DMCiv
28 11 2004This Saturday Nikki and I drove down to Brighton/Eastbourne to see Paul and Relly, and go to David Ford’s Milk & Cookies 4. It’s an annual charity event in Eastbourne, by the frontman of the former Easyworld. Nikki’s been before, but this was my first time in that general vicinity.
We left London around 11:00, and made it to Brighton around 1. That’s a pretty servicable time taking into account the horrendous M25 traffic, and it means I now have a decent bead on what the journey will entail next time we go to see Paul & Relly (£20 of Petrol and 1.5 hours each way, give or take half an hour.) It’s actually almost an identical distance as from Ealing to Warwick, only the other way down the country. We were blessed by whatever deity is in charge of parking spaces, and in the cramped side streets of the Hanover area of Brighton the gift of a parking space, large enough even for me to parallel park in, appeared right in front of their house. It was stark contrast to the last time we were there, when we had to park several streets away and trek about with our stuff. We were about to ring the doorbell, when Nikki realised they’d been changed and wasn’t sure which one would lead to their house. Instead, we phoned Paul, who helpfully informed us: “You need to press the top one.” Helpful advice, except, he was apparantly waiting for us to do that when he already knew we were there, so with gross disrespect for normal house-calling protocol we requested we skip the doorbell step and go straight to being let into the house. Radical, I know, but it worked.
Nikki and Relly went shopping for an hour or two while Paul and I discussed websites, watched Sky, and I read parts of the excellent Simpsons book they had purchased me for my Birthday. It’s a pseudo-intellectual dissection of the show’s 15-year history which even has an introduction by Douglas Coupland, who I remember telling us at the reading I attended that he wished his entire career could be standing around quoting the simpsons. The book is great, and not just because it contains the transcripts of the series’ funniest jokes, and I’ve already got a backlog of people queueing up to borrow it. It’s called “Planet Simpson” and it’s the kind of book I could’ve and should’ve written if I hadn’t been spending the time actually watching the Simpsons. It was a belated birthday gift, I know, but they made up for that by giving me an early Christmas gift - A book of material from popular internet humour site, The Onion. This incredibly windfall of new pop culture to devour relieves me of the longing I get when passing a bookshop in these financially lean months. I just have to remember: I will one day get paid.
In the evening Paul, Nikki and I met with Glenn and some potential web-related clients from East Magazine who want some programming done that I am hoping to furnish them with. It’s looking good on that front. We dropped Glenn back home, collected some promotional stickers for Eastbourne’s newest musical hope (and I feel confident saying that, since they haven’t released anything and therefore all that exists is hope) the Kings of Convenience meets Chas & Dave outfit (again, no material, can’t be contradicted) Perrin. I stuck one sticker in a phone box, which might give people concerns as to the moral cleanliness of Perrin and their website, which the sticker advertises, because advertisments in phoneboxes are normally associated with the slightly seedier side of british life. It can’t have helped that it contained the slogan “Friend or Lover?” either. We went to McDonalds afterwards because I wanted a limited edition mint matchmaker McFlurry, and after I’d choked down the McNuggets and McFries and McIce-Cubes with added coke I was politely informed “We haven’t McGot any.” Just fucking great. It makes me wonder why the advertising for them is plastering every wall. Wankers.
After that there was DMC 4, the gig itself, which involved a lot of great songs being played, a slightly dubious Tom Waits cover, and one slightly better one, and the bizarre appearance of a football team at the end. Mr. Ford’s showmanship is especially evident when he’s playing in a room with less than 300 people in, and even when he was previously playing Brixton Academy supporting Keane, it’s to his credit that he really appears to give it the fullest amount of effort. My favourite part of the evening was probably seeing Nikki’s face when he played an excellent version of “Where is my Mind?” on the piano because she does everything she can to try and convince me the Pixies aren’t the sun that shines upon music, and it doesn’t help her cause when every musician from Placebo to King Adora to David Ford go out of their way to endorse their music. The lowest point of the set was clearly his Keane cover. Lord how I despise Keane.
Beyond the set, we each bought a limited edition DMC4 CD, with 5 new DJ Ford tracks, and caught up with some old friends within the Easyworld set. I gave Eri and Jamie a lift home, and then we headed back to London, got kind of lost trying to find our way back in the dark, but were saved by some sharp navigating. I must buy an A-Z, though. Then we went to bed. Today I took Nikki to Hillingdon to get the oxford tube back home, found a new Sainsbury’s on the way, and for once got to the coach stop at a time when the next coach wasn’t 30 minutes away. I came back and caught up with some TV and Internet use I’ve had neglect over the last few days due to being at work or otherwise not in the house, and now it’s time for bed, because I find myself with a new week of work ahead of me.
What was the Tom Waits song covered?
He did Blue Valentine first, and later Heart-Attack and Vine. I really liked the second, but I was not at all keen on the first, which is probably what you’d expect.