Funhouse

I've been playing this for most of the day.

Fantastic food.

Great lunch - good company, great location, stimulating conversation - and great food.
Le Caprice was a real success (and now we're not sure if we actually had been there before!). I had some incredibly good Sashimi to start, Calves liver with creamed onions and Bacon for my main - and a fantastic trio of desserts. This included a vanilla cheesecake topped with Greengages, which was so good it stopped me in my tracks.
Back down to reality with a bump today, as we deal with poor Milo - struck down with the same Chicken Pox which clonked his sister a couple of weeks ago.

I love it when people return, and surprise me.

I interviewed Esser at least a couple of times during my tenure at NME Radio, and found him incredibly interesting. Always more than his outlandish image - thoughtful, polite, reserved. Very, very focused. I loved the stuff he was doing back then, but this? It's just.....fantastic. As much of a jaw-dropping reinvention as that last Horrors LP.

Lunch.

For those regular readers of the blog, it's that time again. A periodic Wednesday lunchtime appointment with old Uni colleagues Kevin and Johnny.
I look forward to these meals immensely - it's a chance to catch up, gossip, share tales of our past, as well as plans for the future.Plus - the chance to eat some great food (L'escargot, Quo Vadis, Passionara) and occasionally, some pretty average food (hello, The Wolseley)
Today's venue is Le Caprice, which apparently, we visited a few years ago. I have no recollection of this whatsoever. Whatever wine I was drinking that day, I may avoid today.

Why I'm keeping this blog going

Well, it's simple really: nearly ten years. That's how long I've been doing this - sure, there have been periods of inactivity - but it's a huge chunk of my life! This 25% segment covers all of the incredible stuff too: my reincarnation as a Radio DJ, the divorce, the rebirth of the Joneses, the actual birth of my children.
Blogs are a little old hat now - everyone's got Tumblr, haven't they? But there's something about a blog -it's polite, measured, and slightly aloof. It's a place where you lot can actually find out what I'm like, as I tend to speak with my real voice. How many of you out there use facebook in a (let's face it) slightly preening fashion? I know I do - it's all about the smart remark, the witty rejoinder, the devastating putdown. In essence, facebook has actually become Lamebook, and most people seem to like it that way (it is great entertainment, after all)
But a blog - that's calmer. Quieter. I like it that way, and I'm keeping it that way.

Back in the saddle...

In more ways than one, I suppose. One of the best things about living out in the 'burbs are the green spaces. I've never really found urban cycling much fun - I much prefer to be out and about in places like Ashtead Common. Don't get me wrong, I've not sudden;y changed into some sort of lycra-clad bike nazi, yelling "Let's off road!" and covering myself in mud: I just like open countryside. It's a legacy of being brought up in deepest Wiltshire, I presume.
I've been experimenting with the Strava app over the last couple of days - and it seems to be fantastic - mapping out my rides, and comparing segment times with other cyclists who ride the same trails. Help, I appear to be just a tiny bit competitive. Not too much mind you, it's too much effort. I just want to beat my own times, that'll do me just nicely.

...And one more thing

I think I should whack a few random posts up here quite soon - just to get rid of all of the Amplify posts on the front page. It was fun while it lasted, but it's gone. In the strange world of social media (hello Shadowglobe!) that's just the way it goes.

Where have I been?

Well - Japan, Australia, Birmingham.....and a serious diversion to that place called fatherhood, again. And Milo makes four. Quite amazing, really.
Lovely to be here in the suburbs, there's something peaceful about it all.
Familiar too, seeing as I was born just up the road. I'm learning to get out and about on my bike, too: I'll be healthy if it kills me.....
Today's listening pleasure comes from Winter Hours, something quite wonderful sent my way from my old friend Moe.
For those of you who may want to read my musings because of my connections to the band, I can tell you all now - I'm working INCREDIBLY hard on getting that programme of remasters and reissues sorted. As soon as there's news, I'll let you all know.
I'll leave you with this, I think. One of those random songs that popped onto the car stereo this morning, as I was doing my daily journey to pick up bits'n'bobs for the little boy. OK, it's nominally about Winter - but it has a sonic palette that equally suits a sunny summer morning.

Oh, hello Blog.

It's been too long, really. Must get round to doing more updates.

So - it's been a particularly intense year for me.

Jesus Jones gigs, a house move, and another wee one on the way. That's enough for anyone, I suppose.

More soon.

Brilliant archive of "Smash Hits" magazines

How many do you remember? me, most of them. I missed the first issue, but bought no. 2, and carried on buying it well into the 90's. I think that's why finally ending up on the cover was SUCH an honour - it had been part of my life for so long.....

Amplify’d from likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com

See more at likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com

See more at likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com

See more at likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bmp5a

Xmas Powell Peralta deck!

It'll be interesting to see how these limited run decks go down with the collecting fraternity. Anything limited tends to be highly sought after, so that's a plus - but the flipside of that is that Xmas tends to be.....well, a bit niche, I guess.

Dig the nose though (and that's the graphic AND the deck!)

Amplify’d from powell-peralta.com

See more at powell-peralta.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jjqr

Retro Argos Catalogue from 1985.

This is just brilliant - I had the cassette racks, my girlfriend had the alarm clock AND the music centre, my mate had the calculator......

Sometimes, a little nostalgia can be a very, very good thing.

Amplify’d from www.flickr.com

Take a blast into the past of retro goodness with this wonderful scan photostream of the entire 1985 Argos Catalog. From vintage toys, to vintage duvets, cooking tools ... It is all great and all fun ... Take a look back to a more funky time.

See more at www.flickr.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/idzz

The Onion Vs. Skateboarding

The Onion is utterly amazing, we all know that - but when it takes on skating, it moves up to a hitherto undiscovered level of AWESOME.

Amplify’d from www.theonion.com

See more at www.theonion.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/flyi

Chrissie Hynde, as honest as ever....

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

"I found my perfect lover, but he's only half my age," sings Pretenders star Chrissie Hynde on her new album.

She is referring to Welsh singer-songwriter JP Jones, her current recording partner, who is 31 years old to Hynde's 59.

The couple met at a party in 2008 and travelled to Cuba together on a whim. There, they wrote a collection of songs that charted the course of their ill-fated May to December affair. Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/evs4

Where have all the guitar bands gone?

Something that's been coming for quite some time.....this happened to dance music 10 years ago, and it took quite some time for it to recover.....

Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

From The Beatles to the Arctic Monkeys, Britain's great rock bands have belted out the soundtracks to our lives and carved a place at the heart of our culture.

So why have so few new bands broken through in the past couple of years? And what are new acts doing to keep guitar music alive?

Killers frontman Brandon Flowers and The Kings of Leon are the only such acts to have cracked the top 10 so far this year.

Two years ago, more than a dozen guitar-wielding bands - including Coldplay, Oasis, Razorlight, Kaiser Chiefs and The Kooks - reached the same heights.

But then the world seemed to get bored of the conventional guitar sound and the term "landfill indie" was enthusiastically wielded to beat down bands that sounded safe and stale - The Pigeon Detectives, The Fratellis, The Enemy, The View, Editors and The Courteeners among them.

The disillusionment can be traced back to record labels chasing quick hits rather than acts with longevity, according to BBC 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq.

"In this current climate, people are signing bands who have got one or two good tracks, hoping they can make one good album," he says. "And inevitably a lot of these bands are going to come and go.

"You end up ruining the sense of trust between tastemaker and audience, or record label and audience, or even musical genre and audience.

"If you stop believing in a certain sort of music, it's going to take a lot for you to come back."

If Radiohead emerged with their debut album today, it would be "unthinkable" that their long-term prospects would be recognised, he believes.

See more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ehet