Yesterday combined two of my favourite pastimes; going to watch sport and going to a gig. The sport in question was Bath playing at home against Newcastle Falcons. The gig in question was Ginger (from The Wildhearts) playing an acoustic gig with some of his friends. I think I got lucky in that my travel between Portsmouth and Bath, and Bath and Southampton cost £10 in total. What I didn’t factor in was how boring a near 2 hour train journey can get when you are by yourself. The journey started off somewhat badly when I got near to my reserved seat on the train to see that someone was sitting in it. Now, I would have been well within my rights to ask them to move but I opted not to. I figured it would be easier to wait for them to get off the train and take my seat back, or wait for the guard to sort it out. The guard checked the tickets and didn’t seem to care I wasn’t in my reserved seat so I stayed where I was, as I had a table and I was comfy. The only annoyance was the stranger on the table had a travel bag on the table (because it’s not like train companies provide places for you to put your luggage....oh right they do). I was accompanied on this journey by a comedy podcast called Nobody Likes Onions. So there was at least one good thing to come out of the long journey. Well, good up until the point where something is said that in private surroundings, would have attracted a massive laugh, but when you are on the train you have to stifle laughter until it hurts. One line caught me completely unguarded and I lost it. “Porn stars have Amazon wishlists? What do they want, a father?!”
I got to Bath just shy of 2 hours after leaving Cosham. I didn’t actually realise it was such a long journey until looking at train times when booking tickets. But that’s ok because the journey is worth it as long as at the end of it, there is a game of rugby. I got out of the station and looked around and immediately thought “shit, I have no idea where to go”. Having only 25mins till kick off, this wasn’t a good thing to not know where I was. I eventually started following people in Bath shirts and I ended up at the ground. It was fairly close to the train station but not knowing where I was, it was a daunting journey. I hadn’t been to The Rec in about 10-11 years, and I’ve slept a little bit since then. Anyway, I walked the long way round to the stand and tried to find a spot. After accidently ending up in the children’s area (hey, it wasn’t marked!) I located a spot and stood there for the game. Terracing is something which I’ve rarely experienced, and the last time probably was my last visit to The Rec. Before that it was when I was a kid, going to Pompey games with my Dad in the early 90s. I did not expect the terraces to be as busy as it was. I would get a different spot next time I stand at a Bath game and would try to arrive earlier.
The Rec is exactly how I remember it. I moan and bitch at Fratton Park being a shit stadium (and it is) but I feel The Rec has character. It’s very strange how I am so biased. Especially considering I have been to Fratton Park many times and The Rec only twice (actually, I might have answered my own question there). Anyway, I got a place in the terraces just as the game was about to kick off and I felt I was in a reasonable spot. I mentioned above about not knowing what to expect from terraces. I did think there would be less people in the stand than there were, so personal space was abandoned during the game. There were a couple of funny chants during the game; the one which sticks in my mind goes to the tune of The Beatles – Yellow Submarine:
Number One, is Banahan.
And Number Two, is Banahan.
And Number Three, is Banahan.
And Number Four, is Banahan.
WE ALL DREAM OF A TEAM OF BANAHANS, A TEAM OF BANAHANS, A TEAM OF BANAHANS.
Etc.
The main annoyances came from the guys standing in front of me (one of whom was pretty large, more so than me) leaning back. I accept you need to move but constantly leaning back into me isn’t going to win you favours. What made the entire situation better was the reason I was there – the game. Bath had a dominating first half and went 29-0 up. An amazing start! Half time came with the score being 29-5 (Newcastle’s try was pretty good but the missed conversion pretty much explains why they are going down – because they are shite). Half time bought one of the most random, but probably one of the best things that has happened to me in a football or rugby ground.
During the first half, I was near some Newcastle fans. I’ve mentioned on posts previous how rugby fans all mix together so this wasn’t an issue for me (although one of them was a football fan and had no idea about rugby. He was deeply confused). Anyway, there was one guy who I mostly interacted with. This included some banter (despite wearing a Bath shirt, he said I was one of the Newcastle fans, and announced that to the crowd), him leaning on and hugging me as well as trying to use my shoulder as a coaster. He was pretty drunk I thought and he didn’t spill beer on me so fuck it, no problems as far as I’m concerned. Half time came; he patted me on the shoulder and walked off. I thought nothing of it and looked around contemplating movement. He came back with his friends and then he handed me a beer. We toasted the beer and he said to his mate, gesturing at me “he’s got your beer!” I thought that it was a practical joke and all a part of earlier banter. Actually it transpired he got the pint for me for being a dick in the first half. I’ve said this in private conversation and I’ll say it here – he wasn’t anywhere near as annoying as the people in front of me. This just adds to my argument that rugby crowds are so much better than football crowds. Interestingly, the football fan I mentioned earlier was actually asking his mates questions like “when does the violence start?” and “don’t you guys want more agro?” – these questions were met with responses such as “that shit doesn’t happen with a rugby crowd. Awesome response to a really stupid question.
The second half was slower for a Bath fan. We got a penalty to make it 32-5 which was a much nicer position to be in. At this stage, Bath scored, or appeared to score a try. The ref called for it, or seemed to call for it. The play went back to the middle of the pitch but no points were awarded. Newcastle scored another try and scored a harder conversion than the first one they missed and the score was 32-12. Over the course of the second half, there were a lot of sloppy errors, but also another Bath try, penalty and conversion taking the score at full time to 42-12. A superb and well deserved result as far as I’m concerned and I was very pleased to have travelled to Bath for this game. I’ve not mentioned it yet but this was the last professional game of England World Cup 2003 Winner Danny Grewcock. He was superb in this game and I am sad to see him retire. I couldn’t hang around for the entire goodbye as I had a train to catch so I could get to St Denys, where the Talking Heads is. I briefly dosed off a few times on the train before I wasted about 30mins of my time and lost about 10 years off my life. I got off at Romsey, to change for St Denys.
The first thing I noticed when I got settled on the platform of Romsey station was there was nothing on either platform informing train users of when the next trains were due. Another thing which caught my eye was that at 18.50pm, everything was locked and there was no sight of another person (staff) anywhere. That to me is shocking service. This makes this station worse than Hilsea train station (and for anyone that knows Hilsea station, it is pretty terrible). As there wasn’t any way to find out at the station when the next trains were due, I decided to go smoke and boot up the National Rail app on my phone – thinking that this would have the most up-to-date information and could tell me when my train was. It did – 19.07 was when the train was due. At 19.07, no train arrived. I waited a minute then rebooted the app to see if it was delayed to find that the entire service had been removed from the listings – cheers! Then after another minute, a one carriage train pulled up at the other platform. I darted over to this platform, assuming this was my train. I was told that it was not and it was heading back to Salisbury. The train then proceeded to leave the station the same way it entered. I’ve not seen that happen before (aside from at stations where you hit the end of the line). Eventually another train turned up which was my train. No idea when trains are coming, trains just don’t arrive, unmanned from god knows when – Romsey station is a fucking disgrace and I would advise you to avoid it if you can.
Anyways, eventually I got to St Denys station which meant that gig times were a coming. I knew exactly where to go this time as it was a simple straight path. However I decided to be smart and buy myself a sandwich. So I went off the road I know and walked off to hunt food. After getting lost, I found the venue and somewhere to buy a drink and a sandwich. It is somewhat annoying when that happens, but hey, at least I’m not still lost. The rain at this stage was a right arsehole, so getting to the shop was a nice relief actually as it meant being inside. There were people coming in after me to buy alcohol and one looked about 10 – I felt old. Anyway, I bought my sandwich and left. I stood outside in the rain to eat it which on reflection was a stupid idea, but oh well. I walked away from the shop and entered the Talking Heads. It was gig time!
To read my review of the gig, grab that mouse of yours and click this link! REVIEW – GINGER @ THE TALKING HEADS.
Cya!
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Friday, 6 May 2011
Election Thoughts and Political Projections
I like to vote. Other than having a genuine interest in politics and current affairs, I can't explain why I like to vote. I've been voting since 2005 and haven't missed a chance to vote. It confuses me why people don't vote (assuming it is physically possible). Even if you hate politicians that much, you could go and spoil your ballot paper. I think we should introduce legislation to make voting compulsory - but have an option on the ballot paper saying "no vote". Anyway, that is somewhat irrelevant to the point of this blog. On Thursday, I got another chance to vote. Two votes actually - local council and the referendum on whether we should adopt the Alternative Vote voting system for Westminster elections. Some people are very protective of how they vote, insisting that it's a secret ballot for a reason. However I have made no secret of the way I vote. For local council, I voted Conservative and in the referendum, I voted No to Alternative Vote. I found out at work that day that the referendum votes wouldn't be counted until Friday afternoon, but we would know the results of the council election Friday AM.
I am writing this Friday evening so I know the results of the local elections and indeed the referendum. What I didn't realise was the votes in Wales and Scotland were essentially general elections for their respective assemblies and parliaments. Locally, not much changed in terms of the composition of Portsmouth council. It was held by the Lib Dems, although the Conservatives gained a seat from them. Only 1/3rd of the seats were up for grabs in Portsmouth, though I don't imagine the Lib Dems would have lost Portsmouth if all the seats were up for grabs (it might have gone to No Overall Control perhaps). Other local areas had elections as well for their local councils. Havant and Chichester remained strongly Conservative. Gosport and Fareham didn't have local elections.
In terms of the country, the big losers of the election were the Lib Dems, losing 10 councils (notably including Sheffield - where Nick Clegg's constituency is) and losing 798 seats. The big winners were Labour, having gained 27 councils and 853 seats. 17 councils moved from no overall control to being controlled by one party (by the looks, mostly Labour). Possibly the big surprise was the fact that the Conservatives didn't lose out. Generally speaking, governing parties get punished at local election time. Overall, the Conservatives didn't gain or lose any council's, and gained 28 seats. That might not be seen as a massive success (and indeed it isn't) but it was widely predicted they would lose quite a lot of seats, as many as 250 I saw predicted. So considering the predictions of heavy losses, the fact they made a gain at all (no matter how small) is a fantastic result. It goes to show that the country as a whole punished the junior partner in the coalition government, the Lib Dems, following the first year of this government. I'm not entirely sure why (other than the backtrack on promises) but the result essentially confirms the Lib Dems generally don't have an active role to play in 21st century UK politics. I assume that in 2015, if the economy hasn't picked up, they will lose most of their parliament seats, which would likely confirm the end of Nick Clegg as party leader (if he hasn't already gone).
I don't know a great deal about the Welsh Assembly, so I cannot comment much on their results other than to say Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems were the main losers. Labour gained the most but amazingly, the Conservatives gained here as well and became the 2nd biggest party in the Assembly. So with two strong results for Labour, this was shaping up to be a good night. Unfortunately (for them anyway), Scotland happened. To be honest, all the political parties had a bad night in Scotland, aside from the Scottish National Party (SNP). On my recent visit to Scotland, I can tell you for free that there were not many Conservative or Lib Dem signs around, and I know that Scotland is still fairly anti-Conservative (poll tax). So to see both of those parties receive losses was no big surprise. Labour lost fairly heavily as well, with the SNP picking up all but 1 of the seats lost. One major surprise for me is that half of Gordon Brown's UK constituency went to the SNP, which could make the next UK general election a lot more interesting (considering he is a former PM and they tend to be in very safe seats). The Scottish election this time around is historic, in that the system was designed to promote coalition governments (it was designed by Labour, and like fuck are they going to design a system where they will be out of power). However the reason that this election is historic is that the SNP won the first overall majority in the history of the Scottish parliament and will now likely have a referendum on independence for Scotland. The repercussions of this election could be huge, and could change the UK forever - so I am interested to see how this plays out but I honestly don't know if Scottish independence would be a good thing or not. Based on one policy of the SNP (anti-nuclear weapons), they might shut down the submarine base in Helensburgh, which would kill my home town for jobs - and I can't support that!
So we've covered councils, Wales and Scotland. Let's look at the referendum then. I learned during various politics lectures that the people who write the questions for referenda try to make them needlessly confusing in order to skew the result. So when it came time to vote, I read the question more than once just to make sure I was voting the way I wanted to. The question was fairly plain and easy to understand. When voting no, I thought the country would vote no but I wasn't sure. I did not expect the result that we have got. 439/440 regions have declared their referendum results (waiting on Northern Ireland) and it is a very clear win for the No 2 AV campaign. The results (as of 11pm Friday 6th May) are as follows:
Yes 2 AV - 5,863,519. 32%
No 2 AV - 12,640,417. 68%
I never anticipated such a massive result for the No 2 AV campaign but it was a clear message sent from the people that did bother to vote (because the turnout was just over 40%) that we don't want the alternative vote! A 36point lead cannot be disputed. I do wonder what the impact of this decision will be and indeed the impact of the elections on the country as a whole. Will Clegg's future as Lib Dem leader be in doubt? Will the next campaign for electoral reform be about fully fledged Proportional Representation? What will happen to the coalition? Is it really as strong as they claim in the media? What will happen in Scotland now they have a nationalist party with an overall majority in charge for the first time? I don't know the answer to these questions yet, no-one does. However, this could be a really interesting time for UK politics and I for one am interested to see what impact, if any, Thursday’s election will have on the UK.
I was going to write this blog and include my review of my day watching Bath and seeing Ginger. However if you have reached this stage in the blog without having died, you have realised that I had quite a lot to say about the elections. The blog about Bath RFU/Ginger will be a lot shorter and written/posted probably on Sunday. Until then, you stay classy!
I am writing this Friday evening so I know the results of the local elections and indeed the referendum. What I didn't realise was the votes in Wales and Scotland were essentially general elections for their respective assemblies and parliaments. Locally, not much changed in terms of the composition of Portsmouth council. It was held by the Lib Dems, although the Conservatives gained a seat from them. Only 1/3rd of the seats were up for grabs in Portsmouth, though I don't imagine the Lib Dems would have lost Portsmouth if all the seats were up for grabs (it might have gone to No Overall Control perhaps). Other local areas had elections as well for their local councils. Havant and Chichester remained strongly Conservative. Gosport and Fareham didn't have local elections.
In terms of the country, the big losers of the election were the Lib Dems, losing 10 councils (notably including Sheffield - where Nick Clegg's constituency is) and losing 798 seats. The big winners were Labour, having gained 27 councils and 853 seats. 17 councils moved from no overall control to being controlled by one party (by the looks, mostly Labour). Possibly the big surprise was the fact that the Conservatives didn't lose out. Generally speaking, governing parties get punished at local election time. Overall, the Conservatives didn't gain or lose any council's, and gained 28 seats. That might not be seen as a massive success (and indeed it isn't) but it was widely predicted they would lose quite a lot of seats, as many as 250 I saw predicted. So considering the predictions of heavy losses, the fact they made a gain at all (no matter how small) is a fantastic result. It goes to show that the country as a whole punished the junior partner in the coalition government, the Lib Dems, following the first year of this government. I'm not entirely sure why (other than the backtrack on promises) but the result essentially confirms the Lib Dems generally don't have an active role to play in 21st century UK politics. I assume that in 2015, if the economy hasn't picked up, they will lose most of their parliament seats, which would likely confirm the end of Nick Clegg as party leader (if he hasn't already gone).
I don't know a great deal about the Welsh Assembly, so I cannot comment much on their results other than to say Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems were the main losers. Labour gained the most but amazingly, the Conservatives gained here as well and became the 2nd biggest party in the Assembly. So with two strong results for Labour, this was shaping up to be a good night. Unfortunately (for them anyway), Scotland happened. To be honest, all the political parties had a bad night in Scotland, aside from the Scottish National Party (SNP). On my recent visit to Scotland, I can tell you for free that there were not many Conservative or Lib Dem signs around, and I know that Scotland is still fairly anti-Conservative (poll tax). So to see both of those parties receive losses was no big surprise. Labour lost fairly heavily as well, with the SNP picking up all but 1 of the seats lost. One major surprise for me is that half of Gordon Brown's UK constituency went to the SNP, which could make the next UK general election a lot more interesting (considering he is a former PM and they tend to be in very safe seats). The Scottish election this time around is historic, in that the system was designed to promote coalition governments (it was designed by Labour, and like fuck are they going to design a system where they will be out of power). However the reason that this election is historic is that the SNP won the first overall majority in the history of the Scottish parliament and will now likely have a referendum on independence for Scotland. The repercussions of this election could be huge, and could change the UK forever - so I am interested to see how this plays out but I honestly don't know if Scottish independence would be a good thing or not. Based on one policy of the SNP (anti-nuclear weapons), they might shut down the submarine base in Helensburgh, which would kill my home town for jobs - and I can't support that!
So we've covered councils, Wales and Scotland. Let's look at the referendum then. I learned during various politics lectures that the people who write the questions for referenda try to make them needlessly confusing in order to skew the result. So when it came time to vote, I read the question more than once just to make sure I was voting the way I wanted to. The question was fairly plain and easy to understand. When voting no, I thought the country would vote no but I wasn't sure. I did not expect the result that we have got. 439/440 regions have declared their referendum results (waiting on Northern Ireland) and it is a very clear win for the No 2 AV campaign. The results (as of 11pm Friday 6th May) are as follows:
Yes 2 AV - 5,863,519. 32%
No 2 AV - 12,640,417. 68%
I never anticipated such a massive result for the No 2 AV campaign but it was a clear message sent from the people that did bother to vote (because the turnout was just over 40%) that we don't want the alternative vote! A 36point lead cannot be disputed. I do wonder what the impact of this decision will be and indeed the impact of the elections on the country as a whole. Will Clegg's future as Lib Dem leader be in doubt? Will the next campaign for electoral reform be about fully fledged Proportional Representation? What will happen to the coalition? Is it really as strong as they claim in the media? What will happen in Scotland now they have a nationalist party with an overall majority in charge for the first time? I don't know the answer to these questions yet, no-one does. However, this could be a really interesting time for UK politics and I for one am interested to see what impact, if any, Thursday’s election will have on the UK.
I was going to write this blog and include my review of my day watching Bath and seeing Ginger. However if you have reached this stage in the blog without having died, you have realised that I had quite a lot to say about the elections. The blog about Bath RFU/Ginger will be a lot shorter and written/posted probably on Sunday. Until then, you stay classy!
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Bank Holiday Weekend - Scotland
A day at work before going on holiday always drags, no matter where you are going or how long for. For me this time, it was a Thursday. The extended bank holiday weekend (thanks to the Royal Wedding and Mayday) was the setting for a weekend break 22 years in the making - I was going to Scotland, the country of my birth. As a family, we left when I was about 18 months old and for one reason or another, we hadn't been back. However this long weekend, that would all be changed. We were staying in Dumbarton, which is the nearest town to Helensburgh, and Alexandria - where we used to live and where I was born respectively. All I wanted out of this trip was to see bits of Helensburgh (like the old family home and generally the area around) and to see the Vale of Leven hospital in Alexandria, where I was born.
After finishing work on the Thursday, we started the long drive up to Scotland. The journey is about 465 miles which wouldn't have been possible to do all of on Thursday night (well, safely anyway) and doing it all the Friday would leave very little time to do anything. We drove from Portsmouth to Warrington Lymm Services Travelodge (not far from Manchester) where we spent the night. The room was a fairly basic Travelodge room, and I spent the night on the mattress which comes underneath the couch in a family room. I maintain they are more comfortable than the beds, but they look disgusting. The morning consisted of breakfast in Costa and getting back on the road.
The journey to Scotland on Friday was painless, and involved driving down some stretches of motorway which were surrounded by fantastic scenery. It was very nice to see and led me to declare that "my country of birth is nicer than yours!" Finding the hotel was fairly easy really, and we learned that the hotel was less than 3 months old. We checked into the rooms (I had my own room this time) and got settled in. I'll say this, Premier Inn rooms are far far better than Travelodge rooms. The journey up consisted mainly of listening to the Royal Wedding. I had previously said that I wasn’t interested at all in the wedding, but it was good listening to it on the radio. We stopped at a service station which had it on in their “casino” which had a massive crowd. Strange how you get sucked into these sorts of things.
After getting set up in the rooms and booking a table at the neighbouring pub for dinner, we ventured into Helensburgh. We decided to do all the sight-seeing I wanted to do on the Friday, as it wouldn't take long and we had half an afternoon to kill. It was really nice for me to see these places. We went for a walk along Helensburgh seafront which was nice as the weather was nice. We looked at the little funfair that was down there and saw the most embarrassing "Roller Coster". I'm not sure that's a thing but apparently it is (the spelling error was painted on the rollercoAster). We drove down to where my dad used to work which had changed quite a lot. We passed "Peace Camp" which is essentially a commune of people protesting nuclear weapons (the HMNB there has the nuclear subs I'd guess). We later learned that usually there is only one person living there at one time now to look after the place. We went back to the hotel for dinner, where the pub had a fish & chip buffet on. Unbelievably unhealthy but very nice at the same time - battered fish & sausages, roast chicken, mince beef pies and of course, chips (with plenty of curry sauce on the side). Fantastic. After the meal, me and my dad sat in the pub where I got nicely drunk on Tennents and Belhaven. A really good end to my first day in Scotland.
Saturday started very well, in that I didn't have a hangover! The plan for the day was to visit a couple of cities that my parents used to visit when they lived in Scotland. Before that though, we went back to Alexandria as there was a shopping centre which we weren't sure if it was open or not that we wanted to visit. From the outside, it looked like it had been closed for a little while. However it was open (it was just an old building). There wasn't much going on in there. The inside of the building was very nice (old marble staircase looking great). We visited two shops and moved on, with the next port of call being Stirling.
The drive to Stirling was great, in that the scenery was beautiful. There was a lot of countryside which just looked nice. We didn't see much of Stirling other than the town centre but it was a decent town centre. Much better than the one in Portsmouth. We visited a cafe for a drink and a toilet stop. The toilet in this place was miles away (which considering the size of the cafe, was quite surprising). After killing a bit of time strolling around, we moved on to Glasgow.
Glasgow is a fantastic city to visit. The only thing that I was told about it is how amazing the buildings are. This is very true - the architecture is fantastic. There are some really old buildings and some really new buildings which somehow blend together so that neither seems out of place. Another thing worth noting is how big the city centre is. It reminded me quite a lot of walking round certain parts of London. The main difference from London though to be fair was how clean the city centre was. I was quite surprised at this, considering I live in a much smaller city than Glasgow, which is nowhere near as clean. From the bits I saw, Glasgow seems to be a great city, and I am really glad we had the chance to go there. It was also kind of cool seeing some of the gig venues which I’ve seen in tour listings. Glasgow has about 5/6 gig venues that I know about, which really makes it appeal to me. As the day drew to a close, we looked for a curry. I’d heard of a famous curry street in Glasgow which we didn’t find. We then went to Dumbarton to look for one, which was unsuccessful. Then went to Helensburgh and found an alright one called Café Lahore. I’ve since spoken to someone from work that is also from Helensburgh who said “I’d never eat there” but it was fine. Strange as it might be, I judge restaurants on food quality, and this place was alright. A small stroll later, and we headed back to Dumbarton to the hotel.
The Sunday was meant to consist of two things, going to Loch Lomond and seeing a friend of my mums. This plan changed late on Saturday to visit Antartax Village, then go to Loch Lomond, then go see mums friend. The Loch Lomond bit of this day didn’t happen. We went to Antartax with the intention for a little mooch before leaving. We ended up staying there for nearly 5 hours. We started off with a breakfast there which honestly would put Wetherspoons to shame. It was delicious (and the first time in many years that I’d eaten fried bread). We then looked around the clothes (I was instantly drawn to the kilt section). One thing I noticed about this place was the amount of suits they were selling. Transpired any suit, regardless of marked price, was being sold for £50. So then the hunt was on to find a matching suit set which fit. Unfortunately for me, this did not occur (although I did get some nice trousers for £15 each). Wading through all of these suits took most of the time and we left just before 1. Without the time to go to Loch Lomond, we headed back to the hotel room before being picked up. We spent the rest of the Sunday at mum’s friend’s house. I wasn’t overly keen on going at first as truthfully, I didn’t travel 465 miles to spend time with someone who I didn’t really know. However, it was a really nice afternoon/evening so I’m glad we did go. I guess it is nice to know someone if you are going somewhere. Anyway, we got a taxi back to Dumbarton, and crashed out in the hotel for the last time.
Waking up on the Sunday was slightly painful as I was slightly drunk the day before. However when turning on the TV, I was greeted with the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. That was quite something. Funny how a major news story dominated the journey up to Scotland (the royal wedding) and how one would dominate the journey home. The knowledge was fairly limited early on (which might seem somewhat obvious) but the news channels reported everything they knew. Anyway – we head off on the road and I took in all the Scottish scenery I could, knowing that when we got back into England, it wouldn’t be the same. It actually was quite nice as we drove by the Lake District. We stopped at a farm shop where I grabbed another haggis pie. The drive from there was fairly uneventful, and the scenery just wasn’t a patch on Scotland.
All in all, the jaunt to Scotland was fantastic. I am so glad to have finally seen some of the things I’ve seen. The scenery in Scotland, especially on that drive to Stirling, is beautiful. I will go back again in a heartbeat. I jokingly talked about moving there – but if I could find a good paying job, I would go.
After finishing work on the Thursday, we started the long drive up to Scotland. The journey is about 465 miles which wouldn't have been possible to do all of on Thursday night (well, safely anyway) and doing it all the Friday would leave very little time to do anything. We drove from Portsmouth to Warrington Lymm Services Travelodge (not far from Manchester) where we spent the night. The room was a fairly basic Travelodge room, and I spent the night on the mattress which comes underneath the couch in a family room. I maintain they are more comfortable than the beds, but they look disgusting. The morning consisted of breakfast in Costa and getting back on the road.
The journey to Scotland on Friday was painless, and involved driving down some stretches of motorway which were surrounded by fantastic scenery. It was very nice to see and led me to declare that "my country of birth is nicer than yours!" Finding the hotel was fairly easy really, and we learned that the hotel was less than 3 months old. We checked into the rooms (I had my own room this time) and got settled in. I'll say this, Premier Inn rooms are far far better than Travelodge rooms. The journey up consisted mainly of listening to the Royal Wedding. I had previously said that I wasn’t interested at all in the wedding, but it was good listening to it on the radio. We stopped at a service station which had it on in their “casino” which had a massive crowd. Strange how you get sucked into these sorts of things.
After getting set up in the rooms and booking a table at the neighbouring pub for dinner, we ventured into Helensburgh. We decided to do all the sight-seeing I wanted to do on the Friday, as it wouldn't take long and we had half an afternoon to kill. It was really nice for me to see these places. We went for a walk along Helensburgh seafront which was nice as the weather was nice. We looked at the little funfair that was down there and saw the most embarrassing "Roller Coster". I'm not sure that's a thing but apparently it is (the spelling error was painted on the rollercoAster). We drove down to where my dad used to work which had changed quite a lot. We passed "Peace Camp" which is essentially a commune of people protesting nuclear weapons (the HMNB there has the nuclear subs I'd guess). We later learned that usually there is only one person living there at one time now to look after the place. We went back to the hotel for dinner, where the pub had a fish & chip buffet on. Unbelievably unhealthy but very nice at the same time - battered fish & sausages, roast chicken, mince beef pies and of course, chips (with plenty of curry sauce on the side). Fantastic. After the meal, me and my dad sat in the pub where I got nicely drunk on Tennents and Belhaven. A really good end to my first day in Scotland.
Saturday started very well, in that I didn't have a hangover! The plan for the day was to visit a couple of cities that my parents used to visit when they lived in Scotland. Before that though, we went back to Alexandria as there was a shopping centre which we weren't sure if it was open or not that we wanted to visit. From the outside, it looked like it had been closed for a little while. However it was open (it was just an old building). There wasn't much going on in there. The inside of the building was very nice (old marble staircase looking great). We visited two shops and moved on, with the next port of call being Stirling.
The drive to Stirling was great, in that the scenery was beautiful. There was a lot of countryside which just looked nice. We didn't see much of Stirling other than the town centre but it was a decent town centre. Much better than the one in Portsmouth. We visited a cafe for a drink and a toilet stop. The toilet in this place was miles away (which considering the size of the cafe, was quite surprising). After killing a bit of time strolling around, we moved on to Glasgow.
Glasgow is a fantastic city to visit. The only thing that I was told about it is how amazing the buildings are. This is very true - the architecture is fantastic. There are some really old buildings and some really new buildings which somehow blend together so that neither seems out of place. Another thing worth noting is how big the city centre is. It reminded me quite a lot of walking round certain parts of London. The main difference from London though to be fair was how clean the city centre was. I was quite surprised at this, considering I live in a much smaller city than Glasgow, which is nowhere near as clean. From the bits I saw, Glasgow seems to be a great city, and I am really glad we had the chance to go there. It was also kind of cool seeing some of the gig venues which I’ve seen in tour listings. Glasgow has about 5/6 gig venues that I know about, which really makes it appeal to me. As the day drew to a close, we looked for a curry. I’d heard of a famous curry street in Glasgow which we didn’t find. We then went to Dumbarton to look for one, which was unsuccessful. Then went to Helensburgh and found an alright one called Café Lahore. I’ve since spoken to someone from work that is also from Helensburgh who said “I’d never eat there” but it was fine. Strange as it might be, I judge restaurants on food quality, and this place was alright. A small stroll later, and we headed back to Dumbarton to the hotel.
The Sunday was meant to consist of two things, going to Loch Lomond and seeing a friend of my mums. This plan changed late on Saturday to visit Antartax Village, then go to Loch Lomond, then go see mums friend. The Loch Lomond bit of this day didn’t happen. We went to Antartax with the intention for a little mooch before leaving. We ended up staying there for nearly 5 hours. We started off with a breakfast there which honestly would put Wetherspoons to shame. It was delicious (and the first time in many years that I’d eaten fried bread). We then looked around the clothes (I was instantly drawn to the kilt section). One thing I noticed about this place was the amount of suits they were selling. Transpired any suit, regardless of marked price, was being sold for £50. So then the hunt was on to find a matching suit set which fit. Unfortunately for me, this did not occur (although I did get some nice trousers for £15 each). Wading through all of these suits took most of the time and we left just before 1. Without the time to go to Loch Lomond, we headed back to the hotel room before being picked up. We spent the rest of the Sunday at mum’s friend’s house. I wasn’t overly keen on going at first as truthfully, I didn’t travel 465 miles to spend time with someone who I didn’t really know. However, it was a really nice afternoon/evening so I’m glad we did go. I guess it is nice to know someone if you are going somewhere. Anyway, we got a taxi back to Dumbarton, and crashed out in the hotel for the last time.
Waking up on the Sunday was slightly painful as I was slightly drunk the day before. However when turning on the TV, I was greeted with the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. That was quite something. Funny how a major news story dominated the journey up to Scotland (the royal wedding) and how one would dominate the journey home. The knowledge was fairly limited early on (which might seem somewhat obvious) but the news channels reported everything they knew. Anyway – we head off on the road and I took in all the Scottish scenery I could, knowing that when we got back into England, it wouldn’t be the same. It actually was quite nice as we drove by the Lake District. We stopped at a farm shop where I grabbed another haggis pie. The drive from there was fairly uneventful, and the scenery just wasn’t a patch on Scotland.
All in all, the jaunt to Scotland was fantastic. I am so glad to have finally seen some of the things I’ve seen. The scenery in Scotland, especially on that drive to Stirling, is beautiful. I will go back again in a heartbeat. I jokingly talked about moving there – but if I could find a good paying job, I would go.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Reviews: Diabetes UK Gig & Skindred @ The Wedgewood Rooms
Diabetes UK gig: Hairforce 5, TFO and Toxic Shock – Wedgewood Rooms. (24/4/11)
Easter Sunday is usually an occasion for me to be off work. Even when working in retail, I didn't have to work this day. I'm not religious, so do not buy into the actual festivities of the Easter weekend, but if they are going to give me a long weekend - I won't moan. Anyway, the Easter Sunday just gone was different to the others as I actually had something of note to do! The Wedgewood Rooms was hosting a charity gig for Diabetes UK, with a club night after. The headlining band were a 80s tribute band called Hairforce 5, and the two bands under them were The Founders Of (TFO) and Toxic Shock. I know people in both of the two bands playing before the tribute band, and I hadn't got round to seeing them live. So the chance to see them both live on the same night, plus a tribute act, plus a club night and it's all for charity? Sounds good to me.
I can't remember if I had heard any Toxic Shock before going to these gigs (I'm sure I heard clips of them on their website but that could be my mind playing tricks on me). Anyway, their set was very enjoyable. Their music is very headbangable (is that a word? It is now!) The thing for them which really stand out for me is how catchy their music is. I really enjoyed their set and I hope to see them live again.
TFO are a different style to that of Toxic Shock and indeed Hairforce 5, which made me wonder if they would stick out like a sore thumb (I have heard from other people they are more of an indie band than metal) but they were also really good. Their set I thought meshed a number of different styles together including indie, rock and ska. Again, their songs were very catchy, and their homage to the Jungle Book was quite unexpected, but very enjoyable. I also hope to see them live again.
I openly discussed with the people I was with leaving at this stage. I had enjoyed both bands but I was considering getting home. However, I decided to grab another beer and stick around for a little bit of Hairforce 5. Truthfully, my first thought of them was negative as I thought the way they dressed on stage made them look like tits. I ended up sticking around for all of their set and being thoroughly impressed by them. Actually, they played covers from a variety of bands and there were some weak points - Walk This Way being particularly poor. However, 90% of what they played was fantastic, so you can't really argue with that. The set was packed with crowd pleasers and sing-along's which were really fun. I think "fun" is probably the best word for them. Early on in the set, the lead singer said "thank you for coming down to see 3 fantastic bands, well 2.5 fantastic bands. I'm sure you all know what I mean" - to which I tweeted about, wondering why they would sell themselves short like that. In my mind, they can't have been putting down either TFO or Toxic Shock as they were both great. However, they won me over so I can say that this night had 3 fantastic bands playing and I really enjoyed the live music portion of the evening.
The club night after was run by the guys that run It's A Sin, a local club night to Portsmouth. I would like to talk about that in detail however I can't. I remember I heard some good music but aside from that, it is a little bit of a blur. I tweeted that it was good though, so I’m sure my drunken self was right. A good night all round.
Skindred Destroy The Dancefloor (Wedgewood Rooms - 27/04/11)
I was interested to see what the Skindred gig last night would be like considering the gig had been moved from the Pyramids to the much smaller Wedgewood Rooms. I am surprised that, following two high profile slots at consecutive Sonisphere festivals, the gig had to be moved at all. However, for all the people in the sold out Wedgewood Rooms, we were in for a treat. Having seen Skindred there in 2010, I knew what they were capable of. The 2010 gig was fantastic and I was hoping for more of the same. I arrived towards the end of the first band, Me vs. Hero. Listening only to the last two songs, I liked what I heard from them. Usually with a support band, I try to compare them in my head to a similar sounding band to form the basis of my opinion. However on this occasion, I was unsuccessful. They didn't seem to get much of a response from the already packed Wedgewood Rooms crowd but I thought they were alright, and they got the night off to a pretty reasonable start. They attempted to get the crowd to make some noise for the next band, Chiodos, with very little success.
Chiodos are another band that I am struggling to put my finger on in terms of a comparison with another band. I remember thinking they were fairly similar to Bullet For My Valentine but I've no idea how accurate that comparison is. As for their set, they were fairly good. I enjoyed most of what I heard from them, although at times I was bored. They managed to get a better response from the crowd than Me Vs. Hero got (although from what I saw, that wouldn't be hard). Predictably, their biggest response was asking the crowd if we were ready for Skindred. After two bands who were alright, but truthfully I'd have been just as happy arriving after they started, I was ready for Skindred.
During the break between Chiodos and Skindred, the atmosphere in the venue picked up quite significantly. This was noticeable by the amount of songs that either made parts of the crowd cheer, or even had the crowd singing along. It must be somewhat frustrating being in a support band, and hearing that a recording of Slipknot - Psychosocial get a better response than your band did. The biggest response came when AC/DC - Thunderstruck played. This was probably a mixture of people loving the song, and people knowing this meant Skindred were about to take the stage.
The room exploded as Skindred took to the stage. They started with what seemed almost like a reworked version of Bruises which was really good. Following that was Roots Rock Riot. This was a superb start to their set which continued to get better as it went on. There was a homage to Metallica during Trouble which was very well received. The new material released on Monday sounded great, with the new album providing a moment of comedy. Benji Webbe asked the crowd who had the new album, which got a fairly big cheer. He then asked who had stolen the new album, which got a slightly awkward response. After clarification, it transpired quite a lot of the people who had the new album had downloaded it for free. "Let me see your hands, people who stole it....you bunch of c**ts!" Following that was a crowd-pleasing declaration that stealing music isn't a bad thing, as long as people still came to the gigs to rock out - safe to say, that wasn't a problem for us.
Seeing the way Benji Webbe can hold a crowd of any size in his hands is phenomenal. During a song towards the end of the set, the band paused with Benji just stood at the front. Without gesture, the crowd went nuts, chanting Skindred until the song kicked back in. Destroy The Dancefloor and Nobody were the final songs before the encore, which is unfortunately when I had to depart. I was left in no doubt though that Skindred are an amazing live band, regardless of setting (be it main stage at Sonisphere or in the 400 capacity Wedgewood Rooms). They are a band that, if you like their music, you need to see them live. For the people that are attending the Download festival this year, make sure you find the time to catch Skindred - you will not regret it.
Easter Sunday is usually an occasion for me to be off work. Even when working in retail, I didn't have to work this day. I'm not religious, so do not buy into the actual festivities of the Easter weekend, but if they are going to give me a long weekend - I won't moan. Anyway, the Easter Sunday just gone was different to the others as I actually had something of note to do! The Wedgewood Rooms was hosting a charity gig for Diabetes UK, with a club night after. The headlining band were a 80s tribute band called Hairforce 5, and the two bands under them were The Founders Of (TFO) and Toxic Shock. I know people in both of the two bands playing before the tribute band, and I hadn't got round to seeing them live. So the chance to see them both live on the same night, plus a tribute act, plus a club night and it's all for charity? Sounds good to me.
I can't remember if I had heard any Toxic Shock before going to these gigs (I'm sure I heard clips of them on their website but that could be my mind playing tricks on me). Anyway, their set was very enjoyable. Their music is very headbangable (is that a word? It is now!) The thing for them which really stand out for me is how catchy their music is. I really enjoyed their set and I hope to see them live again.
TFO are a different style to that of Toxic Shock and indeed Hairforce 5, which made me wonder if they would stick out like a sore thumb (I have heard from other people they are more of an indie band than metal) but they were also really good. Their set I thought meshed a number of different styles together including indie, rock and ska. Again, their songs were very catchy, and their homage to the Jungle Book was quite unexpected, but very enjoyable. I also hope to see them live again.
I openly discussed with the people I was with leaving at this stage. I had enjoyed both bands but I was considering getting home. However, I decided to grab another beer and stick around for a little bit of Hairforce 5. Truthfully, my first thought of them was negative as I thought the way they dressed on stage made them look like tits. I ended up sticking around for all of their set and being thoroughly impressed by them. Actually, they played covers from a variety of bands and there were some weak points - Walk This Way being particularly poor. However, 90% of what they played was fantastic, so you can't really argue with that. The set was packed with crowd pleasers and sing-along's which were really fun. I think "fun" is probably the best word for them. Early on in the set, the lead singer said "thank you for coming down to see 3 fantastic bands, well 2.5 fantastic bands. I'm sure you all know what I mean" - to which I tweeted about, wondering why they would sell themselves short like that. In my mind, they can't have been putting down either TFO or Toxic Shock as they were both great. However, they won me over so I can say that this night had 3 fantastic bands playing and I really enjoyed the live music portion of the evening.
The club night after was run by the guys that run It's A Sin, a local club night to Portsmouth. I would like to talk about that in detail however I can't. I remember I heard some good music but aside from that, it is a little bit of a blur. I tweeted that it was good though, so I’m sure my drunken self was right. A good night all round.
Skindred Destroy The Dancefloor (Wedgewood Rooms - 27/04/11)
I was interested to see what the Skindred gig last night would be like considering the gig had been moved from the Pyramids to the much smaller Wedgewood Rooms. I am surprised that, following two high profile slots at consecutive Sonisphere festivals, the gig had to be moved at all. However, for all the people in the sold out Wedgewood Rooms, we were in for a treat. Having seen Skindred there in 2010, I knew what they were capable of. The 2010 gig was fantastic and I was hoping for more of the same. I arrived towards the end of the first band, Me vs. Hero. Listening only to the last two songs, I liked what I heard from them. Usually with a support band, I try to compare them in my head to a similar sounding band to form the basis of my opinion. However on this occasion, I was unsuccessful. They didn't seem to get much of a response from the already packed Wedgewood Rooms crowd but I thought they were alright, and they got the night off to a pretty reasonable start. They attempted to get the crowd to make some noise for the next band, Chiodos, with very little success.
Chiodos are another band that I am struggling to put my finger on in terms of a comparison with another band. I remember thinking they were fairly similar to Bullet For My Valentine but I've no idea how accurate that comparison is. As for their set, they were fairly good. I enjoyed most of what I heard from them, although at times I was bored. They managed to get a better response from the crowd than Me Vs. Hero got (although from what I saw, that wouldn't be hard). Predictably, their biggest response was asking the crowd if we were ready for Skindred. After two bands who were alright, but truthfully I'd have been just as happy arriving after they started, I was ready for Skindred.
During the break between Chiodos and Skindred, the atmosphere in the venue picked up quite significantly. This was noticeable by the amount of songs that either made parts of the crowd cheer, or even had the crowd singing along. It must be somewhat frustrating being in a support band, and hearing that a recording of Slipknot - Psychosocial get a better response than your band did. The biggest response came when AC/DC - Thunderstruck played. This was probably a mixture of people loving the song, and people knowing this meant Skindred were about to take the stage.
The room exploded as Skindred took to the stage. They started with what seemed almost like a reworked version of Bruises which was really good. Following that was Roots Rock Riot. This was a superb start to their set which continued to get better as it went on. There was a homage to Metallica during Trouble which was very well received. The new material released on Monday sounded great, with the new album providing a moment of comedy. Benji Webbe asked the crowd who had the new album, which got a fairly big cheer. He then asked who had stolen the new album, which got a slightly awkward response. After clarification, it transpired quite a lot of the people who had the new album had downloaded it for free. "Let me see your hands, people who stole it....you bunch of c**ts!" Following that was a crowd-pleasing declaration that stealing music isn't a bad thing, as long as people still came to the gigs to rock out - safe to say, that wasn't a problem for us.
Seeing the way Benji Webbe can hold a crowd of any size in his hands is phenomenal. During a song towards the end of the set, the band paused with Benji just stood at the front. Without gesture, the crowd went nuts, chanting Skindred until the song kicked back in. Destroy The Dancefloor and Nobody were the final songs before the encore, which is unfortunately when I had to depart. I was left in no doubt though that Skindred are an amazing live band, regardless of setting (be it main stage at Sonisphere or in the 400 capacity Wedgewood Rooms). They are a band that, if you like their music, you need to see them live. For the people that are attending the Download festival this year, make sure you find the time to catch Skindred - you will not regret it.
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Easter Sunday Musings
Without one major theme for this blog today, I decided to call it Easter Sunday Musings. There is no discussion about Chocolate, Religion or even rabbits, so the title might be slightly dishonest. Small bits about a few things that are going on or have been going on.
Yesterday was an awesome day. I booked tickets a while ago for the St. Georges Day game of Rugby at Twickenham. The game was London Wasps v Bath Rugby. I decided to go to this for two reasons – the first being that the first game of rugby that I went to watch was Bath and secondly, I wanted to go watch another game at Twickenham. Travelling up to London on a nice day is always a bonus although when we got into London the climate (so to speak) changed from nice and warm to muggy. Getting to Twickenham is a piece of piss really from Waterloo. I haven’t gone to Twickenham via train since 2008 when I went to see Iron Maiden there. This was different however as the crowd arrived for the Maiden gig in drips and drabs (if memory serves – I don’t remember it being that busy) but yesterday there were massive crowds all walking with the same purpose – to enjoy a game of Rugby in the sun. One thing I love about Rugby is mixing fans. As we walked into the stadium, we engaged in a bit of banter with a Wasps fan, which was all fun. Try doing that at a football game and you’ll likely be picking your teeth off the floor – why is that? Anyway, the view from the seats was rather good (made even better somehow knowing that the tickets with booking fees cost about £17.50).
Reading the programme on the way home was quite entertaining as it made reference to last year’s St. Georges Day game where Bath won 35-19 and how that was a massive blow to the team. If that was a massive blow, then I hate to think what yesterday’s game will do to the London Wasps. Bath started off really well and got a try within the 4th minute. A conversion just after and Bath were 7-0 up really early. I’m not going to discuss all the points in detail (there are match reports for that) but at half time, Bath went in 29-3 up which is a commanding half time lead. There was a bit of controversy over one of the second half try’s for Bath (which required the use of the video ref). It was given as a try but I’m pretty certain that it was not, Dave was pretty certain that it wasn’t a try and the Wasps fans around us were in disbelief it was given. Another example of opposition fans just chatting about a decision in the game without reverting to calling the referee, or each other, wankers. Quite nice really. The final score was 43-10. As a side note, the try that London Wasps scored was immense (run from the half way line to score). Great game and Bath were the deserved winners I think. Really glad I decided to go to the game and I can’t wait to go back on the 28th May for the Aviva Premiership Final. With any luck, Bath will be there but I’m not that hopeful.
Speaking of rugby, I have been debating whether to try and go watch Bath one more time this season at their home ground. Every time I’ve looked, tickets have sold out really fast so I promised myself if I had the chance this season, I’d do all I could to go. Sure enough that chance arrived for the game on the 7th May. Now, I already have plans for the evening of the 7th May in Southampton (going to see Ginger, the front-man of The Wildhearts, do an acoustic set). So the day will involve a jaunt from home to Bath Spa station. I’m reliably informed the Recreation ground is pretty close to the station, and I hope that this is true. After the game I’m off to get a train from Bath to Romsey. Romsey is a grim place if memory serves. I seem to recall it’s like Petersfield. Anyway, change in Romsey to get to the Talking Heads, and then the gig. Trying to work out whether wearing a Bath Rugby shirt that day is a good idea or not – it’s quite a thick shirt and that could be a bad move for a gig. Anyway, I’m seeing two more games of rugby this season and I cannot wait. I honestly think I’ll probably go and watch Bath more next season than I will Pompey – unless Bath raises their prices as well and then I’ll just be pissed off!
It wouldn’t really be a blog on this website without some form of mention about live music. This Easter weekend of fun continues with a gig tonight at the Wedgewood Rooms to support the cause of Diabetes. I have friends who play in The Founders Of and Toxic Shock, both of whom are playing tonight. There is a headline band called Hairforce 5, but I know nothing of them. Tempted truthfully to give them a miss and just head home. Saves money that way and also will mean I won’t have a hangover on my bank holiday Monday. Speaking of gigs at the Wedgewood Rooms though, Skindred who were due to play the Pyramids in Portsmouth have had their gig moved to the Wedgewood Rooms. That does surprise me as I’d have thought they’d have no trouble selling out Pyramids but the fact they sold less than 400 (which it had to be for it to be moved to the Wedge) is quite surprising. However, I’m really happy about the move as in 2010, Skindred were awesome at the Wedge and I can’t wait to see them destroy the dancefloor there again.
Since my last blog, I have purchased Football Manager 2011. I never realised how much I missed playing a game of some description until I bought this game. My Xbox went down quite a long time ago and instead of getting it fixed – I accepted it was unlikely to survive much longer after getting fixed and so I gave up on it. Playing FM2011 has been fun and after a few shit starts to seasons, I’ve created a game where I am managing Tottenham and have lead them to two Premiership titles, an FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield and Final/Semi-Final of the Champions League. It is a lot of fun to chop and change the squad, in preparation for another assault on the biggest European prize. In fact, once I have finished writing this, I will be heading back virtual sheepskin jacket and dugout. Although it is pre-season at the moment so probably not so much of the dugout.
Finally, is anyone else fucking sick of this debate over AV? I just wanted to express my apathy with both sides of the campaign. Yes to AV people are just attacking the Conservatives (and other supporters) and likening them to the BNP and Communist Party’s (strange how they can be like both of those parties) and the No to AV people are arguing about the cost. It is such a shit argument from both campaigns. The main argument for AV as far as I can see is the eventual winner of a vote must receive 50% of the votes in their constituency. The main argument for First Past The Post is that the candidate who wins the most votes in a constituency wins. Why people needed to resort to cheap arguments to get their point across is beyond me (although not uncommon in politics sadly). The advert for the No to AV campaign with the horse race was very simplistic but it worked. I think I am voting No to AV but that’s because I don’t see how changing the voting system will really benefit the country. If there are constituencies that are safe seats under FPTP, then chances are they probably still will be pretty safe under AV. It is only the swing voter seats that make things interesting under an AV system, but then they also can make things interesting under a FPTP system. I just don’t see how someone can claim they won 50% of the vote if they had to rely on 2nd choice votes to get past the 50% mark. I also think it is interesting that no-one has mentioned that regardless of the voting system, there are still about 30% of the voting population that don’t vote, sometimes more. No-one is talking about how to reach out to these people but how to make the layout of parliament ever so slightly more representative of the voting population. Just as a side note, I think it is hilarious that there are members of the Labour party strongly behind the Yes to AV campaign. In their 1997 manifesto, they promised proportional representation which obviously never materialised when they won the majority that they did. They then had 13 years to introduce a change to the voting system, yet somehow never found the time. Now they are out of power, FPTP is undemocratic and awful, and the Conservatives support of it just proves they are outdated as a party...really?! That’s just embarrassing, Labour.
Also, I just saw this picture about AV which made me chuckle:
That’s all I have for this one. Like I said at the top, bits and bobs. No real main topic but sometimes it’s hard to find a topic worth writing about (or a topic that I can write about well enough to do it justice). I will probably post a blog soon with reviews of tonight’s charity gig as well as Skindred. After that it will probably be after May 7th, with stories of the day of win and the election/referendum. It’s all over soon!
Yesterday was an awesome day. I booked tickets a while ago for the St. Georges Day game of Rugby at Twickenham. The game was London Wasps v Bath Rugby. I decided to go to this for two reasons – the first being that the first game of rugby that I went to watch was Bath and secondly, I wanted to go watch another game at Twickenham. Travelling up to London on a nice day is always a bonus although when we got into London the climate (so to speak) changed from nice and warm to muggy. Getting to Twickenham is a piece of piss really from Waterloo. I haven’t gone to Twickenham via train since 2008 when I went to see Iron Maiden there. This was different however as the crowd arrived for the Maiden gig in drips and drabs (if memory serves – I don’t remember it being that busy) but yesterday there were massive crowds all walking with the same purpose – to enjoy a game of Rugby in the sun. One thing I love about Rugby is mixing fans. As we walked into the stadium, we engaged in a bit of banter with a Wasps fan, which was all fun. Try doing that at a football game and you’ll likely be picking your teeth off the floor – why is that? Anyway, the view from the seats was rather good (made even better somehow knowing that the tickets with booking fees cost about £17.50).
Reading the programme on the way home was quite entertaining as it made reference to last year’s St. Georges Day game where Bath won 35-19 and how that was a massive blow to the team. If that was a massive blow, then I hate to think what yesterday’s game will do to the London Wasps. Bath started off really well and got a try within the 4th minute. A conversion just after and Bath were 7-0 up really early. I’m not going to discuss all the points in detail (there are match reports for that) but at half time, Bath went in 29-3 up which is a commanding half time lead. There was a bit of controversy over one of the second half try’s for Bath (which required the use of the video ref). It was given as a try but I’m pretty certain that it was not, Dave was pretty certain that it wasn’t a try and the Wasps fans around us were in disbelief it was given. Another example of opposition fans just chatting about a decision in the game without reverting to calling the referee, or each other, wankers. Quite nice really. The final score was 43-10. As a side note, the try that London Wasps scored was immense (run from the half way line to score). Great game and Bath were the deserved winners I think. Really glad I decided to go to the game and I can’t wait to go back on the 28th May for the Aviva Premiership Final. With any luck, Bath will be there but I’m not that hopeful.
Speaking of rugby, I have been debating whether to try and go watch Bath one more time this season at their home ground. Every time I’ve looked, tickets have sold out really fast so I promised myself if I had the chance this season, I’d do all I could to go. Sure enough that chance arrived for the game on the 7th May. Now, I already have plans for the evening of the 7th May in Southampton (going to see Ginger, the front-man of The Wildhearts, do an acoustic set). So the day will involve a jaunt from home to Bath Spa station. I’m reliably informed the Recreation ground is pretty close to the station, and I hope that this is true. After the game I’m off to get a train from Bath to Romsey. Romsey is a grim place if memory serves. I seem to recall it’s like Petersfield. Anyway, change in Romsey to get to the Talking Heads, and then the gig. Trying to work out whether wearing a Bath Rugby shirt that day is a good idea or not – it’s quite a thick shirt and that could be a bad move for a gig. Anyway, I’m seeing two more games of rugby this season and I cannot wait. I honestly think I’ll probably go and watch Bath more next season than I will Pompey – unless Bath raises their prices as well and then I’ll just be pissed off!
It wouldn’t really be a blog on this website without some form of mention about live music. This Easter weekend of fun continues with a gig tonight at the Wedgewood Rooms to support the cause of Diabetes. I have friends who play in The Founders Of and Toxic Shock, both of whom are playing tonight. There is a headline band called Hairforce 5, but I know nothing of them. Tempted truthfully to give them a miss and just head home. Saves money that way and also will mean I won’t have a hangover on my bank holiday Monday. Speaking of gigs at the Wedgewood Rooms though, Skindred who were due to play the Pyramids in Portsmouth have had their gig moved to the Wedgewood Rooms. That does surprise me as I’d have thought they’d have no trouble selling out Pyramids but the fact they sold less than 400 (which it had to be for it to be moved to the Wedge) is quite surprising. However, I’m really happy about the move as in 2010, Skindred were awesome at the Wedge and I can’t wait to see them destroy the dancefloor there again.
Since my last blog, I have purchased Football Manager 2011. I never realised how much I missed playing a game of some description until I bought this game. My Xbox went down quite a long time ago and instead of getting it fixed – I accepted it was unlikely to survive much longer after getting fixed and so I gave up on it. Playing FM2011 has been fun and after a few shit starts to seasons, I’ve created a game where I am managing Tottenham and have lead them to two Premiership titles, an FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield and Final/Semi-Final of the Champions League. It is a lot of fun to chop and change the squad, in preparation for another assault on the biggest European prize. In fact, once I have finished writing this, I will be heading back virtual sheepskin jacket and dugout. Although it is pre-season at the moment so probably not so much of the dugout.
Finally, is anyone else fucking sick of this debate over AV? I just wanted to express my apathy with both sides of the campaign. Yes to AV people are just attacking the Conservatives (and other supporters) and likening them to the BNP and Communist Party’s (strange how they can be like both of those parties) and the No to AV people are arguing about the cost. It is such a shit argument from both campaigns. The main argument for AV as far as I can see is the eventual winner of a vote must receive 50% of the votes in their constituency. The main argument for First Past The Post is that the candidate who wins the most votes in a constituency wins. Why people needed to resort to cheap arguments to get their point across is beyond me (although not uncommon in politics sadly). The advert for the No to AV campaign with the horse race was very simplistic but it worked. I think I am voting No to AV but that’s because I don’t see how changing the voting system will really benefit the country. If there are constituencies that are safe seats under FPTP, then chances are they probably still will be pretty safe under AV. It is only the swing voter seats that make things interesting under an AV system, but then they also can make things interesting under a FPTP system. I just don’t see how someone can claim they won 50% of the vote if they had to rely on 2nd choice votes to get past the 50% mark. I also think it is interesting that no-one has mentioned that regardless of the voting system, there are still about 30% of the voting population that don’t vote, sometimes more. No-one is talking about how to reach out to these people but how to make the layout of parliament ever so slightly more representative of the voting population. Just as a side note, I think it is hilarious that there are members of the Labour party strongly behind the Yes to AV campaign. In their 1997 manifesto, they promised proportional representation which obviously never materialised when they won the majority that they did. They then had 13 years to introduce a change to the voting system, yet somehow never found the time. Now they are out of power, FPTP is undemocratic and awful, and the Conservatives support of it just proves they are outdated as a party...really?! That’s just embarrassing, Labour.
Also, I just saw this picture about AV which made me chuckle:
That’s all I have for this one. Like I said at the top, bits and bobs. No real main topic but sometimes it’s hard to find a topic worth writing about (or a topic that I can write about well enough to do it justice). I will probably post a blog soon with reviews of tonight’s charity gig as well as Skindred. After that it will probably be after May 7th, with stories of the day of win and the election/referendum. It’s all over soon!
Monday, 11 April 2011
Sonisphere Equals Good
I always get a little excited about announcements for festivals I’m going to. While I do like the random announcements that Wacken seems to do – the hyped up announcements that the UK festivals seem to do always excites me. I found out over the last weekend that a Sonisphere announcement was coming this week and I was very happy about that as it had been a while since we had an announcement and the lineup is already looking awesome. The only thing which I wasn’t 100% about was when this week the announcement was coming. I had seen a couple of self confirmations pop up over the last week – both of which I liked as they were good bands. I saw another self confirmation this morning which I loved as it was a band I’ve not seen before. I figured the announcement was coming soon when this morning’s self confirmation happened – and sure enough it was revealed it was coming at 3pm. Before this announcement, I found out the sad news that Devildriver are no longer playing Wacken as they are planning to tour the US during this time. I can’t say I overly like this excuse but I did wonder why they had seemingly not booked any other euro festival spots (Trivium haven’t, but they are a Euro festival exclusive for Wacken – Devildriver didn’t seem to be a euro exclusive). A shame, but no matter – the chance to see them will come again I’m sure. Hopefully they’ll come to Portsmouth or Southampton on their next UK tour – we’ll see. Anyway, this is about Sonisphere and bands that are playing, not Wacken and bands that aren’t. 3pm rolled around, and I was amazed once again – not only at how good Sonisphere was, but how it managed to improve with each lineup. Anyway, the bands that were announced are:
Apollo Stage:
Bad Religion – Pretty good announcement. Don’t know much by them, but I like what I’ve heard.
Cavalera Conspiracy – Win! I’ve wanted to see these guys live as I liked their first album. I missed them at RaR08 so I could get a spot for RATM. I think that’s what happened anyway. Still, genius announcement.
Sylosis – Impressive to see these guys on the main stage having seen them be announced for smaller stages so far. Will definitely check them out if there is not a clash.
Saturn Stage:
Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine – What an announcement! The last two years I’ve not really cared for the “novelty” announcement, but this is superb (I don’t know if this is considered the novelty announcement but for me it is). I really want to see Richard Cheese live so this will be a treat.
Bohemia Stage:
The Answer – Big announcement from Sonisphere. Surprised they aren’t on one of the open air stages but no problem. If there is no clash then I’ll be watching them.
Cancer Bats – Awesome announcement. Love this band and really want to see them live again. If the chance arises, I shall.
My Passion – They aren’t for me truthfully. But liking every band at a festival would be a nightmare!
Kylesa – They sound fairly decent. Don’t think I’ll get the chance to see them if the poster is right though as they’d be clashing with Volbeat. A shame, but no matter
Pulled Apart By Horses – These guys seem really quite good. Hopefully will be able to get to see these guys.
Hayseed Dixie – Fantastic announcement. I see they are playing on the Friday and I hope they are not clashing with Metallica as that would just suck. But I definitely want to see them again.
Paradise Lost – Were genius when they opened the Saturn stage on the Sunday of 2009. Really enjoyed their set and will strive to see them again this year if time allows.
Red bull Bedroom Jam Stage:
Rolo Tomassi – Not bad at all. Probably will give them a miss at the festival but if there is nothing on when they are on, then I’d go check them out.
Tek One – Nothing on Spotify so no comment!
TesseracT – They sound really good.
Arcane Roots – See Tek One!
Me Vs Hero – They seem pretty good. I’m sure they are supporting Skindred though so I’ll probably catch them there.
Jagermeister Stage:
Anterior – See Tek One!
Amplifier – They seem alright. Not all that bothered about seeing them though.
Demonic Ressurection – Seem pretty good. Will try to catch if the time allows.
Orange Goblin – Brilliant band who I’ve managed to miss live so many times. I must try to see them at least once. Maybe this’ll be my chance? Who knows!
Saint Jude – They seem pretty good. Wouldn’t mind checking them out if I had nothing to do.
Hounds – Don’t think they are on Spotify. On a side note, there are a lot of backing bands who use the name Hounds!
The Crave – They seem pretty good.
Jettblack – They seem pretty good.
The Virgin Marys – They don’t personally do a lot for me.
So out of that entire list, there are only 2 really who I wouldn’t bother going to see if time allowed. There are quite a few (at the smaller end) who I’ve never heard of who I’d go and see if time allows. Such is the way of a festival like Sonisphere – sometimes time will allow and sometimes it won’t. That isn’t always such a bad thing. Anyway, this announcement wasn’t all about the bands – it was also about some stage splits. By my estimations, the main stages look full now. Actually, if last year’s poster is anything to go by, there are a couple more bands on the main stage this year than last. I’m ok with that. Anyway, here is the new look poster.
Sonisphere looks awesome this year. Everyone has their own personal tastes when it comes to music and once again, Sonisphere has covered almost every area of my music tastes with this festival. I’m not sure how many more bands are to be announced but if someone who ran the festival turned round tomorrow and said “unless someone pulls out, this is it” then I’d be more than happy with the fact I have a ticket to this festival. What I am going to do now is look at the day splits and list the bands I would see or would like to see on each day.
Friday: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Diamond Head. Killing Joke, Hayseed Dixie and Firewind.
Not many bands there but there aren’t that many playing on the Friday by the looks. And truthfully, I’m not that bothered about there being too many great bands on the Friday because I’d like to see all the Big Four. I do want to see Hayseed though, so if they clash with anyone other than Metallica, I have a tough choice to make.
Saturday: Biffy Clyro, Weezer, Bad Religion, Cavalera Conspiracy, Sylosis, All Time Low, Sum 41, Gallows, Richard Cheese, Paradise Lost, Gojira, One Minute Silence, Pulled Apart By Horses.
Might be quite surprising to see me put Biffy Clyro in that list considering I have openly said I’m not bothered about seeing them. Truthfully, I’m not – they are supporting Foo Fighters the week before Sonisphere and I will see them then. Anyway, if there is nothing else on which takes my fancy then I will see Biffy. I’m hoping I’ll be able to see all of these bands but realistically, I’m going to have to make some tough clash decisions.
Sunday: Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Motorhead, Arch Enemy, Volbeat, Bill Bailey, Opeth, Airbourne, In Flames, House of Pain, Black Tide, The Answer, Four Year Strong, Cancer Bats, Alestorm, Fozzy.
Sunday is the band heavy day for me. There is a lot that I want to see and I’m hoping the stage times will work out so I can see all that I have to see. Really the main 3 bands for me on Sunday are Slipknot, Volbeat and Fozzy. I’m hoping that none of those 3 clash with each other (and obviously Volbeat and Slipknot won’t) otherwise I’ll be fuming!
Unknown day: Title Fight, Watain, Orange Goblin, Saint Jude, The Treatment.
Not a great lot of bands there but I’m expecting that list to get bigger with more bands being announced for the two smaller outdoor stages plus the addition (if it is here this year) of the Strongbow Bowtime Bar Stage. Plenty more to get excited about when it comes to Sonisphere 2011. I’m just really happy I have a ticket and cannot wait to go back to Knebworth for another weekend of awesomeness it would seem.
Roll on July 7th.
Apollo Stage:
Bad Religion – Pretty good announcement. Don’t know much by them, but I like what I’ve heard.
Cavalera Conspiracy – Win! I’ve wanted to see these guys live as I liked their first album. I missed them at RaR08 so I could get a spot for RATM. I think that’s what happened anyway. Still, genius announcement.
Sylosis – Impressive to see these guys on the main stage having seen them be announced for smaller stages so far. Will definitely check them out if there is not a clash.
Saturn Stage:
Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine – What an announcement! The last two years I’ve not really cared for the “novelty” announcement, but this is superb (I don’t know if this is considered the novelty announcement but for me it is). I really want to see Richard Cheese live so this will be a treat.
Bohemia Stage:
The Answer – Big announcement from Sonisphere. Surprised they aren’t on one of the open air stages but no problem. If there is no clash then I’ll be watching them.
Cancer Bats – Awesome announcement. Love this band and really want to see them live again. If the chance arises, I shall.
My Passion – They aren’t for me truthfully. But liking every band at a festival would be a nightmare!
Kylesa – They sound fairly decent. Don’t think I’ll get the chance to see them if the poster is right though as they’d be clashing with Volbeat. A shame, but no matter
Pulled Apart By Horses – These guys seem really quite good. Hopefully will be able to get to see these guys.
Hayseed Dixie – Fantastic announcement. I see they are playing on the Friday and I hope they are not clashing with Metallica as that would just suck. But I definitely want to see them again.
Paradise Lost – Were genius when they opened the Saturn stage on the Sunday of 2009. Really enjoyed their set and will strive to see them again this year if time allows.
Red bull Bedroom Jam Stage:
Rolo Tomassi – Not bad at all. Probably will give them a miss at the festival but if there is nothing on when they are on, then I’d go check them out.
Tek One – Nothing on Spotify so no comment!
TesseracT – They sound really good.
Arcane Roots – See Tek One!
Me Vs Hero – They seem pretty good. I’m sure they are supporting Skindred though so I’ll probably catch them there.
Jagermeister Stage:
Anterior – See Tek One!
Amplifier – They seem alright. Not all that bothered about seeing them though.
Demonic Ressurection – Seem pretty good. Will try to catch if the time allows.
Orange Goblin – Brilliant band who I’ve managed to miss live so many times. I must try to see them at least once. Maybe this’ll be my chance? Who knows!
Saint Jude – They seem pretty good. Wouldn’t mind checking them out if I had nothing to do.
Hounds – Don’t think they are on Spotify. On a side note, there are a lot of backing bands who use the name Hounds!
The Crave – They seem pretty good.
Jettblack – They seem pretty good.
The Virgin Marys – They don’t personally do a lot for me.
So out of that entire list, there are only 2 really who I wouldn’t bother going to see if time allowed. There are quite a few (at the smaller end) who I’ve never heard of who I’d go and see if time allows. Such is the way of a festival like Sonisphere – sometimes time will allow and sometimes it won’t. That isn’t always such a bad thing. Anyway, this announcement wasn’t all about the bands – it was also about some stage splits. By my estimations, the main stages look full now. Actually, if last year’s poster is anything to go by, there are a couple more bands on the main stage this year than last. I’m ok with that. Anyway, here is the new look poster.
Sonisphere looks awesome this year. Everyone has their own personal tastes when it comes to music and once again, Sonisphere has covered almost every area of my music tastes with this festival. I’m not sure how many more bands are to be announced but if someone who ran the festival turned round tomorrow and said “unless someone pulls out, this is it” then I’d be more than happy with the fact I have a ticket to this festival. What I am going to do now is look at the day splits and list the bands I would see or would like to see on each day.
Friday: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Diamond Head. Killing Joke, Hayseed Dixie and Firewind.
Not many bands there but there aren’t that many playing on the Friday by the looks. And truthfully, I’m not that bothered about there being too many great bands on the Friday because I’d like to see all the Big Four. I do want to see Hayseed though, so if they clash with anyone other than Metallica, I have a tough choice to make.
Saturday: Biffy Clyro, Weezer, Bad Religion, Cavalera Conspiracy, Sylosis, All Time Low, Sum 41, Gallows, Richard Cheese, Paradise Lost, Gojira, One Minute Silence, Pulled Apart By Horses.
Might be quite surprising to see me put Biffy Clyro in that list considering I have openly said I’m not bothered about seeing them. Truthfully, I’m not – they are supporting Foo Fighters the week before Sonisphere and I will see them then. Anyway, if there is nothing else on which takes my fancy then I will see Biffy. I’m hoping I’ll be able to see all of these bands but realistically, I’m going to have to make some tough clash decisions.
Sunday: Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Motorhead, Arch Enemy, Volbeat, Bill Bailey, Opeth, Airbourne, In Flames, House of Pain, Black Tide, The Answer, Four Year Strong, Cancer Bats, Alestorm, Fozzy.
Sunday is the band heavy day for me. There is a lot that I want to see and I’m hoping the stage times will work out so I can see all that I have to see. Really the main 3 bands for me on Sunday are Slipknot, Volbeat and Fozzy. I’m hoping that none of those 3 clash with each other (and obviously Volbeat and Slipknot won’t) otherwise I’ll be fuming!
Unknown day: Title Fight, Watain, Orange Goblin, Saint Jude, The Treatment.
Not a great lot of bands there but I’m expecting that list to get bigger with more bands being announced for the two smaller outdoor stages plus the addition (if it is here this year) of the Strongbow Bowtime Bar Stage. Plenty more to get excited about when it comes to Sonisphere 2011. I’m just really happy I have a ticket and cannot wait to go back to Knebworth for another weekend of awesomeness it would seem.
Roll on July 7th.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Booking Outside The Box
Hey it is another blog about one of the festivals I’m going to this summer. You probably could have guessed that if you’ve read anything else on this page (there is the odd occasional blog about other topics, see the last one for example). This time it is about Sonisphere and their latest announcement which is inspired! This announcement was of the comedians (some if not all). Last year they set the bar pretty high by booking Tim Minchin. Generally speaking, the comedian announcement is a bit filler for me if there are no bands on the outdoor stages that take my fancy. So I get excited but not as much as band announcements. Anyway, this is what the poster looks like now (I’ve split it into two for ease of posting)
WOW! How does Sonisphere keep doing this? The bookers of this festival are literally changing the way festivals get booked. Bill Bailey headlining the 2nd stage of Sonisphere before Slipknot headline the main stage is amazing. I had assumed based on logo positions that Motorhead would headline the second stage before Slipknot but this is so much better. It also means I shouldn’t have to miss any Motorhead to see Slipknot. I won’t miss any Bill Bailey either, but I’ll just stand near the back. I’ve seen him twice at Leicester Square Theatre so I don’t need to be up and close. However if he books more LST dates to warm up for Sonisphere, I’m all over them. He is that good live. As for the other comedians, I don’t think I’ll bother with Steve-O. I saw one of his videos back in the day and he was just hurting himself and laughing. It really wasn’t that funny (and I’m not against Jackass – some of that was funny but this video was not). Andrew O’Neil was good last time so I’d go see him again if the time worked out. I’ve heard of Jim Breuer but I can’t think why. The others I don’t know but I’ll be doing some research about them as time goes on. Congratulations Sonisphere on another solid booking.
In other news, I have got a job interview next week. I hope it goes well cause I could really do with a new job. I do want to get a new job. It would work out quite nicely with my work schedule actually if I got a new job now. I have two days left at work and then I go on leave for 2 weeks. April is a good month to be term time as it means I’m only working 7 days in the whole of April (8 if you include Friday, which I don’t as it is before my leave). I’m looking forward to doing nothing for two weeks.
WOW! How does Sonisphere keep doing this? The bookers of this festival are literally changing the way festivals get booked. Bill Bailey headlining the 2nd stage of Sonisphere before Slipknot headline the main stage is amazing. I had assumed based on logo positions that Motorhead would headline the second stage before Slipknot but this is so much better. It also means I shouldn’t have to miss any Motorhead to see Slipknot. I won’t miss any Bill Bailey either, but I’ll just stand near the back. I’ve seen him twice at Leicester Square Theatre so I don’t need to be up and close. However if he books more LST dates to warm up for Sonisphere, I’m all over them. He is that good live. As for the other comedians, I don’t think I’ll bother with Steve-O. I saw one of his videos back in the day and he was just hurting himself and laughing. It really wasn’t that funny (and I’m not against Jackass – some of that was funny but this video was not). Andrew O’Neil was good last time so I’d go see him again if the time worked out. I’ve heard of Jim Breuer but I can’t think why. The others I don’t know but I’ll be doing some research about them as time goes on. Congratulations Sonisphere on another solid booking.
In other news, I have got a job interview next week. I hope it goes well cause I could really do with a new job. I do want to get a new job. It would work out quite nicely with my work schedule actually if I got a new job now. I have two days left at work and then I go on leave for 2 weeks. April is a good month to be term time as it means I’m only working 7 days in the whole of April (8 if you include Friday, which I don’t as it is before my leave). I’m looking forward to doing nothing for two weeks.
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