Cougar Microbes

Fans of The Libertines and/or Dirty Pretty Things should definately check out the competition Eurostar are currently hosting.

They are offering tickets to see Carl Barât live in Paris on the 5th of November. All you have to do to enter is answer a simple question: If you were in a band, which European city you would most like to ‘tour’ to and why?

Head over soon as entries close at 4pm tomorrow.

TRACKS:

Jarvis Cocker was announcing his new role as Cultural Ambassador for Eurostar‘s Culture Connect this friday and a handful of bloggers and myself got the chance to exchange a few words with him.

Although our time with him was limited we managed to touch on a few topics and he was definately a likable and, as expected, well spoken character. In summary:

• Jarvis does not believe that online music magazine and blogs are acting as a substitute to real life. People may want an engineered experience (“such as in Avatar“) or retouch photos but that personally he enjoys the accidental nature of stumbling across thing while moving from A to B. “Personally I like to get side tracked“.
• Outside of the big museums involved in the Culture Connect promotion he recommended the smaller galleries London has on offer as well as the ICA. “Me, I’m in London‘s trendy Hoxton area… just go look at haircuts. There’s many interesting ones round there, they’re a culture all to themselves“
• He explained how he became the Cultural Ambassador for Eurostar because for the past 7 years he has divided his time between London and Paris so he feels he is in a reasonable position to thin about the differences between the 2 cities. “Paris is like a very pretty woman, but you are never going to get off with her“.
• He discussed the green credentials of travelling by train versus travelling by plane and admitted he likes the idea of travelling on the Eurostar because it allows him to wander around and observe people.
• He joked that ‘there are no good French and Belgian bands” before adding that the French stuff he finds interesting at the moment leans towards the electro stuff by the Ed Banger label as well as Dirty Sound System.
• He joked about his Sony Radio Academy Award nomination saying that ” at the age of 46 to be nominated as a rising star is quite weird“.
• Finally  he stated he was not giving up on 6Music yet and encouraged people to contact the BBC trust to register their displeasure. “It doesn’t really make sense to me….It seems it is doing what the BBC is supposed to do which is provide something that you wouldn’t get otherwise. There is no way that a commercial station would play alternative music all day because there is no money in it. But i don’t think its a forgone conclusion and i think its something worth fighting about”.

Thank you to Eurostar‘s Little Break, Big Difference for organising this event.

TRACKS:

Jarvis Cocker – Running The World

At the end of August Eurostar and We Are Social sent me over to Paris to review Rock En Seine. Now they are offering a pair of tickets to Paris, Brussels or Lille to one lucky Cougar Microbes reader as part of their Little Break Big Difference campaign.

All you have to do is submit a review of your favourite band, album or concert experience, through the comments section of this post, using no more than 150 words.

Deadline for submission is the 10th of October, the best entries will be featured on the main site and the top one will win a pair of tickets.

The final selection is picked independently so though I will happily accept bribes they won’t help you.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

First thing tomorrow morning I’m heading to paris courtesy of the nice people at Eurostar to spend 3 days at the Rock En Seine festival. I can’t wait to check out the likes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, Metric and MGMT live as well as catching Faith No More again over 10 years on.

Hopefully I will be able to update the blog on the go with photos and reviews of the festival so keep checking back.

TRACK:

Ladyhawke – Paris Is Burning (Cut Copy Remix)