My exotic dolls

Jools Holland has just been on and I just have to share this temporary blip of happiness.

First off, The Automatic "What's that coming over the hill, is it a monster?" What a great piece of jingly, jangly guitar, super.

The Fratellis - these guys are one to watch, this stuff sounds great, and they're from Bunnyhome.

A quick word on the Dixie Chicks. I've added them to my Glorious list (more on that later). Don't get me wrong, I'm not a strong country pop fan and I won't be running out to buy their new CD, but they've been having a really hard time in their home country recently. Death threats and other quite nasty behaviour and more recently cancelled tour dates due to boycotts of their concerts, and all for expressing an opinion about their president chappie.

Well where I stand the ability to express an opinion is pretty fundamental. Yes, that means you can stand up after this post and say that Bunnyman is dreary and flat and boring and pants and I'll never end up on Gogle because, well because my blog is just rats pee, and I'm just a big rabbit dropping.

Anyway, so the Dixie Chicks are going on my Glorious list.

WOW, what do you think of Gogol Bordello? Wild streaks of brash yellow fun and gorgeous accordion. As Phil Jupiter put it, "it's like the Pogues and the Clash coming together and having a huge fight in Eastern Europe".

So I'm struggling to say whether I thought The Automatic or Fratellis or Gogol Bordello were the best band tonight, but it's impossible really, they were all brilliant.

They all got pipped at the post though by The Dresden Dolls. Jools didn't like this pair much, but what a simply magnificent piece of gaudy, loud and exotic, colour. Yes, I know their sound wasn't good tonight, but trust me, they do sound much, much better than this.

That's it. Wonderful!