mostly david ephgrave

If I were to jot down my Knebworth Park gigs list in its entirety, it would read like this: •1996: Oasis. •2019: Dog Fest. Is that a progression? Today's trip to the canine festival to end all canine festivals (with Elwood in tow) was very pleasant. It's fair to say I've never seen so many dogs in one location, though they were surprisingly well behaved, with no real trouble at all; I'm not sure if the same could have been said for the Oasis gig all those years ago; I'm sure a few Kangol jackets were thrown in anger (without looking back, no doubt). Considering the sheer volume of dogs at the event I'm surprised Elwood took things in his stride, though he did have some jumpy moments when confronted by a couple of the mutts on the planet to be bigger than him (yes: I used the word, "mutts"). Outside of that, he was impressively easy going and didn't flinch when given 'the nose' from his colleagues; he's a very good boy,

I have this performance of The Beach Boys song Lady Lynda on regular rotation when I listen to music on getting ready in the mornings and seldom skip it. It's made all the better for the fact it was recorded at Knebworth Park - approximately six miles down the road from where I live (cue all those assassins trying to track me down to a less than ten-mile radius) - in 1980, less than a year before I was born, so if my family had lived in the house I grew up in by then, they could have potentially heard it from our window. I wish I could have been there myself, though if the gig was anything like Oasis' show there in 1996, it would have taken us a surprisingly long time to get home afterwards, despite the convenient location. When I went to see Brian Wilson perform Pet Sounds in Edinburgh last summer, he happened to have Al Jardine (who sung and co-wrote this) in the band, which was an added treat, and while he didn't sing my favourite of his Beach Boys songs at the gig, ...

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

A little later this afternoon I'm set to walk into an Oasis album cover. Don't take the above statement too literally; I'm not planning a spot of very specific slapstick with a record shop display-stand (I'd have to find one still trading to do that). I will, however, be walking past the location where an Oasis cover was PHOTOGRAPHED. I spotted it the other day whilst passing through Soho on the way to a casting. I often do a spot of window-shopping whilst on Berwick Street; plenty of funky (yes...'funky') vinyl shops to be found around those parts - if only to contradict my above statement. It also keeps me well clear of Soho's 'sexy places'. Standing proud in the centre of one of the window displays is a copy of the LP, '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' - and blue-tacked to the familiar sleeve is a little slip of paper, bearing the legend "YOU ARE HERE". (www.reckless.co.uk) There was a time when I'...