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OUR DIARY 27th November Brixton Academy for the uninitiated, is a special venue in South London which holds years of gig memories. It felt quite surreal when we were asked to DJ on stage this summer as The Scissor Sister's support act. An experience which was partly hindered by the ill advised fashion mistake that was a green, glittering bat-wing top/dress thing that had me (t) flailing round the stage like a nervous, midget limbed Christmas decoration. Quite keen to redeem our selves then as Brixton was the venue for the chart show this week. We were there to see the Yeah Yeah Yeah's who certainly weren't having any fashion crisis. Karen was breathtaking as she took to the stage in a black suit which ripped apart, a kind of Karencoon, to reveal a skeletal ragged body suit designed, as ever, by the wonderfully named Christan Joy. With a naked back but hood that pulled all the way over her face transforming her at will into a writhing stage swamp creature with this amazing voice coming out of it.. It was a real treat as well to see them sound check Maps. Always heart breaking its all the more so with just 2 of you watching in this huge, deserted space. The video for Maps which has got to be one of the most perfect videos of the year is on their new DVD "tell me What Rockers to follow" alongside the 3 others plus extras directed by Karen's current squeeze Spike Jones. Hopefully this indicates we can expect to see more brain bending collaborations between the pair. If the video for Y Control is anything to go by this could be quite an adventure. A haunting genuinely eerie piece of work more a kin to Afex Twin than than the vids we associate with Spike from the past like Sabbotage or Praise You. Karen's actually no stranger to working behind the camera as well. A film school graduate (where she met Maps director Patrick) she co directed the video for The Liars single "We Fenced the Garden With Bones of Our Own" which is a complete gem worth tracking down if only for her cameo as "Panda Zombie" The pompadoured hip-sters that are The Bravery were supporting so we had some time before to do an interview and swap make-up tips. Duke Spirit were also on the bill. We had fun reminiscing with singer Liela about the time we returned to our old flat to be greeted with the flesh fest that was her, our other flat mate and a big girl named Sue doing some naked girly experimenting in the middle of the lounge. (just leave you with that image for a moment) The boys we were with left convinced Queens HQ was the best house in England. Talking of exciting collaborations it was cool to see Meg and Jack White at the Barfly this Friday. He had come to sing with old friend Brendon Benson. It was nice to get the opportunity to congratulate them in person for hitting the No.1 spot in the DEFINITIVE NME chart with Jolene. Naturally they were overjoyed. We're off to do some collaborating with our duvets now to get in shape for another gigtastic week.  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20th November Newsflash! We didn't go and see a Babyshambles gig this week DunDun Duun. Alright we did go all the way to Paris to see the remaining Libertines perform though. Leave off, you love them too or you wouldn't have voted them number 1 for X consecutive weeks in the all important definitive NME chart. Kings of Leon finally kicked em off the top spot with The Bucket last week. Insanely catchy, a worthy follow up but the most oblique lyrics since American Pie not to mention the most barn storming hair cut since Dave Hill. Carl was snarling, brave and charismatic as ever but it was half a whole or there was a hole although, you would never guess from the mass of undulating fans "up and over" bestowing their adoration with bows, kisses and 180degree kamikaze stage dives 9.9 shades intact (only in Nottingham and Paris) Kids from Scotland and Wales turned out baring flags as if they'd come to support a national treasure. Half the Rough Trade office, Franz, Elanor from the fiery If our little corner's a bit of escapism thats none to reassuring either. A glance at last week's chart shows that there's not one female contributer save from Meg White. What are we escaping from Jeese Louise! One marked exception were the Dresden Dolls "on the radar"( thats "nearly in the chart" for those of you not familiar with show speak.) Not coincidentally one of the the most original things to land on our desk for time. Brain child of Bosten performer Amanda Palmer. She falls in the tradition of female "mavericks" Poly Stiriene, Kate Bush, Bjork, Peaches who mix theatrics with enthralling music emerging with something outside the box. you know ace. So use your votes wisely unlike 59 million other chumps. erm more about hanging out with famous people next week. We're off to walk to Asia. Signing off from Istanbul T and M XX  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6th November Its impossible to have a bad week when you've got a personal stereo and The Futureheads album. Mundanity melts away replaced by 15 mini epics. Decent Days and Nights indeed. Monday saw a welcome return to town from The Kings of Leon out at London's Scala. Now that they're all finally legal they don't need beards. We also made a welcome return to our club night 'Queens of Noize Presents' at The Barfly in Camden. Going touring's awesome (as Har Mar would say) but coming home's pretty amazing too especially when you run a ruling indie club. "The kids" didn't let us down. Neither did Gothic chanteuse and indie siren Pearl , instantly seducing the audience with her whispering velvet vocals. Our "DJ set" quickly disintegrated into a booze addled free for all with Danny from Supergrass, VV from the Kills and Jefferson Hack among others all stepping up to make their contributions. Roughly 80% of records making it home then. The best way to end a week of kidney battering is naturally a Babyshambles gig. This was slightly different than usual as it was in aid of Shelter at London's infamous Groucho club. Once watering hole for the alcoholic glitteratie of Brit pop. It took the brain a moment to reconcile the fact we were seeing Peter in a room with carpets. He quickly made himself feel at home by tearing down a sculpture worth around 20 grand that had been suspended provocatively above the stage, like a red rag to a bleary eyed bull. No one seemed to much care however as they were transfixed by the Shambles spectacle. For half the audience it was the most Punk thing they'd witnessed since, well Punk. Only a special kind of lady could upstage all those shenanigans. Que Patti Palladin rock goddess unscathed by 30 years of living the life. (she went out with Johnny thunders for fucks sake!) We were kept entertained for hours with genius stories like what happened when The Clash met Bruce Forsythe. She took time to remind us how important it is to try and have integrity in what ever you do. (even if that happens to be getting drunk and playing records.) We're gonna do our darnedest not to let her down as we pull out all the stops to make our NME chart show amaaaazing. So if you haven't got MTV2 yet sort it. You snooze you loose. Now we have to leg it we're hitching a ride round Traflgar Square on GLC's "penis bus." Hmm what to wear? Tabitha and Mairead X  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 30th October There's excitement aplenty in the Queens' camp this week as plans for our impending take over of the MTV2 NME Chart show take shape. It's a highly-guarded operation so we can't reveal too many specifics (ie: we're gonna wing it). What we can say is that it's going to be unlike TV as you know it. Alongside the best new music, as voted for by YOU, you'll discover your heroes of rock in ways you've never seen them before. If we can't get them in the studio we'll move mountains to Muhammed to bring you jaw-dropping exclusives from exotic locations. Like Nottingham. The premiere is at 7pm on Halloween MTV2 so all you neo-goths will be able to check it out before sneaking out for your graveyard shift. For those of you unable to obtain access to MTV2 we would like to take this opportunity to apologise if you feel excluded. But this could be an excellent time to redirect funds from recreational drug use towards the channel that gives you all your favourite songs and videos. We were more than happy to be in Berlin this weekend to play our favourite records (including Sons and Daughters' 'Jonny Cash"). Clocking up those Air Miles is so the cherry on the cake of the international disc jockey lifestyle - although it did take us a total of 12 and a half hours to get from house to hotel due to our impaired mental state brought on by discovering the fifth or sixth or something wave of acid house at a small club in Shoreditch called Nite Moves the previous evening. If you ever get the chance to visit Berlin,grab it. Partly as a result of progressive social security policy, it has become the mecca for artists and musicians bound by a passion for the out-of-the-ordinary, plus everyone's totally fit and knows how to throw an oufit together. Not wanting to be outdone,we performed our entire set in daring knickers-and-braces combo. We were the guests of Peaches' boyfriend, Connie, who put us on at his night after a ball-busting, arse-thrusting performance by Ireland's The Things. You are never sure whether Neil, their bovver-boy frontman, wants to fuck or fight the audience, which is made even more intriguing by his incongruity with the rest of the band. The flaxen-haired bassist was actually wearing flares. Nevertheless, we signed them up to join the likes of Babyshambles, The Cribs, Black Wire, 10,000 Things and Neils Children on our Guilded Voyage Of Sin Halloween spectacular to be held at The Key in King's Cross on October 30. Appropriately for the levels of Bacchanalian excess that are likely to be witnessed that evening, everyone will be in pirate costume if they wish to get onboard. We must sign off now to try and remember how to sleep but register your favourite video to be part of the new NME Chart Show this week. Cheers. Tabitha & Mairead xxx  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 23rd October We're all familiar with TV programmes pretending to be clubs, and what benchmarks of televisual wizardry they've been. Well, from October 31st we'll be presenting the NME chart Show on MTV2 to create a TV first: two girls who run a club pretending to run a TV programme (count your blessings - they could have picked someone off Hollyoaks). If you've seen MTV2 any evening in the past month you've probably caught abit of our rough'n'ready Carling Weekend: Reading Festival coverage. Now we're going to be doing a similar job for the NME Chart Show, hanging out with the people who make the videos. Except not in a muddy field, hopefully. For those who haven't come across us before, in two nutshells we're a DJ/promoter duo who run around playing records we reckon are ace,put on genius bands at our regular booze-sodden spectacular at Camden Barfly and to all intents and purposes live the dream while trying to inspire everyone else to do the same. This week saw the final leg(less) of the Club NME tour. The weekend started with Babyshambles chaos then rolled on to Hull where we bumped into the Paddingtons. For a reason lost to time we ended up at their house searching for a glitterball (don't tell anyone, but they all still live with their folks). Everything considered it was a remarkably unscathed tour, until a classic acrotwat manoevre on the last night. The butter-fingured boys of Bournemouth let me (Tabitha) slip through their hands in a daring barrier stunt where I landed full weight on the monitor causing a chronic rock bott. The Rakes' single 'Stasbourg' played loud takes your mind off the pain,though,and we all agreed it is definitely the new rabble rouser you can't ignore. So, Thursday, back home and then straight off to see an emotional end to the Babyshambles tour. We're ushered into the mosh while watching the lovely Adam Green supporting. It was nice to be the ham in the Babyshambles audience sweat-sandwich, but we escape to join the crowd onstage (slightly bigger than the audience) before Pigman's stagedive. Well that's the first one. This is our dream job and we plan to exploit it to 'the max' by extorting favours from young bands desperate for exposure (you can write to us care of NME with your demos and photos) Don't forget to log onto www.votefortradejustice.org Tabitha & Mairead xxx - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Katies's Diary Single cover photoshoot. Alice was nowhere to be seen but a Mad Hatter's tea party this definitely was. Anything but white the rabbits were pink, yellow, orange and blue, and instead of falling down rabbit holes Tabitha and Maraid jumped, danced and slid around their Wonderland. The occasion you ask? It was the photoshoot for the Queens of Noize single cover; Indie Boys (Don't Deserve It) at the Lock Tavern yesterday. The sun was shining and a mean spread had been laid on by Ka-Ca-La who came armed with bright red, blue, purple and pink cakes, whipped cream, custard pies, chocolate Èclairs, jelly, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands! Needless to say that the food fight to end all food fights was imminent and indie boys including Carl and Gary Libertines, The Cribs and James Rocks ended up looking more like blamonges than Rockstars! Apart from most of the boys complaining that the rock cakes actually hurt when they were chucked at their heads and accidentally setting the table cloth on fire with sparklers (Pitchers of Pimms to the rescue!) everything went off without a hitch with some sterling photos and documentary footage to prove it. Downstairs for celebratory drinks, time to chill with pizza and an extreme makeover show then energetically exhausted (some showered, most not) we hotfooted it to Turnmills where the party continued, the Queens dj-ing. A fitting end to an awesome day! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ka ca la's Diary Har Mar Superstar's single launch Party The Met Bar, Monday 23rd August. The Queens' posse took over the Met Bar of all places but the best thing about it was that we left it looking like the Barfly after a good old knees up! The props were planted to add a touch of the Queens' essence in a decadent, almost classy way (yes really!) but ended up intertwined around Darrell Hannah and friend who almost had their own floor show going on involving glitter curtains and rope lights! The purpose of the night (as if one was needed) was Har Mar's album launch party and as usual we got the delights of the half naked Superstar, a few lucky ladies I noticed also got to smooch with him! Other high points included Avid Marion (him just being there was great) and Albert Strokes (ditto). Tabitha and Mairead unleashed their typical merriment on the suspecting crowd, completed by Har Mar logos on their asses! The Shindig went down very well so may there be many more like it long live the Queens! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 07/07/304 After barely recovering from Glasto we had another action packed weekend planned: (HAR MAR was back so there was always gonna be trouble) BARFLY 2nd July: BLACKWIRE charmed the audience as ever with their shrink wrapped trousers and an impromptu version of FANTASY JUKEBOX (the only QONz song yet to be committed to vinyl available on the HOT SHIT compilation) BIG GAY OUT 3rd July Wigs and flamenco dress check T, Army hat MC Hammer garbs, controversial mustache check M?! VIP Mercedes transportation nice touch BEZ and co Glasto reunion as were all DJing in the "indie tent." (Emphasis on the word tent as in something you'd pop up at a fete to keep the Barbee from getting showered on.) Still hilarious and The Rocks and the Cribs still did a sterling job of whipping up our particular slice of gravel from the top a Route Master complete with bunny ears. RETURN TO NEW YORK 3rd July On wards and downwards to the labyrinth like SE1. Watching Pink Grease, who just get better, in deck chairs, getting carried away in flamenco dress doing "the running man" for far to long on stage and the usual pole dancing. Sean Ryder is not good at pole dancing. MANUMISSION 4th July (eventually) It's easy to get lost at SE1 and we certainly did, feeling pleased with our selves though being packed in time to get cab for our Sunday flight - Straight to airport However it was supposed to be Standstead ended up Gatwick via Luton, something had to give) Ah well sleep day by the pool and so our first set at MANUMISSION the kids loved it. We're back on 2nd AUGUST Space is a terrifying time warp. Weds is gonna hurt. 29/6/04 GLASTO 24 -28 July We find its nice to approach GLASTONBURY in a novel way each year so we were feeling pretty pleased with our selves rolling up to our blagged back stage parking spot in freshly converted A-Team van. No soggy tents for us. Finishing up Djing after 5 hours in the back stage tent after watching England crash out of the European cup in the most heart-attack inducing match EVER! We felt we'd earned our spot. Ah so many stories Ruling moments: Djing in THE LOCK TAVERN TENT busting at the seems in evening dress with our band of merry pranksters including The Rocks and Blackwire and Nick Moran (?) Everything about LAS VAGUENESS e.g. posing for Rolling Stone on the Roulette table. THE WALKMEN (about the least Glasto band imaginable) had us in the palm of their hands just sooo intense or intents or whatever. Bez / Reece / Nightingale various. Strange moment: Getting on stage with Oasis almost by accident. Rubbish moments: Getting our records locked in production thus completely missing our slot in the Wall of Sound tent that took us half a day to find anyway, Sorry Mark. 06/04 We have just been confirmed to DJ on the NME tour this autumn across the UK with Har Mar etc. We're so on the bus! Go to HOT DATES, Wherever to get the full schedule... DOWNLOAD As a Donnington rock fest virgin I have to say it rocked hard. Especially as we had our very own Queens stage back stage complete with mini groin strain inducing trampoline perfect for pulling those Steve Tyler moves in a confined space. The following elements also contributed to its success: Rolling in style in our new renegade van with PEACHES courtesy of the most chipper tour manager in history Willie. Kidnapping local teenagers and smuggling them on site for their first fest experiences (which later proved to be good Karma as they got me back in after I had my passes stripped for crowd surfing.) Being on stage with Iggy who wore our T-shirt hanging out of his taut pocket for the entire show after we snaffled it in there. Peaches show. Meeting Steve O and Chris Pontius. The Iggy thing again. |