I’ve changed my tune (pun intended). Having just seen James Blake live, in a church, with real flickering candles, I wish to retract my childish and just plain silly comments in my previous post. I have seen the light. James Blake is a god and everyone everywhere should worship him. He can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants to.

I arrived alone at St Pancras Old Church an hour and a forty-five minutes before the gig was meant to start and was greeted by a scattering of equally eager fans. Some sat on benches eating vegan ice-cream others flicked through the Evening Standard for the 100th time; we were all desperately trying to pretend that the prospect of seeing JB live was nothing to us, just another gig in London. But underneath the cutting edge Shoreditch haircuts and Ray Ban glasses hid an eagerness almost impossible to contain. Twitter had informed the world that a ‘handful’ of tickets would be available on the door – we were going to do anything to get them.
Fast forward to 19.30, I’ve been met by two friends, the scattering has turned into a large-ish crowd and we’ve formed a disorderly queue, luckily I’m at the front, sort of. Even luckier, the ticket man decided to stop entrances temporarily just after we had entered. A good start.

The church was old. Signs for ‘Donations’ crowded a lonely slit in the wall, unused. Still, there was a sense that something special was going to happen. We walk into the tiny room and sit on the tiniest of chairs, Strongbow cans clinking, a jarring reminder of the incongruity of it all – I’ve never felt so guilty in my life. 
I was so overwhelmed by the promise of Blake that I had forgotten that gigs have such a thing as supporting acts. First up were Cloud Boat, an amazing duo that were obviously hand picked by James himself. They sounded like him and started the set with a song fittingly entitled I look like myself. The flashing lights that accompanied their mesmerising beats partially blinded the audience – a welcome assault on the senses.

As trickles of guitar skimmed over their minimalist beats, a sea of sound formed around the audience, and we were more than happy to drown. The guitarist used a tool that can only be described as a 21st Century slide, the blue light omitted affirms the decidedly modern feel of the whole affair. We’re in a church, Christ is suffering quietly in the background, a tangle of wires and a clutter of synthesisers and loop machines occupied the main space – this is my kind of service.

Cloud Boat’s next track, Pink Grin, provided the perfect soundscape for Sam’s (or Tom’s – they didn’t introduce themselves) soaring vocals to reach the zenith of their falsetto brilliance. When they finish their set we clap, too relaxed to digest the talent that we’ve just witnessed. (Check them out here, http://cloudboat.co.uk/, and here http://www.myspace.com/cloudboat)

The second band, Catherine Okada, is a folk ensemble. They came with banjo, ukulele and violin in tow, as well as a female drummer (HELL YEAH). Unfortunately they sounded less than memorable – the lyrics of their last song ‘pushed down by the weight of his water’ summarised their affect on the audience. Pleasant enough but uninspiring.

But the moment had come – next on was the man himself. He walks on stage with guitarist Rob McAndrews, aka ‘Airhead’ (check him out here http://www.myspace.com/airheadproduction), and beatsmith drummer, Ben Assiter. Barely saying two words to the audience they plunge right in with Unluck, my favourite track on the album. But it sounded nothing like itself and only when James began to mumble the lyrics did I recognise it. He managed to give a new shape to tunes that the loving crowd have heard countless times before, initiating a game of hide and seek as we searched our minds for the name of each song.

His voice quite literally filled the room, our ears and our hearts – the church’s acoustics created endless reverberation leaving just enough space for us to hear the hypnotic organ-like sound of his Phantom 08 synthesiser and Ben’s bewitching drum machine. I Never Learnt To Share was overwhelming: the keys resonated through the church’s beams, gently lulling us to sleep only to be jolted awake by the bass drum which hung just behind the beat. I lean in to the sound almost involuntarily and so does everyone else – we look like a cult, devoted.

Lindisfarne II sounds most like the track on the album, untampered with and full of pain-fuelled silences. No one dares breathe. No one, that is, apart from the numskull in the back who choses this precise moment to open his can of Coke. Brilliant. However, even the unwanted ‘sprrccht’ of the can seemed to fit perfectly with the song as though prompted by some kind of divine intervention – well, we were in a church. Nothing could ruin this hour and a half that we had to witness some of the most enrapturing music that Britain has to offer.

Just as we were all starting to think ‘Where the hell is Limit To Your Love?’ he bursts into the track greeted by enthusiastic cheers from the audience. At the risk of sounding vague and uninspired, I have to admit that no words appropriately translate the experience. It wasn’t exactly epiphanous, but it was bloody close. The gentle wobble that only fully manifests itself through earphones came alive, pushing up against each and every audience member creating an atmosphere of intensity and sadness.

The cherry on the cake was not the finale that had Cloud Boat re-enter the stage with a trumpet and perform Heat Half Full with Blake – a track full of distant power. Nor was it the fact that Mr Blake re-entered the room alone for an encore playing his twinkling cover of Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You. No, it was the moment when Ben, Blake’s drummer, cracked out the real snare drum in the middle of Limit To Your Love. It appeared intermittently on a few upbeats, but the clean crisp sound of that snare cut straight through the wishy-washy reverb that surrounds it, perfectly nuancing the song and reminding us that this is real music.

James Blake gets up, bows and claps to a deserved standing ovation. His humble attitude that made the gig even more intimate, however, fuelled my concern as to how his personal live performances will translate to the much (much) larger venues that he is sure to grace in the very near future. But, all in all, I had seen the light. 

                                                 – 

Check out his collaboration with Airhead here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZqAg_L6D4Y

Two is company but three’s a crowd. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

It has often been said and deemed an unwritten rule in football’s law book that joint management in the game has, does and will never work. With famous cases of joint stewardship dismally faltering – Liverpool fans look no further than Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier in the 1998-1999 season – and few success stories to talk of, the odds are stacked against this form of management. Yet, the Non-League managerial pair of Paul Hurst and Rob Scott are increasingly proving the doubters wrong.

Like the majority of managers in the Non-League and Npower Football League, both Hurst and Scott spent their playing careers exclusively in the Football Leagues in England. Whilst early on in his career Scott moved from one club to another, most notably having a two year spell with Fulham, Hurst spent his entire career at Npower Football League Two side Rotherham United. The two became united at United when Scott eventually made the move to The Millers in the 1998 season. From that point on the two established a strong defensive-duo in the United backline forming an integral part of the team’s successes on the pitch. They achieved successive promotions in the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons and guided the club from the old Division Three all the way, and very much against the odds, to the dizzy heights of Division One. After a successful partnership lasting seven years, Scott set off for pastures new, eventually ending his career at Halifax Town, whilst Hurst, after a wonderful fifteen years spent at The Millers, was released by the club at the end of the 2007-2008 season. Nevertheless, having amassed nearly 800 appearances between them during their playing careers – a venture into management, albeit joint, provided them with the ideal opportunity to further progress their careers in the sport.

Somewhat ironically, the pair, who originated from different parts of the country to play for Rotherham United, hadn’t originally set their sights on a career in management. After all, both had jobs outside of football which they could fall back on having finished their careers. Nonetheless, being in football, albeit part-time, was no comparison. Their careers began in the glamorous surroundings of Ilkeston Town in Derbyshire. Despite the team being tipped to struggle in the Northern Premier League Division, the ambitious duo, playing an attacking 4-3-3 formation, defied the odds to get the club promoted to the Blue Square North following a historic play-off victory over Nantwitch Town. Their success was at Ilkeston was mirrored, to a certain extent, at Boston United where the pair took over for the 2009-2010 season. Like Ilkeston, Boston gained promotion to the Blue Square North via the play-offs – this time a victory over Bradford Park Avenue. They went a step further by winning the FA Trophy again by playing with an inventive 3-4-3 formation. The fact that in the space of just three years the duo had managed to drastically turn the fortunes of these two clubs from relegation battlers into promotion winners spoke volumes for their instant achievements. Therefore, the prospect of cutting their teeth in full-time management with Blue Square Bet Premier Team Grimsby Town was an opportunity they simply could not let slip through their hands.

When we talk about clubs in this country with a defined history and heritage then one can look no further than The Mariners, Grimsby Town. As Scott said at the duo’s official presentation at their press conference on Thursday, ‘It’s a proper football club; you can see that with the surroundings at Blundell Park [Stadium]…it’s a big club and has a lot of potential’. Despite recently under-achieving, it remains one of the most successful clubs in Lincolnshire being the only one to play top-flight football as well as reaching an FA Cup Semi-Final on two occasions in 1936 and three years later in 1939. Notable figures have passed through the managerial door at Grimsby Town, including the late Bill Shankly who went to guide Liverpool to, amongst other things, three League Titles and Southampton’s 1976 FA Cup winning manager Lawrie McMenemy, another one of the great post-war English managers. Whilst the club has enjoyed a successful past, the club’s demise in recent years has led to instability and, most notably, fans being driven away. Enticing disillusioned fans back to Blundell Park is just one of the many projects facing the management duo as they look to lead the club back to the glory days of the past.

Although the duo weren’t the front-runners for the Grimsby Town job, their ages (Hurst at 36 and Scott at 37) along with their ambition of enhancing their careers and their previous experience in the Blue Square Conference fitted in with the board’s criteria. Whilst this will be their first ever taste of top-tier Non-League football, their appointment has been met with enthusiasm by the fans. The club currently lie outside the play-off places – a full 10 points behind fifth placed Kidderminster Harriers, however, with two games in hand. Their recent form has stuttered. A 2-1 defeat at Batch City was followed up by a frustrating 2-2 draw against mid-table Gateshead after being two goals up. If the duo can, in the ten or so games that they have until the end of the season, replicate the successful attractive, attacking football that they managed to develop at Ilkeston Town and Boston United then the team still has an outside chance of making the play-offs this season. Whilst a return to the Football League at the first time of asking would represent an instant repayment in the faith shown to them by Chairman John Fenty, a second season in the Blue Square Bet Premier looks like being a more realistic prospect.

Whilst I earlier highlighted the disastrous joint management case at Liverpool, success stories, though far and few between, do exist. Alan Curbishley and Steve Gritt helped to lay the early foundations at Charlton Athletic in the early 1990s. Curbishley eventually went on to enjoy a highly successful sole reign at the club, which included keeping The Addicks in a very credible solid mid-table position in the Premier League for five and a half seasons. Whilst Curbishley and Gritt’s partnership is one of the more high-profile successes, successful joint management has worked in the Lower Leagues. In the case of Hurst and Scott, the statistics certainly back up their previous successes. As Fenty stated at the press conference, ‘Since going into management their successes have been remarkable, win percentages of 65%, 61% and 58% in successive seasons’. Sharing the work load has meant more time for coaching and developing skills whilst simultaneously prompting discussion as to team selection, tactics, training and so forth. Although there may be no set criteria for management, they can be assured that in their position both will come to receive equal respect on an equal level.

While both Hurst and Scott may not have been the most enthralling players to watch, up to this point they have managed to carve out a successful joint managerial career, helped out in no small part to an excellent grounding in the Football League. No, there hasn’t been a wholly-successful spell for a top-flight club under joint management for a period of time with the duo singing from the same hymn sheet in being equally as ambitious as the other, but Grimsby Town fans can come to expect an exciting future ahead of them. They may be a viewed as a one off, but Hurst and Scott are so far proving that two heads really are better than one.

So it’s more than two weeks into the vac, you miss your dose of Cherwell and have started to fill the gaping void in your life with all sorts of unhealthy habits. You stay in pyjamas day and night, watching iPlayer and 4oD until your eyes are red with twisted satisfaction and eating everything under the sun that requires no actual preparation. Stop, take a look at yourself and make a change! RemiX is here to put you on the straight and narrow providing you with a healthy injection of great music – new and old – from all over cyberspace, the real world and any other realm that may exist. Put down that fifth bowl of Crunchy Nut, brush your guilt-caked teeth and let the music cleanse your soul. I hear that James Blake compared remixing to prostitution, claiming that it is “cynical and vacuous”. Well brace yourselves for a whole lot of naked flesh and gratuitous vacuousness as I take you through some remixes that should be heard no matter how dirty, cheap or heroin-hinted they may be.

First up, the Jamie xx remix of Adele’s Rolling In The Deep. To avoid disappointment I advise you to do things the right way round and listen to the original before the remix. I suffered a slight blow when I realised how tame the original was in comparison to Jamie’s more-ish clap clapping beast of a track. If you like music at all you will love this, it’s as simple as that. I have difficulty closing my laptop when this one is playing, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjiswvTXdzA

This is an old one but definitely worth a re-listen: Diplo’s remix of Sunday Girl’s Four Floors is a tower of sound, buoyed up by a bubbly wobble or two but fear not as it is gentle on the ears. Sunday Girl’s smooth and smoky vocals sit wonderfully on the flitting beat that Diplo has created. Before you know it you’ll be cranking this in your parents’ car, making that Volvo look like the most pimped up ride Hampstead Heath has ever seen. Please excuse this last comment – I’m just bitter that I don’t own a car, or live in Hampstead…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aNmqk7ixx0

Cue Segway into some of the hippest hop, DJ Emz’s remix of Leyendecker by Battles will give you that thrill that shoplifting from Primark never could. DJ Emz, like the loveliest of mothers, has chewed up a tough track by Battles and turned it into an easily digestible purée of drums and echoing police sirens. Rapping over the top, Joell Ortiz leaves just enough space for us to hear the rippling Battles guitar below, giving us a Hovis-style Best of Both experience. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBbDfiFZFvk

If you’ve ever had trouble digesting Jazz (or just hated its guts) then this track is for you. 4Hero’s remix of John Coltrane’s Naima might be just the thing to spark your Jazz appetite, or it could cement your hatred for it – either way it’s worth a try. The gradual build up on this song makes it a drawn out delight as each layer of sound gently places itself on top of the previous one. These Heroes have managed to create a subtly engrossing track that provides the perfect backdrop to Coltrane’s soaring saxophone. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q02uBRLHO7w

Kings of Leon My Party remixed by Kenna and Chad Hugo. A blast from the past, I know, but a chance for you to listen to KOL without enduring the torture that is Come Around Sundown or compromising your integrity. This version is sped up, beefed up and just generally bigger and badder (that sounded better in my head). Kenna and Chad have stripped away the distortion and reverb leaving us with a clean track that will have you hip jerking your way to the trash can with KOL’s latest album of which – I’m sure you’ve guessed – I’m not the biggest fan. 

http://hypem.com/#!/item/bbks/Kings+Of+Leon+-+My+Party+Kenna+Chad+Hugo+Remix+

So there, JB. I love you but had to disagree with your comment. Remixes rule and I won’t have a bad word said about them. Enough of my chat, enjoy this week’s playlist: old school chill out meets new feel trip hop at a club – this is their illegitimate baby and its cousins.

http://open.spotify.com/user/redremi/playlist/3cSGRc0ZnmawBRmzIn7C5x

For Oxford students, the period of time between the gloom of Hilary Term and the sunshine (one fervently hopes) of Trinity Term is known as the Easter Vacation. The university itself is quite strict about the stipulation that this vacation not end and 0th Week begin until Easter Sunday has come and gone.

As a national holiday in the United States too, it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that vacations at schools and universities on this side of the Atlantic follow a similar policy. But writing from home in Connecticut, I can assure you that it’s not the case. Most of my friends at university have had their ‘spring breaks’ already, during the weeks of early and mid-March. Some will get a few days off around Easter, but no more so than they would have over President’s Day Weekend in February or might at Memorial Day Weekend in May, if their classes are still in session.

But that last mention is a big ‘if’. With only a few exceptions, most American universities will have let out for the summer by mid-May. And this point is a mere blip in the disparate universe of scheduling in Britain versus in the United States. The differences begin with the pronunciation of the word itself, with a hard first syllable stateside in contrast to the softer elocution across the pond. They extend to the objects used for timetabling, commonly a calendar in America as opposed to a diary in Britain.

And they occur all year round. This is partly due to the fact that in the United States, public education is run by a patchwork of federal government oversight, state governments, and in some cases either counties or individual towns within each state. Each sets its own schedules, meaning that children in some parts of the country begin school at the grammar and secondary levels in early August and others follow suit until the last trickle in to start in mid-September. While Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring breaks of varying lengths are the norm, they can occur at varying times.

As a result, some will finish the school year in early May, and others not until late June. The only general rule is that school does not happen in July – either a finish or a start. I grew up in the northeastern part of the United States, where schools generally began at the beginning of September and let out in June. Universities in the area follow a slightly earlier pattern, from August to May. So at times, the Oxford term schedule can be disconcerting. When I return to England in late April, it will be only a week or two before many friends from home come back for their summer vacations.

In order not to make any mistakes in my own scheduling, I’m constantly aware of the vagaries of differentiation. Whether marked on my calendar or penned into my diary, it’s all part of being an Oxford student and speaker of the American tongue.