Throwing subtle shapes

Friday night was interesting as Ka and myself went into town to see Alphabeat. Yes, you read right. Alphabeat. The cheesy, danish pop band, that I have slagged in previous writing, hit the Glasgow ABC on Sauchiehall Street. It's a very strange feeling to be among the oldest in the crowd at a gig. Ka and myself joined the queue outside among small guys with trendy fedora hats and yelping girls with multi coloured tights and sparkly plimsoles. This all started because we missed Alphabeat at T in the Park in June this year, because I had delayed us in losing my wallet, so I had promised to take Ka along to see the grotesquely cheerful danes when they played Glasgow in the near future. Unfortunately, she kept me to my word. Being only thirty, it is a bit of a shock to find yourself in a small minority of folk as the elders of the crowd at a gig. Ka and myself played 'spot the old person' when we got in to the large club venue, looking for older folk. Looking for grey hair, middle aged girths or people who had refused to leave their coat in the cloak room, as if leaving your jacket at the mercy of some young cloak room attendant was unsafe or foolish. Not being one to be put off by any of this, however, I tried to get into the atmosphere, with the help of a few vodkas and jumped about to the music like the rest of them. Well, shuffled about, anyway. The two support acts were surprisingly okay too. A leggy trio named Pandering and the Golddiggers kicked things off with some interesting moves and some music that didn't sound unlike some eighties throwback electronica. The three singers/dancers, two girls, one bloke, dressed in very little and what little there was, was extremely tight. The trio's weirdest attribute was by far, the bloke singer's hairdo. They were followed by the Belgian band Das Pop who had none other than Brian Blessed on Lead guitar (or so it looked like with my old glasses on). They would probably have been better if it had been Brian Blessed on guitar. "Das Pop's ALIVE!". Alphabeat were actually better than I thought they'd be. Very energetic, colourful, kooky and fun, not to mention ridiculously happy, as they always are. The main lead singer, AndersSG (no idea what the name is all about) jumping about like a crazy person smashing his tambourine off various body parts, whilst the little lassie, Stine, threw some subtle shapes on the spot. Complete candy floss pop but good for a bit of fun. The worst part of the night was waiting in the queue for the cloakroom. Damn those sensible old people, they were right!

Big doors swing on little hinges

This morning, my door fell off. Well, almost. I arrived at work in my wee clio, clambered out as per usual and just as I went to shut the door it seemed to slip, closely followed by it banging off the car's body and bouncing back at me. Mary and Margaret, two of the smoking women from the office, (when I say 'smoking women' I mean they are smokers...) were out on one of their smoking breaks (funnily enough) and immediately started heckling me from the front of the building. A bit like a louder Statler and Waldorf, except female. The top hinge of the door was bust. After visiting the garage I learned it's actually the pin that holds the hinge. Will most probably have to stay off the road now while I wait for my garage appointment. The door does stay closed whilst driving but is not fixed properly in it's rightful place thus the noise of the wind and the nearby traffic seem strangely loud whilst travelling and you feel the need to hold the door in place as you drive... reminds me of a go-cart we built as kids when I had to constantly hammer one wheel as I flew down the hill to keep the wheel from flying off as it was not secured properly. Thankfully the clio has not lost any wheels in such a fashion so I won't be needing my hammer for a while yet.
The little incident made me face a few facts about life. My clio is getting old. It's over ten years old now. Many would have traded it in years ago but I've grown kind of attached to it over the past six years or so. Purchasing it off my former boss in Birmingham, it was my only trustworthy companion in the wilderness of the West Midlands and of course it came with me back up to Scotland and found another new owner and driver in Ka. I'm hoping it will live on for another year or so at least but you never can tell what's round the corner can you. Especially if it's Ka that reversing round them (joke!).
Talking of my time in the West Midlands, I was telling folk in the office how we used to sing Britney Spears songs in David Bowie voices - the way he would sing them - in the office I worked in down south. Shirley Ann was quite impressed at my Bowie impression of 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'. Felix (my immediate boss [he moves very fast!] in S&UN) and Shirley Ann had been watching the Life on Mars tv series recently on DVD which got us on to the subject of Bowie. Shirley Ann was shocked to find out from Barry that the line 'Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow' was a true lyric to Bowie's 'Life on Mars?'. She had no idea it was part of the real lyrics. Mickey Mouse - the saviour of kids entertainment when he was born, something pure and honest that was exploited and used to make the money, cashing in, becoming the 'cash cow' for Disney. Humanity losing it's purity and morals and Bowie looking for somewhere else, somewhere for hope and a better life. That's what I always took the song to mean anyway. It's also about a girl realising she's gay apparently. "But her mummy is yelling, "No!"
And her daddy has told her to go".
'Life on Mars' was brilliant television, pity it's all over. We've now got the 'Ashes to Ashes' spin off with the lovely Keeley Hawes. Looking forward to a second season of that - whenever that will be. 'Ashes to Ashes' was another great Bowie song. But then again I think they're all pretty damn good. Apart from anything on the 'Tonight' album. He's been very quiet of late. Come on Bowie - get another album out!
Listening to the Vampire Weekend and 'Accelerate' the latest REM. 'Accelerate' is definately their best and most exciting album in a while with some great tracks (well, all of them are great in fact). The 'return to form' is an often over used expression but in this case I reckon it's spot on. Ka's been listening to her Alphabeat album. I got her tickets two weeks ago to go and see them in November. I keep insisting that she doesn't need to take me. I don't mind if she takes one of her friends. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many other takers...