzy's solo career, and about the same number from his new album, which nobody seemed to have heard, let alone to care much about. My colleagues were enjoying the show as little as I was, so we slipped out after a good hour and a half, but while Ozzy was still going strong on stage. A very strange experience all in all, one that I am unlikely to forget in a hurry, but have absolutely no desire to ever repeat. A heavy metal gig in London is bad enough, but transplanted to Eastern Europe, it is a positively surreal experience.

Work trip to Prague, Czech Republic - 25th to 28th June 2006

The day after arriving home from Glastonbury, it was straight back off to another place that could be considered to be hell on earth. There is no mud, but Heathrow Airport can be a pretty awful place to spend time sometimes. This was one of those times - there is a particular set of gates in Terminal One which have "extra security", because the airport authorities are too incompetent to stop outgoing and incoming passengers from mixing together. Security only starts when the gate is called, and there is only one metal detector for everybody to walk through. This time, it took an hour to get through this extra security, and the scrum to reach the front of the "queue" looked something like this. If I were an airline boss, I would be livid at the fact that BAA treated hundreds of my customers like that - it really is a disgrace, and for London's main airport to be such a shambles is a really bad reflection on the whole city and country.

Anyway, off to Prague, where I used to go very regularly, but hadn't been to for about the last five years. I was there to talk to some clients, and some colleagues too. A beautiful city, and some time off into the bargain for sightseeing.

One big thing I noticed whilst in the city, was the extent to which Czech people have started abandoning many of the things they used to do. For example, many people now drink wine, spirits, and imported beer - this in the country that makes the best beer in the world, and where you couldn't even buy imported brands 10 years ago. I saw lots of people in bars drinking cocktails, Chilean wine, and Stella Artois - a big change from a few years ago, and what was a nation of massive beer drinkers.

Similarly, there are Chinese, Greek and pizza restaurants everywhere, and Czechs eager to eat in them - you can get most foods in Prague now, except for all that much Czech stuff. Obviously, people are enjoying more disposable income than they have ever had, but it seems a shame that the place is becoming less "Czech", as people indulge a desire to do more "international" things.

One other big difference that I noticed since my last trip, was the number of English speakers, and the standard of English that they spoke - the nation has been at school learning English for much of the last five years! As well as making everything very easy for an English speaker, it is surely helping the country secure international business, and helping the people here advance themselves and improve their standard of living.

The Waterboys - Glastonbury Festival Day Three, Pilton - Sunday 24th June 2007

Glastonbury came to a strange (not to mention premature) end for me. With a flight to catch the following day, I had always had no intention of getting caught in the general slow crush to get off site at the end of the festival - and had intended to be off site by 6pm Sunday. This would have meant missing only bands I'd seen before anyway, and also would have meant the significant bonus of missing the Manic Street Preachers. But it didn't quite work out like that.

My plan was to take the tent down in the morning, lock all my stuff up somewhere, then go to watch bands for the afternoon, before leaving at 6. But, yet another mid-morning rain shower made it impossible to take the tent down for an extra couple of hours, also meaning that I missed sets by The Holloways, The Enemy and The Sunshine Underground. Eventually I managed to pack up, and headed for a property lockup, to keep my stuff until it was time to go.

Unfortunately, there was a full hour-long queue to put things into the lockup, and the prospect of another hour-long wait to get stuff back again later. Being 2pm, and needing to leave at 6pm anyway, the prospect of 2 hours in a queue was not appealing. Neither was the prospect of walking around with several stone in weight on my back. So, with the station transfer buses temptingly just around the corner, I left the site, and headed back to London - on a surprisingly full train. I was home, on hard, non-muddy ground by 6:00.

Before leaving, and whilst waiting to be able to pack my tent away, I did hear The Waterboys play their third set of the festival (after headlining 2 different stages on the Friday and Saturday), this time on the Pyramid Stage. I (like many others II suspect) only really know them for Fisherman's Blues, and The Whole Of The Moon, and I swear there were at least 3 occasions in the set when I thought the former was starting, only for it to be a false alarm. It did get played eventually, towards the end of the set, and jolly good it was too. It turned out to be the last song I heard played at this year's festival.

So, after a massive band marathon on the Friday, my Glastonbury kind of started to fizzle out after Maximo Park on Saturday evening, and eventually ended with a whimper. A great weekend, hampered significantly by the rain and mud. Having been a couple of times before, I knew what to expect from the weather, but it is still a shame the extent to which it dictates the mood and activities of the entire festival - it can turn the site from grass into a quagmire in an hour. I'll definitely aim to go back though, just hoping for less (or no) rain next time!

The Killers, Maximo Park, Pigeon Detectives, Calvin Harris, CSS, The Pipettes - Glastonbury Festival Day Two, Pilton - Saturday 23rd June 2007

After more than enough rain and mud on day one, Saturday morning at Glastonbury saw another heavy 11am shower, again just at the worst time of the day, when everybody was starting to move around the site. So, even though it looked like the mud could not get any worse from Friday, it duly did. To the point where, by Saturday lunchtime, walking around was a real effort, because your feet stuck firm in the mud with every step. Each step felt like a dozen, and getting around was very slow, tiring and difficult.

Over lunchtime and the early afternoon, we took a break from bands to explore some of the other attractions on site, and to get to some of the more outlying areas. A quick glance at some of The Pipettes' set whilst crossing the Pyramid Stage field, actually resulted in seeing almost the whole thing, such was the size of the field, and the time needed to wade through all the mud. Their set was Ok, although the cheesiness of it all did become a bit annoying towards the end. From a male perspective, and apart from a few songs, they are generally more interesting to look at, than to listen to.

After an extensive wander around the site, which included visits to the Lost Vagueness area, Tipi Fields, Avalon Fields, and The Glade, we ended up near the Other Stage, in another rain shower, to watch CSS. Previously, I had only really heard their major single, Let's Make Love, a kind of bad disco tune which I don't really like - so I had low expectations for their set. But, I was pleased to hear that it is not at all representative of what they really sound like - their "normal" sound is much more guitar driven, including an excellent cover of L7's Pretend We're Dead. So, I found myself really enjoying their set, much more than I expected to - a surprise highlight for me.

After CSS, I headed again for the John Peel stage, to get a decent spot for The Pigeon Detectives - which would surely be one of the festival's highlights. Before the Pigeons, Calvin Harris played. The tent was packed with females for his set, which I find tends to be par for the course for any dance-focused act - you get lots of birds emerging to watch them at festivals (just look at the crowd next time Basement Jaxx or Groove Armada play a festival). Calvin Harris's set was excellent, and really got the crowd going - the music was not completely my cup of tea, but I have to admit that the band played an awesome set, which really fired up the audience, and showed how good a dance-indie act like this can be when they play live.

Next up were The Pigeon Detectives. The tent was busier than I saw it all weekend for this set, a real must-see show, with hundreds of people even standing in the swamp outside, trying to catch a glimpse of the band. Their set was incredible - partly just a standard Pigeons set, with the singer jumping around like a madman, getting into the crowd, encouraging singalongs, and doing all he could to fire the audience up into going crazy. But as well as that, there was also an extra special Glastonbury bit of mentalness, with the singer clearly very excited to be playing, and the crowd becoming aware during the set that they were witnessing something special. By the end of the set, the singer couldn't stop jumping into the audience, emerging each time with stolen flags, toys, and other booty. A complete riot of a set, possibly the highlight of the whole weekend, and one that should be a big step on the Pigeon Detectives' route to becoming a massive band. The songs are great, too.

Wallowing back towards the Other Stage in time to catch Maximo Park, unfortunately we arrived in time to catch the last half dozen songs of what seemed like a pathetic Babyshambles set - one of those where you really wonder why he bothers. Apparently Kate Moss had come on stage earlier in the set, and sung a few lines - like anybody is supposed to care. They stumbled their way through Fuck Forever like they just wanted it all to be over, then inexplicably ended the set on the downbeat What Katie Did - with Pete Doherty teasing the crowd about whether that was really the end of the set or not. Pete, you only get to do that if you actually manage to play a decent set.

After the Shambles horrorshow, it was time for Maximo Park - another band (like The Maccabees the previous night) who were at pains to thank the crowd for choosing to watch them, ahead of all the other possible choices. Like, er, Paul Weller. This was a standard Maximo set - averagely brilliant, as former Gooner Thierry Henry (and that news spoilt the fun of Glastonbury somewhat!) has sometimes been described. They played Nosebleed this time, unlike at the Oxford Union last week, and it was brilliant. They should play it every time they play a gig.

By the time Maximo had finished, I was jolly well sick and tired of standing around in, and trying very hard to walk through, mud which ranged between being extremely sticky one minute, and almost liquid the next. With too many band decisions to make (The Kooks, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, or Editors next? The Killers, Iggy & The Stooges, or Hard-Fi as headliners?), I decided to jack it all in, make one last trudge back to the tent, and avoid the issue by listening to bands from there. Being close to the Pyramid Stage, this largely meant listening to the bands that were playing there, with some Other Stage listening when the Pyramid went quiet. So, Saturday night multi-gig commenced!

I got to hear a decent amount of The Kooks, who seemed to be playing their entire album, plus a few new songs, to a very enthusiastic reception indeed. Their set seemed quite short (which would make sense, given that their only album is about 35 minutes long), so when it finished, I got to hear some amazing sounds from the Other Stage, where Editors were playing. In particular, current single Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors sounded immense, and I briefly regretted moving away from the Other Stage.

When the headliners came on, my position meant listening to The Killers. They came on stage playing Sam's Town, with a load of fireworks going off behind the stage. It looked OK, but seemed a but gimmicky and cheesy - given that so many people were there to see them, they really didn't need a cheap stunt like that to win people over. The early stages of the set seemed to see them throwing away most of their decent (i.e. old) songs, with When You Were Young, Mr Brightside, Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine, and Smile Like You Mean It, all coming in quick succession. The sound of 1969 from Iggy on the Other Stage, was making me start yearning for that part of the site even more.

But, if it seemed like The Killers were going to blow it, they seemed to pull it back out of the fire. Some huge versions of some of their more ropey newer songs, seemed to be doing the job - and perhaps showing for the first time that some of the new songs do cut it after all. They kept it going for long enough to get to the obvious finale, which was an absolutely massive version of All These Things That I've Done - which pretty much sent the Pyramid Stage wild. I still don't like all that much of their latest album, and I kind of regretted not staying at the Other Stage - but The Killers pulled it off - just about.

Arctic Monkeys, The Maccabees, Mumm-Ra, Jack Penate, Hold Steady, Good Shoes, - Glastonbury Festival Day One, Pilton - Friday 22nd June 2007

And more bands than can fit into the title of a blog post, it seems! Because as well as those listed above, I also saw all or most of the sets by The New Pornographers, Annuals, The Cribs and The View, as well as a decent amount of (one of) Amy Winehouse's shows. But they just won't all fit into the title. By far the best day of music at the Glastonbury Festival, more decent bands than you can shake a (muddy) stick at.

After waking up with a pear cider hangover, things at Glastonbury were quickly freshened up by a heavy rain shower at about 10am. Just what was needed to start to turn the site into a mudbath, as the rain arrived just before 180,000 people started moving around to watch bands, thereby trampling the water into mud, before it had a chance to soak in or run away. Quite possibly the worst time for a heavy shower of rain, and it set the tone for the rest of the festival.

The first band I went to see were The View, who played a set at around 11:30am on the Pyramid Stage. It was a very standard View set, following the same setlist that they had been playing for the majority of the year so far. This must have been their biggest gig ever, being the first major festival of this summer, and with them being much bigger than they were at last summer’s festivals. Their set was excellent, as usual, and by the time they finished up with the standard Same Jeans and Superstar Tradesman, they had won over a fair few new fans, and got an excellent ovation from the Pyramid Stage.

Next up, we wandered towards the Other Stage, to watch The Cribs – a band I would be unlikely to ever want to go to a headline gig by, but was nevertheless interested to see. Their set was interesting enough, with current single Men’s Needs being an obvious highlight. The singer did talk an awful lot of rubbish in between songs, making me wish that he would just shut up and concentrate on playing music.

Towards the end of The Cribs’ set, the heavens opened again for a 30-minute monsoon. This had the effect of turning the remaining grass in the festival site, into a nice shallow layer of brown muddy water – excellent! I therefore changed some of my plans for the day, and decided to watch some bands from inside nice dry tents, instead of outside in muddy fields.

So, it was off to the John Peel stage, which is handily housed in a tent, and also features some of the better up-and-coming bands that the festival has to offer. I was going to spend a large part of the day here anyway, watching people like The Hold Steady, Jack Penate and The Maccabees - but the mud situation just made the decision all the easier. First band I saw there were Annuals, who played an atmospheric set, which was heavy on long instrumental sections in the songs, so it reminded me somewhat of bands like Mogwai, Mew, and Sigur Ros. Not bad at all, but not very high on mainstream appeal at the same time.

After Annuals came one of the highlights of the festival for me - Good Shoes. Another brief downpour just before their set, forced lots of people into the tent - so it was a good sized crowd. The band absolutely ripped through an awesome 40-minute set which really won over a lot of first-timers. I have been listening to their album heavily over the last few weeks, so this set was ideally-timed to cement my love for this band. Halfway through the set, a group of people carrying a big flag saying "Morden", worked their way towards the front of the audience - just in time for the singer to dedicate the song Morden to them. They finished off with a riotous version of All In My Head, which had the by now full tent dancing. A great set, and one of the definite highlights of the festival - if there is any justice, Good Shoes will be big.

After Good Shoes, I took advantage of a rain break to get back through the mud to my tent - and to pick up some more waterproof clothes! Whilst trekking back and forth, I managed to catch a decent amount of Amy Winehouse's set on the Pyramid Stage. This had a pretty big crowd, as it was understandably one of the big draws of the festival - especially in mid afternoon. Her voice sounded amazing, and the few songs that I heard sounded very good indeed. Again, I would probably never go and see an Amy Winehouse gig, but it was great to hear a bit of one of her live performances. She is very good, but just not my cup of tea.

After the change of clothing, it was back to the John Peel tent for a succession of decent bands - The Hold Steady, Jack Penate, Mumm-Ra and The Maccabees. But before all that, I caught the set by a Canadian band called The New Pornographers. This was strangely good, but a bit weird, and I couldn't put my finger on exactly why. Some of the songs seemed to build up and up forever, whilst others were much punchier and more concise. Not a bad band, their set was certainly an agreeable way to pass 45 minutes or so.

Passing that 45 minutes or so brought us to the Hold Steady, a band I had really been looking forward to seeing - again thanks to some heavy listening to their album recently. Their set was fantastic I thought, mostly drawn from the current album, but with a few older songs as well. The band engaged with the crowd (amongst which there was a real hardcore of massive Hold Steady fans) really well, and were one of many bands I saw over the weekend, that just seemed really excited and pleased to be playing at Glastonbury. During their set, the singer kept shouting, off mic, "this is amazing", and kept saying so on mic as well. A really good set, although you probably needed a couple of beers inside you to really appreciate it fully. The NME also seem to have noticed them now, although in this review of their set, they got the setlist utterly and hopelessly wrong.

After The Hold Steady came Jack Penate, who I have been watching and raving about quite a bit lately - starting at the Camden Crawl in April. He played a standard set, and by that I mean a normally excellent set, to a very appreciative audience. There was one surprise, a cover of Beats International's 1990 number one, Just Be Good To Me, which got a huge reception. He played more covers at a different set later in the evening, but this was a classic Penate set, culminating in a riotous version of current single Torn On The Platform, which prompted a mass singalong.

After the highs of The Hold Steady and Jack Penate's sets, and the anticipation of The Maccabees set to come, it was hard to get up for the Mumm-Ra set that happened in between them. I watched all of it, and kept thinking that at their best, Mumm-Ra are an excellent live band. Their best songs really get a venue rocking, and sound absolutely fantastic. But the problem is that there are not enough of the really good songs in their repertoire. If all sets were 4 songs long, Mumm-Ra would play amongst the best you could see. But I don't think they have the depth of good songs to play a great set for an hour or so, so this was a mixed gig for me.

No such problems for The Maccabees, who were on the John Peel stage after this - one down from the headliners for the day. They were incredibly humble, reminding the audience that they could have been watching two of the best live bands in the world at the time (Kasabian and Arcade Fire), repeatedly thanking the crowd for choosing to watch them, and being generally amazed that so many had turned out to see them. I was glad I did (even though it meant missing both Kasabian and Arcade Fire), because it was much, much easier to get up close to the band than it would have been on the bigger stages, and because their set was brilliant from start to finish.

Of course, in a 45-minute set, the band played almost every song from their debut album, with Felix the guitarist providing excellent backing vocals, and getting involved in some great banter with the audience. There was an excellent early version of Latchmere, and a version of Precious Time which prompted a mass crowd singalong. Finishing up with First Love and Lego, this was a triumphant set which, although it won't get the headlines that Kasabian or Arcade Fire will get, it was a pleasure to have seen.

And so to the headliners. The choice was Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Hot Chip, and of course over a dozen other acts on other stages. I plumped for the Arctic Monkeys on the Pyramid Stage, and have to say that it was disappointing. Although all the obvious reviews will say that it was an amazing, triumphant set, I was left thinking that it was a flat, disappointing set. Alex Turner in particular seemed moody and in a hurry just to play the songs and get off stage, the sound was not great, and I think that this set will be looked back on as the moment where the Arctic Monkeys lost it. Headlining Glastonbury is a huge achievement in a short career, but I think it may be the beginning of the end of their massive popularity.

So that was the first day of Glastonbury. Ten bands seen, several rain showers caught in, and several more avoided, and much mud waded through. This was the best day of the festival in terms of the lineup, but plenty more good fun to come, for sure.

Fortune Drive, The Blood Arm, Ox Eagle Lion Man - Glastonbury Festival Day Zero, Pilton - Thursday 21st June 2007

The fun of Glastonbury started early on Thursday, with the long trek from North London to Somerset. It actually all worked out pretty well, given the number of people wanting to all move in the same direction at the same time. We arrived at the station just after 10am, and were sat down on a moving train just after 11am. The train trundled through the countryside, and along more single-line track than I thought still existed in the UK. Eventually, we arrived at Castle Cary station, got on a bus, drove for a bit, then walked for a bit until we found base camp at around 2:30pm – which was close to the Pyramid Stage.

With rain (and therefore lots of mud) forecast for the weekend, everybody had a pair of (invariably green) wellies in preparation. But, the weather for the past few days had been dry, which meant green fields, lots of grass, and no mud – initially at least. We set off to explore the site, and immediately noticed how busy it was at such an early stage – on previous visits here, people tended to arrive late on Thursday, or even later than that. This time, the site was pretty full by the middle of Thursday afternoon, with lots of people wandering around.

First up was a quick visit to the Queens Head pub (which is of course not a real pub, but a big tent). They were advertising bands throughout the afternoon and evening (and some pretty big name bands through the rest of the festival, too). However, when we got there, they were suffering from a power cut. That meant no beer, and no bands either, so we made a quick exit elsewhere, in search of a bar which could actually serve some drinks.

We quickly found it in the Leftfield area, where there was a lovely big bar, with electricity available to help pour alcohol. There were also two stages on which bands were playing – an excellent arrangement, because it meant that there was a band on pretty much all the time. Whilst one stage had a band on, the other was being set up, so the changeover was almost immediate.

So, the first band I saw during the festival was Ox Eagle Lion Man, who I had seen a couple of months ago at the Camden Crawl. I had thought they were OK then, but that was only in a very small bar in the early evening. This time I was not as impressed – the singer seemed to specialise in being very out of tune (I thought it must have been deliberate, it is difficult to sing that badly without trying especially to do it), and also in making pathetic jokes in between songs, that even schoolkids would be ashamed to have made. They only played for 25 minutes or so, but even at the end of such a short set, it was getting pretty tedious.

Luckily the next band, The Blood Arm, were much, much better. They seemed really excited to be playing at the festival, and their set was generally excellent. They had a great mix of loud, grinding guitars, playing catchy tunes, and topped off by some very good lyrics and vocals. I recognised a couple of their songs, and by contrast with the previous band, their 40-minute set was far too short – in fact, lots of people were not happy when it ended.

Finally for this warm-up day, Fortune Drive played a brief set. I had seen them supporting Little Man Tate about a year ago, and been fairly impressed then. This time, they were even better than I remembered them – some excellent songs, played with real energy and enthusiasm, and a brilliant frontman to hold it all together. I remembered their single, catchily called My Girlfriend Is An Arsonist, and as a local Bristol band, they had a good crowd at the front of the stage, supporting them. A very impressive set, and a few of my friends were also sold on them for the first time.

That was all for my band watching on this pre-festival day. The bands carried on in the Leftfield (and probably re-started in the Queens Head, when they got the electricity back). We continued our wander around the festival site, and shortly afterwards, we ran into the pear cider stall. The day then all went downhill fairly rapidly from there!!

Pearl Jam, Idlewild - Wembley Arena, London - Monday 18th June 2007

Since about 1993, I had really wanted to see Pearl Jam play live - they were one of my favourite bands back then, and despite paying very little attention to their output over the last 10 years, I jumped straight in when they announced this single UK date earlier in the year. They headlined the Reading Festival last year and sounded fantastic on TV, so I had high hopes for this show. Shame that it was at Wembley Arena though, I had kind of had enough of the North London industrial estate after Saturday's Muse gig. Wembley Arena is a horrible, soulless venue that I hadn't visited for almost five years, such is my hatred for it - but given that Pearl Jam's last proper gig in the UK was 7 years ago, you kind of have to be flexible when they come to town.

Support came from Idlewild, who played an excellent half-hour set to an utterly disinterested audience. The venue was half empty, and very, very few of the people that were there, seemed to know anything about the band that was playing in front of them. A real shame, because I thought Idlewild actually played one of the best sets I've seen from them for a while. There were some songs from their new album Make Another World, but a good sprinkling of good older songs, and they definitely seemed to be operating at the "rock", rather than the "REM" end of the spectrum that they tend to work along. It was just a shame that the Pearl Jam hardcore were not the slightest bit interested, maybe their long hair was stuck in their ears.

Pearl Jam played a 2-hour set, including 2 encores, that was technically very good - the guitars, and Eddie Vedder's voice were generally excellent. Having said that, I was a bit disappointed with the songs they played - very little early stuff, and a set drawn almost entirely from newer songs that I have not been paying attention for. I have no shame in admitting that I was there to hear (at least some) songs from Ten and Vs, their first 2 albums, so was a bit disappointed that there were next to none on offer. Especially when our European friends got this set a few days beforehand, and London got this one. And especially since they play in the UK so rarely.

During the set, there were some excellent rock cliches on display, which almost made up for the lack of classic old songs. There was a double-necked guitar; a guitar being played behind the back of the head; 2 guitarists adopting a "face-off" position; a wide-legged pose when playing guitar (like Slayer or Metallica might adopt); and of course, the crowd cheering whenever Eddie Vedder said a rude word. All very rock and roll, and more than a bit sad. You thankfully don't get too much of that nonsense if you listen to indie music.

Overall, seeing Pearl Jam was something that I had wanted to do for a long time, like seeing the Rolling Stones or The Who. I have now seen all three of those bands, and ticked the boxes, but am unlikely to be rushing back next time. They were good, but having finally seen them once, I have no desperate need to ever do so again.

Work trip to Oslo, Norway - 17th to 18th June 2007

Less than 24 hours spent in Oslo for a client meeting, and my first trip to Norway. Being the middle of June, and close to the longest day, I landed at 11pm to find it still pretty light outside, although it had got at least a bit darker by the time I reached my hotel an hour later. A £90 cab ride between airport and hotel (OK, it was a fair distance, but not that far!), reminded me abruptly that Scandinavia is expensive! However, thanks to the fact that it is also pretty advanced, I managed to get through the whole trip without seeing any Norwegian Krone - everywhere took cards, which meant I had absolutely no idea how much money I was spending!

The following day I had a few meetings, then came home. It was a beautiful day in Oslo, the summer sunshine was everywhere, making everything surprisingly warm. I was pleasantly surprised by how green and attractive much of Oslo is, with plenty of waterfront, lots of trees, and not far to go until you hit countryside. The centre of the city looks nice as well - much cleaner than places like London or Paris, and with lots of attractive squares. Having a small population, there will never be as much going on here as in the bigger European capitals, but there aren't many places where you can live in a capital city, yet drive for 10 minutes and be in the countryside. Maybe they don't have it too bad there after all.

Muse, The Streets, Dirty Pretty Things, Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Wembley Stadium, London - Saturday 16th June 2007

From a gig yesterday in front of 150 people, to one in front of around 70,000 today - a slightly different kettle of fish, it is fair to say. This was also my first visit to the new Wembley, amid tales of £5 pies, £8 burgers (it sounds like a slightly more expensive version of the Emirates Stadium), and of course after a year's delay in opening the place to begin with. Along with it also came all the stuff you expect from stadium gigs - general lowest common denominator nonsense that comes from hosting lots of occasional gig-goers, for whom this is the big day out of the summer. That means Zane Lowe playing music in between bands - he is from Radio One you know!

The rain cleared off in the middle of the afternoon, in time for the bands starting. First band on were Rodrigo Y Gabriela, a (male and female) pair of Mexicans who play with just 2 acoustic guitars. Given this, they make a very interesting noise, based obviously around a "Spanish" guitar sound. One plays proper guitar stuff, whilst the other uses her guitar to provide beats, bass, and general rhythm to the songs. Comparisons with the White Stripes would be obvious, and justified in that these are 2 musicians who specialise in using their instruments very creatively. Very interesting, but the sound they were making was little more than background noise in this kind of setting - a shame, because I'm sure in a smaller venue (or just one with a roof), they would be interesting to go and see.

Next up were Dirty Pretty Things, who I saw a couple of times last year, but haven't encountered since about this time last summer. They played an energetic set, but one which also never really hit the heights for me. I know that being in a stadium is not the ideal setting for a band like DPT, but they and their sound just seemed to be getting lost in the hugeness of the venue. They did play a couple of newer songs, which sounded promising, but the set for me had an air of a rent-a-band appearance, without them really seeming to put all that much into it. Clearly a band that are much better in a smaller venue - I didn't enjoy this set, but blame the venue as much as the band for that.

Finally, main support act were The Streets. They most certainly were capable of pulling off a show in a stadium this size, they played a fantastic hour-long set, which really got the crowd going. Including the majority of their singles, and a pleasing number of songs from their debut album, the live band were excellent, and Mike Skinner did a great job of engaging with the audience, making them laugh, and getting people excited about what was coming later. They initially seemed to be trying to win the Muse crowd over, possibly aware that not everybody would necessarily have been huge Streets fans. But they seemed to succeed in that task very quickly, and milked it from there on.

A highlight of The Streets' set was the constant banter from Mike Skinner about Freddie Mercury playing at Wembley Stadium, especially the over-the-top audience hand-clapping for Radio Ga Ga. He seemed to be taking the piss out of the whole venue, and of stadium rock pomposity and cheesiness. Which was very amusing, and went down very well. Lots of his banter and one-liners were very funny - this was a brilliant set, and a real bonus to see this on the support bill for a gig I was already going to anyway. The NME were also quick to report what happened in the set.

For all of the support bands, the stadium had been weirdly empty, or emptier than expected at any rate. I think the new trend of selling specific reserved seats for these gigs, instead of just unreserved seating, must encourage people to show up later, safe in the knowledge that their seat is safely waiting for them. But it must be annoying for even a main support band at a gig like that, to be playing to a half-empty stadium.

So, Muse finally arrived just after half past eight, appearing on a small tower in the middle of the pitch, then walking to the stage. Getting the crowd jumping immediately with Knights of Cydonia, they made a lot of noise - like the White Stripes with two people, their sound is a very big, powerful and impressive sound for three people to be making. Over the next 2 hours, they played a set which delighted the crowd, but left me thinking that it was all a bit routine - sure, the biggest gig of their career, and all the big riffs were present and correct, but all in all a very standard and theatrical Muse gig.

I am not the biggest Muse fan in the world - I have been aware of them for their whole career, saw them live a couple of times (but a few years ago now), know several of their songs, see them all over music TV channels, and hear them all the time on radio stations like XFM. But I don't really "get" why people like them so much. And I certainly don't get how a band like that can sell out Wembley Stadium twice - I never thought that this many people had heard of them, let alone liked them or were interested in going to see them. Some of their songs are OK, some are good even, but it is just fairly standard (if very loud and powerful) stadium rock music.

The gig was good, and all of the reports will obviously talk about how Muse triumphed, and reigned supreme over Wembley Stadium for 2 nights, but it all seemed a bit strange to me - just seeing how many people like them, and sort of wondering why.

Maximo Park - Oxford Union Debating Hall, Oxford - Friday 15th June 2007

Another one of those gigs that it is a complete and utter privilege to have attended. Around 150 lucky people got to see Maximo Park play a full live set, in the Oxford Union's main debating hall. An ancient building, with a long and distinguished history as the headquarters of "the last bastion of free speech", according to Harold Macmillan - Maximo Park became the first band ever to play a gig there. Five former British Prime Ministers (and Boris Johnson) have been president of the Oxford Union, and there are busts of them all around the small hall (read more here if you want to), so it was very surreal indeed to be standing there before the gig, waiting for a rock band to walk onto a stage there.

Being a gig that was "staged" for TV, there was no support band, instead a number of TV crews running around the place, sound checking, getting cameras into position, and telling members of the audience where to stand. Then, at around 8pm, we were all ushered into the building, and five minutes later, Maximo Park walked on stage.

Their set was drawn largely from the new album, presumably to showcase as much of it as possible on TV, although there were a pleasing few songs from the debut album as well. The small, musty-smelling room quickly became very hot indeed, which resulted in Paul Smith progressively shedding clothing as the set went on. Standing towards the back of the room, it was a very strange sight to see the ancient interior of the Oxford Union all around me, but a very loud band playing on a stage in front of me, and 150 or so people dancing and moshing furiously as well. Some things just aren't meant to be seen in the same place!

Upsettingly missing out Nosebleed from their set, Maximo finished up with Limassol, then returned for an encore - which saw Going Missing finally bring this unique, amazing, but ever so slightly surreal gig to a close. They do this kind of thing really, really well - every time I see Maximo, I never fail to think what an amazing live band they are. In fact, if there is a better live band around in the UK at the moment, I would love to know who they are.

Ash, The Films - Proud Galleries, London - Friday 8th June 2007

This was a night at Year Zero Club, held at Proud Galleries in Camden. They have been running what they call the "Secret Series", with big bands playing in small rooms, announced only a couple of days before. I had wanted to see support band The Films anyway, so when they announced Ash as the big secret headliner, that definitely convinced me to go along. At door opening time, it was actually surprisingly easy to queue up and pay the £8 to get it - I had expected it to be much more busy.

Once inside, the strange-ness of the venue became apparent. There is a very small room where the bands play, holding no more than perhaps 200 people. Through it, there is a huge marquee which had a bar, and lots of tables and chairs. Then, there is a huge roof terrace with more tables and chairs. So, the total capacity is probably over a thousand, of whom no more than 20% can actually watch the band. Luckily, the venue is usually full of music industry people, who have varying interest in watching the bands that are performing anyway.

Through a friend, we managed to secure wristbands for the VIP area, which guaranteed entry to the gig room, and allowed us to wander around freely throughout the venue. This included the upstairs VIP bar, where Chris Martin from Coldplay, and Edith Bowman from Radio 1, amongst others, were drinking. A-list (in the first case at least) celebrities.

The Films played a reasonably short, snappy set as support band. They went through much of their debut album, which isn't released here yet, but which the lucky Americans have already been able to get hold of. Luckily, the internet is a wonderful thing, so many of the songs were vaguely familiar to me already. They sounded excellent, and I suspect that, if they get some good music press coverage behind them (which they deserve I think), they could be one of those US bands that comes over to Britain and makes it big. Playing their strongest songs Belt Loops and Black Shoes towards the end of the set, probably helped it live longer in the memory, but it was a very impressive set all in all - I will try to catch them next time they play in this neck of the woods.

The layout of the gig room at Proud did mean that it wasn't easy to see what was going on - the band essentially just played on the floor at the front of the room, rather than on a raised stage. The lighting was also appalling (non-existent in fact), hence there are no photos of this one. I bumped into the Films lead singer in the upstairs bar afterwards, and drunkenly annoyed him with my view of how good I thought his band were. Whoops.

Ash's headline set was a warmup for their Isle of Wight Festival slot the following day, so as expected, it was drawn largely from the million or so excellent singles in their back catalogue. It really is amazing to be reminded of just how many amazing singles they have, and they kept flowing throughout the set, which lasted just over an hour. The start of Kung Fu and Girl From Mars caused near stampedes at the bar and in the toilets, as people quit what they were doing, and ran towards the gig room. The quick-slow-quick arrangement of Kung Fu in particular, made the small room look like a riot was going on. When you are drunk, they are a great band to be playing in front of you - lots of fantastic indie pop songs to dance to.

So a great set, and I wandered off into the night a happy man. I wasn't happy for the following five days though, as a dodgy kebab from the Marathon kebab house on Chalk Farm Road, saw me laid up with a severe dose of food poisoning for the best part of the following week. That forced the missing of Kent playing cricket in Tunbridge Wells, Seven Story Down at The Fly, and Art Brut at the Astoria. Most annoying, but there you go.

Trip to Paris, France - 5th to 7th June 2007

It was very nice to get a chance to go to Paris again, without having to do any work this time. There seemed to be dozens of my colleagues in Paris anyway at the same time, for a whole range of international meetings, but I snubbed them all and got on with doing some of the nicer things that Paris has to offer. The weather was a huge blessing, three lovely hot days which really make you realise why Paris In The Springtime is written about as being so good. In fact, given the amount of walking that you tend to do when on a mission to do things in the city, it was also a good chance to get something of a tan.

I tried to concentrate on doing some things that I'd never done or seen in Paris before, hence a walk alongside this canal, which runs right in the city, but that you might associate more with Amsterdam than Paris. It was lovely for the most part, although I now know where the Albanian beggars of Paris live - they seem to live in tents that are pitched beside the canal, at its less salubrious end.

Also on the agenda during the trip was a journey on the RER, out to Versailles, for a look at the chateau and gardens. Sadly, much of the front of the chateau itself was covered in scaffolding, and a good proportion of the front yard was also being resurfaced and rebuilt. However, despite not looking its absolute best, it is still very easy to see how impressive the front of the chateau is. The back is also impressive, with gardens stretching literally for miles, in fact as far as you can see. I came here about 18 months ago for a look around, and saw the blingness of the inside of the house - as it was a lovely day this time, we didn't bother with the house, and wandered around in the gardens instead - very nice indeed.

As well as all this, I of course did much of the usual Paris stuff too, including a very nice wander around the Latin quarter, and the drinking of some horribly expensive Parisian beers. But, this was an unusual trip from a number of angles, especially because many of the stereotypes of a Paris trip were not true. The toilets I encountered were clean to the highest standard - this is most certainly not usual. Taking pot luck on a hotel in Paris is always a bit risky, they are sometimes ropey unless you pay big money - we got lucky this time. But more than all that, the food is usually fantastic, but we didn't have a particularly top experience this time. Some good food, but some duff food too, and it was mostly about average - taking your chances with places you stumble across is always going to be a risk, but it was an experience at odds with previous times in Paris, where the food is usually the highlight of the trip. Oh well, there's always next time, and it was a great few days off, whilst all my colleagues were hard at work in the office there.