March so far has been absolutely amazing. As I predicted.

I went to see The Noisettes who were much better than I thought they would be but whose support acts were not.

Roseanna and I celebrated our partial Welshness on St David’s Day by getting very drunk at a Something Beginning With L gig.

I hung out with my sister and her two daughters. We had ice cream and played on the swings.

Hospitality at Matter’s 1st birthday party was mind blowingly good. Especially High Contrast and London Elektricity.

Then I went to Bristol.

—-

I have fallen a little bit in love with this gorgeous city. A friend of mine had drafted a special Anna’s Day Out itinerary for me (with a map and notes and everything!) so I was all set. I visited some lovely vintage shops, St Nick’s Market, the Arnolfini (where there was a sound/images installation exhibition by Imogen Stidworthy), The Watershed, a couple of really good independent music shops, Start the Bus (3 times!), College Green (although I didn’t see any sk8ers) and I took a detour off map to go to Bristol Old Vic. My dad used to be part of the company there many years ago when he was an actor so I just had to sneak inside to have a look around.

Then off to Mother’s Ruin for a night of music and friends. The gig was brilliant.

Pagan Wanderer Lu was up first. This electronic artist has been making music for a while now and I have been trying to learn a lot from him. His album Fight My Battles For Me was one of my favourite albums of last year and his intelligent lyrics matched with fun electro sounds and moody onstage persona make for a fantastic mix. I’m looking forward to hearing his new album.

It was also lovely to catch up with Mrs PWL who I hadn’t seen since last year. Plus Mr PWL managed to accurately summarise my twitterfeed which made me nearly cry with laughter: “I saw a dog. It’s brilliant.” “Then something about boys” “I saw something else. It’s brilliant. Everything is brilliant.” “Then once a month or so a tweet about Wales”

“I don’t know if love is real or if it’s just chemical, but I like you and my chemicals like you too” (PWL)

Then was Oxygen Thief. This guy is like punk folk personified. Acoustic guitar (always acoustic!) and shouty vocals really get the crowd going. Filling his set with a mix of songs and instrumental/solos, he moshes along to the acoustic sound and really hammers it out of his guitar. He has a lot of on stage energy and charm. I always enjoy seeing his stuff live and it was great to hear some new songs too!

“The city makes her restless and she makes him tired” (Suzannah Evans/sung by OT)

Chris T-T played nearly all of Love Is Not Rescue, his new album. It is a beautiful piece of work (I know I am biased but go and listen to it from beginning to end, then argue with me if you like). Nintendo, which is out now as a download single, is a brilliant song as is the title track Love Is Not Rescue. Tall Woman makes me cry every time I hear it. Another example of his skill at lyric-writing and while I live in his shadow,  I will always strive to be better with him as an influence.

“Love is not rescue, you need two whole people to work.” (Chris T-T)

Then after a wonderful night of drinking and inspiring chats about music making and creating stuff, Chris and I got in the car and drove to Wales…

Massive thanks to Mr & Mrs OT who put me up on their floor and who have the coolest downstairs loo ever (covered in comics).