Tuesday 24 August 2010

Libertines Reunion Musings

I am having to sit out this Libertines reunion furore as sadly I am about 200 miles away from London and completely skint. In hindsight there were ways that I could have maybe afforded it but hindsight is a beautiful and terrible thing. So simply, I am trying not to think about it. Which gets harder as more of my facebook, twitter and messageboards I post on realise they want to go and acquire tickets.

So when I appear to be completely ignoring it, I'm not. I would severely love to be down the front of the Forum tomorrow night. Here's hoping they reform properly and tour again, or at least announce more gigs after these. I am fully clued up now in as much as knowing how cheap it is to get a coach down to London, and have run through in my head how simple it would be to book a couple days holiday from work/call a sickie, so I'm all ready and able.

Ok I'm done on this subject. Tonight I shall watch the Big Brother final from the comfort of my bed, tomorrow night I shall do something else even to fill my time, and on the weekend I shall be in Devon. Never shall what I'm missing cross my mind.

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Libertines Article In The Guardian Music Section Featuring Me.

The finished thing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/aug/17/libertines-fans

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Libertines Article In The Guardian Music Section Featuring Me.

So there is an article being published in the Guardian music section tomorrow about the Libertines, written by Tim Jonze, with quotes from an email interview he did with me. Exciting stuff. I am aware that I come across as a bit of a fanboy in it but hey, I am.

And then to follow next week, possibly Thursday, the entire email interview is going to be published up on the Guardian music blog, as Tim was flabergasted by the amount of stuff I actually wrote up for him he said it deserved to all be put out there, which was nice of him.

Exciting! I'll link it up here when it's published and stuff.

Sunday 8 August 2010

How I Learned To Love The Beatles

As a teenager I always rejected The Beatles. Originally I just passed them over as music my mum liked, one of my earliest memories is going through her record collection and seeing her copy of 'Revolver', on the back she had written "Paul, John, George, Ringo" with hearts drawn all over. Then as I got into the Manics and The Clash I rejected them for more ideological reasons, one of my favourite Manics quotes is the "I laughed when Lennon got shot" line from Motown Junk, and the line "No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones" from The Clash's 1977 was daubed all over my school textbooks, and this stuck with me for a long time.

My friends were into The Beatles, my best friend while I was growing up tried time and time again to get me into them, he would play The White Album when we were sat around his house on rainy weekend afternoons and make me compilation tapes but I was just never receptive to them.

Over time there was a slight shift, I became less obsessed by the bands who I immersed myself in when I was growing up and my reasons for not listening to The Beatles made less sense than before. I gave Rubber Soul a listen and was bowled over by how much I simply liked it and the simple pop of their early tracks like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You", "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" became impossible not to love.

This happened over a period of five years, up until this point I would just download an album as I thought about it or as I heard a song of theirs I liked. Then around two months ago that same friend of mine I talked about earlier got me to go see a Beatles tribute band at the Cavern club in Liverpool with him. From that night until now I have had Beatles songs swimming around my head pretty much daily.

Today I have gone to whole distance and am downloading the box set. I now intend to listen to it fully and know those albums as well as I know The Smiths and the Manics. That is a big statement for me to make but I shall do it.

Monday 2 August 2010

BAM! Another Interview Down

Around 11pm last night I managed to complete my piece of writing about why I would be good at working within the industrial division of this recruitment firm, and I emailed it over to them as requested. This morning I checked my phone during my break at work, had a missed call from the agency so I rang them back. They wanted to see me for another interview, this time with the head of the industrial division. Got one booked for after work.

So after work today I went in, had a chat with them, got told what the job would require, where it would lead, all the important bits and pieces, and it seemed to go ok. They have a few more people to interview but the guy said I may possibly be asked back for a third interview with the director of the company if I'm successful.

The only thing I wasn't so happy about is the fact that as I was going straight from work I had no time inbetween to spruce myself up. When I looked at myself in the mirror when I got home I looked an absolute state. My hair was everywhere, my eyes looked possessed, I looked generally flustered. I'm hoping this happened between the interview and home though, I was pretty much in a daze for a while immediately after.

So now I just sit and wait with crossed fingers. I would so like this job. My current job is wearing me down now. It's doing the same to the people I work with too. The office is kind of divided into two at the moment. Three of us are relatively normal, the other half could easily have just stepped off the set of Shameless. General bad atmosphere everywhere, makes for very unenjoyable workdays.

Sunday 1 August 2010

Major Procrastination

Right now I am supposed to be writing a piece about why a certain sector of industry would be the most suitable for me to be a recruitment consultant in. I had an interview on Friday for a recruitment firm and I had to go away and write a piece to email them over this weekend. I have been putting it off and putting it off. At nine o'clock I shall do it, for definite. Hopefully it will be quite quick and painless to do. Now you have been informed anyway. What to do to waste some time next?

Documenting Some Nights Out In Manchester

Over the past week I've been on two big drinking binges in Manchester, I am getting used to the city more now and so I need to have a good knowledge of the city's bars and pubs, so this is all acceptable research I would say.

On both days the session has started at the Dry Bar on Oldham Street, I am yet to go there at night and I know it has a bit of a reputation as far as football is concerned but the two times I have been in there it has come across as a decent place. It used to be owned by Peter Hook and still has the Factory decor. The music is good and between 4-7.30 they do a range of 2 for 1 cocktails, alabama slammers and brambles for me, highly recommended drinks.

Both times we spent several hours here. Both times we started there around 4pm, on the first day we left there around 6pm and from there we went to the Wetherspoons at Piccadilly Gardens. We had literally one shot of raspberry sambuca here as it was really busy, in the middle of being refurbished and full of scumbags. Afterwards we stopped in Yates, had a shot of sambuca which came in a test tube, a pint and some cocktail or other, whilst sharing a bowl of nachos. Incidentally I found out that I actually like salsa, jalapeno peppers, sour cream and guacamole through that bowl of nachos.

Next we went on to the Thirsty Scholar on Oxford Road, nice place, nice music, cheap drinks, a very traditional old fashioned looking pub. Here I took a tequila shot which I really shouldn't have, and another pint. For me the night went rather hazy from there but I was informed we went to the Deaf Institute and the Kyoto Lounge which is basically a big cafe/lounge/bar with computer game screens all the way around, apparently I got my ass beat at Street Fighter a fair few times. And then I ended up home around midnight.

On the second day, yesterday, we started at a similar time, same place, same drinks, Kirsty joined us for one for a little break as she is moving flat this weekend. This time we stayed in the northern quarter, we went to a bar called Cord which is literally a small bar with a few booths and a downstairs basement filled with black suede covered loungers. We had a pint in here and then went on to the Walrus bar which has a crazy decor, all turqouise with lit up marble tables. We got another couple of cocktails in here and then moved on to another pub although it's name escapes me right now, across the road to TV21s, I like that place but the girl I was out with knows a load of people there so I was pretty much abandoned as soon as we got there. And finally we went to the Star & Garter which is a great place, but I was fully abandoned there within half an hour so ended up leaving pretty soon.

I am going to end that night there though as there was a whole taxi debacle, driver took me to the middle of nowhere and made me pay him for the pleasure, so I had to spend another hour trying to find my way home again, but as I said I was quite drunk by that point so it will be pretty easy to blank it from my memory.

All in all they were a couple great days of drinking. Here's to many more please, oh fair city of Manchester! I have only skimmed the surface of discovering Manchesters drinking venues, this excites me a lot.