Leonard Smalls

From last Saturday in Pwllheli

Shades of Truth - Bad Religion

Papa's got a brand new Pigbag - Pigbag

Rocks, Pebbles and Sand - Stanley Clarke

Quite a weird one for us last night! We trekked all the way to a campsite near Pwllheli to play at a North Wales car and machine club annual shindig, which raises money for Blood Bikes Wales. After we'd set up our tents and had a fine pint of Trooper Ale we got the gear on the (rather spacious) trailer/stage, did a quick soundcheck and we went on just after seven - billed before the raffle! and sound was excellent, everything could be heard, there was a bit of kick in the PA plus Vox (and a tiny touch of guitar) but bass was just down to our own rigs - Raph with his tiny Elf driven by Sansamp into a no-name 4x10 and Squier bass, and me with the ACG into Helix, my ancient Marshall Jubilee and Markbass 4x10. I'd managed to get a really fat but slappy sound sound with various amp sims and tube compression which cut through beautifully at all frequencies with no boom. No mistakes, plus a bonus moshpit of about 10 6-8 year old kids and maybe 300 others, including a couple of patch clubs. No adult dancing, but it was early! Comments after were largely appreciative, one Manchester bloke told us he was "madferit", and another larger chap stormed over - we were a bit worried - but he said "it's great to see bands who are actively anti-fascist!", which was nice. There was a display of cars and bikes - highlights were a De Lorean, a Lancia Stratos, a David Brown DB1 (first vehicle I ever drove, aged 10 or so!) plus a brace of Buell M2 Cyclones. And the Raffle showed why it was called that, our Raph won two prizes. Afterwards, a most excellent covers band played two sets of AllTheRockin'Hits. Highlight though was a crazed contraption made from a car turbo mounted on a beer keg filled with some sort of fuel - this made a rudimentary jet engine which was used to start the firepit, and sparked up periodically to freak folks out...

Big Bottom _ Spinal Tap

most rockabilly! eg: And Robert Wyatt showing Elvis C how it should be done

(Pri)Mate Spawn and Die - Lard

Horrorscope - Dalek I Love You

Sign o' The Times - Prince

This Saturday 7th, Blood Bikes benefit in Pwllheli And the following Friday 13th at Worcester Music Festival

Liar - Rollins Band

Funnily enough I saw them in their very early days supported by Echo and the Bunnymen at Chester arts centre for 50p to get in. And me, Swamp and Sgav were the only ones from our school who went!

Probably! But I'd still like to see more music on't telly - at the moment it's only Jools plus a bit of Reading and Glasto!

(Not just) Knee Deep - Funkadelic

And another... More media exposure for smaller artists! When I were nobbut a lad there was all sorts of music on telly; kids TV would have Motorhead or The Jam playing, Top of the Pops could have absolutely anyone on (apart from the Sex Pistols). There was Rock Goes to College, Old Grey Whistle Test, The Tube and loads of other stuff. It was all there and easy to find. Now you have to actively search - which admittedly isn't difficult, but I suspect that as a result more young-uns are playing video games or binge watching who-knows-what instead of going to gigs. I know that my nieces and nephews never go to gigs in their hometown but will trek to That London to watch a Big Artiste.

price-fixing cartel.

It's not like the price is fundamentally linked to scarcity, like v = f λ, or F = ma! The seller makes a conscious decision (or programmes an algorithm) to decide what to sell at. It's not like they'd be prosecuted for not increasing their prices as things get scarce, nor would the universe gasp as one of its laws Of Nature is broken... Basically, a seller decides to increase their price over and above a reasonable margin in order to make even more money. Now I have no problem with the idea of making a living, but taking the piss is a different matter! Frinstance, in my shop we have a set margin; all prices are determined by this margin (we often round up, and sometimes down, to the nearest 99p or 49p). We don't say " ooh, calatheas are selling like hotcakes, let's double the price!". Our prices only change if the cost goes up (then not always), or if we want to get rid and will put it on sale, sometimes as low as cost or less! However, I've seen some of the products we sell at £10 more in big-chain garden centres - they're definitely taking the piddle as they'll buy at less than us as well. Similarly, we have a few petrol stations locally - there's the usual Texacos, Shells and supermarket ones - they all have prices within a penny of each other. However, there's also a small independent. They're around 15p/l less. They made the decision to sell with a lower margin in order to give a better deal to locals and to sell more. As a result they're always busy and the extra revenue has enabled them to refurbish their previously dilapidated premises while the big player's forecourts are largely empty. So I'd say that strict adherence to the "law" of supply and demand is just a wee bit immoral and most certainly doesn't serve the customer at all!

No it doesn't! The selling price is determined by the seller, at least in this case (and retail). The seller chooses the price they want to sell at; they may decide that as lots of folks want something they can make a few extra bucks, rather than selling at ticket price until whateveritis is gone... All they have to do in this situation is to invoke the immutable Law Of Supply And Demand (or Profiteers Charter as it's also known) - as everybody knows this is a fundamental law of physics and cannot be broken. However, as the whole of economics runs on this ridiculous nonsense, what can you do? A friend of mine is Head of Global Equities for a big bank and his take is "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em - if I didn't take the money someone else will. But the whole thing is a House Built On Sand!"

As the old saying goes - a fool and his money are easily parted Folks contemplating paying £sillymoney to see a couple of motionless figures 200m away are the same folks who went out and panic bought bog rolls cos they heard on the telly that other folks were doing it.

Just discovered this lot:

Not us! For our next gig at Worcester Music festival (13th Sept, The Pheasant!) we've been billed as: Choked play original Post-Punk Rock, socially conscious, fierce and funky It probably should have said: Choked play original Post-Punk Rock, they'll give your dog a biscuit then piddle through your letterbox Still don't know what Post-Punk Rock is, apart from we came into collective existence after the (hotly debated!) genesis of punk...

Muscle Museum - Muse

In that case I strongly approve. Size is everything.

Just out of interest, is "post Metal" just like metal, but with a really long and sort-of ambient intro?