For me, the Super Furry Animals were always one of those bands. You know, the kind of band you hear all the time and you like, it’s just you’re not exactly going to rush out there and spend  your cash on the new album. I remember growing up around plenty of people who called themselves fans, but I’d always found another album I’d like to buy instead.

A decade later, and I’m actually starting to like them more. Especially after their ninth album, ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ hit the (electronic) shelves in March of this year. The album is undoubtedly brilliant, recieving widespread acclaim from sources such as NME, who not only describe the offerings on this album as “sprawling epics”, also referred to their reputation as “one of the best live bands around” [*].

It was with a stroke of luck and a wee bit of modern-day (social) networking that we got to go along to see the band perform last Saturday at Somerset House in London; thanks to the guys over at Magners UK. This may have, in itself, been the highlight of the whole night. There is a constant argument going on about the importance of Social Networking, with many in mainstream and big business writing the whole scene off due to low returns and the lack of a ‘personal touch’. I for one am a big fan of the likes of Twitter, and it paid off this weekend with a pair of gig tickets. I’ve never met these guys, I haven’t taken them out for a business lunch or donned a suit to meet their expectations, but there we were enjoying a free gig on a mild summers evening in London.

But, back to the gig. The NME claim of “one of the best live bands around” isn’t wrong, with the band putting on a fantastic live show. Guitarist and Lead Vocalist Gruff Rhys gained applause and laughs with his use of cue-cards throughout the show, whilst we stood amongst crowds of middle aged fans who seemed delighted to be smoking a bit of weed whilst the kids stayed at home with the babysitters, a hark back to their younger days when the Super Furry’s were at the height of their fame. Somerset House was a great setting for the concert – luckily the weather held out and we were able to enjoy our drinks in relative comfort (apart from finding out a large Pimms & Leomonade was £9…). It was also impressive to see the devout fans come out in style, with the award for Most Effort going to the guy in the full size crocodile suit.

You can listen to the new album, ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ on Spotify here. If you would like to get in touch with the guys over at Magners, or keep up to date on their events and promotions, then check them out on Twitter or Facebook.

Having newly acquired a Tate membership card, I thought it was about time that I went and used it, so me and the knife rack pottered over to the Tate Britain to look at the Richard Long exhibition; Heaven and Earth.

Richard Long’s work draws on his love of nature and walking, his pieces cover photography, sculpture and written work. To give a very brief, while walking he will create sculptures from the those items around him, these often take the form of lines or circles. Sometimes it will be to map out a journey, he will place a stone, somewhere on each day of his walk. One piece which caught me eye, he removed daisies in a field so they formed an X in the grass. These sculptures are photographed and their location and date documented. Other works are in the form of lists, detailing what he has seen, or heard on a walk, or the distance and location. One of the most dramatic rooms in the exhibition, were sculptures, where he had collected stones and created geometric shapes on the floor of the gallery, Mimicking the work he creates outside.

Thankfully on the day we went the gallery was relatively empty, as there is an extremely tranquil atmosphere in Long’s work. I think this links into the calm feeling that one experiences when trekking across the wilderness, the ability to walk for days and not see a single person, car, or house. His work is both transient and permanent. Some pieces, such as the ‘Two Lines of Water’ photographed in India, will only be there for a matter of minutes, where as the stones he places, may remain for decades to come if not disturbed. In fact in one of his list works, he records seeing a pile of stones he placed 16 years ago.

Long has a considered approach to the world around him, though his pieces are not say on the intricate scale of artists like Andy Goldsworthy, who also uses natural resources to create sculpture. Long’s work has a kind of considered simplicity, he does not want to make a huge impact on the world he encounters, but these small actions allow there to be a record of human interaction.
His lists are wonderful, documenting those small instances of awareness, some are observations of the world around him, some show his thought process, others are the sounds. One which was particularly fascinating, shows the similarities between Dartmoor and Japan, where he documents seeing the same things, in order, in two walks miles apart. It reminded me of a book called Bleeding London, where one character strives to walk the entire greater London A-Z road map. He records his walks in a diary, writing down only those things that have caught his attention. The character becomes obsessed with the minutiae of London’s streets, those tiny details and histories that make up a personal geography of the city. It strikes me will all have our own documentation of the journeys we take, those features of an area that catch our eye for no particular reason, or the interactions we witness and become part of through our presence. I think Long’s work conveys something of the way in which we have an impact on our geography. One sociological theory talks of the grammar of walking and the individual maps we all make through our footsteps, the short cuts and ways we manipulate pathways. Long’s lists give us a personal geography, his map.

The sculptures were very impressive, huge lines of slate and circles of flint, my only criticism, I just want to touch them dammit! I love sculpture but all I want to do is feel it, I admit some is to delicate to be man handled, but when faced with piles of stone, I need texture as well as sight. So impressive and beautiful though they were, I felt like I wasn’t getting the full experience.

All in all Heaven and Earth was very enjoyable, my only instructions, being go on a calm day, mid week, or a sunny weekend, I think the atmosphere would be spoiled by lots of people.

You can find out about visiting the exhibition here, and you can find out more about Richard Long’s work here. You can also buy Richard Long, ‘Heaven and Earth’ on Amazon.