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News

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Swine Flu, The Latest

Mexico City has banned restaurants and cafes from serving all food except takeaways in a bid to help prevent the spread of the deadly swine flu virus.

Schools across Mexico have closed, public gatherings are restricted and archaeological sites placed off-limits.

An announcement has been released from the health minister stating that 159 people are believed to have died from swine flu, but the confirmed death toll has been reduced from 20 to seven.
The number of cases globally is rising, though no-one outside Mexico has died.
The UN has called on countries to check their contingency plans for a possible global epidemic, or pandemic.

The UN's World Health Organization (WHO) assistant director general, Dr Keiji Fukuda, said a pandemic was "a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable".
As officials in Mexico City announced the latest measures to stop the virus spreading, the city's chamber of trade estimated restrictions in the city were costing businesses there at least 777 million pesos which equates to around £39m a day.

DVD's

There are some really cracking films being released on DVD over the next couple of weeks such as 'Taken', 'Role Models' and 'Underworld 3'. But one film that you can simply not afford to not see is the simply breath taking 'Slumdog Millionaire'.

The movie is about the Indian version of the hit TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Dev Patel plays Jamal Malik, a former Mumbai street-kid who gets a job being a tea boy at a call centre. He astonishes all of India by entering the show as a contestant and managing to get all the question right. After an amazing streak of answering question after question correct he has to come back the next evening for the final big-money question however, overnight he is brutally interrogated by Mumbai cops who are convinced he is a cheat. They take him through each of the questions he got right, and Jamal's life story unfolds in flashback as the real reasons behind his winning streak is revealed. His tale involves crime, drama, knockabout comedy and romance. Various characters determine his fate: his gangster brother Salim (Madhur Mittal), the love of his life Latika (Freida Pinto) and Prem (Anil Kapoor), the creepy quizmaster himself.

Despite the extravagant drama and some demonstrations of the savagery 'Slumdog Millionaire' doesn't really show a correct reflection of India and the vision of an outsider. However, this isn't a Bollywood film, it's a cheerfully undemanding and inspiring film; it depends for its full enjoyment on not being taken too seriously.

Games

In the office this week everyone will not stop talking about the release's of 2 legendary franchises in the gaming industry which are guaranteed to take over your summer.

Sims 3:

The Sims 3 is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. By now, the series has picked up millions of fans with its addictive and open-ended simulations of the lives of little computer people, and the next game in the series will give you even more ways to mess with those little computer lives. Beyond burning them to death in kitchen fires, and breaking their hearts by having someone else make out with their loved ones right in front of them, The Sims 3 will let you put your sims in their very own movie. You can capture that movie using in-game tools and then upload it to the Exchange to share, edit, and wipe-transition the living daylights out of it. You also have the ability to let your little sims persons go for a walk around the neighborhood, call a friend on their mobile phone and go shopping.

We're so excited about the new Sims we've put the trailer up for all to see.

The second game that has got us giving up on our proper work and talking about 'dual triggered wireless controls' is the latest Call of Duty (CoD) Modern Warfare 2.



Call of Duty 5: World at War has only been on the market for a few weeks and already people are talking about the next Call of Duty game. The creators of CoD 'Activision-Blizzard' knew how popular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was when it was launched back in 2007, that they felt that it needed another visit.

Many Call of Duty fans were upset that developers, Treyarch were going back to the WWII format, and felt that that era has been done to death, but if you like all the latest weapons, then you will still be seething that a second Modern Warfare was not explored.

It seems that 'Activision-Blizzard' have buckled under the pressure, and have announced that they are now working on Call of Duty 6 Modern Warfare 2, and is scheduled to launch in fall 2009. Now that 'Activision-Blizzard' is back at the helm, we can expect a truly awesome sequel to a truly awesome game. And because we don't like to be bias here at Lad's page, here's the trailer for CoD 6:

Music

What festival will you be at this summer?




Sellindge Music Festival:

5th, 6th & 7th June 2009

Sellindge Music Festival takes place in the beautiful countryside between Ashford and Folkestone once home to Jimi Hendrix. The weekend will showcase some of the most popular and hotly tipped acts from amongst a wide variety of musical genres over five different stages.

for more information visit the official website.

Benicasim Music Festival:


16th - 19th July 2009

Four days of indie pop and electronica across the Main Stage and several smaller stages in tents will keep your thirst for music well and truly quenched. Bands start around 6pm, headliners hit the stages around 1am and DJs keep the party alive 'til 6am, meaning Benicassim is ideal for all those who prefer to stay up all night and sleep all day.

For more information visit the Benicasim website.



Hop Farm Music festival:

3rd - 5th july 2009

It's the second year for Hop Farm and following the success of last year's one-day event, the organisers have now been given the go-ahead to increase the capacity to 53,000 over three days with a 20,000 capacity campsite open from Thursday to Monday.

For more information visit the Hop Farm official website.

Reading Music Festival:


28th -30th August 2009

One of the biggest and longest running rock festivals in existence, Reading Festival attracts around 80,000 revellers over the August Bank Holiday weekend every year. Rock, indie, metal, hip hop, punk, hardcore and ska is the name of the game and with over 150 acts spread across 3 glorious days, massive camping fields, comedy and cabaret, a full bill of late night entertainment and a hat trick of NME Awards for Best Live Event, this is one festival not to miss this summer.

For more info visit the festival's official website.





Isle of Wight Music Festival:

12th-14th june 2009

With seven years under their belt, Isle Of Wight Festival has slowly grown to be one of the major players in the festival world attracting massive rock and indie acts each and every year. This year also sees the return of the 5,000 capacity Big Top which plays host to a special night of entertainment for campers on the Thursday night. Last year tickets sold out months before the event, so make sure you get yours quick.

For more information go to www.isleofwightfestival.com

Glastonbury Music festival:


26th - 28th june 2009

Arguably the best festival in the world, the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts has grown from a few hippies in a field drinking free milk on farmer Michael Eavis' farm to the biggest festival in Europe attracting 160,000 people every year. With six huge music stages and tents including the awesome Pyramid Stage, a myriad of smaller music stages and venues plus areas such as the 40 acre Shangri-La area which is open until 6am on Friday and Saturday nights plus the Green Fields, Healing Fields, Glade, Field of Avalon, The Park, Trash City, Cinema Field which are all packed into the 100 acre site in the Vale of Avalon, Glastonbury has lots more to offer than just music. Glastonbury also donates some of its profit to support various charities such as Oxfam, Greenpeace, Water Aid and local charities.

For more info check out the glastonbury website

This week's hot new video

B.M.K: Bringing Back Real Rock 'n' Roll

It seems that in today’s music society all you need to be a band is a few pairs of outrageously skinny jeans, crappy lyrics and the ability to say “ohhhh la” at the end of every line. Well Black Market Karma (B.M.K) stand for everything that is against this worn out and over-rated stereotype of bands in the twenty first century and aim to bring back what is right in music.

Very young, very energetic and very talented, this four piece from South London bring back the good old days of 60s rock in to today’s music world, a sentiment, that many would agree is much over due.
Hot on the heels of the work from bands such as The Velvet Underground, B.MK. aim to rekindle the music that influenced so many bands and people’s life styles in a time that determined so much.

A powerful sound, driven by a foot stomping beats from Dami Onashile on drums, who continues to impress performance after performance. Mike Sutton on rhythm guitar keeps in his own world on stage, fully focused on kicking out dirty hypnotic sounds that act as the backbone of B.M.K. On Bass is Josh Bailey who again stands against many stereotypes that have been made of Bass players in the past. As apposed to the boring, nonchalant bass player, the audience see themselves being entertained by the excitement and electricity that Josh brings to the stage. Stan heads this impressive line up on lead vocals and guitar, his pres

ence seems to capture the audience with unique vocals and thought provoking guitar style. All of this is very elegantly demonstrated in the bands latest track “The Fall” which can be found on their myspace page, along with the video which can be found on youtube.

The band exist on a vibe that seems to ooze out to the audience who are left wanting more of the creative and radiant sound that is produced by the young four piece. What is most impressive about this band is how all four members seem to compliment each other and no one member seems outshine another. This is one bands hype that should definitely be believed; look out for the long awaited demo tape and album being released by the band in the up coming months which is self titled “Black Market Karma”.

Sam Francis

Kings of Leon – Gig review - Monday 15/ June/ 2009

AS the heavens opened over London city yesterday evening around 20,000 soaked through Kings of Leon (KoL) fans made the trip to see the Tennessee four piece play their latest show in their sold out tour at the o2.

The torrential downpour didn’t leave the fans in dampened spirits as the Kings support act Glasvegas took to the stage. The Scottish rock ‘n’ roll group would of got mixed feelings to a more subdue appreciation as they left the stage. It was not exactly a supporting performance for the memory bank and not putting KoL under any threat of being out played.

After about a 30 minute interlude, the lights once again were dropped and KoL took to the stage. My first reaction as I entered the more than impressive o2 arena; was horror to the price of a pint, my second reaction was, disappointingly, one of surprise, I was surprised by the over bearing number of short-back-and-sides hair styles, Fred Perry polo shirts and the brightest of bright plimsoll’s regardless of the rain. Whatever happened to the dirty looking, scrawny, big haired, skinny jean wear Kings fan that we have all come to know and love over the years, don’t get me wrong, every now and again you would get the odd glimpse of a hardcore KoL fan still getting involved and following the band but they were seriously getting outnumbered by the ‘born again, “rock”, lovers’ who wouldn’t know a mosh pit from an armpit. I suppose this is what you should come to expect from a band that you can now see on music channels like “Smash Hits”... very rock ‘n’ roll.

However, this was not the only sign that the KoL I was watching was a different Kings from that of 2 years back. As I slowly made the most out of a extortionately priced pint, I found it hard to really get in to what I was hearing; the performance was inundated with tracks from their latest 2 albums “Because of the Times” and “Only by the Night”. Which in their own right, have some outstanding numbers on, but all I could pick up on was the constant criticism of these latest two albums being too samey echoing around my head. It took the genius of the Molly’s Chamber from the debut album “Youth and Young Manhood” until my bitter disappointment was disembarked by my love for the Tennessee quartet which was then followed by “Red Morning Light” leaving any thoughts of discontent long gone.

By which time, my pockets were empty from the two beers I was able to get my hands on, and without having the correct details with me to get out a loan with the o2 it looked like my drinking days were done for the night, so me and my companion started our serge forward through the crowds. With the barrier in sight we decided to set up camp dead centre about three bodies away from the barrier. It was at which point where the Kings broke in to “Four Kicks” from the “Aha Shake Heartbreak” album, and it was also at this point were my criticism of the crowd came back to haunt me as the reaction to “Four Kicks” was breath taking, literally and metaphorically, the serge forward by the other 19,998 thousand allowed me to slam very elegantly in to my companion, who was not best pleased as after a scan showed he had recently torn shoulder ligaments, that made the car journey home fun. In and amongst the push forward and the jumping about like a complete loon, I then, and only then, realised the class and greatness that I was bearing witness to, regardless of any prior feelings, The Kings of Leon truly are one of the best live acts that you can see, every lyric, every beat, every guitar solo was, frankly, stunning. It has been a very long time since I went to a gig to see a band perform and have me think to myself ‘this is as if I am listening to a cd’ everything was that spot on.

Rhythm guitarist and front man Caleb Followill has faced much criticism in past years for not interacting with the audience, just coming on stage, performing, then leaving, not that I would have a problem with this if it were true, but it wasn’t , after nearly every song would Caleb thank the English crowd for being there to support them from the start etc. He even informed us of his cousin's, Matthew Followill, absence from the bands next couple of performances as he is having a baby soon and he is going back home, now that’s what I call performer – audience interaction.

One song that I was, this time pleasantly, surprised to see in the line up was the opening track on the “Because of the Times” album, “Knocked up” which seemed to go humorously fitting with his cousins recent reasoning for absences. “Knocked up” is a beautifully put together, well rounded track which has enables all aspects of the group’s talent to shine from the soft vocals, to the spectacular guitar rhythms that continuously ooze out of the Gibson Epiphone’s of the two guiataring Followill cousins. Brothers to front man Caleb, drummer Nathan and basest Jared make up the family quartet Nathan who continues to impress, with his quick hands and nonchalant beats and Jared with not only his classic bass performance but also the bands pianist which comes in to affect more than you might think and every time it takes the crowd by awe. And when all these musical aspects come together, with the incredible stage affects that you come to expect from a venue like the o2, it creates a truly beautiful music and a fantastic atmosphere as best seen when the Kings played their unbelievably popular hit “Use Somebody” from the fourth album. And just when my company’s shoulder seemed to find itself on the long road to recovery, KoL decided that then would be a good time to perform the song that realistically would have brought most of indie pop loving fans to the o2 that wet Monday night, “Sex on Fire” which was executed perfectly sent the crowd in to a frenzy of hugs, screams and sore throats.

In hindsight, seeing the Kings of Leon on that Monday, which will be remembered by most for the sheer amounts of rain, but for those 20,000, wet, sweaty Kings fans, they will remember an epic performance played by one of the most talented and one of the best live acts around. And i mean that sincerly, granted there is much to be said about the fourth album, and I have been persistent with it but I still cannot get on with it, to me it is far to samey with only three genres of songs and the rest just follow suit, not wanting to try anything to dangerous like they did with the three prior albums and gave them the fan backing that they have now. And yes, I was slightly disappointed with the song list, in my opinion they was know where near enough material from the first two albums with tracks such as “King of the Rodeo”, “Joe’s Head”, “Soft”, “Happy Alone” the list goes on, songs that really made KoL so big, however, there is no disputing the genius and the class of the performance and undoubtedly the kings of Leon, regardless of their new, slightly chavy following, are one of the best live bands that you can see. And I believe that in 5 years or so, when they go back to playing the songs that made them they can easily become bigger than bands like “Oasis” or “The Strokes”.

Sam Francis

Still don't know about the Kings of Leon? Get with it, take a look at there home page to find out more kingsofleon.com