Inspiral Carpets - HMV Empire, Coventry
I went to see The Damned the other week, and early on in the set they played 11 tracks in row from their new album. Looked at one way, this is very “punk rock”, challenging the audience rather than wrapping them in a warm duvet of nostalgia. This would be fine if the new stuff was better than the old, but truthfully, it isn’t. Inspiral Carpets didn’t make the same mistake at Coventry’s HMV Empire. You want the hits? You got the hits. And there were plenty of them, too, from a band who despite their trademark “cool as fuck” merch, never quite acquired the iconic status of fellow Madchester ravers, Happy Mondays and Stone Roses. Inspiral Carpets always felt a bit more mainstream, somehow, but their semi psychedelic garage pop, powered by Clint Boon’s raging Farfisa, created some great moments. It’s the the sign of a decent back catalogue that a song as powerful as ‘This Is How It Feels To Be Lonely’ can be fired off a third of the way into the set. The band are reunited now with original singer Stephen Holt, and Boon’s 18 year old son Oscar handles bass duties. There’s a new sticksman too, following the death in 2016 of Craig Gill, who is touchingly remembered on the band’s drumkit. For all the changes, Inspiral Carpet an excellent live proposition, and it’s a good pub debate whether they actually created more enduring tunes than any of their supposedly more illustrious contemporaries.
Blackpool
Weird place Blackpool. Brilliant beaches, awesome sunsets. Shuttered shops, visible poverty. Off season, the Imperial Hotel is a great place for a bargain break.
Jamie Oliver - Happy Days With The Naked Chef
In that very British way, people seem to enjoy taking Jamie Oliver down a peg or two. His recent “£1 Wonders” telly series was much mocked because a) millionaire Jamie doesn’t need to cook on a budget himself and b) didn’t he put hundreds of workers on the dole when his restaurant empire collapsed whilst protecting his own personal fortune? There may be some merit to both these criticisms, but from where I’m sitting, Jamie is one of the good guys. He tried to improve school meal standards, and his Fifteen restaurant chain attempted to give an opening to youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds. Then there are the cookbooks. This week I cooked a fantastic veg curry (easily adapted for meat eaters) from his classic ‘Happy Days With The Naked Chef’ (2001). It was simple, tasty, and had my kids coming back for more. We specialise in a kind of sneery schadenfreude in this country, which delights in seeing celebrities ‘put in their place’, but it’s easy to forget how gastronomically backward we were until very recently - and how people like Jamie Oliver did so much dunces like me feel that we could make fresh, interesting food.
The Lilac Time - A Makeshift Raft
Good news. A new Lilac Time album is on the way. In the meantime, here’s a brilliant taster - the new single which, according to the band’s website, “asks if those seeking freedom need drown, then ponders the inevitability of continuous wars. It praises the America of Allen Ginsberg before a few bars of yodelling and it ends by eulogising fingers, guitars and songs of love. Something for everyone then.” Well, not quite everyone. I can’t see the Daily Mail making it Record Of The Week, but it would be a better, kinder world if they did.