Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Busy, Busy...

Things are shaping up to be a little busy over the next week.

On Friday 30th We'll be at "Shared" at Birmingham Town Hall, one of the finer bits of architecture left in my hometown following the municipal sponsored vandalism of the late 50's/early 60's.

A fine line-up it promises to be too and I am apparently "guitar tech without portfolio" for the whole evening. Should be fun.

Then on Saturday it's my sons 21st birthday party. Kinda snuck up on me this one as it feels like not too long ago we were watching Thomas The Tank Engine videos and being terrified by music video's featuring The Bass Thing ! Looking forward to it immensely and I will get to do one of my infrequent DJ sets.

And talking of DJ's I have just discovered there is a regular monthly Northern Soul night at a club not 20 minutes walk from my house. I knew those new shoes would come in handy.

Monday, January 12, 2009

The Suit

Here 'tis



Well that's it, I've shown it to the world now. I won't be purchasing those shoes however (I got over those twentymnuph years ago !)

Friday, January 09, 2009

Almost There...

...there being the end of my first week back at work after a blisfully lazy 2 weeks off around Xmas. Can't say that it's been too stressful but it's always a bit of a shock to the system having to adjust to doing what someone else wants rather than what you want.

It's now time to shed those extra pounds ready for the rather exciting wedding we'll be attending later this year. Have to shed the pounds otherwise I won't be able to fit into the dream suit I have my eye on for the occasion. So if you see me with chocolate, crisps, kebabs blahblahblah then feel free to stop me (pints on Fridays are allowed though).

I was given a rather splendid and most unexpected present over Xmas by my brother, a Yamaha CPX-900. "What's one of those ?" I hear you cry. Well, it's one of these:

Yamaha CPX-900
And very splendid and lovely it is too. One of the conditions was that he can have it back for photo shoots if needed, because it looks great, and the other condition was that I have to learn to play all over again. I haven't wielded a guitar in anger for about 20 years so right now my fingers really hurt as I've been trying to put together a few songs to play at some point at our local open mic night. Given that the guitar seems to have been supplied with knitting needles instead of strings I need to get some lighter guages on there pronto.

As far as tunes go, so far I've re-learned my own song "Smith Is A Liar" and made what I think are passable stabs at The Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated", The Flying Burrito Brothers "Sing Me Back Home" and The La's "Timeless Melody". I'll keep you informed on how things progress.

I've also been asked to sing in a band being put together for a one-off event later this year. The upside is I get to wear the dream suit to do that too, the downside being I may have to sing a Bryan Adam's song ! (No not THAT Bryan Adams song, credit me with some standards).

Oh and a recommendation for you. If you fancy a good read try "The Modfather: My Life With Paul Weller" by David Lines. You don't have to particularly be a fan of the Modfather's to appreciate it. But if you've ever had a slight obsession with a band, musician or lifestyle that you parents thought was a bit "strange" then you'll appreciate it, and it's only 6 quid at Amazon right now. Oh, and if you do read it, make sure you don't have a mouthful of coffee when you get to the bit about the snails !

Toodle-pip kiddies