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On Wednesday I got back from the USA, where I’d been for just over two weeks, spending most of that time in Austin, TX.

I was there to attend the Music, Film and Interactive portions of South by Southwest (SXSW for short, or – for those really in the know – simply “South by”).

What is SXSW? From Wikipedia:

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States. SXSW first began in 1987 and is centered on the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts runs relatively independently, with different start and end dates.

The music event has grown from 700 registrants in 1987 to nearly 12,000 registrants. SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive events attract approximately 11,000 registrants to Austin every March.

I’d heard lots about SXSW from various people over the past few years, and since my interests span Music, Film and Interactive I didn’t need much persuading to go this year.

2 weeks is a long time to be away from the office, but I figured it would be time well spent if it enabled me to learn some new things and get inspired.

SXSW delivered. It was time well spent. I learnt lots of new things, thought about some current things in a different way and it inspired me lots and lots. It reminded me why I set up Acknowledgement in the first place and reinforced how privileged I am to work in one of the most exciting and fastest changing industries in the world.   Austin also provided an ideal change of scenery that enabled me to have some thinking time around the future direction of the business and indeed the industry as a whole.

SXSW is big. Too big in fact to cover in one blog post, so I’ll be making several posts over the coming weeks talking about different aspects of the festival, and what I found interesting or memorable. And what I think could be done better. Having lost my SXSW virginity there are also some performance tuning issues from my side I want to hone for SXSW 2011. I’ll be sharing those on this blog too.

I even took some video footage when I was out there, so I’ll edit some of that down and post so you can get a taste of the general setup and atmosphere.

It may not be cool to like them these days, but the Pet Shop Boys have always been one of my favourite groups. I can remember buying “Always on my Mind” as a 7 inch when I was a kid and their music has always featured in my life. The album “Nightlife”, for example, reminds me of being at University and staying up the whole night to start and complete the essay that was due the next day.

“Very” reminds me of school and the song “Later tonight” from the album “Please” is one of my all time favourite ballads.

Visually, the PSB have also always been a step or two ahead of other groups. Working with people like Mark Farrow from the start they’ve also collaborated with other visual heros of mine including stage designer Es Devlin and photographers/film makers Bruce Weber, Sam Taylor Wood, Martin Parr and Wolfgang Tillmans

It was great therefore to catch them at the end of the Brits this week where they were recipients of the Outstanding Contribution award and learn their new album is out soon, plus also catch news of an O2 show.

I hope this serves to remind the British public consciousness that Lennon/McCartney aren’t the only great British song writing duo we’ve produced.

Their Brit’s performance in case you missed it:

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to see the fabulous Grace Jones @ The Roundhouse. I’ve always wanted to see Grace live: I grew up listening to her songs blare out of the bedrooms of my siblings (one of the side effects of having much older brothers and sisters is that I love a lot of music from their era!) and she didn’t disappoint.

What can I say to do this show justice? It’s hard to know where to begin.

She had stage presence that X Factor finalists or indeed most gigging acts today can only dream of.

Sure, making an entrance on a crane from above the stage helps, but Grace Jones is a genuine star. With a new outfit (and hat) for each song she personified what show business should be all about! On one song she hula hooped for 10 minutes. I’d like to see Alexandra pull that off.

An enraptured audience (with more than the usual quota of celebs), a tight as you like band (which includes her Son), simple, but highly effective staging. And a wind machine that almost took off.

Oh, and she can sing. Boy can she sing!

Hearing La Vie en Rose and Slave to the Rhythm live made sure I left the venue grinning from ear to ear. I can’t wait to see her live again. Apparently she’s playing the Montreux Jazz Festival which is a bit of an annual destination for me, so I’m going to be sorting out my flights very soon!

If you get to see her live, do. You’ll leave a fan even if you weren’t before.

Here’s a bit of La Vie en Rose, complete with top hat, tails, wind machine and pole dancing pole:

A nice round up of footage from Wednesday’s show here:

And here is Grace on Later… earlier this year performing the Trevor Horn produced masterpiece Slave to the Rhythm.

Not bad for a woman of 60 eh?

A true Icon and a true talent in an era of pretenders to the throne!

One of the things I’ve noticed about myself is that I tend to have a bit of a love/hate obsessive thing regarding what music I listen too.  Put another way, when I like something I listen to it pretty much non stop for a short concentrated period of time, download all the back catalogue stuff and then get to the point when I can’t bear to hear anything from that artist for about another 6 months.

An interesting side effect of this behaivour is that I tend to rediscover artists when the gigs that I bought tickets for in the above described obsessed phase then come around.   

Last year two such gigs which had this effect on me were Yazoo and Ben Folds.  Both artists had featured heavily on my Ipod in early 08, and as part of my short term infatuation I’d bought tickets to see both acts live.  But by mid 08 I’d forgotten all about them.   

So come the eventual day of the gigs I was nonchalent and not at all excited: in fact to leg it all the way over to Hammersmith/Shepherds Bush was a bit of a pain.   But I had bought tickets.  And tickets aren’t cheap. So I had to go.    Like a family event or good friends birthday it’s a three line whip, and not going would cause more mental effort and anguish than simply turning up. 

On both of these gigs I arrived about an hour before the on stage time, enjoyed a couple of swift drinks in a near by pub with friends, then took my place amongst the huddled masses. 

And then they came on.  And it was loud but crisp. And the lighting was cool. And the audiences were so into it. And I knew all the songs.  And I didn’t mind if a few people were a bit in my way.  Or a bit too drunk.

So the point of this post? I guess it’s that sometimes things are far more enjoyable without the weight of expectation. 

I compare these “low expectation” gigs to ones that I’ve really looked forward to.  Where I’ve been counting down the days and hours.  Where I’ve hurried poor friends out of pubs to arrive at a venue far too early. 

Occasions where I’ve stood down front glaring at anyone who tried to push in and mentally inflicted a horrible death on the couple next to me who won’t stop talking.  And I feel a little bit ashamed. 

Maybe I’m getting old, but I’ve decided things can be more fun when you don’t have high expectations.  Like that strange moment when a classic tune comes on at a wedding  and despite yourself, you finally abandon the pretense of looking cool in front of elderly relatives and admit to enjoying yourself at an event you’ve dreaded for months by throwing some shapes on the dancefloor.

And it’s not just gigs: other things that are better without the weight of expectation include: food, restaurants and bars (discover a good one yourself!), films and theatre, relationships, dates and sex, holidays. 

It works in business too: in a pitch situation I’d always much rather be the lesser known agency that shows a potential client true insight and desire they weren’t expecting than the major player who everyone has heard of.  They have everything to lose but nothing to gain by simply opening their mouth!

In fact the more I think about it the more I think expectations are bad.
Viva indifference! Viva the underdog!