Brainlove Festival: Dad Rocks!

Brainlove Festival is fast approaching, so we thought we’d have a bit of a natter with each artist on the fest’s jam-packed bill, to give a bit of background on everyone of them and to see what they’re looking forward to most about this year’s event. First up is Dad Rocks!, who will be playing their first UK show as a full live band at the festival, this May 26th.

Band leader Snævar Albertsson spoke to us on not giving a damn about music piracy and why his music should be endorsed by Burger King. Have a read below:

Could you introduce a little about yourself first and foremost?

My name is Snævar Njáll Albertsson. I have two kids. I love the internet. And of course, music. Some say I play folk-pop. I say I play guitar.

For people who haven’t seen you live before, what can they expect?

Almost all UK shows so far have been me performing solo, but this time I’m assembling a band based in London, so we can perform the music in full format. This includes trings, brass, piano, drums and more.

Have you played or even been to the Brainlove Festival prior to this year?

Never, ever, ever, ever.

What are you looking forward to most about it?

Probably the performing bit, if I’m to be honest.

Looking at the line-up, who are you excited about seeing live of all the other bands billed?

I’m a big fan of Napoleon IIIrd, Mat Riviere and Tall Stories. Some awesome bands.

How do you find festivals in general? Do you prefer smaller venue shows?

I do like the small venue show formats better for more intimate bands, but I love being able to learn about a lot of new bands during just one day.

Do you enjoy the prospect of people that necessarily aren’t that familiar with your music getting the chance to stumble upon you?

That’s what it’s all about. That’s also one of the many reasons why we encourage sharing. Music piracy doesn’t exist for Dad Rocks!. We have no lost sales, only gained fans.

Could you tell us a little bit about the track you chose to give away as a free download?

It’s about getting most of your time while unemployed, instead of hanging around in front of the TV hating the world. We’re not endorsed by Burger King. Yet.

Other than this fest coming up, what else do you have going on at the moment?

We’re playing a couple of festivals, including No Direction Home. Starting to write new material in May, and hopefully record in August. Mount Modern will be re-released in the UK soon, and we’re doing released in France, Spain and Germany too. In September I’ll head out on tour and will be visiting Germany, France, Spain and UK.

Awesome. Thanks for speaking to us.

Brainlove Festival 2012 takes place on May 26th at Brixton’s Windmill. You can find out the full line-up and more about the event here. and buy tickets for this year’s festivities here.

Sailor & I - Tough Love

Today’s MPfree is a nicely orchestrated piece of gloomy Swedish pop from Sailor & I, who are apparently the subject of some kind of major label bidding war. God help them, then.

Disappearing High St history: five evocative photos of London's empty shop fronts

These shops are gone, and they’re not coming back. Not even House of Pies.

They’re from a Flickr group called Empty Shops, which chronicles disappearing High St history and town centre decay. The photos were taken over the last 4 years, so some of these shop fronts have doubtless already disappeared.

House of Pies, W12. By Emily Webber (@ewebber).

Antiques, Prince of Wales Rd NW5. By Alex_Pink

Free Off Licence, Brixton. By Alex_Pink.

Quint Fashion, Chamberlayne Rd NW10. By Emily Webber.

Empty Shop, London. By Dan Thompson (@artistsmakers).

All photos reproduced from the Empty Shops Flickr group under Creative Commons.

See also – London Shop Fronts

London agenda for Friday 4 May 2012

1. Be at the only place to be this weekend – The Land of Kings Festival [Le Cool]

2. Watch the fantastic End End Cabaret recreate a dark, sexy, and humorous sit down cabaret event on the glamorous 1918 ship HMS President at Torture Garden HMS Kabaret [Run Riot]

3. As one can’t stop the rise in intelligence in birds, then one may as well dance at The Trilogy [Don’t Panic]

4. Meet the bees. Then master them. On top of Fortnum & Mason’s [Ian Visits]

5. See the birds of Roundwood Park Aviary [Tired of London]

Were Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson gay? Let's go back to the original text

Was Sherlock Holmes gay? is a question that has plagued mid-market newspapers and demented internet fansites for the best part of half a decade.

Both the Sherlock Holmes film franchise starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, and the BBC1 series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, have been interpreted as hinting at bromance between the leads.

But what of Arthur Conan Doyle’s text itself? What can the original stories tell us about this vital litero-historical question?

The following quotes are taken verbatim from Dr Watson’s narrations.

The merely suggestive

One day in early spring he (Holmes) had so far relaxed as to go for a walk with me in the Park, where the first faint shoots of green were breaking out upon the elms, and the sticky spearheads of the chestnuts were just beginning to burst into their fivefold leaves. For two hours we rambled about together, in silence for the most part, as befits two men who know each other intimately.

_{The Yellow Face, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes}

Is it just me, or does “the sticky spearheads of the chestnuts” give this passage a unmistakable sexual frisson?

The implicit

I moved my head to look at the cabinet behind me. When I turned again, Sherlock Holmes was standing smiling at me across my study table. I rose to my feet, stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then it appears that I must have fainted for the first and the last time in my life. Certainly a grey mist swirled before my eyes, and when it cleared I found my collar-ends undone and the tingling after-taste of brandy upon my lips. Holmes was bending over my chair, his flask in his hand.

_{The Empty House, The Return of Sherlock Holmes}

In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of shag which I had seen upon the previous night.

_{The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes}

The symbolism here is overwhelming.

The explicit

“What on earth does this mean?” I ejaculated after I had twice read over the extraordinary announcement. Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when in high spirits.

_{The Red Headed League, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes}

No comment.

The elementary

“This gentleman,” said he, with a wave in my direction. “Is it discreet? Is it right?
“Dr Watson is my friend and partner.” [said Holmes].

_{Charles Augustus Milverton, The Return of Sherlock Holmes}

So there you go.

Image – Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Smolensk Embankment, Moscow, from Wikipedia

Further reading:
Telegraph – Robert Downey Jr hints Sherlock Holmes was gay
Pink News – BBC drama hints Sherlock Holmes is gay
Londonist – Map of Sherlock Holmes locations

Annoying habits of Londoners #9: Crossing the road

There isn’t a single person in this city who can honestly claim to be good at crossing the road.

Oh, there are some roads that you find easy to cross, I’m sure. Perhaps you’ve got a little favourite near to where you live. A nice, quiet, tree-lined road where you feel comfortable and safe, whose traffic rhythms you know you can trust. It’s a road you feel you can really express yourself with. You cross it with a confident glance and a masterful stride.

But don’t let this feeling trick you into thinking that you are good at crossing other roads. You’re not. Most of the time, you’re awful.

Observe any crossing on any street, at any hour of any day. You will see the following crimes against personal efficiency:

Sins of misjudgement

• Ambling halfway across with insouciance, then running the remainder for your life.
• Jogging halfway across in panic, then pretending for the remainder that you’re as casual as hell.
• Not crossing because a bus is coming, when it’s actually pulling up short at a stop.
• Being surprised by a cyclist.

Sins of motion

• Jog-walking
• Half-stepping
• Hop-stepping
• Forward-back bobbing
• Left-right shuffling
• Puddle-jumping
• Being distracted by your blasted phone

Sins of button

• Failing to press the button out of a misplaced confidence that a gap in traffic will soon arrive.
• Standing next to an unpressed button so other crossers feel they can’t lean across you and press it.
• Arriving at a crossing where someone is standing next to an unpressed button, and feeling like you can’t lean across them and press it.
• Pressing a button which has already been pressed.

Why did the Londoner cross the road?

They can’t.

See also:
Annoying habits #8 – Keeping spreadsheets of their dates
Annoying habits #7 – Working in a coffee shop
Annoying habits #6 – Finding people dry
Annoying habits #5 – Moaning about the sex after a one night stand
Annoying habits #4 – Dancing along to your own headphones
Annoying habits #3 – Holding the door open
Annoying habits #2 – Being annoyed when strangers gawp at you
Annoying habits #1 – Applauding at the cinema

Photo of the crime scene – Wikipedia

Follow Mike
Twitter: @MikPollitt
Email: michael.pollitt@snipelondon.com

London agenda for Thursday 3 May 2012

1. Watch the 20th century unfold as it happens at the London Archive Film Festival [Le Cool]

2. Watch ‘one of the world’s first IT-contractor-step-parenting-shadow-musicals featuring a live band, animation and songs about supermarkets, steamy beverages and shifty commuters’ at The Adventures of Thunder and Coal [Run Riot]

3. Enter your own social dreaming matrix via Jungian experts Helen Morgan and Penny Pickle at Salon [Flavorpill]

4. Discuss arguably Britain’s first and only example of a ‘black power’ movie with curator and writer David Dibosa at Death May Be Your Santa Claus [Don’t Panic]

5. Learn 10 ways to win a maths bet in the pub [Ian Visits]

6. And listen to Tired of London Vote

Boris Johnson's fire chief spends £1000 on lunch for Tory chums

The man Boris Johnson charged with making huge cuts to London’s Fire Brigade has been slammed for spending thousands of pounds of taxpayers money on lunches for his chums.

The Tory Chairman of the London Fire Authority Brian Coleman, splashed almost £1000 this March on a three course meal, wine and flowers for a group of his fellow London Tories.

Guests included the Tory head of the Local Government Association Sir Merrick Cockell, Tory London Assembly Member Richard Tracey, Brian Coleman himself and another Mayoral appointee.

Waiters served the politicians crab and avocado salad with lemon mayonnaise, chicken served with date and apple stuffing, lemon tart with raspberry coulis and bottles of Neblina Sauvignon Blanc.

The lavish lunch for his fellow Tories was held in the same building as London’s Fire Brigade museum which Coleman has threatened with closure.

Last year Coleman, who is one of the highest paid councillors in the country, spent a further £2000 of taxpayers cash on a retirement meal for one of his colleagues.

Two years ago he was heavily criticised after it emerged that he had accepted a number of lunches and a £350 hamper from the boss of a company later awarded a multi million pound contract by the fire brigade.

A spokesperson for the London Fire Brigade Union said: “It is hugely dispiriting when firefighters see their bosses frittering away large sums of money on slap-up lunches for their political chums. We’ll remember incidents like this the next time they come demanding more cutbacks.”

Labour’s Murad Qureshi said: “Boris Johnson must now justify such expenditure in these austere times when councils and fire authorities have had to make tens of millions of cuts to their services. We are clearly not all in it together.”

When asked at a recent meeting how much the meal had cost, Brian Coleman claimed that he had “not seen the bill.” He added that “I was a little disappointed that Labour Members were not able to attend the lunch, where we fully briefed [Sir Merrick] on a number of very relevant issues.”

A shorter version of this story appears in today’s Daily Mirror

The Evening Standard: even more pro-Boris than in 2008?

On Sunday, the Mayor of London was caught lying in order to avoid an interview with BBC London’s Tom Donovan.

The next day he was booed at a cyclists hustings and told a reporter to “stuff Donovan and his fucking bollocks.”

None of this made the Evening Standard.

They did however find room for a double page spread titled “Johnson: my vision for future of the ‘greatest city on Earth’”

The next day they also found room for several comment pieces backing Boris’s re-election including one from his biographer and good friend Andrew Gimson.

Titled “Boris Johnson’s expletives are livening up the London Mayoral race” it read:

“Boris Johnson has once again shown his ability to talk like a member of the working classes… Here’s a posh boy with the common touch. It’s the sort of thing a market trader or a cabbie might say… Boris’s explosions may betray the fact that he is under enormous pressure, but they have also livened up what could have been a deadly dull campaign.”

The paper also featured endorsements from senior business figures, one of whom said he was backing Boris because Ken “once opened a library” near him.

The paper’s editor (and close family friend of the Johnsons) Sarah Sands wrote in her own editorial that “Boris is a debunker of established power in general and tyranny in particularly” and described him as “a populist who is nevertheless well insulated against megalomania.”

Today’s front page is simply a quote from the Prime Minister saying “I want a Boris in every City – You don’t have to be a Tory to vote Boris”

Now there’s nothing wrong with a newspaper being biased. The Daily Telegraph and the Mail are both biased in favour of the Conservatives.

But the difference with those papers is that they don’t suppress every major story about their favoured party or friends.

If David Cameron were to launch into a sweary rant about Nick Robinson on TV, or get booed at a cyclist hustings after insulting the audience, then they would cover it.

Similarly if the government was involved in a pension scandal, or if one of Cameron’s flagship schemes collapsed then they wouldn’t suppress it.

Sadly the same can no longer be said about the Evening Standard.

And it’s not for a lack of good journalists. People like the paper’s City Hall editor Pippa Crerar and Ross Lydall have done a good job of holding the mayor to account over the years.

But an editorial decision was made at the start of this election campaign to forget their previous apologies and promises and give Boris Johnson as easy a ride as possible.

And in some ways the paper’s coverage of this election has been even worse than in 2008.

Back then the anti-Ken headlines and billboards were over the top but at least Wadley didn’t ignore or downplay every story that was potentially embarrassing for Boris.

And while they vigorously attacked Ken Livingstone, at least then they could claim that they were simply holding the current Mayor to account.

What is their excuse now?

London agend a for 2 May 2012

1. Gin and tantric sex with Angel Shakti [Le Cool]

2. Celebrate one year of Printout with a panel of publishing experts sharing memories of their favourite dead magazines [Run RIot]

3. Visit the intersection of progressive folk and psychedelic rock with Arbouretum and Hush Arbors [Don’t Panic]

4. Remember the War of 1812 and how right-think people burned down the White House [Ian Visits]

5. Wander in Kensal Green Cemetery [Tired of London]