dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip
Brighton Concorde 2
UK hip hop is rubbish. The headliners tonight think so, and a lot of others agree. Strange, then, that most of the dates on this tour have sold out. The irony is delicious.
But if B.Dolan is anything to go by, US Hip hop is also pretty bad. There isn't anything special about him, which is what is needed in any genre that has been around for as long as this one has, although he puts on somewhat of a show by stripping down to a white jump suit and cape before performing a death-defying jump over an audience member. This seems to please the crowd, but not much else does.
There is an energy in the room tonight. There are a mix people in this sell-out crowd: old, young, white, black, Asian, bearded, male, female, indie kids, metal heads, hip-hop fans, the list goes on, and they're all excited to be here. Opening with "The Beat That My Heart Skips," dan and Pip treat us to some delicious beats and insightful lyrics. The set alternates between old stuff and new stuff, and it all seems to blend together well. Despite disappointment with the latest offering "The Logic Of Chance", the tracks from it take on a new level live, more atmospheric and definitely more angry. Pip apologises for the "depressing suicide songs," namely "Magician's Assistant" and "Angles", but spirits are lifted by the politically charged songs like "Get Better," and of course the angry observations of "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
Although the average age of the crowd is probably 15, and many seem to be snobby indie kids, the rest have a good grasp of what Scroobius Pip is trying to say, and in any case the former are kept happy by the musical genius of dan le sac. Either way, the whole place is pretty pumped by the time "Letter From God To Man" brings the evening to a close.
But of course, UK hip-hop is rubbish...
Monday 12 April 2010
Vote For Policy
Some of you will already be aware of voteforpolicies.org.uk. For those who aren't, go to the website and find out for yourself, lazy buggers...
But seriously, as the name suggests the site was set up to encourage people (quite admirably) to not just blindly vote for a party, and instead take the time to look at the parties policies and vote according to those you think are best. The centre piece of the website is a survey in which you chose at least four policy areas from a list of twelve, and then each of the 6 biggest party's (Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, Green, UKIP, BNP) policies on the issue are brought up unlabelled. You are then asked to chose the set of policies you think are the most sensible, and at the end it tells who you liked in each area, and which party you are most suited to.
It's a great tool for those who haven't decided which way to vote, or for those who want to test their allegiances. But it does throw up other interesting points. For example, a couple of the areas (namely education) are so difficult to chose from, for the sole reason that every party is rather wishy washy, none of them actually seems to have a real idea about what to do (or maybe that's just me...) .
Also, a fun game to play is spot the BNP. It's very easy. Just look for the phrase "decent white British people." You can also play this game with UKIP (both parties policies are unsurprising similar).
My personal results were 83% Green, 17% Labour. I expected as much (although I wouldn't have been surprised to see Lib Dem in there), and it seems that most of the 83,000 or so people who have done the survey already agree, since the current winning party is Green, followed by Lib Dem and Labour. Unfortunately, I doubt the election will turn out like this.
The main premise of this survey is something I strongly agree with. Living in Surrey, I'm sick and tired of everyone moaning about our MP, Council etc, yet the Conservative MP for Reigate, Crispin Blunt, has a 10,000 majority, while the council is overwhelmingly Tory. People will blindly vote Tory in this area, and it is bewildering how many people just won't vote because of it.
So, if anyone reading this doesn't know who they're going to vote for, or think they know who they should vote for, just take a few minutes to do the survey. You might be surprised...
But seriously, as the name suggests the site was set up to encourage people (quite admirably) to not just blindly vote for a party, and instead take the time to look at the parties policies and vote according to those you think are best. The centre piece of the website is a survey in which you chose at least four policy areas from a list of twelve, and then each of the 6 biggest party's (Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, Green, UKIP, BNP) policies on the issue are brought up unlabelled. You are then asked to chose the set of policies you think are the most sensible, and at the end it tells who you liked in each area, and which party you are most suited to.
It's a great tool for those who haven't decided which way to vote, or for those who want to test their allegiances. But it does throw up other interesting points. For example, a couple of the areas (namely education) are so difficult to chose from, for the sole reason that every party is rather wishy washy, none of them actually seems to have a real idea about what to do (or maybe that's just me...) .
Also, a fun game to play is spot the BNP. It's very easy. Just look for the phrase "decent white British people." You can also play this game with UKIP (both parties policies are unsurprising similar).
My personal results were 83% Green, 17% Labour. I expected as much (although I wouldn't have been surprised to see Lib Dem in there), and it seems that most of the 83,000 or so people who have done the survey already agree, since the current winning party is Green, followed by Lib Dem and Labour. Unfortunately, I doubt the election will turn out like this.
The main premise of this survey is something I strongly agree with. Living in Surrey, I'm sick and tired of everyone moaning about our MP, Council etc, yet the Conservative MP for Reigate, Crispin Blunt, has a 10,000 majority, while the council is overwhelmingly Tory. People will blindly vote Tory in this area, and it is bewildering how many people just won't vote because of it.
So, if anyone reading this doesn't know who they're going to vote for, or think they know who they should vote for, just take a few minutes to do the survey. You might be surprised...
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