PrettyInScarlett

Very very annoying. Apparently Pink Grease have cancelled their February date (see previous post) and as yet no info on the Long Blondes . With not even Limehouse Lizzy to commiserate - tomorrow's show also postponed. The New Years fireworks had better be good then!

A little quiet on the gig front currently, although we will be having New Year a day early, Limehouse Lizzy are back at the Point on 30th, yay. Have finally managed to go & see Pans Labyrinth, which is an interesting fantasy film - but definitely one for adults. More music-related, after a quick rifle through my local Save The Children shop, I stumbled upon Pink Grease's album (? its a promo) This Is For Real. Pink Grease are an indie- punky Sheffield band I saw a few times at uni. I really like this CD, which is fortunate as Pink Grease are actually playing Cardiff early next year. Be at Clwb Ifor Bach on Mon 26th February (2007). Staying on the Steel City, fellow Sheffielders The Long Blondes are in Cardiff the day before, at the Point ! I intend to do a round up of the year shortly, in the meantime happy festivities... check out the picture for a taste of Knusperhaüschen (gingerbread house).

To start with aforementioned Innercity Pirates gig on 28th Oct, well it was ok but.... Their support were Red City who are as crap as we remember! The Pirates came on stage (what passes for a stage in Callaghans anyway) in fancy dress (Halloween), so it was Superman & Darth Vader playing. A few lineup changes - guitarist, keyboard player, and an extra singer - all names available on myspace . Set was ok, well ok for copious drinking previously. Not sure that the extra vocalist added anything to the songs, most of which were new (which to us means post My Red Cell days), or very new. All in all a bit disappointing, compared to their April gig.... On a happier note, a very eclectic mix at the Point on Wed 1st, courtesy of Mistys Big Adventure . Two support bands, Envy and Other Sins and Kate Goes . To start with Envy.. quite a polished performance from a support band, especially going on recent history! Enjoyable set, for more info see their website or myspace. Up next Kate Goes.. ...

Back to Barfly last night, the disappointment of last time luckily not repeated! This time it was to see Howling Bells plus support Indigo Moss. For once, a decent support band! Indigo Moss are a bit hard to categorise, low fi with country tinges? It worked anyway! Their sound is a mixture of original material and arrangements of traditional songs, and an equally interesting style - one of the female members had a vintage floor length dress on... but I digress. All obviously competent musicians; with the exception of the bass player and drummer, the other members kept swapping instruments. Very enthusiasic response from the crowd, at times it seemed as if they were more popular than Howling Bells!!! I purchased their EP straight after the set, & their album may find its way here too... For more info see their website or myspace . By the time Howling Bells took to the stage, Barfly was pretty much full! Another excellent set. Howling Bells are one of the current bands du jour and ...

Bit of a catch up today. First up Goo Goo Dolls from last Thursday 12th October at Cardiff Union. Again a good atmosphere & completely sold out, mostly by 5'0'' freshers at our end! Supported by Tinder Box who were quite similar - good modern sound, kind of Goos meets The Killers. Quite a professional sound and manner compared to many support acts. Check out their myspace or website . Excellent set by the Goos - one of my few gripes that it wasn't long enough! Set list included: Stay With You (first?), Let Love In, Can't Let It Go, Better Days, Feel The Silence and Become from current album Let Love In; and of older songs, Iris (after having a dig at Ronan Keating's cover), Name, Laughing, Broadway, plus Smash & Tucked Away from the Gutterflower album. I would have preferred more songs from Gutterflower, but I imagine that theirs is a dynamic set list. Encore was Give A Little Bit. Great lighting as well, obviously designed for a larger venue as the st...

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? in relation to Barfly anyway.... M and I headed to Cardiff Barfly last night after a very long break, to see The Sunshine Underground ( see also previous post Au quatrieme fois ). Some bits of the cellar venue looked a bit smarter, others as scummy as ever!!! Say no more.... but crowd control barriers?? We were treated to 2 support bands, so no complaints on value! First up (breath in), Shut Your Eyes & You'll Burst Into Flames, were, sorry to say, an obvious rip off of TSU but not in a good way! On a positive note, they didn't hurt the ear drums, but mostly samey and easily forgettable, except maybe the bouffant hair and energy levels! Next up Foreign Islands (I think this is their myspace ) who were much better, although I was a bit bemused by the singer's face mask for first track. By the time The Sunshine Underground took the stage, Barfly was pretty much full and with a very enthusiastic audience! Perhaps the venue suited t...

Birthday smiles all round! The Rolling Stones ' A Bigger Bang tour rolled into Cardiff yesterday. No moss here! To start from the beginning, we arrived at Gate 6 shortly before opening time - no queues! So it took no time to get in & find our (very well chosen by M) seats. Support band The Kooks came on promptly at 7, and that was probably the only really weak part of the night. Either extremely nervous, tired (from Reading festival) or both, they seemed a bit underwhelming, certainly compared to the hype and the last time we saw them. Set list as much as I could get: Seaside, See The World, Matchbox, Eddie's Gun, Ooh La La, She Moves In Her Own Way, Naive, Sofa Song, You Don't Love Me plus a few new songs mid-way through. All the Radio 2 listeners obviously recognised She Moves In Her Own Way, and there was a decent reaction from those already seated, but there was a bit of 'who are The Kooks' around the place. The Stones took to the stage prompt at 8.30. Our...

Luckily the weather held as M and I sauntered down to Coopers Field, Cardiff yesterday for the inaugural (?) Cardiff Calling festival. Pictured above is the set list for the second stage which is where we spent most of our time. Caught Kid Harpoon on the main stage first, before heading in. Saw most of the above people apart from Lethal Bizzle (just not my thing) and Jamie T. Of the rest, highlights were The Chalets , The Pipettes and Misty's Big Adventure. Originally bought tickets in order to see The Chalets & The Pipettes and we weren't disappointed! To start with The Chalets, of what I can recall from their set they played Night Rocker, Sexy Mistake, No Style, Theme From The Chalets, Red High Heels, Love Punch, plus 2 (new?) songs. There didn't appear to be many fans in the crowd to begin with, the band got the crowd enthused by the end of the set! Picture below. Word has obviously spread about The Pipettes as the tent was nearly full for the start of their set, wh...

A jaunt en masse down to the Coal Exchange last night (23rd) to see The Subways excel again. For once we weren't massively early (in some ways to avoid the queues of teenagers) so arrived part way through the first support band. They are called Wry, from Brazil even! They were decent and will probably merit listening to further. Best option the ubiquitous myspace . Eagerly anticipated the main support, The Sunshine Underground, of whom I'd heard good words... They more than lived up to their expectations, with my only real niggle about their sound... whether it was the singer's style or sound mix I'm not sure but their show was at parts ear-splitting - explains my slight deafness today! Otherwise excellent, not an easy band to categorise, but my impressions were somewhere between Alabama 3 and the Killers' Hot Fuss album; dancing music too. Well worth going to see - just take earplugs! (or in my case, actually go out and buy some). I believe one can listen to the...

I finally remembered the website! Scarlet Mist allows you to buy/sell spare gig tickets at face value. Had heard of it before..... The gig lull will shortly be over, counting down until the Subways on 23rd (and the Stones tickets arrived Wednesday).

Good things come to those who wait! Have just been checking the Rolling Stones website for support details.... and THE KOOKS are listed as (one of) the support acts!!! Wahey!! Plus, a rumour doing the rounds online of Mötley Crüe joining them!?! A few new band website links I should post. Planet of Women [ myspace ] are a great female-led band (their plug - AC/DC meets The Supremes), can't remember where I heard of them but eagerly awaiting any form of album/tour date near me! Similarly recommended are The Chalets , The Modern and very new mellow discovery Public Symphony . All sites have music samples. Unfortunately I've been neglecting the Barfly website of late, I seem to have missed a few promising gigs - Towers of London & The Suffrajets spring to mind. A few old favourites deserve a mention too. I've been listening to Mitch Malloy for about 6 years now but I only found his myspace a few weeks ago whilst browsing... was great to hear some new samples! And I am...

Well The Kooks sold out - again... but Keith Richards is recovering well. Roll on 29th August!

Many smiles last night for The Zutons ' long awaited gig at Cardiff Students Union. And the rain held off as well... Once inside (note to self - get real tickets next time!), we were entertained by 2 supports. First on were The Grates . Quite an interesting sound from this trio (plus occasional keyboardist), between a style reminiscent of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more 'jangly indie' leanings. I preferred their louder songs, which seemed to show off singer Patience's voice better than the 'janglier' bits (though it may be said singer's dancing that put me off at times...). Even a bit of banter with the audience! Not bad for a support slot, samples at their myspace . Second on, The Little Flames . Personally, I'd rather they hadn't bothered, not impressed at all with their songs (tune, anyone?). But as I'm generous, they have a link too. Thankfully The Little Flames were off by 9pm leaving 30 minutes for the crowd to get very excited! Too excited f...

Finally! managed to get my illustrations up! Well, M's I should say as he took them! Evidence of my studenty swipe haha...

28th April saw the 3rd of the Inner City Pirates' gigs at Clwb Ifor Bach. Just M and I this time! Different support acts again. First on were The Trouble With Me , who on first listening didn't particularly interest me, and I don't think the sound was set up right? Seemed to have mostly Manics influences, bit samey but I would rate their performance better than last month's Red City. After the set, this band handed out free copies of their 2005 EP, 'Young Knives EP'. Their standing has improved somewhat after listening to the CD, which had a much lighter sound than their live set. See their website/ myspace for more information. Main (advertised) support came from Matthew Monroe, who was hilarious! Just Monroe and his acoustic guitar. A little hard to describe his sound, singer-soungwriter is perhaps a bit vague, his songs were mainly highly amusing monologues set to music, titles I remember include Steven and Natalie. Unfortunately I cannot find a website, ei...

Busy weekend. Number 4 was the 2nd Innercity Pirates night at Clwb Ifor Bach, spread the word to another friend so a highly successful evening! Again, Red City were the (only) support, who were still underwhelming and may even have got worse! Luckily a short set. The main Pirates set was much more polished than the last one, they have been practicing!! Only mishap this time when an overenthusiastic fan accidentally stood on a connector! Quite a different set, this time almost totally from the 3 recent EPs with the only oldies Whisper The Fear, and 'that song' from last time - which is called The Little Pills We Love. For the set list, simply check out the track listings for the 3 EPs on their website ! Number 5 entailed a visit to Coal Exchange to see Mogwai . Luckily the buses were back to normal - well normal for a Sunday ie nothing late at night! Slightly more interesting support band, The Magnificents (sound: a mix between Mogwai, Syntax and The Killers ), although I did ...

Whilst browsing the ever useful melodicrock.com, I finally found a useful link for Thin Lizzy's UK and European tour dates on John Sykes website. Its a must! Second tidbit, BBC 6 Music has a website dedicated to Keeping It Peel . Contains tracks from every Peel session ever, and samples on the 'best 125'. Made my day! soon-to-be-on-hols Liz

M and I started March off with a trip to Cardiff Bay last night to see Limehouse Lizzy at The Point last night. Limehouse Lizzy are one of the better Thin Lizzy tribute bands currently touring. I finally managed to make it to The Point for a gig (which is somewhat surprising considering the amount of gigs I go to!), and I'm quite impressed with the venue. The night got off to a good start - once we got there, I won't go into Cardiff Bus or the lack of it! - whilst we were at the bar, I noticed the background music was a Jeff Scott Soto track from his Yngwie Malmsteen days. The geek in me looked up the track and its from 'Rising Force' album ( I think the track is 'Now Your Ships Are Burned'). Woohoo! Back to Lizzy. They came onstage at about 9.30pm (no support) and did a 2 hour set, minus a break of about 20 mins. Opening track was (of course) Jailbreak, followed by Dancing in the Moonlight. All the grat songs were in the set, including Don't Believe A Wo...

Second gig of the year. M and I braved the icy winds last night to see Innercity Pirates (fka My Red Cell) at Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff, the first of a few 'Pirates Nights'. Almost empty when we first went in, but more people turned up later on (though by 'people', read bands/friends/family and a few others like us). This evening there were 2 support bands, who had a 30 minute slot each. First up were Red City, who were solid (maybe even a bit samey?), rather obvious Metallica influences at times! The second band, Dirty Looks, were much better. M thinks we have seen them before and certainly their 1st song 'Into The Sun' sounded familiar. Then again, they did remind me of The Kooks in some ways so perhaps that was it. Innercity Pirates (see picture taken by M) were on for about an hour or so. I should say at this point that there was no 'stage' as such at all in the ground floor room at Clwb Ifor Bach, the bands performed on the dancefloor section of th...

Bit of a gig lull these past few weeks but we did go and see Walk The Line, the new film about Johnny Cash. Really enjoyed the film - even if you're not a Cash fan its a good story (and need I mention about the Oscars?) Something else to add to my list when next browsing! Back to new music, recently acquired the new Arctic Monkeys (me too) and Kooks albums (on vinyl). Not quite got all the songs stuck in my head yet but I would recommend them (despite the hype). Bonus disc with the Kooks is an acoustic session of their album recorded at Abbey Road, which I really like as acoustic that's not James Blunt!! Final bob (fraid its unrelated to music): http://www.no2id.net/. I'd like to keep my rights!

As previously mentioned, M and I went to see Goldfrapp play at Cardiff University last night, the first night of their current UK tour and our first gig of the year. We arrived shortly before the support came on stage. In a change to the schedule, we got to see the Shortwave Set instead of the billed band who I think were called Hot Chicks? (I have to confess I didn't actually check the support details previously). Shortwave Set were very indie but really quite enjoyable; I'm sure I've heard something of theirs on 6 Music, or wouldn't be surprised if I did! Goldfrapp came onstage at about 9.15pm and opened with a few quiet numbers (from Felt Mountain? memory block), building up the sound. Key songs were Lovely Head, Ooh La La, Train, and Beautiful (which I don't remember having heard before but really liked nontheless); set list was varied between all 3 albums. Ended up with 2 encores, the 1st one with Number 1 and Strict Machine, the 2nd with Black Cherry. Amusing...

An internet junkie as well as a music addict, I have finally got round to getting myself a blog. This, as the description states, is (mostly) for any musings on my addiction that I wish to share with you all. Brief description of me: I'm female, 22 years old, currently live in Cardiff, UK and love music - usually, the more guitars the better! So... to start 2006 with a recap of 2005's highlights: At the last (hopefully accurate) count, I (and my ever so patient better half, M) went to 15 gigs last year, all in the UK. Not sure if thats a record as I haven't actually counted before! I'm awful at choosing favourites as I really enjoy every show I go to, but here goes: Soul SirkUS; U2; Motley Crue; The Subways (plus support from The Chalets); My Red Cell (now known as Innercity Pirates); Skid Row; Alabama 3; and the Tsunami Relief extravaganza held at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. There, that's a start - any more and I'll have to start digging around for tick...