VIVA CITYYY!!!

So, tomorrow night I'm going to see Viva City again, as you can tell I am very excited. I actually couldn't sleep last night, even though I still have another sleep to go before I see them. I've actually been bouncing around a lot, now imagine me with added Viva City!
So, that's The Other Rooms in Times Square, Newcastle. Doors open at 11pm and close at 3am so get on your dancing shoes and see you on the floor!

SAM DUNN - GRAPHIC DESIGNER

I was lucky enough to study at college with the acclaimed designer Sam Dunn who is currently studying a degree at Central St Martins so this blog is for her. Sam runs a blog herself on which she posts up her own work, defining her own style which appears to be very punky, reflecting her music taste (her favourite band is A.F.I). Even the work she's done to promote herself is of an excellent quality, as you can see on the flyer below.

Some of the posters above were created whilst she was still in college, creating a sort of imprint on the music industry quite early on in her career as a designer, a career I'm sure will bring her many successes if her work continues at the current standard.
Sam went through a stage where she kept a doodle book, I don't know if she still has it but some of the stuff in it is quite funny. Hopefully some of it will make its way onto her blog at some point, which can be accessed through the image.

hmmm, how interesting...

I've just been thinking, and it's quite a few awards ceremonies in which it happens, but why would you give an award to someone who's worst in their field? Obviously the reason people don't vote as them being good is because they aren't so why give them the chance to get an award? That completely misses the point! People don't want to be humiliated more than they are by becoming the recipitent of one of these 'awards'. Obviously I don't care if, say, a band I hated were voted as worst band but I wouldn't want to see them win an award for it because if I wanted them to win an award then it'd be in the 'Best Band' category. I don't care who the public don't like, or who they do like for that matter. All that counts is my opinion and how I use it.

Roll on the weekend!

Oh yes! I've decided I will be attending Viva City's show at The Other Rooms on Friday night, the band are due on at midnight. Last time I saw them was as a support for The Futureheads at the Sage in Gateshead so it will be nice to see them playing a full set. Saturday night and I'll be at the arena for Kaiser Chiefs, and I'm quite interested in how they sound live. Okay, I've seen them play live on the TV and on the radio, stuff like that, but I've never been to one of their shows! I'm interested in knowing how they really are live because stuff I have heard seems pretty good but I don't like the new album that much! I hope I'm not disappointed, I'm sure it'll be a great night.
Support for the Kaisers comes from Black Kids, who I've not yet listened to so they better be good.
Also, the line up for Evolution has been announced with Dizzee Rascal, The Wombats, The Maccabees, Mystery Jets and The View playing as the main acts with support from Nouvelle Vague, The Chapman Family and VIVA CITY. The festival this year is held over two days on the 24th and 25th May, tickets priced at £15 for a two day pass. Single day tickets go on sale March 12th at 9am.

Yeah, you are a shining light...

You know you've made it when the big stars such as Annie Lennox cover your songs. Which is the case of Ash this year whose song Shining Light recieved a nod from the former Eurythmics singer. It was already critically acclaimed, winning two awards for Best Contemporary Song and Best Single. The track had been covered previously by Coldplay and Noel Gallagher, who had noted it as being one of his favourite songs. I think it's one of Ash's best songs, alongside the likes of Starcrossed, Kung Fu and You Can't Have It All.
At the office we listen to Smooth FM, a radio station that focuses more on older, softer and pop music so I was surpised to hear the lyric "Roman candles that burn in the night..." I could tell it was a cover and so imagine my shock when I realised it was ANNIE LENNOX! Wow, aren't Ash doing well! Tim Wheeler from Ash has been quoted as saying "It's cool - I'm really into it. It makes me proud that someone of her stature and talent is doing something different with our song." And proud he should be! Annie Lennox is a legend and Ash just got better.
Annie Lennox - Shining Light

Never gonna give you up...

hehe this is what I'm like when that song comes up on the radio. I just heard it in the background, listened closely and giggled. Today has been quite a good day so far which is nice considering it's a Wednesday. I told these lot at work about getting into Uni and they were wondering why I hadn't in the first place! They said that me doing an apprenticeship has been a waste of time taking in accout my previous achievements. They always wondered why I chose to do an apprenticeship in the first place because they know I'm capable enough to do a degree.
When I told them I was going I was shaking a bit, but it felt good, as their reaction was great! Anyway, I'm all excited now... shame it's raining outside.
I'm in the mood for Spinto Band and marshmallows.

The Spinto Band & Edinburgh

I ended up in Edinburgh for Valentine's Day with my boyfriend. We got lost on our way to the hotel and from the hotel to the main shopping street but we got to see the sights such as the Edinburger takeaway and the Edinburgh Castle of which I got some pictures. Also saw a Dave TV taxi. Funnily enough, we caught up with a bunch of lads who were lost on their way to Princes too. Here are some photos of the views of the castle and a fab light thingy that was down the side of Princes Street.




The new Spinto Band site is up and can be accessed here. It looks pretty!! The band are also touring the UK next week, hitting the following venues playing material from the latest album Moonwink which is a brilliant recording!

21.2.09
Aberdeen/The Tunnels
22.2.09
Edinburgh/Cabaret Voltaire
23.2.09
Manchester/Night & Day
24.2.09
London/Dingwalls
26.2.09
High Wycombe/Bucks Uni
27.2.09
Southampton/Joiners

A few words to end the week / Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th. Now, I'm not a very superstitous person, I just find it funny when people panic because of it being so. I think our Bradford & Bingley computer system is purposely cursed on this day though for it has been running slow and transactions haven't been completing but it's not just our lot that are experiencing technical difficulties but what seems like the entire area. Apart from that that day has been fairly uneventful and the weather has been great! Except for the rain but it's not heavy and the skies are blue where I can see it between the cloud. The sun will be shining tomorrow I imagine! Well, it would make a lovely change...
This week has been manic, to say the least, in particular Wednesday in which was a big day for account maturities so we had loads of people in transfering into new accounts and I missed my bus home due to a couple that came in just before I usually leave and we're arguing over what to do with their money. The phones were also ringing all day and on top of that I was being given a tutorial for a new website which aims to find a direct match for two property vendors which is quite a good idea. Thing is, I needed to print out a list of everyone's phone numbers for the woman running the site, with everything else I needed to do I felt about to explode with overload.
This week I've also been looking forward to Valentine's Day tomorrow as this year will be the first time I celebrate it and that's thanks to a certain Adam Flannigan who is a really special guy. I blogged about him a while back, and he in return blogged about myself, but it just doesn't really show how much he means to me and that's just something unique we have between ourselves. Anyway, before I go floating off into a dreamworld...
I created a single cover for The Hives back in January last year for a competition. I didn't win it but it gained a positive response from Hives forum members and I also found it in somebody's Photobucket which just makes me think "Hang on, it's that good right... I didn't win but it's getting good from it." Most of the world has probably seen it now, but my old Graphics tutor probably still hates me. Well, perhaps hate is a bit strong...

I also produced artwork for The Departure's unreleased second album Inventions of which I received a copy through the band themselves.

I remember one afternoon in November a couple of years ago in which I was waiting outside for We Are Scientists. After a few hours, The Departure's singer, David Jones, came out of the venue and I ended up singing one of his songs to him, my first 'public' perfomance since singing Sk8er Boi to my old school.
It's been a good week, I guess! And I'm hoping the weekend will be a perfect end to it as my life turns up to higher expectations. I don't have many things I want more than a happy life, one of good times, of great success and to that I take a bow and wish you Good Day.
Auf wiedersehen.

Uni for next year

So, I've replied to my offer on Northumbria's Media & Journalism course and I'm looking forward to starting on the course in September. Just need to get my finance sorted and I'm away!
Any albums, singles or whatever you want me to write about then let me know and I'll see what I can do. I'll even give the NME a few tips on what's good and bad because, for Christ's sake, The Ting Tings are the worst band on the planet. As are The Gossip, MGMT, Klaxons and, indeed, Fall Out Boy; all of who have wrongly graced the cover of the weekly (at the minute) toilet rag.
And apparently Green Day have a new album out soon. I'm intruigied as to how it will sound. I'll post more when I know.
Tatty bye.

FEAR! FOES! FIRE! FIRE!

Haven't posted in a bit, what's been wrong with me? Thought I'd get something up.
I used to draw stuff, not really very good but I thought it would get me through an art GCSE and college. I once did a greetings card thing for my art exam and my teacher told me at parents evening that it was crap. So I proved him wrong and drew some stuff, these being my favourites.


The other day I was in the park and took some photos of nature. I love the sky in this one.

Maxïmo Park tour

The dates officially went on sale last Friday, Newcastle Academy (I can't bear to say O2 so I'll just call it Newcastle Academy, just like Brixton Academy, only better), anyway, as I was saying, Newcastle Academy was sold out in hours of ticket release. A new date went on sale which has also sold out so sorry if you missed out.
Other bands I recommend instead, if you aren't going, are Viva City (February 27th) at The Other Rooms and Kaiser Chiefs (February 28th) and the Metro Radio Arena, both in Newcastle.

Ok, Ok...

I spend a lot of time thinking about the greatest albums ever made but the only albums I have listened to really are of recent years so I'd have to rename it as the greatest modern album ever made. Some of my favourite albums are not debuts which is quite strange as I've noticed a few bands have gone downhill after their first attempt. I'm interested in what everyone else thinks so I'm going to stick this question up for this month's poll.
Also, the (little amount of) votes are in for gig of the year, 2008, and the winners are We Are The Physics from Glasgow so well done to them.

GO! LISTEN!

We Are The Physics Club And Therefore Everything We Say Is Fact, now known as We Are The Physics - purveyors of the completely fictional mutant science punk rock, from Glasgow in Scotland. I recommend You Can Do Athletics, BTW. The number 1 debut album We Are The Physics Are OK At Music is out now.

A blog about snow

Today I was in Guisborough, a smallish village-town in the hills near where I live. Being a village it looked beautiful when it showed today so I got myself out of the office and took some photographs. The snow wasn't as bad here as it was in other parts of the country but little kids were still being pulled around on sledges.