Showing posts with label Jordan Reyne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jordan Reyne. Show all posts

Saturday 1 May 2021

Hello May, Beltane and Jordan Reyne

It is an incredibly bright and sunny morning, though as I am writing this I am not sure what the temperature is like outside , although I will know by the time I finish this. I have been out and though it is clouding over it seems that winter has truly been banished and spring is moving towards summer, so weatherwise we are in a more clement atmosphere although there are still some dark clouds overhead , but as long as they wait until tonight before drenching us that will be fine.

I have to amidst that my new writing regime using Google Docs to create the skeleton document before publishing it on Vocal and Sevendaysin seems to be functioning very well. I did try using my voice to create posts while I was out walking but that didn’t really work out as there was too much editing , but it is good for capturing ideas.and doing short posts. I tried it before when I was working for EE in Darlington and voice recognition has improved a heck of a lot but you still have to be very disciplined to produce a readable document without too much editing.

Today is Beltane which is the Gaelic May Day and marks the beginning of summer.

The name, Beltane, loosely means “bright fire” possibly referring to the Celtic God Belenus.

It is one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh.

Beltane has also been observed for centuries in Europe and is embraced by some Pagans, who mark the occasion with the lighting of bonfires, dance and rituals.

Celebrations included the lighting of bonfires, with rituals including both cattle and people walking around or jumping over the fires.It was thought that the flames had protective powers, and some communities got the smoke of the fires to blow over them and their livestock or brushed the ash onto themselves and their cattle.

Food was also sometimes cooked over the fire to form a feast. Other customs included decorating homes with flowers including primrose, hawthorn and rowan. As well as hanging them in windows and doorways, the blooms were often attached to cows.

For some reason I picked up my signed copy of “Bardo” by Jordan Reyne who is one one of the most original artists I have ever heard, and although at one point she was going to retire from music, she came back and her music is as original as ever , darkly gothic , celtic and pagan , all her music iis available on her Bandcamp site and worth every penny. Plus if you buy from Bandcamp the artists get a fair remuneration for their work unlike other sources especially the main streaming platforms.

I think I have all her output and it is all well worth listening to , and her videos for her songs are incredible too. As well as the Celtic influence there is a definite Eastern European feel to a lot of her videos and she is worth following on Youtube.

Here is a link to when I first saw her at Think Tank in Newcastle supporting The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing in November 2014 .

I will share the video for “Then They Came For You” the very title showing her darker side and from it you can really experience the dark and amazing world of Jordan Reyne.

There has been a lot happening today but I have a lot more to write about but don’t want to end up with a huge war and peace type post which people look at and thing “Whoa that’s too much”, I do like to provide bite size pieces for your enjoyment.

Monday 19 April 2021

Writing While Moving

 I’m am slightly in awe of the way we are becoming a TV watching proletariat. Though that’s a discussion for another time. I decided to see if I could do a blog post as I walked and this is the result. I hope my edits manage to make it readable

One of the problems with writing, walking, doing things they always take time.I was just wondering that out on my morning walk could I actually record this and use phone and Google Docs to record my thoughts.

I'm not sure if I can do paragraphs or how to actually make breaks but anyway this is going to be a stream of text which I can then take apart when I actually get home and you know so that we can actually see if this actually works.

I do write about music and that is a big part of my life. When the lock down hit last February or whenever I suddenly spent a lot of time and listening to 6 Music listening to radio and hearing what they had to play and share.

The I also you realised that my CD collection is too big. I mean I've ripped most of it to my network but when CDs are in boxes or even worse in an attic then you may as well just get rid. I've actually got a pile that I've for sale on Discogs now .I'm not looking for money as such, more just to make space ,and as I say, I've got a lot of boxes of CDs but what then happened is that whilst I listened to stuff through my Kindle fire and speaker system, I realised that my radio also had a CD player so I thought well I will listen to some of these CDs I've got for sale because it's very close, while I work.

Then I thought you know so even the ones I have on saleI will listen to those as well and it's progressed so that I spend my working day listening to music on CD.

A lot of people have actually said oh well you're not with the times. You should be using Spotify or a streaming service and yeah I can stream on YouTube or whatever the odd one, there are full albums on there they do get taken down.

I now listen to my CD collection as it  is very convenient and as I say I have lots of CD box sets and I do believe that my purchase of CDs a lot of the time it was more about supporting the artist then actually getting the CD and you know I've not listened to lots of my music.

I probably I have hundreds of thousands of tracks and I know this from ripping them to my digital store. I've also bought albums from Bandcamp recently by Edward II and Jordan Reyne because Spotify does not support artists. Spotify is flawed because there are a few people making a lot of money from it and artists not the ones. If you're an artist trying to break through you are not really going to make all that money you can't. I tried it and I got paid 0.00001 didn't get paid anything because he was too small to pay but basically Spotify make a lot of money.

A couple of years ago daft punk's random access memory what's the biggest selling album and biggest streamed album of the year and they got paid £13,000 . When you can see that the people in Spotify are all millionaires making millions from this it's not the artist who's getting the money.

I'm told that I'm behind the times and I should have a Spotify account and you can get it free with advertising whatever but it's a very bad model for the artists.

The model does not encourage new music.It’s alright it's just using what's there and if there was no new music produced ever Spotify would still go on it would be ok.It would still make money because shall we say the market the market has now got so much music.

 I mean we've got music from a couple of centuries and even just normal popular pop music is like 70 years of Music so Spotify has this huge amount of music for people to actually stream and listen as and when they want and it's convenience but I once actually said that CD was the McDonaldisation of music by its convenience you can actually skip tracks sequence tracks in the order you want make playlists.

The move to mp3 and digital even made that's more convenient and Spotify you don't even have to o that you just let Spotify choose what you want to hear and you know it's a perfect medium for people to actually or the corporations to decide what you want to listen to.

When I was with EE the streaming service was Deezer and I saw an advertisement for it and it was just it just chooses exactly what I want to hear no it doesn't it chooses what it thinks you should hear and that is my problem

I see Amazon suggestions and old you bought this so you might want to buy this which force you to actually do it like listen to it and decide it's not what I want or he might listen to it in here something and decide yeah if it's what I want but you know side of my preferred way is you know when I listen to the radio or walk into a record shop and hear something and think what the hell's that .

Luckily these days with digital radio you can find out what you actually playing with online lists or it shows you on the actual DAB player and the DJ usually tells you.

When I was a teenager when you heard something and then the DJ didn't say who it was or it because they said at the beginning of the song in you came in like 20 seconds in then you know it was a little more difficult and that happened so many times with me where I heard things and I'm going like what the hell is that you know.

Today we've got you got things like Shazam which will recognise music most of the time so you know and then you should have it and then you can actually get it from wherever so there is no need for it for my old site apart from a legacy thing where people wanted to hear know what the music was so many years ago and such an advert you know but again it's just like people who want that it's so few now that the sites not worth maintaining all I've got it on Facebook and if I see a decent advert I will put it on there because the advert will be on YouTube and it's it is one of those things that even with adverts these days there are very few that are worth noting and again if you want music on your device then you got it

So the first song that made me start the Song of The Salesman site was a Guinness advert that used “Burke’s Law” by Prince Buster so I will signoff with that. Though I can’t find it so we will share “Guaglione” by PĂ©rez Prado with the fabulous Dancing Man advert.

This has been mostly spoken into my phone and recorded by Google Docs so I will blame that for all my mistakes.

Wednesday 24 March 2021

SteppenwolfTwist

 I had my COVID injection yesterday and it physically knocked me with a lot of the symptoms but I think I am now over the worst.

"Steppenwolf" has taken a major unexpected twist, in a drug, drink and sex induced surreal scenario Harry Haller takes a step into a man vs machine world scenario worthy of JG Ballard. I really didn't see that coming , and with about twenty pages left of the book I am not sure what else will happen. If I'd known the format of the book , two breaks in the first fifty pages then two hundred pages of non stop narrative, I think I may have been put off, and it's not for everyone but I am glad I have read and got through it.

I have also decided to revisit "Tarantula" by Bob Dylan next before maybe dipping into another unread (by me) classic.

So as I am still not 100% , I am going to go left field and share "Shadow Line" by Jordan Reyne because it is the song that hooked me on her and the video is wonderful as is the song.

Tuesday 9 March 2021

Y5G?

We are continually being sold 5G by every mobile phone network, but seriously who actually needs it? Yes it's faster but it's like telling your average punter that they need an HGV or Formula 1 Racing Car to get about. I'm not dissing 5G , and I can see that it can have many applications, but I remember streaming movies on 3G and 4G is generally more than adequate for all my needs. If my broadband is off I can use my 4G signal with no problem.

I can see possibly that when you are 5G you can stream very high definition movies but if you are watching on a phone or computer will you get any benefit from that?  Obviously your data usage will shoot through the roof but maube that's what the mobile phone companies are looking at.

The ads will tell you  you can download a movie or album in seconds, but given the amount who streaming platforms who is going to be downloading anything. I use Netflix, Amazon Prime , BBC iPlayer , All4 and lots of others to watch things on my 40" television , and I recently purchased "Dancing Tunes" by Edward II and "Chapter Zero" by Jordan Reyne from Bandcamp and downloaded them via my broadband , but 4G would have been fine. 

By the way a lot of Bandcamp artists make music available free such as the song "Dancing Girls" by Dead Eyes Opened (great goth band) or on pay what you want so a great source of music worth supporting if you can.

So given that I started on 5G and finished on Bandcamp here's "The Banana Boat Song" from "Dancing Tunes" by Edward II , it is a totally joyful album and if you can get a signal you can stream it over 3G, 4G or 5G.


Tuesday 2 March 2021

March On .. And Support Artists

I don't buy much music these days, my collection is huge and I am selling a lot of CDs I bought on Discogs. I've written previously that I have bought albums because I think I should have them . The good thing about this is that the artist get's supported from the initial sale , although subsequent resales don't actually benefit the artist although often money I get from Discogs sales does by music. This week, although I don't need it I have ordered an album by Deodato and singles by The KLF and Roger Williams on vinyl. 

The albums I have for sale I have in a stack next to my desk and I actually listen to them to see if they are worth keeping. I think one or two have made me think "Why the hell did I buy that?" but most ate worth listening to. I am currently listening to a five disc budget reggae compilation called "The A To Zion" and it is rather good but it's still for sale.

Other's like "Meet The Humans" by Steve Mason (ex of the Beta Band) were so good that I pulled it from the store. I have the attitude that if you put something in a box or drawer that that's it , it's not going to be played, but yesterday I was listening to a Randy Newman box and after the five excellent discs of his Americana I remember I had a couple in the "N" box , and next to those two was an NWA compilation , so three discs for that box actually got played yesterday.

The main reason I am writing this is that I got a missive from Jordan Reyne on Bandcamp about her new album Chapter Zero  . Jordan does not put her music on leech like streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music that make a fortune for their owners but pay the artist a pittance. I cannot see how the model can properly work, but for almost all artists it doesn't so if you share a Spotify playlist with me you go down in my estimation.

Ever since I saw her opening for The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing at Think Tank? (see here) six years ago she has remained the most impressively original artist I have ever seen or heard. She is also a very approachable person , and her set that day was so stunning that I bought three CDs on the spot. So a new album is always an essential purchase , and buying from Bandcamp ensures that artist gets fair recompense for their work.

I am looking forward to hearing the new album and you gat a digital copy of all her work here for about thirty quid. Not only is she a musician she puts together videos for her songs on her YouTube channel here. You will be impressed.

Though it's the opener from here last album "Bardo" , "Then They Came For You" shows her video creation skills off, and is a song for our times.

Wednesday 12 June 2019

Low Flying Cloud


Today has not really been raining but it's wet. It's like it's just very low cloud. I don't know if it will finally blow over but today has been a perfect example of dreek. The sky is grey the windows are wet and it's cold.

It's almost a month since the blog visits went from fifty a day to fifty an hour, starting with sharing on Twitter then being picked up buy Feedburner and since the 17th of May daily visits have not dropped below 1,100 and today is already up to 1,200 and I think it's based on the New York date line so there's still about five hours to go.

I do need to give it a day's rest but I keep thinking another post will fuel the visits, but I do need to try and have a day without posting, I've already posted sixteen times this month that is four posts every the three days.

The rain / mist is running down the window pane as I write this and to quote the cheesiest of lines it is a cold, dark, rainy night, not dark and stormy , just dreek.

I was surprised to be followed on Instagram by Louise Distras (her web page is here) who I saw, and was impressed with and chatted with at The Cluny where she was supporting The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. She is an excellent artist and a really nice girl to chat with. My review of the gig is here. and that reminded me of the new video that Jordan Reyne has released for "They Came For You" from "Bardo" which is appropriate for this troubling times.

So it is time for bed, but it is worth checking out all these albums when you get the chance.

Sunday 7 April 2019

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - #1 - Bardo Jordan Reyne


I've been nominated for the #TenAlbumsInTenDays by my friend Tim Barlow and this is my fourth nomination and I'm always up for it but each time I want to take a new angle on it. Now generally we always probably hit our teenage years between 14-18 but I am wondering if I can do ten albums from the last decade. Too often people limit themselves to a particular time, and that doesn't mean that the albums of that time were bad or less good, but maybe they did hit us with more impact because we had a lot less experience of what was available to us.

So I am kicking of with Jordan Reyne's "Bardo" which is more hypnotic dark Celtic mood pieces, and a welcome return as she had said she was retiring from music. Ever since I first saw her, she has been the most striking artist I have have experienced, combining so much talent in one person.

When "Bardo" was announced I immediately pre-ordered it because I knew it would be brilliant, and I was not disappointed. Yes it is more Jordan Reyne, but that is more musical adventure and perfection , tinged with her antipodean Celtic menace, although I believe she is now based in Poland. That also brings  a connection with my Chain post yesterday which was the actual pronunciation of "Warszawa" from David Bowie's "Low".

I do hope to get to see her again, but will share the opener from "Bardo" with you "Exiter".

Friday 22 February 2019

Quality over Quantity?


Most definitely not. Quality is also a very nebulous term, t can be bad or good, and when something is described as "quality" it shows ignorance or shiftiness in the describer and certainly does not inspire any confidence by me in the product.

February has been very sparse on posts this year, my lowest number of posts since July 2016 when I only posted eleven times, this post will take it up to ten and I will probably post again before the end of the week. My posts these days tend to be 200-250 words , so hardly a War and Peace type essay. Very often I see blogs and the post are absolutely huge and involved, and then the blogger decided it's too much and don't post again. Keeping it reasonably short means that there is no pressure on me to produce an in depth article and it is mainly to act as a diary for me although it is nice when I get comments from people.

I had a lovely comment on my Christopher Lee slideshow today

"Oh...oh my God...I dont think ive ever been this excited to stumble onto something haha! 
❤❤❤" 

How nice is that? You can see it here. 

I have shared that video a few times and it is set to become my most viewed on ever, about to hit 16K views.

This morning on my walk to work I stuck on the "Mother, Maiden, Crone" remix EP and the new album "Bardo" by Jordan Reyne. When I first saw her a couple of years back in 2014 supporting The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing (review here) I was amazed, here music and performance gave me goosebumps like no artist before or since. On the night I bought three of her CDs from her I as that impressed, and walking along this morning I felt entranced by the hypnotic dark Celtic rhythms and sounds of her songs.

So it's Friday and I will share with you "Birth Ritual" the first Jordan Reyne song I listened to this morning.....

Friday 28 December 2018

Quiet


It is that time between Christmas and New Year where you almost feel you are trapped in Limbo. Prior to Christmas I saw someone chatting about the 12 Days of Christmas with celebrations every day but it is basically Christams and New Year and then the outlet seems to be shop sales.

I would love 365 days of celebrations where everyone had a good time, looked out for their fellow man and no ne wanted for anything but unfortunately it's not like that. Commercialisation drives us to spend more money while ensuring we are paid less, and then complains that people are not spending money. People spend what they think they can afford.

This morning on my walk in I saw some amazing skies as the sun rose, examples on my Instagram feed are here. I have completed my steps for December 2018 although at the beginning I was thinking I might not make it, but the weather has become much milder and listening to music on the way in is excellent. Today I listened to Jordan Reyne's new album "Bardo" which is hypnotically dark and beautiful, much as I expected.

There are no video's for the new album yet so I have chosen "Bite" from "The Annihilation Sequence", all her albums are worth experiencing and available as a digital pack from Bandcamp.

Thursday 27 December 2018

Grey Christmas


Weatherwise this must be one of the greyest Christmases I have ever seen. Christmas has been fine but the weather has not been too cold and seriously is just plain grey. The good news is that since the Winter Solstice we are getting more daylight, as I noticed leaving a desolate workplace at around four of the clock today.

That always makes me think of F Paul Wilson's "Nightworld" the finale of The Adversary series which kicked off with "The Keep". The shortening of the days doesn't stop when it should and hence the title of the book. Check it out, well check out the whole series, there are six excellent book and "The Keep" was turned in to a half decent film by Michael Mann.

I've been listening to a lot of Jethro Tull recently and decided to put a couple of albums on my phone, but managed to just load up the "Aqualung" out takes, but I have since rectified that. Basically the out takes didn't include "Locomotive Breath" which I included in a recent post when it was used as an opener to "Fargo". So a few Tull albums and my complete Janelle Monae and Jordan Reyne collection have been installed for my listening pleasure.

So who do I choose to share with you, maybe Jordan Reyne who's new album "Bardo" is just out but I will choose the piece that stunned me when I first saw her many moons ago at Think Tank, the hypnotically beautiful and disturbing "Shadow Line".

Thursday 18 January 2018

Polish Wind


How do you pronounce that? Is it Polish  - relating to Poland or polish - to buff something up? Is it wind - the atmospheric movement of air or wind - the method of tightening something up like a spring on a mechanical clock. Then the words wind, wined and, at a push whined could all sound the same when spoken, In isolation you wouldn't know what the person meant. Similarly wind and winned are both the same.

The English language is brilliant for writers and wordsmiths but must be hell to learn as a foreign language.

The reason that this came up is I was watching "Black Lake" last night and the police turned up and the word POLIS was on the car but the end of the word slightly obscured by snow and I though is that POLIS or POLISH ? "Black Lake" is well short on humour although absolutely excellent.

This is my first post in which I have mentioned Poland. Currently I have two Polish friends, Marek who runs RPM and Ola who I work with. At school I had lots of Polish friends and used to rehearse at Chorley Polish Club with my first band Cyrus Teed. I remember the first gig was a snowy night in Chorly and during the drum solo in "Wipe Out" the drum podium  (which consisted of four big blocks) split four ways leaving the drummer and crowd and us "surprised".

Anyway we have had real snow last night (see here on my instagram feed)

I have donned a large pair of boots because I would like to see what Nunsmoor is like covered in snow so that's a ¾ mike walk on snow covered paths but I will post a video on instagram if I get there before I freeze.

For absolute no reason apart from the snow / rain at the start of the video I'm including Jordan Reyne's "Shadow Line" which still gives be goosebumps, reminding me of the first time I saw her (documented here). Wrap up and be careful if you have to go out.

Friday 15 September 2017

Looping About Ed Sheeran

The Graph of Ed Sheeran
Last night I caught a chunk of The Mercury Music Prize won by Sampha which seemed to me functional but bland. There was a recorded performance of Ed Sheeran performing "The Shape of You" on Jools Hollands' Later, and what struck me was that here is a guy who is clever at what he does, putting songs together from basic recorded loops, but unfortunaelely what came out for me was just like any other radio filler and will probably be an X-Factor staple in years to come.

Ed Sheeran is a really nice guy, though , gave a great message from Miami. Basically I like Ed Sheeran a lot but find his music bland and boring hence the graph on the right.

He was followed by Kate Tempest performing the apocalyptic "Don't Fall In" who, in my opinion, musically blew him away.





The first time I saw a loop being used in a live situation was John Martyn performing "Big Muff" on Rock Goes To College in the seventies. He just had this acoustic guitar and a few effects and a tape loop box which allowed him to build up his rhythm to amazing effect, that stayed with me, well today, you can see that below.

The a couple of years ago I walked into Think Tank? saw a girl wearing horns on stage who started with some wordless vocals to provide her backing for "The Shadow Line". That girl was Jordan Reyne. I was truly blown away and she is still the moriginal artist I have heard over the last couple of years. Maybe it was the combination of walking in to wait for the main band, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing (who were excellent by the way, thanks for the recommendation Gillian F) , therefore not expecting anything to be blown away by her solo set. I bought three of her CDs so at the top is "The Shadow Line". The official video for it is here, but I wanted to show what she can do live

Have a brilliant Friday everybody.


Saturday 12 December 2015

Here Comes The Snow


Here Be Monsters
Today was meant to be relaxing , but while a little grey , I ventured towards town to get a haircut and a couple of things. Then the snow came down and stuck. It made everything look wintry for Yule tide. I took shelter in the excellent Kazbat's Den a delightful Gothic shelter and shop you could easily lose yourself in, chatting about music and weather with Karen and Lucy. I had visited the shop the odd time in the past but with the sad destruction of the Kard Bar , Karen had set up a fund to help with the funeral of the owner here and is raising money with a hoodie raffle here so if you want to contribute please do. It is a wonderful place to drop into and you never know what you might find.

The snow is still coming down and it is dark and winter has it's foot in here. So it's time to keep warm and light a fire ,keep warm with someone and look out for others. Was thinking of some seasonal related music , but I was talking to Karen and Lucy about The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing and Jordan Reyne , so I have included spoongig links to them if you click on the names, although if you click on this Jordan Reyne link you will get all the posts about her on this blog.

Anyway there is snow so in a vaguely tangential reference I've chosen Antarctica by the awesome Sound Of Guns

Oh the blog has now had 99,700 viisits , so another 300 to the 100K target for the end of the year , tell your friends

Enjoy the snow , enjoy your Saturday , enjoy your weekend



Saturday 25 April 2015

Legendary Times



Not quite yet
Well the last few months have been amazing and the next few weeks are likely to be just as good. Have been catching up with friends, started an excellent new job with some great people in an excellent location, been involved with an amazing start up GeekTalent , done a small amount of volunteer work for Oxfam, taken part in Record Store Day and World Book Night, seen two total music legends, George Clinton and Lee Perry in accessible settings and Preston North End are within a win of returning to the Championship. Joe Garner winning League One Player of the year , and despite having a lengthy layoff still managing to finish as probably the league's top scorer. Here's that goal from last season's playoff defeat , but it is amazing:


So that's what's been happening, this week is more work , and more music with Public Service Broadcasting , Jordan Reyne next month Black Grape as well, with a possibility of fitting in the Fall. I'm just so lucky to be living in Newcastle with all this amazing stuff going on. Oh and there's going to be Summertyne , The Mouth Of Tyne Festival , Corbridge Festival, the Newcastle Unity Festival and The Green Festival, it is looking like an exciting summer.

It kicks off with a half eight hospital visit tomorrow morning which should be just routine stuff. Also lots of garden stuff to do , a new website to design and put live , and to record some songs I've half written (initial ideas recorded to phone now sitting on my PC)  when I finally get my set up running though may just go for recording to system microphone.

So basically it's now time for bed. Enjoy the rest of your weekend , I certainly will. I've include John Cale's Bamboo Floor because it makes me happy , with suitably dark lyrics.

Monday 20 April 2015

Laziness Creeping In

Boots Sushi
Well not really. The new job is so close to home that I hop on the bus , off it , then into the office , it takes less than ten minutes. A side effect of this is that I don't actually hit my 10K a day designated in my Samsung S-Health application. The think is, that I keep trying to do extra walking when I can, so it's not like I have packed in trying to hit the target. Since starting the new job have become enamoured of certain Boots Sushi packs ,falling back on Nudo when Boots don't have the stuff. This stuff is really nice and does fill you and is probably good for you , certainly better than the huge sandwich packs , and bread often makes me feel bloated whereas after this I just feel satisfied , which is good.


As I've said before, my free time has increased and I do feel good because of it, which is improved by the current beautiful weather, and the upcoming glut of music festivals and concerts coming my way , the only real problem being so many clashes.

The new job is Newcastle based , and this is the hundredth time I have tagged Newcastle on this blog, and though I'm not a native (originally from Preston which I have mentioned only 15 times though I still love my home town and all my friends and family who live there) , but that's just some throwaway stats that I am wont to throw in to my perusals.

It's been another good day and this week I'm looking forward to enjoying the challenges of the new job , catching up with friends , maybe getting to a gig or two before a hospital appointment next Sunday (8:30 in the morning can you believe) , but I cannot berate the NHS because they are totally brilliant.

So this is just a short post , talking about nothing , and apologise for not putting anything of substance in here, but I'm sure you will find something brilliant to do tonight , so do it and have fun.

I included a Jordan Reyne song because I am going to see her in May and she is one of the most impressive artists I've discovered in the last twelve months.

Friday 17 April 2015

Everything is Happening and Summer is a Coming In

RSD 2015

Sorry I've not blooged for a while , no real reason apart from laziness , but it has been remarked upon , and I need need to post something given how much is happening this week. So here it is.

This week I started my new job which is basically a 9 to 5 scenario with decent flexibility and good people to work with and it's been very enjoyable so far, managing to track down a rogue tenner in half a million quid to balance a book. The thing is , this new job has given me back about ten hours a week that I wont be on a train and maybe £3K a year I don't have to spend on travel.

This has come at an opportune time because tomorrow , as well as being my great friend Craig and Sheena's birthday it's also National Record Store Day , so I will be in and around Newcastle visiting RPM , Reflex , Beatdown  but may not get to the excellent Pop Recs in Sunderland although I'm sure they won't miss me there. Some great memories of previous days include getting a Facebook message from my great friend Mike asking if I could pick up a copy of the Clash's London Calling about ten to five. It was the most sought after item of that day, so had sold out when the shops opened , although one did turn up in Reflex a couple of weeks later which I snaffled immediately and dropped off.

WBN 2015
This week , also , it's World Book Night on Shakespeare's Birthday (23rd of April). Just 18 books this time but a bit of a trek by public transport to pick them up tomorrow , mine is Roddy Doyle's "Dead Man Talking"  a short , easy to read book , which I shall be distributing around Newcastle on the 23rd.

There are numerous gigs coming up as well including William Control , Public Service Broadcasting , Rhombus and Jordan Reyne, and PSB's excellent go is certainly appropriate for my life at the moment.




As well as that summer is on it's way so the garden will need it's first mow soon and the grass is now growing fairly healthily.

So I'm going to bed now , enjoy your weekend I certainly intend to

Friday 28 November 2014

No Black Friday Here



Well it's Friday and I'm waiting for my hire car to be delivered so I can drive down to Ampleforth to the holiday cottage for a week of quite after two hellishly intensive weeks. In that time I managed to see an amazing gig and a great talk about robots and what fun they can be and how great libraries are. And that reminds me that last week the BBC were celebrating libraries and Scroobius Pip wrote a poem for them to celebrate all that was good about libraries.

I'm still raving about Jordan Reyne and am going to have to order the rest of her albums, as she has been my going to sleep music all this week. I really wish I'd have bought all her albums at the gig. But anyway , the weather is still grey (and it was yesterday too) , but that's the only thing that is not great today. I'm feeling excellent and happy and looking forward to next weekk/

Did you realise that a week on Sunday it's the anniversary of  the bombing Pearl Harbour? I wonder what put that into my head.

Katy Lied? ... Katy Did
Today I know lots of idiots are getting into fights , being conned by the big stores into buying stuff they don't want. There's fights and police involvement , very seasonal indeed, but that's not for me , I don't do queuing unless there is absolutely no other option. Most of my friends are the same.



The only Black Friday I have time for is the Steely Dan song from Katy Lied and with that I will leave you for today. Hope you have a very enjoyable day.