Pop guru Steve is imminent! Is Latvia the new Iceland?

There's quite an air of anticipation here this weekend as on Thursday my good pal Steve Giles is flying in from Hove for a long weekend. I'm in for a few days of witty banter, extraordinarily long conversations about obscure rock bands and a beer or two.

Steve has his finger very firmly on the pulse of pop music. A few years back, he and Pete Innes saw MGMT in a church hall in Brighton with about 10 people in the audience.Within 6 months they were a global household name and you couldn't get a ticket for one of their shows for love or money.

Some times late at night my phone will pling. A text message from Steve.

Down and dirty with Tune Yards. Check them out!

Pling pling! The Ex on stage at Audio! Anarcho jazz punks rools OK!

It makes me feel I am in touch, at least by proxy, with the glamorous world of pop.

Steve's current favourite is Brighton band: Stars down to earth

http://www.myspace.com/thestarsdowntoearth

Mr Giles seems to be the only person who attends their gigs, but if I was in that band, I'd already be planning how to spend my first million!


Steve and Ian are off on the boat to Riga for the weekend. If Steve is visiting Latvia, I suspect that Something Enormous is about to happen there in the pop world.If I had a record company I'd be sending my A & R people on the first plane.

Ooops! I only seem to have four Latvian CDs in my collection, all by the wonderful Ilgi. I'd better put that right fast, or I won't be able to show my face on trendy Skånegatan for shame!