Midsomer Madness

I realise that my posts are now largely focusing around what happens on my weekends, and I think this is because my day to day life has become normal and routine... perhaps this will change once the school term grinds to a halt late next week.

On Friday night after work, Caitlin and I had organised to head over to Brick Lane in East London, and meet up with Anna, a friend of Caitlin's for dinner. Brick Lane is another one of those London destinations that everyone says you must get to, and was on my list of things to do.

Only a stones throw from Algate East Tube station, Brick Lane is London's very own little India, or Bengal as it may be. As you walk down Swanfield street, it feels as though you have been transported out of the UK; there are many off-licenses selling fruits and vegetables that I recognised from my South East Asian stint, and restaurant owners are out on the streets, trying to coax you in and offering you discount meal prices, and even wine to do so- the place we settled on agreed to provide us with two free bottles of white wine if we chose to eat there, and of course, we were sold! The food was absolutely amazing, and cheap as well!

By the time we had finished eating, another friend of ours, Renee, had come to meet us, and so the four of us decided to head further down Brick Lane to check out the nightlife. East London is ultra trendy- I love the vibe, and the live music scene- DJ's and rock bands aplenty- as well as a general sprawl of cool kids spilling out onto the street; bar after bar, eastern food being barbecued in stall on the streets, people everywhere- it's such a happening place.

We ended up heading into a bar called The Big Chill, largely because it didn't have a cover charge, but also because it had a mad DJ duo cranking tunes in the front of the bar. I believe we only had a cider or two before realising that time was ticking, and we needed to make it back to Victoria station before the last train- which is at about 12:30am- my greatest fear is getting caught in the city (namely Victoria station) and having to pay an arm and a leg to get home in a a black cab! Alas, we made it, and got on the last train, and rolled into Clapham Junction at about ten to 1am.

Normally we would exit out the Grant Road end of the station, but for some reason the iron doors were locked shut, and had to walk out to Falcon road. From inside the station, I could see lights flashing madly, and as we walked out we found police and ambulance vehicles everywhere, buses and cars had come to a halt. Lying in the middle of the road, was a woman, without shoes, who had been hit by a car. It was a horrifying sight- she wasn't moving at all, and people around were in shock. There was her poor friend sitting in the gutter, crying and moaning, being consoled by paramedics, and then there was the poor driver of the car (which was pretty banged up on the side from the impact with the girl lying on the road) who was absolutely beside herself. The girl was lying lifeless, and her friend was brought over by paramedics to seemingly identify the body, and was tapping her friends leg in disbelief. All the people around, including Caitlin and myself, were sure that the girl was dead, but the paramedics administered something, and her right shoulder started to twitch, and her to toes started to curl and that was it for me- I could see she was alive, and so I pushed through the crowd, and around to Grant road, to go home... I just hope she survived the night okay.

As usual, I awoke early on Saturday morning (I can never sleep in! Never thought I would or could say that!), headed to Il Molino for breakfast, and then over on the 44 bus to Southside mall to find something to wear to Wireless 2009. We had been so excited for Wireless for weeks- especially seeing as I had to forsake all musical festivals in the Australian summer of 2008 & 2009 in order to save dosh to come over here...and let me tell you, Wireless made it all worth it!

Rarely do I feel so privileged to have attended a gig or festival- European Summer on a glorious sunny day, in the middle of Hyde Park, cider a plenty and a line up to die for. I knew we were onto a winner even before we saw any acts- pints of cider were £3.50 a pop in the Gaymers Tent, and they were playing classic tunes like Black Box's Ride on Time and the Tears for Fears track Everybody Wants to Rule the World just to name a few- everyone was loving it!

The first 'official' act we saw was Fischerspooner, who were playing on the second stage- they were awesome, and such a great way to start the day. Their stage show was wicked, and the audience were loving it! The second act we tried to see, but couldn't get into (so we stood just outside so we could hear what was going) on were The Streets. I really loved The Streets stuff, particularly the drum and bass remixes that the DJ's at the Lounge, on Swanston street in Melbourne, used to play on a Wednesday or Thursday night back in 2002. The next major act was Dizzy Rascal, who I'd seen a couple of Melbourne Big Day Out's ago with Kim, Sasha and Pat (start of 2008 me thinks) in the Boiler Room, at which time his sound and performance was totally raw, but totally rad...but I have to say, he has come a long way in 18 months, and just when you though his set couldn't get any better when the crowd was losing their shiz to Dance Wiv Me, he followed it up with Bonkers (a track that sounds absolutely perfect, as you can imagine, here in England's capital city). I really wasn't sure how the day could possibly improve...and out came Basement Jaxx- one only needs to read their stellar five star views across all Sunday's publications to know just how good they were. Seriously superb. I'm not sure if I can think of an act I've seen that has had so much variety, complexity, sound quality and performance prowess. In short, an opening with Good Luck, mixing the King's Sex on Fire, a slowed version of Romeo, constumes and mixing takes on Salt n Pepper, the gorgeous Raindrops, a classic electronic take on Somewhere Over the Rainbow followed immediatley with Where's Your Head At? and encoring with Rendez Vu (my personal fave- t'was sooo amazing!!). Magic.

Nevermind the bollocks- there is no doubt in my mind- the Brits do music best.