I’m sat listening to Tommy Emmanuel after being out with my parents to the local pub. It’s completely not my kind of night out, but they keep asking me. I saw an old friend, Allen, and spoke to him about our love for listening to and making music. He’s 67 now, and is always singing. He’s good at it too. I also saw my old schoolfriend Nichola who I’ve seen just a couple of times since I left school. That reminds me – via the gift of Facebook I’m back in touch with my old schoolfriend Antony so we need to get together, play Pro Evo and down some beers or something.
I had a text from Michelle earlier tonight telling me to get over to York and I wish I’d done that instead. Sounds like she had a top night, and I could’ve been kipping in a two storey suite! Damnit… Hey well. York’s one of my favourite places to be so maybe we’ll go some other time.
Friday night was spent at Ste’s playing Rock Band with Jodie and Gregs. It’s about time it had a release here. At least they gave us the full back catalogue to download. Was an awesome night, mostly pissing ourselves at Gregs’ “singing!” Ste lives in North Yorkshire though, so I lose half a tank of petrol if I go… the state of the price of oil now it’s an expensive do!
I’ve got the week off now. Michelle quite rightly pointed out that it’s James’ last week and since the new guy’s not up to speed now’s the only time in the near future I’ll get time to take holidays. It also buys me some time to finish the task I was given at work. It seems I annoyed the directors at work with that. I was told that I was arrogant and self-righteous, and to get my head out of my arse. Sometimes it seems that my opinions aren’t valid. No, actually… it seems that they aren’t even considered, which is strange because after said argument the itinery changed to the one I suggested.
Champions League Final was an awesome match, what I saw of it. I was hoping for a blues win. Both sides played well. Things got a little out of hand in extra time, but I think everybody was tired and bitchy. I’m too tired to go into details, but it was a good match. It’s a shame it went to penalties as I don’t believe it’s a good way to determine the winner.
Well, it’s late so I’m offski.
Last night was PUSA night and, as one Kerrang! journo described a friend’s band a few years back, it was bouncier than a bare-backed bonkers convention (please bear in mind that Kerrang! journos are rejects from the usual music press crowd that sit in a room with a Chambers thesaurus trying to lay way too much emphasis on cheap puns and one-liners.)
Support came in the form of very, very, VERY Japanese Electric Eel Shock – three kids, while managing to play their respective instruments to ridiculously high ability (as only the Japanese know how thanks to super-pushy parents) insist on writing songs that only consist of two chords with radio-friendly titles such as You Bastard. Actually, I think I counted three in one song. Not that that was any detriment to their entertainment factor – top class!
Next up was a (probably quite brave) Kid Carpet – a guy from the South-West armed to the teeth with sampling equipment, a Casio keyboard, more kiddy toy intstruments than I care to acknowledge exist and a microphone. I’ve gotta hand it to this guy – he had more guts than an exploding whale. It was a very fine line between musical genius and absolute tosh, and I think he achieved the former. Very mixed reaction from the crowd here which probably helped the odd heckle. “Thanks to the Presidents for bringing me on tour with them! It’s very cool of them to do that – they didn’t have to!” to which one guy yelled “They shouldn’t have!” It was all taken in good faith and fisty-cuffs didn’t break out.
The Presidents rocked as always, playing a couple of lesser known earlier tracks which everybody seemed to go down better than most of their later stuff. Not that their recent albums are bad at all (some songs are genius) but I guess we were all twenty-somethings reliving our youth. Notes were taken of kit I am required to purchase for our venture into the tribute world as The Prime Ministers of The United Kingdom. Oh yes. It will happen. At least as soon as I can afford a guitar that I can afford to deface. I was watching the guitbassism closely. It’s a talent I shall soon master.
Okay, as planned I went down to the London Guitar Show and came home with a new trusty axe. It wasn’t an acoustic as planned, but one of those tasty Line6 Variax guitar modellers. It pretty much replicates most types of guitar which is pretty cool. I also got a Line6 PodXT Live to replace my normal PodXT.
Anyway, first time I plugged in the Variax the bottom E didn’t work… Tapped the bridge a few times and the pickup for that string kicked in and seemed okay. Been a bit crackly on a couple of occasions though. Even more worrying is that the PodXT Live quit working all together. So, both are going back to PMT for replacement. On the plus side it means I can swap the guitar for the nicer-looking blue model!
I’ve just got a new credit card. 39% APR or something, which is fucking appalling, but apparently that’s what I need to do to increase my credit scoring, then I might be able to get credit. It’s screwed. I need to get into debt before anybody will trust me. Never had a bad mark on my report – why the fuck should I be penalised?
Went over to Ste’s last night for some Guitar Hero II action, and we had some fun jumping around like twats on the Wii. He’s a mate of a mate and we’ve spoken online for a year or so, but only met last night. Sound guy. Was fun.
Also, like the new domain? I do – it’s all professional and everything.
Okay, so I won the Legend battle, and I haven’t heard anything from them since. What I neglected to post about was my ongoing legal battle with Shah Jahaan, one of the local curry houses. Their driver wrote off my car in July 2005. After many many months of giving statements and postponed court dates, etc, they decided to settle out of court.
PIPEX are still nobs. I told them to take the money I owe them but they’ve yet to do so. I got a letter from them the other day admitting it was their fault, and they were going to take the money. If they delay any longer I’m gonna tell them I’m gonna pay it a fiver a month or something – they’re taking the piss.
Anyway, money’s going on a new axe and a bike. Thinking of getting a Line6 Variax 700 acoustic. What d’you think? I’m also buying the Line6 Pod XT Live to replace my Pod XT as it has a Variax port. Should be fun. I’m looking at Rock Lobster bikes at the moment. I want to get one built for me, but I need to research and make sure I know what I’m doing first. If anything breaks I wanna know how to fix it.
Anyway, I need to do some tidying, and some important Guitar Hero II-ing.