I was going through some old records last night and it made me think of this video of Paul Mawhinney’s music collection. The video has been doing the rounds for the last month or so but I remember reading about it at the start of the year when he was trying to sell it on eBay and I presumed that it had actually sold and was in safe hands, but apparently not. A $3m bid fell through and as far as I can work out, the collection is still for sale.. Surely someone wants to buy it(?) DJ Shadow? Premier? Dre? If I had a few milli to spare, I’d happily snap it up.

Anyway, the video is only short, and worth a watch if only to get a vague idea of what a couple of million pieces of vinyl in the same place looks like. Crazy.

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

More about the story here, or on google.

4 words that have the initials R, A, T and M.
You’re a fool if you can’t fill in the blanks.

As pretty much the only reason I wanted to go, Rage Against The Machine were always going to the highlight for me, and while there was a risk that they’d be a letdown because I was looking forward to it so much - they weren’t. Just amazing. My only complaint (apart from the lack of volume that afflicted everybody on the main stage) is that we could’ve/should’ve tried to get closer to the front because we seemed to end up in a patch of people who were happy to stand with their arms crossed and only appeared to know Killing In The Name. Eejits. Bouncing around to Know Your Enemy, Sleep Now In The Fire and Guerrilla Radio, we must’ve looked a tad odd to the statues behind us but it’s Rage for fucks sake.. etiquette and inhibitions had no place there. The whole set was great, and featured everything you’d expect right through to the rant during Wake Up (although really, surely it’s getting too late to mention Bush & Blair?). It’d be hard to single out highlights, but coming out and doing Bombtrack in the jumpsuits was loco, and the Freedom/Killing In The Name encore was fever pitch.

Epic. Definitely one to remember.

It’s a bit shit that the band have a ‘no filming’ policy going on because it means that for video footage, you have to resort to shaky hand cam stuff on youtube. Like this.

Rage aside, we managed to catch a few other bands across the Friday and Saturday. Worth a mention; Manic Street Preachers, Justice and Dizzee Rascal. Slightly mentionable; Queens of The Stone Age, The Ting Tings, The Killers, Bloc Party, Jack Penate, The Wombats, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, Hifi Handgrenades and Santogold. Utterly forgettable; Editors, Ida Maria, The Subways, The Enemy, The Fratellis, countless other ‘The’ bands. I’m sure there were other people worth seeing but as I’ve said before, it’s not really my ’scene’ so I’m not really fussed. But I did have lots of (mostly Rage inspired) fun. Good times.

Wu-Tang to headline next year(?)

(plenty of photos/video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/)

I’m not sure if I really should admit this but I went to see High School Musical Live at the Hammersmith Apollo last weekend. And it was fun. There. I’ve said it. So what(?) If I say that it had some breakdancing in it does that make it better?

I really don’t think I’m the target demographic for something like that, and based on a quick scan of the audience there, I’d be about 95% right. However, there were a handful of other people like us who presumably were just there because it seemed like an entertaining way to spend a Saturday night that would have otherwise probably descended into watching the X-Factor or more Olympics.

My point for coming out with this (no homo) is just to say that despite the kiddie-centric theme of the show, it deserves kudos for being an incredibly slick operation. I’ve been to tonnes of other theatre based entertainment forms but few that were put together so seamlessly with so much going on. It was no Illyria but still, mad props (literally and figuratively). I suppose that’s what you expect from a massively-invested-in international smash hit Disney thing. Also, it never ceases to amaze me how much energy some people have; jumping and singing and smiling like a loon must really take it out of you.

So yeah, it was fun. It goes on a vaguely national tour soon I think so if you’re comfortable with your sexuality, go and see it. Oh, and it’s got Letitia Dean in it. Superstar. What more could you want?!

Spent the weekend just gone in gay Paree and had lots of fun. It’s slightly odd that I’d not really been before (except as a very very young child) considering it’s a mere 40 minute flight away from Southampton (or a painstaking 6 hour flight/coach home via Birmingham - but the less said about that the better). Thankfully, the weather pretty much held out and we did the whole tourist thing in fairly decent sunshine and almost no rain. By ‘tourist thing’ I mean, queuing to get up the Eiffel Tower, queuing to get into Notre Dame and queuing to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre amongst other things it was fun. Most of the sights are within walking distance, but we ended up getting the metro to most places after the first day. Probably one of the nicest/easiest public transport systems I’ve ever been on. Good stuff.

Venturing into cafes for brunch or a quick pit stop occasionally only served to remind me how bad my French is but we got by with some really nice (if not a tad overpriced) meals. I’m so so so glad we never actually got ’round to ordering Steak tartare though. Ewww.

A selection of photos from the thousand or so that I took will be up on Flickr in dribbles over the next week or so, so have a look over there for the goodness. Til then, enjoy the 1 that’s attached to this post. Les parcs à Paris sont magnifiques!

You may have noticed a slightly longer gap in posting than normal.. Or you might not have. But there was a gap, due to the fact that I’ve been in Sicily for a couple of weeks, and since I returned I’ve been tottering about catching up with stuff. It’s strange how such a relatively small break can cause such a ridiculous back up of things that need doing.

Anyway, I’m back now. Photos coming as soon as I get around to sorting through them

Let the summer fun continue..

During what proved to be a overly busy weekend traveling around Southern England, we also hopped on the train to go to the London Taste Festival on Saturday. While the weather wasn’t quite as nice as you’d've expected on the Summer Solstice, at least it didn’t rain - so the afternoon walking around Regents Park eating random foods was actually rather splendid.

I really don’t even remember half of what I ate but somewhere along the line there were scallops, fish and chips, curry, marmite crackers, strawberries, fondue, prawns, pie, spitroasted pig and Onken yogurt. Not to mention an abundance of free samples of wine/beer and various nibbles. It was great. You have to pay for the food using ‘crowns’ (1 crown = 50p), and most dishes were around the 8 crown mark so it’s not massively cheap but not at all expensive. Definitely worth it to try things cooked by all those fancy chefs in restaurants you hear about or walk past but could never afford to go to. We even saw Gary Rhodes and Angus Deyton so I can finally tick the ‘been-to-london-and-seen-a-famous-person’ box.

The Bath event is next week and then it’s in Birmingham the week after before hitting the rest of the country again next year. We’ll almost certainly be going again and if you even remotely like food, you should too.

Regular readers should know by now that I’m a fan of Atmosphere. They’re easily my favourite group, and my last.fm profile proves it. I’m also a fairly decent Brother Ali fan. I’ve pretty much bought anything and everything that Atmosphere have put out in the last 10 years or so and consequently got put onto Brother Ali quite a while ago too. I’ve also seen Atmosphere before (in 2002/03?) but Mr Dibbs was playing the Ant role so technically I suppose it wasn’t quite ‘Atmosphere’. Blah blah. What I’m trying to get at is: there was simply no way at all I was going to miss the ‘3 The Hard Way‘ European tour this summer. Atmosphere (with Ant) and Brother Ali doing a joint show. Wowser.

They’ve already covered a hefty chunk of Europe but there’s quite a few dates left if you fancy it.. It comes heavily recommended. Last night was the Bristol stop, on board the legendary Thekla (which is actually much bigger than I remembered, but still easily small enough to be considered an ‘intimate’ venue. None of this stood-miles-away-and-cant-see-shit shit).

The drive to Bristol from Bournemouth is horrendously tedious but undoubtedly worth it. We arrived a little early and while generally, that’s not a great thing to do, it turned out alright because I got a chance to speak to Slug outside, and then Ant at the bar. I’m sure I said some stupid shit (I kinda told Ant, in a smug way, to give up smoking) but they both seemed cool about being interrupted by an over-excited me in a Rhymesayers shirt. It’s nice when your idols (strong word but seems apt) turn out to be normal and amiable isn’t it(?) Not that I thought they wouldn’t be but y’know..

Kidz In The Hall opened up, and though I’m only vaguely familiar with their music (a fact attributable to the vast majority of people there by the looks of it), I enjoyed the set. Credit due. Driving Down The Block was an obvious highlight. Also, I don’t want to sound old, but they were really really loud. My proximity to the stage/speakers didn’t help at all but still, loud loud loud.

After a short break, during which I randomly bumped into a couple of people I used to rap with back in Plymouth (word to The Cohorts), Ant came on and introduced Slug and Ali as ‘two of the best mcs in the world’. He wasn’t lying. For just under two hours, they weaved through their respective repertoires with ease. Haha.. That’s an awful line. I suck at reviews But they did do that; I don’t know how else to put it. With a group like Atmosphere who have such a massive back-catalogue, there were bound to be some tracks I’d've liked to have heard that they didn’t do but the set was more than diverse enough to keep me happy.. The tracks off the new album were dope - Guarantees is a great singalong, the bass drop on Puppets is immense - and the older tracks like The Woman With The Tattooed Hands are instant crowd pleasers by now. Scapegoat was a particular highlight for me.. *ahem* scpgt *ahem*.

Brother Ali proved why he’s such a renowned performer and I’m glad I’ve finally got to see him live. The man knows how to control a crowd.. Definitely an mc’s mc. Rain Water, Bitchslap, Forest Whitaker and Truth Is were stand outs. Throughout, they acted as each others hypeman and the whole sharing the stage thing worked really well, but it worked best with the songs they have together. Obviously. Blah Blah Blah and Cats Van Bags have always been favourites of mine, and seeing them done live, by both mcs, with Ant on the decks (/MacBook Pro) was sublime. When they walked off, my throat was red raw (haven’t had that happen in a looong time) but they reappeared to squeeze in an encore of Your Glass House and a little freestyle which is always entertaining. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better show. Truly superb.

I got plenty of photos, a few of which are here and the rest are on flickr. Got a couple of bits of video too but the sound is atrocious. Ah well. You had to be there really

More photos on flickr.

After a prolonged absence, I thought it was about time that I pulled up my sleeves and actually updated this site. So here it is. A new post and more pertinently, a new site design. Well, actually, it’s another realign because if you have any memory of what the previous design was like, then you’ll realise that this one isn’t actually straying too far at all.

I started working on this way back in April, intending to have it ready for the May 1st Reboot but as that deadline loomed, it was quickly obvious that it was never going to happen. That said, I did think it’d happen sooner than mid-June but there you go.

The most significant change can be seen on the overall site home page (http://www.mattnortham.com) where I’ve ditched the old basic static look and tried to incorporate more of the blog content (as well as content from external places like youtube and last.fm). It’s an approach I used to roll with when I first set up this blog on my scpgt domain but for whatever reason I didn’t maintain it over here. So now it’s back; complete with fancy sliding jquery goodness. It took a bit of tweaking and some wordpress custom fields to get it sorted but I like it now.

The design isn’t actually what I consider completely done so bear with me if there appear to be any issues in the next week or so - but I didn’t want to leave it any longer than I already have. This was supposed to a ’summer’ design and seeing as our summers are notoriously short, I thought it best to just unleash it as is.

But anyway, on with the content.. I promise to pull my thumb out and put more effort into this. Got a few bits of work to add to the portfolio too shortly so stay tuned….

I’ve been slacking with this here blog lately.. but with good reason. And those reasons are about to increase so I wouldn’t expect a plethora of posts anytime soon.

Primarily, this time of year at work is technically known as a nightmare. With just over two weeks to go ’til the BA Interactive Media Production 3rd year major hand-in, students are understandably getting a bit twitchy.. I’m not sure that now is a good time to mention that at this point before my own major hand-in, I’d finished my project but I’ll do it anyway. Blah. I’m sure they’ll pull it out of the bag.. have a look at pixelpier to see the showcase details and come along.. it’ll be fun.

I’ve also been spending a little bit of time trying to redesign this site ready for the May 1st Reboot but now there’s only 3 days left, it’s not looking like I’ll manage it this year. Alas. It’ll be a June reboot instead. More on that as and when.

Finally, as of tonight, GTA IV will own my life. Sad, but true. It’s pretty much the only reason I wanted a 360 and I’ve been waiting for it for soooo long now. There’s been plenty said about it at loads of other places so I wont dwell.. besides, must dash and pop a cap in some online asses.. ooohhh yeah!