July 24 (Saturday): I wake up with one hell of a headache. It’s a hang over. I really wanted to get to Colin’s today and get my haircut but it is one bridge too far for me. I wake up seven which after getting in around at two or three equates to nowhere near enough sleep yet again. I have slept really uncomfortably last night, on top of magazines and newspapers which now stick to my body, along with that fucking bubblegum I sat in. Seems I was listening to music when I got in (whoops) and Media Player is playing all tracks in alphabetical order and has reached the letter W. Wynton Marsalis’ last album rings in my ears and is actually soothing to me in-between my four trips to the bathroom to throw up this morning. However, all good things must come to an end and Wynton Marsalis turns into X-Ray Spex and my head pounds like a jackhammer.

After a few aborted attempts to get up, get dressed and get busy I find that at some points that I am actually so hung-over that I can’t even hold water. Eventually I find myself up and mobile, it now being 1pm in the afternoon. I go down to my local newsagents to get the papers. My local newsagents is the Layer Road General Store right next to the football ground, where people are already congregating for today’s friendly against the almighty Watford. I am almost tempted to phone up and Ben to ask if he is going to the match and as if I can do a “come with�. However I am then almost run over by some dickhead Colchester United player in his flash personalised number plated car, speeding up as he pulls into the Colchester United players’ car park. Arrogant prick, you’re just a chimp with a huge wage packet at the end of the day.

When I get in I set about planning for my DJ set in the evening. I still have many good burned CDs left over from my set at the final Hirameka DJ set so really all I need to burn is at most another two CDs with a few more choices/picks (mainly omitted Big Black songs!) and current hot new picks (Walkmen, Snow Patrol, new Prodigy).

I am supposed to be meeting Staff and Allen at the Hogshead at 4pm but I find myself running much too late and out skip my initial plan of walking into town to be there followed by the skipping of the plan of actually being there on time (my bad). Eventually I plum for driving into town and sheepishly turning up a bit late.

When I arrive at the Hogshead it is almost five and there is no sign of Staff or Allen but fortunately Justin Bad Hand and his girlfriend Helen and Adam Cats Against Bombs are all there so I have someone to hang with. Justin has already got the Blitters squat gig photos from the previous night developed and the place looks insane. I really am on form, making yuks about the photos. Eventually Staff and Allen and others turn up and it’s a brilliant day to be sat outside in the Hogshead beer garden in the sun. I’m having a good day but also it is somewhat alarming to have so many people telling me “I think this is the first time I haven’t seen you drunk� and that all my stories begin “when I was really drunk….�. Ouch.

The beer garden today is star studded, mainly for the Elton John lookalike and a guest by Meg from the White Stripes. I suspect that it is the actual Elton John when he goes to the men’s toilet and never returns (“bumming!�).

We leave the Hogshead around 8pm and as I leave, Ivan and Jackie turn up. I say “hi� very sheepishly and comment over how much carnage last night was. We do all right, there are no visible ill effects from last night but I suspect one day it/they will rear their heads.

As we arrive at the Arts Centre Montana Pete are already playing and they sound better than ever. Montana Pete still do the stop start, quiet loud thing and they’ve always struck me as a kind of geeky version of Girls Against Boys and tonight it sounds more forceful and effective than ever.

After their set I begin DJing, opening with New Year by the Breeders and then into the opening track off the new Sonic Youth record, prompting the resident pseudo cool ice bitch to come running up to me and ask what it is.

The next band is the Parnell Deception or the Parnell Incident or something. I recognise members from other, older Colchester bands back in the day who actually weren’t too good. This band sounds to me like Tool and my friends reckoned they sound like A Perfect Circle which suits as Maynard Keenan (or whatever his name is) sings for both bands. Their bassist is a snarling beast of man, shirtless pretending to be the guy in Queens who used to be in the Dwarves, only not as interesting or cool. I think I saw this band opening once before for Part Chimp and wasn’t really into them either.

In the house tonight are the new local stars called Absent Kid. They have had some nation press and are now going to be big (apparently). All their family is in the venue, which means overdressed mothers and sad dads in band shirts. It also means they drag out female relatives who are real honeys and are completely out of place. It is hard to concentrate on DJing when there are a couple of honeys buzzing about. I do manage to pull myself together and play the Blitters single which gets a big cheer from our collective, making me appear good at DJing. Absent Kid play and are pretty awful in earnest, I’m not really sure what they sound like other than a thousand other confused indie rock bands (“are we indie or are we rock?�). At one point they do the quiet loud thing and I figure where Busted are to Blink 182, Absent Kid are to Mogwai. Probably not though. After their set I play the first song I play is Money Will Roll Right In by Mudhoney.

Cove headline and do their instrumental Shellac type thing I came to OD on with Reynolds. Didn’t Cove used to have a member who was the spitting image of Bill Hicks? He now looks replaced by a guy that looks like Eric Clapton (sorry). So ultimately I guess Cove sound like Slint gone hard which rhythmic and catchy (I’d like to come up with better descriptions and comparisons but I am so out of touch it hurts).

The show ends and I put on World Destruction by Time Zone followed by Wesley Willis to clear the venue. I actually think my set was pretty good tonight, the night was buzzing so I guess it didn’t really matter what I played but it still made it all the more fun to appear that in one way or another everyone was having a good time.

At the end of the night I go over and talk to the infamous Emma Webb. She’s actually the most receptive she has been to me for years and we talk shit, mainly about me going to porno university and how she could become my Madame. Not bad. I then go over to speak to her sister and something explodes in the venue.

After show there is a party back at Staff’s and eventually we head over there, our group including Zack, Staff’s bandmate in Extreme Noise Terror. Originally I had the best intentions of staying sober tonight and getting home in time to see Beavis And Butthead Do America on BBC1 but in the end that is not to be. We get (feast on) Bodrums and I eat a donner sober, not the best of sensations. On our way to Staffs, a few drop out but eventually Allen and myself get there by car, finding the place in deepest darkest Lexden. And it’s a fantastic crib. We stay up until 4 in the morning, with people trying to be bribed into drinking home brew and people passing out on the floor in the process. Cove tell us about their experiences playing alive, then I tell everyone about what happened with Gringo Records and then Staff beats us all with some of the funniest music stories I have heard in ages about Extreme Noise Terror. Around 4 I find myself nearly falling asleep but I still manage to give Allen a lift home. I’m so tired after three days of staying out.

np: Sonic Youth – Pattern Recognition