Music

It's a glorious sunny day again.We don't get too many of these up here so I am in shorts and sandals, sitting in the garden, drinking beer. I'm not watching the FA Cup Final. Don't care who wins although if pushed I hope the Chelsea rich kids don't win- if only just to see Terry cry again!

Perhaps I should have included football in the title of this blog as I have chatted probably more about The Beautiful Game than anything else over the last few months.

I was walking the dog this morning over Nuns Moor. The sun was shining, the dog was running around very happy and then we were spotted by the cows that graze there every summer. I think some new ones have arrived because, en masse, they all came running towards us. I put the dog on his lead and legged it through the buttercups to the path and relative safety. The cows stopped, Mooed a bit and went the other way. It was quite scary.

A band I quite like are called Scanners. I caught them about 4 years ago supporting The Wedding Present at the Uni. See if you like them too

Scanners- Raw

Going Home

Went to London this weekend. My sister-in-law's birthday. It was a weekend of childless bliss. The son was in France (Marseille to be exact doing something with the school, daughter doing a Duke of Edinburgh expedition in the Yorkshire Dales)

So it was champagne in the bar at St Pancras(heated seats and blankets to keep you warm no less). More champagne in Dirty Martinis in Convent Garden and blonde beer and mussels at Belgo

Saturday was spent mostly recovering from Friday's excesses and then into Guildford for drinks at The Slug and Lettuce and meal at Olivos. Our enjoyment of this whole hedonistic (and very expensive)binge was not spoiled by the best efforts of National Express East Coast and their engineering works.

London is my home and going back makes me miss it. We walked across the Thames to Waterloo to get the train out to Surrey (past Woking and yes I do look out for Stanley Road)and that made me remember this song from the late 1970s mod/rnb revival

MP3 Dirty Water- The Inmates

They were a solid hard working bunch of musicians playng straightforward RnB Pub rock. This is a cover of a song by a band from Boston- The Standells (thank you Mr Internet)

Saturday Boy

I'm in good mood. A cheque has arrived today which I have been waiting for for a while. Money worries are over (for the time being at least).

The Wedding Present are the band I have listened to consistently the most over the last 20+ years.

If I had could have guaranteed this money would turn up, I might have been tempted to go to Japan to see them play there on their current Tour. But, that would be too reckless for a respectable middle aged local government officer like me. Thank God for T'Internet. I can see them on my PC playing two songs - one outstanding, one average TWP. Work out for yourself which one is which by clicking here

Saturday

Saturday post. A strange day. Spring is coming, I could feel it,walking the dog across the Moor and I could sense a change in the air a smell maybe a freshness? I don't know but it felt different. Maybe it was just because the sun was shining. It wasn't the temperature, it was blowing a gale- Hurricane Geordie- as my father- in- law calls the wind that whips through to your bones and blows virtually year round in the North East.

Or maybe its simply that this is a special weekend and week. My lovely daughter is sixteen tomorrow so my sister in law Denise and her husband Allan are up from Surrey. Hard to believe it really. So it's been a couple of days of reminiscing and looking at old photos. Its my son's eighteenth birthday on Wednesday as well- fuck me where did my life go. Bringing up two very special kids partly.

Family meal out kids and the wife, me and in laws and Denise and Allan. Tapas again but La Tasca this time. I like La Tasca but its not really authentic.Still good though and a nice location down by the Millenium Bridge on the Quayside.Where 18 years ago,when we moved here, it was a wasteland of abandoned warehouses and docks its now a thriving hub of restaurants and bars. The world has changed Newcastle has changed. I've changed. Still love The Wedding Present though. Listening today to a live recording of a show from their 2006 Tour in Cambridge Massachusetts the song is Go Out And Get 'Em Boy by a guy with a great web site Bradleys Almanac.