LC!

So in my aim to be like Alex Kapranos and get picked up by The Guardian as a celebrity food critic any suggestions for where to eat would be greatly appreciated.

August
04 New York, NY Webster Hall
05 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
06 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
07 Indianapolis, Bluebird Nightclub
08 Chicago, IL Lollapalooza
11 St. Louis, MO Firebird
12 Kansas City, MO Record Bar
14 Austin, TX Emos Outside
15 Dallas, TX Granada Theatre
16 Houston, TX Warehouse (Studio)
19 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad
20 Tucson, AZ Club Congress
21 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre
22 Pomona, CA Glass House
23 Costa Mesa, CA Detroit Bar
25 Las Vegas, Nevada Beauty Bar
26 Visalia, CA Howie And Sons Pizza
28 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands Festival
29 San Diego, CA Street Scene

Thank you.

So this is quite a pointless review as Harry Potter came out a bit ago so some of you will have already seen advance/normie screenings of it, and my faltering memory from the screening I saw is filled with crevices and cracks where a solid opinion use to be, however we shall endeavor…

I went to the first screening of the film anywhere ever in the world (apart from when it was initially finished and the director and actors might have sat down for some tea/ biscuits and a quick peak.)

My friend got these golden tickets in case he felt the urge to review it for his work and I tagged along, however this did not diminish from my own sense of self importance as I handed in all my electrical goods, received my tattoo transfers and took my squished seat in the packed and slightly smelly cinema. As we waited for an hour and half for everyone to hand in their possessions I invented a magazine in my head to review it for, it was called ” Stuff+Things” and came out four times a day. It’s appeal was the free wham bar or hair scrunchie attached to the front, much like in the innocent days of Bunty and Beano.

Before the film started a nervous and large busted woman came out to introduce the feature, she asked for reviews not to be posted before the red carpet shin dig and informed us we were so bloody special that we were getting an exclusive preview of the “Sherlock Holmes” and “Where the Wild Things Are” trailers as well! (One already available on the internet, the other directed by Guy Ritchie)

Firstly LOL

Secondly: This classic Arthur Conan Doyle character has been transformed into a winking cheeky protagonist with witty one liners who shags around, is a bit naughty, but we love him for it… oh wait it’s Robert Downey Junior in nearly every role ever. I love the man, I do, but is he is as funny as I want to think he is? Also it’s a Guy Ritchie film so it seems to have been filmed in “cockney gangster” vision, with some poetic license. I am assuming he is going to do a Jane Eyre film in which she is dressed in leather with numchucks with the tag line ” They underestimated her, now she is back. For Blood” Then she goes and kills all the nuns at her school before having a epic ten minute battle sequence with the mad wife in the attic.

Where The Wild Things Are looks great, everyone knows this.

Harry Potter. Well… I kind of forgot what happened in this particular book until about ten minutes in, and then I realised it was the stop gap snogging and untimely death book. This was the film in which not a huge amount happened in the book up until the very end where, you know, old beardy goes to the great wizard palace in the sky… with that in mind I found it ultimately a bit (dull).

Don’t get me wrong, the cinematography and effects were swarth, with Yates being one of the better Potter directors in terms of vision, but with no Voldemort and a slow build up to what we all knew was coming it just wasnt that fascinating. Plus it was the book in which the teenagers get it on with each other, which I found a little bit uncomfortable and stilted, it seemed they were trying to make it a bit sexual (with some mince pie feeding) but it was just really cringeworthy, with the actors themselves seeming like they were too firm friends to even pretend they suddenly developed feelings for each other.

Also there were some phallic bits with wands between legs and a guy trying to seduce Hermione by licking chocolate off his fingers… it seemed all the teenage angsty drama (i.e Hermione jealous of Ron) was a odd juxtaposition to the peril danger and peoples houses burning down (which was a bit random in itself), and so it never seemed to quite fit or be anything but a weird distraction. Maybe it’s just really hard to think of the three heroes as having libido’s I don’t know…. or maybe it was because the elements of darkness worked so well, that the light fluffy stuff felt forced. The positive parts of the film are Yate’s willingness to divulge in these darker parts of the book, such as Harry and Draco (who is brilliant) having a particularly gruesome fight, and the quite traumatic Horcrux search BUT there needed to be much much much more of it. Overall it is ok, there is not as much concentration on the Half Blood Prince part as the title would suggest and I can’t remember why it is important when you find out who it is anyway, but there is more of a focus on matters outside of Potter which help develop the plot faster i.e set pieces which hint at Draco’s mission throughout.

The end scene didn’t move me at all as Radcliffe can not really cry/act comfortably with Grint being the only seemingly natural actor out of the three, and once again vital changes from the book to film leave the finale puzzling…. but then again other people may love it, so this is just my limited opinion as someone who thought they took the most boring elements of the book, brought it to screen, missed out the more essential plot strands and made me a bit sleepy. Kemode liked it. I feel us drifting apart.

ellen x

What have you been doing?

People often enquire “what do you guys do when you’re not on tour or recording?”. The short answer is: “rewatch DVD box sets and sink further into alcoholism”, but also, 3 or 4 times a week I take it upon myself to WORK.

I work with my Father at a nearby cemetery cutting grass, tending graves, cutting back hedgerows and that. ‘Gardening’, basically I suppose.

I really enjoy doing this, for a number of reasons. Flouncing around onstage (and boy do I flounce) can be more than a little emasculating at times, so to come off tour and wield chainsaws and all manner of petrol driven machinery makes me feel a little more macho.

I think my preoccupation with death and human decay became reasonably apparent on WAB,WAD, and for our coming record, a lot of lyrics and song ideas were conceived whilst working on the cemetery. There’s one whole song that takes place in the graveyard amongst the headstones and undergrowth. I’m unsure if it’s cathartic or destructive to spend time in this environment. But if it’s creative, who am I to argue.

One notable thing about the graveyard I work at is that it’s the burial site of some ancestors of Nelson. Often people will find their way here looking to fill in some historical gaps. I’m from a pretty small town and a lot of the stones bear very familiar surnames. Of people I went to school with, or family friends. Until about a year ago the cemetery was completely untended and allowed to become completely out of control, with a lot of the graves completely covered. It was also a hotbed off syringes and used needles. It’s pretty rewarding to come away from the cemetery, it looking a whole lot tidier and more peaceful than when we arrived.

So, yeh, just a small insight into the glamorous life of an off duty popstar. And a slight glimpse into one of the lyrical themes of our coming record.

Unless you have been living under a proverbial rock you will be aware that SFX released a vampire special this month and although it is a tad pricey, it’s worth getting your mits on for the Buffy mouse pads and very long and detailed interview with James Marsters. James a.k.a Spike was voted the number one vampire by the good readers of the magazine, which is a fair assesment. The top ten seemed pretty spot on if it wasn’t for Selena from Underworld being in there, but the commentry on her was “I SO WOULD PHWWWOAR” rather then a intricate reflection of her fanged antics… at least Robert Pattison’s placing in the top 50 had the pull out quote “When you read the book it’s like “Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself”"

In honour of this I have made a Top Ten Six Werewolf list

6. Professor Lupin: Isn’t it weird that his last name is a deviation of the latin word for wolf like AND he is a wolf?! It’s like those people whose last names are Pratt and they are pratts! Oh Miss Rowling, your subtlety never fails to amaze me…

5. The cast of Dog Soldiers: This British horror film is a favorite of myself and Ollie’s, and the name summarizes the film better then I ever could… It’s mindless, stupid, entertaining, and better then Severance so bonus.

4. Joanie in Cursed: This film directed by Wes Craven is a thinly veiled lesson in safe sex, with the werewolfness being spread by Joshua Jackson’s unprotected penis. Myself and Alek saw it in the cinema and felt the line uttered by the character Joanie “I guess there is no such thing as safesex with a werewolf” was wonderful. Plus it’s the only film I have seen with a werewolf giving Christina Ricci the middle finger.

3. Michael Sheen in the Underworld trilogy: Technically he is only in one and two, but because he can act proper and that he manages to make the films half decent. Plus this film is about the forbidden love between a vampire and a werewolf which we have all pondered over and contains a particularly impressive sex scene over the edge of a cliff.

Look how much fun he is having.

2. OZ! When I was younger I really liked Seth Green and all I wanted in my life was a small ginger boy with black nail varnish who played guitar to sweep me off my feet, I was what you might call “emo” and “living in a fantasy world of my own creation.” Anyway, due to this affliction I was rather invested in his and Willow’s love.

I was impressed with how they dealt with him being a wolf and Willows little fling with Xander and I cried my little heart out when that EVIL SLUT Veruca teased him away with her werelady charms.

1. Brigette and Ginger in Ginger Snaps: This film is about two nerdy death obsessed sisters and is a thinly veiled (aren’t they all!) metaphor for going through fun puberty, where one of them literally gets “The Curse” but thinks it is just her hormones or a really bad period rather then because a werewolf bit her. It’s a good twist on the werewolf genre, and is maybe like Heathers but with Wereladies.(Oh and the second one is set in Pagan times, and isn’t very good.)

p.s I went to see the first ever screening of the new Harry Potter film last friday in London and Simon Mayo was there, but sadly no Mark Kemode. However, I will give a little review of it after the premiere on Tuesday as well as covering myself with the free Harry Potter transfer tattoos I got.

Ellen x

This weekend we played our sole European festival of this year in Lisbon, Portugal. This was our first ever show in Portugal, so was exciting for that reason alone. It was also a rare situation where we arrived in the city the day before the gig, so we actually had time to do stuff and see sights, which was a rare and very welcome treat. Here are some snaps and notes on the weekend.

We departed from Bristol airport on Friday morning. This meant leaving Cardiff at 4:40AM. Myself and Neil had slept for just a single hour. In hindsight, it seems we may still have been drunk by the time we checked in.

Ollie’s had a haircut and looks really buff(er) as a result. I described him as looking like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, which, as the above photo attests, is completely accurate. Here Ollie is watching Late Of The Pier play and giving a “thumbs up” gesture to the words “Super Bock” behind him. Super Bock is a Portugese lager, popular with English football hooligans, like ourselves. We allowed our song Death To Los Campesinos! to be used in an advertisment for it. This works out really well for everybody involved, because
a) We get a bit of dosh, and people in Portugal have hard of us, so we get to do this festival.
b) Super Bock gets a top quality pop tune to go on its advert
c) You get to see this picture of Ollie.

The next day, prior to our pop concert, a group of five of us set off into Lisbon to see the sights and get sun burnt. Usually I don’t like sight seeing, I prefer Football Manager, but I had some big transfer deadline based decisions to mull over, and thought the fresh air would do me some good. Here, I can be seen posing with a big poster advertising Cristiano Ronaldo. I believe it was a succesful advertising campaign as he has, of course, been sold. Note that I am mimicking Ollie’s above pose.

We walked for ‘bloody miles’ in the search of Lisboa’s castle. When we arrived, we stopped at a lovely little cafe for sustenance. Ollie, Tom and Neil had a custard tart each. See above.

We walked past a house which had this little bird cage nailed to the side of it. Lovely stuff. This is something I’d definitely like to see more of.

The castle was home to some incredible views. Well worth the blagged two and a half Euro entry, thanks to our expired Student cards.

This is Ollie stood next to a sunflower. I’m very lucky that Ollie is always very happy to humour my near constant requests that he pose for photos.

After that, we walked down to the sea, which was absolutely beautiful tbqh.

On the way back, after the metro ride, we saw a poster with our name on it. As you can see, the line up on our day was sadly rather uninspired. I would have liked to have seen Lykke Li and Black Eyed Peas, but in the end I was far too drunk/tired to stick around. Mainland Europe parties far too late for me.

Our concert was a lot of fun. We played a lot better than we should have, considering the minimal practise time we had before hand, and the crowd was incredibly lovely. Got some good football banter in during the set, we totally hammed up the Super Bock business, and my foot went through the stage. Saw something similar on 999 once and the fella lost his leg, so I got off lightly, al in all.

This morning, at a civilised time, for a change, we flew back to Bristol. Ellen’s a big kinder egg fan. She bought a three pack, and this was one of her gifts. Whilst I was taking this photograph, the arriving flight disembarked and from it emerged CARDIFF CITY FOOTBALL CLUB!! Serious. Whilst I was taking this photo, Tom was laughing because apparently some ginger lad who plays for them gave me a dirty look, either for sitting on the floor, or taking this photo, or for not being ginger, I assume. Couldn’t say. Anybody know who he might have been?