Los Angeles – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

HOLIDAY POSTCARD #3

The picture above is the interior of the Lodge Room, which can be found at 104 N Avenue 56, in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles. To quote from the website:-

“..rich in vintage details from ceiling to floor was built in 1923 to serve as an actual Masonic Lodge. The 500-capacity room is located in the old Highland Park Masonic Lodge. The building has hidden trap doors, original cherry wood panelling, embossed cotton anaglypta and hand-painted murals. The venue features a lobby bar, a bar in the main room, staging, an in-house sound and lighting system, as well as access to three green rooms.”

It is quite possibly the finest venue in which I’ve ever seen any live rock show, thanks to The Wedding Present‘s gig on Saturday 7 June 2025, the last in what had been a 17-date tour across North America:-

The announcement of the tour, and in particular the date in L.A. had been the spark for nailing down our trip across the Atlantic for what proved to be an unforgettable stay with Jonny and Goldie in Santa Monica. Words alone can’t express how grateful myself and Rachel were for their incredible generosity and hospitality, and for the way they immediately made us feel like family rather than as friends who hadn’t previously spent too much time together.

I’ve previously mentioned how they took us on a trip to downtown L.A., but there were also other excursions to fantastic art galleries, amazing restaurants, farmers’ markets, dance classes (the girls only), pub quizzes (the boys only) and a long drive along the Pacific Coast Highway to the other side of Malibu where huge properties above beaches and on mountain sides were juxtaposed with scenes of sadness, thanks to the devastation caused by the January wildfires, particularly in the Pacific Palisades area through which we had to travel to reach Malibu.

The final drive was from Santa Monica, along the freeway and across the downtown area to Highland Park and again I’ll quote from an Internet site:-

“Highland Park is a historic Los Angeles area known for its diverse culture, arts scene, and wide range of attractions from nightlife to museums, parkland, and more. It was originally an artsy, bohemian community in the early 20th century. It became run-down in the late 20th century, but it was revitalised and today is once again a cultural gem of northeast Los Angeles.

Here you can find a bouncing nightlife, great restaurants, trendy gastropubs, independent art galleries, old-school taquerias, and chic bistros. You can go shopping or bowling, or visit museums that tell the storey of the area, all on the same street.”

We were only in the area for a few hours, and most of it was spent at the gig. But it certainly felt like the sort of place we would love to spend a day should we be fortunate enough to ever return to the city.

The gig? Well, Rachel and myself have seen The Wedding Present on countless occasions, but this was Jonny’s first time since 1990 and his friend Ed’s first ever time. All four of us had an absolute blast, but how could you not when the band were playing such a magnificent venue to ‘sold-out’ signs, with all 500 people in attendance very much appreciating the event given how infrequently they perform in the USA. It was a very respectful but enthusiastic audience, and while the majority were of an age that seemingly had been following the band from the beginning, there was a healthy contingent of younger fans to bring that little bit of additional energy.

The set-list was identical to every other show across the tour – the band did occasionally deviate with the order of the closing numbers – but what we were treated to was this:-

Two For The Road
A Million Miles
Science Fiction
It’s a Gas
Rachel
Deer Caught in the Headlights
Come Play With Me
Brassneck
Crushed
No
Thanks
Kennedy
What Have I Said Now?
Granadaland
Bewitched
Take Me!
Be Honest
Crawl
Dalliance
My Favourite Dress

In other words….a new song to open with, six songs from the back catalogue, all ten from Bizarro and then three absolute bangers to round it all off.

There were honestly far too many highlights to single out – the show was consistently superb from the opening note to the last (OK….it dipped just a bit during Be Honest which David Gedge himself admitted hasn’t aged well and is kind of out of sync with the rest of the album), and in Rachel Wood (guitar), Stuart Hastings (bass) and Chris Hardwick (drums), this touring line-up was perfectly suited to the harder-edged sound of this particular set.

40 years in the business……and still as essential and magnificent as when they were releasing singles on their own record label and playing gigs in dingy basements. David mentioned that they might return to L.A. in the not too distant future and perform Seamonsters. If so, there’s every chance that we will be on the phone to Jonny and Goldie asking if they’d care to put up with us again………….

mp3: The Wedding Present – Thanks
mp3: The Wedding Present – You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends

Los Angeles

HOLIDAY POSTCARD #2

Dear Reader,

A great time was had exploring the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice, and equally there was much to enjoy wandering around the canals area of the latter. Having, over the years, seen plenty of pictures of the golden sands and palm trees of California, along with the many bodies beautiful of the keep-fit fanatics who hang around such parts, I was kind of expecting to feel let down by the reality. But no…it did prove to be something out of a movie set, or at least a promotional advert for the state.

A couple of days after we arrived, Jonny and Goldie suggested that we take a trip to downtown Los Angeles as it was an area where tourists were rarely found, despite it having a number of interesting buildings and attractions. They drove us in and parked in an area called Little Tokyo, where international baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, and current member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is celebrated via a mural on the side of a 15-storey building. It is also a short walk from City Hall, a magnificent building that has featured in loads of films, TV shows and music videos and in which we could take a lift to the 27th Floor to an observation tower for some stunning views to all corners of the city.

Nearby is Union Station, a very impressive art deco building that must have the most luxurious waiting area for train passengers anywhere in the world, with plush, comfortable leather seats in a cathedral-like space, and as someone who enjoys train journeys and is a fan of art deco style buildings, I could have happily spent a lot longer wandering its nooks and crannies.

Lunch was eaten at Phillipe’s, a legendary downtown restaurant/diner that’s been in existence since 1908 and in its present location since 1951 – the charming interior looks as it hasn’t changed since the 50s and the camera on the i-phone went into overdrive. It’s a place where people from all walks of life come together, often at long wooden tables, to enjoy the food they have ordered and collected on paper plates from the counter. There was a real sense of friendliness and relaxation within its four walls, with a fascinating and eclectic mix of customers – police officers, business people in suits, casually attired workers dressed for the seemingly always warm weather, railway staff and a smattering of tourists – of all ages, colours and ethnicities.

The walk from Phillipe’s back to City Hall took us through the oldest part of the city, where a plaque commemorates Los Pobladores, the founders of the City of Los Angeles in 1871 and who consisted of eleven families, including twenty-two adults and twenty-two children, who has come from the provinces of Sinaloa and Sonora in New Spain, now called Mexico.

I’m emphasising all of this as, just 48 hours after our walkabout, this one square mile area around City Hall and Little Tokyo was all over the news as the scene of protests that had begun after agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had arrested alleged illegal immigrants at several locations across the city. Despite the protests being something that the local police force were more than capable of handling, the (insert your own description here) President of the USA chose to deploy both the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles, an act which further increased the tensions and led to further and a different type of protests. TV and digital platform reporters/journalists from all around the world captured all that was unfolding.

We watched from a living room in Santa Monica, some 16 miles away from downtown, horrified and angry at what was unfolding. It was hard to believe that an area of tranquillity that we had experienced and enjoyed so much just a couple of days earlier was now very much a strictly no-go deadly zone and not our scene at all (thank you Mr Weller).

I try not to get too political on the blog. I’ve always wanted it to be a place where everyone can come in and be part of a broad-based community where views and opinions can be openly expressed and debated/argued if need be, and I think that over what is now coming up for nineteen years, it has worked well in a self-policing way.

But I do want and feel I need to say this.

If you are someone who thinks the actions of ICE and Donald Trump are merited, then you really aren’t welcome. I know I can’t stop you visiting TVV on an occasional or regular basis, but I would really rather you didn’t.

Yours sincerely

PS : Those of you who are always welcome should come back later today for something more akin to normal service.