Comedy Breasts and Krautrock

Today I finally got round to organising the accommodation for S’s ‘Stag Do’ in Oxford. I have booked a couple of rooms at the city’s Travelodge and I’m pleased with the deal I found. A small assembly of hipsters will be attending a Fall gig at the Zodiac next month and, now I know where we shall be staying, I’m looking forward to events immensely. For years, S and I have been discussing the concept of watching The Fall ‘somewhere different’ and it’ll be exciting to check out my most seen live band in a new venue and, before and afterwards, toasting the soon-to-be-wed young blade purposefully in bars, snugs and smoking rooms that I have never before encountered. It shall not be a ‘Stag Do’ in the traditional – and horrific - sense and I predict that S won’t end the evening naked and tied to a lamppost - although that mental image is oddly captivating. I do however have a touching fantasy involving Mark E. Smith glancing down into the crowd during a rendition of Mr. Pharmacist and clocking the acerbic S draped in a pair of comedy breasts. It can’t happen, can it?

I thank S for getting me into the remarkable Fujiya & Miyagi (pictured) although I had already read one or two reviews of the act’s smashing album Transparent Things. There is something charming about three English lads from Brighton giving themselves Japanese names and banging out driving Krautrockesque rock gems with considerable aplomb, wit and energy. The band’s lyrical content is packed with clever lines and smart imagery. I insist that all hepcats that assemble to read these pages go forth to the marvellous Fujiya & Miyagi website and watch the video (look under ‘News’) to the sumptuous Photocopier. Play it loud. It may change your life. This is my new favourite band.

The rugby union was good yesterday. The club I know simply as ‘Gloucester’ should have been out of sight with the amount of chances the team created but must content itself with a fine and necessary 34-25 over the club I know simply as ‘Harlequins’. Andrew Hazell enjoyed a dashing eighty minutes of undiminished effervescence while Will James proved a thunderous presence in both tight and loose. The shaven-headed lock would have the Cole vote in any elective process to find the ‘most improved player’ this season; someone suggested to me that it has taken the former Cornish Pirate this long to attain the fitness levels required for the English Premiership. He is certainly up to speed now and he put in another splendid and tumultuous performance on Saturday.