Paul Grenyer

My wife is a massive PJ Harvery fan, but I always found her squeaky, out of tune, unable to play and talentless. And to be fair, some of her songs on some of her albums do sound like that. For one reason or another, we missed PJ Harvery at the Roundhouse in 2023, so despite never having been to Gunnersbury Park before, let alone for a gig, I was determined to get my wife to see her this time. The setup for gigs is actually quite good. It’s a relatively short walk from Acton Town and the accessibility entrance was easy to find and the process quick. There was an odd rule about only bringing bags which were A4 sized or smaller. How anyone would get the clothes for all weathers, it was also suggested you should bring, into a bag that small, I don’t know. However there didn’t seem to be much enforcement and we got in with our slightly larger bag and saw plenty of larger ones while we were there. One of the accessibility team who greeted us had a new Korn hoodie. They’d played the previous...

By Frank Herbert ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1473233812 Here ends a journey which turned out to be more stubborn determination than enjoyment. As I’ve mentioned before , I first started reading the Dune books as a young teenager after loving the Lynch adaptation of the 1980s. I didn’t complete the initial trilogy until last year (2023). Dune still stands out as the great story, but Herbert's self indulgence starts with Dune Messiah and continues through the rest of the sequels. I really don’t know why he bothered with Chapter House Dune or Heretics of Dune. They don't bring anything to the story or explain anything which isn’t covered in the initial trilogy. Idaho isn’t that interesting after Dune Messiah and Bene Gesseritt after Children of Dune. However, I do have the satisfaction of having read all six books by the original author. I could stop here, but I am told that the Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson is well worth a read. Perhaps I’ll try that before consider...

When it comes to sound, the Underworld in Camden can be a bit hit and miss and tends to be more miss with heavier bands. I struggled to hear the guitars clearly for Born of Osiris last year and it was the same for both Perpetual Paradox and Phobetor , who were supporting Crypta . It’s a shame as both bands sounded reasonable when I tried them before the show. It wasn’t much better for Crypta. I could just about make out the guitars when there was a solo, but otherwise the guitars got lost in the bass and drums. Perhaps if the sound person concentrated more on the mix than volume it would be better. Despite the sound problems I could tell that Crypta were playing really well and I enjoyed it. They’re so young, it did feel a bit like watching a teenage garage band. I was very keen to see them and I love both albums. Hopefully I’ll get to again and the sound will be better. I was fortunate enough to meet the singer briefly, who was lovely, but my photography skills failed me!