Gawd bless the internet and the people I have met from it, especially Twitter and the way it leads to various separate friends ending up knowing each other and getting on due to shared supergeek levels of fandom for things (usually involving Doctor Who) … my pal Bert (from the days of MySpace, bloody hell) ended up becoming mates with my ‘follower ‘ Michael (I am the new Jesus or something) and the three of us all went out to the South Bank last night for some food and drinks. Not been round there for a long time and had lots of time to kill so I wandered about and admired the concreteyness of it all. Weird how it has been modernised yet the old fashioned greyness still shines through , looking uncannily like the future Earth in Frontier In Space…

To kill a bit of time and read a bit of book I went for a coffee in a leading chain which is not bloody Starbucks and found the man serving me to be a rather excited geek, staring at my True Blood t-shirt. He asked where I got it so I told him it was off Amazon and then he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down ‘Amazon’ on it… sweet. I don’t know if he knew that it was a website and he had not  heard of Forbidden Planet  when I pointed out it was also available there so I hope he finds one. He insisted that I not pay for my drink because of this so finally being a massive nerd pays off. Oh those crazy vampire fans, but not Twilight. Never Twilight. True Blood season three is coming along nicely and is basically Twin Peaks with more accents and a bucket of gore every week, which is not a bad thing at all. I should do a TV round-up blog while I think of it but not right now.

While waiting outside the BFI bar I listened to the next chapter of my Daleks: Mission to the Unknown audio book which is the first one I have actually bought in the ‘Target Books Read In An Interesting Way By Actors Plus Music and Sound Effects’ series. From the sleeve notes I learnt that The Actor Peter Purves has directed over twenty five pantomimes which sounds like something the delightful Matrix Data Bank (follow on Twitter if you are Who Geek) would make up. Then I spotted Margaret from The Aprentice (sorry new lady Apprentice boss with the nice hair but you are no Mountford) walking like a normal human being and then I noticed that the new hipster beard is in fact a hipster moustache and vowed never to be a hipster. We eventually went for a food and drink extravaganza in  the BFI bar and learnt about guest ales:

” A pint of the guest ale please. What is it?”

“I don’t know. But it never changes.”

“So it’s always the same guest but you don’t know what it is?”

“Yes.”

The mysterious guest ale was very nice and I may have had too many of them and stayed out bloody late, meaning I took forever to get home (at gone midnight) which was careless as Jamie had to get up for work in the morning. Oops. We had a lovely time and ended up reappraising Delta and the Bannermen (it’s The Doctor Who Summer Special), listening to unrepeatable tales about Doctor Who actors and impresionable teenage fans (but not me. Never me), made “played a Voord but in a non-speaking role” one of my favourite phrases, and agreed that I had to write a proper review of the forthcoming DVD of Time and the Rani. Hmm…

That’ll be a challenge.

Remember this?

The Smoking Room was the workplace sitcom that had many uncannily realistic moments which several of my old colleagues still like to go on about now when we get together (as you would). It’s not back but its creator Brian Dooley has been busy with a new project (or two, it’s complicated) and we went to Soho Theatre on Saturday to see how it was coming along.

What was originally planned to be a full cast reading of an episode each from two new sitcom projects became a double bill of Keep Smiling performed as part of Triforce Promotions ongoing work with writers and actors in the Studio room.  I don’t want to give the plots away as the first one especially has a plot that could easily be spoiled so I’m mostly keeping it zipped. I can tell you who had scripts and made us laugh,  sat in a long line opposite us:

It starred Tom Goodman-Hill (the vicar who turned into an alien wasp in Doctor Who that time, as you do) and Selina Griffiths (Janet from The Smoking Room and the star of long lost comedy pilot Marigold that we loved).

Also appearing were Jimmy Akingbola (currently appearing in Rev), Chizzy Akudolu (from Dead Set), Fraser Ayres (Clint from The Smoking Room), Debbie Chazen (Psychoville, Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned and Annie from The Smoking Room), Juliet Cowan (from loads of things including Sarah Jane Adventures and Pulling) and Emma Kennedy (Heidi from The Smoking Room and a lot of other things).

Keep Smiling proved (as if there was any doubt) that Brian Dooley can pull of domestic comedy just as well as the workplace variety. Episode one had a slightly convoluted involving plot with Dooley’s usual high-contrast approach to the darker moments of life interspersed with funny quirky character-based comedy while episode two (which is actually planned to be episode three) was the standard Surprise Party sitcom episode but with a great mixture of oddball guests that showed off his talent for creating a wide range of character types so it never became cliched. Keep Smiling is in development with the BBC and if any of the big cheeses see the film made of the reading they would be fools not to take it further. This would be perfect BBC2 9:30pm during the week material and the man near the back over the right hand side of the theatre would certainly agree, judging by the loud guffaws.

Afterwards we had a nice drink in the bar and I looked at my new Eleven Doctors figures box set (mmmm plasticy), I realised that everyone in the world of comedy and Doctor Who fandom knows the same few people, resisted telling another writer how much I like their work but it was insinuated while  talking to his friend, discovered lillies make my allergies really bad when my eye went pink and had a nice chat with Brian Dooley himself. Hurrah for Twitter once again for that is where we became tweet pals or whatever the hell you call it.

Here’s the blurb from the publicity:

KEEP SMILING
Keith and Sheila are the happiest couple you’ll ever meet.  Madly in love with each other and with life, they won’t let anything bring them down.  They’re determined to spread happiness wherever they go, but with Sheila’s pessimistic sister Ruth to contend with, and a fleet of moaners and complainers to frustrate them, it isn’t always easy to keep smiling.  When they throw a party for Ruth she doesn’t want things don’t look set for a happy ending …

I went to my first gig in around 8 years on Thurdsay. I’m a lazy sod and noisy crowded places get on my nerves but as it was the first appearance of the full band version of The Melting Ice Caps I couldn’t miss out. Up until now they have mostly been just David Shah’s project but he assembled a crack team of musicians to flesh out the songs for the live experience and you would never have guessed that this was their live debut.

Brief recap: I knew David in 1996 when he had just got involved in a band called Grosvenor. They eventually morphed into Luxembourg who were active from the early 00′s up until 2008 (their unreleased 2nd album is free to  download here on Last FM) and my friend Cheryl recommended them to me a few years ago as she knows my musical tastes. I loved their album and then realised who their lead singer was, in one of those Small World moments that seem to happen. Luxembourg ended and David started the Melting Ice Caps, releasing singles via his website, much to my delight. Numerous tracks ended up on friends’ mix CDs and if I had to pick a few to recommend right now I would go for the following singles (with links for free mp3s):

Single 8 is the most recent one (download here) and includes October and My Wrong Turn which show their melancholic beautiful side off rather well.

Single 4 (download here) features Mise En Scene and Night School which are both quite demo-ish and pretty with the usual arch moments.

The gig on Thursday was part of Fry’s Unsigned (more on that here at the official site) which was for the mental health charity Mind. Unintentional rhyme there! The set included one new song plus a selection of the best of their catalogue, including stonking versions of How To Appear Well-Adjusted, Happy In Crewe, Mise En Scene and Through A Prism. The band versions are not as indie rock as the Luxembourg era but had a new energy that was well-received by the audience, especially the man in the vest who was bopping away through all the bands’ sets that night in-between taking photos. Hopefully some of those images will turn up on the Fry’s site soon.

The venue had good ale, we had a nice chat with David and I won a prize in the raffle and then we went home. It was a good night.

The Melting Ice Caps will return soon: 4th August at 229 (more information here). Very recommended if you like happy/sad wistful indie with strong songs and a sense of humour.

Busy busy busy but good kind of busy. Last Saturday was a special occasion  where I met some of my friends with some of my other friends for the first time in Fancy London. Gawd bless the internets. Shame about the usual weekend lack of tube service plus cancelled replacement service and broken mega escalator and heatwave but a good time was had and included a lunch and beers in Chandos (I am now wishing it should be renamed Chantho’s and be run by insect people with a strange yet polite way of speaking) , the first trip in years to that vintage magazine shop in Soho (where my thrown-away past returned to haunt me, sealed in bags and priced as luxury goods), a bizarre visit to a second hand shop that mixed ladies’ shoes with 1970s annuals, the obligatory Forbidden Planet moment (Amy Pond and new Weeping Angel figures plus new Gotham Central volume) and  a gay old time being massive geeks about Doctor Who, comedy and precious things:

Yes I made a crappy montage. This relates to the Very Great Thing which was given birth to this week (not in a literal sense of course):

Oh yes, it’s issue two of Talk About The Passion: This time it’s a PDF! It’s free, like Mr Humphries and it lives here. My contribution is about Saint Etienne but there’s plenty of other good stuff inclusing a bloody big Frank Sidebottom  tribute.

I’ve been going made on Amazon  and buying far too much old 1990ish music: this week’s post included a dodgy C&C Music Factory Best Of (campest raps ever), the Seduction album (a bit ropey actually) and that old Beloved remix album that came out after their debut (marvellous). I got sick of the new Foxy Shazam album to get a UK release so bought the import and then the new James Yuill album  arrived in the post today and it is maybe even better than his debut, which is also good. Video of new single to illustate my point:

Other newish music of interest includes this new Mark Ronson track which I posted on Facebook the other week but forgot to put on here. It is bloody marvellous:

One for the mashup brigade now: it’s Reborn Identity: Jacko’s Rocket. mp3 is here.

Michael Jackson vs Goldfrapp – Jacko’s Rocket (mashup) from Reborn Identity on Vimeo.

Party Down was officially cancelled this week: meh.I need to find new shows to love. Louie looks promising, will watch the first two at the weekend. No it’s not about that gurning gaylord from the fruity dance studio (not homophobia, just fact. I am a gay myself).

I  gained one point in amusement over the irony of Littlejohn’s ridiculous moan about people on the internet (the toad hates criticism):

And finally:

*shakes fist* BARROWMAN!!!!

Blogfest 2010 became more like Tweetmeet 2010 last night when I met some of my friends for the very first time and then met some more lovely people who were vaguely familiar in a knowing of or knowing the Twitter name of scenario. How very modern that all was!

I look unbothered, apologies, this is just my normal face.

Great stuff including a big geeky Doctor Who chat over caffeinated drinks in a noisy west end location with Mr Pop of Birmingham, taking that influential American muisic blogger bloke to Forbidden Planet for his debut visit (and spending all my paocket money on hardback deluxe graphic novels as per usual) and doing a shit guided tour of all the good places that have closed and been knocked down in the rain on the way to the restaurant. It’s easier to do a list of URLs as we are all linked by our Twitter accounts and blogs, all of which are worth following / reading / nicely stalking:

http://www.carluccios.com/caffes/market-place Lovely cheese and pumpkin tortelloni. Tiny portions!

http://twitter.com/xolondon The link that connected everybody: That man has got me into so much good music over the years.
http://xolondon.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/myfizzypop Currently addicted to That Russell T Davies ‘lovely lovely oh dear I have done no writing aarrggh’ book.
http://myfizzypop.blogspot.com/

Currently tune of my day and a very nice man who once did a music video with sock puppets and an Ellie Goulding remix:

http://twitter.com/brightlightx2
http://www.brightlightx2.com/

Special guest star music (and stuff) blogger types, all worth a browse:

http://twitter.com/phileastend
http://worrapolava.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/burntoutcar
http://www.burntoutcar.com/

http://twitter.com/roddale

http://twitter.com/richardpchapman

http://twitter.com/Poptastic
http://tmbpop.blogspot.com/

The perfect antidote to the Daily Mail wailing about meeting people off the internet being like well dangerous.

Nice day out today which didn’t include the following scene excactly…

We went to the belowzero (lower case like famous lesbian singers who are a little bit country) ice bar place in Fancy London where it was rather cold but at least we were given gorgeous blue capes with lovely gloves attached on strings…

I didn’t fancy getting vodka’d in the afternoon so had a non-alcoholic ‘cocktail’ of fruit juice which was very nice.

Nice capes.

But is it art?

I lost most of the feeling in my fingertips after 25 minutes but it was a good place to visit. Got stuck talking to a random old lady who told me that she had avoided the expensive ‘refill’ prices by having several drinks elsewhere before arriving, which was nice. Old ladies love me for some reason.

It’s Sunday and I am trapped in my room while Jamie does more work for work and my dad does more tiling for our bathroom. Occasional banging and drilling (ooer) means my reading of Under The Skin (halfway throught now and it is a proper book and everything) gets distracting so I shift to catching up on the Phonogram comics. Yes real comics not collected editions. Gotta support the indies and so I bought them on my London trip on Friday where I went for drinks and lots of chips & wedges with old bookshoppy people and micro-celeb spotted Denise Black from Queer As Folk in the pub and Rikki Beadle-Blair from all sorts of theatre and TV stuff in the newsagent next to Fopp where I bought a Snickers. It’s a showbiz whirl, so it is.

Stuff of interest this week:

The Saint Etienne deluxe reissues begin and one of them is more of an ‘issue’ as Continental has never been out in the UK. My pirated copy will soon go in the bin when I get the real thing. It’s got some of my favourite tracks on it plus some that have never even been released anywhere ever. Also out at the same time: Foxbase Alpha. That’ll be my third purchase of it (I think the cassette lives in a dusty drawer) but I have deluxe fever and it has new songs called Chase HQ, Sally Space, The Reckoning, Sweet Pea and Winter In America.

If I was drunk I would have bought this in London:

Christopher Eccleston miniature Hero? With wallet, staff and pigeon? Who could resist?

Well me actually. Although I loved this week’s BBC2 episode.

Another week, another last week’s The Apprehensive episode.

Pants. Etc.

Other thrilling events this week include the moment I realised that eating a yogurt whose lid had puffed up and tasted a bit funny was probably not a good idea, the moment where I realised that all the bottles of Kopparberg pear cider in my cupboard were of the previously-unheard-of non-alcoholic variety (why? why? why?) and the moment that this wek’s episode of Dollhouse was rather good and surprising again. Which means of course that it will be scrapped as I am a sucker for those prematurely-cancelled telly shows.

I had left a blog post half-written on my Notepad document thing, about Tori Amos and Plushgun but then I forgot I hadn’t wrote it and only remembered after deleting all the words. So instead here are some mostly poor (the out takes are either blurry non-flash or whiteout flash shots) pictures of Cheryl’s 13th birthday at Ben Crouch’s Tavern*



* Ben Crouch not actually pictured, same as the Crayola Pony Makeover Kit, Flight of the Conchords DVD, Barmaid Who Couldn’t Make Coffee From A Machine But Was Nice Anyway, the lovely food, the funny toilets, some shots in test tubes and various oddities including a blond man with dyed black hair that didn’t match his face.
* She was 24 actually.

This week I have been to London twice (and not stepped inside a comic shop both times) for work. Once for a sales conference filled with delightfully posh women who said things like “plahstic” and I ended up in a conversation about Twitter because I am the one who understands things like that. Publisher in question has quite a few Twit followers so I wouldn’t worry if I was them. Met some authors, one of which who keeps cropping up at things but I didn’t tell him I prefered it since Ms Toksvig replaced him. Today’s trip was a big stock check mostly involving obscure woodwork titles. My brain dissolved after 4 hours so I went off to buy shoes (plain boring black ones to go with my new suit which is not black but doesn’t suit the current brown shoes) and for some reason the nice man who served me thought I was a teacher and asked me about it. Cue blank face then blagging. Nobody talks to shop workers so I actually make an effort to be friendly. Unlike with most other people, as I am usually a right grumpy (and actually shy) bastard.

XO pointed this out…

The general consensus is hurrah for Tori but cheap typeface. And that hair (wig?) just reminds me of ClaireBear from Heroes. Her un-super wig has almost put me off watching that particular show but I’m holding on in there. This week’s (BBC2) episode showed some promise and the appearance of Movie Donna Hayward might have helped.

Other shocking picture of the day:

I bet this model would never sing the feem tune like the old one.

Currently listening to a sampler of The Bloody Pet Shop Boys new album. S’alright, innit? Royksopp featuring Robyn’s new track beats it but that is Track Of The Month after all.

Why am I still making these LOLyoaks?

I think it’s the only way I can cope with the show most of the time. I like to make myself suffer.

Back to that song…. The Girl and The Robot (i have now upgraded it to Song Of The Year) is downloadable here right now. Click it and play it to death. The album‘s pretty great too….

Did you listen to it?

I went to London today and felt old, not in a “woe iz me I iz old” way. Got off at Tottenham Court Road and saw the Zavvi had gone… I remember when it was a Virgin Megastore that had a comics section on the first floor which must surely have been in the 80s. Bloody hell! Walked around the corner to find the top part of Charing Cross Road had now all been closed to make way for the new Super Station thing so no more Astoria (in a ‘seeing indie bands’ sense, never a ‘fun night at G.A.Y’ sense) , no more Orbital Comics with funky stuff in that basement next to the kebabby place, no more useless cybercafe that used to be the bookshop where I got all those Preachers (the graphic novels, not a shouty fire & brimstone man) in the mid-90s. Added Murder One to the list of deceased indie bookshops (I still miss Comic Showcase and its funny smell) but we paid a visit to the new Orbital Comics (in what was The Photographers’ Gallery! What?) which made up for all the melancholy. It was like being in a Saint Etienne song or something.

Bah. I am 36 on Saturday but quite happy.