Kylie - The O2, London - Tuesday 29th July 2008

Now, I would never normally go to see Kylie, but this was a free corporate jolly. A nice feed beforehand, free tickets and drinks, and a great view of the show - who am I to complain? Wearing a suit to a concert was a slightly strange price to pay for the experience, but there we go.

On arriving at the O2, I was struck immediately by how well the old Millennium Dome has been redeveloped. A tube station right next door is obviously still a winner, but when you enter the dome itself, there are shops, bars and restaurants, then what looks like a huge stadium, built right in the middle of the dome. In fact, the O2 would put most big concert hall or arena buildings to shame, but the fact that it is built entirely inside another building, just makes the scale of the whole thing seem much more impressive.

Because of the free food and drink, we were slightly late into the venue, and Kylie was already on stage. There seemed to be the obvious audience of women, families, and gay men there, and I walked into the arena to be greeted by the middle of a huge dance routine, with the world's supply of stage lighting, and some pretty extravagant costumes. That set the tone for the whole evening.

I guess that Kylie is one of those acts that surprises you as to how many of the songs you know - if you have had your ears open for the last 20 years, you can't fail to know quite a few. This show featured lots of hits, and there were lots more than could have been played but were omitted. Musically, I thought it all sounded very "polished" - but that could have been because there were so many backing singers and musicians, that I suspected the real star of the show musically was the person in the mixing desk that put it all together.

Which leads onto the main point about a Kylie show - the music is only a very small part of it. It seemed to be as much about the dancing, stage lighting, and costume changes as anything else. Definitely more like a "West End" show than a "gig" - there was even an interval for 15 minutes in the middle. An interesting experience, and definitely a good opportunity to visit a very impressive venue, but I certainly wouldn't pay to watch that show again. Not bad, but not my thing - but then I knew that before I went!

Ash, The Lemonheads, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Slow Club, Fight Like Apes - Clapham Common, London - Sunday 27th July 2008

After a day in the sunshine at the cricket on Saturday, came a day in the sunshine at a "festival" on Sunday. This was a "festival" organised by Ben & Jerry's, and the scorching weather ensured that the tickets (Face value: £8.75) were going for upwards of £35 from the touts outside. All Ben & Jerry's ice cream was free, all day, which made for a fantastic day in the sunshine. It also had the bonus of featuring Ash and The Lemonheads, a piece of news which prompted celebrations when I first discovered it.

After getting into the arena and getting something to eat, I settled down with a beer in the sun, to listen to the bands on offer. First of these was Fight Like Apes, an Irish band who played punky poppy songs. With Ash headlining, I can see why they were on the bill, as there were definitely similarities. Their lyrics were somewhat childish at times, and there were some very bad rhymes on show, but a few of the songs sounded quite good. I wouldn't go out of my way to see them again, but they passed the time very well.

Next on were Slow Club, who sounded ideal for the occasion. Slow songs, a bit folk-y in influence, which won over the crowd near the stage almost immediately. Not that many people would have heard of them before the day, so the fact that they converted the audience so quickly and comprehensively is probably a reflection of how accessible their music was. They were very laid back, and as I say, perfect for the circumstances.

Following Slow Club was a rather short (or at least it seemed that way) set from Get Cape Wear Cape Fly. He obviously was slightly better known, but still did an excellent job of converting those that had never heard of him. Much of his set was taken from his first album, and it all sounded very good indeed. He seems to play lots of smaller festivals, and having missed him at both Glastonbury and Wireless, I was really glad to see him here. He has a good number of really strong songs, which sound good on the first listen, so perfect to win over a crowd like this.

Then, onto the "very special guests", The Lemonheads. I last saw them in Chicago last December, and was (again) blown away by how good they were. This time, Evan Dando appeared on stage wearing a very nice Stooges t-shirt, tuned his guitar in, and started playing Rockin Stroll. This was followed immediately by Confetti, and it became apparent that the set was going to start with the whole of Its A Shame About Ray, played in order. An excellent thing, and the rendition of the album was very good, albeit with longer gaps between the songs than the Lemonheads usually have. This took away from the intensity a little - as their sets often sound better when they crash straight from one song into another.

After Its A Shame About Ray, the band were joined by John Perry, from The Only Ones. He played with them for the rest of the set, adding an extra guitar to their sound. The rest of the set featured (among other things) The Outdoor Type, No Backbone, The Great Big NO, Tenderfoot, Down About It, and a very drawn out and improvised version of Style. They ended on a song from their forthcoming album, a cover of Gram Parsons' Just Can't Take It Anymore. A very good set all in all, although it was definitely played at a very leisurely pace, and the guitars sounded much less scuzzy than they sometimes do - which made the set a little less exciting for me. Always a pleasure to see Mr Dando though, an utter genius if ever there was one.

Headliners for the day, appearing on stage at a very tame 6:45pm, were Ash. They carried on the theme of playing music that it is great to listen to whilst standing in blazing sunshine, drinking beer. Theirs was a greatest hits set as usual, and all of the mid-90s classics were present and correct - Kung Fu, Girl From Mars, Oh Yeah, and I could go on for longer! Always when you see Ash play to an audience like this, it reminds me of just how many great indie pop singles they have made. They are an fantastic festival band, having so many songs that people know - the target audience for most festivals is of the age where they know half of Ash's set, so they always go down really well. A no-nonsense set, a short encore, and the event was all wrapped up by 8pm - how very civilised.

Kent vs Essex, Durham vs Middlesex, Middlesex vs Kent - Twenty20 Finals Day, Rose Bowl, Southampton - Saturday 26th July 2008

For the second year in a row, Kent qualified for Twenty20 finals day, which is usually a televisual spectacular - featuring cricket, mascot races, and assorted other nonsense. A long day out, but not helped by the hassle of getting to and from the Rose Bowl. Relying on shuttle buses to and from the station, and train delays on the line from Waterloo, all made for a long, inconvenient journey there and back - and the late finish meant concerns about being able to get back to London before the trains stopped.

On arrival at the Rose Bowl (at about the start of play), there was a most annoying 40 minute queue to get into one of the 2 entrances to the ground - meaning that we missed the first 6 or 7 overs of the first game. For a ground that aspires to be a test cricket ground, they were not very good at all at coping with crowds, and the facilities in general were nothing to write home about. Distinctly underwhelming, and the queue to get in was ridiculous.

The first game was Kent vs Essex, the latter of whom seemed to be supported mainly by people in fancy dress. Kent raced up to 50-0 after the first 5 overs, but stuttered shortly afterwards when they lost both openers in quick succession. The next few batsmen kept the score going nicely - with all of the Kent batsmen getting into double figures and keeping things moving quickly. Bopara did pretty well with the ball for Essex, taking 3 wickets and generally annoying Kent's middle order. Kent's innings yielded 173 - not a bad total, especially on a pitch that didn't look all that friendly to batsmen.

In reply, Essex raced pretty quickly to 78 for no wicket. When the first wicket fell, in came Graham Napier, a player that the Essex fans had been talking about endlessly. So, when he departed quickly afterwards, having scored 3 runs off 5 balls, it was a huge wicket for Kent. His 6 hitting had become legendary this season, but all of it was at Chelmsford, with its short boundaries. He never got going in this innings, and was dismissed by a quite fantastic catch from Rob Key. As the Essex innings progressed, Kent's tightness in the field really started to show through. The score stayed close until the very end, when Yasir Arafat in particular came back to display some fantastically tight bowling, strangling the Essex batsmen. A very well worked win, which put Kent into the final and the Champions League (hopefully).

After this first semi final, we were treated to an hour's break, where the mascot derby happened. The stands emptied except for the kids at the front, and most left in the stands were just wishing that they would get on with the cricket. But, this is all for TV, and so we were treated to the enforced fun of the mascot race. The race itself was a bit fixed, with one group of mascots starting about 20 seconds before the other - so it was no surprise when one of the mascots in the first group won the race. Ridiculous.

The second semi final was Durham vs Middlesex. Durham batted first, and in truth, they never really looked like posting a decent total. Phil Mustard was useful at the beginning, but once he had gone, Collingwood and Chanderpaul in particular were just scoring far, far too slowly. The Durham fans seemed exasperated at the slowness of Chanderpaul in particular, who seemed to be trying to play a sensible test innings. 138 never looked like it would be anywhere near enough, and Middlesex hit the total off with ease, with 8 wickets and 26 balls to spare. Tyron Henderson was the star of their innings, hitting 7 sixes, and generally the Middlesex batsmen hit Steve Harmison's blowing all over the place.

So, the second semi final finished about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. Annoyingly, instead of bringing everything forward by those 15 minutes, to give people a chance of getting home at a decent hour, they just treated us to 15 minutes more crap instead. In this case, a "mascot dance off". A total waste of time, and something that really left many of the crowd completely bored, waiting for the final. It may be good on TV, but it really does break up the experience if you are in the ground on the day.

So eventually, with lots of fireworks, the teams for the final came out, and the game started. Middlesex batted first, and put up the biggest score of the day so far. Owais Shah was the star of the show, with a fantastic 75. Kent were again quite tight in the field, but their bowling seemed to lack something this time around - or maybe it was just that the Middlesex batsmen were on a mission. Either way, Kent struggled to contain the batsmen, and were left chasing 188 to win.

Things were as close as can be - Denly and Key put on over 80 for the first wicket, before they both fell in quick succession, and Arafat joined them soon afterwards. The rest of the innings was largely left to Justin Kemp and Darren Stevens to carve out a partnership, which kept Kent in the game until the very end. Needing 16 off the last over was always tough but do-able, and the final over started well. Needing 4 from the last 2 balls got the Kent crowd excited, which made the failure to get it a rather heartbreaking anticlimax for a Kent fan. A really exciting final, which was a fantastic advert for Twenty20 - if only that final boundary had been possible.

So, it was left only to fight our way out of the Rose Bowl, onto the shuttle buses, and onto the train back to London. When I got back to London, at just gone midnight, I got a text from the carpark at the Rose Bowl, where people were still waiting to get out - ridiculous. A good day's cricket, at a very average venue, but with too much timewasting around the cricket itself. At the end, we were just one boundary away from an excellent day all round.

Work trip to Madrid, Spain - 16th to 17th July 2008

I spent just over 24 hours in a sunny Madrid, for a few meetings in the office there. Flying out from City Airport in the morning, I got to sample the huge new departure lounge there - with comfy armchairs, plasma screens with Sky Sports News, and everything that you'd normally expect to see in an executive lounge. Apart from the food and drink, which was excruciatingly expensive, and not at all very good. A flight (which seemed to take ages, because of the small and therefore quite slow plane) later, and I had swapped cloudy London for very sunny Madrid. 30 degrees in the shade by mid afternoon - quite a change.

Spending the evening in Madrid, I wandered the streets of the city centre near my hotel, to get a feel for the place (and to find something nice to eat). Walking along the main roads, they seemed to be absolutely full of banks, which of course were closed - maybe it was just the part of town I was in, but there wasn't much life (apart from lots of traffic) on the main roads. It was in the backstreets that all the action was to be found, with bars and restaurants galore in the secondary streets. I found a promising looking restaurant, and settled in. One advantage of Spain is that the colonial food is South American - with kilos of meat all round. So, dinner was a huge kebab on a hanging skewer, for about 10 Euros. Then on the wander home, I was forced to stop for some cold beer to wash it down with.

Pleasingly, I managed to get my meetings finished early the following day, so I got a bit of a chance to walk around and see some stuff. My office is 2 minutes from the Prado, less than 5 minutes from Parque Retiro, and almost next to the Madrid Stock Exchange - a really great location. Walking around the city, I was struck by how massive some of the roads are. I know they are called "Gran Via", but some of the tree lined boulevards are absolutely huge. They even put the big boulevards in Paris to shame - with lots of big roundabouts and squares with arches, fountains, and all sorts of other spectacular stuff around as well. All in all, it makes Madrid seem like a grand and important city - and one that I thoroughly enjoyed a walk around in the sunshine.

After the walk, I took a Metro ride back out to the new Terminal 4 of the airport, a majestic and spectacular building, with an equally fantastic twin on the other side of the runway. It is only one terminal, but it is effectively a separate airport, on a site near to the "other" Barajas airport. It is so big that it can take a while to get through the place, but the sweeping, corrugated roof makes it a great place to spend time. And the executive lounges is one of the blingest in Europe, with excessive amounts of premium spirits on hand to pass the time until the flight leaves. A really enjoyable trip to Madrid - need to go back for a few days off if possible.

Cajun Dance Party, The Video Nasties - Bloomsbury Ballroom, London - Tuesday 15th July 2008

My first chance to see the excellent Cajun Dance Party live, after having liked everything they have released so far. They don't seem to play many gigs at all, due until recently to the fact that they were all still at school. So, a rare gig, and it made the choice of venue even stranger - Bloomsbury Ballroom is not a venue that is very well cut out for a rock gig. As well as a massive queue to get in - because they insisted on a full search of everybody, then didn't hire enough security to allow the queue to move - the venue is a weird place to get around, with thick carpets in parts, and a main room that is very long and thin.

Not surprisingly given the band's ages, and the fact that this was a 14+ show, the audience was generally VERY young. At the bar, lots of people were ordering cans of Coke, a bargain at £2 a throw! The people in the audience that weren't under 18 seemed to be industry types, and there were lots of people stood at the back looking thoughtful during the headline set.

The support band for the evening were the Video Nasties - also pretty young, and like Cajun Dance Party, also from North London. I had seen them a couple of years ago and been quite impressed with the noise they made. This time I was a little less impressed - the music sounded very good, but I thought that the vocals were pretty awful. When the singer was singing, it wasn't great, but during the instrumental bits, they sounded excellent. Their set ended with a long instrumental that sounded brilliant, and definitely grabbed attention whilst you were listening to it.

By the time Cajun Dance Party came on stage, it was very nearly 10.20pm, probably as a result of the venue being a bit rubbish as opposed to anything else. Their set was of course drawn mostly from their album, and it sounded very good indeed. The band were very tight, with an excellent lead guitarist. In fact, they were so tight that they sounded almost exactly as they do on their album - very polished indeed, but maybe lacking something different in the live show. Having said that, I really enjoyed their set (especially the amazing Amylase), so it is perhaps slightly unfair to find fault with what was an excellent set from an excellent band.

Cajun Dance Party, like fellow North London band Bombay Bicycle Club, are one of those bands where it is mystifying how everybody hasn't heard of them. Their songs are catchy, poppy indie tunes, with good guitar hooks and lyrics - really classic indie in the early 90s mould. Amazing that they aren't selling out venues all over the country, but I suspect that in the case of this band, they soon might be.

Morrissey, Beck, The Courteeners, Black Kids, Dirty Pretty Things, Lightspeed Champion - Wireless Festival, Hyde Park, London - Friday 4th July 2008

What better way to spend a glorious Friday afternoon in London, than by going to the gigantic marketing opportunity that is the Wireless Festival. The O2 Wireless Festival. With stages sponsored by Tuborg, Sandisk, and MTV, other areas sponsored by O2, Blackberry, New Balance, Yazoo, Ubisoft, and many others that I lost count of, and loads more people giving out free samples of stuff. Still, I suppose having quite that much sponsorship makes up for not selling all that many tickets, and in fact never being able to sell out your event. Some decent bands on the bill today though, even if many probably are only there to take O2's money.

The first band I saw were Lightspeed Champion, opening up the main stage in bright sunshine. Despite this, singer Dev was still wearing his trademark hat, and appeared on stage with the full Lightspeed Champion band. Having narrowly missed them at Glastonbury the previous week, and being a fan of their album, I was especially pleased to be able to get right to the front of the stage for this set - the gates having not long since opened, and everybody likely to still be at work. They played for about 45 minutes, which was a pleasing 15 minutes longer than advertised, and I was really, really impressed by their show. The band featured a violinist, bassist and drummer, as well as Dev on Guitar and vocals - and they had a much more "electric" sound than I had expected. The set was mostly drawn from their album, and the final song featured a guitar version of the Star Wars theme, opening up an epic version of Midnight Surprise. A really enjoyable set - the band were great, Dev's banter with the crowd was fantastic, and I will definitely be going back to see Lightspeed Champion as soon as possible.

During the Lightspeed Champion set, I got a text message from O2 offering me some free lunch, so after their show, I went off to avail myself of a free hotdog (have that, Morrissey!). Next up on the main stage were Dirty Pretty Things, whose new album came out 4 days previously. I had fairly low expectations of this set, especially having heard their latest single Tired Of England, which to me sounds a bit like Blur in 1995, at their Country House worst. The set kicked off with a batch of songs from the first album, but it seemed fairly standard to me. The older songs were executed pretty well, but nobody in the swelling audience really seemed very interested, and neither did the band. The new songs seemed much less good, and, with the threat of missing Black Kids play in the tent (sorry, SanDisk Stage), I left DPT before the end of their set.

When I got to the tent, The Rascals had just finished playing, and with hindsight, I wish I'd left DPT earlier, because Alex Turner joined them onstage. The fact that this keeps happening makes The Rascals a pretty unmissable band when they are playing gigs you are at - which I'm sure is completely the idea - to get people in to see them, in the hope that Alex Turner might show up.

Anyway, after 20 minutes or so, Black Kids appeared in front of a pretty packed tent, and to an absolutely rapturous reception. They wished everybody "Happy 4th July", and then launched into pretty much the same set that they had played at Glastonbury a week previously. This time, being in a much smaller and more intimate setting, it seemed like much more of a party. The band were in the mood for a party set, and much of the audience knew what to expect. This was a very entertaining set from start to finish, and after Lightspeed Champion it was the second really good show of the day. The highlight for me was during final song Look At Me, when the whole front half of the tent was moving its feet.

Black Kids were quickly followed by The Courteeners, after a lightning changeover which seemed to catch up almost all of the 20 minute delay that the tent was running with. After seeing how full the tent was for Black Kids, it emptied out surprisingly for The Courteeners, meaning a good spot near the front was easy to find. The band played almost the same set as at Glastonbury, including early versions of Cavorting and Acrylic which immediately kicked off a melee in the middle. The band (and Liam Fray in particular) didn't seem quite as up for it all as they had been at Glastonbury, but Liam spent quite some time talking about the fans in London - expressing amusement at reviews that they don't have any fans here. Judging by the audiences I have been in to see them in London, it isn't quite true, but you can certainly get closer to this band in London than their quality means you should. Their performance was again top class, they sounded fantastic, and Liam Fray is starting to look, sound and act increasingly like his more famous namesake from Manchester. Great band, and always a pleasure to see them.

When I got outside the tent after The Courteeners' set, The Wombats were playing on the main stage. Their set was a standard Wombats set, which seemed to go down pretty well with the fairly large crowd watching. Early single Lost In The Post was an early highlight of their set, and although I wasn't paying complete attention, their show sounded pretty decent.

Next up, and the main support on the main stage was Beck, with his band of musicians that all looked rather cool. His set started really well, with Devil's Haircut first up, closely followed by The New Pollution, and with a great version of Loser appearing before too long into the set. With a start like that, it was always going to be hard to keep it up - many of the songs I didn't know, but sounded good all the same. Then the newer, slower, more downbeat songs came along, and I felt that the set seemed to flag slightly in the middle. It was always interesting to watch, and always entertaining enough, but not quite at the full heights that Beck can often get to. Towards the end of the set, though, things kicked back up a gear, with a brilliant cover version of Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime, Where Its At, and E-Pro to finish off. It had been a while since I'd seen Beck before, and although the hits have dried up over the last few years (which means that his sets are no longer quite as full of highlights), he can still put on a very good show.

Finally, the headliner of the day, Morrissey. Last time I saw him was in the US, where he loosened up and played lots of fantastic Smiths songs that I don't think you'd see in the UK. This show started with Last Of The Famous International Playboys, followed immediately by a great version of Ask. The next few songs got many of Morrissey's recent singles out of the way, including Irish Blood, English Heart, and First Of The Gang To Die. After such a promising start, the excitement distinctly slowed down as the set went on.

Quite a few new songs (some good, some not so good), a fantastic Buzzcocks cover, and some very weirdly obscure Smiths songs, meant that this wasn't a wall-to-wall fantastic show, but it wasn't a complete stinker either. One of those middling shows - as the divided opinions on the Morrissey fansite review would probably bear out (as well as carrying a complete transcript of everything Morrissey said on stage). Morrissey fans can be a bit scary at times.