Black Tree

Paul Middleton's Angst Band at Blues Bar, Harrogate

Went to see Paul Middleton and his Angst Band at Blues Bar in Harrogate last night and boy are they good. I think most of us take it for granted what a pleasure it is to see and hear them, since they play every Wednesday at Blues. Their residency makes it less of an event to promote and surround with the interest of a single show. So there’s no fuss, just a great band playing away to 40 or 50 people every Wednesday. Part of me feels its criminal that there’s not 100 people or more each week but the idealist in me loves the fact that Paul’s the gnarled journeyman, existing on music (and one or two other substances) alone, under-appreciated by most, a slave to the music, the very essence of rock and roll.

Despite the fact he’s been around for forever and a day, when he sing, shouts and rants it feels like he’s singing those words for the first time in his life. The passion and feeling is tangible and its the same each of the four or five times I’ve seen him. I don’t really know how his voice copes with it. Perhaps a healthy appetite for illicit substances helps?

The band are a lovely motley crew consisting of Paul on vocals and acoustic guitar (he’s all the Angst!), a friendly and very tight youngish drummer, his dad sat tucked away at the back, resembling a American southern drifter, baseball cap pulled down, long white hair and beard on electric guitar and mostly playing one of those country and western style sit down slide guitars. Then there’s a great young base player and a truly amazing lead guitarist with hair that could easily be topped with that trademark black top hat of two famous guitarists. Great licks, great solos and great guitar hero style gurning!

Their music is rock and blues but not just that same rock and blues played in a million pubs up and down the county. There’s something slightly different that makes their music unique and their own. Quite obviously this appears to me to be down to their songs, style and the collective sum of their parts. They don’t just churn out the same old covers, they play their own songs which are clearly Paul’s songs. The band are more just an accompaniment to Paul’s poetic rants and protests. His songs are like old American civil rights protest songs but delivered by a gnarly old Yorkshireman about issues here and issue with modern life. He does have the power to hold your ear with his words and there are sparks of genius. Subsequently let down with his ‘fucked up miserable old Yorkshireman’ off mic ramblings. Last night and another time I’ve seen him he was joined on stage by a fiddle player who is clearly very talented indeed. He adds a even lovelier dimension to the motley crew being well dressed and perhaps Jewish in looks, they just look an incredible sight of different people bought together to make great music. Oh and the fiddle adds a additional layer of feeling and quality to the tunes. I hope he comes back to play with them again.

I spoke briefly to the drummer in the interval who was a nice bloke and said they only get together to play this gig really, never practice and don’t really have a great deal in common. This is obviously a recipe for sometimes intelligent, sometimes ridiculous but always great rock music.

If you’ve never been to Blues or never seen Paul Middleton and the Angst Band, or even if you’ve not been for a while, I definitely recommend it. Have some beer, get tipsy and get down and dirty in Blues on a Wednesday with some great shouty rock poetry. I’ll be the one singing to the ‘Predudice’ song,  swaying a little with a Sagres in hand.

Hi think I want to have my fingers in a lot of pies. This phrase now makes people feel a little sick and we all know why. It’s taken on new meaning.

However, I want my fingers in lots of pies for a few reasons, firstly being that variety is the spice of life (oh Jesus another idiom!) and I want my life to be full of productive and interesting elements (life’s rich tapestry??), and secondly in these somewhat disturbing times of economic insecurity, I feel I need as much as possible to fall back on should the shit hit the fan. Maybe adding well known British phrases into blogs could be one of my fingers or even a whole pie?

At the same time, the last thing I want is to be a jack of all trades and a master of none, I mean spreading one’s self too thin can be what makes people generally unsuccessful as they are middle of the road all-rounders rather than being masters of their chosen trade. However being such a master of one trade could mean that you could be ignorant to the wider world and also cause you to be socially inept.

As I probably am a bit of an all-rounder, I’m gonna try the fingers and pies theory due to the clear fact that variety is indeed the spice of life. Not too many pies though, that would be crazy. I mean, I need to relax too. But is this how I relax? The work/life crossover lines are so very blurry now, I’m not even sure.

After this introduction, anyone reading this will think that this bloke is far from suitable to write a Harrogate based online magazine aimed at Harrogate residents, though that’s exactly what me and my great friend and writing partner Ian D Marshall are going to do. I suppose that by using a letter in his pen name, Ian thinks he’ll be portraying the same image of high culture, intrigue and intelligence as maybe W. Somerset Maugham or Reginald D Hunter. I see him more as the bloke I know who’s throat closes up and goes into anaphylactic shock when he eats a nut.

This is not Ian. It's Reginald D Hunter

Really, Ian is a great writer, possibly the best photographer in the Harrogate area, a sound businessman, has a huge consumption of music, arts and culture and is generally a great bloke. He also seems to have his fingers in a lot of pies then … and maybe all of us do and I’m think way to much about fingers and pies?

Anyway for all the reason above, Ian and I are going to try to provide the people of Harrogate with our own take on what’s going on in and around Harrogate and what’s sparking our interest in general. We’ll do the usual stuff like gigs, restaurants, what’s on, etc but we’ll also just spout our thoughts and feelings of what it’s like to be from this area and what gets our goats or tickles our fancies (barf!). We don’t really know much else yet so it will be totally organic and the main thing is that it will be for fun, for us, for the people of Harrogate and just for the hell of it. I’m sure there’s a rich seam of intelligent young(ish) culture vultures out there who don’t take themselves too seriously whom we can interact with and maybe one day work together to make something really really lovely.

There’ll be plenty of contributing writers to the website/magazine too so if you’re interested give us a nudge and get on board. Keep you posted.

Oh and it’s called STRAYWORDS. Tell your friends

Saw Control the Movie the other night … amazing

Here’s some quality footage of the myth that is Ian Curtis and Joy Division.

Emma at Clifton Suspension Bridge

For Emma’s Christmas present, I gave a weekend city break in Bristol to where we went last weekend. Firstly, I’m aware of the argument of selfishness for getting a present that I get to enjoy equally but I’d thought a break in a nice hotel and somewhere different would be a perfect remedy for the January blues … and I suppose I am a bit shellfish.

Initially to me, Bristol had not jumped out as the most obvious and desirable city break but with the days of truly cheap flights to Europe seemingly over (for now anyway … once you’ve paid tax, baggage, seat reservation fees, check in and a whole load of other rubbish it’s no longer the bargain it was) and the Euro kicking lumps our beloved Sterling, I’ve become to accept that the UK is most likely to be our destination for leisure this year. And frankly I’m totally fine with that.

I chose Bristol primarily because of some great winter hotel rates and because of the city’s history and proximity to a wealth of other worthy destinations including Bath, the beautiful Somerset countryside and towns including Wells, Cheddar and Glastonbury. You’re also not far from the Cotswold’s, the Mendip Hills and the coast. Indeed, we could have easily spent a few weeks rather than a few days in the wider region. Neither of us had ever been before which is often one of the best things about going away … it doesn’t always matter where, it’s just great to have a break, a change of scene and you tend to relax wherever you are.

We drove down on the Friday morning which for us was a 225 mile and approx 4 and a half hour drive from Harrogate. Despite my reluctance to admit that it’s required and my view that it’s another device leading to us becoming more helpless and stupid, once you get into a large city the sat nav on the Blackberry was a godsend. Our hotel was the Mercure Holland House Hotel in the Redcliffe area of the city. £79 per night was the ‘Mercure Winter Offer’ for B&B and I was pretty pleased with that. The building itself is a huge perhaps 1950-60’s monolith without a hint of charm from the outside, however once in the foyer it’s an extremely efficient and comfortable 4 star with a nice big bar and reception area and everything you’d expect from a city hotel of its type.

The hotel has a large gym and a lovely dimly lit swimming pool which we had to ourselves on the Saturday afternoon. The room was large and very comfortable and the hotel, despite lacking the soul of a bed & breakfast or the quirky features and charms of an independent or classic hotel, the Mercure Holland House was good value, comfortable, efficient and all we’d ever need for a city break (except getting evacuated at 4.30am Sunday morning with a false fire alarm was not what I needed at the time

It was that weekend when temperatures plummeted and there were records of -10’s and -12’s being recorded all over the country. To put it mildly, it was freezing! We started by walking down to the docks, past the imposing and beautiful Mary Redcliffe Church and down towards Brunel’s Victorian masterpiece, the SS Great Britain. Walking alongside the docklands was made eerie because of the low freezing fog, the caw of lone seagulls and the creaking old boats and empty ship loading cranes. The graffiti on the wooden boards lining the walkways added to the atmosphere and I quickly learned the city has a huge scene for street art and is the home of Banksy, who is now a darling of London and spreading his famous underground exhibitions globally.

The SS Great Britain was closed despite us arriving before official closing, however we didn’t blame them, it was very cold and very quiet. Not many tourists on a freezing credit crunch January afternoon and we didn’t mind one bit as we peered through the huge iron gates to catch a glance of the ship, we were in good spirits, warmed by the freedom of somewhere new and a weekend ahead of us.

We caught a little ferry for the 30 second ride across to the city side of the harbour and walked around the quiet gentrified riverside area full of new apartments and chain restaurants. It was pretty uninspiring but I imagine more hospitable than what it was like before the regeneration programmes will have changed the life on the docks once more. It does however concern me the speed of build and apparent flimsiness of these apartments and others all over the country, that they will again become the slums of the future. Time won’t be kind to these ugly buildings and surely it won’t be more that 50 years before they need to be pulled down? In these credit crunch times there will be a lot of people loosing a lot of money which I think might remain hard to regain due to the shortsightedness of developers riding the wave which crashed just months ago.

We made our way towards the towering cathedral and as the new buildings made way for the old our positivity was maintained. There’s a beautiful grass covered square overlooked by the cathedral, flanked by elegant regency style buildings which looked like perhaps government/council dwellings. The cathedral itself was a delight because of the feeling that it was still full of life and important use. Many of our Cathedrals are tourist attractions and home to only the most dedicated followers but here in Bristol the 12th century cathedral was warm (which was nice relief from the bite outside), full of people in discussion with the sound of music lessons and business being carried out in the various rooms and corners. It was beautiful too with the choir room a highlight.

We finally found our way through to the old city with narrow cobbled streets, alleys, a market just shutting down for the day and Stanford’s, the most amazing maps and travel book shop, I’ve ever had the pleasure to come across. Emma and I could have spent hours there and spent thousands. Right up my street it’s range including all the expected maps and city/country guides right though to a huge range of obscure and rarely seen on the high street regional maps like Helmand, Tamil Nadu, Northern Pakistan and guides, travel writing and ancient region maps. Perfect but dangerous to someone like me who loves to pore over maps to the point of absolute geekery.

It was time for the now notorious early evening drink. We found a little gem of a pub called The Bank, one of those where you have no idea what it’s like before you go in and it depends on how confident you’re feeling as to whether you enter of play it safe elsewhere. You could just as easily get a cosy local and friendly wood and leather haven with great local beer or get the strangest, roughest people and place in town! We got the former and enjoyed real Somerset cider (like a cricket bat to the back of head) and dark and smooth local beer.

That evening, with Christmas over and the finances limited, we took advantage of a 2 for 1 at Pizza Express in the Old City. It was great as Pizza Express always is. How do they always combine great service and great food with great value and do it better than anyone else with regularity? We’d had a great day and watched with a mixture of amazement, hilarity and horror as the revellers of the city hoicked up their boob tubes and down their mini skirts in -8 degrees as the tore up the town as they do all over the country every weekend! We stumbled back to the hotel cold but wrapped up and warm with drink and optimism.

Icy cold Clifton Suspension Bridge

A huge full English at the hotel followed a drive across the city to the truly stunning, affluent and vibrant suburb of Clifton. This was certainly my highlight. Built on the profits of tobacco and the slave trade, it is amazing parks, beautiful grand Georgian architecture and a fashionable but slightly Bohemian centre of independent shops, delis, restaurants and coffee bars. Topping it all off is the Clifton Suspension Bridge, another Brunel masterpiece which leads you out of the town, over the giddying height of the Avon gorge over to even larger houses and wealth on the other side. It’s the type of place where you can just sit and people watch from one of the many coffee bars knowing that you’re surrounded by history in a vibrant but airy village atmosphere. It’s been home to so many historical figures with plaques on so many walls of the beautiful and sometimes slightly decrepit buildings. It seems to mix and evoke so many cultures and atmospheres of our own history including empire, the wealth of the royal, rich and famous and industrial power with simple beauty, village green cricket, a simple seaside fishing town and bohemium alternative fashion and culture. Very very cool.

Wells Cathedral

In the afternoon we drove through the suburbs and out into the cold and muddy Somerset countryside, stopping at Wells to check out the amazing cathedral and lunching on a Cornish pasty. Here’s some Wells facts:

• Wells is the smallest city in England
• It’s listed in the Doomsday book of 1086
• Parts of the cathedral date back to the 10th century
• Hot Fuzz starring Simon Pegg was filmed there in 2007, the writer Edgar Wright’s home town

Wells is really nice for a mooch for an hour or two … and we saw that bloke who unsuccessfully went on Dragon’s den with his olive oil stand … which made our day ;). Though the £5.50 recommended donation to enter the cathedral seemed pretty high, though it was in great nick with some family friendly interactive features to show the history.

That evening we had an rewarding experience. Emma had gone online and booked a restaurant without too much research, mainly because it was near the top of the ‘most popular’ on Trip Advisor and we love Indian food. Therefore, that’s usually good enough for anyone! It’s was the One Stop Thali Cafe and Emma and I have fantastic (and not so fantastic) experiences of Thalis in India and get all nostalgic about this kind of stuff. Firstly, we wrongly suspected that it would be in an area of the city with other pubs, restaurants and bars, even if it was in a suburb. When the taxi dropped us off in Montpelier, 45 mins before our booking, just it time for a beer or two before our spicy treat, we were left a bit bamboozled when there was very little around us other than a dimly lit inner city residential area. We decided to take a walk to see if we could find a pub or bar and we did … but this time we didn’t have the confidence we had earlier and chickened out. Everywhere just seemed a bit quiet and uninviting. We were even considering calling the taxi back and going back into town … was this really what we wanted for our Saturday night on our romantic city break?

It turned out it was, we went into the cafe half an hour early and were met by a couple of relaxed, young and friendly students who were running the front of house who were happy for us to take our simple wooden bench early. The place had a really cool backpackers vibe with loads of students mixing with relaxed people’s of all ages. The decor was dark pink and purples Indian kitch, the service efficient and friendly, the music fantastic mixing world with uk classics like The Cure and the ethos eco friendly and honest. Most of all though, the food was fantastic and great value. To start with we had a range of Bombay street snacks and poppadoms with Indian chutneys followed by a North Indian Thali each washed down with a few Kingfishers. All for just over £30 … an absolute bargain in a really friendly, relaxed place. Simple but wonderful. Thalis are silver trays which this time contained a basic dahl curry, rice, a potato curry, salad and yogurt. The food was all vegetarian and tasted exactly like it does in India … very good indeed.

As we left the ‘Indian’ experience continued as the ‘taxi’ called for us to take us back into town turned out to be a Fiat Punto far from being a licenced carrier but the ‘friend of the cafe’ looked after us perfectly and took us back to down for just £5. Back in town we went to a recommended pub for one at lasties. I can’t remember the name now but it was busy and fun. A bit rough around the edges with a few Vicky Pollards and plenty of tattoos and nose rings. After a short walk home we crashed to a comfy bed, full and satisfied.

Me at Bath Royal Crescent

Next morning my overindulgence showed, in my weariness and my healthy choice of breakfast. Today we were on our way home. However, before that we checked out and drive the 12 or so short miles to the stunning city of Bath. The weather was wet, windy and cold and we had very little time to do Bath justice, it really requires a weekend alone. Therefore, we (finally) got parked and walked down to the huge and imposing Abbey and to the tourist info outside the Roman Baths. To make the most of the time we had, we decided to take an open top bus tour of the city, something that would have been close to worth the £13 per person if we’d been able to take both city and area tours over a few days but it seemed a bit pricey for the 45 minute city tour alone.

We therefore blitzed it, the churches, grand Georgian arcades, ghost stories and traffic clogged medieval streets. My highlight being The Royal Crescent. According to the Visit Bath website, “one of the world’s best known landmarks.” Though I’m not quite sure it’s up there with the Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty for being known, it’s certainly as beautiful as these.

We got off the bus at the Royal Crescent, walked to the car and started the long drive home. It always amazes me how much you can do, see and experience in a few short winter days and we felt we’d seen a lot, had a great time and were suitable knackered. The region is certainly somewhere we’re looking forward to going back to. Next time perhaps to Glastonbury, Cheddar the coast and further down towards the south west. Highly recommended.

It’s Christmas Eve morning, which feels warm and fuzzy. Cos it’s all out in front of you. Anticipation of an event is often better than the event itself.

I thought I’d list and do my own review about some of the things I’ve liked this year, some I’ve not and some things I’m looking forward to next year in the world of entertainment. It’s my review of 2008.

Elbow - Mercury Award winning great album

My favourite albums of 2008

Elbow - Seldom seen kid
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever ago
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Glasvegas - Glasvegas
Laura Marling - Alas I cannot swim
Marth Wainwright - I know you’re married but I’ve got feelings too (also best title and sleeve art
Camille - Music hole
Ben Folds - Way to normal
Kings of Leon - Only by the night
Metallica - Death Magnetic

There’s so much great music around at the moment and I must thank Word Magazine and their monthly free CD for helping to further expand my musical tastes. The only problem is I just can’t afford the time and money to dedicate my life to new music the way I’d like. I do occasionally download torrents but can’t help but feel a bit strange about doing it. Mixed emotions about getting free music (cool), screwing over records companies (maybe cool?) and ripping off musicians (not cool). The music industry seems to be at a threshold of change. So far it seems like it’s a good thing but the worry is that the large companies will push fewer artists and most won’t have the chances to do big budget projects. The music’s all out there but you just have to look for it more than ever now. Touring is king again. That all suits me fine.

Film & TV

We come for Batman ... we stay for The Joker

My favourite films have been Dark Knight, No Country For Old Men and Bond. I’ve just realised I’ve really not seen that many films released this year. Though I am really looking forward to seeing Slumdog Millionaire, Control, In Bruges, Persepolis, Gomorrah, Of time And The City in the near future which I think are all 2008 movies.

TV wise, Lost has been a true drug, in the say that it’s completely addictive and sometimes amazing, often frustrating and totally perplexing but never missable. Other box-sets (or torrents) have been the continuation of 24 which becomes ever more ridiculous but always watchable and not good for getting suitable hours sleep (”shall we just watch one more?”). The main thing in the box set genre I’m looking forward too and sadly have yet to experience is The Wire. Although can it really live up to the hype now. Anyone who is a regular reader of Word Magazine will know that The Wire is mentioned on every other page (and it’s a music magazine!). A good one for those Winter nights methinks.

With what I consider normal TV-wise (terrestrial, the beeb, old auntie), it’s all about comedy for me. Last night Rab C Nesbitt absolutely blew me away. I totally hadn’t realised 20 years ago (or whenever it was) how much of a great actor and what a truly great character this bloke was. Other than that, Rick Spleen, Magda, Michael and the rest of the Lead Balloon cast have given me pain but so much pleasure (and that’s the idea). Magda and Rick’s (Jack Dee) exchanges of mild racism and pure misery have me crying with happiness. Old favourites like Have I Got News For You and QI continue to be great, I’ve enjoyed Live at the Apollo more than what it replaced when Mr Ross got told to go away for a few months and think about what he’d done (no doubt on a paradise island). Mock the Week has introduced and re-introduced us all to an amazing bunch and continued hilarity greater than the sum of their own parts. I’d say this is probably the greatest TV and has launch about a dozen popular stand up tours and DVDs.

Lead Balloon - What a show

Most TV is terrible and I consciously try to stay away from it most of the time with the worst certainly being X Factor (culminating in the sacrelidge of Hallejlulah), Big Brother, continued programmes about houses despite the credit crunch, Gok Wan and other shows about fat and/or weak people unable to take any kind of responsibility for their own lives and a million other pieces of crap I try to avoid.

One thing that has been amazing over recent weeks was Louis Theroux’s trips with the police/security firms on the beat in Philadelphia and Johannesburg. A real insight into the horror of every day lives in these ghettos and the endless spirals of deprivation that you can’t ever see an escape from. Shocking and brilliant.

Sport

The clear sporting highlights have been the Olympics. Though, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get passionate and ‘into’ it. I mean … it’s ok. I still watched it. Just kept flicking the channels and looking forward to the start of the football season or the England vs South Africa one dayers. Oh … and there was Lewis too. That was great. What an exciting finish. It’s cool that in Formula 1, we’ve no clue what next year will bring and who’s gonna win … maybe not as technically great but so much better than the Schumacher years.

For me the sports I follow most are football and cricket. In football, I’m a Leeds fan so this year has been terrible (again). Getting knocked out in the div 1 playoff final and now having just lost the last 5 games and had our manager sacked. It’s not looking good. The Champions League is always great to watch in the final stages and in 2009 I’m sure we’re going to get better competition from the Spanish, Italians and Germans than in the last few years when it’s been battle of the top 4 and ultimately between Man U and Chelsea in both the Premier League and in Europe, two clubs which are so difficult to love (for a Leeds fan anyway). I’m routing for Liverpool this season but can’t see them holding on unless they get Torres back quickly and ideally someone else other than Stevie G to share the goals.

The most interesting thing in the cricket year has been what’s happening to the ‘not so long ago’ unbeatable Australia. They’re going through a really tough period having lost Langer, Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Martin and now Hayden could be on his way out. Ponting’s got a really tough job on his hands and the world are rubbing their hands together. The test defeat to India and now the first home test loss to South Africa, who chased down 414 runs to win in the final innings in Perth, it’s all becoming exciting with the Ashes looming and the hope of a more competitive cricket world. However, there’s so much talk of this and Australia have so far only lost one series and on the Subcontinent. Michael Clark, Symonds, Katich, Hussey and Ponting particularly are all great batsmen and Stuart Clarke and Brett Lee still great bowlers, it’s mainly the spinners they’ve got issue with now.

Ishant Sharma and Yuvraj Singh

India have been the most exciting team of the year. New boys Yuvraj and Ishant Sharma along with the most exciting opener in the game in Sehwag, have made the loss of Gangooly and Kumble acceptable so far. They will find it difficult to replace Sachin, VVS and Dravid when they go though. India’s one day cricket against England was amazingly positive and a bit embarrassing for us and their test victory against Australia fantastic with the too young Ishant taking man of the series.

England’s year has been typically up and down with average test and poor one day displays against New Zealand followed by test defeat and crazy selections against South Africa before an amazing one day series victory against the Proteas as Pietersen takes over the captaincy from the tearful Vaughan. England were destroyed in the one day series against India with Yuvraj and Sehwag playing with a positivity unknown to English style and ability. England have played well in the recent test series despite the Mumbai atrocities interrupting plans but India are riding the crest of a wave and their positive attitude and batting was the difference in the first test.

2009 is a year difficult to predict but I’m going to anyway. An England test win in the West Indies and one day defeat. India to retain the 20/20 world cup held in England and (sorry) England test defeat in the Ashes and one dayers. Australia just aren’t that bad and England can be good and can be horrible but need everything to go for them to have any chance in my view.

Golf has given me a few spectator highlights for 2008. Despite Europe’s loss, Sky’s coverage and the great golf at the Ryder Cup was fantastic viewing and Harrington’s Open Win was brilliant although the summer weather was not. It’s been a nice year without Tiger, especially for Harrington.

Padraig Harrington - 2 Majors eh!

Other sports will go like this … more misery in Rugby Union for England, Wales to win 6 nations, Man U to win the league, Man U for league cup and Chelsea for FA Cup. Fabio Copello to remain great for the meantime. Tiger for the Open (predictable) and who else but Nadal for everything in Tennis?

That’s enough. Merry Christmas to everyone.

It’s the time of year when every magazine, website, newspaper and tv programme is reviewing the year and giving their ‘top 10’s’ detailing the good, the bad and the ugly of 2008. Whether it’s music, sport, politics, celebs or our own lives, we all love a nostalgic look back over the year.

It’s a nice thing really … to review the year that is. I think so anyway. Aside from the world of the media spotlight, it can be quite uplifting to look back over what is a relatively short period in your own life and take stock of all the things you’ve done, seen, achieved, not achieved, experienced, etc as you’ll find that you’ve actually done quite a lot and aspects of life might have changed considerably in just 12 months.

For me, I only started my job at Magnitude back in November 2007 so at the beginning of 2008 I was still finding my feet, forming relationships with colleagues and new (to me) clients. I now feel one of the old timers here and have experienced so much, gained a fair bit of new knowledge and have been a metaphorical jeep trek through wild and bumpy deserts of the Outback, meaning that it’s not always been a smooth ride, feeling a bit weary but we reached our overnight camp and are looking forward to the new day’s adventure with renewed energy (though doubt I’ll be saying that on 2nd Jan!)

Slightly more importantly than this, I got married this year, in October which was a truly amazing day. It hammered home how so lucky I was. Lucky to have Emma as well as all our amazing friends and family. Nuff said!

We also went on an amazing honeymoon to Rome and Sicily. Holidays are always important land marks and events in my life and in any year. I put far too much emphasis on holidays being the one hope in an otherwise unbearable existence (sorry … slight exaggeration). I also went to Hong Kong with some friends for a few days seeing our pal John who’s migrated out there. He’s also now got married since then which was a bit of a shock since but great news. We went to Spain to stay with friends and visited the amazing city of Granada, we went camping at Whitby with friends, camping in the Yorkshire dales with other friends  … bloody hell we’ve done so much … see I told you … I feel well smug now

My sister just gave birth to a gorgeous and tiny baby which is also bloody amazing. I had an amazing stag party in Edinburgh, went to some great and average gigs, went to a couple of test matches, a couple of football matches, I could go on but I won’t.

Overall, off the top of my head it seems like a great year and I feel better already. I was going to write about my top tens and best and worst of the media world but have just gone on, trying to remember my own year! Next time.

John Power ... not in Harrogate

Last night, I went to see John Power (ex Cast, the LA’s) with a couple of friends at a bar called Rehab in Harrogate. Despite the music being great, the whole thing just left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth with an overriding feeling of embarrassment.

We paid £13 each for the tickets which for a start is £5-6 too expensive for going to a gig in a cafe bar. There was about 50-60 people there and it’s not a small place so it wasn’t rammed. It’s an odd place and over the years has been loads of bars and hasn’t quite worked. I can tell they’re really trying to make it work but so far it lacks a bit of a soul.

The support was from Micky P Kerr who I reckon is one to look out for over the next 12 months. He started off bravely with some spoken word pieces. Really liked it as it’s not the usual kind of thing you get in Harrogate and his words beautifully towed the line between cheeky Northern humour and serious heart felt issues. Credit Crunch Christmas is his proper Christmas single, funny, clever with observance beyond the obvious.

He then picked up his guitar and played some soulful and catchy pop folk tunes, with most of them accompanied with a just beautiful cello. The music was great but Micky was been out voiced by about 10-15 knob heads who seemed like they’d walked out of a recruitment consultancy Christmas party and wanted to drink, shout and dance like Liam Gallagher wannabies. They weren’t the least bit interested and should have pissed off to Wetherspoons to their brethren.

Micky made a few unnoticed snide comments about them and continued with some hilarious Northern indie rap tunes. He really is quite the wordsmith, with a wholly unpretentious, mildly offensive Northern manner. Just the funny side of arrogance and tunes that would be equally great backed by hip hop beats or jangly indie guitars.

John Power came on and you instantly knew he felt uncomfortable. It seemed his own, the venue’s and much of the crowd’s preconception of the gig were poles apart. He was coming to do an intimate acoustic gig on his own ideally to a set of open minded people, playing bluesy folk tunes from his new album. For some reason therefore, Rehab had put him on a stage with disco lights pulsing all over him and the same bunch of chavs were constantly just shouting at him to play ‘Sandstorm’ and the rest. He was so awkward and said he wasn’t playing that stuff. I felt so embarrassed for him, mainly cos he’ll probably just have thought how much of a 2 bit hick town Harrogate is and what a shit gig and bunch of knobs.

The truth is, most people at the gig enjoyed it for what it was, great music. Great music stripped down to just beautiful, old fashioned folk and blues stories with some bloody nice guitar licks to boot. Just spoiled a bit and John raced through his set without barely a breath between tunes.

Harrogate is a great place and the more gigs and other decent art and cultural stuff we attract the better. If only the gig had been down the road at the fantastic Blues Bar, it would have worked a dream. Perhaps Rehab just need a bit more time and aren’t used to holding these gigs, perhaps I’m being a bit harsh and it was just me that felt pissed off with these people.

Either way I doubt John will come back in a hurry. I’d love to know what he thought himself.

Me with Sheep

Hello anyone, this is my first personal blog. Bit late I know. It’s not that i don’t know about this stuff, it’s just I’ve not really felt the need before and not felt like I perhaps had enough to say.

That may not be any different now but I just fancy it and I think if I get stuff down in words, I may be able to reflect on my life and experiences better … and actually remember things I do, rather than forgetting the recent past instantly whilst looking for ‘what’s next’.

A tiny bit about me … I’m 29 (pretty much accept I’m 30 now … though in number alone as I’m not sure I can fully accept responsible adulthood without school holidays, etc), I live in Harrogate in North Yorkshire and recently married my wonderful wife Emma. I work at Magnitude as a senior account manager. We’re a pretty much full service digital agency (late entry to blogging world could now seem even more ridiculous ;)) with a lean towards web design and development with some good clients like Wagamama who’s website won us a Webby Award last June time. At the moment I’m mostly working with restaurant groups Ping Pong, Giraffe, Tragus and have just worked on a cool game and animation for Sovereign Capital (private investment firm) starring Janet the Penguin.

I also do some freelance work with the amazing talents of Developer Steve and Designer Max. We recently created my friend Ian’s Scarlet-Ribbon website for his weddings business.

Enough about work. In the rest of my life I drink and eat too much, adore music, travel, my wife, my great friends and family and my cat, Una. I’m pretty partial to most sport, particularly footy and am addicted to the torture of following England cricket.

Anyway, that’s the embarrassing intro over, now I can just get on with writing about what’s tickled my fancy in the world, what I love, what pisses me off, etc and hopefully I might accidentally stumble across something remotely interesting or profound at some point.

Thanks
James