Eggs and Chickens ,,, Tom Waits for Norman

Sometimes things you do have unexpected results. I've been taking part in a step challenge , the last day of which is tomorrow when I need to do fifteen thousand steps.That's around seven miles in a day, not a great deal in the great scheme of things but it does mean you have to make time to do these things. Essentially each thousand steps takes around ten minutes of brisk walking , so that means I need to spend two and a half hours walking tomorrow.

This weekend , in order to not be playing catch up , I've got up early each day to give myself a start on the steps , and it's worked OK. Today I did nineteen thousand steps (I only needed to do fourteen thousand) byt set myself a task of walking up Cow Hill and taking some pictures. Cow Hill is not difficult to climb, it's sort of a mound but you get a good view of Newcastle.

View From Cow Hill

Anyway the basic point is, that I have got up earlier, done more walking, done more writing, done more reading , done more catch up TV, done more guitar practice and recording, and more listening to music and I feel very tired, but I'm just wondering if the cause of me doing more is actually the step challenge. It could be. In order to accommodate it I've had to ensure there is enough space in the day.

This is about the fifth blog post I've done this weekend but I won't have time to do one tomorrow morning.

Hopefully after my final day tomorrow, I will still ensure that I do 10K steps a day which will clock in a 4½ miles which I will definitely maintain. Also I may try not lying in at weekends and just going out for a walk. I prefer being off road but on a path. The walk up to Cow Hill was a bit muddy today.

One of the things to maintain this is that you do need halfway decent weather but this weekend has been fairly good.

Tomorrow is going to require a very early start. I want eight thousand steps in before I get into work. That is a tall order but it will mean I've over half way there before I start work.

One of the songs I listened to was Tom Waits' "Ol' 55" which was covered by The Eagles , but I'll treat you to a live version by the great man.

Goodnight my friends.

Marching On With My Favourite Bob Marley Song

Step Challenge

I'm currently up to day 6 of a "Step Challenge" (see pic to the right). Next Monday I need to hit 15,000 steps, and that definitely is a challenge. One of the problems with things like this is ensuring that you have time to do it. I used to work in Darlington and regularly clocked up ten thousand steps a day. These days I'm in Newcastle and it's a lot closer, the bus is frequent and convenient and as such my number of steps is often under 5,000. I see lots of people who drive into work, lunch at their desks and then leave. I can't do that, I need to get out at lunchtime.

The good thing is that in Newcastle there are lots of places to go for an interesting walk, so I have no excuse not to make at least ten thousand steps a day.

Yesterday I had two trips into Newcastle and made just under nine thousand steps, today was more of a concerted effort and I have passed eleven thousand steps, tomorrow I need to hit 9,500 but I will do ten thousand. Day 9 onward will be the challenge but I will keep you posted on here.

Today I was listening to someone on 6Music and they said they never thought they would see Corinne Bailey Rae, which I found odd as she is alive and plays gigs. He then said he'd seen her three times. He then went on to play her take on Bob Marley's "Is This Love" which I always rated as one of his weaker songs (though a weak Bob Marley song is still excellent)

I then got on to thinking of some of my favourite Bob Marley songs. My first introduction was "No Woman, No Cry" Live at the Lyceum which still electrifies me, but was difficult to get when I first heard it , despite eventually becoming a massive hit. John Peel then played "Jah Live" which was even more difficult to track down, but I eventually got an import copy from John Allan's Records (he sadly is no longer with us) at Lane Ends in Preston. He thought the bands name was The Whalers!! He also sourced other hard to get records such as The Saints "I'm Stranded".

Anyway if I had to choose one Bob Marley single it would probably be "Jah Live", but if you look through the catalogue there are so many truly great songs. Another which I only heard when exploring his early stuff is "Small Axe" , I could listen to that over and over forever. So I will include "Jah Live" at the top of this post and  "Small Axe" at the bottom, both wonderful songs.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday my friends.

It's Over

Thrills

The weekend is finished and it's time for work, or will be in a few hours. It's been an odd one for me, not really done much but I have rested, watched catch up TV and read quite a lot and written a few blog posts.

I had a rearrangement of my music and discovered a couple of effective duplicate CDs , Best Ofs The Faces and ELP , plus Janis Joplin's Pearl and Big Brother and The Holding Company's Cheap Thrills , all class albums but you only need one copy and the purchases of some excellent box sets have made them redundant.





I think I got the Joplin stuff from Music Zone in The Metro Centre , a now defunct music emporium, but we are lucky to have a decent number of music shops in Newcastle.


Anyway I will be dropping by a charity shop this week unless any of my friends want to improve their music collection and it's given me a chance to include The Faces That's All You Need , one of my favourite slide driven songs ever.

Sleep well my friends and have a brilliant week.

King of the Castle

I continually berate Novocastrians for not visiting or knowing about some of the amazing things in Newcastle. The Lit and Phil and The Vampire Rabbit are two cases in point. I have been in Newcastle fr 30 years , which is half my life, the first twenty of which were spent in Preston then the next ten Southport / Tarleton / Leyland and then coming up to Tyneside.

Bela Lugosi ... Not Dead

Anyway yesterday , for the first time I properly visited Newcastle's Castle . So I am just as bad as the people I berate. The steps are daunting , and there are lots of flights of stairs that go off on different directions. I could tell you lots about the place but I include the video I took from the top (sorry about fingers and sound) and apart from being a castle it has lots of events on which are wonderful when watched there.

I didn't have much time so the main point wast to get to the top and enjoy "The Best View In Newcastle" . I think it was 100 steps up a stone spiral staircase, and the weather was lovely, but although I always say I am ok with heights as long as I feel safe , my vague vertigo started to get the better of me, but I persevered.

While up there I was talking to to a lovely lady from Northampton called Shirley or Sheila (my short term memory is atrocious)  and we were remarking how beautiful and impressive it all was. A friend had brought her up toe Newcastle for a couple of days as she had always wanted to come so I mentioned a couple of places worth visiting and it was good to be able to point landmarks out for them to aim for. Grey's Monument , The Botanist Dome , The Pearl Building , St James Park and The Bridges , The Sage and The Baltic are all very visible.

So today we have another lovely day and I am tempted by the Bela Lugosi night tonight .....but it's sold out so I shall include the Chvrches take on Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead" as a small consolation

Thursday 7:30 - #31 - 1987 - Mental As Anything - Live It Up

Well were getting towards the end of the week and all those things we need to do are getting done. There's some great gigs coming up Star Spangled Chestwigs this Friday and The Wedding Present a week on Saturday , with Halloween falling this Saturday so need to stock up on tubs of stuff for the knocking witches.

Knife?

The musical Odyssey hits 1987 year 31 m and I chose Live It Up by Mental as Anything because 1987 was my first year in Newcastle and I remember in the first week I went to the Odeon (since fallen into decay and disrepair) and saw Crocodile Dundee , a film I still love.

So all have a wonderful time , I am on my way to work.

This is How It Should Be Done - The 2015 Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup has kicked off in style. Whether its's because the UK has it this year or what  I don't know , but it is brilliant to see a sport not riddled with drugs cheats , rule cheats , bribes , back handers , the deaths of thousands in countries not fit to play the sport.

I cannot pretend I know all the rules , and did get out of it fairly young , having seen so many lost teeth in clashes , though I felt the same about boxing . You do need to be hard to play rugby. I remember many years ago being at a garage and the the sky went dark . Bill Beaumont got out his car and made me look small and you know how big I am.

Here We Go

After the curtain raiser with England getting the better of Fiji , today we had the competition starting in earnest. And the matches are anything but one sided , well mabe the Irish dismantling of Canada , but Tonga vs Georgia should have been closer and Japan took South Africa on a knife edge in one of the biggest shock results , and the competition has hardly started.

The excitement is there and you can see they want to play the game and the first thing on their mind isnt their image rights.



Another thing, Newcastle are staging some matches , and for the Olympics there was a blackout on
everything that wasn't official sponsored , none of that for this competition.

As I pen this  France lead Italy 25-10 , Italy have come back from 25-3 down , and while I expect France to run out victors , they aren't having it all their own way.

I know this isn't my normal sort of post , although in a way it is because events like this get your adrenalin going  , and that makes you happy , and it is great to see good friends getting out and enjoying the games.

I wont be having a bet because I don't know who is going to win, the only thing I'm sure of is it is going to be a great tournament and looking forward to taking in some matches with friends.


Paloma Faith has recorded a new version of World in Union , I cant say I am  that impressed  prefer the Holst original , so I've included the Swing Low  below below which is slightly better , but niot much.

Enjoy the tournament my friends

It Makes Me Happy

What does ? Everything . Well lots of things , maybe I should just list things.

I know my recent posts have been about being happy , hugs and feeling good rather than slagging off Apple and mobile phone companies or being slightly down about  Preston losing , but seriously, I am grateful for being able to make this list. Part of the reason I can do so is that I do always look for good things regardless of what happens, and a small thing , today I got told I was out of my probation period and they liked me at work and last night Youtube relented and allowed my Ezra Furman slideshow for "One Day I Will Sin No More" . I will record my own version of this and put it up on my Youtube Channel soon.

So what makes me happy:

The Vampire Rabbit Spots Its Prey

• The love and support I get from my close friends and family , here and all over the world
• The fact there is always someone there for me , and I am there for them
• The appreciation that people give me when I share time and experience with them
• I love my hometown of Preston , I don't get there enough , but Newcastle is now my home and I love the place and it's people and the friends I have made here make me fall in love  with everything every day
• I can't get down for too long because there is always something good about to happen
• I love the positive things I can show people
• I love berating people about not visiting The Lit & Phil , it is a beautiful amazing place
• I love the fact that so many people don't know about the Vampire Rabbit and the look on their faces when I take them is brilliant
• I love the fact my friend Barbara has resurrected Trillans and my friends Maz and Shev have made The Black Bull into the North East's Go To Punk venue and Dave and Julie Campbell have turned The Schooner into a brilliant Western Swing venue and brilliant pub
• I love my friends
• I love the culture , the museums , the coast
• I love well I might never stop

Anyway that is just some of the stuff, have a brilliant day everyone , I really do love you all

Friday I'm In Love

Carter USM ?

Over the past few weeks this song has been popping up on the radio and in shops and other plays. I've never really listened to the lyrics , though the title is obvious , and also The Cure are one of my favourite  all time bands with "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" being my favourite album with songs on there bringing back unexplained memories  such as "Like Cockatoos" bringing to mind JG Ballard's "The Drowned World" and the achingly beautiful "Catch" still reminding of a student call Frances I knew back in the eighties who was great Cure fan.

I gave her my vinyl copy of "Standing On A Beach" , amazing how songs can still hold associations after so long. That was way before Newcastle meant anything to me other than Michael Caine's face off with Alf Roberts in Gateshead.

The thing is "Friday I'm In Love" is such an uplifting song you almost don't need to listen to the words and it really does lift your spirits and make you feel better. It certainly resonates with my feelings and does lift me up even further. I've just transferred it to my phone because a listen to that will dispel any slight downers like Preston getting beat 2-0 by Hull yesterday.

Anyway we're in the middle of the Bank Holiday (for those in the UK) so enjoy the rest of the time and this week is only 4 days of work .

Love you all

Sometimes....

I feel the urge to write about something but I've really nothing to write about that is interesting or has caught my imagination.

Last weekend I managed to completely miss the Mouth of Tyne and Corbridge Festivals which I attended last year, that almost shocked me. One of the problems may be that there is just so much going on that it did manage to pass me by.

Next weekend I'm going to see Big Country in Scotland and then just after that Ash play Chase Park in Whickham , not forgetting Summertyne that is going on this weekend.

I've written about all these in previous years mainly on the Spoongig site so will probably update if I get time after those festival.

Oh and tomorrow we have a Pride March in Newcastle. I like diversity and love to acknowledge and be part of it. Sometime people forget what GAY means (acronym for Good As You) , which we should all feel we are.

Also now I'm going off on a language tangent about the word "Homosexual".

"Homo" can mean man as in "Homo Sapiens" , or the same as in say "Homogenous"

I'm doing all the reasoning without referring to anything so my reasoning can probably be blown out of the water.

But "Homosexual" uses the meaning of the same , but I suppose in male / male relationships could be misconstrued as man.

Anyway , although I'm  "straight" all my friends delight me , whatever their orientation , and they are part of a rich and diverse tapestry that I am so lucky to be enmeshed in.

All You Need To Know

So I'm gonna choose Tom Robinson's "Glad To Be Gay" , a great singalong song which me and my mates had great fun with putting on the jukeboxes in severely homophobic pubs in the late seventies. It was fun because we were well able to take care of ourselves . Also reminds of the time me and three mates went to see a Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"  lecture in Newcastle's Centre For Life . We are not the smallest of frames and we were sat at a table in the what I believe is a gay pub called "Barons" , when a girl came up to us and asked "Are You Gay?" in hushed tones , to which my mate Chris replied "But Of Course We Are!" somewhat louder.

Anyway , It's time for bed and I have managed to ramble on for quite a bit about nothing. Sleep well my friends

Peru - Three Directions in One Description

I suppose on of my consuming passions is music and this morning , Peru came to mind, probably because I'd won a small bet on them beating Bolivia, and that recalled the song Big Day from Phil Manzanera's album Diamond Head which features Peru prominently in the lyrics , Brian Eno taking the lead vocals on it. To me Peru related music meant those bloody awful pan pipes (which I sure can sound good when used properly instead of a bloody awful lift music rendition of Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" , incidentally written by Giorgio Moroder

Really I know next to nothing about Peru apart from itin the North West of South America (Three Direction in One Description) . Without looking I can't even tell you if it has a coastline and off hand I don't even know the capital of the place. I do know that Nolberto Solano , one of Newcastle's most loved players , as well as playing trumpet is going to have the first Peruvian restaurant in Newcastle (details here) named after him. Newcastle is well served for restaurants , but as far as I know , never had a Peruvian one.

Heres the Wikipedia entry for Peru and I now know it has a shoreline on the West Coast , but still don't know what the capital is. There is certainly some amazing scenery there, and they obviously have a pretty good football team.

So just a short post , but enjoy the song , and I need to educate myself about Peru.

This is Peru

From Newcastle To Cairo

This week has been odd. I've been feeling weirdly sort of down . I have absolutely no reason to be. Also I've been sort of getting a little annoyed about things that might happen. This is not me so I sat down and thought it through and decided maybe I'd being invaded by the spiteful spirit of a red top reader. Doing that seems to have done the trip , I am feeling more like my normal self and hopefully this will just continue.

I mean I'm now working in a great job , close to home. This week I've had meals with friends , family, and loved ones, seen some great films , read some good stuff , heard some great music , a lot of it new, so as you can see , i have nothing to complain about.

I see friends doing great things , helping others and making life good for others , and I suppose I see all this and then get exasperated by the attitudes of a society that worships possessions and money. So that is probably the thing that I was letting get the better of me, and I wont to that.

I have great friends all around the world , all of whom make my life so good , who continually turn me on to new things or make me remember old good stuff like the Lime Spiders , Trillians has reopened with a bang , and things are just cool.

Over Cairo

And today I was listening to some of the great music than I have had the privilege of allowing to Django Django's  "Skies Over Cairo"  come into my house and was amazed by the fact I'd missed it , as I do love the band.

I suppose it's in the same universe as "Night Boat To Cairo" by Madness and could probably have been slipped onto a Black Grape album as well.

Well I am going to bed with that spinning round my head , looking forward to tomorrow, next week , next month  , and enjoying life.

Sleep well my friends

Coincindence and Connections

Yesterday I went to have my annual opticians eye text , and , with contact lenses it's still 20/20, despite being advised around 2003 that I would probably need to switch to wearing glasses. My opticians are excellent ( C4 Sightcare in Newcastle), I was mentioning the extremely excellent aftercare service from GPORetro and it turns out my optician is a jazz enthusiast and a frequenter of Reflex in Newcastle , we both agreed that John Coltrane's Giant Steps is tedious in the extreme but I told him that Miles Davis' Bitches Brew was worth revisiting as it sounds amazing , he wasn't two sure but said he will try it again. You don't tend to think of people who look after you in one way or another have lives outside what they do for you , and my optician is a vinyl enthusiast and a jazz musician. It's amazing what talking to people can reveal, and can make over the most mundane of things (like eye tests) go very quickly.

Think Outside

This weekend saw me mow the lawn this year for only the second time , and it's nearly June. The weather is nice and we have the Newcastle Unity Festival next weekend , followed by Preston North End's play off final against Swindon , then a Pop Will Eat Itself gig at the Riverside.

Thing about talking with people is they can put you onto good things it one way or another, like Meg Mac , and amazing singer who I had never heard of and now have to find more of her stuff. Enjoy
the excellent song above , just ordered the EP from Amazon.

 If you isolate yourself from people you never see or hear things like this. There is so much we miss out on , and let's face it we can't experience everything , but nothing beats the feeling of finding something amazing that you were unaware of. Anyway still have lots of chores to do but good music to listen to while I'm doing it and thankful for every friend I have.

I Will Walk

A View From Work

Or will I? I've found the new job is in walking distance assuming the weather is reasonable, it's 2.2 miles and mostly downhill and takes half an hour. I don't if it's going to improve my health because the problem is that it takes time and sometimes when you have the option of a five minute bus ride in suddenly becomes easier to take the bus, but we will see how it pans out.

Also it's funny how much more you can suddenly see from the next floor up , suddenly the Tyne Bridge and the Sage become visible , although the views over the Tyne Valley are still amazing on most days , even when it's a bit grey.


This week I've been listening to a lot of new music and well impressed with Hozier , the brilliantly named Faerground Accidents with some brilliant spiky guitars and The Sherlocks , but I still keep returning to the Fresh Blood album by Matthew E White the song above having a gorgeous coda and chorus , part of my Rough Trade recommendation subscription which has yielded some pretty good albums m though last one resulted in my first duplication with the new Django Django album. I kept the Rough Trade one because of the extra mix album and sent the other back to Amazon.

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.

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.

Grey Days Can Be Good

Today the weather is a bit grey and I have time to myself for a change. So I'm going into Newcastle and maybe visiting the many great places to go such as The Discovery Museum , and maybe take a coffee and cake at The Tyneside Cafe I love being in Newcastle because almost everywhere you want to go is in walking distance. And really on this day I suppose walking is is a bit of a thread going through this post.

Fit Phone

The other thing is that since I got my Samsung Note 4 , I've enjoyed the excellent camera, but there's an app  on it called S-Health which sets you a target of 10,000 steps a day to do. I don't know whether I have OCD but I find myself aiming to hit and surpass the daily target. And because the phone seems to register steps fairly accurately I carry it with me a lot more permanently that when I used to have my previous phone which didn't seem to be as sensitive. I've also tried pedometers which just didn't seem to work, and tried  a gym membership , which if you look at me , you'll realise I got bored with. But this is so easy to integrate with your everyday life.

Anyway I'm going to go into town town and leave you with one of my favourite songs about walking, Fats Domino's "I'm Walking"

Brief Encounter at The Tyneside Bar and Cafe where Dali Meets Disney

Today after doing a couple of hours at the excellent Oxfam Books and Music in Jesmond , I got mack into Newcastle and decided to go for a cup of coffee and a cake at the Tyneside Bar and Cafe. I was chatting with the girl behind the bar (who's name I didn't get) and she recommended the carrot and cinnamon cake to go with my coffee and I noticed the film playing. The Tyneside Bar and Cafe has a program of silent film screening every afternoon and a couple of weeks ago I caught some of The Battleship Potemkin. It's really brilliant idea to have these films as a backdrop to be engrossed in as you have your coffee or cake.

Anyway I asked what the film was that was showing and she told me it was a thirties rendition of Faust, she didn't know much of the story of Faust but was determined to find out more having watch most of the film and , like me she was impressed with it. It's a two hour film and you can watch it above. This led to a chat about German Surreal Horror and Salvador Dali's involvement with film and I was racking my brains about a film that I'd seen recently but also seen as a child with some lasting images of strange angular paths and a bearded eyeless monk through a window (yes I remembered that from my childhood). Anyway a girl a the bar called Amy who also works at the Tyneside Cinema and threw in some ideas including Un Chien Andalou and L'Age D'Or but more intriguingly mentioned a Salvador Dali and Walt Disney collaboration. This is a short film called Destino started in 1946 and completed in 2003. You can watch it below and to me it is jaw dropping, I have to thank Amy for telling me about this absolute gem:


However I still couldn't  remember the film I'd seen,

That Path

so decided to search while I had my coffee and cake. After about ten minutes I remembered it had featured in a documentary on European Horror films by Mark Gatiss and then googled European Surreal Horror and there it was "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" , which I had discussed at some point with my friend Craig another Tyneside Cinema guy. So I had a really good day , discovering things I didn't even know about thanks to Amy and finally remember THAT film , which I'll use to finish off this post.

Have a great night everybody, because I have had a great day

Ice Road Trucking

It's the last day of January and we have had on and off snow for most of the last week. Today I have a 140 mile journey from Newcastle to Barrow to celebrate my dad's birthday and give him his present. The snow this week has not been heavy but the weather has been cold enough to make footpaths treacherous underfoot , so I'm more likely to slip than anything else. It's hardly an Ice Road Trucker scenario. So looking forward to that as dawn crawls over the eastern horizon.

Uri Geller and The Postbox

One of the problems on birthdays is trying to get a decent card, so I look for unusual post boxes (my dad's work and sort of hobby)  and saw this one here , on the Thames Sonning bridge which has mystified Uri Geller and the local villagers. It looks to be in good repair which would imply that it is painted and maintained, though it's hardly convenient , although it's more convenient than the oriental underwater postboxes  I've seen pictures of  (just Google postboxes)


So it's now time to shower, and pick up the car, and get ready for the drive, but just for an added complication tickets for the 6 Music Festival went on sale yesterday, but each day the tickets are on sale separately. I wanted to go everyday but Sunday is the best one (more bands I want to see) , so I will try for today as Royal Blood and The Fall are playing , and will attempt to get tickets tomorrow as Public Service Broadcasting , Wire , Gaz Coombes and The Charlatans are playing . These are just some of the bands in what are damned near perfect line ups. This gives me an excuse to include the video for Gagarin , so have a brilliant weekend everyone, it's the last day of January which is an excuse to have lots of fun and look forward to a great week next week.

Ain't Friends Just The Best

This post is not about anything in particular. You may know that I am a "man of leisure" at the moment (for leisure substitute volunteer work, interviews, traveling , networking , organising things, and generally not having a lie in but managing a bit of catch up TV, and possibly finally getting my Garageband / Alesis Dock / iPad set up so I may be actually be able to record something in the spare time that is taken up with everything else in this list) . The thing is having things to do does make you appreciate sometimes having some time to yourself.

Yesterday was really special though, a sort of leaving do that turned to an extremely chilled and brilliant catch up with five really great friends I've worked with over the last seven or eight years, and a commitment to doing more of these with the friends who couldn't make it. Starting off with a trip to a couple of record shops with Chris we bot visited Reflex and RPM but didn't get time for Beatdown and bought stuff by newish bands such as Panda Bear and Alvvays. Jon got a seven inch vinyl single by White Lung who I've never heard of as well as some nice beer glasses.

Dat Bar Decor

We then met up with Darren, Neil and Jon is the Central Bar before a leisurely visit to a few Newcastle pubs including The Town Wall, The Forth, The Stand , Dat Bar (where Neil sample some 7.2% lager that they wouldn't sell in pints) and finally finishing at The Head Of Steam. Darren told me that I was getting a subscription to Rough Trade as a leaving present from my team and colleagues (plus an Amazon Voucher , because like 'em or loathe 'em you can't go wrong with an Amazon Voucher and Steve and Sara's has already gone towards my new Samsung soundbar / subwoofer).





It was just amazing to spend a day doing nothing in particular, enjoying each others company, catching up and committing to doing this on a monthly basis. One of the great things about social media, email and mobile phones is that it is very easy to keep in touch these days if you want to. Next week I have my dad's 80th birthday and his present is going to be to get him online, so that will be great fun.

Oh and the cheery on the top of yesterday's cake is that my phone is temporarily reconnected while they sort me out with a proper tariff.

I was trying to think of a decent piece of music to go with this and the Steve'N'Seagulls just presented itself, uplifting , great fun and impressive , sort of like yesterday.

All in all and absolutely brilliant day and looking forward to a lot more like this

Twelve Hours Into 2015

Well it's now 2015, after a great New Year's Eve Party at Mark and Helen's managing to catch up with lots of friends and people I haven't seen in ages, talking about all sorts before a round of Auld Lang Syne to ring in the New Year.

Built On Glass

The first album I've put on this year is Built on Glass by Chet Faker recommended by a great friend, which reminds me of Brian Eno and Van Der Graaf / Peter Hamill smoothed down , just wondering if the name is a nod to the great Chet Baker , that's a lot of musical references I wasn't expecting to make in my first post of 2015. They are all worth following up as well as the excellent Chet Faker album.

I'm sure this year will find me liking lots of new music, just like last year and every year before that. There will be books to read, films and plays to see, people to meet, songs to write , my book to finish , which is now two months overdue, this blog to keep going , songs to write, and to try and get Garageband to work properly with the Alesis connection deck on the iPad.

So it is going to be a busy and brilliant 2015, I am so looking forward to it. It's my dad's 80th Birthday in January so there's a surprise party for him and I will have to think of a suitable present to get him. So without further ado I'm going to wish you all a Happy New Year and going to enjoy the rest of my day.

I've include some fireworks from Newcastle / Gateshead last night . Happy New Year again.