Aside from the Saturday evening headliner, Jarvis Cocker, most of the acts sat firmly in the smaller, independent corner of the music industry. It’s always a joy to come to these events and discover new music; artists such as the electro-acoustic James Yuill, the wonderfully eclectic Gang Gang Dance and the downright daft Unicorn Kid had not crossed my music radar until the festival weekend.

But it wasn’t all music. The festival also featured home-grown cinema, talks from folk involved in the more esoteric sections of the music business, art workshops, secret gigs, a comedy tent and those wondrous things that are spontaneously created when several-thousand people gather in a confined space in the pursuit of merriment.

There were also my chums, who’s cooking skills, dance moves and good company made the weekend a very joyous occasion.

To see what we got up to, look at the pictures below:

“As an NME writer, he was obsessed with class war, masturbation, dogs, cancer, Jello Biafra and the multiple use of the exclamation mark.”

Whilst the rest of the world grieves over the demise of yet another 80′s pop star, spare a few moments to pay your respects to Steven “Swells” Wells, one of the greatest music journalists on the planet, who died of cancer on Tuesday. During the 80s and 90s Swells was the NME’s funniest writer – he swore, spat and shouted his words, picked fights with the high and mighty in the music industry whilst waxing lyrical over music that no-one else had heard or cared for.

Even after he left the NME his vitriol never left him, his articles for the Guardian and the Philadelphia Weekly showed that whether he tackled a pompous musician or great American institution, his use of the written word would always leave you smiling – to say he had a way with words would be an understatement.

He thought that guitarists were stupid and that Morrisey was a c**t. RIP Swells.

I am a big fan of Depeche Mode and have been since they added their two-penneth worth to the synth-pop scene of the early 1980s. Most people are surprised to find that the band are still together and are still touring and producing albums. Their latest offering, Sounds of the Universe, was released this week and just as I have done since the release of Violator in 1990, I’ve bought a Depeche Mode album on launch day.

To be honest, this time around I wish I hadn’t bothered.

Sounds of the Universe is horribly average. It’s a chore to listen to – there are no hooks, there’s little punch or interest, tracks start, build up then go nowhere. It’s a crying shame as the quality of the album’s production values is fantastic.

We’re four albums on since Songs of Faith and Devotion and still Depeche Mode prove that they cannot make good music without Alan Wilder.

Back in the late eighties/early nineties Faith No More mixed synth and funk-bass with a heavy-rock sound. Their massive single Epic was a rock/rap classic that transformed the band from an arty-joke project into a stadium touring supergroup co-headlining gigs with Metallica and Guns ‘n Roses.

A band with probably the most volatile internal relationship in music history, Faith No More inevitably split eleven years ago with each member moving on to pursue their own projects, one of which includes extreme gardening.

I’m hoping this news of a reunion is genuine. I would love to see Faith no More perform one last time before they once again explode from within.

Once again you have not let me down.

Stu, via the usage of his DAB digital radio and Chill correctly identified the tune as Hayling by FC Kahuna. Featured on the Machine Says Yes album, the track has appeared extensively in film and television soundtracks. Among the track’s credits are the movie Layer Cake and the television series of Top Gear, CSI: Miami and Monkey Dust.

I’ve just purchased the Hayling EP from iTunes and I’m playing the track on a repeat-loop. An album purchase is definitely on the cards.

It was taken from the website of the (now defunct?) City Rockers record label. I’ve heard it played several times as incidental music in television documentaries but I’ve never been able to identify its creator.

It’s a safe bet that it was created by an artist  from the City Rockers stable. Any ideas who? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

As you read this the files should have completed uploading.

Ah, there they are!

If you look to the right of this sentence you will find a new Pages menu. In this new Pages menu is a page titled ‘Music’. Go on, go and take a look now…

In a small, unassuming Dorset country park, five thousand mud-spattered music-lovers gathered in a field to share three days of bad weather, good music and unhealthy amounts of alcohol and debauchery.

I’ve just come back from the End of The Road festival at the Larmer Tree Gardens on the Wiltshire/Dorset border. Organised by The End of The Road record label, the festival showcased the best of indie/folk, Americana and all the other musical genres that you seldom find on the shelves of your local HMV. With headlining acts such as Mercury Rev, Tindersticks and Calexico, the festival’s line-up didn’t exactly attract Glastonbury-style crowd numbers.

This is what makes a small festival such as The End of the Road such a special occasion. With only a handful of stages surrounded by a small selection of food stalls and bars, the festival has the feel of a village fete. Include the fact that the festival is tw*t free thanks to its non-inclusion of popular bands, you’re onto a winner.

Here is a selection of photos that I took over the weekend. They were taken using my camera phone whilst drunk, in the dark, from a long way away. I hope you enjoy/can make head nor tail of them.

Peel Sessions

To quote Distorted-Loop.com:

BBC Worldwide plans to launch its very own ad-supported online music service, offering access to the broadcaster’s huge archive of audio and video music content.

The move means TV shows like Top of the Pops, coverage of Glastonbury Festival or the Proms, and all-time music classics such as the Old Grey Whistle Test will be made available for free streaming or for direct sale.

As reported by Media Week, the service will launch with at least 1,000 tracks featuring more or less than 300 of the BBCs many shows.

“There are plans to exploit the BBC’s full range of 15,000 separate music programmes, meaning the service could offer around 50,000 music audio tracks eventually and 3,000 hours of video content”, Media Week adds.”

Goodness! Image the entire collection of Peel Sessions available for download, or tracks from The Old Grey Whistle Test (I’d pay good money for a quality recording of Can’s 1975 Whistle Test performance of Vernal Equinox) or even a selection from Later With Jools Holland.

A trial version will go online in November, with the full service available early 2009. Let’s hope it’s as good as I want it to be!

Sounds Like Silver

The World of Me likes free stuff, which is why TheWorld of Me fully endorses Sounds Like Silver, the unofficial remix of LCD Soundsystem’s excellent album Sounds of Silver.

Brought to you by the team behind always outsiders, never outdone, the unofficial Prodigy remixed album, Sounds Like Silver features unofficial remixes by both UK and international underground producers.

The album is free to download, but it is requested that you donate to Oxfam or Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy if you like what they’ve done.

Download the album from www.lcdremixed.com