Winston's Zen

V2008 done, Offset up next, & much trumpet blowing


Phew! In case you hadn't noticed it's been a busy couple of weeks here on Zen Avenue. Last weekends V festival took a frighteningly physical toll on this (apparently rapidly) ageing body of mine. So it was a fairly subdued Winston who dragged himself through a packed Kings College the very next day, to see the markedly less subdued The Cribs perform a festival warm-up set. What a night that was! The legend that is Johnny Marr officially(?) announced as the latest addition to the band, and Ryan Jarman crowdsurfing and scuffling with security on stage. Just what you'd expect from the Wakefield boys, I guess. Oh, and Mrs Roache reckons she spotted Kate Nash behind the stage, which cheered her up no end.

For photo's click on the Web Album below

The Cribs Web Album

The live V coverage went better than I really could have hoped for, attracted a little attention and even seems to have secured me a few like-minded new friends. If you missed me "liveblogging" direct from the Hylands Park site you can re-live it all here. The posts have been updated with all the editing that was too troublesome to pull off on my N95, so for those that did catch it all 'as live' there's still plenty new to see. Go take a look.

See? Like I said, busy few days. But, you know what? Cage The Elephant are right; there certainly ain't no rest for the wicked. Winston's Zen is at it again this very weekend. Look out for more live festival action, this time from the site of the Offset Festival, at Hainault Country Park.

There hasn’t been much time for adding to the music library, and precious few juicy sets to add to the Giglog, it IS still festival season after all, although it looks as though I might have scored tickets for a pre-release screening of Guy Ritchie’s new film, Rocknrolla. Supposedly introduced by Mr Madonna* himself and his latest cast, there’s understandably a rock n roll theme to proceedings, The Gin Riots and 80's ska legends The Beat are lined up to play and I’m told there’s set to be a very special guest appearance from a famous supermodel's substance troubled ex-boyfriend. Not sure who they might have meant by that(!), but sounds like it might be fun.

I’ll let you know if they’re daft enough to let me in.

The Zen’s been gathering a fair bit of attention recently, and a few words of praise from high sources by which I’ve been truly flattered. The excellent UK music blog, There Goes The Fear has been on my blogroll for some time, it’s a site I visit regularly myself and so I was doubly surprised to find them bigging up my V coverage. It's a pity they've decided against liveblogging Hydro Connect this weekend, they'd do a sterling job. I can also highly recommend Asp’s Musical Bites, another great site, packed full of features, and I promise I’m not just saying that because he also dished out the praises here!

I’ve just been too busy to add significantly to the music library or the Giglog recently, and now I’ve got just a few days to prepare for Offset, so it doesn’t look like slowing down just yet.

Back soon, probably breathlessly,
Winston

* I probably just lost my chance of getting in there!