Showing posts with label The Schooner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Schooner. Show all posts

Sunday 22 January 2017

Chestwigging


Today was the first time I'd been to a gig since November. It was the first time I'd seen any once socially since before then barring my lovely neighbours and Jessica at Wildflower. On the the plus side I got to see a few friends who I hadn't seen in ages, and The Star Spangled Chestwigs sounded on top of their game. The Schooner was rammed.

Unfortunately this meant that I and many others couldn't see the band . The last time I saw them at The Schooner they were outside on the big stage / tables (see here) and while you could hear how good they were , you couldn't see.

But I felt brilliant to get out and it was great to see people and see The Schooner packed and enjoying the Chestwigs taking on classic rock and coming out on top.

They still can't play perfectly but they put on an absolutely perfect show and the crowd loved it. You will be hard pushed to see a better live band , because you come away from their gigs and feel absolutely top of the world. That's how good they are.

Thursday 17 September 2015

It Makes Me Happy

What does ? Everything . Well lots of things , maybe I should just list things.

I know my recent posts have been about being happy , hugs and feeling good rather than slagging off Apple and mobile phone companies or being slightly down about  Preston losing , but seriously, I am grateful for being able to make this list. Part of the reason I can do so is that I do always look for good things regardless of what happens, and a small thing , today I got told I was out of my probation period and they liked me at work and last night Youtube relented and allowed my Ezra Furman slideshow for "One Day I Will Sin No More" . I will record my own version of this and put it up on my Youtube Channel soon.

So what makes me happy:
The Vampire Rabbit Spots Its Prey
  • The love and support I get from my close friends and family , here and all over the world
  • The fact there is always someone there for me , and I am there for them
  • The appreciation that people give me when I share time and experience with them
  • I love my hometown of Preston , I don't get there enough , but Newcastle is now my home and I love the place and it's people and the friends I have made here make me fall in love  with everything every day
  • I can't get down for too long because there is always something good about to happen
  • I love the positive things I can show people
  • I love berating people about not visiting The Lit & Phil , it is a beautiful amazing place
  • I love the fact that so many people don't know about the Vampire Rabbit and the look on their faces when I take them is brilliant
  • I love the fact my friend Barbara has resurrected Trillans and my friends Maz and Shev have made The Black Bull into the North East's Go To Punk venue and Dave and Julie Campbell have turned The Schooner into a brilliant Western Swing venue and brilliant pub
  • I love my friends
  • I love the culture , the museums , the coast
  • I love well I might never stop

Anyway that is just some of the stuff, have a brilliant day everyone , I really do love you all

Friday 26 September 2014

Downs and Ups and The Graham Norton / U2 Connection



This has been a weird week , exhausting and I was looking forward to a quiet weekend , but that's  unlikely to happen , although it's all my own fault, I could stay in and not oversee so work stuff, but really where's the fun in doing nothing.

The Schooner
The other thing Australia and Pirates (see the Mac Barnett talk)  and the Middle East have cropped up quite a lot this week from various sources such as the brilliant TED talk about books that I've included in this post. Tonight the is a Nick Cave night at the Tyneside Cinema Cafe, on Sunday a U2 tribute band on at The Schooner (I assume it'll be a standard tribute although with the Schooner you might expect a Joshua Trio  - which I believe included Graham Norton though I may be wrong -
type tribute), then on Monday night it's GOAT at Newcastle University.



Also it's my birthday next week and have been tasked with writing my best ever blog post, though best is a very subjective adjective although I have it planned out, but it will be personal and substantial , this is a fun challenging gauntlet to pick up. My current most read post is here and the irony is that if you click through to see what it is it will become even more read. While it's a reasonable post , I don't think it's my best post so far , although to be quite honest I haven't a clue what that is.

Anyway it's time for work so I will sigh off now , have a great Friday and a great weekend.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Chestwigs in the Night


This morning was the first time for months where when I got up it was still dark . Admittedly it was 5am and had not slept well due to a very mild tummy upset , but it's still a bit disconcerting to think that the days are drawing in once again . Not that it stops you doing anything and it does mean you get to see the sun rise.

Also it means I get to write this blog post and have a look see what's happening in the world today before I make my way to work.

I am looking forward to this weekend with a great gig on Sunday with The Star Spangled Chestwigs supporting Big Ray and The Hipthrusters at The Schooner and lots of other secret Bank Holiday fun. Enjoy their version of By The Rivers of Babylon (s Burning)

Anyway time to do what I need to do before another day doing what I do.

Sunday 30 June 2013

This Is The End ... Beautiful Friend


Today is Slacktonbury at The Schooner with Strange Bruise and Slack Babbath , so looking forward to that and the sun is shining too.


Well it's the last day of June and the final day of my June's Tunes blog project . The obvious song to finish with would be "The End" by The Doors , a great song , but then Chuck Berry's "30 Days" popped into my head so decided to go with that. I've put together a Grooveshark playlist so you can listen to all the songs in one place if you are that way inclined , but it will clock in at around two hours. Maybe I should have been a DJ! Anyway here's the playlist:

June's Tunes 2014 by Mike Singleton on Grooveshark
And here's Chuck Berry's 30 Days:



Sunday 23 June 2013

Glastonbury .... It's Just a Tesco and Wal-Mart of Music ... but we have The Mighty Slack Babbath To Save Us

Before I start my rant about this , I first must congratulate Michael Eavis on his vision , borrowing £5000 in 1972 to fund the initial festival I believe opened by Marc Bolan doing an acoustic set. These are the sort of people we need and I am so glad that he has been successful probably beyond his wildest dreams as Glastonbury. I read somewhere that there are 2,000 acts on over the five day festival this year , I thought I'd check and looking at the line up page here that could be right. I'm not counting. Tickets this year are around £205 , not sure if that includes a spot for your tent but say you see five acts each day then that's less that £10 a concert (remember what The Rolling Stones charged at the O2). There's a download of the original festival here which gives a feel for what it was once like.

So back to the rant, Glastonbury has just become like a supermarket, lots of products to satisfy every taste , but make sure you keep to the designated areas , have your clubcard on hand , make sure to you conform to the requirements of the supermarket. Their marketing is so good that people happily give up lots of personal information just to enter the lottery to get a ticket. Even twenty years ago people went to Glastonbury to see a particular group of acts , now people go to Glastonbury because it's Glastonbury. While this is not my scene (I actually like music) , it is a huge number of people's idea of heaven. Michael Eavis could have sold another half a million tickets for this year's festival. That's £100 million pounds more he could have made , more than the GDP of some countries.

So if you are going enjoy the music , enjoy your time there , I'll be frequent some much smaller events sch as "Slacktonbury" featuring Strange Bruise and the mighty Slack Babbath and their lead singer Ozzy Ouseburn at The Schooner on the 29th June.

Anyway the June's Tunes choice is possibly my favourite Glastonbury song "Glastonbury Revisited" by The Cosmic Rough Riders  from their brilliant album "Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine":

"Where have all the angels gone,
Now that all the acid's done .....
We made love under the sun....... "

Those days are long gone

Oh and just realised this was my 100th post this year , a friend had to point this out !!

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Lord Rochester Gets His Skates on

Nineteen days in and I had a great idea for todays post because of something that happened and now it's gone. I'm not going to have anything from Adele's "19" or Paul Hardcastle's "19" though. The summer is still here despite doom mongers forecasting rain , but it still looks extremely sunny to me.

Tonight I was waiting for a train at Darlington and was just shocked how people would rather cram themselves into a hot , airless carriage on an effectively four carriage train than wait ten minutes and travel in comfort. You find the same with drivers who have to overtake the car in front to save a few seconds on their journey. Impatience is not a virtue and just makes your life experience worse.

Sometimes a little waiting and chilling makes life so much more palatable. Well I'm going to The Schooner tonight where I saw the excellent Lord Rochester and as Rochester has just gone superfase the EE's 4G I think we'll have "Hey Bo Diddley" which is taken at speed:


Tuesday 1 January 2013

The First Post



...of 2013 and hoping it will be as enjoyable a year as 2012. Seen some great gigs , including several nights at The Stand in Newcastle , as well as Lord Rochester's inaugural gig at The Schooner in Gateshead , that rarity , a Half Man Half Biscuit gig in Newcastle.

I finally got an iPad and have generally been impressed with it , though the app that sold it me was Garageband. I've also got a 4G Samsung Note 2 courtesy of EE and am impressed with that as well having watched the excellent Cockneys vs Zombies on it as well as a few episodes of Hebburn and getting my first taste of In-Betweeners via 4OD. Incidentally Hebburn features Steffen Peddie as Big Keith , and I met him at The Stand where he had the crowd in stitches laughing , he halso has a Monday night residency so is well worth checking out.

Was also impressed with Sky's "Young Doctors Notebook"  featuring John Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe . Black comedy of the highest order featuring sex and drugs and blood and tabs , if you missed it get hold of a copy one way or another. Harry Potter it is not.

As I say hope 2013 has as much to offer as 2012




Tuesday 25 December 2012

Christmas Day


It's been a weird and wonderful day, totally relaxed , recovering from various health rigours and have an excellent Christmas tea with chicken , brussels sprouts and all the trimmings prepared by Fiona. The watching , interspersed with each other Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows and my favourite Shakespeare play The Tempest featuring Helen Mirren as a gender swapping Prospera and Russell Brand as a quite excellent Trinculo , you wouldnt expect Brand and Shakespeare to cross , but they do rather well.

Family phonecalls and getting rest from work has made it a most excellent Christmas day.


Looking forward to a comedy night at the Stand with the excellent John Scott and Gavin Webster , followed by Lord Rochester at The Schooner on Saturday. This could be a most excellent week ....