Colours - Part Three

The next song on the set is one that took a long while to complete, mainly because of drums.  The initial guide for The Little Man was me playing guitar and singing to a click track, to which I added a second acoustic guitar and a bass guitar.  I also added electric guitar, which included an amazing solo (from me damn it), organ, maracas, and the first set of drums by me.

After a long while, Ellie replaced the drums, mainly because of the middle eight.  After a while though, I was still unhappy with the drums, again because of the middle eight.  When Mark 'Mario' Smith said he could come in, I got the song ready and played it to him without the drums, and he said he knew what to do.  I think it just took him two or three runs through to get the final drums.  After a couple of looks into the middle eight anyway.  Another problem was the occasional bars of 2/4 that I had thrown into the song.

In fact, come to mention it, me and Joff had been working on a different version of the song.  We thought that we could do a decent slow dance track to it, which is now track 14 or something I think.  We basically rewrote the chords to make it less busy (for dance music purposes it was easier that way), and we programmed a decent rhythm and lush keyboards.  To this I put my bass through an effects system I had, and put down the gorgeous bass part.

Joff then took all of this with him and absolutely surprised me when at a later session he turned up to engineer and played me the gorgeous guitar parts he had put down.  After that he put down the acoustic guitar.

After Mario's drums were placed onto the other version though, the dance version was still too good to forget, so it has a sort of bonus track position.  I like both versions, though I have a preference for the dance version.

Another thing I almost forgot was the fantastic vocal effect.  For this song we used a technique that we called reverse reverb.  That description sort of explains it, but to explain it fully we took the vocal part, played it backwards, and added reverb (echo) to it.  After this we put the vocal back into the right place, which meant that the echo was before the vocal and not after, a great effect in my opinion.  For information, the first instance of it being used I believe was on The Beatles song I'm Only Sleeping, which I didn't realise when I first used it.

Next up is Here I Am, which is a decent song, but wasted in a way.  Firstly it was recorded live for the guide with me on vocal and acoustic guitar, Ellie on drums, and Jim Annison on bass.  At a later date I came up with a guitar run which I tracked a lot, and there was a problem with the original bass fading in and out for some reason, so it had to be re-recorded.  For time purposes I did it myself, and this time I had the bass joining in with the guitar run, which was a big mistake, because I think looking back on it I feel as though it would have been better to have had a relatively basic root note and fifth bass line just to keep a steady rhythm going.

I re-recorded the original strummed acoustic guitar because of John now doing the lead vocal.  I also added tin whistles (double tracked) and harmonica.  John put on some keyboard flutes to add to my tin whistle parts.  The vocals are something that have bothered me ever since though.  John's lead vocal is fine, but when I added my chorus lead vocal I harmonised one of his lines at one point, and I think that I should have kept doing that because it works so well.  There was also another refrain that forgot to put at the end of the song, which I should have put down as intended - Ellie singing it.

Hypocrites is a song recorded during the A New World Order sessions.  I thought that a live and rough tune would work nicely with all the production everywhere else on Colours.  Not a bad song, but it wouldn't win an Ivor Novello.

Don't Run Away is a decent song, although an harmonica that's in key would have been better - doh!  I thought the non-vocal chord changes between the verses and choruses were very Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at the time (thinking of the verse to chorus change in Into The Great Wide Open and that sort of thing), and I think that they worked incredibly well.

Synchronise is an interval sort of thing.  Basically it's a rhythm programmed by John I think, with keyboards by me and John, samples of water drops, my effected bass doing a sort of melody, and completed by Ellie's vocal pinched from Wreath.  A nice little interval I think.

Last on the set is One By One.  I was going to do it as a fully electric rocked-out song, but someone thought it would be more interesting to leave it acoustic as I had written it (as I do most of the songs I write).  So it was me (acoustic guitar) and Ellie (drums) for the guide, and then I added bass.  I was gigging with a Project Marv band at this time and Andy Dobb (who was playing guitar and singing live) suggested a different guitar figure to play at the same time as mine in the middle eights, which was a different octave pattern.  Basically, the next session for Colours, I went in and played exactly what Andy had been playing live, and I also put down the solo's.  Unfortunately I couldn't get Andy to sing the song for the recording, because his voice worked perfectly for the song live.  The vocal take was distorted extremely to give it a nice effect as well.

There we are, finally my opinion of the songs on Colours.  A good set, spoilt in places, but with some gems.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

30 May 2011 (40 years, 6 months, and 4 days old)

Daydream

Sometimes I'll daydream
And wish that I was someone else
It's just some flight of fancy
And I can't contain myself

That is self promotion blatantly, as they are lyrics to the song Daydreamer from my soon to be released One Day collection. The reason for quoting them is just to basically put over the fact that we are all guilty of daydreaming from time to time, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I am writing this while I am at work on a Sunday for instance, while imagining what I would be doing if I was having a day off. Not that I ever get Sundays off, unless I book a holiday to cover for it.

If I was off today, then I would not have got up before eight in the morning, but rather nine to catch up with the lack of sleep during the week.

I would possibly help Louise with the banana and walnut loaf that she is making today (now made), though I guess I would more likely be online blogging, tweeting, or facebook gaming.

I would absolutely be washing the car because by a bad stroke of luck, Sunday is the only time where you're allowed to park outside in the daytime.  This explains then why my car doesn't get washed very often.

We're not sure whether we will watch The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button on Channel 4 later, or get out the blu-ray.  Funnily enough, we have both been thinking lately about the film.

If we lived somewhere else, I would probably have a room with my musical instruments in, and have half an hour to an hour with them.  I'd like to think that I would come up with a gem of an idea musically at least.

Anyway, we all daydream or go off into flights of fancy sometimes, and this has been mine.

Tomorrow I do have a day off, and we'll see what happens.  Probably not a good idea to go to somewhere too popular, as it is a bank holiday.  We will see.

Thank you for reading and please take care.

29 May 2011 (40 years, 6 months, and 3 days old)

PS - We are watching The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button on blu-ray.

Podcasts

I am really enjoying the podcasts that people have turned me onto lately.  It's well know that I love Punky Radio, with all the humour, chat, and great variety of music that they play.  I've also listened to the great, and on occasion incomprehensible and surreal, chat in Total Talk Nonsense.

My friend Robert Howie put me onto a great podcast that I think is available for a limited time, and that's the John Lennon Rolling Stone interview from 1970, which is in five parts.

It's an interview that has a lot of information in it and, as a fan of The Beatles, is very difficult listening at times.  I'm guessing that the whole interview wasn't published back then, especially considering the amount of language included.

The opinions he comes out with are completely open and, I can see that The Beatles couldn't have carried on anyway.  If nothing else, their tastes in music had become so different that it wouldn't have worked.

I do wonder if John Lennon's tastes and opinions had changed over the years after this and, had he been played back the tape of the 1970 interview, what would his reaction have been in 1980 or even now?

I think that George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album would have made an astounding single disc album, along with great B-side potentials for single releases.

The McCartney album is something that took me a long time to get used to, but my personal opinion on that is that Ram (the follow-up) was better.

I haven't heard the Ringo albums that John talks about in the interview, so can't form an opinion of my own - I think he's on about Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups Of Blues?

I'm also not sure if I agree with the opinion that all great art is about the artist.  I'm not saying that I write great artistic songs, but not everything I write is self-referential.

I'm waiting for my good friend Luke Hymas to do another of his fantastic podcasts on the paranormal, magical, and out there!  His blogs by the way are never ever without interest.

My friend and fellow Project Marv contributor (and Punky Radio Presenter with Paul B Edwards) Tony Hearn put me onto It's A Frog's Life, which is a very laid back and music filled podcast that I really enjoyed.  I am definitely going to get more episodes of this great show, and am thinking of getting some tunes to him as well. ;-)

Anyway, needless to say that my driving to and from different work places is now more interesting, but more podcast suggestions are definitely needed.

I did used to enjoy You Might Regret It with Drew Baxter and Andy Dobb (another Project Marv contributor), but that no longer seems to be happening for some reason...  I don't know why.

Thank you for reading.  Please take care and have a lovely weekend.

28 May 2011 (40 years, 6 months, and 2 days old)

Filler Friday

So here we are on a Friday morning.  I'm getting up early to work on what was a day off.  So is the way a lot lately, but then I did apply for a job as a cover worker, so obviously these things are going to happen.

I was looking forward to doing a few things today, but I'll just have to wait a while longer to do them.  I've sort of got used to this happening and, in all truth, I have said no the last couple of times, so I think that I could be in trouble if I keep saying that.

Anyway, it means more money when I get paid next month, so that is a good thing.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this?  It's been a long time since I've blogged, and I should really have got my pad out that has a few ready written blogs in there so I don't look so silly.  Trust me, I'll be blogging properly tomorrow.

For now though, strangely enough, I'll leave this basically as a filler of a blog, and just let people know that I am still around, and that normal service will resume.

Thank you for reading.  Have a fantastic day and take care.

27 May 2011 (40 years, 6 months, and 1 day old)

Colours - Part Two

Reasons is a story by itself.  It was recorded as a live vocal and guitar piece for A New World Order, but just missed out on being included.  That version is included at the end of Colours, and was more of a standard singer songwriter style.

When I put together the final song list for A New World Order, it just missed out, and Ellie had suggested that I have a song that was a reggae style or in the ska genre.  It wasn't too much of a problem for me because I'd already done some reggae for A New World Order.  Slave Song made it's way onto there, but unfortunately The Innocent Dead ended up being accidentally erased.  A shame because it had potential, and may have even been worked on for inclusion on Colours.  If I haven't lost it then I'll try and fish it out (crossing my fingers).

Anyway, Reasons...  A click track was set up and the initial guitar track was recorded, and then put drums down I think.  After that I put another acoustic guitar track down (double tracking), and did the bass guitar.  Ellie then did the lead vocal and John Sampson the harmony vocal.  John then sang sounds through a wah pedal to make up a solo, based on something Sly Stone used to do.

With Sly & The Family Stone in mind, me and John obviously thought of stomping feet on the stairwell, where we already had microphones set up.  Me and I think Andy Wright recorded youth club workers and teenagers from the adjoining youth club, as well as some pupils on a music course, all led by John & Joff in what we called the Stompfest for the solo break.  After that it was just a case of cutting and pasting it together on the computer.

The intervals are a strange thing really.  I can't remember which order they are in, but there were three of them recorded, even though there are only two of them featured on the finished product.  The piano in the distance is me playing something I'd had for years but not used, so we just recorded me playing in a room down a corridor at the bottom of the stairwell, using the microphone at the top of the stairwell.

A very famous instance of where a microphone has been placed on a stairwell to capture a sound is with the drums on the Led Zeppelin song When The Levee Breaks on their fourth album - an absolutely iconic drum sound.  Out of interest the link I have here has one wrong piece of information, because it puts the harmonica player on it as Robert Plant, where it is actually John Bonham the drummer playing it (as he also did on the live version whilst playing drums as well).  This link is a fantastic source of information though for anyone interested in recording techniques, even if you're not a Led Zeppelin fan.

The other interval featured is actually where me and John were testing the stairwell microphone and purposely got feedback, and we recorded it because I was basically trying to record absolutely everything, just in case they could be used.  The interval not featured out of interest is something that lasts a couple of minutes with me playing drums with my hands in a sort of ethnic way, as I saw it.

After the first interval is the song Come My Way, which was a song from the Cornerstone days written by myself and Matt Jones.  I always loved the chords and the soulfulness of the piece, and thought I would record it.  I'm almost certain that it was also tried in the A New World Order sessions?  (Since writing this I have found a single acoustic version recorded during the ANWO sessions)

For this version it was started as me and Ellie playing guitar and drums respectively, me looking through a window between the vocal/guitar booth to Ellie in the drums room.  The same happened for Faith In Me and One By One I believe.

After we did that on Come My Way, I added bass, a second acoustic guitar, and some guiro.  Mark Allsop played the shakers, from which a piece was clipped, reversed and placed in Wreath - he whispered as a joke "I see dead people" before playing, and it made us all laugh, so I thought it would fit into Wreath.  Other than that I put electric guitar on and the Rhodes electric piano down.  Ellie added the beautiful harmony - such a great voice.

Faith In Me was tricky.  The initial acoustic guitar and drums take also included a live vocal from me which, when Andy Wright's lead vocal was being put on, meant having to replace that acoustic guitar recording.  Parts added to this were my bass and electric guitar, along with John Sampson's organ, Mark "Mario" Smith's percussion, and the fantastically Beach Boys-esque backing vocals by Mark Allsop.

Mark's backing vocals were arranged by myself and him, and I think they are amazing.  It gives a great contrast to the brilliantly realised lead vocal of Andy, who gives a performance this song the song for every man that it is.  The musical backing is incredibly jam sounding, while in no way seeming wrong anywhere, it just sounds so loose.  Funnily enough it is incredibly full and very produced.  So much time was spent on it to get it that way.

I think I will leave it there now, and let you wait for Part Three.  I know, it's long winded, but someone might be interested in it all.  You never know, hehe.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

23 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 27 days old)

News of the day

I was going to post the next part of the blogs to do with the Colours set, but I never realised that I hadn't actually finished it, so that will mean me having to get on with it.

Today I have seen and heard so many things about the so-called rapture that was supposed to have happened, and there are some great pictures and very funny comments that people left on Twitter.  I myself even joined in with a tweet, to the effect that I said if I'd only put enough fuel in to last until the rapture, then I wouldn't have got to work today.   Saying that, the fact that I work on a Sunday would probably get me excommunicated if I went to church anyway.

Actually, and it is about time that I be honest with this, I have been meeting people who go to a church that I used to go to years ago, and they ask me about my beliefs, which is a subject that I sort of avoid.  I don't know why to be honest, because I should just say that I think it's absolute rubbish.  It doesn't stop me from getting on with people or anything, but all it means is that I am happily a person who believes in nothing.  If that loses me any friend or people reading my blog or what have you, then I am sorry.

Something that is bothering me lately is this bloody footballer not having their name mentioned about some scandal or other.  I don't care!  They have been naughty though, and I think that if others these things have happened to have had to go through the proverbial shitter, then so should they.  That is all that I will say about it.

Another story I heard about recently is one that I'm guessing many people haven't heard, but it is one that is so much more important in my opinion.

A mother is in the news for killing her baby, by putting it into a microwave for two minutes.  This is absolutely disgusting and there is no excuse for this whatsoever.  I think she should be put to death.  If she isn't, then I am absolutely certain that whatever prison she ends up in, they will kill her!

Anyway, there's the blog for today.

Thank you for reading and please take care.

22 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 26 days old)

A look back at the Colours set - Part One

I had already put this piece together as another blog, but have decided to put it on here, basically to cover for the fact that I haven't typed a blog up for today.


Soon you will be able to find the Colours set available again at iTunes, Amazon, and wherever else.  It is an interesting set to listen back to, but with the revisionist eye, it has it's faults.  Here we go, tearing my work to pieces?  Well, not really, but just finding the odd thing here and there that aren't quite right.  It's just natural that there are things like that.

It starts with the song Changes.  I love playing with different tunings on the guitar, and this is most definitely inspired by that.  It utilises a tuning where the guitar is tuned to a C major chord, with the extreme dropped tuning giving it an ominous and grungy tone.  I found myself coming up with lyrics that were very grunge inspired as well, thinking mainly Alice In Chains,Temple Of The Dog, Soundgarden, and that sort of thing. When it came to recording it, I put down the acoustic guitar and vocal first in the same take, which was then followed by Ellie Mason playing drums.  After that I put on the very busy bass guitar part, which I thought would add some contrast to the piece, as well as emphasise the off beat drums and hi-hat work in the verse.  Andy Wright first put down the fender rhodes electric piano part, but it was badly recorded and was re-recorded with John Sampson playing at a later date.  Andy did however perform the fantastic synth solo that features on the finished piece.

The whole thing is filled out with the ever present tambura sample, with me adding to the Indian feel by playing a real tambura in the bridge section.  The piano in the bridge is by Ellie, backwards guitar by John Sampson, as well as John performing the harmony vocal in the choruses.  I double tracked the lead vocal eventually, and then I added thumb piano and a sampled didgeridoo.

Changes benefits from the fact that I did a live recording in the studio for it while I was recording sessions for A New World Order, not for inclusion but just to get it out there.  I handed a copy to Jim Annison, who made a couple of alterations to the words.  He changed "hurt me" to "cut me", and altered the middle eight as well slightly.

There was also the fact that there was a frame of reference to work from.  The funny thing is that the song Bridges recently  I videoed myself at home running through it, so me and Rob used it as a reference, which is similar to the Changes situation.  It's something that I'm tempted to do more now, because the bonus of video is seeing what I do.  I may throw in a run or something improvised and later think I'll use that in there somewhere, so I can see exactly what I did.  I've wasted time before when I've had to relearn something.

The second song on the set is Wreath For The Suicide Heart, which is an incredibly emotional song.  The lyrics came first, to which I had a melody in my head.  Then I had to find the chords to fit the melody, which is a rare thing for me.

I first of all put down the acoustic guitar alone to a click track, reading the lyrics to myself as I played.  The vocal was put down much later but features me "losing it" at one point.  It's a veiled lyric in truth, which covers the true story of friends I heard had died who were from Castle Hill School where I went to.  I thought the vocal was so emotional though that it was more poignant because of it, even though I missed a word or two in one bit.

Joff thought that an almost African/ethnic feel to the rhythm would enhance the piece, so we programmed a rhythm using Reason on the Mac, mainly Joff's work.  Then I put on the bass guitar using my 5-string Fender JP.

I can't quite remember how things happened fully, but the slide guitar and wah guitar were played by Craig "Brow" Waring.  The whispering voices, which technically are the title of the song, came about because I was listening to Morcheeba on the way to the studio and heard the song "Who Can You Trust".  I just thought that was what Wreath needed, and so me, Ellie & Brow recorded whispers, and I asked my brother's children to add whispers as well.  Luke & Connor did, but Beth didn't, oh well.

It was during this time that I had booked a ten-day stretch of the studio, and I was tired so John Sampson said I could come in late and and he would get some bits done on the songs.  Among these changes were his harmony and backwards guitar on Changes, but he also harmonised the choruses on Wreath - all in the hour or so I gave him.  Wow.

This is going on a bit isn't it.  It won't last I promise you, it's just that I think the first three songs are really good.

In a chat with John and his friend Ben we were discussing Simon & Garfunkel, vocal groups, and vocal rounds.  They then said Wreath would work with a finish that was similar to that.  Ben and John went in and sang the refrain, which was mixed to start with the whispers and get louder.  Me and John then did the "aah" bits, and finally Ellie did the "la la" bits.  After that me & Ben added percussion to the ending, the bell was from the church next door, and a sampled tambura.

That's part one then.

About my blogging

I'm blogging a lot less now I've noticed. There are a few reasons for this, and I apologide if anyone has been missing the daily blog thing that I was doing. If I could then I would carry that on.

It is all to do with time really, and it does take time to do these blogs. I've been known to write them onto paper first while at work, and then type them up later. This is how this is being done, and I hate to say that some of those I decided to now type up. There are also those where I've just sat down and typed up with no preparation at all. Either way I still have to sit down and type it out, which all takes time.

You may think that things couldn't be so bad as to get in the way of half an hour or so at the laptop, but you would be surprised. There's the whole travelling time business, as well as the amount of hours worked. In one shift once I was able to write four blogs in it's twelve hours. But I'll not got on with that because I know people who enjoy working that long stood on their feet, sometimes walking, but being lucky if you get a break time without being called to follow some tosser who's probably stealing something to sell off for money to pay for their next high.

I am looking for something else, but it's a tough time for people to get work where they live.  I never did understand the whole working tax credits thing until now really and, then I would probably have gone for something different.

Anyway, that's the rant over and a complete blog.  Woohoo!  Expect another one soon., hopefully.

Thank you for reading and please take care.

18 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 22 days old)

Modern music media versus the old

I guess that I am in the minority now, but I really don't look forward to the supposed death of musical medium in any other way than downloads.  People have talked about it for a long time now, but I am still not fond.

As a musician I will agree that it's easy to get your music out there to people, but in another way that's really all that it is.  All it is is the music, and nothing else really.  I'm also unsure about the whole buying a single business now as well.  I've bought and you want me to buy a song from that album again?  It's not even like the days when you had more than one song on a single - now with downloads it is invariably just a single song.  I will admit that I did buy a Paul McCartney single today (actually that was Saturday) that was just one song for 78p, but I saw that as different because it isn't from an album.  That is unless you count it being from a film that will no doubt receive a soundtrack release, but I'm not sure what the rest of the soundtrack is.

As discussed before though, Macca seems to be more interested in the reissue of his back catalogue, I'm guessing during which he is probably stockpiling new material to select from for new albums after these reissues. A smart move that.

I suppose that I could be seen as hypocritical that I am releasing a Special Edition of my own set A New World Order onto iTunes as soon as I can afford it, but that's mainly because you can get over eighty minutes worth of material out that way, which wouldn't be possible on a single disk set, and there were songs that I didn't have space for.  With the One Day set that I'm finishing soon (I promise), I was sort of thinking of a book type insert for the CD, as in eight pages that would include the lyrics and the credits.

MP3 files don't give credits to people.  My iPod doesn't even tell me who wrote the songs and, as a kid, I was fascinated by who did what.

I actually think that The Beatles reissues recently gave the chance for them to give credit to others who took part, such as famous guests like Eric Clapton on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones playing saxophone on a couple of songs.  There are also not so famous ones such as the later famous producer Chris Thomas played keyboards on some White Album songs including harpsichord on Piggies.  Who those people were and what they did always intrigued me.

Anyway, I like all the cover stuff with the information, artwork, pictures, lyrics and all that.  I remember looking at the cover to Sergeant Pepper's trying to work out who everyone was, and being fascinated when people would tell me who was who.

I love the covers to Jimi Hendrix Experience albums, Iron Maiden, Yes, Marillion, and so many.  In the UK, we always had great covers to records, and I think that we really were at the forefront of cover art.

Now there are people who used to do this sort of thing for a living, but no longer can because it is dying out seemingly.  There are also whose who I think could be in that business now, such as my friends Dean Leivers (an amazing photographer) and Matt 'Skip' Butcher, who is a great artist.

To me it is a shame that there is no longer going to be this medium, because I remember a lot of these experiences and I am sorry for those who won't get the chance to do the same.

Thank you for reading.  Please take care.

15 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 19 days old)

Blogs to check out

For today I thought that I would just basically give everyone a list of the blogs that I am following, and then hope that there may be some more that you check out...

I've been really enjoying reading people's blogs, and some of them are about incredibly interesting subjects.

Dean Leivers Photography & Opinion
Guitarist Laurence Juber
David Gilmour blog
Vampire Diaries
Guitarist and legend Nile Rodgers
My friend, podcaster, comedian, and all round raconteur Paul B Edwards
Great songwriter Mike Batt
My friend, Singer, Magician and illusionist Luke Hymas
My great friend and guru Drew's blog
Nicholas Tozier's blog on songwriting

As I've said plenty of times before now, I am always so open to reading more blogs if people put me onto them, and the same goes for podcasts as well.

Anyway, another different blog from me, but one that I just felt like posting.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you are all okay.  Please take care.

13 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 17 days old)

Whine and Grine

What to blog about then?

I'm getting very irritated about not being able to get into the studio like I used to.  I've got to be honest, I used to enjoy having more money to spend where I was paying board money.  I was also very shocked with how much everything ended up costing as well.

Before boarding for a couple of years, I only paid rent and council tax for the places I lived for the six years prior, with the utilities paid for by the landlords I was renting from.  Suddenly moving here and finding out how much the bills were was a complete shocker!

In a lot of ways I wish I'd have saved up more over the years, but we could all make things better if we went back couldn't we?  Even looking back now I think that if I had put just £10 a week away for two years it would be over £1000 (I know, exactly £1040).  Sometimes looking back doesn't help does it?

As it is though I am slowly catching up with the rent now, which is the only money that I owe bill wise and, once that is done, I will start saving to move again to somewhere that has less problems and more room I hope.  I'm personally hoping for the potential for privacy so I can get my music worked on easier.  Even half an hour a day would be good to be honest.

Anyway, thank you for reading and please take care.

11 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 15 days old)

Royal Mail, Harry Potter and Scrabble

I can't believe that I posted birthday cards for both my mum and my brother's birthdays, and yet they still haven't got them.  I posted them both on the same day and, even though there was May Day in the way, I posted on a Saturday with the first birthday being the following Thursday and the second yesterday (Sunday).  I thought that a first class postage stamp should have ensured that they both arrived safely on time - three and five postal days!  Yet, they didn't.

However, the Royal Mail postal service in the UK still insist on putting up the prices of postage stamps, even though in truth the service they offer is far worse than they did a few years ago.  I know that a lot of this is caused by losses in man power, and that means that the system is far slower to process than before.  It is irritating though that I spent time choosing cards specifically for people and the post service have seemingly lost them.

We have been enjoying watching the Harry Potter films lately, which we are watching in order (in fact, we finished Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix last night, so in a little while we'll be watching Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince.  Somehow I will need to find the time to nip to my brother's and ask my nephews and niece if we can borrow Part One of The Deathly Hallows.  There are absolutely no extras on the DVD set that we have as well, and me and Louise love watching those things, and we'd love to see how they get the pictures on the wall to work - it's great that the people in them interact, move, and all of that.  There are so many things going on in the background as.  Obviously we like the films.  It's the first time we've got down to really watching any of them.

Something that is happening today is a change to the world of Scrabble, which is really irritating in my opinion.  I think differently to the officials behind the decision, where they say that it is reflecting the times and language as it is today.  That's absolute bullshit.  They are just doing it so that they can sell more copies of the game and if they really gave a shit then they wouldn't change it to such an extent.  They are basically saying that it is fine for these people to not speak properly.  I don't really care because me and Louise won't use those words when we're playing together.

Anyway, I'd best get on with enjoying my day off with Louise.  I'm still not 100% health-wise, and Louise isn't feeling too good either, so it's a day in for the most part.  Harry Potter is ready though for watching soon, and there are things that we've recorded that we need to catch up on, including CSI (Vegas and New York), and Don't Scare The Hare.  I've been typing this up for about an hour now, and made it all up on the spot after deciding to not bother with the one I had written out already.

I hope you are all having a nice day.  Take care, and thank you for reading.

9 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 13 days old)

Another game

So, for today another one of those word games, and this time it is an A to Z of Science Fiction films;

Alien                                                            Neon Genesis Evangelion - The End Of Evangelion
Blade Runner                                               Outland
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind            Pitch Black
Dune                                                            Quatermass & The Pit
Empire Strikes Back, The                             Red Planet
Fantastic Voyage                                          Star Trek
Gattaca                                                        Terminator
Highlander                                                    Universal Soldier
Independence Day                                        Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth             War Of The Worlds
Krull                                                             Xanadu
Lifeforce                                                       Y
Moon                                                           Zardoz

And now, for a change, I think it might be good to see if you can come up with Science Fiction film titles starting with the letter Y.

In honesty I was scratching my head about it and thought it might be interesting to see if anyone can think of one - interactivity hey.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

7 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 11 day old)

Super-duper limited editions and all that

So everyone knows that I am a very big fan of The Beatles, both together and apart.  I am very much a completist when it comes to these things, which is why the reissuing that Paul McCartney is doing interests me.  I'm very pissed off though with the price that is being charged though.  Fifty five bloody pounds for each of the next two sets in the series!  I take it that the people behind these releases hasn't thought about the fact that we are living in difficult times when it comes to finance and, let's be honest here, I love Macca but he's not exactly short of a bob or two is he?

I know, the artist makes a very small percentage when it comes to these things, but the record companies should know that if things were slightly cheaper then more people would buy them?

There is also the fact that this sort of thing goes on all over the place.  Films are released, and then a few years later after having already forked out for the ULTIMATE EDITION, you suddenly find them issuing the EXTREMELY LIMITED ONLY AVAILABLE FOR ALL OF TIME EXCLUSIVE DIAMOND ENCRUSTED PLATINUM EDITION with more extras than there is time left on the planet, apparently... I'll not go there!

Anyway, if they had all of this before then why didn't they just bring that out originally.  I am very interested in the behind the scenes aspects to these things, and this is just taking the piss quite frankly.

Rant over.  Better cough before I die drowning on my own phlegm!

I'll still buy the Macca reissues probably, but grudgingly.  I'm crossing fingers that they will issue versions without the books!

Thank you for reading, please take care.

(Revenge of the Sixth) 6 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 10 days old).

A quick word game

As a change to the usual fare, I've written a few different blogs to be honest, but here is the first of those.  I have some long shifts over the next few days, so thought that I could basically type up a few different blogs and just 'publish' one each day...  Cheating I know, but whatever.

Today could be seen as a cop-out, but I really like this sort of thing and thought that I would post it to see what other people think.  I like playing word games anyway, and I know that other people are similar to me with this, and that I can't be the only one.  For this post, I've basically wondered if I could come up with a different band for each letter of the alphabet, so here goes;

AC/DC                                No Doubt
Beatles, The                      Ozric Tentacles
Crowded House               Pearl Jam
Doors, The                        Queen
Eagles, The                        Rush
Free                                      Supergrass
Guns 'n' Roses                  Tears For Fears
Heart                                   Ultravox
Inxs                                     Van Halen
Journey                              Who, The
Kinks, The                         XTC
Led Zeppelin                      Yes
Motorhead                         ZZ Top

Let's see if anyone can come up with one for each letter of the alphabet then.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

5 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 9 days old)

PS - Happy birthday to my mum for today. :-)

Not well - Part 2

When Louise got back on Friday she watched the bits from the Royal Wedding programming that I'd recorded for her.  She particularly wanted to see the balcony sequence, the driving away in the vintage Aston Martin, and the cartwheeling verger - a Youtube hit of the future I'm sure.

Telly wise it was basically catching up with things we both needed to catch up on - CSI's, etc.  I've almost caught up with The Gadget Show, but have a few Click episodes to watch, and we are so far behind on The Vampire Diaries that we will probably be vampires before we have caught up!

If I'm being honest a lot of Saturday was spent on the laptop (much like today is turning out to be - Monday not Tuesday), and I wish it wasn't really because I feel like I wasted what could have been a much better day with my lovely Sunshine :-)

I'd pulled out the Indiana Jones films, but I suppose you have to be in the mood, and we weren't really.  I also pulled out the 1930 film Murder, which is an Alfred Hitchcock film I haven't seen before, but again we didn't feel like that.

We watched stuff we'd recorded instead, which is funny because we watched something we recorded on Saturday on Sunday instead - Don't Scare The Hare, because we were watching something we'd recorded sometime before then.

I'm now beginning to warm to the Indiana Jones idea, mainly because the Star Wars films, Naked Gun trilogy, and the Blade trilogy were turned down... Ooh I know.  Harry Potter!!! Ta-da - light bulb moment there.

After a lot of work, I worked another bed for the Punky Radio show that is my favourite podcast, and promise I'll get another two done as soon as I can find the bloody external drive they're on!

I enjoyed the CSI episode we eventually caught up with from Tuesday, which was to do with the paranormal, and many of the things in it reminded me of the series Fringe - check it out.  I'm behind at the moment as I haven't had satellite since Season Two and desperately want to see the third season.

Anyway, that is enough waffling from me now I think.  Nice couple of days off, and I was back to work on Sunday and Monday, off Tuesday (and still feeling badly).

Now it's time for Louise to take a turn on the laptop, because her's is misbehaving - damn thing!

Thank you for reading and please take care.

4 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 8 days old)

Not well - Part 1

Here I am at work when I suppose that I shouldn't be, but who would they get to relieve the relief staff hey?  I know there are women out there who will speak of man flu and the likes, but I wouldn't even feign that.  I had a sore throat (with headache) that started during Thursday, was then joined by a cough and phlegm, and was added to then by a runny nose and cold/sore limbs.

I eventually gathered enough on Saturday night/Sunday morning to control the coughing and that some time after two in the morning, until I woke up at about 4.45, and then again at about half past six when I woke up coughing and just couldn't stop.  I was getting up for work work at around 8 anyway, so I just decided that it was useless going back to bed where I would probably just keep Louise awake.

Work is sort of a necessity when you get no money for sickness, so even if I had a limb falling off, I couldn't afford to take the time off.

So here I am then like a comedy sketch sounding similar to Ned from South Park, and very very tempted to say "think out the numbers"!  :-)

Every time I talk it hurts more, and the fact that I am store security makes it even more difficult as I can't even shout "STOP!"  I know, as I said, it's just like a sketch in a comedy show.

Sorry, paused for a coughing fit at work at this point of writing the blog out.  I suppose I could start a pandemic or something?

So during my two days off (Friday and Saturday), I had the niggly throat and all of that going on.  I didn't let that get in the way though.  I think of the Knight from Monty Python when I think of my illness - "it's only a flesh wound," when his arm has been lopped off.

At the beginning of my shift on Thursday I was okay, but by the end it was hurting to talk.  It was really that quick - within a nine-hour shift.

I was ratty admittedly with Louise was asking me to get some shopping bits after work, especially as the store I was in had run out of everything on the list so I had to stop off at Asda in Hykeham (on the cusp between North and South Hykeham).  Anyway, I got the icing sugar and flowery cake decorations and got home eventually, where as soon as I started talking it was obvious how painful speech was.

Louise then decorated fifty buns, which were to sell on Friday at a charity shop in honour of the Royal Wedding between William and "Kate", or Catherine as she is now supposed to be named.  Like people are going to stop calling her Kate?

Anyway, Friday I wasn't feeling great and was pissed off that I could do little more than whisper, so even a Johnny Cash style vocal was out of the question.  Worst luck as that would be cool on Rising Storm and Down The Line.

As it happened, Louise was watching the Royal Wedding before going to work at the charity shop, which gave me the idea of putting down some music for my take on God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols, which I did later on in the afternoon while Louise was out.

I also walked with Louise to the charity shop with the cakes, felt bad spending £10 on three CD's from the flea market, which included David Bowie's Hunky Dory.  Louise doesn't like much of his non-80's output, but I'm sure my iPod will do.

Anyway, that's part one of this story.  Part two will be in the next blog.

Thank you for reading, please take care.

3 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 7 days old)

Message To The World

Osama Bin Laden is dead!  Woohoo, let's celebrate!  At the same time though, keep watching out because, as people have been saying, what he really wanted was a legacy.  He deserved to die damn it and, as one person in New York said, it's a shame that he couldn't be killed tens of thousands of times to make up for all of those deaths he caused.

Now I did have another blog to put up, but this has taken it's place and pushed that one aside.  I just feel very strongly about this.

He always wanted to create something that was anti-anything that wasn't Muslim, which is not to put all Muslims into that, because most of them are not that way inclined.  Let's not forget that Muslims worked in the World Trade Center, and that bastard killed every single one of them!  As I have said, and will keep saying, that man deserved to die.

From those things that he did and said, many people have been inspired, and I can see retaliation from these followers.  That is what we should watch out for - that possible retaliation.

He is most definitely a man who has changed the world, much like Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.  His legacy though is maybe larger, because it is even more destructive, lasting, and universal.

Anyway, thank you for reading.  Please take care.

2 May 2011 (40 years, 5 months, and 6 days old)