It's Christmas Eve, I've not seen Santa yet, but I am stuffing my face. Apparently my Blog is giving the impression to people that our lives are an endless whirlwind of pubs, bands and the (respective) opposite sex. Curiously, I've tried to keep this Blog mostly about the various gigs and stuff we've gone to, and have avoided putting in all the other random nights out and about, or gone into the to's and fro's of our love-lives. But I was gonna put in a few words about going to the Audiocandy Christmas Party at Brass Monkey on Thursday, and this does cross those lines a little, in that I went home before Regular John played 'cos I found out I wasn't going to be seeing the person I was hoping I was gonna be seeing after all, but that's all anyone needs to know about that. Otherwise, it was a great evening! By the time I got there I'd already had a can of Grolsch and a third of a bottle of Rose wine, which isn't much, but turned out to be enough of a bad combination to set me off on the path of spending the next day throwing up, yay. Popped into the Dragon en route to say hi to Reuben who was djing for Steph Holmes' birthday party masquerade ball, so I got to say hello to Socky and Luce too, which was a bonus, then on to the Monkey. So, Audiocandy: it's Del's brainchild, and he played first, solo, with some backing cds, under the name Midget Bardot (arf). Last time I saw him play solo was years ago at the luanch party for The Candy's Monitor Rock single, when by his own admission he was fairly untogether. But this time, he was really with it, and brought a special treat in the form of a version of the last Burn Burn Burn single (The Weekend's Ashes), backed by Regular John, really ragged but of-the-moment and glorious. Good move all round. Aside form the bands, I remember seeing Caroline, Lisa and Helen, at least I think I did. Also one of the oother Helen's and Sally, and one of the other Sally's and Jo. People gradually arrived, but I didn't really keep track: Wookie, Jamie, Richard, Reuben, but I could be wrong about any of them, it can get to be so confusing. Tara and Cara got there eventually too, all dressed up from the Dragon. Star Scream played after Del: I'd not made any effort to see them before, 'cos it seemed fairly evident to me that the guy's got a Muse-fixation, and they wouldn't be my cup of tea at all. But they were fun, you know? Seemed a good bunch, but I wasn't mad-keen on the free cds they were giving out when I played it the next day. Rumiko Jr up next and playing strong, though Michael was stuck on the floor in the corner with his keyboard looking well peed off. I thought they were doing well, but I was pretty drunk by this point (there's a phrase I may have used on these Blogs before...) and can't pretend I took a hell of a lot of it in. I think they finished with Get Up Jake though: will this do? And that was about that for me. Merry Christmas! x

Is it Wednesday? It's all a bit of a blur. Last Thursday I was djing at the Dragon Bar: as usual I spent the first hour or so without any friends there, being very self-conscious and wondering why I let myself do these things. Carrie turned up first though (easy, seeing as she lives round the corner with me), followed a bit later by Caroline and Paula, and eventually Reuben, Wookie, Rob Savage etc. It went alright really, some of the records went down well on Gorilla's table (see the Unpopular Records Played Badly thread at http://dizzytigerstu.proboards58.com for the setlist). Tara came along with Cara and some other friends too, which was good of them.
Friday was catching-up with Roschenda Corby and Carolyn Fouracre on a night out in Bexhill, then Saturday brought the weekend's main event: James Yorkston at Harpers. I went along with Paula (who I'd bought the tickets for as a birthday present) and Jamie; Dean, Rufus, Bonj, Jim ( I think) were there already, Wookie, Richard, Reuben, Rob and Jonathan turned up at different points. Had to watch Mike Prochak and a woman called Pita (who Paula, as a former Hastings nurse, thinks she recognised) perform a few folksongs first, but it was the mighty Yorkston we were impatient for. He rewarded us with nearly two hours (or my clock was wrong) of songs perfomed solo (I'd seen him in a duo at the De La Warr Pavilion, and with the Athletes at All Tomorrow's Parties before), including several covers of friends' (Fence Collective members?) songs, and much of his own stuff, including St Patrick, which at one point in my life became a hugely significant song for me in tragic circumstances (if I ever feel it's appropriate, I'll post up the whole story I wrote about that time on the message boards too), and I was wondering how it would be if he played it, but the sky didn't open up or anything odd (he did say he'd played down The Crypt once before though, which I didn't know, and set me wondering about the songs again...). He also took some requests, and did Away In A Manger for us (though he didn't know the words), and, very unexpectedly, Donna Summer's I Feel Love, which Dean volunteered to sing the high-pitched harmony lines too. It was a very very special evening, yeah.
It's been pubs and parties since then (Filo, Revolver etc), and I think my lovelife is finally looking up, here's hoping. Yay!

It's all been going a bit hectic again. Went out Thursday evening just to give Reuben a couple of ABBA lps to use where he was djing at the Dragon with Rob Savage for a birthday, and thought I'd stay for one drink, which became loads of drinks, and I ended up doing loads of lopsided dancing with Cara (whose birthday it was) and her friends Tara and Jackie (whose name I got wrong all evening), and Karen again, who I think I always make a terrible impression on... Loads of people were out, including Reuben and Rob's usual dj possee of Johnny Russell, Wookie, and Reu's housemates. Jamie turned up later, and when we got chucked out, we wandered about and found ourselves in the Lillie Langtree restaurant, with a woman djing all the records Reuben must've left at home (ie The Birdie Song, Tiger Feet, The Cheeky Girls etc etc), so we danced to them as well. Ended up with the restauranteur singing Strange Fruit to us all, before I staggered home late.
Went out again on the Friday, again only intending it to be brief, to see Jonathan playing at Bar Blue (though I got my venues mixed up, and went to The Rooms first). Reuben and Wookie passed through on their way to wandering around cliffs and abandoned hospitals, but I'd got that out of my system a few years ago, so I stuck in the venue, finding Cara and Tara again, this time with their friend Bev. Jonathan played some good stuff, accompanied by Julian's drum and Yuri's violin. Richard Hart turned up and did a few songs betwenn Johnathan's sets, and I got very drunk with the (already very drunk) women. Lots of other folk turned up and hung out, and Bar Blue stayed open quite late for us, but eventually we ended up going round the corner to the Admiral Benbow for really hectic drinking, shouting, dancing and kissing. I didn't get back 'til gone 3am that time.
Saturday was Reuben and Rob at the Gritti Palace again, and a chance to discover that the Vicki who I referred to on this Blog before isn't the person I thought she might've been, but i still very nice, and shall henceforth be known on here as Ria. Many of the same people were out, too many to list again.
Quiter one at the FILO Sunday with Carrie and Caroline, then down Smugglers on Monday for a Heaters gig with theire new guitarist and drummer. Saw Bonj, Reuben, Jonathan, Wookie, Richard etc all over again, and the consensus on The Heaters seems to be that they're still improving, but aren't quite there yet. Don't think they need to let their new guitarist front a few songs, but there you go, perhaps it's in the contract.
Finally, down Revolver last night for Dean and Jim's spot. Bonj joined Dean for a couple of Pixies covers too, which went well. Paula's back from Scilly for that one, joining me, Jamie, Michael, Caroline and Carrie; Rufus there, Reuben and some of his mates, Jonathan, Kim Billy, Maya, Helen and her pal, all sorts really. Got trolleyed as usal, and got quite laddish in a homosexual way, oops. When I got home I did more stuff online, 'cos I've been very behind the times and gone onto MySpace now, at www.myspace.com/stuarthuggett , which probably isn't a very intelligent thing to do, but I've been getting a bit bored at home, when I'm there. So come and say hello if you want. See you down the Dragon on Thursday, yes?

The Nightmare Before Christmas happened last weekend: I went along with Petra, Rita and David. I'll skip anything about trains, chalets, food and drink, and just get onto the bands.
Friday: Jai Alai Savant were a bit of a dub influenced hardcore band, thrilling in places, but some of their tunes were just bad, like Level 42 had written them or something. Battles have signed to Warp - you remember how Tricky Disco was a cartoon alien? Well, if he'd been a cartoon octopus drumming, that's basically Battles. Bleeps, vocoders, bass and complex meshes of rhythms, really fun but difficult to get a handle on as they kept switching direction. Jaga Jazzist were a bit too Mogwai-go-jazz for me. The Locust though - fuckin' hell! You know those dead Martians they excavate from the London Underground in Quatermass And The Pit? Imagine if they had a band, and played hardcore punk strictly for other Martians. The Locust are really fast and short, loads of Moog action, and all dressed as insectoids (in a bit of a Marvel style). Phenomenal they are. Loads of hip-hop downstairs: Subtitle is a rangy feller, spitting and mumbling rhymes over all sorts of stuff he's saved on his laptop (I think he said Aphex was in there somewhere), really endearing too. Dalek are heavy, imposing, very loud, a post-Industrial hip-hop duo (dj & mc). It did get a bit too relentless for me after a while though. Saul Williams was doing the educational hip-hop thing, in the KRS One style: the crowd loved him, but I thought he was the least interesting rapper of the evening just 'cos he's so straightforward.
Went up to see Blonde Redhead play: they're a band I like and saw once or twice before, but tonight I thought they played a really self-indulgent and boring set, no communication with the audience, but none with one another either. I was feeling a bit too Floyd At Pompeii, so went back down for Beans, being backed by a group called Holy Fuck, and he was excellent: really fun and bouncy and tight. Didn't have the energy to wait for Battles second set, or to go see The Kills headline, so I went back to the chalet and slept.
Saturday: Had to be at work during the day, but got back downstairs at Pontins just in time for Mr Quintron & Miss Pussycat. Good timing! He plays synths and organs on a rack designed to look like the front of an old American car, with all sorts of homemade rhythm and light devices spinning around beside him. She dresses in yellow and greens, playing maracas, dancing and shouting along with another woman (un-named!) He loses his sunglasses, suit, and shirt, getting down into the crowd. They play a garage/B52's thing, one moment it's ? & The Mysterians, the next it owes more to early House music beats. You've gotta check them out, there's videos of them doing this with Miss Pussycat's puppetshows out there! Weird War after: they're post_ The Make-Up, and I thought their garage/soul sound was just as good. That man Svenious can move too! Though he was outdone in the performance stakes by the guy from Les Savy Fav, who was all over the place with nappies, wine, water and sweat. They're disco punk rock was exhilirating for a while, but soon my energy began to flag (as did the singers) and I lost interest, partly in the face of such blanket approval from the crowd: they're incredibly popular, and I had no idea. The Mars Volta were curating, and set to play for a long time upstairs, but I couldn't muster any interest to go see them, and sulked in the pub to the djs. Not very good of me.
Sunday - At last a full day in Camber to visit the beach etc. But no record fair outside the pub this year, mainly 'cos it was so wet and cold probably. Gris Gris came on downstairs first, playing psychedelic country rock and beat combo stuff, it was seamless for the most part, and I really liked them, so I may have to end up liking The Grateful Dead now. Holger Czukay had cancelled, and Jai Alai Savant replaced him, so I went and saw Hella play, who were kind of a messy version of The Locust really, with extra hair and synth-abuse. Good and unrelenting weirdness all round. Michael Rother was upstairs as part of a more rock-sounding trio than I was hoping for, only their last track really elevated, the rest all blurred into a one, but not in the way the musicians intended. Damo Suzuki played, backed with a group called Jelly Planet, sometimes full-on fun, sometimes a bit turgid. More on him later. Upstairs for CocoRosie - I knew some of their earlier folky songs, but now they're a trio with a beatboxer, and progressed form their quiet and operatic minitures, through a cover of that Sean Paul (was it?) Turn Me On song, to a final electro double-dutch finale, all three women bouncing up and down and giving it the crowd chanting. Colourful film projections too, over-saturated Care Bear cartoons, glass-painting, dressing up weird and sexy. Antony & The Johnsons headlined upstairs, and were wonderful and charming as you may expect. Bless him for puncturing the reverence and mystique with an improvised vocal about getting some fish & chips too. But we had a final bonus downstairs: Acid Mothers Temple (who'd delayed from earlier) went for total double-drummer wig out, straggly bearded twin guitarists on the monitors, yet more analogue synth abuse too. They were playing fucking brilliantly, and then did the right thing and brought Damo Suzuki back onstage with them for the second half: loads of grizzly men much older than the crowd throwing themselves into the the melee of noise: guitars were smashed, Suzuki banged himself about, eardrums were punctured. Gave me enough oomph to go dancing in the pub for hours afterwards, at last, and I even got through work the next day and down to that evening's Rumiko Jr gig at the Smugglers (louder and faster now, possible keeping-up-with-the-RegularJohns' thing happening) on the lift of the weekend. And then rest..

Down Revolver on Tuesday evening for Dean & Jim's usual gig. Bought a few pints with the last of my wages, then Reuben and Jamie obligingly got me some more, yay! Thanks, I'll return everyone's drinks at the Rumiko Jr gig down Smugglers on Monday next. Rufus also played alongside Jim, doing a set between two of Dean's. The woman serving at the bar that night hadn't heard Rufus play before, or seen Dean play outside of the Revolver duo context, so I've hopefully convinced her to come along on Monday to get the full band sound. I discussed with Reuben whether he should set up his own blog, but seeing as he's out every time I'm out, this Dizzy Tiger one would be near identical: he's using it to remind himself what he does every night, so doesn't feel the urge to write his own one yet. After several drinks, me, him and Jamie were doing a lot of drunken debating about the music industry, which might have been a bit alienating to Reuben's friend he'd come along with, so I apologised to her, then carried on ranting. Jamie reckons the 60s Nirvana are way better than the 90s Nirvana: any takers? Jonathan sat with us too, Christa was giving out invites to her birthday celebrations next month, Helen was out with Dean, Rebecca and Anna and their friends were around for a bit, Lethwin and Romily were up in the corner. We're all still getting used to the new liscensing hours, and discovering who's opening til when, and on this night I think Revolver were extended by maybe half an hour or so. There was some background gossip passed on to us by Harvey from Harpers about possible forthcoming acts who could be playing there, which are so exciting that if I only I could be certain they're gonna pull it off I'd be shouting the names from the clifftops! Until then though..