a letter to a friend

Hey bro,

Cool to hear from you. Hope you're well. Life for me is pretty good. I've got lots going on to keep things interesting, and summer is shaping up ok so far (although we're all too superstitious to point it out too much).

I had 3 great weekends out of town in May. First, at an All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by the Breeders, held at Butlins holiday park in Somerset. Highlights were Bon Iver, the Frogs, Shellac, Holy Fuck, CSS, I forget who else... And the restorative powers of the onsite water slides :)

The following weekend I visited Prague for a couple of days with a friend I met on a Christmas tour to Paris, the Swiss Alps and Amsterdam. Prague is very beautiful and we had great weather. We went to see an opera: Don Giovanni. I nearly fell asleep a couple of times but still really enjoyed it! I think the highlight was having a golden eagle perched on my arm. Check it out: this thing can crush a human skull in its talons!

And the following weekend I spent four days in beautiful Barcelona at the Primavera Sound festival. I met up with Mark Kneebone and Dave Benge and his girlfriend Tanya, you know them?? The festival was the best ever, great lineup, mellow and interesting crowd, perfect weather plus we stayed in a cool old apartment in the Gothic quarter, close to George Orwell Square. Cue much intellectualism about 1984, Animal Farm and the life and times of Orwell. Over pitchers of sangria, naturally.
(photos to come)

Best bands..Neil Young kicked ass as the headliner. Nearly 2 hour set which flew by! He sure knows how to rock out. Also enjoyed Art Brut, Shellac, Bat for Lashes, Sonic Youth, the Jesus Lizard, Spiritualised, My Bloody Valentine, the Drones, Sunn O)) (fucking mental, they were!) and loads of others. Definitely keen to head back there next year. Spanish festivals are great: the music starts in the evening and goes late, so you have all day to enjoy the city, the weather, and generally put yourself back together. Which I definitely needed.

I thought of you the other day. I've been listening to the new British Sea Power album: you need to hear it! It's a soundtrack to an old black & white film called Man of Aran. The dvd came free with the cd but I haven't watched it yet. It's mostly instrumental, quite minimal and cinematic, I suppose, very atmospheric.. I think you'd be into it. Send me a postal address and next time I'm feeling generous (and like spending my lunch in a post office queue;) I'll send it your way.

I have had a couple of weekends here in London now. Haha - the other week I saw Britney Spears at the O2! I didn't know any of the songs but it was an experience nonetheless. Far more significantly, last week was the realisation of a long-held dream: Faith No More!!!!! Fuckin aye. No one following my twitter feed would ever accuse me of being neutral when it comes to #FNM, so it won't be a shock to hear that the entire experience was nothing short of religious. There are photos posted here on flickr and various outpourings squeed liberally about the internets.



This Thursday I head to Scheeßel in Germany for Hurricane festival, to see Faith No More again alongside Nine Inch Nails, the Pixies!, Nick Cave and lots of other cool stuff. Then back to London for a couple of days before I take on Glastonbury. I'm working there, collecting setlists so we can distribute the performance royalties 100% line by line to the publishers and composers.

Looking forward to some downtime, but for now, can't really complain. Although I still will. Work is pretty uninspiring, hoping to fix that before too long.

So, what's your news?

Jessie x