Life's about experiences. These are mine.
It has been a while since the last time I saw Marillion live – 34 years to be precise. A lot has happened since then for both them and me. My last outing to see them was at the Apollo in Oxford when Fish was still the front man. He burst onto the stage through …
Continue reading “Marillion, Hexagon, 19th April 2018 – So Here I am Once More”
Today we finally collected our new car after several false starts during which Hyundai proved that they were incapable of mounting an efficient delivery operation. There was a tedious hand over process that had to be sat through before we could finally get the keys though. When we arrived we handed over the keys to …
Continue reading “Chris Difford & Boo Hewerdine, The Forge, 6th April 2018 – Cars and Girls”
This morning at 10am I was in front of my computer trying (in vain as it happened) to get tickets to see Snow Patrol in April. The tickets were going to be £70 and it was standing. Remember what I said about standing before? In the evening I was seated in the splendour of the Royal Albert Hall to …
Continue reading “Steven Wilson, Royal Albert Hall, 29th March 2018 – The Sound of Muzak”
A year or so ago I discovered Reading band The Amazons and really loved their music. So when I heard that they were going to be playing a homecoming gig at the Hexagon in Reading I had to go. Tickets went on sale August 2017 and were either seated in the balcony or standing downstairs. …
Continue reading “The Amazons, Reading Hexagon, 10th February 2018 – I’m getting too old for this!”
Some 25 years ago my first son was born to be joined a couple of years later by the second. Who knew that two small people could take up so much space? Despite moving to a larger house to accommodate everyone and everything we quickly ran out of space and realised something had to go. …
In what is now rapidly becoming a tradition I was up at 05:45 and in the centre of Reading by 06:15 to join the back of the queue for Record Store Day 2017. When the list was first published earlier this year I looked down it and found that little on it moved me. I did …
Continue reading “Record Store Day/Are You Listening? Festival 2017”
Thirty four years ago, on 13th March 1982, I went to my first ever gig to see 10cc at the Oxford Apollo. At that point they were really only 5cc and were distinctly past their best but I was hooked. Last week I saw them again. They are now down to 2.5cc but really rather …
So I have been nominated by Dirk Manuel on Facebook for the “7 Days 7 Singles from the ’80s” challenge (you can read his selections here). I wouldn’t normally bother but this has been great fun to both read other’s entries and to sift through my single collection again to select my final 7. I …
Anyone that has been paying attention will have noticed that I am back into vinyl in a big way – mainly because I like having a physical product and also the print on a record sleeve is large enough for me to be able to read without glasses! However, I am trying to be a …
So I have been getting back into vinyl in a big way. No, not like that, but vinyl records of the round black variety. I am trying to limit the amount I spend on records by only purchasing brand new releases and particularly if they are limited releases, special vinyl or signed. This isn’t working …