London to Newquay (Via Home)
I suck at posting regularly. I started off well, but when I get really busy I slack. And then I can’t face a mega-entry to catch up, so this will be a half-mega-entry.
Last Wednesday, August 31st, a few days after my last entry I jumped in the van and headed down to London with my good friends (and family members) The Deciphers for their gig at The Marquee in London. It was a nice sunny day and we had a good laugh on the journey down. Arrived at the venue which was AIR CONDITIONED! In London! A venue! This was a big relief as it was 31 degrees outside and very sweaty - not the kind of temperature you want when you’re lifting heavy stuff around small, sweaty clubs under hot lights!
Soundcheck was remarkably easy and before long we were done and out of there while the other bands got on. We headed to the pub for some food and pre-show beers. Met up with various friends and it was most enjoyable. I do love visiting London in the summer….especially in the evening when it’s cooled down and calmed down and you can just chill out in a typical English pub. It’s heaven. Before long we headed back to the venue and caught a bit of the support bands. This was The Deciphers’ first London show since they’d all played in various other bands, so there were A LOT of folks who came down to see them. Lots of familiar faces I’d not seen for 2 or 3 years, people who worked with the Dum Dums, Clarkesville, Sonara…as well as everyone’s friends and family, so it was great to see so many people. It also made my night a bit chaotic trying to chat with everyone and get ready for the show. I also managed to trip on the edge of the stage and spill water everywhere during change over, which was pretty amusing to all involved, including myself….although the bruises on my shins weren’t so amusing the next day!
The guy’s set went well, very few technical problems which is always nice. Stu forgot to swing his mic stand around on one of the tracks he sings backing vocals on, so I had to run on behind him and move it for him. I’m sure he does it on purpose sometimes so I have to go on stage and look like his bitch! He loves it. By the time they’d finished everyone was happy with how it went, despite the on stage sound not being great. So far the reaction from all the industry types has been very encouraging too, so this is a good sign. We’ll be back in the big smoke soon.
By the time we’d finished chatting, loaded out and got into the van it was about 1am. We then made the 125 mile trip back up to Birmingham. By the time my head hit the pillow it was 4:30am and I had to be up at 9am the next day to go on holiday to Newquay.
I woke up the next morning not feeling too bad - just a bit dehydrated. Started packing all my stuff up for the trip to Newquay. It was Steve & Michael’s Uncle’s stag do weekend and there was 31 of us descending on Newquay over the weekend! We left about 1:30pm and arrived in Newquay 4 and a half hours later. I travelled down with Stat & Dicko and we met up with Big Yarn, Mike & Steve on route. We all check in…them at their trendy surf lodge, and Stat and I at our old school hotel, which happened to have the best sea view in Newquay! Had a few drinks and waited for the others to start turning up. John (the stag) arrived shortly after and the major drinking began. Dicko began the weekend in style and attempted to eat his polystyrene burger packet at the kebab shop later that night. It was of course captured on video, for future use ;-)
The next few days were spent playing football & cricket on the beach, eating, drinking, watching the match England on TV…..I visited the Blue Reef Aquarium one morning when I was up before everyone else…we went to numerous pubs, all of which were pretty cool old mans’ pubs. I really liked Newquay. I think we went at the right time, just as the holiday season was winding down, so it wasn’t too busy and full of twats…it was just right. The weather was amazing the whole time and waking up and looking out over the cliffs, beach and sea each morning was so nice. I live about as far away from the sea as you can in England!
I took a ton of photos on my phone, so many that I’m considering buying a bigger memory card for when I next go away, which I’d like to be sooner rather than later! I posted a load over at my Moblog (clicky) and there’ll be more soon.
A good time was had by all….sun, sea, sand, footie, beer and friends. All good.
I came back to a silly amount of emails, hence me not blogging sooner. Went to see ‘Crash’ last night and really liked it, very good storyline and well done….kinda similar to ‘Magnolia’ so if you’ve seen that check it out…and if not, check them both out!
The past week I have mostly been listening to Our Lady Peace ‘Healthy In Paranoid Times’, Death Cab For Cutie’s ‘Plans’, anything and everything by the Foo Fighters and most recently ‘After The Goldrush’ by Neil Young, which I found online for a fiver, bargain!
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Comments
My Dad & their Dad are brothers, thus we are cousins and their Dad is my uncle. John (who’s stag do it was) is their Mom’s brother. So he’s their uncle on their Mom’s side of the family, but I’m related to them from their Dad’s side of the family!
I’ve been trying to think of things to download on my newly acquired access to bitttorrent, and was running short, but this post has just reminded me to get Magnolia. So cheers for that :)
Newquay looks beautiful, I love the sea!
Ah of course - all of my uncles etc are on my mum’s side ’cause my dad was an only child, which explains why I was so perplexed!
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I don’t get how he is Steve & Mike’s uncle and not yours…maybe I’m just confused?!