10 Best Pub Gardens in UK

Here's a great article from the Guardian (a great paper, as it happens), listing the 10 best pub gardens in the country, according to them. It's hard to convey to an American audience how crucial the pub garden is to British society and culture. Perhaps a browse through this article will get it across.

A Couple of Great Songs

Here are the videos for a couple of tracks I played on the last show. Thanks, YouTube!

St. Etienne - Like a Motorway



Super Furry Animals - It's Not The End of the World

Playlist, July 4th 2007

Here it is, the playlist for the Independence Day (or, as we call it in England, "Wednesday") show. It took me a while to get this typed up, because as soon as I left the station my wife went into labour, and six or seven hours later I was the father of a lovely baby boy (Lucian Charles). Details to follow...

Trashcan Sinatras - Hayfever (Cake)
Squeeze - Up The Junction (Cool for Cats)
Teenage Fanclub - 120 Mins (Thirteen)
Belle and Sebastian - Expectations (Tigermilk)
Cribs - Men's Needs (Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever)
The View - Same Jeans (Hats off to the Buskers)
Maccabees - First Love (Colour It In)
Playwrights - Dislocated (London Version) (English Self Storage)
Gorky's Zygotc Mynci - The Humming Song (Spanish Dance Troupe)
Supergrass - St. Petersburg (Road to Rouen)
Aliens - I Am The Unknown (Astronomy for Dogs)
Elbow - Station Approach (Leaders of the Free World)
British Sea Power - Carrion (The Decline of...)
Art Brut - Pump up the Volume (It's a Bit Complicated)
Fields - Song for the Fields (Everything Last Winter)
Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison - Gimme Some Truth (Instant Karma)
Paul McCartney - Ever Present Past (Memory Almost Full)
Sondre Lerche - Sleep on Needles (Faces Down)
Stereolab - Ping Pong (Mars Audiac Quintet)
Pipettes - I Love You (We Are the Pipettes)
Arctic Monkeys - Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend ('Brianstorm' single B-Side)
Travis - Battleships (The Boy With No Name)
Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block (Hour of the Bewilderbeast)
Black Box Recorder - Facts of Life (Facts of Life)
St. Etienne - Like a Motorway (Tiger Bay)
Super Furry Animals - It's Not The End Of The World (Rings Around The World)
David Bowie - Changes (Hunky Dory)

Esme in the Hizzy

Had to post a couple of these: pix of Esme talking to Champaign Urbana, right before she had her meltdown over the fact that I wouldn't play the whole Charlie and Lola album, and had to be escorted from the premises by security (i.e. my wife). Anyway, here she is...

Playlist for June 20th, 2007

The Smiths -- Panic (Singles)
Brian Eno -- Needle in the Camel's Eye (Here Come the Warm Jets)
Placebo -- Teenage Angst (Placebo)
Suede -- Trash (Coming Up)
Mclusky -- To Hell With Good Intentions (Do Dallas)
The The -- Dogs of Lust (Dusk)
Carter USM -- The Only Living Boy in New Cross (1992)
Charlie and Lola -- Theme Music (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Charlie and Lola -- Bestest in the Barn (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Charlie and Lola -- I Am Not Sleepy (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Camera Obscura -- Number One Son (Underachievers Please Try Harder)
The Chrysler -- What I Must Keep With Mine (Failures and Sparks)
Belle & Sebastian -- Jonathan David (Single)
Jens Lekman -- Rocky Dennis Farewell Song (Oh, You're So Silent Jens)
Art Brut -- Direct Hit (It's a Bit Complicated)
The Pipettes -- Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me (We Are the Pipettes)
The View -- Skag Trendy (Hats off to the Buskers)
Arctic Monkeys -- Brianstorm (Favourite Worst Nightmare)
Aliens -- Setting Sun (Astronomy for Dogs)
Macabees -- Precious Time (Colour It In)
Architecture in Helsinki -- Wishbone (In Case We Die)
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly -- Glasshouses (Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager)
James Morrison -- Wonderful World (Undiscovered)
Nouvelle Vague -- The Killing Moon (bande a Part)
Editors -- Blood (The Back Room)
Clinic -- Children of Kellogg (Visitations)
Jakob Dylan & Dhani Harrison -- Gimme Some Truth (Instant Karma)
Sinead O'Connor -- Mandinka (The Lion and the Serpent)
The La's -- There She Goes (The La's)

"Gordon is a moron!"

No, not a reference to the about-to-be-PM of Britain, but rather to the fantastic song 'Jilted John.' A perennial favourite on the show, and a one-hit wonder from 1978 in which actor Graham Fellows adopted an embittered alter-ego for this punk ditty about a feeble young lad whose girlfriend chucks him for a good looking bloke called Gordon. An outstanding work.



And whatever happened to Fellows? Well, he resurfaced years later, unrecognizeable in a completely different persona: that of mild-mannered Yamaha keyboard troubadour John Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth's scratchy Sheffield accent and earnest easy-listening compositions are utterly unmistakeable. Here's a fine example -- the tragic story of a man who starts his dessert only to find that, had he waited, he could have finished off the rest of his daughter's unwanted dinner. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "I Can't Go Back to Savoury Now."

June 6th, 2007

Elvis Costello – Accidents Will Happen (Girls Girls Girls)
Kingmaker – Ten Years Asleep (Sleepwalking)
Art Brut – Emily Kane (Bang Bang Rock & Roll)
Aztec Camera – Good Morning Britain (Retrospect)
Doves – Black & White Town (Some Cities)
Shed 7 – Where Have You Been Tonight (A Maximum High)
Forward Russia – Nine (Give Me a Wall)
Sondre Lerche – Airport Taxi Reunion (Phantom Punch)
Divine Comedy – Becoming More Like Alfie (Casanova)
Travis – Under the Moonlight (The Boy With No Name)
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly – Call Me Ishmael (Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager)
Klaxons – Totem on the Timeline (Myths of the Near Future)
The Horrors – Sheena is a Parasite (Stolen Transmission)
Paul McCartney – Ever Present Past (Memory Almost Full)
Lightning Seeds – Joy (Cloudcuckooland)
Suede – Shipbuilding (HELP Warchild)
Love Spit Love – Am I Wrong? (Love Spit Love)
Playwrights – Why We’ve Become Invisible (English Self Storage)
Stars – Ageless Beauty (Set Yourself on Fire)
Pipettes – Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me (We Are The Pipettes)
Miracle Fortress – This Thing About You (Five Roses)
Pooh Sticks – World Is Turning On (Million Seller)
Portishead – All Mine (Live at Roseland NYC)
Moloko – Day For Night (Do You Like My Tight Sweater?)
Tricky – Makes Me Wanna Die (Pre-Millennial Tension)
Radiohead – True Love Waits (I Might Be Wrong)
Blur – You’re So Great (Blur)