GOFFA FROM THE BLOCK

So... here we are again, New Years Eve.  Not sure where that year went. I did my music review last week, so what else did I get up in 2012?  Well in truth not much really.  Me and Sham went to Egypt and Jordan (fantastic) and Sunny Beach, Bulgaria (disastrous).  It goes without saying I haven't blogged much.  I've got no excuse, I've thought about posting a few times but then lost the moment.  You know what it's like. Watched far too much television which made a big contribution to my inertia.  Watched some mainly credible (in my eyes) TV box sets and some real garbage.  Not sure whether The Big Bang Theory is credible or not to be honest but it's definitely been my guilty pleasure this year.  The science is great and Sheldon and Amy are wonderfully eccentric and funny but there's an unpleasant undertone/nastiness to some of the humour that leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable.  I still watch though so by my...

      

Seasons Greetings all.  It's certainly been a while and I'm not expecting any views for a while but somebody may eventually stumble along. It's not been a good year to be honest but then again my even years never are.  Here's hoping for 2013. It hasn't all been bad though .  Lot's of music which has been patchy to say the least but Beirut were immense, as were Explosions In The Sky.  No Direction Home was great without any individual act really standing out and part 2 of Wagner's The Ring was a wonderful spectacle.  I enjoyed a rousing performance by Elliott Brood at The Cluny 2 and  BJH at The Westgarth and NDH.   Joshua James came along at the right time to raise my spirits but the best of all was saved till last and North Carolina's Crooked Fingers  at the The Kids Are Solid Gold Christmas Party .  They were the stand out band on a memorable Westgarth night and for me the best band I saw al...

The red button's ok but I would just like to say farewell to a dear old friend. 302, 340, 102, 160 I loved you all.  Farewell and RIP. Ceefax  is no more.

Go on, give it a go!  What harm can it do?

A great man (can't remember his name) once said "music was my first love and it will be my last",  very profound I'm sure you will agree.  Shame it was such a shit song (no comments arguing the contrary please). And for a very long time I would have yeah, that's me but this summer I've rediscovered my real first love, cricket. I watched, played and coached cricket for a huge chunk of every summer for most of my life until around the time I started writing my original blog at Livejournal .  In fact part of the reason I started blogging was because of the void left in my life when I stopped coaching the juniors at Thornaby Cricket Club. I packed in for a number of personal reasons but the truth was I just wanted to do some other stuff.  Just have a flick back through the summer months of my blogs to see what I've been up to.  I might even have a look myself if only to confirm how little I've talked about cricket  I've just lost touch with th...

I bought my ticket in January and it was sold out by February.  No mean feat even if the tickets were only a bargain bucket £8. From what I've read the general feeling about the  RG Reunion shows admirably promoted by the genial Steve Harland, Dave Griffiths and Gary McGhee is the amount of shared love in the air.  Can only assume that these are the opinions of people who thought there was love in the air at the RG back in the day. I like to think I'm a pretty non-judgmental fair minded kind of fellar but I've never warmed to drunken tatoo adorned ear-ringed baldies barging past me silently daring me to challenge them for spilling drink over me. Probably all in my mind but I wasn't going to check out my paranoia.  They were probably harmless and in fairness there weren't any fights or bottles thrown at the support band, the rather splendid Year of Birds but let's just say it wasn't The Kids Are Solid Gold. Ste asked why I didn't ta...

Bloody Hell,  is anybody else depressed?  Not only have the sublime Olympics finished but it has just dawned on me that the ridiculous spectacle of the Premier League is nearly upon us. And on that bombshell I'm off to bed I've got to go and do some tax tomorrow. PS - Here's one I offer without excuse to try and lift us from our post olympic blues.  Ninja from the fantastic Go Team! taken at last week's Stockton Festival. 

How great has it been that our political pathetique’s squabbles have been kept off the front pages for a couple of weeks? Obvously Cam and Bozza are claiming credit for the games and probably fair pay to them. Maybe Blurgh, Kings Kenny and Becks deserve a mention as well. I also noticed Harriet Harmen took the opportunity to tell us how great she was for the part she played in making the decision to bid for the games although I was more interested in her admission that Labour got it wrong over gambling regulation. “If we knew then what we know now?”? Fuck, why didn’t she just to East Middlesbrough with one of our local mp's to see the social problems caused by gambling. We all knew ! At least they've binned the idea of the super casino's haven't they? No - Looks like Labour's u-turn is a bit too late for the Boro. In answer to the Northern Echo - no a Super Casino is not good for Middlesbrough. For once I am not looking forward to seeing how this one pans out. ...

There’s that end of summer holidays around tonight don’t you think? I think it’s been said already by a number of commentators but what are we all going to do tomorrow?   I’ve loved the last 16 days, following everything from getting up on in the morning until going to bed wherever I’ve been, thanks partly to the power if my   iPhone but mainly to the wall to wall TV coverage.   It’s felt great to be British for the first time in a very long time.   I fretted along with everybody else   during early days when it looked like it was all going to turn pear shaped (medals wise anyway) and basked in the reflected glory of every one of the 29 golds as they rolled in.   From Mo Farrah and Jessica Ennis to the Taekwondo and that most hardly of sports, the dressage.   Some of my personal top bits - Not  fan of boxing but if men can knock ten bells out of each I don't see why women shouldn't be allowed to and I never tired of seeing and listening...

Is Cameron the most stupid Prime Minister ever?  Talk about leading with your chin.  However, for anyone enjoying the Labour Party's jeers be aware that these tax avoidance schemes have been in the news since not long after Labour came to power in 1997 and they didn't try too hard to stop them when they were in power.  I love a good story though and to be honest I was happy enough when Cam outed fake leftie Jimmy Carr was exposed for being the selfish hypocritical shit he clearly is but the report of the greedy bastard's pathetic apology when he realised his career was going down the pan was just the icing on the cake.  It got even better when Cam (presumably now having been told by his advisers to shush) refused to condemn Fake Twat's, Gary Barlow  for seemingly doing exactly the same thing.  Priceless! Of course The front page of the Mirror is right it is a bit more serious than a one trick pony comedian and a fat p...

Here's a photo of my sons (1st and 3rd left) and their friends taken in Paris last week. A bit of a step up from their original plan of a week-end at Primrose Valley to watch the England vs France match.  I am unable to shed any light or explain their attire but please excuse my self-indulgent warm glow.

Can’t believe how fast the last week’s gone.   This time last Sunday I was watching Richard Hawley on the Lake Stage at NDH.   A nd for those of you who were there how cool was that (I mean the festival not Richard Hawley,who was ok)?   For those of you that missed it?   Well....   gloating is not in my nature so I’ll say no more.   And amazingly the weather held up.   I’d spent Thursday night in Sheffield where it rained solid from 4PM until 1AM and being a camping wuss my cunning plan was that if it was too wet camp I would sleep in my car and if it got too bad I would just go home. I needn’t have worried, I got my tent up in between showers which although continued on and off through Friday and Saturday it was never that bad and Sunday was completely dry. Much had been made about it being a mini End of the Road and apart from it being only a 2 hour drive (for me) as opposed to 6 ½ to Dorset (hurrah) I wouldn’t argue with that. ...

Really must get of this computer.  Was going to post this one on Face Ache but made the right choice just before I pressed send (phew!). 1.44 of joy.  Needless to say I didn't admit to liking this one at the Rock Garden but didn't the Fall cover this on a Peel Seesion? Found it!  That's me done.

Some of you may have noticed my foray into enemy territory last night with my guilty pleasures series.  I know I should link it to my blog and I did, sort of.  I really should be getting ready for the week-end and I will shortly but just to keep the run of posts going here's another one that sounds suspiciously great now. The best Roxy Music single they never recorded and easily better than anything they did record, not that I would ever let politics taint my view  (sorry, just can't listen to them without an image of Bryan Ferry's smarmy mush forming in my mind). Oh go on then, yes I would.  Fair cop guv! I know we all love it now but I remember being ridiculed by the cool dudes at Springfield for hailing this one. 

Queenie " I am deeply humbled " Murdoch " The most humble day of my life " I'm no expert in English but I don't think a day can be humble can it?  So that's what they must mean about the Queen's English? Queenie - Cheers I am exceedingly humbled that you care so much.  That's ok English isn't it? I bloody knew they weren't wrong when they awarded me that CSE English certificate. Alternatively it's likely just as much bullshit as Murdoch's obvious insincerity.

So what did you make of the jubilee then?  I've had my fill of Royals at least until the next time I get an extra day off (probably never).  Needless to say the extra day off caused much consternation amongst the Tory press giving them another opportunity to vent their spleen against public sector workers.  The "5 day week-end thing" is probably the biggest give away.  This lot (purposely vague and woolly) won't be satisfied until nobody apart from them (again purposely vague) gets week-ends off.  Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if the next clammer is to have public sector workers pay restricted to 5/7 to account for the fact they don't work week-ends. I'm already being subjected to a pay freeze for two years, not that I've had a pay rise anywhere near inflation for over 10 years leaving me on a pathetic embarrassingly low salary for the job I am expected to do.  With the expectation of regional pay being brought in I don't thin...

Still finding my way on the new Blogger design so you'll have to bear with me for a bit although still not sure anybody has realised I've started posting again. I've started posting all my recent musical purchases.  Until the last couple of months this would have been impossible due to volumes but for now my spending is reasonably under control  so here we go. Mind,  I normally budget up to £100 for festival purchases so the policy might last until after next week ends NDH.  Still working my way through the Spotify playlist and I'm making a shortlist of must see artists and establishing clashes from hell (e.g. Woodpigeon vs Beth Jeans Houghton). More later but in the mean time here are a few photos.  Sunset over the Red Sea Petra In the middle of a sandstorm in Luxor Just like the old days, still more filler than thriller.

 Yeah... it's been a sparse year musically.  It was probably a bit much to expect the highs of the last few years to continue but Larry and the Flask (as mentioned last night) and The Imagineers at Stockton Calling (I implore you to check the link) aside rock'n'roll (in the broadest sense) has left me cold. I've been trying to keep up with my old friend Richard's Linear Obsessional recordings (not rock'n'roll in any sense) and I particularly recommend South Gare by Chris Whitehead (well I would wouldn't I) and Music For Barges by The Original Beekeepers and I enjoyed a modern classical show at The Sage (can only purposely mis-quote Billy Joel again - "it's all rock'n'roll to me"). Hopefully Things will improve next weekend at No Direction Home .  I've been tuning into a Spotify playlist (sorry don't know how to link) and have very high hopes.  Aside of the the live music they're also showing  Sound it Out with ...

Just replied to some comments.  As ever thanks, and apologies for delay in replying and while I'm here I rather care for this.  They're on at the Flying Boating Stage next Friday at 18.45 if you'd care to join me. Denmark's finest, Dad Rocks!

Mmmm. a new look for blogger.  Of course that will only mean something to people in the biz.  As ever there's I always feel quite liberated posting after a break because I know there will be next to nobody reading it.  It'll pick up though and if I can string half a dozen posts together there might be well... half a dozen people tuning in. I've got no excuse though.  I broke up from work for my jubilee celebrations last WWednesday and I don't go back until 12 June.  I'm travelling down to Sheffield on Thursday en route to No Direction Home on Friday so I'll see if I can string a few posts together before then.  I can't help feeling it's another one of those now or never moments. I did mean to post last week-end.  I was at TKASG at The Westgarth on Friday 25 May for a typically solid if uninspiring show made up The Fossil Collective , The Daydream Club ,  Lilliput and By Toutatis  (links 'cos' I can) and then went to ...

In 1974 people were either watching Sassafras on the Whistle Test (they're all crawling out the woodwork now) or like me you were into this.  I still think it's bloody marvellous.

I've been in denial about this one for 35 years. 

So what's the word? Went on a great walk today.  For the third week running we went up the hills of the North York Moors.  Not sure there's anything much better, circa March 2012, once you get to the top anyway. Boro got beat 3-0.  Hey ho, as long as Chris makes it home safely and Shamila and I played the lottery (desperate measure for desperate times).. But on the upside I'm off work next week.  I told them I might go in the back end of the week  (yeah righto as if....).  All in all feeling I'm feeling pretty irie. Although  Face**** continues to irritate me .  If only it wasn't so interesting and informative.  Of course I jest and Rikki Doolan's announcement that he's packing in The Sessions (last one next Thursday) and Bandstand will reduce it's relevance to me further.  Hardly a guilty pleasure but I tune in everyday nonetheless. It did get me thinking about guilty pleasures as a concept th...

Hello All, Some of you might have noticed I haven't posted much recently.   I've lapsed a number of times over the years (usually down to bone idleness or personal crisees) but this time I actually made the conscious decision but for posting the occasional photograph to go into semi-retirement.  So don't call me a lazy bastard this time ok? I'd never heard the word epiphany ( don't feel ashamed if you had to look it up, I wasn't quite sure either ) used in every day speak until about 6 weeks ago when our Russ used it but I suppose I've had one today.  It hasn't been particularly fun-packed.  In fact, after a great walk this morning (9 1/2 miles - Billingham Park Circular 9 1/2 miles) and Boro getting beat 2-0 by Leeds I've done bugger all.  Apart from....................... 1.  Started getting a bit down.  I've' got a tough couple of weeks ahead of me.  It will be the 4th anniversary of my father's death on...

My lack of posting recently has been mainly down to technical problems with Blogger rather than my usual laziness.  I'm aware people have made comments to some of (not so) recent posts - alas I can't read them, I will keep trying though and (for what it's worth) respond. So what have I been up to? Not a lot really.  Been to the Sessions a few times.  Saw a new young and surprisingly refreshing punk band, Mikey's Smile.  The muso's have had the local rock music scene their own way for far too long.  Hopefully see much more of them as the year go on. Went to see post rockers Explosions In The Sky at the Sage supported by  Newcastle's Lanterns on the Lake .  It was double bubble for me.  I've been waiting to see Explosions In The Sky again since I saw them at my first EOTR in 2009 and I've missed Lanterns of the Lake a couple of times now. Explosions in the Sky have some elements that normally turn me off.  No vo...

There’s another week-end over. Well almost anyway, another couple of hours to go before I pop off to bed. It started on Friday with yet another funeral, my Uncle Jack’s.   It is as my cousin Stephen said, “the end of an era”,  the last of the generation in both his and my family.    Jack had a fair day for it though, the roads were clear but all the surrounding fields and villages were covered in snow from the top of Birk Brow all the way to Bridlington.   Blue skies all the way.   I’d made embryonic arrangements to go over with my cousin Brenda but she made her own arrangements.   No offence to Brenda but the journey was the better for my being alone. Haven’t got many personal memories of Jack to be honest - he moved away from Teesside to do his national service in the Army and then joining the Royal Air Force before finally settling in Bridlington.   Although he used to come back to Middlesbrough fairly often we never ...

A 6 mile walk up the promenade at Seaton Carew. Glorious!

Hope you enjoyed "Not For The First Time" in my last post and not for the first time I've promised and not delivered. Was planning on doing a grand review of 2011 in the last week but .......hey ho it's now 2012. So....... very quickly - 2011 Best Single Abbey Gallup - Washington Irving Best Album Staring At The X - Forest Fire Joint - Best Live Act Tinariwen - EOTR Dark Dark Dark - The Westgarth Curtis Eller - The Sun Inn Low Anthem - Gateshead Old Town Hall Best Song Feathers - Slow Down Molasses Best Slow Burn Withered Hand The Ones That Got Away (oldies I never realised were so great) Changing Of The Guard - Bob Dylan Do You Like Rock Music (album) - British Sea Power Clap Your Hand Say Yeah (album) - Clap Your Hand Say Yeah Go Where You Wanna Go - Mamas And Papas Mama's Eyes and Can't Hardly Wait - Justin Townes Earle Notable comebacks Wire, The Fall, Drop and Teesside Record Shops (at the beginning of 2011 there was 1 -...