Leyton Orient vs Cheltenham Town - Brisbane Road, London - Saturday 21st October 2006

With Arsenal not playing until Sunday, there was an opportunity to go and watch some of what my Cheltenham-supporting friends call "real football". After a trip for pie and mash in the East End, it was off to Leyton in the pouring rain for Orient against Cheltenham. I have been to this fixture before, and generally found my neck hurting towards the end, after all of the long balls. With Leyton Orient and Cheltenham both in the bottom three of their division, a high quality game was guaranteed!

Despite being several levels below the Premiership in terms of football quality, the prices (£18 for the away end) are not that far off what you would expect in the top leagues. Still the facilities are not appreciably worse than those at Portsmouth. I was sitting in the posh new stand, which had an indoor lounge, with a bar and free programmes - a bit like Club Level at Arsenal!

The match started, and Orient, without a win for ages, scored within 5 minutes or so. The forwards for both teams were big guys, a real handful for defenders, and they played a physical, hassling game. I noticed that when either keeper took a placed goal kick from the ground, all 20 outfield players were crammed into a very small part of the pitch, towards where they expected the kick to go. Literally no outfield players were outside a very small pitch area. It was the same at corners as well, the defending team had nobody further forward than the edge of their own box. All very different to much of the Premiership, where tactics and positioning win over getting bodies into specific areas.

At half time, there was a power cut in the only stand which had any use for power - this meant no beer! Shocking! The game resumed, and Cheltenham got a penalty. Their "best" player saw his penalty saved, it was a very poor penalty indeed. 10 minutes later, Orient got a penalty themselves, and made it 2-0. The game played out after that, some thrills and spills, a few good chances (mainly for Orient), and commitment replacing the skill that you see in the Premiership - which is no bad thing in itself.

A good day out, but I admire people who pay £20 for this quality of football week in, week out. Orient is a great small club, which many people have deep local affections for, but lots of them obviously aren't willing to cough up to see them either, as the 4,500 crowd testified.

Augerbane, Trackter, The Belgrave Scandal - Leonards, London - Friday 20th October 2006

This was a Belgrave Scandal gig in a very strange venue. Leonards is a bar in Islington, but is tucked away at the arse end of a backstreet that seems to have only one entrance. That means no passing trade whatsoever, and no real reason to go there unless you know a band that is playing. And so it turned out, the venue was populated by about 20 people - bar staff, the members of 3 bands, plus a handful of others that were there to see them. Oh, and one old local alcoholic.

Despite all this, the sound in the venue was actually pretty impressive for its size, and I got to see the bands soundcheck as well - so 2 songs from each band, extra free.

The Belgrave Scandal were on first, and were tighter than I have ever seen them before. They seem to be getting to the stage where they are in step with each other without even thinking about it, and the vocals are getting better too. They played a new song, which had anthemic qualities, building up all the way. And, despite a relatively empty venue, some of their better songs drew good applause from the various band members and hangers-on that were in the building. Final song Soul and Power drew the biggest applause of all, but Beedy Little Eyes, The Collection, and Brighton Away were not far behind.

The next band on were called Trackter, and reminded me a bit of Pearl Jam in their songs, and the singer's voice. They sounded good, in a slightly middle of the road way - but without being anywhere near as offensive as the likes of David Gray. There were at least a couple of songs in their set that really stood out, so a good way to pass the time.

The final band of the night were a heavy metal act called Augerbane. There were very few people watching even them, but I have to say that they were very good at what they were doing. Heavy metal is clearly dodgy, but having decided to play it, they played it pretty well.

The Automatic, Mumm-Ra - Astoria, London - Thursday 19th October 2006

Almost immediately after landing back from Belgium, I headed straight for the Astoria, to see The Automatic. Tickets for this were bought after being very impressed by the band at an NME Tour in May. Since then, their single Monster has been on the radio pretty much all summer, and their album, which is not bad, has also been released.

The main support band were Mumm-Ra, who I have to say I thought were excellent. Their songs were vaguely reminiscent of Idlewild and the Boo Radleys, poppy guitar-based tunes that were pretty catchy all round. They entertained for half an hour or so, and they are definitely worth checking out both on MySpace, and if they are playing support at a future gig.

Because of the early curfew at the Astoria when the G-A-Y nights are on, the Automatic came on stage at around 9pm. They played for around 50 minutes, then for a short encore, and the audience seemed to be going mad for every minute. When the mental keyboard player (who looks and acts unnervingly like John Lydon used to) came on stage, there were screams from young female members of the audience. A mainstream band indeed - I wonder if their parents bought the tickets for them.

The Automatic sounded good, but I have to say that they were not especially exciting. In particular, many of the songs sounded exactly as they sound on the album. The grinding "motorbike" guitars sounded better live, but the whole performance was very polished, very well-drilled, and lacking in a bit of spontaneous rebellion because of it. The kids loved it, of course, but I couldn't help thinking that it was all a bit too clean-cut for my liking.

At one point in the set, the band played a cover of Kayne West's Gold Digger, which was pretty pointless I thought, as well as not being very good. However, I was reminded that it was nowhere near as bad as Hard-Fi's cover of Seven Nation Army, so it wasn't all bad!

The gig was worth the money, which was only £11.50, but it did seem a bit sterile and polished for my liking. A good band, but they are too effectively replicating the radio-friendlyness of songs when they play live, and that took away from the excitement for me a little bit.

Work trip to Bornem, Belgium - 18th to 19th October 2006

Hot on the heels of a trip to Paris, came a trip to Belgium, an altogether less interesting place. I was staying (and working) in a town called Bornem, somewhere between Brussels and Antwerp. I tried looking it up on a map, and could just about find it on Google Earth. The point of going to a place like that is to get away from it all, so you get more work done. In reality, you become bored quite quickly and want to go home, especially as I was missing a Kooks gig in London to be there. The countryside around the town is nice, and Bornem is a lovely country town, but it is maddeningly dull.

Even saying that places are "near Brussels" (which everywhere in Belgium is, to a pretty large degree), doesn't exactly inspire excitement amongst people you tell about it. That said, the food is great in Belgium, and the beer is a particular highlight - hundreds of different brands, which taste good, and are very, very strong. Hangover-tastic. The landscape is uninteresting and flat, and much of the country is built up, but it strikes me that, with the food and beer, and proximity to other more interesting places, you could probably have yourself a pretty good life here - if you are not looking for too much action.

Work trip to Paris, France - 16th to 17th October 2006

Back to familiar old Paris for work, the last time I came to this particular city, it all ended in heartbreak and disaster! So, I was hoping for a happier (and less expensive) trip this time around. It was also a first real chance to visit La Defense, the business district on the edge of the main city, which almost acts like a city in itself. The area is very pedestrian-friendly, and full of corporate skyscrapers. Very much like Canary Wharf in many ways, including the fact that it is completely dead and soulless after 9pm, and all weekend.

Le Defense has one definining piece of architecture, the Grande Arche. This is the centrepiece of the area, a classic piece of 80s French design, that is already starting to look very dated indeed. Much of the other architecture in the area is fantastic, including a building (towards the right of the first photo), that is covered in glass, but the bottom corner looks like somebody is trying to peel away the glass like a sticker-back. Very impressive stuff, and many of the skyscrapers around there are attractions for fans of funky buildings, as well as being office blocks.

It is possible to get a (very scary) lift up to the top of the Grande Arche, so I did. The view is pretty impressive, especially since there is a dead straight line between La Defense, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Champs Elysees behind it. All a lovely tree-lined boulevard, and a reminder that Paris has aspects that were planned with great precision and perfection.

Razorlight, Good Shoes, The View - Barfly, London - Sunday 15th October 2006

This is one of those gigs, like the Magic Numbers at the Buffalo Bar, Arctic Monkeys at the Leadmill, or The Kooks at Tunbridge Wells Forum, that I feel truly honoured to have attended. Tickets sold out in about 5 seconds, and were changing hands on eBay for £400 a pair in the week leading up to the gig. Even better to have paid the £10 face value to get in.

The kind folks at the Barfly finally let us in from the freezing cold at about 7:45, and we made our way upstairs to the gig room. Taking up a position on the right hand wall (which the band have to walk along in order to get on stage), I decided to camp there for the evening, for some good celebrity spotting action.

First band on were The View, and I was seeing them for the second time in 24 hours. They were amazing at Brixton the previous night, and even better tonight. They blew the house down this time, for sure. The songs sounded fantastic, and the band played them like they were loving every single minute of it. Of course they could be headlining venues at least 20 times the size of this one, and on this evidence, it won't be long before they are doing just that. Absolutely amazing live band, I would see them again tomorrow (and the next day, and the next day) if I could. Quite possibly the most exciting band in the UK right now.

The next band were Good Shoes, who I'd heard a couple of songs by before. Their set reminded me a lot of Art Brut, lots of clever lyrics, and the singer in particular looks like a very nerdy man indeed. Quite like a teacher in fact, with no disrespect to teachers intended. The set plodded along OK, but there were few points that raised real excitement, and the singles were very obvious standout songs. They are being tipped for great things, but to be honest, they didn't really excite me very much at all.

At about half past ten, putting many people in danger of missing trains home, some very burly bouncers emerged into the room, and Razorlight were ushered on stage. Predictably, the place went completely and utterly mental. They launched straight into In The Morning, and pretty much the entire venue became a mosh pit. An hour later, and a sweat-soaked venue had witnessed a truly amazing gig. This is what the NME thought of it.

It really struck me throughout this show, how very good Razorlight are when they play live. I tend to think that most bands sound better live than on record, but Razorlight sound very, very, very much better live. Especially when you consider the Radio-2-friendlyness of some of their songs, like Golden Touch and America, those songs really do rock when they play them live. There is an undoubted sense that Johnny Borrell is probably something of a primadonna, and I'd imagine that it would be an awful job to have to stroke his pride and ego every day - but the band sound fantastic, and he is a mesmerising frontman.

Razorlight have sold out a mammoth UK tour later in the year - 2 nights at Wembley Arena being the London contribution to that - so it was a rarity and a pleasure to see them in such a small venue. They are so well-honed as a live band, sound so excellent, and their new songs are so good, that this forthcoming tour should propel them to truly huge status.

Finally, a picture of the iconic (if slightly self-obsessed) frontman.

The Fratellis, The View, Milburn - XFM's Big Night Out, Brixton Academy, London - Saturday 14th October 2006

XFM's Big Night Out was a mixed experience for me last time around. A night that has the potential to be fantastic, but didn't quite hit the spot. Still, with a cracking lineup of bands this time, it was definitely worth giving the whole thing another go. Seeing Milburn again for the first time in 6 months or so (fresh from the release of their debut album), and another chance to see The View, all made for an exciting prospect.

Milburn were on stage first, at around 10pm. The sound started off being absolutely awful in the main room, which could have been because it was still quite empty. They had flattened the floor to make a dancefloor, which added to the weirdness. But, about half way through Milburn's set, the sound sorted itself out, and in fact reverted to being the sound of dirty guitars, played by a band that clearly know how to get a great sound from them.

After quite a few experiences with seeing Milburn earlier in the year, followed by six months of not seeing them, their songs seemed nicely familiar during their half hour set, and when the band came off stage, I definitely wanted more. The crowd seemed to really enjoy them, they got a great reception, and were in full banter mode with the audience. They could and should have played for longer, and good to hear that they still sound energetic and good.

Next band on were The View, who I had seen a month previously, and they were good, even if they failed to completely blow down the Tunbridge Wells Forum. Tonight, they were better than merely "good". Coming straight from a slot opening up in Cardiff, just a couple of hours previously, their set was played at pace, and pretty much all of the songs sounded fantastic. Having heard a few of them before undoubtedly helped matters, but they sounded like a proper rock band that deserve to be massively successful. The last 3 songs in particular, Wasted Little DJs, Posh Boys, and Superstar Tradesman, were amazing - but there were plenty more where that came from.

And finally, The Fratellis headlined, coming onto stage at about 12:30. The audience seemed to be very excited, but I must confess to not being a huge fan of the Fratellis. Their album has done very well, and latest single Chelsea Dagger is a brilliant song. But, even though they are clearly doing all of the right things, I just don't really like them, in much the same way as I don't really like Franz Ferdinand. There were a couple of good songs in their set (one of which was good mainly because it sounded like Chelsea Dagger), but I just didn't really get why everybody was going so mad for all of their songs. I'm on the outside of this one I'm afraid - I should probably like them, but I just don't.

And so the night degenerated into an indie disco. With over 3,000 people in the venue, there were always bound to be a large number of tossers there, and as 1am became 2am, the count seemed to grow rapidly. A good night all in all, although the beer queues were an absolute joke all evening, we all still managed to get enough down us to make it a good one.

Maximo Park - Brixton Academy, London - Friday 6th October 2006

First trip to Brixton for a few months (they don't seem to bother using it in the summer), to see Maximo Park. I seem to recall buying the tickets for this ages ago, just after they had headlined (and stolen the show) at the NME Awards Tour shows in February. But, in the meantime they have been keeping a pretty low profile, so it was strange to go to see them with so little hype in the run up.

Waiting for friends to show up meant that I missed both of the support bands, Hot Club de Paris, and Love Is All - not a good thing. Brixton Academy was "sold out", but it seemed easier to move around the place than it often is for "sold out" gigs - there were probably only a couple of hundred people fewer in there, but that makes for a much better experience all round. You can get to the toilet that much better, get to the bar, and get a decent vantage point from which to see the band.

With a fantastic lighting rig that was as good as that at the NME show, Maximo Park came on stage and ploughed straight into a new song, which sounded comfortingly familiar, and every bit as good as the material from their debut album. Graffiti followed soon after, and got a crowd surge and a rapturous response. For a one-album band, it was unsurprising that the set featured the vast majority of A Certain Trigger, but the pleasant surprise was how many new songs the band showcased. Even better was how damn good the new songs were!

More than many bands that you see whilst writing their second album, and showcasing its songs, I am really, really excited about hearing the new stuff on CD - the songs that were played tonight represented real development on the already-great material on the debut album. Some fantastic new songs, can't wait until they become loved by more people.

The set ended, as all good Maximo sets should, with Apply Some Pressure, which sent the audience wild. This gig was a triumph, not just consolidating the success achieved through an excellent debut album, but setting out a real mission statement for how good the followup could be. Can't wait to hear it.

Charlton Athletic vs Arsenal - The Valley, London - Saturday 30th September 2006

The game will be remembered for one thing - Robin Van Persie's absolutely incredible volley from the edge of the area, which flew into the top corner of the net.

I always enjoy Charlton away, it isn't too far away, and is relatively safe, unlike some other London games I can think of. London away games in general are very good, you get the full away game experience, without needing to go to the ends of the earth (or even worse, up north) to enjoy it all. So, I woke up on the morning in a state of full excitement.

The Valley is one of the better away grounds, despite the poor facilities on offer - away fans get a stand to themselves, and the low roof and metal walls (good for banging on) make for a great atmosphere. For the second away game in a row, the travelling support were in excellent voice, which sounds even better when you take into account how quiet the Charlton fans are.

My seat for this one was great, in row D, slap bang in the middle behind the goal - which meant that I got a great view of Van Persie's amazing winner. He was standing about where the referee was in this photo, and the ball flew in my direction at a fair rate of knots.

The game was a strange one - it would have been a travesty had Arsenal not won the match, but we did make it look perhaps more difficult than it should have been, especially in the second half. The referee didn't really help the game out, he spent 20 minutes giving nothing at all, then 20 minutes giving absolutely everything possible - most annoying.

Anyway, 3 more points, and the team are now officially on a roll, with 5 consecutive wins in Premiership and Champions League. All the more irritating that we now have a 2-week international break to get our players injured, and stop our momentum in its tracks.

The Magic Numbers, Horsebox, Mr Hudson and the Library - Buffalo Bar, London - Thursday 28th September 2006

This gig was a really special one. The Buffalo Bar holds no more than 150 people, and the Magic Numbers are now well accustomed to playing in places many times the size. The fact that it happened at all was to celebrate rockfeedback.com's 6th birthday. They run (almost) monthly club nights at the Buffalo Bar, and were in part responsible for giving the Magic Numbers a hand up to fame. The quality of bands that play this club night is incredible, with Dirty Pretty Things, Razorlight, Bloc Party, The Subways, and others, all gracing it on their way up.

The first band of the night were Mr Hudson & The Library. A band comprised of several black men and women, with varying degrees of wild hair (including one guy with a truly special afro); along with the palest albino singer you could ever see. They played a mixture of reggae/rap/hip hop, with indie vocals on top. One song even had a steel drum, which sounded great. It was all OK, but I couldn't help thinking that this is primarily a live band - I suspect that they would sound nowhere near as good when recorded.

Next up were Horsebox, a 5 piece band with a London-accented singer. Their songs ranged between being very good, catchy punky pop tunes, and being a bit boring - there wasn't really anything in between. The good songs did indeed sound absolutely great, but there were some dodgy ones in there.

Just after 11pm, the Magic Numbers walked on stage and went immediately into a new song called This Is A Song. I took up a position at the side of the stage, and had a great view of both band and audience throughout. It really was amazing to be so close to such a great band, in such an intimate venue. There was typical Magic Numbers friendliness, and it seemed like a homecoming gig for the band. The set featured a lot of new songs, interspersed generously with older songs, and the band played for about an hour and a half. Of the new songs, the faster, more upbeat ones sounded fantastic, but then those are my favourite type of Magic Numbers songs anyway. The slower, quieter songs were OK, but I think the band are much better when they are doing the happy stuff!

A priviledge to be there tonight, I will definitely be going back to the Rockfeedback club nights, although going to work the next day with a hangover is not appreciated!