GOFFA FROM THE BLOCK

It's been a shit year in some ways, politically, MFC, my general health (though I soldier on) etc. but what has been notable is the amount of great new music.  I've managed to get my arse into gear actively listening to new stuff and I've been to 2 very good festivals.  My beloved EOTR  at the end of August and  Twisterella   which I reviewed (no less) a few days ago.  Interesting (to me anyway) factoid - both have been nominated for the Independent Festivals In At The Ground Floor  award.  Fair play, great category to be nominated in. EOTR is of course my first love with lots of Americana/Country/Alt folk I'm generally well in my comfort zone but this years line up seemed to include a load of young shouty punk bands. Normally ouch but a couple of them were really good,   Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital , both from Dublin (not sure how that's going to pan out in the UK, post Alexander Boris dePfeffel Brexit). Maybe more lat...

Very nice review of Twisterella2019 in  The Morning Star .  Hail!  I never get sick of reading stuff like "M iddlesbrough as a town is buzzing. It feels like something is happening".  I wish I could agree mind.  I last attended Twisterella in  2016   when I thought I'd been  permanently deafened by a band called Foreignfox.   It's too late to repair my permanent tinnitus but I'm going to try protecting what hearing I have left. As the Morning Star says this year's festival was a great Boro day.  I did a fair bit of pre-festival swotting up on Spotify (it's the only way).  Fail to prepare and prepare to fail and all that and it came good.  I had a big list, cut a few and then cut it some more during the day.  I then missed a couple chit chatting but I think I still saw about 10 bands/artists. It was mostly ok, some of it very good and some it was bordering on f...

Wrote my last post with trepidation.  Think I've actually forgotten how to write anything more than 280 characters .  In fairness I don't think I ever really worked out what or how much to tweet or when to like/reply/re-tweet etc. I've j ust checked , I tweeted 203 times in about 3 and a half years.  Wish I'd stopped at 200.  Think I could have left it at that, I love round numbers and all that but 203?  I dunno...... as I said I'm off Twitter for now anyway.  I just hope my 68 followers will be ok without me. By the time anybody joins me here it should all be running as sweet as a nut.  Just re-learning how to do all the sidebars and stuff.  I knacked it all up last year and couldn't work out how to put it right but I think I've sussed it all out. Think that'll do for tonight.  Will just leave you with the Avett Brothers and We Americans from their  wonderful new album Closer Than Together.  I'm a sucker for truth and honesty...

What can I say?  That was quite a break but I'm back and I'm going to have little trial "writing stuff up" on my blog as part of a making better use of my "Twitter time".  I estimate (very roughly) I've been spending about 2 hours a day on Twitter (and increasing), most of which is non-productive.  I always start with the idea of picking up my latest news but then invariably meander into the comments which then leads to all the bickering/arguments/insults.  Anybody on Twitter (and if you don't fall into this trap you're a better man/woman than I) must know what I'm on about. It just brings the worst out in people including me to be honest.  I don't argue/bicker/throw insults but I'm sometimes only half a click away from doing so.    Anyway, I've deleted the App from my phone and am going to delete it from my computers once my current conversations are over and I'm off Twitter until the end of the month. So, 2019 eh?  A...