Robyn Hitchcock on BBC4 tonight
Sounds interesting, perhaps some unreleased material might appear. Programme listing here

Glad I'm out of the clinic, they didn't have BBC4 in there, just Sky Sports. I mean, I'm a big cricket fan but the cricket world cup is just interminable! Only one match to go though.

Back!
Recovering at home after surgery, it was all over quite quickly and I'm on the mend. I will hopefully be able to get to the Melvins gig next Friday (although I won't be down the front - oh no!).

Downtime!
Yes, I will be offline for the best part of this week as I am having my gallbladder removed (cholecystectomy as you medical types would call it!). Hopefully back soon with more podcasts and Cathedral Quarter content. Bye!

ATP Last Splash!
So the final 15 to choose from are...
Why?
Of Montreal
Hella
Jeffrey lewis
Oxes
Part Chimp
Blood Brothers
Wrens
Envy
Future of The Left
Minus The Bear
Tunng
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
Scout Niblett
Final Fantasy.

My instinct says Oxes but as I've seen them twice before I may not vote for them. I've already seen Jeffrey Lewis, Part Chimp and Tunng and I'm not fussed about any of them to be honest. I wouldn't mind seeing Minus the Bear and Of Montreal but both their touring schedules look busy on the ATP dates. I've never heard Why?, Hella, Wrens, Envy or Future of the Left. That leaves me to decide between Blood Brothers, Casiotone, Scout Niblett and Final Fantasy and as I loved the last Casiotone album and managed to miss both their Irish dates I think I'll vote for them.

ATP vs The Fans last chance voting
This sounds exciting!

With exactly a month to go and offers out to American Analogue Set and Xiu Xiu, we are drawing to a close in the line-up voting for ATP vs The Fans.

We do however have one last slot to fill.

Seeing as many of you voted a while ago we wanted to give you another chance to participate. So as of 17:00 GMT Thursday April 19th, we will be choosing 15 bands from the list that are within our remaining budget and posting them on the site. Everyone will then be given a chance to vote once for the band they most want to see play from the list. Voting will close on Sunday April 22nd and as of Monday we will approach the top band on the list to perform. They will only have 24 hours to confirm. If they can't confirm within 24 hours, we will ask the next most voted for band and so on.

We will be posting daily at 17:00 GMT.

If any of the offers currently out can't play we will use the list to fill any remaining slots.

Since all ten of my choices haven't been asked I wonder could one of them happen!
For the record they were...
1 The Mountain Goats
2 Piano Magic
3 Fennesz
4 Destroyer
5 Burial
6 Asobi Seksu
7 Sol Seppy
8 Danielson Famile
9 midlake
10 Melt Banana
as I decided to pick 10 acts I hadn't seen instead of filling the list with Boredoms, the Fall and Sonic Youth.

Joanna Newsom in Dublin (in brief)
I don't have the time or the energy to write as glowing a review as I would like, and i was too entranced by it all to even take a pic (and I was in the 9th row!). As I understand it, this was the first performance with this four-piece line-up (harp, percussion, violin and bouzouki/ banjo) and if that it the case it was astonishing how well they played together.
Here is the set list until I get it together enough to flesh it out into a 'review'....
Bridges and Balloons
Emily
Monkey and Bear
This Side of the Blue
Inflammatory Writ
Sawdust and Diamonds
The Book of Right on
Peach Plum Pear
Only Skin
Clam Crab Cockle Cowrie
Cosmia
Sadie (solo encore)

Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast, line-up announced
Details here. A great line-up in my opinion, the essentials for me are the Melvins (Black Box 4th May), Conway Savage from the Bad Seeds (McHughs 6th May), Camera Obscura (big tent 8th May), and Low (big tent 10th May). Lots more to check out though, and don't forget the local Cheap Date showcases.