Pinballs in Weston Super Mare

Went on a Pinball Pilgrimage to WSM yesterday - there was 4 machines in the Grand Pier - Spiderman, Shrek, Batman (Dark Knight) and Big Buck Hunter Pro. We have heard there's a whole arcade of tables at Brean Leisure Park so maybe a trip there is next on the cards...

Adam Ant to play Frome Cheese and Grain

Info here. Pre tour warm up on November 10.

The Elephant's Leg - comedy play at the Egg

Venue review here
I'd have to be pretty churlish not to mention this - a new comedy play written by my son Red and his pal George Mills. It's showing at the Egg, Theatre Royal Bath from 1st - 3rd September. Tickets available from the Theatre Royal. It all takes place in a kitchen at a party - wait - I'll copy and paste the description from the webpage

A party somewhere in Bath, shy Ted listens patiently to host Josh's joke. And listens, and listens.

The longer it goes on the more difficult it is for Ted to leave before the punch line. In the background the party is in full swing, with lovers’ tiffs, burnt shoes and vodka-pineapples constantly hindering the joke’s completion. Will the distractions ever cease?

Will Ted ever hear the end of the joke and will it ever live up to its extraordinary build up? The Elephants Leg is a manic, comic farce of jokes, drink and distractions.

The Legless Theatre Company is a new young and boisterous group brimming with confidence as it prepares for its debut

Otha Turner "My Babe"

Fred McDowell 'Louise'

Great colour footage of the man.

Schleich Wolverine

This is a great new figure from Schleich - well worth buying if you like mustelids.

Susan Wells (Animals & Men)

This was taken by Neil Mitchard at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco July 2011.

Back from the USA

Well our (animals & men) tour went well and we played with some great bands, some really great bands and some extremely marvellous bands. Thanks to Alex for organsing and being a great Tour manager. You can find some links on our Facebook page to some live recordings we made while we were there. Read our interview with the LA Record's Chris Ziegler here

Animals & Men 'Don't Misbehave In the New Age'

Here's us playing in Frome a few weeks ago - filmed by Paul of the Bad Detectives and Magic Tractor. The gig was promoted by Ultrabreaks, so a thanks to all those mentioned.

See us in the US at

WED JUNE 22nd PORTLAND on the LIFE DURING WARTIME show on KBOO Community Radio
THUR JUNE 23rd PORTLAND at EAGLES HALL w/Future Less Vivid (members of Tyvek, Little Claw), Light Brigade (ex-Quack Rainbow), and Sad Horse
FRI JUNE 24th SEATTLE at FUNHOUSE w/Evening Meetings (members of A-Frames, Love Tan), Witch Gardens, Partman Parthorse
SAT JUNE 25th OLYMPIA at NORTHERN w/Morgan And The Organ Donors, Western Hymn
SUN JUNE 26th PORTLAND at TONIC LOUNGE w/Psychic Feline, Cat Fancy
TUE JUNE 28th SACRAMENTO TBA
WED JUNE 29th OAKLAND at SUGAR MOUNTAIN w/Brilliant Colors, English Singles, American Splits
THUR JUNE 30th L.A. at THE SMELL w/Dunes, Wounded Lion, KIT
FRI JULY 1st SAN PEDRO TBA
SAT JULY 2nd SF at BOTTOM OF THE HILL w/Grass Widow, Rank/Xerox
SUN JULY 3rd The CRUSHER FEST at Stork Club in Oakland w/Nikki Corvette, Paul Collins etc.

Top ten Napoleonic movies

I thought it might be fun to make a chart of the best and worst Napoleonic movies - I decided not to include miniseries. Thanks to Mike and Andy for their help in compiling it.
1 - Voyna I Mir (1968) Russian epic that is one of the most expensive movies ever.
2 - Waterloo (1970) great film of the battle. Steiger is good as Napoleon and the various small characters are fun
3 The Duellists (1977) Ridley Scott's directorial debut is a picturesque look at the emnity between two French hussars.
4 War and Peace (1956) Hollywood version. OK Henry Fonda was miscast as Pierre but Audrey Hepburn as Natasha makes up for that.
5 Napoleon (1927) - Silent film about the early career of Napoleon. Impressive tryptich at the end.
6 Master and Commander (2003) Peter Weir's naval adventure.
7 Captain Horatio Hornblower RN (1952)
8 Colonel Chabert (1994) Depardieu plays the title role set in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. Excellent depiction of Eylau in flashback
9 Adventures of Gerard (1970) Based on a novel by Conan Doyle this rarely seen Brit flick is worth watching.
10 The Battle of Austerlitz (1960) Abel Gance directed this largely studio shot epic. Strange. Watch clip here


Some of the films that didnt make the list are Woody Allen's 'Love and Death', the 'Pride and the Passion' - Sophia Loren in Spain. Kolberg (1945) is a Nazi made epic that is terrible. The 'Scarlet Tunic' (1998) wins a prize for having the lowest budget - investors got parts in the movie in exchange for dough. Watch the trailer here

13 Assassins trailer

My son who if you read this blog is a Samurai afficiando is getting ready to watch this Takeshi Miike movie at the cinema so I thought I'd tip you off in case you like Samurai movies...

Animals and Men live in Frome 28th May

Kleenex 'Heidi's Head'

Mississippi records have issued a big vinyl box set of this influential band. Buy it now before they all sell out...

X Ray Spex 'Identity'

Sad to hear that Poly Styrene has passed on.

Dambusters remake

My son spotted this- a remake written by Stephen Fry with 10 full sized replica bombers made for filming - the wiki reads

Remake

Work on a remake of The Dam Busters, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by first time director Christian Rivers, began production in 2008. Jackson said in the mid-1990s that he became interested in remaking the 1954 film, but found that the rights had been bought by Mel Gibson. In 2004, Jackson was contacted by his agent, who said Gibson had dropped the rights. The rights were purchased by Sir David Frost from the Brickhill family in 2005.^[4] Stephen Fry is writing the script of the film.^[5] It will be distributed by Universal Pictures and StudioCanal.^[6] Filming was planned to commence in early 2009, on a budget of USD 40 million,^[7] although no project-specific filming had begun as of May 2009.^[8]

Weta Workshop are making the models and special effects for the film and have made 10 life size Lancaster bombers.^[9]

The last living pilot of the strike team, Les Munro, joined the production crew in Masterton as technical adviser. Jackson will also use newly declassified War Office documents to ensure the authenticity of the film.^[10]

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Wiki on the album here

Animals and Men play Salford May 1st

Details here of this gig at the King's Arms Salford. Promoters 'Comfortable on a tightrope'.

Scene from Godard's Weekend (1967)

Lovely scene from this black comedy/experimental film that is considered by many to be Godard's best work. The cars in this clip are great - there's an NSU Prinz or two - this was our first car bought cheaply.

Made in USA (1966)

This is one Godard film I don't think I've actually seen more than once so I don't remember too much about it but it looks great from this trailer. Wiki on the movie. It was the last full length movie that Karina and Godard worked together on so a kind of 'end of an era' movie. Based slightly on the Big Sleep it had copyright issues with a book called the Jugger and wasn't realeased in the US for many years