in search of entertainment

Another Friday trip to the local Commie centre.... yeah for a pint of Guinness and check out the local competition. We were worried it would be Barrie's saga tunes again... as 'apparently' he gets booked once a month. But we were rather cheered to find a different DJ set up on the stage. This one didn't talk even once.... no vocals at all. His lighting set was OK but as for the blocks of colour that fronted the stage? Well, all they did was make him totally inaccessible.
But the main thing for me is of course the music.
It started off with an extremely bad warm up mix of songs I'd heard maybe once many years ago. Instantly forgettable and totally undanceable.
The room started to fill slowly. Some people came to the door and walked away. Obviously not drawn in by the insipid music mix.
We sat there and misery filled my head. I'd left my job yesterday. I wanted an hour out to forget stuff. Nothing he played inspired or lifted me at all.
Then as if it couldn't get worse he played FUCKING RONAN KEATING. I thought I was going to vomit. Suddenly the drink tasted like shit. The smoky room felt oppressive and everyone looked totally miserable.
I wanted to go.... we stayed... could it get worse?
Yep, the next track was Atomic Kitten.
We left.
Today I've been cleansing my ears with our mix of Enter Shakiri, Akon, JT, Coolio, the lovely Fedde and The Gossip... BTW the new track is excellent. Total Danceability.
Thank you world for Beth

"Now listen UP!
oooooo on the playground! x2
you learn so much now listen up!
now gather 'round now listen up!
now gather round now
1, 2 ,3 take it from me,
3, 4 so much trouble in store
4, 5 get it right,the first time
(o!)
count it with me now!
1, 2 ,3 take it from me,
3, 4 so much trouble in store
4, 5 get it right,the first time
(o!)
count it with me now!"

"Listen Up" (The Gossip 2007)

dance lesson no 1

For all of those who think you need a handbag to dance around, or who think James Blunt has something to say, or that it's legal to play Status Quo at a disco - get your gnashers around this! Joy Division 1979 Manchester, just look at Ian's dancing ... makes Margot Fonteyn look like she's got three left feet or a huge septic growth on her uterus.

thomas and friends as the young ones

Remember the Young Ones? Rik Mayall and crowd looking young and clueless. This used to be cult stuff. Thomas still is ...

enter shikari explained

Sorry, you're not a winner with cartoon interpretation.

we meld ...

It had to happen. The worlds of cutting-edge music and railway enthusiasm HAVE to merge ... even if we're not quite there yet. But this is a step on the way. What next - Enter Shikari over Ivo Peters' S&D volume one? We can but dream ...

enter shikari - the real vid for anything can happen ...

This has been elusive (and STILL doesn't come up on an 'Enter Shikari' search) but here's the official vid for Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour. Enjoy ...

got a feeling these are going to be big!!

This is the only clip on Youtube of Enter Shikari. You saw it here first. Album straight in at 5. They're going to be the band of the summer. Check 'em out ...

plan b interacts with the mitchell brothers

Here's B doing a cover of the Mitchell Brothers finest song, Harvey Nicks.

Bastards

Why would anyone want to hurt a sweet little train? What is the world coming to? First some so called animal lover wants to kill a sweet little lovable polar bear cub.
Then a gang of ruffians vandalise a harmless train...OK so it had Ron Weasley sat in it at some point but to smash 200 windows with hammers?
There must be some really bad undercurrent of Harry Potter rage out there somewhere.
Fuckers.

I'm not okay
I'm not okay
Well, I'm not okay
I'm not o-fucking-kay
I'm not okay
I'm not okay

MCR 2007


Gratuitous picture of baby Knut

DJ Munster

We had the pleasure of attending a special ball Saturday night on the fabulous SS Great Britain in Bristol Docks.
Everyone was dressed up, spirits were high and the champagne flowed rather nicely... we were enjoying it UNTIL we met the disco.
The DJ's set up was rather like our own. A CD mixer and bxes of cd's. His lights were OK, effective.
Immediately we entered the disco he left... buggered off for 20 minutes and left a vile CD on. I checked out his unimpressive music collection.
He returned, and started his set. Back to back Michael Jackson and some of the most uninspiring music ever. I asked for the Arctic Monkeys. He said he hadn't been able to get that CD... a bit obscure! WHAT!
The dance floor being packed was nothing to do with his skills, rather a crate load of champagne and drunk nurses who'd have danced to Val Doonigan.
What's the point mate? You don't like music,you have no knowledge, you can't mix. Give it up.

how's this for road-rail integration?

This is the famous Mollibahn in eastern Germany. The most interesting feature is the mile or so of street running in Bad Doberan with long steam hauled trains a feature twice every hour. If you get the chance go there!

somerset and dorset update

Overall view of the station.



The Chilcompton extension takes the line out into real countryside at last!



The signalbox is now almost complete - recreated from rubble in under two years.

It's been a while since the S&D's featured on these pages, so here are a few recent views showing progress at the site. Come and visit us any Sunday or Monday - shop and catering coach open on site. Our website has also made huge progress lately!

CSS video - death from above

Yes!! CSS, video, best song, enjoy ...

b and killa kela - together!

Yes, found this on youtube! Plan B and Killa Kela together! B did this on his own at Bristol in February. This is live in Norwich in Valentines Day 2007.

attwenger - live and kicking!

This youtube thing's brilliant! Here's an excellent live recording of Attwenger at their trad/hip-hop fusion best!

mumm-ra's home video

Here you go - Mumm-Ra's very own home video telling you all you need to know - and more - about Bexhill-on-Sea.

wow!

Friday night was disco night at Hartcliffe Community Centre.

It actually seemed quite promising when we got in. A nice restrained light show covering the floor and the first three songs were good - from the last year or so.

It seemed that Barrie's Saga Show was an aberration and that booking policies at the HCC had improved enormously.

So me and Trin took to the floor. I'm developing a hip-hop/Ian Curtis hybrid dance so I tried it out.

And then ... some tosser takes to the mike IN THE MIDDLE OF A SONG and on a moving dancefloor and starts waffling. The whole dancefloor STOPS and glares at the fucker. The music restarts and somehow the dancefloor is saved. But the wanker did it again in the next song, and the next ... you get the picture. A dead dancefloor, lots of angry punters and you just wonder what the tosser is thinking of.

We sat down through a lot of our favourite songs. Every song had this wanker jabbering in the middle, and at the end of each song, hiding his awful mixing. We left as he desperately put Status Quo's Rocking All Over the World On. It was VILE! Clueless tosser.

So why? Did he, like Barrie, have a lesion and think he was a radio DJ? Or does he have the one thing no DJ should have - an ego?

ealing films hand over the baton ....

I thought that for a change I'd actually watch a film before reviewing it.

Hot Fuzz is great - the Mumm-Ra of the fillum world.

A few tossers have tried to get an Ealing feel to their films, but are invariably cack-handed and miss the point. These fuckers have managed it effortlessly. How? By forgetting the past and instead blending the Vicar of Dibley with a typical foul-mouthed Mitchell Brothers ditty. This has it all - hoodies, middle-class twats, PC PCs, serial nutters, farmers with guns, even ginger kids. And loads of action - guns, mines, knives, shears - like a typical Wednesday morning in Hartcliffe.

Except it's all actually filmed in Wells, England's smallest capital city and once a station on the S&D. Somerfield, City News (above), they're all there. Wells will never seem the same again and I'll be terribly disappointed if when next time I visit I don't take at least a bullet or two from Simon Pegg's AK ...

The second key to success is actors. The Ealings had 'em, the Carry Ons did ... and nothing since. But this reads like a Who's Who of current UK comedy talent ... Jim Broadbent, Steve Coogan, Martin Freeman, that fucker who dances with cats in Harry Potter, Bill Bailey (x2), Timothy Dalton, millions of others I can't remember.

And it taps into the modern psyche, best joke for me was the 'One Schoolchild at a Time' sign in City News' window, breached at the end by dozens of hoodie-wearing pupils doing the police's work for them.

Having been a Parish Councillor in a grotty chocolate box village I can totally vouch for the veracity of the Neighbourhood Watch Association meetings. Spot on and a big FUCK OFF to those morons who reckon it ain't funny and it's too fast .. like D***** of N****.

NME 2007

What is it with award ceremonies. The potential to have a really exciting night is there. You have bands from all over the world, so many big personalities and yet the NME awards 2007 were pretty flat.

Last year Russell Brand hosted the show.It was funny, a bit controversial and I do believe he upset some people (esp; Bob Geldoff and the Arctic Monkeys) but when he told a joke it was at least funny and clever. This year had XFM's Lauren Laverne doing the honours. It was embarrassing just how awful she was. Her jokes weren't jokes, the running theme that she was running the bar in between announcing acts was childish. Her timing was awful and you could see her reading the auto-queue all the time. She was useless.

The acts playing were also rather disappointing . Kasabian to open the show were OK, nothing spectacular but they played well.

The Killers were one of the few gems of the night, ditching their own stuff to play a Joy Division track that was a blinder.

The View (yawn) Kaiser Chiefs (crap) Primal Scream (Hmmm) Beth and Jarvis... now that was pretty inspired.

Cannot understand how The View got best single... I'd never even heard the track. Very odd.

My Chemical Romance, best international band? Load of tosh. Best dressed Faris Rotter? Irony maybe?

I have no idea why Babyshambles were nominated for so many awards. Least they didn't win. Tossers.

The whole event lacked any fun. Lauren Laverne's attempts at pulling it all together were futile and frankly I was bored.

Next time NME let bands like The Automatic Play. Pennie could light up the national grid with energy.

barrie's saga saga

Off to Hartcliffe Community Centre to check out the 'opposition' last night. Unfortunately Barrie was there with his fucking Saga Roadshow again. Barrie seems to be under the illusion that he's a radio DJ, playing undanceable obscurities with slabs of inane chat between tracks.

Barrie mate, mobile DJing is about DANCING, about giving people a GOOD time. It's about finding those tracks that people want to hear. It's about leaving your audience wanting more, wanting to come again.

You claim to have been in the business for thirty years. But to the untrained ear you seem to be DJing for the first time, making the mistakes we all made back in the dark recesses of history.

Barrie mate, you just haven't got it. It's time to give up and find something you CAN do, and leave music to those of us that love it and live it. You're extinct, but you just don't know it yet. We're only trying to help you ...