Sunday the 16th of December was to be the day that I trundled home after my university term had finished, but a couple of days previous, my sister had contacted me and told me that I should come and see The Pan I Am playing free somewhere in Camden and if that wasn't enough of an incentive, it was free aswell. (Just to point out here, for those who don't know, The Pan I Am is a band formed by ex-Larrikin Love lead man, Ed Larrikin.)
Of course I thought that this was a great idea, Larrikin Love were one of my favourite bands and having only seen them twice before the split I didnt want to throw up this chance. So the morning came and I packed my bags and realised.. bugger I'm gonna have to take all my bags to the gig, but this didn't stop me, I went down anyway.

So i got to the Lock Tavern, to find that to my surprise it was not just the Pan I Am playing but also, the Metros, 2 members of the View and the Magic Numbers, a less useful surprise was that the gig did not actually start until 5:30 when my sister forced me to get there by 2:30. That was ok though, we took an expedition up to the the less market-like parts of camden and even when into a large morrisons where we sat and ate a late lunch consisting of sandwich, crisps and salad, all of which were a little off, but for £1.69 I couold hardly complain. We made our way back to the pub for about 4:30ish and sat down and waited. Soon enough Ed Larrikin came in and to our delight so did Drew McConnel, the bassist from Babyshambles. Me being me I couldn't let this opportunity go so I had a photo. When I asked them for a photo, first Ed said ok and tryed to move out of the way so I could have a phto with drew but then I said no and dragged ed back in and drew tried to walk off but I said No again and dragged them both in with me. Ed unfortunately had his eyes closed and after complained of the light being too bright (I think he was stoned) but apart from that another great photo for my collection.

We sat back down and conversed, waiting for the first band, The Metros to come on, Little did we know, they were actually playing in the room upstairs. the acoustics must be very good in there because we had no idea this was happening. So we missed that and thus were sitting around doing relatively little until 6:30 when the band showed life and by 7 they had started playing.

As far as the Pan I Am go they were pretty good. The band consisted of a violinist, a cellist, drew mcconnell and ed larrikin and a man on the marracas. They played a few songs which i hate to admit I didn't at all know but I enjoyed thouroughly especially one song which I am informed is called something about Lucifer. Unfortunately due to the situation I found myself in with the bags and Caroline had some home work to be getting on with (ahh little sister still being at school) we decided to leave and thus not see the two members of the view nor the Magic Numbers who I am sure both put on a stirling performance. So we trecked off back to the tube station and made our way home.

A very enjoyable performance despite my less than gig-like apparel. I shall be seeing them again with less baggage.

And that is that for my Pan I Am blog, it was a little bit of a kop-out as I just adapted my 'last.fm' review into a more blog-worthy state. anyone who hasn't yet, join last.fm it is amazing. anyway ta-rah for now

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This may not have been one of the fashionable summer festivals but for people like me, who like a non-stop selection of indie that hasn't quite made it into the mainstream, it was immense.

Day 1
The first act that I really stopped and watched properly was Blood Red Shoes after I had heard that they were good and although not bad they sounded a bit too much like The Subways for me.
Next it was Pull Tiger Tail who again were decent but nothing particularly special.
Then off to 2nd stage to see the Foals.. these were pretty dissapointing I thought (this review is beginning to sound like i didnt enjoy it but it gets better now)
On the main stage next was Kate Nash, an artist who I had wanted to see for a while and she put in a stirling performance. The only downfall to her set was the timing, I unfortunately had to miss out on seeing most of Lethal Bizzle but luckily I did manage to catch 2 or 3 of his songs on second stage, including the amazing Pow! and a cover of House of Pain's Jump Around
I stayed in the second stage for one of the main reasons i went to the festival, The Holloways who once again were amazing, every time I see them the number of people who really seem to enjoy them rises, especially when generator comes on. Having seen them 6 times now I am still wanting more, another clash of timing though happened during this, I had to miss out on The Pipettes who I had really wanted to see but I just had to see the Holloways
Next on second stage were the New Young Pony Club, who i managed to bag a photo with earlier in the day, playing a solid set which included most if not all the tracks from their album Fantastic Playroom, it is quite amazing the energetic dancing of the lead singer Ty, she is quite awesome.
And finally on day 1 was Supergrass who I watched from a way back as I dont know much of their new stuff but nevertheless I enjoyed their performance.

Day 2
Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man were the first band I saw on day 2 and although not really knowing much about them I did like the band that two of the members were in before hand Les Incompetence. And they didnt dissapoint with their very charismatic front man and good selection of songs including a cover of a song by the farm.
Then quickly yo the Main stage to see Hot Club De Paris who although were quite enjoyable, not knowing many of the songs I didnt find particularly inspiring.
After on the main stage were the Noisettes who despite me not knowing much about were very impressive and I will deffinitely be checking out more from them.
This succesion of artists was my longest stay in one part of the fields for the entire festival, Milburn were the next band on the main stage and despite technical difficulties and in my opinion too many songs off the as of yet unreleased new album and not enough of the old songs that made them one of my top bands of last year, they still provided a very good performance.
The Maccabees followed and gave a very good performance and although I think they are a good band, their single Precious Time for me is the only song that really stands out, I left their set 5 minutes early to rush over to the second stage.
This was because Kid Harpoon was playing, my third time seeing him but the first with his backing band, The Powers that be and they deffinitely gave the performance a very different feel, not better nor worse but different, this performance was one of my highlights of teh festival having never heard the great songs such as milkmaid and late for the devil with a backing group.
I headed back over to the main stage to catch The Rakes who were unsurprisingly very good, with the strange dancing and banter of lead man alan donohoe just adding to the experience
And finally Patrick Wolf coming on late dressed in the weirdest concoction of clothing and make-up Ive seen for a while was excellent, in fact much better than I was expecting, I have always just thought of him as a pretencious, cocky man with some talent and he is pretencious and cocky and VERY talented but also does put on a great show and clearly enjoys himself whilst doing so and through his performance gained me as a fan.

All in all a very good festival, at least 9 if not 10 out of 10, my personal highlights being The Holloways, Kid Harpoon and Patrick Wolf

Today saw my debut on essex student radio station Red AM which can be listened to:

www.myspace.com/redam1404 or

http://essexstudent.com/media/redradio/

 I would be lying if I said that it was my full radio debut, that happened in my cub scout days when I starred on the infamous Thames radio.. I believe all I said was hello I am Anthony and I am the sixer of blue six, but nevertheless it is the start of my rise to fame.

So anyway as I was saying, today I guessed starred on 'The In Joke' a radio show hosted by my good friends Alex Hammond and Michael Crispin between the hours of 12 and 2 on sunday afternoons, do tune in. I went to the studio very excited and not at all nervous despite the number of rules I had been told that I couldnt break on punishment of death. The show started and we were off to a bad start a technical hitch after the end of the first song but it only improved. The main areas that I feel essential to point out are firstly, my choice of 5 songs that I was made to do and explain.. this was my own segment of the show and I picked some classic tunes for the occasion:

The Libertines - Dont look Back into the sun

The Holloways - Generator

Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life

the MACARENA

Kid Harpoon - The Milkmaid

This was not my only participation though as I frequently interupted the hosts talking with pointless talking, but the funniest bits of the show were deffinately the slip ups which were usually on Mikes part. The first one he decided to say lets have a bash down the microphone just before starting the bright eyes song and then later he told us to gag him up and throw him in the corner.. now to you clean minded people out there these may seem like perfectly harmless terms but we were cracking up with laughter. I also did manage to question if my sister was actually my sister.. ah the things you say on radio.

And that was it for my guest appearance, I am now thinking of getting my own radio show because it was honestly one of the most fun things I have done since getting to University and it didnt involve alcohol - and now for something a lot less fun.. essay writing so bye readers

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