In the meantime though, apologies for anyone I kept waiting, as few as you are

Kev x

So, if you can’t get your digital satisfaction from here, I would highly recommend a checking out a few of the below:

Seth Godin – pithy, and only occasionally annoyingly trite, this is marketing-speak for non-marketing folk

Letters of Note – quite simply the occasional (maybe 3 a week) letter that, for whatever reason, might be noteworthy. From historical or cultural insights, to simple feelgood or WTF moments, the letter collection is brilliantly curated.

THX THX THX – I really like daily or semi-regular doses of whatever I might choose to read, on this one you simply have Leah finding creative ways to say ‘thank you’ for something on a post-it note, each and every day. It looks surprisingly therapeutic, and is a good daily ‘feel-good’ moment.

Hipster Runoff – ridiculous and irreverent, ‘Carles’ makes sharp satire about the music and entertainment industry. Pity his victims. The link gives a good indication of the (enjoyable) normal level of crassness, and is part of his ongoing search for the ‘perfect alt titties’

XKCD – This changed my view and opinion of online comics. Brilliant. Geeky. Brilliant.

I started Wired Festival way back in September 2007 – I ran two floors of entertainment at the Cross Kings – and have been running it yearly ever since.

This will be the smallest festival, and I’m mostly running it as an excuse to catch up and hang out with some of my favourite musicians that I used to play shows with. It’s FREE ENTRY, with the most reasonably priced ale in Finsbury Park, and a damn good Sunday kitchen too.

Featuring music from:

Antonio Lulic
David Goo
Edward Bell
Edward Sheeran
Fiona Bevan
Jonny Taylor
Kal Lavelle
Kevin Molloy
Lindsay West
and
Stephen Long

With more acts to be announced in just a little bit. If you’re free, pop on down!

Basically only telling you about the cafe because I think it’s so wonderful. If you’re ever in that part of the midlands, you should take the (fairly steep) hike to make it up there. They serve *great* food, and by way of water they simply give you a glass and redirect you to the natural spring in the entranceway (fairly unhygienic, but I’m honestly not fussed by that, and easily overcome by the novelty of it all!)

The place initially arose around this spring, and came to middling-fame for the waters’ supposed curative properties. Now it’s just a great place to ramble to, and from, with tiered gardens and seating, and the genuine feeling you’ve left the bustle behind, and found something a bit special. I got a little romantically carried away – blossoms were snowing around us from the wild dandelions of the surrounding hills, I was drinking water that spewed from a natural spring and into a huge marble bowl, sat 200 miles away from London. The cafe wasn’t even on foursquare until I went and spoiled that (still not mayor though – somebody local will presumably get that priviledge).

The cafe is under threat of losing its license though, and so should you know of it, or simply be the petition type, do please sign up at their petition.

On the train back to the big smoke now, but cured of enough stress to actually relish the busy-ness that inevitably creeps in at every corner of London’s angular life. Bit of a weird blog post I suppose. But it’ll come in useful on that one day you accidentally step off the train in Malvern and need to find something interesting to do with the two hours til the next train…

It was an awesome day in London Fields, and a couple of houses around there too. Coffee and croissants galore to keep the crew going – and it was shot on a mixture of the RED cam (awesome!) and a Canon 5D. The ‘chorus’ were genuinely lovely throughout, and the directors (Bee and Livi from Punchdrunk) were brilliant.

Just last month we (rockfeedback) also recorded a session with Johnny Flynn not so long ago. One of the videos (the title track, ‘Been Listening’) is doing the rounds on the net at the moment:

Let me know what you think!

Mumford and Sons at a hoe-down in an out-of-town barn...

When I first came to university (and to London) I started writing for rockfeedback.com – it was a window into the wider music industry, to have CDs posted to me, merely for the benefit of me having a public opinion on them. Writing about music was something that slipped away more and more, and not for any Zappa/Costello/Steve Martin-quoting disdain, but simply because actively filming music and writing/performing music often took over, both in time and attention.

In any case, from time to time I’ll be writing column-pieces or reviews for rockfeedback, and as-and-when I do I’ll cross post them here. I just wrote my first ‘blog’ for them, on the idea of ‘the perfect gig‘, from which my editor (alongside a very odd picture of myself) chose to redact my article to:

“bands should only play awesome shows. i think it’s probably that simple. there’s too much music happening anyway…” – click here to read the whole thing.

Anyhow, only a few months after I’d started running the TV side of things for Rockfeedback I got an email from Simon over at Bella Union (you can read his blog at the link) saying that a few of his bands were in town, and would we like to do something. Chatting it through in the office, I flippantly suggested that we film them at the London Eye. The following day I followed up my flippancy with an email. And two weeks later we took all four bands, one-by-one, into a pod on the London Eye, and filmed the proceedings therein.

It was definitely a lesson to me about how relaxed and easy even a comlicated shoot like this one can be, and about a hundred moralistic sentiments (“you don’t get unless you ask”, “there’s no such thing as a stupid idea”, “don’t speak or you’ll be held to what you say” etc etc). It was also *awesome*. We heard songs from and chatted to The Low Anthem, My Latest Novel, Ohbijou and The Acorn. I also learned a neat trick with a couple of mobile phones, courtesy of The Low Anthem, which they show off in beautiful style too. The vid is just below, you’ll spot my mobile phone, and also my Martin guitar, which three of the bands borrowed for their sessions…

I thought it’d be good to drop a couple of links in here so you could see what I’ve been up to. Obvious bias towards the two bands from the lineup I’ve booked so far! The sessions are every Thursday between 6 and 7pm, just by the Eurostar terminal, inside the station itself. This Thursday sees another IKTOMS acts coming down, in 6 Day Riot – if you happen to be passing by it’s worth dropping in on a free show in one of the odder spaces in London!

Matthew and the Atlas

Ed Sheeran

For more on Ed Sheeran or Matthew and the Atlas click on the links on their names just there… both great acts. Ed and I sat down before the session, and figured out that of the OVER ONE THOUSAND GIGS that he’s done since 15, I’ve put on a full 2% of them, including his first ever show. Sweet.

We spend most of our time, before the act arrives, perfecting minute details. We’re contstantly reshuffling the lights, taping down mic leads, testing room mics, blacking out signs, identifying sources of hums… and then the artist arrives, and the same starts again but down to the tiniest of adjustments on camera positions and light intensity.

After that the session is over before you realise. They play three or four songs, and then we sit them down for what is normally a deep and meaningful (we hope!) conversation about their music, what music is, why it is, where it’s going, yadda yadda…

Anyhow, I’m off to collect the lights, but in the meantime here’s something equally special, made for Nina by somebody else (a very talented someone else) – I love how you never see anybody but Nina actually providing their addition to the song….

Will try to get the Nina session up here once done…

Kev x

It was a huge learning curve, and a huge amount of fun – people remember it fondly even now, and I’d like to think it was a part of bringing together some people who still remain good friends now.

In any case, when my parents mentioned that they’d really enjoyed the IKTOMS gigs I used to run in London, and would have loved to have one on in Cornwall (where they live), I quickly found myself working out a way to get down there and do it. And we’ll be doing exactly that this weekend… myself, Fiona Bevan, Kal Lavelle and Stephen Long are hopping into a rental van and driving to the South-West, where the intention is to sun ourselves in some Cornish coves, write some new songs, and to play a concert on the Saturday night at Wringford Down. I really can’t wait! It’s been a long time since I allowed myself a weekend of free-spirited creativity, so very much looking forward to it.

If you’re not in or around Cornwall this weekend (and I suppose the likelihood is that you’re not) then all four of us will be bringing the show back to Kal’s own night, WE LOVE SUNDAYS, at the World’s End pub in Finsbury Park (not the one in Camden!) on the 9th May, so join us there! If you live further afield then we’re just going to have to up our game… and I’m feeling up for occasional challenges – name your city, town or hamlet and we’ll plan a new IKTOMS tour…

I’ll attempt to post some songs up here when we get back – we’ll be recording the show.

Over and out…