3 April - Screams & Beats

Unabridged from email sent to friend. Brixton was better than I thought. We arrived late so missed the Coral, saw 1 song by Weller (enough) and after that was great as you get to hear fab artists doing only a few of their hits so you don’t get bored. The surprise for me was an acoustic Kelly jones whose voice is so strong that I was blown away (and presence). Richard Ashcroft also acoustic was a bit croakier but good. The best 4 songs from the Primals, hooray, now I don’t feel bad I didn’t catch the Screamadelica gigs, with the intervening years it’s clear to see what the Primal were/are, which is the rolling stones/stooges for kids who would not have wanted to go and see the ‘old’ stones. Have fond memories of that album as was f ck soundtrack to my times with MG. His pick. My friend E/S instead has nightmares from looking after the Gillespie crew at the height of their gargantuan drug taking. Am suprised she managed to avoid a breakdown. And then…. Beady Eye. Yawn, Liam in a parka, as ever. Moving a bit more than usual, that's novel. M. can say what she wants but to me it’s a lame concept. The single came along and she leans and tells me ‘Liam wrote this himself’ and I said yes, and John Lennon did the othe75%! Then another song comes along and I had to ask ‘is this one of theirs?’ as to me it was 'Get Back', Get back to where you once belonged (am a bit unsteady on the Beatles as not my thing ever, but I think that Liam song was 75% them and 25% him! Honest! How can ayone buy this stuff? But well done him for raising 150k for tsunami victims (idea originated as he felt really bad about a Sony Japan lady who sent him moving updates on the situation) and the bill came together in 2 weeks, thanks to him rather than management and best of all nobody made any speeches! Just got on , sang, got off. There at 8.30 back by 10.30. Perfect. Always feel bad exiting a show with backstage pass in my pocket and not giving to some fan who would jump for joy but... couldn't be done.