[ceramic'cow]

magic numbers
Elgar's Cello Concerto (1st movement especially. wow. knocked my socks off)

also, there was a free festival in middlesbrough just the other day, and it was FULL of really promising bands, as well as some slightly more established names. editors were there, headlining one of the stages and i thought both they and the departure, who were on before them, were fantastic live acts.

i also briefly saw Forward Russia, who i'd not heard of, and i thought they were excellent. the two girls i was with (i know; i'm such a stud. *ahem*) thought they were awful, so i didn't get a very good listen. what i did see put me in mind of at the drive-in, which is no bad thing, and i've heard steve lamacq is quite fond of them, so keep your ears peeled

nine black alps had a good sound, but few of their songs really stood out, i think because they weren't very catchy and i'd not heard any of them before. and because we had to sit through about 20 minutes of that bird out of Queen Adreena wailing and showing us all her knickers beforehand. god they were shit.

the rifles weren't very good, kubb were interesting. somewhere between doves and coldplay, i suppose. kind of like thirteen senses only without the godawful lyrics. mostly good songs, if you like that sort of thing.

i really liked the cutters as well. don't quite know how to describe their sound. pretty classic pop/rock, i guess. the festival guide reckons a mixture of the kinks, the coral, the who and the jam. can't really see it myself, but whatever