Gig #7: Superorganism @ Behind the Bike Sheds

A free gig courtesy of Spotify saw me spending the evening see Superorganism, current media darlings of the music press. I've been listening to their stuff for a little while and I guess that's why I was chosen to go along. It was well organised; in addition to the free entry we got free drinks and a free cloakroom. The crowd were a bit odd not wanting to get too close to the front of the room; I spent most of the set on my own holding the rail. 

The band are really good live, and have Go-Team, Polyphonic spree vibe to them. The little Japanese/American front person is very comfortable with a mic, and interacting with the crowd. The songs are catchy and getting lots of radio airplay. I'm also going to be seeing them again later in the year at a festival, where I think they'll win over the crowd.

Film #15: Miami Connection

Another great bad movie and a perfect second part to the Crap Film Club's Feb double-bill.

It's time to go and celebrate with some grapes.

Film #14: Samurai Cop

One of the best bad movies of all time. It's just incredible and it was being shown as part of the Crap Film Club's February double-bill. So good!

Graffiti: Brick Lane and surrounding area

Gig #6: Rudimental @ O2 Shepherds Bush

Rudimental are a producer team who have had some success and I'm not a fan. They weren't on the lineup when I bought the ticket and I might have reconsidered the whole night had I known. Their performance was lazy with the "DJ" twiddling knobs with one hand whilst drinking beer with the other and his mixing wasn't that good relying on filters and spinbacks to move from one track to the next. They also thought it was alright to just stop the track, shout into the crowd the name of the chap we were there for, and then put the music back on. I'm sorry, but Red Snapper showed how to give respect in a respectful way. 

Gig #5: Orbital @ O2 Shepherds Bush

The main event for me and I think most of the crowd was Orbital who I saw last year and was more than happy to see again. Yes, they have their sound and they can still win the crowd over with their early anthems but they are adapting the tracks slightly and making them still work. Their track "Satan" was by far the best track and sounded incredible on the venues soundsystem.

Gig #4: Labrinth @ O2 Shepherds Bush

Whilst this performance was the more personal of all the sets tonight, I have to admit to not feeling it. The first song was played through the monitor speakers, something went wrong with the main and the tracks were just too slow for my liking. It served as a good toilet break before the next event.

Gig #3: Freestylers @ O2 Shepherds Bush

I loved the Freestylers in the 90s with their big-beat b-boy breaks and tonight we got a nostalgic trip as they played all the tunes I remembered. (Check out their "We Rock Hard" album for the tunes).

They knew how to put on a show, their MC SirReal is really good and a good replacement for Navigator who did the original tracks.

Good fun

Gig #2: Red Snapper @ O2 Shepherds Bush

The second act of the night was Red Snapper, a band I've known about but never seen live and man, have I been missing out. These guys were excellent. Proper live musicians playing superb music and despite looking like they'd just play slow jazz, these guys flipped that and were rocking the venue. So so good and easily my surprise of the night.

They were also gentlemen in the way they toasted Ricky. 

Gig #1: Bluetones @ O2 Shepherds Bush

A benefit night for a former sound engineer, Ricky Ricketts who recently lost his battle to cancer gave my my first gig of the year and a chance to start to build my "see 100 live acts in 2018" list.

First up was the Bluetones who were quite big 20 years ago but I'd not seen or heard of for a long long time. They sounded great and they made a little running joke through their set of how well each song did, of course finishing with Slight Return, which got to number 1, and which still sounds superb.

Film #13: Black Panther

The final avengers film until Thanos shows up to end it all moves us to the fictional country of Wakanda where there's a dispute over who the rightful heir should be. It's a very different back story film, not just because it's African; I liked that the protagonist has a family and their power comes from tech, so they've all got it if they need it. For the most part the Avengers are all solitary people with no family so that's different. and we have Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis (Bilbo and Gollum), which makes them the Tolkein White Guys.

I enjoyed it. It's not as good as Ultron but it's way better than Ragnarok.

Event: The Hunt for the Cheshire Cat

In The Hidden City is a company that specialises in treasure hunt style adventures around several locations in the UK and a bunch of friends thought we'd give this one a go. It's obviously themed around the Alice in Wonderland story and has you trying to solve 14 clues whilst walking around Central London. The clues come via text keeping the costs down and allowing you to play at your own pace. There's also an optional path part way through that leads you to a different ending.

It was a good way to spend a few hours and mixing it with a little pub crawl filled the day nicely. There was a system issue with our group where we switched story lines with the other group but I'm sure that's a blip. I'm also surprised to find a couple of cool places I hadn't been to before. I also liked how the organisers have hooked up with some local businesses to help out.

(I don't believe I've given too much away here)

The link is here if you fancy giving it a go. We'll be doing the Sherlock Holmes one next.

Film #12: The Shape of Water

A mute cleaner falls in love with an egg-loving fishman whilst being chased by a man with smelly fingers. Someone thought this was good enough a story to release on Valentines Day. An idea as stupid as the film. The fish man costume looks like it was reused from the Hellboy films. It'll win Oscars and I will have forgotten all about it when it does.

Tonight's showing was due to have a Q&A with the director but it was cancelled because he was sick. Probably sick of the stupid questions I'd probably have asked. 

Film #11: Maze Runner The Death Cure

The Benetton Advert kids get unruly, blow up a city and smash a window or two. Features a scene where someone has to run through a maze. I nodded off in the middle. The woman Teresa is deliberately dressed to have her breasts bounce about like the women in the Dead or Alive game franchise. There are zombies, cliched zombie scenes, unnecessary vehicles tipping over, a bus bungee and a man with no nose; I've no idea how he smells.

I only saw it because I'd seen the other two and needed to close the trilogy.

Sightseeing: Bosnia & Herzegovina Day 3

Today was an opportunity to escape Sarajevo and see a bit more of the country. To help me do that I booked a trip on Viator, a website that acts as a portal to local travel companies; definitely recommended. Even better given it was the down season and they were still able to accommodate my trip. It did mean I was the only one to go, but an exclusive trip is a good one, right?

Our route would take us south-west down close to the border with Croatia and Dubrovnik

Stop 1 was the town of Konjic and it's famous bridge which is a National Monument now. It was originally built in the 1680s.

Stop 2 was Jablanica a site of a famous act by the Partisan forces in the attack of the Chetnik forces. In a rather shrewd move they destroyed a bridge to fool the opposition into going another way and then rebuilt the bridge to continue on their original path. The bridge seen on the site today was put in place for a film of the story. So this ended up being a site where the bridge was destroyed 3 times.

Our furthest stop south was the town of Pocitelj, a tiny village with a really cool tower atop a hill that offered an amazing view of the area.

My favourite stop of the day was the Dervish house at the Buna River Spring in the East of the town of Blagaj. This was so scenic and the original house is in incredible condition. I did have a weird encounter when I caught a Russian Tourist putting on my boots when I returned to where we had to remove them, but a stern if amusing telling off got them back.

The final stop was the UNESCO listed city of Mostar. Another small but beautiful town that is still overcoming it's battle scars.

The centrepiece is the bridge destroyed by rocket fire but recently rebuilt. It's now part of the Red Bull Diving tour and is really pretty. They've done an incredible job restoring back to its former glory. Watching a video of the attack in a nearby museum hurt. It's ridiculous how people can do this to each other.

On the way back a quick stop at Lake Jablanica and their "Gold Gate Bridge" as the guide described it in jest. More stunning scenery.

And back in Sarajevo where I missed this piece in the park near Cafe Tito. It was originally a sculpture of a can of Spam but looks to have been given a re-theme.

This was a great day and I totally recommend this tour. Sarajevo is cool but there is so much more to see outside of the city and this was a great tour to cover some of it.