Ö÷²¥´óÐã

Since St Davids Day i've been on a Welsh gigging frenzy, seeing Gruff Rhys and Lisa Jen singing beautiful, epic songs with giant Candylions on stage, Euros Childs singing jaunty tunes from his ace new album, Radio Luxembourg singing about SunScreen, Richard James break hearts with his gentle banjo-dabbling folk, and I went to see a musical full of puppets. The last part wasn't strictly a gig, nor was it a Welsh one, but it was a lot of fun. I have too many albums I want to listen to. Is there a way of listening to albums faster than normal, without missing any of the good bits? Folk say the album is dead. They're probably right. But the album is only dead when no one wants to make albums any more. And there's loads of ace bands still making albums, so albums are not dead. There, it's official.
Been going through the MASSIVE mailbag of demos form the last week at Radio 1 towers, and listenign tot he albums I bought over the weekend - Loney, Dear's new one, a Camille album I heard on Gilles Peterson's show, the Rough Trade Counter Culture albums, and albums that have arrived before they're out by Manics (great songs, witha sense of humour, a sense of adventure, and if they ever wnet away, a return to form), Aurevoir Simone (so so lovely) and Coco Rosie (odd, ske-whiff, beautiful).
h
ps - I saw David Dimbleby at the train station today. and Karl Pilkington from Ricky gervais fame. I'm going to start a celebrity spotting blog here I think