Teddybears are a Grammy award winning Scandinavian electronic act who spent most of 2015 writing tunes. Ok, it’s time to name drop. They wrote Diamonds by Giorgio Moroder and Charli XCX, and have been working on tracks with the fabulous Sia, John Newman, Ellie Goulding and Mr Pop himself, Max Martin.
In ‘Best You Ever Had’ they’ve teamed up with Gorilla Zoe (Boyz n da Hood, Lupe Fiasco) and emerged with a thumping electronic rock track that wouldn’t feel out of place filed next to Apollo 440’s Stop the Rock.
I defy you to listen and not dance.
The Best You Ever Had is taken from their new album, ‘Rock On’, which was released yesterday via Polydor Sweden.
It’s the weekend! After a little bit of a lie in and doing the social media stuff for this week’s episode of The London Ear, it was time to get up, get out and see what the world was like. To cut a long story short, it was bloody freezing!
We made our way to Spitalfields to grab a bite to eat. I also popped into Rough Trade and bought Bowie’s Blackstar on CD and Public Service Broadcasting’s Sputnick / Korolev on 12inch vinyl. So much music to buy, so little money to spend, there’s never enough.
We’ve been making a conscious effort to leave the apartment, this time of year, I always feel like hibernating! ‘Lumiere, London’s Festival of Lights’ was on this weekend so we decided to check out Regent Street’s offerings.
It started at Oxford Circus, with what I believe was an installation to show the tsunami in Japan. Impressive, with subtle colour changes. As we walked down Regent Street, there was a Stick Man installation. Two stickmen chasing each other around the front of a building, then the shapes they made chasing were transformed into computer games, complete with a soundtrack.
Walking further down, two giant flying goldfish floated in the middle of the street. Getting towards Piccadilly Circus, an elephant was projected in a window. My favourite of what we saw.
While I’m writing about Lumiere, I have to speak about the crowds on Regent Street last night. I don’t know whether more people than expected turned up to the event, or it could have been organised better but there were at times when the crowds were so dense and so pushy, that I actually feared for our safety. Any busier and someone could have easily got crushed, especially at the area where the elephant was. People were pushing in one direction, while others were trying to side streets. It got to the stage where I wanted to get out of there. If someone had kids with them, I can’t see how it would have been an enjoyable experience. A pity but no lights are worth that. I wanted to go to King’s Cross to see the installations there but Tahlula checked Twitter and King’s X station had been closed to prevent over crowding. I couldn’t deal with going through that a second time.
Oxford Circus
Oxford Circus
Stickmen on Regent Street
Stickmen on Regent Street
Floating fish on Regent Street
Floating fish on Regent Street
Elephant on Regent Street
Regent Street
Leicester Square
So besides writing up all this, I also delved into my ‘Cook a new dish’, today’s was a diary free potato, mushroom, leek bake with a goat’s cheese topping. We tucked into a corner to try it out. Yummy!
Nessy’s diary free bake
Sidebar: I’m writing this as I’m sitting on the couch, Tahlula keeps glancing over to see what I’m at, she’ll read it later anyway so Hi Tahlula!!
The London Ear on RTE 2XM // Show 105 // Jan 16 2016
On this week’s episode of The London Ear, I was delighted to be able to chat to Isolda Heavey of Calais Field Music. Isolda has recorded some Sudanese musicians in the jungle in Calais and they are now selling their music on Bandcamp. You can hear her story.
Also on this week’s show, I chat to Alex Rogers, who joined us two weeks ago for a forward look at 2016. Alex was at the Brixton Singalong / Street party to celebrate the life of David Bowie on Monday, he tells us about the atmosphere on the night.
Here’s what happened:
1. The London Ear Intro
2. WOLFFE: Trouble Ahead
3. Chat with Isolda Heavey re: Calais Field Music
4. Sudan Field Music – Abbas Halla – Song 1
5. Chat with Isolda Heavey re: Calais Field Music (Part 2)
6. Sudan Field Music – Abbas Halla – Song 3
7. Mel Monaco: Single Again
8. Chat with Alex Rogers re: Brixton’s David Bowie Singalong
9. David Bowie: Lazarus
10. WYLDR: Everything’s a Dream
11. David C Clements: I’m Still Alive
12. Victoria Plus Jean: Härlight Sverige
Thanks for listening, The London Ear broadcast on DAB radio, Saorview and outside Ireland you can listen online.You can listen to the show again on the RTE player. The show is broadcast every Saturday at 1300.
Don’t forget to check out the RTE 2XM website. You can keep up with me here.
This week was a strange one. We woke on Monday morning to the news of David Bowie’s death. I wrote about this here. I wasn’t even sure if I should publish it or not but I’ve received so many lovely messages and comments on Facebook, here and on my personal profile, I’m really glad I did. Music plays an important part of people’s lives and the outpouring of response backed that up.
I wasn’t feeling 100% this week, it’s cold and dark in dreary London. This week I wanted to make sure that I would make one decent change. It might sound a little stupid but I made sure that I brought lunch to work every day.
It’s really easy to get a bit lazy and buy a ‘meal deal’ from Boots or Tesco etc., but to be honest making sure you have lunch done saves cash! If a meal deal is £3 or £4, even if you buy lunch once a week, that would work out at £192 per year, if you work 48 weeks. If I have to, I’d much rather get a morning coffee after my commute than get lunch. It’s all these little expenses that can eat into your bank account and London is expensive enough.
So, five days in, I think I can call the lunches successful and have planned to do it again this coming week.
I’ve also made an effort to try to a different dish, something I normally don’t make. I normally make veggie curry with McDonnell’s curry sauce. Anyone from Ireland, not living there will tell you that this is Ireland’s best kept secret. What makes it even more awesome is that Tesco in Lewisham always have tonnes of the stuff. Yummy. Recently myself and Tahlula went for a quick bite in Feng Sushi on the Southbank. They had a very similar dish with udon noodles so I decided to give it a go, served in a bowl. Beautiful, warm and tasty, perfect for a cold winter’s evening.
Udon Veg Curry by Nessy
As if David Bowie dying this week wasn’t enough, the very lovely Alan Rickman joined him.
I’ve always loved him, such a good actor, from Love Actually to Die Hard, but I think he’ll remembered by most as Snape in the Harry Potter films. Me, I’ve always Dogma. RIP Alan Rickman.
It really was a week when many people looked at their own mortality, their heroes aren’t supposed to die. Life is short, we need to make the most of it while we can.
January 16/17 2016
