Life and how to live it.

There’s been a lot of life to live recently.

First up was Greenman. Not a vintage year as far as line ups go, but that did free us up to just to knock about the site. There was still much to enjoy, especially as after a drizzly Thursday the weather was disco hot for the rest of festival. The Friday especially was probably the hotest day I’ve know at Greenman.

The lack of a knock out band meant we were free to pop in and see a loud of new bands and to drink with mates.

Highlights for me included the very political and very energetic and political Lambrini Girls, Lynx were a great way to start the Saturday morning. Blondshell on the Sunday was great, very much in my wheelhouse, very 90s sound. Finally got to see The Jesus and Mary Chain and hear ‘Far out and Gone’ they even had a bit of a strop on stage. Nadine Shah was great. The Waeve were more together than than last month and Graham Coxon and a gentle and affectionate (it says here) dig at his other band. As ever Sian and I didn’t see any of the headliners. I quite fancied seeing Big Thief but I was too knackered.

We bounced midway on the Sunday as per usual. Greenman seemed to be over before it had began this year, but lots of fun.

We were recovering from the Festival festivities when we headed to Monmouth for a stay at the legendary Rockfield studios courtesy of my brother and his partner Ros. We got to stay in the same apartment Freddie Mercury stayed in when he was recording Bohemian Rhapsody. The next day we went on a tour which went an hour over the allocated time, and boy it was a joy from beginning to end. Lisa - the daughter of the owner - is clearly passionate for the life and legacy of Rockfield. The stories! Boy! The Oasis bust ups, playing frisbee with Queen, the Stone Roses turning up for 4 weeks and staying for 14 months and saving Rockfield in the process. Loved it!

The next day we were on a train to The Smoke to meet up with our friend Sharon Messanger and to go to the All Points East Festival. That morning I’d got up for some splishy splashy freezy Friday fun with Steve Dixon at Jackson’s Bay, and man it was choppy. Anyway, All Points East had a great lineup, not least my beloved Pixies, and we lucked out with the weather again. We missed New Dad as we walking from the pub to the venue, but were firmly ensconced with pints in hand for Jock Strap. I enjoyed their arty indie pop. I was slightly bemused by the singer coming on for the encore wearing a pair of rock/The Thing out of the Fantastic Four legs, but all good fun as she stomped about.

Then Pixies time! Every Pixies gig is grrrrrrreat! (like Frosties) that’s just science, and this was no exception! The lionshare of the set was from the ‘classic’ era and it was good to hear ‘Vamos’ back in the set, and ‘In Heaven’ sang by new bassist Emma was a curveball. Two new songs which sounded great. Festival set so impressed we got a few deep cuts, but what? No ‘Debaser’??!! That’s my fourth Pixies gig in a row where I haven’t been slicing up eyeballs! Still there’s the prospect of more sweet sweet Pixies gigs next year and my new Pixies t-shirt if boss(onova).

Last band of the night were LCD Sound System. I’d always been a bit annoyed with them about making a big fuss about splitting up and almost instantly getting back together almost instantly, but that aside they went all out. By this time I was starting to flag cause of the swimming and the drinking. We were initially midway to the front while trying to eat some chips, trying, while amongst ‘pharmaceuticaly refreshed’ twenty something London youfs on the Bank Holiday lash. We quickly retreated to where we could njoy the full experience which was great. I was so tired on the slog back that I lost the sight in my left eye, but blimey, what a great day.

After a night’s sleep my eye sight was fully restored! We went to see the Yoko retrospective at the Tate which was alright . Then to the RA for the Summer Exhibition. The RA seemed quite quiet when we rocked up.

“Two tickets for the Summer Exhibition please.”

“It ended on the 18th.”

Bollocks.

This has been happening a lot to me recently cause there’s been a lot of life to live. So went went to see the Ukrainian 20th centaury art exhibition instead, which was very good, less busy that the Yoko, which was no bad thing. It was interesting to see the shift of focus from cubisim to coviet style realism as different regimes took over, and seeing the work of artists I didn’t know was refreshing.

We were supposed to go to a friends 50th birthday party in Bristol, but they closed the Severn tunnel and we just couldn’t get there, but by that point we were both pretty knackered.