Ricky Gervais + Elmo = LOLZ

The Best Albums of My Life: 1976-09

My final music based list for a bit, until I unleash my top albums of 2009 upon your asses, is a simple top ten pick of the best albums released in my life time, with some notable mentions thrown in for good measure. I am aware that the title of this post makes it look like I'm dead but I'm not, not yet anyway.

10. PEARL JAM – TEN (1991)

9. THE STREETS – A GRAND DON'T COME FOR FREE (2004)

8. THE MARS VOLTA - DE-LOUSED AT THE COMATORIUM (2003)

7. RADIOHEAD – OK COMPUTER (1997)

6. THE SMITHS – QUEEN IS DEAD (1986)

5. BLACK FLAG – MY WAR (1984)

4. NIRVANA – IN UTERO (1993)

3. THE SMITHS – HATFUL OF HOLLOW (1984)

2. NIRVANA – NEVERMIND (1991)

1. BLACK FLAG – DAMAGED (1981)

And as always, what follows are the notable mentions, the close but no cigar albums of the last 33 years...

THE LEMONHEADS – HATE YOUR FRIENDS (1987)

IGGY POP – LUST FOR LIFE (1977)

OASIS – DEFINITELY MAYBE (1994)

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE – RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE (1992)

STRAIGHT OUTTA' COMPTON - NWA (1988)

THE MISFITS – WALK AMONG US (1982)

BLK JKS at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen: Images

Thanks to Gina for these great pictures of the BLK JKS in action.

The Best Albums of the Noughties

Following on from yesterday's music themed post, I'm sharing with you yet another list, this time what I believe are the best albums released between the year 2000 and right bloody now!

Hold onto your hats people and feel free to offer contrary lists in the comments, or suggestions, or hate mail directed at my music taste...

10. THE STREETS – ORIGINAL PIRATE MATERIAL (2002)

9. COLDPLAY – PARACHUTES (2000)

8. FRANZ FERDINAND - FRANZ FERDINAND (2004)

7. RADIOHEAD – IN RAINBOWS (2007)

6. SYSTEM OF A DOWN – MEZMERIZE (2005)

5 .RYAN ADAMS – GOLD (2001)

4. THE STROKES – IS THIS IT (2001)

3. ARCTIC MONKEYS – WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT'S WHAT I'M NOT (2006)

2. THE STREETS – A GRAND DON'T COME FOR FREE (2004)

1. THE MARS VOLTA – DELOUSED AT THE COMATORIUM (2003)

Notable mentions that don't make it onto the list but are worthy of a shout-out include:

CRAIG DAVID – BORN TO DO IT (2001)

YEAH YEAH YEAHS – FEVER TO TELL (2003)

OUTKAST – SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW (2003)

SURFJAN STEVENS – SEVEN SWANS (2004)

BON IVER – FOR EMMA, FOREVER AGO (2008)

TURIN BRAKES – THE OPTIMIST LP (2001)

Best Gigs of My Entire Life...

I love music, even more perhaps than I love acting but I've actually not been to that many gigs, I've calculated around 47 since my first in 1987.

Having said that, to create a list of the very best is a lot harder than I at first thought and I need to reserve a special mention for my first ever gig. It was Spear of Destiny, an 80's post-punk band with a Nazi name that were actually quite left-wing. One of my cousins on my dad's side was their live sound engineer/roadie and I was only 11, it was the 1987 tour to support their big album Outland and that tour they went on to support U2, before the lead singer caught a rare illness and it all went to shit. I stood in the sound booth at Rock City, the UK's best heavy metal venue (if not one of the finest live music venues in Britain) and the best thing about Nottingham and watched them make gnarled sounds. I was bored shitless as I was starting to get into rap but that was where it all started.

So, in reverse order then...

10. PLAN B - ISLINGTON, APRIL 2006

Plan B, the white rapper who played acoustic guitar, may have slid off the face of the musical Earth but in 06 he was at his very peak; on the cusp of hitting the mainstream but playing a tiny bar (I saw him when he had 'made it' and it was a different and far poorer affair) and saying every single line as if he meant it. His stripped back vitriol and passionate delivery cut right through me, it felt as I had been in the presence of a British Woody Gunthrie and I had to go out and make a change to the world after this intense and honest performance.

9. BECK - ROCK CITY, MAY 1997

It's easy to forget that Beck used to be quite good, even if his music was an exercise in showing off and was heartless, with Odelay he made one of the finest records of the 90s and I was an avid fan. This gig stays with me because it lasted for about 3 hours and was spectacular, it had dwarves, excessive strobe, film, a dancing troupe, breakdancing and one bit where the entire band moved in slow motion as if time itself was being tweaked. It was Beck doing Barry Manilow, it was a show and he was the arch-showman, backed up with a mighty album to transform and re-enct for us. Clever, clever stuff.

8. FRANZ FERDINAND - EDINBURGH, AUGUST 2003

Aside from the BLK JKS, I am rarely at the cusp of seeing a band before they get famous but with Franz Ferdinand I managed it by sheer fluke. I was doing the Edinburgh Festival that Summer and it always has some music programmed, I saw Evan Dando that year too as part of his "Baby I'm Back" tour. I heard one track by them, they'd only been going since late 2002 and their big hits and debut did not impact till the start of 2004, anyway, I liked the name and the song so went on my own as no one else fancied it. I ended up stage diving, hanging from the low ceiling and getting in a right sweaty mess, flying solo, I rocked out with disco-punk abandon and will always carry a Franz Ferdinand shaped hole in my heart because of that magic night.

7. FOO FIGHTERS - ROCK CITY, MAY 1997

Never got to see Nirvana but when I got to see Dave Grohl it was if I was getting as close as I could to the memory of Cobain. "The Colour and the Shape" had just come out and I loved it, as I loved all of Grohl's work at this point. It was anthemic in its scope and catchy as hell with lyrics that had a massive personal resonance at the time. This gig wasn't so much about the music, which was great as he cherry picked from two fine albums and also did Marigold the Nirvana B-Side; it was more abut just seeing Dave Grohl and when he stepped on that stage I had to take a breath in. I also remember loving him because he came on with a T-Shirt dissing that shit UK lite-rock band Bush, he had spelt it like this you see: BU$H. Oh how we laughed as we sang along...

6. RL BURNSIDE - THE MAZE (NOTTINGHAM), ?

For the life of me I have no idea when exactly this was but as it was supporting the seminal album "A Ass Pocket of Whisky" is must have been late 96 or early 97. If you don't know, RL is one of the finest bluesmen ever to grace the Earth and he was brought to my attention by working with Jon Spencer (who really should be as famous as The White Stripes, considering he got there first but without a gimmick...) so I went to the arse end of Notts to the smallest club ever and sat right on the front. Out came RL, 70+ with a gut the size of Europe. His grandson was on the traps and he had the legendary Kenny Brown on slide. He stared at the small crowd..."Well, well, well" he said then stomped his foot, as his grand child started to smack the shit out of the kit, the slide came in as if Satan's steed and RL then blew us away for 70 minutes with his down home dirty lyrics and blues riffing. I feel blessed to have seen an original blues practitioner in such an intimate setting.

5. MC5 - RESCUE ROOMS (NOTTINGHAM), SEPTEMBER 2004

Detroit fuzz-rock is something I love, The Stooges are one of my favourite bands of all time but I also love the MC5, so when they reformed and decided to play a small, obscure venue in Notts I was there, along with Mike Thomas and another bloke who was nearly 40. We stood right in the middle at the front, not expecting to dance but to be in prime viewing for what is a small space. The MC5 emerge, they are old but look brilliant and then proceed to emit "Ramblin' Rose" such a massive racket, matched with a progressive melody that, before we all knew it, had slightly three old men moshing. When "Kick Out The Jams" kicked in we nearly did a wee in our pants and arms around each other, sang as if it was 1969 all over again.

4. THE LEMONHEADS - ROCK CITY, OCTOBER 1993

I can't believe I saw this but my girlfriend at the time and me were massive fans, I mean she was 5 years older than me and had been into them from Lick and Lovey and she bought me the ticket as a gift. It was rammed and Dando was at the peak of his fame and then he came on and seriously, it was when he had that really long straight hair, druggie prettiness and just sex on legs with Nic Dalton on bass and Dave Ryan on trap set and Juliana Hatfield adding her weight. It was fucking amazing as he played all of It's A Shame About Ray and threw in some old classics for good measure off of Creator, Lick and Lovey...I even have the track listing somewhere and I can say, I was there when Evan Dando was good!

3. BLACK FLAG - ROCK CITY, JULY 2003

To put this into perspective, ever since I was 18 and got into Black Flag, via Nirvana, I have them down as the band that saved my life and I mean that. Obviously, they split in 1986 but due to Rollins wanting to raise funds for the West Memphis Three he used his backing group and got some guest stars involved, including nearly all the ex-members, to record a benefit album of Black Flag songs. All gravy but then he decided to tour the songs to get more cash for the guys and this is where I come in. I must confess, it was like a dream come true to see those songs, engrained as they are on my memory, performed live by the man that sang them some 22 years ago. I shouted my heart out, every line word perfect and held my arms aloft and cried the tears of a very happy punk rocker.

2. THE STONE ROSES - TRENT POLY (NOTTINGHAM), MAY 1989

I am perhaps proudest of this gig, in that I can say I was there and that I saw the Stone Roses at their absolute peak...even if I was high as a kite and can remember little aside from just dancing like a mentalist and being consumed by the music like some funky monkey, limbs everywhere, spiralling, mind and body out of control as what felt like an army of youth stomped and lolled to the amazing sonic boom that was the Stone Roses. I remember that they played "I Am The Resurrection" and I felt myself grow to the size of Jesus and loom over proceedings, full of swagger and power and looked around to see myself surrounded by fellow giants and we all smiled, secure in our magnificence. And yes, I was only 13 but my mate Stone who was a 6th former got me in and I was big for my age and the rest as they say is history.

1. THE MARS VOLTA - ROCK CITY, NOVEMBER 2003
This stands head and shoulders above anything else because not only was it so profoundly moving but the music is some of my favourite of all time. It was shared with a fellow music enthusiast who I have sadly lost contact with, Mike Thomas. Let me back track, I had been blown away be De-Loused At The Comatorium and had absorbed it into my DNA by constant listening; which made its transformation on that cold night in Nottingham (I remember upon living the gig I didn't feel a thing, in some sort of trance, immune to things as base as feeling the cold) all the more transcendental. Mike and I watched as they performed the album in order but ripped it apart, it was loud, visceral, three-dimensional: an endless barrage of perfect noise that carried us away on a wave of shock and awe, utterly consumed, we were at their mercy and I would've died for them that night. As the final screams of "Take The Veil Carpin Taxt" ran out I noticed that tears were running down my cheeks, the narrative had consumed me, my heart rent asunder by the sheer brilliance of genuine music at its very peak.

Mike and I stumbled out, embraced, shared a tear and became forever changed. On a side note Mike and I went to see them at Brixton in 2005 I think and it was the greatest disappoint of my life, aside from the time I saw a reformed Wire plod through their greatest hits with about as much zest as a nearly dead dog.

Special shout outs have to go to the BLK JKS, who are a wonderful unit live; Ben Folds Five, who I saw often enough and always gave their all in what was always a fun, positive night with them; Hefner, who I was so impressed with, I wrote them a letter and we had some correspondence about shopping centres and finally UK rapper Sway, my first gig with my precious Eva-Jane where unfortunately, I was stricken with a mental health episode but via her kind care of me at the gig and the uplifting, positive thinking hip-hop of Sway, I found my way back to Earth.

FSA Talking Food Adverts

My latest advert has hit the small screen, it is for the Food Standards Agency and features me and another actor playing a variety of talking foodstuffs, including: a South London 'yout' sausage; a Geoffrey Boycott style grumpy potato; a very Nottingham slice of pepperoni pizza; a camp as Christmas salted nut; a very distressed fish finger and right here, you'll see me being a West Country dried apricot.


The shoot itself was a really fun day, we could play around with the script and the characters and although we were working in what looked like medieval torture devices to hold our heads in place, seeing my face superimposed onto a peanut is a real career highlight.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

I love this job!

BLK JKS at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen

Last night was an amazing night, I have just compiled my top 10 gigs of all time and this might just have to sneak in as a notable mention; it was that bloody good!

This was me and Eva-Jane's third BLK JKS gig after seeing them at Cargo, in Stokey and now at the Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen but this time we had family with us in the shape of Eva-Jane's sister Gina and her husband Stephen, along with Stephen's good friend Victor.

The pressure was on, I didn't want them to disappoint as Stephen is a fan but never seen them live and the rest are all new to the phenomena that is the BLK JKS. Thanks to Eva-Jane's bravery we pushed our way to the front after the supports acts, the highlight of which was the intriguing, if a little limited, Canadian outfit called Japandroids who were fashionably two-piece, loud and thrashed about to good effect but I just can't help but feel I've been here before.

Anyway, there we were at the front and I noticed the exceptionally gifted drummer and star of the BLK JKS live show with all of his showmanship, beaming smile and charisma that is Tshepang Ramoba and I decided, slightly pissed as I was, to shake his hand and wish him well for the show. He gracefully accepted my out stretched hand and we exchanged thumbs-up before he made his way on stage to set-up his kit.

"OH MY GOD, I JUST TOUCHED A BLACK JACK!" I embarrassingly said to Eva-Jane (when Tshepang was well out of ear shot), whose smiled humoured my fanboy idiocy. Normally I never do this you see, I never try and make contact with the artists I admire but my worry is that these guys will rightly become musical Gods and I will kick myself for never saying to them, face to face, how much their music means to me.

Eva-Jane then spotted that lead singer and guitarist Lindani Buthelazi was waiting to go onstage, playing with his phone and with my courage stoked by one successful BLK JKS interaction and full of unusual courage (otherwise know as four pints of Sleemans) I marched over to greet him.

Some background to this: a while back I got an email off Lindani saying thanks for all the support I'd shown and that he dug a short film I'd made and the next gig in London we should say hi.

So I did.

I was a bit overwhelmed because he recognised me, knew my name and made a lovely fuss of me as we shook hands, before he excused himself to have a fag outside with the invite to hang-out after the show.

I have now touched two BLK JKS!

And then, after his quick ciggie, they played and boy did they play...arranged in a wonky line across the stage with drummer Tshepang at one end, stage left with rhythm guitarist and all round lord of the dance that is Mpumi his polar opposite stage right. In between is ominous controlled and connected bassist Molefi next to the drummer, leaving Lindani slightly centre stage.

And then the beautiful noise commenced, as they played only 5 songs in around an hour but instead of merely re-creating them as on the record, the BLK JKS re-imagined them, exploding them and teasing them out into epic, progressive dub rock soundscapes that were a testament to their musicianship, creative chops and intelligence.

It was a wonderful hour of truly amazing music and if you ever get a chance to check them out you must do.

Postscript: After the gig, having been never one to hang around to meet the artist, I was a little unsure as to what to do, so I just kinda stood around near Lindani as he chatted to some eager fans (was I one of them?) and he caught me eye and sidled away from them and shook my hand.

I gave him a quick cuddle, told him how good it was and said farewell. He mentioned that they are back in London, at the Barbican actually but it is on the 28th November, when I'll be performing myself on the other side of London but more on that at a later date.

I'll leave you with some BLK JKS to while away the day with...