Vote for (bigoted) change?

You may have heard in the press that Conservative MP & Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling thinks that christian B&B owners should be allowed to refuse service to gay couples. Frankly I find this idea incredibly bizarre - apart from being discriminatory, how on earth is it consistent with any other rule or law we have in this country? I have to disagree with commentators who think that people with these views should be allowed to exercise them as they will soon go out of business - I fail to see how easy it is to spot that a B&B landlord is a massive homophobe unless you happen to be the stranded vitim of their bigotry. Or are we to back to a time when B&B had signs hanging in their windows that said "no coloureds" ("no gays")? If the laws in the country condone these views, then fewer people will challenge discriminatory views like this, and it will remain acceptable. Our country's leaders should lead the way, not brush the issue under the carpet. What sort of example does this set to young gay people struggling to come to terms with their sexuality? Or gay people of any age experiencing discrimination because of their sexual orientation? Awesome way to boost self-esteem there.

The Conservatives, at the time of writing, have not mentioned the continued tenability of Mr Grayling's position in the party, although calls for his resignation are becoming louder. You can sign a petition to add to those voices - here is my response below:

I am quite stunned that views like this do not constitute grounds for dismissal - MPs and parliamentary candidates have resigned/been sacked for much lesser issues, that have no bearing on their public life or work (eg having an affair). Chris Grayling's comments are wholly offensive and inconsistent with anti-discrimination laws - where will it stop? Muslim B&B owners will have the right to refuse entry to white christians? Jewish B&B owners will have the right to refuse unmarried couples?



The Conservatives' silence over Mr Grayling's comments inherently condones his views during the run up to the election, when MPs, candidates and party members must be seen to be promoting their party's policies. Mr Grayling must be sacked, or The Conservatives become the party of discrimination, not just against gays, but against any minority group that a conservative politician takes a dislike to. Please remember, just as it's not ok to be racist, it's not ok to be homophobic either.

In need of caffeine

I've *attempted* to sum up my upcoming April activities here for the ever-lovely culturevulture.co.uk. Have a read. I'm going to be quite busy. And on top of that please bear in mind I also have Unfinished Drawings at Verve, and National Record Store Day all over Leeds on the 17th. And a full-time job. 

I can have a break in May though - there's another Bank Holiday and everything! Wrong. May Day Bank Holiday sees my birthday, Live at Leeds, and the last weekend I have to work out what I'm doing when I go to Iceland for a few days (answer: lots). Then there is the going to Iceland, and coming back via gigs with Pavement and Shonen Knife. All before the middle of the month.

So have pity, and buy me caffeine when you see me out.

xx

More on March on CultureVultures

Here be my latest post about March, on the ever-lovely theculturevulture:


http://ow.ly/1qcVd

The diary's looking a bit full..

Oh dear, May's looking a bit rammed for music. Hooray!

Here's what I've got coming up over the next couple of months. I'm not posting this because I think you might find it interesting (although some of you might want to come along), but mainly because a) I'll get confused otherwise (diaries are so last year. Unless you've got one for 2010). and b) I'll be previewing them in a bit more detail shortly. 

So for now, cos it's late, and cos someone's coming round with a power drill at 10.30 tomorrow morning, here's the list:

March:

• New Young Pony Club (Cockpit)
• Save BBC 6 Music protest (Broadcasting House, London)
• Alt Track instore gig, (Musician's Centre, then 1in12 club, both Bradford). I can't actually go to this but you all should.

April:

• From Leeds to Haiti, from Needs to Ability (Brudenell) with: I Like Trains / Middleman / Micky P Kerr / Lee J Malcolm / Secret Circuits / Alt Track and loads more
• Alphabeat (*cough*) (Leeds Uni)
• Fuck Buttons (TJ's Woodhouse)
• Mark Lanegan (Brudenell)
• Ben Frost/Sam Amidon/Nico Muhly/Valgeir Sigurðsson (Manchester Academy)
• LCD Soundsystem (O2 Leeds)

May:

• Live at Leeds (all over Leeds! For 4 days!)
• Some gigs in Reykjavik (Iceland) - if you know what's going on in RVK in early May let me know. 
• Pavement (Brixton)
• Shonen Knife (Brudenell)
• Seabear (Brudenell)
• Delphic (Leeds Met)
• Chrome Hoof (Brudenell)

I might add the hyperlinks to these tomorrow but I might not. You've all got google though right? Goodgood :)

Night x

Roskilde 2010

I've been to my fair share of music festivals but never one outside the UK, and Roskilde is one that I remember older friends talking about in excitement awe when I was a little (well, before I hit gig-going age). So when I saw that the organisers were looking for people to attend the festival for free and write a blog about it in the months leading up to it as well as while there, I got a little bit excited. So I've not been doing this writing malarkey long and I'm still finding my feet in places, but the last couple of festivals that I've been to I've had such a strong urge to document what I'd seen and done for people to read about, I thought I'd apply. 

Unsurprisingly, the application process attracted over 450 entries, and I didn't get in (you can read the successful blogs here by the way). I was disappointed, yeah, but let's be realistic, I've only been doing this for real for 5 minutes (years of doing it in my head probably doesn't count. Should have thought of that years ago really..). But I thought it would be a shame for my application never to see the light of day ever again - so here it is. I don't think it's awful, but it ain't really in the top 2%. Some of it I'd probably change if I did it again but I'm leaving it like this because it's a little moment in my history now and you can't muck about with that shit. Look what happened to Marty McFly. 

• Name: Ellyoracle 
• Music  Preference: Anything I’ve not heard before. Anything I have heard before and liked. Currently into: Future of the Left / LCD soundsystem / Hafdis Huld / Pulled Apart by Horses / Ladyhawke / Fuck Buttons. Anything loud and/or with a beat basically. (I make an exception for Hafdis because she sings about robots).
• Reason for going to Roskilde, and why I am the blogger of choice: Roskilde’s a bit of a legend for us Brits - a bit like Glastonbury is when you’re growing up in the UK, but y’know, ABROAD! The line-up always looks amazing, I mean this year (already) you have FM Belfast! Pavement! Obscure Danish bands! (apologies – if you’re Danish and reading this you’ll think I’ve been living under a rock..). I do love discovering new music, whether it’s new full stop or just new to me, it’s pretty hard to stop me going to gigs. Ok it doesn’t even have to be new music, anything that I already like gets me quite excited too. It all kinda makes me twitchy-in-a-good-way, I love the atmosphere, I love the adrenaline, I love sharing the experience. Hell I even love trying to fit 6 different bands into one night (doesn’t always work to be honest but it adds to the entertainment). Stick all that into a festival, complete with wellies, loo roll and cider, and I can’t think of anything that makes me happier (other than maybe cake). Oddly though I’ve only just realised that I also enjoy writing about music, the whole live experience, and how it makes me feel. Fortunately people also seem to enjoy reading what I write (I’d still do it even if they didn’t but the positive feedback is quite nice. A bit like cake). I’m told my style is chatty and conversational, (oh, and witty.. ;) ) and people like reading it because it’s full of enthusiasm and easy to read - and that’s got to be a good thing for grabbing hold of your audience right? So... Putting all that together and blogging about Roskilde? Writing about the anticipation and who I’d like to see? A week of running around in a field in my wellies HAVING to go and see as many bands as I want? Talking to people and getting those obscure festival anecdotes out of them? Finding a solution at 3am for not having any ketchup? (Oh hang on, you don’t need to know about that…). AND  telling people what I think about it in my very own Roskilde blog? I’m so excited you might have to calm me down by feeding me cake! *(*this means that I would very much like the position and that I think I would be really good at it, much better than everyone else).

Going Live...

I've just finished my first ever live gig review then. Rather than start out simple, I've written about not 1 but 4 bands at the NME Awards Tour at the Leeds O2 academy, for the lovely people at TheCultureVulture. So no pressure then! But I had a great time at the gig and really enjoyed writing it up (thank god they didn't give me any less than 500 words!). 

So this is partly a thankyou to CultureVulture for having faith in me, and partly to jump up and down a bit and say yay! That was much fun!

You can read the review here.

Hafdis Huld/Synchronised Swimmers

Now I'm a girl who likes her music loud, and preferably jumpable to. Sugar-coated, cute-as-a-button, girl-next-door, singer-songwritery pop just doesn't do it for me. Or it didn't until I heard effervescent Icelandic bombshell Hafdis Huld's Synchronised Swimmers. I don't know if it's the homemade handicrafts on the album artwork, the Icelandic tongue-in-cheek attitude, or the ukulele (it's pink by the way. A pink flying V ukulele). Hafdis' songs are lilting, cheeky, and optimistic. She tells it like it is, but with a puppy-dog charm that oozes kitschy enthusiasm. Let's face it, you can't help but like a girl who sings about friends, nosy neighbours, and her love rival having "really stupid hair". 


www.hafdishuld.com