All in All

We're just back from the Montreux Jazz Festival, where we used the excuse of having a celebratory long weekend treat for our joint 40th birthdays in order to see Kraftwerk and Queens of the Stone Age in small intimate venues.

Well, Montreux was great. I felt a little but cheated at the way that you have to buy special non-refundable "Jazz money" to buy any food or drinks at the place, but I guess we all have to make our money where we can.

Queens of the Stone Age were great but I could have done without (the admittedly do-able) Josh Homme drifting into an exceptionally long and dull guitar solo during 'No-one knows' at the end, but that's a minor quibble. The support were Eagles of Death Metal, who were quite simply dreadful. Just an average pub rock band who happen to be best mates with Josh and so get the great gigs.

But Kraftwerk. Really, really great. AND we were sufficiently close to see that they do actually do things and not just play a pre-programmed backing track. Great slowed down version of 'Autobahn'. At least 4 dedicated fans dressed like the Man Machine in their red shirts with black ties. Bless.

But the oddest thing about Montreux? The statue of Freddie Mercury on the lakefront. Very odd (let alone all the merchandise - Freddie memorial baseball cap or nail file, anyone?