Top 5 Things Of My Yesterday

Number 1.

Kanye West's 808 & Heartbreak.

Serving suggestions: take your peace and quiet and mix it up with a large dose of volume. Turn your iPod to stun and play starting from track one. Finish up on track 12 which is the live bonus one. Serves up to everyone who likes dance fusion hip hop with an R&B flavour.

For those who like Jean Michael Jarre you are on to a winner. For those who like Gold Digger - less so. Pretty "arty". Less Gucci more Gauguin.

I must admit that I liked it substantially more than I expected I would. Highlights would have to be Robo Cop and See You In My Nightmare featuring the man of the hour Lil' Wayne.

Number 2.

Beef jerky.

That stuff rocks. Meat flavoured chewing gum. Who ever thought putting raw meat out in the sun to dry was a good idea was pretty brave but a serious genius. Be it original, peppered or chili - put it in me!

Does anyone else ever feel odd drinking milk? As in " this stuff is great on cereal but really it hasn't come from Tesco its actually freshly squeezed cow juice"?

Number 3.

Taxi drivers.

I refuse to buy guide books and I don't need to. Yesterday's chaufeur in Chester gave me the grand tour charging only for the travel - all local knowledge imparted was free. According to him "Chester is the only city in the UK with an amphitheatre or some shit. They performed on the ground level with seats going up like or some shit. Fightin! Yeah fightin'. They done fightin' like down there." Manly buddy, very manly.

Noble taxi drivers nation wide I salute you.

Number 4.

Daft Punk's Discovery.

Forgotten classic. Get back on it if you have it, but if you haven't then get it. Complements 808 like beans complement chips.

Number 5.

Reading. (as in books - not the place cos the place is an actual hole)

Books are great. I hope that I won't ever have to read from a digital book or have everything online or some guff. Internet and computers are pretty cool - have you seen the Matrix? - but books is books. How wicked is a library!? Mega wicked. Also Waterstones is like a day trip but in shop form. If I had one wish it was that I had more time to read.

I would defo read a book written by a taxi driver.

Read my lips - P.E.A.C.E.

Kanye West - Believe the hype

London, England. Mr West graces the city's premier venue with the first leg of his Glow In The Dark Tour.

Boom - flashing lights, lights, lights...

There is no doubt in any mind present or in the process of being blown well and truly away that Kanye is a performer. Not just a rapper, or singer, or musician. An Entertainer. A true Performer. Heck I'm gonna say it - one of the greatest performers out there.

Even as a one man whirlwind - dodging flames, darting through light shows and riding a spaceship - you would be hard pressed to see more precision in an act. Building the show up slowly, obviously aware that the foundations laid by supporting acts Mr Hudson and Santo Gold were seriously shaky, he layered classic on top of classic. A third of the way through his set Gold Digger got every person with the use of their legs up and dancing and every person with the power of speech singing.

From that point onward you would have thought things would have gone down hill, but track after track was a classic. It would be easy to forgotten how many massive hits Kanye has unleashed on the world. For me that made rediscovering them last night even more exciting.

At one point a voice over referred to him as "the biggest star in the Galaxy" which may seem far fetched to many - but after a night in his company at the O2 you would struggle to argue against the fact that he is a global phenomenon and until we find life on Mars I would have to say Galaxy wide too.

Ending the night with the surprise appearance of Estelle for their duet American Boy you suddenly realise that an entire auditorium has been entirely captivated for the last 2 hours by one single little fella bouncing on stage. By the sounds of things he had a good time doing what he was doing and from the reaction of the crowd we all enjoyed it just as much.

Kanye West - increase the peace