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Friday, 24 May 2013

Music Was My First Love


The love of live music isn’t shared by everyone I know but the gig experience is still something I really enjoy and I always feel that I was glad I made the effort on the majority of occasions.
My next book to read at home is Simon Armitage’s ‘GIG’ published in 2008. It explores how music intertwined with his work and life in general. When I was a much younger man living in London I would go to gigs every week. The Half Moon in Putney, Dingwalls in Camden Town , the Town & Country Club, Kentish Town etc, etc, me and my mates would go all over to see and experience live the bands we liked. We never went to discos or nightclubs we liked live music, therefore we never met many women at that time ! but we learnt a hell of a lot about good and bad musicians and we knew the history of rock inside and out.
These days I go to gigs infrequently due to where I live now and the travel involved but this week I saw the Handsome Family and it reminded me of why live music is the best way to see a musician or group you really like. I had already tried to listen to their new album ‘Wilderness’ before the gig but I find my concentration to listen through from the beginning to the end of any new release very difficult as I admit I have become a bit of a ‘Shuffle Man’ by the way I listen to music so hearing the same new tracks live brought out the real meaning in the songs and the lyrics so when I went back to the album the day after I understood it  and could listen to it in a much more relaxed way. Next week I am off to see Charlie Parr, so let’s hope for another good ‘un.

Enjoy
 





Saturday, 18 May 2013

Home Of The Blues

 
I’ve been very busy at work since I returned from my holidays and haven’t really found very much to moan about other than my work and that is hardly very interesting to anybody anyway,so I thought I might talk about football. This week my team Chelsea won another European trophy and it was a great night. I have now missed both wonderful occasions in Munich and Amsterdam but as I no longer want to travel to see my beloved Blues as much as I once did and have eventually given up my old season ticket I have to follow them mostly through the wonders of satellite television and the internet these days. I also became a victim of the high ticket prices you now pay to watch 90 minutes of football so I can only manage about three games a season now but I can still find myself jumping up and down on the living room floor and shouting myself hoarse in support of my team especially with situations like the drama of Wednesday night.
This has been a great week for the team, with next season’s Champions League qualification almost confirmed and last week Frank Lampard beating Bobby Tambling’s goalscoring record at Villa Park and then the good news Thursday of his extended contract, although I always despair when other club’s supporters have a go at ‘Fat’ Frank (jealousy, such petty jealousy lads).
The man is a legend and compared to that other weirdly tattooed male model who has just retired this week after playing about ten minutes football in France for Paris St Germain to win yet another medal for doing almost nothing well then compared to him our Captain Frank is a giant of the modern game (my opinion obviously and one not widely shared I understand)…..
Plus JT stop embarrassing yourself and keep your kit off once and for all as if you don’t manage to play the actual game then let the other players lift up the cup and you celebrate with them later at the end.

Anyway
 
Super - Super - Frank - Super - Frankie - Lampard – Come on you Blue Boys…………
 
Enjoy





Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire


 
Finally the sun has come out and remained out for more than one day so Spring has arrived here with a hot Summer to follow (possibly who knows these day's).
What does this really mean you might ask, where are you going with this post you might say ?
Well if the sun is out in the UK then it can only mean one thing our sad obsession with the bar-b-q begins. Personally I just can’t see what all the fuss is about. Yes, enjoy the good weather, enjoy the sunshine and your gardens, backyards and municipal parks but please why spoil it all frying large pieces of fatty meat on a fire just because you feel it is the right thing to do or if you don’t have a bar-b-q  then somehow you are not British or not enjoying yourself properly.
So go on then and get pissed, make too much noise, annoy your neighbours and sacrifice your weekly food bill to the great outdoors god of Aus, because really that’s the place for it and that’s the place it should stay, it’s not British it’s ingrained in Australian and American culture where it is generally very hot and dry every year. As a nation we can’t do it properly but we are now indoctrinated to the point where most people can’t ignore the problem and head of straight to the nearest supermarket of DIY superstore as soon as we get one day of sunshine. So off you go and get too red sitting all day in the sun, talking too loud and filling up your arteries with half a cow. Where's the salad !!!
 I pity you all
Enjoy
 





Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Happy Holidays


I've been on my holidays, a week away from the old country and my first serious trip abroad in nine years.
Sun, sea and sangria...well not quite all that at the same time but it was really good. It was actually a week's walking and resting in Mallorca but now it's back to normality and catching up on the constant amount of TV series that I record (only quality, no shitty soap's). I brought back too much duty free, spent too much ( the Euro doesn't feel like real money but it is) and put on four pounds (so much for the walking !!).
Now that I'm back I get to vote on a pay rise at work, I have another week off before I go back to my boring old job and I have found out that two greats have gone to music heaven.
So farewell Richie Havens and George Jones.
Enjoy
 
 





Monday, 8 April 2013

The Echo Of Pit Boots


 
I must admit I was struggling again for a good subject when suddenly today everything fell into place. Sometime just after lunchtime today I was told at work that Margaret Thatcher was dead. I didn’t celebrate as such because I didn’t think that was necessary, I just thought that she has finally gone. I do not ‘hate’ Maggie I just felt that she was the opposite of me personally  in every way. By that I mean she stood for everything I do not believe in politically, morally and socially and I had to wait so many years before she finally left parliament but even then her party still ruled for a few years after.
All my 20’s and early 30’s were spent with her and the cabinet in charge so all the main political decisions were entrusted to her and by association her rich benefactors and  Tory party sycophants.
Even now I am one of those sad old fools that believe that socialism is the means to a better way of life, a better society so ‘Thatch’ was never going to get my vote, my loyalty, my respect.
She was a symbol and a major reason why so much is wrong with our country, our politics and our popular beliefs today and for that I can never forgive her and even as a child she affected my life (see badge below), that was my first memory of her name.
Goodbye then you rotten old cow.
 






Saturday, 16 March 2013

Drink Real Ale You Know It Makes Sense


Alcohol is in the news again this week with different factions of our government disagreeing on whether to adopt a new policy to bring in a minimum price per unit of alcohol. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on this and I have mine.
Forget minimum pricing all that is needed is to restrict the availability of alcohol too licensed premises only and some regulated supermarkets, therefore no corner shops, no petrol stations, no newsagents selling booze to everyone and anyone all day long if they want it.  Supermarkets should only be allowed to sell alcohol between 11am to 10pm and they should not be allowed to buy big and sell cheap, get rid of these boxes of 12 cans that sell for a £5 or less, price it all in a sensible, reasonable manner and just restrict it and things will change.
When I was a lad you could only buy beer outside of a pub in an off-licence and we should go back to those days, I didn’t even know what binge-drinking was and that was often because I couldn’t get any beer or cider to drink at all because it was either closed or I wouldn’t be served because I was under age and they used to refuse you all the time.
24/7 living and the 24/7 availability just widens the scope and gives people too much freedom of choice. Sometimes choice is a bad thing especially where alcohol is concerned, it can be done if we just restrict choice a little bit and maybe the culture will change from this moronic idea of getting completely pissed before you even go out for an evening (personally I have never indulged in such stupidity) to a reasonable, sensible society that tolerates and accepts alcohol rather than abuses it on a daily basis.
 





Friday, 8 March 2013

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now


I’ve had this idea in my head for some time but it only came to fruition when I was walking back home after a trip down to our local shops to buy something for dinner or maybe ‘tea’ if you live in the North Of England as I do. My idea is to list the top twenty things that annoy, frustrate or completely send me ‘bananas’ about living in our modern British society today. I’m sure I could list more and some of these may seem rather petty to you but these are my prejudices and mine alone….

1.       People who spit on the streets (a majority of these seem to include male teenagers, both young and old men and some smokers)
2.       People who litter (leave it on train seats, drop it on our streets or  just casually throw it out of a passing car window or even just dump an old sofa in a local hedgerow)
3.       People who have to sit on the outside of two seats on a train therefore making it plainly aware that you cannot sit next to them or ask them to move so you can sit on the empty window seat (this also includes people who deliberately leave their bags on the spare seat or pretend they are asleep and lie across two seats.. you’re pathetic !! )
4.       Dog owners that let their dogs just crap anywhere and leave it for others to walk in it (especially outside your house or in the middle of a pavement.. if you don’t want to pick it up then don’t get a dog, morons)
5.       People you turn their cars into something else (you know, blacked out windows, exhausts that sound like concord taking off, loud bass stereos that make your house walls vibrate and tyres that should only be allowed at Brands Hatch not for driving 30mph down a normal local side road)
6.       Children and Babies in pubs (not needed at all when you want a quiet pint and to escape the world, stick to a Hungry Hippo or something in that family outing vein)
7.       Blokes that stand on street corners or walk down the street drinking from cans of crap lager (why do you feel the need to do that ???)
8.       Blokes that wear flip-flops to go out (it’s not British, the local high street is not a beach, watch out for the dog shit...take ‘em off, you look ridiculous and you aren’t in Magaluf)
9.       People who illegally park cars on road junctions therefore obscuring the view of the sensible car driver turning either left or right into the next street
10.   Car drivers who refuse to indicate when they are turning (do you think can we actually read your minds !!!)
11.   People who use personal phones as mobile stereos or who appear to talk to themselves as they walk( I don’t want to listen to your personal taste in music and it also then confuses me as I think you are talking to me)
12.   People who have no volume control in conversations with others or when talking on their mobiles
13.   Any music that falls under these categories (Hardcore, Trance, Drum & Bass, UK Garage, Hi-NRG, Chiptune, Dub Step, Speed Garage, Hardstep, UK Funky etc etc … I feel so sorry that you decide to listen to such mindless garbage)
14.    TV Chefs (no more please I’ve had enough)
15.   The British fascination with Soap Operas (especially Eastenders which is just the most miserable, depressing bollocks that can be inflicted on a daily on a population)
16.   Large Indoor Shopping Centres or ‘Malls’ (Meadowhall, Westgate. The Trafford Centre… how many times does anybody need to visit a Next or a Primark, shop local you know it makes sense)
17.   The Americanization (is that a word ?) of British culture, take your Krispey Kreme doughnuts and shove ’em up your you know what !!
18.   The Conservative Party (personally I have never seen the point)
19.   Men with baseball caps and or hoods who have vicious untrained, unloved dogs and let them off the leash/lead in parks because it looks cool and tough to their mates and immediate family (you are numpty’s you really are)
20.   Pointless tattoos (you know the one’s I mean - they look shite)