Rigaaaa, You Gotta See Her

I finally finished what was left of my year-long work placement at University on Thursday afternoon and quickly upped and left for Riga on what promised to be a long weekend of debauchery and celebration/commiseration.

As I freed myself from one set of chains, old friend Jonny was celebrating his last few weeks of freedom before entering into another set by marrying Fliss on the 24th September.

I’ve tried my best to talk him out of it – really I have. Not a moment went past in the Latvian capital where I wasn’t telling Jonny not to do it (Jonny – if you’re reading this – don’t do it) but he plain didn’t listen....which is actually fair enough – Fliss is a total babe.

Aside from the 72 hours of drinking, laughter and getting dafter, ‘Best’ Man Kev organised a couple of excursions which included go-karting and shooting Danny DeVito with various arsenal (including shotguns, glocks, 8mm hand guns and Banana Bombs).

Riga itself is a beautiful Eastern European city with more to it than the 70p beer (although, given the circumstances, this was a lovely and delicious bonus). There was an impressive mix of gothic and contemporary architecture with evidence of its Cold War legacy. Old Russian statues, bullet holes in walls (not from my wayward shooting) and old concrete government buildings all provided imposing but memorable features and like Poland and Bulgaria, it was a humbling place to visit.

However, looking back, we were having too much a brilliant time to be humbled.

Conversations about a bad-ass football dream team (made up of ‘orrible bastards and hard men of history including Andre the Giant in centre midfield, Joseph Stalin at right back and Jeremy Irons on the left wing), spitting ‘Vegan Regan Rap’ lyrics and forging new rules for the DVLA’s theory test (which included drive-by's involving the Queen) all diverted our attention from the bulk of the culture.

What happened in Riga will always stay in Riga but, for those people interested, the photos on Facebook will tell much of the story.

After surviving a breakdown (vehicular rather than mental) on the return journey, I was in for a pleasant surprise on my return to Leeds when I was greeted at the front door by Andy who has returned to Yorkshire to work at Bingley Live festival this weekend. A few hours in Dry Dock and a day shopping with Fay followed which has sadly led to an almighty demise of my energy levels. I am pooped.

The prospect of finally seeing The Inbetweeners tonight with Andy, Si and Alli will hopefully perk me up before, devastatingly, heading to the library on Thursday and Friday to complete my freaking Placement Portfolio.

Summer Snippets

Wowzer! Another rather large crater-sized hole has appeared in my apparent blogathon – turns out I’m really busy/ever-so-slightly lazy at times.

Rate then…let me think…

June started incredibly well and brought one of my university-defining weekends in the form of a road trip down to Zoe’s beautiful home in deepest rural Oxfordshire. Lounging by the (chlorine-free) pool by day and partying in the Moroccan-themed marquee-bo by night, we had an incredible feel-good weekend which allowed us to relax and laugh amongst friends new and old.

Amongst the the new variety, I’d like to proclaim Luke Sutton and Tim Smith to be absolute dudes and that it was an honour partying with them. Luke and Tim form a DJ double act under the alias of ‘Pardon My French’ who delve into disco, radio, house and putting on parties, amongst other great stuff. Rumour has it that they are going to turn their beds into bunk beds to give them so much extra space in their room to do activities.

After an awesome summer incorporating multiple Glastonbury sets, Glade, Wireless and Big Chill Festivals, it’d be real swell to get them up Leeds come the Autumn.

http://www.pardonmyfrenchradio.co.uk

Armagudden proved to be another great send off for everyone. The Faversham bash (followed by a HiFi riot) raised about £150 for the Sue Crawford Memorial Fund and provided some pant-wetting fun for all.

I’d like to thank everyone who showed up, danced and donated, particularly those who performed on the night; Liam Klimek provided a great Silver Hips set who was followed by Adam Watts, Lauren Young, Tom Speed and a very special guest appearance from Hannah Reid who played a classic set against the odds. Following Ollie Hyde-Mobbs, Speed and Phil Doig closed the first phase of the night with a crowd-pleasing debauched set before everyone stumbled into HiFi and beyond.

For those of you harassed by Simon Lawrenson throughout the night – good news! Everyone looks awesome in the video and whilst there are no definite plans for the video’s release, there will be semi-regular showings at 10 Royal Park Grove from September.

To add to the money raised at Armagudden, Simon Lawrenson, Dan Pittaway and I ran the mammoth 10 kilometre running race around Leeds with great aplomb. Si ran a great time in his St. Helens shirt whilst Dan and I both finished well under an hour and would have run faster if it weren’t for the pesky crowds.

Next time…next time we start at the front.

Luckily, none of us pulled, caught or tripped over anything, which left us green-lit all the way to Glastonbury with a full bill of health on the following Wednesday.

If ever there was a plan that came together, it was Project: Glasto’11. A special mention to Andy Fairbro and especially Dan for creating a logistical master plan meaning that our base in South Park was home to nearly 30 friendly faces which was the basis for an incredible 5 days. My highlights included:

•The sheer high of The Chemical Brothers
•The wow-ness of being on Si’s shoulders during a euphoric White Lies performance
•Camping out by the Other Stage with The Kills, Jimmy Eat World and Friendly Fires
•Biffy Clyro’s triumphant assault on the Pyramid Stage
•Our time with Erol and Skream in the Beat Hotel
•Thursday night at Stone Circle.

As nice as it was to be with everyone for Beyonce’s closing performance (which despite its mid-set lull was brilliant), I do kinda regret not seeing Queens of the Stone Age.

It would have taken a lot to better Glasto ’10 but I think that maybe (just maybe), it just about did.

The dreaded Hogwarts vacation came around very quickly having returned from Glastonbury. We left ourselves just a few days to pack up another year of Leeds life, clean and get out of there. Hogwarts will hold some hella-good memories for me and many others and ending an era was brought about with heavy hearts.

But it was back to Hyde Park via a jolly good outing to Milton Keynes to see Jimmy Eat World and Biffy Clyro (for the second time in a few days) along with Foo Fighters. It was a pretty special day. Although the ridiculous ‘golden circle’ prevented us being close to the action, me, Michael, Wags, brother Gary, Matthew, Ben and Chris enjoyed the Wembley-defeating set from the hillside.

My over-sensitive post-Glastonbury emotions got the better of me during ‘Everlong’ and ‘Best of You’, where there was some fully blown child-like blubbering for the latter. Bit embarrassing, like, but nobody seemed to notice. Manhood: saved. Ish.

Not booking the following day off work, however, was the biggest mistake since slavery. It took 3 hours to get out of the car park once the Foos had left stage right to a mass of fireworks, which preceded a drive to Northampton to drop off Gary’s old university chum Chris before finally getting onto the M1.

At 5am, I finally got my head down for an hour’s blissful sleep before getting the hell up and getting a bus back to work in Leeds. It wasn’t very nice but it was so worth it. Thanks to Gary Wood for his late night driving tekkers.

Alas, moving back to Hyde Park has been ruddy, bloody great so far. Adam, Si and myself have slotted very nicely into our Royal Park Grove gaff and with Andy due whenever he has stopped gallivanting around the British festival circuit, we’re in for a great year.

Alan and Mary came to visit this weekend (joy) and have added their names to an already impressive Royal Park Grove guestbook. The weekend involved a rekindled love for ‘Ring of Fire’, Hyde Park Unity Day, The Music, Hifi, Wire and my friend Rachel Huneker who was visiting from The Netherlands. Having met at Pukkelpop in 2008, it’s been a good 2 years since I’ve seen her and it’s fair to say we had a blast.

This weekend, me, Alice, Nick and Brooke are going to see Vintage Trouble at the Bolton Brow Working Mens Club in Sowerby Bridge which I’m well looking forward to. They gave the most enjoyable performance of the series on Later with Jools Holland and should be great in a tiny venue.

Vintage Trouble - Hand Me Down Blues - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsw4ipHcMvY

Speaking of Alice, the lushly Alice Phelps introduced me to Dinosaur Pile Up’s Harry Johns before their gig at The Brudenell a couple of weeks back. I told Harry of what happened to Alice Marns during their set at Live at Leeds where a moment of over-excitement during ‘Birds and Planes’ left Marns with a broken ankle (my bad).

Harry and the boys thought it was a great story (it is, after all, pretty darn rock and roll) and very kindly Facebooked Alice to offer her guest list to see Cage the Elephant/Dinosaur Pile Up in October. Every cloud and all that…

In a further twist to this whole story, as I sit here in the O2 Academy Box Office listening to a very loud Japanese Voyeurs, one Harry Johns rocks up on the guestlist and I’m able to thank him first hand for his awesomeness.

I’m waiting for the signal to close the doors and get in to meet Si and watch that hairy Anglo-American called Slash.

xxxxxxxxxx

From 'Ifs and Buts' to Krafty Kuts

The opening few days of university life will forever be in my memory, sitting vividly and happily amongst the best times of my life. From going out on the very first night at Opal, meeting Emma Travo and being called ‘Sam’ for much of the night to hanging out by the Opal 2 benches in our droves, the opening weeks of my university life seem only weeks ago.

Carrie, Sean, me, Jen, Lauren, Breddy, Merill, Abbie, Becca and Speed.

Yet somehow, 3 years have now passed and many of my friends will be moving on to that ‘all important’ new chapter and leaving Leeds behind. There’s been a couple of memorable nights out to mark the mourning process, including one last assault on Wax:On on Bank Holiday Sunday.

We took advantage of the extra space around the place to dance like goons to the spinnings of Fake Blood (who showed strong glimpses of a return to form), Julio Bashmore (who was, by his own standards, a bit weak for the occasion), the brilliant and beautiful Brodinski and an unusually heavy Krafty Kuts. We even joined the shirt-less posse and the Alvin Harris’ for Sub Focus, who was great fun.

It capped a day of complete contrast, having earlier travelled west to Manchester along with 31,000 other expectant Huddersfield Town fans to witness their date with destiny – a Play-Off final against Peter’s Borough.

Cramming the North Stand and Stretford End, the fans were left disconsolate after conceding three heartbreaking goals in the last 10 minutes and facing a seventh straight year in football’s third tier and a tenth outside the top two divisions. This feeling left me in a pretty abject mood which I blame solely on me Dad, Nigel, for emotionally attaching me to the club in the first place.

Being emotionally attached to a football club (particularly a lower league club) is certainly difficult and is something that very few people can ever fully understand. Being a Huddersfield fan has to be one of the most frustrating ‘choices’ of my life.

Year after year (15 of them now), I have paid out for expensive season tickets with a sense of blind optimism, expecting the club to progress closer to it’s potential (which in terms of financial backing, facilities, supporter catchment, stadium and infrastructure, is massive).

But year after year, I don’t learn and am left in absolute disappointment, despair and a lingering fear that our time will never come.

It also leaves me with a growing sense of resentment towards the ‘armchair fans’ of this world, watching games on TV, investing little time and money into ‘their team’, who live miles away from their chosen team and tend not to support their local club. Man Utd ‘fans’, for example, can go fuck themselves.

I’m starting to sound like a bit of a willy, so I’ll end the rant there. Let’s think positively here. Huddersfield played the more games than anyone in Britain this season (61), went 27 of those games unbeaten and even outplayed Arsenal in an exciting FA Cup defeat.

Anywho. Being pretty upset on Sunday evening, there were very few things in life that would have dragged me out of my emotional slum, turned my sad face on its head and gone all out to make me happy. Zooey Deschanel is one exampl and chicken enchiladas are another. But it was friends, ear-exploding electronic music and alcohol that provided the perfect tonic and flushed away the sadness of earlier in the day. Score.

On an even more positive note, concrete plans are in place for the ‘Armagudden’ end of term/charity party at Faversham on Friday June 10th. Similar to mine and Si’s birthday party last year, there will be a brilliant mix of live music which will bring all of our friends together one last time before the end of year and, for some, the end of university.

I’m somewhat nervous as to how many people will show, wanting to find a happy medium between concentrating on raising money for The Sue Crawford Memorial Fund as well as having a well good night. So please, come down to the Faversham for a massive university sign off and support fantastic charities whose work makes a huge difference to those coping with terminal cancer. It’d mean an awful lot to both me and Sara Crawford, who tragically lost her mum to cancer in January.

There will be special performances from Hunting Bears and Hannah Reid, Lauren Young, Adam Watts and Tom Speed, Silver Hips DJ’s and DJ’s Shuffle and Beatsmith who will all be rehearsing hard to help make Armagudden an unforgettable night.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=157718817622136

Hope you can make it!

Big, big love x

Birt-day

I had another one of them birthdays last week to add to my long list, which I was visibly delighted about.

I’ve never quite been able to understand those who turn their back on their own birthday, disowning it like flicking a bogey, turning their back on it as if it were minimal-tech enthusiast.

I’m a firm believer that each and every birthday should be celebrated as an occasion so that when you look back on your young, prosperous days, you can recollect what you’ve done and say, “ahhh, yeah – that was a good birthday”. I use the term ‘recollect’ pretty loosely there, but you get my drift.

I saw my birthday in last Thursday night with Adam, Styler, Speed and Mr. Boombatty which was nothing but pleasant and giggly. Tee hee.

My birthday morning was spent blissfully in bed taking in The Cribs Live at The Brudenell Social Club and eating jalapeno-based food. A wet dream of old, no less. The birthday text messages and Facebook things kept flying in, (which I am very humble and thankful for) which included the standard one from my Dad, Nige, who's simply read, "av gd day". I opened my birthday card (from immense sister Steph) and took myself off to Headingley to have a birthday goose inside the Vintage Wardrobe (bought a super-nice System of a Down t-shirt) and bought myself a birthday sandwich (slobbrin' 'ell).

In a bizarre and pretty unimaginable twist, my thirst for a birthday drink landed me back in the office waiting for some eager-keen people to finish and come to the Dry Dock. Having taken in the sunkist poop-deck, I was picked up by a small rabble of students who shared my goal of becoming inebriated to mark my day. The said rabble (messrs Speed, Watts and Lawrenson) included one Matthew Spence.

It was from that very moment where I knew that this birthday would be one to recollect in years to come.

According to the stamp (Pat) smeared across my right wrist, we ended up in HiFi that night. According to my camera (see album 'Storm Before the Storm'), we rocked pre-drinks out to a mega level at Hogwarts that night. There are certainly gaps to fill that not even Dave Grohl (God) could begin to fill, but judging by the aches in my stomach, I enjoyed myself a great deal.

Saturday then.

As you want on your birthday party day, I was woken by the sun gleaming through me flippin' window into me flippin' eyes (slash Si stumbling in). Still totally not sober, I checked Facebook to find that the most amazing (if not a little small) BOUNCY CASTLE had been planted in the grounds of Hogwarts underneath the truest of blue skies.

All was left was for 6 drunken students (including one with much of his hair stolen by the aforementioned night) to erect (tee hee) a marquee-bo suitable for a small (very small) music festival and light the barbecue.

The rest, as I suppose some people often may say from time to time, is history.

The bouncy castle put in a great shift and provided laughter/injuries to loads of guests who treated Si and I to a ridiculously good day. The alcohol, food, smiles and sunshine flowed all day until the time came to think about moving onto Phase II...

Wire was so good that my face had actually melted by the time Alan, Speed, Ally and I took a taxi home with Michael Jackson's biggest fan. My ears and pores literally couldn't cope with the tunes. Oh, how we danced.

The obligatory Hogwarts afterparty was smashing fun but did slightly undermine the next morning's highly important operation: Glastonbury tickets for Adam, Alan, Speed and Styler.

The plan was always to use University computers to take advantage of their totally rad servers. Going on sale at 9am, we began to panic slightly that we were still at Hogwarts at 8:30am. With time beginning to run out, we quickly assembled some supplies and set off to the Headingley campus on foot. A walk soon turned into a quick walk and then a jog until we found ourselves at the foot of The Acre in front of the regal looking and desolate James Graham building.

Once inside and making a second floor IT lab our own, we powered up and manned no less than 10 PC's, F5-ing the hell out the link for tickets.

5 minutes passed with no joy. 10 minutes. Still nothing. After 15 minutes in the queue, Si let out a some inaudible Scouse yelp to notify us that he was in. We were in.

There were a couple of administrative issues to quickly iron out, but they were dealt with oh so calmly. The excitement of it all was terribly good and the mix of joy and relief came out in a spine-tingling group hug.

Still half cut, we calmly strolled out of the library without seeing a soul, gleaming as much as the sun above us.

It was an incredible end to an incredible weekend.

Man faces court after eating a Crunchie on a Wednesday

A pretty fat man is facing serious charges after being caught eating a Crunchie early on Wednesday morning.

The man, thought to be in his twenties (stones), was seen walking buoyantly through a Glasgow street before brandishing a Crunchie chocolate bar without warning.

One onlooker said, “In between keeping my balance as the pavement rumbled, I could hear the subtle but unmistakable noise that comes only from delicious chocolate-coated honeycomb. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right”.

Another bystander claimed, “he was spazzed off his wazz box!”.

In a bid to curb midweek anti-social behaviour, the government banned Crunchies on from being eaten on any day other than Friday and enforced Cadbury to clearly mark its product so ‘that Friday feeling’ wasn’t abused during the week.

A Cadbury spokesman said, “this is an isolated incident and we are sorry for those who were caught up in the fracas. There will not be any kneejerk reactions to our policy but we would like to reinforce the message that Crunchies are meant for Friday consumption only. The country just would not function if everyone was off their tits on ‘that Friday feeling’ each day".

The unnamed man faces a 5 year suspended jail sentence and 600 hours of community service which includes eating nuisance bees.

Campus Gems

Despite my occasional moans and gripes regarding my placement, I have had the opportunity to enjoy some nice buildings and sights whilst around on campus. Thought I might share a few of them didn't I?

Despite the prospect of saving like, a billion, gagillion, fafillion, shabolubalu million illion yillion...yen on rent, it's a shame that Leeds Met is pulling out of the Old School Board in the City. It's a phenomenal old Listed Building that possesses one of the greatest hidden gems in Leeds in the form of its double helix staircase. Originally a school, this uber-confusing Hogwarts-esque staircase used to keep boys and girls separated and is one of few of its kind anywhere in Muggle-land.

The Old School Board also has a grand ground floor interior, great views of Millennium Square and perfectly crafted and preserved carvings.

Mental.

Oooh. Fancy.

Is it me, or is Civic Hall proper wonky?

Schoolboy carving outside the Old School Board.

My view from the office directly faces the Leeds General Infirmary heli-pad, where helichopters (somewhat unfortunately) drop off and take off on an almost daily basis. According to my banana-loving, semi-mute colleague, this picture was of a well massive army chopper dropping off some poor dude.

Nee naw, nee naw

People often talk about how beautiful the Headingley campus looks in the sunshine. I am inclined to agree - the whole place glows and it really does exude a 'red brick' feel to the university (LOL). However, I've always enjoyed the way the place looks under cold, hazy mist. It makes it look proper 1800's Crimewatch. Or Jonathan Creeky.

Scotch mist

Swimming

After seeing them on NME.TV about a month ago, hearing them being played on Soccer AM/FM and then being told that beat-boxing extraordinaire, ‘Petebox ‘is their drummer, I was quick to become bare keen to see ‘Swimming’ play at A Nation of Shopkeepers last night.

It was an ideal opportunity to catch up with favoured gig buddy Alice Marns, who (along with boyfriend Nick) made my night before I even finished my first pint, when she ended one of her weekend stories with “…and there was pizza in me bum crack!” Lol-demort.

The free gig also provided further opportunity for Andy Fairweather to show his friend (of 2 chance meetings at Reading Festivals) Arthur the sights and sounds of Leeds. Although I had an inkling, it’s just this second been confirmed that Arthur did in fact have a ‘sweet time’.

We missed the first band, sadly. Alice did however catch them and she was bumming them quite a lot. I bumped into friend Luke who informed me that ‘I Ching’ features his brother Tom and that they do warrant the aforementioned ‘bumming’. Check them at http://www.myspace.com/weareiching.

Arriving halfway through the second band’s set, I joined Alice on the sofa to speculate whether the sound engineer was in fact Tom Woodhead who used to front the band, iForward Russia!. After rinsing her iPhone for picture references (and a 50% cut of 3 bottles of wine), it was Alice who politely asked whether he was indeed the former front man. This was confirmed by the slightly tired, scrawny and more introvert looking Tom. Aint it funny how things turn out? Despite performing in front of 7,000 people in the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading/Leeds 4 and a half years ago, he seemed happy enough to be helping a relatively unknown band from Nottingham sound terrific for 7 people.

Swimming were brilliant.

Sending my genre-dar all over the ruddy place, I can only describe them as engaging and uplifting synth-shoegaze. In an attempt to portray an accurate story, this potential description has taken me all morning to word. Sometimes Sonic Youthy, other times Duran Durany and occasionally even White Liesy, it’s a bit pointless even attempting to type-cast them, which lead singer John will be more than happy with. “I hate being labeled as indie”, he said.

We spoke with John’s brother Pete AKA Petebox for quite a while covering topics of festivals, his experiences (namely playing to massive crowds at Reading Festival in which Arthur was in attendance), drumming work and hair. It was a really great evening.

‘Sun in the Island’ is their new single, which I happen to think is, well, a bit good (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZCLJ9I8HE)

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee x