If it's quiet on here, it's only because I'm busy out there. I always found the majority of bloggers suspicious, because if your life's that interesting, when the heck are you going to get a chance to write about it?

Of course, there are exceptions.

I was gutted that Akira the Don didn't get a national chart entry on Sunday. I don't know where Clones ended up, but I do know that I lost another pinch of my already hugely diminished faith in the British record buying public.

Apart from you lot, of course...

ha ha ha!

Don't bite the hand that feeds you, Walton...

The 'hand that feeds me' would, hopefully, be holding something a little more doughnut-shaped.

We've been working on an outside broadcast in Aberdare for some time in February. I say, "We"... I haven't done anything other than annoy my superiors [soz, Al!] and make a handful of phonecalls. I love doing OB's - Murry the Hump in Central Station, Mo ho bish o pi at the Big Buzz in Cardiff, Melys in Wrexham, Weapons of Mass Belief and Skinflick on Holyhead, Jarcrew in the Pop Factory, the Pipettes and David Wrench at Rhyl Town Hall, and the Caves in Bar Blu in Rhyl... and they're just the ones I remember!

Listen to me with my unhinged, excessive, rock 'n' roll lifestyle...

The trouble is, outside broadcasts - especially when you're working with ambitious, unsigned bands - can cause more trouble than they're worth. Take our visit to Holyhead back in February. The local musicians - with a handful of exceptions - didn't see the wisdom in making the effort on a Sunday night to come over to their local venue and check out a band [Weapons of Mass Belief] who they could have learnt a hell of a lot from... no, because they weren't the local band who were picked to be on the bill, they decided to boycott it.

Weapons of Mass Belief drove up to Holyhead on a wind and rain-blasted February day, all the way from London, to an audience you could have fitted into a phonebox - comfortably - and didn't moan or complain once.

Their professionalism was almost as impressive as their performance.

New bands, keen bands and eager bands can learn a fuck of a lot from an attitude like that...

So, when we go to Aberdare, I want to make sure that we do something that will benefit all of the local musicians, not just the ones who get a chance to win one of the three slots that will be available during the show itself.

Maybe some workshops, or something...

hmmm!

Apparently, BBC Wales are already planning something that involves Stuart Cable and a band competition [to win some studio time]... which, you know, is very worthwhile, and it's great to see another show on Radio Wales doing something for new bands... but it's not something that I would - necessarily feel comfortable being involved in...

Battles of the bands [how do you pluralise that?] - however you dress them up - rarely, if ever, reward the best bands... quite the opposite!

It's easy to criticise, though.

I need to think of something different and better.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Courtesy of Al the 'D' Daulby, I got to watch Lost right up to the end of the first season yesterday morning.

I cannot get over how good it is.

Cunningly plotted, brilliantly acted [why are American TV actors so much better than the ones that get churned out of our drama schools?], and with a real sense of drama about it.

I know that it has no foundation in reality. I know that it simply plays on my need to have a myth to 'believe in'... but, while it lasts, Wow! what a myth...

Now I have to wait until next Summer [I think] for the start of season 2.

No wonder people resort to bit torrents...

What am I doing typing this when I could be downloading that?

And, on the subject of television... I found
this story linked to from Akira the Don's website... Sky, making the Prisoner? [my favourite piece of television, ever]... it's a nightmare... but it's a nightmare I'll have to deal with tomorrow... with some very scary pictures indeed.

You have been warned... Back to the top of the page...