A Silent Film: Digital Album Launch, Sept 22, 2008

After three successful single releases, A Silent Film appeared for their digital album launch last night at the interesting venue of the All Saints shop near Liverpool Street. The Oxford quartet played a short set of tunes from their debut album; The City that Sleeps including their singles; 'Thirteen Times the Strength', 'Sleeping Pills', and 'You Will Leave a Mark' as well as their popular ambiant cover version of Underworld's 'Born Slippy'. Using piano and a great mix of melodic harmonies their performance was not short of brilliant and their style of delivery is intense. Speaking with each member of the band (Stevenson, Jones, Hussain and Walker) it is very pleaseing to see that they are all very friendly down to earth!

A Silent Film are set to release their Sam Williams (Supergrass, The Noisettes) produced debut album 'The City that Sleeps' on October 6, 2008.

23rd September – Guildhall, Southampton
24th September – The Forum, London
25th September – Manchester Academy, Manchester
27th September – Glasgow Academy, Glasgow
28th September – Newcastle Academy, Newcastle
29th September – Sheffield Academy, Sheffield
1st October – Bristol Academy, Bristol
3rd October – Birmingham Academy, Birmingham



Robert Stevenson; Vocals/Piano

Lewis Jones (Guitar)


Robert Stevenson and Spencer Walker (Drums)

Pukkelpop!

It has been a long while since I last blogged as I haven't been on any travels or tasted any beer worth mentioning!! But here I am reporting on Pukkelpop - a pop music festival in Belgium.

Having arrived on Wednesday evening to Amsterdam airport I was met by Anja and whisked away to the small town of Hasselt but the festival was in a village on the outskirts of Hasselt called Kievit. Getting over my jet lag in one night was a challenge but I think I did it as the festival started the next day on Thursday 14th. The weather was really nice for all three days - we were very lucky!


We saw many bands and here are the ones I think are worth mentioning:

Thursday 14th August

The Pigeon Detectives were not as good as I hoped. I didn't know many of their songs but they didn't have such a great stage presence.


One Night Only are a band I've only recently liked, they are pretty young and again they don't really have 'it' yet I think!! But they weren't bad my any means.

Next up was Ian Brown - I was really looking forward to this as I never saw the Stone Roses perform. He was really good, a bit cocky though but I guess he would be seeing how famous he is. He even sang a Stone Roses song which was unexpected!


The Editors were good - I saw them at Glastonbury last year and they didn't dissapoint me this time either. I really like their live performances.

I came across a band called Mercury Rev which sounded really good and I'd like to look into them further.

After sleeping under a tree for two hours I saw the Killers play at 12.30am - 1.30am. It was so stupid to put them at that time becuase they were one of the headlining acts and it being the first night I was half asleep!! Maybe I'm just lame but it felt really badly placed. They did a fantastic performance though as I'd never seem them before.




Friday 15th August

We went into the towon of Haseelt on this day as we needed a bit of a break from the loud noises!


But next we saw the Stereophonics. I didn't realise that they were so popular as it turned out I knew more than half their songs! I really enjoyed this one :)

I'd heard that Within Temptation were not very good live but they dress up and do a nice show. I like some of their songs and the performance was pretty good. I thought the video effects were a little wanky though!!!

The main headlining act for Pukkelpop 2008 was Metallica. They were lost on me though because the style of music was a little off centre from the rest of the bands that played Pukkelpop. Since I'm not a fan I sat back and dranks some beers in the background and listened from a distance!

I got a henna tattoo that day and there was the most adorabe kid getting in the way!!


Satruday 16th August

The Wombats were on the Main Stage which I wasn't surewas the best idea but they played the part. The Plain White T's were next and I don't know them well at all but I found them really good!

I was very impressed also by the 'Special Beer' Tent! They were selling Wiekse Witte as well as Grimbergen and other tasties that weren't Maes! And it was the same price - yay!

Lastly came the band I had waited for the entire festival - and also the last few years to see; the Manic Street Preachers. They were as good as I had hoped and I'm so glad I saw them. They played a lot of old stuff which was great and a few new songs which everyone likes as well. And I was so impressed with Nicky Wire - he looks so happy to be on stage doing what he does!





All in all Pukkelpop was a great success and I'm so glad to have gone! It was a long drive home that night as we left a little early before the festival had ended but I got to see the Manics and we'd had enough of camping by then! Very happy!!

DJ Tiësto: Elements of Life Tour in Melbourne!

Hallo allemaal! I had the pleasure of being at DJ Tiësto's gig last night; Thursday May 1. I paid a lot for the ticket and wondered what kind of night I would have there. I was very excited the whole week as he (his real name is Tijs Verwest) is my favourite DJ/trance composer. I only found out about DJ Tiësto a year ago when I was in France. I bought his Elements of Life album from FNAC in July 2007 and fell in love with all of his work. I could not make it to any of his Elements of Life Europe tour so I was very happy to see him in Melbourne.

I was pleasantly surprised and my expectations were more than exceeded. Festival Hall was not very packed as I think the Thursday was the least favourable of all his four gigs in Melbourne so there was lots of room to dance and nicely packed at the front! His set started at 8.20pm and he had no break like I thought he would! He played until after 12 and I was dancing for almost four hours!!! His music alone and DJing inspires so much energy in the crowd no matter how far away you are. It was a truly amazing experience and one I will not forget.

For all things Tiësto, go here.





PS. At the bar there were selling Coopers Lager in a can!

Biffy Clyro

It has been a long time since I last blogged, and what better way than to start than with a gig!! Last Tuesday night I went to the Hi Fi Bar and Ballroom to see the famous Scottish trio Biffy
Clyro. After discovering Biffy Clyro while I was in England with their famous song, 'Everything is a problem because everything dies', I found that I liked their latest CD; Puzzle.

However their live gig performance proved to be a little more heavy than their CD had reflected! The songs were good but they didn't really do much singing! And after starting their third song, Simon stopped playing in the middle of the song and he said that he had to fix their guitar sound!! And they all walked off!!! I was very unimpressed!! They came back and continued from where they left off and the rest of the gig was pretty good. Simon played a nice acoustic version of Machines.

Melbourne from a different angle

Hi everyone! I've been back in Melbourne for over a month now. After my trip to England I really see Melbourne in a new light so I thought I'd share some photos with you.

On Christmas Day I had a picnic in Queen Victoria Gardens and it was a really nice day.


For New Year's I went into the city and watched the fireworks. It was quite busy but not as busy as the London fireworks!


Recently I was talking to someone about some streets and how they got their names, specifically the well known Hoddle Street. A few days later when I was exploring the new extended area of the Docklands near Southern Cross station, I found a plaque commemerating Robert Hoddle; and found out that he was the surveyor in charge of the Port Phillip District in early 1837, and he chose this location as the Point of Origin for the Survey of Melbourne.


It's just a short walk from a nice lookout point of the Bolte Bridge.

In other news I completed my RSA (Responsible Serving of Alcohol) Certificate so I can legally work in a bar now, yay!