The Christmas Number One

Dave Gorman said on Twitter yesterday afternoon that he knew he’d become an adult when he realised he no longer cared what was number one in the UK music charts at any time of the year. It’s a great quote and I can see what he means, but I guess then that by his logic I’m not an adult because, although I couldn’t care less what’s at number one for the rest of the year, to me the Christmas number one still holds a little piece of magic. Or at least it did until five years ago.

I no longer listen to the chart show. The bands I love very rarely trouble the charts as they tend to have talent and rely on decent music and intelligible new lyrics, rather than electronic re-hashes of old songs and I realised that I gave up listening to anything approaching so-called modern music when Top of the Pops ended in 2006 and Radio Two became a better station than Radio One. But for some reason however, much though I may ignore the charts (and I think I can safely say that I can’t name a single band that have been number one this year) I can’t help but take an interest in the Christmas chart.

Perhaps it was growing up in the seventies and eighties, when all those ‘classic’ Christmas tracks vied for top spot (although as Bob Stanley in the Guardian has pointed out, there have been more than a few duff songs over the years, however I would challenge his inclusion of ‘Two Little Boys’ in that list, especially having seen Rolf singing it last night) which makes me a sentimental old fool at Christmas, but every year I really do truly wish that something other than the X factor winner would get to number one; actually, anything other than the X Factor winner. And finally it’s happened with Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’.

A lot of people have criticised the RATM song because it’s unintelligible, there’s swearing and let’s face it, it’s not really a Christmas song. But that’s why it was the perfect Christmas number one. Ever since X Factor took over the Christmas charts there have been a growing number of dissenting voices complaining about its domination – as a friend of mine stated when we saw a Christmas number one run-down show on TV last year, “the charts aren’t worth bothering with now ‘cos X Factor’s always number one at Christmas and it’s boring.”

Finally this year the dissenters decided to do something about it and put their weight behind possibly the most inappropriate Christmas song ever. And it worked. It got to number one. And more spectacularly, it got to number one without even selling a single hard copy – it managed to trash the X factor contender by downloads alone. RATM have been gracious (and probably pretty stunned) in their victory and are donating a majority of their unexpected money to Shelter, and playing a free gig next year to say thank you.

Yes the song isn’t to everyone’s taste, although I personally prefer it to ‘The Climb’, but the fact that it sold so many copies shows that people don’t want the X Factor song to be the Christmas number one every year. There has been all sorts of comments about how this is a win for ‘real music’, but I don’t think that this was ever really the issue, as Joe Whatshisname’s song is real music, or at least no more manufactured than 99% of the charts (and I don’t just mean current charts – anyone remember Stock, Aitken and Waterman?) To my mind the real reason that RATM won was because people like me are fed up with X Factor’s domination over the Christmas chart.

I do feel a bit sorry for poor Joe. The boy obviously has a good voice and he seems like a nice lad. But I’m afraid that winning X Factor does not, as a lot of people have suggested, give him automatic right to be number one, and the Christmas number one at that.

Unfortunately for Joe, he had the misfortune to win the show at a time when people are finally becoming so dissatisfied with Simon Cowell and X Factor’s hijacking of the Christmas charts they decided to make a stand and he paid the price, although to be fair the song ‘The Climb’ isn’t exactly a classic. Even my mum and dad, who are part of the target audience for sales thought the song dreary, and several hearings didn’t improve it at all (although it might just have been marginally better than Miley Cyrus’ original).

Had the show finished in August he’d have hit the top spot no problem, after all no-one much gives a damn any more what’s number one at any other time of the year and it’s a little unfair of people to start insinuating that he’s a failure because his song didn’t manage to stem the tide of dissatisfaction.

Unfortunately, I don’t suppose it’ll change anything in the long term. X Factor will still air in the last few weeks before Christmas and next year’s winner will face another challenge – unless Simon does something sensible.

I know...how about the X Factor winner singing a Christmas song rather than some twee but dull ballad?

That Time of Year

So it’s that time of year again. I’ve been trying to pretend it’s not happening, have tried to ignore it, even with Jason and Colleen having happy sing-a-long parties and that woman from M&S flashing her underwear, but now I’ve seen the Coca Cola Santa and there’s no denying it...Christmas is coming.

I can’t believe that it’s come round so quickly. I mean I know that as you get older time seems to go faster, but this is ridiculous. It seems like no time at all since I was last fretting over what to buy everyone.

It’s at this time of the year that I give thanks for the fact that I have only a few people to buy presents for. Some people, like Mrs H3 have a fantastic knack of knowing exactly what to give as presents and merrily toil away (as she has been for months apparently) on creating that perfect gift. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no clue what to get for anyone.

I think I’m pretty easy to buy for (although I guess everyone thinks that), but I really couldn’t imagine having a problem getting me a present. I love so many different things, that buy me anything and you’ve probably hit a winner. Of course anything Harry Potter related is a sure fire hit. And no need to worry if you’ve bought me the right book, CD, DVD either – if I’ve already got them I’ll just return them to the shop and swap for something else I don’t have, but I’ll still accept them as if they were the best present ever. In fact any gift at all is just brilliant.

But other people aren’t like this or at least, being more accurate, I don’t see them that way. I have a need to find the perfect present for them and unlike Mrs H3 I have no imagination or flair for such things. And so I spend hours fretting away about what would be a good gift for people that I’ve known for my whole life but apparently don’t know at all and then end up buying them some boring piece of rubbish that they are probably too polite to tell me they didn’t want.

Of course along with Christmas come the cards, which I have also until now, given absolutely no thought to. I’m considering making some, although whether that will actually happen remains to be seen. So you may from get a real card from me, or you may get a virtual one, it just depends on how much I get done. But whatever the case, you’ll know that a lot of worrying and thought has gone into what you’re receiving and that I’m sending it because you are the most important things in my life and I love you dearly.

Inane Ramblings

Strange how the mind works isn’t it? Well, mine at least.

This morning I was sitting in the surgery, waiting to see my doctor when I happened to glance up at the LED board. Our surgery has finally hit the 21st Century and now has things like automatic telephone appointments (which are rubbish), a rather whizzy computer system that lets you check yourself in and tells you how many people are still waiting to be seen in front of you (amazingly this morning that was none) and of course the LED board. No longer are we subject to crackled voices calling out our names in a style reminiscent of those railway station announcers, each patient looking around in confusion as they try to work out whether it was them that was being called. Now our names glow red, proclaiming loudly that doctor or nurse whoever is ready to see us (or as is more usually the case, that s/he is now fifteen minutes late).

This morning though, watching the board cycle through its messages about repeat prescriptions and late doctors (although not mine, she says smugly – actually have you ever noticed the wave of hatred that is emitted by others waiting for late doctors when you get called in about a minute after arriving and they know they’re there for at least another half hour yet?) my mind picked up on the final message that The Doctor was twenty minutes late.

Sadly, my heart automatically beat faster at the thought that Doctor Who was working at our surgery and for a split second I wished that I was seeing him instead of the sterling Doctor Raval. Of course then sense kicked in and I realised that it was obviously a locum and so their name wasn’t on the board...but just for a minute there...and yes, before you say it, I already know I’m sad.

♥

So NaNaWriMo isn’t exactly going the way I’d planned. So far I’ve managed about 500 words, which is about 11,500 less than I should have written by this stage. In fact it doesn’t even really make up a plot outline if I’m being honest. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been outstandingly busy doing all sorts of fabulous things, but I can’t. The truth is that I just can’t be bothered to write, although I am filling the time with other things like reading the latest Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Unseen Academicals.

And then there’s the UKS Cyber Crop which takes place this weekend and is likely to stall me further. This time the theme is The Wizard of Oz and I’m on the Toto’s team. How much I’ll do remains to be seen, but I’m sure there’ll be a Kiefer layout in there somewhere along the way. Amazingly for once I’m actually available for the whole thing, at least at the moment, although that doesn’t mean I’ll actually do it all; which reminds me that I should head on over to the website and check out the classes and see which ones I can actually attempt. As ever the finished layouts will be posted on here (or at least they will if I get my photo account back, as they’ve incorrectly suspended it at the moment).

Sadly I’ve just realised that this blog entry is longer than my story. Time to check out and get on with some writing I think!

A 'write' Challenge

Well it’s that time of year again. I mean, of course, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which starts on 1 November 2009. Those of you who take note of these things will remember that I took part last year but didn’t manage to complete my novel, although I did write well over the required 50,000 words during the month, just not on my novel. Mainly the reason for this was a lack of organisation over what I was intending to write about and major sidetracking by other projects.

So I’ve signed up again. In some ways I’m even less prepared for the novel than I was last year, although I do have a vague plot in mind, or at least more of a plot than I had last year. However, as this and the last blog post are the first things I’ve written for almost three months it is going to be far more of a challenge. To be honest, I’m not really bothered if I don’t get the story completed again, what matters most is to get back to writing. At the moment I feel stripped of imagination and I’m hoping that focussing my mind on something, however flimsy will clear the block I seem to have erected around the creative part of my brain.

I worked out last year that I had to write 1,667 words a day to complete the 50,000 word target – which seemed easy enough then. At the moment that seems a huge task, but I’m hoping that if I can actually get writing again the job will get easier. At any rate it gives me something to do in those dark and dreary nights of November when we’re not otherwise engaged in going to concerts.

I’m Back!

Yep it’s true. I’m back and bigger and better than ever.

Firstly, I need to make some apologies.

To those of you who I haven’t spoken to enough, when I really should have done; to those who I argued with and upset and was mean to – I apologise. I apologise for not talking, or for talking too much – for the tears and the tantrums, for the arguing and the pain. Basically, I’m sorry for having been such an almighty pain-in-the-arse.

And the hugest THANK YOU in the world too, to Mrs H3 for sticking with me through thick and thin – you are, quite literally, my lifeline. Without you I wouldn’t be writing today. I love you matey, in all your guises.



There are two main reasons why the blogging stopped, neither of which I really want to go into in detail. Enough to say that the concert season pretty much dried up for the summer (damn you festivals!), thus leaving Mrs H3 and I in the situation of having to make our own entertainment down the pub - although that did produce some interesting evenings as the pictures show, and I have been recovering from an illness which has left me unable and not wanting to write anything, let alone a blog.



But as the words of the song say, I’m picking myself up, dusting myself down and starting all over again and the re-emergence of the blog is part of that.
So, back to the good stuff.


*~* MUSIC *~*

The concerts have started again, although they are a little thin on the ground, especially after the extremely sad announcement that Chas and Dave have split up. Obviously our entire autumn schedule had revolved around their concerts, but neither Mrs H3 nor I have any interest in seeing the Chas Hodges Band. We need Dave to make our evening complete. However, all is not dim on the concert front as we do still have Marc Almond, The Flaming Lips, Gary Numan, Alice Cooper and the mighty Rolf Harris to see between now and Christmas and Mrs H3 is off to see Dizzee Rascal later this week.

This is a weird feeling for me, as I’ve never had any interest in Dizzee (although I quite like Bonkers) and I decided that I didn’t want to see him, so told Mrs H3 she could find someone else to go with her. Of course, now I’m wishing I hadn’t said that as it seems very strange NOT to be going to a concert with her and I’m worried that I’m going to miss something good. So yep, now I’m wishing I was going!

Since I last blogged a million years ago, we’ve been to see I Am Kloot at Relentless Garage who have just released a new album of b-sides and rarities, and who were absolutely fantastic (no, of course I’m not biased). I rather like the venue and it was a joy to see the songs performed by the whole band again, although I was a little surprised by their jazzed up version of my favourite song Fingerprints and not entirely sure that I liked it that way.



We also saw Peter Doherty at the Roundhouse, which I’m not sure was the right venue for him. Although he was good as ever, we got the impression that he wasn’t completely comfortable there and he seemed to be lacking something that we’ve seen at previous shows of his. A good evening, but I think he’d have been happier somewhere where the audience could get a bit closer – the gap between stage and audience at the Roundhouse is huge and their bouncers are numerous and well-prepared. There was never any chance of a stage invasion, which probably ruined Peter’s night a little as he does like to get people up on stage whenever he gets the chance.



A repeat visit too, to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Once again they were very good (although they omitted Psycho Killer from their repertoire this time unfortunately), but the venue, Blackheath Concert Halls, was dreadful. The whole building was over-heated, but the concert room itself was totally airless and it was hard to stay awake because of the heat, although the chairs were so uncomfortable that they did help a little. There was one fan, located in the bar area, which Mrs H3 and I spent most of the break standing in front of (bad luck to anyone else who wanted to get the benefit) in an attempt to cool down. The toilets were acceptable, but the cold water had been turned off, leaving only scalding hot water for hand washing – definitely not needed at any time, but especially when the place was already so warm. All in all the evening wasn’t as entertaining as it should have been and even though the UOGB did several of those clever multiple song mixes including some I’d never heard before, it was hard to think of anything else but getting out and getting some fresh air. This was followed by the worst chips I’ve probably ever tasted in my life from a fish and chip shop that apparently has won awards for being the best chip shop in...well, I’m not sure where...London? the UK? The world? I’m guessing maybe it’s the best chip shop in Blackheath.

We were also fortunate enough to see the always excellent Blue October at the O2 Islington Academy. This is a strange little venue and not being in the mood for heading for the front (much to Mrs H3’s relief I imagine) my view of the band was rather restricted, to the point that in the end I gave up even trying to see them and just enjoyed the blast of freezing cold air from the excellent air conditioning whilst I got lost in the music. There was a bigger crowd than I’d anticipated which I’m hoping is a growing fan base rather than people just turning up on the off-chance, although as Mrs H3 pointed out, rather a lot of the audience were foreign.

There was a chance to meet the band afterwards, but although I wanted to get a hard copy of the latest album Approaching Normal, the whole thing looked rather disorganised and there were a lot of screaming girls around, so we decided instead to just get the hell outta Dodge. Amazingly, the car park that we’d used was almost empty despite being pretty cheap. Definitely a good find for future concerts in that area as getting up that way is a nightmare when the tubes are playing up as they were for the IAK concert.



Finally, Mrs H3, her mum and I all wandered down to the Lewisham Country Fayre (apparently Lewisham is in the country) and had a pleasurable afternoon petting llamas and goats, eating cakes, drinking tea and watching Boney M. Yep, that’s right, Boney M were headlining the afternoon’s attractions. Running through their range of hits (most of which Mrs H3 didn’t know, being such a youngster) the band, who still contain one original member (the woman in red) were enthusiastic and lively and we rather enjoyed the show, although there were some very strange people there – which I suppose livened the proceedings up even more.




*~* FILMS *~*

Now the last time I posted about films it was, of course, excitement at the impending Harry Potter film that I’d been counting down to for over a year. As luck would have it I ended up seeing the film twice on opening day, the first time alone, the second with Mrs H3 and I think it would be fair to say that it comes in as my second favourite of all the films, top place still being held by the Prisoner of Azkaban.

It’s almost time for the DVD to be released and way too late for reviews, but I think my view pretty much fits with the majority of other HP fans – the film was good, but had its flaws. I was confused rather than elated when I left the cinema the first time and couldn’t actually decide if I thought the film was brilliant or rubbish.

As ever there wasn’t enough Snape, although admittedly there was more than any previous film and I was hugely disappointed that they missed the most important line of the whole book out of the film – it wouldn’t have taken too much more screen time for Snape to say ‘DON’T CALL ME COWARD!” I was disappointed too at the lack of the battle at the end of the film, instead replaced by a pointless (in my and lots of others opinion) attack on the Burrow. I was also exasperated by the Ginny/Harry/Room of Requirement scene as that leaves too many important things unsaid or undone for the next film.

In fact that would be my main criticism – too much important stuff not explained. Mention of the horcruxes, but not how they were made, or why they were important. Too much stuff removed and little put in that added substance, although the fish scene was quite delightful.

The ‘unfortunate event’ as it’s become termed by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, was wrong and gave a completely different impression of the end of the film to the end of the book. And I have to congratulate too, Steve Kloves for still attempting to ship Hermione and Harry even when it’s completely obvious that they’re never meant to be a couple.

Since then there’s been little on the cinema front either, although Mrs H3 and I did, sadly, waste two hours of our lives going to see The Time Traveller’s Wife which was incredibly dull and just totally crap and the completely excellent District 9 which I would definitely recommend to everyone, although I did find it incredibly sad.

But this week has seen the beginning of the new season and the release of a load of films that I want to see and of course I’m now on countdown for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland next March (as it’s a little early for me to be counting down to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One ). Coming up are 9, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant , New Moon, the Twilight sequel; Where the Wild Things Are and, surprisingly, Guy Ritchie’s version of Sherlock Holmes (or maybe not a surprise as it stars Robert Downey Jr). Out now are Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Up and even Zombieland which received pretty good reviews.

I went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs after good reviews from both critics and friends and thought it was excellent. I went to a Saturday afternoon showing and thus shared the cinema with lots of children, all of whom seemed to enjoy the film as thoroughly as I did. This animated film revolves around the premise of a man who invents a machine to turn water into food and is both laugh-out-loud funny (for children and adults) and touching and although a little mawkish at the end, is generally an all round feel-good movie. I came out of the film feeling glad that I’d seen it, which I think says it all.

I was also impressed with the staff of Showcase Cinema at Bluewater as they had no problem in throwing out a large group of youngsters who were mucking around in the cinema and refused to shut up even after repeated requests from the rest of the audience. The woman who removed them received a cheer from the rest of us.

And the fun doesn’t stop with films. Halloween is on its way and Mrs H3 and I are going to Hendrick’s Halloween Ball - St Anthony’s Dance a fancy dress event at the Troxy ho sted by the Last Tuesday Society. The following night will see us once again dressed up (for a change) for the Sherwood Oak Halloween Party . Expect a huge bunch of photos to appear shortly.

So I think it’s time to shut up now. You see, now I've got going again I can just rabbit on...and on...and on....

Music and Moanings

So, I’ve discovered that, unfortunately, I am too old for music festivals.

To be fair, I wasn’t really all that much in the mood to go to the Lovebox Weekender anyway. Depression from PMT, a niggling backache and bad hayfever left me wanting to climb back into bed for the weekend and ignore the world, but having spent so much on the tickets I was determined not to waste them. Of course, I was also regretting the choice to go on Saturday, where the line up consisted of little other (from my point of view) than Duran Duran, however much I love them; when Sunday’s line up had Gary Numan and The Doves, amongst others.

Being in the already grumpy mood I was in, I was also unhappy about the weather. Obviously I’d been hoping that in the middle of summer, the day would be long, hot and dry. Sadly, it managed only one of those three things.

It all began so well, considering. Having got to Mile End, having been able to travel on the part of the Jubilee Line that is still running at weekends, with the weather showing signs of being sunny, things didn’t seem quite so bad. But then came the walk to Victoria Park, which the Lovebox website had described as being ten minutes away. I had already been made aware by Kev the beanpole that even he couldn’t walk it in ten minutes. However, we hadn’t anticipated something nearer to a forty five minute walk.

Still trying to get into the spirit, our first stop was the tequila tent for a rather tasty margarita and some excellent Latin American disco, where I became the proud owner of a rather tacky pink and orange maraca.

So, things seemed to be looking up, although more alcohol (which I suspect would definitely have helped the day) was out of the question as I was driving, so instead I moved onto the water and the odd nice cup of tea. There were many food stalls, and all seemed to be fair trade and organic and all those other good things, the choice varied and eclectic. Eventually Mrs H3 decided on a Greek chicken kebab, whilst I went for an organic sirloin steak burger with some divine onion relish (and another cup of tea – yep I know, I’m so rock n’ roll!)

Having checked out the various other entertainment areas (most of which appeared to be hardcore house music) we ended up sitting near the main stage as there were at least people we’d heard of on there. We missed VV Brown as we were debating about food, we caught most of the Rumble Strips, who I personally didn’t think much of, although to be fair we were sitting outside of the area where we could hear them properly and during the break while we waited for Mr Hudson to come on, we went over to the Warehouse stall to get our free ‘Rain or Shine’ kit, consisting of a cheap paper fan and an even cheaper white plastic poncho. This was our best move of the day.

Sadly, by this point I had to admit to Mrs H3 that I was feeling somewhat bored as there wasn’t enough (of interest to me at any rate) going on between acts on the main stage and sitting around was beginning to make my back hurt again.

So back to Mr Hudson, and I was desperately trying to remember which rapper had taken him under their wing (it turned out to be Kanye West – is he a rapper?). Anyway, I thought Mr Hudson was okay although not really my cup of tea, although I did recognise Supanova which means that Greg James must have played it between 4.45 and 5.30am a few times in the recent past (the only time I listen to Radio One these days).

Having found ourselves in the optimum area for viewing and sound, we proceeded to stay and watch Florence and the Machine, who were the only other band that I’d been looking forward to seeing (as Friendly Fires clashed with Duran Duran on the other stage). Disappointingly, for me at least, I wasn’t overly impressed. I will admit that Florence does have a good voice, but her songs were quite boring and even Rabbit Heart, a song which I’ve quite enjoyed when I’ve heard it on TV, didn’t lift the proceedings. Eventually we gave up and instead joined the humongous queue for the toilets.

By now I was fed up of standing (backache and arthritis setting in big time), so we headed for the barrier in front of the disabled viewing area/sound booth and finding a nice central pitch sat down while we waited for N.E.R.D. to come on stage.

It was at this point that it started raining and so we donned our cheapo ponchos and settled in to watch Pharrell and his crew doing their thing. Now I have to say that this sort of music really does pretty much leave me cold, although Mrs H3 was in her element. But, although I was no longer able to sit down due to the rain, I actually found myself starting to quite enjoy the show, especially when they blantantly broke every Health and Safety rule in the book and invited a whole load of fans onto the stage.

But now everything was wet and so sitting down was a no-no, which meant the next few hours were spent standing with all the old age pain that goes with that. Again there was a long wait for the final band, who as Mrs H3 surmised, were obviously waiting for it to get dark so their (admittedly spectacular) light show was visible. By the time Duran Duran had made it to the stage the temperature had dropped considerably and I was now freezing cold, to go along with wet and miserable and the wishing I hadn’t come had returned.

I’m sure you’ll be unsurprised to hear that I thought Duran Duran were bloody excellent, and Simon looked gorgeous, dressed as he was in frockcoat, waistcoat and top hat (definitely feeding a fantasy of mine). His singing too, was spot on, and as had been the case with Voodoofest, it was clear they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. For the duration of their set, I forgot the cold and the rain, almost forgot the pain from standing for so long, and even, for a moment, stopped thinking that I’d wished I hadn’t bought a ticket and experienced some real pleasure.

But then the concert ended and we had the long, long walk back to the station and the even longer trip back home. I was in so much pain by this time and Mrs H3 was so fed up, that we decided that even if we’d had tickets for Sunday we wouldn’t have gone (yep you heard me right, I’d have missed seeing my beloved Gary rather than make that journey again). By the time we’d got home we were determined that we’d never go to another festival ever again.

However, sleep and hindsight made me consider that had the day stayed dry I’d have not been in as much pain as I’d have been able to sit down more and had there not been so great a walk, it would have been fine. As an urban festival Lovebox was nothing like Reading or Glastonbury and I think I’d been expecting it to be like them. Whereas at the larger festivals there are so many different things to do that you can never get bored, even if the music isn’t quite to your taste, unless you were up for getting drunk there wasn’t so much to do at Lovebox. There weren’t enough bands that I liked, I’ve never been into all that house music stuff, and even the fringe stuff wasn’t as entertaining as other places I’ve been so the day soon became rather boring.

So actually, maybe I’m not too old for festivals, I’m just too old for the Lovebox Weekender or any other festival that takes place in Victoria Park. Give me an easy journey and a seat to sit in and I’ll be happy!



Having missed Gary Numan at Lovebox, we did instead get to see him at what used to be called the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (it’s something O2’y these days, as everything seems to be) last Saturday evening - and yes, we had seats.

I had been a little maudlin as Ben and Jerry’s Sundae Festival (yep the ice cream people, and yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to any more festivals) had a cracking line up, including I Am Kloot and the Super Furry Animals. After a lot of considering we decided that it would be too much to try to attend both, although part of me was still disappointed at missing IAK. Anyway, all disappointment was forgotten once Gary took to the stage.

Mrs H3 told me on the journey home that she always enjoys watching my face when Gary comes on stage, as I always look so ecstatically happy to see him. And it’s true. Every time he appears I’m transported back to the first time I ever saw him live and the joy and love that I felt for him then spreads through my entire body.

Whilst watching him this time I was thinking about the number of incarnations he’s gone through over the years and how far away his music is now from what I was listening to and loving so much back in the late seventies. I wondered for a moment whether, if I’d been told, at the time I first saw Tubeway Army on Top of the Pops doing Are Friends Electric? that Gary would eventually be doing hardcore metal music, whether I’d have believed it, or even been such a fan. But, whilst I might not have believed that he would head that way, I would definitely have still loved him.

Music-wise it doesn’t seem to matter what Gary turns his hand to, I enjoy it. I don’t LOVE all of it, but then, personally, I think it would be a very strange person that could say that. But I’ve enjoyed his journey to where he is today, and love the way that he integrates the older songs into his current style. And I love his current style. And when I see him live there is no equal for me... I adore I Am Kloot and often say they are my favourite band, but Gary is a lifelong love that will never die and for me nothing, and no one else will ever come as close to perfection as he does.

So now we have a quiet period. Not much going on in the way of concerts, I assume because of the summer holidays and people going away so nothing interesting has been booked. The next concert at the moment is Peter Doherty (oh yes) on 19th September, followed by concerts by people as diverse as Blue October (yes, they are coming back to the UK and I am very happy about this), Flaming Lips, Alice Cooper, Marc Almond, Chas and Dave and Gary Numan again towards the end of the year.

We found out recently that Dave's wife died of lung cancer, which may have accounted for his absence from the last concert we went to, and others since. I'm hoping that he's back for the three concerts we've got booked for the end of the year, or I fear for Mrs H3’s sanity. My sympathies go to Dave and his family for their loss.

I’m also looking forward to September/October as this signifies the release of the new I Am Kloot Album called B, which contains B-sides, rare recordings and new songs. Obviously this will be accompanied by a tour, which is always good news!

It’s Here! Well, Almost!

So it’s almost time. The moment I’ve been waiting for so long. Yep, of course I’m talking about getting my Severus Snape fix, erm I mean Harry Potter fix, with the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at midnight tonight. Sadly, it appears that nowhere in the UK, or at least nowhere within travelling distance for me, is doing a midnight showing, unlike the US where there are all sorts of things going on. So I’m relegated to having to wait until the morning to see it. But I suppose, after the wait I’ve already had, another thirteen hours is nothing.

I’ve spent the last three weeks desperately trying to ignore the wealth of clips etc. that have been released in the run-up, but gave up after the London premiere last week, and have since immersed myself in all the hype and am as excited as a six year old waiting for Santa. All my geeky HP friends (and believe me, I count myself as a geek too) are as excited as me and all day the tweets have been flying on the subject of the film and the Harry Potter Alliance drive to get #Dumbledore as a trending topic on Twitter. Facebook too has been flooded with HP surveys and quizzes and statuses that hint towards something momentous occurring shortly.

I’ve just noticed that the countdown ticker on my blog is wrong, as it still shows Friday as the release date. I guess they never got round to changing it; still I won’t hold it against the Leaky Cauldron as they have been somewhat busy recently.

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Okay, so last time I posted I was heading for the London Ukulele Festival, where I and a number of other uke players were going to try and break the world record. I am happy to say that we did it, with 851 players completely routing the previous 401 player record. Mrs H3 and her parents came with me for support, and I can honestly say that it was a really good day out. I also managed to raise £85 for Cancer Research, not a fortune, but not bad with only one day to collect sponsorship. The photos from the day are below and you can see, amongst other videos, the report that appeared on the ITN news. A picture of my official certificate, when it arrives will follow.

Tomorrow also sees the re-emergence of Mrs H3 out of quarantine, as she’s been suffering with the dreaded swine flu. Fortunately, not serious enough to end up in hospital or dead, although she did pass it to her mum (get well soon Zena), so things have been a bit quiet on the going out front over the last couple of weeks.

However, it gets going again on Saturday with our trip to the Lovebox Festival at Hackney (which I’m now regretting only going for one day, as Gary Numan and The Doves are playing on Sunday), although we are seeing Gary next Saturday at Shepherds Bush, so all’s not lost. I just hope the weather is nice, not sure I can face spending the day waiting for Duran Duran in the rain.

Update

Okay thought I'd better give a quick update as I haven't got round to blogging again recently. I had meant to do a post with reviews of the films I've seen since the last filmic post, but to be honest I can't be bothered - I'll just say that I've seen State of Play, X Men Origins: Wolverine, Coraline and Star Trek and they were all pretty good. Star Trek was at the IMAX at Waterloo, which I'm not sure was an improvement - probably not, although it's not going to stop me going to see Harry Potter at the IMAX as it has bits in 3D apparently (sadly probably not Severus Snape though). Coraline was in 3D, although I'm sure that wasn't improved for being so, it could have used the 3D far more effectively and sadly, the Jonas Brothers concert film that was shown as a trailer was excellent and showed just how good it could have been.

Anyway, as you'll see from the counter it's now only 31 days until the release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and of course I'm getting mega-excited. I've stopped watching all the trailers etc. as I'm fed up of seeing bits of the film and WB have released so much footage now that I feel like I've already seen it. D Day is Wednesday 15th July and I expect to be at one of the first showings of the day - sadly no midnight showing at any of the cinemas near me, as there apparently are in the US, but I think the first showing is about 11am.

Talking of Severus Snape, WB have just released this and I’ve decided that I NEED it. No don’t ask where I’m going to put it ‘cos I have no idea, although I’m happy sharing my bedroom with both Alan Rickman and Severus Snape ;) I don’t care how impractical a 6’ 2” standee is ... I want it!

So to other news. Went to Chelsea Flower Show as usual, but this year Lynnie Lou had the audacity to go away on holiday to Spain with her sister so instead Mrs H3 and I went. Had the usual cracking day and were very lucky to have excellent weather. We got hundreds of photos before the batteries went on my phone and her camera about half way round. Sadly, I didn't get to see James May, but we did see most of the other major TV personalities.

Mrs H3 and I spent Bank Holiday Monday at Hall Place in Bexley where we joined King Henry VIII and his court in watching jousting etc. It was fun and once again we were lucky with the weather. In fact I actually got sunburnt. However, I’m not sure they were expecting the turnout they got as the food court contained only a burger bar, a jerk chicken stand (wtf?) a donut stall and an ice cream van. Queues for all were horrendous and we ended up leaving and driving the ten minutes down the road to Bluewater to grab something from Burger King instead. Anyway, photos to follow when we get round to uploading them, which will be after Mrs H3 returns from her highly exciting holiday in Skiathos.

Coming up next Saturday is the London Ukulele Festival. Having finally got my beautiful lilac sporano ukulele, I signed up to take part in the World Record attempt for the most ukulele's played in one place at the same time, assuming that we go. All well and good, but firstly I have to play (and I believe, sing) The Sloop John B - a tune that I haven't played since I was 12 and gave up guitar lessons. Not only have I had to relearn the chords (and believe me my fingers are feeling the burn) I've had to learn how to tune my ukulele as this warm weather is knocking it out of tune almost every time I play. Fortunately I've found a great online tuner - I have no idea what I'll do at the festival itself though. Hopefully one of the many hundreds of other ukulele players will be able to help me. Secondly, I'm supposed to be raising sponsorship money as it's an event for Cancer Research, but as I’m still not 100% sure that we’re going I feel a bit bad asking people to sponsor me for something I might not end up doing. If anyone’s interested in sponsoring me if I do go, please leave me a message or e-mail me to let me know.

Skype. Since changing to my new computer I’d completely forgotten about Skype, mainly because it turns out that my phone is not compatible with the new software. The old Skype software, plus the new phone software has now been installed and Skype is once again a great place to chat!

Catch Up - The Music Bit

OMG how far behind am I again?

Sorry, I kept meaning to update but I’ve been busy doing other things … although would have to admit that one of these ‘other things’ was actually playing Mah Jong to which I’ve become completely addicted (the peril of getting a new computer with all those games I didn’t have before) at the expensive of EVERYTHING else in my life.

Anyway, to be honest I was having a problem trying to decide what to write about the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Not because they were bad … they definitely weren’t, but because they were brilliant.

Now you’ll remember I was rather looking forward to seeing them, knowing them as I did from clips on You Tube and a rave review that Ron Hopwood gave me about fifteen years ago when they played Chatham Central Hall, and I have to say that they didn’t disappoint. We saw them at the Cadogan Halls, in Sloane Square and the clientele certainly matched the area; in fact Mrs H3 and I were feeling a little out of place amongst all those posh talking la la’s.

And then the UOGB came on stage. Funny, charming and excellent ukulele players; they proceeded to blow us away with renditions of songs like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Smells Like Teen Spirit. When they actually managed to convince the (mainly 55+) audience to join in the chorus to a little ‘folk’ song which began with the lines “I am an anti-christ, I am an anarchist ….” I knew we were onto a winner. The sight of all those aged, middle-class patrons bellowing along happily to the chorus of Anarchy in the UK was enough to uplift anyone’s evening. Irony much?

Add to that a stunning rendition of Hawkwind’s Silver Machine closely followed by the Talking Heads Psycho Killer (worth going for that alone, we agreed) and then a northern club singer’s take of that other great ‘folk’ classic Wuthering Heights and you get an idea of how out-to-lunch the entire evening was. Bad puns, silly jokes and amazing playing all added to the good time.

The highlights for me were the medley’s which were breathtaking in their complexity. Firstly a little ditty which they called Plagarism, which blended Life on Mars, My Way and For Once in My Life – and yes, amazingly when you hear them all played at the same time, they really do sound very similar. The encore brought a second such mash-up involving amongst others, the works of Handel, Hotel California and I Will Survive.

Original, exciting and fun, I would recommend the UOGB to everyone. If they’re playing in your area – go see them, you won’t regret it. In fact I believe we’re going to see them again, this time with Mrs H3’s parents, when they play Blackheath in September. (Yep, we’re sooo rock n’ roll!)

The following Monday saw us heading for Guildford and a date with my favourite man, Johnny Bramwell of I Am Kloot. The gig, at a venue called the Boileroom was one of the most intimate that we’d been to and was a real cracker. Johnny was in a good mood; far more upbeat than he’d been at the Half Moon, and soon dispensed with the set list, instead taking requests including the very rarely played Bigger Wheels and Titanic.

Cue me being the ultimate fan girl and heading to the bar for a chat with the great man at the end of the gig, pleased as punch when he recognised me and gave me a big kiss and cuddle, before stopping to have a discussion about why he couldn’t play my current favourite Kloot song Down at the Front at his solo gigs. The moment was ruined a little by a few stupid comments from a bunch of blokes, also at the bar, who I assume were jealous that Johnny had stopped talking to them to spend a few minutes with me, but otherwise it was an excellent evening. I did manage to video a couple of songs, both from the forthcoming album (which Johnny said they’re hoping to tour with in September/October…or maybe January) which can, as ever, be found on my YouTube channel.

Next was the first Chas and Dave concert of the season which was at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon. It was pretty much business as usual, with the Q&A session and the cover versions of others songs in the first half and their Greatest Hits package in the second. Mrs H3 and I had prime seats in the centre of the front row and were in the perfect position to see Dave, looking pretty pissed off for much of the evening. Rumour has it he’s had enough and he certainly looked like that was the case during the first half, although he perked up a bit in the second.

Chas and Dave also recognise us now as we’ve been so many times and we got another few photos with the guys before heading home for the evening, with Dave telling us he looked forward to seeing us at Chatham (yes, of course we’re going).

And so to the concert that we missed … the one that left Mrs H3 and I depressed and sobbing … and no, it wasn’t Dizzee Rascal. I refer, of course, to the reformation of The Libertines in the early hours of 16^th May at London’s Rhythm Factory. To say we were gutted would be a complete understatement. After so doggedly following Pete for all these months, to miss the one concert where he was reunited with Carl and Gary was heartbreaking. We can only hope that now they’ve got together once, more concerts will follow.

Ultravox – Still Raging in Eden

Last Thursday Mrs H3 and I went to the Roundhouse at Camden along with thousands of others to see the Rage in Eden reunion concert by the mighty Ultravox. This was a new venue for us, but a good one – the sound was pretty excellent for the most part – although deteriorated a bit once out of the domed area. The view left a little to be desired, although this of course was due as ever to my height and my desire to breathe rather than force my way to the front of the room.

The audience had an interesting demographic. Something like ninety five percent was male and aged between thirty five and fifty and most of those were pretty tall. I don’t think I spotted more than about three people under the age of twenty all evening - and they were with their parents.

Ultravox emerged amid billowing dry ice playing the hugely atmospheric instrumental track Astradyne, which they then followed up with a run through of their greatest hits across all their albums including a blistering version of Visions in Blue and other such classics as One Small Day, Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, The Voice, The Thin Wall, Hymn, All Stood Still and of course the eternally breathtaking Vienna.

The twenty three years since they had last performed live disappeared within seconds as the band, clearly thoroughly enjoying what they were doing, got the crowd dancing and singing along to their songs and Billy Currie’s violin solos were, as they had always been, major crowd pleasers.
At the end of the encore Midge, Billy and Chris joined Warren on drums and created a rousing anthem to end the show with flair.

For me, the band sounded as good as they did twenty three years ago, with Midge’s vocals still as strong as they’d ever been and I will admit that several times during the concert I was transported back to the last time I’d seen them during the Set Movements tour back in 1984. However, in complete contrast to just about every other eighties band to have reformed, Ultravox haven’t tried to emulate their original look. Although Warren still has dark hair (I wasn’t close enough to establish whether it was a syrup or if he dyes it), both Billy and Chris have hair that is completely white and Midge is bald. Dressed in suits and smart shirts I have to admit that from a distance (not being close enough to see their faces properly) they looked rather like the sort of middle-aged band one could imagine playing at a wedding and I commented to Mrs H3 (who of course was a bit young to remember their original look and so had no preconceptions) that to me they seemed rather like an Ultravox tribute band.

Now that sounds like a criticism, but I didn’t mean it to be. Ultravox were, and still are, if the concert at the Roundhouse was anything to go by a fantastically innovative and accomplished band and I would happily pay to go and see them at any time. And to be honest I applaud them for not feeling the pressure to return to the look they created back in the eighties.

Mrs H3 videoed Vienna and you can see it on my Youtube channel. I have also begun uploading the videos from our other concerts, with the footage from Elbow’s Brighton Dome concert now on there too.



And now, as Monty Python once said, for something completely different. Tomorrow night Mrs H3 and I are off to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Now obviously this is partially because of my interest in learning to play the ukulele (still looking for a teacher if anyone wants to volunteer) and partially because they just look bloody awesome.

If they are anywhere near as good as this tomorrow night I’ll be a fan forever!

Whoop Whoop! Birmingham City Promoted to the Premiership!

Okay so I just wanted to post quickly to say how happy I am that Birmingham City finally managed to get something right and got themselves promoted back up to the Premiership.

Last week would have been better, but wasn't to be, but from the sound of things (I didn't actually get to see the game as the pub decided that a run-of-the-mill Liverpool v Newcastle game was more important than Birmingham's promotion game, just as they did last week with the Manchester United game) we played a good game this week and fully deserved the win and the promotion.

So once again we're back in the Premiership - which is good for me as I'll get to see more matches, and hopefully good for the club too, although I'm a little disturbed about a report in the Birmingham Mail last week in which they reported that David Gold had announced that we wouldn't be buying any new players next season as the £40M they'll get for going up has to be spent recouping the costs of gaining promotion. If that's the case then we'll be going straight back down again at the end of next season and with the number of fans the club has been losing recently, that definitely isn't a good thing.

Anyway, congratulations to the team and also to Alex McLeish, who, although he's not very popular at St Andrews, has done a fine job of keeping Birmingham in the top three (and mainly top two) all season. Fingers crossed that now we've returned to the top flight he'll be the sort of manager we need to keep us up there.

Keep right on!

The Wizard Rock Special Post

Talking of Harry Potter I want to announce my new Wrock-centric blog. Now that I’ve admitted publically my love of Wizard Rock I feel the need to talk about it almost incessantly. The quantity and quality of Wrock bands interest me far more than a majority of mainstream music these days, with the exception of my eternal favourites.

So if you’re interested in knowing more about Wizard Rock and what’s going on in the Harry Potter fandom’s own music genre then please check out my new blog using the link above or the one in the sidebar.

Music, Music and More...

So the Peter Doherty concert came and went without much excitement to be honest. The venue was interesting to say the least – Proud at Camden which is based in Stables Market, an old horse stables and hospital. The market is a nice place with an interesting selection of shops (read freaky in Mrs H3’s terms) and Proud is an art gallery and bar during the day; bar and music venue at night. The bar itself is interesting enough, playing an eclectic choice of music, the stables having been kept to provide pockets of privacy, each one with a widescreen TV to show the football (Chelsea were playing that night – sorry can’t remember who they were playing as it wasn’t Birmingham and it wasn’t a very inspiring game). We chose to sit in the one with the black leather seats and the big speakers – which I guess would be called the music area. There was also a room with a table football machine, one with a pole and disco floor and several others that I can’t really remember what was in them but you get the idea. Water was £2 a bottle which I guess is pretty standard for these sort of places.

Neither Mrs H3 nor I had bothered to check the venue out until the day when I looked it up on the net just before leaving work and discovered that the concert was scheduled to run until 2.30am. Now obviously that gave us a huge problem as we were parked at the O2 and the last tube leaves at about midnight and it’s a bloody long journey back to Mrs H3’s house on the night bus which would have meant probably getting home at about 6am. We sat in the bar watching the football and hoping that Peter would grace us with an early visit with club music after, but alas it was not to be.

He finally made an appearance at 10.45pm and launched into a similar set to the ones we’ve seen him do before, accompanied by Graham Coxon on a couple of songs and also – new to us – by a pair of ballerinas. Now I’d love to say that the concert was the best we’d ever seen, just Peter and his guitar (plus the guests) in such an intimate venue – and to be fair he was just as good as he’s been every other time we’ve seen him, but the ‘music room’ that the concert was held in was awful and severely depleted our enjoyment of the concert.

Now I’m usually quite happy in the smaller venues, although Mrs H3 tends to get a bit claustrophobic (she wasn’t awfully happy at Camden Underworld and thinks Half Moon is a little on the small side) but even I was having trouble in Proud. First of all the internet says that the capacity is for between 500 and 800 people (depending which site you read) however, I think that’s wildly optimistic. From what we could see (and admittedly being quite short that wasn’t much) the room isn’t much bigger than Half Moon’s 200 capacity space. And that was the problem. So many people were packed into the small area that it was almost impossible to move.

I’ve been to a few of Peter’s concerts now and I know two things – you don’t want to be down at the front or you end up covered in drinks and god knows what else that his mad fans throw at the stage and you don’t want to get caught up in the mosh when that gets going. The first we fortunately had no chance of doing, as crowded as the room was – the second we had no choice, because even pressed against the wall of the bar at the back of the room we were still in the moshing area.

Being somewhat on the short side my view of the stage was pretty much non-existent for most of the set as the stage is pretty low and there were a lot of tall people in front of me. I found this very annoying as I do at least like to get the occasional glimpse of the performer when I go to a concert. Finally I’d managed to secure a place right at the back, squashed up against the bar which afforded me a very occasional glimpse of Peter and his ballerinas (although I never did get to see Graham) when incredibly tall men happened to sway in the right directions (i.e. apart) and leave a sliver of a view.

Of course my position wasn’t the best. I was in the way of anyone trying to buy a drink – and there were many – and Mrs H3’s position was no better than mine. Add to that the lack of air from all those people squashed into such a small place and the whole thing became rather miserable.

To be honest it didn’t take much convincing for us to decide not to bother staying until the end of Peter’s set and instead try to make it back to the Jubilee Line for our last tube as he didn’t do anything different to what we’d seen before. Happily this turned out be the correct choice as he was only on stage for another five songs (which didn’t include Fuck Forever – and disappointingly for us there was no sign of the Wolfman either), which would have seen us stuck on getting the night bus and incredibly pissed off for having missed the tube.

My personal view of Proud is that they shouldn’t allow more than 300 people into the music room and they should raise the stage by a few inches to give us shorties who are stuck at the back at least some possibility of a view ... or better still arrange viewing in height order (with a strict no throwing policy enforced obviously).

The few photos of the evening have been added to the end of the slideshow of Peter's concerts below. They begin with the marvellous carved horse statues that are part of the restoration project that is taking place at Stables Market.

Anyway, tomorrow is the long-anticipated Ultravox reunion at the Roundhouse which I am very much looking forward to, even though I’ve been struck down with some strange summer cold or something (and no it’s not swine flu – just a sore throat, headache and just general miserableness).

We didn’t make it to the Headphone Disco in the end. Mrs H3 was ill – struck down with the same bug that I’ve now got I think – and as it didn’t start until 10.30pm and finished at 3am it gave us a similar problem to the concert with regards to getting home (neither of us wanted to drive to Islington). Having looked at the Facebook photos of the evening it seems I would have been about twenty five years older than every other person there so perhaps it’s a good thing we didn’t go after all.

Cinema...

On Friday evening we’re heading to the cinema to watch X Men Origins: Wolverine, the first of several films that we’ll be going to see in the near future. We’ve already booked our tickets for the Imax showing of Star Trek on the 27th May and of course I’m still on countdown for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Grrr

I hate how my blog seems to have changed size without me doing anything to it. My banner is too big for the box, although its sized to fit and now the new Harry Potter trailer is hanging into the sidebar and obscuring everything.

How do I make the text area bigger? And how do I get my banner fitting properly again. Anyone with ideas please let me know.

Hurrah another post!

Okay so I’m trying to be good and blog a little more regularly. Obviously good for me as I don’t have to write ‘War and Peace’ whilst trying to kick start my somewhat bad memory into gear back over a month and good for you not to have such huge posts to plough through.

As usual most of the post will be about music, but first some Harry Potter news. Last week Warner Brothers announced the release date for the film had changed again ... although fortunately by only two days. Anyway, the film will now be released on Wednesday 15th July, which as the ticker shows is in 87 days and I am getting very excited about it. The main reason for this of course was the release of a new trailer last Thursday, which is below. Also you should check out the much better quality HD version here as it’s amazing.



Obviously for me the high point was Severus Snape and the whole “fight back you coward” bit (although I thought the Katy Bell section amongst others was also excellently done) and thanks to the Leaky Cauldron my desktop is now sporting the screen cap of Severus blasting Harry off his feet.

So back to the music. Mrs H3 and I went to the Half Moon in Putney for the latest Johnny Bramwell gig and it was an absolute cracker. Recently released from recording the new album, having announced that Pete and Andy had chucked him out of the recording studio, Johnny was more talkative than at some of the previous gigs we’ve seen, although he was a touch dark and brooding (not that that’s a bad thing in my book). He did an excellent live set including songs from the new album including a fabulous new track called The Moon is a Blind Eye although unfortunately had to stop singing on a few occasions due to interruptions from a rather loud crowd, including a very drunk girl and her friends, who instead of being responsible enough to remove her from the room instead spent the last half hour of the concert loudly shushing her – which was almost as annoying as the girl herself. I have to admit that several times I was debating whether I could give her a quick punch to the side of the head to knock her out without being ejected from the gig – but of course I and none of the others around her, who I am sure were thinking similar things did that.

As I’ve mentioned before talking during concerts is a pet peeve of mine. I can understand friend’s saying a few words to each other occasionally; obviously even Mrs H3 and I aren’t immune to that. But when your conversation is continuous and drowns out the music of the performer then it is most definitely NOT acceptable. What I don’t understand is why people pay to go and see an artist and then ignore the concert to have a chat. If you want to talk, piss off back to the bar and talk there. Don’t ruin my and everyone else who is seriously trying to listen to the artist’s set’s evening. If nothing else it’s incredibly rude!

Sorry rant over.

Anyway, there were two support acts and I have to admit that we missed the first completely. However, the second Jonny Taylor, I thought was rather entertaining (not quite so much to Mrs H3’s taste), although he did sound a touch too much like James Blunt (which is never a good thing). I particularly liked one called London Town which you can hear on the link at his Myspace page.

Before the concert we went to the Lebanese restaurant called Mezza which is across the road from the pub. The last time we were at the Half Moon they were serving food which they brought in from the restaurant and so we decided to cut the middle man and head straight there. The food was lovely. The starter was spiced meat or feta cheese wrapped in filo pastry which was followed by lamb and vegetable kebabs with rice. The service was friendly but not over-attentive and it seemed a popular place. Definitely one I’d recommend.



On Wednesday we’re off to see Peter Doherty (yep him again) at Proud in Camden and then, in a bit of a departure from the normal stuff for us, we’re going to Headphone Disco on Friday in Islington. I’d never heard of this concept of a silent disco until Mrs H3 introduced me to it. Basically you are given a pair of headphones upon entering and you wear them to listen to the music which is provided by two DJs. You can toggle between sounds as you wish and dance away to your heart’s content (yep you know that’s not going to happen!) or you can take off the headphones and watch everyone else dancing to the music that you can no longer hear. It should be interesting if nothing else and we’re on the guest list so it costs nothing except for travel and drinks.

Oh and I finally started uploading stuff to my YouTube channel which you can find here. So far I’ve only uploaded the three videos that I took at the Johnny Bramwell concert (alas not the new track, hopefully I’ll get that at Guildford in a few weeks time) but hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll find the time to upload our videos from the Peter Doherty and Elbow concerts, plus of course any new concerts we go to (and maybe some old ones too ... perhaps the time has come for the guess the song game!). There is also an old and very bad quality video from my old phone which was taken one night in the Sherwood Oak. Feel free to watch it if you wish.

The Birthday Stuff

So as I may have mentioned previously, last Friday was Mrs H3’s 30th birthday. The weekend got off to a good start for her on Thursday with a birthday party held by her work colleagues, which began at work and continued into the pub where I understand copious quantities of Sambuca cocktails were consumed. I would like to point out that I wasn’t at this celebration as it was expected to be just a few quick drinks after work. However, it went on ‘til well past midnight…dirty stop outs!

On the big day itself, Mrs H3 and I went to the O2 where we first visited the new British Music Exhibition at the Bubble. This is a fascinating journey through the history of British music from 1945 to the present day and includes music, videos, costumes (including Adam Ant’s King’s of the Wild Frontier suit and David Bowie’s Pierrot costume from the Ashes to Ashes video) and much more besides. Highlight of the trip for us had to be the dance room where we learnt to disco dance and (oh I really hate to admit this) do the dance for the birdy’s song which we could then watch back on video afterwards. Unfortunately we didn’t get to learn a musical instrument or record a song as the places were already taken and we didn’t want to hang around for too long waiting. The exhibition has an interactive ticket which you can use to log various points and then look up further details on a special account on the internet afterwards (and yes it does apparently put the dances and any other activities you’ve taken part in on there too) and also includes three free ITunes downloads. I thought this was an excellent exhibition and well worth a visit.

Lunch followed at Zizzi’s where the astute waitress spotted the flashing and giant 30 badges that Mrs H3 was sporting and deduced it was her birthday. Generously she gave us a free glass of Prosecco each to celebrate with our meal, which consisted of their scrummy cheese & balsamic onion garlic bread followed by pizza.

And so it was time to visit the other exhibition currently at the Bubble – Body Worlds & the Mirror of Time. Mrs H3 and I visited the original Body Worlds at Brick Lane back in 2003 and were interested to see the new exhibition. To be honest, although it was much better value than last year’s Tutankhamun, and a damn sight more interesting too, it was pretty similar to the previous show, and with less exhibits. I think we felt that once you’ve seen one plastinated body you’ve seen them all really, whatever strange positions they’ve been put into – although this exhibition does feature (and I really hope I’m not giving anything away here) a giraffe – and bloody huge it is too! As ever there was a section on conception, pregnancy and child birth which I had to skip as I’m far too squeamish about that sort of thing, but other than that we did spend time taking in the whole thing which took about an hour and a half to complete. If you didn’t get to the original Body Worlds exhibition I would definitely recommend it, although it doesn’t feature the plastinated body split into a series of lengthways slides which was for me at least, one of the highlights of the original.

And so we came to the evening when we joined Mrs H3’s parents, her brother and his girlfriend for an evening at an entertainment venue called Madisons in Biggin Hill. This is one of those places that features a set menu which is served whilst the bar staff entertain the customers with a few songs and dancing on the bar and serves cocktails, bottled beers and other expensive drinks. The meal was not overly ambitious, the starters were pate, prawn cocktail, bruschetta and parma ham and melon; the main course a choice of salmon, chicken or lamb shank all served with (lumpy) mashed potatoes and a dessert of either apple and rhubarb crumble and custard or vanilla ice cream. The entertainment was okay though with the undoubted highlight being at the end when they set fire to the bar and a fire eater performed. During the evening Mrs H3 was called to the stage, along with the other people celebrating their birthdays and was presented with a birthday cake that I had bought for her – a small sponge cake featuring a photo of the Hoff (who else). Home once more we finished the champagne that we’d opened earlier in the evening and chatted until the wee small hours before finally heading off for bed.

The following day saw me at work as usual, feeling somewhat tired from the previous late night and early morning (I have so much trouble sleeping in new places). This was followed by the less than inspiring England friendly match and then a meal at the pub followed by a few drinks. We had originally intended to dress up and go to Maidstone for the evening, but everyone who had told us they were going backed out at the last moment and after a few drinks we decided we couldn’t be bothered to go. Instead we stayed at the pub with Dan, Bobby and Martin and had a few more drinks before acquiring more champagne and heading home. Obviously old age (and the late night the day before) was catching up with us, along with the clocks going forward and by the time we’d watched Peter Doherty on Jonathan Ross it was gone 3am.

Sunday began with a visit to the local café for breakfast, and for me the chance to relax for a few hours as I didn’t have to work. Mrs H3 headed home for a birthday party with her family, which I attended later in the day before we headed out for the Peter Doherty concert at the Troxy. The evening was completed in style with a kebab at Lewisham’s finest kebab house. I arrived home just after 2am feeling completely knackered and very glad that I wasn’t working the following day.

The fun hadn’t finished for Mrs H3 though. Keen to continue the celebrations she and her work colleagues went to the theatre to see the musical Le Cage Aux Folles on Tuesday evening whilst I flew out to Spain to see my parents, with whom my sister and my nephew Freddie who is now 3 months old were staying for a much needed few days of R&R.

It's That Time Again ...

Good grief another month gone already! So once again you get the extremely late and horrendously long update.

Firstly a HUGE apology to Mrs H3 for not mentioning earlier that amongst all the things we were doing recently we were celebrating her 30th birthday on 27th March. Part of the reason for this is that for quite a long time she was panicking about reaching this milestone and I didn’t want to upset her any further with a reminder, but then obviously failure to blog regularly came into it as well and so instead of getting ready for the big event after a complaint that I hadn’t mentioned it on here, all I can do now is report on the weekend and say congratulations on getting through the celebrations and for realising 30 isn’t the end of your life!


The Music Bit…The Deal was for the Diamond and the Skulldozer!

So the last time I blogged we were on the verge of going to see Elbow at Wembley and what a fantastic evening it was too. Completely different from the Brighton gig in so many ways, not least the quantity of people in attendance (obviously, considering the size of the place compared to previous venues, although I have to admit I was surprised at how full the place was – I guess it really is finally their year). It was clear from the moment that Guy and the lads stepped onto the stage how chuffed they were to be there and the huge crowd added considerably to the anthem-like numbers such as One Day Like This, although as I said before I’m just happy to see them wherever they perform (however, not the show they’re doing supporting U2 – and not just ‘cos of the £150 price tag - and annoyingly, the concerts in Manchester with the Halle Orchestra sold out before I even had a chance to read their Myspace blog post about them!)

Unfortunately my snazzy new phone broke (the slider cable broke causing the screen to black out) and had to be sent back to Sony for repair however, once again Mrs H3 and I managed to take copious amounts of photos and video footage (pics below as ever … I really will get my Youtube channel up and running for the videos one day I promise).





So then began the Peter Doherty (yes Peter in the press now he’s turned thirty (just like Mrs H3!) and grown up, although actually he’s always called himself that) tour to promote his rather excellent new album Grace/Wastelands which began with two concerts in Brighton and Folkestone and ended on the Sunday after Lisa’s birthday at the Troxy in London. Disappointingly, for all those detractors who have done nothing but slag him off ever since I mentioned we were going to see him, he is now completely clean and turned up at every gig.

The first at Brighton Dome (where else) was an interesting affair to say the least. The first support band didn’t turn up so his drummer came out and did a few songs, followed by a friend of his who we’d seen at the Royal Albert Hall and hadn’t enjoyed, although he was better than the drummer. Finally came Dot Allison and her band, who weren’t my (or Mrs H3’s) cup of tea at all. Luckily, having parked ourselves in the front row of the stalls seats, we were having fun watching the other members of the audience which took our minds off the support. When Peter eventually made it onto the stage, dressed casually in jeans and jumper, he did so with his full band along with a three piece string orchestra and at one point a double bass player and Dot again (as she collaborated on some of the songs), as well as Wolfman who strangely didn’t sing along to For Lovers as I would have expected. The music ranged from his solo acoustic stuff to full on rock and roll chic with a lot of free-form jazz type stuff in between. At one point there were so many people on stage I thought it was turning into a Sigur Ros concert. However, throughout he was excellent, even if the pseudo free-form jazz stuff didn’t particularly float my boat and with a crowd that was very clearly upper middle class and awfully polite it was funny to see the excitement that songs like Fuck Forever and Can’t Stand Me Now produced. It was a really good, if somewhat different evening to the one I had been expecting. He finished without an encore, which came as a surprise to most of us, but as he’d been hit by a drink thrown by someone in the audience and then almost by a lit cigarette, perhaps not completely so.

The following night at the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone was completely different. Firstly, we totally missed the support acts and then chose to go and sit on the balcony to watch the show rather than join the moshers. This was an excellent choice as it turned out as the crowd were very different in culture to the previous night. So was the show. Peter, who was once again sporting the casual jeans and t shirt look performed solo for the most part, with only occasional guest appearances by fellow Babyshambles cohort Mick Whitnall and the always value for money Wolfman (still dressed in the same clothes), to break things up (and no, he still didn’t sing on For Lovers). Peter spent a considerable amount of the concert proving his guitar skills with some lengthy riffs and even more time dodging the considerable amount of drinks that the very rowdy audience threw his way. After promising to finish with Albion, he did actually close with Can’t Stand Me Now. As is our wont Mrs H3 and I didn’t move when the lights went up, waiting for the venue to clear somewhat before heading home and it was lucky we didn’t for about seven minutes later Peter reappeared to do a blinding version of Albion to a by then largely empty room. As ever both evenings were caught in pictures and video.

And so to the Troxy - a beautiful art deco venue in Limehouse, London. This was the last night of the tour, and the last night of a very long weekend of celebrating for Mrs H3 and I. The audience was made up of a selection of the types of people that had been at the others - both the stylish and fashionable and the die hard beer throwing fans and the show was sold out. Once again we opted to miss the support acts, although we weren’t successful in the case of Dot Allison, who hadn’t grown on us at all. The gig too was a hybrid of the previous ones we’d seen – the band and the string section was in attendance as were special guests Graham Coxon, Wolfman (and yes this time he did sing on For Lovers and he was bloody awful – although he was wearing different clothes at last!) and Lee Mavers (the lead singer of 90’s band The La’s), which meant of course that the free-form jazz was back, but also there was the acoustic numbers (which I think on balance I generally prefer) too. Peter had chosen to be more formal for this last evening, dressing in a suit and hat, very dashing and very much in step with the venue. Unfortunately, the late arrival meant that we were quite far back and so my view of Peter wasn’t good enough to take any photos or video, although Mrs H3 did manage to. All in all I felt this was the most interesting of the three shows because of the mixture of styles, although I have equally enjoyed all of the shows just for the opportunity to spend a great deal of time gazing at Peter Doherty who, when clean, is a truly beautiful looking man.




So the next concert on the agenda is John Bramwell at the Half Moon in Putney on Thursday, the first time I’ve seen anything I Am Kloot-related for almost a year. Needless to say I am very excited at the prospect of seeing him (and hopefully Pete) again. I’m really hoping that he might be doing some of the tracks from the new Kloot album that he and the band performed in gigs earlier this year. This is followed on 22nd April by another evening with Peter Doherty in Camden and then the eagerly awaited (by me at least) Ultravox concert at the Roundhouse. Early May brings a visit to see the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain at the Cadogan Hall in London as I have become interested in learning to play the ukulele (if anyone wants to teach me please feel free to shout).

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that the new album Hocus Opus One by one of my favourite Wizard Rock bands Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office has finally been released. This long anticipated album is a heavy duty slice of electro-dance pop and is definitely worth a listen so check them out at their Myspace page by clicking on the link. Hmmm, actually while I’m about it I’d also like to mention another excellent new release. Zoë from Split Seven Ways and Malfoy Manor is giving away free (as she often does – check out her Myspace pages) The Broken Bird e.p. under the name Zoë’s Adventures Underground. This is a beautiful piece of work and non-Wrock, for those of you still a little nervous about the whole Wizard Rock thing.