Better late than never....

Finally found the time to revisit Placebo show at Sheffield Academy this month, and what a show it was...Few bands would pluck up the courage to spring four new songs in a row on an uninitiated audience but Brian is brimming with it. Supreme self-belief certainly pays off. Last tour, he assured a rabid audience in regard to the new material, "You're gonna fucking love it", and this year is no exception.A few of the audience already know Ashtray Heart off by, well, heart - an impressive feat considering the only incarnation of it at present is a crackly static-laden version on Japanese Youtube. A million miles away from Tokyo, we're actually in Sheffield - I hate to say regrettably but I wouldn't be me without at least one dose per post of evil humour.Placebo are rockier than ever before, devoid of ex-drummer Steve's R & B influence and gone is whimsical electro, only to be replaced by fast and furious guitars. Cover version is a great example of this.
Time has not taken its toll on Brian's ever flawless complexion, but it has provided a whole host of new songs. The best of the new material is Battle for the Sun. "Dream brother, my killer, my lover," Brian breathes in a fever of dichotomy. Possibly referring to Steve again, he illustrates that even the most perfect relationships, worthy of the title "meant to be" are sometimes doomed to fail.
RIP Steve. And what's that? No photos, you say? ;)

Prison and other cheery subjects

Back from the Middle East where I did my press trip. All ran extremely smoothly apart from a nightmarish start.
"Please move BACK!" bellowed security at the airport. "This is an EVACUATION". The man with the megaphone continued to bellow with scant regard to the fact that we were already against the wall. We quickly established that the building wasn't going to burst into flames and that it was probably merely an excuse for security to do lunch -although to their credit they'd staged pretty authentic looks of terror.
Onboard, things weren't much better. Did I prefer furious neglected toddlers, who sadly are not even absent from Business Class these days, or furious drunken men? Its a theory I'd have preferred not to be testing.
I spotted a gay couple canoodling in the lounge and winced. Don't they know it carries a jail sentence over here? Fingers crossed for them.
Talking of jail in the Middle East, here's a revelation from Sally Antia, a British woman being held in a Dubai prison for adultery:
She says of her cell "It's the other side of Dubai - the side they don't want you to see." Well, yes - it's a PRISON?! - not a tourist attraction, and most people visiting the region are not aspiring to a jail sentence. So you can forgive the tourism authority if a maggot-filled sandwich at the desert jail - complimentary of course - isn't part of the itinerary.
Whilst I don't agree with the law, she knew about it when she moved there and if she was prepared to lose custody of her children for the sake of a fling then she should pay the consequences...