Rootsville...and a bit of a rant...

I've not 'gigged' for two weeks now. A musical detox if you will (and I'm sure you will). To make up for it, as well as the festival who's name I promised not to mention again, I've just purchased tickets to something called Rootsville. I think it happened last year (on a much smaller scale) and sold out. This year they've pulled together a fairly eclectic, but pretty cool sounding, line up including The Inspiral Carpets (yes...THE Inspiral Carpets...I can do my patent 'baggy' dance last seen in The Gloucester - Brighton 1990 - all over again), Misty's (yay!), The Destroyers (yay!), The Presets (yay!...you get the idea), The Ripps, The Dholblasters and Chrissy Van Dyke (who I last saw in Plutonik...the most remarkable Drum n'bass band ever who deserved to be megastars...but weren't...booo hisss to the music biz). Early bird tickets are a bargaintastic £15 and are / were still available yesterday from my chums at Swordfish records. It seems that some of the festival is taking place under one of the many railway arches in Digbeth. Cool idea. One of the things I really enjoyed about the Great Escape Festival in Brighton was the variety of unusual venues by the seafront. We've got just as many great buildings here in Brum...at last some are finally being used. Hurrah! On a more worrying note Pete Ashton has commented that residents of some of Digbeth's swanky new apartments are a tad unhappy with music and stuff going on in 'their' neighbourhood and they're muttering about getting things shut down. As a regular of The Fiddle & Bone, a beautiful canal side pub and music venue in the heart of the city that was shut down by some of the...sorry...I'm going to swear here...wankers...who moved in to the apartments that overlooked it, this is worrying news. Now, I like my peace and quiet at home as much as the next bloke. That's why I live in 'leafy' Bearwood. The junkie crack whores keep the place lovely and quiet. If I chose to move in to, say, the NEC, I would expect a little noise now and then. And if, just as Birmingham is starting to develop a decent arts scene, it was shut down by people who choose to live slap bang in the middle of its beating heart then I will weap. Seriously. Right...where was I? Oh yes. Rootsville. Looks good. Just the kind of pan genre (nothing to do with real pans...although that would be kind of interesting...can pans be a genre? Discuss) musical event that the world needs more of. That's it. I'm unlikely to post again until after the festival who's name I'm not mentioning again...'cos I'm a workshy fop. So, until we meet again...ta ra bab (the bus driver said this to Lady Baron yesterday and it made me feel all warm inside...).