Music and Comedy… should they ever mix? Should song and joke be mutually exclusive? There are enough Victoria Woods and Mitch Benns in this world to make a strong case for the fact that making funny whilst in melody should never, ever be done, just like the Chris Martins and Bonos in this world highlight the fact that politics and pop should never be used to promote each other. And until last night, I was pretty much firmly pitched in the ‘let’s segregate music and comedy for the good of both art forms’ camp.

That was until I spat all my Weston’s perry over the guys shoulder in front of me (apologies to that man) whilst watching The Mighty Boosh Band knock out a furious version of ‘I did a shit on your mum’ last night. Yeah, it’s puerile and childish, but it’s also one of the funniest moments I’ve had in a musical setting. So it’s made me re-think my anti music/comedy stance.

(big thanks to Amy Walker on the Mighty Boosh forum for these pics!!)

I guess it was my 2 years of working behind a bar in a comedy club that made me feel this way. There was an audible sigh whenever a comedian bounded on stage holding an acoustic guitar to play 3 minute tunes which contained one witless and watered-down punchline at the end of it. It’s easy to do, but incredibly hard to do well. But last night, the Boosh band made me piss myself whilst playing guitars and wearing silly costumes. So I guess there’s exceptions to every rule.

oh and then there’s the Flight Of The Conchords

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The Mighty Boosh play the second of their two warm up shows at Cargo next Tuesday the 1st June. Win tickets by joining our Facebook group and entering our comp on there or post a comment in reply to this below, naming the best musical comedy set up you know, and the best answer will win a pair of tickets to tuesday’s show…

Karen P’s Broad Casting night is one of those rare beasts in the form of a regular bi-monthly night who’s line ups continue to get stronger and stronger. It all started off with the Gothenberg’s own Little Dragon playing live, then cloaked master of all things retro-funk-jazz Jimi Tenor played with Kabu Kabu the month after. And just as people thought it would be ok to take the foot of the gas some what, Broad Casting, Karen P and Red Bull Music Academy made it possible to put on Mulatu Astatke, the father of Ethio-Jazz and revered through out the world for his unmistakable sound to play live at Cargo’s favourite bi-monthly night.

You check out the live video of the Mulatu show here. Also Gidman’s Treasures and Nuggets blog has recordings from every Broadcasting so far, which is nice: here

So it’s even more impressive that this month’s Broad Casting, tieing with the launch of a new Broad Casting Compilation out on Sonar Kollektiv, is bringing up New Zealand’s own The Black Seeds to play live!!!

Also on the line up the rather hectic and similarly monikered Black Spade is flying in from St. Louis to join the line up with Adi Dick and Si Begg and of course Miss Karen P getting involved.

Very very exclusive, very hot, check out the black seeds website (www.theblackseeds.com) and their new video at bottom of this post. We’re giving away two tickets away for the gig next Thursday (26th)… Simply comment on this post. The first comment, wins a plus one space on the house guestlist.

Red Bull Music Academy

Karen P’s Myspace

Buy tickets to the event here

Ruddy nora, these daily football matches float my boat. Even the ones that look like their going to be as boring as watching BBC Three end up being edge-of-the-seat corkers. I’d never thought I’d find myself jumping round the room on a Sunday night going ape-shit over a Turkey-Czech Republic game, but then again, I do get easily excited. When I was young i nearly passed out everytime the contestants ran up the final travelator at the end of ‘The Gladiators’ and I distinctly remember breaking my bed clean in two when Great Britain won the 4 x 100m relay race.

No doubt the Czech Republic stance of whether Turkey should join the EU has undergone some serious rethinks this morning.

I’m glad Portugal got beat. Knobends. Is it me or do most of the team use the in-house eye brows shaping facility at the teams’ hotel?

As always you can watch all of the matches at Cargo. The yard’s my favourite spot, the plasma tv, the seating, the sun, the drinks deals, people freaking out at me getting overly agitated…

STOP PRESS!!! tonight’s game of Poland Vs. Croatia is actually not being shown due to reasons beyond our control, but Croatia are already through and Poland are pretty much out, so it’s of no consequence anyhoos. It’s never going to be as entertaining as this:

Peace out yo!

TheArchDuke

Roughe came down last month to Cargo and created two pieces which are completely unlike anything that I’ve seen in the yard, not your normal street art from not your normal street artist. In his words ‘in no way part of the street art movement’ which is a refreshing change from all the scuffed shoed people hanging running along behind the bandwagon.

I chatted to him while he painted and asked him a few questions and told him that ‘he’d missed a bit’…

Your art on our walls is pretty much unlike anything we’ve had up there before, can you tell us a bit about you, a bit of background?

Firstly I should say that I am by both trade and history; a graffiti artist. I am in no way part of the “street art movement”. What I do is pretty much a natural progression from where I came from, letter shapes have reformed into abstract shapes, architecture also plays a big part in what I paint, as a Londoner, I find it hard to ignore the concrete that surrounds me. I love the aesthetics of graffiti… Tags, throw-ups, handstyles, wildstyles… It’s everything that’s shaped me as an artist, although it’s nonetheless a far cry from what I produce now.

The key most important factor in my wall paintings, which so few artists seem to either understand or care about, is composition… form and function is fine, but if you don’t have a grasp of negative and positive space, then you’re wasting the space you have in my humble opinion. Being a designer also aids you’re understanding of colour work, line, typography and application. I constantly look through mags and books and get ideas simply from reading paragraphs that are nicely laid out. Again it all harks back to architecture.

What’s your favourite city in the world?

The best thing is seeing someone else take pleasure in what you do. The worst thing is having to let go.

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Roughe and System’s exhibition in Strasbourg in ongoing. More info here

Look out for Roughe’s book and exhibition in 2009.

Check out more of his stuff:

Diane Cluck and Emmy The Great is still on, for those who think it’s not, it is. So come down, like you were planning, but now you can bring a mate for free. That’s right, it’s a 2fer night, bring your ticket and your plus ones get in free.

Diane Cluck

Emmy The Great

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