Month / May 2022

by Gareth

Even more live shows!

I know I said a while back that I need to post more everyday stuff because it makes it seem like I’m just going out all the time, but this last week has been pretty busy with two gigs that had been postponed by Covid taking place, plus an impromptu trip to the Lowry last Sunday night for some comedy!

So first off, last Saturday I spotted a tweet about Bill Bailey having played at the Lowry the previous night, and there was also mention of him playing a second show on the Sunday night. So on Sunday morning, I bought a ticket for that night’s performance!

Bill Bailey at The Lowry.

I’d previously seen Bill Bailey live a few years ago at the Apollo, and it was really good, although I had seen some bits of that show on various video clips, so parts of it didn’t have quite the impact they would’ve done having seen them for the first time. But with this new show – ‘En Route To Normal’ – it was pretty much all new stuff, and it was hilarious. And the guy is such a top-class musician, and I really love the way he incorporates it so well with the comedy.

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by Gareth

Blossoms cinema screening

Last night, I was at the Savoy Cinema in Heaton Moor to watch two Blossoms films – ‘Ribbon Around The Bomb – a short film by Edwin Burdis’ and ‘Complete at 23 – The Making of Ribbon Around The Bomb’. I’d seen them promoting it on Twitter earlier in the week, so I decided to get a ticket for last night’s showing.

I’d seen the first film at the Plaza a couple of weeks ago (albeit with a break for the fire alarm!), but hadn’t seen the ‘making of’ film before, so was looking forward to seeing that. Also, the band themselves were in the audience watching it too, so that was pretty cool.

‘Complete at 23 – The Making of Ribbon Around The Bomb’ – watching at The Savoy Heaton Moor with the band.

I was really glad I went along to this, because I wasn’t 100% sure what to make of the main ‘Ribbon Around The Bomb’ film when I first saw it the other week, but seeing it for a second time really made me appreciate it much more – I think watching it with a cinema audience definitely helped. And I also found the making-of-the-album film, actually edited by Tom from the band, really fascinating. It was interesting watching the album take shape in the studio, and how the tracks evolve as they all try different things, under the eye of producer James Skelly (frontman of The Coral). It was pretty funny having the band sitting a few rows in front of me reacting to it all – with quite a lot of laughter and the occasional mild heckling! A really fun evening!

by Gareth

Finally got my workspace sorted

So my office space / guest room is now pretty much finished! I put down some laminate flooring last weekend, and I’d bought the sofa bed a few months ago, and it’s been stored downstairs in its box until Lee popped over last Tuesday morning to help me get it up the stairs and into the room. I’ve still got to put some trim down where the flooring meets the skirting boards, plus get some shelves to put into one of the alcoves to store my camera kit.

My office / guest room.

Office work area.

The main impetus that got me to finish the room is that mum came up to visit last week – her first time since Covid – and I wanted to make sure she had somewhere decent to sleep! She came up to stay for a few days at the end of 2019, but that time I had to put a dust sheet down over a really trashed carpet, along with a blow-up bed that had a very slow puncture!

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