Last night was special. Domino Records hosted a unique gig inside Reykjavik’s incredible Hafnarhus (Harbour Gallery), featuring Fourtet, Adem, To Rococo Rot, Leeds boys Hood and Iceland’s own amazing Slowblow. Read on for more…
I’m back in Iceland! I’m so happy. It doesn’t matter that icelandair have lost all of my possessions, because I’m here, and I don’t care. I’m sitting in the official Airwaves Festival bar (Hressingarsklin) - it’s all super wi-fi’d, laid back, comfy, warm. Bands are being interviewed all around me. The chap from Fourtet just walked by. It’s table-service-a-go-go, and I’ve never seen so many Apple products in one place. The guy with the 17” Powerbook looks particularly smug.
Woo-hoo! The music week continues tomorrow, as we head off to my old home (Iceland) for the Airwaves Festival in downtown Reykjavik - four days of mind-bending noise in the land of fire, ice and hot-dogs.
Forgive the Northeast colloquialisms, but it was a most interesting weekend. Spent two days with some Geordies (people from Newcastle), Maccams (people from Sunderland) and - erm, people from Cambridge (don’t know what they’re called) in the grounds of Downing College. Considering the bitterly fierce rivalry between the Maccams and Geordies, everyone got on incredibly well.
I’m very impressed with my esteemed colleague Mr. Tebbutt. Worthy captain of the good ship Speakers Push The Air, he’s managed to grab four free press passes to this year’s Airwaves festival in Reykjavik. It’ll be my seventh or eighth trip to Iceland, but my first chance to soak up the sights and sounds of the festival.
How time flies when you’re having fun. So much fun. More fun than I’ve had for some time - in a big block anyway. One big, bad block of fun. I barely touched the laptop, and went nowhere near the office. Instead I split my time between London, the South coast and good old Nottingham. Low cost, cheap thrills and very little effort.
So, that was Glastonbury 2004. Around 120,000 revellers enduring sleep deprevation, come-ups and downs, 1000s of performers and everything the weather could throw at us. Probably my favourite Glasto thus far, thanks in part to the volume of friends around me, two days of intense sunshine and some incredibly powerful music.
In what will be the first of millions of posts relating to my love of all things Icelandic, I’ve decided to flag up some excellent websites built in the land where Macs are as important as food, and the internet was introduced way back in 1912 (well, they were well ahead of the UK). Icelandic design continually impresses me - whatever the field - and young developers are readily embracing current standards in their work.
Posted via CollyPhone: Images from the University-gang reunion in glamorous Southend-on-Sea recently. Probably a bit ropey seeing as I’m sending them from my mobile, but it’s not the future yet.
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