Awesome Weekends

I’ve been having a really good time as of late, the last few weekends have been just awesome, and I’ve done so many cool things. It started just after we got back from our trip to stay with Kellys grandparents in Scotland and it’s basically continued every weekend since.

We kicked it all off with a gig, our first gig of the year really, we saw The Wildhearts at Rock City. The support bands were great and everyone was in the mood for a good time, with the bar serving up two pint glasses of cider who wouldn’t be. We stayed on after the show and made a night of it, catching the late bus home and spending the next day chilling out.

The weekend after that we did some shopping for our little garden, picked up a few plants and started to get it on the way to looking nice. The Sunday morning we took Bertie out for his first real run of the year to the Limes Cafe with the Midlands Aircooled Collective, as always he looked and ran great, we got the chance to catch up with some of our fellow members and check out their cars.

The last few weekends have been pretty much full of hi-lights, but one of the best of these was Saxon, they’re an epic band that still know how to blow away an audience. We met Steve and Dave down there and had an awesome night, the second support act, The Quireboys, were so good I’d have happily paid to see them headline, in fact I thought they might just steal the show until Saxon came on and showed us what 35 years of being one of the best in the business means. Every time I see them they get one step closer to kicking Iron Maiden and Motorhead from the top two slots of my “awesome bands to see live” list.

Next I have to say a big thank you to my lovely fiancée Kelly for buying me an awesome Christmas present, she got me tickets to see The Lumberjacks. Craig Campbell, Glenn Wool and Stewart Francis, they were just amazing. I’ve been a fan of Craig Campbell for some time now, Kelly bought us tickets on the strength of this and I’m so glad she did, all in all it was an awesome night. Glenn Wool being the real surprise of the evening, having never really seen much of his stand up I wasn’t expecting to be stunned but he was truly hilarious and I will be looking out for tickets for one of his solo shows.

Finally coming to the weekend just gone, it started with a takeaway and a night relaxing with my lady, which is always amazing and a great way to counteract the stresses of the week. It soon started to pick up pace with a run out to Stanford Hall in Bertie for our first, and also our favourite, big classic VW show of the year. As always this was a great show, lots of beetles, vans, campers, gias etc. all well loved and all amazingly presented. There was is a relaxed, family atmosphere that is sometimes lacking in other shows we have attended in the past and the autojumble is always worth a visit, we picked up a new 6v horn which is now fitted and working a treat. The weekend culminated with meeting the living legend that is Mick Foley, he was just awesome and seemed a genuinely nice guy, we got a picture taken with him and he signed a few things for us and his show was just epic. it started with shorts sets by Craig Campbell and Brendon Burns who just blew us all away, they were hilarious. When Mick came out the whole room was chanting and shouting his name, from the moment he opened his mouth to the moment he shook my hand after the show he was amazing, his stories were hilarious, his timing was spot on, he knew exactly how to talk to the audience and new what we wanted to hear. He really shone, he was funny, witty and clever. The only thing that topped his show was actually getting to meet him afterwards.

The best thing about how the last few weekends is that we’re not done yet, we’ve still got more stuff to come, more shows to see and more places to visit over the next few weeks and months. I’ve got a feeling this summer is going to be one of the best yet and I really can’t wait to spend it with Kelly.

Time, Strangeness And Oblivion

So it’s the end of yet another month (literally in 40 minutes) and I can’t believe just how far away the beginning of this year seems, despite only really being 8 weeks ago. That lovely time of feasting and general debauchery that is Christmas feels like a distant memory and… I don’t really know where I’m going with this… Something to do with how weird the concept of time is and the duality of it’s passing, hours seemingly drag on for an eternity yet days pass in the blink of an eye. A month feels like it’s over before it’s really began yet the start of the year seems so long ago… I think I’m losing my mind… Sometimes I feel my old self destructive nature trying to reassert itself, I like to think that person is not me anymore but he’s never really far from the surface, always shouting and raging against his cage like some horrific beast… I crave the oblivion found at the bottom of a bottle. (So now it’s more like 10)

Dapper Gentleman

It has come to my attention that I simply can not dress smartly. I recently had reason to wear some of my smartest clothes, believe it or not I do actually quite like to dress up and look smart. My shirt was ironed, my shoes were polished, my trousers crisply pressed, my tie was well matched and stylish and my jacket was pristine. I even tied back my long locks and neatly trimmed my manly beard, both were lightly oiled to minimise fly aways and to give them a gentle sheen and pleasant fragrance. Just before leaving the house I went upstairs to check how I looked and make sure everything worked fairly well together, I am well known for a general lack of coordination. As I stood and looked in the mirror it dawned on me that rather than looking smart and sophisticated I actually looked threatening, the smart clothes seemed to accentuate my formidable frame and general bulk and my neatly trimmed beard and tied back hair gave me an air of seriousness that my normal, slightly scruffy, appearance lacks. The overall effect was quite striking and left me with the impression of myself as being a somewhat scary individual, I certainly looked like the type of person who has been sent to break your legs and would have no qualms about shooting you rather than the slightly gloomy, clownish, manchild I actually am.

Just a note that I tend to spend more time and, for anyone interested, am more active on my Tumblr. (savagelyrefined.tumblr.com) The vast majority of my posts on here are just duplicates of my Tumblr posts anyway.

Sleepless

Midnight is swiftly approaching on yet another day and once again I find myself suffering from a lack of sleep. As I sit here on my bed, wrapped in my duvet, nursing a mug of hot tea and munching on a slightly over ripe apple, I find myself drawn, increasingly, into the mood of the music I am listening to. It is my experience that listening to something slow, melodic and a little doomy has a calming effect on my mind and as such is often a viable precursor to sleep, I’m currently listening to a selection of the slower Acid Bath tracks, however, far from calming my mind it has led me down into state of apathy and a mild melancholy… I fear I may be in for a long night.