DAY ONE, THE GREAT ESCAPE

Well clamp my nipples and call me Susan. Today is the day Isthereanything... say bye bye to the heaving, smog filled skies of London and hello to the sunny seaside backdrop of Brighton (err, have you seen the forecast-Rich). That's right, day one of the Great Escape Festival and I'm about as steady as John Terry on wet Moscow evening.

It seems like only yesterday I was hyperventilating about the Great Escape Festival on this very blog. The promise of meeting the Black Lips, catching up with Mika Miko and blog favourites KASMS and generally running wild along pebbled shores of the south coast was almost too much for me to take. But, as they say, good things come to those that wait and right now I'm reaping the benefits of not kidnapping Peggy Sue and getting them to perform in a pebbled filled basement. Er, Police please.

So this is post one. In just a few hours we'll be bouncing on our hotel beds, raiding the mini-bar and updating the blog on every opportunity we get. Expect photo's, reviews, stories and some good ol banter as we go balls deep into the single most exciting end of the week/weekend of the year.

As expected...

the Internet is rife with the goings on of last weeks 'Gig Of The Year' at Heaven.

NME hack Alex Miller, who I spotted at the side of the stage, posted the story on NME.COM as well as denouncing security and bigging up the kids on the publications blog.

Vice proudly shower their boys with praise as expected and You Tube, although strewn with the usual flaky mobile footage, has a couple of gems including a 5 minute masterpiece capturing the carnage of set closer 'Juvenile'.

Watch closely and you'll be able to spot yours truly being dragged along the stage floor by the meatheads. It's roughly around 28 seconds in. Enjoy.

Check out www.blacklips.co.uk for more on the gig and a chance to win a signed poster made especially for the gig at Heaven.

Black Lips, Heaven, 16/09/08

This cant be a genuine review I'm afraid. I've been taught never to write in first person and always to be subjective but those of you who've read this blog will know I'm a fan of the Black Lips. Those of you who really know me will know I'm more than just a fan and those of you who were crammed into Heaven last night will now know I'm a complete an utter obsessive.

Last night happened to be the gig of my life. A totally moronic thing to say and a stupendously generic repost from someone as fanatical as me but I cant pretend. In fairness though, a huge amount of people streaming out of the venue were of similar mind.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If I had sat down at my computer last night and attempted to write this it probably would have read something like this, 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh, Black Lips, Bad Kids, me on stage, singing with Cole, willies, Nazi security, stage diving, dragged by the hair, headbutted, 13 bruises, 2 cuts, time of my life, aaaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhhh! The ramblings of a retard I'm sure you'll agree.

Now however, I'm calm if not still on a bit of a buzz and able to fully appreciate and hopefully capture in words how last night propelled my gig going experience on to a completely different level. A level way beyond anything I'd ever experienced before and beyond anything I'd ever hoped for.

It's rare when a band can forge a relationship with their fans that's akin to a gang mentality but the Black Lips manage to conjure a bond with theirs that's as tight as any that's gone before them.
Throughout their existence they've remained incredibly assessable. Not only have they released a succession of records but they've toured almost continually since they signed to Vice Records in 2006. Scour the Internet and you'll find video's posted of the band on holiday, backstage and on tour. Give the 'Black Lips Hotline' a call and you'll be able to talk to them while they're touring. They never hide behind their success and that's why tonight the unity between both band and crowd made for the most raucous gig of the year.

Before the band had even taken to the stage the tone of the night was set in spectacular, debauched style with Cole Alexander rushing the stage during King Khan and The BBQs set with trousers round ankles and penis in hand. A lot's been said about his willingness to get his willy out and to actually see him do it is almost a privilege. Almost.

From that moment the bar was set and what followed was a night of pure rock and roll carnage. By the time you read this I'm sure the nights events will have been covered so I'm going to leave it here. A lot happened to me at the gig but it was all about the band and the send off they gave to their wonderful, dedicated fans.
All I can say is what unfolded at Heaven will undoubtedly go down in Black Lips history. They wont be back in England for a while but what they've left us to remember them of was a gig that was special for so many reasons. The incredible set, the fat-fucking Nazi security, the crowd interaction, playing guitar with a penis and the riotous atmosphere.

I know 'gig of the year' is used all to frequently by some parts of the media but the night Black Lips played Heaven will always be known as 2008's GIG.OF.THE.YEAR. Fact!

Psycho Soul At Its Most primitive

Shit... I take my hands off the computer for 2 minutes and Helen and Dan hit the blog up with a tirade of anti-folk and ridiculous nut-rave 'isming.

Without very much to add, and very few words in my bag of words to use, I would like to stand up for raw-garage-surf-soul-rock-and-roll and say something staid like, "I love a well used blues riff".



El mucho cojones Dan Sartain; Black Lips; King Kahn; The Dirtbombs; Beehive and the Barracudas; Link Wray; Richard Swift; Billy Childish; and The Sonics.

They're in the bands i wanna be in, but I'm not skinny enough; young anymore; talented; wearing a moustache.



I promise to say something better next time...

If you don't know The Black Lips by now...

You will never ever ever know me, ooooaaahh ooaahh. I am, of course, joking... no I'm not actually. If you really don't know The Black Lips by now you really are a massive bloody idiot. A massive bloody idiot with a brain so small, I'm gonna put it at the end of this sentence. Look, there it is, stupid small brain.
I do, however, want people to know about this band so I'm willing to extract little nuggets of tantalising Black Lips trivia and force them upon your being. In doing so, said nuggets will be wedged firmly into your grey matter and render you helpless when the sound of the greatest motherfucking band in the universe wafts into your untainted ear holes. So here it goes then, The Black Lips, your new favourite band, uno, dos, tres, cautro.

Originating from Atlanta, Georgia, The Black Lips are a 4 piece flower punk band and are made up of:

Jared Swilley (Bass/Vocals)























Cole Alexander (Guitar/Vocals)
























Joe Bradley (Drums/Vocals)























and Ian St Pe (Guitar/Vocals)























Jared, Cole and Joe met at school and formed the band with another friend, Ben Eberburgh. Tragically Ben died in a freak traffic accident leaving the boys to consider their options. They had just released their self titled album and were gaining a fearsome following on the now legendary Atlanta underground circuit. They carried on with the band, bringing in New Orleans born Ian St Pe. The tragic events of Eberburgh's death inspired the stand out track 'How do you tell a child someone has died' from their latest LP, Good Bad, Not Evil.
From the moment Ian joined the band they never looked back and have since toured for almost 7 years non-stop, playing; underground gigs, house parties, outlaw festivals, basement shows, street corners, roof tops and countless support shows for bands such as The Raconteurs, Be your own pet and Yeah yeah yeahs. They've release 5 albums, one of them being the greatest live record of all time, 2 DVDs, shitloads of 7 inches and have started their own garage rock label, Die Slaughthaus. All this and they're still only 23.
So now you do know The Black Lips you'll be able to enjoy them pissing into their own mouths and setting fire to their guitars on stage, using severed pigs heads as stage props, playing the west bank of Israel, talking to you on their fan hotline, setting fire to fire crackers dangling precariously from Ian St Pe's grill and being the single greatest live act alive today.
This band are truly awe-inspiring live so make sure you check them out at the following UK dates:

20th July-Lattitude Festival
29th August-Surfstock Festival
30th Electric Picnic
31st Connect Festival
16th September-Heaven(London)

And if you didn't believe me, here's links to videos of the guitar igniting Coachella gig, part 1 of a series of Vice video's taken from their visit to Israel and the video to their latest single "Bad Kids".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2AAKmW3ta8

http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1143372178

http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1519675199