Oxford I: A Concert

I'd love to list off the noble reasons behind my journey to Oxford and bamboozle you all with talk of higher learning and brushes with long-dead literary celebrities, but I really only went there for a concert. We did explore the city and see some of that jaw-dropping architecture that Lucy told us all about, but we'll talk about that in a minute. We went to the Carling Academy - a haunt of emo teenagers if the club's first room had anything to say about it - but there was a much more mature crowd when we got upstairs for our shows.

I think my favourite part of the night was Billie the Vision and the Dancers. I never knew how sexy Swedish accents were, even if "Billie" isn't exactly stunning to look at. But I would never tell him that! Anyways, there are plenty of Swedish things that are both gorgeous to look at and aurally fascinating, so I'll get over it. So much better than those gorram muppets, I'll tell you what! When you listen to their music, bear in mind that we heard the fast-paced, rock and roll covers of these. OH! I would be remiss if I did not pass along this warning: "Hallo. Ve urh Billie und thu Veezons ob thu Dancers. Ve uhr hund-peeked by thu Peepettes. Ib yoo f*ck vith oos, yoo f*ck vith thu Peepettes. Okay, unjoy thu show!"


Didn't make much sense to me either.


And this crooked little hobgoblin, with hair like my mother's much put-upon shi-tzu, is Stuart Flynn. He was doing a solo-act for us, but his normal group is called The Dirty Cakes. His music was... flamboyant, narcissistic, and lacked any real sense of style. The songs he performed for us are NOT the ones listed on their website, but you can listen to a few of them for free anyways. Shower vs. Grower is the closest approximation to anything we heard.

The Pipettes, on the other hand, are a fun, retro-style group of women who sing happy-dancy music and are famous for their June Cleaver and polka-dot sensibilities. I tried to include a reasonable mix of their sounds, since they cover a lot, but "It's Not Love" sounds the most like the club mixes they played for us. I hope that thing works, by the way... I was really excited when I found most of the covers I wanted in the archives. No Stuart Flynn, though. Oh well, I can't say you're missing much.

All in all, it was a good concert. Nothing I would have attended without Chad and Gager attached to it, but still, I learned something very important: Swedish voices are better than (NOUN / ING-VERB).