Do something great - DONATE!

I recently watching an absolutely heartbreaking Comic Relief documentary on BBC television about the Kibera Slums in Kenya. It left me feeling like the most selfish, superficial, useless human being on the planet. The residents of this hideously overpopulated slum work a full day for less than the price of a can of Coke. Shovelling shit, spending ten solid hours hand-washing the clothes of the affluent, doing all manner of hard labour just to scrape enough cash together to feed their kids a tiny meal. If there is no work, the women have little option but prostitution. There are open sewers running through the streets. The communal toilets are each shared by 1000 people and then emptied into the river. AIDS is rife. One in five children won’t make it to their fifth birthday.

While people are battling impossible adversity in such a hand-to-mouth way, here I am, flying around the world, writing my self-important music reviews, grumbling about things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. God, why haven’t my VIP tickets to *any music festival* been confirmed yet? Man, why can't I download Skype to my computer? A good day for me constitutes listening to an album I have been given, watching a movie on the giant projector screen in my lovely home, checking out pictures from the latest Lily Cole (or whoever) fronted fashion campaign on my high speed internet and then gulping free booze at a moderately pompous art exhibition. A good day in the slums constitutes your youngest child not dying even though they are suffering from the same nasty cough that your previous child had before they passed away.

Last year, in Mumbai, I saw first-hand the abject poverty in which people live. I saw a family of four living on a street corner, amputees laying lifeless in the middle of the pavement, people hustling just to make enough money to eat. In 2009 I visited Soweto (above), areas of which rank amongst the poorest in Johannesburg. As with Mumbai, I was amazed by how upbeat the people there were. They were warm, friendly, welcoming and happy to share what little they had. They'd give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. From watching the Kibera documentary, I'm pretty sure people there would do the same.

The people in Kibera don't want sympathy, they just want to live as good a life as they can. They deserve that chance. Next Friday (a week tomorrow) is Comic Relief's Red Nose Day in England, the time when the country comes together to donate millions of pounds for all manner of good causes in Africa and the UK. The money raised goes to setting up infrastructure that will help people in areas like these slums not just today or tomorrow, but for years to come. So, if you think that everyone should have access to clean water, to medicine and to be able to put enough food in their children's mouths to prevent them from dying, then why not stick your hand in your pocket and give a little to help people much worse off than you. DONATE DONATE DONATE. You can give GBP or Aussie dollars. If you don't have any spare cash, then you've got a week to plan to do something for Red Nose Day for which you can be sponsored. Shave your eyebrows, do a sponsored silence, get people to pay you to try and sit through a whole episode of Mrs Brown's Boys without putting your fist through the TV screen. Anything... just raise some dosh.

Part Two of the Kibera documentary is on BBC1 at 9pm tonight. It is essential viewing. Meanwhile, Red Nose Day is on BBC television throughout next Friday evening.

Words by Rob Townsend.

Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project - The Video

You've probably already read my words about the recent trip BobbySix.com went on to Asia. Well, I also put together a little video of all of the sights and the sounds. Please excuse the slightly low-res quality of the clip. This is down to some really bloody annoying technical issues that made me want to put my head through my laptop and then the laptop through the window. Still, I got there in the end and, despite it not being in super HD, you'll get the idea.

Talvin Singh at Blue Frog, Mumbai

After winning the Mercury Prize, Talvin Singh seemed to drop off the radar for a few years, so it was nice to see him pop up as the host of his own two-night festival at Mumbai's famed Blue Frog.

Before a DJ set on Friday, Thursday night saw him perform live, with Erik Truffaz providing trumpet and Murcof twiddling the knobs. The set was slow-burning, mixing Singh's acoustic tablas with Murcof's electro leanings that fuse classical themes and techno beats, while Truffaz's subtle jazz trumpet weaved between the two. Although the intros were often interminable and rarely burst into life as one hoped they would, it certainly created an intimate and chilled atmosphere, and the set's nuances were enhanced the venue's near-perfect sound system.

This laid-back affair was in extreme contrast to the city in which it was held. Outside the doors of the plush venue, Mumbai buzzed with magnificent mayhem. Day or night, things never slow down here, let alone stop. The streets are alive with people; hustling, bustling, trying to get by. Markets teem with noise and movement. Children stop, stare, smile and wave at wide-eyed westerners. Roads ebb and flow with a sea of traffic. Car horns soundtrack messy traffic jams littered with cabs, while motorbikes loaded with entire families bob in and out of any tiny gap that appears. Lonely street dogs patrol the gutters, yearning for food and love. Slums stretch across huge areas and spread like lava into nooks and crannies between city shops, bringing with them colour, diversity, life and a reminder that we really ought to be grateful for what we have.

In a nutshell, Mumbai is the most extraordinarily wonderful city I have ever visited. It lives, breathes and moves at such pace that it is futile to resist being swept along with it. And, let's be honest, why would you want to?

After a breathless few days in this wonderful city, BobbySix.com now heads to Bangalore for the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, so keep an eye out for a review soon. In the meantime, here are a few snaps of Mumbai. Click on them for full size.

BobbySix.com arrives in Bangkok

Bangkok. It is a word that makes my friend Ellen laugh every time she hears it. It is, essentially, the coming together of the words 'bang' and 'cock', after all. It is also a fantastic, sprawling city, drenched in both oppressive humidity and an infectious vibrancy that picks you up and throws you screaming into its heart.

Of course, we're here for the build up to the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, enjoying the culture, the nightlife (obvs), the food and the insanely spectacular firework displays (above) before heading off to Mumbai and then to Bangalore. Over the next few days here at BobbySix, there will be interviews with artists who are playing at the big events and all manner of other related stuff too. Maybe we'll even bore you with some of our holiday snaps. For instance, I took a photo of a sweet little cat today. He was just chillin' at the markets.

If you aren't fortunate enough to be going to one of these big events in various locations around the globe on Saturday, then you can get involved live and online, as different countries will be showcasing moments from the experience to create one globetrotting nightlife journey. Oh, and in keeping with the idea of a virtual experience, here's the view from my hotel room. Nice, huh?