It's the simplest ideas that are the best, so hats off to the organisers of this year's Glastonbudget Festival.
You read that right. Not the £100-plus a ticket weekend at Worthy Farm in Zummerset but its threadbare, slightly shabby cousin which takes place on the Nottinghamshire / Leicestershire / Derbyshire border near the villages of Rempstone and Wymeswold next Bank Holiday weekend, May 25 to 27.
This year Glastonbudget has nearly 60 bands ranging from the Midlands' very own ICTUS, Ego-Armalade, Proud To Have Met You, Pink Strip and C*BOB, through to internationally recognised tribute acts from T-Rextasy and Fake-That to Mercury and Guns 2 Roses.
This year’s special guest star is now confirmed as Neville Staple formerly of The Specials.
So if you're the type who thinks that music should play second fiddle to jumping around drunkenly at a festival, get over to www.glastonbudget.co.uk. There are less than 1,000 tickets left and the Australians have just got wind of it.
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Shame on Larrikin Love, leading lights of the so-called Thamesbeat movement. They've only gone and split up prompting the 11th hour cancellation of the Trangressive Roadshow at the Custard Factory.
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My heroes this week are Birmingham band The Heathers who have told Parlophone Records to get stuffed. Seems that the former home of the Beatles wanted to sign the band, maybe on the strength of the 13,500 names signed onto their MySpace page or their potential number one song Heartache and Hairdye.
Sensing another Arctic Monkeys, the man from Parlophone was dispatched with chequebook to bind the Heathers but was sent back to London with a flea in his ear when he told the band to sack their drummer because he was too old.
Check the buzz at www.myspace.com/theheathersuk
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There was a close call at the Mac this week when one of the young press officers was called on to write a press release about the new documentary about Arthur Lee and his legendary L.A garage psyche band, Love. You can't blame them for not knowing that the film, called Love Story, didn't star Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neill. What the two do have in common is the fact that the main character dies in the end.
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There'll be a better class of queue on May 22 outside the HMV shop in Birmingham.
Rather than the goth and emo massive waiting for ages to meet their heroes, expect feather boas and glam in anticipation of Erasure's signing and short perforance there at 5pm. Their new album, Light At The End of The World is out that week and it's lovely to have Vince and Andy back. They really don't make pop stars like that any more. Well, except for the Scissor Sisters.
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Finally, some good news from our friends at www.birminghamusic.com. They're hosting a night of free music featuring three of the hottest new local bands.
Blakfish, 62pennies and Moneytree will rock The Barfly in Digbeth on Wednesday May 30 from 7pm onwards. It's also open to anyone above the age of 14.
"Blakfish's eccentric hi-energy offbeat stop-start hardcore is an intoxicating blend of elemental forces, with reggae breakdowns and hip hop interludes lightening the mood amidst scalding, paint stripping riot rock topped by alternately melodic and throat-ripping raging vocals," says one critic.
See you down the front.