Highlights and Twilights

Why the hell haven't Arsenal signed Nasri yet? Lets hope this one is sorted soon, gotta be down to Marseilles and the Ben Arfa deal, surely? Anyhoo, we could see Adebayor leave this week as well, Lord knows how this one's come about (maybe down to the 'super agents' who aren't affiliated to any club or particular player but just like to stir things up, the b*stards); if he is asking for mega money I'd let him go, he had a good season last year, but he still misses a

load of chances. Barcelona may well offer Eto'o in exchange, which I'd take in a heartbeat; Arsene may have different ideas tho. Still, Ade's reception form the fans could be interesting to hear...

Glasto was wonderful this year, saw some great music, met some lovely people and even got a little sun tan. Took a few pics but all a bit wobbly, there are a couple here and the rest will be found on my facebook profile later this week.

Band highlights were Raconteurs, Manu Chao, Goldfrapp (and her lovely dancing ladies!), Groove Armada and the Zutons. I mentioned last week that I was really looking forward to seeing the Kings of Leon and Massive Attack, they were both Ok, Kings of Leon were nearly brilliant but it gets on my wick that they omit so many great songs from the first album from their set. As for Massive Attack, I just wish I'd seen them 10 years ago as the songs didn't seem to resonate live as much as I would have expected. Oh well, still a decent gig, but without the energy or freshness of the acts I mentioned earlier.

Nevertheless, the bands take up a tiny part of your time at Glasto. As always, Lou and I were up in the Green fields stuffing ourselves with vegetarian tuck and chilling with some lovely hippy-types. There was a new area called 'Shangri-la' (which replaced the old 'Lost Vagueness' filed) which was pretty cool, it had an American Diner, a swing club, pole dancing, a big tank and various other freaky features, very lively after hours too.

Trash City was quite incredible after nightfall; check out the picture to the left, which despite not doing the sculptures any justice gives you a tiny idea of what the place was like. Think the set of 'From Dusk Till Dawn' and you'll get a vague picture of what it was like, a fabulous feat of engineering, design, sprinkled with a liberal helping of fire, lots and lots of fire.

Tried to meet up with Ginge but he went missing after the first night there. I woke up on Saturday morning with 6 messages on my phone from him in various sates of collapse, the last was let about 5.20, so hope he got back OK!

Thanks also to my sis and Dan for setting up our tent on Thursday!

On a slightly smaller scale, OrwellFest is on 26th July and has five bands playing, should be a great day as loads of Steeple people will be there; if its a success it will become a regular event on the festival calendar...

Am meeting BCHE legend Matt Thompson (who amongst other things got me addicted to fruit machines and showed me what a good guitarist should really sound like) for a farewell drink tonight as he and his lovely wife are moving to Ottawa in a couple of weeks, I'm going to write a tribute to him later this week so keep your eyes peeled....

Finally, those of you coming to Amsterdam might want to read this article regarding the smoking ban that came into effect yesterday!