In Search of the Perfect Yellow

Three Mobile 3 (UK) Woes

2011-05-22T17:26:00.001+01:00

Three mobile @3UK want me to pay a termination fee because I get no signal in my office with a mast 200 metres away.

Their call centres are a nightmare to deal with but what I can glean from our fragmented conversations is this I will have to pay a termination fee if I want to use my mobile in my office.

There is zero signal in my office and small studio, I have to leave the building to get anything other than an SOS signal and then even that's patchy.

They say they may upgrade the network in the future but on their coverage checker http://www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/Coverage?infoChoice=voice it clearly shows that all of my area should receive indoor coverage.

I tell them I have no option but to request that they terminate the contract as they are not providing the service that they are contracted to provide me.

No, they say, if YOU cancel the contract you'll have to pay a 50% termination fee. Round in circles we go. I'm asking you to cancel because you are in breach of your own contract.

I am awaiting a call back from a manager.

Whatever happens, I will never, ever give them my custom again.

Update 30th May 2011: by escalating the problem no less than 3 times I was able to get out of the contract for £61. I wasn't happy that I had to pay anything at all but it seems to me that Three UK know fully well how bad their coverage is. I am now with Vodafone who supply a signal at my office AND have plans to improve that coverage too.

Lone supporting The Orb at IndigO2 on 23/4/11 Photos and Quick Interview

2011-04-24T23:03:00.001+01:00

“Lone (Matt Cutler) is a British electronic musician from Nottingham, United Kingdom. Lone has released three full length albums, Everything is Changing Colour in 2007, the critically acclaimed Lemurian in 2008, and Ecstasy and Friends in summer 2009. He also has released four EPs titled Cluster Dreams, Joyreel/Sunset Teens, Pineapple Crush/Angel Brain - EP and Once In a While/Raptured – EP, released in 2009 and 2010, respectively.” [From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_(musician)]

Larger photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/perfectyellow/sets/72157626448626963/

I spoke briefly to Matt at the IndigO2, London 23/4/11 before he took to the stage to support The Orb. 808 State DJs were due to appear but sadly, didn’t show.

TC: Tony Coleby

MC: Matt Cutler.

TC: The first thing that struck me about your music is that you must be a fan of Boards of Canada right? Surely? It’s undeniable?

MC: Yes!

TC: And though your music is far from dark, maybe an ambient, abstract, techno influence from Aphex Twin?

MC: Yeah yeah big time.

TC: You can hear definitely hear some early Aphex coming through in your music, especially your own earlier albums. I think the most fitting description of your music was something like “warped, hazy sun-drenched melodies”. Is that accurate?

MC: Yeah definitely.

TC: Any acoustic influences? Anything that doesn’t involve synthesisers and stuff?

MC: Not a great deal to be honest.

TC: So you’re an electronic purist then?

MC: No…well I’ve always been into hip-hop but I guess that’s still sort of electronic, using samples and stuff. People like Madlib, Wu-Tang Clan all the 90s and 80s stuff. Wu Tang Clan are still my favourite, I still listen to them. I’ve always been into Radiohead but I guess they’re quite electronic as well.

TC: 3 albums people should listen to to understand you?

MC: Geogaddi - Boards of Canada, I Care Because You Do – Aphex Twin (that was the first CD I ever bought actually) and Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) – Wu-Tang Clan

TC: Yeah that makes sense to me (laughter in the room) Favourite film?

MC: Erm…Home Alone (laughter)

TC: Come on, seriously? (laughter)

MC: I’m being serious! Yeah would have been cooler to have said The Shining.

TC: I’ll quote you on The Shining then!

MC: Yeah, a weird mixture of the two maybe.

TC: And if you’re a computer game player, one inspiration there?

MC: Not any more but…Sonic 2 (laughter)

TC: Hardcore! Yeah, definitely all about the early 90s! Lastly, sharing a stage with Orb and (half of) 808 State which is cooler?

MC: Which is cooler? 808 State.

TC: Good answer. Thanks Matt.

MC: Thank you.

© 2011 Tony Coleby/ Perfect Yellow Ltd. Thanks to Lone and OneManMelt the gig’s promoters for their co-operation. Syndication of this article including photos is available, see http://perfectyellow.co.uk

Larger photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/perfectyellow/sets/72157626448626963/

I'll add a review of Lone's work from 2007 to 2011 shortly. Here are some photos from The Orb:

The Prodigy's 'World's On Fire' Preview

2011-03-30T20:00:00.002+01:00

The Prodigy - World's On Fire - cinema trailer from The Prodigy on Vimeo.

Previewed by Tony Coleby, 29/3/11 at the Electric Cinema, Portobello Road.

As far as music films go there’s the rockumentary (Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster) and there’s the concert film (Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter). The Prodigy’s World on Fire is a concert film but with a small taster of documentary thrown in at the start. I would personally have loved a few more servings of the backstage world of The Prodigy and after the first few tracks of straight live music, I started to pine for more like a couch potato groping around for more chocolate. But by the time the nostalgic THUMP…QUIET…THUMP of Firestarter begins 6 tracks in, my palette is attuned and I accept it for what is: a non-stop feast of the best of The Prodigy, in all their cinematic glory, all lovingly sound-engineered by Liam Howlett himself. One of the best live bands of the last 20 years, giving you a private concert. With popcorn.

My fellow viewers in the plush environs of the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road weren’t quite up for a rave but it will be interesting to see how cinema-goers will get involved with the ‘concert’ at the Europe-wide one night only launch on Thursday 31st March. If I didn’t have notes to make and it wasn’t so early in the day, and hell, perhaps even if the PR company were handing out something a little stronger than beer and chips, I might have done some crowd-rousing myself. Who am I kidding?

About that intro. Whether you know Milton Keynes or not (what’s to know? It’s got a grid-based road system and an Ikea), you will undoubtedly begin to see what’s coming when we are shown an interview with a middle-aged lady, the chief tourist information officer espousing the variety of leisure activities on offer in the town. Line-dancing and a fantastic range of libraries seem to be the highlights, “Not just in Milton Keynes but right across the whole area.”

The Prodigy - Warriors Dance Festival 2010 Photos by Ollie Martin Underground-Music.co.uk

This is interspersed with staccato stabs of Mescaline, increasingly loud and increasingly threatening until she's finished setting the scene of a tranquil new town. “We do have the odd bit of trouble with kids but it’s actually quite quiet here...” You know what’s coming… WALLOP the heavy stuff kicks in and we’re into the live music. It’s pretty much a concert from here on in.

Track List

1. Intro

2. Breathe

3. Omen

4. Colours

5. Thunder

6. Warrior’s Dance

7. Firestarter

8. Run With The Wolves

9. Weather Experience

10. Voodoo People

11. Omen Reprise

12. Invaders Must Die

13. Smack My Bitch Up

14. Take Me To The Hospital

15. Everybody In The Place

16. Their Law

17. Out Of Space

Apart from some of the intro showing crowd scenes in Rio de Janeiro and the band discussing Bluey* their alleged beloved clapped out camper van, all of the tracks were recorded at Milton Keynes Bowl at the Warrior's Dance Festival in July 2010.

* Keith: “Other bands have like, big tour busses but this does us.”

World’s on Fire will be shown in over 70 cinemas across the UK and beyond for one night only on Thursday 31st March – see theprodigy.com for a full list of participating cinemas.

Words: Tony Coleby, http://perfectyellow.co.uk

Want to syndicate this content on your website? Fine, contact me!

Hello World! Here's my left hook.

2011-03-29T08:59:00.000+01:00

Starting a blog is always, retrospectively, a futile affair. Doomed to become an outlet for obtuse opinions and stream of conciousness banality. Well nowadays, there's Facebook, Twitter and Sky Sports for that. Perhaps, with even more retrospect, I've never stuck by a blog because I've never really had anything to blog about.

Well, no more! Nowadays I get up to some halfway interesting stuff involving photography, music and sometimes even fusing words together into readable sentences, something I never really managed to do adequately at university. But it's amazing how the need to pay bills focusses the mind (oh and what bills need to be paid!) So I believe I have the ingredients of a blog right there.

We'll see shall we?

In a mo (a sex mo) I'm off to the CENSORED cinema in CENSORED ROAD in London to catch a preview of The Prodigy's World's On Fire live concert/ film extravaganza. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the flick ahead of its one night only release in cinemas worldwide on Thursday March 31st. Yeah, for a couple of days I WILL be cool. Like that time I left-hooked that bully on the way home from school and briefly, for one magical afternoon, felt the glow of peer respect. For a glorious, fluorescent moment I was accepted by the cool kids. Well, at least the ones who smoked at the back of the bus but wasn't that THE definition of cool in the 80s? They were even awed enough to forget to take the piss out of my second-hand flared school trousers. But not for long, as I'm sure you'll recall, a day is a long time in school politics.

Oh no, it's happening all over again ;)

PS. come back Wednesday AM for that preview.