However, last week we witnessed one of THE greatest gigs London has ever staged. Arcade Fire played a ’secret’ show at Hackney Empire and through the powers of record company marketing departments, we managed to get a pair of tickets and all we can say is Wow! we won’t review it in full, we will simply say Wow! again.

If you look closely on the first picture you will see Florence (minus her machine) on the first balcony.

And FYI, the track used in this piece of lovelyness is Men Without Hats’ 1983 hit
Safety Dance. Our very own Ken Ansell was responsible for the logo and sleeve.

Ken fondly recalls that back in the day they were known as Men Without Hits.
So no coincidence that after Safety Dance, they… er… had no more hits.

Our bi-annual month of despair is upon us (we include The Euro’s when we bother to qualify) and the nation is gripped in World Cup fever.

Managing expectation is a common term used in our office and never has it been more appropriate now.

The feeling is we can do well and if lady luck shines on us, you never know…we might even beat the Germans in a penalty shoot out.

This clips sums up England. A truly amazing tackle followed by a glaring miss. Come on England!!!!!

To say we are shocked to hear the news that Mick Hucknall will be joining
The Faces is an understatement. We feel angered, appalled and some are feeling
physically ill at the prospect of such lunacy.

Spike from The Quireboys would have been a perfect
choice and knowing him as I do, he’d have done it for £5
and a case of McKewan’s Best Scotch.

I cannot say anything else on this matter without cursing,
so here’s the real Faces and why Spike would be perfect.

I don’t think I can forgive Ronnie for this.

Having Barclays as a client means that any banking related article merits more attention than it normally would, so this particular financial titbit in today’s Metro after further investigation made us feel slightly sad, slightly proud and quite in awe of how this unassuming man from Caithness in Scotland transformed how we get our money. We knew the first ATM was a Barclays ‘Hole in the wall’ but we never knew who really was responsible. Until now.

John Shepherd-Barron, we salute you.

We’ve been doing advertising for Gibson Guitars and were glad to receive an Epiphone acoustic guitar as part of our fee. It’s now hanging on the wall available to all strummers and noodlers for gratuitous twanging about at lunchtimes and after work.

He will be skiing and walking across the ice, pulling all his kit on a pulk (sledge) in what is one of the harshest climates on earth. More people have climbed Everest than have successfully reached the North Pole.

In Ed’s words, “I will be skiing between 12-14 hours per day, in temperatures ranging from minus 20 to minus 60 degrees, depending on the wind chill. And the proposed route cuts across an area which is home to 80% of the world’s polar bears, including one stretch called “Polar Bear Alley”.

“The biggest challenges are going to be the physical endurance, the cold, polar bears - and missing my wife Dilek, and our baby daughter Thalia, who was born in February.”

“I want to use this expedition to raise money for two inspiring Global Angels projects to help children which, having just become a father, really inspired me – a special equipped holiday home in the UK for children with life threatening illnesses and an orphan home and school for street children in Sierra Leone.”

Follow his progess on his blog here http://www.globalangels.org/fundraiser/edBussey/ (and more importantly, make a donation)