Surrey vs Middlesex - The Oval, London - Saturday 27th June 2009

After watching Kent beat Surrey just a few days previously, I was back at The Oval on a glorious Saturday afternoon for the dead rubber of the Southern T20 group. The game between the two most useless teams in the group, who couldn't seem to win a thing this season - and that despite Middlesex being reigning T20 champions. I was on a stag do, where not many of the participants were especially interested in goings on in the middle of the pitch - more of an excuse to drink beer in the sunshine. But with a game this irrelevant, it was hard to care too much about what was happening.

Surrey batted first and scored 160, a total that turned out not to be good enough. Brown stayed in for pretty much the whole innings, scoring 77 but probably taking too many balls with which to do it. It was strange not to see Mark Ramprakash batting, but then he was probably being saved for matters more important. The Middlesex run chase looked pretty easy from the moment Owais Shah came in and started to run the show - his unbeaten 61 saw Middlesex home with 10 balls to spare, which is a decent margin in this form of the game. So, a nice day out in the baking sunshine (although 15 minutes after the game, the heavens opened all over London, and there were hailstones to be had), to watch a game that will not be remembered for very long at all.

The Killers, The Kooks, Howling Bells, Passion Pit, Air Traffic - Hyde Park, London - Friday 26th June 2009

With a 4 month old baby, Glastonbury is obviously out of the question for this year at least. So, to get a safe, clean, nearby and non time consuming festival "experience", I headed for Hyde Park, for one day of Hard Rock Calling. Having already announced Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen as headliners (following in the vein of their usual super oldies like Aerosmith, The Police, and The Who), it was slightly surprising to see a third day announced, with The Killers and The Kooks headlining. A "full supporting bill" was also promised, which then disappointed as a few uninspiring bands were grudgingly announced about a fortnight before the show. In any case, it was a gloriously hot day, so a decent opportunity to sit in the park.

I arrived just in time to see Air Traffic's set on the second stage. They have obviously been writing a few new songs in the last couple of years, which sounded like they were very much in the same vein as their debut album. The set was a good mix of new and old - whilst they worked the crowd very well, and sounded OK, they didn't really inspire me. I have compared them to Keane before (with the improvement of adding a guitarist and some guitar based songs), and I would completely stick by that assessment on this showing. Interesting to watch, sounded nice, would fit really well on Radio 2, but no more exciting than that. Maybe my general disappointment when I see Air Traffic is mostly my fault for expecting something more "rock and roll".

After Air Traffic, I moved back into the sunshine of the main stage, where Passion Pit were playing. I had heard good things about them, and was interested to see what they were like. Overall, I was impressed - they reminded me of an interesting cross between Black Kids and MGMT - playing songs that combined indie rock with an element of a dance beat. All in all, they had a fair few decent songs, and sounded like a band that are perfect for festivals. Hopefully many people will walk past their sets this summer, and be suitably impressed. As well as that, I also thought they would probably sound incredible in a small indoor venue, their gigs are probably real party events.

An excellent Passion Pit set over, the next support band were Howling Bells. I have heard some (but not all that much) of their stuff, and was interested to see them live. Generally, I was reasonably impressed, but not much more enthused than that - I would certainly not be walking over broken glass to get to a Howling Bells gig any time soon. They were fine, they passed the time, the odd song stood out as being better than the rest - but they just didn't really grab me any more than that.

Next up were The Kooks, who predictably prompted lots of screaming from the zillions of teenage girls that had by now entered the venue. Putting The Kooks and The Killers on the same bill is always going to attract that particular demographic I suppose - this was generally a very safe, very middle of the road gig. That said, I was surprised how good I thought The Kooks were, they seemed to be well fired up for playing the gig, and they all bounced along merrily throughout. The set never really seemed to dip for the whole hour, and that length was just about right to not need to include any of their weaker songs. The girlies loved them it seemed, and I thought they sounded good also. They are now a band where you think "where do they go from here" - they are pretty big, but not likely to be selling out a gig like this as headliners, and with the added risk that people will just get bored of a third album of the same kind of music. We will see.

Finally, The Killers - it wasn't even dark properly when they came on stage, which meant that the show definitely improved in atmosphere as it went on and got darker. They started with Human, which seemed to go down a treat - one of the songs from their third album with which I'm not really very familiar. The set overall seemed to play most of that album (I could tell when a song started that I didn't know, that we were listening to something from the new album), so most of it got an airing. As well as that though, there was plenty of room for the stuff I went to see - basically their first album! The set seemed to abruptly switch after about an hour, when the band totally stopped playing any new songs, and turned instead to single after single from their first two albums. Almost like 2 sets - a "new album" set, and a "greatest hits" set. I preferred the second, of course, but the first wasn't half bad either.

Surrey vs Kent - The Oval, London - Wednesday 24th June 2009

A sunny Wednesday afternoon, and an excellent opportunity to bunk off work a bit early, and head to The Oval for a Twenty20 game. The T20 World Cup just having finished, everybody had been impressed by the quality of the 2 week tournament - so an excellent time to resume the domestic tournament. Kent had been having a decent season so far, despite being robbed by floodlight failure in Sussex in a recent T20 game. Surrey on the other hand were doing terribly in their T20 group - with little to nothing to play for by this stage.

After getting into The Oval, sadly it was my turn to get a beer. With a sellout crowd (including lots of people there on corporate jollies - times must be tough if the Lords test matches have been abandoned for £12 T20 games), you would have thought that Surrey might have opened a couple of bars. Unfortunately not, so I spent half of the Kent innings waiting to pick up a few drinks. Surrey don't seem to employ the brightest people in their food and drink outlets, which I suspect was the cause of the lengthy wait. Poor - they like the money people spend, but aren't willing to employ enough staff to give those people a decent experience.

I arrived in my seat just in time to see Martin van Jaarsveld reach his half century, then get dismissed shortly afterwards, with Darren Stevens and Rob Key following him back to the pavilion soon afterwards. After a couple of slow patches, followed by a decent bout of scoring, Kent got to a total of 168, from which you really thought the game could go either way - you could see Kent defending that, but you could also see Surrey making it.

Surrey's run chase did not start well, they lost Newman and Ramprakash very early on, and things were looking great for Kent. But then, a decent stand including Afzaal getting a half century, got them right back into the game. Like any good Twenty 20 game, it swung both ways right until the end, and at the end of the 19th over, Surrey needed 14 to win, and Kent looked to be in a decent position.

At that point, the umpires intervened - giving Kent a 6 run penalty for a slow over rate, and reducing the requirement to 8 from the final over - very achievable. I must confess I don't quite understand how the time allowed to bowl your overs can be just a flat 75 minutes - if you take 9 wickets, that is a very different ask, compared to taking none. Anyway, 8 runs needed from the final over - which made it all the more incredible that Surrey failed to do it, especially as they got themselves to needing 3 runs from the last 4 balls. An excellent Kent run out cost Surrey their final wicket, and won Kent the game - a fantastic finish, and a great T20 game all in all.

Kings Of Leon, Glasvegas - O2 Arena, London - Tuesday 16th June 2009

With a free evening on the horizon, I headed to Scarlet Mist, to see what if any gig I could pick up a late ticket for. I was very excited to see a Kings Of Leon show, with Glasvegas supporting them - but less happy that tickets seemed to be like gold dust. Nothing on Scarlet Mist over the week or so I was checking, and tickets being touted for silly prices on eBay. So, I was rejoicing when, having almost given up hope of getting a ticket, one popped up. A couple of quick emails and texts later, and it was mine. All good stuff.

Before the gig, I headed down to the O2 early, to have a bit of a better look around - last time I'd been there, I'd been whisked in and out, and not really had much chance to nose around. The venue is like a little piece of America, with seats like a big multiplex cinema, and lots of identikit eating and drinking places. Nando's, check. Frankie And Benny's, check. More than one Starbucks, check. A minimum of Four English Pounds for a beer, check. The American owners must be very proud, they have created the ultimate corporate venue, in the richest market in the world for that kind of thing.

Anyway, with the £4 beers, I got settled into my (very comfortable) seat for the show. Glasvegas were on first, and although they played an excellent set, it got lost a bit in the hugeness of the venue. There seemed to be a few people up at the front who were getting into what they were doing, but for everybody else, it looked like something vaguely exciting that was happening a long, long way away. The lights were up a bit too high (maybe to help thousands of people find their way to their seats), the air conditioning was on full blast, and the sound was echoing around the venue. If you didn't already know and love Glasvegas, you wouldn't have been converted by seeing them here (and through no fault of theirs). Even for a convert, it was a struggle to enjoy their set from half a mile away.

Kings Of Leon, on the other hand, were altogether much easier to enjoy. The venue filled up by the end of their first song, and although there were a lot of what you can only describe as "new fans" (you know, the kind that had heard Sex On Fire on Capital Radio, and decided to come along), the atmosphere was pretty decent. They opened with Closer and Crawl, before throwing in a load of songs from their first 2 albums. California Waiting, which had been missing from the previous night's set, made a most welcome appearance as well.

Generally, when you watch Kings Of Leon playing live, the thing that strikes you is how damn good they are. A few years ago, they were a well kept secret - now, with 3 sold out nights at the O2, and festival headline slots, they seem to have accidentally become one of the biggest bands "in the UK", (at least for UK audiences), and have attracted a crowd who seem to hang on every word from all four of their albums. They have undoubtedly courted the mass market recently, and it seems to have responded, in a big way. Sex On Fire is the biggest selling download track ever, and that is a huge achievement for a guitar band - KoL are a real mainstream band now.

Anyway, this was a very accomplished gig as expected, from a band that are now well and truly in the big league. Apparently their home country is also starting to realize what a great band they are now, so they will be busy in the Autumn, touring US arenas. We can only hope that they remember how well their UK fans have treated them, and helped them on their rise - we hope to see them back soon.

Trip to Valencia, Spain - 11th to 13th June 2009

After being there not very long ago, I returned to Valencia for a wedding (congratulations to Matt and Diana!). Again flying via Madrid, I found the weather a damn sight better this time - when I landed at lunchtime, it had just hit 30 degrees for the day, and there it stayed for the rest of the trip. No rain in sight this time, which was a bonus.

The night before the wedding, a group of us headed for the wonderful El Tornillo bar, scene of some good nights in the past. This being a Thursday night, there was not much going on there (especially as early as we were around), but despite the general lack of people and slightly strange music policy, we did manage to hear a few decent tunes. The following day was wedding day - because of the heat in Spain, these things don't kick off until about 8pm, so we had the day to go to the beach. In the early evening, everybody gathered at a country house, where the short formalities happened. Because the house wasn't licenced to actually do the legal marriage, our friends had got "legally" married a couple of days earlier. The short ceremony was therefore to confirm this, and to kick the party off.

This being a Spanish wedding, party was the order of the day (or night) - drinks, food, dinner at midnight, then a free bar until 4am - it was rather a heavy evening and night. Nobody really moved before midday the next day, the English contingent made the most of a late night, putting the Spanish tendency to stay up late to shame! When I fell onto the plane home, it was a most welcome chance to sleep!