Into the Ocean

After an unintended break due to real life getting in the way of virtual life, I am back. Hanging my head in shame that my blogging output collapsed to not even a post per month over the past few months. This drop in output wasn’t for the lack of trying, I have many many half written posts that I have just been unable to finish because I cannot find the words to do so.

My weight loss continues, I am almost at three stone lost since Christmas. The last half stone has been a struggle, interrupted by a weekend of drinking and eating mainly bad things (including a tequila worm) on the continent last weekend. I cannot describe just how much better I feel though, combined with the dog walking I really do feel fitter, happier and much more content with myself. I am close to my target weight now, although rather than go for what the BMI index states I should weigh, I have gone for a weight that I feel better suits me and will leave me looking less like a skeleton that the BMI would prefer. The really pleasing aspect is that my knees, which so often have been the bane of my life over the past few years are much improved.

The house decorating is really coming along at a pace. Whilst I am tired of painting now, the transformation of the house back into a home is really visible now. The plumber that I recently had resident for over five weeks has done a stunning job in transforming both the bathroom and my ensuite. Gone are the tired looking bathrooms that had started to show their age and in their place are two modern yet simple rooms that work very well indeed. The ensuite was stripped back to a bare shell, in place of a tiny single shower is a double shower with a shower head so big it is like standing under a waterfall. A smaller sink and toilet, along with clean white tiles with inlaid mirrors on the walls along with undertile heating on the floor and a chrome towel radiator with accessories have made what was previously a very small room feel much bigger. The main bathroom has been updated with all new furnishings, tiling and accessories. They both look stunning. I was lucky enough to find a plumber who took such great pride in his work and who I was prepared to wait for until he had time to do the work.

With the windows and front door replaced a few months ago, I have just a couple of rooms upstairs left to paint, then I can order the new carpets for the stairs and bedrooms. The last major job towards the end of the year will be to replace the wooden floor downstairs and to remove the patio door and put french windows in instead. It’s been a tall order and quite challenging to get everything done. The old man came down for a few days to help me do downstairs and I am hoping that he can be persuaded to give me a hand over another weekend in the future, two people work a lot better than one.

Work is and has been absolutely manic, the two main businesses could keep me busy 24hrs a day if I wasn’t careful. Luckily I have some fantastic people who work for me who are able to handle the majority of the day to day things without me even needing to get involved. It has taken a long time to find people who I explicitly trust to be able to do this, yet is was an essential part of being able to grow the businesses and make them into something substantial. Earlier in the year I bought my business partner out of the main business, so ultimately the responsibility lies squarely upon my shoulders now. I did not realise just how much that would increase my workload by.

We are currently rebuilding our 2009 endurance race car in the aim to see it on track testing in June & July before it starts to race in August. Our main 2010 car which we plan to race in 24 hour races has already been started. We will be taking our time with this car, namely because it is an expensive process and secondly because it needs a lot of driver input to make sure it is built correctly. Building an endurance race car is a lot different to building a sprint race car. In one single 24hr race, we cover more miles and racing time than an entire season for Formula 1 and as such the car is built to be able to go lap after lap at a certain pace, rather than flat out all the time.

This year is turning into the year of gigs and concerts, a by product of working with a large ticketing organisation I guess. On Friday this week it is Jean Michel Jarre, in July Crosby, Stills & Nash, August is Pearl Jam and then in October Nerina Pallot. It is quite good to have these things to look forward to over the rest of the year, especially gven the pace of life at present.

“This is the guy I met in the toilet”

Now these are not words I ever imagined myself hearing if I’m honest and I think most would agree that the connotations of the phrase are not generally good. There are unwritten rules as to conversations and etiquette in gents toilets for a reason.

At the Ryan Adams gig on Thursday night, during the first song where Neal Casel sang lead vocals, I took the opportunity to go for a pee, as it seemed did quite a lot of people. Therefore for the first time in my life I had to queue to use the toilet.

The chap in front of me turned round and said that everybody seemed to have had the same idea. He then continued that this was the ninth time he’d seen them play and that they were in fact great. We exchanged idle chit chat and until we could use the facilities. About five minutes later (thank god we can pee quickly) I was back near the stage and thought nothing more of it.

Abut an hour later I was stood at the bar, quenching my thirst with another Grolsch (it contains water, so in my book is good for hydration), when this guy appeared next to me with his missus. He then said the immortal words whilst introducing me and declaring that I was a good guy and a true fan. He offered to buy me a drink, did some drumming on the bar whilst waiting to be served and then off they went back into the throng to enjoy the rest of the gig.

I’m nt sure who was more shocked at his line, his missus or me to be honest. Still it was meant in good spirits.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Leeds Academy 13/11/2008

Ryan Adams gigs can be a little hit and miss. A couple of years ago I went to see him play and almost left half way through as it was that bad. Then last year I saw him play at the Hammersmith Apollo and it was just fantastic.

Last night, the atmosphere of the crowd, the relatively intimate surroundings of Leeds Academy and the way that the band seemed to really click together made for an absolutely fantastic gig. More so it felt like a Cardinals gig, rather than Ryan Adams playing with the Cardinals.

They came on about 8.20 and played all the way through to the curfew at 11. I got the distinct feeling that they’d have played longer had they been allowed.

Set list -

1. Cobwebs
2. Sink Ships
3. Everybody Knows
4. Fix It
5. Crossed Out Name
6. Born Into A Light
7. Wonderwall
8. I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
9. Come Pick Me Up
10. When The Stars Go Blue
11. Grand Island
12. Natural Ghost
13. Goodnight Rose
14. Off Broadway
15. Two
16. Evergreen
17. A Kiss Before I Go
18. The End
19. Cold Roses
20. Please Do Not Let Me Go
21. Freeway To The Canyon
22. How Do You Keep Love Alive
23. Stop
24. Rescue Blues
25. Games
26. Go Easy
27. Mockingbird Sing
28. Let It Ride
29. Desire

As you can see it was a reasonable mix of songs from all his albums including the latest release, Cardinology. When someone has as much of a back catalogue as he does, you can sometimes be disappointed with the set list, but they seemed to touch all the songs people wanted to hear.

Somewhat worryingly I even enjoyed the couple of songs that Neal Casel sang, although Freeway to the Canyon will always hold a special resonance to me regardless and performed live it is very special indeed.

So, onwards to Birmingham on Monday night. Here’s hoping for more of the same and another great night.

Buena Vista Social Club

The Buena Vista Social Club is not so much of a band, but rather a celebration of famous Cuban musicians and the music that they play. They were essentially discovered by the American guitarist Ry Cooder in the mid 1990’s and brought to the attention of the world with the album of the same name, Buena Vista Social Club.

Over the years since I have owned that album; some of the noted members of the original incarnation have passed away, including Company Sequndo, Ruben Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer. Despite these deaths, the ensemble continues to tour to this day and last night they played at the Hammersmith Apollo.

They were incredible, simply incredible.

My parents had been to see them play last week in Manchester and after my dad spent ages enthusing over their performance to me down the phone, I managed to get a ticket for the show last night. I really enjoy going to the Hammersmith Apollo, I’ve never seen a bad gig there – the atmosphere is always good.

There was a real mix of people there last night, not the usual gig going crowd for Ryan Adams, Sheryl Crow or the Dandy Warhols, but a cross section of Spanish, Latin Americans, young and old. After a quick set by the support act to get everyone going, the main event started at about 7.45pm.

As the band walked onto stage, the blind double bass player was helped to his instrument and then they started. Two hours flew by as they went from song to song. All the chit chat between the songs was in Spanish and atmosphere was electric. It was as if they were having their own private party to which the crowd was invited. As band members played a solo piece, they hugged and congratulated each other as they finished as the crowd cheered and hollered.

Once they had finished, they came back out for an encore for about ten minutes and then they were done, with huge applause for every one of the thirteen people, with the loudest for the oldest and original members still playing.

I took some very amateurish video -

They still have some dates left on their tour and I heartedly recommend going to see them if you can, you will not regret it – and you’ll be seeing some living legends doing what they do best.

The evolution of the walkman and the return of the BGW

Many many years ago I fondly remember receiving my first cassette walkman. I must only have been eight or nine and I marvelled in my new found world of musical entertainment. It wasn’t really a walkman, rather a version made by Boots. I clearly remember that it was quite bulky, had buttons for play, fast forward and stop. Once you’d listened to one side of your cassette you had to take it out and turn it round. It also had headphones with orange foam on them.

Over time I progressed to a much smaller cassette walkman, then one that you didn’t need to take the cassette out when the side you were listening to was finished as well as having a reverse button!

I marvelled at my first CD walkman, yet now laugh at the sheer bulk of it along with the huge quantity of batteries that it consumed.

It might therefore come as a bit of a surprise to hear that the first MP3 player I got was a hand me down, from of all people – my father, about 8 months ago. He had bought an iPod and therefore his Creative Micro was no longer needed. The one time an MP3 player came in handy was when out walking the dog, without some music my head just churns and my mind goes off on incredible tangents. I also used the albums that I listened to as a guide for the distance I was walking. For example, Ryan Adams – Gold, is a 2 1/2 mile walk. A few weeks ago the inherited MP3 player lost its ability to hold a battery charge, which rendered it pretty much unusable. However I had a fair chunk of Amazon vouchers and found that they had some great deals on MP3 players.

On Monday I pressed the button and ordered this. An 8GB player is more than enough for me and it will force me to change my music around every couple of weeks. Ironically, it was cheaper to get it on next day delivery rather than normal first class post. I also bought a batch of CD’s to rip for use on the new player at the same time. After a quick charge and some time spent loading songs on during the day, it was suddenly walk time on Tuesday evening.

We walked and walked, then walked some more and then walked a little more. After about 6 miles the dog stopped and looked at me with a look that told me she’d really had enough, so we headed back home. She promptly flomped down on the sofa and fell asleep, snoring loudly for several hours.

The big giant walk (BGW) is back. The dog is now dead tired at night and I’m enjoying being out for long music filled walks once more. Every time I change the music I’m going to pick an obscure album that I haven’t listened to in a long time and listen to it, I have some CD’s that I haven’t listened to for ten years I’d say.