Rock Night is ****e! One guy, with a mic and a backing track performing **** Karoake - thank **** for the beer, Speyside IPA...Speyside big on whisky, which I don't touch, but can confirm the beer is good too
Apologies if someone else has mentioned this and I missed it, but has anyone else watched the Netflix series Adolescence? Stephen Graham is excellent as always, but Owen Cooper as the young boy - 14 at the time of recording - is stunningly good. Quite a hard watch, but important, I feel.
Last nights entertainment, an evening at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow. Strange choice of venue for a gig, but it worked really well. It's a small, Victorian-era theatre which seats about 1500. Tightly packed seating area, which wasn't helped by a chunky couple sat beside us, but I liked the way the seats were staggered so you were viewing in between the people sat in front...we were smack bang in the centre of the stalls with a cracking view... The entertainment was the 30th anniversary tour of Pure Phase by Spiritualized. The band were accompanied by a three piece wind/brass section, a two piece string section and two female backing singers. I've not seen Spiritualized since I was at Glastonbury in 1998, so was really looking forward to this. Jason Pierce still looks the same, although his brushes with death over the years seem to have made him come across a bit shy now, very little crowd interaction - a brief hello, and a thank you at the end. Considering the venue, the crowd were still quite raucous, welcoming the band on to the stage with a big cheer then lots of noise when Pierce came on. A quick warm up, then straight in to the album, played track for track all the way through. It's quite an ambient album, but live it felt beefed up in places. The band were excellent, backed up brilliantly by the wind/brass/strings, and Pierces' voice is as haunting as ever. After the final track of the album, they disappeared off stage then back on for an encore of Cop Shoot Cop from Ladies and Gentlemen We're Floating in Space (released in 1997, so hoping this gets a 30th anniversary tour too) the album version of which comes in at a mighty 17 minutes long - cue lots of mashing guitars, heavy drums and mad keyboards along with the vocals, superb. Loved the backdrop to the show too, the moon projected on the screen at the back of the stage continually waxing and waning, very atmospheric. All in all an excellent night, hadn't been in that theatre before, but we're heading back next month to see Ghost Stories, a play from the West End which has good reviews - hope it's scary enough!
So you were sitting for the whole thing? How did that feel? I’m not very familiar with their stuff, I suppose if it’s really ambient sitting works….but mashing guitars, heavy drums and mad keyboards sounds like a gentle sway at least. 1500 perfect venue size.
Yeah, sat the whole gig...I've perfected "seat dancing", which probably annoys anyone within a few seat radius of me, but I'm not giving a **** about that. Most of it's really ambient, so gentle nodding and swaying, but when it picks up it can be quite heavy. I'm not a fan of seated gigs in general, and really do like a mosh pit, even though I'm old enough to be some of the other moshers grandfather in some of them!
Went to see Badly Drawn Boy perform hour of the bewilderbeast and more. ****ing love that album, genuinely something pretty amazing to be there for
Really enjoyed the movie, "Novocaine", interesting storyline, tongue in cheek black comedy, extreme violence. saw it alone and with my partner again last night. Had free Cineplex tickets that had to be used up by March 31st plus 50% off Poutine and Nachos for snacks. Also saw "Alto Knights" (Robert DeNiro playing 2 roles) and "Black Bag" as Wendy was away in Toronto last week with her sick sister (who previously had a donor kidney transplant, dialysis not working now, has lost use of legs, fear she is on borrowed time as was her other sister 6 years ago in the same situation).
Anyone familiar with Durham and able to recommend anywhere in the town to visit? We're here for a couple of days and have just checked in. First impressions not great - a lot of ugly newish buildings, including our hotel.
I was at university there, back in the dark ages, and have been a couple of times in the last few years. Don’t know where you are staying but it obviously isn’t the town centre, which is beautiful. The must do is the cathedral, my favourite building anywhere, including the cloisters. You can’t miss it, it dominates the town. It sits in Palace Green where you can also take in the castle. Lots of paths by the river round the huge meander on the Wear which made it such a great defensive position for the Normans. Loads of good pubs too - the Shakespeare is close to the cathedral and a half a mile away over the river on Old Elvet is the Dun Cow, a top ten pub for me. It is a small town though, a day is probably enough, but Newcastle is only 20 minutes on the train and that’s now a great city.
….and if you are still feeling lively later on try Klute, the ancient nightclub under Elvet Bridge. To my amazement it’s still open - I can’t imagine it is any less seedy than when I ended up there on my 21st birthday and fell in the River Wear on the way home. It was January, toss up between drowning and hypothermia to finish me off, but thankfully the people who had got me in such a disgraceful state saved me as well.
Our hotel is on the river directly opposite the University Business School. Everything in the area looks quite new and rather ugly. Just took a walk through the town centre to Palace Green, though, and that was very nice. We'll take in the cathedral and castle tomorrow.
I had a house back in the 90s out at one of the villages surrounding Durham and used to frequent the city centre a lot when I was home on leave - I'm sure most of the bars have either closed or changed name since then though. As Stan says, the cathedral is a stunning building. There's also Beamish out at Chester-le-Street, a working museum, which I think you'd find fascinating. Gateshead has Metro Centre if you need retail therapy, but suppose it would be no different than going to Westfield, just different accents everywhere. If you do go to Newcastle, I used to enjoy the Quayside bars more than the Big Market. You coud always spend a night on the floating nightclub moored up there - is it still called Tuxedo Princess?
A few of us went to see the Rs away to Newcastle some time in the 90s and had a great weekend, including spending some time on the floating nightclub. I remember we sent a bill back in a restaurant, saying, 'How much?', 'That’s not nearly enough, bring us some more wine'. Flash cockneys
Nice n local for some of you - decent line-up too... https://www.livenation.co.uk/event/the-libertines-festival-london-tickets-edp1528658#line-up Used to like going to Gunnersbury park when I was a kid
How’s your day been? If the weather is anything like down here, great day for wandering around and sunning yourself in beer gardens….
A beautiful day, 18 degrees and cloudless. A lot of walking done, with the odd stop for refreshments. We started off with Crook Hall Gardens, which was pleasant enough, then walked up to the cathedral and castle. The cathedral really is very beautiful and the castle was interesting to walk around. (Christ, I've just realised how old I sound!). I challenged myself to walk up Observatory Hill and there were great views from up there. A town of two halves.
