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Spend all morning sorting out Benicassim passes and the line up for itm?'s Musicworks show on August 31st. I manage to confirm FMM, Satellite Dub and the Aphrodisiacs in the space of 30 minutes which wasn’t bad. (Calvin confirm next day, sadly too late to go in the conference programme). Errors can’t play but they have already confirmed with our Dunfermline arm for the show there on the 5th August. Cool.

I unwisely agree to stand in for John Clarke on his BT Broadband Chart show (to give it its full name, as the sponsor's' rules demand I do regularly). I say unwisely because I have no time., not if I have any aspirations to getthis magazine out on time. Anyway, the chart looks frankly pretty poor but in fact some of the tunes are ok-female - one 'R&B' tune turns out to be old skool ska. Aviator Shades and Catcher do reliable guitar pop. I chat to a few people and unable to find a gig to attend, head home… and catch Biffy Clyro on the replacement for Vic Galloway’s show. They’re live in George Square! Honestly, you’d think our licence fees would maybe cover the cost of paying someone to updating their website.

the darkness of the Swamp

Despite a good run of top Edinburgh bands emerging, I still expect the worst, which is probably the best way to avoid disappointment. So with Private Jackson I was expecting the usual laddish plod (apologies, guys/gal) but was pleasantly surprised at their angular and slightly noisy indie guitar rock (more apologies for the lacklustre description). X-vectors – I'd had described to me and was expecting something much more electro, but their sole contribution to that genre seems to be is a computer which is largely inaudible. In all, they're like a all-guitar version of the Magnificents. So to Psydoll. Basically, a tiny Japanese goth woman (on 6-inch platforms) and a guitarist wearing goggles and a rather wizened stand-up drummer. All the goths in Edinburgh seemto have come to the gig to do some strange dancing, and musically it’s very much to their liking somewhere between Xmal Deutschland and Test Department et al. Entertaining for sure.

TotT (T on the telly)

Being unable to be in more than one place at once has meant my having to choose between a Half Man Half Biscuit gig and T in the Park (it seems that a press pass for one day is just too complicated to organise). Following DF's continued refusal to book the Biscuits for the main stage at "the new Glastonbury", I am consigned to catching up on the highlights on telly. Well, in fact, there's a live broadcast on BBC3 as I get home on the Sunday.
Heartened by the announcement that 4 stages will be covered, I am - from a Scottish indie point of view - immediately disappointed as I recall that these are stages where few Scottish bands will tread. The Tbreak stage acts as our own wee indie ghetto once again, pitching Malcolm Middleton and other sizeable names in front of a small audience and praying for rain. (I’m told later that many revelers miss his set believing that ‘headliner’ suggests that he’ll be closing the stage). A few days late I'm chatting to someone who's played the wee tent in the past. Seems that you really are a second-class citizen - not allowed to the artists' village, given a 'sticky' pass as opposed to a laminate. With Malcolm backed by 3/4 of The Delgados, you see that despite the big changes made to the Secret Stage recently (flooring, a bar) it's still a long way from being what it could, and should, be.
Look in any dictionary at the word 'ubiquitous' and you’ll see “Gill Mills”. Not this year. Ms Mills and her usual sidekick, Craig Hill, have been usurped by Edith Bowman and Dougie Anderson (refugees from Radio One, and, er…). Edith seems likeable enough but the interviews seem stilted, while Dougie doesn’t seem to be much into the music greeting one performance with “that wasn’t bad”.
Oh, the bands on telly were all rubbish. Indie snobbery ahoy!